Just entered a contest to win a V.Reader

Have you heard about the new V.Reader by Vtech?  It's kinda like a Kindle for kids.  I just entered a giveaway at Flying Giggles and Lollipops.  I am a big fan of Vtech toys. We have several Vtech toys at our house.  I have not had an opportunity to see a V.Reader in person, but I am sure that it will not be a disappointment.  For a review of the product, head over to Michelle's blog and read all about it.  She had the opportunity to test one out and review it for her readers.

Cake decorating

A while back, I took a few cake decorating classes at Michael's.  It was really great to try something like this.  I am generally not a creative nor crafty person.  So the idea of decorating a cake was a huge stretch for me.  The interest was brought about by my son's egg allergies.  For his birthday, I had to call around to a lot of different bakeries to try to find one that was willing to try to do an egg-free cake for us and decorate it.  It can be a challenge because the egg-free cakes tend to be more crumbly and harder to decorate.  I figured I may need to decorate my own cakes for him.

That first year, I did finally find a bakery that was willing to do this for us at the last possible moment.  Ater that I took the cake decorating classes.  Here are some of the cakes that I made in class.  (Not egg-free)

This is my very FIRST cake that I decorated. I ran out of time to use more colors, but I think it's pretty good for a first try. Let's hope my future attempts are better!

This was my second cake. The arms look a little funny because they sort of fell off of his body on the ride home from class.

This was my third and final cake for Course 1. I was going to wait a few months at least before going on to course #2. It's actually very time consuming to bake and decorate a cake every week.

Since I took this course, Wilton has completely re-invented their cake decorating classes.  From what I could tell, they now go over things in class like leveling and frosting the cake, which is someting that I could use some help with.  I may try to take the class again in the new format.

Fisher Price customer service

It is so easy to find complaints on the web. It seems that when we are angry, we like to let the world know about it.


Well, this is not another complaint. I’d like to offer some praise for the wonderful customer service that I received from Fisher Price.

My son got the Go Diego Go Animal Rescue Center for Christmas last year. A few weeks ago, he decided that he wanted to take Diego with him when we went out and about. Well, during the course of our outing, he lost Diego. And what is Diego’s Rescue Center without Diego???

I went to the toy store to see if they sold any Diego figures that would be the right size for his Rescue Center, but they were a bit bigger.

So I decided to call Fisher Price to find out if it was possible to purchase a replacement. Not only were they very kind and friendly, she said that they could send a replacement bag at no charge! And they did.

I got a bag with Diego, plus a couple of the other pieces from the set. I went to their website and found that you can order replacement parts, when available, and this set would have cost $8.00.

Of course, I wouldn’t expect them to continually send out free toys, but I think it is great that they do in some cases.

Recipe: Bean Pot Chili Frito Pie

I used my Venetian Home Beanpot and it filled all the way to the top.

1 lb. lean ground beef, browned and drained
1) 14 1/2oz. bag of original Fritos
1) 14.5oz. can diced tomatoes, undrained
1) 15oz. can black beans, rinsed and drained
3) 15oz. cans Hormel Chili, 2 with beans, 1 no beans
1) 16oz. package Velveeta, cut in 3/4 – 1″ cubes

In a large pot, add all ingredients, except the Velveeta and Fritos, to the drained, browned ground beef. Stir well and cook over low for about 15 – 20 minutes. Layer 1/4 of the Fritos into the bottom of the beanpot, followed by 1/3 of the chili, then poke in 1/3 of the velveeta cubes, evenly. Repeat this layering 2 more times. Crumble the remaining fritos and scatter over the top. Cover and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes

Plumbing woes

About 10 days ago, we had to call a plumber to unclog our bathtub.  We tried to unclog it, but had no luck.  The plumber was here for about 5 minutes and then busted a pipe in the wall!  About 25 gallons of water came down through our living room ceiling and onto the floor.  Their first reaction?  It wasn't their fault!
Are you kidding me?  Their defense was that we had the "wrong" type of pipe in our wall.  Nevermind whether or not he looked to see what type of pipe we had or if he took reasonable care.

This happened one day before my husband was scheduled to take vacation.  The plumber told him to call around and get some quotes for the work.  So, my husband did so and as a result, had to call off of work the day before his vacation.  Since he works third shift, he had been awake for well over 24 hours to deal with this mess.

It took three estimates and two days for the plumber to finally realize that he would have to contact the corporate office and go through his insurance.  I don't know if he thought that 25 gallons of water breaking through the ceiling would be a small job.

After we faxed him the estimates, my husband tried calling him numerous times but the phone rang busy all morning.  When I had my lunch break at work, I called from my cell phone and got right through.  I didn't mince words with the guy.  I simply asked him what progress had been made and asked for the number of the corporate office and his insurance company.  He again tried to tell me that it wasn't really their fault because we had the wrong kind of pipe in our wall.  I told him that I don't really care what kind of pipe we had.  Other plumbers never seemed to have a problem with the pipe and I want my house fixed.  Even my three year old is upset about it.

