• Gorgeous

• Super smart grocery list

• Syncs with Google Calendar, Iphone Calendar and iCal

• Task List attached to Google Maps showing which tasks can be done in which order to use less time

I have been thrilled with how beautiful most apps are on the Iphone but Intuition takes the cake. It has calming colors that make it hard to want to stare at it all day. I love the main start point being a cluster of petals. Each petal is a different feature of the app.

• Categories
• Community
• Nearby
• Calendar
• My info
• Add Task

The petal design makes it super easy to navigate and it just makes it super pretty. Alright, enough with the pretty.

I feel like I spend more time going grocery shopping than I do anything else during a week. There’s always one more thing I need to pick up from the store. I love the Intuition grocery list because it’s smart. Intuitive, really. There is a pre-programmed list of grocery items which have been broken down into categories like breads or meats or condiments. All I do is go into the category I want, select the item I need and it’s added to my list. If I don’t want to do that I can search through the entire list or I can leave the constraints of a pre-made list and enter in my own item. I love anything that doesn’t try to control me!

Speaking of control, one of the things we can never control but always seems to control us is time. My time is limited between all the different family schedules and it’s hard keeping up with it all. I personally love Google Calendar but it means that my schedule is all held in my email. Intuition syncs with Google Calendar in a seamless and beautiful way and I am able to keep on top of all our appointments all in one application.

Last but anything but least there is the Task list. I enter in any task I want and Intuition records it for me. If I have tasks that I want to hand off to Chuck or a friend of mine Intuition gives me to ability to email, Facebook or even Twitter the task to someone else. How cool is that?

It’s only been a couple days but I have loved everything about Intuition so far. It’s like getting a new purse. I love the new look, the way it makes me feel but I hate trying to find a place for all my old stuff. It took some time to move all my data over but once the drudgery was done, it really is as intuitive as it can get.

Oh, did I mention that Intuition is FREE! Dang it, I always forget the important stuff. All you have to do is go to the Iphone store, search for Intuition and click Install. It can’t possibly get any easier than that!

I need to start putting my face on before 3:00 because the UPS guy probably thinks I’m an old hag with a house full of noisy children when really I’m a hot babe who happens to have the most well behaved children. I just don’t like to put on my makeup until I’ve taken off the makeup from yesterday and I keep forgetting to get around to doing that. Dang it. Don’t worry, I apologized to the UPS guy and I assured him that I am actually very attractive. He didn’t look like he believed me. I think being attractive is something you prove by actually looking attractive. Dang it. I am definitely taking my makeup off before I go to bed tonight. Definitely.

Anyway, the delivery guys came by today to bring me this fun little package from Oral B. My kids love it when the UPS guy comes. It’s almost always something that they get to play with while I watch. Who knew that they would be this excited about toothbrushes?

Each of my four kids got a new toothbrush and their own tube of toothpaste. It might not sound like much to you but my kids have been fighting over the toothpaste. I’m not sure what it matters but apparently one tube is better than the other even though they’re the same brand and flavor. I’m starting to think my kids just like to bicker because they like the sound it makes. Well, no more bickering.

The package also came with this book that is full of information on how to care for your teeth and it’s written for children to enjoy!

There’s even a mythbusters section!

I don’t like to eat in front of people and I don’t like to open gifts in front of people. It makes me uncomfortable. Oral B didn’t want to make me feel uncomfortable so they’ve offered to giveaway one of these packages to one of my readers. You will get an Oral B toothbrush and a tube of toothpaste for each of your children as well as a power toothbrush for you moms. So, leave a comment with your email address and I will pick a winner for this Oral B giveaway in one week, on November 4th.

That got me thinking.

Every year I pile all of my kids into the van, traipse all the way into the city and try to navigate through one of those huge department stores in order to find a decent Halloween costumes. Inevitably I am left with the bottom of the barrel in my choices and I feel jipped and frustrated. Not only that but I can tell immediately that these costumes are going to fall apart well before my kids actually get out the door to collect their candy stash on the big day!

There is an easier way, my friends.

Do it online!

I ordered costumes through two costume companies based in Canada. I was surprised by how easy it was to find good costumes, much better than what my kids wear when I got to the department store, and their sizing was very clear. I ordered from Costume Chik and Buy Costumes.

Both sites were very easy to use and I was able to find all the answers to my questions quickly and clearly. I don’t like to meander through a website only to find out that they don’t ship to Canada or that they don’t make the prices easily visible. I want to find something good, fast and easily. Both of these companies did that for me.

THANK YOU!

Here is how Buy Costumes shipped Jason’s costume.

I was surprised by how meticulous they were in trying to save Jason’s costume from getting damaged during transport. I ordered his costume a little big so he could dress up in it after Halloween. It fit exactly like they said it would and he is thrilled to be Boba Fett. Every time he puts this suit on he explains to me how he looks just like the real Boba Fett because this is his real outfit.

What an imagination!

He’s right though, because it does look more realistic than any other costume we’ve ever bought before.

