Old Navy Active Wear

I joined www.crowdtap.com a while back and have enjoyed answering the quick hit questions. I applied for a few sample and share opportunities, but was never chosen....until recently! I was picked for the Old Navy active wear sample & share. I received two coupons, each good for one top and one bottom from the active wear line at Old Navy. What?!?! Free Old Navy clothes for me and a friend?!

Well, the past few weeks have been crazy. I've been working extra hours and volunteering at my son's school a lot. Today I realized I had to use my coupons by....today! So I grabbed a couple of neighbors. They both wanted to go with me to shop and agreed to share the friend coupon. Sara would take the top and Kristina would take the bottom.

We headed to Old Navy in Mentor, OH. There was a nice variety of active wear! The colors are great! There were different fits...semi fitted, fitted, compression...something for everybody!  Before this sampling opportunity, I probably wouldn't have thought to go to Old Navy for this type of clothing. I recently joined the Y and am signing up for a 5K, so I need to hit the gym more and therefore really needed some new workout clothes!

I loved the colors. This purplish one is the shirt I chose. I got the black yoga capris as well.

I want to go back for some more of this!

and this

 
See the black yoga capris? Totally cute!

Sara picked a gray semi-fitted tank with a bright yellow trim. Kristina chose a pair of mesh shorts in a purple color...I think they were in the top pick with the shirt I got.

We had fun shopping and I know I will be back to buy more from this collection!! Thanks, Old Navy and Crowdtap!

Back to Blogging

It's been soooo long since I've posted, but I'm back! We FINALLY have a working computer again, thanks in part to my tax refund this year and in part to my son needing one for school work. If he hadn't needed it, hubs and I would probably just do everything else from our smart phones. I'm hoping this time I can blog regularly...we'll see how that goes! :-)

Updates on us: I'm still the same. Stay at home mom, loving being home and able to help out at J's school. Still contemplating what I want to be when I grow up. ;-)

Karl just started a different job at his company. He has to travel farther than before, but is still home earlier and works less on weekends. He's happier, despite a small decrease in pay. He's gearing up for softball season and will hopefully be planning a wonderful anniversary surprise for his wife soon...10 years in June! Yikes!

Jonah is now 7. Yikes again! He's loving first grade. His teacher is great. He's doing very well with reading and writing...especially writing. That's my boy! Math was a struggle for a while, but he's been going to tutoring and it has helped a lot. His confidence has increased a lot, too. These days, he's loving Wii and his 3DS. Mario games are a favorite and he has started collecting Mario character toys and has chosen Mario clothes recently. He also loves Angry Birds and Pokemon, volunteering with our church, and is still Rokenbok obsessed.

It's Picture Time!!!

My goal this weekend is to take at least one good picture of Jonah for our Christmas cards. I've been browsing the card styles on Shutterfly for quite a while now. There are several I like, it really just depends on how many good pictures I can take.

If I get one great close up of Jonah, I may choose this retro card.

Here's another card I like, if I can get a good shot of just J as well as a family pic.

There are so many options, if I have trouble narrowing down my choices I could choose a card showcasing many different photos. Perhaps a card with several of the goofy shots I'm bound to take as well as the best photo of the day?

Shutterfly.com also has many lovely Hanukkah, New Year's, and holiday cards.

I have to say, I've been a Shutterfly customer for 5 years now. Back in 2005, for Christmas, I gave my mother-in-law a Shutterfly book of pictures of baby Jonah. She loved it, as did everyone else who saw it. I actually borrowed it from her to display at Jonah's first birthday party. Last Christmas, I made a photo book of our Florida vacation for my mom. Last May, I made a photo book of Jonah's preschool year, as a memory for him. I plan on making a Kindergarten book for him as well. So, as you can see, we are big fans of Shutterfly photo books!

But what about the quality of the cards? Well, I've ordered Shutterfly cards several times as well, and I've never been disappointed! Here's a cute one I ordered last Mother's Day:

***Attention, bloggers! Shutterfly currently has an amazing promotion going on. Click here to learn how you can earn 50 free cards for blogging about Shutterfly!

Stitches!

Well, we made it through 5.5 years of parenting without any major injuries requiring a trip to the Emergency Room. That ended yesterday. I was upstairs getting ready to take Jonah to Target to pick out birthday gifts for his cousins. The plan was that we'd go buy the gifts while Daddy watched the Ohio State game. We'd come home, wrap said gifts, and all 3 go to the party. I'd have to leave the party early to go babysit.

So, I was upstairs. Karl and Jonah were downstairs playing/watching tv in the living room. I heard the sound of glass breaking. I thought someone had broken a window because there was no cry, just "Jonah go to Mommy". I thought K wanted J out of the way of broken glass or something. So he came to me, hand out, bleeding. I had just put clean towels in the linen closet and we were right there so I grabbed one and wrapped his hand and held him. He really only cried a few tears. Took a look at the hand a few minutes later and saw that it wasn't bleeding much anymore but there was a huge gash and I thought I saw a tendon or something. Something just didn't look right. So I told Karl to get J's shoes and coat and get him in the car while I grabbed my coat, shoes, and purse.

