Pokemon Takeover of Swaggermom!

"GOTTA CATCH THEM ALL!!!!"

That lyric is not just a catchy phrase - it is a command from Pokemon central that my kids will gladly follow! Swaggermom world has been overtaken by Poke-balls! Yep, BALLS!

SOOOOOO.....somebody (wink wink) recently introduced my children to the joy that is Pokemon. They are now official addicts to all things Pokemon. I am slowly learning what this new world is all about, and I have to say this Pokemon stuff, it RULES!  To be honest, I needed a break from the 4000 piece LEGO sets, hearing the "Everything is Awesome" song on repeat all day, and the constant fights over who gets to use the "special pieces" as a "Master Builder".  I needed a LEGO break - Pokemon to the rescue! I am forever grateful to our Pokemon Master. :) 

So, tonight, I let the boys explore their Pokemon love my making a video, because that is what a blog family does...LOL. It is unscripted and they had a great time. Its again, SwaggerMom style - low budget and one take. We had a good time making this, and hope it adds a little fun to your Thursday night.  Side note - I have been told that my only "Poke-power" is my pretty good Pikachu voice. Hey, at least I am still cool in their eyes. So I will take that complement as a win.

PIKAAAAAACHUUUUUUU!!!!

Swagger on and enjoy :)

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90s Teens RULE!

I'm writing again! I have some feelings for your faces soon, some awesome, new, amazing, fantastic, handsome, clever...oh wait...focus...writing about that soon - but I need to perfect it. In the meantime I have been thinking about my teen years a lot , and I think being a teen in the 90s was 'DA BOMB!

I don't mean to brag but FUCK YEAH - us teens in the 90s were pretty fucking badass back in the day, and we have all pretty much maintained a level of awesome into our mid thirties. Do I dare say it...swagger?  I have come to the conclusion, in my ripe old age of 36, that growing up in the 90s has given me and my peers a slight advantage in maintaining levels of cool as we grow up.  I mean, anyone who remembers the 80s, didn't come out of it with a raging drug addiction, and can name at least 5 original Smurf characters is winning in my book.

 Let me elaborate...

Swagger Mom's Top (oh fuck I dunno how many) reasons why kids of the 90s Kick ASS!!!!

1. Anyone who could deal with the bipolarness (is that a word?) of the evolution of 90s music is a well rounded SOB who will NEVER judge anyone based on their musical tastes.  I mean really, we started the decade with NKOTB at the top of the charts, a little GnR mixed in, THEN slid into the Alternative/Grunge world, throw some amazing brit pop  and hip hop in there,  then crawled out into a glittery Britney Spears toxic dream!  We like it all! We have confused Pandora, Spotify and Itunes-Genius and we are proud of it. Side note - Admit it- you all STILL love this song, know all the words, and HAVE NOT A CLUE what is going on in the video. It is soooooo 90s.

2. We rock because we hit the thrift shops before Macklemore was telling us about "poppin tags" and sheets that smelled like piss. I recall Saturdays with my friends hitting Goodwill and Amvets for used clothes all the time. I had a little league tshirt I rocked for months with bell-bottom corduroys! Rock on! Nobody thought I was strange...well if they did, I never heard about it.

3. We rock because before we hit the thrift shops in the late 90s we wore the SHIT outta the JCPenny catalog. If it matched...we wore it! I mean look at this stuff! We wore this crap with pride ya'll!  You talk about the Honey Badger not giving a fuck.... us preteens of the 90s clearly didn't give a fuck!

Don't they look happy in their new fall gear?

4. We had Channel One News! - enough said!

5.We rock because we had Wayne's World.  So help me if date a man who has no appreciation for that movie. I will walk - I swear to God he could look like any member of NKOTB and if he hates Wayne's World I will toss out the door.  I could write pages and pages about this movie - but basically it was THE movie that we all loved and remembered in our preteen years. Before we could all quote Adam Sandler movies, Tommy Boy or American Pie - there was Wayne's World. 
"What am I gonna do with a gun rack?!??!"

