I just started watching Young Adult. And chickie (rocking a Hello kitty pj set that she probably got at Target because i think I might have the same ones) is going on a road trip listening to a TAPE over and over again the same song…how does she not have a CD player in her ridiculous little micro Italian car. Wow, this movie is so boring. Ok i had to quit it. –12/31/13
So i spent most of christmas break being sick. First i had the flu, because despite two attempts to get the flu shot, I never actually got one. I was briefly well just in time for my Christmas party and family Xmas Eve dinner. Then christmas day on i was sick with ear and sinus infections. So aside from two doctor visits, i havent been out of the house for a week. I starting to get stir crazy..ive got the motivation and desire to do stuff but not the energy.
Do people really leave their keys in their cars in the visor? People are always stealing cars in movies by using the keys in the visor. Who does that?
My bromfed cough medicine tastes like a cupcake…with a dreadful aftertaste.
–1/4/ 14
I’ve been doing the surveys and product testing for two months now. I like the product testing better than the surveys.
Product testing is my favorite. I get missions through Smiley360 and BzzAgent, plus some products through the online surveys. Smiley and Bzz give me the product and I then have different venues to tell people about the product I got. The ones that come through surveys just ask me to take another survey after I’ve used the product. There’s something exciting about getting chosen for a new product campaign even when they are boring things like Mucinex and ass wipes.
Products I’ve received so far:
a super awesome contour foam pillow from sleep number that I am totally loving and is way better than the $20 Target version I had before
a sleep number travel pillow to be used as a toddler pillow
Children’s Mucinex, which we are now on our third bottle of with as sick as they get all the time
Cottonelle flushable wipes (or as I call them, ass wipes) which are actually kinda nice and are totally flushable
Huggies diapers, something we actually would have had to spend money on otherwise
access to watch the Starz Black Sails new pirate show that comes on in January since Starz is a premium channel we don’t already get
The products I do have to bug people about since I’m supposed to post on Facebook, Twitter, and discuss with ten people for each thing. Steph found this clip and it is totally me…unsubtley working product placement into conversations to meet my quotas.
I’m doing several things that are money earners:
– Opinion Outpost gives money for surveys. It takes a lot of survey taking to get a good payout, but it’s not like I’m doing anything else important sitting at my computer all day. They are good at matching surveys to find one relevant to you. This morning Lucas and I took one where he looked at toy ads and then pretended he was shopping for toys for his birthday and picked out which toys he wanted. I got paid $3.50 to sit with Lucas and pick out toys. They also sometimes send me products to try out.
– Tapbooty is the ipad/iphone program that I learned about through Smiley360. I download apps through it and get paid about .10 per app I download. Doesn’t sound like much, but really, how hard is it to tap a button to add an app to your ipad? I do this while I watch tv.
– Pinecone shows me ads for a product and then asks me what I like about the product and the ad for it. These don’t take long to do and I get $3/survey. It implies that they might send me the product as well to try out, but I haven’t received any products from them yet.
A few other sites I have done sorta are iPoll, Crowdology, Tellwut, MyPoints, and RewardTV. These don’t seem to payout very fast so I kinda lost interest in those.
– Secret Shopping I’ve done a few times now where I shop at a store with a list of criteria to look for and then write up a report. I’ve learned that if I am choosey with the stores this is an easy way to make money since they pay $10-15/store and only takes about an hour to complete.
Overall in the past two months doing the above activities I have earned about $101.90. So $50/month isn’t much money, and all this stuff does take a good amount of time compared to say having a part time job where I could make like $7/hour, but it is considerably less effort since it is mostly just doing stuff on the computer while I’m chatting online anyway or watching tv whenever I want, on my own time.
Why do I do this to myself? All I had to do was make a dessert. Steph and I both came to the conclusion that rice krispie treats were the best idea for a preschool party. But i couldnt just leave it at that. Nooo. I had to make cute little turkeys. I found this from Rice Krispies’s Pinterest
Mine ended up looking more like this.
Jenn and I worked on them, and i found it to be a pretty frustrating experience. I was supposed to make 60, but gave up after 20 and just made regular ones for the rest.
