Blogiversary!

On December 31st I celebrated my 10 year blogging anniversary.  Let me say that again, I've been blogging and documenting my life on the internet for 10 years.  My blogging debut was to announce my first pregnancy.

When I started the blog on that day it was purely to document my pregnancy since my family was far away.  At that point I didn't read any blogs so I am not sure what my motivation was or how my blog feed now contains 107 blogs that I follow regularly.  That's a story for another day.

I didn't have any intention of blogging forever or even past the baby being born, but somehow I continued and you know what, I enjoyed it.  Grady was a tough baby that needed to be held all the time so I set my goal low at once a month and just when I started to get back into blogging more, bam, I was pregnant again and wanted to document that pregnancy the same way I did my first.

After 3 years of blogging, I found I was actually enjoying it.  I like writing. I like connecting with others.  I have the gift of the gab verbally and apparently that was coming out in written form as well.  Unexpected since I am a numbers gal and an accountant by trade. 

What you may find interesting is that while I don't hide my blog, many of my IRL friends don't know that it exists. I find people have mixed feeling about putting themselves out there for the whole world to see. I've always been an open person by nature.  That is how I connect, by talking and by listening.  I tell you all about me but you better believe that I am going to have 101 questions for you! Too many my Mom tells me.

This is my scrap book.  I love the idea that I can look back and read about our trips, the first days of school, Christmas', and birthdays to name a few.  You'll often hear me say 'let me check' my blog when I want to remember a movie name or the year that something happened.  It is the story of our life and I hope that when the boys are adults, they will show interest in reading about what I had to say about them as kids and to read stories about their childhoods.  Maybe their wives will be interested, or their kids.... But really, I just blog for me.

I often think about being a little old lady in my rocker and reading the blog books about the best years of my life.  I don't care about the page views my blog gets, how many comments I get (but I do like to read them!), or even how many people read at all, because in the end, I blog for myself.  Because I like it.  I like documenting my life. 

I am different person today than I was 10 years ago.  Over the past 10 years, I've become a mom of 2 boys, an aunt to 5 nieces and nephews, I've changed jobs 3 times, I've driven 3 different cars, I'm no longer a newlywed, I've changed decades and am close to turning the big 4-0.  My life has changed and so has the content of my blog. You see more recipes, fashion, and life stuff now that my kids aren't babies anymore and I've been able to rediscover myself.  I often wonder what I will think of the outfits that I've worn and posted pics of.  I am certain that when I am on that rocker I will be shaking my head and wondering what the heck I was thinking when I was 'young'!

If I could go back and tell my 28 year old something, I would tell her that blogging is worth it.  Don't give up.  There have been many a day when I think about packing the whole blog thing in but when you are 38 and you want to remember what your kids looked liked when they were babies. You will have it right at your finger tips.  In only a click you have the last 10 years of your life at our disposal. 

Just the other night as I was writing our post about NYE Grady crawled on the couch beside me and wanted to see the pictures I was looking at.  He asked what I was doing and I told him I was blogging about our night away.  He asked if it was on the internet.  I said yes and asked if that bothered him because he wanted me to prove that my blog was on the internet.  I thought he was concerned about it.  It turns out that he was excited about it and was making sure that I wasn't lying to him.  Our kids live in such a digital world that the prospect of being online excited him.

We spent the next 30 minutes choosing random years and months to see what we were up to at different points of our lives.  He asked to see pictures of me in the hospital when he was born and what he looked like as a baby.  We looked at our vacation pictures and outings to the Flames games. I finally told him it was time to go to bed.  Whether he was procrastinating bed time or not.  I love that he was interested and that this was something we could do together.

I would tell my 28 year old self that you will survive the baby years and that you will in fact get back to the things you like to do, like shop and read.  There will come a time when blogging isn't a chore, it is choice.  I would tell her blogging is worth it.  That she is worth it.

Cheers to blogging and all the good that has and will come out of it! Now let's get back to documenting the next 5 years as well as the last 5!

