August 30, 2011
 

Well here it is.  The night before Olivia, my 6 year old, starts school.  It’s the first time she’ll actually be GOING to school.  I homeschooled her in her Kindergarten year and it was a blast…but hard.  Really really hard.  I lot of people ask why I chose that route and I have a lot of reasons but the main one was because I worked at night.  If she was in school during the day and I was here at night I’d never see my daughter.  I couldn’t imagine.  So I studied up, found some great help and homeschooled her!  Now we weren’t doing Quantum Physics or anything but like I said it was HARD.  Being accountable for your kid’s education is a daunting proposition.  Hats off to our teachers.  Seriously.  Heroes all of you.
 

I’m about to cry just talking about Olivia going to school.  She is TOTALLY ready…got the supplies, new bag, new shoes, new outlook…I’m a hot mess.  I’m going to be THAT mom.  You know the one.  The one that “hovers” at the door of the classroom peeking in for as long as she can until the teacher finally has to ask her to GO HOME.  Uh oh…hear come the tears.  Why is this so hard?  WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!  Maybe I’m overly attached to my kid.  Maybe I worry too much about outside influences and I want to keep her sheltered FOREVER (I can’t I know).  Maybe all parents feel some variation of this feeling.  I’m just really sentimental and…
 

I got to stop typing about it.  I cannot see the keyboard through my tears.  Someone tell me that I won’t lose my little girl.  That she will always be my little bug and will still come to me FIRST when she needs love, help or wants to cuddle.  I’ll miss her waving goodbye to me on the front porch every single day when I leave for work.  This is the best week of her life.  She has no idea how hard it is for me.
 

Happy school year to everyone, students, parents and teachers alike.  Have fun.  Make friends.  Play fair.  Stick up for the little guy or the kid who gets picked on.  The future of our great country will be in YOUR HANDS someday.  Be ready!
 

Lia

It's that time of year again...Valentine's Day is almost here! Hopefully, you already knew that, but if not don't worry because I'm here to help you out.  I have teamed up with ProFlowers to make sure you are prepared this year.  Need a gift idea? ProFlowers has got you covered and for a limited time they are offering LIA LISTENERS great deals on bouquets and packages.  Check it out at ProFlowers.com.  Don't wait!

Plus, ProFlowers sent us some $50 gift cards and I will be GIVING them away starting MONDAY.  Not the most romantic person around, give me a call and I may be able to help you out, but don't wait too long, only one week left...

What could be better than FLOWERS for Valentine's Day?!?

Call 1-800-PROFLOWERS and mention "LIA" or go to PROFLOWERS.COM click on the microphone in the top right corner and enter "LIA"

Here’s hoping you are swimming in love…even if you LOVE yourself, your dog, your family, your country.  Treat yourself to something sweet and I’ll talk to you soon on the show!

Lia

At my house there is a competition going on.  Which kid makes the more AWESOME snack? They’ve tried everything, every KIND of food that can be made into a snack; chips, crackers, cheese, candy, etc.  Then someone threw down the gauntlet and brought out the Chex Mix and since then ONLY CHEX MIX can be used.  I think it had something to do with the contest that Chex Mix did awhile back, about making the best Chex Mix?  So far my daughter Alyssa, who always brings her A game when it comes to food, has the lead.  Her Chocolate, Peanut Butter, Powder Sugar-Coated Chex Mix Balls pretty much ROCK.  Go ahead you can try that out but if you’re like me keep it simple especially on the Big Game Day. 

All you need are bowls, Chex Mix, Friends and a tv. 

They got 13 flavors so knock yourself out.  You don’t need to put that much thought into football snacks when someone else has pretty much done that for you.  That someone is Chex Mix.  We are big believers (and snackers) of Chex Mix and they seem to like it that we like them.  So as a THANK YOU Chex Mix or “CM” (we’re close now I can use their initials as a nickname) gave me a BUNCH of Chex Mix or “CM’s” to give to YOU.  Hey look at that!  One less thing yet again you gotta worry about on game day.  Woot!  

