My Thoughts, Ideas, and Ramblings » ramblings

Apolo Ohno, Me, and a $25 Subway Giveaway!

Lisa — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 15:57:02 +0000

My Thoughts, Ideas, and Ramblings - A day in the life of a busy mom . . .

I just realized that I never posted about this! I got to meet Apolo Ohno! I also got to ask him a few questions too. I asked on Twitter and Facebook what people wanted to know, so here are his thoughts, ideas, and ramblings (and some of mine).

First, yes, he is just as cute in person as he is on TV. He is one of the most real and one of the nicest celebrities I have met.

Food
Apolo’s favorite Subway sandwich (for those of you who don’t know, he is a celebrity spokesperson for them) is Honey Nut Bread with Double turkey, chedder cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, pepper, spinach, oil, and vinegar. He also is trying to get Subway to add some gluten free menu items. His favorite splurge item is ethnic foods.

Life Lessons
He believes in balance — everything has to be in balance.

His one piece of advice: There are many life lessons to be learned through sports.

In 1998 he didn’t make the US team. However, that gave him the drive he has today. Everything happens for a reason. We don’t control if we win or lose, but it is how you handle that.

Running/Athletes/Sports
His favorite running weather? Crazy weather! He likes to run when it is crazy hot or crazy cold.

His opinion on why athletes seem to do so well on DWTS (Dancing With The Stars)? Athletes are very use to being coached. They are use to schedules and training. Hollywood celebrities — not as much.

He runs 40 miles a week.

His nutrition changes depending on what sport he is doing. While training for the marathon (he just ran in Chicago’s), he gets to eat more carbohydrates. When skating, he has no to low carbohydrates. His normal weight is 160 lbs. However, his race weight is 141-142 lbs.

He only started training for marathon running in June. His goal time is 1 hr 45 minutes for the half marathon.

In speedskating, his longest race is only 2.5 minutes. So yes, marathon running is completely different. His training had to be customized to him. His trainer had to retrain him. He had to learn that “it’s okay that people pass you”.

What surprised me the most is how Apolo told us how sports saved his life. As a child, he did swimming, basketball, football, and boxing. In 1992, he saw speedskating in the Olympics. He tried it and thought it was fun, and he happened to be really good at it. At 14, he was recruited for a program. At that point in his life, he said he was a “bad” kid. He hung out with bad kids and did bad things. (And if you don’t believe people can change, I hope his story changes his tune). Now, this program he got in, they had made a special exemption to let him in. His dad dropped him off at the airport. Instead of getting on the plane, he called one of his friends and lived on his friends’ couches for around 2 weeks. The program then called his dad and were like “where is he?” Needless to say, his dad tracked him down and was not a happy camper. He then drove him to airport again, walked him to the gate, walked him to his seat, and flew with him. He made it to the program that truly saved him. He said it wasn’t easy. However, speedskating completely turned his life around. At 14 years old, he was #1 in US. 15 years later (at the 2010 Olympics), 70%-80% of the judges were people he has skated against over the years. (Now, how weird would that be?)

I had such a great conversation with him, so I have teamed with Subway to give one of my lucky readers a $25 Subway gift card. Here’s what you need to do:

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Oak Lawn Deals: The Ultimate Site for Local Deals and Bargains in Oak Lawn

Lisa — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 05:39:15 +0000

My Thoughts, Ideas, and Ramblings - A day in the life of a busy mom . . .

My Thoughts, Ideas, and Ramblings is happy to announce that they will be launching two new deal websites called Oak Lawn Deals and Lisa’s Mom Deals. One of the main objectives is to feature and showcase great local businesses and services in Oak Lawn. Through this exciting new community-based site, users will have the opportunity to discover new services and products at several local businesses or score a deal at one of their favorite retailers. Since I realize that all of my readers are not local, that is why I also created the national deals site (Lisa’s Mom Deals).

