April 29, 2010

Time Out For A Little Body Art

Today is the very last “Time Out For Theta Mom Thursday” that I will be linking up for…because this is the last time that Heather over at Theta Mom is featuring it as a monthly meme.  She has decided that it has run its course and that it’s time for her blog to grow in another new and exciting direction, so Theta Mom Thursday is officially retiring.  I am a firm believer that the only way to grow is through change, and I cannot wait to see what great things she has in store for us next!

Last weekend, I attended my very first Henna party.  I think I’ve been to every other kind of home party on the planet at one time or another, and I actually even hosted my own spa parties for a while, but a Henna party was something I had never heard of!  The concept behind the whole thing is pretty cool.  Basically, you just get a group of friends together and have lots of yummy wine and snacks, and a Henna artist comes for an hour and a half and paints tattoos on everyone.

I am what most consider a pretty traditional girl in the sense that I don’t have any real tattoos, and my ears have only been pierced once and I actually rarely even wear earrings anymore so the holes are probably pretty close to closing up anyway.  I also do not own a belt and probably never will.  But belts seem to be the “in” thing these days for whatever reason.  Anyway, you catch my drift.  I guess I’m just not exactly what people would consider to be “hip”, (though I do think that I’m Mom Sexy as hell.  Because you don’t have to be super-trendy to be considered a MILF).

I have to admit that I’ve always wondered what it would be like to sport a little bit of ink somewhere on my body…so a Henna tattoo was the perfect solution!  It only lasts about 2-3 weeks, so I get the effect without it being permanent.  I remember being THIS CLOSE to getting my sorority letters tattooed on my ankle when I first pledged KKG.  For the record, I’m glad that I didn’t go through with it.  I don’t need a permanent reminder that I used to be able to funnel a beer without anyone holding the funnel for me. Just thinking about it from time to time is a good enough mental picture. (Oh c’mon…you were proud of your beer guzzling skills back in the day too).

For the Henna,  I chose a very simple design, the Zodiac sign for Leo, and had the artist draw it on my foot.

I think that it really suits me, and I have to admit that when I walked into my very first Hot Yoga class this past Monday night with a little ink on my foot, I felt totally zen (or something to that effect). And at least it gave me something to focus on when I was sticking my leg way in the air above my head and trying not to pay attention to the fact that my ankles were sweating.

The whole Henna experience was tons of fun, but the best part of the night had to be hanging out with my high school girlfriends. I think that remaining close friends with people from high school is pretty rare these days.  And by “close friends”, I mean that the friendship that I have with these women has grown and evolved over time.  Even though we were only teenagers when we first met, we know each other as the adults that we’ve grown into, and we love and appreciate each other for who we are NOW. Because even though it is fun to get together and reminisce about the horrid sequin dresses that we wore to our senior prom and the time that we stole a wooden statue of Petunia Pig out of someone’s yard, you simply can’t sustain a true friendship on memories alone.

The above shot is of me and my BFF from my high school years.  And you know what?  She is STILL my BFF.  She STILL makes me laugh so hard sometimes that I actually start to pee in my pants a little bit.  She STILL supports me in every single venture that I take on in my life just as she always has.  And I can STILL tell her things that I’ve never told anyone else on the face of the earth because I know that she will NEVER judge me.

And someday, she and I are going to be the sexiest bitches who ever checked into a Nursing Home.  We’ve had the whole thing planned for years.  Because when we finally get there, we’re gonna bring back Old Lady Sexy.

28 Comments
Posted Under: Time Out For Theta Mom Thursday
April 26, 2010

Mom Sexy Is Not A Number

Happy last Monday of the month of April everyone! I am beyond excited this morning to be rolling out my first official Mom Sexy post for my new monthly meme. I have been totally overwhelmed by how well my whole revolution to bring Mom Sexy back has been received so far, and I just can’t wait to hear more empowering stories of moms making a comeback in the sexy department each and every month!

