A Deaf Mom Shares Her World » 2008

Sparkplugging–An Emoms At Home Transformation

I’ve been hanging out at Wendy Piersall’s new place–SparkPlugging, and I’m liking the digs very much. Wendy took her personal blog and grew it into a network with 17 other bloggers writing for her. And she has plans to expand her site even more!

Wendy started her blog as “Emoms At Home,” and it began to outgrow the name as the audience expanded to fathers and people without children. Wendy began to realize that she needed to re-name and re-brand to showcase the direction that her business was growing in.

Darren Rowse over at Problogger had the honor of unveiling the new name in his interview, Renaming Emoms At Home to Sparkplugging. As I told Wendy, when I first saw the name, my mind immediately flashed to a picture of an autobody shop. But the more I visit the site, the more the name has grown on me. I think Wendy is on to something that’s going to re-frame people’s minds. There will be a point where people are at a conference and asking, “Do you SparkPlug?” or “Are you SparkPlugging?” and people will know instantly what they’re talking about–the work-at-home generation.

For more information and an inside look at Wendy Piersall, Stephen Hopson from Adversity University featured Wendy in his interview series recently:

Adversity University Interviews Wendy Piersall, Part I
Adversity University Interviews Wendy Piersall, Part II

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Women’s Club, ASL Expo and a Baby Shower

It was one of those weekends with nary a break! On Saturday morning, I headed out to Egg Harbor Cafe to join the gals from my Deaf Women’s club for breakfast. Egg Harbor has to be my number one favorite restaurant for breakfast. Their breakfasts are so delicious and their fresh-squeezed orange juice tastes as if they picked the oranges that morning. I’m not much of a breakfast person, either! Do any of you have other favorite places that you dine at for breakfast?

I went over to the ASL Expo to meet another friend there. It was the first time I’ve attended the ASL Expo which features lots of products centered around American Sign Language. I picked up some ASL t-shirts for the kids and then headed home to watch my youngest son’s baseball game. It was so cold at the game, that I felt like I was experiencing a Chicago Bears game while huddled under a heavy blanket.

On Sunday, we had a couple of people over for Stephanie and Walter Lipe’s baby shower. You may remember Stephanie when she won the Miss Deaf America title in 1992-1994. Stephanie is pretty as ever and sporting a cute little belly. We all took turns guessing her belly measurements with pieces of pink yarn. Walter was pretty confident that he could figure out the length of yarn but he was off by a few inches. Marianne Jodie and Lenny Kepil had the closest measurements, with Lenny winning the prize.

The hubby jokingly asked me if I’d like to have another kiddo…

I’m not too sure he was really joking though!

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Michigan Loses a Friendly Face– Marlene Phillips

I met Marlene for the first time last summer. She and her husband Dale stopped by my parent’s house on Christie Lake to spend the day with us. My sister Linda met Marlene and Dale through the local Deaf Clubs in Michigan and they quickly bonded. Together, they worked the Dingo games and cooked large amounts of food for the gatherings. Linda began spending time with Marlene and Dale and enjoying their friendship and company.

As we took a slow pontoon ride around the lake and chatted with Marlene and Dale that day, I said to myself– this is a couple I wouldn’t mind getting to know better.

Someday, you know?

Someday, when there’s more time to sit down and connect.

Marlene and Dale found each other later in life and were married in 2005. It was easy to see that they were happy with one another and they were a couple that enjoyed life. They went on the Deaf Freedom Cruise last year. Before we left, Linda reminded me to find Marlene and Dale on the cruise and we planned to connect with them. Joe ran into them once during the week and we talked about getting together.

With 3,800 people on the ship, we didn’t connect with them again.

After a sudden, brief battle with cancer, Marlene passed away yesterday morning.

I guess the moral of this post is something to take with you today–those “somedays” that we promise ourselves may not happen. Each day, each connection, is a gift.

I know that my sister is really grateful for the connection she had with Marlene, for she enjoyed Marlene’s humor and friendship.

Marlene will be missed.

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