Wordless Wednesday-- Minnie and Mini-Me

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Oh the Bliss

Now that it's been a month since I attended Blissdom, it's probably time for me to tell you about it.

However, my format is going to be a little different....may I present to you the ABC's of Blissdom.


A: Allie Worthington

B: Barbara Jones

These ladies are the founders of Blissdom and they really know how to do a conference! From the Blissdom website, "The dynamic balance of their visions, and their passion for quality and community, make Blissdom a must-attend conference for social media mavens, online publishers and sponsors." This year a new addition was added to the Blissdom team, Paula Bruno. Thank you, ladies! (Because I know they read my blog *snort* )

C: Cards. Part of the fun is exchanging business cards with everyone. They were no two cards alike. I'd like to take a moment and announce the winner of the first ever GreekGRITS Blogger's Card Award to Jenny of 867-5309 fame. How totally rad is this:

D: Dedra from Just a Chick. My fabulous roomie for the weekend. I actually let her put makeup on me, so we are now friends for life. I think we were the only two people who got any sleep at all because we are old.

E: Eliminate. Attending Blissdom eliminated the imaginary lines between "friends" who live in my computer and friends in real life. I was more than excited to finally meet Kristen, Jessica, Jill and Pam in living color.

F: Food. It was fabulous and free. It doesn't get any better than that in my book. Truthfully, all the meals I ate were included in the cost of my ticket....and THAT is the fabulous part.

G: Gaylord Opryland Hotel.....the setting for Blissdom 2010. It is a beautiful hotel with 9 acres of INDOOR of gardens. The getting-lost-potential in this place was VERY high. So, Teresa, you'll be very disappointed that I did not get lost, well, not REAL lost. However, I did get a blister because the distance from my room to the conference area was about 3 miles, give or take 2.

H: Harry Connick, Jr. He was our Friday night entertainment. I had to overlook his attempt at mindless humor after he made some weird comments about women in flannel with crew cuts.....joking he thought he was singing at a female logger's conference. See the whole awkward dialogue HERE. However, I enjoyed his singing and I did get my picture taken with him:

I: Inspiring. There's something about being with 499 others who "get" you and your passion for blogging.

J: Joy. The emotion of the weekend, as evidenced by squealing, smiling and A LOT of laughing!

K: Kevin Carroll of Katalyst. Kevin was the keynote speaker at the opening of Blissdom. He was PHENOMENAL and his message was very inspirational. I'll share more about what he said in a single post.


L: Lisa Leonard Designs. We all received this fabulous necklace from her (I apologize to Lisa for the very poor picture quality):

M: Mixers. We had several opportunities to mingle and meet the "masses." I enjoyed meeting MANY bloggers from, literally, all over the country. Just to name a couple of bloggers (new to me) I adore are, Amber from the Run a Muck; and Jenny of 867-5309 fame. During one of the mixers, my roomie and I had the privilege of talking with MckMama and her husband for a few minutes. They are incredible people with an amazing story about their miracle son, Stellan.

N: Nashville. The capital of Tennessee and home of Blissdom.

O: Overwhelmed. In all honesty, I loved every minute of Blissdom; however, as a first year attendee and neophyte blogger, I experienced information overload. I mean that in a good way! Each session was filled to the rim with blogging goodness.

P: Prayer. On Saturday morning, Pensieve Robin , along with the lovely folks from (in)Courage, hosted a coffee and prayer time. The room was full of women gathered in Jesus' name. Robin shared a quick verse, 1 Peter 2:9 which reminds us, "we're all daughters of the King which means we're princesses!" Then we spent the rest of our time in prayer together. Honestly, this was my favorite get together!

Q: Quality. I think all 500 Blissdom attendees will agree there was no skimping at this conference. The sponsors were absolutely wonderful, the speakers were awesome and the setting couldn't have been any better.

R: Renew. After my entry into the blogging world, I went full force. 350 posts later I seemed to have lost my mojo. I'm hoping to apply some of the things I learned at Blissdom and get this place back to its glory days of old.

S: Swag. Everyone knows the way to a blogger's heart is through free stuff. The first thing we received at the registration table was the fabulous tote from Lands' End filled with goodies from several of the Blissdom sponsors listed HERE. I must say my two favorite items were the Lisa Leonard necklace and the two bags of Hershey's BLISS chocolate. I guess I should throw in that my least favorite item was the Cover Girl Smoky Eyes kit......only because I don't really wear makeup and my blue eyeshadow days ended in the 80's.




T: Tommy "Girls". Dedra and I met these fabulous ladies on our very first day. They all work for Thomas Nelson Publishers. I totally enjoyed meeting and spending most of our time with them!




U: Unity. Blissdom brings together 500 different people as one...people with a passion for blogging.

V: Value. I will testify that I got more than my money's worth at Blissdom. I not only got 3 days of blogging information, I had a wonderful "girl's" get-away weekend in a beautiful setting with delicious food and quality entertainment. (But don't tell the hubby that....he thinks I sat in dimly lit conference rooms for hours with unbelievably boring people).

W: Wisdom Workshops. These sessions were held on Thursday and were not officially part of Blissdom and each workshop had a separate fee. They provided a more hands-on approach in a variety of areas including writing, vlogging, coding, photography, graphic design, etc.

X: Xenophobia. If you have it, Blissdom is certainly no place for you! (proud of myself for pulling off that one)

Y: Year. The time period until the next Blissdom. Don't miss out!

Z: Zeal. The feeling you get after spending 3 days with people from all over the country, from all walks of life who have one thing in common with you.....a story to tell and a place on the Internet to tell it.



And if you still don't understand what Blissdom was all about, watch this:

Sunshine Day

This post goes out to all of my Brady Bunch peeps and to anyone else celebrating the beautiful sunshine today:

You are welcome!

