the 2014 analysis

2014 is finally drawing to a close. It was the best of years, it was the...no, just the best of years. That's all. There was probably bad stuff in the pre-August 5 days, but I don't even remember. It was the very best year ever.

I've done a variety of lame year-end reviews over the last few years.. For 2013 and 2012 I skipped the depressing annual life-review survey/questionnaire of 2011 , 2010, and 2009 and moved towards just analyzing my blog instead. Navel gazing? Probably yes. Interesting to me? Definitely yes. Interesting to anyone else? You decide. Feel free to skip out if numbers and percentages aren't your thing. But if you're a big nerd like me (slash just plain nosey...also like me), read on!

All data is obtained from Google Analytics, a.k.a. my best frenemy.

Also, if you have an excellent memory (OR you are totally obsessed with me and reread my archives on a daily basis...extremely likely...), you may think that some of my explanations here sound familiar. That's because I just copy-pasted some of my explanations from last year. It's not plagiarism if it's something YOU wrote, right? Right. And I explained it so nicely last time...I thought...how could I possibly improve on that? I shouldn't even try.

Between January 1, 2014 and December 30, 2014 (at 2:20 p.m.), this blog had...
-174,500 visits (a 100.2% increase from 2013!)
-282,349 pageviews (a 113.46% increase from 2013!)
-an average visit duration of 1 minute and 30 seconds (that's a tragic decrease of about 24 seconds from last year...I'm going to have to start packing more cute pictures towards the bottom to entice you to stick around longer!)
-1,087 visits that lasted for more than 30 minutes-- these visitors get the 'quality time' award. (And don't worry, those of you fretting that you might be skewing the very important numbers here because you sometimes just leave the window open with my blog pulled up...Google is smart and it only counts your time for as long as you're 'actively engaged' with the page- clicking stuff, scrolling...it won't count your time if you leave the computer on my page for 2 hours while you take a nap!)

In terms of "Referrals"-- sites that send traffic my way...
(I'm not including feed readers- BlogLovin, Feedly, etc.- this year, though the various readers together combine to make up the vast majority of my 'referrals.' But they're boring, so we'll skip them.)
*I'm including the number of visits and number of 'new visits' because that's really interesting to me. 'New visits' means it's the first time Google has recorded that person (IP address, really) ever coming here. If you return again, even via the same referring site, your visit gets recorded, but you're not a 'new visitor' anymore.

#1- Meet the Joiners: 6,751 visits; 6.4% new visits 
#2- Two Hearts and One Dream: 5,277 visits; 11.96% new visits
#3- Genuine Greavu: 4,879 visits; 9.26% new visits 
#4- Kelly's Korner; 4,745 visits; 23.12% new visits (As far as I remember, I only participated in one of her 'show us your life' link-ups this year (the Christmas decor one a few weeks ago), so most of this traffic is repeat visitors from past link-ups.)
#5- Ummmm...myself: 4,119 visits; .53% new visits (Gonna be honest, don't understand this one...not sure how my own blog counts as a referral? Anyone know?)
(We'll do a bonus #6 since #5 was stupid...)
#6- Stories of a Stay at Home Mom: 2,124 visits; 18.46% new visits

-In all, there are 409 'referring sites.' That seems like a lot, but it's a little misleading because of the way Analytics breaks down the sites now. For instance, if the referring website was being viewed as a .ca or .uk (as opposed to .com), it counts it separately. So (for example) it has my referrals from Aubrey's blog, which I and most (all?) Americans view as www.aubreyandnick.blogspot.COM (except we wouldn't capitalize the COM, but it's there for emphasis), broken down into like 10 different things. There are thousands of referrals from the address I just wrote, but then a couple hundred more from www.aubreyandnick.blogspot.CA (I guess those are Canadian referrals), more from www.aubreyandnick.blogspot.AE (no clue), more from www.aubreyandnick.blogspot.DE (no idea)...and more and more and more. You get the idea. Even though Aubrey only has one blog and REALLY all of my referrals are all coming from that one place, it's broken down into at least 10 different sub-referrals and I'd have to pick through and add them all up to find out how many people Aubrey REALLY sent my way. Make sense? It's dumb. And this is for EVERY referring webpage, not just Aubrey's! So...that's why I know there aren't really 409 DIFFERENT referring sites. End of rant.

18,643 people found their way here by Googling something. 22.68% of those were first time visits.

Unfortunately for us all, all of the top 50 search terms are really boring and predictable (like "something beautiful blog" or "erika matt something beautiful" or "something beautiful infertility"). And I don't feel like digging around to find the really funny ones that are buried somewhere on page 41. Womp.

My 10 most popular posts/pages, by number of pageviews:
-Homepage (171,451)
-Redemption (2,458)
-Chosen, Again (1,665)
-A Christmas Grammar Intervention (1,540)
-About Me (1,502)
-Christmas Tour 2014 (1,440)
-Weekend Distractions (1,416)
-Infertility & Adoption (1,315)
-Babies Don't Keep (1,255)
-Baby Updates. I'm Out of Creative Titles, Sorry. (1,218)


My personal favorite posts of 2014 (in no particular order):
-Redemption
-Dedicated
-The Logistics of Caring (it's not that I love what I wrote so much, it's that YOUR SUGGESTIONS ALL CHANGED MY LIFE and helped me to be a much better human being and friend- I reread that comment section frequently!!)
-Ask the Gym Fashion Expert! (also, it's the comment section that kills me. HILARIOUS.)
-Beauty Will Rise
-Babies Don't Keep

Favorite picture of 2014:

from Babies Don't Keep

It's not that I look great or Millie looks particularly cute- it's just that it's the picture that reminds me of how incredibly happy and grateful I felt in 2014. This is the me I always wanted to be.

Not shockingly, 2014 will go down in the books as my favorite year ever. I feel like I say that plenty enough, which is why I didn't think a 'life recap' end-of-the-year post was really necessary...but in case it wasn't 110% abundantly clear...

2014: The Year We Became a Family of Three

Best. Year. Ever.

hodge-podge

It's random thoughts or nothin' today...and since I've already picked nothin' for two days in a row, we'll go with the random thoughts.

