Archives for February 2011

American Idol 2011 – Hollywood

February 19, 2011 by Amy 4 Comments

OK, it’s time to talk American Idol. First I must comment on the judge change. I LOVE it. I really loved Simon and thought I would hate it without him but I have been pleasantly surprised. The show, is quite enjoyable to watch. I love that Jennifer and Steven LOVE music and sometimes it’s fun just to watch them watch the contestants. My only quibble is with Steven and making comments about the young girls but it seems the producers have nixed those moments from the show.

As for lowering the age to 15, I’m torn. These kids have some amazing talent but seeing the younger ones when they are being rejected, I’m just not sure they are old enough to separate rejection of that particular song from rejection of themselves. Maybe I’m crazy but I wonder.

As for the talent…this year is AMAZING. I particularly enjoyed Hollywood Round 3. Here are some of my favorites:

John Wayne Schulz. I love him. So much love him. Like, he might be one of my favorites.

Jac0b Lusk. He’s not one of my overall favorites but this performance was amazing.

Casey Abrams. Another overall favorite. He’s genuine and so talented he leaves me in awe.

Robbie Rosen. That falsetto was so pretty

Lauren Alaina. She’s so much fun.

Ashton Jones. I was in tears after this. I can’t explain but it’s like she puts her soul out there.

Kendra Chantelle. She came out of nowhere but I really like her.

OK, did I just list everyone that sang?? Wow, it’s gonna be an amazing season. Who are your favorites so far?

Flight attendants, Stone and Spring

February 18, 2011 by Amy 6 Comments

“HELLO EVERYONE! And welcome to North Rock Hill Church!” I had a super time filming our 5 minute intro video for our church. You can see kind of what they do in the TenBefore video at North Point. I sweat(ed?) a lot, had a hard time remembering to smile, my spandex only made my fat roll more prominent and I’m pretty sure I sounded like a flight attendant most of the time “please take your seat and turn off all your electronic devices” but yeah, I’m not going to lie, it was fun. Even if they scrap it, it was good practice speaking in front of people, even if the audience was only 2 and I was reading off a screen.

Also yesterday we went to pick out the stone that will be on the front of the new addition and around the garage. There are 3 options we narrowed it down to. One is the cheapest but I’m not sure if the stacking looks too too busy. We’ll have even more than this…

The next two are the same price, I’m just trying to decide on color. Also, some of these pictures show a mix between the ledge (small skinny, stacked) stone and the big stones. This is Sagewood color in two different installations:

And this is the Natural Blend color:

Here are the last two samples at our house:

I think my favorite is the Natural Blend but at 50% more cost (about $500) I’m not sure I like it THAT much more than the first one. What say you?

And last thing, we are all in a good mood in these parts because it is going to be 76 today! The kids wore new outfits from my mom, looking very springy and happy! I can’t wait for spring!

Tae Kwon Do – Day One

February 16, 2011 by Amy 2 Comments

Lexi’s first day of Tae Kwon Do was today. I am kicking myself for not making it (I was at the bank signing papers!!) but Scott said she was quite into it and in fact, the teacher gave her her focus stripe for her belt. See the little kid that has 3 of them? You have to get all your stripes before you move to the next level.

And yeah, she was the only girl in class. But if you’re worried about it making her too masculine, never fear, Lexi is Lexi…

Interviews, Banks and Tae Kwon Do

February 16, 2011 by Amy 2 Comments

Our Valentine’s Day dinner Saturday at Villa Antonio’s. So. good.

I keep waiting until we are at a good stopping point to give you a good update but I guess I just need to go for it!

The addition

We met with the builder this weekend and have everything set in place. He’s just waiting on a green light.
We are still talking to the bank about the financing. I had hoped this would be a quick process but apparently it is not. It could be another week or two until we are set to start.

The adoption

I don’t think I mentioned it but we couldn’t get in this month’s training at DSS so we have to wait until March 19.

