Time for GLEE-Review

I always find that I give things that have some iota of a connection to me more of a chance than I would something that is completely foreign. I think most people do that. So when I found out that Glee was based on show co-creator Ian Brennan's experience in show choir at Prospect High (just over five miles away from my high school in Park Ridge, IL), I knew I had to check out the show. And another totally nonsensical reason why the show caught my attention is because "Gleester" is the nickname of one of my best friends. Of course that made me completely predisposed to like the show on a subconscious level.

And the verdict? I LOVE Glee. I am definitely a Gleek. What other show has four or five soundtracks from one season? I have the first two volumes, and hope to get the Madonna tribute and the Sectionals edition. From the beginning I thought that Lea Michele reminded me of Idina Menzel from Rent and Wicked, and at the end of the first season she guest-starred as Rachel’s biological birth mother! How cool is that!? Because my parents are immigrants I don’t know many of the classic rock and pop songs from decades ago. This show has definitely introduced me to a lot of old school songs. The renditions that the Glee cast were phenomenal, but I also love the original recordings to classic hits such as “Somebody to Love” and Heart’s “Alone.” I can’t wait until the second season starts next Tuesday (September 21), especially since Charice will be joining the cast. Don't be hating on her because of the botox!

20th Century Fox Home Entertainment released Season 1 on DVD and Blu-Ray today and here are just a few of my favorite special features on the 7 disc DVD set:
Disc 1:
* *   Pilot - Director's Cut
Disc 4:
* *   Glee Music Video
* *   Full Length Audition Pieces
* *   Fox Movie Channel Presents Casting Session
* *   Dance Boot Camp
* *   Jane Lynch A to Glee
* *   Meet Jane Lynch
Disc 5:
* *   The Power of Madonna
Disc 7:
* *   Glee Sing-Along Karaoke
* *   Staying in Step With Glee
* *   Bite Their Style: Dress Like Your Favorite Gleek
* *   Behind the Scenes of the Madonna Episode
* *   Making of a Showstopper

If anyone wants to start a middle-aged mommy glee club with me, let me know! This show definitely makes me want to get up and sing. I hope the second season will be even better than the first!

I did not receive compensation for this post. I did receive a copy of the DVD for review purposes.

San Jose Half-Marathon October 3rd Run, Walk, Hobble, Crawl

UPDATE: I ran a 10K and didn't die! I even came in four minutes ahead of Stewart who had to stop and walk several times due to his bum knees (several combat tours will do that to you, my friend). The boys had a chance to catch up with Sophie the same weekend. Such silliness---it made me all the more determined to put on a good effort in this race for Sophie. Thanks to all my friends, family and readers for your support! I definitely could not do it without you!

Three things I've learned so far during training:

1. Do not have your husband drop you off 5.5 miles away from your house so you will be forced to run home if the route includes several stretches where there is no sidewalk or space on the road for you to run.
2. Do drink water before running a 10K because they might not have water stations till mile 3.5 and you might be near fainting by then.
3. Don't buy running shoes that are too small for you because they are on super clearance sale.

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On Sunday October 3rd I will be doing a half-marathon. Notice I don't say running, because there is no guarantee that I will be able to run the entire race. Of course that is my goal, but it has been 11 years since my last marathon and half-marathon. Any woman who has had kids can tell you that a 30-something mommy body is less cooperative than a 20-something single woman body. If you've been following my blog and my posts on the LA Moms Blog, you know that a 5K that I could run easily with minimal training back in the day, now knocks me out for over a week. Since the 5K in February, I didn't run much, but when I got an email from friends Eunice and Andrew asking me to join the Cure CMD Team for the San Jose Rock N Roll Half Marathon on October 3rd to raise awareness and funds to support CMD research, I knew I had to do it.

