Updated Everything

First, out with the old, in with the new. Well, not so new.

I've wanted our blog to be called The Neeleyweds for quite some time and I've finally gotten off my tuckus and done something about it.

So, enter www.theneeleyweds.com - done and done.

Which directs you here, not the land of "Living Like No One Else" - though we still aspire to do so - but the land of "The Neeleyweds" the same chronicles - often boring, sometimes insightful - of a couple of kids parading around as adults trying to make sense of what we've been given in life... together.

I know I've said it a million times over, but I want this blog to actually contribute something to the world, aside from being a place for me to mouth off about who knows what in life.

As much as I can hope to achieve that, it all begins with starting.

Telling stories.

Sharing projects.

Recounting lessons, and the accompanying challenges and joys.

So, thanks for journeying with us.

That's What This is About

I was just on Stephanie's blog leaving a comment when I noticed our blog on her blogroll indicating our last post was two weeks ago. TWO WEEKS?! I just don't even understand how that can happen. I guess, in my mind, I'd been chronicling posts to share - things to talk about - life to ruminate over and it was all just happening in my head.

That's my problem most times, I think. It happens up there (knocks on noggin') far too often without ever making it into the sphere in which it might, I don't know, make someone's day, give someone a laugh, help someone to be encouraged. How does one strike out from that without bordering the line of turning a blog into a diary, I wonder?

Since blogging last, we went to the lake, Cliff turned twenty-seven, I ate three bowls of oatmeal, grocery shopped, went to the bank.... HAHA... fooled you. Well I mean, I did all those things, but I know that's not what you care to hear/know about. What is, however, is the question?

I've been talking to Cliff some about making this more of a niche blog. Problem is, we often don't consider ourselves niche people. There's not much we don't love to do, try, etc. There's not many places we don't love to go, see, etc. There's not a whole lot we couldn't find ourselves commentating on, though there are a few things nearer and dearer, shall we say.

So with that, I'm thinking about some things. And had planned to continue thinking on some things and then one day, before you knew it, WHAM this blog would be different. But I don't think it can work like that. Because it's not about the effect on some distant member of a supposed audience, as Stephanie's blog post reminded me keenly today, but what are we prompted to share and should that journey follow a closely laid path or meander through the thing that is life and seasons. All, of course, set within the context of two people adventuring through life together.

And I think ultimately, that's what this blog is about. It's about the two of us - Cliff and I - as a pair... a team. And we encounter, perservere through, and celebrate many wonderful things in our life together and THAT'S what this is about. Don't you think?

I Should Not Have Let

Neutrality be an option.

It appears most everyone is Switzerland and I'm left at an impasse myself.

So for now, we'll continue on with our regularly scheduled program.

That is. Our blog. My blog. And no in-between blog.

I think too many people like hearing from Cliff (the occasional opportunity you have to do so) to decide one way or the other. I mean, I like hearing from him too, so let's keep it this way.

Except, I don't want anymore of this "Huh, what photography blog?" stuff. I love the support you all have shown me over time and I will only continue to be successful, in part, because of it. You're a huge reason I'm doing this in the first place. If reading both makes your life more difficult (I mean, who needs one more blog to read) you should check out Google reader. If reading both seems pointless, tell me how to make it better... to make it worth it.

If we haven't told you lately... we want to hear from you.

I Am Curious to Know...

And have therefore posted a couple of polls.

Check 'em out over here ====>

FYI: Poll Terms Defined...

LLNOE = Living Like No One Else
KNP = Kristine Neeley Photography
Merger = a combining of the two
Switzerland = a symbol of neutrality

Blidget

All our Belmont friends should get a kick out of this.



Did you ever think you'd see/hear the word Blidget in any context outside of conversations regarding a certain oft-seen character on campus?

Nope, neither did I.

Honest Scrap

Big day, guys... Brooke honored me with the Honest Scrap award!

These things are always fun, so hopefully you'll bear with me in accepting it.

It appears the rules of the award are to:

1) Choose a minimum of 7 blogs that you find brilliant in content or design.
2) Show the 7 winners' names and links on your blog, and leave a comment informing them that they were prized with "Honest Scrap." And while there's not really a physical prize, you do get to keep and post the nifty icon.
3) Finally, list at least 10 honest things about yourself.

