Updating....

Hi y'all. I will be updating my blogroll this week. Believe it or not, this is a daunting task. If you haven't written anything in over 2 months, I will be removing you from my blogroll. If you are reading me and I do not include you (this is possible, it's been about 8 months since I updated) let me know and I will include you! Thank ye very much!

Welcome!

Welcome to all the visiting SITStas! If you aren't familiar with SITS, it is a great program for bloggers to support other bloggers. It's a great way to find new blogs, and possibly meet a friend in the process.

My name is Janna, and I am a Mom of two of the sweetest and most frustrating boys, Drew and Jacob (or as I sometimes refer to him, Mr. Calamity) and wife to an awesome husband, Mr. Bee. I love my life most of the time, but I'm someone that will vent on her blog. I hope you can laugh along with me at life's silly little imperfections. I can be quite silly or raunchy and sometimes I swear. Just a warning. I tend to write about whatever topic comes to mind, but often it is about parenting and my children, or sometimes I like to write about silly pop culture news.

Now for some gratuitous pictures of my boys:

Drew is 4 1/2.
Jacob turned 2 last month.

I have been blogging since 2006 and consequently have way too many a lot of posts, so I had such a hard time picking out three posts that best represented my blog. I hope you like the ones I picked. If you like them, and want to read more of my favorite posts, go ahead and look in My Favorite Posts tab for more. Also, if you are interested in finding more good reads, check out my Blog Roll! I also have a tab for items related to Pop Culture or Entertainment Posts, Photography Related Posts and Posts about my two boys, Jacob and Drew. You can find out more about me on my About Me tab. Here are my three posts:

Geeks Are Underrated

I Know I'm a Mom Because...

The Secret Eating Habits of the Bees

Thanks for coming to visit.... let me leave you with a picture of what I would have baked if you were coming to visit my house... oh, who am I kidding, I don't bake. You would have gotten Chips Ahoy.

Heck, I didn't even take the picture, this person did:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dongkwan/ / CC BY 2.0

Hmm... that picture is making me hungry... I'm off to go eat some of my children's Halloween candy!

Updating the blogroll!

Technorati has stopped including older links, so I am putting a new date on this blogroll, so you guys have higher authority (mine dropped dramatically, which is totes sad). Confused about technorati? Visit my link on the left hand side.

I tried to remember everyone but obviously some newbies are missing. If you link to me on your blog and you are not included, please let me know by leaving your blog name and url address in the comments and I will include you. Check to make sure your link is correct, please. Also, if anyone has stolen my button and put it on their blog- let me know! I can't wait to see it on someone else's blog.

Unless you let me know you plan to continue blogging, I am going to drop any links with no new postings in 6 weeks.

Also, please check out some of these blogs. If you stop by one, delurk and say Hi. Bloggers live for comments (myself included).

Also if you know of good pop culture snarky blog, photography blog or food blog, let me know in the comments and I will include their links. (Warning: if you tell me that Perez Hilton is a good pop culture blog, I will have to hurt you.)

Nepotism Rules!

life of limber

Someday Maybe


Blog Friends

A Duck in Her Pond

A Kiss and a Peck

A Nut in a Nutshell

Ann's Rants: Confessions of A Workweek Widow

Bloggedy Blog Blog

Carma Sez

Chicken Nuggets of Wisdom

Chick Lit is Not Dead
Circling the Square Table
Cold Spaghetti

Fingers and Paws

GEMMERZZ.com

Fever
Jeannie's Happy World
Jodifur

i come to the garden
Life in the House of No Sleep.....

*Life is Sweet*
Life Just Keeps Getting Weirder
Life with a Little One and More
Left Coast Cowboys
Lucy's Life in Suburb World
My Rambling Thoughts

My Simply Savvy Life

]New York Words

Oh, The Urbanity!
Profoundly Inarticulate
Sometimes Lucid
Strange Pilgrim
So You Don't Get any Phone Calls from Me
Talkin' with Teenie

The Bookkitten

The RaMbLeR

The Scattered Mind of a Tatooed Minivan Mom

Strange Pilgram

Three Bay B Chicks
Well Behaved Women Barely Make History


Supportively Stalking

Amalah

Always Home and Uncool

Citizen of the Month

C Jane Enjoy It

Fluid Pudding

Dadcentric

Her Bad Mother

My Charming Kids

Nie Nie

Pacing The Panic Room

Pet Cobra

The Stilleto Mom

NSFW (Prepare to ROFL)

Attack of the Redneck Mommy

Fuck You Penguin

Not Hating, Just Saying

Passive Aggressive (and just plain aggressive) Notes

The Bloggess


Pop Culture Snark

Mama Pop

See me here/Submit me here

Best Posts of the Week

Five Star Friday

Girls with Books

Photo Blogs


and the duck said...

