blog stuff

I told Laura I’d wait to open My Favorite Things Giveaway package but I COULDN’T DO IT!  Silly me used UPS Ground instead of USPS like she did so even though we shipped on the same day, we didn’t get them the same day. So here are the packages I received.  So many and the she had clues attached to each one that were fun!  But I was clueless until I handled them and could kind of guess a few of them.

So here is what I got:

1. Inspirational Journal
2. Notecards that are definitely a design *I* would pick out
3. Spa socks – I will definitely use these!
4. Fuzzy slipper socks – I love socks in the winter!
5. Wine glass jewelry thingies that her and her son made.  Sorry we don’t drink wine so I’m clueless but I LOVE them and plan to use them anyway.
6. Jessica Seinfeld’s Cookbook which I was ecstatic about!  I keep hearing of people making stuff out of it!
7. Bath & Body Works wallflowers which is actually already a favorite of mine so I was happy to get another one.
8. Bath & Body works gel and lotion
9. Sisters picture frame…can’t decide whether to put me and Heather or my girls in 😉
10. “There’s No Place Like Home” sign which matches perfectly with my house and it’s so cute!

Thank you, Laura!  This was so much fun and I can’t wait to do one again!

Oh, I am so lucky just to have found out what this week’s It’s Real Life Carnival is about…I just cleaned the entire house yesterday so no dust, no clothes on the floor, no pop-tarts in the bed…"where the magic happens"!  Here are the requests…

Under the bed

Here you’ll find our fancy pillows and a bunch of old Nascar posters and cards, especially of Dale Earnhardt Sr. and such that Scott has determined to keep around for collectible and I believe sentimental value.

What’s in and on your dresser

Just the TV, DirecTV box, DVD Player, candles and the vase.  Nothing fancy.

Inside is more interesting.  The cabinet used to house a CD player thing but now it’s sort of a junk drawer mainly consisting of DVDs.  The funniest thing in there?  A set of jelly bra implant things I’ve never worn.  They looked better on the girl on TV.  In the top drawers are my socks, my bathing suits/pantyhose, bras and underwear.  In the bottom left two drawers are my workout clothes/pajamas.

What’s on your night table

That would be my alarm clock, phone, picture, white shirt I set aside yesterday that needs bleached, my Bible, a book by Beth Moore, a book by Dave Edwards, a notebook, my nametag from VBS and oh, I see my iPhone charger hanging out there.

The pictures/decorations

Really there’s not much decorations in there. The down comforter usually does have a shiny red cover on it but it gets too hot in the summer.  I do like my pictures above my bed.  Scott and I bought those after we first got married.  Right now you can see he had a very "I’m 15" moment and stuck some pictures of me around the frame.  On "the list" of things to get are a nightstand for him that matches mine and we want some different lamps.  Maybe something with a chocolate brown or red shade.

What you love about it

I love our furniture.  It’s very simple.  We bought it when we first got married and stained it all ourselves. If I had to do over, I may have gone with a very dark walnut stain.

What you hate about it

The decorating is lacking.  I really want something on that left wall but can’t figure out anything.

It’s small.  I would love something big enough for a little sitting area in there.

What makes it uniquely you

Probably this picture.  This is on the tall dresser on the right.  I think the overall coloring of the room is very "me".

What you sleep in (let’s keep it G ;-))

In the dead of winter sometimes I sleep in jogging pants and a long sleeved t-shirt.  At all other times, I sleep with nothing and no pictures of that!!

Alrighty, folks!  I mentioned in my last report that June might be a slow month for my OTH site.  Boy, was I wrong.  Now, we didn’t have the highs we did at the season finale in May but the month was steady and the ads ROCKED making for a record high in financial numbers.

