Category: Family Life

Herring family adventures, Jeep life, organic living. Karie Herring, Jeep aficionado, organic advocate and chef, details life as a reformed corporate woman, wife and motherhood to her twins and tween.

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Nintendo America Superb Customer Service

Customer service is vital for the success and or failure of any organization. Not to mention that customer service is a huge selling and marketing point to consumers. I am one to rant and rave about terrible customer service by companies and their employees. My recent trip to my local Mesa Starbucks resulted in me never visiting that location again due to an assistant manager (sad that managers have this poor customer service) by the name of Sean who treated me like I was a third rate citizen and argued with me despite my simple request. Sigh, I digress because my focus is about fantastic, exceptional, no questions asked customer service where an organization values their customers.

This Christmas Big G was given Guitar Hero Heroes of Rock for Christmas in addition to Sonic and The Dark Knight and other miscellaneous games on behalf of family to play on the Wii. Our family LOVES, let me stress, LOVES our Wii. We workout to the Wii Fit and love the sports games and Mario Cart to name a few favorites, and we enjoy a family game afternoon where we all get involved. So when Grant got these cool games to enjoy all for himself (and mom and dad when he’s not looking) we immediately wanted him to play the games and get his initial fix. However, the poor guy did not get to enjoy his game at all. When we loaded the discs into the Wii we received an error.

We thought nothing of the error at first because the boy had lost his privileges to the game console for a bit. Maybe the unit just needed a good cleaning and maybe had an excess of dust or just needed to be rebooted. After these trials had failed we resorted to our owner’s manual and then to the web. These fixes did not bring our poor Wii back to life.

Finally the hubs called Nintendo America to find a service center or more information to find out where we could get our Wii repaired. The service specialist on the other end of the line told us that we would be better off just sending our Wii straight back to Nintendo to have it repaired. Furthermore Nintendo added that the shipping to them and back to us was included along with the full refurbishing and repair of our Wii. They would tear apart, clean, rebuild and make sure the entire guts of our Wii are in proper working order for us to begin enjoying our Wii again.

More so, we sent our Wii in and within two weeks we receive our Wii delivered UPS to our doorstep. Nintendo America told us that the repair would be six weeks so the delivery was a great surprise to us. Now here is the best part…the cost. The cost was totally minimal, $92 for us to have our Wii cleaned, repaired and the guts all in working order and all the shipping costs. Needless to say I had to brag about how awesome and wonderful Nintendo was to us and our Wii.

Thank you Nintendo.

For anyone who has trouble with the Nintendo gaming consoles or their personal gaming unit be sure to contact Nintendo before you waste your time and money with the traditional repair centers.

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Healthy Homework Habits

Education is such a vital aspect in my family’s home that may be overlooked when considering the health and overall nature of fostering healthy learning. Our worlds are so technologically driven that even the most necessary evils, computers, e-books, and e-learning environments can be damaging or even cause a hindrance for our children’s learning curves.

Luckily my seven, soon to be eight, year old son has not reached the peak of technology based learning for which I am ever so grateful. He is still at the stage of the essential basics for communication both written and oral that will foster healthy learning for his teen and adult years and something I will rally for through those learning years. However, while he is still in his elementary learning in life his dad and I do what we can to create an environment at home that is conducive to his learning and would be parallel to his learning in the educational institution. So each night when he comes home we ask if he has homework, even though we know the answer, we feel that asking him promotes the desire to learn and excel.

When homework is confirmed we like to create a healthy learning environment. Now most parents may think to clean off the table, maybe clean their room as to be free of distractions, maybe turn off the TV, some form of “cleaning” to create a healthy homework environment is perceived by a majority of parents. But as parents to a school aged child, and two more on their way into the educational system, we have found that the healthiest environment is one of consistency. Here are a few tips we offer as parents for creating healthy homework habits for our child(ren):

  • Homework should be done immediately when they get home from school.

We think that by completing homework right away is the most effective. The material is still fresh in their minds, they have not had the opportunity to decompress from their learnings and thus let this vital knowledge slip away from loose play with friends and or by joining the mass of zombies who log onto video games.

  • Homework is completed in a quiet and or relaxed environment and or setting.

