Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Putting your house on the market

We have a big task ahead of us this year. We'll be putting our house on the market. I'm not really ready to announce online for the whole world to "hear" the reasons why we're doing this. Just know that we're aware it's a buyers market, but we really have no choice. We're waiting until the end of the summer because we bought our home back during the big first time home buyers incentive time and we have to be here for three years or we owe the government money. Who wants to owe them money? Not me! If only we knew then what we know now, we'd never have bought a house here.

In the nearly 3 years we've been here we've made a lot of changes to the house. Unfortunately, we need to make more to make it really appealing to new buyers. Sigh...and at the same time we're needing to de-junk, de-clutter and basically get rid of anything that isn't necessary. This isn't really a bad thing. I'm not a hoarder. But it's hard to get rid of stuff. It just is.

I'm not going to lie, it's daunting. Where do I begin? I love books. Like really, really, really, really love them! I have four full bookcases of them. Not big bookcases, but still...they're full. Will I ever read them again? A few, maybe. Most, no. It should be easy to part with them, right? I mean, back when I was a newlywed I took a ton of books into my work and let my co-workers take whatever they wanted. I loved it! I like to give things away. But who do I give all these books to? I don't work anymore. I don't want them being tossed away...they're books, precious books! I can't afford to ship them to anyone, because that's expensive!

And clothing...I have a lot of clothes. Not many new items (although I did get new jeans yesterday with a gift card I got from my dad for Christmas...and they were a size smaller than my other jeans...yay me!), but lots of clothing nonetheless. I *think* I've finally gotten rid of anything I had in high school. But I have plenty of items I've had since college. And I graduated a decade ago...wow, I suddenly feel old, have you seen my walker? That might not seem so bad...until you realize that I've had 3 kids and my body is so NOT the same as it was back then. These clothes don't fit. They may never fit even if I lose a million pounds. My body is different. But I like these clothes. They have memories. Like my professional looking, fitted, red, 3/4 length sleeve shirt I bought at The Mall of America back in 1999 on my way to Chicago to start my summer internship at Morgan Stanley Dean Witter. The cute green and tan skirt I bought during my mid-college crisis when I briefly dropped out and moved to Arizona. I grew up that year. I figured out who I am...sort of, I'm still evolving. The lavender floral dress I wore to my wedding Open House in Massachusetts the week before I got married...and the cute little lavender pumps I got at Nordstroms that matched it...and only it. The red Hawaiian print dress I got in Hawaii on my honeymoon. It was fun trying dresses on for my husband. He urged me to get this. Little did we know I'd be pregnant about 3.8 seconds after returning home. I don't think I ever wore it. And the article of clothing that takes up the most room...my wedding dress and massive slip. We didn't get my dress dry cleaned after getting married. Ew, I know. I barely wore it. An hour here, a couple hours there and that's it. But the bottom has dirt from being dragged along the ground a bit as I walked around. This is the single most expensive piece of clothing I have ever owned (and word to the wise...just rent your dang dress...although I love my dress and felt beautiful in it). I can't just toss it. I have a feeling this thing will be taking up space in closet after closet in home after home for the next 50 or so years.

Anyway...how do I just get rid of this stuff? I can toss the old t-shirts and holey jeans. I can toss the girls' stained and tattered clothing. Broken toys, easy...see ya! But unused wedding gifts still in their boxes...too old to return to stores, but still unused and too sad to toss. What do I do with those?

I need motivation. I need to just take a garbage bag and blindly toss things away. I need boxes to donate this stuff. I need to drop the emotional ties...or I will be a hoarder...or not. Have you seen how gross those houses are? I could never live in a bug infested, poop covered, cobweb full house. Nope. I like seeing carpet and not smelling poo. I like the smell of Pine Sol and Clorox.

Ah...me and my first world problems. ;)


Friday, February 17, 2012

Dulce de Leche Cheerios *WINNER*

The Dulce de Leche Cheerios giveaway ended this week and it's time to pick a winner. This lucky winner is...

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

150 

Timestamp: 2012-02-18 02:20:51 UTC

That's tlcfromtn! Congratulations! Please check your email for a notification from me.

Thanks to all who entered! Don't forget to enter any current giveaways, look in the left sidebar for links.

Have a great weekend!

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Mega Bloks - Blok Squad Fire Patrol Rescue

My kids love imaginative play. So when I heard about Mega Bloks Blok Squad sets I thought my girls might get a kick out of them. I'll admit, I was drawn to them because there was a Police set and I signed up for that. Supply changed and they sent me a Blok Squad Fire Patrol Rescue set instead. I was disappointed, we are a law enforcement family after all, but my girls still seemed excited about their new toy. Now, before I tell you more please note that this set is for children aged 5 and up...and yes, that is my 4 1/2 year old in the picture. My older daughter was not home from school yet when I started taking pictures...but I did not let my younger daughter play with the small parts. Ok...now here's a little bit about this toy and our experience.

I opened the box and this is what I found inside:


I will admit, I was a little leery when there was 1 random red block and some little silver thingy (such a technical word, eh?) just floating around the box, not in any of the bagged up parts. As I started separating the parts out into their steps (as found in the instruction book) I realized I did need those parts. Not sure why they weren't with the other parts? Oh well, at least they were there and I wasn't left angry about a missing part (as I was years ago when I purchased a toddler desk online from a MAJOR box store, made by a MAJOR brand and neither ever made it right...I digress).

