Happy Easter!

JibJab - Chocolate Bunny Attack!

Clorox Disinfecting Wipes new Décor Canisters – Review

I recently got the chance to try out the new Clorox Disinfecting Wipes in new Décor Canisters.

Here’s what the company wants you to know:

Combining both fashion and function, the Clorox Disinfecting Wipes new Décor canisters will make the days of hiding cleaning products under the sink a distant memory.

Clorox Disinfecting Wipes new Décor canisters:

Come in eight unique color palettes to match any home décor
Feature a sleek new shape and wider mouth
Have a new effortless single sheet dispensing system
Has the same disinfecting power of their namesake wipes
Are fashionable enough to be left on the countertop
Available at retailers nationwide this month

Here’s what I think:

Oh this product couldn’t have come at a better time for me. When I first got my full sized sample I placed it in the bathroom thinking that was where it was needed most. And it did work awesome…I mean its Clorox wipes. But soon I realized that there was a place in the house that needed this canister much more and that was right here by my computer. See I caught a cold and I wanted to prevent everyone else in the family from getting it. Really tough normally, but with the wipes sitting right here by the computer, every time I needed to blow my nose I would grab a wipe afterward and wipe down my computer keyboard and mouse. I’ve had my cold for a week now and no one else in the house has picked up any of my germies! I’m so pleased. Having the wipes in a decorator canister just makes it nice to not have to look at a plastic tub… I picked a purple one of course!

And now you can try this out too! Clorox has given me 10 coupons to give away to my friends for a free décor canister of the wipes.

All you have to do to get one is, check out the website and tell me which color canister you would like and where you think you might put it.



This post brought to you by Family Review Network and Clorox Disinfecting Wipes Decor Canisters

Busy week ahead!

I'm still sick...ugh! But thank goodness I finally kicked the wonkiness from taking that stupid cold medicine. :p Never again.

Yesterday after lunch I asked DH if I should hand wash the dishes. He said nope he would have the dishwasher all done in a few minutes. Two hours later he "finished"... the kick plate isn't on it because he is still worried it might leak. So I started loading it. This sucker holds a lot of dishes so it will take a while before I a) figure out where I want everything to go and b) fill it up enough to run it.

Today Darly is having an American Girl Book Club. She wants to do the entire thing herself...so we'll see how that goes. It should be fine as the girls who are coming are best buddies.

Tomorrow we have gymnastics...after being off last week for Spring Break. I've been getting some tips from a new friend on how to work on Darly's skills...I hope we don't upset her coach too much with the one tip (it's holding her hands in a different way for her round-off) hee hee! This simple adjustment is supposed to give her a lot more power.

Wednesday we are going rock climbing! Well Darly is...I'm a big chicken. ha ha

Thursday is Maundy Thursday and Gymnastics. DH said we should just do gymnastics. okie dokie

Friday is of course Good Friday

Sometime this week I need to get stuff ready for Easter...it's all bought. And at Church one of the kids in class spilled the beans about the Easter Bunny. She asked "Who here still believes in the Easter Bunny?" So I raised my hand! I still believe! I don't think that Darly was suprised though.

Okay I should get off the computer and get ready for our Book Club.

the updates...

DH flew to Vegas on Sunday

I caught a cold from somewhere...possibly from Ihop on Monday night.

Tuesday my dishwasher came, and Darly's new American Girl Doll (Chrissa) came. The dishwasher had to wait in the garage until DH came home.

Stayed at home for most of the rest of the week.

Thursday I colored my roots...they came out fine, no one has noticed.

Friday night DH made it home just fine before the big snow storm.

and today DH is trying to get the new dishwasher installed, but there was one part that he didn't keep from the old dishwasher (that we tossed into the trash last week!) so he has to go to the store and get that part...meanwhile the dishwasher carcas sits in the middle of the kitchen on it's back. :p

but it is pretty! oh and this one has extra soundproofing on it. I hope that works with two of the walls around it being out into the room. The dishwasher sits at the end of a counter peninsula. We'll see. Right now DH is avoiding the trip to the store by reading and complaining about how poorly the installation directions are written. I'll hide in here for now...he doesn't need me except to complain to. LOL!

sorry I haven't been around...

I got sick and there's other stuff too...

If I survive this cold I'll be back.

The Household Guide to Dying - Review

The Household Guide to Dying is a moving, witty, and uplifting novel about Delia, who writes an acerbic and wildly popular household advice column. When Delia realizes that she will lose her long battle with cancer, she decides to organize her remaining months—and her husband and children’s future lives without her—the same way she has always ordered their household, and she knows just what to do. She will leave a list for her daughter’s future wedding; fill the freezer with homemade sausages, stews, and sauces; and even (maddeningly) offer her husband suggestions for a new wife. She’ll compile a lifetime’s worth of advice for her children, and she’ll even write the ultimate “Household Guide to Dying” for her fans. There is one item on her list, however, that proves too much even for “Dear Delia,” and it is the single greatest task she had set for herself. Yet just as Delia is coming to terms with this, an unexpected visitor helps her believe in her life’s worth in a way that no list ever could.

Imbued with Delia’s love for food, Jane Austen, clucking hens, and fragrant gardens, and interspersed with her secrets to making a pot of tea, removing wine stains from lace, and the ingredients to the perfect wedding cake, this is a gorgeously crafted novel that captures the reader—heart and mind—and expands our understanding of a meaningful life.

I found this book to be easy to read word wise, but hard to read topic wise. I’m very emotional and cry over Hallmark commercials, so this topic hit me pretty hard. Don’t worry, the book is filled with plenty of humor so it isn’t all doom and gloom, but like Darly pointed out …
see more Lolcats and funny pictures :D

If you have a box of tissues and don’t mind a good cry then check out The Household Guide to Dying by Debra Adelaide.

Thanks www.mother-talk.com for another great book!

Kellogg's® Eggo Bake Shop™ Twists- Review

New!
Kellogg's® Eggo Bake Shop™ Twists Apple & Strawberry

Like most families, mine always loves to wake up to the smell of fresh baked pastries for breakfast. But like most Moms on a typical morning, I lack both the time and energy to bake or make a trip to the bakery. Here breakfast is usually a “fend for yourself” situation. Recognizing this issue, Eggo, maker of the breakfasts we've loved for years, has come up with a whole new way for our own families to make their way to the kitchen for a fresh, aromatic pastry.

Eggo has introduced Eggo Bake Shop™ Twists, its first microwaveable pastry that combines soft, pull-apart dough sprinkled with sugar crystals and delicious Strawberry or Apple filling made with real fruit. And, in just 2 minutes and 25 seconds, your family can enjoy a warm, bakery-like breakfast, without the run to the bakery.

Darly & I tried these last night for our dessert. (hee hee!) I was please with how simple it was to make these. This is a product that Darly can make for herself without my help. YAY! Just pop one in the microwave for 25 seconds on high and let it cool for 2 minutes without opening the door.

And we were both pleased with how good these tasted, these pastries are both very yummy. Darly really liked the apple cuz she just loves cinnamon. I have a feeling that she will gobble these up before DH gets home from his trip.

Here’s a link to the Kellogg’s website for more info Strawberry or Apple. I’m sure your family will love them too.

wholy buckets!

and exploding toilets!

Tonight we have one of Darly's friends staying over. DH & I were downstairs talking when she flushed the toilet. We heard a very weird noise followed shortly by both girls screaming!

We ran upstairs and DH found the tank of the toilet spewing water. The girls assumed that this was all water out of the bowl and were totally grossed out, but it was all fresh tank water.

At first (after shutting off the water!) we thought that somehow the float valve had just worked itself off and once that was screwed back on would work fine...but alas cheap plastic parts don't last so well. It seems that the float valve is toast as well as the connection from the wall to the tank...the water intake valve may be toast too. ugh!

Now I have a load of towels to wash. Fun! Any ideas on when my house is going to stop breaking?

well that was pretty much uneventful!

Well my visit with the gym was mostly uneventful. They apologized that I was made to feel that I couldn’t just talk to them and said if I have any other questions to feel free to ask…so that’s good.
Here is a copy of the email that I sent to the gymnastics gym and then in italics will be their answer.


I would really like this email to go to the gym’s owner too, but seeing as that info is “hush-hush” I guess this will have to do.
It turns out that the new owners are really hands off (except for the hiring of Mr Coach as manager when we liked the former manager!) and they own multiple gyms. Its 3 guys who own gyms all over the area. side note: I believe that the reason for hiring Mr Coach as the manager instead of keeping the other guy(OG) on as manager is that OG was interested in buying the gym.