About me

As part of my blog makeover, Deena put some tabs along the top, including an about me tab that has sat blank... until now.

Introducing the new 'about me' section.  Hopefully you'll learn a little more about me.  I had Deena preview it for me and she even learned a thing or 2.  And correct my grammar mistakes.  #grammarpolice

Also - she added a flavicon.  Flavicon is defined as an icon associated with a URL that is variously displayed, as in a browser's address bar or next to the site name in a bookmark list (per google).  In layman terms, it is the picture beside the website name when you open a new tab on your browser.  Look up at the tab and beside Rsquared you'll see an Rsquared symbol.  LOVE.  I had to ask Deena what it was called as I had never heard of the word flavicon before.

Ok - let's get to it.

 I am a thirty something year old working Mom to 2 boys named Grady and Cooper and wife to James.  I spend much of the winter at the hockey rink cheering on the kids and the springs are spent at the soccer field where I often watch from the van since our Canadian springs tend to be too cold to stand outside without  winter gear, which I refuse to wear in May.

I like red wine, working out, laughing until I snort, and eating pizza.

Each year I ask my kids the same set of questions on their birthdays and see how their answers change each year.  Today I thought I'd answer the questions so you can get to know a little more about me.

Here we go!

What is your favorite color?   Blue.  There is a color known as  Christy Blue amongst my friends, cobalt blue to the general public,  because it is my most favorite color and was also my wedding color.

Who is your best friend?   My true blue BFF is Deena, who happens to blog @ Shoes to Shiraz.  We have been besties since Deena first asked to play with me on the first day of Kindergarten. She was still friends with me after I peed under the carpet during play time that same year because I was too scared to ask to go to the bathroom.  It was meant to be. 

What is your favorite animal?  I like jack rabbits.  People with gardens don't like them since they eat the veggies, but since I am not a gardener, I love coming home and finding one snoozing in my back yard.  I've never had a pet, unless you count the turtles we gave back to the pet store after a year.

What is your favorite thing to do at school?  I'm going to modify this for an adult and tell you what I do for work.  I went to university and got a Commerce degree with a major in Accounting.  I then pursued my Chartered Accountant (CA) designation and passed the final exam in the top 50 of the country! Yeah, I was pretty surprised to.  Now I do financial reporting at an oil and gas company 4 days a week. On my day off I pretend to be a stay at home mom - it is the best of both worlds.

What do you want to be when you grow-up?  When I was growing up, I wanted to be a hair dresser, then a teacher.  Now, my dream job would be a fitness instructor but I'm pretty sure that doesn't pay well.  Who doesn't want to get paid to work out?

Who is your favorite hockey player?   Jarome Iginla.  I wish he would have stayed in Calgary.  Truthfully, I don't really have one but when you have 2 hockey crazed boys that always ask you who your favorite player is you have to have one.

What is your favorite show? Currently I am binge watching Parenthood on Shomi.  LOVE!  I also have Greys Anatomy, Scandal, Big Brother Canada, and Dancing with the Stars programmed on my PVR.  James and I also watch the Goldbergs, Modern Family, and Big Bang Theory together.  Wow, that is a lot of TV when you see it listed out.

What is your favorite book? Memoirs of a Geisha.  Only book I've ever reread.

What makes you happy?  Smiling kids. Hugs from my husband.  A full social schedule.  Cheering at hockey games.  Drinking Wine.   

What makes you sad? Not having time to do all I want to do each day.

What is your favorite food to eat? Pizza and burgers!

What is your favorite song to sing? I Like Big Butts from back in the day.  No one in my house likes it when I sing unfortunately.  You have it in your head now don't you?

What games do you like to play?  I'm not a games person at all.  If I had to choose, I'd say Scrabble.  Before kids, James and I played often. He always won.  I think he was cheating.

Favourite Sport?  I don't really watch or play sports. I prefer spin and barre classes for exercise.

