S Club Mama

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of the American Cancer Society. Those are fighting words (pun intended). Cancer is no something to be silent about or to sit idly by and watch people die from. Not that everyone can be a doctor or medical professional or scientist, but we can help! The American Cancer Society (which turns 100 on May 22, 2013 - happy birthday, ACS) is going to start this really aggressive and historic research study: Cancer Prevention Study-3 (CPS-3). It's going to help us understand how to prevent cancer, which will save so many lives. They have this goal of 300,000 adults from every racial/ethnic background from everywhere in the US by the end of 2013 (and you know how fast years go by). My Grandma Kay had ovarian cancer. She died of complications of numerous things, that being one of them. That affects me every day. I don't get to write my grandma letters or call her on the phone to tell her about Moose and Squirt or my running. She n...

We don't eat a lot of frozen foods around here. It has been ingrained in my head that frozen foods are heavily processed and not fresh. Well, I'm here to tell you that is not always the case and that is not the case with ConAgra Foods like Healthy Choice and Marie Callender's (I hear the applause of many time-crunched mothers thanking me for this information). Great news just in time for National Frozen Food Month (March - hurry before it's over!). Healthy Choice and Marie Callender's meals are made with fresh ingredients - fresh vegetables and fresh meats. They give you access to foods year-round that you can't always find fresh in certain seasons. The vegetables are picked right at the peak of freshness and go from farm to freezer in 24 hours - allowing you to have fresh vegetables year-round. How great is that? So I tried the Healthy Choice 100% Natural Portabella Marsala Pasta. My mushrooms didn't taste frozen or old; they tasted peak, like what I w...

Lately, I have been really hungry. Not normal hungry but eat-everything-in-sight hungry. Perhaps it has to do with my really long runs (17 miles yesterday!) in preparation for my marathon. Either way, I'm usually hungry about the time that school ends at 3, same as my kids. And I don't want crackers (well, I do but I know I should have something more substantial) and I don't want cold fruit - I want something warm. It's winter still and my stomach craves what every Kansas craves around this time of the year - heat.  Today I was in luck! My friend picked up my  Minute® Ready to Serve Rice  bowls this past week so I could try them out. She got me the brown rice version because (to quote her), I like to "eat healthy." Which is totally true - I'd rather serve brown rice over white any day. The problem is, I don't like plain rice much. I like to put stuff in it (butter) and that makes it generally unhealthy. However,  Minute® Ready to Serve Rice  ...

another pvBody outfit via SITSgirls Flickr pv.Body was started because the founders, Marcus Greinke and Lindsay Daniels, felt that women were paying too much for active wear (athletic clothing). I agree. My active wear wardrobe is ridiculously small: 1 pair capris (from my mom), 2 pairs shorts (from my sisters), 1 tennis skirt (bought at a discounted price), 1 tank top (from a sister), and tech t-shirts from races I've entered or from my sisters. My running socks are 2 years old, my sports bras are about the same age. I just hate to drop $30 on a top and over $50 on bottoms (less for shorts but still!). I've needed a pair of running pants for at least 2 winters but the price was too much, so I went without. Until now. Enter  pvBody ! I received an outfit worth approximately $150: pants and a tank top. Well, needless to say, I love the pants. They came at just the right time when this Kansas winter has settled in. I've been able to run outside in weather that otherw...

Moose & Squirt, I just want you to know that I love you and my prayer is that one day you will both live in a world that is cancer free. Miss D (Moose's teacher), you are a survivor and I'm so proud to know you. I'm so THANKFUL I can know you because you mean so much to my family and so many more families. Disclaimer: This post is sponsored by American Cancer Society.

 Our family has yet to acquire many seasonal decorations - we don't have anything for Easter or 4th of July and only a few things (that I forgot to put out this year) for Halloween. However, I am happy to say we have Christmas decorations (again, not many but enough). This year I am sharing my holiday home decor and cleaning tips for the chance to win prizes from The SITS Girls and Great Cleaners .  My boys started to decorate a few days after Thanksgiving. I like to have everything set up the day after Thanksgiving but we had to get it all out of storage and then buy a new small tree because the old one (5 years old) was broken. And then Big A fixed it so we have 2 small trees.  Aren't they such good helpers? These two are probably my biggest cleaning tip. I started my boys young (even though they are young now too) on helping me clean up. They pick up toys with the best of them and Moose has learned to wipe off the table. Children are capable of helping...

