Splits For a Cause

To help fight ovarian cancer and enter my giveaway for a $25 dollar giftcard, please read all the details at my review blog:

http://michereviews.blogspot.com/2010/07/splits-for-cause.html

Because the giveaway is sponsored by a company not affiliated with BlogHer, my BlogHer membership rules dictated the post needed to be removed to a separate review blog.

Thanks so much!

Miche

PS-I'll be entering comments left on this post as well as on the review blog post above, so don't worry-everyone will be entered to win :)

Wash Them Grow

Not long ago I participated in my first "Twitter Party", and I must say, it was a little weird. I almost couldn't keep up with all the conversations going on, and I didn't know any of the people I was talking with except the MomSelect folks (who invited me to the party, by the way) so I didn't really say much myself (sorta how I am in real life at parties-I have to warm up to everyone first). Next time around I vow to jump in more.

Anyways, what exactly was the "Wash Them Grow" party about? Why, bathtime! I got to participate in a product testing for Suave kids, and felt very honored they wanted my opinion on the new kid's body washes.

Can I tell you I loved them? They smell oh so yummy, with scents like Berry, Strawberry, and they were gentle for eyes and skin with the Shea Butter and Aloe and the "Free and Gentle" one-which has no dyes, scents, or anything that might irritate your child's skin. Which if anyone has read my recent adventures with JR, you'll know he has some allergies, so the Free and Clear is a huge hit in my house now.

Both of my kids love bathtime any way, but they LOVED all the bubbles Suave kids body wash created and I loved seeing what the retail price was going to be. There is nothing tighter than our budget right now (OK, maybe my pants are tight, too, that's a post for another day) but seeing that I can get tons of bubbles, tear free and dye free gentleness AND great smells in a product created for kids (who become dramatically smellier once they leave the baby stage)for a super low price made me jump for joy!

And if you would like to win a some Suave products for your family, visit washthemgrow.com to enter.

You can check out the party at Twitter #WashThemGrow.

Some people "crashed" our Twitter party by sending and resending messages about how Suave isn't all natural and has chemicals in it-and yes, it does. As does many things. In fact, I am drinking a diet soda right now and I'm pretty sure the sweetener in it has is linked to cancer in lab rats-who ate pounds of the stuff. But the small amount in the occasional soda I drink? Not concerned. I should probably be more concerned about the amount of caffeine in the coffee I drink all day-and that is all natural.

Might I also say it makes my skin-and now my kid's skin-smell oh so good. And that is super nice with two very active, usually muddy, and very smelly, little boys in the house.

While I don't think Suave is offering anything extraordinary or out of the box new-after all, Johnson's baby washes have long been known as "tear free"-Suave IS offering another GREAT option for moms who want tear free body washes for our no-longer-babies-babies, great smell, dye free options that are gentle for skin yet CLEAN the MUCK off- and all without spending half the grocery money for it.

Thank you, Suave, for the great products and the budget saving prices!

**I was given Suave Kids body washes to test out for my honest opinion.**

Jean Chatzky: Tips For Saving Money

I've been invited to talk with Jean Chatzky and some other very amazing mom bloggers, like Maria Bailey, for a Blogger Audiocast on how to save money in our economy AND how to keep your budget in check for Christmas. She will also be sharing recommendations on how to get your finances back on track after the holidays.

You can submit YOUR questions on how to stretch your money this Christmas by leaving comments here, tweeting me @MicheZ, or tweeting Jean @JeanChatzky.

The audiocast is today from 10am to 11am, EST, so be sure to follow along and check out www.jeanchatzky.com.

I also have a goody bag for one of my readers that includes Jean's new book, "Pay It Down!", focused how families can save, spend and survive in the current economic climate. To win, simply leave me a comment, either suggesting some of your budget keeping tips OR some of your budgeting questions (or both!).

I hope you enjoy! I'm looking forward to your tips and questions!

PS, the book I'm giving away was given to me for the purpose of giving to a reader and I did also get a copy for myself that I'm really excited to read!

Mom Mixing and Cleaning

Let me start with the Logitech Mom Mixer-It was pretty neat, but not quite as fun as I had thought. I am SO thankful to Logitech for the fun webcam and the chance to meet up with other moms and do some market research; however, my partner and I had the worst connection ever.

And I don't know if it was the webcam, the speakers, the Internet connection, or even my old computer, but the video feed for the webcam was WAY slower than the sound feed, AND on top of it, the microphone was picking up EVERYTHING, including all the other conversations going on around us. My partner seemed to be a soft spoken, sweet woman, which didn't help with trying to do the question/answer Logitech survey we were supposed to do. Actually, after the third question, we gave up-it took us a half hour just to get through those because I couldn't hear Kelly (my Mom Mixer partner who was at the event in Dallas) through the other conversations. We even had someone try to help us, but there wasn't much we could do.