Eunice and Andrew's daughter Sophie is battling a rare genetic disease called Ullrich Congenital Muscular Dystrophy (CMD). It is the most common type of CMD, a group of neuromuscular disorders that currently have no cure or treatment. Kids with CMD are born with serious muscle weakness, and their muscle tissue breaks down faster than it can repair or grow. Some children are never able to walk, others inevitably lose this ability by their teens, and all must eventually rely on respirators to breathe. The disease is often fatal by the time a child reaches his 20s. If I knew that H or R would die in his 20s, I would be a complete wreck everyday, thinking that some little thing might be the beginning of the end. Eunice and Wonki are definitely made of sterner stuff than I am because they have fought this fight with Sophie from the beginning with more grace and strength than I could have thought possible. I think that has translated into Sophie's personality, because she is sweet, funny, smart and generally in good spirits. Considering how difficult it is for her even to walk a single step, Sophie is truly an amazing little girl. Watch this video of Sophie walking:



I have joined the Cure CMD Team to raise funds to find a cure for Sophie and the other children with CMD. I started training at the end of July in time to run the BlogHer 5K and have been adding mileage slowly but surely every week. In a couple of weeks I'll be running a 10K in order to prepare my legs for race conditions. As a member of the team, I have committed to raising at least $500. So here's the pitch, if you are a regular Random Mommy reader, would you please consider donating $1 or more to help me reach my goal? I will give you a complete money-back guarantee. I may not run the entire way, but if I don't finish the race, I will return every cent of your money. I will track the progress of my training and my fundraising till race day. If you knew Sophie, you would agree that she deserves to have a full, rich long life. She was born just one month after H, and I joked after taking this photo that they would be prom dates as well as crib mates. Please help make that a possibility. If you need any more convincing, here is Sophie singing Taylor Swift's You Belong With Me:



Thanks everyone! You can donate under my name (scroll down) via Paypal on the Team Cure CMD site here.

Study Break GIVEAWAY-Marmaduke, Animal MASTERMIND and Rubik's Slide

CONGRATULATIONS TO #3, 4, 10, AND 5! PLEASE EMAIL ME IN THE NEXT 72 HOURS WITH YOUR PREFERENCE OF PRIZES. PRIZES WILL BE ALLOCATED IN THE ORDER OF YOUR RESPONSE TO MY EMAIL. Thank you to everyone who entered and stay tuned for more fun giveaways.
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In celebration of Back To School season, I thought what would be more appropriate than a Study Break Giveaway? After all, I could give away a ream of paper and some notebooks, but wouldn't you rather win a copy of the Marmaduke DVD or a cool new game you can share with your kids during a study break?

Last week, the boys and I went to the 3 Dog Bakery in Los Angeles to celebrate the Blu-ray and DVD release of Marmaduke on August 31. One of R's nicknames is R-Dog so he felt right at home with all the dogs that came to play at the party. He tried to feed all the dogs the special doggies treats and I think he may have overfed a few of them! But right when it was their turn to take a photo with Marmaduke himself, R became shy and only H got in the picture.

The boys loved the actual movie, even though they didn't know that it had all-star cast of voice talents, including Owen Wilson, George Lopez, Kiefer Sutherland, and Fergie. It's about what happens when Marmaduke (Wilson) moves to a new neighborhood (Kansas to the OC!) with his family. The super-sized teenage dog soon discovers he just doesn’t fit in—literally! Marmaduke can’t help being a one-dog wrecking crew, causing fur-flying chaos wherever he roams. But, with the help of his friend, Carlos the Cat (Lopez), Marmaduke finally gets his bearings and becomes a part of the community. 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment will give two Random Mommy readers their own DVD copy to share with their families.

If your kids love to play games as much as mine do, they would probably like Pressman Toy Corporation's new Animal MASTERMIND® Towers, a new children’s version of the classic game of Codemaker vs. Codebreaker, designed for kids ages 6 and up. Like classic MASTERMIND, the new Towers version is a game of logic, problem solving and fun that challenges players to figure out their opponent's code in as few turns as possible. To play, children stack their animal tiles in a special tower. Players take alternate turns trying to guess the order of the animals in the other player’s tower by asking questions such as, “Is your giraffe below your pig?” This new vertical children’s edition of MASTERMIND teaches important skills in three levels of gameplay, entertaining children as their matching and logical thinking skills progress. Animal MASTERMIND is the first in a series of MASTERMIND games in the new vertical format. Upcoming editions will feature licensed children’s entertainment properties such as Nickelodeon’s SpongeBob SquarePants™, Disney Fairies™, Disney®, and kids’favorite Looney Tunes™ character. R was too young for it, but H (age 4) could play with a bit of coaching. I think they had the most fun stacking the animals. Later I had the chance to play with H while R was asleep and it went much better. We went from 4 to 6 animals stacked in a short period of time. H absolutely loved it and said he wanted to play it "ten hundred times!" One Random Mommy reader will get the chance to stack animals and play Animal MASTERMIND Towers with her/his kids.

