Note to self

Do not let the 6 year old watch the news. Oh my goodness. We went to the commissary to pick up a few things, some of that was gallons of spring water. She automatically took that as “hurricane preparation” and freaked out in the store. No, my child, it was more like “iced tea preparation”. I don’t like using tap water in my Keurig because of the mineral build up so I use bottled water. Plus .. tap water? Ewwwww. You know they recycle your toilet water to make that. LOL I’ve tried the filters on the tap but it never makes it taste good enough for me. So water filter suppliers will never make much off of me. I’ll stick with my spring water.

I will admit that Earl does make me nervous. I get a little anxiety when I see any hurricane brewing in the Atlantic. Especially right now because it’s just me here and I don’t handle super duper stressful things very well. I kind of lose it and want to curl up in the fetal position until the stress has diminished. Plus school starts next week and I want NICE weather for that. Last year we were stuck in a week’s worth of heavy downpours and it was horrible. You can’t take cute photos of your child’s first day of school EVER when you can barely see. Plus my dslr camera is not going anywhere near the rain. So .. let’s just hope Earl moves out to the east and leaves us be.

Just call me bitchy!

I’m pretty sure I didn’t get enough sleep last night because as soon as I woke up this morning I instantly felt homicidal. That’s always a pleasant way to feel right before breakfast. *sighs* But I got myself up, ready and out the door in time to take the kids to Lowe’s for their “Build and Grow” workshop. This week we built a lovely school bus. A school bus that does not have working wheels or .. anything else that should work and move properly. Not because it’s supposed to be that way but because mommy kind of didn’t read the instructions very clearly. Oops! Not surprising since I generally jump into most things in life without paying much attention. Oh well. If you have never been to Lowe’s for these, do it! They give the kids a free apron, use of a hammer and goggles (some stores give you the goggles, too) and a certificate and patch for your apron once you finish. My kids love collecting the patches and it’s pretty obvious every time we go that others are just as hardcore. LOL Some kids have amazing aprons, covered in patches. It’s kind of nuts. But it’s definitely a fun activity for kids and of course totally free. You have to love that!

After that we hit up Walmart for some deli meat, pita bread and Truvia. Oh and of course anything else that the kids thought they should throw into the cart. Again, I am not going to miss that once the kids go to school. Kid free shopping! woohoo! I did order Will’s cake while we were there. I figured I would let him pick one out himself since he’s Mr. Picky anyway. He chose “Hot Wheels” so I hope he’s happy once his birthday arrives. If not .. too bad, buddy. You chose it. He also wants to go to dinner at Chuck E. Cheese so we’ll do that as well I suppose. Not a birthday “party” but it works for me. With his birthday on the second day of school it’s not like we’d be able to do much anyway. I’m sure our friends will all be in school mode by then and trying to work out a routine.

So, yeah. That’s about it for today. I’m letting them spend as much time outdoors as they like while I catch up on super exciting things like laundry and cat litter cleaning. So much fun. I don’t know how I will contain my joy. While I hate doing it, I hope it puts me in a better mood. Cleaning usually does, oddly enough.

Peace out!

Moon Dough

I will admit (and my friends will agree) that I am a little spazzy about messes. I generally dislike any messes and that goes for messy kids’ toys as well. It wasn’t until just recently that I let my kids use markers or water color paints and I still cringe the entire time they are using them because I just KNOW I will end up with a mess. Yes, I have issues. Any sort of molding doughs have also been banned in our home. I know my kids love them but I do not. I don’t like picking it out of my carpets or having it dried on my carpet and then having to cut it out. We rent so it’s not like we can just replace carpets on a whim. So it’s easier to just say NO!

When I received an offer to try Moon Dough I was just a little bit hesitant. We tried Moon Sand awhile back and I wasn’t a huge fan. My Dyson got most of the action with that playset. I have enough dirt to vacuum up on a daily basis and I’m not about to BUY extra dirt. But I saw that the makers of Moon Dough claimed that it’s virtually mess free and that it never dries out so .. why not? Bring it on!

The box arrived last week and I think I was more excited to open it than my kids. We got everything out of the box and put the barn together in a matter or seconds. It was SUPER easy. Then came the dough. It’s so weird feeling but very cool at the same time. I let the kids go nuts, making animals and hay stacks along with fences. They mixed the colors, got it ALL over the floor and the table and I remained pretty calm. I knew that in order to test this mess factor I would need an actual MESS. They played with the dough for hours. Pretty awesome for my kids because they are usually bored quick and right back to hound me me again for this or that. I had a lovely afternoon. Once they stopped I had them pick all of the big clumps up and put them in a bag. No issues at all. It was very easy to clean up. There were a few spots on my area rug that had been stepped on and mushed right into the carpet but I didn’t freak out. Instead I followed the directions that came with the dough and brushed them out of the carpet and then went over it with my vacuum. They came right up! I couldn’t believe it. The dough was a minty green color (all mixed together) and my rug is a very dark evergreen. I’m amazed that there were no light spots leftover.

The dough has been sitting in an open ziploc for the last week and it’s still just as mushy as the first day. I purposely left it that way just to see if it would dry out. But nope! Very cool. I’m actually tempted to buy the kids another kit and some extra dough. This is one “mess” that I am totally ok with because I know it’s just temporary and if it keeps them as amused as it did initially .. yay!

I love Moon Dough!

