It's a month after Christmas and you've got a birthday or other celebration coming up for which you need to buy a gift. What do you get a child who already got everything they wanted for Christmas? How about a Mail Order Mystery? My girls and I received one for review purposes and we had a ton of fun with it. Mail Order Mysteries make the perfect, unique, after Christmas gift that also keeps giving! So what is a Mail Order Mystery? It is a mysterious story for children that unfolds through letters and items that come in the mail. The story is not told in a traditional way, but rather through a series of events. Depending on the mystery, you could receive hand-written letters, top secret folders, newspaper clippings, postcards, maps, keys, lockets and more. Each mailing contains something to do (a code to crack, a puzzle to solve, a number to call) in addition to the artifacts. All is revealed in the final mailing, a grand finale that contains a “payoff” keepsake or treasure … [Read more...]
Archives for January 2017
America’s Greatest School Nurse Contest #sickjustgotreal #ad
This America's Greatest School Nurse Contest post is sponsored by Pfizer Consumer Healthcare. Information and prizes have been provided by Pfizer, however, all thoughts and reviews are my own. I am a pediatric intensive and cardiac care nurse. I have always loved working with children, and knew from the minute I chose to be a nurse that I would work in pediatrics. Ultimately, I feel in love with the hospital and critical care, but did consider school nursing as an option for my career. I have always admired school nurses. They are the first person of comfort when your child gets sick or injured during the school day. School nurses deal with anything from paper cuts, to life threatening allergies, to embarrassing mishaps from maturing students. But that's not all. Nurses who work in schools assist children with social and emotional issues, crisis management, disaster prepardness, and bullying. They also provide education on puberty, nutrition, substance abuse and more. Often … [Read more...]
Free Printable Emoji Valentines
Emojis are all the rage these days and my daughters are not immune to their appeal. Kiki thinks they are fun, but TJ loves anything and everything emoji. She especially loves the poop one. I'm not quite sure why. This year she asked if she could give out emoji Valentines at school. We searched the internet and found some free printable emoji Valentines, but none that contained her favorite poop emoji. So what did I do as an awesome mom? I made her her own Valentines! This isn't the first time I've made Valentines for my girls. Check out the Valentine's posts on this blog and you'll see some that have been a huge success and others that have flopped. Kiki's friends LOVED my fortune teller Valentines. But, an attempt at making invisible ink Valentines was a complete failure. For these free printable emoji Valentines I did my research. I looked up the top used emojis according to Google and my girls' iPods. Though the poop is not in Google's top 10, it is among the top … [Read more...]
My Weight Watchers Journey – The Past Year
A year ago this coming Wednesday I decided it was time to take care of myself and lose weight. On January 4, 2016, I joined Weight Watchers and on January 5th I went to my first meeting. I started my Weight Watchers journey not as a New Year's resolution, but as a gift to myself. Because back in October of 2015 my world turned upside down and I needed to find my happiness. Not a lot has actually changed over this past year but I have learned more about myself than I thought I would. That "I have learned" link? Click on it. Everything I realized in my first month and a half with Weight Watchers still holds true today. I am proud to say that I have maintained my Lifetime membership since I received it 5 months ago. It was this photo taken in September 2015 that gave me a harsh dose of reality. I knew I had gained weight over the years, but I never admitted to myself how much I gained or how much it showed. My daughter was so proud that she took this picture and I didn't … [Read more...]
