These are my Pregnancy Friends

I was thinking just yesterday about where most of my blog followers come from. At first I didn't know. Some just found me randomly, but then I realized there was a common thing among a lot of my followers, and a lot of the favorite blogs I follow: pregnancy. I discovered a lot of your blogs when I was pregnant, because a lot of you were pregnant around the same time. 

Nicole - Pampers and Pumps

Katherine - Irish Italian Blessings

Sean - A Mad Girl's Love Song

Shannon - From Match to Marriage

Noelle - Because Nice Matters

Shelley - Hand in Hand

Kaylee - Moore Kaylee*

Valerie - Next to Heaven*

(in no particular order)

(* means they stopped blogging shortly after baby birth)

All those babies are going on two years old this year. 

I've been following Katie at Loves of Life since the day she wrote about her first daughter being born. Her second baby is about 8 months old now. I've been following Jess at Wrangling Chaos since before her youngest was born. Her youngest is older than Chloe. 

It's just so strange yet amazing to me that I'm watching these children grow up. Children I've never met, and probably never will. Which is sad, but hey, I'm Canadian. But because of blogging I know about these kids, and so I wonder and care about them. 

None of my real life friends have children (until a new addition was born March 17th) so I don't have this in common with anyone else. Just a bunch of my favorite bloggers. 

It's really kind of cool if you ask me. 

So thanks for letting me be a creeper and follow along with your life. And thanks for sticking around and following mine. I know how boring I can be. 

And if you're not one of the bloggers who was pregnant at the same time as me, how did you find my blog?

The Weekend: Boyfriend's Birthday and a New Dog

I need a new blog design. I am so bored with the one I have now. I have the newest Windows on my computer at home, so I hate it and almost never use it, and I don't have photoshop at work. I just don't have it in me to play with my design myself like I've done in the past. 

Sadly, I just can't dish out the money right now for something as unimportant as my blog design when half of our household needs new shoes before the spring weather hits. Sadly shoes are priority. But I think if I had a new blog design I'd be a lot more interested in blogging. I just hate looking at my blog these days. 

The weekend flew by. As always. Saturday was boyfriend's 25th birthday. It was nothing too special since he convinced me to give him his birthday present about a month ago when I first bought it. The beads we play with so often. 

My mother got a dog this weekend. Chloe is a pretty big fan. She's also a little rough with him. It's just a little thing - a Shih-Poo, I guess it's called. We didn't know what to name him, but the first name Mom jokingly suggested seems to have stuck - Winston. It's fitting. 

I finally put together the wagon I bought for the girls for Easter. I pulled them in it in the house a couple of times and they were in giggling fits. I guess they love it. Even my brother thought it would be fun to hop in. 

Mondays are my least favorite part of the week. And it's not even for the same reason as everyone else. Yeah, the weekend is over and a long week is stretching ahead, but mostly it's because I take the backseat to wrestling on Monday nights. Yeah, wrestling. Ew. I'd try to give it a chance, I really would, but any little bit I've ever seen has always been so dumb that I'd rather watch Chloe's tv shows. They seem more mature. 

So by 9:30 pm tonight, I'll be laying in my bed watching the first episode of season 6 of Boy Meets World. What about you?

Happy Monday!

7 "Up and Coming" Blogs

I don't usually participate in the 'rules' following an award. I'm always excited to be nominated and thought it, but usually I'm just lazy or I forget. This time around, I was nominated for the Liebster award, which I've been told is for bloggers with less than 200 followers. New or up and coming bloggers, I suppose. Thanks to Kim for nominating me. 

Basically the rules are post some random facts, answer some questions, nominate others for the award, and ask them new questions. Oh and tell them about the award. I like doing things in even numbers, so I'm not doing the 11 facts and questions like expect. I'm just doing 10! It's hard enough to find people to nominate. Most people are too popular and have a million followers, the rest don't show followers on their blog. 

Random Facts About Moi

1. Lately, I drink a large half coffee, half hot chocolate. Every morning. 

2. I work in an office at a hotel, booking meeting space and such. 

3. I completed college to become a legal secretary, and am letting the education go to waste. 

4. About 95% of my daughter's clothing is second hand. 

5. I spend a ton of my internet time browsing local buy and sell groups as well as parenting groups on Facebook. 

6. I'm almost always cold. Especially in the morning. Summer mornings, I often get up and put a sweater on for the first little while. 

7. One of boyfriend's (many) feminine qualities, is that we've discussed hypothetical weddings many times together. 

8. I plan on having (at least) one more child, but I require Chloe to be at least potty trained before then, if not longer. 

9. Potatoes are one of my favorite foods ever. 

10. I need a fun date idea for this coming Saturday night. It's a special occasion. 

Questions for Me

1. What is your favorite T.V. show?

I have many. How I Met Your Mother, Big Brother, Gossip Girl, Sex and the City, Dexter, Big Bang Theory, Being Erica, 90210, so many more. I review them from time to time on What I've Been Watching. 

2. How old is your blog?

Less than a year. My first post was May 13, 2012: Welcome to My Blog. 

3. What’s your favorite recipe that you make?

Lately, meatloaf. Recipe for that coming soon. 

4. Favorite mascara?

Covergirl Lash Exact

5. Favorite article of clothing?

A black dress of mine that I've worn to a couple of 'dressy' events, but haven't worn in a couple of years now. 

6. Do you watch sports? Which teams?

I don't anymore. I used to watch hockey back in high school, and the Montreal Canadiens will always have a place in my heart. 

