Fisher Nuts Cookbook Giveaway

The air has turned from warm to cool and soon the ground will be coated in white. I don't know about you, but for me, it means time for holiday decorating and baking! I bake A LOT of cookies and treats to share with friends and family. To give something homemade is really giving something from yourself. It makes you feel good to give it and makes the person on the other end feel good to receive it.

Soon, kitchens will be warm and full of sweet smells. Trays will be piled with sugary confections, wrapped and topped with a bow to hand to a neighbor, teacher, co-worker or mail carrier. Ahhh, I love this time of year! How about you?

 Fisher Nuts are a staple in my kitchen. I use the pecans for pie and chocolate "turtle" candy, walnuts for all types of cookies and about 5 other types of nuts to make an italian cookie that my father's grandmother used to make.

In honor of the upcoming "baking" season, we are going to have another giveaway sponsored by Fisher Nuts!! Woo-hoo!

Entering this giveaway is going to be easy and the best part is, if you win, you get to share! That's right! Five lucky readers will win TWO cookbooks, one to keep and one to share with a friend! How about that for giving!

To enter this giveaway, simply share in the comments below:

Your favorite holiday treat that you make or one that you receive. Why is it your favorite?


This giveaway will begin today (11/23) and end (11/30). US residents only. Winners will be chosen randomly on 11/30 and announced on this post 12/1. Please be sure to leave your email in  comment so I may contact you for mailing.

Good Luck!!

I wanted to also let you know that Fisher Nuts is also having a "Handmade from the Heart" Sweepstakes going on until 12/10.

 Share your favorite dessert recipe or gift giving tip that includes their brand and you could win a $50 Visa Gift Card!!  It's easy: "Like" their Facebook page and click on the "Sweepstakes" tab. You should so enter!!


***Cookbooks were provided by Fisher Nuts for this giveaway.****

*************WINNERS ANNOUNCED!! ****************

List Randomizer
There were 7 items in your list. Here they are in random order:
1. 8
2. 2
3. 1
4. 7
5. 5
6. 3
7. 6
Timestamp: 2010-12-01 03:06:40 UTC

I counted from top to bottom, (skipping my comment) to place in random order, then with a click of a button, the computer decided and we have the top 5 that will be sent a cookbook to keep and one to share with a friend!

Congrats go to :
Dawn W., Andrea, Suburban Prep, Susitravl and Tanya!

It's Catch Up Time

Good Morning!!

I had a couple of posts planned for today but, I have to admit, the trip to NYC wiped me out. I still need one more day to recover! Age is setting in I am afraid! Haha!

What will I be catching up on to share with you?

Reviews

I am almost finished with reading Apolo Ohno's new book Zero Regrets and I will be sharing a short review. It may also tie in with more Olympian news...stay tuned!

Another review which is almost complete is that of the Pampered Chef live cooking show that aired on Nov. 11th. Great cooking tips were shared and I look forward to giving you the skinny!

Some great posts are in the pipe to take us through the holiday, but one I am really excited to share with you is:

Holiday Giveaway

Mom Got Blog has teamed up with the Fisher Nuts brand and will be having another giveaway!! The last time we had a giveaway it was so well received that I know this will be fun as well! Check back tomorrow for all the details!!

I hope you had a fabulous weekend!

Winner of the Mother's Day Giveaway!

Congratulations to Lauren of Shooting Stars Mag for winning the Mother's Day Gift Giveaway, sponsored by lulu.com!

Lauren, welcome to Mom Got Blog and I hope that you are able to come back and share what item you chose to create and let us know how it came out! Curious minds want to know!

I try to get a few posts written on the weekends but today...this is it. I am back out to the yard to finish clearing flower beds of unwanted weeds and spreading 5 YARDS of mulch! I could not think of anything MORE fun to do on a beautiful Saturday afternoon (she says sarcastically), can you??

Enjoy your weekend and congrats again to our new friend Lauren!

Mother's Day Giveaway!

I had such a fun time hosting a giveaway on the blog!! I hope you had fun too.

 I have a surprise for you...

