This is not your mother's Happy Meal. #giveaway

When I was a kid, going to McDonald's was a special treat, not a regular occurrence. On the rare occasions that we did go to the Golden Arches, we were never allowed to order a Happy Meal.

"It's cheaper to just get a hamburger and fries," my mom would say. "You don't need a crappy toy and we have pop at home."

Let me tell you, friends, today's Happy Meals are NOT your mother's (or your childhood's) kids meals. (Can you say kid-size fries and apple slices?) In fact, right now McDonald's Happy Meals will not come with a crappy toy. Instead, children will receive one of four different original books featuring characters from McD's latest advertising campaigns that encourage kids to eat right and exercise.

(Have you seen the commercial with the goat? I'm lovin' it!)

The 4 books that are offered as part of the series are:

• "The Goat Who Ate Everything"
• "Deana's Big Dreams"
• "Ant, Can't"
• "Doddi the Dodo Goes to Orlando"

In conjunction with what I'll refer to as the Happy McBooks offer, McDonald's of Central Indiana is leading a "Give a Book, Get a Book" campaign. When you donate a new or gently used children's book at one of these locations, you will get a "Be Our Guest" card for a free Happy Meal. The donated books will be distributed to the Ronald McDonald House at Riley Children's Hospital, Indy Reads bookstore, School on Wheels and other organizations in need of children's books.

And now, for the McGiveaway!

Because I agreed to work with Indy With Kids and McDonald's of Central Indiana, I have the opportunity to host (again, my words) a Happy McBooks McGiveaway.

One lucky winner will receive a week of 5 happy meal coupons (good at Central Indiana McD's), a $10 Amazon gift card and a copy of a Happy Meal Book. If you don't live in Central Indiana, go ahead and enter. It's worth it for the Amazon gift card alone.

To enter:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

For my participation in this campaign, Indy with Kids and McDonald's of Central Indiana have given me Happy Meal coupons and a Target gift card. Opinions about crappy toys and awesome goat commercials are all mine.

Those evil Happy Meal toys

I just posted "Why suing McDonald's leaves a bad taste in my mouth" on the FitCity Mom's blog. I'd love it if you would check it out and leave a comment there with your thoughts on the issue. Do you agree with me or think I'm way off base? Join the conversation at FitCity.

Overwhelmed

This was the status update I posted on my Facebook page yesterday:

The convergence of a zillion deadlines at work and the start of school for the kids just might push me over the edge.

I have three -- wait, four -- big projects at work that have drop dead August deadlines. The kids go back to school in less than two weeks.

I feel like there is so much we didn't do this summer and I am finding it hard to find a day to take off to do something fun so that when they sit down in their classrooms to write the inevitable "What I did on my summer vacation" essay, they'll say something more than "I did chores and watched television."

(To be fair to myself, they did swim a lot and we did a few, small "staycation" activities. But I'm having a moment, so just let me go with it, will ya?)

Ok. I realize that wallowing in a moment of whining and self-pity only goes so far.
Someone replied to my Facebook post: "Take a deep breath....or have a cocktail!"

Since it's only 7:45am and I have no champagne or OJ in the house, I'm going with the deep breath route and trying to count my blessings. So here's my list of 10 good things that, overwhelmed or not, make me smile:

1. My nephew is being baptized on Sunday and we'll be together with all my siblings, their spouses and their children.
2. Back-to-school means back to Friday morning "therapy" with girlfriends at Panera.
3. I parked my car in the garage last night, which is significant because two days ago that wouldn't have been possible. But Mike busted his hump and cleaned it out.
4. Next week, I'll be attending Blog Indiana and get to spend 2 whole days with other blog-lovin' nerds.
5. McDonald's large drinks are still only $1.
6. Dairy Queen chocolate dipped cones are less than $2.
7. All these crazy deadlines mean that I have a job at a time when many do not.
8. I got on the scale yesterday for the first time in a long time and I didn't weigh any more than I had previously. Again, a huge accomplishment, especially given #6 above.
9. My cleaning lady will be back on August 31. We'd loaned her out for the summer to some friends b/c I couldn't afford to pay babysitters and Jane.
10. Our good friend Mary came to visit last night. Her visits always leave me laughing.

