June – 2010 – Frugal Novice

Hotel Valencia – Review & Giveaway

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Brian and I have date nights on a pretty regular basis… if sitting at home, cuddled up on the couch counts as a date. But a real date night out? It’s been a while. Getting to review the Hotel Valencia provided us with the opportunity for just that.

The hotel is located along the San Antonio Riverwalk, which, if you haven’t been, is a great getaway location with a lot to do.

The attention to service is apparent from the moment you walk in the door – or really, as you walk up. Bob rushed over to grab the door for us, greeting us with a smile. At check in, Lisa was pleasant and efficient, pointing out features of the hotel and where they were located. Within an hour of check in, I received an email from Robert, the Director of Operations, thanking us for choosing their hotel and letting me know I could email him or call the front desk if I had any problems. This level of service is not something I’ve encountered often at a hotel, and it made an impression. Continue Reading…

Wanchai Ferry Winner!

Congratulations to Cindi! She won the VIP coupon for a free Wanchai Ferry meal and two tea sets!

Thanks to everyone who entered. If you didn’t win, don’t worry – I’m about to post another great giveaway you have the chance to win!

VTech V.Reader Review & Giveaway

We’re a pretty tech-friendly family, I’d say – we love our gadgets! So, when VTech sent us the new V.Reader and extra software to review, I think I was almost as excited as J was when it arrived. The V. Reader is a new animated e-reader system for kids aged 3-7 – it’s like a Kindle for kids.

The V.Reader is about the size of a paperback book, and it has a clear cover that can be folded all the way back when not in use.

I like the option of having the cover (especially when it’s small children that’ll be using this!) but also that it can easily be tucked out of the way, held in place with a small magnet. Even when the cover is closed, you’re still able to use the buttons at the bottom to turn pages of the books. There’s also a stylus contained at the bottom of the V.Reader for use on the touch screen – fingers work, too, though! Continue Reading…

Menu Plan Monday – Week of June 28

So, it’s summer, and I really thought that would mean things would feel like they were running at a slower pace. Not the case, my friends! I feel like we’ve been going nonstop lately – all with fun things, so I can’t complain – but I think this is the third week in a row that I’ve started to work on my menu plan and thought, “Man, I’m tired. I want an easy menu this week!” Do you ever have months like that? I was about to say, “Hopefully I’m not the only one!” but then I guess that would mean I’m wishing tiredness upon you, ha. :)

I am trying two new recipes this week! I’m excited to have two meals to try. Both sound really good and really easy (ok, I’m using italics a lot this week… that must be the tired part of me wishing I could lean over, too… and fall asleep).

Monday: We’re trying my friend Amber’s quasi-lasagna. Just click on her name to pop over to her blog and check out how easy it is. You might want to give it a try, too! I got some baby greens and will make a simple salad to go with it. Continue Reading…

Friendly Friday – June 25

Hi, and welcome to Friendly Friday!

Remember, YOU can host the link list on your blog too! Just click “Get the code here…” at the bottom of the list. Hosting the list is a great way to get even more traffic to your blog and make Friendly Friday even more beneficial for everyone.

Thanks for joining the Friendly Friday celebration hosted by Christi at Frugal Novice, Xenia at Thanks, Mail Carrier and Charla at Healthy Home Blog! We invite you to join us every Friday to make more friends in blogville, get more blog followers and follow other great blogs out there.

To join in the Friendly Friday celebration, include your link in our list, follow the hostesses in the first 3 spots and then start blog hopping! Visit other blogs on the list and comment to give them some blog love. Then take a minute to follow them through Google Friend Connect – this is a good way to keep up with other blogs, but also lets us show support to each other! Please DO NOT list your giveaways here, links must be to either your homepage or your Friday posting. All others will be deleted.

When people comment on your blog and let you know they’re a part of Friendly Friday, return the favor and follow them back. This way everyone gets traffic and followers out of participating, and it’s a win-win situation. We would love for you to also grab our Friendly Friday button and post it on your blog and/or in a post – the more bloggers that find out about Friendly Friday and participate, the better!

Spotlight on Friendly Friday Followers!