As a parent to three children, of which is a set of troublesome three year old twins, finding a quiet spot in the house is much like building a rocket to land on Pluto. Fuhghedaboutit! However, we do get the twins involved in the quiet time by asking their big brother to read out loud to them if he has a reading assignment. This is a very healthy habit as he gets into the routine of reading aloud to hear himself say words and learn to speak clearly in front of others. Not to mention the captive audience of a pair of rowdy troublemakers who will learn by example.

  • Get involved!

Sometimes this is easier said than done with parents. We have busy schedules that are driven by work, kids,extracurricular activities involving the kids, PTO meetings, travel, dinner, and the rigmarole of  everyday life. But if we ask our children, “does your homework involve….(fill in the blank)” whether it be reading, writing, spelling, and or math we are showing that we too care about their homework and their continued learning path and no separation exists between school and home. That the two are congruent with one another. In fact, years of research have shown that when parents are involved in a child’s learning, through homework and school interaction, that children have “Higher grades, test scores, and graduation rates, better school attendance, increased motivation, better self-esteem, lower rates of suspension, decreased use of drugs and alcohol, and fewer instances of violent behavior” (Michigan Department of Education: Education.com, 2007). Those reasons alone should be a powerful initiative to get involved with our children and their learning.

Whatever your habits may be, make sure they are healthy for your child’s learning. Kids thrive on routine and positive affirmations. Really their homework time should not be a burden for them or for you. What would you say are some of your family’s healthy homework habits? What would you share with other parents that may foster healthy homework habits that will have a positive effect on their child’s learning?

“THIS IS A SPONSORED POST ON BEHALF OF CLOROX AND WHILE I WAS COMPENSATED FOR THIS POST IN NO WAY DID THE COMPENSATION DETER OR INFLUENCE MY USE OR OPINION SURROUNDING THE USE OF CLOROX PRODUCTS.”
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AM Radio

When I say AM I do not mean before noon I mean the opposite of FM, or the free radio not delivered via satellite. For those of you who are under the age of 30 this is a completely foreign statement. In fact AM radio is completely foreign to my children. Having a sad and startling revelation that my children will not know what life is like before technology. Hell I can even throw out to my kids that I used to walk a mile in the cold and freezing snow to get to the bus stop for school. Which I did for about two days before my parents ponied up and bought me a car since they saw how inhumane it was to allow myself and my brother and sister to walk a mile, down hill, in the cold, wet, freezing snow. Actually it was because we pitched a fit, but regardless, no more walking in the snow.

Today’s children and as I said before most people under the age of 30 have no clue what life was like without some of our common and everyday household items and necessities, and I have to laugh because they have no idea what some of these items were and how they were so “hip” and “technologically advanced” for their time.

Moms and Dads of my generation and my parents generation please laugh with me as I recall listening to 8-track tapes, 45’s, records (known today as vinyl), then into cassette tapes, watching movies on the Saturday night special to BETA and then VHS, when my parents got our first color TV from Montgomery Wards, we had an Intellivision (from Intel mind you….the company so renowned for their microchips) and then my parents got us the first Nintendo some years later, we got our first microwave that was the size of a Volkswagen where we could microwave our popcorn and no longer make it over the stove, our phone was upgraded from a rotary dial to a touch tone dial.

Today we have cell phones, where my kids won’t have a clue what it is like to be cemented to a phone where your upgrade is a 20 foot cord from Radio Shack so you can walk to the bathroom from the kitchen to pee while talking to your BFF. Texting, well that used to be done via writing a note and we knew text as the small print on the bottom of the screen during your favorite show commonly known today as “closed captioning.”

The best part about cell phones is their evolution. From Motorola’s revolutionary brick to the new, hot, and one of the most wanted smartphones on the market that is just a bit larger than the size of a credit card, Motorola’s DroidX. Who would have thought that the phone with no more than a single hour of talk time alloted to it’s battery life could now allow you to touch the screen, download music, text, surf the web, and have a talk life of about five hours (if I am quoting this correctly.

Even more entertaining, my kids get in the car and are frustrated that the TV on their dual DVD screen in our Dodge Grand Caravan SXT is not a touch screen. They immediately touch it because they hope that if they touch it their favorite movie will start. Little do they know they have to ask mom (moi), well at least Grant is still aware of this, that mom controls the movie at the dash and in the cockpit of the van. They furthermore have no idea what life will be like without Google. Today at the quick flick of the fingertips you can find an answer to many of life’s puzzling questions, where in my day, you had to hit the books. You know the hard the cardboard and canvas binded, green, black, or navy colored books titled “Encyclopedia.”

