Photo Hunt: Tied

Okay, it's a stretch. Hey, her sweater is tied around her waist. Alright, I'll admit -- I just wanted to show off the photo. But if you had over 400 photos of one of the 7 Natural Wonders of the World, you'd want to show them off, too. Can you guess which Wonder of the World this is? No, not the girl, I mean the place behind her!

Stay tuned for more photos from this vacation for my next few Photo Hunt entries!

For more tied things, visit the Photo Hunt. And don't forget to leave your links below so I can visit your blog!

Living in a mixed-race world

Last week Alfie sent me an article that made my blood boil. Just think -- if Alfie and I had applied for a marriage license in Lousiana instead of Nevada, we might have gotten stuck with that asswipe, he'd have refused to marry us and we'd still be living together in sin. Thank goodness Elvis is a much more tolerant justice of the peace. And thank goodness the Bay Area isn't like that. It's sad to think that he would deny us marriage because he's taking pity on our three beautiful, intelligent, confident children. And he dares to think he isn't racist.

Photo courtesy of Erinleigh Photography (and BTW Erin's own beautiful daughter is half-Korean!)

Click here to read my Silicon Valley Moms Blog post about Keith Bardell-- and feel free to leave a comment to add your two cents to the discussion!

Win $100 and a year's supply of Wonder Bread

This is a compensated review from BlogHer and Wonder®.
Keep reading to find out how to win a $100 Visa gift card and a year's supply of Wonder® bread!

Don't forget to check out my Wonder Bread review and giveaway post on Bonggamom Finds -- I'm giving away a $100 Visa gift card and a year's supply of Wonder bread! Click here to continue reading and to enter......

Photo Hunt: Free

This week for the Photo Hunt we get to showcase any photo we want. Miss TN Chick says it's a free week, but I'm going to take it literally and post a photo of something FREE. As a blogger I've been so lucky to receive free stuff to review. Quite a lot of it is for the kids, and obviously they really enjoy it. One of the things I've received that the kids have really really loved -- and still do -- is the Shred Sled. The technical name for it is caster board, but my kids call it a wiggle board. It's like a self-propelling skateboard; you twist your torso and wiggle your legs around to make it go.

Here's the latest video of 3Po and Jammy on their Shred Sleds:


It's so much fun, even Alfie and I like using it!


I still can't believe they sent these to us to try and review. Gotta love blogging!

If you want to find out more about the Shred Sled, click here to read my review. And For more Photo Hunt entries, click here. And don't forget to leave your link below!

American Girl Place, NYC

Two weeks ago I got visited New York City for the first time in almost a decade. In the past, when I've traveled to NYC on business, I've always tried to spend some of my free time soaking in the best of what the city has to offer. This time around, I had about a day and a half of free time. And what did I do? I went to the American Girl Place on 5th Avenue. This is what being a parent does to you. I could have seen a play on Broadway, or gone for a run in Central Park, or walked among the beautiful works of art at the Met, but no, I had to go and look at overpriced dolls and fantasize about buying the whole lot for The Pea.

But enough about my ambivalent feelings about American Girl; this is supposed to be Wordless Wednesday. Here are some photos of the store.

Other than a few souvenir items, this AG Place has the same stuff as the AG Place in Chicago (I actually posted photos of my visit to the American Girl Place in Chicago several Wordless Wednesdays ago) . Only the layout and the storefront displays were different (although I'd guess the displays change periodically and it's likely that the displays in Chicago are identical to the ones on NYC at the same point in time). I personally like the storefront of the Chicago branch, with it's tall glass windows.

It's nice to see the Golden Gate bridge. Not so nice to see Julie's 70's pantsuit. I have vivid memories of wearing clothes that looked even more hideous than that.

I love this little witch's outfit. It almost looks as though I could sew it myself.

This is something you don't see in your everyday public toilet stall: a place to hang your doll. I was enchanted enough to take a photo (I did make sure I was alone in the restroom because I didn't want people to think I was some kind of perv). I suppose a doll holder takes up less space and breeds less germs than a doll toilet alongside the real one.

I love Kit's treehouse, and I'd love to put this under our holiday tree this year. But we'd need to buy a bigger house in order to store it. And we'd need to be rich enough to buy a bigger house in order to be able to afford to buy the treehouse.



For more photos of the American Girl Place in NYC, check out my Flickr photoset. And click here for more Wordless Wednesday entries. Finally, please leave the link to your WW post below, I promise I'll drop by!

Not Having a Baby Changes Everything

Today is the Silicon Valley Moms book club discussion day for October, and all I can think about are babies.   Every day I see dozens of babies in strollers when I drop the kids off at school; they're looking particularly adorable these days, all swaddled up in thick coats and hats to protect them from the wind and the rain.  I paid special attention to babies today because my brother and his wife are going into the hospital today to deliver their first baby via C-section.  She's got placenta previa, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that everything is going to be alright.  They live all the way in far-off Bahrain, which I know next to nothing about, so I have to keep warding off all kinds of stereotypes about the state of development in that part of the world.  I'm pretty sure Bahrain is as modern as Dubai, and if celebrities like George Clooney and Matt Damon can vacation in Dubai, they must have great hospitals that give world-class care.  Still, I think I'll breathe a lot easier once that baby is out of her mama's tummy and all her fingers and toes have been counted.

