1) I totally barfed this morning, despite being 23 weeks pregnant AND taking a Zofran

2) Emily ran 7 miles this morning ’cause she is INSANE so she is going to be chipper and full of energy.

3) The drive is 7 hours long WITHOUT stops

4) We are taking our 4.5 kids

5) We are not taking our husbands

Ok, here is why it will REALLY be fun!

1) Chevy loaned us a sweet-a$$ Traverse to drive!  It has enough room to fit us, all our kids, and all our crap!  We are stoked!

2) Emily and I really do love each other

3) Our 85-year-old grandmother will be there

4) My mom will be there to help us watch the kids

5) Go shortie, it’s my birfday!

6) I get to force Emily to watch my favorite movies with me

7) We expect some serious cousin bonding to occur betwixt our children

When I come home I will have beautiful new kitchen cabinets from Granite Transformations!!!! (countertops will be done on Tuesday, the day after I get home!)

9) I am totally going to make Emily play Yahtzee with me.

10) Emily is making me a birthday cake!  And you all know what an awesome cook she is!

We can’t wait to tell you all how great our trip was!  See ya when we get back, and tune in Monday, Labor Day, for another great Gymboree giveaway!

• Rainbow tee $7.99
• Long-sleeved tees 2 for $20!! Put me in these all fall and I will be so happy!
• Cute little denim skirt $16.49 (I had one of these when I was prego with Sophie, I gave it away – I loved it- had to have another!)

Then for the Soph, I got three short-sleeve pocket tees – these were marked down to $1.97!  And this cute little dress was just $7.99.  What a deal!  I had a $5 off $50 Old Navy coupon from Facebook so my total for all this goodness was only $56.85 including tax!  I can’t wait to wear my cute new clothes and see Sophie in hers!

Today I also did some impulse shopping to get Sophie a few more easy outfits for preschool.  I was walking by the Carter’s store and they had a sign in the window that said the whole store was an extra 20% off!  You know I love Carter’s! I couldn’t resist!  All the things I got Sophie were 50% off PLUS the extra 20%  I got her 4 pairs of pants and 3 shirts for $36, I was thrilled!

So, that was my shopping excitement for the week! What was yours?

Next Tuesday, I am sending my baby girl off to preschool.  And although I have been really excited about it allll summmer (I mean really! TWO WHOLE MORNINGS A WEEK to myself…you know, until December.), I am now in the throes of a panic attack.  I know Sophie’s two teachers have probably “seen it all” – one of them has been teaching thirty years.  But like every parent, I think my child is “special”.  And I will admit, Sophie is pretty different from most kids she hangs with.  So, dear preschool teachers, here is what I need you to know about my girl.

• She is shy.  Too much attention embarrasses her and makes her cry.  Please don’t make her the center of attention!  We don’t even sing the “Happy Birthday” song to her on her own birthday, because she hates it.
• She likes to watch for awhile before she joins in.  She doesn’t usually just “jump in” to activities she’s never done before.  So it might take her a couple weeks to warm up to preschool in general.
• She has a speech delay. She says a lot of things really, really well, and I can understand her almost all of the time.  But when she wants to converse with you, her speech is often unclear.  She knows what she’s saying, but you might not have a clue.  She’s getting speech therapy for this and has made lots of progress.  Be patient.
• She doesn’t like to answer questions about certain subjects.  If you ask her her name, or how old she is, she won’t tell you – even though she knows.  But if you ask her what a certain letter is, what sounds it makes, what colors something is, or what shape something is, she will talk your head off about that.  Because those are things she loves!  She picks and chooses what she wants to talk about, and what she doesn’t.
• She’s tempestuous and stubborn.  Has been since she was a baby.  She’s either happy or sad, there’s not much in-between with Sophie.
• She has the most beautiful smile.
• She is sweet as sugar and loves with her whole heart.
• She is passionate about letters, McDonald’s Happy Meals, Pepperidge Farm Goldfish, and watching her brother play Mario Kart.
• She loves to sing, but she doesn’t want YOU to sing to HER.  She may not be on board with all the singing that goes on in preschool, but she’ll come around.  She deals with it at church!
• She loves books, and after she knows a story well, prefers to “read” it to you.
• She’s mommy’s girl, and I’m going to worry every minute those first few days.

