Free Chocolate Friday!

First of all, I'm sorry I've been slacking on the posts this week. With the holiday and everything else going on this week, I've missed out on posting to the blog...

Stay tuned though! Next week I'll be celebrating my 100th post with a giveaway!


Also, remember, it's Free Chocolate Friday! Go to RealChocolate.com and get your free Mars coupon! hurry!

Happy Memorial Day

I hope you all have a wonderful Memorial Day weekend! I'm excited about seeing my family and friends and eating picnic food! Yum!

Let's remember to thank (either silently or loudly) the men and women of our Armed Forces, past and present, who bravely sacrifice their lives every day to keep us safe and free. THANK YOU!!!

EA Sports Active for the Wii Review

I just finished my 2nd workout with the EA Sports Active. It's like a personal trainer on the Wii. It uses the nunchuk with the Wii remote. You use both remote and nunchuck while you're boxing, for example. There is also a leg band that you wear on your right thigh. When you are doing leg exercises or running, for example, the nunchuk (am I spelling that right?!) fits in a pocket in the front of your leg band and this tracks the movements your legs are doing. It also comes with a resistance band to help add to your arm exercises.

Yesterday's workout included boxing, running, walking, side lunges, bicep curls, squats and a few others. Today, they had me play tennis instead of the boxing and added some extra work to my running (high knees and back kicks) along with the other arm and leg exercises. The workouts are only about 20 min each, so you really can fit this in to your busy routine. Another great thing is the goals the trainer sets for you. When you start each workout, there will be an estimated goal of how many calories you'll burn. While you workout, you can watch the counter as the calories tick away. Today they wanted me to burn 103 calories and I burned 127! That made me feel great! The workout calendar in the game also gives you a rest day every third day, so you don't overdo it. But nothing's stopping you from exercising on your own that day. The trainer is also there motivating you while you workout and that really works for me.

I'm really loving the EA Sports Active. Now I will be the first one to admit I'm not the most active girl in the world. I don't think I'm in terrible shape, but other than occasional walks on the weekends, I don't do a lot of cardio activity. I did win a bike last fall and I intend on getting out on it more this summer, but I haven't gotten it out yet. I really feel like I'm capable of doing this Active workout on a regular schedule. It kicks my butt and I end up sweaty and gross afterwards, and I know I'll be a little sore tomorrow, but I feel like I can really do this. Plus, I was really impressed with my stamina and ability to keep up. I love that it only takes 20 minutes. This morning, I did it before anyone in my house even got up and it felt great.

The EA Sports Active for the Wii sells on Amazon for $59.99. I'm guessing this is the price you'll see everywhere else too. When You think about the fact that brand new video games retail for $49.99, this is pretty good for only $10 more. And it's a one-time buy. If you're going to use this, you can probably skip the gym, unless you really love the equipment or atmosphere there. (I've never gone to a gym though so maybe there are other benefits I'm not aware of.) You can think of this as your personal trainer that you never have to pay again! I definitely think it's worth it. Especially if it's next to impossible for you to get time to yourself to get to the gym.

Free Chocolate Friday!

Don't forget to go sign up for your free Mars coupon (for free chocolate!!) this morning! Go to RealChocolate.com and sign up quick!

Even if you signed up last week, you can sign up again once every week!

TV Thursday!

So Kris Allen won American Idol...Are you all shocked? We weren't so shocked in my house. We'd been discussing it all week. I even got my folks into the debate. My dad and I agreed that Kris would probably get the Danny Gokey votes. I also heard a lot of talk throughout the week about Adam being "screamy". He does do that scream a lot, but I didn't think people thought it was annoying until this week.

A woman my mother works with also said that Kris needed to win more. Like Adam already had a career. He'd have no trouble breaking out, but Kris needed the win more to take off. I personally, think Kris's sound is more marketable and listenable. What kind of album is Adam going to make? I don't really think it will be a current sounding record. Just my opinion, but I don't see the glam rock sound coming back. The Darkness tried it in like 2003 (around that time), but then we never heard from them again. I see Adam Lambert on the stage more than having an album. My boyfriend told me last night that they're making a musical stage show based on Green Day's American Idiot album. Maybe Adam could do that!

Kris on the other hand could fit in with a few genres. I hadn't seen him in the country/rock genre, but his performance with Keith Urban last night really worked for me. I could also see him making albums like Jason Mraz or Jack Johnson.

Ok I've spent way too much time on this subject, lol, so I'll end now. I promise I wont talk about Idol again til next year! Congrats to both Kris and Adam. I know they both have careers ahead of them.

Look what I won!!

