Squatter in our Garage

Found hiding behind the freezer

Getting a little too comfortable.

Finally captured and ready for transport to the wildlife rehabilitator!

Good Night

Market Day

First Steps

Chics dig vamps

I watched Twilight last night. It wasn't spectacularly great, but it got me thinking. The popularity of twilight combined with my recent obsession with the Buffy/Angel franchise has lead me to the conclusion that women love vampires. What exactly is the allure of the undead? I have a few theories.

1. Vampires are old. Generally women aren't into naive men. We like men who are experienced, worldly and wise. Vampires, for the most part, have had time to travel, experience the world. Chances are good that you aren't going to have to deal with a vamp buying a red convertible trying to regain his youth. The clincher here is that unlike old living men, vampires remain crazy sexy.

2. The undead seem to mate for life ever. If Buffy and Twilight are any indication once you've snagged the unstaked heart of a vamp he's yours forever. They always seem to find their soulmate love of their life ummmmm.... Perfect partner. There is some sort of immediate connection that really takes the guesswork out of the whole dating thing. It also plays into my next point.

3. The tortured soul. Vampires always come off as having a tortured soul. No one understands them. No one except their chosen lady that is. She is the only one who really gets him. She's the only person he can open up to and be his charming self. It's cliched, but we like that. It makes us feel special...deal with it guys.

4. Vampires are romantic. It's like they've got a whole team of scriptwriters feeding them lines like "You're my life now" and "all I did was watch you sleep, but it was the best night of my life". I mean how is a regular unscripted guy supposed to compete with that?

5. Last, but not least is that vampires are dead sexy. So long as you don't need a guy with a tan, you can't get much hotter than the living dead.

The stupid psychic and why I don't go to McDonalds

I have amazing psychic powers. Unfortunatly, I am also amazingly stupid. I know full well that things I do will turn out badly, yet I still do them. I believe that that may be the definition of insanity.

Let me illustrate my point with the story of a recent road trip I took with my 3 boys.

This story actualyl takes place during the 5 hour drive home. It starts, as all good stories should, with a giant cup of coffee. When I purchased this enormous beverage I knew full well that consuming it would mean that I would need to pee as soon as the baby fell asleep. I still drank it. And, as predicted, the very moment my little one drifted peacefully to sleep I had to drag him (and my other two boys) into the joy that is a turnpike rest stop.

In order to stop the resulting whining, I agreed to allow each of them to pick out a bottle of pop. The both picked purple grape soda. Oh yes....the alarm bells went off in my head as well. But something, sleep deprivation, insanity, plain old stupidity, told me that it would be fine. Stop laughing..... Of course, I now have a big purple stain on the carpet in my car. Fortunatly the good people at Toyota are as smart as I am psychic and have made those carpets crazy stain resistant.

Roughly 47 seconds after leavin the rest stop, the 4 year old boy, who only 6 seconds ago refused to even consider going to the bathroom, had to go....NOW! I told him that he would have to hold it as the next rest stop about 30 minutes away. I knew that I should have stopped on the side of the road and let him go...I knew he wouldn't make it. Did I stop...nope. He was a trooper, he held on all the way to the rear stop but the combination of holding and walking proove to be too much for him. Poor kid peed his pants just outside the rest stop. The fact that he DIDN'T wet his carseat was an enormous blessing.

And then there was McDonald's. I am not a fan of McDonalds, but the kids needed a break and I was getting desperate. Frankly, I knew it was a bad idea. We pulled off the road and found McD's with a play area. My boys ran into the tunnel thing and immedietly ran out yelling "ewwww!".

What, you ask, could gross out a 7 year old boy? Poop. Right there in the play area. We immedietly vacated the area and I attempted to stearilize my children with purell. Being the good citizen that I am, I went back inside to inform the manager.

I pulled her aside, and said "I think that someone had an accident in the play area." She said "oh...okay".

Um....excuse me? No rush to shut the play area? No offer to comp my coffee? Not even an appology??? Flumoxed, I loaded my kids back into the car, applied another 3 gallons of purell and pulled out of the parking lot. As we were leaving, I looked in my rear view mirror only to see two unsuspecting children clammoring into the play area.

