I’m heading to BlogHer next week… IN NEW YORK CITY!

I’m super excited to:

• Meet @ScrappinMichele, @MultiTaskingMe, @RealLifeSarah | My room-mates for this big shindig!
• Run the BlogHer 5K, #TutusForTanner, I’ve been training for all of 2 weeks. If I complete the ‘race’ it will be a miracle. But dangit, I’m gonna rock my tutu!
• Bathe my face in the NYC August summer heat and humidity. Oh how I’ve missed it! (NOT!)
• Re-acquaint myself with the NYC subway system, while hauling my luggage, and walking in tennis shoes and dress pants. Nothing shouts TOURIST more clearly, eh? I’ll pull out my camera to be more obvious.

I used to live in Brooklyn, my oldest was born there, it would be awesome to connect with old pals there. But I won’t  have time because all THIS is on my agenda….

Social Luxe Lounge Tutus for Tanner

Social Fiesta People’s Party

OpenSky CheeseburgHer

Green Affair

Does it look like I’ll be doing anything but party-ing?
This is hard work I assure you!
I’m sure I’ll have the blisters to prove it.

And pictures… ! I’d love to connect with you if you are going!

See the cute little Counter on my sidebar? It’s counting down to August 10th.WHY?

Because starting in August I will begin running my own little GoodNCrazy Store Front! How dang cool is that? In fact I REALLY need some help here… what shall I call it?

• GoodNCrazy Store (sheesh… boring)
• GoodNCrazy Shop (ditto)
• Ye Olde GoodNCrazye Shoppe (Juste kiddinge)
• GoodNCrazy Bazaar (Or should I call it Bizarre??)
• Chez GoodNCrazy(while I wear paisley)

Crap I’m in a hurry here. What do I call it??

OpenSky is an online ecommerce site perfect for bloggers to incorporate directly on their own sites. When I find a fabulous product (and I have several items I’m totally in love with and dying to share with you) I’ll simply beg OpenSky to create a relationship with the new product/brand. If they do, I get to list it in my shop. Making it easy for you to locate the same item.What better way to shop than to get a recommendation from a friend right?

Think fun and funky items that maybe don’t sell at giant retail outlets. Small companies making great products. I’m talking THE perfect gift ideas for your picky mother-in-law!

Now don’t get me wrong. I’m not doing all of this for free. OpenSky is creating a business partnership with me. Here’s how it works: Pretty much they do all the work and I get to have all the fun! When an item is purchased from my shop directly, they split the difference with me. So yes, when I’m suggesting an item I’ve listed in my shop, I will receive compensation if the item is purchased.

Um. Isn’t that how a store works?? Yeah I know, just making sure you understand…

Here’s what I like the best.

First. OpenSky has been awesome to work with.
Second. They are serious about authenticity.
Third. This is in their Mission Statement, and I totally agree.

WE WILL

• Create goodness for everyone that interacts with us.
• Introduce only products that we love and believe are the best.
• Work only with passionate people who share our vision.
• Do well by doing good.

Amen huh?

Wait there’s a fourth reason… Their RETURN policy. Feel free to read all the details directly on their website. But the bottom line is a 365 day return policy. Think about that for a minute? A WHOLE year? And they will even pay for the shipping. Srsly. Can’t beat that with a stick.

Would you like to get involved? You can! Tweet with the #opensky community. Follow them on Facebook: The OpenSky Project. Or even sign up to become a shop owner yourself! OpenSkyProject.com.

(And don’t forget to help me with my shop name… I promise I’ll help you someday!)

Photo credit: laffy4k

Wait. Zip that.

I used to NOT text.  A lot.

As in, why? I have email on my phone, I can call you, voicemail you, Tweet you and send you a Facebook message.
Sometimes all at once.

Mainly I feel the need to keep my 12yrold away from the texting habit as long as I can. I never wanted to get her a cell phone in the first place. Then Jr. High came along and… well… she has a phone. We made it clear we don’t have a texting plan, don’t plan to get one. (My husband’s ‘company’ phone doesn’t allow texting anyway!)

She found out the hard way (ahem… $75 in texting costs on our non-texting plan!) Whoops. She worked that off in babysitting half the school year. Plus we put a block on her phone. When we asked her why she did it after she’d had the phone for months and never texted? Her answer: “Well, they texted me, so I had to return the text, right??” Um no.

Anywho… A few weeks back we were in Utah. First I headed to Park City for EvoConference.  I kept getting texts from my room-mate, and from the few bloggy pals I shared my phone number with. Turns out in 2010 everyone assumes you have a texting plan. Whoops on me this time eh?? Oh well.. it was maybe $3.20 total. I can deal.

