Tag: "Family"

Back to reality

I was on vacation from my full time job from Christmas Eve until yesterday. I had fun hanging out with my kids, watching them play, staying up late, watching movies and just relaxing. I stayed up really late a couple of times and slept past 6am every day. I let the kids stay up late too, although I started trying to move them back to their regular school night bedtime two nights ago.

When my alarm went off at 4 am yesterday morning I received my rude awakening that I had to go back to the daily grind, and was once again reminded how much I will enjoy retirement (in another 25 years).

My children’s rude awakening comes at 5:30 am Monday. I’m sure they’ll be as displeased as I was.

Jan 03, 2009 | 4 comments | View Post

Home Is Calling - a request for help and a giveaway

I am a big believer in the importance of home and family. Pillsbury’s new Home Is Calling campaign brings to mind the family and home cooked meals that so many of us look forward to during the holidays. Sadly, not all people are fortunate enough to have these things to look forward to.

Pillsbury is promising to donate more than one pound of food to food banks across the nation for each time you forward their Home Is Calling campaign to a friend by email. I’m asking my readers to please help by spreading the word. If you’re hesitant, consider how many times you’ve forwarded jokes, quizzes and funny pictures to friends that they haven’t asked for, or how many times they’ve forwarded them to you that you didn’t ask for. If ever there was an email destined to be forwarded, this is the one. I guarantee the people that benefit from the food Pillsbury donates will enjoy that food far more than anyone will enjoy a forwarded joke. I am sending it to everyone I know. If they don’t like the fact that I sent it to them they’re probably not people I’d really want for a friend anyway. Thanksgiving is a time of year when people should reflect and be thankful. Thanksgiving is also a time of year when the spirit of the holidays really starts to shine and people give to others that are less fortunate. So let’s be thankful for what we have and help those less fortunate by forwarding the Home Is Calling campaign to as many people as possible, so that Pillsbury donates the maximum amount possible.

I have three Pillsbury gift baskets to give to three winners of this giveaway. Each basket includes a coupon for Pillsbury refrigerated crescent rolls, a magnetic coupon holder, a house-shaped mouse pad, pot holders, a cookie sheet, a bread basket and a Pillsbury Doughboy figurine.

Earn an entry by leaving a comment on this post stating what your favorite Pillsbury product is AND what you like the most about a family meal.
You can earn additional entries for the giveaway by:

visiting the Home Is Calling site and forwarding the campaign AND leaving a comment here stating how many friends you sent it to and which of the top 10 recipes to warm your home sounds yummiest to you.
blogging about this giveaway and the Home Is Calling campaign
twittering about this giveaway
subscribing to the rss feed

This giveaway will end on Monday 12/01/08 at 11:59 pm est. US addresses only please. Only comments containing the requested information will be eligible. The winners will be selected using random.org and they must contact me to confirm they wish to receive the prize within three days of my email notifying them they’ve won. Good luck everyone!

THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED.

Nov 23, 2008 | 67 comments | View Post

What if this happened to you?

Would you be upset if someone in your family decided to celebrate something and everyone else in the family knew about it but you? I would be, and I am.

Earlier this week brother 1 (oldest of the three, all younger than me) invited brother 3 (Navy brother, new Dad, the youngest of the 3) out to dinner. When brother 3 asked if his wife (new mother to my niece, the most beautiful baby girl ever) was invited he was told “anyone else that wants to go goes Dutch treat”. (It’s very tacky to only invite half of a couple when the couple hasn’t seen each other in months, has no money and just had a new baby, but that’s not my problem.) All members of my family ended up going to this dinner except for me, RB and CJ. The dinner had been mentioned to RB but since RB has been out of work for more than a month now we weren’t about to waste our money on a crappy Chinese buffet. At the end of their meal brother 1 had the staff bring out something representing a cake or something and all of the staff sang happy birthday to my Mom.

We were never told anyone was planning on recognizing my Mom’s birthday. I think it’s wrong and hurtful that we weren’t told and that we had to find out after the fact. We might not have gone because of money but it would have been nice to be included and given the opportunity to decide for ourselves.

How would you feel if this happened to you?

Oct 26, 2008 | 9 comments | View Post

Destination Hawaii in 2011?

