Welcome!!! Have Some Ice Cream!!

Oh, thank goodness you're here! I was having a hard time keeping the ice cream away from the kids! I saved it just for you.
In case you haven't heard, it's my SITS Feature Day!

It's like a birthday, only better because I get comments. But the double-fun is that my birthday (yep - the 3rd anniversary of my 29th birthday!) is on Christmas Day, so we can celebrate BOTH!
Two scoops for everyone!

If you're new to A Few Sprinkles Short of a Sundae or not, it doesn't matter, I have ICE CREAM! Just don't touch my sprinkles! I'm already short.

For those of you NOT used to my sarcasm and superfluous use of exclamation marks (!!!!), I'm Allison. I'm a Christian woman, wife and mother - both biological and adoptive. I'm an avid adoption blogger and I also strive to let other moms out there know that they are not alone in this vast world of motherhood and all the twists and turns our busy lives provide.

This is me, wild hair and all!!

And yes, that is a halo above my head! Actually, I took this pic of myself at Bloggy Boot Camp Atlanta and I had the hardest time trying to hide that darn halo. Just ask my Tribe Members - I bet they saw it!

This is my family:

 

We are made up of two crazy trombone players who met when we were 13 years old, started dating at 17, and got married at 22! We have a biological daughter, SB, and an adopted son, Mac. We also have two heaven-bound children whom I cannot wait to see one day seated at the feet of Jesus.

Now, to find out more about who *I* am, check my about me page, and please please check out My Testimony about trusting God! These both include abridged versions of our story regarding infertility, miscarriage, giving birth and fighting tooth and nail to adopt.
And if you just want to know what the best posts are, I have a tab for that, too. See The Posts You Don't Want to Miss!

Oh, you want to know why I'm A Few Sprinkles Short of a Sundae? Good question. You see, way back in 2006 I started a blog about my pregnancy. Then it evolved into talking about my baby and our quest to adopt through foster care. And then we went into the fight of our lives to keep our son both with us and safe, so that blog came down and this one - which is slightly more anonymous - came up. I called it "Mommy's Scoop." And from the scoop came being "A Few Sprinkles Short of a Sundae," to indicate that I don't have all the answers.

There is so much more that I want to say, but I'll stop here and let you explore! I hope you enjoy your stay and have another scoop of ice cream!


Follow @SprinklesofAlli




 

I'm on Facebook, too!

The Time I Dyed the Shower Purple

So, remember when my BFF and I decided to put purple streaks in our hair this past August? No? Let me remind you:

The purple didn't last too long in my hair, but you know where it did last?

My shower walls. Yeah. They started off very purple. Very. Purple. I promised Marshall that one day I would clean those walls and restore them to their previously pristine "old lace" status.

Except I didn't. Whoops. I meant to. Really I did. I had hoped that over time the color would simply go away. Between two kids bathing and two adults showering I figured it would disappear down the drain.

The color did, however, fade. Purple turned to pink. But it was still, well, pink. And very apparent on my shower walls.

Eventually I got the motivation I needed to remedy the situation. My in-laws were coming up for a visit. And while the kids thought the pink shower was pretty awesome, I highly doubted my mother-in-law would feel the same way.

It took a lot of elbow grease and more bleach that I would care to admit, but finally my walls did come clean. The purple was no more.

Maybe next time I'll dye my hair blue...



Disclaimer: I am writing this post to take part in SITS Girls' giveaway. My shower walls were very purple/pink and I really did need to clean them. Which, eventually, I did.
I received information about Clorox’s Bleach It Away campaign and am sharing my messy moment for the chance to win prizes from The SITS Girls. To learn more about the messy moment program, check out www.BleachItAway.com.  Sharing your story on the Clorox fan page gets you entered for the chance to win $25,000 and daily prizes, and you can grab a coupon for Clorox® Regular Bleach.

All About Alli

One of the big things I got out of Bloggy Boot Camp was how important the "All About Me" page is.

I had no idea I was so important to my blog. I think that sounds kind of silly to say, but it's true. The blog is about the blog - not about me, so who cares? But apparently everybody cares because everybody who reads blogs wants to connect with the writer.

FYI. This is your writer:

Wild, crazy hair. Bright colors. Laughs and talks loud. And yes, that is a halo over my head, I just cropped it out so as not to make you all jealous.

So take a minute, if you will, and look at my about page (tabbed up top there, or linked right.........here) and let me know if that tells my story, if it draws you in, because I want you to get to know me.

If there's something you want to know, ask in the comments section and I will do my best to answer it!

All About Bloggy Boot Camp

I spent a lot of time looking up info about blog conferences and Bloggy Boot Camp in particular, so I thought I would share my experience with you.

I drove to Atlanta Friday. I made plans to stay with a friend and have dinner. Then BBC announced a Friday night pre-conference social. So I missed that completely. Love my friends, but wish I could have done both.

I did sign up for the breakfast the morning of, though, and that was nice. I was a little nervous coming in, but I took a deep breath, sat down and did what I do best - I started talking.

After breakfast, we all went down to the ballroom floor for the conference. We had a packed schedule including eight sessions. For each of the morning sessions we changed tables where we quickly threw business cards at each other then tried to figure out who each other were. It was a great way to meet people and I was happy to sit with some of my bloggy friends!

