Posts Tagged ‘Relationships’

I love blogging… really I love writing.  I always have.  I wanted to be a journalist for a short time, until I realized that it was almost as difficult to get published as it was to get into the movies.  That’s when I decided that I’d just write for fun.  When I realized that I could publish my own works on my own website, it was fantastic!  But few, if anyone, ever saw my websites.  That is until I learned to blog and how to get my blog seen online.

Now, my words are seen by what I feel like is a lot of people.  Currently I’m getting about 50 unique visitors a day.  Which more me is astounding!  LOL!.  Of course it’s not the same numbers as some of the more “well known” and “celebrity” bloggers, but it’s still a lot to me.  It’s a wonderful feeling to know that my words are being read by more than just a handful of my family and friends and it means a lot to me.

One of the ways that I’ve gotten my blog to be seen by people is doing product reviews and giveaways on my blog.  Trust me, there’s nothing that brings in traffic like a nice giveaway!  Of course, it’s what may have brought people to my blog, but I don’t think anyone would come back if I didn’t have something more to offer them.  but the point is to get as many people to my blog as I can, so that they can see what else there is here for them.

This brings us to the whole point of this post, which is compensation for blog posts.   There’s a huge controversy about bloggers being paid for posts.  I have read many, many, MANY articles on the subject over the last few years.  My opinion has changed over the few years I’ve been blogging too, which is part of why it’s taken me so long to write my own article on this subject.  Until now, I haven’t really fully formulated exactly how I felt.  I’ve also become a little more experienced in the review and PR world of blogging too, so that has made a huge difference in how I feel now as opposed to when I first started.

When I first started blogging, and had a very small (less than 10 visits a day) amount of traffic, I felt like it was a privelage to recieve cool things for free to blog about.  I was looking for ways to not only get my blog looked at, but to give it good content.  I was also not as busy as I am now with my “real” job, so I had  a lot of time on my hands to “play around” with my blog.  And because I had very little traffic, trying to find someone willing to give me product to review was very difficult.  Never mind trying to find other content to blog about!

That’s when I went about trying to find networks that gave newbie bloggers connections to products and brands.  I looked at a lot of the “pay per post” type of sites as well.  Few if any of the posts that were relevant to my blog content wanted to pay me to post about their products because I didn’t have the traffic.  And I still don’t have the traffic that some of the bigger brands want to pay for content.  Which is ok with me because I don’t have the time to do that much work!

But that’s where I was when I read articles about mommy bloggers ruining it for other bloggers because they weren’t asking for money for content and advertising.  My opinion was that of course these other, more well known bloggers can charge for blogging.  They have readers, they have traffic, they have the numbers to justify charging.  However, bloggers like me, with little to no traffic can’t charge because we don’t have the numbers to justify it.  If we tried to charge for our blog posts and giveaways, we’d never get anyone to use our blogs for their outreach programs!

It actually upset me that these high and mighty bloggers would tell the rest of us to stop doing things for free because it was causing them harm.  That’s fine for them, they’ve already “made it”, but us little guys were still struggling to get into the blogging world.  We had to make some sacrifices to get our blogs seen, to get the traffic and THEN we could start charging.

Well, now, my opinion has changed a little.  I still think there is something to the “paying your dues” sort of idea behind receiving compensation for blogging in something other than cash.  Plus things like product reviews should never be paid for because that automatically creates a bias towards the product.  So that keeps the review from being honest and useful.  But posts that are purely advertising for a brand or product, those posts should be paid.

Here’s the reason why there is a difference.  When you are doing a review, yes you get free product, but because how else are you going to try something that is new.  I may do reviews on items that I’ve purchased, but I don’t buy everything under the sun.  So for a company to get bloggers to talk about their product, they need to send it out to people.  They however can NOT expect that all reviews will be positive.  Not everyone is going to like the product, even if they recieve it for free!  Believe me, I LOVE free stuff… but just because it’s free, doesn’t make it great.  If I don’t like something, I”m going to talk about it and why I don’t like it.  Now, I try to be constructive in my criticsm, and try to point out that some of my opinions are just that… MY opinions, and not everyone will feel the same way.  But I’m not going to change my opinion of a product just because I got it for free.  I will also RAVE about products that I’ve purchased, and spent pretty good money on as well!  For instance, my HTC EVO… I spent a good amount of money on that phone, and nearly a year later I still LOVE IT!!!  So free or expensive, all reviews will get the same treatment from me and should from any blogger.  If you can’t trust a review to be honest, then all the review is, is another advertisement.  And really who needs MORE commercials!?!

