#FiberPlus Cereals from Kellogg's

Have you tried the FiberPlus Cereals from Kellogg's?  I recently had the opportunity to try both the Cinnamon Oat Crunch and the Berry Yogurt Crunch.  I really like the Berry Yogurt Crunch - whole grain wheat & rice flakes with berry and yogurt flavored clusters.  It has a really great flavor, and it's really filling.  Normally I don't pay attention to the serving size when I pour a bowl of cereal, so the first day I tried it, I just poured some into the bowl.  And I got full before I finished!  So, after that I actually measured - 1 cup cereal.

One serving provides 40% of your daily fiber as well as several essential nutrients including the antioxidant vitamins C and E.  I've seen the commercials where people seem to think anything with fiber has to taste nasty, but that's not the case.  This stuff is good! 

I wasn't as impressed with the Cinnamon Oat Crunch.  I mean, the flavor is really good, but I just didn't like the texture - at least with milk.  It's actually pretty good straight out of the box, dry, without milk.  It would make a good snack or breakfast-on-the-go.  Measure out individual servings, and bag them up ready to grab on the way out the door.  It would have to be better than grabbing fast food on the way to work, if that's what you usually do.  Right?  And you get fiber and antioxidants, too.

Let me know if you've tried these cereals or any of the other Kellogg's FiberPlus products and what you think.  I'm thinking the Caramel Pecan Crunch cereal looks really good.

disclosure: I was provided 2 free boxes of cereal from Kellogg's.  No other compensation was received, and all opinions are 100% mine.

Saving Some Money on the Cell Phone Bill

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of TracFone for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.
 
We were discussing out cell phone plan the other night. We've currently got a family plan that allows us to share 1200 anytime minutes each month.  We've also got unlimited texting, picture messaging, and video messaging.  Jeffrey doesn't even carry his phone because he's got a phone from work they like him to carry because he can get all his email on it.  Cory uses his quite a bit for talking to his friends and texting, and I use mine once in a while.  So really, we're paying for 3 phones and lots of minutes, but we're really not using everything we're paying for, and any minutes we don't use are just gone.
 
I'm wondering if we could save some money like real TracFone customers everywhere by switching to TracFone.  We could still get brand name phones from leading manufacturers like Motorola, Kyocera, LG, Nokia and Samsung, anything from really simple phones to high-tech Smart phones.  You can get great phones packed with features like camera/video recorder, web access, app capabilities, mp3 player, and full QWERTY keyboard, for $29.99, so there's not a big cost to get started.   Here's a video showing some of the features available on one of the phones:
 



With TracFone, there are no contracts, no credit checks, no activation charges or cancelation fees. The difference with TracFone is that you only pay for what you use.  Select from pay as you go airtime cards or convenient no contract monthly plans.  There's a 1-year service card with 800 minutes for only $119.00, and double minutes for the life of your TracFone.  So does that mean you really get 1600 minutes?  Or is it just when you buy more minutes?  I'm not sure, but considering how often I use my phone, it probably wouldn't matter.  I'd probably be just fine with that, and it works out to only $10/month!  There are also monthly plans  that give you 200 minutes for under $30.00, and as low as $9.99 for 50 minutes.
 
TracFone offers great nationwide coverage and even international long distance for no extra charge.  It sounds like a really good deal, and according to these real TracFone customers the coverage is really reliable.  They had a cell phone signal when people who were paying much more had none!  And that's important, because it wouldn't help to save money on the cell phone bill if you had to give up service to do it.
 

The Big Five-OH!!

Today is my wonderful husband Jeffrey's 50th birthday.  That's right -

today Jeffrey turns 50! 

