If you wanna feel better about your family, just read about ours...

Starring: a dad, a mom, a son & daughter-in-law, a daughter & son-in-law, another daughter & son-in-law, 1 teen, 1 grandson, 3 granddaughters, 4 dogs, and a whole lot of love.






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Sunday, March 14, 2010

(((Warning))) Blogging Causes Diahrrea

Well, I guess this is my official blog debut, and I’m a nervous wreck. But on the advice of a close family member, I’m going to forge ahead and see what happens. Worst case scenario is that no one follows it, right? Then no one will even know…..or maybe that’s the best case scenario. Time will tell.

I guess I should start with a little background of what brought me here. I used to be a pretty introverted person although people who think they know me might not agree. I think I’ve done a pretty good job of hiding it. Whether or not people noticed, I used to have a lot of protective walls built up around me. Some were to protect me from legitimate hurt I’d experienced in the past and some were built from my own paranoia. Then an amazing thing happened…..I started a Facebook. To be honest, I was determined to keep my Facebook friend list narrowed down to ONE. My best friend from high school who talked me into starting one. Not realizing how quickly your name spreads around Facebook, pretty soon I was up to ten friends and I panicked and changed my privacy settings so that no one could even request to be my friend. (In Facebook as in life, you might say.) But, I quickly came to realize how much I LOVED Facebook! It became a wonderful outlet for the rivers of sarcasm that flow from my very core of existence. And it was hilarious! But then a strange thing happened…..my best friend ‘De-friended’ me. As it turns out, not everyone is able to convert sarcasm from the voice to the written word, and she didn’t think it was quite as hilarious as I did. Who knew? There was a time when that incident would have prompted me to de-activate my account and send me crawling back into my protective hole. But oddly enough, it had the opposite effect. I started slowly breaking down pieces of my walls and letting people in. I connected with friends from school, people that I go to church with but never took the time to get to know, and members of my wonderful extended family!

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not one of those people with 600+ ‘friends’ who I don’t even know. I still have a reputation of checking into people who put in a request for me and if I don’t know them I don’t hesitate to ignore, because my Facebook page has kind of become an extension of my world. My world consists of my husband of seventeen years and our four children and I’m fiercely protective of it. My Facebook wall is my outlet for my sarcasm & my humor and I don’t want to have to answer to anyone who misunderstands it. But it’s also become a little taste of what it’s like to live in my world. And let me assure you, it is an adventure!! And my friends seem to enjoy it as much as I enjoy getting to know them and keeping up with their lives. Every time one of my crazy updates makes someone laugh, I come to a realization……God made me the way I am on purpose and for a purpose. Dare I hope that sarcasm falls under the category of ’spiritual gift?’ Is it possible that the very thing I always thought of as a flaw could be used to bring a smile to someone’s face?

Well, I certainly hope so, because I decided to go with it. And my Facebook became a very personal peak into the fun insanity that seems to follow my family…..and fear not, NOTHING is off limits. You get the whole story, whether you want it or not.

I guess a blog is just a different avenue of sharing my experiences as I walk along this path that God has me on. If you’d like to join me on this journey, you’re more than welcome. If not, that’s cool too. I don’t even know if I’ve done this right. All I know is that ever since I registered this blog, I’ve had stomach cramps and flu like gurglings down below……so without further ado, I’d better get to the bathroom…….


6 comments:

  1. Aww, I'm glad you joined facebook. Last summer I told zach, "shari is the best new thing on facebook." We always get a kick out of your updates.

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  2. I love it already! I'm a friend of Joanie's through the Greater Dayton Ad Association (and my son took the SAA weekend art classes). Never fear! I am no stalker, and your self-description sounds suspiciously like me!

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  3. Good for you! I can't remember if I mentioned it to you or if I just left it in my head, but I have often thought "she should write a blog". You are very funny and a talented writer, so don't be nervous. Btw, I love the name CloseCourters.

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  4. So glad you started this Shari! I daily check out your Face Book page just so I can get a good dose of much needed laughter. I look forward to reading ALL your blogs. You know... I have even heard people say... you have to join Face Book so you can see Shari Courter's posts! Who woulda thunk? We are privileged that you have opened up to let us peak inside the life of the Courters.

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  5. well....i don't get it. I just don't get it. I joined facebook a couple years ago and theres nothing much there, nobody says anything to me, its boring. I have 2 friends. They don't say much if anything at all. I get friend requests from people i've never heard of so i don't allow them to become my friend. Maybe i should? But then why would i want to know anything about them or their lives? I just don't get facebook. I'd like to be beside you and watch where exactly you go, what people say and so on because to me its either a vast emptiness or somehow i'm clicking at the wrong place.
    It does however say FACEBOOK. Is there a different one? I'd love to see which one you go to and believe me, really, i'm not kid'in; i just don't get it!

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  6. Lorraina~
    I felt the exact same way about Facebook when it was just me and a couple people. I didn't get what the big deal was. It was when I started connecting with people I go to church with, people I used to work with, and people I went to school with as far back as elementary school! that I got hooked. I bet if you thought of a few past friends from school or old work places, you could find them on FB and reconnect! But it's not the end of the world if you're not on FB, either. (It always used to amaze me when I'd tell people I wasn't on Facebook and they'd give me this look like....I don't know....like maybe I'd just told them I'd recently inserted peach yogurt up myself ;)

    Thanks for your comments :)

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