When I was given the opportunity to review Febreze NOTICEables, I did have one question.  Have the people at Febreze been to my house?!  Seriously.  I have a twelve year old and fourteen year old son, and a very large dog, and a husband.  Can you think of anyone who might need help with ODOR more than me? No. You can’t.

Nothing says “homey” more than a fresh smelling house, and I rarely never have that.  Remember when your kids were babies and you loved to sniff their cute chubby necks and breathe in their baby deliciousness?  Well, that does not last, let me tell you.  I am constantly trying different things to eliminate odor all over my house, and until recently, I never found anything that really worked.  Candles do not really help, they’re just not strong enough.  Sprays only last a short time, and believe me, we need something long lasting.  So I was thrilled to get my box of Febreze NOTICEables in the mail.

Before I ever opened the box, all three of the men in my house commented, asking “What smells so good?”.  Before I even opened the box, people!  Febreze NOTICEables is a scented oil warmer that you simply plug into any outlet and enjoy for thirty days.  Instead of one fragrance, NOTICEables alternate between two complimentary scents.  I tried Autumn Spice/Harvest Festivities,  Warm Celebration/Pumpkin Harvest and Morning Walk/Cleansing Rain. They are all so yummy, but my personal favorite is Morning Walk/Cleansing Rain.  I just love that crisp clean scent.

Now, how did they work?  I put the Warm Celebration/Pumpkin Harvest to the true test of odor elimination – it went in the boys’ bathroom.  Two times the boy, two times the smell.  I had given up on that room and resorted to keeping the door closed.  But no more.  Febreze NOTICEables worked wonders in that room and in my bedroom by the dog bed.  I was able to keep their bathroom door open; in fact, I purposefully walked by there more often to catch a whiff of the lovely fall scent.

Febreze NOTICEables will freshen your air for thirty days, so I am still enjoying my sweet smelling home.  If Febreze NOTICEables can work in my house, they can work anywhere!

And now for more awesomeness!  You can enter to win a $100 Visa gift card and a Febreze gift basket!

To enter, leave me a comment below and tell me what is the most important thing you do to maintain a clean, fresh home – or you may leave a link to your post on your own blog in the comments below.

The contest will begin on Monday, September 28, 2009 and will end Tuesday, October 27, 2009.  Make sure that the e-mail address you leave is correct.   This giveaway has ended, thanks for entering and check back soon for more great giveaways!

Rules:
No duplicate comments.
You may receive an additional entry by linking on twitter and leaving a link in the comments.
You may receive an additional entry by blogging about this contest and leaving a link in the comments.
This giveaway is open to US Residents, aged 18 and older
Winners will be selected via random draw and will notified by e-mail.
You have 48 hours to get back to me, otherwise a new winner will be selected.

Check out more Febreze NOTICEables reviews for nine more chances to win!

Good luck!!

Don’t we all know moms or parents who said “My child will NEVER have a cell phone”?  I do.  In fact, I was that mom.  I was sooo amused listening to parents complain about their teenagers and cell phones.  I was convinced that no kid needed a cell phone.  In fact, I didn’t have a cell until just a couple of  years ago.  Well, let’s just say that I will never say NEVER again.

My son got a cell phone last year.  Not because he was begging for one since all his friends had one.  They do, but he didn’t care. No, the reason he got a cell phone was because of me. He was going off to band camp at a large, out of state university.  I became obsessed with the fear that he might get separated from his friends or get lost on the large campus.  Or that he might miss the bus that took them back to the dorms at night. I was just worried, and a cell phone seemed like the best solution. Which it was.  So avoid saying never, because you never know.

Even though I wanted him to have the cell phone, I didn’t want him to have free reign with it.  We have AT&T, and I absolutely love it. I’ve used their Smart Limits program to set restrictions on time of use, how many texts, and more.  I can log in anytime and change the limits if I want or just view what he’s been doing.  I have made many phone calls to AT&T with questions about adding or removing services, and the reps have always been patient with this non-techie mom.  AT&T is extremely family friendly.  In fact, when we first got the cell phone I made some mistakes that resulted in a higher than normal bill.  When I called in, the rep looked at our account and immediately said, “You have a teenager, right?”  She knew exactly why the bill was higher and fixed it right away for me, and explained so that I wouldn’t make the same mistake.

