Don't Lose out on Casual Blogger's Conference... I'm here to SAVE you!

This weekend is Memorial Day weekend, but even MORE important it is Casual Blogger's Conference!

And guess what! (In case you haven't seen the button on my right hand side bar --->), I'm GOING! I'll BE THERE!



And if you aren't going then you are a loser. I would never actually say that out loud which is why it's so awesome I get to say it on my blog. But either way, that is what I heard... you will "lose" out so you are a loser, ... don't kill the messenger.

But I'm here to help you...

I was graciously asked I begged, pleaded, sold myself to be the official "photographer/update status of the conference-er" person. I will be taking pictures and uploading them to CBC's Flicker Group, Facebook, and Twitter!!!

I'm stoked!

Follow those things so that if you DIDN'T get to go to the conference, then you won't actually LOSE out on anything, because if I do my job right... it will be like you are right there with us at the conference!!!

I look similar to this so say HI! ------------------------>

If you are going to the conference and I'm not following you on twitter, leave your twitter handle so I can follow you or follow ME @ShelleBlok!

Love,



P.S. No real losers were harmed/offended in the making of this post.

Courage, Faith, and ALS.

"Courage is not the absence of fear, but simply moving on with dignity despite that fear."

Pat Riley

We have found out that one of my BIL's, one we are extremely close to, has Lou Gehrig's disease. News like this hits you hard in the gut. I thought after my sister's baby son's death that I wouldn't be able to cry for years and years, and then one Saturday you are innocently snuggling with your husband and you get a phone call that makes you cry all day long on and off and into the next few days. Then again when you see him. Then again when you see his wife. And on and on and on.

When I found out, my first thought was, "Well how do we beat it." Like it was cancer or something one might be able to win or overcome (might being the important word there). Unfortunately Lou Gehrig's disease or medically known as, Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or ALS, is still a phantom disease. They STILL don't know much about it. What causes it, how to prevent or stop the process. You slowly lose control of your muscular function until you no longer have movement at all. Your mind and heart remain 100% healthy through the process. Eventually or most choke to death. They do have medication that may or may not slow down the process but for everyone it is different. In most cases, after diagnosis, the person inflicted with the disease has 2-5 years to live. Some have lived longer, some shorter, again, everyone is different. BUT, one never knows maybe he will be the one that lives a very long time. Maybe he won't? The frustrating thing is... you just don't know, know one can tell you... or predict... or anything.

So he lives, day to day. Because right now he is fine besides the few ticks that won't stop. He has his Bucket List. He has his family. He savors his time with them. And life and work continue... until they can't any longer.

From what I have gathered and from what he has said, my BIL does not worry about death, what he worries about is his family, after he passes on, financially and spiritually. He knows and BELIEVES that he will be okay, and that his time away from his family will be short. He KNOWS that his family down here will be the ones where time goes by slower and they will miss him for much longer than he will miss them.

I was sitting in church that Sunday, the weekend we found out, and all of a sudden I thought, "Testing your faith is having to face a loved ones mortality." I don't know why I thought of this, but it seemed accurate to me. His family and him are strong in their faith. They believe in families being forever. They believe the gospel, they have faith that this is Heavenly Father's Plan for them. They are incredible.

If one doesn't really and truly believe and have faith, from what I know in THIS GOSPEL, then facing death is fear inducing and faith breaking.

Although having faith and being strong can still include crying about it, and being scared about it, and not always being okay with it... because we are human, and we feel, and as much as we believe we don't always have all the answers down here, so we soak up what we have and we gather our COURAGE and our DIGNITY to put one foot in front of the other until we find out the rest.

Hope you all have a good Sunday!

Love,

Karma and Oven Mitts

What does Karma have to do with oven mitts?

Easy. Just sit back and learn okay? Don't let this happen to you... or do.

I laugh at people. I know there are others of you out there that don't, and I wish I was as cool as you, but I do. Not usually something I can stop. I try, but it just begins in my belly and slowly makes it's bubbly way up until it bursts from me and I laugh out loud.

I get laughed at a lot also, so I get my fair share back. Just sayin.

Anyway, it's getting hot here where I live. That means our cars and steering wheels get really REALLY hot. I usually put up those things that go in your window to block out the sun, and it dulls the heat on the steering wheel so I don't burn my hands.

Well the other day I'm driving and singing really loud to myself in the car, because I was

alone. As I stop at a stop light, I look over to see an older lady, looking straight ahead, holding on to the steering wheel at a good 10 and 2 position, wearing... oven mitts.

I'm smiling to myself right now remembering it. It was funny. I burst out laughing. Laughing, laughing, laughing. I mean, at the time, I'd never seen anything so funny. I started crying I was laughing so hard. Make my shoulders shake kind of laugh.

Light turns green, I drive ahead, I think to myself how silly it was that she was wearing oven mitts while driving, I laugh some more.

End Scene.

A few days later. I walk out to my car on a particularly hot day. I get in, start the car, roll down the windows, put my sunglasses on, text somebody back, put my car in R (for reverse) and proceed to put BOTH hands on the steering wheel to back up. As I turn around to check for people or cars behind me (nobody watches where they are going in that parking lot)-my mind begins to register that my hands are BURNING!!!

Forgetful me had forgotten to put the SHADE up. Forgetful me also didn't think what the consequences might be, forgetful me got my hands BURNED!

I'm not kidding. Not like a hospital emergency burn, but definitely a, OW! WHAT THE HELK! Kinda burn. It hurt, and I may have whimpered.

My mind instantly went to Old Lady with Oven Mitts. I wasn't laughing anymore. But you know who was?!?!? Karma. She was laughing. She has never been my friend.

