In the past few weeks I have been craving more information and wanting to find new sources of inspiration. I came across a a few new pod casts to listen to for bloggers. One if them is called Blogging Betties. So far I have enjoyed what I have heard and today especially, I took away something that their guest speaker said. Val Curris said networking is very important to helping get your name out there. Make as many connections as you can. She also mentioned using Twitter as a source for networking and not just pushing your content out via tweets.
That is something I also realized about myself at the Disney Social Media Moms Celebration. Pinterest and Twitter are platforms that I need to start interacting and networking with more. I need to build up relationships with brands via these media channels.
She also mentioned how she set particular goals for herself. One of her goals she had set for herself was to be on Huffington Post. I thought about that and that. It is a pretty hefty goal to set but why not set it for myself? You never know what could happen?! I never thought I would have been chosen to attend the Disney Social Media Moms Celebration, and that goal became a reality!
Val also mentioned the importance of visiting other blogs that you like, commenting on them, tweet to the editors or the blog owners and share your thoughts. She also mentioned that when you tweet, include them so they will begin to recognize your name. Tag the writers in your social media platforms and develop a relationship with those that you admire and wish to work with. It never hurts to get your name out there.
It’s never a good thing when your husband calls you and says ‘”I’m sick to my stomach” with a long pause. Many things came to mind…. the kids were in a bus accident, something happened to the house, something happened to someone in our family. Then he said, “Kevin broke both of his ….” I didn’t hear what he was saying at first. I thought he was saying Kevin broke both his arms. I imagined a trampoline accident or a bike accident. Then I heard him say the words front teeth are broken.
I was on my way to my chiropractor because I threw my back out this weekend but thankfully it wasn’t a full blown injury. I called him immediately and continued straight home. I freaked out a little bit. But I wanted to be calm so when I got home my son wouldn’t be scared.
I got up the stairs and he was sitting in the rocking chair. I wasn’t sure what to expect but his two front teeth were diagonally cut apart. There wasn’t blood everywhere and he wasn’t crying so I felt better. Now it was just about getting him to the dentist right away. My husband called them and they were expecting us. We dropped Adrienne off at my parents’ house and got to the dentist by 5:30.
After the initial exam and X-rays, numbing gel and Nitrous oxide my son was prepared for the rebuilding. He was happy he could watch Tom and Jerry for a while! My husband was much more stressed about this. But that is because he lost his two front teeth when he was 17 and remembers the process and was scared for my son to go through it. After the dentist showed us the X-rays and said there is no permanent damage my husband was relieved. I knew that the dentist would do whatever was necessary to help my son so I wasn’t afraid.
An hour and a half later my son has 2 rebuilt front teeth again and he was back in the pool again with Adrienne when we got home!
Thank goodness for hair color because I did sprout a few greys with that phone call tonight! A parents’ job is never dull! (Before)
Before my vacation I was struggling with my running. My ankle was almost healed. I had run the Middletown Half Marathon and the Cheshire Half Marathon but they were out of obligation. I wasn’t feeling the desire to race them. But I did well considering I wasn’t feeling as prepared for them as I thought I should be. I was happy with my finish times. Especially since they were close to my finish times back in 2012 for my first Cheshire Half and the Middletown Half was similar to my Hamden Hills half marathon finish time.
I was afraid I was loosing my running mojo. I also noticed that because I wasn’t running as frequently as I should or did in the past that I felt more stressed. Ironically when I was out on my run today I was listening to my favorite podcast, Two Gomers Run For Their Lives, and Stepehen was saying he heard from somewhere that running at least 3 miles a day gives you the endorphins that having a full night of sleep provides you. I believe this to be very true. When I didn’t have the time to get my run done I didn’t feel fresh, my brain was jumbled and I felt fatigued.
During vacation I wanted to run when it was going to fit into my trip. I didn’t put any pressure on myself to set my alarm and wake up early for a run. I did participate in the Fun Rin during the Disney Social Media Moms Celebration which required an early wake up call. But that was the only time. I woke up one morning during vacation before everyone else so I got dressed and hit the sidewalks around the Polynesian and the Transportation and Ticket Center and some of the road we run on during the runDisney events. It was hot but I enjoyed the run.
Now that we are home I have gotten in several runs and am feeling better. I am doing the Mystic Half Marathon next weekend with Diana and told her I was happy with our Cheshire Half finish time and don’t want to kill myself with this race which she gratefully agreed. I got in a 7 mile run today and took it easy and enjoyed it. The weather was perfect and I didn’t have any pain. The sky was blue, the sun was out and there was a nice canopy of shade on the road. I don’t expect to have a PR for the Mystic Half, but I do want to enjoy the run as I work towards the summer months and start to train again for the Dopey Challenge next January. I don’t want to have training burnout.