I won this beautiful sling bag from Fantabulously Frugal! Thank you so much Lisa!! I love Fantabulously Frugal. It's a great read everyday (lots of deals!) and she has wonderful giveaways too! If you're not following her already, what are you waiting for?!





lilE made it! Isn't it gorgeous?! The pictures don't even do it justice. It's fully lined in yellow with pockets and everything. It even feels reinforced with padding. And it's huge! Perfect for overnight or weekend trips or even as you carry-on bag when you fly. lilE makes bags, headbands,clothing and lots of other stuff. It's all beautiful. Definitely go check her shop out!

Wordless Wednesday

These are our lilies from last year. I can't wait til they bloom again this year!





For more Wordless Wednesday entries, visit Five Minutes For Mom and Wordless Wednesday.

one more test

Sorry folks, I'm hoping it will be fixed now...

testing

My posts haven't been updating on the Blogger Dashboard all day...


Just wanted to check to see if this one did.

Bear with me :)

Free Ice Cream Day at Friendly's

Friendly's is celebrating Free Ice Cream Day on June 6th! From 12noon to 5pm, you can get a free single scoop in a dish or on a cone! Small print says at participating restaurants, so you might want to check with your local Friendly's. Go enjoy a scoop on them!

Diane Birch - Free Itunes DL

Go download the Itunes Single of the Week from Diane Birch. You are going to love this girl's voice. She has this beautiful, strong soulful sound and she's really talented! And the download is free, so go check it out!

Twilight Blogging

Check out my favorite guy's blog about Chapters 4 and 5 of Twilight! :)

Blog Giveaways

Hope everyone had a good weekend! Here are some great blog giveaways to start your week! Good Luck!


Cool Mom Picks is giving away a set of custom stationery or calling cards from Olliegraphic. (Ends tonight! 5/18 at midnight pt)

Fantabulously Frugal is giving away a Pears and Whales tote from Earth Cadets. (Ends 5/21)

Fabulous Fun Finds is giving away a $75 (or possibly $150!) gift certificate to Art Jewelry Online. (Ends 5/24)

Fabulous Fun Finds is giving away a pair of shoes from Sperry Top-Sider shoes! (Ends 5/24)

Tanielle at The Polka Dot Daisy is celebrating her 100th post and giving away a collection of stitcheries. (Ends 5/27)

As They Grow Up is giving away a $75 gift certificate to Sentimental Silver! (Ends 5/30)

3 Kids and Us is giving away 2 tubes of Maybelline Pulse Perfection Vibrating Mascara. (Ends 5/31)

Grocery Price Blog is giving away a year's worth of Kraft Macaroni n' cheese! (Ends 6/1)

Missing Child! Please read!

**UPDATE! Dylan was found!!**

My friend Jonna lives in ND and her 13 year old cousin is missing! Please read this description and pass it on! Especially if you have friends or family in the Fargo, ND area!

"PLEASE HELP!!!! My 13 year old cousin, Dylan Lepard, has been missing since 1 a.m. the morning of 5/16. He is approximately 5'3", brown eyes, black hair, and weighs approximately 120 pounds. Although he often rides his bike and skateboards, he does not have either of these items with him. Clothing at the time of disappearance is unknown, but he was wearing "Monopoly High Top" Sneakers. He was last seen in Fargo, ND.

If you have seen Dylan or know where he is, please contact the Fargo Police Department, or encourage him to contact someone from his family."

Please contact me if you have any info! We all have this great medium to get information out there! Please help me if you can! Thanks everyone! I really appreciate it!

If you could repost this or link on your blog, I'd really appreciate it.
Also on twitter, you could tweet http://tinyurl.com/FindDylan

Thanks!!

Free Chocolate Friday!

It's back up again! Go to realchocolate.com to get your free candy bar coupon!! Hurry! Don't miss out!

TV Thursday!

So...LOST finale! Did you see it?! That Jacob guy sure gets around! It kind of blew my mind toward the end though. I definitely didn't think it was Locke in the box! I even felt a little bad for Ben. Am I alone? His whole "what about me?" whine? Poor guy...lol.

I really liked the finale and it was so good to see Rose and Bernard again, even if they really wanted to stay lost. I don't know how I feel about Juliet being alive to set off the bomb though. How did they both survive hitting all of the rocks at the bottom of that hole? And do you think if the bomb does reset everything, that their memories will all reset too? That they won't remember anything, or specifically each other? Should be interesting to see...but now we have to wait til next year! 2010! That's almost torture making us wait til 2010...not fair! Plus, it's going to be the final season?! I had heard that but to see it in print on the screen made it really hit me. I really love this show. I'll be sad to see it end.


Ok...also just one thing about American Idol. I am really excited to see Kris and Adam in the finals. I think it will be a great finale show. I was so impressed with Kris's performance of Heartless this week. I think he did a brilliant job with that song. And I know Danny had a huge following, so I was really surprised that Kris made it. I figured it would be close, between Kris and Danny, but I was really surprised to hear there were only 1 million voted separating Kris and Adam! So this finale could go either way! What do you all think? Are you happy with America's choice for the finale? And who do you want to win?

