Strength in Numbers

By now you will have heard that the Purple House at Random Ramblings of  SAHM has been rocked to it's foundations with the sad passing of Lori's husband, Tony.

Today I am so proud of the Mummy Blogging community. They have come together to support one of their own. Twitter has been swamped with words of love and support so much so that #prayingfortony was trending in Australia.

They have organized meals, washing, ironing and cleaning for Lori, so that she can concentrate on healing and focus on her two small children, Chop & Bump, who now don't have a Daddy.

They have dug deep and raised almost $3000 to help lessen the financial burden a sudden death in the family creates. 

You can donate securely through PayPal using this widget

Today I have seen both the extremely ugly side of life, in the taking of such a young life; and the astounding beauty in it, with the warmth and compassion shown by the community.
 

For once Casa de Glowless has a glow. The glow of a candle burning brightly, lighting Tony's way for the next leg of his journey.

Rest In Peace, Tony
1977 - 2011

Dot Com, Baby! - Giveaway

Cast your eyes upwards folks, all the way up past the page tabs, past the header and stop in your address bar... do you see it? Do ya? If you're looking at the wall behind your computer you've gone too far, come down a bit.

That glorious address www.wheresmyglow.com !!!

That's right, I've gone dot com, baby!

I'll give you a minute while you go and change your bookmark (you do have this page bookmarked, right?)

To celebrate this momentous occasion I'm giving away a pony!

OK so that might put a bit too much of a squeeze on my budget, plus they're a bitch to giftwrap.

How about this?

We're getting closer. It's definitely in my price range but it really doesn't say "gimmick giveaway" enough does it?

Aaah, now what about this little beauty?

Yep, that's it! I will download and print a picture of a horse and colour it in for you!

Is that not the coolest prize you have ever heard of?

It's perfect, really. It's small, it's easy, it's cheap and much easier to fit inside a mailbox. 

If you'd like to win a picture of a pony, painstakingly coloured in by yours truly, leave a comment below telling me how fantastic I am why you want to win! Because I know how desperate you are to win this awesome prize, I'm going to let you enter as many times as you want.

Entry is open to everyone, even my handful of overseas readers - they're very cool and have funky accents. Entries close at 8pm on the 15th of January at which time the lucky winner will be chosen using Random.org

No ponies were harmed in the production of this crappy blog post.

Make sure you sign in to Disqus (the comment widget) with a valid email address so you can be contacted when you win. If you have trouble with the widget you can email your entry to Glowless{at}wheresmyglow{dot}com. (See that, got a groovy new email address to match!) 

A5NRQDM9TSJ9

   __________________________________________________________ Meet Glowless at the Aussie Bloggers' Conference thanks to HealthyChart and Baby Goes Retro!

Please Support Lori @ RRSAHM

Lori, the amazing woman behind Random Ramblings of a Stay At Home Mum needs our help.

She has asked for your prayers and thoughts for her husband, Tony. He is in intensive care, fighting for his life.

Tony is the major breadwinner in their family... and the stress of finding money to put food on the table and pay the bills is something she really doesn't need right now... it's also one thing we can help with.

Money doesn't fix things. It doesn't even come close. But it can be one less thing she has to worry about.

Emma from Mind Your Mum (Lori's long time BFF) and I would like to ask you to please spare some change?

This widget has now been removedThank you to all who contributed over $4000 was raisedto support Lori and her children as Tony sadly passed away a few days later

(You can put this widget on your own blog too - see where it says "Add to Site")

I'd like to point out that Lori is unaware of this as yet - she has not asked for money, just your prayers.

Thank you so much for supporting Lori, Tony, Chop & Bump.

Thirty before 30

This year I turn the big 3-0 (on the 17th of December for those who'd like to mark it in their calendars). So I figure I need some sort of a bucket list. I’m not the first to do it, I’m not even the first to blog it. But I’m gonna do it anyway.

Plus it lets me make a cool logo.

Some of the things on here are really obvious. Some will be easy and some I almost didn't put on because I think they'll be really, really hard to achieve (great start hey?). But maybe, just maybe, putting it on the blogosphere will spur me on to do it. So let’s give it a whirl.

