I had the perfect “ME Time” date planned out. My kids all had plans and I was going to be alone with my magazines, a little DVR catch-up and an awesome (easy to prepare) meal.

Then, I got sick! Boooo!

To prepare the soup, I opened the bag, poured it into a microwave-safe dish and put it in the microwave for 12 minutes (stirring halfway through.) While my soup was in the microwave, I brought my magazines and a wheat roll up to my bedroom. I was going to be sure there were no interruptions so I was hiding away.

Twelve minutes later I had this awesome soup…

This meal tasted so good. When I was a kid, I remember my mom making chicken noodle soup in the winter and this is the first soup that brought back those memories. It had a lot of flavor and I could see the spices in every spoonful. The noodles and veggies were crisp and not soggy at all.

You can see the spices in the soup. Yummy!

I added a warm wheat roll and dipped that into the chicken broth. YUMMY! I was feeling pretty miserable that evening, but the Bertolli Chicken & Rotini Meal Soup definitely hit the spot. Even though I was sick, within 30 minutes I had a hot soup and was snuggled in my bed with my favorite magazines and relaxing so I can get better.

My 3 Me Time Tips:

1. Make it simple.
2. Be ready at any time.
3. Be sure to get some “me” time at least every week.

Follow Bertolli on Twitter & Facebook.

Disclosure:  I was compensated by Bertolli to participate in the Weeknight Meal Special Challenge. All opinions are 100% my own.

Related articles

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Bertolli Premium Meal Soup Perfect For Me Time! originally posted at Scraps of My Geek Life.

What did you get for Christmas? I got a little bit of everything. Some tech, fitness and bling.

My husband picked out the gorgeous bling shoes. I’m 6 inches taller in these.

I got Zumba for Wii which I’ve wanted for some time and Apple TV.

My kids for me necklaces (mom with heart & light up Christmas bulb), orange cover for my Kindle Fire and a halogen light for taking pictures & movies.

We played an old-style game that hasn’t changed in years and is still tons of fun.

We had an awesome ham dinner.

A glass of wine in my favorite glasses.

All in all it was a nice quiet Christmas. The kids must have been really good this year because Santa was generous this year.

We now have a few Family Holiday events to attend and then we will relax until the new year.

2012

I have some plans for my blog for 2012. I plan to work on it in the next week and then let you know my plans. It will be my way of tying together all my passions into one year long project. I’m very excited!!

How was your holiday? What tech gifts did you get?

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The Day After; Twister, Tech & Time originally posted at Scraps of My Geek Life.

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Merry Christmas!! originally posted at Scraps of My Geek Life.

Sound Stickers Uses

With the Sound Stickers and a Livescribe pen, you can record your voice and play it back anywhere. Here are some ideas:

• Put stickers on all the pages of a book, record your voice reading the pages and your children can play it back by clicking on the stickers. They can listen to you read the book to them anytime.
• Put the stickers on your scrapbook pages and leave messages for your kids in their scrapbooks.
• Make interactive flash cards. This would be great for learning foreign languages where hearing the word will help you tremendously.
• Leave notes with instructions for your family.
• Add notes to a book. I always get ideas from books and now I can add a sticker and record a quick note.
• Make kid’s chore charts interactive with your complete instructions on a sticker.

The ideas are endless. The stickers are re-recordable and require a Livescribe pen (version 2.7 software) to record and play back.

Livescribe Video

Here is a 2 minute video showing you what a Livescribe pen can do. They do not specifically mention the Sound Stickers, but you can see how the pen works.

Livescribe Sound Stickers retail for $24.95 and include 1000 stickers per package.

The Livescribe pen and the Sound Stickers make a great gift for students, professionals and families.

Disclosure: I received a Livescribe Echo pen and Livescribe Sound Stickers in exchange for this review. All opinions are 100% my own.

Let’s Talk About Sound Stickers!

How would you use Livescribe Sound Stickers?