The job

I got the invitation to do my interview on Monday and interviewed yesterday for the position. It went really well and now I just wait to see what happens. I hope it all works out to get my start date before the end of the month so I don’t have to wait an extra month for my benefits to kick in.

Random

We signed Lexi up for Tae Kwan Do last night. She starts today at the same time Emma goes to guitar. She looks adorable in her outfit. I think she will be great at it if it doesn’t scare her off that she doesn’t know anyone in the class.
I’ve continued with reading the Bible in 90 Days. I have enjoyed it so much. I moved into the NT this weekend and can’t recommend reading the Gospels enough. Jesus is just so awesome. That sounds so cliché. But really. He is.
Our church, NRHC, has asked me to host our intro video for our new series Words. I’m so much better at writing than speaking (I say that in all humbleness…if my writing is mediocre then you should hear my speaking HA) but I’m looking forward to stretching myself and seeing how it goes!

Book Review: Love & Respect

February 11, 2011 by Amy 8 Comments

Honestly I thought I had a handle on how to love my husband. As an advocate of the Five Love Languages, I had his love languages down and when his tank was empty, I knew just how to fill it back up. It turns out though I think I only had half the equation. A band-aid, almost. Yes, I know how to love him but it turns out the other BIGGER half of the equation for men is respect.

If you would have asked me before reading Love & Respect I would have said respect is not being sassy and not putting him down in front of people. And it is those things but it’s so much more. Eggerichs introduces the book by discussing the difference between love and respect and why women need love and men need respect. My eyes were open when he talked about The Crazy Cycle. It’s when he quits loving so she gets disrespectful and so he gets even more unloving and the cycle goes on. I have often said to people, you know, our marriage is usually really good or really bad. I recognized that when one of us decides to love/respect, the other responds in kind. I loved the Eggerichs put a name to it and I can 100% attest to it! The problem Scott and I have always had was who takes the first step? I have always argued with Scott as the leader he should. But Eggerichs suggests whoever is the most mature! The point is if you want off the Crazy Cycle, you have to do something about it instead of waiting on the other person!

My eyes were also opened to something I’ve noticed with Scott. When we fight, I want to talk it out. If he’d just see all my points, he’d see his faults and he could improve (and mine as well). Well, I’d just have to say one point, and he’d be like, “OK, I don’t want to talk about it,” and walk away. I always assumed he was being rude and unloving to me by not trying come to a resolution but guess what? Men don’t think the same way! I realized that he was trying to do the loving, honorable thing by not getting in a fight with me. He already knew he had failed and really didn’t need me to guide him through every point!

Eggerich spends the second part of the book with specific ways women need loved and men need respected. Men have six areas in which they need respected, or more simply, appreciated.

Work
Desire to protect
Desire to lead
Desire to analyze
Shoulder-to-shoulder friendship
Sexual intimacy

I can’t go through each one but I have found my eyes open in several areas where I haven’t been downright mean, but have not been appreciating these needs. One funny one I must share.

Men have a need just to be shoulder-to-shoulder with their spouse; they like doing things together, even if you don’t say anything. I can’t count the number of times Scott has asked me to come sit with him. Usually he is playing his game or watching a (boring) show. It happened just yesterday. Scott was playing his game and he said, “Come sit with me.” My prompt response was, “I don’t want to just sit there and watch you play your game!” I was thinking of how much I had to do…plan dinner and funny enough, sneak in some time to read Love & Respect. I hadn’t read this section yet so I didn’t go sit with him (shame on me) and went back to read this exact section:

When your husband says, “Hey, honey, come in here and watch Discovery Channel with me,” what happens? You come in and sit down and he, indeed, does watch Discovery Channel, possibly commenting now and then about “the size of those elk” or “look at the teeth on that crocodile.” But most of the time he’s fully absorbed in what he’s doing: watching TV. If you are a typical wife, you will sit there thinking, I’ve got laundry to fold, I have to make dinner, the kids’ lunches for tomorrows still aren’t packed…You’re not communicating, so how could this be building the relationship. But wives continue to report that that is exactly what happens.

