RedBox Game Review

A couple of weeks ago we were invited to review the game rentals at the RedBox Kiosk. Since we were already fans of renting movies from RedBox, we jumped right in. Smiley360 provided us with 5 free game rental codes and told us to have at it.

My sweetie took Sport with him and the two of them chose a couple of wii games, Go Vacation and Wipeouts 2. Normally at my house we only use the wii to play Just Dance, so the kids were quite surprised when I allowed them to rent actual games.

It took them a couple of hours to really learn how to play, but after that they had an amazingly great time. Not a gamer, I was blogging and keeping my eye on them through the office door. The girls slowly made their way to bed, a couple at a time, but the boys just kept at it. I finally kicked them off and sent them to bed just before 2:00 AM. I think they would have played all night if I would have let them.

Of course this is what I got in the morning!

I love the whole idea of RedBox. At my house, most of the movies get scratched and ruined anyway, so watching them once and returning them works for me. As for games, we only use them as a treat, so being able to just plunk down a couple of bucks and then never have to worry about them makes sense . Besides, the kids tire of them so easily. Once they beat the game, they don’t usually want to play it again anyway.

Hey, I hope you all have a happy, healthy, safe new year! Thanks for being my blogging friends.

Justin Bieber Returns

I know you are all excited to hear the rest of the Justin Bieber story. So if you remember, the Dog Walker hid the Justin Bieber poster on the pocket door of our small bathroom. He and the girls giggled over it because they were hiding it from Dad who had banished JB from the house because the Dog Walker was just a bit obsessed.  *Editor's note- For the entire story click here.*

When the Dog Walker read my original post, he thought maybe he would pull a fast one on my sweetie. So he took the poster down from the bathroom door and plastered it on the inside of my bedroom door. That way, when my sweetie went upstairs to exercise, he would be greeted by the grinning face of JB watching his every move. 

I've got my eyes on you!

 Now I’ve told you before that my sweetie has to be to work at dark-thirty, so he generally goes to bed early. I have to help with homework, read stories, load dishwashers, be insulted while I play DDR, listen to the latest girl trauma, and blog before I go to bed. By the time I get around to turning off the lights, midnight has generally come and gone. The Dog Walker is also a late night guy. He skulks around the house in the semi-darkness inventing things to do until he sees me head off to bed. That’s exactly what he did except this time he followed me upstairs and into my room. 

My sweetie was peacefully sleeping (or so we thought) on the bed. As I laid Baby Doll down in her crib, the Dog Walker shut the door. "What the…!?" I heard him say. "Shhh!" I whispered. "You’ll wake the baby. What’s the matter?" He looked confused. "It’s gone!" he stated. "What’s gone?" I asked somewhat irritated. I was more than ready for bed. "The JB poster," he whispered loudly. Now it was my turn to look confused. "I thought it was downstairs," I said. He grinned, "I thought Dad would want to see it," he said. 

He stomped over to the wastebasket. "I bet he threw it away." He was clearly annoyed, but it wasn’t there. Then he looked in the bathroom trash. Nope, not there either. Then I looked at my sweetie lounging on the bed. His shoulders were shaking a little and he was trying not to laugh. "I bet Dad hid it from you," I suggested. Then, turning to the bed, I said, "Where is it, Dad?" He chuckled, "Where’s what?" he asked innocently. 


So the Dog Walker started frantically searching the bedroom looking for his precious poster. Before he could tear my room apart, I said, "Did you look on the pocket door of our bathroom?" "No," he said, as he stomped in that direction. He pulled the door closed. Nothing. "On the inside?" I suggested. He stepped inside the bathroom, turned on the light and shut the door. "It’s not there!" he grumbled. My sweetie sat up in bed, "It’s not?" he asked. Crap, I thought. "Better go get a yardstick," I said. 

*Not actual door*

Two minutes later the Dog Walker was back, noisily digging inside the pocket door, trying to retrieve the amazing JB. The baby started to fuss. "Maybe I better try to get it out in the morning," he suggested. "Good idea," I said. He hung his head dejectedly as he made his way back down the stairs. His funny joke had taken a drastic turn. The next morning the pocket door was closed. I pushed it open to do my business and I heard the crunching sound of paper. I think it’s safe to say that poor JB is now irretrievable, not even with a yardstick… "…like baby baby baby No! Thought you’d always be mine…"

Exercise

Bossy’s being bossy again! She said it’s time to write another blog and I’m just wasting time exercising! Actually I hate exercise for exercise sake. I’ve never been a runner but I can run back and forth down the basketball court if other people are willing to run with me while we bounce a little orange ball and try to throw it into a way-too-small hoop. My best friend ran a 5K today and actually survived! Maybe if I could dribble a basketball the whole way I could do that…

This time I wasn’t playing basketball, I was playing DDR (or Dance Dance Revolution) with my 17-year-old son. He is an amazing player who can survive a whole song on EXPERT without failing. I have finally graduated from BEGINNER to BASIC and even then I often come up with an E when he has a AA. (E is the lowest grade you can get.) 

The game consists of a square pad that sits on the floor. It looks like a tic-tac-toe board and YOU get to be the playing pieces. You put the game in your game console (mine is for the PS2 but you can get it for the XBOX or the WII.) Then while little arrows scroll up your TV screen you try to step in the corresponding boxes on your tic-tac-toe board. And to make it even more confusing they play music and videos in the background. The kids love to watch me make a fool of myself trying to figure out which jump or step comes next. And to make matters worse, when I screw up, the game makes fun of me too.  If I wanted that kind of abuse, I’d take up running! (…with a basketball, of course.)