We drove to Urgent Care, wondering if they'd still be open. They were. Only 3 cars in the parking lot. No one in the waiting room. GREAT, we thought, we'll be seen quickly and be home in no time. WRONG. The people at the desk asked what happened, took a quick look at J's hand, and said we should go to the ER. They didn't want to touch it because they thought he'd sliced a tendon.

Luckily, right next door was a new hospital. Tri Point. They signed him in right away, took his vitals, and put us in an ER room. The doctor came in a few minutes later, took a look at it, and the first thing she said was "Have you ever had stitches before?", Jonah said no, and she said "Well, we're gonna send you to x-ray to make sure there's no glass in there and then we'll stitch that cut up. It won't be easy."

So we went right to x-ray, where they found NO glass in his hand. Took him back, he got 5 stitches, bandaged him up, gave him a prescription for an antibiotic, and we were discharged. Everyone at the hospital was impressed at how great Jonah did...no tears, no yelling, no fighting. He just let them do what they needed to do. They said he did better than most adults. Tri Point staff was great and we weren't kept waiting much at all, the longest we waited was about 15 minutes for his discharge paperwork.

I may not have made it to my babysitting job last night, but we did still make it (an hour late) to the party! I am so proud of my big, brave boy. Pray it heals well and doesn't get infected. :-)

Rokenbok ROCKS!

Look what the FedEx man brought for Jonah a couple weeks ago!

It's the Rokenbok Get Rok'n Young Builder & Action Set. It consists of a dump truck, wireless remote control, red and blue balls (called Roks), blocks to build with, and an awesome conveyor belt.



Set up was fast and easy thanks to the large, full-color illustrations. Within minutes we were ready to go. The wireless controller "is fun and feels like a big kid toy", according to 5 year old Jonah. That's good because this set can be used with the sets Rokenbok makes for older children. With the "heirloom quality" construction and LIFETIME GUARANTEE on Rok Blocks, construction pieces, and Rok Star controllers, we will most likely be using this set years from now as a part of our family's collection, or as J calls it, our Rok'n World.


My son, our family, and friends have already spent hours playing with our Get Rok'n Young Builder & Action Set. I asked Jonah what he liked about it and he said "the conveyor belt because it can sort the balls". He seems amazed every time he dumps a load of Roks into it and the conveyor starts automatically, lifts up the balls, and sorts them by color. Then he loves to drive the dump truck over to collect them, sometimes towing the trailer we made out of the included blocks.


Jonah's five year old cousin, Isabella, enjoys playing with it, too. She said "it's cool." We also have neighbors that ask to play with it, and they are seven and nine years old! It's a hit with all the kids that have seen it, and a hit with this mom, too. I knew that Jonah would love this toy, but I was surprised how much his Dad and I enjoy playing with it! In fact, we liked it so much that we went out last weekend and bought a few "big kid" Rokenbok sets: a monorail and the Power Chutes Start Set. We're trying to buy the older Rokenbok sets (with the white, corded controllers and number keys) while we can find them, and then we're planning to add the newer sets with the yellow, wireless Rok Star controllers. And what's on Jonah's Christmas list this year? A Rokenbok crane and Rokenbok forklift.

Happy Rok'n!

*******Rokenbok provided us with the Get Rok'n Young Builder & Action Set to review, but all opinions are our own*********

This Kid

This kid got up and cleared his own place at Qdoba the other day, and then cleared Mommy's and Daddy's without being asked. He simply informed me "I am taking the initiative!"


This kid was excited to serve with our church this past Sunday at a low-income development. He braved the cold for a couple hours so we could hand out winter gear, a hot lunch, and socialize with the residents. This wonderful kid took his new mittens off his own hands and gave them to a little boy there.


This kid painted animal bobbleheads with his cousin yesterday. There were 3 in the package and he insisted on sending the extra one home with his cousin, for her older sister so she wouldn't feel left out.


This kid found a Hot Topic bag at the mall this afternoon and knew right away that we should take it to the customer service desk.

This kid amazes me. If only he'd cooperate for pictures. ;-)

You don't say...

Here are a few funnies from this week, courtesy of Jonah and a 9 year old boy we were babysitting.

The boys were playing a game, in which they were pretending to turn each other to stone. (Think Freeze Tag). Later on, we went out to lunch at Bob Evans. While sitting there waiting for their food, the boys were talking about the game. My five year old ended up yelling “Nope. I’m not STONED!”

A bit later, the food arrived. The boys were counting their smiley face fries. Each time they ate one, they’d say how many were left. At one point, the boy I sit for, (we’ll call him R) announced he had twins left. Jonah looked at his own plate and announced that he had triplets. R ended up stating (LOUDLY) “I know how you get twins”. Of course I asked how, thinking he’d say something cute like you pray to God twice, or something cute and childlike. Wrong. He said (LOUDLY) “You do it twice in a row”.

O.M.G.
I ‘bout choked on my Wildfire Chicken Salad.
Kudos to his 12 year old sister for promptly changing the subject.

The kid is 9. I knew he had shown some curiousity on the subject. I knew his parents had gotten him a kid-friendly book to help explain things. I did NOT know he knew the term “do it” or that he’d bring up that subject IN A RESTAURANT. Oh my.

And, finally, that brings us to today. Jonah got on the school bus this morning and said to the driver “Hello, King of the Munchkins!”