Lately I’ve been hooked on trail mix bars so this review & giveaway came at a perfect time. With a 30 count box of these Nature Valley Bars I was a very excited! These trail mix bars are great for keeping in my purse & taking with us to the park. These bars are filled with almonds, peanuts, raisins and my favorite thing cranberries! YUM! Just an all around great taste & Micah will fight me for one of these. Just yesterday I got attacked for my trail mix bar by Micah!

You can win your own 30 count box of Nature Valley Chewy Trail Mix Bars & a $25 giftcard to Sam’s Club!!

You can earn up to four entries to the giveaway by these various ways, each entry has to be on a separate comment. 1 comment = 1 entry, 4 comments = 4 entries.

* Leave a comment
* Follow me on twitter & leave your twitter name in my comments
* Retweet the following on your twitter & leave the tweet url:
@Pam_Del is having a giveaway! http://design85.com
* Blog about the contest on your blog & leave a comment with the post url

Must enter before midnight on Friday, June 4, 2010. Winner will be announced Saturday, June 05, 2010.

**All product and gift cards were all given to me from General Mills through MyBlogSpark.

We have yet to cut Micah’s gorgeous blond hair. His hair is starting to fall down his back when wet. But when dry his hair curls up in the back which makes all the girls swoon for him. My mom asks me almost every week the dreaded question though…”When are you going to cut his hair?”. Nobody but her asks this, I guess everyone else doesn’t bother because I get stuck in my ways. But my mom is daring enough to bring it up to me. And for a split second I thought about it. But then as I was putting him to sleep, I ran my hand through his hair. Yes it’ll stay put for now. How about when he can vocalize he doesn’t like it, then he can have a hair cut.

Google and me are best friends. Google never judges me on my odd questions & always has some sort of answer for whatever might be plagueing my mind. Whenever I have a question or am making a bet on some trivial piece of information I always say “Google it!”. Google has answered so many of my questions. Lately my google has been plagued with pictures of artifacts from the Titanic, gathering as much information as possible for the position I’ve been interviewing for (waiting to see if I move onto the 3rd & last interview still), ways to relieve stress (I’ll go with tea & yoga instead of cookies today), ways to naturally lighten my hair (it’s looking dull, i think it’s the well water) & well I google anything I want an answer to.

My mind will not settle if I don’t know the answer to something. I get a very unsettled feeling if I’m curious about something & it will just taunt me until I get some kind of answer. So thank you google. Thank you for always being there for me. What’s the last thing you googled?

Yesterday we spent the morning at the park before the sun started heating us up a little too much. It’s only May & the heat is already showing just how miserable it’s going to make us this summer. Poor Micah starts sweating quick. Just look at those little rosy cheeks! But he sure did have fun going down the big kid slide since it was just us and a little girl his age at the park. I love when we have the park to ourselves & are able to just stretch out. And I know Micah loves to be able to run around without me having to keep him with the smaller children, freedom!

How often do you take your child(ren) to the park? Do you take snacks, games, toys, etc?

We’ve been trying to make it to the park atleast once a week & are pretty easy going with what we take with us. For Micah all we bring with us is a cup of water & then bottles of water are kept in my bag with my camera. I see others who bring tons of toys, buckets, kites & well I’m a little jealous because there’s no way I would be able to keep up with so much stuff.

Micah dug a packet of hot chocolate out of the pantry. Then proceeded to rip it open & try to eat the powder.  End results? Him with a hilarious choco-stache & a crazy smile. Don’t mind the horrible pictures, I just had to get a quick picture of this crazy kid.

Last week I received a new CD to review & really when I get new music I get scared. Reviewing music? Oh goodness it’s a scary thing, I mean what if I truly don’t like the band? What would I say? Could I just hide or would I just lash out on how bad the CD sucked? Well luck for me that One eskimO didn’t suck. Before doing this review I listened to the full CD probably atleast six times back to back. At first it was for the review & then I caught myself singing along to the positive and catchy lyrics.

For me there is certain types of music for every activity in life. For working out I need my music fast, loud & screaming at me to get pumped up usually. When I’m stressing like I have been lately I need something to calm my nerves. One eskimO was the PERFECT band they kind of remind me of a mix of John Mayer, Snow Patrol, Coldplay & Parachute. I probably don’t quite make sense but my head usually groups people together and that’s who they got grouped with right away.

