Pink Zebra vs. Scentsy

Pink Zebra vs. Scentsy

My un-biased opinion

Backstory:

I love when my house smells great! I’ve always loved going to the mall and sniffing every candle in the Yankee Candle store. My mother-in-law ruined that for me. She tells a story of imagining her curious cat getting set on fire trying to play with the candle flame. My crazy mind takes it a step further, imagining my poor kitty running through my house on fire setting curtains and furniture on fire. Yea. No more candles for me.

I walked into a friend’s house one day and smelled the beautiful scent of sugar cookies: one of my favorite Yankee candle scents. I told her I wished I could burn candles again.  Then she showed me her Scentsy warmer. No flame. I was so excited. I had heard of Scentsy. I had not heard that the warmer ran on electricity, not fire. My friend, awesome as she was, also had an extra warmer. It was a plug in one that she didn’t use anymore. I took it home along with a few chunks of wax and set it up. My house smelled sooo good! A few weeks later, the movers came and packed us up to PCS to our new duty station. When we got here, we unpacked all of our things.  No Scentsy. I hope our house’s new owner enjoys it as much as I did.

            It wasn’t long before I found Jamie. She was talking Scentsy with someone and I felt like an addict needing a fix. I told her I NEEDED some Scentsy. She let me come over and dig through her inventory and find a warmer and some bars. In all of her awesomeness, she even gave me a discount. Since then, my house has been filled with the wonderful scents of Scentsy.

Pink Zebra

            I had started hearing talk of a new smell-good product out there: Pink Zebra. I watched a few people on my facebook from our last duty station talk about this stuff. They post their “recipes” and their friends seem really excited about it. My best friend and I started chatting on the phone about it and she tells me she was NOT impressed. However, my friend warms her smell-goods on her stove in a flame-safe dish. No warmer for her. Apparently Pink Zebra doesn’t work that great at high heat. But my neighbor, Melissa, who I love, invited me to a Pink Zebra party. She had just started selling the stuff and invited her friends and family over to try it. And she had wine. So I invited a friend who was interested in checking it out and we went to her party.

The parties

            Around the same time, I was also invited to a Scentsy party by another friend. The parties were held two days apart. I couldn’t decide where I wanted to spend my smell-good budget so I decided to split it and see which one of these products was, indeed, the best.

            First, I went over to the pink Zebra party. The consultant was brand-new and did a great job explaining the company. Even though neither of us are single moms, we appreciate that the company helps single moms pay for child care. That’s pretty cool. The sprinkle things are pretty cool too. She split them up into baskets so you could take turns smelling a group of them at a time. I had to smell them all. Every. Last. One. I’m OCD like that. I found a couple that I loved, some that I liked, and a few that just did not smell good to me. But I had heard of these recipes that people were making and I started combining them in my head thinking how great they would smell together. I had planned to just get a few jars and stick them in my Scentsy warmer to give them a try, but the lights and shades were so pretty, and because I felt that burning the sprinkles in a Pink Zebra warmer would allow me to give the stuff a fair shake, I ordered a warmer too. One suggestion if you’re thinking of having a Pink Zebra party: Don’t serve alcohol. At least not at the beginning. Especially if you have a clutsy friend like me. Before I even had a drink I managed to spill a whole sample of sprinkles all over myself. UGH. I managed to get most of them put back in the little container. Sorry, Melissa.

            Two days later, I headed off to my friend’s Scentsy party. The consultant had been doing this a while and had her scents divided into little groups. I’d been a fan of Scentsy for about a year but had never been to an official Scentsy party. Again, I had to smell them all!!! I started out in the area with the foodie smelling ones because I tend to favor them over the floral ones. I think this set up was much prettier but passing the scents around in a basket was much better than getting down on the floor to pick from a plate. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Again, I thought I was just gonna order a bunch of bars because I have loyalty to my particular Scentsy consultant and my friend uses someone else. However, I had just been thinking how I wanted some plug-ins for the bathrooms and I wanted to help my friend out with some free products. So I took advantage of one of the combine and save options.

