I am a 42-year-old Mom of a teen, tween and toddler and this is where I share my insights on parenthood, products, places, people and professional writing (what I do for money).
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Lipstick to Crayons
Posted on July 1st, 2010 No commentsIf you came here from Great Day, they accidentally put up the wrong link. Until it’s fixed, my Lipstick to Crayons Web site where you can learn all about couponing and cutting your grocery bill in half is http://www.lipsticktocrayons.com.
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Dance Recital and Affordable Dance Lessons
Posted on May 24th, 2010 1 comment
I often sing the praises of my local YMCA. It’s a great place to exercise. The staff members treat you like family and they love on your kids while you workout. It’s affordable. It’s clean. It has all the latest equipment and exercise classes. It has free coffee and free Wifi. And they offer tons of classes and camps for all ages. This year, we took advantage of the Y’s very affordable dance class for my two-year-old. Yes — they have classes for kids as young as two! It was worth every penny (a mere $30 a month for members) to see Ginger and her friend, Kamryn, in the dance recital. (Thank you Miss Tammie, Katy, Kim, Marta, Jodie and all the other volunteers on recital day). You can watch the video and listen to me laugh all the way through it below:If you’re looking for an affordable place to get your kids started in dance, karate, youth sports, drama, swimming, etc., check your local YMCA!
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Online Shopping Destination Offers Great Organization and Videos of Products
Posted on October 27th, 2009 2 commentsOver the past few years, I’ve begun doing more and more of my shopping online. I guess that’s partly because the mall is seldom the most economical way to shop, and partly because I have less time to shop, so running from one discount store to the next is usually too time consuming (and too difficult with a toddler). So, I’m slowly becoming a connoisseur of online shopping destinations.
Recently, ShopNBC.com invited me to check out their site, and I really like it. My favorite part of the site is the organization. The general umbrella categories across the top (jewelry, watches, apparel & accessories, beauty, house & home, computers & electronics, coins, clearance and auctions) have drop-down menus with intuitive sub-categories. And once you’re in a sub-category, you can shop by brand, price or another sub-category. Of course, you can search the site by keywords.
Another very shopper-friendly part of the site is the live chat function – that’s better service than I can get at most discount (and non-discount) department stores where you can literally fire a shotgun and not draw the attention of a customer service rep or sales clerk on most days.
Similar to those television programs where you can see hosts demonstrate and talk about the products, you also can view webcasts and live programs on ShopNBC.com. Plus, if you see a product you like, you can click on a button and see the video demonstration/pitch on that particular product. That’s way better than trying to see something from a single thumbnail photo.
I’ll be bookmarking this online shopping destination and sharing it with friends. Do you have any online shopping destinations you’d like to suggest?
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*compensation provided for the links in this post
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Gregarious Grandma’s Garage Sale
Posted on August 29th, 2009 2 commentsThis picture is so funny I had to share. A friend of mine went to help her Gran with her garage sale today, and this is a picture of one of Gran’s sale tables:
Yes – K-Y Jelly and Pleasure Pack condoms. I simply cannot imagine either one of my grandmother’s having these items in their medicine cabinet, let alone for sale at a garage sale, complete with a price sheet printed and displayed.
I really need to meet my friend’s Gran. What a woman! I hope she made more money than I did at my last garage sale.
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Don’t Text While Driving
Posted on August 20th, 2009 1 commentA friend sent me a link to this video, which is pretty graphic. But I’m glad I watched it. I am vowing NOT to text and drive. I’ve shared it with my teen and I’m asking her to share it with her friends.
You can read more about the making of this video and statistics about texting and driving here.
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Disney on Ice Ticket Giveaway and Coupon Code
Posted on August 7th, 2009 7 comments
Disney on Ice 100 Years of Magic is coming to the Family Arena Sept. 3 – 6 and I’m giving away 4 tickets to the show on opening night.Additionally, Disney on Ice is offering my readers a coupon code to use when purchasing tickets from Metrotix. By entering MOM in the MC promotion code spot on Ticketmaster, you can purchase four tickets for $44 for weekday matinee shows or get $4 off the ticket price for the weekend tickets.
