Chaos Theory Reviews

Awhile back a representative from NAOT contacted me to see if I might be interested in trying out a complimentary pair of shoes this summer for review purposes. I’m not a shoe fanatic in the sense that I don’t have a closet jammed full of them, but I’m also not crazy - I do not say no to shoes!

Possibly the worst part of this entire experience was poring over the catalog and agonizing over which pair to try. There were so many beautiful shoes and it was a tough call. However, I had been wanting some red shoes for awhile and my practical side had always said no. Well, why not? So I narrowed it down to pairs available in red, flipped back and forth between three or four choices and finally settled on the Medeira shoes. The catalog photo made them look like they were quite nice. This was a LIE because they were so much MORE than just “quite nice”. They were stunningly beautiful and I may or may not have slipped into Lord of the Rings mode and referred to them as “my precioussss”.

Alas, it was winter when they arrived. Winter is long here in Canada. Patience, grasshopper.

Luckily for Canadians, we also have a fairly intense summer season; it may not be very long but it’s hot and humid enough that sandals are about all you want to put on your feet so I’ve had plenty of time to test drive (walk?) my NAOT Medeira shoes.

First of all, I have to tell you that NAOT puts everything they’ve got into comfort. Yes, these shoes are sassy and sexy and beautiful BUT they’re also not the kind of shoes you desperately want to kick off at the end of the day. They look like shoes but feel like slippers. I don’t think I’ve ever had a softer, more comfortable insole in my life. If my feet could talk they would have said “ahhhhh” after I slipped them into my shoes for the first time.

I’ve worn them out to dinner, while walking around, and all day long. They’ve never become uncomfortable and I’ve never regretted wearing them instead of another pair. Even after a long walk around the neighborhood they didn’t hurt my feet or give me blisters.

Style-wise, they’re gorgeous and I still love them as much as I did when I first opened the box. As far as manufacturing goes… Well, I don’t know much about what goes on in the production of shoes, but I can tell you that the hand-stitching on these sandals is impeccable. I am confident that these shoes will not be tossed out next season because they’ll last for years.

I know I’m gushing but honestly, I’m in love with my NAOT Medeira sandals. LOVE. If you’re in the market for a new pair to show off your pedicure this summer, this is the brand to buy and with so many styles available, there’s something there to suit everyone.

Check out their website over here for more information and to find a store near you.

When I was recently asked to review a copy of Wii Birthday Bash I immediately said yes. We’re big fans of the Wii but we only have a handful of games so I was eager to try something new.

(Disclaimer: I was sent a free copy of the game for review purposes, but did not receive any monetary compensation.)

I have one seven-year-old and one four-year-old. My oldest can get a better handle on some games whereas my youngest got frustrated with anything other than Wii Bowling and Dora Saves the Snow Princess. I was very curious as to whether both my kids could enjoy Birthday Bash.

First of all, Birthday Bash can actually be used to create a real birthday party. It even comes with invitations that you can send out and you can have up to four people playing at one time (if you don’t have enough remotes you can ask others to bring their own from home). You can then create a whole custom birthday party within the game.

There are various themes for your party, including princess (a big hit over here), monsters, music, and sports. Once you choose the theme you add in the birthday child’s info, add your three guests, and you get started. The game starts with a party room that is empty other than a table. From there the players get to play a variety of typical party games such as Pin the Tail on the Donkey, Sack Races, and Pinata, as well as some fun extras that *I* never had at parties - things like water balloon slingshots, cake stacking (think Jenga with cake layers!), and even a laser shoot-out with aliens.

After each game is completed your party room gets some sort of adornment. You’ll get a tablecloth, balloons, party hats, noisemakers, and other such necessities. When you reach the end of the party, your guests will gather around to sing Happy Birthday to the birthday child.

As if that weren’t fun enough, you can also bypass the full parties and just play single games so you can play your favorites at any time.

