Gotcha Baby » internet finds

John Morell Introduces Allergen-Free Line

Michelle — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 12:20:50 +0000

My year of label reading and obsessing over what to feed MaM when she was two years old has forever changed me, for the better, I think. I have become an avid label-reader in general, and much more conscious and accommodating when planning events for guests with food allergies/sensitivities.

When Mom Central sent out call to promote John Morell’s new line of allergen-free meats, I signed up, because I feel it’s important to support food manufacturers who make a true effort to understand food allergies and a good product that is safe for all to eat.

John Morell has done just that. Their new line of allergen-free products is are made in an allergen-free facility, which is so important for families dealing with severe allergies. Their products are milk, fish, soy, egg, nut and wheat free. It might seem like those allergens shouldn’t be around processed meat anyway, but as I learned when Mam was so sensitive, milk and wheat do sometimes find their way into processed products when you least expect it.

The new allergen-free line is easy to identify with a blue ribbon on the package. You can learn more about their products on their new Facebook Fan page, where you can also print coupons to try these great tasting products!

“I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour campaign by Mom Central on behalf of John Morell and received a John Morell coupon to facilitate my review. Mom Central also sent me gift certificate to thank me for taking the time to participate.” www.momcentral.com

An Interview with The International Mom, Judy Miller

Michelle — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 01:57:16 +0000

As I’ve said before, I love the internet. It has expanded my horizons in so many ways, broadened my knowledge and brought me friends. One of those friends is Judy Miller, author, advocate and adoptive parent. (I’m also fond of alliteration)

Judy has a new project on the horizon, Parenting Your Adopted Child: Tweens, Teens and Beyond with Judy M. Miller and the other day we sat down with some delicious Skinny Cinnamon Dulce Lattes to discuss it.

Judy has developed and will be teaching a class to help parents of adopted tweens and teens, beginning Weds, February 10th. What? You don’t live in the Indy Metro area? Good news–the class format is via email. Judy will send out assignments, you will complete them, and then there will be discussion online.

Judy created this class with hopes of reaching parents as their children enter an age wrought with emotions and new understandings about adoption. As a mom to four children (one biological, two from China, one from Guatemala), she’s living through her own children’s adolescence and observing what sort of questions and difficulty her children are having in regards to their being adopted.

Each week, Judy will email a topic for introspection, and participants will then write on that topic. Judy said each week’s assignment will prompt participants to “go deep”. The messages the parent sends to the child lay the groundwork for that child’s journey to discovering himself. The topics are ones that will most likely come up in conversation in the tween (8-12yrs) and teen years, but Judy encourages parents with children as young as four or five to consider signing up.

You can learn more about and register for Parenting Your Adopted Child by visiting Judy’s website. There is also a spot to sign up for a newsletter that I know will be great. I always LOVE the time I spend with Judy, and I know you will too!

Judy is a fellow contributor to Grown in My Heart, her personal blog is The International Mom’s Blog.

A New Blog on the Block

Michelle — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 01:38:38 +0000

One of my good friends from college has just jumped into the Blog World. In college, we geeked out on the newspaper together, took education classes together, and were in theatre together.

She’s now a teacher in the deep, rural south. And she’s blogging about it. I have a funny feeling she’s going to make my job look easy.

Go say hi.

http://teachinwriter.blogspot.com/

Labor Day Linkage

Michelle — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 02:07:08 +0000

So it’s not Labor Day yet, but I’m a sucker for alliteration. And really, I just have a few things to share:

The Foodies

I’ve mentioned them before. This month, our little supper club is featured on CookingLight.com. How fun is that?

Grown In My Heart

Have you seen the site’s new look? Do you love? We are hosting the first ever Adoption Awards–nominate your own tongue-in-cheeck (or legit) category between now and September 30th. Looking forward to some good awards being handed out!

Lovelyn’s Shirt

Have you seen this shirt? Read the message? 147 million.

Ok, I think that’s it. One more day and then it’s the first three day weekend of the school year. I wish every weekend was a three day weekend.

No related posts.

