This is a compensated review by BlogHer and Tropicana.

I haven’t bought a new pair of running shoes since 2003.

TWO THOUSAND THREE.

SEVEN YEARS AGO.

And while I’d like to think that I held onto my seven year-old running shoes because of some serious frugality on my part, the fact of the matter is that the shoes sat in my closet for about three years after I bought them. I wasn’t exactly, um, inspired when it came to jumping on the post-baby fitness bandwagon.

About four years ago I finally released the shoes from their cardboard cage, and we’ve had some good times, the shoes and I. We’ve traveled together, walked all over our neighborhood, played at the park and kicked many a soccer ball. The shoes are understandably exhausted. And given how much I’ve worn them, I’ve probably kept them for two years too long. Honestly, I’ve just had a hard time gearing up to spend the kind of money that a really good pair of shoes requires.

But then.

BUT THEN.

A couple of weeks ago I was looking at the Tropicana Juicy Rewards site, and I noticed that one of the deals available was a discount at the Adidas store – plus free shipping. I did a little research to determine which shoe would be best for what are arguably the highest arches in human history (seriously. they defy all reason.), and a few minutes later, I ordered myself a sassy new pair of kicks.

Because I’m kicky like that.

And did you know what I did after that? I thought about how I’ll wear my new shoes to kick the soccer ball with my little guy, and that made me think about how my husband and I have never bought portable chairs for soccer games (note: any attempts to follow my disjointed thought patterns could result in serious injury). We’re coming up on our fourth soccer season, and we always just lean against a fence or sit on the bleachers and then afterwards we talk about how much our backs hurt. Our oblivion to obvious solutions (BUY SOME CHAIRS, PEOPLE) is sort of endearing, isn’t it?

Anyway, I looked on the Tropicana site and saw that Coleman is one of their Rewards partners, and I thought, “OOOH! I bet Coleman makes some good portable chairs. And durable! To withstand lots of camping trips!” And sure enough – I used reward points to get two chairs, a great discount and free shipping. I have no doubt that my back will continue to thank me throughout this spring and many soccer seasons to come.

I’m thinking about getting “Mamaw” and “Papaw” monogrammed on each seat. It only seems fitting, you know?

If you’d like to enter to win a $50 Visa gift card from BlogHer, just leave a comment on this post and tell me what your favorite outdoor activity is. Running? Walking? Pushing your kids in a swing? Sitting on a beach and looking out at the ocean while a private steward serves you all manner of cheese?

Perhaps I’m allowing my personal wishes to infringe on the contest. I do apologize.

And good luck with the giveaway, everybody!

Be sure to visit the other participating bloggers’ reviews on the BlogHer.com special offers page (you have seven chances to win!).

If you haven’t signed up for Juicy Rewards yet, you can earn a free rewards point after you set up your account. Here’s how:

1. Go to http://www.tropicana.com/
2. Set-up your Tropicana Juicy Rewards account
3. Visit the “Enter Codes” page within the site and get started with:
BLOGG-HER11 *
*This one-time use code is valid for new accounts ONLY. Must be entered within 6 hours of creating your account.

You can find more information on the official site, and here’s a link to the official rules.

This giveaway is now closed.

This is a compensated review by BlogHer and Tropicana.

There are certain things that always seem to be in our refrigerator: milk, cheese, eggs, bacon, pickles, some sort of leftover that’s covered in plastic wrap and needs to be put out of its misery, and, well, orange juice.

It’s just one of those staples that we always seem to have on hand.

And also? I can’t even tell you how relieved I am that my refrigerator was reasonably clean when I snapped this picture. I didn’t think to check beforehand, and when I uploaded the pics I half-expected to see a streak of ketchup working its way from one shelf to another.

Anyway, when I found out that Tropicana was starting their Juicy Rewards program, I was a little bit curious, mainly because I always like to try out rewards programs for products that I’d be buying regardless. What totally surprised me, though, is how valuable and practical the Juicy Rewards are. You get points for each carton of Tropicana orange juice you buy (you can set up a rewards account on the Tropicana site), and then you can use those points for discounts on lots of different family activities.

(Imagine my delight when I realized that I only needed 2 rewards points for a discount on a 1 1/2 hour massage.)

(My delight, it was significant.)

So for the next couple of months, I’m going to be telling you about how I use some of my rewards. I’m already planning on the massage (DID I MENTION THAT?), and there’s also BOGO admission deal at our favorite science center. I’m especially excited about the discount at a nearby bowling alley, because there are few things in life I enjoy as much as challenging a certain seven year-old boy to a bowling showdown.

Look. He beats me at every other game we play. Surely it’s okay for me to seize the occasional victory while I still can.

