We never did get our flu shots till last year – but this year – we were all quite gung-ho about taking our flu-shots and of course Chloe had her flu-mist – that goes thru’ the nose. She was a wee bit frightened of it initially because she had almost forgotten about it – but after taking the flu mist – she decided it’s not that bad after all. Plus, she met her favorite doctor this visit – Dr Randall – who gave her a hand drawn sticker on a sticky note – like last year – boy! was she tickled. Then we had to get our flu shots – and she didn’t want to look at it – so she went out to play in the hallway where all the medicine carts were lined up in front of the doctor’s consultation room. The girls at the clinic was very nice and let her hope around it – and explained to her what were the medicine carts for and what were in them. We left the clinic after half an hour for we needed to make sure that we didn’t have a bad reaction to the flu shots. Thus far, we feel that the flu shot had been good for us – for we’ve noticed that we don’t get sick as often as we did the previous years. So for now – we will continue taking the flu shots every year. Flu shots are free in Canada.
Bamboo Capture From Wacom
So PB bought me the Bamboo Capture from Wacom ! woohoo!!! i’m pretty pleased with it – although I haven’t had much time to play with it yet. So why do i need a bamboo capture since I’m not good with drawing – I hear you asking. Well, I can still work on the pictures for my webpages – and re-design templates of my own and when I get the chance I want to learn more about web designing. I have lots of interest in it and I think it’s a great way to make more money online.
Making Learning Fun: Top Educational Toys for Kids
Many of us remember when educational toddler toys began and ended at alphabet blocks and pull-string toys that emitted animal sounds. These days, however, the emphasis on encouraging your children to use their minds from an early age means that the field of educational toys has exploded. There are some wonderful toys out there created specifically to feed your child’s brain from infancy onward.
1. OLLO Action Robot Kit
If you want to give your child a head start on those mechanical engineering programs you hope to inspire him or her to delve into later, this OLLO kit is an excellent educational toy. Five different pre-planned robots can be built from the same pieces included in the kit, including a windmill, walking T-Rex, dog, and more. There are also plans not included that can be looked up online. All of the designs work on a single AA battery.
2. Creative Puzzle Peg
Intended for children 18 months and over, this unique puzzle toy goes a bit further than your typical sort-and-stack toy. It encourages problem-solving skills and helps to develop fine motor control. The base comes apart in four puzzle-piece shapes and each piece has a post featuring small nubs. The included brightly-colored shapes stack on the posts, but they first have to be manipulated to move the opening of the shape over the nubs to get it down to the bottom.
3. First Time Gear Clock
This child-friendly clock is based on the first mechanical clock’s design. It teaches how gears work, as well as how to follow directions, and encourages cognitive development. The color-coded set of directions shows your child how to assemble the 27 parts into a working clock that runs for over eight hours without requiring a battery.
4. Mozart Magical Cube
The popular theory that Mozart’s music helps to improve spatial-temporal reasoning in infants and toddlers continues with this toy. This is a bit more than a music box, though. It features five large buttons that are easy for small hands to work, each of which plays a different instrument – piano, violin, flute, harp, or French horn. A sixth button plays them all in a choice of eight of Mozart’s compositions while the toy flashes to the tempo.
5. Chinese Magnetic Poetry
In a world where everything and everyone is connected, being multilingual has never been more important. Many schools are teaching foreign language from preschool on up now. This magnetic poetry kit builds on this by providing an array of 140 double-sided magnets with a simplified Chinese character and its pinyin pronunciation on one side and the English translation on the other, allowing for vocabulary-building. The set comes in a hard plastic case to keep them organized.
Learning just got more fun!
An Antique Musical Box
I have been quite lucky of late and managed to find some really good antiques right here in our county. This musical box is so unique – I fell in love with it as soon as I saw it – it plays Edelweiss – a song i love very much too. These days – I spend a lot to time buying things for myself – instead of looking out for other people, I learned that I have to make myself happy first – before taking care of others. No matter what others think of you – for it’s not important – what’s most important is myself and my family. So yes! I’ve been spending some money on myself – but of course, I continue to buy things for my friends’ kids too – how can one not love kids right? they are just too cute. But please don’t buy anything for me and Chloe because we really are already very blessed.
Dead Zone
Taking a car ride out to Chloe’s grampie’s or anywhere in the country, we’ve noticed that there are quite a number of dead zones – where we cannot call out or receive calls. So whenever we need to leave the store and head out to the country – we sometimes worry about not being able to receive calls from the store. Paranoia I guess – but the store needs to know that they can reach us anytime – so we went out to our favorite store at the mall to get a cellular booster , that is said to be able to improve the signal on any vehicle. We did find one at the mall – and for $39 – I think it’s a good investment – so no more dead zones for us when we are in the car. That should make PB happy and the store happy as well – for I know PB don’t like to be in a dead zone at all.
