Mommy Brain

(Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience was provided to me by Click Communications for the purpose of review.)

Put yourself in the middle of the Jonas Brothers’ motion picture debut with the ultimate Extended 3D Concert Experience only on Blu-ray Hi-Def. It doesn’t get any better than this as Kevin, Joe and Nick invite you inside their personal world for an all-inclusive look at the band. The 3D picture looks so incredible, you’ll think you can reach out and touch the brothers, and the theater-quality sound will have you jumping out of your seat!

This 3D movie event launches music’s hottest trio straight into your living room and includes guest appearances by chart-topping artists Demi Lovato and Taylor Swift!

Secure your backstage pass to this once-in-a-lifetime 3D experience with the Jonas Brothers - complete with exclusive bonus features, including unseen performances, additional songs, and an extra DVD copy of the movie. You’ll feel like you’re part of the Jonas family with this deluxe up-close-and-personal Blu-ray Combo Pack for the ultimate fans!

I asked Natalie to review this DVD, and here’s what she had to say:

“This movie was fairly good, but all the screaming girls were kind of weird. The fans of the Jonas Brothers act like they are their idoll and that they worship them. They almost puke, hyperventilate, and things like that. But above all of that the singing was good. This movie was good in some parts and not so good in others.”

For a chance to win this DVD, click over to my giveaway post at Books and Movies.

Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience is available now on DVD. The special features include two bonus songs and “Up Close & Personal: Inside the Lives of the Jonas Brothers on Tour.”

For those of you who miss my bookish posts, here are links to my recent posts at Books and Movies:

~ List of links to a whole bunch of book giveaways.

~ My favorite poetry for children.

~ Book review: The Laws of Harmony by Judith R. Hendricks.

~Book giveaway: I’m giving away five copies of the memoir Jantzen’s Gift.

~ Library sale bounty.

~ Favorite poets and poetry collections - for grown-ups this time.

~ Book review: The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey by Trenton Lee Stewart.

~ Book review: Sea Changes by Gail Graham.

For those of you who miss my bookish posts, here are some links to book-related stuff I’ve posted at Books and Movies:

~ A list of my favorite mystery series

~ A review of Uglies by Scott Westerfeld

~ A list of my favorite audiobooks

~ A giveaway of The Laws of Harmony by Judith R. Hendricks

(Lilo and Stitch: 2-Disc Big Wave Edition was provided to me by Click Communications for the purpose of this giveaway.)

I’m sorry for being a day late drawing a winner! No big excuses, it just slipped my mind.

The winner of Lilo and Stitch: 2-Disc Big Wave Edition is…

…Daniela!

Congratulations, Daniela. Please watch your e-mail so I can get your mailing info.

(Lilo and Stitch: 2-Disc Big Wave Edition was provided to me by Click Communications for the purpose of this giveaway.)

Get ready for the wildly original story about an independent little girl named Lilo and her adopted alien “puppy,” the mischievous Stitch, a runaway genetic experiment from a faraway planet. After crash-landing on Earth, Stitch wreaks havoc on the Hawaiian Islands, but he also learns about loyalty, friendship and ‘ohana, the Hawaiian tradition of family.

Now, catch the wave of fun and aventure in this 2-Disc Big Wave Edition jam packed with games and awesome bonus features that take you and your family behind the scenes of the movie! Experience Lilo & Stitch like never before. There’s excitement and entertainment for every member of your ‘ohana!

The kids and I already own a copy of Lilo and Stitch on DVD, but the nice people at Click Communications offered to send me a copy anyway to give away to one of my lucky readers! Lilo and Stitch: 2-Disc Big Wave Edition will be available on DVD on March 24th, and is full of special features like deleted scenes, “Your ‘Ohana” Music Video Featuring The Hawaiian Chorus, Lilo & Stitch Island Adventure Games, and lots more.

Here’s how to enter:

1. For one entry, leave a comment on this post. And just to make it interesting, tell me what your all-time favorite Disney movie is.

