Sam's Club and Boxtops for Education Review and Giveaway

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We have a WINNER! Random.Org generated comment No. 23 as the winning entry.

Congratulations to Amanda!

Thanks for entering everyone. I look forward to holding my next giveaway!

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Yep, it's back to school time. No, I don't have any children going back to school, but that doesn't mean that I can't support my local schools. As the song says, "The children are our future...". General Mills and Sam's club have teamed up to really promote the Boxtops for Education program. You too can earn cash for your school every time you shop for groceries. Clip Box Tops from hundreds of your favorite products. Each Box Tops coupon is worth 10¢ for your school—and that adds up fast! Here's a list of the products that you can choose from.

MyBlogSpark, General Mills, and Sam's club generously provided me with a $25.00 gift card to go out and explore the great deals on products that qualify for the Boxtops program. To be honest, every time I walk into Sam's Club, I am astounded by the variety of products available. Here's a list of some of the products that have been recently added to the program:

Progresso® Soups and Broth
Hamburger Helpers® Complete Meals
Chex Mix® Treat Bars
Total® Plus Omega 3
Gold Medal® Flour
Betty Crocker® Cake Mix
Bisquick® Gluten Free Green Giant® Create a Meal®
Old El Paso Re-fried Beans
Totino’s® Crisp Crust Party Pizza®
LAND O LAKES® Butter

So what did I buy? I picked up some Nature Valley Trail Mix bars for my husband's lunches, some Honey Nut Cheerioes for breakfast, and some Chex Mix for munching on. Yummy!!!

Okay, now for the very cool part. General Mills, Sam's Club, and MyBlogspark have generously provided me with an extra $25.00 Gift Card to Sam's club for one of my readers.
Yeah! Free Stuff for you.

You too can go shopping for some amazing deals and help out your local school at the same time!

ENTRY RULES:

1. Leave a comment with the answer to this question: Which General Mills Boxtop Items do you plan to purchase during the Sam's Club Back-to-School Event?

2. For one extra entry, please publicly follow my blog through Google Friend Connect (Left Sidebar) and leave a second comment saying that you have done so.

This giveaway will run from August 12th until Aug. 19th at Noon Central Time. You MUST answer the question. Any comments that simply say, “I want to win!” or “Enter me” will be disqualified. I will use random.org to pick the winner. Make sure that you leave an email address so that I can contact you if you are the winner. You will have 48 hours to respond to my email, and then I will pick another winner. The winner must have a United States shipping address.

Good Luck! Read more...

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Duo-Fast FloorMaster Giveaway at Home Construction & Improvement

There's another great giveaway going on over at Home Construction & Improvement

Check out their review and giveaway for the Duo-Fast FloorMaster 250BN. For those of you who need a translation, that means it's a really really cool 16 Gauge Hardwood Flooring Finish Nailer. I know that a lot of us are sick of dealing with carpeting throughout our house. I grew up with green shag carpets, but even my nice beige Berber carpeting is getting a bit warn and tired looking. This great tool would help us diy'ers make the conversion to hardwood floors. According to the great review at Home Construction & Improvement, this great nailer includes the following features...

• A proprietary 45º detachable no-mar nailing guide, and no-mar pads, that protect floor, wall and cabinets from marring, scratching or denting.

• A proprietary depth-of-drive design, which helps to eliminate tongue splitting.

• A proprietary nail lock-out design that eliminates blank firing.

Go check it out and take a look around the blog. I am always finding some great new tips and advice over there!

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Wanchai Ferry Asian Entrée Review and Giveaway

WE HAVE A WINNER!!! CONGRATULATIONS TO ALTREAU!!!

There were 54 entries. Random.org chose comment #48.

Altreau said...

I would love to see them make lemongrass chicken.

Thanks to everyone for participating in my giveaway!

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Let’s be honest, we can all use a little help now and then. It seems like the days are getting shorter and our lives are getting busier. Wanchai Ferry has answered our cries for help with their frozen Asian entrées. I was sent a newest frozen entrée, “Beef and Broccoli” to try out. It’s ready to serve in 14 minutes, so right off the bat, I was pretty excited. Wanchai Ferry Beef & Broccoli comes with tender beef strips, and an assortment of Asian-style vegetables, including broccoli florets, red peppers and water chestnuts.

