Tyler's Coffee-Good for Sensitive Stomachs

Tyler's Coffee roasts their coffee beans in a way that makes high levels of caffeine but completely free of acid. Which in turn, give you a lot of great benefits. Your teeth benefit from it by the coffee not affecting your tooth enamel, equaling less cavities and stronger teeth! And if your stomach is sensitive to regular coffee, Tyler's Coffee should help with that, because it has no acid and should digest easier.

I was happy to try this product out and share it with my family-my mom in particular because she has been a coffee-aholic since I can remember! lol. But she also gets heart burn a lot, which we think is linked to the coffee-which more then likely, contains acids. So I was very appreciative to try out Tyler's Coffee and share it. I took the pack with me (one pack makes a whole pot of coffee)to my mom's on Christmas and was able to share it with everyone else as well.

When I first opened the package, it's smell was odd...it wasn't a very good coffee smell but I just figured that was because it was made differently then the usual kind. I made a full pot of coffee with the bag and we each had a cup. My mom, My Step-Dad, Me, My Brother and My Husband. We all tried it. We didn't like it. We all agreed that it had a very strong chemically taste to it. In my cup, I added a lot of creamer to it, because that's how I like my coffee, and it was ok first sip...but the sip after...and the sip after that...it was nothing too pleasing to my taste buds :(

I was really looking forward to this coffee being good, so it could hopefully help my mom's digestive problem with coffee, but we just didn't care for it. Everyone's taste buds are different though...
some may like it some may not. It is a nice idea though.


If you would like to try your own Tyler's Coffee, let me know by leaving a comment with your email 
and I'll pick one person to send it to! :)



I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.


Star Wars Snowflakes

So I'm not really any kind of a Star wars fan at all, but both my brothers and my son adore it so I wanted to give these Star wars Snowflakes a shot!

I found them over at Anthony Herrera Designs.












They're adorable! Especially Yoda! Which is the one I tried. I printed out the free download and went to cutting. I didn't realize how difficult it would be! I needed an x-acto knife to cut the facial parts out...but since I don't have a tool for that, I just drew my own silly faces on :)

Looks like Yoda..right?? Hehe...maybe only a tiny bit but it's still cute :)

















Thank you Anthony Herrera for sharing these!

Winter Weight Gain

Winter is here...the weather is cold...and the scale numbers are increasing.

I think the majority of people put on a little extra weight, in the cold seasons, as a way for their body to keep themselves warm....I for one, get cold REALLY easy, which in exchange, means the pounds are packing!

That and all the delicious sweets and goodies which begin in October with Halloween (Candy! Candy! Candy!)-I'm a sucker for chocolate!! ...Then there's Thanksgiving where we tend to engorge ourselves in buttery mash potatoes, stuffing, rolls, and several fat filling pies! Then there's dear ol' December...so.many.sweets. Heart warming foods. Really just anything comforting we can get our hands on...And lastly, New Year's where we drink too much and try to last through the next few chilling months until Spring comes.

Comfort foods are a weakness.
Cold weather makes me bundle up causing pure laziness.
And warm cookies are all too inviting.

Surviving winter is a challenge. But it doesn't have to be this way...I can change it...

If I can find the motivation to :)

But first...I will enjoy the Christmas goodies.

Because I'm making cookies...and can't forget my mom's bon bons...and brothers brownies
...{mouth drooling}...

Then maybe...just maybe...

I can stop feeling like a bear in hibernation.


Have Santa Call You!!!

This is so cool!!

We have been having so much fun playing around with this site, having Santa call people. My 4 year old son is especially having fun with it, Receiving his own phone call from Santa!!

Go to http://www.sendacallfromsanta.com/ and have Santa call people you want too!!

It's GREAT!! So fun! :)

You can also call Santa and leave him a message at: 855-347-2682



Redbox from Smiley360-Video Game Review

I signed up with Smiley360's Redbox mission and got a code for a free rental.



What was suppose to be free...cost us 80cents...Which is still good for a one night rental but was a little sad it wasn't free as said. I emailed Smiley360 and let them know... hope no one else had this problem!

