An apple a day.....

Without a doubt my son is a picky eater. It started around the time he turned two and it hasn't gotten much better! It is so bad in fact, that presentation can determine whether or not he will eat a particular food. Earlier this week I prepared banana muffins and he loved them. But since I can only cook 6 at a time, I simply made one batch and also made a small loaf of banana bread.  Well, although he agreed to take muffins to school for lunch, he refused to touch the bread when the muffins were finished! He didn't touch the bread until he was completely starving for a snack!


See what I'm dealing with? 


Luckily enough, I can usually get him to eat a few staple fruits and veggies. And apples fall into that category. Although my favorite type of apple is Delicious, he pretty much will eat any type of apple, including granny smith. We were sent a sample of apples this week that I've never tried or heard of for that matter, SweeTango apples. And with good reason, it is a new apple that was first made available for the first time last fall. 


I have to say that this is one of the tastiest apples I have every had. It is sweet but not as sweet as the Delicious variety. My son loves the apples and has taken one to school every single day. I actually was going to prepare a recipe with the apples but sadly we devoured them before I could make something! 


These apples are available now at Walmart and I know I'll be headed there to get some more! 


Disclosure: I am a Walmart mom and was compensated for this post. As usual, all opinions are my own.

Breakfast for dinner!

I am the mother of a four year old and he is an extremely picky eater. I believe that he must of inherited this trait from his dad (joking, well kinda) because his dad is picky too. There are only a few things that they will eat at any given time and when they tire of it, another "meal" is on rotation. Needless to say, my son is ecstatic when dad is cooking dinner because it is breakfast for dinner and who doesn't love that? In a perfect world Dad would cook gourmet meals but his former life as a Chef has left him less than enamored with cooking!  In my kitchen I generally cook a meal for myself and prepare whatever item my son is eating that particular week.  How is Dad in your kitchen? My best friend's husband is a beast in the kitchen and I'm always thrilled when he cooks! Do you have a dad that is a kitchen master? Check out the latest video on Mom's the Word on Dinner - 




Disclosure: I am an ambassador for Ragu's "Mom's the Word on Dinner" and this is a sponsored post. As usual, all opinions are 100% my own! 

Mums & Roses!

Million Moms Challenge

I'm so excited to be one of the Million Moms Bloggers! For the first 100,000 people that joins the challenge, Johnson & Johnson will donate $1.00 to help support healthy pregnancy and mothers worldwide. Here is an excerpt from my first blog post:

"I think the most common feeling related to pregnancy for most women is worry. When we are intent on becoming pregnant we worry if it will happen. Once we are pregnant we worry about things like will my child be healthy? And in my case, I worried about if I would carry my baby to full term. I had a difficult pregnancy, early on I experienced pain as my muscles stretched, the year prior to my pregnancy I’d had a myomectomy (the removal of fibroid tumors) and the scar tissue was uncomfortable as my baby grew. And around week 24 I experienced something that I will never forget, while at work I began pre-term labor. "

To read the rest of my post and join the challenge, click HERE

It's a paw-ty!

We celebrated my sissy Cinderella's birthday this weekend. My aunt Joni (she was my foster mom back when I was an LBR foster dog!) came over, and Ella and I got to have yummy pupcakes! But first we had to pose for pictures.


Mom says sorry about the quality of the pictures -- she was picking up her camera to take the pictures and dropped it on the floor. Now it's broken and she is very sad. She had to take these with her camera phone, and it's just not the same.

Happy birthday, Cinderella! You're the best sissy ever. Thanks for sharing your pupcakes. :)

Game Day Treat!

Well, football season is in full swing and I am pretty sure that I am one of the few Americans that is NOT interested in the sport. Living here in the South, football rules - from high school to professional, folks are into football. Tailgating parties abound and Sundays are spent in front of televisions or if the home teams are playing and you are lucky, at the stadium! 


In honor of football season, as a Walmart mom I was challenge to create a favorite treat for game day - in the shape of a football! Honestly, my favorite meal that I can associate with football is buffalo shrimp - simply delicious but there was no way for me to arrange it in a football shape that made sense. So, I decided to make some football shaped cookies. 

Since I love baking, these cookies were a natural and although I made them without the help of my four year old, this is certainly a recipe that he could have helped with. I simply made sugar cookies by whipping up the batter in about 5 minutes.  I honestly think that making things from scratch doesn't take that much more effort than using pre-made dough.