I am hosting another one!
Mother's Day is right around the corner and I am always trying to think of new and creative ideas for gifts, however, I am forever thinking about ideas and never putting them into action...so flowers are my stand-by gift that has been given for the last few years.  After the last giveaway, I was contacted by a rep from Lulu to see if I had an interest in hosting a Mother's Day Gift Idea Giveaway. After seeing what the item(s) would be, I thought yes! Finally! A good idea and project to do with the kids!

Would you like to create a photo calendar for Mom? Or maybe a Photobook for Grandma that she can carry around as her special "brag book"?  Then be sure to enter this giveaway any time from April 19 - April 23. More details below:

I don't know of any Mom that does not live by or run a household on a 12-month organizer. Whether it is a white board, self-printed or even hand drawn place that shows what is going on in the family with appointments, practices, vacations, etc. I've lost count as to how many times I have been asked "Are we doing anything on such and such a date?" or "When is this birthday?" and I'm sure you already know what my answer is:

"Look on the calendar."

I'm not sure what hangs on your fridge, door or cabinet, but my calendar hangs on the front of my fridge and is just the basic black and white version that I have printed from Outlook. It would be nice to have a calendar put together with family photos for each month or to customize special dates with a photo.

And who doesn't like to share a photo book of the family or cute grandchildren? I have made my own in the past after special events, but it always took a long time. These photobooks can have pictures loaded up from all your own files or online places such as Facebook, Flicker or any other application you use. A few clicks and you are done!

So, this Mother's Day Giveaway has two ways to win!

The first giveaway is easy-peasy. What is great about this part is that ALL readers are winners! If you would like to create a calendar or photobook for Mother's Day, you have won a 20% off coupon! Go to Mother's Day Gift Ideas at Lulu and enter the coupon code: MOMDAY20 at the check-out after creating your masterpiece.

For the Grand Prize, you can win a special coupon for a free, customized, photo book or calendar (up to a $50 value)! All you have to do is:

1. Become a follower of this blog before April 23rd.
2. Leave a comment to let me know you are a new follower.

Already following? Awesome! My goal is to reach 150 before the end of April, so tell a friend!

Winners will be randomly chosen on April 23rd and will be announced on April 24th.

Good luck!


**This giveaway is being sponsored by Lulu.com. I have not received product for this drawing**

Monday, Monday...You're So Good To Me

I had a very long weekend, which was nice. I will fill you in later today with another post...

But the big news for this Monday morning is to reveal who the winner was for our first giveaway on the blog!

Drum roll please....pddddddddddddd....tshhhhh...

The lucky winner of the Think Spring Giveaway is

Fox Design Studios!! Congratulations!

Thank you for leaving a comment and becoming a new follower.

Thanks to everyone who participated and I hope you had fun! We will do this again, so stay tuned!

Now, I must join the working world once again. Yes, it's true. I have a new job that starts today.

More later....

Think Spring Giveaway! Thank You

Happy Sunday! I hope you are enjoying a nice cup of coffe (my preferred choice), tea, OJ...what have you...and a good breakfast!

The Think Spring Giveaway! Ended yesterday and I wanted to thank everyone for participating! It went so much better than I anticipated and I hope you all had as much fun entering as I did reading your entries!

I had mentioned that if this first giveaway went well that I would plan for another to celebrate the 1 year birthday of Mom Got Blog and it looks like those wheels will be put in motion! I have no idea what it will be, but if you have any suggestions I am all ears!

Now time to tally the results and see who has won the first giveaway! Check back tomorrow to see who the lucky winner is!

What does spring mean to me?
It is time to enjoy the arrival of my favorite flower- tulips!

(My second favorite is the Sunflower...which is something that I can actually grow from a seed. The one that graces the header of this blog is from my garden!)

Really?! Part 5

I haven't written a "Really?" post in a while, but this week I was given some material that I think was worthy. I have hmmm'd and hawwwwed on whether to share it, but I have decided that why not?

This week I have been scheduled- to.the.max. One day stood out among the others and this is why...

