My Son's Bad Day

We've had a week full of snow and both boys loved it at first.  Big Brother has decided that it looks nicer than it actually is, while Little Man is frustrated that we can't take full advantage of the white stuff by driving to cool places where he can slide down hills and run through huge, open fields where no man has sullied the huge, frozen canvas with footprints or tire tracks.  He doesn't get that the car is not geared for driving on the roads that don't see too many plows.  They say they don't get large amount of snow very often around here.  Which is good because my Arizona tires just slide around and spin and make everyone else on the roads around me frustrated while they watch and wait for me to get some traction so I can get OUT OF THEIR WAY!  But Little Man's a kid.  Why would he worry about driving in the snow?  His job is to play in the snow, my job is the driving part.

As much as Little Man loves the snow, he has some learning to do regarding the navigation and effects of the white stuff.  When I picked him up from school on Tuesday, he walked slowly to the car minus his usual vim and vigor, looking pretty close to tears.  When I asked him what was wrong, he muttered something about being cold and tired.  He hardly ever uses those words.  The kid's a walking furnace.  He puts off enough body heat to roast a chicken. And tired?  This is the child who wakes up at 6 a.m. on weekends so he has more time to play.  

When we got home he walked straight into the house, got into his flannel pajamas and crawled under a fleece blanket on the sofa.  And then he looked up with the most pitiful face I have ever seen and said, "Mom, today was the worst day EVER."  

Okay.  Here we go with the drama.  I love my Little Man, but he tends toward the dramatic when his day doesn't go as he planned.  So...I took the bait:  "Why was today the worst day EVER, bud?"

"Because I thought it was going to be fun and it ended up NOT being fun.  Well it was fun at first.  But then all this bad stuff happened."

By now, I'm starting to wonder just what happened?  Did he get hit?  Was someone picking on him?  What? So I ask, "What do you mean bad stuff, Little Man?"  

"Well, at recess we decided to slide down the hill on our stomachs.  But only two of us had slippery coats, so we let other people sit on our backs while we slid them down the hill on our stomachs.  My last slide, my coat got pulled up and snow went in the top of my pants.  It was cold and it made me feel like I had to pee, so I started running to the bathroom." 

I kind of wanted to laugh at this point.  Only a kid would think it fun to let someone sit on you while you slid down a hill in the snow on your stomach.  To me, that just sounds awkward and painful.  But so far I wasn't hearing anything too disasterous.  Although having to pee when it's cold can be pretty worrisome.  Peeling down pants made wet and cold from snow and exposing your already freezing nether regions to cold air and toilet seats is just not fun.  But certainly this was not the whole reason to label this the "worst day EVER."

"Okay, so did something else happen or was that it?"

"Mom.  I'm trying to tell you, if you will quit interrupting me.  It got WAY worse."

"My bad, son.  Please continue."  (Man he's testy after the worst day EVER!)

"Mom.  I slipped running down the hill and did a face plant and hit my nose and forehead on the ground really hard.  Really hard, Mom.  Then I flipped over like a somersault, but I didn't roll, I just flipped and landed on my back.  And it hurt, Mom.  It hurt my back and my face.  When I got up, my nose was bleeding, so I ran to the bathroom."

Well, I can see where that would constitute a rough day or even a bad day, but worst day EVER? I let him keep going to see if there was really any truth to the "worst day" thing. 

"I was trying to hold my nose so the blood wouldn't get everywhere, so I went in the stall to get some toilet paper.  Somehow my gloves fell in the toilet.  In the toilet, Mom!  Gross!  I shoved some toilet paper in my nose so I could try to get my gloves out of the toilet.  

"Ewwww.  How did you get them out of the toilet?"

"With my hands, Mom.  There wasn't anything else to use!  It was so gross and I was so mad.  I put them in the sink and washed them, but the water was really cold and my hands were freezing and plus I was trying to make my nose stop bleeding.  After I was done washing the gloves and cleaning my bloody nose, I remembered I had to pee.  So I went back in the stall and when I went to unzip my pants they were all wet." 

"Oh buddy, that must have looked bad."

"YEAH, MOM!!  IT DID!!  The snow melted and made it look like I peed the front of my pants!" 

"How come you didn't go to the nurse and call me, Dude?  I would have picked you up and brought you home."