That’s the first issue I would like to address. Why is everything so hush-hush with the gym? Why is it that we do not know who the current owner is officially? Shouldn’t this info be published in the newsletter? I know that I am not the only parent who wants to know who we are dealing with. All we have heard is rumors. The real newsletter in your gym is the rumor mill.
well I was told that they would be happy to tell me anything I want to know, I just have to ask…the same for the other parents. I guess then that no one feels comfortable enough to talk to them. I was also told that there was a small blurb about the new owner in the April 08 newsletter. (it didn’t mention who the owner was though) And that they don’t put the owner’s name in the newsletter because they’re hands off. Really anything we need to deal with should go through Mr Coach & the office manager.

I would like to learn what my daughter’s current level means. I’ve been told that she is in the Pre-Team 1 class. But I have heard from others that this level class will never move up to compete...if this is true, then why is the class called “team?” And if it isn’t true you should really make this clear. See it’s more of this rumor business. We are paying for you to teach our children, I feel that we are entitled to know what each level means. There were mixed messages here. Some of the girls in the Pre-Team 1 class were moved up due to enrollment issues (not enough girls for either class so they were combined) and the majority of those girls do not have what it takes to be on the team. However the rest of the girls that were moved into the Pre-Team 1 class (Darly included) will have the opportunity to move up to the next levels and compete if they wish.

And speaking of teaching. I know that finding a good coach is difficult but why have you been hanging onto Darly’s current coach when she is working so many other jobs that she cannot fulfill her position at the gym? I am getting really sick of my daughter’s class being substituted by lower level coaches. To me having a lower level coach sub this class is a HUGE waste of my money...she can practice the stuff she already knows at home. We should not have to pay for private lessons for our kids to learn what we are already paying you to teach them in the regular classes. They are very frustrated with this situation as well and have been trying very hard to find another coach to fill this spot. Unfortunately they haven’t had much luck. They have been running an ad for a new coach since December (note: this coach has had the job that keeps her away since October!) but have had very few folks answer the ad and then to be even more frustrating they’ve had 3 people set up interviews and then just NOT show up! One of the main issues is trying to find someone who can teach the skills who actually LIKES kids. And I totally understand this.

Why was the Pre-Team 1 class subbed by Mr Coach on the 19th making the class go over ratio and the girls stand around waiting instead of by Darly’s former coach who only had two students in his class that night? Mr Coach felt that it would be in the girls’ best interest for him to sub so they could try some new skills. (former coach knows these skills too) the other coach however, is a recreational coach and not a competition coach.

Speaking of a huge waste of money...why was a TV set installed in the lobby? No one is watching the set and the only thing having it in there does is create more noise in an already noisy space. The continual loop of the US Women’s Gymnastics team getting ROBBED of their medals is not inspiring to anyone. Seeing as you have already wasted the money on this thing could you at least turn the volume down on it so that our eardrums are not bombarded with sound decibels over 85 (If a sound reaches 85 dB or stronger, it can cause permanent damage to your hearing.) others who are in the gym at earlier times often have the younger siblings in with them and the TV is a “good” distraction for the younger kids. They have received feedback from many who are happy with the new TV. However they do realize that by the time I get there it is BLASTING and will try to turn it down at that hour…but I can remind them too.



All in all I think it went pretty well. I’m glad to have the pre-team class thing straightened out. This week there are a lot of kids who won’t be in the gym for Spring Break (even though the gym is breaking next week!) so Darly will have a really small class. I hope she gets lots of time to work on her skills. And I will be telling the other parents about everything that happened.

Listerine Total Care

Remember the dental headaches that DH had a while back? Well for now it seems that he’s got his mouth all cleared up, we’ll see. I’m really hoping that we can find a way to avoid all of this for everyone in the family. DH’s entire family has bad teeth, but my family has good teeth…we’re hoping that Darly got my teeth!

I was really excited to get to try out the latest product from LISTERINE®… LISTERINE® TOTAL CARE.

With our ever growing to-do lists it can be so easy to neglect our personal oral health, but with 92% of adults ages 20 to 64 experiencing dental decay in our permanent teeth at some point in our lives, proper oral care routines and preventive dental care visits prove more essential than ever for achieving a cleaner, healthier mouth. We need to take notes from what we tell our kids - by doing simple things regularly including brushing, flossing and rinsing twice daily and visiting your dentist twice a year for preventative care, you can avoid bigger problems down the line that require painful oral procedures and may cost thousands of dollars. An alarming recent survey by Cigna indicates that 41 percent of Americans are taking worse care of their health because of the economy.

LISTERINE® TOTAL CARE, Anticavity Fluoride Mouthwash, now available, is the only fluoride mouthwash that contains six benefits in one:

· Helping to prevent cavities
· Restoring enamel
· Strengthening teeth
· Killing bad breath germs
· Freshening breath
· Fighting unsightly plaque above the gum line

Darly & I have both tried it and like how it feels (although Darly can’t keep swishing for an entire minute…we may have her try less though). For me it probably helps that the product is purple. ;) We even talked DH into trying it too. We’ll see if he keeps up with it. LOL!

Head over to http://www.listerine.com/ to print out a coupon for $2 off!

updates on the update. LOL!

Well Mr Coach called me about my email. But since I was still mad at him I deleted the call...so then I had to email him back. I said in the email I would rather deal with this via email. He emailed back that "due to the nature of my email" he wanted to see me in person. ACK! I so hate confrontations. But then I got to thinking... "hello?" I'm in the right here. He's the one who has screwed up. So I'm going to meet with him on Tuesday...which is when Darly's next tuition is due. I may be driving straight over to the other gym in town afterward, we'll see.

And then the dishwasher... DH started off from the very beginning wanting to know if I wanted a new one. I told him that I really didn't care as long as I had one that worked. So DH started trying to see if he could fix the it. But he wasn't able to figure out right off what was wrong with it. He felt that it was probably something with the motor (that's what it sounded like to me) and was worried that this was just the beginning of things going wrong with it. The lower rack is already rusting. He kept trying to get me to decide what to do about it and I kept making him make the decision. I really hated spending the money on a new one when we just finished buying the new stove.

So after a bit he did decide that we should go get a new one. Sunday after lunch we hopped into my car and headed over to our local big box hardware store. They don't carry ANY in stock...you have to order them from Dallas! We go to store #2 and same thing! And same at store #3 as well! This was crazy! A dishwasher isn't something that you just buy on a whim, usually you buy one because your old one had died or your remodeling the house. Either way you want it NOW. sigh

Ding-dong sales guy at big box hardware store #1 tried to talk me into buying a more expensive dishwasher but he didn't have much of a leg to stand on cuz that one had to be ordered too! Note to ding-dong: Upselling only works if you actually have the product in the store!

I ended up ordering the dishwasher online from home. After doing research online about what I wanted featurewise I went with a Maytag from Homedepot.com. It should be delivered on Saturday and hopefully DH can get it installed then cuz he goes out of town on Sunday and then I'll have to wait another week. handwashing is so boring. LOL!

Neosporin

Can you believe the weather we’ve been having this winter? It seems the country has had a flip flop for where the weather goes. Out here in Colorado it has been such a mild winter that our trees and plants have already all started budding out. I sure hope for their sakes that we don’t get a late snowfall cuz that will cause the trees to lose their branches.

At any rate Darly has been outside as much as possible playing with her friends, climbing trees and play structures. So far we haven’t had any injuries…YET! But I’m sure it’s coming…it’s a part of being a kid. Hey am I the only one who hoped that their kid would never have any cuts or scars? Yeah? Figures!

So are you ready for this spring and summer? Have you checked out your first aid kit to make sure all your stuff is up to date and not expired? If so, what is the expiration date of your anti-biotic ointment? If you haven’t, go check it now…I’ll wait… take a minute to investigate your medicine cabinet and prepare for the inevitable scrapes and cuts that outdoor activities bring. Ensure that you are armed with plenty of bandages and antibiotic ointment, such as NEOSPORIN®. Most importantly, be sure that all medicines and products are up-to-date and have not expired.

It turns out that 40% of homes have an expired topical antibiotic in the medicine cabinet, an important issue as some products may lose their effectiveness once they reach their expiration date. The folks at NEOSPORIN® invite you to investigate your first aid supplies and share with your readers via our next blog tour just how old your tubes of NEOSPORIN® are. We bet you might be surprised at some of the dates, and we invite you to ask your readers to check the expiration date on their tubes as well.

