The Great Coffee-to-Tea Experiment

A few weeks ago, I got a wild hair up my ass and decided to perform an experiment. (I seem to do that a lot in my life, can you tell?)

I switched my morning coffee for tea. Me? Mrs.Kids-Cats-Coffee-Tatts in my blog's slogan? Yeah, I know.

I completely understand that this has been done before. You can google it and 719,000 results come up, many of the posts are bloggers just like me. But, Inklingers, I haven't done it before, which means you all haven't been able to read my take on what happens.

It all started with an episode of the Good Witch TV show on the Hallmark Channel (hell of a reason to make a huge change in your life, right?). Cassie Nightingale was pushing her herbal "coffee" on everyone one episode, and when her next door neighbor (and eventual love interest- we all know it's coming) commented on how it actually did taste like coffee, she revealed that it was really roasted dandelion root, chicory root, and beet root.

I googled. The shit exists.

I decided to make a trip to my local herb store to see if they had the ingredients, and they actually had a blend already made, minus the beet root. They had it labeled as "Herbal Coffee," but then had a very peculiar thing written next to it- Caffeine Free.

What is this tomfoolery? Caffeine Free? I'm willing to perform the experiment of switching coffee to

WTF Wednesday: Damn You, School-Like Pizza!!

Starting this blog post today is difficult, because I'm not exactly sure how far to go back, or whether to start with the nostalgia or the present day info. So, I'll do what I'd do in conversation: Throw out random words and promise I'll connect them by the end of the post.

School Pizza
and
Weight Watchers

There you go. Now we can begin, because y'all trust that I will connect the dots (la la la la la...).

I've been on Weight Watchers for about 2 and a half months now. I started out really well, lost 12 pounds in the first 2 months or so, and then took a few weeks off from point-counting to enjoy wine, cookouts and nights out with a friend who moved back to the east coast.

Let me pause for a second (in case some Weight Watchers' rep finds my blog and want to try and take me down): you can totally enjoy wine, cookouts and nights out with a friend when you are on WW. I had just already met my goal weight that they set for me, so I decided to see what I could do without tracking food each day before I set a new goal weight for myself. The result? I gained 2 pounds back and maintained that weight just fine.

YES!! This stuff!!
Pic Courtesy

So with all of the chaos of my friend leaving behind us, I decided to get back on track with WW to try and meet the new goal I had set for myself (and lose those extra pounds I had gained).

Now I'm going to jump back and take you on a trip down memory lane...

Y'all remember school pizza, right? I'm talking about that rectangle mass of cheese and mystery meat that was available pretty much every day in high school, but only on certain days (usually Friday) in middle school.

That stuff was AMAZING!!!

And, that stuff is not available anywhere to the general public. Trust me, I've looked. A few years ago,

#RockTheLunchBox This School Year!

Y'all know I'm a tree-hugging hippy at heart. I buy organic food when I can, make things from scratch so I know what my family is eating, and try and make sure that my kids are eating healthy at every meal, which, at at ages 11 and 8, isn't easy some days.

So when Honest Kids, Stonyfield Farm, Annie's Homegrown and Organic Valley teamed together for the Rock the Lunchbox program, I was super-stoked to help them pass on the word. These brands were already some of my family's favorites, and putting together lunches for my kids using their products was not only fun, but I knew my kids would be eating healthy, as well.

With The Ginger's lunch, I chose a sandwich and apples with peanut butter, then added Bunny Grahams and Bunny Fruit Snacks from Annie's Homegrown, YoKids Squeezers organic yogurt, and Organic Valley single serving of milk. I loved the fact that I had every major food group covered, and how many organic products my son was eating. He loved "drowning" his bunnies in peanut butter, then saving them, just to plunge them into his mouth and wash it all down with milk he didn't have to stand in the lunch line to acquire. Boys...

Couponing, Tatted Mom Style

There seems to be an endless cycle repeating itself in my life every few months for the last year or so:

• Finances are great, so I relax on the couponing.
• Something pops up (whether it's an unexpected bill, Hubby's comic book ebay habit, or an event like vacation or back-to-school) to where I need to extreme coupon to have what we need
• I get addicted to getting things for free or nearly free until the next payday
• The next payday comes, money evens out, extreme couponing relaxes
• Wash, rinse, repeat cycle

The thing is, I have no idea why I stop couponing when money is fine in our house, because when I do the couponing thing, I even shock myself sometimes. 