To sign up now to get the first deal when it goes out, simply enter your email address here (and nationally, here). Whether you are looking to save money or want to check out a product or service at a local businesses in Oak Lawn, Oak Lawn Deals is the perfect community-based deal site for you!

July 4th Events in Oak Lawn, Illinois (mythoughtsideasandramblings.com)

Affiliate Summit West Silver Pass Giveaway!

Lisa — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 21:52:17 +0000

My Thoughts, Ideas, and Ramblings - A day in the life of a busy mom . . .

This contest is over. The winner is Content Pig!

Now, as many of you know, I was lucky enough to get picked as an Izea Insider. One of my perks is that I have access to passes to conferences. One conference that is coming up is the Affiliate Summit. It takes place in Las Vegas from January 11 – January 13th, 2009. I can’t go. We will be celebrating Madison’s 5th birthday, and I kind of need to be here for that. However, I want to pass this on to one of my lucky readers, because you are all so great!

This is one of the top conference to go to. The Affiliate Summit West Silver Pass gives you admission to the Affiliate Meet Market, Exhibit Hall, and the Affiliate Summit Social Network. The normal cost of the Silver Pass is $349 when ordered online or $449 when you get there. But yours will be free!

Here’s what you need to do:

Each one of these things will give you one entry:

1. Leave a comment on this post. I want to know why you want this awesome pass!
2. Twitter about this contest. Please leave me your username so I can verify.
3. Stumble this post. If you don’t know what Stumble Upon is, please read Lori’s post at Blogging Cents. She explains it extremely well.
4. Add this post to other social media sites like Digg, Kirtsy, Blogging Zoom, Reddit, Propeller, Etc.

For 5 additional entries,

1. Blog about this on your blog. Please give me the URL, so I can verify.
2. Add this to any forums you belong too. Please give me the URL, so I can verify.
3. Subscribe to this blog using either my email or RSS feed
4. Add my badge to your sidebar:

For 1o (yes, 10! additional entries):

Join my Spark E Facebook page! Just leave me a link here to your profile on Facebook, so I can verify.

This contest will end December 19 at 8:00 pm CST. Good luck, and if you want a few more chances to win, check out these fellow Izea Insiders for their contests too:

Julies Journal

Oh, Hey

Steven Sanders dot com

Beautiful British Columbia

Sony Mommy Blogger Event

Lisa — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 16:50:13 +0000

My Thoughts, Ideas, and Ramblings - A day in the life of a busy mom . . .

I am so bad. I have been so busy since I got back, I am finally now writing about this awesome event. I was contacted about this the day before my birthday (I know, what a great birthday present!!!). Sony wanted to talk to 15 mommy bloggers and give us some cameras (I didn’t know this last part till the day before I left for the trip!). All expenses paid trip, how could I say no?

I flew out on April 16th to San Diego. They got me an a flight through Midway (which I seriously needed since Midway is only 15 minutes away and Ohare is about an hour). Sitting in the airport always sucks, but I made due. My plane flight there sucked. A little girl screamed the whole way. This is why I don’t fly with my kids. I am terrified that is going to be me. The mom was by herself, and she walked up and down the aisle for the four and half hour flight. I felt so bad for her.

We then got to San Diego and I had a limo driver waiting for me. He had my name on a sign. It was super cool. I know I’ll never see that again. He took me to the La Valencia Hotel in La Jolla (it was about a half hour drive). The hotel was awesome (I’ll be writing about it on my travel blog, so I won’t go into too many details here). Sony had boxes set up in our room (to use to Fed Ex our cameras back). They also had left us headphones for our kids, a rose, and two chocolate candy bars. They obviously know the way to a woman’s heart. We were on our own for Wednesday night (though we did have a $50 certificate to use at the restaurant). I met up with Deanna and Anne Marie , and we went to dinner. I had filet mignon. It was super yummy. It was one of those steaks that you didn’t even have to chew it — it just melted in your mouth.

