Awkward!

I’ve never liked being on video much, but I didn’t really think speaking freely about something of interest to me would be so dang hard to do!

But this morning on the drive to work, I took my new Flip video camera, set it on the dashboard consule, and proceeded to take a dozen or more videos of myself talking about the Chevy Traverse. Not one of them made the cut (but I’m the editor, my own worst critic!). I desperately grabbed my friend Beth at work who has worked in the video production department for years and begged her to help me! I figured that having her calm & experience behind the camera would hopefully help me stay calm and collected in front of the camera.

I don’t know if it actually worked, but at least I had a video that despite my embarrassment, I could take the chance of posting on www.mommymadnesskc.com. Beth approved, so whether or not it’s any good, hey, at least we had fun doing it! I’m sure I’ll be utilizing her skills and knowledge MUCH more throughout this process.

So get to it – go watch it. Let me know what you think, I think…

So, here’s the deal

Alrighty, then, Skyler is not quite in bed yet but her daddy is here now so he can work on that project while I work on this one – not that putting her to bed is much work – she’s so sweet when she says “nigh night” from her crib as we close the door and turn out the lights. So onto this Chevy Traverse business!

Here’s what’s crackin’:
Along with four other KC-area mommy bloggers, I get to test drive a brand new Chevy Traverse for 8 weeks. The first 4 weeks I get the LS model, which is the base. There is nothing really base model about it though – it has everything I’m used to and more (like SPACE!). Once the first 4 weeks has passed, I will be delivered a new LTZ model, which is the top of the line with all the fixin’s. Woot!

In return for the free 2 month test drive, I just have to talk about it. And what better way, than to blog! So I’ll be blogging here some, but moreso over there, at www.mommymadnesskc.com, where the other 4 mommies will also be blogging! Also look for some likely-to-be-awkward video blogs by yours truly. We got hooked up with these handy little Flip video cameras, so I’ll be trying my hand at that soon enough.

Flip Video camera on Chevy Traverse hood

In addition, there are some fun incentives including free one-hour massages at Massage Envy, grocery store gift cards, and a trip to a Royal’s game. I’m sure this will be terribly rough.

Lastly, though I’m sure I’ll have lots more on this later, THIS IS A CONTEST. I need votes to win. What do I win? Besides being voted KC’s fave mom blogger, I’ll get a couple rooms at Tan Tar a and a hefty amount of spa bucks to share with a few girlfriends. Or just me. We’ll see, bribes welcome. But I have to win first! So anyone who reads this – please go to www.mommymadnesskc.com and vote for me!

Oh, oh, oh, I forgot to add, there are free massages to be given for those of you that head up to your local KC Chevy dealer and test drive a Traverse yourself. Did you hear that? FREE MASSAGES. (I’m talking to you Deborah and Beth.) And they’re not given by the Parts & Service guys at Chevy; you’ll get one from a pro with your very own Massage Envy 1 hour gift card.

Finally (and you thought I was done 2 paragraphs ago!), as I wrap up tonight, I tried to get a cute pic of Skyler’s first ride in the new car. Unfortunately, she hates leaving daycare (I guess that’s a good thing?), so she just wasn’t in the mood for her first Chevy Traverse photo opp -

Pimpin’ Ain’t Easy

Any of my readers who may be on Twitter or Facebook may have noticed me doing a little “blog pimping” as of late. I’ve been trying to increase awareness of my blog’s existence in order to build momentum & traffic for some fun stuff I’ve got coming up. I’m still weary of mentioning too much in case something falls through. But if all goes well, I’m going to need a little help from friends, family, and any other nice readers once this thing gets going.

It feels weird, this blog pimping. It is very unlike me to jump & and down in a large crowd yelling “look at me! Notice me! I’m cool so please pay attention to me!” But that’s exactly what this feels like when I link to my blog posts on Twitter/Facebook updates. And, it’s a legitimate way to drive traffic to a website – we do this at work for our revenue generating websites, so why not try it with my personal one?

I still feel narcissistic and creepy. But there are worse things…

Skillz

I finally sat down and designed a new blog header, all by myself. It’s been so long since I’ve done any graphic design; it did not come easily! I still have such a different vision in my head than what came out, but that’s as far as my sad skills would take me tonight. I wish I had the time to brush up and learn some new techniques!

