Cube Dog 3D

10 Jun

Thank you to Cube Dog for sponsoring this review. For more information about Cube Dog please visit the Facebook page or download it on iTunes.

Earlier this week, we were given the opportunity to try and review the new Cube Dog 3D app. Kaelin had previously been a big fan of Foo pets (until the website eliminated the option for free membership) so I thought this app might be right up her alley.

It was.

She spent quite a while “creating” her own Cube Dog by selecting the facial and body features.  And the color … which was, of course, PINK.

“This is how it works, Mama.  If you raise a kid without pink, they’ll love pink.”
“So what you’re saying is that it’s really my fault that your favorite color is pink.”
“Yeah.”

#facepalm

When you’re finished creating your Cube Dog, you can rotate and zoom it to get the full 3D view.  You can also pet, tap or swipe it and it will do little tricks.  Kaelin’s favorite is when it turns into a Ninja.  She also really likes the one where it calls your phone, but we both thought it was odd that regardless of whether you “answer” or “decline” the call, the dog just hangs up and puts the phone away.  I think it would be cool if he carried on a little mini conversation or at least said “hi.”

Kaelin has asked to play with the app several times over the last few days, which tells me that it has some staying power for a 5-year-old.  She also figured out how to work the features mostly by herself (including filling my photo album with snapshots of her dogs), which tells me it’s pretty intuitive.

Overall, it’s an app I’d willingly pay the standard $0.99 for.  At the moment, it’s FREE (not sure if they’re planning to keep it that way), so I think that’s a great value.

While Cube Dog provided me with the app to review, the opinions I’ve expressed here are solely my own and represent my honest viewpoint. Cube Dog, Clever Girls Collective and I promote Blog With Integrity.


 
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Posted in Sponsored, Thumbs Up

 

Butterflies

05 Jun

Kaelin received a butterfly garden and ladybug habitat for her birthday, but the company refused to send us the larvae in Alaska until it warmed up quite a bit.  We finally received them in late March and Kaelin had an absolute blast watching her caterpillars turn into butterflies and her crawly bugs turn into ladybugs. By the middle of April, we had a full menagerie of insects residing in our house (in cages… mostly.  One or two ladybugs managed to escape).

She learned a good lesson about playing with them too much when her butterflies started dying.  There was one sole survivor and she was very careful not to touch it for the rest of the time we had the butterflies.

It was too cold to release them when we left for Texas, so she donated the remaining insects to her preschool so the kids could release them into the garden when it warmed up.


 
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Posted in Growth, Kaelin, Koren, Pets/Animals, Photos

 

Korenisms: Wiggle Down Edition

31 May

“Daddo, we need some music.”

(Daddo turns on the car radio.  Koren puts on his sunglasses and starts to boogie with his arms up.)

“Daddo, this music makes me wiggle down!”


 
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Posted in Kid Quotes, Koren

 

Weenies

18 May

We went to Kindergarten orientation last night (KINDERGARTEN.  MAH BAYBEEE IS ALL DUN GROWED UUUUUUUP…) and they very adamantly advised the parents to dress the children warmly in the winter because if it’s above 40°F, they will be playing outside IN THE COLD.

40 degrees???

In Homer, the kids were playing on the school playground at 12°F.

But at least I don’t have to worry about buying snow pants this year.


 
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Posted in Culture Shock, Homer, School

 

Inevitable

16 May

We keep Koren on a pretty good vitamin regiment most of the time.  Multivitamin, Immunity complex, Vitamin D.  However, over the last few weeks with the chaos of moving, his supplements have been somewhat overlooked.

You know where this is going, right?

He woke up from his nap with the same asthmatic-sounding-labored-breathing-that-isn’t-actually-asthma that we’ve been dealing with for the last year.  He gets it every time he comes down with a bug, and he comes down with a bug every time we lapse on his vitamins.  It did, however, come without the croupy cough this time.

The good news is that we are now in Dallas, where we have things like Pediatricians!  and After-Hours Urgent Care Facilities! and Pharmacies That Are Open Until 10pm!

And specialists.  We were referred to a pediatric pulminologist to figure out what’s really going on, since it seems to be such a chronic occurrence.  I’d completely forgotten that there were actually doctors in the big cities who could do more than just scratch their heads after the breathing treatments don’t work.

He also tested positive for strep, so we came home with steroids and antibiotics.  Hopefully we can nip the strep in the bud before he starts showing any actual symptoms of it.

 


 
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Posted in Health...or Lack Thereof, Here We Go Again, Koren

 

Adjusting

16 May

I LOVE PAVEMENT. That’s one of the first things that hit me when we moved back. The roads? PAVED. The parking lots? PAVED. And it’s clean pavement, not covered in layers and layers of dirt and sand left over from the winter’s ice treatment.

I haven’t seen – much less driven on – a single dirt road since we left Homer. And I’m totally cool with that. My car is clean. A clean car – inside and out – is one of the things in life that just makes me smile.

Today we went to a bank. A real, live, actual BRANCH of Capital One and talked to a real, live, actual banker face-to-face.

I also took the kids to get haircuts at their favorite little “get a toy when you’re done” place. They both look pretty sharp, if I do say so myself. I was even able to keep Koren from getting scalped on top.

My skin is begrudgingly adjusting to the added humidity in the air. And makeup. See, I actually have to groom myself when I live in Texas. As in, daily showers and everything. And this is a place where makeup is not just reserved for evening dresses. Women here will actually apologize if they’re in your presence without their make up on. As evidenced by peopleofwalmart.com, pants may be optional, but makeup is not.