The next day we had to be at breakfast at 9:00. We had a buffet breakfast (which was awesome). This is the view we had from the room we were in. Beautiful, isn’t it? We spent the first two hours after that introducing ourselves. We then had lunch out in the beautiful sunshine. We were only out there for about an hour eating some of the best food ever and I got sunburned!!! Here’s a list of all the awesome ladies who were there (if you have more blogs that I haven’t listed, let me know and I’ll get them added):

Ciaran from MommiesWithStyle.com, Celebrity-Babies.com, CarandCaboodle.com
Jenny from Momminitup.com
Stacy from MomCentral.com, MomCentralConsulting.com and Mother-Talk.com
Deanna from DomesticChicky.com, Apronista.com and HappyHousewivesClub.com/hotmama.html
Kim from InAShoe.com
Tracey from Sweetney.com, MamaPop.com and RocknRompBaltimore.com
Erika from PlainJaneMom.com and emomsathome.com
Heather from TheDomesticDiva.org and idivalicious.com
Anne-Marie from AMamasRant.com, MyReadableFeast.com, ThisMamacooks.com, The-Write-Spot.com
Christina from GeekGirlfriends.com and Tynanwood.com
Amy from Amalah.com, MamaPop.com and Advice Smackdown on AlphaMom.com
Laura from PaulnLaura.com
Janice from 5minutesformom.com

After lunch, we got to learn about Sony and the impact of women on their business (Let me tell you, we have a huge impact!!!). We then got to start playing with the cameras we got. Oh wait, I didn’t show you the cameras yet —-

Camera #1: Sony Cybershot

Camera #2: Sony DSLR-A300K

Camera #3 – Handycam HDR-SR10

Yes, Sony gave us all three cameras! They also set aside time for us to work with their trainers so we could learn how to use them!

We then got instruction from photography expert Me Ra Koh. She gave us shooting instruction and tips of how to get specific results. She was really nice and she’s a blogger too!

We then got to go out to the beach and play with the cameras!

We then got a little bit of time to run up to our room and get ready for dinner. I took these pictures from my room!

We then met up with Sony and went to dinner at the Azul Restaurant. I got back to the hotel between 10 – 11 and went to bed.

On Friday, (April 18th), we met again for breakfast. Me Ra took some of our photos and critiqued them for us. She told us how to make our photos better. We then had a presentation from Rocket XL (the advertising agency who helped pull this all together). Us mommy bloggers ended up taking over that session with our opinions and thoughts.

After this session, we were able to do whatever we wanted till we caught our plane. Sony also gave us certificates for the spa, so I went and had a deep tissue massage. I then ate lunch and then had to get on my plane.

And that was my trip to San Diego!

Postie Carnival

Lisa — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 13:08:53 +0000

My Thoughts, Ideas, and Ramblings - A day in the life of a busy mom . . .

I apologize that I haven’t had a chance to read the submissions yet. I am in Miami working, and I don’t have the free time I thought I would. Plus, the wifi isn’t working. That being said, here you go: The best posts of the last year –

Skeet presents Secret cove posted at skeet’s stuff.

Lori presents Blogging Tools that Build a Better Blog posted at Blogging with Cents.

Lori presents Get Paid to Blog List posted at Blogging with Cents.

Lori presents How to Raise a Reader posted at A Cowboy’s Wife.

Lori presents GOT BALLS? posted at A Cowboy’s Wife.

Lori presents Cooking Tips Passed Down posted at My Wooden Spoon.

Holly presents Give the gift of a home this holiday posted at Everything and Anything.

Holly presents ABC’s of Fine Design » Blog Archive » Furniture Friday: Resolute Desk posted at ABC’s of Fine Design.

Tina Kubala presents Bathroom Habit posted at The Creative Nerd.

Corrin presents Its a nice day for a white wedding posted at Oh, hey.

Laura presents Laura’s Couponing and Refunding Hints posted at Laura Williams Musings.

Mrs. Mecomber presents Trenton Falls Barnevewld NY posted at New York Traveler.