All Rileyed Up

Hey everyone,

Just wanted to remind you that there is a video in my sidebar where you can enter a giveaway for a brand new GE staineless steel appliance. Also, for all the greenies and anyone else who doesn’t believe that old appliance = lawn decoration, here is some info on recycling home appliances:

I went to the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Zing! Zang! Zoom! circus show over the summer. It’s the circus show that does a lot of magic. Some highlights: the elephants painted a watercolor that my sister-in-law and I debated recreating and claiming came directly from the elephant (it was a bunch of vertical lines, so recreating it was a strong possiblity). I also bought a bag of cotton candy that came with its own magician’s hat (a blue cone-shaped kind a la the Magician’s Apprentice). I somehow also wound up buying the kids light-up toys — a sword and wand for The Boy and Little No Limit respectively. And then there was the show itself — full of magic that left me and my sister-in-law scratching our heads wondering “How did they do that?”

But nothing — NOTHING — topped the start of the event.

For an hour before the show starts, the audience is invited to walk on the center floor, try on costumes, and take up-close pictures of and with circus performers.

Ahem.

DID SOMEONE SAY I COULD TRY ON THE CIRCUS COSTUMES?????

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you…

Le chupacabra! Ole!

My turn, Mom!

Little Bo Peep goes wistful…

I’m the Magician’s Apprentice!

Um… Mom, why are you in this picture?

Just because! Ole!

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To see upcoming show dates and buy tickets, visit the Ringling site here.

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I wrote this review while participating in a blog campaign by Mom Central on behalf of Feld Entertainment. Mom Central sent me a gift card to thank me for taking the time to participate.

I have always lived in hot places. Which means that in order for me to go ice skating, I had to wait for someone to turn some place like the downtown community center into an ice rink for a couple days/weeks in the winter, during which we could pretend we lived in a cold kind of place where water actually freezed and we could go ice skating.

I think because of my lack of opportunity to go ice skating, I sort of became enamored with it, a la the you-always-want-what-you-can’t-have syndrome.

The movie The Cutting Edge didn’t help. I used the watch that movie over and over… toe pick!

Then there’s the Olympics to contend with, and their darling ice skaters. The Olympics love their ice skaters.

Blades of Glory came along. And Amy Pohler earned a new level of respect in my book.

And then, there are ice shows. I think there is nothing better than taking any wonderful show to ice (unless Will Ferrell is in the production, I suppose). I even saw Carmen on Ice (after which I never looked at the Toreador Song the same way ever again).

This is all to say that Disney on Ice is coming round your parts, and I am soooooo taking Little No Limit this December.

Visit here for more Disney on Ice info. Princess Classics show for sure. I suppose I’ll let her wear whatever Disney princess dress she wants. Oh, to be a kid. If I showed up at the Disney on Ice show wearing a costume, I daresay they’d escort me right back out. I can see the headlines now: Woman Wearing Obnoxious Cinderella Dress
Booted From Disney On Ice. “I just asked that they call me Cindy, she said.”

Hmmm… come to think of it, that could be a rather funny post if I did that…

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I wrote this review while participating in a blog campaign by Mom Central on behalf of Feld Entertainment. Mom Central sent me a gift card to thank me for taking the time to participate.

Did you ever try the Atkins diet? Most people gave it a shot, and I am one of them. I had pretty decent success with it too, and yes, kept it off (by reintroducing carbs and maintaining a balance between them, protein, and fat). I recently tasted Atkins Penne Pasta and Atkins Pancake Mix, and have to say, the Atkins brand penne pasta does not taste like your run-of-the-mill low carb pastas. It actually tastes likes normal pasta. And by that, I mean good.

The pancake mix is pretty decent, but I only got one batch out of my bag because a certain mouse decided it liked Atkins pancake mix too. So there you have — Atkins pancake mix: good for people AND mice.

The Atkins people are also running a contest right now, a recipe contest. So break out your best recipe and send it on over, but for the love of Martha Stewart (er, should I have said for the love of Dr. Atkins?), don’t recommend coating anything with crushed pork rinds. I read that as a recipe one time and I thought I was on Punk’d. Pork rind breading? ARE YOU KIDDING??????

Info on the the Atkins recipe contest here. Remember, no pork rinds. I’ll see to it that you’re disqualified. Heh. As if I had that power.

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I wrote this review while participating in a blog campaign by Mom Central on behalf of Atkins and received samples to facilitate my candid review. In addition, Mom Central sent me a gift card to thank me for taking the time to participate.

It’s been some hectic couple weeks as I am still getting used to everything. My house is too far for me to drive home and return tonight for Back to School night so I’ve been chilling in my office (literally — the AC makes the room quite cold) until the families arrive.

On the down side: I had Honey Nut Cheerios for breakfast and nothing since. I have to wait until 5:30pm to eat. I hate forgetting to bring my lunch. There is just nowhere to drive around here to pick something up.

On the upside: catching up on my long lost friend, the Internets.

Today, I’ve been browsing the BrainFuel site.

