Confession time: Yesterday, I bought my first bottle of wine to consume at home for us and not a celebration like Passover (where I always drink grape juice with the kids).
Some people may be shocked with this considering I am 30-something. It’s not that I will not drink beverages with alcohol, it’s more or less that I have never found anything that I like enough. A lot are too strong, too sweet, too dry or something else. There is also the money factor. As a foodie, I would much rather spend my moolah on something food related than empty calories that I drink. You see, the boys do not like carbonated beverges. Thanks to this, we pretty much only have water and some vegetable juice options in the house.
The other night, I mentioned that I wished I had something in the house to drink. I wanted something to help me relax, but had nada. My friend Danny is the wine guru. She suggested that I try a peach wine. Hmmm…..I LOVE peach everything. This really intrigued me since I have fond memories of trips to Canada where I ordered Peach & Tea drinks (ice tea with peach schnapps – YUM!).
I shocked TechyDad yesterday and told him I was heading into a local wine store to look for a peach wine. I asked them for the one my friend mentioned, but they did not have it (it was called Sweet Vines and from California). They took me to an area that had New York wines, including a peach variety. This is what they had:
It is a peach wine from Glenora in the Finger Lakes region of New York (always nice to support the home state). I figured I would give it a shot and bought it. After I paid for it and was putting it under the stroller, I stood up and lost my balance. As I did this, I crashed my nose into the hard pastic on the stroller – ugh!
Last night, when the kids went to bed, TechyDad and I had our peach wine in classy clear plastic cups. (The wine was not kosher – GRRRR.) We sat on the couch drinking it while watching Hot in Cleveland. All I can say is that it was delicious. It was not too sweet, had a great peach flavor and did not sting when it went down like wines often do to me. We will definitely buy this again and may try some of the other varieties.
If you have any other wine suggestions, I would love to know. It’s not like I am going to drink often, but variety would be nice.
Thank you to my friend Danny for the suggestion – you rock!
P.S. Be sure to enter my two current giveaway for Breyer’s Smooth & Dreamy (4 winners) and for the book Potty Animals (5 winners). Oh and TechyDad is also having a $25 gift certificate giveaway for ABC Neckties!
A week from today, I will be in NYC at BlogHer. I am excited, nervous and overwelmed in a good way. There are so many people that I can not wait to meet, sessions that look incredible and fun parties that will add to the experience. Last year, I was one of the people that was not at BlogHer ’09 in Chicago. I had planned on it, but opted for a family Disney World vacation earlier instead. I remember sitting at my computer wishing I was there with everyone in Chicago. I saw all of the pre-BlogHer posts and drooled, then sulked when everyone was there and live blogging/Tweeting.
I vowed not to over write about BlogHer before the conference. Since this will be my first BlogHer experience, I am going in naive with the expectation to take it one moment at a time. Sure, I have a tentative schedule of everything I would love to do. Will I be upset if it doesn’t work out? Not really, there is so much that I will learn from BlogHer and I am thrilled to be able to go.
So my question to you this week:
Have you ever been to BlogHer in the past and will you be there next week? If not, please know I feel for you and hope that one day you will be able to attend if that is your wish.
P.S. One last thing before I go. I would like to take the time to thank Chevrolet. I am part of a group that will be carpooling to BlogHer in NYC in a Chevy sponsored vehicle. CutestKidEver, AlbanyMommy, TechyDad and I will be driving in a Tahoe Hybrid to our destination.
We are one of ten groups that were selected. They will be providing us with the vehicle, one tank of gas, ON STAR access, and parking once we arrive. They are not paying for additional gas, lodging or our tickets to BlogHer. If you would like to follow along with our journey and the others carpooling to BlogHer ’10, you can follow #ChevyBlogHer on Twitter.
Update: For those taking part in the #ChevyBlogHer carpool and want to use the banner, Lisa asked me to share. Here is the code to use:
Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the linky there if you are participating.
