Here it is. Finally, in all its glory: my interview with the Queen of all Queens, Jill Conner Browne. If you have been living under a rock (or have never read my blog before,) I will tell you AGAIN that Jill is the reason I pursued my passion of writing– THE reason. Before I discovered her books, I had no idea that non-fiction humor was even a genre of literature. And honest to God, there is no one on this planet that knows funny better than she does.

My stepmother gave me The Queen’s first three books after the unexpected death of Lawson Murphy, a childhood friend who was like a brother. Jill passed the writing litmus test by making me cry so hard I had snot running down my face while simultaneously snorting so hard with laughter that I produced actual snot bubbles. Do you even know how difficult it is to get those kinds of emotions on paper?

So I followed The Queen from afar for almost 7 years before I started pursuing writing myownself, as she herownself would say. When I started the process of looking for a literary agent I realized that my three of my favorite humorists (Jill, Celia Rivenbark and Laurie Notaro) were all represented by the same agent, Ms Jenny Bent.

I sent Jenny a query letter and almost vomited I was so nervous. I made myself feel better by repeatedly saying, “She’ll never read it. She’ll never read it. She’ll never read it.” But she did. And she liked it. And she offered to represent me. And I LOST my ever loving mind.

Seriously, I ran screaming out of my house whilst nursing my baby who was about six months old at the time, waking up all of my children and scaring the crap out of my next door neighbor. (Sorry Connie.)

During my first phone conversation with Jenny she referred to Jill Conner Browne, The Sweet Potato Queen, as “Jill” and I had heart palpitations. Just Jill. Seriously.

I emailed Jill Conner Browne, her highness, The Sweet Potato Queen, shortly after signing with Jenny and professed my undying love and admiration. Turns out “Jill” is as sweet and kind as she is funny. (Don’t you love it when that happens?) She has encouraged me and taken the time to give me advice even though she is a Very Important Person and has very important things to do, which makes me love her even more.

If you haven’t read her books you need to get on amazon.com RIGHT NOW and order every single one of them. You will laugh like an idiot and drool over the recipes she shares.

Without further ado, here are a few words from my Queenie:

For a significant period of time you were a single mother. (Standing ovation for you.) What was the most difficult aspect of being single parent?

I just had the one daughter and she was an especially good one (by the Grace of God) and so I really didn’t experience single parenthood as difficult. Maybe it was and I was just too busy to notice! My Mother was a tremendous help to me—until she had a stroke and then I took care of her. That was a huge challenge—becoming the parent to my parent—much more difficult than raising my daughter by myself.

What would you say to encourage the single moms of today?

You WILL survive your children’s teenage years. Remember your OWN and be very remorseful—it won’t help you but it will make your Mother very happy.

Have you caught any flack from fellow believers over anything you have written? (In my experience “the church” doesn’t always have the best sense of humor. Although I think, many of your books paint an amazingly clear picture of how to live your best life. I’ve contemplated having the last chapter of American Thighs tattooed on my body. Sadly, I have plenty of room to do this.)

On the contrary, I hear from countless Believers thanking me for putting their own feelings into words. Humorless People don’t often read my books so I am pretty safe from them.

As I writer of non-fiction, so much of your life is public knowledge, like your recent ta-ta scare. I often find myself thinking as I write about my kids, my life and my family, “Will this hurt anyone’s feelings? Am I being too honest? Sharing too much? Will this make my kids mad in five years?” Have you ever written about anything you wished you had kept private? How do you know where to draw the line?

If I have any doubt, I leave it out so, no regrets so far. My daughter loves my books. My Mother could never get over my “language” but that was hardly a new development for us. People TELL me incredible stories all the time, in HOPES that I will use them—and I do—but with rare exceptions, I change their names—just to protect innocent people that they might not have considered in the throes of their “sharing.”

And lastly, WHAT DO I HAVE TO DO TO O-FFICIALLY BE NAMED A WANNABE? If I don’t have an o-fficial title of some sort I will DIE.

OOOOH—the O-FFICIAL SPQ® Wannabe’s ™ are a tough group to break into—they’re all real mean! Bwahaha! No, really, they are! There are Major Disturbances every year over the New Old Outfits and the Old Old Outfits and who gets to wear what, etc. The first thing to do is just declare yourself to be The Queen of Whatever You Choose and come to the Million Queen March ™ Weekend as that Queen and suck up to the O-fficials A LOT. It may well take more than one or two years’ worth of sucking up but the plan would be to so ingratiate yourself to them that they will INVITE you to join and help you in your battle for securing an Outfit that might actually fit you.