For older kids (H couldn't figure it out but Stewart had a blast with it), Techno Source is coming out with a new electronic version of Rubik's Cube. Rubik’s Slide has over 10,000 brain-busting puzzles. The object of each puzzle is to rearrange the pattern of lights by shifting and twisting until they match the solution for that puzzle. With two ways to play and multiple challenging levels that train your brain, it's the game that's easy to learn and impossible to put down! One Random Mommy reader will get the chance to try and put it down!

HOW TO ENTER THE GIVEAWAY:  Contest period runs from Wednesday, September 8, 2010 at 10:01 PM (Pacific) until Tuesday, September 14, 2010 at 11:59 PM (Pacific). Enter by leaving the name of your favorite study break activity, and leave your e-mail address OR sign in to comments using your Blogger ID, making sure your Blogger profile is public and includes your e-mail address.

Bonus Entries (leave a separate comment for each entry, it counts if you've done any of these so leave a comment for each one)
1) Follow me on Twitter
2) Tweet this contest (http://tinyurl.com/236vf2j) and leave the tweet url
3) Follow my blog with Google Friend Connect by clicking on the sidebar

If you don't leave a qualifying comment and your e-mail address or public Blogger profile, your entry will be disqualified. I reserve the right to extend the contest period. At the end of the contest period, I will utilize Random.org to randomly choose the FOUR winners. The winners will be contacted by e-mail and will have 72 hours to respond to my e-mail with their order of preference for the movies. Prizes will be allocated based on order of response to the e-mail. If the winners do not respond within 72 hours, the prizes will go to the next place winners as decided by Random.org. This contest is open for US Residents only. A huge thank you and much appreciation to my friends at 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, Pressman Games, and Techno Source for their generosity! Good luck!

I did not receive compensation for this post. I received product samples to facilitate my review.

My Music Prodigy H and Juno Baby Review

H has always been musical. He could sing before he could talk, and I'm not talking about the run of the mill twinkle twinkle wheels on the bus gibber gabber. I'm talking about full on pitch perfect singing in octaves. Anyway, I've decided not to be jealous anymore of my friends' sons who are much more athletically gifted. In his attempts to master ball sports, H has already suffered THREE concussions so we've definitely ruled out a future career in the NFL or NHL. After all, the only sports teams Stewart and I were part of in high school were track and cross country. H's skills obviously lie elsewhere and one of those places is the world of music. And lest you think that I am delusional and that it is only my rose colored mommy glasses that make me see him as a musical prodigy, recently his violin teacher (he started lessons at age 3) said that she was impressed that H had learned how to play "Twinkle Twinkle" in two months instead of the six months it usually took students his age. She said that once he learned to read music, he could be "really good." So hurray for H!

One of the music CD and DVD series H has been enjoying for awhile now is Juno Baby. At first I was skeptical as to whether he was really getting the classical music aspect of the program. But when I heard him humming the music from the back seat of the car without any encouragement from me (we weren't playing it in the car and we hadn't watched it that day), I was a fully converted drinker of the koolaid. I like watching Juno myself because Juno reminds me of one of my best friends (my 30-something friend still wears her hair in braids sometimes!), but I know the kids like it because of the music. Another thing that really appeals to me is The Juno Company's One for All Program, which is its partnership with the National Head Start Association to bring early music education to the must vulnerable preschool age children in America. For every Juno product sold, The Juno Company donates a music education DVD to a child in need.

