Mothers Fighting for Others presents Inspire the Child, a program that will provide a loving, nurturing home for orphaned girls in Kenya. These girls will grow into women who will raise the next generation, and giving them the best possible start in life CAN change the face of their country for the better.

Inspire the Child will work to build not only a home but also a school for these girls, and will provide them with health care and counseling.

My friend Rocky Turner will be making a return visit to Kenya soon to further the work on Inspire the Child. Please check the website for more details on how you can help make a difference for these girls and future generations in Kenya. Now that you know them, maybe you'll feel moved to help them.

I'm packed, ready and will be in New York in the morning.

Will I see you there?  :)

I’ve been blogging and networking on a national scale for a while and just recently have even been able to meet some of my online friends in trips to Arizona and North Carolina. It is WONDERFUL to see that in person they really ARE who they are online! (Or at least that’s been my happy experience so far!)

But lately I’ve made friends with some local bloggers mostly thanks to Twitter. (Twitter is an AMAZING tool for getting in touch, getting to know people and learning about new stuff FAST!)

One local blogger, Jason Keeling of A Better West Virginia, has put some serious work into promoting West Virginia in a positive light and organizing other WV bloggers to help him do it.

He’s used West Virginia Day, a holiday celebrating WV’s birthday, as an occasion to begin changing the mistaken stereotypical ideas about West Virginia. One look at 304blogs.com (a tremendous resource for WV bloggers created by Bill Gardner and Dave Epp) and you’ll see the positive responses already flooding the internet!

We’ve had coverage in The Charleston Gazette, on WOWK TV and on West Virginia Public Broadcasting. I think that after today’s efforts, attention will only grow.  Link love from so many sources is not a bad thing.

If you’re wondering why I’m telling you all this, it’s because this is something you could really learn from. We ALL have local bloggers. Seriously, if you look at WV here in AR, you’ll see why I’ve had friends that have joked in the past that I have the only computer in WV.  There just have not been that many Active Rain bloggers from West Virginia.  If *I* have a band of local bloggers, YOU DO, TOO.

Meet them. Make friends. Think about what you could do together to make your area a better place.

As a blogger, you ARE the media. You DO help create whatever impression people have about where you live.

There. Now that you know how to do it – what are you going to do about it?

Well, I met some parts of Arizona, and some of those fabulous people who live in my computer!

This trip was for training and meetings, and I think part of my job is getting to socialize and play with these online people. Well, I don't have a written job description that says that, so maybe I slipped that in there on my own. Hey, when your boss is Jeff Turner, maybe socializing just seems natural -- that man knows EVERYONE. (Or will -- if you haven't met him, just wait. It will come.)

I LOVED Arizona. It is a beautiful place and I finally got to figure out what "dry heat" is. In case you're like me, stuck in humidity all the time, it's like when you first walk out of the house and realize "it's hot out here", but before you want to race back into the air conditioning. It's almost like a reduced calorie heat, if you can imagine. Random tip: do not wear open sandals for a desert walk amongst the cacti. Lesson learned.

We RES employees got to learn a lot more about the company, it's direction and our place in it. As if I didn't already love Real Estate Shows enough, I love it even more now! There is a heart and soul to this company and I am so proud to be a part of it. I can't wait for the new stuff that's coming up! (You're going to love it!!)

But the best part of all was meeting the people! For the first time I met Juli Salvante (Jeff's sister and my boss), Bill Leider, Joyce and Jenna Harvey. I got to meet a whole crowd of RE.net people who live in and around Phoenix – Debbie Lieberman, Candace Jay Thompson, Steve Belt, Jonathan Dalton, Dru Bloomfield, Phil Sexton, Nick Bastian, Heather Barr, Max Chircov, Christoph Schweiger, Mark Eckenrode, Jon Griffith, Irene Hammond … and this is the danger with listing people – I know I missed some! If I missed you, please slap me upside the head and tell me to edit this, OK? Thanks.

You can see a little of our get together in my (what else?) Real Estate Show below. Nick, if only you’d gotten to me sooner, I might have worn that sparkly dress. ;)

OK, I still hate video.  That is unlikely to change anytime soon, even as cute and easy as my little Flip is.  (And I will tell you about the Flip, later.  I will.)

But I thought I’d never want to get in front of the camera again.  Why would I torture myself like that??  Seriously, people can stare at me and who knows what I’ll say or how it would sound?  I’m a frequently foolish girl, but doing video is just really beyond even my pale.

And then Laurie left me a comment.

"The video is GREAT- except,
you really should have worn a mother of the bride dress for drama."

BOOM, Baby!

Suddenly, I wanted to make a video with me in that dress.  Didn’t even matter what I was saying, I wanted to be in a gorgeous blue and gold sparkly mother of the bride dress, for drama.