Oh well, maybe next time I can be present, if they do one in NC again (I missed the NC one since we were still in AL at the time).

Logitech connection was pretty cool though-and I think the video/sound would work fine if you didn't have 50 other people around laughing and talking at the same time-but you simply create an account with Logitech, use your friend's emails, and connect for free. Nice!

OK, now on to other stuff.

I have been crazy busy with work, and I am planning on purging my office tonight; finally getting rid of old papers, notes, notebooks, books, and general clutter I don't need. What prompted the cleaning? I couldn't find my glue gun and needed it to make JR's First Birthday Frame. I finally found it in a random drawer, so I realized I needed to organize better.

I also saw the tv show "Hoarders" and it has made me want to get rid of everything I own and don't use. Have any of you seen that show? My sweet hubby told me about it, so we watched it together one night (him in AL and me here in NC). We were both shocked at the hoarding. Wow. So now I have been joking to him he is going to come back to an empty house tomorrow.

Actually, it is mostly just my office and our workshop room that are semi-cluttered, but not for long; Miche is on a mission to de-clutter!


And, Happy Friday!

I'm Not Wearing Shoes To A Mom Mixer

I am so glad I am a mom now. Not just because I really enjoy "mom stuff", but there are SO many ways to find other moms, mix, mingle, and learn tips, all without having to travel.

Yea, the Internet is quite amazing. Gosh, I blog and have a whole set of mom friends I have never met, but all of whom are special to me for the friendships we have.

I have no idea how my mom stayed sane as a stay at home mom to three girls out in the middle of no where. We grew up deep in the mountains of NC, and we had the outdoors to entertain us-mom didn't do playdates, craft dates, or mom meet ups, mostly because it took almost half an hour just to get down the mountain, let alone get to someone else's house.

I honestly don't think I would be as good of a mom if I didn't get to leave the house and go to playdates and meet ups with other moms.

And on that note, I am SUPER excited to be part of the Logitech Mom Mixer going on in Dallas today. And no, I am not in Dallas, I will be here, at my kitchen table, with my laptop and webcam. Getting to mix and mingle with all kinds of other great moms and the amazing Maria Baily, of Mom Select, Newbaby.com and Mom.tv, who put together the event-all while I feed my kids lunch.

How cool is that? Hopefully the kids will be happy with their lunches and let me participate without too many interruptions. But if not? That's OK, because after all, I'm Mom first, and being a mom is the whole reason I got invited.

I'll give you guys the scoop on the mixer, and if you'll also be a part of it, let me know so we can "mingle"!

Thomas The Train

Due To the BlogHer ad rules, I had to move this post to my review site; it seems the free tickets to see Thomas the Train was over the amount that BlogHer deems OK for me to talk about (which is a rule because of the paid ad space on my blog that BlogHer sells-which by the way I haven't made any money from in the last year...)so I might be rethinking being a memeber of BlogHer, since not only am I not making any money from it, but they can also tell me what I can or can't review and what "free" items I can try out and talk about and I think I'd rather be the one that decides that. In the meantime, you can read about our adventure to see Thomas the Train Here.

It's Raining, It's Pouring

And I wish I were snoring! I am up early to try to get a head start on some Dakno Work, and I think I am almost caught up. It is still raining, lighting, thundering, and there are tornado warnings in effect right now.

Tornado watch=conditions are such that a tornado might form.
Tornado warning=a tornado has been spotted.

Um, yea, needless to say I am a little nervous. The storm is really bad, and has been really bad for a whole 24 hours in our area down here in the Gulf. I am hoping that I don't have my first tornado experience here; I'd really rather keep that to whenever I watch Twister.

In un-weather related news, I just won 4 tickets to see THOMAS THE TANK ENGINE ON STAGE!! *SQUEELLLLLLLLL* I know, actually, I'm not crazy excited myself for Thomas, but I am CRAZY CRAZY EXCITED to take Little Dude. He is IN LOVE with Thomas and all train things in general, so getting the tickets and getting to take him soon will just be such a little dream come true for him!(and us!) I just can't wait for the tickets to get here...oh I am SO EXCITED. I have to send a HUGE THANK YOU to the great people at Mom Select for making this happen for us. Even with tornadoes floating around me, I am on cloud nine thinking about Little Dude getting to "meet" Thomas!

Though I do have to admit I applied to go to the performance so long ago, I can't remember if I entered our AL address or our NC address to get the tickets at...at any case though we will be going to the show in Raleigh at the end of May, which times up perfectly with when we were wanting to make a trip home to visit everyone! Whoo hoo!

Well, if I am going to get any work done for my boss I better stop blogging and start working...I hope everyone has a happy weekend! With Patty here visiting, I probably will be neglecting the blog a little, since there are only so many hours in the day-perhaps one day Moms will come with a Zach Morris "Time Out" ability...wow that would be nice!