Holiday cleanup is a breeze with the Shark Rocket lightweight vacuum
by Stacey, editor and reviewer
My household requires a serious vacuum; with two dogs and two young kids my vacuum is on constant overdrive. I love having a clean house, but my vacuum has to keep up with my active lifestyle so I started my search for a machine that would help make quick clean ups a breeze.
The Shark Rocket, one of the newest lightweight vacuums on the market, was the solution to the things my large upright vacuum so often lacked. Shark re-engineered the full size vacuum to make a more versatile machine {without the usual heavy packaging} that deep cleans carpets and hard floors with ease.
This lightweight vacuum weighs in at under eight pounds, but don’t let the small package fool you, this machine has some serious suction that easily compares to any full size upright model! 
Holiday shopping with Simon Malls
I can’t believe it’s already time for the holidays, again. It seems like just last week it was summer and now here we are with only weeks left until Christmas. Crazy, right?!
While I’m not looking forward to all the wrapping {which is my least favorite part of the holidays}, I'm dying to go holiday shopping at Northgate Mall. I love all the lights, all the good cheer, and I love it when stores switch over to "holiday hours" for us night owls.
The Zaycon Foods experience
Enough people have asked me about my Zaycon Foods experience this fall that I thought I would share it here so you can see how the whole thing works.
Missed my first post and don't know what Zaycon is? Here's what you need to know:
Zaycon Foods is a fairly new company started here in Washington State two years ago as a 
means of offering natural, hormone free meats at bulk prices all across the US.Instead of traditional delivery services, Zaycon calls itself a “drive thru” meat market that allows you to order online and then pick up during one of their many events across the US in a matter of minutes – no unloading kids or searching through the grocery store to find the best deals.
Now that you have a bit of background, here's my Zaycon story:
- We placed an order with Zaycon for 40lbs of chicken to be delivered in October.
- I cleared out freezer space like a mad woman in preparation of 40LBS OF CHICKEN. My family dined on some crazy meals in my clearing spree.
- A few days before the chicken event near us, I got reminder emails so I wouldn’t accidentally miss it.
- The day of the chicken event, I drove my car to the church where the event was taking place where there were maybe 2 cars in line in front of me. In about 3 minutes I was talking with the Zaycon reps, confirming my delivery, and then accepting my chicken, which came boxed and covered in plastic sheeting to contain any juices that may seep out of the internal packages. I never even got out of the car, and my kids stayed buckled.
- Within 5 minutes of arriving, I was leaving the parking lot with my order. That's roughly 10x faster than any grocery store trip with two kids if anyone is wondering.
- I drove home and began a 2 hour process in which I packaged the chicken into smaller portions, cleaned up after myself, and then I split the chicken packages in between the fridge and two freezers to store them. All in all, I washed my hands over 50 times in this process because I am absolutely crazy about raw meat – especially chicken.
The only part that I did not like about the process was the last step, as 2 hours is far too long to be dealing with raw meat. If I had to do it all over again {and I definitely will}, I will make sure I have someone here to help me with the chicken once I get it home. If one person had the designated clean hands and the other handled the raw meat, this process would have taken about ¼ of the time as most of the 2 hours was honestly spent scrubbing my hands in between tasks.
My Little Pony Equestria Girls toys for the holidays
My daughter loves everything My Little Pony. You may remember how much we adored the MLP movie and RC car last year, but what you don’t know is that the RC car and its pony passengers has been played with almost every day since it arrived. My Little Pony was the first characters my kids ever fell for and they show no signs of giving them up anytime soon.
Especially now that my daughter has found Equestria Girls dolls, based on the new Equestria Girls movie, which is a spinoff of My Little Pony. The basis of the movie and line of toys is that the ponies turn into girls by going through a magic mirror and they must learn about life without four legs, magic, or any of the comforts of home.
A Girl for All Time: Clementine, Your 1940s Girl
Know that feeling when someone catches your eye and doesn't let it go? For me, that someone was Clementine. Compared to other dolls she was a few shades more vibrant, more beautiful, and full of personality. Before I saw her, I thought all dolls were pretty, but next to her they all 
seemed dull and just so… ordinary.
Maybe it was her bright red hair, or maybe it was because her attire was so quaint and old fashioned, or maybe it’s her distinctly British charm, but whatever it was, she really couldn't help but stand out. I knew right when I met her that she was going to be a lifelong friend for my children.
Clementine is the newest doll from A Girl For All Time, maker of beautifully crafted dolls, accessories, books, and more. Each of their beautiful 16in dolls are based on 500 years of the fictional Marchmont family and feature independent, determined women from different eras of the most exciting times in English history.
One look at their website and I was immediately smitten by their exquisite collection of dolls with their beautifully detailed faces and their accessories that looked like something from a museum. It’s not surprising to me at all that A Girl for All Time can’t keep these dolls in stock over in London. The dolls sold out in a mere 10 days at the famous Harrods luxury department store and are selling well now that they have arrived Stateside at FAO Schwarz and a handful of New York boutiques.