The plan

So now I had a plan. I was going to put my beautiful Pink Zebra warmer downstairs where my current Scentsy warmer is. I was going to move the Scentsy warmer up to the master bathroom so it filled the bedroom and bathroom with beautiful scents. Then I’d have a plug in for the other upstairs bathroom and downstairs half bath. Hopefully, that will cover most of the house. Now I just need to decide whether I’ll have different scents in different areas or if the whole house will smell the same. (I’ve been informed NOT to burn the same scents throughout the house because I’ll develop an immunity to it and won’t be able to smell the deliciousness of them) And which company’s wax will I burn? This has sparked my personal Scentsy/Pink Zebra challenge. Let’s get to it:

Party: Both parties were fun. At one, I knew everyone which was great cuz I was hanging with friends. The other party, I was encouraged to bring a friend and I didn’t know everyone but that’s ok because I got the chance to hang with new people. Scentsy set up was prettier, Pink Zebra’s was easier to smell everything without getting my clumsy butt up off the chair. The Pink Zebra consultant had every scent available to smell while the Scentsy consultant was missing a few including one I’ve been wanting to sniff. Not good for my OCD. Both houses smelled AMAZING. Yes. That’s important.

Other products: Both companies have other products than just warmers and wax. Pink Zebra has candle kits where you can make your own candles out of their sprinkles. Great if you don’t have visions of a flaming cat. They also have reed diffusers, soap, and lotions. The coordinating caddies for the soaps are super cute. Scentsy also has their line of body products. This line is much larger and includes body wash, spray, creams, lotions, hand sanitizer, etc. They also have the Scentsy buddies which are super cute smelly stuffed animals. Especially the new Safari line. I’d probably be conned into getting three of these as my rewards if I ever had a Scentsy party which would totally eat up my free smell-goods.

Warmers:

Pink Zebra has two types of warmers. First, the simmering lights base gives off light which is a nice touch. You can now pick from four color liners to personalize your warmer. It uses a light bulb that they claim can be found in any store for easy replacement. The glass dish sits on top of the light bulb and warms your sprinkles. However, the base by itself is way too plain. Luckily they sell a ton of shades for your base. If you’re one of those people who want to change your style all of the time, this is a great option because you can change your shade without having to buy a whole new warmer. Pink Zebra’s other warmer is the simmer pot. These are more like Scentsy warmers with a dish on top of a bowl but with a warming plate rather than a light bulb. They only come in a handful of different colors.

Scentsy has a ton of warmers to choose from. The plug-in warmers are great for smaller rooms. They also have medium and large warmers in tons of colors and styles. They’re lit by bulbs that you have to order from Scentsy to replace. They also have their new silhouette collection which is a lot like the Pink Zebra base. It gives off light and you can buy additional “wraps” to change the style. They don’t have as many styles of these and they’re not as intricate as the pink zebra ones, but they do now have this option.

Price:

This is one of the most controversial subjects in this battle. Since the wax products are so different, it’s hard to compare the price of wax to one another. I’ve seen the comparison floating around on how long each product claims to last. A Scentsy bar has 8 servings. I usually buy them in 6 packs because of the savings. So I usually get 6 bars or 48 servings for $25. This is about .52 per serving. Now I’ve seen the paper saying there are 15 servings in a jar of Pink zebra. My calculations made me skeptical. So I pulled out a new jar of sprinkles and measured. I got just about 15 servings, minus the sprinkles I spilled on the floor. I calculated that out to about .53 per serving. So it’s pretty close. I find it important to note a few things. 1-you can’t spill Scentsy on the floor. Yea. I’m clumsy. 2- if you want to make the scent stronger for both, just add more. However, with Pink Zebra you can add a little extra, with scentsy you basically have to double your serving size or work with a knife. If I spill sprinkles so easily, I don’t think cutting wax with a knife is a good idea. 3- to mix scents to make your own unique creation, you can just use half a serving size of sprinkles of two different kinds to make one serving. You would likely use two chunks of a Scentsy bar to mix. Unless of course you want to brave the knife. 4- using a double serving will make the scent stronger not necessarily make it last longer. 5-  if you’re just buying one scentsy bar, your serving price goes up. My price above is calculated using scentsy’s best deal. Pink Zebra’s best deal is their carton which makes it about .39 per serving. But you only get one smell so I calculated it the other way to be more fair.