So here are my 10 things:

1) My favorite way to drink soda is from the fountain. Even better when the ice is small and crunchy and the cup is (GASP!) plain white Styrofoam. There's just something about the combination that makes me want to slurp on it all day long, especially when it's half-Coke (or Cherry Coke, if I'm lucky) / half-diet Coke.

2) I don't keep in touch with anyone from the high school, middle schools, or elementary schools I went to when I was younger, not at least in the way that you would if you were actually friends. Sure, we're "friends" on facebook, but that doesn't account for a whole lot. We're not the kind to call each other up, visit when I'm in town, or anything of the sort. Sometimes I feel odd because of that and then other times, it's a mixed-blessing. My family are the only people who have truly known me for the longest...

3) For the longest time, I could not eat Italian sausage without gagging. I was never sure if the horrible episode as a kid with the babysitter was what caused it or brought it to my attention, but it was, to me, the most deplorable and repulsive food in the world. Later in life, I determined it was the seeds that did me in and my first forays into the world of enjoying Italian sausage were thanks to the seedless kind. Now, I can even stand to eat the seeds... occasionally.

4) Speaking of almost vomiting, I have the worst gag reflexes. I need nothing to back this up. Just watch me my brush my teeth in the morning and you'll have your proof.

5) I am of the very, very sentimental collector-sort. If I have ever had a significant experience at any point in my life, I usually have some sort of object that ties into it. Even something as goofy as a gum wrapper Cliff shaped into a boat on the night he first said "I love you" or as sweet as a wildflower pressed into the pages of a particularly life-changing book I may have read in the middle of a giant field on a beautiful summer day.

6) I waited until I was married to share myself completely with another person. I think that may have been, of all the good decisions I've been able to make in the last (almost) twenty-five years and aside from choosing to follow Christ, the one that I am most proud of and thankful for.

7) On the list of people I was once convinced I would one day marry, most are currently starving musicians. Only one is probably not starving, and his name is Mat Kearney. And I don't know why I was particularly convinced we'd get married, except for that one time he brushed my hair behind my ear after a mutual friend of ours' chopped off my locks on her front porch during Monday Night Football. Or maybe it was that time he dropped his pic while playing at church and I was the one to catch it and hand it back? Oh, what a silly little girl I was!

8) I was born a bookworm. Okay, okay, maybe not exactly. In fact, I don't even know at what age I began reading (Mom, can you help with that?); but what I do know is that I have always loved it with a severity unrivaled to many other things in my life. It is the one past time I have been completely committed to my entire readable years. I was the kid reading undetected by the nightlight when it was bedtime and when the nightlight was no longer needed, I was under the covers with a flashlight. To this day, I always have a book on the nightstand (okay, okay, right now it's a nightstool).

9) Strangely enough, the two times in my life when I have felt most beautiful are: when I wore a long, beaded, lace, strapless, empire-waisted wedding gown with silver, strappy heels, my hair in a chiffon with elegant vintagey pearl and silver hair combs and earrings to match, and expertly applied make-up on my wedding-day... and when I wore a pair of pants I'd had on for two days, an old pullover and a jacket, gloves, a skull-cap, no make-up on an unclean face, and hiking boots on the cold morning Cliff and I stood and watched the sunrise over the Teton Range.

10) I am finally okay with misspellings and mispronunciations of my name. When you are a Kristine, your life is destined for trouble. Now don't hear me wrong, I love my name. And I think it was a genius way to spell it and not only that, but a name that suits me very well. However, for whatever reason, the K throws everyone off. It's like Christine makes so much sense to people that Kristine just can't... not even phonetically. I've had a lifetime of Kristin, Kristina, Kristy, but Kristine? Whoever thought it could be that difficult? Throw in a maiden name (Lang) that "usually" has an e at the end of it and you can imagine what my pre-married life was like. Constant correction, taking offense, etc. But here's the thing, once I adopted some other family's (now mine, of course) pronunciation and spelling woes, I learned a sort of sympathy for myself that finally made it all okay. Now I get to help people learn to spell a last name I've only had for a year and a half (that evidently has "too many" e's, when it should only have two) and I just deal with it. So yeah, so what if I'm "Kristine Neeley with a K and three e's"... at least my middle name is only occasionally up for argument (because in this case, z is way more normal than s).

By the way, if you want to know more useless honesty about me, you can always hearken back to this old post.

