Nothing Says “I Love You” Like Kettle Corn

January 23, 2012

Seriously.

Ask Lynn. I sent her some last year, and she’s the kettle corn expert.

If Steve gave me a bag of Angie’s Kettle Corn for Valentine’s Day, I’d be the happiest girl in Tucson.

Really.

Especially since cutting gluten out, I’m Angie’s biggest fan.

And guess what they just came out with?

Valentine’s packs.

You know, so you don’t have to be another one sending your kid to school with candy on Valentine’s day.

You can send your child to school with a gluten free, clean (only 4 ingredients!) snack.

Last week, Jack had a bag of Angie’s kettle corn on our way to soccer practice. I told him how this year we were going to give them out at school instead of valentines, because they came with cute name tag stickers. He said, “or we could keep them and eat them all..”

Great minds think alike, huh?

Michael even loves it:

…though I was instructed to not “fill out the stickers. Or even put the stickers on” his bags.

He won’t even let me put notes in his lunchbox anymore. :(

Anyway, I have a fun giveaway!! Angie’s is giving a Valentine’s pack away to one of you!

To enter…. (this is the fun part…)

I, for once, am making it all about the facebook – since most of you are on it.

1. “Like” Angie’s Kettle Corn. You’ll get fun updates from Angie, and you’ll be able to see the random fun photos I post on their wall :)

2. “Like” Our Crazy Boys. Where else can you get snippets about the boys, links to posts, updates about my Momtourage and DinnerTool articles, and random questions now and then?

Don’t have a facebook account? Well, ok. I won’t judge you. Leave me up to two comments and tell me something that you like to do for Valentine’s Day. I promise I won’t email you and try to get you to open a facebook account.

Leave a separate comment for each “like” because trust me, giveaways are much easier when everyone leaves separate comments.

Ready? Set? Goooooo!

Small-ish print: I was provided with a Valentine pack of Angie’s kettle corn. Then we ate it and I had to go buy more for Jack’s class. Even if I wasn’t provided with kettle corn, I would have posted a giveaway because I want you to all love Angie’s as much as I do. I will choose a winner via random.org on 1/30 and will notify via email. Good luck!  

{ 18 comments }

Sh*t Mom Blogger’s Kids Say

January 19, 2012

So, you’ve probably seen the hilarious Brandi in Sh*t Mom Bloggers Say.

Oh, you haven’t?

Ok. Here it is. I’ll wait.

A few days after Brandi’s video came out, a video from a Mom Blogger’s husbandcame out…

It was equally hilarious. I watched the videos with the boys and Michael decided that we needed to add to the craziness.

Because, apparently, I drive them a little crazy with the blog talk.

So, I bring you… Sh*t (or stuff, because we are kid friendly) Mom Blogger’s Kids Say:

Don’t judge. I know your kids say the same thing to you.

{ 18 comments }

It’s Official: I’m a Wrestling Mom

January 17, 2012

Michael’s first wrestling tournament was this weekend. Eight hours in a high school gymnasium, and we got to see Michael wrestle three times.

Yes, that’s fairly normal.

We won some (1) and lost some (2), and we all learned a lot.

I learned…

 

-Always bring seat cushions to a wrestling tournament. Your back (and butt) will thank you after it’s over.

-Bring healthy snacks to a tournament. The snack bar doesn’t have many any healthy (or gluten free) snacks.

-In an 8 hour tournament, there will be one child taken out on a stretcher, three instances of crowds groaning so loud (due to an injury) that it attracted the attention of parents on the other side of the gym, and uncountable amounts of bloddy noses. Only one was broke that I saw. Wrestling isn’t for the faint of heart.

-Murphy says that the minute a boy falls to the mat, doesn’t move, and is rushed out on a stretcher (causing all of the Moms in the gym to shudder and tear up a little), it’ll be your son’s turn to wrestle.

-The bottom is not a good place to be. I learned that I can hold my breath for a long time when Michael gets in this place.

-I learned that I can yell cheer really loud when he gets out of it, and puts his opponent under him.

-Next time, I need to remind the ref where to turn the winners so their parents can get an awesome view of their kid winning their very first wrestling match (one would think all the yelling would clue him in…).

-I learned this this face is the best face a Mom could hope to see. We are working on Michael’s confidence (you guys didn’t tell me this was so hard!) and seeing pride on his face when talking with his coaches is better than anything I’ve seen before.

Being a wrestling Mom is hard. I’d much rather he join the swim team again – there seemed to be less danger there – but if Michael is doing what he loves, and building confidence while doing it… I’m in.

What sports do your kids play? What sports did you play as a kid?

Family alert: The links to Michael’s winning match are here. Period 1, period 2, period 3. One of the losses (they were both to the same kid – so they look the same :) is posted here: Loss

This post is linked to several awesome blogs. What I Learned This Week, Live and Love Out Loud, and Parenting By Dummies. Go visit them and tell them how great they are :)

{ 16 comments }

AZ Centennial Celebration Begins with Way Out West & Wacky!

January 13, 2012

I do believe that you all know just how much I love the desert, right?

Until I find somewhere that has nicer weather, I’m not leaving.

And I haven’t heard of anywhere with nicer weather yet.

