Today is the last day to sign up for my EcoSMART safe pest control bundle giveaway! Be sure to enter for your chance to win!

I hate bugs. HATE them. Even thinking about them while typing this gives me chills.

But, I love the peace of mind that comes from knowing I’m not exposing my kids to tons of dangerous poisons so (despite how much I loathe creepy crawly creatures) two years ago we cancelled our pest control service. We did it partially because it was expensive but mostly because the idea of all those toxic chemicals around my babies freaked me out. I considered other options but ultimately I’d pretty much just given up on the idea of having a safe pest control option for our house.

And that is problematic because those creepy crawly creatures I hate? They love to live in this old house of ours. Whether it is spiders or ants or the especially horrible Palmetto bugs (a.k.a. Giant Flying Tree Roaches) they always manage to find their way into our house during the warm weather months.

But, all hope is not lost because I was really excited to learn about EcoSMART pest control for the home. EcoSMART offers a variety of solutions for pests inside and outside the home which I love since I can rid my house of those aforementioned crawling bugs of terror and something to rid my garden of the pests that target our vegetables. Their products use organic plant oils that targets systems which exist in insects only and leave other animals, birds, fish and (most importantly) your family safe from dangerous toxins.

Now, for the really exciting part. EcoSMART has offered to give one very lucky reader the pest control Value Bundle of their choice! Whether you need roach killer, garden pesticides or natural ant killer they’ve got what you need. To enter click over to the EcoSMART site and check out the value bundles they offer. Come back and leave me a comment letting me know which one you’d pick and be sure to include contact info or a link back to your info!

Comments will close Monday, March 29th @ 11:00 p.m. EST and the giveaway is open to all residents of the continental United States. Good luck!

Thanks so much for all the entries to the Start an Uproar giveaway! You guys did so much Twittering and Facebooking and commenting to make it a success! I decided to let the girls draw the winners of the “Start an Uproar” giveaway because they’re so much cuter than the Random Number Generator. So, without further ado, the winners are…

And the winner is… from Land of Lovings on Vimeo.

If they said your name expect to get an email from me tonight with the EP download info! Thanks so much for entering!

You know I have a sister, right? A really talented sister? And even though I sometimes forget my “baby” sister is an actual grown-up, this new project of hers makes it down-right impossible not to realize how much she is capable of.

Because, y’all, this EP of hers? Awesome. Like really awesome. Wickedly awesome. (And I’m not just saying that because I feel sorry for her for being so cute and skinny. But I do. Feel sorry for her. Because it would suck to be that adorable and thin all the time. Right? I thought so.)

In fact, if you were to drive by my house on any given weekday at around, say, 5:00pm you might see/hear the sounds of us rocking out to the songs on her EP. And you might even see some dancing on the homeschool room table. The kids dancing, that is. I gave up dancing on tables years ago.

Want to know more? Check this out:

Promo Video from Eddy Sings on Vimeo.

You can also listen to the music at www.myspace.com/eddysings.

Do I lie? It’s fantastic, right? And here’s the best part. I’m giving away 3 digital copies of the EP to my readers because it is just that cool.

You have a few options for entering to win:

- Go to her site www.eddymusic.com and become a fan of her on Facebook

- Twitter about the contest using the hashtage #startanuproar (You get an entry for *EACH* time you Twitter about the contest!)

- Follow @eddysthename on Twitter

You get an entry for each of these things. Just leave me a comment below with your contact info to let me know. The contest ends February 28th, 2010 at 11:00 p.m. so hurry up and start entering. I’ll be choosing winners Monday morning and I’ll send you the digital download right away!

Have you seen the previews for Fantastic Mr. Fox? If you haven’t you need to check them out! My kids have been talking about this movie for a couple weeks and I have a feeling it’s going to be one of those movies that we’ll take them to and enjoy as much as they do. It’s by the same team that did the Ice Age movies and looks like it will be equally witty and fun to watch!

Want to know more about it? Here are the details:

FANTASTIC MR. FOX is visionary director Wes Anderson’s first animated film, utilizing classic handmade stop-motion techniques to tell the story of the best-selling children’s book by Roald Dahl (author of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and James and the Giant Peach).  The film features the voices of George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Jason Schwartzman, Bill Murray, Wally Wolodarsky, Eric Anderson, Michael Gambon, Willem Dafoe, Owen Wilson, and Jarvis Cocker.

Mr. and Mrs. Fox (Clooney and Streep) live an idyllic home life with their son Ash (Schwartzman) and visiting young nephew Kristofferson (Eric Anderson).  But after twelve years of quiet domesticity, the bucolic existence proves too much for Mr.Fox’s wild animal instincts.  Soon he slips back into his old ways as a sneaky chicken thief and in doing so, endangers not only his beloved family, but the whole animal community. Trapped underground without enough food to go around, the animals band together to fight against the evil Farmers - Boggis, Bunce and Bean - who are determined to capture the audacious, fantastic Mr. Fox at any cost.  In the end, he uses his natural instincts to save his family and friends.

