A Pink Frosting Birthday

Hey all–have been super sick this week so not much energy to post. However, my friend Maryann has an awesome story to share! Hope you all love it as much as I did!

Maryann lives in Littleton, CO with her wonderful husband, their two fabulous (most of the time) teenagers and a large assortment of lovable pets. She is currently interviewing artists for her upcoming book.  Her blog is www.artists.50interviews.com

A Pink Frosting Birthday

We really lucked out with the weather that day.   When the rain began, I worried it may ruin our backyard birthday party.  Our daughter Stella and friends were celebrating her third birthday, and she was quite ready for cake.  Soon the sun burst out and a brilliant rainbow arched above.  Parents pulled out cameras and snapped away.  The rain dried up as fast as it came.  Cake eating could commence!

Stella, the birthday girl, was proudly wearing her favorite lacy, pink Barbie dress and couldn’t have been more excited to notice she matched the Barbie cake I had so painstakingly crafted that morning.

These kinds of baking projects always look easier than they are.  The inverted 8 cup measuring glass produced a gorgeous skirt-shaped cake.  Unfortunately, Barbie only sank up to her thighs in the soft white cake mound.  It turned out to be easier to make another cake than to cut off Barbie’s legs.  I know, because my husband and I tried!  Needless to say, wire cutters, pliers and a steak knife weren’t up to the task of rendering a shorter Barbie.  I then hastily prepared a small cake to place on top of the first cake.  It was soon trimmed to size and set into place.  I frosted the cake around a carefully positioned Barbie.  The pink of the frosting matched Stella’s dress to perfection.  White frosting was stuffed into the cake decorator to embellish Barbie’s full length pink skirt with garlands and rosettes.  Two big puffs of frosting were applied to her ample chest and Barbie was ready for her birthday debut.

The sun was shining and it was time for cake!  I picked up Stella and plopped her upon the picnic table.  Her plump, little, bare feet poked out of her lacy pink skirt.  The Barbie cake was ceremoniously placed in front of her and her proud smile was caught on film for a cherished family memory.

The little pink dress is now tucked away in my daughter’s scrap-box of mementos.  That home and big backyard are just a memory too.  It’s still there; it just houses another happy family now.

I’ve made many cakes and enjoyed many rainbows since that day.  But that particular day with my family, including both a rainbow and a cake, remains one of my favorites.

Other ways to reach Maryann

WEBSITE: www.CreativeMarketingCafe.com
FACEBOOK: www.facebook.com/maryannswartz
LINKEDIN: http://www.linkedin.com/in/maryannswartz

Snow Sculpture Championship in Breckenridge

MOM! HELP!

I HATE laundry. Oh, wait, no I DESPISE laundry. It is some wacko monster with 4 heads in my house. If you cut off one head, 2 more grow back!

Every time Carter is sick I work so much online (stress reliever) that my house looks like a tornado hit it—oh wait, one did this summer so I guess that can be my excuse. If you haven’t heard the update from our tornado damage, insurance is putting on a new roof, new back windows (seal broke and water leaked in between panes), painting, siding, gutters. HOW FUN WILL THAT BE???

Laundry room that is so not functional for a family of four. Doubles as Chardonnay’s (dog #1) room.

Overflow of dirties into a corner of my yet to be furnished dining room:

The living room couch doubling as a folding and sorting area.

Apparently I am not the only one who hates laundry! Kenmore created this great new program which I am finding absolutely hilarious! I didn’t submit a video to it but I linked to my favorite one below. She is freakin’ funny! But check out the other videos and click to vote for who you like best! http://www.youtube.com/Kenmore You can even submit your own video and try to be one of three lucky winners who receive Kenmore high-efficiency appliances!

Kenmore takes you from “crazy” to clean and green!
Kenmore appliances help you clean up better, and green up while you’re using them. Like laundry pairs that get out all kinds of stains in one load without stain sticks! Dishwashers that clean even tough foods like dried-on egg and oatmeal. All with energy and water savings that are good for the environment and your wallet! And with the environment in mind, Kenmore will donate $5 for every video submitted and 50 cents for every video viewed (up to $25,000) to the Roots & Shoots program.

I wrote this post while participating in a blog tour campaign by Mom Central on behalf of Kenmore and received a gift card to thank me for taking the time to participate.