That was the question Donald Driver presented to us in the afternoon session at the Disney Social Media Moms Celebration. It sounds like a simple question right? Why did I begin blogging? I started it because a friend of mine Danielle started a blog called Live, Run, Grow. I work with her cousin and her cousin told me about it. I knew Danielle had participated in Disney races and that’s where I was first introduced to the idea of running runDisney races. This was before the runDisney community exploded and the races weren’t a huge sellout like they are now. Danielle started her blog to document her training and to also share her stories about the runDisney races.
When I first heard of blogs about 8-10 years ago I thought they were stupid, honestly. I always considered them a soapbox for people to get up and blab on and on about their opinions. I never thought that one day I would have a blog. And the fact, that the blog might make me money as well, was a major stretch of my imagination. As we were boarding our plane today and I looked back and told my husband I didn’t want to leave, he asked me. Is it because you don’t want to go back to work? I didn’t think that was it, but when I thought about it, it kind of was. I mean who really wants to go to work? I don’t hate working; but I would much rather be doing things I enjoy like vacationing with my kids, taking them on field trips to learn, blogging on a more regular schedule, helping others find their happiness, doing things that make me happy.
So why do I blog? Well I started my blog back in 2012 to do what Danielle was doing. I wanted to use it as my online running journal. I used it to document my first races, my training, and to hopefully network with others. I didn’t know anything about how to write a blog, I just knew that you could host one for free with Word Press. So I took out a domain name and started blogging. The name Wife, Mother, Runner came to me very easily. I wanted the blog to cover many areas of my life, my life as a mom, my life as a runner, and my life as a wife and an individual.
Fastforward a few years and I have learned so much more. I attended the Disney Social Media Moms Celebration on the Road in Philadelphia last year and have educated myself on how to self host my blog, get ads going with Google AdWords and there is still so much more I want to learn.
So back to the question from Donald Driver, “Why do we blog?” We all have a story to tell. The story we tell may inspire others. I didn’t realize it when I started my blog, but it does inspire others. People have come up to me and told me that the races that I run and the posts that I post about my training show my dedication and perserverance and they are inspired by that. My mother has told me she was inspired by my marathon training. Friends have told me they wanted to start running the Disney races beceause it looks like so much fun and they loved the pictures and stories I shared on my blog.
I choose to blog about most things positive. I will tell the truth; however. If something happens at a race or during my training or even in a life situation; I will blog about it. Donald said use your blog to share your pain or to share your success. It is a good way to let others know the struggles you have been through to get to where you are now. It helps them realize that maybe what you are going through might be something they are also feeling and they aren’t alone in that situation.
I have an illness called kidney vasculitis caused by Honoch-Schloen Purpura that usually strikes children. For me, it happened when I was 30 and it has caused a disruption in my life when I first got married 13 years ago. It took many years for the doctor to figure out what was wrong with me and it also caused my husband and I to have to put our dream of having children on hold for 5 years while I was treated with a chemotherapy-type medication. I was not blogging at that time; but now I want to share in my blog what I had gone through. It is a part of me and made me who I am today. It also made me the runner I am today. You can read more about it on my About Me page.
Donald said, “at then end of the day when you post something, how do you want people to feel about it?” I hadn’t thought about that when I write my blog posts. I usually write because I want to share news or even look back on my own life to see how I overcame something or what steps I took towards an accomplishment or goal I was reaching for.
What do I want my blog to become? I’d love for it to become a source of income for me so that maybe we could move and I could continue to make it a full time thing for me. Who knows? I hadn’t considered it; because I don’t know how to make an income off of my blog. Perhaps those of you who do, can we network and you can help me learn more about this possibility?
Something that I heard when I was attending the Disney Social Media Moms Celebration was a question of “When did it begin for you?” That question has been on my mind since I heard it. I have been vacationing here in Walt Disney World for a little over a week and have been enjoying every minute here with my family. We have done many of our favorite things, and have also tried some new things that we haven’t done yet.
So when did it begin for me? When I was young, my best friend who lived next door went to Florida on vacation. Her grandmother lived in Florida so when they went to visit her they went to Disney World. I never understood what Disney World was, but it always sounded so interesting and magical and special. She would go to this amazing place and come home with cute souvenirs. I most envied her Mickey Mouse dangle earrings. She did give them to me when we got older and I have to see if I still have them somewhere.