"I don't know, Mom.  The bell rang, so I was just trying to get to class so I wouldn't be late and try to fix my coat so kids couldn't see my pants and laugh at me.  And my nose and back hurt from when I fell.  And my feet were wet and cold and I guess I couldn't think.  Worst day ever."

Wow.  I have to agree.  That was a pretty tough day.  Toilet gloves, bloody nose and wet pants.  Not sure it will be his worst day ever, as he has lots more days to live, but as bad days go, this one was is definitely up there.  Welcome to winter weather, son.

  

New Year's Eve was a Funeral

New Year's Eve was a funeral.  I don't mean a funeral like I was at a party and it was really dead.  I've been to those kind of parties though and they suck because you don't want to be there, but if you leave the host gets all offended because they know their party sucks and you leaving early just makes them feel worse.  It wasn't that kind of thing.  I mean I literally spent New Year's Eve giving the eulogy at a funeral.  It was my Uncle K's funeral.  He died just before Christmas and my poor aunt waited until New Year's Eve so that we could get through Christmas with our own families and deal with traveling and stuff after the holiday. Christmas was already kind of stressful (hence no Christmas post) because Big Man (the hubby) was out of town looking for work and it was tough to get through the season without him.  It felt weird and incomplete and we all felt kind of lost.

Then my aunt called to tell me Uncle K had died.  And she asked me to do the eulogy. I couldn't say no.  My Aunt K is almost my mom.  She took my sister and I into her home and helped raise us when we needed a safe place to live. She gave us the childhood we needed and had not been given the chance to have until then.  She treated us like her own children and loved us unconditionally.  How could I say no?  I wanted to, though.  Because eulogies are so personal and important and what you say when a person dies to commemorate their life may have a huge impact on the living who are listening to your words, trying to hear anything that might help them find peace or laughter or closure.  It's a lot of pressure to get that right.  To make sure you honor the dead and uplift the living.

How do I know it's pressure?  Because this is the third eulogy I have delivered.  The first one was for my Dad.  He was my dad and there was lots to say about who he was and how he impacted my life and there was never any thought about speaking at his funeral, it just seemed like it was my responsibility and I wanted the opportunity to honor him.  It was amazingly cathartic and I was so glad afterward that my sister and I chose to take on the responsibility, as tough as it was.

The second eulogy I delivered was for my grandmother.  My Aunt K had been her caretaker for several years and asked if I would talk about Grandma G.  My Grandma G was such a wonderful lady and she too did all she could while we were growing up to love us and help us through some very tough times.  I lived with her on two different occasions while I tried to find my path in life and spent many, many nights listening to stories about her life.  She was so tough and funny!  I loved going through all of her pictures and sharing stories about her life while we prepared for her service.  It gave me the opportunity to see her in all of her glory!

So Uncle K was the third.  An honestly, I wasn't in a real great place emotionally (what's new, right?), so when my aunt asked me to speak, I wondered why her kids didn't want to do it.  She went on to answer my question without me asking..."my kids aren't good at expressing themselves and sharing their emotions in public."  Ah. Well...I'm not sure I am either.  And honestly...who IS comfortable giving a eulogy?  Just because I like to talk a lot and don't mind doing it in front of people doesn't mean I have anything of value to say about a person who just died.  But...I would do anything for my aunt, so I said yes.

It was a tough eulogy to prepare.  I'd visited them throughout the years, but I hadn't lived with my aunt and uncle for 35 years. He was a truck driver, so even when I was living there as a girl he wasn't home a lot.  I had a few memories, but not enough for an entire talk!  So I started trying to interview his kids and brothers and sisters.  His kids couldn't seem to talk much.  Which is so opposite of how I process grief and sadness, so I was really struggling with how to talk about their dad without their input.  His younger brother, however,  painted an incredible story about a man I barely knew.  Apparently my uncle had a pretty tough childhood, which explains a lot about why he wasn't very talkative about his life.  I won't go into details, but it was tough and his dad made it tougher. His brother shared  a lot of things about mu uncle's life that even my uncle's kids didn't know about him.  What I really came away with was that Uncle K wasn't a talker. He was a doer.

