YAY ME! & YAY FOR MY PALS!

It's my first day off in 2010 (yes I did work on the 1st & 2nd of January-pizza never sleeps you know).
It's time to get down to blogging blissfulness!

Last week I mentioned I wasn't doing the whole Resolution thing, instead I'm tracking what I've accomplished. Find out why here

http://thesunshineisin.blogspot.com/2009/12/gathering-of-accomplishments.html

So here's a log of what I was able to do last year (by the way it's mostly from my blogs & my bad memory, so if I forgot something please let me know)

January 2009
2008 had ended on a great note. My best pal Diane & I had just hosted our 1st MeFest event & vendors were asking us to organize another one for the spring!

Also in January I started this blog
& tried my best to make it fun & interesting to all.

I read THE POWER OF NICE that I received the month before from a gift exchange. I loved the book & found out that there was a 2nd one coming out called THE POWER OF SMALL (which describes me perfectly on so many levels!) . I contacted the site & asked if it would be available in Canada. They weren't sure so they sent me a copy of it!

Not too much happened in February as we were in full swing for our 2nd MeFest

March 2009 I met Carol & learned a lot about blogging! She's one smart cookie!

Then April 2009 hit WITH A BANG! We hosted another successful MeFest. We started a Those2Girls blog & doing weekly postings for the http://stufftodowithyourkidsinkw.blogspot.com/

What was next TWITTER. Okay I can't say enough about how much I love twitter. I think I learned the power of twitter the night we helped @BoredMommy win the title of the Mammavation Mommy. Not quite what she expected, but that night so many women connected to help her gain her title.
AWESOME was the only way to describe that night.

So May 2009 was a lot of downtime (which really means learning to tweet)

June 2009 We started a cleaning challenge on the Those2Girls blog. I didn't accomplish as much as Diane did, but I did give it go.

You see I was too busy becoming an official YummyMummyClub member (2nd row at the bottom, pic on the right)

July 2009 was very rainy here in KW, but this was the best pic of the summer

In August I did an interview for Prospere Magazine featuring @Hullabaloo519

I also started writing a blog for parents of Tweens. Here you can see how my son made it in the newspaper

September 2009 We went to the Hockey Hall of Fame & everyone's favorite chuckle the LEGO post happened

What else happened that month? We got our Tiara pic! We started a mission to get Diane's daughter to #1 for a mall shopping spree thanks to our twitter & facebook friends & wrote an article for the YummyMummyClub

Along came October 2009 which currently holds the reigning BEST DAY EVER We had our 3rd (& very successful) MeFest. Also that day I got to meet a lot of my Yummy Mummy pals at Nursery School Musical. That was an amazing day!

Next up twitter was a buzz with everyone trying to win Tassimo machines. We were trying to get them for ourselves & each other. That's the best thing about twitter! We're all in this together.

I also wrote this http://www.mommyagogo.ca/index.cfm?pagePath=BABY_TALK/Archives/October_2009/Lasting_Power_in_A_Boy_s_World&id=16841

Guess what arrived in November? http://thesunshineisin.blogspot.com/2009/11/cheers-to-tassimo-hot-chocolate.html

& I got to meet another twitter pal @BusterRhinosBBQ & look what he brought me http://thesunshineisin.blogspot.com/2009/11/tweeting-meeting-making-dinner.html

December came & the idea came for this post (inspired by this post I wrote for AMotherWorld )

I thought it was time to kick back & think of all of my accomplishments & then this happened.... I'm now a monthly contributer to WonderMoms

But enough about me. Here's what's going on with my pals & what they've accomplished, about to accomplish &/or changing their outlook towards 2010

@JackiYo is about to try something new

@AmericanNanny is favouring revelations

@CocktailDeeva is going to give it the old college try

http://twitter.com/amotherworld is pondering the what ifs???

@1ofthose2girls is setting some goals

@NoFlashCards is doing what she loves most

What are you doing? I'd love to see your New Year's post & link it to this. Just leave a comment with your blog URL

Come celebrate with us!

Gathering of Accomplishments

For the holidays I wrote an article on AMotherWorld about celebrating your accomplishments rather than making resolutions (it's the article on the right side of the page).

