Hey y’all, I am having so much fun here in Atlanta with both Coca-Cola and all the other fabulous bloggers that were invited and hosted here at the Coca-Cola Live Positively Social Media Moms Conference in Atlanta, Georgia! We’ve ate well, rested well, and learned well. And that’s why I’ve been missing from this blog for two days! (Come see what I’m doing in Atlanta on Facebook!) Today is another full day of conference talks and food–and I am really loving the message that is being sent to us: Live your life well and positively; take care of yourself healthfully. More on that message later in another post, here’s a few highlights into my trip the last couple days instead:

We are staying at the W Hotel in Downtown Atlanta. The beds are comfy (it’s even harder to get up in the morning), the tub is huge, the lotions and shampoo smell great, there’s some expensive liquor, candy, music, and condoms in the room.

Yes, I just said condoms.

The worst part? Someone had used the “intimacy pack” (2 condoms, lubricant, and a breath mint) and housekeeping didnt pick it up. I promise I was not the person who used it.

They had us do exercises with Subway (a partner of Coca-Cola) yesterday afternoon during a conference session. Honest to goodness, no one should look *this* good while working out!

(this is Megan Calhoun of @socialmoms on Twitter)

One truly inspiring story is Monica, the personal trainer with Subway, who lost 60 pounds over the course of a year after wanting to change her health around. She’s now at a healthy weight, looks great, and is going on to complete even more education above her degree. What an amazing story! Of course that meant I felt badly every time I popped another mousse shot in my mouth.

Also, I think one of those mousse shots had coffee in it.

Here’s Monica showing us how to NOT excercise:

They were giving away prizes to people who could answer questions correctly during the session with Subway. I messed up one of the questions up with one of my own questions which means I didn’t win anything. Monica also challenged all us bloggers to a “plank-off”.

I was one of the first down. Mostly because I farted and couldn’t stop laughing.

At the conference yesterday there was also a panel discussion from Coca-Cola executives describing to us what “Live Positively” means in their lives and at work. I love Coca-Cola’s initiatives to help young people get the education they need, Coca-Cola’s involvement in the community, Coca-Cola’s empowerment to help parents teach their children to live healthfully (they have a policy of not advertising to children younger than 12 years old), and their mission to help women succeed in the workplace and at home. We heard amazing stories from these women and from other bloggers in attendance. And then there was a mention of team meetings and nakedness. Just sayin’.

The last part of the conference yesterday involved going to the World of Coca-Cola museum, which was also all paid for (which is good because I think the sign said $70 for guided tours-OUCH!). We also all got $25 to spend in the gift shop which means I grabbed a rolling cooler for 50% off to take on the plane with me later today (I’m bringing home a bunch of stuff). Honestly, my only disappointment was the Inca Cola in the fountain drinks at the end of the tour. It was so watered down and flavorless–nothing like the Inca Cola we occasionally drink back home (it’s a South American drink).

All in all, the conference has been great so far. I am learning new things, enjoying the conversations with other women bloggers and with Coca-Cola, and only occasionally missing my Dr Pepper. Like seriously there is a lot of Mr. Pibb in this city. Which just doesn’t cut it. I also figured out the difference between Diet Coke and Coke Zero (one has an ingredient which cuts out the bitter aftertaste of aspartame and is marketed towards men). Even though I will always be a Dr Pepper drinker, the Coca-Cola company has left me impressed and given me inspiration to live my life more positively at work and at home. I can’t wait to find out today what else they have in store in helping us to achieve that goal!

Having my own kids makes Mother’s Day so much more meaningful to me. Lucky me, I have been blessed with three awesome kids that each have their own ways of expressing their love to me.

First there’s the creator–my oldest–who each year makes something new for me. This year it was the ashtray. Well at least that’s what I thought it was when he gave it to me. Remember making those in school when you were a kid? Can’t imagine that happening anymore. Anyway, it’s supposed to be a candy dish. Oops.

