We have been blogging for about a year and a half, but this week right here is when a slew of our family and “In-Real-Life” friends have suddenly been, “Soooo explain to me EXACTLY what you do on your website thingy because I thought you were just diddling on Facebook and ignoring your kids.”

This explanation can take a loooooooong time when you have to start at how to turn on the computer, but it’s worth it to get to the part where Al Gore created the internet for all to enjoy.

Maybe their interests were peaked by this photo. Famous people do make folks get all flustery and, well, interested.

Forever grateful to the random blogger Erin threw her DSLR to as we stormed the stage. Grateful she was a great photographer and that she didn’t immediately think, “Score! New camera for me.” We hope you see this post, our photography angel, so we can really thank you. From left to right is US!, Lisa from Grandma’s Briefs, Sandra from Apart From My Art, Lois from Midlife at the Oasis, Janie Emaus, Julie from Julie DeNeen 2.0, and a little smidgen of Katia from I Am The Milk.

Apparently fighting our way to the front for school plays and gymnastic recitals served us well because look at us!

Nah, we’re just kidding. We were one of the last on stage because we had to scale the side like spider monkeys in heels. It was so crowded, we had no choice but to be in the front. Once again, Ellen’s propensity for procrastination was rewarded.

Queen Latifah did say she would call us up to be on her new talk show when she did her segment on “soccer moms who are unusually spry and not afraid to show their Spanx to strangers to get what they want.” Well, she didn’t say it in words, but she has really expressive eyes.

But this is really the middle of the story. What got us here to be honored as a BlogHer 2013 Humor Voices of the Year was our writing.

We had learned our lesson and ditched the heels.

We still can’t believe our writing was blown up to Shaquille O’Neal proportions. And that sucker would have totally gone home with us if we could have sneaked it out, but Erin totally made a spectacle of herself going past security because she couldn’t find her badge. She pretends to be all sweet, but then she is all like, “Fight the power, I don’t need no stinkin’ badge,” and we’re left looking longingly at the all meat buffet over a really big guy’s shoulder.

A Sausage Fest in the worst way possible. This was ALL of the food. Oh wait, we exaggerate, there was white bread, too.

A Sausage Fest without the star power of Channing Tatum. This was ALL of the food. Oh wait, we exaggerate, there was white bread, too.

We did get in and the security guy became our best buddy, but all hopes of smuggling an 8 foot tall display board were dashed.

But the poster board is the middle of the story too. The beginning of the story is our writing. When we started, we weren’t even able to fully imagine where the blog would lead us, but it’s the writing that has gotten us there – from the opportunities we have gotten to the friendships we have made.

BlogHer 2013 reiterated for us:

Never lose sight of your writing craft because that is what drives your blog machine forward.
Your blog is your business, so treat it with the respect it deserves.
It is okay to do business with kindness and compassion and to help others along the way.

To understand what a special lift-each-other-up kind of business blogging really is, behold our Anti-Square-to-Spare moment with Norine from the Science of Parenthood. Remember on Seinfeld when Elaine was trapped in the public restroom with no toilet paper and the biotch in the next stall told her she did not even have a square to spare? Well we had a blank white template to spare and we shared it with Norine because she needed it to really get her Pinterest game going.

She was profoundly thankful and we really couldn’t understand the depth of her gratitude until we talked with her about her blogging experiences versus her time in the magazine world. We can see why she finds it refreshing.

And here is the kicker, we were sharing the template that Kim from Let Me Start By Saying shared with us. We were just paying the kindness forward.

And speaking of showing the love, we have been helped and embraced by so many, but we have never created a blogroll. It just felt too overwhelming, but when we looked at our pictures from BlogHer, we realized they just about formed our “Blogs We Read/Share/Love/Honor” for us. So if a picture is worth a thousand words, our thousand pictures should be worth a library.

You’re kind of in luck because this picture right here is a large chunk of our adoration. We do like to be efficient.

You Know It Happens At Your House Too, The Underachiever’s Guide to Being a Domestic Goddess, My Life and Kids, Mom’s New Stage, Let Me Start By Saying, Hollow Tree Ventures, Mommy Shorts, Frugalista Blog, Nicole Leigh Shaw, House TalkN

Okay, the efficiency might end here. There is going to be overlap . . . and you’re gonna love it.

