Looking for an easy way to inspire your kids to brush more (or at least without complaint!)?  I picked up two of these at Target the other day.  The My Way-Spin Brush by Arm and Hammer! My boys LOVE them.  The brush itself is plain white and comes with 141 water proof stickers for your child to apply-including letter stickers for their name.  The picture above is the “boy” version.  Everything from dinos, to sports, to vehicles. There is a separate set for the girls in your life.

For the mom that really doesn’t do crafting at home because of the mess, this is perfect.  My 4 year old easily completed it by himself! That is a miracle unto itself.

Happy Brushing!

My first remote blog post, via the SeaTac airport wifi! Off for a super fun weekend with some of my best girlfriends! Napa-be warned.

As I packed last night, I had to make a crucial decision early in the process. Check or carry on? Of course I want to avoid the ridiculous baggage fee, but the 3 oz. limit for fluids is what gets me every time. All of my essential items in my bathroom bag are larger than the limit. I am never organized enough to have small travel containers to transfer my needed liquids. I am thinking women should be allowed a larger fluid limit We already have to pay so much more for bodily upkeep- it is like being penalized twice!

In the spirit of June Cleaver, who prepared meals day after day for her family without complaint (or at least it wasn’t in the script):

Hot days call for easy cooking.  Love. Love. Love me a meal prepared in my slow cooker.  Throw it all in the morning and enjoy in the evening without a fuss.  This is one of my favorites and it is a true crowd pleaser.  Just made it on Sunday for a family barbeque.

Pulled Pork

2-2.5 lbs pork tenderloin
1 medium sized onion (sweet onions are particularly good!)
Tom Douglas’s Rub with Love, Pork Rub
1 cup Sweet Baby Ray’s Barbeque, Original

1. Dice onion and put in bottom of slow cooker
2. Cut pork loin into 4-5 inch sections
3. Use rub to coat both sides of pork sections. 
4. Place each pork section into slow cooker.  Arrange so that none of the pieces overlap.
5. Pour Sweet Baby Ray’s sauce on top.
6. Cook on high for 1 hour.
7. Turn down to low and cook for another 6-7 hours.
8. Remove pork and shred with two forks.  It should just fall apart
9. Place pulled pork back in slow cooker and mix with onion and sauce
10. Allow to cook on low for 30 minutes or until you are ready to serve

Serve on buns or rolls of your choosing.  Oh, it is so, so good!
Now, get outside and play!

love it.  I held out for a very, very long time.  I literally get no cell coverage from AT&T at my house, so it made no sense to invest in a super fun toy and not be able to use it at my house.  Verizon came to the rescue.  I brought mine home in early spring and have not regretted it once.

I swear I learn to do something new everyday on this little thing.  One trick that many, many people ask about are how to take screen shots.   It lets you save images of anything you are looking at on your phone. Then you can post or send in an email or in a text message (MMS). I recently posted this screen shot on my facebook page.

How do you do it?
1. Have your screen on the image you want to save
2.  Hold the home and sleep buttons down at the same time.  You will hear your camera shutter click.
3.  The image is now saved in your Camera Roll.  Open Camera.
4.  Select Camera Roll and find your screen shot. Now you can send it via email or text using the bottom left arrow on the image screen.

VOILA!
Anyone else have any super fun tricks I might not know about yet?

07.28.2001~ yours forever
Ten years strong.

I think about a cold Thursday night, at a dingy bar called Dantes, a heart broken girl saw a boy and had the guts to talk to him! How could she know she was about to have her first conversation with the man who would someday be her best friend and husband and the father to her children? She just knew she had to try again because she was certain there was someone in the world she could love and who would love her back! He proved her right!
(Plus, she needed a cigarette and was too cheap to buy a pack of her own.)