Category Archives: Uncategorized

Dec17

Random Round Up

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Random Round Up

Well, the time is flying by! I’ve been on the road since Thanksgiving and have not had the opportunity to pack many lunches for the kids.  Vacation (which I still need to write some posts about) and a couple of business trips and the kids’ classroom parties are depriving me of my bento outlet.  I think I should channel that energy into planning some fun lunches for after the new year.  Until then, here are just a couple of quick and easy lunches I’ve sent in with the kids over the last few weeks:

This healthy cowgirl lunch was made with tortilla and cheese roll-ups, skewered with grape tomatoes, using these adorable cowboy hat and boots picks.  I added some sugar snap peas, carrots, and a mini-dipper of low-fat ranch.  The small compartments have apples, berries, and some frozen Greek yogurt.

While I was away on one of my recent business trips, my husband had the opportunity to take the kids grocery shopping after school. Instead of complaining about that (I would’ve whined a bunch) he got the job done and even let Girlie buy me these Christmas cupcake picks she found in the baking aisle.  Girlie knew that I would love to use these in her lunchbox and she was right!  In this bento, I used the picks to make Christmas characters out of tortilla & cheese roll-ups and grapes.  I also hand-cut a 15 to show the number of days left to Christmas.  It is funny because we were already celebrating Hanukkah at that point, and I was simultaneously fielding Christmas requests from both.  It must be nice to spoiled with both holidays, huh?

Today’s lunch was a CuteZCute piggy sandwich, accessorized with the Christmas picks in grape tomatoes.  I also packed clementines, baby carrots, and Chobani Champions yogurt, dotted with 8 blueberries for the Christmas countdown.

I am actually home all week this week!  If I am lucky, I will get one more bento post in before the end of the year and start publishing my Disney Cruise vacation info in installments.  I have a lot to share about our trip, including some good tips on cruising with kids.  If you’re planning a trip and have any questions, send me a comment and I’ll gladly answer.

This is the first year I have two kids eagerly awaiting Santa’s arrival and it has been much more complicated than I ever expected.  Their requests are soooo unreasonable and I am running out of excuses for why Santa cannot make them happen.  Girlie wants a pouch of pixie dust like Izzie has in Jake and the Neverland Pirates.  Little Dude informed me that Santa is going to turn our car into a rocket ship so we can go to outer space.  It is so fun to watch them believe in the magic of Christmas, but I don’t know how to set their expectations appropriately so they won’t be let down.  If anyone has some suggestions on fielding these types of wishes without just killing their dreams, I’d love to hear it! I somehow never anticipated all these ideas and questions!

Products I used in this post:

This lunch is linked at:
Following In My Shoes

Aug24

My Second BOC Revealed

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My Second BOC Revealed

I can’t explain how I have gotten so lucky two times in one summer, but I scored another Bag of Crap!  I posted all the excitement of my first bag of crap last month and you can read all about that here for comparison (and an explanation, if you require one). I am a little surprised about how different the crap was from one bag to another.

I scored on Tuesday’s Dealgebra “Be-True-To-Your-Crap” and once again received a super-sized bag of crap.  You are supposed to receive ONE bag of some kind and THREE crappy items. Check out my loot:

I received the following craptastic items in this shipment (clockwise from top left):

  • Multi-Purpose Wipes (8pk) -Says $1 right on the package.  Not a big fan of cleaning, but I can use these.
  • Simley Face Sandwich Box – Also says $1 on the package. Did woot! know that I am a lunchbox enthusiast? Great job! My girlie has already laid her claim on this.
  • Sewing Kit (30 pcs) – Also says $1 on the package. I don’t sew, which means that on the rare occasion something needs to be sewn, I can’t find the right stuff to do it.  I’ll keep this one someplace conspicuous, so I can find it again when I need it next time.
  • The bag that holds the crap: A recycled tote by Gwen’s Nest.  Just like the one I received last time, but purple!  I’ll use this!
  • T-Shirt – A medium woot! shirt that fits me.  Now Girlie and I have matching woot! shirts!
  • Red Colander – This has already been used as  hat by the kids and could someday be put to its intended purpose.  This one has a $2 label on it.
  • Camelbak Groove Portable Filtration System – This is a nice looking water bottle that will be perfect to use on vacation next week.  Fill it up in the hotel and take it to the beach.  These retail for around $20 on amazon.com.