It still shocks me (and admittedly, makes me a little giddy) how many stores there are here. I drive around just soaking them in. Container Store, Ikea, Home Depot, Best Buy, Target, Costco, Whole Foods, Toys R Us, DSW, malls, and any other store or service you could want – all within 15 minutes. I’m exercising restraint to keep myself from heading over to Allen for designer handbags.

I cannot wait to go to Costco. I have already visited Ikea, but just to window shop. Also, I really want to go to Container Store, but I can’t leave there without spending $100. There’s also the little matter that I don’t actually have a house to accessorize yet. So that one will have to wait.

Even when I do shop online now, I have more options.  While Bluefly and Amazon are great, it’s nice to be able to choose from more than two sites on the internet.  If they don’t flat out refuse shipping to Alaska (that’s a foreign country, right?), most stores would agree to ship to the Last Frontier only in exchange for my life’s savings, first child and perhaps my right arm.

I’ve fallen madly in love with Cragislist, and am knocking things off my “Things We Have to Buy” list left and right.  Washer – BOOM.  Dryer – BOOM.  Bed for Koren – BOOM.  Car Seat – BOOM.

Also, I’m seriously crushing on LivingSocial.com, ever since I got a dental exam, cleaning, x-rays, and teeth whitening treatment for $70.  I really need an exam and x-rays and was wondering how I would fit that into our budget.

* * * (insert random change of subject) * * *

The kids get worn out a lot easier here. Perhaps it’s the lack of an actual routine. Perhaps it’s the heat (which isn’t really hot, it’s just that we’re not really used to anything above 38 degrees anymore). But whatever the reason, once we hit about 3 in the afternoon, they’re pretty much done for a while. Today I’m making them take naps because they couldn’t seem to do “quiet time” without erupting into conflict every 5 minutes. I sent them to their rooms and 15 minutes later they were both out cold. Kaelin hasn’t napped in two years, and Koren had given up his naps a couple of months before we moved. Or so I thought…

He also fell asleep during dinner the other night. We went to On the Border (real! Mexican! Food! *) and he fell asleep on my shoulder while we waited for a table. He slept through the entire meal – we were fortunate to get a booth – and went straight to bed when he got home. Kaelin made it through dinner, but put herself to bed as soon as we got home, requesting that we do a bedtime story some other night because she was just too tired to get through one tonight.

We’re enjoying seeing family and friends again. We had the opportunity to see some friends at a graduation party the other night, and that was lots of fun. Madelyn is one of Kaelin’s favorite friends and her family came to visit us in Alaska, so we enjoyed getting to see them in person again.

I need to get on the ball with scheduling some play times for Kaelin and her friends before the kids start full-time summer camp programs in mid-June. Actually, there are a lot of things I need to get on the ball with, and I’m trying to knock a few off the list every day.

But seriously, after being bored out of my mind for 6 days in a car, I’m pleased as punch to be busy right now.

*Well ok, I know that among the purists of ethnic cuisine, the term “real” is debatable when applied to a chain restaurant, but what I mean by that is “Mexican Food” that’s worth paying for, and tortillas that weren’t purchased at Costco.


 
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Posted in Culture Shock, Food, Kids, Makes Me Happy, Moving, Sponsored

 

Korenisms: Big Edition

16 May

“Grandmommy, sometimes when I wake up my wee-wee is BIG.”


 
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Posted in Kid Quotes, Koren

 

Off the Road Again

16 May

Excuse me while I sweep some of the dust away that has gathered around here…

Well, we’ve made it.  A few weeks ago, I flew the kids to Seattle to see their Ana and Papa, and then on to Texas a few days later to spend time with my parents while Jens and I made the journey south.  Then I flew back to Alaska solo (though I was accompanied by my friend, the 24-hour stomach virus, that had me rushing to the airport bathroom to rid myself of lunch and copious amounts of trail mix).

Once I returned to our house in Alaska, we had a little less than 48 hours to finish packing and get outta Dodge.

The road trip was a little more bearable than the time we did it in reverse a year ago.  We took a different rout and really only had one day of plains as far as the eye can see.  And that was just the last day, so our anticipation over reaching our destination overshadowed the lack of scenery.

The price of gas was painful – especially in Canada – and had us longingly looking forward to the point at which we could ditch the huge, heavy trailer and the always-4WD Jeep Commander for something that might net us more than 12 MPG on the highway.

Despite the price of gas, the trip ended up being a lot less expensive than it could have been, thanks to friends and family that put us up for half the nights, as well as redeemable reward points (both ours and those of my generous parents) that paid for the rest of the hotel stays.

But regardless, no matter how well the trip goes, by the sixth 12-hour day of driving, you’re really ready to not be driving anymore.  Boredom is dangerous for me, because I have a tendency to start planning and scheming new ideas.  At one point on this trip, I went insane and decided that I needed a puppy. I spent many hours researching, and finally selected the breed and even the breeder.

Also, I think the muscles in my legs have atrophied from sitting in the car so much.  I’ve gone jogging a couple of times since getting back and it’s been significantly harder than it used to be.  Between some harsh knee pain and what I can only guess is less oxygen in the air, getting back into the exercise has been a little rough.

Nonetheless, it’s good to be back.  The ever-reliable Texas sun has been out and we’ve had some amazing 70 degree days.  We’ve spent time at the park and even got to take in a baseball game last night in celebration of my uncle’s birthday.

The only major part of this move that we have left is actually moving back into our house.  At the moment, it’s still being occupied by tenants, but we get it back on the 1st of June.  At that point, we can get all our stuff out of storage and I can spend a few days a month the next 12 weeks unpacking and getting everything set up again.


 
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Posted in Moving

 
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