Our local FOX news station has been counting down the days until the Arizona centennial since 2009. I kid you not. They started when there was 1,000 days until the centennial.

Don’t ask me why, because I’m not sure of the answer. Maybe they are excited?

There are 31 days left until Feburary 14th, the date Arizona became a state. (There are also 31 days until Kelly’s birthday – I wonder if she knows that Fox News has been counting down to her birthday for the past 3 years…)

The state is planning several events in many cities to celebrate, but we will be staying home celebrating in our own way.

Which, actually, we have been doing for several weeks.

We received a copy of Arizona Way Out West & Wacky recently have have been having a blast reading through it and doing some of the activities.

We have learned interesting things like…

*The deepest point of the Grand Canyon is 6,000 feet. That’s as tall as 1,125 average (5ft 4in) female teachers standing on each other’s shoulders!

*Arizona is part of the Four Corners – a place where New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, and Arizona all meet. You can stand with a hand and a foot in 4 different states at one time! I knew this already because in elementary school, I made a game about the four corners with my fancy schmancy wood carving tool.

*Arizona is home to 13 different types of rattlesnakes. Thankfully, we have only found a few of them in our backyard.

*That thing that we affectionately call a centipede/millipede is actually a Giant Desert Centipede. It can grow up to a foot long, and can have up to 346 legs. The first pair of legs is like fangs, which we have seen when Steve tried to pull one out of Jack’s pocket (his shorts were on the floor and one crawled in) with pliers. It latched on HARD. *gag*

*Arizona has 21 federally recognized Native American tribes. One of the most famous Native American, Geronimo, was from Arizona.

Arizona Way Out West & Wacky has some great recipes (enchiladas, anyone?), crafts (cornhusk dolls!), critter facts, and lots of crossword puzzles and word search games. My boys LOVED learning about all of our critters that we have nicknamed. The book is geared towards elementary school-aged kids, but kids (and adults) of all ages will love it as well!

Arizona Way Out West & Wacky can be purchased online through Amazon.com!

I received a copy of Arizona Way Out West & Wacky to review, and LOVED it! I would never recommend something to you that I didn’t love myself :) Also, there are affiliate links in this post.

{ 6 comments }

Just Another Day at the ER

January 7, 2012

Michael woke up this morning with a swollen eye. Not black and blue. Not goopy. Just a little red and swollen.

With wrestling starting last week and his tendency to get ringworm, I honestly thought it was ringworm. Or the beginning of pink eye. It was swollen enough to take him in.

Since our doctor’s office is closed on the weekends, we went to the local CVS MinuteClinic. We have been there more often than we would like in the past six months or so, and the nurse practitioner who is usually there is wonderful.

We signed in and waited a few minutes. The woman who brought us in was a new nurse. She was young, but seemed nice enough.

She took vital signs, looked at Michael’s eye for a bit and said, “I think you have periorbital cellulitis (a staph infection around your eyeball). I am going to send you to the ER.”

So, I grab my purse and am ready to go… to the ER… like she said…

But she isn’t finished talking.

“My nephew had that last year. He woke up with it and his parents didn’t bring him in. By the time midnight came, he was being rushed into emergency surgery.”

WHAT? DID SHE JUST SAY WHAT I THINK SHE SAID?!?!

Did she just tell me to go to the ER (an emergency, in my book), and then continue to tell us a story about her nephew? Who needed surgery? On his eye? IN FRONT OF MY KID???

Oh yes. She did.

By this time, I look at Michael and his head is down. He’s crying. And scared.

She filled out some paperwork while I tried to assure Michael that he’s ok, and the ER is just like a big Urgent Care.

There are so many Urgent Care centers around us, the kids get nervous when we mention taking them to the ER. 

Probably has something to do with them watching “Untold Stories of the ER.”

As we are walking out, and I am still digesting:

1. What she just said – the possible diagnosis and the personal story

and

2. The fact she just said it in front of Michael

she stops us and says, “Michael, look at me.”

It seemed like she maybe realized what had happened and she was going to apologize?

But no.

“Michael, it’s just another doctor that can tell what’s going on better than we can here. I’m concerned since the infection is so close to your brain…”

and we were gone.

I was stewing, but didn’t have enough digested to say anything to her. I couldn’t believe what she said to him. TWICE.

Michael cried the entire 20 minute drive to the ER.

I felt about as awful and scared as a Mom can feel.

He sat there crying, blowing his nose, and crying some more. Can you imagine what both of his eyes looked like after that?

We went to the closest pediatric ER and at the front desk, they just looked at him in awe. I explained why we were there and why his eyes looked like they did, and they put us in a room immediately.

We waited about 5 minutes for the nurse to come in. I explained the situation to her and she talked to Michael and calmed him down. I almost hugged her.

For the next few hours, we waited on the doctor, got a CT scan to see about the structures around his eye, and played around with all of the fun stuff a hospital has.

Powerade – usually a big no in our house:

The remote control that controls the tv, lights, AND has a nurse call button:

And the fancy fun bed:

The entire experience ended on a positive note, thankfully.

We were sent home with a “viral infection of the eye” diagnosis.

No surgery.

No brain infection.

He should be better in a few days, and back to wrestling by Tuesday.

Here’s to hoping the rest of the team doesn’t have it…

 

{ 18 comments }

← Previous Entries