Using Redbox is easy to rent movies or games for 24hrs. All you do is use your credit card and type your email in at the end. Redbox has locations all throughout, making it convenient to return at any location.
For our Redbox rental, we rented Sonic Generations on Xbox360.

Playing this...It took me back to my childhood! My brother owned a Sega Genesis and we would take turns playing Sonic-back in the day :) So it was exciting getting to play the new, modern day Sonic. But we found that it runs sooo much faster then the one in the 90's! It was almost too fast. Sonic would run and sometimes not stop fast enough, he would fly off the balcony or run into a bad guy. So that's a bit to get use to. My husband liked the fact that you could change the language so he could have them speaking Japanese-which is the language he is learning. He says the stages are beautiful and the music is awesome-wishes there were more stages from the classic games. 
This game made a nice family night-our little man (age4) really enjoyed watching it as well. 
An over all good game, one we will be buying :) 


ALSO, Redbox is hosting 12 Days of Deals and Prizes and offering daily prizes from December 13 thru December 24. Text FUN to 727272 for instant savings of 25 cents - $1 off of your movie and game rentals, as well as a chance to be entered to win a daily prize from Redbox.



You too can get free products to review, by signing up, free, with Smiley360

iCaught Santa!! Giveaway!!!

iCaught Santa on my couch!!! :) :) :)
He's in our living room! :)

iCaughtSanta is a great site that allows you to post Santa into your photo to enhance your child's imagination and happiness!! Can you imagine how happy a child who believes in Santa, to see a photo of him in his/her very own home??? iCaughtSanta will do just that. You can purchase photo's and even videos on icaughtsanta.com with 3 easy steps, CAPTURE the photo you would like Santa to appear in, CREATE your Santa in the photo, and SHARE that photo with your loved ones! Easy as that.

I get to pick 5 Winner's who will get to make their own photo for FREE!!
All you have to do to enter is
"like" iCaught Santa on Facebook!
Make sure you leave me a comment letting me know you "liked" them on facebook and leave your email address so I can email you if you won!
2nd Entry: Leave a comment telling me who you want to catch Santa for.

I will pick a winner before December 20th!

Good Luck! :)













I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

"Stuck"-DVD Based Study - Book Review


The book "Stuck" is written by Jennie Allen 
and is a DVD Based Study which includes:
 

--8 sessions on DVD

--Study Guide with story-driven teaching, Scripture study, and short five-day-per-week lessons

--Leader’s Guide for facilitating group study

--Conversation cards help to facilitate more spontaneous and authentic conversation

--Promotional resources for church wide campaign

One kit is recommended for each group of 8-12 women.

    The description I read for the book, talks about how we get stuck in times in our lives and lose our focus on God. Being stuck in places of being broken, angry, scared, sad, ect. Struggling to get out of that "Stuck" place, we might lose out in what God has planned for us. The book is designed to bring women closer together to help one another out, while growing closer to God as well. I didn't have a group of women to share this book with but I do have a few here and there who can benefit from it. I like the note cards, being able to focus on one main thing you may be dealing with... weather it's feeling overwhelmed, or sad...you can just pull out a card and read the question on it, which will help you reevaluate your problem, or read a bible verse that may be on it, which will help you regain focus.

    This is a great Bible Study for a women's group. I think it will help a lot of others who feel stuck in a harboring situation and need God's help to get out. It will also bring one another closer together, and maybe find a new friend or two to be a shoulder when they need one.


I received this book from booksneeze.com in exchange for my review.

Private Selection Food Review

I had the chance to try out Private Selection Frozen Foods, and was sent three free coupons. One for a pizza, one for an appetizer and one for a dessert (which excluded ice cream-sad). The package also included a booklet, a great Private Selection pot holder and five $2 off coupons.


As Private Selection is only found in certain stores,
we went to Fred Meyer to purchase the food. 
Their selections were limited but we contemplated each one...
We decided on:
The Private Selection Barbeque Chicken Pizza, Southwestern Style Chicken Trumpets Appetizer and the Mini Eclairs Dessert.