I will be at the annual Sweet Potato Queen March this year, as the Head Boss Queen of the Teal Magnolias, we are “Working on a Lifetime of Wonderful,” and will be dressed to the nines. If you want to join us you’d better hurry up and book a hotel room now!

Check out The Sweet Potato Queen’s O-fficial website for more details about the parade, all proceeds go to Blair Batson Children’s Hospital. Follow Jill on Twitter, or friend her on Facebook, if you don’t already, you’re going to love her.

YAY! It’s time for another Super (Silly) Mom interview! Ann Imig is another one of my favorite bloggers. I’m pretty sure I could show up for a play date at her house, with dirty hair and no bra and she wouldn’t even look at me funny. She calls herself the Stay-At-Home Humorist, which I think is totally genius and I would be green with envy at her creativity if she didn’t make me laugh so freakin’ hard.

One of my favorite posts over on her blog, Ann’s Rants, is Bedtime with Mussolini, if you have EVER tried to put a child in the bed that didn’t want to go, you will get it.

Ann has also taken her Mommy Humor to a whole new level, by producing the stage show Listen To Your Mother, where local women came together at the Barrymore Theater to read their written reflections on motherhood.

How old are your kids?

My boys are 3 and 6.

What were you doing before you had kids?

Bugging my husband to have kids. Before that I spent some years as an Administrative Assistress (stage actor), sold :30 chunks of advertising in Entertainment Tonight and Relic Hunter, and got a Masters in Social Work.

Most surprising thing about motherhood?

The beauty, the pain, and the pee smell.

Have you always wanted to be a writer? How did you get to where you are today?



I have always been a writer, but only in the past year did I attempt to bring it under the perfectionistic and self-sabotaging umbrella of “professional.” Clinically speaking I am “Hobby Incapable with a dual diagnosis of financially delusional.”

Tell us about Listen To Your Mother.

Listen To Your Mother is a Mother’s Day production in which local writers read their own writing about motherhood to their own community. I created the show in order to celebrate the collective human experience of mothering, and to take the audience on a journey that validates, inspires, educates and most importantly– makes everyone laugh so hard they resent me for not scheduling an intermission.

How can people get involved with LTYM?

The second annual LTYM is scheduled for Mother’s Day May 8, 2011 at The Barrymore Theater in Madison, Wisconsin. Auditions will occur in 2011. I am in the process of considering how/when to bring the show to more cities. In the mean time, people should join the Facebook fan page and watch the website www.listentoyourmothershow.com for updates.

Bonus Question: What’s the most absurd thing you have ever heard yourself say to your kids? (Mine is “WE DO NOT BITE BALLS! DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME?”)

“Good night stars, Goodnight room, Goodnight Chow jumping over the moon.”

Follow Ann on twitter @annsrants



Don’t forget to sign up as a follower and leave a comment to be registered to win a child’s outfit in my latest giveaway!

When I first decided to do the Super (Silly) Mom interview series I never intended to focus on “celebrities” or business women. I wanted to share with all of you the people who inspire me and make me laugh. I am so excited about this interview because Jennifer is one of my favorite bloggers. Seriously. She’s in my top 5 and I will stop whatever I’m doing to read her posts because they are hysterically sarcastic while still being brutally honest.

I met Jennifer when we were both childless. We were in nursing school together at Auburn University and were really just acquaintances until we reconnected on Facebook. (Ha! You thought I was going to say Twitter!) I read one blog post and we began corresponding via blogs and the interwebs about our crazy lives with three children born very close together. Another reason I love Jennifer is because not only is she a military wife but she served in the Navy as well. The woman is hard core.

We can commiserate over moving with kids and never living close to family, and although I win the number of zip codes award, the award for the longest distance move goes to Jennifer. She lives in Guam, with her submariner husband and three kids. Did I mention she’s pregnant?

(I told you she was hard core.)

How many moves?

Really only three. We got married in college, and Nick graduated first, so he moved to Charleston for Navy school while I stayed in Auburn to graduate my own self, a year later. Then I got stationed in Norfolk, VA, while he had to head to New York for a little more school before he joined me in VA about another year after that. We stayed in VA for another four years (gross, I know, but we were trapped! My rotation date came up, but he had a year left on his VA boat, so I extended for that year. Then his rotation came around, but I had to finish out my time there, so we had to stay. I lived there for FIVE LONG YEARS!!!) So we finally did our second move together, to Groton CT. First time I’ve ever seen snow, and let me tell you, it wasn’t an easy transition. We were there for the six months of winter! Double gross. And then we moved to Guam in March of this year. Quite a change.



What’s the most difficult thing about being a “military wife”?

