It Pays to Vacation at Home

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

With the cost of gas, many people are saving money by vacationing at home - Staycationing instead of vacationing.  It's a really good idea, because if you're like us, there are tons of things to do in your local area that you never do - because you just don't have the time or because you feel you can always go there.  At least that's my excuse...
 
This summer, not only can you save money on gas and hotel rooms and see some of your local sites - or just hang out in the backyard with the kids - you could even get paid to do it.  How, you ask?  By entering the It Pays to Vacation at Home sweepstakes from Dollar General and Clorox®.  20 lucky grand prize winners will be selected to receive a $500 "paycheck" and 100 lucky winners will win a $25 Dollar General gift card.
 
Simply visit dollargeneral.com to register.  Then, once you register, you can also play the “Wipe To Win”  game for the chance to win a $10 Dollar General gift card.  You take a virtual Clorox® Disinfecting Wipe and wipe the virtual fridge to find out if you won or not.  I played.  I didn't win - but I can try again tomorrow.  There will be 100 instant win prizes given away.

Be sure to enter the It Pays to Vacation at Home sweepstakes for your own chance at some of the prizes, and remember you can pick up all your favorite Clorox® cleaning products at Dollar General - Pine-Sol® Multi-Surface cleaners, Clorox® Disinfecting Wipes, and Clorox® Liquid-Bleach, to name a few.  (Interesting - as I'm typing this, there's a commercial for Clorox® Disinfecting Wipes on tv.)  Just rember that, even if you are staying home,  you are not allowed to spend your entire vacation cleaning!!   That wouldn't be a vacation, would it?

This contest runs now through June 24, 2012.  Good luck!

I Got a Package from efoods Direct

I just got a package from efoods Direct.  They asked if I'd like to try their meals, and after reading the info, I was only too happy to try them.  Basically, what they offer are delicious and nutritious food in a convenient and easy-to-store package.  Dehydrated products are packaged as complete Quick-Fix meals.  Simply boil water, simmer and serve a healthy, delicious hot meal no matter where you are.

These meals would be great in all kinds of situations - stock the pantry and have them on hand for emergencies, take them camping, or I'm thinking they'd be great for a certain college student I know.  He has a hard time finding healthy food on campus, so I'm always looking for easy solutions - something he can fix in a dorm room without too much trouble.  These would be great.

I love that all the products carry the exclusive Nutriversal Seal of Promise:

• Quick Fix: We promise our meals are quick and easy—just add water to rehydrate the food! Our true Quick-Fix line provides packets of complete meals that can be served in less than 20 minutes; Reserve Paks (1-year supply) products are individual ingredients you can use with your own recipes.

• Extended Shelf Life: We promise our products are storable for up to 25 years.

• Daily Use: We promise that all of our products can be served daily.

They want their products to taste great, be universally appealing, and provide superior nutrition.  Their foods are a good source of fiber, contain no trans-fat or hydrogenated oils, contain no MSG, contain no genetically modified ingredients, contain no artificial colors, flavors or preservatives, and they even offer gluten-free options.  They're soy-free, irradiation-free, and use oxygen-free packaging.  And they're made in the US!   There is quite a list of positives here - I did not have time to list them all, so be sure to check them out for yourself.

I love that they are committed to providing healthy, easy to prepare foods that can be stored for an extended period of time.  I got the Tortilla Soup, Cheesy Chicken Rice Casserole, and Creamy Potato Soup to try.  I am really excited to try them to see if they really do taste as good as they say they do.

If these products sound like something you'd be interested in, be sure to check out efoods Direct.  They've got some specials going right now- Save 50% on a 7-day supply by entering code FOOD50 or save 40% on a 5-day supply with code FOOD40.

I'll be posting a review once I've had a chance to try them - or my son just came home and claimed them.  He's leaving Monday for his summer internship, and he's going to need to eat...  He promised to write the reviews, so that will be fun.  I told you they'd be perfect for a college student, even in summer!  He obviously doesn't have time to actually cook.

Review and Giveaway: #EclosBeauty Products

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of éclos Skin Care for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.
 
