Toothpaste; FAFSA 2024-2025; Surprise Tulips

104 Replies

I am going to recommend a toothpaste and, if you are like me, the first time you try it you will say “OH NO WHAT DID I PUT IN MY MOUTH?? GET IT OUT, GET IT OUT” and you will want to put the whole tube directly into the trash can; but, and this is assuming you are still me in this scenario, then you will try it on another occasion and have a similar reaction, but for some reason keep trying it anyway??? until you end up somehow enjoying the suffering??? until it isn’t even suffering??? It reminds me a little of mouthwash: how at first I thought “AAAAAAAGGGGHHHHHH WHYYYYYYY!!!” for the entire 30 seconds of swishing, and now it’s no big deal and I even get a little head-rush from it, and afterwards I feel as if I’ve done something very nice for my teeth and gums. Here is the toothpaste:

(image from Target.com)

Arm & Hammer Peroxicare toothpaste. Maybe buy your first tube as a single, in case you hate it and continue hating it and then continue hating it after that.

I don’t remember why I bought it in the first place, but I think it was the general feeling that baking soda and/or peroxide might be good for my poor gums. I also wondered if the whitening effect of peroxide would make the inside of my mouth peel the way other whitening toothpastes can, and the happy answer is NO. And my teeth DO look whiter. At my last appointment the dentist asked, “Do you do tooth-whitening treatments?,” which I thought was the beginning of a sales pitch but turned out instead to be a compliment. I am fantasizing that at my next appointment (when they will do the annual gum-poking thing to measure the pockets) the hygienist will make awed noises about how much improvement there has been. Exciting times!

 

This is a niche complaint paragraph for U.S. college students and parents of college students: THE NEW (2024-2025) FAFSA!!!!! I HATE IT SO MUCH!!! WAS THE OLD ONE NOT SUFFICIENTLY TERRIBLE???? This new ‘n’ improved version doesn’t let you copy your inputted information for a second child, so you have to type it all in again! I have not changed any of the information on my taxes or any of the balances of my accounts from one child to the next!! And I signed mine, but then when Elizabeth did her section, it told her that I had NOT signed mine. And now apparently we wait indefinitely to hear back.

 

Would you like some surprise tulips? Or I can send them to your friend or relative. I have finished the FAFSA, and I have dropped off my forms for the tax preparer, and my twinnies are home for spring break, and there are tulips coming up in my yard, and I am in the mood to send someone some tulips. It has to be someone in the U.S., and I believe in fact you have to be in the 48. No: I have checked, and they say they are shipping to all 50. That is a little difficult to believe, but I am going to take them at their word. I will ask but not demand that, if you win, you satisfy my curiosity by telling me which two surprise colors you received. To enter, leave a comment (either on its own or in addition to the rest of your comment) saying “tulips!” (you don’t have to use the exclamation point if you’re not feeling it) and/or see if it works to cut and paste this lil emoji to make the comments section all springlike: 🌷🌷🌷. I will choose a winner on Tuesday evening, so that I can collect a shipping address (as usual, it’s fine to choose someone you know in the U.S., if you win and you are not yourself in the U.S.) and get the order in on Wednesday morning when the inventory refills.

104 thoughts on “Toothpaste; FAFSA 2024-2025; Surprise Tulips”

  2. Liz

    Tulips!

    And I actually know someone who knows someone at the developer for the new FAFSA. I’ll copy and paste that part of your post and email it to him so he can forward it on.

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    1. Swistle Post author

      I am repeatedly delighted by the richness of our collective resources! Tax accountants! Bird experts! Audiologists! People who know people at Twitter! People who know FAFSA developers!! We could make a dangerous coalition, combining our forces and talents and connections.

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      2. Alyson

        We should figure this last bit out. Someone or a lot of someones need to be a force for good in this ever decining hellhole.

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      3. Kathi

        I’m very interested to try that toothpaste-thanks for the recommendation.

        Tulips! 🌸🌼🏵🌷🌻🌺💐

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  6. Leslie

    🌷We shall see if my tulip emoji works.

    I am between children needing FAFSA (big age gap!) and I do not miss it. Fingers crossed it’s much improved for real in the next few years!

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  9. Reba

    Tulips 🌷 🌷 !!

    I love tulips! Enjoy your time with your twins home! I had to send my college student back today. 😔

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  13. Nine

    I used to use that toothpaste because of the effervescent torture factor, it definitely felt like it was working. Like scrubbing bubbles! Now, unfortunately, I’m straight off a pocket measuring = DANGER ZONE appointment, so I had to switch to Crest Gum Detoxify. Not the one with the charcoal (yet). My teeth are not on board with the new regime, they feel weird and extra toothy.