I’ve said before that Mom Sexy is not about how you look. Mom Sexy is an ATTITUDE. It’s about how you feel in your own skin, and that means being confident and loving and accepting yourself for WHO YOU ARE at this point in your life. Because as mothers, we don’t have to look like cover girls in order to get our hot vibe goin’ on. And that’s one of the things that’s so great about Mom Sexy. There are NO HEIGHT AND WEIGHT REQUIREMENTS and NO SAMPLE SIZES TO FIT INTO in order to be considered a role model for other women.

Because Mom Sexy is NOT A NUMBER.

For as long as I can remember, I have been a complete and total slave to my scale.  Each and every morning as soon as I get out of bed, I take off every last stitch of clothing and head into the bathroom to see what magic number is going to show up on that stupid appliance.  To be quite honest, I’ve been borderline OBSESSED with checking that number every single day.  And if those digits happen to rise above a certain cut-off point that I’ve deemed “acceptable” for myself, then I pretty much feel like complete and total shit for the rest of the day.  And that definitely doesn’t make me feel sexy.

I cannot tell you how many times I’ve refused a piece of birthday cake at a party because I’m afraid that the scale won’t let me live it down the next morning.  I can’t even begin to count the number of instances where I’ve ordered a grilled chicken salad for dinner instead of the penne pasta because I know that the salad is much more likely to generate a positive response from the dreaded scale.  And I’ve even gone so far as to give up booze for a week or two just to watch the number go down a couple of pounds.  But Mama just doesn’t function all that well without her night cap.

I have been on my Zumba kick for a little over a month now, and this is the absolute best that I’ve felt in a long time.  I feel healthy.  I feel invigorated. And of course it’s pretty obvious that I feel sexy as hell.  And you know what?  That scale hasn’t budged since I started shaking my ass.  I’m stuck at the same weight that I was at before I started my classes…but my jeans suddenly fit better. And my muffin top is disappearing. And my tush is finally at the same latitude as my hips instead of being closer to my knees. And I’m starting to realize that in order to completely embrace my inner Mom Sexy, I need to let go of my dependence on that damn scale.  So that is exactly what I’m going to do.  Because I am NOT going to allow myself to be defined by a number.

I’ve prepared a little treat for all of my awesome Mom Sexy peeps out there.  That’s right ladies…I finally vlogged.  So here is my debut.

There you have it chicas!!  I’ve officially broken up with my abusive boyfriend, the scale.  And I don’t miss that bastard one bit.

With that being said, my question to you this month is:

What in your life is holding you back from feeling Mom Sexy?  What is that one thing that you need to let go of in order to let your inner sexy emerge?

If you would like the chance to be my Mom Sexy Blogger of the Month for May, then all you need to do is to either leave a comment and answer the question above, or if you are really feelin’ the sexy vibe, you can grab my Mom Sexy button, and write your own post and answer the question there! The McLinky below will be up until this Friday…and I absolutely cannot wait to read your posts!

The new Mom Sexy lady for May will be announced sometime on Saturday, May 1st…so make sure to check back so you can congratulate her!!

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Click here to enter your link and view the entire list of entered links…

62 Comments
Posted Under: Mom Sexy
April 23, 2010

Six Months of Blog Wisdom

Today, is Friday, April 23rd, which is the last day of Spring Break, which is a complete and total relief to me because my Zumba classes can resume as usual tomorrow morning and I can finally get the ass-shakin’ fix that I’ve been missing all week.  And not only is today the last day of the out-of-my-control Zumba hiatus, but coincidentally it is also The Mommyologist’s six month anniversary!

I started this blog on October 23rd, 2009, and here I sit exactly six months later typing my 103rd post.  And I can’t even believe where this journey has taken me in that short duration.  I am not sure what exactly I expected to happen after I hit that publish button for the very first time, but I can guarantee that I never anticipated becoming this addicted to the wonderful world of the blogosphere.  And now that it’s got a hold of me, I know that it will never loosen its grip.  And even if it tries to kick me to the curb someday, it better know that this ass-shakin’ diva will hold on for dear life and absolutely refuse to let go.

