Cozi- Family Organizer

I have to share this!!!!!!! OMG I love love love this. It's like outlook on steroids. I just got a new computer and it came with this program. It is available for download for your computer, and it is also available as an app for your smart phone. Every time I find a recipe I like I just add it to the program and then I can just add the ingredients to my shopping list and take off the things I already have. The best part is once I log in to my phone app the list I created on my computer is right there on my phone. You give everyone in your family the log on and put the app on their phones and you can all manage a calendar so parents know kids schedules, and kids get reminders of when they need to stay late for school, or when they have doctors appointments, tests, and projects are due. You can even add pets so you can track their grooming, veterinary appointments, play dates etc. You can sort your shopping by grocery, wholesale, pet supplies, etc. There is also a to-do list and a journal so you can make your to do list for the days you take a day off to try to get allot of things accomplished. I am just sharing my love for this!

Kong Products

My kids can get rough, tough, down and dirty so when I buy products for them I want to buy something that lasts. Most pet products are not cheap to begin with and I am extremely frugal. If I can buy the generic or cheapest option possible with out variance in quality then I usually go for the least expensive option. That being said as well mannered as Gracie can be, she gets really excited when she sees other dogs and I needed to have a collar that I could trust not to break free. So I gave the Kong collar a try, I know their toys last and I have become a Kong believer. Everything we buy now for our dogs is Kong. 

Gracie has a Kong collar, a kong bed, a kong GIANT food bowl and her kong wubba. 

Cooter has a Kong collar, a Kong Harness with seat belt attachment, a Kong Leash, and a kong wubba. 

When we found out we were getting Cooter I bought a few toys cause I just had to spoil him. He had an orange duck that is supposed to be "tough" and we got him a bunny wubba. 

Here we are a few months later orange duck: 

And Bunny wubba 

Let me start with the Collars and the leash they are amazing, they are extremely strong with a double latch system they have a little tab that pops out the back making it harder to get them open. They are fully adjustable and actually span a wide range. We bought Cooter's when he was just a tiny puppy and as he has grown it has adjusted with him. I think we may only have to purchase one more and not for a little while still. 

The leash has SO much thought put into it a detachable clasp at the handle so you can secure your dog to your belt loop, your purse, or anything else. The handle also has great cushioning, and then there is the rubber grip to help provide added stability  and that way you don't have to wrap the leash around your hand and risk the horrible rope burn that can come with some large dogs. They use the heavy duty clasp that is significantly harder to bend or break. I have had Gracie break one with the push down clasp so since then I only use leashes with this type of clasp. And all of them are outlined with reflective edging.

I absolutely love their products everything just holds up so well. 

Here is Gracie with her collar on her Kong Bed 

This bed was an amazing deal. I used to have two Danes and I found these Kong beds on clearance in January because they considered it a Christmas product. My other Dane loved beds he could move around. These are great beds they can adjust them and squish and fold them as necessary. They are filled with cedar shavings so they dont acquire a smell. They are extremely tear resistant, and fur vacuums off easily. 

Another amazing Kong product is the Zoom Groom it is a great little rubber brush that pulls out all the loose hair. If you do this be sure to do it outside or have a vacuum handy the amount of hair that comes out is amazing. Oh and be advised it is great for cats, and short haired dog if you are going to do it dry, but if you are going to use it on a long haired dogs only use it wet to help lather up the shampoo. 

So I would honestly not hesitate in spending my money on a Kong product I have yet to come across a Kong product that hasn't lasted and been worth the money I paid.

Here is Gracie's Kong that we got her the same time Cooter was coming home so that she associated him as a good thing. Well and its still looking great too!

Hoover Floormate

My mother in law ordered the new version and gave me this version of the hoover floor mate. THIS THING IS AMAZING!!!!!!! You can pick up the older ones like this one fairly cheap online, and the new ones are not that much either HSN has them for $159 

I used brooms, and dusters for ages. I spent so much time and money trying to keep my floors clean. In our house the floors in the kitchen and wet areas are vinyl the kitchen and entryway are the planks that lay out like wood, and the bathrooms are the giant sheets of vinyl. Anyone who has vinyl knows it will stain, and grabs hold of anything sticky.  

I can do my entire kitchen in under 5 minutes, and it takes less than another five minutes to dry. 

The floor mate has three settings dry vac, wash, and wet pick up. 