The game is really cute. While it’s not something that my husband and I would choose to play while the kids are sleeping (we prefer to mock each other while bowling or golfing), it was a huge hit for my girls. They ask to play it regularly and my youngest loves to have parties for herself. Speaking of her, she’s able to play most of the games and does quite well at them. The only games she really has trouble with are ones that require aiming like the laser game and the slingshot. She’s still the sack race champion and does very well in many others.

It’s so nice to have a game that the whole family can play, even when one of the family members is only four years old!

Really, the only complaint I have about the game is that you have to go and reconnect your remotes in the main Wii Menu area each time which is a bit annoying. I like that in Wii Sports and Wii Play you can easily add another remote right within the game’s own options. It isn’t a huge deal, certainly not a deal breaker, but it would be nice if the same could be done in Birthday Bash. It would also be fun if you could bring in your own Mii to the game like you can in other games; there aren’t quite as many options for the player identities.

Overall though, the game is excellent and provides a ridiculous amount of fun. Since receiving it, it’s been played a lot and they don’t show any signs of being tired of it yet. Although both of their real birthdays have already passed, I’m thinking of inviting two of their friends over with their own remotes to have four players at once instead of just two with two Wii-generated players.

Do you think it sounds like fun? Because not only was I gifted with a review copy, I was generously given an extra copy to give away to one of my readers! This contest is open to North American readers - I wish I didn’t have to limit it, but overseas shipping is crazy!

The contest runs until Monday, December 21st at 5 pm Eastern time. I will randomly draw a winner using ranomizer.org and will announce it over on my main blog as well as here.

All you have to do to enter is leave a comment below and tell me what your favorite party game is. That’s it! Also, please note you may only enter once otherwise you’ll be disqualified. PLEASE use a valid email address or else I won’t be able to contact you. If I don’t hear back from the winner within 24 hours I’ll draw a new winner.

Good luck!

I was recently contacted to see if I was interested in trying out some customized labels from Lovable Labels. Here’s where I confess that - like so many people - I am a huge office supply fan. Shopping for back to school supplies fills me with happiness and I can browse notebooks, pens, and agendas for a ridiculous amount of time. Because of that, I was more than just a little curious about checking out some labels for my daughter’s return to school.

The labels come in a variety of colors; I chose to test drive the Mixed Berry which included shades of pink, purple, and red. Not only do you get to specify your child’s name on the labels, you can also choose an icon to go on them with choices ranging from a maple leaf to a teddy bear to a soccer ball and much more. I asked my daughter to take a look and choose the one she wanted and she immediately picked the cute dinosaur.

We were ordering the Back to School Mega Pack which includes binder stickers, clothing dots for identifying shirts and shorts (handy for gym clothes, and the labels are waterproof to stand up to your washing machine), shoe stickers with protective plastic, labels for tupperware that can hold strong in the microwave and dishwasher, and a couple of “dog tags” that you can attach to lunch bags and school bags (I make sure ours are always on the inside for safety).

After placing my order, it took about a week for the labels to arrive and I wasn’t disappointed at all. The labels are cute, printed with vivid colors, and the name is easy to read. After we purchased everything on our back-to-school list, I sat and attached all the labels; they stick easily and hold well. I tried to pull one off to see if they would come loose with a bit of wear and tear and they didn’t budge so I’m confident they’ll stick to all our surfaces for the whole school year.

My daughter was thrilled too and liked having a personalized label with her dinosaur icon to identify all of her belongings. She told me that she showed them to all her friends when she got to class - word of mouth at its finest!

This week only if you go to their website and place an order you can get a 10% discount on your price by entering in the special code chaos.

I was approached recently with an offer to sample Colgate’s new toothpaste, Colgate Max White, which promises to help brighten your smile quickly and affordably. As much as I would like to deny it, I don’t exactly have the best teeth in the world and my smile certainly wouldn’t blind anyone. The thing is, the cost of a professional whitening is miles out of my budget. Even the little home kits are fairly pricey.

