If you follow me on Twitter then you have seen me tweeting with the hashtag #DisneySMMoms.  SM stands for Social Media, in case you had other things in mind.  I’m going to a Social Media Moms Celebration at Disney World (check the badge to the left) and I’m really excited because #1 I love Disney World and #2 I get to meet other women in social media.  This time my family is going with me and my mother too.

Like my other recent trip to Disney World, it’s tricky packing the right clothes for business and pleasure while still being comfortable enough to navigate the parks and since it is a media event and it’s highly possible to be on film, fashionable and cute too.   I decided on my outfits last week, but still needed to pick up a few things, so I went shopping yesterday.

My first stop was TJ Maxx.  It’s always hit or miss, but if you hit it good there are deals to be had.  I hit it on a good day.  I went there for a black skinny belt and found a Michael Kors belt for $14.99.  Nice, because I hate paying a lot of money for a belt.  Next I needed a container for my puppy’s toys and I found one to match my living room.  Check; that was off my list.   I really should have left then because that’s all I had come to buy.  But you know TJ Maxx is perfect for finding things that you never knew you needed, like a new brush for the puppy.    And body scrub, I could always use that.   Didn’t I just lose my small umbrella?  I found another one to replace it.    Hmmm…we could use another piece of luggage for our trip and how about I found matching luggage to my laptop bag that I bought online months ago?  That was just spooky.   TJ Maxx is like that; sometimes it’s a bust, but sometimes they have everything you need want didn’t know you needed, but had to have anyway.

Next door was Old Navy.  Ugg, I hate that store.   It has a certain smell when you walk in, you know?  I think I identified it as rubber.  It’s all those cheap flip-flops giving off fumes; they are on display now even though it’s freezing outside.   I went in there because I needed some sweat pants for the drive to Disney World; I don’t really own any sweat pants except for cute Lucky Brand capris and it’s too cold to wear them.   Old Navy, as usual, was a bust for me.   The sweat pants were too big and too much money for how cheap they looked.

Gap, big brother to Old Navy, would have some sweat pants I thought.   Since the puppy was at daycare and I had time to spare, I went to the mall, thinking that I would go straight to Gap and still make it home in time for lunch.   Gap didn’t have sweats either, just yoga pants.   I must say that I used to love Gap, but it has been rather disappointing to me the last few years.  Just “meh”.

Ahhh, but there is one store that never disappoints me and that’s Anthropologie.  I LOVE THAT STORE–the merchandise, the layout, the smells; it is truly a shopping paradise.   It wasn’t crowded yet so I poked around and found a really cute necklace on sale; it will complete on of my Disney outfits perfectly.

A relatively new store to our mall is Madewell.  I had low expectations, thinking that it was going to be like American Eagle or something similarly teen-booperish, but I was pleasantly surprised; it’s like a well-edited, more fashionable Gap.  I didn’t buy anything this time, but I have bought a great-fitting tee from there.  I’m really digging Madewell.

On the way to the mall my iPod car adaptor cassette tape died, so next I went to the Apple store.  I think my husband feels the same way about the Apple store that I do about Anthropologie; he can stay in there forever just soaking up the atmosphere.    I hung for a bit, longer than I usually would shopping alone, because I needed a new iPhone case.   An Apple employee took great pleasure in helping me choose a new case, opening up the packages and actually putting them on my phone for my approval.  It was a very pleasant experience.

By now it’s lunchtime and I am too hungry to go home to eat.  The Corner Bakery is right across the hall, but I’ve been impressed by Panera Bread’s new menu, so I head there instead.   I decide on the Fuji Apple Salad, but since there is a long line I  look up the nutrition information while I wait.   This is when I just love my iPhone even more than I normally do, which is pretty darn much.    By taking a few minutes to look up that information, I was able to make a better choice of ordering the Asian Sesame Chicken Salad instead.

