#Walmart Mom of the Year Award Finalists are here! #MOTY

Did you ever get a chance to nominate a super mom for Walmart's Mom of the Year Award (#MOTY)? 16909 moms were nominated in total and this is only the first year! Pretty amazing, right? I can't imagine how big this will get next year in 2013! However, we are now down to one of 8 finalists. You can read them all on www.momoftheyear.ca. All with compassionate and caring stories, it really warms my heart that when one of them win, not only will they win $10K, their hand-picked charities will also win $100K. Can you imagine how much good that will do? Having personally experienced what others go through, I believe each and every one of these to be a worthy cause. It's going to be a tough pick.

Nominate your Mom for the #Walmart Mom of the Year Award #MOTY #MothersDay

How was your Mother's Day? Did you spend it with your mother or your kids? I'm quite far away from my mom right now and was happy that I was able to Skype with her, even for a few minutes. When you don't see your mom all the time, every moment that you do get becomes precious. In celebration of Mother's Day, nominate someone you feel deserves Walmart Mom of the Year Award. I would love to nominate my own mom and grandma, although I am not eligible to win. I believe my grandmother is one of the most caring mothers of all time. She has always been absolutely positive no matter what happens to her, be it sadness or tragedy. She stays strong and smiles for the sake of her children and grandchildren. She forgoes everything for the sake of her family and easily gives up her own happiness just to put a smile on the faces of those around her. When my mother was just a child, their family was poor and so, my grandma would often go without food so that the kids could eat. No matter how little she had or how upside down their world was, it did not matter, taking care of her family came first. She was never cynical, she was never mean, and she would never harm a fly. She is the epitome of kindness and caring and if possible, I'd nominate her for Mom of the Century! She is what inspires my mother and I to become better people. Got a great story to tell or want to recognize your mom? Nominate them for the Mom of the Year Award.

Jamie Broza's "I want a Dog!" Kids CD Review & Giveaway

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Have you heard of Jamie Broza?? He's the four-time winning composer/performer and he just came out with a new children's CD, called "I want a Dog!" It features Israeli superstar David Broza and its his first new children's album in five years. That's not all about Jamie Broza...if you don't know him as Jamie Broza, you may recognize his alter-ego, Jamie Lawrence, the name under which he does music for adults and various music stints writing music scores for the Berenstain Bears (I used to love the Berenstain Bears!), films for CBS, NBC, PBS, HBO and the Discovery Channel)

So, who doesn't want a dog!?! Virtually all kids do and even I did as a child. This album title and fun graphical elements were attractive to me even before I listened to the album! Although the CD title was "I want a Dog!", this CD was definitely not all dog. It had a great variety of songs and I think one of my favorite on the album is "New School".  It even has a Spanish lesson within the song "Guatemala" if you want to start your kids off early with learning a little bit of a new language.


This album actually came about as a result of Jamie's family dog, Dusty, who they adopted from the North Shore Animal League America so 20% of the profits from this CD will go towards North Animal League America. What a great cause! Let me tell you, my baby was adopted and although I've gone through a lot with her already (Imagine this, 4 surgeries and she's only 6.5 months old!!), I don't regret a second of it. I think my adoption of her was one of the best things I've ever done in my life.  Jamie hopes that this CD will encourage others to adopt rescue animals and I fully support this cause. My puppy is absolutely beautiful and thriving much better now than she would've at the domestically violent home she was born into. This gives her a chance at life that she deserves, as do all the other dogs at shelters and adoption centers. If you are considering getting a dog, consider adoption...it changes both your lives and it has been nothing but great since I've adopted her and she is such a vital part of my life that I wouldn't change anything. :)


Anyhow, back to the album... its 41 minutes of fun for kids aged 3-7. A great addition of fun and learning to that childrens' CD library. For more information on Jamie, checkout his website.

Buy It: Jamie Broza's "I Want a Dog!" CD ($12.99US) will be released March 15, 2011.

Win It: One very lucky Whirlwind of Surprises reader is going to win a Jamie Broza's "I Want a Dog" CD set before the official release!

To Enter (MANDATORY): This must be entered as ONE entry before the bonus entries count! I will check. PLEASE Leave a contact email in your entries if it is not found in your profile, if I can't contact you, you can't win. :)

1) Follow Whirlwind of Surprises on Google Friends Connect 

Bonus Entries -Please make sure you put 1 comment for each entry. e.g. If it says 2 entries, put 2 comments.

• Like Whirlwind of Surprises on facebook. Please leave your first name and last initial-1 entry
• Blog about this giveaway with a link to this post. Please leave your link. -2 entries.
• Grab my button and tell me where its at -2 entries
• Enter any of my other giveaways -1 entry
• Follow Whirlwind of Surprises on Networked Blogs -1 entry
• Follow Whirlwind of Surprises on Twitter and ReTweet this: RT @cinnybbs #Win 4-time Emmy Winning Jamie Broza's "I want a Dog" #Kids CD from #WOS http://bit.ly/eV4YB3 US/CAN. Ends 02/19. #giveaway
• (can be Tweeted up to 3x daily for extra 2 entries each time. Each tweet must be 2 hours apart. Leave your tweet link)
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Giveaway ends 11:59 pm EST on February 19, 2011. Open to US and Canada. Winner will be drawn by a random number generator, posted on this blog and emailed. Winner must respond within 48 hours or a new winner will be drawn.

Disclaimer: The product/s mentioned above have been provided free of charge from the manufacturer or PR company for the purposes of this review. Opinions expressed belong to Whirlwind of Surprises and are NOT influenced in any way. Please view my full disclosure.

Until next time,

Like what you see? Follow me on GFC and twitter (@CinnyBBS) to get the latest updates. Like us on facebook or join us through Network Blogs. Leave me a comment if you'd like me to follow back on any of these.

Oohhh...an award plus the rest of my week...all bundled into one ;)

I'm very delighted to announce that I've received my very first blog award from Traci66. I'm honored and pleased to have received the "One Lovely Blog" Award. Thank you Traci!

This is how this award works:

1) Thank the people who gave you the award.

2) Pass the award forward.

3) Email those people you've awarded to let them know.

1) Kathryn @MommyKatandKids

This is the first weekend my SO and I have not been on call so it has been nice, spending some time with our baby and relaxing. Today though, needs to be very productive! :) I need to catch up on a month's worth of bills, hospital related work and a lot of other random things.

Thing is, I never wanted nor liked to blog about my life in the hospital...but this week, I felt how fulfilling it was to help out my patients, recognize them afterwards and have them give you their heartfelt thanks and I felt compelled to share my story. The patient I had been following previously came back for a follow up visit and she recognized me and the work I had done for her. This is what I'm in the field for... not for the money, not for the glory, but for the sense of fulfillment when you have truly helped someone and made a difference in their lives. And that is a truly beautiful thing.  Unfortunately though, when you tell people you are a doctor or going to become a doctor, most people have the misconception that doctors make a lot of money and some of them do, but the majority of them also come out of their education owing upwards of $100K for their tuition and training over many years. God knows how much debt I've already accumulated and will continue to accumulate for the sake of a good education that will allow me to help people's lives.

On another note, my baby terrier has gained weight...for the first several weeks, she was barely gaining any weight but she's shot up a full pound in a week. We've bought her a playpen to run around in but she doesn't seem to like it very much. For some reason, she likes her wee wee pads to sleep on more than peeing on. Is that normal?? 

Until next time,

Like what you see? Follow me on GFC and twitter (@CinnyBBS) to get the latest updates. Like us on facebook or join us through Network Blogs. Leave me a comment if you'd like me to follow back on any of these.