Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Winter in Minnesota ~ Through the Eyes of A Child

On my way to Bible Study at our church this morning, with my 6 year old grandson in tow, I was reminded to try to see things from a more positive perspective. We had gotten light rain, mixed with snow, (or as my mother would call it, "schnizzle"), for the better part of the day yesterday, which had turned to snow overnight. By morning, there was probably around 5 inches on the ground. The roads had not yet been plowed, but the school bus had made it through, along with a few other vehicles. After clearing the snow off of the van, Christian and I were making our way to church, (late...but making our way). Now, having lived in the state of Minnesota all my life, I've driven in "poor winter driving conditions" every winter for more than half of it...but I do NOT enjoy it. It makes me very nervous, especially on our little dirt road out here, which can get rather slick at times. Anyway, I'm driving rather slowly and carefully this morning, with both hands on the wheel...and grumbling to myself, (as usual), things like, "I HATE this!" And from the back seat, I hear, "Isn't it BEE-U-Ful, Grandma?" "Yes, Christian. You're right. It IS BEAUTIFUL!"
(The line of over-grown, snow-flocked Christmas trees that border the land that we rent. The property actually WAS a Christmas tree farm at one time.)

For the next couple of miles on our little Christmas tree-lined road, I try a bit harder to appreciate the beauty that our Creator has set before us on this day...and as I reach the highway, I realize that God had just given me a Christmas card, to drive through, on my way to town this morning...and that I should accept it, and thank Him for it. Thank you, Lord, for the beauty that you set before me, each and every day...no matter the season. Help me to see it and appreciate it... through the eyes of a child. Amen

Saturday, November 27, 2010

Wii Just Dance 2 ~ What a Party!!

Recently, I was chosen to be a House Party host for the new Wii game, "Just Dance 2" by Ubisoft. I was to invite mothers and daughters, to come and dance to 4o+ dance tunes, and see who had the best dance moves. Well...since I don't have a very big living room, and my friend, Lisa, (of Our Seven QTPies fame) does, and was planning a couple of parties, (a Pillsbury Crescent Roll one and one featuring some pre-school toys) as well, we decided to combine them. She also wanted to host a "Thirty-One Gifts" party for our friend, Anna, who is now a consultant for that company, so we invited all of our friends to her house, on a Sunday afternoon and called it a MEGA party! Unfortunately, the weather did not cooperate very well. It was snowing, and raining and the roads were very icy around here that day, but we opted to go ahead and have the party anyway.

Fortunately, four of Lisa's 7 children, are teenagers and all of them happened to be home that day. Another friend came with her 2 girls, so along with my 13yr old, Molly, we had plenty of teens to try out "Just Dance 2!" It worked out really well, too. We had Anna do her "Thirty-One" party first, and then sent the little ones in the next room to play with the pre-school toys, and Lisa fed us hors d' oeuvres, made with Pillsbury Crescent Rolls.

As far as the "Just Dance 2" part of the party? It was a HUGE hit! It was a little hard to get into at first, but it didn't take them long to catch on to how it was done.


That's my Molly, in the blue and orange. She was really getting into these dances, and seemed to be having a lot of fun. The other two in the above picture, are siblings, Hope and Cody. They were dancing to songs like, "Walk like an Egyptian" by the Bangles and WHAM's "Wake me up before you go go."

If you could see the above photo on the left, up close...Molly looks pretty funny. While she was dancing, her hair flew in front of her face, and it looks a bit like a mustache! The pic on the right is Cody, Molly and Allison.


After awhile, Cody and Hope's older brother, Devon got in on the action too. I was not surprised that the girls enjoyed this game, I WAS surprised and thrilled to hear the two boys' comments, while they were dancing. I'm not sure how many times I heard things like, "This game is AWESOME!" All the kids were really into it.

So, since we only had 4 Wii-motes, they weren't going to give them up to parental units without a fight. The kids were having so much fun, no one wanted to take them away, anyway. Toward the end of the party, one mother DID get brave though. Pam got up and started dancing with the kids, even though she didn't have a Wii-mote in her hand! Go, Pam!


I honestly think that if there had been more teens at this party, they would have done the same thing. They really did have a blast. In fact, When my daughter and I were ready to leave, we had a hard time getting them all to STOP dancing, so we could take our game home! And before we even left the house, BOTH boys had commented about how awesome "Just Dance 2" is, on their facebook status!

I had received a complimentary copy of "Just Dance 2," as a thank you gift for hosting this Dance Party, and writing an honest review of the product on my blog. To my surprise and delight, they also sent along a bonus copy of "Just Dance Kids!" I told Lisa she could keep the bonus game, for allowing me to have the party at her house, thinking that her younger children would enjoy it. Well, since her older kids didn't want to quit dancing when we were ready to go, they opened that one up, and were pleasantly surprised that "Just Dance Kids" is NOT JUST FOR KIDS, either! It has certain songs for younger children, some for the older ones, and songs that the whole family can dance to together. Lisa has also been using it to work out with lately, and said it was so much fun, she didn't even think about the fact that she was exercising! All in all, I would have to give both of these products two great big "THUMBS UP" and would highly recommend them for the teen or younger child in YOUR life, for a great Christmas gift! Ubisoft's "Just Dance 2" and "Just Dance Kids" are available from GameStop.com and if you live in my area, I've got a few coupons for $5 off an free shipping, if you order them from there by 12/10/10.

