CHEERIOS "Love What You Do" Giveaway!

First off let me say, we are not a big cold cereal family.  My kids are teens now and really don't care much for those sugar-coated cereals they use to beg me to buy for them in their younger days.

We have become a family of FLAVORFUL CEREAL Lovers instead.  Flavorful meaning NOT filled with sugar so you can actually taste the grains that make up the cereal. We do like to eat oat cereals, both cold and hot types.

One of our favorite cereals is Cheerios. They taste good plus Oats are good for you, so it's a win/win in my book.
#1 son and I adore the Multi-Grain variety of Cheerios.  Hubs prefers the classic Regular Cheerios, the Daughter likes the Cheerios with the Yogurt Bursts and #2 son will eat whatever variety is in the house, as long as I have plenty of ice cold milk to drown it in. lol

So when MyBlogSpark offered me the opportunity to review Cheerios and tell my readers about a FAN-tastic Contest, I was all like, "sign me up!"  ;-)
If you are a country music FAN &/or a baseball FAN, listen up!
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Cheerios is partnering with country music superstar Martina McBride and professional athlete Cal Ripken, Jr. for the “Do What You Love” Contest. McBride and Ripken will recognize two lucky people with prizes that will make their hearts race.

One music lover (and a guest) will tour the Country Music Hall of Fame^® and Museum with McBride, hang out with her in her recording studio – the world famous Blackbird Studio in Nashville, Tenn. – and even get VIP tickets to one of her upcoming concerts.

Another lucky baseball enthusiast (and a guest) will have the chance to hang out and play catch with Ripken and to tour the Ripken Youth Baseball Academy in Aberdeen, Md., with the “Iron Man” of baseball himself. In addition, the winner will throw out the first pitch at the Cal Ripken World Series and sit in Ripken’s reserved seats at a Baltimore baseball game.
**DH's second most favorite baseball team is the Orioles and we went to college in Baltimore during the same time that Cal's career with the O's was beginning, so I KNOW hubs would LOVE to win this prize!!

Now through July 23, 2010, you can submit your 150-250 word original story and photo, showcasing what they love to do. For a chance to win the experience of a lifetime with McBride and Ripken, visit http://www.cheerios.com/love today.
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So get yourself a piece of pencil and a paper and go win that bad boy!

And while you are working on your story, take a few minutes to enter my Giveaway for a Cheerios "Do What You Love" Prize Pack, just like the one I received from Cheerios and MyBlogSpark.

This prize pack includes one box of Cheerios and a $25 American Express^® Gift Card that you can use towards doing what you love.
Food & Money......need I say more?!?!

Wanna Win It?
If you would like to win this prize pack just leave a comment about what your most favorite thing to do is,  along with your email address. 

Receive Additional entries by....
1. subscribing to my blog(if you already subscribe just tell me that)and leave an additional comment for this entry.
2. follow my blog-click on the "follow button" on the right sidebar and leave an additional comment for this entry. (If you already follow just tell me that in an additional entry/comment.)
3. Post on your blog about this giveaway and leave a link to that post, then leave 2 additional comments for 2 more entries.

This Giveaway ends on July 20th(Tuesday) at 11:59pm Eastern Daylight Savings Time.  This Giveaway is open to US residents only.
I'll post the winners name on July 21st(Wednesday) and contact them via email. If they fail to respond within 48 hours, a new winner will be selected.
Good Luck!

Hey!.....You can also check out Cheerios on Facebook! Visit Cheerios on Facebook to “Like” the brand and keep up with the latest news from Cheerios.

***Disclaimer***
This Giveaway was sponsored by General Mills/CHEERIOS and MyBlogSpark. I was supplied with product and encouraged to blog about the product and offered an identical product to give away to someone in my readership.  The opinion of the product expressed here is my own and I was not paid for endorsing this product.

Sluggy

Sunday at the Farm & In the Garden

It was a beautiful day on Sunday so DH & I took a ride to a couple of farm stands I like.

