I was surprised that I'd never shared this story before. I guess I usually forget my camera so I didn't have any good pictures before. But anyway, the Kirkin' is a big tradition for me and my boys and we try to make it every year.

It's a lot of fun and a lot of other people from our church attend as well. First Presbyterian is a beautiful historic church from around the turn of the century with beautiful architecture and wonderful stained glass windows. I wish I'd brought a video camera because it's pretty amazing to hear all the bagpipes and drums in that sanctuary. Not to mention all the men in those gorgeous kilts. Including my son Matt, who looks pretty good in a kilt if I do say so myself!

If you aren't familiar with the tradition, it's a sort of like a Scottish Sunday service.  They bring in the representatives from each clan for a special blessing, and there is a full bagpipe band providing all the music for the service.  It's pretty cool.

First Presbyterian is about a 100 year old church.  It's gorgeous and has all these beautiful stained glass windows.  I like to sit there and imagine off the generations of church goers who have passed through this church over the years.

As part of our United Way effort. See my earlier story here, I coordinated a group of people to spend some time helping out at a couple of local food banks. It was a lot of work, but it was actually really fun!

First we started off with a morning at the Food Bank.

They gave us this gigantic-ass box to sort out.  This was where we learned to never put glass in a food bank donation box.  Something really nasty had gotten broken under all these hundreds of pounds of food and and it was smeared everywhere!  Yuck!  

This is my first Writer's Workshop post from MamaKatsLosinIt. She's one of the amazing bloggers I met this weekend and she posts these great writing assignments every week. People write about them and then link back to each other and read each other's posts.

There were several assignments and the one I chose was "How Motherhood Has Changed You".

This was a tough one for me, mainly because I can't hardly remember back that far. I've been a mother or a step mother for nearly all of my adult life - the last 25 years. When I was 24, I was a college student, dating the man who would become my husband. On about the third or forth date, he revealed that he had a son. A two year old son and he had full custody. Ooops!

In order to understand how I felt, you had to understand where I was coming from. I have always been a very non-traditional person, even as a kid. I know most girls grow up wanting to be wives and mommies, and maybe nurses and things like that. I was not.that.girl. I didn't want to be a nurse. I wanted to train lions and tigers for the movies - seriously. I didn't want to get married. No way, no how. It just seemed so ridiculous. People got married and then they got divorced and married someone else. Why go through all the hassle? I figured I'd just have a series of live-in boyfriends, and just love them and leave them. I was a sort of a Jr. Feminist!

And kids. No way in the freakin' world. Keep in mind growing up, I had very minimal exposure to kids. My mom kept me around adults most of the time and I didn't have a lot of friends. I babysat maybe half a dozen times and then only for older kids.  I never watched kids under five or so. When Matt was born, I was 28 years old and had never been alone in a room with a baby in my life - seriously! Kids, especially little boys, just seemed like a whiny pain in the butt. I was completely mystified by parenting. Why on earth would anyone want to do this? Growing up, I literally don't think I ever once pictured myself as a mother.

However, that left me in a dilemma. I was falling in love with this guy and he had this son. And he made it pretty clear it was a package deal. What can you do? And Ryan was a pretty cute little guy. He'd just turned two and he had soft brown hair and big brown eyes. Tony and I continued to date and eventually we decided to try living together just to see if I could handle the whole wife and mother routine.





Still, getting someone else's child ready-made isn't the same as having your own as a baby. The first morning I had Ryan alone in our new apartment, he pooped his pants. At the kitchen table. And being newlyweds, it wasn't the greatest thing to have a 3 year old around most of the time. But on the other hand, there were times snuggled up with him on the couch watching cartoons together and picking out Halloween costumes and coloring Easter eggs.

I wish I could have made this magical transformation into this fabulous stepmother. I really wish I could say that, but I have to be honest. I was a so-so stepmother. I took good care of him, he was always dressed in clean clothes, fed well, and had plenty of toys. I didn't spoil him, I took a lot of interest in him and helped him with his homework and stuff. But I didn't love him the way I wanted to. I just didn't know how. I think the problem was that I was afraid to touch him or hug him because I knew he wasn't *mine*. I am a very affectionate mother now and I think that was the big difference with my own sons.