I vowed that we would not leave the car again until we arrived safely home...once again, I was, of course, correct.


- Posted by Krista from my iPhone

You gotta eat

Let's talk about boobs. Breasts. Knockers. Boobies. Tatas. You get the idea (and my hit count from search engines probably just increased 10 fold).

Disclaimer: I breastfed my kids, of you didn't I still think that you are a perfectly good mother who loves her children. I don't think that you are poisoning them by feeding them formula. This isn't that sort of breastfeeding post...just so you know.

My boobs have been professionally employed for the last 8 years. I have nursed two boy children well into toddlerhood and plan to do the same with the third. I have nursed them pretty much everywhere from the mall to The Mall. (Hee hee, see what I did there? The second Mall is the area of our nations capital.) Recently a facebook friend mentioned some of the rediclous things people have said to her while nursing. Here is a small collection of the bizarre things that I personally have heard.

"Breastfeeding is SO hard.". - This is SO not true. I'm not one to subject myself to extra work. If something is hard, I'm probably not going to do it. Breastfeeding is a little hard to get started with, but once you and your baby get the hang of it, you can do it in your sleep - literally. Breastfeeding is, quite frankly, ideal for lazy moms like me. There is no mixing of formula, nothing ever needs to be heated up and there are no bottles to wash.

"You'll have to stop once he gets teeth". - Not really. Babies learn pretty quickly not to bite the boob that feeds them. I'm pretty sure that the screaming is a big deterent.

"It must be hard to have to feed every two hours". - Mind you, someone said this when my son was 10 months old. Breastmilk isn't some magical elixier of youth (I'd be rich I'd it were!). Breastfed babies grow up and eat solid food just like formula fed babies. You don't have to formula feed every 2 hours, so why wpuld you have to breastfeeding every two hours?

"The nurse could tell just by looking at that I wouldn't be able to nurse". - Uhhhh. What? I don't even understand this one. Boobs aren't like a motor vehicle. You don't need to move from the two seater sports car to the minivan when you have kids.

I can't be the only person subjected to crazy, inane comments while nursing! Go on...post your favorite in the comments section! And I'm sure that it's not only nursing moms who get criticism. (Ever notice how EVERYONE knows how your baby should be raised and isn't afraid to tell you how wrong you are?) Post you favorite/most bizarre feeding comment!



- Posted by Krista from my iPhone

Flying solo

So we have all arrived back in NoVa and things are getting back to normal.

Haa haa haa... That is a blatant lie. My husband has embarked in a 30 day vacation business trip overseas. I am officially a solo parent of three boys for one month...and summer vacation is only 2 weeks away.

They say that you never really appreciate something until it's gone. Let me just say that my husband only had to be gone for about 8 hours before I began to do some major appreciating.

For example, we went to the pool on Monday night. My family Is KNOWN for being at the pool after dinner. It is totally our thing and I wasn't going to give it up just because 1/5 of us were gone. As it turns out that 1/5 is a vital component of successful pooling. One of my boys is a great swimmer and is fine in his own in the pool. The other two think that they are.

With two adults we can each take one kid. With only one adult, one kid is pretty much left to drown. Fortunatly the middle kid is a good enough swimmer not to actually drown...but not by very much.

Then there are the logistics of getting everything done. Who will hang up the wet towels while I get the kids out of their bathing suits? Who will mow the lawn? I'm going to need to hire a manservant for the next month. Either that or invite my in-laws down. *Shudder*


- Posted by Krista from my iPhone

Food is love?

Let me preface this post by saying that I come from a large Italian family, so the following may not be true for everyone.

Very shortly after my father died food began arriving at our home. First, 2 dozen bagles, a box of paistries and a bunch of cream cheese. Shortly after, an enormouse sub type sandwich with potato salad. I had just managed to jam it all in the fridge when my cousin arrived with an entire ham dinner, complete with three side dishes, a pecan pie and a loaf of rye bread.

I won't even go into the food left over after the post memorial service luncheon.

All this food presents a whole new opportunity for guilt. As you may have heard, wasting food is a sin. Oddly, providing 2 average sized women and a 4 year old kid with more perishable food than they can possibly manage to consume in a month is not only NOT a sin, but a blessing. Someone should rethink that. I'm just saying.

