2009 August | She Scribes

Monday, August 31, 2009

Grippies – An Ingenius Idea!

I love it when I learn about a product and think to myself “Why didn’t anyone think of this sooner?” Some products are just so ingenious and useful that you wish they were invented years ago. Grippies are such a product.

What are Grippies you might be asking? Grippies are cute little stickers that you adhere to the undersides of your socks, tights or gloves to make them non-slip.

How many times have your children ran through the house in your socks (or tights) and pretended they were ice skating? That is because most socks and certainly tights are slippy.

Here is a funny story that STILL gets my family laughing even though it happened about 30 years ago (GOSH! Am I THAT OLD?).

When I was around 12 my cousin and I did a “Rock-a-Thon” to raise money for charity along with other kids in the Youth Group at church. We rocked in rocking chairs for 24 hours straight. Needless to say we were delirious and beyond tired when the 24 hours was up.

The lovely ladies from church came in and made us a HUGE breakfast for all our hard work in raising money for charity. All the kids were sliding around the floor in the great hall where we were at. The floor was wood and very polished making it ideal for “ice skating” in our socks.

Silly me… I built up too much speed and couldn’t stop in time because my socks were slippery on the floor that I slide underneath the huge table where all the food was laid out for us and straight into the kitchen and landed at the feet of the ladies making us breakfast. I was mortified but EVERYONE broke out in hysterical laughter how I went under the table and into the next room.

To this day all someone has to do is say “Remember the Rock-a-Thon?” and everyone breaks out in laughter.

Had I had Grippies on my socks that wouldn’t have happened.

Grippies are easy to apply. Just peel and stick! You can’t get any easier then that. They also have Grippies you can iron on too.

They are machine washable too. My kids put some Grippies on their socks which have been washed a few times and so far, so good.

My kids don’t feel them at all. My son is especially sensitive to certain feelings and he’s not bothered with them one bit.

For the girls Grippies also makes tights with the Grippies already applied to them. They come in sizes from 2-14 and are available in black. pink, cream and white. My daughter has a couple of pairs of Grippies tights and she can’t slide one bit in them. I made her go into our hallway which has a slippery floor and she couldn’t slide no matter how much she tried, and let me tell you, SHE TRIED! LOL!

I wish they came in adult sizes. I’m going to a wedding next month and I HATE wearing heels so I always take them off the first chance I can get. I always worry about slipping and landing on my face in situations like that. How embarrassing!

Grippies are available in Stars, Bears and Ovals shapes. They are also clear so you don’t have to worry about your kids feeling embarrassed if someone sees them. They come 16 to a package, enough to do a few pairs of socks and cost $5.99. The tights are only $6.99. You can also purchase a starter pack (4 packages of Grippies – enough for multiple pairs of socks) for $19.95.

Grippies are available for purchase at http://www.grippiesonline.com/. They are also available at a few other retail locations including One Step Ahead, Mom 4 Life, the Stork Store and a few others. The full list is found on the Grippies web site.

I’m giving Grippies a two thumbs up. I wish someone had thought about creating these a lot sooner.

* We received some Grippies and Grippies tights free to do this review. There was no other compensation. The opinions expressed are my own.

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When stress gets the better of you.

I am extremely stressed out these days. Really, really, REALLY stressed out. Stressed and “down”. Sigh…

My husband’s job has been outsourced. Not only did they cut his pay drastically but they are going to pay him in “chunks” every quarter. His base pay is now $28,000 LESS then he makes now. The “chunks” of pay are suppose to make is salary a bit more, but it’s still less then he makes now. Not only that we have to figure out what we are going to do every three month that we will be short on money. So technically we won’t have the money to pay our mortgage except for every three months. That’s not going to work too well. It’s bad enough getting paid every other week but now to get paid significantly less each with each paycheck and having to wait three months to see extra money is just insane. We asked if they could give him just a regular salary and not this “chunk” of money bologna, but they won’t budge.

To add to this we will be without insurance for the month of October. True, we can buy into COBRA for the month but COBRA is very expensive. I told my husband if COBRA is too much we just have to go on a wing and a prayer and hope that no one gets sick during the month. Of course this comes at the same time they are going to do the Flu and H1N1 vaccinations too (supposedly). The timing couldn’t be any worst.

I have to look for a job. I have to work nights and weekends because we need someone to get the kids on and off the bus and be with them on holidays, school vacations and snow days. This is NOT going to be easy. I haven’t had a “real” job in 12+ years. I’m overweight, I never finished my Bachelors degree and I’m 41 years old. Exactly what job am I qualified for except minimum wage jobs. All those years I busted my butt to get great grades in college so I could have a career and now I’ll be working a minimum wage job, if I’m lucky. I not looking forward to being away from my husband and kids on nights and weekends too. My husband is at work all day and the kids are at school all day. When will I see them?

Our school and property taxes are going up AGAIN. It’s bad enough we can’t afford them now. Ugh!

