The artist of the house, Brie

Our daughter Brie is such an outstanding artist. She had to draw a horse's eye for an art assignment and it blew us all away with how realistic it looks! She is in an advanced art class that she was recommended to be in from her teacher last year. She wasn't going to take the class at first, but decided to keep it. I am glad she did! There is no need to waste pure talent like that. Great job Brie!

PLEASE HELP: Watch a video and help a child! vitaminwater® ♥s Vitamin Angels

Hey guys! I wanted to share some very important information that was sent to me....

As a parent, you know how important it is that your little ones are properly nourished in order to thrive. It’s that reason exactly that vitaminwater® ♥s Vitamin Angels, a charity dedicated to providing essential nutrients to undernourished children around the world.  vitaminwater® is already helping Vitamin Angels reach more than 2 million children through a monetary donation, but would like your support to help  them  reach another one million children!

Earlier this summer and in an effort to help spread the word about Vitamin Angels, vitaminwater® asked the Tongal community (a social platform that delivers a fresh solution to sourcing video content) what their world would be without the letter ‘A’.  Why ‘A,’ you ask?  Vitamin Angels focuses on this vitamin because an estimated 190 million children under five suffer from vitamin A deficiency, a major underlying cause of child mortality and blindness around the world.

The response from the Tongal community was overwhelming (over 400 ideas submitted!) and resulted in the creation of three poignant videos in particular that vitaminwater® has decided to share.  For every view of one of the videos, vitaminwater® will donate $0.25, the equivalent of one year’s worth of vital Vitamin A for a child.

Here are the videos:

"Without the A" produced by Reggie Schickel from Urbana, IL (based on idea from Diana Tay from Los Angeles, CA)


"Candid Moments Without the A" produced by Marcus Thomas from Los Angeles, CA (based on an idea from Jacob Silva from Escondido, CA)

"Notes on the Letter A" produced by Jonathan Langager from Los Angeles, CA

PLEASE take a moment to view even one video to help a child in need! They are under 2 minutes in length and costs you NOTHING! Thanks so much!

Join the Dove® "Let's Talk" movement to help build strong girls with high self-esteem

You might remember a post I wrote earlier this month about Dove's Self-Esteem weekend. Well the movement has grown and it has a lot of people talking. Dove® is committed to inspiring all women and girls to reach their full potential. The Dove® Movement for Self-Esteem invites all women to join them in creating a world where beauty is a source of confidence, not anxiety.They have reached more than 9 million girls so far and with your help, they can  reach their target of 15 million by 2015.



Dove® research shows that it is still important for us to address girls' anxiety about looks, as there is a universal increase in beauty pressure and a decrease in girls' confidence as they grow older. Key findings from our latest research include:

• Only 4% of women around the world consider themselves beautiful (up from 2% in 2004)
• Only 11% of girls globally are comfortable using the word beautiful to describe themselves
• 72% of girls feel tremendous pressure to be beautiful
• 80% of women agree that every woman has something about her that is beautiful but do not see their own beauty
• More than half (54%) of women globally agree that when it comes to how they look, they are their own worst beauty critic
SOURCE: Dove Research: The Real Truth About Beauty: Revisited


It really boils down to the fact that it is so hard growing up in a society where beauty is heavily focused on. Being a mom of two teenage girls, I know how important it is to keep good communication going about their self-esteem. Talking to your Anxiety about beauty begins at an early age, and can even keep girls from doing what they love. You can change that with a conversation. Reach out to the girl in your life and talk to her about beauty, confidence and self-esteem.

You can find the expert tips and real-world advice to get started on the Self-Esteem Wall. Then, once you’ve had “the talk,” share your experience to help inspire other moms and mentors. You can share a sentence, small story, or upload your favorite photo of you and the young girl in your life from your desktop, Facebook or Instagram.

Any time is a good time to start a conversation with a girl in your life about beauty, confidence and self-esteem. Not sure where to start? Download The Let’s Talk Toolkit to get some great advice.

to get some great advice.

Each time you buy Dove®, you help them and their charitable partners provide inspiring self-esteem programming for girls. Dove supports partnerships with after-school programs, self-esteem building events and education resources.
I encourage you to check out Dove on Facebook to get more information of what you can do to help build strong self-esteem in our young girls. Together, we can build stronger girls, stronger women and stronger communities.

Thanks to Dove for sponsoring today's discussion

#UNJUNK and Have an UNREAL Halloween!

I received some fabulous UNREAL candy to share with friends and family at a house party I was asked to throw. It turned out that only one person could show up because it was a super busy weekend for those I invited. There were so many activities going on in my city ( fall break for college students, The State Fair, fall-related festivals and some had to work) so I decided to take my party to the streets. The streets? Yes, I packed up my candy bags and took them up to my daughters' high school for their annual "Trick or Trunk" event that helps raise funds and collect food to donate to the community.

I figured it was a great way to share the UNREAL candy and talk about it with a lot more people. What is UNREAL candy you ask? It is candy made with only REAL ingredients. Nothing artificial. Check out this video with some famous faces and see for yourself...

The taste? YUM. I. Am. Hooked. I can't believe that UNREAL candies were better than the leading brands. You can taste the ingredients and they were less sugary. My family agreed and prefer them too. I was shocked. Not my sweet candy loving children!!


I went to the high school armed with loads of UNREAL candy bags to hand out. I was a but nervous and was unsure of how well it would go over. Telling a bunch of teenagers and their parents that they should UNJUNK and GETREAL was going to raise some eyebrows. It's Halloween after all!

I chatted with so many people in small groups and they were stunned that candy that is made without fake ingredients can possibly taste good. As I walked around throughout the grounds I kept getting stopped by smiling faces. They were so pleased with how delicious the candy was and wanted to know where to find them. I told them CVS, Staples, Kroger and so many more retailers carry them for the same cost as a traditional candy bar.

My oldest daughter even said that one of the student activities leaders (a teacher) was inquiring about possibly selling UNREAL candy for fundraising! How cool is that? Not a bad idea to swap out the fake, sugary stuff with the real deal at the SAME cost! I am so happy that everyone enjoyed the candy and got to learn about the UNREAL movement. It made me think, shouldn't all candy be real? I sure hope they start making treat sizes for my kids' lunch boxes. They would love that!

Check out UNREAL on the web, Facebook and Twitter. Have you tried UNREAL candy yet? What did you think?

I received free products to share and was compensated for my time. All thoughts/opinions are completely my own.

Wordless Wednesday | Halloween 2012

William dressed up as a scary dinosaur this year...a Carnotaurus, to be exact! That's what he says he was so we just went with it. We were so lucky to find this great quality costume at T.J. Maxx for only $21! We looked in the Halloween Express store and was not impressed by the cheap quality and marked up prices. If you haven't found a costume yet for you little one, I highly recommend T.J. Maxx!

Such enthusiasm, eh?