$5.27 total for everything you see here

Take this recent trip for example. I had pieced together a deal on the pizza and ice cream that should have come out to $6 for those 4 items. I had free coupons for the yogurt, spinach and handsoap, but when you add on the milk, eggs and soda, my total should have been right around $11, with tax included. When the cashier announced my total of $5.27, I was shocked. As I stood there confused and handed the cashier exactly $5.27, she sensed my hesitation and began looking over the receipt herself, to see if there was an error somewhere. She accepted the money, handed me my receipt, and I told the kids to haul ass out of the store before they realized I had just (excuse the term, but it's what I use to describe my style of couponing) coupon raped them. Come to find out, I had a coupon on my grocery store card for $5 off of a $20 purchase that they accepted, taking my $11 estimate down to $5 and some change. 

You would think, with savings like that, and the rush you get walking out of a store having paid next to nothing for groceries, that I would do this all of the time. What if I told you that wasn't even the best deal I got last week?

• A loaf of bread, 4 pack of yogurt, large container of liquid coffee creamer, toothpaste and a bottle of shampoo (the $5 stuff) for $3.72 total.
• The kids and I took a trip to Target at 8:30 at night for 2 bottles of men's body wash, 2 women's

Dear Coffee Gods...

Dear Coffee Gods,

I apologize. I apologize, from the bottom of my heart, for whatever I did to anger you all. If it's because I haven't been to Starbucks in ages, I'll go today, I promise. If it's because I quit drinking a cup of decaf at night because I ran out of decaf, I will buy some today, I promise. Just let me know why you have frowned upon me, and I will fix it.

About 2 weeks ago, my Keurig died (may it rest in peace). Only a member of our family for not even 2 years, I did everything I could to save it, including taking it apart and putting it back together, googling answers, and cleaning it out. My last hope was Keurig customer service, and Lindsay informed me that it was, indeed, time to grieve and move on. My Keurig will be missed.

Thankfully, we had my red coffee maker ready to commence its job as Head Coffee Maker. She was programmable, so Hubby and I would set her at night, and we'd have a fresh pot of coffee ready for when we woke up. Great system we had going.

Until this morning, when Hubby noticed the green light was on, but no coffee had brewed. This time, panic

Tea Time!

Y'all know I lived in England for 3 years, and terribly miss my time there. So, when the people of Davidson's Organic and Nature's Bakery contacted me about hosting a tea party, and having their tea and fig bars as the refreshments, I was happy to do so, as I hadn't truly had a tea event since my time in England! We even dressed up for the event (pictures below)!

We were sent a nice variety of fig bars from Nature's Bakery, and Davidson's Organics sent a box of the Rooibos Spiced Chai tea, which I was very excited to try. I love herbal teas, and the fact that Davidson's are organic, just made it even better!

The kids loved the fig bars from Nature's Bakery, and I was pleasantly shocked to find that they were full of

Bacon-Wrapped Cheesy Stuffed Peppers on the Grill (Perfect for a Memorial Day Cookout!)

Hubby and I decided to experiment with food and the grill this weekend. Some guy at his work had brought in some bell pepper boats with a little bacon on them, but that small amount of bacon didn't do the dish justice, so we decided to create our own. And, as Hubby loves to grill out on the weekends, we gave that a try, though these can also be cooked in the oven with no problems.

They turned out amazing! From start to finish, the whole process took about 30 minutes, which isn't bad for how awesome they looked and tasted! I don't think we'd change a thing about the recipe, though I do have pointers throughout the directions below for y'all!

With Memorial Day next week and summer just around the corner, these make a perfect addition to any cookout!


Bacon-Wrapped Cheesy Stuffed Peppers On the Grill

Easy, Cheap and Healthier Alternatives to Sodas for Your Kids (and Energy Drinks for You!)

With summer coming up, I can just hear my kids now... "Mom, can we just get some soda at the grocery store, PLEASE?" I'm not a big fan of soda. The sugar content is astronomical and the caffeine has my kids bouncing off the walls for hours.

So, imagine my surprise when I got this little tip on one of my shopping apps today. I'm seriously hoping I'm not the only one who smacked myself in the forehead and said, "Why didn't I think of that?"

Enter the players: Seltzer water and those little drink enhancers that are all the rage right now. My kids and I love those things, but we've always used them in regular water. Not anymore...

Don't smack yourself too hard. It hurts. I speak from experience.

