Bye for now, Dad

A new book to honor the memory of my Dad.

Click here to view this photo book larger

Shutterfly baby photo books are the perfect way to preserve your baby's precious moments.

Chocolate Is A Staple Right?

I forgot to blog about this yummy treat way back in August. Jillian went to the Barnes & Noble in San Diego right at midnight when the book, "Breaking Dawn" came out. They had a costume party etc. She knew I would have loved to be there with her and my sister, but of course I couldn't be, so she brought home yummy Godiva for me. I didn't open that baby for over a month. Can you believe it?! I told Jillian that when I finally decided to eat it, I would share some with her. Ummm....I did NOT share. I'm a bad mamma. I ate the whole thing and loved every bit. Eek! I'll make it up to her by taking her to the, "Twilight" movie the first night that it's out. Wanna come with us?

We read all 4 books over the summer. Which one was the best? My personal opinion was that Eclipse was the best. Which one was the least exciting? Twilight. Again, my personal opinion. The other 2 were good and you have to read them all to get the whole story. If you like discussions on the book, "Breaking Dawn" and the Twilight saga, you can check out the one from Mormon Mommy Wars back in August.
Here is the link.

Has anyone read, "The Host" also written by Stephenie Meyer? I heard one review that it wasn't as good as the person thought, but does anyone else have an opinion? Should I spend the money on it as a Christmas gift for Jillian?

Books-A-Million is on my crap list

You know I'm always up for a bargain or a good freebie right? Well, when I saw that the website, Books-A-Million had one of my favorite children's books, The Very Hungry Caterpillar for a cheap price, I jumped on it. The book even came with a CD and all this for only $5.27 TOTAL! It was a hardcover book to boot! Of course I ordered right away. I got a confirmation email with a link to check on my order status.

A week later, I still had not received my book, so I checked the order status online. The order was still in the processing stage! -sigh-

Another 3 weeks later (doing the math, that's a FULL month after my initial order), I receive an email saying the book is no longer available. Wha?! I'm sooooo ticked.

I had never ordered from this company before and now I know I never will again. Why advertise an item, take the order (and my money!) and then not actually fulfill it? Really poor business practice.

This has happened to me once before when I ordered (tried to anyway) a baby swing from Baby Universe. They also took my money and a couple weeks later told me that the swing was not available.

I've written a few reviews for both of these online stores in hopes that people will be discouraged from ordering from these sites.

I won't in put links on the stores, because I don't want any of you to have a similar experience, but remember the store names....Books-A-Million and Baby Universe. Be like me and put them on your crappola list. It might save you a couple online shopping headaches.

Speaking of online ordering...I'm super grateful for it. The convenience is amazing. I save time & gas, plus tend to find much better deals online than going to the mall. My love of Amazon has now turned me into an Amazon associate. I will post more about it later, but basically I will have a link to Amazon that you can order from and then I get some credit for it. Weeee. I will also have a widget where you can search Amazon right from my blog. Double weeeee!

Oh, and another reason I love online shopping is that I can order at any time of day or night sitting in my pj's if I feel like it :)

We Heart Twilight Saga

That's What Friend's Are For Right?

I have to give my friend Leslie a big shout-out. She sweetly went out and bought me the new Hungry Girl book that I really wanted.
It had only been on the shelves for a day! Leslie knows that I have been trying to lose the baby weight that I've gained when I was pregnant with Ava. I have a looooong road ahead of me and she has been my cheerleader forever it seems! We both meet 3x week to "walk away the pounds". I did a post about that awhile back. It's fun and I feel so good after.

Anyway, for those who don't know what Hungry Girl is....
Hungry girl isn't a dietitian or nutritionist or anything like that. She say she is just hungry. Plain and simple. She's an average woman just like me who has decided to try and eat better. Most women I know struggle with food issues at one time or another. I'm sooo glad that I signed up for Hungry Girl's newsletter! In each daily issue, I enjoy the recipes, tips and tricks for losing weight that she has to offer. She checks out tons of food products and then let's us know which ones are yummo and yucko. She has so much information that she needed to put it in a book for us all to enjoy. Personally, I'm pleased with that fact, because I print so many of the newsletters out that I now have a thick stack! The most important part of the Hungry Girl newsletter for me is the Weight Watcher points that she adds. It makes it easy for me. The disappointing thing about the new book is that the points values are missing! I have to look them up myself. But I guess that's ok. I haven't seen one recipe that wasn't WW friendly anyway. So as I make the recipes, I'll just jot down the points.

If you are interested in losing a few pounds or just want to eat foods that taste good yet aren't loaded in calories and fat, check out the Hungry Girl website which has all the past newsletters archived. Personally, my favorite is the Girls Bite Out which reminds me that some places are scarrrrry with their calorie soaked fattening foods. But there are also some places that serve delish food that won't hinder my weight loss.


I also like "Chew the right thing" in the newsletters that shows a side by side swap. Fattening foods vs. low fat/low calorie. One of the latest was a chocolate cupcake swap. The low fat version was made with chocolate cake mix, diet hot cocoa mix, Splenda and Egg Beaters. It sounds different than most low fat recipes I've seen. You can check out the swap here.

Again, thanks to my super sweet friend Leslie for giving me the fabulous book! Leslie is fun and has great ideas...I wish she would start blogging ~hint, hint~ :)