Since I have had such great results with the Smart Limits program, I was really excited to see the new AT&T FamilyMap service.  I don’t want to spy on my son or know exactly where he is every second of the day.  But he is a teenager.  He is notorious for saying he’ll call me when he arrives at his destination then forgetting to call for hours.  He has also been know to call me to come pick him up at a friends house and have no clue how to tell me how to get there.  I have spent hours lots of time driving around neighborhoods trying to find  houses that didn’t map correctly on mapquest. So this seemed like a great service.

This is a new service, and right now you can get your first thirty days free. With the FamilyMap, you can locate your child’s phone, or any phone in your plan.  You can track phones from the internet or from your own phone. In addition to random location checks, if that’s what you want to do, the service includes a Schedule Check option which I am most excited about.  With that, you can specify a time of day to automatically locate a particular phone.  In my case, this will be very helpful when my graduate classes start in a few weeks. I can’t count on my son to call me when he gets home from school, but I also can’t call him during my class.  With the Schedule Check, I can set it to check his location at 3pm on the days that I’m going to be in class.  Then at 3pm on those days, I will get a text message letting me know if he is home.  Since I would spend the entire class time worrying if I didn’t know where he was, that will be a big help. 

There are some parents who might prefer that their child not know that they can track their location.  When I signed up for AT&T FamilyMap and selected my son’s cell phone for mapping, he immediately got a text message saying that my phone number was tracking his location.  Since I hadn’t explained it to him first, I got a not too  happy text message asking why I was doing that. But we’ve talked and he understands now.   He does not get a text every time I locate his phone, unless I go into my account and set it up that way.  He will get periodic notification, about once a month.  I’m really not using it to spy on him 24/7, so it’s fine with me that he knows I can track his phone.

However, if he turns off  his phone, I can’t track it.  If you have a teenager, you’ll understand why I’m not too worried about this   Unless the battery is dead, his phone is on.

Now for the downside, if you can call it that.  The mapping service works best with phones that have Assisted GPS.  My phone is ancient and does not, so FamilyMap uses cell towers to give me the most accurate location when I track my own phone. It states right on the AT&T website that without the Assisted GPS phone, it can be within a few hundred yards to a few miles of the phone’s actual location.  It also will depend on the location itself, if there are lots of trees or tall buildings it may not be as accurate.  

Because I am so technologically impaired, I have done quite a bit of reading on the FamilyMap.  It doesn’t say so in the FAQ’s or at least I haven’t found it, but through reading the AT&T forums, it seems like phones with internet accessibility will track better. My son’s phone is newer, and he has a media package on his phone, so he can browse the internet, but the media package is not required for FamilyMap. I have tracked my son’s location and my own location, and it has been right on target with my son’s phone.  I do not have a media package on my phone, so no internet.  The tracking is a little off for my phone, probably by only a couple miles.  That’s ok with me, since I don’t really need to track my own phone. 

I’ve been happy with the FamilyMap service so far.  It was very easy to register and get it started.  The mom (that would be me) who said her kids will NEVER have cell phones is probably going to be getting a cell phone for the  younger son soon, so I’ll have more phones to track.  I’ll be honest, if I stayed home and didn’t work or go to school, I might not think I needed the FamilyMap service, at least not until my kids are driving (let’s not talk about that!).  But as busy as they are and as busy as I am, I think it’s going to be a lifesaver. You also can’t beat the free 30-day trial to see if it’s going to be helpful for your family.   To learn more, and sign up and get your first 30 days free, check out the Family Map site. 

Now for the giveaway! You know you were waiting for it.

