5/28/11

Week Four - Planet Weidknecht Sunday Hop - (5/29)

Week Four - Planet Weidknecht Sunday Hop - (5/29)

Goodies In My Mail this Week

Amara Ambassador Gift from Amara Gold

 My sweepstakes prize from Slim Jim
200 Beef Sticks in a Briefcase
FedEx delivery










To the FedEx guy who knocked lightly on my door because he remembered early afternoon is the daycare children's nap-time here, I give you a big high five! I really appreciated your consideration.

How many sweepstakes did YOU enter this week? Did you enter my giveaways here on the blog? Click on the Spring Giveaways button on the right sidebar for your chance to win great prizes!

Saturday Blog Hops

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Bacon Hot Sauce - Review

THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED.

I love bacon. I also love hot sauce. When I was offered the opportunity to try a bottle of Bacon Hot Sauce, I jumped at it. This morning my husband offered to make breakfast tacos and I knew it was the perfect time to try the sauce. Yeah, my husband cooks and I clean. It works out better this way. So I followed him around the kitchen, telling him what I wanted him to do, taking pictures as we went along. He is such a good sport.
Usually he uses a salsa for our breakfast tacos, so instead I had my husband substitute with the Bacon Hot Sauce. I didn't want him to add any extras to my eggs today, so I could get the full flavor of the Bacon Hot Sauce with no distractions.
So a few minutes later, I'm sitting down to my healthy, portion-controlled breakfast of one breakfast taco, made of a flour tortilla, one scrambled egg, Bacon Hot Sauce cooked in, and shredded cheese, with a half of an orange on the side. Doesn't it look delicious?
Well, it was. I even decided I love the Bacon Hot Sauce so much that I dumped a whole lot more on top. After all, it has zero grams of fat, zero calories, zero carbohydrates, and only 4% of my total daily recommended sodium. I love Bacon Hot Sauce. My husband says he likes it too, however he threw a bunch of other stuff on his breakfast taco, like red onions, cilantro, and tomato.

Want to try it? The sponsor that provided me a bottle has offered to give one lucky reader their own bottle of Bacon Hot Sauce! You can enter by leaving one comment below for each of the following tasks you complete. If you do them all, you can get seven entries!
  • Follow Bacon Hot Sauce on Facebook (one entry)
  • Post this on their Facebook wall:  Planet Weidknecht sent me! (one entry)
  • Follow Bacon Hot Sauce on Twitter. (one entry)
  • Follow Planet Weidknecht via GFC, email, RSS or Facebook. (one entry each)
You may enter until midnight on June 3, 2011, and the winner will be selected from all submitted comments by Random.org. If you are the winner, I will request your mailing address to provide to the company so they can ship your Bacon Hot Sauce to you.

Disclosure: I was provided with a free bottle for this review. Opinions are mine.

Discount Code for "Rango"

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5/27/11

Friday Blog Hops

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Win One of Several $100 Gift Cards

offer expired

Words of Wisdom

My children constantly amaze me. This was my 16 year old son's Facebook update last night:
A lasting relationship happens with two people who understand each other, can talk to each other, and realize that neither of them is perfect and accepts the other's flaws. It happens with two people who never want to be with anyone else, and the next person they love of their partner's gender is their children. Jesus works miracles, and miracles work people.

5/26/11

Thursday Blog Hops

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Canopy Verde

All the buzz around “green” may seem au courant, but for Canopy Verde founder Linda Wong, her interest in living green started early.  As the child of traditional Chinese parents, she learned never to waste from an early age, often wearing her brother’s hand-me-downs.  This “waste-not” philosophy continued through high school in Taipei, where she often harassed friends into using fewer plastic bags when they shopped and earned the not-so-enviable title of “bag police.”   

The inspiration for the brand was to create an eco-friendly collection of stylish, everyday bags with a touch of whimsy in the details.  With a range of styles from a clutch to a weekender, the collection features details like oversize wood buttons and orange lining.  Canopy Verde bags are made with organic cotton, chrome-free leather, OEKO-certified dyes, and AZO free embroidery.  Whether you are looking for an everyday tote or a chic travel bag, Canopy Verde has something for you!
Disclosure: no compensation/product was provided for this post.

Win a $600 Massage Chair for Father's Day

Go visit my friend's blog HERE and enter the giveaway for a $600 massage chair. 
Tell her Lisa Weidknecht sent you. 
What an awesome prize!


5/25/11

Family-Friendly Travel Accessories

If you have ever traveled by car with children, you know it's an absolute nightmare. Oh sure, there are some good moments, but mostly you just pray for them to take another nap. You tire of hearing those sweet little voices whining out from the back seat, "Are we there yet?" and "She's looking at me again!" and "I'm bored!"

After taking three young kids on a road trip from Texas to Missouri in a car, we actually went out and bought a minivan so we could put more room between them (and between them and us). Then we drove from Texas to California with them, wishing we'd purchased plane tickets instead, just to cut back the travel time. Although our children are now much older, we are always on the prowl for family-friendly travel accessories to make road trips less stressful. Here are some I found during my afternoon surf. Maybe they will help you tolerate your next road trip with your little darlings.


The GoodOnYa Bar - Review

THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED.

I am always looking for ways to increase my energy. Coffee, soda, chocolate candy...okay, not really the best choices for me. I am thrilled to say I've found a delicious way to increase my energy that is actually good for me! Do you like peanut butter? Do you like dark chocolate? Do you like organic raisins? Do you like raw honey? Me too!

