If you know me you know I love bargains!  I also need to be efficient and organized to get everything done that needs to be done.  So, how do I combine the two?  One of the ways is to buy in bulk.  But this presents storage problems.  Especially, for cereal.  Once I open a humungo box of cereal, it will go stale faster and the box is usually pretty unwieldy.

Enter Cheerios!  They have some brand-new packaging that solves these dilemmas!  New 2 box Cheerios contains two boxes, that makes it easier to store, easier to pour, and I'm not left with a huge box of stale cereal. 

Some other benefits include:

• By reducing the amount of air in each individual bag, these enhanced containers fit 10% more cereal than before and use less packaging
• While each box contains more cereal, packaging material has been reduced by over 200,000 lbs, saving 1,000 trees and taking 130 Cheerios trucks of the road, decreasing CO2 emissions

I love the new packaging! The first time I got a little vigorous and tore a little piece of my box, but after I realized I didn't need to be Hercules, they were very easy to use.  I love that box is easier to pour than the other behemoth boxes.  No more spills from my kids!  Way to go Cheerios!

So do I have you craving some Cheerios?  Well, two, count 'em two, lucky winners will each win (2) new 2 box Cheerios packaging (four boxes)!  Cool, huh!

Mandatory Entry:
Please leave me a comment that you'd like to be entered.  How easy is that?!   Please include your email in the comment if it's not visible in your profile (jane smith at yahoo dot com)

Extra Entries:
Leave a separate comment for each extra entry:
Follow my blog publicly on GFC
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"Like" me on Facebook

Contest ends Friday, June 1, 2012. Two (2) winners will be randomly chosen from all correct entries. Winners will be notified by email and have 72 hours to respond or another winner will be chosen. This contest is open to residents of the US, ages 18 and over.
“Disclosure: Cheerios® cereal, information, and giveaway have been provided by General Mills through MyBlogSpark.”

We live in the desert.  Now, don't get me wrong... I love where I live!  But to say my home gets dusty and dirty, is an understatement!  My carpets were looking so yucky that I didn't want to walk on them, let alone sit on the floor.  Enter Stanely Steemer!  I was offered the opportunity to have them come clean my carpets.  Can I have a woot! woot!

I was almost embarassed to have them come out (almost).  But the drive for clean carpets outweighed my embarassment at how dirty they were.  I made an appontment online at www.StanleySteemer.com which was super easy to do.  I got an online quote so there were no surprises.

The day arrived for the cleaning.  There was very little prep work on my part, just removing knick knacks and such, no heavy lifting.  The Stanley Steemer team arrived right when they said they would and got right to work.  They didn't even make a face about how dirty my carpets were!  They were completely professional and put me right at ease.

My carpets look fantastic!  Now I remember why I picked this carpet in the first place, it's actually nice looking once it's clean!  I love walking on my carpet, and I even sit on it again!  Even my teenage daughter commented on how nice the carpets looked!  I know, I was shocked too!

Check out this video about another Stanley Steemer customer's experience:



I bet you want to get your carpets clean now, right?  Well, one of you lucky readers can win a $100 gift certificate from Stanley Steemer!  Pretty cool!

Mandatory Entry:
Please leave me a comment telling me what room or rooms you'd like to have the carpets cleaned in.   Please include your email in the comment if it's not visible in your profile (jane smith at yahoo dot com)

Extra Entries:
Leave a separate comment for each extra entry:
Follow my blog publicly on GFC
Follow me on Twitter
"Like" me on Facebook

Contest ends Monday, May 21, 2012. One (1) winner will be randomly chosen from all correct entries. Winner will be notified by email and has 72 hours to respond or another winner will be chosen. This contest is open to residents of the US, ages 18 and over.
Disclosure: The gift certificate, information, and additional gift pack have been provided by Stanley Steemer through MyBlogSpark.

Contest is over and winner has been chosen!  Thanks to all you amazing readers!

I'm always on the look out for a great deal!  Couple that with my love for finding and trying new recipes, and then add in Walmart and Pillsbury and you've got a great combination!

I recently had the opportunity to learn about the Pillsbury Bake-Off website.  What amazing recipes I found there!  After spending quite a while surfing and drooling, I settled on trying the French Dip Roll.  I printed off the recipe and headed to Walmart.

I found the greatest deals there!  As usual, I ended up with all the stuff I needed, plus more!  I love to find great deals and my cart was full of them!  So, here is the original recipe I tried:
INGREDIENTS

DIRECTIONS

It's ready to go in the oven!

Sadly, there is no picture of the finished product, we got too excited and ate it before we remembered to take a picture of it!  It was really delicious and definitely a recipe we will be using again and again!

Not only was it easy, but with the great deals I found at Walmart, it was  inexpensive! Check out the great deals yourself at everydaysaver.com/Walmart.

Want to try this recipe or one of the others you can find at www.BakeOff.com ?  How about a $25 gift card to Walmart to help buy the ingredients?  Well, one of you lucky readers can win one!  Cool!

