The Downsides of Upgrading Phones

Sooner or later, you will need to make friends with Disappointment. ~Dr. SunWolf

For many years I had a prepay flip phone. I had a plan that is no longer offered, but as long as I paid it the balance so that it was $100 once a year I was grandfathered in to pay 10 cents a minute for calls and 10 cents per text. I did not text and the most I ever paid in one year was around $50, most years between $20-$30. We still had a home land line and I did most of my chats on that. My cell phone was for meeting up with people at the right place and time and emergencies. The phone number was switched over to me from an old work phone number my husband had.

Now I am not particularly sentimental about phones, but phone numbers...well, that is another story. We have tried to keep the first number my daughter memorized when she was turning four years old. My husband was offered to go to the tech conference at Disney World that year. In preparation, my daughter and I began taking long walks to build her stamina and while we walked we worked on her memorizing her address and her daddy's phone number, because even though I could not imagine her getting separated from us by anything, I wanted to be sure that she knew our address, our full names, and how to contact us by phone.

So, we had that number ported to my prepay flip phone, which was no small feat that that time. I used the same phone with the same number for several years.

About three years ago, we decided to let go of the landline and go cellular only. So I got a smart phone, Samsung Galaxy S5, that I loved! The Princess got the prepay flip phone. She was not allowed to text or just chat on it, but it was to be used for meeting up with us at the right place and time.

We replaced the $20 flip phone I previously had for several years because it fell out of her pocket as she was riding her bike and a car ran over it. I keep thinking that one was a replacement of another that got ruined or lost, but she does not remember. Anyway, the last time we needed to replace it, there were no prepay flip phones, instead there was a $30 small touch screen phone that had wi-fi capability and very little storage by today's standards; I think it qualifies as the cheapest "smart phone" possible. She cracked the screen in the first six months, and she could have replaced it with her allowance or gift money, but she decided to just live with it.

A few years ago, my husband and I never had it in our minds that she would be allowed to have a smart phone as a teenager, but that is when we had a land line. Things have changed, tech has changed, and our plans had to change also.

My husband just bought a phone earlier this year to be his personal phone, as he felt his work phone was becoming the company way of keeping surveillance on their employees. He is definitely an iPhone guy, but I like Android. He tried to convinced me to get a new phone then also. Now I was still quite happy with my Galaxy s5 except for one thing: not enough internal storage. I use my phone to help me stay on track with my life and chores, save money, and monitor and limit the Princess' online activity so it has several shopping apps, Instagram, a bill reminder app (very necessary with all the additional stuff from the Queen Mother), and a few games that give me something to do when I am waiting with nothing to do. The 16 gig internal space was just not enough anymore and what apps I could move to the external card would move back to internal with every update. At least once a week to daily, I was moving over pictures and apps to the external card so all my apps would work...so that my phone would work...so that my life would work.

You may recall that we also had found a senior friendly flip phone for the Queen Mother and she was added to our service plan. That made three on the plan.

I was ready to give in and the prepay was coming due the first week of July, so I decided to just do it. The Princess would get my Galaxy s5 and I would get the Galaxy s8, which has 64 gig internal storage with the ability to add an external card, but I was not as thrilled about it because of the curved edges being harder to protect  You see, I do not go for the pretty phone cases but for ones that will really protect the phone. My s5 did not even have a scratch!

So we added the Princess to unlimited phone and texting.... Hold that thought.

Actually, the guy at the store made an error in the phone number we were trying to have port over from the prepay service...the number we have passed along in the family for over a decade. None of us caught it, so she really could not use the phone. It took some time to track down what went wrong and go back to the store to have it corrected, but since Thursday morning it has been up and running.

Back to that thought....I have access to all of her accounts email, Instagram, and Google Hangouts, so I can see everything, but there are three things that I would not see: texting, calls going in and out, and the actual conversation. However, I found a free app that leashes her phone to mine so I see all her text conversations and who is calling her. That is about the best I can do.