So, of course, we can't let such a momentous occasion go unmarked, unremarked, and unnoticed, can we?  So, do me a favor - visit his facebook page and wish the old man a happy, happy birthday!  (If you're not friends with him on facebook and can't post on his wall, just send him a message.  And, if that doesn't work, go ahead and send him an email.)  Let's all let him know we're thinking of him!

today Jeffrey turns 50!  - today Jeffrey turns 50! - today Jeffrey turns 50! -
today Jeffrey turns 50! - today Jeffrey turns 50! -
 today Jeffrey turns 50!

I love you, honey!

Online College for Ease and Convenience

I got an email yesterday telling me that my student's bill was ready for viewing/paying.  Since it's summer, and school doesn't start again for at least a month (when does it start, anyway? I must look that up.), I wasn't sure what the bill was about.  So I looked it up.  Thankfully there's no payment due for a while, but he does have a balance on his account - for room and board next school year.  I never saw a break-down last year, so I wasn't sure what was room and board, what was tuition, and what was for books, so it was interesting to see.  Housing and food for next year at college - almost $3000.  If only he wasn't a theatre major who takes hands-on classes and needs interaction with other people to learn what he needs to learn, we could maybe research the best online colleges and save some money...

We live close enough to campus that I suppose he could live at home and commute, but when you consider the cost of buying him a car, the gas to get back and forth, and all the extra time it would take him to get back and forth to classes and all his extra-curricular activities, it's really not worth it.  Also, he'd still have to have some kind of food plan because he'd be on campus so much, and he'd still need to eat.  So, living on campus it is.

Now, if I decide to go to college, I don't think living on campus would be an option!  Or commuting either, because why should I?  There are so many online options available.  Being able to get a college education at my own pace and from the comfort of my own home definitely appeals to me.  I'm not going to be a theatre major.  I don't know what I'd like to study, but it's not theatre, so I don't really need that personal interaction, either.

There's a really handy site called DegreeJungle that ranks the top 65 online colleges in the United States that should make it easier to find the college, if I ever figure out what I might like to study.  Because I'm not going back to school just to go back to school - even though I always really liked school - even if it is easy and convenient to study online.  If you're thinking about online college and would like some help choosing the right college for you, check out the rankings at Degreejungle.com.

Splurge or Steal?

Good Morning America periodically has this segment where they have models wearing similar outfits.  One model wears the pricy designer version, and the other model wears a less expensive version of the same look.  Then the audience and the models have to guess which is the Splurge and which is the Steal.

First of all, what they classify as a 'Steal' is still more than I'd ever want to spend on an outfit.  For instance, the Floral Printed top with white denim outfit pictured here is a 'steal' at $188.  For one outfit!  Granted, it is cheaper than the $1,436 price tag of the more expensive outfit, but still.... And if someone is actually buying and wearing the expensive clothes, I have to wonder what she or herstyler are thinking!

Because, second, I usually like the less expensive outfit better - even if it still costs more than I'd ever spend.  I can't figure out why anyone would spend so much money on something that doesn't even look as good.  I don't know if it says I'm not fashionable or if I'm just instinctively cheap.  Probably both.  I don't get caught up in brand-names or the latest fashion, and I love shopping at Goodwill or from the clearance racks at Kohl's, Walmart, or Target - and often those are too expensive for my tastes.  Kohl's does have some cute tops in the stores right now that I'm hoping will make it to the clearance racks and down to a reasonable price.  We'll see.

If you didn't see GMA this morning, which one do you think is the more expensive outfit?  Which one do you like better?

Breast Milk Baby - What Do You Think?

I heard about this on Good Morning America a while back but had forgotten about it until they mentioned it again today  because the Breast Milk Baby is coming to the U.S. market, starting with the ASD trade show in Las Vegas July 31.  It's a doll that comes with a special halter top with two flowers positioned where nipples would be and makes suckling sounds when its mouth is brought close to sensors embedded in the flowers.