So sad to say, we were not pleased with any of them :(

The Barbeque Chicken pizza is made on a thin and flaky crust, topped with BBQ Sauce, seasoned white chicken, smoked bacon, roasted red onion and mozzarella and white cheddar cheese, with parsley throughout. Sounds good right? Once cooked, the crust came out too hard..now I will give the pizza the benefit of the doubt and say it could have been our oven....but the overall flavor of the Pizza was not very good. The chicken had an odd flavor of seasonings, the BBQ sauce was caked on a bit too much and the pizza tasted dry. The best part of it all would have probably been the cheese. 
Sadly this pizza did not pass our liking...

The Southwestern Style Chicken Trumpets are tortilla's filled with sauteed chicken, crisp peppers, onions, cheddar cheese and chili pepper. These were probably the worst part of the whole meal. These Trumpets had a very papery flavor to them, making them really hard to enjoy. The chicken inside them tasted old and freezer burnt. They sound a lot and I mean A LOT better then they tasted.
And last on the list...The Mini Eclairs. These are tiny bite size Eclairs which come in a box of 20, and makes them fun and great for parties. They come frozen, topped with chocolate and contain a custard filling. When you are ready to eat them, you either put them in your fridge for 2hours or on the counter for 30minutes. Once de-thawed, you enjoy! Well, these didn't have as much flavor as an eclair should have..and they also had a freezer burnt taste. I know Eclairs are meant to be eaten cold, but since eating them cold wasn't working out, I decided to microwave a few to try them warm. 
I liked them a lot better warm!

Private Selection, so far, has not been a brand we enjoy. And even though the coupons didn't allow purchasing ice cream with them, we decided to try out the ice cream separately. 
We purchased Amaretto Cherry Cordial and German Chocolate Cake.

Both of these ice creams were great! VERY rich in flavor so only a small amount is needed. The Amaretto Cherry Cordial contains northern cherries and dark chocolate bits folded into amaretto ice cream swirled with cordial cream. It makes for a delicious Milkshake, especially if you add in Torani's Peppermint Syrup!
The German Chocolate Cake contains rich chocolate cake pieces folded into chocolate ice cream swirled with caramel pecan sauce. I never tasted the sauce but the cake pieces sure our delicious.


That's the wrap on Private Selection foods. Since everything (but the ice cream) seemed to taste freezer burnt, I'd like to think it was the stores issue and not the company. 
Have you ever had Private Selections Foods? What's your take on them?


Thanks to Bzzagent for allowing me to review Private Selections products in exchange for my own opinionated review. 


Bacon Jam Review

I felt ecstatically lucky to try out Bacon Jam, as we are a family that love bacon. It all began when I was pregnant back in 2007, I craved bacon so much! Thankfully where I worked, they had bacon for breakfast daily and I got my good intake on it ;) Because of that, my son, who I was pregnant with at the time, he now loves bacon as well! And my husband...well he just loves ANY meat lol.
Skillet Street Food describes bacon jam to be made with "niman ranch bacon and render it down along with onions, balsamic and other spices . It cooks for several hours until it is a perfect blend of smoky, tangy, savory and slightly sweet….basically spreadable bacony goodness!" They describe it perfectly. You can taste the smokiness of the bacon, along with a sweet and spicy touch to it. I first tried the Bacon Jam warmed up on a plain bagel. I didn't care for this taste, but I'm thinking it could be because I didn't even toast my bagel!


Not sure what I was thinking there lol, but my husband had the great idea to use Bacon Jam with burgers. Last night he made delicious hamburgers for dinner and he spread the Bacon Jam on the bread of our burgers and it came out great! Mixing with the taste of cheese, it was a fulfilling meal.


Skillet also has a list of Recipes I will be checking out! I think it all depends on what you eat the Bacon Jam with, for how well the taste will come out, but it is a great product, especially for people who love meat! With Christmas coming around, it would make a GREAT stocking Stuffer!



Skillet Street Food also has Pumpkin Sauce I think would be fun to try out. 
As well as this awesome Shirt and Giftbasket!







I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.