And do you know what’s even better? You can totally join the fun. Just set up your rewards account, and check out what rewards are available in your area. You can even get a free reward point (new accounts only) if you use a special BlogHer code:

To get your bonus point:
1. Go to www.tropicana.com.
2. Set-up your Tropicana Juicy Rewards account (it’ll just take a minute!)
3. Visit the “Enter Codes” page within the site and get started with BLOGG-HER11*
*This one-time use code is valid for new accounts ONLY. Must be entered within 6 hours of creating your account.

Best of all: every time I post about Tropicana Juicy Rewards, BlogHer is giving away a $50 Visa gift card on my blog. So if you’d like to try to win the gift card, leave a comment and tell me one product that you always have in your refrigerator. Milk? Orange juice? Bacon? Cake?

Can you tell I’m craving cake?

Be sure to visit the other participating bloggers’ reviews on the BlogHer.com special offers page (you have seven chances to win!).

You can find more information on the official site, and here’s a link to the official rules.

Can’t wait to share all the rewards fun with y’all – stay tuned!

This giveaway is now closed.

This giveaway ends April 14, 2010.

This is a compensated review by BlogHer and Tropicana.

For the next couple of months I’m going to be participating in Tropicana’s Juicy Rewards campaign, and this page will be home base for all my posts and links and observations and whathaveyou.

A bloggy hub, if you will.

I hope you’ll check back early and often to see what’s going on here; there’s all manner of family fun in store!

Here’s my first Juicy Rewards post, complete with a $50 Visa gift card giveaway (this giveaway is now closed).

Here’s Juicy Rewards post #2 – also with a $50 giveaway (this giveaway is now closed).

Here’s Juicy Rewards post #3 – and a $50 Visa gift card giveaway (this giveaway is now closed).

Here’s Juicy Rewards post #4 – and a $50 Visa gift card giveaway (this giveaway is now closed).

Here’s Juicy Rewards post #5 – and a $50 Visa gift card giveaway (this giveaway is now closed).

Here’s Juicy Rewards post #6 – the final one – and a $50 Visa gift card giveaway.

Be sure to visit the other participating bloggers’ reviews on the BlogHer.com special offers page (you have seven chances to win!).

You can find more information on the official site, and here’s a link to the official rules.

This is a compensated review by BlogHer and Eggland’s Best.

In our family, we like eggs. We like eggs a lot. So when BlogHer asked me if I’d be willing to share some recipes I love to make with Eggland’s Best eggs, I stood up and raised my hand and then I saluted.

Okay. So maybe not literally.

But I was tickled to participate, mainly because Eggland’s Best is a product I’ve used regularly for the last couple of years. Since we have a growing boy in this house, I’ve tried to be careful not to buy food with added hormones and antibiotics, and Eggland’s Best has neither. Plus, since stuff like eggs and milk and meat and fresh vegetables are staples of our diet, I don’t mind paying a little extra to buy a better quality product. It’s taken me a long time to learn the lesson, but really good ingredients make for better-tasting meals, and better-tasting meals mean that the people in this family don’t mind leftovers quite so much. Since I’m the one doing the cooking, that’s a win-win for me.

So. The recipes.

*****

A couple of nights ago I was craving something chocolate-y LIKE NOBODY’S BUSINESS, AS IS MY INALIENABLE RIGHT AS AN AMERICAN, and since I had all the stuff for fudge pie on hand, I had no choice but to make one. This is a super-simple, very rich pie, and the great thing about it is that a little goes a long way. Just a tiny sliver of this pie will satisfy the most intense chocolate craving, and it tastes so delicious that your family and friends will love you forever for making it. The eggs are key, of course, because without them we’d have a lovely chocolate soup.

Fudge Pie

3/4 cup sugar
3 tablespoons cocoa powder
1/2 stick butter, melted
2 well-beaten eggs
1 small can evaporated milk
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350. Mix all ingredients, making sure to thoroughly combine the dry ingredients before adding the butter, eggs, milk and vanilla extract. Pour mixture into a pie shell, and bake for 35-40 minutes. When you remove the pie from the oven, it will still be a little jiggly. Let stand for 15-20 minutes before cutting. Serve with vanilla ice cream.

*****

My husband’s favorite pie in the whole wide world is egg custard pie, and when I told him I was going to be making three recipes with eggs, he said something along the lines of “OOOOH! OOOOH! EGG CUSTARD PIE!” It’s something I rarely make because I’m a big believer that desserts should feature chocolate, but since I had some purty, fresh eggs to use, I humored him and made my mother-in-law’s recipe. He was so grateful.