I recently had the opportunity to try éclos Skin Care  products.  I received a kit which included the following products:

• Facial Cleanser Skin Prep -removes makeup and daily debris, helping to refresh skin and purify pores.
• Cellular Activator Face Serum - nourishes skin cells, promotes collagen production and
  stimulates the growth of connective tissue, helps visibly reduce the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles, and protects against environmental damage.
• Moisture Therapy Regenerative Cream - revitalizes skin stem cells, helping to tighten sagging skin and postpone wrinkles, helps skin to repair itself, protects against aging free radicals, slowing the signs of aging.
• Restorative Eye Cream - visibly reduces fine lines and wrinkles around the eyes and increases moisture content to delicate eye area.
• Instant Radiance Facial Scrub - exfoliates dry, dull dead skin cells and enhances cell turnover and prepares the skin to better absorb the treatment products.
• Skin Renewal Clay Mask - cleanses skin, absorbs impurities, and helps unclog pores.
• éclos Terry Cloth Head Band - to keep hair out of face while using the products.

Sounds like a lot of products, I know, but you don't use every product every day.  You use the scrub every other day and the mask twice a week. I used the products for 1 week.  Here I am Before and After:

Before Monday morning before cleansing	After The following Monday after cleansing and applying serum, moisturizer, and eye cream

You will not see a picture of me with the clay mask because - if you ever want to see what you'll look like when the wrinkles really do set in, try one of these masks.  It's scary!  I'm sure it does what it's supposed to do, but by the time it dries and everything tightens up, you're ready to wash it off!  At least I was.
 
I really loved the idea of these products.  They feature Apple Stem Cells extracted from a rare Swiss apple, the Uttwiler Spätlauber, along with vitamins and anti-oxidants.  These stem cells have shown tremendous ability to stimulate skin stem cells, encouraging aging skin to behave like younger skin and helping minimize the appearance of fine lines, wrinkles and tired skin. Skin can look up to 15 years younger.  Sounds great, right?  I really wanted this stuff to work for me.

I absolutely love that the products do not contain parabens, sulfates, synthetic fragrances, synthetic dyes, or petro-chemicals.  They are natural products with highend spa feel, and results, at mass-market prices.  They're available Nationwide at food, drug and mass stores, including Target, Ulta, Duane Reade, Walgreens, Rite Aid, and Fred Meyer, and the prices really are reasonable.

I liked the feel of the products and the natural smell.  Each of the éclos products is scented with a clean and fresh blend of all-natural essential oils including rosewood, ylang ylang, palmarosa, cardamom, and geranium.  However, I started to notice a slight burning when I applied the serum and moisturizer, and by the middle of the week. my face was extremely dry.  I could not get enough of the moisturizer on my face to take away the dryness.  It didn't just feel dry, it looked super dry.  After using the éclos Skin Care  products for the week - after I had run out of the moisturizer - I went back to using my regular products, and it took until the middle of the next week before I had to stop applying moisturizer several times a day to get rid of the dryness.  I may buy some of the Eye Cream and possibly the Serum, because I like the idea of using natural products directly on my skin,  and hopefully I can get some of the benefits from those, but I am going to have to keep using my regular moisturizer.

I have not closely examined my before and after pictures to see if there was a reduction of the fine lines around my eyes - but I did really like the Restorative Eye Cream.  I have been looking for another good one ever since they stopped making/selling the one I had been using.  Based on clinical studies, 100% of the women using these products saw a reduction in wrinkle appearance within 2 weeks, and most of the fine lines I'm seeing on my face are around my eyes. 
 
If you'd like to try these products for yourself - maybe they'll work for you - I have a one of the same kits I received to give away.  To enter all you have to do is leave a comment on this post telling me which product in the kit you are most excited to try.  Contest is open to U.S. residents only, and I will take entries until Friday June 8, 2012.  Good luck!  And if you win, be sure to come back and let me know how the products work for you.

File This Under "It Figures"

We finally went to see The Avengers on Monday.  It was really good!  We paid full matinee price - for reserved seats - and saw it on the UltraScreen.  The first couple weeks they were only showing the 3D version on the UltraScreen, so that's why we waited.  That, and being busy.  But anyway, we saw it and really enjoyed it - but if we'd waited just a couple days we could have gone for $5!  Yep, this week The Avengers is one of the Spotlight Movies - $5 on Wednesday and Thursday.  It figures.

Cory recently picked up Alien and Aliens on Blu-ray - for $10 each with a free ticket from each to see Prometheus when it comes out, which is a good deal.  But, he's been wanting the whole Alien Anthology [on Blu-ray] for a while now - and today Amazon put it on sale for $29.99 - for all 4 Alien movies and 2 discs of extras.  But since he just bought the first two movies, we don't really need to spend another $30 for the other two - even if we do get all those extra features.  It figures.