So what do babies have to do with this book club?  Actually, babies figure prominently in October's book, This is Where I Leave You.   The main character's marriage really begins to unravel following a tragic, late-term miscarriage.  This happened to a friend of ours; at about 30 weeks, his wife went to a prenatal appointment and discovered that the baby's heart had stopped beating.  I remember driving him to the hospital from work and how awful it all was.  A year later, the wife became pregnant again; now they have two healthy boys, and although they mourn their little daughter's passing, they've moved forward and life is good.

Of course, things could easily have gone the other way, as it did in this book.  The tragedy is compounded because at precisely the time a couple should be able to lean on each other and become closer, the couple in the book, Judd and Jen,  drifted apart.   But I can see how that could happen.  In a few of my more paranoid-morbid moments, I've wondered about what Alfie and I would do if, God forbid, anything happened to our children and we were left with just each other.  In a situation like that, it would be all too easy for each of us to retreat into our own shells.  I don't know if I would have the strength to go on living, let alone keep my marriage going.    Would we go the same path as John and Louise?  Or Judd and Jen?

You know that saying, Having a Baby Changes Everything?  Well, not having a baby can also change everything. 

But enough depressing thoughts.  I'm going to be an aunt today, and I'm counting my blessings.

My Grand Bargaining Chip: The Grand Canyon

Next week I get to cross an item off my "Things to Do Before I Die" list -- we're going to the Grand Canyon, and we're all really excited.   The kids, especially 3Po and Jammy, don't really know what to expect, but they've been to Yosemite and loved it, so they're taking our word for it that the Grand Canyon is a trip worth getting excited about.  And when you're five years old, any excuse to jump on an airplane is still something to get excited about.  So I've been milking the Grand Canyon for all it's worth and getting some major parenting leverage off our upcoming trip:


Jammy, put your helmet and elbow pads and knee pads before you go out skateboarding.
But I don't need them!
Yes, you do.  Do you want to break a bone just before we leave for the Grand Canyon?
Oh, ok.


3Po, take your medicine.
But I don't want to!
Do you want to be sick when we leave for the Grand Canyon?
Okay, mama, I'll take my medicine.


Mama, can you buy me some candy?
You know, honey, we're going to the Grand Canyon next week, so we'll buy you a pack of gummi bears to chew on the plane.
Okay.


M & M's family went to Disneyland this summer.  I wish we could go to Disneyland too.
Well, you know, we're going to the Grand Canyon...
Oh, yeah!


This Grand Canyon had better be freaking AWESOME, otherwise my parenting credibility is shot.

Take Your Medicine, Or Else......

3Po has had a rotten week.  On Monday, he was sent home from school because the school nurse thought he had pinkeye (he didn't).  He stayed home from school on Tuesday and Wednesday because he had a bad cold.  He made it through school on Thursday, but at basketball class on Thursday afternoon he began rubbing his eyes and five minutes later his eyeballs were swollen.  He kept rubbing his eyes, and now they are badly infected.

Poor kid.  To top it off, I have to squirt some antibiotic gunk into his eyes twice a day.  He hates it, says it makes his vision blurry.  The first time I did it, Jammy tried to help his brother out with some words of encouragement:

Jammy:  3Po, better BLURRY than BLIND!

He then proceeded to draw a picture of what 3Po's eyes would end up like if he didn't have the medicine:

If I thought I'd end up looking like Spongebob Squarepants, I'd take my medicine in a hurry.

Photo Hunt: Sports

If you're English, you'll recognize these well-known sports figures. Even if you detest football, even if you buried your head in the sand, you'd recognize them (trust me, ask my mother-in-law).

John Terry playing for Chelsea at the Stanford Stadium in 2007. We were so close to the pitch, we could almost feel the sweat as they ran by and whipped their heads around.



The England national team, circa 2008. Here's my best guess, L-R: Ashley Cole, Wayne Rooney, Rio Ferdinand, Shaun Wright-Phillips, John Terry (I think the last 2 on the right are coaches or trainers). Did I get it right, Alfie? Was I actually listening to you scream at the tv?


The Special One (Stanford Stadium, 2009). If you don't know this guy's name, you're not a football fan.


For more sports, head on over to the Photo Hunt. And if you do comment, please leave your link in the Mr. Linky below!

Vote for Efren, a CNN Hero!

Have your heard of CNN Heroes? Every year, CNN gives $100,000 to the winner (from a field of ten finalists---winnowed from 9,000 nominees from all over the world) of its "Hero of the Year" award. This year, a 28-year-old Filipino, Efren Peñaflorida, made it to the top ten. (A panel of 12 well-known personalities from various fields picked the finalists. Colin Powell was among the judges this year). If Efren wins this year's award (based on how many votes he gets, which will depend on us), he will be able to expand his mobile school program, Dynamic Teen Company, for the children of the slums in the Philippines. What this young man is doing to improve the lives of the kids in the slums is truly inspiring, and I think his efforts are worth my vote.


Voting is open between now and Nov. 19, and it takes less than a minute to click a button to cast your vote. The more votes Efren gets, the greater his chances of winning the "Hero of the Year" award and the $100K. Let's all vote for Efren and help him continue to make a difference in those slum kids' lives! Please don't forget to pass this on to everybody you know---Filipinos and non-Filipinos alike----so more people can vote for this young man with an extra big heart.