My last stop was J. Crew.   I want to shop at J. Crew; their catalog models always look so freshly scrubbed and happy, but for a few exceptions the clothes really aren’t my style and I just need to quit fighting it.   It’s like when I was a teenager in Minnesota wearing Izod sweaters and penny loafers; it wasn’t me then and it’s not me now.   I bought a tee shirt yesterday, against my better judgement, and now I have to take it back because it looks hideous on me.   I just need to stick with the shoes and accessories at J. Crew and leave the clothes to others.   Ironically, Madewell, the new store that I like, is owned by the same company that owns J. Crew.

So all in all, despite the tee that I have to return to J. Crew and the sweat pants that I didn’t find, it was a good shopping day.  I love when that happens!

*This week I’m participating in Mama Kat’s Writer’s Workshop by answering the prompt: 2.) Explain a time there was an emergency. What “mode” did you go into? Freaking out, calm and collected, etc.

As a mom, of course there are several instances over the years when my kids have been in physical danger because, well, kids tend to live on the edge without regard to bodily harm.  I’m a pretty calm person anyway and as a parent I am the calm one while my husband is the “you’re going to put your eye out with that thing” parent.  He’s the one freaking out when they climb to the top of the jungle gym at the playground while I carefully spot from below without comment.    While I let my kids experience more of the (unsafe) world than my husband is apt to do without my unflappable assurance that “they’ll be fine”, he is more cautious about their health in general and is quick to assess when the kids are getting sick.   Both kinds of parenting have their advantage and the kids are lucky to have us to balance each other out.

But still, you never know how you will react in a dangerous situation until one happens (I consider a dangerous situation an emergency).   I experienced two separate situations with my son involving a dangerous dog and both times I was able to act quickly and calmly.

In the first situation, my son was almost attacked by a loose Pit Bull in front of our house in New Jersey.  I know that Pit Bulls as a breed are not a danger, so don’t send me comments saying that I am anti-Pit Bull, but this particular dog happened to be a Pit Bull with a neighborhood reputation for being pretty vicious.   I was standing on my porch talking to a neighbor and my son was on the sidewalk next to the neighbor; he was about 5 years old.  Out of nowhere this dog comes charging across the street–headed straight for my son.   Now the details get a bit fuzzy for me after that, but as my neighbor tells it, I reached over the porch railing, grabbed my son with one hand–”like the hand of God” said my neighbor– and pulled him in the house while shutting the door with the other hand.  This all happened in a matter of seconds in one soundless swoop.   With my son safe inside I grabbed the phone and called the police, because my neighbor was still outside fighting off the dog.   Thankfully he was able to use his briefcase as a shield because the dog was relentlessly jumping and biting; the briefcase was covered with bite marks.    The thought of what that dog could have done to my son, who was the perfect height to have been bitten in the face or easily knocked to the ground, is quite scary.   I guess the split second thought of it was enough for me to spring into action and use resources that I didn’t even know I had.

The other dog incident happened here in Atlanta, about a year or so ago.   My son (much older now, but still afraid of dogs because of the pit bull) and I were walking past a big grassy field where we saw a man playing ball with his off-leash dog, a Boxer.   The dog was running all over the field and not necessarily chasing the ball; just running crazy.   When the dog saw us, he ran towards us at top speed.  At first I wasn’t that concerned because I thought maybe he wanted to play, but as he got closer I could see in his face that wasn’t the case.  Meanwhile the man stayed where he was and called to the dog, who wasn’t listening, but he didn’t move to come get the dog, so we were on our own.   Unfortunately, the path that we were on was long and wide open; there was nowhere for us to go.   As the dog circled us snapping and growling my son was hopping around, but I know that is NOT what you are supposed to do in that situation, so I wrapped my ams around him to make him be still and said to myself  ”there is no way out; one or both of us is going to get bitten.”   I remember thinking this very calmly and steeling myself for the pain sure to come.   Just then the dog spotted another walker on the other side of the field and took off barking and growling at them.  The owner was still in the middle of the field calling to the unresponsive dog.    We took that opportunity to get out of there as fast as we could, still pretty shaken up.

