Copycat and Connections

When Spencer was born I sent an email to everybody I knew announcing his birth.  I included some pictures.  A lot of people wrote me back.  Some did not.  I sent another email when he was 2 weeks old and another when he was a month.  Then I sent email updates every month until he was 15 months old.  I sent updates for major holidays too.  (I've been thinking about using those emails as flashbacks.  Fun idea or no?) 

Anyway, when he was 15 months old my friend Maryellen told me about this blog that she had started.  I had no idea what a blog was. Really.  I had never read one.  I checked hers out and it was a lot of fun.  A couple weeks later, in December 2008 I started A Beagle and A Baby.

Since then I have written 497 posts.  What you are reading is good ol' #498.  Yikes.  What should I do for 500?  I have also made some blogging friends.  Can you believe that?  Friends that I know only through blogging (although both of my blogging friends also have a real world connection- we'll get to that).  It got me thinking about the blogs I read.  Are you interested in knowing my connection to these people? 

Yeah?  Let's do it.

Kelly of Kelly's Korner- Don't know her.  I'm a blog stalker.  Found her blog on Maryellen's blog.

Lindsey of Better After- Don't know her, although she lives in the Phoenix area. I just like cool furniture re-do's.

Annie of Annie's Eats- Don't know her.  She makes yummy food and takes pretty pictures.  Plus she writes grammatically correct sentences and can spell (something Mommy of Mommy's Kitchen does not do, which is why I dropped her).

Maryellen of Mare's Mind- Real life friend for 5+ years.  Pops up in my blog frequently.

Chelsea of Vicarious Chelsea- Real life friend for 19+ years.  Again, pops up in my blog frequently.

Joy of Joy the Baker- Don't know her.  Tasty food and good pictures.  Thought I saw her at Disneyland and gasped a little bit.  It wasn't her.

Kendra of Forgacs Family Fun- Chelsea's little sister and friend by default (and I mean that with love).

Angie of Bakerella- Don't know her, but she is my idol.  She has become a millionaire (I'm just making that up) and quite famous because of cake pops.

Cathy of Cat's Blog- Real life friend for 10+ years.  Pops up in my blog when she visits AZ or I visit NH.

Jennifer of A Peek into Our World- My 1st blogging friend.  Have never met her and have never even talked to her on the phone, but we did exchange Christmas cards.  I truly feel like she is a friend though.  She just happens to be Maryellen's sister, which is our real world connection.

Unknown Name of If Only I Had Super Powers- Don't know her.  She is a speech pathologist and I read her blog because she often includes therapy tips and materials.

Elizabeth of The Maxon Family- Friends for 6+ years.  She was the psychologist at my school the 1st year I worked as a SLP.

Krista of From Colfax to Xela- Friends for 8+ years.  We went to graduate school together.

Julie of 3 Blues and a Pink- Friends for 6+ years.  We worked together during my internship, then lost touch, then reunited on facebook.

Janet of The GVZ's- My 2nd blogging friend.  Again, have never met, never talked on the phone, but we did exchange Christmas cards and I think of her as a friend.  She just happens to be the cousin of Maryellen and Jennifer.  Real world connection!  She also went to law school at the U of A!

Chelsea of The Yager Family- Same Chelsea from Vicarious Chelsea.  See above.

Karen of The Chung Family- Friends for 21+ years.  Guest appearances in my blog.

Heidi of The Phelps Family- Friend for 4+ years.  Co-worker in 2 different school districts.

Kristi of The Hesse Family- Friend for 11+ years.  Went to Europe together and did our undergraduate schooling together.

Megan of The Nite- Strosnider's- Friend for 26+ years.  My life coach/confidant.

Megan of My New House- Friend for 11+ years.  Former roommate.  Will be in blog during anticipated 2012 trip to AZ.

Those are the connections.  I never thought I would be a blogger or read blogs, considering I didn't even know what a blog was 3 years ago.  You know what is cool about blogging though?  The ideas you can steal.  I was reading Janet's blog last week and she showed a picture of a cookie jar she bought.  Can you even believe that I don't own a cookie jar.  I coveted this cookie jar of hers, so on my next trip to Kohl's I stole her idea.  I did not steal the cookie jar.  I paid for it.

I plan on using it year round.  For the Valentine season, though, I bought two little cupcake candles to go with it.

Thanks for the idea Janet.  I'm glad we have a real world connection so I'm not blog stalking you. 

P.S.  I did not rank people into this list based on anything.  I simply went down my blog roll (I wrote this about 5 days ago), meaning those at the top of the list had updated their blog more recently than those at the bottom.