My Back Fence

Thanks to Trop50 for sponsoring my writing about fabulous bloggers. This year Trop50 is granting 50 Fabulous Wishes. Click here to enter for a chance to win $1,000 to celebrate a friend with a refreshing attitude about looking and feeling fabulous!

- - - - - - -

I have been thinking a lot lately about what blogging has done for me. It has given me a voice and has helped me sharpen my sense of humor. It has given me a place to record the day-to-day stages of my children so that when I have Alzheimer's I can have my kids read my blog to me and maybe I will remember— a la The Notebook.

But more than anything it has introduced me to some amazing people. I have been able to connect with women around the world in a way that I never would have been able to do had I not been blogging. Some of my dearest friends have come because of this crazy “emotional outlet”.

Caroline

She is one of the smartest women I know. Period. Her brain works in ways that mine doesn’t and she thinks differently than me. I love talking with her because she sees the details in everything. That woman has business sense and her creativity boggles my mind.

We met when she heard “through the grapevine” that I wanted a blog header. She sent me an email and said “I’ll re-do your blog for you—for free.” And that was how we started our friendship. I would email her. She’d email me back. Then I emailed her in the middle of the night one night about my hair-brained ideas for MMB and she said “Give me your phone number I am calling you right now.”
And now we talk on the phone every single day. Twice on Thursdays.

She cracks me up because people are scared of her. We have the good cop/bad cop routine down to a science and it makes me laugh. She makes me laugh and that’s one of the best qualities to have. She knows the in’s and out’s of my life—you have to when you are in business with each other and I can honestly say that not only is she my business partner, she is probably my best friend, too.

Veronica

She is one of the most peaceful women I know. She has a calming effect on me, and I love to be around her because of the way she makes me feel. She is grounded, centered, non-judgmental and never burns a bridge. Ever. But not only that, she is wicked smart.

I learned that after spending 12 hours in the car with her last November. We bounced idea after idea off each other and it was a veritable idea feast. Once we put or heads together we realized we shared the same brain and it was actually a pretty smart brain at that.

Our creative ideas feed off each other and when we brainstorm we come up with amazing marketing campaigns.She has also become one of my closest friends, and I simply adore her. Never mind the fact that she has kids the exact same age as my kids. That’s a bonus. Including a cute 16 year old boy that I am hoping will date my cute 16 year old girl (which totally freaks her out, btw).

Julie

Julie is one of the kindest people I know. She always looks for the good in people and always assumes the best about them. She will give you the shirt off her back, if she thinks it would help you out and never once expect anything in return.

She is also wicked smart and can code things like nobodies business. She is quiet and humble and has a soothing influence on me. Julie is fearless. If she wants something, she simply finds an email address and then sends an email. I was floored the first time she told me that. Who does that? Julie, that’s who. She has shared that confidence with me, and I am starting to become more fearless, with regards to emailing whomever I need to in order to get what I need.

Melissa

This girl is so freaking funny. She sends out the craziest emails in the middle of the night and I have to be careful to not read them while Jefe is sleeping. That is a quality that I greatly admire—the ability to make people laugh. And, Melissa has that quality. To this day, I can not walk through Wal-mart without remembering her post about how she prayed while she was there to not poop her pants. I seriously DIED when I was reading that. And then imagine Caroline reading her entire blog to you over the phone. I was praying I wouldn’t pee my pants. Melissa is funny, and under appreciated in that arena.

She is also one of the most talented graphic designers I have yet to lay my little eye-balls on. She made the MMB and CBC community and network logos for us, and I still look at them and swoon with love. I love how her mind works and how totally fast she can make something beautiful.

DeNae

She is like the older sister I never had. I met her when she asked to be added to the MMB Funny Ladies list and then sent me this hilarious post about the Israelites and “their time of the month”. Oh my goodness. I laughed so hard I thought I just might die. When I actually got her phone number I thought I had been accepted into the Celestial kingdom early.

She is solid. She is wicked funny and she is my dear friend. We text more than we don’t and I love that she gets my sense of humor. I have a weird one and she is right there next to me feeding me one liners faster than I can memorize them. She can take the most mundane thing and make it hysterical and then wax philosophical in the next breath and leave you begging for more.

But not only that she is my balcony person. She is always there, in the balcony of my life cheering me on. Everyone needs a person like that in their life, and DeNae is mine. I can tell her my hair-brained ideas and if they really are “out there” she reigns me in. If there is something to it, she tells me to work a little harder. She believes in me. And that means more to me than anything else.

That my friends is what blogging has done for me. It has brought this amazing group of women into my life—from D.C to Vegas to Oregon and Boise. I never would have been able to meet these amazing women, and talk over our proverbial back fences the way we do, if it weren’t for the medium of blogging.

- - - - - - -

Don't forget to enter the 50 Fabulous Wishes contest for a chance to win $1,000 to celebrate a friend with a refreshing attitude about looking and feeling fabulous. I was selected for this Tropicana Trop50 sponsorship by the Clever Girls Collective, which endorses Blog With Integrity, as I do. I received compensation to use and facilitate my post.