Seattle Mom Blogs

When your week starts out like mine did on Monday, it’s hard for it to get any better. What I’m trying to say is that I’m still riding the high from the Cervical Cancer Awareness event at Grey Gallery that SMB co-hosted with The Yellow Umbrella (spear-headed by the lovely Christine Baze and her celebrity makeup artist co-hort, Debra Macki). If you weren’t able to make it, you truly missed out. It was an incredible evening of music and friends with an even more incredible message, that being SAVE THE HOOCH!

We were spoiled by our very own local professional photographer, Sarah Alston (of Sarah Alston Photography of course) who brought a ton of yellow props for us to play with as well as her enthusiasm for our group and the cause. We posed for silly photos in the photobooth that she lovingly set up and had no time at all coming out of our shells, as you can see. The night definitely would not have been the same without her and I know that she’s just as committed to spreading The Yellow Umbrella’s message as we are.

Now, if you’re unfamiliar with the term “SAVE THE HOOCH,” prepare yourself to be educated. The purpose of Christine’s non-profit, The Yellow Umbrella, is to educate, empower and inform women about the 3 very simple things that could one day save their lives, their fertility, and their cervix: the Pap test, the HPV test and the HPV vaccine.

At the age of only 31, Christine was diagnosed with invasive cervical cancer. It all started with an “abnormal” (how many of us have had one of those?) pap result and quickly turned into a diagnosis, a radical hysterectomy, laproscopy, daily pelvic radiation, chemotherapy and brachytherapy. In Christine’s own words, “Nothing hurts worse than having these things done to your body, not a shot, not a pap smear.”

Christine Baze and Debra Macki are in Seattle to spread the message, that cervical cancer is preventable. Through education and music, Christine sends her message to all women, everywhere, so they don’t have to go through what she did 10 years ago. With her uplifting lyrics that encourage us to live our lives while we can and her passion for this cause, she speaks to all women – as she spoke to us Monday night, telling them, telling us that cervical cancer IS preventable!

To accompany the message, Debra has designed an exclusive eye color palette for The Yellow Umbrella representing the 3 tools every woman needs in order to prevent cervical cancer. One of our lucky readers who wasn’t able to attend the Girlfriend Gathering will have the chance to win one of these palettes (valued at $36) just for doing one simple thing: telling us what she will do to prevent cervical cancer for herself, her daughter, her mother, her friend or her neighbor.

All you have to do is comment to win!  The awesome eye shadow palette is just the proverbial icing on the cupcake (a YELLOW one of course) in our effort to spread information and awareness of cervical cancer pevention.  Won’t you please join us?  Winner will be chosen by random draw on Monday, May 24th.  Best of luck and remember ladies (and gentlemen) SAVE THE HOOCH!

May 9th – 15th marks Seattle’s inaugeral Cervical Cancer Awareness Week – a week dedicated to education, information and empowerment for all women (and those who love them) to battle cervical cancer.

Seattle Mom Blogs has partnered with the non-profit The Yellow Umbrella to bring this special event to Seattle.  The event will feature live music by The Yellow Umbrella founder, Christine Baze, an accomplished musician and cervical cancer survivor, who has opened for Michelle Schocked, Sheryl Crow, The Fray, etc; and makeup demonstrations by celebrity makeup artist, Debra Macki, whose clients include Rhianna and Cyndi Lauper.  The pair will be in town to kick off Cervical Cancer Awareness Week and to showcase the recently released Debra Macki for The Yellow Umbrella eye shadow Palette, desighed exclusively to benefit The Yellow Umbrella.

The Girlfriend’s Gathering will also include:

• Eye makeovers by Debra Macki (for a select number of lucky guests)
• A complimentary Debra Macki for The Yellow Umbrella eye shadow palette for the first 25 women to RSVP
• Additional eye shadow palettes will be given to bloggers throughout the evening for reader giveaways
• Hors d’oeuvres, drinks and (yellow!) cupcakes
• Photobooth by Sarah Alston 

Where:  Grey Gallery & Lounge, Seattle,  WA 98122

When:  Monday, May 10th

Time:  7 – 10PM

We hope you can join us!  To view the invitation, please log into facebook and click on this link:    Or, you can email Carrie at if you have any questions.

Right now through the saavy source, you can grab a Seattle Children’s Museum pass for nearly 50% off the usual membership. Get a year for $40 instead of the usual $75.

From the Saavy Source Site you get:
Oodles of Fun family membership offers unlimited free admission for 1 year for two adults living at the same physical address and all dependent children
2-for-1 coupons for participating Pacific Northwest Museums
4 free one-time guest passes
10% discount on all birthday parties, pre-registration classes, camps, workshops, and after hours rentals
10% off all purchases at the Children’s Museum Store

By purchasing through Saavy Source, you’re not only getting a great deal, you’re contributing to the local schools. Saavy works with local preschools to provide excellent education and give our kids a head start. I’m happy to endorse such a great cause and fabulous deals!