He didn't tell his kids about driving trucks, he taught them how so they could make a living.  He didn't tell them how to fix cars.  He taught them so they could fix their own.  He didn't say he would be over sometime to help fix the house.  He just went and fixed the house. Almost every person I talked to shared an experience about how my uncle had helped them.  The picture that emerged as I wrote his eulogy was a huge lesson in judging people and assuming that we know people when we really don't.  Honestly, I always thought my uncle was kind of high maintenance, because I really only saw him at home, where he relied on my aunt a lot for his daily needs.  Turns out the person I thought I kind of knew was in actuality a much more giving, loving person that people realized.  He wasn't a touchy, feely, talky guy who walked around saying flattering things he didn't mean.  He served people.  He helped when he was needed.  He was present when he could be - Daddy Daughter events with granddaughters and nieces (me), time spent working on cars or in the shop with his boys or the neighbors, hiking, camping with the family and grandsons.  There weren't a lot of words.  He didn't talk about helping and loving and sharing feelings.  But there were actions.  He willingly gave of his time and talent when he was needed, from the time he was a young boy until his worn out body wouldn't work anymore.  And I think we all needed to know and understand that about a man that some of us thought was kind of quiet and detached, even grumpy at times. 

So I spent New Year's Eve talking about the life of someone who had just died, while pondering the beginning of a new year in my own life. It was an irony that was not lost on me.  At 48 years old, after five years of struggling with our finances and life in general, I am more lost than ever about who I am and how to get my family where we need to be.  I have no life plan anymore.  Our plans have fallen apart.  Our back up plans fell apart.  We have to start over.  I have to start over and I am scared and worried and afraid to take even one more step forward because I cannot handle one more failure.  So I have been taking stock of my life.  And then I got asked to take stock of someone else's life and present the findings in a pleasant way that would honor the way they lived. Karma or blessing? Maybe some of both.

I was surprised at how emotional I was during the talk.  I thought I would be more composed.  I cried more than I wanted to.  Because I was blessed to get a glimpse of who my uncle really was and share that with people who needed to see him in the most positive light possible.  I got to see how someone who rarely got the best life has to offer accepted what he was given and tried to do something good with it.  And I suddenly felt very grateful for the example my uncle had been.  I'm great with the words of love and support, something my uncle didn't always verbalize, but not so great at actually showing up when I can be of service.  I don't want to be the person who offers help and lots of hugs and "I love yous", but never delivers the goods when push comes to shove.  And sometimes when I am asked to sacrifice my time or energy, I complain because it seems inconvenient or hard.  Uncle K never complained.  He just did what needed to be done.  And mostly...I don't want to die and have my kids not feel like they can talk about me at my funeral because they didn't know me well enough to have something to share. Or because they don't like to speak in public.  I want to tell them everyday how much I love and appreciate them and what a blessing they are to me and how incomplete my life would be without them.  I want to tell them how important it is to serve and love others and not judge.  I want to tell them how important it is to be happy and positive, even when it's hard to feel that way.  And then after I tell them, I want to show them.  

I hope one day they will look back and say, "Remember when we spent New Year's Eve at that funeral and mom had to speak?  Boy...Mom really got her crap together after that.  Life got so much better for our family in 2013."             

Old School Christmas Shows and the Flu - It's a Family Tradition

I don't know why I can't seem to get back into a blogging rhythm.  This blog has been such an important part of my life for the last 5 years and it pains me that I have lost touch with what inspired me to start blogging/writing in the first place.  But I don't want to analyze tonight.  I just felt like I needed to give I Am Boymom some post love, so my blog knows I haven't forgotten or abandoned it.  

So...in reference to the title...Christmas in our house is probably not like Christmas in most houses.  Some of that has to do with my upbringing.  We lived with lots of different people and got bounced around a lot.  Consequently, we didn't really get to establish "family traditions" in the normal "Christmas-y" sense.  My husband's family tries with this big family party at his brother's huge house.  It's a tough crowd.  Let's just say they have their own special brand of dysfunction.  Not judging!  Soooo not judging.  Just stating the facts as I see them.  

Back to the point...So even at this late date, as my kids are becoming teenagers, I am still trying to establish some fun and memorable holiday traditions.  I suck at it.  I never know what they will enjoy and I think I try so hard to make things work that I end up being stressed, which makes everyone else in the house stressed and before you know it, everybody's frustrated and no one is having fun and I feel like a failure.  Again. 

Well, tonight it kind of hit me that we do have a few traditions of our own.  They may not be GREAT and WONDERFUL traditions, but by gosh, they are ours and the fact that we have anything at all that we repeat each Christmas is progress.  And maybe my epic FAIL at trying something new tonight is making me lie to myself about whether what we do is indeed a tradition, but at this point, I'll take what I can get. 