Anybody else out there laugh at people one day and then turn around and get slapped in the face with karma? Or does she only play tricks like that on me? Is there a lesson to be learned?

Let me know in comments.

Love,

I pay money for it? So what?

Things I've paid money for that I don't regret--

1. A Jigalow.

2. Okay I kid I kid. I never paid for a Jigalow, I talked them into not charging me. I kid I kid again. But that was funny.

Okay, to be serious. I've been thinking about this and I have come up with a bit of a list. I won't name them all, but I'll highlight the best ones.

My BLACKBERRY. Now I would say my iPhone because I would have that over my BlackBerry--but I no like AT&T, so they can suck it, and iPhone too, until they let Verizon have it.

They call it Crackberry for a reason people. I always have my phone, and for the most part, am ALWAYS connected. My hubs says that my Blackberry is like my Mistress (but the equivalent to a guy that a mistress would be). I may regret fractionally the problems my mistress has caused in our marriage. My husband says HE is neglected (I chalk that up to him not understanding, ignorance ya know?)... but "SHE/HE needs me" I plead to my husband, "unlike you who is sufficiently independent, my Blackberry 'JUJU' as I have lovingly named it, is like a child, it needs me to stroke it and give it attention so it can grow into the Blackberry it was meant to be". (For some reason he doesn't find that sufficient, nor funny). I agree, sometimes JUJU throws fits and I may go a little insane on him/her, but most of the time we get along and it has been a very loving relationship. And I love JUJU... with all my heart. Someday I hope my husband understands this and allows me to have an open relationship with HIM and my JUJU.

Moving right a long...

DVR-this goes without saying much. But who would shun something that lets you watch your favorite television shows at your whim?! Can't sleep at night? Watch that episode of "Grey's Anatomy" you missed last week because of an Elementary program that seems to think Grey's isn't important and schedules their program on that night. Alone for the weekend? Hello! Let's catch up on "24" that we've missed all season. On a flight during an important sporting event? No FREAKING problem--it will be waiting for you when you get home to watch. (sidenote here: Don't get on Twitter, Facebook, or the internet in general until AFTER you watch the Sports event, because without fail some jerk, who is your "friend", decides to say something that spoils it for you)How about hate watching commercials during your show because it leaves you hanging? Forget about it, record it, and fast foward--like manna from Heaven I tell you. So I love my DVR--

My 24 inch Mac. My first ever Mac and I shall never go back. I can't even describe what a good investment that was. Seriously. Once you get the hang of a Mac and switch over, it's night and day the beauty and miracle in which it runs and functions on a daily basis. Me loves it. To go along with that... my iPod Touch/iTunes/Apps/Words with Friends... sigh...oh sigh.

Also with those, I have to mention the new baby I picked up a few days ago (I have saved and saved for this beauty) and for which I'm typing on now to do this post. The Mac Book Pro laptop. Let me just say I cuddle this cute thing and feed it and burp it and want to take pictures with it and have totally fallen in lust with it. I get all giddy just trying to find excuses to play with it. (there is a joke in there somewhere, but I'll leave it alone.)

Hair appointments. I can't ever regret paying money to feel beautiful. I have a hair stylist that I adore and when I leave there I feel like I have just walked off the cover of a magazine, and until you have felt that power, you can't play hate. It's worth every penny I spend. That goes alone with the waxing of the eyebrows and such.

Expensive Jeans- When you find that pair of jeans that when you slip in them they make you look skinnier and make your butt look like those of the Gods... how can you fault that? HOW I SAY!? Don't judge. When you've searched the whole world (I may be a tad dramatic with that) to finally find that pair that works miracles, you buy them, and you get down on your knees and you thank the man upstairs for creating somebody who was genius enough to come up with them and bring them to life. Just sayin.

Okay, I'll stop. For now.

Anything you have paid money for that you don't regret?

Love,

P.S.--Full Disclosure--That isn't my butt up there showing off the jeans. All Images were stolen off of Google images.

P.S.S.--Go check out what Real World has going on today!

Secrets...Go ahead, UNLOAD.

Have you ever said something that you wish you could take back the INSTANT you said it, or typed it?

That was me yesterday.

I divulged information, told a secret. It was MY secret. It wasn't one I was holding for someone else, yet I still wish I wouldn't have said it. I WISH I would have had a secret box to dump it in and forget about.

But NOOOOOOO... my fingers had to type or my mouth had to run off and I spilled my secret.

See I'm one of those people that can't carry the burden of a secret. If someone tells me something that they don't want me to tell anyone else, I have my go to person,the one person that actually can keep a secret, that I can unload or share the secret burden with, usually my hubs, (I tell him because anyone that is anyone KNOWS he's part of me... if I know, he knows). Or I would write it down. But what if my GO TO person is the person the secret is about!? Then who do I tell? Not that that is the case, I don't have anything to tell my hubs about my hubs... but you know what I mean. I have this secret to carry around all by my lonesome with no one to help carry the load... ya know?

And then it eats and eats and eats at me... until I unload it.

I so wish I would have had somewhere to unload it so I didn't say anything.

And now I just feel dumb. Again, just so we are clear, the secret was MINE, not someone elses.

Anyway--I thought I'd do all of you a favor and do the SECRET BOX today. Unload your secrets here anonymously or not... only if you don't do it anonymously then it isn't really a telling of a secret as much as it is a confessional. Leave your secret in comments, get rid of it, and BE FREE! Or not.



Like I wish I would have been yesterday afternoon.

Your.Welcome. I'm always letting you guys learn from my mistakes. I'm a giver.

Love,