An amazing freelance public relations job landed in my hands a few weeks ago working alongside one of the most inspirational, enthusiastic, and positivity exhausting women I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting.  Ann Tardy is an author, keynote speaker, and founder of Life Moxie (a business designed to help managers create the remarkable within their organization), and she is setting out this month on a 2900-mile bike ride to discover the professional pulse of America.

Ann will be cycling from Key West, FL to Bar Harbor, ME with an RV and video camera in tow. Along the route, she will be stopping to interview people to find out what they love most about their jobs & to find out what gives them the courage to create the remarkable in their own work and their lives; a quest she dubbed The Moxie Ride.

The Moxie Ride originated last summer when Ann cycled across the country from San Francisco, CA to Long Branch, NJ and she put together an inspirational documentary to showcase the many people she met along the way. Her research this year will be used to fuel her next project and for her upcoming keynotes speeches.

To make this journey even more incredible, this year we are inviting you to join the Virtual Ride! By submitting a short video clip telling us what YOU love about your job, you will be entered to win an iPad, and have the chance to be featured in her next project!

As a Life as a CEO reader, I wanted to give you an extra incentive to help spread the word about the Moxie Ride mission! Leave me a comment letting me know that you followed The Moxie Ride on Facebook and you will be entered to win an amazing prize that all busy CEO moms need: this adorable all-in-one COACH Wristlet! Its truly my go-to accessory this season!

For extra entries to win the Wristlet, here is what you can do (be sure to leave a comment for each thing that you do so that you can have a better chance to win):

- Follow The Moxie Ride on Twitter
- Subscribe to The Moxie Ride You Tube page
- Share this giveaway with your readers by tweeting this post along with @themoxieride (you can do this once a day, be sure to come back every time you tweet and leave a link to your tweet)

One winner will be chosen at random on May 26th–the day that Ann Tardy kicks off The Moxie Ride 2!

Since getting an iPhone in the Fall, I’ve barely touched my digital camera.  Clearly, my 5 year old daughter has.  After uploading some recent pics that were taken on the digital camera, I discovered well over 25 self portraits that my little princess took of herself in every room in our house, with every expression she knew to make.  It provided me with loads of belly laughs, and some great blog fodder.

Here are my favorite 4 pictures {if you know Miss Mac, picture 3 is quite possibly the most accurate of all of these pictures!}:

“Jokes on them…I have the life. I get to lay in the warm sunshine in my birthday suit whenever I want.”

“Yuck. What’s that smell? Did the someone take a piss here or something? Oh….wait…I think I did.”

“Damn, I’m so hungry I could eat this piss smelling rug! What do I gotta do to get a treat around here?”

“Does this lipgloss make my ears look fat?”

“Just when I think I’ve got privacy, she snaps a pictures and she’s gonna put it on her blog!”

This post was inspired by a Writers Workshop prompt over at Mama Kat’s blog.

Maybe I’ve grown up.
Or maybe I’m just on the right dosage of Cymbalta.

Either way, lately, I amaze myself with things I am capable of doing–without fear, without hesitation, without much effort.

I haven’t been shy on here about my debacles with anxiety, and my honesty about it has resonated with several readers. That’s why I feel that it’s equally important to share the flip side of my coin, as not to brag about how personally awesome I feel, but to give solid proof to those who still struggle with anxiety conditions that there is, in fact, another side to the coin.

Flipping that coin took ridiculously hard work, I’m not going to lie. You’ve gotta want it so badly. You’ve gotta be willing to succumb to your fears. You’ve gotta be willing to Kung fu the crap out of your life every single day.

Reminiscing about the last year of my life, I started to mentally make a list of some of the fears I’ve conquered. I’m a different person today because of this list.

- I’ve trained for a half marathon, running long runs with ease and without feeling worn out to the core. Instead, feeling rejuvenated and inspired by what my own body is capable of doing.

- I’ve flown more in the last year than I have in the last 10. Each time feeling free as a bird, and NOT because I was sedated. In a few weeks, I’ll be flying to Chicago for business trip alone. That’ll be a new first.

- I got a tattoo with my sisters. Three interconnecting hearts that symbolize so very much for me at this time in my life.

- I’ve driven the Garden State Parkway, the New Jersey Turnpike, and most recently, straight into the heart of NYC through the Lincoln Tunnel….alone.

- That last driving adventure was done without a GPS or much real direction. Just based on intuition. And trust.