First tradition we have is TV.  Not a great tradition, I know.  But at Christmastime it works for us.  We try to catch every Christmas movie or special on TV, starting on Thanksgiving and going through Christmas day.  What we don't catch on TV, we rent.  It was fun when we grew up to watch Rudolph and Frosty and Charlie Brown and it's even more fun to watch them now with my boys, who laugh hysterically at the thought that we found these shows enjoyable when we were kids.  "The graphics suck!"  "Why do they make the adults talk like wierd aliens?"  We try to explain that we didn't have Computer Generated Animation then!  Puppets and stuff were state of the art, dudes!  What I love though, is that no matter how much they yammer on about how "lame" some of our holiday shows were, they always sit down and watch them with us.  We bond over Old School Christmas TV shows. 

Another tradition we have is that we always put together a few stockings full of food and water, soap, razors, snacks, shampoo...little things like that.  Then we find someone in need, maybe someone living on the streets or in a shelter, and the boys offer the stockings.  We've had some amazing conversations after giving our stockings out about charity and how life circumstances can turn on anyone and land them in a position to be in need of help.  The boys understand how important it is not to judge people based on immediate circumstances or appearances. They are compassionate young men who have empathy for others and they look forward to giving their stockings to people every year.  I'm glad they have the chance to serve and share with others who are struggling even more than we are.  It's good to see the world from another perspective once in awhile.  I hope this tradition is something they will carry on when they leave our home.

The last tradition we have is not one we choose, but one that seems to get thrust upon us almost every year.  It's a really crappy tradition, literally and figuratively, but the one thing it does is force us to slow down a bit and regroup during the hectic season.  For whatever reason, someone always ends up sick with flu or a horrible cold during Christmas!  It makes me crazy!  One year my husband woke up on Christmas Day unable to move his head or neck and in excruciating pain after he stretched!  He stretched, people!  Didn't know you couldn't do that on Christmas morn without repercussions! 

Being sick makes whoever is sick cranky.  Christmas isn't a time for crankiness!  We are supposed to be happy and focused on family and giving and the spirit of the holidays!  Instead, someone is sneezing and hacking or pooping and puking and downing Nyquil or Thera-flu by the gallon trying to be functional for all the events. No one can enjoy the dysfunctional family Christmas party when they feel like crap!  It's hard enough to enjoy it when we are well!  But like I said, the one thing it does is force us to slow down and prioritize.  Do we really need to attend 8,000 Christmas events?  Do we really need 100 homemade, hand decorated sugar cookies or can we be happy with refrigerated, store bought cookie dough and sprinkles this year?  It compels us to take better care of each other in a season where we talk of Christ and try to focus on the "reason for the season."  It brings us closer to one another as we serve and nurture each other. So while we would not necessarily choose the "Christmas illness" tradition?  We have learned to live with it and it has kind of just become part of the Holiday tapestry we are trying to weave.  Weird, I know.  But it's something, and as far as traditions go, isn't something better than nothing?

So that is my recap of our family traditions.  Not great, but we have forward motion.  And as I'm writing this, I remember that I had a whole other, much shorter post planned.  Pictures showing the results of my attempt at Christmas Craft night.  And when you see it, you will know why I started this post by trying to convince myself that we are making "tradition" progress and why I don't always have the gumption to push forward with finding new ones:

My oldest, who deals with fine motor skill issues and absolutely hates crafts, put this bad boy together with some pipe cleaners and a foam ball.  I know.  A cat with tape on its paws could do something nicer.  I had a picture for him to look at, but after about 10 minutes he was bored and thoroughly frustrated.  This from a kid who will spend hours precisely placing army guys in formations for battles.

 

This is one of those scratchy things that starts out all black and then you scratch designs in the back to reveal the colors.  My youngest started a design then decided it was taking too long and scratched off the entire black cover and then walked away from the little pile of black shavings that were all over his work space, declaring he was done and "by done, I mean I'm going to bed.  I don't feel good again."  In his defense, he has been home sick with some kind of stomach issue for 3 days (maybe the illness portion of the holiday came early this year and we can relax and enjoy the next few weeks).

This would have been a really cool ornament cover had I actually been able to sit down and do some beading, but the sick kid and the bored kid finished so fast that I had to give it up and mediate the fussiness that ensued.  I called it a Christmas Craft Night FAIL at 8:30 and everyone went to bed.  