And in preparation for its opening on Thanksgiving Day, I’ve been given the chance to host a Fantastic Mr. Fox giveaway with 2 Fox Tail Ties (shown below) and 2 sets of Mario Batali Thanksgiving recipe cards!

Simply leave a comment on this post from now until 11pm Thanksgiving Day to enter. And you can earn extra entries by tweeting about this post. Just leave a comment below to let me know. Please be sure to leave an email address or link to your profile so I can let you know if you’ve won. I’ll be picking 4 winners to receive either the Fox Tail tie or the recipe cards and announcing them this weekend!

**Updated to add: The generous folks sponsoring this cool giveaway have provided me with downloadable Mario Batali (the voice of Rabbit in Fantastic Mr. Fox) recipe cards. As mentioned above two lucky winners will be receiving a printed set but these are available for everyone to enjoy in time for Thanksgiving!**

Click here to download a PDF of the recipe cards.

If there is one domestic chore I am terrible at staying on top of it’s laundry. If I told you how many times I had to dig for clean clothes for every member of our family you would be horrified. Truly.

In fact, just this morning my husband scoured the house for a clean pair of khakis because I’d apparently forgotten to wash anything but dark clothes for the last, oh, 4 loads. True story.

And if you saw the mountain of clean clothes on top of the washer and dryer? Yeah, you’d probably think I’m the worst housewife ever. (And, I’m not sure you’d be too far from the truth.)

The thing is, I don’t actually mind doing laundry. In fact, I like the actual process of washing/drying. But the putting away? That is the part that throws me off every time. And I end up dreading the putting away process so much that I avoid laundry altogether.

I’m trying to get better. Really. And today I’m tackling the laundry. All day. I’m not stopping until it’s under control. But, I’m wondering if maybe you can help a girl out?

I just recently got a chance to try a bottle of Sun Burst Laundry Detergent to help me out in my laundry endeavors. And they want you to have a chance to try it, too!

First, though, I’ll tell you a little bit about what I thought about it. My favorite thing about it? It’s cheap. I mean, inexpensive. Because I totally hate spending money on soap. I mean, after all, isn’t that literally throwing money down the drain? But I also hate clothes that don’t smell/feel clean. So, when I discovered that this stuff did a great job, smelled good, and was super cheap? I was sold on it. It’s even HE compatible which is awesome.

So, if you’d like to give it a try here’s your chance. I’ve got 5 coupons good for one FREE 45.4 oz bottle of liquid detergent or one 49 oz box of powder detergent in any scent. And all you have to do to enter to win is help me with my laundry. No, really.

Leave me a comment below with your favorite and most helpful tip for getting laundry done or staying on top of laundry and you’ll be entered to win!

So, go ahead, give me your best tips for controlling the laundry monster.

For more great projects, head over to Tackle it Tuesday at 5 Minutes for Mom!

Back in October, the folks at Everybody’s Nuts sent me a sampler of their Pistachios. I am a big fan of pistachios and an even bigger fan of freebies, so I accepted their sampler box and expected to be no more or less impressed with Pistachios than I was before I tried them. Though, I was grateful nonetheless for the chance to give new flavors a try.

But, just like there is a big difference in gas station coffee and a Grande cup of Starbuck’s Daily Blend, there is a huge difference in quality flavored Pistachios and the sticky red kind you find in the aisle of your local convenience store. I was immediately a fan and started buying their nuts from that point on. (Once you’ve had their Salt & Vinegar Pistachios you’ll never go back to the gas station variety!)

So, when I got another chance to try Everybody’s Nuts and Wonderful Pistachios samples I jumped at the chance to do so and turn it into a giveaway for my readers as well.

Here’s what you may not know about Pistachios. These little nuts pack quite the nutritional punch. Among snack nuts, they have the highest content of phytosterols. I know, I know. Phyto-what? Basically, they have a lot of this really good stuff that has been shown to reduce cholesterol absorption and basically make them super heart healthy. Guess they aren’t called the “skinny nut” for nothing.

Geez, what I wouldn’t give to have that nickname.

Anyways, here’s where the giveaways come in. Because they know that once you try these nuts you’ll be so convinced that a snack can be healthy and delicious, they are offering to send 10 of you a sampler of Everybody’s Nuts and Wonderful Pistachios.

And here’s what you have to do to enter. Head over to the Pistachio Health site and check out the facts, then come back leave a comment with one interesting Pistachio fact you learned while you were over there. I’ll be shutting down comments at 11:59 p.m. Sunday, February 1st and drawing 10 lucky winners.

**This giveaway is open to all U.S. addresses (sorry, no international folks this time.) Be sure to leave an email address or blog link in your comment so I can get in touch with you and get an address to have your sampler sent out ASAP!**

Head back to Bloggy Giveaways to register for more cool giveaways!