Fresh Mommy


Foodies

Ms 4444Cooks

Smitten Kitchen


Social Blogging Networks

Blog Stalkers Unite

Grace in Small Things

Nablopomo

The Secret is in the Sauce

and the award goes to....

Ahhhh.... I am so grateful. I have been awarded some wonderful awards, and I get to pass them on! Lucky me!

Jineen @ i come to the garden- The Hottie Award

Lucy @ Lucy's Life in Suburb world- The Sisterhood Award

Sandy @ A Groovy Kind of Life- The Lemonade Award

This is what I love about blogging.... there are no awards for all the crappy stuff I have to do in life. I have never received an award for wiping Jacob's butt and singing "Gimme, Gimme, Jake" to the tune of "Gimme More" to keep him happy and holding his hands and legs so he doesn't get poop on himself, however, I can (and do)receive awards for doing something I love. Thank you ladies!

I am awarding these to:

Carma @ Carma Sez- Because her blog is great even if some smelly pirate hookers giveaway crazed followers aren't paying attention!

CDB @ Fingers and Paws- Because she is a talented blogger and I haven't had a chance to give her an award.

Mesa @ Mesa's Musings- Because she has had a hard blogging week, and she needs some happiness.

Debra @ Well Behaved Women Rarely Make History- Because she is as sweet as Apple pie!

Sandy @ A Groovy Kind of Life- (The Hottie Award and The Sisterhood Award)

Lucy @ Lucy's Life in Suburb world- (The Hottie Award and The Lemonade Award)

Jineen @ i come to the garden- (The Lemonade Award and the Sisterhood Award)

Thanks to all of you! You make Blogging fun.

PS- All those that have visited me in the blog party- I will be visiting you on Monday! Thanks!

Giveaway Winners!

The winner of the 25$ Giftcard to The Cheesecake Factory is.....


Lisa M!



The winner of the Mixed CD is....


The Rambler!


Thank you to all that participated, and thanks to all of my new followers! I am still playing catchup with everyone!

Now I am going to have to make this short, as I just got shooting stabby pains in my right index finer which went down to my wrist. I think this is a sign that I need to step away from the computer and maybe enjoy the beautiful day outside! See you tommorrow!

Bloggy Maintenance

Thank you to all who participated in Friday Favorites- I had so much fun reading them, and I was so happy about the turnout- it was about 5 more people than I expected! I will put up Mr. Linky this Friday, so if you want to participate you might want to start thinking of some now!

If you haven't visited these Friday Favorites, you should. They all had a different take on the Friday Favorites!

Also I wanted to thank Carma @ Carma Sez and Tina @ Talking with Teenie for the great awards! You guys rock!

The first award acknowledges the values that every blogger shows in his/her effort to transmit cultural, ethical, literary and personal values every day.The rules to follow are:
1) Accept the award, post it on your blog together with the name of the person that has granted the award and his or her blog link.
2) Pass the award to another 15 blogs that are worthy of this acknowledgment. Remember to contact each of them to let them know they have been chosen for this award.

I wanted to choose some of my new friends... so here they are in no particular order....

1. Dipaola Momma @ Chicken Nuggets of Wisdom

2. Rachel (not Rachael) @ Life After the Party

3. Mama Krit @ My Simply Savvy Life

4. The Bookkitten

5. Delswife @ Love ya, Mean it!

6. Gemma @ GEMMERZZ

7. Kalei @ Bloggedy Blog Blog

8. Lora @ Jakezilla

9. Lolli @ Life is Sweet

10. Dan River Mama @ A Kiss and a Peck

11. Blueviolet @ A Nut in a Nutshell

12. Lindsay @ New York Words

13. Mary Anne @ The Stiletto Mom

14. C @ The Scattered Mind of A Tattooed Minivan Mom

15. Tooj @ Circling The Square Table

The Second Award is the Friendship award... I am awarding this to everyone mentioned above as well. Thanks my bloggy friends!

Also, I am working on my links this week... hopefully the blogroll will be completely updated by the end of this week.

I worked on the mixed CDs this weekend and it was so fun! I will be sending out those and the gift card hopefully by Wednesday! Thanks for your patience guys!

My 200th Post & Giveaway

So, 200 times I have clicked the publish post button.
200 times I have put it all out there.
200 times I thought people would want to read something I wrote.