Send your game day tips and traditions to lia@radiolia.com and you could win your own Chex Mix "Game Day" Prize Pack!

Food, Football and Friends go together like…I don’t know…like all the stuff in a bag of Chex Mix.  Enjoy the game, enjoy the food and friends and as always…love your country.

Lia

So…we got MANY MANY boxes of Chex Mix and were given a mission:  Make the Chex Mix Party Mixes and eat them up…yum.

Easy enough.

We decided, considering we had so many boxes of Chex Mix to do a massive Chex Mix “sampler.”  Try as many different recipes as possible.  At first I thought “hey this is a good idea and fun for all the kids so why not?”  Then the kids’ friends showed up and I had about 10 teenagers in the kitchen.  All of a sudden what started out as a great idea became a very LOUD and HUNGRY situation.  Corralling teenagers is like wrangling kittens so I stuck a mixing bowl in each of their faces and told them to go to town.  Each mixed their own favorite recipe.  Now that seemed like the easy part, actually…but it wasn’t.  Arguments ensued.  “NO YOU DO THE SWEET ONES I GET THE SPICY.”  ‘NO I SAW THE COOKIE PIZZA THING FIRST SO I’M DOING THAT.”

All I knew was that the sooner we got at least one recipe done the quicker I could find something for their mouths to do besides yap.

We started with the easy ones (well they are ALL easy), the “old school” mix then moved to the Backyard BBQ (this one is easily my favorite of the spicy).  My daughter, Alyssa (we call her Granola because she’s kind of a health nut) opted for the healthy recipes and has found her own Chex Heaven with the Honey Nut Cherry Crunch.  She actually changed the recipe a little and added cranberries, raisins and cherries.  Me?  Well I went straight to my own little slice of heaven:  Chex Peanut Butter and Chocolate.  Seriously the person who came up with that should get a medal.  Holy cow.  WOW.

The kids saved the Cookie Pizza thing for last but because we had spent about 3 hours and used up pretty much all the Chex Mix we were given we had to take a break and go to the store to buy more.  I think my youngest daughter Olivia liked that one hand’s down.  The idea of making a pizza out of snack foods is enough to excite any kid.  

There was some talk of making up our own Chex Mix recipe and we still might.  Olivia seems to think we need to make a special mix for Santa Claus to include nuts, yogurt and peanut butter chips, and jelly beans…she said it could be the “PB&J Chex Mix”.  

Maybe we can make one with carrots and stuff for the reindeer too?

Chex Mix also sent us a Chex Party Mix Prize Pack to giveaway so you can make your own Holiday treats!

Check out more great recipies HERE!  

There are only 10 songs on Keith Urban’s new CD…unless they either didn’t send me ALL OF THE TRACKS or there’s a hidden one (which is always fun) we’ll just have to deal with only ten new songs from Keith Urban.


In my opinion (let me say that again…for legal reasons) IN MY OPINION…the new single Put You In A Song is the weakest on the whole album.  It’s a good song.  That’s the thing.  What I’m saying is the whole CD is


Just. That. Good.


There’s a song called Georgia Wood that reminds me of a Fixx song called “Red Skies At Night” (well just the beginning).  Plus a couple of love songs that leave absolutely no doubt who Keith’s muses are.  His last CD  Defying Gravity was almost…ALMOST as good as Golden Road.  Almost but not quite. 


This one is as good if not better.  Except…there are ONLY TEN SONGS.



Yay for Keith.  Love is grand.  Happiness is NOT overrated and the banjo will live forever.  In Keith’s case the Ganjo or whatever that hybrid thing is he plays.  Keith’s birthday is the 26th of this month (4 days before my birthday!) and this album release and what I’m sure will be fantastic reviews subsequent to its release will be a nice belated birthday present. 

