I’m late, very late, I know! I’ve just been so completely swamped with life lately this place has had to go on the back burner for a few weeks. I would have love to come back and tell you all that I’ve been living it up in some warm tropical place enjoying all of the luxury accommodation a warm beautiful resort can give me, but unfortunately it’s been far the opposite of that.

I won’t bore you with the details, it’s mostly just on me and I’m working on it, vowing to make a change and get back to ‘myself’, first step is getting back online and back to ‘work’ so to speak, it’s the weekend now and I’m posting which is a big step as my weekends are normally off. So hopefully this will be the start to the change to getting back on track.

Besides some great posts, I’ve got to announce the giveaway winners of some of the giveaways that have just ended….

The winner of the Capezio/Wisharoo Park Duckle Dance Giveaway is:

Your Winner

Author: michelle r (heinzmomAThotmail.com)
Website: http://sometimesuwin.blogspot.com
Comment: I have your button on my blog at sometimesuwin.blogspot.com

The winner of the Frecklebox.com Giveaway is:

Your Winner

Author: Liz (starsndiamondsAThotmail.com)
Comment: I love the website!! I would use the gift card on “My name is” or the “goes to the aquarium” book for my son’s b-day sept. 22nd

The winner of the Sam’s Club Gift Card Giveaway is:

Your Winner

Author: Tabathia B (tbarrettno1ATgmail.com)
Website: http://itsmomtime.blogspot.com
Comment: tweet http://twitter.com/#!/ChelleB36/status/106521959088652288 tbarrettno1 at gmail dot com

The winner of the Kroger Gift Card Giveaway is:

Your Winner

Author: Elena (elena150980ATyahoo.com)
Website: http://frugalcalimom.blogspot.com
Comment: http://twitter.com/#!/ElenaIstomina/status/106888951301812224

The winner of the BIC Prize Package Giveaway is:

Your Winner

Author: Kerrie Mayans (kerrieATmayansfamily.com)
Comment: I entered your wisharoo park giveaway. kerrieATmayansfamily.com

The winner of the Dezign With A Z Gift Certificate Giveaway is:

Your Winner

Author: chellsea (cute.girly10715ATgmail.com)
Website: http://www.allthingscuteandgirly.blogspot.com
Comment: LIKE your FB page under chellsea justyne

The winners of the Bright Star Kids Gift Certificate Giveaway are:

Your Winner

Author: Tami Vollenweider (geauxtamiATyahoo.com)
Comment: I follow You by RSS Feed

Your Winner

Author: Diane Baum (esldianeATgmail.com)
Comment: I like the Lady Bug Chalk Board Sticker

Congrats, I”ll be emailing you all shortly!

You might also notice I’ve updated the winner’s tab with some of our newest winners! Check it out, if you’ve won something on A Wrestling Addicted Mommy and would like to be included, just let me know!

Winners have 72hrs to respond to my initial email, if no response is made within 72hrs winners forfeit their prize and a new winner will be randomly chosen.

Now that school’s started my life is changing. I now have two kids in school rather than one at school and one at home with me. It’s a change, mostly for me rather than my kids, but I’m learning to enjoy it.

I’m also learning to enjoy spending time with my husband again. I didn’t expect this time to come until the kids were 18, but with his work schedule it enables us to be able to spend time during the day together.

We did that for the first time yesterday. We had a day alone, without kids, the first time in almost 8 years! We were almost at a loss as to what to do! Although what didn’t help was I’m sick, so we probably didn’t do exactly what we wanted to as I whined about my throat being sore. However I can’t wait until next week when we get to do it again!

No longer do I have to dream about flying away from my children on an adults getaway, but don’t get me wrong, it’s not like I’ve stopped dreaming about that, I still would love to get away with my husband, somewhere away from home, so I’ve been thinking about looking at some Los Angeles holiday packages and to see what we can find and come up with.

We’ve never actually been away together, and I’m sure that’s so much different than just having the house to ourselves for a few hours. One step at a time though I guess. We’ll get there eventually, until then I’m enjoying the time that I do have when I do have it! A far cry from the first day of Kindergarten where I had to leave the classroom so that my daughter wouldn’t see me bawling my eyes out lol…

So, it’s now the end of the Total Gym Total Mom Challenge, and I’m sad to say that I failed! I got a visitor from the past this summer, FAT! Yup, she came back and stuck to me like she was my shadow, but I vow to loose the extra baggage that showed up this summer.

I’m anxious to see who the winner is, although I know without a doubt it’s NOT me! I slacked, I took off for vacation, I didn’t exercise or eat right over the entire summer. I wasn’t myself, I didn’t uphold my end of the bargin.

Although every once in a while, I’d wander down to the basement and see that gym staring at me, yelling at me to get on it, and work out, and I did a few times, I failed. I didn’t do the exercises each day like I wanted.

So, I have no measurement or weight changes to share with you, unless you’d like the see the numbers that went UP rather than down. That’s not due to the gym though, that’s totally due to myself.

