Tuesday, October 16, 2012

What's next? Is this it? Is this all there is?

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Have the 2nd Talk with Poise #PoiseFab5


Do these items looks familiar to you? They didn't to me either until I went to the Walmart website one day and saw up in the corner a link for Poise and the 2nd Talk. What the heck was the 2nd Talk? Hang on to your seats, or rather your fans, it was about menopause. Yes, the nasty M word that my husband finds funny to taunt me with whenever I'm hot I'm taking off clothes and everyone else is putting a sweater on. I HATE hot flashes. Absolutely H.A.T.E. them and finding something that might help me with that could possibly make a big difference in my life. Yes, that might sound melodramatic, but it's true. I don't get flashes, I get hot hours....ugh!
I'm not the only one that has issues with hot flashes and other signs of menopause. I have a friend who, unfortunately couldn't find the time to come over this week to chat with me about this but I cornered her at her work and we chatted for a little bit. She too has a hot flash problem so I gave her the Roll-On Cooling Gel and she called me the next day to say it was awesome. She's going to go to Walmart to pick up some wipes too.

I called my mother, who went through menopause late in life because she had a hysterectomy close to 20 years ago and was put on hormone replacement therapy. She was just taken off of them a couple of years ago and her hot flashes were so bad that she would break out in a sweat, a dripping sweat. I called to tell her about these items and she immediately went to Walmart to find them. She couldn't find all of the items but she found the towelettes and the roll on and, let me tell you, is spreading the word like crazy.
September was menopause awareness month and I learned a lot from the Poise website with the 2nd talk information on it. Please do yourself a favor and take a look too.

So, when I went to Walmart I was able to use the coupon I found on the Walmart website when I looked at videos about the ladies pictured above.


I was able to buy four of the five items I was looking for after going to Walmart about 10 times, but it was worth it. If you want to look at my shopping trips just click here to see it.

Out of the five of these items, the Body Cooling Towelettes was definitely the winner, by a long shot.
I was able to talk to my husband, who was interested about this subject, believe it or not, and he was able to understand what I'm going through a bit more, which was nice.

There are a number of places you can get more information too. Take a look at the following places....
Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest

Of course there was a coupon in the September issue of All You magazine but I forgot about it. I read on the Poise site that forgetfulness is a symptom of menopause. Thank goodness. I honestly thought I was going crazy!


Disclosure: I am a member of the Collective Bias Social Fabric Community.  This shop has been compensated as a part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias and Poise. #CBias #SocialFabric #PoiseFab5. All the opinions are completely my own.

Friday, June 1, 2012

Graduating one life, starting a new one

This is my son. Ok, he may not have been born to me but when I married his father he became mine. I watched him walk across the stage this past weekend and receive his diploma. A day we struggled for, for the last 4 years. He was not the best of students, he was forgetful and at times careless, but he always tried his best and treated people with respect and a smile.
Drew is a good kid. That's the best way I can describe him. He's a good kid. He would do anything for you and never complain (not to your face anyway).
He already has a job and has for about a month now and is already loved by all the people he works with. Is college in his future? I'm not sure. He's always struggled with what to do next but he loves his job so to him, that might be the answer. Whatever he chooses I will be there to support him.
So now I have 3 kids who've graduated and one entering the 8th grade in the fall. 3 down, 1 to go.


The 2 in the middle are my boys. The 2 on the outside call me mom and 'me madre' so I'll 'own' all 4 of them as mine. It's a good time to for me to be a mom!

Congradulations Drew!!

Saturday, April 7, 2012

Family movie night with We Bought a Zoo #CBias #iLovemyK9

Once or twice a month I will rent a movie at Blockbuster or from the pay per view channels on my tv. This time I decided to do things a bit differently. I had to go to Walmart to pick up a few things, including something 'yummy' for my son, and saw the movie "We Bought a Zoo" as soon as I walked in the door. The other day when I was at Walmart buying dog food cat food I saw a 'get $4 off the movie 'We Bought a Zoo' when you buy 2 specially marked packs of dog treats'. I bought those dog treats and kept the coupon. The movie was on sale for $14 something and with the coupon I had it would only be a little over $10. When I rent a movie on ppv it costs $5 so, I thought 'what the heck' and bought it.
(Just so you know, there was a $1.25 coupon on these dog treats on coupons dot com if you want to check that out.) As I said, I also had to buy something 'yummy' for my son (his word) so I thought, instead of getting something 'junky' I would look to see what kind of fruit I could find in the canned fruit aisle because I had a coupon for fruit cups. Oh my gosh. I had no idea Del Monte had so many different kinds of fruit cups, and canned fruit. I bought some fruit salad for him, and everyone else.

