Power a Bright Future

PSA Comments Off

Aug 122010

I was very fortunate to attend BlogHer ’10 this past weekend, and meet so many wonderful people. I also learned about a great many products and projects that are taking place and one of the ones I wanted to share with you, my readers, is Clorox’s Power a Bright Future grant contest.

Imagine a world without school sports, music or arts programs. Recently, nationwide budget cuts threaten to make this a reality. The Clorox Company understands that these programs can be critical to a child’s educational experience, building both academic and social skills. As part of the brand’s long-term commitment to schools and keeping children’s futures happy, healthier and shining bright, Clorox is launching the 2010 Power A Bright Future grant contest to help fund these vital school programs.

About the Power A Bright Future Grant Program

Power A Bright Future is a grant program aimed at providing necessary resources to help support school programs that enrich kids’ lives.

As part of Power A Bright Future, Clorox is calling on individuals to nominate schools in need for a chance to win a $50,000 grand-prize grant or one of three $20,000 grants to help provide critically needed resources to schools programs that enrich kids’ lives and create brighter futures.

In November, four schools will be chosen to receive grants and the opportunity to impact the lives of children in their communities.

How can I get involved?

There are two ways to get involved – by nominating a school program or by voting for your favorite nomination.

To nominate your school, visit www.clorox.com from August 12 to September 27, 2010 and upload a photo and a short summary of how the grant would be used. Choose one of three categories that best represents the program: Learn, Play or Create.
- Learn: Education-focused programs (e.g. establishing a school recycling program)
- Play: Sports and exercise-focused programs (e.g. building a playground)
- Create: Arts-focused programs (e.g. funding an after-school music program)
Once nominations are closed, visit www.clorox.com from October 5 to November 1 to vote for your favorite program. It is up to America to choose the winner!
- The program that receives the highest number of votes will be awarded the $50,000 grand-prize grant; the next top three vote-getters will each be awarded a $20,000 grant. The final Power A Bright Future grant winners will be announced on or around December 8.
To increase your favorite program’s chances of winning, vote early and often! Also, visit www.clorox.com for more information about the instant win games.

DISCLOSURE: As noted, I attended Clorox’s 2010 BlogHer session where I received free product samples and giveaways.

This giveaway has ended. See below for winner.

I seldom buy frozen “meals” – mainly because one package doesn’t feed my family of 5. But there are times when I do buy something that will only feed the two of us who eat seafood – my 7 yr old daughter & I. So when I was asked to take a look at P.F. Chang’s Home Menu frozen entrees, I said yes.

I choose the Shrimp in Garlic Sauce because – well, yum – who can pass up garlic AND shrimp in one meal, right?

I decided to prepare it on a night when I was pressed for time, but needed something that would fill us up. We were getting ready to go to the county fair, and you KNOW how expensive it is to eat at those places, so I needed something filling and fast – and easy as possible.

You cannot GET much easier than “open package and pour into a skillet”. That’s ALL you do. You cook it on medium-high heat for 10 minutes – and I have to say, the ingredients had my mouth watering. The vegetables – peapods, water chestnuts, peppers and carrots looked SO fresh! The shrimp looked delicious – and in 15 minutes, it was DONE!

I’d also prepared some stir-fry noodles to go with it, and threw them in at the last minute to coat with the yummy garlic sauce. We went to town! It was delicious. The vegetables held up to the heat and didn’t get all mushy, like some frozen meals I’ve used in the past. The shrimp was tender and the sauce itself was good – not too spicy, not too sweet. Best of all, it didn’t taste like a frozen meal at all. It tasted like take-out.

They take about 10-12 minutes to cook in a skillet without the addition of any other ingredients and there are eight varieties available including General Chang’s Chicken, Orange Chicken, Shanghai Style Beef, Shrimp in a Garlic Sauce, Shrimp Lo Mein, Sweet & Sour Chicken, Ginger Chicken & Broccoli and Beef with Broccoli.