- I’ve started asking for exactly what I want, not settling for anything less. And, most importantly, not feeling guilty for grabbing my own life by its horns.

These things may seem trivial to those of you who have never had to deal with anxiety conditions, but for those who are like me–or know me well–you will see the life changing significance in each one of them.

It has been a busy last few days…good stuff, for the most part. I am excited to share these pictures with you from the last few days as part of the #photoadayapril challenge.

I’m not quite staying in proper order but here are a few pictures from my sons special hooky day on Thursday. I could not resist his perfect little face asking to spend some alone time with me. I jumped on the chance to have him all to myself…packing our bikes into the truck and taking off with him to a local park for a morning of exploring.

A picture of someone who makes me happy:

A picture of a shadow:

Is that not the most beautiful shade of pink?  It pleases me so much that this patch of tulips greets me as soon as I walk out of my front door.  There are no other tulips around, just these 3 standing alone.  I’m not a religious person, but I do believe these three tulips stand there for a reason; especially these days.

My husband has been collecting coins in a wooden bucket in our bedroom for years.  We’ve always joked that we’d save them for a rainy day, and cash them in to spoil ourselves with something fun, yet we’ve never given that spare change any more thought other than that.

Recently, I learned about the No Fee cash out option through Coinstar being offered at participating Stop & Shop stores and thought this could be our chance to do something fun with our collected coins.  By simply visiting select Coinstar Kiosk’s with your coins, you can select to cash out via a Stop & Shop gift card, as opposed to cash payout or other gift cards, both of which cost a 9.8% fee.

With Easter around the corner, I figured this would be a great time to splurge on some SpaFinder gift cards that the “Easter Bunny” could mysteriously drop off for my husband and I, and use the rest of the cash out to stock up on Easter basket gift cards and goodies for the kids.  Armed with my weekly food shopping list and my bucket of coins, I took a trip to my local Stop & Shop {to see more about my #NOFEECoinstar trip, click here!}.

The Coinstar Kiosk is convinently located at the entrance to our local Stop & Shop, and my kids have been eager to use it for quite some time now.  However, since I was shopping for some things for them, I needed to leave them home.  In the future, I would definitely allow them to cash in their coins for a Stop & Shop gift card, especially because the minimum amount needed to cash out is only $5!  They are always asking for me small gifts or special treats while we are grocery shopping, and this could the be answer to my typical “not-today” response. Not to mention they would probably think it’s cool to drop their coins into the kiosk and see their money tallying up on the screen!

I noticed the sign right away about the #NOFEECoinstar Program and was eager to see how much was collected in that bucket of coins. Low and behold, the grand total was…………{virtual drum roll please….}

I was excited to pick up 2 $50 SpaFinder.com gift cards for my husband and I, as well as several iTunes gift cards for the kids Easter Baskets.  I also found a bunch of other goodies too:

To my disappointment, I learned at checkout that the Stop & Shop gift card that I received from cashing in my coins would not allow me to purchase any other gift cards, like the ones above that I was eager to get.  Had I known this up front, I might have chosen to eat the 9.8% fee because, in the end, I didn’t need a $163+ Stop & Shop gift card.  I questioned the manager about this policy because if I used coins to get that gift card, how would it be any different than if I doled out those coins at checkout to buy the gift cards?  The money is still going back to Stop & Shop the same way.

I was just a little disappointed with this part of my experience but not enough to keep me away from recommending the #NOFEECoinstar program or using it again myself. Next time I just won’t cash in the entire bucket of change!

To get more information on how you can cash out funds from Coinstar, visit their website or follow them on Facebook or Twitter.  You can also check out Stop & Shop online and on Facebook for more info.

I have been paid to try and blog about Coinstar’s products/services as part of a Collective Bias shopper insights study. All opinions are my own.

My personal life is a little chaotic right now, to say the least, and I’m finding it hard to find solace in things that would normally keep my feet on the ground and my spirits high.  Like writing.

I miss blogging SO. MUCH.

I miss being able to share my thoughts and actions with my readers.  But, I’m finding it hard to come up with topics to write about that won’t be shadowed by the chaotic-ness.

I do have some exciting news to share about my budding career, and will do so soon.  In the meantime, I need to find a way to get back into blogging without my posts having a solemn tone.

To help me do so, I’ve decided to participate in a Photo-a-Day Challenge for the month of April.  Photos are so inspiring, and I am hoping that by doing the photo challenge that I’ll start to get out of this funk and back into finding my love for writing and inspiring those around me with my words.