Next there’s the beggar–my middle child–who wrote the following on his handmade Mother’s Day card:

“My Mother’s Nice. Since I said that can I have a gum? YOUR CHOICE: Yes or No.”

Then there’s my youngest, the brown-noser, and his homemade Mother’s Day card:

“Ryan loves Mom. Moms loves Ryan. I love Mom. I love Ryan. I love You. Mom loves me. Loves hugs.”

By the way that was his seventh card to me in three days.

Other things we did on Mother’s Day this year:

Breakfast in Bed consisting of waffles I made the day before. (I made about 40 of them and froze them because I hate it when my husband makes eggs. And he always makes me eggs for Mother’s Day.) We also went on a 3 mile bike ride (the boys have a lot of energy) including a two-hour stay at a local park with a merry-go-round. We spun the kids so fast they went flying through the air. But they wanted more of it so we obliged. It was the best entertainment we’ve had in a while. We then road our bikes home (it was dark by then), ate some dinner real quick, and put the kids to bed. Finally, my husband and I sat down to watch a movie together. We watched Fire in the Sky, mostly because Love Can Build a Bridge isn’t on Netflix instant streaming. Lucky husband. I now believe in aliens and don’t ever want to visit Snowflake, Arizona. Funny thing is we almost moved there when we first got married.

2010 Mother’s Day HERE. I have no idea what happened to last year’s post.

Also, tomorrow I’m going to Atlanta, Georgia for the Conversations with Coca-Cola Conference with several other bloggers, including Lori from A Day in Motherhood whom I’m excited to meet (we talk on Facebook, but we’ve never actually met)! It’s an all expense paid trip. Also, I told them I drink Dr Pepper so don’t think I sold myself out y’all. More about the trip tomorrow!

Treat Mom this Sunday to a FREE medium sub at Firehouse Subs for Mothers Day! Hey look–now my husband can get me a free sandwich! (If you don’t get that joke, then you need to get with the program on the Screwed Up Texan Facebook page).

Click HERE to find a Firehouse Subs near you. 500+ locations and counting!

Here’s the coupon you’ll need with the other details below. Just click here to be taken to a document page where you can print.

Also, I’ve been crazy busy this last week so I’ll be emailing the winners of the $50 gift card to Firehouse Subs today–thank you for the 300+ entries received! Good luck!

I was going to post this last Friday right before Cinco de Mayo (we all need an excuse to party, right?), but I got really sick. I won’t go into details–trust me, you’ll lose your appetite–but I was in no condition for two days to do anything. Including the quarterly inspection that our agency had to do now that we are licensed foster parents. Although we did do the inspection anyway. Sorry about the cooties lady.

I’ve posted a similar recipe to this one before a couple years ago, but I’ve since experimented and I think I’ve settled on one that is even better than the first. Truth be told, I never measure anything so use my measurements as a guide only. Aguas frescas literally means “fresh waters” in Spanish. In this version of strawberry aguas frescas I’ve added a hint of rosemary which adds a pleasant surprise to this drink. I think you’re really going to love it!

Strawberry Aguas Frescas

4-6 sprigs of fresh rosemary
4 cups water
2 cups (or less) of sugar
3-4 cups sliced strawberries

In a medium pot over high heat on the stove, bring water to a boil along with rosemary. Turn heat down to a simmer so it is still hot, but not boiling, about medium heat. Simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from heat.

Using a fine mesh strainer pour this rosemary tea into a medium bowl, using strainer to catch sprigs and leaves.

Add sugar to bowl and stir until sugar dissolves (this will be easy if the water is still hot).

In a blender, blend strawberries along with one cup of water until strawberries are liquified, 1-2 minutes depending on your blender.

In a 2 liter pitcher, pour liquified strawberries, remaining rosemary tea, and enough ice and/or water to fill pitcher. Stir. Refrigerate if necessary.

Variation: FREEZE these in popsicle molds for a delicious treat!

Enjoy!

This is one way to trim that giant rosemary bush in my front yard.

