I'M CRAZY ABOUT CRAZY 8

I am a big Gymboree fan and I finally purchased onlieg back in December and then again in Janurary. The dollar is so good at the moment and the sales were too good to miss. So I decided to give it a go. It was very easy and straight forward and all I needed was my credit card to purchase. The first purchase took exactly 2 weeks to arrive as I paid for standard postage which cost me $35USD. It gets delievered via DHL which is great because it gets dropped off to your local post office/delivery centre and its delieved by them and if you aren't home to get it, you just have to go pick up it up at your local post office.
I earnt some Gymbucks from my first purchase, I think it was about $40 worth which meant that on my next purchase of $80USD or more I would get $40 off! There is a time frame that you have to spend the Gymbucks in, but I got some amazing bargains and I think I ended up getting about 12 items for less than $8AUD each!! Including an amazing puffer jacket for one of my sons, that is so amazingly warm, anything like that here in Australia would cost a minimum of $60AUD. So that was an awesome purchase! I also ended up choosing Express postage which only cost me $30AUD and this is delievered by Fed Ex and the order arrived 3 days after I paid for it. You get a tracking number which gives you estimated delivery which for me was on time and was great because I knew when I needed to be home.
So this is all cool, but what is Crazy8? Well Crazy8 I would personally describe as a sister store perhaps? Kinda like the connection between Gap and Old Navy. I checked it out and I was happy with what I saw. I also have a friend living in Utah at the moment and she told me Crazy8 is good quality. So I decided to trial Crazy8 too as I was finding that I could get more for my money compared to Gymboree and I was liking more at Crazy8 for my daughter in particular this time round compared to Gymboree. This time round the promotion was 25% off my total order  in addition to other sales that happening as well. The 25% off  basically meant my postage was for FREE and instead of Gymbucks they have Crazy Cash so I scored $40 worth of Crazy Cash to go towards my next purchase. My other bonus came when I purchased. The AUD was stronger than the USD so instead of costing $122USD it came to $119AUD, but the downside was the bank charges for an international transaction which meant what I saved was added back in fees:o( But I still got 17 items of clothing for around $7.15 a piece! So I am happy about that:) The items are yet to arrive, so I will post again when they do.

My overall experience with these two companies prompted me to tell others, espeically Aussies, how awesome it is. You get good quality items sent to you for reasonable postage rates and with our dollar being so strong right now, its really a good time to stock up and save.

I grabbed some pics from the site to show you some of what I purchased:

The PJs are actually for me! They had adults sizes for this style.

My Fat has Seperation Anxiety!!

I worked it out finally! I have been trying to work this out for so long as to why my fat is not coming off!!  The only explanation is seperation anxiety. I will explain. I have been trying to loose some kgs and it always seems to be the case that if I do loose 1 or 2 kilos it tends to find its way back on my body within a week or two of it leaving or it just won't budge at all! Its kinda like a child who doesn't want to leave. He might leave you for a minute or two but freaks out and has to come back or he will go crazy. Or he just won't leave you alone at all for fear of never getting you back if he leaves!! So this is what I think of my fat. It just can't bare to leave it me, it has got so comfy and cosy that it just wants to stick to me forever!!! Oh, I really hope not! Anyone else relate??

HAVE SOME SPARE TIME?

If you have some spare time today and want to Flog Yo Blog, checkout wanderlust's blog and join in:)

DO YOU KNOW WHAT BATTEN DISEASE IS?

