I have a family pack of four to giveaway to a lucky family!!

Thomas The Tank returns to Railway Heritage Park in Squamish for two separate back-to-back weekends beginning June 1 and 2. An annual favorite, the day offers plenty of fun from the ride aboard Thomas, arts & crafts, storytelling and much more!

Comment below about the favourite engine in your family (Percy was here) and  I will draw a lucky winner on May 29th.    Tickets for the lucky winner will be available at will call.

Good luck!!!

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Words from Michelle.  See her story…I hope it inspires you.

This is what the Telus Day of Giving is all about…..reaching out to your own community and showing that you care…whatever way that you can.

TELUS wants to inspire and encourage people across Canada to give where they live. They are  holding a photo contest and giving away $100,000 to charities across Canada!  There are 10 prizes of $10,000 each to GiveWhereWeLive.ca,  upload a photo that demonstrates how they are giving where they live (using the hashtag #GiveWhereWeLive) and they’ll be entered into the contest.

May 25th is the Telus Day of Giving.

“What is TELUS Day of Giving? “We Give Where We Live” is the motto that guides our commitment to community investment and supports causes that are near and dear to our hearts. On May 25, 13,000+ TELUS team members, friends and family in 40 regions across the country will volunteer to support these causes and make a positive, heartfelt and lasting difference as they connect in the community. Past years’ activities have included helping out at children’s hospitals, sorting food bank donations and feeding the homeless, to name just a few!”

Here are a sampling of  the TELUS Day of Giving events happening  on May 25:

Corp Day of Service at Canuck Place Children’s Hospice

City of Burnaby Parks and Recreation – Deer Lake 5K

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I am really picky about my dish detergents.  With a family of five and no dishwasher, I wahs dishes 3 to 4 times a day, with no end in sight.  Finding a detergent that can do the job without breaking the grocery budget is important.  Dawn Ultra is great because you don’t need a lot.  A small amount creates big bubbles and grease cutting action.  I can actually feel the squeaky clean feeling on the dishes that I like and compared to the grocery store brand that I just finished with….that was a waste of a bottle.    I had to rewash dishes over and over to get them clean enough.

Being so sick, my family hasn’t enjoyed any great meals from me, but the other day I had picked up a lovely little Pork Roast and figured I could manage that.    I cooked it with orange juice and some teriyaki marinade and because I wasn’t paying attention it created a charming black bubbly mess on the bottom of my old pan.  Yuck.

I soaked it over night in Dawn filled dishwater and even without my usual scrubbers (shopping not been a priority either) managed to do a good job of an old and beat up pan.  All burnt bits gone and no greasy feeling left.  Yay.

The Pork Roast tasted delicious despite its appearance.

Starting May 29th, there will be a new Brandsaver savings opportunities online for you to try the many products from P&G including Dawn Ultra. Also on Wednesday, June 5th, Food Network’s John Catucci will be hosting Dine & Dish with Dawn – a pop-up poutinerie at Yonge-Dundas Square in Toronto, where the poutine is free if you clean your own dish with Dawn Ultra. That’s right; if you eat it – you clean it!

Disclosure: I am a P&Gmom. As part of my affiliation with this group I receive products and special access to P&G events and opportunities. The opinions on this blog are my own.

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While my husband has been seeing the changes for a long time and their effects on movie news reporting, I think this really hit when I saw the link to Today’s Parent magazine’s review of Star Trek: Into Darkness today.  While I am glad to see that the non movie nerd world is recognizing the variety of film genres out there that appeal to child and adult alike and while yes, the movie is only rated PG (parental guidance), I am still a bit boggled to see this review at all in a parenting magazine.

Iron Man is the perfect example of the now mainstreaming of what used to be ‘those movies’ for those people.    Sci fi, action and fantasy movies have always made big dollars at the box office, but the core fans were always those em NOT reading Today’s Parent.  Until we all had kids that is…..and that is a HUGE part of it is it not?  All the comic nerds and geeks are having families of their own and are happily sharing their love of the genre with their children.

With Disney being the corporation over Marvel Film, super heroes are no long for the comic geeks.   Now we can see Iron Man’s costumes at Disneyland, and MOM bloggers get red carpet premier invites.  With barely a movie webmaster to be seen.   I saw more buzz from the mom blogger communty for Iron Man than the comic and movie sites combined. My husband does get tickets for pre-screenings of films in town but I have noticed that more and more it is bloggers and those ever present MOM bloggers who are getting the invites to the screenings probably with a lot more ease than the core movie webmasters are nowadays.   Bizarrely I am not on the mom blogger radar for film promotion apart from kids stuff which is weird when you know me.