I thought that a great way to celebrate my half-year anniversary would be to share a few things that I’ve learned along the way that I never could’ve known about blogging when I wrote my very first post.  And I’m not talking about the technical stuff here. I’m talking about the more personal aspects of putting your heart and soul into your little corner of cyberspace. Because PERSONAL is exactly what a blog IS.  It is YOUR BABY, and it is YOUR JOB to protect and love that child and watch it grow up.

THERE WILL BE PEOPLE IN YOUR LIFE WHO JUST DON’T “GET” THE WHOLE BLOGGING THING

I don’t know about you, but when I started my blog, I couldn’t wait to run and tell all of my family and friends about it.  I emailed the link to everyone on my contact list and posted it to my Facebook page at least a half a dozen times.  And for some reason it shocked the hell out of me when every single person in my life didn’t jump for joy and shout from the rooftops that I had somehow stumbled upon greatness and now deserved the title of, well…you know…the “most awesome writer EVER.”  (Not that I really thought that then or think that about myself now, but it’s still nice to hear even if it isn’t 100% true).

And it wasn’t that I got any initial criticism from family and friends, it’s just that some of them really just didn’t acknowledge my new “baby” in the slightest.  It took me a couple of months to realize that there are definitely people out there who just really don’t understand the whole blog thing. And that doesn’t mean that they don’t care about you or what you are doing, it’s just that since they don’t have a blog, they don’t understand the appeal of it.  And that is OK.  Because for each person who doesn’t “get it” there is someone in your life who truly DOES “get it”, and those are the people who you need to surround yourself with and turn to for positive influence.

I have a few people in my life (you know who you are) who absolutely 100% support me and take an interest in my pursuits no matter WHAT I am doing.  And I’d like to take a minute to thank those awesome people for realizing just how important The Mommyologist is to me and for making an effort to embrace my little venture wholeheartedly.  Because whenever I have one of those “not-so-sure-about-things” kind of days (we all have them), these incredible people are the ones who make me feel like a superstar.  And I love each and every one of them for it.

My advice to my readers is not to get upset about the “non-getters” in your life, because they still care about you and love you.  It’s just that they don’t comprehend the allure of writing a blog.  And if they ever do break down and get a blog, support them for sure. Because then they’ll totally understand and they’ll need that camaraderie from someone “in the know.”

SOMETIMES PEOPLE JUST AREN’T GOING TO AGREE WITH YOU

This was a tough one for me, ladies and gentlemen!  I don’t know why it never dawned on me at first that by putting myself out there and expressing my opinions on motherhood and life in general, I was pretty much setting myself up for the naysayers to try and knock me down off my high-horse.  The first time that I received criticism about The Mommyologist, I went into full on defense mode.  And that’s the NICE way of saying exactly how I behaved.

As hard as it is to digest, when you are putting your thoughts and feelings out there for the world to see, there are just bound to be some people who don’t like what you have to say.  And if you completely obsess over their negativity (like I did at first), it can put you in a really bad place. I know that when it first happened to me, I doubted myself.  I questioned the decision to write this blog. And at times I even pondered the quality of my character a little.  But then I remember why I started The Mommyologist, and I remembered that my goal of making people laugh and eliminating feelings of isolation among mothers was just way too important to let my vision fall to the wayside because of one snarky comment. And I realized that as a writer, I am just bound to encounter some criticism along the way.

Negative feedback and comments can be so hard to take sometimes, but the best thing that you can do for yourself is to see those remarks as a POSITIVE thing, because it means that what you said actually evoked emotion in people, even if that emotion wasn’t necessarily good.  It made them THINK.  It made them REACT.  And that means that your voice was HEARD.  Use those dissenting opinions to your advantage and let them give you a CONFIDENCE BOOST.

That is exactly what I do every time that someone leaves a negative comment on my posts.  And I usually email them to thank them for boosting my ego and reminding me what an awesome writer I am.  And I always feel empowered after I do that.  Because I took their negative energy and threw positive right back at them. And positive always triumphs over negative.  Try it, it WORKS!