Over

Before the process of removing life support has actually begun the patient is given several drugs. Morphine, presumably for pain, something to dry up "secretions" (more on that later) and finally an anti-anxity drug. It's the final one that gives me pause.

I mean, correct me if I'm wrong, but I associate anxiety with, I dunno, brain functioning.  Isn't the premise here that that sort of thing is no longer taking place?  Or is the anti-anxiety drug really to alleviate the anxiety that we may feel regarding any anxiety that HE may feel....It seems that some of these drugs are really more for the comfort of the family members than the patient. 

This brings me back to the "dry up" medication.  That is so that once the tubes are removed he doesn't have to breath through any sort of liquids, again....seems more for us than for him. 

Also, when you are discussing the removal of life support with the doctors and nurses they start to watch their words very carefully.  Noone says anything about removal or pulling plugs (by the way...all the machines have off switches, you don't need to actually pull the plugs out of the wall).  They says things like "Focusing on comfort" or "Easing the transition".  This is all well and good...I suppose I'm a little more direct than a lot of folks.

Finally, in my ongoing series "Life ain't like TV", once everything is removed things don't just gradually slow down.  You don't watch the heart rate monitor dip to 80 and then 64 and then 42 and then 12, followed by a long beep.  The doctors warn you that it may take "a while".  Well, let me tell you, "a while" is a relative term.  The nursing staff puts a laminated picture of a cartooney star on the door to the patient's room once the whole process has begin....that star sat on my dad's door for nearly 20 hours.  Fact is, eventually, it is a relief for it all to be over. 

So this is where we are now.  For me, it is really just the body that is gone now.  As far as I am concerned, as soon as his brain stopped working my dad was gone.  I'm a lot like my father that way....practical.  My mother is more spiritual and I'm pretty sure that she was holding out hope till close to the end. 

The memorial service is planned for Saturday, after which, I promise to be less morbid and disturbing.  Until then, thank you all for your kind words and thoughts. 

Neurotrauma

The first thing that you notice when you enter the neurotrauma ward is just how quiet it is. My only other experience in a hospital has been the three times that I gave birth to my kids. The labor and maternity wards are always pretty noisy. Be it babies crying, laboring women screaming for epidurals or proud fathers and siblings bringing flowers and balloons...there was always some sort of commotion. In the neurotrauma ward, nothing goes on. There are no balloons or flowers...there isn't even any meal service.

There are 12 rooms, each containing their own personal little tragidies. 12 ventilators hissing and the occasional mysterious clicking, but that is just about all.

While I can't speek to the 11 other tragidies on the ward, I know that ours will soon come to an end. As to my fathers wishes, we have decided to remove the hissing ventilator and the odd clicking machine and let nature take it's inevitable course.

It's not like in the movies where you tell the nurse that you are ready and it all happens. There is waiting...a lot of waiting.


We're still waiting.....


- Posted by Krista from my iPhone

If you know me, you know that I'm not particularly fond of public displays of emotion.  Or at least my own public displays.  I'm just not really the type of person who talks about "feelings", especially bad feelings.  I really hate to look that people give you when you tell them that something awful has happened to you. 

So what I'm about to write is difficult for me on several levels, but I'm going to post it, if only to avoid future awkwardness. 

Right now, my father is in the hospital.  He fell down and hit his head.  The doctors did surgery to relieve pressure and all that.  It's been a long time since my father was really healthy and it seems that this was really the final straw.  He is hooked up to a ventilator and feeding tubes and what the hell ever else they hook you up to now a days.  It was his wishes, however, that these sorts of things not be used to prolong his life, so it will all be removed in the next day or two.  There is little to no chance that he will ever improve, so we are honoring his desires.  I don't mean to sound callous, but please do not offer prayers that he will get well, because, quite frankly, I can't hold on to that sort of thing.  I may not talk about my feelings, but I am the sort of person who needs to deal with them.

So, that is what it is.  There will be a memorial service held on Saturday and then on Sunday my husband has to leave for a month long business trip.  Just dealing with the physical logistics of getting everyone where they need to be at the right time is overwhelming. 

