Why My Man is A Good Man

When I was at Blogher09 I went to the BlowHer party. While I was there Campbells Chunky Soup had a display up and asked if we wanted to make a short video on why our man was a good man.  Here is my video.  I do want to add that we were married almost 3 years ago…and he has been the best thing that has ever happened to me.  He supports me in every way….even when I am sitting with my laptop in my lap all evening! LOL

Interview with Maria Bailey!

This was an interview that I did while I was at BlogHer09 with Maria Bailey, one of the co-founders of MomTV,NewBaby.com, Bluesuit Mom, BSMmedia, award winning author, radio talk show host, Nationally known speaker….and I COULD go on! Anyway..I was thrilled to be able to even talk to her, let alone be interviewed by her.

Ok..yes I looked nervous (and I was) at least at the beginning. I wasn’t scheduled to do my interview until the morning. I happened to be at the right place and the right time and Maria asked if I could just do my interview then. She is one great lady!

Swag at BlogHer

Swag

I have had several people ask me questions lately about the “swag” we received at the Blogher conference and the opportunities I have had being a blogger and what that means.
I have to admit that it has been a lot of fun meeting new people and companies and that most bloggers I have dealt with are more than happy to help you in any way they can.
The MomSelect Swag Suite at the Blogher conference was a very popular place to be. Maria Bailey (founder of MomSelect and Co founder of MomTV )and BSM Media were in charge of that and they had a line out the door. They had some trouble getting some of their products delivered on time…so when the response was so huge..they had to shut the doors for a few hours to restock and get things organized before they could open back up.
Here is a list of the things they had for the bloggers (for those of you who have asked what kinds of things we received.) By the way…I am not trying to brag in any way here..I am trying to thank those involved for all they did for us and the companies for all the samples and products they handed out to us.
These were things that were available. They had them spread around the room and started us out with the Land’s End Backpack to use as a goodies bag. I did not pick up everything because not everything was appropriate to my family.

AdoraPet DVDs – Triplets will love to watch it.
Beaute de Maman Samples
Build-a-Bear Workshop Bears -So cute!
CharcoCaps
Cultural Care Au Pair Memory Card Game
Cystex
Disney T-shirts/hand sanitizer
Easy Mac Cups
Enfamil Gift Bags
ItzaBitza DVD Game
Kindermusik Gift Bags
Lands’ End Backpacks – Wonderful…to give to one of my boys to use.
Latitude Tools – Great level, can’t wait to try it.
Moving Picture Books
My Princess Party To Go- Princess favors
No-Slip Grippies Tights
Paci-Plushies
Precious Moments Baby Clothes
Seventh Generation Organic Tampons
SoftLips I threw in my purse…nice
Wisk

It was fun to get all these things…but I would have loved to have just visited with Maria and others I have not been able to meet at Mom TV and Mom Select.

I have also had the opportunity to work with Walmart in a promotion to remodel one of my teens bedrooms. You can follow the progress of that and there will be a chance to win a make over yourself at the end of that.

I was asked to attend a P&G Bounty Experience today at COSI (Center of Science and Industry) in Columbus. I will be posting on that later in the week.

I have had many other opportunities lately and hope to have even more in days to come.
As a Mom blogger I will let you know that I look forward to working with more companies and other bloggers. I will be honest about what I tell you about and if I should promote something…it is because I like the company or product. They may offer to sponsor me or give me a product to review…but if it is not something that would be beneficial to my readers..I don’t really care what they offer me…I won’t be a part of it.
I will also post about contest or do a post because of a contest (as part of this one is) but again…if I don’t believe that it is something I should post about or don’t feel good about it..I won’t do it.
But I am more than Happy to blog and thank others for the opportunities they are giving me or the products they have introduced me to.
Thanks!

BlogHer

(I saw this on a couple of blogs and loved the idea…so I did steal the idea of taking a picture of all the business cards. I know I was excited to see mine in someone else’s pile….so look for yours and leave me a comment if you see it!!)