I was fortunate enough to attend The Juno Company's brunch at FAO Schwarz on Sunday after the BlogHer conference in NYC. I met Belinda Takahashi, the co-founder and composer of the series. I highly doubt that anyone in attendance was able to resist her infectious enthusiasm and passion for early childhood music development. I know I left the event with a renewed determination to keep H on his musical journey, no matter how painful for me it is to make him practice his violin. Kids do not need to listen to dumbed-down digital classical music that is a series of pings and synthesized sounds. They can handle the real thing and the appreciate it. Just today in the car H was singing Funiculi Funicula--give kids a chance and they will amaze you! H really enjoys Juno Baby Way to Go that I received at the brunch. R can't get enough of the Juno Baby iPhone app (it's FREE!) and learned to play music in a matter of seconds. At the brunch, I learned that The Juno Company is preparing to launch the next step of its music program. Think--what comes after baby? Stay tuned for more information.


I did not receive compensation for this post. I attended the brunch and received a gift bag including products for review.

Summer Move Mania Part II-Reviews

This summer I've watched a lot of movies on DVD. Well, actually I watched the movies after they were transferred from DVD to Stewart's iPad so I could watch them on the way back from BlogHer earlier this month. Here are reviews of some of them.


Date Night

Filled with non-stop laughs and outrageous situations, Date Night (released August 10, 2010 by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment) follows Steve Carell and Tina Fey as a sensible, loving couple with two kids and a house in suburban New Jersey. Their typical date nights include a run-of-the-mill evening with little to no romance, but one night they decide to reignite the spark by going to Manhattan's hottest new restaurant---without a reservation. I really wish I watched this film in the theater. It's one I could see would be hilarious to see when you're in a crowded theater filled with couples on dates. The scenes with Marky Mark, I mean Mark Wahlberg, walking around shirtless would have been funny with the women in the audience ooing and ahhing. I really enjoyed watching the FOSTERS! (you'll get the punctuation when you see the movie) run around New York City, even though a lot of the situations couldn't happen in real life. It is a parody so even though it goes over the top, there is a hint of truth to so many of the scenes that you can't help but laugh if you've ever lived in or visited Manhattan. The restaurant that is so full of itself that it thinks it's doing you a favor by letting you eat there--been there done that. I could also relate to a lot of the references to the old married couple without much time or energy for romance, because that's generally any couple's life with multiple kids under five years old. If you are looking for a fun movie with enough genuine emotion to make it worth your time, check out Date Night soon.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid

Based on the best-selling illustrated novel by Jeff Kinney, the family comedy Diary of a Wimpy Kid (released August 3, 2010 by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment) chronicles the adventures of wisecracking pre-teen Greg Heffley (Zachary Gordon), who must somehow survive the scariest time of anyone's life...middle school. Convinced it's the "dumbest idea ever invested." Greg considers junior high school a place rigged with hundreds of social landmines, not the least of which are wedgies, swirlies, bullies, lunchtime banishment of the cafeteria floor and festering piece of cheese with nuclear cooties that he must overcome to become popular. His diary or "journal" chronicles his thoughts, tales of family trails and tribulations and (would be schoolyard triumphs. I thought it would be interesting if I had an actual middle school age boy review this movie, so I asked my friend's son Caleb (age 9) if he would like to guest post on my blog. Without further ado, here is Caleb's internet writing debut:

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After having read the whole series, I watched the movie of Diary of a Wimpy Kid. Overall I liked the movie more than I disliked it.
I liked the Cheese Touch scenes because we still play it at school. I enjoyed Greg and Rowley as Safety Patrol members because they looked cool in the suits. A funny part was when Patty Farrell was having an apple fight in the Wizard of Oz play with Greg and the other "trees."
I'd like to say more but, on to the unliked! I didn't like the woods on the Halloween scene because it creeped me out. Ms. Irvine, aka the alien, was a bad scene because the sky and the sound effects had little detail. "Bikeball," as I like to call it was the wrong scene. Rowley broke his leg, not his arm. He broke his leg in the book, and the arm in the movie.
Well, that's my report on Diary of a Wimpy Kid! I would give the movie a three stars out of five. Thanks for reading this!
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Letters to God

Letters to God (released August 10, 2010 by Possibility Pictures and Vivendi Entertainment) is the heartfelt and inspiring story of what happens when one boy’s journey touches the lives of his family, friends and community.  An intimate, moving and often funny story, the film follows the path of Tyler, a young child with a terminal illness, who through his battle becomes a warrior for hope and a champion to everyone around him.  Surrounded by a loving family and community, the young boy takes comfort in prayers written as letters to God.  These letters find their way to a conflicted postman who is at a crossroads in his life, searching for meaning.  Featuring moving performances from Robyn Lively, Jeffrey S.S. Johnson, Tanner Maguire, Bailee Madison, Michael Bolten and Ralph Waite, the film is a stirring “tribute to faith, hope, and love through the eyes of a child” (TBN). Letters to God received the highest Dove Approval Rating and an endorsement from the Parent Television Council.