So I'm offering fair warning that things will likely be a bit morose here for a few days.  But I'm not one to dwell, I will muddle through this.  I will take comfort in the life that my father led and the support of my family. 

Maybe take a little break from reading my blog for a few days if you don't want to hear the depressing crap....but come back, because I promise to have some fun stuff soon.....if not for you then for myself.

My Imaginary Friends

I have the tenancy to quickly form deep, meaningful relationships with people....wha- No! Not real people, ugh. They are so unpredictable and complicated..no way. I'm talking about fictional people. You know, the kind who are infinitely entertaining, yet require absolutely no input on my part.

Some of my more intimate fictional relationships have involved Harry Potter, SpeedRacer and Theth Dr. Who. I have watched all of their stories evolve and have wished for only one thing. I just wanted them to be happy. To settle down, have a few kids and lead a nice quiet life.

I haven't finished with Buffy yet, but I find myself hoping beyond all hope that she and Angel will find a way to be happy together. Of course if that doesn't pan out I will do the same thong I did at the end of the Series of Unfortunate Events books, make up my own, more acceptable ending and substitute that one for the "published" ending. That's the beauty of having fictional friends, if they disappoint you can just rewrite their stories.

Post it note Tuesday!

Monkey Minute

5 questions.....Here we go...




Have you ever peed in the shower/bath/pool?
 Yes, with the exception of the bath....though in retrospect, I probably peed in the bath as a child.  I just don't have time to take baths anymore.


What is your biggest pet peeve?
Self important idiots


What's the story behind your blog title?
I'm a housewife, but frankly I'm really crappy at it....for example, my bathrooms are a mess (3 little boys level of mess) but am I cleaning them right now...nope, blogging....


What is your definition of success?
What??  I thought that these were supposed to be easy....okay.  Success is doing your best at something you love.

If you were famous, what would you want to be famous for?
I am a scientist (by education only, I haven't worked outside of the house for almost 4 years) so, naturally, I want to win the Nobel Prize.  Currently I'm working on a bacterium that digests oil and can be used to safely and inexpensively clean up oil spills.  And by working on, I mean that I think it would be cool to do, not that I'm actually performing any sort of science to make it happen.






Hey Yinz, don't forget to check out my design site for $5 buttons and $12 summary homepages....all proceeds go to the monkey fund!!

Just a quick thought...

Today, on the day after my Penguins have been eliminated from the Stanley Cup finals I have a thought.

When I was pregnant with my second child the Steelers won the Superbowl.

When I was pregnant with my third child the Steelers won the Superbowl and the Penguins won the Stanley cup.

If I were to get pregnant again, it is possible that the Pirates could actually take the World Series??



Just a thought.....

Supah Busy and a Supah Challenge....

This is a post from my design blog, but it's important enough to be said twice....


Whewww!!! I have been BUSY. In case you haven't heard, I have been working on redesigning Supah Mommy's web site.

I realize that I may be a bit biased, but I absolutely LOVE IT!!!  So much, in fact, that I almost changed my name and kept it for myself.  Unfortunatly, Supah knows my name and where I live, so I gave up the goods.  Here is a preview, but you really have to visit the web site to see it in all of it's glory...

I had such a great time developing this site and I learned a ton of new tricks that I'm just itching to put to good use.  I'm offering TWO great specials for the rest of the month....



But first, a story.  Some of you may have heard of Little Monkey:








Is she not the cutest thing you have ever seen? Sadly cancer is a cold hearted bitch and doesn't care how adorable you are.  Last week Monkey was diagnosed with neuroblastoma.  As you can image this is a horribly emotionally trying for her mom and dad.  The financial strain of caring for a child with cancer doesn't end with medical bills...there is additional time off of work for the parents, the cost of travel and hotel accommodations for treatments, the cost of additional childcare for Monkey's two amazing sisters....the list goes on.  To add financial turmoil to the situation would be untenable.

Since we in the blogosphere are NOT all about talk we are banding together to help Monkey and her family through this difficult time.  If you would like to donate independently Ian will have the details up soon.  If not, here are some special offers to sweeten the deal.....

