A proud mom moment (and I can't take any credit)

Moments like these make motherhood so sweet and rewarding. This cutie on the left just had his birthday this month. A card arrived for him with a ten dollar bill enclosed from Great Grandma. Did he immediately begin formulating a list of the treasures he wanted to purchase with his new found riches? No...his immediate thought was, "I can can buy presents for the boys!" This kid who doesn't get an allowance...and loves to have his own money to buy treats and things when we are at Wal Mart, didn't think about himself, but about giving to his family.

I thought when we got to the store he would pick out some matchbox cars for his brothers, maybe something little for big sister, and then move on to spending the rest on himself, but nope! I was wrong. While at Walgreens last night he saw a perfect gift for his little three year old brother. He knew that his brother would love it an insisted that this was what he wanted to buy. Last night my eight year old boy used almost all of his birthday money on Christmas gifts for his brothers and sister. And then, with a few dollars left, he placed one in our Lagoon bank ( a bank in which we place our spare change, trying to save up for Lagoon Season Passes for next summer)!

I sure love this boy!

Extending the Trident Giveaway!

Because of my crazy schedule I have not been able to properly advertise the Trident Giveaway. Because of this I have decided to extend the deadline to this Saturday the 19th at 11:59 PM MST. I will be updating the original post as well. I have had one entry, and she will be receiving a bonus entry for entering before I changed the date! Thanks for your understanding at this busy time of year and good luck to all who enter!

Hellmanns WINNER!

Random Number Generator
Min: 1
Max: 221
Result: 91

That's jzagarjr said...

The creamy cheddar turkey BLT wrap sounds great!

Congrats! I am off to send you an email. Please respond with your name and address within 72 hours or a new winner will be chosen!

Thanks to all who entered! This has been my best giveaway to date with 221 qualified entries (I had to delete a few from the list before choosing a winner because they did not follow the rules...sorry :( )

Joshua Bell WINNER

Sorry for the delay in posting my winner (Holiday Season...crazy...need I say more?)

Random Number Generator Min:1 Max:22 Result: 8

That is:

ky2here said...

I would do the Leonard Bernstein: West Side Story Suite.

Congrats. I will be sending an email to you shortly. Please respond within 72 hours or a new winner will be chosen. Thanks to everyone who entered, and please check my other giveaways going on right now!

Trident Layers Gum REVIEW and GIVEAWAY

As a contributor for Pink Lemonade of Life, I was given the opportunity to review the brand new Layers gum by Trident. I have been curious about these new flavors as I have seen them recently when checking out at my local grocery store. The mix of flavors and the way they were layered together intrigued me, so when this package arrived on my doorstep I was excited to try the gum!

We tried the Green Apple/Golden Pineapple flavor first, and it was a hit with my children. The initial flavor is a little tart and a good blend between Apple and Pineapple. The initial tartness fades fairly quickly, but the gum does not become flavorless after just minutes of chewing. You are left with a good, albeit milder flavor for a while.

My personal favorite flavor was the Wild Strawberry/Tangy Citrus. This one truly surprised me with it's perfect blend of Strawberry flavors and citrus. I wasn't sure how these flavors would go together, but I love both flavors so hoped it would be good! The Strawberry is the stronger flavor and the kick of Citrus Tartness really livens up the Strawberry flavor. Just like the Apple/Pineapple variety, the original flavor fades fairly quickly, followed by a pleasant, mild flavor for at least 15 minutes (I can only chew gum this long before I am done...but at the 15 minute mark there was still flavor for me).

You can find out more about these new flavors by heading to tridentgum.com. If you want to give them a try for yourself, you can download a $.75 off coupon here.

Two readers will get a chance to try this gum for themselves! Each winner will receive one pack of each flavor. Here's how to enter:

MANDATORY ENTRY (must be done before you qualify for any additional entries):

1. What two flavors would you like to see put together in a Trident Layers Gum?

Bonus Entries:

2. Head over to Pink Lemonade of Life and comment on a non giveaway post and come back here and let me know which you read!

3. Follow me with Google Friend Connect

4. Subscribe to my feed via Reader

5. Create a unique blog post about this giveaway and link back here. Leave a link with your comment

Open to US residents only. You must leave me a way to contact you either my having your email address in the comments or setting your email as public in your google profile. Contest ends at 11:59 PM on December 19th. Winners will be notified by email and posted here. Winners must respond within 72 hours of email or a new winner will be chose.

For another chance to win and to read reviews by the rest of the wonderful Pink Lemonade contributors, head to this post at Pink Lemonade of Life.

I received samples from Trident in order to participate in this review campaign for Pink Lemonade of Life. No other compensation was received and the opinion expressed is completely my own.

Introducing one of my childhood friends to my daughter

Favorite books and movies often feel like wonderful friends. They don't judge you, they are just there when you need them. The Anne of Green Gables books and movies are these types of friends. I have many fond memories of watching the movies on PBS (impatiently waiting through the pledge drives in between portions of the movie). A childhood friend and I even liked to pretend we were Anne and Diana (we would switch who was who so that we each got a chance to end up with Gil...seriously...who didn't have a crush on Gilbert Blythe after watching these movies?)

I have owned VHS copies of the first two movies for years, but in the last year or so our last VCR died and I have not been able to meet up with my old friends Anne, Diana and Gil. As my daughter has arrived at the preteen years I have had an increasing desire to introduce her to these wonderful friends, but alas, my VHS copies were useless and I did not own a copy on DVD (anyone reading this who wants and idea for my or my daughter for Christmas..DVDs of both Anne of Green Gables and the sequel (formerly known as Anne of Avonlea) would be great gifts this year :)). After a recent family party while visiting in California, I was inspired by discussions of movie borrowing from the library. Did you realize that you can borrow movies for free from the library? Seriously why have I NOT taken advantage of this before...ok back to my story (can you tell I like to go off on tangents...you are probably getting used to that by now). Yesterday I had a book to pick up from the library, so I decided to head to the movie section and see if I could find Anne of Green Gables.

