Medford Star News

So we got a Wii for the family during Christmas. This fantastic gaming system has become the epicenter for family fun - and also knock down, drag out temper tantrums of the variety I only imagined happened on television.

We’ve noticed that our son’s competitive spirit is sparked by almost everything Wii. From wanting to win every hole of miniature golf to screaming at the tv when he gets a gutter ball bowling (”the Wii is cheating, Mom, it is cheating!), I’m starting to get a feeling for how much everything, well, feels to him.

So when I received an invitation via Mommy Track’d (you know how much I love that site and newsletter) to join up with Pepperidge Farm’s “Fishful Thinking” Brand Ambassador program, I jumped at the chance. Ok, I really just opened a new browser and spent a few minutes signing up (but I did do it during work, if that tells you how excited I was).

Brand Ambassadors - like me - help spread the word about the site, and share their creative ideas about how to instill optimism in our kids.

And it turns our the Fishful Thinking site has all sorts of resources for me and my little “Tiger Woods/Walter Sobchak” to help us cope together with growing up. I’m still exploring everything, but I did take the Resiliance Test the other day, and I think we’re going to make it. Kai has flashes of anger, but he also has a nice mix of compassion and a certain sense of self-soothing that lets him bounce back most days.

But the next time he throws down his Wii-mote after his sister gets a hole-in-one on the crazy lava tube hole, I’m taking five minutes to read the How to Be a Happier Mom article.

As you may or may not know, I currently work for one of Florida’s largest credit unions. My life has been consumed lately with promoting the difference between credit unions and banks, focusing on the current economic turmoil, and everything bailout. To say the least, it isn’t exactly the most humor-filled job at the moment.

But that’s before I remembered to catch up on my Google Reader and one of my favorite voices in the credit union industry, Denise Wymore. There is some humor floating out there about the economy, this time at the expense of the American Auto Industry. Click on the image for the full-size version - it’s worth it!