Blog Indiana: or my first Blog conference

Michelle — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 17:01:47 +0000

Yesterday morning I managed to find some clean clothes, make myself presentable and get downtown by 8:30am to attend BlogIndiana. BlogIndiana is a local blogging/social media/tech conference with a very local focus. It’s actually a three day affair, but our vacation overlapped it this year, and it’s sort of pricey to go for all three days. I was able to snag a nicely discounted one-day pass though, and we made it home from our trip east just in time for me to attend Saturday’s Social Media Summit.

The format for the day was panels–a business panel, a foodie panel, a women’s blogging pane, and a tech panel. There was also an “un-conference” upstairs–people could gather to network, chat or cover topics that hadn’t been addressed yet.

I don’t know what the make up of the crowd was for Thursday and Friday, but Saturday women were definitely in the minority. As the women’s blogging panel started, the room was noticeably empty. Casey, Heather, Briana , Jen and Stephanie (live via Skype,don’t you love technology?) started anyway, and it was a very interesting conversation.

Joanna of Keeping Feet did an excellent job of summarizing what she took away from the afternoon, and I had a very similar experience.

Women use technology and social media to connect. To find that person online who is either at the same point you are, has been there, or is going there. To read stories that, to quote Ray Romano, make you,”laugh because it’s funny, and cry because it’s true.”

When that panel was over, there was a short break. At that time, most of the women left the room, and most of the men came downstairs from the meeting rooms upstairs.

The women found a spot in the lobby, and eight of us continued the conversation from the panel–talking a little bit about blogging platforms, domain names, and a little bit about maintaining privacy, where lines are drawn, and then some. Clearly we were all techy enough to want to come to BlogIndiana, but not interested enough to sit through a formal panel on tech.

I think the men and women (or at least the social/personal bloggers) were at BlogIndiana for different reasons. To put it in Wordpress blogging terms: Some people (not me) want to create plugins. Other people (me) just want to use them. Which is fine by me, because the world needs both.

(And? I got to see some great bloggers I’ve met before, and meet new ones, which, really, was one of the reasons why I wanted to go in the first place….)

Breaking News: I Understand Twitter!

Michelle — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 02:56:00 +0000

I have succumbed to the Twitter. I admit it. I resisted at first. It took me awhile to get the hang of it, and there are still things I don’t “get”.

But for easy, quick, feed-the-ADD, jump around sort of browsing and quick chats? Twitter’s where it’s at. (shocking! I know….I admit it, I’ve been living under a rock all these months)

Follow me, @gotchababy and/or @growninmyheart and join the fun!

KaBoom! A Playground Project

Michelle — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 00:27:00 +0000

During the summer of 1998, I nannied for a family with two young boys. It was a great job in many ways, who wouldn’t want to get paid (in cash, every Friday) to play outside all day long? These boys were huge playground fans, and they had a name for every playground we haunted.

There was “alligator park” (with a slide like an alligator), the “rock park” (old school playground with pea gravel as ground cover), “grammy’s park” (park by grammy’s house)…you get the picture. This was before the explosion of the Internet, but when I read about the KaBOOM! mission to map online 100,000 playspaces in 100 days, I immediately thought of those boys.

KaBoom! has issued the challenge: to map 100,000 playspaces in 100 days. Here’s what counts as a playspace: a playground, field, a skate park, roller hockey rink, lake, dog park, community center, basketball court or ice rink – any place where kids can engage in unstructured play for free or a nominal fee. A playspace listing on KaBOOM! consists of an address or cross street and a description, one photo and one rating.

Why map playspaces?? If playspaces are mapped throughout the country, think about what a great resource that will be as you travel this summer. When we take trips with the kids, finding a playground to use during a pit stop is a life saver. And who knows, maybe there’s a gem of a park just outside your usual radius that could become your new favorite space.

MomCentral has teamed up with KaBOOM! and for every playspace mapped through this promotion (just join MomCentral team during the sign up process), MomCentral will also donate $1 to Jumpstart, which promotes early childhood literacy, a cause near and dear to my heart.

So go…gather the info on your favorite local playspace. Then head to KaBoom! go to “find a playspace” and from there, go to “map a space” and map your space. That’s it. Moms across the country will now know a great spot in your neck of the woods, and Jumpstart will get just that–a jumpstart on funding. I took the kids to the park Saturday anyway, came home and mapped our spot–it took maybe 10 minutes and was very easy.

