The Post About Your Inside vs. Your Outside

Someone recently quipped that you can tell someone's age by the contents of their pill box.

Mine would tell you I have attention deficit issues and possible uterine frustration.

Aging. Is it a necessary evil or a proud accomplishment?

Me thinks it's relative.

If you're like me, then your interior self is likely in conflict with your exterior self.

Interior Jamie:

1. She thinks she's 24 years old.

2. She thinks she can snow ski blue moguls.

3. She thinks her hair is brown.

Exterior Jamie:

1. She's 35 and 8 months.

2. Her left knee does not support moguls.

3. Her hair IS brown, but it requires occasional salon support.

Some of my seasoned coworkers have confirmed that the battle between the inside and outside will only become bloodier as the clock ticks away.

I'm all about the wisdom. And the experience. And the lessons learned. 

But I'd also like to pull an all-nighter and be no worse for wear.

How does your inside fight with your outside?

{image: Jamie}

The Post About Excusing My Absence

 

Hi, my little monsters.

I'm still recovering from Camp APAC and that costume. I plan to be back to proper blogging tomorrow.

Meanwhile, the winner of the Lowe's $40 Gift Card is...

 

Erin Mize who won for being a Facebook "liker." Her fix-it project: "I would LOVE a jump start fix on painting my bathroom! It's a project for sure..."

Erin - contact me at jamiesrabbits@gmail.com to collect your prize!  

{image: my friend Allison Peatross}

The Post About The Life of a Blogger

I'm handing off the reins today to one of the handful of Mommy bloggers I follow - Rachel at Grasping for Objectivity. For the record, not all mommy bloggers are created equally. Rachel is one who's not afraid to blog the randomness, the obscurity, and the hilarity of parenting. Even at risk of being judged. You will not regret subscribing to her blog. Not in the least.

-----------------------------------

I like Jamie - a lot. 

For one, because she's hilarious.

(Can I get an Amen?)

But more than that, I like Jamie because she's a blogger.

And we bloggers - well, we have to stick together. Because we're a vastly misunderstood group. Only we know the agony of the desperate attempts to create content out of nothing (because let's face it, our subject matters are usually little more than nothing), the futile workings to keep our blogs about nothing from offending anyone, and the nearly impossible task of finding time to do all this - because believe it or not, we have lives outside of the internet as well.

So, for sake of argument, let's call non-bloggers "Buggles".

We can't blame Buggles for not understanding us if we don't make the attempt to explain ourselves.

And so, to help Buggles understand a little more of what happens in our heads and to our families, I've created some examples, via t-shirts.

After all, except for Facebook Statuses and Tweets, what better way to express yourself than a t-shirt?

Okay, there are lots of better ways. But still. I present to you...

If Bloggers Wore T-Shirts…

~~~

If Bloggers' Husbands and Friends Wore T-Shirts...

And, if Bloggers' Kids Wore T-Shirts...

~~~

Yes, Buggles, this is just a little of the agony we ourselves go through, and what our family and friends endure to bring you internet content.

I hope you give Jamie a bigger hug next time you see her.

(All thank you notes can be placed in the Thank You Note box below.)

(images: Zazzle}

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It's Jamie again. Might I suggest a few of my favorite posts by Rachel at Grasping for Objectivity...

• The Issue of Smock
• Kiosk Warfare: A Guide for Survival
• Toddler Tips
• Passionistas, From a Mundane's Perspective

The Post About Being In The Woods

I'm out of the office this week trying to create more of this:

This is Camp APAC held annually at Camp ASCCA in Jackson's Gap, Alabama. 

I'm with 141 adopted kids. And 68 staff. And 2 horses. And 600 camp pancakes. 

Thank the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit for camp pancakes.

It's my favorite 5 days of the roughly 250 I work each year. 

It's because these are children who have found forever families. Moms who will cheer them on at ballgames or recitals. Dads who will help them with homework or walk them down the aisle.