6. We rock because we DID NOT HAVE CELL PHONES!  Maybe the occasional "car phone" for emergency use only..but no social media, no facebook, no twitter, no snapchat, no kik, no instagram, no text messages, no instant access to ANYONE! We  had friendships and relationships face to face. We talked on the phone for hours. We waited for voice messages when we came home. We didn't check our phones every 5 minutes or update our status' every hour.  We lived and died on call waiting and caller id. We still were able to have dates, meet up with friends, and survive without the use of smartphones. How did we do it??? We are survivors bitches! I dare any kid now to live a day without their smartphone.  They wouldn't last an hour.  My college dorm at St. Marys had land lines  - single ring meant it was an on campus call (boring), but a double ring meant it was an off campus call  ...OMG OMG OMG its a boy calling!!!!.....maybe a Notre Dame boy! I shit you not, you hear your phone go on a double ring and you will run out of the shower and down the hall to catch that call. No joke - I have seen it first hand.

Look at that BEAST of a phone! Talk about ease of use and portability! Bag phone was where its at!

7. Rollerblades! It was THE gift we all wanted one Christmas. I recall getting a pair and then realizing I had NOWHERE to use them, no ride to take me to a roller park, and no one to skate with...so yeah, Christmas 1993 fail!
 Also, wearing rollerblading gear as everyday fashion - it was HOT! HAHA - who doesn't love spandex shorts and tank tops on the daily? We all looked amazing! Paired with some Reebox pumps, about 5 pairs of multi-colored socks stacked up, a kickin side pony-tail and a fanny pack and we were ready to hit the mall. No wonder I NEVER had a date in Junior High! Yikes! 

They look so bitchin'!

I could go on and on about how I have come to this epiphany about being a preteen and then teen in the 90s.  I think we had it pretty damn good.  It looks like the teens of now are looking back at us and seeing what awesomeness we were! I can't walk through a Macy's juniors department without thinking I am in an episode of Blossom.

Like, Whoa!

Half shirts, flower prints, flannels around the waist, leggings, over-sized sweaters, overalls and babydoll dresses - oh my! Maybe its the current teen generations way of saying - "You rock kids of the 90s! We missed out!" Yes, yes, y'all did.

So, to all my friends who think being in their 30s now sucks.....shut that shit down! We grew up in the best time possible and it made us the swaggy badass adults we are today!

Rock on kids of the 90s!  Just wait till we are all in our 70s - we are going to be the coolest grandparents on the block!

Ooh yeah! 1991 all up in your face! Me in my white jean glory! Headband big enough for ya?

"Party on Wayne!"

Til next time - swag on!

Next time - well, you will see :)

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Irishbelle2000 - twitter
Irishbelle78 - Instagram

Friday Night Wine!!!!!!!

Hi Ladies and Gents! So it seems I have a Friday night free....so what do I do with my solo time in my apartment? I decided to review a bottle of wine recommended to me by two blog buddies, and I am so glad I did! So here it goes.
 Warning:

1. I am not, nor do I pretend to be a wine connoisseur. I am a mom who likes to drink wine.

2. I am not an alcoholic - I just like to drink. Take that for what you want.

3. I am not crazy - I just like to video myself drinking wine. Problem?

With that out of the way we can move ahead. So the wine in question is 19 Crimes.

Here is a rad video about this wine...

It is a red wine from South East Australia - and HOLY SHIT - as I am typing this I realized it is 13% alcohol/volume! WHOOHOO! This is good stuff!

  wine!

So basically I like it. I will buy it again. Its a tad heavier than I like, but for the price at level of tipsy you will become off of it - its a wine win in my book! 7 out of 5 stars! Oh my, think it is time for my silly little video to do the talking/typing...whatever.

Enjoy....


 
As you can clearly see I have no problem making an idiot out of myself on camera in the name of alcohol. But I enjoyed it and I hope you at least smiled a little.

Now go check out my friends Brian of www.reviewtheworld.com and Chris: Audio-Alpha, review the same wine.

Click the link people! You will be happy you did!

19 Crimes Review by Chris: Audio-Alpha and Brian of Review the World

Both awesome guys from Cincinnati and I am honored to be part of the review team for this project! 


I assure you, it will far surpass mine in quality and entertainment value. And remember - keeping swagger means finding time for you, for fun, for being silly - no matter what. Whatever keeps you sane keeps your swag on!  I am 36 - I am not dead!

Get your wine and swag on!  Just like the master of all swag! Neil FUCKING Diamond! Sing it Neil!

Until next time - hopefully sooner than later.
Cheers and have a great weekend!
Follow me at
@Irishbelle2000 on twitter
@Irishbelle78 on instagram

Stale Chips and Forgotten Friendships

Holy Shit!

