Thirty Day Challenge

I will admit that I am totally taking this from another blog. I was just thinking to myself that this blog is a series of pictures of Liam and updates about what we do. Not that I don't think that is entertaining since, in my opinion, Liam is the coolest little dude in the whole world. However, it would be nice to get something else up here every so often. So here it is, without fancy graphics, my "permanently borrowed" Thirty Day Challenge.

Themes
July 25 – Best/Worst blogging experience
July 26 – How do your answer the question “What do you do?”
July 27 – What part of your life is moving too fast… too slow?
July 28 – Your 6 word biography
July 29 – Goal to complete before Sept 1
July 30 – Today was hilarious because…
July 31 – Last thing you took a picture of
August 1 – Your 3 favorite blogs
August 2 – Which lesson did you learn the hard way?
August 3 – What do you love most about yourself?
August 4 – Guilty Pleasure
August 5 – I really should get rid of…
August 6 – Favorite photo of yourself
August 7 – Thoughts on body image
August 8 – What’s your addiction?
August 9 – Cash, Debit, or Credit? What’s your financial status?
August 10 – Funny Travel Story
August 11 – Today I am wearing…
Aagust 12 – Worst job I ever had
August 13 – Favorite spot for date night in your town
August 14 – Random fact about yourself
August 15 – Which article have you read recently that inspired you?
August 16 – Which small act of kindness was bestowed on you that you will never forget?
August 17 – Most embarrassing moment
August 18 – What can you not live without?
August 19 – I am the way I am because ______ happened.
August 20 – If you had a friend that spoke to you the same way you speak to yourself, how long would you remain friends?
August 21 – Toughest time in my life
August 22 – Easiest time in my life
August 23 – This is what I am changing TODAY to make my life better.

Day One:
July 25 – Best/Worst blogging experience
I've kept journals since seventh grade. Keeping journals reminds me of all the people I used to be. I look back on pages and pages about boys I don't remember, my countdown to seeing New Kids on the Block, my eating disorder, my dad's heart attack when I was in ninth grade, constant moving and chaos in high school. I wonder not only how did I not choke on my own lameness but how did I overcome my childhood? While I am not the girl who lusts after Joey McIntyre, I am also not the girl who sits back and settles for whatever comes her way. I've created this amazing life for myself. I pride myself on having a stable life for myself, Mike, and Liam. My six crowns are (literally) battle scars. These journals remind me of how hard I worked to get where I am. They remind me of my successes and mistakes. They remind me of what I will recreate for my son's childhood and what I will do differently.

What does this have to do with my blog? I started a journal three days after I got my positive pregnancy test. I was excited and scared and dreamed of passing this beautiful bound book to my little one someday. I wrote about being so scared before the first ultrasound, battles with my mother over possible names, debated over whether to find out the gender of Baby Day. I gushed about Mike painting the room and choosing the theme of the room. I wrote about mine and Mike's dates and trying to get in as much us time as we could before Baby Day arrived. that journal was the most imposrtant one to date.

March of 2010 was undoubtedly the hardest month of my life. I was struggling with breastfeeding issues and colic. I was tired and trying to fake having it all together as a new mom. On March 5, we flew Liam down to meet my mom. I knew it would be the first and last time she'd ever meet Liam. When we arrived, she thought Liam was my little sister. It was an emotional trip. I left knowing it was the last time I'd ever see her and wanted to go while she was still well enough to somewhat know who we all were. A week after getting home, we received a call asking us to come up to do a similar trip for Mike's Nana. We went from Orlando, Florida, to Bangor, Main, in the span of two weeks. We were back up there two weeks later for Mike's Nana's funeral. Mike's parents decided to be nice and offered to watch Liam so we could go out for the first time since having him. While we were out, my sister sent a text suggesting we have Jim check on the house since there had been a lot of rain and reports of flooding. Mike sent the text. About fifteen minutes later, the phone rang. It was Jim. There was no way he was calling to let us know everything was fine. We were four hours away, with a two month old, and we had water up to the second step in our basement. We raced home, varying our route as we received text updates of closed highways. By the time we got home, the water was deeper than my rain boots. We scrambled to pick up the things we could. Kristy had driven down earlier and saved Mike's plane, my wedding dress, and left us a sump pump since they were worth more than gold in the area. It took five days to get the water under control. We spent that time in a hotel. We lost valuable things such as a laptop, Playstation, and furniture. We lost irreplaceable things such as six years of lesson plans, the last Christmas card my grandmother sent me, pictures, and my pregnancy journal.

After that, I had no interest in journal writing. Like a scorned lover, I swore I would never want to risk that loss again. In June, my mom took the turn for the worst that we had been waiting for. I grappled with making sense of it and decided to start the blog. I didn't make it public and kept it to myself. After my mom died, I sent some people the link. I also made the link available via a parenting board I frequent. I still haven't told a lot of people about this blog. I fear things being taken out of context and having to worry about what I write. No one at work knows about it for similar reasons. I (usually) enjoy my job and on the days I don't would never write anything that I wouldn't want my superintendent to see but it is just not something I ever want to worry about.

Through my blog, I know people I otherwise would never have met. While it sounds lame and cheesy to talk about Internet friends fondly, I do look to them for advice about Liam and other friendliness. Knowing people read it keeps it positive. No one wants to tune in to hear someone complain. While I don't have much to complain about these days, having a public journal keeps from griping about family squabbles and other such things that pass. I enjoy being able to add to it from anywhere. There is no wishing I had my journal with me. Having the iPhone makes that much easier. I enjoy being able to add pictures. Blogging has introduced me to people I've never met but still care about. I do plan to have this printed and bound each year so I still have my paper journals.

Wow that was a lot of information to answer a very simple question.