Weight Loss: Feeling Self-Conscious In Your New Skin?

Bravo! You have lost some weight and are starting to feel pretty good in fewer clothes once again, but how good is good? Summer clothing season is at our heels and it is a mad rush to beat the extra poundage so that we can wear shorts for those of us who are brave enough. Wearing shorts for the ones with extra weight is sometimes intimidating. You are feeling better because you lost some weight, but you are still self-conscious because you are not a pencil. Why, oh why can’t we look really good in a little pair of shorts, … Continue reading

Affordable Family Ski Adventures

Nothing says fun like shooshing down a freshly groomed mountain on a sunny winter day with family and friends. Now, imagine how much more fun you could have knowing that you could hit the slopes without breaking the bank. In an effort to attract travel-weary, penny-pinching families right now, ski resorts from Maine to California are offering cost-saving deals, with Salt Lake City-area resorts offering some of the most incredible bargains. In addition, since 11 ski areas are located within an hour of the airport, competition among city hotels yields substantial savings too. Another way to keep money in your … Continue reading

Karina Smirnoff and Maksim Chmerkovskiy Engaged And Kelly Rutherford Ends Her Marriage

Wow, talk about a pair made in Dancing Heaven! Hot stuff strutter Karina Smirnoff and handsome hunk Maksim Chmerkovskiy have announced their engagement. I can just hear hearts, both male and female, breaking all over America! Sources told E! News that the couple got engaged just before New Year’s Day. Both are currently on the “Dancing with the Stars” tour. Photo by Albert Domasin is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 License. Karina had been dating her “Dancing with the Stars” Season 3 partner Mario Lopez, but the two broke up after dating for two years. Given Lopez’s romantic past … Continue reading

Baby Blog Month in Review: August 2008

Isn’t it crazy the way babies grow so quickly? It seems that you just get used to one stage and boom they are already into another. Tonight, were busy getting the household all set for my eldest child’s first day of second grade. My two younger ones are excited and want to start school, too. It will be a busy month. Don’t worry about the missing last week of blogs. I’ve gotten quite a few questions about where I have been. The Baby Blog tends to go on hiatus the last week of the month. That may change in the … Continue reading

Baby Blog Month in Review: July 2008

Two of my three children are summer babies. That is, they were born in the summer and had their first months surrounded by sunshine streaming in the windows, the sound of birds chirping, and days spent wearing nothing but a diaper and a “onsie.” I made sure that they had Fourth of July outfits ready, even though one of them arrived a week after the holiday. I guess he just wasn’t interested in the parade. Do you have a summer baby, too? We had a lot of new information to share this past month, such as recall notices and new … Continue reading

Derrie-Air Ready for Take-Off

It’s an airline that would have been thoroughly embraced by Bart Simpson and his dad Homer, but alas it turns out that a new carrier called Derrie-Air, which purportedly charged passengers by the pound, is as fictional as the big-eyed, yellow-skinned characters from animated Springfield. Only not everyone who saw the ads for the fake airline knew they were a joke. D’Oh! Late last week millions of unsuspecting readers of The Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News opened their newspapers to see ads for a new airline called Derrie-Air, which offered a way to save big on summer travel. According … Continue reading

Is America Ready for a Black President?

Every time Hillary wins a primary or caucus, (like yesterday’s Puerto Rico landslide win) the question of Obama’s “electability” arises. Political journalists are talking about whether race is an issue for Barack Obama. While Clinton has never out and out mentioned race as a factor in the Presidential election, when she talks about herself being more “electable” than Barack Obama–I think it’s fair to assume that his race is perceived by some as a disadvantage. Certainly the journalists that spin the political news for us have suggested it. Shame On Us I have to say that I thought the answer … Continue reading

Ready, Set, Grill—-Marinated Steaks and Chocolate Burritos

This is it. For the past few days I have been posting some of my family’s all-time favorite grill recipes. Chicken, shrimp, steak… you name it and we’ve probably tried to grill it in years past. But today is the day that I finally reveal what we will be grilling up this Memorial Day. I’m combining two of my favorite ingredients—-balsamic vinegar and rosemary–to make a killer marinade for steaks. It’s so simple and so incredibly delicious I wouldn’t be surprised if you decide to make it a summer staple. I will be topping our steaks with some sautéed mushrooms … Continue reading

Ready, Set, Grill—CHICKEN

The Memorial Day weekend has officially begun and I can smell the grills going now. All this week I have been guest blogging in FOOD sharing some of my favorite grilling recipes. Now that we’ve covered my favorite steak and my mom’s favorite shrimp recipes it’s time to move on to my daughter’s favorite grilled item–chicken. You don’t have to be an expert chef to know that it is very hard to mess up grilled chicken. As long as you don’t let your bird overcook and become dry and rubbery you’ve got the makings of a winning dish on your … Continue reading

Are You Ready for Raw?

Sting, Angela Bassett, Woody Harrelson, David Bowie, Lisa Bonet, Robin Williams, Donna Karan, Alicia Silverstone and Demi Moore are a just a few of the celebrities you may have heard of who are eating raw foods and proud of it. We’re hearing more and more about raw food being all the rage these days so I thought it was high time we took a look at what this diet/lifestyle really entails. The raw food diet is all about eating living foods that still have all their healthy enzymes intact. For obvious reasons, this is a vegetarian diet that relies solely … Continue reading