Warmers: Both companies offer cost effective ways to burn their products. Pink Zebra’s simmer pots are almost as cheap as Scentsy’s plug-in warmers. Pink Zebra also offers candle kits with glass jars and wicks that you can burn your sprinkles in if you don’t have a curious cat. These are inexpensive. Scentsy has a range of prices starting with the plug in and growing as the warmers get bigger and more intricate. Their most expensive is the Pink Zebra look alike silhouette collection. Pink Zebra has the most expensive warmer when you combine the base and shade. However I find it important to note 1-You can buy the pink zebra light without the shade at half the price but it’s not nearly as pretty. 2- Pink Zebra’s shades are so pretty. Much prettier than the Scentsy version. There’s even an option to create your own shade out of your own photos. Great gift idea! 

Shipping: My least favorite topic. Especially for a military wife with friends all across the country. It’s complicated. Scentsy ships free with $150 party. If you’re ordering from a party or even from a local Scentsy consultant, your shipping will probably be free. You might have to wait a few days for her to have an order going in and you will get your order from your consultant. If you want your stuff shipped directly (if your friend having the party lives in a different state) I’ve heard many different stories. Some say it’s $8 flat rate. Some say it’s $5. Some say it’s 10% if you’re ordering with a party. Some consultants will just ship it free and cover the cost because it’s less complicated. Pink Zebra is less complicated but more expensive. It’s $7.50 or 10% whichever is more, no matter where you ship. If you’re ordering from a party and having it shipped to your consultant, it’s 10% regardless of size. But if your friend having a party lives out of state and you’re just wanting to try a single jar of sprinkles, paying $7.50 to ship an $8 jar of sprinkles is not fun. Send your order to your host instead of ordering online and let her ship your sprinkles to you when she gets them. Will take a little longer but might save a few bucks.

Shipping timeframe: Like I said I attended back to back parties. Pink Zebra was on Thursday evening. The consultant took her online orders before the party and put the order in on Monday when the checks cleared. The Scentsy party was on Saturday. The hostess waited a few days for outside orders and put her order in on Wednesday. Pink Zebra came in the following Monday. It took exactly one week. And the consultant delivered the very same day. The Scentsy order took over 2 weeks but my personal Scentsy consultant says there must have been a discrepancy with the day the order was placed. Your results may be different depending on how busy the warehouse is. But I think one week is pretty great. HOWEVER My Pink Zebra base and shade were on backorder. So when my sprinkles were delivered, my base and shade had still yet to be ordered. Once the consultant was able to place the order, it was just a few days before it came in. There was an issue with the stuff, which was new to the catalog, getting through customs after the Boston bombings. Security was heightened and it just took longer. I’ll wait a few extra days if it’s a matter of national security.

Scents: My favorite part of these parties is getting to smell all the scents. I want to smell them all again. Right now. However, when I’m bored I browse through the catalogs plotting my next order. MOST of the Pink Zebra Scents are self explanatory. Strawberry, coffee, watermelon, pretty straight forward. After smelling them, they're also pretty realistic. But as I’m sitting on my couch, I don’t know WTF Luna, honeymoon, and yuzu dragon smell like. Cmon, Scentsy. Pink Zebra is guilty of this too but because they have fewer scents, there is less need for the odd names. And while they both describe them in the book, it’s hard to imagine what all of those things smell like together. It’s the same thing with the “recipes” that the pink zebra consultants are talking about. It’s great that you think those 3 sprinkles flavors smell great together but that means I need to buy three jars of sprinkles and mix them so I can smell it and see if I agree. If you really think I will like that scent, send me a sample of the recipe. Heck I’ll even pay the .53 for the serving. Will the company let you do that? Mix your own recipes and sell samples? I think that’s a great idea. Point for me. Oh and Scentsy, if you’re going to have a million crazy scents, don’t take them away from us. It’s meaner to make us “vote” for which one we need to come back so we can order a ton of it because it’s only available for a month and might never come back again. We’re addicts. It’s not fair.