Among my sources of enjoyment and amusement:

*The “Brain Food” tab encourages healthy eating. There’s an article about Vitamin C and they call it the Scurvy Scourge. Shiver me timbers! Aaargh! Me likes!

*Talk of music and exercise? Wow, what a novel idea! (I’m not even kidding — it seems music and exercise are a novel idea to most kids).

*The “Brain Forum.” Aside from the la-dee-da bragging rights that come with the phrase “I was on the brain forum the other day and I learned/discussed…” the Brain Forum is a great place to exchange information with other individuals, parents, educators, et al who believe in healthy eating and its effects on the brain.

*Also in the Brain Forum, there is an “Ask the Dietician” tab to pose questions to a registered dietician. Score!

*Lastly, there’s the tab called “Brain Games” (best said aloud to the tune of The Name Game), which touts itself as “Play Games Specifically Designed to Challenge Your Brain.” And we’re not talking Sudoku. The Brain Games requires a subscription, but helps with everything — verbal fluency, information processing, visual processing, arithmetic, memorization… you name it, they’ve got a game. And better yet, it’s set up like a brain obstacle course — 40 sessions to brain fitness (assuming you’re not stuffing your face with ho hos while you’re playing…).

All in all, I really, really like this site. A great site to visit at school with my students. And again at home with my kids. Yay for Brain Fuel! Huzzah! (sorry, still channeling all that scurvy talk).

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I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour campaign by Mom Central on behalf of BrainFuel and received an insulated lunch bag from California Innovations to thank me for taking the time to participate.

I recently discovered that I can fit into my sister in law’s clothing. This may not sound like a big deal in and of itself, but I used to wear a size 16 and I recently put on my sister in law’s size 4 black dress. Yes, it was totally snug and I would have to remain standing in it at all times, but still, I put on a size 4 dress and zipped it up. My niece even commented on my appearance in it, “You have such a nice flat stomach for that dress.”

This is of course, not entirely true. The dress had a nice cut to it. But I have also been working out. In the kitchen.

You read that right. In the kitchen.

About a month ago, I learned that GE started a “Strong as Steel” program, which is an exercise routine you can do in your kitchen with your kitchen appliances. Why spend money on some huge piece of exercise equipment that takes up space (and, if you’re lazy, eventually collects dust and serves as a testament to your laziness) when you can just use your oven, fridge, dishwasher, etc.

Here’s a video to explain it:

Now, when I first watched the above video, I admit, I laughed a lot. It seemed so silly. Plus, there’s something unnerving about recommending workouts for weight loss/body toning in the kitchen. But, I’m game for trying things out and I figured, if it worked, then I’d benefit, and if it didn’t, I’d be able to write something rude and funny about it.

And for real, it works. I’ve been doing these “Get Cut in Your Kitchen” exercises for 3 weeks now, and you can tell a difference. After all, teenage girls are telling me that I have a nice flat stomach…

I’m sure you want to see a before and after shot, but I’m waiting for that size 4 dress to go from “too snug” to “just right.” Just a few more weeks with my dishwasher perhaps…

If you’re like me, then you grew up thinking that the ice cream man was nothing short of THE MOST AMAZING PERSON ON EARTH.

However.

If you’re like me, then you are also aware of the damage to one’s bottom that too much ice cream can have. Case in point, my sister took this photo of me the other day:

Paging Sir Mix-a-Lot.

She took the picture because she thought it was cute that I was giving my son a piggy back ride. I looked at it and thought, um, okay… no more ice cream for me.

Conveniently, I received two coupons from Skinny Cow Ice Cream (courtesy of Mom Central) to sample their low-fat ice cream treats. They’re made with skim milk, hence the lower calories and fat content. My sister begrudgingly joined in with the taste-testing. And by begrudgingly, I mean not at all against her will.

So how did the taste test go? Well, you can tell Skinny Cow is using skim milk and not cream, but as Ron Burgundy once said, “And in no way is that depressing.”

Imagine your upcoming hot summer days. You’re sweating. The kids are red-faced and worn out from a day at the park or pool. You open the freezer and pull out the chocolate sandwich with vanilla ice cream treats and everyone cheers. You eat them outside. Your mouth instantly cools. Vanilla runs down your fingers and you feel them getting stickier by the second. Bits of the chocolate sandwich stick to your fingers tips and you pull them over the tops of your teeth to get those last bits of chocolate. Choose one of the following endings:

a) And then you get on the weight scale the following morning and think to yourself, why did I eat that ice cream sandwich?
b) And then you go about the rest of your day and the next morning repeat it all again, feeling very great about yourself.

If you answered B, you either have great self-confidence, a great exercise regimen, and you were eating Skinny Cow.

So go ahead, give Skinny Cow a chance (and, of course, great self-confidence and exercise regimens too).

Today, I am sick.

I’ve lived most of my life without allergies, but this past year has been one big long sneeze. Is it something in the air? Based on some things I’ve been reading, many signs point to yes.