In my opinion, there are so many amazing things about combining seltzer water with these drink enhancers:

1. It's cheap. A 2 liter bottle of seltzer water is $1 and each of those drink enhancers are $3 or below,

Uncommon Goods Review and $50 Gift Certificate Giveaway (Ends 4/19)

When I was emailed about reviewing a product from Uncommon Goods, I was pretty happy about it. I had here and picked something out that I was dying to try.
heard of the website before, so reviewing one of their products was something I had to do. I looked through their list of great Mother's Day gifts

I picked out the Salts of the World Test Tube Set because we've really gotten into healthy eating at my house, and I'm really enjoying cooking with fresh ingredients. It was filled with salts from places like the Island of Cyprus (black flake salt), Denmark (Viking Oak smoked salt) and Australia (Murray River Pink Flake salt). Displayed in a solid cedar rack, each tube is glass, keeping the salts fresh.

The salts and display also came with a card that let me know which salts matched with which types of meat,

5 Reasons (From the Past 2 Days) That I Should Not Be Allowed to Interact with the Outside World Before Coffee

Everyone who knows me knows I'm a coffeeholic. I'll have a huge jumbo cup in the morning, a midmorning

cup, an afternoon cup, and sometimes a cup of decaf at night. I don't even drink water unless it has been ran over some coffee beans at a high temperature. Yes, I know it isn't healthy, yes I know it's an addiction, but considering I don't smoke anymore, don't do drugs and drink wine on occasion, I need a vice, dammit.

With that said, I've found out, just in the past 2 days, why I need to have a coffee IV inserted and should not have interaction with the outside world until I've had at least one cup.

5 Reasons (From the Past 2 Days) That I Should Not Be Allowed to Interact with the Outside World Before Coffee

1. I ran my own credit report. Yes, before I had coffee and the brain cells functioning to tell me that would be a horrible idea. Nothing says "Good Morning" like finding out the lawyer you talked to a few years ago about the mountains of debt you are in because of a store you owned that went under, should probably retire and no longer give advice on money. He told me the statute of limitations on credit debt in South Carolina was 3 years, so I've been counting down to 2013. Come to find out, the statute of limitations on credit debt is based where the home office of the company is located, and Yay Me, they are all located in states where the statute of limitations is 6-7 years. How's that for a morning wake up? Now I have to actually do something about all of this crap, which means finding a lawyer who wasn't practicing law when Abraham Lincoln was president.

2. I gave a telemarketer my consent to have other telemarketers call me. The other day I was

Healthy Children, Happy Children. Keeping it REAL (Guest Post)

Hey, Inklingers. Today's post comes to us from Kristen Peters, whose amazing aromatherapy spray is part of a (rare) Inklings' giveaway over here. Be sure to enter before it ends on 2/23 at 11:59pm! 

We live in an odd time. Children as young as five experience pre-hypertension. Children as young as two are morbidly obese with symptoms of adult on-set, Type II diabetes. According to the CDC, “Obesity now affects 17% of all children and adolescents in the United States - triple the rate from just one generation ago”. That, to me anyway, is very disturbing and makes my stomach ache with a feeling of remorse, regret, and fear. This is an epidemic in America. These facts need to be corrected. How did this begin? Who’s to blame for this staggering and upsetting trend? These numbers classify themselves in a national child abuse and neglect. How can we let this happen to our youth? And how can we fix this?

Picture courtesy of Social Moms

Here is my opinion on the matter. In our hurried and fast-paced odd world of today most of the public is simply tired. Due to our very stressful and jam-packed lives the irony of living in a modernized and technologically advanced society has made living harder. Gone are the days when all we had to do was survive. As I’m sure that was extremely stressful, humans were more satisfied, honorable, and although at times barbaric generally concerned for the welfare of their society in which they lived. Survival meant dirty brows and aching hands but also happy children. Happy that parents were around and the parents fought for their survival. Children saw that as well, “Gee they must care for me so I will care for them.” They were also busy. They had responsibilities planting and tending to the survival of the family.

Today, people outside of the family perform most of the childrearing. Strangers that change as often as the wind. Now please don’t mistake me for a pro attachment- parenting activist. My children have all attended daycare as young as 12 weeks old. Nothing had the ability of breaking my heart as much. I, like the majority, simply had no choice. Children also have a lack of things to do. Everything is done for them either out of robotic progression or perhaps their tired and guilt-stricken parents deem it’s necessary and provides them with a temporary peace of mind.

In summary thus far, we are tired and children are not as happy and they’re very, very bored. This deadly

NatureBox Review (and Deal!)

Y'all know I don't do reviews very much. When I do, it's because the product peaked my interest and is something I would want to be able to tell my readers about.