And who shall my nominations go to for the Honest Scrap award? Well, considering the plethora of blogs I could link to my added qualifications are that the persons selected be fairly frequent bloggers (enough that I'd believe you'd actually do this) and an honest blogger, at that.

So here goes (in alphabetical order):

Amanda @ Amanda's Autoblogography

Erin @ My So-Called Life

Grace @ Grace Notes

Heather @ highly caffeineated

Jennfer @ The Henry Family in Nashvegas!

Jody @ Gray Photography

Karyn @ Johnson's Journal

Marianna @ Peachy Perspective

Sara @ Little is Much

Sarah @ Choosing Life

Valerie @ Our Journey

Comments

Seems there's been a bit of a drought, lately.

And seeing as I like conversation, I can sometimes get a little tired of hearing only from myself. This has caused me to wonder...

For those of you who do or have left comments: what inspires you to comment?

For those of you staying hidden in the folds of the internet, doing what we like to call "lurking": why the silence? (feel free to post your answer anonymously...)

Whoa.

It's been about a week since I've checked our blog stats, and even then, I hadn't been keeping up with the big picture indicators. I was shocked to look at our visits over the last year:



In no way do I think these numbers are really that important. And when I start to, I have a problem. But I think they are interesting. Unfortunately I didn't think to capture this moment last night so you could actually see, but November of last year was most certainly below the 300 mark. Crazy, huh?

The Results Are In

It appears "the people" have spoken in favor of Cliff posting occasionally. And two wise guys actually chose to join me in a momentary lapse of off-beat humor.

He was brainstorming, last night, about his first post. Who knows, he may even write it tonight!

I, in the meantime, will let this 300th post of ours come to end now.

It's time for work.

It's 2:40PM

And I haven't posted once, today!
Goodness, mio!

That's what happens when you're busy, I guess.

We had this great moment in our Orientation Council meeting this morning where we talked about how important it is to notice when you can't remember what you've done this week. Because when you can't remember, that's when you know you're missing out on something. I'm drafting some thoughts on the subject for Being is More Important (who knows when I'll actually post it). So don't stay tuned, or you'll probably be disappointed.

Also, I'm trying to figure out a way to encourage Cliff to get on here and post every once in awhile. He doesn't think he has anything really worthwhile to lend to my banterings (half the stuff I write isn't worthwhile!), but I really think he does. I also think it would be fun for those of you who actually read this to get his perspective on the stuff we've got going on or just life in general, at least every once in awhile.

So, that being said... I've posted a poll at the top right hand of our blog.

Simple question, easy answers (albeit one was an attempt at wittiness). Please, if you've got 2.3 seconds, make your opinion known. Because, if it turns out the twenty of you who read this (give or take, like, twenty) want to hear from him that may just give him the encouragement he needs to do it. And if you feel so led, lend a comment to this post, as well, maybe detailing your opinion shared in the poll - because while his top Love Language isn't Words of Affirmation, everyone likes a little pat on the back or "come on, kid, we wanna hear from you!"

Besides, he's the one who made me turn my personal blog into the ever so quaint "couple's blog." Goofball.

And Another

How about the weather today, middle Tennessee folks? Isn't it fabulous?!

I only hope it'll hold out for the weekend for both Cliff in Cincinnati and me here in good ol' Franklin. While Cliff spends the day riding rollercoasters with his work team at Kings Island, I will make every attempt to live in the pleasure of a day to myself (what's new, right?) with some time spent at the Farmer's Market, our friends' open house to visit their new baby Lily, possibly a showing of "Mamma Mia" with Brooke, and Abby's wedding(!!!!!).

Oh, and, uh, I'm writing in a new blog. (GASP.) Don't worry, we're keeping this one. The new one, however, will be a little more focused and a little bit more of a place for me to thoughtfully express and purposefully practice writing. Like, real writing. Not the "I'm bored and have nothing else to do" or "let's tell people what we're up to" kind, but "piece together meaning and make something of it" kind. There's nothing wrong with the previous two, because they definitely have their place and I like them both. Unfortunately, I tend to default to them, though, and leave my truest desires and what challenges me most in the dust.

I know that I do the latter kind of writing here occasionally, but it needs a place of its own I think, at least for right now. For some reason, I just feel it's a bit more credible that way. So, we'll see. It seems my online persona is constantly evolving and this just feels like the right thing to do.