Drink a glass of water! If you are not a big fan of water, like myself, then this will truly be a test for you. I am going to replace one can of soda for one glass of water today. What I am going to do is get some of the WalMart brand lemonade sweetener and put that in my water. It is sugar free so that is a healthy option for me. I think if I am able to ‘mask’ the taste of plain water with that of lemonade, then I will be able to down a whole richer of water.

It’s been just about 5 years since I gave birth to my third child. *yikes, where has the time gone?* It is now time to face the music. I need to lose weight. Not just a pound or two, but more along the lines of 30+ pounds. I don’t know when or how I got to this point, but for me, being the skinniest, thinnest family member, I am sadly no longer that person. Chalk it up to age, lack of energy, lack of time, what ever, the point being, I need to start making time for me so I can lose this weight. I may not eat the best foods so I will have to make small changes until I am back to eating fruits and veggies daily. It can be done! Then with exercise, yikes, I hate to exercise. Running hurts my feet, walking is boring, but I did find two activities that I enjoy, swimming and spinning…oh and I guess pilates. I’d really like a personal trainer but can’t afford one so I have to figure out the best plan of attack. With overweight family members it might be a struggle, but I have to do this.

Here’s where you come in. I need to be held accountable for my actions. I need support and encouragement. I have a tendency to do great for a week or two, then slack off completely. I can’t let that happen and I’d love for your help in making sure I don’t give up on myself. If you have any weight loss tips, suggestions, advice, dvd suggestions, routine planning, I would love to hear it. If you have any cooking ideas for someone who can’t stand anything fishy and doesn’t eat raw veggies, please share your recipes, food shopping tips, etc… I would love to hear from you as well.

My personal goal is to lose 40 pounds by my 40th birthday which is in November. It is doable, so it isn’t completely out of reach. Do you think I can do it? Do you think you’d wanna help me? Ugh, that means I need to shop for work out clothes, gym shoes and socks…maybe even one of those exercise things you see people wearing on their arms or waist…. so much to plan and prepare for.

My start date: June 25, 2009! I will have to weigh myself first and will edit that in here so I have a starting point. Not thrilled about posting it, but if it’s out there…I really need to just suck it up and do it already. I am certainly not getting any younger and it isn’t just ‘falling’ off like it used to. I’ll be back in a few hours to report my starting weight. Yikes, how many calories do I need to stay within!?!?!?

Unfortunately, since the start of the economic downturn the Family
Violence Prevention Fund (FVPF) has seen a significant increase in the
demand for domestic violence services such as shelters, hot lines and
counseling. Experts say that now more than ever it is important for
parents to learn the tips to prevent relationship and family violence.
Thus, the RESPECT! Campaign www.giverespect.org , a non-profit
to end relationship violence and build strong, healthy families and
communities.

The campaign also honors role model dads and shares the endearing and
memorable ways our fathers teach us love and respect every day. This
Father’s Day, the RESPECT! Campaign www.giverespect.org is
offering several simple ways to thank the dads you know for the great
example they set and ways to Give Respect!

1. Blog about how your dad taught you respect or how you teach
respect to your kids and sparking conversations with your readers about
healthy relationships and setting the right example

2. Learn 10 tips every parent should know to teach children about
healthy relationships. http://www.giverespect.org/respect/families/

3. Give RESPECT! by sending a free Father’s Day e-card; for every
card sent, GBGB Geoffrey Beene Gives Back will make a donation in your
recipients’ name. http://giverespect.org/e-card.html

4. Pass on RESPECT! by joining us on Twitter
www.twitter.com/give_respect , joining the RESPECT! Campaign
group on Facebook http://apps.facebook.com/causes/90680/57903601?m=695af213 and/or adding an “I’m for RESPECT!” graphic http://www.giverespect.org/respect/you/ on your blog

5. Tweet This!
http://twitter.com/home?status=Give+RESPECT!+Send+a+free+Father’s+Day+e
-card+and+for+every+card+sent,+a+donation+from+GBGB+will+be+made+http://
snurl.com/jd7fv

6. Purchase and wear the RESPECT! wrist band, available exclusively
at Macy’s
http://www1.macys.com/catalog/product/index.ognc?ID=331793&PseudoCat=se
-xx-xx-xx.esn_results for $5. Half of all proceeds go directly to the
cause.