Then when I was 14 my parents said they were going to take us to Disney World! They have friends in Lakeland, Florida so we were going to rent a car and drive to Florida and visit them, go to Daytona Beach, Universal and Disney World. It is a fuzzy memory for me; but I’ll never forget the looong drive, the South Of The Border signs that seemed to appear for days, the sunburns, shopping for new clothes and brand new sneakers just prior to going away, and piling into the back seat of a car for the longest car ride of my life.
But it was worth it. From what I can recall, I remember driving to the parking lot of Magic Kingdom and seeing the gates welcoming us to the Magic Kingdom park. That now is still one of my favorite things to take a picture of during my marathon and half marathon races because it stems back to that time when I saw it for the first time as a kid. I also remember seeing the castle, walking down Main Street, the Barber Shop Quartet, the horse and carriage, the 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, the Skyway Ride (gondolas in the back of the park), the lines in the roped off ques that zigged and zagged forever, the cinnamon rolls on Main Street and the smell coming from the bakery, and the building for Space Mountain stands out strong in my memory. I also remember fondly the Electric Light Parade at night and standing on Main Street seeing these amazing floats going by all lit up and the music playing loudly throughout the park. It was something I had never seen anywhere else before.
As I write this post and think hard of the memories, they are coming bac to me in bits and pieces. Is that when it began for me? Or is it when I started to come to the parks with my husband before we were married. He and I began coming to the parks together in August of 1998. We had a blast coming here together for the first time. Then we made it a yearly tradition, and sometimes we came twice during a year for a long weekend getaway. Each time we came we learned more and more about Disney and people would often ask us why we kept going to Disney. They didn’t understand that each time you go there is always something different you can do or something new to see, or a restaurant to eat at that you haven’t gone to before, shopping to be had and much, much more! The same holds true when you come here with your children. First, when they are younger, you do the children’s rides with them, they as they grow bigger you can do more of the thrill rides with them, you can take them to more restaurants and the water parks. You can stay out later with them!
Then of course, my husband and I met with a wedding planner in 2001 and he secretly booked our wedding date after we left our meeting with them. So then the magic continued as we had our wedding at the wedding chapel 13 years ago today, and our reception in Epcot at the French pavilion outside for the Illuminations show. So when did it begin for me? It may have been that time when I was 14 and saw the Magic Kingdom for my first time and got a taste of it. Only to have more and more exposure each time we came. I couldn’t get enough of it and I still can’t! We have to leave this amazing vacation tomorrow and we will always be looking forward to the next return trip back.
This past weekend I had the pleasure of attending the Disney Social Media Moms Celebration at the Beach and Yacht Club Convention Center. The event was run from Thursday evening until Sunday morning. I flew down with my family late Thursday after work and school.
While we are still on vacation I am trying to update my blog when I can. I have so much to share so I am sprinkling it about in little pieces for you!
The first event I attended was on Friday morning. We had checked in at the Orlando World Quest hotel where we stayed last January. I got to bed around 1 am and was up at 6 to head over for breakfast at the conference. I stopped at the registration desk and was surprised with all of my gifts! The had breakfast. Breakfast was very good and a chef (who I will research more into for you since I arrived late) spoke about how all of the meals were gluten free, nut free, sugar free and safe to accommodate those with food allergies. I will get more facts on what types of foods were prepared. But I found that to be so interesting since I had been doing research on gluten free eating.
After the breakfast, which included a swag bag, we went to the General Session. That was incredible. I have a whole blog post to write about it but it included guest speakers, giveaways and lots of inspiration and enlightenment! In the evening there was a dinner for all of the attendees and families on the beach and that was so much fun! More to come on that as well!
I was still in mom mode on the first day because Adrienne had developed a bad asthmatic cough so I told my husband to call the doctor and I got him a phone number of the local Walgreens near them and had a prescription called in for her. During the lunch break of the seminar I had to drive back to the world quest hotel and pick up the family and drop them off at the Boardwalk where we were having our vacation. I got back just in time to grab a quick lunch and then the afternoon session continued.
After the great afternoon presentation by Donald Driver we went to our breakout sessions and then departed for the night until dinner and the Anna and Elsa meet ups!
After my session I drove over to Walgreens and got the prescription, returned the rental car and walked back to the hotel to change and get ready for dinner.
Sorry for the brief recap of the first day but I wanted to give you a quick idea of what it was all about. More to come later!