And Cory got a new (to him) car last week.  Sunday he went to visit friends in Illinois.  He'd barely left their house to drive home, and he hit a deer.  He's driven my van for ages and never hit a deer or anything else (except that poor mailbox, but we'll not talk about that now) and he just barely gets his own car, and some deer decides to commit suicide by standing in the road.  It figures! 

Cory is OK.  There's nothing he could have done - just a random incident involving nighttime, a car coming the opposite direction, and a deer that decided to cross the road at right that time.  He flipped his brights back on and there it was - no time to do anything but brake, but not enough time to stop enough to miss it.  It's just a bit frustrating to have his pretty car all crumpled up - right after he got it.  Thankfully we've got a friend who fixes things like this, and he's going to get her all pretty again.  And, most importantly - Cory did not get hurt!

Special sneakpeeq Deals Today Only

I got this in my email today, and I thought I'd share:

Today Wednesday May 30th, starting at 10 am!

SPRING IS IN THE AIR!  Every Spring is a chance for renewal, so be a risk-taker with your self-expression.  Try bohemian fashions with a twist, like strong bamboo rings, full of color and soul.  We love how it combines lightweight, easy-to-wear bamboo with sweet and classic floral motifs.  A FREE BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY BAMBOO RING ($27 value) and FREE SHIPPING just for joining sneakpeeq! 

Nothing says Summer is here more than a beautiful MAXI DRESS!  No one makes them softer and more flowing than Colorfast Apparel.  We love the Mahalo Triblend Jersey Maxi in colors such as bluebird or safari!  A MUST HAVE AT 70% OFF!  These dresses retail for $103, but your price is only $34!  SHIPS FREE! 

I'm ordering one of those free rings right now!  Join sneakpeeq and grab your own.  They're really cool.

Cory's New Car

After quite a bit of looking and test-driving, Cory found his car last night.  It's a 2001 Ford Taurus, and it's quite pretty.  It has less than 100,000 miles on it and should be a good car for him for his last two years of college and beyond - and it was within the budget.

Cory and his dad have been looking at lots and lots of cars on the Internet in the last week.  They've found some that looked promising, but they always seemed to be gone when they called to get more information - which can be quite frustrating.  It's not easy finding a (relatively) cheap car in good shape and without too many miles on it, and when they come available people snap them up.

He wasn't particularly wanting a Taurus, and was looking at some other kinds of cars, but when he saw this one it spoke to him.  I don't know if it said, "Cory, take me home with you!" or what, but he saw it, he drove it, he loved it - and he got to bring it home.

Yeah, he's pretty excited.

Two Things

1. When I try to look at my hair in the mirror (to fix it), I feel cross-eyed and dizzy.  I have to close one eye and focus with the other one.
2. I can't get my hands dry with a towel for anything.  I end up just having to shake them and let the air dry them off. (which is pretty much why I hate drying dishes - I can't get them dry either)  That doesn't keep my dish towels from getting soaked every day (several of them) as I attempt to dry my hands.

Anybody else?

I Got POWOW Messenger for my Phone

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

I got a new phone this past weekend.  Well, it wasn't exactly a new phone - it was Jeffrey's old phone, and he got a new one, but it's new to me.  I had been using Beth's old phone - do you see a pattern here? - but I definitely needed an upgrade.  That phone had no internal memory to speak of, so it was always telling me it was low on space, and there was nothing I could do about it!  Sometimes I couldn't even read an incoming text message until I deleted something or cleared the cache on my apps.  It was very frustrating.

So now I have a phone with enough internal memory that I can download and use apps.  I'm so excited!  One of the apps I've downloaded is POWOW Messenger for Android. It's free, and it looks like it's going to be a really handy app for text messages.  What it does is let you create groups of your contacts so you can easily text all of them at once - without selecting multiple contacts every time.  I created a group for our family - because I really don't text anyone else, yet.  When you create the group, the app sends out a text message to everyone in the group letting them know they are part of the group and giving them a number to use for group messages.  So all anyone in the group has to do is text a message to that number, and it goes to everyone in the group automatically.  It can be good for families, people working on a project together, people planning an outing, etc.  Once you've created your group, you won't have to worry about anybody being left out because you forgot to select them when you started composing your message, and everyone will know what's going on.  I think it will be a good way for everyone in our family to keep in touch and know what's going on with everyone else.
 
