Win a $250 GC from a Toy Tuesday Blogger (like me!)

400x168: Use 11/25-12/8/09

On December 8, Bill Me Later is hosting “Toy Tuesday”. Visit www.toytuesday.com on that day to find great deals on the holiday’s most wanted toys and gifts from leading retailers such as Toys “R” Us, Walmart.com, Step 2, Little Tikes, eToys, Drugstore.com, FAO Schwarz, HP, Overstock.com, MacMall, Mercantila and more. To help promote Toy Tuesday, Bill Me Later chose 12 bloggers to each host a one-day giveaway of a $250 gift card to one of the participating retailers, and one of those bloggers is me, Table for Five!

AND, not only do we each get to give away a $250 gift card, but the winner of each giveaway also gets $500 donated to the charity of their choice! Holy cow! Each giveaway will only last 24 hours so please don’t wait!  I apologize to the first three bloggers for not getting this posted sooner, please visit their blogs anyway :)

November 27th – Ellen Seidman – Love That Max – giveaway closed.

November 28th – Cassidy Engle – First Time Around Blogger – giveaway closed.

November 29th – Elizabeth – A Nut in a Nutshell – giveaway closed.

November 30th – Linsey B. Knerl – Lille Punkin Reviews

December 1st – Carissa Rogers – Good N Crazy

December 2nd – Linda Sellars – Short Pump Preppy

December 3rd – Kim Becker – Mommy Knows

December 4th – Jodi Grundig – Moms Favorite Stuff

December 5th – Laurie Turk – Tip Junkie

December 6th – Briana – Bargain Briana

December 7th – Lana Barhum – Loving It, Loving It

December 8th – Elizabeth Edwards – Table 4 Five – that’s right, I’m the official blogger for Toy Tuesday itself! What an honor!

I’ll be reminding you every day here and on my other blogs that December 8th is the day I’m giving away a $250 gift card – and you’ll have to come back on that day to find out which retailer’s card I’m giving away!! I suggest subscribing to my feed if you don’t already, the link is in the top right corner of the header, so you can come by every day and get the link for the next day’s giveaway! Now, go visit www.lillepunkin.com and enter her giveaway today!

The day I tasted Tofurky and Gravy Jones Soda

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Jones Soda. All opinions are 100% mine.

Want an IZEA turkey hat and Jones Tofurky and ...
Image by tedmurphy via Flickr

That’s right, I tasted Tofurky and Gravy Jones Soda and lived to tell the tale. Jones Soda is a line of brightly colored, uniquely flavored sodas known for using fan-submitted photos on their bottle labels, and for putting out “theme” soda lines around the holidays. Their Holiday Packs in past years have included flavors like Mashed Potatoes, Green Bean Casserole, and Turkey and Gravy.

This year, Jones gave a nod to vegetarians and vegans and created Tofurky and Gravy soda for the holidays. Tofurky is a brand name of a product made with wheat gluten and tofu, and then molded into a turkey shape. IZEA sent me a Postie Pack containing a bottle of the soda and a totally awesome turkey hat, and asked those of us doing this campaign to taste the soda and post about it. I had NO idea what I expected it to taste like, I was expecting something like liquid gravy flavor.

Nathan’s friend Forrest happened to be over on Wednesday, and he eats some vegetarian foods, so he said he wanted to try the Tofurky and Gravy soda. I cracked open the bottle and handed it to him.  I stood there with the camera ready to catch his reaction as he took a sip….

ForrestDrinking

And much to my surprise, he swallowed and said, “IT”S REALLY GOOD!”

ForrestHappy

So I took the bottle from him and took a sip of my own. And much to MY surprise, it tasted okay! It tasted like 7-Up with caramel syrup mixed in, seriously!  I can’t say I would buy it and drink it on purpose, but if you’re curious about trying it, I can honestly say it doesn’t taste like turkey-flavored meat substitute like you might expect. Pick some up and try it yourself!

SocialSpark Disclosure Badge

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

The Turkey is Brining…

I did this sort of product review for Kikkoman two weeks ago. They sent me a bunch of soy sauce and a gift card towards the purchase of turkey and other groceries for a practice Thanksgiving turkey dinner. I had NO idea you could brine turkey in soy sauce, in fact, I had never even tried to brine a turkey.  After getting the Brine recipe, we realized that our biggest obstacle was what the heck to put the turkey IN so it could soak in the brine overnight. I had bought an 8.5 pound turkey breast, so my clever husband looked around the house and came up with this styrofoam cooler that some frozen food samples had come in. The turkey fit perfectly!