Money

OK, so today I have all these thoughts about money rambling about in my head. I don’t really expect anyone to comment to this post but I just need to get it out of the head and onto the paper. Last night, I had to turn Obama off. I am tired of hearing about the economy. It seems like that is all anyone talks about. I turned him off because as much as I am embarrassed to admit this, I am in the 5% of people that won’t benefit a lick from this stimulus package. In fact, it will probably hurt us. Why is that so hard for me to admit publically? Most people would be happy about that but I work very hard to make our life as understated as possible. We buy very little show offy type stuff (we have a few things, lol). But the cold hard truth is that we are more comfortable in a Ford truck than a Mercedes.

Bob and I come from hard working families who did everything they could to make us successful and we are. We both appreciate the sacrifices our parents made for us. We would like to try to be as good as parents as they were. Neither one of us grew up like our boys, who blink at something and it appears. I honestly worry about Connor when he leaves the nest and realizes that money doesn’t magically fall out of Dads wallet. But I digress as usual.

Why does money seem to be the center of everything lately? I walk away from conversations because while I truly get what is going on, it is not happening in my family. Obama critizizes execs who fly on private jets. Is AirForce 1 now being run by Southwest? Execs fly that way for many of the same reasons he does, security and privacy. Same with his precious little blackberry. Stock brokers and bankers have to have the same security. Seriously, think about it. Some of these execs in the financial markets have some very sensitive info. That doesn’t make you stuck up. We usually stay at the Ritz on trips. Know why? The corporate rate is cheaper than the Holiday Inn. But, yeah, makes everyone look like the proverbial ‘fat cat’. I have actually heard of companies spending more money now to stay at the Holiday Inn to avoid negative press. How crazy is that?

It bothers me to see my husband attacked because of his profession but what is going on in my personal life bothers me just as much. Seriously, most of my friends are having some sort of financial issues. We are not doing as well as last year either but I am the first to admit we are not hurting right now. But I feel like I just cannot talk to anyone about the things I want to enjoy. How do I ask my friend if we should go to the Bahama’s or Hawaii for Con’s birthday when I just found out that her house is in foreclosure or she needs 4 new tires? I know it would be insensitive but if we are friends than why is one convo less valid than the other? Why do I feel like I shouldn’t ever bring it up?

Yesterday I had a friend call and ask me about the personal organizer I just hired. Why does telling him that she is $50 an hour embarrass me? I have a right to hire someone to do something I don’t want to do. I don’t NEED an organizer. I WANT one and I can afford it. So, what?

Same thing with an upcoming trip. I got a good deal on a room and am going alone. Why do I feel like such a personality flawed B for not being willing to share my room to reduce someone elses cost?

As I read this back, I know how random it all sounds but I am glad I said it. I feel like I can’t be myself with my friends because I am in that dreaded 5% and I hate that. It is a really lonely feeling when you can’t talk about 1/2 of the stuff in your life because you feel guilty.

I love my friends and family and hope that Obama’s plan helps them. I miss going out to lunch and talking about the latest sales, getting our nails done or just chatting about happy stuff. Maybe that makes me shallow but I just want things to be the way they used to be for everyone.

Let me also make it very clear that this is solely my issue. No one has intentionally made me feel like this. I am dealing with my own guilt here.

Come Party With Me Tonight!

Are you ready to support the American Heart Association’s Go Red For Women Campaign at our Twitter Party Tonight?

I have been a big supporter of the American Heart Association for years now given that both my parents and inlaws have heart issues. I am able to help the AHA out tonight using my ‘influence’ (whatever that may be) on twitter to hold a twitter party in support of the Go Red For Women Campaign. We are working with Campbell’s, Egglands Best, Kerasote and a bunch of other great companies to help spread the word! So, if you have ever wondered what this twitter thing is all about or you want to win some great prizes from me tonight. Go check out how the twitter party works and hang out virtually with me tonight!

Virtual Food Drive

My friend Toni-Lynn’s husband has been laid off from the auto industry for quite some time now. It seems like her whole town is. Here in Denver, 6000 more families than expected applied for food stamps last month. Sadly, it is a sign of the times and I am hoping to make just a small difference!

Toni-Lynn and I put our heads together to see what we could do to help our local communities through our websites and coupon skills. What we came up with was a Virtual Food Drive! She is already hard at work. You have to read this story of how she bought 316 items for $2.35. She really is the coupon queen. If I win the $100 from the Mommy Blogger contest, I am sending it to Toni-Lynn to shop with as I know she can do much better than I can! I would love to know that my friends were onboard with helping out with the food drive. The goal is to inspire people to donate to their local food banks. Please think about getting involved!

Partly Sunny, Not as Cold

Picture worth a thousand words!

