Hello Joeprah Nation!This is the front of the house version of the Joeprah Newsletter. If you haven't signed up for the newsletter, you are late (by like a couple hours) receiving all this valuable information.
First, I would like to say that the month of May has some exciting things in store for those loyal readers of, what I consider, the best site ever--Joeprah.com.I will be releasing the first ever series of articles that are only going to be available to "Registered Users."In this series entitled "Confessions of a Stay at Home Dad" I will go back to the beginning and allow readers to find out the story behind Joeprah becoming a stay at home dad.This series has already been touted by critics (I am my own worst critic trust me) as groundbreaking, and better than reading the obituaries.So if you haven't registered you will soon find yourself on the outside looking in, I have forced your hand in a stroke of brilliance to register.
Second, in May I will be continuing to upgrade my site (if that's possible), I am going to start by allowing registered Joeprah members to share there Twitter Home Pages, Cre8Buzz Profile Pages and BlogCatalog user pages within their profiles.This information will also be viewable in the “interactive blogroll.”
The third major improvement for Joeprah.com members is the addition of a gallery tab in your profile page. This gallery tab will allow members to further customize their profiles by utilizing state of the art technology.This technology will give members the ability to upload multiple images into their profile page making it just that more awesome.
I have had some folks wondering why they should register at Joeprah.com and after spending some time reflecting on the question I have realized that there are literally at least a couple of reasons to register.Here are my favorites:
Greater Exposure:
How many blogs do you know of that announce when you have logged on and allow you to have a customizable profile?Just mine?I thought so.At Joeprah.com, when you log in, your profile ID is displayed on the left sidebar and each time someone looks at your profile you will notice your “hit counter” go up. These hits mean more people notice your website/blog and this means more possible visitors to your site.Win/win.Also, being a member gives you an opportunity to upload a profile image that is seen whenever you comment on an article.Your username is directly linked to your profile and if someone clicks your name from within an article's comments, once again your hit counter reflects this.
Fun:
At Joeprah.com we strive to give our users a fun experience.Yep, that’s all I got on that one.
Money:
Money? What? Yep, now at Joeprah.com, you will have an opportunity to turn your zealous love for Joeprah into cold hard cash.The Independence Day Contest at Joeprah.com allows registered members to compete for cash.Lots of it.Well, depending on what you consider lots. Let’s just say compete for a sum of money.The rules of the contest are as follows:
The Independence Day Contest at Joeprah.com:
Rules:
Any registered member with a website can participate.
The contest runs from May 5th to July 4th
The member with the greatest number of referrals to Joeprah.com will win the prize money
You can refer people to my website using your website only
You can use links in a post or in your sidebar
Clicking your own links is both reprehensible and in poor taste of the contest
I will track referrals via a state of the art traffic program
The prize for the website with the most referral traffic to Joeprah.com is $25.00 (USD), eh
If you plan on participating you should announce your intentions by responding to this newsletter stating your intention and listing your website address
It costs nothing to play
Cash will be paid on the week of July 4th either through PayPal or cashiers check to the winner.
I have created some badges that you can proudly display at your site to help get yourself some referral traffic or to just spread the love of Joeprah throughout the internet.Here are the badges with their accompanying code (you do not need to copy the images, just the code):
I will post bi-monthly updates for the participants which will give those involved in the contest an idea of where they stand. These updates will be done through a post which only registered users can have access to.
Thanks as always for all your support! So, go forth register, update your profile with your Twitter/Cre8Buzz/BlogCatalog info, take a chance at winning the $25 Independence Day Contest and subscribe to Joeprah to stay up to date with all my most recent posts.
I have updated my site, yet again, and this time I have added some exciting new content. I spend numurous hours a week on the net reading news headlines, articles and blogs. Whenever I find an article that provides useful parenting information, I will post this article within my site utilizing state of the art twenty first century technology. Simply go the 'Blog' section of Joeprah and click on the 'Parenting News' menu item and you will see articles I have found throughout the net that you can view without even leaving Joeprah. Why waste your time searching countless hours for fresh news when I can do it for you? Stay informed, stay up to date...stay at Joeprah.com.