I have so many thank yous to everyone at BlogHer. Thanks yous for putting it on , thank yous for coming up to me and saying you recognized me (those were the coolest!), thank yous for being the first person to introduce yourself in line at the hotel (@mom101), for asking me to sit down and eat lunch with you and your daughter that first day (@Mamacita) my roommate who gave up her free room to help me out since I had 2 people back out on me. (@Military_Mom) A big thank you for helping me feel comfortable in an uncomfortable place and for being nothing but nice to me (@craftymamaof4). I have big thank yous for these two Walmart 11 Moms for treating me as an equal although in the blogging world we are no where close (@mommybrain and  @consumerqueen). Thank you to all the sponsors for all the fun swag they gave us and sponsoring all the parties and food and drinks. I feel I learned so much although I wasn’t able to make it to hardly any sessions. (that is crazy isn’t it?)
Thank you to the Label Daddy team for asking me to eat breakfast with them at the Newbie Breakfast.
Thank you to Annalisa from GM for discussing the GM cars and organizational features for a possible review with me.

Thank you to John Andrews from Collective Bias and who started Walmart Eleven Moms for talking to me. I had never been able to meet you and was thrilled to realize how down to earth and nice you really were!
I will be anxious to see the video I made about how wonderful my husband is…although I stumbled through it. Your team was awesome to talk to at BowlHer.
It was a pleasure to meet Ted Rubin.
Denise from Brother was great to talk to and I look forward to working with you in the future.

I was thrilled to meet so many people that I see and talk to online IRL (in real life…I thought I would translate for a few like me who were slow to figure that one out)

To the Sponsors that I have pictures for…and this is such a small portion of you. But Thank you for all you did. Thank you for talking to us about your Brands and how we can help each other in this economy. Thank you for coming out to BlogHer and making it so much fun.
I especially want to thank my sponsors for helping to get me to BlogHer.
The Sock Sacks are a great way to organize your socks in the washer/dryer. LOL Kids and adults both will put their dirty socks in their own sock sack. Then you simply put your sock sack into the washer then the dryer…bring them out and NO SORTING! No more lost socks in the wash/dry cycles. I love them! Thanks Sock Sacks for helping me to be able to go.
The pouchee purse organizer is my other sponsor (well…that would be me, but I sponsored myself! LOL ) I did not make this purse organizer (I wish I did) but I do sell them because I am sold on how wonderful they are at keeping your purse organized.

My daughter was thrilled with this new Moxie Girlz Doll that we received at BowlHer as part of our Swag. They aren’t coming out until September. My daughter had a blast using the markers and painting the motorcycle and I think her shoes? She was showing me her wonderful art work and was so proud.

The kids ended up with so many fun things….book lights from PBS Kids, also a autographed picture from Nina from The Good Night Show on Sprout, a cute pin from Disney  (plus Disney had wonderful Mickey Mouse ice cream bars that saved me on one of my “I missed lunch” days), Disney also showed us a laptop computer made for kids that has a safe internet environment (Hint..hint…I would love to do a review and giveaway of one of those for you Disney!! ) and bears from Build a Bear, a Mr. Potato Head  from Playschool, coloring books and so much more.
Jump Start was there. It was nice to talk to them as I am going to be doing a review and giveaway for them of one of their programs that my triplets are having a great time using.

Nikon put on a wonderful party and I was thrilled to go.
Pepsico also had drinks for us everywhere!
Tropicana had wonderful and cold juice for us to drink that was lower in calories!
This was the Quaker Oatmeal Smoothie bike! (yummy they were good)
So did you know that Pepsico had more than just Pepsi? I didn’t….they have Tropicana, Quaker Oatmeal, Frito-lay, Gatorade Brands. See what you can learn at BlogHer? LOL

Michelin Tires was there with the Michelin Man!

