is it up??? like UP??? like you’re bustin out, doin ::the sprinkler:: UP??

k. good. we’re gettin the engine started…

STEP TWO: grab yourself a cocktail, it doesn’t need to contain alcohol and you will not be made fun of for drinking non-alcoholic beverages… unless it’s o’doul’s, in which case, you may just wanna keep that info to yourself. if you’re indecisive when it comes to beverages, scope these puppies out by clicking here and here for some yummy suggestions.

STEP THREE: try not to be scurred. you don’t even have to look at us, if you don’t want to. we’re not goin all BIG BROTHER on your ass and scoping you out, tracking your IP address, your blog (if you have one), your twitter account, your stats, etc. hell, i can’t even scope my own out without the help of @PrincessJenn. point being, we just wanna build community and hang with people who aren’t attending BlogHer in NYC for whatever reason. that’s it. you don’t have to have a blog yourself in order to leave comments here. you don’t have to have a twitter account, though it would help you out when it comes time to launch this bitch… but when it all comes down to it, this wee-babe was created last year on a whim and for shits and giggles and fun. our dazzling hosts this year are all about paying it forward. bottom line: we’re just here to hang, connect with people and get good dirt on one another.

STEP FOUR: participate. DUR… this means we want you to subscribe to our feed, leave comments, tells us who you are, get in on the kickass giveaways we have this year. and ps- can i just say that it’s incredible to have so many amazing people and businesses getting involved with us this year?!?! because last year, i had to write this post in order to get some shit. and it’s kinda nice knowing that i don’t have to go back to moonlighting this year. i’m just sayin…

STEP FIVE: let us know if you want to guest post on here. if you’re new to BlogHer@Home and want to put yourself out there with a post that says, “I DON’T FUCKING GET IT!!!” for cripes’ sake, speak up. contact us. no, seriously. please do because that means i’ll have less posts to write.

STEP SIX: patience dear grasshoppas… the actual BlogHer conference isn’t taking place for a few more weeks, which means that you have plenty of time to do a little research on here, see how things went down last year and get updates on how it’ll go down this year. follow BlogHer@Home on twitter for updates as well as for fun chatty time with us. hell, you don’t even have to wear pants. we won’t know!!! unless you tell us… hehehe…

in conclusion, this is your brain on BlogHer@Home. any questions?

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I like quickies and nooners and the I hope we don’t get caught by the kids sex. You know the sex with your clothes half off, hard and fast, your hair gets mussed up, and then ten minutes later you reappear all flushed and acting like nothing ever happened. And let me just say, having five kids has made me the queen of quickies. I know how to get in the perfect position and pull my man right into me to where there is instant access to the G-spot, so its easy for me to get what I want within a small time frame.

One of the thrilling things about the quickie is finding a place to do it. I think me and Mr. K have done it just about everywhere, before and after kids. There isn’t a room in this house that hasn’t been christened and since having kids I am very grateful for that big walk in closet that we have. But there is something to be said for foreplay.

I’ll admit, there has been a lot more quickies and nooners in the past thirteen years than there has been long sexual sessions with lots of foreplay. However since my hysterectomy, foreplay is where it is at. I need a little extra, okay, sometimes a lot extra to get me going, it just depends and there is nothing better than adding something extra to those long love making sessions. Things you often can’t get into when you are getting fucked in the laundry room while the kids are watching cartoons.

So when K-Y contacted me about reviewing their new YOURS+MINE KISSABLE SENSATIONS I was game. Getting Mr. K into the game though was an entirely different story. My husband is not as adventurous as I am, and he is not a fan of mixing stuff from the kitchen in with stuff that goes on in the bedroom. He is perfectly fine with fucking on the kitchen table as long as all the food is put away. However, he can be persuaded to go along with my little experiments and this wasn’t exactly food, it was just a flavored body product to be licked, kissed and sucked off the body, and well, that is what sold him. I mean what man is not into getting licked and sucked right?

The new K-Y YOURS+MINE KISSABLE SENSATIONS for the Body comes in two different flavors for him and her, decadent chocolate and refreshing strawberry. I believe the flavors can be for either him or her, and personally I thought the decadent chocolate flavor tasted and smelled better than the refreshing strawberry. I think this is just a personal preference. Unlike some flavored body products that you might pick up at a sex shop, these products did not have a strong odor and did not burn or give a tingling sensation on the body or on the mouth. They can also be used with other K-Y products from the YOURS+MINE collection or INTENSE, a female arousal gel.

