Category: Blogging

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Stepping back

So, guess what? No, I’m not pregnant again. I’m getting a job! After almost exactly a decade of being a full-time stay-at-home mom, I’m rejoining the workforce. I’ve been trying to figure out what to do to earn more money once the twins start school for a while now, and none of my possibilities or efforts were leading anywhere. Then suddenly, like manna from heaven, this literally fell into my lap.

I’m going to be in charge of the wine club responsibilities and helping with marketing for an amazing winery in Napa. I’ll work remotely from home (perfect!), I’ll still get to be present daily for the kids for school and everything (perfect!), I’ll get a yearly wine allotment (perfect!), and I’ll get to travel to Napa a couple times a year (perfect!). I’ve done all the editing and proofreading for this winery for a couple years now, and I’ve always wanted to play a bigger role for them whenever they needed it. They are really great people. So I was beyond shocked and honored when they tapped me for this, because never in a million years would I have pictured that any other role I’d play in the company would be as big as this one. I hope I do it well!

Unfortunately, that means I’ll have even less time for ye old blog here than I do now. It hasn’t been anywhere near as fruitful as it was when I started it for a very long time anyway, but now it’ll be even less so. The difference will be, however, that I’ll no longer feel guilty for not posting in as timely a manner as I feel I should. Or at all. This is going to be a full-time job that I’m starting, and I’m going to make it take the precedence it deserves. I’ll still try to post for the kids’ birthdays for posterity and update their individual pages when something notable happens, but that’ll probably be about it. If you follow me on social media, though, you’ll stay pretty up to date, since I post a lot of pictures there. They all feed into that Instagram area in the right sidebar here, too, so you can follow along that way as well if you just miss me too much.

Thank you for being such loyal fans all these years. I truly appreciate you making me feel like this little blog was even necessary at all, and I’m sure I’ll still see you around here from time to time. But wish me luck! I’m so excited about this opportunity, and I really hope I do a good job.

Like my grandma always told me, cherish the days, my friends. I’ll see you next time!

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Hello, world! Again

“Hello world!” That’s the title of the generic first placeholder post when you create a new blog, so I thought it pretty fitting to use here. The first post on my new, redesigned blog. And, being the editor I am, I couldn’t help but add that dialogue comma in there for accuracy.

So, whaddya think? ScooterMarie has become Jocelyn Rau. Plain and simple, just how I like things. I actually wanted an easy name like that from the start, but when I first set this blog up back in 2011, Ryan said I should go with something more unique. Hence, ScooterMarie was born. And it worked great. But I was never 100% in love with the name, so now that I’ve decided to redo the blog design, I figured now was as good a time as any to change the name. Plus, jocelyrau.com was available, so it worked perfectly.

Hopefully you like the change as much as I do. Those pictures up in the header are all ones we’ve taken over the years, and I love how they change randomly. Bits of my life coming to life on here.

If you had subscribed to my RSS feed on ScooterMarie to get notified every time there was a new post, I think you’ll have to subscribe to the new site address to keep getting them. Just click on this little orange square, and it’ll take you right to Feedburner:

So thanks for sticking with Jocelyn Rau – me and my blog.

 




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Moving on…

So at the end of last year I mentioned how I kept meaning to put up some 2013 recap posts, remember?

Well I hate to break it to you, but I just don’t have time. So sorry. Instead, I’m going to focus on actually trying to keep up on here better this year. I’m now much more settled into the swing of being home pretty much full-time with the 2 little Goonies, with my freelance editing/proofreading work in the mix, too.

That being said, here is the tiniest of tiny snapshots of what I had wanted to run down for you from last year. I did get good recap posts up from our trip out west in June, so let’s see what happened during the whole second half of 2013:

Our summer of music was fantastic. The best show we saw, BY FAR, was Paul McCartney. I was so pleasantly surprised by that, because for some reason I had really low expectations going into that concert. But he blew us away. I thought The Eagles would be the clear winner in our summer lineup, but not even close. I was totally disappointed by their show, which consisted mainly of ballads and songs I didn’t even know. Hmph.

So if you ever have the chance to see McCartney, DO IT! You will not regret it for a second.

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I took the girls to Canada with my mom, sister, brother-in-law, and nephew, and we had a blast, as always. It was the 2 youngest Goonies’ first trips to the island, and how could they not love it? I can’t wait to go back this year and watch them grow up to cherish the place as much as my sisters and I do.

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Della turned 3, and Lana turned 1.

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The holidays came and went, just like they do every year. We spent time with family, ate great food, drank good drinks, and had a lot of fun. 2013 ended a much better year than 2012 was, but I still think 2014 is going to be the best yet.

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And there you have it. The rest of my 2013 in a shrunken nutshell.

Now I’m not promising daily or weekly posts anymore. In fact, I doubt those will happen very often ever again. But I do hope to get at least biweekly posts up here for you, just to kind of check in and keep you abreast mainly of these little girls’ adventures. Because they are way cuter than Ryan and I are.

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However, the adults in the house do have something fun planned for this weekend. We’re heading down to Chicago for an outdoor beer fest with some friends. Yes, it’s outdoors and I am in the midst of despising this winter with all my might, but it should still be fun. They’ll have heaters, an indoor area in which to warm up, and plenty of beer on tap. Liquid warmth.

Talk to you soon!

 




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The Life of L

As you may have noticed, I added a new page up top – “The Life of L”.

