J&J Camp Baby - Day one, in the bag

What a whirlwind of a day! Flying always makes me feel that way because it's such a chore. The whole airport, luggage, boarding...yada, yada, yada.

I took my sweet time in my room before heading out to meet up with the others for refreshments and snacks. I walked into the room and immediately felt like the person in the nightmare who is without clothing. You know that feeling, right? Although, it didn't take long to blend right in with the rest of the bloggers in attendance. Met some bloggers from the St. Louis area and more from the New England states. Even met one from my home Chicagoland area.

After our little ice breaker, we dispersed and I had a nice little Skype video chat with the hubs and the bug. He was feeding her miniature Oreo cookies. She was on her fifth one. Glad I'm here and not there! I kid, I kid! She did very well at "school" today. Hope I get the same report for the next two days while I'm gone.










Around 6:30pm, we gathered for a delicious buffet dinner and then some fabulous wine tasting, hosted by Ted Allen. I wasn't even starstruck! Or maybe I was. I wasn't shy, that's for sure. But if you know me, you know I'm not afraid to speak up. I reminded him of an episode of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy where they made over an old friend of mine from my hometown. He recalled the episode! Good times.










Ted left before I was able to snag him for my famous "Amy is a groupie" picture. Shoot! Hopefully he'll blog about tonight or at least check our blogs...naaaahhhh. We did get to chat with him throughout our wine tasting and it sounds like he has some fun television stuff in the works aside from Top Chef and Iron Chef America, so stay tuned.











Hanging out with these two ladies has been a big highlight so far.










Christine of "From Dates to Diapers and Beyond" and Jane from "Pinks and Blues" (you know, my favorite Throwback Thursday girls?). I was also able to connect with these fabulous women tonight:

Jodi "Mom's Favorite Stuff"
Jennifer "jenandtonic.ca"
Lisa "Midwestern Mommy"
Leighann "Soy is the new black"
Jamie "Blonde Mom Blog"
Colleen "Classy Mommy"
Stephanie at "About.com" (Babies & Toddlers Guide)
Last but certainly not least and much to my delight, Stacy DeBroff of Mom Central

Hope to hang and meet with the other bloggerettes at camp baby tomorrow!

*Originally posted at The Ladybug and her Blogging Mama

Technorati Tags: jnj, jnj camp baby, johnson's camp baby, mommy blogger,

ted allen

I'll do it later

I'm a procrastinator. As organized as I think I am, I generally end up waiting until the last minute to pack for a trip.

My ride arrives at the crack of dawn tomorrow for New Jersey and do I have anything packed yet? Noooooo. I have "an idea" of what I'm bringing along but nothing actually physically in my suitcase yet.

I do know for a fact that I'm bringing four pairs of shoes. Three pair in my suitcase and one pair on my feet. Yeah. That's right. That's just me. For some reason, I'm packing "business casual". I'll have casual clothes with me too but I think I'm just getting into business mode because I start a new job when I return from Camp Baby.

Oh, I can't wait to get there. There are so many people I want to meet. I hope we all have a chance to get acquainted. Please don't be offended if I don't remember your name, I'm bad like that. I'll be the girl there wearing a different pair of shoes everyday!

PS: If the festivities end earlier enough on Thursday night - LOST party in my room!

Technorati Tags: jnj, jnj camp baby, johnson's camp baby

T-Minus 33 hours

Today, I took a look at all my spring and summer dresses hanging in my closet. And then I took a look at the weather report and did sort of a double take.

I mean - yay! No call for wearing summer dresses! My skin is so white it glows. The radioactive kind of glowing. The fact that it will be cool, cloudy and or raining is super fantastic.

But then again - my hair freaks in humid conditions, and my skin reacts weird and my wardrobe? Consists of summer dress and a few pairs of jeans and some stained tees from Target.

I took a kamikaze run through a department store, grabbing things that looked like they might work in an orgy of I'll try this on at home shopping. Back at home, I tried on everything, and there's a few things that might sort of work, but nothing that I love.

I just want some outfits to love. I just need some outfits to love. Everybody needs some outfits to luh-uuuve.

I decided to console myself with some Botan Rice Candy (just wait until I finally write my letter to my body - it'll be a doozy!) and picked up some of those $3.99 black cloth mary janes from the Asian Grocery.

And I love them. LOVE. Granted, they aren't the most practical footwear for rain, and I'm frankly running out of time to put together any outfits worth wearing.

This is a big ole dilemma. More shopping? Real shopping with trying things on? Making do with what I have and (to borrow a quote from my mother) accepting that people will just say "Oh, Jenny - she's just not into fashion."

