Do you hear me?  OVER $400 IN BLOG DESIGNS!  It’s an extravaganza to say the least.  Here in Northwest Indiana it’s doing it best to snow, flurries all day long and I have to say, it’s making me ready for the Holidays.

We are going to help you get ready for the holidays by offering up TWO holiday blog designs AND those same winners will also win a YEAR’S WORTH of blog designs!  It’s like jelly of the month except it’s not jelly and it’s every three months.

huh.  I guess it’s not really like jelly of the month at all.

Who cares?!  Head over there and read all about it and GOOD LUCK!

I really like it here. Everything is so new and exciting. You should be able to see my new design, do you like it? (if you can’t see it, hit refresh or ctrl + F5)

I decided a while back that I need to switch to Wordpress because it’s like the Rolls Royce of blogging platforms, without the Rolls Royce price tag. Typepad is a Volvo, where it’s difficult to figure things out, and it’s quite expensive and Blogger is like a Ford Focus, it works just fine, but it isn’t all that pretty and fancy. Just your basic free blogging platform.

So, I made the switch. Except I didn’t make the switch, Heather from Desperately Seeking Sanity and Desperately Seeking Wordpress made the switch for me and I don’t even know where to begin when it comes to talking about her and her amazing knowledge of Wordpress and her patience. She helped me create the layout I wanted and transferred almost 900 posts over….seamlessly. If you ever decide to make the move, Heather is The Girl, I could not possibly recommend her more.

Let me tell you a little bit about what you’ll find with this new site:

-I have a my favorite posts section, right over there to your left. These are posts that stick in my mind, for whatever reason. When I went on the hunt looking for my favorite posts, I came across posts that made me laugh, posts that made me cry and posts that hurt my heart. I decided to include whatever posts I wanted, so there are some from early last year, posts during my pregnancy and posts written with a broken heart.

-The My Photos page is still a work in progress, but it has tons of galleries and you can even watch slideshows, which my kids love to watch.

-I created a button, over there on the right with a code that you can place on your blog, if you want. I had never considered doing that before, but people asked for it, so I thought, why not?

-I have a new review blog, which is exciting to me because it has numbered comments, which will not only make my life easier, but it will make me want to do more giveaways. I have two coming up, one from Home Depot and one from Febreze.

-If you are doing your browsing in the good ol’ fashion IE, then you probably can’t see my cute color blocks in the sidebars below the sidebar titles, but you can see them in Firefox and Safari, because they are awesome. (IE is not.)

We are still working out some very minor kinks, but for the most part, I am here, getting settled in my new blog home.

Feel free to share feedback with me like “HEY! LOOKS AWESOME!” or “HEY! LOOKS AWESOME! How about you add some pictures of Brad Pitt?” or “HEY! LOOKS AWESOME! Loads really slow.” or even if you have a suggestion, something you’d like to see, just let me know.

I’m all ears.

So, go over there and show her how smart, witty and creative you are and help a sista out.

Thanks much.  Y’all are the best!

It’s good for me, good for my soul.

Christy and her kids left today.  We were all very sad to be separating, the visit was beyond amazing.  We had such a great time, the kids had such a great time, the chemistry was just perfect.   While hugging me good-bye, Christy’s son said to me "I’m going to miss all four of you."  I hope he understands how much we’ll miss him, too.  All four of us.  Christy and I have a definite connection, a depth, an understanding, a friendship that is bound forever, despite the distance, I know there is so much love and admiration between the two of us, that we’ll hardly notice the miles between us.

I wish I could eloquently express what her visit meant to me, words are failing, I don’t know why.  She was the perfect house guest, a great helper, she was patient and understanding with my naps and my sickness, she’s a beautiful Mom, a wonderful friend and she’s so so funny. 

Although I am looking forward to life calming down and beginning our new schedule, I’m sad that not only her visit is done, but summer vacation is over, too.  I just can’t shake the disbelief at how quickly this year is passing us by.  Blink.  Another day gone.  Blink.  Another week.

I’m heading to bed, just to wake up to another day that will be over, before I know it. 

Does everyone feel this way?  or is it just me?

So, I guess I should blog but it’s soooooo hard since Christy is still here (she extended her stay!)  (I know!) and I’m still sickly (I have no voice) and tired and when I should be blogging, I’m napping because I am such an exciting host.  Don’t I make you want to come stay at Casa Del Folding Laundry?  Speaking of folding laundry, I have SCADS of laundry to do and I’ll do it, soon, I’m busy trying to complete my very long to-do list beforehand:

-sleep until eleven.  CHECK.
-put bras in fancy new washer.  CHECK.
-laugh with Christy because she is HI-LIARIOUS.  CHECK, CHECK, CHECK.
-leave bras in fancy new washer.  CHECK.
-take a nap because of nasty ass headache that is threatening to split my head open.  CHECK.
-wake up from nap and eat grilled cheese and cupcake.  CHECK.
-take a close look at all of the chips and jelly and mud all over the kitchen floor and do nothing about it.  CHECK.
-blog.  CHECKING.
-stay in pajamas until 4:30.  CHECKITY CHECK CHECK.