#1.  Half off the price of a Summary Homepage.  One of the coolest things about Supah's page is the summary Homepage.....a little snippet of her last few blog posts in one convenient location.  Normally I would charge $12 to add the code for this upgrade, but until June 25th I will do it for only $6.....AND if you choose to pay the full amount ($12) I will donate the WHOLE amount (all $12) to the Monkey Fund.

#2. $5 buttons!!!  Okay...that's not a discount, but if you purchase a static (not animated) button before June 25 I will donate the $5 to Monkey.


I am officially issuing the following CHALLENGE TO SUPAH......

Whoever raises the MOST MONEY FOR MONKEY will have the privilege of posting a FULL SIZE photo of the other IN FULL HIGH SCHOOL FIELD HOCKEY GARB on their blog.  **Throwing down the gauntlet...**

What I didn't mean to say

I am not a particularly socially savvy person. My internal speech monitor lacks the ability to formulate socially acceptable speech, and as a result I usually say exactly what I'm thinking. As a result I often try not to open my mouth since that is the only way that I can be sure not to stick my foot in it.

This affliction is a double edged sword. On one hand I say exactly what mean, even if it is a socially questionable statement. On the other hand, I mean what I say, so you can be pretty sure that I'm not lying to you.

Sometimes I worry that when I do speak up people think that being insulting or snarky. Really, I'm just not smart enough to pull that sort of thing off.

So in an attempt to disspell the rumor that I'm a snarky bitch I'm going to tell you what I DIDN'T mean to say.

When I asked a Twitter friend "Can Mormons use alcohol based hand sanitizer?".

what I DIDN'T mean to say was "You Mormons are so crazy that I bet you don't even use alcohol hand sanitizer."
what I DID mean to say was "I heard on NPR that some Muslims don't use alcohol based hand sanitizer and because I always need to know everything about everyone I'm wondering if Mormons can use it."

When I told my neighbors friend, who had just told me that he works for the Heritage Foundation, "I know what that is, I listen to NPR."

what I DIDN'T mean to say was "Oh....lookie me...I'm so smart because I listen to NPR."

what I DID mean to say was "I've heard of the Heritage Foundation and how cool is it that you work someplace mentioned on NPR?"

So, Next time we have a little chat remember that I'm totally transparent...I have no deeper meaning.

By the way... Down there where it says posted from my iPhone. I'm NOT saying "I have an iPhone nee ner nee ner nee ner".

What I AM saying is "I wrote this using my thumbs on the tiny screen of my iPhone because I have three kids and rarely have use of both hands."


- Posted by Krista from my iPhone

10 random things

1. My cat caught a bird and brought it into the house. I was both awed and horrified.
2. My son was one of two kids in his class to have his art exhibited at the pyramid art show. I was both awed and horrified.
3. At the art show I saw a neighborhood woman who has 6 kids and is apparently expecting a 7th. I was both awed and horrified.
4. On a related note, my hubby got a vasectomy on Wednesday. He is doing remarkably well.
5. I'm beginning to worry that I have a serious coffee addiction. When i get my first hit in the morning I look like a junkie from intervention who has just shot up.
6. I've really got to get it together for boy2's birthday party.
7. Summers coming, that means that it's time to start thinking about hair removal. Shudder.
8. My oldest son's head my explode if my husband doesn't bring home an ipad tonight. It's not looking good...I'm getting the mop.
9. I'm glad I can't remember when I was teething cause itvreally seems to suck.
10. ** UPDATE** No need for the mop, my husband got the Ipad.



- Posted by Krista from my iPhone

One of THOSE days

I'm having one if those days. You know. The kind of day where everyone bugs the crap out of you. My husband is bugging me. My kids are bugging me. The guy driving in front of me is bugging me. The lady at starbucks who had to have her coffee remade not once but twice. I'm just saying that if you are going to be an anal retentave whore the drive through isn't for you. She was bugging me.

I want to DO something. I want to be productive. But the presence of 3 boys in my life just makes that an exercise in frustration.

And that is bugging me.