The other drawback to the home kits is the time factor. Between working, taking care of the kids, trying to tame the household mess, walking the dog, and other frivolous things like sleep, I just don’t have the time that some of those kits require. I suppose I could fill one of those tray things up and watch TV but honestly when the evening rolls around and the kids are in bed I’m usually so fried that I don’t want to HAVE to do a darn thing.

Enter Colgate Max White. This toothpaste doesn’t promise to give you movie star teeth, but it will indeed help you out. While my teeth are not dazzling and sparkling, Max White has helped clear away the surface stains that have been caused by my obligatory two cups of coffee every morning. I also drink tea several evenings per week and enjoy a glass or two of red wine from time to time, so over time they had all conspired to dull my teeth down a few notches. After using Max White religiously for a few weeks, I was definitely able to see a difference. I also noticed that my teeth felt incredibly smooth in comparison to regular brushing. They felt almost as smooth as they do after a professional cleaning at the dentist (almost!).

As an added bonus, the minty flavor is extremely refreshing and lingers. Most toothpastes seem to wear off quickly, but Max White kept my mouth tingly and minty for as long as I avoided eating or drinking.

I’ve already recommended it to a couple of friends and I do the same to you. Colgate Max White isn’t going to solve all your dental issues, but it will help brighten your teeth enough to stop feeling shy about flashing your smile. You can pick it up for just over $3 in most stores.

I am a lot of things - good and bad - but one thing I definitely am not? Organized! Oh, I try. I get gung-ho and manage to feel all successful and organized for about a day or two, and then I revert back to double booking appointments or forgetting a deadline until the last second.

When Mom Central asked if I’d like to review a free online service that helps you stay on track I didn’t know whether to thank them or roll my eyes at the thought of yet another attempt to do what doesn’t seem to come naturally to me. I decided to give it a try.

First off, the big bonus with Cozi, for me at least, is that it’s online. The reason this is useful is because I’m online every day for both work and personal use. That makes it convenient and I’ve discovered, since trying the service out, that convenient makes a huge difference. Agendas and fancy calendars on the walls and to-do lists on my iPod are wonderful if I remember to look at them. Which I don’t. Or else I end up writing something in my agenda but neglecting to write it on the wall calendar; then I find myself scribbling an appointment in that same slot on the wall calendar because I don’t check my agenda.

Having it online makes it so easy to add my appointments, lists of things to do or buy, anything that I need to keep track of. It’s all in one place and I just added a bookmark tab in my browser so I see it every day.

I can also make it available to family members which is nice. The kids are still too young to need to do that, but George can check it out before setting up a recording session to make sure I won’t be volunteering up at the school leaving him with a musician and a three-year-old at the same time.

A nice touch is that you can sync it up to your mobile device. I don’t bother because I don’t need one, but if you’re really on the go, I can see how useful that can be.

So far it’s working well. We’ll see how it goes over time when things get a bit busier in the spring!

Cozi is well-organized itself and is so easy to use that you should be able to sign up and get your schedule organized in no time. As a fun extra bonus, if you sign up between now and February 4th, you can have a chance at winning a special home organizing makeover with a professional. The specialist, Laura Leist, will makeover your kitchen or home office which is worth $5000! Go sign up and maybe you can win an organized home!

Mom Central recently contacted me to see if I’d be interested in reviewing a new Special K product, a line of healthy snacking crackers. I said yes for three reasons:

1. Special K is one of my favorite cereals so I was curious to see what their crackers would taste like.
2. I love snacks!
3. When I have a glass of wine I enjoy some cheese and crackers with it.

So I figured I had nothing to lose. They sent me two boxes of crackers. One was their Italian Tomato & Herb flavor and the other box contained foil packages of Multi-Grain Crackers.

Right off the bat, I have to give two thumbs’ up to the Multi-Grain crackers because they were perfect to pack in my six-year-old’s lunch bag for school. In the end they were the ones that got the most approval. Both girls enjoyed the flavor a lot, and were disappointed when we ran out. I also really liked them and they’re flavorful enough that I ate them without anything else. Very tasty and crunchy!