To enter my giveaway, simply leave a comment below. If you’d like additional entries, you can:
- Tweet about this contest
- Blog about this contest
- Post this contest on Facebook
- Add From the Mom to your blogroll
Please leave a separate comment (and a link for the additional entries) for each thing you do to gain an entry. And make sure you leave a valid email address in the comment form. This contest closes at 11:59 p.m. August 15. The winner must respond to my email by Aug. 17 or a new winner will be chosen.
Good luck!
Congratulations to Chris, Comment #2. You won the tickets! Please respond to my email by Aug. 17.
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A Bird in the Hand
Posted on July 20th, 2009 No commentsAs the saying goes, a bird in the hand is better than two in the bush — especially if that bird is a beautiful Cardinal that accidentally found his way into your garage and exhausted himself trying to find his way out. Check out these cool photos:
My son caught this poor Cardinal after it exhausted itself trying to find its way out of our garage.
I think it's a young Cardinal.
It's flying away. Yeah!
Going . . going . .
Gone! I made my son stand far away from our garage so it didn't accidentally fly back in and get lost. That place is kinda messy, so I can see how it got turned around. (Ha ha.)
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Budgeting Ideas for a Family Vacation
Posted on July 8th, 2009 No commentsLike many families these days, ours is living on a tighter budget. And tighter budgets usually mean cutting or reducing the dollars allocated to travel and family vacations.
Because of these circumstances, I’ve spent some time researching cheaper ways to travel and ideas for vacationing on a budget. And this site has a great article with some ideas I’d never considered, as well as links to some resources I’d never discovered. For example, I’d never heard of a home exchange option to reduce lodging expenses, but this article provides links to home exchange sites.
The company that put this informative piece on the World Wide Web is a credit counseling service called Consolidated Credit Counseling Services, Inc. I’ve never used their services, but I liked the travel/budgeting article I found so much that I clicked around on their site to see some of their other articles. I found a few others I enjoyed, like this one on holiday budgeting. They seem to have really put some thought and effort into providing valuable, useful information to the general public. I think that’s admirable.
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FINA and Swimsuits and Rules, Oh My!
Posted on June 19th, 2009 6 commentsIt’s time to talk racing suits again. I can think of a couple of words that really describe the whole mess surrounding high-tech suits, FINA’s regulations, “the list“, USA Swimming’s muddled response and the misinterpretation of said response by at least ONE Ozark Swimming official, but this is a family-friendly blog.
I had heard that more clarification would be coming down the pipe today from USA Swimming, but at this writing, nothing has yet been made public.
Here’s the problem. FINA issued a list of approved swimsuits but that list was limited to TECHNICALsuits such as the Speedo LZR and the Blueseventy (not approved). Hundreds of swimming suits aren’t technical suits. Unfortunately, USA Swimming issued this statement, which basically states that only “swimwear approved by FINA, as reflected on its published list of approved swimwear, may be worn in any USA Swimming sanctioned or approved competition.”
To put it in the wise words of my teen, “That was a fail!”
USA Swimming went on to say that until FINA gets around to publishing a more comprehensive list, swimmers may wear suits NOT on the list if they meet certain criteria, such as not going past the pelvis on females or the knees on males. That means that Nike Swift and Nike Hydra leg suits and knee suits for women are not allowed. Nike didn’t even submit those suits for FINA approval because the suits HAD ALREADY BEEN APPROVED FOR COMPETITION AND THEY ARE NOT TECHNICAL SUITS. Can you see how ridiculous this is becoming? But, the deadline for submitting the suits has passed, and FINA didn’t seem to realize how much muck they were throwing into the pool by publishing a list of “approved” swimwear.
Here is a copy of some email correspondence between a representative from Nike and FINA:
From: N.D.
Sent: Jun 8, 2009 10:11 AMSubject: Swift and Hydra not banned by FINA
Good Morning Everyone-
As the confusion surrounding the high performance suits continues I want to share the facts we know regarding the FINA ruling and Nike Performance suits.