What really drew me into the film was the fact that it was based on a true story. Tyler's real life father wrote the screenplay after Tyler passed away. It is a fictionalized version of his life, since the real version is a bit depressing with someone stealing money out of Tyler's cancer fund. The acting and dialogue at times verged on cloyingly sentimental but because you know that it is driven by something that actually happened, it's understandable. At the end of this film I was crying buckets, tears would not stop streaming down my face, which is a real problem when you are a six-hour flight with no tissues and the captain has directed the crew not to answer service calls due to turbulence. The message of hope this film conveys is definitely worthwhile. It made me think how grateful I needed to be that God has blessed me with two healthy boys. Any parent who has nearly been driven insane by their kids' antics should watch this film to realize how good they have it that their kids are alive.

I did not receive compensation for this post. I received DVD copies to facilitate my review.

California Strawberries: Teapot GIVEAWAY

CONGRATULATIONS TO #11 AS PICKED BY RANDOM.ORG! Please respond to my email within 72 hours. Thanks everyone for participating!
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Berries figure big in our house. I think it all stems from my reading the book Jamberry to H even before he could eat. His dreams must have been filled with blueberry waterfalls and meadows of strawberry jam. We loved that book so much the first copy fell apart and now we're on the way to loving the second copy to its death. So it's no surprise that berries are a staple of H&R's diet. During the summers, we've had California Strawberries every day, from the supermarket, from the farmer's market, and even from the garden at H's school. When I saw the California Strawberry Commission represented at the Child's Play Bloganthropy Dinner at BlogHer, it made me feel like a piece of home that had followed me all the way to New York. That's why I really had a great time at BlogHer. It was a gateway to learning things that I wouldn't ordinarily come across on my own. I didn't even know there was a California Strawberry Commission and I live in California!

Here is the Top Ten List for California Strawberries I picked up at the dinner. California Strawberries are:

1. Considered a super fruit because of their high nutrient content.
2. Voted the favorite fruit among kids.
3. Versatile and great for both sweet and savory dishes.
4. Grown by hundreds of caring and passionate family farmers.
5. Recognized global leaders in food safety.
6. Among the safest and healthiest fruit in the world.
7. Packed with vitamin C and loaded with beneficial antioxidants.
8. Available year-round across the country.
9. Found everywhere with 90% of strawberry production in the U.S.
10. The favorite topic of discussion at www.facebook.com/castrawberries

If you go to the CSC website, there are a lot of great resources for school-age kids, including fun facts and games as well as a cookbook and downloads. There's plenty for adults as well, including a link to a free iPhone App with recipes from top food bloggers and information about a strawberry recipe contest the CSC is running this month--$250 Amazon GC prize! If you like strawberries and prizes, the CSC will give one Random Mommy reader a Strawberry Teapot like the one pictured here to help make drinks to accompany your strawberry desserts.

HOW TO ENTER THE GIVEAWAY:  Contest period runs from Thursday, August 19, 2010 at 10:01 AM (Pacific) until Friday, August 27, 2010 at 11:59 PM (Pacific). Enter by leaving a comment about your favorite fruit, and leave your e-mail address OR sign in to comments using your Blogger ID, making sure your Blogger profile is public and includes your e-mail address.

Bonus Entries (leave a separate comment for each entry, it counts if you've done any of these so leave a comment for each one)
1) Follow me on Twitter
2) Like California Strawberries on Facebook
3) Follow California Strawberries on Twitter
4) Follow my blog with Google Friend Connect by clicking on the sidebar

If you don't leave a qualifying comment and your e-mail address or public Blogger profile, your entry will be disqualified. I reserve the right to extend the contest period. At the end of the contest period, I will utilize Random.org to randomly choose the winner. The winner will be contacted by e-mail and will have 72 hours to respond to my e-mail. If the winner does not respond within 72 hours, the prize will go to the next place winner as decided by Random.org. This contest is open for US Residents only. A huge thank you and much appreciation to my friends at the California Strawberry Commission for their generosity! Good luck!