I received a pack of three delicious GoodOnYa bars to try and WOW am I impressed with the taste, the quality, the texture, and definitely the ingredients! Kristen from GoodOnYa bars told me, It’s not just about selling bars for us, we are passionate about learning, sharing nutrition info and helping people. We love what we are doing in business because healthy, organic living is who we are as people.
The GoodOnYa Bar is a bar gone rogue. Not afraid to use real food with healthy fats. This is not just an energy bar, but an organic nutrition bar that offers you real value for your money. Organic, dehydrated and full of flavor. This is what you should you be eating.

For breakfast yesterday, I ate the Breakfast Bar. It was a wonderful combination of raisins, maple syrup, sunflower seeds, and a host of other things that I should be eating. My breakfast bar was high fiber, high iron, high protein, with no soy, no gluten, no dairy. Usually I am hungry again halfway through my busy morning, but the Breakfast Bar kept me filled until lunchtime.
At lunchtime, I cut up the Peanut Butter Chocolate GoodOnYa bar into eight pieces so I could see if the kids liked it as much as I did. Seven preschoolers (ages 2-5) were here yesterday and six of them absolutely loved it and asked for more. The other child said, "Well, it's pretty good, but really I just like peanut butter on my sammich."
Late in the afternoon, I decided to try the Peanut Butter Honey GoodOnYa bar. I definitely found my favorite flavor! I wasn't hungry for dinner, so I had to pass on the chicken fajitas my husband made, but when I got up this morning and hopped on my scale, I had lost another pound yesterday!
For the BEST part:  Here is YOUR chance to win a pack of these three amazing GoodOnYa bars!!! Earn up to four entries and please leave a separate comment for each task you complete:
  • "Like" the GoodOnYa bar on Facebook HERE. (2 entries)
  • Visit the GoodOnYa bar website HERE and tell me something you learned. (1 entry)
  • Follow the GoodOnYa bar on Twitter HERE. (1 entry)
Giveaway limited to US only. Winner's package will come directly from the company. You may enter until midnight on June 1, 2011. Winner will be chosen with Random.org button. Thank you to the GoodOnYa bar company for providing me these samples to try!
Disclosure: I received samples/products at no cost. Opinions are mine.

Yum Yum Dishes

I officially started recording my weight on 4/25/2011 for my Quit Eating Like a Pig diet and although I'm not going to tell you that number, I am going to brag that I have officially lost eight pounds in the first month!!! My diet consists of portion control and walking. As I've started controlling my portions, I've noticed that I have naturally started picking foods that are better for me. Guide to Online Schools has information on nutrition programs for those of you who also have a passion for healthy foods. The more knowledge we have, the healthier choices we can make.

For example, today's lunch consists of a hard-boiled egg, a bunch of red raspberries and a handful of wheat crackers. While I was preparing my lunch today, I remembered I just received a Yum Yum Bowl from Yum Yum Dishes. I put each of my portions into the Yum Yum Bowl to see if what I had chosen was what I would have measured into the bowl and sure enough, it was a perfect fit each time!


Tracy Adler, the proprietor of Yum Yum Dishes, originally made this 4 ounce bowl to help her control her snacking portions. I think we can all attest to sitting down with a bag of chips and not being able to eat just a few! This is the perfect tool for making sure we snackers eat a snack only, and not a fourth meal. It's also a perfect size for children.
Isn't this ceramic Yum Yum Dish adorable? It will definitely remind me to control my portions, whether it's my snack-time or meal-time. And I will be very happy if I can maintain an eight pound weight loss each month!

***The generous folks at Yum Yum Dishes are offering a limited time discount to my readers! For the next two weeks only, you will receive a $5.00 discount on a set of Yum Yum Dishes when you use the coupon code PLANET (all in caps). 

You can get advance notice of other special events and promotions by signing up on their website for a Monday tip by Lisa Mosley, from Season 10 of The Biggest Loser. They also have a Facebook page, a Twitter account, and a YouTube account that you can visit and join. They even post videos made by their customers (maybe even you) who use their dishes in new and creative ways! Thanks Yum Yum Dishes!
Disclosure: I received a Yum Yum bowl at no cost. Opinion is mine.

Enter These Giveaways Soon!

Our Spring Giveaway Linkup is growing!
Come enter for great prizes!
Click HERE.
Feel free to add your giveaways too.

Wednesday Blog Hops

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5/23/11

In The Mail Monday

Wonderful mail day today! I got THREE different products to test out, review and giveaway. I'm not posting pictures of those items until the reviews are ready, but sit tight!



Also, I received a weekly prize from the Hasa Racing - Go Moses contest. Look at all these free product coupons I got! My swimming pool will be sparkling!

Link Up Your Giveaways!

Link up HERE

Look What I Won This Time

What an exciting sweepstakes win! I won a $50 Gift Certificate from VMInnovations.com and I chose this Jump-O-Lene as my prize.
This is a great product for encouraging active play in children! It'll be awesome on rainy days when we can't go outside. The weight limit is 120 pounds, so even my skinny 16 year old could jump on it if I would let him. The manufacturer recommends no more than two children at a time, but my daycare regulations limit me to one at a time, so we're practicing patience for our turns today.
My husband used his fancy air compressor and inflated it in about five minutes. I'm so glad I didn't have to do it!
I also want to brag on VMInnovations. Their customer service is outstanding and their shipping is super fast! We are ALL very happy with our prize.

Sights of Deutschen Pfest, Pflugerville, TX

It's Pflugerville's biggest party of the year! The third weekend of May kicks off Deutschen Pfest, three days of food, fun and parades. We went on Saturday afternoon and I took pictures to share with you.