Giveaways and other content posts are a completely different beast from reviews.  I’ve done giveaways of several different types and they are a LOT of work!  They are worth the work, at least for the blogger they are.  That’s a great way to boost your traffic!  But it’s a LOT of work!  Even for a small blog like mine it’s a lot.  Most of the giveaways I”ve done have been for free for the product providers.  I have begun to rethink that position, which is why I haven’t done another giveaway in a while.  They take a lot of time to run, even for one that only lasts for a few days or a week!  You have to sort through your entries, make sure they are all legit, follow all the rules, advertise them on the right sites/blogs, and then make sure your winner receives the prize in a timely manner.  Sounds easier than it is.  And if you want to run a LARGE giveaway (like what 5 minutes for Mom does once a year, they are nutz!), then it’s even more work!  Don’t look to this site for any of the BIG contests with multiple prizes… I just don’t have the time to devote to something like that!  Yikes!

I did the giveaways for free for two reasons though.  One, I was getting a LOT Of good traffic that seemed to stick around after the contest was over.  However, I didn’t see much of an increase in traffic for the prize providers.  I did a few giveaways for a friends business, and they didn’t see much of a boost in sales after the contests were over.  Which is really too bad because I got a lot out of it.  and Two, because I generally also got a free product to review for the contest as well, which not only gave me the post for the contest, but a second post for the review.  so really I was getting a lot more out of it, than I thought I was putting into it…. at least that’s what I thought until I realized how many hours I actually put into running the contest.  Then I realized I didn’t get enough.

The same goes for other paid content posts.  AT the sites like Izea’s Social Spark or Paid Per Post, you’ll find things to post about and maybe you’ll get paid $5 or $10 depending on your page rank and traffic count.   But when you’re not a “popular” or well known site you don’t get many of those paid posts, and the ones you do get offered are so irrelevant to your blog that there’s no way you could work them into a post for your readers without sounding like a commercial…. and a bad one at that!

There was one paid post I was offered for online gambiling site for my book review site.  It’s a BOOK review site… BOOKS… now, I can see where “Bookie” and “Book” may seem similar, but COME ON!?!  Really??  Obviously I turned that post down… but it’s not the only time I’ve been offered strange paid posts that wouldn’t make any sense to my blog.  To the point that I have stopped going to those sites to see if I’d qualify for any good paid jobs.  If I can’t qualify or apply quickly enough to get the good “gigs” then why bother?

Then there are the PR people who send pitches to bloggers.  I don’t know HOW I got on this one PR companies pitch list, but I have not replied to a single one of their pitches since their first email.  They sent me a pitch saying that they thought my readers would be REALLY interested in this great new movie coming out and would I like to partner with them and introduce my readers to the movie with some great graphics, some cool downloads and a neat widget to put on my blog.  I looked up the movie and the PR firm, and agreed that my readers would be interested in the movie.  However I didn’t see in their email what or how I would be compensated for telling my readers about this great movie.  Their response was quick and to the point, and after doing some research not at all uncommon from PR firms to bloggers.  They said they didn’t have the budget to compensate the bloggers they would be working with, but the hi-res graphics and cool widget were really great!  I then replied asking about at least getting a copy of the movie so I could tell my viewers honestly what I thought about the movie, and their response to that was, that they did not have any advanced copies to send out to bloggers either.

Wow!!  Really?  You expect me to give you prime real estate on my blog, a full post, a widget taking up space on my sidebar, and I don’t even get to see the movie first?!?!  What am I supposed to tell my readers?  “Here’s a movie that I’m told by their advertising agency that it’s really good and you all should go see it because I will be whenever it comes out”???  Ummm.. no.. see above where I talk about honest product reviews!  That whole email exchange kinda pissed me off.  I know I’m not some big shot blogger, and I don’t pretend to be, but I do take pride in what I write.

This blog is all about me, my feelings on everything from family matters and politics, to products… but all of it is still my feelings.  If you want me to advertise for you on my blog, then fine, I don’t mind giving up some of my space to talk about something, but I’m not going to do it for free, without SOME sort of first hand knowledge of the product in question!  That’s just nuts.