The Swiffer company had a dress up area (as you can see!) at the SocialLuxe party and it was a riot to watch.
Tide gave us a really cool bounce 4 month dryer bars. I haven’t put it in my dryer to try it yet…but can’t wait. I won’t have to have all those used dryer sheets that want to fall out of the dryer onto the floor floating around any more.
They also had Tim Gunn visit their booth. I didn’t have time to get in line to take a picture with him, so I snapped this one on my way through. I think its funny that it looks like the word bubble is coming out of his mouth. Thanks Tide.
There are many more …I mean many more sponsors…and this post would be way too long to list them all. I just want to give them all a very big Thank you!

Chris Mann

If you have followed my blog you might remember that I did a post about Chris Mann after BlissDom in February of this year. He is a great singer with lots of personality and likes to woo us bloggers!!
He sang at the People’s Party the first night of BlogHer. He had a table set up and I went up to him to ask if when his CD was coming out. He said to me, “I remember you, you were at BlissDom.” I do have to say that I was surprised…and pleased. (ok…let’s hope its not because I am like this freak tall old woman who drools all over when I hear him sing? LOL)

Anyway….to get on with my story… I told him I would like another picture with him before the weekend was over because I had such “bug eyes” when I got a picture with him and @alihooper at BlissDom.

(Yes..embarrassing picture…) So nice guy that he is, he says to me, “Well let’s just get it right now.” So he moves his table and comes out with me to get the first picture above with me in the orange jacket. And of course I have the “bug eye” thing going again!! I don’t know why…I keep doing it in pictures lately. Trying to give myself an eye lift maybe?

But I did find out his CD comes out on August 11th! Also the itunes download etc… (I don’t understand all that other stuff….amazonmp3, rhapsody etc..) But it comes out on all those formats on AUGUST 11th!

After I left that party I saw a few woman with these T-shirts that said Mann Crush. I asked them where they got them and they said that Chris gave them to them. I thought….hmmmm I really WANT one of those. After declaring myself a true Mann Fan it seems only fitting doesn’t it? {picture me running back…. kicking woman out of my way and screaming through the crowd…”I have to get a Mann Crush T-shirt..outta my way!!” ..you heard of the swag stories at BlogHer..but did you hear about the Mann Crush T-shirt stories? LOL }
Actually, I saw him later and asked him about the t-shirt. He said he was out of them but he would save me one and give it to me at BowlHer 2 nights later..but I needed to send him a direct message on Twitter to remind him. (I sent 2)
BowlHer night comes…it was a great party by the way. He came over sat down and told me he had brought me the shirt..and he would get it for me in a few minutes. He got called away. {Saved by the bell}

A little bit later I saw him talking to a Bantering Blond and @childhood (they are sooo nice by the way) and I walked up to wait my turn. (It did remind me of the Bachelor show…crack myself up!) Anyway…he got up to get my shirt and I had to get another picture of him with my shirt (and the BowlHer boa) and do my best not to “Bug My Eyes” out. I’m shameless!

Seriously…you do need to go listen to some of his music on Chris Mann Music and you too can become a Mann Fan… and no sorry, …I’m not giving away my Mann Crush T-shirt!
Thanks Chris for being such a real guy and being so nice to us older drooling mom bloggers! Next step…To become one of your official Mann Boo! (LOL)

Tall Girl

Tall Girls at Blogher 2009

First of all you need to get some perspective of this photo.
I am 5’10″ tall. I am almost always the tallest woman in a room! For some reason both at Blissdom and Blogher I did not feel uncomfortable. I had some tall blogger company!! I was standing at the Nikon party behind these two woman and I interrupted them to tell them, “I just have to get a picture with the two of you, you are so tall…I love it!”.
We are all standing flat footed. I do not think either of them had on heels..I know I did not.
This was Angie McCullagh from Half Assed Kitchen and Georgia Getz from i am bossy
They were so sweet to take a picture with me..a total tall stranger.