Just like “The D Daily Dose” is for Della, it will be a journal-type entry page for Lana’s life. Unlike Della’s page, however, I plan to use Lana’s more for statistical stuff rather a daily (or weekly, monthly, whenever i get around to it) note – growth, milestones, firsts, etc.

So for those of you who follow The D Daily Dose, hopefully you’ll enjoy The Life of L, too. As our family grows, so does the blog.

 

 




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It’s kind of a big day around here

Ok, so, hi there. I have so many great things going on today, that I’m kinda at a loss for how to begin. Maybe a list? Let’s give that a shot…

 

#1 –> It’s my birthday today!! Yahoo! Yes, I do still get excited about my birthday, even the really uneventful ones. Like today’s. Although it is Tuesday, the day of the week on which I was born, so that’s fun.

I’m 33.

Hmm, a palindrome, albeit a short one. 3-3. It sounds pretty blah, boring, even old-ish I would say. But I guess that’s all a matter of perspective, really. Like when I was 20, I would’ve thought oh man, 33 is oooold. However, when I’m 70, I’ll think oh man, 33 was so YOUNG. For right now, though, 33 just is.

I don’t really feel like I’m approaching my mid-30s. For the past, well, 11 years I guess it is now, I’ve perpetually felt like I’m 22. Why 22? Who knows. Guess that was a good year. But I still feel like I did right when I left college and Madison. Until we go back for a visit that is, usually for a football game day, and I see all the coeds at the bars now and think, are you kidding me?? There’s no WAY we acted like that when we were here. (although we probably did, ahem)

So we have that happening. Happy Birthday to ME!

 

#2 –> It’s my SITS Day!! Double yahoo! I know at least some of you have never heard that term “SITS” before, so let me give you a brief description, right from the lovely ladies themselves:

SITS = “The Secret to Success is Support”, and it is a most excellent blogging community. When I first started this little hobby called blogging last year, this was one of the first groups I found to try to discover what this world was all about and who was out there.

It’s proven incredible.

They feature bloggers from all around the world, they provide invaluable blog advice and tips, they host conferences and get-togethers across the country, and they’re just an all-around fantastic group of women. When you have a chance, please, go check them out!

For any of you joining me today from SITS, welcome! I’m honored to have you stopping by, so by all means check the place out. You can learn a little more about me personally here, you can noodle through the year-long daily journal I’m in the process of keeping for our daughter here, and you can find some of my favorite posts here.

Thank you all so much for being here, new and old, SITS and non-SITS!

 

All right, so I guess I only had 2 things on that list, but aren’t they 2 very awesome things to have to list?? I’m pretty pumped about them, anyway.

 

 

 




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Happy anniversary to me!

Today marks 1 year exactly since my very 1st post on ScooterMarie. Now how do I go about celebrating that?

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I would have loved to show you screen shots from all the iterations of my blog design since last March, but unfortunately I was never trolled by archive.org so I can’t grab any of those for you. ‘Tis a shame, too, since this blog looks WAY different than it did when I 1st started.

It actually looks a lot different than it did just a few months ago. Damn you, Wayback Machine! Why didn’t you find me?

So hmm… What can I say about this 1 year milestone in the blogosphere?

I can honestly say it’s something I never really thought I’d do. For years, whenever I heard the word “blog” I just automatically assumed it meant a tech-based website that was going to be completely over my head in jargon. Not my bag.

Not once did I think this world was full of the humor, wit, class, emotion, ideas, and just all around sense of camaraderie that it has turned out to be. I think that’s the best part about this past year of blogging – all the wonderful blogs and people behind them that I have discovered.

People laugh when I say “My blogging friend so-and-so,” but it’s true. I genuinely consider all of you friends, all of you people who currently only live in the Internet for me, whom I haven’t yet met in real life.

But I still feel like I know you – I’ve read about your families, I’ve learned of your struggles, I’ve laughed at your stories, and I keep you in my reader for more. Now don’t you feel special!

But it’s true – I consider you girls (and guys!) my friends.

And I have a feeling that if (or hopefully when) we do meet in person someday, I will be proven correct. We will be friends.

Thank you all (both from the Internet and in real life) for coming to ScooterMarie and reading my words. It’s your comments and connections that make this so much fun.

So here’s to continued friendships through ScooterMarie. I love telling you our crazy stories, and I hope you’ll keep coming back for more.

1 year down, many to go…

 

 




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Just click on that little orange button

Some of you, dear readers, may have subscribed to my blog through the Google Friend Connect widget that used to be in my sidebar, and for that I thank you sincerely!

Unfortunately, Google is doing away with Friend Connect in a matter of weeks, so our connection will be lost. I know! The horror!!

Have no fear, though. There is a most excellent and incredibly effortless way to keep our bond alive and strong even when that widget goes by the wayside permanently.

All you need to do is take a peek up in my header and click on that little orange RSS button. Or you can click right here if you’d rather:

It will magically open up a screen for you to subscribe to ScooterMarie and have it delivered right to the reader feed of your choice. Easy breezy!

Or, if you prefer to receive all of my insanely witty banter and tantalizing charm via email, please enter your email address in that little box over in the sidebar. FeedBurner will zip a note right to your inbox with every new post.

You’ll never miss a word of ScooterMarie again! I can feel your collective sighs of relief washing over me now…

So please, if you would be so kind – either subscribe via the orange RSS feed button up top there or stick with me via email subscription from the box in my sidebar. You will totally make my day. See how happy I am?

Thank you!