Since summer has ended, and school is back in sesssion, we’re back on our regular routine, I’m now back on my regular workout routine. At least 3 days at the gym, 3 days on the Total Gym in my basement, so I’m hoping to keep up with things here on my blog with both my diet and workout. Working out was easy to ease back into, the eating portion however, not so easy.

I really wish there was a diet plan that came with the Total Gym, it might help out a bit, and I also wished that the Pilates DVD that came with it worked as well I was never able to try that out because I’d insert it into my DVD player and just get an error (the other DVD’s that came with it worked fine) so I’m a bit sad about that.

Right now, I’ve stopped with the video’s though and gone to doing the workouts on the cards that come with the gym. Yesterday was my workout day out of the house, today will be my workout day in the house on the Total Gym XLS.

Although the Total Gym Total Mom challenge is over, I’m starting my own challenge this week. I’ll be posting a photo and measurements next week and we’ll go from there, let’s see how far I can get with this doing it RIGHT this time!  I’m not going to let that beautiful, working Total Gym XLS end up being a giant clothes hanger in my home!

Want to challenge me as well, or join in with some of us other bloggers taking the Total Gym Total Mom Challenge? You can order your own Total Gym XLS and take 15% off your order just by ordering here.

Other Total Gym Total Mom Challengers:
Virginia at That Bald Chick
Angela at MommyPR
Nina at The One Fantastical
Emilie at Baby Loving Mama
Zippy at Champagne Living

Also don’t forget to follow our progress on Twitter by with the #TotalMom hashtag.

Post is only by the opinion of A Wrestling Addicted Mommy, other views and opinions may vary, please see my disclosure policy for more information. I was provided with a Total Gym XLS to participate in the Total Gym Total Mom Challenge at no cost.

That’s totally what my kids thought!

Last week we attended Phineas and Ferb: The Best LIVE Tour Ever at the Seagate Center in Toledo Ohio. I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect. I mean it’s a cartoon, how on earth were they going to do a good live show with it?

We sat in our seats and my kids patiently awaited the start of the show. As usual per Disney shows we were bombarded/overloaded with the amount of ‘goodies’ available, but I held my ground and I was the mean mommy that bought nothing!!! I love Disney, the things are cute, the Phineas hats with the cotton candy, the light up wands, the Perry snow cone cups. All so cute, all so hard for kids to resist, but the prices weren’t hard for mommy to resist that’s for sure!

I’m sorry Disney but $12 for a snow cone in a Perry plastic cup just isn’t in my budget because I’d have to buy not one but two, and once I buy that, kids will just want more and more….

The show started and the girls were so excited! It started with a screen up and Phineas and Ferb talking (in cartoon form) and then, with the magic of a playground slide, they climbed up the ladder and slid into reality (costumes) right in front of the audience on the stage.

As their friends wandered onto the screen, they all did the same and the kids went wild!

The live show basically was a version of what you’d be watching on TV with your kids at home, except with costumes, lots of music and dancing, and interaction with the audience. My girls are huge fans of Phineas and Ferb, watch the show daily, and even have the soundtrack on CD, so they knew all of the songs.

My oldest daughter’s favorite character is Perry, she was a bit disappointed she wasn’t able to ‘meet’ him or see more of him in the live show, but when he came out, her and almost 90% of the place went crazy!  It’s safe to say most of the kids in Toledo are Perry fans!

Overall, such a cute show! The girls had a blast, even I enjoyed it!  It was a really cool show to see them integrate animation and a live stage show and how they used both to keep the kids attention.  This show is a definate must see if you and your family are fans of Phineas and Ferb.

Check out the schedual to see when they’ll be in your area next!

Post is only by the opinion of A Wrestling Addicted Mommy, other views and opinions may vary, please see my disclosure policy for more information. Tickets provided to my family free of charge from Feld Entertainment.

This post brought to you by Boy Scouts of America. All opinions are 100% mine.

When I was a child, I was a member of the Girl Guides (Girl Scouts for you American’s), I had a ton of fun, but always was a little jealous of my brother who was in Boy Scouts.  It seemed like they always got to do some cool stuff that we never did, they did a lot more outdoors type things as well.

Today, girls don’t have to be jealous of their brothers because they’re now allowed to join in on the fun of boy scouts as well, although typically boy scots is, more for boys and the majority of it’s members are boys.

When you think of boy scouts you think of the outdoors, camping, tying knots etc.  But boy scouts is so much more than that!  It helps children get comfortable with other kids, and adults, it helps them form relationships outside of their everyday classroom and home.  Boy Scouts also teaches kids to be active and how to eat healthy.  With a focus on education and teaching about a healthier lifestyle.

Boy Scouts has also just rolled out a new curriculum that emphasizes on STEM: Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math.  Kids can earn a Robotic’s Merit batch and 31 other STEM related merit badges.

Boy Scouts have come a long way and realize that it’s more than just camping, nature and the such, they want to teach kids the critical skills that are also relevant in today’s world.

Have you checked out your Boy Scouts of America lately?  It’s a perfect time to get your kids signed up so they can Be A Scout!