I am not sure why I thought I could go on vacation, move, get ready for BlogHer, finish our school year, and take care of seven kids in a two week period. I am quickly realizing that I do not have time to get everything done. So, since I have to move, go to BlogHer, finish school, and take care of the kids this blog is the only thing I am able to cut back on.

But, I love you all! My time on vacation (and mostly off the computer) made me realize how much I enjoy interacting with my bloggy friends. So instead of leaving you for a week while I box up my life and move it across town I am going to have a Happy Housewife rerun week. But here is the deal, not only will I rerun a few Happy Housewife posts I am going to rerun posts from my personal blog I wrote a few years ago. Since most of you have never read my old blog, I thought it might be fun to get a little glimpse into my life a few years ago.

Below is a post I wrote almost 3 years ago. My husband was deployed and I was managing 6 small kids on the home front. I must have written this after a particularly trying day.

• It is much easier to hire two babysitters and run errands with a close friend than to attempt it with 10 kids.
• When you wake up at 6:45am to a fridge that has been without power all night, it is nice to have a neighbor who is awake to take and store your milk.
• If you call and harass the military housing office enough times in a week, you finally get what you need on the first try.
• If you accidently dry a crayola crayon in the dryer you will end up with the entire inside of your dryer the color of the crayon.
• To remove melted crayon from the inside of a dryer turn the dryer on high and put in a damp towel. After about 15 minutes you will be able to wipe off most of the crayon from the inside of the dryer with the aformentioned towel.
• To remove crayon from clothes apply Spray and Wash Dual Power to all crayon spots. Buy a new bottle of Spray and Wash, continue to apply to all spots. Soak in a mixure of oxy clean and detergent, wash, rinse, repeat. After about 5 times the crayon is gone.
• Do not dry crayon free clothes in the dryer until you have removed all crayon from the dryer.
• When your four year old looks down at the neighborhood park and starts screaming… “God is going to kill us all” just smile at your neighbors and quickly bring the child inside. It is not the time to discuss theology.
• If you use all your canola oil to fry french fries earlier in the day you can use olive oil to make brownies. They just taste a bit different.
• If you give 6 and 10 year old boys the job of washing your cabinets your floors will also end up washed.
• If you try and get 6 kids packed up and ready to go to the neighborhood pool it will surely rain the minute you arrive.
• No matter how bad the week gets I always get a fresh start on Sunday!

Since December I have been planning a trip to BlogHer 09. If you are not familiar with BlogHer 09 it is a huge blogging conference that is held once a year. I am attending this year’s conference to meet and hang out with other bloggers and to learn how to make this site a better blog. The conference however is not cheap. In the beginning I considered looking for a sponsorship to help cover the costs of the conference, but I didn’t want to compromise the site in any way. So that limited what companies I would be interested in promoting through a sponsorship.

This morning I saw on Twitter that 5 Minutes for Mom is looking for people who are looking for a sponsor. I decided that it wouldn’t hurt to throw my hat into the ring and see what happens. I realized that I don’t have to accept a sponsorship from a company that does not embrace the values on this site. Plus, it would be nice to have a few of the expenses covered!

For those of you who read this site and do not have a blog, feel free to skip over this post! For those of you who are new to blogging it might help you to read this post to learn more about blogging relationships with corporate sponsors.

So here is why I think I would be an excellent blogger to sponsor for Blogher 09.

• Solid blog readership base. I have about 3000 readers a day through visits and subscriptions. My readers are active and vocal and help make this blog better through their participation in the comments and forum.
• I love Twitter! I know how to use Twitter to effectively market products and posts. I have over 3,400 followers on Twitter and interact with my followers daily.
• I know how to optimize posts for search engines.
• I use a variety of social media to reach out to people. My blog reach is not limited to the actual site and Twitter. I use Digg, Stumble, Facebook, and other forms of social media to market this site.
• Other companies I have worked with in the past have been very satisfied with our partnership. My partnering with UVSkinz, BornFree, and Kids Love Travel were all very successful campaigns. When I work with a company I view it as a relationship. I have become friends with many of the people whose products I have promoted on this site.
• I am authentic. If I am going to talk about your product, I am not doing it for the perks. When you see me at the pool, all my kids are wearing UVSkinz, because I bought them and I love them. Cora uses (and prefers) her BornFree bottles, when you see her eating, it will be from one of them. I plan my daycations around tips I have found in the Kids Love Maryland book. Most of the items I recommend on this site are because I love them, not because I have been given something to try for free. I won’t promote your product one day and your competitors product the next.

If you are interested in sponsoring all or part of my BlogHer 09 trip here are some things I can do for your company.

• Place your button on the sidebar of my blog.
• Blog about my sponsorship by your company on this site.
• Add your company’s sponsorship to my business cards that will be handed out at BlogHer 09.
• Promote your company by wearing your products. (as long as they are approved by me prior to BlogHer)
• Live blogging and tweeting from the conference, that will include information about your company.
• Network and promote your company during the conference with other bloggers.
• Promote your company through giveaways.

I am always willing to discuss other ideas regarding a partnership. Feel free to email me and we can discuss any ideas you might have regarding a partnership with The Happy Housewife. I can be reached at thehappyhousewife@gmail.com.

If you are attending BlogHer 09 please leave a comment. I would love to meet you in Chicago!

The winners are of the BornFree Bottles Gift Set are:

Here are your random numbers:

10	167

Timestamp: 2009-06-25 02:47:27 UTC

The Diaper Diaries and Jessica!

I am really excited because I met Jill from The Diaper Diaries at Blissdom in February, back before we all knew she was going to have baby #3.

Check your inboxes ladies an email is coming soon!

After a nasty hack, the site has been restored. More posts and details coming soon.