Did I tell you how much fun I had at the auto show?

Yes. I went to the auto show.

Without my boys.

With my girl.

I know what you’re thinking. It’s the same thing I was thinking.

“Why am I going to the auto show? I don’t blog about cars. I don’t really know about cars.”

But I drive cars. And I ride in them. And I put my boys in them. So, technically, I’m an expert.

And because I’m an expert, my peeps at GMC invited me to be art of their social media team at the auto show. I was among car enthusiasts, auto bloggers, and other lifestyle bloggers.

Can I tell you that I had a BLAST?!

I am dying to share some of my photos, and I know you’re dying to see them.

And if you’re not, then pretend to be enthused. Ok?

This is Tom Peters. Tom designed the Camaro that you see here. Every curve. Every bump. Every surface.

The new Camaro has a suede interior. Since I haven’t ridden in a Camaro since I was in high school, I can’t tell you if this is a new feature or not, but I can tell you that it’s pretty nice.

You know who this is, right?

Jay Leno has driven almost 10,000 miles with his Chevy Volt. Normally, that’s not a reason to have a party. But the Volt is an electric car. Leno has driven 88 of those 10,500 miles with gas.

I learned a new term at the auto show: hypermiler.

Jay Leno is a hypermiler, as are the guys who drive Volts to work in Detroit during the winter and refuse to turn on the heat in their car, lest run out of electric energy and force the Volt to switch to gas.

Crazy, if you ask me. But kind of cool.

This is a Cadillac concept car called the Ciel. Concept means it’ll never be manufactured like it is, but it’s pretty cool, huh? Definitely not a city car.

The paint job on this Camaro was amazing. Like, “WowHowDoYouGetItSoShiny?” amazing.

The show was a little overwhelming. It was huge. This is part of Chevy’s area. Just part. The big Chevy bowtie on the wall was a television screen. They played commercials and such every once in a while. it was fun.

Another overwhelming (but totally fun) part for this almost stay-at-home-mom? Press conferences.

This was the Cadillac press conference. On the stage, Cadillac introduced their new luxury sedan, the XTS. I’m not a car buff, but I can tell you that some of the features on this car are just COOL. Like automatic breaking and the CUE (Cadillac user experience) interface. If I had to sum up why the auto show was so cool in three minutes, I’d ask you to watch this video.

You just can’t experience the auto show with a post. I’m so thankful to Amy for building up her buff arms holding the camera and taping the XTS reveal. It really is quite an experience.

This is the Chevy press conference that Amy videotaped. Denise, you’ll want to click to 4:40 and watch from there, at the very least :)

Being at the auto show was cool, but even cooler was being able to meet people like Christine Park, who designed the XTS.

Can we take a moment to think about how awesome that is?

She designed a car!

Christine kindly showed Amy and I around the interior of the car. There was a reason for every fabric and material, every stitch and every curve. I had never thought about the person who designs a car before.

As Amy and I were walking around the convention center, we ran across some Hot Wheels cars – life sized ones.

And we took a few minutes to stop by the other car manufacturers. A few of them displayed some fun concept cars, and had some interactive props.

A grilled cheese truck, for instance:

And the fabric covered snowboarding car:

With New Balance wheels,

Room for your boards and SkullCandy speakers that look like headphones,

An iPod docking station (please excuse overexposed photo),

and… a heated footwarmer for the passenger. It is a car designed with snowboarding in mind, after all.

There are just some things you don’t see every day, and this car is one of them.

And one more thing, really quick. I’d hate to leave this out.

The nice people at Porsche were kind enough to give me a tour of their new 911 Carrera.

Knowing I was a “Mommy Blogger,” they wanted to tell me about the features in the new model.

Like room for car seats.

Porsche’s car seats.

You can buy them to fit into the back seat.

Click photo for credit

And there is plenty of trunk space!

Did you know that Porsche cars have their engine in the back and trunk in the front?

Seriously, though, it is a pretty amazing car. If I have an extra $90,000 lying around one day, I’ll totally look at buying one – without the car seats, though. It’ll be all mine.

So, there’s my auto show experience. I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Have you ever been to an auto show? Would you ever go to one?