Now, you didn’t think I would leave any of you out from all the licking, sucking and fucking did you? Because I think one of the great things about doing BlogHer@Home is the easy access to my partner for getting down and dirty. I mean how many of those people at BlogHer are going to have time for hawt sex! Not many. So the generous people at K-Y are allowing me to give away some of their great products to TWO fantastic, dynamic, very sexy BlogHer@Home readers. You will be getting not only the NEW K-Y KISSABLE SENSATIONS but also a K-Y YOURS+MINE lubricant.

To Enter: In the comments let me know where the most unusual place you have ever had a quickie, before or after kids. A winner will be announced next Thursday, same time and place, so you have until Wednesday to get your entries in.

Disclosure statement: This posting comments on products sent to me, Beautiful Wreck, on behalf of K-Y Brand to facilitate my review. They are also the sponsor of this giveaway.

alright lovelies, if you haven’t seen all the twitter buzz about aidan donnelley rowley’s newly released rookie novel, Life After Yes, then you’re doing one of a number of things…  either you are 1. living in a hole that doesn’t have wifi… 2. not following her on twitter… 3. not reading her blog… 4. LIVING IN A HOLE.

so, what do we here at BlogHer@Home like to do with people who live in holes? we like to give shit away… ya know, to enlighten you and whatnot.

you can read my raging review of aidan donnelley rowley’s Life After Yes on amazon.com by clicking here, or you can be tantalizingly teased with the first sentence in chapter 1…

“I’m already with another man.”

**********

you know the drill… leave a comment below letting us know what exactly you say “YES” to and why = 1 entry
and of course follow BlogHerAtHome and aidan on twitter and tweet about this giveaway (leave us a comment with a link to the tweet) = 1 entry.

Contest closes June 4th at 5pm EST and winner will be chosen by a random number generator (just to make it fair and all)

CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED.  THE WINNER WILL BE ANNOUNCED SHORTLY

MEGA CONGRATS TO AIDAN!!!

Congratulations Smug Married who won the hot copy of ‘Life After Yes’!

Lu had a wonderful intro on Monday that let us peek into her clean and organized brain.
Unfortunately for you guys, that means it’s MY turn to introduce myself, and let you peek inside my head. I’m sorry.

Summer is coming up. The season of swimsuits, shorts and bare feet. I dread this season.

Not because I realize I will probably have to shave above the knees to wear shorts. And not because I’ve had two kids and feel compelled to buy the swimsuit for insecure women like me, with built-in tummy control panel for Extra! Slimming! effect.
Not because it’s hot and humid, and pants will quickly become optional around our house.

No, it’s because no one thinks twice about my sock issues during the winter.

During the winter, it’s COMPLETELY normal to walk around with socks on constantly. I mean, I live in Wisconsin, for chrissakes. It’s cold up here. Even wearing them to bed doesn’t get me that much attention.

But when it’s ninety degrees (Fahrenheit) and humid out, people look at you funny. It’s not like I’m wearing them with sandals (even I won’t cross some lines), but I constantly have socks on.

I won’t go outside barefoot, not even to hang the laundry.
I hate going to the beach, because then there’s sand in my socks.
I have really nice carpeting in my living room. Thick and soft and squishy. Truly luxurious in every way.

And the feel of it against my bare feet drives me bonkers.

A good night of sleep can be ruined by a lack of clean socks (I change them before bed, because who wants all the ick from running around all day in their bed?? I also change them in the AM after a shower. And I’m not sure why I feel the need to be all, “See? I’m crazy, but not icky!” for you guys…). The feel of the sheets and blankets against my naked feet is too disruptive.

But it’s all good, because I recently found out that socks can help both men and women reach for the stars in bed, and who doesn’t enjoy a good orgasm?

To summarize what we’ve learned today: The key to a good sex life is to take your pants off, and put your socks on. And that sort of behavior is encouraged at my house.

You’re. Welcome.

Since I shared such a weird quirk, AND an important sex life improving tip, I’d really like to hear from you. What’s your strange habit? Leave it in the comments!:)

I’m gonna to take you back to the old school, because I’m an old fool, who is so cool…

Like way back to the old school.  Picture this:  My mom & dad have five kids.  I am oldest of said five kids.  Mom decides to go back to school.  She actually started that with 4 kids and the fifth one was a HUGE surprise.  So our home was BURSTING with hustle and bustle. With dad working full time, mom in law school, and me 15, G 13, M 9, C 5, and J 1 we were a spectacle in public places to say the least.  With mom and dad getting home later and needing the help, I was the built in babysitter/laundress/housekeeper and all around drill sergeant.  Keeping the house clean was not actually too hard because it was not big.  Only three bedrooms.  Three bedrooms packed to the brim.  My sister and I in one room, all 3 boys in another, and of course mom and dad had their own room.  So the problem was not so much the cleanliness, but the CLUTTER.

