Beautifully Different

I have pretty short hair, because I’m lazy, and I’ve found that it actually looks good on me.  I’ve tried the grow out, the straightening, you name it. But at the end of the day, I would wear it in a ponytail. I am constantly making fun of myself.  It is “chubby girl humor”. I often get referred to as a boy in public, then I get an “Oh I’m sorry.”  It can be frustrating.  But I take it in stride and when I’m not working, I try to “girl it up”.  I have become the master of headbands in the past year or so.  I guess it is my trademark. But sometimes, having short hair can be frustrating.

#Reverb10 DAY 8: Beautiful

I’ve had tons of people tell me that they wish they could have short hair, and that they admire me for it.  I guess I should probably learn to embrace it, but some days it is a love and hate.  I know it is easy for people to recognize me because I’m usually the only girl with the short hair, and I can dress quite funky sometimes.

And maybe, it is just my teeth.  I have some pretty rad teeth.  I paid a ton of monies for these teeth.  I posted about my journey with veneers in 2008.  I have absolutely no regrets about doing this.  Because when I’m having a bad hair day, I can always look in the mirror and see my pretty teeth.

P.S. This is me, trying to take self-portraits of my cute outfit a few weeks ago, while walking Angry Kid to school.

December 8 – Beautifully Different.
Think about what makes you different and what you do that lights people up. Reflect on all the things that make you different – you’ll find they’re what make you beautiful.

Wordless Wednesday: Christmas Card Outtake

Christmas Card Photo Fail

Welcome to  “Angry Julie Monday’s Wordless Wednesday Linky”!

If this your first time here, HELLO! I do a link-up every Wednesday! Post a picture(s) that you took in the past week and link back to it here. Wordless Wednesday is a great day to post an awesome picture that “speaks” for itself, no words needed.

Community, Through SITS Girls and BBC

Last year, I start participating in a community called SITS.  It is based on featured bloggers and commenting.  I started talking (actually tweeting) the founder of SITS, Tiffany, on Twitter.  We hit it off right away over our love of reality tv and Hello Kitty.  In December of last year, I met Tiffany in person.  She lives in Southern California also.  I was able to also reconnect with Tiffany briefly, at Blissdom in early February.

Tiffany told me that she was doing a series of blog conferences that we would throughout the United States.  I thought that it was a great idea to have a one day conference for beginning bloggers to give them some tips, and treasures of information to go home with.  I made plans with Tiffany to go to my first Bloggy Boot Camp in May, which was held in Phoenix, Arizona.

Bloggy Boot Camp Phoenix

I had a fabulous time at Bloggy Boot Camp in Phoenix, and made so many friends.  Every one of these people in these pictures is someone that I made a connection with through Bloggy Boot Camp.  These women are my tribe, and my community.  Because I was able to spend more one on one time with these women, I believe that we made genuine connections, rather than someone casually passing through.

Bloggy Boot Camp San Francisco

In August, I went on a road trip with Ciaran from Southern California to Northern California for my second Bloggy Boot Camp in San Francisco.  We drove a Lexus SUV which she had for a review and rode in style.  Ciaran and I both spoke at Bloggy Boot Camp.  It was my first time speaking at a blog conference and I gave a presentation on Privacy.  I believe that my presentation was well received and that I was educate the attendees of the conference.  I started a trend in Phoenix with photographing Bloggy Boot Camps and I took a few hundred photographs while in San Francisco.

Bloggy Boot Camp St. George

And the end of the summer, Tiffany announced that she would be adding an extra Bloggy Boot Camp onto their schedule, in St. George, Utah.  I was excited to go to this event, because it was the weekend of my 35th birthday.  I thought it was the perfect way to spend my birthday.  I went on an adventurous roadtrip with Tiffany and Kelly from Southern California to Utah. I will talk about this roadtrip someday, and it involves cupcakes.  But we were treated to an enjoyable night of karaoke, a perfect conference (where I spoke on working with brands), got lost a few times, and ended with a birthday dinner fit for a princess.

I’m still participating in #Reverb10, can you believe it? I’m actually following through with something. Don’t be shocked!  But I think that today’s topic was perfect.

December 7 – Community. Where have you discovered community, online or otherwise, in 2010? What community would you like to join, create or more deeply connect with in 2011?

I would say that I have found my tribe or community through SITS Girls, and Bloggy Boot Camp in the past year. By attending three BBC’s, and photographing all three of them, I can look back and reflect at the memories that I have.

I hope to be able to attend at least one Bloggy Boot Camp within 2011, and I hope my schedule can accommodate the traveling.  If you are interested in learning more about SITS Girls and Bloggy Boot Camp, do not hesitate to contact me.  I’m always happy to give my testimony of SITS Girls, Bloggy Boot Camp, and their founder, Tiffany Romero. She is very pretty.