I am 36 years old! How in the hell did this happen? I swear it was 1990 only 10 years ago. I don't feel 36 at all (or whatever that feels like). I think I am more of a 29..ha ha humor me here.  I just cannot wrap my mind around being over the hill of 35 already!

In my old age (ha ha)  I have realized that I need very little to survive.  I have left so much behind. Things that to this day I have not missed or looked for. I moved from a home of almost 5000 square feet to 1100sq feet. That means I took only what I needed to survive.... yikes,  instantly I am transported to this moment when I say that line....

The morning of my birthday we had a snow day called for school, and the boys and I were trapped in our apartment for the day. Yes, me and a 7 year old and a 5 year old in an apartment - all day! Times 2 days of this, plus the weekend we had already. I needed to find a project to busy myself and to make use of this time before I lost it completely.  Enter my unorganized pantry. It was organized at one point, but now it was a complete disaster.  I struggle to not label myself a hoarder, but I think I may fall into that category. Food goes in - never comes out!  But my apartment is clean people - just don't look in any closets or drawers. SHHHHH!

Begin the great clean out. Ok - so what did I find back here. Oh, let me get really embarrassed now.  Stale raisins, opened and stale Cheerios, a bag of Halloween Oreos, a bag of popcorn dated July 2013 , and GASP an unfinished and stale bag of Doritos - I am ashamed. This is just a few of the highlights. 

my shame

Sorting though all that nonsense on my birthday I came to a "light bulb" moment.

Throwing away shit feels good!

Throwing away shit feels really good!

Throwing away shit feels really fucking good!

All this crap I had in this pantry that I didn't really need anymore was blocking my view of what I needed. The items I use daily, and the staples every pantry needs to function. I had filled this pantry with garbage and it needed to be purged.

Then, hold on, it got even deeper. As I am dragging a bag of stale crap to the trash chute - I think about the people I have in my life. Not about dragging them into a trash chute..literally, but figuratively.  I have a problem with collecting people and never letting them go. They sit around in my life (getting old and stale and useless) but I just can't part with them. They have been negative and downers and don't offer any use other than to piss me off.  There are a few people like that in my life that I need to just be an adult and move on from. They are not a positive force in my life, they are blocking the few of the essentials and I need throw them away.

 Just like when I left my life in 5000 square feel behind - I took only what I needed to survive. Such it is with the people I choose to surround myself with. Yes, have certain relationships fallen to the side - you betcha'! But with those out of the way I see the ones that truly I need to survive. Those other ones were cluttering my view of what I really needed - positive, supportive, loving people who care about me, my kids, and my future - genuinely.

 

You have no idea how much better this is!

 No more cluttered pantry. No more cluttered mind. No more collecting people who don't care about me and letting them sit around and never leave. I cleaned out this closet bitches!

So, if I haven't given you your pink slip notice yet that you are on your way out with me, you are safe, for now.  I am a blessed girl to be surrounded by such awesome people, and moving forward I see great things ahead. Maintaining swagger by keeping a tidy pantry!? See, and you thought I had no good Mom Life advice!

Ok - phew that was a heavy blog - but I felt compelled to say it. I warned you all , this is a soapbox of random.

Next time - more on the light and fun side - I promise.  I also told you that with the new year I would be putting "feelings all up in your face"! See I deliver!  I love my friends - and know that I am not a rotting bag of Cheetos in your pantry of people. I strive to be there for everyone I care about - everyone.

Goodnight y'all, and don't be a stale chip!

Until next time...
Swag on!
Molly
Irishbelle2000 - Twitter
Irishbelle78 - instagram

East meets West meets South - in the Midwest

The Mall! In big cities and towns across the country everyone has "the mall".  We all have memories that come to mind when you think of "the mall".

All malls have an actual name but mallrats and mallwalkers alike always will refer to it as -"the mall".  Its part of the experience of growing up in America.  Entire movies have been made in homage to the mall culture.

In my preteen and teen years the mall was where I went to escape from my family and be 'independant' , even for a short time.  Wandering the aisles of Tower Records, trying on and never buying clothes, and just being a un-paying annoyance to the mall employees in general. I had it all, until I had to use my quarter and call my mom. She would then ride up in her Cutlass Cruiser to Lenox Mall and pick me and my friends up. But until that happened we were the queen bees of that mall, and most importantly its Food Court.

 As a teen being able to decide what you wanted to eat , when and where was a BIG FECKIN'  DEAL! The sights, the smells, the choices! It was always overwhelming and I usually went for my old standbys - the always alluring Chinese food stand. Today we are taking a trip back to a mall and reliving my mallrat days of eating Chinese food in the food court. Different state, different mall, but surprisingly felt very familiar to me. 