According to Dr. Neil Schachter on the 3M Filtrete website, these are ways to make the air in my home as clean as can be:

1. Avoid cleaning products with ammonia and chlorine – check. Although perhaps yesterday’s swimming excursion wasn’t a good idea after all.

2. Houseplants… a clean air ally – I suspect my fake plants don’t count.

3. Lay area rugs instead of wall-to-wall carpeting – Now this one I am good with. No carpeted surfaces on the house. Did wonders for The Boy’s skin.

4. Restrict your furry friends – the dogs were finally banished to dog beds on the floor, but their shedding hair certainly doesn’t help.

5. Turn up the air conditioning (reduces humidity) and turn off the humidifier – Um, no AC. But it’s not too humid here, so I guess it’s all good. Oddly, I grew up in a very humid climate, and it never gave me allergies.

6. Leave shoes outside – Oh, I am so bad at this one. It’s terrible. I’d love to be one of those people who maintain a socks-only house, but find it pretty darn difficult and somewhat inconvenient, not to mention there’s nothing I can do to stop the dogs, who are the worst dirt-dragger-inners of all…

7. Use high performance air filters – seeing as this information is coming from the 3M Filtrete website, they recommend the Filtrete 1” Advanced Allergen Filter from 3M – and why shouldn’t they? It reportedly captures particles such as pollen, smoke, dust mite debris and pet dander from the air that passes through the filter.

Here’s something else that’s pretty neat at the 3M site. They have a Clean Air Club and you can test your knowledge of indoor air quality with the Clean Air Fact or Fiction test. Did you know that bamboo is considered a natural air filter? I never knew that, but it makes me want to buy a lot of bamboo for my house. Okay, well good luck with getting your air cleaned up and please, wish me the same with mine. Ah… ah… AH-CHOO!

*This post brought to you by MomCentral.

“911, hello?”

“Hi. My son is choking.”

I spoke calmly. I can hardly believe how calm I sounded, in retrospect. I was totally putting on a show. I swear, I missed my calling as an actress.

The Boy has choked two times in his life. Once, when he was nine months old, a woodchip had made its way into his playpen. His face had turned blue by the time we got it out.

This time, it was a piece of hard candy. It had lodged in his throat and he had been coughing and saying the words, “I’m choking,” but then the coughing suddenly silenced and I took it to mean that the candy had lodged further and he wasn’t going to get it out on his own. That was the moment I decided to call 9-1-1.

By the time they’d put me through to an emergency response person, The Boy had managed to cough it out. He was crying, but otherwise okay. I explained to the emergency guys that things had been taken care of and after I hung up, I repeated the same thing I’ve been telling myself since I had children.

I really need to learn CPR again.

I know this is a big huge demerit in the world of motherhood for me to have a four and six year old and still not be certified in CPR, but those classes have always been so tough for me to schedule. I have learned CPR before. In high school, I got certified for it a couple different times because I was always babysitting. I figured those skills were sufficient, but on both occasions with The Boy choking, I froze and thought to myself, “Do I really know how to do CPR?”

And wouldn’t you know, the American Heart Association has the neatest thing: the CPR Anytime Kit. A 22-minute self-directed crash course in CPR.

Great idea, Mom!

The first week of June is CPR and AED Awareness Week. Anyone care to join me in brushing up on their CPR skills?

Visit the American Heart Association and get your own CPR Anytime Kit.

Thanks to MomCentral for the info.

Been eating Healthy Choice® foods lately?

I don’t eat much in the canned and premade foods department, but it’s always nice to know about some of the better ones for when I’m having a lazy night. Anyone who has been down the canned soup aisle knows what I’m talking about when I say there are like a zillion choices. And if you’re not buying strictly based on price, chances are you’re buying with your health in mind. So Healthy Choice has a new line of products with a medical study to back their words.

Cardiologist Dr. James Rippe of the Rippe Lifestyle Institute conducted a 6-month study:
*Both were groups of men and women who were overweight and had high cholesterol.
*Both groups were given the same exercise plan: 15 minutes of walking 3x/week beefed up to 45 minutes of walking 4x/week over the course of the six months.
*One of the groups made no changes to their diet. The other group followed a diet plan that included one low-fat Healthy Choice meal® every day.

After 24 weeks, the Health Choice® group had lost an average 18 pounds of fat and 3 inches off the waistline, and had reduced their cholesterol by 12 points.

(ie, not too shabby)

So what do you say? Are you ready to embrace a healthier lifestyle? This doesn’t mean you go out and buy all the Healthy Choice® foods and live off of it (though I’m sure ConAgra wouldn’t mind). This means you put down the candy bar, you stop eating four helpings at dinnertime, you add in some fresh fruits and vegetables, and for goodness sake, you get up and move. The exercise plan in this study wasn’t exactly The 300 Workout. 15 minutes of walking three times a week can be accomplished by anyone, anywhere.

So please, think about your health. Think about your kids’ health. And think about exercising and eating right. And if you’re going to eat a premade meal, know that Healthy Choice is the only major brand that can call 100 percent of their products “healthy” by FDA standards.

Thanks to MomCentral for telling me about the study.