To enter to win a $100 Visa gift card, leave me a comment below and tell me what gives you peace of mind -specifically with regards to kids/teenagers, but if you don’t have kids, please enter anyway!

The contest will begin on August 27, 2009 and will end on September 20, 2009.  Make sure that the e-mail address you leave is correct so I can contact you if you win. 

• No duplicate comments
• You may receive an additional entry by linking on twitter and leaving a link in the comments.
• You may receive an additional entry by blogging about this contest and leaving a link in the comments.

Official Rules

This giveaway is open to US residents, aged 18 and older

The winner will be selected via random draw using the Random Number Generator, and will notified by e-mail. You have 48 hours to get back to me, otherwise a new winner will be selected.
Check out how the rest of the BlogHer Reviewers explored AT&T Family Map – you have 10 chances to win a $100 Visa gift card.

The giveaway has ended and I will be emailing the winner soon, thanks for entering!  Check back soon for more giveaways!

Rebate available for download only on Earth Day
(April 22nd, 2009) starting at 4:22 am EDT.
Quantities are limited!

The deadline to enter is April 20th.  Entries are being accepted online at www.bakeoff.com.  Be sure and check out the past bake-off recipes, I’ve already got a long list of new recipes to try.  Yes, most of them came from the Sweet Treats section    Good luck to everyone who enters!

Thank you everyone who entered this one.

I’m going to make a confession.  I don’t watch much TV, so while I’ve heard of Dancing with the Stars, I’ve never followed it closely.  So when One2One Network asked me to review the  brand new Ballas Hough Band CD called BHB, I had no idea what to expect.

The founding members of the Ballas Hough Band are Derek Hough and Mark Ballas.   Fans of Dancing with the Stars will know that Derek and Brooke Burke were the winners last season, with Mark and Kristi Yamaguchi winning season 6.  That’s impressive enough, but these professional ballroom dancers have also been playing and performing music together since they were teenagers.  Talk about multi-talented!

Even though I don’t keep up with the show, I had heard of the talented dancers.  I just had no idea that they were musicians too.  Most of the songs on this pop album were written by Derek and Mark, but the first single, “Do It For You,” was co-written by new American Idol judge Kara Dioguardi.  That was the first song I listened to, and it’s my favorite from the CD so far.  This song is hip, upbeat and fast paced.  It’s perfect to get you moving, whether its dancing, exercising or cleaning the house -ok, maybe I need some music to get motivated to clean.  Whatever works.  You can watch the official video release of “Do It For You” on Youtube.  I also really enjoy some of the slower songs, such as “Underwater” and “Longing For”.  I’ve already decided I’m going to get a copy of this CD for my niece, she’s a dancer herself and a huge Dancing with the Stars fan, so I know she’ll love this.  Even if you’re not a dancer, you can’t help but dance to some of these songs, this CD really gets you moving.

Following the spring season of Dancing with the Stars, the band will head out on a summer tour across the U.S.  More information can be found at www.Myspace.com/ballashoughband

I highly recommend this fun CD, and you can buy it on Amazon now.

Do you know your cholesterol number? High cholesterol is one of the major controllable factors for coronary heart disease, which is the number one cause of death for women. A recent study conducted by Harris Interactive for Cheerios found that more than one-third of adults (37 percent) have not had their cholesterol checked within the past year.*

Those with limited access to adequate healthcare may not get regular cholesterol screenings and thus are at an even greater risk for heart disease.

Wondering how you can help? Now through January 31, 2010, for every code entered at www.cheerioshelpinghearts.com, Cheerios will donate $1, up to $200,000, to raise awareness for heart disease and provide free cholesterol screenings for women in need, through its partnership with WomenHeart. Codes will be featured inside specially marked boxes of Cheerios cereal.

This topic is near and dear to my heart, since heart disease runs in my family.

Thanks to My Blog Spark and Cheerios, I  am giving away 3 beautiful freshwater pearl bracelets.   Wearing this bracelet will give you a constant reminder of the importance of taking care of your heart. And it’s lovely!