Affiliate Links

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Livescribe Sound Stickers; Add Your Voice to Anything! originally posted at Scraps of My Geek Life.

Why Do You Need a Personal Safety Device?

Maybe you are thinking you don’t walk in dark allies at night alone so why do you need a personal safety device? How about when you walk back to your car at the mall at 7:00 pm and it’s dark. You had to park miles away because it’s the holidays and everyone must go to the mall on a Monday night at 7:00 pm.

I have 2 older kids who walk to and from their friend’s house. I have given them all the speech about what to do “just in case,” but installing bSafe on their iPhones makes me feel even better. I have them open the app when they are walking home (even when with a friend.)

My philosophy is

Better safe than sorry.

Installing bSafe

bSafe is a free app and can be downloaded for the iPhone, Blackberry and/or Android device by:

• Enter your phone number on this page (http://www.bipper.com/bsafe/) and download via SMS
• Search for bSafe using the iTunes or the Android Marketplace
• Text bsafe to 84145

I have downloaded the bSafe iPhone app on both of my teenage kid’s phones and on my phone. It helps knowing there is an easy free option.

Created By A Mom

bSafe was created by Silje Vallestad because she wanted a safe mobile option for her own 3 kids.

Here is Siljie being interviewed by Fox News and explaining how bSafe came to be.

bSafe Features

SOS button to push when you want to send your chosen contacts an SOS message with your location. I tell my kids that when they are walking alone (which is rare) or uncomfortable, just open the bSafe app so you can hit SOS if needed.

bSafe will send a message with your current location to your “Guardians.”

Kids are sometimes in situations they are uncomfortable with and they don’t know how to get out of them. bSafe has a Fake Call option. Set it to call you in 5 seconds or up to 10 minutes.

Premium vSafe

Today, as I was writing my post, we had a situation where the premium version of bSafe would have come in handy. My daughter has bSafe on her phone, but I have not put the premium version on her phone yet. She didn’t come home on the bus. She told me that cheerleading was canceled so I was expecting her home. Usually she texts me if that changes…no text. I was worried. I tried calling her and texting her, but she was not near her phone, so she couldn’t hear it.

Fortunately, everything was ok and when my husband got to school she was there. But there was 30 minutes where I was very worried. I’m installing the premium version of bSafe today so I could have tracked her location and seen that she was at school. The premium version is $1.99/month or $14.99/year.

Let’s Talk About a Personal Safety Device!

Do you use a personal safety device? Do you talk to your children about being safe?

Disclosure: This post is part of a compensated campaign with Bipper where I was paid for my time in evaluating and sharing bSafe. All opinions are my own.

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My grandmother preserved some of their memories, but not all of them. And where are those memories my grandmother preserved? My mom has a copy of all the pictures and videos. My kids have no idea these even exist.

I was thinking that adding all of those memories to LiveOn would be so awesome because not only would my kids have access to it, but my sisters and their kids and all the future generations. I am also sure that we all have different memories and experiences with my grandparents. This would give each of us a chance to write what we remember and share with others.

Preserve Memories Forever With LiveOn

LiveOn Rewind will help me get all those photos and videos into my LiveOn account to preserve memories forever. LiveOn Rewind is very easy to use. Here is the process:

1. LiveOn sends you the box.

2. You package up the photos and videos.

3. LiveOn converts your memories.

That is so simple!

I have tried to do this myself before and it is very time-consuming and even though I am very tech-savvy, I still had a few of the videos that I would spend hours converting and discover I did something wrong. So, I just gave up. I’m going to let LiveOn Rewind take care of those now.

LiveOn Rewind Coupon Code

LiveOn has provided me with a holiday coupon to share with you. With “HOLIDAYREWIND” you will get 30% off your LiveOn Rewind order.

Disclosure: Thank you to LiveOn for sponsoring this blog post. Please LiveOn to learn more about sharing and preserving your most important memories. I was selected for this sponsorship by Clever Girls Collective. Although story ideas were provided, all thoughts and opinions are my own.

