Monday, November 3, 2014

lego my gargoyle

my husband said that someone asked him about the blog today. they said it had been a while since they saw a new post. i didn't realize anyone was still visiting us here - so i am pretty excited about that!  it's the little things in life friends! anyway, posting used to be one of my favorite things to do, i used to have more free time or maybe i was just better at making time for it, but either way, i just don't do it like i used to. but i do miss it and more than anything i miss being able to look back through and document an entire year in blog posts.  the last year and a half is somewhat incomplete in terms of blog archives, but we have had a lot going on even if the photo proof is missing.

but halloween - you know i never miss a halloween. so here are a few photos from the weekend and alex's latest dream-come-true costume: a gargoyle. evan and i were characters from the lego move. these two in case you haven't seen the flick. not nearly as inspired, but fun nonetheless.

if you're still reading this - or even checking in from time to time, leave us a comment, we'd love to know you're out there! hope you had a fun halloween - it really is the best time of year.


 ps.... our tiny puppy is now not a tiny puppy and he looks pretty cute dressed up as a UW Badger:


amiright?!?!


Monday, June 2, 2014

our friend FiLip

last summer we heard about the new FiLIP technology for kids and we were immediately interested. we signed up to be early adopters and get notified when FiLIP was officially released to the market.

what is FiLIP? simply put, it's a smartwatch for kids, but let's be honest, it's really for parents. from FiLIP's website:

Every parent wants their kid to explore, discover and just be a kid. But imagine if we could stay in touch along the way. FiLIP is a world first device which has re-imagined smartphone voice and location technology for children. The colorful wristwatch is a patent-pending marriage of GPS, cell tower location and Wi-Fi triangulation, safely combined into one small device.


conversations were already happening around our house about how soon was "too soon" for a cellphone. for me, the communication aspect of a phone, just made sense. alex visits her dad every other weekend, takes the bus home home from school, attends various extra-curriculars during the week and stays busy with us on the weekends when we travel or go on adventures near home. having a way to communicate with her was a no brainer, but what about all the other options a phone has? 

i wasn't ready. and truth be told, neither is she.

sure, the chances that 90% of her time on the phone would be spent playing minecraft or taking silly pictures, were pretty high. but what about everything else? there are far too many variables for a young, impressionable mind and we just weren't ready to take that leap. all that will come in good time; all we really need now is to keep track of her.

FiLIP lets us do that in a way that works for younger kids. with the touch of a button she can call up to five pre-programmed numbers, and in turn, those numbers can call her. 

she can receive (but not return) short text messages (16 characters) letting her know we are thinking of her or need her to remember her science book before leaving school. she doesn't have the ability to text back - and quite frankly i am fine with that for now.

in the most severe of scenarios, we can track her location via GPS (provided of course she is wearing the watch). or if she leaves a pre-determined location before she should, FiLIP can notify us. finally, in case of emergency, her phone will auto-dial all 5 numbers it has stored with the press of a single button she or we can activate.

oh yeah...it also tells the time and date in four fun colors kids like. 


for us, it just made sense. 

right around christmastime, FiLIP went on the market and we snatched one up immediately. the watch itself was $199 --- a definite investment --- but the call/texting plan was just an additional $10 per month through AT&T service i already had.

since we introduced the FiLIP into our lives a few things that maybe we weren't prepared for, and didn't necessarily love, came into play.

some areas it was lacking:
  • for starters, 16 character text messages are kinda lame. you can say "i love you very " or "don't forget your" which isn't really helpful at all, so at times, you have to get pretty creative. 
  • we didn't love the fragility of the screen - a piece of technology made for kids, should better understand how outrageously destructive they can be. ours shattered after falling from her wrist while swinging. 
  • we didn't love the way it chirped in the middle of the night while charging
  • or the fact that we couldn't fly under the radar during the school day when sending a text - the phone rings/beeps anywhere, anytime it is called. 
  • we also didn't love the battery life, it seemed to be dead by the time the school day was done. 
something we weren't necessarily prepared for was the accessibility, which sounds strange i know. but the fact that you can pinpoint your child's exact GPS location at any time of day, is a little, well...creepy and unnecessarily addicting. i have had to learn that just because this feature is available, doesn't mean i need to obsessively access it. i do like knowing it is there though and i hope i never actually need to use it.


recently FiLIP sent out a survey to their customers requesting suggestions. we mentioned all of the above and were shocked and pleasantly surprised to see that just a month or so later, all of the suggestions are in the process of being remedied or already have been. new updates include:
  • Increased Battery Life and Charging Improvements (no more annoying chirps when FiLIP is charging at night)
  • Simplification of Emergency Mode Function
  • Text Message Length Increased from 16 Characters to 24
  • Ability to Silence FiLIP Ringer from App (great for when kids are at school)
  • Last Received Text Message Stored in Memory
  • Improvements to Location Accuracy and SafeZone Notifications
  • Hybrid and Satellite Views Added to Map
  • Improvements to Audio Quality
That kind of timely response to your customers' feedback is HUGE! we are even more satisfied with the technology and the company than we were before. 


