My New Tumblr Blog!

I am not really familiar with Tumblr but I heard about it and wanted to give it a try. I decided to make a Tumblr blog page.

Check it out HERE! 

The definition of Tumblr is:

Tumblr is a blogging platform that allows users to post text, images, video, links, quotes, and audio to their tumblelog, a short-form blog. Users are able to "follow" other users and see their posts together on their dashboard. Users can "like" or "reblog" posts from other blogs on the site.


Tumblr lets you effortlessly share anything. Post text, photos, quotes, links, music, and videos, from your browser, phone, desktop, email, or wherever you happen to be. You can customize everything, from colors, to your theme's HTML.


Fastcompany.com explains it as:

Tumblr is a blogging platform that makes it easier to post video, audio, words, social bookmarks, photos, and even other people's blog posts into your blog, and share it with other people. Instead of having to upload things to YouTube, Delicious or Flickr, or create your own WordPress database before posting things, you can put your media directly into Tumblr from your computer or mobile phone. It's blogging, the way blogging was meant to be.

I think I like the set-up of Tumblr. It is a really easy blog form. You can post very simplistic blogs, very fast! It is one of the newest forms of blogging and is growing in popularity. Tumblr focuses on more minimalistic posts, kind of like Twitter.


Tumblr has a simplified user interface, allowing users to upload simply by clicking on a button for text, picture, video, etc. Like other social media sites, on Tumblr users can ‘follow’ other users. Following someone puts their posts on the dashboard, allowing the user to quickly read updates without having to visit other blogs. The style of blogging used on Tumblr is a unique style of microblogging which has been labelled as tumblelogging.

If you are one of those people that has thought about starting a blog but just doesn't have the extra time to put into it, I would recommend checking out Tumblr! It literally takes 5 minutes to set-up. And it is so easy! It is perfect for beginner bloggers. There is no need to have any knowledge of HTML or CSS to get Tumblr up and running.

I think Tumblr is going to be the next "big thing" as far as social media is concerned. What do you all think? Do you like the set-up? Are you tempted to make your on Tumblr blog? I recommend grabbing your current blog's Tumblr name before it is too late. If you have a Tumblr account, let me know. I need to follow some folks!

I think this will be a great way to post quick photos of the baby to share with friends and family!

Another FUN FACT- people can ask you random questions of Tumblr. For instance, I was asked my earliest childhood memory. Then I respond to the random questions and they post on my blog. It is a fun little bonus and a great way to learn fun facts about each other.

Facebook Stalking 101

I assume most of you have Facebook. If you are one of the lucky few that managed to escape the Facebook madness, good for you! Seriously, I wish I had the willpower to cancel my account. I have tried on numerous occasions. And I was actually successful for about a month. But inevitably, I was back on "the book."

I remember when I first heard about Facebook. I signed up but still didn't really understand the full concept. Eventually it started catching on across campus and everyone starting hopping on the Facebook bandwagon. But it was really a college thing. You didn't have to worry about your siblings, parents, and even grandparents stalking your Facebook page. Now everyone has a Facebook account. Parents, cousins, bosses, co-workers. You have to be really careful about what you post, what photos you share, any status updates you put up. I think it has lost some of it's charm. Before you could share witty comments, hysterical photos, inside jokes.... but now everyone reads into what you write and what other people post. People judge others by their Facebook accounts. And honestly, 90% of the time... most people don't understand the meaning of the inside joke or funny comment that is posted but they make judgements anyway..... Quite frankly, I miss the old Facebook.

I mean sure it is a great way to reconnect with old friends and with your family members that live far away. But now rather then sending cards, we post on each other's walls. Who makes phone calls anymore? Everything is much less personal!

And then comes my BIGGEST PET PEEVE. When those folks that were never nice to you, sometimes actually mean to you, decide to add you as a friend on Facebook. If you are not my friend, and you have never been my friend, then why on earth are you adding me as a friend on Facebook? Because what happens is I have to decide whether or not to add them and if I decide not to add them then I look like the jerk. So you add them. And then you have to wonder... "Are they Facebook stalking me? Should I make a limited profile list?"

Let's talk a little bit about Facebook stalking. Did you know people actually make up fake accounts, using fake names, so they can add people that they don't like and look at their photos and profiles? Yep, crazy! I know one of these stalker types. And she even made fake Twitter name to follow certain people's Twitter accounts without their knowledge. So folks, the lesson here... set your privacy settings and don't add people you don't know.

Here is the Urban Dictionary's definition of a Facebook stalker:

Someone who is obsessed with someone else and stalks them on facebook. Not always traceable or noticeable, but clues are: wall posts replying to every status update, viewing every posted picture of the stalked, etc...

You are a FB stalker. You qualify as a FB stalker if you :

a) click on someone's profile more than once a day even if they haven't messaged or tagged you in a photo. 


b) have dragged and dropped more than 3 FB photos (not from your own profile) 


c) actually go to a place mentioned on someone's page in hopes of seeing them in real life...creepy!

And something that upsets me even more is when they add my husband! Now you have never met my hubby. We haven't seen each other is years. And when we did, we didn't like each other. So why on earth would you go to the trouble to add my husband on Facebook? The whole thing is kind of creepy to me. I prefer to maintain relationships with old friends.... not the folks that were mean and standoffish in high school and college. Once in awhile I will get a little naive and think to myself... "well maybe they have grown up and are actually nice girls now." So I will send them a nice message wishing them well. And then of course... no response.