7. Make a donation to the FVPF in honor of a dad you respect.

Thanks!

I say bust. As a mom of a tween, of course we live in a house filled with Miley chat, products, clothing, music, and tv. It can get quite overwhelming at times but I do remember having my idols when I was her age so I don’t think too much about it. What I do think too much of lately is an experience with the purchase of Miley Cyrus Fan Club “Pre-sale” concert tickets. Lemme explain.

Miley World announces that you can purchase Pre-Sale concert tickets on Monday, June 8 at 10:00 am local time to the venue. They are allotted 5000 tickets per venue for fan club members. So I wait patiently until the clock strikes 10am and I am at my computer with credit card in hand. Now, first off, they are doing ‘paperless’ ticketing, meaning you are limited to 4 tickets per HOUSEHOLD and the person who’s credit card you used must be present to redeem the tickets. No, you cannot buy little Johnny, or sister Sarah tickets for their birthday unless you plan on driving them and getting them in using that credit card and government issued ID. Now, don’t get me wrong, I understand completely that ticket prices were outrageous, scalpers were out in full force during her last concert appearance so something had to be done. They also had pre-sale for American Express card holders, so even if I wanted to, I couldn’t get another set of 4 tickets and sell the others at face value if I got better seats the second time around. Now, regular sale tickets begin on Saturday. I can try to get tickets under my moms name and address and see if we can get any closer, but then what do I do with the 4 paperless tickets that I will still have? I am kicking myself for buying these tickets. Do I have an out?

I guess my main issue at this point is how Fan Club members get nose – bleed seats? If they are giving you advanced notice by offering you “Pre-Sale” tickets, don’t you think you would get a better shot at getting tickets closer to the stage instead of getting tickets in the 306 section? We pay yearly for this so called fan club, which all it is really, is an online community for tweens and teens to talk about Miley and how much they love her. I can say this for sure. I am thinking twice about renewing that membership, it clearly is not worth it.

Now, I am stuck with crappy seats, out $285.00, and my yearly membership fee. Is my daughter even thrilled to see the concert? Well I can’t say she is too excited knowing that she is going to see a speck on a stage. I just hope the show exceeds our expectations because as of right now, we are not happy Miley fans.

A mothers worst nightmare, the temper tantrum. The ultimate worst nightmare? A child having a temper tantrum while out shopping. Yes, that is my ultimate worst nightmare and it actually came true the other day. I swear I thought I was going to have the police show up at the store for having my 4 year old disrupting the patrons of this store. It was awful! I had never been so embarrassed in all of my life! My two other children had their share of tantrums but never to this extreme. She was in consolable, a force to be reckoned with! It all started over a simple Army toy that I would not let her have. It contained a ‘fake’ knife and next to the fake guns, I simply could not allow “this” particular child to have anything that remotely resembled the real thing! So, nicely I said no, she couldn’t have it but could have the other police toy with the badge. That answer was completely unacceptable to this 4 (soon to be 5) year old. That is when it began. She screamed as if someone were killing her, pushed the shopping cart into my stomach and proceeded to drop to the floor and belt out a loud yell. I simply turned to the cashier at this point and said very calmly, “Yay, the first day of summer vacation! Woohoo!!!” and rolled my eyes right back at the woman.

I continued to ignore my child’s behavior to which aggravated her all the more. She got a hold of my ankle, wouldn’t let go and so, I had no other choice but to rip her off my leg and say firmly, “Good-bye, I am leaving”. Of course, natural instincts took over and she ran out the door chasing me all the way to the car trying to hit me in the process. Thinking this wouldn’t end nice, I had my two other children get in the van, shoved all my bags in there too and went to the other side where she was holding the door handles so I couldn’t get in. Once I pryed her hands off, I got her door opened and tried putting her in to which she put up a very good fight. After about a 5 minute struggle, I told my son to hold her while I put the child safety lock on and shoved her in. He did. Both my older daughter and my son were begging this girl to just get in the car as I saw the tears well up into their eyes. She scared them both and it was something I never thought would happen. It nearly brought me to tears. One, because I didn’t know what to do to make her stop screaming and carrying on like she was being tortured, and two, because I saw the fear and sadness in my other two children’s eyes.

