Knott's for the Cure - Ticket Giveway

As a breast cancer survivor, nothing warms my heart more than an organization doing what it can to help spread awareness and help for the cure.

Knott’s Berry Farm and Susan G. Komen Orange County are working together to raise money for breast cancer awareness, services and research by offering a special “Pink Ticket” and limited edition specially designed “pink” merchandise from February 1 through March 31st.

“It is wonderful to see Snoopy hugging Woodstock on top of the logo for Knott’s Berry Farm for the Cure benefiting Susan G. Komen Orange County,” said Lisa Wolter, Executive Director of the Komen Orange County Affiliate. “This partnership will raise much needed funds for mammograms and breast health outreach, and it shows the warmth and caring embrace we can all extend to women and families going through their struggle with breast cancer.”
 
In Orange County, one in eight women will be diagnosed with breast cancer. Thanks to Komen’s funding of research, new treatments and awareness of the importance of annual mammograms to detect breast cancer in its earliest and most curable stages, the survival rate for breast cancer has risen dramatically over the 33 years of the organization. The Orange County Komen Affiliate provides mammograms for uninsured women and works with other organizations to bring breast health information to people throughout the county.
 
The promotion will provide guests with the opportunity to enjoy Knott’s world class entertainment, attractions and specially-themed “pink” décor, while supporting an important cause that touches many women. Starting February 1, through March 31, guests can purchase “Pink Tickets” for theme park admission only online at www.knotts.com. A portion of the “Pink Tickets” proceeds will benefit Susan G. Komen Orange County.
 
Knott’s Berry Farm has kicked off the promotion by donating $25,000 to Susan G. Komen Orange County. The money that the theme park has already donated will provide 400 women in Orange County with life-saving breast health services. Guests entering the theme park during the time of the promotion will be greeted by a pink Knott’s Berry Farm for the Cure display adorned with Snoopy and his pal Woodstock. Guests can purchase a commemorative limited edition magnet to place on the special display in honor of, or in memory of, someone affected by breast cancer. The magnet will be sold at select merchandise locations inside Knott’s Berry Farm and all proceeds will benefit Komen Orange County.

To be eligible to win 2 tickets to Knott's Berry Farm

• Please ‘Like’ Knotts Berry Farm on Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/KnottsBerryFarm
• Please follow on Twitter: https://twitter.com/knotts
• Please follow on Instagram: http://instagram.com/knottsberryfarm
• Please ask them to use #KnottsPink on any social posts if they share the contest.
• One winner per household.
• The giveaway should run until February 8th, and the winner will be able to use their tickets anytime in 2014.
  
  
  Rebecca

New Years Eve at Knott's Ticket Giveaway!

The countdown to the New Year is on at Knott's Merry Farm!  With special fireworks, live entertainment, and extended hours until 1:00am, Knott's is the place to ring in 2014!  The celebration is included with regular daytime admission or a Season Pass.  And join the countdown conversation using #KnottsNYE. 

It has become a family tradition.  The last 3 years we have spent New Years Eve at Knott's Berry Farm.  It is a very special place for us.  My children love it, the rides are great, the food is wonderful, and it's the perfect place for families with kids of all ages.  It has a little something for everyone.  My kids love the rides, my husband and I enjoy and indulge on the food, and the entertainment is great.  

Special one-night-only entertainment serves up family fun for a variety of ages and interests, including the Midnight Party on the Midway! Count down the New Year with music, stilt walkers, party hats, and noisemakers for everyone. And new this year, the Knott’s Sky Cabin, adorned with special lighting effects, will dramatically rise to the top of the “K” tower to count down the final moments of 2013. The cabin will reach the top at the stroke of midnight and the skies above Knott’s will be ablaze with colorful fireworks!

So I hope you win the tickets and we get to see you at the best New Years Eve Celebration in Southern California.


To Win Tickets to Knotts please do the following to enter the contest, and comment that you have done so.

Please ‘like’ Knotts Berry Farm on Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/KnottsBerryFarm
Please follow on Twitter: https://twitter.com/knotts
Please use #KnottsNYE on any social posts if you share the contest.  

Please follow on Instagram: http://instagram.com/knotts

Comment below that you have completed all steps

Good Luck and Happy New Year!!!

• 

I am Different but not Less

 

Different Not Less………..  Those words have haunted me since I saw the movie “Temple Grandin” on HBO a few years ago.  It came out a few months after our autism diagnosis with our first son.

I try to put those into action all the time and sometimes it is a real chore to focus on all the obstacles the kids have overcome, and how much they CAN do.  I sometimes focus on the deficits and the delays that are so evident when we are our in public or with kids we used to play with who have developed and matured out of our world.  But since this special needs motherhood comes with no map on how to control your thoughts and feelings about the neurological torture our kids go through with autism,  I do the best I can and get a little bit better and am more positive and more hopeful for my kids everyday, even on the days when I shed tears.

 

My kids are on a peak with therapy and moving forward with therapy and we are so very busy with appointments and stuff, I’m overwhelmed and happy.  I’m on a new path of trying to expose the kids to everything I can to help with their behavior, and tolerance of new things, so we can live a life outside of the walls of our property if we choose too. 