Oh, and I cannot tell you how much I really hated getting the Galaxy s8. I would have preferred getting another s5 with more internal storage. I ordered a cover like the one I had for on my s5, but I did not realize it would take three weeks to get it. (I am assuming it is coming from China.) So, I have tried to be careful with the phone, but for whatever reason, Galaxy made the entire phone with a glass skin. Had I looked more at the reviews I would have probably thought hard about going with an iPhone. The glass at the back of the s8 cracks very easily and the entire phone is quite slippery, but I thought all would be well once I got the case. Well, I still do not have a case and tonight I dropped it on a brick walkway and it hit a corner. The front screen is fine, but the back has one crack from the corner to the fingerprint pad. Not terribly bad and the case will cover most of the damage, but it does make the phone less water resistant. As I wrote, my s5 did not even have a scratch after three years, so I am a bit bummed that I did this after having the new phone for only eight days.

I miss my s5! Yes, I do!

My Lord, help me keep my expectations in perspective, one small crack in a phone should not have so much power over my feelings! I have spent too much thought on something I cannot change. Thank you for making heaven a place that does not have such concerns.  

Product Review: NERF Rebelle Bow

The tween years for a girl is a time when she loses interested in toys, but my daughter took to the NERF Rebelle Heartbreaker Bow as if it was the most wanted gift on her Christmas list, even though she had even thought of it! She has been out with her friends practicing for accuracy or just chasing and shooting at each other for fun ever since she received it. I have had to buy replacement darts because they do get damaged or lost eventually.

Now NERF Rebelle products are now something that every girl in the neighborhood wants. My daughter rarely has the opportunity to be first to start a trend, but this really is a fun toy. I know because I have shot my daughter with her own Nerf darts several times! I did have to remind her that it is because I am a Bzzagent that I could give it to her for free; this I tell her so I can get some play it with it.

My daughter tells me that it shoots darts really far and our cats like to capture falling darts...and take off with them, which ends up with giggly girls chasing after cats to retrieve darts. My daughter thought the funniest thing was when a neighbor boy shot it at her with her own bow and he could not hit her with a dart. She said it was like she had an invisible force-field. I just told I was not surprised since it was not made for boys.

Shhh! I predict refill darts in her stocking at Christmas time.

Product Review: Simple Truth

As a Bzzagent, I received a few of Simple Truth products that can be found at some Krogers, but as I found my closest store does not have most of the products available.

First we tried the cucumber melon soda that we received in the mailer. My daughter thought it had an off taste reminiscent of castor oil. I thought it was a light refreshing taste, but it would not be my favorite and it was a bit too sweet.

With coupons for free product, I was able to get the Vanilla Almond Milk. My daughter loved it probably for the same reason I did not like it. It was way too sweet. The idea of a child adding it to  sweetened cereal makes me cringe.

I liked the taste of the Fudge Graham Flavor, but again I thought it was too sweet. It really did not qualify as a nutrition bar by my standards.

I did like the Natural Sweet Potato Chips but if they had not been free I probably would not buy them as they are a bit pricey for not even being organic.

I did have a free coupon for frozen berries, but my Kroger did not have any and I noticed that they often move some of the Simple Truth and Private Selection products around so much that they are rarely in the same place from month to the next. I was disappointed that I could not find the place where the Simple Truth Frozen Berry Medley was supposed to be and when I asked I was told where they usually are, although I have never seen them there, and that they could not keep them in stock because they sell so well. After three weeks of looking for them, I gave up.

Product Review: Glade Expressions Collection

Who doesn't like their home to have a pleasing fragrance? As a Bzzagent, I was given the opportunity to try two Glade Expressions products free in exchange for this review. I chose Pineapple & Mangosteen for the oil diffuser with the wood grain décor because I love tropical scents. It is described as a blend of freshly cut pineapples and hint of tangy mangosteen, creamy coconut and passionflower. The first ten days the fragrance was quite strong and yummy smelling--it made me crave pineapple. Later it was a nice subtle fragrance that I prefer. The diffuser has a pleasant look and I like that the oil cannot spill.

