You know what’s awesome? Having fabulous, talented, generous friends.

You know what’s extra awesome? Having fabulous, talented, generous friends who want to give my readers free stuff!

Meet Ree.

I know, I know, some of you are saying, “Hello, Momo? We KNOW Ree, thankyouverymuch. She’s only a best-selling author and the host of her own Food Network show. Duh.” But, maybe there are a few of you out there who don’t know the wonderfulness of this blogger turned multi-media superstar. And, as you can see from that picture – complete goofball.

If you don’t know her, you’ll want to read this. My son thinks she makes the sun rise and set.

Now let me say that Ree is a great friend. She’s smart, kind, funny, and she likes wine. That’s pretty much all I ask for. But, more importantly, she changed the way I prepare food for my family. Like completely.

She just released her third cookbook and like the two that preceded it, it’s chock full of delicious, easy recipes that anyone can make. Sure you’ve heard “delicious, easy recipes” before, but those were lies. LIES, I tell you! I have never made one of her dishes that wasn’t a huge hit, nor have any of them taken me more than 15-20 minutes to prepare (not counting cooking time because she’s not a magician, but give her time and she’ll have that mastered too).

Isn’t this the cutest picture? It’s of Ree keynoting at BlogHer ’13 and explaining to the audience how much she loves me. “I love Momo THIS MUCH.” (Photo credit: BlogHer)

In the meantime, while we’re waiting for her to learn how to pull a rabbit out of her hat, THREE lucky readers will get a signed copy of “The Pioneer Woman Cooks: A Year of Holidays” to read, and dog-ear, and highlight, and get grease and flour all over. Hypothetically.

Enter for your chance to win by leaving a comment telling me your favorite holiday dish (any holiday, any dish) and/or tweet about this promotion and leave the URL to that tweet in a comment on this post

Good luck and happy cooking!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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You know how it goes. Work, cook, clean, eat, laundry. Work, cook, clean, eat, laundry. Shall I continue? No? It gets OLD, doesn’t it?

The point is, before you know it a week has passed and you haven’t posted anything on your blog. But, if history repeats itself I’ll be posting every day in November so you have that to look forward to. Though, come mid-month your feelings may lean toward the last sentence of that first paragraph.

I’m really starting to feel the funk of fall, which doesn’t help matters. Though, it’s okay because I’m combating it by eating more cookies. We are working out more, but our trainer’s favorite word is “nutrition” and I keep telling him my favorite word is “beer.” He doesn’t listen. He tells me to do more lunges and eat kale, but instead I watch House Hunters and inhale Kettle Chips.

Sure the sky is blue and the leaves are gorgeous, but I know what’s coming and my psycho psychic mind is telling me it’s going to be a nasty winter. It’s going to be cold. Yes, winter usually is cold, but I’m telling you it’s going to be exceptionally cold because I’m a walking Farmer’s Almanac, so I KNOW these things. At least we just spent $5,000 on a new furnace, so we have that going for us.

I try to fool myself by saying things like, “Mmm…this cup of tea is so soothing” or “Doesn’t the cinnamon apple cake smell delicious?” except I don’t bake. I do have a cinnamon apple cake candle, though. Basically there are attempts being made at mind tricks, but I’m trying to trick myself. The only time my mind tricks work on me is when I say, “I’m JUST going to Target to get toilet paper.”

I find myself taking increasingly long, scalding-hot showers and so do my kids, because we are trying to get the chill OUT OF OUR BONES. My husband doesn’t understand this, because while we are joyously inhaling steam all he can do is yell, “No one needs a 25 minute-long shower!” Which you probably don’t if you’re a bear like him.

In preparation for winter’s wrath I’ve been taking extra Vitamin D, which is supposed to help the immune system. My son’s new school doesn’t have any windows. NONE. There is one lonely skylight over the indoor playground, but that’s it. So, he has to take extra, extra Vitamin D because apparently parents aren’t allowed to get on the roof with a chainsaw and create more skylights; which is a dumb rule, because it’s FOR THE CHILDREN.

The solution to my lack of posting and fall-funk is probably to buy more fuzzy socks and take naps. Except I have insomnia, so I’ll need more fuzzy socks to offset the lack of sleep. Or nail polish and a new lamp. Oh, or a bedspread! Or very warm, footie pajamas. Or new boots…

Gotta go. I need to head to Target to pick up some toilet paper.

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I was listening to one of my favorite CDs the other day, when I realized I hadn’t really introduced it to my 14 year old daughter. She has heard me belting out a few of the songs here and there, but she hasn’t sat down and listened to the achingly beautiful lyrics while crying about unrequited love. Because you can’t truly understand music until a guy dumps you before prom, but after you’ve bought the dress.

So I got to thinking, what if I died tomorrow and my daughter didn’t know about this CD? Because that’s the next logical thought for me; not that I won’t be around to meet my grandchildren, but that she won’t know how life changing Aretha Franklin can be.