Of course, no matter what business you’re in you’re going to find people who want the world for nothing.  Even in my “day job” I get this sort of attitude.  In my business our service fees are right in the middle of all the other businesses like ours.  I get customers that just love us and think our full price is a STEAL!  Then there are other customers who think that we’re cheating them some how even though we’re giving them our best price.  It always brings to mind the saying “you can please some of the people all of the time, all of the people some of the time, but you can never please all of the people all of the time.”

It really comes down to this… how much is your time worth?  How much is your blog and traffic worth?  No one is going to come up with the same answer, but I can tell you, your time, your blog, and your traffic, no matter how small, is not worth nothing!  It is worth something, or else the PR firms would not have a job just to work with bloggers.  There’s a reason they come to bloggers for “outreach” programs.  But only YOU can decide how much YOU are worth.  Of course it’s the PR firm’s job to negotiate from nothing up… and your job to negotiate from the stars down. 

Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2011 Christine Plaisted

I love blogging… really I love writing.  I always have.  I wanted to be a journalist for a short time, until I realized that it was almost as difficult to get published as it was to get into the movies.  That’s when I decided that I’d just write for fun.  When I realized that I could publish my own works on my own website, it was fantastic!  But few, if anyone, ever saw my websites.  That is until I learned to blog and how to get my blog seen online.

Now, my words are seen by what I feel like is a lot of people.  Currently I’m getting about 50 unique visitors a day.  Which more me is astounding!  LOL!.  Of course it’s not the same numbers as some of the more “well known” and “celebrity” bloggers, but it’s still a lot to me.  It’s a wonderful feeling to know that my words are being read by more than just a handful of my family and friends and it means a lot to me.

One of the ways that I’ve gotten my blog to be seen by people is doing product reviews and giveaways on my blog.  Trust me, there’s nothing that brings in traffic like a nice giveaway!  Of course, it’s what may have brought people to my blog, but I don’t think anyone would come back if I didn’t have something more to offer them.  but the point is to get as many people to my blog as I can, so that they can see what else there is here for them.

This brings us to the whole point of this post, which is compensation for blog posts.   There’s a huge controversy about bloggers being paid for posts.  I have read many, many, MANY articles on the subject over the last few years.  My opinion has changed over the few years I’ve been blogging too, which is part of why it’s taken me so long to write my own article on this subject.  Until now, I haven’t really fully formulated exactly how I felt.  I’ve also become a little more experienced in the review and PR world of blogging too, so that has made a huge difference in how I feel now as opposed to when I first started.

When I first started blogging, and had a very small (less than 10 visits a day) amount of traffic, I felt like it was a privelage to recieve cool things for free to blog about.  I was looking for ways to not only get my blog looked at, but to give it good content.  I was also not as busy as I am now with my “real” job, so I had  a lot of time on my hands to “play around” with my blog.  And because I had very little traffic, trying to find someone willing to give me product to review was very difficult.  Never mind trying to find other content to blog about!

That’s when I went about trying to find networks that gave newbie bloggers connections to products and brands.  I looked at a lot of the “pay per post” type of sites as well.  Few if any of the posts that were relevant to my blog content wanted to pay me to post about their products because I didn’t have the traffic.  And I still don’t have the traffic that some of the bigger brands want to pay for content.  Which is ok with me because I don’t have the time to do that much work!

But that’s where I was when I read articles about mommy bloggers ruining it for other bloggers because they weren’t asking for money for content and advertising.  My opinion was that of course these other, more well known bloggers can charge for blogging.  They have readers, they have traffic, they have the numbers to justify charging.  However, bloggers like me, with little to no traffic can’t charge because we don’t have the numbers to justify it.  If we tried to charge for our blog posts and giveaways, we’d never get anyone to use our blogs for their outreach programs!

It actually upset me that these high and mighty bloggers would tell the rest of us to stop doing things for free because it was causing them harm.  That’s fine for them, they’ve already “made it”, but us little guys were still struggling to get into the blogging world.  We had to make some sacrifices to get our blogs seen, to get the traffic and THEN we could start charging.

Well, now, my opinion has changed a little.  I still think there is something to the “paying your dues” sort of idea behind receiving compensation for blogging in something other than cash.  Plus things like product reviews should never be paid for because that automatically creates a bias towards the product.  So that keeps the review from being honest and useful.  But posts that are purely advertising for a brand or product, those posts should be paid.