Mandatory Entry:
Please leave me a comment telling me one of the recipes you'd like to try from www.BakeOff.com   Please include your email in the comment if it's not visible in your profile (jane smith at yahoo dot com)

Extra Entries:
Leave a separate comment for each extra entry:
Follow my blog publicly on GFC
Follow me on Twitter
"Like" me on Facebook

Contest ends Thursday, April  19, 2012. One (1) winner will be randomly chosen from all correct entries. Winner will be notified by email and has 72 hours to respond or another winner will be chosen. This contest is open to residents of the US, ages 18 and over.
Disclosure:  The gift card, information, and giveaway have been provided by Walmart and General Mills, through MyBlogSpark.  The opinions are all my own and free of charge!

Contest is over and winner has been chosen.  Thanks to all you amazing readers!

Veggie Tales make me giggle out loud, sometimes even guffaw!  Now, they've done it again! Let me introduce Veggie Tales:  Robin Good and His Not-So-Merry Men. 


In a nutshell, Robin Good and his best friends fundraise from the rich to give to the poor, (over-priced candy bar anyone?)  But without spoiling the plot, the greedy prince does some dastardly deeds regarding ham, which causes donations to go down.  Robin's best friends decide this is a good time to start doing some robbing of their own.  Robin is hurt that his friends have deserted him.  To make matters worse, the prince has captured his friends!

I love that Veggie Tales is so much fun to watch and teaches a great lesson.  This one is on dealing with hurt and learning to forgive.  There is great music, funny jokes and a terrific moral taught.

As a bonus, there is a short included on the DVD called Lenny and the Lost Birthday.  More Veggie Tale fun!
I definitely recommend Veggie Tales:  Robin Good and His Not-So-Merry Men!

Well, now that you're excited about this DVD, how'd you like to win one of your own?  One of your amazing readers will have that chance!  Cool, huh?

Mandatory Entry:
Please leave me a comment telling me one of your favorite characters from Veggie Tales or your favorite Silly Song.  Personally, I love the Cebu song!  Please include your email in the comment if it's not visible in your profile (jane smith at yahoo dot com)

Extra Entries:
Leave a separate comment for each extra entry:
Follow my blog publicly on GFC
Follow me on Twitter
"Like" me on Facebook

Contest ends Thursday, March 29nd, 2012. One (1) winner will be randomly chosen from all correct entries. Winner will be notified by email and has 72 hours to respond or another winner will be chosen. This contest is open to residents of the US, ages 18 and over.

Contest is over and winner has been chosen!  Thanks to all you amazing readers!
Disclosure: I was provided this product for the purpose of a review. The opinions are all my own, are free of charge!

I love gadgets, I admit it!  Yet, somehow I haven't had a kitchen scale in a long time.  How did I let that happen?

Thankfully, that problem is solved!  Let me tell you about the EatSmart PrecisionPRO Digital Scale.  I love this scale!

The EatSmart Digital Scale has a slick design with a large area for weighing.  It can weigh in four different units: grams, ounces, lbs, and kg.  The display is large and easy to read.  It has an automatic shut off switch so you don't run the batteries down.  Speaking of batteries, it runs on 2 AAA batteries, which were included with the scale (Yea!)

Another great feature is the tare feature.  You can subtract the weight of the container you are using to hold the food.  You can weigh items up to 11 lbs!  Also included is the  EatSmart Calorie Factors guide.  This is a great guide for help with portion control and calorie counting.

The kids and I had a great time finding things to weigh! 

This scale will be wonderful to have.  I want to start eating healthier and taking the family along with me!  I've been concerned with portion control around here.  This scale will be great at helping me make sure our serving sizes are correct (really important, when figuring about carb counts!)

This is a great kitchen scale!  It's made well and has been really handy to have!  How did I get along so long without one?

These are available at Amazon or at www.eatsmartproducts.com.

Can't wait?  Well, one of you amazing readers can win your own EatSmart Precision PRO Kitchen Scale!  Woo hoo!

Mandatory Entry:
Please leave me a comment. Easy, right? Please include your email in the comment if it's not visible in your profile (jane smith at yahoo dot com)

Extra Entries:
Leave a separate comment for each extra entry:
"Like" EatSmart on Facebook
Follow EatSmart on Twitter
Follow my blog publicly on GFC
Follow me on Twitter
"Like" me on Facebook

Contest ends Thursday, March 29nd, 2012. One (1) winner will be randomly chosen from all correct entries. Winner will be notified by email and has 72 hours to respond or another winner will be chosen. This contest is open to residents of the US, ages 18 and over.

Contest is over and winner has been chosen!  Thanks to all you amazing readers!
Disclosure: I was provided this product for the purpose of a review. The opinions are all my own, are free of charge!

Oh, did I have fun this week!  I got to see Disney's John Carter in a special preview!  Not only were we treated so kindly, but this movie is wonderful!


