Noddin’ My Head Like Yeah


That’s me in the front in stripes doing the rocker chick stance with Nashville bloggers Calie from Broccoli Cupcake and Sami Cone from SamiCone.com to my right. Yeah I’m all confident here after the entire thing was OVER. Thank you Jesus for deodorant. Picture taken by Think Maya with Rachel from A Southern Fairytale’s camera.



About 90 of us were on the down low for a secret mission going down at the Blissdom Conference last weekend.


Operation Party In the USA went off beautifully after the fantastic keynote by Scott Stratten Friday evening. We slipped on our fingerless gloves and took everyone by surprise.

Do ya’ll know how difficult it is for me to keep a secret? I didn’t even tell my Blissdom roommate, Kelly from Faithful Provisions.

We practiced in our homes, our cars, and sometimes, like me, our offices (behind closed doors and giving the parking lot passersby a thrill or perhaps pause for why a woman was dancing in the dark to Party in the USA) for weeks. The entire thing was choreographed by Nashville area blogger Jana Warnke, who is a beautifully creative soul to dream up such a fun idea. She posted tutorials to a secret group on Facebook and coordinated the entire thing so well that even someone like me, who got her butt kicked in hip hop class two years ago, could master it. Nashville blogger Malia has a great post about how the whole thing was dreamed up last fall.

Never in a million years would I have believed that I’d participate in a flashmob.

Never in a million years would I have believed that I’d know EVERY SINGLE WORD to a Miley Cyrus song.

“So I put my hands up!”


Here’s a fun video shot when Nashville blogger Carrie Ferguson Weir from Tiki Tiki blog grabbed a camera from Shab from No Todo Yago. I’m in the middle at about 1:09.


For more flashmob goodness, click here.

Sending My Next Liquor Store Receipt To Billy Ray

I am the polar opposite of crafty but Sunday afternoon while the hubby and Miss C were out for a walk, a very whiny Miss A seemed pacified by the offer to open and play with a Hannah Montana jewelry making set that Miss C received for her birthday.

Good times with charms and chains ya’ll!

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We sat down at the kitchen table and I noticed the box said this fine crafting activity was appropriate for children ages 6 and up. This was a craft that even I could handle. I would help Miss A create a jewelry masterpiece. She chose a large guitar charm and two smaller heart charms to add to a silver chain.

A half hour later and many expletives voiced in my head I had managed to break my index finger nail and get ONE FLIPPINCHARM on the mother flippin’ necklace. I even rummaged around in my makeup bag for my tweezers that I use for that occasional wild hair I get on my chin. Ahem. I apparently have incredibly non-nimble fingers as I couldn’t get the tiny charms fastened on to the tiny blankety blank chain.

I finally told Miss A that mommy just couldn’t get the charms to go on the chain but I convinced her that the singular pink heart charm with Miss Cyrus’s picture on it that I’d managed to fasten to the chain was a beautiful necklace. Miss A proceeded to do the super pout and shuffled her feet as she plopped on the couch wearing her sad, sad jewelry handcrafted in lameness by mommy.

And then the damn charm FELL OFF.

And that is the end of my adventures in jewelry making mother/daughter bonding time because no child’s craft set should make you want to shoot tequila.

My Achy Breaky Ears

We survived Miss C’s weekend of partying and I came out on the other side of the weekend fairly unscathed, having only stepped on one of 249 plastic microscopic toys now residing at our house.

I jumped on the Achy Breaky Daddy Billy Ray Bandwagon and made Hannah Montana theme invitations for her junior So You Think You Can Dance fiesta. Why I felt the need to encourage my girls to sing the two Hannah Montana songs they know over and over and over again at the top of their lungs for the past few weeks, I don’t know. Actually the girls don’t even know the actual words to the songs, but just the hook of each song. Oh yes it’s adorable the first 25 times Miss A belts out “You’ve got the best of both wields” on the way to the grocery store. Miss A throws us off constantly with her New England accent.

I used my mad photo manipulatressing skills and plopped Miss C’s head on Hannah Montana’s body for the invitations. This was a big hit, let me tell you, with parents and kids alike, although my mother e-mailed it to some friends and I think one of the elderly ladies actually thought it really was Miss C.

As six-year-old girls are all over the girly girl chart, the actual cake and decorations were not Hannah Montana, but Tinkerbelle, and the party hats were princess theme. We had the party at a local dance studio, and the girls learned some slick dance moves to “Pumpin’ Up the Party,” otherwise known as “The Song Permanently Etched In My Brain.”

I learned a few things that I will categorize under “Birthday Parties For Six-Year-Olds For Dummies:”

Never bring one flavor of Capri Suns to serve at a party. I naively assumed that lemonade would be the international choice for the 5 to 7-year-old age range, but I was wrong and two girls looked at me as if I was offering them hot V8 juice from a rusty can. They ended up drinking tap water from Lion King Dixie cups. Seems like they were on the losing end for not wanting to be thrill seekers. Come on girls, live it up!

Balloons are great ice breakers. Just make sure that there is one for every girl, or tears will be shed.

You can use a beach bag as a gift bag and the parent’s of the birthday child will love your creativity. We really needed another beach bag, too.

Be prepared for girls to ask you for seconds of everything, including the hats, drinks, cake, and goody bags.

The chicken dance and electric slide are guaranteed to get every child on their feet, while the adults reminisce about the last time they drank too much champagne at a wedding reception.

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