I'm Back! With Free Toys and More about Ken

   I know it's been a while, but I'm still here. Ken is improving all the time. He has therapy twice a week, with two or three different therapy sessions each time. He has physical therapy, which works on  his walking and stair climbing, occupational therapy, which works on  his arm and hand, and speech therapy, which, in spite of the name, works on all kinds of things, including cognitive, vision, swallowing, etc. Ken's swallowing is fine now, but his vision is not good. (He lost his peripheral vision in his left eye, and his general vision is blurry.) He also still has some brain fog. So we've been pretty busy between therapy and doctor appointments. He also does therapy things at home. I've also been having to figure out what food I can make for a guy with diabetes, high cholesterol, and high blood pressure.         

 Anyway, we are still living with nothing but a mini fridge, and a tiny one at that. Our regular fridge stopped working when we had the fire. The electricity surge must have blown it.) Even as mini fridges go this thing is tiny. So I've been having to go to the store frequently, since I can't buy much at a time. I usually try to check out the toy aisles when I go, so I have accumulated several Mini Brands display boxes recently. 

  I've been getting them since the beginning, but they are getting harder to get. The stores seem to think they refill the display boxes when they get more stock, which is wrong. The stuff comes in a new display box each time. It's a shame to think a lot of the displays get thrown out, with the sample toys attached. What a waste. A lot of people have caught on though, and either take the empty display boxes, or just plain rip the samples off the boxes and take them. I haven't done that. I only take empty boxes. Mind you, I am not above cramming the two or three balls that are left in a box into the next box, or leaving a single ball on the shelf. The other reason they are getting harder to get is, the practice of putting sample toys on the display boxes seems to be on the way out. There don't seem to be nearly as many boxes with sample toys on them any more.

  Here are some of the display box samples I've gotten over the last year or so.

  I got three on this day. My favourite was the esspresso maker.

There was also this plant one.

And this one makes a mini aquarium.

  Another time I got this LOL Surprise display. This is after I already ripped it off the box...at home.

  It's quite a free haul, considering that it includes two complete sets.

  In fact, I ended up with two of these. I usually don't take sets if I already have them, and leave them for someone else. I figure there are kids who could use a free toy. 

  And later I got this one. It contains squishy hairdos you can mold. I think it didn't have the squishy stuff though. 

  I also got this one. I seem to have hit on a LOL streak.

  These were in the last couple of months, so these are still available at the stores.

   The bottles that would normally contain the resin to do the 'make' part are empty. That's okay. I can handle that for free stuff.

 This Harry Potter set is pretty great stuff. It's one of my favourites of the ones I've gotten. Lots of little potion bottles and cauldrons.

    Yesterday I got the best haul yet, I think. These are some great sets, and there were multiple sets on the one box!

Min Brand Create Garden.

Mini Verse Hello Kitty waffles. 

Tiny individual strawberry slices and blueberries!

Mini Verse Make It party sets! There was so much fun stuff in this display! 

Three sets! 

  Now, be forewarned. Some of this stuff is hard to get off the packaging. They have it glued on there pretty well. But with a little work you can get it loose. The cake that came off the cake stand was stuck down with some really sticky greasy glue. But it washed off with warm water and dish soap. Some of the other stuff has thick glue you'll have to peel off.

The cake came unstuck from the cake stand. And look. This is more than one full set, because there are two cakes and decorating bits.

  I still haven't freed all the Harry Potter stuff from the packaging. I think it's going to be a little time consuming to not break anything, and I don't have much free time these days.

      And don't forget, Micro Toybox also has samples on their display boxes. These were clearanced for  $3.49 at our local Meijer.

  So get out there and get yourself,(or someone else) some free stuff the stores are going to throw away otherwise, while you still can.

  I don't know when I'll get a chance to post again, but I'm still trying to keep my hand in.        