My biggest concern is for those not familiar with sci fi, comics,  and so on, is that there seems to be an assumption that these films are fine for kids and the shock when they are not.    Hence why I boggle at reviews like the Today’s Parent one with its emphasis on the violence in Star Trek.   The judgemental person inside me wants to ask what sort of rock are you hiding under that you would not KNOW there would be violence in an action/sci fi film.   Or that indeed that it is for kids.

Is that harsh of me?

It is strange. I have grown up loving sci fi and fantasy.  I love the genres and love my comics and the too many books we have stuffed in our house  My husband and I met because we both loved the same movies.  We attended comic conventions like the massive San Diego Comic Con before it was the movie con for non geeks to see the stars live that it is now.  That WAS something different, but now…..now it is just part of the mainstream world of entertainment.    I don’t quite know how I feel about ‘fitting in’ so well now to the norm.  :)

The Mom Influence now knows no boundaries.   We are legion.

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I may have cried a little when I was FINALLY asked by a vacuum company to review their product.  The name Crunchy Carpets does not come lightly here.  The amount of dog and car hair that is shed by 3 cats and 2 dogs is awe inspiring.  We break vacuums in this house.  They shrivel up and die when faced with not only the animal hair but the detritus of 5 humans, 3 of them small and prone to dropping a LOT of stuff.    The Lego and other weird bits of toys cannot be easily avoided and a vacuum needs to be tough to survive the gauntlet.

We broke down and invested in a Dyson upright  and it has so far survived a lot longer than the previous victims.  Thus I was very keen to get to try the new WindTunnel Air Bagless from Hoover. It is a good deal smaller and lighter than the Dyson, so for invulnerability and storage it gets a thumbs up.

This thing SUCKS- like you can feel it pulling at the carpet sucks.  It is a very powerful machine for something so small.  This enables a deep down clean beyond the surface dust and hair.   You can see how much it is finding when you go to empty the container.

My daughter and I have been suffering from various mystery allergies lately, so having a machine with a good Hepa filter like this one, has been easing the effects of dust and pollen and so on.  But my favourite feature is the HUGE 8 foot stair hose that attached to the handle gives you 12 feet of sucking power for stair and cobwebby ceilings.  The hose attaches near the bottom of the machine, making it very flexible depending on what you are trying to clean.

Tara spilled a container of cheerios down between the two couches in a corner and the flexible hose had no problem finding them.  The Dyson hose extends from the top of the machine and so anything other than up HIGH causes a bend in the hose that blocks the sucking power.  Nothing to worry about with the Hoover.

I have been having a great time (this is like CHRISTMAS for me) comparing my vacuum with the Hoover WindTunnel.  It has been great seeing what it can do better.   And you can too!  Hoover has kindly provided a WindTunnel for me to giveaway to a lucky reader.

All you need to do is visit the Hoover WindTunnel website and tell me in the comments what feature you are most interested in.   I will draw a lucky winner on June 3rd. (Canadian readers only)

Disclosure: As part of my affiliation with this brand I received  product to review. The opinions on this blog are my own.

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Last spring at the Harrison Hot Springs Hotel as we finally got everyone into bed and turned the lights out, a querulous voice piped up.  ”Why are we not at HOME?” asked Tara.  We all burst out laughing and struggled to get her settled once again.

This whole ‘stay at a hotel for fun’ thing is a bit beyond our Tara.    She likes her home and she likes her bed.

Tuesday we head for Disneyland and her excitement and concern have been rising exponentially each day.  The questions about the trip have been fascinating.

She was very busy this morning bringing down her pillows, blankets and stuffies to pack since apparently Disneyland does not have these.  We have had to reassure her over and over that Nana will be here taking care of her stuffies as well as the cats and the lizard.

Today I told her she could bring ONE stuffy with her if she liked.  She chose Mickey.   Said she was going to show the real Mickey her toy one.  Okay, I said and that was that.  Or so I thought.  The wheels were still turning.

“I am going to take Mickey, Adam can have the bear, Caity can take the cat stuffy and you and daddy can take the other two.”

I guess stuffies are like carry-on and we can all have one each.

Uh huh.

She is completely baffled about the whole STAYING there and SLEEPING there.  We have  shown her photos and videos,  but she still thinks we will be kitting down with the Disney characters or something.  I thinks she thinks we are all total loonies.

She is also deeply concerned about whether Disneyland has fruit, waffles and pillows.

Also Westjet, you are now on notice.  Apparently you are expected to serve her scrambled eggs on our flight on Tuesday.

You can follow our experiences next week at the hashtag #DisneyFF  I will tweet as much as I can about all the new things to check out in Disneyland this Summer.

The post Much Deep Thoughts on Disneyland from Tara appeared first on crunchycarpets.com.

