ARE YOU READY FOR SOME FOOTBALL?!?
I know Hank Williams, Jr. no longer does the opening for Monday Night Football, and this is Thursday, but whatever. Go with it.
Tonight is a rare occasion for us. We very rarely get to see the Buffalo Bills in primetime, and well, there’s good reason for it.
In 2007, the Buffalo Bills played the Dallas Cowboys on Monday night and we had a BLAST (just the two of us at home!)… until they lost in a horrible upset when their kicker nailed a 56-yard field goal within the final seconds of the game. HEARTBREAK.
Then, in 2008, the Bills played the Cleveland Browns for Monday Night Football and all was entertaining. Toward the end of the game, the Browns’ kicker managed a 56-yard field goal (what are the chances?!) and then when our offense marched down the field to answer it and win the game in the final minutes, our kicker missed the field goal, effectively losing the game. HEARTBREAK.
In 2009, the Bills’ season opener was Monday Night Football against the New England Patriots. IN FOXBORO. It was my worst nightmare. But the Bills surprisingly were hanging tough, and going into the final two minutes, they were GOING TO WIN. We were beside ourselves. And then, in a moment of stupidity, the kick returner decided to fight for yardage instead of playing it safe and holding onto the ball, and he fumbled it DEEP into Patriots’ territory (since he had made the decision to run it out of the end zone). You can probably see where this is going. He fumbled it and the Patriots recovered. Tom Brady easily led the team to a touchdown and they won the game at the very end. HEARTBREAK.
But let’s face it, we’re used to heartbreak in Bills country. Our team hasn’t made the playoffs since the 1998 season. If you’re counting, that’s THIRTEEN YEARS, and it’s likely going to be fourteen when this season is over. It’s the longest playoff drought in NFL history, which pretty much means the Bills are the worst team ever. Kill me now.
Still, we have hope season after season. It’s hardcore loyalty. Or maybe it’s insanity, I don’t know. Take your pick.
So we’ll sit here tonight and watch the Buffalo Bills take on the Miami Dolphins for Thursday Night Football. Who knows, maybe it’s our chance.
After all, it’s Thursday. Not Monday.
I don’t do a great job at keeping track of things that I would like for myself. You know, not everyday necessities—treats. Things that are splurges, or are special. I don’t have a “wish list,” so to speak. This is fine for the majority of the year, but it makes things difficult sometimes: Mainly around my birthday and Christmas. Because that’s when I get the inevitable question, “What do you want…?”
And I never know how to answer.
Thankfully the people in my life are usually pretty good at shopping and give me things that I enjoy or love, and I’m really grateful for that. I know I don’t make it easy on them.
On the flip side, I’m also not very good at keeping track of things OTHER people want. I’ll get ideas randomly but don’t write them down, so by the time I’m ready to give a gift, I can’t remember what it was that I thought of in the first place.
Typically, we do all of our Christmas shopping in the month of December. But this year, we wanted to do things differently. We started thinking very seriously about Christmas gifts starting in October, and have been collecting things along the way ever since. It’s smart because we have the time to really think it through and come up with GOOD things, not just picking stuff up to give for the sake of giving. Of course, some people are harder to buy for than others.
What are the things on your Christmas wish list this year? I’m talking big things, small things—and everything in between. And are there any gifts that you are particularly excited to give this year? What are they, and who are they for?
Or are you staring at the screen right now thinking, IS SHE SERIOUSLY TALKING ABOUT CHRISTMAS ALREADY? If this is you, I get it. This was me last year, and every year before. But ya know… Christmas is only 40 days away! I’m just saying. :)
I don’t know how most people get through long road trips with their kids, but for us, it is about two things: Food and movies.
Some may call that cheating; I call it doing whatever you have to do to survive.
The problem with letting Nora watch movies on road trips has been that I get easily overstimulated when there is too much going on in the car. Audio from Nora’s movie, radio on for the adults, and of course, some conversation. In the past, that has resulted in a pounding headache. Now that Nora is forward-facing, the problem is exacerbated by the fact that the iPad is now located directly behind the head of the front passenger—making the movie audio even more of a distraction. We’ve dealt with it a few times for shorter (but still long) trips to see Michael’s sister, but I knew we needed a solution before taking the eight-hour trip (ONE WAY!) to my dad’s.
The obvious solution was to set up Nora with some headphones, but this proved to be more challenging than you might think. We went to several different stores looking for headphones designed specifically for kids, but came up empty. We actually brought a couple pairs of adult sets home, but we had concerns about volume control—we want to be careful not to damage Nora’s hearing in any way—and they were clearly BIG for Nora’s little head and ears.
