Breakin’ Up Is Hard To Do

Friday the 13th marked the last day of our Family Affair with Chevy.  We surely will miss his heated seats, intoxicating new car smell, entertaining personality, and sense of direction.  As you can see from her expression in this picture, Ella will miss him the most.  Mommy Madness at its finest!  Thanks, Chevy, for the fun ride.

Though ours was just a fling, you can have your own LTR (Long Term Relationship) with the Chevy Equinox or Traverse.  All you have to do is follow these simple steps:

1. Take one for a test drive.
2. Fall in love.
3. Buy it.
4. Drive it to Massage Envy and get your FREE MASSAGE.

If only all relationships could be that easy…

Great Day St. Louis

Click here for a link to my segment last week on Great Day St. Louis. It was exhilarating. Carol, one of the hosts, quoted my blog back to me off air. I don’t think that’s ever happened before. This Chevy promotion sure has been fun. Can.not.believe.the.Equinox.is gone. The sadness. You still have time to test drive one of these amazing cars. Go now until November 29th. Get a free massage just for test driving it. Maybe I can go next week and test drive a Traverse and get another free massage. =) Think they’d know?

This One Day

Chevy asked us to make a commercial about our experience driving the Equinox or Traverse.  My husband and I collaborated on this one – I arranged the video and pictures and my steel pan playing, jazz hippie husband wrote the music in his studio.  He’s good like that.

Watch it here!

Bea’s First Car Ride

Watch Baby Bea take her first car ride home in the Chevy Equinox here!

Mommy Mission #3: My Almost Massage

I’ve had exactly 3 massages in my life, 2 of which resulted in positive pregnancy tests.  These are some sketchy odds.  Already pregnant, I figured this time I was in the clear.

I really needed a massage.  Especially needed my arm massaged because it’s sore from them twisting it, trying to convince me to get this FREE MASSAGE.  Alright, enough already!  I’ll go get a massage!  Just quit twisting my arm!

Or so I thought…

“Massage Monday” as I referred to it, the day of my appointment, finally arrived.  I let my friend Trena know that I would pick her up for our massages after what I thought was a routine lab appointment at the hospital.  Turned out to be not-so-routine.  Turned out I was in labor!  What?  I’m going to have to miss my massage?  I tried my best to talk the doctor into letting me leave, and he was very patient with me, more patient with this crazy pregnant massage-deprived patient than he needed to be.  He convinced me to stay at the hospital by making me believe it was really my idea.  (Good one, Dr. A.)

And am I glad he did.

Our beautiful Beatrice Louise Braig made her entrance that night at 11:26 pm, weighing in at a healthy 8 lbs 3 oz, 21 1/4 in long, with a head full of dark hair and the longest eyelashes you’ve ever seen.

And during labor, knowing how much I was looking forward to it that day and not wanting me to go without, my husband gave me a really great massage.

You can get one too!  No, not from my husband.  All you have to do is leave your kids with your parents / husband / UPS Guy, drive to a participating Chevy dealer, test drive the Chevy Equinox or Traverse, and they will give you a free massage!  No, not the salesman.  Unless you end up buying the car right there on the spot, then there’s a chance the salesman would consider giving you a complimentary massage.  But that varies by location.  They will give you a CERTIFICATE to go to Massage Envy to get one.  Then you have another excuse to leave your kids with your parents / husband / UPS Guy while you go get your FREE MASSAGE.

Free.  Massage.

Don’t make me come over there and twist your arm.

Grocery Shopping, Didn’t Go As Planned

I have been sick for several weeks it started with Pneumonia about 9 weeks ago and it just seemed to stick around or so I thought. I headed out to do my Chevy Mommy Madness shopping trip last week and started at Walgreen’s! Here are a few of the items I started with!

This was a sale that lasted all month.

Purchase the Gillette Fusion Razor, priced at $8.99
Receive a $6.00 Register Reward
Use your $4.00 off coupon
and your Final Price, was $1.02 overage!

This was a great Halloween find.

Purchase 2 Act II Popcorn Balls at $0.50 each
Use your $1.00/2 coupon
Final Price, free!

Not that I needed this or anything..

Purchase Dulcolax for $7.00
Receive a $4.00 Register Reward
use the $3.00 coupon on the bottle or the printable coupon
Send in the $5 rebate on the bottle or the printable rebate
Final Price, $5.00 overage

This deal is good all month!

Then I decided to pick up this!  Wondering and wishful thinking made me take a pit stop during my trip and low and behold it was +!

So my shopping trip ended!  Luckily we are always stocked up so we haven’t missed a meal but will put the remainder of our card to good grocery shopping use!

