So check this out!  Lisa from Iowa Avenue wrote a wonderful article about the relationship between weight gain and marriage.  The article dives into the trend of newly married couples gaining weight together in their first 5 years of marriage and according to her research, at an average rate of 24 pounds for women and 30 for men!  Those are astonishing numbers to me because I really thought Hubby and I were the exception, not the rule.  Of course being the overachievers that we are, we went above and beyond the average weight gained by newlyweds. 

So yeah, hop on over to Lisa’s blog if you want to check out the post.  You might even find a mention of the Domestic Weight Wars in it! 

Jojo from Buddha Belle is running a feature all week called My Delivery Story.  And today, my story was featured, pictures and all!  Haha, okay now that’s just got to make you curious!  Please hop over to Buddha Belle if you want to be intrigued by the scintillating tale of the birth of my little girl! 

The wonderful ladies over at 5 Minutes for Mom have added my blog to their Health listing, along with an interview of Yours Truly!  What an honor to be on such a cool website that is dedicated to doing so much to help mom bloggers out there.  I really enjoy their Tackle it Tuesdays and Wordless Wednesdays.  I hope you take a minute to check them out and also check out some of the other blogs they have listed! 

Wow, have I found one heck of a contest!  I just happened to stumble upon this contest from The Secret is in the Sauce… through the Eightcrazy Designs website.  So check it out, ladies from The Secret is in the Sauce are giving away A Blogger’s Survival Kit.  And oh-my-goodness, this kit includes some awesome stuff! 

Some items included in the kit are: A blog makeover by Eightcrazy Designs ($90 value), a Fuji Fine Picks Digital Camera ($150 value), Sony Digital Voice Recorder ($45 value), $15 gift card to itunes, a t-shirt from The Secret is in the Sauce, Gel Mouse Pad with Wrist Support, and to top it all off, chocolate from Trader Joe’s!! 

Go here to see the official post with all the rules for the contest and pictures of items from the kit.  The deadline to enter the contest is today so get moving people!  This contest is too awesome to pass up!

Something I am learning as a new blogger is that the many people that read blogs, actually have blogs of their own.  A pretty cool concept, really.  I suppose I have just become enthralled with the world of blogging this past weekend and I’m really seeing how it benefits people and their lives.  The community that is out there amongst the people is just an amazing thing to witness and to be a part of. 

Another thing I have learned is that blogging can be quite time consuming.  As most of you know, blogging takes on a life of it’s own and it can require some balancing to fit it into our already busy lives.  That’s why I found the guest article on Zen Habits to be so interesting this morning.  The guest blogger discusses how he finds balance in his life between maintaining his health, spends time with family, and still managing to blog.  Definitely some food for thought.

There is, my friends, an absolute blogging paradise out there.  After spending some quality time with my laptop the last couple of days, I have been amazed at the number of blogs out there that are well-written and easy to relate to.  I thought I would share some of the ones that peaked my interest.  A nice leisurely blog post for a nice leisurely weekend.  (Oh and one side note:  Happy Birthday Grandma!!!!  You are rockin’ the 80’s like nobodies business and I love you very much!!)

First awesome blog I found:  The Mom Crowd

This is my new favorite blog! There is so much that I enjoy about this blog including their very cute and easy on the eyes format, the idea of a collaboration of four mothers writing a blog together that aims to help other moms, and their topics. I found this blog very easy to relate to and especially enjoyed the posts about Amanda’s Picky Eater, the competitive parenting that exist between moms, and a simple straw sippy cup review.

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