Wordless Wednesday: All Dolled Up

This is what happens when you are visiting a friend's house for a playgroup and four 3-year old and one 7-year old girls go upstairs to play. Maddie will NOT stop talking about how much fun she had! She kept asking me if she looked pretty. It was really all I could do to not laugh, but I held it together because she is so darn cute, even though she looked like a raccoon (as quoted by my friend Dawn!).

We came home and the first request was to start drafting a birthday list (which isn't until January!). First on the list.... MAKEUP! She makes me laugh.

Refreshing

I try hard not to talk about my politics very much. I, especially, had no intention of discussion political issues here on my blog, where obviously, I can be opened up to a variety of judgement and comments that are unwanted. But, for some reason, this entire election has changed my views on things, and I feel compelled to speak.

I am a registered Democrat. I have supported Barack Obama throughout this election. I have some major issues with Hillary Clinton, none of which I wish to outline here. I am new to this political landscape. While always interested from afar, I've never fulfilled my civic duties until this election. That is to say... I have never voted until the Primary this year! I know, that is pitiful.

However, the bright side is that at least I am getting engaged now in my mid-thirties as opposed to never being engaged. And, the reason.... Barack Obama. I credit him and his campaign for changing my views, energizing me, and making me feel that change can and will happen. There are MANY posts I could write about my feelings about his campaign, his candidacy, what an Obama presidency would mean for America, and maybe as the elections draws nearer I will write about some of those thoughts.

For now, as the DNC is going on in Denver and I anxiously await Barack Obama's speech tonight, I'd like to take a second to focus on the would-be First Lady. Michelle Obama is a refreshing change in the role of first lady, in my opinion. Michelle is a well educated woman with career aspirations, a dedicated mother, and ideas of her own. She will not be the in-your-face type of First Lady who is secretly (or not so secretly) vying to make her own way in politics, nor will she be the quiet, unassuming, and frankly, uninspiring First Lady either. I am voting for Barack. The fact that he is married to such a talented and interesting woman is merely icing on the cake. Check out her DNC speech from last night.

Ok, go ahead..... say what you need to say in the comments :-)

Blog Day 2008

Celebrate the 4th Blog Day on August 31, 2008!

BlogDay was created with the belief that bloggers should have one day dedicated to getting to know other bloggers from other countries and areas of interest. On that day Bloggers will recommend other blogs to their blog visitors. With the goal in mind, on this day every blogger will post a recommendation of 5 new blogs. This way, all blog readers will find themselves leaping around and discovering new, previously unknown blogs.

For more detailed information, check out the the Blog Day website!

Movin' and Shakin'

Or, maybe, the better title is Movin' and Slidin'?

Guess who needed to have her crib mattress lowered this week? Yes, we found McKenna sitting in her crib after a nap this week. All of a sudden, she can just sit up from laying on her belly. No practice, no baby steps... just sitting up!

And at the same time, she also started to CRAWL! Yay! Although, it is not a full crawl up on all fours. It is an Army crawl where she uses her arm strength to pull her body along with her....more of a slide or slither than an actual crawl. But, this is just semantics, in my world... SHE CRAWLED THIS WEEK!

This was a big week for her developmentally. We'd been waiting so long for her just to be able to roll over that I definitely didn't expect these leaps and bounds of developmental milestones being reached all at once.

Watch out world, she's on the move! And, Mommy needs to start baby-proofing ASAP!

Four Generations

This was taken just last weekend at my niece's 2nd Birthday Party. We just happened to all be sitting there together and my Mom realized that this was a great picture opportunity and asked my husband to get a shot of us together. This is my new favorite picture. I love how smiley we all are.... just genuinely enjoying each other's company.

My grandmom moved to MD several years ago, and sometimes it really hits me how much I miss seeing her as regularly as I used to. I love spending time with her and love having my kids spend as much time with her as possible. I have some really great memories of my great grandparents and want my girls to have strong memories of their "Gigi" too!