Papparazzi-- Disney Style

We've all seen the pictures of those crazy photographers who pull out all the stops, risking life and limb to get the perfect shot of celebrities.


While at Disney World two weeks ago, the tables were turned. Instead of the GRITS family being stalked by a mob of photographers, we were the stalkers.

Or something like that.


While we were eating lunch in the Magic Kingdom, we noticed several people standing in the grass near Cinderella's Castle being interviewed. Naturally, my nosy self HAD to go find out who was being interviewed. As we got closer, this is who we saw:



At first, I said to myself....."Ummmm, is that Prince Charming?" Then there was a long pause....."no, wait, he's that guy....you know he builds stuff". Thank you fellow stalker for reminding me of the name Carter Oosterhouse. OH YEA!



Unlike everyone else standing around us, I had NO trouble figuring out who was also being interviewed with Mr. Eye Candy Oosterhouse.



It was Chef Aaron McCargo, Jr. from the Food Network's "Big Daddy's House." I cheered for him on "The Next Food Network Star." I may or may not have been shouting "we are your fans" at the exact moment this photo was snapped. Ahem.


Our next big day of celebrity sightings coincided with Disney's "Give a Day, Get a Day" celebration. While wandering around Epcot, look who we, literally, almost ran in to:



Yep, it's Chef Robert Irvine from Food Network's "Dinner Impossible".....one of the hubby's favorites. He was in the middle of shooting a show on location in Epcot. The chef actually stopped and talked with folks. If it hadn't been for the family in front of us taking forever to get pictures with the wife, the baby in the stroller and the whole family together, I would have taken his picture with the hubby. Instead I got a picture of this:




The big find of the day resulted from my love of the Twitter. I already knew that Joe Jonas and Demi Lovato were going to be at Epcot that day singing for Disney's celebration. While checking on my Twitter peeps, which includes both Joe and Demi, I saw they were tweeting pictures from a couple of different countries in Epcot.

When I informed the Princess of my discovery, it was game on to find them. We started our walk around Epcot.....in the opposite direction the tweets were showing. I suspected at some point we would hopefully "run" into Joe and Demi.

All I needed was a few tweets and the sounds of a gaggle of giggly girls.

*DING* *DING* *DING*



What? You can't see them?? How about now:



I'm afraid that's as good as our paparazzi skillz and the mob of girls would allow us. But the Princess was beyond THRILLED that we saw them.

As Joe and Demi left the area of their interview, the pack of pre-teens started running towards them.....guess who followed right behind, yes, the Princess. I seriously had to save her from being broadsided by a grown man with a camera.

Her goal was to get one final picture of this moment, and she did:


It's the perfect shot of Daddy Jonas and the back of Joe's head! Notice how close she had worked her way into the crowd.

Unbelievably, when we caught back up with Lego-Man and the hubby, they were watching a taping for America's Funniest Videos. AFV just happens to be Lego-Man's most favorite show. Imagine his excitement when he saw Tom Bergeron!





Despite all of the famous appearances, I must admit my favorite celebrities were these three and they even let me get my picture taken with them:

Is this thing on?

I'm sure that's the question all 3 of my followers have been asking.

Most of you know the month of February has been topsy turvy in the GRITS household with my trip to Nashville for Blissdom that was immediately followed by a week's vacation at Disney World. Which was immediately followed by the acute illness and loss of our dear family pet.

I am finally getting back on the blogging trail and already working on a few upcoming posts (can't you feel the excitement....or maybe it's gas?!).

Anyway, for now I am asking you to keep this very special group of people in your prayers as they have answered the call to serve the Lord on a mission trip to Kenya. Pray for them and for their families they leave behind.


You can follow the entire team through pictures, blog posts and videos here:

This trip includes one of my very favorite bloggers, Kristen from We Are THAT Family. Follow her journey here:

Follow the team on Twitter HERE


Thanks and see y'all real soon.

Wordless Wednesday-- Tea Cup Torture

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Unconditional Love

She was born on September 20, 1995.

Her mother was brown. Her father was yellow. However, she and all her brothers and sisters were black.

Our story together began when she was about 8 weeks old. She was hand picked and I brought her home in a box.

I gave her the name "Bailey". She also answered to just "B". Her voracious appetite earned her the nickname "Pigetha".

She quickly became my four legged sidekick, confidant and 70 pound lap dog.

She loved swimming, playing fetch, car rides and neighborhood walks. The squirrels and chipmunks feared her.

She was a gentle giant with my children from the day they came into the world. And she had a knack for keeping their faces clean and helping them finish that one last bite of whatever was in their hand. They loved her and it was more than obvious how much she loved them.

For the last 14 years she has given me and my family sheer joy, affection, and complete unconditional love.

After a sudden illness we had to say goodbye to our dear Bailey, this past Friday. I think it was the hardest decision I've had to make, ever.

As I sit here and type this, I look at the the place where her bed and bowls have always been. Today those places are now empty.

The backyard is empty.

The place she slept in the hall is empty.

Her barking when I pull up in the driveway is silent.

I keep looking and listening for her.....she is not there.



My heart aches.....because Bailey took a piece of it with her on Friday.

(Please pray for our family....we are struggling)

Be back soon

Y'all I went to Blissdom....had a blast, learned a lot, got my picture taken with Harry Connick, Jr.

I will write a post about it soon.

Got home from Blissdom Saturday night and left Sunday morning for here:



So, I've been a bit preoccupied. But stay tuned.....please.

Nash-Vegas Bound

Can't wait to tell you all about it!

Betcha didn't know

How many of you knew that Mario and Luigi, of Nintendo fame, actually lived in early Roman times???

Look, it's right here in Lego-Man's 5th grade history book:






I had NO idea!