Well the good news is that I couldn’t find any expired medications in my first aid kit…the bad news is that I couldn’t find any of the medications in my first aid kit!!! :o I’m not sure what was up with my first aid kits but it looks as if the last person to use the Neosporin didn’t put it back. I know it was pretty old though.

I guess it is a good thing that I now have brand new NEOSPORIN® ointment and cream to put in my first aid kits for when we go to the park and camping this summer. I’m also excited to try out the new NEOSPORIN® Neo to Go! Spray.
And I’ve also had my first chance to try out my new Neo to Go! Spray. DH scraped his hand yesterday while working on the house. It was nice to be able to just spray the boo boo and then cover it up. Course then it was my turn to try it out as I burned my hand while cooking dinner. Pout!

I’m kinda excited to pop this in my first aid kit that I take to the park for us to use this summer.

more updates

well in the continuing gymnastics saga...  Darly admitted a few days after her class on the 12th that having Mr Coach wasn't too bad.  She actually liked that he had them working on flips...she just didn't want to do all the conditioning.

However, by yesterday (the 19th) she had changed her mind and DID NOT want Mr Coach.  And unfortunately Mr Coach had other ideas.  See at the same time as Darly's class there are two other groups classes of girls in the gym.  Last night the class level that is right above Darly's had only two girls show up.  That coach noticed that Mr Coach had too many girls when he combined his class with Darly's, so he asked Mr Coach if he should teach some of the girls...but Mr Coach is a stubborn knuckle head and told him no.  So Coach B had two girls and Mr Coach had 9.  sigh  This meant that all the girls in Mr Coach's class got to wait around for their turn instead of getting to spread out.
I'll be emailing Mr Coach later because this was a dumb idea on his part.  Darly spent her class planning a slow and painful death for Mr Coach.  I'm going to see if I can find a way to cc Mr Coach's boss too.

yes, I know that Darly picks up on my anger and frustration about this.  But I want my daughter to have a good time and learn the skills that she wants to learn.  I don't need her twisted by Mr Coach into a competition machine.  If we wanted to compete we would have moved to TX or OK where they have good coaches.

okay enough of that rant...for now. ;o)

yesterday Darly and I went to unload my dishwasher only to discover that the dishes in it were not clean.  Hummm I looked and found that not only were the dishes not clean they now all had dried on food.  :p  So I grabbed my Dawn Power Disolver and sprayed the worst looking ones and set the dishwasher up to run again.  but it didn't run.  It got a tiny bit of water in it and then it quit while making a something is stuck in the engine noise!  GrEAT!  so Darly got a lesson on how to wash dishes by hand.  I was washing the dishes along with Darly to try to get them done faster...we both ended up a bit wet, but we had fun.  When DH came home he just sighed and asked if I wanted a new dishwasher.  While it would be nice to finally have all my kitchen appliances be the same color (the dishwasher is the last of the black appliances left from the previous owner) we could really stand to not spend more money after all of DH's dental work.  But I did some research on dishwashers anyway.
I was really disappointed that even on the website for the manufacturer they did not include pictures of how the racks in the dishwasher are.  Instead they had a picture of the door and the controls.  Ummm hello?  I don't care what the controls look like...I want to see how you have the racks set up.

So now I get to drive over to Home Depot to look at dishwashers.  Although we will probably buy the dishwasher someplace else online. 

The gym saga continues...

I haven't been mentioning Darly's gymnastics gym much lately because things were going really well...her coach had been there for almost all of Feb. Well last week the coach was not there at all for Darly's class.

I think that I've mentioned that the only way any info gets passed at this gym is through the grapevine. So much of what we know is rumor. Well on Tuesday night I learned from a mother that our coach had taken another job with a major sports team in our area. I decided to pass this info to the gym's office manager who didn't know anything about it. Needless to say the management is not happy with the coach and I was told they are trying to replace her. It is just difficult to find a higher level recreational coach with a personality.

The Tuesday night class was coached by T who Darly didn't like. What didn't Darly like? LOL! She didn't like that when a girl fell off of the bar that T went to go spot her. This happened once when it was Darly's turn on the bar with T spotting and another girl fell off the other bar...so Darly had to wait...and then it happened again when Darly fell off the bar. Darly didn't appreciate being babied on the bar. sigh!

Thursday night Darly's class was added to the next level up's class. Darly absolutely HATES this coach. I'm not a fan either. He has the personality of...hummm what does he have the personality of? I guess it is safe to say that this coach doesn't have very good people skills. He has said many things that have upset the girls. However, last Thursday the class went really well except for one part. The coach set up an obstacle course to have the girls work on conditioning...only he had them run it until they were all out of breath. I was about to stick my head in and tell him to quit it, but Darly didn't give me any indication that she needed to stop. We talked and next time (if there is one) she'll give me a signal and I'll tell the coach to quit for her since she doesn't have the nerve to just go sit down. However, after they finished this he had them work on some skills that Darly needed to work on. But Coach no-personality only gives positive feedback if you get the skill 100% perfect...so I was trying to give Darly some kudos for getting her front handspring better than before.

Last night I decided I would look on the sports team websites and see if I could figure out what Darly's coach does for these teams. I wasn't able to find anything there so I googled her. I don't know why but she has a page on LinkedIn that list all her current jobs. and WOW this gal is busy! It turns out that she really only works for one company that has both the area sporting teams that she's working for...but she is doing two jobs for them. (neither job was close to anything the moms at the gym were spreading around! So I'll have to give them all the real deal tonight!) She also works as a receptionist for two other companies! So she is currently working 5 jobs. And while I get that she's young and probably needs the money all these jobs pull in, I don't understand taking a job that you KNOW will make you not be able to work at your other job...she did know that the sport team jobs would prevent her from being able to work at the gym. I think the only reason she still has her gym job is that they cannot find someone else to do the job. sigh! Perhaps the gym has begged her to not quit until they get someone else in there...I don't know. To me that seems like the only possible answer.

Thwarted again!

This weekend Darly was invited to a sleepover party. The party started around noon on Saturday and she wouldn't be home until after noon on Sunday.

One would think that this would be the perfect time for DH & I to have a little alone time.

However you would be WRONG!!!

Remember that trip to the dentist that DH took the other day? Well when they took his x-rays they noticed a black spot on the root of one of his teeth. And DH suddenly rembembers that this particular tooth has been bugging him lately. DH did go get a second opinion on his teeth on Friday and had his one crown replaced there at the visit. The second dentist also pointed out the spot on the root and recommended that he see an oral surgeon for a possible root canal.

By the time DH got home on Friday evening, he was miserable. And other than take pain killers he wasn't able to do anything because his dentist & oral surgeon were both closed for the weekend. sigh!

So DH was on a soft food diet and popping pain killers...as few as possible of course because one should never admit that you're really weak and in pain, so you just take enough to take the edge off! (NOT ME! if I'm in pain and I'm popping 4 or 5 of those babies!) So instead of taking enough motrin to make him feel comfortable, DH would take just one.

Instead of spending time alone with DH, he worked on our Tax return and we discussed his will. He also has me working on my will too.

What a lovely weekend!

DR headaches for DH

Today DH took off from work for two appointments.

His first appointment was to the dentist. This was the first time he used this dentist. He came home with an Estimate of stuff wrong with his mouth that could cost us close to $2,000. (that's our co-pay! our insurance gets to pay close to $5,000!) But DH thinks the guy is trying to rip him off because he only mentioned one cavity in the exam room but when the estimate came up there were two listed. The dentist also feels that DH should get his one tooth that has a rather large filling replaced with a crown (or whatever you call the procedure)...not because there is anything wrong with the tooth...but just because the tooth "could" break. DH isn't inclinded to do this because he has had this particular filling in the tooth for over 20 years and never had a problem with it. So since he feels the dentist might just be looking to pay for a new car he is getting a second opinion. I don't know if DH will follow my advice or not but I hope he does.

