royale reno-cation giveaway!

It's flying around the web like mad fire, Royale's biggest contest of the year is back and this year with even bigger and better prizes, and here at Rants n' Rascals we are inviting you to be a part of it.

The contest runs from March 15th to April 27th, so there are plenty of chances to win. And who doesn't want a chance to win $13,000 bucks to spend on home renovations? Along with a $7,000 Royal Caribbean Cruise for 2 to the "Jewel of the Seas!"

Ahhh what I wouldn't give for a cruise and a chance to get away from my kids.  (Shhhh I said that quietly so they wouldn't hear.) But seriously, every mommy or daddy could use some time away from home, to relax in the sun and have some much needed fun!

Along with the grand prize, 15 weekly prize packs will be given away to lucky winners from the Royal Luxury Bath Collection, including: soft and cuddly royal bath robes, personal heated towel rack, and new luxurious towels.  I know I could put any of those items to use when I take my "mommy moments" and soak in the tub to unwind.  You could, too, I bet!    


So what would you do with the grand prize?

To enter to win the reno-cation, go to http://www.royalepromotions.ca/renocation/Default.aspx?utm_source=MomCentral&utm_medium=banner&utm_content=various&utm_campaign=Renocation2010.  Play the game of the week and you will get 2 entries instead of one.  Now you can't beat that.

Thanks to our friends at Royale and Mom Central, I am hosting a mini Reno-Cation of my own and a opportunity for YOU (my readers.)  One lucky winner will get a $50 Cara gift card which is accepted at (Swiss Chalet, Montana’s, Milestones, Kelsey’s and Harvey’s) and a $50 Home Hardware card!! 

To enter simply put in the comments what you would you do with your own Reno-Cation!!  This contest is open to all Canadians, and again it will run until April 27th.  Good luck you guys!!!

Disclaimer: Rants n' Rascals would like to take this opportunity to thanks the good peeps over at Mom Central for this grand giveaway and allowing my readers to enjoy this contest and allowing me to be a part of this blog tour.

step 2 motorcycle review goes vrooom vroooom!

I recently had an opportunity thanks to the wonderful people over at CSN Stores to do a review on the Step 2 Motorcycle and I have to tell you, when it first came I clear thought Pickleboy was going to jump right out of his skin!

PB just turned four.  His birthday was March 11th and he could not wait to try this toy out, and was excited when it came a couple of days ago.

Here is a picture of him with the box before we opened it.

When we opened the box, everything was there in plastic.  It appeared pretty simple, despite the fact there were instructions, we didn't actually need them, it was that easy.  Both FD and Pickle sat on the floor to check the parts out together.

Now upon first glance the product looks pretty solid, something every mom loves to see.  Durable plastic, red, comes with stickers to make it look more like a motorcycle once it's together, with headlights and tail lights, reflectors and what not.  It took FD approximately ten minutes to get the entire thing put together, wheels and all.  I was pretty impressed.

Here is a pic of the bike finished.

The wheels are hard plastic, and the bike is not nearly as big as I thought it would be.  PB is almost three feet, he has short legs though and so it's perfect for him now but he will quickly out grow this.  The specs are 25.75" H x 16.75" W x 8.75" D, it should have been made a bit bigger especially for placing a 3+ age on the box, and it would have been nice if the steering wheel turned a little making maneuvering easier.

The Result?

My son absolutely loves this toy!  And for the price $29.99 you cannot go wrong, even if they do grow out of it, they can lift their legs, push their feet and go vrooooooooooom.  PB has been on it since we got it and even carries it upstairs to his room to park it (in his garage) he says so nobody can steal it.  And being that PB has Cerebral Palsy, one thing I instantly noticed an love was that it helps with his learning to balance which is great.

You can read what other moms and dads are saying about this toy and about CSN Stores HERE.  Shipping was fast, and I live in Canada.  I got emails giving me tracking numbers, telling me when it would be here and how long.  Customer Service at CSN Stores is fantastic and if you have any problems with your items, ship them back and they are happy to replace them.  Now that is good!