Egg Custard Pie

2 cups whole milk (skim or nonfat milk won’t work nearly as well)
6 eggs
dash of salt
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat oven to 350. Mix all ingredients, then pour into a pie shell. Bake for 45 minutes or until set. Let cool before serving.

*****

This last recipe is so simple, and I’ve probably made it fifty times for special occasion breakfasts (whether we have company, or I’m cooking for something at church, or we’re celebrating a holiday). What I love most about it is that you can make it the night before and put it in the refrigerator, so when you wake up the next morning, all you have to do is throw it in the oven and wait on the deliciousness.

It’s a keeper.

Crescent Roll Breakfast Casserole

1 12 oz. package bacon, chopped and fried (reserve about 2 Tbs. of bacon grease)
2 packages fresh sliced mushrooms
2 packages crescent rolls
8 large eggs, beaten
2 cups evaporated milk
2 cups milk
2 cups shredded Swiss cheese

Cook bacon pieces. Drain on paper towels. In reserved bacon grease, saute’ mushrooms until they lose their firmness (about 8 minutes). While mushrooms are cooking, press crescent roll dough in the bottom of a large (around 10 x 13), greased casserole dish, making sure that you press all the seams together. Depending on the size of your casserole dish, you may have a little bit of dough left over.

In a separate bowl, combine eggs, evaporated milk, milk, and cheese. Set aside.

Scatter bacon and mushrooms on top of the crescent roll dough. Pour egg / milk / cheese mixture on top.

Bake 15 minutes on 325 degrees, then 35-40 minutes on 300 degrees.

*****

If you’d like to win a $100 Visa gift card and a six-month supply of Eggland’s Best eggs, leave a comment and tell me your favorite dish to make with eggs. Egg casserole? A good frittata? CAKE? The possibilities are endless.

The contest will begin on January 18th and will end February 8th.  Make sure that the e-mail address you leave is correct.

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
• 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.
• Winners will be chosen on random.org.

Thanks for playing, everybody!

Visit the Eggland’s Best Official site

Be sure to check out Eggland’s pages on Nutritional Benefits and Health and Wellness.

This giveaway is now closed.

This is a compensated review by BlogHer and HP.

A few weeks ago I got an email asking if I’d be interested in reviewing a new HP TouchSmart 600 computer. And yes, I was interested, because I am a nerd and always terribly entertained by anything that plugs in and has a screen, but since I’d never seen the TouchSmart before, I had a mental image of a big, clunky desktop coming into the house. Besides that, we haven’t owned a PC in about ten years, and part of me wondered if accepting the HP was some unforgivable act of Mac betrayal.

But then I remembered the 10 year-old Mac desktop in my office (that, bless its heart, can’t run more than two applications at a time before it starts to wheeze), and I got over my reservations. BRING ON THE HP.

The new TouchSmart arrived a few days later, and y’all, I cannot tell you how impressed we have been by this computer. We love it. It looks great (do you see how skinny it is?), and when David was setting it up, I actually asked him where the rest of it was. It’s essentially the same size as a flat-screen TV. In fact, it can work as a TV – you just plug in your cable and you’re good to go. It can also work as a DVR (CAN I GET AN AMEN?) or a BluRay movie player. There’s even a remote. Be still my heart.

And I wish y’all could have seen my husband’s reaction when he realized that you can mount the TouchSmart on the wall. Suffice it to say that his eyes lit up and then glazed over and I thought for a brief moment that he might need to sit down and put his head between his knees.

We started using the TouchSmart approximately 53 seconds after we set it up, and while I didn’t know how much I’d use all the bells and whistles in our day-to-day routine, I have to say that the touchscreen features are actually my very favorite part. Besides the fact that it makes me feel like Tom Cruise in “Minority Report” when I move my finger around the screen and resize pictures and create collages and pretend like I’m some sort of technological wizard, it’s just so EASY. I can write notes, save recipes, browse the web, play a movie via our Netflix account, laugh at something on Hulu, listen to my Pandora playlist, edit photos and so much more – all without touching a keyboard or a mouse. The computer HAS a keyboard and a mouse, of course (they’re wireless!), and you can use them with any of the TouchSmart applications – but once you get the hang of the touchscreen, it’s oh-so-convenient and fun.

I really could go on and on – about how Alex loves it, about how the touchscreen is COMPLETELY intuitive for a child, about how I adore the Recipe Box feature that lets me add any recipe I happen to run across on the web and will even READ THE RECIPE OUT LOUD TO ME while I cook. But I’m going to quit talking now because we need to get this giveaway started. I think it’s time.

So.

If you’d like to win an HP TouchSmart 600 computer, leave a comment below and tell me where you’d put the computer if you won. Family room? Office? Playroom? Kitchen? Inside Mama’s closet where NO ONE ELSE CAN TOUCH IT? On top of a thrift store desk that you overhauled with turquoise spray paint?