Up until about a month ago I had two dogs.  One of them, my pug MR. TATER TOT KNIGHT, was in my life LOOOONG before all of these people came along.  Seriously he was PRE children and stepchildren, PRE husband.  He was the ALPHA.  Then I met Chad and my steppies.  At first Chad begrudgingly accepted Tate and just learned to deal.  Then when we got married the tension began.  Tater and Chad fought over bed space and attention. Tater peed on his clothes, chewed on his shoes and if he had a middle finger he would’ve flipped it at Chad every chance he got. When I got pregnant…that was the last straw.  Chad dropped the bombshell heard around the world (or just our house):  “NO MORE DOGS IN THE BED EVER.” 

Tater was banished to the floor, then eventually OUT OF THE ROOM.  I was heartbroken.  My husband’s stern belief that dogs should NOT be in the bedroom was just too lame.  But I accepted it and tried my best to accommodate TATER’S needs. I bought him a REALLY REALLY expensive dog bed and put it right outside the bedroom door!  He’s slept there ever since.  Well until recently and I’ll get to that in a minute. First though you need to know about the OTHER dogs.  I always thought that since Tater was alone he’d enjoy a playmate/sibling dog.  A while back I adopted a rescue dog named Bones.  Bones was a stray and it wasn’t long before we realized that he had major issues.  He bit every SINGLE person  except me.  He fought with Tater constantly over turf.  That last  straw was that Bones bit our 5 year old.  It wasn’t a major bite but enough of a red flag to make us have to make the decision to find him a new home.  We did.  He’s fine and happy now that he’s the only dog in his new home with a lovely older lady who enjoys and appreciates his territorial and protective nature. 

So then we were back to just Tater.  Until about February when I discovered MINI.  Mini is a “party Pom” but believe me when I tell you this girl’s party is O-V-E-R.  She was rescued from a puppy mill after having tons of puppies and living in feces/urine filled crate most of her life. I had to bring her home and let’s just say she and TATER are BFF’s.  No drama, no biting, no turf war.  The boy/girl combo is pretty good.  Mini is very much MY DOG, though.  She follows me everywhere and hides behind the bed until I get home.  Occasionally she’ll sneak into my husband’s studio and sit on his couch and wait…until the garage door opens and I come home.  TATER is kind of old at this point and prefers to sleep until I get home.  However when the door opens and I walk in they are BOTH right there.  Loyal, happy and sweet (if not stinky and farty).  I should point out again that this irritated my husband.  Neither of these dogs are particularly fond of him.  They don’t mind him…they just don’t go out of their way on his behalf.
 

Admittedly Chad was jealous of the dogs.  Chad is kind of a baby.
 

So a month ago…I drove  HOURS to the house of a lady named Melissa and got something that has completely changed my husband’s life.  I got him a Yorkie.  A TEACUP YORKIE.  She is all his.  I don’t even play with her because I don’t want my juju on her.  Nope.  She’s all Chad’s.  He named her Maggie (after Margaret Thatcher.. (?)) and she LOVES HIM.  HE LOVES HER.  He now fully and completely understands why Tater slept in my bed all that time.  He sees clearly now, for the first time in his LIFE, how a dog and a man can bond.  Here’s a guy who has never had a puppy!  Seriously how sad is that?He talks about her like she’s his child, little TEARS FILL UP IN HIS EYES…it’s shocking and no man would ever want another man to see him cry over a Teacup Yorkie.  But a man can get emotional over a dog in front of his wife, especially if his wife understands that amazing dog/human bond.  It’s sweet, profound and fun.  AND FUNNY.  To see this guy walk around holding this little bitty baby doggie is…awesome.  You know what’s really awesome?  That my 5 year old daughter sees her dad dote on a tiny dog.  I don’t know why I find that so important but I think it is.
 

Three dogs, four kids (three still at home), one husband and the loudest house on the block.  I now have to bribe my stepson with money to scoop the dog poop.  When the doorbell rings the barking is insane.  The food, the medicine and vet bills (again Tater is getting old), the DOG HAIR (Tater)…did I mention the barking??    But it’s cool.  Thank God my daughter doesn’t sleep in the bed with us anymore otherwise there’d be no room to move!
 

Here’s a video and a couple of pics of Maggie in our backyard.  Enjoy and pet your puppies for me!

Lia