Made, or Things I want to make

December 6 – Make. What was the last thing you made? What materials did you use? Is there something you want to make, but you need to clear some time for it?

I think that the last thing that I actually made was dinner about two weeks ago.  Seriously, I’ve been quite the slacker lately. We are extremely busy in the Angry Household.

With the Holiday Season, there are a ton of things/crafts/cookies/food that I want to make.  I just can’t find the time.  I haven’t even finalized our Holiday cards yet.  I think they might change from being Christmas cards to New Year’s cards.  Speaking of cards, I always seem to just tape the cards to the wall or the back of our front door.  This tends to get boring, and I’m constantly thinking of new ideas.  I even asked Mique for suggestions the other day.  She is one of those “creative-crafty types”, and even did a post about it.

Mique even crafted up her own Holiday card display using a frame, ribbons, and clothespins.  Check out her blog for the entire tutorial.

We have a ton of Holiday decorations, so I’m not really focusing on displays, ornaments or things like that this Holiday Season. As a matter of fact, I think we have more stuff than room.  It is probably time to go through all of my decorations and weed out some things.

I would like to bake some Holiday type things but unfortunately I don’t have time until mid-December.  I’m going on vacation for a few weeks. Hopefully, I can finish up my shopping, and get onto some baking.

While I was looking through some of my favorite blogs tonight, I stumbled upon Rachel’s site, A Southern Fairytale. She posted a simple recipe for Individual Monkey Breads.  Don’t they look delightful?

As you can tell, I’ve got a lot of work on my hands.  There are sooo many things to make, but so little time.

P.S. I’m back-dating my posts, because I want the #reverb10 posts to match up with the actual days.  I’m a little behind.

Letting Go

Some people may write about letting go of friends, family members, or bad things in their life.  But, I have to be the random person to write about letting go of my greatest addiction ever.  You see, I had it bad for Monster Energy drinks.  I couldn’t start the day without one.  I may talk about drinking Dr. Pepper sometimes, ok a lot, but a girl has to have some kind of caffeine in her life.  I tried to go without caffeine for awhile, it was not a good thing.  But after talking to my pal, Tiffany, I decided to quite cold turkey.

Angry Julie and her Monster

In late April, I was doing some traveling and could not locate any Monster Energy Drinks when I was out of town.  I figured it was a good time to quit, and so I went cold turkey.  In June, I even wrote a post about “breaking up” with my Monsters.

I have not had a Monster Energy Drink since then.  Every time that I go to a store or convenience store that sells Monsters, I stare at them.  I get all giddy when they go on sale, and yet I haven’t purchased one.  Even seeing this picture that Jen Johnson took, makes me crave a Monster.  But it is for the good, because I know that they were not good for me. Who knows what could happen to me long term health wise if I kept drinking them.

Now onto other things, I need to let go if the thoughts that my hair looks good dark. Ye gads, seeing my hair is this photo drives me to make a hair appointment, ASAP!

I’m writing this post for Day 5 of #Reverb10: Let Go.

I have let go on some friendships, and other stuff this year, but alas, I’m not putting in the time or energy to write about that.  By writing about them, it just lets them have control, once again.  I don’t need the negativity in my life, anymore.

Wonder

Angry Kid eating some Bruxie Waffles

Angry Kid looks very content hear eating his waffle sandwich from Bruxie Gourmet Waffles.  It took some explaining on why we were eating waffle sandwiches that day.  But he loved his sandwich.  Angry Kid is getting better with eating now.  He actually tries new foods.  It is amazing how fast he is growing.  He has changed so so so much this year.

This is the 4th prompt for Reverb10′ and I’m moving a little slow so bear with me.  It also took me some time to reflect on the topic.

December 4 – Wonder.

How did you cultivate a sense of wonder in your life this year?

Because I needed to better understand this topic and the meaning, I looked up the definition for the word, wonder.  I needed to grasp a hold of what it entails.

Wonder

1. a cause of astonishment or admiration : marvel ; miracle

2. the quality of exciting amazed admiration

3. rapt attention or astonishment at something awesomely mysterious or new to one’s experience; a feeling of doubt or uncertainty

I have to say that Angry Kid has cultivated a sense of wonder for me this year. He is an amazing kid.  As a 36 week premature kid who did a week in the NICU, he is thriving.  Between the ages of sixteen months to almost four years old, he had over ten febrile seizures, and has had no side effects since.

He is growing dramatically, in body and in mind.  In September, he started Kindergarten.  He is trying so hard now to learn spelling, his words, and to read.  Every new word he learns, he practices spelling it.  I’m constantly having conversations like, “mama, how do you spell….”  He is a wiz at math.  I’m amazed at the large numbers that he can add together, along with counting over 100.  He has achieved so much in just a few short months.

