Boldly Going Where no Swedish Immigrant Has Gone Before! #AtoZChallenge

Today I have the honor of interviewing a dear friend and fellow Challenge co-host, Tina from Life is Good. Trust me, she rocks, and Tina makes the behind-the-scenes stuff a lot of fun!

Her theme for the Challenge was Adventures in America, and she told personal stories about her first year as an immigrant.

As she stated on her blog – “These are the continuing adventures of a Swedish immigrant during her first year as an American. She boldly went where she'd never gone before...please come along on Adventures in America.”

1 – Your first year in America was quite the adventure! Did it hurt your head trying to remember everything from that first year?

Funny you should ask. It WAS hard to remember some of it, but I had several good sources. First, my mother, known on my blog, "Life is Good," as "The Nutritionist", could easily have been nicknamed "Momarazzi". Every, and I mean every, moment of our lives was documented in pictures. I didn't know that what irritated the living daylights out of me then, would be such a treasure today. "Honey, will you kids do that again? It will make such a cute picture!" was the refrain of our childhood. However, looking through those albums sparked a lot of memories.

Of course my little sister, nicknamed Swissie, has a fantastic memory and I relied on her to straighten out a lot of what I only sort-of remembered. Then of course there was The Swede to straighten us both out on misconceptions that kids get about adult matters. So the stories you got were the truth as the three of us were able to piece it together from 38 years before.

2 – What fun story DIDN’T make it into your Challenge posts?

There were several, but I'll keep this to two. I didn't write about the more intimate details about taking care of a person in a body cast. It was going to be called, “Sponge Baths and Bed Pans” but I decided even I didn't want to go there.

Also, we built these awesome hide-outs in our massive forsythia bushes, but it didn't make the cut either, just because I felt other stories told more of the differences I experienced. Building hide-outs was one of our favorite activities in Sweden, so it wasn't really something new.

3 – How many players from the Washington Capitals did you meet?

I'm going to need Smooshie for an accurate answer on this one, but conservatively, I'd say between 15 and 20. We were total groupies, but young, so we actually got more attention because the players knew we were harmless. We were only hoping for a picture, whereas some of the adult female fans were looking for...other perks.

4 – What’s your opinion on flame retardant pajamas?

They ought to be burned! Seriously. Have you touched that material? If you have the slightest snag of dry skin anywhere, it adheres to your pajamas and it might as well be fingernails on a chalkboard. I know the government means well, but what about all the kids who don't wear pajamas? My nephew for example, always wore tomorrow's clothes to bed to save time in the morning. Yes, he's eccentric, but brilliant and was just being logical. The PJ police would have gotten him for sure!

5 – Are you a Swede or an American?

I'm a proud Swedish immigrant who now calls America her home. I'm a Swedish-American.

6 – Do you still watch Scooby-Doo?

Yes, of course. Scooby is the best! I of course introduced my kids to Scooby-Doo! They wanted to watch some of the movies that came out when they were in elementary school, so I made them watch some original episodes first. I mean, how can you appreciate the movies fully if you've never seen Shaggy and Scooby run from room to room down a long hallway, being chased by The Ghost? Or have the authorities pull of the mask and find “old man Jenkins” complaining about “those meddlin' kids.” A true education is valued in our family. We still watch it together, when I can drag them away from their XBOX headsets...

7 – Your hit-by-a-car story was rough! What was something good that came out of that?

I believe something good always comes out of what we see as bad. We don't have the advantage of an eternal perspective. As a kid, I remember thinking that going through all this was going to make me more popular at school when I returned. That didn't happen, but a girl can dream.

Looking at it as an adult, I see the lessons as patience, the need to ask and accept help, and the realization that we are in God's hands no matter what happens. THAT lesson I apparently wasn't done learning then, because medical disasters have continued to follow me to this day.

8 – Any more stories this year for the Challenge or are you planning something different?