I'm hoping to make a list for what I've accomplished for 2009, but I don't want to just toot my own horn, I want to crank it up & celebrate everyone's accomplishments!

I'm hoping all the bloggers out there will write a post about all that they've accomplished this year & post the link to their post in the comments section of this blog.

Then next week I can compile them all & we can have a little party here on my blog.

So what made you proud of yourself this year?

Now I'm doing Blogging Giveaways!

Hey there Holiday readers, hope you are well this holiday season!

Things are very exciting around my place! We're busy playing Squeeballs for Nintendo Wii & DS


This game is rated E10, which is perfect for my son!

It's a game about being a toy tester. As a player you must run these toys balls through a variety of challenges to see if they hold up under the Extreme playing situations.
The Squeeballs that pass the tests make it off their island & can go to the toy store.
It's truly a fun & silly game, which makes it perfect for family play.
There are several ways to play it. On our Wii we chose PARTY MODE so we could take turns playing the challenges on the Ladder. As you get better, more challenges are unlocked & added to the Ladder.
I don't know about the DS version yet, as my son won't let me get my hands on it (so I'm guessing that's a good thing).

Want to see why we're giggling all day with this game? Take a look at this short video http://www.squeeballs.com/#/see-us-in-action
Also on the site you can see other info about the game by clicking the buttons on the blender (yup you get to blend a Squeeball - too funny!)

I'm giving away a copy of Squeeballs for Wii & a separate copy of Squeeballs for DS over at my other blog
http://itsnoteasyraisingatween.blogspot.com/
the post is the same but at the bottom of that post is how to enter.

Hidden Mickey Tree

How many Mickeys do you see on my tree?
Careful don't get Disney, I mean Dizzy!

Twitter for Pals not yet on Twitter

I have a ton of my friends that just don't GET Twitter.
They know I love it, but it's something they just not sure how to use. "Isn't just status updates?" Is something I get asked quite often. It is for some, if that's what you want it to be, but if you want the true Twitter experience you need to get on & get tweeting!

It might be easier for you to bookmark this post, as it's a lot to take all in at once. Even better would be if you opened a second window & went back & forth between this post & the twitter page.

It's been almost a year since I got on so as a refresher I'm going to set up a new account so I remember all the steps.
So start by going to http://twitter.com
So click on Join
Now a new screen pops up. Type in your name, I used SushineIsIn because it's my blogs name, & my name is on other stuff for @those2girls on twitter.
For my Twitter name I went with
TweetsForMyPals
so it's easy to find
Next is the regular password & verification stuff
& create/submit.

Next page says find your friends, skip that by clicking on the blue twitter logo at the top of the screen

Okay now the twitter page shows up. It asks what you are doing. So go ahead & type something, but make it less than 140 characters.

That was all the easy part. Here we go with the REAL use of twitter.

Start by tweeting someone you know. Don't know anyone on twitter, well then start with ME!
1st off you need to put the "@" right beside their twitter name.
If you don't they won't see it.
I'm off to type
Hey @those2girls I'm trying to find you. See that there isn't a space beside the "@" & the "those2girls".
After you hit update, your status is moved down under the box. You can see that the @those2girls is now clickable.
That status just did 2 things for you. First you can click it & see the @those2girls page & click follow & 2nd you will be in the Mentions of @those2girls.

Mentions is our next step
So now that you've followed someone, click Home at the top right of your screen & you'll be back on your page.

Now on the right sidebar you will see under your twitter name with the "@" symbol beside it. When you click that you can see anyone who's mentioned you. If you want to reply to them just put your cursor over their tweet & a reply link shows up in the bottom right corner of their tweet. Now their Mention name show up again & you can continue on the converstation.

Now once again hit the HOME link at the top right of the page.

Now on twitter, any conversation is open. You are meant to jump in on stuff you see & add to the convo (just don't be arguementative, no on on twitter likes that).

If you wanted to tell something to someone privately you do it through a direct message. That is also listed in the right sidebar. There is one hitch though. The person you direct message needs to be a follower of yours as well. Once on the Direct Message page there is a drop down menu that show who you can direct message. Pick that persons name & then type out the message.