My kids go back to school next week. I am SO WORRIED about our son. He’s starting middle school and I’m afraid he’s going to get gobbled up and spit out. He’s not an excellent student like our daughter is. Academically and socially he’s her polar opposite. She excels, he struggles. She has tons of friends, he doesn’t have any. I think I’m more stressed out about him going to middle school then he is.

We just found out this evening that our neighbors are selling their condo and moving out. That is really sad because we’re friends with them. We have watched their daughter grow up ever since she was born. I baby sit her from time to time. They “say” they will keep in touch and invite us over to their new house when they buy one (for a year they are going to live with the in-laws to save money). But we know the truth…we’ll never hear from them again. And that is so very sad. It’s sad and frustrating too because they are moving out and someday into a house. We’ll be forever confined to our condo. I compare our condo to a “Roach Motel” – “Once you check in you’ll never check out” (remember those commercials?).

My business is tanking too. I have had my business for a long time now and it used to do very well. Now I’m luck if I see an order a month. And the orders are usually very small with little profit if any. I was going to cancel hosting on my web site since I can’t afford it but the billing went through before I could cancel it.

Ending my business breaks my heart. It meant so much to me. But there is no point in paying for the web site when I don’t even profit enough to pay for it.

There are a few other things but I won’t bore anyone with them.

I am feeling overwhelmed right now, stressed and sad. I don’t mean to be so “woe is me” about this. Normally I’m a pretty happy-go-lucky person. But we’re all human and we all are vulnerable to feeling overwhelmed and stressed out.

I seriously need some suggestions on how to get out of this funk and to get rid of this stress. Stress is not good for your overall health and well being. I need to get rid of it before it weighs me down and smothers me.

When YOU are feeling overwhelmed and stressed out, what do you do? What methods help you to unwind and feel better? Is there an herbal tea that helps? An exercise? A song? I’m open to suggestions.

Thanks for listen to me ramble about this. Sorry for the long post.

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BACK TO SCHOOL: Master Locks

*** HIT PAUSE ON BOTTOM VIDEO TO STOP IT. Otherwise you’ll have to listen to it as you read the post. Sorry about that. ***

WOW…gone are the days when you had to remember your locker combination with the standard right, left, right combination. These days lock companies are coming up with more creative and effecient ways to provide you with protection (lock) and convenience (opening/closing the lock).

Master Lock has created two new locks that I am very excited about, perfect for your back to school needs as well as for your lockers at work, at the gym or any place you need the security of a lock.

Master Lock’s new Speed Dial locks are AWESOME! My kids LOVE this lock because it’s so fun to use. Instead of a combination of letters or numbers the combination is actually a series of up, down, left and right movements.

First of you can set your own combination which really helps to make it easier to remember. No more carrying around the combination in your pocket so you don’t forget. You create your own combination that is easy for you to remember. With the Speed Dial lock you can create any number of movements in any sequence that is easiest for you.

The Speed Dial lock is also super easy to use because you can open it with just one hand and it’s A LOT faster to open then conventional locks.

My kids LOVE this lock because they say it’s a lot like one of the controls on the video game. If you have a video game you’ll know what I mean. There is usually some part of the control that you can move with your thumb in an up/down or left/right direction. The Speed Dial lock works in a similar way.

My kids even made up a song to help remember the combination. I don’t know the words exactly (they do) but it’s something like “Up-right, down-left, up-down, up-down…”.

If your child has a tendency to be tardy to class you might want to consider getting them the Speed Dial lock to help save them valuable time in between classes.

The Speed Dial locks from Master Lock also come in great colors.

Another new lock from Master Lock is the Resettable Combination Lock. With this lock you or your child can set their own combination using letters and numbers (or any combination of the two). Your child just needs three letters or numbers to create their lock combination. For example they could use R16 as their combination (perhaps their first initial is R and their football uniform numer is 16 – of course you wouldn’t want to use something THAT obvious). Since your child can set their own combination it can be something that is easy enough for them to remember.

To make the Resettable Combination locks even better they come with a special tool that can help you to easily reset the locker combination just in case your child (or yourself) has a need to. This feature helps if your child gives out their locker combination to someone and then realizes it was a huge mistake.

I love that they come in great colors too (the green is my favorite. We have a pretty pink one). And it comes with stickers you can put on it (arrows, numbers, letters, shapes and card suites).

Master Lock has truly taken locks to a whole new level.

The Speed Dial and Resettable Combination locks range in price from $5.99 (Resettable) – $6.99 (Speed Dial) each, which in my opinion is a small price to pay for such a great lock considering that a standard lock is about $3-$6.

Master Locks are available at many retail locations.

To learn more about Master Lock you can visit the official web site at http://www.masterlock.com/.

* I received these two locks free to do this review. I was not compensated in any other way. The opinions posted are my own.

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She Scribes

Grippies – An Ingenius Idea!

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When stress gets the better of you.

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BACK TO SCHOOL: Master Locks

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