Turkey1

Chris came up with the great idea to take out the bottom drawer of our fridge and set the cooler right down on the bottom of the fridge.  I mixed up half a batch of the brine recipe and it filled the cooler to the top.

Turkey3

The next day, Ryan carried the cooler to the sink for me, I drained the brine and then rinsed the turkey with water, put it in a roasting pan, and put it in the oven. Turkey should cook for about 15 minutes per pound, so it was done a few minutes past two hours. I didn’t have all the side dishes ready yet, so I covered it with foil, turned off the oven, and that turkey sat in the cooling-down oven for another hour.

It. Was. PERFECT.

Turkey4

That turkey was so juicy inside that we could cut our slices with just our forks. The five of us devoured so much of that turkey that we barely had leftovers for the next day!

So, it was so successful, we decided to brine the turkey for tomorrow as well. Only, this time we have a 20 pound turkey given to Chris by his company.  Once again Chris came up with the perfect solution for something deep enough to hold the turkey plus the two gallons of brining solution-the refrigerator bin!  Thumbs up to Frigidaire for designing a plastic bin strong enough to hold that much weight.  It’s not quite deep enough, so the turkey is upside down so that the brine soaks mostly into the breast meat, we don’t care much if the bottom of the turkey isn’t brined.  Can you believe this is in our refrigerator?!?

TurkeyBrining

I know I”m posting this kind of late for those of you who might want to try this for yourselves, sorry about that. If you have soy sauce in the house and a container that’s big enough (or an empty refrigerator bin!), and you read this post early enough, get your turkey brining for as long as you can.  It really does improve the juiciness and flavor!

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

Wordless Wednesday-Turkey Hats from IZEA!

KaitlynHat

RyanIzeaHatLG


(hats provided in a Thanksgiving Postie Pack by IZEA – thanks!)

How many weeks until Christmas? FIVE

If you look at my Christmas Countdown ticker at the bottom of the right sidebar, it’s 31 days until Christmas. So I suppose mathematically, that’s four weeks plus a few days, but the way I look at it, there’s this whole week (Monday to Friday), and then four more weeks of Monday to Friday until Christmas. Okay, it’s weird math, but it’s MY weird math, LOL.

So, has anyone else started shopping for gifts? I’ve had three text documents saved since the beginning of last month, one for Kaitlyn, one for the boys, and one for Chris, and in each one, I make a note each time any of them say “you know what I’d like for Christmas?” Of course, Kaitlyn’s list changes pretty much daily, so anything she only mentioned once gets deleted from the list. The few things she’s mentioned over and over got bumped up to the top.

Last night I went to bed at about 11:30, and at 12:45 AM, I was still laying there wide awake. I realized that what I was thinking about was all of the people I’d like to give Christmas presents to, family as well as close friends. I was trying to think of a way that I could accomplish two goals: 1. find Cheap Christmas Gifts and 2. not have to run around to multiple stores dealing with huge crowds. What works best for me is coming up with one gift that works for everyone. So there I am at 12:45 in the morning, and I realized I had just thought of the PERFECT gift that works for everybody!

So, I jump out of bed, turn on the lamp, put on my glasses, pick up a pen off the floor, find a little notebook on my dresser, get back in bed, and start making a list of the families and friends I want to give gifts to.  I made that list, then I made a list of people to make sure to send Christmas cards to. I was done in about fifteen minutes, and when I finished, I put the pen and notebook down on my nightstand, took off my glasses, turned off the lamp, and fell sound asleep!  Apparently, all I need to be able to sleep is to write down all the thoughts swirling around in my head in a notebook!

Have you made your holiday gift list yet?  Done any shopping? Tell me in a comment what’s going on with you!

disclosure: this post contains a sponsored link

SHOPCOMSPONSORED

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

Tweet-a-Cause and Make A Wish!

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of LeapFish Inc. All opinions are 100% mine.

The Make-a-Wish foundation is the world’s largest wish-granting organization, and right now, they are trying to help make a wish come true for a sick little boy. Through Make-a-Wish’s Adopt-a-Wish program, a sponsor can “adopt” the wish and raise the money needed to grant it. To raise awareness of this program and get the social media community involved, LeapFish is sponsoring the Make-a-Wish Tweet-a-Cause.

The wish that LeapFish wants to grant is for four year old Jacob, who has Atresia, a rare and life-threatening illness. His wish is to go to Disneyland with his family. To help make his wish come true, search engine LeapFish partnered with Make-a-Wish and “adopted” Jacob’s wish. Their “Tweet-a-Cause” campaign gives five cents towards granting Jacob’s wish for each tweet sent through the LeapFish website. If you have your own Twitter account, please tweet the following message:

Just tweeted 2 grant a childs wish! #LeapFish donates to #makeawish foundation for each tweet. http://bit.ly/3Tj8A Please retweet!

