Monthly Archives: February 2011

Pop! Camera! Action! Tweet! – Join me for a Twitter Party this Thursday and win awesome prizes!

February 22, 2011Food and Drink, Twitter Partiesbrand ambassador, Pop Secret, twitter partyAlicia

It’s time for a party ladies.. a Twitter party! If you are on Twitter, you know what I’m talking about.. those parties where we all gather together on Twitter, answer questions about a specific topic, chat it up, and win stuff? YES!

Come join myself and several other panelists at the #PopCameraAction Twitter Party this Thursday, February 24 from 8:00 pm – 10:00pm. Scroll down for hashtag and custom Tweetgrid details.

What you can win during the Pop Secret Twitter party:

Cobra Digital Personal Camcorder
Pop Secret Microwaveable Popcorn
Giant Popcorn Box
Netflix Subscription
Nestle Products

You must RSVP for the Pop Secret Twitter party and be present in order to win!

Do you remember the Pop Secret Family Movie Night – Movie Awards video I posted last week? The one during which my daughter Madelyn won an award for “Best Costume Design in a Playground Drama”? Well, several other bloggers (the same bloggers who are panelists for the Pop Secret Twitter Party) made fun Pop Secret Family Movie Night videos too. Here is a montage of all of our videos… enjoy!

To celebrate the awards season further, we are hosting a Twitter Party Thursday, February 24, 2011 from 8:00 pm to 10:00 pm Eastern. We will be discussing Oscar predictions, our favorite movies and actors, and giving away five swag bags that contain:

Cobra Digital Personal Camcorder – HD Video Resolution 1280×720@30 fps, Video, Still, Movie, Music and Game Player, Built In Microphone and Speaker, 32MB Memory, Auto Flash Self Timer, Rechargeable Li-Ion Battery, 2.4î LTPS LCD Color Display, SD Slot up to 8GB support, MPEG4 Player JPEG / AVI / WAV Format, Rubberized Finish, HDMI & A/V Output Direct to TV

Pop Secret Microwaveable Popcorn – Delicious Pop Secret Premium Popcorn. The perfect snack for movie nights at home.

Giant Popcorn Box – With the giant popcorn box measuring one and a half feet tall, this makes a perfect gift basket for a movie fan, child or anyone that appreciates something a bit out of the ordinary.

Netflix Subscription (2 months) – With the giant popcorn box measuring one and a half feet tall, this makes a perfect gift basket for a movie fan, child or anyone that appreciates something a bit out of the ordinary.

Nestle Products – With the sweet taste of real dried fruit and rich Nestlé chocolate, Nestlé Raisinets have been a favorite treat for over 80 years. They provide a ½ serving of real fruit in every ¼ cup and are a natural source of antioxidants. And with 30% less fat than the leading chocolate brands, Nestlé Raisinets are a better-for-you way to indulge. Look for Nestlé Raisinets in your grocer’s candy aisle and follow the Raisinets at youtube.com/Raisinets.

TWITTER PARTY DETAILS:

TOPIC – The Pop! Camera! Action! Sweepstakes and Academy Awards

TIME – Thursday, 2/24/11 – 8-10 PM Eastern (7-9 Central, 6-8 Mountain, 5-7 Pacific)

HASHTAG – #PopCameraAction

CUSTOM TWEETGRID – http://bit.ly/hbOtV6

PANELISTS – @momspark, @momsparkmedia, @haleytweetstoo, @youngmommy, @mommyinsider, @mommyniri, @savvysassymoms, @andreaupdyke, @angryjulie, @kailani, @centsiblelife, @crissy, @simplyandreah, @3kidsandus, @mommiedaze, @sheenatatum, @bizziemommy, @jabberingjessi (follow before party!)

Winners will be selected at random. Winners must RSVP and be present at the Twitter Party to win. USA residents only. Not sure how Twitter parties work? Email momsparkmedia@gmail.com for help!

I look forward to seeing you there!

Tony’s Pizza’s 99 Days of More – 100+ prizes a day!