To Enter:

Leave comment telling me what you do to keep your heart  healthy, or share a story of women who have battled and overcome heart disease.

To earn extra entries:

• Subscribe to my feed. You can subscribe through a feed reader or you can also subscribe by email and have posts sent to your email address.
• Mention this giveaway on your blog with a link back here.
• Follow me on Twitter (leave your Twitter name in your comment)
• Send a tweet on Twitter about this giveaway-this can be done as often as you like, leave a new comment each time (leave your Twitter name in your comment)
• Stumble this post

Please leave 1 extra comment for each additional entry, telling me which you have done (ie 1 extra comment if you subscribe, 1 extra comment if you mention this on your blog, 1 extra comment if you follow me on Twitter, 1 extra comment each time you tweet about this giveaway, 1 extra comment for a Stumble.

This giveaway will end Friday, March 27 at midnight CST.  One prize per household.  The winner will be chosen using random.org and I will notify the winners via email.  Make sure to include a valid email.  The 3 winners will have 48  hours to respond to email with their mailing address so that I can forward that information to the sponsor.  If that information is not received within 48 hours, a new winner will be chosen.   Good luck!

This giveaway has ended, I will email the winners and once I’ve received their information I will forward that to the sponsor.  Thank you everyone who entered!

I really love a clean house, and especially clean floors.  But clean floors don’t come easy in a household with 2 active boys and 1 messy husband.  But my biggest barrier to clean floors is disguised as a sweet, cute, cuddly pet:

While he is cute and cuddly, he’s also a smelly, shedding, tracking in all kind of mud and dirt beast.  The shedding is a huge problem.  I keep asking my husband, if we had to have a dog why didn’t we at least get a white dog.  Every spring and summer, my floors are covered in black dog hair, which accumulates in the corners and under the cabinets.  Which is just gross.

The only bad thing about doing reviews of cleaning products is that I have to post pictures of my unclean house.  But it’s for a good cause, so here goes.  These first pictures are of my kitchen floor.  I’d like to say that I let the dog hair and dirt accumulate for a couple of days for the purpose of this review, but the truth is, I clean my floors every day and it still looks like this.

Just in case it wasn’t clear what those black blobs are on my floor, this last close up should clear up any confusion. Dog Hair! I swept and mopped yesterday, so this is what I deal with after one day.  And it’s winter, so this is nothing compared to how I suffer through warmer weather.

But wait, there’s more than just dog hair.

He also tracks in dirt and mud, and since we’ve had a few days of ice which turns into nasty muddy slush, my floor has been covered with muck.  If I could keep the dog inside all the time I would, but that’s not an option.

I have tried all kinds of products for the floors, mainly because I want something quick and easy.  I hate to get out the broom, get out the mop, fill the mop bucket, sweep, mop then try to keep everyone off the floor while it dries.  That takes too long, especially since it needs to be done at least once  a day.  So I was pleasantly surprised to open up the Swiffer 2 in 1 and find that it assembled very quickly.   The Swiffer 2 in 1 is for sweeping and mopping, so it just takes up one hook in my garage, where I keep my various cleaning supplies.  Yes, that is important, I want something small that doesn’t take up much space, because I don’t have much space.

And it passed the true test of convenience, my son was able to assemble it in seconds.  This is also important, because my goal is to delegate the floor cleaning to my kids.  We all want to give our kids something to cherish, right? That’s my gift to them.

I was skeptical about the sweeper part, I just didn’t see how those sweeper cloths would pick up the stuff on my floor.  I was surprised here too, because it did pick up the dog hair and the dirt and trap it on the cloth.  When I use my regular broom, I have to go over the floor several times, because it seems to scatter the dog hair around more than anything.  The Swiffer cloths picked it up the first time.

I quickly swapped the dry sweeping cloth with a wet mopping cloth.  Again, it was very quick and easy.  Then I went to work on the mud.  I expected to have to spend some time scrubbing, because that’s what I have to do when I use my standard wet mop.  But the wet mopping cloths have a textured scrubbing strip, so I made one swipe over the floor with the cloth then flipped over to the scrubbing strip to go over the worst mud stain.  It got it right out, no scrubbing necessary.