NatureBox hit the nail on the head.

When I was first emailed by a rep for NatureBox about reviewing their item, I immediately did my research. It's a monthly subscription snack food service. You pay a flat fee each month, they automatically mail you a box of goodies. These aren't processed, full of chemicals and crap, high sugar, low nutrient snacks, either. They are healthy- no high fructose corn syrup, no trans fat, no artificial colors, sweeteners or flavors. I'll bite, sure. The website said the snack foods "taste great", but you know me- I'm a skeptic. Most snack food that is healthy tastes like cardboard and isn't sweet at all. I'll have them send me a box so I can tell let people know what's really going on.

The coolest thing I found out on Naturebox's website: They donate one meal to Feeding America for every Naturebox sold. I'm getting healthy snacks for myself and my kids, AND helping to feed a hungry child in America. Amazing!

When the box arrived, I opened it to find 5 snack foods, individually bagged in a paper-like material. No full plastic bag, which sucks for the environment. Even the packages are environmentally-friendly. They are all resealable, meaning I could throw them into my purse for when I was on-the-go. Plus, they felt cool. Seriously. The package was soft to touch... not that I pet the packages... nope, not me...

The Girl and I dove in. Each month of NatureBox is different. Their 5 snacks each month are seasonal. For January, we were sent Wild Berry Bunch, Lone Star Snack Mix, Chocolate Ginger Bliss, Cranberry Almond Bites and Orange Crush Granola. I immediately flipped the packages around to the ingredients- no partially hydrogenated oils, no fake sugar, no fake anything. Even the chocolate chips in the Chocolate Ginger Bliss

5 Easy Tips for a Healthier You

I'm sure more than a few of you made a New Year's Resolution to be more healthy. Here it is, the end of January, and if you are like me, some of that goal has fallen tot he wayside. Get back on track with some easy peasy tips!

Today's post is found over at my column on Parent Society. I'll start it here for y'all, and you can finish it up over there!!

5 Easy Tips for a Healthier You

Each January, millions of people set goals to lose weight or become healthier. We decide, in our perfect-on-paper plan, to start a cardio routine at the same time as a yoga routine, at the same time as switching out all of the junk food in the house for fresh fruit, at the same time as drinking more water, at the same time as cutting all sugar and caffeine from our diets. The result? We go from zero healthy habits during the holidays to four or more brand-new healthy habits now, and for most people, juggling all of these things means something gets dropped. For moms, this possibility is even greater because we are already juggling so many things with the house, family, kids, and more. We hardly ever make time for ourselves.

Instead of overwhelming yourself with a complete body and life makeover in this new year, I suggest implementing small, easy-to-follow healthy habits into your daily routine. Keeping these easy tips in mind will not only help you on your path to becoming healthier, but help you form good habits for the long term.

1. Avoid the Sit-and-Snack.

When people flip on the TV and grab a bag of chips, they end up on autopilot when it comes to eating. They don't even realize that they are eating handful after handful, and before they know it, the entire bag of chips is gone. If you are hungry and want a snack, stand at the kitchen counter while you eat, or walk around outside while you munch on an apple. Cutting out the snacking while you sit reprograms the brain to not have these urges anymore.

If you're a sit-and-snack type, you've probably noticed that you automatically crave snacks while you're watching TV. That's because you've trained your brain to want food when you're in front of the television. Rewiring isn't hard; you just have to stick with it. If Family Movie Night has always come with popcorn, and you want to keep this tradition for yourself as a treat, then section out a small portion of the popcorn into a personal bowl, and tell yourself that when that bowl is empty, you won't get more. Avoiding the sit-and-snack will cut calories from your diet, reprogram your brain away from an unhealthy eating practice to a healthy one, and create a healthier you.

Continue Reading '5 Easy Tips for a Healthier You'...

If you enjoy Inklings, please take a second to just click the banner below. Each click = 1 vote, and you can vote once per 24 hours. I do happy dances when people vote!

Tatted Mom's Experiment in Healthy Eating

Like millions of others around the world, I made new year's resolutions. So far so good, but we're only 9 days into January. I'm still positive, not overwhelmed, and finding that the more that I do, the better I feel, so it motivates me to do more.

One of the biggest challenges for us, I felt, would be healthy eating. Hubby and I decided to eat vegetarian a few nights a week, and I had no idea how the kids would react to this. To be honest, I had no idea how Hubby and I would react to this. Don't get me wrong, I love a salad... smothered in ranch dressing with cheese, croutons and bacon... and beside a baked potato... which is beside a chicken breast covered in bacon and topped with cheese... not the poster meal for healthy eating. The words 'tofu' and 'quinoa' freaked me the hell out.