Then DH went to see the eye doctor. That went okay except the office overcharged him for the visit. He should have only paid $40, but they charged him $85. DH decides to call up the insurance company to straighten it out. They tell him to call the doctor's office. The doctor's office tells him that they couldn't bill the visit to his insurance because it was just a regular exam. DH calls the insurance because we are supposed to get an eye exam. The insurance tells him that YES we get an eye exam... call back to the Doctor's office... she can't figure this out...call back to the insurance...oh yeah, we switched vision coverage providers you need to tell them that it's now Sprectra...call to DR's office...now we need the member ID number...none of the numbers on our insurance card seem to work...call to insurance...that's because the number is this number minus the last two digits...call back to the DR office... FINALLY! it works, but because the credit card charge already went through they have to issue a check!

What a pain!

But Darly needs to see the eye doctor and probably the dentist too. We aren't going to that dentist, but will go to that eye doctor because we've seen her before. However, I know to NOT get charged the wrong price.

Smashing TVs - well not on purpose!

Tonight DH & I tried to get the 35 inch TV that a friend gave us out of my car and into the house.

While backing the car out of our driveway and back into the garage the TV flew into the back window of my car! Lucky that window is very strong (cuz I made it fly into it earlier).

We got the car turned around and then started trying to get the tv into the house. We had the tv completely out of the car and were doing good until we got to the stairs. I put my one foot on the stair and attempted to lift...and No go!

I've never seen my body totally refuse to do something like that. I didn't let the tv fall completely but it was really close. We got one corner on the stair and had to balance the TV on it for a bit to move the car and then set the TV on the garage floor.

I can move the tv all over the place now that it's on the strip of carpet...just can't lift it!

DH is going to ask some folks at work tomorrow if they'll help us get it in the house and set up.

I feel so weak!

The Mighty Queens of Freeville - Book Review

I was recently given the opportunity to read The Mighty Queens of Freeville by Amy Dickinson.

Here’s what the publisher had to say about the book…

Amy Dickinson is best known for her “Ask Amy” advice column and weekly contribution to NPR. She can now add author to her resume, and her book, The Mighty Queens of Freeville, is one that all women should add to their reading list. The moving book tells the story of Amy’s life as a divorced single mom. As she travels with her daughter across the country, often finding herself back in Freeville, the small town where she grew up and her family still lives, she poetically recounts her tales of love, loss, and life with wit and eloquence. The story, ultimately, is not just about Amy, but about the woman in her life “who have led small lives of great consequence in a tiny place.” This book will honestly have you both laughing and crying, while reminding you that, often, the best place to be is at home.

My take:

I found The Mighty Queens of Freeville an interesting read. It seems that the women in Amy’s family are doomed to be single mothers who overcome despite their circumstances. Amy shares with us the “warts and all” version of putting her life back together after her husband strands her in a foreign country for another woman. I found the strength of these women inspiring and the continual mistakes of the Ex-husbands to be humorous.

My workout rating: 40 minutes. ;)

I would like to thank the Moms at Mother Talk for the opportunity to read this book!

Carpet Fresh Carpet and Room Odor Eliminator - Review

Those of you who read my blog regularly know how busy our life is here. So anything that helps to make things easier/quicker/etc… is greedily accepted. I was recently asked to try out Carpet Fresh Carpet and Room Odor Eliminator. One stinky dog + two rabbits + work boots + snow boots + constantly running out the door to go do something else… well you can see that this came at the perfect time!



Advertised as:
The Solution for Busy Moms
As a busy mom, you know that keeping carpets smelling fresh is a tough job!

How it works

Carpet Fresh Quick-Dry Foam delivers odor-fighting agents deep into carpet fibers. The Quick-Dry Foam works without vacuuming and dries in minutes, leaving the entire room smelling fresh.

Key Features

Specially formulated odor-eliminators go deep into carpet fibers to eliminate trapped odors.
Light, quick-drying foam dries in minutes and will not leave a residue.
Safe to use around children and pets. Use as directed. (Aerosol products should not be used near birds.)

Versatility

Carpet Fresh Quick-Dry foam reaches places where air fresheners can’t, and also works great on washable fabrics, including drapes, car interiors and more.

Choose Your Fragrance
Carpet Fresh Carpet and Room Odor Eliminator Quick-Dry Foam is available in a wide array of fragrances.
Choose from:
Super Pet (light floral scent)
Morning Rain
Apple Cinnamon
Country Potpourri
Fresh Scent

Just spray and walk away!

To learn more about how Carpet Fresh Carpet and Room Odor Eliminator helps busy moms and to access our product locator please visit www.carpetfreshbrand.com/fresh-solutions There’s also a link to a coupon!

I got my hands on the Carpet Fresh Carpet and Room Odor Eliminator Morning Rain scent and first gave it a shot in the living room because the foam needs to disappear and dry before using the area. Well I was very surprised at how quickly the foam disappeared and dried (someone knows that busy folks don’t need to be waiting around for this stuff to work!) The scent is pleasant without being overpowering…a good thing in a house full of sensitive noses. And while it seemed like it might be difficult to keep everyone off the area while it dried, the quick drying action of the foam was dry in no time and we were able to use the area right away. So then I hit the dog's favorite sleeping spot, seeing as I wasn't in that room she didn't have any problem staying away (with the help of some plastic tote bins ;o) ) Once the area was dry she went right back to go rescent it. @@ Dogs just don't get that we don't want the house to smell like they do...sigh! I wonder if I can spray this on the dog?

Just kidding!

I would like to thank the Moms at Mom Central and Carpet Fresh for this opportunity!

Making my house smell yummy for someone else!

Sunday I was asked if I would make soup for tomorrow night's Soup Supper at my Church and I said I would. But then I had to figure out what soup to bring. I wanted something folks would eat, something not too hard to make and something that wasn't all that expensive.

My answer? Homemade Chicken Soup

And to make it less expensive I'm making my Chicken stock myself...which is making my entire house smell yummy. :p

I bought 1 almost 4 pound chicken - raw and two soup veggie bags. These are bags of just what you need to make soup...two carrots, two stalks of celery, one onion (unless there are two small ones) some potatoes and some turnips. I usually don't use the turnips, but the other veggies are all handy to have and it's much more convienient than having to buy an entire package of carrots & a whole thing of celery that will just go bad.

So right now I have my cut up chicken in the slow cooker simmering with one package of veggies...I decided that since this is just the stock that I would try it with the turnips. I'm going to let this keep cooking until later and these veggies have given up all the goodness they can. Then I'll let everything cool this evening so I can cut up the chicken tomorrow and not burn myself.

Tomorrow I'll put the other onion in the pot with some oil and cook it a bit, then add the carrots & celery and the chicken stock. Cook that until the veggies are done and add the Noodles to cook them. The chicken will go in last since it's already completely cooked. I might add a touch of garlic...I don't know yet.

DH wants to go to the Soup Supper because he wants to eat all the yummy soups. Darly doesn't like soup (weird kid!) so if we go, she'll bring a sandwich.

Quick Chick and Noodle Soup
Recipe courtesy Rachael Ray

Prep Time: 15 min Inactive Prep Time: 0 min Cook Time: 15 min Level:
Easy Serves:
2 quarts of soup, 4 big bowls
Ingredients
2 tablespoons (2 turns around the pan) extra-virgin olive oil
2 medium carrots, peeled and chopped
1 parsnip, peeled and chopped Omitted (didn't have any!)
1 medium onion, chopped
2 ribs celery, chopped
2 bay leaves, fresh or dried
Salt and pepper
6 cups good quality chicken stock (making it myself!)
1 pound (the average weight of 1 package) chicken breast tenders, diced (using the stock chicken)
1/2 pound wide egg noodles
A handful fresh parsley, chopped
A handful fresh dill, chopped
Directions
Place a large pot over moderate heat and add extra-virgin olive oil. Work close to the stove and add vegetables to the pot as you chop, in the order they are listed.
Add bay leaves and season vegetables with salt and pepper, to taste. Add stock to the pot and raise flame to bring liquid to a boil. Add diced chicken tenderloins, return soup to a boil, and reduce heat back to
moderate. Cook chicken 2 minutes and add noodles. Cook soup an additional 6 minutes or until noodles are tender and remove soup from the heat.
Stir in parsley and dill, remove bay leaves and serve. This is a thick soup. Add up to 2 cups of water if you like chicken soup with lots of broth.

note: since I'm using cooked chicken, I'm shuffling the recipe a bit.

Good Google, BAD Google!

Good Google: I recently discovered through a friend that there is a feature you can get with your gmail account where you can have multiple inboxes for your gmail account. What you do is assign labels to your different emails and then choose to have those emails have their own inbox. You have to go to Google Labs to get it cuz it is still in beta, but I really love it and hope that I get to keep it.