Maybe we'll try Craft Night again next year.  Or maybe not.  Maybe we'll just watch National Lampoon's Christmas vacation, drink some cocoa and call it good.  And we'll have "the hap hap happiest Christmas since Bing Crosby tap danced with Danny freak-ing Kay!"  Clark Griswold understands my pain.

The Green Refrigerator Machine Review

I'll start with a little confession...I have been known to throw away fruits and veggies on occasion because I didn't get to them fast enough and they ended up going bad on me before we could get them eaten. And once in a great while I have found things hidden in the back of the refrigerator that look like a science experiment. And it makes me mad that I have to throw stuff away that I spent good money on!

I tried those funny green bags that were advertised on TV, but it was a pain to bag everything up and then make sure no moisture got in to the bags...too labor intensive. I am a woman who needs things to be convenient. So I was thrilled to find the Green Refrigerator Machine by Ozonator. It is a handy little device that goes right in your refrigerator and uses ozone to neutralize the chemicals inside there that make your fruits and vegetables to decay quicker. Ozone increases the storage life of foods by oxidizing some chemicals and by neutralizing ammonia and ethylene. Ozone is a safe and natural alternative for protecting perishable foods so using the Ozonator keeps perishable foods fresher by bestowing a clean environment inside your refrigerator. It eliminates waste and saves me money and I am definitely for that! 

The true test was to see how it did in my fridge. The first thing I noticed was that there was a funny little odor that appeared when I first turned it on, but that odor dissipated pretty quickly. What I did NOT notice after just a little while was the onion smell that had been hitting me in the face every time I opened the refrigerator door. It was completely gone.  Awesome. Okay...so that was one good thing I noticed.  I had to wait a week or so to find out whether or not it helped my food stay fresh longer and I am happy to say that my lettuce and celery hasn't wilted like it usually does.  So I'm putting that in the "win" column. 

  Not my fruit pic, but I have had many berries end up looking like this! This is from the Ozonator website! 

So for about $50 plus the cost of 4 D batteries, I would say that the Green Refrigerator Machine is definitely worth the investment if you find yourself throwing out food on a consistent basis, which I was.  And I found it does a much better job than baking soda at keeping the odors at bay.  

I was just sitting here thinking about all the people in my life who might love this little GRM by Ozonator!  The Green Refrigerator Machine might be the perfect holiday gift for your vegan friends, your clean freak mother-in-law or the the neighbor who loves to grow her own produce!  There ya go...just knocked at least three people off of your gift list!  You're welcome! Aaaaaaand...there's a linky over to the right of this post, that will give you a $10 discount off of the regular retail price so you only pay $39.95!  So now I just helped you save money AND time!  Again - you're welcome!

Don't forget to check out the Ozonator Facebook Page for great tips and more information on food safety and freshness!


**Disclosure:  I was not compensated for this post.  I did receive a Green Refrigerator Machine courtesy of MomSelect and Ozonator to help facilitate this review.  As always, the opinions stated here are my own and are always honest.**

Thanksgiving

It's kind of weird not being close to family during the holidays.  For years we have lived within driving distance of sisters, brothers, parents and long time friends, so holidays were always busy with visits to family and friends.  I didn't realize how much I would miss that when we moved.  Even though it can get kind of chaotic having to juggle schedules to fit everyone in, the time we all spend together reminds me how blessed we are to have such good people in our lives. 

We had a real low key Thanksgiving this year.  The Youngest helped me cook and Big Brother and the Mr. played video games and kept the holiday programming rolling on the tube. 

In between cooking sessions, we decided we needed to get out into the sunshine, so we took a quick walk down by the river (everytime I say that, I think of Chris Farley) and found our favorite tree.  This is seriously the tree of every kid or photographer's dream.  It is huge and easily climbable and has a big flat base right in the middle where a kid could build a wicked fort.  it has lots of character and texture and limbs and one day I will get some really great photos there.  For today, you will have to deal with my crappy cellphone shots.

The weather was beautiful and uplifting and we had a great time finding things to add to our Holiday Centerpeice, which I will explain in the next post.  The Boy was ecstatic about his excellent find when he ran across "the perfect stick" while exploring the river banks. 