Hostess rewards: If you love the stuff and want to host a party it’s a hard decision on which one to pick. 1-Everyone has heard of Scentsy. That’s both good and bad. Lots of people love it and will order from you, but most of them already have the warmers and might just be ordering stuff to go along with them. 2- A lot of people sell scentsy. A lot of people have scentsy parties. It’s really hard to coordinate a scentsy party without stepping on friends’ toes. 3- Pink Zebra is fairly new but it is gaining popularity. But lots of people are set in their ways. They’re loyal to scentsy. You might have to bribe them with booze. These people might also just get some sprinkles to put in their Scentsy warmers and that’s ok, but won’t maximize your rewards. 4- Pink Zebra offers better incentives. They give their hostesses more and their consultants more. They also have hostess specials that will allow you to purchase a particular host reward kit at up to 75% off! 

Comparison: Now for the fun part. I get to pick which product that makes my house smell awesome, makes my house smell more awesome! I’ve never really paid attention to how long the stuff lasts but Pink Zebra claims their stuff lasts longer. Challenge accepted.

I put a chunk of scentsy in my warmer and it smells up the whole room. The scent is pretty strong and ends up fading after a while. If I put two chunks in, the scent spreads to adjacent rooms and I can even smell it at the top of the stairs.

The first time I put Pink Zebra on, I put a serving of sugar cookie in my scentsy warmer. A little while later, my daughter comes out of her room (the farthest and most remote part of my house) and she yells “Oh Mom, are you baking CUPCAKES????” close enough, kid. So it seems that two servings of Scentsy doesn’t project as far initially as one serving of Pink Zebra. But after a couple hours they’re pretty much hanging out in the same area.

Pink Zebra melts faster than the scentsy. The little sprinkles make for faster melting. It also is much more powerful at first.

Scentsy is made of like a paraffin wax. It feels great on your fingers when you dip them in it. When the wax comes off, your fingers are soft.

Pink Zebra wax is made in the USA. It also dissolves as it burns so you can use it in candles. However, I’ve found that the scent fades before the wax is all gone in my scentsy warmer so I have to dump some of it anyway. I’m pretty sure the burning time that’s floating around in the comparisons is based on the time it takes for the wax to fully dissolve, not for the scent to go away.

If you need more and don’t want to wait for your order to come in, you can find a scentsy consultant at almost any craft fair. You can also call around to local consultants, it’s likely they have your smell in stock. Some might even be willing to let you sniff their inventory to pick what you want out of what’s in stock. It’s harder to find a Pink Zebra consultant with that kind of inventory but they are getting there.

I find that I get more burning hours out of both if I leave the warmers on. When I turn them off and back on, the scent is weaker than the last time I used them. By leaving them on, the scent doesn’t fade completely (like when it’s off for a few hours) so it takes longer for the scent to fade in the room. So technically you can say you get more smell time from them both when you leave the warmers on.

The comparison

My Pink Zebra warmer arrived this morning and I’m excited to get started. I had just put a chunk of French Toast in my Scentsy yesterday and I HATE wasting smell but this is an emergency! So I turned on the warmer and softened the wax a little to remove it. Now it’s time to select which scents I’m going to use in the challenge. I don’t want my house smelling gross so I needed scents that would complement each other without smelling terrible when they are mixed. I used a large room so I wouldn’t be too overwhelmed with double smell. I chose two sweet-smelling scents. Pink Zebra’s Totes Cherry vs Scentsy’s Posy Peach. I might be regretting this a little because I’m having a hard time determining which one I smell right now.

I popped them both in their warmers and watched them burn. I checked about 10 minutes later and Pink Zebra’s sprinkles had already melted and the Scentsy chunk was about ¾ melted. The Scentsy warmer also started a little warmer than the Pink Zebra one because I had warmed it a little bit to remove the old wax. Sitting in the next room I smell a mixture. However, when I walk into that room I smell the Cherry and can’t smell a single hint of the peach. Maybe these two scents are too close to one another for this challenge…Within a few hours the smells mold together. They smell like candy 

The PZ dish doesn’t get as hot as the full size Scentsy warmer but neither are hot enough to burn you. After about 14 hours, neither scent is very strong, I can't smell them upstairs but if I'm in the room with the warmers I can smell the cherry. Only if I get very close can I smell the Scentsy.