And, of course, there is my Mom. What is there to say about my Mom? She is an amazing mother, and an amazing friend to me, and she is most of all an amazing grandmother to my children. I love you, Mom. And, Madison and McKenna love you too!

Smiles.

A glimpse into the teenage years

Tonight Matt was out, so it was just us girls. Madison was upstairs helping me get McKenna ready for bed. All of a sudden, she found an Elmo cell phone in McKenna's toy basket. She immediately dropped what she was helping me with and said "I have to go to my bedroom now so I can call D" ("D" is her best friend... she has actually called her that... so cute!).

So, off she goes to her bedroom where I can see her having a full blown conversation with this toy cell phone and telling D that she had fun at her house today, and that she was going to read books to her doll babies and have mac and cheese for dinner....very important stuff.

She looks up about midway through the conversation and sees me watching her. And this, my friends, is where I saw my future.... and it wasn't pretty.

She drops the phone on her bed, rolls her eyes, and gets up and shuts her bedroom door! Um, last time I checked, Madison, you were 3, not 13. Could you please not start acting like a teenager yet? My fragile little heart just can't take it.

Would you like a $100 Lands' End Gift Card?

Who wouldn't love a chance to win a $100 Gift Card to Lands' End? Well, it's really simple.....fill out their 2008 Outerwear Survey and be entered to be one of 5 winners! If you have a blog, you can post about it and have a second chance at winning! Easy peasy, right?

Here are the details:

Please take a few minutes to complete the 2008 Lands' End Outerwear Survey. The survey consists of 19 multiple-choice questions. Upon completing the survey, your name will be entered to win one of five $100 Lands' End Gift Cards. To be eligible to win, you must complete the survey by midnight (CST) on Thursday, August 28th.

And being the blogger that you are... we'd love for you to share this survey opportunity with your readers. If you put up a post with a link to this survey on your blog before August 28th, please send Natalie Zupo, nzupo@bsmmedia.com, an e-mail with the link to that post and we will enter your name a second time for your chance to win one of five $100 gift cards from Lands' End!

Back in Business...

Hubs fixed the laptop connection tonight for me. He is the bomb! So, I get to post and watch my beloved Big Brother on TV. Happiness :-)

Thanks babe!

Technical Difficulties...

My laptop is giving me some major issues the last few days. It can't detect our wireless network. And, I've got no time to try to troubleshoot the issue. Quite frankly, I'm also a little low on patience right now too, so am lacking the motivation to troubleshoot. I am now relegated to the office to use the desktop, and that is no happy feat. It is dreadfully slow and I miss being able to prop up in front of the TV and multitask writing and reading blogs while enjoying my mindless reality shows. I remember when using the desktop made me blissfully happy.... ahhh, life before the laptop totally spoiled me! Ok, maybe I'll be motivated to fix it tomorrow.

Go. Check. This. Out.

Jo-Lynne over at Musings of a Housewife is doing a SUPER COOL (and quite expensive) giveaway of one of my favorite things in the world.... jewlery! Go check out her giveaway this week for a beautiful piece of your choice by Swede at Heart. They have some really cool stuff there. But hurry, she's picking a winner on Thursday.

So, go give Jo-Lynne some love and check out her blog. If you aren't already reading it regularly, you should be! And, leave a comment on her giveaway post and try for a chance to win! But, don't try too hard, people, I'd really like to win this one myself!! :-)

Olympians in the Making

Let me start this post by telling you just how much our playgroup ROCKS! We've been part of a playgroup since Madison was 4 months old. I knew from the very beginning that if I was going to be a Stay at Home Mom, I wanted to find a supportive network of friends for myself and for my child(ren). Well, I found it. There are all types of Moms and all types of kids in our playgroup and I've loved getting to know everyone involved. Aside from the wonderful friendships, our playgroup schedules some of the most creative and fun event for the kids! We've made some really wonderful memories at events that the playgroup has planned.

