Does Your Santa Know CPR?

If you've ever heard me talking about him before, you know that CPR Teddy gets me excited! Not only is he an adorable bear, he's a good helper and wants to help you be ready with your CPR skills.
I am an Independent Distributor for CPR Teddy. I sell them online. I don't make a lot, but it doesn't cost me anything but some time. And I am totally sold on the value of this product, myself.

This week I sold a bear kit to a grandma who's having Santa deliver it to her 5 grandsons on Christmas morning. How cool is that?!

And, if they're willing to pay international shipping (which is more than the bears!), I am also working on a deal with a lady from the Irish Red Cross for some bears for their training program.

Here's a little review of how you can use CPR Teddy:

I have been blessed with water...

For weeks now, we've been living with this yucky, undrinkable water. I've been driving over to my parents' house to fill gallon jugs with their tasty, soft water. I had to clean my dishes after running them through the dishwasher due to the calcium in the water. The smell of metal (iron in the water) almost made me sick at times. I smelled it when washing clothes, showering & bathing the kids. The tub full of water was yellow from it.

Then Dad, my hero, installed our new water softener! The difference is amazing! It's clear, it doesn't stink, and while it doesn't taste as good as Momma & Daddy's it is now drinkable. My dishes are clean and I'm not worried about what long term exposure to the hard water will do to our clothes when they're washed.

But now I've been reminded that people all over the world would have been happy with what I called undrinkable. How spoiled we are to be so blessed.

A lot of people give this time of year because it's Christmas or because it's your last chance to get a tax deduction. Whatever your reason, think about giving more this year. Not because it's the thing to do, or for the deduction, but because even in hard times, we have been blessed. Pause the music & watch...

From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded...

Watch the Advent Conspiracy video, too.

Tiny Talk Tuesday

Elizabeth crouched down to look at Tort, the cat who was sitting under the wood stove, and said in the most adorable, happy little voice ever: "Hi, Tort! I love you!" Then she just stood up & went on about her playing. Her mother's child indeed.

After watching a VeggieTales the other day, David was walking around this morning humming one of the songs & then added this line, "This will be frosted." I think he may have missed the point of the song.

Here, you can see how a Christmas craft - tubes of red & green glitter - almost instantly turned into a double barrel gun. Go figure. You can not tell me that some of this stuff is not just ingrained into little boys. We own no actual toy guns.

I wonder if Grandma & Grandpa can remember what David said last night that had us all laughing?

See more tiny talk at Mary's.

Potatoes

I signed up with SheSpeaks and my first assignment was to review Ore-Ida's new Steam & Mash Potatoes. I got a free bag of the product, a free potato masher, and coupons to share.

I tried the Garlic Seasoned Potatoes. They were very easy to prepare - you just put the whole bag in the microwave for 10 minutes, let them stand for 2 minutes, dump them into a bowl and mash with some milk & butter. Super easy.

What I liked about them was not having to buy a 5lb bag of potatoes and not having to peel them. I found that a whole bag was a lot of potatoes.

The flavor was pretty good, but we thought the texture was a little dry & undercooked. Maybe it's my small microwave or maybe I didn't add enough milk. Dad said they had the texture of leftover potatoes. I reheated a bowl later & added more butter and some cheese and I thought they tasted better that time. The next day, I made potato patties from the leftovers & they were enjoyed by all. Here's my mom's potato patty recipe:

Grandma's Potato Patties

Leftover Mashed Potatoes
1 egg (or 2 if you have a lot of leftovers)
diced onion (amount based on your preference)
flour

Saute the onions. Mix together the leftover mashed potatoes, egg and sauteed onions. It will be kinda runny. Add flour, a little at a time, to thicken. Heat oil in a skillet. Drop spoonfuls of the potato mixture into the hot oil and gently flatten. When it's lightly brown on one side, flip them over. When done, drain on paper towels.

I like to dip mine in ketchup, but Dad used Cholula. I served them with pigs-in-a-blanket.

If anyone wants to give Ore-Ida's Steam & Mash Potatoes a try, let me know. They sent me plenty of coupons to share - $1 off!

Tights

I remember being in David's class at church when he was little. I saw them changing a little girl who was wearing those ruffly bottomed hose. I thought how ridiculous it was to put the nursery worker through that - the wrestling on & off of tiny hose. When I had Elizabeth, I never dressed her in ruffly bottomed hose because I remembered that.