For the fragrance mist, I wanted to use Lavender & Juniper Berry, however after hunting for it in six different stores, I could not find it. I could only find that scent in the oil diffuser. I ended up getting the Pineapple & Mangosteen in the spray as well. Had I known it was going to be impossible to find I would have switch fragrances using the Lavender for the diffuser and Pineapple for the spray.

As fragrances go, there are only four from which to chose, but you are likely to find at least one you will like--unless you live in my area and are looking for Lavender & Juniper Berry in the fragrance mist, that is.

Generally, I enjoyed the fragrance, but I am not one to like scented products because of potential toxins, but S. C. Johnson & Son has made efforts to avoid known carcinogens and other harmful chemicals. Still, I have concerns about using any fragrance continually, but it is refreshing now and then.

Product Review: Luster Premium White

As a BzzAgent, I received Luster Premium White to try for my honest review. First of all, I have to confess that I have never used a teeth whitening product other than toothpaste now and then. I have never really seen much improvement before and I have four teeth that tend to be darker than the others.

There are a few things unique about this product: each treatment takes only a few minutes, a special light is used during the treatment, and it is not suppose to make teeth sensitive. It has twenty treatments in the kit with each treatment taking just a few minutes. These treatments can be done one after the other taking about an hour in total or can be done over time. I did ten treatments when I first received the kit and then the remaining ten treatments (five in each) in two sessions of a week apart.

After brushing my teeth I used the special mouthwash, which takes only about ten seconds, to cleanse the teeth and prepare them. Then I painted on the whitening formula being careful not to get it on the lips or tongue. Afterward the light was placed in front of my teeth while "smiling" so that the treated teeth are well exposed.

After the first ten treatments, I noticed that all the treated teeth were lighter, but the four darker teeth had the most noticeable improvement. Although still darker than the others, much less so. The following five treatments did not show as much improvement nor did the last five.

I was very pleased, since I have sensitive teeth, that it did as promised in not making my teeth more sensitive, but I was a bit disappointed with how many treatments it took to see improvement and I wish it had been more effective. Still, I was very pleased that it only takes a little time to do as much as it did.

I would recommend this product for anyone with sensitive teeth wanting to use a convenient tooth whitening system at home, but it may take more than one kit to get the desired results depending on how effective it is in each individual case.

If you are interested in getting Luster Premium White for yourself LUSTERBZZ is the 20% discount code to use at the Luster Premium White website.

Review: Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead

I received the Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead kit for review as BzzAgent. The first odd thing is that I was asked if I had an extracting type of juicer in opposition to the blender type. I have both a Green Machine and a Vitamixer. I don't know how one could do the program without an extraction juicer so my first question would be: If I already have that kind of juicer, what would be the benefits of this particular program over whatever juicing I am already doing? From that standpoint, I saw no unique benefits.

Getting past that, I tried to put myself in the place of a person eating the average American diet, when I popped in the DVD to watch Joe Cross buying produce from roadside vendors, although I could not help but notice that Joe did not ask as to what pesticides or fertilizer they used on their plants, which was a concern for me. However, there are references to the benefits of organic produce also within the material. Amidst educational and colorful cartoons to add comical relief, Joe describes his plan to fast on fresh juice only for sixty days. Everyone he interviews thinks he is crazy and it is sensationalized with that reality TV flair that is very popular today, so it was entertaining and inspirational in that way. Joe had been ill and overweight for years and after many interviews, he finds Phil who not only has his same autoimmune disease and general health condition but later takes on the same challenge. After their respective fasts, Joe and Phil both look healthier, of course, but they also stress that they needed to make lasting changes in their lifestyles.

