This Friday, July 16th, Walmart and Proctor & Gamble premiere their second made -for-TV family movie collaboration with “The Jensen Project”.  Walmart and P&G previously collaborated on “Secrets of the Mountain”, which aired in April and was watched by more than 7 and a half million people!  Since I previously reviewed “Secrets of the Mountain” and we really enjoyed both the movie and the soundtrack, I agreed to tell Table for Five readers about “The Jensen Project”. I’m hoping to be able to do a giveaway as well; I’ll let you know if that works out!

Airing from 8-10 pm EST on July 16th 2010 on NBC, “The Jensen Project” stars Kellie Martin (“Life Goes On”), LeVar Burton (“Star Trek” and “Reading Rainbow”), Patricia Richardson (“Home Improvement”), TV series regular Brady Smith, Alyssa Diaz (“Southland”) and a young Canadian TV actor named Justin Kelly. The soundtrack was produced by Randy Jackson of American Idol and features Idol winner Jordin Sparks, Idol contestant Brooke White and Alisan, Ilsey & Jordan.

The title of the movie refers to a secret community of geniuses who conduct research to solve some of the world’s biggest problems. After a 16 year absence, Claire and Matt Thompson (Martin and Smith) return to The Jensen Project along with their teenage son Brody (Kelly), and end up in a race to save potentially dangerous technology from falling into the wrong hands.  Although I’ve only seen the trailer, I can assume that the Thompsons will have to trust each other, work together, and be brave in the face of danger. Here’s the trailer:

“The Jensen Project” DVD and soundtrack will be sold together in a bonus pack exclusively at Walmart starting Saturday, July 17. You can also buy the “Secrets of the Mountain” DVD and CD at Walmart. I can vouch for the soundtrack of that movie being great for both Moms and kids to listen to   For more information on “The Jensen Project”, visit www.thejensenproject.com.  I’ll be watching it with my kids this Friday night!

disclosure: I received a screener disc so I could familiarize myself with this movie before writing this post. I will also be receiving the

Related articles by Zemanta

• The Jensen Project (variety.com)
• Watch Trailer: ‘The Jensen Project’ (beliefnet.com)

Bookmark This Post:

Related posts:

1. Secrets of the Mountain Sneak Peek and Giveaway “Secrets of the Mountain” is a new family movie airing...
2. Secrets of the Mountain Giveaway Winner Congratulations to the winner of the Secrets of the Mountain...
3. Watch This With Your Kids- Ice Age 3 Dawn of the Dinosaurs Ice Age 3 Dawn of the Dinosaurs is out on...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Which is why it makes me so happy when something I do puts a smile on his face.  The other night for dinner, I made the Baked Penne recipe from The Stocked Kitchen, a cookbook/cooking system I picked up at the Home & Housewares Show in Chicago.  The recipe is very similar to what my Mom called goulash – ground beef cooked with onions, garlic and diced tomatoes (this recipe uses fresh basil as well), mixed with cooked penne (my Mom used macaroni). Then, it gets topped with a whole lot of mozzarella cheese and baked in the oven until it’s ooey gooey (yes, that’s an official cooking term!)

It smelled so good that while he was helping me pour the meat/pasta mixture into a baking dish, Chris grabbed a small bowl and scooped some in, then sprinkled some shredded mozzarella on it and popped it in the microwave to melt.  This is what the bowl he microwaved looked like:

And this was the look on his face while he was eating:

For all the times he has a scowl on his face when he comes home from work, for all evenings when the exhaustion of working nonstop on this project is clearly showing on his face when he sits down at the dinner table, all the times he tells me he hasn’t had time to eat lunch at work for DAYS – this made me feel like I was helping.  It felt good to put a meal in front of him that he really liked and that made him smile.

I love you, sweetie.

Bookmark This Post:

Related posts:

1. I think I was in the Twilight Zone yesterday Yesterday was a bad day. I took the kids to...
2. The Turkey is Brining… I did this sort of product review for Kikkoman two...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Four years ago today, my beautiful angel pumpkin princess Kaitlyn was born!

From the moment she came into our lives, she was the baby we didn’t know we needed to have until we had her, and then it was like “ahhhh….so that’s what we needed to be a complete family!”.   Chris, Ryan, Nathan and I fell completely in love with this tiny little girl.

It’s hard to describe Kaitlyn in just a few words. She is this bright ray of sunshine that has our family completely under her control. We are powerless to resist her adorableness, her hugs and kisses and the way she is always checking up on everyone to see what they are doing and if they are okay. She’s like a little Mommy already!

So far today, she’s requested to watch Spongebob, she wants lunch at Arby’s, and I still need to wrap her gifts- a new family for her dollhouse and the Snow White doll that comes with the little animals. She already got a cake over the weekend at my parents house,  so we’ll probably go out for ice cream after dinner.

Happy Birthday my big four year old girl! I love you bunches and bunches and bunches!

