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A Big Thank You

Pepper — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 03:31:38 +0000

I want to send out a big thank you to a very lovely lady, who cam up with a great idea that blossomed into a big wonderful community! If you are joining me from #31DBBB then you will know exactly who I’m talking about, Nirvana_Mamma! You can find her on twitter, tweeting along with us, or you can check out her wonderful blog, NirvanaMamma.com !

If you haven’t come from #31DBBB let me tell you about NirvannaMamma, or also known as Erin. One day had an awesome idea. She wanted to do Problogger’s 31 Days to Build a Better blog. But she also wanted to not do it alone! So she decided to see if anyone else wanted to join her. She now has over 500 people that have joined in this great event and I even saw more people joining today.

Not only did she come up with the idea but she has been working like a crazy woman on it. She has just been amazing. She has been busy on twitter and on blogfrog, but what you may not realize is that she has been doing so much on the behind scenes also. I know because I tried helping her out, though Lynda from Digital Woe ended up being a much bigger help! She has been working on keeping the database of users going and been trying to make tweepl lists going and getting rss feeds set up for people to follow everyone. She has been trying to event games to help out the participants that haven’t received very many comments. And while doing all this she has been trying to do her 31 day challenges, and if you are like me you are just struggling to keep up with those, let alone doing everything else she is doing!

As you can see she is one amazing woman and I wanted to send out a wonderful big thank you to Erin! So please join me in a big BIG THANK YOU to erin! Please let her know how wonderful she is in the comments because she has to see them all anyways, because she decided I should be blog of the day for her new game and she will get to read them all!!

THANK YOU ERIN!!

MAKE SURE AND LEAVE YOUR THANKS TO ERIN IN THE COMMENTS TOO!!

10 Must Have Twitter Tools

Pepper — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 00:21:18 +0000

If you use twitter, sometimes you may feel a little overwhelmed. Here are just a few tools that may help you learn more about twitter and use it to it’s full potential.

HootSuite – This is one of my favorite tools to use to watch my feed. You can create multiple columns to watch certain trends or hashtags. You can use it for multiple accounts. Also if you want to schedule tweets this is an awesome tool also. Don’t forget you can automatically shorten urls and you can track your stats through hootsuite.

Klout – “The Klout Score is the measurement of your overall online influence.” This is one awesome tool to use to see if you are really influencing your circle of followers and if you are following the right people. Has some amazing analyzing tools. I’m a 29, what’s your Klout?

BlastFollow – If you are participating in a twitter party or an event and it has a hash tag then you can use this tool to follow everyone who has tweeted with that hash tag.

Twapper Keeper – Have the desire to reference a hashag and keep the tweets from that hashtag forever. Check out Twapper Keeper you can create an archive of any hashtag you want.

Friend or Follow – Are you following too many people who aren’t following you? Or do you like to make sure you are following those who are following you? Then this is the tool for you. You can filter through three different options and clean out your follow list.

StrawPoll – StrawPoll is a way to poll your followers and find an answer to a question you might have. This would be a great tool if you have a business twitter account and you want to know more about your customers. Or what a fun way to get your followers to get involved and interact with them.

Twitter Tools – This is a must have plugin with wordpress. You will be able to show your last tweets, how ever many you want to show, auto-tweets your blog posts, and you can update your tweets from your blog.

Twitter Counter – Want to show off how many followers you have check out this tool. Plus it is customizable to blend into your layout.

Tweet Chat – If you like to join in on the fun at twitter parties then this is a must tool. Tweet Chat lets you enter a hashtag and follow it. But it helps you beyond that. When you sign in everytime you update the hashtag is automatically added for you. You can change the speed of the updates, so get real time or have a delay. When you scroll down it will pause the feed for you. And you can highlight people to be able to watch them closer in the feed.

Tweet Grid – Tweet grid is another tool you can use for a twitter party. If you like to have multiple columns then this is a good option. Have one open for the hashtag, one for mentions, and one or multiple for the host of the party.

Did I miss a must have twitter tool? I would love to hear about a tool that you have found works for you!

Wordless Wednesday: Safety First

Pepper — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 16:59:09 +0000

Gotta give it to Pump It Up, they give you baby toys for the kids too little to play on the big blow up toys. But hmm, right next to the outlet!!

More about Wordless Wednesday.

Check out Wordless Wednesday at 5MFM too.

Super Surfing Sunday

Pepper — Sat, 01 May 2010 12:46:16 +0000

Every sunday I share with you some of my favorite posts from my week of surfing. If you would like to join me post your favorite finds on your blog and comment here. I will add your link to the post itself. If I have enough people interested I will add a Link Tool.

Burp Cloth and Baby Sock Cupcake Tutorial – Oh my sooo cute, gotta keep this one for when I know someone going to have a baby!!
MomNom: When Mommy Bloggers snack on other Mommy Bloggers – Great Mommy Blogging article. Will make you chuckle for sure!
Plantable Seed Paper - I have always heard of this, but I thought it was special paper, I didn’t know you could make it!!
My Partnership – So true, so true. A great post about putting your marriage first even before your kids.

“After the Party” Party

Pepper — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 22:29:59 +0000

My 4 top new fave bloggers:

My 5 top twitter finds:

2 vlogging resources:

Women of WordPress

WoW is a new community both Jenny @ Just Jennifer and I will be opening up. If you have any interest in this community you can follow us on twitter or you can follow WoW on twitter:

Winners of the advertising and the twitter background

Pepper — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 21:35:14 +0000

After a very busy weekend getting ready for my sons party and having the party. I have finally been able to get to my winners for my contests that I was running for the UBP.

