** This is a sticky post. You may enter this giveaway until 7 Feb. For the latest post, please scroll down. **

If you hadn’t heard, I was on Consumer Queen’s Blog Talk Radio Show as a guest host tonight! I had a lot of fun, and learned a whole lot about preventative car maintenance! If you missed it, you definitely should check it out! You’ll learn a lot of really awesome information!

We interviewed Jody DeVere, the President of the Women’s Automotive Association International and CEO of the auto-advice site AskPatty.com and among her list of great advice, she suggested using Groundhog Day as an annual reminder for you to change your wiper blades! Clear visibility while driving is extremely important and can improve reaction times in poor weather conditions.  Read the rest of this entry »

** This is a sticky post. You may enter this giveaway until 13 Feb. For the latest post, please scroll down **

Put that perfect “touch” on your Valentine’s Day Gift.  

Check out Walmart’s Valentine page! It’s  got some great money saving ideas to help make Valentine’s Day special even if you are on a budget. 

There are some other super cute things to play with on the site as well! 

• Take a look at the  Blow A Kiss I-Phone App.
• Send a personalized M&M E-card to your Valentine.

and last but not least

• Check out the Top 10 Romantic Song Picks from the ElevenMoms!

Oh.. and about that “touch”… How about a shiny new 2nd Gen 8GB iPod Touch & a $10 Gift Card to add our top 10 love songs.. or any 10 songs of your choice??? 

Well thanks to Nestle, Mars/M&M, and Russell Stover, each of the ElevenMoms are giving away these very things to one of our lucky readers! Feel free to enter on each of our sites to better your chances of winning! Rules will vary on each of our sites, so please double check before entering! 

Here’s how to enter on Mommy Brain Reports: 

Listen to one  of my Blog Talk Radio shows… I have 3 so.. you have that many chances to get the “Secret Word”

You can listen to: 

Tech Moms Talk on January 28, Feb 4 & 11 at 5PM PST

Mommy Brain Reports on February 5, at 10am PST with Special Guest  Charles J Orlando (I did forget to mention my secret word during this show. Please instead, enter the word that is what service Charles is now offering to people on his blog. We talk about it towards the end of the show!

and

MommyBrainReports on February 12 at 10am PST when I discuss the state of customer service today!

You don’t have to listen live. You can check out the archive! I’ll announce my secret word on each of these shows. Come back to this page, and fill out the entry form below with the secret word! Do NOT put the secret word in the comments! I will delete it, and you will be disqualified. 

You can also gain extra entries BUT you have to enter with the form first! I will verify all entries! 

• Leave a comment with your best frugal Valentine’s Idea. 
• Tweet the giveaway using the statement below.Come back and leave a comment with a link to your tweet:  

Win an 8GB iPod Touch on @MommyBrain Reports and $10 music cert. Find out how you can win! http://bit.ly/xRCY #embrace #MBR Please Retweet

• Blog about this giveaway and leave me a comment here with a link to your post!

Entries will be accepted until February 13th at 12 Noon PST. Winner will be announced on this site on February 14th. Winner will be notified via email and will have 24 hours to respond to claim their prize. Winner must be a resident of the USA or CANADA. Again, you must enter via the form below FIRST. Comments will be accepted as additional entries, but will be disqualified if entry is not made via the form first! 

Good Luck to all!

 Giveaway has been extended until the Friday February 13th, 2009 at 12noon PST!

* Get more information about this item on my Blog Talk Radio Show! *

I am a coffee drinker. I am a tea drinker. I am also very impatient!

In the morning, caffeine is my jump start to the morning, especially if the girls wake up before me, which is just about every day, and I need something that would brew quickly and give me a good tasting cup of coffee. I’m very picky.. yes, I’m a Starbucks-a-holic, and I’m always looking for something that will taste good and save me money…

One day, while shopping at CostCo with the family, I saw a table set up at the end of an aisle with this cool looking coffee maker on it. No one was around to ask about it, so I took a closer look at it. I couldn’t quite figure out how it worked, but at this point I was intrigued. I wanted to know more, so, I contacted Keurig and they sent me a Platinum Home Brewing System and a started pack of coffee K-cups to try out! I couldn’t wait!