Twilight Blogging

Sparknotes.com's resident Twilight blogger, Dan, is back again with part 2. He's reading the books and blogging about them from his own perspective, from the perspective of a 30 year old guy.

No matter if you've already read them or, like me, are just now reading the series, this is really fun to read. Dan definitely puts a funny spin on the story.

*dead* Free Jennie-O Product!

Edit: Sorry coupons are now all gone.


In honor of the Biggest Loser Finale tonight, Jennie-O is offering coupons for a free product (up to $5.00) to the first 25,000 people to sign up here. This offer opened between 8 and 8:30pm est time tonight. Coupons are still available but hurry! It could end any time!

Blog Giveaways

Happy Monday! I hope all of the mothers out there had a wonderful Mother's Day! There are some fantastic giveaways going on this week. Seriously good stuff! Good luck!

Fabulous Fun Finds is giving away a handbag from Elaine Turner. (ends 5/14)

Fantabulously Frugal is giving away a Sling Bag from lilE. (ends 5/14)

Fabulous Fun Finds is giving away a Maclaren Stroller with matching rocker AND carrier!! (ends 5/17)

Fabulous Fun Finds is giving away 2 bracelets from Emmie Kate. (ends 5/17)

Fabulous Fun Finds is giving away a Parisian Pansey Clutch by Petunia Pickle Bottom. (ends 5/17)

Fabulous Fun Finds is giving away a Baby Wrap from Loveyduds. (ends 5/17)

Frugal Mommy of 2 Girls is giving away a Layers Clothing Swimsuit! (Ends 5/17)

Etsy It Up! is giving away a lovely necklace and earrings set from Nicholas Landon Jewelry. (ends 5/18)

Feisty, Frugal and Fabulous is giving a children's tshirt (winner's choice of design!) from Noodle & Meatball (ends 5/21)

Amanda at MommyMandy.com is giving away a pair of flipflops at Top It Off Accessories.

Jolly Mom is giving away a hair accessory of winner's choice (up to $30!) from Andrea's Beau. (ends 5/25)

Go Graham Go is giving away a $25 gift certificate to Cute Clips and More. (ends 5/25)

As They Grow Up is giving away a non-oversized plush toy from Douglas Bears. (ends 5/26)

Mother's Day Weekend Wordle

Happy Mother's Day!!

I've recently discovered the Weekend Wordle and decided to participate! So in honor of my mother, enjoy this week's Weekend Wordle!



Join Shannon for Weekend Wordle fun at Last Shreds of Sanity!

Free Chocolate!

Hurry!! Go to RealChocolate.com and enter to win a free coupon for your favorite Mars product! They're only giving away 250,000 coupons per Friday.

Promo should open each Friday at 9:00 am EST so coupons will be long gone by now, probably, next week, but there were issues this morning and the link wasn't going through.

*But as of a few minutes ago, coupons were still available for today!*

Limit: one (1) Coupon per email address per Friday and four (4) Coupons per household during the Offer Period.

Itunes Card Winner!

And the winner is....

Congrats Donna (at Donna's Blog)!! I'll be contacting you by email shortly! Thanks to everyone who entered! Over 200 entries! Have a great weekend everyone!!

Edit: Ok Donna, I've emailed you. You have 48 hours to respond. Thanks!

Giveaway is ending tonight!

Don't miss out! My Itunes card giveaway is ending tonight just before midnight est. Don't miss your chance to win!

Twilight

So I've started reading Twilight. I had a bunch of friends telling me I should read them, so I decided to try it. I'm on chapter 6 of the first book. I'm enjoying it. It does get a bit wordy in spots, but it's holding my interest. I did see the movie, so I do already know what's going to happen in the first book. Maybe that's why I feel like it's wordy.

So Dan Bergstein at Sparknotes is also reading Twilight AND blogging about it! If you want to see what a 30 year old guy thinks of Twilight, check it out. It's pretty funny. He's not making fun of the book series or its fans. Just telling it like he sees it as he reads. Pretty funny stuff.

Wordless Wednesday

In honor of Mother's Day this weekend, here's a picture of me and my mama :) This was taken last August on a beautiful sunny day. After days and days of rain this week, I'm longing for some sun...

For more Wordless Wednesday entries, visit Five Minutes For Mom and Wordless Wednesday.

PS: Don't forget to enter my Itunes card giveaway!

Thank You's

I have been lucky enough to win some fabulous prizes from some great blogs and I wanted to take a moment to acknowledge some of them!

-- I won a fabulous gift pack from Amy's Foods on Prissy Green! The prize pack included coupons, canned soups and beans, and a soup mug. Thanks Karissa!!