Here’s the reason why there is a difference.  When you are doing a review, yes you get free product, but because how else are you going to try something that is new.  I may do reviews on items that I’ve purchased, but I don’t buy everything under the sun.  So for a company to get bloggers to talk about their product, they need to send it out to people.  They however can NOT expect that all reviews will be positive.  Not everyone is going to like the product, even if they recieve it for free!  Believe me, I LOVE free stuff… but just because it’s free, doesn’t make it great.  If I don’t like something, I”m going to talk about it and why I don’t like it.  Now, I try to be constructive in my criticsm, and try to point out that some of my opinions are just that… MY opinions, and not everyone will feel the same way.  But I’m not going to change my opinion of a product just because I got it for free.  I will also RAVE about products that I’ve purchased, and spent pretty good money on as well!  For instance, my HTC EVO… I spent a good amount of money on that phone, and nearly a year later I still LOVE IT!!!  So free or expensive, all reviews will get the same treatment from me and should from any blogger.  If you can’t trust a review to be honest, then all the review is, is another advertisement.  And really who needs MORE commercials!?!

Giveaways and other content posts are a completely different beast from reviews.  I’ve done giveaways of several different types and they are a LOT of work!  They are worth the work, at least for the blogger they are.  That’s a great way to boost your traffic!  But it’s a LOT of work!  Even for a small blog like mine it’s a lot.  Most of the giveaways I”ve done have been for free for the product providers.  I have begun to rethink that position, which is why I haven’t done another giveaway in a while.  They take a lot of time to run, even for one that only lasts for a few days or a week!  You have to sort through your entries, make sure they are all legit, follow all the rules, advertise them on the right sites/blogs, and then make sure your winner receives the prize in a timely manner.  Sounds easier than it is.  And if you want to run a LARGE giveaway (like what 5 minutes for Mom does once a year, they are nutz!), then it’s even more work!  Don’t look to this site for any of the BIG contests with multiple prizes… I just don’t have the time to devote to something like that!  Yikes!

I did the giveaways for free for two reasons though.  One, I was getting a LOT Of good traffic that seemed to stick around after the contest was over.  However, I didn’t see much of an increase in traffic for the prize providers.  I did a few giveaways for a friends business, and they didn’t see much of a boost in sales after the contests were over.  Which is really too bad because I got a lot out of it.  and Two, because I generally also got a free product to review for the contest as well, which not only gave me the post for the contest, but a second post for the review.  so really I was getting a lot more out of it, than I thought I was putting into it…. at least that’s what I thought until I realized how many hours I actually put into running the contest.  Then I realized I didn’t get enough.

The same goes for other paid content posts.  AT the sites like Izea’s Social Spark or Paid Per Post, you’ll find things to post about and maybe you’ll get paid $5 or $10 depending on your page rank and traffic count.   But when you’re not a “popular” or well known site you don’t get many of those paid posts, and the ones you do get offered are so irrelevant to your blog that there’s no way you could work them into a post for your readers without sounding like a commercial…. and a bad one at that!

There was one paid post I was offered for online gambiling site for my book review site.  It’s a BOOK review site… BOOKS… now, I can see where “Bookie” and “Book” may seem similar, but COME ON!?!  Really??  Obviously I turned that post down… but it’s not the only time I’ve been offered strange paid posts that wouldn’t make any sense to my blog.  To the point that I have stopped going to those sites to see if I’d qualify for any good paid jobs.  If I can’t qualify or apply quickly enough to get the good “gigs” then why bother?

Then there are the PR people who send pitches to bloggers.  I don’t know HOW I got on this one PR companies pitch list, but I have not replied to a single one of their pitches since their first email.  They sent me a pitch saying that they thought my readers would be REALLY interested in this great new movie coming out and would I like to partner with them and introduce my readers to the movie with some great graphics, some cool downloads and a neat widget to put on my blog.  I looked up the movie and the PR firm, and agreed that my readers would be interested in the movie.  However I didn’t see in their email what or how I would be compensated for telling my readers about this great movie.  Their response was quick and to the point, and after doing some research not at all uncommon from PR firms to bloggers.  They said they didn’t have the budget to compensate the bloggers they would be working with, but the hi-res graphics and cool widget were really great!  I then replied asking about at least getting a copy of the movie so I could tell my viewers honestly what I thought about the movie, and their response to that was, that they did not have any advanced copies to send out to bloggers either.

