Take care of my crops on Farmville.

Read my twitter feed.

Check my email.

Go through my Google Reader.

Eat some chocolate.

Blip some songs.

Instant message.

Call my friends.

Ignore my statistics homework.

Cuddle my pets.

Love on my son.

And not in that order. But don’t think for a minute that those crops on Farmville weren’t taken care of immediately. My watermelons are in top condition, thank you.

A lot of my blogger friends have, at some point, expressed remorse at taking a blogging break due to life events. I’m not that girl. I’m just not. My online life is important to me, but it’s not my only gig. Yet, I understand that there are certain expectations and that maybe I’m not fulfilling them for everyone. It’s cool. I came across a review of my site on my Google Reader (still have over 500 posts to read on that baby). Overall, it was quite complimentary and I wanted to say thank you for that.

To be quite honest, I don’t think anyone buys my blog on Amazon.com to read on their Kindle, but the fact that you would endorse me truly means a lot to me. The fact that you want me to write more means even more. Sometimes people need to be told they are missed to be motivated. I appreciate it.

I’ll see what I can do. Thanks again. You made my day.

I know.

I’m neurotic.

I’m very, very picky about how the site looks, which was especially important while doing the site redesign. Luckily, I had an angel for a designer, bless her sweet little heart.

My friend Natalie called me the other day and reminded me of how much I missed her voice when my eyes welled up after talking to her. Sometimes, it’s nice to hear a voice. I get your comments and I love all of them.

Except for the porn spammers who keep sending me things that make me question what kind of illegal drugs they are taking. Quit sending me that stuff.

Anyway, if you would like to call and leave me a message, please do. In fact, I’m begging you, leave me a message! Unless you are in prison. Then send me a comment. Or if you are the kind of person who does bad things to animals. Then you should probably read other blogs.

I have unlimited messages and I will listen to them over and over and over like a crazy cat lady.

You can call me on your phone at (615) 807-0376 or click on this button and you can use the microphone on your computer (if you have one) to leave me a message. If you have long distance charges, they may apply, but if you go through your computer, it’s free.

This isn’t my cell phone number, so I won’t ever answer, no matter how often you call it. But I’ll get your message and cherish it, I promise. Unless you leave crazy messages. Don’t do that. I won’t like it.

Are you having a good weekend? I hope so. Mine has been a rollercoaster, but the rain is softly falling outside and part of me is honestly considering going out in it to sit on the swing in my backyard and soak it in. Do you ever just want to do that?

The leaves are turning red, and the rain falls and the wind blows and I’m out there with it.

Edit: My friend, Neil, called and left me a message as Barack Obama that is HYSTERICAL. He asked me to post it because it was an awful lot of work. I don’t ever post things without permission. Have a listen:

A while ago, my friend Jen wrote a series of blog articles on how to market yourself as a blogger and gain readers. One of the items she advised was having your own style of blog that readers could identify as YOU. In other words, a custom design that, when viewers identified it visually, screamed YOU.

I took her words to heart and immediately started the process of looking for a custom design. What I found made my hair fall out. Literally. I was so stressed out that some hair fell out of my head. Everywhere I looked, designers were charging huge bucks to do what I felt like was a small project.

Initially, I was planning on choosing a template that was already out there and having someone do a nice banner and maybe some sidebars. Some of the places that I contacted for quotes wanted over $1,000 to do this for me. With my sponsorship in my sidebar, to date, I’ve made less than $2, which still puts me in the hole for my domain and hosting. To say $1,000 is over my budget is an understatement.

At this point, I almost gave up. I went to my guru, Neil, who has his own consulting and design business. Neil often gives me blog advice for freebies (YES!) and is my sounding board. He giggled when I told him that I had a modest budget. He urged me to remember that I write for free and that a free template should be sufficient.

Neil was right in many ways, especially because I don’t know where I want my blog to go. What I know is that I love writing this blog and I have a feeling that it’s going SOMEWHERE. I don’t know where SOMEWHERE is, but that somewhere is important. And if it’s going somewhere, it needs to be pretty.

This blog flitters from one topic to the next. I wanted my reader to feel like they were on my journey with me.Ok, so I’m a girl. I wanted my blog to be pretty. Sue me.

Neil did the boy thing and said, “Fine, whatever, but it will be difficult to find someone on your budget.”