And your public service duties are done for the week!

This post is part of a blog tour sponsored by KaBoom! and MomCentral.

Two Weeks of Work v. 10 Weeks of Summer

Making Life Better

Michelle — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 02:03:00 +0000

I am always in the look out for time saving tips, budget deals and new recipes. The website, http://www.makinglifebetter.com/ delivers on all three counts. This is a one-stop website that combines all of what busy moms are looking for–beauty tips, recipes, and idea for family fun. The site does feature the Unilever family of products (ranging from Suave shampoo to Ragu marinara), and offers great, easy to implement ideas.

The section “budget recipes” has gotten a lot of use in my house already, weeknights around these parts definitely call for easy meals, and the price per seving is a helpful guide.

Go check it out already….after a few minutes, you’ll probably find at least one tip you can use!

This post is part of a blog tour sponsored by Mom Central and Making Life Better.

No related posts.

The Kahuna Family’s Ancient Family Cure

Michelle — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 18:40:00 +0000

You know that movie, My big Fat Greek Wedding? And you know the dad, and his obsession and faith in Windex? Yeah, well, that’s my family. What? You didn’t know I was Greek? I’m not. And the magic elixir isn’t Windex. But other than that, my family is just like that. Seriuosly.

What’s our potion? Neosporin.
Growing up, Neosporin my mom’s answer to any medical ailment involving an open wound.

Paper cut, gash from glass, multiple abrasions from a bike wreck, a ripped hang nail, skin so dry it cracks, sore nose from blowing too much,or even itchy, cracked skin from cheap jewelry….you name it, mom had a little tube that could remedy it all.

Now that I’m a mom, I’m a Neosporin fanatic too. The little scraches that Jr. manages to get all over his body (crazy growing nails that never quit) get coated nightly and heal quickly. MAM’s skinned knees and raw blisters from new shoes are taken care of in a jiffy.

When MomCentral put out the call for this blog tour, I jumped at the chance. Partially because it involved free samples to try. And partially, because every now and then, I come across a friend who doesn’t know about the magic that is Neosporin.

The samples I recieved included NEOSPORIN® + Pain Relief Ointment, NEOSPORIN® + Pain Relief Cream, and a new product I am already addicted to–the newly available NEOSPORIN® NEO TO GO!® First Aid Antiseptic/Pain Relieving Spray.

Let me explain–this is a spray Neosporin that fits on your key ring. Just a little squirt and any minor cut is taken care of right then and there. It is awesome and will be with me always.

One thing the folks at Neosporin want moms to take a look at this spring is the expiration dates on the first aid supplies in your house. When I went to add my sample to my stash, I looked at my current tube of Neopsorin. It said it expired in APR 08. I thought, “Awesome! There’s still a month to go!” I know. Then I figured out the current year. Anyway, as first aid products past their expiration dates, they may lose effectiveness. So go check your stash and if need be, get a new one. May I suggest the incredibly awesome Neo to Go! ???

This post is brought to you by MomCentral and Johnson & Johnson. Samples were sent to me to review as part of this blogtour.

Family Trip: Success

Calorie-free Cupcakes for a Cause

Michelle — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 02:50:00 +0000

I have a confession to make–I’m a Facebook Flair sender. It’s true. Those little virtual buttons make me smile, and I like to send them to my friends. And the virtual gifts like candy, cocktails, garden plants and sea creatures?? I send those too. Electrolux has taken this virtual gift concept to a whole new level….VIRTUAL CUPCAKES!!

For every cupcake that you create between now and February 24, Electrolux will donate $1 to the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund. How sweet is that?? As a bonus, when you log on to send cupcakes, you also get entered to win a fabulous “Red Hot Red” washer/dryer set. Create cupcakes at http://www.electroluxappliances.com/ and while you are there, check out the darling “wear your heart on your sleeve” tshirt designed by Kelly Ripa. Adorable, and all proceeds benefit the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund.

I don’t know about you, but after this weekend of Valentine candy, candy and more candy, virtual sweets are about all I can handle!

This post is part of a Mom Central blog tour.

No related posts.