All posts by Anne Younger

Anne is a 30-something full-time SAHM mom of 5 ranging from 3 to 17 and grandma of 1 who resides in Ashwaubenon (Green Bay) Wisconsin. She started blogging in 2008 as a way to regain her sanity. She enjoys coffee, chocolate, cheeseburgers and vodka along with spending time with her husband and kids.

Keep In Touch with Your Kids This School Year

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of TracFone for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

Now that Summer is gone and the kids are back in school, parents tend to find themselves shuffling kids to and fro from one activity to the next.  As much as we love them, children aren’t always the best communicators and often relay the wrong information to us ( at least this is what happens in our house!).

A easy and low-cost solution to problems like this is providing your child with a TracFone.  With a TracFone, there is no contract, credit check, activation or cancelation fee meaning it is a no strings attached deal.

My children started out as Real TracFone customers when they were younger since we didn’t want to have the added cost of additional phone lines on our current  cellular plan.  The phones available the TracFone offer So many features that you can’t even tell it’s not your basic mobile phone.  TracFone offers a variety of brand name phones that include a selection of simple phones to Bluetooth enabled smart phones.

You can check out videos of available TracFones  like the one below on YouTube.

Take advantage of all that TracFone can offer your family and keep the lines of communication open!

Best. Day. Ever.

Today while sitting around and Facebooking, I heard a rumor that Adam Richman was in town.
Not only was he in town but he was filming at the restaurant right up the road from our house!
Now, some of you may not know who the heck Adam Richman is.
If you are one of these people, I don’t know if we can be friends anymore.
In this house, Adam Richman and his shows Man v Food and Man v Food Nation are something we as a family enjoy watching on a regular basis.
I’ve been joking with the Alex for a few months now that if I were to ever leave him it would be for Adam Richman because I think they are A LOT alike!

Needless to say, me being me, I had to go see for myself.
I went and woke up the Alex, we hopped in the van and drove up the road to Kroll’s.
We went inside, ordered some food, ate, saw lots of people with video cameras and microphones, but no Adam in sight.
Boo. Hoo.
And then…..
we went outside.
And there he was.
Standing RIGHT. NEXT. TO. OUR. VAN.
So of course, we couldn’t leave since he was filming.
We were going to take a picture but were asked not to while the filming was taking place.
We waited.
And waited.
And waited some more.
Once they started to move cameras we started to make our way towards the van and closer to OMG–ADAM RICHMAN!
As I got closer, the child size milk shake that I was balancing on top of Alexander’s leftovers started to fall.
Adam kindly came over and stood it back up for me and then…
HE FIST BUMPED MY KID AND BLEW IT UP!
I couldn’t believe it.
Then, Alexander looked at him and said MAN VERSUS FOOD!
It was a totally surreal moment!

Upon our return home I had to tweet about our awesome experience.

Minutes later my Tweetdeck lit up with these!

Followed by this Direct Message

Now I’m sure it was an assistant and not him that responded but that doesn’t matter because now, now….
My day, is complete!!

Scott’s Liquid Gold Easy Clean Wood Wipes Review

Our home is filled with a variety of furniture both new and old….mostly old that are made from some beautiful woods. We do our best to ensure that these items keep their beautiful appearance. Recently we tried out the Scott’s Liquid Gold Easy Clean Wood Wipes to shine things up around the house.

The Scott’s Liquid Gold Easy Clean Wood Wipes are easy and convenient to have in the house and allow you to get housework done fast! Not only are they great for wood products but they can be used on ANY surface!

I let the two older kids polish up an old hutch we have in our living room and they had a blast. They had so much fun that they went on to clean off the television stand and our built in bookcase as well!

If you’re looking for an item that removes a lot of the hassle of everyday house work why not try Scott’s Liquid Gold Easy Clean Wood Wipes.

Disclaimer: I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

Potty Training Update

As I have mentioned multiple times over the last few months, we have been working hard to get Alexander to make the move from Pull-Ups to underwear.
Potty training this time around has been an absolute nightmare!

And then this weekend, something magical happened.
I realized we were running extremely low on Pull-Ups and our diaper fund was pretty much exhausted.
At that moment I made the decision.
Since we would be spending the next 3 days mainly at home, Alexander was finally going to hang out in underwear for the entire day forcing him to either pee down his leg or use the potty.
Thankfully, he opted (for the most part) to use the potty!

Saturday went pretty darn good after he threw a fit for over 15 minutes that he didn’t want to wear underwear and wanted his Pull-Up.
But I, as the mom, am one smart cookie.
I had the Zack conveniently stash all of the Pull-Ups where the toddler couldn’t find them and told him they were all gone and all we had left were nighttime ones.
Apparently lying to your 3 and a half year old does get you somewhere!
Within minutes he was rocking some awesome Buzz Lightyear undies.
We survived Saturday and he only had one accident in his undies.
Sunday was another good day but Monday proved to be even better!

Monday morning, Alexander was hanging out in nothing but his undies and wanted to wear his new Iron Man costume.
I explained to him that he could wear it but he had to be really careful and not pee in it because mommy couldn’t wash it if he did.
Now, he absolutely cherishes this costume.
This again was another tool that worked for us because the minute he had to go potty he came running for help to get the costume off and into the bathroom.
Afterwards he told me, “Iron Man pees on the potty”!

That evening he successfully used the potty while we were visiting his Gramma and Bumpa and then he even pooped on the potty that night!!!

This brings us to today, Tuesday.
We had a slow start after he injured himself last night and mommy thought snuggling was a little more important this morning.
He woke up looking like this after a face plant to the kitchen floor last night.

Needless to say the morning started out a little rocky, including poopy underpants.
But as the day went on things began to look up.
The Alex and I took Alexander out to lunch.
He successfully used the kids size urinal.

Then this afternoon, he went in the potty all by himself and peed without any assistance or being prompted to do so.
And a few hours later, he let us know he had to poop and did it on the potty!!!

This evening on the other hand has been a little rough but I contribute that to his being extremely over tired due to the lack of a nap.

Here’s hoping tomorrow is a S-U-C-C-E-S-S!!!!

**Update: As I hit Publish on this post, Alexander was in the bathroom once again, unassisted going pee in the potty like a big boy!!