One of my favorite topics was Avoiding Bloggy Burnout from Stacey Nerdin who compared blogging to the Twilight series. Which I have never read or seen. But I still thought it was hilarious and informative. I have found my tribe (we are not vampires) and I'm making tough choices (I just wrote an entire post and decided I didn't like it - deleted! Stacey compared it to choosing Team Jacob or Team Sparkly Boy (who's name I can't recall)).

We had a TON of conference sponsors and many of them spoke to the group. Invisalign & Mirassou Winery were two. Loved the wine. Nobody in my world at the moment needs Invisalign, but maybe one day!

Lunch was appropriately at lunch time. It was typical. Moving on.

We did our breakout session, where I attending the writing track. I really enjoyed it and doing the exercises. Writing is my passion. The other track in Atlanta was business, which I have no head for and that's fine by me.

After the sessions we headed back up to the 25th floor for the cocktail party. I loved the cocktail party. It was fun to talk to the women and make rounds to those I had not met yet. Of course, I also spent a lot of time with my little group where I timidly asked if they would be my tribe (no vampires necessary). It was a time to let a little loose and take those all important celebrity pictures in front of the Bloggy Boot Camp backdrop!

After the party, several of us went for dinner at the hotel restaurant. Special to Atlanta: there was also a costume party where I pleaded with someone dressed as Cruella DeVille to pose for pics with us. I told her we would make her famous!

This is such a short version of what happened, but you probably don't want every single detail anyway, do you?

The SITS Girls are REAL!

No, really. They are totally real! They were like a giant, awesome rock band and I was a part of it! I went to the wonderful, fabulous Bloggy Boot Camp this past weekend with the SITS Girls. It's a wonderful, supportive group of bloggers who LOVE to talk, wear cute shoes and hand out business cards. And the wine was a nice touch.

But these are people I knew just through the blogging world. They didn't have real names, they had blog names. The whole day was like this:

"Who are you?"
"I'm Allison."
(person reads nametag) "OH! You're A Few Sprinkles Short! I know you!"

All day. Seriously.

But these are real women. It's easy to pretend they're just a website, but A New Kind of Normal is really Jamee, and The Mama Pirate is really Sarah, and Domestic Anarchy is Maddie. The Third Boob is actually two people - Chach & Nellie. I had no idea there were TWO Third Boobs! Haha! (Sorry to those I didn't mention here, I still LOVE YOU entirely!)

I met over 100 women this weekend and made many instant friends. I took 15 pages of notes that I will never be able to read again and I need all that info. I have 38 business cards from these ladies that I can find. I'm sure there are several more hiding in my bra and my computer bag.

And I learned 10,000,000,000,000 things that I need to do. I had no idea Pinterest could create blog traffic. And I had never even heard of an SEO before. I have lots to do!
One thing I did do was start My Tribe! Starting this week, they will be linked on my sidebar or as a separate tab as My Tribe (I will get that up ASAP, girls). They are my bloggy BFFs if you will. Like, well, Jamee, Sarah, Maddie, Jan, and more.

I will also be making some very cool changes over the next few weeks. Hopefully slowly so I will 1. get it right and 2. you'll still know where you are when you land here.

Be looking for more Bloggy Boot Camp posts coming up - most importantly - the PICTURES!



(Also, a special thanks to the BBC Sponsors: Mirassou Winery, Best Buy, Tide, Sony, Goody Hair Products, Invisalign, & Laughing at Wall Street. You made the event rock even more!)

BLOGGY BOOT CAMP!!!

As you read this... (I assume you read this the second it publishes, right???) Ahem. As you read this, I am making my way toward my very first blogging conference cleverly named Bloggy Boot Camp. It's hosted by the SITS Girls (SITS = Secret's In The Sauce, however you are most likely to see "The Secret to Success is Support," but that doesn't fit the anagram).

I am so excited. I hope they like my outfit. I hope they don't notice that I didn't have time this week to recolor my hair. I hope they like ME! And I hope I learn. A lot.

I honestly have no idea what to expect from today's events. I have no idea what the "writing track" entails. I have no idea if my picky self will like what they serve for lunch.

I can tell you what I do expect - I expect everyone else to have a netbook or an ipad, and I don't have those. I'm going old school and carrying around a pad of paper and a pen. I expect to see lots of cute shoes because that's what I hear a lot about. And I expect to meet lots of people. Lots of people.

So Happy Bloggy Boot Camp Day, Atlanta! See you in a few!

What do I wear?

So, as I've said before, I'm super stoked about going to Atlanta in a few weeks for Bloggy Boot Camp with the SITS girls!

This will be my first blogging conference and I'm sure I'll make a total fool of myself by tripping up stairs or something, but still, I am excited and I can't wait to hear what everyone had to say, plus there's a cocktail party. For adults only. I think I'm more excited about the adults only part than the conference part.

So, the biggest issue when it comes to meeting 125 other women in a small space is what to wear. And, if you don't know, I'm plus sized, so that makes it double hard because I have to try to look half my size.

Which means the outfit will be the biggest challenge. Sure, I can talk to, laugh with and network with them till I'm blue in the face (and probably will!), but it's what I look like that they will remember. I've been told that having super-cute shoes is the key because someone may not remember you face, but they will remember your shoes (which sounds kind of superficial if you ask me, but whatever. For this event I just want to be popular!).

So here's the current outfit selection. Please tell me honestly if you think it's a winner or a loser!

Aqua top with tulle ruffle

Adorable capri length black leggins

Aubergine cardigan for the chilly conference rooms