So, over the past few days I bought treats for everyone in my zoo. My dogs got @PupPeroni and Milo's Kitchen pet treats and @KibblesnBits dog food, my cats got @MeowMix, cat food and my family got fruit from @DelMonteFoods.


 My cats and dogs ate their treats and we got ready to watch our movie. They had no school so everyone was home. (the kids that is, not the animals)
 Now it's time to watch the movie. The kids sat on the couch with their bowls of Del Monte fruit salad. Keep in mind that my kids range in age from 21 to 12 so it's hard to get a movie that they will all like and that I will like too.

This movie seemed to make us all happy. For me it had enough romance, laughs and Matt Damon. My youngest son thought it had a lot of funny parts in it. My oldest son, well, let's just say he said Scarlett Johansson isn't hard to look at. My daughter really liked it too. She doesn't often sit with us and watch whole movie but she did for this one.



Here is Matt Damon in a scene close to the beginning, but I don't want to ruin anything for you, so I won't include any more than this one. He was having an arguement with his son, hello! Who hasn't done that?  I really did like it though and my 12  year old has already watched it again so it made it worth it for me to buy it using the coupon.

A couple things you might want to know......

You can get a coupon for Del Monte fruit cups in the month's issue of First for Women.
If you look in Parade Magazine or Woman's World you can see Del Monte products featured along side this great movie.
This shop has been compensated at part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias #CBias but all the pictures and opinions are completely my own. 

If you want to see more of my shop for these great products click here for my Google+ story.

Some Facebook links for you:
Del Monte foods
Kibbles 'n Bits
MilkBone

#iLovemyK9


Friday, March 23, 2012

Adding to Paypal using Coinstar #CBias #PayPalCoinstar

Hubby and I had a full day yesterday. We had so many errands to run, including the doctor, the DMV, the grocery store and so on. I had gathered the change around the house and thought I'd look for a Coinstar kiosk to get rid of some of it. I was surprised when I got to my Brookshire's and saw that it is connected with PayPal now. To be honest, I may have seen it in the past but didn't really pay that much attention.
I have a PayPal account that I use for my Etsy store and Ebay transactions, and my kids each have a student PayPal card that I can add funds too when they're out and about and need a few extra dollars and don't want to carry cash (or just need an extra shirt as far as my daughter is concerned!)
It is so easy to use. All you have to do is follow what it says on the screen. It's a touch screen so even a kid can do it (and my son has used one of these kiosks in the past). I don't really like that there is a fee for processing the change from the kiosk to the PayPal account, but I guess nothing is free. I chose the 'Add coins to PayPal account' and entered the email address of that account, my daughter's in this case, and waited for the next prompt, which was to add my change. 
It kept adding up and and up. I honestly thought the money I got from my husbands bucket from on top of his dresser, out of the bottom of my purse and in the van, would add up to about $6 but I ended up with over $12 after the coin conversion was done. Sure does add up fast, and it was so convenient!
 When it was done it printed out a receipt and told me exactly how much was in my PayPal account, or rather my daughter's account. She got a notification on her phone (of course she has the PayPal app on her iPhone) and called me to ask where I was that I added funds to her Paypal account. I told her about the Coinstar kiosk at Brookshire's and she thought it was very cool. Of course, she told me I could add some bills to it too, and while I could have if I wanted to, I didn't want to. This is good for her, to have money on her PayPal card because she can buy things online with it.


 This is what the receipt looks like and it has all the totals on the bottom of it, including the minimal charge it did take off for the service fee. I did think that it was cool how it told how many of each coin there was. I don't know why exactly, but I just thought it was cool.
 It even thanked me for using it, how polite! lol

I didn't pick up a lot of things at the store today as my main objective was to convert coins into cash, but let me tell you, I can do some damage in this store. The fact that they know me by name or as 'the coupon lady' should be enough to let know that I'm in here a lot!