I can't believe this is my 200th post. I wanted to do something special and do a a giveaway-I know everyone does these once in a while, but mine is very special. After all, how many giveaways feature:

A MIX CD! Contain your excitement or at least try. One of the giveaways is a Mix CD, custom mixed for your tastes (or mine, if you so shall choose). I am the master of the mix CD and I really pride myself on doing a good job so this isn't really as bad as you think. Cover art will be from none other than Drew, The Drama King himself. Okay, okay before you say I am lame cool I am, if you can believe it I am giving some other Prizes away:

25$ Giftcard to The Cheesecake Factory

25$ Giftcard to T.G.I. Fridays

Also: all winner's links (or names, if they are not a blogger) will be displayed at the bottom of my header for one week.

I will tell you how to enter:

The first step (1 entry)- Leave me a comment telling me:

• Your favorite Janana Bee post (you can look through archives or My Favorite Posts tag to get an idea if you are new to my blog)

• OR a question for me (or Mr. Bee) **Update- no one has asked me a question yet! So from now on, you get TWO entries for comments with questions! And yes you can recomment with a question for an extra entry. Seriously, don't be shy! There are no stupid questions, just stupid answers- from me!**
  

• OR your favorite Artist/Band(s) (you know, for the really cool mix CD you might win).

I will post the answers to my favorite questions and the top ten posts that are picked on March 1st as well. (PS if you are a follower and you post a comment- that's 2 entries.)

After your comment, the first entry, there are other ways to get more entries:

• 1 entry- Follow me on Twitter (button is on the right)
• 1 entry- Favorite me on Technorati (button is on the right- if you aren't familiar with technorati, go check it out- it's really useful for finding who inks to you!)
• 1 entry- Follow my blog
• 2 entries- Tweet this giveaway on twitter
• 2 entries- Link to my contest on your blog (an easy way to do this is to click the link to this button on the bottom of this post.)

**Please leave me a comment letting me know what you have done, so I can keep track.**

**The contest ends on 12 AM March 1st (Sunday).**
There will be a first, second and third name drawn. First name drawn gets first pick, second name gets second pick and third name gets my mix CD third pick.

This should be fun. Thank you for reading and being such a great support for my addiction hobby. This is my way of giving back to you!

Friday Favorites #2 *Updated*

**Update: Please Tune in tomorrow for a special Guest Poster for Valentine's day. Yup, it's Mr. Bee! (I know how to work the system.)**

I'm sorry if my list seems a little sparse, it has been a tough week (sickness, power outages, work stress) but these things kept me going this week:

Sharky the fish. He is quite the laid back grandfish, even staying cool and collected when our power was out for 8 hours Wednesday night. (And I do mean cool. The temperature in the house was 59 degrees Fahrenheit when the power came back on. Scary.)


These Bibs, Handcrafted by my Cousin-in-Law, Jodi. They are big, roomy around the neck and soft and wash up so nice. Both bibs are reversible with a fluffy side and soft side with print on the other side. Jacob actually keeps this on! She only sells them to local stores, but shouldn't she sell them on Etsy?

Flameless Candles. When our power was out we left these going in the bathroom in case Drew woke up and was scared or needed to potty. Not as obnoxious as a flashlight, but safer than a candle. I'm going to pick more up soon.

These Posts (okay I just can't pick one ever):
Momo, The Red Sox, My Dad and God By Lisa @ Left Coast Cowboys
Who's The Dummy Mummy By Catherine @ Her Bad Mother

This sweater at Old Navy. Don't know why, but I got it for $10, not 20$ and I LOVE it!

Munchkin Bottle Brush Now that I don't have any bottles to clean I use it for washing dishes. It stores up right, dishwasher safe and not harmful for the dishes. It rawks.

Philedelphia Whipped Cream Cheese. So much better than regular- Yum!

What are your favorites from this week?

Friday Favorites

Libraries. Seriously. Where else can you get so much free entertainment? It's amazing that I am such a dunce, I didn't even ever think about going to one before today?

Lands End @ Sears. Um... 50% off sales prices much? I got these for $12.49. And before you say, holy shit Janna, how big are those shoes? They are a size 11. Yup.

Lemon Creek Winery. If you like sweet wine, try the Silver Beach Sauterne. Yummy.

Fuzzy socks. Better than slippers. Always. And yes... I am aware- I have ginormous feet!

Blogs Posts: Tie-
Life with a little one and More and Pacing the Panic Room

Muffins From Sam's Club. Let's not discuss how many of these I ate this week. These things are damn good. So what if they are the size of my head and I prolly gained 5 pounds doing it? I'd totally do it again (they are about $6.00 for 12, in case you are wondering- awesome deal.)