I laughed so hard! This had JUST happened almost word for word. I didn’t have time to sit with him because I needed time to go read how I should be sitting with him!! And yes, I put the book down and spent time with him! I always thought it was just a Scott thing that he was trying to fill his “touch” love language by me sitting with him. Yes, it is that, but it is so much more.

These few examples are just a smidgeon of what I took from Love & Respect. I so wish I would have read this years ago and would highly suggest that EVERY couple read this and really, even single women would do well just to understand men in dating.

This book was provided on behalf of Thomas Nelson publishing in exchange for the review. If you would like to participate in the book review program, please visit BookSneeze.com

All Aboard

February 11, 2011 by Amy 8 Comments

Credit

“How did we even get here?” Scott stared at me with a blank face from his recliner. We were making our decision on the contractor and it suddenly hit us that we’ve been on a train called “Addition” and weren’t even sure how or when we got on.

“I don’t know,” I laughed.

And I really don’t. It seems just weeks ago we were just doing life and suddenly we’re going 90 mph ahead trying to get the house done and get started on our adoption process.

Yesterday we had to get off the train for a second and say, wait a minute. What are we doing? Where is this drive really coming from? Are we on the right train? Who’s leading this thing anyway?

I told Scott, “Listen, I feel like in a lot of ways I’ve been pushing you through all this and even though I’ve felt good about it, I want to know you’re in 100%. Just say the word and right now is the time to stop it all.” And it is. As early as next week we could be digging footings and what’s the point if we aren’t going to adopt? We’re at a serious crossroad right now. We either get back on this train and do it, and do it well, or we leave the station.

“Let me think about it,” he said and pushed the button on his PS3 controller to start another game.

It was hard walking away then. To not nag or prod. To list all the ways I thought God had orchestrated this. But this is the part where the wife submits. To let the responsibility lay with the husband. To trust that God would lay on his heart the same message. It’s not that Scott has been against this. Anyone that knows Scott would know he stops a train in its track with a heavy-duty “No” when he’s not into something. But I’m not sure he had committed to it.

Scott finished a few games and then left to get the kids. When he got back he told me we had an appointment with our chosen contractor the next day.

“So I guess we’re doing this?” I tried to confirm.

Scott leaned down on the floor to pick up a piece of grass, “Yeah, I think we should do it.”

So we are. All aboard. This is about to get crazy.

Almost Wordless Wednesday: Homeschool

February 9, 2011 by Amy 9 Comments

No, we don’t homeschool but sometimes we play homeschool. The kids set up desks in their room and I sit in the rocking chair. We do morning work, math, writing, reading, show and tell and even recess and lunch if the time is right. The other day Mr. Bennett got roped into being the principal. He has a comfy office, as you can see.

We use print-outs from an old set of preschool worksheets Scott’s cousin gave us a long time ago (thanks, Carla!). I gave them each award cards and told them to pick someone out of the “class” to make it for. I had hoped it would foster some sisterly love and encouragement. They both surprised me by giving them to us.

That “mome” melts my heart.

I’m a lucky girl.

Top Ten Tuesday: Monetize Your Blog

February 8, 2011 by Amy 6 Comments

OK, I’m sharing some blogging SECRETS on the post today. Some people pay good money for this information but I’m sharing for free today!

So I’m going to be forthright here and say I made good money blogging for One Tree Hill Blog (which I sold last year). Like, a good 5 digit income. I had NO CLUE I would make that much money blogging. My intent with the site was to blog about something I was already blogging about and get a little money for it. Well, I was pleasantly surprised. I always say I struck gold. The fans of OTH are historically young and was voted the MOST involved fans online out of any TV viewers. When I set up consistent, timely and in some cases, unique content, the fan base was already there to read it.