Where do I start?

Sometimes I get so overwhelmed with all the possible posts I could be making! Again, this would be a fantastic time for someone to hurry up and invent the wireless-automatic-blog-publisher thingy so I could blog hands-free throughout the week, or at least get some posts drafted.

First, I haven’t officially posted an announcement for fear that things will fall through as soon as I do, but it seems I have been chosen for the KC Traverse Mom Squad. A rep from CBS Radio who is partnering with Chevy on this thing contacted me last week to get the ball rolling. She was still in the process of getting all the mommy bloggers lined up, but said they hoped to kick off the program in a couple weeks. Their website says it kicks off April 20, so I’m going with that as a start date until I hear otherwise. I’m so excited to part of this program, so I really hope it all works out!

Second – Skyler updates: she’s all over the place now, walking confidently anywhere and everywhere! She is obsessed with outside. While indoors, she points at the window or door and asks approximately every thirty minutes at least “Outsee? outsee?” And if the weather has been nice enough to play outside, she cries when we go inside. Her daycare said it’s the same story over there. Sounds like I’ll have a camping buddy in the near future!

Her vocabulary is growing as well. She knows lots of the pictures/characters in her storybooks, like Minnie Mouse and rainbows. We were coloring the other day and I drew a rainbow to see if she’d recognize it. She said “Umbow” and then immediately went to find her book about rainbows to show me. I could almost see the lightbulb lighting up above her little head. On a less intellectual note, one of her grandmothers has recently taught her the pronunciation as well as anatomical location of “titties.” No, no typo there. Skyler can say it and point to it, clear as day. I must be completely honest and admit that it is hysterical when she says it and points to it at home, but I dread the day we are in public and it’s hardly appropriate when she points at a stranger’s chest at the grocery story and tells everyone what she sees. I can only pray for God’s protection in this matter!

Finally, my girl has developed some phobias. It’s mostly related to loud/unknown noises. If something startles her these days, she runs to me and digs her fingernails into whatever part of me she can grab and tries to climb into my arms to “escape” whatever it may be. She buries her face and will even cover her eyes, and even after the noise is long over, I have to pry myself loose from her death grip on my neck/arm/sleeve/hair. And she does not take this removal lightly! So I’m not sure what’s going on here – don’t get me wrong I love the snuggles once she’s in my arms, but I hate to see Skyler fearful and scared of every little thing, and it really puts a damper on my productivity when I’ve got a toddler clinging to me at unpredictable moments!

Any other mommies out there have children that went through a fearful stage like this?

Slacker

I have so many things to blog about! Pictures and video from the last couple weeks, and lots of stories! But various things have hindered my blogging abilities as of late, two being the biggest issues:

1) I have limited to no Internet connection at home! It seems we might need a new wireless router, and that is just not something I want to purchase right now, because that would involve a trip to one of the crazy, insanely busy electronic stores during holiday season. I think it’s going to have to wait till mid-January at the soonest. How am I blogging now? I’m at work on my lunch break!

2) I got the Stephanie Meier’s Twilight book series for my birthday, so I’ve been a little bit obsessed with vampires as of late. I got the books last Friday and I’m already almost finished with book 2, New Moon. When at home these days, I’m frantically reading page after page as I yearn to find out the fate of Bella and Edward. And that Edward…whoo! That is one hot vampire! I basically only take breaks to feed and change Skyler, and that’s about it. I haven’t even been paying attention to my own hunger! Thank goodness Skyler can easily entertain herself these days. I wonder if she’s missing me…

Anyhow, the other thing I’m so excited to write is that I got the camera I was wanting from my Christmas list! Ronnie couldn’t wait any longer so he gave it to me Friday. He had gotten all my family and even some of his together to go in on it. I can’t wait to get started playing with it (I haven’t done that either because, well, TWILIGHT!)

Better Photo Handling on Flickr!

IMG_0535

Originally uploaded by lorikelley66

I’ve decided to quit using Photobucket to store my photos for the blog. It’s easy and I can easily order prints from there, but Flickr just works better. I can post to my blog directly from Flickr without having to login to both places and copy and paste image links, and I can add a Flickr feed on the right column of my page (check it out!). This means if I haven’t posted photos directly on the blog, there’s still easy access to view recent photo uploads! Fewer steps for me, which is great when my blogging time is limited!