Last but certainly not least- My Mom and Dad. Not because you, know they raised me and stuff and provide childcare so I don't lose it with my children. Nope (even though, yes, I give you guys mad props for that). They are on the Friday Favorite lists because they drove Lemon Creek wine over to me when I was too lazy worn out to go to the store and buy some wine. Thanks for supporting me in my quest to get tipsy relax!

Networked out!

Do you ever feel overwhelmed by all the various social networking outlets? I do. I have 4 email addresses. Yep, that's right. I have an AOL, Gmail, Work, and Yahoo (for fantasy football, I never use it otherwise) email accounts. I am registered on Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, Friendster (what? I know, I forgot it even existed to got an email about it, on my AOL account of course) and the other day, when googling my name, I saw that I had registered for Bebo. WTF is Bebo? I feel a little out of control with all the possibilities of ways to contact people.

The ones of these I actually check regularly are Facebook and Twitter. I used to love MySpace , now it seems out of date and clunky, like if I were using a cell phone with no Internet capability. Facebook seems like much more fun, not quite as garish looking (I'm all about simplicity these days, I need it somewhere!) plus it is the perfect spying tool. I love telling the Internet phobic Mr. Bee all about what his friends are up to, before he knows. Then when he complains, I tell him I will set up his facebook account. He quickly shuts up and walks. slowly. away. from the Devil Box.

Even so, there are 10 things that OMG I EFFING HATE about Facebook. Here they are in no particular order. Please don't be offended either, because I have done all of these things to someone at some point. It's the nature of the beast, right?

1.Okay, I do NOT want another plant for my (Lil) Green Patch. I don't want it, and I don't want to save the rain forest by taking part in this scam application. Don't keep sending them to me so that you can get the one that somebody else sent you! For the record I hate the rain forest, I want to see it burn.*

2. Consequently... (Lil) Blue Cove? You are like (Lil) Green Patch's annoying kid sister... "Look, I save the rain forest too! Add me! Add me!" GO AWAY!

3. Also, um, Facebook? If I wanted to be friends with this person, I would friend them. Stop suggesting them! Some of these people you are suggesting, well they made my life a living hell in High School we didn't get along growing up and I don't want to have to look at their ugly mug face every day.

4. Please don't tag me in photos where I am drunk, look stupid or have 80's hair. If I do it to myself, fine, but I can't be surprised by it one day when opening my account.


However, if you have pictures of me in overalls, please post. I miss them terribly!

5. If you ignored me we didn't talk in High School, I don't want to be your Facebook friend now! Too little too late, my wannabe friend. (Conversely, if we have never talked in real life and I read your blog and/or vice versa, then yeah, I'll be your friend.)

6. People that converse in secret code on Facebook walls. It wastes my time because I always am trying to crack it. Seriously guys, that is what your inbox is for.

7. Relationship tabs. This could get really awkward. I have seen it firsthand.

8. People that voice ugly political opinions in their status. I mean fine, if you want to put it in your info tab, but I don't need to see that shit every time I open teh FB. It's called twitter... meet up with some pals of your political persuasion and spout away!

9. The Pack Rat Application. Damn you Packrat, you wasted hours and hours of my time making me collect cards. I even added strangers to my Facebook account so that I could collect more cards! You are like a cult that tried to brainwash me, but I escaped, haha!

10. Barack Obama updates. TOO MANY! Cannot deal... must erase.....

Why am I going on and on about this? Well Facebook has a new application for blogs called Networked blogs, and you need 10 readers to claim your blog. I am short by two. Please go say you read me. I want to claim my blog.

What are your biggest pet peeves about Facebook (or any of the above mentioned social networking sites)? Leave it in the comments!

Thanks!


PS I hate blatant self promotion too, I am so ashamed, but "I ain't too proud to beg".
PPS Sorry about the "ain't too proud to beg" reference. Got a little confused by the overalls, thought it was 1992.




*Don't get riled up. I heart the rain forest. I hate the application that lies about saving it is all.

Awards

Here are the awards I have been given. Thank you! If you gave me one and I am missing it on here-I am so sorry, please leave it in the comments below!

Thanks Julia!

Thanks Carma, Thanks Tina!

Thanks Carma, Thanks Tina, Thanks Bookkitten!

Thanks Lucy!

Thanks Lucy!

Thanks Jineen!

Thanks Julia, Thanks Rambler, Thanks Sandy!

Thanks Kalei, Thanks Dan River Mama!

Blogroll

IRL Bloggers
Limber as Life
Miles on Miles (If you like horses check this one out. Miles is a beauty!)

