Seeing that I’m leaving for Mom 2.0 tomorrow, I thought I should actually update my blog before I go, right?

A few random thoughts before I head out the door and leave the whirlwind of a recent stomach flu attack at our house behind. Wish me luck.

I’m going to this conference with my PR hat on for real for the first time. And, it makes me nervous a bit. I’ve been blogging for a long time now, but now I think of myself as a PR professional first and blogger second. I wonder how that will make attendees feel? I hope the brands vs. PR vs. blogger discussions are productive and not duplicative of the same old issues over money.

I’m going to this conference excited as ever to meet new faces, see old and new friends and relax in the sun. I loved New Orleans, but there’s something about the Florida sun and sand… ah…. (I mean can you believe that pool scene?)

I’m going to this conference because I’m excited to learn what’s hot. I’ve been stuck in my media relations hole, which pays the bills, but I need a good dose of tech trends and I look forward to interesting industry conversations. I’m thinking Stephanie should be able to help with that.

And, as I promised to from last week’s post (sorry for the massive delay, again, blame the stomach flu), I have a new hope for blogging.  I loved chatting with new, local bloggers looking for advice as they start in the space. And, they actually read my blog! It gives me hope that our voices will continue on and I love the new blogger excitement and enthusiasm. It’s good for me.

I promise to report as much as I can from Florida. Please send me any questions or thoughts you might have!

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I’m thrilled to be speaking tonight at  JUF discussion about blogging – specifically on the topic of food, family fun, and parenting (can you guess what topic I’ll be covering?).  They asked me to prepare a short speech (12 minutes, yikes!) about why I started my blog (the guilt!), and maybe what to tell young, unsuspecting women about how to start a blog (use WordPress!).

With me in the discussion are the lovely Beth from Mommy on a Shoestring (love her) and Jaclyn Kolber who I look forward to meeting.

I’m looking forward to a lively discussion and I’ll try to post my thoughts about it here tomorrow.

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Some people have friends with benefits. Since I’m so unfortunately beyond that point in my life, all I can say is that I have friends that blog. Oh yes, I do. Are you jealous? And I don’t mean the friends that I met through blogging, I mean old-school-before-there-was-that-twitter-thing friends. IRL friends who have started awesome blogs.

Meet Monica! Of course you’ve probably heard by now as her blog has totally taken off in the year or so that she launched it. She actually had a blog before me, but it was called Kitty Time, and it was on the old Blogger platform, so we are all trying to forget about that. But her new, fabulous site, Wired Momma is a true inspiration. Monica writes “a daily jolt of parenting from the nation’s capital” and is now a contributor to the Huffington Post DC, DC Moms, organizes some amazing local blogger events and so much more.

I was lucky enough to meet Monica back in 2002 while we were sweating it out in grad school working on what we thought were the most important assignments in the world for a foreign car company, dressing up silly for Halloween parties and celebrating engagements. Now, we laugh about the silly things our kids do, wallow about our lives before kids and make each other laugh online. Well, she clearly makes me laugh more because I never update my blog. Monica, I’m so proud of you!

Now you have to meet Mandy. Mandy is my daily, go-to BFF who I speak to every day about every nonsensical thing from what yoga class we might be doing to when we are scheduling our next play date. She’s my mom-in-the-trenches rock, who used to be my friend-before-kids-rock. So you get the point. You also might get why I was so excited to hear that Mandy decided to write a cookbook and blog of her fabulous healthy and recipes that she makes with her kids all week long – Healthfull Ever After. She just started it a few weeks ago and is already blogging away like a pro. I feel like a proud mama of a third child that I didn’t birth, but love. She’s like my blogging prodigy.

I don’t know how she does it, but her recipes are beautiful and delicious. I can’t wait to try this granola recipe. Go Mandy go!

Do you all have “friends who blog” or did you meet your blog friends through your sites?  

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I did, sadly forget one of my IRL BFFs here and I don’t know why. Maybe it’s because I think of this particular person as the super-volunteer-extraordinaire, freelance writer superstar and overall enthusiastic about everything person. In the back of my head she’s a blogger, but she’s also so much more than that. Meet Jo!! a.k.a. Mommy Brain – don’t you love it? Jo and I are connected by the most important thing in the world – our husbands, who became friends so so long ago, and I’m so fortunate and lucky to have made a dear friend through that connection. And one that’s damn funny too. You can read her work on Nickelodeon Parent’s Connect (I told you she’s rad!) and her dish on celebs will make you pee your pants (especially after childbirth, it’s a lot easier to pee your pants now, *wink wink*). I love Jo and I’m so sorry she didn’t make the first iteration of this post. For that I’m going to some sort of blogging purgatory or something.

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