Now, I do have to say, this is the first time I saw this 'Coming Soon' Brookshire's kiosk. It said it was for in store benefits and has a place to slide your card. I'm a saver, so I'm very excited about this.

You can get more information about the Coinstar Kiosks in your area by visiting the Coinstar Facebook page or the Coinstar Twitter page. There is also a PayPal Facebook page and a PayPal Twitter page too if you want to check them out.
I made a Google+ photo album of my busy day too if you want to check it out. There is a lot of pictures on there from Brookshire's and the Coinstar PayPal kiosk and all the running around we did, including going to the DMV. Check that out here.

 I have been paid (at Coinstar's request to try and blog about Coinstar's products/services as part of a Collective Bias shopper insights study. All opinions are my own.

Friday, February 24, 2012

Dry eyes and Granny glasses

You know the commercials on tv that talk about dry eyes and how your eyes can't make enough tears? Well, for some reason, and I'm honestly not sure why, I've made fun of those for a long time. Looks like karma's a bugger! I went to the eye doctor for the first time in about 15 years because my eyes hurt all the time and I had trouble focusing after crocheting or doing something close up. And, you guessed it, I have dry eyes. All this time I thought it was allergies. I've been taking allergy medications for years now thinking I had seasonal allergies (all year long), not going on my computer as much in the past 6 months because it just hurt my eyes too much (must be my eyes getting bad, right?) and all this time I had dry eyes.
Not only do I have dry eyes but I need bifocals. Bifocals!?! But I'm 43 years old, I'm not an old lady, am I? Only old people need bifocals...right? Well, I guess after the age of 40 (don't you love how everything really starts falling apart at 40?) the muscles in your eyes start to relax and if you are doing something up close it's harder for the eye muscles to refocus. So, she told me, I won't need glasses for driving but for home I will.
So she gave me my glasses prescription and wrote down something that would be good for my dry eyes and off I went. I ordered my glasses online (no, I can't even pay full price for glasses. I found a discount website, let's just hope they look alright and I can see out of them alright) and I went to CVS and bought Refresh Liquigel drops. Who knew that simple eye drops would change my life??
Ok, have you ever seen the episode of friends where Rachel needs eyes drops and they all have to tackle her to put the drops in her eyes? Well, I'm not too far off from that. My daughter has to hold my eye open and plop the drops in while I try to close my eye and whine the whole time (don't judge me!). And with the very first drops that went into my eyes it's a different world. I can actually go on the computer without feeling like my eye balls are going to fall out. My eyes aren't burning and itchy anymore. I don't feel like I need to nap all the time because my eyes hurt and are tired feeling. I'm absolutely amazed something this simple is the 'cure' to my eyes. I'm amazed.
So, the moral of the story is, I should make fun of people winning the lottery and maybe I'll win it too!

Monday, February 13, 2012

International Delight #IcedCoffee tasting party

Well, to be honest with you, I had a bugger of a time trying to find this International Delights #IcedCoffee. First I thought it would be with the creamer but couldn't find it there. Then I thought it was a mix so I looked at the coffee aisle but it wasn't there. Finally I found it by chocolate milk, which, I thought, was a funny place for it, but I was glad to find it.I had heard so much about this stuff and I really wanted to try it and trust me, it was worth the search. When I finally found it I could only find the Vanilla variety so I brought them home along with a couple of International Delights creamers for my morning coffee. I thought it might be fun to have a few friends over to try it so I made plans to do so but it fell through at the last minute so it was just me and my family enjoying it.....which we did!


Yesterday I happened to take a look at Walmart again to see if I could find any different kinds and I did! I was happy. I bought one Mocha, one Original and one more Vanilla. Of course, the second I walked through the door everyone was on my heels to have a glass of it, even my 12 year old son! His favorite was the Mocha...surprise, surprise. My daughter says she thinks the Original is far and away the best, which surprised me quite a bit. She said "Oh my gosh, mom. You have GOT to try this kind. It's amazing!" I have not tried that kind yet because I'm just in love with the Vanilla it's hard to switch. Hubby said the Vanilla was his favorite, which isn't a surprise seeing how he just loves Starbucks French Vanilla drinks. He did say he could drink this International Delights #icedcoffee instead of Starbucks because he liked it that much.
Ok, while writing this I just had to try the Original and I have to agree with my daughter (please, let's keep that between us!). It is the best one, in my opinion. It takes more like coffee than the others. Very good.
(I wanted to add a bunch of pictures to this post but Blogger is giving me a hard time. I will post them at the end of this post so please scroll to the bottom)
Have you even heard of these drinks before? I hadn't but I'm so glad I did. They're so yummy.  You can get more information on International Delights and this Iced Coffee sing the following links...
Website: http://internationaldelight.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/indelight
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/InternationalDelight
 Also, click here to see my Google+ shop trying to find this #icedcoffee