We love your participation and want to show it! In addition to gaining followers, each week we’ll select three blogs at random and will feature links and a write-up for those blogs in the content of next week’s Friendly Friday post. There are so many seriously wonderful blogs out there, and this will be a great way to highlight some of those each week. Say hello to the lucky chosen 3 for this week (and feel free to stop by and give them a little extra love):

Do you have Blogmania? Ally at The Mommy Diaries does! She’s hosting an event in September called Blogmania, filled with lots of giveaways. Ally is the mom to an adorable little girl that she shares photos of from time to time. She also posts product reviews and giveaways on a regular basis. If you visit her blog, you’ll see that it looks like a desk any one of us might sit at – nice and cozy!

Danelle at Mom Outnumbered is the mom to three boys and is the only female in her house – she’s definitely outnumbered! Her blog is a fun look into her always-eventful life – from getting glasses, to hiking, to cooking together, to finding fun things to do as a family. Her posts are always filled with vibrant photos and are fun to read.

Krysta at Learning Coupons is a 22-year-old college student with a love of coupons. After all, who appreciates the need for saving money better than a college student? She has learned to use coupons and sales to get food for free – something I’d love to get better at. Krysta shares her grocery store bargain finds with us, and also provides helpful links to resources for samples and coupons.

Now that you know about these 3 wonderful blogs, it’s time for you to join in! Add your link below and we’ll see you back here every Friday! And don’t forget, you can grab the code to share the link list on your blog too.

We appreciate followers through GFC and Twitter, and we’ll follow you back – just leave a comment with your URL and/or Twitter username. Have a great weekend, everyone!

Hasbro Game Night – and a Giveaway!

Last week, through HouseParty.com, I was given the opportunity to host a Hasbro Game Night at our house. It was a lot of fun! About two weeks before the party was supposed to take place, they sent me a “party pack.” It had three board games in it – Trivial Pursuit Bet You Know It (a new game that will be released in August), Taboo, and Electronic Catch Phrase. It also had six boxes of assorted variety Triscuits & Wheat Thins, a bag of Hershey’s Dark Chocolate Pieces, and coupons to give our guests. I really was surprised when such a huge box arrived on our doorstep. Continue Reading…

Then and Now

My house used to be spotless almost all the time. Honest. Brian and I had always been pretty minimalist by nature, enjoying the serenity of an uncluttered atmosphere.

When I got pregnant with J, I remember setting up his nursery just so. It was perfect, I thought, and I could just imagine him sitting peacefully in his beautiful crib, after I dressed him in an outfit pulled from his perfectly organized (by style and by type of outfit) closet.

Then he was born. Those first few months, when he wasn’t mobile yet, our house still felt the same. We’d pull out toys for him to play with, then tuck them neatly away once we were done. Even the big swing could be folded and propped against the wall, out of the way. I felt pretty triumphant, honestly – See, I thought, I can have a child and still be organized! I don’t know who I was proclaiming this to – myself, I guess – but I took a sense of pride in knowing that I could do this mom thing and still be that organized person I was pre-children.

J is now almost three, and if you saw our house today you wouldn’t believe we were the same people from the house several years back. As I turn away from the computer now, I see a floor littered with LEGOs. A large truck lays overturned near my feet, and board books are piled haphazardly right near the bookshelf from which they were pulled.

C is completely mobile now, running all over the place, and his & J’s main goal each day seems to be to have as many toys out at once as possible. Brian and I can get the living room completely clean at night only for it to return to a disastrous state minutes after the boys are up and going.

I couldn’t tell you exactly when this shift in our living style changed – somewhere between the mobility of J and the birth of C, I guess. If I could have seen into the future from those pre-kids days, I think I’d be aghast at the state of our house. But now? I’ll admit, I have days where the clutter drives me nuts. I’m still that organized person by nature. The majority of the time, though, I can look around at the chaos and smile.

Those LEGOs on the floor? Those make me think about the boys playing together and actually sharing, hopefully starting a brotherly bond that will last them a lifetime. That overturned truck? It reminds me of the creative little boy who decided our living room was a jungle for the truck to explore. That pile of books? They bring to mind all the nights of sitting with the boys snuggled in our laps reading together before bedtime.

When the boys are grown, I’m sure my house will be neat once again. But I am pretty sure that when that time comes, I’ll sorely miss the cluttered living room, the sound of little feet scurrying around the house, and the laughter that accompanies it all. If you asked me now, I’d choose a messy house any day.