Then.. get this.

We head to Eastern Utah for a big fat Mormon family reunion. (I know I know, I promised photos… they’re COMING!) And who should I witness texting a little here a little there? MY MOTHER. MY 65yrold mother. She was finding out and sharing where en route my sister-from-Wisconsin was, how much longer til she’d be in town. SHE was keeping up with her 10 kids.. wait, minus one, she was keeping up with the rest of my siblings… all but me!?

Talk about feeling left out.

Kind of like the time my older sister blurted out the fact that I was the only kid (of ten!) not breastfed. But that’s another story.

I thought real hard about it. And well. My mom barely uses Facebook. She will not be using Twitter, I’m quite certain. She does check her email – sort of, but sees no point in getting a data plan for her phone to check it every ten minutes…

Could I be keeping up with my family better with texting? Check in on my mom more often? How evil can that be?

I called Verizon. $5’s worth of evil.

$5 for the smallest plan. Keep my tween’s phone blocked… for now. And they turned it on retroactive to the previous two weeks covering those odd conference texts. How very nice of them.

Carissa joins the 21st Century.

I don’t text… very much.

Mother. Lover of Cameras. Blogger.

So much like me in many ways… and yet, exploring the differences between us was one of my favorite highlights of meeting her.

It’s interesting to watch how people react in a group setting when I refuse coffee, or trade out my ‘drink ticket’ opting for soda or ice water. The drinkers in my group are happy with the trade though!

Every once in a while I get a chance to share my religious beliefs with folks I barely know at a conference or at a dinner gathering.

It’s a quick story… about a young boy, who when deciding which church to join, felt the need to pray and ask God which one was right. He lived in upstate New York, in the year 1820. He was 15.

To his surprise, God the Father showed himself and on God’s right hand there also was His Son, Jesus Christ. That young boy was Joseph Smith. The young Joseph learned many things, mainly: that there was no full church on the earth at that time (a church like the one Jesus had create when he walked the Earth), that God was a separate being from the Son, and that he, Joseph Smith was to prepare to bring back (or restore) the Church of Jesus Christ as it once was when the Savior lived.

Wow. Crazy story huh? Well…  I believe that crazy story. A lot has happened to the members of this church in those nearly 200 years… and the rest of the dinner conversation at that point is usually taken up with the many questions peppered from the group. Polygamy? (Not practiced any longer.) Big Love? (I hate the HBO series and feel they mush two religions together with many inaccuracies.) Why no coffee? (It’s stated clearly in the Book of Mormon, no hot drinks, however I do drink herbal tea.) And on and on…

But one very late night while chatting and laughing and FINALLY getting to meet several of my most favorite online gal-pals at #EVOconference…

Instead it was me asking the religious questions.

Here’s the scene: I’ve only just met @MommyNiri: Nirasha Jagananth (HooRay! How lucky am I?) we’ve chatted a bit, air kissed… but haven’t had a chance to ‘hang’ and simply TALK.

I know a tiny bit about her background. She is of Indian descent; however she grew up in South Africa. (Talk about the coolest accent I may have EVER heard, BTW.) She overcame extreme poverty, traveled and worked in several different countries, finally deciding to visit and live in America for a time.. her reason: ‘because I hadn’t tried it here yet’. Talk about a courageous woman. She has a magnanimous spirit about her, a  beautiful family and lives in Boston.

That’s it. That’s what I know.

Cue the lights and couches in a giant Suite at The Canyons Resort in Park City, post-midnight.

She asks me about my religion, she’s just realized I’m LDS. I answer a few of her questions… and I ask her to please tell me all about her upbringing? What religion did her family practice? (I know so little about Hinduism and love listening to other’s beliefs.) I wondered especially how they practiced while in South Africa during Apartheid?

Again I quote Nirasha:

‘Oh you see… My God is in a Time-Out’.

You have no idea how much I wish you could hear HER accent as she says this.

In fact I would like YOU to hear her words entirely. I asked her if she would write her thoughts in a blog post. Explain to you as she did to me that late night. How she feels traditions and bigotry have gotten all jumbled together. How she … oh go read it already!

AFTER

She’s only 12. And as a mother I’m required to prevent her independence at every turn right? Well, that’s what she thinks. What I really want is for her to learn about make-up in a realistic way. What I don’t want is a Mall Make-Up Zealot influencing….

Read More

And how cool is this?

The article was published on the PTA.org BLOG!

“I can’t wait ‘til my kid DRIVES!”