There was something on every surface in that house.  All the dressers covered in miscellaneous personal items, every desktop stacked high with papers, books, tapes, any and everything.  Toys were EVERYWHERE.  Our house was definitely “lived in.”  There were no sacred do not sit in here rooms, or lets keep the toys out of this room, rooms.   So even when the house was clean, it looked messy.

This table would have been COVERED in my parent's house.

Sharing a room with my sister was a complete nightmare.  She was just young enough to be interested in my stuff and want to be like me and too young to actually share.  Like, my makeup, or my Bath and Body Works stuff that I worked for, not her.  I have eyes like a hawk.  If she so much set down my lotion bottle in a slightly different angle, I knew about it.   Anyway, all of our rooms were small for the amount of people in them, so they never looked Pottery Barn catalog like to say the least.

So fast forward to my adult life…and I might be considered a clutter freak.  I CAN. NOT. STAND. CLUTTER.  I like my house to be “guest ready.”  So, unlike back in the day when someone would be coming to town we would have to really clean and prepare, I keep up with it on a regular basis.  My living room might be Pottery Barn-ish, but there are toys, lots of them.  We actually live in a house pretty similar to the one I grew up in (old Florida style) but there is a lot less clutter.  There are also a lot less people.  Which is also part of my master do-not-let-the-clutter-take-over plan.   I seriously can not leave the house with toys strewn about or old dishes left on the table. That just drives me nuts.  Especially since our house is like the hub for friends and family.  We live 2 minutes form the family business and in the middle of town.  So people are always stopping by to hang out, grab a smooch, from Mason, or go for a dip in the pool.  The last one is a regular occurrence in the summer for sure.

There was definitely a time there where I did let it get a little out of control.  I was becoming a complete neat freak.  Never stopping, almost compulsively cleaning and organizing.  Mike would have tell me I could make a cup of coffee nervous and I needed to sit down and chill out, especially during Mason’s nap.

Bookshelf behaving.

Bookshelf that could use some help.

I have to say since my two surgeries I have learned to appreciate my time with Mason in a whole new way. Since he had to start pre-school I give him 100% of me when we are home together. I really just can’t get enough of him right now.  And yes, there have been times when I could. Heh.  I took for granted the fact that I had him with me 24/7 before, taking him to work with me.  Now thing are different, and won’t ever be the same in that respect.  I have learned to let some things go sometimes.  That clutter does not in fact actually kill you like I once felt like.  Now, there really isn’t any way my house will be as clutter as the one I grew up in, but I can understand better now why it was.

It wasn’t just because there were so many of us in such a small space. Ok that was part of it.  It was also because my mom and dad would rather have spent their time doing stuff with us than re-organizing the garage so we could get some things in there rather than have them laying around.

I am still a little bit of clean-neat freak, a ‘cleneat’ perhaps. Look now I make up words! I have a certain level at which I like things, once the house falls below that level, I am compelled by an alternate universe to get up and clean.  However, since my surgeries, not only has my time with Mason been shorter but my stamina and over all ability.  I have found the strength within me to say, “Lu, it will be ok.  You are sore.  You need to sit.  You are still recovering from a major surgery.  Besides, when you look back will you be glad you cuddled in Mas’ bed a few minutes before bedtime, or that you got al the laundry done in one day rather than two?”  I have opted for the cuddles lately and it’s totally worth a little laundry or mail clutter.  I also learned the hard way last time that pushing myself is not the way to recover from any kind of ankle/foot surgery.  I have come to accept the fact that I have limitations.  Sometimes limitations lead to clutter and perhaps some dust bunnies. But so be it!  All I know is that I am very lucky not to be single after the year I have put my husband through.  For all those months are barked asked him to clean because it was below the level that I could manage and I was going crazy in the head.

So even though I am totally warped by my parents and the parameters they set up for my youth, I am totally awesome because of them too.  I realize balance is possible.  It’s different for everyone.  If a ‘cleneat’ can do it, so can you!  Although in respect of full disclosure I will say I have a list two pages long of things to be organized or deep cleaned that got backed up since I have been hurt. Some days I can tackle something on there, some days I can’t.  I do push myself too hard sometimes too. And I pay for it.  No one is perfect, right?  Don’t answer that Princess Jenn!  *SNORT*

Just to show you I am growing…I have to deal with these messy looking magnets on the back of the FRONT DOOR because I could not deal with them on the fridge.  At least I am allowing them to stay there when I really want him to put them away every time when he is done.  Mike says that is crazy. SO FINE!

