What I Love About the Blogging Community

Lately people have been talking about blogging and people knowing whether they blog and dictating what they share and all that jazz. I thought eh, I have two cents. Might as well use it for something!

I wanna talk about you ladies! You who are here in the blogging community reading this. It is hard to explain this community we have to non-bloggers. 

I mean we spill tons of info on our blog and I know for me personally, bloggers who read my blog and interact with me, know more about me than people in my IRL.

I don't feel the slight bit weird about this. We bloggers are a special group of people. We are there for each other through thick and thin and are the best of interweb friends.

I know there has been lots of talk about how bloggers don't like each other, are leaving hate comments, or just plain out being mean as of late, but I have never had this happen. 

Probably because I am not a "big blogger". Obviously the more readers you have the more attention you get, and so maybe more people, more opinions, but I think that people honestly may have some jealousy issues.

I mean who of us hasn't been jealous? I know I have. Even in the blog world.

But at the end of the post day you ladies that I have had the pleasure of interacting with and calling friends, have been some of the most understanding, best supporters, advice givers, and passionate people I have "met".

Tina Fay said "You all have got to stop calling each other sluts and whores. It just makes it okay for guys to call you sluts and whores. We have to stop deriding each other for our choices, and work together to improve the choices we have and our chances for success in whatever path we choose to pursue."

This is why I love the blogging community of you ladies. We are always there for each other and I know we learn a lot from each other.

Thirty Three Bloggers in one Place

Every once in a while I have dreams that stick with me. For the most part I forget all my dreams. Probably for good reason. When I was in 10th grade my English teacher was weird and we spent a lot of time evaluating our dreams and how that would impact our writing if we were writers. For some reason I was the Harry Potter of the class. No matter how happy I made my made up dream journal for a week my teacher's interpretation would basically be the Grim...i.e. my dreams meant that I was going to die, trip and fall, experience heartbreak, get in a wreck etc....happy stuff!

But I have remembered some pretty happy, funny dreams. Such as this one I have already written about.

This most recent one involved my girl T. Swift and all of you.

Yep. Pretty much the following cast and crew was in my dream:

Tiffany

Kaitlyn

Ashley

Sara

Ali

Jen

Shauna

Amy

Amy (yep two Amys!)

Max

Erin

Erin (yes there are three Erins!)

Kayla

Susannah

Jill

Whitney

Taylor

Sarah

Caroline

Lisette

Julia

Samantha

Samantha (and two Samanthas!)

Jessa

Rachel

Alexa

Madeline

Courtney

Meg

Helene

Sam

Erin
Lisa

We remade this music video lip singing:

I told Kevin about it. He was less than impressed. His first comment was "Do I have to edit a video?"

haha!

So ladies....

WWLD

Or rather, what has Lauren been doing?

I hope you guys saw all the fun yesterday with the newest round of Tuesday Topics!

Anyway, I mentioned that I had been working tons. But I have done some other things besides work... Believe it or not...just not taking many pictures in the process.

I made some enchiladas and strawberry shortcake for my neighbor who had a baby girl!

yum yum! you can never have too much food!

I participated in Relay for Life here in town. It was small but fun!

Always ready to raise money for a good cause!

It was windy and most of my glitter flew off the bag. 

Cinco De Mayo. Kevin and I hosted our friends and had Mexican food and Margs. Kevin makes the best margs!

We hosted a game night with some friends. Yes, I did win Ticket to Ride #thankyouforasking

Mother's Day. Everyone and their mother was on social media that day. #haha #getit?
I love my mom and my mom in law. They are two of the greatest and strongest women I know!

This coming weekend we are going to New Mexico for Kevin's sister graduation. Exciting exciting! It will be fun to go!

Hopefully I can get a pedi, mani, haircut, lose 10 pounds, magically find new clothes for free in my closet, make cupcakes, and finish her gift all before Thursday night when we leave....after my 12 hour shift.

Yeah, probably not that likely, but a girl can dream...


Oh and there was a winner to the ad space giveaway! Go to Erin's page and find out if you won!

Tuesday Topics: One Reason I Started Blogging

Before I get into this Tuesday Topics, I just wanna apologize for being absent, I may only be apologizing to myself since some of you may not care that I have been a little more absent from the blog, but it has been really tough for me to not write lately.

never could be truer right now...