Ken, But Wait, There's More: Dolls

  Finally, a post that isn't  all about Ken, although my life is right now. He is home, and  keeping Fuzzy and me very busy. It's  been super hot, so he has been sapped by the heat, as have I. We were under a heat advisory all week, so we went to Emma's house to  hang out  in her air conditioning a couple of days. He has his first real outpatient therapy this week. Temperatures are supposed to drop a bit, so hopefully he will be feeling more up to it. We did some stuff at home, but generally it was just so hot that he was weak, and I didn't want to put a drain on him. Today we did a bit more, as it's a little cooler.

  But, what you're really here for is dolls. I was out shopping for a  blood pressure cuff, etc. this week, and walked through the clearance and toy aisles at Walmart. Normally I don't like to encourage Walmart shopping, but there were a few good clearance things, and some nice dolls.

  As for the dolls, I saw that Walmart now has Naturalistas dolls. I showed you some from Target in a post last year. 

They also had the fashion packs.

I love the nightie.

  They also had a line called Latinistas, which I assume are by the same company. 

They are also very pretty dolls, and worth checking out. Both series of dolls were priced at $12.97 each. They also had the Naturalistas clothing packs.

  I also saw a couple of very articulated Fresh dolls.

 Both were good looking dolls, one being male and the other female. The articulation looked good, and they had nice faces. 

  There was a line called Fresh. Not sure if they're related. The hair on the blonde one is great.

 

  There was also a line of dolls I've never seen called Luv, which stands for Limitless, Unique, Vibrant, and their accompanying fashion packs.. They were interesting looking dolls. I'm not sure if they have any extra some articulation. I liked them though. 

  

There is a Ron in the currant line of Harry Potter dolls! Yay! 

Ron was always my favoutire character, and he gets the short end of the stick. I'm glad to see him making an appearance.

The VIP dolls looked a little cheap and ugly.

But the current line of Disney Descendants are pretty cool

The selection of Mini Brands was great. They had the books, shoes, purses, make sets, and what seemed an endless selection of others. I think at least half of one side of the aisle was Mini Brands. There were so many I'd love to buy, but they are so expensive. And of course, we've had no income for 7 weeks now.

 

 

  

  There were some great Mini Verse sets. Have I mentioned that I love tiny stuff?

  The Harry Potter Mini Verse sets were great too. Some of the stuff was so detailed. I love this stuff!

In the clearance aisle they had Rainbow High shoes and purse singles for only $2.00, and Mini Bratz for only $4.00. I had to go back today. The Rainbow High stuff was all gone, but the Mini Bratz were only $1 each!

  Yeah. Okay. That one display doll fell off while I was looking at them. Honestly. It really fell off on it's own.

 Which is not to say I didn't take it home with me.

   That's it. Ken keeps Fuzz and I busy, so I don't have much time any more. This post took three writing sessions. Sorry there were no photos. If I have to go back, (which I do, to return the blood pressure cuff I got.), maybe I will get some pictures. 

Ken is Home!

   Ken has come such a long way. His last three days at the rehab hospital his walk totals were 60 feet, 101 feet, and 60 feet, plus stairs. He's been practicing using his arm, had his face, arm, and leg electrified, gotten in and out of the fake car, all in preparation for going home. Friday he rang the bell, signifying he had finished his therapy. We headed home Saturday morning. He'll continue with out patient therapy.

It was VERY hot today, and due to be so hot that the heat advisory will last until Monday. I should have ordered that air conditioner, I guess. But the only rewired spot to plug it in is in the kitchen, and Ken, due to not being able to climb the stairs, is living out of the dining room. Fuzz worked very hard setting the dining room up to be a bedroom, and had the bed waiting when we got home. I had to go out and get the mattress then though, because Fuzz doesn't drive. Luckily, Ken was taken care of at his place of work, where he sat in the air conditioning and was fussed over by his workmates. They even got him a 'Welcome Home Ken' cake, which I let him cheat and have a couple of inches of.

A guy has to have a piece of his own welcome home cake...but not much!

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