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An Angora Rabbit…New Addition to Our Family – Wordless Wednesday

Posted by html404 on September 26, 2012
in Animals, Farm Stuff

Yes, we have another new addition to our family…our farmyard that is…meet Daisy. She’s an angora rabbit. We aren’t quite sure what breed yet, still trying to figure it out. Another homeschooling family had posted on our homeschool loop that they were giving Daisy away…and I being the softie that I am responded saying we’d love to take her! We still had rabbit food and the children loved the bunnies and this bunny was FREE! So I had to take her. Come to find out a farm not too far from us who breed angora rabbits charge $200 for a rabbit. Whooeee! Angora rabbits provide fiber and Daisy is in need of getting clipped as you will soon see from the photos taken on September 14th, the day we got her. She came all matted and that was the biggest reason the family was giving her away because they didn’t have the time to keep up with her grooming.

So far our girls are doing wonderfully grooming her, let’s hope it continues because Daisy’s health depends on it. Since angora rabbit fur gets so long they are prone to what is called “wool block”. This is when the rabbit cannot eat due to a fur ball being stuck in their throat. This can be prevented by giving the rabbit a piece of fresh pineapple or papaya on a daily basis. We are not sure how the fruit prevents it but my daughter read about it and we’ve started giving her pineapple after noticing her BMs (bowel movements or rabbit poop) were strung together with hair, which is/or can be a sign of wool block. 🙁

The photo above is of the fur the girls cut off of Daisy during their first grooming session. The photo below is how she looked after the fact….mucho better.

We are looking into selling or using her fur to knit with, but have to learn how to go about doing it first. We attended a free session with a spinners guild last Thursday and plan to attend their next meeting in October, will miss November and pick it back up in December to learn more about fiber, spinning and to meet others doing the same thing.

Even Daisy gets to enjoy the fresh grass since we recycled old pieces of a mini greenhouse we had a couple of years ago and created a play yard for her.

She’s still getting acclimated to all the children but we think she’s going to be a great addition to our farm. She’s huge by the way, if you couldn’t tell from the photos. If you remember our other bunnies were just wee little things. We’ll see Daisy’s true size once we clip her fur. One of our daughters doesn’t want to clip her because then she’ll be “naked” and cold but I think now is the time before winter is here that way she has time to grow it back. On average she will need to be clipped four times a year. Definitely makes for lots of new things to learn…..


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Ringya iPhone App

Posted by html404 on September 25, 2012
in Organization, Reviews, Techie Stuff, Uncategorized

You all are aware of the businesses we have. A couple of our businesses have more contact lists than the others and it is time consuming to keep track of everything, to update things manually etc. So I am all for time savers…like the Ringya iPhone App.

The thing is this app isn’t just for businesses, but for coaches, PTAs, Girl/Boy Scouts, teachers and whoever has contact lists.

Ringya transforms contact lists (class lists, work contacts, sport teams) into organized, sharable, digital lists. Just snap a picture of a paper list or email the app a digital version and…voila…you’ve got it handy on your phone!


Ringya iPhone App Review

Ok, this was written on 8/3 and I just downloaded the Ringya iPhone app. It was very easy to set up. Just follow the prompts. I took a photo of a list that I wanted to be able to import to email and phone numbers so I could do follow up to a snail mail mailing via phone or email, but didn’t want to have to do the data entry for it. If this app does what I think it will do, I am excited as this could potentially be a huge time saver! It did exactly what I thought it would do. It uploaded all the contact info of about 35 contacts – name, phone number, and mailing address. Almost wish there had been email addresses on the list and my work would have been complete. Since the emails were not listed, all I have to do is go into the “edit” feature and manually add the emails of the contacts.

Easy peasy! What a neat little app! The only issue I foresee is if you do not have enough data space on your phone and have a tone of contacts. Otherwise the Ringya iPhone App receives two thumbs up from me.

You may download the Ringya for free on iTunes.


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Crest Video Review #CrestSponsored

Posted by html404 on September 24, 2012
in Health, Personal Care Products, Uncategorized

Trying new product through video or vlog post, which isn’t something I normally do but thought I should start doing. In the video below I tested out products.

Crest Video Review

I wanted to start this review by saying that when our family buys any personal care products we read the labels for ingredients. If we do not recognize the ingredients we look them up on ewg.org.