Left: Michelle from Old Dog New Tits and Mel from According to Mags. Right: That is Michelle and Mel again promoting their bimonthly link-up “Ketchup With Us” with Kelley from Kelley’s Break Room squeeeeeeezed in the middle.

HouseTalkN and Because My Life Is Fascinating

Lemon Drop Pie was our VOTY buddy.

We kinda fell in love with Leigh Bones a little bit more.

Mom's New Stage with Full Of It. Bonus Awesome: Another peek of Kim from Let Me Start By Saying in the background

Mom’s New Stage with Full Of It. These ladies are so fabulous. Bonus Awesome: Another peek of Kim from Let Me Start By Saying in the background.

I’m Still Learning with Let Me Start By Saying

These are some funny ladies! SO happy to meet 649.133: Girls, the Care and Raising Of and Nicole Leigh Shaw (Ninja Mom)

Love the blogging duo Grown and Flown!

Our other blogging duo love: The Science of Parenthood

Our other blogging duo love: Science of Parenthood

Squee! The Bearded Iris

The “I Just Want To Pee Alone” Book Signing was a fabulous event! We passed the evening with even more ladies on our “Blogroll in Our Minds”: Confessions of a Corn Fed Girl,Insane In The Mom-Brain, Rach Riot, Baby Sideburns, and People I Want To Punch In The Throat

This is a fabulous photo of Kelley’s Break Room and Let Me Start By Saying, but we really just had to honor the photo bombing skills of Frugalista Blog.

Moms Who Drink and Swear breezed in and out of our lives too quickly.

My Life and Kids is wicked smart and funny.

Here is House TalkN with our newest blog crush via Mommy Shorts: Harlow, the most interesting baby in the world.

FOR THE RECORD: Editing all of these photos was much more time consuming than making a traditional blog roll! What were we thinking? AND we met other great ladies of whom we have no great pictures.

So to round out the BlogHer Blog Roll list: Carisa Miller, Shitastrophy, Becoming SuperMommy, Martinis and Minivans, Mod Mom Beyond IndieDom, Not a Super Mom, Generation Fabulous, Another Bottle of Whine, Mommy, For Real, Wendy Nielsen, and Robin’s Chick.

Peace, Love, and Chicago!

-Ellen and Erin

Share it real good . . .

We know we were nominated months ago and we are just getting around to responding, but we do declare that we are honored.

We are like the worst debutantes ever: ready to party, but sorely lacking in the finer skills of RSVP’ing and thank you note writing. We must have been sleeping off hangovers on the mornings they were covered. (Farrah at The Three Under can explain all about it: the manners and procrastination, not the hangovers.)

Anyway, three of our favorite bloggers thought enough of us to nominate us for the bloggy awards floating around in our cotillion circuit of the blogosphere. And we are just pleased as punch that they did. (We apparently did not miss the class on charming southern colloquial phrases.)

Now, the dazzle of our tiaras does not blind us to the fact that these awards might have a touch o’ the chain letter shine about them. But that is okay because we thought it would be fun to play along. What we did NOT do is worry about whether or not the people we are nominating had been nominated before or if they are too big time for this sort of thing. We just picked whom we liked. Life’s too short and there are too many mint juleps to be sipped.

So with that in mind, nominees, play along if you wish, or not, but know that we think you are the bee’s knees. (We may have just muddled our debutante analogy with a line from The Andy Griffith Show, but don’t worry your pretty little heads about it.)

The First Award

This one was presented to us by Zannah at Write, Rinse, Repeat. This is why we love this gal: the “K” and lack of “e” in “Kreativ” makes her twitchy, too. But besides admiring her exuberance for proper grammar and spelling, we admire her writing because she has depth and range. She can take you to the mountaintop and back down to the Port-a-Pot. In a phrase, her writing is worth your time. Go check this funny lady out.

So here is the drill:

THE RULES:
1. Thank and link back to the awarding blog.
2. Answer seven questions.
3. Provide 10 random factoids about yourself.
4. Hand the award on to 7 deserving others.