When I was little I used to... take my care free life for granted.

A food I don't like is?   Calamari.  James helped me with that one.  Truthfully I am kind of a picky eater.  While I have come along way there are just certain things I have no interest in even trying.  Calamari is one of them.

You can see my kids answers to the same questions here and here.

Now that you know a little more about me, leave me a comment and tell me a little about YOU!

Blog Makeover

The other week, Deena and I were talking about my blog and how I wanted to clean the look up a bit and give it a more classic white feel.  Since we were headed away on vacation, Deena offered to do a little blog makeover for me.  I gave her complete creative control and this is the end result. I LOVE IT.  There are still some updates to make but since I am away, the final touches will have to wait until I get home.  Creativity is not my thing, I'm an accountant after all.... but I am so thankful to have a BFF that has creativity coming out the ying yang.  We agreed that in return for her making my blog pretty, I would keep her spending in check when we go on our annual shopping trips in a few months. A deal is a deal.

I also thought this would be a good time to revisit the story of my blog name for all the new readers.  Through this whole blog makeover, I would have liked to change the name of the blog to just rsquared.com - can you believe it is already taken?  Unless I can change it to something permanent, I am not changing it for a second time (my blog started as babyrenton.blogspot.com over 8 years ago).  If you notice, the url is currently rsquaredplusg.blogspot.com.  Notice there is no 'plus c' as Cooper was not born or even thought of when I did the first name change.  oops.  It was so much work and stress and I am not ready to take that on again unless it is a url I really want.  And the one I want is taken.

Any hoo....

A lot of thought went into the name when I re-named the blog all those years ago.  Our last name starts with an R as does my maiden name, hence R Squared. I also like that 'squared' is a math reference and as an accountant, I can appreciate a little math humor :)

So there you have it, the story of my  blog name and also a pretty new place to read my ramblings.

Happy Monday!

The Blended Blog

Back when I was doing the style challenges, I was connected with a great group of bloggers.  We are different ages, come from all over North America, and are all at different stages of our lives.  What we did have in common was a love for fashion.  As we navigated through blogging about fashion once a week during the challenges, we realized we wanted to talk about more than just fashion, so we started doing a few topics a months outside of our normal fashion boundaries as the Style Me Bloggers.  As we did these, we realized that we have so much to say and wanted a medium where we could collaborate together.

Enter The Blended Blog.

The blended blog will be a place where any of us can write about any topic.  A place where a bunch of woman can come together and talk openly about whatever fancies them.  Fashion, fitness, recipes, home decor, parenting, anything.

I'm going to admit that I wasn't quick to commit.

I am not concerned about readership of my blog.  I blog for myself and for my family.  I enjoy blogging.  I was scared that if I committed to a certain schedule or number of posts that it would take away from the enjoyment of blogging and that my own blog would start to suffer.  It was the relationship that I have developed with some of the woman that changed my mind.  I didn't want to be left out as they embarked on this new project without me.  That, and Deena told me I had to.  Just kidding.  Kind of.

So without further a due, I introduce you to The Blended Blog.

I encourage you to pop over and check out the other contributors and read what they have to say.  I am really excited that over the next few months, one contributor will be highlighted and will answer some interview questions and then do their first blog post the following week.  What a great way to get to know all the great ladies (myself included!) behind the blog!

I hope that you enjoy getting to know the other ladies as much as I have.

5 years ago today

Five years ago today, I wrote my first blog post.  It is is crazy how much our lives have changed in those years.  When I wrote that first post we were expecting our first child. We were full of anticipation and probably a little fear.  I had no idea that 5 short years later we would have 2 loud little boys and still be keeping up with my blog, probably better than I did 5 years ago.

I remember when I was little and a year took forever to pass.  The wait between birthdays or Christmases would feel like an eternity. Now I feel like those same years go by in the blink of an eye.  It feels like just yesterday that I wrote that first post.  I still remember sitting down at our office desktop computer to write it.  Remember, there were no ipads and we didn't yet have our lap top.  How is it that 5 years can pass so quickly?