Now onto the review…

Crest and Oral-B Pro-Health Clinical Plaque Control Review

I thought my husband would enjoy reviewing these products, but he’s been sick so I ended up reviewing them myself.

The Crest Oral-B Pro-Health Clinical Plaque Control products includes:

Toothpaste: The toothpaste is mint flavor, which isn’t my favorite, but it does leave my mouth feeling fresh and clean. As far as noticing a long term difference, not enough time has passed to determine any significant difference in my oral health.

Mouthwash: I did not like the mouthwash. It doesn’t smell good or taste good. Shiver.

Glide Dental Floss: We have used Glide for several years and it is by far our favorite dental floss. True to it’s name it glides between teeth without fraying or getting stuck.

Pro-Flex Oral-B Toothbrush: I really like the soft head Pro-Flex Oral-B toothbrush. I liked how it brushed and felt on my teeth and gum lines.

3 out of 4 isn’t bad, right?

To learn more visit the Crest and Oral-B Pro-Health Clinical Plaque Control website.


“I wrote this review while participating in a blogger review campaign by Mom Central Consulting on behalf of Crest and received product samples to facilitate my candid review. Mom Central Consulting sent me a promotional item to thank me for taking the time to participate.”


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Our Awesome Avengers Party #MarvelAvengersWMT #CBias

Posted by html404 on September 23, 2012
in DVDs & CDs, Family Stuff, Fun Stuff, Kids Stuff, Movies, Uncategorized

Last Tuesday night our family was able to enjoy a very fun evening, except my husband who has been struggling with cold/flu like symptoms the last few weeks – found mold behind our washer. 🙁 Anyhoo, the children and I all headed out to Walmart to shop for supplies for our Avengers party! Did you know The Avengers Blu-ray/DVD release is this week? Yes it is! I haven’t watched any of the new Marvel movies but my husband has watched a few of them with the children, including The Avengers. They get excited about all things Avengers and super heros. My goal was to enjoy an evening of fun with my family.


Shopping at Walmart

Before we went shopping, I downloaded The Avengers Augmented Reality App. There is a quiz, a place to join The Avengers, a game, a place to scan product. The kids love the game and music on it. I watched a video first to help me understand how it worked. The problem is we were only able to get it to work on the Marketside pizza boxes because there were barely any displays were up in promotion for the movie.

On the pizza boxes The app basically provided a 3D scene from The Avengers, my kids are pretty tech savvy and loved it.

Due to the lack of promotional signage available, we were unable to find any of the app’s trigger points so we could participate in earning points. We tried scanning the sign at the deli counter as well as the video display they had there for other Marvel movies but nothing happened. The sign at one of the entrance’s didn’t work, nor did any of the tags on the apparel we looked at.

I was hoping our Walmart had everything I had in mind to create an awesome Avengers party and you should see what I found!

We bought The Avengers party plates, cups, napkins, balloons, candy (not something I normally buy but this was a special occasion so we indulged), masks, a punching ball, prize ribbon and tattoos. We even purchased a couple of packages of super hero figures for the children to share and play with. These were part of the prizes I got for our game time. I was trying budget my money wisely because costumes were $9.99 and up, I couldn’t afford to get them each their own individual costumes, so we settled on them each having a mask which worked out great and it was so fun – I even wore one.

The children were so excited in the toy section, another section we usually avoid so we keep the gimmees at bay. There were lots of Avenger toys, figures and Legos to choose from….gave me a couple of ideas for Christmas. They were too expensive to get on a normal day out, that’s why we settled on the inexpensive action figures, plus more children could play with them than they could one big action figure/or toy that cost $15-$25 each.

Our Awesome Avengers Party

We purchased Marketside pizza for dinner. It’s very good. We were pleasantly surprised as it is very filling compared to other pizza we have tried. We enjoyed our meal together before heading down to our basement family/playroom for an evening of games showing super power strength and agility.

I divided us into teams and we played three games: whose team could keep a balloon in the air the longest, who could do the punching ball the longest and who could make the most words out of the word Avengers in two minutes. Then I handed out prizes to the winning team, the child who did the punching ball the longest and then each of the younger children received tattoos and super hero figures.

We ended our evening by watching half of Captain America since it was 9pm when we started it. We finished it the next day.