I can use any floor cleaner I want with hot water. I always sweep first then run the dry vac, then the wash cycle, and then the wet pick up cycle. 

During the wash cycle spin brushes actually scrub your floor. When she gave me the floor mate I swept the floor, then ran my duster and wet cloths. When I ran the floor mate afterwards the water came up BROWN I was mortified. You know your mop bucket gets dirty, and you know you clean it as it get dirty but you think its clean. This thing will just make you amazed at what is left on your floors. 

The ONE and ONLY Con I can find on this thing is the water reservoir, and the dirty water receptacle they are hard to get out.

Bissell Pro Heat 2x Pro Pet

This was another gift from the hubs. We moved into our rental house while we find the right place to call our own and the place was less than clean. That plus it came in really handy when in under a month we got a beagle puppy. I have always loved the rug doctor steam cleaners but they are large, bulky, and just came out for retail purchase but they have a HUGE price tag. This steam cleaner is lighter in weight, a little more maneuverable, and has special features that really do make it worth the cost. It comes with an upholstery attachment, and a few product samples. Again I will start with the cons:

1-         The water canister comes out easily but it is the kind that has the large sac that you fill with water, and the dirty water fills the area around the clean water reservoir. I don’t like this because the dirty water gets in allot of nooks and crannies and makes a really awful smell.

2-         Along with that it is very difficult to get the clean water reservoir full.

3-          It does not push well on high pile rugs; it seems to need more effort in order to go forward.

      The pros:

1-      It has great suction, it pulls up fur that is buried deep down in the carpet and spits out the fur in chunks. 

2-      The carpet always looks so much cleaner, and I don't have stains that come back up like I did with a previous steam cleaner. 

3-      It got bright red sweet and sour sauce out of the carpet Gracie drug a HUGE container of the stuff onto the carpet and it looked horrible. 

4-     Little side bristles pull the extra fur and stuff away from the base boards and furniture. 

5-     Overall for the money a great buy and I feel I get the same results as when I rent a rug doctor. I have yet to find a stain it hasn't got up. 

My new Dyson DC-41 Animal

This was one of my early Christmas presents, bought for me by my hubs. We had a Dyson DC-14 Animal and it was much worse for wear after several years. Overall I do have to say I LOVE THIS THING!!! But there are a few things that I would change. Lets start at the beginning it comes in pieces with assembly required. When you pay this much for anything you don't want to have to assemble it I don't care how easy it was to put together. My other irks are as follows:

1- There is no step to pull down the handle, you just pull it down with a very gentle pull this means you don't always know if it is engaged and will stay up so we store it by the wall so if it falls back its not bad. Not to mention I think overtime it is something that could fail with continued use as it is very easy to pull it back so I don't think it will be long before it either needs to be repaired or it lives permanently propped against the wall.

2- For some reason Dyson feels the need to have always made their cord storage on the handle which is also the extension tool, sorry for the shadow on the picture but you can still see what I mean. I have to completely unravel the cord just to use the wand.

3- I understand wanting to get all the way up against furniture and base boards but I know I have seen some with bumpers and I wish they would have put something to that effect to help protect not only my walls but the vacuum it's self. We have only had it about a week and it is already scuffed up. 

4- One of the filter placements is in the side of one of the ball chambers its takes allot of spinning to get it open which is good so it doesn't come undone as you are vacuuming but its also difficult to get back on. 

6- It also puts off allot of heat, allot more than my last one. 

NOW FOR THE POSITIVES:

1- It is much more light weight

2- The tools are merged together so you aren't as likely to lose the brush attachment like what happened allot on my last one. I was constantly  misplacing it. 

3- It picks up allot more stuff. I ran my dc-14 then we ran the new one and it picked up so much stuff, we emptied the canister at least twice per room. 

4- The other filter is really easy to access and doesn't require a bunch of dis-assembly like the last one did.

5- The self adjusting floor level is amazing I can really tell the difference with all the suction. 

6- Everything is labeled and colored so if you have a clog, want to use the attachments, or release the canister, or access the filter.

So overall while I would like to make a few adjustments the over all performance of the vacuum is AMAZING! The tools work wonderful, it does a great job at picking up the dog fur, and cat fur it gets it off the dog beds and sheets amazingly well. The bird seeds come right off of the carpet, and the hard surfaces as well.