Some company facts

Created with the expert chefs at P.F. Chang’s China Bistro® and produced and distributed by Unilever, P.F. Chang’s Home Menu is a new line of premium Asian frozen entrées that captures the bold flavors associated with P.F. Chang’s. With P.F. Chang’s Home Menu, fans of P.F. Chang’s can now conquer their cravings for its signature Asian cuisine at home, when they can’t get to a restaurant.

Made with high-quality ingredients and featuring intense flavors, the bold, frozen meals for two are convenient and easy to prepare, going from the skillet to a succulent restaurant-quality meal at home in just minutes.

Where can you get some?

You can pick up P. F. Chang Home Menu frozen entrees in your local market in the frozen meals section, but even better is that I have a coupon for a FREE P. F. Chang Home Menu frozen entree for one of my lucky readers.

Win!

Winning is easy, of course.

For each step you choose to complete, leave a separate comment. On August 20, I will draw a winner through random.com from all qualified entries.

Go to P. F. Chang’s website and browse the delicious options they offer. Then come back here and comment with the variety you’d choose, and who you would share it with.
Google friend connect me
“Like” my page over there on my sidebar
Tweet this giveaway by clicking on the Twitter birdie right here.

Do one, do all, it’s up to you!

Note: I received a sample of the dinner described above in the form of a coupon.

and the winner is………………………………

Commenter # 12, Sandra! I’ll be emailing you!

Thanks for entering

This year, for the FIRST time ever, I am going to be attending the mega-huge blogging conference, BlogHer. It’s a big step for me, one that I’ve had to really think about and decide if I really – really felt that spending that kind of money was *worth* the effort and time away from the family (who are we kidding?). But seriously, $200 just for the conference pass (that includes cocktail parties, too!) – another $200 for hotel (and requires me to room with THREE other women whom I do not know!), another $80ish for train/taxi fees, and I haven’t even mentioned clothes, business cards, meals that aren’t included, postage to send my stuff home, etc.etc.

Following in the footsteps of some very smart women, though, I am seeking some sponsorship partners to help me attend the conference without breaking my very small bank account. The sponsor(s) will be listed on my business cards, as well as on the bottom of every post I write both here and at Coming to a Nursery Near You for all BlogHer related posts. Oh – and PRIME real estate over there on the side bar!

While attending BlogHer, I plan on attending several parties on Thursday, Friday AND Saturday nights, as well as partaking in all that the conference has to offer in terms of networking, networking and networking! So I fully plan on handing out every single one of those business cards (hey, anyone want to SPONSOR the cards? )!

Seriously, as a mom on a shoestring budget that is what this blog runs on, I am really looking forward to the incredible opportunities to grow my blog as only a blogging conference can offer. So if you are a PR person who has something to offer, I’d love to hear from you. I’m all ears, and SOOOOO excited!!

S’MORES, of course!

When we moved to West Virginia last year, one of the first things we did was buy one of those firepit things for the back yard. It’s our first backyard, afterall, so we wanted to enjoy it fully!

So now, every time we have a fire, my kids ask me to make s’mores. How can I say no?

It’s such a simple request, really. All I need is some Hershey chocolate, marshmallows and graham crackers – and they’re on their way to JOY!

LOL

My kids get to roasting their marshmallows while I prepare the crackers and chocolate. I use one square per cracker, because I am FRUGAL and like to make things last. They (murder) toast their marshmallows and then bring them to me when they’re still nice and hot, so it will melt the chocolate and then I squish it all together with the 2nd cracker. They they snatch it out of my hands and gobble it up! I maybe – MAYBE – get one or two but they can plow through the entire bag of marshmallows in less than an hour (if I let them). It’s a fun time and they love it!

Mom Bloggers Club wants to know what YOUR favorite way to make s’mores is (and this post is an entry)! Visit them here, and of course, be sure to visit http://www.smoressmiles.com/ where you can instantly win 1 of thousands of prizes!

Stinky Kitty no more

Product Review Comments Off

May 032010

I love having cats. I *hate* having cat boxes. It doesn’t matter how much you clean them – unless you do it every time they use it, it’s gonna stink.

We have 2 cats. That means we have TWICE the stink. So when I was offered the chance to review a product that promised to take the stink away, well – I was dubious to say the least. Nothing short of sending someone over to change the box every hour or so would help, I thought.