The Avengers Graphic Novel

Our children also enjoyed getting The Avengers Graphic Novel, though my daughters did report a couple of inappropriate/swear words, which was unexpected and disappointing for something geared towards children.

The Avengers Blu-Ray/DVD/Graphic Novel Combo Pack

The Avengers Blu-Ray/DVD/Graphic Novel Combo Pack was not in our Walmart store when we shopped last week but I can see how it will be a nice gift to super hero fans. It retails for $24.95 and will also be available on September 25.

To learn more about The Avengers visit Marvel.com Fans will want to follow Marvel on Twitter (use hashtag #MarvelAvengersWMT) or Facebook .

Overall our Avengers party was very memorable and the children told me how much fun they had that evening and again the next day. Guess it was a success!

“I am a member of the Collective Bias™ Social Fabric® Community. This content has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias™ and Marvel. #MarvelAvengersWMT #CBias #SocialFabric. All thoughts and opinions are my own.”


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With Every Letter – A Revell Book Review

Posted by html404 on September 22, 2012
in Books, Reviews

Lately it seems every time I have a book review due, the week before gets extremely busy and this time was no exception. It’s not like I intentionally plan to have a ton of work due at the same time as my book review or that I procrastinate, I love reading. I tend to wait because I write a better review the fresher it is in my mind. I have tried reading as soon as I get a book, writing a notes or a rough draft but going back to re-write it is never the same as having just experienced a good book and the wide range of emotions it takes me through and writing the review at the same time. Regardless of my full schedule this week, With Every Letter was so worth my time, With Every Letter, written by Sarah Sundin. To be frank, I’ve enjoyed all the books I have read by Sarah.

This book is a historical romance, but there are so many things I could relate to in it. You know how when you listen to a song and it can take you to a place you haven’t thought of in years? This book had that affect on me.

Set during World War II, this story is about flight nurses and their service to injured service men. For me there was so much depth to this story. The resistance the nurses faced by being women on the field, having to get along with those in your division, the orders you had to obey, the fight for position and rank – I don’t understand why anyone would want to go into the service, but admire those who do and am very grateful for those who have literally gave their lives for the freedoms we enjoy. My grandfather was a pilot during World War II. I am grateful he made it back alive and I had the privilege of knowing him. I just wish I had been interested in that part of his life to ask him about it.

Back to the book…

The main character Lieutenant Mellie (short for Philomela) is a flight nurse. She considers herself different and finds it hard to make friends with the other nurses she’s around every day. I just think she found it hard to trust people after what her mother did to her and her father. There have been things in my life that have caused me to be very UNtrusting.

Friendships are a huge part of life and many of the characters in With Every Letter Written learn that intimate relationships open the heart to hurt, but the key to maintaining those close relationships is mercy, love, forgiveness and restoration. If you are like me some of those steps are harder than others, even when you know the right thing to do.

Mellie is given the opportunity to pen-pal with a service man stationed overseas whose name is Lt. Tom MacGillver. After initially baulking at the idea, she begins her correspondence which turns out to be just what she and the service man needed. Did you know that is essentially how my husband and I got to know each other – via letters? We met at college but I was only there for a semester (a God ordained meeting, if you ask me 😉 )and we met over half way through so we were just starting to get to know each other when I had to leave. Reading Mellie and Tom’s story brought a wide range of emotions and memories back. It’s hard to get to know someone via letters, UNLESS both people are completely open and honest. I loved their story and didn’t feel it was a stretch of the imagination for the time setting of the storyline or for today because I believe long distance relationships can and do work, if both people believe in the relationship and commit to it. Definitely not for the needy or fainthearted as it does take a lot of time and work. Just as if you were together in person.

I loved the ending. While I had predicted what the ultimate outcome would be I loved the clever way it happened.

Two thumbs up for a heartwarming, emotionally evoking book that made me fall in love with Mellie, Tom and their friends. I loved their characters, grit and courage in the face of many different obstacles, including a war. It’s so hard when a good book ends….sniff, sniff.

“Available September 2012 at your favorite bookseller from Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group.”

Faith and Family Reviews received the following product in exchange for writing a review. While we consider it a privilege to receive products to review, our reviews are our honest opinion and thoughts of the product.


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Beautiful Beasties Review Campaign

Posted by html404 on September 21, 2012
in Animals, Books

My daughter and I both love taking photos of our family, our landscape, our flowers, and other random things. Most of all we love taking pictures of our animals and pets. The problem? The pictures don’t always turn out the way we want thanks to how much pets move and jump around.