1.  Finish renovating the house
Our renovations are almost finished… they’ve been almost finished for two years. I want a floor in my kitchen – it’s currently just concrete and some tatters of the old lino. The walls need painting too

2.   Buy a new pair of shoes

3.   Go on a holiday with Map Guy and Tricky

4.   Attend my Dad’s 60^th birthday celebration and spoil him rotten with presents

5.   Start dancing lessons with Map Guy

6.   Expand Where’s My Glow?
My goal is to reach 200 followers. I’m currently sitting at just over 100 so that’s almost double. I’ve written a plan of attack so let’s see how it goes (you can help by suggesting me to your friends *wink wink nudge nudge*)

7.   Ask for help when I need it

8.   Read and comment on more blogs

9.   Get my hair done

10. Cook more food from scratch

11. Attend the Aussie Bloggers’ Conference
I’m booked in and I’m ready and raring to go! If you didn’t already know this then you’re living under a blogrock. I’m going thanks to HealthyChart and Baby Goes Retro (and a few others who will be revealed very shortly – oooh mystery!)

12. Clean out my kitchen cupboards

13. Have a facial

14. Keep breastfeeding Tricky

15. Enter more competitions

16. See some amazing live music with Map Guy

17. Clean out my wardrobe

18. Hang photos up on the walls

19. Have a nice 1st birthday party for Tricky
I don’t want a circus, a petting zoo or a jumping castle. I don’t want to spend hundreds of dollars on something that he won’t even remember. I’d like a small gathering of the people who are important in our lives, a BBQ and some photos of Tricky eating cake

20. Write some poetry

21. Spend some time in Albany so that Tricky gets more time with his rellies

22. Clean out the Man Cave (the study where Map Guy spends most of his time)

23. Lose weight
Yeah, that’s a bit vague. I lost almost 30kg in the lead up to my wedding but then getting sick and having a baby (and eating loads of crap) meant most of that has crept back on in the last three years. I’d like to get back there

24. Make a new friend

25. Keep seeing a counselor (keep’s the craziness at bay)

26. Go on a date with Map Guy
Just me and him. I want to go to dinner and see a movie – it’s terribly cliché but I still want it

27. Be more assertive

28. Keep attending Mothers’ Group

29. Go swimming
I used to swim for a club when I was a kid (I could even do the tumble turny things), but I haven’t gone swimming in almost three years – it’s a body confidence thing, or rather, a lack thereof

30. Plan a kick-ass 30^th birthday party

So there you have it. If you've managed to read all the way down to here, kudos to you! 

So what's on your bucket list?

__________________________________________________________ Meet Glowless at the Aussie Bloggers' Conference thanks to HealthyChart and Baby Goes Retro!

Letter to Tricky - Seven months old

Dear Tricky,

You've been up to quite a lot this month my boy!

After much fuss your first tooth finally arrived! Hooray! Your little white chomper caused you quite a bit of distress, even with your funky amber teething beads, but once it was through you were happy and smiley again. The second tooth really knocked you for six and you weren't a happy chappy at all, allowing Mummy to have only 1.5 hours sleep the other night. 

But back to happier things - we celebrated your first Christmas in style by having not one, not two, not three but FOUR family meals (no wonder Mummy is a bit more squishy than usual)! One in Perth and three in Albany - you even got to meet some of your Albany rellies that you hadn't met before. It was all very exciting and you got some lovely presents, although you did prefer the wrapping paper and the boxes just like we expected.

You had your very first dip in the ocean. Well, if you can call the wave tickling your toes before you screamed blue murder a dip. But hey, at least you thought the sand was pretty cool. Plus we got it on video and it'll make excellent viewing when you're older.

By far the biggest thing to happen is that you've figured out how to pull yourself in to standing. And for the past two weeks it's now your preferred position to be in All.The.Time. Your Nanny in Albany has been telling me how your Daddy walked early and she took one look at you and said "Oooh Map Guy wasn't doing it this early!" so I think you might be off and racing really soon.

Stand and Deliver. Or wave.

The only problem is your inner dare devil which makes you stand up using only one hand while you wave at me with the other (did I mention you've half figured out waving? It's adorable!). Darling, whilst I am proud of your new skills, please, while you're learning, use two hands to hold on - the bumps and bruises that are starting to appear as a result of falling from that extra height will have the authorities on our doorstep in no time.

It's a start of a brand new year, my gorgeous boy. Let's see what adventures it brings... hopefully ones that make you sleep more at night.

Love Mummy xxx

__________________________________________________

Meet Glowless at the Aussie Bloggers' Conference thanks to HealthyChart and Baby Goes Retro!