This shop has been compensated part of a social shoppers insight study for Collective Bias #CBias but all photos and opinions and tasting, was my own.

Thursday, February 2, 2012

International Delight #IcedCoffee Hour Twitter Party 2/9

RSVP here for the #icedcoffee Twitter Party!

There will be (3) $25 Walmart Gift Cards and (1) $100 Walmart Gift Card up for grabs! Take a coffee break and enjoy some #icedcoffee!

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Pillsbury $1.10/3 coupon




$1.10 on THREE when you buy THREE any size/variety Refrigerated Pillsbury® Grands!® Biscuits, Crescent Dinner Rolls, Ready To Bake!" Cookies, Sweet Rolls OR Grands!® Sweet Rolls

Click here for your coupon!


Thanks to #MyBlogSpark and Pillsbury for sharing such a great coupon!

Monday, January 23, 2012

Progresso soup Giveaway from #MyBlogSpark

For the record, I love Progresso soups. I have at least 10 cans of the Light Progresso soup in my pantry right now. I'm trying to lose weight right now (who isn't?) so this makes a great lunch for me. It is actually something that fills me up, which I love! Below you will find some information about Progresso sent to me from #MyBlogSpark. Be sure to scroll to the bottom to read about a giveaway.

Are you ready for a new look this New Year? Progresso® is excited to announce the return of their Souper You® Contest giving you the chance to win an incredible makeover! By telling Progresso why you deserve a makeover and what you love about their soup, you could have the chance to win an ultimate makeover experience in Hollywood this Spring!


Now that the ball has dropped and the confetti has settled, it’s time to consider how you will stick to your resolution for the New Year and maintain your weight management plan, without sacrificing on variety or the taste of foods you love. Thanks to Progresso®, you can have your soup and eat it too!

With 40 delicious soups with 100 calories or less per serving, Progresso Soup has a variety of offerings that help you beat diet boredom and satisfy your taste cravings, while helping you stick to your weight management calorie goals. Progresso soups are packed with hearty ingredients like pasta, beans, rice, meat and vegetables that suit your taste buds and make you feel good about including it in your meal choices.
  • This year, the Souper You® Contest will provide three lucky winners with an ultimate makeover experience in Hollywood; this includes a trip for 2 to Los Angeles, California where the winner will receive a head-to-toe makeover including hair and makeup, guided shopping spree with a $1,000 fashion retailer gift card, $1,000 spending money and 2 tickets to this season’s live finale of NBC’s The Biggest Loser
  • Progresso is asking fans to visit www.SouperYou.com and submit their photo with a brief essay about why they love Progresso soups and why they deserve a makeover, by no later than February 22nd
  • Fans can check back on March 12th for the announcement of the top ten finalists, and to vote for their favorite finalist until March 25th
  • In addition, visit http://bit.ly/ProgressoCoup  to download a printable coupon for $1.25 off the purchase of four (4) cans of Progresso Soup today, and feel free to share with your blog readers so they can take advantage of the savings as well
  • Also, tune into The Biggest Loser on NBC Tuesdays at 8/7c
Click here to watch this amazing video of the 2011 winner experience.  To share with others,  include this link, http://bit.ly/ProgressoSY11 in your Tweets, Facebook updates and blog posts.

Here are some Progresso links that might interest you:

I was lucky enough to receive a gift pack from Progresso and MyBlogSpark containing Progresso soup and a Biggest Loser DVD. You too can get a gift pack. Yours will contain 2 coupons for free Progresso soup and the Biggest Loser DVD. How's that for awesome?!