1) Nike Suits were not rejected by FINA
2) Nike suits are allowed to be worn in competition in Rome.
FINA is not going to change their current process or rulings. Below, highlighted in blue, I have attached correspondence between Nike Swim and FINA for your review.
As we learn more about the impacts of FINA’s rulings on the swim marketplace we will continue to share as much information as possible. Please feel free to contact Nelson with any questions or concerns you may have.
Nike Swim
From: K.M.
Sent: Wednesday, June 03, 2009 3:45 PM
To: FINA Legal
Subject: RE: NIKE Competition Suit Approval
Dear Mr. M –
Thank you for your time and consideration on this matter.
As I would have hoped for a different outcome, I respect your decision. As you probably are aware we are in the midst of some very unprofessional and unbecoming behavior and comments by certain people connected to the swimming world here in the United States. Mostly regarding, what I believe to be, individual interpretation to the published FINA list.
I do not agree with the actions of these others and have no intention of joining their battle.
Despite the gossip and blatant attempts to remove Nike Swim from Elite competition here in the United States, we are not defeated. We will submit our prior approved Hydra and Swift suits as well as our new development by September 15, 2009 in order to meet the November 1, 2009 deadline.
I look forward to receiving the new regulations or any updates when available from FINA.
Respectfully,
Sr. Vice President – Nike Swim
—–Original Message—–
From: FINA Legal [mailto:legal@fina.org]
Sent: Wednesday, June 03, 2009 5:32 AM
Subject: Re: NIKE Competition Suit Approval
Dear Mrs
Unfortunately the deadline to submit the swimsuits for approval was on 31st March 2009 and at this stage we are not able to receive more swimsuits.
Nevertheless, if your swimsuits approved in the preceding years will be used in ROME 09 please be informed that we will check on site their compliance to the FINA Rules.
Furthermore, I would like to inform you that the new regulations to be applied from 1st January 2010 will be published soon.
Thank you for your kind understanding.
Yours Sincerely,
C.M.
Executive Director
(note: I removed the names from those emails because while I don’t think much privacy is implied in an email communication, I thought it would be more respectful to do so. However, if you want the names and want to email me personally, I will send them to you.)
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What a bunch of muckety muck.
Thankfully, USA Swimming realizes that the whole thing is a mess, so the following email was sent to USA Swimming officials telling them that unless a COACH OR A SWIMMER complains about a swimsuit worn by another swimmer, they are to assume the suit it legal:
Sent: Wed Jun 03 22:30:08 2009
Subject: Distinguishing Approved Swimsuits vs. Unapproved Swimsuits at Meets
DATE: June 3, 2009
TO: USA Swimming Officials
FROM: Jim Sheehan, Chair, Officials Committee
SUBJ: Distinguishing Approved Swimsuits vs. Unapproved Swimsuits at Meets
The new rule adopted by USA Swimming (see letter from Bruce Stratton, Rules and Regulations Committee Chair, dated June 1, 2009) regarding swimsuits approved by FINA is going to present some challenges for referees and officials. There are a number of suits, especially older models, that would likely have been approved, but they were simply not submitted to FINA for approval. The practical problem is how to distinguish these suits from those that were not approved. We do not, and likely will not, have access to the list of suits that were actually disapproved. At this point, we believe any suit meeting the exception criteria provided would, in all likelihood, have been approved if submitted. It is virtually impossible for us to attempt to describe or list which suits we think might be acceptable even though not on the list. The exception criterion is intended to provide a straightforward method of identifying acceptable suits that are not on the list.
We do not want officials to become suit inspectors at meets and/or attempt to verify that any suit being worn by a competitor is on the FINA list.
Officials should initially assume that any suit being worn is a legal suit. Unless a coach or swimmer complains that a suit is not legal and it is clearly obvious the suit is a new model technical suit that was not approved, the swimmer should be given the benefit of the doubt. At meets, it would be a good idea to make sure all the coaches are aware of the letter issued on Monday and to have copies of it available for either review by the coaches or distribution.
