So, Dell sent me this new 13″ Inspiron Laptop to test out, and I actually do like it a lot! I was thinking of buying a small 9″ netbook just for when I travel to conferences, but I’m so glad I didn’t now! It seems like it would have been pretty uncomfortable to type on because the keyboard would be so small. The 13″ is truly a perfect size! It fits on my lap, or a small table. It fits in just about any laptop bag, which is great for traveling! 

I was honestly very surprised when I received it. It came at a great time though. We were looking for a laptop for me to take to the conferences that I’m going to be attending this year, thanks to Walmart’s ElevenMoms program, and our many sponsors! I’ve had plenty of time to get used to Vista and learn what I like and don’t like about it. I’ll start with the dislikes so we end on a good note!

The bad:

- It’s Vista! I’m a Mac user, and Vista, in comparison to OS X, is horrible. I hate the multiple confirmations when I’m trying to load software. I hate that everything has to approved and approved, and approved again! The “are you sure” factor is annoying… 

Well, that was short and sweet.. 

The Good:

- It’s small, but not too small! It has a “normal” sized keyboard. All of the keys are in the right spots! It’s easy to type on, and not fumble with the keys. 

- It has a built-in camera and microphone. WOOHOO! I can video chat with my girls and hubby while I’m away at conferences this year! It’s very clear too! I love it!

- It’s a little workhorse. It can handle everything I put it through.. which isn’t much. It’s ok for photo editing, but don’t open too many files at once or it’ll slow down a little bit.

All in all, it’s a great machine, at least so says the hubby. He’s been using it more than I have. He has loaded all kinds of programming software and it has not given him any problems at all. Now that I’ve been traveling a little more, I’ve taken it with me and have loved how small it is compared to my other laptops. I use the webcam to call home and say good night to my family, and keep up with my emails and blogging while I’m away. I love that I can take it on an airplane and it fits perfectly underneath the seat in front of me, or on my tray while in flight. I even got a really cute skin for the front with pics of my girls. 

Thanks Dell for my cool laptop! 

Action Shot- My Z-Coil shoes at SXSWi!

I’m always on the lookout for the coolest things around, and this review is no exception!
I was watching The Doctors one day, and they had on a pair of interesting looking shoes, that they claimed made them stand a little taller, and helped their posture. They also explained how these shoes acted like shock absorbers for their bodies. I thought that had to be a gimmick, but I was willing to try them, so I contacted Z-coil and explained how my back, knees, and hips have hurt since carrying my twins, and my husband’s back and knees have hurt him from all of the running he did while in the Marine Corps. They actually agreed to give us each a pair of shoes… But it wasn’t something they could just send us. We had to go to a local authorized dealer to get custom fitted for our Z-coil shoes.

In Sacramento, our local dealer was Bullard Uniforms located at 819 Howe Avenue, Sacramento CA 95825. I contacted them to set up a time to come by.

I spoke with Gordon, who confirmed that he knew about my husband and I needing to be fit for some Z-Coil shoes, and a couple of days later, we were in Bullard Uniforms picking out our Z-Coil shoes! With so many styles to choose from, I was torn between what kind to get! I ended up choosing the grey tennis shoes. I figured they’d be a little easier to wear with just about anything, plus I needed some new shoes to help me at the gym. My hubby chose the Hiking Boot style.

We soon learned why we have to be custom fitted for these shoes. There are so many things that could be adjusted. The coil in the heel can be softer or stronger, or even turned to help with pronation. He had a computer there that he had us stand on to measure where we put pressure on our feet. We then walked across it to see how our feet hit the ground. I got to see how I put a lot of pressure on my big toe when I stood, and hit the ground hard with my heel when I walked. This totally explained why I had so much trouble when I tried to run. My knees, ankles, hips and lower back were always hurting after I tried to jog for even a couple of minutes on the treadmill. Gordon was able to look at these charts and use the data to truly customize our shoes for us. As far as my shoes go, he did turn one of the coils to help me stabilize one of my ankles, and he added some extra pads at my heel and the ball of my foot to reduce some of the impact when I walk.

It’s now been 2 months since I’ve had these shoes, and I have to say that they have helped me out a lot. I’ve been able to jog a little. I’ve noticed a majority of my lower joint pain has lessened and even some of it has gone away. My hubby has also liked wearing his shoes when we go out for the weekends and are doing a lot of walking around.

If you happened to see me at SXSWi this past March, I was wearing them the whole time! I received plenty of comments, compliments and people coming up to me just asking “What the heck are those shoes?” I even had them with me while I was out in Santa Barbara for my EA SPORTS Active spa retreat. I really have trouble working out in any other shoes now. They are my new favorite shoes, no matter how “weird” they might look. My husband always says I go for cute rather than comfort… well, this is one time I decided comfort was all that it was about… although, I do wish I could get my feet into a pair of the Taos, Mary Jane style shoes now!