I turned it off for the night at about 16 hours burning. In the morning I walked into the room and it smelled like cherry. You can still smell the Pink Zebra scents slightly even when the warmer is off. I warmed them back up.The room smells like cherry but all of the smell is gone from the peach. It kind of smells like a crayon. You can't smell either in any of the other rooms. By the end of the second day, the room still has a light scent of cherry. Time to change the wax!

Conclusion:

I’m going to continue to use both of these products.I like the Scentsy plug ins for my bathroom. Although I have found that the Pink Zebra stuff still smells in the plug in warmers after 5 or 6 days! I think once I have a collection of Pink Zebra and can mix them into awesome combinations, I’ll be more likely to use it in my main rooms more than Scentsy. I like the stronger scents on the first melt. I’m not sure if it’s the different type of wax used or just the type of fragrance they add, but I like the way the Pink Zebra smells in the house more than the Scentsy. If you like your Scents strong and smelling up the whole house, you need to change them every day or two regardless of the brand you pick. Results may vary from person to person. Why not do the challenge yourself to see which one works best for you? Here are my tips:

Pink Zebra’s lights are so pretty! Scentsy’s warmers are less expensive than the light/shade package. But if you want to change your look you’d have to buy a new Scentsy warmer. You would only have to buy a new shade with Pink Zebra. Pink Zebra's Simmer Pots are cheaper than a Scentsy warmer!

If you’re gonna burn Pink Zebra, spring for one of their warmers. You can put the stuff in your Scentsy one, but in my opinion, it smells better in Pink Zebra. Apparently it has to do with the temperature of the warmers. 

Think of where you want your scents. If you’re looking to smell up your bathroom, kids’ rooms, or even car, Scentsy is the way to go. They have great options for all of them. If you have a large room or open concepts, go with Pink Zebra warmers.

If you like traditional candles and can burn a flame In your house, pink zebra’s candle kits are the way to go.

If you want to host a party, look through the catalogs and see which one has stuff that you want. Look at the hostess rewards and talk with the consultant about getting the most out of your party rewards. I think Scentsy offers a package with a warmer and a few bars that you can use as one half price item. This is a great way to get a warmer AND some bars for half price. Pink Zebra offers awesome hostess packages that change every month. This month’s package is a light, a photo shade, a simmer pot, a carton of sprinkles and a jar of sprinkles. It’s $105 value. If you host a $400 party you can get it half price. If you host a $700 party it’s 75% off - $26.25 That’s an awesome deal. Those deals are on top of the other hostess rewards. Plus Pink Zebra donates a day of child care for a single mom for every $500 party.

Keep in mind that a lot of people have heard of Scentsy while Pink Zebra is fairly new. There are advantages and disadvantages to both. Many people already have their Scentsy warmers. If they come to a party, it’s to sniff the scents and likely place an order for some more bars. Scentsy also has a ton of other products so your awesome friends might try something new or it might be time to order a new warmer, but higher sales are harder to achieve. But, it’s easy to get outside orders from your friends that can’t come because most of them already know what it’s all about. Pink Zebra will be harder to get friends from far away to try because they can’t demo the products from afar. However, your friends that come to the party are likely to order more because they will fall in love.

If you want to be a consultant you also need to consider these things. Pink Zebra is pretty new. There isn’t a ton of competition yet, and if you work hard, you can build a pretty good team. There are Scentsy consultants everywhere. There's a couple hundred thousand of them in the country. You really need to work hard to build a customer base because people will buy from friends having parties or from the consultant that is giving a discount or whatever. However, there are also a ton of Scentsy lovers out there who buy the stuff. People need to be convinced of the awesomeness of Pink Zebra.

