Webkinz Trading Spaces

My daughters have asked me to tell more details about the following:

My children and I have taken two of our favorite activities and combined them into ONE super fun game that we enjoy so much that we now play it just about once a week. What are these two things? Webkinz and Trading Spaces.

We always start this homemade game when we have at least a couple hours available with no planned Webkinz maintenance downtime (so not close to the scheduled 2:00AM-4:30AM Webkinz time maintenance period). The rules are simple and similar to the television show Trading Spaces and we vary them depending on who we are playing with and how we all want to play.

Here are the basics:

• We trade for a certain length of time.
• Each person/team is given a certain number of rooms they are allowed to touch (usually 2-3). We agree to not touch any other rooms, but they can be looked at.
• Each person/team is allowed to spend a certain amount of money (and NO more unless they earn it).
  
• No one can sell any of the room owner's items, but they can reuse anything in any of the potential rooms.
  
• If there is extra time and/or money, the other rooms can be redecorated/reorganized also.
• The pets have to be kept healthy and happy, even if this means that extra food needs to be purchased during the game.
  

This game works best when we have at least two computers available in the same house, so that passwords aren't shared and everyone can see their houses quickly. I usually act as moderator, going back and forth between teams, seeing how everyone is doing and giving advice if asked.

This is SO much fun for all of us! Even if a person doesn't like their new room, the results and experience have always been good. We often take a "before" and an "after" screen shot, so rooms could potentially be recreated. What I enjoy the most is watching the process of the people involved. It is very interesting to see how the kids (and sometimes adults) work together to create rooms they truly believe the room owner will love. They often base the rooms on what they feel the personality of the pet is, unless the room is a garden, bathroom, family/living/playroom, or kitchen.

We love Webkinz so much we're considering hosting a Webkinz party. This activity would definitely be on our "must do" list.

Webkinz "Helpfulness" and Censorship

My daughters and I are HUGE Webkinz fans. We play on the Webkinz site every single day and we have quite a few pets. These little stuffed animals, and their virtual counterparts, are the best stuffed animals we've ever seen.

All that said, as a person with programming experience, I've been very disappointed with the Webkinz lack of testing. They keep putting out new and potentially exciting virtual products and games that don't work (for example, they just came out with "The Wheel of the Month" -- it never worked for anyone, from all reports). They've also become overly helpful to parents, to the point of being UNhelpful to all involved.

My older daughter had one of the cute Bullfrogs that she wanted to adopt. We were feeling a bit of time pressure to adopt this pet, since the Curio Shop was selling an extremely rare Egyptian item (and we needed the cash from an adoption in order to have enough money to buy it). [We've been building an Egyptian room for our black cat for quite a while now.] My daughter felt (and still feels) that the most perfect name in the world for this sweet little frog was Buttercup (named after "Princess Buttercup" from the awesome Princess Bride movie).

Webkinz, in their quest to save us from ourselves, wouldn't allow the beautiful name Buttercup to be used. It won't allow Butterscotch either (our dream dog name). See the theme? It actually took us a bit. Furthermore, this censorship has caused us to talk about "bad words" a lot more than we normally would. We especially couldn't figure out why our new gorgeous Library room wasn't allowed to be named "Library". Where's the naughty word in that name? We've figured it out, but it took a while... The room is now called the "Book Room" and here is a snapshot of it (my daughter and her friend made it earlier today). Of course, these are only guesses since Webkinz customer support never answers our questions...


Their customer support also leaves most users questioning whether or not it even exists. Their online FAQ and Customer Support within the Webkinz world only have trite answers that have never once been correct for the situations that we have e-mailed them about. I haven't found anyone IRL that has had one of their problems (NOTE: these are customers that are reporting actual bugs, not customers randomly complaining) answered or even acknowledged. It is offensive that they insist that we, the users, are doing something to cause problems when the problems are clearly that the test engineers haven't been given enough time to properly do their jobs. This makes me wonder just how many programmers and computer engineers Ganz has employed for the Webkinz project. Definitely not enough. We customers would much rather have a more stable and reliable game than all the new features and products that keep showing up. Isn't this always the case in software?