I live in South Bend, Indiana. This is  at the top center of the state of Indiana. Basically its Michigan, so much so that the area is nicknamed "Michiana" -jealous now?  The mall is not in South Bend. The mall is in Mishawaka which is a suburb of sorts (as much as a town the size of South Bend can have a suburb), and it is called The University Park Mall- because we are also the town that is the home of The University of Notre Dame - so sports and cornfields is all we got out here.  The University Park Mall has a food court and the name of this food court is - DRUMROLL PLEASE>>>>>Tidbits Field Food Hall!

 BEHOLD!

 Welcome to our FOOD HALL!

 So I had my kids with me, and we were ready to make fools of ourselves in the Food Court - ahem, correction - Food Hall.  Here is Alex amidst the tables and chairs in the center of the Hall. All the various food stands surround this eating area in a kind of two semi circles.

He has no idea why he is smiling. 

  

My kids were thrilled to get out of the house for a bit. We were in the midst of a deep freeze here in Michiana and getting out of our tiny apartment was a BIG adventure during our Christmas vacation. This is also why the mall is practically empty while we were there. We were the entertainment for the Food Hall vendors. They appreciated our antics tremendously - I think.

 The big draw at the Food Hall is the "ride". My kids acted like complete nerds on this ride...I was so proud! My boys shouted "Yeehaw" "Live fast - take chances!" and a made up song called "This Ride is Creepy!" that I am angry I did not video. I was laughing so hard and fantically feeding quarters into the machine to keep this nonsense up longer.

We were mall entertainment for a while that day.

This kid laughs all day long- but riding a big blue dog is pretty funny!

So we settled in to get lunch. I spied two, count them, TWO Chinese stands to choose from. The first was Panda Express - a national chain that I have eaten a dozen times before. Its good, but I wanted to try something different. I scan the semi-circle and I almost had to rub my eyes in disbelief....there is was....

YES! Your eyes do not decieve you! In the middle of Michiana on a snow day in a deserted mall you can have it all! East meets West, meets South in the Midwest! - Chao Cajun! It is the Cajun Asian experience that I never knew I was missing!

Loved the little signs. Kind of wanted to snag the crab rangoon one, but those days are behind me.

So, ordering was already awkward here because the workers had witnessed my kids and I taking photos, singing weird songs on a ride, and generally being goofy in the middle of a deserted food court..ahem hall , sorry...for the better part of 30 minutes.  

I walked up and was instantly overwhelmed. Do I go Cajun or Asian? Or do I mix them? This was a cross culture taste mix I never knew was possible. Well friends, it is possible, here in beautiful Mishawaka, Indiana!

I decided on Sweet and Sour Chicken (my usual), beef with broccoli and udon noodles in a bourbon sauce...all served with a side of dirty rice or fried rice. Well, not being a fan of dirty rice I went for the fried rice - sorry ya'll I lose my Southern Belle card for that one.

The old standby - Chic-fil-A

Food in hand I went back to the table to eat. My children, being lured already by Chic-fil-A, were  3 nuggets deep in thier kids meal and wanted nothing to do with my Cajun Asian experiment.

The food smelled great and I was starving. I worked out that morning and ate nothing till this moment because this was DEFINITELY  not part of my diet and I wanted to enjoy every bite! I had saved up all day for this moment! 

Yep - a big plate of sweet and sour, bourbon glazed noodle goodness! CARB LOAD ME BABY!

 Overall it was not a dissapointment. It tasted like is should have. The chicken was fried in TONS of batter and the sause was more sweet than sour, which I expect.  The beef and broclli was good, but not the best I have ever had. But,  the best part were the bouron glazed noodles. They had awesome flavor and mixed well with the sweet and sour chicken. It was a lot of food for the money. I paid $7.99 for all of this. I will also admit here that I barely was able to finish it.  It was all so heavy and filling that about 10 bites in and I was calling it quits. The owner noticed I had not finished and came out with a to-go box for me. He reminded me that "Mom's need to eat too!" - and sometimes honestly I do forget. 

So the food was good. It was filling. It tasted as advertised, and I am forever grateful that I can now say I had Cajun Asian food! 