As some of you are aware (and others may not be aware), this month is Autism Awareness Month (April 2nd was National Autism Awareness Day). There are several events taking place online and offline (like the Light it Up Blue Campaign ). One great online event is being hosted through SITS. SITS (The Secret to Success is Support) has been a community I've been involved in since it started. Although I'm not nearly as involved as I once was, I still head on over to the blog (or Blog Frog or Facebook or Twitter ) to put my two cents in and contribute via comments. This is a great community for other bloggers; I've met some really wonderful women this way (Tiffany, Lula, Mama Kat, Jen, and Angie - among many others). They host great blogging conferences (that I will forever be trying to win a ticket for) and have wonderful forums on their website - spotlight , women on the move , learn , and food & lifestyle . Jen, from Buried with Children (one of my favorite ...

  The ladies over at SITS are hosting a back to blogging event this week. Read what it's all about here . The prompt for today is to re-post your first blog post in order to capture why you started blogging. My first blog post (on this blog but not my first ever) was posted on  February 17, 2008 . It is titled: Life Changes. No, I don't mean menopause...I'm way too young for that. I mean that my life has been on this amazing rollercoaster for the past few years, & it doesn't seem like it will ever stop. I met my now husband, Big A, in 2004 at college. He was a junior and had really incredible blue eyes. 9 months later, we were engaged at Yellowstone by a waterfall (yes, it was romantic). A little over a year later on August 5, 2006, we were married at my home church in front of God, our parents, family, and friends. 3 months later...we got pregnant. Moose was born on July 1, 2007. It doesn't seem like that was nearly 8 months ago - maybe ...

Oh the weather here has been gorgeous today (I believe it hit in the 80s). We all had shorts on, no coats, no hats. I didn't wear sandals because my wardrobe is lacking in the sandals department, but that's ok. We played at the park, in our back yard. Big A did yard work. All in all it was a busy and wonderful day. All this to say that spring is in the air. I've also seen spring in the blogosphere. Many are holding spring-type giveaways and probably the largest one I've seen is: To celebrate their new communities on the BlogFrog , the SITSgirls , Today’s Creative Blog , Skip to My Lou , and Tip Junkie are hosting a Spring Fling! They will be hosting a giveaway every hour on all 4 ofthe blogs on April 13th from 5:00 am to 8:00 pm (CST). Which will total over $6,000 worth of products given away in one day! How amazing is that? So head on over to SITS or Tip Junkie or Skip to My Lou or Today's Creative Blog (or all 4) for more details. And good luck!

Merry SITS mas ! Love, the S Club Big A, Randi, Moose, & Squirt "for unto us a child is born" Isaiah 9:6

SITScation is coming up in October. I'd love to go ... and I'd love for whrrl to sponsor my trip! Check it out by clicking below or HERE (click the like button while you're there...please?). Powered by Whrrl

first smiles first haircuts and the world premiere of...Moose, the Science Kid (please excuse the singing...I know it's hard on the ears)! I was also pleasantly surprised to step on the scale today after a Yoga workout with Bob . I have to check again but I'm pretty sure it says I've lost 2 pounds SINCE SUNDAY! I'll update you on that soon. And I'll tell ya that yoga was hard work, especially with Moose freaking out. If I do anything seen on tv, he tries to stop me by pulling on my shirt or pulling me (which is hard when you're trying to do yoga which involves a lot of balance). It was good, though, and I worked through him until he started to crawl under me during downward dog (so funny). Also, check out my WHRRL slideshow on the sidebar or HERE . Want to go to SITScation? Check out the details HERE .

Merry Christmas, from the S Club! We wish you a merry Christmas We wish you a merry Christmas We wish you a merry Christmas And a happy New Year Good tidings we bring to you and your friends We want to share our great news We'll be on the East Coast real soon! Happy Holidays from us! Randi, Big A, & Moose! I also want to give a shout out to some of my favorite blogs! Aubrey @ The Fam Five is a rocking hot mom. I bet Santa will be kissing her soon! Angie's Seven Clown Circus will be decking the halls this season, bringing good cheer to all of us in the blogosphere. Lula of Lulaville is a current favorite throughout the bloggy world. She sure knows how to spread the Christmas spirit with her wonderfully cute posts each day. Stephanie at Live.Love.Eat. is not only generous in the entire sense of the word, but she will also show you how to prepare meals that will make the whole holiday crowd cheering. Honey Mommy has a beautiful design on her blog (I just checked it ou...

