Cereal for lunch? Why not!

Cereal is a staple in our house. Well, it's more than a staple. It's practically its own food group. Robbie and Charlie are the biggest inhalers, er, consumers of the cereal and with them home more in the summer than during the school year, we've been going through about 4 boxes a week (doing the math, that's a little over 1/2 a box a day).

When My Blog Spark contacted me with an opportunity from General Mills to get a free Hershey's Cookies & Creme cereal gift pack, including a free box of the cereal, it didn't take me long to say yes.

The package arrived in a pretty big box, which intrigued all the kids. Honestly, they were just as excited to receive the cereal dispenser as they were to get the free box of cereal. I mean, really, all the cereal that comes in this house seems free to them, right?

"It's just like they have at a hotel," Charlie said.

Of course they all wanted to try the cereal right away and because it was 11:30 in the morning, I decided that we could call it "lunch." Aren't I a great mom? The kids sure thought so.

Hershey's Cookies & Creme cereal IS made from 100% whole grains and only has 9g of sugar per serving -- which is WAY LESS than the amount of sugar that would be ingested if I let Robbie put his own sugar on his cereal.

So, the kids had Cookies & Creme cereal for lunch. I'm pretty sure they liked it ok because each of them had two bowls of it and that was the end of that!

Tonight at Target, a box of Hershey's Cookies & Creme cereal was $2.99. When I went to In Good Cents, my favorite coupon database, I found several coupons for $1 off Hershey's Cookies & Creme. Once I factor in my Red Card discount and an Rx Rewards discount, I can get a box for $1.80.

That's good enough for me -- and that's who the next box will be for: ME. The next time I buy Hershey's Cookies & Creme cereal, I'm bringing it home and promptly hiding it from the kids. I can do that. I'm the mom.

As for the kids, they say "thank you" to:


Disclosure: The information and prize pack have been provided by General Mills through MyBlogSpark.

What's in that purse?

A few months ago, I bought a new purse. The price was right ($20), the purse was cute (turquoise!), and my old one was dirty and fraying. I love this new purse. It's kind of like Mary Poppins' carpet bag -- seemingly bottomless. It's that capacity for carrying everything that is the purse's one drawback. Carting around a bunch of stuff can get heavy. Yesterday when I picked it up, I thought "No wonder my arm is all jacked up."

How heavy is heavy? I took the purse upstairs and set it on the bathroom scale. It weighed nearly 6 pounds! Truthfully, I expected it to be more than that. But still, 6 pounds is the size of some newborn humans.

So exactly what is in a purse that weighs 6 pounds? This:

• 1 box of generic allergy medicine
• 2 bottles of ibuprofen (the shoulder, you know)
• 2 different kinds of lip gloss
• Foundation (ironic, because I rarely wear makeup)
• Blush
• A broken mechanical pencil
• Lip balm, free from a exhibit booth at a trade show
• Binder clip (to pull back my hair)
• A Diet Coke cap waiting for me to enter the code for Coke Rewards (drunk by someone else)
• Wallet (sadly, the emptiest of all)
• Pool key
• 3 maxi pads
• 1 pack of Splenda
• 1 pack of Pure Via
• Acne medication samples
• Sunglasses
• 2 hardback books -- one biography and one daily inspirations
• 35 cents in loose change
• A pen that I told the kids absolutely must not leave the kitchen calendar area
• An envelope of coupons
• Random register coupons from Target and Walgreens
• 2 expired Walgreens monthly savings booklets
• Numerous old receipts that just got shoved in the purse as soon as the cashier handed them over
• Bag of box tops someone at the office gave me to turn into school
• A ticket I saved from Annie's last show
• An Rx for bloodwork

So, what's in YOUR purse?

At long last! #LTYM videos are up!

On May 2 of this year, I had the great honor of being part of the inaugural "Listen to Your Mother" cast in Indianapolis. On May 3, I was more than ready for the videos of the show to be uploaded to You Tube. Imagine my disappointment when I found out the videos wouldn't be posted until sometime this summer. Well, folks, SOMETIME is NOW!

You can watch the entire "Listen to Your Mother -- Indianapolis" on You Tube. Do it tonight. Pop some popcorn, pour yourself a favorite beverage, grab some tissues, get ready to laugh and have a grand old time watching the show. Seriously, this group of women is smart, honest, talented, funny.

If you just can't wait, maybe you could watch this video, you know, kind of like a trailer.

Of course, that was me. Hey, it IS my blog. I didn't actually hate watching myself, although I have definitely decided to cut my hair short again now that I see it in front of me. And that blouse? The one that my mother said before the show that she didn't like? Yeah, it's going in the Goodwill pile. Hello, saggy boobs!

But on the whole, I'm proud of that moment in my life. Thanks for sharing it with me.

Sidelined

It's pretty hard to call myself a blogger given that I haven't blogged in about 3 weeks. But it's not without good -- but painful -- reason. Somehow, I've done something to my shoulder. Well, if you ask the physical therapist, I've done something to my neck, but it's my shoulder that's bearing the brunt of the pain.

Sitting at a desk all day, working on the computer has been killer on my wherever-it-is injury. So by the time I get home, the last thing I want to do is sit down at the computer longer -- hence my long absence from the blogosphere.

I wish I had talk-to-type software because I've written plenty of blog posts in my head. Maybe I'll get them written soon.

The whole pain in the whatever started in April. I went to the chiropractor and her massage therapist and got some decent relief. But when it came back just a few weeks later my boss, who is a physical therapist, suggested that if I wanted to get more permanent relief, I should see a physical therapist.

First I had to go to my doctor, who ordered an x-ray of my shoulder. When that came back fine, she write me the PT order. I've been seeing the PT for about 3 weeks. I'll admit that the physical therapy is making progress....S-L-O-O-O-O-W progress. I'm not in debilitating pain anymore, which is good. But discomfort and I becoming too comfortable with each other.

My arm feels heavy as it hangs at my side, like the rubber bands of muscle are stretching long out of the socket. The PT fixed me up with some tape that helps tremendously. You know, the kind the Olympic volleyball players wear. Except my tape is white and flesh-colored and the only Olympic event I'm worthy to compete in is Olympic whining. Anyway, it seems like I've just traded the crazy pain for another problem. Now instead of just my shoulder hurting, the inside of my whole right arm all the way down to the tip of my thumb just lapses into numbness without much coaxing.

I have been faithfully doing my PT exercises, often in the car because that's where I spend much of my time. So if you drive by and see a plump woman who looks like she has tortocollis driving a minivan, try not to stare. It's just me, working on the neck stretches. Or if you see me and I appear to be serving an imaginary tray of imaginary drinks, I've not lost my marbles. I'm just doing some casual cervical neck flossing.

Of course I've near convinced myself that somewhere in my neckish/shoulderish region there is some tumor crushing my nerves. But in all reality, what Mike says is probably true: You turn 42 and things start going out on you.