All in all The Step 2 Ride on Motorcycle is a great product and would make a great gift for any child.  If you have a tall 3 year old you might want to look at something with a bit more height, but shorter 3 year old / 4 year olds are sure to have a blast on this little beast of fun!

Disclaimer: I wrote this post as part of a review for CSN Stores, and I was compensated with the product to which I reviewed.  This post was written by myself and is my honest opinion of the product discussed in the post. I wish to thank CSN Stores for allowing me this opportunity to share this with my readers.

Twilight Saga: Eclipse Trailer Sneak Peek

I saw Twilight. Loved it! Saw New Moon, and read the books. Loved it! I am currently anticipating the third installment, Eclipse.

Now I wish I could tell you I love the books and movie because of Robert Pattison who plays Edward.  Or sexy  (for his age eye candy) but I'm old enough to be his ahem (sister) Taylor Lautner.  But I would be lying.

I love the Twilight series because of the stories.  I love Vampire stories.  I grew up reading and adoring Anne Rice's Interview with a Vamp, the way she weaved her stories.  What I didn't like was how long the books were and how much unnecessary detail sludged them up.

Stephenie Meyer's is brilliant in the way that she doesn't over write or over describe something, she keeps you connected to the characters and even characters you are supposed to not like, you find yourself wanting to know more.

I will admit I am looking forward to seeing Pattison in his new movie starting Friday "Remember Me" because it looks like a interesting tale.  But for right now I'm a fan of Twilight because the story captivates me, keeps me interested and wanting to know more about Bella, Jake, Edward and the Cullan's.

just yank them all I say: random tuesday thoughts

It's Tuesday and you know what that means. It's time for randomness according to one of my "fav" bloggers Keely at the UNmom.

I woke up at 6 am, yesterday morning in such extreme pain, I actually cried hard, like a baby wanting a bottle. I wailed and wailed, telling hubby I could not stand the pain anymore, it had to stop.  FD called the hospital but of course they did not return our call - yacklickinfartmongers!  Did they not understand how I was feeling?

So once again I drugged myself up with Advil and T3's (taken together) which was the only thing helping the excruciating knife wielding pain in my ear.  Well that and my contemplated thoughts of taking hubby's tools and just yanking the little bastards out that were causing me so much pressure in my skull that if the kids asked me again for another drink, something to eat, another drink or something to eat, I was going to replay for them scenes from the exorcist - the part where the girl turns ugly, spins her head around and vomits green puke all over the walls!

This pain had to stop.

It finally did.  FD got a call from a local dentist at 8 o'clock saying they needed to see me right away.  So in we went.  I was prepared to rip off their heads if they gave me a lecture as to why I hadn't been to the dentist in over ten years.

Hey I was a UBC kid.  That should be explanation enough.  If you broke that is where you go to allow student dentists to hover over you with their drills, salivating at the chance to put holes through your cheeks for better grades.  It's torture I tell you!

But they didn't lecture me.  Instead the Dentist, an older and well -- rather sexy man in his fifties held my hand and told me... "We can save your teeth.  They aren't that bad.  Some have to come out, but we can save them."

When he smiled every bone in my body melted and I almost believed him.  Sorry huny, but man the dentist was hot!  I like older men.  Move over Shaun Connery.

They worked on my mouth, taking x-rays, which they didn't charge me for.  Then after putting needle after needle in my mouth, they decided my teeth needed to be cleaned, and again they didn't charge me for it, so how could I say no?  Nobody refuses a free dental cleaning, right?

Some twinkie not even old enough to babysit my soon to be eleven year old began scraping the crap off my teeth, over ten years of build up on my pearly (yellows).  Did it hurt?  Feck - yeah!  I actually had no idea how much calcium deposits rested on my teeth and by the time she was done.