1. This working mom gig is no joke. In case you were under the impression that working 40 hours a week (45 if you count the commutes!) plus raising an infant was some kind of walk in the park...well, it's not. And to top it off, it's dark by the time I get home so WE CAN'T EVEN GO TO THE PARK. Waaah. So it's not easy BUT I must say- it's still better than I thought it would be. I cram more than I ever thought possible into the minutes when Millie is sleeping so that I can be fully present and engaged every minute that she's awake and we're together. Matt and I have all of these lists around the house (Things To Do At Night, Things To Do Before Work...) and we're being super proactive about everything and therefore so far I can say that we haven't been too overwhelmed by anything. The laundry stays in check (including the diapers). The house isn't a wreck. We cook and eat 3 meals a day. Her diaper bag(s) are always properly stocked. And in addition to all of that and work, we have this fabulous little person to love and play with and snuggle and we absolutely couldn't be happier. Tonight we even crammed in 30 minutes of circuits while she napped before dinner. Since exercise is definitely the most prominent thing we've given up lately, that made me feel like today was extra-successful! (PS. In case it didn't seem abundantly clear here- every single 'sacrifice' is infinitesimal to what we've gained. I am so incredibly grateful for the opportunity to be a working mom because it means I'm a MOM, and that's all that really matters.)

2. Since I don't get much down time now, I've become highly selective about how I spend it. As you may have observed...blogging doesn't make the cut every day. Ha. My spare hour or so at night is usually split between trucking through Gilmore Girls or reading. I've read some GREAT books lately. I kept thinking about doing a book review post, but like...nahhhh. Too much work. I'll just share my current fave. In a separate bullet point, of course.

3. READ THIS:

Source

But Erika, you're probably thinking, that looks like yet another YA dystopian trilogy! Haven't you gotten over those yet? Aren't you 31 and not 15? Aren't they all basically the same?

To answer your very judgy questions...Yes, No, Yes, Yes. BUT SERIOUSLY YOU NEED TO READ THIS SERIES. I'm not quite finished with Book 3 (I picked blogging instead!!), but they are AMAZING. Sure, in a way they're very much like all the other YA trilogies of late. BUT in another way, they're better. One of the best differences is that the back story on this one (like, how did The Country Formerly Known as the United States become some insane dystopian society?) is FAR more believable and plausible than usual. They don't really explain that until the 2nd book, but when they do, you're like whoa. That could actually happen. And then THAT could happen and then THAT could happen and then OMG IN TWO GENERATIONS WE COULD BE LIVING IN THIS STORY!!!!! It makes the whole thing much creepier and more awesome. Also, there isn't nearly as much teenage angst in these, in my opinion. Sure, there's a teenage romance, but it's compelling without being quite as eye-roll-worthy as in other books.

So anyway, in conclusion, add these to your library holds list and thank me later.

4. I was looking at my Google Analytics yesterday and noticed that one of my favorite old posts must have gotten discovered and shared and re-shared on Facebook, based on tons of new visitors all coming from FB to the same post. And it just happens to be last year's Christmas Grammar Intervention. And you know what THAT means- it must be Christmas card season again!! I had planned on doing Christmas cards this year (hello cute baby!), but I feel like I just got done addressing our birth announcements like five minutes ago and I STILL haven't finished my thank you cards, sooooo...all of a sudden, doing another mail out doesn't seem nearly as appealing. I don't know. Does that make me the Grinch? 

5. I really try to avoid sharing the same photo on multiple platforms, but sometimes it simply can't be avoided. My deepest apologies if you already saw this on Instagram the other day, but see...I've looked at it 282929491 times and still think it's the best thing I've ever seen, so maybe it won't annoy you too badly. 

Sometimes Camilla gets to come to my work and spend lunch hour with me. This is evidently what she thinks about it:

Dying. I just die every time I see it. AHHHHHHHHHHHH she is so stinkin' cute!!!!

But for the sake of fairness, this was really just one of her many facial expressions she made in about 4 seconds. Matt caught all of them with his fast thumb snapping lots of pictures.

See, really she likes it there. Or something. Maybe.

That's all I've got. Have a great Thursday!

the year-end blog analysis: 2013 ed.

Well, 2013. What is there to say, really? You were the best of times and the worst of times. I hate to think that all of the good parts will be forever overshadowed by the one bad thing, but I have a hunch that that's the way it'll go. In 40 years, when I try to think back and remember 2013, losing Ellison is probably the first thing that will jump into my head. But maybe if the internet still exists and I can track down my ol' blog, I'll poke around and remember that there was really a lot of good in 2013, too. That's the plan, anyway. 

I don't need to recap what happened this year-- it's all there in the archives. But I love analyzing my blog itself. What happened on the blog this year? Now that's good times, right? I used to do much more frequent posts and updates about the wealth of info that Google Analytics provides, but I actually don't think I've done one since last New Year's Eve-- a tragedy!!  But a tragedy I can work towards fixing today.

Between January 1, 2013 and December 31, 2013 (at 9:20 a.m.), this blog had...
-87,207 visits (a 76% increase from 2012!)
-132,366 pageviews (a 96% increase from 2012!)
-an average visit duration of 1 minute and 54 seconds (that's over 30 seconds longer than in 2012...exciting!! You can deal with me for ALMOST TWO MINUTES at a time now!!! Doesn't this make you feel like Matt is a saint for living with me?)
-912 visits that lasted for more than 30 minutes-- these visitors get the 'quality time' award. (And don't worry, those of you fretting that you might be skewing the very important numbers here because you sometimes just leave the window open with my blog pulled up...Google is smart and it only counts your time for as long as you're 'actively engaged' with the page- clicking stuff, scrolling...it won't count your time if you leave the computer on my page for 2 hours while you take a nap!)

In terms of "Referrals"-- sites that send traffic my way...
(I'm not including feed readers this year, though the various readers together combine to make up the vast majority of my 'referrals.' But they're boring, so we'll skip them.)
*I'm including the number of visits and number of 'new visits' because that's really interesting to me. 'New visits' means it's the first time Google has recorded that person (IP address, really) ever coming here. If you return again, even via the same referring site, your visit gets recorded, but you're not a 'new visitor' anymore.

#1- Kelly's Korner; 7,005 visits; 44.9% new visits (which means that over half of these people return to the 'show us your life' link-up where they found me in the first place and continue navigating here via that post of hers. So interesting!!)
#2- Blogger; 6,859 visits; 8.78% new visits (this makes sense, since this means that over 90% of these visits are from people's Blogger dashboards...and the only way you got me to appear there was to have visited me at least once before and 'followed' or otherwise subscribed to my feeds. The other 9% must be from the 'next blog' button on the top of every Blogger blog.)
#3- Meet the Joiners; 6,582 visits; 7.41% new visits (this means that there are a couple very regular blog readers who only come here via my link on Amanda's page!)
#4- Facebook; 2,357 visits; 36.91% new visits (Facebook is a relative newcomer to my 'top referrers' list. I attribute this mostly to a few of my posts being shared and re-shared on FB, which brought in some modest new traffic.)
#5- E, Myself, and I; 2,209 visits; 18.29% new visits

