30 Things Older than I am

I saw this article last week and decided to torture myself by reading about the 30 Things that are older than I am, or more nicely put 30 Things Turning 30 this Year.

I was shocked to learn that I am older than some of these things...

Care Bears were one of my favorite toys when I was little.  I can't believe they weren't even around when I was born.

I knew 80s fashion was bad but I never realized there was no J Crew before I was born.

I had to go through the DARE program in elementary school and remember getting the t-shirt.  Do kids today have to do DARE?

I have been around longer than Chicken McNuggets.  That is crazy.  I remember having one of my birthday parties at McDonald's when I was little.  Hard to believe that McNuggets had just been introduced around that time!

I LOVED My Little Pony!  I had a million of them and would brush their tails and hair and I still remember the My Little Pony movies.  I can't believe kids in the 70s didn't have My Little Ponys.

This is a new low...I am older than the minivan.  Geez!

I can't imagine not having a word processing program.  But then again I guess a lot of people didn't even have computers back then.  Hard to believe there was no Microsoft Word.  Let alone no internet!

Seriously?  I'm older than Reading Rainbow?  

And lastly don't you think this game still looks like it is out of the 70s?

#bloggerproblems

I feel like my blogging life is on life support.  I have been so busy I barely have time to read posts, let alone write some.  Sigh!  I miss it.  I miss documenting my life here.  I miss interacting with other bloggers.  I miss feeling like I kind of knew what I was doing when it came to this blogging thing.

But now Google Reader is going away, sponsored posts have taken over, and there are so many other distractions like Pinterest and Instagram (you can find me on those (username: ncsuz) way more than you'll see me over here).

One of my Goals for 2013 is to become a better blogger and I really do mean that.  I upgraded my commenting section to use Disqus because one of my real life friends said she could never comment on my blog because she didn't have an account.  I tried allowing anonymous comments for a few days but I got so much spam.  So now I am trying out this Disqus tool.  But I have no clue what I am doing and it doesn't email me my comments anymore.  Ugh!  #bloggerproblems

Now my beloved Google Reader is retiring.  Google I am so mad at you!  I don't want to have to find a new reader.  I have heard a lot of chatter about bloglovin and feedly, but that is just another thing to add to my neverending to-do list.  #bloggerproblems

And what does that mean for followers of my blog?  Does that mean I am going to lose all my followers because that uses Google Friend Connect (which I thought was supposed to go away a few month ago) #bloggerproblems

I can't keep up with all this!

I also had two friends recently make their blogs private.  I only know because I got an email inviting me to their blogs.  I haven't had time to figure that out either.  Can private blogs be read through a reader?  Or do I have to do some new log in process and visit each of those individually? I have no idea.  #bloggerproblems

My own blog needs an update.  I will be 33 this year.  OMG!  So 30 Before 30 is very misleading.  Or maybe it is a good thing?  I'll just claim I'm 29 forever.  But updating the whole design and theme of this blog seems so overwhelming I don't even know where to start.  #bloggerproblems

And when did blogging become such a business?  I mean everyone seems to be a sponsor AND have sponsors.  So now I have to pay to play?  I don't even have a freaking button or ad or whatever it is people to pay to put on someone else's site.  #bloggerproblems

But being a better blogger is still one of my goals this year along with finally completing my 30 Before 30 list and making some upgrades to my house.  But there is one goal I can already cross off!  Yesterday I paid off my car!  Over 13 months early!  Now I am officially debt free other than my mortgage! YAY!

Hopefully I can make some progress on the other goals now...starting with this blog and all my #bloggerproblems

What are some #bloggerproblems you face?  And can you help me with any of mine?

Weekend Wrap-up

This weekend was both good and bad.  Since I am low on time, here is the weekend wrap-up bullet style:

- I got to go to my first Carolina Hurricanes game of the season.  One of my good friends was nice enough to invite me to her work thing at the game and our seats were awesome!  Before the game they had a tailgate with great food and beer/wine.  Ron the Ref and Stormy were there and Tuomo Ruutu (one of the players) gave a little talk and answered questions.  It was a great game and we won!!

I don't know why Stormy wanted to show off his bully button!

CAM!  My favorite!

- I watched Gone with the Wind for the first time this weekend.  It was not what I was expecting at all!  It was really depressing and traumatic   Not a sweet and happy love story, but still a good movie.  I kind of want to read the book now.

- I went downtown on Saturday night after the game and actually stayed out late and danced up a storm!  It was fun but my mind was kind of elsewhere...

- While we were out Saturday night I was with another girl from my bible study and we both got calls from our leader back to back which was a little unusual.  When we checked the message she left for us we were in shock!  One of the other girls in our group had her brother visiting this weekend and she was calling to tell us he passed away around 8:30 that night while he was with her.  It was so shocking because we had both just met her brother after the 4 pm service at church just a few hours earlier!

We had heard so much about her brother before meeting him and she was so proud and happy to be able to introduce us to him.  He was born with only half a heart but despite all odds had made it 24 years by God's grace.  They had  had a scare a few months ago, but when we met him he seemed to be doing well and talked about how much he had enjoyed the service.  It was just such a reminder about how fragile and fleeting life is.

Sunday our small group met and wrote letters of encouragement to our dear friend and took lunch to her and her family.  It was so bitter sweet.  Bitter because death always stings, but sweet because we could see God's hand in everything that happened the day before.

Also sweet because I think we all can see how much our group has grown  in our faith and with each other over the last year.  I have never had girls that I could depend on like these girls.  We are more than a bible study, more than friends, sometimes more than even family.

It's also sweet because we know he is with the Lord now and there is nothing sweeter than that.  I have experienced in my life the death of people who are strong in their faith and also people that you really just don't know where they stood with Jesus and it is so much different when you know exactly where they are going.  It is sad yes, but that sadness is countered by the joy you feel for them too.  The joy that you know you will get to experience when this life is over and we are finally HOME.

- If God keeps me here in this life a long time, I hope He gives me the opportunity to know a love like this.  Oh to be loved and even more- to love someone else like this!