We were excited to read the Beautiful Besties book and review it. My daughter started reading it and found alot of great tips that we can use with both our Nikon and iPhone. The author shows you how to pose your pets, how to get them to stay in that position, how to adjust your camera, as well as many more great topics.

Jamie goes into a lot of helpful detail that my daughter soaked in. The twenty one chapters are filled with helpful tips, examples of how to shoot, step by step instruction, photographs that are perfect for passionate photographers and professional pet photographers.

Our biggest challenge when photographing our horse, chickens, turkeys, rabbit, dog, and cats? Getting them to stay still. My daughter was thrilled that the author included some very awesome tips on how to do just that! She has been having problems taking photographs of our pets and was really excited to learn more about pet photography.

We learned alot from this book and if you’d like to check it out you can purchase it at- Wiley.com


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A Day at the Spa for The 2nd Talk #PoiseFab5 #CBias

Posted by html404 on September 21, 2012
in Personal Care Products, Uncategorized

Last week I had the opportunity to invite one of my friends, Linda, to experience a spa day with me. She and her husband are the owner of the horse barn where we board Blaze. She’s a hard worker, most of what she does is very physical so I thought she would benefit greatly from being pampered a little. Plus she’s been so good to our horse and has taught the girls a lot about horse care and horses, it was nice to give back to her for a change. Little did I know that Linda has been having some arm pain/issues so it was perfect timing. Neither of us had ever gone to a spa. Linda had a massage a couple of years ago and I had a Raindrop (lighter massage with the use of essential oils along the spine), but that’s it.

I had no idea where to go, so I tried rounding up a few recommendations and it took calling four different places, coordinating our schedules with appointment availability (who knew these places were so popular!) and going to two different spas to receive the services we desired.

Massages

On Wednesday we went to a natural wellness center to receive 90 minute massages. When I initially made the appointment I wondered how on earth I was going to make it through a 90 minute massage, it seemed so long. But boy did it go fast! I just got an upper body massage and it loosened up my tight muscles, but I was surprised at how much my body hurt later in the day and even into the next day. I really wasn’t expecting that, though I should have been since I have been sore after my husband has tried rubbing out knots in my back. I agreed to a medium to deep massage though since I am prone to muscle spasms in between my shoulder blades and spine.

Linda really appreciated the massage. She chose a full body massage. We both came out feeling relaxed. She said that it really helped her arm alot and that it’s feeling better.

Special thanks to our massage therapists!


Pampering Our Hands and Feet

I have had a manicure and pedicure before. The hospital where I delivered our first five children pampered new moms with manis and pedis. I think I had one or the other with at least three of the older five kids. The thing is the two places we went to did not offer either of these services, so we chose a facial massage, which included neck and shoulders…she even did something with our feet. Linda said she even worked specifically on her sore arm and because of the pressure points she focused on Linda said her arm was relieved of the pain! Amazing.

Then we had a hand and foot treatment. Our hands were sprayed with rubbing alcohol or something, soaked in paraffin, put in plastic bags and covered with oven mitts. Then our feet were soaked in hot water bath with river stones in the bottom of the foot tub, next she lathered them with a salt and oil mixture, wrapped them in towels and soaked them again. Finally they were rinsed and dried and rubbed with cream.

With this treatment we also received a hot pad to put around our neck and while our feet were soaking the massage therapist gave a short shoulder/neck massage. Very nice.

Facials

Our facials were actually facial massages and we were surprised at how much we enjoyed it. It was very relaxing and felt very nice during and after. I had a lot of dry skin from tanning earlier in the spring, so much so that my face was starting to feel rough. 🙁 Now my face feels soft again.

I couldn’t help but lay there thinking, “No wonder people treat themselves to things like this. Why don’t I do this more often?” Tucking it away for future use!

The 2nd Talk

Did you know September is Menopause Awareness month? A huge part of a day at the spa was to talk to Linda about menopause. I may not be going through it yet but my days are numbered and I realize my childbearing years are coming to an end. Linda was very accommodating and shared with me her experience, the hot flashes that go along with the aging process. Then I gifted her with some new menopause products made by Poise that just came on the market recently. Linda was very grateful because the three products I gave her should help her with some of the symptoms she’s experiencing. I bought the Poise Feminine Wellness products at Walmart (see my Google+ album of my shopping experience) the morning of our massages. The products were located in the health and beauty section for feminine products. I forgot to use the coupon though. I am terrible with coupons. Hardly ever remember them.

