XiaolinMama

Our New Favorite Meat Loaf Recipe

Danielle from FoodMomiac saved my butt.  After a long weekend, I was sure I had NOTHING in my  fridge to feed the troops.  But after actually opening the freezer, low and behold there was a hunk of hamburger meat.  I remembered reading Danielle's recipe and filing that away for a later date. 
Here is Kiley up to her elbows squishing ground beef.  She had a ton of fun and said she needed her own" apron next time.    It was yummy - the whole family loved it.

We renamed it "Kiley's Meaty Meatloaf"  ( hope you don't mind, Danielle.)   THANK YOU Danielle!  Can't wait to try more of your delicious creations.  Check out her site -  not only is she a great writer - but her recipes rules!  How much do I love know bloggers with mad skilz!  All I've got to contribute to the blogosphere is my ability to play Rock Band!

The Bucket List Girls and beach reflections

My niece and her Theta sorority sisters unexpectedly dropped in for a visit. They are on a mission to fulfill all the things on their bucket list. Inspired by the movie with the old guys, these college beauties are looking to cross off another thing on their list by taking surf lessons. Nice! This summer they have already gone river rafting, camping and are going sky diving next week. All on a working college girls budget- remember those days? Top Ramen, happy hour and going on dates for a free meal;) LOL!

Definitely brings me back to those carefree days of partying, not going to class, sleeping in late and more partying. I admit I did have TOO much fun:) and I suppose I coulda gone to class more. Hmmm, but then I woulda missed road trips- like the Theta Bucket List girls. I thought then- "Wow, it can't possibly get better than this".

Today I sit here at Cowell's beach reminising about more carefree days-watching my kids play in its perfect sand, listening to waves and their laughter and soaking in the sun thinking "Wow, it doesn't get better than this."

Me and Grover at BlogHer 2008

I visited the Sesame Street room at BlogHer08 and fulfilled one of those weird fantasies of being on Sesame Street - just glad that I didn't have to wear the Big Bird suit. 

Here is the video of me and Grover giving my kiddies a little direction on the role of princesses and princes in my household.

Nice tan line and bra strap, right! Enjoy!

Rock Star Family!

What does a blogger do to unwind after a weekend of bloggah networking at BlogHer08??
 
Spend the evening playing Rock Band for the Wii with the entire family.  I gotta say this Rockmama kicks booty!!!   (so do the kids!)  Who would thought singing Bon Jovi with the kiddies could be so much fun, cuz "I'm a cowgirl and I'm wanted Dead or a Alive!!!!!"

Okay, I admit it.  We ARE dorks and I did miss them while I was gone:)  Aw shucks!

MOMocrats gather to create suggestions on platform

This morning the MOMocrats and Silicon Valley Moms Blog contributors gathered this morning to gather suggestions and ideas for our official entry for submission to the DNC platform. We heard from a rep from the Obama campaign, who promised to bring gear directly to Michelle O herself. Can't wait to see her in one of our cute pink trucker hats! Ooh la la!

We chose to break down healthcare. Check it out on momocrats.com.

BlogHer Day 2

Here at the "How we communicate: building traffic via content and community" with the brilliant Elise Bauer from Simply Recipes. Great ideas! Note to self: when someone asks you a question that is WAY off topic- say "NO, I can't answer that right now." and move on. Nicely done Elise.

Here are her tips for being part of the blogger community: *Link to other bloggers. Be generous. *Leave thoughtful comments on other sites. *Plan and participate in blog events. *Contribute to the community. *guest blogging * digg, del.icio.us, kirtsy

Technology tips: *Use google share to write comments and then pull in rss feed (from Velveteen Mind) *image size- ideally under 50k *page length and size *font size *reduce the clutter *colored backgrounds (avoid for main text, too hard to read) *search bar- keep on top *categorize or tag entries *multiple browsers check site on IE, firefox - browsershots.com *screen resolution (largest chunk of readers-1024x768

Check: Google alerts Technorati Sitemeter or google analytics Twitter search. Search.twitter.com Server stats

Feedburner and feedblitz Search engines- using key words and in bound links, high page ranks, titles and tags, anchor text.