With all of us finally inside the van, there she stood for another 15 minutes fighting with me to put her seat belt on. I kept telling her we couldn’t leave until she was seated and buckled, over and over and over again. I just sat there in the drivers seat thinking I was a complete failure! How come my child acted out like this? Was she tired? Did she have a long day? No, she was fine all day long and then bam! She heard the word “No” and she lost it completely! Testing her limits? Probably. Expecting mom to give in like usual? Probably. The last 4 years was I creating a spoiled child, a child that expected to get everything she wanted because she said she wanted it…probably. Have I ever set boundaries for her? Probably not. This is all new to me. I wanted to cry.

I think she finally realized I wasn’t going to back down and she slowly, very slowly (15 minutes later) got herself seated and buckled and we were on the road again. Was my nightmare over? I told her we would talk later after her bath when I can have a little quiet one on one with her. Got home and everything was peaches and cream again. Bath time was over and talk time began. I asked why she behaved that way and she told me that she wanted the one with the thing that you can put the badge in and I didn’t let her have it. I told her it was because it had a knife in it and it wasn’t something I wanted her to play with. She matter of factly said, “Well, we could have given the lady the knife”. Now, yeah, I probably could have taken that out, but she struggled in her decision making until it was too late. I told her that if she talked to me like she is now and she did not yell at me the way she did, I could have done that for her, but she choose to get loud, scream, cry, flop on the floor like a baby seal clasping her arms around my legs and I don’t reward bad behavior so she got nothing. She said “Everyone hates me and everyone is always mean to me”. I asked “Who hates you and is mean to you?” to which she replied, you and my brother. First I heard of it! I calmly told her that I loved her and I could never hate her. I may not like what she does, but I will never ever hate her. I asked her what I had to do to show her that I loved her. She said, “Hug me”. I explained that I do try to hug her and she pushes me away all the time, so I asked if she wanted me to hug her now and she said yes. I snuggled her and she ended up falling asleep to me telling her over and over again that I loved her forever and ever and ever………..

You think it stopped there? Think again! It took an hour to leave the house today because she couldn’t decide on which outfit out of the two I had selected to wear today. Once again, screams, fighting, hitting, kicking doors, you name it, it was done…but I remained calm and cool as a cucumber and stood my ground. She was not going to bully or tantrum her way out of it. OMG, what is a mom to do with a child like this? How to I curb those outbursts? I don’t know how long this will last, but mom can’t take too many more! It was emotionally draining for me! A friend suggested that I have her tested or looked at for a possible sinus problem because it sounded like something her daughter went though and now she is on allergy medicine every day and has never had an outburst like I described since. Is this possible? Something as simple as a sinus problem? How long do I wait this out to see if there is any improvement over time? It scares me to think my child is suffering and can’t vocalize what is wrong. If anyone out there has been in a similar situation, please let me know how you handled it, what your outcome has been and your advice on getting through this. I certainly could use the input.

I just hope tomorrow is a good day!

I had a nice long post about the Pepsi Throwback giveaway and sadly all my blog posts have disappeared! On the upside, I had all the entrants enter to win via email and I was able to salvage most of that information. Out of those entrants, one winner, Carol M., was selected to win the Throwback mega prize worth $150.00! Her prize package includes:

* Pepsi Throwback Trucker Cap
* Retro Pepsi Tin Lunch Box
* Retro Clock Radio/CD Player
* USB Lava Lamp
* Pepsi Throwback & Mountain Dew Throwback

As a recap; For a limited time, Pepsi and Mountain Dew are offering consumers a taste of the past with their own versions of Throwback, two new limited time only products inspired by the ’60s and ’70s, sweetened with natural sugar in a retro-looking package.

I am so excited that we are finally, after two years, getting a pool! The kids are going to have a blast this summer and so will mom! I get to exercise by swimming! I had a pool practically my whole childhood and since I’ve been married (14 years) we haven’t had a pool. It took some convincing, but we went out on Memorial Day weekend and actually bought it! It will be installed on the 9th and I am going to get some pool gear this week! It is a 18′ above ground pool. It has an upgraded staircase thing, solar cover and a do it yourself vacuum! No more doing it by hand, just drop the little thing in the pool and watch it go to work! The only thing I am concerned with is the chemicals. I am no scientist so this should be interesting! I’ll be sure to update with pics for you all so you can live the dream right along with me! WOOT!

