My blog buddy Liza all the way in beautiful Maui has declared me a Rockin’ Girl Blogger. Hey, my blog tagline ain’t “Rockin’ the tankini” for nothin’.

I still do the red light white girl jam in my SUV and just yesterday the girls and I had an impromptu dance off in the den to Ricky Martin. This God forsaken heat wave we’re experiencing is making me muy loco and I could only handle so many rounds of Old McDonald before rummaging through my CD collection for some cheesie dance party tunes. (Kidz Bop eat your heart out!) So far the girls aren’t completely embarrased by my So You Think You Can Dance moves.

I think anyone who takes the time to read this blog is rockin’ and I appreciate all my blog buddies, but my mission is to name five Rockin’ Girl Bloggers:

Patti, who just saw Def Leppard in concert…how can anyone forget such timeless lyrics as “Love is like a bomb, baby, cmon get it on?”

Nicole, my margarita buddy who is barefoot, pregnant, and boogie boarding in South Carolina.

Mama Tulip, Canadian mama and talented writer.

Nap Warden…check out her hilarious solution to camoflauging the muffin top while salvaging her cool pre-mom jeans.

Friglet, who has passed her rockin’ girl genes down to her garage band founding daughter (who is all of 9, I must add).

And I’m going to cheat and add my friend Dawn at The Mommy Post who is new to this blogging thing.

Rock on sistahs! Maybe we should start a band?

I spent Sunday morning with Miss A at our pediatrician’s office. It’s not exactly the way I wanted to spend a weekend morning, especially since Miss C and the hubby were heading to the pool that afternoon, but she had been coughing since Friday night and had a horrible wheezing episode late Saturday and I wondered off and on Saturday night if I should have taken her to the doctor. The pediatrician thought she heard crackling in Miss A’s lungs and was worried about walking pneumonia. She also questioned why we didn’t get a nebulizer to bring home in May when Miss A was sick with the same symptoms and responded well to an in office breathing treatment, but the nurse at that time had said if we had another similar episode we would get a machine to bring home. When we were on vacation in Florida in June she had a similar episode, but she kicked it. Miss A has a recheck on Wednesday and I’m hoping and praying this isn’t leading to a diagnosis of something like asthma. This seems to have started in December, when she had pneumonia. I keep reminding myself it could be something much worse, and I am all the more thankful for the girls’ health.

We are now the proud owners of a nebulizer duck. Miss A was not too happy about her breathing treatment after waiting two hours at the doctor’s office and trust me, I used every trick in the mama book of distractions to entice her to sit still in my lap, including letting her “chew” gum (translation, eat it.) But here at home the treatments have gone well and she and the hubby have been bonding over Sponge Bob while she sits in his lap and Miss C is fascinated with the new medical contraption.

The nurse called the steam magic clouds, but I, in my infinite wisdom have called it “magic smoke” more than once.

Seeing as Miss C has just one more week until kindergarten starts and she repeats everything she hears, I’m bracing myself for the moment she tells her teacher about our “magic smoke” at home and I have to explain that we’re not potheads.

Bubble Bath, originally uploaded by blondemom.

This is what happens when you let your 5-year-old supervise the bubble level.

Fisher-Price is recalling nearly 1 million toys, including a lot of popular Elmo and Dora items, due to lead paint. We have quite a few Dora toys, but thankfully none of them are on the recall list. The corporate website has information and photos about the recalled toys.

I love these Superhero necklaces that were featured on Design Mom, which is a cool blog I’ve just discovered.

Consignment sale season is here! I have had a lot of luck shopping at consignment sales, but not so much luck with actual consigning (eBay and Craigslist have been good to me.) Kidsconsignmentguide.com is a great resource for finding local sales.

ShopLocal.com is a new e-mail alert I just subscribed to. They let me know about the top deals in our neighborhood in different categories, from groceries to school supplies.

I used to be a voracious reader but with all the proofing and reading I do for work and the reading of Goodnight Moon 8,000 times over the past year, I’ve really let reading books for pleasure fall by the wayside. Good Reads is a neat site that allows you to create “bookshelves” to organize the books you’ve read (or want to read), review books, and see what your friends are reading. (Hat tip: Sugarfused.) I just checked out a couple of books at the library and so far I’m enjoying The Undomestic Goddess. It’s definitely in the chick lit genre, although the main character is a high-powered Type A London attorney so it’s not so fluffy I can’t get into it.

What are you reading this summer?

I don’t care if you’re tired and hungry and you have to pee, mommy will drag you all over Nashville to shop for every school supply mentioned on your kindergarten list and YOU WILL LOVE IT.

Nothing will stop MOMMY ON BACK TO SCHOOL OVERDRIVE, fueled by two large Cokes over an awesome lunch of black bean quesadillas (yes we took our kid to a roadhouse for lunch and she loved the music, which included Ozzy and Janis Joplin, and more importantly the chicken tenders and fries.)

Besides, I will buy you glamorous Hello Kitty sandals and a Hello Kitty tank top at Target if you tolerate just one more hour of shopping.

Worth it, no?

She’s not blinded by the bling, although that is possible…this is what you get when you request CHEESE!

p.s. Most Tennessee parents probably know this, but this weekend is the sales tax free weekend for school supplies and clothing and other items, so go forth and shop! You know you need a new Trapper Keeper.
http://www.tennessee.gov/revenue/salestaxholiday/

Yesterday afternoon Miss C and I were at our favorite neighborhood hangout, Publix, where I was disappointed for the second time in a row to discover they were not giving out sushi samples. She, however, was quite tickled with her free chocolate chip cookie from the bakery, where every employee recognizes us from a mile away as die hard groupies, particularly of the sugar cookies with pastel sprinkles.

I maneuvered our big rig shopping car cart to the meat department and pondered something easy and on sale to throw on the grill what fantastic dinner to whip up.

Miss C wandered over from the lobster tank and made a startling (and loud) revelation.

Mommy, you forgot to wear your clothes!

Me (looking down): What?

The butcher looks up from pricing packages of meat.

That’s not clothes mommy…you sleep in that!

I realized I had on the bright blue tank top (and denim Old Navy shorts) that I usually wear to bed with my pj bottoms.

Well, at least the butcher got a mini thrill.