Intimidated and Intimidating

We arrived home safely from the beach only to find that my cord for my laptop remains plugged in in my in-law's dining room.  This may limit some of my online time for awhile until I get it back.  This would not be such a bad thing.  The words, "The mind-numbing effects of the internet," keep popping into my brain.  My use of the internet is limited to blogging, email and facebook, but too much is bad, so I'm trying, daily, to keep things in balance.  I think I'm doing okay.

When we arrived home, our mailbox was full.  I forgot to contact the post office to have the mail held.  Oops.  In the mail was the invitation to the Mother/Young Mother of the Year Gala.  At the luncheon early this month, we all introduced ourselves, so it was hard to tell who was whom and who was nominated for what.  It looks as though there are three women up for Mother of the Year for 2012 and two for Young Mother of the Year--me and one other woman.  The Warden--always the optimist--says, "Well then, you have a 50/50 chance."  I laughed!

Okay, so here's the thing....The other woman is amazing!  I mean two kids and runs an at home business.  She helps other women build their self-esteem, etc. etc.  Hmm.  A bit intimidating.  I remember her standing to introduce herself.  She was all confidence and charisma.  I'd vote for her.  I liked her.  So, so much for that 50/50 chance.  It's okay.  I can go back to life as normal when all is said and done, and it'll all be good.  It will have just been fun to have learned from this opportunity.

After we got unpacked and kids down for naps, I read with #5 for a little bit and then opened my computer.  I found the nicest comment on one of my posts.  I went to that woman's blog.  In the past 24 hours, I've had two women mention my blog on their blogs.  Wow!  I feel so honored.  I mean, that's a huge compliment.  I went to this latest one and got to laughing when she said I was "intimidating, but then she said some really nice things that overshadowed that, so it was all good.  I just got to wishing that she knew me in the flesh.  Maybe I need to write a reality post, so you can really know me and see that I'm not intimidating at all.

The first time I had that word used for me was in regard to a young man who liked my oldest daughter.  She told me that he was "intimidated" by me.  Yeehaw!  Mission accomplished!  I'm great with that kind of situation, but I don't want to be intimidating to anyone else.  How do I undo that?