Thanks again to Z-Coil and Bullard Uniforms for being so awesome and giving us the shoes for this review! Our feet, ankles, knees and lower backs thank you as well!
Z-Coil shoes vary in price depending on which style you choose. My shoes were about $220 where my husband’s hiking boots were slightly more at approx $250. The coolest part though, is that your shoes will last a very long time. If you need to replace your sole it’s very inexpensive. Replacement coils can also be purchased at a great rate. I personally would see it as an investment into a happier, healthier very pain reduced life!

*Coming soon: A video clip of Gordon at Bullard Uniforms walking us through the computer tests and how to adjust our coils!

PBM Products (supplier of many store-brand infant formulas) is suing Mead Johnson for false advertising. This is the third time such an event has happened, and the two previous times, the court ruled in favor of PBM. 

According to a press release sent out by PBM Products, 

“Mead Johnson has falsely stated that only Mead Johnson’s Enfamil® LIPIL® has two fats, DHA (docosahexaenoic acid) and ARA (arachidonic acid), which Mead Johnson calls “LIPIL®” for marketing purposes. Mead Johnson touts LIPIL®, i.e. DHA and ARA, as promoting infant brain and eye development.

• Mead Johnson’s false advertising campaign consists of national magazine advertisements, including one which states, “[o]nly Enfamil® has LIPIL®, our blend of DHA and ARA, important nutrients found in breast milk.”
• Mead Johnson’s new direct “mailer” promotional advertisements state, “En-Fact: Enfamil LIPIL’s unique formulation is not available in any store brand.”
• Mead Johnson also includes in its print ads and on its Web site an alarming blurry picture of a child’s cartoon duck, which suggests feeding infants anything but Enfamil® LIPIL® will result in reduced vision and brain development.

These statements are literally false; in fact, PBM’s store-brand infant formulas, which are nutritionally comparable to Enfamil® LIPIL®, some virtually identical, contain the same DHA and ARA in the same amounts, sourced from the same supplier, as Mead Johnson’s Enfamil® LIPIL®. Additionally, Mead Johnson intentionally maintains its false advertising campaign and the blurry-eyed baby graphic, despite adverse rulings from the National Advertising Division of the Council of Better Business Bureaus (NAD).

Mead Johnson’s motives for misleading consumers are reported by Mead Johnson in its 2009 initial public offering documents. Mead Johnson spent nearly $300 million on world-wide advertising and product promotion in 2008. The documents go on to reveal the following:

• “…[m]any other companies, including manufacturers of private label, store and economy products, manufacture and sell one or more products that are similar to those marketed by us…”
• “…the current downturn, could cause customers to shift their purchases from our higher priced premium products to lower-priced products, including private label or store brands, which could materially adversely affect our business.”"

PBM’s store-brand infant formulas cost up to 50% less than Enfamil formulas, among other name brands. Regardless of claims by Mead Johnson, PBM’s formulas are subject to the exact same standards set forth by the US Food and Drug Administration. 

Check out the savings calculator at Parent’s Choice! You can see how the savings stack up for you!

Meet Donny Claxton,
an amazing guy with all the determination in the world that he’s going to succeed at the 30 Day Challenge… and you know what??? He will! He’s a very sweet guy, with an amazing wife who is supporting him every step of the way on this challenge. So much so that she’s one of the challengers too! He has tried to lose weight before, but other weight loss “games” for the Wii just didn’t work for him. We all know that the EA SPORTS Active is going to be that help that he needs to get healthier! Cheer him on by tweeting with him, and feel free to use #GoDonnyGo !!!

So week one was an amazing week. I loved my workouts, and I worked hard at them each and every time! My only downfall is that I saved them for the evening. I figured that getting a workout in after I ate and once the girls were in bed, I’d be able to put 110% into them and not be interrupted. Well, twice this week, I missed my exercise because things just got too late. I’m not happy with that. I’m not proud of myself for doing that. I don’t want to fail this challenge… I made a decision that from now on, my workouts will be done earlier on in the day. Sure, the house needs cleaning, and blog posts need writing, but you know what, I need to get healthy! 

Anyway.. So.. To show off my good stuff… Here’s a little gallery of what I did the first 7 days! 

Not too bad eh??? I have lost 1% off of my BMI and I’ve lost about 2 lbs. I’m very excited! It’s not much, but you know what??!!?? With the EA SPORTS Active and my membership to Bob Greene’s The Best Life website I know great things are going to happen! 

Follow me here on Mommy Brain Reports, on the EA SPORTS Active site, and on Facebook!

Greetings from the Eastern Time Zone Everyone!!! If you have been following me on Twitter, and/or Cinch, then you know that we recently moved cross country a couple of weeks ago. We left on Monday April 6th, and arrived in Jacksonville, NC on Saturday April 11th. Here’s a little summary of how it went.

Day 1: Left Sacramento a little later than we had anticipated. It was so hard not to! The girls did really well with having to sit in the car all day. We packed up a bunch of their Disney movies, and I had won a Leapster and two games from another bloggy giveaway site. I was so excited to give that to the girls, but knew they’d fight over it, so Daddy went searching for another one and bought a few more games as well. They were very happy on the drive, and even though they both had different games, they didn’t fight over them! They actually passed them back and forth when they were done with them.