Thank you, once again, to the amazing folks at GMC, who brought me with them and asked nothing of me in return. Every GMC employee that I have met thus far impresses me more than I can say. They are, by far, the high of all my blogging experiences combined.

Every once in a while, it’s necessary to take a break.

For your sanity, for your family, for yourself.

I didn’t plan on taking a break, but it turns out that it was a necessary thing. I’m trying to keep the computer closed between the hours of 3-8 p.m. which, I have found out, is my most productive time of the day.

Hence, no blog posts going up.

I thought I’d let you know what we have been up to.

My dear friend Nicole brought her family back to Tucson for a few days, and we were able to get some girl time in.

Ignore that messy counter. We’re making memories. 

Jack decided that life around the house was a little boring, so while he was feeding Billy, he threw a mealworm up.

Yes, up.

Onto the ceiling fan. Where it stuck.

Until it fell.

Yup. I can’t even make that up.

I went out on a rare lunch date with some of my best and oldest friends (they’re not old, our friendships are). It was the best birthday gift ever!

Our amazing server wasn’t an amazing photographer, so please pardon the crazy colors. Tucson doesn’t normally have lime green trees :)

Well, maybe my new iPhone4S was the best.

No… they’re tied.

We have been eating artichokes like crazy. With the amazing recipe from The Killer Griller, we have grown to love artichokes during the past few months. Yes, right in time for them to go out of season. But next year, we are ordering a case of them from Ocean Mist Farms right at the beginning of the artichoke season – They seem to have the absolute best artichokes.

Jack and his mini-artichoke. We thought he would love it, and he did. Can can easily eat an entire huge artichoke by himself!

In other news, Michael declared that he wanted a megaphone for Christmas.

Shortly after, Jack decided he wanted one, as well.

Anyone who thinks it’s funny and buys my kids a megaphone for Christmas will be getting nightly midnight visits from me and the megaphone – in person or by telephone.

Also on the Christmas list?

An ATV, an airsoft grenade launcher, and a new iPod touch.

Hmmm…. The list gets smaller as they get older, but it gets more expensive.

And a little crazier.

Oh… Grandma Teetsie came to visit!!!

We got some girl time in while the boys were at school, and Grandma got some much needed spoiling in.

And Jack. He was hamming it up for her.

Michael even got to take a half day off of school and go to lunch with us :)

In other fun news, Jack called our neighbor a vampire.

To her face.

In her defense, she doesn’t look like a vampire. And she doesn’t act like a vampire.

Jack will just do anything for a laugh. Apparently, we are still needing to discuss appropriate and inappropriate things to say to adults.

I know I’ve said it before, but just to be clear.

Michael? NEVER called an adult a vampire.

Or threw mealworms onto the ceiling fan.

Or threw a football really hard in the garage, breaking 7 of Steve’s 30ish Hard Rock shot glasses that he has been collecting for 18 years.

It’s been a crazy few weeks, friends.

The boys have been playing with the Grinch Cam app. Have you seen it? It’s totally worth .99 while the kids are waiting at a restaurant.

The boys have been asking me to lie down with them at night when they go to bed, and knowing that these times are coming to an end before I know it, I’m not saying no.

I’m spending as much time with them as I can, and thinking a lot about where the blog will be when they get to an age where they don’t want me blogging about them anymore.

I realized this fall that I have been missing a lot of time with the boys while I have been blogging about them, and that’s not what any Mom wants. There has to be a balance somewhere, and I’m looking for it.

So, please be patient with me while I over-post one month and under-post the next. I have an almost finished story about the auto show last month and how fun that was for me – a Mom who blogs about her boys. You’ll see that soon. I’m also over here at Dinner Tool a few times a month, and find that sharing facebook status updates are sometimes easier than full blog posts.

Don’t worry – The blog is sticking around, and will still be family-focused, but I’m thinking about adding a little more about the entire family. More recipes that we love and fitness, maybe? I was just accepted as a FitFluential Ambassador and am getting lots of post ideas from other ambassadors. Our life has changed a lot since Our Crazy Boys began in 2009, and I want to make sure to represent that as well as share all of the fun things that are going on out here in the desert.