I was having one of those days. I was trying to catch up on laundry, house cleaning, you name it and did so at the expense of no shower, no make up and no plans for dinner. I was exhausted and decided to heck with it, threw my hair up in a pony-tail and took the kids to dinner at a local burger joint. I mean who am I going to see? Oh, I can answer that for you! My ex-boyfriend's parents! They were seated next to us the whole time and thank goodness I did not see them until they got up to leave. You know how that report back went-"Oh, and guess who we ran into? She looked awful...I don't think she showered and her hair pulled back really showed how gray she is getting...and I think she may have had some guacamole in her teeth...but her kids are cute." Back in high school I repainted my boyfriend's room. It looked like you were sitting in a field, I had clouds on the ceiling, tall grass coming from the floor...it looked pretty cool. Flash forward 20 years and his father said to me as they left "Hey, we finally painted over the room upstairs. Now there is no more memory of you." Even my daughter said, "Wow, mom, that was pretty mean."

Really? It took you 20 years to paint over that?

I'm sure he didn't mean for it to come out the way it sounded, but it left me with an "uhm, yeah, great to see you too."

At that moment, I think I would have been the perfect candidate for Stacy and Clinton on What Not to Wear.  
 
Have you ever been in that situation?

On to some good news:

Tomorrow, March 27th is the last day of our Think Spring Giveaway! The response has been great! If you haven't entered yet, be sure to leave your comment on the giveaway post stating "What does spring mean to you?" for your chance to win a $25 Visa Gift Card and First Aid Kit. Winner will be drawn randomly from the comments and announced on Monday, March 29th.

You Can't "i-Touch" This!

Well, actually, I can. That nice soft part of my side? Yeah that inch I'm pinching? That would be it...but not for long...

I have joined the masses and have purchased my very first i-pod. I know...they have been around for-ev-er... I have been perfectly content listening to my old FM radio/cassette Sony Walkman (yes, it still works!) as I run through miles on my treadmill. Treadmill running is the ultimate sentence of boredom for me, so listening to music makes the time go by much faster. After deciding that my "rest days" should not consist of being a couch potato and eating ice cream while watching "The Biggest Loser" (kind of defeats the purpose), I have opted to walk the miles instead, which on a treadmill is even more need for music in my ears.

However, since spring has officially arrived, I have taken my walks on the road and found the silence too much, which is  kind of ironic since I enjoy the quiet when I run outside.  Running outside gets my head straight. I can go through my "To-do" list, plan out my day or just go for the attitude adjustment. Walking for me still needs tunes or company to talk to. So, late last week I was ready for my walk and I went into my son's room searching for his i-pod Nano. No battery. Hmm. Feeling I would be missing out on all the nice fresh air and settling for the Tread-of-Boredom, I only glanced as I walked by my daughter's room-but that shiny sleek form of her i-Touch caught my eye! Yes! I was in luck! With a new skip in my step, I plugged in and enjoyed her music selections. I got to thinking, you know, maybe I should have one of these...

I did a little homework to see which one would be a better fit for me. Really, it was a no-brainer. Ever since I started writing this blog, I have been learning all kinds of neat things with computer and techie stuff. I think I am a closet gadget geek. The i-Touch sold me with all the apps and music and video and...well, it's like having a mini-computer in your pocket!

I went to my local Walmart and $250 later, I walked out with my own shiny sleek silver i-Touch, wall charger, silicone skin and black leather arm-band. Now, I know that is a lot of cash to lay down ( I think so, anyway) but remember, we are talking about someone who is still using a Walkman! I am expecting this to last for years-and I hope I am not resorted to saying "they just don't make 'em like they used to."

That night I got a 2-hour tutorial from the kids (the real technical masterminds) and my own file so I won't mess up their stuff. I learned how to download free items from the i-Tunes store and how to buy when I have to. Some of the apps are way cool, but so far, I have to say my ultimate favorite app is one called "Lose it!"