Being sly trying to photo the Cajun Asian

It did bring me back to my teen years at first bite. Eating a plate full of carbs on a styrafoam plate, carried on a tray, in a food court filled with other temptations. It made me miss those days when deciding what to eat at the food court with your friends was the biggest decision you had to make that day. The food court/hall will forever trigger those memories - especially when I plate piled high in noodles and sweet and sour chicken is involved.

I hope you enjoyed this visit to the University Park Mall and to Chao Cajun. Hungry for more mall trips and chinese food stand reviews? OF COURSE YOU ARE!!!!! Click on the links of all my wonderful blogging friends who also did the same project as me.  Its like taking a vacation to malls around  America! Enjoy and thanks for reading! These guys are all great and you will love what you read! SO GET READING!

Will/Bill/Billy from VeggieMacabre - www.veggiemacabre.com

Matt from Dinosaur Dracula - http://dinosaurdracula.com

Brian from Review the World - http://reviewtheworldblog.blogspot.com/2014/01/food-court-chinese-group-project.html

Jay from The Sexy Armpit-www.thesexyarmpit.com

Side note - THIS place has amazing Chinese food in South Bend - Ho Ping House!

Any friends in town - THIS is where we are going!

  I mean look at the badass terracotta warriors defending it. No, seriously its good. It also is even cooler because it used to be a Denny's not so long ago. I think Ho Ping House may translate roughly to "This used to be Denny's". This will be my next project...I think....you will have to stay tuned. 

Until next time! 
Swag on! 
@Irishbelle2000 - Twitter
@Irishbelle78-Instagram

Popping pebbles!

Were the spicy Doritos not enough?

Are you not entertained?

Just kidding - we are back! And we are giving you what you asked for - more videos of me and my boys trying strange foods. A new level of swagger is being achieved here I think. But hell, if it entertains you and brings you back - let us keep that camera rolling.

Today I thought I would be clever and switch regular Fruity Pebbles cereal with the new Poppin' Fruity Pebbles and see how the boys reacted. A lot depended on the element of surprise. I switched the boxes so they wouldn't suspect. Sneaky Swagger Mom, so sneaky.

Posing with box of "regular" Pebbles - unaware that the inside contained the Poppin Pebbles

Now I will leave the description of this amazing new cereal to my friend  The Holidaze. He did an amazing review of this product. Click the link here to go to his fantastic page, read more about it, and follow an amazing blog! DO IT! http://www.the-holidaze.blogspot.com/

Ok, so now you know what I am testing on my poor, unsuspecting children. So it all went down like this...


So, there you have it folks - my kids and I tried the Poppin' Pebbles and they want to eat it all the time. But for my money I want a whole box of just the green poppin' balls, and I want to wash it all down with a ice cold Coca-Cola!  THAT would be a "breakfast of champions"! I live on the dangerous side - I know! HAHA

Hope you enjoyed this little Sunday distraction. A lot more swagger coming your way. I promise it won't all be my kids and I eating odd foods. Some great stuff ahead - all random, all real, and all fun. 2014 - so far  I have no complaints, lets keep this up!

Until next time!
Swag on!
Molly - Swagger Mom
@Irishbelle2000 - Twitter
@Irishbelle78 - Instagram

Spice up your snow day!

      
Trapped!
Its unbearably cold outside and I am stuck inside going on day 2 of a snow day.

I needed something hot - ASAP!  And since Johnathan Rhys Meyers has not called me back about moving into the vacant apartment across the hall from me ...yet, I needed to get some spice somewhere else.

Ahh, Johnathan Rhys Meyers - yes the apartment is still available - call me! 

Thank goodness there are Doritos! I live above a 7/11 and I found Doritos Flamas there the other day! I have never heard of these so of course I had to try, since - as I have explained before I am a Doritos addict.   So since it was a snow day and I was bored here is a glimpse of me and my boys eating Doritos..wow, and I wonder why I am still single! Enjoy! BTW - the whole video is worth it for just the last 5 seconds -watch the little one bottom right - priceless!

      
       
I hope you enjoyed our little experiment into video blogging. Who knows we may do it again. Although I hate my voice and my face on film so I will have to get over that first  - I sound crazy and I look bloated - nice right?!  As you can see we are not professionals and we don't edit. We are one take - 3, 2, 1, action over here. If you like that style you are in luck!

 Hope everyone is staying warm - if not add a little spice to your day with some Flamas Doritos - you won't regret it! :)  Although I think my little one will. ;/

Until next time - keep your swagger on!

@Irishbelle2000 - twitter
@irishbelle78 - instagram