Apparently, this doll is quite controversial.  There are people who think it over-sexualizes young girls, forces them to grow up too quickly, and even might encourage young girls to want to have babies at a very young age.  Really?  Little girls have been playing with dolls for ages - feeding, changing, rocking, burping, etc.  And, little girls with moms who breastfed their younger siblings have been pretending to breastfeed, too.  I know my little girl did.  She loved her baby dolls, and when I nursed her baby brother, she 'nursed' her baby.  Did it force her to grow up too quickly, make her want a baby at a very young age?  Not any more than all the other things she did with her baby dolls.  The people who don't want little girls playing with these dolls ought to seriously think about taking all dolls away from those little girls.  Little girls pretending to breastfeed, which is completely natural, is really no different than little girls pretending to be mommies and taking care of baby dolls in any other way.

The only problem I have with this doll is that, I can't find the exact selling price anywhere, but I remember from the earlier GMA story that it wasn't cheap.  Why pay so much for a baby doll that simulates breastfeeding, when young girls can pretend just as well with any other doll?

What do you think about the Breast Milk Baby doll?

Related articles

• 'Breast Milk Baby' Coming to U.S. (abcnews.go.com)
• New Doll That Teaches How To Breast Feed Causing Controversy (thedaleygator.wordpress.com)
• New Doll That Teaches How To Breast Feed Causing Controversy (newyork.cbslocal.com)
• Breast-feeding doll shocks Americans (rt.com)

Tuesday Tidbits

I was visiting Freaky Frugalite yesterday and noticed she does a weekly meme called "Friday Fragments" - except that she didn't actually post this week until Monday.  But never mind that... It's just a post of random thoughts, happenings, pictures, etc. - the stuff that didn't make it into another post and might get lost or forgotten if it isn't jotted down, or typed into a blog post.  At least that's what I got out of it, and I'm thinking it's an idea I can use.  Except I'm thinking I'll do it on Tuesdays and call it "Tuesday Tidbits" - because I always seem to have a hard time getting back into blogging after the weekend, and lots of times don't get around to it until Tuesday or later.  Something like this might be just what I need to get me going at the beginning of a new week.

Plus, it's a good place to catch you up on what happened over the weekend - not that I think you're hanging on the edge of your seats waiting to hear about my weekends, but I'd just like to have things somewhere so I can remember.  That's one of the reasons I started blogging in the first place, and so often I don't have time for a 'real' blog post - or I don't make time - at the beginning of the week, and then time gets away from me, and I never post anything.  So a few 'Tidbits' is better than nothing, right?  And I can always write a 'better' blog post later if/when I have time, right?

So, now that I've taken all that time to tell you what I'm doing, here are a few Tidbits from this weekend:

• I got new jeans - Levis.  The weird thing is that one pair is a size 10 and the other is a size 6, and they both fit really well.  Same brand, different sizes - is it any wonder it's so hard to find the perfect pair of jeans?  We were really at Kohl's so Jeffrey could buy a new watch, but there was clearance, and he had 20% off, and we needed to buy something else so we could earn some Kohl's Cash.
• We found some laminate flooring at Menards on closeout for 69¢/sq. ft. so we're going to replace the carpet in the kids' bedrooms with it.  Our usual Menards didn't have enough for both rooms, so Cory and I drove to another Menards on Monday to get 8 more boxes.  I used the rebate check we got when we bought all the 'free' stuff at the Crazy Days sale in March.  Was it really free?  Well, not exactly, but we did get to spend the same money twice!  Menards also has the underlayment free after rebate right now, so it's a really good time to get it - and we'll have more money to spend again.  
• Jeffrey and I had dinner at TGIFridays - because we were close, and because I had a $5 coupon from Discover.  I had a yummy salad, and almost froze while we were in there because the air conditioning was so cold.  I had a long-sleeved shirt in the car, but Jeffrey said I had to leave it in the car - because he's mean like that - and he thinks it's ridiculous to need a long-sleeved shirt in the summer.  And I wouldn't need it, if only these places didn't turn the air conditioning so cold!  Kohl's was freezing, too.  It always feels so good to walk back outside into the heat and sun!  So good!
• and, I reserve the right to add to this list because I'm having a hard time thinking of anything else right now.  I should probably shoot for posting these earlier on Tuesdays.