-In all, there are 383 'referring sites.' That seems like a lot, but it's a little misleading because of the way Analytics breaks down the sites now. For instance, if the referring website was being viewed as a .ca or .uk (as opposed to .com), it counts it separately. So (for example) it has my referrals from Aubrey's blog, which I and most (all?) Americans view as www.aubreyandnick.blogspot.COM (except we wouldn't capitalize the COM, but it's there for emphasis), broken down into like 10 different things. There are thousands of referrals from the address I just wrote, but then a couple hundred more from www.aubreyandnick.blogspot.CA (I guess those are Canadian referrals), more from www.aubreyandnick.blogspot.AE (no clue), more from www.aubreyandnick.blogspot.DE (no idea)...and more and more and more. You get the idea. Even though Aubrey only has one blog and REALLY all of my referrals are all coming from that one place, it's broken down into at least 10 different sub-referrals and I'd have to pick through and add them all up to find out how many people Aubrey REALLY sent my way. Make sense? It's dumb. And this is for EVERY referring webpage, not just Aubrey's! So...that's why I know there aren't really 383 DIFFERENT referring sites. End of rant.

5,928 people found their way here by Googling something. 44.52% of those were first time visits.

There are 829 different words/phrases that people searched on that brought them here. Sadly, of the top 10, 1-9 are boring and predictable combinations of my name, 'matt y erika,' 'something beautiful,' and other normal things like that. However, we should definitely pause and look at #10:

"aly raisman boob job" brought 58 people here!!! HA!!! Obviously I wasn't the only person wondering about that situation during Dancing with the Stars last spring!! Sadly, it appears the 98% of those people didn't stick around and become repeat visitors. I guess I failed them since I didn't have the answers to that important question. Oh well.

My 10 most popular posts/pages, by number of pageviews:
-my homepage (78,780)
-Infertility (3,555)
-Chosen (2,712)
-About Me (1,928)
-Infertility Link-up...and some Serious Man Fashion (1,581)
-Devastating News (1,431)
-Two and a Half Days (1,019)
-A Christmas Grammar Intervention (985)
-The Money Tree (809)
-Wow. Just...wow. (743)

My personal favorite posts of 2013:
-the locusts
-o my soul
-today I woke up crying
-chosen
-a Christmas grammar intervention

Other noteworthy blog milestones of 2013:
-I started creating reader surveys regarding any number of ridiculous topics. Those are some of my favorite posts!
-We had some lengthy discussions regarding blog-related topics, such as threaded commenting and blog Facebook pages. Normally there was no clear consensus that came out of these posts, but they were a lot of fun!
-I started a blog Facebook page. I kicked it off with Twelve Days of Ridiculous and Unnecessary Gift Ideas and that was loads of fun. 
-I got my first extremely hurtful anonymous comment. I seriously considered quitting blogging altogether for about a day. I've since decided not to, obviously, but I still feel panicky every single time I see an anonymous comment come in. 
-I was completely overwhelmed by the love, support, and kindness of the blogging community during the period of time surrounding our adoption match, birth of our daughter, and failure of the adoption. BLOWN AWAY. I couldn't (and can't) fathom the love and generosity that yall poured out on Matt and me. It has challenged and encouraged me to be a more generous and caring person myself, and that is my one goal (or 'resolution') for 2014: to pay forward the kindness that was extended to me during my hour(s) of need.

With that, I'll close the books on another year of blogging. It was a really good one, to be honest. I'm incredibly thankful for the friendships I've formed, for the soul sisters I've found, and for the opportunity to bring even a little bit of humor and silliness (and/or tears, depending on my mood) into your days. Thanks for everything...see ya next year!

unsolved mysteries

I've got a few very important unsolved mysteries to discuss today. Except that by "very important" I actually mean "probably not important at all," but who would keep reading if I just said that up front? Exactly.

Unsolved Mystery #1: The Case of Missing Bloggers

Amanda and I were discussing this one the other day. Isn't it strange/annoying/scary/weird when a blogger just...disappears? Stops writing, stops commenting, just all of a sudden stops? Personally, I find it disconcerting. Now, if you're a blogger and you decide you're tired of it, or you want to stop participating, or whatever-- that's totally fine. Totally your choice. I respect that. I know tons of people who just gradually drift away...posting and commenting less and less frequently until finally they stop altogether-- that's not that bad. What's creepy is when it's ninety-to-nothing cold-turkey. Like they post 4-5 times a week, comment on everyone's blogs all the time, and then one day just NOTHING. No posts again, no comments...nothing. Ever. And it's like...um, where'd she go? You want to start scanning the newspapers of the area you think she lived in, looking for news of freak accidents. It's scary, okay, ladies??! So don't do that to me. That's the bottom line. If you want to stop blogging/commenting and go totally cold turkey, then you should post something on your blog (like "I'm not blogging anymore, peace out yall!") so that at least we don't have to worry that you got murdered or something. 

So here is where we all make a pact to not be creepy disappearing bloggers. No cold-turkey quitting without proper notification. Thanks so very much.

Unsolved Mystery #2 Aly Raisman's Boobs

Did you watch Dancing with the Stars last night? It was a good one. It's not hard for me to get sucked in to a show, and despite taking lots of seasons off on this one, I'm definitely enjoying this season. You may recall that last week I commented that it appears our beloved gold medalist Aly Raisman had a little boobie work done to prep for her sparkly dresses. Well apparently I'm not the only one thinking that-- last night while the show was on, I happened to check out my Real Time Analytics (one of my most favorite features of Google Analytics) and noticed that I was getting dozens of hits on my blog from people Googling some variation of "did Aly Raisman get a boob job?" HA! I only feel bad that I can't provide any definitive answers for all the inquisitive masses. But at least they know they're not the only ones thinking it. Help the people of the Internet out, Aly: are those things new and improved? Or were you keeping them under wraps (literally) throughout the Olympics? No judgment either way...it's just the kind of thing people really need to know. Because it's totally our business.

Fake boobies or not, Aly did a great job last night. I think it's so funny how hard she has to work on her facial expressions, and I loved her partner's attempts at mimicking her 'gymnastics face.' I think she's going to do extremely well, but I'm pretty sure the two to beat (calling it now) are Zendaya (Disney girl) and Kellie Pickler. Those girls are GOOD. Kellie seriously looked more like a contestant on So You Think You Can Dance. I kind of need to hate her. I think Sean did a much better job last night, but he's not knocking my (or the judges') socks off the way Zendaya and Kellie are. So that's my early prediction. We'll see how it goes.