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    2. Natalie

      I had a sample of that Gum Detoxify and thought it tasted terrible and bubbled unsatisfactorily so I did not continue it (because it was a free sample). But if I had paid for it, I probably could have stood to continue using it.

      Reply ↓
    1. Swistle Post author

      This morning I got dressed thinking “My jeans don’t fit and I am having trouble seeing this as a THEM problem, so maybe I should skip some meals” ( <--NO!!!)---and then got the app notification that bloating is my hungry body's TEMPORARY way of getting more nutrition out of its food at this stage of the cycle, and had a full mindset turnaround.

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  15. Suzanne

    I have, on occasion, brushed my teeth with both baking soda and peroxide and so I am intrigued by the toothpaste!

    Yay for spring break! Yay for blooming tulips! I have my twice yearly yearning for tulips in my yard; when will the yearning turn into planting????

    I am going to send some tulips to a friend, but would love some tulips as well. So: tulips! 🌷🌷🌷What a sweet giveaway.

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  19. Sharon

    Tulips! 🌷🌷🌷What a lovely idea.

    I am the mother of a high school senior and not only is the fafsa both terrible and delayed, but it has caused many colleges to say that admissions decisions will also be delayed, so we won’t know in time to plan and take a school-visit trip before he has to decide which college to go to! aaaaaargh!

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  22. Kelsey

    Yes, the FAFSA thing is a nightmare for students, colleges, a multitude of scholarship granting organizations, etc. I have been so thankful not to have a senior this year!

    🌷🌷🌷

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  31. Rose

    🌷🌷🌷 Tulips!!!
    I am at the end of pregnancy, and although I have entered Swistle drawings many times with a complacent air, I can’t tell you how much my tired self wants to receive tulips this time around. :) 🌷🌷🌷

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    1. Maggie2

      Awww, I hope you win. 🌷 Those last few weeks deserve all the bright and happy little cheer-ups possible.

      Reply ↓
  32. mbmom11

    We’re avoiding the FAFSA for a few more days. (No freshmen going to college this year) so I have yet to see the delights of the new form.
    Tulips! It would be fun to win something, to ease the pain of the FAFSA. And taxes….

    Reply ↓
  33. nonsoccermom

    Tulips!

    I love tulips. I do not, however, love the FAFSA. Hopefully they’ll have made some improvements by the time I have to help my high school sophomore fill it out in a few years.

    Reply ↓
  35. Becky

    Tulips. And, from someone whose kid Hates mint, what toothpaste could you recommend? He has been using watermelon kids toothpaste, but after a few cavities they said he should switch to Adult toothpaste. I love mint myself, but I can’t imagine having to use, say, coconut toothpaste, which I hate. I ordered Cinnamon toothpaste online and he has been using it, but is he doomed to have to order it online forever?

    Reply ↓
    2. Alaina Brown

      Tom’s toothpaste has fluoride (aka adult toothpaste) and comes in lots of fun flavors- watermelon, mango strawberry and has been available at my grocery store and I’ve seen it at the pharmacy as well.

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      1. Betsy

        Mint toothpaste a weird pregnancy aversion of mine and I also learned about the Cinnamon. I liked it a lot.

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  36. Julie

    The FAFSA is driving me crazy and I don’t even have a kid going into college – I just have to do it every single year for his scholarship, which, yay scholarships, but seriously, why are you making me do this 4 times??? And of course I submitted it minus a “signature,” so I’m waiting for them to release it so I can fix it. WHY is it taking so long? *headdesk*
    How nice of you to spread kindness through tulips. You are such a treasure.

    Reply ↓
  37. Shari

    Tulip! My favorite flower. I am watching the FAFSA with rapt attention and horror because I have a junior…hopefully it’s fixed for next year!

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    1. Swistle Post author

      ME TOO (Henry is a junior). I am very much hoping for all our sakes that things are improved by next year! 🌷

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  38. Alexicographer

    Oh how tedious (FAFSA). We will have to do this next year and have just 1 kid so the doesn’t maintain the info. across forms problem you mention shouldn’t be an issue for us, but still, it is discouraging and alarming to see so many people hating the new one, and all the problems it has caused.

    Tulips!

    Reply ↓
  39. Heidi J

    Tulips!

    And I had a similar experience when I first started using Trader Joe’s baking soda toothpaste. I hated it at first, but couldn’t bring myself to waste it and now I like it.

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  42. Rebecca

    : 🌷🌷🌷Tulips!!!!

    Fun FAFSA fact: if you submit and accidentally click the “parents won’t share information “ box, you cannot edit/amend/redo/fix until forms have been transmitted to colleges. Then you msy redo and resubmit and maybe, just maybe, they will send amended form and maybe colleges will re-review it.

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  45. Kerri

    Tulips! 🌷🌷🌷
    I planted tulips last fall for the first time, so I’m happy to see how they bloom in my yard. They’ve already started growing, I’m hoping the snow we got last night doesn’t kill them off.