So, after all of this, I’ve decided to have a Pink Zebra Party and you’re all invited! Look for the facebook invite with date and time and come hang out. There will also be a link to order online or you can message it to me and save on shipping. Now I just need to decide whether or not to order a consultant kit first :)

UPDATE: It's been a month since I joined Pink Zebra and I am so happy with my decision. I now have an abundance of this stuff in my house and it smells great! I have a great team of support and I couldn't have asked for better people to do this alongside. If you're reading this because you are thinking about joining Pink Zebra, DO IT! And if you want to join one of the best teams in the country with the resources to help you succeed, use my link www.pinkzebrahome.com/sandiessprinkles You can even use this link to place an order and try Pink Zebra for yourself. We ship anywhere in the U.S. You can visit my facebook page as well at www.facebook.com/sandiessprinkles if you have any questions or need help and to check out the latest incentive! 

Does this crap only happen to me?

This is probably one of the worst week's ever. Several times I have found myself missing WV whether it's just my best friend's shoulder to cry on or my dentist or my vet. Yes, I actually miss the dental care in WV. Ironic right? I took the girls for their routine dental exam. Haylie had her first cavity :( So I made her a follow up appointment 3 days later to have it fixed. I got a call the day before confirming Rebeka's appointment. I informed them that Rebeka didn't have one, but Haylie did. They promised to fix it. I show up and check her in. A few minutes later the lady says "Mam, is this for Rebeka" I said no. It's for Haylie. Rebeka is her sister. She asked  what she was getting done so I explained she had a cavity and needed it fixed. A few minutes later the other lady asks me "Is Haylie getting treated too?" I say "No." So I went out and got Haylie's treatment plan from the car to show the lady. I should have ran right there. They brought some forms out for me to sign so they could numb her. I explained I'd prefer she only have gas if she absolutely needed it. Our last amazing dentist only used it when necessary and was able to, more often than not, treat my kids without it without even asking me. This one apparently uses it for all kids. We walk in the room and they have Haylie get up on a table with a back board on it. It was then I realized that they were going to restrain her. I was told "It comforts them and keeps them from hurting themselves" BULL SHIT. I told them no way they were doing that to her. They also said I needed to wait in the waiting room. Yea, no. Forget it. Have a nice day. So today I call a dentist recommended by a friend and they give me an appointment to come in this morning.

Before I leave, there is a HUGE mess that looks like puked up Ketchup on my floor. I scrub it and move about my business. I got to the office a few minutes late, apologized and filled out the forms. We went to the back and I explained that since it was so quick I wasn't able to get her XRays yet. The dentist found 5 count them 5 cavities in her mouth. The one that was pointed out by the first dentist and 4 really small ones the size of pin pricks in various places. She told her no more thumb sucking and said that its causing crowding in her mouth which will make these small cavities between the teeth more frequent. Wow. We take really good care of her teeth and I'm shocked. She promises me to let me stay with her as long as I don't make her nervous and that she doesn't restrain. If she isn't able to get her work done peacefully, they send her to a specialist that will put her out. Yea. That's not happening either. The little microscopic cavities that you can't see without magnification should not be hard to fix. So we make plans to make plans and we leave. Things just got more expensive. :sigh:

I get home and there are two small puddles of blood on my floor. I start freaking out. I'm pretty sure the "ketchup" I cleaned up earlier was not ketchup. So I called the old vet in WV and asked what to do. Obviously Haylie's teeth have to take priority, but I wanted to get the vet's opinion. I'm thinking there is no way we can afford an emergency vet visit right now since her dental bill just basically quadrupled in the last hour. The vet says that he should be fine as long as he's not lethargic, and, knowing Scooby, he ate something he wasn't supposed to. Unless it's black and tarry not to worry. If he's still having issues tomorrow, I need to find him a vet. So I head to the pet store hoping to find something along the lines of doggy gatorade to keep him hydrated. I pull in and reach for my purse...no wallet. Damn. So back home I go. When I get home, I realize that I have cash in my pocket. I stopped at HEB after Haylie's appointment because she wanted blueberries and took $20 back so I had cash to send her for school lunch. So I had $18 in my pocket. Damn. Luckily, it's been about 2 hours and doggie seems fine. I'm sure I'll be pulling ANOTHER bra strap out of his butt in the next day or so. But that's a different story.

