Happy Thanksgiving!

I just wanted to take a moment to stop and count my blessings, and to say thank you to all of the wonderful people in my life.

This last year has seen a significant amount of change, but thanks to my wonderful family and friends, it has been a journey of joy, and not a journey of pain!

I am very much looking forward to the next year. My children are getting bigger and the journey just keeps getting better and better. I will have a milestone birthday next year as well, and I look forward to embracing and celebrating that ... and all that comes with it.

I am already penning my goals for 2011. There are things that I want to change and improve upon in my life ... because really, what fun is life if we just remain status quo?

I hope that you all have a happy, healthy, wonderful Thanksgiving with your family and friends; and I hope that the upcoming holiday season is a blessed one for you and yours!

Hopefully we will get to see each other in the next few weeks to celebrate the year that 2010 was, and to ring in the new year and all of the wonder and possibilities that it holds! But if not, may your holiday season be merry and bright!!

Take a moment today to say thanks and count your blessings ... each day is truly a gift!!

Cheers!

The Month of UN's

This must be the month of UN's.

Rocket's Pep Rally speech on Friday night was about UNbelief ... and the St. Louis Social Media Club's speaker last night, Scott Stratten, talked about UNmarketing!

Here are some fun takeaways from his "engaging" UNmarketing talk!

• People don't spread meh ... they spread awesome!


• Don't blog just to blog ... blog when you have SOMETHING TO SAY!


• The momentum ... of said blog, or other various medium ... carries through on social media.


• I don't care how people consume my product, I just want them to consume it!


• My best SEO rule: Write great freakin content! Create the awesome first ... then SEO!


• An engagement is more valuable than a click!


• Social Media success/failure doesn't exist ... social media just amplifies things ((makes bad things suck even louder ... or good things even better!))


• People do business with people they: Know. Like. Trust.


• What is my ROI on Twitter? Every time you ask this, you kill a kitten. And a unicorn.


• Twitter does not have ROI ... it's about building relationships. Business = Relationships


• DON'T sync Twitter and Facebook ... it's not efficient ... it's LAZY.


• Be Authentic. It takes a thousand tweets to build a reputation, and only one to ruin it!


• If you don't have time for your medium, remove yourself from the medium.


• Flamed on Social Media? People will stand up for you. People will know who the moron is.


• If the comment is damaging ... remove it. If it is constructive ... learn from it.


• Don't piss off the geeks ... we having nothing to do all day ...
  (sitting in front of computer in Mother's basement ... haha.)

Want to hear more of what Scott has to say? Check out his UNmarketing blog!

Cheers! ... and happy engaging!

With Childlike Wonder

Every Saturday during the College Football season is like Christmas morning for me! I can't wait to get up, turn on ESPN GameDay, watch the run-down of all the day's games, and then finally cheer cheer my Irish on to victory! (Photo Courtesy of Joe Coppola ... THANKS JOE!)

Lately though, there has not been much cheer cheering on to victory. It has been a tough year for myself and my fellow Irish fans. And as I wrote in a previous post, I predicted that ND will finish this Brian Kelly inaugural season 6-6.

That being said, I had two tickets for this past weekend's game against Utah. And though I am always absolutely giddy about heading back to campus, my feelings about the weekend were torn. On one hand, I was actually kind of dreading going back to campus, because I was envisioning sitting through a slaughter like my parents sat through earlier in the season against Stanford ... only this weekend it was going to be cold and rainy ... and not blue skies and sunny like they had versus Stanford.

And then there is that childlike wonder of mine. That inner voice that says ... What if?

What if this is the weekend they finally get it together?? What if this is the weekend they pull off the big upset. What if this is the game that we'll be talking about years from now?? But, I decided not to share any of these "what if" thoughts with anyone ... thinking that if I DID ... I might jinx myself!

So we made our trek up to Notre Dame, just like any other past year. Pulled into campus just in time to attend the Pep Rally. And stood through all of the necessary cheerleader dances and marching band songs, to get to what we REALLY wanted to hear ... ROCKET.

So Rocket takes the stage and starts .... There's a thief in the house! And he's been hanging out in our house far too long!

Listen! Listen! Listen!