Total Drama Photo

Today started innocently enough. I had a press tour scheduled for a new educational, online program (which I will blog about on Backdoor Homeschool Tools soon). I had a few things on my to-do list. One was send a picture and bio over to Carissa and Jyl at MomItForward for the GNO event that I am guest tweeting at next week. I have had several people in the last few weeks ask for a photo of me, since Carissa’s request was the third “bonk on the head” as Miranda put it the other day to get a darn photo of me that I didn’t hate, I decided to tackle the task today. I thought it would be easy to find one on the computer somewhere. Surely, there was a decent photo I could use, right? Well, after a search turned up nothing I liked I washed my hair, put makeup on and had Connor take one . Wasn’t quite right so I got all stressed and decided to go have one taken. I mean, I need to present myself professionally, right?

So, I called a few places and ended up at PictureIt Studios at the Southlands Mall. Chris was fun to work with when I told him that the picture had to be of ’skinny me’ and kept refusing all versions showing a double chin. Clearly, that chin is not mine so you could see my confusion as to why it would keep appearing in pictures?!? Finally I gave up trying to make it go away and we decided that I would do a body shot to use as an avatar at We Fit Families. You can see my frustration at this process in the first photo above! See the attitude poor Chris had to deal with?

After awhile though, I was having fun. Chris made me laugh as we talked about what it must be like to be a model and I did a bunch of silly, sassy model photos. I then sat down with Haley who was an absolutely kick! She made me laugh at myself some more and kept helping to see myself from someone else perspective, someone not as critical of me as, um, ME! We spent the time talking about the Wii Fit and then the hilarious thing, is that she sends me over to the cookie store while I waited for her to finish up. Gee, thanks Haley! (Reality check: she just told me about the cookies, I choose to go in, and the boys really do say, gee thanks, Haley!) I got two cute photos out of the whole ordeal and a fun hour spent. Then on the way home, I remembered that I actually had these photo’s of me in my last year of teaching that were the sort of professional head shotty thing (OK, standard school photos) I was initially looking for. But, they were terrible. I couldn’t use those, could I? I got home and found them and guess what?? I really like them. I was so upset by them when they were taken and today I love them. Just perfect for a bio picture.

The experience makes me wonder why I am so critical of myself these days? Why do women (on the whole) see our flaws before our perfections? It made me realize that no matter how much weight I lose I will probably still be critical of me. I need to work on that. Thank you to Carissa for being my third bonk on the head! I think I needed it more than I realized. My FUN (didn’t get the stuffy ones I went in for) photo’s below are my first baby step to accepting me for who I am, um, double chin and all.

So, friends (and random strangers reading this), since I am going all out and bearing my new brave soul to the world, help me pick a picture that I should use for my Twitter avatar. Leave me a comment and tell me which of the four pictures (NOT the first one, that is a joke photo) you like the best. Thanks!

Mii and My Wii Fit Progress

Those of you waiting for Chapter 2 of that saga will have to wait no more but the ending is not all that exciting. I decided that all that anger is not good for me and I moved on. Actually, I moved up and made something bigger, better and ultimately am more proud of. My good friend Toni-Lynn and I thought it would be a much more valuable to start a community that focused on the whole family and not  just one way to lose weight. There is no right/wrong way and what works for me may not work for you. So, we brought together like minded parents and are just supporting each other with stories, hints, and love. For me, I still really like my Wii Fit but it is certainly not the end all, be all of weight loss strategies. It is one tool that I like to use. So, for those of you dying to meet ‘mii’ and see how I am doing on it, go over to We Fit Families and see more pictures I just posted. I am going to update by progress in pictures over there from now on.

Got My Wii Fit This Week!

I am having an absolute blast on my Wii Fit! I bought a pretty pink yoga mat and silicone cover for it and it just makes me feel so pretty using it! The boys don’t even mind the pink as they are having a blast on it too!

The first time you log on you do a body test which gives you your Wii Fit. Drumroll please….33! That is three years younger than I really am. Sadly, it told me I was overweight, and plumped my little mommy mii out. But I was thrilled with my age. I set my goals to lose 20 pounds in two months. Very doable I think. I love the hula hoop ans super hula hoop games. You can really feel it in your sides the next day. I have a record of little over 300. Not bad for 6 days of using it. The yoga is great to do because it really makes sure that your core stays inline. I also love the tilt game for balance. We have been pretty competitive in our house with that game.

In other news, I started a new forum for fitness. It is called We Fit Families and the focus is all on helping to make families healthier in the new year! My theory is-the family that plays together, stays together!

Next Page »