Moms and Dad who will be there for any and all of it. Forever.

If you'd like to learn more about becoming a forever someone for any of the 115,000 kids in foster care waiting to be adopted, visit Adopt US Kids.

 Father to the fatherless, defender of widows—
      this is God, whose dwelling is holy.
 God places the lonely in families;
      he sets the prisoners free and gives them joy.

Psalm 68:5-6

(image: Jamie}

P.S. Today's the last day to enter my $40 Lowe's Gift Card Giveaway.

The Post About My Dad Is Kinda Fabulous

"The father of a daughter is nothing but a high-class hostage. A father turns a stony face to his sons, berates them, shakes his antlers, paws the ground, snorts, runs them off into the underbrush, but when his daughter puts her arm over his shoulder and says, "Daddy, I need to ask you something," he is a pat of butter in a hot frying pan."

Garrison Keillor

Happy Father's Day to my Dad.

P.S. Daddy - if you are reading this, I think your 40 year theory about the world going to hell in a handbasket may have been fairly accurate.

Also, would you please get that hanger down from my laundry room door frame while I'm out of town for work. Kthanks.

{image: Jamie}

The Post About The Rabbit Recommends v.93

Each week or so I post a readable or watchable and/or a listenable of which I'm fond. You can choose what happens after my recommendation. Ignore, embrace, debate.

Earlier volumes of The Rabbit Recommends can be found here.

Read

I've always believed a gifted writer can write well in any circumstances. Whether composing a novel or an email or a tweet - it will always be inspiring. So I anticipated only goodness and light when starting What There Is To Say We Have Said: The Correspondence of Eudora Welty and William Maxwell. I already nursed an affection for Pulitzer Prize winning author Welty who spent much of her career writing about the South - a place of which I'm particularly fond. I expected a romance outlined in letters, but I was pleasantly surprised. This collection highlights a deep and abiding friendship between two kindred spirits of writing.

Listen

When the humidity rises, I need to step away from gritty singer songwriter boys with their v-necks and skinny pants. It's summer, so less angst is a welcome reprieve. Cue Marc Broussard. If you like Dave Barnes or Matt Wertz (and you really should), then Marc will fit in nicely on your Walkman. His newest album, Marc Broussard, is knee deep in tracks that will make you forget your hair is frizzing and your knees are sweating.

P.S. Don't forget to enter my lil' giveaway for a $40 Lowe's Giftcard.

 

Recommending Disclaimer: I don't suggest anything because I get it free or because I have some sort of illicit relationship with dead Southern writers or living Southern musicians.

The Post About a $40 Lowe's Giveaway

The whatsit on my toilet broke. It's the thingamajig in the tank that pulls on the doohickey that makes the water go away and come back.

And I fixed it. Because I'm amazing.

Although it DID take consultations with my father and Walter at Lowe's. 

How much do I love those two guys? If Walter wasn't collecting social security and eating dinner every day at 4:30pm, then this post would be an engagement announcement.

So in light of my impressive accomplishment this week, I've decided to give away a $40 Lowe's Gift Card.

How To Enter:
Leave a comment answering the question:
What's one thing you would "fix" in your home?

**2 Extra Credit Entries**
Each of the following will give you one extra entry in the giveaway. Please make sure to leave a separate comment for each thing you do!

1. "Like" Jamie's Rabbits on Facebook.
2. Follow Jamie's Rabbits on Twitter.
**You can accomplish both of these tasks by clicking on the links. If you've already liked and followed before today, make sure you comment that too!**

Important Details: Open to anyone in the US or Canada. Must enter before 11:59pm CST on Monday, June 20 to qualify. Winner will be chosen randomly using Research Randomizer and announced next week. Obviously, anonymous folks can't win unless they leave a name in the comment. 

P.S. Although I wander around Lowe's looking perplexed almost weekly, they don't know the first thing about this blog or this giveaway.