BLOGGING IS MY JOB…EVEN IF I DON’T GET PAID FOR IT.  AND YES, FINDING A BALANCE CAN BE TOUGH!

About a week or so ago, I was pumping gas at the station at the bottom of our hill, and I noticed a chalkboard on the outside of the building with the words, “Powerball Jackpot 240 million” (or some other insanely large number) written on it.  As I waited for my tank to fill up, I thought about what it would be like to win all that money and not have to worry about anything anymore.  My lottery day dreams typically start the same way, and that is with me buying some ginormous house on the coast somewhere, but my second thought in this particular dream surprised me a little.  I thought to myself, “We could pick up and move to the coast and then I’d have all the money in the world and could work on my blog all day long!”

They say that if you are doing something you love, you will never work a day in your life again.  And that is how I feel about this blog.  Even if I won hundreds of millions of dollars, I’d still want to log onto my computer and write every single day.  And I’d still continue to grow and develop The Mommyologist into something bigger…even though I’m not exactly sure what “bigger” means at this point.

I guess that blogging and being a mom pretty much go hand in hand, because both of these things are my full-time jobs that I don’t get paid for. Well, at least I don’t get paid in CASH.  My son pays me everyday in cuddles and kisses, and unconditional love, and you really just can’t put a price on that.  And this blog?  It pays me in ways that I never could have imagined, with the connections I’ve made with other bloggers being the highest reward, along with the satisfaction of knowing that I’ve made people laugh or feel better about themselves.  Once again, totally priceless.

With all that being said, having these two jobs makes it pretty difficult to find a balance sometimes because I don’t want to neglect either of them. My son is my absolute highest priority in my life, and sometimes that means that building Lego “space vehicles” just has to take precedent over blog hopping and tweeting.  And I know that I haven’t been as good about reading other blogs and returning comments these days, but as my blog has grown, so has my workload, and sometimes I just find it impossible to write good content, answer emails, keep up with tweets, and still give my son all of the attention that he so rightly deserves all at the same time.

I love my readers.  I love my bloggy friends.  And I hope you all know just how much I appreciate you taking a few minutes out of your day to check in and see what The Mommyologist has to say.  This blog would be nothing without you.

And I really can’t wait to see what the next six months bring!

ps – Don’t forget that this coming Monday, April 26th is Mom Sexy day!!  I can’t wait to tell all of you about my latest efforts to bring Mom Sexy back!

38 Comments
Posted Under: Blog tips
April 21, 2010

Ultima Replenisher Review and Giveaway

Ok everyone, so I’ve been on a pretty good exercise kick for a little over a month now, and I’ve gotta tell ya, I’m feelin’ GOOD. I am doing Zumba on a consistent three day per week basis, and I haven’t been shy about letting everyone know how it’s bringing out my inner Mom Sexy!  And not only do I feel much sexier these days, but I also feel stronger, healthier, and more confident.

Zumba is not only tons of fun, but it is also an incredible workout.  I leave each session drenched in sweat and ready for a huge glass of water to quench my thirst.  The only problem with guzzling all that water down is that it is pretty boring, and it isn’t always super-satisfying.  Lately I find myself craving a beverage that will not only satisfy my thirst, but will also replenish my energy.

A couple of weeks ago, I was contacted to do a review and giveaway for Ultima Replenisher, which is an all natural balanced electrolyte drink.  It is basically the natural alternative to Gatorade.  And when I say that Ultima Replenisher is all natural, I MEAN IT.  It is naturally sweet with no sugar and no artificial ingredients.  It is completely vegan, and is also gluten-free and is even safe for pregnant women!  It is full of electrolytes and contains vitamins and antioxidants to replenish and protect your body from free radicals.

