Monday I set my alarm for 6:35am (yes for me that’s early, as I normally roll out of bed sometime between 7:30 and 8am). After a lot of positive self talk I convinced myself to get out of bed. I guess I didn’t set my alarm early enough because I encountered a sleepy 3 yo in the hall way.

“Mommy, wanna play polly pockets with me?”

Ummmmm… at this point it’s either wake up hubby and leave him with a 3 yo upset because mommy didn’t want to play polly pockets, or skip my run….

I chose to play polly's.

Later I did p90x chest & back while the kids “helped” me. They had a blast. Brooke actually does the workout with me – so cute to watch her do pushups with her butt up in the air while Sierra walked around pretending to be Tony Horten, asking me how many reps I was going to do, encouraging me and spotting me. Who says you can’t workout with kids around? I told hubby about it and he says he *may* start p90x with me! Fingers crossed!

Today I went to Mommy/Baby Boot camp class, so no running. And tomorrow? I’m going to try to get up to run again, then will do the arms part of p90x. Wish me luck!

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Brooke, Santa, Amber & Sierra

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Wow!!! You’re 1 month old now! It feels like you’ve been a part of our family forever. You just fit in so well with us.

You’re an amazing sleeper, and eater. Yes – you just eat & sleep, just like your daddy! The other day I placed you on your tummy to do some “tummy time” and you fell asleep! Your sisters were playing in the room too, but you didn’t let that bother you at all.

Sleepy Girl

I’ve noticed lately that you can see.  You can focus on my hand if I hold it in front of your face, and if I move it side to side your eyes and head follow along.  You had a bit of a wandering eye at birth, but it seems to be straightening out on is own.  You also can recognize our voices.  If you hear daddy’s voice when he gets home from work you turn your head towards the door.  You also smile when you see him.  It’s so cute! And you have a beautiful smile.

This month will be your first Christmas – we’ll be bringing you up to meet your family in Ottawa.  I apologize in advance for the long car ride.

We love you Amber and are absolutely enjoying every single moment with you!

Love,
Mommy
XXXOOO

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That he managed to live to that age is rather remarkable, given what happened in the Second World War. Born in England, he was one of the 400,000 members of the British Expeditionary Force sent to the mainland where they found themselves facing the new German warfare technique – the Blitzkrieg.

He was treating a wounded comrade when he was hit in the legs by shrapnel.

En route to hospital, his ambulance came under fire from a German tank, which then miraculously ceased fire. Evacuated from Dunkirk on HMS Grenade, two of the sister ships with them were sunk.

Recovered, he was sent to allied campaigns in North Africa and Italy. En route his ship was chased by the German battleship Bismarck.

In North Africa he served under General Montgomery against the Desert Fox, Rommel.

Sent into the Italian campaign, he met his future wife, a lieutenant and physiotherapist in a Canadian hospital. They were married in the morning by the mayor of the Italian town, and again in the afternoon by a British padre.

After the war they settled in Chatham, Ontario where he went into politics and became the warden (chairman) of the county and on his retirement he and his wife moved to Ottawa. At the age of 80 he wrote a book about his experiences.

One day out of the blue he received a call from a government official asking him to go downtown for a photo op. He wasn’t told what the photo was for or why they chose him. ‘He had no idea he would be on the bill,’ his daughter said.

And now you know the story of the old veteran on the $10 bill.

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Wow! Time is quickly tick, tick, ticking away! Before I know it we’ll be bathing a new baby! I really can’t wait – not only because I’m completely DONE with being pregnant, but also because Johnsons and Johnsons sent me this awesome baby bath gift basket that’s literally overflowing with awesome Johnsons baby bath products:

Baby Bath Gift Basket

I’ve used everything except the NATURAL™ line of products on my kids, as they weren’t available when my youngest was a baby. I completely love the products. In fact, my girls have gotten into my basket and have begun using the BEDTIME® Bath and Shampoo – I love the smell of Lavender on them I can’t wait for my hubby, Sierra, and Brooke to bath baby (that’s their job).