Let’s Preserve Memories Forever!

Do you have memories that are in a box or drawer that need to be preserved for future generations? Tell me a story about a memory you want to preserve for the future.

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Preserve Memories Forever For Future Generations With LiveOn originally posted at Scraps of My Geek Life.

Books For Teen Boys

Here are three books that Scholastic suggests for high school-aged boys:

• The Eleventh Plague By Jeff Hirsch
• Under Dogs By Markus Zusak
• iBoy By Kevin Brooks

I tested this out on my teen-aged son. I gave him all 3 books for teen boys and told him he could keep the ones he wanted to read. He kept them all! These books for teen boys passed the 15-year-old boy test!

The Eleventh Plague

The Eleventh Plague is about 15-year-old, Stephen Quinn and his family who survived a deadly plague that killed two-thirds of the population. They became salvagers roaming across the country searching for anything they can find to trade for food and other essentials for living. Tragedy strikes the family and Stephen finds himself alone. He finds Settler’s Landing, a community that is thriving after the plague. Stephen meets Jenny and together they play a horrible prank that changes lives forever.

Underdogs

UnderDogs is the first book of a Trilogy about the Wolfe brothers. Cameron & Ruben Wolfe are always getting into fights, coming up with schemes and disappointing everyone. At the same time, they are very loyal to each other. This loyalty is tested when one brother falls for the other brother’s girlfriend.

iBoy

iBoy, a wifi thriller, is about Tom Harvey who is your average teen in a South London housing project. An attack turns him into an App with pieces of a broken iPhone embedded in his brain. He can now do much more than the other teen boys. With this new power, he seeks revenge.

This book looks like something I would love too. I’ll have to remember to get it from my son when he finishes reading it.

Books For Teen Boys Giveaway

ENDED! Scholastic has provided a giveaway for one (1) lucky reader. The prize package (valued at approx $105) includes:

• Copies of iBoy, The Eleventh Plague, and Under Dogs! (1 of each book)
  
• $50 Visa Cash Card

The giveaway ends at 1:00 pm ET on Monday, December 19, 2011. At that time, I will use “And The Winner Is” to pick one random winner. The winner will have 48 hours to respond or I will choose another winner. Open to U.S. residents only.

To Enter:

Leave a comment below letting me know who you would share this prize package with if you win.

Disclosure: I received one prize package in exchange for this review. All opinions are 100% my own.

Be sure to check out my other Scholastic Giveaway for The 39 Clues series.

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Books For Teen Boys; This Is Teen originally posted at Scraps of My Geek Life.

The 39 Clues book series is about the Cahill, family as they search for 39 clues hidden around the world. The clues guard the source of the Cahill’s powers and each book is an adventure to find a clue.

We just got started with The 39 Clues books recently. My daughter read the first book and has been waiting for me to get the second book.

The coolest part (in my opinion) of The 39 Clues book series is written by a different author  of each book and has a companion website. The series was started by Rick Riordan, author of the Percy Jackson series.

 

The 39 Clues Rapid Fire eBooks

On December 25, The 39 Clues Rapid Fire, a stand-alone adventure begins…

Seven Days, Seven Stories – One Explosive Secret

These short e-books will be available online for 99 cents each and will be released starting 12/25/11. Each day a different top-secret eBook short story is released ending on December 31 with an explosive secret finale. There will be codes hidden in the 7 stories which combine to unlock the exclusive card and medal at The 39 Clues website.

The 39 Clues Giveaway

ENDED! Scholastic has provided me with one set The 39 Clues paper cover books 1 – 10 (retail value of $70) to giveaway to one (1) lucky reader. The giveaway ends at 1:00 pm ET on Monday, December 19, 2011. At that time, I will use “And The Winner Is” to pick one random winner. The winner will have 48 hours to respond or I will choose another winner. Open to U.S. residents only.

