Ice Cream, Balloons, and Liquid Nitrogen

Don't believe the weird expressions, They ate every bite and asked for more!
It's impossible to catch them all still and smiling with ice cream in their hands.
We had so much fun at Subzero's 10th anniversary celebration! The free ice cream was yummy, as always, and they had super cool science demonstrations going on outside.
Liquid nitrogen's effect on a balloon
Liquid nitrogen's effect on a balloon

Check the short videos we took of the demonstrations (below) or read some Fun Facts about Nitrogen!







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    Free Doctor Who Comic Book from Amazon!


    The Doctor Who comic book they gave out on Free Comic Book Day is available in ebook form on Amazon! Don't know how long it'll last.

    My kids are still learning to how to handle comic books, so they wear out pretty fast around here. I'm excited to have one that won't rip or tear!
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      My Battle for Better Health: Allergies, Fibromyalgia, and My Mother



      When you have fibromyalgia, your nervous system is hypersensitive. Pain, fatigue, etc., is more intense than what others might experience. I've often thought of myself as a wimp, but now, I wonder how others would handle my pain levels? Allergies are a huge problem. I'm allergic to dust mites, several types of mold, and certain trees and grasses. My allergies are year-round and worse when seasonal allergies pop up.

      I experience chronic inflammation, which can leave me completely debilitated, and took a really weird turn this last month. I've always had really sensitive hearing. I hear really high pitched noises that adults aren't supposed to hear, etc. This sounds like fun, but it's gotten to be a source of contention in our house. Loud noises really hurt my ears. I'm always asking everyone to "Can you turn it down?" or "Please don't talk so loud!" In the last few weeks, its been even worse, but I noticed that louder noises started to sound like I was hearing them through a fan. You know how it sounds when you put your face in front of an electric fan and speak into it? All vibraty and stuff? We all used to do it. ;) I started to hear like that more and more, until it started sounding like my ears were plugged, like I was hearing everything from under water. Then, I started getting earaches, nausea, and dizziness.

      The doctor didn't see anything wrong with my ears and decided that it's an inner ear problem caused by my allergies. He said that I'd been prescribed the same allergy medicine for too long, and it wasn't effective any more. So, my allergies were causing fluid to build up in my inner ear. Now, I've got a new allergy medicine, but he's also got me taking a decongestant (to get rid of the fluid), and an anti-inflammatory, which is heavenly! I try not to take the anti-inflammatory medicines (like Advil, etc.) too often, because they can be hard on your kidneys, stomach, etc. So, when I do get to take them, it's a huge difference!

      After a few days, the ear problems are still there, but I did see one immediate change. The morning after I took my first allergy pill, I woke up less tired. I'm not sure if it made me more drowsy, so I slept more deeply, or if I could breathe better, but it was great!

      Another wonderful thing is that my depression hasn't been as bad lately, and trust me, it was bad there for a while. Part of it might be that summer is winding down, and I'm looking forward to having a solid schedule again, but the biggest difference is that my mom got to visit for a few days. I'm telling you, I have the best mom ever! When she and Dad visit, they usually go through my house like a whirlwind, and leave it cleaner than when we moved in. Dad had to work this time, but Mom got to come. She tried to get some cleaning done, but we had errands to run and spent a lot of the time out of the house, playing.

      When you have depression, change is one of the best treatments. They tell you rearrange your furniture, go walking, get out of the house, etc. Getting out did help a lot, but what helped the most was having Mom here. There is nothing like the love and acceptance of a mother. My house was a mess, and I was so ashamed and worried about her seeing it. I've had people be very judgmental in the past who criticize but don't bother to help. Not my mom. We talked about the mess, but she reminded me that how I'm feeling and what's going on around me is not who I am. Being sick, I always feel like I'm being lazy, but she helped me remember that whenever I am able, I am very active and always have been.

      By the time Mom left, life just seemed brighter, everything seemed more possible. I wish everyone could have a mother like mine. The house still needs a lot of work, I still have fatigue, depression, and anxiety, but I've got this.

      My goals

      I want to have energy to spend time and actually do activities with my family.
      I want to be able to be physically active. I’m not saying I plan on running marathons, but being able to exercise and do basic housecleaning on a daily basis would be nice.
      I want my mind to feel less foggy all the time so I can do my job well and enjoy being in the profession I love.
      I want to be healthy and be at a healthy weight.
      I want my life back! I will look for the best in my life and realize what I truly have, always striving to make it better.