Wow!!  Really?  You expect me to give you prime real estate on my blog, a full post, a widget taking up space on my sidebar, and I don’t even get to see the movie first?!?!  What am I supposed to tell my readers?  “Here’s a movie that I’m told by their advertising agency that it’s really good and you all should go see it because I will be whenever it comes out”???  Ummm.. no.. see above where I talk about honest product reviews!  That whole email exchange kinda pissed me off.  I know I’m not some big shot blogger, and I don’t pretend to be, but I do take pride in what I write.

This blog is all about me, my feelings on everything from family matters and politics, to products… but all of it is still my feelings.  If you want me to advertise for you on my blog, then fine, I don’t mind giving up some of my space to talk about something, but I’m not going to do it for free, without SOME sort of first hand knowledge of the product in question!  That’s just nuts.

Of course, no matter what business you’re in you’re going to find people who want the world for nothing.  Even in my “day job” I get this sort of attitude.  In my business our service fees are right in the middle of all the other businesses like ours.  I get customers that just love us and think our full price is a STEAL!  Then there are other customers who think that we’re cheating them some how even though we’re giving them our best price.  It always brings to mind the saying “you can please some of the people all of the time, all of the people some of the time, but you can never please all of the people all of the time.”

It really comes down to this… how much is your time worth?  How much is your blog and traffic worth?  No one is going to come up with the same answer, but I can tell you, your time, your blog, and your traffic, no matter how small, is not worth nothing!  It is worth something, or else the PR firms would not have a job just to work with bloggers.  There’s a reason they come to bloggers for “outreach” programs.  But only YOU can decide how much YOU are worth.  Of course it’s the PR firm’s job to negotiate from nothing up… and your job to negotiate from the stars down. 

Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2011 Christine Plaisted

Today I am thankful for our new house.  It is simply perfect for us.  The boys will have their own rooms, there’s a basement with plenty of room for a poker table.  I have a huge kitchen, with all new(er) appliances.  There’s a dog run, a laundry room, and a nice large pool.  The only thing that could make this place even better is to be near my mom & sister….. well, how’s next door?

Yes, they are going to be living right next door to us!  When I first started talking about moving in with Steve, my mom always said “Maybe we can find two houses next door to each other”.  It was always a nice thought, but never did we really believe we’d be able to find that.  Especially not two houses that fit our needs so perfectly, and more!  And yet that is exactly what the Universe did for us.

The house on the left is our house.  2 bedrooms in the basement, with a large room separating them that we’ll use as a “rec” or “theater” room.  We’ll have a wall mounted TV in there, with a couch (if it’ll fit down the stairway), the various game consoles we have, and a poker table.  Roger’s room will be in one of the rooms in the basement as well.  there are two separate rooms in there, but only one of them is really big enough for a bedroom.  The other one will be storage/library (YES!  I get a LIBRARY!!!).

Upstairs, on the “main” floor, is our extra large kitchen, that 3 or more cooks can be working in there comfortably without stepping on each other, our living room (with a fireplace), Jack’s room, and the master suite.  There’s also a “service porch” where the laundry and our freezer is.  Every bedroom has nice large closets with built in shelves.  The two bathrooms are upstairs as well.  Between the garage and the house is a fully enclosed porch, that is probably bigger than the livingroom.  It’s enclosed with lattice work for the ceiling, so not really usable on rainy days, but every other time will be great for party run off!  LOL!

Out back is our pool, patio, and RV parking area.  This is a beautiful pool that has shallow ends on both sides and a deep end in the middle.  There is also a fountain feature in the far back corner of the pool… makes it look very elegant for sure.  Plenty of room on the patio for a lot of people to sit and talk, eat burgers fresh from our grill and watch the kids play in the pool.  This will defintely be great for summer teen events!

And then right next door is where my mom and sister will be living.  They get a 2 bedroom one bath house, with all hardwood floors, a nice sized kitchen and a laundry room.  Their backyard is actually bigger than ours, but it’s all grass.  Although there is a swinset in their backyard as well.  They also have a workshop in their back yard that even has lots of storage and room for wood working, painting or any other type of arts and crafts that might come up.  They too have a nice patio in the back with a nice awning which will make the spring, summer & fall very nice.

I cannot tell you how amazingly happy I am that these houses were for rent.  It’s been a little bit tight and a big old stress bubble trying to get everything packed and ready to move.  We’re also moving our home office into a regular office about 3 miles from the new houses.  So for the next 3 weekends we’ll be moving something!  LOL!  This is going to be a crazy three weeks, but after it’s all done, we’re going to be so happy!  I just can’t wait for it to be all overwith!  LOL!

Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2011 Christine Plaisted

I’ve been trying to get him to write down his stories and ideas for the longest time.  Partially because I’m his mom/teacher and I know he’s got to “do the work” behind writing, but also because I’m a big fan of his stories and ideas!  Both of my sons are very creative and opinionated (hmmm… wonder where they get that from??  08-) but trying to get them to write theses ideas down has been a lengthy battle!  grrrrrrr  Until now that is.  So while I’m on a little hiatus (notice I can’t stay away from my blog forever), please take a look at my sons blog as he is exploring the blogosphere.  Leave comments (they better be nice or this mama grizzly will come after you!  LOL) and discuss with him the many ideas he has!

Now without further ado…. Welcome to the Blogosphere my youngest son….

Justice N Words

Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2011 Christine Plaisted

Wanted: 1 Magic Wand (Used is fine as long as it still works), batteries not included ok.  Must pack entire household with a flip of the wrist, and move stuff from old house to new house and office with out the need for a rental truck.  Or at the very least will move all the heavy stuff from the house into the rental truck.. I’m not THAT picky!  Serious enqueries only.  Willing to pay a lot of money for wand, but still would like to pay no more than what it would cost to do the stuff myself .  Will also take magic wand that will make my teen sons stop whineing about needing to pack and move, and put a happy face on when I ask them to do things…. LOL!  Yea I know I’m dreaming about a wand that will make teenagers helpful!

So, just to let you all know, I’ll be writing as much as I can on my blog, but I will be more or less quiet for the next month.  We got the two houses that we were hoping to get.  We are signing the leases today and will officially get the keys to the new houses on March 1st.  AND at the same time we got our new office for our business!  Which we are currently moving slowly into that now instead of being exclusively at home.

Needless to say, this next month is going to be CRAZY!!!!  With a capital CRA and a Capital ZEEE!!  LOL!  We’re already packing and moving stuff that we can, and dealing with the move in costs.  Luckily we have enough money to cover both move in costs and our last months rent at this house.  All that without hurting for money for our business.  LOL!  It’s so great that our business was busy this winter, not sure we could have done this if we’d been slow!

Anyway, we’re going to be off to sign our lease soon!  Can’t wait till this whole move is OVER!!  LOL!  And then we’ll have a house warming party or something!

Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2011 Christine Plaisted

Stressed, yes, that is the word of the day… maybe even the week… or month! But really it’s all good right?  Things are popping for us in so many different ways that I’m getting dizzy!  But most of it’s good change.  But change, no matter what kind it is, usually makes me a stress bunny!  So that’s exactly what’s kept me from posting lately.  I’m so stressed I can’t even think straight!  LOL!

So what exactly has me so stressed?  Well for one thing, our business is growing big enough that we’ve decided to actually rent an office.  Although I’m half excited about that, half not so excited about it.  I like working from home… even if I’m stuck to a desk for 12 hours a day, it’s still home.  I see my boys all day long and really if I absolutely HAD to do something, I could leave anytime (depending on how busy we are).  But getting an office means so many different things.

No more rolling out of bed and working in my P.J.’s all day long.  No more waiting till the first call comes in to sleep.  No more late nights.  No, with an office I actually have to get up, get dressed BEFORE someone calls.  BLECH!  But then the good things about it is, there is a real separation of home and office.  No more animal noises in the background when I’m on the phone.  No more getting mad at the boys for fighting or playing their music too loud.  No, the quiet office will be a nice change.

One of the reasons why we’ve decided to get an office is so the boys can have their own rooms.  Right now they share a room.  One of the rooms is our office.  Without having the office in the house, then they can have their own rooms.  We’re still looking for a bigger place, but it’s a heck of a lot easier to find the right place without having to worry about having enough rooms for everyone and an office.

We were trying to find a place where my mom & sister could live with us and the boys could have their own room, AND we could have an office.  But that would mean a 6 bedroom house.  Well, 6 bedroom houses are NOT cheap!  And they are few and far between.  For a while we thought that my sister might decide to move back to California and live with another family member.  5 bedroom houses are a little easier to find, and a little cheaper, but not much.

That’s when we decided that having an office out of the house would make things SOOO much easier!  So we found an office and we’re going forward with it.  Then we decided that we needed to find a 4 bedroom house that wasn’t too far from the office.  Well that’s when the Universe kicked in!  The stars all seemed to align together perfectly to find what may be the best fit for our family!!