April 1st:  My reflection.  This could not be any more of a perfect prompt for me starting this challenge.

“Look at me
You may think you see
Who I really am
But you’ll never know me
Every day
It’s as if I play a part
Now I see
If I wear a mask
I can fool the world
But I cannot fool my heart

Who is that girl I see
Staring straight back at me?
When will my reflection show
Who I am inside?” 

~ Reflection, by Christina Aguilera

I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream…..or, even better, TCBY Frozen Yogurt Treats!

My family was excited to be among the first to try TCBY’s new frozen yogurt treats from Walmart. In celebration of the product launch, and the first day of Spring, we invited some of our friends over to have a Frozen Yogurt party! To prepare, my daughter and I took a trip of our local Walmart to stock up on these new treats. I was surprised to see the variety of the product line, and eager to sample them all! You can see more about our shopping trip here.

We decided to purchase a variety of toppings such as sprinkles and caramel syrup, and of course I had to grab a package of my favorite waffle cone bowls! No sundae would be complete without them!

Once our friends arrived, no sooner did I start scooping the frozen yogurt and handing out yogurt bars did the “oohing and ahhing” begin!  For our product launch Make-Your-Own-Frozen-Yogurt-Sundae party, we chose to samples the TCBY Chocolate Fudge bars, Orange & Vanilla bars, Classic Vanilla Sandwiches, Classic Vanilla Bean Frozen Yogurt and Strawberry Swirl Frozen Yogurt.

Children love ice cream so I thought it would be hard to fool them with nutritious frozen yogurt, but as you can see, the joke was on me because they loved the frozen yogurt.  Overwhelming amongst all four kids was the strawberry swirl frozen yogurt–which happened to be my favorite, too!

While I was busy indulging in my own Strawberry Swirl sundae, my best friend was busy sampling the Chocolate Fudge Bars.

We were all satisfied with the TCBY Frozen Yogurt treats, and I plan on making them a staple in my freezer throughout the summertime!  If you want to find out more about TCBY Frozen Yogurt hitting Walmart stores near you, check out these websites:

• On Twitter~ @TCBYGrocery
• On Facebook
• The website (tells you what Walmart locations are carrying it) TCBYGrocery.com

This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias.
#CBias All opinions are my own.

As you know, I’ve been taking 4X Pro-B for over a month now and I’ve truly noticed a difference in my #DigestiveCare worth sharing with you.  Becoming more “regular” through taking the probiotics has definitely made a significant difference in my energy level.  I remember last Spring when I started a daily vitamin regimen that I noticed a difference in how I felt overall, but 4X Pro-B has boosted my energy level specifically.

Since I’ve been training for a half-marathon the last few months, I’ve pushed aside strength training exercises, which happens to be a type of workout that makes me feel super good.  I love the way my body feels after a good strength training workout, and I easily become infatuated with how it feels to have sore muscles.  Just can’t get enough of that feeling!  I’ve decided to start getting back into strength training now that I’ve got more energy.  While I do have a gym membership, I also have a basement full of workout equipment, including the set of DVD’s below!  I would be lying if I said I was ready to make a 90-day commitment to the program but I am ready to start using these tapes more often to my advantage.

Another change that I’ve noticed I’ve made is that I am cooking more homemade, nutritious dinners & trying to pay close attention to adding vegetables into my dishes for an added bonus.  Last night I happened to make the most delicious Red Pepper and Feta Chicken roll-ups from scratch.  Not only were they super easy to make, but they were delicious!

Red Pepper & Feta Chicken Roll-Ups

Ingredients:
4 thin chicken breasts
1/2 cup thinly chopped roasted red peppers
1/2 cup reduced fat Feta cheese
Seasoned Salt
splash of EVOO

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400.  In a small bowl, mix together the red peppers and feta cheese.  Lay the chicken breasts flat and spoon the mixture evenly over the 4 breasts.  Carefully roll up the chicken breasts and fasten with toothpicks.  In a deep skillet, warm up the EVOO and place the roll-ups into the pan. Sprinkle with seasoned salt.  Cook over medium heat for 5 minutes until browned.  Transfer the roll-ups onto a cookie sheet and roast in the oven for an additional 10-15 minutes until fully cooked.  Serve with roasted broccoli and potatoes.

For more information on 4X Pro-B, visit Costco.com or on Facebook!

This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study forCollective Bias. #CBias
All opinions are my own.