I'm still going Swedish, since I find it fun to make each year's theme part of this larger, ongoing theme. This year I plan to...have you come visit me and see what I've cooked up. I think you're going to like it. After all, “It's very Swedish to...”

Thanks Tina, and looking forward to your Challenge posts!

Co-host Ninja Captain Alex is the author of Amazon Best Sellers CassaStar, CassaFire, and CassaStorm. He is the founder of the Insecure Writer’s Support Group and his blog can be found HERE

#Blogging for #atozchallenge : To Theme or Not To Theme?

You're all signed up for the A to Z Challenge. (If you aren't, go on, run and do it, I'll wait.)

One of the questions doing the rounds:  

What do I blog about? Does it all have to be about the same thing?

Short Answer: No, but it helps to have a theme.

You can just post on your blog 26 different things for 26 days of April, and you've still won the challenge. 

Some folks do it each month of the year (-- they even do 31 posts a month, don't ask me how, I do about 8. Ok, maybe 10 if I'm feeling productive).

If you're one of those daily bloggers, and have an established audience, I would still recommend an A to Z Blogging Challenge Theme. If you're not, I'll recommend a theme.

WHY? 

• Because a theme sticks in the minds of people, aka, your visitors. 
• A blog challenge is about building community-- so if folks remember you from you challenge posts, they'll be blog friends for longer. 
• You also have to do less work in some cases, because once you thoroughly research a topic, your posts come that much easier! 
• Niche audience: It is important to attract the core audience of your blog, because they'll remain loyal due to their interest in a particular topic-- and if you blog on that topic for the #atozchallenge , you can be sure to attract a regular band of followers.

So, if you wish you can blog without a theme. I'm only saying Blogging for A to Z challenge might be so much more effective for your blog if you have a theme!  

And if you do have a theme, you may choose to reveal it on March 21st through the A to Z Challenge Theme Reveal 2014, hosted by Anna Tan Csenge,  Zalka, Guilie Castillo Oriard , Samantha Geary Jones and Vidya Sury.

Wouldn't You Like to be a Helper, Too?

Wanna help us out? We're seeking administrative assistants to help do some of the behind the scenes grunt work with us. 

Why would I want to do that? Here are some perks to consider:

1. You'd get a special badge emailed to you to display on your blog showing your prestigious status. Most of the co-hosts have their own, personalized badges displaying their assistants, and we all stick them in our sidebars too, so everyone would know whose slave, er, helper, er, assistant you'd be. Um, you might also be called a minion. In the most kindest of “we loved those movies sort of way.”
2.  You'd also be listed as an assistant on the A-Z Challenge Blog and that would probably bring you more traffic since a LOT of people read this blog. (You can check out last year's list in the tabs above to know what I'm talking about.)

Are you game? Here's how it works. Each team member wants their own number of volunteers, and will choose their volunteers in their own way. Some co-hosts need many. Some want none. Volunteer in the comments, and each co-host will choose their assistants based on their own criteria, which are actually different for each of us.

Make sure your email shows up when you comment so that the co-host who picks you can contact you. We traditionally (in the whole other year we tried this...) had way more volunteers than open spaces, so please don't be sad if you don't get picked. Get out there, visit a lot of blogs, make connections with the community and try again next year. We are ALL about making connections and friends and building relationships. We just tend to pick the people we already have a connection with. Not a popularity thing, just a product of what we're trying to achieve. COMMUNITY.

Questions? Stick 'em in your comments, or send to the new infoatoz2014@gmail.com. Be aware there you'd get me (Tina) because that's one of my jobs. So you might as well email me directly with general questions.  My email is tndowney (at) gmail (dot) com.  Either one is fine, just I check my own more often.

So if you'd like to work hard, for no money, but lots of recognition and praise, consider volunteering. We're a crazy bunch of folks, but you knew that already. I mean, a blog-hop with 2000 people? That's nuts already. But the best gig in blogland. Don't miss out if you want in!

~ Tina, on behalf of the entire A-Z Team