I didn’t make this trip but it looks like I’ll have at least one more shot at seeing Hawaii. My Mom told me today that Disney has acquired property in Hawaii for the purpose of adding Disney Vacation Club units, and that it’s scheduled to open in 2011. She’s planning on being there when it opens and thought it would make another great family vacation. I agreed, and didn’t even realize until after we hung up that 2011 will make 25 years that RB and I have been married. We renewed our vows in the Bahamas in 2006 while on a Disney Cruise. I’m liking her idea more and more by the minute. It certainly beats getting a couple of Outer Banks rentals. Maybe this time we could get renew our vows on the beach….

Oct 08, 2008 | 0 comments | View Post

Libby’s Get Back To The Table and a giveaway

Sometimes we get so busy in our daily lives that we find we’ve spent less quality time with our family members than we would like. Until a couple of years ago there were times that all four of us could not end up in the same room at the same time on any given day. On most school days TJ can be found doing homework, participating in sports, playing with friends or whatever. After work I’m always doing something, like most other working moms. Hubby works and gets home late. It used to be that dinner in my house was served in two or three shifts. One shift for me and CJ. Another shift for TJ when he came in from playing with his friends. Yet another shift for RB when he got home from work at 7-7:30. After deciding that we needed to spend more time together I decided we’d all eat dinner together every night possible. Unless hubby calls and tells me he’s running super late, we all wait to eat dinner until he gets home now. We may not eat as early as some families on the nights we wait but we’re eating together and spending time together. Noone is allowed to leave the table early. Now we all get a little time together to discuss the day or whatever else is on our mind. I think it’s been good for us.

In order to promote the many different benefits of family meals, Libby’s announced that September is “Get Back To The Table” month. Libby’s has put together a website detailing the importance of regular family meals. Numerous studies have found that children that eat dinner with their family have higher grades, eat healthier, are more confident and are less likely to experiment with smoking, drinking and drugs. The site also offers recipes, grocery suggestions, shopping tips, dinner planning tools and money saving ideas. There’s even a coupon available to use with the purchase of Libby’s canned veggies. You know the ones - Libby Libby Libby, on the label label label, you will like it like it like it, on your table table table. I don’t think I mentioned there’s currently a contest going on now on the site. One lucky winner will get a trip to a Sara Evans concert and dinner with Sara and her family.

Thanks to Libby’s and Mom Central I have a copy of Sara Evans Greatest Hits CD to give away to one winner. To enter visit the Libby’s Get Back To The Table website and take a look around. Be sure to look at the recipes page. Come back here and leave a comment on this post telling me what CANvenient recipe you’d like to try. Contest ends Monday 09/22/08 at 11:59 pm est. To be eligible comments must contain the information requested. US addresses only please. Good luck to all who enter.

THIS GIVEAWAY IS OVER.

Sep 15, 2008 | 17 comments | View Post

The circus is coming to your town!

One of my earliest memories of a family outing is a trip that we took to the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey circus. My Mom and Dad took us. I will never forget watching the performers in awe, with my thoughts alternating between “that’s amazing” and “how do they do that”. When I asked my Mom how she knew about the circus she said her parents had taken her and she loved it so she wanted to make it a sort of family tradition. More than 25 years later, we went on another family outing to the circus, this time with my hubby, my son TJ and my parents. I spent more time watching my son’s face instead of the performance that day, and I will never forget his face full of wonder and awe.

Today, Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus has a Baby’s First Circus program that allows babies to receive a free ticket to one of their performances. The ticket provided has no expiration date and a personalized baby certificate is also available to print online for free. What a neat program, and what a great way to ensure that children everywhere can share and enjoy the magic and fun of going to the circus! It’s no small wonder that people love going to the circus. The circus offers something for everyone. I always loved watching the animals. My Mom loves watching the acrobats. My brother loved the clowns. My son liked the magician and the acts of illusion. I’m glad I learned about this program from Mom Central, because I have a niece on the way and am looking forward to her enjoying her first circus.

If you live within driving distance of the following cities you can receive 20% off of your ticket order by using coupon code MCC. The coupon is valid on tickets priced $13, $19 and $24.

2008 shows

09/04-09/07 Indianapolis, IN

09/10-09/14 Kansas City, MO

09/18-09/21 Grand Rapids, MI

10/02-10/13 Denver, CO

10/08-10/13 Boston, MA

10/24-11/02 Cleveland, OH

11/06-11/09 St. Louis, MO

11/12-11/16 Auburn Hills, MI

2009

02/27-03/01 Highland Heights, KY

03/04-03/08 Cincinnati, OH

Be sure to stop by the Ringling Brothers website, there’s all sort of neat stuff there including games, information on the animals and the history of Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey. Feel free to leave a comment with your circus memories and what your favorite part of the circus was, I’d love to hear from you.