I get a lot of emails regarding my reviews and using the different inboxes helps me keep everything straight...I can put emails regarding products I'm waiting to get in one box and move them to the post review box once I get the product. It is working very well for me!

BAD Google: I used to love my Google toolbar's AutoFill feature. I could use AutoFill just about everywhere to automatically fill in forms and such. But when they upgraded the toolbar to level 5 they decided to not have AutoFill work for login boxes anymore. :( I don't even know if the AutoFill works for anything else because I use it mostly for log-ins. So I'm not a happy camper. The bad part is that I took toolbar 5 off my computer and put 4 back on, but 5 kept reloading to my computer. I finally got tired of reloading 4 and deleting 5...so now I'm just not happy. And I guess what really upsets me is that one Google guy said that they didn't know what was causing the problem and would fix it. But I read on another page that they did it on purpose to work better with Internet Explorer. It is not making me work better!!!

the update...

OK Chick has asked for an update...so here it goes.

Today - I need to get some groceries (plan a menu first). I should see if I can get my dog groomed and Darly an eye appointment too. I need to work out and shower. DH would like for me to vacuume the house... we'll see how much of that gets done. And Darly has gymnastics this evening.

Yesterday - I worked out for 40 min and took Darly to go rock climbing at REI. If you click on that link you'll see a picture of the store on the righthand side. That HUGE glass window is where the rock climbing structure is...it faces west and it gets VERY HOT in there! I forgot to bring a camera so I don't have pictures of Darly climbing (our friend let me use her camera but needs to find her USB cord). Darly "owned" the pinnacle (that's what the call the rock climbing structure). At one point one of the girls decided to time how quickly the two fastest kids could climb it...Darly did it in one minute 17 seconds! Thankfully the belayer allowed Darly to climb it a few more times than the rest of the kids. There were 8 kids climbing, 6 girls & 2 boys. The girls were all much better at climbing than the boys. We figured out quickly that the girls were better at using their legs to climb with when the boys insisted on using mostly their arms. Only one of the two boys ever made it to the top and the other one was very embarrassed that the girls were doing so much better than he was. The belayer was very impressed with Darly, he said she had good climbing form and was using her body correctly to get up. I had been calling Darly my little "Spider Woman" but the belayer called her a tree frog and I have to agree that the frog image fits her much better. Darly LOVES to climb! The Pinnacle has multiple routes for the climbers to take to the top and the kids were mostly using the easier route, but I suggested that Darly try the harder one that we had access to...telling her that if it was too difficult she could always go over to the easier route. Darly LOVED the harder one! The harder one had more of the natural looking holds instead of the obivious bolted on holds. If Darly got stuck, she would just run her hand along until she found someplace to hang on to. The belayer offered to let us moms climb too, but I know from my last climbing experience that while climbing up is no problem...I just cannot give up control to the belayer to bring me down. So I declined the climb...but I did sneak up a bit on the other side of the pinnacle with no harness or ropes. Darly of course went up higher than I did. LOL!

Yesterday of course was Ash Wednesday and since there was no Confirmation Class we decided to stay home as we aren't particularly fond of the imposition of ashes part of the service. We'll be there for the entire Holy Week.

Tuesday (24th) was the day we went ice skating. See how that went here. We had lunch with a friend and then got ready for gymnastics class. Darly did very well and had a good time. I don't think that she tried any new skills, but she did get almost vertical on the handstand bar top picture. I need to remember to tell her about the back walkover on the beam that another girl was doing...Darly could so totally do it if she tried.

Monday (23rd) we had nothing scheduled, but we went to pick up Darly's friend to spend the night with us so she could come ice skating with us on Tuesday. I had agreed with friend's mom that I would be over after lunch to get her. Both girls were beside themselves with excitement for this play time. Friend is in Darly's girl scout troop and she lives very close to another girl in our troop. So I asked Friend's mom if it would be okay for the other girl's mom to come and get something she needed from Friend's mom instead of either of us having to drive the entire distance. Here's what happened with that!
The back of her shirt reads I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. and yes for even me the front of the shirt makes me do a double take...and I KNOW her. hee hee

Sunday (22) was the usual. We went to Church and tried to deliver Girl Scout cookies. But when we got there to set up in the Fellowship hall we were suprised to find that the hall had been transformed to get ready for the youth group's fundraiser and that folks weren't going in there except to buy tickets for the event. Well that wasn't going to work for the cookie thing. They had set up fellowship in the narthex and so we had to set up our cookie delivery in the narthex as well. DH & I were both NOT happy with that as we both had visions of Jesus turning over tables in the temple. But what else could we do? We did end up selling about 10 extra boxes and had one nice lady who wanted to buy cookies but wanted the sugar free ones that I chose to NOT have any of because they don't sell and we can't give them back.

Saturday Dh went into work to try and get this project done. He is reviewing proposals for some work on the base. He had 13 proposals to review, but during the week even though he closes his door folks keep inturupting him. It seems to me that closing his door makes them come to bug him more. Perhaps he should just leave it open. hummm We joked that I should make him up a nice sign that reads Colonel is busy. Do not enter unless it is REALLY important or you outrank me. which would be really funny because DH currently outranks his boss (it's a time in the service thing and dh didn't want his boss' job.) He got 4 finished. Part of the problem is that if someone comes in, DH has to make sure that they do not read any of the proposals which he has spread out all over his desk. What a headache!

Friday (20th) we went to our Girl Scout meeting. We had a guest speaker from the Wings over the Rockies museum who came to talk to us about Women in Aviation. It was a facinating presentation and I was so proud of our girls who all listened patiently (even the ones who usually insist that they need to say something RIGHT NOW!) Our speaker said that our girls were the best group he's ever had. That's right we had a man come to talk to us about Women in Aviation. LOL! But it was very educational and interesting to learn that the Russians had less of a problem with women flying than the US did. The Germans were very upset that their fighter pilots were being shot down by Russian women. LOL! GO GIRLS!

Thursday (19th) I worked the cookie cupboard that morning and learned that when the cupboard got the cookie refill order they sent this very old guy to deliver the cookies. He gets there and tells Lynn that he hopes she has about 5 hours cuz that's how long it will take him to unload the 700 cases of cookies she has ordered. Lynn doesn't have the time or the patience to wait on this old guy who was moving like the Tim Conway character who shuffles along. He was only loading his dolly with 5 cases at a time. So she called up a few GS Leaders that she knows and they got the truck unloaded in an hour! The old guy says "Wow! You girls are fast!" One of the gals she called regularly lifts 6 cases of cookies with no dolly.
Darly had gymnastics that evening.

Wednesday (18th) Darly went to a tea party. While she was there I went in search of a Wells Fargo bank to deposit cookie money into. We looked up locations close to the tea party online. One is just a few blocks away so I drive over only to find that it isn't a Wells Fargo...it's a Wacovia! and while Wells HAS bought them out, the transfer won't be done for another year and they can't take my deposit. grrr! She sends me about a mile away to another branch...that turns out to also be a Wacovia!!! WHAT??? so I drive back to the tea party and we look up online and pay better attention to the page...yes it did have that location marked as a Wacovia (Wells must have been excited about the buy out!) but we find a Wells branch that is close, call them to be sure it's a Wells and I get my deposit done.

That evening Darly had her Confirmation Youth Mentor kick off meeting. They did an ice breaker and went over what is expected of the youth and the mentors, afterward was a service that Darly & I decided to skip...so we went home to have cookies.

and that brings us to the 17th...the date of my last update. LOL! I hope I didn't bore you too much with all of this. :D

All's Well that Ends Well...

It is just nerve wracking getting to the end point!!!

Back in mid-January I had arranged for a group of us homeschoolers to go Ice Skating at our local college's ice rink. I had called up and spoke to a woman about getting a date for this because they don't normally post their schedules that far in advance. Because we were planning to come on a Public Skate day the gal didn't take my contact info.

Today was the day for the skating. I emailed folks last Friday to remind them and begged that if they knew they couldn't come to let me know because we needed 15 folks to get our group discount and we were pretty close...loss of one family could ruin everything!

This morning I check my email and there isn't anything there. But then I see on Facebook that one of the families is sick. YIKES!!! So I start scrambling trying to round up skating bodies. A bit later I get a call and an email from one of the other gals...her friend decided to punish her kids by taking away the skating trip!!!! WHAT???? How could she do this??? Luckily I don't know this lady.