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        My Battle for Better Health: Physical Therapy and Insomnia



        Physical Therapy and Insomnia—Yep, just about sums it up. It's 2:14 am and after tossing and turning, relaxation techniques, racing/obsessive thought, etc. I gave up and started cleaning the living room. Apparently, my brain thought it was imperative that the couch be cleaned out NOW... It did need some TLC, but still not sure why it couldn't wait until the morning...not like I can vacuum it out while everyone's sleeping.

        So now, I'm sitting at the computer, hoping my music doesn't wake the kids up. It's just a random shuffle of quiet sonatas, and ballads from Beethoven, P!nk, Jean Sibelius, Lady Antebellum, and Debussy, Kate Miller-Heidke, and such....shouldn't get too loud. ;)

        Between my terrible back and my hurt knees (remember, I fractured one and bruised the bone on the other in an extreme demonstration of my gracefulness back in April), cleaning the house gets a bit difficult. If I bend too much, or the wrong way, my back goes out. If I kneel at all, my knees...well, since I my injury occured by landing on my knees, let's just say that kneeling even just a little bit is still like kneeling on a bed of nails. Because of all this, when cleaning, I've been raking things into a pile (when necessary) then, scooting around the living room with the computer chair's height set as low as possible and picking things up from there. (It looks even more ridiculous than it sounds.)

        So far, my knees haven't been well enough for much physical therapy. They have me doing mild exercises, pretty much just sitting in a very low chair and standing back up a lot. But I have noticed that now my knees don't feel quite as tight when I climb stairs!

        Back to the insomnia part. I started to blame the new medicine my doctor added, then I realized it's been gradually getting worse all summer. I think that, somehow, I'm trying to keep my school year schedule going. This past year was the first with all the kids in school full time. I've been so spoiled having so much time to get things done. I went back to writing, started my own company, and so much more! Don't get me wrong, I LOVE spending time with my kids, and this summer we've been very family focused. The problem is that there really hasn't been any quiet time to work like I've gotten used to. I think I've started staying up later and later to compensate for that lack. I'm sure other parents out there can relate to this.

        So yeah. I decided I was going to get to bed earlier tonight, and it I did...1 am is better than 2, right? (Woops! Had to go rescue the bag of bread that the kids left on the edge of the table. I heard the dog whining and trying to get at something...at least I was up for that!) Well, one in the morning was better until I couldn't sleep and had to get up, but I did try. At least I've been able to do something useful while I'm awake.

        Goodnight (err, morning), all! I'm going to go play some World of Warcraft until my eyes won't stay open anymore.

        My goals

        I want to have energy to spend time and actually do activities with my family.
        I want to be able to be physically active. I’m not saying I plan on running marathons, but being able to exercise and do basic housecleaning on a daily basis would be nice.
        I want my mind to feel less foggy all the time so I can do my job well and enjoy being in the profession I love.
        I want to be healthy and be at a healthy weight.
        I want my life back!

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          Winner of $35 from The Kawaii OD

          Congratulations to Sheri Andes, winner of $35 to spend at The Kawaii OD!

          Visit The Kawaii OD on etsy, Facebook, Tumblr, DeviantArt, and Twitter.


          a Rafflecopter giveaway

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            My Battle for Better Health: Life in the Haze of Depression



            Living with depression and other health problems tends to make me feel weighted down and like I'm living my life in bit of a haze. Sometimes, things don't seem quite real, sometimes life is just overwhelming.

            There are days that I do well, considering everything that's going on, but it seems like most of my life lately has been in this haze of depression. It just doesn't seem like I can do anything most days. Living everyday life is a constant struggle. I can't get enough sleep, never seem to have enough time for myself, and can't get enough done. My family is sinking further in dept, our house not getting clean enough, my kids not getting enough attention.

            Reading scriptures the other night, I came across this verse that described exactly how I felt:

             O that ye would awake; awake from a deep sleep, yea, even from the sleep of hell, and shake off the awful chains by which ye are bound, which are the chains which bind the children of men, that they are carried away captive down to the eternal gulf of misery and woe. - 2 Nephi 1:13

            That's exactly what I'm trying to do. I want to wake up, shake off these awful chains, and escape this gulf of misery and woe. That's exactly why I'm trying to live better, why I've written down these goals. I WILL get my life back.