Tonight was the night to try out this quick dinner solution. My husband and I both got a rather late start this morning, and then I had to run errands, so by the time we were both home, neither of us were really in the mood to cook. Our stomachs, on the other hand, were in the mood to be fed. Into the freezer I dove (well, reached) and pulled out my free sample of the Wanchai Ferry Beef with Broccoli. My husband’s first comment was, “Let’s cook up some Jasmine rice to go with it.” “Aha”, I replied, “it’s already in there.” Score one for Wanchai. The next question was as to whether we had to microwave it or heat it up in a pan. According to the directions, the answer is both. The meat and vegetables are cooked up in a skillet, and a separate package of rice is heated in the microwave.

My husband and I like to frequent a national Chinese food chain and so we have a fairly good opinion as to what we like. Overall, I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised by this easy to fix meal. The packaging says that it serves two and that is just about right. A little more might have been nice, as we have hearty appetites, but it certainly was enough food for two average adults. This was particularly appealing for me, as we don’t have children, so we don’t need big batches of food that end up as leftovers going bad in our refrigerator. As for the nutritional content of the dinner, both my husband and I have made a commitment to eat healthier, so I took a good long look at the packaging to see what was in the meal. Right on the front of the package it states that it has no added MSG! That makes me sooo happy, as MSG tends to give me a killer headache.

You can try out this easy to prepare Asian cuisine yourself! There is a $1.60 off coupon available at http://bricks.coupons.com/bstart.asp?o=63369&ci=1&c=GM&p=OMaEZjGT. Also check out the website at http://www.wanchaiferry.com/MealTips.aspx later this summer for meal tips to enhance your Wanchai Ferry frozen entrée. You might want to try the two additional new flavors of Wanchai Ferry frozen entrées, Kung Pao Chicken and Szechuan Style Chicken, which will soon join five other delicious varieties including Orange Chicken, Shrimp Lo Mein, Spicy Garlic Chicken and Sweet & Sour Chicken. Additionally, all of the entrées have no added MSG!

Now on to the fun part… okay, eating a yummy dinner was fun for me, but I don’t know how to blog in smellavision… The folks from Blogspark and Wanchai Ferry generously sent me this free sample of their Asian meals for review. All opinions in this review are my own and not influenced by getting a free meal. They also sent me a pair of cute Chinese Tea Sets, and want to give one of my readers their own Wanchai Ferry prize pack! The prize pack will includes: one VIP coupon and two tea sets. Woo hoo! Free stuff for you too!!!

RULES:
To enter my very first Giveaway, please do the following:

1. Leave a comment with the answer to this question: Which Asian meal you would you also like to see as part of the Wanchai Ferry lineup and why do you need a quick and healthy meal for your family?
2. For one extra entry, please publicly follow my blog through Google Friend Connect (Left Sidebar) and leave a second comment saying that you have done so.

This giveaway will run from June 30th until July 14th at Noon Central Time. You MUST answer the question. Any comments that simply say, “I want to win!” or “Enter me” will be disqualified. I will use random.org to pick the winner. Make sure that you leave an email address so that I can contact you if you are the winner. You will have 48 hours to respond to my email, and then I will pick another winner. The winner must have a United States shipping address.

Good Luck!

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SKIL RAS900 Router Table Review Giveaway at "One Project Closer"

Most of you know that I have been steadily trying build up my own set of tools. It's not that I don't like sharing with my husband, but if I have my own tools, then (theoretically) I will always know where to find them (and can't be blamed if he can't find his). Yes, the end to the eternal... "Honey, where's the...?" questioning.

Over at one of my favorite blogs, One Project Closer they are giving away a Skill RAS900 Router table. I'm not going to steal his review, as it is very thorough, but I have to say, that one of the best features of this little table is that it folds up. Yes! Meaning, I could continue to claim my own little workspace in the garage, and yet add this great tool to my collection. I love tools that both work great and save space! Check out the giveaway, and hang around over there and read the blog. They pack a lot of useful information into their posts.

