Coast 2 Coast Mom

Katie Couric Milk Mustache Mother's Day Ad Campaign

I’ve been working over Mother’s Day weekend with The National Milk Mustache “got milk?” Campaign to promote their milk with breakfast initiative, and the launch of the new Katie Couric Breakfast Project ad campaign. They’ve sponsored my efforts and given me an inside look at the making of the ads with Katie Couric and her daughters, and I’m excited to share with you all. :-D

Here’s a few behind-the-scenes pics from the ad campaign photo shoot of Katie with her daughters, Ellie and Carrie. I appreciate how Katie has made an effort to model healthy habits (like drinking milk) for her girls. They’re beautiful and the three of them look so cute together!

 

TA-DA! Here's the final ad:

Flu Shots at CVS MinuteClinic Locations Near You

Flu season 2012 is off to an early start across the south, and medical experts are reporting that it could be a worse year than usual for the flu. Beginning a month early is an ominous sign for what's to come and makes it more important than ever to make sure that you and your kids have proper protection against the illness.

How to prevent the flu:

1) Wash your hands frequently. It may seem obvious to wash your hands after using the restroom, and after eating, but remember to do so after being in public places, after blowing your nose or touching toys and kids' objects.

2) Cough into your bent elbow - NOT YOUR HAND. I still have to get after @c2cDad on this one. Coughing into your elbow better contains any particles from your cough, and keeps germs off of your hands where they're more easily spread.

3) Get a flu shot. The Kiddo got his flu shot at the pediatrician's office at the beginning of the school year, and we went to a local CVS MinuteClinic to get ours. You don't have to schedule an appointment, just show up during your local CVS MinuteClinic hours.

 

There was a line waiting when we arrived, and we filled out a quick computer registration survey to get in the queu, and the whole process from arrival to walking back to our car took less than 20 minutes.

Waiting to get called . . . say flu shot!

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GUM Star Wars Toothbrushes Launch in Stores

A new Star Wars toothbrush - or a lightsaber toothbrush - launching in stores now may be just what millions of parents across the country need to get their kids' oral care up to par. These cool new GUM toothbrushes come in the shape of Star Wars characters, or light-up lightsabers and could be exactly what it takes to get kids to mindfully brush their teeth twice a day.

Yesterday I attended a launch event for the new GUM Star Wars toothbrush line at Ripley's Believe It Or Not. There were several photo ops and activities for the kiddies, and we heard from pediatric dentist Dr. Ignelzi about ideal oral hygiene for kids. Most of us know all of these things already, but it's sometimes good for a refresher:

• The most important habit for kids to adopt is to get into a morning and evening routine that includes brushing their teeth.
• Brushing your teeth should take 2 whole minutes: 1 minute for the top, and 1 minute for the bottom.
• First tooth, first birthday = first dental visit! This is mostly for education and to answer any questions, but it's the first time to consult with a dentist to set the groundwork for a lifetime of good oral care.

As expected, the Kiddo tore open the sample Star Wars toothbrushes when we got home and it made me smile to see him excited to run upstairs and brush his teeth!! (He used the Captain Rex power toothbrush.)

You can find these manual, power and light-up toothbrushes at CVS, Drugstore.com, Walmart and other grocery and drugstore companies. Until March 15th, you can enter the GUM Star Wars Sweepstakes to win a trip for a family of four to the Star Wars Celebration VI in Orlando, FL on August 23-26, 2012! For details, visit the Star Wars Gum Facebook Page. 

Thanks to MomTrends for hosting the fun event!

 

 

 

 

 

Style Me, Mom's Fashion Files: I've Become a Techcessory!

This post is my entry into the fabulous Mom's Fashion File contest for an opportunity to win a personal style session during BlogHer 2011. Wish me luck! :-D

I can see it in the eyes of my long distance family and friends when we see them after long spells and know I look visibly worse for the wear. Carrying more weight than the last time they saw me? Yep. Looking a bit less stylish? Sigh. These past two years lamenting the transition from office professional to work from home mom have taken the toll on my inner soul to my outward appearance.

What hasn’t changed, though is my interest and involvement in the tech industry. Working from my home office across the country has isolated me from the fashionable friends I used to be so in tune with just a few short years ago. Unfortunately, I'm not near my trusted mom or sisters to tell me the honest truth – in the nicest possible way saying:

“Why don’t you coach our Girls on the Run Team with us?”

Highlights from Getting Gorgeous with Degree in NYC

Earlier this spring I had the opportunity to attend a fabulous Getting Gorgeous with Degree event hosted by blogging friends Vera of Lady and the Blog and Audrey of MomGenerations. Not only was it fun to catch up with so many of my NYC tri-state blogging friends, but it was a great opportunity to learn more about many of the fashion, health and beauty sponsors for the event. I would have snapped more photos if I hadn't been chatting so much!! I definitely won't think twice if I get another opp to attend a Getting Gorgeous event :-D

 

 

Here's a few of the Getting Gorgeous with Degree highlights for me:

Wear Red on Friday and Capture My Flag for Heart Health

February is all about hearts and Diet Coke is reminding women not to forget about their own. In support of the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute's effort to celebrate American Heart Month with The Heart Truth campaign, Diet Coke is helping to send an important message to women about the risks of heart disease, the leading cause of death for American women.

