Success

Being successful is a very good feeling. Last August, I started this group, Stay At Home Moms Meetup of Watertown, using the Meetup.com system/site setup. From nothing, there are now 36 moms. It's so amazing!

I know I've written about it before, but let me put it in perspective for you, and you'll see why I'm so thrilled: in September, I scheduled our first "Meetup". One girl showed up with her baby. I continued to schedule Meetups at my house, so that this way, if no one showed, I wouldn't have wasted too much effort (also, since I didn't have a car, it would spare me the grief of waking up early, bringing Greg in to work, messing up our whole schedule just to sit in a restaurant/playground/bookstore waiting for people who were not going to show).

By December, our group had about 5 members, and one (and one time two!) would show up each month. January, Andrew had chicken pox, so I cancelled, but our group had started to grow more. We now had maybe 10.

In February, I scheduled another Meetup at my house. After this time, I realized that something needed to happen if I actually wanted to be a part of a GROUP. So...against all better judgment, I scheduled a Meetup for the McDonalds with the playland that's right around the corner from me (I was only hesitant because I hate supporting fast food -- but that's another topic for another day). At this point, a girl named Niki had joined, and she was part of this very social, active message board with the wives in the Ft. Drum area, and she decided to invite any and all SAHM's from that board. At that event we absoloutely exploded! About 20 moms showed up -- it was so exciting!

Encouraged by this, I went home and scheduled events for nearly every week after that...and still have continued to do so. People show up! There is community! We are all making friends with each other! One girl joined the Y and got some guest passes, so several of us are meeting her on Monday to work out together (plus, we get free child care!) All of this is quite thrilling when you've gone from no friends, knowing no one, to the person at the helm of the very largest active Meetup group of any type in Watertown. Also, our group is competetively better than the other two "mommy" groups in Watertown in that we are not only very friendly and open to new members (unlike one of the others), but our cost is just plain dirt cheap (about two whole dollars for membership per year).

I feel like my creativity has been unleashed with the relief of having people to be with. I think of new events, ways to meet, and venues to scope out all the time. God definitely has blessed me with this group, and keeps me inspired, which, in turn, keeps everyone in the group interested and involved.

Well, I didn't mean to go on so long about my group, but just today we had a successful playgroup/sandwich potluck/tea party, and I'm pretty psyched.

For those of you who enjoy aimlessly browsing the internet, our site is: http://sahm.meetup.com/323/ (or just click on the "Stay At Home Moms Meetup" in the red block to the right of this page) If you click on "photos" you can see some pics of our latest events. Shockingly enough, Andrew's only in a few, since I try not to go overboard and show off the little boy who is surely the cutest toddler in the world. (With that attitude, I should probably keep it unbalanced and not have him in too many!) =0 =)