1/31/16: Real Estate Broker and Home in Billerica MA

Often times I like to assist hard working Moms with opportunities they have to share.  I would like to share a real estate agent Kelly Dimbat from James Marcora Realty with you.  She is a personal friend of mine and has been of great assistance in our PTO at school where I am the President.  She has been licensed in real estate sales since 2002.  She was born and raised in Massachusetts and has a wealth of knowledge in the communities in MA.  You can read some testimonials on her here.  She has a wonderful property to share in Billerica's sought after Ditson Elementary school district on a half acre lot.

This 1998 cape house looks great with three bedrooms, 1.5 baths and a two car garage!

This home has a lovely fenced in back yard, above ground pool and outside storage shed.  

The kitchen is oak with a center island and corian countertops.  I just redid our kitchen and we have a center island and I absolutely love it!  It also has a dining room with wood floors and front to back living room.  

Best of all it is located on a dead-end street close to Shawsheen Regional Technical High School and is in Ditson Elementary School District.  The owners would prefer a late June closing.  

Contact Kelly Dimbat for a private showing at Kellysells@gmail.com 

More information:

James Marcora Realty:  http://www.jamesmarcorarealty.com/

www.billericamahomes.com

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/JMREALTY/

Disclosure:  I was provided with compensation in exchange for this promotional post.  As always all opinions are my own.

1/30/16: The Perfect Portion Cookbook Pre-Order Special Price

Everyone is trying to eat healthier and watch their portions.  I know our family is watching our calorie intake and I am always looking for easier ways to do this.  I often time finding myself buying those 100 calorie pack snacks or taking a bowl with a snack in it instead of the whole box or bag.  With this in mind The Perfect Portion Cookbook was written.  Read on for special Pre-Order Pricing.

It features actor/director Anson Williams from "Happy Days," and The Perfect Portion cookbook launches February 7th on QVC.  It is written by New York Times best-selling cookbook author, Bob Warden and food and nutrition expert, Mona Dolgov of Natick, Massachusetts and was just featured on the TODAY show and on The Doctors as a new way to think about portion control and nutrition.  

Here is a breakdown of the calories you should eat in a typical day.

These recipes are all divisible by 100 so you can watch your calorie intake by controlling your portions.  There are delicious recipes like French toast, chili, chicken pot pie, and lasagna.  In the recipes ingredients are swapped out for better-for-you ingredients that don’t sacrifice flavor and taste better than the originals.

Here is a sample:

It is available for pre-order now on Amazon $29.95: http://amzn.to/1Jb44BZ and sold on QVC with a special pre-order price of $19.95​ if you us​e​ this link: http://qvc.co/1O8Qgzp

I can't wait to try some of these recipes out!

Disclosure:  I was provided with a copy of The Perfect Portion Cookbook for promotional purposes.  No other compensation was received and all opinions are my own.

1/28/16: Red Sox Winter Weekend at Foxwoods Resort Casino

Last weekend we were invited by the Boston Red Sox to go to their Winter Weekend at Foxwoods Resort Casino!  I am part of the Red Sox Parents and this was an amazing experience that I got to share with my family.  There are so many unique opportunities at this experience.  We had a blast!

The event started on Friday night and continued through Sunday afternoon.  There were three ballrooms setup throughout Foxwoods.  We started in the largest ballroom that had the World Series Trophies, a Pitching Cage, Batting Cage, Red Sox awards, and NESN filming.

We even got to meet Wally the Green Monsters whole family.  We especially enjoyed meeting Tessie who is Wally's sister.  She is here from Florida.

 There was so much to do in this area plus the kids could burn off some energy.

Here you can see Pedrioa talking to NESN.

Here is John Farrell the Head Coach of the Red Sox.

Jerry Remy recording a message for NESN.

Our picture up on the big screen.

They even had a lot of memorabilia from Fenway Park.

Then we headed to one of the smaller ballrooms for one of the sessions.  There were multiple sessions scheduled throughout the day with players.  Here is a session with Jason Varitek and Pedro Martinez.  They were really funny.  They kept talking about what the other one would do if he didn't play baseball.  Make sure to line up for these sessions early as they do fill up.