Or, if you’d like, you can leave a comment with a link to a post about the HP on your blog.

And whatever you do, please make sure that your email address is correct.

This contest will begin December 9th and end December 24th.

Before I forget:

1) If you’d like more information about this computer, just click on over to HP’s official site.

2) 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 (I’m so sorry, Canada).
• 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.
• Please see the official rules here: Official Rules.

The winner will be selected using random.org.

Also, there are four other bloggers giving away the HP TouchSmart 600 (that means there are five free computers up for grabs, people), so check out the BlogHer.com special offers page for links to their sites. You can enter to win on all five blogs.

Happy TouchSmarting, everybody!

Thursday 12/10 at 8:40pm – comments seem to be working just fine again. Thanks for your patience!

This giveaway is now closed.

This is a compensated review by BlogHer and L’Bel.

When I was younger, I was all about make-up. I loved looking at it, trying it, applying it, buying it – the whole shebang. I could spend an afternoon sitting in front of a mirror and trying out various and sundry new looks with one of my mama’s big ole palettes of eye shadow, and on more than one occasion, my sister looked at my handiwork and said something along the lines of “Um, less is more, you know.”

Now that I’m a little older, I know that my sister was exactly right. Less is definitely more when it comes to make-up. I still get a little giddy when I buy some new powder or blush, mind you, but I’m not nearly as concerned with make-up as I am with taking care of my skin. That’s one reason I was so happy to participate when the folks at BlogHer asked me if I’d like to try some skin care products from L’Bel Paris. I was even happier when I read that L’Bel – which is manufactured in France – focuses on “radiant skin that withstands the passage of time.” That sort of hit me where I’m living right now.

Ahem.

Anyway, here’s what they sent me:

You will never know how happy I was to see that tube of really nice mascara. Sometimes it’s the little things, you know (and the fact that the mascara brush is excellent makes it even better). And they also sent me some perfume, but unfortunately I ripped the perfume packaging when I got my shipment-o-products. You’ll be happy to know that the perfume is none the worse for the wear and is currently resting comfortably in my bedroom.

I’ve been trying the L’Bel products for about a week now, and oh my goodness, I like them so much. They’re light enough that my face doesn’t feel coated, but they’re moisturizing enough that my skin feels completely hydrated. And there’s this stuff called Collagennesse – and I can only hope that I’m spelling that correctly because it is currently packed in my suitcase since I WILL NOT LEAVE TOWN WITHOUT IT – that is pure magic. I put it on after I put on moisturizer, and it fills in the fine lines and makes my skin feel super-smooth and quite honestly I’m not sure how I’ve lived without it. It’s one of the best products I’ve ever tried.

And believe me, internet: I have tried some products in my time.

It makes my head hurt a little bit when I think about all the time and energy (and money) I’ve spent on my skin over the last twenty or so years. But here’s the thing, at least with me: make-up isn’t the thing that makes me feel beautiful. I have never looked at my adult self in the mirror and felt oh-so-attractive because I’ve achieved the perfect smoky eye. But do you know when I probably feel the most pretty? When I’m hanging out at home with my people without a stitch of make-up on. When my face is clean and I’ve put on all my “potions,” as my husband calls them – and I feel like LO, THESE MANY YEARS of taking care of my skin has been worth it.

I mean, I can always buy new eye shadow. But I’ve got to live with this skin of mine forever.

I’m so happy to be able to share these products with y’all, and one lucky reader is going to win $500 worth of L’Bel products to try. Seriously. $500 of skin care products and make-up. The prize will include Delyr, Bleu Intense, Resurgie Jour, Cellvivance, Pore Specialiste, Day Moisturizer, Night Moisturizer, Eye Cream, Makeup Remover, Cleanser, Toner, Face Mask, Divenesse Lotion, Supremacie Mains, Lip Gloss, Mascara and a sassy little bag to hold it all.

By the way, if you think I have any idea what all those French words in the list mean, you are sadly mistaken. But still. I bet they make your skin super-pretty. And I bet they smell really good, too.

Now. A few rules before we get our little skin care sweepstakes started:

To enter, leave me a comment below and tell me the place where you feel the most beautiful – or you may leave a link to your post on your own blog in the comments below. The contest will end on January 8th. Make sure that the e-mail address you leave is correct. I’ll select the winner using random.org.

Also, be sure to check out the list of other bloggers who are also doing a L’Bel giveaway – you can enter to win the giveaways on their blogs, too.

Have fun, y’all!

p.s. You can follow @LBelParis on Twitter for beauty tips and special offers if you’re interested.

This giveaway is now closed.