When cold weather hit this year, I felt bad that her legs were exposed when she was wearing a dress, though. I finally broke down and bought a pair of white tights. Turns out, I have never seen anything cuter than Elizabeth wearing tights! It seems not to matter any more if it's hard on her teachers at church. : )

Now she has 2 pair. And I'm thinking it wouldn't be that bad to have more colors...

Christmas Date Night 2008

Our annual date to Sundance Square at Christmastime was Saturday night. Like many other things, it grew this year! We enjoyed a "whole family date" with David & Elizabeth, and shared the evening with Curt & Suzanne.

Little did we know that downtown would be blocked off for the Jingle Bell Run! When we were finally able to get through & get into the parking garage, then we walked to our dinner destination (Billy Miner's) only to find that they were full! So we headed up the block and were able to be seated immediately at Cabo Grande for Mexican food. Downtown was beautiful, as usual, and we enjoyed the enormous Christmas tree and even got a peek at Santa!

Music Has Been Added

I had some complaints about auto starting music before, but it's Christmas now & I'm not taking a poll this time. There's just 18 days to deal with it. : )

In other news, I hope to be adding some posts about what we've been doing this evening. I may post-date them in order to keep things in order. So scroll down & take a look around at what he's up to.

Christmas Tea

Saturday was the annual Ladies Christmas Tea at Grandma's church. This was my second year to attend & I decorated a table again:

We were very colorful, using my Fiesta dishes and Christmas balls as the centerpiece. It was very simple, but I thought it turned out beautiful.

I sat at our table with Grandma & Aunt Wee, while the table next door seated Grana, MawMaw, Aunt Erin, Suzanne, Jan, Kristi & Marlene. I completely forgot to take pictures at the tea this year! To see us at last year's tea, click here. I did take some pictures of the tables when we were up there decorating the night before. They're on my flickr.

Getting Ready for Christmas & Great Giveaways!

We've been busy with Christmas activity around here! I decided I waited too late to make an Advent/Countdown calendar this year, so we went with the traditional Countdown Chain. And the crafts have begun!

So far we've played with glitter, freezer paper, markers, fabric and ribbon. I haven't decided if I'm going to post finished pictures here or not because some of them will be Christmas gifts! The pantry is stocked with flour, yeast, sugar, oatmeal, chocolate chips, and M&M's - all the essentials for Christmas baking! I started a Sourdough Starter this week, and I must say - this stuff is nasty! The only thing that's keeping me interested is the potential for all the different recipes I can make with the stuff.

And guess what? Our neighbor, Mr. Nick, has soft water. : \ Dad found a water softener that also has an iron remover setting, but when we went to Lowe's last night, they weren't in stock. Go figure.

And how about this - 5 Minutes for Mom is having an amazing some amazing Christmas giveaways this year... including a $500 Home Depot Gift Card! Wow, that would almost cover a water softener! I've got every appendage crossed that I can manage to cross and am trying to teach the kids how to cross their fingers, too! : )

And we also have 5 - yep, FIVE - chances to win $500 Kmart Gift Cards! Check out the following blogs to see how:

Chris Brogan
Loren Feldman
Jeremy Schoemaker
Wendy Piersall
Michelle Madhok
Julia Roy

Is it Christmas yet?

SUKA '08: Bump

Right before I graduated from college, my best friend & I went by ourselves on a camping trip. We called it SUKA '95 and vowed that every year we would do something special together. Suka has since grown to include husbands on some years and children as we've added them. I'd like to think that by the time our kids are college aged, they'll have some fond memories of Suka get togethers past.

This year was a wonderful visit as always. We shared lots of love, laughter, and back rubs! And the kids enjoyed each other's company, too. We exchanged some Christmas gifts...

and went on an adventure down by the pond while Elizabeth was napping...

We took in some Christmas lights at the park...


And Sarina & David enjoyed warming themselves by the fire!

In my head, I called this year, "Bump" because my best friend & I, in addition to having the other kids within a few months of each other, are also both pregnant again. I could kick myself for failing to take a picture of the two of us together. I think this was the first time we got together when we both had the baby bumps showing. You'll just have to imagine it in your head.

Click for SUKA '07