All I'm asking is that you tweet and Facebook about it. When you do Tweet be sure to come back here and leave a comment with a link to your tweet. Please include the hashtag #MyBlogSpark and mention Progresso. You can enter this giveaway every day, once a day, just be sure to come back here and leave a comment.
This will end Feb 4th 2012 at 11:59cst.

     “Disclosure:  The Progresso® Souper You® prize pack, information, coupon, and giveaway have been provided by Progresso through MyBlogSpark.”

    Monday, January 16, 2012

    Day 1 of 365

    I have decided that today is the first day of my online diary, vlog, whatever you want to call it. I'm to make a video everyday and post it to Youtube and also embed it here on my blog. Who knows what I will talk about, but family, weight loss, health, etc is sure to be involved.
    So now, without further adieu, here is day 1 of 365........

    Thursday, January 12, 2012

    Chap Stick $.25 coupon

    Ok, one might say I have a bit of a Chap Stick addiction, I call it Chap Stick love. I have one in my purse, one in my craft basket, one on my bedside table and one in my car, just in case. To see a rare Chap Stick coupon makes me very, very happy. I'm going to print 2, you should too before they're gone!




    Thanks to BeCentsible for this great coupon alert!

    White Cloud $2 coupon

    There is almost nothing better in the coupon world than a high dollar toilet paper coupon. Here is one for $2 off White Cloud, which is available only at Walmart. I'm going to print mine out and head over there today!

    Tuesday, January 10, 2012

    Frosted Toast Crunch cereal giveaway #MyBlogSpark


    I recently purchased this new cereal for my son because he's a fan of the 'Toast Crunch' cereals. It's new and he likes to try new things so I wasn't afraid of that, what I was afraid of was that this box of cereal didn't stand a chance and would be gone in the blink of the eye as soon as the other kids found out about it. I was right. He loved it. And the box was gone that same night after my other kids heard about it.

    The main taste of this cereal is vanilla and I tried some without milk and even liked it. It is available in stores now and I highly recommend getting some. If your kids like Cinnamon Toast Crunch they will love this one too.

    With 11 grams of whole grain, 9 grams of sugar and a good source of calcium, Frosted Toast Crunch offers a good start to the day.

    Doesn't this prize pack look great? I got one and my son won't eat out of any other bowl anymore, it's crazy. You can win this prize pack (provided by MyBlogSpark), it's so easy.

    Just follow me on Twitter @etxsaver and tweet about this giveaway and you will be entered. Leave a comment below with a link to your tweet below. You can get another entry by following me and posting about this giveaway on Facebook. Don't forget to leave a link below in the comment section. You can tweet and facebook once a day, just remember to come back here to leave a link in the comment section. When tweeting please be sure to use the hashtag #MyBlogSpark.

    Giveaway ends  January 22, 2012 at 11:59pm CST

    For more information take a look at the General Mill’s Website: http://bit.ly/FrostedTC .


    Disclosure: Frosted Toast Crunch, information, and giveaway have been provided by General Mills through MyBlogSpark.

    Friday, January 6, 2012

    100 Calorie Right Bites rebate. Try them for free!

    What a great time to try something new. I just saw this rebate here and I'm certainly going to try them out. This is valid until 8/31/12.

    Take your #BraveWoman pledge and start off 2012 right! #CBias

    A couple of weeks ago I wrote about my struggles when I was a young mother living in a bad relationship. If the internet had been around then my life would have been so much easier (yes, there was a time was when the internet was not in every household, believe it or not!)
    I have made a pledge to myself every year since getting out of that relationship, that I will be aware of my actions and the actions of others, that may put my happiness in jeopardy. What about you?
    You don't have to be involved in a bad relationship to make a pledge to yourself to be happy, to be aware, to be brave.
    Go to Brave Woman and make a pledge. Pledge to be brave. Now, that pledge can cover so many areas of your life but the bottom line is, we, as women, have to stand up for ourselves and not anyone push us around, whether it be a man or another female. Domestic violence has found a way into many people's lives, in so many different forms that it is up to us to stand up and not be afraid anymore. I know you can do it. If I can do it, anyone can do it.
    How can you be brave this year? And every year......
    Please take a minute, after you have made your pledge to be brave, to check out the Facebook and Twitter pages Brave Woman.

    We are all #BraveWoman.

    This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias but all opinions and ideas are my own. #CBias