Sep 11, 2008 | 4 comments | View Post

Noodleboro Learning To Listen Pizza Palace Game review

Kids all love to play games. Hasbro has created the Noodleboro game series for children ages 4 and up. Three games are part of this series - the Learning To Listen Pizza Palace game, the Learning To Share Fun Park game and the Learning About Manners Picnic Basket game. Each of these games comes with a cd and book containing songs, stories and tips that reinforce the lessons being taught in the game. As you might be able to tell from the titles, these games have a purpose - to encourage using the life skills of sharing, using good manners and active listening. As parents it is our job to teach our children these skills, but it is really nice to see a game that encourages the use of these skills and helps reinforce what children have learned. Thanks to MomCentral we were lucky enough to receive the Learning To Listen Pizza Palace game to try before its release.

The Learning to Listen Pizza Palace Game comes with 2 pizza boxes with pizzas, 2 sets of pizza toppings, 25 pizza topping cards, 2 pizza topping holders, a chef’s hat place keeper and a score board. To play children need to take the customer’s order and then make and serve the pizza to them. In order to make the pizza correctly children need to pay attention, actively listen and remember what they’ve been told. The player that makes the most pizzas correctly wins. The Learning To Listen Pizza Palace game is for 2-3 players age 4 and up and will retail for $19.99.

I recommend the Learning To Listen Pizza Palace game. I thought the game was a lot of fun and that it was actually most fun when played as a family game with two teams.

Would you like to one of these games? You can enter to win your own Noodleboro game from MomCentral by clicking here and taking the survey.

Aug 13, 2008 | 0 comments | View Post

Heads Or Tails 49

The theme for this week’s Heads or Tails meme is Doctor. The first thing that comes to mind when I think of the word Doctor is the way my sons play pretend Doctor.

When TJ was young, we always thought he was the wackiest pretend Doctor around. When TJ wanted to play doctor we had to lie down on the couch. Whenever he used the little thermometer he’d tell us either our temperature was 2 or 200. He’d tell us to open our mouths and shove the mirrored tool in there and tell you to split up into the little basin. When he checked in your ears he’d tell you he saw things in there. He’d whack both of your knees with the little hammer and tell you he was checking your reflections. Shots were given in very odd places, if you had a headache you’d get your shot in the head. He’d take this other thing that came in the doctor kit and rub it on the bottom of your feet trying to tickle you and make you laugh. The only thing he ever actually used appropriately was the blood pressure cuff. If he checked our pressure we had to make bum-bum bum-bum noises to represent out heartbeat.

TJ’s long outgrown playing pretend Doctor. Now CJ plays pretend Doctor. He doesn’t do the same strange things his brother did, he actually uses most of the items in the doctor kit as they’re intended. (Maybe that’s because he’s seen so many doctors.) It’s still a blast watching my child have fun.

If you want to learn more about this fun meme or play along, just go to the Heads Or Tails blog.

Aug 05, 2008 | 0 comments | View Post

Pork pork pork

Do you have anyone in your family that’s not the greatest sport? My hubby is a really sore loser, and my oldest TJ is just like his father. When I saw that Mom Most Traveled asked people to write a story about playing a game I remembered something funny and realized that my hubby and son’s poor sportsmanship may be hereditary. About fifteen years ago RB and I traveled up to New Hampshire to see his family. We stayed at his sister’s, where we always had a good time. One night the four of us started playing Pictionary. My sister in law drew a pig and someone said something that upset her and she said “pork, pork, pork. I’m taking my toys and leaving.” It was too funny, a grown woman having a tantrum like that! My sister in law is a great cook and she didn’t make dinner that night. Upside, we didn’t need any fat burners after eating one of her tasty, rich meals. Downside, we were really hungry. Anyway. Sometimes RB and I still say “pork, pork, pork” as a way of saying “be quiet and let me have my way”. You probably had to be there to appreciate it. So, do you have any funny stories about playing games?

Jul 18, 2008 | 0 comments | View Post

A NewBaby is born

Moms, there’s a new site created especially with you in mind. It took more than two years to bring NewBaby.com to life. NewBaby is a social media network where mothers can interact with each other through the use of videos and photos. The site is free to join and offers vlogs, blogs and a family photo gallery among it’s many other features. The site is home to a number of parenting experts and offers an Advice and Answers area. One of the areas I liked is the product area which contains review videos. There’s even an entire section for new mothers to be. There’s a lot to see on NewBaby, too much to mention here. So take a moment and check out the NewBaby!