2. For a second entry, post about this giveaway on your blog, and them come back and leave an additional comment with your post link.

3. For a third entry, tweet about this giveaway on Twitter, and then leave another comment with your Twitter user name.

4. All entries must be received by 11:59 pm PST, Monday, March 23rd. On Tuesday, March 24th, I will use Random.org to draw the lucky winner, and then contact that person by e-mail for mailing info.

Good luck!

I am so sorry I forgot to do this on Saturday!

The winner of Good Egg from Workman Publishing is Mrs. Mommy. Congratulations! Watch your e-mail; I’ll be contacting you for mailing info.

Whew, this week has just whizzed by! We’re all feeling better, mostly over the creeping crud, thank goodness. I don’t have a lot planned for my weekend, but on Monday I (finally) have my appointment with the neurologist about my headaches. His office is called The Headache Clinic, so he should be able to help, right? I’m optimistic. I’m going to take Natalie with me so the day isn’t completely a drag - we might even stop at Barnes & Noble on the way home, though mostly just to browse and pick up the third 39 Clues book for Noah.

If your weekend includes time for surfing, here are some links to check out:

~ Trish at Hey Lady! Whatcha Readin’? has compiled a list of the books book bloggers considered their best read of 2008. Lots of good titles there.

~ Take Your Vitamin Z posted about how Mark Driscoll handles family devotions at dinner time. This actually seems like a relatively painless approach - we may give it a try.

~ Ever wanted to find out what book bloggers think about a particular book? Fyrefly has created a custom Google search of book blogs.

~ Are you jonesing for a Harry Potter fix? The Leaky Cauldron has a First Look video with highlights from the upcoming Half Blood Prince film.

~ There’s still time to enter my giveaway for Good Egg.

~ For you writerly types, here’s a great article on procrastination by Janet from Quoth the Maven.

~ The Sacred Sandwich imagines the reaction if the book of Galatians was published in Christianity Today.

~ This is one comeback I could do without.

At Books and Movies lately:

~ A list of our favorite read-alouds in the past couple of years.

~ If you read this before midnight Pacific Standard Time, there’s still time to enter my giveaway of Interred With Their Bones, Capote in Kansas: A Ghost Story, and The Read-Aloud Handbook.

~ I’ve joined The Classics Challenge 2009.

I’m giving away three books at Books and Movies - click over if you’re interested!

Meet Egg. Cuter than a button, enormously personable, and talented, too. Say “sit,” and Egg sits. Good Egg! Say “roll over,” and egg rolls over. What a good Egg! Of course, Egg does all of this with a toddler’s help, who lifts the flaps and pulls the tabs and operates the wiggle behind the wiggle-waggle. But that’s the most fun part: interacting with the Egg.

Then comes the pay-off. “Speak,” is the command, and children will crack up in delight and surprise with what happens next.

Created by Barney Saltzberg, Good Egg is that rarest of rare books where utter simplicity is utterly irresistible. The Egg has neither eyes nor smile nor furrowed brow, yet exudes an adorable, eager-to-please charm. No sentence is longer than two words, yet in the eight board book pages, an engaging story is told. Add the flaps and the tabs and the pleasure of movement, and Good Egg will be read again and again.

Workman Publishing has sent me a copy of this fun book, and although my 10-year-old loves it, it’s really a bit young for my kids. Which is good news for you - I’m giving it away! If you have a toddler or preschooler, this book would be perfect. Here are the details:

~ Leave a comment on this post by 11:59 pm PST, March 13th. This contest is open to readers in the US and Canada.

~ One comment per household, please.

~ On Saturday, March 14th, I’ll draw a winner.

Easy as pie, right? Good luck!

Congratulations to Lisa, the winner of Questions from Little Hearts!

First of all, thanks to everyone who prayed for Carol’s new grandbaby, Noah. He is home from the hospital and doing better, though still on antibiotics.

