There are some changes happening around here. Please, if you will—as with my growing-out-bangs—bear with me and ignore the cleaning lady doing the dusting and vacuuming around here.

The timing of these changes is a little funny, actually. This coming weekend I am speaking at The Mom 2.0 Summit in Laguna Niguel. The topic of my session is “Raising the Stakes: How to Keep Blogging After It’s All Been Blogged” and I’m sharing the panel with two other bloggers who have also been doing this storytelling thing since the dinosaur ages of blogging—2004, for me.

One of the many “experty” (who are we kidding, really) things I will be speaking about it is this sort of blog re-invention that seems to happen as some so-called mommybloggers like me move from writing stories about breastfeeding and potty training and crying it out and strollers and baby carriers to having children who have their own lives, their own stories, their own instagram accounts (HOLD ME). In some it comes naturally—you may not even notice the stories changing, the focus changing, the actual site changing. I think that’s how it was with me.

My site started as a virtual baby book of sorts, for my two tiny ones and my tiny one to-be. I was never very good about keeping up with the actual books—they are collecting dust in the basement somewhere filled with probably nothing more than a hospital bracelet and the date of a worst word. On my (free) website, I could publish my words (for free!) and I could complain, commiserate, and occasionally brag about my offspring. But someone along the line I realized that I’m so much more than words about these little nuggets.

I am a mom, sure, but I have many skills and interests, so this space over here became a lifestyle blog, where I talk about pop culture and fashion and food and exercise and biking and television and travel and photography. I still talk about my kids, of course, since they are such a huge part of who I am, but the focus is just a wee bit less about their sleeping habits and, well, bathroom habits. And I don’t really want to talk about them in the same way anymore—I want to tell MY STORY, and sprinkle them in there.

So, there are constant, small re-invention-y things happening around here and these design changes are a big part of that. As I realize that maybe I can do more with this blogging thing than be a storyteller—I can speak at conferences, for example.

(See what I did there?)

At my very heart and soul I will always be a storyteller. That will never change—that began when I was in 6th grade and would write poems and short stories and novels in many, many spiral-bound Mead notebooks. That continued throughout high school as my written word moved from pens and pencils to my fingers and my keyboard and my notebooks became word documents. That continued up until now, when my written word lives here, at this very website. I have so many things to talk about, so many hilarious, weird, sad, bizarre, happy, interesting, not-as-interesting things to share.

Recently, through the magic of Twitter, I spoke about that time in high school that I may or may not have owned (and worn) both a Shawn Kemp and Latrell Sprewell basketball jersey. With a tremendous amount of teenage basketball fan pride. My friend was shocked—I didn’t know this about you, alimartell! See? That’s the thing about storytelling. Even though I have shared and overshared in this space since 2004, there are still things I haven’t told you—there’s still more to share and overshare.

But, I’m more than a storyteller I’m realizing, just as I’m more than a mommyblogger.

I’m more than just someone who works behind the scenes as an editor-in-chief of an online space—a kick-ass online space.

I’m more than just someone who is on no one’s radar—I’m putting myself on the radar. Putting the coffee money I make monthly from this space where my mouth is and doing something about it, if you will.

There are new things I want to try, there are new places I want to go. I want to work with other people more, work with brands more. I want to speak more, discuss more, do more, connect more, BE MORE. I want to tell you about the things I love—and the things I don’t love as much.

And I really just want to find myself a really good under-eye concealer for those really unfortunate raccoon eyes.

So while I have always been here telling my tales, and I will likely always be, expect some more, expect some new, expect some different.

And, well, for those of you who don’t deal well with change, I’ll tell you that I’ll probably never write an SEO-friendly title around here. So, there’s that.