I managed to round up another 4 people and the lady with the friend who bailed out found another friend who would bring another 3 folks...so we were good.

We get to the rink and I go to check in with the desk...and the gal tells me that they don't have public skating today. They've scheduled hockey practice in that rink instead. Excuse me? So the gal at the desk starts calling around for someone to figure this all out...I head to the bathroom.

After I get back and a few minutes, (I sent all the kids outside to play so they wouldn't be terrorizing the place) a lady shows up. The desk gal tells her what I told her which is everything in the first paragraph up there and low and behold...SHE IS THE PERSON I TALKED TO!!! And even better she remembers the conversation we had.

She appologizes for the confusion and calls over to the other rink since we can't use the one being used for hockey (they'll clobber us!) She says that if there isn't any problem with the ice then we can skate there. It ends up taking another 20 min, but YES we can skate on the other rink...we just need to be out of there by 2pm.

No problem!

So I pay the gal, my group gets rental skates and we're good to go!

I'm now getting to know my way around the college's athletic center way to well! LOL! But we got to skate. Woo hoo! And I even made some new friends (kid sized friends. One girl decided to hold my hand and talk my ear off while we skated.)

After skating we went to lunch with a friend...I should have had another cup of soup though...cuz I got home and grabbed a bag of potatoe chips. :P

but it's all good. I'm gonna go work out and take care of that.

My TMJ saga...

Yes Heather, I have TMJ too.

For the rest of you TMJ is Temporomandibular joint disorder
and Wiki does a really good job of explaining it.

Things began for me in about 1984. I noticed that my jaw was clicking and one morning when I was 17 I woke it up with it "frozen" shut. Now it wasn't really frozen permanently, it was just that my jaw was so stiff that morning that it took a good half hour before I could use it normally again. My mom set up an appointment with a orthodontist right away.

There had been some news stories about folks with TMJ on TV...telling about how they had been treated with joint replacement only to have those joints fail and the replacements mess up their jaws & face...a lot! So I was very nervous about what kind of treatment my orthodontist was going to prescribe.

As it turns out an orthodontist while not the correct doctor to treat this, was probably the best option at the time. My ortho decided that my jaw as upset because it was out of alignment and decided to have me wear an alignment plate to push my jaw back together.

Let's go back here... in approximately 1975 I had braces and treatments for my overbite. My overbite was so severe, there was a good centimeter between my upper and lower jaw when closed. So this orthodontist first attempted to push my upper jaw back, but when that didn't seem to be working he decided that we should try pulling my lower jaw forward. To get to this goal he fitted me with a mouth piece that I would wear at night that pulled my lower jaw past my upper jaw.

I'm no doctor, but I would bet good money that this treatment is where my problems with TMJ began!

Okay back to 1984. After this ortho pushes my lower jaw back and my jaw clicking hasn't frozen up my mouth anymore he suggests that we put on full upper and lower braces to pull my lower jaw forward again!!! Even as a 17y/o I could see the flaw in this plan and I declined (good thing as my parents couldn't even begin to afford it!)

I learned to live with my clicking jaw and learned that guys don't appreciate it when you giggle about your popping jaw when they are trying to kiss you. Hey I was 17! Give me a break!

Now flash to 1994, my jaw pain is so severe that I think I have an ear infection. I go to the military quack! um...doctor who for once decides that this is over his head and gives me a refferal to an oral surgeon. (I call this guy a quack because of some of the other treatments he subjected me to, this time he got it right.) Unfortunately, it took about 6 months for me to actually be seen by the oral surgeon and I had to pull some strings to do it. Luckily one of my neighbors was the patient advocate at the base hospital.

We were living 4 hours away from the oral surgeon's office. And for part of the drive the road was under construction and that made for a very stressful drive...I would complain to my doctor about it every time I saw him.

My doctor explained a lot about TMJ to me. He taught me that what I had done to myself was to stress out so much that my brain was no longer getting the signals from my jaw that I was clenching it. So there was this vicious cycle... brain under stress - brain tells jaw to clench - jaw clenches - jaw sends signal to brain that it is clenching - brain doesn't get signal that jaw is clenching - brain tells jaw to clench - jaw clenches more - brain still doesn't get the message that the jaw is clenching and sends the signal again! all of this clenching is called Bruxism and it can happen with any of your muscles...just in the jaw it causes TMJ. Doc plan of attack was to train my brain to realize when my jaw was clenching so that I could try to stop it before damage was done.

My doctor gave me some biofeedback exercises to do while I was awake. I had to do them at least 4 times per day. I put my fingers on the muscles of my jaw and clench them on purpose. This would give my brain a dual signal that my jaw was clenching...eventually the brain is supposed to relearn to get the original signal from just the jaw. But at night there wasn't any way I could feel myself clenching and stop it, so we resorted to drugs to knock me out to keep me from clenching at night.

I was treated for a little over a year this way and it seemed to help a lot. I had to keep a pain and sleep diary to record how long it took me to go to sleep and if I remembered dreaming (if you don't remember that you dreamed, it means you didn't go into deep enough sleep to dream) which means you were probably clenching too much.

I stopped seeing my doctor in 1996 because he moved to another base and we did too...but he had released me from care and told me to just continue my exercises and be aware of when I was clenching. It was decided that my jaw movement was good enough (I could open my mouth big enough to live & eat) that I did not need joint replacement surgery.

I'm not cured. I will always have this. But for the most part I live with it without it disrupting my life. Occasionally I have a rough day and it gives me a killer headache. But I haven't had my jaw freeze up on me and my jaw has good mobility without clicking too much. so we're calling it good.

you're wondering where I am...right?

well first I had to go and open another window with my blog on it so I could see when I last posted, cuz even I don't know how long it has been.

OK Chick asked about the doggy in the picture of my last post...That's Lilly...she's rubbing her face on my carpet. she knows it's cute.

when last we "spoke" I was in the middle of last Wednesday. I did manage to do all of what I posted. Ohhh what I didn't post was about my Girl Scout leader training. WHAT A COMPLETE WASTE OF TIME! Do you want to know why they had us take this mandatory training??? because they've come out with a new set of books to use. New Leader books, new books for each level for the girls to use to earn...oh wait! They've changed the badge system so now instead of lots of cute badges, they'll only earn 3 or 4. In this lousy economy they want us to switch books and make our girls have get all new books. For a lot of troops this won't hurt so much cuz they make loads of money off cookie sales and can just spend troop funds. But for our troop it would mean each girl buying the books. Well luckily council is smart enough to know that we would all just quit if they forced us to change. So change isn't mandatory, we just have to do it within the next few years. I think I still have time to get Darly through the next level of Girl Scouts on the old system. We'll see.

Thursday we went to learn about Henna tatoos. We got to try to make the cones to apply the henna with. We learned a bit about how the henna is made and why they tatoo themselves. It is neat that the brides get all tatooed and for as long as the tatoos last they don't have to do housework. And finally we got tatooed. They came out really nice even though we didn't leave the henna on nearly long enough. I had intended to leave mine on longer but I put a sticker over mine to keep it from wiping off on my coat...well the sticker took the henna off...bummer. It is still there though, but it is lighter than it used to be.

Friday Darly & I decided to NOT go ice skating cuz that would have been at 10am and we were pooped out from having to be places early every day that week. So we hung out at home that morning. Friday evening I went to Stitch Circle with some friends...Darly came with me cuz DH had to go to bed early and she wanted to come. It turns out that a friend of hers was there, so they chatted at a table near us while we knitted or crochetted. It took me about 5 tries to get my casting on counted right. There was one point where I had the right number on it but I accidentally started knitting with my waste yarn. bummer!

I forget what I did on Saturday.

Sunday we did Church, I still have half of the folks on our list to deliver cookies to. sigh! After Church Darly & I went to IHOP for brunch. And Sunday evening I got to go out! and even though I ate dinner at home all the yummy foods I saw got me hungry. Luckily Heather shared her noodles with me, YUM! and I bought some Key Lime Tart for dessert.

Monday was totally weird cuz DH was finally home. It felt like a Sunday. I made us eggs & baccon for lunch (he didn't want it for breakfast) and I went to the grocery store later. The grocery store was really busy...weird.

Today I went and helped out at the cookie cupboard. That was fun. Mostly we got to chat with eachother and the other cookie folks. One mom got so caught up in the conversation she totally forgot to get her cookies!