- Posted by Krista from my iPhone

Spiff it up Sunday - Eyes....yes again

I've always been a pretty average person. I'm fairly smart, but not so intelligent that someone will pay me lots of money to think all day. I'm a little odd looking, but not freely enough for a lucrative career as a circus performer. I'm kind of short, but not miniature enough to be a jockey, a coxswain or a buggy driver. One thing that I've always had going for me was my eagle eye vision. I've had better that 20/20 vision for as long as I could remember. Sadly, as I have gotten older my eyes haven't maintained their stellar status. So I got myself to the eye doctor for my first ever complete eye exam.

Greek Yogurt trips over toga

A little while ago I was contacted by MyBlogSpark to try out some Greek yogurt and to receive a kicking "pamper the goddess within" kit.  I think that we all know that I'm not one to turn my nose up at some pampering.

My kit arrived a few weeks later containing slippers, a loofah, an awesome towel and some other stuff...that frankly I can't really identify. Here is a photo...maybe you know what the other stuff is.  

There were also two coupons for me to sample Yoplait's new Greek Yogurt.  I looked for the stuff everytime I went to the grocery store, but to no avail.  It seems that my beloved Wegman's does not stock the Yoplait Greek yogurt.  (Though I bet if I asked they would...they love me there like that.)  I would have to go to Giant Food to get this stuff.  Stike one - I hate shopping anywhere other than Wegman's......as a result it took me several weeks to actually get the stuff.

Once I finally did get to Giant, I picked up a container of the Honey Vanilla

and a container of the Strawberry. 

So in review...I got this stuff for free, as well as a very nice gift.  This is the part where I tell you how much I loved it..but fact is, I'm not going to lie.  I didn't much like it.  It wasn't repulsive or anything, but it just didn't do it for me.  It was bland and sort of gritty.

That being said...I feel like I should give the nice people at Yoplait something so I'm going to tell you that I got the chance to test a different Yoplait product that was being given out as a sample at my local commissary.  It was a granola covered yogurt parfait.  These don't appear on their website, so I'm not sure what it up with them, but if you see them BUY THEM.  They are delicious!!!  They more than make up for the lack luster Greek stuff. 

Now that I've totally dissed Yoplait.....I'm still gonna give away their stuff!!  HAA HAA HAA.....comment below and tell me what your fave yogurt flavor is for a chance to win that faboo Pampering kit above!!  My fave flavor...Key Lime Pie!!

Tweet about your deep desire to win for two extra entries.  

Leave me a comment with you total.  Later taterz, I'm off to the spa.  Or pee wee gymnastics...whatever.


PS Don't forget to enter to win toothsoap!! 


note-My crack team of corporate lawyers insist that I tell you that I’ve received the “VIP coupons, prize pack, and giveaway from Yoplait through MyBlogSpark.”

Spiff it up Sunday - The Pearly Whites

This week for spiff it up Sunday I'm all about the teeth. 


Most of you probably don't know that I am a bit of a toothpaste connoisseur.  Even as a child I was never really satisfied with the toothpaste that my parents bought.  The taste was wrong or they didn't bubble correctly or they were a weird color....You get the picture.  Of course back in the day there were only about 3 types of toothpaste to choose from, not the cornucopia of dental hygiene products that we have today.  This week's topic took me to the toothpaste isle at Target where I counted more than 35 different types of toothpaste.  (The world's largest collection of toothpaste contains more than 1800 different tubes and is available for public viewing in Saginaw, Michigan.)  So clearly your toothpaste options are petty wide open. 

Since my gums can only  take a limited amount of cleansing I limited my testing to three different types of toothpaste, Arm & Hammer Peroxi-care, Tom's of Maine Natural total care, and Citrus flavored Toothsoap. (Disclaimer - the Toothsoap was provided to me free of charge by the manufacturer.)  I judged each product on a number of factors including flavor, bubbles, grit, cleaning and other.