Any big plans for your weekend? I’m taking the kids to see a theater production of Winnie the Pooh on Saturday. That’s our biggest plan for the weekend, and that’s just fine with me. Oh, and I need to watch the premiere of LOST that I recorded and still haven’t had time to watch.

Here are some links to help you be lazy this weekend:

~ There is still time to enter to win a copy of Questions from Little Hearts in my giveaway.

~ Any fans of ER out there? Looks like Dr. Doug Ross - a.k.a. George Clooney - is heading back for a cameo for this final season.

~ So, Natalie and I have my mom hooked on the Twilight series. She’s almost finished with book three. We were discussing the casting of Volturi vampire Jane in the upcoming New Moon film, and the two names we thought of were Kristin Chenoweth and Dakota Fanning. Maybe we should work in Hollywood casting!

~ This study just proves that life is not fair: Women less able to suppress hunger than men.

~ New Baby Blues comic: When Life Attacks.

At Books and Movies lately:

~ If you could invite six people - anyone, alive or dead - to dinner, who would you invite? Here’s my answer.

~ Essay Reading Challenge: Chicago by Rudyard Kipling.

~ Essay Reading Challenge: The Aeroplanes at Brescia by Franz Kafka.

~ Monday’s Movie: Son of Rambow.

~ My thoughts on the first half of Wuthering Heights.

I think I need to update the marketing reps at Workman Publishing with the age of my kids! Ever since I helped judge the Cybils two years ago, I receive children’s books to review from a few companies. My kids love it - in fact we’ve been very much enjoying The Story of Christmas Advent Calendar this month.

Today, however, I received a package that contained these books:

Barnyard Bath by Sandra Boynton

Fifteen Animals by Sandra Boynton

We love Sandra Boynton at our house, but these books are definitely for a younger demographic - one is a board book, and the other is a vinyl bathtub book.

The cool thing, though, is that I will give these away to the first person to comment and tell me which darling toddler or baby you would like to win these for! Hurrry, hurry - first comment wins!

I don’t have many links to share this week - I’ve been too busy to do much surfing. I will say that we watched the election returns and speeches on Tuesday night. The kids and I watched Schoolhouse Rock, particularly the song “I’m Going to Send Your Vote to College” and talked about how the electoral college works. We tracked the votes on our map, with red and blue stickers. Since we live on the West, they were able to stay up long enough to see almost all of president-elect Obama’s speech, but Noah was nodding off toward the end.

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Can you believe tomorrow is Halloween? This month has flown by, and we’re heading into snowball season. No, I don’t mean literal snow. I mean the time of year where - for our family, at least - Halloween rolls into my birthday rolls into Josiah’s birthday rolls into Thanksgiving rolls into Natalie’s birthday rolls into Christmas. Whew - I’m exhausted just thinking about it! Don’t get me wrong, I love Christmas, I’m just not crazy about the hecticness leading up to it.

Tomorrow night, we will take the kids to my parents’ church for the ultimate in Harvest Parties. My Dad has built all of these amazing games, and they give out tons of candy - way more than we ever got when we used to trick-or-treat. Which the kids really, really need because they’ve been so, so nice to each other lately. (Can you sense the sarcasm in that sentence?)

What I’m really looking forward to is next Friday. See, it’s my birthday - and all three boys are staying over at Michelle and Don’s house for Nicholas’s birthday, and Natalie is spending the weekend with my folks. So Kevin and I are heading to Spokane to eat dinner and go to Barnes & Noble so I can pick out my birthday present. Can’t. wait.

This weekend will be spent dealing with kids on way too much sugar, while I try to write the four articles that are due by Monday. Sigh.

~ I feel really guilty about complaing when I read posts like this one from Carol.

~ Bookroom Reviews is holding a Book Giveaway Carnival next week - be sure and check out the details at the link if you want to participate, and then check back on Monday for the list of all the bloggers giving away books.

~ There’s a new Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince trailer up at Entertainment Weekly.

~ I have a guest review of The Night Country by Stewart O’Nan over at J. Kaye’s Book Blog.