Arizona Pumpkin Patch

My daughters and I visited Agua Linda Farms pumpkin patch this afternoon with one of our local homeschooling groups. While clearly the patch (and the other vegetables growing on the farm) needed irrigation, we still found the farm beautiful. We love the scenic mountains in the background, although I personally miss Iowa's silos. The typical Midwestern corn maze (or soybean maze) were replaced with a hay maze [although it has been pointed out to me that at least one corn maze does exist each fall in Arizona, I just haven't seen any yet]. The whole experience was a lot of fun. My youngest especially appreciated the petting zoo. If you haven't had a chance to visit one of your local pumpkin patches this fall, try and find the time to do it! Connecting with where your food comes from is always a rewarding experience.

Crown of Wonder!

Today was a huge day for us in Webkinz World. After over 6 months of gem hunting, my oldest daughter finally collected the last of the 30 gemstones needed to get a "Crown of Wonder". Here is a picture of Fluff (our Lil' Kinz Lion) wearing the legendary crown. Fluff shares a room with Eshe (our Elephant) and Lumina (our Leopard).

Don't forget to look for leaves during October 20-26th during the Webkinz Fall Festival. We won a maple leaf sweater just a little while ago when we clicked on a floating leaf. Very fun!

Vegan Perspective on Heifer International

With the Holidays right around the corner, I've been seeing more and more ads for Heifer International again (whose link I am consciously not putting on my site). I've also been hearing more and more people say that this is the gift they are giving friends and family this year. This makes many of my vegan friends and me very sad! Please consider this carefully before you pay money to this organization; your friends and family just might not agree with Heifer International's premise.

To be brief, Heifer International is an organization that allows givers to purchase a variety of animals (for different fees) that are then given to individuals, families, or villages. The animals are then raised by these people and either sold, raised for milk and eggs and wool, or outright eaten. I believe the organization's goal is to help end world hunger, clearly an admirable goal, but also clearly not possible in the manner they are attempting.

To share why this isn't possible, here are links to just two of the many articles that give voice to a vegan's discontent:

• Unitarian Universalists for the Ethical Treatment of Animals's Article on "What's Wrong with the Heifer Project?" [Note for those concerned: UFETA is not affiliated with PETA]
  
• The Independent's Andrew Tyler's article "Don't follow the herd and give a cow for Christmas"
  

So you like the idea of giving to a charity that can help starving people, rather than spending your money on gifts that may or may not be appreciated? Consider these humane alternatives that are doing a lot of good:

• Food for Life Global
• Sustainable Harvest International
  
• Fruit Tree Planting Foundation

Still not convinced that a vegan diet is the only way that world hunger can be ended? Consider these facts:

• The average number of lives saved [per year] by being a vegetarian is 95 (being vegan saves even more)
• GoVeg's "Meat and the Environment" page
• The Human Farming Association's "Factory Farming" page
• Vegetarian USA's Food "Choices & the Planet" page
  

My last words for today are actually The New York Times words from their "Reasons To Be A Vegetarian" article dated June 20, 1989.

Green and Clean

Part of the vegan lifestyle is to not purchase products that have been tested on animals or made from animals. My family also lives as "green" as possible, making our search for cleaning supplies even more challenging. I'm often asked what products we use for cleaning. I've tried out a variety of products, and I've found the following to work best (and we are really good at making BIG messes!):

• White vinegar. Yes, this simple and inexpensive liquid cleans amazingly well. If you want sparkling windows and mirrors, or just an all around clean surface, vinegar is your power liquid. Some people mix it with water and/or a drop or two of tea tree oil and squirt it onto surfaces. I prefer to just dump a little on a nice flour sack style white cotton kitchen towel, then wipe my surfaces with it (microfiber cloths work excellent, too, even with plain water). I then use the dry side of the towel for wiping the vinegar up and making sure there are no streaks. I never have any and it is great! Vinegar is great for getting rid of old cleaning product films, too. When you want exceptionally soft clothes (or if you have any bodily fluids on your dirty clothing), put a couple of Tablespoons of vinegar in your bleach compartment. Vinegar even cleans up urine stains on carpet and furniture from animals and little kids. Combine this with good ol' sunshine and you'll get a thoroughly clean item. For clogged drains, try a combination of vinegar and baking soda. Put the baking soda in first, then the vinegar. Close the drain if you can. Let your kids make volcanoes in the sink while it cleans itself.
  