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The Volunteer State !

The waters have receded here in Nashville, and now it's time for the clean-up and recovery. The scope of this disaster is humbling. Middle Tennessee put out the call for help, and we answered. I am in awe of the response to the call for volunteers. Our state is known as "The Volunteer State" and in the last few weeks we have lived up to that name. I am not a native Tennessean, but after 20 years here, I call it home. It is a home that I am proud of.

I thought that I would give you a little sense of what volunteering in flood relief is like. I have learned two major things. Disaster relief is a "hurry up and wait" process and involves a whole lot of decisions on the fly. The flood occurred on May 1st - 3rd. I started volunteering on Friday, May 7th. My first task was to answer phones for the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee. We were taking donations for the relief effort. The next day (Saturday), I volunteered with the American Red Cross. Wow, did I learn a lot from them. That organization had an entire military-type operation up and running in just a few days. The speed of their response was amazing, as was their adaptability. They were organized and ready to adapt to what ever need the community had. I spent my time loading cases of water on to a truck for flood victims. The next day (Sunday) the Red Cross sent me out to the adjacent county on a truck filled with relief supplies. It was a wonderful feeling to know that my small efforts might be helping a family in need.

Last weekend, I manned a water distribution location. So many people are working hard to tear apart the damaged portions of their homes and clean out all of the debris (which used to be their household possessions). They need water to sustain them, so my husband and I joined a crew to hand out water. This weekend, I will be back with the Red Cross. I am supposed to help clean cots that were used in the local flood shelters. Given the way these things work, I don't really know what I will be doing. I just want to do my part as a citizen of The Volunteer State.

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Tragic Flooding in Nashville

We really need to get the word out. This morning, Good Morning America simply mentioned (in one sentence) that the waters were receding and people were moving back into their homes in Nashville. The report was less than 30 seconds in length. Nashville, and the surrounding counties, have experienced what is being described as a 1000 year flood. Homes, businesses, and historic landmarks have been inundated. People are living in emergency shelters. Lives have been lost. We are being asked to cut our water use in 1/2 because one of the two treatment plants has been flooded.



My family has been blessed in that our homes were spared, however I would like to share a personal story with you. On Monday, I managed to get into work. I work for the State government, and we were all asked to come in if it was safe. I had a t.v. in my office tuned into the local news when I heard a very frightening report. A viewer called in to report that Polo Park apartments was being evacuated because the water was rising. This is the apartment complex where my elderly and disabled mother lives on a ground-floor apartment. I flew out of the office and headed over there. My husband was able to contact the apartment office and told me that they might have to evacuate her by boat! When I arrived on the scene, the water in front of her apartment was up to my knees and rising. I yelled out of my window to a man standing nearby that I had a mom in a wheelchair that I needed to rescue and that I would need help. Immediately, three men appeared and said they would carry her out if necessary. We were not waiting for the boat. I had never met these young men before in my life, but they are my heroes. They managed to get my mom (and her cat) into my jeep without even getting her feet wet. They then helped me put some of her belongings up higher in hopes of keeping them dry. This is the spirit of Nashville. We take care of each other. I am so proud of my city, but we need help from the outside as well. Please encourage people to donate to the Nashville chapter of the Red Cross. www.redcross.org or the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee http://www.cfmt.org/index.php .

Please also see the following facebook post: http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=390190583466&id=5306972&ref=mf

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Bertie Needs a Home

Check out the button on my right sidebar for a link to a great giveaway over at MayhemandMoxie! They're giving away a KitchenAid Stand Mixer. Her name is Bertie, and she is one beautiful machine.

Bertie would be a big help to me around the holidays. We like to make up batches of treats to pass out the neighbors, and she looks like she could handle the pressure. I might even attempt to try to bake a strawberry cake again. The first one was a disaster, and something not ever mentioned except in hushed tones. Good luck to everyone...

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