One day everything was fine and the next it wasn’t! I had so much content on the blog here and now it’s all gone! Long story short, I had this blog, then decided to use my hosting provider to host my blog on my own. Well, it’s been one nightmare after the next with it, so now all the content I added to my self-hosted WordPress blog is gone and I am back to using the WordPress hosted blog instead! It infuriates me that this is not the first time this has happened, but actually the third! Now I know. I cannot host my own blog on my own domain because either something is wrong on my hosts end or WordPress has major security issues. Either way, I am back to using this blog. I had a Pepsi Throwback giveaway that was listed and luckily all the entrants I still have (I was smart with that because I actually had people email me directly to win!). I had other reviews and giveaways listed too so I will do my best to get things back the way they were before my self hosted blog went kaput! Please hang in there with me! I am very sorry to all my readers! Please forgive me!

While having a heart to heart discussion with my son (he’s 7) about how we take care of items of value he said something I would never have thought of. Here’s the story:

Nintendo DS game on the floor, dog starts to chew DS game. I get upset that the kids do not know how to take care of their toys and we aren’t talking about toys from the dollar store here. Those dang DS games are expensive! So I go into crazy mom mode and rant and rave about how I will never buy them anything again since they obviously do not know how to take care of the things we do buy them, etc…you know the drill. After I calmed myself down enough I went in to talk to him. I told him that I really do not like being upset with him about these things but I need him to understand that we work very hard to be able to afford special things for them and when they don’t take care of them it makes me upset and it hurts me. I went on to explain that he would have to work 12 weeks doing his chores to be able to buy a game, to which he responded with, “That’s a long time”. Then I go into details as to how it would make him feel if he worked really hard to buy me a gift and I left it on the table for the dog to get. Would he be sad, or mad with me? To which he replied, “Yes I would be mad at the dog and sad for you.” Good, I think to myself. I am finally getting to him. Went through the mad/sad feelings again and then he said:

“When you are happy it’s like seeing a rainbow in the sky, and when you are mad, it’s like seeing dark clouds and being in a thunderstorm”

I was very proud of him for replying with that. I wouldn’t have ever thought to compare the feelings of happiness to sadness/anger in that way but I told him that is exactly what it’s like and if he’d like to continue to see rainbows in the sky, he better pick up those dang toys! LOL Then we laughed and all was right with the world again.

As I was sitting down watching the news and MSNBC tonight they had a spot on regarding the whole peanut mess. Now you know that people have died from this companies lack of compliance to FDA rules and letters, etc… Now they are recalling products and bulk whatever from 2007 to present. They have recalled all kinds of cracker products, dog biscuits, etc…

At this particular time there are no penalties and no legal action that can be taken for the unsanitary factories here in the US which cause these outbreaks. People have been sickened…seriously, to death and nothing is being done about this. What about the tomatoes and scallions from this past summer? Death in this fashion is manslaughter and nothing is being done?

Yet there are people who want to place huge fines on companies that cannot afford to test each and every single piece of clothing, or toy …or book that they come into contact with for lead? All the companies, from small to large, libraries, museums, etc…that will be forced to close us shop because they don’t want to risk something of that nature.

Who is protecting ALL of us from the food we eat? You can’t buy a tomato at the grocery store unless it has been safely tested and passed a salmonella screening? Should that be done for all of us who wish to EAT? This would harm all ages from 0-100+! How can I tell if an apple is safe to eat and isn’t poisoned?

Do we have to go back in time and sew, mend our own clothing, have our children play with blades of grass and rocks, and then start farming so you can eat your own poultry, fruits and veggies? I am sorry for all the venting but it just sickens me that all this crap is put out there to protect us…how in the world is it protecting anyone? One day coffee is good for you, then the next, nope, better stop drinking it. For real! Where is the consistency, where are the laws when people are dying at the unsanitary hand of another?

Does this make sense to you all or am I completely talking out of my rear end with this? Please share your thoughts!