• Bi-O-Kleen laundry detergent. This excellent product is all we ever use for laundry detergent. ONE (yes, one) tablespoon is all you need for a full load of laundry. Our clothing comes out perfectly clean with no stains. This product is safe for the environment and costs less per load than non-environmentally safe alternatives. We also wash all of our clothing on cold/cold. When we still had a baby in (cloth) diapers, we used Bi-O-Kleen and vinegar and washed all diaper loads on hot/cold, then again on cold/cold. This double washing was probably overkill. We use Bi-O-Kleen in foam dispensers for hand washing in our kitchen and bathrooms.
  

• Goo Gone. This product is one of the world's greatest inventions. Citrus power cleans all of our goo off all of our stuff. DVD stickers are instantly gone with Goo Gone. So are crayon stains, Sharpie marks, and a variety of other messes that you probably don't want to keep permanently. This stuff lasts a really long time, too, since you don't need much. If you haven't tried Goo Gone yet, you'll be amazed! It really makes your goo be gone. :)
  

• Mr. Clean Magic Erasers. When all else fails (which it seldom does), this tough product erases your mess. I keep a box in my kitchen just in case. I'm on my second box and I've been using these since they first came out. Amazing!

• Boiling water. Contrary to all logic, boiling water gets rid of all berry stains, no matter where the stain is -- the hotter the water, the better. We've gotten berry stains out of clothing, carpets and more with boiling water. Just be careful to not burn yourself. For a particularly large stain, try pouring the boiling water on the item more than one time.
  

• Tea Tree Oil (there are many brands, my favorites are Melaleuca and Desert Essence. When you need something to be disinfected, a drop of tea tree oil can do the job. You only need a drop, with a whole pan of water, as this stuff is very concentrated and powerful. There are a lot of cleaning products and beauty supplies made using tea tree oil. I've never appreciated the cleaning products, since I've found the above materials to work better and for a significantly smaller price. OTOH, I've loved some of the shampoos and other beauty products that I've used with tea tree oil. I don't find them "necessary", but they are a fun extravagance when you feel like it. I've been using tea tree oil for over eleven years now and I am still very happy with it. Try it on acne next time you have an outbreak.

• For dish cleaning, we either use Trader Joe's liquid dish soap and liquid dish washer soap, or another similarly environmentally conscious brand (depending on where we are shopping when we are running low on these products). We are careful about what we put back into the Earth, especially with our plans to use a large gray water system.
  

Have a Vision: Vision Boards and Vision Boxes

Vision Boards and Vision Boxes are becoming very popular! They are similar to Wish Lists, yet significantly deeper. Vision Boards can encompass not only our material desires, but also our deepest and innermost wishes and dreams such as "more peace" or "a magical existence". With The Law of Attraction and "The Secret" so popular, we're learning that our thoughts and dreams really can come true! We just have to really want them.

My daughters and I have vision boards. We made ours out of cut peg board. We glued cork on different areas of the boards (different for each of us), strung wire on the back, and stained little wooden boxes that we later glued on the boards. We use the cork area for the material things and/or short term events we want (ours are evolving with us). The other area we've mod-podged things that make us feel good -- pictures of things, words, etc. that reflect who we are and who we want to be (I've put lots of calm, zen images on my board; my oldest daughter has lots of magical images; my youngest daughter has gemstones and ballet photos). Basically, we put things on our boards that we want to manifest into our lives. My youngest daughter cleverly hooked a cup onto her board that she fills with little homemade clay items.