To enter The 39 Clues Rapid Fire Giveaway:

Leave a comment with the name of the book you are currently reading.

For Extra Entries, leave a separate comment letting me know you have completed each extra entry.

1. Like The 39 Clues on Facebook.

2. Follow The 39 Clues on Twitter.

3. Like Scraps of My Geek Life on Facebook.

Disclosure: I received a complete prize package from Scholastic in exchange for this post. All opinions of The 39 Clues Rapid Fire are 100% my own.

Be sure to check out my other Scholastic Giveaway for Teen Boys.

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The 39 Clues Rapid Fire E-Book Series Holiday Release originally posted at Scraps of My Geek Life.

I have flown out to San Francisco several times, but I guess I never had a window seat because I don’t ever remember seeing this view. It was such a gorgeous view.

Photo taken with my Olympus PEN E-PM1 from the PEN READY Project.

I arrived at the Hotel Sofitel with a few hours to spare and I decided to rest. I was still recovering from my 3 weeks of pneumonia.

That evening we met in the hotel lounge for some appetizers, drinks and to catch up. Getting together with a small group of tech mom bloggers is so much fun. It was great catching up with everyone and the desserts were yummy!!

Small Cheesecakes

Chocolate covered strawberries.

PlayStation Family

The next morning we headed over to the PlayStation Headquarters where we met with several of PlayStation’s employees and got a super secret tour. The sign outside the conference room welcoming the PlayStation Family.

Eighteen tech bloggers who are also Moms make up the PlayStation Family Group (#PSFamily). Sixteen of us were able to make the trip out to San Francisco.

Meeting Jack Tretton

In the past 4 years, I have attended many brand summits and I can only remember one other time where the CEO of the company came in to talk with us. As a brand ambassador, I realize the importance of what I do, but when the CEO takes time out of his schedule to talk to us personally, then we know that the company values what we do. That was really exciting! I love learning about the history of a tech company, why they do what they do, future plans, their vision and how the products go from idea to being in my home.

Here is Jack Tretton, President & CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment talking with us about PlayStation’s story and where we fit into the picture. This was a conversation where he listened as much as he talked.

PS Vita In Person!

One of the highlights for me was getting to see, hold and try the new PS Vita. I will do a whole post on the PS Vita, but I wanted to give you a glimpse of it. The touchpad on the back is AWESOME. I wasn’t sure about it, but after trying it out, I love it. PlayStation has some awesome features that tie the PS Vita into your entire Sony Entertainment system.

PS Vita will be out in the US in February

Isn’t it beautiful?

We also learned a lot about all that the PlayStation has available on the PS3 in terms of entertainment. You could spend weeks on it and never do the same thing twice I think. Don’t worry…I will have lots of future posts covering many of the different features.

Here is a picture of the #PSFamily group with Jack Tretton.

Super Secret Tour

After lunch, we had a super secret tour of the audio department at PlayStation. I could tell you all about it, but then I’d have to kill you! But seriously…I’ll just say it was AWESOME! I will have a post in a few days with some of the highlights that I can share. I never realized all that went into a game and in particular the audio of a game.

Playing at PlayStation!

A trip to the PlayStation headquarters would not be complete without some game time. Since I was getting over pneumonia and was having a hard time breathing, I left the playing to the others while I watched!

Kris & Amy playing Everybody Dance

A Little Cha Cha Cha!

We ended the day with a little Cha Cha Cha (not Slide), but Cuban food.

This was the private room in the basement where we ate. The decor was so interesting.

I took the red-eye home straight from dinner. The event was very interesting and I loved catching up with everyone and learning about PlayStation.

Disclosure: Playstation covered my expenses for the trip to the headquarters. All opinions are 100% my own.

Let’s Talk About PlayStation Family!

Is there anything you would like to know more about PlayStation? Anything you would like me to write about? Let me know!

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Meeting The PlayStation Family; See PS Vita originally posted at Scraps of My Geek Life.