This month included a few highlights worthy of mention

1. We got a new dedicated server this month. We just moved onto it Sunday and so far I’m not too happy.  The server is really slow which is really disappointing considering it’s a DEDICATED SERVER.  I’ve got a ticket in with the host and I’m hoping they shed some light on it.  New server means more money though so that is definitely going to cut into profits.
2. I branched out into a new ad network this month…eBay Partner Network.  I just link to items on eBay that our readers might be interested in and WOW, this was the second highest source of income for the month.
3. We implemented avatars in our comments and the people seem to like that quite a bit.  I’m hoping that increases comments and therefore hits more.  Not to mention I LOVE looking at all the pretty icons.

Ok, onto the numbers.  I can’t tell you how excited I am about these.  In fact, to be quite honest, I kind of feel bad for how much I’m making for doing something part-time that I love so much.

BlogHerAds: $1224
Adsense: $204
Kontera $27.90
Linkshare: $14.04
Amazon: $11.87
eBay: $332.51

Did you see that?  $332 just for posting links to eBay…isn’t that crazy?  And it’s not like I’m doing it every day..I post only the interesting things that I would be intereting buying like signed scripts, unique clothing, etc.

BlogHerAds were awesome as I mentioned!  We were looking at $2 for every 1000 page loads!  Usually if you’re lucky, you get $1 and some only give .50 so I’m ecstatic about that.

What I’m still disappointed with is Adsense.  Based on my traffic, people say that should be much higher.  Oh well.  I guess some sites lend to one thing while others are good at other things.

All in all, that’s a total of $1815! $1815!!!  That’s insane!  The show isn’t even on right now!  That makes me really excited for the fall and what could-be.

I like to make predictions for the next month and I’ll say with filming going on the next month, I think traffic will remain steady but unless BlogHerAds continue with such high numbers, I seriously doubt the financial numbers will be as good.

But for now…I’m lovin’ June!!

Hey, y’all…I just found out I got an 8.5 rating on Blogged. Out of over 3,000 Parenting blogs, I’m #57.  Woot woot!

Farm Fresh Jessica is hosting It’s Real Life Carnival today.

Here’s what you do:
To participate you simply to take pictures at any given time of some things around your house. The catch is you can’t primp, prink or otherwise prepare the area to make it seem better than it is.
Now I know some of you wouldn’t have to do that anyway–but that is why it’s called "It’s Real Life."
Here’s your list:

• curb appeal (yep, a picture of your home from the outside)
• junk drawer
• from whence you blog
• favorite jewelry
• your best feature

So here we go.  I did not touch one thing before these pictures even though I really, really wanted to.

curb appeal (yep, a picture of your home from the outside)

Can you tell we live in Southern Suburbia?

junk drawer

I could have taken a picture of any one of my kitchen drawers and it would have met this criteria but this is literally the junk drawer.  It was empty at one point and this is where everything with no home gets put.

from whence you blog

Looking into the sunroom

From my desk

favorite jewelry

your best feature

Thank goodness for braces, I’m told my smile

I’ve been reading the Pioneer Woman for about a year now I guess.  She’s like one of those star bloggers that most of you probably already read.  I even had a coworker mention out of the blue that his wife reads her.  Anyway, I’ve seen her write about how her and her husband got together..a string of posts called Black Heels to Tractor Wheels but I was waiting until it was “done” (not sure when she’s planning to stop the story) to read it but when she posted a new chapter today, my curiosity go the best of me.

I started reading some time this evening after work until Scott wanted to run some errands.  And then I found myself wandering through the aisles of Lowe’s tonight, holding Scott’s arm so I knew where to walk with my eyes glued to my iPhone screen.   And then I found myself reading it while I watched the kids play in Chick fil A.  And then I found myself reading it while I sat with the kids watching TV.  And then I found myself at my computer screen reading it tonight.  I could. not. quit reading it.  I have no idea how long it might be printed out but it’s 35 posts and quite a page-turner post-turner? spectacular story.  Please, if you love a good love story, go read it.  The best part is it’s real and you can read about them years later on her blog.  It’s ten times better reading her blog now that I’ve read Black Heels to Tractor Wheels.  So go forth and read!