This took quite a bit of time to assemble, but we're not assembly pros. This is our first set that isn't made of big blocks, so it was new territory for us. But in the end this is what we have:

Now that they're built my girls are having fun with them (with my supervision of course, small parts make me so nervous!).

This 190 piece set retails for $9.99 and can be found in the U.S. at Toys "R" Us, toysrus.com, Walmart, walmart.com and Amazon.com. And for those of you in Canada you can find them at Walmart CDN, Toys "R" Us, toysrus.com and Zellers. You can also find other sets including more fire patrol, police and construction.

If you're a big Mega Bloks fan don't forget to check out the Mega Bloks Family Club where you can get exclusive offers, contests, sweepstakes and promotions. Information on Mega Bloks toys for kids ages 1 to 6. Educational and informative blogs and a free email newsletter.


I received the Mega Bloks Blok Squad Fire Patrol Rescue set in order to facilitate this review. No monetary compensation was received. Opinions expressed are my own.

Friday, February 10, 2012

New Valentine’s Day Pillsbury® Ready to Bake!™ Shape® Cookies *giveaway*

Valentine's Day is less than a week away. What better time to have a little fun in the kitchen making a Valentine's treat? New Valentine’s Day Pillsbury® Ready to Bake!™ Shape® Cookies are ready in 8-10 minutes and are available at your local grocer...maybe. I looked at three stores to redeem my coupon for a free package and struck out. The last store had had them, but they were sold out. So I'll be headed back over there soon to see if they've restocked them so my girls can enjoy their favorite Disney characters, including Mickey and Minnie Mouse and Disney Princesses Belle, Cinderella and Tiana, on Valentine's cookies. Since I couldn't find the product I can't tell you my experience with it yet, but I've loved several other Pillsbury products I've tried over the years, so I have high hopes for this one.

Do you want to save a little money when purchasing these cookies? Just visit this link and you can print out a coupon for $1.10 off the purchase of one (1) package of New Valentine’s Day Pillsbury® Ready to Bake!™ Shape® Cookies. I don't know if there is a print limit on this coupon, so you might want to hurry and print it out just in case.

MyBlogSpark and Pillsbury want to give one Red Sox Mommy reader the New Valentine’s Day Pillsbury® Ready to Bake!™ Shape® Cookies prize pack pictured above. It includes: a VIP coupon to purchase a package of Pillsbury Ready to Bake! Shape Cookies, a cookie jar, a cookie spatula and an oven mitt.

To enter for your chance to win this fabulous prize pack from Pillsbury simply answer the following in a comment on this post: What's your favorite part about Valentine's Day?

If you'd like more chances to win you can do the following after doing the above requirement, leave a comment for each entry:

- Follow @RedSoxMommy on Twitter and tweet about this giveaway, you can do this once per day, just leave a comment with the link to your tweet each time (1 entry each time). Feel free to copy and paste the following tweet:

#WIN a Pillsbury Ready to Bake! Cookies prize pack @RedSoxMommy #giveaway ends 2/24 #MyBlogSpark http://bit.ly/wyghgI

- Follow Red Sox Mommy publicly on Google Friend Connect. (1 entry)
- Blog about this giveaway, leave the link to your post in the comments. (5 entries, leave 5 comments)

Disclaimer: You must have a US mailing address. You must leave a valid email address so I can contact you if you win. I will not use the addresses for any other purpose. You must follow the first entry requirement before any extra entries will be counted as valid. No "count me in" style comments will be qualified to win, please follow the directions. You have until February 24, 2012 at 11:59pm MT to enter. I will choose the winner at random soon after that time and s/he will have 72 hours to respond to the winning notification or a new winner will be chosen by the same method.

Good luck!

Don't forget to look for Pillsbury on Facebook and Twitter.


Disclosure: The VIP coupon, prize pack, information, and giveaway have been provided by Pillsbury through MyBlogSpark. I received the same pack the giveaway winner will receive. No monetary compensation was received. Opinions expressed are my own.

Wednesday, February 08, 2012

Jolly Rancher Crunch 'N Chew

Are you a candy fan? Do you remember eating Jolly Ranchers as a child? I definitely do! They've sure come a long way since I was a kid. You can get them both in crunchy and chewy forms. And now you can get one candy that's BOTH crunchy and chewy! This 2-in-1 candy is hard on the outside like a traditional Jolly Rancher and chewy and soft on the inside like their Jolly Rancher Fruit Chews. This is a pretty awesome combination. These new Jolly Rancher Crunch 'N Chew candies come in the original flavors of Cherry, Watermelon, Blue Raspberry and Green Apple. I've really been enjoying these a few pieces at a time.

To help celebrate this new candy sensation Jolly Rancher has partnered with Poptent, an online videographer community, to create original videos that highlight the different aspects of these Crunch 'N Chew candies. And they want YOU to help choose the winner. After receiving nearly 200 submissions, they've narrowed it down to three and through February 15, 2012 you can pop on over to www.jollyrancher.com and view these videos. Then cast your vote, up to once per day, for your favorite. The winning videographer will get the opportunity to produce two more videos to complete a three part video series that will be posted on the Jolly Rancher website this Spring.

If you're interested in trying Jolly Rancher Crunch 'N Chew candies for yourself, you can find them nationwide at mass grocery, drug and convenience stores.



I received a sampling of Jolly Rancher Crunch 'N Chew candy in order to facilitate this review. No monetary compensation was received. Opinions expressed are my own.