I swear, it doesn't matter where we go, the kid always has to have something in his hand which will allow him to poke, stab, swordfight, dig, whack or otherwise interact with whatever happens to be around him at any given moment.  I have to say, it is a pretty great stick.  Notice the nice natural handle with the claw-like hook on the end.  Sooo many things you could do with a claw hook like that! (Like accidentally gouging  your brother's eye out while trytrying to hook him by the neck...or something equally worrisome for a mother of active boys.) The stick now joins about 12 others in the corner of his room and in the trunk of the car, all waiting for their shots at being the weapon/tool of choice for the next adventure.

 

We got home just in time to find the turkey ready to remove from the oven.  It was a little underbrowned, but the meat was perfectly done so we decided to opt for moist turkey rather than brown turkey skin.  Nothing burned and I had no major incidents in the kitchen, so I considered the day a major win!  For which I was thankful.

The day after?  A little bit less successful.  Major sinus migraine made it hard to function.  I attribute my illness to lack of pumpkin pie with lots of whipped cream.  My family wiped out our one pumpkin pie before I got a piece, the freaking horkers!  My fault for believing them when they said one would be enough this year.  At least we had lots of leftovers so I didn't have to cook today!  That made dealing with the headache so much easier.  And it was nice to just chill and look at all the Black Friday ads while dreaming about what I would buy with the 2.7 million dollar Visa card that the guy from Nigeria said in a very nice email he would send me since I was having so many issues trying to transfer my money from his Capital Sure Bank.  I'm pretty sure it will be here any day now, which means I shoud have less of a headache for Christmas. Those Capital Sure Bank guys sure know how to help a gal feel better! 

  

SodaStream House Party

It's been too long since I last posted!  I've kind of had writer's block.  Oh...and a job that took up a LOT of my time and energy.  But the job is gone, so now I have no excuses. 

The good news is I have more time to do fun things with my friends and my kids!  Like make and drink our own soda!

Last Saturday we hosted a SodaStream House Party.  We received the Source model and a bunch of flavors, along with the carbonation cartridge to make the fizz!  Set-up was simple and in a matter of about five minutes we were adding bubbles to everything from water to juice!

 

 

The boys and a few of their friends went first and had a great time making their own sodas and mixing and matching flavors. They tried really weird combos like rootbeer and lemon-lime.  Why?  Because their boys and they do weird things.  That rootbeer/lemon-lime combination?  Was disgusting.

 

 

Then the other moms and I all took our turns.  Our favorite flavor was Cranberry-Raspberry mixed with Lemonade.  It was light and bubbly and delicious and the SodaStream was so easy and fun to use!  All the moms agreed that the 1 liter bottles that come with the SodaStream are the perfect size.

 

One of my camera shy friends - photo by one of the other 5 camera shy friends!

 

 

 

Really bad picture of me giving a demo...fire the photographer!

Here's a video of how it works, not sure you can see it all that well, but it will give you a general idea about how the SodaStream works. Ignore the ridiculous conversation taking place as I film and try to control mother my children.  Oh...and please turn your cell phones to vibrate so you don't disturb the other viewers...it's that good.  You won't want to miss a second of this high quality video. 

 

 

 

So...we enjoyed just about everything the SodaStream has to offer.  The only negative thing I would bring up is that many of the flavors I received to try contain sucralose or Splenda.  I am not a fan of sucralose or Splenda.  But the good news is that SodaStream offers some all natural flavors that do not have the artificial sweetner, so I am looking forward to trying those.  I am a fan of sparkling juices though and I think that we can save a lot of money making our own sparkling cider and non-alcoholic mimosas using SodaStream!

 

The other great thing about SodaStream is that it is great on the environment.  Their reusable 1 liter bottles mean no more empty 2 liter bottles going in the garbage or ending up in landfills.   

 

SodaStream is definitely going to be put to good use in our home.  We already have plans to include it as part of my youngest son's b-day party and it makes an appearance every family movie night as well. 

 

I have three $20 rebate coupons left over from the party if anyone is thinking about buying one for Christmas.  Shoot me and email, I'll be happy to get the coupon to you via snail mail!