I asked a friend of mine who is a yoga and healthy eating genius (vegetarian, yes) for some help. She pointed me in the direction of a great website, Mind Body Green, and while the recipes she sent were vegan, I knew what substitutions to make if we didn't want to go full vegan for those few nights. I went to the store, stocked up on beans, lentils and tofu, and the food experimentation began.

So far, in the last 9 days of meals since the new year, we've eaten vegetarian 4 times. I seem to end up cooking a regular meal one day, vegetarian the next. The result? Brace yourselves...

My family LOVES it. I know, I'm shocked, too.

The first night we did a tofu stir fry, and with the exception of mushy tofu (I emailed my friend later to ask if I

Hell Hath No Fury Like a Little Girl Who Hated Hostess Twinkies

So, the biggest news of the last week or so has not been how the President will stay another 4 years in office. Nope.

After 82 years in business, Hostess has closed its doors.

Courtesy of NYDailyNews

No more Wonder Bread, no more Ding Dongs, no more Twinkies... well, maybe.

Let's think about this logically, Inklingers. You know it's true that when one Ho falls to the wayside, there's always another one to take her place. Hell, I'm pretty sure Little Debbie is licking her lips to fill the void that Hostess has left in our lives, and after she's done removing the pins from her Hostess voodoo doll, and paying off the bakers who went on strike, we'll hear that she has acquired the Hostess name and products. If nothing else, Little Debbie makes things similar to Hostess goodies. Yes, a Cloud Cake isn't nearly as soft and spongy as a Twinkie, but in a Twinkie-less world, it will have to do.

I have a few beefs with this whole situation:

1. The Union. It's my understanding from reading all of the articles, that the following chain of events occurred:
   Declining economy -> Sales going down for Hostess -> Hostess tried to cut wages and benefits to make up for the lack of sales -> Union stepped in and bakers went on strike -> Hostess could not reach an agreement with the union -> Hostess closed its doors
   
   While I completely understand job rights and unions to protect the workers, isn't a job with reduced pay and reduced benefits better than No Job with high pay and good benefits? Way to go there, Union- now you just put an ass load of people out of jobs. And in the process of lining up all of the Hostess workers in the unemployment line, you helped closed one of the iconic businesses of several generations- the people who make Twinkies. I'd hate to be the person telling my grandkids that story:
   
   "Yeah, little Jimmy, I was one of the union workers that advised the Hostess bakers to go on strike, consequently causing Hostess to close there doors, which is why you haven't had a Twinkie since you were 3."


2. Opportunists. Have y'all heard that cases of Twinkies are going on Amazon Marketplace and Ebay for over $200 a box? When people heard that Hostess had closed their doors, the shelves at the

4 Reasons I Refuse to Cut Sugar From My Kids' Diets

With Halloween now in the past, and the kids loaded up on sugar-filled candy, instead of telling my kids 'no', I'm telling them 'slow down'. Many pediatricians and nutritionists step up and say that we parents should cut sugar from our kids' diets.

I say Bollocks.

Keep sugar in your kids' diets. I do. Today's post is over at Parent Society. Here's the beginning, so enjoy!

4 Reasons I Refuse to Cut Sugar From My Kids' Diets


Years ago my family ate organic foods only. We ditched the preservative-filled easy fix meals, shopped at the local farmer's market for our fresh fruits and vegetables, only ate meat where the animals had not been treated with hormones and antibiotics, and my kids rarely had sugar. Due to budget cuts (that's putting it nicely -- we became broke, and quickly) we had to compromise with the food. Things like hot dogs (not the all-natural kind, either), corn dogs, frozen chicken tenders, Kool-Aid and boxed mac and cheese became staples in our house again. I wasn't thrilled, but I knew the financial setback was only temporary, so I just kept looking forward to the day that we'd be eating healthy again.

That time has finally arrived, and while I'm in the process of slowly replacing the cheap, easy fix meals with more natural (and unfortunately more expensive) options, I've come to realize there's one thing I refuse to cut out of my kids' diets...

Sugar.

That's right, I'm a mom who is refusing to cut sugar (which goes against almost everything that every pediatric doctor or nutritionist preaches). In my opinion, sugar is not evil. Extreme amounts of sugar, yes, but sugar itself is not. If you are a mom who likes to stay in control of your kids, then sugar can actually be an amazing tool of the trade. (Sounds backwards, doesn't it?) Here's why I decided to keep sugar in my kids' lives:

Continue Reading 4 Reasons I Refuse to Cut Sugar From My Kids' Diets...