As much as I love to read now, I was a reluctant reader as a child. I did not like teachers telling me that I had to read so many books each month, or a specific title. Thankfully, there were books out there that made me want to read and keep at it. Beverly Cleary is an author that saved me for years. Thanks to her books, I was able to find characters that would keep me engaged in reading and laughing while I went. If you are not familiar with the name Beverly Cleary, you may remember her infamous Ramona Quimby. Ramona was the Junie B. Jones of my generation – only she keeps on giving. Ramona and her family and friends continue to keep generations of kids reading to see what quirky adventure she will go on. I have secretly been wishing and waiting for NHL (almost 7) to be ready to read the Ramona books to share the experience with him.
Several months ago, I heard that they were finishing up a movie called Ramona and Beezus. I had mixed emotions. Movies that are based on books often do not live up to my expectations (see Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs – my favorite picture book). Of course, the Harry Potter movies have created a new level of book to movie phenomena. While teaching, I also did comparisons of books and Hollywood versions with my students (perfect Vehn Diagram opportunity for pre-writing). I knew that I had to see this movie.
Time went by and I heard bits and pieces about the movie. Then out of the blue, we were invited to a pre-screening of Ramona and Beezus (rated G) last week (it opens TODAY). The boys and I went, along with my Aunt S and grandmother to see Ramona and Beezus on the big screen. Thanks to the quick nature of this, I did not have time to reread the books, so my memories of Ramona are sketchy at best. When the movie began, I was instantly brought back to my childhood. Here was Ramona, Beezus, Picky Picky, Henry Higgins and the rest of the gang in front of my eyes. Thanks to Selena Gomez (Beezus in the movie), I have the official Ramona and Beezus Trailer to show you. Sit back, relax and enjoy!
What we thought:
Let me begin by saying that I really enjoyed the movie. Every time a new actor came onto the screen as a familiar character, I was taken a bit more into the wonderful and wacky world of Ramona Quimby. While watching the movie, I made a mental note that I had to find my old copies of the books to reread. The story of Ramona and Beezus is classic. There are two sisters realizing the important family bond as they move through some struggles in life to save their home. The movie really lives up to the tagline: "A Little Sister Goes A Long Way."
Joey King was Ramona and did a fabulous job in the role. She was cute, spunky and had the Ramona timing down. It really is hard to believe that this is her first motion picture appearance. The chemistry between Ramona and Beezus was also special in this film. Selena Gomez takes on the role of big sister Beezus and plays the perfect teenage counterpart to King’s Ramona. The two young ladies without a doubt brought the world of Ramona from the pages to the big screen.
Simply stated, director Elizabeth Allen created Ramona’s world in this film. She did a great job going from the serious scenes about the family losing their house, to Ramona’s day dreams and back to the silly water fight and lemonade scenes.
In addition to Joey King and Selena Gomez, the cast of actors in Ramona and Beezus helped this classic book come alive for fans of all ages. I am a long time fan of John Corbett and enjoyed seeing him as Robert Quimby. He showed his softer side and really had nice chemistry with Joey King, especially during the drawing scene with her. Bridget Moynahan was Dorothy Quimby. She played a serious mom, who could see the humor in a the antics of her quirky little girl. One of the best surprises in the movie was Ginnifer Goodwin in the role of Ramona’s beloved Aunt Bea. As a big fan of Big Love, it was nice seeing her spread her wings and show more of the comedic timing that is sometimes hinted at when playing Margene. Josh Duhamel as Hobart is a great counterpart to Goodwin and works well with the kids in the film. One other big surprise to me was Sandra Oh (Dr. Cristina Yang on Grey’s Anatomy) as Mrs. Meacham. As a teacher, I loved her portrayal of the straight-laced and slightly sarcastic Mrs. Meacham. Of course, I have to admit, I did see hints of Dr. Yang coming into the role – especially when she rolled her eyes a certain way.