February 22, 2011Contests, Food and Drinkbrand ambassador, pizza, Tony'sAlicia

I know you love instant-win games.. especially the kind where you don’t have to leave the house to enter! And, I’m sure you love Tony’s pizza. Tony’s pizza’s have been in our family for years. It’s the first pizza I remember eating at home and now my kids love Tony’s pizza too.

Tony’s Pizza is giving you “99 Days of More” through an exciting instant-win game featured on www.Tonys99DaysOfMore.com!

Tony’s Pizza is helping to feed the appetite of smart and savvy value-seekers (that’s you!) everywhere – giving away over 100 prizes a day!
- Exciting prizes and MORE value for busy moms like you – including $500 VISA gift cards, Apple iTunes Gift Cards, Nintendo Wiis.
- One lucky winner will receive a $500 Visa gift every day – to put towards anything they want, from groceries to video games for the kids
Participants can enter EVERY DAY now through April 9 at www.Tonys99DaysOfMore.com.
And your kids will love this – Tony’s is giving away 99 Tony’s Pizzas every day! Perfect for a night-off in the kitchen. If for no other reason, click on over to www.Tonys99DaysOfMore.com to win some pizza so you can get a night off!

I know you want to run over to Tonys99DaysOfMore.com to enter to win some great prizes but first..

Here are a few tips I want to give you so that you can get more value in different areas of your life:

Nutritional Value:
Check the nutritional value of the food that you buy. For example, compared to another leading brand, Tony’s Pizza has less Cholesterol and Sodium in their Cheese Pizza. These things are important! When we’re going to splurge and have a pizza night, make it right with a Tony’s Pizza.. with less of the bad and more of the good!
Monetary Value:
When grocery shopping, try store brand products. Name brand products don’t always provide more value. Keep that in mind. While I feel it is very important to buy reputable ‘name brand’ products for some household and food items, I have over the last year tried store brand products that cost less and provide the same or better value than the brand name product.
Family Value:
Add value to your family life by setting aside a few hours one or two days a week when you turn off the TV, video games, and computers, and just hang out with each other playing games, talking, and having fun!

Disclosure: I am a Tony’s Pizza Brand Ambassador through a compensated Mom Bloggers Club member program. All opinions are my own and were not influenced in any way.

LifeLock Identity Theft Protection Services

February 18, 2011Contests, Family Finances, New postsidentity theft, LifeLockAlicia

LifeLock - identity protenction

Imagine going to buy something at the store and hearing your credit card is tapped out, knowing full well you have thousands of dollars available. Or, how about buying groceries with your debit card and being told it’s denied because no funds are available? It can happen. Identity thieves don’t need your permission to access your accounts and clean you out of every dime of credit or every penny you’ve deposited. More than 11 million Americans face identity theft each year*, including children. That’s right. Identity thieves looking for a fresh start can take your children’s clean social security number and get access to all kinds of credit, then trash their profile so that when they go to take out loans they’ll be denied. And here’s the thing—you might not even find out for several years! Think about it. Why would you check your child’s credit now? And when would you? You won’t until they need a loan for a car or college, or maybe applying for a job. Then, the damage is already done.

HOWEVER, if you use a service such as LifeLock you will find out right away when someone is tampering with your credit, or your child’s. That’s because LifeLock offers advanced protection to monitor your personal information. LifeLock sends alerts of potential threats both credit and non-credit related. So, if someone grabs your family’s info and tries to use it for fraud (whether it’s applying for a loan or assuming a new identity), you’re going to know about it. You get online access to a personalized dashboard, help cancelling cards if you lose your wallet, and comprehensive recovery services if you do somehow become a victim while signed up for the service.

LifeLock Identity Theft Protection review

LifeLock even offers an advanced line of defense with the LifeLock Command Center™ protection, an added level of protection for those who want it. The LifeLock Command Center membership includes all of the services provided by LifeLock® identity theft protection along with:

Expanded monitoring of personal information across a comprehensive network of databases, not just credit reports
Enhanced, consolidated reporting of threats
Public and court record surveillance
Searching for use of known alternate names
Surveillance of unregulated global networks and file-sharing sites
Guidance to correct accidental disclosure of personal information on file-sharing sites
The option to extend your line of defense with LifeLock Credit Score Manager™ protection
The annual fee for LifeLock Identity Theft Protection is $110/yr or $10/month. The LifeLock Command Center is $165 or $15 a month.