Enter Kidz Gear’s KidzControl Volume Limit COLOR Headphones for Kids to save the day. Seriously, they really did save the day, as the package containing the headphones—as well as a really nice quality headphone carry bag and a headphone splitter cable—arrived on our doorstep the day before our trip.
The problem with a lot of “volume limiting” headphones is that they lessen the volume so dramatically that you can’t hear the soft spoken word, or hear ANYTHING if there is a lot of background noise in your environment (so, say on a plane… or even in a car on the highway). But Kidz Gear has solved this problem by making the volume limiting easy to turn on and off. There is a little cable that comes with the headphones that you can attach to the headphones to limit the volume when needed, but in louder settings, you can attach the headphones to your child’s device without it.
I tested the headphones prior to putting them on Nora and found that the volume limiting was a bit much with the road noise, so we chose not to use it. Instead, I turned the volume all of the way up on the headphones’ volume control, then turned it down to an acceptable level on the iPad itself, which Nora couldn’t reach to mess around with. She did, however, mess around with the headphones’ volume (seen above) a few times… by turning it down. It was a quick fix once we realized why she was taking off the headphones and handing them to us. :) Although it was a little bit of a pain for us, I can see why having the volume control here is good for older kids.
The headphones themselves are great. They are designed for children ages 2 and up, and they’re highly adjustable—they fit Nora pretty perfectly on their smallest setting, but I could even wear them comfortably at their largest. Like adult headphones, there is a little “R” and an “L” on the sides to designate left and right (why that makes a difference, I don’t know—but we threw them on Nora any which way!)
And as you can see, these are CUTE. The colors are great, and we opted to get them in Nora’s absolute favorite… PURPLE!
Still, our biggest challenge—at least at first—was getting Nora to wear them. I’ll be honest and say that she was NOT a fan when I initially put them on her. She kept ripping them off and throwing them at me, even when I explained that this is how she was going to be able to hear her movie. But please don’t let this alter your impression of the headphones, because my kid is weird. With anything new like this, we have to fight with her several times until she finally realizes that we’re not trying to torture her. When summer turned to fall and we had to put on things like PANTS and SWEATSHIRTS and ohmygod REAL SHOES, Nora flipped out every time for a while. This was exactly the same thing. My girl, she’s stubborn. I don’t know where she gets it.
Anyway, I was able to eventually get her to wear them and settle in to watch her movie by distracting her with our other roadtrip survival tactic: FOOD. I gave her a cup of cereal and set her up with Toy Story 3 and she was happy to wear the headphones for a while. During the eight-hour car ride south, we had to reach back and put them back on her several times, and she went a few stretches watching her movies silently because she didn’t want to wear the headphones.
But on the eight-hour stretch back home? It was like a switch was flipped, and she was completely used to them. She wore them nearly the entire time, and when they were off, she tried to put them back on herself. It was a big change between Friday and Monday.
For those wondering what our setup looks like in the car, this is it:
(Side note: The iPad headrest mount we have is this one. It only works if you have a cover with a flap on your iPad. Your iPad can’t be “naked.”)
The Kidz Gear headphones are precisely what I had been looking for all along. Something that could get the job done—giving us peace in the car while helping to entertain my child—and was MADE for a person her size. And now that she is sold on the idea of the headphones, Nora LOVES that they are purple. :)
We can’t wait to use them again when we head to the west coast (via airplane) in January. When we flew to Boston for my birthday in August, we tried to occupy Nora with the iPad but were unable to hold her interest because even with the external volume all of the way up, she couldn’t hear it—and we couldn’t get her to wear our headphones. Now, we don’t have to worry about that since she’ll have her own personal set.
At home, we’ll let her use them when we occasionally give her the iPad for some quiet time. The girl loves her apps as well as her movies, and the headphones will come in handy there as well. The headphones work on all of your standard devices—tablets, computers, iPhones, iPods, etc.
Now, Kidz Gear is giving all of you a chance to win a pair of KidControl Volume Limit COLOR Headphones of your own (or rather, for a child in your life). The headphones retail for a price of $19.99 at www.gearforkidz.com, as well as through Amazon.
NOTE: The giveaway is available to U.S. residents only. My apologies to the rest of the world—I love you, I promise!
Please enter using the Rafflecopter widget embedded in this post. Good luck!
Disclaimer: Kidz Gear provided Nora’s headphones, carry bag, and splitter cable for free in exchange for my review. However, opinions expressed within this post are my own. (I hope you know me well enough by now to know that I wouldn’t positively review a product that I wouldn’t back anyway, whether I paid for it or not!). Kidz Gear is also sponsoring the associated giveaway.