Overall I’d have to say we really enjoyed our pampering. Sorry the one photo one of Linda and I turned out blurry.

To learn more about the Poise Feminine Wellness products, please visit Poise on Facebook, Twitter (hashtag #PoiseFab5) and Pinterest.

“I am a member of the Collective Bias™ Social Fabric® Community. This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias™ and Poise #CBias #SocialFabric #PoiseFab5. All thoughts and opinions are my own.”


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Egglicious!

Posted by html404 on September 19, 2012
in Animals, Business, Farm Stuff, Organic

Yippee! Doing the happy dance! We got our very first farm fresh egg from one of our hens today – thus the title of this post…..egglicious! Our hens are officially 22 weeks old this week. We’ve been waiting and waiting. I was starting to get worried so I did a Google search and found a chicken forum (yes there are chicken forums too!) and some people had to wait up to 30 weeks for their first egg! To be honest that made my heart sag at the thought! That’s why this is a happy occasion!

In regards to our first egg, our oldest son asked if he could eat it! 🙂 Always thinking about food that one. I wonder if he remembered to eat it? He didn’t and he’s too late because our third daughter Oms named the egg and wants to keep it …slight problem(s) with that idea, but she’s cute for coming up with it. Think she named it Hammy.

Just so you know this is a very good sized egg for the first one…

Some pullet eggs can be very small and I’m sure we’ll have our share of them. I don’t know if any of you care, but I am sure we’ll be comparing sizes and trying to figure out which hens are laying the best eggs. For those will be the ones we’ll want to hatch out new chicks from! Hoping to start that in December once we figure out which hens are the broodiest (if that’s even a word), as the broodier the better they will be at hatching out eggs. If you aren’t sure what broody means, it’s simply how well a hen likes sitting on her nest of eggs.

Now, if only the other 30 hens would get “cracking”….heehee pun intended….and give us an egg, we’d be in business. Literally, because we should get about an egg a day from them, which of course may vary now that there’s less daylight. That means about 17 dozen eggs a week! Our girls want to have an egg business and I want an egg business so we will be working on rounding up not only eggs but customers too!

“I’m so excited and I just can’t hide it…” Name that song? And isn’t that an 80’s song all of you Momdotters/Brandcation attendees? 😉


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My Little Guys – Wordless Wednesday

Posted by html404 on September 19, 2012
in Animals, Family Stuff, Farm Stuff, Wordless Wednesday

What can I say? I love my little guys, like I do all my children. All of them are growing up way too fast. These are photos of my little guys and some of their animal pals from the past couple of weeks

I’m about as proud of my boys/children as these puffed up turkeys! 😉


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Fall Table Top Ideas

Posted by html404 on September 18, 2012
in Home, Houseware, Products for Mom, Reviews, Seasonal Stuff

Fall is pretty much here and lately in our state we have been experiencing cooler weather and all the stores have begun to stock fall goodies. A great way to celebrate the coming of the new season is to use some great fall table top items from Bormioli Rocco – an Italian glassware company that offers modern designs with classic twists.

 

The first item on our list are the Bormioli Rocco, Sorgente Fuchsia Glassware that come in a set of six. I really like the two glasses sent to me. They are cool looking and a great addition to our glassware collection. I have been using them almost every day and the frosted color is very cute.

 

With the fall season you are sure to have guests over for a football party or just a fall dinner and these glasses are a great way to showcase some color and fall style without going overboard. You can find the Fuchsia Highball Glasses for $46.00 per set at Macys.com

The other item that is perfect for fall are the Bormioli Rocco Quattro Stagioni 8 1/2 Ounce Canning Jar, Set of 12 $32.55 at Amazon.com

This jar set is really cute and even though I haven’t used the one I received it’s pretty safe to say that I will probably put jam in it. If you don’t do fall canning you can also use these jars to organize meals for the back to school season. You could also use these jars for table top decorations or candle holders.

You can find these products at Macys.com and Amazon.com

Faith and Family Reviews received the following product in exchange for writing a review. While we consider it a privilege to receive products to review, our reviews are our honest opinion and thoughts of the product.


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