EatSmart Digital Food Scale – Review & Giveaway

If you read my post yesterday (which I’m sure you all did, riggghhhhht?), did you guess what I’d be posting about today? Brian and I have talked about getting a food scale on several occasions, so I was pretty excited when the opportunity arose to review the EatSmart scale.

Some people like to use a food scale in order to keep track of precise portions for calorie counting, and our scale actually came with a booklet to help you calculate the calories in different amounts of food. For instance – 140 grams of unpeeled potatoes has 107.8 calories. If you’re dieting, this is valuable information for keeping track of how many calories you consume each day.

For us, though, we really wanted a food scale for when we bake (not saying I shouldn’t be counting calories… that is an entirely different post!) because we’d heard that gives you a much more accurate amount than measuring by volume. Here’s a great article I found that explains the reasoning behind that.

When I received the EatSmart scale, I liked it aesthetically right off the bat. It’s small, sleek, and silver. It won’t take up much counter space, and it blends with the look of everything else we have going on in our kitchen. It’s also battery-operated (it came with the batteries), so there’s no clutter from a cord.

Menu Plan Monday – June 21-26

I can’t believe it’s already Monday again. Did you have a good Father’s Day? We had a nice, relaxing day. I got up and made a big breakfast, and on a Sunday morning that means getting up really early to have enough time before church. J drew on the card, and “wrote” Daddy on it – he was very proud of himself. We spent most of the day just hanging around the house, playing with the boys. What did you do?

On to the menu for the week. Continue Reading…

Honest Tea Review & Giveaway

First of all, Happy National Iced Tea Month! I am personally a year-round tea drinker, but I’ll be sure to “sacrifice” and drink some extra tea throughout the rest of the month. According to the Tea Association of the USA, Inc., tea is nearly 5,000 years old. It was discovered in 2737BC. Iced tea is just a tad bit younger – it’s 106 years old as of June 1st!

Friendly Friday – June 17

Hi, and welcome to Friendly Friday!

Spotlight on Friendly Friday Followers!

Is there a mom out there that doesn’t feel like she’s trying to figure out how to do it all? At A Mom’s Balancing Act, Jenna and her adorable children give their honest, well-written opinions on products and services for parents, children and babies. Not to mention coupons, deal and money-saving tips that everyone can use and enjoy. You won’t want to miss the huge array of wonderful reviews and giveaways that are going on, especially right now during Jenna’s Gearing Up For Summer event!

How often do your kids say, “Ewww… is that for dinner?” In a quest to create more edible-looking meals for her children, The Bush League Cook was started to document one mom’s life and cooking experiences. Mixed in with her tasty-looking recipes and Profound Conversations that she has with her children (which are quite humorous), you’ll find her 100 Cooking Goals, many of which I would also like to try… particularly the completion of #87: Serve banana splits for breakfast. Yum!

There’s no way to visit Aubut Family and not leave with a smile on your face. Cassandra shares everything about life with her fun kids to random facts about herself to touring her gorgeous Arizona home to her love of pink and animal prints. You also can’t miss the long list of great reviews and giveaways going on and with Cassandra’s humorous and personal writing style, you’ll want to return just to see what product or post she is sharing with her readers next!

We appreciate followers through GFC and Twitter, and we’ll follow you back – just leave a comment with your URL and/or Twitter username. Have a great weekend, everyone!

Wanchai Ferry Review & Giveaway

I’ve mentioned before how much Brian and I like Asian food, I’m sure, and that there aren’t really any great restaurants in town so we usually have to make it at home to get what we like. Well, when MyBlogSpark offered me the opportunity to try the new Wanchai Ferry Beef & Broccoli frozen meal, I thought it was a great chance to find another Asian meal option we could have at home.

The package says it’s a complete meal for two – it provides a package of Jasmine rice to steam in the microwave, a pouch of sauce, and then of course the main portion of the meal – beef strips, broccoli florets, red peppers, and water chestnuts. The total prep time for this meal was only about 10 minutes, which was really nice. I also only used one skillet to prepare the meal, so that made cleanup great too. Continue Reading…

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June 2010