So, please, take good care of my baby girl!

Oh, and, she tries to get away with a lot more when she’s with me than she does with anyone else..so you’ll probably be fine.  Me?? I’m not so sure that I will be!

Well, I didn’t believe it was possible to improve upon the Emi, but Remington has done it with their new 3-in-1-styler!   They sent me one to review and I *love* it every bit as much, if not more.

It looks like a normal dryer, but it comes with three fabulous attachments!

First, the curling/waving attachment.

This is the piece that made me fall in love with the Emi in the first place, and it works just as well as the original, actually even better!   I think it works a bit faster, unless it is my imagination.  It got my hair nice and wavy in no time flat.

Secondly, the straightening attachment.  This works AWESOME. Really, if you blow your hair out straight every day, or even often, you want this.

It really focuses the heat of the dryer on the particular part of your hair that you are trying to work on!

Thirdly, the attachment that was new to me, and that I was quite afraid/skeptical of, the Volumizer.

But I LOVED it.  Now, my hair doesn’t particularly need much extra volume, but if yours does, you will love it even more!  What I loved most was that the bristles on the attachment allowed me to blow my hair out pretty straight with one hand – just using the dryer, not the dryer AND a hairbrush!  Since my left hand is usually cramped and sore fron holding the hairbrush after blowing my hair out straight, this is awesome for me!  Really, it’s a great attachment for not only pumping up the volume, but one-handed styling!  And I was still able to get my hair dry pretty quickly.

The 3-in-1-Styler also has Eco-friendly heat and speed settings.  If you want to save the environment and dry your hair at the same time!  Which I, of course, DO.

So, I am gonna give the Remington 3-in-1 styler TWO enthusiastic THUMBS-UP!  If you didn’t get the Emi last year, you definitely want to get this one now!  It’s only $26.49 on Amazon, that’s a price I can live with!

If you want to see more life-changing Remington products, head over to their newly re-vamped Facebook Page where you can find videos and tips from celebrity stylist Richard Marin and soooon – you can get exclusive coupon codes! Me likey!

Remington totally gave me this hair dryer to review.  That’s all that changed hands.  I know, bummer.   All opinions are totally mine!  Because really, I’m not THAT cheap!

Her first couple of days went really well overall. However, as with any transition, there have been a few bumps in the road, so when Target asked us to write about things we missed but will remember for next year, I was all over it. Had they asked us to write about what brilliant tips we had for making back-to-school season seamless or how to keep homemade bread fresh in a BPA-free hand-knit lunchbox, Jenny and I would have had a good laugh and then told them they’d better go find themselves some other bloggers. But screw ups? We’re your people.

*ahem*

Without further ado, I bring you my list of things I will try to remember next year.

1) Regardless of when our school year starts, I will go shopping early. Like I said, Kate started school this Monday, which was a solid week (or two) behind most of the districts in our area. I thought I was relatively ahead of the game by taking her to Target for school supplies 10 days or so before she went back (it was NOT the night before, I swear!), but I failed to take into account that all the other prepared moms kids had already done their school shopping, and by the time we got there, the school supply aisle looked like a war zone. We still found everything we needed, but the selection wasn’t what it would have been had I been a little more on the ball.

2) I will have a camera on hand for the obligatory huge-backpack-on-a-little-kid first-day-of-school picture. Our camera died while we were on vacation, and I’ve yet to replace it. Fortunately my sister took one for the team and got up early to be our photographer, but it still meant that I took crap pictures with my cell phone once we were actually in the building. However, I would like to point out that I at least remembered to take the pictures, unlike a certain co-blogger/cousin of mine who shall remain nameless.

