Author Archives: Lauri Rottmayer

About Lauri Rottmayer

I'm a speaker and writer and social media queen. Married to my best friend for 38 years, we have two amazing men children, two gorgeous daughters-in-love, a precious glambaby, and a cute boy dog, Frankie Bolwahnn.

Heaven is a bed

So if you’ve known me for, oh say, an hour or so you will know how I feel about the beds they have at the Doubletree hotels.

We started staying regularly at the Doubletree when I started directing the Mrs. Oklahoma International pageant. The Mrs. International Pageant is held every July at the Northshore Performing Arts Center in Skokie and the host hotel is the Skokie Doubletree.

A couple of years ago, we got a new bed. We decided on memory foam because David and I had done a mystery shop on the Sleep Number bed and had the same sleep number. So that didn’t seem like the bed we should get. I was so looking forward to the memory foam.

That lasted for one night sleeping on it. It hurt me. Seriously, it’s like sleeping on a brick in my opinion. I feel bruised (on my collarbone!) some mornings when I wake up. David likes it and can’t see what I’m complaining about.

Shortly after we got the memory foam bed, it was pageant time. I got to Chicago, slept one night on the Sweet Dreams® bed at the Doubletree. I called David the next day and told him it was SO heavenly. He wrote it off to the fact that we had just driven 12 hours to get to Chicago and I was extra tired. I told him he was wrong.

I was waxing rhapsodic about the bed the next day and the bellman, John, said, “You know you can buy one for your house?” Oh! I can????? He gave me the web address and I looked at it and began my campaign for the Doubletree mattress of my own.

David’s argument was that we had just spent quite a bit of money on the memory foam mattress that was a mere 30 days old.

I added a second pillow top to the existing pillow top.

Another year went by, I went to Chicago, and asked David for the Doubletree bed with renewed ferver.

David reminded me that the memory foam was only a year old.

I added a feather bed.

There was now so much stuff on top of the mattress to try and make it soft that I could barely get the sheets down over the corners. I felt like the Princess and the Pea.

David was out of the country for six months. He recently came back and had meetings in Little Rock. Although they had arranged a hotel for him, we decided that if we could get Boo Boo into Doc Davis’ Doggy Sleep Away Camp a day early, we’d go over and stay a night at the Doubletree.

We got Boo in and I made my reservation, using my Hilton Honors points. I requested an Executive Queen room and prepared for our trip. I was ridiculously excited to go and be just David and me in Little Rock, a place I’d never been before. The highlight, of course, sleeping on the fabu Doubletree bed.

I tweeted about it as I tweet about everything. I couldn’t contain my excitement about the visit to the Doubletree in Little Rock. In a little bit, I started receiving tweets from @doubletreelr. I didn’t even know they had a twitter account.

She asked if I wanted a city or river view. I didn’t even care. As long as there was a bed in the room, I was going to be happy. Then she asked and offered eating and sightseeing recommendations. Wowza! Seriously, I was beyond impressed. On any visit to the Doubletree, I’m just so happy to sleep on the bed that the free cookie seems like the max in great customer service.

We got to Little Rock after dark.

When we opened the door to our room, I saw a staircase. What?!?!

I had seen this room online when I was choosing which room we wanted to book and I knew it was a double story suite. Holy moly!

It was amazing. There was a gift basket on the table. David said, well this room comes with a gift basket. He went to look at it and was surprised that the gift basket had my name on it.

As we explored the gorgeous suite, David said, “Wow, I think I need to travel with you more often.” That made me smile. 🙂

The suite overlooked the river which was awesome. As you know, the one thing I miss about living in Florida or Chicago is the water.

But the highlight of the room was most certainly the awesome Doubletree bed!

We wandered down the street for dinner because the hotel restaurant had a 45 minute wait. I loved the downtown at night. Everything was dressed up for Christmas.

The next morning, we had breakfast in the hotel. I had some fabu pancakes because you know, no road trip is complete without pancakes!

We then wandered around the downtown again, visiting the Old State House Museum before leaving for the next hotel, also a Hilton Hotel but not the Doubletree.

Many, many thanks to Mary Speed, Guest Services Manager for this amazing surprise and fabulous experience. I talked to the staff at the hotel and they love Mary. So, as well as having amazing beds, it’s clear that the Doubletree Little Rock is a great place to work.

I can’t wait for the next time we can go to Little Rock and stay in the Doubletree. If they were pet friendly, we’d be there every time!

P.S. As soon as I know we are going to be here long enough to receive it, I’m getting my own Doubletree bed for our house! I finally convinced David! 🙂

Who’s got the muffin?

Yesterday as we prepared to leave cold and snowy Lincoln, NE we stopped to get some gas and something to eat to tide us over until we got someplace where a real restaurant was open.

It was early. And did I mention cold? Yep, it was 6 degrees.

Holy cow!

While David filled up the car (with the motor running) I ran in to grab us something to eat. Such a freezing cold morning made me throw all caution to the wind and get a package of Grandma’s Peanut Butter cookies for myself. I love those. I got David a banana nut muffin.