I was given a yearly membership to review while writing this post. I found the signup to be simple. You can either sign up online or over the telephone. For something like LifeLock’s services I recommend calling to speak to a representative who can answer your questions right away and help you decide which LifeLock service is best for you. The representative I spoke to was very helpful and had me and my husband signed up for LifeLock’s Command Center service in about 10 minutes.

If you are looking for some peace of mind about protecting your family from identity theft, this seems to be a small price to pay in my opinion.

LifeLock website

Take a look at LifeLock’s Identity Theft 101 page to learn what the stats are in your state and more.

GIVEAWAY – Winner Announced!

Congratulations Vickie B.!

We are giving away a one year membership to LifeLock, a $110 value.

To enter leave a comment telling us what you like about LifeLock. Entries accepted through March 8th. Winner will be notified via email and must respond within 24 hours or another winner will be chosen.

Extra entries:
Follow @mommyinsider on Twitter
Connect with us on Facebook
Be sure to tell us what you’ve done in the comments below!

Disclosure: I was provided with a one year membership for LifeLock Command Center to review while writing this post via MomSparkMedia and LifeLock. Thoughts expressed in this post are my own and were not influenced in any way.

The ‘P&G Have You Tried This Yet?’ event in Miami – Such fun!

February 18, 2011New posts, TravelMiami, P&G, Proctor and GambleAlicia

P&G - Have You Tried This Yet? Miami event

Stacie from The Divine Miss Mommy, Desiree from Bottles To Britches, flew to Miami yesterday to experience P&G’s temporary ‘pop-up’ store here where shoppers can try and experience dozens of P&G products. In a continued effort to make consumers aware fo their innovative product offeringsProcter & Gamble Company is once again undertaking the Have You Tried This Yet? campaign, a multi-faceted program designed to showcase high-performing products with benefits that help consumers (and busy moms!) meet everyday needs.

Moms.. be on the lookout because this coming Sunday, February 27, P&G will distribute a brandSAVER, a complimentary coupon booklet that features more than$131 in savings on the campaign’s featured innovative products, in local newspapers throughout the country. I love brandSaver coupon booklets.. they are the first one I browse through and the one that I clip the most coupons from, and actually use!

Do you live in Miami?

From February 18 – 27, a free, interactive Have You Tried This Yet? Pop-Up experience will be open to the public in Miami. Located at 843 Lincoln Road, Miami Beach, Florida, the Pop-Up will be open Sunday – Thursday, 11:00 a.m. – 9:00 p.m. and Friday – Saturday, 11:00 a.m. – 10:00 p.m. and will offer free demonstrations and product samples from brands such as Pantene®, Oral-B®, Gillette®, Downy®, Swiffer®,COVERGIRL®, and Puffs®, allowing consumers to experience first-hand the innovations each product offers.

For the four days that we’re here in Miami, we are staying at the the beautiful beachfront The Raleigh Hotel and let me tell you.. despite the fact that our room is not very large and we don’t have an ocean view, I think my blood pressure is significantly lower than it was before arriving in Miami. Between the plush greenery and the beautiful warm pool, the atmosphere is gorgeous and provides a much needed break for busy moms. Everywhere you turn in The Raleigh, there is a place to sit and relax and just breathe.. which doesn’t happen at my house.

P&G Have Your Tried This Yet event in Miami

What we did at the P&G event last night

The P&G Pop-up experience we attended last night in Miami offered free, interactive product experiences including a skin test by Olay and makeup and hair sessions. I was lucky enough to have Marsha Chilko, National Product Training Manager at Procter&Gamble, do my make up. How excited was I? Very! After applying my makeup, Marsha spent a few minutes with me to give me some much needed make up application tips tailored just for busy moms including:

Every mom needs two make up application brushes. A medium thick brush for applying powder, blush, and even eye shadow and a thin brush for applying lip stick and/or eye shadow/liner.
You can use one CoverGirl pallet for all areas of your face. Yes, ALL areas, even your lips! Marsha used one pallet of four colors on my face. She used what would normally be eyeshadow as a blush on my cheeks, and two other colors from the pallet on and around my eyes. Sounds weird doesn’t it? Just take a look at the photo of me below (with Marsha) and you’ll see that I don’t look as strange as it sounds.
Marsha said that you can even use one color in the pallet as a lip color and just apply a gloss or light lotion over the shadow. That way your colors are all tied in together and there’s no need to worry if your colors match. Great idea!