We are an exciting bunch.  I know.  I’ll be back soon!  With pictures!  and stories!

Although my throat still hurts like an em effer, my fever just broke and I’m sweating like a 400 pound man sitting in the sun in the middle of August and my glands are swollen to the point that I look just like John McCain, despite all of these things, I kinda feel like I’m in heaven right now.

I mean, CHRISTY is in my house.  HER KIDS are in my house.  We are drinking coffee TOGETHER, in our ghetto pajamas (mine with a hole, hers with oreo cookie ice cream on the front), we are both on our RED (ruby and roja) laptops and we don’t even get annoyed when one person is blogging while the other is not.  AND I introduced dunking BUG BITES in coffee to Christy and let’s just say we’ll be needing to pick up a few more boxes at some point today. or as Christy says "I’m FIXIN’ to pick up some Bug Bites."   I love it when she says fixin’.  and y’all.

The situation is quite perfect, the only thing that will make this situation better would be if my throat didn’t hurt so damn bad, but that’s okay, I’ll survive.  That’s how good everything is right now, the strept throat really doesn’t matter all that much.  Unless I need to, you know, talk or drink water.

My blogging time is up, we have important things to do like Wii bowling and going to Target.

Which is bad for me because I have 75,000 things to do.

But good for you because I’m actually sitting down and doing nothing.

So, I’ll blog.  But it could be bad for you because I’ll just sit and complain and I’ll probably have all sorts of grammar and spelling errors, so please, forgive.

My throat, ears and head hurt.  My nose is stuffy and my body aches.  Oh and if this wasn’t fun enough, I started my period today which hurts.  It sorta feels like my uterus is trying to come out of my butt.    Can you imagine how much fun it is to live with me?  And this Wednesday, Christy is coming to stay with us until Sunday and I can’t wait, but the first thing she may have to do is clean and do my laundry.  And I know she would because she loves me.  A lot.

Steph, Crooked Eyebrow and I gathered at a park today.  When approached about the play date this morning I was all like "I can’t, I’m sick, my house is a DISASTER, I have laundry to do, shopping to do and somewhere I have to sneak in a shower because I stank."  but then I realized I’m sick and can’t do any of those things, so we went to the park with them and it was fun and relaxing.  I love our kids. 

Of course, in two hours we took 5,000 pictures and I want to show them to you, but downloading them means walking the 20 feet to my camera which I can’t do because I’m almost dead.

I would ask Brian to get them for me but he has already gone to the bank, Walgreens and Taco Bell for me, and he’s only been home for two hours.  Plus, he has tons of Ikea furniture to build.

I need to rest now because watching Brian do all of the work is wearing me out, but I wanted to let you know that ruby & roja has a new website and it’s so beautiful.  If you ever wanted to move to Wordpress (which we did), Heather from Desperately Seeking Sanity did the transfer for us and the installation, she has a business called Desperately Seeking Wordpress.  She is beyond awesome, seriously.  Go look at the awesomeness of ruby & roja and guess what?  We are giving away a blog design, too.

Also, one of my posts made it over at Blog Nosh, which is a cool site that select posts from blogger’s archives.  The post they chose is from the initial weeks after losing James and Jake.  I’m extra touched by them choosing me because I have a hard time believing that anyone feels my blogging is considered writing at all.  You should head over there. 

I bet you are going to want a chocolate donut or a cupcake when you go.  You’ll see why.

I have picked my winner for the redesign by ruby & roja design.  The winner is Jen at Daily Mish Mash!

Congrats, Jen!

I know many of your are bummed that you didn’t win and well, I’m pretty bummed, too.  But don’t despair, Christy and I are offering 10% off to anyone that entered the giveaway.  Because we love you.  If you are interested in a redesign, just shoot me an e-mail and mention the giveaway you didn’t win!  The 10% off offer is valid until August 14th, 2008.

Seriously.  Did you win anything?  Can I have it?

I am giving away a Blog Redesign (The Essential) from Ruby & Roja Design.  THIS IS A $70 VALUE (I KNOW!) and all you have to do…is leave a comment.

Could it be any easier than that?  In fact it can be, my design partner is giving away a second redesign over on her blog, are you spoiled, or what?  Head over there and you’ll have two chances to win!  Best of luck!

Comments will be closed on Thursday, July 31st, at 9:00 P.M. EST., one entry per person, winner will receive up to ten free iStock credits for blog redesign, redesign limited to Blogger, Typepad Plus/Pro and (upgraded) Wordpress formats, the winner will be chosen at random and announced on Friday, August 1.  Please make sure your e-mail is valid.

and if you haven’t entered for a chance to win a fabulous blog design, get creative and go enter here!  This organization needs your fabulous ideas – yes, YOURS!  Hurry, the contest ends tomorrow!