Sleep Number Mission, B and a bunny!

7-28-14
Think I'm going to start dating these instead of numbering them. Just makes sense.

Bunny, cute adorable, hanging out in the grass by my van, admiring himself perhaps?

What better way to end my time with B! Kind of a trade off of one cute thing for another. Poor little guy was not a happy camper today, having some serious teething issues. Grandma may be in a bit of trouble. First off, no one is allowed to share this post with my dad! No, it wasn't gum, even I know he's too little for that. Number two on the unforgivable list, ice crunching! 

Stopped at Sonic on my way over, Cherry Limeade (of course) set it on the table, played with B, talked to my daughter, he refused to nap, she left for her appointment, and twenty minutes later he was out like a light! So when B woke up after only napping for half an hour, knew it was serious. He always naps for hours for Grandma! 

Checked the shelf in his room and the diaper bag, no teething gel! Plan B, crushed ice from my drink. Dozen chomped pieces later, he cuddles into my shoulder, back to bed he goes and his folks had to wake him up two hours later for dinner.

First thing he does, heads to the table where I sat with him earlier. He's making the sign for either eat or drink (hard to tell which is which sometimes) so his mom grabs his cup, he pushes it away, crawls to the chair I was sitting in earlier. Being a good Grandma who speaks fluent B, I run to the fridge and get him some crushed ice. Happy baby, new bad habit, my work is done, must be time for me to leave!

https://www.facebook.com/Smiley360

http://www.sleepnumber.com/sn/en/Bedding/Mattress-PadsComfort-Layers/p/dualTemp#mission3

The mission! Wow, what a blast I had. 

First off, I have to disclose that smiley360 said that if I complete this mission I would most likely get a free pillow from the sleep number store. 

http://smiley360.com/3571137.cfm

If you click this link, it gives you all the sleep number info and I earn a smile!

That being said, how did I not know about sleep number beds? These are the coolest things ever! My mission was to try out the dual temp layer. Link above that goes to the page with all the info! In a nutshell, this goes over any mattress and has three cool and three warm settings. It circulates air around your body head to toe, all night at whatever temp you choose. Queen or King size, two separate controllers! If I was Rachael right about now I'd be saying "I know, right"!

Here in Greenville, I met Grant who was the associate that helped me out with my demo. Impressed me! He was very knowledgeable, polite, low pressure, he tucked me in, explained the whole thing and then took the time to answer my zillion questions. Important stuff! How much electric does it use (same as a ceiling fan), does it need surge protect (yes), warranty (3 years), and of course that brought me to what's a sleep number?

I'm a 40! How do I know this? The computer told me so! They have a tricked out bed that does a body image, shows your pressure points, you watch the red change to yellow and oranges and voila! You can even test for your side if you move around during the night. Which brings me to yet another toy they have. Wait for it...

Adjustable beds! Up, down, top, bottom, middle, and you can even add in massage! Helps with breathing, snoring, muscle cramps, reading in bed, circulation and yes, I am going to ask my doc about this on the 15th, if the claims are valid I just may be headed back to the store! I'll keep everyone posted!

Just in case that wasn't impressive enough, they have an app! Sleep IQ, every night you input info about your day, time you are going to sleep, food, exercise, vices, etc and it tracks your sleep all through the night. You can check to see what triggers a good, bad, or restless night. Cool video, explains it better than I can:

http://www.sleepnumber.com/sleepiq/

I strongly recommend anyone that is in the market for a bed to check the sleep number store out. Bit more spendy than a regular mattress but the bed itself, 25 year guarantee! Worth a look and I'd say be prepared to be tucked in, relax, find your number and see what you think! 

Even if the bed isn't for you, check out the dual temp layer, my immediate thought on this was, hmmm female, 50ish, wonder who the target audience is going to be, only takes a few minutes to change from cool to hot and back again. Sound familiar to anyone!!

Free sausage and chicken soup for cats, who knew?

Entry #11

Started off my day with two very lethargic kids who were still not eating. Imagine my surprise when I realized that the new bag of food was just not the miracle cure that I thought it would be! After several brainstorming sessions with Joe, I went online and did some more research. Found a very interesting batch of posts about home made remedies for cats with tummy upsets. No true reasoning as to why they were ailing, so figured what the heck let's read the articles. Chicken broth. Yep, read that right, some good old fashioned chicken soup is what my babies were needing. Who was I to argue. Worked on the grown kids! Just goes to show that times may change but sometimes grandma really did know best!

1st dose around 1 pm

Started with a few teaspoons on each plate

Last dose around 7:30 pm

They actually left a few drops on the plate, around 7:45 Isobel was first to the food bowl and had a few bites. Samson jumped up around 8:15 and ate a few bites. Best news, no gagging sounds from either! Joe and I both noticed that they both came into the living room with us after they ate instead of hanging out by the door to the laundry (aka where the box is)!