Ok so do a little ranting on here, and I vent about my sometimes difficult days or moments with my kiddies. However, I do have humbling moments. I work at an SSP school. SSP stands for Schools with Specific Purposes which basically means children with disabilities. These kids have hearing and visual impairments and mental disabilities that prevent them from being able to attend mainstream schools. A lot of the children at our school are tube fed, have medications throughout the day and need to be monitored. We teach a lot of children who are autistic in all its different forms.  This year I will be taking a class with a student that has been diagnosed with Batten's Disease. We have another student who is older with this disease already at the school, but the student in my class is new to the school. She has been transitioned to our school from mainstream as her condition is deteriorating. Some children who have been diagnosed with this disease can be eating drinking, talking and doing a lot of regular functions and then, brain cells begin to die and these functions slow down and eventually and sometimes suddenly stop. I want you to take a look at this clip from YouTube, its a little long but do you best to see it through, or if you skip a little stop at the mother's interview because it really pulls at your heart strings and makes you appreciate what you have but also empathise as best you can with her and what she takes on each day in her life.
I love my job and learning about the students that I teach and come into contact throughout my day. Working with children with disabilities gives you a new way to look at life and your own family but also how we can serve others. All the kids at our school just want to feel cared for and have fun, its a great experience and if any of you out there are looking to volunteer for anything, please consider going down to your local SSP school and doing a day or two of service they would really appreciate it I'm sure, but I will guarantee, you will go home with a different perspective on life and if you are a mother, on motherhood too.

2011, a year for me?

So I got a gym membership for my christmas present, don't worry I did ask for it!! So my goal is for the school holidays to go every day and so far I only missed one day, so I am kinda proud of myself. I so badly need to get myself back into shape and be happy and proud of myself to do something for me, for a change. I actually enjoy going to the gym, I didn't think I would. I like wanting to be clearer in thought and in my life. Don't get me wrong here, it doesn't make me want to be a better house cleaner, in fact some of that has fallen by the wayside, but I get away with it, because I say, "I either go to the gym or I fuss about the mess" and it is working for the now!!!

Anyway, I just felt I was ready to take on the whole getting fit thing. I also accepted the challenge to take part in the Breast Cancer Triathlon in October this year. I figured, why not, I want to get fit, why not have a goal and try and see what I can do with it! Wish me luck, I shall need it. If I get around to it, I might even post some pics of my progress. Hang on, who am I kidding, when I go back to work I won't have time to do much of anything, my goal then will be to squeeze the actual exercise in!!! Anyway, take care and hope you have something big planned for 2011:)

So my Kids think I am a bad Mother!!!

So I woke up early today and headed off to the gym, got home had a shower got everyone up and got them organised for the day. We headed off to the cousins. Picked himMrE up and then we went off to my dad to go swimming. We spent most of the morning there until it got too hot and there was no more shade. I got everyone organised went back to my sister-in-laws and hung out there as the kids played on the slip and slide and other fun activities. Then I gathered my kiddies up swung by hubbys work so they could scooter around the parking lot and so I could pick up my little man from daycare. We got home, I organised them dinner, let them watch TV and watched them organise a skateboard/scooter ramp for a little while and then jumped on the puter to check out some blogs. Now apparently, because I have taken an hour or so out to do something for me, I have my 9 year old in my ear telling me I'm a bad mother because I am on the computer! What? How does that work? Moral of this story, you can never win with kids!!!

WISHFUL THINKING.......

It is my wishful thinking that since I had started this blog that I would add all these posts that have been swimming around in my head! But I am kidding myself! I blog in my head more than I actually blog on my blog! I just don't have the time lately and I suppose that is my beef for the week!!! I have had an absolutely shocking time doing my school reports. I teach at a special needs school and I team teach as I work 3 days a week. I have only had to do 2 reports but for some reason it felt like 100! It seemed so straight forward. I had all the information, but it just did not work out the way I wanted it to. As all the reports are done on computer we had to use a template and it drove me batty! Nothing would do what I wanted it to do and I was constantly 'undo'ing copying, pasting, undoing! Anyway, I finally got them done and they are with my executive teacher, and I am hoping and praying she will not hand them back with a page full of corrections to make! EEEK! I don't want to know about it, I just want to keep my head in the sand and hope that this term ends quickly!!! No, I don't want to do that. I love what I do and this is a learning curve for me. Up until now I have worked casually with no particular school or class, so I have not done assessments and reports like I have done this term.  Its been a great experience but it has also been frustrating and my saving grace is that all the other teachers did too!!!
Anyway, I must get to bed, its almost past midnight, my electric blanket should have done its magic by now. I am hoping for a sleep in to at least 8am....hoping the kids will want to sleep in too!!!