Decorative Ceiling Tile Review


Decorative Ceiling Tiles can be a great piece to add pizazz to a special room, maybe making it a conversation piece; even using the ceiling tiles as a backdrop for a photography room or wall decor...

These simple tin, faux tin and Styrofoam ceiling tiles are lightweight and easily put up with adhesives. Making it easy to put up and take down as needed.

When I received my Ceiling tile, I was surprised of the size because it is just is so much bigger in person. The PVC material it is made with is indeed lightweight, so it assured me it won't fall from the walls.

The Packaging of the tile...Tin Ceiling Tile with Styrofoam Tile Atop...


I'm not fond of the color copper, so it's nice that you can paint over these tiles. The ceiling tile I received has a Medieval look to it and when I put it up on our ceiling to check it out, my husband said it made him feel like he should have a thrown in the room lol.

Though the design of our ceiling tile isn't quite our taste in art, there are several Decorative Ceiling tile designs to choose from. I'm really liking the Classic White Flower Power and the Arctic Frost tile:


You can check out the Decorative Ceiling Tiles website and maybe use them in your next remodeling project :)
You can also find them on FACEBOOK.


I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, 
I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

Preparing For Christmas+Ornament Craft

Got our Christmas Tree set up. And a few other lil decorations..



















Me and my little boy made some Gingerbread tree ornaments using this awesome smelling recipe from cooks.com
***

1 c. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. allspice
1 tsp. ground cloves
1 tsp. nutmeg
1 c. applesauce



And the squirrel is happy eating my peanut butter cookies :)


Though we may be moving soon...
I couldn't let that get in the way of my Christmas spirit. 
I just had to decorate :)


Charlie Brown Christmas Tree

Since we're SUPPOSE to be moving in 2 weeks, I was really hesitant on setting up our Christmas tree, because the thought of putting it up and taking it down so soon, made me sad. So I had the idea to put up a Charlie brown like Christmas tree on our patio. Me and my son (4yrsold) went on a walk, searching for the perfect "tree" and found a nice sized one. So we brought it home and set it up in a cute tin can I painted awhile back. The can is an old pizza sauce can that I painted white and wrapped a white ribbon around the top and added a tiny bow onto it. But anyways, it's "stem" sat in the can with clear marbles holding it in place. We decorated it with stringed popcorn and dried out orange slices.



It was a lot of fun, but the next day, we found that it had fallen over :( thinking the squirrels or birds probably tried to get the pop corn... :P 
A few days went by and I caved in, to setting up our actual Christmas tree inside. Today we got out our tree and decorations and went crazy happy preparing for Christmas :) Christmas music and all. This soon-to-be move isn't gonna mess with my Christmas spirit :D


Medieval Party-Photo Essay

My husband had his 26th Birthday on November 21st (2011) and I wanted to do something special for him. While he was gone at work and school all morning, me and our little boy (age4) 
planned a Medieval Party for him.

I started out by making a frugal birthday garland from an empty cereal box and letter stamps. And I added in some of the Halloween items we used, as decor. The crazy huge hammer weapon-my husband used for his Barbarian costume this last Halloween, and the cute skeleton I bought for my son after Halloween was over, on sale for just under $2.


 I was trying to think of Medieval themed items, that I could make with what I already had 
and came up with a few things.

Bright Red apples... Pieces from my son's dress up box:

Everything Knight/Medieval
And I even made my hubby a "Medieval King" shirt thing to wear :) I took an old shirt and cut the sleeves off and the side seams so it would be an over shirt piece. I printed out the dragon design from google searching online, and just traced over it in permanent marker to make it bolder.

And for the food I made:
Chicken Drumsticks, Potato Wedges, Shrimp n Pineapple Bites over White Rice, 
And Rice Crispy Treat "Chicken drum sticks and Hamburger Patties"

My husband doesn't like cake, but loves Rice Crispies so I went with a Rice crispy "cake" as well:

Our son drew his daddy a picture of him snowboarding and I got my hubby a video game (not pictured) and some Whoop Ass Chipotle BBQ Sauce :)


It was a great, inexpensive small party for my hubby and he thought it was awesome :)