Mattress shopping is complicated. I purchased my first (and current) mattress about six years ago by walking into a furniture store, lying on a few, and buying the cushy, plush one I liked. Since then, that cushy pillow top that I thought was so great has formed dips where we lay and a hump in the middle. Where initially you could go bowling on one side of the bed and not notice it on the other, we now feel every little move the other person makes. But since it is a pillow top, it can’t be flipped or re-squished or any simply fix.
Today I had the pleasure of trying out the Sleep Number store at Town Center Mall. It is nothing like what I thought. I’ve heard the advertising for it for decades, been passed that store in the mall a hundred times, but I had some (unfounded) preconceived notion that the sleep number thing was a gimmick that would cost a ton extra. I was astounded by what they offer there.
I met with Marci, who has been with the company for 16 years, and definitely knew what she was doing. First she had me lie on a bed that sensed my body pressure. A thermal image on the ceiling showed me how the mattress formed around my body. She then adjusted the numbers and I could both feel the mattress become softer and see as the pressure of my body against the bed evened out. You set the bed to your comfort level with a bedside remote control. You can adjust the number at any time (I wish I’d had this when I was pregnant and my body had changed so much).
Sleep Number has 9 different beds — both memory foam and pillow top types. And the pillow tops? The top layer is replaceable so you aren’t stuck lying in a gutter in your own bed.
Please click the image to earn me points for this review!
Please click the above image to earn me points for this review.
And it’s not just about the mattress. They have amazing pillows! Marci told me 20% of the comfort is from your pillow. And for them, pillows aren’t just firm versus fluffy. Currently, I have a $20 memory foam pillow from Target…and it makes me sweat! When I first got it this summer I would literally soak my pillow even though I wasn’t overly hot in general. Well, Sleep Number has foam pillows with a gel liner that is supposed to eliminate this problem! Or how about an air pillow? Turn the nozzle one way and you can squish air out to make the pillow thinner. Let it go, and it reinflates itself for a fuller depth. They even had a two-sided pillow — two types of pillows in one depending on which way you flip it. Not to mention the six or so various shaped pillows for different uses (such as maternity pillows or prop-up for reading pillows). And if STILL none of these work for you? You can create your own pillow! Sleep Number also sells all the liners, protectors, and even sheets.
One other product I tried out at the store was the DualTemp layer. This mattress cover heats or cools each side of the bed so that both you and your partner can sleep at just the right temperature. I like to sleep snuggled under blankets because I get cold easily; my husband sleeps with the blanket half off of him. With the DualTemp layer, we both can adjust the temperature of our side of the bed with a remote. This is just a top layer, not part of the mattress, so this could go on any bed, not just a Sleep Number mattress.
As I listened in awe of all the amazing products Marci was showing me, I was mentally imagining the ridiculous price tag this kind of stuff would come with. I mean that is how it works; better stuff costs more. Awesome, cool stuff like this? Gonna be a fortune. Steeling myself for the inevitable sticker shock, Marci handed me the pricing chart. And sticker shock it was. Because these mattresses didn’t cost much more than what I paid for the one I have now. Plus they offer six months lay away, so if there is a Christmas or some other sale on the one you want, you can get it on lay away to lock in that sale price. Plus they offer a 30 day lowest price. And financing.
It seems to me that with the way you can adjust the firmness, replace a pillowtop, etc, that this is a mattress that sets you for life. Or at least longer than six years. When we are ready to make our next mattress purchase, I am 100% coming back here to Sleep Number to get it. And I’m kicking myself for not having checked it out before. (But I was young and stupid; now I’m a little teensy bit older and much, much wiser).
So the next time you are at the mall, go by the Sleep Number store – even if it is just to check it out. Marci was wonderful and there was 0 pressure to buy. They don’t need it — their products are that good.
*I am not employed by Sleep Number and am not being paid for this review. I did get a free toddler pillow for my little girl while we were visiting the store and Smiley360 might send me a free pillow. But nothing was contingent on a good review. It is 100% my opinion based on my visit to the store.
As I mentioned in one of my previous posts, I was giving it a go on some product testing sites.
Previously, I have tried some survey sites, but they just annoyed me. I had signed up for an account at testspin.com a long time ago (on my junk email account of course) and messed with it the day I signed up, but it was a pain to use so I never went back to it. I didn’t like that one because it matched you with all kinds of survey sites and trials, but it just linked you their sites, so I was having to answer basic survey questions over and over to see if I qualified for each thing. This is different than the Smiley360 and others Lauren had me sign up that bothers to remember your basic info — such as age — instead of making you tell a/s/l every survey!