Can I just scream it from the rooftops now? I'm Jenny and I'm just not into fashion. And I really like my cheapo cloth mary janes. I even wear maternity shirts and I don't give a hooey!

I guess I could squeeze into my nice slacks that are two sizes too small. That's a fun look. Business from the thighs down, party in the back and spilling over the waistband.

Or I could wear some of my summer dresses with tights and a sweater and complete my transformation into deranged toddler/80-year-old woman.

I NEED MORE TIME! I NEED MORE CLOTHES! I NEED A NAP!

(crossposted over at the Three Kid Circus)

Third boxcar, midnight train

I love being in different places, but I'm a bad, bad traveler. I'm glad that I'll get to talk to Jenny (nonstop, natch, just like the flight) all the way to Newark, but I'm even more glad to have such a good friend to hold my hand when the plane takes off. Jenny doesn't really know yet, how flying puts me into a mild panic. But now that I know I get to sit next to her, I'm remembering the end of Say Anything; you know that part where they hold hands till the seat belt sign goes off? I couldn't find a still of that scene, but since you can't ever go wrong with Cusack, here's a little picture for you. You're welcome! Also? I just realized that I have had a moviestar crush on him for over twenty years. Damn. He's really getting old.

So -- like Jenny, I'm happily surprised to be invited to this JnJ thang. I am so looking forward to seeing my friends, yes, but really I am also hoping to fork over my two cents on marketing to women (to moms in particular). I have opinions about these things.

Every person or company who sells stuff is interested, or is about to be, in riding the (mom) blog viral marketing slipstream. Seriously. Raise your hand if you picked your new digital SLR camera based on the pretty photos on someone's blog. (Andrea of Superhero Designs, in my case.) Or your laptop. Ever bought a different brand of some household staple, tried a new restaurant, checked out a band, changed banks, chosen a car, or decided what city to move to based on the content of your favorite blogs? It may sound a little silly, saying that blogs have that much sway over folks. It's absolutely true, though. If you replace the term "blog" with "friend," it sounds more reasonable. If blog posts are party conversations, companies with a brand to get out there are the new arrival in the corner, sipping their cosmo and sizing up the room to see how to get in on the discussion.

I'm up way, way past my bedtime and with just over 48 hours until I leave town -- I'm slammed. I work full time, so there's a chunk of those hours. Tomorrow I'm going to an appointment to have my taxes done (hold.me.) and then I need to spend time with my kiddos. I miss them. Tuesday night after work will be hectic packing and manual lining up of planets (hard!) to get everything taken care of before the car comes to get me at, DUDE 4:30 am. Jenny, do you have Say Anything or Better Off Dead on DVD? Don't worry, I've seen them both enough that it's okay if we talk through the whole thing!

Watch out, New Jersey. Here I come!

I'll admit, I was a little floored by the invite from J&J - they wanted me? To come to New Jersey and hang out with other blogging moms and have fun?

I don't know how I got on that invite list, but I'm really looking forward to it.

The last few weeks have been busy, and I haven't had a chance to do much planning or anticipating for this whole Camp Baby weekend. The kids had field trips, I had to work, there were a couple of holidays and birthdays in there... and then I looked up at my calendar and realized that on this coming Wednesday morning, "a car" will be picking me up and whisking me away for a whirlwind adventure.

A car! A car not driven by me! If it is a limo I might piddle. Because that? Would be hilarious. I might not be able to restrain myself from doing the Mary Katherine Gallagher "SUPA-STAH" upon arrival at the airport.

I might do that anyway. I'm just like that.

I'm also giddy with anticipation about being able to fly with my buddy Jenifer - we've even got seats together, which means that no harmless strangers will be talked to death on this flight!

J&J recently sent out the itinerary for the trip, which is making me all kinds of intrigued. First of all - I hope the flight lands in time for me to freshen up at the hotel before the Welcome Social because airplane travel makes me look like a greasy, drowned rat. No really! Photos to come! You're welcome!

No, see, I need to make myself look nice, because OMG Ted Allen leading a wine tasting. I need to work on not sloshing my glass. Bad things happen when I'm drinking and gesturing. Trust me.

And then the next day looks packed with great activities, too.

Two sessions that are already getting a lot of speculation are the "What's Happening Down There? and the "Braiding At Its Best" sessions.

Will there be an Australian celebrity telling us the latest news from Down Under? OMG, J&J is bringing Nicole Kidman to Camp Baby!

As far as the braiding goes, I'm not sure what they have in mind - will it be lanyards? Xtreme friendship bracelets? Will we be braiding each other's hair? Man, if it involves beads too? That will be awesome.

Next up? Figuring out what exactly to wear. Because man, do I have issues with clothes.

cross-posted at Three Kid Circus Auditions.