To help celebrate our new addition, Johnsons and Johnsons sent me another basket to giveaway to you!!

Here’s what’s in it:

1 – JOHNSON’S® NATURAL™ HEAD-TO-TOE™ Foaming Baby Wash
1 – JOHNSON’S® NATURAL™ Baby Shampoo
1 – JOHNSON’S® NATURAL™ Baby Lotion
1 – JOHNSON’S® BEDTIME® Bath
1 – JOHNSON’S® BEDTIME® Creamy Wash
1 – JOHNSON’S® BEDTIME® Shampoo
1 – JOHNSON’S® Baby Bubble Bath and Wash
1 – JOHNSON’S® Baby Lotion
1 – boon Odd Duck (bob) BpA-free, Phthalate-free & PVC-free ducky that doesn`t hold water, therefore doesn’t allow black mold to grow in it that kids love to suck out…
5 – Washcloths
1 – 2gb USB Flashdrive pre-loaded with Baby Bathtime Tips

WIN IT!!

(Ends on November 25 , 2010)

Required entry: Visit Johnsons Baby Bathtime Guide and leave a comment with a tip on how to bathe our new baby.

Extra entries (Leave a separate comment for each entry):
1. Subscribe to Mom on the Run = 1 entry.
2. Tweet about this giveaway (click that Retweet button at the top of this post) = 1 entry.
3. Follow me on Twitter (@fitcheerldr) = 1 entry.
4. Like the Fitness Cheerleader on FACEBOOK = 1 entry.

This giveaway will end on: November 25, 2010 at 11:59 PM

Good luck!

Disclaimer: I did not pay for these products. They were sent to me and in exchange, I’ve posted an honest review of them. I was not compensated nor was I encouraged by the manufacturer to post a positive review. This review is based solely on my experience with these products.

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There will be no blogging for me this weekend because I will be stuffing my gloriously huge preggo belly with turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, cranberries, chocolate, and pie (both apple & pumpkin)! Have a great weekend folks & I’ll be back blogging on Tuesday!

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As you may know, I’ve been blogging for 6 years. Yep – this month marks the 6 year anniversary of Mom on The Run! Over those years, blogging has evolved from being solely about community, to being about site analytics, bringing in the most traffic and making money (though the community aspect hasn’t completely died – we’ve now broken off into niches). At times I’ve been a mommy blogger, a fitness blogger, or a how-to-blog blogger – what I write about flips about as fast as my moods do. As I’ve worn these hats I’ve learned a few tricks about blogging and bringing visitors back, which, over time will allow you to make some money from your blog.

1. Tell People About Your Blog
When you start a new blog, no one knows it exists, so you need to tell people about it. So who do you tell and how do you tell them? Twitter, Facebook? For me, commenting on other blogs has worked the best – to develop a network, you need to be active in the network you’re developing. I find that people often visit your blog from the witty comments you leave on other blogs. From my experience, simply broadcasting a link out to twitter doesn’t do much for you, unless you have a pretty solid twitter network – though I would recommend that you do that in addition to visiting and commenting on other related blogs.

2. Be Active in Your Blog’s Community
I like to post a response on my blog to comments I’ve received, and to interact with my community. I also like who ever left the comment I’ve responded to, to receive my response. For that I use a wordpress plugin called Comment Reply Notification. I’ve written about this before and have gotten mixed feedback. Some people like getting a response from the blog author, and others feel awkward about their comment if they receive a response. You could also follow up on comments with a new blog post, if the comment warrants a larger continuation of the topic. In that case I would email the person who left the comment to let them know about the new post.

3. Guest Post for Other Blogs or Submit Articles For Multi-Author Blog Sites
This is a win-win situation for both you and the host blog/site. You give them traffic, and they give you traffic. This works best if you and the other bloggers write about similar things. The link exchange also helps your page rank I’ve been known to write for: Bookieboo.com, CompleteRunning.com, TypeAMom.com etc.