I jumped at the chance to review the Ultima Replenisher product and thought it would be the perfect compliment to my Zumba workouts!  I was sent a box of sample packets to try in various flavors including grape, wild raspberry, orange, and lemonade. I tried the lemonade version first and absolutely loved it.  It was refreshing and tasty, without being too sweet. Within the course of a week or so, I sampled all of the other flavors in the box and found each one to be just as good as the last!

It is so nice to know that I am doing something healthy for my body by enjoying a nice cold glass of Ultima Replenisher after my workouts.  It has actually gotten to the point where I can’t wait to walk through the door of my house after an energetic Zumba session and grab one of the packets to mix up a tasty post-workout treat!  It is just so much more satisfying than water, and I feel rejuvenated after drinking it.  And the fact that it only has 10 calories per serving doesn’t hurt either!

Ultima Replenisher is the perfect all natural sports drink to compliment any workout, and it is even recommended by doctors. In fact, they recently teamed up with the Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston and the doctors there recommend the product to their patients to keep them hydrated during treatment.

Ultima Replenisher is available in boxes of packets, just like I received, and it is also available for purchase in 30 serving and 90 serving canisters.  They even make a product designed specifically for children, which acts as a wonderful alternative to Pedialyte and other sports drinks.


In addition to the packets I tried, they also sent me a sample canister of the raspberry flavored Kids Replenisher and my son just loves it!  I plan on using it a lot this summer on hot days to keep him hydrated while we are playing outside in the sun.

Ultima Replenisher products can be purchased from their website, and from other fine retailers such as Whole Foods and Wild Oats Market.  I know that I will be heading over to Whole Foods this week to pick up some more since my supply is almost out!  I really just can’t get enough of this stuff.

You can run out and buy it for yourself right now, or you can enter my giveaway to win a box of sample packets just like I received! And I’m not giving away just one box…I’m giving away FIVE! That’s right…FIVE of my lucky readers will get to try all of the yummy flavors that Ultima Replenisher offers for FREE!


HOW TO ENTER:

Required Entry:  Visit the Ultima Replenisher website and tell me which flavor you would most like to try and how it would compliment your busy lifestyle.

Follow my blog publicly and tell me that you are.

Additional Entries:  (You must complete the required entry in order for any additional entries to count.  Please leave a separate comment for each entry).

Follow my 2nd blog, The Spy Mom, publicly – 1 entry

Subscribe to my RSS feed – 1 entry

Follow me on Twitter and leave me your Twitter name – 1 entry

Tweet this giveaway by copying and pasting the following – Win a box of Ultima Replenisher all-natural electrolyte drink packets from @themommyologist http://bit.ly/cMLefF- 2 entries

Grab one of my buttons and add it to your site – 2 entries

Add The Mommyologist to your blogroll – 2 entries

GIVEAWAY RULES: This giveaway is open to U.S. Residents over the age of 18 only.  This giveaway will commence on Wednesday, April 21st and will end on Thursday, May 6th at 12pm, EDT.  Each of the five winners will be chosen using random.org, and will be notified via email of their win.  Each winner will have 48 hours to claim their prize, and if they do not respond to my email within 48 hours, then a new winner(s) will be chosen.  I will report the winners to the company, and the boxes of Ultima Replenisher samples will be mailed directly from them.

Disclosure:  I was not compensated by Ultima Replenisher for conducting this review of their products.  I was provided with samples for my own personal use.  All of the opinions expressed in this post are purely my own and were not influenced in any way by Ultima Replenisher.  If you have any questions about their products, please contact them directly.  If you have any questions about this review, please contact me via email at themommyologist(at)gmail(dot)com.

All images in this post were found on www.ultimareplenisher.com.

21 Comments
Posted Under: reviews & giveaways
April 21, 2010

Poop: A Fine Dinner Party Topic

“Oh yeah, the mustard seed looking poops are just way less gross than those black ones that come out for the first few days after bringing the baby home.”