Or, you can go to www.leapfish.com/MakeAWish and click the Tweet Now button. Your tweet will go out automatically, and LeapFish will donate five cents towards Jacob’s trip to Disneyland. Their goal is to raise $10,000 by November 27th, so please take a moment and go to the site to help!

SocialSpark Disclosure Badge

From clouds to sun to clouds again

Two weeks ago, I pulled myself out of the darkest place I had been in a long, long time, and called my doctor’s office for an appointment. I told first the nurse and then the doctor the same story-what I was feeling wasn’t my usual seasonal depression. I couldn’t sleep, or I slept too much. I was irritated by everything and everyone, all the time. And worst of all, for two weeks out of each of the previous three months, I had experienced PMS like nothing I had ever felt. I needed help.

Instead of re-prescribing Wellbutrin and Lexapro, she prescribed Venlafaxine, a generic form of the antidepressant Effexor.  That way, I would only have to take one pill once a day instead of two in the morning and one in the afternoon.  She handed me a sample pack with seven 37.5 mg.  pills and seven 75 mg. pills, and wrote me a prescription for six months of the 75 mg. dose.

The next morning, I took the first 37.5 mg. dose, and the next day and the next. By that third day, I realized that I felt, well, GOOD. I felt happy, and for me to feel happy for no reason is rare. I felt like getting off the couch and tackling cleaning projects, like taking Kaitlyn shopping, like getting dinner on the table by the time Chris got home. I felt AMAZING on that 37.5 mg. dose.

Then I started the second week at the 75 mg. dose. The first day, I noticed I was tired, yawning a lot. I’ve had an inconsistent sleeping schedule for years, so it’s not unusual for me to be tired during the day. The next day, I was still tired. By the third day, I was tired AND I felt irritated.  I stopped wanting to get off the couch.  It was like the cloud came back, and there was nothing I could do.

Last night, we took Kaitlyn out to eat for her birthday, then stopped at Macy’s to buy Chris a pair of pants. I had what I thought was a $50 gift card sent to me for hosting a giveaway. Kaitlyn would not behave in the store, she was running behind racks of clothes and then jumping out and yelling  BOO! for some reason.  Near where Chris was looking at pants, a lady was putting security tags on a rack of leather coats, and each tag had an alarm that she apparently had to test to make sure it worked. So, over and over, I was hearing this high-pitched screeching.  Kaitlyn wasn’t behaving, high-pitched screeching, Ryan was whining because he had homework to finish which he should have done after school instead of waiting until after dinner, oh, and at dinner, I was trying to take pictures but Nathan kept making faces and it was pissing me off.

Then I got to the register with Chris’ pants and a package of white tube socks for Ryan, well within the $50 limit of the gift card. The lady rings everything up and I hear her say something about $14.22.  I thought she was telling me that’s how much was left on the gift card, so I just stood there, waiting for her to hand me back the card. She said it again, $14.22.  I said great, I can buy a little something for myself- wait a minute, what?

What she was saying was that I OWED $14.22.  And in a flash I realized what had happened. The giveaway sponsor had sent me two gift cards- a $50 one for me, and a $25 one for the giveaway winner. There was nothing written on the outside of either card to indicate which was which. When I went to mail the card to the winner, I just grabbed one without remembering to check the balance.

I sent the giveaway winner the $50 card.  Which meant that not only did I pay out of pocket to mail her the card (I stuck it in a little box and paid for package tracking so I could be sure it would get there, $20.00), but it cost me $14.00 for a package of freaking SOCKS (what is up with that, Macy’s?).  That was pretty much the last straw for me.

Out in the parking lot, I started griping about messing up the gift cards, and how we had just spent $56.00 on dinner out, and now there went another $14.00, and Chris had just been paid that morning and we hadn’t even paid bills yet, and I was just stuck in this emotional place I couldn’t get out of.  Chris gave me a hug, and then said “maybe you should go back to that 37.5 mg. dose of that medication, it was working a lot better for you”. And I LOST IT.  We got into a stupid fight right there in the car, right in front of the kids.

When we got home, Chris let the kids into the house while I sat in the car, then he came back out and we sat in the car to talk. He told me that I wasn’t seeing how I was acting, but that my moods were swinging all over the place and that it was affecting everyone. There was more talking, and long story short, this morning I called the doctor’s office and left her a message that 75 mg. of this medication is making me WORSE than I was before it, and that I needed some help. I’m waiting to hear back on what she wants me to do.