But, as much as I loved Matilda, the Tudor girl, and Amelia, the Victorian girl, there was something about Clementine that enthralled me. Clementine is from London in the 1940s and survives the evacuation of London in 1939 as a 12-year-old. She comes in a historically inspired dress with vintage daisy pattern complete with period accessories and trim. After reading her captivating background story online, I knew she had to come home for tea with us.
Maestro Dobel Tequila for the holidays
During my teens and early twenties, I used to stress about the perfect birthday presents for friends and siblings. But, after age 21, nearly all birthday presents were given in drinks or shots at the bar and gift giving was as easy as hanging out with friends. Then, at some point in the past few years, a few drinks at the bar was replaced with full bottles of the good stuff and we would just swing into a liquor store on the way to celebrate birthdays so we didn’t have to show up empty-handed.
See, growing up isn’t all bad.
Now that I’m coming up on birthday season for our group of friends as well as the holiday season, I know that I can make it as easy or as complicated as I would like. I could go around store to store looking for something for the friends that have everything, or I could do a one-stop shop and grab a few bottles of Maestro Dobel Tequila – no stressing and no wrapping required.
Own the road with Goodyear Eagle Sport All-Season tires
Most people pay almost no attention to the tires on their cars, which floors me. Those 4 tires are what connects your car to the road and what keeps you rolling, yet they don’t get nearly the amount of love they deserve.
3 years ago, I was hit while driving on the freeway and my car lost control, spinning and eventually coming to a stop in oncoming traffic. Ever since then, I am petrified of losing control while driving and even something minor like a little bit of ice or water over a roadway sends me into a panic. Since tires can make a huge difference in what traction you get in inclement weather, tires are very, very important to me.
As you can imagine, I was thrilled when I heard I would get the opportunity to outfit one of our vehicles with Goodyear's newest tire, the Eagle Sport All-Season later this year. I’m really excited to take my car in and trade in my old tires for these new high-performance tires just in time for the rainy and icy seasons.
For over 100 years, Goodyear has been devoted to advancing tire technology, and to applying this knowledge to new products that advance driving excellence. At the Akron Innovation Center, nearly 1,500 engineers, scientists, technicians, and other specialists collaborate to improve tire manufacturing for a wide variety of vehicles on six continents. The result is the new Eagle Sport tires.
VTech Premium Kid Connect lets you connect with your kids anywhere {InnoTab 3S}
My kids love to text and call their dad throughout the day while he’s at work, but I hate to leave them unattended with my cell phone. This means I’m constantly guarding my phone and making sure it’s locked down, and the kids try their best to convince me to take their pictures and send it to daddy all day long.
The solution? The awesome Premium Kid Connect available on the VTech InnoTab 3S that helps parents stay connected to their kids when apart. You may remember how much I adore the InnoTab learning tablet for kids and how it saved our Chicago-to-Seattle train trip, got us ready for school, and now offers supplemental learning we can do at home, but it’s way more than that when you connect it to VTech Premium Kid Connect and any Wi-Fi connection.
With the Premium Kid Connect on the InnoTab 3S, your kids can send voice, text, and picture messages right to loved ones' phones in real time. All by themselves.
Getting organized with Fellowes {Powershred 63Cb shredder review}
I participated in a campaign on behalf of Mom Central Consulting (#MC) for Fellowes. I received a product sample to facilitate my review and a promotional item as a thank you for participating.
Years ago, when the company I worked for closed, I had the task of cleaning out my old office where I was office manager and handled all HR. Let me tell you it was quite the task. There was 16 years of my paperwork in that office hidden away in drawers, filing cabinets, and folders, and most of it had nowhere to go.
Some of those mountains of paperwork were important and they went to my boss, who then had to store it just in case. Some of the paperwork was about clients and that went to the company who had bought us.
But, some of that paperwork was my notes and scribbles and it had no use to anyone, but was full of information I didn’t want to fall into the wrong hands. With only hours to evacuate and very little manpower because everyone was busy emptying their own spaces, I did the best I could, but eventually admitted defeat.
Sadly, some of this junk had to be taken with me as there was no way I was going to be able to track down 16 years of past employees in 24hours to ask them to come get every scrap of paper, time card, old insurance applications, bank slips and payroll stub dating back to 1997 {Fun fact! Most of these have your full social security number, account numbers and birthday on them!}.
Make yourself a home with Lundby {SMÅLAND Swedish dollhouse review}
I feel like I should win some sort of award for the fact that I still haven’t shown my daughter her new Lundby house she’s going to be opening on Christmas. It’s been an exercise in self-control to keep it hidden away in my office {which actually isn’t all that “hidden”, but that’s a whole other issue} even though I pass it numerous times a day.
Everyone is posting things on social media stressing about how there’s only 43 days until Christmas and all I can think is how on Earth am I going to be able to wait that long?
And, then when a new shipment of miniatures arrived the other day with a Lundby family and two packages to complete her Lundby kitchen and dining room, I realized this was going to be an even bigger task than I imagined.