I have just been so busy. Life takes over in addition to me working 60 hours last week (yeah I know, not good...) but hopefully I can get right back on track!

That being said. I would like to announce that we will be doing a new round of Tuesday Topics starting next Tuesday!

<div align="center"> <a href="http://www.lifelovelauren.com/" title="Life. Love.Lauren"><img src="http://i1075.photobucket.com/albums/w421/TiffanyAustin922/TTround3jpg_zpsd4ae0f04.jpg" alt="Life. Love.Lauren" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

Furthermore, Tiffany and I are doing a giveaway to participants in these next ten weeks!

We are giving away: 

Ad space on my blog!

Ad space on Tiffany's blog!

A guest post on Tiffany's blog.

Ad space and in post feature on my blog.

On the last couple of topics for this next time we will have the raffle open. You can enter and win!

All you have to do to win is follow Tiffany and I. 

Then any Tuesday Topics you participate in is extra entries!

Extra chances!

Now that we have that excitement settled, let's get to why I started blogging!

I had a lot of life changes happen very quickly. 

In July of 2011 I got engaged.

In December of 2011 I graduated from Nursing School.

Then I moved my stuff to AZ where Kevin was working in January 2012. 

In May 2012 Kevin and I got married.

Then in June we honeymooned, Kevin's grandpa died, my grandma died (both suddenly), and my mom was sick.

I then moved full time to AZ.

Then I got a real job.

Then I bought a house. 

Man. Life. Just. Has. Not. Stopped.

So let's go back to the beginning of that whole thing.

So for a point in time I was going between AZ and NM before Kevin and I got married. 

While in NM I had tons to plan, but in AZ I didn't have much to do.

So I started reading blogs religiously. One of the first bloggers I found was Valerie. She is just so sweet and super cute! Go check her out if you have not!

I read a lot of other blogs and thought sitting there, why don't I start a blog. If no one reads it at least I would be keeping all these memories in this super busy time in my life. I may not be the best blogger but I am still confident in myself because it something I love.

 

Then people read and it made me really happy. Being apart of a community of bloggers has been one of the most amazing things. (I plan to talk about this subject more in depth on another post)

So in essence, that is why I started blogging. My first two posts introduced myself and Kevin. Haha! It is so funny to look back onto those posts. But that is one of the great parts. I will be able to look back on this forever!

<div align="center"> <a href="http://theaustinfamilydiary.blogspot.com/" title="The Austin Family Diary"><img src="http://i1075.photobucket.com/albums/w421/TiffanyAustin922/ed644837-ad50-49bd-bf3a-82a09df0d3cf_zps27208689.jpg" alt="The Austin Family Diary" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

Signs I am Getting Old

I have come to the glaring realization that I am getting old. Yes I know that I am only in my mid twenties, so to some of you this may sound silly, but I feel old in many ways.
Besides wrinkles, mortgage payments, a slower metabolism and an earlier bed time, here are other things that mean you may be getting old:

1. Saturday morning hangovers sound worse than your annual trip to the gyno.
2. Because of reason 1, your idea of a wild Friday night is picking up dinner at Pizza Hut then painting your nails and watching reality TV. Oh and don't forget Pinterest! 3. Going to the grocery store, meal planning, and doing laundry all in one day means you had the most productive day ever. 4. Your mom isn't there to tell you to clean your room and your bathroom, yet you do it anyway.

5. Your greatest accomplishment of the week is a tidy kitchen, a vacuumed floor & empty laundry baskets. You also follow this by posting your success all over every social media platform. #guilty

6. The whole "ready to have a baby" age is sneaking up on you

and yet you're still telling people "Three more years!"

7. Just grabbing your flip flops spontaneously with no make up on and those short shorts you were wearing around the house no longer makes you look like a college kid running to get some chocolate. It looks like you should end up on the People of Walmart website.

8. You turn off the lights in your house for economic not romantic reasons.

Yep. Any other s/sx (signs and symptoms, happy nurse's week!) that we are getting older?


Oh and today is the LAST day to enter the giveaway with the amazingly awesome Erin!
Enter now!!


Oh and on Tuesday come back for an exciting announcement from Tiffany and I!

Have a good weekend! I know I will! I am finally off work! YAY!