After mixing the dough I took about a tablespoon and shaped them by hand into football shapes. As the first batch of cookies baked I prepared the chocolate frosting. This is REALLY simple and takes melted butter, cocoa and confectioners sugar. I don't think I'll ever use pre-made frosting again unless absolutely necessary! 

After letting the cookies cool for a few minutes, I spread the chocolate frosting. I found the the frosting was easier to manipulate when it was warm and I held each cookie in my hand to frost it. The final touch was adding white frosting trim to make the football laces. In this instance I did use pre-made Betty Crocker frosting in a cookie decorating tube. It was really convenient but if I plan on doing more cookie decorating in the future, I will just invest in a cookie decorating kit with different size nozzle attachments.

Although I am no artist, I am happy with the way my footballs turned out and I am sure they would be a welcome addition to any football celebration! Of course, these are not the healthiest treat around so I've been dispersing them to my friends that are football fans to get them out of my house! 

Disclosure: I am a Walmart mom and some of the products used were provided by Walmart and I've been compensated for this post. 

Faithful Place- Book Review

The book Faithful Place by Tana French tells the story of a 20 year old mystery of a missing girl Rosie who was thought to have run away, leaving her lover Frank standing roadside waiting all night for her. Faithful Place is the name of the street in Ireland where Frank and Rosie grew up. It is composed of characters that keep their cards close to their chest and the tale of the missing girl is never shared with the police until her body is found 22 years later in an abandoned home on Faithful Place.

Read the rest of the this review on BlogHer

More Wags & Waves fun!

I wasn't the only LBR dog having fun at Wags & Waves last weekend! We had lots of alums stop by to play. Mom only got pictures of a few of them, but they sure all looked like they were having fun.

This is Maximus. He was an itty bitty puppy with a hurt paw when LBR first found him, but he's livin' large with his new daddy now!

Cleveland shares my thoughts on the Lazy River. This is a seriously freaky place. Really, WHY would you want to ride in one of those bouncy tube thingies on top of water?

This is my buddy Bevo. We had lots of fun playing in the wave pool together. He wasn't adopted through LBR, but he has an LBR alum sister and is a great foster brother to a bunch of LBR fosters.


Baxter knows he's handsome -- he's got the same awesome life jacket that I wore!

Tyson tried snorkeling, but I don't think he liked it very much!

Dinner on a Budget

There was once a time when I cut coupons like a champ and everyone in line cheered as they watched my grocery bill go down $50 - $100 as a result of coupon clipping. This was about 6 years ago when there were far more limited resources for thrifty shoppers like me. Sadly, when my economic situation improved my utilization of coupons diminished. 


Now, dinner on a budget for me means cooking a large meal a couple days a week and having leftovers during the interim. This is probably not the best method for saving money so I'm going to check out the ideas from my fellow Ragu Mom's The Word on Dinner Ambassadors.  In this episode they are discussing Dinner on a Budget and if you have any tips, be sure to chime in on the facebook page! 

Disclosure: I am a Mom's The Word on Dinner Ambassador and have been compensated to spread the word about this program. 

What I Brought Back With Me

A wee bit weary from a long cross-country trek, but busy unpacking my souvenirs. I will be back shortly with some "happy snaps" from the trip.

(The above New Yorker cover by Mary Petty has particular signifiance to me. As a graduate student I worked at the Syracuse University Art Collection, organizing the archive of husband and wife New Yorker cartoonists Alan Dunn and Mary Petty). How sweetly Petty's illustration has captured the delight of collecting "treasures" while on holiday, and the joy of bringing them back home!

Memories,
Marjorie

P.S. Le Garage Sale was a huge success. Thankfully, no rain. Many sales, but more went home as gifts to family, friends, and new pals Sophie and Bernadette. The antique French wine bottles went with young James who will display them in his new wine bar in downtown Geneva. Sweet Pea, our adorable stray cat, went back to his original owner, but after only one night away, he has found his way back to our family cottage. His next move is going to be to rural Vermont, with my three little nephews.

I have more Wags & Waves pictures, but I wanted to take a moment to wish a very, very, very happy birthday to my favorite dog ever, my sissy Cinderella! She is eight years old today, and Mom and I love her very much. We're having her birthday pawty on Sunday, but I wanted to wish her a happy birthday today.

I'm a fan of Reality Shows

but when the shoe fits....

photo courtesy of Random House on facebook

I read daily to my son and I am an avid reader myself. I am also a fan of reality shows and any of them can take the place of Jersey Shore in the above caption. Although I occasionally enjoy mindless entertainment occasionally I ensure that I supplement it with things that stimulate my brain and I seek to do the same for my child.  