Darned if I didn’t get to try the Charmin Ultra Soft while we were there.. I’ll save that for when we get home. But I did get a demonstration of the newest Swiffer WetJet and I learned just how damaged (or not damaged in my case.. surprisingly enough!) my skin is from the girls at the Olay ‘experience’. I am having such a great time here in Miami, thanks to P&G and Stacie and will post more about our trip here soon!

Is there anything I need to check out while I’m here in Miami? I’ve never been before so I don’t know where to begin exploring. I think I’ll just walk down the street and see where I end up.. or maybe that’s a bad idea? 🙂

Disclosure: My trip was paid for by Proctor & Gamble. Thoughts expressed in this post are my own and were not influenced in any way.

I Did Something I Always Tell the Kids NOT To Do! I Put Something Up My Nose..and it Helped!

February 14, 2011New postsHealth, Sinucleanse, sinusAlicia

Let me preface this post by saying that I dont recommend sticking random objects up your or your kid’s nose. Be careful with what you stick up your nose!

That being said..

I went to Florida last week and I either picked a nasty germ up on the flight home or the weather change really messed my sinuses up because I’ve been suffering from insane facial congestion, AKA sinus issues. Ask anyone I’ve talked to the last few days and they’ll tell you that I didn’t sound like myself or look like myself..because I’m so ‘phlegmy’. After having this congestion and headache for four days I finally called the doctor today to ask if I should take something other than Sudafed and wouldn’t you know, they told me that based on my symptoms I should be seen by a doctor within the next 24 hours. So I have a doctor’s appointment for 8:40 tomorrow morning. Tim’s going to love that. So much for him getting to sleep in.

Anyway, while putting my 4 year old to bed tonight I remembered that I always blast saline spray up the kid’s noses when they are congested. So I thought why not try it on myself? I went to get the kids saline spray and low and behold, I had forgotten that I had a Sinucleanse Netipot and SinuCleanse® Squeeze™ in the medicine cabinet. How lucky am I? 🙂
First, I thought no way am I sticking that thing up my nose and pumping liquid into it only to have it come out the other side! Then I looked in the mirror and saw my red nose, fluffy swollen cheeks and red puffy eyes and thought what the heck, I’m going to try it. Oh, and did I mention the killer sinus headache?

Then, I shut myself in the bathroom so the kids wouldn’t walk in and freak out because mom had something stuck in her nose and stuff coming out of the other side, read the instructions carefully (a few times..I’m telling you, my brain doesn’t work right when it’s full of phlegm), and finally I took the plunge and did it.
I used the SinuCleanse® Squeeze™ and no one walked in on me! Yes I pumped stuff up my nose and yes, it came out the other side. I’m as cool as Regis now (did you see him use the Netipot a couple of weeks ago live on ‘Live with Regis and Kelly’? – ewe gross!).

How do I feel now? I can breathe! No weird side effects, no dry nose, no runny nose, just a de-fluffed face and clearer passages. In fact, I’m going to go use it again in a little while. Because it was my first time (and on Valentine’s Day..how sweet, huh?) I didn’t use the full strength solution so I’m going to flush my sinuses out again after about two hours after the first round.

All-in-all, using the SinuCleanse® Squeeze™ is an easy and convenient way to clear your sinuses once you get past the initial gross factor.

I’m still keeping my doctor’s appointment because I’m traveling to Mia I this Thursday and want to make sure I’m in tip top shape but I don’t think I’ll be feeling anywhere as bad as I’ve been feeling if this SinuCleanse® Squeeze™ thing keeps doing the job it did tonight!

Yay me for trying something new!

You can buy the SinuCleanse Squeeze here

Disclosure: I was not compensated in any way for this post. All opinions are my own and were not influenced in any way.