I got....
6 ears of corn
6 pickling cukes
5 yellow squash
3 large tomatoes
2 bell peppers
2 zucchini
2 onions
1 patty pan squash
1 qt. of wax beans

I paid $12.55 for this local goodness.

Other than the corn which I grilled already for Sunday's dinner & the tomato I used for the BLTs at lunch, here are my plans for it all....
*make a batch of bread & butter pickles to eat off of all week
*make fried zucchini
*make squash casserole
*make stuffed peppers-I have half a leftover red bell pepper I'll stuff for my portion that night since I don't care for the green kind
*mix green beans with the wax beans for a simple side dish one night/blanch & freeze the rest of the wax beans
*not sure about the patty pan yet
*sliced tomato for Caprese Salad-it's not a roma tomato but it will have to do

That's a whole week's worth of side dishes and then some.

I talked to the woman who runs the small family farm nearby on Sunday.  She said the last week's heat spell and lack of rain is nothing but bad news for them.  Everything is drying out.  Her son dug down 4 feet and there is no moisture in the soil to that point.  Wells are drying up too.  I hope we get some good soaking rains soon!  I've got an order in for a bushel of beans, roma tomatoes, red peppers and dozens of ears of corn to put up for fall but this won't happen if the rains don't come soon. 8-(

I am getting very impatient with my own garden here.  I need to go harvest more collards and the lettuce is big enough to pick too but nothing else is ready to pick. 

The peppers & green beans are finally budding though....yah!

And we have golf ball sized maters now!!  No sign of the late blight so far.....crossing fingers this year!

I took some photos of the garden on the 2nd but I guess everyone is pretty bored with this kind of stuff so I won't share them.  But I do have to share these.....

This is the barrel by the back deck where I put kitchen compost-ables in the winter, when it's took bitter outside to walk all the way back to the compost pile.  About a month ago these 2 volunteer tomato plants shot up!lol  So I stopped dumping kitchen waste in there for now.  I just continued to put grass clippings in to act as a mulch, as things in containers tend to dry out so fast, and I don't want to have to water these constantly.
And over by the back deck fencing these volunteers starting growing.....

I had Morning Glories here last year.  When the vines died I just left them on the fencing until winter and pulled them down and threw them into the garden bed to compost.  I guess there were some seed pods left on that vine, huh?lol

I'd better get outside now and cut those collards before I have to go to pick up one of the doggies from the vet's office.

Sluggy

Are You a Curator?

When I was in high school....10th grade I believe....the guidance counselor had us all take a career test. By answering about 100 questions this test would be able to tell you what vocations you would be well suited for in your working life.
Among what seemed like a very strange mix of careers, the test indicated that I would make a very fine Curator.
Though I believe the test meant that to be a Museum Curator, I do believe that old test did nail down my life's work!
Though the National Gallery of Art doesn't sign my paychecks, I look around me here and yes, I have become a Curator.

A curator of stuff.
My stuff....
my hubs stuff....
my kids' stuff.....

 
(Not a picture of our actual stuff.)

Not only do we all collect stuff(or did), but I started collecting MORE stuff to sell.
I got bit by the beanie baby craze over 10 yrs. ago.....and I started collecting extras to sell or trade.  The beanie buying branched out into 'collectibles' buying too.

Then I started buying old out of production toys since with 3 kids under the age of 5, I found myself in toy stores quite a bit, so 'in the day' I was one of those rare grownups who knew waaaay too much about Power Rangers, Thomas the Tank Engine, and Pokemon.

The buying to resell worked out pretty well....between my 'geiger counter hands'(I had an uncanny nack  of being able to feel that a particular toy would be worth selling, just by the vibrations it gave off when I held it)and having kids who could tip me off to what was or would be a 'hot' toy(since nobody knows these things like a kid does), I could buy low and sell high.
Yes, I was the Charles Schwab of the toy market.....a day trader of toys when I wasn't toting kids to practices, breaking up fights or sorting laundry.