His name is "Unbelief."

His speech centered around "Unbelief.” That guy that cheers for the Irish but when something goes wrong jumps off the bandwagon. He challenged the Irish fans to shut those voices up, and he challenged the Irish players to do the same.

“Unbelief is gonna be at the party. Unbelief's gonna be at the restaurants. Unbelief might even try to sneak up into your hotel. Unbelief might even try to sneak up in your dreams. You tell that son of a savage, 'Get the hell out of my room.'”

And the crowd went WILD!!

((View the whole speech here!))

All night and all the next day we kept joking around about "unbelief." It became the focal point of our weekend. And then ... the unbelievable thing happened! A passionate, determined Notre Dame squad came out, took advantage of their competitor's mistakes, took control of their destiny, and upset the highly ranked Utah Utes.

I'm not sure how much of an impact Rocket's speech had on the players, but it sure did have a huge impact on us.

And yes ... the KoolAid ... errr, my childlike wonder ... was really great this weekend!

Bring on Army!

Go Irish! Beat the Black Knights!

Cheers!

And Then There Were Two!

11 years ago my second child was born … a precious, baby girl. After my son was born, I did not think I could possibly love another child as much as him, but of course, I proved myself wrong. With my first child … I was SO sure it was a girl, and my husband was SO sure it was a boy … but once I saw him, it didn’t matter whether it was a boy or a girl, he was just SO perfect!

Having a little boy was such a joy. With my great love of sports, I was overjoyed to have a little boy to share that with. When he was two years old, we sat on the couch together and watched Mark McGuire hit home run number 70 … and he could not have been more excited. My son has red hair, loved baseball, worshiped Mark McGuire and loved spending time with his Momma … what more could I want? But soon enough we decided we wanted to add on to the family.

When I got pregnant the second time, we wanted to find out the gender before he/she was born, but he/she was having NO part of that. When they did my ultra sound, the umbilical cord was right in between the baby's legs, so that we could not see a darn thing! (Shades of who this child would become! Haha)

Then, I went into labor at 29 weeks, Labor Day weekend in fact, and was on bed rest for 8 weeks, taking medicine every four hours to keep me from going into labor. And once they took me off the meds, she was born within 48 hours, and hit the ground running … and has not stopped since!!

My daughter is definitely a “second child”. She is very competitive by nature, head strong, opinionated, is always testing the boundaries and goes full speed ahead, all the time! She is the child that does not require much sleep. The last one to bed at night. The first one up in the morning. This child, absolutely, will give me a run for my money when she hits the teenage years … that I know for sure!

Motherhood has been quite a ride, I must say … and it has lived up to every bit of what it was cracked up to be … the good and the bad! It’s really difficult for me to believe that my children are 11 and 14 already. It sure has flown by fast. But I could not be prouder of them both!! They do well in school, sports, extracurricular activities. They are polite young adults. And they are both a joy to be around.

I would just like to pause for a moment to tell my beautiful, enchanting, creative, smart, talented, competitive, sassy daughter … how much I love her, how much of an absolute joy it is to be around her, and to wish her the happiest birthday ever!! I love you KK!!

Cheers!

The New Notre Dame Nation

Looking for a community of Notre Dame fans where football can be discussed without all of the negative energy? Then please check out my friends "The New Notre Dame Nation" on Twitter!! @thenewNDNATION

Here are a few rules to keep the community fun!!

Rule 1. Stay Positive! We all get mad, angry, frustrated with the Irish, but we will stay positive. No ND Bashing, No FIRE BK, No that player sucks, No we are going to lose this or that game. Just stay positive leave the negative to the haters!

Rule2. You MUST follow ALL NNDN OFFICIAL members! they will be listed on the full profile in the list section.

Rule3. There will be "challenges" to complete. Nothing hard just tweeting certain people and things of that nature. Please complete them in a timely manner. Some might be time sensitive. If you cannot complete a challenge then contact me and let me know so I don't boot you out. Also, along with "challenges" there will be "must follow". these will be certain ND people to follow. Most of them you will be already following!

Tweet with you soon!

Cheers!

Bridget ... on behalf of @thenewNDNATION