I did not receive compensation for this post. The CSC offered a giveaway to my readers and I took it!

More Fun at BlogHer 2010: Child's Play Bloganthropy, Bumble Bee Foods

Theoretically I was at BlogHer to learn how to become a better blogger so I felt duty-bound to attend the conference sessions. It was my first conference so I also attended the Newbie Breakfast after running the BlogHer 5K (if you saw women running in tutus in Midtown and in Central Park, that's what that was). I quickly learned that not everyone goes to the sessions, but I'm really glad I did go to the professional session: The FTC Guidelines: After A Year, Has Anything Changed? Basically a statement on the top page of your blog to the effect that "this is my real opinion, I'm not compensated for my views on this blog" is not good enough to comply with the regulations that came out last year. You have to mention in each post if you received product samples or other items that a reasonable person might taken into account in deciding how much to trust your review. You also need to disclose that you are part of any advertising or link program, like Amazon Associates (yes, I'm a part of it). It seems to me any reasonable person should know that if an ad appears on someone's blog or a link takes you to a purchase site like Amazon, it means that person is getting compensation! I'm glad I didn't go the blanket disclaimer route on my blog so I don't have to change gears at this point. Thank you panelists Lisa Stone, Susan Getgood, Kimberly Coleman and Stacey Ferguson!

I had so much fun and learned even more about blogging at the BlogHer Expo and the many, many parties during the weekend. I think that's the real reason people come to BlogHer. To have fun and make connections. And considering most of us have kids that run us ragged or day jobs that aren't very glamorous, I think we all deserved to have fun and get a bit of pampering. I was treated to a wonderful pedicure at the ECCO Shoes suite. My feet were so swollen from running around Manhattan in heels that it was really a treat to have someone rub lotion all over them. But it wasn't all about pampering, or even mostly. I learned so much about things going on in the blogosphere and in real life that I wouldn't have been exposed to had I not been at BlogHer. P&G's water for Africa campaign for one.

Then at the first annual Bloganthropy Awards announced at the Dinner’s On Us event sponsored by Bloganthropy.org and Child's Play Communications, I learned about what great work other bloggers were doing to raise awareness for social and personal issues through their blogs. The winner of the award was Katherine Stone of Postpartum Progress, the most widely-read blog in the United States on postpartum depression (PPD), postpartum anxiety, postpartum psychosis and other mental illnesses related to pregnancy and childbirth. It was encouraging to see and hear about women who make a difference by using social media effectively to promote a good cause. Hearing Katherine speak brought tears to my eyes because I could relate to how isolating motherhood can be during those first few crucial months. If only more women knew about resources like Katherine's blog, we wouldn't hear about those mothers who go insane and harm themselves or their children. The event wasn't only about serious matters, though. I was introduced to some great companies and their products, including Zillions Electronic Money Jar. I knew H would love this toy, and I was absolutely right. Maybe he loves it a little too much because every time he sees it, he shouts, "more money, more money." He emptied out the change from our wallets, and then I even used cash at the supermarket in order to get change for him. Don't worry--he's doing chores to earn the money!


The Bumble Bee Foods reception featuring Chef Scott Leibfried at the Viking Demo Kitchen was the source of some great new recipe ideas. Here is Chef Scott walking us through how to make Vietnamese spring rolls using Bumble Bee Sensations Seasoned Tuna Medley Bowl Spicy Thai Chili, fresh vegetables, rice paper, and his own special sauce:

We got to try the spring rolls after he finished making them and they were delicious! I'm definitely going to try this at home, especially since Bumble Bee Foods gave us free product coupons in our gift bags. I like Chef Scott's suggestion to use bagged coleslaw as a quick cheat to cutting up all those vegetables.

Here are some more photos of me or taken by me at BlogHer:

And if you think I'm done recapping, think again. More to come!

I did not receive compensation for this post. Dinner's On Us event photos courtesy of Child's Play.