Welcome to Friendly Friday, the weekly celebration hosted by Xenia at Thanks, Mail Carrier, Christi at Frugal Novice and Charla at Healthy Home Blog! It’s a great way to get new followers to your blog, say hello to your blog friends, and make new ones!

To join in the Friendly Friday celebration,go to any of the three blogs listed above , follow the hostesses in the first 3 spots and then start blog hopping! Visit other blogs on the list and comment to give them some blog love. Then take a minute to follow them through Google Friend Connect – this is a good way to keep up with other blogs, but also lets us show support to each other! Please DO NOT list your giveaways here, links must be to either your homepage or your Friday posting with your blog title. All others will be deleted.

When people comment on your blog and let you know they’re a part of Friendly Friday, return the favor and follow them back. This way everyone gets traffic and followers out of participating, and it’s a win-win situation. Feel free to right-click on and save the Friendly Friday button and post it on your blog and/or in a post – the more bloggers that find out about Friendly Friday and participate, the better!

Remember, YOU can host the link list on your blog, too! Just get the InLinkz code from the posts on any of the three hostess blogs and copy it directly into your post. The code is different every week, so be sure to get the new code when hosting Friendly Friday on your blog. Hosting the list is a great way to get even more traffic to your blog and make Friendly Friday more beneficial for everyone.

Happy Friday everybody! It’s been a stressful week here at home but now it’s Friday, and I’m doing something awesome today – going to the Gleek Retreat blogging conference! Great Lakes + Geek = Gleek! It’s a conference taking place in Holland, Michigan, and it’s a blogging conference FOR bloggers organized BY bloggers. Ever since I started blogging almost 6 years ago, I’ve wished I could find more Michigan bloggers, and this weekend, I get my chance!

I’m leaving home today around 2:00 and driving North to pick up Deb from Mom of 3 Girls, who is also my roommate for the conference. We then head West to Holland. Unless my parents took me there when I was little, I don’t think I’ve ever been there! 44 years living in Michigan and I’ve never been to one of the most beautiful places in the State, I’m glad I’m getting my chance now.

I’m also completely geeked about some of the bloggers I’m going to meet who I’ve wanted to meet FOREVER, like Brittany from Barefoot Foodie (LOVE!), Sandy from Organize with Sandy (LOVE!), and Lisa aka TheBeadGirl from StudioJewel (LOVE!).  I may actually embarrass myself completely when I meet Brittany, she’s pretty much a blogging rockstar and I just know she’s going to be super nice too, and then I’ll be all “BE MY FRIEND FOREVER OMG”.

My only concern about the whole trip is tomorrow night’s dinner, which is taking place on one of those riverboat dinner cruises. I get seasick on boats. ALL boats.  Don’t tell me “this is such a big boat, you’ll barely know you are on the water” – trust me, I’ll KNOW.  After I drop Kaitlyn off at preschool this morning, I’m swinging by Rite Aid and asking the pharmacist if those seasickness bracelets actually work and if they do, I’m buying an armful.  If you want to follow my progress, just follow me  @ElizabethT45 on Twitter or if you are my FB friend, watch for updates there.

Well, I’d better get a move on. Have a great weekend everybody! Don’t forget to add your Friday link to the linky list!