The man didn’t lie. It took over a month to find someone who did work I LIKED and who could work with my budget. I found that person in Courtney. Courtney has a company called Judith Shakes Designs. I sent her a quote request and I had decided that if I couldn’t find someone whose work I liked and who could do it in my budget that week, that I was going to give up. Unless the blog started making money and I could afford the idiots charging $600-$1000 for a subpar design that was just ok.

I didn’t expect to hear anything back from her. I didn’t just like her work, I loved her work. And I heard back from her within 3 days. She stated that she could absolutely work with my budget and that she mainly caters to mom bloggers in the same situation I’m in–just starting up and with no idea how they will afford the expensive custom designers. Because she is able to work with a modest budget, it would take her a couple of months to get to my design (she’s in high demand!), and would that be ok?

It was more than ok. I was ecstatic.

Immediately, we started going over design topics and what I wanted. I had no idea what I wanted, but I knew what I didn’t want and we started there. All I really knew was that I liked swallows/birds, didn’t want anything too bright, it needed to be soothing and I’m a whimsical person, so I wanted it to be whimsical.

I think Courtney captured that perfectly. When I saw the design I gasped.

Why am I writing this? Because I am a person who believes that I should endorse people that do a good job. It’s part of living in our society. When someone does a good job, we tell it. When people do bad jobs, we tell it. I want people to know about Courtney and Judith Shakes Designs because she did such a great job. She helped make one of my blog goals come true and she did it so nicely.

She’s not giving me a discount for writing this or freebies for saying nice things about her. She’s just really that good and I want you to consider her because I care about my readers and I had such a great experience with her.

Oh, and P.S. check out my twitter background! Thank you, again, Courtney.

It’s rare that I talk about school-related stuff because the majority of you out there aren’t in school, or, if you are, you have your own problems. Translation: You don’t give a monkey’s Heineken about my problems. And that’s cool. I probably wouldn’t either.

What happened was that I was taking one, full summer course. It met one night a week from 5-9. That’s not a problem. I can handle it. Then, summer term II came around and added a second class. However, since it’s only ONE summer term, it means that the class must meet 2 nights a week. Are you still with me? The gist is that I am now in school from 5-9, 3 nights and week and the overall effect is that A.J. is gone those days because of the problems between my schedule and Leon’s. I’m finding it hard to focus.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m still paying attention and I’m in class. When you get to the level I’m at in my education, you can’t avoid paying attention or you will fail. I just miss him. And it’s not healthy for him to not see me for 3 days straight in a week. He’s gone before I’m up in the morning and in bed before I get home. I hate it.

But it’s only a month. And until then, I’ll be ok. Remember, a blue shell isn’t permanent. It’s temporary. Every now and then I have them and so do you. I know this probably isn’t my most insightful or my best post, but I felt obliged to let you know what was going on and why things had been different lately. Bottom line: I’ve been blueshelled. Now it’s time to pull out the stops and get back on top.

Randomizer.org chose comments #3 and #12 and taking out the comments that were ineligible, that means our winners are Arie and Kelly! YAY!! One pound of candy is coming to each of you. Please email me your physical address (you can click the little email link under my picture on the homepage or email me at jillian at blueshelled dot com) as well as any candy likes/dislikes/allergies/sugar issues and I will run by the mall this weekend. I believe the mall is closed Saturday for Independence day so these will likely go out on Monday!

Congratulations to the winners and to those that didn’t win, don’t worry. I love doing giveways and already have the next one planned. It’ll be coming soon!

A HUGE thank you to all those who participated. I learned a lot about your wants and needs and, as a blogger, that is invaluable information.

I’ve said it before, there are times that little things happen in my day that are funny, or poignant or just strike me as something I want to share with you, but the information isn’t enough to make a full blog entry. These bits and pieces get combined into “A.J.’s Leftover” posts or “Random Thoughts” posts, but don’t be fooled! They are all things that make me think of one person: you.

So, here are some things that brought you to mind recently. Take that however you need to after reading them.

May 8, 2009
Never trust two 8 year olds who have shut themselves in a closet. They are making plans that are in no way beneficial to your well-being or that of humankind.

May 13, 2009
It drives me nuts when people that get honorary doctorates (usually celebrities) think they have any right to claim the title of “Dr.” As someone who is working to earn a Ph.D. I’m offended by this in so many ways. Mainly because I’m working for mine and paying for it as well.