My crappy thoughts: Well, I am glad that woot is making more BOCs available so we can all realize our dreams of obtaining one.  On the other hand, if they are just going to the dollar store and filling up boxes, it isn’t so much fun.  I like it much better as a lottery of the crap that they couldn’t otherwise offload.  My last BOC had damaged goods and plenty of stuff that I’ll never use.   This one was actually full of stuff I can put to use, but just seemed so boring in comparison.  Once again, I cannot complain – I got more than what they promised.  I put my $8 out there and I got my crap.  You know I will do it again at the next opportunity too!

In other woot! shopping news, I also got my new Lock & Lock lunchboxes, which I am excited to try out and my new Magic School t-shirt, which I am absolutely certain was designed with me in mind!  Check out its awesomeness:

Here is the amazon.com link to the Camelbak Groove(and the one I just bought for Little Dude’s lunchbox yesterday, by coincidence) if you are interested:

Jul23

My First BOC Revealed!

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My First BOC Revealed!

If you have never heard of woot.com, you will not get this at all.  I’m sorry.  I am even more sorry if I somehow cause you to be addicted to woot.com and begin an arduous quest to obtain a Bag of Crap.  Please don’t hate me.  Disclaimers aside, this is the happy story of my very first BOC!

Woot.com is an awesome one-deal-a-day type of site and I frequently snag some excellent finds there.  On a really fun day, they’ll have a woot-off, where they put great deals up and things sell out quickly, but they replace them with another great deal immediately after.  Sometimes, on a woot-off day, they’ll throw in a Bag of Crap to stir a frenzy among their fans.  A Bag of Crap (BOC) contains THREE random items that they probably could not otherwise get rid of.  You can’t complain with what you receive, because it only costs $3 and it has the name ‘crap’ right in the title… you’re not receiving any real gems.  Still, I had high hopes for my future BOC acquisition and have tried for YEARS to secure one for myself.  Yes, you read that right: YEARS.  You see, when the BOC’s go up on woot’s site, servers crash, all hell breaks loose, and the site just can’t take my order.  If you don’t buy a BOC in the first few seconds, you aren’t getting a BOC at all!  Everyone cries and moans about it, but I think for many of us, it just fuels our burning need to get a BOC even more! Sigh.

On July 12, on a day like any other, and not even a woot-off day, I took a facebook break at the exact moment that Woot posted on their facebook page that they were serving up a BOC for us facebook fans.  Since it caught everyone unawares and I just happened to be in the right place at the right time, my dream of buying a Bag of Crap was finally realized.  Like I said, if you have never heard of this before, move along… you won’t be impressed by what I am about to reveal.  However, if you’ve been pining for a BOC of your own, behold my wondrous BOC:

I think I got a super-sized BOC because it was Woot’s birthday celebration!  Or maybe because 2 of the items were spectacularly damaged???  Who knows!?!  Crap is crap, right?  The picture shows all of it, but here are the glorious details (clockwise from the top left):

  • The bag that holds the crap: A recycled tote by Gwen’s Nest.  I’ll use this! Score!
  • T-Shirt – A size small woot! shirt that I can force my kids to wear.
  • DVDs – A 36 disc collection of America Stories of War. The tin is badly damaged, which I think makes it a more authentic looking relic of battle.  This baby is just begging for some sucker to re-gift to!
  • Diva Darling – A microfiber headband.  This requires explanation.  Luckily the back had a nice description so I can understand how to use it! It is a “super gentle and absorbent material that swoops up stray water droplets.  Now you can wash your face in luxury without getting any of your gorgeous hair wet!” I am not exactly sure how I have survived my whole life without this!
  • Water Bottle – It is a STANLEY brand steely wide mouth bottle that is horrendously mangled.  I am not sure what exactly I can find to do with this… perhaps ‘coal’ in someone’s stocking? Let me know if you have any suggestions that don’t involve the dump!
  • Kindle Cover – This is a Cyber Acoustics brand Leather Protective Cover.  I don’t have a Kindle or know anyone who is in the market for one, but this looks pretty nice!  It is a table style padfolio case.  It does offer some protection and feels like it is well-padded.  If you’re in the market for a kindle case, leave a comment.  If I get a few comments, I’ll raffle it off to one of my many fans!  ***Update: Since there is some interest here, it is a Kindle 3 Cover, Model KC-3000BK. Add a comment, and I’ll scribble your name on a paper and put it in my hat. That is my fancy and high-tech methodology!

I was extremely pleased with this BOC.  I would have loved woot-off lights, or a screaming monkey, or anything useful, but this is some good crap, or at least very random crap!  One of these days, I need to do a post on my shirt.woot collection. I have bought more shirts than any sane person should admit and I love all of them.  I am a sick person.

Have you shopped on woot.com?  What’s your favorite purchase to date? Have you ever received a BOC? I’d love to hear about it!