Inspired Guns DVD Giveaway

Maple Mountain Communications has given me an opportunity to do a little giveaway.  You could win a DVD of the newly released movie Inspired Guns.

This film is another in the Mormon movie genre. There are a few in this genre that I've loved, mostly the more serious films like Charly, The Other Side of Heaven, and The Best Two Years. I haven't seen many of the comedies and this movie fits that category best.

Inspired Guns is a comedy of errors involving LDS missionaries, the mafia, and the FBI. Check out the press release for details on the cast and the background of this movie.

Want your own copy? Enter our giveaway now.

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I'm Still a Mom

It has been nearly a year since our boys moved out of the house. It was kind of lonely at first and it seemed like we usually had to be the ones to reach out if we wanted to hear from them. They only moved to the next city over, a quick 10-minute drive down the road, but our paths stopped crossing.

Even though it took some getting used to, we were happy to have a little more room in the house and our activities as a couple were improving. We were entering a new phase in our lives as parents.

Now that the boys have experienced living on their own and paying their own bills, we get the occasional text or phone call. They'll ask for help or advice. Sometimes they just need someone to talk to. Other times we end up helping mediate their arguments.

I have to be honest that I've enjoyed those moments where they still needed their mom or dad. Even better are the times when they realize that something we tried teaching them was true. We don't have the means to be able to rescue them from every situation. Job losses, cars breaking down, and mounting debts are all things that we've all had to deal with at one time or another. I'm glad my dear boys still come to me for help or comfort and that I get to be a mom on a whole new level.

Supporting the Local Community

As we increasingly find ourselves shopping for the best deals online, a lot of great local businesses end up finding it tough to compete. It's not just about trying to find the cheapest price. A lot of my motivation for shopping online is for the convenience. What if you could take advantage of the convenience and still support local products?

MercoBox is doing just that. They gather samples of products from your local community, packaging them in a fun box shipped to your door.

I was able to sample April's MercoLocal box:

• Eco Treasures soap nuts
• Ashley's Apothecary healing salve
• Fit Me Tea 3 tea samples and filter
• Meals that Transform power bar and protein mix
• Les Madeleines 3 madeleines
• Mason Jar Coffee Roasters Colombia Guatica
• Rodizio Grill gift card
• Our Childrens Earth gift card
• Downtime Yoga gift card
• Ballet West gift card

My first impression upon opening the box was a good one. These were unique items in quality packaging. I loved that I could try so many items produced here in Utah without a big investment. It reminds me of going to the farmer's market. This would be a very long post if I reviewed every product in the box, but I'll share some of the highlights.

The most surprising thing about the Ashley's Apothecary healing salve was its lack of smell. I'm used to these things having a pretty strong smell but this salve was odorless. It absorbs into the skin well without a greasy feeling.

One of the things you'll notice with Fit Me Tea is the lack of tea bag. These are loose leaf teas that come with paper filters. I like the packaging that tells you not only the flavor of the tea, but the function and the mood of it. For example, the G Blend says it is a "crisp, clean green with a shot of berry" and you'll feel "light & energized, like running on the beach naked." I'll have to take their word on that last part! Preparing the tea didn't end up taking any longer than throwing a tea bag in a cup and the flavor was amazing. Best green tea I've ever had and that bit of berry taste was the best part.

Of all the products, my favorites were the madeleines from Les Madeleines. These are soft, lemony little cakes that taste great alone and are absolutely heavenly when dunked in coffee, tea, or hot cocoa. I normally don't dunk things in my beverages but I'm glad I tried it. The bakery actually calls them cookies but they have more of a cake-like texture (at least to me).

Want your own MercoBox? Get one for 25% off by using this coupon code: iheartutah 

Disclaimer:  The MercoBox products were provided for this review. The opinions expressed are completely my own.

Birthday Memories

Birthdays are a funny thing. As a kid you get excited because you can't wait to get older. For a short period of time in your early adult years your birthday is a opportunity to have fun and you're not as concerned with age. At some point, you start to dread getting older and birthdays don't seem as fun.

Growing up poor meant we didn't do much for birthdays in our family. I do remember having a party for my birthday one time in all those years. Several school friends came over and I felt really special until my dad embarrassed me in front of everyone. He had a toy he was playing with - a battery operated helicopter attached by wire to a controller. All it could really do was go up or down based on running the propeller. Dad thought it would be fun to land it on my head during the birthday party. The helicopter landed gently on the top of my head and proceeded to start wrapping my hair around the propeller. You can imagine the rest...