I'm not entirely sure how I can possibly be this tired on a Tuesday night, but lemme tell ya. I'm tired. So instead of rambling on further, I'm gonna peace out and probably (shamefully) tune in for another episode of Splash tonight because that show is just begging to be mocked and I'm totally up to the task. If I can stay awake that long. So there ya go. Peace, yall.

year-end analyzing

Alright kids. Hold on to your hats. Erika just did some mad Google Analytics-izing (yeah, like how I just turned that into a verb? It's because I have skillz.) and is about to rock your world with some super interesting (yeah right) tidbits about 2012 on the ol' blog. And also she's about to stop talking in the third person because it's super creepy and seriously, who does that? Yikes.

Between January 1, 2012 and December 30, 2012 (at 10:40 pm), this blog had...
-49, 369 visits
-67,380 pageviews
-an average visit duration of 1 minute and 23 seconds. Don't feel bad, I can't handle me for more than 90 seconds sometimes, too.
-374 visits that lasted for more than 30 minutes. This is what we call "quality time." Kudos to those of you with this kind of stamina.

In terms of "Referrals" (that is, the sites that send traffic my way)...
#1: Blogger.com (7,000+ visits) I believe this includes traffic via Google Reader
#2: Amanda's blog (4,097)
#3: Kelly's Korner (3,750)
#4: Kristina's blog (2,703)
#5: E, Myself, and I (2,016)

4,118 people got here via Googling something. Here's what they Googled...
#1: (not provided) (912 visits) (not fair, how does something get categorized as that?)
#2: mattyerika (412)
#3: money tree (160) (here's why)
#4: something beautiful blog (90)
#5: mattyerika blog (76)

More interestingly, some people got here by Googling...
-cute baby giraffes (9)
-disgusting rats (5)
-pantyhose dance (3)
-beautiful dinosaurs (2)
-bridezilla redneck (2)
-armpit pains (1)
-clear liquid to clean bowels (1)
-clown baby must survive in cold without mother winter is near (1) Seriously, I could not even make that up!!!!!
-homemade sperm (1)
-juicy vaginal scan stories (1) EWWW!!! Seriously?! And then they stuck around and clicked on SIXTEEN PAGES!!!
-ok so what do we do after 50 shades of gray (1) Hahaha

...ok, gotta stop myself. There are still over 500 search terms left to peruse, but I'm calling it quits on that. Too crazy!!

Location-wise, visitors on the blog came from 126 countries, notably...
#1- United States (45,000+ visits)
#2- Canada (853)
#3- Australia (631)
#4- Germany (331)
#5- United Kingdom (298)

Most popular posts/pages, by number of pageviews...
#1- my home page (38,515)
#2- Flowers, Baskets, and Books: My Living Room (2,647) 
#3- the mobile version of my home page (1,843)
#4- my Infertility page (1,633) 
#5- I'm Sexy and I Know It (1,456) 

So there's a fun snapshot of what's been up here for the last 365 days. Good times. Thanks so much to all of you for coming over and hanging out (whether for 90 seconds or 2 hours), for showing so much love and support, and for Googling some truly crazy things to provide me with endless entertainment. 2012 wouldn't have been the same without you. Bring on the New Year!  

(over)analyzing

So it's been awhile since I've done an awesome Google Analytics-themed post. Which is really tragic, because almost every time I check my Analytics (which is FREQUENTLY: must remember to not judge self-worth by anything revealed by Analytics), I find something intriguing or LOL-worthy. Or sometimes cringe-worthy. Don't worry, I'll be sure to share those, too!


Today we will be analyzing the past six months only: October 15, 2011- April 15, 2012.


Total # of "visits": 15,023
Total # of "pageviews": 20,103
Total # of "visitors": 5,562


That last one blows my mind. 5,562 people visited my blog??! And (as of 4/15/12) only 83 of you think it's interesting enough to "follow." HAHAHA. That will keep me humble.


Okay. Let's move on to the awards ceremony for REFERRAL TRAFFIC. That means (for those of you not well-versed in your Google Analytics (shame on you))-- the people that came here via another webpage. Who's sending me the most traffic??


The top prize goes to...well, no it doesn't, cause it's boring. The #1 spot goes to Blogger.com (2,281 referrals), which is super boring. The #2 spot is only slightly less boring, being Kelly's Korner (1,373 referrals). I'm not saying her blog is boring-- I love it. It's just that the only reason I get traffic from there is because of the Show Us Your Life blogs that I link up with. So that's understandable.


But GUESS WHAT?! Things are starting to get exciting, because there is a STRAIGHT UP TIE for #3!!! Unbelievable!


Both Kristina (Altogether Beautiful) and Amanda J. (Meet the Joiners) sent me 1,195 referrals each. Crazy, right?!! I could leave it as a tie, but I decided to arbitrarily implement my own tie-breaker (I make the rules here, mkay?). Therefore Kristina wins, because visitors sent from her blog viewed an average of 1.69 pages per visit, versus Amanda's 1.34 pages/visit. Congrats to Kristina's friends: Amanda's friends, click around a little more in the future and maybe you can win next time! Stine, I'll put your prize in the mail. But don't hold your breath.


Now onto the funny stuff. People who came here via Google's search engine.


I had 1,515 people arrive here cause they found me on Google. What did they Google?, you're probably wondering. I know. Me too.


Boringly, almost 400 of those were variations of Googling "mattyerika" or "mattyerika.blogspot.com"-- which that second one is rather entertaining, because if you're going to type all THAT into Google...you may as well have just typed it into your web address thingy and saved yourself a step...but I'm not gonna judge. I will once again suggest, though, that it's easier to just bookmark me. Or 'follow.' Then you don't have to click ANYTHING!


Now onto the funny ones.


30 people came here looking for "beautiful toes". HAAAAAAAAA. I will try to include more pics of my feet in the future.


Around 150 people came here (via lots of different word combinations) looking for the Zumba: How We Feel/How We Really Look thing. That's legit, glad you found it!


10 people Googled "cute baby giraffes"! Haha, I totally relate to these people. I Google stuff like that all the time.


4 people are looking for "america's next top photographer." I think we can all agree you came to the right place for that! 


2 people looked for "never washed her jeans." Thanks a lot. I wash them sometimes, okay??


The following search terms only brought 1 person (each) here, but are so SPECIAL...they deserve mentions:
-"childbearing hips" (yep, you found 'em!)
-"2 girl roommates, dressed in lingerie" (WHAT?! sorry, bet you were disappointed.)
-"all women must be barefooted" (HAHAHAHA)
-"babies wearing clown costumes" (YES)
-"boy puking in public" (who wants to go to a webpage to see that?)
-"humiliating twins by her boyfriend in the desert on facebook" (WHAT???)
-"infertile blog rant" (yep, bet you found what you wanted!)
-OK- this one is SO WEIRD, you have been warned: "juicy vaginal scan stories" (First of all- WTF MAN??! Second of all, this person then stuck around and viewed SIXTEEN PAGES! So I'm not entirely sure I had what they were looking for, but apparently they liked me enough to stick around for an hour! Creepy? Good? Jury is out...)
-"manatees poo" (HAHA, that is so awesome. Especially since I actually do have a picture of it.)
-"mother in law pantyhose" (LOL)
-"serving size cereal too small" (YES IT IS)


OK, that is my favorite part of this whole thing...seeing what wacky things bring people here.  You're probably getting bored, so just a few more stats and we're done!