I think we stopped every 2-3 hours at various rest stops, and gas stations and rest stops. Not too bad. We definitely wanted to make sure the girls were ok, and didn’t want to use pull-ups through the drive. They did exceptionally well, considering we left really late, and arrived in Phoenix, AZ at 2am. We all pretty much crashed as soon as we got the girls’ Princess air beds set up… Tomorrow, we rest. 

Day 2: We hung out in AZ with my hubby’s grandparents. It was pretty much a veg out day and we loved it. It was hot enough that we all got to hop in the swimming pool for a little while. Had a great meal, and hung out by the fire pit. A perfect way to spend a day. 

Day 3: Got up and left Phoenix, on our way through. Just past Flagstaff, we were stuck. They had closed I-40 due to high winds, and zero visibility from a dust storm. There was no way through. After some debate, we turned around and drove back to Flagstaff and grabbed a hotel room for the night. We paid for the internet and checked the traffic routes and found out that they had opened the roads around 6pm. I also looked up some more information about my Magellan Maestro and found out that I could get a subscription to traffic alerts. It was approx $40 for the year. I figured it was totally worth it if we happened to run into something like this again, we’d hopefully be able to navigate around it and get past it. Even though the roads were opened, we figured that if we could get any sleep, we could just get up super early and start driving early.  Well, the funny thing was, according to the weather channel there, they were expecting snow around midnight, so it was either drive out early, or wait till morning and hope the snow wasn’t that bad. Daddy set alarms and checked the weather channel again around 10pm and found out that the weather alerts had been canceled. We slept till 1am checked out and got on the road. 

Day 4: We drove forever it seemed, through Texas and Oklahoma. It was probably the longest part of the drive. We drove until we couldn’t drive any more. I think we ended up clocking in a little over 20 hours of driving between the two of us. We ended up stopping in a small town called Sallisaw, and stayed at a former Best Western. It wasn’t bad. It was just a place to rest for the night and get a few hours of sleep. 

Day 5: We got up early and drove into Arkansas, used our Magellan to locate a Starbucks nearby and stopped at one in Ft. Smith and ordered some caffeine!! We also got the girls a little bit of breakfast. They love Starbucks, so this was a real treat for them. While there we talked with a State Trooper who was really nice. We sat and ate a little and realized that we were already a little bit behind the schedule. Well, more than we already were. It was time to get back on the road. We drove and drove all the way to Tennessee. When we crossed the state line, I had noticed some mention of bad storms and even tornadoes in Tennessee, and  I couldn’t imagine. The weather where we were was beautiful (thankfully). I googled for some information and found out that tornadoes had hit Murfreeboro, a town where one friend lives, and not far from another. I immediately called to check on her and make sure she was ok. She was obviously, and rightly, shaken up. A few tornadoes had gone all around her, and somehow missed her cul-de-sac. Talk about a miracle. I called my other friend who lives not too far away in Lewisburg, and made sure she was ok. We ended up talking for over an hour… :) She didn’t know it, but she kept me going while I was driving, and my hubby was napping. Thanks Girl! We didn’t quite make it to the mountains. Instead, we stopped at a Holiday Inn Express near Knoxville. We decided to tackle the mountains in the morning. It was Friday night. We had planned on being in NC by now but instead, it seems we were being watched over and protected from some crazy weather. Sleep… 

Day 6: This is it. It’s NC or bust! We had to get to Jacksonville before 1230pm so we could pick up our keys to our new home. We woke up around 4am and got on the road. We traded off a couple of times until for some reason, my eyes just weren’t staying open! Poor Daddy ended up driving most of the way in. It was amazing. We crossed the state line, and knew this was the home stretch. Once we got through to Raleigh, we knew we were so close! I had to laugh though. We drove through some pretty rural areas after we passed through Raleigh. I almost thought to myself… “How will I ever survive out here?” … I’m glad I kept an open mind though. We got to the office at just after 1230 and got our keys! WOOHOO! Daddy drove us to our new home. At first I wasn’t too sure how I’d like it, until I saw it for the first time. Yes, this was the first time I’d ever seen the house in person. It was gorgeous. We went in and straight to the back yard. The girls and our dog ran circles around the yard for several minutes. It was so funny. The laughter and smiles were that confirmation that we’d be just fine here. We found out that the house had all of the utilities turned off, and were quite disappointed. We didn’t realize that they’d actually be shut off awaiting our visit to have them turned on. Boy California sure does wear off on a person. :) Two more days in a hotel… Oh well.. We could do it… after all, we did just survive a cross country trip through all kinds of weird events with our almost 4 year old girls a dog and two very determined adults. We could survive just about anything. 

Take a look at all of our photos from the drive cross country…

Coming up: Magellan Maestro 4350 review & Rubbermaid Totes: Can they survive a Cross Country move?