All bloggers evaluate their blogs every few years, and I guess it’s just my turn!

In addition to the funny stories about the boys and the crazy things they do, what would you like to see more of? Less of? I’m sure we can all come to a compromise ;)

Can I thank you all enough for the kind comments on my last post? You have made me smile :)

I have had this little space among trillions of other websites for almost three years, and I can’t even believe it.

I can’t believe that you still come read my posts, even as I have been branching out from the boys for a bit lately.

I’m stunned that you have enough to say that you take time out of your day to leave a comment. I read each and every one and try to respond to as many as possible.

I am beyond grateful when you take the time to link to one of my posts on facebook or twitter, and completely blown away when you feature me on your blog.

For those of you who read religiously but never comment, you make me smile inside and out every time I hear, “I saw that on your blog.” You may not comment, but I know you are there because every few months I look at my pageviews and my jaw drops. Every. single. time.

Not because my numbers are anywhere near other bloggers, but because all of you clicked over to see if there was anything new here. And to me, that is astounding.

I consider every piece of advice you give, and can’t wrap my brain around the experiences this blog has given me.

I can’t thank my dear friends Suzanne or Darcie enough for talking me into starting a blog and giving me the idea to make it public.

I am also thankful for my amazing family who hasn’t kicked me and my laptop out on the corner yet, though I know the thought has crossed their minds.

So, though you may be thinking “she’s not talking to me, this is only my first time here” or “oh, she must mean so-and-so because I only come by once a month” or whatever else you’re thinking, know that I am talking to YOU.

Thank you. Thank you SO much.

I hope your holiday weekend is wonderful and restful!

Have you ever played High-Low?

Each person in a group tells the high and low of their day, which always makes the low seem a lot less “low.”

Did that make any sense?

Now that I’m back (and almost recovered) from my 48-hour trip to Los Angeles, I thought it would be fun to play high-low with you. Only, there are a lot of highs and not many lows. And I’m including many pictures, because I took about 400 of them in my two days. So I guess I’m changing the rules a little.

I can. It’s my blog.

High #1.

That is all I have to say about that.

High #2.

I got to hang with my dear friend Amy and the wonderful Lisa from GMC. They’re both awesome :)

High #3.

We also got to hang with Joe. He’s hilarious.

He even ate Snickers Steak since we couldn’t find him a Hash House to get Snickers pancakes.

Ok, maybe he didn’t eat it, but it did come in contact with his steak. That counts in my book.

High #4.

Amy and I were able to meet some amazing local bloggers like Suz and Michelle. Suz even put a name to the “skinny arm pose” which, by looking at the rest of the photos in this post, I need to practice a little more.

High #5.

Dinner with Eric and Carter from the GMC Trade Secrets series. And not “dinner” like we ate in the same room and posed for a photo or two” but dinner. Like, Carter sat next to me and I stupidly ordered arugula salad and then thought “you can’t eat that in front of Carter Oosterhouse! You’ll have arugula in your teeth and look stupid in front of a famous person!” dinner.

Yup. This is about the time when I thought about my appetizer choice… listening to Michelle and thinking how smart she was for ordering tuna. 

Can I tell you how great these guys are? The night was full of great conversation, amazing wine (so I was told), and lots of laughs. Carter tells some funny stories. By the end of the evening, I had forgotten that they were famous. That’s how fun (and down to earth) they were.

My funny story for the night? Even though there was a professional photographer at our dinner, I had to get an iPhone photo for Grandma Teetsie, who was so excited that she couldn’t sleep that night. As I went to put my arm around Carter for the photo, I touched his butt. ACCIDENTALLY. Someone else may have ignored that and smiled for the picture. Me? I couldn’t ignore it. I said, “I totally didn’t mean to touch your butt. I promise.”

I was a little bit mortified.

Moving on.

High #6.

As a mom of boys (or Dude Mom Lifer, as Amanda says…), this was definitely a high. The Hot Wheels Camaro. The paint job? Cost more than the car.

It was so shiny. And pretty. I took way more photos of it than I should have.