The Italian Tomato & Herb received less fanfare. Neither of the kids liked them, each only eating one lone cracker. I tried them as well and decided they were simply okay. They certainly weren’t awful by any means, but they weren’t delicious like the other ones had been, and I found that eating them alone reminded me a bit of canned tomato paste. However, just tonight I enjoyed a large handful of them with some thinly sliced cheddar cheese on top.

In the end, I probably wouldn’t go out of my way to buy the Italian Tomato & Herb crackers though I wouldn’t avoid them if someone served them to me. However, I will definitely buy the Multi-Grain flavor again since we all enjoyed them so much.

Overall, kudos to Special K for branching out from their tasty cereal to bring us healthy cracker choices for our families!

Mom Central recently contacted me to see if I’d like to try out a bottle of Clorox 2 for free in return for reviewing it on my blog. First of all, I am a big fan of free. Second though, and perhaps most important, I have two kids so something containing bleach is a staple in my life.

No matter how clean my girls are at the beginning of the day, it never fails that Hayley will come home with some juice on her tunic and Breanna will spill something on her shirt.

I got coupons in the mail for the Clorox 2 bleach and immediately went out and got a bottle to test it out. It didn’t take long for an opportunity since Hayley came home the next day with some food stains on her pants, and Breanna got some chocolate from a treat all over her favorite purple shirt. I decided it was a good time to see if Clorox 2 can really deliver the punch of bleach while safeguarding colors.

The Clorox 2 did the trick with no effort at all. When I pulled the clothes from the washing machine, not only were all the stains and marks gone, they all looked as bright and clean as the day I bought them.

I’m a convert. I’ve really only ever used regular bleach for white clothes, but Clorox 2 is so effective on colors that I’m definitely going to be adding it to my grocery list when I run out.

It’s kind of ironic that I find myself reviewing the book Sleep is for the Weak on a day that I can barely keep my eyes open. I’m not weak, dammit! I don’t need no stinkin’ sleep!

But really, more than just being about sleep, the book is an all-around parent handbook with a collection of tales from some of the best mom bloggers around the Internet (except me - I’m not in it, but I’m still a good blogger!). It’s not your typical handbook though. It’s not a book full of guidelines on how to get your baby to sleep or tips for helping teach your toddler good manners.

What it is, really is a book that essentially screams, “YOU ARE NOT ALONE!” on every single page. Every time you’ve ever felt like you were the only person going through a parenting issue, every time you’ve ever thought every other parent has it together and you’re floundering, this book will help you realize we’re all have crazy moments at some point in time.

I think what I loved about this book was that it was like curling up on the couch with the Internet without having to lug the laptop over. Sometimes, when I’ve found a blog I really enjoyed, I’ve ended up hitting the archives and reading from the beginning up to present day, and I’ve often wished I could just print up the whole blog and read it like a book. Sleep is for the Weak basically does exactly that.

It was also great because, for me at least, it was a combination of re-readimg something from a blogger I’ve followed for years (such as Amy at Amalah) and discovering bloggers who have somehow been outside of my radar. The downside of this book is that I went and added a bunch of new blogs to my feed reader and have more people to read - which isn’t really much of a downer, when you think about it!

One page made me laugh, the next made me cry (Jen at Mommy Needs Coffee, I’m looking at you!), and the next made me nod my head and mutter, “yes, yes, exactly!”

I think it will very likely do the same for you. If you’re a parent and you love to read mom blogs, I can’t see any reason why you wouldn’t love Sleep is for the Weak!

Thanks to the Parent Bloggers Network for the chance to review this!

I’m going to tell you a little secret. For awhile my bathtub wasn’t the pristine, sparkling spot that you see in magazines. Oh, it wasn’t filthy. I did, after all, bathe my children in it, I had to have it at some level of cleanliness. But the thing is, we have stupidly hard water here. Even when I used a stiff cleaning brush to scrub away at the tub, it never looked clean even when it was. It was mostly because the tub always remained dull. Then the soap scum would build up and the hard water stains would attack again, and I started over, always with a distinct lack of enthusiasm.