Blog Friends

 

A Kiss and a Peck

Ann's Rants

Chicken Nuggets of Wisdom

Circling the Square Table

Cold Spaghetti

Fingers and Paws

Fever
Jodifur

Life Just Keeps Getting Weirder
Life with a Little One and More
New York Words

Oh, The Urbanity!
Strange Pilgrim
So You Don't Get any Phone Calls from Me

The Bookkitten  

The Stilleto Mom

Thoughts By Dena

Supportively Stalking

 
Amalah
Always Home and Uncool
Citizen of the Month
C Jane Enjoy It
Fluid Pudding
Dadcentric
Her Bad Mother

Nie Nie
Pet Cobra

NSFW (Prepare to ROFL)
Attack of the Redneck Mommy
Passive Aggressive (and just plain aggressive) Notes
The Bloggess
Shit my Kids Ruined


Pop Culture Snark 
Entertainment Weekly's Popwatch
Mama Pop
Chick Lit is Not Dead

Foodies
Ms 4444Cooks
Smitten Kitchen

Honest Fare

Photo Blogs

and the duck said...

Fresh Mommy

Pacing the Panic Room

Little bit about Me and my blog

About Me
I honestly thought I was never "cut out" to be a Mom or Wife. Then I met Mr. B when I was 20. I knew immediately he was going to be an important part of my life, I just didn't know how. We started dating about a month after we met and within three weeks I knew that I loved him. A deep, serious love I had never experienced before. He is my best friend, which may be a cliche, but it's true. Somehow, even though I never saw marriage in my future, I became a wife two weeks after I turned 23, and a mother when I was 25, and the first mother in my group of friends and immediate family. There was quite a learning curve, and even now I am completely lost about 90% of the time.

My oldest son Drew was born in January of 2005 and Jacob was born in October of 2007. They are fricking awesome, and they also drive me nuts.

About Janana Bee (The Blog)....

One day, in late 2006, while on my newfangled Myspace account, I decided to write a little blog post. Then I wrote another. More friends commented and then I wrote another. I was on a blogging roll! I felt so inclined, I decided to write it on a real blogging platform, Blogger! Most of my stories are about learning how to be a Mom and still trying to be Janna as well. Photography is also evolving to be an important part of my blog, also.

My blog title is a play on my name. My real name is Janna, but sometimes people have called me Janana (you know, as in "Janna Banana"). So while my real name is Janna my blog is called Janana. I know it's confusing, like I said I dove into blogging headfirst without thinking about the possible confusion. If I could change it now I would, but now it seems part of me. Feel free to call me Janana or Janna, I will respond to either one. Bee is not my real last name, but rather a combination of my maiden name and married name and also it's a nickname.

So here I am, trudging through life, working full-time and trying to be the best I can be everywhere, including bloggy land. I love and hate it all. (Don't we all? If you say you don't, you are lying.) This is my journey, told through my warped mind.

I really have learned a lot from blogging and the blogging community, and have made some great friends. Please feel free to comment or email me (or follow me on twitter). I will respond. I really love reading and writing blogs and I have made some good friends from this experience. Drop me a line and say hi, or leave me a comment. I will get back to you as soon as I can.

Email me

Twitter

An award... really?

Okay, so I would like to say I don't care about awards, and that is how I felt, really, until Julia from Sometimes Lucid (please check out her blog, she is funny and makes the best looking food) awarded me with my first ever award! Woot! I will admit it's pretty awesome.



The award states "This blog invests and believes the PROXIMITY - nearness in space, time and relationships!These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers! Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award."

I am passing it on to the following bloggers who not only have great blogs, but are kind people who I think blog in the spirit of this award. They can choose to pass it on, or can choose not to. Here they are in no particular order:

My Rambling Thoughts

The Bush Family (Today is Mesa's 30th birthday! Go wish her a happy birthday!)

Strange Pilgrim

Life in the House of No Sleep

Left Coast Cowboys

Profoundly Inarticulate

Cold Spaghetti

Jodifur

Wow how many times can you say blog in a post? I think this is topping all my previous efforts... blog blog blog. Bloggedy, blog blog blog.

Oh, I also want to give a shout out to The Blog Doctor, whose posts have helped me with a LOT of my corrupted template. Just to forewarn, now that my template is fixed, there will be some construction here.

If I have time, I will also be writing a Meme today which I was tagged for. (Yes, I had to look up Meme- so not hip with the blogging language.) When it rains it pours. Not that I am complaining.

Also, going to see that Spartans play Basketball tonight! Woot again!