So then comes the next question. Is it okay to de-friend people on Facebook? Awhile back I actually removed 2,000 people from my friend list. I hit 5,000 friends and at that point you are actually not allowed to add any more. So I decided to take away anyone that I didn't personally know. It took hours and during the process I somehow managed to de-friend real friends by accident. I actually gave up before I went through my entire friend list. But I felt better about knowing a good majority of the people left on my friend list. It was nice to actually recognize people on the newsfeed.

Personally, I think that you should friend people on Facebook because you are friends and you want to stay in touch with them. So if they aren't really your friends and you don't talk to them on Facebook, maybe it is perfectly fine to go ahead and "de-friend" them. If someone knows, please explain to me why people have a desire to get on other people's Facebook accounts that they don't like and go through their profile and photos? It is like a strange obsession. I think you should ignore the folks you don't like and spend your time enjoying your own life and your actual friends. I wonder how many minutes a day people waste looking at profiles of people that they dislike?

Now I will admit, I love looking at my friends profiles to see what they have been up to and to check out their photos from the weekend. But once again, that is because I actually like those people. I think there is a difference.

What do you think? De-friend or add all sorts of privacy settings and put them on your limited profile list?

What are your biggest Facebook pet peeves?

Wedding Bells are Ringing!

Two of my best friends just got engaged!!!! Congrats to Kent and Marisa  & Cissy and Kevin! Look at how cute these couples are:

Soon to be Mrs. Marisa Cecil and Kent

Soon to be Mrs. Cissy Kalkwarf and Kevin!

I can't wait for their weddings next year. Cissy is getting married in Charleston, SC and Marisa is having a destination wedding in Turks and Caicos! Woo hoo!

Marisa already picked out the bridesmaid dresses and I love them! It is the Kendall Dress Silk Habotai in "Do the Wave"

I went ahead and bought it in a size 4. Now that is wishful thinking considering I have no idea what my body is going to do post-baby. But I found it on sale and I couldn't resist. Plus, I think it will be great motivation to workout and get rid of any baby weight. 

Does anyone know how this dress tends to run? Is it pretty true to size? Sometimes the one shoulder dresses are a little bigger than the other Lilly dresses. Please share if you have any insight!

I spent most of my day looking for 7 of these dresses on sale for the other girls. I had pretty good luck and found 4 on sale. If anyone knows of any Lilly stores with this particular dress on sale, please let me know. We need several more for the rest of the bridesmaids and they are still listed for $268 on the actual Lilly website.

Congrats again MARISA AND CISSY! So happy for yall!!! 

Flashback Friday

Here are some fun photos from college I wanted to share:

Carolina Tailgate! GO COCKS!

Survivor Premiere

Tao in NYC

Hollywood Blvd. in LA

Katana in Los Angeles 

Ledux Nightclub in LA

Three years ago today, I was kidnapped...

Exactly three years ago, I was kidnapped. By who you may ask!? By the Fei Long tribe. Some of you are probably asking yourself... "What the heck is she talking about!? I think she has lost her mind!" And some of you are probably chuckling when you think back to that very silly episode.

Today is my 25th birthday. And for some reason 25 seems a whole lot older than 24! For the most part, I enjoy low-key birthdays. Just a nice relaxing day with family and friends. But three years ago, I was surrounded by complete strangers and all of my friends and family were about 7,000 miles away. I was in China in the Zhejiang Province on the lake of a thousand islands. (I am still not 100% sure of our exact location.) I was there filming season 15 of CBS Survivor and was a member of the Zhan Hu tribe.

On my 22nd birthday, we had only been filming for a few days. The conditions were miserable, I was starving (literally) and having a big birthday bash was the last thing on my mind. But my sweet teammates insisted they would throw me a fun shindig. We were supposed to have a bond fire (if we could manage to start a fire),  we were going to cook EXTRA molded rice, snails, and clams and Erik was providing the live entertainment (he was our human jukebox out there!) and Frosti, Sherea, Peih-Gee and I were supposed to have a dance party. So as bad as everything seemed, I was excited to celebrate with this crazy bunch of kids. But then my birthday dreams were shattered. We lost the challenge that day (as usual) and the Fei Long tribe was allowed to kidnap one member from our team and keep them at their campsite until the next immunity challenge. So who did they choose!? Yep, you guessed it... I was the first member of Survivor China kidnapped to the opposing team. And of course, it happened to be on my birthday. I was crushed.

Stolen by the Fei Long Tribe! (my tribe is on the left)

So I headed to the Fei Long camp. I quickly realized they had it made over there. They had lime trees and fish in their cove. Not fair at all! But they offered to feed me and give me a little extra lime rice on my birthday. So I thought that was sweet. But I still wanted to celebrate with my tribe. So I decided to try to escape and runaway back to my island. How this did not make television... I have no idea. Jean- Robert and I got in the canoe and started paddling. We saw smoke in the distance and figured it had to be my campsite. We paddled, paddled, paddled away! Told the members of Fei Long we were going on a fishing trip. Several hours later, we realized the smoke was not coming from my campsite and we had no idea where my campsite was. Major FAILURE! So we headed back and just blamed the lost time on the fish not biting. Looking back, it is pretty hysterical really. I bet the camera men got a good laugh at us! I spent the rest of my birthday with the "enemies!" Now those enemies are good friends and I wouldn't mind spending any birthday with them! haha!

Eating my 22nd birthday dinner with the "enemies!" 

Reuniting with my tribe!!! I missed those crazy monkeys! 

But this year proves to be much more relaxing. I spent the morning playing with the puppy, I think I am going to go get a pre-natal massage, then I am headed to a birthday dinner with my hubby, Kent, and Marisa! I am looking forward to it!

Here are some old photos from my 21st birthday (now that was an exciting and fun-filled night!)