Girlfriends are the New Black

I have been trying to post something about BlissDom for over an hour. And apparently, I’m not quite ready to put it into words yet! It was fun, amazing, sweet, wonderful, and so much more. The best part was just spending time with lady bloggers that I LOVE. So courtesy of Flickr’s Valentine’s Day effects, here are some photos of the weekend. A more profound recap is coming soon, I promise!

cousins rock!
Cousin love! Emily and me all dressed up for the Thursday night cocktail party.

a weekend with these two is a bed of roses
Cortney, Emily, and me in line to see Harry Connick, Jr. who performed for us. The weekend with these two was a bed of roses! Seriously spending time with them in the car and in our room was one of the highlights of the weekend for sure.

I heart Katie
One of 2009’s gifts to me, the beautiful, funny, talented Katie of Domestic Debacle.

I LOVE Lotus!
The lovely Lotus. I made her cry because I blubbered everywhere and told her that because I’d read her blogs about depression, I knew I could write about mine. I *love* her. And she’s HYSTERICAL!

I am a dancing machine

Susan and Shannan make me want to dance, dance, dance! These two Cincy girls are awwwweeesome!

Andrea + Emily = true love
This photo of Andrea (who I have nicknamed SassySnacks after this weekend!) and Emily makes my heart go pitter-patter. So much love!

More to come this week. Thanks so much again to INTEL for sponsoring our attendance at BlissDom! If you haven’t already, go ENTER our contest to win an mbook pocket PC powered by the Intel Atom processor.

For more BlissDom photos, check out my Flickr phototream.

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Big News & a Giant Giveaway

*Comments are now closed! Winner will be announced tomorrow!*

So, as I mentioned Monday, it’s BLISSDOM week! Emily and I are leaving for this fab lady-blogger conference tomorrow morning and we can’t wait to hang with our bloggy friends in Nashvegas. But what we didn’t tell you yet is that we have a super-awesome sponsor that is sending us to the conference…none other than Intel! Chances are that the computer you’re using as you read this is powered by an Intel processor – it’s technology we all use every day and Emily & I are thrilled and proud to represent this great brand!

intel logo

Since we are representing Intel at BlissDom, they figured they’d also send us with some cool products to show the power of Intel technology! So we will be taking two amazing Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs) with us the mbook and the Viliv S7. These are small but fully-functional PC’s with wi-fi, web cams, and everything else you could want in a computer! They are smaller than netbooks, even. To give you an idea of size, here’s the mbook in the palm of my hand:

mbook

And the ViLiv S7 next to a pop can (seriously, Emily, is that DIET Mountain Dew?? EEEWW! Why defile such a wonderful soda by removing its sugar!?)

viliv copy

These machines are amazing! They both have touch screens (the screen on the ViLiv even swivels and pivots to become a tablet!) They also both have huge battery lives – 4 hours for the tiny mbook and 9 hours for the ViLiv – wow! I don’t think Emily and I will need to worry about plugging in at BlissDom! They both have fully-functional keyboards, and the mbook uses a stylus for its touchscreen. The ViLiv S7 features a touchpad mouse – or you can just use your fingers on the touchscreen. They also can be used with the Kindle for PC software – so you can download Kindle books on them and use them like a Kindle! HOLLA!

So here’s the REALLY exciting part! Thanks to Intel, we are giving away a UMID mbook featuring the Intel Atom Processor to one lucky reader! It’s the world’s smallest PC and it can be yours!

Umid mbook

Here’s how to enter (several ways):

1) Leave us a comment on this post telling us what feature you like best about the mbook.
2) Tweet about this giveaway on Twitter. Make sure to follow and include @intelnews in your tweet! Then leave us a separate comment with your tweet URL.
3) Hit the facebook button at the bottom of this post to share this post on facebook, then leave us a separate comment letting us know you did so.
4) Subscribe to our feed and leave us a separate comment letting us know you did or already do.

ONE winner will be chosen by random.org on Monday, February 8th. Good luck and thanks so much to Intel for this great giveaway and for sending us to BlissDom!

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Love Story – the Sequel

Last spring, Emily and I brought you the story of how we came to be. A story of how the young couple from the hills of Eastern Kentucky who would become our grandparents came to Dayton, Ohio to seek a better life for their two toddlers. A story of the post-war American Dream. A story of how our grandfather, like many “boys” just home from World War II, took a job at the busy, booming Frigidaire plant in Dayton.

vintage frigidaire
(Frigidaire ad from 1959, during the time our grandfather worked there.)

In that post, I told you how all my appliances are Frigidaire, out of a sentimental homage to our grandfather, whom Emily and I never got to meet. From what everyone says, he was a very quiet man. Kind of serious, and shy. But I am betting, despite that, he would get a kick out of his two goofy granddaughters and their blog. I sure hope so!

Because we kind of owe him even more thanks now.

In September, Frigidaire and Mom Central opened up applications for phase 2 of Frigidaire’s Test Drive Team, a group of bloggers who get to try out Frigidaire appliances and blog about their experiences with them.

So Emily and I applied!

And…WE’RE IN!!! We’re Frigidaire Test Drive Moms!!

frigidairebadge
And I am more than a little bit sure that our family history with the company helped us out in our application. So, thanks, Grandpa Laton! Forty years after your death and you are still helping your family out. We are grateful.

So here’s the fun part: Emily (because she is SUCH a good cook! I mean, look at her pumpkin cake, and her crock potting skillz) will be receiving and keeping and reviewing the Frigidaire range & microwave from their professional line as a member of Team Range/Microwave!
emily team range microwave copy

Because I tend to wait to do laundry until everyone in the house is wearing their last pair of underwear, and because my hubby does most of his own laundry we are both super excited to announce that I am on Team Washer/Dryer!
jenny team washer dryer copy

I will be receiving and keeping and reviewing a washer & dryer from Frigidaire’s gallery line. I am hoping they will magically transform my entire basement into looking like this laundry room:
Frig_Affinity_090427

Well, maybe it won’t look exactly like that, because mine are going to be blue. But I am pretty sure the rest of the room is going to magically take shape.

Ok, I am getting off topic!

We also want to tell you about Frigidaire’s Make Time for Change site. Frigidaire is working with Jennifer Garner (I always KNEW I had a lot in common with her – we could totally be BFF!) to raise money for Save the Children! You can spin the wheel on the site and have a chance to win a sweeet Affinity Washer & Dryer (like the ones I’ll be receiving! YAY!) – and every day you spin, Save the Children gets $1.
jenny and jennifer garner copy

So go check that out, and stay tuned for more fun appliance-related updates from Emily and me! She should be getting her range & microwave really soon! SO stay tuned for lots more cooking adventures from her. I’m getting the washer & dryer in the spring, but I’ll try to entertain you in non-laundry related ways in the mean time.

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