Finally after 5 days, we were able to get a water remediation specialist in our house to bust up the ceiling and get the mold cleaned up and water dried out.  This was also my husband's birthday.

Now we are on day 10 and we are still living with a big hole in our ceiling and no real answers on when we can get a contractor in to rebuild our ceiling.  My husband's one week vacation is over.  Scheduling contractors will be a bit tricky now since he needs to sleep during the day and I do not get any vacation time at work.  If I take a day off, I do not get paid.

I am a bit angry about this and I do wonder if they would also owe us for lost vacation and/or lost wages.

Hopefully we will get some news today and it will be good news.  Keeping my fingers crossed!

Twillight Saga... or Port Charles

I have many friends, whom I love dearly, that are huge fans of the Twillight Saga.  With so much excitement over the latest installment that starts playing in theatres tomorrow, I figured I'd see what all the fuss is about.  So, I finally watched the first two Twillight movies.  Sorry to say, I was not at all impressed.

The first problem was the supposed deep love between Edward and Bella.  When did this happen?  They had very few words and a few relatively meaningless encounters.  They didn't give the viewer anything of substance in order to establigh this undying love.  It was kind of like falling in love with a guy who works the drive in window at McDonald's.

But let's pretend that we do have enough of a plotline to establish that these two are in love.  What about the one dimensional characters?  I am not sure if it was the actors, directors, or the way it was writtien, but there was no passion to these characters.  The words and emotion did not match.  They proclaimed their love with as much feeling as you might say, "Would you like fries with that?"

Another thing that did not escape me is the similarities between these first two movies and the now defunct soap opera "Port Charles".  To give a basic rundown of the vampire story of both....

A young innocent girl comes to town to live with her father.  She meets a nice young man whom she is friends with and he is in love with her.  She meets a vampire and is drawn in to his mysterious demeanor.  They fall in love madly and deeply.  She turns away from all her friends and wants to be turned into a vampire.  He wants her to marry him.  Her best guy friend who also is in love with her, tries his best to make her see that the vampire is no good for her.  She doesn't listen. 

Did anyone else notice the similarity?  Sure, there are a lot more elements involved in the Port Charles storyline.  And Michael Easton and Kelly Monaco put a TON of passion into those characters. 

I did not read the books at all, so I can't comment on that. 

Toy Story 3 - Falling with Style (product review)

My son just got the Toy Story 3 Hot Wheels Falling With Style track.  The concept is absolutely great.  The idea is that this is just like the scene in the first movie (which is replayed in the third one) where Buzz Lightyear is trying to prove that he really can fly and winds up "flying" through Andy's room on the "loopy loop" (as my son calls it).
 
Here's the problem, the car itself is not balanced correctly, especially with Buzz Lightyear attached to the car, to successfully make it through the loop.  My son has a lot of other Hot Wheel cars, so we tried a few other cars and a lot of those ones did work.  I also had to take a few similar pieces from his old "loopy loop" to make this one work better.  The tabs they include to attach the tracks together is a lot flimsier than the ones we got in the Toys R Us Fast Lane brand double loop.
 
I think that if you already have other tracks that can work with this, it would be great.  I need to try a few more height options and see if it works better, but so far, the suggested 30 inches did not work too well with just the items in the box.

VTech's new MobiGo

I have been reading a lot of reviews on the Vtech MobiGo which is slated to be released in August.  (It's already available at Toys R Us).  It seems like a pretty neat toy.  My son saw some of the demo videos online and we looked at the list of game titles that will be available.  He has informed me that he wants the Superhero Squad game for his birthday.  I thought it was even more cute to find out that he wants it because his daddy (a police officer) works with Spiderman to fight the bad guys. We went to Toys R Us last weekend and saw the demo version in the store.  I'd like to get it for him, but we do already have the VMotion and the VSmile Pocket.  He really enjoys those games and they are not compatible with the new system.  It will be a tough decision to invest the money on a new game system.  He does already also have a Nintendo DS, but I'd rather have him put that aside for a little while and play more age-appropriate games.

   

Survival of Scripted Television

I may be in the minority, but I am not a fan of Reality Shows.  I am not into The Bachelor, American Idol, Big Brother, or any of the other shows that have been taking over Prime Time TV.  I would rather watch a scripted show that tells a great story, gives a good laugh, or evokes a few tears.

Over the last few years, I have seen many shows with great potential get cancelled before anyone even knew they were on TV.  For instance, did you see the new show on ABC called Romantically Challenged that starred Alyssa Milano?  If you blinked you might have missed it.  It premiered in April and was cancelled in May.  Four episodes aired.  Yes, just four episodes.  I think it had great potential, but we will never know.  I follow Alyssa Milano on Twitter and that's why I knew the show was on.  It's also how I found out it was cancelled.  Would you believe she heard of the cancellation through a TV Guide tweet?  WOW!  Perhaps ABC wanted to give us more Dancing With the (Fake) Stars (like Kate Gosselin).