I got the opportunity a couple weeks ago to check out and review Mobistories. Mobistories are virtual books for kids that you can buy and have stored on your computer, iPod, or iPhone. I kept meaning to try them, but was behind so much on everything that I forgot. Not exactly a shining endorsement of my reviewing skills, but I’m just keeping it real, people. That’s the way it goes in this mommy’s life sometimes.

Anyways, this week we were refinancing our house and had no one to watch the girls when we went to the closing. So, guess what distraction my scattered mind came up with? You’ve got it, Mobistories.

Okay, so truthfully, I was a bit skeptical. I wasn’t sure a “virtual” book would be able to hold their attention for long enough. My girls do seem to have the attention span of one of those cute little spider monkeys that come dance for pennies with that organ grinder at the mall. You know what I’m talking about, right?

But, I downloaded 4 of the Mobistories books and had them to keep the girls occupied. And, amazingly, they loved them so much they kept asking all day to watch different ones.

They are pretty cool, too, because they come up full screen on your computer and have the printed words (just like a book) but with narration and music. I love the subject matter, too, because I was able to get one about “stranger danger,” one about jazz, and even one about conservation. In case you’re curious which ones I got, I dowloaded Ella Elephant (all about jazz and learning to scat), Stranger Danger (informative and not scary for kids), Salsa for Kittens & Puppies (a latin themed book), and All The Way to the Ocean (teaching kids about why littering is bad).

I actually really loved that they have lots of different books with varied cultural origins and even different narrators’ accents.

And the best thing? Mobistories is offering each reader a chance to try $10 worth of books for free! Head over there, pick out some books, and then just enter the coupon code 211A at checkout for your free books. This isn’t a free trial either. It is a full-fledged giveaway so you have nothing to lose by doing it. They even have a free book available for download, too, so be sure and add that to your order! Do it soon, though, because the offer expires December 31st, 2008.

If you end up going over and getting some, come let me know what you think. I’m definitely planning on getting a couple more to add to my iPod to have on hand for those days I’m sitting in the doctor’s office with two unruly bored preschoolers and I’d love to know what other books you’ve tried!

I suppose it’s only appropriate that my first real product review is for a company called “Everybody’s Nuts” seeing as how that is very nearly my family’s motto. Welcome to the Land of Lovings where everybody’s nuts. It just seems to fit us, right?

Still, when the folks over at Everybody’s Nuts offered to have me try their Pistachios and give my honest unbiased opinion I couldn’t resist. I mean, when was the last time someone actually asked for your opinion and offered to give you free food for it?

Plus, I really, really love Pistachios. I mean, second only to a bag of hot boiled peanuts they are hands down my favorite nut of all time. But, I’m not really a Pistachio snob and I always pretty much assumed a Pistachio is a Pistachio. Which is probably why I used to buy those packages of red Pistachios at the gas station and never tried any other kind.

But, people, I was missing out. For real. I got to try all four of their flavors and, um, yeah…a Pistachio as it turns out can be quite delicious. They have Unsalted & Roasted for the ultra healthy folks, Salted & Roasted for the traditionalists, Salt & Pepper for the adventurous, and European flavor (Salt & Vinegar) for our continental friends.

These were hands down the best Pistachios I’ve ever had and, best of all, my kids loved them. When I was trying to sample them one afternoon during a controlled taste test (which really means: keep them to myself while watching Dr. Phil) I was constantly interrupted by chants of “Nuts! Nuts!” from my girls - which was just weird on its own, but also because I’ve never been successful in getting them to eat any other kind of healthy snack without bribing, threatening, or trickery so I was pretty stoked that they actually showed an interest in something other than Cheeto’s and chocolate chip cookies…

So, now, here’s where you get the chance to benefit from a freebie (and who doesn’t love one of those?). I will be drawing two lucky winners from the comments off this post and each one will receive a package of Everybody’s Nuts Pistachios in the flavor of their choice (in case you’re curious, European is my personal favorite!).

Just leave a comment with the flavor you’d most like to try and I’ll draw the 2 winners on Wednesday at 12:00 am E.T. Good luck!

Okay, ladies. Here’s my second bloggy giveaway this week.

As many of you know, I love me some creative decorating ideas. I like turning funky things into unusual decor and coming up with ideas that are far from traditional. Since I think I’m probably not the only one, I’m offering up a year’s subscription to Creative Home magazine.

Here are the rules for this giveaway:

1. Leave a comment with a way to get in touch with you and tell me your favorite creative decorating idea.

2. You get a bonus entry if you link to my giveaway on your own blog and let me know in your comments.

3. U.S. addresses only. (I love my international readers, but the magazine limits my options on this.)

4. One entry per person please.

I’ll be closing comments and drawing names on Saturday night and will post the winner’s name here Sunday. I’ll also send an email letting you know you’ve won. You have two days to respond or I will pick a winner from my favorite creative decorating idea.

Good Luck! Be sure and check out the HUNDREDS of awesome giveaways going on at the Bloggy Giveaways Carnival!