This past week, our playgroup had scheduled a 3-day Olympics Mini Camp for the kids. We were lucky that the weather cooperated and all 3 days went off without a hitch. Denise and Dawn did an absolutely amizing job at coordinating 4 different Olympic events (each day!) for the kids to partcipate in. This was no joke... we were doing the Olympics right here in suburban Philly! Not to mention the medals, the Olympic history, the Olympic torches they carried around the "friendship flame".... they thought of it all.

Madison had an unbelievable time all 3 days. Heck, I had a great time all 3 days! She took part in each Olympics station each day and tried out all of the events. More importantly, she can tell me about the Olympic flag and knows that we came together in friendship this week to compete.... it's awesome that they learned about the spirit of the games too!

I feel so lucky to be part of this amazingly creative group of families! Here is Maddie in all of her Olympic glory!

Day 1 - Pillowcase Sack Races

Day 1 - Fencing

Day 1 - Basketball

Day 2 - Relay Races

Day 3 -Soccer

Day 3 - Balance Beam

Day 3 - Tumbling

Day 3 - Our Olympic Medalist

Day 3 - Taking the Podium

Even the babies were having fun at Olympics camp too!

Rollin', Rollin', Rollin'...

McKenna is just shy of being 10 months old. She has been sitting up for a few months now, but hasn't really shown any interest in crawling or standing as of yet. Up until recently, in fact, it had been a real struggle just to get her to spend time on her belly. Well, she is now rolling over like a champ and will roll herself over to whatever she wants to explore on the floor.....especially when she wants to say hi to her dust bunny friends that are lurking under my couch!

I'm Lovin' This Giveaway

A big, huge, heartfelt thanks to Michelle over at Mommy Confessions for naming me as the winner of her giveaway today! The prize is a one-year subscription to Kiwi Magazine, whose mission is all about "Growing families the natural and organic way"! I really love this magazine, and even have a link to it here on my blog, but only buy it for myself as a special treat once in a while. So, this was the perfect contest for me!

Giveaways are great, and "green" giveaways are even better!

Thanks again, Michelle.

Wordless Wednesday: Warning

I just got this t-shirt from Shannon's store over at Muzbee Crazy. I LOVE IT!!! She has some ridiculously adorable pieces in her store. The t-shirt fits great and is super soft! This is in a fantastic shade of pink, although my pic is distorting the color because of the crappy lighting in my bedroom :-( Go and check it out!

Dory has a point, you know

Just keep swiming
Just keep swimming
Swimming Swimming Swimming....

Many of you know that I have been working the Weight Watchers program pretty hard for the last few months. It has been relatively "easy" (haha) to incorporate into my busy life and I've been extremely happy with the process and, especially, the results. I have actually hit my Weight Watchers goal weight and stayed at or below that number for 6 weeks of maintenence. So, this week I became a "Lifetime Member" of Weight Watchers. Reaching this distinction has many benefits, not the least of which is not having to pay for meetings anymore (as long as I am within 2 pounds of my goal weight and I go to get weighed in at least one time per month). But, I have to say, I am already feeling tempted to take a little "break". I've noticed I'm not counting my points as vigorously, not drinking enough water, and eating some foods that I know I shouldnt be eating. I still want to lose 10 additional pounds to reach my own personal goal weight and that just isnt gonna happen with ice cream and cheese steaks. But, I think I've gotten it out of my system and I must hunker down and focus.

At the same time, I went over to Mel's blog this morning and she also blogged about her Weight Watchers journey. I have to say that I am really inspired by Mel's post. I know that I can continue to stay on track and continue to be inspired by her success and mine!

As Dory says, I'm gonna just keep swimming........

Chester County Moms Launch Party!