Sometimes our events that I try to take them to are a hit, sometimes not so much.  So even my motherhood is DIFFERENT than most, but it by NO MEANS LESS THAN ANY OTHER MOTHERHOOD.  Sometimes the special needs moms get the shaft by society in more ways that I can count.  I can’t be that mom I always thought I’d be, I can’t be that blogger that gets to go to all the cool crap, I can’t be the mom hosting the bad ass pool parties and play dates, I can’t be the mom whose kids are winning contests and trophies and going to sports tournaments all over the state.  I just can’t those aren’t my kids.  I am the mom that has two kids with autism; I’m the mom whose kids are more comfortable at home.  I am the mom who needs to be with her kids because sometimes I am the ONLY ONE that understands how to care for them. I am the mom who has therapy at her home everyday.  I am the mom who has children and a husband who are VERY high maintenance.  I am the mom who gets elated and excited and over the moon happy when I get a smile and hug from her child.  I am the mom who does a happy dance when we have no potty accidents.  I am the mom that when my 4 year old asks to go to Disneyland at 6am – TAKES HIM instead of going to school.  I am the mom that struggles with so many things.  I am the mom who puts on the brave face when I feel like I may crumble.  I am the mom who is jealous of those of you who get to go out and have fun on a whim with your kids.  I am the mom who envies those of you bloggers that can leave your kids and go to fun events. I am the mom who will never stop looking for answers and will do anything and go to the end of the earth to help her kids.  I am the mom who loves her life and embraces everything in it – good bad and ugly.  My motherhood is different than most, but it certainly is not less.

It has taken me a lot of soul searching, mourning, to get to this place, but I think I’m finally there, and my kids realize it.  I love my life, our friends, our families,  the kids are building relationships and I’m thrilled.  Things are different, they are getting much better.

Rebecca

We Are Better Together

Anyone that has known me for more than an hour - knows that doing the laundry is my LEAST favorite chore.  I'd rather clean a toilet.  Laundry with little children is a never ending thankless job and I get no enjoyment in doing it, until now.  Seriously, I recently bought Tide, Downey and Bounce, and started using them in our wash.  

With the weather warming up and my boys playing more outside, and I'm training for another marathon our laundry room is a stink fest some days.  And it's always full of clothes, towels and it's just overwhelming.

 I stink at sorting laundry and I do throw the kids clothes, my clothes and workout clothes all together.  Our summer attire is bathing suits, flowery dresses, jeans blue and white.   Last night I washed all the boys bathing suits and a couple dresses of mine and my denim skirt.  After I was done with this load of laundry, and picked my chin up off of the floor from how amazing the clothes looked, felt and smelled.  I think I'm hooked.  Using these products together was awesome.  My four year old said he smelled yummy. 

So my conclusion is that all of these wonderful products are BETTER TOGETHER because they made me almost get joy out of doing our stinky dirty summer laundry.  You need to try!!

The post is part of a DailyBuzz Moms Tastemaker program with P&G.   All thoughts are my own

Life Lessons of The Week

Oh and has it been a week.

• There are people out there looking to harm
• There are people out there that really live like the guests on Maury Povich (I really thought that stuff was made up)
• Don't invite crazy into your world
• Some people can't live without creating chaos in all the lives around them
• Trying to do the right thing and keeping calm when dealing with psychos is an exercise in futility
• Karma will get you (I pray)
• The school officials that manage my childs case are mediocre at best, and his teacher is amazing
• If you want something done right do it yourself, or scream until they do it your way.
• If I didn't exercise I think I would have cried all week, taking it out on the gym was awesome
• I just took all the power away from a nut job and I love that
• Losing 8lbs in a month is about a cure all for feeling crappy

This has been a week that has tried every single ounce of my  patience and love of humanity.  A crazy evil psycho woman was brought into our lives, and is trying to ruin our rental home.  I have never encountered such evil.  I thought I had met the most vile person on earth over a year ago, but shockingly there is someone that kicked it up a notch and proved that there are people with complete dark souls, and evil all the way down to their core.

This is a problem that we will overcome, but I am so disappointed in people right now.  I just am so bewildered and shocked as to how someone with children could spend so much time trying to hurt someone.  If this crack pot spent as much time working as she did scheming on ways to get out of paying the rent or faking injury to sue us - she would probably be very successful.   I feel sorry for her, and her children, and am sorry that she gets to procreate and raise monsters like she is.

On a happy note,  my kids autism treatment is in an up hill swing Jack is making amazing strides, and Franklin is coming a long, and mommy found a new voice and is learning her way around the school district and how to get her kids what helps them.  It's going to be a good summer and I am so looking forward to 1st grade!

The AvoDerm Challenge - Results

  I was compensated for this sponsored post made possible by Mom Spark Media. Thoughts are my own.

Before I was a mommy to my sweet children, I was the mom to 3 dogs, Bosco, Peanut and Misto.  I loved them and treated them like my kids for years until the boys came along.  I still love them but I do admit they get shoved to the back of my list occasionally.