I can’t wait to see how he progresses in school and what he will be like when he grows up. But no, I will be hanging out and admiring what a great person he is turning into.

Are you amazed and wondered by anyone, anything, or even your own children? I have many people in my life that I admire.  I’m so blessed with great people in my life.

That Moment

My friend, Shannon, took this photo of me in August.  I was in New York City for BlogHer.  I was outside photographing the line for SocialLuxe Lounge.  I had been up at least twenty hours, flown a red eye, ran around NYC like a crazy woman, and was just starting a busy night.

It was my first time in New York, and it was a whirlwind weekend.  I wish I would have taken more time to enjoy it.  As I was standing here, in the middle of the street, I was seeing friends and faces that I had not seen for over a year, since BlogHer09′.  I could hear the blaring horns and the traffic behind me.  It was amazing being in such a big city.

I hope that I can take a trip to NYC again someday, and enjoy it a little bit more.

I currently have this photo as my “About”, because it really says so much about me.  I’m wearing a headband, holding a camera, wearing purple, and I had fabulous hair that day.

I’m writing this post for #Reverb10

December 3 – Moment.

Pick one moment during which you felt most alive this year. Describe it in vivid detail (texture, smells, voices, noises, colors).

A first time for everything, and a little graphic

Today started off like any other day.  I went to bed in the early morning hours and set my alarm on my iPhone.  My iPhone alarm went off, and I hit snooze.  After hitting snooze about three times, I jumped up and started screaming orders at Angry Husband and Angry Kid.  It was a school day, and Angry Kid needed to get dressed, etc.  I dropped Angry Kid off and came home to a fresh Dr. Pepper.  Angry Husband was busy complaining about his lack of staples for the staple gun because he was going to start hanging the Christmas lights.

 Around 10am, after Angry Husband had gone to the hardware store, and I had talked on the phone to several people, the phone rang.  Angry Kid’s teacher was on the phone.  She mentioned something about Angry Kid falling, hitting his head, and stitches.  I told her that I would be on my way to the school.  I arrived within a few minutes because we only live a few blocks away.  He was lying down in the nurse’s office with a piece of gauze on his forehead, and an ice pack.  I saw that there was dried blood on his face.  Angry Kid’s teacher and the nurse were a little frantic about the entire situation.  Apparently Angry Kid was running around with another kid, and went face first in the climbing wall on the playground.  Angry Kid did not cry, but instead walked over to a teacher’s aide for some assistance. Because, there was um blood running down his face.

I got Angry Kid’s backpack and walked him out to the car.  I drove to our house where I spoke with Angry Husband, grabbed my purse, and of course, my Dr. Pepper.  I drove to the emergency room at our local hospital because our local urgent care advised us to go straight to the ER.  I walked in, filled out some paperwork, and sat down to wait.  Angry Kid sat in front of the TV, and continued to hold his gauze and ice pack over his forehead.

 

Waiting in the Hospital ER 

The triage nurse asked to see his forehead, and he removed the gauze and ice pack.  I may have said, “Holy crap, that is pretty big”.  And I may have taken a picture.  Angry Husband wanted to see the injury.  Angry Kid also wanted to see the injury, so I showed him the picture.  He was not bothered at all by the sight of a huge gash in his forehead, along with dried blood on his face.  The kid is five, and I have to say, he is pretty tough.

We were led to the fast track area of the ER, and Angry Kid was placed on a bed.  A nurse came and cleaned up his face, and the actual wound.  The doctor came and looked at the “gash”.  He said that Angry Kid would need stitches, after getting some numbing solution.  Angry Husband arrived a little bit after that and sat there for forty-five minutes with the numbing medication on Angry Kid’s forehead.  Most kids would be crying or traumatized by this entire experience.  Angry Kid was trying to level on Angry Birds.  He kept telling Angry Husband that his arms were blocking his game.  I think that the nurses and doctor probably thought that we were nuts, because our kid was so chill.

photo4

It came time for the actual stitches, and Angry Kid became bothered.  He was bothered because he couldn’t see the actual stitches being put it.  Angry Husband took some photos with his iPhone of the process.  Angry Kid was impressed.  Angry Kid received eight stitches, which will stay in for five days.  He did not cry, or complain the entire time.  He made many silly faces. 

photo5

 I have told this story to several friends and family throughout the day.  Everyone’s initial response was, “seriously, that was his first time getting stitches?”  YES, I know it is shocking, but Angry Kid received his first set of stitches today, and he is quite proud of them.  Unfortunately, for some reason, I do not think that this is his last set, either.

photo

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