Just like I did with my first crop of kids, started off with a few spoonfuls and then every 20 minutes or so gave them a bit more. Should of called my mom and asked her what to do! Probably would of saved myself a crop of gray hairs from worrying so much these last few days! My mistake was in trying to treat them like cats instead of toddlers, lesson learned. We will see what tomorrow brings.

As for tonight's delicious dinner, many thanks to Food Lion.

I liked their Facebook page and entered one of the weekly fan giveaways and low and behold I was the proud owner of a free package of Hillshire Farm American Craft Jalapeno and Cheddar Smoked Sausages. 

https://www.facebook.com/foodlion

Not something I would normally buy, but who am I to argue with trying a new product for free! Cooked these following the stove top directions to steam them, took about 15 minutes. Put them in hot dog rolls with some mustard, onions and relish, chips on the side. Next time, think I'm going to try them on the indoor grill! What a great (not to mention quick and easy) meal! 

And no, they didn't pay me to say that! Just figure that if something is good, can't hurt to say it out loud. Everyone always want to shout from the rooftops when something is bad so I'm trying reverse psychology. I want to start a trend of telling everyone when something positive happens and the value of a good old fashioned thanks! Figure it might just catch on!

Rental cars, Rachael and Facebook Page yes or no?

Entry #10

My mission tonight was to put the mail on hold for our upcoming abandonment of the kids, research a rental car (because the truck we were going to drive does not have a/c and the expected temperature of 90 combined with high altitude pretty much guarantees that I'll pass out) and forward our itinerary to the taxi service otherwise known as B's mommy and daddy for the airport portion of our journey.

Two out of three items complete, car rental just not feeling the rates, thinking there may be a better deal if I hold out another few days. Evidently, we have picked the most expensive dates to travel due to several national parks and people who love to be outside! Since the trip is for a very important birthday party the dates aren't negotiable! Patience is my middle name if it means I can save some bucks so waiting is the decision and I'm off to other things.

Please note that Isobel is clearly in the no cat zone, I think she is trying to play the sympathy card and just like any toddler she is about to be shut down...

I can see you are asking yourself what does any of this have to do with Rachael? Seeing as how the kids were still not doing well with their most likely tainted food, I decided to replace it with a different brand (just in case)! Off to the grocery store I went! Pretty much everyone knows I have a thing for Rachael Ray purple anything and am constantly using these items to try and create Rachael worthy food items, so as you can imagine I was pretty excited to find this: 

Check out what the kids have in their food bowls now.

Of course, when I got home I had to look up the details of the food at: http://www.rachaelray.com/pets/rescue.php

as I was unaware that:

a) she made cat food (and dog food too) and 

b) she donates part of the proceeds to animals! 

Just another reason to love her. Here's to hoping that her food does the trick and the kids will have full and happy tummies and my floors will once again be safe to walk on.

The point of the story, once I was done with my research, I jumped over to Facebook and a few turns of Candy Crush. Instantly, ads started popping up for all of the researching I had been doing. A few were for food and recipes, due to the eggplant we had for dinner tonight! A compilation of three recipes and a few random thoughts of my own gave us a very tasty dinner:

I sauteed all the veggies in some olive oil in the skillet while I cooked the eggplant on the indoor grill. Once the slices were soft I squeezed some fresh lemon juice over the tops, cut each one in half and added them to the skillet (top picture). Gave this a few good stirs and topped with breadcrumbs and grated, fresh Parmesan cheese (bottom picture). Pretty sure you could use any veggies you wanted, I started off with yellow onion and fresh garlic, then added in some zucchini, yellow squash, tapas peppers, bell peppers and parsley, rosemary, oregano, salt and ground black pepper.

Then I saw all of the ads for rental car companies, Rachael Ray cookware and cat toys. This got my brain juices flowing and I decided to try and figure out how Facebook did this. I know they got it off my history and browsing, duh, I just meant maybe it was something I checked or didn't uncheck that was the root cause. This brought me to the help page and thirty minutes later to the realization that I could have a page added to my account to promote anything I want! It doesn't even have to be officially sanctioned by anyone or anything it just can't break Facebook Rules. 

How cool would a page dedicated to Steven Tyler, Rachael Ray, Stephen King, Keith Anderson, The Wiggles and Shel Silverstein be? Give me a minute, I can add more... The Beatles, KC, Boston Bruins, Journey, The Wizard of Oz and the original Willy Wonka. I can't forget Joey+Rory, Blacklist, Big Brother, and Friends. Wow, just imagine what I could do with an hour! 

Recent online yard sale find! Still looking for Hot Potato and Fruit Salad!

Which brings me to the logical conclusion that I must of found this magical place as a sign that I should give the blog it's own space, has to be better than Google+ seeing as how I still can't figure out how to let people follow me so I just keep posting to Facebook and hope it shows up in the feed at the precise moment that all the important readers are looking.

Thoughts? You can try and comment on Google+ but seems I get more activity on Facebook so feel free to comment there as well, instead or in addition to!