Wags & Waves FUN!

Wow, I'm so tired I can barely type this. I had a BLAST today, though! Mom and I went to this awesome thing called Wags & Waves. It's held at a local waterpark at the end of their season, and there are dogs everywhere. I'm not that much of a swimmer, but I have a lot of fun meeting the other doggies and splashing around. I have a whole bunch of pictures to share, but to start off, here's a few shots of my epic swim adventure.

Here I am surveying my kingdom.

Still, I wasn't real sure if I wanted to go in at first.

This water stuff is pretty intimidating in large doses!

But I'm brave and fearless, at least when I really HAVE to be.

But wow, this is actually pretty fun after a while!


Next time I'll show you some of the great new friends I made, then show you a little of the fun other LBR dogs had. If you have something like this in your area, be sure to tell your mom or dad that you want to go! It's SO much fun!

Recommitment - Running and fundraising for LLS

It has been awhile since I've talked about health and fitness here. During my journey to healthy living I provided an update weekly and I stopped doing that lately. And without accountability I must admit that I have not been exercising or eating healthy on a consistent basis. I've actually returned to some of my old habits and that has caused me to gain weight. But today, I am recommitting to being the best me that I can be.  


I will be running the Savannah Rock n Roll 1/2 marathon on November 5th and raising $1500 for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society while I train. I had 12 weeks to do this and now I only have about 4 but I am determined! I am running in honor of my friend Melissa, 

a mother of 3 who is currently kicking non-hodgkins lymphoma's ass! I told her I was doing this and I am! Please be on the look out for weekly updates on my training and I'd really appreciate your support for my fundraising efforts!  


As difficult as it is to admit a setback, I am doing this loudly because I know I can get back in my grove and live a healthy life! I hope you will join me on my journey, I certainly can use your support! 

Nice Save!

Walmart has a new application on Facebook called Nice Save.  Walmart will be featuring a new challenge to help you save money and you can share you ideas too! This week's challenge is Game Day! If you don't know, this past Sunday was opening day and I know tons of people were in front of televisions taking in all three games! My fellow Walmart mom Tara is presenting her Nice Save for game day and you have until 9/18 to add your idea for an under $50 game day to the mix. The idea with the most likes will be featured in a video on Walmart's Facebook page. What are you waiting for? 



Disclosure: Walmart has provided compensation for my time and efforts to create this post.  All opinions are my own, always have been, always will be.  Check out Tara’s challenge and the other Walmart Moms who host in the future weeks!

Keebler gets a Clue!

LBR alum Keebler was feeling sad because his foster brother Midas was adopted and he was all alone with his dad. But fortunately, he gets to have a new playmate for a while, because his dad is foster-sitting 11-week-old Clue!

Keebler's been teaching Clue all about playing with toys.

And Clue's been teaching Keebler to DUCK!

Eeek, baby-eaters!

There's one strange thing that I've learned since I started working as an official Boxer Ambassador for LBR. Boxers eat babies. I know, it sounds shocking! Here I always thought boxers were awesome with children and were wonderful family dogs. But we hear it all the time -- "I'm having a baby, so I have to give my dog up." Not because the dog's shown any kind of aggression or anything, but just because everyone inherently Knows the truth.

So I've gone digging through my archives, and I was just shocked at how many pictures I found that prove it! Boxers should clearly never be allowed around children. Why, just look at Bonsai and his skin-brother Deacon! He's preparing to snap at any minute.

Winston obviously likes to tenderize his victims before going in for the kill.


Tyson may look little, but look at how he took down that human!


Remington likes to go for the straight-forward attack.

And look at Noel here, clearly planning to strike at any moment.


Maximus prefers the smothering attack.


Maggie Mae and Mulligan like getting a little appetizer before going in for the whole baby.


Obviously Jack decided he might want a little midnight snack.


Ranger is lulling his victim in with some Southern charm first before the attack.


You can just see the hunger lurking in Bubbles' eyes, can't you?


Brooklyn only eats babies on special occasions.


Ack, look out, BJ is already ready to taste that poor human!


Beauregard is taking his snack to go.

And finally, Gabriel may be just 5 minutes old, but he's clearly planning from a young age how to go for the jugular!


I hope this was as eye-opening for you as it was for me. I'm just shocked that so many of my fellow boxers would behave like this around children. Now you know the truth! I hope these poor little humans can someday get over the fear and terror that their boxer experiences must have caused.