Now here are my kids in action, having no clue what life will be like without the touch phone, touch screen, and what life would be like playing board games unless I absolutely force it upon them…but hey they don’t have an Angry Birds board game do they? I have a feeling it would not be as much fun as it is on the iPad.

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Unconditional Friendship

For so long I struggled with friendship with women. I felt that I was the problem; either I was too giving, or gave too much space, or was too aggressive. I am a Leo so friends have to contend with my ferocity and often seeming selfish posture or arrogance. But I began to see a pattern of friends that would gravitate towards me like moths to a flame. I use this analogy with intensity because I found that the weak would draw to me because of my ferocity, my aggressive-aggressive behavior, my no holds barred, take no prisoners, go fuck yourself sense of being.

I state weak and I mean this, not negatively, just in the sense that I am such a giving individual that people would draw on this in order to get over their insecurities, because I am so giving, loyal often in the face that loyalty is unmerited and then the vicious cycle of attacking me in order to fuel their own new sense of self worth. Needless to say, women in my life were few and far between. The beguiling idea of women as friends was a farce. Men were much easier to interact as a friend due to the lack of competitiveness that often sparks among women. For what reason women feel compelled to enrage in jealousy and competition is unbeknown to me, I still have to encompass this facet, an enigma by all means.

However, my life was saved in regard to subduing the beast that would mean I may never have any “girlfriends” in my life. I had met many women online in this last year, for which I can go months without speaking to them and know that if I needed to stay up all night they would be there with me. More so my life was further saved and yet bittersweet.

In April I met a young Asian woman that is striking in all aspects and had the personality of the Willy Wonka Chocolate Factory, offering flavors and varieties of fun, fashion, smell, and seriousness. Her name is Kasandra and I am honored to say she is a dear, dear friend of mine and without her I would not be the person I am today. She has had such a phenomenal impact on my life and she renewed my belief in women as friends, best friends, confidantes, and someone to be a sister from another mother. Each day was one where we would live vicariously through the other where I could relive being in my mid to late 20s again and she a mother. We would lean on one another for support, encouragement, singing praises of the other’s fashion forward sense and shameless beauty. We complimented each other in more ways than verbally praised.

Someone like her makes friendship all worth while. We never would feel jealousy, guilt, anger, or sadness toward the other. No matter what, no matter the circumstance, just pure understanding, the acceptance of each other and the different yet similar lives we both led. The basis that we shared a bond that could, will and always be deemed as a blessing.  Now I did mention bittersweet because on December 21st she boards a plane to Seoul, Korea to build and grow in her adventures in life. Selfishly I hate to see her go because she is such a fond part of my life, she knows me about as well as I know myself, and I delving as deeply into her psyche to know her sometimes better than she knows herself.

But with a heavy heart and all the love and luck I could muster, I wish my friend all the best as she opens and writes a new chapter in her life to share with others. Ever grateful, thankful, and as expressed previously blessed. I wish her all the best any one person can deserve as she fearfully and nervously ventures into a foreign world to sow her life oats. Someone like my friend Kas deserves a phenomenal experience and result as she is an amazingly beautiful and unparalleled human being. She brings joy, love, fun, and beauty to those she interacts with and one could only cherish and revel in the company she brings. Godspeed to you my friend and although you will be back in four short months, our mornings will be so opposite as when we would normally get Starbucks at our regular spot here in Tempe you will be either fast asleep or dancing the night away in a Thai or South Korean club depending on the day and your travels. I love you my friend and until we see each other again our bond will remain as strong as ever, I wish you all the best, thank you for being such a driving and wonderful part of my life.

“One of the most courageous things you can do is identify yourself, know who you are, what you believe in and where you want to go.” – Sheila Murray Bethel

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Love Notes and Kellogg’s Rice Krispies Treats

As a child I used to enjoy taking my lunch to school. All the way until about high school my mother would pack my lunch. I know, my mom rocks, or maybe I was just a huge nerd in that I would pack my lunch.

I took my lunch in part that I was not a fan of school lunches and the second part was that special token of love my mom would insert into my packed lunch at least once a week. Anticipating which day I would lay eyes on the written token of love from my mom, with her love note and a special treat in my lunch like Jello or even a candy bar.