This is my buddy Kim from Crafty Mama of 4. I met her in person at Blissdom and then again at Blogher.
I love feeling shorter than other woman. I know it sounds dumb as so many ladies would love to be taller. Here is a secret…when I was in school I would be the first to take off my roller skates at skating parties. Just so I could walk around in my socks while others were still in their skates and were taller than me. LOL
Sorry tall ladies if you find me hanging around you at future Blogging conventions….it just makes me feel good to “fit” in and see other woman face to face.

Blogher 09 – The Nikon Party (my favorite)

I have to admit being invited to the Nikon party was the highlight of the trip for me. I didn’t get a direct invite from Nikon (I wish) but I did get an invite from Mommy Brain Reports  (Monica) and that was just as thrilling. She was one of the VIP invited and extended her guest invite to me! (Thanks to Beth from The Plus Size Mommy)
This is Sugar Jones from Sugar in the Raw on the left and Monica in the center. We were in line here for the limo’s to take us to the party at the Flatwater Restaurant  in Chicago.
That is Monica to my right. (She was a wonderful date! LOL).
I hate to say that I do not remember everyone’s names so I apologize and if anyone sees these pictures and can fill in names for me…it would be greatly appreciated! Everyone was really nice though.
Sugar is the 2nd one in, then Danielle from Danielle Smith TV , Arianne from To Think is To Create, and Lori from A Cowboy’s Wife.  I felt very special to be in the same limo with these wonderful bloggers!

Monica had a scheduled interview with Carson Kressley (from Queer Eye for the Straight Guy and How to Look Good Naked) when we first got there. Beth from Plus Size Mommy also got to interview him..so they did it together. I was happy to snap pictures during it.

It was also special to get a picture with him myself.

The Flatwater Restaurant was wonderful! We took an elevator down to the restaurant and there was an outdoor patio with bar and seating. That is Can Can from Mom Most Traveled getting a massage.
Chair massages, hair and makeup stations and a red carpet to walk and get pictures with Carson was the highlight for many. Sugar is looking beautiful!! (not that she isn’t in the first place)

Oh…here go my “bug eyes” again…LOL

I had a great time talking and getting to know Monica and Melissa from Consumer Queen.  They are both just soooo sweet! Both of them are Walmart 11 Moms  and could have acted like they were “too good to hang out” with little ol’ me. But did they? No…they were wonderful to me and treated me with total respect. They are sooooo cool!! (#jeff)

Here we all are again along with Kim from Crafty Mama of 4. She has been nothing but nice to me from online to Blissdom to Blogher.

Here is a photo of me with Vdog from Vdog and Little Man…she was one of the famous Elevator 13 drama with me!!

Yes….good friends, old and new…wonderful treatment… wonderful food and drinks…fun celebrity….beautiful restaurant….fantastic sponsor…Nikon…what could be better?

Blogher 09 – Day 2

I started off going to the “Newbie” breakfast. I had Sara Patterson from Label Daddy recognize me and she introduced me to Toni Patton and Miranda Kuskie. They asked me to eat with them…(that is soo nice when people do that)

I had done a review on the Label Daddy labels..so it was really fun to see who I had been e-mailing and talking to on Twitter.

I walked all through the Expo Hall and got to visit all the vendors.
This is Nina from Sprout. I have to say that I do not know the show, but I thought the triplets would know it..and thought it was fun she was there.
The All detergent Fairies…what a riot!
Great day! More to come on Friday night!!

Arrival at Blogher 09

I arrived by airplane about 11am to Chicago O’Hare airport. Found the shuttle to the Sheraton Hotel and Towers without any problems.

I met my roomie Military_Mom aka Shellie and I am a lucky person! For not meeting before in person I think being her roommate will be a lot of fun. I think we are getting along great. (Now ask us on Sunday and it may be another story. LOL..nope..I don’t think so.)
This is the view out our room on the 20th floor!! Cool huh? And if we look out and across we can see Lake Michigan and all the boats. (Looks like an ocean…makes me think I am some place tropical. LOL)
Ok…Miliary Mom and Miliary Mama are friends (go figure right?) and so they have had me tagging along with them to all these parties.