 

 

**Disclosure:  I was not compensated for this blog post.  I did receive a SodaStream kit from SodaStream and House Party to help facilitate this review.  My opinions are always honest and are my own.**

 



JT SplatMaster Review

My boys are getting older now, so lots of toys they had when they were younger are starting to lose their appeal.  It's like torture kind of hard sometimes to keep them occupied and finding gifts other than electronics and video games is getting more difficult every day!  Keeping them active and happily playing together is constantly a concern. I want them to love spending time together doing fun things so as they grow up and move on in life they have shared interests and passions that will help them stay close to one another.

With Christmas coming, I am especially aware of their changing preferences for play things.  So I was really glad that my family was recently invited to try out something new for kids, called JT SplatMaster. 

 

JT SplatMaster is an outdoor sporting goods product that shoots color-filled biodegradable ammo resulting in a SPLAT that you can see! In other words, it's a kid-friendly version of paintball.  Yes - I said it...paintball. 

I know. You are immediately thinking about messy paint and possible injuries.  How do I know?  Because that's what I thought of when my boys first asked if they could go paintballing with some friends.  I hear the guys at work talking about their "weekend wars" and showing off their paintball welts and my first response to my boys when they asked to go was  "I don't think so."  I'm not sure they are ready for that.  Or rather, I'm not sure I'M ready for that. 

Well, the makers of JT SplatMaster realized that there needed to be a more kid-friendly version of the game and came up with a paintball gun that is low impact, spring loaded and shoots at a velocity of 110-140 feet per second.  Less velocity means lower impact, which means less chance of injury! Don't think that less velocity means weak shots though.  Those paintballs really fly and make a pretty big splat on impact, which the boys found to be "AWESOME"!

 

JT SplatMaster is all about safety and proper training!  They make great eye protection goggles and extra face protection gear to go along with the guns.  I was pretty sure I was gonna hear lots of groaning about the goggles, but surprisingly, the boys found them to be a very cool part of the whole "look" and experience.  For them, the goggles and safety gear are an integral part of the uniform.  Which I find "awesome."  Less worry for Mom!  Their website is full of training and safety videos that guide and direct anxious and excited kids through proper handling and usage of SplatMaster products. 

I really love that the makers of JT SplatMaster created all kinds of game options that don't involve the boys shooting at each other!  But if when they do decide to have a paintball war, I know that the product they are using is safe, as long as precautions are taken.  Having said that, I think the key to having fun with JT SPlatMaster is adult supervision.  When the kids know an adult is present to enforce the rules, they can relax and enjoy the games and not have to worry as much about another kid making a poor decision that might result in injury.

We took the SplatMaster z200 out in the backyard for a test run and the boys had a blast! Here are a few action shots:

 

   

 

 

 

The consensus?  JT SplatMaster really is a safer version of paintball and the non-toxic paint cleaned up easily with a quick spray from the hose.  The little biodegradable paintball capsules dissolved after a day or two and left no trace of the target practice that had taken place a few days earlier.   The guns are surprisingly accurate and easy to use and come with safety plugs to block the barrel while strategies are being discussed, as well as working safety switches on the actual gun to prevent accidental firing.

 

The boys would like to be able to get some of the gear they saw in the videos, like the cool facemasks and flak jackets which are not currently available anywhere that I could find.     The only other complaint they have at this point is that we can't find more ammo anywhere here in Boise yet, so I'll have to order it online, which means we'll have to plan ahead.   

 

JT SplatMaster is a mega-hit in our house and the boys are definitely the envy of the cul-de-sac right now.  If I understood the weekend confab with the neighborhood boys that took place in my backyard correctly, the plan is for ALL of them to try to get one for Christmas so the group can have a paintball war on Christmas Day.  Not sure how the other moms will feel about that, but I think it sounds like a heck of a way to get some outdoor activity during the holidays!  It'll give new meaning to yellow snow!

 

JT SplatMaster sets are currently being sold at Walmart, at various sporting good stores and paintball stores all over the country for between $25-$40, depending on the model and accessories you buy.  You can check out the website and use their store locator to help you find a reatailer near you.  OR you can take advantage of this awesome promotion and save money by buying online! 

 

 

 

Starting October 29th, for a limited time and while supplies last, anyone purchasing a JT SplatMaster z100 or z200 one free ammo grenade  (50 ct ammo, $7.99 value) free!

Warning:  They'll go through 50 rounds in about 10 minutes so you'll wanna stock up.

**Disclosure:  I received no monetary compensation for this review.  Kee Action Sports, LLC  provided me with a JT SPlatMaster z200 to facilitate the review.  As always, my honest opinions are always my own.**