If you've never checked out The Secret in in the Sauce (SITS) before, this would be a good time. Tomorrow is their kick off of their Merry SITSmas party . Now, this is a good time to be had by all just because of how many friendly faces (??) you'll meet. BUT you could win awesome prizes each hour, too. Not only that but their grand prize is to be the featured blog on Friday. That is what I want. I'm not a patient person. I want everyone to come and dazzle me with their comments. BUT to top that off, the featured blog winner will ALSO get a $200 gift card from Target! Go HERE to check out the excitement. I'm only blogging about this because it will get me extra entries. But I'd be happy if someone I love won, too. But if you've been the featured blogger, I'm free on Friday so pencil me in for that day.

Thanks so much for the snippets into this fiction world Stephenie Meyers has created for all of us. The trailers have left much anticipation thrust upon the Twilighters, from tweens and teens to moms and even those fans who won't admit to being fans. However, your timing sucks. Not only do I have a one-year-old who cries whenever I leave him, but my pocketbook is virtually empty. Now, I could deal with leaving Moose with someone capable of handling his separation anxious tears. But I cannot fathom going into the red to purchase tickets to see your sparkling, dazzling self. So, in lieu of this travesty, I am preparing myself to endure a weekend of energized bloggers (and Facebook friends) who have been awed by your viewing pleasure. And, who am I kidding, this is going to go on for weeks. All I ask is that you kindly remind viewers to not spoil it for me (haha, just kidding, I've read the books) by telling me what's different between the book and movie. I anxiously await you...

Over at one of my most favorite blogs (and blog recognition sites), SITS ( The Secret is in the Sauce ), they are hosting a blogathon . There are tons of prizes to giveaway and so many new blogs to read. That's really what I want to tell you about today: people I've met through SITS . Although I have not yet had my day in what I like to call the SITS Sun (your personal day of recognition as the featured blog of the day at SITS), I have met some incredibly sweet women through this blog. At various points of my blogging, I have considered deleting it. It's really very easy to delete a blog, and, although I mostly blog for myself, at times I thought it pointless to blog for no audience while I could just keep my journal (which I do, too). But then, mostly through SITS and SITSas, I have created a (very small) readership. I do have friends who comment (mostly Mrs. Spiderlegs & Rion), but I also have about 3-4 friends who read my blog (and have their own blogs) who never ...

Would you like a new camera? Head on over to here for a chance to enter the contest. Let them know I sent you! It is a RED , yes Red, totally spunky Sony Cyber-shot W150 ($250 value)...8.1 Megapixels, 5x optical zoom and 30m wide-angle lens. I don't really know what all of that means, but it sounds amazing. Good luck

I got my necklace from Kristen earlier this week (if you recall from this post , I won it through a SITS contest). I was going to take a picture right away but had just got done working out (and I looked like it). So I waited until I was a little more decent-looking. I don't have the best camera, but here you go. Thank you SITS and Kristen. I really love it!!

Sometimes I feel like I'm ill-equipped (yes, I love Juno , get over it) to be a mother. I love my son and I've done a (pretty) good job with him (I think and so I've been told - thank you dear Mrs. Spiderlegs and my dearest hubby). However, I'm always at a loss to what the next step is. My dilemma now is: weaning from the bottle. Moose does NOT understand the sippy cup. I've even tried different kinds. I don't want to use a sippy anyway (at least not most of the time), but I would like him to know how to use one. But he understands the cup, but is NOT good at it. I'm so afraid that he won't get all of the milk he'll need once we take his bottle away. Plus, he's really attached to the bottle! Our 8 oz bottles are on the fritz (I don't know) and so I've switched to giving him 4 oz in his 6 oz bottles (after I dug them out of the basement). He doesn't even like me to take away the empty one for the full one! Also, when do I stop giving ...

Ok this sounds like a braggy post, but, honestly, I'm seriously humbled by this. I know...I didn't win the Pulitzer or Nobel, but a necklace. But to know that someone picked me to win something really beautiful just kind of amazes me. If I had to choose who would have won, there were a lot of amazing women who entered the contest. But....thank you, Kristen & SITS , for choosing me. I really appreciate it, especially today (my day hasn't been that bad just a hard day for T with a darn tooth coming in). I'm really excited!!!