Have I mentioned how much I enjoy tea? Oh, right. Because I haven’t shut up about tea for nearly a month now, one of my friends—who I haven’t seen in forever—sent me a Facebook message saying that she wanted to go to Teavana with me. Again, this post is not sponsored. I could think of nothing more fun than meeting her at Teavana, getting her completely addicted to their tea, and then heading across the mall for a bite to eat so of course I said, “Absolutely!” Sabrina and I met as planned, grabbing a sample of tea on the way into the store. The whole time I was in…
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- Amazing People, Best Thing Ever, Blessings, Fun in Chicago, Proud Moments, Something That Could Change Your Life
Get Ready For Listen To Your Mother 2015!
Things are getting exciting all up in here (again!); on Thursday, the LISTEN TO YOUR MOTHER 2015 season kicked off with our city announcement. This year we’re bigger and better than ever with twenty-nine returning cities and ten new cities! We’ve come a long way from that single show in Madison, Wisconsin back in 2010, don’t you think? (*high fives Ann Imig*) As the National New Cities Mentor, I’ve been working with our new production teams behind the scenes for the last month or so, all while they were keeping the news of their selection under wraps. That’s DIFFICULT, you guys. Like, you don’t even know. Over the past four…
- Best Thing Ever, Childhood Memories, My Friends Have Mad Skillz, Something That Could Change Your Life
It’s A Very Brady Birthday
It’s my birthday today, and over the past couple of days I’ve put some thought into what I might want to write about this year…and came up completely empty. This is my eighth birthday blog post, and I feel like I’ve covered all of the angles already. I mean, how much can a person really write about her own birthday? Then a friend, Erica, who I will now call “the Amazingly Wonderful and Hugely Tremendous Erica” whenever her name crosses my lips to infinity and beyond, did something really nice last night and unknowingly gave me the perfect gift. Make that two gifts; she gave me a gift AND the…
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Tea Obsessed.
Here’s something that tends to shock people when they learn it: I don’t drink coffee. Never have. I love love love the smell of coffee. I despise despise despise the taste of coffee. All of THIS? *makes swooping hand motions around my effervescent self* Totally natural. That’s right: I’m a morning person who can jump up from my bed at o’dark thirty and sing happy songs before my feet actually hit the floor, with no external aids. My husband, who has been drinking coffee (no cream, no sugar) in copious amounts since his days as a Machinists’ Mate in the Navy, has tried to get me to start drinking it…
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NaBloPoMo: Here We Are Again.
Hello November first. This is the day on which there are two kinds of bloggers: 1. I’m doin’ it!! and 2. No. Way. You are all insane. It seems like there’s no gray area when it comes to National Blog Posting Month, and I’m fine with that. Really, no matter where you stand on the issue of blogging every single day during the month of November, you can’t deny that the event is a great unifier. I THINK I have done November’s NaBloPoMo every year (all the way through) since I started blogging in 2007, but I’m not sure and I don’t want to go back and look. It doesn’t…
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Just Do It.
Last month I wrote about the sad state of my family room walls. After living in this house for nearly fourteen years and using the family room more than any other room during our waking hours, I never made the time to finish hanging things on them. Happy update: I finally did it. I received the photo canvas that I ordered online and hung it on the wall over the TV—i.e. the wall I stare at the most—and completed the wall behind my couch, which I adore so much now that it is the home of some of my favorite pictures. Getting the walls finished motivated me enough to tackle…
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Slow No Wake
I went on sabbatical yesterday afternoon. It was extremely out of character for me, but I have been out of character for a while now. I’ve been working even more than usual, sleeping less than usual, and feeling more drained than usual. Last week it all seemed to hit me at once and I walked around on the verge of stress- and exhaustion-induced tears for days. I had the strong desire to take a road trip somewhere, anywhere. Just…away. That’s why, when I ran into a friend of mine while running errands and she noticed that I was so tightly-wound and subsequently offered up her lake house as a possible…
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Calling In The Expert
You may or may not have noticed that I am outnumbered in my house, gender-wise. I’m fine with it, though. I may not have a daughter of my own but I have lots of friends who have girls and I totally glom onto them whether they like it or not. (I think they do: I’m a pretty awesome pseudo-aunt if I do say so myself.) I treasure the relationships that I have with my friends’ kids (girls and boys!) and love to create opportunities to interact with them as the spectacular individuals they are and not just because they happen to be the offspring of my friends. When I was…
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Lunch Bus Helps Kids Have a Hunger-Free Summer
I am thrilled to work with The Motherhood, ConAgra Foods, and Kid President this summer to help combat child hunger. This is a sponsored post. Also, how great is it that I can say I’m working with Kid President?? One of the reasons I was excited to work on ConAgra Foods’ Hunger-Free Summer Initiative with Feeding America was because I was paired locally with the Greater Chicago Food Depository (GCFD). The GCFD was actually our charity partner for Chicago’s 2013 LISTEN TO YOUR MOTHER show and they received ten percent of our ticket proceeds. My co-producer, Tracey, had done some work with them the previous year and now it’s my…
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You Can’t Be Awesome When You’re Hangry
I am thrilled to work with The Motherhood, ConAgra Foods, and Kid President this summer to help combat child hunger. This is a sponsored post. Also, how great is it that I can say I’m working with Kid President?? One of the things I used to dread just a little bit about summer when the boys were younger—and especially when they were in their early teen years and doing the most growing—was the constant disappearance of food in this house. Their being home all day long meant that all day long they were in the refrigerator and the pantry, on a constant hunt for snacks. I was at the grocery…