Tony would have been perfectly happy with just the one son, but I got it in my head that I might want a girl. Maybe. It was terrifying for someone like me who still wasn't sure if I liked being a Mom. The main thing that worried me was that it was such a permanent change. With a stepchild, you could always get a divorce and they just go away. Once you have your own baby, there's no turning back. So I went about it very scientifically. I took a poll. I totally did!  I asked all the mothers I knew the same question "If you had it to do over again, would you do it?". And with the exception of my mother-in-law (long story!) everyone said the same thing. That it was the best thing they'd ever done.

So when Ryan was nine and Tony and I were in our late 20's, we had our second son Matt. Having my own baby was a whole different ballgame. From the moment he was born, I knew he was totally mine. He looked just like my Dad, acted just like me, and I could (and did) cuddle him as much as I wanted. And he was FUNNY. Who knew? I never knew how hilarious babies can be. They never tell you that when they're telling you all those horror stories about 30 hour labors. They never tell you how babies flirt with you, and giggle so cute, and do things on purpose just to make you laugh. Or how you love to just watch them. Watch them sleep, watch them sneeze, watch how that little lip quivers right before he decides to cry, or how he makes that funny face just like your Dad.




So if I had it to do over again, I'd definitely do it again. In fact, I did. I had Blake yet another 10 years down the road. Which is why I still have an 11 year old after Ryan has made me a grandmother four times over. It's been quite an adventure, but I wouldn't trade it for the world.

By TwitterButtons.com

I know my non-SITS readers are probably getting tired of hearing about this trip, but it was such an amazing event that I just want to share it with you. I think pictures will make it a lot easier for you to understand how cool it was.

Naturally, the big topic was clothes and believe me, there were some VERY sassy outfits going on there, especially during the party. Here are a couple of my outfits.




The one "touristy" thing I managed to do with Matt was to get over to the Mirage to see the white tigers and dolphins. Here are some pictures of the baby white tigers we got to see. They were so cute.




Poor Matt, it was tough being in Vegas, but not being quite 21 yet - he's 3 months away. So he kind of bummed around the strip and did siteseeing and was back in the hotel by 9:30 watching TV and playing on his computer. But I think he had a good time and it was a nice graduation present for him.

Today was the main day of the conference and it's a busy day! We had 5 or 6 different speakers lined up and there was so much information given to us, my head was about bursting. We had Sugar Jones of Sugar In the Raw who talked to us about the power of positive blogging. Then the fabulous Laurie Turk of Tip Junkie talked to us about her journey and how she built this amazing network of Mom-preneurs through her site. I've been featured a couple of times on her site and I'll tell you, it brought me a welcome avalanche of visitors. Social networking is more powerful than people imagine.

Sorry about the blur - this camera sucks. This is Angie from 7 Clown Circus.

More blur.  This is Tiffany hugging Amanda from Parenting by Dummies.  Off to the side is Sugar Jones from Sugar in the Raw, and Kerri Jackson from Damn You Little Rock.  These are some awesome bloggers.

Hmmm - This is Tiffany, sorry don't remember, Francesca (I think), Mama Kat, Lula, Angie, and Heather.  Don't they all just look adorable?  We had some real star power in the group.

I remember MamaKatsLosinIt and Angie from 7ClownCircus talking about how to set up repeating events like Writers Workshop and Wordful Wednesday. Gosh I'm wishing I'd taken better notes. My memory is really getting appalling these days.

After a fabulous networking lunch, KeepItClassyJen showed us how to vlog. Sounds really cool, but I'm a little camera shy for that one. Maybe I'll feature the kids or something. Then Alli Worthington came and talked to us about developing your personal brand and presenting yourself to the world and to marketing people, if you choose to go that way. Very good info.

My favorite speaker was Renee at CutieBootieCakes. She talked about building communities and friendships through blogging, which is an issue near and dear to my heart. She is all about welcoming people and making them feel supported and included, which is a big passion of mine. I think because there have been a lot of times when people didn't make me feel that way, I have a real heart for making others feel welcome.

Then we finished it up by having a panel of the more well-known bloggers and answering some questions about what they do. Good stuff!

It was an action packed day and I wish it had lasted much longer, but we had a fabulous time and I met some amazing women. I even won a few bucks at the slot machines. Pretty darn good weekend.

Oh my gosh ladies. If they do this again, you need to beg, borrow or steal to get here! The suite at the Venetian is just beyond words. It's so spacious and lovely. This is just the living room area.  The blinds were so complicated, I had to call the front desk to even figure out how to open them.  

Look at these gorgeous masks at the Venetian gift shops!  I would so love to collect these, but I'd have to mortgage one of the kids to do it, so it's probably not worth it.