~ Great article by Rod Dreher about one of my all-time favorite authors: Wendell Berry’s time is now.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

I’m giving away four more books at Books and Movies, if you’re interested.

I didn’t do a Links for Friday post last week, since we were in Portland for the kids’ Tae Kwon Do tournament. Since we got home around 8:30 pm Sunday evening, I feel like I’ve been going nonstop: homeschooling, laundry, articles due, laundry, Awana, homeschool class, and did I mention laundry?

It’s fall here, and I’m loving the colors. This is, far and above, my very favorite time of year.

~ Don’t forget to enter my 100,000th visitor giveaway - it’s open until the end of the month.

~ Remember The Pirates Who Can’t Do Anything? Meet The Homeschool Moms Who Can’t Do Everything.

~ Here’s the Ultimate Telemarketer Prank. (Warning: language a little spicy.)

~ Colin Farrell and Edward Norton talk about their upcoming cop movie, Pride and Glory.

~ Ever wonder where they get all those teen and tween Disney stars? Here’s the answer.

~ Extreme Weather Alert: Meteorologists Predict Intensely Brisk Autumn. I dare you not to laugh. Be sure to read the pop-ups on the bottom of the screen.

~ If you have budding writers who are Harry Potter fans, here’s how to enter an essay contest: The Tales of Beedle the Bard Essay Contest.

~ Rotten Tomatoes counts down the Top 50 Animated Films.

~ Goodbye to Dissonance from Tonia at Study in Brown. Here’s a taste:

is it possible that we as a body of believers could put away the assumptions and insults and accusations and assume the best of each other? could we look at the person on the other side of the voting line and believe that they are caring, loving individuals doing the best they can, just as we are trying to do?

~ Beautiful pictures from World Animal Day. The flamingo is my new desktop background.

~ Daily Writing Tips has a new Vocabulary Test.

~ Anyone else excited about the upcoming season of Lost? The promo for season 5 is up.

~ Booklovers take note: this is so going on my Christmas list.

At Books and Movies:

~ Review of North River by Pete Hamill.

~ Review of The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart.

(This post will stay on top until the end of the giveaway on October 31st. Please scroll down for new posts.)

Sometime on Sunday, October 5th, Mommy Brain received its 100,000th visitor! I had been watching my stats, but missed the exact moment. That doesn’t make it any less exciting, though!

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Another weekend without a whole lot planned. Which is good, since on Thursday we head to Portland for a long weekend. The kids will take part in a Tae Kwon Do tournament, and we will visit Kevin’s mom and brother and dad and my grandma, who I haven’t seen in person for over 6 years. The last time we were together, Josiah was a baby, and now he’s reading, taking Tae Kwon Do, and missing his top front teeth! I have to get Kevin to take a picture so I can show you, it’s the most adorable thing. It’s funny how much it changes his speech, too. He’s reading independently now, but often stops and says, “Mom, what does this spell?” but I have trouble determining which letters he’s saying.

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(Alvin & the Chipmunks Classic Holidays was provided to me by Click Communications for the purpose of this feature and giveaway.)

Thanks for playing along, everyone! The winner of the Alvin’s Thanksgiving Celebration DVD is…

…Erin!

Congratulations, Erin. I’ll be contacting you for mailing info.

Stay tuned for another giveaway. This will be a big one for all you book-lovers.

It’s October! It felt like it this morning, which is nice after the beginning of the week, which was hot - in the 80s. I love fall, and I’m ready for some cool, crisp autumn mornings.

I’m looking forward to our weekend because we have absolutely nothing planned. The last two weekends have been busy with a birthday party, an archery tournament, helping friends move, cleaning the basement, etc. I’m ready for a Saturday morning to sleep in and enjoy some long, uninterrupted reading time. I do have a couple articles due next week, so I’ll spend some time working, but I’ll do it in my sweats on the couch. I’ll probably also be a really bad mom and let the kids have lots of game time on the PS2 so that I can have those uninterrupted hours.

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