If you need a perfect chill band for your iPod this summer, I’d say load One eskimO up. You can visit there website here & even download their song Astronauts for free here.
(One 2 One Network provided me with a CD to review, but my thoughts and opinions are my own and uncompensated.)

Lately I’ve been reading a lot of different parenting styles. And I’m lost. I don’t & probably will never fit into one type of parenting style. I mean there are some styles that are totally me but there are some things that type of parenting wouldn’t seem to do. For instance I relate a lot to attachment parenting but I just don’t see that style letting a child cry it out. When Micah doesn’t get his way or I tell him he shouldn’t be doing something, he’ll throw himself on the ground & scream. It doesn’t even last a minute usually because I’ve always chose to let him just “cry it out” because giving him hugs for acting out would just encourage him. He quickly remembers that the behavior isn’t getting him anywhere so he’ll let up on it & go about doing something other then what he was told not to do. Now while we’re at family’s houses he’ll go for longer crying periods because he KNOWS that someone will pick him up & indulge in his bad behavior. How to fix that? Well I’m not sure because he’ll go longer times crying because he knows that someone will no doubt give into him.

I try to read Micah’s signs, when he starts acting fussy & crazy it’s usually a food or nap time thing. I’m always telling JP there is usually a reason for when Micah acts out for “no reason”. I’m sure Micah doesn’t like making a fuss but I’m betting it’s frustrating being a baby & not being able to fully communicate what you want.

There are so many points of parenting & I see how I could easily fall into attachment parenting. But would I be right in labeling that as my parenting style? I just feel like I’m drawing myself in a box by doing that but so many of the parenting choices are right on track with what I do, I mean when I became a mom I didn’t even worry about a parenting style. All I worried about was giving & doing my best as a mom. I don’t care what others think I might be doing wrong, don’t judge me if you don’t want me judging you. So why am I even wondering if I fall into a parenting style? I guess it’s human nature to have some sort of label in your life.

MannLand5 has posted this week’s questions!

1. The most expensive thing hanging in my closet is…..?
Hmmmm Anthropologie dress or Guess Jeans?

2. Have you ever played a team sport?
Not on a school team or anything. Played during gym but played very badly. I’m not very athletic.

3. If you were a bug, what kind would you be?
I’d be a love bug!

4. Where on your body is the worst place to get sunburned?
Forehead! ACK! I make too many scrunchy faces & it hurts soooooo bad!!

5. Are you happy?
I’m over the moon happy right now. Things are going well but even if they weren’t I’d still be happy. I have JP & Micah, they make me really happy.

6. People are always abbreviating..are there any abbreviations that make your skin crawl when people use them?
I think the whole FML is over used. Like people have to wait in traffic or something, chill it’s not that bad. I think FML should only be used if like your dog dies, you loose a job or something like that.

7. Do you love where you live..or could you live anywhere?
Eh I don’t love where I live but I don’t hate it either. If I could live ANYWHERE…Hawaii. Yup. Hands down. I’m sure Micah would LOVE it.

8. What, if any, extreme measures do you go to to keep yourself from overeating when you’re full?
I try to get just one plate of food & don’t do seconds. But my bad habit is eating out of boredom. Dang nambit I do that a lot!

Sometimes while googling do you feel like an overload of information is being thrown in your way? And then it isn’t even the exact information you are looking for? I’m having that dilemma right now. I can’t seem to exactly find what I want even though I SORTA’ mostly know what I’m looking for. If anyone could help me out with these two things it would be appreciated.

1. How the heck do I get Micah to start sleeping in his crib & kick him out of our bed? What are some good methods? I’d rather keep “let him cry it out” as my last method.

2. Let’s say you have an ALL white kitchen. White tile on counter, cabinets that have been painted white, white appliances & greyish/white laminate. And let’s say you want to change the flooring & possibly paint the cabinets a different color so you don’t have to feel as in you are cooking inside of a take-out box. What color choices would you go with?

HELP ME!!! And any help would be awesome!!

What’s a typical breakfast for you? Or are you a breakfast skipper?

I’m a yogurt & coffee kind of person. Simple, easy & a good way to start me off on the day.