Other than that one very interesting attempt at a party, the rest of the birthdays in our house were pretty low key. The birthday kid always got to choose their cake flavor. I always picked cherry chip cake with chocolate frosting. We also had a say in what we ate for dinner. Mom finally got tired of me always asking for chicken Kiev so she later limited what we could choose. I just liked being special for one day a year.

I was so sure that everyone else had better birthdays than I did. Imagine my surprise when I got married and found that my husband's family wasn't terribly different in how they celebrated. Any event in a Navajo family is celebrated with food. Birthdays for them were a great excuse to bring the family together. It was more than just dinner, though, and ended up being the type of family celebration that was better than decorations and presents.

With my own kids I tried to do the parties. We had some fun here and there and I even organized one heck of a Magic the Gathering party with a mini tournament and kids designing their own Magic cards. In the end it really wasn't my thing. The parties I still like the most are the big birthday cookouts with my husband's family and the gatherings at work where everyone just swaps stories.

Today is my husband's birthday and I'm sure he wishes he could be back home, having a big family cookout. I'm doing my best to make this a great birthday for him. Spam and eggs for breakfast, gifts both practical and fun, and then Navajo (or White Chick) tacos for dinner. Just spending the day together has been fun already.

What are your favorite birthday memories?

Christmas Traditions

Christmas seems to be such a time for traditions. As a child I never thought too much about the traditions in my own family. Reflecting back on my childhood Christmases and what traditions we keep going in our family now has been a lot of fun this year.

The anticipation of opening our presents was tough and Dad made it tougher. We had to wake up everyone first and Dad insisted we eat breakfast before going over to the tree. Sometimes we were worried whether Santa made it to our house or not since Dad would make a big show of stoking up the fire in the fireplace and tell us that there was no way Santa was getting into our house.

Stockings were opened first and always had an apple or orange, peanuts, and candy (Whitman's sampler and Lifesavers storybook box). Then there would be small toys, jewelry, makeup, socks, and other trinkets. For many years we got a Toblerone candy bar. My poor mom always seemed to have cooking utensils in her stocking and Dad had us kids convinced that all Mom ever wanted was cooking stuff.

After we opened presents, we got ready to go to Grandma and Grandpa's house. That involved a two-hour drive but it was worth it. We loved playing with our cousins and Grandma not only made a great dinner but wonderful pies and cookies for all. My sister, Kathy, and I would play Christmas songs by Alvin and the Chipmunks, singing and dancing along, taking over the living room. All of the kids would slide down the stairs and play games that modern kids couldn't imagine (no electronics involved).

Getting married led to some new traditions. The biggest one was attending midnight mass. My husband was raised Catholic and that was a big part of his family's Christmas traditions. It was wonderful to spend the first moments of Christmas Day celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ. As the years went by it was our way of feeling like we could still be with our family even though we were far away. All of us were at mass at the same time, no matter where we were.

Some traditions changed since we rarely had a chance to travel the long distances to be with family and because we were merging two different backgrounds.  I love knowing the stories behind our ornaments and insist on being the only one to put certain precious ornaments on the tree. I was used to significant presents being under the tree but I married someone who likes to put some of the best presents in or next to the stockings. We also took on his family's tradition of seeing a movie on Christmas Day. As we get closer to Christmas we get excited about picking out what movie we will save for that day. We used to light candles on the Advent wreath but lately we haven't managed to get our Christmas stuff out of storage in time to do it.

I hadn't thought much about what our own children would enjoy in our traditions. They started bringing girlfriends along to midnight mass. Our oldest mentioned last week how much he looked forward to packs of cards in his stocking. From Pokemon to Yu-Gi-Oh to Magic cards. "It's like the Christmas lottery!" It's so different having our kids out of the house now and waiting for them to come over so we can open presents. Some day we will be watching them develop their own Christmas traditions.

What are the Christmas traditions you look forward to?

The Power of Connections

In my work for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society we have come to focus on CONNECTIONS. Multiple sclerosis (MS) destroys connections in the nervous system and we believe that we can make connections that will kill MS. People connect to others to raise funds for new research or to educate or even to create friendships that help them cope with the disease.

It didn't take long before I started to see how connections were playing a part in so many areas of my life. When I was first plunged into searching for a new job in early 2012 I worked with a job coach who emphasized how important it was to network (use connections) to discover job opportunities. Most employers I've worked for are more likely to hire someone who is recommended by a current employee and sometimes the employee can give you a "heads up" on positions that are opening up soon.