Where Visitors Hail From: 
84 DIFFERENT COUNTRIES!
1. United States (~14,000 visits)
2. Canada (~200 visits)
Other notable/surprising countries: Estonia- 68 visits; Indonesia- 10 visits; Pakistan- 8 visits; Sri Lanka- 4 visits; Moldova- 2 visits)


Within the US, you come from ALL FIFTY STATES plus Washington, DC! Woohoo!! Not surprisingly, Georgia and Texas pull the #1 and 2 spots, with Virginia coming in for the bronze. In last place we have sparsely-populated Wyoming, where people are probably too busy riding horses to bother checking out my blog. It's cool, Wyoming, I understand.


What Technology Yall Like:
-30% view my blog using Safari
-27% prefer Internet Explorer
-24% like Firefox
-16% prefer Chrome (MY VOTE GOES TO CHROME)


OK. There is SO MUCH MORE, but I'll try to exercise a little self-control and stop now. If you're still with me, thanks for hanging in there. 


Until next time-- remember: be careful what you Google. That is all.


Oh, and thanks for reading my blog! Feel free to "follow" me, people from Amanda and Kristina's blogs who come here every single day...don't think I don't know you're out there! Let's be friends!

awards ceremony!

I have major writer's block. But I hate going so many days without a blog! So since I was tagged for this little blog meme thing awhile back (sorry for the delay, Allison and Amanda, who have been waiting with baited breath), I figured I'd try to finally fill it out.

You see, I started filling it out back in July. The thing is...I was totally over-thinking it. And so it was taking FOREVER. Because I was over-thinking it.

For instance: "Most Popular Post". This one I was stuck on for hours. How do you decide which post is the most popular? Number of comments? Number of pageviews? And so I was going ballistic with the Google Analytics and comment tracker thing, trying to decide. Should I automatically eliminate any posts that were part of a blog carnival, since that artificially inflates the pageviews? So many choices.

This afternoon, I'm going with my gut. No over-thinking. I'm too tired for all that, anyway.

Here we go. My own personal blog awards ceremony.


Most Beautiful Post:
Have you noticed that the title of my blog is "something beautiful"? So surely it shouldn't be hard to find a really beautiful post, right?? I decided to go with the post that got the most comments stating "that was beautiful" (or something along those lines), which would hands-down have to be my meditations on my most-recent anniversary. However, if I'd ever done a post about my abs, I bet that would have won. For sure.

Most Popular Post:
I mentioned my problems with this in the intro. I decided to eliminate all posts that were part of a Kelly's Korner blog hop because those were artificially popular. Judging purely on number of pageviews, my most popular non-blog hop posts are 'scanner-ific' (the day I bought a scanner. And the day I had my HSG. Not sure which aspect of my day made it so entralling) and the 'infertility' tab. The infertility tab was a surprise to me, mainly because it's only been there for like a month or two. Guess you guys are gluttons for a sad story!!

Most Controversial Post:
This is laughable, since I stay away from most things controversial both on my blog and in real life. However, sometimes I have a controversy in my head about whether to post about certain things. Mainly, it's a debate about whether or not I could ever get in trouble for saying something bad about a company or something. If I do decide to post it, though, it will probably get filed away under 'black-listed companies.' Re-reading these posts cracks me up. Especially when I think about how people from Comcast really did contact me in regards to reading my negative blog comments about them. Sucks to be a sucky company, doesn't it, Comcast??!

Most Helpful Post:
I got several comments/emails saying that this post was particularly helpful in knowing how to talk to/act around people dealing with infertility.

Surprise Success Post:
Not very original, but I was totally shocked by how many comments/followers I got after this post a week ago. I didn't think my advice was really that good...but I stand corrected! Ha.

Not Enough Attention Post:
Definitely this one. I seriously cannot believe there were only 5 comments. It's obviously because I posted it on a Saturday, which is by far the worst day to post a blog. This is one of the few blogs I regularly go back and look at because it makes me pee my pants laughing every time. But whatever, maybe yall just have bad senses of humor.

Proudest Post: 
 Well, my truly "proudest post" is going to be the one where I announce I'm pregnant. I've written it in my head many times, and you guys better watch out because it's gonna knock your socks off. But besides that one, I'm going to just cop out and say that I'm probably proudest of all the down-and-dirty, raw, dark, honest, faithless posts filed neatly away under the infertility label. I guess I'm proud of myself that occasionally I do have the braveness to talk about what's really going on, after a good lifetime spent pretending that everything's always okay. It's out of character, but it feels good sometimes. And then you guys are always so awesome about affirming and supporting me and making me feel like it's okay and I'm not a terrible person for feeling that way...I dunno, it's a good feeling.

So that's that.

And here's my one last deep thought for the day. Seriously, this is the only thing I could think about this afternoon.

Why is it that when I have Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal in my house, that is all I can think about? It invades my mind. I don't want to eat anything else or DO anything else except EAT CINNAMON TOAST CRUNCH. It's actually kind of scary. Anyone else experience this phenomenon?

Also, if you want to repent of not commenting on the trampoline post back in May of 2010, I will accept belated comments now. Because I'm generous like that.

good times with google

I hope yall don't think I'm copping out, but come ON. Google Analytics provides the FUNNIEST tidbits of information and I really feel I'd be remiss if I didn't share with all my friends. Besides, I haven't had a "Google Analytics"-themed blog since like...October. So we have lots to catch up on!! (And here's my plug for all you bloggers who DON'T use Analytics: GET IT. Yes, it's a hassle (if you're technologically-challenged) to figure out how to set it up. But there are plenty of online tutorials that will help you sort it out. It is SO WORTH IT!)

Alright. I'm only analyzing my results since 10/10/10, which was my last post about Analytics. To start with, my top 8 (and a bunch of higher numbers, too) top keyword searches (that is: the things people Google that leads them to click on this here blog) are all from people who obviously know what they're looking for. As I mentioned last time, these are the people who are unfamiliar with the idea of bookmarking or 'following.' They'd rather Google me every time they want to check the blog. That's cool, I won't judge you. Except for you people who seem to Google me EVERY DAY with my name MISSPELLED. That is not cool. Also, for the record, "mattyerika" is actually Matt y Erika. 'Y' is Spanish for "and." Matt and Erika. Although I do call Matt "Mattie," I always spell it with an 'ie.' Back in 2006 when we got engaged, I got all email-happy and decided we needed a joint email account. "mattanderika" at gmail was not available, so I looked deep inside my soul and dredged up some Spanish and voila. An email address-turned-blog address. I only say this because it tickles me all the people Googling "matty and erika". It's like "matt and and erika." Okay, moving on.