*Deep Breath*

There you have it. Something totally random and quirky about me.  I wish I could say I was going to run out of things for you, but sadly no.

Any other ‘cleneats’ out there?  I know I am not alone…show yourselves!

Norwex Cleaning Products

Last year we had some fabulous people step up and donate some amazing prizes.

If you’d be interested in sponsoring a giveaway, contact @blogherathome, or email us (info AT blogherathome DOT com)!

Here are just some of the fabulous swag we’re going to have coming your way.  Stay tuned for how to win.  And don’t forget to check out and support our sponsors!

• Aidan Donnelley Rowley’s new book ‘Life After Yes‘
• Regresty prize package
• The new Cake Wrecks book
• Shauna Glenn’s book ‘Heaping Spoonful’
• A custom apron from Apron Frenzy
• Eden Organics gift pack
• BlogHer swag pack (the stuff the BlogHer attendees get!) from PrincessJenn
• Ali from My Life With Them will be putting together a NYC swag pack for a lucky reader, while she’s there.
• Custom WordPress or Blogger blog design from Desgins by PrincessJenn
• Hammered silver pendant from Johnson’s Originals
• Passion Parties gift basket worth over $100 that includes: fireworks edible body lotion,  RomantaTherapy Alluring Body lotion,  Pure Instinct Perfume,  Bullet, Nipple Nibblers, AND  Mini Locking Toy Box!
• Custom designed Twitter background from Maria Melee
• A Nova Scotia gift pack that includes real Canadian maple syrup, her famous (and highly coveted) blueberry pancake recipe, and some Nova Scotia swag from Karen (Agentninety9)
• A Norwex gift pack from Jackie (Extrafancy1)
• An Apple surprise from Kim (Kimt205)
• LYIS will be offering on reader a special gift from her ETSY shop
• A gift basket just for kids from Scary Mommy‘s own Bread & Butter Shoppe
• A beautiful custom bag from Sugar Saks
• Two baby gift sets from Kim at  It’s a Beautiful Wreck. One boy set and one girl set of hand made baby blocks with matching bib.
• Kim will also be hosting FIVE give aways sponsored by KY!
• A cupcake gift pack from Kristen at The Weekly Cupcake

And hopefully we’ll have more giveaways coming soon!  Remember, to have your giveaway featured here, just contact @blogherathome, or email us (info AT blogherathome DOT com)!

Don’t see a button that’s just right for you? Fill out the contact form and submit your button suggestions!

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They were sitting around, having a drink (or three) and lamenting the fact that just about everyone in their Twitter streams were talking about the upcomming BlogHer conference in Chicago and what a good time they were going to have.

Not to be left out of anything involving drinking, fun, and swag, BlogHer@Home was born.

Within a month it went from a passing idea to a full blown twitter party with it’s own website and giveaways.  Nic and Jenn attempted to pick their jaws up off the floor at the number of people who were now talking about BlogHer@Home and ran with it.

Now, due to popular demand, BlogHer@Home is back for another year!

As some of the BHAH2009 alumni head to the BlogHer conference in NYC this year, the hosting of the 2010 party is being passed to two amazing ladies, Lu (@masmom) and Jennifer (@thepsychobabble).

We know they’ll do a great job and add their own flair and flavor to what’s sure to be the hottest un-BlogHer party out there!

About The Hosts:

Meet Lu, mother to her own hurricane, also known as her son Mason, and the queen of humidity down in South West Florida. She’s a lover of garlic and all that is slightly odd (which explains why she gets along so well with the rest of us!) She’s not a fan of the sugar-coated and would much rather you just tell it to her straight. Lu comes form the school of hard-knocks and graduated with honors. Underneath all that toughness, she harbors an arts-and-crafts kind of girl, a domestic at heart, and a love of community and friendship.  You can find more of her awesome (questionable) writing over at Jaded Perspective, her personal blog.

Jen is a mother, wife, student, future nurse, blogger, <insert your own title here>, who is easily amused by big words
Her sharp wit and barbed sense of humor masks a sensitive soul only occasionally revealed on her blog, The Pychobabble.  Deep down, she’s just an angsty goth girl just waiting to escape.

About the Founders:

Nic can be found at My Bottle’s Up! when she’s not running after her son, The Magoo.  A self describe passionate writer and tattooed liberal, you can usually find her with a very large glass of wine in hand.

Jenn shares her over-opinionated view and tidbits about living with a special needs daughter at Princess Prose.  She leads a pampered, over-indulged life with her geek husband and is fairly certain that the world revolves around her.