On Thursday night, a bunch of us went to celebrate with the girls over at Chester County Moms at their FABULOUS launch party! Sarah, Jenn, and Margie really know how to throw a par-tay! The gave away fantastic swag bags (which were Wegman's reusable grocery bags... great swag in and of itself!) that were full of amazing goodies from all over the local area! And, the giveaways... oh my goodness... the giveaways they had. My head was spinning from all of the AMAZING choices of prizes there were to put my raffle tickets in for. So many choices, so little time :-) I was even the winner of a Maggie Moos gift card... Yummy!

Thanks so much for a great night, girls. I am so excited that you guys have launched your site and am so happy to have your site as a one-stop resource for all of the local happenings. I'm a devoted reader/member of Chester County Moms already, for sure!

It IS easy being green....

Got this superb and totally EASY-to-do tip from the Moms for the Future website that is featured on Yvonne's blog. Moms for the Future is a fantastic site and a group that I hope to be joining soon. At any rate, they have some really simple things that you can do to make your home a little bit more green, and here is a favorite of mine.

Sign Up for Cleaner, Renewable Energy:
Buying cleaner, renewable energy will help create a market for alternate energy sources and move us away from fossil fuel dependence. Use your buying power to make a difference! Here are two ways to get started:

http://www.exeloncorp.com/ourcompanies/peco/pecores/peco_wind/

If you live in Chester County and use PECO, sign up for wind power. It costs just over 2 cents more per kilowatt-hour, and you can buy it in 100-kilowatt-hour blocks and pay just $2.54 extra per month per block. If you do other things to reduce your electricity use-like use compact fluorescent bulbs, buy energy-efficient appliances, and simply become more conscientious about turning off your TV and lights when you leave the room-you'll save money even with the added cost of wind, and you'll produce much less pollution. And our children will benefit exponentially.

As more people sign up for this, more wind farms will be built in Pennsylvania. So... what are you waiting for? Enrollment took me all of 60 seconds this afternoon!!!

OR:

http://www.theenergy.coop/biodiesel.htm
http://www.amerigreenbio.com/

You can sign up for 100% renewable energy at these websites, as well as others. And, if you use oil heat at home, you can buy biodiesel heating oil here, without changing a thing in your home. One of our moms uses it to heat her home, and all it took was a phone call!

Make it a green day!

Wordless Wednesday: Piggy Toes

McKenna has been crossing her feet just like this since the day she was born. She loves, even now, to sit with her feet in this position and rub the tops of her feet and toes against each other. Such cute little piggies she has....makes me want to eat them!

Word Association with a Preschooler

This just made me laugh and I thought it might make some of you other mommies laugh too!

We purchased a swingset a few weeks ago. Tonight, when I was pushing Madison on the swings, I noticed that she was getting better pumping her legs with each push of the swing. So, I said "Maddie, good job pumping those legs." Without missing a beat, she said "Yeah, just like you used to do pumping your boobies for milk for McKenna." Um...... no, not exactly the same thing.... this word association did definitely make me laugh though! I tried unsuccessfully to explain to her that words can have multiple meanings. But, it was 7:45pm and I just didn't have it in me .... that will be a lesson for another day :-)

Olympic Pride

I can't wait for Friday night and the official start of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. I love watching the opening ceremonies, and I love the whole 2+ weeks of Olympic programming that I'll get to watch on TV. I always have such a feeling of hopefulness and renewed energy as I watch athletes from all over the world come together in the spirit of healthy competition.

For some reason, the Olympics always cause me to reflect on how I am proud to be an American, and more importantly, a part of this human race and how, at times, our collective humanity and sense of community really shines!

On my List of Things to Do Before I Die..... Go to the Olympic Games (as a spectator, of course!)!

Watch and be inspired!

And the award goes to....

Madison!

Today was Maddie's last day of camp. The kids all got awards today and here is Maddie sporting her award proudly!

It says " Madison... Best Manners"!

I guess that conversation with her camp counselor last week was a little bit of foreshadowing.

Good job, little mama!