I'm a full-time mummy

Now that I have slowly settled down with my own domain, let me tell you why I left Blogger...

(*Image taken from Google search)

Don't get me wrong... I really, really love Blogger! I love the fact that it is so easy for me to draft and schedule my post(s), how their widgets interconnect and so easy for me to set up, the various free themes and templates I can use (well, I only stuck to the one and only I found when I started blogging after quitting my IT job to be a SAHM). I love how easy it is to just sign up and follow other awesome peoples' blogs and read their new posts in my dashboard.

Anyhooo, back to this topic. I was on my usual blog hopping routine when I stumbled into this post and I read on. To be honest, prior to that I've been toying with the idea of having my own domain, not because of stumbling into that post, but more into having my own blog identity. And also getting stressed seeing the long URL of my blogger blog (http://imafulltimemummy.blogspot.com/), I thought that the time is ripe for me to get my own domain, shorten up the URL and make it nice and simple. And then I came across that post. And it made me even more determined to have my own domain and leave Blogger.

Below are the excerpts from the post:

"If you're a "deal blogger" or "frugal blogger", and you like blogging, you need to move your blog. Now. Blogger has an ineffective system for finding and removing spam blogs, and bloggers are suffering as a result. It's not just deal bloggers, either. Visit Blogger's help desk and you'll see post after post after post from bloggers of all sorts with the same issue.
What's happening? Blogger's spam-seeking bots spider its blogs looking for offenders. Blogger doesn't give any specifics about how the bots "find" them, but my theory is that it looks for words that turn up commonly in spam blogs--words like "free" and "sale" and "cheap". Another theory is that Blogger's bots look for blogs by the same user which link to each other. When the bots find a potential spam blog, the blog is locked or, as seems to be more common lately, deleted without a human ever reviewing the blog to see if the bot's judgment is accurate."

Ok, I am not a deal or frugal blogger. But I love love love blogging. It is one of the activity that keeps me sane after taking care of a mischievous and super curious toddler. It keeps me busy when my toddler is taking his day time naps. It keeps me connected to the outside world. It keeps me intriqued to know more on what's happening outside the 4 walls in my home. And I've also developed a new passion which is to do product reviews. I started with book reviews cos I love reading, and then I branch out to reviewing household and baby products and life is good! It keeps me active on the mind and body!

Then read on the next excerpt from the same post:

"Can it happen to you? Sure it can, especially if you use words like "free" and "sale" a lot in your blog."

Oh wow... since I started doing product reviews, I do put in the words "free", "giveaway" and so on. I am at risk here! I don't want to wake up one morning and found out I was locked out of my own blog. The blog that I labored on passionately since I became a SAHM in June 2009. The blog which I nurtured, decorated and beautify in every possible ways. The blog which I defended and protected like a strict mother hen against those blogstalkers who easily steals my posts ideas, blog design and widgets. The blog which helps me made new bloggy friends all over the world. Of course, maybe I'm overreacting here. I mean, there are gazillions of blogger blogs out on the Net, why am I so worried? It wouldn't happen to me. Yes, this is what we always think when we see bad stuff happening to other people. But again, like I said, I have been toying with the idea of having my own domain, so why not?

Of course, I do surf and searched more posts with regards to the stories of peoples' blogs being shut down without notice and the more I read, the more worried I got. So, the rest is history, here we are, at my new blog domain and so far, I've been pretty happy and satisfied with it. Of course, it gets really tiring and draining during the migration phase (handled by hubby since he's more knowledgeable in programming and scripting all this stuff) and the designing part is done by myself - in order to save $ hiring a web designer to design my new blog.

But I guess, with my own domain now hosting on our own server, I get the total control on what's going to happen to my blog (other than the part of the hosting server being down for maintenance, most of the time there won't be any issue of my blog being down), I don't have to be worried that my blog will get deleted (unless I've got itchy fingers and accidentally remove something while tweaking with my blog hahaha).

There you go... if you have any further questions you'd like me to explain more, please drop me a comment, I'll try my best to answer and share my experience with you guys! :)

Few days ago, we started having our evening strolls at one of the playground cum park cum football field near our house, well, about 5 minutes walk from our house but we decided to drive there and then walk around the park since we're bringing the small market trolley to carry Ben around hehehe...

Picture below of Ben in the market trolley which MIL normally used when she does her marketing once in a while. It's clean, don't worry... and the 'wet' spot at the bottom in between Ben's legs are not his piss stains... hubby actually poured some of the organic lemon grass or some herbs concoction to prevent mosquito bites. In our place, there are a lot of mosquitoes when it's past 6pm+ so we came prepared even though we started our strolls at 5pm+.

Hubby left me with Ben and started his walking exercise, only to be stopped by a bunch of fallen tree brances and stuff, blocking the pathway. Picture below taken from afar where hubby along with an older man clearing up the fallen branches. There are a few other people standing near them but just looking and not helping

Once the pathway was cleared, hubby and the old man continued their walk and they actually striked up conversations and throughout their walking exercise, they both were just walking alongside each other chatting non-stop!

So, since my hubby abandoned us, I pushed Ben in the trolley to the nicest looking seesaw and propped him on it. And then I just pushed the seesaw up and down, letting Ben have a feel of the seesaw.

Then I went to the nearby swing, sat on it and put Ben on my lap and started swinging... Ben seems to enjoy it cos he just sits quietly and looked at the view around. It's kinda painful for me cos the swing seat was a bit too small for me but it's better than nothing...

And this is the view right in front of us... who can resist it??!! So, I stop the swing and walked with Ben slowly to the playground. That's like 15 feet from the swing.

Ben immediately climbed onto the platform and started flipping the Tic-tac-toe game...

And the opposite of the Tic-tac-toe game was this blue capsule window which Ben immediately slammed his hands over it... guessed he was intrigued with the blue color window and the fact that I looked blue over the other side hahaha...

Then I noticed this guy walking out of the park... he actually carried his cat and was previously walking his cat in the park! Cool! First time I see someone walking their cat instead of a dog!

After a while, I was tired (have to watch Ben like a hawk cos he was really active, moving and running around)  so, I took him to the badminton court at the side of the park and let Ben drinks and rest while I tried to flag hubby to stop and go home.

The sky was getting dark (almost 7pm) so we decided to head home. All in all, it was a nice family outing in the park for us... a first to many many more to come!

This is what happened when you leave your kid with the Mega Blocks toys...