We unboxed everything and just stood in awe. We loved how it looked on our counter, and loved how easy it would be to maintain. With our other coffee maker, there were so many moving parts, and so much to clean up after making a pot of coffee. I almost dreaded making coffee because of everything I had to do to clean up. This machine made it look like a snap!

We read the instructions, and went through the priming process, which only consisted of letting the unit heat up and running a tank of water through it. Then the tough stuff began. We had to choose what coffee or tea we wanted to try out first. Of course, my hubby, being the coffee lover that he is, chose the French Roast. All we had to do was put in a K-Cup, close the lid, and press the Brew button. Within seconds… yes… seconds, we had a fresh hot brewed cup of coffee! Clean up was even faster!

Unfortunately the K-Cups are not recyclable at this point, but Keurig is working on lessening the environmental impact. 

It’s been a couple of weeks since we first got the machine, and have been through all of our sample coffees and teas, and have actually purchased the My K-Cup coffee filter so we can use our own coffee and still enjoy a fresh cup of coffee whenever we want one! The best thing about this machine is that my husband can make coffee before he leaves for work in the morning, and when I come downstairs with my girls a couple of hours later, I still have a fresh cup of coffee, or tea! We don’t waste anything anymore! I love it! We actually loved it so much that we purchased a brewer for my husband’s Grandparents as a belated Christmas gift! 

Thank you Keurig! We truly do love our Platinum Home Brewer! If you’d like more information or would like to purchase any of their brewers for yourself, check out Keurig’s Website. You can also let me know and I can send you coupons for free K-Cups!

First I’d like to thank everyone that made this possible :)

I had an absolutely crazy week. Between my daughter’s fever of 103.9, both of my girls and the Tylenol incident, and having about a thousand things to prepare for the upcoming trip to SXSWi, and making sure my reviews are up to date… I got downstairs to check my computer and found out that I was reviewed on Mom’s Most Wanted! It’s a cool new website pioneered by my friend Claire, and another bloggy friend Stefanie. 

Thank you girls! I totally needed this! 

I highly recommend you all check out their site! I heard they have some amazing giveaways in the works too!

So, last Saturday we celebrated my mom’s 50th birthday! We threw her a little party themed “Wine and Roses”, and had a really good time with the family and friends that made it. My mom was pleasantly surprised, although I’m sure she “knew” something was up. 

A couple of weeks prior, we were trying to decide between a few restaurants that we knew of, to take mom out to dinner, and had narrowed it down to 3 choices. My sister then remembered a place she had been to the last time she was visiting home, and highly recommended it, so I called for reservations.

After the party, we went to a restaurant downtown called Spataro. It’s part of Paragary’s group of restaurants. I had heard of it before, but never had the chance to go there, and I must say, I was pleasantly surprised. It’s located at 1415 L St, which is right next door to the Community Center Theatre. Parking options are not the best, but they do also offer Valet Parking for $5. 

When we walked into the restaurant, I was immediately impressed with the atmosphere. The dining area was set up beautifully, and they had a HUGE open kitchen, which I love! Our party of 10 was seated quickly, and our server Anthony, came by promptly to introduce himself, and offer some drinks. He made some great suggestions, including their Pomegranate Martini. Anthony returned a short time later with all of our drinks, and took our food orders. He was very knowledgeable and explained just about every meal they had on the menu. His explanations truly helped me choose between the two meals I was trying to decide from. He even asked if we wanted him to bring the kids’ meals while everyone else got their salads. I have never been asked that before! Of course! What a great idea!

A little while later, our salads arrive, and so do the girls’ Macaroni & Cheese meals. I must say, I did taste it, and it was the best Macaroni and Cheese I’ve ever had. Anthony came by again to check on us and see if we needed any more drinks.When our entrées arrive a while later, everyone commented on how good the food looked. I loved it. I honestly couldn’t believe that the meal could be that good! 

Over all, it was an excellent evening. We truly enjoyed ourselves, and thanks to Anthony, our dining experience was second to none. My Mom was very happy with the dinner, and so were we! Thank you Anthony restaurant staff for an amazing dining experience! 