--Kati at Country Girl, City Life had a week-long giveaway to celebrate her 21st birthday. I won a box full of her favorite snacks! It was such a fun package to open! It came with Chocolate Turtle Chex Mix, Dried apples, Swedish Fish, Nesquick syrup and lots of other goodies! Thanks so much Kati!

-- Carebear from Not Quite a Fairytale...Beauty and the Little Beast (formerly Two Under Two! Whew!) had a giveaway for her birthday also! I won a copy of the new NKOTB album. Thanks Carebear!

-- I won a gift certificate to Princess Fancy Pants Boutique from Kimberly at Pretty Pink Momma. Princess Fancy Pants sells adorable acccesories and hairbows for the little (and not so little!) girls in your life. They have beautiful things! Definitely check them out. Thanks so much Kimberly!

-- I also won a box full of goodies from EF (Etsy Friends) Promotions' Earth Day Challenge. The package came with wonderful samples from some fabulous shops! Thanks so much EF Promotions!

-- I won a Mario Badescu skincare prize from Steal The Style. It came in an adorable canvas makeup bag too! Thanks Steal The Style!

-- I also won a SavesPro gift certificate from Frugal Mommy of 2 Girls! Thanks Karen!


Big Thanks to all of you!

Reminder!

Just a reminder! If you entered my giveaway and didn't leave your email address in your entry, please make sure your blogger profile is active and your email address is showing in profile so I can contact you if you win!

Give It Away Blog Carnival!!

*Giveaway Closed*



Mom Most Traveled is hosting a Blog Carnival and I'm participating! There are a bunch of great giveaways going on there. You have to go check it out! Blog Carnival will be going on all week and ends on Friday.


So onto my giveaway!

I will be giving away a $15 Itunes giftcard to one winner! I love music and wanted to share some music with one of my readers!

Please leave a comment on this post with at least 1 of your favorite bands or singers!

*Non bloggers are welcome too! Just make sure to leave an email where I can contact you if you win!*


Extra entries (Please leave a separate comment for each one you do.) :

-Follow my blog -- or tell me if you're already following (1 entry)
-Subscribe via email (1 entry)
-Follow me on twitter and tweet about my giveaway! @crazeypoet (2 entries)
-Add my blog button to your sidebar (or tell me if it's already there!) (1 entry)


Giveaway is open to US Residents.

Giveaway will end on Thursday, May 7 at 11:59pm EST and I will announce the winner on Friday!

Please be sure to leave an email address with your entry (or make sure your email is in your blogger profile) so I can contact you if you are a winner!


**Also be sure to check out the Ultimate Blog Carnival on LiveGiveaways.Com.**

Blog Giveaways

Happy Monday! I hope you all had a nice weekend. Yesterday, I played soccer in flipflops. I would not recommend it. I was goalie so at least there was no running involved, and it helped that only kids were trying to score against me, but it was still a bit scary. Surprisingly, I did not get hurt, but I won't be risking it by doing that again...lol

Here are a few great giveaways I found catching up on my favorite blogs. Good luck! :)


Momma in Flip Flops2 is giving away a Chocolate Fudge Cinnamon Sugar Cookie Surprise candle from Candles by Victoria. (Ends 5/11)

Seeryus Mama is giving away a Meander bag from Kelty! (Ends 5/15)

Potamus Prefers is giving the Aurora photo editing software from LightCrafts to 10 winners! (Ends 5/15)

Etsy It Up! is giving away a Personalize Lovie from Noodles & Milk! (Ends 5/16)

Two of a Kind, Working on a Full House is giving 2 winners their choice of pendant from A Passion For Pendants by HotWyre Jewelry. (Ends 5/19)

J. Leigh Designz is giving away a Bissell Little Green Machine Carpet Cleaner! (Ends 5/26)

Pay It Forward Reminder

At the end of April I posted that I was participating in a Pay It Forward event. The first 5 comments I received would get a special handmade gift from me sometime this year as long as they agreed to offer the same thing on their own blog.

I still have 4 spots left. So I'm bumping this up to remind y'all in case anyone else wants in :)

MomDot.com Giveaway -- 31 Giveaways in 31 Days!

MomDot.com is having a huge blog party this month in honor of Trisha's 31st birthday on May 31st! Each day the blog will feature a different blog and giveaway! There will be some great prizes, including a $25 gift certificate to Inspire Your Walls and a Metro 9-2-5 Laptop Bag from Melissa Beth Designs.

There will be great giveaways all month so be sure to check back daily through 5/31!!

Fantabulously Frugal

Fantabulously Frugal is having a huge giveaway over the next month! Right now they're giving away a Tory Burch candle and a copy of the book Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri.

Be sure to check back all month for some more great giveaways!

It's In The Bag!

Etsy It Up! and The Shopping Mama are having a huge giveaway and it starts this week! Don't miss out!