The last couple of months have provided our family with some challenges and emergencies. In nearly every instance the power of connections came to the rescue. My daily commute of 50 miles each way was taking a toll on my car and the motor on the heater fan went out. I was facing a large repair bill that we couldn't absorb. Fortunately, I had reconnected at our Bike MS event with a great guy who used to work for our favorite mechanic. I asked him for recommendations on a reliable and affordable mechanic and he connected me to someone who fixed the car at a price we could handle.

The freezing cold temperatures did a number on our backyard faucet. The pipe cracked and water was spraying all over. Every plumber we called was overbooked already and they estimated the job would be at least $300. There goes Christmas! We are blessed to have a guy in our neighborhood who can fix pretty much anything. Our sons came over to help us out and called our neighborhood hero as well.  By the end of the night we were able to get the pipe replaced and have running water (without leaks) again.

My latest set of connections ended in the most fun I've ever had at a job interview. It all started with a dental emergency. I have an unhappy history with dentists and generally find them terrifying, but with a broken tooth developing an abscess there was no way to avoid seeing one. My hubby got a recommendation from a coworker for the dentist that has sponsored the football team he coaches. That connection helped me to get in for an appointment right away. The dentist turned out to be really great but I was also facing a lot of work to fix my dental problems. I found myself overwhelmed by everything that needed to be done and the cost of it all and started falling apart. That's when the dentist offered us some different options and slowed everything down so I could calm down. He was like no other dentist I had ever met. When I got home I checked out his website and Facebook page and saw that he had a great relationship with his patients. Reading through the posts and seeing how he and his office interacted with all these families showed me that he was definitely the dentist for me. How does this end up in a job interview? Today I had a job interview with a company that helps dental practices get their social media started. During the interview I mentioned my great new dentist and how impressed I was with his Facebook page. That's when I found out that my dentist was one of their clients! I felt so comfortable in that interview and my experience with my dentist let me see what a wonderful job this was.

These are just a few of the examples. Just connecting with friends on Facebook led to me getting tickets to a sold-out show my brother was performing in. Connecting on Twitter led to an offer from a "Finding Bigfoot" scientist to speak to my hubby's biology students and getting to meet comedian Gabriel Iglesias after his show (where he wished us a happy 25th anniversary). May you all find your own connections that make your world a much better place!

A New Challenge Begins

I was never petite but I recently hit some bad milestones. My weight went higher than ever before but I did start bring that down a bit earlier in the year. Still, I have about 100 pounds I need to lose before reaching the weight that's healthiest for me. It's kind of interesting to think back to when I was in high school and my early adult years. Back then I thought I was fat but I would give anything to be that size again.

Last month, a visit to the doctor brought a lot of bad news. I already had high blood pressure and diabetes and cholesterol problems got added to my list. Expanding the battle beyond just trying to lose weight made things much more serious. My list of problems was creating a situation bringing me closer to a heart attack and I could no longer just be okay with how I look.

There are a lot of things I used to do that are more difficult now. I don't have the strength or endurance I had when our kids were younger. It was frustrating to feel those limitations during our big events at work. An office job body doesn't help at a major event where there's a lot of loading, unloading, setting, down, cleaning up, and general running around.

Feeling accountable is one of the best ways to help yourself stick to a plan. I decided to make this whole thing a win-win by turning it into a fundraiser. My mom battled her weight but was restricted by her multiple sclerosis (MS) in what she could do to stay active. I want to honor my mom by having the money I raise go to finding a cure for MS. My goal is to lose 30 pounds by October 4 (my birthday) and I'm having people pledge to donate for each pound I lose.

There's so much to battle when it comes to weight loss:

• Time - it takes time to prepare healthier foods and it's so much easier to grab fast food
• Money - a lot of the healthier options cost more than the unhealthy ones
• Culture - I married into a culture that celebrates everything with food. You don't decline the offers of food either. 
• Regular eating - for both weight loss and diabetes it is important to eat regular meals and not skip any
• Exercise - I'm not a fan of working out and my job and the commute leave me sitting most of the day. Fitting in the exercise will be a challenge for sure.

Fortunately, I'm getting more support than I ever imagined. Encouragement on Facebook from friends and family have already made this better than past attempts at losing weight. I'm making good use of SparkPeople.com, the best free weight loss resource online. I also got a huge surprise when a new friend and his wife gave me a bicycle they weren't using anymore.

I've only lost a few pounds so far, but at least I'm going in the right direction now.