Guest Blogger #3 ~ Tara@Many Sleepless Nights

Today's blogger is an e-friendship I have had the longest out of any of the guest bloggers being highlighted at Family and Life in Las Vegas. (I am pretty sad it is still an e-friendship, I would love to one day get together and let our kiddos play while us mama's chat and enjoy a glass of wine...) I love reading her blog. She is sarcastic, and funny. Honest and real. She is such a wonderful mother, a great cook, handy to have around in an emergency, and even has a green thumb? Oh, and did I mention she once sent me the most fabulous zucchini bread all because I told her I thought it sounded super yummy??

Tell me about yourself.
Oh, gosh. Well, let's see. I just turned 27 in July. My eyes are blue (except when I'm wearing a green top). I have brown hair that doesn't get highlights often enough. I've been married for 6 years and we have two of the cutest kids I've ever seen (doesn't every parent say that?!).

But enough of the boring stuff! Here's the down-and-dirty! I (not-so) secretly aspire to be The Pioneer Woman. My favorite color used to be blue. Now it's a tie between that and pink. I am a nurse but my passion is writing. I would love to travel more but I'm cheap. And poor. I talk too much. My family is my world. I love the conveniences of the city but much prefer the peace and quiet of a farm. Fall is my favorite time of year. I cry when I see a newborn baby. I cry when I write about my kids. I laugh out loud at funny parts in books. I am romantic. I am messy. I am writing a book with my best friend about our adventures in nursing school. I am addicted to People magazine. My husband and I are polar opposites in almost every way. I love to eat but love to cook even more.
I can keep going, but that's enough for an introductory post ;)

Why do you blog, what made you start?

My very first blog post was about my husband chasing a guy down a gravel road after he stole gas out of his truck. Then I didn't post anything for almost a year. When I started back up again, it was more or less an online journal for me to chronical my second pregnancy. My relatives would ask me for pictures of Brock and of my belly & it was much easier to tell them to read my blog! Now the blog has evolved into mostly random stuff that me, my husband, and our kids (and now our dogs) do. It's rarely dull in the Stemme house and luckily, I have an outlet where I can chronical all of that. It's pretty amazing to look back and see what we were doing a year ago and to be able to see how much the kids have changed.

I started blogging because my husband's aunt had one and I thought it was cool & exotic. Nobody else that I knew had a blog! When I told my husband I was going to start one, he rolled his eyes and said, "Nobody is ever going to read that except you." Ha! Boy was he right! But really, I don't blog for anybody else. If I didn't have any readers ever, it would be okay. (I don't mean that! I need each and every one of my readers to validate my place in this universe! Don't leave me!) I love to write (even if I'm not any good) and I love keeping track of the zany things that my family does. Blogging is the perfect way to do that!

What is your blog about?

Mostly I blog about my kids & husband. The weirdness, the cuteness, the poop, the random conversations I have with my two-year-old, etc. But my absolute favorite posts are the most random ones. When I'm itching to write and I want to say something awesomely fantastic and I just can't come up with anything to talk about. I open up my phone and go into the notes section. I am always jotting down little things that we are doing or things that were said and turn them into a blog post. Luckily my life is random and weird enough that I have plenty of topics available!

How would you spend the next 24 hours if you could do anything?

Well, the name of my blog is Many Sleepless Nights, sooooooo I guess, sleep? I know! I'm so vanilla! The truth is, the details of the day would depend on a few things:

• Did I recently win the lottery so I can afford a private plane to fly me to a dream destination (24 hours is too short to waste on travel time!)?
• Do I have to bring my kids and husband along?
• Depending on how those questions turn out, I would probably spend the day finishing up the prep for our son's 3rd birthday party (which is just around the corner!)

What does your family look like in 8 years from now?

Oh. Em. Gee. I will have an (almost) 11 year old & a 9 year old in 8 years! Ahhhhhhh!

::deep breaths::

I'm really not sure. So far, my life has been fairly unscripted and it has turned out pretty ok. I'm really bad at planning and procrastination is my middle name so who knows! We would like to have at least one more (maybe two. maybe.) baby but most of that will depend on our financial situation and if my first two survive the next few years. I would imagine that both of my kids will be involved in as many sports/activities as humanly possibly because our family is not satisfied until we are stretched so thin, we are see-through! But being busy definitely keeps us out of trouble!

Has reading a book ever changed your life? Which one and why, if yes?

When I was in 4th grade, one of our assigned books was The Giver. To this day, it is still one of my all-time favorite books. I have read it countless times and it still draws me in. It hasn't really changed how I live my life, but I think about it a lot. It's sort-of like eating the apple in the Garden of Eden. Knowledge carries a burden and becoming an adult definitely fits into that cliche. When we are young, all we want to do is be a grown-up so we can make our own decisions, spend our own money, live in our house, leave our dirty laundry on the floor, etc. Now? One of the things I long for, are the simpler times in my youth when getting my homework done on-time was my biggest stress and my parents had to worry about the mortgage and the car payment! Don't get me wrong, I love my life & my family, but becoming an adult is not-at-all what we think it is when we were kids! I think that book conveys that message between the burden that accompanies knowledge and the bliss that is ignorance.

Head over to Tara's Blog, Many Sleepless Nights and check her out! While you are there, leave some comment love and let her know you read all about her on Family and Life in Las Vegas! You can also find Tara on Facebook and Twitter