Diet Coke's Capture The Flag campaign places heart flags both in the real world and online. When you find one in your real life (check in using Facebook Places) or find one online on popular websites, you can trigger donations to heart health programs. You can also plant your own flag online (like I have here on this site - over to the right) and if someone clicks on it, Diet Coke will donate $.10 to this important cause. So go click on mine!

. . .and please note that this Friday, February 4th is National Wear Red Day - to show that "Heart Disease Doesn't Care What You Wear-It's the #1 Killer of Women," - so please wear red in support of combatting heart disease. 

ER visit while traveling with your kid? Been there. Done that.

With only one child so far, there's a wealth of situations that I know c2cDad and I won't ever encounter. Like Bill Cosby mentions in one of his comedy specials from the '80s, with one kid, you don't have to go through the rigmarole of discerning who it was that broke something. With one kid, you know who did it.

I was hoping we'd also avoid many of the middle of the night scares and ER trips with just one, but this holiday season proved me wrong. A trip to the ER while traveling? Check.

NYC Marathon Goes Green with the LEAF

Tomorrow is the 41st running of the New York City Marathon, and continuing the theme of a healthy and green lifestyle is a not-so-surprising sponsor of this year's event: the Nissan LEAF. The LEAF is the official pace car of the 2010 ING New York City Marathon, and for the first time, the front runners won't be breathing in a trail of car exhaust. . . because this year's car is 100% electric.

 

I unfortunately was unable to make my appointment today to get a personal overview of the Nissan LEAF at the pre-marathon health and fitness expo; however, I've been so interested in the car that I thought I'd share a few details with you:

• The LEAF has a range of 100 miles per charge based upon US EPA LA4 City cycle
• The SL model has a photovoltaic solar panel rear spoiler
• It comes with CARWINGS™ - an in-car telematics system that displays battery power, nearby charging stations, and allows for remote connection to the LEAF

You can have a chance to check out the car as it makes its way through a multi-venue tour and receive some free merchandise courtesy of the ING NYC Marathon partners, and even enter to win a sweepstakes for a chance to win a new LEAF! For each day's location, follow @NissanLEAF on Twitter.

Passing Along Info from Eggland's Best

In the midst of all of the news about eggs tainted with salmonella, I'm thinking that it was pretty well-timed that I had the opportunity to meet with one BlogHer sponsor in particular: Eggland's Best. Their presence there was priceless in hindsight, considering 1) the news that has broken since then, and 2) that they just had the opportunity to strike up relationships with the 2,400 bloggers attending the conference, to communicate with about how their eggs are safe to consume and unaffected by the salmonella outbreak.

Lucky us we just so happen to purchase Eggland's Best brand, or pick them up from our local Abma's Farm market - and a container of Eggbeaters too of course. ;-) I was happy to see the Eggland's Best booth and even won a carton of eggs for playing their jackpot game on the BlogHer expo floor. (Doesn't it just tickle your toes when you win something that you already like and use?)

This week EB sent me an email comforting me in understanding that Eggland's Best eggs are not included in the massive nationwide egg recall. As I know some of you are prone to worrying like me, I thought I'd share with you a bit of what they emailed me and point you to the FDA's Newsroom to learn more about the egg recall, and to the EB site to learn a bit more about Eggland's Best eggs.

Cooking and Baking with Stonyfield Yogurt

Last week I had the pleasure of attending a cooking demonstration at the De Gustibus Cooking School at Macy's Herald Square with green nutritionist Kate Geagan, MD. I learned some of the healthy benefits of substituting organic yogurt or Greek yogurt for other ingredients like sour cream, mayonnaise or oil in recipes. I got to watch Kate cook up some delicious Tangerine-Maple Yogurt glazed chicken and tasted her roasted red pepper cold soup, salmon spread, blueberry muffin, and my favorite, pot de creme - all "healthified." with Stonyfield yogurt. Check out part of her cooking demonstration in the video below and definitely try the Pot de Crème recipe found on the Stonyfield site.
 

Lastly, I appreciated learning more about Stonyfield Organics, as my other interaction with the brand has been with Yo Baby Yogurt and the movie Food Inc. One of the most fascinating things that I took away from the event was less so about the yogurt and more about their organic farming practices and the creation of The Greener Cow Project. By simply changing the diet of the cows, which includes alfalfa, flax and grasses, they've been able to increase the milk's omega-3 content and decrease saturated fats organically. This diet has a side benefit as well, reducing cows' burbs, which as hilarious as that may seem, the burbs contain methane, and in great enough quantities are harmful to the Earth's atmosphere as the emissions are a contributor to greenhouse gases. You'll have to read it to believe it...