*Updated with a new link for me.
So I joined the “new Twitter” today. It’s Plurk.com. Try it out with me so I can see how it works. It’s a bit different than Twitter with this timeline thing and lets you do more of how you are feeling than just what you’re doing. Sort of reminds me of the update thing on Myspace. I don’t know, find me here. And if you’re still not on Twitter and want to check it out, find me there.

Heather tagged me…

It’s All True….

Favorite person (outside family)?  Gah, this is like picking people for your teams in school.  I have to say outside of family my friend D is my closest friend.  I feel the most comfortable with her, we’ve been through a lot together and we just agree on a lot of things and are very similar in our tastes on most things.

Favorite food? Chocolate pretty much covers the favorites.

Quirks about you? I have to have the toilet paper over the top.  No ice in my cups, please. I can’t read a magazine from the back to the front and get irritated when other do. I can’t know the ending before the beginning of a book.  I don’t like to wear shoes in the house.

How would the person who loves you most describe you in ten words or less?  pretty, nice, patient, geeky, smart, no common sense, clumsy

Any regrets in life? Yes.  Every time I failed God I regret that.  I don’t see how people don’t have regrets.  I can’t imagine how wonderful my life would be if I had followed His plan every step of the way.

Favorite Charity/ Cause? I guess outside of our church we support our local Christian radio and a local Christian’s women job corps program.

Favorite Blog recently? The newest one is The McMommy Chronicles

Something you can’t get enough of? At the moment, Turkish baklava.  That stuff is GOOD.

Worst job you’ve ever had? The ice cream parlor job wasn’t bad, it’s just the uniform was HORRENDOUS.  I might have to dig up a picture that Mom has of that.

What job would you pay NOT to have? Nurse.

If you could be a fly on the wall, where? Heaven?

Favorite Bible verse right now? Jeremiah 29:11

Guilty Pleasure? My hair cuts.  I pay way too much to have it washed, cut and styled.  I’ve tried other places to help with the whole (non-existent) budget thing but it just doesn’t suffice.  So I just chalk it up to guilty pleasure.

Got any confessions? I once stole a poster from a DC Talk concert.  I didn’t however KNOW I was stealing it since I thought it was free.  But I did find out in time that it WASN’T free so I guess it’s steal considered stealing since I didn’t take it back or pay for it.  Toby, Michael, Kevin, I do apologize and I’d be happy to pay if you send me an address.

If you HAD to spend $1,000 on YOURSELF, how would you spend it? Clothes and shoes

Favorite thing about your house? I love my new hardwoods!

Least favorite thing about your house? Our master bathroom.  It’s pretty small.

One thing you are bad at? Organization in general.  Please see the filing papers and many other random things that are in with the pots and pans.  Believe me, I need an intervention.

One thing you’re good at? Typing.

If you could change something about your circumstances, what? I’d quit work and still have the same income and insurance.  Riiighhtt…

Who would you like to meet someday? I really would like to meet the cast of One Tree Hill.

What makes you feel sexy? High heels.

Who is your real life hero? My parents.

What is the hardest part of your job? Being responsible when systems go down.

When are you most relaxed? When I’m on the computer.

What stresses you out? Confrontation.  Even if it’s between two other people.  I want us all to just get along.  Also when work is bad, it tends to stress me out in everything.

What can you not live without? my relationship with God. I seriously don’t know how people go through life without Him.

Do you agree or disagree with the recent article that reported that blogs are authored by narcissists? Must be.  I never could explain why I like to read my own posts over and over.

In all seriousness, there’s no way you can make the sweeping judgment that all bloggers are narcissist.  I’m sure some are but so are some people who don’t blog.

• New/ newer bloggers (since we want to share the love and send them traffic)
Minivan Moments

• Bloggy friends
Jaynee

• Bloggers you’d like to get to know better
The McMommy Chronicles

DailyMishMash

• Bloggers you don’t think will respond, but you hope will

One Thing