At my church one of my responsibilities is helping other members become more self-reliant. One of the ways that I do that is by helping to coordinate group orders for emergency preparedness items. This is mostly a group effort with other like-minded individuals throughout the Dallas Fort Worth area where we share information. I’ve been working with one such emergency preparedness and food storage-minded lady for about three years now. Mostly we’ve talk through email. Then about a week ago when the final due date for one of the group orders was coming near she, Duana (Doo-wayne-uh), decided to come from her side of DFW to my side to give me her group’s order. That’s when the following email conversation took place:

Duana: “I will be in your area Tuesday evening.  Can I drop off the checks to you then?”

Me: “Yes, that will work. My address is 1821 ***.” (what? although not too hard to find, I ain’t making this easy for you)

Duana: “I know exactly where your street is.  we lived on it about 25 years ago!   LOL.”

Me: “Ha! That’s funny that you used to live on my street! What a small world! I’ll see you Tuesday evening.”

Duana: “I will tell you something even funnier.   I was talking to my dad last night and then I just looked it up.   1821 WAS our house.”

What are the chances of that ever happening?! The lady I’ve been communicating with for three years over the internet used to live in the same house as mine! And we’re both interested in emergency preparedness. And we’re both Mormon. Which is really odd considering where we live.

When Duana came over Tuesday evening one of the first words out of my mouth was “Make yourself at home,” to which my husband completed with “again.” It was fun and interesting hearing her tell me how the neighborhood used to look (it’s hard to imagine this street with no trees) and how my home used to look (that explains the crack and no electrical outlet upstairs in the game room).

Our home was built in 1974 and the images below are dated January 1, 1980–exactly one year before I was born. We recently removed the original door in these images and replaced with another to which I painted tomato red.

Here is our home today (with Duana standing out front). The numbers on the chimney have moved and lots of landscaping has improved the yard.

Separated by 32 years (and my birth) it’s amazing just truly how small this world really is, and also just another affirmation that we were meant to move here.

Like this Blast from the Past? You might also be interested in Fashion Flashbacks. You know, where you get to laugh at me for wearing a dead lady’s shirt.

Also, today is the LAST DAY enter the giveaways for either a $50 gift card to Firehouse Subs and 1 of 3 signed copies of “While I’m Still Myself” (plus everyone gets a FREE ebook).

Remember how my youngest has only gotten an award once this entire school year for good behavior? Well last week he brought home (to our amazement) a note saying that he had received NO conduct forms for the entire week (a first). And then this week happened.

But do you know what made up for it?

THIS:

Also, he just drew a giant picture of poop and is giving it to his teacher today. I probably shouldn’t egg his clowning around on.

The one thing that every mother of boys should know is this: Prepare for the unexpected.

Like why is there blood on my kitchen floor?

And in the grass?

Apparently he also did this at school to his teacher on Monday during recess. He’s been getting a lot of bloody noses lately. But so far, nothing quite like what happened last year:

Also I think I’m emailing his teacher this post. That boy is gonna kill me.

While in New York City last week, I didn’t get much of a chance to see what it’s famous for since my purpose in being there was to check out the Time to Play 2012 Spring Toy Showcase (I’ll be telling you all about some of my favorites in a separate post). I’ve honestly never seen so many tall buildings in one place in my entire life. It almost seemed like the city never ended. When trying to explain to my husband what New York is like I told him that it was like putting five cities the size of Dallas into three sections with 100 times more buildings and foot traffic.

I learned some very important facts while in New York:

1.) The red hand sign on corners that means “stop” met nothing.
2.) New Yorkers get a bad rap for being rude.

In fact, the only rude person I saw was down in Times Square trying to sell Comedy Central tickets and was yelling, “Don’t buy tickets from this guy, he’s an illegal alien and wanted by the FBI!” about another man who’d apparently stepped on his territory. I haven’t really even decided if he was rude or passionate yet.