This is the Socialux party. Both Shellie and Tara had registered for this early and did not end up getting their swag bags (goodies bags..these had cameras in them!)
Lots of people, food and drinks. Great sponsors…Kodak, Swiffer, Lego, Landsend, Eye-Fi and several others. Chris Mann also sang. He was in Blissdom and loved his music..(not to mention he is sooo cute and actually seems really nice!)
Ok…get this. We had this at the Hyatt downtown Chicago. This was the same place that the President was. There were secret service everywhere….people dressed up waiting in lines to go to …what I guess was a fund raiser. That added a little excitement to the mix.

The People’s Party was next right here in our hotel. Lots of people and look at the swag bags.

Chris Mann was was here and I got his picture. I am going to give him a whole post because I think he deserves it…later today. (hopefully if I can get back on the internet…has been an ordeal so far.)

This is the last party I went to…if this picture gives you some idea of what it was like. It was the Room 704 party. I met the ladies who put this on when I was at Blissdom. We actually got stuck in an elevator for 45 minutes. They are a hoot. They were staying in room 704 there..and had a big party in their room. So they decided to repeat it..but it was sooo big they had to have it down in one of the lobbies. They gave away some very interesting swag bags (can you say vibrators ladies?). Nope…I didn’t get one..we came in a few minutes too late again.
So..it was a very interesting evening.
Stay tuned!!

Heading to Blogher! I will take you with me on my blog!

I am heading to Blogher in Chicago today. For those of you who may not know, Blogher is a blogging conference. It takes place this weekend and from what I have seen there are supposed to be around 1,500 bloggers there.
If you are on twitter you will see #Blogher all weekend. That is people talking about it.
There are many big sponsors who are going to be there. Companies are realizing that going to the mom bloggers they can get the word out about their companies and products to a huge amount of people.
Chevrolet is giving bloggers cars to drive if they carpoole together. They had to apply for it ahead of time.
Quaker Oats is going to be there, PepsiCo is going to be there.
Carson Kressley from Queer Eye for the Straight Guy is going to be at the Nikon party. So yes Nikon Camera is hosting a party (I got invited as a guest of one of the VIP woman who were asked)
The Michelin Man is going to be there for Michelin tires.
Paula Dean is going to be there.
The list goes on…
I will be going to the Nikon party on Friday night and then hopefully over to MomAFluence party after that.
On Saturday night I will be going to Bowlher. Yes…it is a bowling party. MomTV is sponsoring that. It will be video streamed live.
There is so much fun to come!
I will take pictures and post daily my adventures.

Packing for BlogHer – Make that list!

Are you going to Blogher? I am and I am so excited. I have a list of all the things I have to pack. Problem for me will be trying to get it into one suitcase that isn’t too big for the airlines. I am flying United and I have to pay $15 for the first bag and $25 for the second. Doesn’t sound like a lot, but coming and going it will add up!
I am also going to be selling pouchees at the Swap Meet (Make sure you stop by….they will be on a “BLOGHER SPECIAL” and without shipping cost when you buy from my table.)so I sent my pouchees ahead of time. So that is one less thing to worry about.
On the #GNO twitter party last night I said something about making a list and someone said she didn’t have time to make a list. What? I can’t imagine all the things I would forget if I had not been making the list along the way remembering all the little things.

Here are a few examples of the things that I think would be very easy to forget.

*Camera
*Phone
*Laptop
*Power cord for phone
*Power cord for laptop
*Charger for phone and download cable for camera to computer.
*Extension cord (to plug in during sessions if you aren’t right by an outlet)
*power strip
*Mini video camera and batteries or charger
*business cards
*Poken
*Itinerary
*Confirmation numbers for flights/hotel reservations
*Blogher confirmation, party information
*swim suit
*extra cash

Those are just a few of the easy things I think there would be to forget. Of course all your clothes, shoes, undergarments would already be on the list.

Let me know if I reminded you of anything that was not on your list and tell me what are some other things you can add to the list that someone might forget?