7. What’s the last thing that made you laugh out loud?

I have no idea. Probably something on The Art of Trolling. 

8. Who was your favorite teacher?

I won't say her name, but she was my high school teacher. She taught French courses over the years including history and law, and regular French courses. She was the sweetest teacher ever. 

9. What’s your favorite quote?

[ via ]

10. What word best describes you?

Meh, I hate this kinds of questions. I really don't know. 

To you, I recommend:

1. Our Tiny Place - I cannot figure out how she has under 200 followers, because her blog is amazing, and more importantly, hilarious. 

2. A Life to Love and Live - One of my real life BFFs. 

3. Baby Sister's Blog - Not my baby sister, that's just her nickname. Her blog name is too long and Spanish to spell. 

4. Wrangling Chaos - A big favorite. She's kind of like a super mom, except she's so real and honest. 

5. The Diva is Learning Domestic - She hasn't blogged in over a month. She usually comes back. 

6. Blawnde's Blawg - She has a baby Chloe as well, who's just a little bit older than mine. 

7. BG Life and Design - She has more than 200 followers, but I don't care anymore. 

Ok, I'm bored and I give up. This award shizz is exhausting, and let's face it, most people won't pay attention to it anyway. 

Happy blogging, and have a good weekend! 

What Type of Blogger Are You?

[ via ]

When it comes to blogging, you might hear a lot about 'niches'. 

It comes up a lot especially if you're looking to make money off your blog. If you blog fits nicely into a 'niche', then it'll attract more people interested in that niche, advertisers know if they're product will fit with your blog, and yada yada. Some examples would be: video games, weight loss, parenting, etc. 

I don't really follow the niche rules. I blog about whatever I want. I follow any blog I like, regardless of how much I may have in common with that blogger. Funny single girl blogging about make-up? Hell, I don't even wear make-up much but if you're funny, I'm there. 

I don't know if these count as niches, but the blogs I tend to follow can be stereotypically summed up as such:

 - Single-girl blogs. Now, these girls aren't necessarily single, but they're unmarried. They're usually gorgeous, their men are gorgeous, they do tons of fun things, and make me envy their life. A lot of them tend to have and adore their fur-babies. (See: All in My Twenties and Pink Lou Lou)

 - Married-girl blogs. These girls are married without kids. Kind of similar to the single-girl blogs, except with more wedding photos and a nice looking man at their side. 

 - Mom blogs. I've loved mom blogs since before I became a mom myself. Mom blogs are always full of great advice, tons of cute pictures, and funny stories. Except mine. I'm not funny. (See: Things I Can't Say)

 - Funny blogs. Do I really need to explain this one? (See: The Bloggess. More importantly, you need to read this post on picking your battles)

And of course there are other categories, there are mixed categories. These are just the few that stand out. 

I don't know where I fit in. I never thought of myself as much of a niche blogger. I tried to do the craft blogging, but I didn't have the time or energy to keep up with it, although I really wish I could keep it up. 

I'm a mom, and I do blog a lot about babies and motherhood and all sorts of that boring stuff, but I don't feel like a mom blog. Maybe others see me as one. I could understand that. Even when I wasn't a mom, I wasn't a single girl going on exciting adventures. I was even more boring. Maybe I'm just a miscellaneous blog, mixed with a big chunk of mom blog. 

What do you think? What blog type am I, and more importantly, what blog type are you?

What I Love and Hate In a Blog

I'm sometimes guilty of following too many blogs, and thus not being able to keep up with them all. So many blogs are just that good. There are also so many blogs that turn me off. I might get a little hate for this, and some are super picky things, but here are a few things people do when blogging that turns me off of their blog:

• Captcha. They're getting harder to decipher, and after the third attempt in a row I'm tempted to unfollow. 
• Too many giveaways and reviews. I'd rather read a real blog about a real person, and not a bunch of products. Do it in moderation and I have no problem with it. Same goes if you're only ever doing linkups. 
• Kids only. If every.single.post that you write is only about your children without ever writing about you and your opinions, I get bored. I have a kid, I know how great they are but there still is life around them. 
• Too-Long paragraphs. Break it up. If it's too long, I start skimming, then I might lose sight of what the post is really about. Then I have nothing to comment. And I click away and go on with my day. 
• Too much happiness. If you're super happy, good for you. But if you're blog is nothing but sunshine and rainbows and you never write about one negative or bad thing that happens, then it just feels like you're a lie. I mean, sometimes your car breaks down or your kid gets sick. Complain, dammit. 

While I'm sure I could go on, I'd also like to dive a little bit into things I absolutely love in a blog:

• Realness. If you write about real life - the good and the bad, I'll love you for it. 
• Humor. If you can make me laugh, I'll never leave you. Even if you don't constantly make me laugh, as long as I can tell you have a great sense of humor, I'll still never leave you.
• Nice photos. Of cute babies and stuff. And a photo of you somewhere. If I can't find a photo of you, how can I be sure you exist?
• Blog design. If you're blog is super tidy and organized and pretty to look at, I'll look longer. No fancy blog design required. 
• Variety. If you're blog is full of random stuff, I will love you for it. 

Last but not least, here are 5 real blogs that I absolutely love, only 5 for now because I could probably go on forever. 

• Because Nice Matters
• A Mad Girls Love Song
• Wrangling Chaos
• Loves of Life
• From Match to Marriage

Now tell me - what do you love and hate in a blog, and what are some of your favorites to read?

Ps, want to vote for me in TopMommyBlogs? I'd love you forever.