As we pulled away from the gas station, I realized that I couldn’t find my glasses case. I just got my cool Ray Bans and was so freaked out that I may have lost them while loading the car up. So as I searched around my seat (it was so dark!) David slowly made his way back to the hotel.

I found them! They had slid to the side of my seat. Whew!

It was pretty warm in the car by this time so I took my coat off and prepared for our 9 hour trip.

OMG! Where’s my phone?!?!

David stopped again. I grabbed my coat and sure enough my phone was still in the pocket. Whew!

We drove on towards Little Rock in the cold morning, sun rising.

It seemed like a good time for cookies and a muffin but the muffin, which had been in my lap, was no where to be found!

I looked everywhere but it was so dark, I couldn’t find it.

Uh oh.

David was good about it, though. He said he’d get something the next time we stopped.

As we neared Little Rock late in the afternoon, we stopped for more gas. I grabbed my coat out of the back seat and there it was!

Woo hoo! I found it! 🙂

I still have no clue how the muffin got in the back seat. I must have been searching for my glasses so fast and furiously I was throwing things. LOL! 🙂

Paleo Vegetable Beef Soup

So it’s been super cold here.

Soup time!

I had been trying to think of what to do with all those (ha ha) soup bones I have in the freezer from the half cow we bought.

I’ve never used a soup bone to make soup before so I wasn’t sure how it really worked. This recipe called for 1/2 lb of beef and I would imagine we had that much beef on the bones I put in the soup. I could have just used the bones.

But, the soup is loaded with beef and chock full of veggies. It’s delicious and healthy and WARM! 🙂

Paleo Beef and Vegetable Soup
soup bone
1/2 pound stewing beef
3 quarts water
1-2 bay leaves
1 small head of cabbage
4 medium to large carrots
4-6 stalks of celery
1 medium-large onion
1 can tomatoes, cut up
6 oz. tomato juice

Put a soup bone and 1/2 lb. stewing beef in a large pot and fill with 3 qts. water. Add bay leaves. Simmer 2-3 hours, Skim top from time to time. Chop coarsely the cabbage, carrots, celery and onion. Remove bone from soup and add vegetables. Cook 30 minutes. Add tomatoes and tomato juice.
Bring to a boil again and serve.

Calendar swap

A couple of months ago, a twitter friend, Kelly from Design Crush, posted that she was hosting a calendar swap again this year. A calendar swap? How fun! I love doing swaps. The excitement of the unknown, the fun of picking out the items to send. So I signed up.

And then I tried to find a calendar.

My swap partner was Lu. The first thing I did was go to her blog. I learned there that her blog is very different from mine. It’s cool and random and I loved it. I also learned the she liked surprises and sparkly nail polish and had a darling little boy.

Now I was completely freaked out. How to find just the right thing to send?

When I went for a pedicure, I saw the new O.P.I. Muppet colors and knew that would be something I would send. Decisions, desicions – you know I’m a Libra and it’s hard. But I eventually picked Gettin’ Miss Piggy With It because it was red and the holidays are upon us.

I wrapped it with Rott-I-Tude and proceeded to look for a fabu calendar. There were none to be had in Bartlesville so I went to Tulsa.

I bought a lot of baby clothes for our new grandbaby while searching for calendars I couldn’t find. I didn’t want to choose the wrong thing. I wanted Lu to like it.

I finally decided to try Barnes and Noble. It wasn’t where I wanted to look. I wanted a cool boutique-style calendar but I was coming up empty. So to Barnes and Noble I went. Where I found a cool planner that I hoped Lu would like.

While I was trying to decide (again – decisions, decisions) I saw a Where’s Waldo calendar. Remembering how much Geoff loved Waldo when he was about the age of Lu’s son, I got the calendar for him.

And I sent them off, meeting the pre-Thanksgiving mailing deadline. Whew!

I got my calendar from Lu which is awesome!

I got a note from Lu thanking me for the nail polish and calendars. That she loved them and her son couldn’t get enough of Waldo. 🙂

This was fun, if stressful! I think I’ll participate in the swap again next year if it’s held but I will look during the year for sources of cool calendars and not just hope I can find it close by!

Phenomenal Pinterest Picks

I haven’t been pinning very long at all. In fact, I wasn’t going to join Pinterest. I looked at it but couldn’t figure it out. My daughter-in-law kept telling me of the wonderful things she found on Pinterest so I gave in and asked a friend to be invited.

Well, it didn’t take me long at all. I’m hooked!

It didn’t take me long to find all kinds of wonderful things to pin to my ever growing list of boards.

I followed some friends from twitter and facebook. My boards continued to grow. I really like the fact that if I find something I want to get for the house, or a recipe I want to try, I can pin it to a board in Pinterest and I’ll be able to find it when I’m ready to use it.

I think it’s a joke that goes around about people pinning all of these things but never doing anything else with them. Well, I am excited to share that I made two Pinterest recipes for Thanksgiving. And they were phenomenal!

We spent this thanksgiving with our daughter-in-law’s family. They are nice people and we had such a good time. I liked the fact that we were able to contribute a bit of our Thanksgiving tradition with them.

