Everybody say "Par-TAY!" Ultimate Blog Party, that is

Sooo..I'm a first-timer at this sort of thing, and I'm just figuring out what I have to do. So bear with me. Or is it bare with me (uh, no, that would be for ANOTHER kind of party).

This one is the Ultimate Blog Party. I guess I tell you a little about myself, my blog, my interests, etc. I'm a little nervous. What if you don't like me? Or what if you do? The pressure! The pressure!

Okay. I'm calming down. Taking deep cleansing breaths...aaah...wait...okay...do I detect a poopy diaper?

Yep. That's my life. I'm a mom to three weirdos adorable kids. I blog about them a lot (no animals were harmed in the taking of this picture).

I live in the OC, where my house is tiny and my (non-nursing) boobs are even smaller. I'm originally from New England but lived a bunch of places as an adult before coming out here, where I got married and had my kids.

In my spare (HA! AHAHAHAHA!) time, I trained and ran two half-marathons and two full ones. I'm currently attempting to get back into the running thing. We bought a treadmill. I'm so glad it's going to good use.

Now back to the blog. I also write about things that impact all of us: as women, as mothers. Just the other day I wrote this post about my feelings on how women pressure each other to breastfeed, but our society as a whole doesn't support it. It has links to a story on CNN in which I was quoted, a post I did for the Orange County Moms Blog, and a story from a long time ago I wrote when I was a newspaper reporter (more on this in a minute).

Speaking of nursing, I took this picture yesterday at the San Diego Zoo, and if any of you have every breastfed your children, you totally get this. You know EXACTLY how this piglike creature felt, totally zonked while the babies just nursed away. The little piglets!

Let's see.. another topic about which I'm passionate is home birth. Before you hurriedly rush to get to the next blog, hold up! Believe me when I tell you I'm the least granola person alive. Seriously. My second child, my daughter, was born at home accidentally. I was in labor denial because my first was nine days late (I KNOW! If one more person had called and asked if I'd had the baby yet...), and this happened when I was a week early. But my water broke and Sage was born about 40 minutes later. On my couch. True story. My doula delivered her. Third child was surprise, but his home birth wasn't; I had him in a pool in my bedroom.

A couple posts I wrote that seemed to touch a lot of people: one about Layla Grace, the little two year-old girl who recently died of neuroblastoma (if you were at all on Twitter you probably heard about her battle against the disease), and this post based on a convo I had with a close friend after the birth of her first baby. Oh! And this one about how to talk to your kids about faith when you don't even know what you believe yourself.

Let me just say it's not all serious around here. Not at all. I have fun! I do! I blogged about a typical morning, what it's like to be in a dressing room with a four year-old, and wondering if I'm the only one saying those things my mother said I SWORE I wouldn't. You do that too, huh?

But for some reason, when I get all serious, you like me more. Saps.

Either that, or I'm not funny.

Crickets.

Okay. So back in the day, I was a sports reporter and covered a Major League Baseball team. I was one of two women in the country who did it at one point. It taught me a lot: How to write on deadline. How fast I could sprint to make my connection at O'Hare. How to pretend I didn't hear a player fart at his locker.

All the glamourous stuff.

But out of it all came my blog. Because ultimately, despite the sometimes "challenging" work environs,  I loved to write. Still do. I hope it shows around these parts. Enjoy looking around!

It has come to my attention that there are supposed to be prizes with this party thing. Not for you, silly. For me! Here's what I'd love to win - and go check out the links. Some cool stuff out there!

1) A $150 shopping spree at Pedal Cars and Retro Collectables and 5 Minutes for Mom. I'd love one of those bikes with no pedals for X. My other kids sure learned to ride a two-wheeler early the old-fashioned way, but maybe I can get X started even sooner!

2) Tupperware. If you could see the state my containers are in.. No link but it's offered by Heather @ Marine Corps Nomads.

3) A $50 giftcard to Target. Do you really need to ask? From Pegs Play.

If all those fab things are gone, then I'd love #11, 45, 71, 73, 95, or 112.