Since then I have signed up for House Party, Smiley360 and BzzAgent. The thing about all three of these sites is they want you to do stuff online (message on FB, twitter, etc) to show how much you want to join a “campaign” (product test). “We reward our most active and influential BzzAgents with access to even more campaigns.” So you spend all this time reading about the campaign and trying to talk about it in all these online venues, just to not get selected. On BzzAgent I can see some of the campaigns going on, but I can’t apply to join – just be selected by them. So there is this awesome music player one going on that I can’t say to them “hey that would be PERFECT for my household.” On Smiley360 the only thing I’ve been offered is cold medicine (which okay we are a prime target study for that considering we are sick at least every-other week).
There are still 4 more websites that Lauren posted about for me to try.
I really hope my experience with these sites improves, or I’m going to lose interest in this whole product testing thing pretty quickly. (Altho Lauren said it took her a month to be selected for anything and it’s only been a week…I just don’t have any patience).
I Just Joined Smiley360. And a couple of other sites. The idea is they send you a product (for free!) to try out. Then you use social media and word of mouth the tell people what you think of the product. You don’t have to hype it up if you didn’t like it; it is an honest review of the product. And you don’t have to pay for anything. You just get points for your reviews and get free stuff! Normally I would blow these sites off as basically pointless spam waste of time, but Lauren started them recently and has received a coffee maker and some kind of robot toy that connects to the tv. Cool stuff! I hope I get selected for something soon! I’ll use my blog to review stuff I receive. If you are interested in joining, let me know and I’ll send you a referral invite. There is a button in the right sidebar linking to the website for more info.
(8/12) Lucas finally got better over the weekend and then this evening Arianna got so sick! Yargh.
I have a bagel addiction.
#SwitchedatBirth is really annoying me tonight. I dont like the decisions they are making with taking the baby and trying to get Ty to skip out on the army. Ok nevermind they fixed that part. And Nikki is a self-righteous &@$€£!+*> Actually this whole episode is awful.
I’ve killed another phone (the old iphone) although that thing was limping along anyhow. So for now im back to my backup phone.
Today was Lucas’s first day of school (a week late due to being sick). It got off to a rough start because he thought he was going to have this one boy in his class and it turned out he didnt. Im not sure how much of his being upset was really about that and how much was just reacting to newness (and he woke up cranky today). But upon pickup I got great reports from his teacher Ms Pam and from Lucas himself.
(08/08) I’ve been irritable the past couple of days. My sleep schedule is messed up because of Lucas getting up so much during the night when he was sick and because of Paul being at work every day. Our whole routine is thrown off, and with little kids, routine is everything. We’re stuck in the house because Lucas has Hand, Foot, and Mouth….a virus that causes a rash all over like chicken pox. I hadn’t heard of it before but when I posted about it on Facebook a lot of my friends’ kids had had it before.
At 17 months old I’ve caved and Arianna is watching TV all the time now (they’re not supposed to watch TV until age 2). So, yeah I’m whiny and cranky this week from all that is going on in a not fun way.
Our month so far:
Aug 1 – Mommy’s birthday! The kiddles and I met Mom for lunch at Frosty Frog (a sandwich/ice cream place). We gave her flowers and a balloon and we had ice cream for dessert.
Aug 2 – Lucas’s Pre-K orientation. We met his teachers and he has 4 other little boys in his class that he already knows. I’m really glad I had him do daycare at the school over the summer because even though it is a different room with different teachers, he jumped right in and started playing with the other kids. Of course, he already that outgoing friendly personality (he definitely doesn’t get it from his super-shy mommy).
Aug 2-3 First consignment sale of the season. It went incredibly well, the best I’ve had so far. I spent a little over $200 on new fall and winter wardrobes for the kiddles and earned $126 in sales. This one was the huge Born Again Blessings at the Civic Center.
Aug 4/6 – Lucas got sick with what we found out a few days later was the HFM thing I was talking about above which brought all my plans and activities to a screeching halt, including Lucas’s 1st day of school and starting PreK. Dr Kola said it would be a week or so for him to be all better. So basically Lucas will be all better just in time for Paul to have major surgery.
Not much else to report right now since most of activities for this week got cancelled and we are just sitting in the house doing nothing. Next week is Paul’s Total Hip Replacement surgery.