Back then, our lives were quiet.  We stayed up late on Friday night, and slept in on Saturday and Sunday mornings.  We made afternoon coffee dates  and nights out for beers with friends on a regular basis.  We even had date night on an almost weekly basis.  Weekly!

Now our days start in the 5s and we go to bed in the 9's.  Our mornings are spent doing child friendly activities like skating or swimming, and our afternoon are spent being quiet while little ones sleep.  Our evenings are spent trying to convince our boys to eat supper and then getting them into bed so we can have one hour of quiet before we ourselves go to bed.  Our lives are busy, but our lives are full.

Full of baby toddler and preschool hugs and kisses.  Full of smiles and giggles.  Full of yawns. But most importantly full of love.

If I could tell my pregnant self something 5 years ago, I would tell her to be patient.  There will be good times but there will also be bad times.  There will be sleepless nights and there will be early mornings.  Some days you may actually feel  like you are too tired to get out of bed.  But above all this, you will be loved.  Those kids will love you to death.  They will follow around the house and even come to find you when you slip away to use the bathroom. They will wake you up when you've slept into long and they will cry when you leave.  Above everything else you will feel loved by those children and that will give you the energy you need to carry on.

I wonder what the 5 year from now self would tell me today.  I hope that she would tell me not to worry and that I will get to sleep into the 7s some day :)

So today, the last day of 2012, I am reflecting on the person I was 5 years ago when I started this whole blog and who I am today.  I wouldn't say that I am a better person, but I would say that I am a different person.  A person with different priorities and different goals then I did before my children were born.   I'm sure I'll say the same thing in 5 years as well.

With that, i am wishing every one a healthy and happy 2013 and safe celebrations tonight.

500

This, my friends, is my 500th post.

I posted my first post on December 31, 2007, almost 4 years ago.  I have been blogging for almost 4 years.  And in that time have written 500 posts.  500. My first post was announcing my pregnancy with Grady, who would soon be known as Dill.  My how things have changed since that very first post.

We had a son and named him Grady.
My company sold.
I took a contract position.

Grady started daycare.

Got pregnant again.
Celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary.
We had a son and named him Cooper.
Grady was potty trained.  Sort of.
Grady started preschool.
And the list could go on and on.

I started this blog to keep my friends and family updated on our pregnancy with Grady since I felt so far away from home during such a special time of my life.  I honestly didn't plan how long I would continue it for.  In the back of my head I thought I would stop when the baby was born.  However, once Grady arrived I was so excited to share pictures and stories of the little boy who we were so proud of.  So I continued to blog.  Not often, but I continued just the same.

I never imagined that I would still be writing the blog this many years later.

I am so happy I did.

All the items that I listed above are documented in our blog, like an online journal.  I have had concerns about posting about our lives and pictures of our children in particular, but my desire to write has superseded that.

I enjoy writing and updating the blog.


If I didn't, I would have stopped ages ago. I love sharing stories about the boys and our adventures and blogging about feelings and just being real.  I aim to post 3 times a week and it is almost like a self imposed deadline.  I am always formulating posts in my head and looking for things to blog about.  I'll be out and about and think to my self 'must blog about this' or 'must blog about that'. I take pictures that in the back of my mind I know I want to post.

I am so excited to share these memories with the kids.  I hope they enjoy reading about their childhood as much as I have enjoyed sharing it.  I hope that when they have wives and kids of their own that they will pull out the journal books and share the stories and pictures with their own children.  Most of all I hope that I will re-read the books when I am old and grey and remember the best years of my life.

How long will I continue the blog?   I have no idea.


For the time being, I enjoy sharing my life with the Internets, who I fully expect are only my family, friends, and friends of friends, and so on.  When it stops being 'fun' will be the day that the blog ends.

Right now, I am having a blast.


Here's to another 500!