You caught me on a bad day, so I have a lot of complaints right now. I’ll have to go with the traditional it’s-hard-because-I’m-married-to-the-Navy-as-well-as-to-my-husband. Unlike my husband, the Navy does not care if I want to sleep in, or if I want Nick around for my birthday this year, or if I want him to be in port for my next delivery. Another obvious hard part is being so far away from my natural support group. Even in VA, I couldn’t just call my mama and say “I’m going bonkers, can I drop your horrible grandkids off for the afternoon?” It’s hard on the grandparents too, especially Nick’s family. I grew up in the military, so at least my parents were prepared for this. Nick’s parents looked like we slapped them in the face every time we moved their grandkids further away.



But I get a different support group in the other boat wives. Especially out here. We all are in the same boat. (Get it? Hehe.) Nowhere else in the world would another woman understand what I mean when I say “Oh crap, I haven’t emailed Nick in two days, he’s gonna think I left him.” These women know what it’s like to be alone, tired and trying to explain to a three year old that even though his daddy loves him, he can’t come home to plunge his stuffed Nemo out of the toilet. We’re all willing to help out, no matter what, because, as selfish as it sounds, we know that when the time comes, we want to be able to say “You gotta do this for me, because I did that for you.”



What’s your favorite thing about Guam?

Er, I’m still watiting for Guam to “grow” on me. Everyone swears it will, but I’m still waiting. It’s beautiful, and the weather is nice…but I could look at pictures. The weather is nice in southern California too. This was a total shock to me, because I wanted to come here. We’re the only people I’ve met who actually put it as number one on their dream sheet. So, it sort of broke my heart to get here and discover that I hate it. Does that make sense? If I had been dragged here kicking and screaming like everyone else, I would expect to hate it. But this is what I wanted, and I didn’t want to hate it. And I guess I don’t hate it. The things I hate (being away from my mama, having too many kids, not having a job, not having a lot of friends)-those things would be the same no matter where we got stationed, you know? So, it’s not Guam, it’s just this period in my life, I guess. Triple gross.



What’s your least favorite thing about Guam?

They don’t have a Chik-Fil-A and the Diet Coke tastes funny…and someone stole my iPod right out of my van. So see? If those are the worst things about Guam, it can’t be THAT bad, right?



Describe your ideal Momma friend.

My ideal mama friend is my high school best friend Angela. (FAIL! She was supposed to say me.) I still don’t understand why she won’t move out here with me! Gets my sarcasm, check. Is also sarcastic, check. Understands the difference between being ‘pessimistic’ and ‘realistic’, check. Doesn’t mind when I call her for no reason other than to hear the sound of another adult voice, check. Can identify all my favorite movie/Friends quotes, check. (That one is a biggie for me!)

I need a friend who doesn’t care that my three year old uses a pacifier- who doesn’t feel like she’s better BECAUSE my three year old uses a pacifier. My ideal friend can’t have an immaculate house, or else I’ll never want to come over and hang out. That would be too depressing. She can’t be too skinny either, or if she is, she can’t ever say, “Oh man, I look so fat today!” She doesn’t need to be “entertained.” A date for the two of us can be going through the McDonald’s drive through for an apple pie and a funny tasting Diet Coke, then heading back to her messy house to watch Snapped on Oh! If I call her, my ideal friend would know what I meant when I blurted “He just did it AGAIN!!!” She’d tell me to stop whining when I complained about Nick having duty on Friday, so I have to give the kids a bath even though I need to watch SCI (we get TV a day later, isn’t that weird?) She’d also listen to me whine, if she knew that’s what I really needed. And she would know, that’s the best part.

So, think my standards are too high? Probably. But I’m honored to say that I’ve met a handful of women out here who mostly fit the bill, and I still have my online friends and my high school bestie. What’s a fourteen hour time difference when you have BlackBerry messenger anyway?(PING!)

Tell me about baby number four!

Ahh, number four. I am due the end of January, begining of Feb. Haven’t had my twelve week ultraousound, so as a former L&D nurse, I don’t have an official due date yet. This will be the LAST addition to Team Engelbrecht. It was always my plan to have four, but after Warren came along, we switched to three. He was such a horrifying baby that the idea of having another one, even HALF as bad, made my skin crawl. But he stopped crying for a few weeks and that’s all it took for me to say “AWWW, I need another baby!” I got knocked up, and he was back to his old self before I even finished peeing on the stick.

But seriously, good baby or bad, this is the end. And have I mentioned that this kid BETTER BE A GIRL? Because I wanted four little blonde girls. So far, I’ve got one brunette girl, and two blonde boys. So this is it, she better do this right.



Read Jennifer’s blog, you will want to move to Guam to go through the MickeyD’s drive through and be her bestie.