We are going to take the team approach to this one. Answers represent an Ellen and Erin consensus. (And yes, that might have taken some haggling on a few of these. Shut up.)

#1. What is your favorite song?

Troublemaker by Weezer is the anthem for our combined family camping trips known as Big Love. Curious? Just click the link. It’ll make you feel good.

#2. What’s your favorite dessert?

Anything that Ellen makes or Erin’s Chocolate Chip Cookies.

#3. What do you do when you are upset?

Call each other and then blog about it. Duh.

#4. Which is your favorite pet?

Ellen’s cat, Sparkle. Erin doesn’t even realize when her cat has been replaced by an imposter.

#5. Which do you prefer, White or Whole Wheat?

Whole Wheat because Ellen is giving up Cheez-its. Wait, this was supposed to be a consensus. Ellen wants it known that there are Whole Grain Cheez-its. So back off.

#6. What is your biggest fear?

Erin: Breaking the blog.

Ellen: You should be afraid because it would make it a little awkward for our friends.

#7. What is your attitude mostly?

Erin is a Pollyana and Ellen is a Realist. Trust us, it works.

10 Random Factoids

We are going to split these. You’re welcome.

Erin

Must be the Stache

1. About 90% of the time, when I meet someone new, they say that they already know me or that I remind them of someone they know. I have no idea what this says about me, but it really does happen a ridiculous amount of the time.

2. I am extremely competitive in games (I broke my leg in seventh grade playing TV tag. I jumped over a bush to get away from the boy who almost tagged me),but not in life. Keeping up with the Joneses does not matter to me a lick.

3. I once signed a note to my husband, Steve, “Love, E” and he has called me Elvis as a term of endearment ever since.

4. My two childhood best friends Katie and Mary and I used to climb out of my bedroom window, run across the roof, and jump on to the top of our Winnebago—on a regular basis. It makes me happy to think that Mary’s brother Larry now lives in that house and that we might someday be able to do it once again for old times’ sake.

5. I convinced my dad to write “Happy Birthday, Ernestine Green Bean” on my 13th birthday cake. As a parent now, I can only admire his resolve to not utter one word about it.

Ellen

6. I never flew on a plane until I was an adult, albeit barely. My first flight was 9 hours long to Rome when I was 18 years old.

7. I have ziplined in three different countries. And before you ask, they are Costa Rica, Puerto Rico, and Mexico.

8. Two years ago, I lost my passport and my husband’s. In our house. I put them “away” while I had 102°F fever. I was supposed to be putting them away in the safe. I found them a year later in the birthday candle box. (What is the most disturbing part here? That I was cleaning while deathly ill or that we have a birthday candle box?)

Hold your applause. An Italian woman climbed beside me in heels.

9. I have never mountain climbed, but I love to climb to the top of things: lighthouses, monuments, cathedrals. Six months after I healed from ankle surgery, we specifically traveled to Mexico so I could climb the Coba pyramid.

10. My husband and I took our girls on a cruise soon after the Italian Costa Concordia cruise ship sank and one week before the 100th year anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic. Apparently, we are not superstitious.

Ellen: I just realized these were all travel related. Weird.

Erin: You do like things tidied up by a theme.

We’re passing the scepter!

Here are 7 well-heeled bloggers we would invite to our ball anytime! (Yes, Ellen is bringing it back to the debutante theme. See above.)

1. Honest Mom

2. Scribblesaurus Me

3. Shiftless Mommie

4. The Journey

5. Actual Times May Vary

6. The Reedster Speaks

7. Werdyab

Hollow Tree Ventures gets honorable mention because ERMAHGERD, we procrastinated so long that others filled her dance card and she already wrote her acceptance post.

The Second (and Final) Award

This bit of internet wunderbar was bestowed upon us by not one, but TWO of our favorite bloggers: Angela Shelton and Mama Mzungu.

Angela Shelton is a phenomenal person and writer. She is such a great writer that she really describes herself best:

“I am a screenwriter, actor, author, public speaker, superhero for little kids aka Safe Side Superchick – and children’s book author. My mission is to inspire you to live a joyful life no matter what you’ve been through (and we all have a story).”