Hey Matt - take my picture!  Don't you love the zebra stripe purse?  Yep, I'm a flashy girl!  The Venetian was gorgeous inside and out.


We had a little extra time to kill so we popped across the street to The Mirage and went through the Siegfried and Roy exhibit.  They had the baby white tigers out for playtime and they were so adorable.  Definitely a big highlight for both of us as Matt has always been such a fan of white tigers.





So far, I am just LOVING the conference. The ladies are all so friendly and we had a blast last night at the cocktail party. Everyone was dressed up all sparkly and pretty. Our swag bags were awesome! I've been drinking out of my special filtered water bottle, wearing my Twisted Silver bracelet, nibbling on some of the goodies they gave us and writing with my Nanny Goats in Panties pen! Not everyone can say that, can they?

Here I am rocking the zebra print again.  Earth tones are just not my color scheme.  I want something you can see from outer space!  



We had just two brief speakers last night and they were both awesome. Meaghan from IKickedCancersAss spoke about Spirit Jump and was awesome and another ladies (gosh I am blanking on her name - I'm so sorry!) Janine I think, was just speaking about blogging in general and how brave we are to do this and how much a special post can really affect other women (OK men too, but they are few and far between in the world of Mommy Blogging).

Laurie (Tip Junkie) flanked by both of the original SITS girls - Heather and Tiffany.

Today we get Laurie Turk from Tip Junkie and Alli Worthington who runs a conference of her own called Blissdom. I didn't know who either of them were, but now I'm definitely a fan of both!  See how out of the loop I am? I'm really looking forward to some great information and I've got my special notebook all ready to take notes.

Part of the awesomeness is just meeting all these women. It's funny, I was reading Heather and Tiffany's blogs for months before I ever realized they were the SITSgirls. But since I signed up for SITScation, I've been poking around trying to get to everyone's blogs and it's so fun to see the faces behind the blogs I've been reading.

Anyway, gotta dash so I can get a bite. If you are here, I'll be seeing you soon. If you aren't I'll bet you wish you were! Next year. Or I think they are having one on the East Coast soon. Hugs!

Well, it's actually SITScation day minus one as we haven't actually gotten there yet. We left this morning, after picking up a new car battery at the auto parts store (sigh). But I guess that's better than having my car not start at some mysterious Las Vegas location. 

The driving went better than I had thought. I was kind of worried about my son and I driving on our own. My husband usually does about 90% of the driving on our trips, usually while the rest of us sleep. But actually, it went pretty well, despite the fact that Matt had worked until 2:00 in the morning. Matt drove for the first half, then we stopped for some lunch, and I drove the rest of the way.

We decided to economize and stay at a little place we found in Hurricane (prounounced Hurri-cun for some strange reason). It's about 100 miles from Vegas so we'll be there in the morning. It's kind of a nice little place, clean and cozy. It has a pool and a cute little patio with a barbeque. Even a little laundromat. 

But I'm bored silly and wishing we'd gone ahead and gone the rest of the way into Vegas. Matt and I are both messing around on our laptops and watching movies. So far we've watched Grease, the Ghost Whisperer (well, not a movie), and the last half of Paper Moon, which we both really liked. I'd never seen it all the way through and I'd forgotten what a heartthrob Ryan O'Neal was in his heyday. I was pretty much over him when I heard he had tried to pick up on his own daughter (Tatum!) at Farrah's funeral - ewwwww!

Anyway, I'm all excited for tomorrow. I'm going to get up, get dressed in something cute, just in case I run into any of my new SIStsas and haul butt into Vegas and hopefully get right into our suite at the Venetian! Night night all.

Some of you have wondered what this little pink button is on my sidebar. It's been there for such a long time, you've probably tuned it out. One of the most popular blogs out there in the blogworld is The Secret is in the Sauce or the SITS girls. Their blog is all about bringing bloggers together. Every day of the week, they pick out a special blog to feature and then they send hundreds of their followers over there to visit them. I had my special day on the day before Christmas and I got more than 100 comments that day. It was a great Christmas present for my blog!

Then on the weekends, they do all sorts of special stuff like sponsoring contests and featuring "Mom-preneurs" who have home made stuff to sell. It's just just a great way for women to connect with each other. (Yeah, it's mostly women, although you do find the occasional guy lurking around there.)