We are going to have to put some trust in our coaches and athletes and assume they will do the right thing. This is going to require a considerable amount of judgment and use of common sense on the part of the official, but that is nothing different from what we have to do in a lot of existing situations.
Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns regarding the use of the new rule at meets.
Thanks.
Jim
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I heard that at least one USA Swimming official was recently declaring suits “not allowed” at a swim meet in the St. Louis area. It’s only a rumor because I wasn’t there, but if the rumors are true, this official supposedly said that swimmers couldn’t even wear Nike Swift knee suits for competition. An employee of a local swimwear store said parents were storming the store after that meet in an attempt to purchase “approved” suits for their swimmers to wear in upcoming competitions, including the Speedo 2009 International Age Group Meet next weekend. (a side note — Interestingly, you’ve never heard of a Blueseventy International Age Group meet. And, Blueseventy didn’t make it onto the approved list, either. But conspiracies aside for now).
My daughter is attending the Ft. Lauderdale meet next weekend. She’s wearing her Nike Hydra tank suit, which is “allowed” according to USA Swimming rules, because although it’s not on “the list,” it doesn’t go past her pelvis. That’s the suit she was going to wear anyway, because she’s not tapered, so wearing a performance suit or a technical suit would be silly.
Other rumors are flying about in regard to the FINA approval process and Speedo. One rumor says that Speedo has an overstock of LZR’s and needs to unload them before the end of this year because in 2010, the LZR isn’t going to make the cut either.
One thing is for sure: I won’t run out of blogging fodder.
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Mother’s Bracelet Giveaway
Posted on June 9th, 2009 54 commentsEveryone knows that Moms love to brag. Many of us Mommy Bloggers started our blogs to do just that. But you can’t wear ablog. You can, however, wear a mother’s bracelet – particularly one made with sterling silver beads and letters, semi-precious stones, Swavorski crystals and 14 karat gold-filled beads.
I’ve seen all kinds of mother’s bracelets out there at craft shows, specialty shops and mall kiosks. But I don’t think they compare to Bragelets– a company that started in St. Louis, MO in 1992 and is now owned by Rosie VanDorpe and based in Harvard, MA.
I recently sent my old mother’s bracelet to Bragelets to have my third child’s name added. Rosie re-designed my bracelet and I love it more than ever. It’s a classy, tasteful way to “brag,” and it coordinates with just about everything in my jewelry box. It’s casual enough to wear to playgroup, and classy enough that I recently paired it with my David Yurman pieces for a wedding.
Here’s a picture of my new Bragelet:
Unfortunately, I don’t think this picture does my Bragelet justice. Here’s a better picture of the style I chose from the Bragelets Web site:
It’s the Silver and Gold design with the toggle clasp.
Bragelets offers dozens of ways to personalize your Mother’s bracelet, from Swavorski crystals to birthstones to dangle charms. There are standard block and premier block letters, funky beads, Thai silver beads with a matte finish and special flower beads. You can design your Bragelet with all silver beads, all gold beads or a combination of both. You can use pearls, turquoise or eclectic cloisonne beads. Bragelets also makes Baby Brags, a perfect keepsake or Christening gift, Lilbrags for young girls who love jewelry just like Mom, Family Birthstone Bragelets and Two-strand Grandma Bragelets.
Single-strand Mother’s Bragelets start at $45, but here’s the good news: One lucky reader is going to win a single-strand for free. (Of course, you can purchase additional strands to go with your free one if you wish.)
To enter this contest, you must:
- Go to Bragelets and pick your favorite style Mother’s Bragelet.
- Come back here and post a comment telling me which style you like the best.
- Leave a valid email address in your comment so I can contact you if you’re a winner.
For additional entries, you can:
- Tweet this contest with a link back here – one entry.
- Blog about this contest with a link back here – one entry.
- Subscribe to my feed – one entry.
- Make sure you leave a separate comment for each additional effort you make for an entry.
The contest runs through 11:59 p.m. June 23. The winner will be chosen and asked to respond within three days or a new winner will be chosen. Good luck!