My first winner is winning 1 month of free advertising on my blog. And the winner is:

Saidah @ A Proverbs Wife is the winner!!!

And then the second chance twitter background contest:

Jamie @ Love To Shop Mom is the winner!!

Congrats to both of you I will be emailing details out. And for those of you who didn’t win, please make sure and follow me because I will be holding more contests in the near future!!

I’m not so hot at this party thing

Pepper — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 05:29:36 +0000

Okay you can tell I’m not very good at this party thing. So Wendy over at Tales from the Motherhood totally made me realize I’m just as good at this blog party thing as I am at real life parties. I loved her introduction so I am going to write a little more about me!

High School SweetHearts

I married my high school sweetheart 9 years ago. We met when we were 16, just recently my lovely hubby mentioned how this next year we will have known each other 1/2 our lives. Wow, that’s kinda crazy.

The Star

It took us 6 years to get pregnant with our first son, Zane, and he was truly a blessing. He is my shining star. He is bright and loves music and is going to be a star athlete in school. Which we have no idea where he got any of these skills since his daddy and I are not musically talented or into sports.

My SunShine

The surprise was when we got pregnant quickly after having Zane. Zarek was born 1 month to the day before Zane’s 2nd birthday, they are 23 months apart. Zarek is my little sunshine. He is full of smiles and snuggles. He is always happy no matter what, well give him two seconds after his brother has stollen his toy. He will play and play then run over to you to give you a snuggle hug and then run off to play again. I can’t wait to see how his personality continues to blossom.

My New Business Adventure

I’m starting out on a new adventure this year with starting a new business. I have had Uniquehorn Designs for a long time, but this year the business has just blossomed out of no where! I have worked with HTML and CSS for over 12 years and I have worked with wordpress for over 5 years. (I have also been blogging before it was even called blogging). I have always wanted to do it professionally and had an odd job here and there, but now I have a full blown business.

My goal with my business is to be able to stay home with my boys. I would like to be able to home school Zane at least for preschool and so far this goal is looking acheivable.

So that is me in a nutshell. Here I am eatting cereal for dinner, watching 21 jumpstreet and partying at a blog party. The most exciting thing about my day was I got to go to the dentist and get my front tooth fixed, no more icky cavity showing through! Hmm, maybe I need to do more with my life.

YoTweeps! Twitter Twaffic Exchange

Pepper — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 00:06:12 +0000

Okay this looks like fun and a great way to “socialize”!

by Twitter Icons

To play along and increase your twitter twaffic:

1. Follow the first THREE Twitter Twaffic hosts listed on the linky.

2. MAKE A BLOG POST LIKE I am doing. Copy and Paste these directions.

3. Grab the YO Tweeps Twaffic Exchange Button from http://supahmommy.blogspot.com/. Put him in your post.

4. Put YOUR OWN twitter icon / link on your blog post like I did. It should directly link to your TWITTER PROFILE.

6. Now link up your post in the linky!

7. Visit some other #YOtweeps linkers on the list.

8. Follow them if you choose and shout out to them on twitter that you are following so they can instantly follow you if they’re on.
(Follow their blog as well if you’re interested.)

Example: @personsname #yotweeps I’m following!

9. If someone follows you JUST reciprocate on twitter. It’s that easy.

6. Now link up your post below in the linky!

7. Visit some other #YOtweeps linkers on the list.

8. Follow them if you choose and shout out to them on twitter that you are following so they can instantly follow you if they’re on.
(Follow their blog as well if you’re interested.)

Birthday Wishes to the Wee Zee

Pepper — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 08:08:18 +0000

One year ago we met. Your daddy and I adored you even before you came into this world.

The day started early as you had a scheduled debut. You were going to be evicted from your snugly abode. And we were excited. The day also started with snow, in March in Oregon, a very rare thing to happen. We called the hospital to see if we could come in early so to make sure we didn’t get stuck on our hill or on the hill up to the hospital.

We arrived at the hospital and they were ready for us. We got comfortable in our room and we got to listen to your heartbeat and your kicks as you kicked the monitor.

In the operating room it was strange for mommy, because with your big brother it was such a shock to be in there that I remember very little of being in there. But then I also got sick this time. Don’t know if it was nerves, not eating, just being more aware, the constant morning sickness that never went away or the spinal.

But then you were in the room with us, complaining about leaving your nice warm home for this bright cold world. Daddy got to watch you as you got weighed and monitored and then I got to see you.

In our room we got to have you near in the hospital’s funny little plexi-glass bassinets. And for hours on end you laid all swaddled there and in my arms, humming. You almost sounded like you were singing to yourself, trying to sooth yourself. I loved listening to you, to the first sounds you made.

Your brother adored you right away, running into the room to see the baby. And everyday he loved coming back to see his brother. And on your first car ride together as we tried to figure out how to shuffle you both to the car we tried taking Zane out first. He ran to your car seat and started dragging you along with him.

Now you have learned so many wonderful and spectacular skills. I love to watch you “run” up and hall. I love when I catch you playing with your brother. I love to listen to your little babbles as you try to learn to talk. But even without words you are learning to communicate. You hold out your hand and give a little motion to tell me “give me”, “I want”, or as I like to pretend you are saying, “Please”.

We cannot wait to see what the Lord has prepared for your life. To learn more about you and your unique personality. To watch you grow and change. To see how you and your brother grow closer and become bonded together as brothers. We love you so much!

February Freebies: Tiger Note Cards

Pepper — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 04:55:59 +0000

Yesterday was the Chinese New Year and now we are in the year of the Tiger. So I have created a fun little note card for you to be able to print and write a note to a friend!