Want to start eating right and adding more exercise to your program? This is the app for you (& me!). This is so user friendly! You input your height, weight and your goal weight and how long you want to take to reach your goal-I am trying to shave off 10 pounds(that just-will-not-go-away!) by June. I have tried to keep a journal in the past of everything I eat and how much exercise I have done, but that lasts for about a week and then I start to forget to write it down or I forget my notebook....then I start to sneak a cookie here and there, and well, you know what happens!

This handy little app gives you a daily calorie "budget" on a time-line and graphs exactly where you are on the "budget line".  (This is not my line!) To be honest, I am starting out at 140 and my goal weight is 130. I have a lot of muscle on my body, but I also have places that I need to lean out, so for me, 130 is a good place. To lose 1 lb. a week Lose it! tells me that I need 1,390 calories per day to stick to my goal. When you exercise, that is harder to do than you think!

I have been very good at marking everything that I am eating, right down to the pat of butter. I think now when I actually see what I am eating, I have been making better choices.

I have found myself totally wiping out calories when I have put in my exercise- and remember that does not mean you have to run or do a major work out...did you know that 1 hour of housecleaning burns 134 calories, not including the vaccuming, which you can tack on 85 more calories burned in 30 minutes! That was my breakfast this morning in calories!

I just think that this is the neatest thing since sliced bread (which if you are a Wonder Bread fan, would be 66 calories)!


So listen up. Come June, I will be saying "it's Hammer Time" while singing along with MC to "You Can't Touch This" all the while pointing to my new sleek waistline.


Have you entered the Think Spring Giveaway yet? Well, what are you waiting for?? Giveaway ends on March 27th!

First Bike Ride of the Season...So, Hills, How Have You Been?

Happy First Day of Spring! Today I finally got that bike ride in...on true road rather than the trainer and it was awesome for many reasons which I will tell you about shortly....I first wanted to remind you that:

Today also marks the beginning of the first Think Spring Giveaway on Mom Got Blog! Be sure to comment on the giveaway post any time from now through March 27th stating "What does spring mean to you?"  and have your chance at winning a $25 Visa Gift Card and a First Aid Kit! So far we have a few entries, so chances look pretty good! Winner will be randomly drawn from the comments on the giveaway post and announced on Monday, March 29th! Good luck!

Now for what I did on the First Day of Spring....

My husband was itching to get his bike on the road and I have to admit, I was too. He picked a familiar route that we did on Reenactment Day and for the first ride this year, I have to say, it was better than I expected.

We had the same Motley Crew that did that 4-loop ride with an additional rider named Dave that has shared a few Tour de Cure rides with us. Today, we did only one loop and that was plenty! You would think with all the running and few times on the trainer that I faithfully did over the winter would help my lung capacity...uh, no. Not at all. Legs were good, but I was suckin' wind like there was no tomorrow!

It didn't help either that the headwind was annoyingly strong, making the ride seem that much harder. After cresting the first hill and enjoying the fast descent, we came to the first roundabout and I remember asking my friend Alison, "Didn't we just have the wind on our face climbing that last hill? How can we have it on this upcoming hill? It is the opposite direction!" Our attention was then averted to the blackness that seemed to surround us in every direction. The park does a controlled burn to get the old brush out to let the new grow in and our noses told us with the smokey smell in the air that it was a fresh burn.

I finally came to terms with the fact that the wind would be in my face rather than at my back for the rest of the ride.

Came across a fella that needed help with his tire-so the group stopped to help a fellow rider out. I think we found him in the nick of time as it gave us all a much needed "breather" break. We then continued to pick off the hills one by one. Got to the spot on this course that I have nicknamed "Jurassic Park". In the summer, it is loaded and I mean l-o-a-d-e-d with ferns and with the trees and hanging vines as the backdrop, well it kind of looks like dinosaur land. Winter gives it a whole different feel. It's just brown. Yuk.

Just after this section comes the snotty hill that my husband crushes us on- every. single. freaking. ride. I know it's coming and he knows my comment of "you suck!" (which I mean in the most loving way) will soon follow. He is a master on the hills, plain and simple.