Summertime in Branson

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Hiltons of Branson for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.
 

This summer would be a great time to get away to Branson.  Last summer we went to Vegas, which is trying to be a family vacation destination, but it's still mainly about gambling, partying, and drinking.  Sorry, Vegas, but you know it's true.  Branson, on the other hand really is a great family destination, and there are things happening all summer long.  National Kidsfest is happening right now through July 24th at Silver Dollar City.  There's a brand-new addition that's all about kids through age 7 as well as some great family-friendly shows.
 
We don't have young kids anymore, and it will be a while before Jason is old enough to enjoy something like this, but I'd like to visit Silver Dollar City and check out some of the over 30 rides and attractions they offer.  Moonlight Madness,  which runs July 23 - August 7, 2011, sounds like lots of fun because they offer extended ride hours and let you ride after dark, as well as hosting some great street dances.  Sounds like fun, doesn't it?
 

Besides the fun of Silver Dollar City, there are all the live shows Branson offers (Branson is known as the "Live Music Show Capital of the World") as well as shopping and golf and plenty of activities for everyone.  For a complete summer schedule, visit explorebranson.com.
 
The Hiltons of Branson are offering a Branson Best Value Vacation Package, which includes deluxe accommodations at the Hilton Branson Convention Center or Hilton Promenade at Branson Landing.  Each package includes two adult and two children’s tickets to the Legends of Kung Fu show at the White House Theater in Branson, two adult and two children’s two-day passes to Silver Dollar City®, a $25 gift card for shopping, and a $25 food credit for Level 2 Steakhouse. On top of all that, when you pay for two nights,  your third night is free!
 
Now really would be the perfect time to visit Branson!  Who's in?

It's Going to Get HOT

-- I typed this post once, but for some unknown reason, Blogger logged me out, and everything I'd written was GONE! --

The past few days have been gorgeous!  Yes, I do like hot summer weather, but I would be perfectly happy with an entire summer of days in the 70s and cool nights perfect for snuggling.  Unfortunately, that's not going to happen.  They say it's going to get HOT and stay HOT through next week.  And humid.  You know what that means - air conditioning!

Hopefully I won't turn into an icicle.  I hate when air conditioning = refrigeration.  I don't want to have to put on a sweatshirt when I should be able to wear summer clothes.  I don't want to be wishing I had some fireplace inserts to switch on for some extra warmth.  I turn up the temperature on the air conditioner as far as I can without it getting too stuffy in here, but I still get cold.  And yes, I'm watching the news right now as they tell me how dangerous this heat is and how hard it will be on people who don't have air conditioning, so I know I should be extremely thankful.  I'll just do my best to appreciate it and go outside periodically to sit in the sun until my toes thaw out.

For now I'm going to enjoy having my windows open with a nice breeze blowing in.  I don't know when I'll get to do that again.

Get a Haircut, Man!

Image via Wikipedia

I read an article recently that quoted 1 Corinthians 11:14-15 “Does not nature itself teach you that if a man wears long hair, it is degrading to him, but if a woman has long hair, it is her glory?”  The author went on to say that few Christians would answer that question with a “yes.”

Really?  Maybe I'm not thinking of it in quite those terms - that it's a shame, disgrace, or degrading to the man - but just the fact that men do not look good with long hair should be enough.  There's just something about a man's face that does not work with long hair.  I've never seen a man who actually looked good with long hair.  And if it's not degrading to be mistaken for a woman from behind, then what is?  There are some men who could actually be quite attractive, if only they'd get a haircut.  And nobody should need a Bible verse to tell them that - which is what that verse is saying...

I have no opinion on wilson cell booster canada, but that's my opinion on men with long hair.  What do you think? Are there any men who actually look better with long hair?  Show me.