If someone Direct messages you it will be on the Direct Message page as well (there's a inbox & sent messages tab to pick from).

Now the biggie on Twitter
ReTweeting.....

If you want to pass on something you saw to all the people that follow you, you are welcome to do that, but give credit where credit is due.
The proper way is to put
RT @______ & type (or copy & paste) what they said.
So RT @those2girls ___________
This will then count as a tweet for you plus it will be in the mentions of the orginal tweeter.
If you have been ReTweeted, & see it in your mentions, you hit reply & thank the person for ReTweeting you.

Now that is the basics. You need to know them. Next to make it all easier download a program like TweetDeck.

It's easy enough to do. If you are downloading it & it says it requires ADOBE AIR, just say okay & it loads it as well.
It's been a while since TweetDeck got loaded on here, so I hope I don't miss any steps.

Once your screen shows up with TweetDeck it will look kind of confusing. If something shows up like TWEETDECK RECCOMENDS just "x" it out. You don't need it.
It should be a few colums
All Friends (which are the people you follow, including yourself)
Mentions (which shows who has mentioned you)
& Direct Messages.

(if those don't seem to be there, leave a comment with your email & we can try to figure it out together)

Now TweetDeck just made your tweeting, ReTweeting & Direct Messaging easier.

Once you see a friend's tweet, put your cursor over their pic. You'll see 4 little buttons show up ontop of their pic.
Top left is your reply button, top right is your direct message button & bottom left is your ReTweet button.

The bottom left is the hand button is THE BEST, it will Retweet the whole tweet (not retyping or copy & pasting involved).

Now sometimes when you ReTweet it's too long, feel free to shorten any tweet as long as it keeps true to it's orginal meaning. On top of the TweetDeck What are you doing posting bar, look to the top right & you will see more buttons, on the 2nd row, 2nd button in (beside the camera) you'll see a tweet shrink button. If you click this it will change some of the words to help your tweet fit. For example everywhere it says TO it will now be a 2, the but feel free to change other things yourself to shorten. You'll get used to it.
(or U'll gt used 2 it in twitter speak).

For more on how to properly ReTweet someone, please read this post by Scott Stratten of @unmarketing

http://www.un-marketing.com/blog/2009/10/27/dont-stick-it-in-their-mouth-how-to-retweet/

Together he & Erica Ehm of @YummyMummyClub put together a video called Twitter 101
http://www.yummymummyclub.ca/twitter_101
which got me started on twitter oh so many months ago

If you are on TweeDeck & want to see someone's twitter profile just click on their name & their pic & profile will show up big on the right side of the page. To get it back to regular view hit the little orange square near the top left, beside where it says Tweetdeck that's looks like a square piece of paper & a pen.
See that was easy!

These are great starting points for your twitter. Things like uploading pics etc, I'll let you do on your own.

Twitter Lists are another up & coming part of twitter, but I think I'll leave that for another post.
So remember to follow me @those2girls & let me know you read this post!

Tweeting, Meeting & Making Dinner!

Guess who's Back? Back again? Twitter Blog is Back & I made a new Friend (sung in the style of Eminem)

This is both a blog & vlog post because I have a lot to cover!

As you know I love TWITTER. I love it so much! Did I mention I love Twitter?

So many great things have happened to me this year & most are because I'm on Twitter (that's another big post in itself).

This week I got to meet another one of my Twitter Pals FACE TO FACE.
Darryl who can be found @BusterRhinosBBQ or his website
http://www.busterrhinos.com

So what is a BUSTER RHINO? Well it's a great company/restaurant that cooks in the Southern Barbecque style.

He had mentioned that he was coming to KW & would anyone want to meet up? & since I'm all about meeting new people I was excited see him!
We had a great chat & he being the wonderful TWITTER he is (people on Twitter are all about sharing info & connecting for the most part)
brought me goodies! I wasn't sure what would be the best way to thank him other than this FULL CAPS ON THANK-YOU!!!!
So I did the next best thing I could & made a YouTube video about it



Congrats Darryl on helping me make a 10 minute dinner!

Cheers to Tassimo Hot Chocolate

Hi Everyone! My son is really stoked to be on a video & would love to see your comments!
Here we are making Tassimo Hot Chocolate....