#AskAwayFriday with Jodi from The Noise of Boys

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Welcome to #AskAwayFriday 10! This week I had the opportunity to get to know Jodi from The Noise of Boys better!

Jodi says she’s a SAHM, but she’s working hard at the blogging business, so I say she’s a WAHM! She lives with her husband and two adorable little boys in Iowa. But she’s also lived on the East Coast so I’m hoping I will get to meet up with her one of these days when she is back this way! She is way ahead of me and already posted her Ask Away Friday! In reading it, I found out Jodi and I have a lot in common, including our idea of a dream vacation, an old hobby, and similar goals for our blogs, among other things!  This weekend she is away at Bloggy Boot Camp in Minneapolis, and I am so jealous! Well maybe jealous isn’t the right word, because I did get to go to Bloggy Boot Camp in Charlotte and I am going to the next one in Dallas as well, but blog conferences are so much fun! I love meeting up with my blog friends, and it would have been nice to meet Jodi in real life as well as some of my other friends that I know will be there!

Please follow Jodi on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Pinterest! I know she would love to connect with you!

And now for #AskAwayFriday!

Here are the questions that Jodi had for me! There were some hard ones in here!

1. How did you get in to the big world of blogging? I was running a new start-up company’s blog alongside of my position as a Marketing Manager, and found I really enjoyed it. I wasn’t writing on a regular basis then, but I did write a few posts for them. It was a very specific industry, so I had no experience with the mom or lifestyle blog world. Then in August of 2012, I was laid off, along with all the other Marketing Managers, and I decided to start my own blog. I kind of bumbled along from September till about February, when I discovered the SITS Girls. Then I really started meeting lots of other great bloggers!

2. What is your favorite subject to blog about? Or least? Hmmm…I don’t know if I really have one. I like to write about parenting, youth sports, social media, and anything to do with photos. Photography and social media are my vices. Oh, and I can’t forget about our pets! I write about them too. I have 3 dogs and 4 cats. They all have really distinct personalities and goofy habits. Today I caught my cat sleeping in a napkin holder.  Last week she slept in a pie plate. And one of the other ones likes to drink from her paw, so she dips her paw in the water bowl and scoops up water and drinks that way. Bizarre. We also have a really mischievous Golden – Shepard mix and today as I was leaving the house, I said to him “Do you think you can be good?” He ran over to his crate and got in. It was the funniest thing. I guess that was a no!

3. How would you describe your personal style? Are we talking about the way I dress? If we are, then I guess I would describe myself as sporty. I’m a lifelong runner, and I love comfy clothes. You will often catch me wearing my TrailHeads running tops around town. They’re a local company and they make some really great stuff, including their signature ponytail headbands and the best running gloves ever! My favorites are these convertible mittens that I use fingerless for sports photography once it starts to get cold in the fall and before it gets warm in the spring! You can check them out on my sidebar. I do have an affiliate relationship. And I love skorts in the summertime…I’ve got some great ones from Athleta and Title Nine. There is a cute little boutique in our downtown called Swank on Bank where I shop anytime I need a cute outfit…like for blogging conferences!

4. If you were to pick a song, book or movie title to describe your life- what would it be any why? These are hard questions Jodi!! I like those against all odds books (Glass Castles, by Jeannette Walls) and movies (Miracle, Coach Carter, Remember the Titans) and those don’t really describe my life.

5. You are a contributing author for The Mother of All Meltdowns– How did you get involved in the project? I never in a million years thought I’d be an author of any sort (besides of a blog post). It wasn’t even necessarily a goal of mine. I’m still kind of in shock! At some point after I joined the SITS Girls community, I met Crystal Ponti from Mommifried.  She came up with the idea for this project, and recruited all of us to share our stories! Let me just tell you, Crystal is amazing. She has incredible vision, and she is super organized. Not to mention she has a little one at home and is about to have another child any day now! Prior to The Mother of all Meltdowns, several of us had teamed up with Crystal on our Ladies Only Blog Share (again, Crystal’s idea), which runs twice a month on Fridays and has become a very successful link party. Our most recent one is still open: Celebrating the Little Things in Life {Ladies Only Blog Share} I can’t say enough about Crystal…she has a wealth of experience in the blog and social media world and is very generous with her advice. I consider myself lucky to call her a blog friend.

6. What’s next for you, in relation to the MOAM group? Right now we are very busy promoting the book! Anyone who has helped us spread the word, we greatly appreciate it!

7. Aside from being a recent author, do you have any big aspirations for your blogging? I’m definitely interested in working with brands! And I’d also like to have my writing published on some other sites. I need to sit down and map out my strategy with all of this.

8. If you could have your writing published anywhere- where would you choose? Even though I know I want to have my writing published elsewhere, I haven’t really sat down and figured this all out. I’m open to suggestions, if anyone has any ideas of where they think my writing would be a good fit!

9. What is your secret for balancing home, blogging and life in general? I’m not very good at balance actually! I work from home helping my clients with their social media and marketing needs, I run a small scale photo gift business, and I have my blog. I make a point to make it to my kids’ games (I’m the team photographer too), try to get everyone to everywhere they need to be (no small feat these days with 3 super busy teens & tweens), and have dinner on the table every night. I’m not the best housekeeper around. It’s relatively clean, just cluttered. I don’t sleep much.

10. If you could have “superpower” what would it be and why? Someone just asked me this for a blog award they nominated me for, which I haven’t posted yet…although it is just about finished. I would like to be able to function on less sleep. Don’t laugh! I know that is a funny superpower! There are days that I only get 3 or 4 hours, and I know long term that is not good for me. I lose track of time when I am working in the middle of the night…I’m a night owl so I actually work quite well then. But I can’t sleep in either, because my husband (and the dogs) get up at the crack of dawn, and my kids’ alarms start blaring at ridiculous hours, and then I’m up. Plus I have to drive my one son to school every day, since he goes to private school in the next town over.

I hope you will check out some of the other blogs in AskAwayFriday…just click on the #AskAwayFriday button and it will take you there! Thanks to Jodi for partnering with me…it was fun!