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Grown in My Heart: Blog Carnival

Michelle — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 20:24:16 +0000

This month the theme at GIMH screams, “It’s summer!!”….it’s a favorite post link up. Simple, right? You’d think.

It took me three days to decide, but I finally did it.

I picked this one because I remember writing it, at the Holiday Inn in Vero Beach, FL. I was on vacation with my mom, aunts & cousin when BgK got the call about MaM’s impending arrival. I spent that vacation in a daze, thinking about the future and a bit nervous.

This is the post that got the whole thing started.

NEWS.

This Saturday, MaM’s having a girls-only gymnastics party. Tuesday, she turns FIVE.

My Living Stories: A Review by MaM ( & a $25 iTunes gift card giveaway)

Michelle — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 15:33:50 +0000

Earlier this month I was invited to try the new My Living Stories Apps for my iPhone. I jumped at the chance, because MaM (who will be five in one.short.week) loves playing with my phone. I toss it to her when we are in the car, or when we find ourselves waiting for something without much entertainment. Being the new-millennium kid she is, it took her all of five seconds to learn how to use these apps. Since they are geared for her age group, I thought I’d invite her to share her thoughts.

“What do you like about my iPhone?”

“It has games and stories.”

“Do you like to use my iPhone?”

“Yes.”

“When do you like to use it?”

“When you’re not using it.”

“Is there a time when I don’t use my phone?”

“When you’re working on your computer and when you’re driving.”

“So you had some new stories on my phone yesterday. Did you like them?”

“Yes.”

“What did you like about them?”

“They had Goldilocks and the three bears, and the bears were so mad she ate the porridge. And in Little Red Riding Hood, she learned not to talk to strangers anymore–the wolf was a stranger. “

“Did you like the pictures?”

“Yup.”

“Would you like to get the other stories available?”

“Yes.”

“Would you eat all of your vegetables if I bought you the other stories?”

“NO!”

**At this point in the interview, we take a break to listen to the stories again, and to play with the “record a story” option. **

“So MaM, do you like the part where you can record the story?”

“Yes.”

“What do you like about it?”

“Ssh! I’m recording now!”

And we’ve found the part of the app that MaM loves best–the part where she can practice reading (or making up) the story, and record what she is saying, and then, most importantly, play back what she’s said.

There are currently five My Living Stories available for the iPhone and iPod Touch in the iTunes store, “Goldilocks and the Three Bears”, “Little Red Riding Hood”, “The Tortoise and the Hare”, “King Midas”, and “The Princess and the Pea”.

THE GIVEAWAY

Would you like the chance to try these out??

Simply leave me a comment telling me which story you think your kids (or heck, yourself) would like, and you’ll be entered to win a $25 iTunes gift card!

Fine print:

Contests open to Canadians. Readers may enter the contest on multiple blogs but are only eligible to win one iTunes gift card as part of the My Living Stories contest.
Contest is open until August 6th. I will use random.org to select a winner.
Disclosure – I am participating in the My Living Stories program by Mom Central on behalf of Decode Entertainment. I received 3 free apps and a gift card as a thank you for my participation.

Love in the 21st Century, Blog Style

Michelle — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 12:13:31 +0000

Nine years ago we got married on a sweltering hot day in July. There hasn’t been a dull moment since. Chances are, I’ve blogged a lot of them, since I’ve been blogging for over half of our marriage. For fun, I linked up my past anniversary tributes. And for the record, yes, I’d do it all over again in a heartbeat.

2009: http://wp.me/pVbJS-cI

2008: http://wp.me/pVbJS-8q

2007: http://wp.me/pVbJS-4A

2006 (also a nod to 2005): http://wp.me/pVbJS-1K

2010 has been a good year for us–starting on New Year’s Eve, right up through summer fun complete with face painting.

Party Crashers

Michelle — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 13:57:16 +0000

Last night we went to the local playground to enjoy the absolutely perfect weather. My social little MaM walked right up to a group of kids playing & said hello, and was off and running. In a few minutes, Mam and one of her new friends realized that they knew each other from the week Mam had spent at the daycare at the very beginning of summer.

Turns out, that big group of kids were cousins. And they were all there for a birthday party. The grown ups were at a few picnic tables across the lawn. Before I knew what was happening, we were invited over for pinata hitting and birthday cake.

It was crazy, but very fun. And I mean, really, who in their right mind ever passes up birthday cake?

I only wish that BgK had been there–a) to confirm that it was happening, and b) to take more pictures in that special way that he does.

A man named Peanut helped the kids with the pinata.