I had to pass on a bit of news to my loyal readers about something very exciting in the land of Joeprah. It may not seem like a big deal to many, but for me--it's huge. I have a place on the Examiner.com as the National Fatherhood Examiner. What does that mean? It means I get to expose my smart ass self to a larger audience and as a bonus I get to champion common sense parenting for a large media outlet. I plan on delivering some articles from Joeprah on my National Fatherhood Blog, but I will also feature some articles there that can only be found there. This makes all those times that my wife was like, "Why can't you stop blogging tonight and watch (insert horrible chick flick title here, if you can't think of one Coyote Ugly will suffice) with me?" and I was all like, "Sorry, this is important." seem somewhat realistic. If you care to make my day/week/month/year, why don't you stop by my new home and say hi, you'll be glad you did.
This is such a big thing for me. My kids and how awesome they are have always been my source of validation, as a stay at home dad, but this type of recognition really makes a dude feel good.
So, by now, some of you have figured out there are some benefits to registering at Joeprah.com. Actually, the benefits are striking when you think about it. First,
Who is Joeprah? I am a stay at home dad to three daughters. I have an amazing wife and under the direction and encouragement of close friends I started this site over a year ago. You can follow me at The Examiner.com, Twitter, Stumble Upon and Cre8Buzz . Read more...
Like a sunrise enveloping a valley town with golden light, I have been featured in the series "Spotlight on Dads" over at Discovering Dad. Seriously though, Jeremy asked me some tough questions and like, well, just about anyone on Dr. Phil's couch, I basically told all about what makes Joeprah tick and left a few tears behind in the process. If you are interested in finding out more about "Joeprah" in the least, I suggest swinging by and checking it out. The series is great, the questions lend to an introspective interview and, ahem, I am friggin' off the hook. It is a one of its kind Joeprah exclusive you won't find anywhere else. Peace.
If you haven't seen any articles already regarding the new fall line of kid's clothes from Beyoncé don't worry because you will be overly informed after my article. Apparently Beyoncé, of singing and acting fame, has released a new line of children's clothes, The Deréon Girls Collection by House of Deréon, directed at giving little girls an opportunity to wear some of today's highest fashion designs (laughable) at a very young age. Can anyone say "bad idea?" Well, I don't think that we should make snap judgements about something unless we get more details. That's when I read the article by Joshua McIntire over at my second home--The Examiner, and got learned. I found out what the new line of clothes is all about after checking out some very disturbing images of little girls (ages 3-6 I am guessing) dressed up in, what only can be described as, a miniature version of Beyoncé's wardrobe. I have 3 daughters and not only do I find these images and the clothing line to be frightening but also morally reprehensible. As I have already talked about in previous posts, I do not enjoy it when corporations pigeon hole segments of the populations and most of all my kids. Look at the girls in the ad for the clothing line, do they even look happy? Do they look comfortable? The hair, the shoes, the tight clothes all make me want to barf. What was Beyoncé thinking? She may be a fabulous singer and a talented actress (I really have no clue) but as far as children's clothes go--horrific. Swing and a miss Beyoncé. What do you think about these clothes?
I have two items of business I would like to talk about today. First, is the contest . I would like to begin by saying that I am a little shocked that so far only 11 members have signed up to partake in the first annual Independence Day Contest at Joeprah.com. Considering the rewards, I will be giving bi-monthly updates in regards to the contest and each time I do so I will be giving all involved link love, plus you have a chance at winning cold, hard cash. If you are down for the contest I still need to know, just don't assume that you are in, you need to tell me. I think this is a no brainer, but that's just me.
Second, updates. Now, if you stopped by yesterday you may have noticed I was retooling my menus a bit on my left sidebar. I now have a section for "Joeprah's Best Work ." This section is awesome. Seriously. I have to tweak it a bit more, but it is like 90% where I want it. Another update I am happy to announce is that I have added "email" and "print" capabilities to all my content. So, now If you feel strongly about an article--send it to the world.
Finally, the tutorials. I spent more than a couple hours making, by many folks' standards, what turned out to be mediocre demo videos. These demo videos are tutorials aimed at showing registered members both how to make a blog entry and how to modify their user profiles . That is pretty much that. If you haven't gotten in the contest , why not? It will be like a blog-olympics. Word.