My Lifestyle In Canada
Looking back to my life before living in Canada makes me smile – because never would I have thought I was so passionate about supporting our local businesses and online shopping. Where I come from – we have shopping centers 8 stories high in department stores. Where I am now in a remote area in Canada, it’s really hard to shop for everything in town. I’m passionate about buying local because the spouse owns his own business – a small one – and without the support of the local community – we could never have a comfortable life. Therefore, whenever I can – I will only shop locally or within Canada – it’s smart move to shop within Canada because shipping is cheaper and in a lot of cases it’s even free. Most importantly, I don’t have to pay for brokerage fees. If I needed to buy a big item like a painting (made the mistake once and paid as much for the brokerage and shipping fees as the painting itself).
Since I can’t head to the city every time I need something (because of the store and Chloe at school), shopping online at places like Centrsource or Roots are my best options. I like to shop for everything under one roof, so it’s great when you find an online shop that carries most of the things I need. And I never shop for anything that is not on sale or has a deal/great offer, for I get a little carried away when I shop – don’t you? I’m checking out Centrsource as I write and it’s very unique, it brings you to the site the offer is on – and you deal directly with the seller/shop – pretty neat. And I can shop after Chloe has gone to bed so I can read up on the things I love and get the best deals. Now if only they carried Asian groceries I’d be all set.
Our Little Getaway
So we invested in a little cottage by the lake in Pembrooke – and this is our little getaway during the weekends – we just loved going there with our little bass boat and while PB and Chloe do their water sport thing, I just lazed around the sun and get a tan. But because Pembrooke is out of town, our cell phone signal isn’t the strongest but have no fear for in Canada – they have cell booster antenna that you can get from your local store in the mall – not expensive at all – and with that you will never have to miss a call. Although we say we are going there to relax, you all know that we need to keep our cellphone ready and available because of the store, so yes! thank God for gadgets like the cell phone booster else I doubt PB would want to buy this little cottage out in Pembrooke. The cottage was cheap and it has lots of potential, come spring next year, we are putting up a sunscreen porch and inviting friends over for more BBQ. woohoo!
Apples For Chloe’s Class
We had brought in some apples for Chloe’s class like we usually do every fall. When the Apple farm where grammie works has apples for sale we usually get a 10lb bag every week. They are very cheap, and sometimes grammie will pay for it or there is no charge from the good Wallace owners. We are grateful always for such kind people in this area and cannot thank them enough for being so kind to Chloe. We are really blessed because just on the weekend – Chloe received a huge teddy bear – one that is bigger than her, from our customer – Gillian – just because, therefore I always have thank you cards handy, so that I can write out thank you cards to all these wonderful people who’ve not only been kind to us but also touched our lives.
A friend just told me I’m a Godsend but little does she know that she is the one Godsent and I cannot thank all of them enough for always sending food and gifts from home for Chloe and I – even all the way from Australia. And I’m usually so busy and even sometimes forget to send thank you cards to all these wonderful people, therefore, we do our bit for the kids here and pay it forward. Friends who sends food and gifts to us never expect anything back but I’m always grateful and want to do kind things for others because of them, so they are the ones who are Godsend. Once again, I cannot thank them enough.
Every Little Girl Needs A Dollhouse
Every little girl needs a dollhouse don`t you think? I think so ! and when we saw one up in the city – that we feel that we can justify – we went back to MicMac Mall to get it for Chloe. She was a happy girl even though she was very sick but I guess I wanted to get it for Chloe because I didn’t have stuff like that when I was a kid and I sure envied my friends when they talked about their huge dollhouse. Deprived of a lot of stuff when I was a kid, I want to make sure that mine gets a reasonable amount of stuff but I wouldn’t go overboard on any toys for Chloe and what other people do with their kids is none of my business. To each their own – and more power to those who buys expensive toys for theirs, it is not for me to judge. But having said that Chloe’s grampie will be paying for Chloe’s dollhouse so I’m buying him some Padron cigars that he likes for being so generous.
I Need Business Cards Too!
12 yrs as a owner by association to the spouse’s business – you would think that he would get the hint and get me some business cards right? well apparently, my hint wasn’t that good – so I am going to get some business cards by postcards and the price is so cheap – the spouse cannot even say I spend too much on it. For as little as $6.99 for 100 business cards – you cannot go wrong with it – i’ll say. One can even upload your own photo if you so desire – for example if you are a realtor or a mortgage consultant and even a banker – like I get all the time when I visit my bank.
1000 of templates to choose from and if you are not internet savvy – no worries – they have a live chat person to help you along the way. But it’s very easy to do – just follow the instructions – and you will receive your business cards from as little as 2 days. I liked that moms like myself can order as little as 20 business cards just to have when we want to give them out to teachers, principal or other parents for play dates.
And since Christmas is just around the corner – I too am looking at making some personalized greeting cards with our family pictures on it – just like the ones I received every year from friends and family. I admired those cards tremendously and since they are so easy and cheap to make online – I’m going to try it out this year. So friends and family look forward to our family picture in our greeting cards for this year.