From Disney:

From Academy Award®–winning filmmaker Andrew Stanton comes “John Carter”—a sweeping action-adventure set on the mysterious and exotic planet of Barsoom (Mars). “John Carter” is based on a classic novel by Edgar Rice Burroughs, whose highly imaginative adventures served as inspiration for many filmmakers, both past and present. The film tells the story of war-weary, former military captain John Carter (Taylor Kitsch), who is inexplicably transported to Mars where he becomes reluctantly embroiled in a conflict of epic proportions amongst the inhabitants of the planet, including Tars Tarkas (Willem Dafoe) and the captivating Princess Dejah Thoris (Lynn Collins). In a world on the brink of collapse, Carter rediscovers his humanity when he realizes that the survival of Barsoom and its people rests in his hands.

My take:

Where to begin?  When the movie began I was immediately caught up in the story.  Right away it took an unexpected turn, and I was hooked!  I was swept up in the story, and swept away with the visual effects.  The best way to sum up the special effects of this movie is you absolutely could not tell they were special effects.  The Tharks (green two-armed martians) were so real.  The flying machines, amazing! The battle scenes were epic (and I don't use that word lightly). 

I loved the scene were John Carter first discovers he's not on Earth anymore.  He has to learn to walk all over again.  I giggled all the way through that!

For families with young children:

This movie is rated PG13.  It has a lot of battles, and I mean alot of battles.  They are mostly sword play, and on the lines of what you would see in Star Wars.  There wasn't alot of blood and 99% of it was a bluish color. (I don't know if that makes it easier to see.)  I thought Disney handled it well.  There is very little if any bad language and no intimate scenes.  Yes, there is definitely romance, but it is done Disney style.  Some of the princesses' costumes showed some skin (think Captain Kirk's Star Trek).

John Carter kept me entertained the whole time!  My son was enthralled, and my husband really enjoyed it.  We saw the movie in 3D and it added so much.  It wasn't cheesy 3D where things seem to fly out of the screen at you.  It was used to add depth and dimension to the movie.  During some of the chase scenes with the flying machines, I had to close my eyes for a minute because I felt like I was riding along with them, and I started to get a little motion sick.  (As you can imagine, roller coasters and I don't get along either!)

I absolutely loved the ending, (not going to tell you so you can enjoy it too) and I'm hoping there's a sequel!

I think my favorite part was watching John Carter start to heal emotionally and rediscover his compassion in this movie.

So, thumbs up Disney!  You've done it again!  

It opens today, Friday, March 9th.  So what are you waiting, for?  Go see John Carter! 

Disclosure:  I had the opportunity to view this movie for the purpose of a review.  The opinions are all my own and free of charge!

First, can I tell how excited I am to get to use the word "Zowie" in a Title!  Secondly, I'm also pretty excited to tell you about the Owie Pillow.

When I had surgery last year I never went anywhere without a pillow to cushion my abdomen from the seat belt.   That pillow was a lifesaver!  But it was big and bulky and not cute at all.

Enter Owie Pillow!  It is a pillow made to attach to your seltbelt and it helps reduce the pain and pressure on your abdomen from a seatbelt.  This would be a great gift for a pregnant woman or someone who recently had abdominal surgery.

I've recovered from my surgery, but the minute I got the Owie Pillow I zipped out to the car and tried it out.  I love it!  Even without pregnancy or surgery, it made the seatbelt feel better.  Plus, it was so cute!  It is bright pink and sparkly!  What a great combination!  When my daughter first saw it she grabbed it and started heading for her room.  She wanted it for herself.  Yes, it's that cute!  It's also available in silver and black.

Now, before you dismiss this as something you don't need, let me tell you the other uses I've discovered for this pillow!  It is just the right size to take on long trips and use as a neck pillow.  It fits perfectly under my neck and helped me relax in the car (don't worry, I was riding, not driving!)

It also is just the right size to provide great lumbar support.  In fact, I'm using it right now as I sit at my computer and type this!  It fits great in the small of my back.  Some many great uses!

So, are you excited about the Owie Pillow?  You can order one at www.owiepillow.com or, one of you lucky readers can win one of your own!  Zowie!

Mandatory Entry:
Please leave me a comment telling me which color you would like.  Easy, right?  Please include your email in the comment if it's not visible in your profile (jane smith at yahoo dot com)

Extra Entries:
Leave a separate comment for each extra entry:
Follow my blog publicly on GFC
Follow me on Twitter
"Like" me on Facebook

Contest ends Thursday, March 22nd, 2012. One (1) winner will be randomly chosen from all correct entries. Winner will be notified by email and has 72 hours to respond or another winner will be chosen. This contest is open to residents of the US, ages 18 and over.

Contest is over and winner has been chosen!  Thanks to all you amazing readers!
Disclosure:  I was provided this product for the purpose of a review.  The opinions are all my own, are free of charge!