Those exact words (roughly) came out of my mouth the other night at a dinner party hosted by my husband’s boss and his wife just as I was about to sink my teeth into a nice fat juicy piece of pesto shrimp.  And I bit down on that jumbo shrimp like it was my job and it was absolutely delicious and I didn’t even flinch at the fact that I was chomping down on that shrimp while enjoying a delightful conversation about baby poop.  And I didn’t even consider once that the pesto on the shrimp sorta resembled mustard seeds.  Because once you have a baby, your whole world completely revolves around poop and it is just totally irresistible to talk about the poop with other parents at every chance you get because you know that other parents are the only people who you CAN talk about the poop with and not run the risk of someone losing their lunch.  Or in this case, their shrimp.

You see, the couple hosting the party just had a baby like three weeks ago.  And I love how they just went ahead and jumped feet first into the whole poop euphoria thing without a second thought.  Because the first step to accepting the fact that your world is now being completely controlled by a pint-sized poop machine is being able to talk about it without any reservations.

And of course, me being The Mommyologist sort of has me under the delusion that I am some sort of baby poop expert even though I know better than to think that I’m really that knowledgeable just because I’ve outfitted myself with a fancy title. And of course, our little discussion opened the floor for me to throw in one of my favorite poop stories from our son’s infant days.  There’s nothing like regaling a tale of your son shitting himself while sitting on an airplane and waiting a good 30 minutes to take off to make you feel just a tad bit nostalgic for your diaper changing days.

And yes, I’m totally kidding.  But now I’m kind of panicking a bit because as I typed out that last sentence, the thought went through my mind that my son is OUT of diapers now, but when he has to shit, he HAS TO SHIT, and if we are ever stuck on an airplane runway again and aren’t allowed to get up and use the lavatory, then we’re probably going to have a SERIOUS “Code Brown” going on in our row.  Good grief…I need a vodka just thinking about that scenario.

Ok, back to the dinner party and back to the baby poop…not that we were ever really OFF the poop topic.  Once you become a parent, it’s almost like you’ve entered some kind of secret club or fraternity or something like that.  And the initiation into that elite club?  Oh yeah…you guessed it!  BEING POOPED ON.  Or AT.  Or in the GENERAL VICINITY OF. Whatever. You catch my drift.

I thought that a nice way to welcome these two new parents into the club would be to open the forum and let my readers tell me their favorite poop story.  Because you all know you have one.

C’mon…you KNOW you are just DYING to leave a comment detailing your story.  We’re all in this together folks!

This is your chance to shine.  Make it count.

30 Comments
Posted Under: life after kids, poop
April 20, 2010

Celia’s Puppies Book Review

Ever since I was a child, I have loved curling up and getting lost with a good book.  There is something about sitting in a quiet place and delving into the lives of imaginary characters that lets me enjoy some much needed “me” time and also exercises my imagination a bit.

A couple of months ago, I responded to a Business 2 Blogger opportunity to do a book review for the second book in a series of fiction, Celia’s Puppies, by Claudia Hall Christian.  I was particularly interested in this opportunity because all of her stories take place in Denver, where I lived and worked for about three years after I married my husband.  To me, it makes a book seem much more believeable and the characters seem much more real when the location where the story takes place is authentic.  And it’s even better if you’ve been to some of the places that are mentioned, because it allows you to picture the characters visiting those special spots as if you were right there with them.

Claudia Hall Christian’s first book in the series is called The Denver Cereal. What makes The Denver Cereal unique from other books out there, is that it is also available online as serial fiction.  Readers can log onto the Denver Cereal website each week to indulge in watching a new chapter of the story unfold.  I had actually never heard of serial fiction before being contacted by this author, but I think it is a great concept that is sure to become a hot trend in this age of technology we live in.  I know that as a mother, I lead an incredibly busy life, and I don’t always have time to read a book from cover to cover.  It is just so much easier to check in with a website once a week to get a little excerpt without it taking up too much of my day!

Celia’s Puppies is the second installment in the Denver Cereal Series.  It is a wonderful and light read, and even though I had not read The Denver Cereal, I was able to follow the storyline fairly easily and was quickly hooked into the world of these intriguing people set in Uptown Denver.

