XiaolinMama

Giveaways galore

I don't do giveaways that often, but over at my review blog, xiaolinmama reviews I have quite a few! So cruise on over there and check 'em out.  I'm giving away a few video games, a prize pack of Oroweat bread and a trip to Disneyland!  Enter one - enter them all - good times for everyone! Good Luck.

Family Party 30 Great Games Outdoor Fun

The winner of the Family Party 30 Great Outdoor Fun game for the wii is Robyn from Who's the Boss Blog.

Knowing that the kids and I in the house are a bit obsessive about video games.  The fine folks at D3 /Tamsoft sent over a free copy of Family Party 30 Great Games Outdoor Fun.  Testament to any game in my book is when it is a rainy day and the kids pick a particular game to play over the others in their collection. Family Party 30 Great Games Outdoor Fun fit the bill at our house last weekend.

Here are some of the comments that were yelled in my living room as I played with three 8 year old boys and my 6 year old daughter:

Oh this is hard.

You're gettin' beatin by a girl!

Ah, this is fun!

You stink!

NOOOOOOO!!!!!

Yes! I'm First!  Oh yeah!!

I'm kinda sweaty from playing.

Outdoor Fun, made exclusively for the Wii had something to offer everyone in the family with a wide variety of engaging games featuring martial arts, team sports, individual athletics, and challenging brain games.  Essentially, you get to choose from over a dozen avatar/characters, compete against each other and ultimately, win medals or more importantly, the glory of beating everyone you are playing against.

Thank You Notes

I  participated in Tiny Print's Gratitude Challenge last month, learning about myself and just how little time I have given lately to give thanks for all the gifts I have in life.   There are a million and one excuses for why.  Generally my go-to excuse had been "I've been trying to keep my head above water.  Be patient with me."  But excuse making is SO lame - like "Where the WIld Things are" monster sized lame excuse.  No more! 

Last night I had the fortune of having dinner with friends sans kids. It was fantastic.  The food was delicious and conversation was enlightening.

As my husband and I headed home, I immediately began to think about the ten million things on my to-do list for the upcoming week. It was less than 5 minutes and dinner seemed like a life time ago. Sigh.

This morning as I thought back on the scrumptious dinner, I decided to stop take back the lameness and take heed of what I learned through the Gratitdue Challenge.  I sent a handwritten thank you note- Not an email. woot!   I forced myself to take 5 minutes and really appreciate a gift of time and effort that would have gone unappreciated. It's not hard to do or even unexpected, but I'm just lame.

Hope this is a new tradition I keep up forever. Wish me luck:)  

Blogalicious 09 Recap

Just got back from Hot-lanta (and slightly humid) and the AWESOME Blogalicious conference.  It was a weekend full of 175 sassy women of color bloggers from all over the country who gathered for support, laughter, connection and to take their blogs to a new level.  Sounds trite, but connecting, laughter and dancing to Michael Jackson were key elements that made this conference stand out amongst the others that I have frequented over the past few years.

First, props go to the ladies of MamaLaw, who put on an outstanding event.  The parties were inviting and the food was good.  But more importantly, the overall feel of the event was welcoming - whether their blogs were read by 20,000 or just by their intimate friends and family,  the folks I met were sweet, sincere and ready to take on the world.  The MamaLaw ladies are graceful, meticulous and fun and this event exuded that from beginning to end- Kudos Ladies!

One of my Clever Girls Collective partners in crime, Stefania Pomponi Butler, aka City Mama, kicked off the festivities with opening remarks that had me teary.  She read a post that she wrote in 2007 about marketing to women of color - or the lack there of.   In her brilliant way, she pointed out that as "City Mama" she got dozens of pitches a day for cleaning products, hair accessories or food items etc. , while "Kimchi Mamas" (a collective blog written by women of Korean descent) rarely got pitched.  I was in that room for that conversation at BlogHer in 2007 and sadly was not surprised by it at all.  I was new to the blogosphere then and figured that was par for the course.  It was consistent with my experience as a woman of color in general, so why should this be different?  I was resigned to the fact that I rarely saw Asian, Latina, Black faces on tv, much less Filipino faces.   It was the way things had been and probably would always be.

Disneyland Memories 2009

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This past weekend, my family and I had the opportunity to join mom bloggers at the Disneyland Resort. It was  a great trip filled with the stuff lifelong memories are made of. Click on over to Xiaolinmama Reviews

for the entire story.  Full disclosure: Disneyland Resort paid for the trip, lodging and all admission fees.  Thank you Disney!