I did my whole kitchen floor in just a matter of minutes.  Another thing I like about the Swiffer 2 in 1 is that there’s no concentrated chemical smell that you get with other cleaners.  Just a clean, fresh scent.

Clean floor!  No dog hair! No mud! Can you tell how happy a clean floor makes me? It’s the simple things in life.  The Swiffer 2 in 2 was quicker, easier, and more convenient that my normal broom and mop routine.  And it worked, my floor is clean and the dog hair is gone. Why go part of the way with your traditional methods, when Swiffer takes you all the way clean!  Visit http://www.swiffer.com for more information and to save $2 on any one Swiffer® Sweeper Starter Kit!

For more Swiffer reviews visit Blogher.

To celebrate the Bloggy Giveaways Carnival at Bloggy Giveaways I am giving away a $50 Amazon.com gift card.

To enter:

Please leave a comment telling me a good book that you’ve recently read.

I will pick the winner using the random.org generator and will notify them via their email. Open to US addresses only. One entry per person, but you can also earn extra entries.

To earn extra entries:

• Subscribe to my feed. You can subscribe through a feed reader or you can also subscribe by email and have posts sent to your email address.
• Mention this giveaway on your blog with a link back here.
• Follow me on Twitter (leave your Twitter name in your comment)
• Send a tweet on Twitter about this giveaway-this can be done as often as you like, leave a new comment each time (leave your Twitter name in your comment)
• Stumble this post

Please leave 1 extra comment for each additional entry, telling me which you have done (ie 1 extra comment if you subscribe, 1 extra comment if you mention this on your blog, 1 extra comment if you follow me on Twitter, 1 extra comment each time you tweet about this giveaway, 1 extra comment for a Stumble.

This giveaway will end at midnight CST on Wednesday February 4.  Good luck!    This giveaway has ended, the winner will be announced as soon as I hear back with their information.  Thank you everyone who entered!

Don’t forget to visit my personal blog for a chance to win a $100 Visa gift card

I love that this lotion is very light. I work on my computer and I hate putting on lotion and ending up with greasy, sticky hands. With the Shielding Lotion from Skin MD Natural, there was no greasiness at all.  I put the lotion on and it disappeared, leaving my hands feeling soft and smooth.

I have to admit that my poor hands have years of sun damage, and they show it. I have been using the Shielding Lotion for five days now, and I am thrilled that my hands look younger, healthier and more toned. My legs feel soft, not dry and scratchy.

I was surprised that the Shielding Lotion is for your face too.  I am very careful about what I put on my face, because  I have such a strange complexion. Part dry, part oily, never “just right”.  I have spent years abusing my skin, using harsh treatments to try to combat acne and sun damage. I avoid moisturizer on my face because that seems counter productive to drying up my skin.  So I tried the Shielding Lotion on my face with much apprehension.  I was pleasantly surprised.  Because it’s so light, I never got that oily shine on my face.  It did not cause my face to break out, and the area under my eyes felt softer and looked refreshed.

Despite all my skin issues, once I decided that I loved this lotion, I put it to the true test. My son has even worse skin than I do. He has suffered from eczema for years, and his arms are red, chapped and irritated.  It’s painful to look at and I know it’s painful for him.  We’ve tried over the counter products and prescriptions, but so far nothing has helped.  He was even more skeptical than me, but he agreed to try the Shielding Lotion on his arms.  Despite how much I like the lotion for me, I was shocked that it worked so well for him. His arms are less red, less irritated and he’s not scratching  now, after several days of using the Shielding Lotion.

I cannot recommend the Shielding Lotion from Skin MD Natural highly enough. It worked for my son and I, and between us we have about every possible skin problem.  On the Skin MD Natural website they have other user reviews and some unbelievable before and after pictures. You can purchase online and I found a local pharmacy that carries it.