Now my tub is much more of the sparkling nature. I still can’t say that I find myself jumping for joy when it’s time to clean the tub, but when I do have to do it it’s much easier, thanks to the Scrubbing Bubbles Action Scrubber. Mother Talk asked if I’d be interested in doing a review of the cleaner, and after I glanced woefully at my dull tub, I said yes, because I figured it was worth a shot.

I was actually giddy when I received my free samples, and set straight to work. Much to my shock, it was actually really easy to clean away the soap scum and whatnot with the little handle and scrubbing pad. The scent was a bit on the strong side, but it wasn’t vile, and it made the whole bathroom smell freshly cleaned for the rest of the day which is always a nice bonus.

It’s very convenient for quick cleaning because there’s no need to get out brushes and rags and bottles. The scrubbing pad attaches directly to the foam handle (also a nice touch, since it’s comfortable to hold), and the cleaner is inside the pad; just wet it and start cleaning with the foam.

Even more than the tub, I always wanted my shower tiles to sparkle and shine and they finally did after using the pad on those. When I was done with the big areas - the tub and the tiles, I removed the pad from the handle and used it to get into the tiny areas that big brushes don’t reach, like the section around the faucets and tap, inside the drain, and the tight corners. When you’re done, just put the handle away and attach a fresh pad the next time.

You can learn more about it over here at the Scrubbing Bubbles website. Let me know if it works out well for you!

Generally, we’re not a family that rushes for dinner. We don’t have too many activities and with Hayley in school, we don’t do very much in the evenings during the week. However, sometimes George will have a music client coming over or he’ll have to run out for something, in which case I do need to hurry with dinner a bit more. Also, now that soccer season has kicked off, soon we’ll be having one 6:30 pm game per week, and then two of them per week by the end of June.

Spaghetti (or any pasta in a tomato sauce) is a huge favorite here. We never really get tired of it, it’s fast and easy, and Breanna loves it so much that every night she asks if I’m making “suppaghetti”. The thing is, it still requires browning meat and onions, mixing it with a pot of sauce, and then on top of that, it leaves a bunch of pots and pans in the sink. While the meal may be quick, the clean-up isn’t!

Mom Central contacted me to see if I’d be interested in testing out a couple of the new Ragu Fresh & Simple Pouches. Well, I have a really hard time turning down anything that involves free food so I signed on.

I got two pouches. One was Tomato Basil and the other was Tomato, Onion and Garlic. Basil is one of my favorite spices, and I put garlic on just about everything, so I was happy with the flavors they sent me. Being the pasta fanatics that we are, it wasn’t long before I had the opportunity to try each one. They tasted great! I’ve gotten sauces in jars before but I don’t usually enjoy them unless I add stuff. When I tried the Tomato Basil pouch I actually didn’t have any garlic left and there was no meat defrosted so it was straight from the pouch to the pasta and it was still delicious.

What makes these sauces fast for rushed evenings? You don’t have to heat the sauce in a pot. You simply snip off the corner of the pouch and stick it upright in the microwave. Seriously. Once it heats through, you serve your pasta up and pour the sauce right on top. It’s fast and can be done in the time it takes you to drain and toss your pasta (I always toss ours with a bit of butter since Hayley isn’t a sauce fan in general). Better yet, you won’t run out the door and come back to a big pot of sauce soaking in your sink, which is really discouraging.

On a regular night, the quick-heat option doesn’t make a huge difference to me (though I definitely get behind anything that saves me from washing a pot), but it’s certainly great when you have to leave as soon as possible and you won’t have to sacrifice taste. Both pouches got a thumbs up from everyone - even Hayley, who agreed to dip a piece of pasta in a splash of sauce only to discover it was “pretty good”.