My low?

The only one?

Missing these guys and their Dad:

Even if Jack thinks it’s hilarious to do this in all the photos I try to take of him recently:

I still missed them :)

I had more fun than I thought possible at the L.A. Auto Show. I’ll share more photos and fun car facts later this week!

My dear friend Amanda was kind enough to feature my boys and I today on her blog. You can check it out here. And you should poke around a little, because she’s hilarious!  

So, I have this fan.

She comments on almost every post I have published.

Sometimes, she cracks me up.

And apparently, she has fans, too.

I have received a few e-mails from people telling me that they always scan my comments to see if she wrote anything funny, because she cracks them up, as well.

It’s my Mom. If you haven’t noticed before, she comments under the name Grandma Teetsie and she’s pretty. darn. funny.

There are days when I feel like Amila, receiving unsolicited advice:

And days when I receive messages about my parenting skills:

And days when she yells at me (through MY blog) from across the country:

Here are a few more, because I can get away with blogging about my Mom one time, and one time only for good measure:

So, I would love for you to stick around and read my blog for, you know, my posts. But if all else fails, stick around for Mom, ok?

Love you, Mom. :-)

—-

This post was originally published 1/17/2010 and remains one of my favorite posts.

I hope Mom makes you giggle as much as I do. 

My blog looks a little different because I wanted to catch your attention today. See, during the time it will take you to read this blog post, 5 women will be affected by domestic violence – that’s 145 every hour. Sadly, 1 in 4 women will be affected during their lifetime. 

I’m working with the Tucson YWCA, and The Allstate Foundation to help raise awareness about domestic violence. You can help by joining me for a special event to recognize Domestic Violence Awareness month. View our #PurplePurse Tucson TweetUp invitation for more details. Though the event is called a TweetUp, you need not be active on Twitter, Facebook, or any other social media organization to attend! 

Tucson isn’t the only city hosting a TweetUp event. There are also events being held in Cleveland, Cincinnati, ElPaso, Greater Los Angeles, New York City, Chicago, Seattle, and Birmingham. The YWCA chapters in these cities have been challenged by the Allstate Foundation to have at least 100 people attend each FREE event. For every live (as opposed to a virtual one) attendee, the foundation will donate $100 to the Tucson YWCA to fund programs that support domestic violence victims. 

And if you haven’t heard already, there’s a secret on The Purple Purse Website that will be revealed on October 10th. That’s what my widget is counting down to. We’ll be talking about the secret at our event, as well.

You can show your support by wearing purple to the event, bringing a purse to donate, or virtually attending our event through Twitter. Follow the #PurplePurse hashtag on Twitter during the October 14th event (from 5:30-7p.m. PST) to virtually attend.  

Many of you may not know that this cause is dear to me. Thankfully, I have never been a victim of domestic violence, but spent two years at a local YWCA volunteering to help victime of domestic violence and their children, and acting as a victim escort for victims of sexual assault when I was first married. Every little bit that we as a community can do will help raise awareness about domestic violence and let victims know that help is available.  

Last week, I was invited to be a part of DownEast Basics‘ Bloggers’ Night Out in Tucson. We quite literally took over the store!

I was introduced to DownEast Basics a few years ago by Stephanie from Metropolitan Mama, and have loved looking at their website since. When I found out there was a store opening in our area, I was pretty excited.

DownEast Basics has boutique-like finds at affordable prices. Forgive me for not posting a photo of me in it, but I bought my first ever jean skirt, which you can see on the darling Nicole from The Pixel Boutique…

And I couldn’t pass up this sweater, even though Tucson is currently holding steady at 90 degrees:

Pictures? Oh yes, I have pictures.

Our Tucson group is quite impressive! Here are (back first, left to right) Karen, Kelly, Dayna, yours truly, Sharla, Leah, Val, Darcie, and Nicole. Some left earlier, and I know next time to get a photo early in the night!

Here is the the always stylish Chelsea getting ready to try on some clothes.

I’m so bummed this photo turned out blurry, but here are Kelly and Karen trying on the oh-so-popular Manhattan Dress.