Jul 08, 2008 | 0 comments | View Post

Halloween’s just around the corner

I stopped at the party supply store this past weekend to pick up a couple of things for my son’s 9th birthday party. I was shocked to walk in the door, on the fifth of July, and see an aisle with Halloween costumes. The girl behind the counter told me they were starting to bring in more stock for Halloween. I can see the advantage to selling them this early. People that buy early can choose what they want and not fight the terrible crowds that start forming in September.

I don’t dress for Halloween on a regular basis because I never see many costumes I’d be interested in wearing. I did find one I liked in the couples costumes section on the Halloween Adventure website. The costume is for adults, one half of the couple dresses as bacon and the other half of the couple dresses as eggs. I love bacon and eggs! I think that’d be a fun costume to go out in with someone else, even if it was to just walk the kids around.

Halloween Adventure is a website that sells anything you can think of for Halloween. They carry costumes for adults, children and even pets. They also carry accessories, makeup, hats, wigs, masks, decorations and props. They even carries costumes for other holidays and events. All of the costumes are categorized. The advanced search feature is very nice, it allows search by category, size, material, price and keyword. Halloween Adventure has locations across the United States and sell online as well. The selection is huge, much bigger than anything you’ll find in a department store. Get a jump on the crowds and start your Halloween planning and shopping now, at Halloween Adventure.

Jul 07, 2008 | 0 comments | View Post

Locked Out

I found a contest that has such a neat prize! Deb from Just A Mom’s Take On Things is giving away two Schlage Electronic Locks in a contest that ends on 07/05/08 at 11:59 est. To enter you need to leave your best “locked out” story on her blog, on the contest announcement. I will be leaving my story there, but I also thought I’d share it with you.

Way back when, from January 1987 until sometime around 1993, my hubby and I lived at my Mom and Dad’s house. Before my Grandma died we lived in a room off the back of the house. After Grandma died we lived in the downstairs apartment that had previously been Grandma’s. Because he wasn’t family and because it takes a long time to build trust with my family, hubby didn’t have a key to my parents house. It typically wasn’t an issue because we were almost always together. He didn’t even drive at that time, so whenever he came and went he was with me. One night he decided he wanted to go to the local bar for a few drinks. I was annoyed with him for one reason or another, so I went out on my own with a few friends. I came in a couple of hours later and he wasn’t home. Back then it wasn’t unheard of for him to wind up at a friends and stay out really late or even all night once in a while. After two more hours of wondering where he was and worrying I fell asleep. In the middle of the night I was awakened by the door. I made my way up the stairs to the foyer, arriving at about the same time as my parents did at the top of the stairs. It’s never good to wake them in the middle of the night. At that point it hadn’t dawned on me that hubby wasn’t home. My parents didn’t know hubby wasn’t home. Dad decided to answer the persistent person at the door. He undid the deadbolt and much to our surprise we saw two police officers and my hubby. It seems that hubby had arrived home a half hour or so before but saw the downstairs was dark. He’d tapped on our bedroom window but I hadn’t heard him. He did not want to wake up my parents or my baby brothers (toddlers at the time). So, he decided he’d climb into our apartment through the downstairs living room window. At that time a policecar happened to be doing a routine patrol of our neighborhood. One of the officers saw a man starting to climb into a window, so he called for backup and got out to apprehend the man he thought was a burglar. Hubby was surprised when the police officer pulled him down from the window by his ankles. He tried to explain that he lived there and the policeman asked why he wasn’t using his key. He told the policeman he didn’t have one. By now the second policecar arrived on the scene. They asked my hubby for id, but he didn’t have any because he didn’t have a driver’s license. He asked them to please let him finish going inside so he could get his wife who would vouch for him. They were suspicious, rightly so. They told him they were going to the door. He begged them not to do that, because he didn’t want my parents woken up and thinking badly of him. They told him it was that or jail. So they rang the bell, explained they’d found this man trying to break in and asked if we knew him. Dad said hubby lived there and all was ok. The policemen went on their way. My folks were good sports about it, although hubby was pretty miffed the police didn’t believe him. He got a key to the house not long after that.

If this had all happened these days there wouldn’t have been a problem. Hubby’s phone has a built in GPS so I could’ve found out where he was before I went to bed and just called him there.