I think the Joe Cross' introduction to juice fasting with the RebootYourLife program is wonderful for those who have never considered fasting, who have never considered that they are eating themselves sick, and who do not make the connection between food and illness. He gives an encouraging and informative presentation. I agree with the premise of it, because I was also ill and since have been a health advocate for many years. I have even done many juice fasts and water only fasts over the years including a water-only fast once a day every week. I am well aware of the detoxing and healing benefits of fasting and juicing and organic foods. With this in mind, perhaps anyone reading this can understand that I personally did not find any of the information, juicing recipes, or drinking the juice itself to be anything new or groundbreaking, but I appreciate his style in introducing people to juicing.

Comparing Organic Butters

He asked water, and she gave him milk; she brought forth butter in a lordly dish. ~Judges 5:25

Mmmmm! I love butter...real butter...organic butter...made from the cream of pasture-fed cows. No hydrogenated oils. Higher in Omega 3 oils. No chemicals. No denaturing processing. In the last few decades, people have been warned about health issues associated with butter, but statistically there is more heart disease since the marketing of butter substitutes. I truly believe real butter is far healthier than any alternative available. (You can read some info on why here.) A recent phone conversation with a friend reminded me that I have not only preferences for butter but between butters as well.

The first time I began to realize the difference in the butters, I made two batches of Snowballs cookies, which actually go by other names like Pecan Sandies, Russian Tea Cookies, Mexican Wedding Cookies, and several others. The first batch came out light colored and held the shape beautifully, but the second one was dark and flattened somewhat. All the ingredients were the same, the oven was the same setting, the cookie pan was the same, and it was placed in the same position in the oven. I had used butter for both batches but different brands. What happened reminded me of the time my mother and I were making these cookies and we planned to double the recipe, but my mother had doubled the butter and none of the other ingredients so the dough flatten quickly in the oven. We rescued that batch by taking out the warm dough and doubling the other ingredients. From that I learned that softer butters required a bit more flour to produce the desired result, but with the right butter, there was no guess work involved.

There are three main companies for organic butters available in my area. They are Horizon, Organic Valley, and Woodstock Farms. The latter two I can purchase from my favorite health food store, but the first is not carried there and I have found it at Kroger. I would rather buy my butter from the local health food store, but there are two reasons that I buy Horizon organic butter from Kroger more than the others.

First is that Horizon butter is the best of the three for baking. As a table butter, it has good flavor and is a bit harder to cut, but this is what makes it an excellent butter for baking. I am against using anything with hydrogenated oils and I do not fear saturated fats. (Actually, I wrote an article on this a few months ago that there is no study able to support the medical mainstream hype that saturated fats are bad. Actually, studies have shown quite the opposite.) My favorite cookies, biscuits, and pie crusts are butter rich, so it does make a huge difference which butter I use!

The other reason I buy Horizon at Kroger is because the store nearest to me usually orders in larger quantities than will be sold before the expiration date. Kroger has a policy to mark down foods three days before the "sell by" date. If I watch the dates, I can buy the butter on a "Manager's Special" at about half off the regular price. I once bought $75 of butter ($150 worth), which was 25 pounds. That may sound crazy to some, but I have two large freezers so I place the butter in freezer bags in one of them and use it as needed--and frozen butter is perfect for making pie crusts! The next expiration date for the salted butter is May 5th at the nearest Kroger, so I will be making a point to shop there on the 2nd or 3rd of May.

Although, Horizon is my favorite overall, Organic Valley is my preference for table butter. It is a softer butter making it easy to cut, it melts at a lower temperature making it easier to spread, and it is a bit sweeter than the others. It has a wonderful melt in your mouth feel too. However, it is also the most expensive of the three, which means I rarely buy it unless on sale and there is a coupon for it at the same time. That has not happened in a very long time.

Woodstock Farms' butter is something in between the two. It is not a good for baking as the Horizon, but better than Organic Valley. It is not as flavorful as Organic Valley for serving at the table either, but easier to cut than Horizon. It also costs less than either one at the suggested retail price, if none are on sale, but I rarely buy butter unless it is on sale.