One of the goals that I acheived last year was to not ride ANY hill in my "granny gear", which was accomplished. However, I usually always start out the season with this gear on decent hills. I was going to test myself today and see if I could climb in my middle ring...and you know what? I did it! I climbed my first hill of the season in my middle ring! YES! I had to get out of my saddle to do it, but it got done!

We then entered the "2-Mile, Dead Cyclist Riding" zone. This is the last two miles of the ride and it is all uphill to the parking lot. "Granny" was not going to be visited on this part of the ride either!

There is a sign just up the last hill, before reaching the parking lot that says "Stop Ahead". Alison asked me to mention that it is her favorite sign to see at the end of the ride-It signals the day's work is done. On this particular ride, it's my favorite sign too.

Think Spring Giveaway!

Tomorrow the calendar marks the first day of SPRING! I don't know about you, but I am sooooo ready for the warmer days that will bring green grass and leaves back on the trees. It's been a long cold winter!

The date will also be the start of our very first Giveaway! Ok, I know you are anxious to hear what the great giveaway will be and let me first say that I am totally thinking in practical terms! Remember, I am a mom and we have a very active household with all the sports we like to play! So, I've decided that the most useful item that all readers of this blog should have in their possession whether it is going for a hike, getting the blanket ready for a picnic feast or trying out a new set of rollerblades...everyone should have their own ....

First Aid Kit!

I keep one in my car at all times. If you have a son like mine (your own version of Curious George) well, then I think it should be in yours as well! Now that I know you can mend yourself or your loved one with a band-aid or at least fix yourself up enough to make the trip to urgent care if needed, you should be able to treat yourself to something fun!

Before you think "What? A First Aid kit?" there is also something else that goes with it....

A $25 Visa Gift Card!

Treat yourself to something nice...new gear for the bike...some new hiking socks...a good book or two, heck maybe even a new pair of shades...

Spring time is full of "new" things to explore and discover.

Now for the easy part!

To enter this giveaway, leave a comment on this blog any time between Saturday, March 20th and Saturday, March 27th  sharing: "What does spring mean to you?"

To get an extra bonus, sign up to follow Mom Got Blog! If you already do, ask a friend to follow!

The winner will be chosen randomly from the comments left on the blog and will be announced on Monday, March 29th.

Good Luck!


**The giveaway provided was not paid for by Johnson & Johnson or Visa. **

May the Luck of The Irish Smile Upon You

Ah, 'tis Saint Patrick's Day and everyone is a little bit Irish today, whether they are really of Irish decent or not. Rivers will turn green, clothes will have an emerald hue and most establishments will be serving up corned beef and cabbage with a nice cold pint of brew.

One legend that is tied into this holiday is that of the Four-leaf clover and the luck that bestows the individual that happens to find one. I am part Irish and I am here to say that I have never been "lucky" enough to ever, ever pluck one from the clover patch. As a kid, it never seemed to fail that the friend that was digging through the clover with me would always say "I found one! I found one!". I never win anything and this could explain why.  If I ever do find one, you can bet good green cash that I will be in front of the line to buy the next lottery ticket!

I asked the question the other day about having a giveaway on the blog and I am happy to say that the response has been great! So, I am going to go ahead and get this puppy rolling! This first giveaway will be a test to see if this is something fun and if we would like to do again.

Come back on Friday, March 19th to find out what the giveaway item will be, how to enter and how you can have your own "luck"- no Four-leaf clover required!!

One Hint: Think Spring!

Giveaway or to Not Giveaway...That is the Question

Ok, it is Monday and it is cold, windy and very gloomy outside. I'm on my umpteenth cup of coffee and now I have ideas racing through my head to try to cheer up this nasty day.

In three months, Mom Got Blog will have been in the blogosphere for a whole year! I can't believe it. To have gone from an idea that I was tossing around with my brother to being a semi-finalist in a national contest to readers from around the globe has been extremely rewarding and fun!

So, my mind is carefully sifting through many ideas to celebrate this occassion...and one of them is to have a giveaway! Now, this is something very new to this blog, but I think it might be pretty fun! 

What do you think? Leave a comment if you think this is a good idea....or not!

Stay tuned....