Another highlight was the Kid's Press Conference.  They had many players including Brock Holt, Blake Swihart, Xander Bogaerts, Eduardo Rodriguez and Rick Porcello there answering questions.  The kids were asking some really funny questions.  My son asked what they like to do in the Off Season and my daughter asked what is their favorite position to play.  One kid asked who else they would want to be and one player answered Justin Bieber.  That got quite the laugh.  Another one that got a laugh was when someone asked how many times they could say Toy Boat over and over and over and Brock Holt tried.  It was so funny.

Of course the best part of the day was getting to meet the players up close and get autographs!  We got to meet Mookie Betts, Rick Porcello, Xander Bogaerts, Heath Hembree, Christian Vazquez, Brock Holt, Tommy Lane and Pedro Martinez!!!!  They had the autograph sessions setup in to hour time slots that you got a wrist band for.  At that time there were four holding areas that you were broken in to by the number on your wrist band.  In each room there were two mystery players - one to take a picture with and one to get an autograph from.  There was no specific schedule showing you who would be there.  We were extremely lucky to go to multiple rooms to see many players thanks to being a Red Sox Mom.

It was so awesome that we got to meet Pedro Martinez!  He is such a legend!

Last but not least we stayed over and then in the morning got treated to breakfast with Wally and his family.  This was so much fun.  There was a buffet of great food, and time to spend with Wally, Tessie, Walter and Wanda.  They even signed a ball for each of my kids.

What an amazing weekend!  I highly suggest going next year if you have not been able to make it!  It is an awesome experience for Red Sox fans young and old!

http://boston.redsox.mlb.com/bos/fan_forum/winter_weekend.jsp

Disclosure:  I was provided with tickets to the Red Sox Winter Weekend in addition to accommodations for my family and compensation for my travel.  All opinions as always are my own.

1/20/16: Miss Majorette of MA Baton Competition

Last weekend Lauren competed in the Miss Majorette of MA Baton Twirling competition and had a fantastic day!  Not only did she win the Massachusetts Pageant but she also won Miss Sweetheart!  I was so proud of her!

Here she is ready to go for her Miss Sweetheart Queen modeling.  She is wearing the same dress I wore when I used to model.

She did a wonderful job.

Here she is getting her banner put on when she was announced as the winner.

I love her face coming back after she won.

Here you can see a little more close up.

Here are all the girls from her team that competed in modeling.

Honestly I never thought when I was a twirler back in the day that some day I would be watching my own daughter twirling and modeling in my old costume.  When I watch her I feel like it brings back all the nerves I had when I twirled, and also brings out so much pride in how well she is doing.  Here she is doing her MA Pageant modeling which included an interview.  The MA Pageant includes three parts - Solo baton twirling (40%), X-Strut (40%), and modeling in a costume with interview (20%).

Her posture and smile are fantastic during modeling.

Next up was team.  Her team does a Newsies routine to "Seize the Day".

This is a super cute routine and they look great doing it.

Next up was basic marching.  She does awesome in this event.  The goal is to stay in step with the march music, point your toes, high knees, big smile, sharp corners, good posture, strong arms and eye contact.

She placed first and was excited to get her trophy.

Next up was X-Strut.  This is a new event for Lauren.  It involves four marching steps and then dancing type turns and spins.  It is all about balance, grace, and staying in time with the music while marching.

She did a great job!  She placed 1st in one X-Strut and 2nd in the other.

She then competed in Solo.  She did 3 solos, one for MA Pageant, one for Instate and one for Open.

She came in 1st in her pageant solo, and 2nd in the other two which was excellent.

Last but not least was trio.

The girls did awesome and came in first place.

At the very end of the day was the announcements for MA Pageant Winner.  She won!  Winning this title qualifies her to represent MA at the National and World Open Championship competition in Notre Dame University.

Here she is as 1st.

I was so proud of her!  What a phenomenal day!

Then on top of it our team, the Suburban-ettes Twirl Team was awarded with the Major Marjorie Gilbert Team plaque as an award for dedication to twirling.  This award was created to recognize the hard work, dedication and twirling accomplishments of teams that through the years have supported twirling in both our area and at nationals.  This award particularly recognized the "Spirit of the Team" and their support and participation in the NBTA (National Baton Twirling Association) Miss Majorette of Massachusetts.  Nominations are accepted each year for this award, all teams participating in the contest each year are considered. The selection is then decided on by committee for this each year.

What a fantastic day of competition!