Think I might need to print out this list and tape it up in a few strategic places, so when I'm wigging out of the next couple of weeks I can have some perspective. And if that doesn't work, I'll probably go with the cocktail.

Not as fresh as I thought

I went to McDonald's this morning to get my sugar-free caffeine with bubbles and a fruit and yogurt parfait. When I pulled up to pay, the cashier said to me:

"Hello sweetie!"

"Hi," I said, waiting for my total.

"Hello sweetie!" he said again in his south of the border accent.

"Hi. How are you?" I said, thinking "just give me the total already."

Finally, he looked at me quizzically and said again

"Hello sweetie."

Only this time he said it slower and I realized that he was not being fresh or flirtatious with me. He was asking me if I had ordered "a large sweet tea?"

And right there in the McDonald's drive-thru my brief fantasy of being propositioned by a Latin lover was crushed.

Woo hoo! Aw shucks! Oh @#&%!

Woohoo!
I took Robbie to the oral surgeon today for a consult to have three baby teeth extracted. Our dental insurance only covers 60% of the bill, so I was not looking forward to the estimate, not to mention the thought of having my little guy go through all that.

The surgeon came in today, looked at Robbie's teeth and pointed out that all three of them are a bit loose. The prescription? Wiggle the heck out of those teeth for the next month in hopes that we can get them to come out on their own. Even if the Tooth Fairy left him $100 for each of those teeth, it would still be cheaper than paying for the oral surgery. And a whole lot more fun for Robbie.

Aw shucks!
There is a McD's right near the oral surgeon's office. I suggested to Robbie that we get a little snack after his appointment in celebration of the good news. You could've knocked me over with the Tooth Fairy's wing when he said "no." Boy, I was looking forward to a milkshake. So I drove real slowly and asked the question in about three different ways. Unfortunately, the answer was always the same. "No thanks, Mom, I just want to go home." Bummer for me.

Oh @#&%!
Last night I woke up about 2:30am and decided to do some laundry. (I told you I don't sleep.) While I was waiting for the washer to finish so I could move those clothes to the dryer, I opened up my laptop to do a little mid-of-the-night surfing.

This is what greeted me:


At this point, it was about 3am and I'm thinking a blank screen with a question mark file folder can't be good. But I didn't panic. I re-started the computer. Hello, flashing question mark file folder.

I re-started and unplugged the computer. Nope, that didn't do it.

I re-started and unplugged the computer, took out the battery and put it back in. Apparently, that doesn't make the blinky question mark go away either.

So today, Mike took my laptop to the Apple store. This is where the "Oh @#&%!" comes in. The hard drive is dead. As in non-functioning, as in no time to ask it its last wishes or to deliver the last rites. And the warranty expired about 8 weeks ago. Again, "Oh @#&%!".

Tonight I am using Mike's laptop, surfing on borrowed time. Guess I'll have to sign off here and go wiggle Robbie's teeth.

It's a good thing I don't gamble.

Last week, I made the bold prediction that Big Tom and Little Tom (L.T.) would win it all on this season of The Biggest Loser.

Turns out, I'm the big loser because they were kicked off the show this week. After the notoriously bad second week of the competition where contestants historically lose little to no weight, Big Tom lost only 3 pounds, which Little Tom negated with his own 3 pound gain.

So they fell below the yellow line and it was between them and the yellow team (Coleen and Jerry). In the elimination room, the Toms were double-crossed by the orange team (Ed and Heba) who wouldn't have even been there to vote this week if the Toms hadn't saved their big butts in last week's elimination.

In the post-elimination interview, L.T. said the funniest thing ever in the history of The Biggest Loser:

"Of course I'm mad. I came on a fat loss show and I gained 3 pounds. That's like going on a makeover show and they make you uglier."

Oh, I wish he was still gonna be on. Maybe someone will give him his own talk show. Or at least invite him on Ellen. Because everyone loves the funny fat guy.

Back to the show...I love it, but it kind of stresses me out, which makes me want to eat.

Mike was on his way home from a meeting while the show was on. I knew he would be driving past Mickey D's and could easily stop and pick me up something. Hmm...

Then I told myself that it would be pretty ridiculous to eat a quarter pounder while watching The Biggest Loser.

So I just had a Happy Meal instead. With a Diet Coke.