I just want to feel happy again. I liked who I was when I was happy.

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

Happy 4th Birthday Kaitlyn!!

Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday to you!
Happy Birthday dear Kaitlyn,
Happy Birthday to you!

Four years ago today, my beautiful angel pumpkin princess Kaitlyn was born!

JustBornK

From the moment she came into our lives, she was the baby we didn’t know we needed to have until we had her, and then it was like “ahhhh….so that’s what we needed to be a complete family!”.   Chris, Ryan, Nathan and I fell completely in love with this tiny little girl.

Smiling K

It’s hard to describe Kaitlyn in just a few words. She is this bright ray of sunshine that has our family completely under her control. We are powerless to resist her adorableness, her hugs and kisses and the way she is always checking up on everyone to see what they are doing and if they are okay. She’s like a little Mommy already!

Little Mommy

So far today, she’s requested to watch Spongebob, she wants lunch at Arby’s, and I still need to wrap her gifts- a new family for her dollhouse and the Snow White doll that comes with the little animals. She already got a cake over the weekend at my parents house,  so we’ll probably go out for ice cream after dinner.

Kaitlyn with Braids

Happy Birthday my big four year old girl! I love you bunches and bunches and bunches!

Nestle announces Libby’s pumpkin shortage

Libby's Pumpkin Find
Image by Pumpkin Passion via Flickr

When I visited the Nestle Culinary Center this past April,  I learned that one of the brands under the Nestle label is Libby’s canned pumpkin. Today, I received this press release from Nestle Baking announcing that due to weather problems, there will be a shortage of Libby’s Pumpkin on store shelves! Once the current supply runs out, there won’t be any more until the next harvest.  I’m posting the press release here so that those of you who rely on Libby’s pumpkin for your holiday baking can get to the store and buy what you need before it runs out!

Press Release:

With Thanksgiving only a week away, many will be heading to their local grocery store to stock up on pumpkin products for the holiday although buyer, be forewarned, there may be a shortage this year. Nestle Baking today announced that it expects a shortage of LIBBY’S Pumpkin on store shelves as the country enters the holiday season.

Harvest generally begins in late August and continues until all the pumpkins are picked. This year, heavy rains saturated the pumpkin fields, making it nearly impossible for tractors and other equipment to operate. Agricultural experts evaluate the crop conditions throughout the season and monitor the quality of the fruit during harvest. Currently, an acre of pumpkins sit unharvested in Morton, Illinois – the “pumpkin capital of the world.” The longer the pumpkins sit in these muddy fields, the more likely it is the quality of the pumpkin has declined. Officials have determined that pumpkin which fails to meet quality standards will be plowed under, once the fields dry, to enrich the soil for the 2010 season.

As a result of the weather and the company’s commitment to picking and packing only quality fruit, the 2009 inventory of canned pumpkin will be smaller than planned. Nestle is continuing to ship the last of the already canned inventory. When it’s gone, there will be no more pumpkin available until the 2010 harvest.

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

It’s How Many Weeks Until Christmas? – FIVE

Yikes! It’s only five weeks until Christmas! It’s probably too late to start putting $50 a paycheck into a Christmas Club account at the credit union, right? Dang it.  Every single year, I tell myself that NEXT year, I’m going to start saving right away, and every single year…I don’t.    A couple of years ago, Chris and I instituted a policy that each kid gets two gifts – one from us and one from Santa – but I almost always break that rule by sneaking in a few extra gifts here and there. I can’t help it! I just love that look on their faces Christmas morning when they see the packages under the tree.

I haven’t even thought about gifts for my parents, my brother, Chris’ sister, all of their kids, our Grandparents.  And now I just realized I haven’t even thought about Christmas CARDS…GAHHHHH.   I’ll just try to forget the fact that last year, we posed for a Christmas card, I got a bunch of photo cards printed out at Walgreens, and then NEVER SENT THEM. Ahem.

So I decided I’d better find a way to get organized, so I did some Googling. Here’s some links I found that might help me (and you!) stay on top of everything between now and Christmas:

Six Week Christmas Countdown from Organized Christmas (okay, so we’ll have to skip ahead :) )

Facebook Christmas Countdown App  (38 DAYS? Somehow five weeks sounded longer, yeeesh!)

WordPress Christmas Countdown Plugin

How about all of you? Have you started shopping for gifts? Thought about cards? FIVE WEEKS UNTIL CHRISTMAS!

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]