Organic butters tend to go on sale a few times a year, particularly in November at the beginning of the holiday baking season, but that is not really a factor for me if I have bought bulk quantities of butter at marked down prices. I mean, I just never see butter at half price during a sale, although when combined with a coupon, it could be close and I do like the best butter presented at a holiday feast with my multi-seed whole wheat rolls and flaky biscuits.

~ My Lord, I ask your blessing on the organic farmers who have chosen to use more laborious and time-consuming and more expensive methods of farming while shunning the use of synthetic chemicals. ~

Product Review: Private Selection

As a BzzAgent, I was given three coupons to cover the total cost of one frozen appetizer, one frozen pizza, and one frozen dessert of my choosing out of the Private Selection® line of products found at my local Kroger store in exchange for this review. One thing I can say in favor of the Private Selection® products is they have wholesome ingredients, but individual items can be disappointing.

The appetizer, Southwestern Style Chicken Trumpets, was the tasty favorite of all three items. There were nine with a suggested serving of three per person. They were easy to prepare by placing on a baking sheet in a 400° oven for about 15 minutes. The trumpets were spicy enough to be flavorful, but not too spicy that my daughter would not eat them. In fact, she really liked them.

For the pizza, we chose the Margherita Napolitana. It was described as a "thin and flaky crust topped with grape tomatoes, perlini mozzarella, basil and stravecchio parmesan." I will say here that when it was described as a thin and flaky crust, it was very accurate. The perlini mozzarella was basically small blobs of cheese scattered on the pizza--I would not even call it a pizza actually. It bakes on the oven rack at 425° in just 8 to 9 minutes. It was suggested to serve three people. I suppose if one is on a low carbohydrates diet, this would be a good choice as it was tasty, but not filling and certainly not enough as an entrée for three people. I would put this in the appetizer category personally, cut in small squares.

Chocolate Dipped Cream Puffs were the dessert pick my daughter made. The 18-count box suggested serving of four per person and described its contents as "Delicious Bite-size Cream Puffs Filled with Whipped Dairy Cream, Sugar and Pure Vanilla and Drenched with a Chocolate Coating." These simply need about 30 minutes to thaw and serve. Anything coated with chocolate is good, but these definitely could have been so much better than they were. I thought they were basically tasteless, except for the chocolate. My husband, who did not read the box, said that they needed more vanilla and I concur. The vanilla flavoring advertised on the box is not noticed much on the taste buds.

Product Review: Kroger's The Truly Awesome™ Homestyle Chocolate Chip Cookies

As a BzzAgent, I accepted the campaign for Kroger's The Truly Awesome™ Homestyle Chocolate Chip Cookies in exchange for an honest review. My daughter and I opened a box just minutes after its arrival and enjoyed them with a glass of cold milk. These cookies are almost "sandy" in texture with a light flavor, which make them an excellent dip-in-milk cookie but it lacks that butter-rich, softer texture that we prefer in a chocolate chip cookie. On the box, one of the suggestions is to microwave the cookies for a few minutes for that fresh out of the oven sensation. I do not own a microwave (I just do not believe in radiating my food) so I do not know how well that would work.

On the front of the box there are three claims and I would like to address these in particular:

CHOCOLATE CHIPS ARE THE #1 INGREDIENT
According to the list of ingredients on the side of the box, that is true. This is one of the best features of the cookies. You just cannot go wrong with having lots of chocolate chips in a chocolate chip cookie.

MADE WITH REAL BUTTER
Although there is butter in the ingredients, it is low on the list: chocolate chips, flour, margarine, sugar, brown sugar, butter, eggs, leavening, natural flavor, and salt. Did you notice the amount of margarine was far more than the amount of butter? It seems to me that real butter was added only as a sales gimmick.