I looked at FD and told him anything oral he wanted done to him would happen in the next life time because my jaw felt like crushed bone.  He wasn't thrilled to hear that - but I'm sure our marriage will be fine (wink wink).

The shots they gave me were not nice.  They didn't hurt but had adrenaline in them which induced an anxiety attack which I wasn't prepared for, but I managed it.  Then came time for the tooth extraction.  Dreamy Dr. Dentist couldn't believe how hard it was to take the tooth out because I could still feel it.  He continued putting in needle after needle until my face felt like a pumpkin.  Finally, he cut off the top of the tooth and put the needle directly into center of it and wala... yes I said wala, it's a neat word.  The tooth area was frozen and he wrenched it out of my mouth!

No more ear aches.

No more pain in my neck.

No more swelling.

I was free!

Now I'm just waiting for the tooth to heal and trying not to get a dry socket.  Ouch!  those kinda hurt worse than the tooth ache.  The dentist showed me why I was having so much pain.  The tooth was severely abscessed.  Nice - and I brush!

I go back next week for a follow up and more cleaning.  He said he won't be there but his sons will.  Mmmm I'm thinking well-- if they look anything like their dad.  I just might enjoy going to see a dentist for the first time in my life.

Happy Random Everyone!

google chrome puts a smile on my face

For the past week or so I have been having internet problems. We moved the computer. The signal is strong (portable by Bell) upstairs and the dlink router seems to working correctly. So why on heavens earth was I still having problems connecting to the Internet?

I tried everything. I reset the modem, configured things properly. My laptop has 4GB of ram, 64bit, Windows 7 (maybe it's Windows?) Nawww it can't be. I have over 300GB of disk space, more than my 80GB on the home back up computer which FD (Forgetful Dad) is using.

I was stumped. Not only stumped but downright furious! How on earth am I expected to work this way? I have to blog, my readers will miss me... (okay I like to think you will miss me) and I have emails to answer and deadlines to meet for blog campaigns and so forth.

I did not. I repeat DID ABSOLUTELY F*%$ING NOT want to go back to using IE, even with their new release of IE8 which I tried but only because it came pre-installed on my HP. What other option did I have?

None, when I discovered the problem wasn't my connection but FIREFOX!

Heart broken, because I have been an avid Fox user for the past several years, lately they seem to be having trouble, especially ever since I upgraded to 3.6. I love their add-ons, it's where my friendbar lives so I can post to both Twitter and Facebook and keep up on what everyone is doing. How could this happen, and what the hell in hand basket was I going to do now.

That's when my brother told me to try out Google Chrome.

I know I don't need to tell most of you net users what Chrome is. It's Google's new web browser (okay not so new) it came out before IE8 did last year. New to me though and I hate change, especially when it comes to thinks like my browser, because let's face it. You can have all the space you want, all the ram you want, but without a fancy and fast car to drive the shit stuff around. There just isn't a point.

Well I think I just found my RX8!

Chrome is FAST!  No seriously I mean it's fast.  I have been using it for two days now and I am in love.  The user interface is simple with one search bar where you can search or type the http addy you want and get the results you want quickly.

Do they have add-ons though like FF?

Yes, yes they do.  Their bookmarking is easy, add on's similar to the Fox without the lag time or slow down issues that FF seems to be having lately and like IE, Chrome has separate tabs, so if and when one crashes the others are okay.  Not like FF which completely goes into critical overload.

If you haven't used Chrome yet, give it a try.  Their logo reminds me of that mimick game "Simon Says", kinda not the best to look at and I miss the fox wrapped around the world.  But I wanted to share how much I really enjoy Chrome, and besides having another browser (besides using IE) because honestly who really wants to use IE LMAO.  Well it doesn't hurt.

I'm not sure when FF will be back up and running, but for now I'm enjoying playing with Chrome and it's lightening quick speed without connection problems.  I'm paying for the Internet monthly, so hey it's much nicer when I actually get to enjoy it for both work and play.