Ok, no, that’s not the house.  Let me tell you how I found the place before I describe it.  I was looking online at rentals near our office and came across this nice 4 bedroom 2 bath house, with a pool, in our price range.  It looked really cute and all that.  Well Thursday we were out running errands and accidentally got onto the wrong freeway.  Well when we got off the freeway again I noticed that we just passed the street that the house was on.  So we turned around and found it.  Turns out the house next door to it is for rent as well.  We get out of the car, it’s at night, and are looking around it.  It’s a nice neighborhood.  We get back into the car and are about to drive away when an SUV pulls up beside us.  The guy in the car says he’s the owner of the two houses and asks if we’d like to see inside.

So there are two houses right next door to each other, about 3 miles from our new office.  The one house is a 4 bedroom (really only a 3 bedroom with another room that’s like a big closet), 2 bath, with a basement, tons of storage, huge kitchen and a pool.  Gardening & pool service are included in the rent, which is only a little more than what we’re paying for the house we’re in.  the house next door is a 2 bedroom 1 bath, with tons of storage, huge backyard, and is perfect for my mom and sister.

So we talked it over with Mom and Sis.  We all went to “officially” see the houses with the property manager on Sunday.  We all loved the houses!  They are each perfect for us!  And within our price range.  The move in is going to be a little difficult, but Steve and I have already been saving and have enough to cover our move in costs.  So covering mom & Cindy’s move in won’t be too hard.  So today we’ve put in the applications for the rental agreements!  Now comes the REALLY hard part…….

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I’ve been doing some life coaching through Life Compass, which gives me 2 coaching calls a month.  My coach is Randee Krumwiede, and she is really great.  This month we are working through Failure.  Using Failure as the foundation to success.  Because without failure you can not know success.   I was going to write about this earlier today because the topic really hit home for me, but I kept putting it off.  Not because we were busy with work, though we were in the morning.  No I didn’t write about it because it was a scary topic for me…. I was failing!

From Dictionary.com

1.an act or instance of failing or proving unsuccessful; lack of success: His effort ended in failure. the campaign was a failure.

2.nonperformance of something due, required, or expected: a failure to do what one has promised; a failure to appear.

3.a subnormal quantity or quality; an insufficiency: the failure of crops.

4.deterioration or decay, especially of vigor, strength, etc.: The failure of her health made retirement necessary.

5.a condition of being bankrupt by reason of insolvency.

6.a becoming insolvent or bankrupt: the failure of a bank.

7.a person or thing that proves unsuccessful: He is a failure in his career. The cake is a failure.

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I wanted to give a great big Thank you to my friend Julie.   She’s a CPA and Steve and I had some questions about our business, taxes, and turning our business into an LLC.  She met us this morning at a local Bagel shop and answered a bunch of our questions and pointed us in the right direction.   Now we know what we have to do first to get our business turned into an LLC.  She was a huge help and a great friend for doing this!  So thank you very much Julie!!!

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I actually have two best friends.  They both mean the world to me.  One I see and talk to everyday, the other I don’t see that often or talk to much, but we’re still as close as can be.  Funny how time and space don’t always make a difference when it comes to friends.

Meet Jen and her brand new baby girl Chloe.  Jen has been my best friend for around 14 years.  She’s like a little sister to me, and I love her to death.  She has been there for me through thick and thin, and I hope that I have done the same for her.  She means the world to me, and hopefully she and her little one will come out here to Vegas to visit me soon!  I love you Jen!!

This is my other best friend.  I talk about him a lot on this blog because he is a huge part of my life.  We’ve started a business together, bought a car together, are raising the boys together… hell, we even love playing poker together!  We literally spend almost 24 hours 7 days a week together!  LOL!  And we’re still best friends!  If that doesn’t say love, well I don’t know what does!

Who are YOUR best friends?

Aloha Friday’s were started by Kailani over at An Island Life.  She says that Friday’s are taken easy in Hawaii in preparation for the weekends.  I kinda like this idea!  She posts one simple question for everyone to answer on her blog and to participate on your blog you post one simple question.  So this is mine:

Do you celebrate Valentine’s Day?

I only ask because Steve and I do not.  Our “anniversary” is at the end of Feb, and that is much more important to me than some day that the card companies came up with!  We have done things on Valentine’s day before, but mostly just because we were together on that day.  LOL!

So, if you’re like me and don’t celebrate Valentine’s day, do you celebrate your relationship on another day?

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