    Reply ↓
  47. H13

    Tulips!

    After a cranky start to the day, I was reminded that doing nice things for people means just putting some good into the world and sometimes it helps. People feel good, receive good, and then do good.

    Reply ↓
  48. Allison

    🌷🌷🌷
    I have been itching to buy tulips at the grocery store lately, but guilt has been forcing me away from the display – the grocery bill is already so high! But I do love them so.

    Our oldest is a HS junior, so we will be filling out the FAFSA for the first time next year (or is it in the fall? I am clueless but not for long!!). I am very much hoping that all the problems with the FAFSA this year are fixed by next, but I’m not holding my breath. I’m at least grateful that many others will have plenty of good advice for getting through it!

    Reply ↓
    1. MelissaH

      My oldest are twins and juniors, so I am with you – I hope that everything will be magically fixed by next time, but I fear that will not be the case.

      Reply ↓
  53. Jenny

    🌷 🌷 🌷

    Enjoy the twins’ spring break— even more since you were so sick over Christmas and didn’t get to bask in their presence as much as you wanted to. I’m glad you’re enjoying them.

    Reply ↓
  54. Emily Sedgwick

    Tulips! 🌷🌷🌷
    (I love you for sharing the things that bring you both joy and frustration. I DO NOT miss the days of FAFSA.)

    Reply ↓
  63. Aimee

    I hope I am remembering this correctly, but I think that Holland Ridge started shipping those surprise tulips during early COVID when they had their tulips blooming but customers couldn’t come to the farm to pick them. I remember a friend of an online friend’s cousin (or similar convoluted relationship) owns the farm and they sent out an online SOS for ppl to order tulips to keep the farm operating. Well I ordered several that year and have send them to my mom each spring since. Anyway, I hope I am remembering this correctly :)

    Reply ↓
  66. timberdawn

    Tulips! 💖🌷💖
    I have planted tulips twice here on ye old family homestead. An older neighbor/master Gardener told me that tulips are to deer what candy is to children. I planted them snug up against the house, but have not a single surviving tulip. Meanwhile there are three (!) here left from my childhood. Were the bulbs significantly different then (50’s – 60’s)?

    Reply ↓
    1. Swistle Post author

      I don’t know if it extends to deer, but what I have heard is that narcissus (daffodil) bulbs are bitter to those who would feast upon them. I like daffodils about 25% as much as I like tulips—but for my birthday I asked for a whole bunch of daffodil bulbs to be planted for me, and Paul obliged, and I am looking forward to seeing what their perseverance rate is like! I requested varieties other than the Usual Yellow: white with pink centers, highly fragrant white with red-rimmed centers, etc.

      Reply ↓
      1. timberdawn

        I can look out any window of my house, North, South, East or West and see daffodils! Yes, also deer, so here’s my personal testimony that they, along with their woodland critter buddies have left the daffodils alone.
        I grow iris, and there’s currently a deer or three that have not perused the memo that they are not supposed to like them either. I was going to ramble on with some other comment, but I’m waiting for the tulip update to go live and can evidently only concentrate on one thing at a time. Thanks for the intro to the tulip site!

        Reply ↓
  69. Anna

    This is not about tulips, but about toothpaste- I totally get what you mean. When I was pregnant with my first child I CRAVED MY TOOTHPASTE. It was Tom’s of Maine peppermint paste, which I think also has baking soda, so it was like salty and sweet and crunchy tasting (???) and kind of harsh and I just really looked forward to using it. Then with my second I looked forward to that feeling and it didn’t do anything for me. The kids are really different too, pregnancy is just wild.

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  71. Therese Smith

    I work at a large university and our Financial Aid office is also unhappy with the new FAFSA. Maybe it will be fine eventually but the transition is a hot mess and has delayed everything! No one is happy.
    However, tulips make people happy so yay for that! 🌷🌷🌷

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  79. Sara too

    I have a toothpaste comment: I am “on the spectrum”, and some days mint is just Too Much for me (especially in the morning). And when I was a kid, I’d avoid brushing on those days. But now, as a sensible older person, I think I should brush anyway. So I bought Colgate kids strawberry toothpaste. My mouth doesn’t feel as clean on those mornings, but it’s significantly better than no brushing! I have peroxide in the cabinet, so I dip the toothbrush in peroxide first, and it’s Ever So bubbly!

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  80. Maggie

    Well I’m late to this and have nothing productive to add but THE MOTHERF*&^ING FAFSA! I hate it with the heat of 1,000 suns. Am restraining myself from writing a 5,000 word rant. UGH

    Reply ↓
  81. Kristin

    I ordered the tulips, thank you for the suggestion! They certainly exceeded my expectation for the price. I got red, and a white tipped with pink.

    Reply ↓

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