Frosted Flakes Plant a Seed

I have a confession. I don't understand football. I know that's pretty lame but it gets worse. The only time I watch football is during the Super Bowl. And why do I watch it then? For the exciting game play? The pageantry of the half-time show? They guys in tight pants? No, it's none of those. I watch for the commercials.

One commercial I'll be watching for this year is for the Frosted Flakes Plant a Seed program. The Kellogg's Frosted Flakes Plant a Seed program helps communities maintain their athletic fields so that kids have safe and clean places to play. If you go the website you can preview the commercial (so you can see it without sitting through the pageantry of the half-time show). You can also nominate a athletic field to be a part of the program or help out fields already in the program.

So check it out, it's a great cause!

Park City Mountain Resort

I have a confession. Despite the fact that I lived in Colorado for five years and despite the fact that I now live in the great frozen state of Minnesota, I don't do winter sports. I don't ski, I don't skate, I don't even like to go and get my mail if it's too cold outside. So why am I here today telling you about Park City Mountain Resort? I can give you 5 reasons!

1. Park City Mountain has ski lessons for every age group. Everyone age 3.5 and up can get ski lessons there. You can learn in a group (and I'm sure they make everyone stop laughing at you when you fall a dozen times) or have a private lesson (where only one person laughs at you when you fall a dozen times.)

2. They have an Alpine Coaster. According to the website the coaster sends you "down the mountain on nearly 4,000 feet of curves, bends and loops". Awesome.

3. They have tubing. Tubing is one winter sport I can really get into. Especially when they have a lift to take to you the top of the hill. A sport where I can do nothing but sit in a tube and have fun? Yes thank you!

4. The town of Park City is located just 35 miles from the Salt Lake City International Airport and has over 100 bars and restaurants.

5. The town (once home of the winter Olympics) has a fantastic bus system to help you get from place to place.

Still not convinced? Seriously? Even after I told you about the tubing? Ok, then check out The Adventure Blog where you can get all kinds of helpful tips and insight from moms who have visited the Park City Resort before. If you go to the blog now you can enter to win a Family Winter Vacation for four (two adults and two kids, 12 and under) to Park City, Utah, including 3-nights lodging, 4-days of lift tickets and ski/snowboard school for the kids. On second thought, maybe don't go the Adventure Blog. I kind of want to win that vacation myself.

What? I like tubing!

Drugs.com

There are a heck of a lot of bottles of medication in my house. Between the four of us we have more than our fair share of prescription and over the counter medications. Every so often a new one gets added to the mix and that's always been a bit of a concern for me. I worry about unsafe drug interactions. Every time Joseph (for example) starts a new medication I have to do a lot of time consuming research which often leads to conflicting information. But all that is ending thanks to Drugs.com.

Drugs.com is the largest and most comprehensive online drug information resource and it's an easy place to keep track of your family's medications in one place. Using their Mednotes program you are able to create a profile for yourself (or for each of your family members) to keep track of all your medication. Mednotes will alert you to any potential unsafe drug interaction. No more research! No more worry!

But that's not all Drugs.come has to offer. Other features include:

• Quickly identify pills, tablets and capsules using the Drugs.com Pill Identification Wizard.
• Learn about your pet's medication using Drugs.com veterinary edition.
• Get accurate, up to date information of prescription medications, over the counter medications and natural remedies.
• Get daily medical news and the latest pharma industry news.
• Get information on the newest approved (and even unapproved) medications.

Chances are you've got enough on your plate right now. Let Drugs.com take over some of the worry and work of keeping track you and your family's medications.

Get organized with Cozi

I know how it is. You're busy. Your husband is busy. Your kids are busy. Your dog is busy. You're wondering how to keep track of everything that you all have going on. You're thinking "If only there was a free website that helped me keep track of appointments and lists, coordinate home and work schedules and share favorite memories and photos all in one place!"

If that's what you're thinking then you're lucky that you stumbled across this blog because I'm here to tell you about Cozi.com. Cozi is a free website that helps you organize your life. It can be accessed from your computer or your mobile phone. Here's a sample of what your family's Cozi page might look like:
It's all there. Shopping lists, photos, schedule, messages. What more could you ask for? What's that you say? You want to win an in-home organization makeover? Then Cozi's got you covered there too. Sign up and try Cozi before February 4th and you could win an in-home organization makeover. What's that you say? You want even more? You want someone to get your husband to stop leaving his dirty boxer shorts on the bathroom floor? Err.... I can't help you there. Maybe Cozi 2.0 will have that feature. Even without it though, Cozi is a heck of a website and you should probably check it out.

And if you happen to win that free in-home organizational makeover could you send some help my way? I've got a pile of dirty boxer shorts in the bathroom that could use some sorting.

Childhood is Calling - a website review

Childhood is Calling is the official Rice Krispies Web site that I was asked to do a review for. I'll admit that I was pretty cynical as I set out to review this site as I HATE the Rice Krispies commercial. True, I hate about 99% of the commercials on TV but there's something about the woman Ohhhhhhh ohhhhhing in the background as they try to promote eating Rice Kripsies as a family bonding activity that really grates on my nerves.

But, being the fair person that I am I decided to put aside my dislike for the commercial and give the website an unbiased review. Joseph helped me out and gave me his opinions.

It's actually a pretty cute site. It has games for kids, recipes, nutritional information, music and more. Joseph tried out several of the games and liked most of them. His favorite was the one where you could decorate your own virtual rice krispie treat, as strange as that sounds. One feature that he really like about the games was that a lot of them could be played with two people. Joseph is still small enough to sit on my lap so we sat together and played some of the turn based games several times.

In addition to the recipes from the good folks at Kellogg's, you can find recipes submitted by "people like you". I guess people like you like a lot of dessert because that's what all the recipes are. I'm seriously considering trying to come up with a dinner recipe using Rice Krispies and seeing if they'll put it on the site. (Baked chicken with a rice Krispie coating perhaps?)

Like all websites that are designed to promote a specific product, the marketing is pretty heavy handed. I mean, a game where you decorate a Rice Krispie treat? Not exactly subtle. Still, Joseph enjoyed the games (in fact, he asked me to mark the site as one of his favorites) and it's totally child-safe so I would feel ok with him visiting it without me hovering over his shoulder. If nothing else it's a good way to kill 15 minutes or so. And if there's one thing that kids need, it's a way to spend more time on the Internet (says the lady who just let her kids spend time on the site so that he could help her with a review.)

A final note, right now on the site you can get a coupon for $1 off Rice Krispies with Strawberries. Not a bad deal.

This compensated (yet entirely honest) review has been cross posted at Problem Girl. From here on posts of this nature will only be posted here.