The Stone Fort Inn in downtown Chattanooga.

(Photo by Trip Advisor)

So yeah, a whole TWENTY FOUR HOURS child-free & work-free this weekend. Just me…and my husband…alone together….away from the house with the floors covered in dog hair and the half-painted front porch and the little flea problem that seems to have erupted in our crazy-huge cellar.

Away, away, away….

Have any of y’all stayed at this hotel before? The reviews around Ye Olde Interwebz are very positive.

We thought about just doing a little staycation at home, but Aunt Betsy told us that if we didn’t leave town, she might track us down at 2 am and hand Danger Baby back our way |for the bottle she still craves that time o’night.

So we’re leavin’

And this appears to be where we’re headed.

(And thanks to my Mama, whose anniversary gift to us is our little trip away. She’s Some Mama.)

Today’s United Way of Greater Knoxville Campaign Kickoff in the studios at Scripps Networks Interactive HQ

I feel very lucky to work for a company that seriously walks the walk when it comes to community giving and volunteerism.

Scripps Networks Interactive (SNI) and its employees (I’m one of ‘em) give back to Knoxville in a big way, but the company also does all kinds of other good things for a variety of worthy causes all over the rest of the country every single year.

SNI enthusiastically encourages employees to spend time volunteering in our community, and we are actually given the company-approved time away from the office to do it. In fact, at today’s United Way Campaign Kickoff, we learned that in the year ahead, we can earn up to two additional days of paid time off by donating to United Way. That’s a fantastic and really smart incentive.

• Learn more about the great work done by United Way of Greater Knoxville, and find out how you can volunteer time, talents or $$.

• Find the United Way organization in your own hometown. 

-Here’s the simplest way YOU can help to advocate for Henry’s case. It’s 100% free and will only take you three seconds of your time. Literally! Three seconds!

- Explanation of exactly why under both state & federal law, Henry’s case clearly represents an unsolved homicide for the Knox County Sheriff’s Office and Sheriff Jimmy “JJ” Jones.

-An important and very compelling reminder from a commenter at JusticeForHenry.com on how the way Henry’s case has been treated by Knox County authorities should deeply concern EVERYONE, whether they happen to have a drug addict in their own family or not.

-Updates to our family’s running list of successful arrests and prosecutions for murder, homicide or manslaughter in cases like Henry’s all over the United States. As you can see, more and more of these cases are being pursued all the time by smart, dedicated law enforcement professionals and prosecutors who have realized that state and federal legislators have given them a very powerful tool to fight drug dealing in their communities via various drug-induced homicide statutes. Instead of ignoring the epidemic of drug overdose deaths and injuries, these public officials are making this issues one of the highest, if not THE highest priority in their own jurisdictions.

-Do you know of national media contacts or investigative journalists who might take an interest in Henry’s case?

This is definitely the most steps I’ve seen her take so far. I love the way she holds her hands out in front of her to counterbalance, and doesn’t she look SO proud of herself?

C & Leo
August 30, 2011

UPDATE: For those who would like to learn more about Great Pyrenees dogs (that’s what Leo is), about what they’re like as pets, and about how we ended up with Leo in our family, here’s the Hickju canine 411.

What did the Knoxville News Sentinel miss in its recent Sunday front page story about the case file that Knox County authorities have now released to justify their closure of Henry’s case?

Well, here’s just a small sampling.

I wondered why Danger Baby was being so quiet. Turns out she was amusing herself by attempting to convince Leo to wear a pair of MY UNDERWEAR on his head.

No, I actually don’t know where she obtained the underwear in question.

(And yes, they were clean.)

The other day when I wrote my post over at MomCrunch asking what y’all see as “selling out” when it comes to the bloggers you read, I obviously had this topic on the brain for a reason. And the reason is that I am trying to figure out how to accept some of the terrific opportunities I sometimes get offered to create and publish sponsored content here at Mamapundit – defining “terrific” as an offer from a company or brand that I actually like, and one that would pay me so that I can better provide for my family – in a way that doesn’t seem icky or tacky or sellout-ish to all of you. And that MomCrunch blog post I wrote and on which a lot of people commented offered me some legitimately useful feedback – very specific thoughts on what readers do and don’t find obnoxious with regard to bloggers and sponsored posts or videos.

The bottom line is that I want to give it a go – I want to try to include a small amount of sponsored content in the overall mix of what I do on my blog, and I want to see how it goes. To be perfectly frank, we could really use the financial boost because, well, to be EXCEPTIONALLY frank, we have one hell of a lot of medical debt from everything that’s happened in the past few years, and we are paying it off month by month (go Dave Ramsey debt snowball!), but it surely would be a stress reliever to add some extra income to the budget that could go straight to the noble “Kill Hickju Medical Debt” cause. And there’s college coming up for J….and….and…and….

You get the idea.

But as I expressed in that post at MomCrunch, I feel legitimately anxious about whether I can write even a small amount of sponsored content here without seeming desperately commercial or obnoxious to readers, whom I respect more than most of you probably realize. If I get paid for writing a few of my posts, can I still remain true to what I’ve always done on my blog- keep my voice honest and my point of view real and everything? Or will y’all decide that I am a phony corporate shill, and stop reading or commenting?

These are my worries. But I would like to at least dip my toe into these waters and see how it all works out. Before I do, though, I want to get some even MORE specific feedback from those of you who read my blog on how you would prefer that I let you know that something I write is sponsored. To be clear, I am not suggesting that I would EVER, EVER,EVER not let you know. That’s not in question. I will ALWAYS let you know. My question is regarding HOW y’all would prefer that I let you know. And there are a couple of options for how that could go.

There’s no “right” or “wrong” way for a blogger to disclose that her post is sponsored. It’s really just a matter of what her readers would prefer. So that’s what I want to ask; since I want to try doing the occasional sponsored post at Mamapundit, how would y’all prefer to find out that that a particular blog post is one of these?

Here are the three primary options:

1 – Always include the word(s) “(Sponsored)” or “(Sponsored Post)” in the actual titles of sponsored posts, with the info about who sponsored it, and a link to that brand or organization or event right up at the top.

2 – A quick nod and wink to the sponsorship up top with more complete info and advertorial link at the end.

3 – Very organically and with no fuss thank the brand for sponsoring the post at the end so that readers aren’t interrupted in an intrusive way.

So yeah, these three seem like the main ways I might handle disclosure with a sponsored blog post, but maybe there are other possibilities that y’all would prefer, but I haven’t thought of.

So will you tell me? Will y’all let me know in the comments below how and in which format you would be least bugged by the information that a particular post is one that’s sponsored? I want to make sure that YOU ALWAYS KNOW, but I also don’t want to make it more intrusive and in your face than it needs to be. I want to find that balance that really respects all of you, because I truly appreciate that you take even a few minutes now and again to read my blog, and without all of you, nobody would be offering to pay me anything, ever. So I want to be sure that if I am going to try this to even a limited degree, y’all help guide me in how I do it.

So chime in on this one, will you? And never stop keeping me honest, like you always have. I’m counting on it.