Without giving away the storyline, I found Celia’s Puppies to be a wonderful mix of romance and mystery all wrapped up in one nice little package.  I got hooked on the characters and what was going on in their lives first, and then a few chapters into the book the mystery and suspense kicked in and that is when I found myself unable to put it down!  I love it when a book grabs a hold of my interest and won’t let me go, and Celia’s Puppies definitely rose to the occasion.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a compelling storyline accompanied with interesting characters who make you root for them throughout the entire book.  It is the perfect escape for busy moms like me to enjoy while sipping a cup of coffee and having a little alone time!

In lieu of doing a giveaway of Celia’s Puppies with this review, I chose to donate my giveaway copy to Operation Shoebox in an effort to giveback to our troops in a small way to express my respect and appreciation for all they do to keep us safe in this country.

If you would like to purchase a copy, you can do so on the Denver Cereal website, and Claudia Hall Christian has offered a 20% discount on all of her books to my readers.  All you have to do is use the coupon code “BLOGTOUR” when you check out.

I know that you will enjoy this gem of a book as much as I did!

Disclosure:  I was not compensated in any way for this review.  I was provided with a copy of the book so that I could accurately write this post. All of the opinions expressed in this review are my own and were not influenced by the author in any way.  If you have any questions about this review, please contact me via email at themommyologist(at)gmail(dot)com.

10 Comments
Posted Under: Book Reviews, reviews & giveaways
April 19, 2010

It’s True, I Have Another Blog!

Ok everyone, please bear with me this morning because I am more than a little bit nervous about putting this little rumor to rest.  I tried to keep it quiet for as long as I could, but we all know that I’m not very good at shutting my trap, so I’ve decided to go ahead and officially out myself.  One awesome lady already figured me out, and up until yesterday she was the only person who knew about my alter ego besides my husband, parents, and of course my blog design guru. And now a couple of my best friends know and my husband’s boss and his wife and another co-worker and his wife know as well because I couldn’t resist the urge to blab about it at a dinner party last night.  And now you are all gonna know too.

Drumroll please….

Ladies and gentlemen, I am pleased to introduce you to my fairly new baby…The Spy Mom!

The Spy Mom

She’s actually been around for a couple of months, but I’m really excited about revealing her identity and getting the word out about her!  I got my inspiration for The Spy Mom while out to lunch with my son, which is really strange because we were dining at the exact same restaurant that I was at when I got the idea for The Mommyologist.  I guess pizza joints just have a way of getting my creative juices flowing!  On that particular day, I had a bad customer service experience that was completely out of character for that particular restaurant.  I addressed my concerns with their corporate office and they immediately got back to me with an apology and a $25 gift card and told me that the problem server had been repremanded. Because they showed me that they value me as a customer, I will return to their restaurant time and time again, despite having the server from hell on that one visit.

I started thinking about how much we go out to eat and how much we love to travel, and I thought that it would be fun to sort of go “undercover” and create a new blog where I could post reviews of restaurants, hotels, and other venues and services in an effort to give credit where it is due as it pertains to really good customer service, and really poor customer service. Some of my reviews will be of places that I go with my son and whether or not they are kid friendly, etc., and some will be of places that I visit when I venture out into Adultland.  And by Adultland, I mean having a nice dinner with my husband or my friends where I don’t have to worry about the possibility of a match box car landing on top of my steak.  Don’t get any freaky ideas about me or anything like that.

There you have it folks!  Whether you love the idea or think that I’m completely off my rocker for trying to manage two blogs, I hope that you’ll pay The Spy Mom a visit once in a while.  I’m working hard to really get her up and running and get her on a posting schedule, which for the time being is one entry per week.  The hubster and I went to a great restaurant for date night this past Saturday, so there is a new Adultland review coming soon!  Of course most of my reviews will be of locations in the Northeast, but I will post others as we travel and visit other cities, so check back often to see where I’ve been!

And for any of you who work in the customer service industry…”Mind Your Manners…The Spy Mom May Be Watching!”

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