Let's start with the Arm & Hammer Peroxi-care.  Frankly, this is pretty much your standard toothpaste.  There were no real surprises here since I've been using similar products for the past 35 years.  The taste was extremely minty, take your breath away minty.  I have to admit that I, personally, am not a fan of the over the top mint....it's just too much for me.  The bubbling factor was fair, the bubble were sort of loose and dribbly, not exactly what I prefer, but at least there were some bubbles.  It was not particularly gritty, but as the whole point of toothpaste is to be somewhat gritty, there was a minor grit factor which was enhance by the presence of baking soda.  This toothpaste did a fine job of cleaning my teeth, nothing spectacular, but pretty much your standard job. Other things to consider with this produce include the fact that it is sweetened using saccharin.  This product also contains fluoride, which can be a double edged sword.  Fluoride is poisonous and can be fatal at high concentrations, but is also reduces cavities at lower (non fatal) concentrations.  Depending upon your feelings about fluoride this may be a pro or a con.

The second produce is the Tom's of Maine Natural Whole Care anti-cavity and tartar control plus whitening fluoride toothpaste....did  they miss any thing in that product name?  The flavor of the Tom's of Maine was much much milder than that of the first product.  This is probably because it is sweetened with Xylitol (A natural sugar substitute) insted of Saccharin.  Where this product really lost me was in the bubbles - or lack there of.  There were absolutly NO bubbles when using this product...call me old fashioned, but I like the bubbles.  Tom's of Maine was not at all gritty, and seemed to clean as well as the regular toothpaste.  I like that this product is all natural and actually wasn't as expensive as I had expected.  While I couldn't get past the no bubbling thing I will say that we ave use the kid's strawberry stuff for our kids and they absolutely LOVE it.

Finally we have the toothsoap.  This product was not really what I expected.  First off, it's not a toothpaste it is a soap.  It comes as a liquid that you drip onto your toothbrush.  I got the citrus flavor, but this product comes is a load of flavors, everything from your standard spearmint all the way out to honey BBQ.  The flavor was not at all overwhelming, it was probably the mildest of all three products that I tried.  To be honest, the soapy taste does take a little getting used to, but I found that eventually I sort of enjoyed it.  One of the big selling points for me was the bubble action.  The Toothsoap sprang into action creating thick, dense bubbles....just the kind I prefer.  It was not at all gritty as it is a soap and not a paste.  But the final straw was the cleaning power.  I came out of brushing my teeth with this stuff feeling that I had just left the dentist...without all the scraping.  It was really quite lovely. 

So in conclusion I have to go with superior bubbling and cleaning of the Toothsoap.  Second place it a toss up as the non-bubbling Toms and too minty A&H are pretty much tied in my book.  If you are interested in trying some toothsoap for yourself, you're in luck!   I'm giving a bottle of toothsoap to two lucky readers.  Leave a comment below telling me what your most important factor in tooth cleaning products is for entry.  I'll announce the winners on next week's Spiff it up Sunday post!

Follow Friday

I'm a little slow on the uptake. Last Friday (and frankly every Friday) I have seen a bunch of posts with the ff hashtag. I finally figured out that this is for "follow Friday".

I realize that this is a Twitter thing, but I'm going to make it into a blog post cause im a rebel like that.

I've decided to spotlight one of my very favorite blogs. A blog that you may not have had the good luck to read lately.

The blog is Lazy Kate Creates. Kate lives a charmed life in New England. (I'm of the opinion that New England is the ONLY place to live a charmed life.) She knits, crafts, works at a totally groovy antique shop and takes fabulous photographs. On top of all that she is planning her wedding to a super cute young man.

So go check Kate out and leave her some lovin'

Post it note Tuesday!

Monday Menu Plan - back on the wagon edition

It's been a while since I've planned my weekly meals.  What with launching the design site, trying to spiff myself up, getting ready for summer and wrangling my kids I let it slide.  This was, quite frankly, a stoopid thing to do.  Planning my meals is one of the easiest ways for me to save time and sanity throughout the week....what was I thinking??

So here we go...Monday Menu Plan - back on the wagon edition

Monday - Left-over Vegetable Curry

Tuesday - Beef Lo Mein - I will probably double this so that there are left-overs for Wednesday

Wednesday - Left-over beef lo Mein

Thursday - Kebabs - These can be made the day before and just thrown on the grill for about 10 min....yummers!!

Friday - Left-over kebabs

Saturday- Coconut Shrimp with Mango Chutney

Sunday- Baked Ziti