Because I set up the ad streams from the get-go, they simply scaled with the site. I want to be clear that I was very passionate about the show and I would have done it whether it was 3 digit or 5 digit income. I don’t want any fans of the site to feel like I was just out to make money off them. Ads are nothing new to the commercial and blogging world but kinda new to the fan site world, especially when I first started in 2008. The bottom line though is the site was A LOT of work and I was doing it on my own 95% of the time. The income we used for things like a trip to Disney and finishing our emergency fund definitely made the time away from my family for the site more worth it. But I always say, blog only what you are PASSIONATE about.

Blogging for money is not for everyone. It can bog some people down and care more about the numbers than the content. It is so easy to sell out for the content when you see dollar signs. However, if you can handle it, why not supplement your family’s income or even replace your family’s income with something you’re doing anyway?

So what I want to share today is the top 10 income streams that I used on OTHBlog as well as other sites, including this one.

1- BlogHerAds – BlogHerAds pays per impression and was by far the largest source of income. I’ve seen up to $3 for every 1,000 impressions (although more like $1). If you’re getting tens of thousands of hits a day, that adds up FAST. Here’s the thing though. You need to have enough hits on your blog to make it worth the valuable sidebar space and other rules it requires. Here’s my logic. A simple self-hosted WordPress site costs $7/month. In order for the ad to pay for your hosting costs plus taxes, you’d need to have 500 hits a day. 500 hits a day isn’t much on a niche blog probably but for small-time mommy bloggers, it’s a lot. The other thing is BlogHerAds is swamped with requests so it’s hard to get in. There are other pay per impression ad networks like Tribal Fusion or Casale Media, Inc. but I’ve found they also are tough to get in.

2 – Google Adsense – Adsense are those little blocks of links, or graphic ads, you see on sidebars, in posts and in between posts. They pay you, say, .01-.25, for each click from the user. I never had the success that other people I know did as I understand this is actually some people’s bread and butter with ads. It was enough though to add to the mix.

3 – Kontera – These are the links that are within posts and a pop-up box comes up with an ad when it’s hovered over. You’re paid per click. This is a small stream and I’d only recommend for those with very high traffic.

4 – The Today Show – This is a sidebar ad that pays you per view of their video. It used to be pretty decent at .50/1,000 but has gone down as little as .11/1000. Once again, probably only desired with higher traffic.

5- Jambo Video Network – This is a video/graphic ad that plays on each impression. You can make pretty good money but it can be super annoying to your users.

6 – Linkshare/iTunes affiliate – You get a cut of each song/video/show purchases from your link. This was great for links to music from OTH, although still, very small slice of the pie.

7 – eBay affiliate – You get a cut of anything purchased from your link. This was fantastic money when it first came out but I think they’ve changed the rules and you get much less these days. However, I think this is great if you really pointing to relevant items your readers need and it doesn’t require a lot of traffic.

8 – Amazon affiliate – Another affiliate – you get a cut of anything purchased from your link. This worked great for the show’s DVD sales each year. Also good for books/music for mommy bloggers. Just a few each month and you could earn your hosting fees back.

9 – TextLinkAds – I love this one. People purchase a link from old posts for, say $12/month and you get half that. Just get a few of those and you have a nice chunk per month.

10 –Sell Your Blog – If you have a stable, income-generating (probably niche) blog and you get to the point where you’re ready to let go, sell it! Put it out to friends you trust or there are sites you can use to put it on the market. Don’t take for granted what you’ve spent your time on. It’s worth it!

There are DOZENS of other ways to monetize your blog. For each of these listed there are 10 other sites to do it through. I found this list of 101 ways to monetize your blog that is great. I didn’t even touch private ads, ebooks, donation buttons, etc!

For you savvy bloggers out there, I’ve shared my secrets, what sites work for you?

This post was linked to ohAmanda’s Top Ten Tuesday.