            My goals

            I want to have energy to spend time and actually do activities with my family.
            I want to be able to be physically active. I’m not saying I plan on running marathons, but being able to exercise and do basic housecleaning on a daily basis would be nice.
            I want my mind to feel less foggy all the time so I can do my job well and enjoy being in the profession I love.
            I want to be healthy and be at a healthy weight.
            I want my life back!

            Read more about My Battle for Better Health here.

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              Popcorn and Movie Night



              I promised the kids another movie night since last night, when we watched The Lego Movie, we didn't get to do popcorn. We did homemade caramel corn (not as fancy as it sounds, I did make the hat, though!) and Pokemon.

              The caramel corn is just a cup of unwrapped caramel candies and a tablespoon-ish of milk melted together and stirred, then poured over popcorn.

              Perler Bead Scam Update



              I woke up this morning to find this email reply from Amazon! (Read the original blog post here.)


              Hello, 

               I'm sorry to hear that one of our sellers provided a misleading information to you regarding with the product purchased. WE want our customers to experience great customer service and I completely understand that you want an immediate action regarding this issue. 

               To help you with this, I'd like to ask you to send a report to our investigations team about this. Each report they receive is investigated and the appropriate action is taken. However, we won't be able to release the outcome of the investigation. Please go to the link below and select "Report a violation of our rules" as the subject line: 

               http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/reports 

               Please be sure to include the order ID if available. If the order ID isn't available, please include the ASIN in the comments and fill out the seller name field when submitting the form. 

               Rest assured this issue will be passed to the appropriate team for them to take further actions regarding with the problem. 

               I do apologize for the inconvenience this issue has caused you. 

               I hope this incident will not affect your future purchases h us. We hope to see you again soon.

               Best regards,
              Ace C.


              There was also an email notifying me that a refund had been issued. THIS is why I LOVE Amazon! What other company takes such good care of their customers so quickly? This is how you create lifetime customers. 

              I've sent my report on to their investigation team. Let's see how long that seller is still scamming people on Amazon. :) I'll update more later.



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                Buyer Beware: Perler Bead Scam




                I go through Perler Beads really fast and order quite a bit of them, usually through Amazon. On June 27, 2015, I found a decent deal on beads (which I needed quickly). I ordered them through a seller called "Qin H", who had an extremely high seller ranking (as seen below).



                I thought it was a bit strange that the beads came in small ziplock type back instead of the usually packaging. 





                Working with beads so much, I noticed that these beads felt a bit different than usually. These were NOT Perler Beads. I'd been ripped off. The beads I'd gotten were a cheap knock off that were absolutely horrible! 

                Apparently, some vendors routinely stock the off brand (which costs significantly less than the Perler Brand), mark them up, and sell them as Perler Brand beads. 

                Item page on Amazon, listing these as Perler Brand beads


                Why am I making such a big deal about this? Well, first, it's just plain dishonest of them. Second, well, this is what the off brand beads looked like after I melted/fused them.

                A small film from the cheap beads melted over the top of the white.
                The low grade plastic had all sorts of problems when melted. They wouldn't melt evenly, the edges rounded (which made them stick out from the actual Perler brand beads), and the finished piece's durability was compromised by the cheap bead (which broke easily). Pictured below: Knock off brand is black.

                The knocks offs did NOT melt smoothly. 

                Different size holes and rounded edges in knock offs

                Different size holes and rounded edges in knock offs (in black) compared to Perler Beads

                These ones ended up uneven, and with holes that weren't supposed to be there! 

                These ones ended up uneven, and with holes that weren't supposed to be there! 


                Symmetry...
                I've contacted the seller, saying I needed either a refund or factory sealed Perler Brand beads. We'll see what they say. 

                While I wait, I decided to do a bit more research. I found out I'm not the first customer to complain about this issue. 


                I've worked with Amazon before when there have been seller issues and they've been wonderful. Last time, the power cord I ordered tried to set fire to my house. It was a month or so past the return date, so the seller wasn't liable any more, but when I told Amazon's customer service about it, they immediately issued a full refund. I'm going to report this seller's dishonest practice to them and see what happens. 

                Please be careful when you buy your beads! Always buy from a reputable seller. This is why I stick with Amazon. Even when things look great, something can go wrong. I trust Amazon to fix this. I'll let you know what happens.





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