Today I can do that same act of love with my son, G. I can pack his lunch and toss in a sweet treat and love note all in one with the Kellogg’s Rice Krispies Treats write on packaging. I can send a message to Grant during the day, if not in his lunch, maybe tossed into his back pack for a snack during the day or on his way home from school.

Kellog’s Rice Krispies Treats are a simple way to say I love you to your child where you know they will read your note just before they devour the sweet treat.

Not only a way to say I love you, but maybe a friendly reminder to your husband if you toss one in his work bag, lunch bag, or briefcase to pick up dog food or milk on the way home. Maybe toss a Kellogg’s Rice Krispies Treats into mom’s purse so she sees how much you love and appreciate her with a quick love note or a simple thank you.

What do you do to make your children’s lunches special? Do you drop love notes into their lunches, back packs, or jackets as a token of love and appreciation to them? Or maybe a friendly reminder to them or your spouse? What would you use the Kellogg’s Rice Krispies Treats write on notes for?

*I was compensated for this post however, the compensation in no way influences my opinion of the product as a clever way of communication on a snack package.
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Even at work I am still Mom

A few weeks ago I was approached about traveling for work. The news for me was elation, how could I not pass up the option to travel. Time away from home, flaunting my skills as an exceptional employee and my brains for business.

While floating in the clouds I had not yet grappled with the feelings that would soon flood over me while I was out of town.

Chosen as a SME, Subject Mattter Expert, to visit a sister site for training and implementation purposes I was on cloud nine. An ego lifter by all means in that management felt my work ethic and knowledge of the processes and procedures would be invaluable to others in the implementation process.

The Chad and I talked about the trip and we had initially anticipated travel for two weeks and home only on the weekends. However, the schedule was set so I would only be traveling one week. Great news for our family considering the twins have never been away from me for more than the work day.

Living almost purely on adrenaline during the first 24 hours of my travel I was halted on Monday evening and Tuesday morning with the overwhelming urge to return home.

The walls seemed to close in on me in the chokingly dull hotel room. Whilespacious, inviting and cozy, even equipped with a Select Comfort Sleep Number Bed at the Radisson, I still felt uneasy. Missing my family, hearing the sadness in my children’s voices when I spoke with them on the phone, and catching the appreciation in my husband’s voice when we exchanged our days events. The day in and day out of eating out while traveling for business, retiring to a lonely room, if you are not feeling uneasy my thought is that having a family is not for you, because I missed them all terribly. I missed the nightly chaos of the witching hour with dinner time and the laughs and giggles of three beautiful little faces. The morning rush and with Seth asking me and telling me all at the same time, “Sleep Good mama.” Grant hugging me and telling me he loves me and my baby girl rushing into me for a morning hug. Irreplaceable moments in life, no matter how small.

Even a trip to the Mall of America made me realize how much I missed my kids when I laid eyes on the Nickelodeon Universe as my first thoughts were “my kids would lose their silly minds at this!” Each store brought on thoughts of how I should get this or that for the kids.

Work time would blow by, the work day itself seemed to have never happened and at times while working as a SME I felt I did not have enough time in the day to spread the wealth of knowledge. But I know I would anticipate the end of the work day to rush at the free opportunity to talk to the loves of my life. I realized more and more how much I missed them, how much I appreciated them, how we all needed the break.

More so I realized that even when I was at work I thought about my kids, my husband, how I never stopped being a mom. I realized how over the last 10 years I have learned to juggle the fine art of woman, wife, employee, mother, and all the other jobs I have taken on. I also made one of the strongest comments to one of my co-workers while we were on site which is that no matter what job I may be working, my first and foremost job is always mom.

The job may not pay six figures and provide paid time off, no bonus or perks except in the form of watching the little people created. Their smiles, giggles, artful creations that resemble a form of abstract art at times; but the largest payoff is the hugs, kisses, love you’s that no employer can provide except in the job and working position as mom.

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InSTEP Jogging Stroller

About a year ago I began my weight loss journey. I can tell you that as a woman and mother one of the hardest things to do was find time with two newborn children to exercise.

Add to the fact that the twins were not always on the same schedule. They were but weren’t since each of them went to sleep differently, one was definitely more needy than the other. Which often posed a problem when I would try to schedule time to exercise and my favorite way to exercise was to walk and jog.