Jocelyn doesn’t feel forgotten because we bought her a Spiderweb Ghost Girl costume from Costume Chik in Calgary. Jocelyn wanted to be something scary, for the first time and she got her wish with this ghost girls costume. She looks pretty freaky with her white hair and spiderwebs spread out across her dress.

Jocelyn’s costume came shipped in a padded envelope because her costume doesn’t have a helmet or have any hard pieces. Her costume does have a wig, a cloak, a dress, spiderwebs and a spider.

She had WAY too much fun trying to scare me while I was taking her picture. She said that the dress is so comfortable she wants to wear it to church! What do you think? Should I let her?

I’m going to paint her face white and her nails black. She’s going to look amazing! I feel the urge to go buy a pumpkin!

I can’t believe how nice it was to sit in my pj’s and browse through costumes, face paint, accessories and the whole time my kids were off playing, never knowing that I was shopping! Checkout was easy, painless and there wasn’t any hidden surprises or fees once I went to purchase my costume.

All in all I will say that I am never going to drag my four kids into a department store to buy crappy costumes again. If you’re trying to get ahead of the Halloween crowd than I suggest checking out Buy Costumes or Costume Chik.

That’s how we do things in our house.

Moms everywhere are out buying school supplies and back to school clothes. I thought that I would help by putting together a list of peanut free school snacks.

Aren’t I helpful?

I filled a canvas grocery bag with a couple of my favorite options from my local President’s Choice and No Name brands. There are other options out there but I chose to focus on what was quick and boxed. I will do another post on healthy school snacks.

The list:

Carrot Cake with cream cheese filling
Banana Cake with chocolate chips
Brownies with chocolate chips
Rich & Chewy Chocolate Chip granola bars
Dipped & Chewy Chocolate Fudge & Chocolate Chip granola bar
Marshmallow Squares
Wheat Bran Bites, maple & brown sugar flavor
Wheat Bran Bites, banana bread flavor
Soft & Chewy Chocolate Chip cookies
Soft & Chewy Raisin Oatmeal cookies
Soft & Chewy Cranberry Oatmeal cookies
Teensy Weensy banana muffins
Teensy Weensy blueberry muffins
Teensy Weensy chocolate chip muffins

That sounds like a lot of school snacks but I wanted to really research peanut free snacks and get my kids’ opinion on the taste of everything. I wouldn’t have guessed how thrifty they were with the food. Jason and Jocelyn opened one package of everything to share between them. They savored the flavors like they were school snack connoisseurs. They nibbled off a small piece and let it sit in their mouths while they made thoughtful looks.

It made me crazy so I jumped into the pile of snacks and tore everything apart. Eventually the kids caught on and now we have almost nothing left!

I need to learn self control.

Laurelyn’s favorites were the Bran Bites. She takes a while to eat an entire bag, 140 grams, but she’s little. Jason can have one of those bags polished off in no time. He loves them just as much as the baby! I like the idea of sneaking some bran into my kids’ diets when they’re not looking.

I put the cakes and cookies into my freezer to slow down our consumption of everything not nailed down and I am happy with how well the snacks taste after being frozen. One of the other perks about the cookies is that they are individually wrapped to keep them fresh. I personally would like to see less packaging used but I know that some moms will be drawn to how convenient it is to throw a cookie in a lunch box and be sure that it will be still be yummy by lunch time. I think my favorite’s would be the cookies. They’re chewy and I’m a sucker for a chewy cookie!

Jason’s favorite is the marshmallow squares and unfortunately he’s tall enough to reach the goody jar so all of the squares are gone. Each square is not only peanut free but individually wrapped for freshness as well.

David’s favorites are the granola bars, any type. Dipped or not dipped, he doesn’t care as long as he can eat it RIGHT NOW!

Jocelyn’s favorites have been the brownies and the cranberry cookies.

The cakes are pretty good but they don’t taste like a school snack. They taste like something I should be eating after the kids are tucked away in their beds, too far away to ask me to share.

There you have it. Peanut free school snacks courtesy of the President’s Choice and No Name brands. If you have ideas for school snacks please comment and we can create a list.

Happy school shopping!

Anyone who knows me knows that I have bad teeth. I’m constantly in the dentist’s chair, which I’m sure he thoroughly enjoys but it doesn’t ease the pain on my pocketbook, although it does make it easier now that I have a super cute and young dentist. No more old men with nose hair that’s running a race with the ear hair. No my friends, I finally have a cute dentist. Raise your hands in the air and say Hallelujah!

I have passed the gene of bad teeth on to Jason and I’m hoping that I can teach him good oral habits, proper brushing technique and all that other stuff the cute dentist was talking about while I was staring at his eyes.

Where was I?

Oh yes, bad teeth. I have them. My son has them and I found out that April is Oral Health Month and I am grabbing some ammunition and working on my teeth for the month of April. I’m going to use Crest Pro-Health morning and night and see if there really is a difference.

I’ll let you know what happens and next time I’m in the dentist chair I’ll try to snap a casual picture while my dentist isn’t paying attention. He’s probably lost, staring into my beautiful eyes.