NO ADDED PRESERVATIVES OR ARTIFICIAL FLAVORS
Technically, as stated on the list of ingredients, citric acid is a preservative, although a natural one, which is added the making of the added margarine. I suppose I am being nick-picky to point out that margarine itself is an unnatural ingredient, but then the claim was not that the cookies were all natural.

On the back of the box:

JUST LIKE HOMEMADE, THESE IRRESISTIBLE COOKIES ARE BURSTING WITH CHOCOLATE CHIPS AND ARE MADE WITH RICH, CREAMY BUTTER FOR AN OVER-THE-TOP MELT IN YOUR MOUTH CHOCOLATE, CRUNCH DELIGHT.
They are really selling the butter! Too bad they did not use enough butter to give it that real homemade quality. Most of that butter flavor must be coming from the butter flavoring added in the margarine.

Overall, I would not refuse to eat one if offered--the chocolate chips are definitely the better selling point--but this one is not a cookie I would choose to buy. Putting aside that they are not organic, at $2.79 for a package of eight large cookies, it just seems a tad pricy for cookies made mostly with margarine and just a smack of butter.

I also have a suggestion because the packaging is not appealing, not at all. It is plain and does not sell the product. Also, blue is a color that suppresses hunger--ever notice that no natural foods are blue? Blue and white are not the colors to use predominately on a food package to get people to want to buy it, even if they are the store's logo colors.

Product Review: Hill's® Science Diet® Senior 11+ Age Defying™ Cat Food

Everything I know I learned from my cat: When you're hungry, eat. When you're tired, nap in a sunbeam. When you go to the vet's, pee on your owner. ~Gary Smith

As a rule, I really do not like changing my pets' food because it often causes problems, even when I do it very gradually. You see, my pets have eaten organic pet food for years; I have also done a raw food and bones diet and even made soft food, when I had a particularly elderly dog that lived far beyond her time so the conventional veterinarian told us: What I Learned from an Aging Dog.

Because I have a 15-year old cat, I accepted an offer for a free bag of Hill's® Science Diet® Senior 11+ Age Defying™ Cat Food as a Bzzagent Campaign, along with some $3.00 off coupons to give away to my cat-loving friends. I am a somewhat familiar with Science Diet because it was recommended to us when one of our dogs was suspected to have developed food sensitivities or allergies to his usual food and just a short-term switch of foods seem to do well for him, but we always went back to an organic and natural diet with all our pets as those seem to do the best for them.

It was with mixed feelings of apprehension and hope that I slowly began mixing in this new Science Diet Cat Food to my cat's regular organic food, without changing anything else in his routine. It was obvious that he liked the taste of it, but he is not that discerning between what tastes good and what is good for him. He began to have some diarrhea, which he has been known to have upon occasion, but this symptom worsened as the amount of the new food increased and instead of fewer "accidents" outside of the cat box, which were rare, he has had more. I have decided to place him back on the previous food and watch him to be sure he does not get dehydrated. His energy level also seemed to lower a bit, but I think he will return to his typical give-me-attention-NOW-or-I-will-annoy-you-to-death self in a day or two after his system has cleared out the new food.

I would like to say that just because my cat had an undesirable reaction does not mean that every cat will. I am a strong believer that there is no one diet that fits all and it just could be that my cat is either healthier than most older cats (as he seems to be) and that one of the supplements such as the magnesium oxide, which has a laxative effect, was too strong for him because it was not in his previous food, or it could be that he has an allergy to one or more of the ingredients. It seems I end up with sensitive animals in that respect.

Even though this new food is not working out well for my cat, I have had better results with Science Diet with other pets in the past and I encourage you to visit to the Science Diet website. There you can sign up for a chance to win the Spa Resort Vacation, take the "Is Your Cat as Old as You Think?" quiz, and get a $3.00 off coupon for this product!

~ My Lord, thank you for the giving me the opportunity to try new things so that I am aware of them, even when they do not work out for me, because it might be exactly what someone else needs and I can pass on the information. ~