I read lots of jogging stroller reviews before finally settling on the right stroller for my needs as a mom and as a jogger. I came across the InSTEP Safari Swivel Jogging Stroller Review which was bold and honest and even addressed issues with the stroller that any parent, mother, and jogger would want to be addressed and brought to light.

What are some items you look for in reviews? What type of details are pertinent in your purchase? Do you look for the negatives that may arise in a product review and find it refreshing when the author addresses them? Or would you rather they hide issues with a product? I know I was pleased to see honesty positive and negative.

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Back to School with Seventh Generation

Now that the fall school schedule has resumed and our kids are socializing amongst their friends and teachers that they missed over the summer a lurking menace is socializing with our children as well.

GERMS!

Disgusting, sickening germs that our children spread around as they touch things, sneeze, cough, you name it, they touch and spread this menace in the classroom and bring home to the family.

To prevent the spread of germs our teachers request that the students bring in hand sanitizer and disinfecting wipes. But as a parent, I am rather particular about the disinfecting wipes, cleaners, and products my children use at home. Our family is especially conscious about the environment and the harmful chemicals in some disinfecting and cleaning products. Seventh Generation has an amazing line of cleaning, disinfecting, and paper products for your home that are environmentally friendly and the ingredients are botanically based, on chemically.

For back to school My Blog Spark and Seventh Generation is promoting their line of disinfecting cleaner, wipes, and products for a healthier home, classroom, and to help keep our children healthier while promoting a healthier world to live in by reducing our carbon footprint.

You too can enjoy the fruits of a healthier home on lots of levels by entering to win the prize pack offered by My Blog Spark and Seventh Generation! Here is what your goodies will look like:

To be considered for entry tell me what you do to help prevent the spread of germs with your child and would you like to use a product like Seventh Generation that is both healthier for your home and the environment.

(Comments like “pick me” and “enter me” and “I want to win” will disqualify your comment for entry into the giveaway.)

For complete entry options be sure to check out the rules page for details. Be sure when Tweeting you @SeventhGeneration to show your support!

CONTEST ENDS SEPTEMBER 25TH

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Middle Management

My kids crack me up. I used to get bent out of shape with the idea of having twins and all the work, especially with having an older child. I would worry about the influence of Grant on the midgets. Little did I realize that the gnomes would actually have an effect on G.

The Five Fish Since they have been in pre-school I have watched them evolve into such phenomenal little people. Bear with me while I brag that at the ripe age of TWO they can count to ten, sing their ABC’s and have total recall of select nursery rhymes. Not to mention they love to read, not as if they can recognize the words just yet, but they LOVE books and stories. In addition to all these wondrous learning milestones, they are peaking on social skills and their fluent ability to communicate.

What was once grunts, a few intelligible words here and there are now full on sentences. Now they can communicate what they want, when they want, how they want it. So much so that the two of them plot and scheme and even go as far as to involve their older brother and have him do some heavy lifting.

But when the situation is just the two of them. WATCH. OUT.

A typical conversation between the two of them, possibly myself, possibly big brother, and sometimes daddy:

“Ses, Ses, come puh hee…open Ses” as Sara is instructing her brother Seth to come help her pull open the fridge….of course the little muscle is such a sweetheart and helps her open the fridge. They then begin to loot the fridge like a pirate scoring booty.

“Mama…GO! Go mama, go fas, we go ho. GO NOW mama!” as my middle management, back seat driving son YELLS at me to pull into traffic, because clearly he knows when is a good time to pull into traffic to maneuver our way home.

“Saaawaaaa….Sawa, eat Sawa. Come sit down Sawa.” or my favorite “TimeOUT!” And each one will yell that to the other. What is even better is when the two of them feed the other. They remind me of a little old couple who is constantly managing the other.

“Grraaannnnttt….Gant, you sit hee.””Gant, no chaiwr Gant, you bensh.” The two middle managers instruct their older brother to sit on the bench for dinner while one of them chooses to sit next to him and the other occupies the chair in the area.

I have to admit these little people amaze me each and every day with how much they retain, how much they process, how they grow and evolve. While I miss the everyday being with them and playing with them and spending endless hours listening to them beat each other up, fight over toys, listen to whining about how midgets invaded a certain older brothers room….I would not want them to miss out on all the learning that takes place for my future management team when they go to school each day. How they manage each other, mom, dad, big brother, and of course the dog.

Sounds like it is time to look up how to apply for student loans and research the good business schools online, so I can enroll these up-and-comers.