Mommin' It Up!

June 26, 2012June 26, 2012

Cool Off & Party Down! Our Tide Coldwater Party

tidecollage4 — The pool, the Tide Coldwater swag, my cute baby, and great friends Erin & Andrea

A couple of weeks ago, Emily told you about how using Tide Coldwater and washing your laundry in cold water can save a TON of energy. Remember? Using Tide Coldwater you can save up to 50% of energy per wash cycle!!

Pretty amazing, right!? Well the folks at Tide Coldwater wanted a few of our closest friends to try washing in cold with Tide Coldwater for themselves. So…they let us have a big party and invite some awesome friends, and send each family away with a bottle of Tide Coldwater and lots of other goodies! And since it was a “Cool Off” party, we rented out a local swimming pool. It was AMAZING to have the whole place to ourselves! Just us and 70 of our & our kids’ closest pals!!

It’s fun to have a lot of people you love in once place. I was super-excited that my Uncle Paul, or UP of Redneck Latte fame, was in town from Georgia and got to come to the party. Today is his 60th birthday, so we got to celebrate a little early thanks to Tide Coldwater. Happy Birthday UP!

tidecollage1 — Emily & I ready to host! We were so glad to welcome Becky, Cortney, and UP among our guests!

Tide Coldwater also provided us with some super-delicious food, catered by Lulee’s Lollies! It was awesome and so were the special Ice Cream Lollies she made us for dessert!

My favorite part of the evening was seeing families have FUN together. It was so awesome. Everyone was so relaxed, we had this HUGE pool to ourselves with plenty of lifeguards, and moms, dads, and kiddos were really enjoying each other, the pool, and the atmosphere. It WAS really hot so the pool truly made it an awesome “cool off” party!

tidecollage2 — Families having fun together!!

Thank you SO much Tide Coldwater, for truly making this party a night to remember for our friends and their families. We made a lot of great memories! And, for cooling us off and helping us save energy while getting our laundry as clean as ever!

Thanks to all our blogger and non-blogger friends who attended! We love you guys!
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We are being compensated as part of the Tide Coldwater Cool Off campaign. All opinions about the product and event are our own.

June 26, 2012June 26, 2012

Skype ya later

This is me and my friend Gina, circa 1999.

We improved with age, I promise.

Anyway, Gina and I met on the first day of college. We lived across the hall from each other. For the three years after that, we always lived within about 10 yards from one another. That was 14 years ago.

For the last 11 years, though, we haven’t lived in the same state. Right now, we live about 6 hours apart.

Fortunately, we’ve never been closer.

We’re always texting, emailing or skyping. It’s the only way I’ve seen her son! It’s sad but true – he’s six months old and I’ve yet to see him in person. I feel close to him, though, because I can see him on Skype.

I’ve been using Skype for a while, but I recently upgraded to a premium account. One of the coolest things about the upgrade is the ability to have group video chat. That way, Gina and I can keep in touch not just with each other, but with ~~both~~ all of our college friends.

It definitely beats the AIM we used to use back in our college days.

Gina and I had one conversation on Skype that I’ll never forget. It was on Inauguration Day in 2009. I was home sick from work (really, I was sick, I swear!) and she was somewhere she couldn’t watch Barack Obama being sworn in as president… so, we Skyped, and I held the computer up to my television screen, so she could see it. It was a historic day, and I’m glad we got to share it – even from a few states away!

Plus, the headset makes me feel super cool.

How many embarrassing pictures of myself can I put in one post?

How do YOU use Skype to build deeper connections with your friends and families?

It’s time to say more and stay human. It’s time for Skype.

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Disclosure: Compensation was provided by Skype via Glam Media. The opinions expressed herein are those of the author and are not indicative of the opinions or positions of Skype.

June 25, 2012

It’s cake, mixed with frosting, dipped in chocolate. ON A STICK!!

You guys, this is my BFF, Luanne Storer. She’s made this blog a few hundred times!

She is a totally amazing friend, and as I’ve told you before, she’s also a very talented confectioner! Her confection of choice: the cake lollie. It’s cake. Mixed with frosting. Rolled into a ball. Dipped in chocolate. ON A STICK! Lulee’s Lollies are TO DIE FOR! Look at all the amazing creations she can put together:

Lollie Collage — The top right is a NATIVITY SCENE! A baby Jesus cake lollie!! Fer realz.

This weekend, at the party Emily and I threw for Tide Coldwater, Luanne invented especially for us, a total game-changer: the Ice Cream Lollie. It’s a cake pop on top, ice cream underneath, decorated to look like an adorable cone. AMAZING!!

Untitled — Hello, I am ADORABLE and DELICIOUS!!

Joshua Lollie — Joshua loved his ice cream lollie!

Luanne has big plans for Lulee’s Lollies, but to accomplish them she needs YOUR HELP! That’s right my readers, I am begging for your help for my friend. Luanne has applied for a $250,000 small business grant, but in order to even get her application considered she has to get 250 votes on the grant’s Facebook app. She just found out about the contest today and it is over June 30. So she has less than 4 days to get 250 votes. So, I know there are about 1,300 people that subscribe to this blog daily. I need ALL of y’all to go vote to Luanne! It will only take you about 30 seconds and it’s EASY! Here’s how:

1) Click on this link

2) Choose “Log in & Support” (you log in thru Facebook. No email or password required.)

3) Search for “Lulee’s Lollies”

4) Click “Vote” when “Lulee’s Lollies” come up.

THAT’S ALL you have to do!! But if you take it one step further and share with your friends, we would all be SO grateful.

Please take half a minute to vote for my BFF!! I will keep you posted on her progress. Let’s make this a win for the Mommin’ It Up community! THANK YOU!!!