POWOW Messenger can also be used for regular one to one messaging, so if I can just figure out how to disable the messages app that came on the phone, I can just use this one.  Otherwise it's like getting duplicate messages.  POWOW Messenger said to disable the notifications of the other app, but I couldn't figure out how to do that either, so I'm still getting double notifications.  Oh well, I'll figure it out.  Or get one of my kids to show me how. (Update: I figured it out!)

There's also a neat feature I haven't tried yet called ZipIT which lets you blacklist unwanted texters so you don't see their messages or get notifications.  Or you can mute the notifications while still being able to see the messages.  I can see how that could come in handy if you're being bothered by somebody, or you only want to be notified of incoming messages from people who are important in your life - and the others can wait.  And, it displays all your text messages in the speech balloon format I've seen other people have, but my old phone didn't use.  Yeah, I get excited over the little things.
 
If you're looking for a handy Messenger app that lets you easily  handle all your one to one and group messaging, be sure to check out the free POWOW Messenger for Android.  It's available in the Google Play store.  Did I tell you that I couldn't even update the Android Market to Google Play on the old phone?  I'm going to have so much fun having a phone that can actually do stuff!
 

The Money is Running Out

Cory has finished his first two years of college.  So far we've been able to help him out so that he's only had to accept the subsidized federal loans - the ones he doesn't have to start paying back until after he graduates - figuring it will be better for him in the long run to pay us back than to pay some loan with interest.  (or maybe we could collect the interest?)  Fortunately Jeffrey has a job, and he makes enough to support us.  Unfortunately, that means Cory does not qualify for any of that free money 'less fortunate' students get.  When he gets out of school, he's going to be paying.  Yes, I know, that's true for a lot of young people, and he'll survive...

As his mom I would love to see him put some effort into finding scholarships to pay for at least some of his remaining school.  I would have loved to see him actively seeking those scholarships all along, but there's just so much you can do when your kids grow up.  While there are things you would love to see them do, you can't do it for them.  When he graduates and starts having to pay back those loans - and we'll probably work with our bank on some kind of home equity line of credit to pay for the rest, because the interest rate will be better than anything they offer through financial aid - he may wish he'd listened to me, but I can't make him do it.

All I can do is keep sending him links to sites like Scholarships Online where he can search through scholarships and grants and hopefully find some he might qualify for.  I used to send him links to specific scholarships I thought he'd be interested in or would qualify for, but they just didn't grab his attention, so I must've been picking wrong - so he's just going to have to do the searching.  Scholarships Online lists nearly every scholarship and educational grant available in the U.S. - so if he can't find it there, maybe it doesn't exist.

I don't know what's available, but they have a large database and the site is designed to make it as easy as possible for students to find relevant scholarships.  Every one is real, and many are sponsored by organizations you are probably already familiar with.  If you've got a high school student who's planning to go to college, or a college student who could use a little help paying for college, you'll want to check it out - or send the link so your student can start looking.  He'll thank you later when his college loans come due!

Save Big on these Little Speakers

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Lenovo for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.
 
OK, I really want these cute little Lenovo speakers.  I mean, they are adorable!  I know that's not the reason to get them, but sometimes I just can't help myself.  See what I mean?

These ultra-portable speakers are not only cute, but they promise to deliver a big sound.  The description says 4 watts of power for high-quality full sound. It's a 2 speaker system that includes a main speaker with built-in amplifiers and a sub-speaker.  They're great for attaching to your computer, smart phone, or MP3 player - because sometimes the built-in speakers just aren't good enough, and you don't always want to use headphones.  For instance, these speakers make it super easy to share YouTube videos or stream Netflix movies, and have enough sound for everybody.
 
We have some decent speakers we use for things like that, listening to cybercasts, etc., but they're a lot bigger, and we always have to dig them out of wherever they're stored when we want to use them.  These are small and made to be portable.  I could just keep them with my laptop so they'd be handy any time we need them.  The speaker wires spool for easy storage, and they're conveniently powered by USB.  The only thing I don't know is if they come with a store and carry bag to keep them protected in the laptop case.
 
They'd go perfectly with Jeffrey's red computer, too - and my friend Peggy's red computer, though they might look a bit funny, being so small next to her Big Red computer!   Through Monday May 21 they're even on sale for $11.99 (regular price $29.99) so now's a good time to grab the Lenovo speaker M0620 and start enjoying big sound from these stylish little speakers.