And where has this brought me to today?

Well, I still have boxes of toys to dispose of.
Seems I was much better at buying the toys than selling them off in a timely manner, what with all my other jobs as a mom that took precedence.
And now with shipping costs having more than doubled since I began this hobby, it's not worth my time to try to sell some of this stuff anymore.

So not only do I have stuff like regular people that they need to get rid of having grown out of the need for it, I have all this toy stuff to let go of.

Plus I have hubs stuff......and the kids' stuff like I mentioned before.

But.....
I am making some headway in reducing the piles of stuff here.
But it's slow going.....
And sometimes I look around and get so impatient with myself and the stuff.

Because I don't want to be a Curator!

I don't want a house filled with Stuff!!

I don't want to spend my days dusting tchatchkes(that's nicknacks to some of you).

I don't want to spend my days changing decor according to the seasons from the stash of boxes piled in a closet marked summer, winter, spring or fall.

I don't want to spend my days worrying about the color scheme of a room or having to search for months or years to find just the right 'thing' that is missing to make this room feel like home.

I want to feel at peace and serene and not have all this stuff surrounding me.
I want to get rid of all the visual clutter and have just a few special things or furniture pieces accenting each room.
I want to be able to open my front door at any time to anyone and not be embarrassed at the mess because of all the stuff.
I want to be able to enjoy family and friends in my home and be able to have people in because it's empty of stuff and there is plenty of room for them.

So tell me.....are you are Curator?
Is your home filled with objects and you are the caretaker of stuff?

Do you enjoy being a Curator of things?
Or do you want to change like me?

It's never too late(or too early)to start!
Start small with something easy.
How about letting go of some old collection you have shoved in an attic, garage or closet?
If it sits untouched or unappreciated, why hang onto it?
Anything you bought and hang onto because it's going to appreciate in value and be worth a bazillion dollars?.....it's NOT!.....well unless you have gold, money or real estate shoved in a closet.
 
Let it go!

Here is a cute video I found on YouTube that humorously talks about the difference between a Collection and Clutter.
Have a look and then get busy making the changes in your life that you want to see!

If this inspires you, leave a comment and tell us all about it....



FYI--I do think Marc should NOT ditch that Dark Shadows record album....

Sluggy

Go Enter this Food Giveaway!

Go on over and see my bloggy buddy Ann Marie.  She is having a giveaway for a Suddenly Salad Prize Pack.
The link to enter  is HERE.
You'd better hurry though since the contest ends on July 12th!!

When you enter, be sure and mention that you were referred by Sluggy at Don't Read This; It's Boring!
That gives me an extra entry too.   ;-)

It sounds like a Yummy prize, doesn't it?

Sluggy

She Started this HeatWave......Finish the Lyric

I spent summers in New England slaving in various theaters' costume shops during college.   One theater in particular use to play muzak the hour or so before the performances.  The costume shop was in the basement of the theater so every evening while we worked we were forced to listen to this looped muzak tape.  Mostly, it was old numbers from old musical films(think 1940's thru 1960's).
One of the songs was the old classic "Heatwave" from the even more classic movie musical from 1954 "There's No Business Like Show Business", staring Ethel Merman, Dan Dailey, Mitzi Gaynor & Donald O'Connor.  Also featured in the film was Marilyn Monroe and she performed the Heatwave number.

Have a look at it if you like this sort of thing....



Us Costume shop folks use to put on our own impromptu performances of these songs when they played. 
I can tell you only that they were not as well choreographed but just as cheesy as this one with alot more 'camp'.

This is what happens after you've been awake for 3 days straight trying to get the costumes done for opening night.....


I'm off to go spend time with my #2 BFF before I start my own personal heatwave meltdown.
I will say #2 BFF's  personality is all wet and she has a wickedly cold sense of humour but I wouldn't trade her for all the SmartSource coupons in the world....

Sluggy