Now I'm tired. Oh and today the President was here...wasting taxpayer dollars to sign the useless Stimulus Package here when it could have been done in his office! I didn't see him. I didn't see Air Force one either. But dh got stuck in his traffic and it totally messed up his lunch. sigh

Review & Giveaway- Pledge Fabric Sweeper

LILLY

As all of you know, my house has a dog and two rabbits and to females who shed about as bad as the animals! So I was very excited to try out the new Pledge Fabric Sweeper.

My husband is always complaining about how all of his clothes are covered in hair...not his own as it is so short that he wouldn't notice it! Usually the hair on DH's clothes belongs to me or Darly. :o But we are all really happy with our Pledge Fabric Sweeper. The fabric sweeper fits nicely into your hand and picks up the hair and stores it away so that you don't have to rip off a sheet of tape or clean off the brush during your fuz removal!

Pledge is letting me give one of you the chance to try out a fabric sweeper too.
Leave a comment here and a non-partial judge (maybe Lilly if I can figure out how to get her to pick one) will choose a winner of your very own Pledge Fabric Sweeper!

Thanks to the Family Review Network for the chance to try this out! This post was written for Family Review Network as part of a program by SC Johnson, who also supplied the product for review and giveaway.

It's only 1/2 over!!!

my crazay day...

get up, get coffee, check the computer for more crazainess to add to this mess!
find out that my copy of The List arrived! Woo hoo!
workout while reading my new book...love a book that makes the time go fast and it does!
shower!
call up homeschooling co-horts to find out what all I need to bring to the party.
get Darly up
head to Target to pick up last minute items and
get lunch
arrive at party about 10 min late but I wasn't in trouble! hee hee
party until 2pm... okay folks it's time to leave!
deliver three cookie orders
deliver three bottles of lotion
deliver cookies for one gal that I goofed up on
oops! I forgot to gring another gal's cookies. good thing I'll see her tonight!
borrow two books for tonight
give mom form I forgot
drive home and look forward to a bit of peace and type up this post before it all starts again!

at 4:30 head over to cookie cupboard to pick up more cookies to fill extra orders
(hey we are now getting 2 cents more per box for the troop to keep for funding activities! YAY cuz one girl sold over 60 boxes so far. Darly is doing her part too, but her dad doesn't work at a place where everyone needs a sugar fix. LOL!)
depending on how long it takes to get the cookies tonight we'll grab dinner and either eat it there or take it home.
drive Darly to confirmation class tonight...gotta fill out her permission form
drive me to Girl Scout leader training
deliver the cookies that I forgot!

and that's it for tonight...I think! Boy I sure hope that I don't forget anything else.

A book review - The Help

I just finished reading the most wonderful book. This book made me laugh out loud, it made me cry and it made me shake my head at the utter stupidity of mankind.

Loads of you already know that I grew up in the south...Louisiana to be exact. I was born in the late 60's after the time frame of this book. While I was either too young or too late to experience a lot of what was going on in the south in the sixties...there was still plenty of it going on for a long time afterward.

The little town that I grew up in was very resentful of integration and many of my neighbors flat out refused to go along with it. A lot of my neighbors sent their kids to a private school half an hour away rather than put them in the same school with "them colored kids." My parents couldn't afford to do that and my mother would have never stood for it...my father on the other hand is the most stupid person I've ever known in my life. My life story could easily be started out with the words "I was born, poor white trash..." Luckily my mom taught me that God made us all the same.

okay enough about me...

Product Description
Three ordinary women are about to take one extraordinary step.Twenty-two-year-old Skeeter has just returned home after graduating from Ole Miss. She may have a degree, but it is 1962, Mississippi, and her mother will not be happy till Skeeter has a ring on her finger. Skeeter would normally find solace with her beloved maid Constantine, the woman who raised her, but Constantine has disappeared and no one will tell Skeeter where she has gone.

Aibileen is a black maid, a wise, regal woman raising her seventeenth white child. Something has shifted inside her after the loss of her own son, who died while his bosses looked the other way. She is devoted to the little girl she looks after, though she knows both their hearts may be broken.

Minny, Aibileen’s best friend, is short, fat, and perhaps the sassiest woman in Mississippi. She can cook like nobody’s business, but she can’t mind her tongue, so she’s lost yet another job.
Minny finally finds a position working for someone too new to town to know her reputation. But her new boss has secrets of her own.

Seemingly as different from one another as can be, these women will nonetheless come together for a clandestine project that will put them all at risk. And why? Because they are suffocating within the lines that define their town and their times. And sometimes lines are made to be crossed.

In pitch-perfect voices, Kathryn Stockett creates three extraordinary women whose determination to start a movement of their own forever changes a town, and the way women—mothers, daughters, caregivers, friends—view one another. A deeply moving novel filled with poignancy, humor, and hope, The Help is a timeless and universal story about the lines we abide by, and the ones we don’t.

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I love the way The Help was written. How the author shares the story from the the three different points of view. I found that the different view points gave me a great way of seeing the story. I just can't say enough good things about this book without telling you the entire story.

I feel so blessed that I was able to be able to read this book. The Help will be available today at your favorite bookstore or just click here!

I would like to thank the folks at www.mother-talk.com and www.MomCentral.com for the opportunity to read this book.

Warning: Crazay week ahead!

Today is the calm before the storm...and I might just make it calmer here in a sec.. "Hey Darly, will you please unload the dishwasher?"

Tuesday: a co-op class at 9am, but we have to drive 20 min to get there. That goes until noonish. And I have to deliver cookies to at least one girl, possibly two. Then Darly has gymnastics class that evening, so I have to get her to eat dinner before we go with enough time for it to digest so she doesn't get sick there.

Wednesday: Valentines Day Party to 2pm. I have to pick up more Girl Scout cookies at 4:30 if I can...I may have to wait. fix dinner. Darly to Confirmation at 6:15pm and me to Girl Scout Leader Training at 6:30pm. DH will have to pick up cuz I won't be done until 9:30.

for the Leader Training they are recommending that I print out two books to bring with me. I took a look at the books...one is 61 pages long the other is 70something and both are full of blank pages or pages that are half eaten up by pictures of girl scouts! hummm I don't want to waste my printer ink on that. So I emailed another leader to see 1) how necessary the books were and 2) if I could borrow her copies if I really HAD to bring them. hee hee. Hopefully she tells me that I don't need them or I can get free copies at the meeting. hee hee...now if I could just find my Jr Handbook, I'll be all set.

Thursday: Is DH's Birthday, but he has to work. Another class at 10am and then gym. DH wants brownies for his birthday "cake" yum!

Friday: we might go ice skating and then I have a class at 7pm that night. And I need to do something else too...I sure hope that I remember what that is soon!

I may be out (of my mind) for the rest of the week!

Crazy for cookies!!!

Trefoil

Do-Si-DoDulce De LecheLemon CremeSamoasSugar Free Chocolate ChipTagalongThin Mint

They're here!

My crazy day started off with me getting up at 7am and getting all my paperwork ready to go & pick up the cookies.

8:29 I arrive at the cookie pick up location. There were supposed to be 4 lines of cookie trailers, but I guess we didn't need that much...so there was only one line. I got to wait behind someone who was picking up for two troops, who didn't have enough room for that many cookies! LOL! No big deal, by the time I got all my cookies it was only 2 minutes after my original pick up time of 8:40am.

8:46 or so I get back home and sweep out my garage to unload the cookies into it for sorting. I get everything ready to go by 9:10am, but I'm worried that moms will start showing up before 9:30.

Darly & I sort all the cookies into orders for each girl.

10am arrives and I still haven't seen or heard from any of the moms. So I dig out phone numbers and start calling. I still haven't heard from one mom, but 3 have decided to have me bring out the cookies when I'm going to be near their house. 3 came to get their cookies today.

It is now 2pm and all is calm. I wonder when that one mom will be looking for her cookies...at the meeting yesterday she thought I would have them there. LOL!

oh and I've already had to start making plans to pick up more cookies... the fun begins!

VEGGIETALES®: ABE AND THE AMAZING PROMISE - Review

”If you like to talk to tomatoes, if a squash can make you smile, if you like to waltz with potatoes, up and down the produce aisle… then have we gotta show for you!”


Yep those veggies are at it again! This time it is a Lesson in Patience…NO! Not patients, but patience…you know waiting. ;0)


It’s the story of Abraham & Sarah waiting for a child that God has promised. Waiting so long they begin to wonder if it ever will really happen.

