Category Archives for "Michael Shaw"

The Stretched Blog Visits I Love Skippack

Today, I’m honored to guest post over at I Love Skippack for my friend, Michael Shaw (A.K.A. The Skippack Blogger).  In today’s post, I share about our family’s experience with the 4H Seeing Eye Puppy Club.  Here’s a teaser for my article.  Please head over to I Love Skippack for the rest of the story.

A Puppy With A Purpose, In Skippack

Dogs terrified my son and daughter. Big dogs, little dogs, fat dogs, skinny dogs — it didn’t matter. When a dog crossed their path, my two children would scream and crawl up my legs into my protective arms or seek similar protection from my wife.

When our children were very young, their fear was understandable. As they grew out of toddlerhood, it became more troublesome. Friends and family had to quarantine their dogs when we came to visit. My wife and I felt it was time to help our children face their fear.

We thought about getting a puppy, but didn’t feel ready to make the necessary commitment. We did research, visited pet stores and dog breeders, and became more convinced that we were not ready for puppy ownership.

Acting on a recommendation from a friend, we found a solution that didn’t demand we become full-fledged pet owners…[Click here for more!]

If you’re visiting here from I Love Skippack, I hope you’ll stay around for a while and consider becoming part of The Stretched Community.  I write daily about life’s STRETCH marks.  My blog posts are often about family, faith, and a few other things that stretch me on a regular basis.  Here’s a sampling of some of my posts:

Perkiomen Valley Blogger’s Society

I have had the privilege to connect with many people across the country and even around the world through the wonders of the Stretched blog.  I have had many on-line conversations with many bloggers who I may never meet in person.  I’m so thankful for these friendships.  It’s interesting to think of what it might be like to sit down face to face with these friends I’ve made over the web.  Last week, I had the chance to experience this type of meeting.

On Wednesday morning, I had the honor of being part of the inaugural meeting of the Perkiomen Valley Blogger’s Society.  The meeting took place at Mal’s American Diner in Skippack, PA where the “blogger’s society” met for breakfast.  The meeting was setup by local community blogger, Michael Shaw, who I met over a year ago through the blogging world.  Michael’s blog, I Love Skippack, tells the story of his love for his hometown.  Through his story, he has the opportunity to support local businesses and community groups in the town of Skippack.  Also in attendance was Brad DeForest.  This was my first opportunity to meet up with Brad  He is an architect and web designer who happens to call Skippack his home.  And then finally, I was invited to join this group.

Our meeting consisted of breakfast from Mal’s great breakfast menu.  We small talked for a while as we got to know each other a little bit better.  And then we got down to business – although I struggle to call it business.  Our conversation about blogging and social media was fun and thought-provoking.  All three of us are trying to figure out different aspects of our blogs, and it was fun to think out loud about the next steps in our blogging journeys.  I especially enjoyed the conversation about the visions we each have for our place on the web.  For a more detailed and humorous take on our inaugural meeting, you should check out Michael’s blog post about the Perkiomen Valley Blogger’s Society.

So where do we go from here?  That’s a good question that we’re trying to figure out.  I’m hoping we can meet on a regular (monthly) basis for more breakfast and great conversation.  Perhaps, we will bring in guest speakers who can teach us some new tips and tricks to enhance our blogs.  I know we have many directions and topics that we can cover, and I look forward to seeing where it goes from here.

Have you ever met face to face with other bloggers?  Describe your meeting.