I brought our family’s Corn Casserole, Fruit Salad and the chocolate pie (to DIE for!) that I make for David every year. At least once. 🙂

I’m good at baking bread and I volunteered to bring homemade rolls. This was my first Pinterest pick.

I made this recipe, stirring by hand even though they say you can make it in a mixer. They were DELICIOUS! Oh my goodness! It made the biggest bunch of dough I’ve ever seen. I had to let it raise inside my big soup pot. We ended up with 48 wonderful, buttery rolls. I’ll make these again. They were easy and the result was, well, phenomenal!

Our daughter-in-law is pregnant and I remember her telling me how she had wanted a piece of Italian Cream cake SO bad a couple of weeks ago. I had pinned this to my board:

and knew I had to try it, too. I liked the idea that I’d get to have some and not have to worry about a whole cake since other people would be helping me to eat it. David doesn’t like coconut so I don’t get to make things like this very often. It was so yummy! It also was fairly simple to make and it will be something I make again.

If you haven’t been to Pinterest, I invite you to check it out. There are so many incredible discoveries there! If you need an invite, let me know. I’d love to let you in on the fun! 🙂

Today is Friday

You know I love twitter. It’s such a great way to connect and share with people. I have often told David that as long as I have twitter, I could be happy anywhere in the world.

Well, today, twitter brings more gold! I look at the trending topics:

And I see Today Is Friday.

Thank you, twitter! Some days I just don’t know what day it is and I’m so happy to be advised it’s Friday so I can take the garbage out. 🙂

I wanna be free, just me

Why in the world would anybody put chains on me
I’ve paid my dues to make it
Everybody wants me to be
What they want me to be
I’m not happy when I try to fake it! No!

Oh yeah. I can so relate. 🙂

I may have stomped my foot

Squash is an acquired taste. I have to believe this because I love it now. But I remember a time when I was maybe 6 or 7 years old when I thought it was the worst thing ever put on my plate.

My dad took the whole family to dinner at the house of a business acquaintance. They had kids that were about our age and I remember having a good time until we sat down for dinner and were served, you’ve got it, squash.

Having never eaten squash before, I took a hesitant bite of it and promptly turned into hell child. “I’m not going to eat this,” firmly stated my dad’s formerly perfect little business bauble. “No way”. I may have stomped my foot. They were embarrassed. They told me that if I didn’t eat my squash I could not have the ice cream and chocolate cake that was on the menu for dessert.

There was no way I was going to prostitute myself for a piece of cake and ice cream by eating that squash. And I didn’t.

Clearly it traumatized me because I remember it like it happened yesterday. Every time I prepare to eat squash. 🙂

But now, I LOVE squash. Not only is it a great source of all kinds of good nutrition but there are so many delicious ways to prepare it.

Cruising around the internet the other day, I found this recipe for Roasted Acorn Squash. I found the acorn squash on sale for 99 cents at Aldi and so I got one and made this for lunch today. I don’t have a whole lot of spices since my kitchen is packed up and I just seasoned it with ground salt and pepper. But it was delicious! A very good vehicle for pepper.

Chilly day, toasty warm squash. NOM! 🙂

Roasted Acorn Squash Recipe

Serves 4, as a side

Ingredients

• 2 acorn/pepper squash;

• 3 tbsp clarified butter, tallow or coconut oil;

• 2 onions, thinly sliced;

• 3 cloves garlic, minced;

• 1 tsp ground coriander seed;

• ½ tsp nutmeg;

• Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste;

Preparation

1. Preheat your oven to 375 F.

2. Cut each squash in half, but leave the seeds in. Place cut end up on a baking sheet and roast them for about 50 minutes to an hour, long enough so that the flesh is fork tender. Remove once cooked and let cool for several minutes.

3. Meanwhile, in a medium skillet over a medium heat, saute the onions in the cooking fat. Cook for close to 10 minutes, until the onions are translucent and begin to be golden brown.

4. Add the garlic to the skillet, followed by the coriander, nutmeg, salt and pepper. Continue to cook for about 2 minutes.

5. Remove the seeds from the squash and discard. Spoon out the tender flesh and discard the skin. Roughly mash up the squash and add it to the skillet. Mix well. Only leave on heat long enough to blend flavors.

Bad banana

I make the same protein drink every morning for breakfast and it calls for a half banana. When David was at home, it was easy because I’d use one half and he’d use the other. Well, now I have an extra half every day so I’ve been wrapping them in saran wrap and freezing them.

I’ve learned through experience that this makes the banana VERY hard and it causes the bottom of my blender to come undone and leak protein drink all over the blender, counter, etc.

EPIC mess.

So today, I decided to take the banana out of the freezer before I walked Boo Boo.

When I got home, the banana was thawed. And super squishy, almost liquid-y. Which is not a big deal in the whole scheme of things since it’s just going to be blended up into the protein drink.

But dig this: it smelled like the banana that my mom used to pack in my school lunch after it sat in my locker all morning

Remember that smell?