There sitting on the library shelf was my old friend Anne. Oh how I have missed that old friend. I swiftly grabbed one of the two copies available and brought it to the checkout counter (along with a copy of Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were Rabbit as requested by my son who was also with me at the library).

Yesterday afternoon my daughter and I watched Anne of Green Gables. I wish I could say that I was able to sit down and watch the movie together, all the way through. But, those of you who have seen Anne will know how long it is and that a mom of five children rarely gets the opportunity to sit that long! Surprisingly enough, even a couple of the boys sat and enjoyed parts of Anne.

Do you have movies that feel like old friends that you are anxious to share with your children?

Hellmans (or Best Foods) Real Holiday Helpings and $25 gift card GIVEAWAY

Holidays and entertaining are upon us once again. Deciding on foods to prepare for all of your holiday feasts can be a daunting task. Hellmann's (or for those of you like me who live West of the Rocky Mountains, Best Foods) and Celebrity Chef Bobby Flay have put together a wonderful site filled with tips and recipes to help you create a fantastic meal with simple, delicious ingredients, including Hellman's Mayonnaise. You can even watch Bobby Flay prepare several of the recipes in short video demonstrations.

The recipes I am anxious to try from Bobby and Hellmann's Real Holiday Helpings (for the Best Foods link go here)are:
Caramelized Onion Dip (Video Demonstration available for this recipe)
Caesar Salad Crostini (Video also available for this recipe)
and
Monterey Turkey Pizza

You can also print a coupon for $1 off two Hellman (or Best Foods) items.

While you are there, enter to win free groceries for a year and play the Real Food Match-up game for a chance to win a $50 gift card!

One lucky reader is going to win a $25 American Express gift card to help with their holiday food purchases. Thanks to Hellmann's and Mom Select I have one $25 gift card to give away. Here's how to enter:

MANDATORY ENTRY:
1. Head to the Real Holiday Helpings website and find a recipe that you would love to try and come back and leave a comment telling me which one you like.

Bonus Entries:
2. Follow my blog publicly using Google Friend Connect
3. Subscribe to my feed via reader
4. Blog about this giveaway (a unique post please)and leave a comment with a link to your post

Giveaway is open to US addresses only and will close at 11:59 PM Mountain Time on December 11th. Please either have your email address set as public in your google profile or leave your email address in your comment. I need to be able to contact you if you are chosen as the winner. Winner will be contacted by email and have 72 hours to respond before a new winner is chosen.

I received a $25 gift card as a thank you for sharing my thoughts with you about this new website. No other compensation was received. The opinion expressed above is completely my own.

On privacy lost.

As a mom, there are few moments in the day that are completely your own. Early on in motherhood I found that I could catch little moments of privacy in the bathroom. Yes, pitiful, I know, but those few stolen moments recharge my batteries. I usually keep a book at the ready, read a couple of pages, and then re-emerge, ready to start again.

As of late these moments of privacy have been stolen from me. The lock on the main floor bathroom has become defective. I blame it on little boys who like to jiggle the handle over and over again, trying to get in. Well, they have succeeded. I can lock the door all I want, but all they need to do is wiggle for a few seconds and they are in! Goodbye privacy...hello toddlers invading my private sanctuary. I guess it is time to get a new door handle on the bathroom...or nothing will get done around the house. I need my few minutes of privacy to keep me going through the day. Anyone know of a sale on bathroom door handles...with locks...maybe I should buy in bulk...these boys are pretty tricky!

All I Want For Christmas

All I Want for Christmas is a family favorite in our house. The movie, featuring Lauren Bacall, Thora Birch, Ethan Embry, and a cameo appearance by Leslie Nielsen (as Santa) is a great one for the whole family. Released in 1991, this Christmas tale has mostly flown under the radar. I don't know too many people who have heard of it, let alone seen the film.

All I Want for Christmas follows siblings Ethan and Hallie in their wacky attempts to reunite their parents, who divorced a year ago. Mice loose in the house, mother's boyfriend trapped in an ice cream delivery truck and taxis that never arrive are just a few of the adventures to be found. Hallie even resorts to asking the big guy in red for help getting their parents back together again. Can Santa help?

This movie is one that I must watch EVERY year, and has been since I was in high school (when my family discovered it). We owned a copy of the movie on VHS, but our VHS player recently gave up the ghost. This dilemma was solved for me when my mom (what would we do without our moms, huh?) bought me a copy on DVD from Amazon.com! I am typing this right now, as I give my new DVD a test spin! No special features really, but a GREAT family holiday movie!

I received no compensation for this post. This is 100% my own opinion. Any purchases made through links to Amazon will result in compensation.

Sound of Music Winner!

Sorry to have been missing, I went out of town last weekend and I am still trying to recover! Here are the random numbers for the Sound of Music giveaway:

True Random Number Generator Min: 1 Max: 44 Result: 16

Comment # 16 is Stacy's Lame Blog said...
1. Girls is white dresses with blue satin sashes
2. snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes
3. Sleigh bells
4. silver white winter that melts into spring
5. cream color ponies


Congrats Stacy! I am emailing you :) Please respond within 72 hours or a new winner will be drawn.

Come back soon, I have more giveaways for you coming soon! And don't forget to enter my Joshua Bell CD giveaway; it closes this Sunday!