Decisions, decisions. There were a lot of choices.

Fifteen-ish bloggers, three dressing rooms, and a whole lot of clothes to try on. We all had a blast!

DownEast Basics is in the middle of a great fundraiser right now – LIVE for Pink!

From now until October 16th, Down East Basics is running its annual LIVE for Pink donation event – read the inspiring stories of DownEast’s special LIVE for Pink photo shoot with everyday women impacted by breast cancer, and more information on the campaign here.

I was compensated by DownEast Basics for this review. All opinions are my own, of course. 

I love my car.

That being said, I’m getting about 14 miles per gallon out of it.

Did I mention that I live about 15 miles from civilization? So, yes. One gallon of gas (or $3.20ish) to get to the store.

It’s getting old.

We were thinking about downsizing, and like magic, I met the amazing GMC corporate trio (Joe, Lisa, and Andrea) at BlogHer last month. They took the MomMob out for breakfast at an amazing diner and wowed us with great conversation.

Little known fact about our household: We have always been a GMC/Chevy family. 

I was thinking that a big car isn’t necessary for our family anymore. If we could save some cash, I would be up for downsizing. The problem was that taking a 15 minute test drive wasn’t going to tell me if I was ready to downsize.

Driving a car and running errands in it for a week would tell me.

Joe and Lisa set me up. For one week, I was the proud borrower of a GMC Terrain.

I *loved* it. So did the kids. Here’s why.

1. Back up cameras. My car has back up sensors, but I’m much more visual than my car is. I loved being able to see what was behind me. I have a feeling that these cameras will eventually be in all cars (you know, because I am an expert in the automotive industry and all).

2. The Terrain is all about not wasting space. It has a few large storage compartments, including the glove box. I have a slight issue with the tiny one in my car. It’s hardly big enough to fit my owner’s manual!

3. Digital is fun. Let’s just admit it. There are tons of screen options available in the Terrain and it was easy to navigate. The bright red glow was fun, too. We’re not usually out at night, but I did drive our sitter home after dark and Jack was with us. He LOVED that the entire center panel (where the backup camera screen is) glowed red. It was kind of fun.

4. Do you see the picture below? This is my favorite feature. The back door (lift gate) can be set so it only raises 3/4 of the way up. I love this because my Tahoe does not have it, and my lift gate hits my garage door almost every time I unload something.  GMC is genius.

5. I was able to run to Target, Fry’s, and Costco in one trip -and all of my purchases fit in the storage area! I had some issues getting the 12 bin organizer to fit, so I tweeted about it. Joe tweeted right back and informed me that the rear seats move forward and aft to accomodate for larger items!

Once I moved the back seat forward, everything fit perfectly.

After the week, I calculated my gas mileage – 19 mpg (city mileage) in the Terrain. Definitely better than my 14 mpg, and great mileage for a car of it’s size. Just not quite enough to ditch my (close to being paid off) car for.

Our family loved the Terrain, and though we decided that we weren’t *quite* ready to downsize just yet, you can be sure that we will look at GMC when buying our next car. The features in their cars are awesome, and their blogger relations aren’t bad, either ;)

What kind of car do you drive? In the words of the little bear… is it too big, too small, or just right?

And bloggers – I’m dying to know what company has impressed you with their blogger relations. GMC is at the top of the list for me!

You know what this is, right?

It’s the Spinning Circle Of Doom.

If you’re on a first name basis, you can call it SCOD.

I do.

I  unknowingly welcomed it when I downloaded Lion on my pretty little computer last week, and I don’t want it here anymore.

I think Apple should warn those who need to be protected from themselves people like me when they attempt to install a really, really big operating system onto a computer without a lot of memory. But since they didn’t, it seems that I have single-handedly rendered my computer almost inoperable.

I can’t upload photos.

I can’t access a web page in less than 1 minute.

Per page.

I can’t play with Picnik. That makes me sad.

So be patient with me, while my beloved UPS man brings more RAM to my house.