The winner of the Ouchies Giveaway is…..Diqueta McCoy!   Diqueta, you win your choice of 2 Ouchies tins.

Thanks to everyone for entering the Ouchies contest.  It seems that we all agree that kids shouldn’t have to suffer their boos-boos wearing bland, boring bandages.   Where were these when we were little?  Heck, I may sport them myself now; I’m really digging the tattoo bandages!

You can buy Ouchies on their website or in your local retail establishments.

*The winner was picked by random.org.

Warning: this is a shameless “my kids are so talented” post.  I’m a mother; I can’t help it.

Have I ever mentioned that both of my children play violin?   No?  Well, they do and I’m impressed because I don’t play an instrument at all.  The violin is not an easy instrument to play, especially for little kids; if they start young, it takes six months just to learn how to hold the bow correctly.

My daughter has been playing about 18 months, since age 6 1/2.   She has come a long way in her lessons, when she used to cry if she didn’t play the piece correctly the first time.   This was her first recital and I was so proud of her; she remembered all of the notes and played with confidence.

My son started playing at age 4, so he’s been playing 10 years.   Here he is at age 5 playing for his kindergarten class on his birthday:

When he was six years old he got an amazing opportunity to play for Joshua Bell.  I think the group played “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star”, but they brought the house down.  He carries this photo in his violin case for inspiration.

Besides private lessons like my daughter, he also plays in the school orchestra and a city orchestra here in Atlanta.   This video was taken at the same recital, given by their private teacher.   The piece that he played, “Haydn Concerto in G Major”, was about 7 minutes long, but I edited it down to just a few excerpts.

The kid has skills and that’s not just the mamma in me talking.

*This is just me sharing stuff that I like and I think you will too.  For this review Ouchies sent me two tins of bandages, but the opinions expressed are entirely my own.

Ever since my daughter started school, she has become a walking medic case of bumps, bruises, scrapes and scratches.  Most of these are minor and all that’s needed is a magic kiss from Mommy and a bandage.  Wearing the bandage is important–even for the tiniest of cuts–because it lets the world know that she is hurting and could you please throw a little sympathy her way?

My daughter was thrilled when I was asked to review Ouchies Adhesive Bandages because  just that day she had gotten a small wound.    She’s an artist, so she immediately went for the Make Ur Own bandages.  They come with permanent markers, so she got to work right away on her masterpiece.

(photo by Ouchies)

That bandage went on her real wound.  But just for fun we opened up the tin of Ouchies 4 Girlz and put them all on her arm to get a better look.  The colors and graphics are fantastic.  My daughter really liked the different designs, especially Tattoo and Flower Power.

(photo by Ouchies)

This is what she had to say about Ouchies: “It’s padded nicely and feels like silk.  I like that it’s bright and shiny and I like the cool designs, like a comic book.   They are not plain like most or babyish like the ones that you get at the doctor.”   She wore Ouchies to school and her friends thought that they were “cool.”

There are other Ouchie designs for purchase, 4 Boyz and Mr. Men & Little Miss for both boys and girls, so there is design that your kids are sure to like.  Ouchies was started by a family who was tired of boring bandages for their children, and I totally agree; who says that a bandage has to be boring?   I like that Ouchies are a good quality bandage that doesn’t sacrifice function for style.

You can find a retail store near you that sells Ouchies by going to their website or you can even order online.   Nordstrom sells Ouchies here in Atlanta, which is perfect for me because I shop for my daughter there anyway.  But you lucky reader you, YOU don’t have to go to a retail store because Ouchies is giving away 2 tins of bandages–winner’s choice–to a reader of Funkidivagirl.com.

To enter:

1. Fan Ouchies on Facebook

2. Then come back to Funkidivagirl.com and leave a comment on this post, telling me that you became a Facebook fan of Ouchies.  Make sure that you leave a valid email address so that I can contact you if you win.

A winner will be chosen via Random.org on February 3rd.   Good Luck!