Bookmark This Post:

Related posts:

1. Looking for the Happy October begins a long, dark slide for me into seasonal...
2. Wordless Wednesday-Family Life This Week Kaitlyn helping Chris choose which UNO card to play: Ryan,...
3. Life According to Kaitlyn Nov. 2009 Me: Let’s go outside in the sunshine and get some...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

We started out in the morning heading to a nearby comic book shop for National Free Comic Book Day. Kaitlyn was in her best geek chic t-shirt, the one from ThinkGeek that reads “Come to the dark side, we have cookies-V”  The comic book store had a table set up with piles of comics, and we could each take five. I grabbed a Simpson’s comic and one from Cartoon Network. The boys scooped up Fantastic Four, the Avengers, and Darkhawk.

I wouldn’t have had to spend anything, except there was an artist there selling his own comic ($3.00) plus a really cool drawing of Hellboy ($5.00), and he was chatting with Ryan about how Ryan can learn more about how to draw and writing down his email address and the title of a book Ryan should get, PLUS he’s a blogger, so I caved in and handed over the cash.

From there we went in search of something to eat and ended up at a place called The Pita Pit. We had THE BEST pita sandwiches we had ever had. Mine was turkey,bacon, and mashed avocado with feta cheese and vinegar and oil dressing, YUM. (Three sandwiches, four drinks, $18)

We came home and did a bunch of housework, then Kaitlyn and I took a nap. When we got up, I took Ryan and Nathan plus Nathan’s friend Forrest to Maggie Moo’s for ice cream. We had never been there before. And seriously? The best dark chocolate ice cream I have EVER HAD (3 regular ice creams, one shake, a malt to take home to Chris, $25)

From Maggie Moo’s we went over to Schuler’s bookstore where I wandered around for a good hour looking for something to read.  I kept waiting for the perfect book to jump off it’s shelf and land on me.  I picked up half a dozen titles, flipped through, put them back.

I ended up buying Heather Armstrong’s “It Sucked, and then I Cried“, and when we got home, sat down and read two thirds of it without stopping.  Even though the topic of the book-her first pregnancy, how hard the morning sickness is, how hard it is to deal with the expanding body size, her relatively easy labor, and then those loooooong first few months with a newborn when you would kill someone for a few more hours of sleep- is not unique, it’s the way she writes it. Plus the book has a section of color photos of Leta as a tiny baby, SO cute (one book, $24)

So, $75.00 for one day of “fun”.  And looking at that list, I see that yes, I could have said no at the comic store, taken the kids home for PB&J,  skipped Maggie Moos and thus the bookstore.  But we had fun together too. So I think I’ll give myself a pass on the guilt today and just remember we had a fun day, albeit an expensive one.

Bookmark This Post:

Related posts:

1. 5 Ways To Pack A Healthier Lunch School starts next Tuesday for my boys, which means I...
2. Looney Tunes Kids Eating Right – Teaching Kids To Make Healthy Choices It’s hard for me to make healthy choices for myself,...
3. How Much TV Should Your Kids Watch? In the middle sidebar you’ll see a widget that has...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Yesterday, Nestle flew me to Solon, Ohio to attend a day-long conference and roundtable discussion on the topic of Let’s Fix Dinner. This morning we started out in the Nestle Baking Kitchen meeting with Jenny from VeryBestBaking.com and eating fresh-baked cookies (YUM). Then we moved into their Culinary Center which is like a huge kitchen with grills and a wood-fire pizza oven station and people chopping and grilling and mixing.

There is Pecan-Crusted BACON, people. I am in heaven.

We’ve only been here an hour and I’ve already been reminded of just how loyal I am to the Nestle brand. I’ve mentioned before that the only acceptable chocolate chip cookie as far as my husband is concerned is ones made with Nestle Toll House Mini Morsels.

Other products made by Nestle include Carnation Condensed Milks, Libby pumpkin, Pria bars, Powerbars, and of course, CANDY. There’s a little tray sitting in front of me with mini butterfingers and nestle crunch bars.

BACON COATED IN BROWN SUGAR, ROLLED IN CRUSHED PECANS, AND BAKED. NOM NOM NOM NOM.

We’re having presentations from a psychologist, an expert on raising teens, Antonia from last season’s Top Chef, and our moderator is a famous Cleveland newscaster. Pretty cool.

I’ll be twittering regularly today with the hashtag #letsfixdinner if you want to keep an eye on those.

I NEED MOAR BACON.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/table4five/

Bookmark This Post:

Related posts:

1. Nestle announces Libby’s pumpkin shortage Image by Pumpkin Passion via Flickr When I visited the...
2. Nestle Family School Supplies Giveaway This giveaway is closed. Congratulations to the winner, comment #27...
3. Baked Penne and my husband’s smiling face Even though Chris is managing a super-stressful project at work,...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.