I hear this regularly at various “Mom events,” from bookclub to PTA meetings to church rummage sales. And I’ve totally had the same thought.

My oldest is a SuperTween – she’s super busy, super active, and often needs to be in a super separate place than the rest of the family! As a mom of three kiddos, I run crazy most afternoons: transporting one kid to piano, then jumping back to pick up the youngest at a birthday party, and heading back 45 minutes later to …

READ MORE

Ahhhhh but no. Not to me. It looks like a FRABJOUSLY WELL slept in bed to me.

One that I haven’t seen in THREE WEEKS.
My pillow boyfriend.
My own sheets.
MY Mattress.
How I missed my very own sexy mattress. I slept on no less than 7 different beds!

I am sooo glad to be back. To my own house, my own oatmeal, my flowers in my yard!
(even though I missed my Peonies blooming-that’s another story…)

However, I’m NOT so glad to be 3 weeks behind in everything!
My yard was covered in weeds.
My fridge was empty.
My email in-box is more like a dump-truck waiting to offload boulders and fill dirt.

But the PHOTOS?
Oh do I have lovely photos to share with you? YES. I. DO.

Chant with me will you? Camp-ing. Camp-ing. Camp-ing.
And Family Reunion.
And Big Fat Mormon Family.

Two reasons

For the Skiing… or Beautiful Mountain Outdoor Activities… ??

NOPE.

1. Oh my heck. FOR THE STAFF.

The happy, friendly, smile-at-you-while-passing-you-in-the-hall, willing to laugh and talk and carry your luggage team of smiling elves. I swear. And I’ve stayed in some pretty swanky hotels and resorts in the past few years. I have never stayed in a hotel/resort where the staff were this kind of friendly.. talk about genuinely ENJOYing their jobs.

To me. That says the whole resort is doing something right. Yes I expect my room to be posh and clean and wonderful. But seriously, if the employees are that happy, it means the company as a whole is getting it right, all the way down to the service employees.
I LOVE THAT.

2. Pristine BATHROOMS.

There were 300+ women engulfing The Canyons for #EVOconference (yes, and a few Dudes… ahem, I didn’t check their baño), and a lot of the conference was held in or near the main floor conference rooms. For a minute.. think about this? 300 women and only one nearby restroom.

Honestly every time I went to use the facilities they were clean and you know… ‘nose worthy’… plus an employee was checking in and tidying up! Again, I’ve stayed at some shee-shee resorts before and one of the things I often find is their overall lack of concern for the state of the communal areas and amenities.

WOMEN appreciate these things… am I right?? Can I get an AMEN!

To give a visual:
After I rode the Gondola up the mountain (and wow the VIEWS!) surprise, surprise, I needed to find the potty up at the lodge. Check this out….

I know. FREE Schtuff. In the uber clean bathrooms. Do you love this place already??

I had such an amazing time at the conference… one of my favorite parts was the hands on afternoon courses. Options included a Crafting Blogger course, and a Business course. I choose the Photography course. The teachers were Casey of MooshinIndy.com (srsly one of my mostest favoritest bloggers from way back when I first was asking, ‘what’s a blog?’). And Aimee of Greeblemonkey.com, also a FAB FAB photographer! I was so excited to finally learn what ‘manual’ REALLY means!

I think the coolest tip was the magical fStop number 22.
For SunStar wonderfulicious-ness!

Photo Credits: The Canyons Website

Find The Canyons on Twitter @TheCanyons

Ever?

As in aack, delete that one! … Who shot that next one?… Good grief give ME the camera back!
No more photos of me, thankyouverymuch…

Well now I know. It was the photographer all along.

You don’t believe me?
Check out the amazing-ness that is Marcel Walker.

She photographed my kids while I was in Salt Lake City after Evo. I asked her to please take a few shots of me.. maybe even for a new head shot. Figuring  maybe I could use one for Twitter, not hoping for much.

And certainly not expecting a total miracle! Marcel is my new Hero. I already loved her for her photography teaching skillz. (DUDE! I found the Manual button on my Nikon!!! YAY!) But when you walk away from a photo shoot and you LOVE the photos she takes of YOU? THAT is professional. THAT is fricken awesome. THAT is Marcel.

I’m not showing you the photos because they are over on her website.
Tell me they aren’t awesome-ness in a photo box, I dare ya!

MarcelWalker.us/blog

Kids

It’s been a long long time since we spent the 4th of July with extended family.

More often Our Big Fat Mormon family gets together over the 24th of July, the Mormon version of celebrating our Pioneer Heritage. It’s all much the same though, camping, family gatherings, and a whole lotta of potato salad!