Oh, and did I mention that this family of 4 is becoming a family of 5 which means we have to buy a new car!

Mommy Mission #2: Super Walmart

Just how many frozen dinners can this Chevy Equinox hold?

Check out the video from our exciting grocery shopping adventure to Super Walmart to find out…

http://vimeo.com/7363854

Drive & Tell: He’s Safe (+ Hunky Firemen Pics!)

We’ll be bringing Baby Girl #2 home in the Chevy Equinox.  Her first car ride!  With her due date fast approaching, Ella and I visited our local Firehouse #3 to have the car seats installed.  Steve T. did all the work for us and now I know they’re installed correctly.  Thanks, Steve!  This was one errand this Mommy did not mind running.

Safety is my #1 priority when choosing a car.  I can make sacrifices in other areas but not this one.  I did some research on the safety features and here’s what I found.

The 2010 Equinox has not yet been tested by the federal government or the insurance industry. 

However, the 2009 Equinox received:
5 stars for driver and passenger safety in a frontal crash test
4 stars for front and rear safety in side impact crashes
4 stars for rollover resistance

Here are some of the safety features on the 2010 model by category.

Airbags:
Front – Driver & Passenger
Side Impact – Driver & Passenger, Seat Mounted
Side Curtain – 1st & 2nd row
All airbags have an occupancy sensor.  (Meaning they are turned off when no one is in the seat.)

Traction Control:
ABS & driveline

OnStar Emergency Assistance & Stolen-Vehicle Tracking

On the Key:
Remote Keyless Entry
Panic Alarm
Theft-Deterrent Alarm System

Rear Child Safety Door Locks
 
LATCH system for car seat installation:
The LATCH system is equipped to accomodate 3 car seats in the back.  In my opinion, that would be a tight fit, depending on the type of car seats you have.  It accomodates our two car seats very nicely.

Baby Girl is due in less than ONE WEEK!  Stay tuned for Baby Girl’s first ride home from the hospital in the Chevy Equinox!

Sources: 
http://usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/cars-trucks/Chevrolet_Equinox/Safety/
http://www.internetautoguide.com/crash-tests/09-int/2009/chevrolet/equinox/index.html

Mommy Mission #1: Thies Farm & T.E.A.M. Food Pantry

We spent a pretty Sunday afternoon at Thies Farm and Pumpkinland in Maryland Heights.  Thanks to OnStar, we easily found our way there.  Our 2 year old daughter had a blast playing with her daddy in Pumpkinland while The Mom Squad and I were busy showing people all the cool features of our tricked out Mom-Mobiles.

Click HERE to watch us in action!

A big “Thank You” to Thies Farm for donating $100 to each of the Mom Squad members to give to the charities of our choices.  The helpful people at Thies Farmers Market helped this pregnant lady load up the huge back trunk of the Chevy Equinox with all kinds of homegrown goodness – sweet potatos, carrots, green and red peppers, lettuce, broccoli, tomatos, acorn squash, and apples, all to be delivered to T.E.A.M., a local food pantry. 

On Monday, Ella and I set off to the T.E.A.M. Food Pantry in Old Town Florissant, MO to deliver the food.  T.E.A.M. is a collective effort of several churches in North St. Louis County who provide food to area families in need.  The folks at T.E.A.M. were so happy to receive fresh produce.  If you’d like to donate food or your time to T.E.A.M., click HERE for the details. 

What a fantastic end to our first Mommy Mission!

Mommy Mission #1:  Accomplished.

Pumpkin Patch & Donation to Our Little Haven

Sunday everyone in the Mom Squad went to Theis Farm & Pumpkinland for a fun day and to pick up $100 worth of pumpkins and fall items for the charity of our choice.

My day was a little hectic, my oldest son was sick so I went with my 2 1/2 year old and it’s not easy carrying $100 worth of pumpkins around with a little one on your hip.  Thanks to Katie for helping me gather up all of the goodies for Our Little Haven.

If you haven’t heard of Our Little Haven it is an early intervention program that  provides a safe, healing environment for the youngest children recovering from abuse, neglect, abandonment or early childhood trauma in the greater St. Louis region.

Founded in 1993 as a single program serving 30 children annually, it has grown to four programs serving 400 children each year. Our Little Haven provides therapeutic residential treatment, a full range of professional psychological services, a therapeutic preschool and case management for young children and families involved in the foster care system due to abuse and neglect.

If you are interested in donating to Our Little Haven please view their wish list and donation page.

I am not able to show the video of my trip because we need to protect the safety of the children but I can tell you they were excited about their new items!

Kim Julian, www.stlmommy.com

Next Page »