June 11, 2009
Leon: A.J. called me six times this morning when I was in a meeting to ask if his game had been cancelled. (A.J. takes his baseball seriously)

June 17, 2009
You know it’s going to be a bad day when you wake up and whisper hello to your dog and she glares at you because your breathe is just that bad.

June 26, 2009
AJ: If I were a lightning bug, i would just fly wherever I wanted to go ahead and get my death over with. ((My note: What the heck?))

July 1, 2009
Me: “A.J., when you get older and become rich and famous, are you going to buy me a house?”
A.J.: (skeptical) “NO. I’ll buy you a couch. Or a bed with 14 cup holders.”
Me: (bewildered)

OH! And I’d been promising that I was going to show you the picture of me wearing my own Linda Lee necklace that I purchased in May to wear to a June wedding. Here it is. Sorry about the bewildered face and pulled back hair. We were in Arkansas and it was roughly 4000 degrees and I was in the middle of explaining how to use the camera when someone I don’t know took the picture. It’s a keeper! I got no less than 10 compliments on this necklace and all of them wanted to know where I got my stuff. I told you she was in high demand.

P.S. Don’t forget to enter my giveaway by 5pm CST today! Last chance!

When we started getting serious, I didn’t hide it from you, it just didn’t come up. I wasn’t doing anything on the sly. We kept our free time separate from one another. We didn’t share everything and I thought that you had your hobbies and I had mine and that it was ok for there to be some secrets. But I see that this is going somewhere. Somewhere special. And it’s going to be spectacular. So, for that reason, I feel like I need to tell you something serious. Something I feel strongly about that I think could affect our relationship.

Please sit down and take a deep breath. Are you ready? Please remember how strongly I feel about you…Ok.

I am addicted to office supplies.

I’m sorry, so very, very sorry. I can’t tell you how much. The sight of rows and rows of pens and staplers and different colors of notepads at Staples is enough to send me into a tizzy. It’s mainly pens and nice notebooks, but I love an excellent planner, as well. I think I’ve found my soulmate in my Coach black leather agenda (pictured in this post).

And pens, OH PENS! I love them, so. A new pen, a shiny pen, or even an old Bic! I love them,all. In fact, I go on ebay and buy pens in bulk. I carry several in my purse. I hate being without a pen. I go to Staples sometimes just to look at the new desks and try out new chairs. Not often, because I’ve mainly kicked the habit, but sometimes.

I hope that you can still love me after this admission. I know it’s a lot to take in, but I think we can work through this. Look, why don’t you sleep on it and give me a call when you’ve had time to process it?

So, for your viewing pleasure, I present:

I might pee my pants due to excitement!

Don’t judge me.

I get easily excited.

And plenty of people pee their pants.

I feel really happy and excited about this. I don’t know if anyone is interested in this option, but it’s there, nonetheless. If you’d like to subscribe and do so, let me know so I can thank you profusely. If you don’t want to subscribe and have a Kindle, you can still let me know so you can rub it in my face that you have one and I don’t. I’m so jealous because I want one, but have yet been able to justify it.

I’m on the internet! Wait, I was already on the internet. I’m on Amazon! I wasn’t there yet. That I know of…

Today is also a milestone in that I hit over 100 unique visitors! I want to take a second and thank the people that read this blog. It means a lot to me that you listen. Often, I am aware that the thing people most want in this world, beyond all the things they profess, is someone to really and truly listen and hear them. You do that for me.

Thank you.

By all schools of thought, I am the dreaded internalizer. What this means is that I will stuff down my issues until they boil over my proverbial pot and I either freak out and lose my stuff all over everyone or I get sick. If it is the latter, I will stay sick until I have resolved my issues. I’ve been sick most of this semester.

I also believe everyone should be in therapy, myself included, however I have yet to find the time to stick myself in with someone and have them stir my pot and turn down my temperature. It’s not possible with the current schedule and, as such, here I am. Self-prescribed homework. Journalling. It’s the therapy catch all. “Look for patterns!” I already know mine. Perhaps writing them down will help me feel better about them, though.

Tonight, I’d had a wonderful dinner with my family and some friends who came through town. We hadn’t seen them in years and spent hours reminiscing and enjoying their company. By all accounts I was relaxed when I got home. However, seeing that my favorite hockey team had traded for a 3rd goalie, when what they really need are defensemen prompted a….well, a small upset and I thought that it was time for a place to write about these…minor issues.

Here I am.