Jul 05, 2008 | 0 comments | View Post

RVs.com for old and new rvs

As I mentioned recently, we have a tiny travel trailer and have been considering getting something larger. My parents recommended we be triple sure that we could see ourselves in whatever we buy ten years down the road. I was in the mood to window shop a little bit today so I hit the internet. After I finished checking out some trailers I visited RVs.com, which is a website that helps people find, buy and sell both used and new RVs and motor homes. The best feature for me was the search by price option. Just by clicking search by price I was able to choose the year, make, model, category and price range I was interested in. I also enjoyed the blog, which was chock full of helpful hints and suggestions. If you’re considering getting an RV, take a look at this site.

Jul 02, 2008 | 0 comments | View Post

Want a WonderFALL Caribbean vacation?

Recently as a member of MomCentral I received an amazing offer for a deeply discounted vacation at a place we’ve always wanted to see. I was so impressed with the offer that I sat down and told my parents about it. The offer is from Beaches, in the Caribbean.

Now before I continue, you’re probably wondering why I’m blogging about this. Here’s why. That offer I got is open to everyone, and it’s so good that I just have to share it. Now back to my story. I sat down and told my parents I wanted to tell them about a great deal that I thought they might be interested in. In case you didn’t know, they love to travel.

I explained that Beaches was offering savings of 40-45% off on fall vacations, with travel dates of 09/01/08 to 11/04/08. Dad thought the percentage of savings was pretty wonderful. He’s right. That’s probably why Beaches is calling this offer WonderFALL. I was met with some skepticism and lots of questions.

First my Mom wanted to know what blackout dates there were. Answer - none, all dates from 09/01/08 to 11/04/08 are available.

Dad wanted to know where Beaches was. I told him I really wanted to go to the Sandy Bay resort in Jamaica but that there were also two other locations in Jamaica called Boscobel and Negril and one location in Turks & Caicos.

Mom wanted to know if there was a minimum amount of nights in the stay. There are not. You can stay as few or as many nights as you want, and you can even get one or two nights for free depending on how many nights you book.

Before Dad could even ask his next question, Mom said she thought that this was a singles only type of place. I had to control my exuberance as I corrected her, I don’t often get the chance to do it so it tickles me pink. I explained that Beaches is a great place for families to go. My youngest would love the Crayola Art Camps and the Sesame Street characters that can be seen at the resort. Elmo, Cookie Monster, Grover, Zoe, Bert and Ernie and Abby Cadabby are all there and do things with the children as part of the Sesame Street Caribbean Adventure. There’s even a character breakfast. My oldest would love the waterparks and the Xbox 360 garage. (I’d probably never get him out of the Xbox garage.)

Mom wanted to know how much extra things cost? She didn’t believe me when I told her it was easier to tell her what’s not included (internet, dry cleaning, car rental, local excursions and spa treatments) so I had to go on the website and read her the long list. Included - all meals, drinks and snacks, scuba diving and watersports, golf, sporting activities, fitness centers, unlimited premium brand drinks, weddings, butler service, supervised childrens activities, airport transfers, hotel taxes, tips and unlimited use of all amenities.

Mom wanted to know if the great price was available because the room was a tiny little closet. I explained that different types of rooms were available but they all had air conditioning, hair dryers, safes, cd clock radios, satellite television and a private bath and shower.

Dad wanted to know about the restaurants. I told him there were many of them, up to ten per resort. Dad also wanted to know why I wanted to go to Sandy Bay. I explained that since it was so close to Negril, guests of Sandy Bay and Negril had privileges at both resorts, including the restaurants.

Finally they ran out of questions to ask. My Mom agreed that it all sounded nice and like we’d have fun. She thought the special was good enough that maybe everyone in my family would like to go.

We didn’t get to vacation last year due to my surgery, so we’re way overdue for a family vacation. I really want to go to the Caribbean. The description sounds terrific yes, but the photos make Beaches look absolutely amazing and beautiful. Go check out the Beaches site and you’ll see what I mean. While you’re there check out the WonderFALL special offer.

I want to go to Beaches! Doing a series of reviews of Beaches be fun!

Never mind Calgon. BEACHES, TAKE ME AWAY!

Jun 30, 2008 | 0 comments | View Post

Training wheels question

CJ is going to be nine in a month. He’s very small for his age, he’s only in size 6 clothes. He got a bike last year, a little two wheeler Thomas The Train bike with training wheels. He whips around on this thing like you wouldn’t believe. He’s gotten really good at riding it. As I watched him ride today I started wondering at what point we should take the training wheels off. He’s very steady on the bike, but my worry is one of those motherly ones. Being limited verbally, it isn’t as simple as asking him if he wants them off or not. So, how does one know when it’s a good time to take the training wheels off?