3) I will buy bread. Kindergarten is half-day in our district (which is really super handy for working parents, but that is a story for another day), so last year she ate lunch after school at her sitter’s house, which required no effort on my part. This year, however, she is there from 9-3:15 and for whatever reason won’t agree to just wait til she gets home to eat, so I have to deal with school lunches. I thought I was all ready to go – she had a new monogrammed Lands End lunchbox and matching thermos (am I good or am I good? Oh wait, Grandma ordered those for her) but when I got ready to actually pack her lunch, I discovered I had no bread. Awesome. So I had to convince her that buying her lunch on the first day would be super exciting. Miraculously (because we never, ever have cash) I was able to scrape together $2.50 to put in her backpack. And while I’m on the subject – $2.50? Seriously? When I was in first grade, lunch cost 90 cents and if you were cool and had a dollar, you could get a cookie with the remaining dime. (I ranted about that to my dad last night, who said that when he was in school, lunch cost 2 cents. I don’t really believe that, because really unless they were serving tree bark with a side of rain water, what good would 2 cents do? You know, the whole “up hill both ways” routine.)

4) Finally, I will realize that the “I walk home!” badge is meant for her locker, not to be used as a name tag. See photo above. That thing I taped on Kate’s chest? Definitely not a name tag. Of course, I didn’t realize that until we got to school and to my horror none of the other kids had their mode of transportation brandished on their person. I slyly ripped it off and I don’t think she noticed, but I’m sure her teacher did. I am all about making good first impressions.

This is totally the story of Kate’s life – she is the guinea pig in our grand parenting experiment. Hopefully we will have these things down by the time Sam is in first grade. But who am I kidding? I’m sure I’ll screw up plenty of things for him as well.

So let’s hear it – what did you miss in the back-to-school craze this year?

********
This post was sponsored by Target, but the idiocies described are completely my own.

I’m not going to be home.  I’m going to be away from Bobby, who always fusses over me and makes my birthday special.

Instead, I am going to be with EMILY, who makes fun of me and puts me in my place.  So you can imagine my apprehension.  We are going to spend labor day weekend with our kids and no husbands (don’t rob our houses, our husbands will be there!) at my parent’s place in Virginia, for funzies, because Em’s never been.

And there on top of the mountain, with only dial-up internet, miles away from distractions, I am going to carry out the threat I made MONTHS ago and force Emily to watch my favorite movies, Anchorman and Hot Rod with me!  And since we’ll be at my parents’ she’s not even going to get to drink any alcohol to lift her spirits.  (Though we WILL have Mountain Dew!) Nope, she’s just gonna have to have some good, clean FUN with me. Well, if you can call those movies clean.  Some good, PG-13 fun!

And she’s offered to bake me a chocolate cake!

And since neither of us  have a car big enough for both our families to fit in, Chevy is loaning us a sweeeeeeeeeeeet Traverse to drive on the trip!  (Which is awesome because last month when we were in Virginia you may recall we had to COAST our broken-down car down the mountain!)  So who knows, we might get crazy on chocolate cake, Mountain Dew, Will Ferrell, and Andy Samberg, and go joy-riding down the mountain!

All I gotta say Berry, is, no pressure, but that cake better be good! Just sit back, relax, and enjoy the big 33.  And be glad it’s not YOURS, Forever 31.

The deals at Kroger aren’t TOO exciting this week, unless you like free pasta, WHICH I DO!! I only spent $22.99 this week and saved 51%.  We didn’t need much and I was happy with how I did. I got nine, count ‘em nine boxes of free Ronzoni pasta tonight!  It is on sale for $1, and there are a few coupons you can print that double to $1 to make it FREE!  PLUS, the packages of Garden Delight ROTINI at my Kroger had 50-cent-off PEELIES on them, which double to $1.  So I had 8 coupons I had printed from my two computers, and I got one of the packages of Garden Delight Rotini (there were only 4 left at my Kroger!  My friend Jen took the other three. Hope they restock!)

Here are links to print the coupons:

55 cents off any Ronzoni is at coupons.com – you will need to change your zip code to 90210 to print that one.

50 cents off Ronzoni Garden Delight printables here and here

Thanks to Happy Homemaker Cindy for posting these coupon links, that is how I found out about this deal!

Thanks so much for all your enthusiastic entries to our Win Giveaways Back 2 School Bash! We will have more for you around the holidays so keep following Mommin’ It Up and Win Giveaways on Facebook to stay updated!  Here are the winners from Mommin’ It Up. Each blog will be posting their winners separately.