Some people choose to make Vision Binders or Boxes where they put photos and magazine words/pictures/items into. We prefer our Boards that hang on the wall, so we can look at them throughout the day. The boards definitely lack the portability of a binder though. I've seen a variety of Vision Boards made out of cardboard, foam board, and other materials. The great thing about these is that there is no set way of making them. It is entirely up to you! Christine Kane wrote a really great "How to Make a Vision Board" blog entry for those interested. Some people even make computer wallpaper Vision Boards for their screen's background. This is a very neat concept!

We enjoy our Vision Boards so much that we held a "Vision Board Day" with our Girl Scout Troop (I'm a Girl Scout Leader for both of my daughters' troops). I've been amazed at the wonderful and creative ideas the girls have had! This also gave us a chance to share our collection of catalogs and magazines. Some of the girls put only words all over their boards, others chose only pictures. One thing is for certain: our boards have to evolve since we keep getting everything we hope and dream for! It is amazing how these things keep appearing in our lives.

With the Holiday Season just around the corner, I'm excited to see the items that are popping up on my daughters' Vision Boards. I know what they'll love to receive and I don't have to ask them.

Don't forget to periodically take photos of your Vision Boards. It is fun to look back over time and see how your dreams have come true!

Webkinz Talk

We speak Webkinz-Ease in our house, that is how greatly Webkinz has embellished our lives.

The Webkinz world is entered by purchasing a cute and lovable stuffed animal made by Ganz that has a tag that contains a special secret code that activates a virtual pet that looks similar to your stuffed friend (my daughter reminds me to tell people to not accidentally purchase a Webkinz stuffed animal that doesn't have a tag, and please do NOT throw away your tag!). Once you own one of these little pets, you are given a room to decorate and a world to explore (complete with games, jobs, and even a Post Office). You are also in charge of feeding your virtual pet so that it doesn't get sick. At all times, the pet has a meter that reads his health, happiness, and hunger level. The range is 0-100, with 100 being the highest.

Our conversations can go something like this:
How hungry are you?
I'm starving, I think I'm at about 60.
Well, I'm at a 75, so I'll make us a snack.

Then later:
I'm about a 95 on my tired level (we've made this category [and others] up), so I think I could stay awake a while longer.
Not me, I'm a 40, I'm going to bed now.

Then, of course, the games and their unique vocabularies have entered our world, too. Once a day, everyone gets a spin on the Wheel of Wow. We, however, call it the Wheel of Mom since WOW is MOM upside down. The wheel spins the word WOW, making it look like MOM. I often hear, "Wow, Mom! Look what we got!"

One of our current favorite activities is to sit and play the games on the (muted) Webkinz site whilst listening to audio books. Our second favorite activity is to play our homemade version of Webkinz Trading Spaces. Both of my daughters have an account. We log in on two different computers, show each other 1-3 possible trading rooms, decide on a KinzCash amount (usually 1000-3000 KinzCash), then switch places for an hour or two. We can't sell each others items without permission, but we can reuse items in the rooms we've chosen and we can do whatever we want as far as decorating goes. I go back and forth between the computers and I probably have the most fun of all. :) We've come up with some awesome rooms!

Oh, how we love Webkinz!

Adopt Pets from Animal Shelters

Happy 9th Birthday to our little black cat, Astrid. We're so happy to have her in our lives. Astrid is an animal shelter rescue cat. With the large number of animals that need homes, please consider getting your next pet from your local animal shelter or rescue league or organization. We've adopted four cats from shelters over the years and we could not be more pleased.

Don't forget that even if you don't want another pet in your life, the animals can still use attention, love, and supplies. Donate your old blankets and towels to your local animal shelter. If you love animals, but don't want to own one, shelters are always looking for volunteers to help walk and pet the animals. Kids can volunteer, too!

Astrid, like many rescued animals, is microchipped. This amazing technology is a quick and painless way of helping owners keep track of their pets. The microchip is put under the animal's skin and stays there for life. If a lost animal is taken to a shelter or veterinarian, a quick and painless scan (similar to a grocery store scan) can help determine who she belongs to. Please keep your cats inside. This, more than anything, helps save their lives.

As Bob Barker likes to say, "Help control the pet population. Have your pets spayed or neutered."