CVS and the smoke alarm

It's been a long weekend. My husband likes to stay up late when he doesn't have to get up for work the next morning because he knows I'll keep the kids from waking him up too early. Plus, the damn Survivor finale was three hours long so we were up late last night too. After putting the kids on the bus, I decided to crawl back into bed. It was 7:55. Mike rolls over and says "Can you set your alarm for 8 so I can get up?" "Umm...no. By the time I roll over, pull up the alarm and set it, it will be 8. I'll just kick you in about 4 minutes." So at 8 he got up and huffed and puffed as he got ready for work, no doubt because I decided to lay down. Either way, snuggled up with my Haylie, I managed to fall asleep. Then the damn smoke alarm started chirping. Like it does when the battery is running low. Instead of every hour or so like a normal smoke alarm this thing beeped every three minutes. So just as I was about to fall asleep, "chirp." Just when I thought it was going to stop "chirp" I put the pillow over my head and closed my eyes "chirp" I got up, closed the door and climbed back into "chirp" UGH. So then my phone rings. "This is CVS pharmacy calling to inform you that your prescription is ready to be picked up at blah blah highway 35 in Alvin. You can pick it up at your earliest convenience. Press 1 to speak to someone" So I press 1 and head downstairs, away from the chirping and while on hold, find a 9 volt battery. When someone picks up, I explain that I just got an automated call saying I had a script ready. I went on to explain that I don't use their pharmacy, never have, and there are at least 3 CVS pharmacies closer to my house. There must have been a mistake. The last name is Gagnon. She asks "What's the date of birth" so I reply, "There are five of us. Can't you just look in your little bins behind you and tell me which person it is?" "no ma'am I need your date of birth" "fine." I give her mine "and the name?" "Still Gagnon" "I don't have anything for that name, is there anything else I can help you with?" "Try this one" I give her Allysons. "and the name" "Gagnon" She sounds agitated "I don't have that one either" So I give her Beka's and she sighs. Like it's MY friggin fault she won't just look to see whose prescription she has. So I give her Haylie's. "the name on that one?" "GAGNON" "yes, I have Haylie's blah blah blah ointment ready. You can pick it up today if you want." "OK I explained to you that I don't use your pharmacy and we don't have any prescriptions that need to be filled." "It came from Dr. Sim and it was ready on the 10th" "Yes, that is her doctor but we haven't been in to see her in weeks. The prescription must be a mistake" "Ma'am I can put it back if you don't want it." "NO, I don't want it. It's not ours. I was just being nice by calling in the mistake and wasting 15 minutes of my day" UGH. I hung up, trudged up the stiars with one of my dining room chairs and changed that damn chirping smoke detector, head back to the kitchen for some coffee and I'm out of half and half. Good morning!!!

a touchy subject

Gifting. I know there is some kind of etiquette but I can't find the rule book. Apparently neither can a lot of people. Hubby and I were having a conversation tonight about it. We are not selfish people at all. I don't give a crap if people send us "gifts" but it pisses me off when people favor one of my kids over the others. All my kids are amazing. I have never EVER heard a negative remark about any of them. There is no reason for someone who is supposed to love them to treat them differently from one another. My mother-in-law has it down pat. She sends the same present for everyone. Every time. Very predictable. Very fair. She's awesome. However, not everyone is as awesome. So I figured I'd jot down a few guidelines for those who may need them.
-You are never required to send anything to my house. If you choose to send a gift to my children, you need to follow my rules.
-If you elect to send something to my house randomly, it's either to share or you need to send 3. They don't have to be the same thing, but if you send something for one, you need to send something for 3 or I will make them share it.
             -exceptions to this rule are hand me downs and special circumstances (For example, if Ally needs a                      
              scarf for school and I ask if you have an old one she can have, you don't need to send three). This
              should be common sense.
-We don't care about the value of anything you send to the kids. We appreciate that you have thought of them and the kids love getting stuff in the mail, no matter what it is, especially since many of our friends and family are so far away. Please don't see this post as us being ungrateful.
- However, if you are sending cash, for whatever reason, you should send equal amounts. They notice if you send more to one and I'm the one who needs to try to explain it or make up for it.
-If you come for a visit or we come to visit you, don't feel obligated to bring/buy presents.
Christmas
- If you send a Christmas present, it needs to be shared or you need to send 3.
               -Exceptions to this rule are godparents and teachers or anyone with a valid reason to gift one child
                 and not the other two.
Birthdays
-If you are going to send a present for one of my kids' Birthday's, remember to send something for my other kids' Birthdays. They are big enough to notice. Same exceptions as before. Also, see Birthday parties.
Birthday Parties
-We try our best to host a fun party for all of our girls' Birthdays. We invite their current class and any of our friends we think would like to come. Consider yourself invited. We would never intentionally leave anyone out.
-Please don't feel obligated to come, even if you came to another one of my kids' parties.
-If you can't make it, don't feel like you need to "send a present" because you were invited.
-It's common courtesy to bring a present to a Birthday Party. Things happen. We're low on cash, don't get paid until next week, we forgot until the last minute. Whatever. I would never want a friend to miss out coming to a party because you can't buy a present. But also keep in mind that between the facility cost, goodie bag, cake, ice cream, etc. we typically spend about $20 per kid to party. I could combine this into one really great present for my kid, but they have more fun hanging with their friends. I don't care about $ amount. Bring the kid a present. Make one. Whatever. It's the thought that counts.