Bissell Steam & Sweep – Sarah Keil

Belkin Router – Debbie Christie

Crocs – Beverly Burrell

iWireless Broadband Modem – Sarah Grojean

Acer Laptop from Intel – Amanda King

Proactiv – Sarah Bloedel

Snapware – Elaine Fox

Zulily – Shannon Perlow

Cracker Barrel – Natalie Vandenberghe

Remington hair tools – Susan Chester

Lands’ End backpack – Amber Core

Cengage Brain $150 Credit – Betsy Hoff

Texas Instruments TI-Npire – Debbie Grawn

Lovable Labels – Laci Winslow, Chelsei Ryan, one other who has not confirmed (check your email you have until Wed 9/1 at 10 am to confirm or I will pick someone else!)

$100 Amex Gift card from Invisalign Teen – Christine Zigler

$150 Staples gift card from Bar-S – Cam Wald

Thanks again everyone and stay tuned for more great Win Giveaways!

So, the day before our ultrasound two-and-a-half weeks ago, Bobby and I had our final “name talk” to choose our baby’s name.  It was slightly contentious, and ended with Bobby telling me after we had both voted for differing favorites, “You can tell me what the baby’s name is tomorrow after the ultrasound.”  He was going to give in to me, but I couldn’t choose a name he didn’t like.

So we went to the ultrasound, and much to our surprise, the baby was a BOY!  I think we are both still a little shocked about that.  My pregnancy felt so similar to my pregnancy with Sophie, we were both really thinking girl.  But the little booger was definitely a guy.  And we were both thrilled, but we were having a much bigger difference of opinion on the boy’s name, so I was kind of bummed to have to make a choice on that.  But I did.

And his name is Jonah Laton Rapson.

I wanted to name him Laton, (rhymes with “Dayton”) which is my and Emily’s grandfather’s name (yes, our Frigidaire Grandpa) , and also my brother’s middle name.

But Bobby just couldn’t get on board with it, and he really loved the name Jonah, which means “Dove” and also “Peace” (the Dove being a peace symbol and all.)  And it does go awfully well with Joshua and Sophia, so that is what I told him, after the ultrasound, that our baby’s name is.

I can’t find “Laton” in any name books or websites (or apps for that matter!), though the name “Leighton” is pronounced the same way and means “From the meadow farm”, which is appropriate because my Grandpa was a farmer from the holler before he moved to Ohio with his wife and young kids.  I am pretty sure though, that when he was born in 1926, my great-grandmother just made it up.  Not bad, I say!  I mean his brother was named Roy and I like Laton a lot better than Roy (my apologies to any Roy’s out there.) But I digress.

Now I am sure all the comments on this post are going to be “Oh I know Jonah this and Jonah that and Jonah is getting to be so popular” – just don’t tell me ok? I screwed up enough with Sophie’s name!  I only know ONE Jonah, who will be two when ours is born and lives in NYC (Sorry Melcy, I didn’t mean to steal your baby’s name, my husband made me do it!)

But anyways, despite my earlier attachment to Laton as a first name, I am now totally on board with Jonah.  I love it! I love calling him that, I already have silly nicknames for him, and I can’t wait to put a sweet little face with that name.

And for the record, the little girl would have been Joanna.  Either Joanna Claire (Bobby’s choice) our Joanna Kathleen (after my and Emily’s grandmother). Jo for my aunt (Emily’s mom), it was her middle name, Anna for my cousin Anna, and my BFF Luanne – kind of sad I won’t get to use that name, but I’m thrilled to have my little Jonah on the way!  17 more weeks to go and  I can kiss his little Jonah face!

The Bravado styles Spice (above), and Enchanted are on sale for $22.99, and the style Sugar is $23.49.  There are lots of sizes available! If you order three of these, your total will be $68.97 (50 cents more if you go with Sugar.)  This total is high enough to qualify for free shipping!  If you use the coupon code JENN9409 at checkout (if you are a first-time customer) you will get an additional 15% off, making your total just $58.63 shipped for three pretty nursing bras!  WOW!  Since I loved the Bravado bra I reviewed so much, I am definitely picking up a couple of these at this price for when the baby is born!

There are other great styles on sale, too. The Original Nursing Bra is marked down to only $26.49 and the nursing tank is only $33.99.

Get 15% off

your first order

use code JENN9409

shop for all your baby needs: body pillows, good start formula, swaddle pod

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Happy Shopping!!