4. Make it Easy For People To Subscribe to Your Blog
Have an RSS feed and make it easy for people to subscribe to it. I love using feedburner. Make sure your RSS feed icon is easy to find. Also offer visitors different ways to subscribe – get posts by email, or read in an RSS reader. Feedburner allows you to do both. At the end of your posts, invite people to subscribe to your feed. I also use a plugin in wordpress called Comment Redirect which re-directs first time commenter’s to a thank you page for their comment, that also asks them to subscribe. Having a facebook fan page, such as the one I have for my Fitness Cheerleader site, that is updated from your RSS feed also helps, as this seems to be a new way people are subscribing to the blogs they love. Advertise your fan page on your blog in an easy to find place.

5. Make It Easy For People to Contact You
Publish your email or use a contact form – make sure your email or contact form is easy to find. This way PR folk can contact you with pitches.

With all of that said, THE MOST IMPORTANT THING I’VE LEARNED is that it doesn’t matter what platform your blog is on, how you market your blog, or what you put in your sidebars of your blog. If you write great, interesting content, on a consistent basis, your readers will keep coming back, your readership will grow, and eventually you will be approached to put paid links, buttons and other ads on your site.

Happy blogging everyone!

PS – does anyone wanna guest post for me when I have this baby? I’m looking for a few guest posts to publish – it can be about Motherhood, Running or Blogging Tips. Leave a comment below and I’ll be sure to get back to you!

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Brooke’s teacher: “Brooke, tell mommy what you did today”.

Brooke: “I took poop out of my bum and played with it!”.

Apparently she made a huge mess on her cot at nap time (I keep telling them that she’s outgrown naps and that if she’s bored she’ll make her own fun – I guess they learned the hard way).

I’m so proud of the classy daughter I’ve raised…

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I have to apologize – this blog post is a little different from my usual informative, motivational post…

A few weeks ago, my personal trainer approached me about fitnesscheerleader.com.  His opinion was that overall it’s great, but there’s one problem – I’m not generating any revenue for the amount of time I obviously put into it.  Now at first I was like, who cares?  I don’t really want to make money – I just want to motivate people and see them do well.  Which is a fine and admirable goal, right?  

But of course his comments nagged at me for a few weeks – he suggested I sell a product.  I thought long and hard about this, and brainstormed what I could possibly sell.  A motivational eBook?  A pre-natal fitness eBook?  Sorry – I couldn’t see myself spending money on those, so why would anyone else? I don’t want to charge people to visit my site – that’s a quick turn-off in my opinion. (Though I could use eBooks as a way to get people to sign up for my newsletter….).  Then I got to thinking about my power walks…..

You see, now that running has become tougher for this preggo mama I’ve begun doing a walk around the park on my lunch hours with hand weights.  But I don’t just carry the weights – I do an upper body strength routine while I carry the weights.  I need to keep my arms in shape for carrying my baby  I also alternate some fast and slow walking – adding intervals for additional fat burning.  It’s a fantastic workout and keeps my walks fun.  So I thought – maybe people would be interested in downloading a walk and tone mp3?  You know, an mp3 that you could download (for a small fee) from my site that will guide you through a great walking workout (set to some fabulous music of course)!  So I’ve begun the process of recording such an mp3, and building a sales section and affiliate section for my site.  As an added bonus, I will throw in a free eBook with every mp3 purchased

My product idea is great right? But now I need some help actually marketing my mp3 – oh isn’t marketing always the fun part?

And this is where you come in…

Below is a sign up form to be notified of when my walk and tone mp3 product is launched. If you sign-up, I’ll send you the download info for a free trial of it (once I’ve finished recording it) so that you can do a review of it on your site – if you like it, perhaps you’ll do a giveaway? I’ll even provide a coupon code for your readers. And because I’m a blogger and I hate doing stuff for free without getting anything in return, I will set up anyone who does a review as an affiliate so that you’ll earn 25% of any sales you generate! Pretty sweet, eh?

So what are you waiting for? Sign up below so we can BOTH start earning some money!

Thanks everyone for your support on this project

All the best,
Janice

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