It’s been a while.  Are you even surprised at this point?  I know, not really funny.

Let’s see… I ran the Seahawks 12K last month and had a pretty good result.

Time: 1:00:14 so I missed beating the one hour mark by 15 stupid seconds.  Sigh.

Age group – 1st of women; 9th out of both men and women
All women- 41st out of 471
Of all racers- 184th out of 883
Beat course overall average 12K time by almost 10 minutes

And then this morning I ran the Kirkland Half Marathon:

I finished in 1:53:59 which is 6 1/2 minutes off my april 2009 half marathon time and 4 minutes faster than my fastest 1/2 marathon split which was during the 2009 Portland Marathon.

Just what this pregnant body needed!

I just discovered the joy of pregnancy massage.  As an early Mothers Day gift, my husband treated me to a night away at the Salish Lodge.

Our favorite part of Salish Lodge is the spa.  We have had the Salish Signature Hot River Rock Massage (highly recommend) and the couples fireside massage.   The spa is what calls us back to Salish whenever we need to escape from our crazy life’s.

This time I decided to finally experience pregnancy massage.  The spa at Salish has just introduced a new line of products for pregnant women called Mama Mio Mama’s Touch, a new collection of indulgent maternity spa treatments designed to carry expecting or new mothers through every stage of the nine month stretch and beyond.  I really loved the fact that they were specially formulated for a pregnant women’s skin and the scent is so very mild.

The whole experience was just what I needed.  Being in my final trimester, I am pretty sore everywhere and rarely am I comfortable.  I was so relaxed and so comfortable that the 55 minute massage went way too fast.  I wasn’t ready for it to be over.  Luckily,  the Mama Mio products are available for purchase at the spa so you can take home a bit of the experience and pamper your skin during and after pregnancy.

I highly recommend checking out Salish Lodge and the new Maternity Spa Treatment’s they offer.  I will be there for another massage before this baby comes!

Give Salish Lodge a call and book your own pampering spa treatment today!  Any day can be Mother’s Day!!

 My boys are just over 18 months apart, although you probably wouldn’t guess that now – looking at them – because my 11 year-old stands approximately 3 inches (maybe more) over his 13 year-old brother.  But trust me, they are close in age.  Which basically boils down to the fact that during their “toddler” years, I was one busy mom.   My house was never quiet, there were always little dirty footprints somewhere, and the constant buzz of toy cars crashing into one another never ceased.  NEVER CEASED.  Looking back, I have no idea how I survived.  I wasn’t even a big coffee drinker back then.

This weekend, we had a 4 year-old boy in our house.  Lucky for me, he adores my older boys (and Katie too) so I knew that he wouldn’t be following me around asking me to play Hot Wheels with him, but I knew that there would be a few things I’d have to do to prepare for his visit.  First, I’d have to clear the decks of anything a 4 year-old might trip over because HE NEVER STOPS RUNNING.  And second, I’d have to bring down the arsenal of toy vehicles (pick a vehicle, any vehicle, and I bet we have it in our toy car bucket) for him to play with.  But I knew that at some point, he’d tire of running and driving his cars all over the place and I needed something more…

Which is where the Handy Manny comes in.

I kid you not, after running nonstop for almost 3 hours (and my twitter page can attest to this ) I thought nothing would slow him down.  Not even the “breakfast for dinner” meal that I was cooking.  But Handy Manny came to my rescue. 

Now, I may have mentioned before my aversion to children’s programming that annoys the spots off a giraffe (a’hem), and the same holds true with the Handy Manny series.  I do not find one single thing about Handy manny annoying.  In fact, I kind of like Manny’s voice – it’s soothing, and agreeable, kind of like Anthony Bourdain after a really long day…

I digress.

Handy Manny’s newest DVD, “Handy Manny:  Big Race,” is a lifesaver, even for parents with very busy little boys and girls.  When I declared, “Time for a movie, and guess what?  It’s about race cars!”  The battle was over.  The running stopped,  quiet returned, and one very special 4 year-old’s eyes grew big with excitement as he watched the cars Vroom Vroom on the screen, clutching his “Mater” car the entire time, of course.

Seattle Mom Blogs has FIVE copies of “Handy Manny:  Big Race” to give away to our readers.  Please comment and leave a working email address at the bottom of this post by midnight on Tuesday, May 11th, for your chance to win.  Winners will be notified via email following a random draw and the DVD will be shipped, new in package, to your front door (or address of choice, within reason).

Edited: The giveaway has been extended to May 15th! Please comment for your chance to win or help spread the word! Thank you!

Comments are NOW CLOSED.  Thank you for entering.  Winners will be notified by email. 

 

Carrie Blankenship is the author of the blog Stop Screaming I’m Driving, where she attempts to tell her story of motherhood. She likes long walks in the park, dancing in the rain, and can be bribed to do just about anyting with a vanilla latte, extra foam. Contact her with column suggestions or just say “hi” at carrieb[at]seattlemomblogs.com. Or, .