Now they are taking it a step further with an in-person event called SITScation. This weekend (yes, I can hardly believe it's finally here!), they will be bringing together 200 of their most enthusiastic ladies for a fabulous event in Las Vegas! Yes, Las Vegas, where we will be staying at fabulous suites at the Venetian. There will be some fabulous speakers from some of the top bloggers, a great party with some awesome swag bags, and just lots of networking and getting to know ladies from all around the country.

Matt is graduating from his medical program this week, so I decided to go ahead and bring him along for something of a graduation present. It's kind of a shame that he doesn't turn 21 for another 3 months, but even if he can't drink or gamble, I figure he'll have a good time hanging out at the hotel or bumming around seeing the sites while I'm doing my thing. And besides it will be nice to have someone to help with the driving. Neither one of us has ever driven more than 100 miles by ourselves, so that should be a bit of an adventure. Tony usually does all the driving on our trips, while the rest of us sleep!

I'm sure you're wondering why I'm taking my son instead of my husband, but little kids aren't invited and we didn't have anyone else to watch Blake, so Tony gets to do the Mister Dad thing for a change. I figure with 200 women, I can't get into too much trouble.

Naturally with a big bunch of women, the big issue is what to wear. I've been trying on different outfits, shoes, jewelry, etc trying to find just the right look, especially for the big dressy party on Friday night. I think I've found some good outfits, but I don't want to jinx it by taking pictures because I know if I see picture of myself in them, I won't like them any more. Like anyone, it's easy to get all self-conscious and critical of yourself, especially when you're meeting a bunch of new people.

But I know I'm going to have a great time. I always meet a new group of ladies every year for the Stampin' Up! Convention and I always have a blast then, so I'm sure this will be a very memorable weekend. I'll be bringing my laptop and camera, so hopefully I'll be able to post live updates on the fly. Maybe my husband will even read my blog - for once! Just to see what mischief I'm getting up to!

Friday was my birthday (yay, Happy Birthday to me). Yep, 29 again! So my friend Carol sent me these rejects from the Hallmark company:

are you suitably impressed? Yes, I'm sure that most of you have NO clue what that means. I didn't either until my dentist explained it to me. You see, most people have a perfectly smooth tongue - kind of like a Berber carpet, only pink. But when you have a geographic tongue, it's more like a high/low shag carpet. Seems to run in my family. I know my son Matt has it too and I suspect my husband does too. I guess I never bothered to look.

Apparently when you have this kind of tongue, it means that flavors affect you more intensely than most people. That actually explains a lot. I always thought I was just a picky eater. I like the blandest of bland foods. Anything the least bit spicy or sour or sharp tasting is almost inedible to me. It's so painful that I never could understand why people seemed to actually enjoy eating hot and spicy food. It probably isn't as big a deal to them.

This has led to some interesting situations. I always have to look at restaurant menus very carefully and being invited over to someone's house can be quite an adventure. Usually I'm able to just load up on bread and things, but it's hard to get through some meals without appearing rude. 

Last year, I had a chance to go to Africa to go visit a church we sponsor over there. I never even considered it. What if I had to eat some kind of really strange African food? These are poor people so you can't just refuse, and I'm not a good enough actress to be able to pretend to enjoy it convincingly. I never realized how limiting it is because it's just second nature to me.

We had one situation that was pretty interesting. We have some church friends who are gourmet cooks and wine experts. My husband did some work on their wine cellar and they wanted to thank him by inviting us over for a gourmet dinner. Well, naturally I panicked and made excuses, but after several invitations, I could tell that they were puzzled and a little hurt, so we finally accepted so as not to hurt their feelings. I'm sure to most people this would be a fabulous night to look forward to, but for me, it was like walking into the lion's den!

I honestly don't remember what all they served us, but it has some kind of raspberry-walnut vinaigrette, and there was some kind of purple stuff, and some other kind of yellowy-brown stuff, and some kind of cranberry vodka and about 3 different kinds of wines. It was literally absolute torture for me. 

At one point during the salad course, my taste buds literally went into a spasm and I had to push my tongue very hard on the roof of my mouth to get it to unkink! It was funny because they were sneering about some friend of theirs who had dared bring a Sara Lee cheesecake to one of their little get-togethers. And I was thinking to myself that I would KILL for a bit of Sara Lee cheesecake and some Stouffers meatloaf, and some mashed potatoes right out of the box. Maybe some green beans and some good old corn. Now that's my idea of a gourmet meal, not all that fancy, dancy stuff.

So, if you ever have me over to your house for dinner, don't feel like I'm rude or anything, it's just my bizarre tongue talking....