Ultimate Blog Party – Party at Little Jack’s Corner!

Hello out there in blog-o-land!

This week, the kind ladies at 5 Minutes for Mom are hosting the Ultimate Blog Party. This online carnival brings together cool blogging ladies from all over the world in a happy-pappy atmosphere filled with fun (online) games and plenty of FREE adorable (offline) prizes to win, from bloggers all over the nation!

I don’t know about you, but the word “Free” is possibly the best 4 letter word in the english language. (Win an Ultreo Ultrasound Toothbrush, a fabulous SAK Handbag and more!)

Our assignment is to host a small party on our own blog, inviting other to join in on the fun while showcasing our blogging style and telling others what our blog is all about. We’re only required to do one party post to join in on the fun – but I’ll be doing quite a few party posts this week just for the fun of it! (This is the first one.)

While I’m not your typical party girl, and would rather sit at home in my jammies than bar hop, these blog carnivals are quite fun. Where else can I fulfill my need for friendly contact with other mothers without leaving the comforts of my home? In fact, the entire blogging world is structured in this fashion – it provides us with a “cyber base home” where we can dump all of our feelings and thoughts before unexpecting strangers who may (or may not) find our lives fascinating.

And then we allow them to comment!

In no other time or era or way can a person remain completely alone while still connecting with thousands of other like-minded individuals. It’s solitary socialization at it’s finest, folks.

In fact, even a sworn hermit can get caught up in this open-journaling online sphere that is “blog land”. (A social hermit is quite the paradox!).

So with that said,
Welcome to Little Jack’s Corner!

The Quickie 60 Second Party

Lisa > Stay-at-Home Wife / Mom > Married almost 2 years to Kevin
8 Months Pregnant with our First Baby!
This Blog is Dedicated to Little Jack and his Upcoming Life
Read about Motherhood, Parenting Issues, Daily Family Life,
Being a Christian Stay-at-Home Mom, Homeschool Research, Pets, and More

Thanks for Stopping by! Be sure to comment so I can visit YOUR blog!

The Longer Party – All About this Blog

My name is Lisa, and I am 25 years old. I have been “online” since the tender age of 13 (early 1996), with my first internet experience being with AOL version 2.0. This was long before IMs, mass email, myspace, facebook, or even blogs became popular – so I’ve had the pleasure of “growing up” with the internet itself, and the change has been massive (and quite exciting).

My first webpage was built in 1998, and entitled “Convenience Outlet – Shop at Home in Your Own Convenience”. A radical new form of making money had just been developed – getting paid to host online ads. My website consisted entirely of those ads (banner and button ones like you would find with Commission Junction today) divided into various “outlet” sections. “Content is King” was not a popular web phrase yet, so needless to say, my content-void website didn’t make a dime (or draw any visitors outside of my wonderfully supportive family.)

Over the years I developed many other websites (some personal, some business oriented) - with my most successful one being the Collie Dog Owners in honor of 2 collies I had rescued in February of 2002. Later sister site developments included the CollieShop, an online collie merchandise store, and CollieRescue.us, which offers free listings and info pages for any collie rescue organization in the US.

Bit O’ Personal Stuff

In my “offline life” I live in South Carolina, and am married to the most wonderful hunk of a man named Kevin. He still opens doors for me, ladies, and we’ve been married for almost 2 years now! Currently, I am 31 weeks pregnant with our first child – a boy – due on May 6, 2008. As I am an only child myself, this will be my parents first grandchild. This will also make Kevin’s brother and his wife an “Uncle & Aunt” for the first time as well! So, as you can imagine, everyone is excited all the way around.

We also own some marvelous pets – 3 funny Dogs (Gabby, PupPup, and Gertrude), a very indignant Quaker Parrot (Petrie), and a happy-go-lucky ferret (Napoleon). My husband and I are both pretty old fashion homebodies, and we love being with family - a trip to Big Lots with the folks has been the highlight of our evenings many times! Outdoor activities, playtime with the pets, family reunions, Sunday lunches at Ryans Steakhouse, grilled hambergers, and watching the stars from our back deck make us very contented people. For more information about me and Kevin you can visit here and here (our about us pages).

All About Little Jack’s Corner

After getting pregnant, many friends and family would ask if I had a baby blog or website for the baby yet. “No, sorry” always seemed to be my embarrassed reply. Yes, embarrassed. After all, I was known as the “computer guru” and with all of my other weblings floating around out there – how dare I not have anything for my own baby! *GASP!*

Truthfully, even with all of my web experience, blogging scared me. I’d tried my hand at blogging a few times but didn’t quite have a purpose or aim – so I felt like a failure at it. And when I fail at something, I tend to shy back from doing it again.

Well, finally, in early January (just as I was starting my 6th month) I decided to push my fears aside and start a place to record the events in our life and have a tool where friends and family could watch our son grow up. Our son is being named “Jack Evan” after my dad (Jack) and my husband (Kevin) – and one day my dad laughed and said “If you do ever make a webpage for him, you can call it Little Jack’s Corner” (instead of Little Jack Horner – the Poem).

And thus this web blog “Little Jack’s Corner” was born and I found myself permanently entrenched in the “Mommy Blog Craze”.

I’ve always enjoyed writing, and it’s fun rediscovering a buried passion. I’m definately not the best, and I don’t know how I’d live without spell check, but blogging has turned out to be a great emotional outlet for me! Not to mention it’s downright fun.

The Focus of this Blog

Little Jack’s Corner, while named after my son, is more of a “mommy blog” than baby blog. It encompasses the entire “family world” that we live in. Along with blog posts about my pregnancy with Little Jack, you’ll also find posts about motherhood, baby care, being a stay-at-home mom, housekeeping, christianity, and the like. Once Jack is born, I’ll be posting information about his growth and development, child psychology, parenting, daily trials of being a first time mother, and managing a marriage while raising an infant. Once in a while I post things in Jack’s “voice” (such as his commercial for happy heiny’s cloth diapers!) because, well, I just think it’s cute to imagine how he would view things.

Homeschooling is a huge possibility in our future, so I’ll also start posting on those topics as Jack ages. Right now I’m leaning towards using Ambleside Online and the Charlotte Mason methods of teaching. Reading has always been a passion of mine, so Mason’s methods of using “Living Books” really appeals to me.

So anyway – that’s about it for the party in our corner!

Thanks for stopping by! Leave a comment on this post so I can be sure to visit your blog – I love finding new mommy blogs to read. I learn a lot from all of you wise ladies out there.

Also, be sure to browse through our other posts to get a feel for my writing style and see if it’s something you’d like to keep up with. If so, be sure to subscribe to our RSS feed! That way you can stay in touch with us without having to stop by the website so often.

Now I’m off to visit all of the other awesome blogs that are participating in the Ultimate Blog Party.

You should too!

~ Lisa