Product Description

Good things come to those who wait! VeggieTales®: Abe and the Amazing Promise, the exciting new Bible-story-based adventure from Big Idea, Inc., an Entertainment Rights group company, releases on DVD February 7, 2009. The DVD launches amidst a comprehensive multi-product VeggieTales “Values To Grow By” marketing campaign.



Abe and the Amazing Promise is a Veggie-spun Bible classic that tells the story of Abraham and Sarah and their wait for a promised child. Featuring a lesson in patience, the DVD showcases nationally syndicated radio host “Delilah” as the voice of Sarah. Including a new Silly Song with Larry entitled “Sneeze If You Need To!,” the musical “misadventures” of Blunders in Boo-Boo-Ville and lots of family-friendly bonus features, this highly anticipated title is available for $14.99 SRP in Christian stores Saturday, February 7, 2009 and everywhere Tuesday February 10, 2009.
 
While on set filming, Bob the Tomato decides to respond to a fan's letter about "waiting", meanwhile everyone's patience is tested by spitting camels, a confused nurse, an easily distracted film crew, and a host of other laughable filming disasters! Join the comical chaos and calamity in Abe and the Amazing Promise that reminds kids that God always keeps his promises . . . even if we have to wait a while!



This review opportunity couldn’t have come at a better time for me. Was it God’s intervention? I don’t know for sure, but it was certainly timely as we have been studying Abraham & Sarah in my Sunday School class. So after scrounging up a DVD player & TV my class got to watch it with us.


What I love so much about Veggie Tales is how even my 6th graders enjoyed the show. I think the folks at Big Idea do an awesome job of keeping everyone entertained by the story. Another good thing about this movie was while they didn’t cover how being impatient turned out wrong for Abraham & Sarah they added the Blunders in Boo-Boo-Ville which taught the kids that lesson very well. After we watched I asked the kids if they remembered how Sarah & Abraham were impatient and what happened to them for that.


Waiting is hard for everyone, but with a little patience good things (like cookies!) do come to us. You can pre-order VEGGIETALES®: ABE AND THE AMAZING PROMISE now or wait until Feb 10th for it to be available everywhere.

Thanks so much to Family Review Network & Veggies Tales for the chance to review another Big Idea!

Review - The School of Essential Ingredients

Foodies - this is the book for you! (if you don't know what a foodie is then you probably aren't one...but you will love this book too!)

I just got the wonderful chance to read The School of Essential Ingredients by Erica Bauermeister. I found myself quickly captivated in each of the character's stories and how the author chose to intertwine them all together.

From Publishers Weekly

In this remarkable debut, Bauermeister creates a captivating world where the pleasures and particulars of sophisticated food come to mean much more than simple epicurean indulgence. Respected chef and restaurateur Lillian has spent much of her 30-something years in the kitchen, looking for meaning and satisfaction in evocative, delicious combinations of ingredients. Endeavoring to instill that love and know-how in others, Lillian holds a season of Monday evening cooking classes in her restaurant. The novel takes up the story of each of her students, navigating readers through the personal dramas, memories and musings stirred up as the characters handle, slice, chop, blend, smell and taste. Each student's affecting story—painful transitions, difficult choices—is rendered in vivid prose and woven together with confidence. Delivering memorable story lines and characters while seducing the senses, Bauermeister's tale of food and hope is certain to satisfy. (Jan.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Product Description

Reminiscent of Chocolat and Like Water for Chocolate, a gorgeously written novel about life, love, and the magic of food.

The School of Essential Ingredients follows the lives of eight students who gather in Lillian’s Restaurant every Monday night for cooking class. It soon becomes clear, however, that each one seeks a recipe for something beyond the kitchen. Students include Claire, a young mother struggling with the demands of her family; Antonia, an Italian kitchen designer learning to adapt to life in America; and Tom, a widower mourning the loss of his wife to breast cancer. Chef Lillian, a woman whose connection with food is both soulful and exacting, helps them to create dishes whose flavor and techniques expand beyond the restaurant and into the secret corners of her students’ lives. One by one the students are transformed by the aromas, flavors, and textures of Lillian’s food, including a white-on-white cake that prompts wistful reflections on the sweet fragility of love and a peppery heirloom tomato sauce that seems to spark one romance but end another. Brought together by the power of food and companionship, the lives of the characters mingle and intertwine, united by the revealing nature of what can be created in the kitchen.

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The only drawback to this book is that you might find yourself getting very hungry. ;0) It is a great read and I highly recommend it. You can find a copy of The School of Essential Ingredients at Amazon or at your local book store.

Thanks again to mother-talk.com and www.MomCentral.com

Dazed & Confused

Last night Darly & I feel asleep on the couch while watching TV.  I woke up some hours later to some infomercial.
I got up and woke Darly for us to go to our beds.  Darly stood there for a bit looking for something...
I started going to the stairs and Darly was all upset because I was leaving her and she still couldn't find what she was looking for.
Darly: "Wait!  I can't find Mom!"
Me: "I'm right here"
Darly: "No, MY mom"
Me: "then who's mom am I?"

She gave me a dirty look and came anyway.  By the time she got to bed she was fine.

I think she was really looking for the skirt she had on earlier but took off before she went to sleep...it's still bundle up on the couch.

She is going to HATE me for posting this.  Bwahahaha!

who lotta nuttin going on

where am I and what have I been doing? I don't know really. I know that TC will spill and tell you that I've been on facebook all this time ignoring you...and she's partially right.

I did start a pretty bad facebook habbit... but I can break it. I know I can!

I had to help Darly with her Girl Scout cookie sale. She's doing pretty well so far. We even managed to sell most of the 25 extra boxes that I ordered so she could get the one prize that she wanted. I don't doubt that we'll have the rest gone quickly...it's amazing how quickly those cookies can go when people see them.

I was also busy with my homeschool group's co-op. Thank goodness my co-leaders agreed to allow me to hand off most of the work back to the folks participating in the co-op. The previous co-op director used to do just about everything and really made it a much harder job than it has to be. Now I just have to approve access to the board. Much more simple! What's uber-cool is how much the folks like my way better. ;0) I think we had something like 60 classes offered this co-op. These folks are amazing and I can't wait for classes to start.

There's been the fun of dealing with MIL. I don't know what all for sure my SIL & BIL have been doing, but it sure making MIL angry.

There was the waterheater fun. We THINK we have that all sorted out now. Actually DH did most of the work. Oh we still have to get the old waterheater up out of the basement and out to the trash by Wednesday. DH assures me that this waterheater weighs much less than the old one. hummm this one still has sludge in it. :p

Saturday night we went to the Observatory in hopes of seeing the Orion Nebula...but our hopes were dashed when we got there to see very thick cloud cover. We were able to see the moon peeking out and one of the guys focused his very powerful binoculars on it. That was pretty cool to be able to see it that well. One of the kids with us didn't want to check it out and it wasn't until I told her that she would be able to see the caters on the moon that she took a look... I hope she was happy that I talked her into it. I have to say that the renovations that they've been doing at the observatory look great! and it was so nice to huddle next to the radiator...I want radiators for my house! toasty!

that's about it. I need to call the dairy and let them know the eggs I requested have two cracked ones in it. sigh

NetSmartz - Review

Teens and tweens today have grown up as digital natives. I know when my tween talks about what she’s up to online, I worry that she’ll be careful. Just because our kids grew up familiar with the Internet does not necessarily mean they have learned safe online usage, which makes it important to find sites that can help.

NetSmartz, a leading online resource of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, used their expertise to develop NSTeens to educate, engage, and empower kids as Internet users. The website, http://www.nsteens.org/ includes bios, comics, and videos of seven teen characters. Their comic How Much Is Too Much illustrates the consequences of improper Internet use and shows the power of impact teens can have when they use their network to empower people. Videos cover important topics such as social networking, cyberbullying, and offline consequences. Each cartoon video also portrays interviews with teens talking about their Internet use.

Just the other day one of Darly’s blog friends asked where she lives…and Darly was about to tell her…for all the world to see. And while I’m pretty sure that her friend is indeed a child (from all the stuff she has posted on her blog) I still didn’t feel comfortable with Darly telling where we live. I think that no matter how often we tell our kids to be safe they still forget. I frequently have to go in and edit what Darly posts, thank goodness it is mostly typos. I know that using NSTeens can help us all as parents to keep our kiddos safe. Oh and there's also NetSmartz Kids for those of us with younger kiddos!

This review brought to you by MomCentral!