Okay, so folks found this blog via 228 different keyword combinations. Like I said, a bunch of them are stuff like "mattyerika blog" or my name or something like that. Boring. Let's check out the funny ones!! And since a lot of people are apparently coming here looking for the answer to very specific questions...let's see if I can answer them for you.


To the person who Googled beautiful doesn't even begin to describe her...obviously you came to the right place. Thanks!

But you, beautiful fried banana? Not sure if you found what you're looking for. Although I do appreciate a good fried banana now and then.

Now, chinese buffet next to trader joes on epps bridge parkway...you obviously were looking for something specific. And I hate to be the one to tell you that that buffet closed. I know, I was sad too. They had the best fried bananas ANYWHERE. (True story!!)

Coed college shower pictures? I hope you were talking about baby or wedding showers. Otherwise you were probably sorely disappointed.

Dear summer, please come quickly before I completely lose my mind. I couldn't agree more. I bet we could be friends.

Several people asked variations on "does kroger have wi-fi?" and I am happy to report (as you probably read) that apparently some of them do. Going to Kroger's actual webpage would probably get you more information than my blog, though.

Drug dealer car backed in reassured me that I am not alone in my thinking!

Dear excuses for parents finding beer bottles: I think a simple shrug and 'idunno' is all you need to convince them of your innocence.

High school chick flicks where quiet girl gets cool boy: REALLY not sure how this brought you to me, but I think you should rent She's All That.

I want to know if it's cold outside. Well I think you should go to weather.com. Just a thought. It would have required typing less letters.

These were oddly similar (spelling mistakes are from the original): Is 69 to cold for a 5 months baby to be outside and is it good to take baby outside in 20 degree. I would say no and no. Just my professional opinion.

Is it illegal to take a flower bush from a foreclosed upon house? I hope not!

Just relax and you'll get pregnant. No, you won't. But thanks for sticking around and reading fourteen pages of my blog! Hopefully I changed your mind about the aforementioned statement.

My day is a waste of life. Sad, but I guess everyone feels like that on some days.

There are always more pictures of firstborns. Do you regularly complain to Google? But you're right, there are. Luckily, I'm a firstborn, so I don't care.

What should you do when a drug dealer uses your driveway? Um...call the police? Run over him with your car? The options are limitless.

Why aren't all girls girly girls? Because then there would be no tomboys.

I could go on with these things for days, but I'll stop now (unless you want more. Just let me know!)

I've had visitors from 51 countries!!! Dang. I probably couldn't even name 51 countries (because I suck at geography).

My most popular content (not including my 'home' page, which is the vast majority of all visits. This just means content you had to click separately on to view.) was a Show Us Your Life carnival and my infertility label. Coming in next were a bunch of my Way Back When-sday posts...good to know yall like them!

Well I'm out of time, but Google Analytics is never out of funny information you didn't need to know. Until next time...I'm just going to go look at some awesome pictures of rarity and listen to some sweet background music for prom pictures. Yup, people actually Googled that.

something new

Hello and happy Sunday!!

We've had a wonderful (and BLAZING HOT) weekend. I spent Friday at the pool, which is just about the only place I can stand to be when it's this hot all the time. Yesterday Matt and I went kayaking down the Broad River. It was REALLY fun, and also a rather unexpected shoulder/back workout. I dunno...since I do work out pretty regularly...and I don't neglect working out my back and shoulders...I just didn't expect a couple hours of easy rowing to disable me to the extent it has! Oh well. After three hours on the river, we were able to stay on dry land for about 3 hours before calling it quits and going back to the pool. Dry land just isn't my thing during these hot summer months. And also, I don't know if it would be possible for me to continue living in Georgia if we didn't live 15 minutes away from Matt's parents and their pool. It is a LIFE saver. 

Then last night, while Matt was watching the most ridiculous movie in the world on TV (it was some movie that was spoofing Walk the Line....RIDICULOUS), I got curious and ended up doing some online tutorials and figured out how to add new sections to my blog!! I know, aren't you amazed?? I should be a full-time web designer or something (HAHAHAHA). So for the three of you that actually LOOK at my blog (instead of viewing it through your Reader/phone)...you will be happy (or not, depending on if you're a jerk or not) to notice I now have "About Me," "Contact Me," and "Our Infertility Journey" tabs on the right-hand side. You know, in case you needed to know more about me. Because I don't talk about myself enough. Exactly.

And because Google Analytics is awesome and all, I already know that a few folks DID investigate my new pages sometime last night/this morning, when they were still works in progress. If you're one of those people, you should check again. I changed some things and made them better. But bless you for being so on top of things in the first place! A plus. 

With that, I am off to do some lunch prep for the week. Matt and I have taken to making these rather elaborate lunches for ourselves (that we take to work), but they require doing a lot of "prep work" on Sunday afternoons. It's a lot of work, but on the plus side...I look forward to lunchtime EVERY SINGLE DAY. And also, co-workers gawk and stare, jealously. It's pretty great.

the one where i ramble on about tanktops

Hi and welcome to another riveting Saturday afternoon in Small Town, Georgia, where the most exciting thing happening for me to blog about is seriously my LAUNDRY.

No, seriously. You've been warned. I'm about to talk about laundry.


Well, not laundry exactly. More like something I just realized as a result of doing laundry.


I have three (pretty big) dresser drawers. My middle drawer is for Shirts that Aren't the Main Shirt. You know what I mean? Undershirts, tanktops, basic long-sleeved tees I wear under other shirts...basically, these are the shirts no one really sees except for maybe sticking out from underneath another shirt. Well, for quite some time, this drawer has been out of control. Although I'm a rather meticulous housekeeper and clothes-organizer in general, this drawer is nothing but once-folded, now-wadded up clothes stuffed in haphazardly any way I can get 'em in there and still manage to cram the drawer closed. Sorry for the run on sentence-- it's as much a mess as that drawer was. Of COURSE anything in there was wrinkled, but I don't really care because it all is just going underneath something else. No one can see the wrinkles. Anyway, I decided to pull everything out and see if I could pare down a little and clean things up a bit.

  I did. I got rid of a lot of tanktops and long-sleeved tees. A whole Trader Joe's bag worth. And then, as I was stacking and reorganizing my piles of tanks, I realized wow. That's still a lot of tanktops.