Now as all the drama played out behind the scenes, my wife had moved up into configuration management and had her eye on a software testing job as she consistently scored high on reviews.My career was in a different state as I worked for a friend who had inherited half of his father’s construction company.I had no benefits, I worked long hard hours for a guy who handled his money poorly and although I made more money than my wife there were times my paychecks would bounce or times when I was told not to cash a paycheck for a period of time.It was easy to see between the two of us who had the more promising career.Our focus shifted from celebratory to concerned as we started “crunching the numbers” to try and find out what we were going to do once the baby was born.It didn’t take a rocket scientist to see that pound for pound Jodi’s job offered more mobility, benefits and was a less abusive environment physically to boot.We really couldn’t think of a reason for me to stay in my job unless my boss—a close friend of mine—would concede benefits to me.
“Joe, I just can’t do it,” was the predictable answer I got from my boss and friend, and I understood that he was limited as a small business owner in what he could do for his employees.So there it was, my wife was going to work full-time and I was going to be home with the baby.We were in no way financially stable and we did need some form of supplemental income so it was decided that I would stay on working in construction part-time as our mothers would take turns watching the baby a few days a week.
Jodi had horrible morning sickness and woke up vomiting every morning for eight months.This was new territory for both of us as my wife, a normally calculated logical sort of woman, started to battle emotional highs and lows with the raging hormones circulating through her rapidly expanding midsection.I am not sure if all pregnant people act the same way, but my wife who was normally reserved with her physical functions now during her pregnancy was having a coming out party of sorts.Normally, Jodi would stifle a fart for hours rather than “let one go.”Burp?Never.But now, Jodi was pregnant.She was chock full of food, liquid and hormones all of which were pulsating in her midsection. What proved to be the proverbial “straw” on the gastro-intestinal camel was the added pressure of a baby jumping around in her belly.Who would of thunk it? I started hearing the strangest noises coming from her.
“Was that a fart?I don’t think I have ever heard you fart.”
“Well, now you have.”
I kinda liked having a fart buddy in some ways.I stopped feeling bad about raising my leg to rip one.She also was burping like she was in a contest or trying out for a freak show.I remember we were at her aunt’s house, who is our oldest daughter’s godmother, and after she burped I remarked, “She’s like Jupiter, largest ball of gas in the solar system.”I am a romantic in many ways, but comparing my wife to Jupiter never scored me any points.
Not only was she sounding like a pig, she ate like one too.Literally.She was disgusting as she asked for more and more food and made wild grunting noises as she slid roast chicken after roast chicken into her swollen gullet.Her ability to consume food probably added to her lack of energy as she, like a bear in the wilderness, would need to sleep off her calories earlier and earlier each night.
We paid most of our way through college waiting tables and the remainder was paid in scholarships and aid we qualified for.Waiting tables meant we were used to being night owls.Now, my wife started to go to bed at nine o’clock; then nine turned into eight-thirty; eight-thirty turned into eight and that is where our schedule remained until the baby was born.It was difficult for two people who had always been as close as two people could be to become distant to some degree over the course of the six months of the pregnancy.We both left for work early and I usually came home late from work so we typically had time for dinner together and soon she was snoring.I am not sure if other couples experience this test during their first pregnancy or maybe all their pregnancies but after some getting used to we found ways to make time for each other.I started coming home earlier and we always had time for each other on the weekends and I knew that with each passing scoop of mash potatoes onto her plate we were getting closer to a goal—the baby was almost here.
Stay tuned for the next exciting installment! If you like it, tell a friend to register.
<center><a href="http://www.joeprah.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://joeprah.com/images/stories/contest7.png" alt=" " width="175" height="120" /></a></center>
I had to pass on a bit of news to my loyal readers about something very exciting in the land of Joeprah. It may not seem like a big deal to many, but for me--it's huge. I have a place on the Examiner.com as the National Fatherhood Examiner. What does that mean? It means I get to expose my smart ass self to a larger audience and as a bonus I get to champion common sense parenting for a large media outlet. I plan on delivering some articles from Joeprah on my National Fatherhood Blog, but I will also feature some articles there that can only be found there. This makes all those times that my wife was like, "Why can't you stop blogging tonight and watch (insert horrible chick flick title here, if you can't think of one Coyote Ugly will suffice) with me?" and I was all like, "Sorry, this is important." seem somewhat realistic. If you care to make my day/week/month/year, why don't you stop by my new home and say hi, you'll be glad you did.
Who is Joeprah? I am a stay at home dad to three daughters. I have an amazing wife and under the direction and encouragement of close friends I started this site over a year ago. You can follow me at The 
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