I find Mother’s Day a bit awkward these days.   My mother in law passed away a few years ago now, so I never make any big deal noises about it around my husband and am quite happy with what ever the kids bring home from school to mark the day.  But I like to use the day as a properly focused time when I not only say ‘thanks mom’ as she hustles out the door -but SHOW how much I appreciate her and love her too.

My mom.

But the fates had other plans for me.

I woke up last Thursday with a gummy eye.   I wasn’t TOO concerned since Adam had had some pink eye before and it has passed in about 24 hours.  I got some eye drops and didn’t really think about it, or that I wasn’t feeling very well.  My eye felt better Friday morning and I thought I did too, but no.  I did not.  In fact, I felt worse and started to feel much much worse.  To the point of calling the troops home (mom and Patrick are the troops) and asking to be taken to either the doctor (HAH) the walk in, or the ER.

I won’t go into details about what may have been said to the reception when I staggered in with my son guiding me half blind from the suddenly blossoming eye infection and they told me that despite there not being ANY people in the waiting area, I would have to wait an hour to see the doctor.   They changed they minds, suffice it to say.   Nor will I go into details about dealing with VGH ER.  It was not fun and not pretty and took over 3 hours for someone to say that yes indeed it was a virus and not bacterial therefore there was fuck all they could do for me.   This was confirmed when they sent me to a ‘specialist’ on Saturday who again said ‘yes it is viral sorry.’

So instead of prepping for a nice Mom’s Day I spent the weekend trying to perfect the right drug cocktail that would kill the searing eye pain and send me into dreamland for longer than two hours at a time.    It was not fun.

I am not better yet.  I can see…sort of…but I can SEE and it doesn’t HURT.    However….I am still sick.   I am feeling weak and woozy and if this doesn’t clear up in SIX MORE SLEEPS I will lose my freaking mind.

So (again) instead of gearing up for our family trip to Disneyland and ticking off another Moms Day Brunch as done, I am  once again needing my mom to help ME.

She watched and fed the kids on Friday and Saturday while I was at my appointments.   In fact she took them out with her most of the day on Saturday yard saleing.  She is doing the school pickups for me this week as well as taking me to the various doctors appointments and helping keeping Tara from turning feral as I lay about in my ‘weakened’ state

I had plans this week.  I was going to get all my bloggy stuff organized for being away, my house clean….I have been testing out the Hoover Windtunnel vacuum and want to show you all my ‘tests’ and have a giveaway too.    Mainly I wanted my house all clean and sorted for heading down to Cali next week.    Weeeeeellll   at this stage of the game I can’t make any promises.

But I am pissed about Mom’s Day.

I wanted to take mom out. We were also going to go see Iron Man III too and figured that would make a nice day.   Her and I are fairly busy people and so our time together is usually when she is jumping in to help out and not necessarily for a fun thing.  And rarely a fun for just the two of us.

I am unbelievably lucky to have a mom that not only do I love but like and that she loves and likes me!

I am unbelievably lucky that I have a mom who is young at heart and healthy and full of fun and can take my three insane children.

I thank my mom every time she helps me out.  But not really THANK her….for all that she does for me.  For that she means to me.

She isn’t just help.  She is my mom.  She is who I call every day to check in and who calls me if she hasn’t heard from me for more than a day.

I am sorry we didn’t have a proper Mother’s Day mom.  I will make it up to you…I promise.

The post Thanks Mom appeared first on crunchycarpets.com.

Since 2011, the Canadian Office of Energy Efficiency (OEE) and the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have been releasing their Energy Star Most Efficient list on a yearly basis. This list basically tells Canadians and Americans which products they ought to purchase if they care about the environment, their carbon footprint and… their energy bills! A total of 22 categories and subcategories of energy-efficient products was considered for 2013.

A few words about Energy Star

Before presenting some 2013 Energy Star Most Efficient products, it is worth shortly introducing Energy Star. Energy Star is an EPA voluntary program was put in place in 1992. It helps consumers, organizations and businesses make environmentally wise choices regarding products, services and practices by giving out Energy Star certifications to those who have achieved a certain degree of energy-efficiency. During its first 20 years of existence, Energy Star is said to have helped Americans avoid the emission of more than 1.8 billion metric tons of greenhouse gases.

Although Energy Star certifies industrial plants, homes and commercial buildings, its most famous target is industrial products. In order to receive the Energy Star label, a given product first has to be tested in an EPA-recognized laboratory in order to assess its energy efficiency. Getting the label once, however, does not mean keeping it forever since a certain percentage of the certified products are tested every year in order to ensure that their quality has not decreased over time. And among all the Energy Star certified products, some qualify for a short list that represents the leading edge of energy efficiency: this is the Energy Star Most Efficient, and here are some of the products that made it to this small group this year.