{image: Jamie}

The Post About Writing To My 16-Year-Old Self

My travel agent has a really impressive 16-year-old daughter. There's a laundry list of descriptors you could use in assessing her: smart, thoughtful, funny, talented. 

 

Recently, she retweeted a friend's "biggest fear."

My initial thoughts were:

• "That's absurd!"
• "Who's her mother?"
• "I blame that mer-whore Ariel!"

But can I tell you a secret?

Sixteen-year-old Jamie would have tweeted the same thing. Verbatim.

Pair that insight with the discovery of the book Dear Me: A Letter to My Sixteen-Year-Old Self and I had inspiration. Dear Me includes notes celebrities wrote to their younger selves which are silly and stirring.

The Post About The Rabbit Recommends v.92

Each week or so I post a readable or watchable and/or a listenable of which I'm fond. You can choose what happens after my recommendation. Ignore, embrace, debate.

Earlier volumes of The Rabbit Recommends can be found here.

Watch

Sometimes I take Red Box risks and they don't pay off - i.e. Hereafter - I still love you Mr. Matt. However, choosing Rabbit Hole was a winner. Nicole Kidman stretches her acting frown lines, freed by a Botox break, and really nails it. And then there's me wanting to camp out in Aaron Eckhart's chin dimple. Try to avoid learning too much about the movie, because I think it unfolds exquisitely if your plot know-how is limited. Of course, if your summer preference is robots, then this might disappoint.

Listen

I'm late to the Satellite party. I was introduced after signing up for free music at the Catalyst Atlanta website. Sidebar: Do that. Most compilations have 2 phenomenal tracks and then 17 others from cousins of the webmaster. But holy moly - the music Catalyst gifts is really incredible. 

Back to Satellite - great band similar to The Daylights or Trent Dabbs or other boys with good hair who can sing. You can snag the song "Say The Words" free on the Satellite website, but don't hesitate to pick up their entire EP Ring the Bells.

Recommending Disclaimer: I don't suggest anything because I get it free or because I have some sort of illicit relationship with Keith Urban or boys with good hair who sing. I save all of those questionable dealings for those who comment on blog posts.

The Post About Mary Poppins Trumping Ariel

 

Disney Role Model #1. 

Intelligent, charming, confident and can produce a mirror and a hatstand from the shallow depths of a spectacular handbag.

Disney Role Model #2. 

Beautiful, talented, free-spirited and can hoard so hard that an A&E producer drops the down payment on a beach house.  

I'm a card-carrying member of only one fan club.

The Post About Moo MiniCards

A package arrived yesterday from Moo.

I first discovered Moo when Plain Chicken spotted me her own mini-moo card at an event. I was hooked.

Sidebar: You should read Plain Chicken's blog. She loves to cook and bake and does it so well. She also loves Auburn football, but don't let that affect your interest. I recently made her Chicken Parmesan Crescents which were divine. And easy for someone like me who doesn't actually cook.

I knew I needed a personal business card instead of continuing the practice of writing my Twitter handle on the backs of people's hands with eyeliner. Even when they didn't ask.

The Post About The Rabbit Recommends v.91

Each week or so I post a readable or watchable and/or a listenable of which I'm fond. You can choose what happens after my recommendation. Ignore, embrace, debate.

Earlier volumes of The Rabbit Recommends can be found here.

Read

I previously suggested Book 1 in the Hunger Games Trilogy and I stand by that now having finished Book 2 - Catching Fire. With all the buzz about the new movie, it nudged me to get back on that divine horse created by Suzanne Collins to find out what happens next. And what happens next is excellent. As a refresher: Hunger Games is a set of science fiction novels which perfectly blend a post-apocalyptic Earth and a reality show. And who of us doesn't want to read that?

The Post About What I've Made This Week

I like to keep you posted on my accomplishments. 

Because I know how much you like reading about me.

 

I made these for my Mom because she asked. And since she birthed me and still buys me stuff, I complied. Recipe inspired by Foodspiration.