See, Laurie and I go way back, in blogger-time.  She stopped in first to visit me on a post where I was in a rant – rare for me but when I have a reason I will let fly.  As this was the first she’d read from me, this is who she thought I was.  (This is a constant danger – any post you write could be someone’s first impression of you.)

Laurie called me on what I was saying, and she had a good point.  She was right about what she said.  And I had just slammed that post up there and gone to bed. 

Some friends here leapt to my defense (thank you, so much) and there was some back and forth, because … well, because Laurie is not a weak person, and she KNEW she had a point.  (She did!) 

I woke up to emails telling me not to worry, they were taking care of it.  (Taking care of what?!)  OH.  Well.  I guess if I’m going to rant, I’m going to have to be prepared to hear the other side of things, huh?  I left it all to stand.

Well, Laurie kept reading.  She realized that one post was NOT me.  (Do not expect locals to give you another chance in this case.  Not happening.)  She wrote me, and we hammered out our differences.

A while back Laurie sent me some nice gifts, just out of the blue, and among them was a dress she had meant to wear for her daughter’s wedding.  It is BEAUTIFUL, sparkly and swirly and ever so nice.  It is one of the prettiest things I have ever owned.  And it was from Laurie, just because. 

She told me to party in it, spill wine on it if I want, but just to have a great time and celebrate with my little Chickies Tall One and Little One.  She's my friend and she wanted share something beautiful with me, just because.  Just so I'd smile.  (You know I did!!)

Why am I telling you guys this?  Because sometimes the person who slams you is not your enemy, so don’t be so quick to slam back.  

And because sometimes all it takes to get to get over a silly fear is a sparkly blue dress. 

I got tagged by the fabulous Diane Aurit (Hi, Diane!) to pick a “Hidden Gem” from the ranks of AR.  This was started by our lovely Melissa Grant (And Hello, Melissa!) to try to help draw attention to some of the lesser-known but deserving AR bloggers. 

This is really, really hard.  Believe it or not, writing a Meme is easier!!  (Seriously!)  There are so many people that I admire and like here that it’s a VERY difficult thing to pick just one!  I have a list of about 100 that I’d like to just print and say, “Here, read these.”  

But when I sat and let myself just go quiet for a second, there was really only one choice.

My “Hidden Gem in the Rain” is Lysa Napolitano.

Lysa is an amazing person, caring and knowledgeable and FUN.  The way she writes would be a good lesson to nearly everyone in AR – she writes about what has meaning for her. 

She’s not trying to write about what she thinks you want to hear and hope it comes out OK.  She writes about what she loves, and in reading her blog I feel like I’ve been offered a chair and asked to stay a while.  She’s not fishing for business, she’s just communicating with people who share her interests. 

This is an important thing for you to understand: Do not try to please everyone.  Just being who you are is a niche all it’s own.  Writing about topics that have meaning for you will connect you with people you’ll enjoy talking to and possibly even working with.  Your blog does not have a formula you have to obey – follow Lysa’s lead and write about what you love.

From Lysa I have learned all about Florida wildlife.  (Little One is using Lysa as a reference in a report at school this very afternoon, and is so impressed that I have a friend who knows all about whale watching!)  Her pictures are amazing.  Imagine the patience she must have!

Lysa speaks honestly about her past, exposing personal pains in the hopes of helping someone else.  She has a true volunteer’s heart, knowing that it’s enough to help even if you don’t see the results.  I believe that she has touched many hearts through her words.  She writes about riding, fundraisers, protecting children and her own experiences moving.  We know her pets, her favorite hangout and her Sweetie.  (Does Steve mind if I refer to him as Sweetie?) 

Lysa just does it RIGHT. 

The pictures below are Lysa's and are used with her permission.  (I asked and she gave without even knowing why I wanted them, you see how sweet this girl is?)  Click the pictures to go to their corresponding posts.  The graphic is Lysa and me on the MV Sparrow, which is currently traveling from Danger Bay to visit actual Active Rain members in their towns.  This graphic is used with permission from Jack Boardman of the New Codgers.

   

    

And I suppose I'm supposed to tag two more people to write about their Hidden Gems.  I choose Brande Bradford and Harold Watts.   Go on, get to work!  :)

Found: Cool "Spell with Flickr" toy.

Why: Because wouldn't it make a cool way to call attention to something important on your blog?

Awesome Detail:  While using this letter generator, click on a letter you're not crazy about to see a new version.  Aah, that's better!

Now: Go play.  Thank you.

Cartoon by Dave Walker. Find more cartoons you can freely re-use on your blog at We Blog Cartoons.

Still struck me as funny because it seemed so true.