A Mama's Rant

Easter Giveaway: Alvin and the Chipmunks and My Little Pony Live

I’m doing a Easter giveaway contest thanks to Paramount Home Entertainment and Click Communications.

One person can win two videos:

• My Little Pony Live: The World's Biggest Tea Party. The video comes with a Pinkie Pie Pony and a stage!
• Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Mystery of the Easter Chipmunk

These would make terrific Easter presents for your daughter, son, grandchild, niece and/or nephew.

Here’s how to enter my giveaway:

1. Leave your name, email address, and blog address (if you have one) in the comments below for ONE entry.
2. If you have a blog, post about this contest for ONE additional entry.
3. Spread the word about this giveaway, by posting the link to this post on StumbleUpon, Digg, Kirtsy, or Twitter. You must leave your username for that site in your comment so I can check. ONE entry per submission or vote for a maximum of FOUR.
4. Sign up for my RSS feed for ONE entry. If you signed up for my RSS feed previously, just let me know and I’ll count it.
5. Follow me on Twitter.
6. If you have signed up for my RSS feed, followed me on Twitter, and/or posted about my contest on your blog or on a social media site, come back here and leave a comment telling me what you did. I will be checking! 
7. Maximum amount of entries at A Mama’s Rant is EIGHT – leaving a comment here (1), posting about it on your blog (1), signing up for my RSS feed (1), using social media (4), and following me on Twitter (1).
8. You have until midnight MT April 3, 2009 to enter.

Taking the doubt out of being sick - the Exergen TemporalScanner™ infrared thermometer

Occasionally, a new children’s health product comes out that I wished I had when my kids were toddlers. The Exergen TemporalScanner™ is one of them.

The Exergen TemporalScanner is the world’s first infrared thermometer designed to measure body temperature by taking a reading from the temporal artery. (The temporal artery runs across the forehead and is directly connected to the heart via the carotid artery.)

An infrared sensor accurately registers body temperature to within +0.2º F and is much more accurate than using an oral, rectal, axillary (under the arm) and tympanic (in the ear) thermometer.

Have you ever stuck a tympanic thermometer in a child’s ear when they had an ear infection? Ouch! Exergen TemporalScanner is the least invasive method of taking a temperature. All you have to do is gently sweep it over your child’s forehead. You can even take their temperature without waking them.

The test from the Black Lagoon

We just went through our first CSAP testing rounds and are glad that it is over.

I say we because they were a bit of a family project. Still, the whole process was ridiculous and nerve wracking at the same time.

You can read more about it at Working hard or hardly working? Parenting in the time of CSAPs, my latest post at the Rocky Mountain Moms Blog.

Brighten your smile with Crest Whitestrips Advanced Seal

I received a sample box of the new Crest Whitestrips Advanced Seal. I was interested in trying them out after seeing the product mentioned in Oprah’s magazine earlier this year. I’m also one of those people who notice other’s smiles. It really, really bothers me when people have stained teeth, and as a soda and tea drinker I’m concerned that my smile isn’t its brightest.

Crest Whitestrips Advanced Seal: my review

The strips were easy to peel off their backing and molded easily to my teeth. They didn’t slip and taking them off was easy. I could talk on the phone while I wore them. It was easy to work and do other things while I used the strips – I hardly noticed that I was wearing them.

There was little to clean up – just the strips and the little pouch they came in. And the taste wasn’t too bad either.

After trying them for three days, I could tell that there was a difference. I was skeptical, but my teeth were indeed whiter. The only problem I had with them is that my teeth were slightly more sensitive, but only on the evening of the treatment and for a short time. (Odd, I know.) This is a known side effect of teeth whitening and doesn’t happen to everyone.

Make your home movies look professional with muvee Reveal

I’ve always been one of those moms who takes oodles of pictures and videos of the kids, download them to my computer, and then never do anything with them. I don’t upload them for my family and friends to see, I rarely make prints, and scrapbook album making online or off is so not my thing. Figures that my wedding photos from 15 years ago are still in the box and not in an album.

Now that I’ve discovered muvee Reveal thanks to a review copy from Family Review Network, I no longer have an excuse. Instead, I now have software that easily combines MP3 music files with videos and pictures to make pretty darn professional looking movies.

Here’s a sample, "Just an old cowpoke... National Western Stockshow 2006, Stick Horse Rodeo":

Call Poison Control from the car with OnStar

I thought this would be of interest to any of you who have OnStar in your car.