In order to sleep tonight I need to get these items off my chest, so here in no particular order and without too much explanation (ain’t nobody got time for that) are the 10 things my daughter needs to know, understand or experience in case of my untimely demise.

1. This is what started it all, and for my benefit we will call this an album. It’s Aretha’s Gold. Actually, you should call it, Aretha’s Gold, Baby.

2. Don’t wear too much makeup. The real you is the one with the dark circles and splotchy skin. Oh wait, that’s the real me. Regardless, you can’t see your own face. Makeup was created so other people would find you attractive and if they don’t find you attractive unless you’re slathered in foundation, they are the ones who are ugly. Deep, deep in their soul.

3. Don’t ever let a person lay their hands on you without your permission, whether it’s affection or violence, it must be on your terms. If it isn’t, move swiftly and surely away from the situation and DO NOT GO BACK. Your little brother giving you hugs does not count. But, for everyone other than your brother let me say it again, DO NOT GO BACK. People don’t change, or get better, or didn’t mean it. DO NOT GO BACK.

4. It really doesn’t matter how the laundry is folded or how the dishwasher is loaded. Let it go. Let people help you.

5. Never underestimate the value of looking someone in the eye, good table manners, and saying thank you.

6. Joni Mitchell’s album, Blue. Turn it up. Get the tissues.

7. Have empathy for others. Imagine yourself in their shoes. Turning the tables does wonders for our natural inclination to judge people.

8. Never put off doing something because you don’t like the way you look. Don’t stay home because of a pimple, or worry about putting on a swimsuit because you’ve gained weight. Life is really, really short. I lost out on having a lot of fun during my 30s because I was self-conscious and I can’t get that decade back. Joni Mitchell probably wrote a song about this.

9. I’m running out of room! Take a deep breath and read this all at once. Laugh every day, travel as much as you can, go to church, work at a job you like, always do some form of exercise, wear sunscreen, and don’t do drugs (like, don’t even try them because your brain might be all, “That’s pretty sweet!” and it’s all downhill from there). Oh, and floss. Always floss.

10. Know that I love you more than sunshine and that’s really saying something.

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Look familiar? This is what I see every time I get ready to go for a run; a pile of earbuds that take me 10 minutes to get untangled. I’ve tried wrapping them up nicely, but it never fails they end up a jumbled mess in the drawer. To top it off, they’re not even comfortable. Half the time, I just go out the door without anything to listen to. But, running – and exercising in general – is easier for me with good music. So, I went out and bought these inexpensive headphones. They’re comfortable and they store up nice and neat so I can grab them and go.

Well, I could do that before they broke. Sigh. Clearly I needed something comfortable and durable and that’s exactly what I got from these.

aren’t they pretty?

Swoon.

Let me just tell you that if you listen to music with anything in, or on, your ears, you don’t realize the discomfort you’ve been dealing with until you put a pair of Monster N-TUNE headphones on. This is coming from someone who lives in yoga pants most of the time. I know comfort.

The bonuses? Great sound, awesome colors, and a built-in ControlTalk remote that lets you control your phone and your music, allowing you to easily pause your track and receive calls. Not that I can sufficiently breathe to stop and take a call when I’m running, but maybe someday I will. A girl can dream! At the very least, I can sit on my couch and listen to podcasts. Monster N-TUNES are made for athletes and geeks, alike!

Now my biggest problem isn’t tangled cords; it’s keeping these Monster headphones out of the hands of my 14 year old. Fortunately for her, Christmas is coming and this is a gift I know she’ll love and use all the time. They won’t get crumpled up and thrown in the back of her closet like last years jeans that she HAD to have.

And, fortunately for you – well, actually 25 of you – we’re giving away 25 sets of Monster headphones! Just click over to the Monster Headphones page on Walmart.com and let us know your favorite NTunes color in the comments for a chance to win!

To win your very own pair of N-Tune headphones (valued at $150), read all about the Monster headphones here and let me know in the comments of this post which color you prefer. The comments on this post will be aggregated with the comments on the posts from the other bloggers participating in this review, and 25 pairs will be given away. This giveaway will close on Nov 1.

Sweepstakes Rules:

No duplicate comments.

You may receive (2) total entries by selecting from the following entry methods:

Leave a comment in response to the sweepstakes prompt on this post
Tweet (public message) about this promotion; including exactly the following unique term in your tweet message: “#SweepstakesEntry”; and leave the URL to that tweet in a comment on this post
Blog about this promotion, including a disclosure that you are receiving a sweepstakes entry in exchange for writing the blog post, and leave the URL to that post in a comment on this post.
For those with no Twitter or blog, read the official rules to learn about an alternate form of entry.

This giveaway is open to US Residents age 18 or older. Winner will be selected via random draw, and will be notified by e-mail. You have 72 hours to get back to me, otherwise a new winner will be selected.

BlogHer will pool entries from participating blogs and select a sweepstakes winner at random and will contact the winner with details about fulfilling the prize.

The Official Rules are available here.
This sweepstakes runs from 10/2/13 – 11/1/13.Please let me know if you have any questions.

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