This weekend, we were down in Virginia to visit my dad and some of his family. My dad lives in a small town, so there isn’t much to do—and that always equals a very low-key, relaxing time. The best indicator of this? I took afternoon naps while Nora napped. You know, instead of running around like crazy people trying to get as much done around the house in those few precious hours.
I’m not normally a very good napper. But man, afternoon naps? I miss you.
I also didn’t wear a lick of makeup this weekend. I somehow forgot my mascara but remembered everything else. And I don’t know, I figure if I’m not wearing mascara—one of the most important makeup elements, in my opinion—I might as well wear nothing at all. FREEEEDOOMMM!
The difference between our visit this year and last year is that Nora is SO MUCH MORE AWESOME. She has been warming up to people a lot faster lately, and my dad is no exception. She had some serious fun with her “Pa,” and so did we!
Below is a selection of photos from the weekend. It’s really amazing to look back at Nora during our trip to Virginia last year, on this exact same weekend in 2011. I can’t believe how different she looks!
She was fascinated with her pa’s guitar and got a big kick out of it when he played it for her. She even tried to “help” by turning the keys at the top, resulting in a lot of tuning done by Pa!
We had great weather, so we took a trip to the playground to let Nora do her thing.
She actually semi-understands posing for photos now. Whether or not she actually does it depends on her mood and who/what she is posing with. In this particular instance, she was thrilled to pose with Pa and Mommy—she even leaned her cheek right up against mine. She’s the cutest!
We visited a winery, just for something fun to do for an hour. I’d never tried any of the Virginia wines. I’m no connoisseur, but I like to experiment.
As it turns out, my dad and I have very similar taste in wine. We both hated all of the reds! And the sweet/dessert wines were pretty much sickeningly sweet. There was one that tasted like pure syrup! I’m pretty sure I was watching for his reaction to the syrupy one here, haha.
We spent some time with my grandparents, and were sure to snap a few photos even though Nora was being less than cooperative at this particular moment. We only get to see them once a year at best, so we have to take advantage!
Overall, it was a nice trip. A little too short for all involved, but at least we got down there to see my dad and grandparents. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to see my aunt or any of my cousins this trip. :(
It won’t be long before we see my dad again… he’s coming up at Christmas! I can’t tell you the last time I saw my dad at Christmastime. And it’ll be here before we know it.
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I’m participating in Nablopomo, and I may have had to cheat a little bit to catch up from a weekend away. Don’t hold it against me. :)
As we mark Veteran’s Day here in the U.S., I urge all of you to look into a way—no matter how small—that you can support a soldier or soldiers. Whether that is through volunteering or donating locally to veterans’ causes, or whether that is through reaching out to those currently serving… your support means a lot and goes a long way.
I’ve blogged before about my brother’s service in the Army National Guard Reserves. He was deployed in January for eight months, and spent five of them in Afghanistan. We are so thankful that he returned safely home to us in September.
So, if you want… participate in Operation Baking Gals during this holiday season. You can sign up for any team on their site (once the December rounds open in a few weeks). And if you have a soldier you’d like to bake for, form a team. Or I would be happy sponsor a deployed soldier for my team, if you have someone in mind (e-mail me at heatherdriveblog at yahoo dot com; I will need to submit my team info by 11/20, so please reach out before then!).
If baking is too much, consider writing a simple note or letter, or send a card through an organization like Letters to Soldiers.
There are many opportunities out there if you look for them. Let’s not forget our soldiers during the holidays, a time during which their sacrifices are even greater than the rest of the year because of the special time they are missing with their families.
If you have questions or need more information on how to help, please feel free to ask in the comments or shoot me an e-mail.
Happy Veteran’s Day to all of the soldiers in history—but particularly my brother, Trevor; my (half) brother, Chris; my dad; and my nephew, Christopher. Thank you for what you do for all of us back home.
About
I'm Heather. I'm 33 and have been married to Michael for seven years. Together, we have two beautiful little girls we love more than anything, and a miniature dachshund who drives us crazy. I'm a full-time working mom who has very little time for my own "stuff" these days, like home improvement, cooking/baking, cake decorating, and photography. Despite the team not making the playoffs since 1999, I'm STILL a Buffalo Bills fan, which I think speaks to my loyalty AND sense of humor. I can't wait to pick up the pace with travel again some day... you know, when we're done being ruled by tiny fists. Welcome to my blog.