Overall, FiLIP makes sense for our family. we are in that in-between phase where we know imminent doom (aka the teenage years) is coming, but we plan to hold off on it as long as we can. FiLIP has given us a way to do that. an actual cellphone will infiltrate our lives soon enough. at nine years old, i just want her to remember her homework, or be able to reach me anytime, anywhere for anything. 


plus, if you weren't previously approved to can call her, you can't. sorry boys. but really, i'm not sorry - check back in several years. like 20.

for now, we are focused on everyday life and some adventures in-between. thanks to FiLIP we can do everything we did before, but with greater peace of mind. 

Friday, May 30, 2014

last day of third grade

insert the same cliche thing i say on this day every year. they really do grow up so fast.


Sunday, May 18, 2014

we got a puppy

this is finn. finn pickle to be exact. i wanted to name him boo radley, but apparently i don't call ALL the shots. i'm dealing with that. more pics to come for sure + updates on how our resident felines are dealing, but for now, here he is in all his golden doodle glory…


and call it forshadowing maybe, but the newest mobile campaign for K9 Advantix II came out recently with a familiar face. one that just so happened to be wearing the same thing on the day we got finn as the day this campaign was shot. it's like it was fate or something.



so it turns out, we are dog people now. stay tuned for ridiculous outfits on pets. you know how we do.

Tuesday, May 6, 2014

kitties have birthdays too


these little kitties turned 4 and 9 yesterday as we celebrated everybody's favorite holiday in may, cinco de meatball & andre. we don't actually know when their birthdays are, but because we got them both in late -june, and they were about 6 weeks old, we figured they were born sometime around the end of april/beginning of may. and who doesn't need another excuse to celebrate on may 5th? It just makes sense.  



Sunday, April 6, 2014

to each his own

there is absolutely no reason in the world for cats to have baby bertoia-like chairs.  unless you find a pair for super cheap on craigslist.  then, you just don't have time for reasoning...



Thursday, April 3, 2014

party everyday

i haven't blogged in a really long time. this past year has been one of the busiest in recent memory. i started a new job exactly a year ago and my time/energy for leisurely blogging just kind of disappeared.

sadsies.

since i blog and manage social media for my job now, keeping up with both as a hobby just hasn't been that easy, but i am attending a blogging and social media conference tomorrow and i thought at the very least i should do a catch up post.

so what's been going on lately?  i celebrated a birthday a few weeks ago and it was one of my very favorite ones, not as far as the number is concerned (that is just getting depressing), but the people i surrounded myself with, really made it pretty freakin' fab.


evan and i had dinner at gram & dun, on my favorite patio in the city. yes, we are wearing this place out and hitting it up on super repeat, but when it's your b-day, you don't wanna take chances on the food. i got the same thing i always get (the jackson) and we sipped on cocktails while enjoying one of the first warm-enough nights of the season.

the following day, my actual birthday, we planned a small get-together at one of our other favorite local spots, bier station.  we had intended to just meet a couple of friends, but thankfully it snowballed and soon enough the room was full of some of my most favorite people in town and in the world if i'm being honest.


i want to say that i laughed hysterically for 2 solid hours.  it was the best. 


alex was on spring break and away for her first ski trip during this time, and although we missed her terribly, she had an absolute blast.  i'd share some of pics of her being a rockstar on the slopes, but i don't have any. womp womp. so instead, here is a pic of her at a recent birthday party for one of her friends.


and this is a chinchilla, because she asked me to blog about one.


annnnnyway......

we spent last weekend at our favorite old-people-prom style event, evening in paris. if you follow me on the socials, then you already know i got super geeked out about it being a mad men theme this year.  you probably also already know that i found an exact dress from the show and proceeded to further freak out.  if you missed out on all that however, here is the dress from the show:


and here is me in all my vintage megan draper glory:

totally. freaked. out.


so the spring has basically been a nonstop party so far, you know how we do.  and basically, you're all caught up. :)
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