In walked Clean+Green Litter Box Refresher into my life. Ok, another spray. True. But one day, after complaining to my son – WHOSE JOB IT IS TO CHANGE THE BOX – to go CHANGE THE BOX, I walked out into the kitchen and there was no stink. So I said “Thank you for changing the box”, and he replied “I didn’t. I used that stuff”.

Seriously – I’m not making this up. No more stinky cat. No more smelly catbox. I looked in the box. Sure enough, HE HAD NOT CHANGED IT (grrr) – but there was no stink. I was sold. Designed to work on contact, it is fragrance free (thankfully), and cleans and eliminates odors in the litter and litter box. But here’s the best part. It uses ALL NATURAL ingredients in doing so. In a household where I have 3 children and 2 pets, all natural is what appealed to me most of all.

Works Instantly and Easily
All Natural Ingredients
Powerful and Effective
Safe for Pets, People and the Planet

There was another product, though, that I was sent to review along with Clean+Green Litter Box – CLEAN+GREEN – Carpet & Upholstery for Cats.

$Capturefile: D:\Program Files\Capture One\Captures\SeaYu\C+G_SY-29.tif CaptureSN: BT000121.008835 Software: Capture One PRO for Windows$ This one promised to take care of stains. Every rug in our house is this cream/tan color. Therefore, every rug has one stain or another, either from the cats or the kids. Sure enough, after a rather unfortunate incident involving cats and well… a stain on the floor, I grabbed the can of and, following the directions, sprayed as though the cats lives depended on it – and in a way, it did) – by the time hubby came home, the stain was gone.

So that was pretty cool – but here’s an even cooler – nay- AWESOMER example of it’s cleaning power.

One morning, my youngest (who was 2 at the time) had wandered into the kitchen before coming in to say hi to me when he got up. He came in to say hi to me CARRYING A CONTAINER OF SPAGHETTI SAUCE. You guessed it. It fell. On. the. rug. The rug that carries a very hefty damage deposit on it. I was beside myself, because obviously we can NOT afford to lose that security deposit because I wasn’t paying attention to my toddler!

I had made this sauce from scratch, so I knew there was also hamburger fat in there from the meatballs, along with the very heavy tomato sauce. I was in trouble. BIG trouble.

First, I grabbed a warm towel and some dish washing liquid. That didn’t work. Then I grabbed the scrub brush. That didn’t work. Finally, I grabbed the Clean+Green Carpet & Upholstery cleaner and sprayed as my last hope. It took some of the stain out, but by then, I was resigned to being out another thousand dollars.

It wasn’t until later – when hubby came home and the stain, although lighter, was still there that I realized I really was in trouble.

A few days later, I walked into my room. I walked back out and back in, trying to figure out what was different.

Then I yelled for my oldest son. HE couldn’t believe it. I couldn’t believe it. The stain – there was actually 4 or 5 different spots where the sauce had literally BOUNCED out of the container – they were all gone. G O N E. Talk about a lifesaver! Talk about AMAZING. I’d even considered taking pictures of the stain to blog about it, but after I saw that it wasn’t working, I didn’t want to be reminded. Now I’m sorry I didn’t because it was a great example of a product in action.

As far as I’m concerned, Clean+Green products will be in my arsenal for years to come. Being an all natural solution to just a few of life’s sticky, stinky problems is what got it in the door – but being an EFFECTIVE solution is what will keep it in my cupboard.

You can find Clean+Green products – of which there are actually 6, formulated for different problems and pets, here – and also at retailers. Right now, they have a $5 rebate on the website just for trying it! You can’t lose!

Disclosure:

My special thanks to Kel & Partners for this opportunity. I received 1 can each of Clean & Green Litter Box Refresher and Clean & Green Carpet & Upholstery cleaner to review.

Dawniemom

Power a Bright Future

P.F. Chang Home Menu – a review – giveaway closed.

Some company facts

Where can you get some?

Win!

BlogHer '10, Here I come! (final call for sponsors)

What’s better than a campfire?

Stinky Kitty no more

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