The uncle who asked me if was OK that MaM walk over to their table talked to me about his girlfriend’s breastfeeding 3mo old.

MaM told me that when we were singing happy birthday she didn’t say the birthday girl’s name because she wasn’t sure what it was.

Jr was tickled to run around and play soccer with three other toddlers.

The bag of candy from the pinata was a total bonus:

I’m Big, and Tall and I (Had) a Wiggly Tooth

Michelle — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 00:55:53 +0000

Yesterday morning I asked MaM if she needed help getting something off of a shelf.

“No, I’ve got it.”

“Wow, MaM. When did you get so tall?”

“I’m Big, and Tall and I Have a Wiggly Tooth!” she retorted, as she poured milk into her cereal.

Less than 10 hours later……..

She lost that wiggly tooth.

We were “everybody all together” (as she used to call it), driving to the gym. She was blowing bubbles into my water bottle through the attached straw. All of a sudden, she shrieked. Then Jr shrieked.

“My tooth! My tooth! My tooth is out!”

She may as well have won the lottery. Randomly, there was an empty plastic egg in the van, so that has become the safe-keeping place. She showed her new space off to anyone who would look at the gym, called Grandma and Jane when we got home and was ready for the tooth fairy last night.

Except that she didn’t want the tooth fairy to take the tooth.

She’d like to keep it, and any more teeth she may lose, in her pink plastic egg. Forever and ever.

This tooth fairy is OK with that.

All I know about Internet Bandwidth

Michelle — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 12:50:52 +0000

So last week I hit an error message when I logged on here, at my little internet home. It was a message I hadn’t seen before, and honestly the first error message I’ve ever gotten since switching to WordPress last year.

It included the words “bandwidth”, which made me pretty sure that this was a hosting issue, not anything I could solve on my own. Lucky for me I am on a first-name basis with my hosting service, eh??

I emailed my friend and internet server host, Dan, and I was up and rolling in minutes. Later that week at dinner, we talked about what happened.

Turns out, for the first time in Gotchababy history, I had exceeded the bandwidth he’d allotted me. So I asked how that had happened, and he took me into Box Crush headquarters for a peek at my server stats to explain. I’m probably missing a few key elements, but here’s what I got from our conversation:

Bandwidth is the space on his server each website takes. Each website has an amount that is preset for each month.

Articles or blog posts, along with images, on the front page of your blog/website take up a certain amount of bandwidth. Each time a visitor comes to your site, she takes up that amount of bandwidth. So the more traffic you get, the more bandwidth you use. The more posts you post, along with more images, the more bandwidth you use.

So let’s look at last week:

I posted about the Jr.’s birthday with photos.

I posted about Father’s day with photos.

I participated in IComLeWe, which bumped up my traffic.

I also participated in Works for Me Wednesday, which bumped up my traffic.

Kind of a perfect storm for using up bandwidth, especially toward the end of the month.

It’s still not as easy to measure as, say, user minutes on a mobile phone, but it does make a little more sense– did I miss any key points, Dan???

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

America’s Secret Ingredient Recipe Contest

Michelle — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 18:59:53 +0000

Maybe it’s because I’m a teacher, but I’ve always liked apples. As a kid I drank apple juice and ate applesauce on a daily basis. I remember learning early on that applesauce can be substituted for the oil in a lot of recipes, which takes some of the guilt out of many desserts. I add apple juice to marinades, and have a great no-bake cookie recipe that features apple juice. All of my recipes were invented by someone else, but if you are a bit more creative, this contest may be of interest to you:

To celebrate their 50th Anniversary, Tree Top, a co-op owned by over 1,000 apple and pear groweres has launched a special recipe contest to showcase what the humble apple can do.

Visit http://www.americas-secret-ingredient.com/ for official entry rules, and to enter your favorite recipe featuring apples. Entries may be submitted until July 26, 2010.

The grand prize is a trip for to the Big Apple (get it?) to the Food Network’s New York City Wine and Food Festival (how cool would that be?) this October.

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

Railroad Excitement

Michelle — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 02:56:04 +0000

We took the kids to the local “Day Out With Thomas” experience today– big fun for all. When I asked Jr is he had fun today, he just kept saying, “Thomas Train! Thomas Train!” I’m taking that as a yes. An will post photos soon…

Party Crashers

Busy!

Michelle — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 03:08:06 +0000

I will write something soon…it’s just been busy lately, I really can’t even describe it.

Last night BgK and I went out to dinner and a movie, today I walked 8miles with friends and then spent the afternoon at the pool.

Tomorrow we are going to ROCK the 2yr old’s world…..we are going to see this !!!

I cannot WAIT to see his reaction!!