While we wait for the Man In Brown, I’d love for you to go visit the blogs I am reading right now :)

—

I have been feeling pretty awful for the past few months and as an experiment, I stopped eating gluten to see what would happen. Within a few days I felt almost 100% better, and I’m not planning on changing my eating habits back any time soon. Here are some helpful blogs I have found:

The Gluten Free Diet has been a great resource for all things gluten.

I found Mom Off Track because of her awesome gluten free post yesterday, and have been having fun poking around her blog.

I have made Jesse’s Stuffed Zucchini twice in the past week, and plan on making it again soon. Her blog, The Happy Go Lucky Vegan is full of great recipes. And even if you’re not vegan, go check it out. I add chicken to a lot of her recipes.

Udi’s Gluten Free foods is a great resource. They’re active on social networking sites and love to interact with their customers. My friend Jo-Lynne of Musings Of A Housewife, who has been a great resource to me, is also working with Udi’s to help people learn more about going Gluten-Free.

Life hasn’t been all about food here, though…

My friend Karen has started a new blog (in addition to her “old” blog, Desert Deals Diva) – it’s fun and lighthearted – take a look at Chica Ramblings.

My friend Val has been a blogger (at heart) for a while… she just didn’t have her blog started yet. Now she does! Go welcome her at Mom Gone Mad, please!

You have two days left to enter Vicarious Chelsea‘s Ice.com giveaway… Today is her birthday, too – so wish her a happy day when you enter.

I have been reading Jen’s blog, Our Daily Big Top, for almost as long as I have been blogging. Her oldest boy is Michael’s age, and we became instant blog friends. Though she lives right where the earthquake hit yesterday, her and her cuties didn’t feel a thing. You should go read about what they were doing when the earthquake hit.

That’s what I have for now. I promise to be much more talkative after the UPS man comes to visit me.

I’m a Mac girl, and I’ll admit that I’m a bit of a computer geek. I switched from PC to Apple about six years ago, and can’t imagine using a PC ever again.

In the school district where I work and where my kids go to school… Apples and iPads are everywhere. It’s a beautiful thing.

It’s the little things about my Mac that I love. The ability to move my cursor to a corner of my screen to clear my desktop or look at all of my open windows. The intuitive trackpad that lets me quickly flip through photos or documents. I’m all about the little things (it would be great if you all could email my husband and remind him of that ;)

Though I love everything Mac – including iWork - I think we all have to admit that Microsoft Office is here to stay. Apple’s iWork program isn’t compatible with many PCs, and when submitting my bi-weekly articles to DinnerTool and Momtourage I use Microsoft Word.

Our household bills? One Excel spreadsheet has held the file for the last 10 years.

My blog email comes conveniently to my laptop via Outlook. And Powerpoint? I love planning lessons for my students using Powerpoint. I know that if I email it to parents, they will be able to easily open the file.

I bet you can imagine my joy when a representative from Microsoft contacted me and asked if they could send me a new version of Microsoft Office for the new school year.

And I bet you can imagine my excitement when the new program came and I opened a box full of “little things.”

Actually, not just little things, but thoughtful little things.

A backpack filled with school supplies for the boys, and Microsoft Office 2011 for Mac, as well!

Attached to each group of surprises was a hand-written note. Yes, I said hand-written.

And the surprises? Boy surprises. Thoughtful surprises. A Star Wars lunch box filled with pencils and erasers, with a note about how using the undo button in Office is easier than erasing.

There was even a little note attached to the glue and scissors that talked about how cutting and pasting in Word is not as messy as it used to be.

I was *so* impressed by this thoughtful package. So impressed that I had to share it with you.

Some of the fun new things that Microsoft Office 2011 brings?

-Quickly embed PowerPoint slideshows and Excel Spreadsheets into a blog post (no, I’m not sharing my budget file with you. You might send me to counseling.).

-Word and PowerPoint make it easy to quickly crop photos within the programs. No need to have your editing software open.

-OneNote can be used to easily organize class research, notes, and bibliographical information in one place. I believe this program was made for Michael middle school aged students.

Thank you, Microsoft, for sending my boys and I a thoughtful mid-week surprise!

Microsoft sent us an awesome package, but I was not required to write a blog post about it. I was so impressed by their blogger relation skills that I had to share it with you :)