Now, just by watching my video below, you can help me get into the running to win a $1000 shopping spree from Game Stop! It's actually pretty funny, my friend's little grandson came into the room and after watching the big kids dancing, decided to join in:

Sunday, November 21, 2010

From Alaska, With Love(s) and Lesar's

My niece, Shanna and her husband, David are both in the army and stationed in Anchorage, Alaska. They have two little girls and recently, Shanna's sister, April moved in with them, as well. They all came to Minnesota for a visit a few weeks ago, and we were privileged enough to get to see them first...because we were the only ones with a vehicle large enough to hold all of them, and us! Here they are in the back of our van:

Shanna, David, Ja'lyn, Maleah, (in the car seat) and April.

As I looked back there to take the picture, it occurs to me that we have a van full of "Love." That's Shanna and David's last name. ;) We took them all to Olive Garden for lunch, and were joined there by my daughter, Jessica who had just gotten off work. Then, we delivered them to another niece, (Crystal's) house, where they were going to stay for the next 2 1/2 weeks. Crystal and Nate have a pet chinchilla named, "Fumbles." Here's Ja'lyn, meeting her for the first time:

They were soon joined by two more nieces, (Crystal's sisters), Amber and Lacy:


My sweet little grand-niece, Maleah at about 6 1/2 months

Here's Shanna, holding her after her first Minnesota bath

My parents stopped by that night too, to welcome the visitors:

I thought it was cute when my dad reached out and scooped up his great-granddaughter, as she was running by. Ja'lyn seemed to enjoy it, too.

Then my mother picked up Maleah, who was happy for a moment...but then decided she didn't really know these great-grandparents, and wanted her mama back.


At age 3 1/2, Ja'lyn is a wiz at putting puzzles together. She finished this Dora puzzle in less than 10 minutes:
Ta-da!


Four of my beautiful nieces, Crystal, Amber, April and Lacy.


Lacy had bought a harness for the chinchilla, and Ja'lyn got brave and decided to try to hold it.

She got a little scared, and kinda dropped the furry little creature once, but then she picked her back up again.
Exhausted, after their 12 hour flight with their two little girls, Shanna and David take a few moments to relax:


They spent time with a lot of their Minnesota family over the next couple of weeks, and we joined them whenever we could. David had really wanted to bag himself a deer on this trip, so spent a few days at our place. Alas, the deer managed to elude him, but while he wasn't out sitting in a tree, dressed in blaze orange, we got the chance to get to know our nephew-in-law a little better.

Since they were here over Veteran's Day, some of the family got together for lunch at TGI Fridays. They were giving out complimentary meals for military personnel and veterans that day. My daughter, Jessica came with us too, for her lunch.

April, Shanna, David, CJ, and Ja'lyn, deciding what to order



My grandson, CJ and his 2nd cousin, Ja'lyn became very good friend while they were here. Ja'lyn stayed here overnight with him a couple of times, and they had great fun together.

Shanna, holding Maleah, who is holding her new Cabbage Patch baby


Since they were visiting so close to Thanksgiving, we decided to celebrate early. There were about 65 people at my parents' house for this gathering,

Here's a picture taken in the garage, at dinner time.

...including David's mom, sister, nephew and two little brothers who
drove all the way from New Jersey, (27 hours), to see the Love family too. It's a long way from NJ to MN, but not as far as it is to Alaska! His brother, Francis is only 4 years old...and his baby brother is just a little younger than Maleah!

David's mom, Frankie, brother Francis, sister Kristin, (holding his nephew)

Ja'lyn and "Uncle" Francis

The guys, solving the world's problems after dinner...or perhaps they were discussing deer hunting, or cars...or some such thing.


After a wonderful 2 1/2 weeks of visiting with my nieces and nephew-in-law, the time had come to say goodbye. Jessica and I took them down and dropped them off at David's uncle's house. He lives near the airport, and wanted a chance to spend some time with them as well, before sending them off, on their 12 hour flight back home.


One more shot of Shanna and Maleah...with David's uncle in the background. We're thinking he looks a little bit like George Foreman. What do you think?


Shanna, Ja'lyn and Maleah...one more time.


It was so nice to have them around for a couple of weeks, and now that they've returned to "The land of the midnight sun," we'll all miss them very much!

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Yoplait Save Lids to Save Lives Party

Because I lost my beloved sister, Patty to breast cancer a few years ago, I decided to hold a "Save Lids to Save Lives" get together. Every year at this time, you can find Yoplait yogurt with pink foil lids on top. The pink lids are in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness month, in October. For every pink lid you send in, Yoplait will donate $ .10 to the Susan G. Komen Foundation to fight breast cancer. We collected and sent in 22 lids, so far.


I invited several of my closest friends over, to discuss breast health and sample Yoplait yogurt. They also brought other snacks to share, because that's what we like to do when we get together...we eat. There were 9 of us there, along with two babies. One was only 2 weeks old, so did not sample the yogurt...

...but the 9 month old seemed to enjoy it very much!!


We had all sorts of different flavors, like "strawberry banana," "pina colada," lemon, "orange dream," and "chocolate mousse." I set the yogurt out with a spoon in each one, and let people put a little of each on their plate to sample. That way, we could all sample several different flavors. For the most part, I think there were good reviews.

Personally, though the flavors taste good, they're a bit too sweet for my taste. I did not purchase any of the "Light" flavors of Yoplait, because I don't care for artificial sweetners, but also am not a big fan of "high fructose corn syrup, which seems to be present in all of Yoplait's original flavors. My husband buys the light flavors all the time though, for his lunches. I prefer another brand, that makes a 100 calorie yogurt with NO artificial sweetners, just less added sugar. It would be my suggestion that Yoplait would come out with such a thing. I would definitely buy it if they did!

I was not paid to review this product, although I was sent a gift card to purchase the Yoplait yogurt that would be sampled at my get-together, and a free copy of "Promise Me" by Nancy G. Brinker, as a thank you gift.