See what we mean? This funny lady will make your heart and soul feel good.

Kim at Mama Mazungu is a fascinating woman and writer. She is an expat living in Western Kenya with her husband and children. They work for an organization that does research on development interventions – those programs that intend to make peoples lives better – to see how well they are doing that. She is insightful, entertaining, and a pleasure to read.

Rules for Accepting the Very Inspirational Blogger Award

I. Share seven things about myself.

II. Pass the award on to 15 other bloggers

Since there are two of us, We (read Ellen) decided to have a theme to each thing revealed.

WHO is this for?

1. Home Improvement

Erin: I have a raised three inch scar on my left hand from installing a toilet in Mexico—something a little outside of my skill set.

Ellen: My husband once gave me a sapphire bracelet and a miter saw for Christmas. I brim with delight when repair technicians and contractors walk past me to go talk to my husband, only to be sent back to me.

Not a love letter

2. B.S. (Before SAHM-hood)

Erin: I became a special ed teacher, because a boy I loved used to write me the sweetest love letters with terrible spelling and grammar. Until then, I had never realized what a gift it was that reading and writing came easily to me.

Ellen: I became a doctor because I was good at science, hated working in a lab, and wanted a secure future.

Not as freaky as the Mayan calendar running out in December

3. Freaky Date Coincidences

Erin: My husband’s dad and my dad went to the same college, graduated the same year, were both in ROTC, and their pictures are beside each other in their college yearbook—spooky!

Ellen: My husband and I were born two days apart (I’m the older woman) and both of our mothers are named Nancy and they are both born in May.

Not them

4. Swimming

Erin: I was a synchronized swimmer with my sister.

Ellen: We’re ALL waiting to see actual photos of the synchronized swimming. In contrast, I was not put into swim lessons until I was 10 years old. Mildly humiliating being in there with the 5 year olds. Remember the Cartman swim lesson episode from South Park? Yeah, like that.

5. Brushes with Fame

Not Photoshopped

Erin:I have a girl-crush on Tina Fey, and a boy-crush on Paul Rudd. When I went to the New Yorker Festival a couple of years ago, I sat beside Paul Rudd’s wife during his event. She was so nice and normal and so much like me that I am even further convinced that if he had met me first, he would have picked me.

Ellen: 1) Ben Stein was seated at the table next to us at the Roof Terrace Restaurant in the Kennedy Center. 2) Last year, my daughters and I were inadvertently swept into the middle of the Transformers premiere in Times Square. We were spitting distance from Shia LaBeouf. We did not spit. 3) I met the Cake Boss.

Can also be used as a booster seat

6. Reading Lists

Erin: I once convinced five people to read Tolstoy’s War and Peace, and then didn’t read it. Sorry, guys!! It’s on my list to do this year.

Ellen: I was not one of those people. Don’t get me wrong, Erin has snookered me, but this would be far too horizon expanding and beneficial for me to fall for it.

More refined than our tastes in concerts

7. A Side of Cheese With That Concert?

Erin: My most embarrassing concert was Michael Bolton. It was a surprisingly good concert for such a cheeseball,

Ellen: Milli Vanilli. Wikipedia describes them as a pop and dance project. Nuff said. (This might be the first time I have ever referenced Wikipedia.)

15 Bloggers Receiving Our Custom Engraved and Monogrammed Invitations

This Weblog is Unique. Just Like They All Are

Joe of Kellie’s World

Writing in the Margins, Bursting at the Seams

So, we ran out of engraved invitations and there are so many more blogs we love. But we feel like we need to mention five more, because whether they know it or not, they have been our dance instructors for this Ball of Blogging: Ninja Mom, Let Me Start By Saying, Divine Secrets of a Domestic Diva, The Bearded Iris, and Yeah Write Me.

If you stuck this post out to the end, well bless your heart, you deserve a tiara. Better yet, here’s a drink on us. And it’s not one of those nasty mint juleps either. That’s how much we like you; we’re dropping the theme like a hound dog fetching a rattle snake. (We know, Ellen couldn’t let it go.)