"The Hunny Bunch song" ala The Ballerina Princess

Just to remind ME and all of you that your babies still love you while we are away livin' it up at BlogHer this weekend.

THAT mother’s travel prep list…

I am coming to the realization that I have become “THAT” mother.  As you all know airlines no longer serve food, so as a good momma I load the kids up with snacks for the trip home from our summer vacation. PBJ sandwiches and all the pertinent gear to make everyone happy – dvd player, Nintendo DS, Ipod, laptop, books, crayons and candy.    I am feeling like I am on it.  This shouldn’t be too painless.  We are all prepared for 8 hours of flying, ferrying and taxi rides.

We seem to be all settled in on our first leg of the plane ride leg #1.  Then I look over to the woman in the aisle across from us and see her reading to her child (Harry Potter or something) and then doling out cut vegetables and a chunk of cheddar for snacks. Hey now… What the heck, you are making me look bad lady! 

I look back at my kids – Dunkin Donuts in one hand and ginger ale in the other.  Both kids watching a DVD and the other is multi-tasking by also playing a video game.  Yup, I am cringing at what she must think…  well no, not really.  I’m draining the rest of my Baileys into my coffee, wondering why I only got one bottle – must.get.another.bottle.  The vacation is over and mommy needs to prepare to get back to the real world.  Where is the flight attendant?!

Hermie the Hermit Crab

The kids are busy collecting shells and crabs. They named the crabs after themselves - creative;). I don' get why they didn't like my suggestions for names - margarita and mojito. Whatevah kids!
The big one here is Hermie. The one they think we're taking home and making our new family pet. Um, NO!

Martha's Vineyard intimate talk with Chris Wallace, FOX News

Everything is political... even when you are on vacation.

One of the great things about Martha's Vineyard is that rich and famous people like to have interesting things to do - even in their getaway town. MV is no exception- the town is hosting a series of speakers who can all talk to the influence of media on politics and what lays ahead for the business of media as a whole. Tonight's speaker is Chris Wallace from Fox News and host of the show "Fox News Sunday".

Here are my live blog notes: * Media used to be heirarchical, but it has obviously changed a whole lot. It is healthy to provide more options and outlets today. Places more obligation on news consumers to figure out what they think is right and what is the truth. (As a blogger, I say here here!) * News magazines chase stories that take a month to develop with 4 to 6 producers on each stories. More collaborative with more time for background research.
* Talked about how Hillary Clinton was first to break ranks by actually appearing on FOX. Talked about the Obama Watch and how he got Obama to appear on his show. Being obnoxious pays off sometimes. (Hmm...) * Commented on Jesse Jackson said on FOX news show that " Obama is talking down to blacks and I'd like to cut his nuts off." He provided context and said there was NO way that that comment was off the record or said by mistake. Jackson was mic'd and on the set and was basically waiting for the show to start. (Uh, duh Jesse.) * MSM is just not as organized or as good as you give them credit for. * admitted that stories of obama have been more investigative- he is the new guy on the block. * This election is going to be all about Obama. There is strong disposition to vote democratic currently in our country. People are concerned whether his values are the same as others. If he passes the public's various moral tests then he will president. * The public needs to be able to discern between partisan opinion makers/pundits/entertainment and the pure news people/reporters.
* Mike Wallace taught him to "love the news". He is excited about what lays ahead for the election and the news that will come along with it.
* Newspapers creating new business models to keep afloat.
If obama has energized young people in a whole new way, if obama wins he wondered if young people were going to start buying papers. (Yeah right.) * re: Rev. Wright situation, it was news to report about Obama's reverand someone who affected him profoundly.
* On McCain and his presidential candidacy: cons- he is a republican, his age(more people worried about M's age vs. race) and running terrible campaign , pros- has actaully reached across parties and done work- immigration, torture, tax cuts, campaign reform, he is default position for amer people. If obama disappoints, then folks would vote mc cain just because he is all that is left and is "safe".