I know how shallow it sounds when you have to blog about how to gift. I'm typically a humble person. I've just had it lately with people favoring one of my children over the others. These same people have no problem telling me what and how to gift them or their children. Here's another tip. Don't tell me what to send you/your child for their Birthday unless I ask. That's rude. I'm the type of person who thinks long and hard trying to find the perfect gift for people. Lately, I haven't given a crap because you people have ruined it for me. I have always been a person who goes above and beyond to make sure no one ever feels left out. I expect you to extend the same courtesy to my kids. I would really just rather you not send anything to either of them than to skip one because their Birthday is at an inconvenient time for you or to watch you blatantly favor one of my girls over the other. I'm sure they all love you the same amount.
OK rant over. Commence judging me.

my morning so far

Hubby walks in from PT: "Hey that lightbulb blew this morning. I'm gonna have to change it"
me: "ok"
 him: "Do we have lightbulbs?"
 me: "yes. they're under the counter where they always are."
him: "do you know how to take the cover off this one?" So I get up, look, and point out that he needs to unscrew it. He walks over and grabs his gerber tool which is usually useless in these situations and SHOCKER: useless.
him: "Do we have any regular screwdrivers down here?"
me: "yep" So rather than grab out of the drawer, he drags out the huge toolbox, selects a screwdriver and starts to unscrew the cover from the ceiling fan. One screw successful.
him "This other one won't come out. WTF. I don't know what to do." So I get up, get up on the chair, reach up (which is still against my post-surgery dr. orders) and unscrew the screw. At this point I'm ready to send him back to work and do it myself. Not sure if when he walked in the door and told me the bulb blew if what he really meant was "You need to change the lightbulb" Anyway. He gets back up on the chair, unscrews another screw and it hits the floor. I ignore it. Pretend I don't see it because I'm not interested in getting back up. So he says "I dropped a screw on the floor {pouty face}" UGH. Up I get, find the screw, place it with the others and sit back down. plop. another screw hits the floor. "I dropped another one"
I find the need to explain the setting at this point. Large living room. Ceiling fan in center. Chair under ceiling fan. One side of the chair is wiiiiiiide open. The other side is next to the couch and what used to be my entry table but is the "perfect height" to be his couch table.
SO....He pulls off the ceiling fan cover and unscrews the bulb. Cover in one hand, bulb in the other, he turns to look at me and say "I don't think the bulbs we have are going to fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii" BAM! lands on the table, rolls, bounces off the couch, turns, and hits the floor on the other side of the room yelling "OW OW OW" so I, trying to figure out if that was just really funny or as annoying as the whole situation so far yell,  "WTF, What happened" and he said "I was trying to get off of the chair and it fell over" OK. So you were stepping off of the chair where you had 6 inches of room instead of stepping off on the other side of the chair where you had ten feet? And now I have to go to the store and find one of these funny looking light bulbs.