For the most part, June consisted of lessons. Mondays and Wednesdays Lucas had swim lessons at the new Aquatic Center. He has a great teacher and has gone from getting upset every time water splashes in his face to voluntarily dunking under the water. He has also done a 3 second solo swim. He graduated from Preschool 1 to Preschool 2 which he will start this month (August). He also did gymnastics June-July at Georgia All Stars from a LivingSocial coupon I had. I’m glad I had a discount on that program, because I didn’t care for that place at all. I’m going to try out another place called Zenit, and they have classes for Arianna’s age, too.
On the 3rd we released the Painted Lady Butterflies that we had raised from Lucas’s birthday kit.
The water park at the new aquatic center is really awesome. It has a playground part that is wonderful for the kids to run around on, a small deep end area for a bit of swimming, a lazy river, and water slides. It is like a close by, cheap, mini-white water. It took Arianna a little time to warm up to it, but Lucas loovveedd it.
Lauren’s baby shower was the 22nd for Miss Alexis Elizabeth. We had it at Chilis which I hadn’t been to in years and we did presents and cake! It was really fun to hang out with everybody and she got some really adorable little girl stuff.
For our 7th (12th) anniversary, Paul and I went to a movie theatre in Alpharetta where you sit in office chair style chairs and have little tables and they serve you drinks and dinner while you watch the movie. It was a neat experience, but we probably wouldn’t do it frequently. We got to see Superman and it was *awesome*.
We had a really rainy (and busy) summer, so we only made it to the pool a couple of times. Here are some shots of us hanging out.
We ended the month with a trip to the zoo with the Steins! We hardly ever get to see them anymore so it was really great to go do something with them.
So it is August and I never finished these posts. Here they are finally.
17 – Landon’s 4th birthday party – We went to the Keelings’ and had these awesome cookie-brownie combo things. Landon got a massive water gun for his birthday and the kids all played out in the front yard with the water guns until late.
18 – We took Lucas to the Renaissance Festival for the first time! I love Ren Fest and was so excited to take him. He and I went through a maze with him leading the way. He likes to do the drawing kind and thought it was pretty neat to go through a real one. It ends with you climbing a small tower and then sliding out. The lady working the ticket booth for the maze kept telling me how hot my husband is when I went to pay for the tickets to the maze ;). We also went in the bird sanctuary which I hadn’t been into before. Lucas was a little nervous about the loud squawking cranky parrots but thought it was neat when the cockatoo said bye to us when we left. We also watching the joust and Lucas rode on several of the (incredibly overpriced) rides. We ended with the children’s play area and petting zoo. Arianna loved the bubble machine.
21 – Marietta art class – They read a story about a cat and created their own cats. This was 100% made by Lucas. I verbally told him how to draw the mouth and things and he made all the parts including drawing them and cutting them out. We also went to the eye doctor this day and Lucas definitely has the strabismus eye thing that Paul had. He got glasses to strengthen his eyesight in his right eye.
22 – The neighborhood had an ice cream social where an ice cream truck comes to the pool and passes out free ice cream. Lucas and I went over there with the Keelings and the kids ran around hyped up on sugar. I also met one of my other neighbors, Barbara and her daughter Katherine that live down the street from us.
23 – Southern Museum Mommy & Me class –
We had a brief break between schools so I had a chance to take him to the class the Southern Museum has each week. It’s such a great class because they read a book, play a game, sing, do a craft, and do hands on activities like pictured below. It is really well structured and taught. This week’s theme was taking care of pets.
24 – 26 Paul goes to Nationals and I’m home with the kids. Not much to say about that. Mom helped a bunch so that I wasn’t overwhelmed.
28 – Lucas started daycare at his new school Brenwood Academy. We call it “playschool,” though since the word “daycare” has a stigma to it for Lucas. It took a few minutes to get him started playing with something and settled in, but then he was fine. He goes Tues, Weds, Thurs from 9-12.
29 – We had our last Girl Scout meeting of the year. I decided to have an informal meeting at LoriBell’s for ice cream and chatting. Lucas got to come, too, and he and Deb told “jokes” the whole time which basically consisted of saying random silly stuff and then cracking up laughing at it. Lucas had also just gotten his new glasses that day so he got to show them off to everyone.
ally-cat 