Overall, I really enjoyed the movie. I do believe that Ramona fans of all ages will appreciate the book coming alive in front of their eyes. On the flip side, my almost seven year old son now wants to read the Ramona books. He had never heard of Ramona before the movie and is now excited to read more about this quirky little girl. Today, I will be heading out to get a copy of the book to use as the perfect summer read aloud now that we have seen the movie. Oh, I am purposely not telling you my favorite scenes from the movie since I do not want to spoil anything for you when you go and see it.
I highly recommend the movie Ramona and Beezus to people that grew up with Ramona and new fans alike (also a great summer family movie). The storyline and acting will help keep you in the land of Ramona Quimby and begging Beverly Cleary for more wonderful literary creations.
Disclosure: I received complementary passes for my family to see the pre-screening of Ramona and Beezus from the PR agency releasing the movie. No other compensation was given. All opinions expressed in this review are 100% mine. All pictures used with permission. Photos by Alan Markfield.
2010 Twentieth Century Fox and Walden Media, LLC. Was given special permission to use these photos after viewing the pre-screening of the movie as a member of the media.
Yesterday, we spent the day at Saratoga Lake with family. Here are some of the people we saw at the lake:
The boys were in their swimsuits and we all had sun lotion on so we could go right to the boat when we arrived. We had a wonderful time on the boat. There is just nothing like roaming around the lake, getting sprayed with water and laughing with family.
These are just a few of the photos that I took on the fly with my cell phone. TechyDad and I took many more with his camera. I will be sharing some of those later.
After several hours on the boat, we went back to dock and decided to take the boys to the beach to play in the sand and go in the lake. Let me preface this with the fact that I am NOT a beach person. There are many reasons. Here are a few:
I am really pale (see photo below). Pale + red hair = easily burns in the sun even with mega sun screen. This happened over and over in Hawaii and throughout my life. TechyDad saw that I burned within 30 minutes of arriving at Blizzard Beach at Disney World on our honeymoon (I was crispy fried). Luckily, sun screen these days is a lot better, but I still do not like to tempt fate.
Not a huge fan of sand. Sure it can be fun to play with, but it gets into your toes, all over your body and into places within your swimsuit that it should not. Enough said!
Like swimming in clean water. You know without rocks, shells, fish, seaweed in my feet. I guess I was spoiled growing up with my Nana and Papa’s pool.
Those really are the two biggest reasons in my mind. I know they are silly. I am a good sport and will go hang out on the beach with the kids and TechyDad. We did this for a little while yesterday. While the little guy was busy doing this:
I was sitting off to the side snapping away photos of the boys kicking back like this:
More of those pictures from the boat and beach coming later, I need to get them from JL and his camera.
So are you a beach person or more of a pool kinda gal/guy? Just curious to see if other people have reasons for one or the other.
As a former teacher, I am quite used to drama at schools. It can happen at all levels and I even remember some as a child. Still, I was lucky enough never to deal with the scenario that is playing out for my son. You see, once again there is a threat to close his school down.Yes, they are threatening to close a school that has had a steady increase in enrollment, high state test scores and a phenomenal community spirit. I am blown away with the so called rationale and backhanded politics behind some of the reasons. Of course, none of these things are really new in the area. The problem is that the state of the economy in New York has made this boil on our bottom even closer to the point where it will burst. (Can you tell I am in a mood?)
So yesterday, after digesting more uncertainties at the school board meeting, I had to take a minute and get some things off my chest. I wrote about it here: Education funding crisis – save our school.
Obviously, I am being a bit vague about things. Since I try to protect my son, I can not go into all of the details, or it will be obvious which school he is in. So this week my question to you is:
Did you or your child ever go to a school that was constantly threatened to close down or get shut down? If you have any experience, I would love to hear suggestions on things to do to help our school and especially my son who will be devistated if this happens.
Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the linky there if you are participating.