3.) Every fashion is acceptable in New York. Including the Smurf outfit (this dude matched every accessory to his shirt and pants).

4.) New York can fit a lot of water towers into one city. This picture does not do that fact justice.

5.) Signs like this make rednecks laugh.

6.) Food costs a lot more (unless it’s on a food truck, street vendor or a national joint). Also sometimes the menus say funny things like suckling pig pate and pickled cucumbers.

7.) If you ask “What kind of cokes y’all got?” to a waitress she might give you a funny look.

8.) New Yorkers are used to tourists.

9.) People look like ants from the top of the Empire State Building. And this shot wasn’t even taken from the top-top.

10.) The Statue of Liberty isn’t as big as I thought it’d be. Doesn’t help that I was so far away, but for some reason I still thought it would be taller. Darn you Ghostbusters 2 and my eight-year-old imagination.

I’m definitely visiting New York again.

ONE LAST THING!  I currently have 2 awesome giveaways going and they both end on 5/7! Go enter for some fabulous prizes that you don’t want to miss out on–you can’t win if you don’t enter!

• $50 Firehouse Subs Gift Card – with 504 locations in 31 states there’s probably a restaurant near you!
• Win 1 of 3 signed books PLUS everyone’s a winner with a FREE e-book of While I’m Still Myself by Jeremy Mark Lane {LOW ENTRIES}.

Good luck!

Jeremy Mark Lane wants to give Screwed Up Texan readers FREE e-book copies of his book “While I’m Still Myself” for 7 days! That’s right–everyone’s a winner! Plus for every person that enters this give away and leaves a comment telling me they did so below they will be entered to win one of THREE signed paperback copies of his book!

From my review: “Jeremy Mark Lane’s collection of short stories, While I’m Still Myself, is a prime example of one of those literary works of art that beautifully tells the stories of what it’s like to be Texan.” Read my full review HERE.

EVERYONE’S A WINNER!

(Did you already receive an e-copy of While I’m Still Myself a couple weeks ago? No problem. You can still enter this give away but you must follow the instructions below to enter!)

Required to Enter: To receive your free e-book of While I’m Still Myself all you need to do is Subscribe to Jeremy Mark Lane by Email (be sure to confirm in an email that will be sent to you since only confirmed email addresses count). Enter an email address that you check often because this is the email address he will be using to send you your free e-book!

After you’ve entered your email address following the instructions above, leave a comment on this post telling me that you did so and you will be entered to win one of THREE signed books of While I’m Still Myself by Jeremy Mark Lane!

Want to increase your chances of winning a signed copy of While I’m Still Myself by Jeremy Mark Lane? Then do the following leaving a separate comment telling me you did so for each (will be verifying):

• Like Jeremy Mark Lane on Facebook
• Like Screwed Up Texan on Facebook
• Follow Jeremy Mark Lane on Twitter
• Follow Screwed Up Texan on Twitter
• Subscribe to Screwed Up Texan via Email
• Tweet this message on Twitter: #Win 1 of 3 Signed Books PLUS Everyone Gets a FREE eBook http://bit.ly/IJCv3k @jeremymarklane #giveaway

*****

That’s it! Give away ends May 7, 2012 at 9 PM CST. United States mailing addresses only for the signed book. Winners of the signed books will be emailed and have three days to claim. Please allow 2 weeks for delivery of signed books.

Liked what you read? Then purchase a copy as a gift for somebody at Amazon or find it on Goodreads.

Disclosure: I am being compensated to host this giveaway (what? you thought I did it for free?). I did read the book. All opinions are my own, as always.

I can’t wait to tell y’all about all the fun I had in New York City the last two days–sightseeing, eating, hanging out with some really neat people, and most of all the 2012 Time to Play Spring Toy Showcase!

But for now I’m as tired as a one-legged man in a butt kickin’ contest. What is it about airplanes that drain all the energy out of a person? For now, if you want a sneak peek of my adventures in New York hop on over to my Facebook page and catch up. I’ll be writing a real post soon.