Donate your old phone and help a victim of domestic violence

With all the hoopla surrounding Rihanna and her abuser boyfriend, Chris Brown (and the fact that she used her cellphone to call her assistant who called police) recycling your old cellphone through Verizon Wireless’ HopeLine® program seems timely.

HopeLine collects old wireless phones, batteries and accessories in any condition from any wireless service provider. Proceeds from the program are used to provide wireless phones and cash grants to local shelters and non-profit organizations that focus on domestic violence prevention and awareness. 

Two convenient ways to donate a phone to HopeLine

• Drop off your phone at any Verizon Wireless Communications Store. Find the nearest store by visiting the Verizon Store Locator.
• Print out a Verizon Wireless Hopeline postage-paid label and adhere it to a box/envelope. Please be sure to review all shipping instructions carefully and include a return address on the label.

So, open the junk drawers, check in your closets and please let others know if they donate their old cell phones it can mean hope and new beginnings to a survivor of domestic violence.

Buy a T-shirt and help Tide give Loads of Hope

Support Tide Loads of Hope by buying a Tide Vintage Tee. All profits go to support families affected by disaster.

I’m a huge believer in taking a lemon of a situation and making something good out of it. So I love when companies think the same way. In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, the need for clean clothing became critical, and Tide found a way to help. So in November 2005, the Tide Loads of Hope truck headed to Camp Hope in the Metairie, LA area and cleaned over 10,000 loads of laundry. The spirit of this first venture informs and inspires everything Tide Loads of Hope program does.

How Tide Loads of Hope works

Tide Loads of Hope helps in the aftermath of a natural disaster by providing clean clothes and a sense of comfort to families in need. Partnering with Feeding America, they travel to disaster affected neighborhoods with the Tide Loads of Hope truck or vans, their free mobile laundry service.

The Tide Loads of Hope truck has 32 high-efficiency washers and dryers and can do 300 wash and dry cycles a day. They use Tide Loads of Hope trucks during massive disasters where electricity is unavailable in the region, and will wash about 9,000 loads of laundry over a four-week period.

In partnership with local laundromats, the Tide Loads of Hope vans provide free laundry service at the same load rate as the trucks. The vans are used during disasters where communities have a source of electricity,

To date, Tide Loads of Hope has washed more than 35,000 loads of laundry for over 20,000 families. Most importantly, the Tide Loads of Hope program means we're equipped to take action whenever and wherever there is a need in our country.

We have winners in the Writer Mama and EyeBuyDirect.com giveaways

Congratulations to Bing who won the free pair of eyeglasses from EyeBuyDirect.com. It’s a great company, so if you where eyeglasses, check' ‘em out.

Congratulations to Jo of Jo’s Blog Spot who won the signed, numbered copy of Writer Mama by Christina Katz.

And don’t forget, I’m giving away a free Tuscani Lasagna from Pizza Hut. This contest ends TONIGHT at midnight and the lasagna is worth every bite!

The Writer Mama Two-Year Anniversary Blog Tour Giveaway! Leave a comment, get a free book

I’m participating in Christina Katz’s Writer Mama Two-Year Anniversary blog tour and giveaway. I’ve been a big admirer of Christina and enjoyed both of her books, Writer Mama: How to Raise a Writing Career Alongside Your Kids and Get Known Before The Book Deal: Use Your Personal Strengths To Grow An Author Platform. If you’re a mom starting out on your freelance writing journey or want to get a book deal, her books are must reads.

Today's Book Drawing at The Writer Mama

To enter to win a signed, numbered copy of Writer Mama: How to Raise a Writing Career Alongside Your Kids, answer the following question in the comments below:

On a scale of one to 10, with one being not afraid of editors at all and 10 being very afraid of editors, how does your editor-phobia rank? If you've recovered from editor-phobia, please share your experience.

Only US residents, or folks with a US mailing address can participate in the drawing. Please only enter once per day.

Now, a guest post from Christina about editor phobia

Before I tell you how my first book proposal went for me, I want to touch briefly on the topic of editor-phobia. A lot of writers have editor-phobia, not just writer mamas. And this is a topic we go into in my writing classes because the phenomenon is so common.

What’s editor-phobia? It’s an excessive fear of having your writing judged and edited by publishing industry gatekeepers (aka editors). What I’ve noticed in my classes is that writers’ attitudes towards editors are usually on a spectrum. They go all the way from a fairly detached, professional attitude to a fairly emotional, fearful perception of editors as enemies.