(They're organized here by color and/or style and/or use: back row, L-R: Colorful & Could Be Main Shirt; Colorful (Undershirt Only); Colorful Spaghetti Strap; Colorful & Lacy Top. front row, L-R: Plain White, Grays, Blacks (all undershirts only)) (I bet you REALLY did not need/want to know all that.) (And they will never stay organized like this. This was just so I could assess what I had)

Forty. There are forty tanktops left.


Is that excessive? I can't decide. I do wear them almost every day, year round. But forty still seems like a lot. (Although it's far less than what I did have. I'm not going to count how many I'm getting rid of, but it's plenty.) Anyway, no wonder that drawer was so crammed. Apparently I am a compulsive tanktop buyer. Please don't nominate me for Hoarders: Tanktop Edition. Because that would be a really lame show.


Um...well, moving on...


Since my camera (the OLD camera, that works about 40% of the time) decided to work for me when I pulled it out to snap those award-winning tanktop photographs, I thought I'd try to capture the current state of blossoming in my flower beds. Unfortunately, this camera is crap (for some reason, sitting unused in a drawer for 3 years has somehow caused it to become CRAP...not sure how/why) now and so it takes really bad pictures compared to what it used to. So these pictures look bad, but oh well.

These are these random, normally-scrappy-looking bushes that are in our front beds. They were here when we bought the house and I don't know what they are, but they're not usually much to write home about. In the spring, however, they have a brief period of adorable yellow blooms, and that is the main reason I don't dig them up and throw them out. The blooms are so pretty!

 

 I know you can't really tell, but they really are pretty.


And here is one of my azaleas about to bloom. I can't wait!!

In case you're anxious to know what they're going to look like once they bloom, and because there's a very good chance I will not have a working camera to capture their beauty with when that happens, you can see the pictures of them last year here. Also, random factoid you probably need to know: that particular blog I just put a link to is the single blog entry (well, last time I investigated it was, a few months ago) with the most hits (excluding all Kelly's Korner "Show Us Your Life" blogs) I've ever had. Apparently I'm not the only person in the world searching for the sheet music to that song...I get multiple hits a week of people Googling the title of that song (also the title of that blog) and coming here looking for the sheet music. And this was just another fun story brought to you by Google Analytics. 


On that note, I bid you farewell. I have more important and exciting things to do like put sheets on the bed, convince Lola she should stop whining at the dogs across the street, and watch the rain fall. More specifically, watch the rain fall on Matt, because he's out there pulling weeds (out of the lawn) in the pouring rain. Because that's completely normal, right? Right.

10-10-10

I know, not a very original title. But seriously-- how often do you get to write 10-10-10?? I submit to you...not very often. In fact, the ONE TIME I had a chance to (physically) write it today, while writing a check, I messed up and thought it was the 11th. So...here I'm trying to make up for my earlier shortcomings.

Plus, as luck would have it, I'm stuck waiting another hour for Amazing Race to actually start. It seems to always get pushed back since football lasts longer than they think it will, and then they still feel the need to air 60 Minutes...although...seriously, is anyone watching that show?? I'm thinking not.

So this is me killing time. And writing 10-10-10.

This just in: I was sitting in the guest room/office to write this blog. Matt was watching some sport and I am sportsed-out. But then I heard the familiar sounds of Keeping Up with the Kardashians and I said "Mattie, what are you watching??" He answered "Keeping Up with the Kardashians" like that was totally normal. So I came in here to join him. I don't know why he's watching it, but I will not question it. It's obviously an improvement over sports!

Anyway...so I was checking out my Google Analytics today. I think it's time to share some of the fun and funny discoveries.

First of all...let me introduce some of you guys to the idea of a "bookmark." It will save you some time. I get that you may not want to actually "follow" me or something, or maybe you don't know how, but...it is pretty funny that you actually Google "erkia b**** athens vineyard". Ok, but you do type out my last name. And you do misspell my first name. EVERY TIME!!! ALMOST EVERY DAY! It's hilarious. So, let's just be friends, okay? You obviously know me. Ditto to the people who come here every day by Googling "mattyerika" and "mattyerika blogspot". I mean...by the time you typed all that, you may as well have just typed the dot com and been done with it!

Okay, now let's just move on to the funny ones. How about...

* "erika body paint contest winner/atlanta". Yup, that's obviously me.
*"how to make a baby." Well...it was the title of a recent post...but I'm afraid whoever came here looking for that probably didn't find what they were looking for.
*"i need to find a new way to waste my life." Um...really? Who Googles stuff like that?! I hope spending 10 minutes here was a sufficient waste of their time.
*"something beautiful i could say to my daughter" Now that's just sweet. I bet it was a lonely man in his 40s or something who has a strained relationship with his teen or 20-something daughter. But that's just my guess.

How's this for cool: Since August 1, I've had visitors from 21 countries!!! That's awesome, especially since I probably couldn't even name 21 countries. ::long pause:: OK, maybe I could. But still. I think it's cool. And I still wonder...if you read this blog in another country...is it still in English? I'm always confused about stuff like that.

Well, I think I've wasted sufficient time regaling yall with riveting stories of Google Analytics. Time to take a shower and then maybe Amazing Race will finally be on! And then bed...because unlike some lucky people (aka my husband)...I actually don't get to celebrate Columbus Day tomorrow. I have to work. BOO!

PS. If any of you are feeling like you want to de-lurk yourselves (that means, tell me who you are and that you read)...feel free! I promise I really do not judge you for your Google-ing ways. I do it too. Frequently.

i love analytics: vol2

Lots of strange things were revealed to me during my bi-weekly investigation of my Google Analytics today. Let's start with the most disturbing, shall we?

My favorite part of the Analytics is finding out what words/phrases people type into Google that brings them to my blog. Here are a few (typical/non-disturbing) things that brought people here in December: "optimistical," "footie pajamas," "mattyerika blog" (why don't you just bookmark me next time, eh?), "funky couple" (truly we're the poster couple for that, huh?). Here's what is truly disturbing: "huffing swiffer dust and shine". WHAT????

Umm...wow, where to begin. I do truly love Swiffer Dust & Shine (and all other Swiffer products)and it's true that I (IN A JOKING MANNER) mentioned it may be worth huffing...but people...YIKES!!! That blog was written before I watched the episode of Intervention with that skinny girl who huffed computer duster. Have you seen that one?? Umm...because you should. (Note: I think it's still running on On Demand if you need to stop here and go see it) It's one of the most disturbing Interventions I've seen, and that's saying something. That junk JACKED HER UP and it was SO freaky. And sad. If I ever thought huffing was a funny/lame/not serious drug...I was so wrong. So anyways. I hope that whoever came to my blog looking for whatever information will reconsider their plans and maybe instead use that product to clean with and just enjoy the scent (and product) in the manner with which it was designed to be enjoyed. Sad sad sad.