Television sets

Americans spend about 34 hours every week in front of their television, watching their favourite shows. This is almost 5 hours per day. Although it is hard to believe, considerable amounts of energy can be wasted through TV watching, especially when the model is not energy-efficient or when its users leave it on even when they are not watching. In effect, some TVs can cost more than $100 every year just in terms of energy supply.

The 2013 Energy Star Most Efficient TVs consume much less than that. Based on a daily 5-hour watching period and on a national average cost of 11.5 cents per kilowatt-hour for electricity, the TVs with a 32-inch screen that appear on the 2013 Energy Star Most Efficient list all cost between four and seven dollars every year in terms of energy. The Samsung UN32EH5300F, for instance, only uses about 32 kilowatt-hours per year and therefore entails a tiny 4-dollar energy bill at the end of the year.

Clothes washers

A clothes washer is another kind of appliance that we use quite often and that can consume a lot of energy in the long run. We often are tempted to think just in terms of water use, but in fact, washing machines also consume significant quantities of electricity every time a load is washed. Cutting down on this energy consumption by purchasing a more energy-efficient machine could rapidly offset the potentially higher upfront cost of buying such a modern clothes washer.

Among the 2013 Energy Star Most Efficient large clothes washer (larger than 2.5 cubic feet), many cost under $100 for a full year in terms of electricity. Based on an average of 7.5 loads per week and on the same energy cost as above, the 3.86 cubic-feet Frigidaire FAFS4174 only costs between $77 and $82 per year. Also 3.86 cubic-feet, the Samsung WF398A*PA** has a similar energy-cost range. If you are looking for a new machine, it is more than considering these options. Other highly energy-efficient products such as refrigerators, air conditioners, computer displays, ceiling fans and windows also are listed. Taking the time to look of the 2013 Energy Star Most Efficient list could pay off in the long run while helping preserve the environment.

About the author: Alexandre Duval is a blogger for www.service2000.ca, an appliance repair company in Montreal.

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A YouTube video of a man and his family giving a waitress a $500 tip is making its way across social media sites. What makes this video special isn’t that the man gives this waitress a $500 tip. It’s the explanation the man gives the waitress for his generosity.

The man in the video is the brother of Aaron Collins, who recently passed away. Aaron Collins was known in his little community as a big tipper at all his favourite restaurants. His last request to his family was to have his body cremated. He then asked for the money the family would spend on a funeral reception to be used as a tip instead. He requested his “funeral” be the whole family going to the kids’ favourite pizza restaurant and the family leaving a $500 tip at the end of the dinner.

Collins had a big family with many kids, which the video made clear. The video began with multiple cars pulling into the parking lot of the restaurant, and children hopping out and into their mothers’ arms. A group of moms and dads with their kids walked into the restaurant with smiles on their faces. This was Collins’ idea of a celebratory alternative to his funeral. The kids could all come, have fun, and remember times they had with him.

This is only one man’s idea of what he wanted his funeral to look like. The video inspired many people to imagine more flexibility around the idea of a traditional funeral. It was especially inspiring to families with kids. For many standard funerals, parents are reluctant to bring their children. But the video gave families an opportunity to consider more kid friendly alternatives to the traditional funeral.

Most funeral homes, such as the American Cremation and Casket Alliance, will tell you that there is no right way to conduct a funeral. It is about respecting the wishes of the deceased, and the wishes of the family and friends that are grieving.

Funerals are meant to create an experience for loved ones to mourn together but also to celebrate the good times with the lost loved one. Collins’ story inspired families to plan memorials with more of a focus on the latter. Collins’ idea is one kind of alternative: a family dinner with the kids, while celebrating a unique quality of the deceased’s life.

Another idea is what Collins’ brother did in addition to the dinner. He started a nonprofit named after his late brother and collected donations. The nonprofit used the money to give families dinner at a restaurant and to leave a $500 tip.

If you have lost someone and also have kids, this is an additional funeral alternative that won’t exclude children. You can start a scholarship fund or nonprofit in your loved one’s honor. But you can make it special by centering the idea on a unique quality of your loved one’s personality or life, as Collins did. Many parents really agonize over the decision of whether or not to bring children to a funeral. These are ways parents can plan memorials that don’t exclude children and can skip that painful situation altogether.

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I spotted THIS today…….hope DAD notices it.

But also for kids wallets – these are great!

But I think this would be fun gift for any mom – a bit of a chuckle and incentive to SAVE for herself, a thing moms never do as we are to busy thinking about the rest of the family right!?

If you would like a chance to win this for the mom in your life or as a HINT to your kids – please comment below about what your weakness is at London Drugs by May 10th!   And check out Londondrugs.com for some more great ideas

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