musings of Mother Hood

Extreme Makeover: Blog Edition

Ta daaaa! I know most of you were beginning to think the Great Blog Makeover was just a tease. Just a pipe dream of mine. But alas! Pretty new blog! Those of you in a reader or via email - go ahead and click on through so you can enjoy the pretty new blog, too!

At the risk of starting an Internet Explorer vs. Firefox vs. Google Chrome debate (I should have issued a geek alert. Sorry.), I have HAD IT with different browsers. I know literally enough to be dangerous about coding and such so as I've Googled my way around the internet and Duct Taped my learnings together to present the new blog -- I have discovered that the REAL geeky web people out there decided it would be really fun if things looked different on different computers... Fun, huh? Bleh! So I HOPE the new design looks all sleek and fancy on your screen, too - but if you have some crazy browser, it may look funky. Which makes me sad. But I'll live. (I told you. Geek alert.)

Anyway! New blog! Poke around. Let me know what you think. I still have a lot of work to do to sort through old posts and do some formatting and I'm working on a better way to do photos. But I'm so, so proud of the design work that the lovely Ms. Andrea Taylor did for me. And a big, fat THANK YOU to the fine people at TypePad and Typekit for their infinite wisdom and patience during my onslaught of stupid perfectly reasonable questions and calls for help.

And just for fun, let's revisit the evolution of Mother Hood --

First, there was Xanga - est. March 2005:

Then, the move to sarahmcow.com in September 2008:

And TODAY! (Did I mention the pretty new blog?!):

 

Enjoy! 
   

Tooting My Own Horn

I'm getting old. Well, my blog is anyway. 5 years, people. Happy Blogiversary to me! Yep. This week marks five whole years of this wonderful nonsense.

All of it's there, but I don't really recommend you go back and read any of those early posts as the literary merit is, well, arguable. And the pictures are blah. And the (at times) surly attitude leaves something to  be desired. But, you know, I wouldn't trade it. I wouldn't trade my "humble beginnings" on Xanga or my somewhat bitter bartender/waitress/college student persona or my random, random rambling.

I have loved this little blog. I have nurtured it and grown it from its original purpose as a landing place for all of my immature rantings and grainy cellphone pictures to a medium that I rely on to share my family - and myself - with all of you.

I've learned to write fewer things like this and more things like this. You've been with me through times like this and even this. And I dare say I've grown. In the last five years I've grown from The Single Gal to a Wife and Mama. And the more I read back through some of my (sometimes painfully embarrassing) old posts, the more I learn about myself, both who I am and who I want to be.

In honor of the occasion, I'm doing some refreshing of the ole blog. You might notice some design changes over the next few weeks. Don't be alarmed. Just doing a little makeover. And don't forget to check out things like the (gajillions of) photo albums along the right hand side over there and the links page for some of my personal favorite blogs.

Happy Blogiversary! Here's to the next 5 years!

Just a slightly geeky Mama

Today marks the beginning of a new adventure. And I'm pretty darn excited about it. I have teamed up with NWA Motherlode to bring my geekiness to the masses.   

NWA Motherlode is an online connection for Northwest Arkansas moms, but any Mom will love it. They post daily updates with information on parenting, health and beauty, recipes, music, entertainment gossip, and - now! - technology for Mamas. I'll be writing a bi-monthly column with techie information specifically relevant to Moms -- cool websites, useful gadgets, and tips on fun stuff like Facebook, Twitter, Skype and blogging. I hope it's something Moms will really enjoy and use.

So - check out NWA Motherlode, bookmark them, support them with traffic and comments --

RIGHT HERE

 

 

Time Flies When You're Havin' Fun

Today marks my fourth blogiversary! Four years ago today, I wrote my first blog entry - on Xanga. Wow. (I like to think) I've come a long way. From "Confessions of a 20something Drama Queen" to "Musings of Mother Hood". From Xanga to TypePad. From grainy cellphone pics to YouTube video. From late night tales of a cocktail waitress to early morning stories from a new Mama. 

Here's an excerpt from my About page that seems to say it best:

In all honesty, I first began to blog in order to keep up with my globetrotting family. We could post stories and pictures, and keep in touch in a whole new way. If you were to read through my archives you would discover that the “topic” of my writing has changed several times since I started blogging in March 2005. I have evolved from ‘College STUDENT/Waitress/Bartender Hoping and Dreaming for a “Real” Job upon Graduation’ to ‘College GRADUATE/Waitress/Bartender Hoping and Dreaming for a “Real” Job now that I’ve Graduated’ to ‘College Grad and Young Professional Starting my New Career in the Real World’ to ‘Newlywed Learning to Accept (and Love) Things Like Beer in my Fridge and (Seemingly) Round the Clock SportsCenter’ to ‘First Time Mama to the Most Beautiful Little Bundle of Photogenic Cuteness‘. Through it all, there are traces of sarcastic humor, (over)dramatic ranting, and an unhealthy obsession with righting the world’s grammatical errors – though I most commonly describe the content here as fun and harmless nonsense.

Here's to another 4 years!

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And as long as we're talking about blogging... while blogging... A few reminders: 

1. If you'd like an email notification about new postings, you can enter your email address in the box in the upper left hand corner of this page to subscribe to my email list. You aren't subscribing to anything but me (read: no spam) - and you'll only get an email when I post something new.
2. I've added a few new photo albums in the last few weeks - so check them out. All albums are along the right hand side of this page. (I'm a little behind on all of the titles and captions, but you'll enjoy the pictures.)
3. Be sure and check out some of "My Favorite Blogs" over there on the right. They're goodies and most of them are updated regularly. Enjoy.