Well, moving on to less disturbing things. Apparently my blog has a huge multi-cultural appeal-- in December I've had visitors from 15 countries!! Wow. Among the most surprising countries to drop by: Malaysia (3 visits), Phillippines (Kristina, are your relatives stalking me?), Indonesia, Singapore, Slovenia, Lithuania, and Iran. There is apparently a world-wide epidemic of BOREDOM or something...because why and how on earth would people from these countries land here?!?! Do we even use the same kinds of characters for reading/writing? If you go to my blog in Slovenia is it translated into Slovenian? Someone, please enlighten me.

Well I think that's all I've got for now. I'm sitting on my couch absolutely freezing to death since I just worked out and haven't yet turned the heat up or put on warmer clothes. I really should do something to fix this situation but instead I'm just going to shiver and whine (this is how I roll).

I have to work tomorrow and Tuesday (YES I work for the public schools and NO I don't get the normal school holidays...LAME) but I am looking forward to a fun week! Our Christmas shopping is *thisclose* to being done and wrapped and since I've been working out I don't feel nearly as guilty doing all the baking and eating I please. :) We're not leaving town at all (save a quick trip to Atlanta for dinner tomorrow evening) this week. Our Christmas will be with Matt's family (we alternate holidays and years w/ our families), but as it turns out, my parents will have NO children spending Christmas with them in Augusta! Isn't that sad?? So they decided to drive up here Christmas night and spend a few days with us...yay!!! This is a major score: get to still be with my family for Christmas, and DON'T have to pack up and leave town (although I will totally miss seeing everyone in Augusta)!! As Kristina said, you have officially reached adulthood when your parents come to YOU for Christmas! I figured I'd have to wait til we had kids to reach this level, but God smiled on us early, I guess. :)

So that's the plans. Having Wednesday and Thursday off by myself (Matt still has to work) means I should have plenty of time for blogging, so you can all mark your calendars and look forward to that. That means you, bored peoples of Southeast Asia and Eastern Europe and the Middle East!

Don't forget...if you have any insight about whether blogs (or any webpages) are translated into other language characters in other countries...enlighten me!

therapeutic (and a story about weed)

First of all, I want to thank everyone for their wonderful comments on my previous post. Your kind words and honesty have really made my heart happy this week. Katy said "I think you've facilitated something very therapeutic for your readers!" and I agree-- it has felt really good to just unload and be honest and find that most of you can relate to that! So thanks for that.

I sometimes think about the difference in my life now and my life several years ago, before I was married and working full time. I think that one of the [few] things I miss from back then is the honest and open friendships (and abundant hang-out time) I had with my girlfriends and roommates. THAT is therapeutic! In my current life, I really never just hang out with girls. If I do, Matt and/or their husband is usually there too...which means its not really a chick hangout time. :) But what do you do? I work til 5, come home, cook dinner, spend a precious few hours with my husband, and that's it-- that's a day. I live so far away from town that grabbing coffee at night or something isn't really an option (oh yeah, I go to bed at 10pm...cause I'm cool like that)...so I really miss out on the whole hanging-out-with-a-friend thing. And I guess I miss it. So maybe that's why blogging has become so important to me...it's my surrogate girl time.

But anyway, my current week is going much better than my last one. I've actually felt genuinely positive nearly all week long, so that makes everything seem better. I've had some chats with my bosses, so I feel like work is a little better...and I keep re-reading all the sweet comments on my last post, and then I have LOTS of things to feel happy about!!

In other unrelated news, I did some decorating in my laundry room last night. Yes, I really am that cool. We'd bought these photographs and frames a few months ago and then never hung them up. They were intended for either the dining room or the kitchen, but since we could never decide on the perfect spot for them...they just sat on the floor. Anyway, last night I felt determined to actually hang them somewhere and the laundry room is just this depressing void (that you walk through every time you enter the house from the garage) and I thought it could use a little decorating. So there you have it!

If you can't tell, the photographs are all of different fruits. I think they're pretty. :) And please try not to gawk at the embarrassingly large collection of Swiffer products up on the shelf. I have a problem. And/or I shop at Sams.

And now for my story about weed(s). I'll admit, I made it singular in the subject line because I'm a Google Analytics freak and I was dying to see how many people would come to the blog by Googling 'weed.' They are going to be so disappointed!!!

So far the best thing about winter is I DON'T HAVE TO CUT THE GRASS EVERY WEEK!!! Although I love mowing...we have a HUGE yard and it had to be cut almost EVERY week or the weeds start growing like eleven feet tall (barely even an exaggeration). Anyway, I guess since we've had a few freezes, apparently the grass and weeds barely grow. SWEEEEEET. However, I happened to be walking in the backyard the other day when I noticed this BEAST. Before I reveal the beast, let me show you what most of the weeds in the yard look like (I swear this is what 90% of our "grass" is):

Okay. It's ugly, but fairly innocuous, right? Not so much this new guy. Take a look at what decided to spring up about 10 feet off the back porch:

Hmm...that looks different. What's with the whitish things on every green leaf?? Also note that this sucker is HUGE...easily a foot and a half in diameter. Upon closer inspection, you will find that the whitish things on the leaves look a little more like THIS:

In case you still can't tell, they're these HUGE, SPIKY THORN THINGS. I'm sorry I lack a more scientific name for them, but I touched them with my own bare hands to verify their hurtiness, and I can promise you they passed the test. If an unsuspecting person walked barefoot (or barepawed, as the case may be) on this sucker, they could lose a foot!!! I'm serious! This is the scariest thing ever and I'm not sure what to DO about it because it's too pokey to pull up! I guess I could always mow or something. But I'm open to other suggestions. And I do NOT want it to reproduce! Any botanists out there?

So there you have it. I apologize for the let-down to all of you who came here hoping to learn how I found therapeutic weed or something. This is just my regular, somewhat boring life, and these are the things that happen to me...decorating laundry rooms and being astonished at weeds. :) One day when I'm busy chasing my three-or-four kids around the house and never getting a moment's rest, I will look back on this blog and long for those easy, carefree days of decorating and yardwork (or not doing the yardwork, as the case may be). But until then...

...I couldn't think of how to finish that sentence. But I DID think of one more thing! I am making a list of Christmas movies to watch between now and...well, Christmas. Maybe New Years. Any off-the-beaten-path suggestions? Or they can be on-the-path suggestions. I don't have Netflix anymore, so I have to be able to find them at a video store (or somewhere online for FREE, or just on TV) easily. I plan on starting watching them soon, because I LOVE CHRISTMAS!!! Okay, peace out.