While the dogs are my running mates, and my play mates and I feed them, and walk them and bathe them, I want to do more for them.  As they are getting older, I think as in humans nutrition is going to be a larger part of keeping them healthy.

I have embarked on the AvoDerm Challenge to see a softer, shinier coat in just 6 weeks. Guaranteed!   It's been 4 weeks, and all I can say is WOW!!!  My dogs, feel better, they look amazing and their coats are so shiny and soft, even my kids won't stop petting the dogs.  Not to mention the fact, that Bosco and Peanut are more active than they have been in awhile.  They are playing in the yard, and they want to run a little farther with me.  Not bad for 10 years old!!  Thanks AvoDerm!

 AvoDerm® Natural premium dog and cat food formulas are 
loaded with high quality meat proteins,
rich in omega 3 and 6 fatty acids from natural avocados,
completely balanced for the total health of your pet. 

They are giving away a $5 coupon for AvoDerm you sign up for the 60 day challenge.  

There is a sweepstakes on their website to win a year's worth of AvoDerm for your dog.  
How awesome would that be?!

As in humans nutrition is key to your health and well being, I take my health and my children's health seriously, and I'm kicking it up a notch for my dogs, who have been by my side through every imaginable up and down.  I owe it to them to make sure they have a healthy diet and a beautiful coat for me and my family to pet and love.

Are you ready for the Challenge?  Come on! 

AvoDerm Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/avodermnatural

AvoDerm Twitter: https://twitter.com/avodermnatural
AvoDerm Website: http://www.avodermnatural.com/index.htm

I was compensated for this sponsored post made possible by Mom Spark Media. Thoughts are my own.

Not only in Hollywood

Last week as news spread of Angelina Jolie coming forward about having a "preventative" bilateral mastectomy, I was first shocked because I normally prejudge Hollywood types to be vain and inhuman in many cases. Then I was relieved for her and as a mom of little children, I celebrate what she did.

First I must digress. After the billions of dollars raised for breast cancer research and how far we have come in a few decades on breast cancer treatment, the biggest preventative measure we have is a mutilating bilateral mastectomy? I try to imagine how fast and furiously scientist and doctors would work if the only preventative measure for any male genitalia cancers was surgical castration...

Now back to Ms. Jolie. She apparently tested positive for the BRCA1 gene which in lay mans terms meant she had an 87% chance of getting cancer later. Those are horribly sucky odds, and that alone would make a decision of the magnitude she made much easier (for me at least).

So what exactly is a mommy to do? I myself have a very long family history of cancer. It flipping runs rampant and is the scariest and most horrible thing you can think of for any of your family members to go through. Every woman older than me that I have a bloodline with other than my own mother has had breast or some other kind of cancer. Sow when I was diagnosed with Ductal Carcinoma In Situ - the early stages of breast cancer, I was not shocked, however I was shocked that I tested NEGATIVE for BRCA1 and BRCA2. But that did NOT mean I wouldn't get cancer because I was sitting there in a doctors office WITH cancer!

I listened to a surgeon tell me the different options that I had as far as treating my cancer. I could have gone lumpectomy with chemo therapy and radiation, I could have had a mastectomy of the affected breast with chemo, I could sit and wait it out and see later if it started to spread (SHOCKED THAT WAS AN OPTION). And then the Big Kahuna answer came. I could do a double mastectomy, and remove my ovaries, because my cancer was estrogen fed, and if there were stray cells anywhere in my body me producing estrogen would feed them. This would give me a 95% chance of SURVIVAL - it meant I GOT TO LIVE!!! - So I said "Can we do it tomorrow?"

Now my decision may not be for everyone. I looked at our life. I had a 1 and a 3 year old - at the time only one had autism. I have a husband that was devastated by autism, this nearly crushed him and I knew he could not handle months and months of chemo treatment as well as caring for a special needs child. I have experience family members and friends getting chemo, and it makes you so sick, and it's very painful process. I didn't want that for myself or my family.

So for my life and my children, what worked best for our family was the decision to have a bilateral mastectomy and hysterectomy, at 41 years old. I was thrown into menopause, and thankfully there was no cancer in my lymph nodes, so I was basically a surgical case. I went through reconstruction, and the whole process took about 9 months. I worked a little slower than Ms. Jolie because I did have family help, but I did not have the army of hired help I'm sure she had. What my decision did was give me relief that I will not always be worrying with the breast cancer come back (even though it is a scary thought in my head daily). It made me want to be a healthy mom for my kids. It has made me a learning machine about my health and options, it has made me a better advocate for my children.

I admire Ms. Jolie for taking this brave step, but remind other women that it does happen amongst us. It wasn't the pretty celebration that it is publicized to be, it was emotional, and scary, and shook this woman to the core, and took all the parts that make you a woman away. After the shock and awe of all of that, you realize you where you were the day before the cancer call came in. You still have 2 kids that need you, a husband that loves you (even though this was a huge struggle for him he handled it well). AND I GOT THE BEST GIFT. I GOT TO LIVE!!!! I didn't want to just survive the cancer I wanted to LIVE, and raise my kids, and be silly, and happy, and enjoy the beautiful life, that may not be Hollywood, but it is awesome nonetheless.