The barn playset that we received retails for around 19.99. Extra packages of dough retail for around 4.99 for the double refills and 2.99 for the singles. There are also other playsets available – a burger shop, a pizza shop and a magical molding dog house. All retailing between 9.99 and 14.99. It can be purchased at almost any major store – Target, Toys R Us, Walmart, Kmart, Amazon.com, AC Moore, Michaels and even etoys.com. Moon Dough comes in many color – blue, green, white, orange, purple, pink, red and yellow.

Moon Dough was sent to me for review by Team Mom. While I was not paid to do this review I was allowed to keep the product. All reviews on this blog are always honest and my own opinion!

gifts, cakes and birthdays

My youngest’s birthday is coming up in a couple of weeks. Actually two weeks from today! I’m not going to go overly crazy as he’s a boy and you know how little boys can be. All of the extras do nothing for him. He’d much rather have me hand him a gift and let him be on his way rather than party a whole lot. So I am only going to give him some money to take on a little spree through the toy store. Along with that we’ll do a cake, of course. That is where I am having trouble. I am super tired of the same old stuff. I don’t want to spend a bunch on a cake but the grocery store cakes are always the same old thing. Cartoon characters galore and they’re all kits that are just slapped on. It kind of makes me sad that they don’t have anything more creative. You can find tons of ideas for wedding cake toppers but birthdays are always the same old characters. Or maybe I’m just looking in the wrong places? Eh .. as I mentioned, he is a boy so he probably could care less. In fact I don’t think he even likes birthday cake much as he usually skips that part at every birthday. If I wouldn’t feel like a bad mommy I would just skip it too! That’s an extra $25 I could keep and less calories consumed. Win/win.

Is summer over yet??

I am just ITCHING for the cooler weather. It’s been a just a little cooler than usual lately and I think that is what has got me in the mood. Plus mums are popping up at all of the stores. *sighs* I love me some mums!! I even went ahead and bought a big pot for my front door yesterday. We’ll probably get a heat wave and they’ll dry up and die but .. I couldn’t help it. Anything to get me in a good mood. Summer has been pretty miserable for me emotionally. I haven’t been super down in the dumps but it’s not favorite season and without a husband around … blah. No fun at all.

I’m just longing for the days when I can turn my A/C off and put heated mattress pads on the beds. Part of that is probably because my Mister will be home as soon as Winter gets here. I’ve never looked forward to freezing my ass off so much as I am now. lol

See Spot’s Poo

I used to laugh to myself when I saw one of my neighbors walking his dogs late at night with a giant flashlight. I thought it looked ridiculous because he seriously has a massive light. One sort of like this brinkmann q beam! But after a few nights of playing “find the turd” in the dark, I can totally see why he does it. I like to be a responsible pet owner so of course I can’t just leave Kaiser’s business wherever. I literally had to run back home the other night and grab my BOOK LIGHT (because seriously, I don’t seem to own a simple flashlight) and go back to find it. Pain in the butt. And really weird. I think I’ll invest in a small flashlight for these late night outings. And thank God for my husband. He’s the best dog walker. I can’t wait until he’s back to do the late night walks again. lol

Sometimes I wish I would have read a few more gps reviews before deciding on which one to get or to ask for .. since I got it for Christmas. Sometimes that thing drives me nuts. Go here, go there .. umm.. no. I get that is the entire point of a GPS but sometimes I like to travel my own path. I don’t want it to lead me all over the map in directions that are not what I expected. Because sometimes I kind of know where I am going but I don’t know *exactly*. So I’ve already formulated the travel plans in my brain. Of course that darn GPS never agrees. I think we’re going to break up and I’ll only bring her out for LONG trips. Right now she just irritates me.

Hand me my Melatonin!

I’m sitting here again, putting off bed time. ;(

Listening to the sounds of my cats getting into things (they think I’m very stupid apparently) and the noise from random late night commercials. No, I don’t need Blue Advantage insurance or hair removal. Thanks, Mr. TV.

What I should be doing is getting the dog out for his last walk and then crawling into bed so I don’t wake up so tired tomorrow. But I never do the “right” thing. It’s just been such a nice day that I hate to end it. I have a feeling that tomorrow will cancel today out somehow by being really shitty. LOL I’m savoring the greatness of today to the very last drop.

Do you Swag?

I am addicted to Swagbucks .. well, just a little. The idea of searching and getting free stuff is awesome and I’m totally loving the rewards. I have only been going it for a few months, on and off, and I have already redeemed my points for 9 $5 Amazon.com gift cards. #10 will be here soon. Sure, it’s not going to buy me any Orlando vacations but $5 here and there to buy myself little gifts with is nice! Especially when I can score a great deal. That extra $5 off is a bonus.

If you’re not swagging yet, click on my banner over to the right to get started.

Thanks for the ‘Heads or Tails’ game at Sobe.com I have stocked up on a ton of their Lifewater. Like many other coupon queens, I am sure. Though I am not a real master as I actually had to pay for the “buy one” part of the “buy one, get one free” deal but still, half of that is free! It works great to put back for hurricane supplies. Not that it would probably matter if we had a huge one run through here. Living in upstairs apartment, in a very newly constructed building doesn’t give me a whole lot of confidence. We all know how new construction is. It’s all cheapy parts and drywall, not steel buildings. Water/food or not, we’d likely be screwed.

And no, I don’t even want to think about that. So let’s hope the Atlantic stays calm through November. Then I can just drink my Lifewaters in peace! So far this deployment has went pretty darn swimmingly. I’d rather not add any drama to the mix.