Speaking of Kate Gosselin, why in the world do we keep paying attention to her?  Eh, I'm not even going to go there.

With the number of shows that were cancelled without a true ending over the last few years, I think I may want to just give up on new shows.  For instance, what ever happened to Tru Calling, The 4400, The Dead Zone, Moonlight,  The Ex List (another 4 episode run), Samantha Who?, and I am sure there are plenty that I can't even think of at the moment.

Why should I get invested in a new show, just to have the networks pull the plug too soon?

Glad to see some of my favorites return like Castle, Chuck, Bones, Supernatural Smallville, Big Bang Theory, Burn Notice...

My Barefoot books website

You probably didn't know this, but I have a Barefoot Books website.  I signed up for it a few years ago, but have never sold a thing.  It's a darn good thing that it's free!  But I do love books! 

When I was about 4 years old, I was the youngest kid on the block.  All the "big" kids were in school all day every day.  But I didn't want to be the "baby".  In the apartment downstairs, there were two little girls who just finished first grade!  I remember their names were Tammy and Brenda.  They went to a private school so they were allowed to keep their books at the end of the year.  When they finished first grade, they gave me some of their reading books.  I remember paying very close attention to the segments on Sesame Street, The Letter People, and The Electric Company where the taught pronunciation.  I would then go haul myself into the bedroom and practice reading.  Finally one day, I came out of the room and told my mom I wanted to show her something.  Then I read her a complete story out of the book.  She was actually suprised and takes no credit for teaching me to read.

I started Kindergarten in 1979.   Back in the old days, kids didn't have to know much before entering Kindergarten.  So it was unusual for a kid to know how to read.  I remember they sent me to the first grade class at the beginning of the year and had me read to them.  Thinking back, I can't imagine why they had me do that.  It seems kind of strange now.  But I still remember standing at the front of the room and reading to these first graders who seemed so incredibly big and scary.  But I sucked it up and read my book.

I guess that's where my love of books began.  My favorite book was a book called Frisker.  Which was first published in 1956.  My mom has a cassette tape of me reading that book.  I hope to record my son reading his first book too.  I know that my mom and I both enjoyed listening to it when I got older.

When I was pregnant with my son, one of the first things that I wanted to do was start his book collection.  I knew right away that I wanted to try to pass along that same love of reading on to him.  And so far, it's working.  He's three years old and not yet reading, but he does enjoy his story time at night.  He usually sleeps with the books we read before bed.

I started my Barefoot books website shortly after my son was born.  They have some really great books.  It might be worth taking a peek at the website.  See if there is anything that might interest you or your child.

Click on the image below for a fun music video!

Q&A with Brandon Barash (Johnny Zacchara on General Hospital)

The following never-before-seen interview with Brandon Barash of General Hospital, the actor who plays Johnny Zacchara interview was shared today with us (General Hospital Brand Ambassadors).  

Q: What would you do if you could turn back time?
A: I would meet Benjamin Franklin.


Q: What do you do in your down time?
A: I like playing music, standing on my head, walking around in nature -- and if I’m really feeling ambitious, I’ll do all three at the same time.


Q: What is the best way to prepare for a love scene?
A: The best way to prepare for a love scene is by spending lots of hours at the gym.


Q: What is your favorite sport?
A: Basketball – college or NBA.

Q: What would you be doing if you weren’t an actor?
A: If I could not act I would NOT be one of those people who give you tickets for expired parking meter. I would be a surgeon or a police office in Alaska. Only in Alaska.


Q: Describe your perfect date.
A: My perfect date is being with a girl I can talk to.


Q: What is one of your favorite things to do?
A: When it is just me and my dad my favorite thing is to sit outside, drink a scotch and talk about nothing.


Q: What do you do for Thanksgiving?
A: I spend Thanksgiving with both sides of my large extended family.


Q: describe your most memorable moment on GH.
A: When Jonny was shot 5 times and survived it, recovered and went to a wedding the next day.


Q: What was the most memorable moment of pop culture in 2009?
A: Clearly it was when we lost the late and great MJ.

(I am a participant in a Mom Central campaign for ABC Daytime and will receive a tote bag or other General Hospital branded items to facilitate my review.)

I am a General Hospital Amabassador

Recently, I became a General Hospital Ambassador.  It's a program where a bunch of moms get to help promote General Hospital.  I have been watching General Hospital since roughly 1990.  I have seen many beloved characters and actors come and go over the years.  I even followed a few of them over to the short lives spin-off  "Port Charles".  (I'll have to blog about that another time).  I am thankful to have the opportunity to help promote a great show and one of my favorite genres.  Let's save our soaps!

Stay tuned and check out my blogs.  I may have some insider info for you in the near future!

(I am a participant in a Mom Central campaign for ABC Daytime and will receive a tote bag or other General Hospital branded items to facilitate my review.)