If you’re looking for a romantic, business, or just a comfortable dining experience with exceptional service, you should definitely make a reservation and check out Spataro!

So, I’ve always thought that I was safe with how I “baby proofed” my home. I have locks on any under counter cabinet that has any type of cleaning product in it. I have the outlet covers on EVERY outlet in the house. I’ve kept all medications up high and out of reach, even from a step stool. I’ve made sure to keep all pots and pans turned in when cooking on the stove. I STILL have gates at the top and bottom of my stairs, even though my girls are 3 years old, and very cautious when walking on the stairs. We had a heat resistant gate around our fireplace to keep them from touching it and getting burned for a long time. All of this preparation, and none of it prepared me for this morning. I didn’t even think it was possible, but this shows me what “teamwork” can get. 

It was only 7:45 am, and I was still in bed half asleep. I could hear everyone around me, but my eyes just weren’t opening yet. Daddy gets up to get ready for work, and then, I hear it. “OH MY GOD! What are you doing? How much did you take?” That’s all I needed. I was wide awake and running down the hall. I get to my girls’ bathroom, and there they were, with the Children’s Tylenol bottle opened, and their dosage cup and dropper on the counter. Both had pink liquid in them. I freaked out! I grabbed the Tylenol bottle from them and ran back to my bathroom. I didn’t know how they got it from my medicine cabinet or how they then, opened up the “chilI looked inside, swished it around, and felt like there really wasn’t much gone from the bottle. It was about half full to begin with, and it didn’t look or feel less than that afterwards. Once we calmed down enough, we got the girls together and asked them how much they took. We asked who used what device, and how much they put in each one. We tried to stay calm as possible as we tried to get them to tell us how much they had taken. It wasn’t working.. Then Daddy had the idea to ask them to show us on the cup or dropper what line or number they filled it up to. Alexandra told us that she did like Mommy says and only put it to the “1″. She pointed to the 1mL mark on the dropper. Victoria tells us she also did like Mommy says and put it to the “1″ line on the cup. She pointed to the 1tsp line. I called the pediatrician and left a message for the advice nurse. After making sure and asking several times, they continued to tell us that they only had up to the “1″. I was feeling a little bit better, but really needed to hear from the pedi. 

I got a call back from the nurse who advised me to just call Poison Control, and she gave me the number. The lady from Poison Control was very helpful. She asked me what happened, and a whole bunch of information about the girls, age, weight, etc. She did a little research and told me that in order to be toxic, they’d have had to drink a little more than an entire bottle each, and I didn’t have that much in there to begin with, so they’d be fine. They shouldn’t get sick, or have any other ill effects. I just couldn’t give them any more for at least 8 hours from the time they took it. No problem. My immediate thought was to figure out a way to not only keep these medications out of reach, but behind some sort of lock also. 

I had made plans to go grocery shopping this morning, so I added the task of looking for a medicine safe. I knew they were available on line at One Step Ahead and Leaps and Bounds, but I wanted something NOW. I didn’t want to wait for them to get shipped. Well, I learned some things just aren’t as easy as I wish they were. The first place I went to was Goore’s. The largest baby and kid store here in Sacramento. They have a pretty large safety section full of gates, outlet covers, corner guards, and door latches, but nothing for keeping medicines locked up. I checked out Target, Walmart, and Toys R Us. I even checked Walgreens and Long’s Drugs. Everyone I asked looked at me like I was speaking a foreign language. I was SHOCKED that no one carried these things, and especially that no one had even heard of them. Only one person had offered an alternative.. a fire proof safe. I’m sure it’s a great idea, but that was way out of the price range I could afford.

Now, I’m back to square one. I have everything put away up high, in a different spot, but still not behind a lock. Oh, and the other thought.. if they can figure out how to get into my bathroom cabinet… they’re more than likely going to be able to get into my cleaning supplies… Yet one other huge fear of mine. I know the same company that makes the medicine safe makes one for cleaning supplies, but again, no where to be found here locally. 

So, what do you do with your medicines? Do you have them locked up? Where do you store them? Obviously my storage solution wasn’t as secure as I thought it was. I’m still in shock that it happened here.