If you enjoy Inklings, please take a second to just click the banner below. Each click = 1 vote, and you can vote once per 24 hours. I do happy dances when people vote!

Pizza Hut's Garlic Bread Pizza at Home (For a Fraction of the Cost!)

Pizza Hut recently came out with their Garlic Bread pizza, and as soon as I saw the commercials for it, my
mouth started watering. Hubby and I decided to splurge one night, head to Pizza Hut, and give in to my craving.

It was so worth it. That pizza was amazing, though I will say that they left ours in the oven a tad too long. The pepperoni was extra crispy.

As I was devouring it, I realized how easy it would be to make it at home. So, I added the ingredients to my grocery list for the week, and gave it a try.

Best.... experiment... ever. The pizza was delicious, and because I made it myself, I could watch the oven to avoid the extra crispy pepperoni.

So here it is, my Pizza Hut Garlic Bread Pizza do-it-yourself recipe.

Servings: 16

Time: 20 minutes

Ingredients:

• 2 boxes frozen garlic bread (or make your own- these were easy, on sale, and yummy)
• bag of mozzarella or pizza cheese
• jar of pizza sauce
• toppings of choice (we had pepperoni)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Remove frozen garlic bread from packaging and arrange on cookie sheets.

2. Bake garlic bread in oven for 3-5 minutes. Remove from oven.

3. Using tongs or spatula, flip garlic bread over to other side. 

4th of July Dessert Goodies

With the 4th of July right around the corner, my friends over at SkinnyMom.com sent me some recipes to share with y'all. Made with fresh fruit and lower in sugar and fat than other recipes, they are the perfect addition to any cookout this year! 

Enjoy, y'all!

Skinny American Flag Fruit Pizza

Servings: 20

Ingredients:

• 1 16 ounce roll Pilsbury Sugar Cookie dough 
• 1 8 ounce block 1/3 less fat cream cheese 
• 1/4 cup sugar 1/4 cup Splenda granulated sweetener 
• 1/2 cup fresh blueberries 
• 1/2 cup fresh strawberries 

Directions: 

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 

You Found WHAT at the Discount Surplus Store?

It's that time again, Inklingers... the time where I've run through a major chain store, taking pictures of random things that I found there, making fun of their inventory and doing the Happy Dance in their aisles if I hit the jackpot with an amazing item. Don't y'all want to go shopping with me? Sheesh.

'You Found WHAT at the Dollar Store' was deemed my 'comeback post'. I had been MIA from the blogosphere while I went through some life crap for a few months, and finally started to find my stride again with this post. Ever since that post, I've been on the look out for more amazing discounted products, so I can go ahead with round #2.

My local discount surplus store has finally given me the opportunity. As y'all know, I won't name the discount store. If you happen to see it's name on any price tags, then you are just an amazingly astute reader and I can't be held accountable for that. For the record, I love this store. I can fill up a cart and only spend $60, and the store has furniture, home decor items, personal items, grocery items and so much more. I love this place!

Keep in mind, these aren't dollar store items, so they cost more than $1. Doesn't make it any less awesome that I can get them at a discount surplus store. Enjoy the list of 12 things I've acquired this time; I'm sure there will be more posts in the future!


1. AZO PMS Pills

Feeling crabby? Not anymore!

For years, AZO has helped me stay away from the doctor when it comes to urinary tract infections and yeast infections, but now they are helping me with my PMS? Holy crap, hells yeah! All joking aside, I thought of buying these. The herbal blend in them is actually pretty amazing. I'm sure Hubby would have bought them for me had he been shopping with me that day. He would have bought the whole case.

2. Beaver Sweet Honey Mustard

'Cause everyone wants sweet beaver.

Yes, yes, and YES! Why? 2 reasons: Everyone needs to find their beaver at a discount store, and everyone wants a sweet beaver, right? Hey, I guess I shouldn't knock it. Beaver Honey Mustard has been around since 1929, so they must have the best beaver ever if people have been paying for it for almost 90 years.

Be the One, Not the 12.9 Million

I sat down last night to stalk people catch up on facebook, and out of the corner of my eye was a McDonald's ad. The picture was of a woman, looking like she's making love to a cheeseburger, and there was a question about what you are craving right now, with a few options for you to choose from. None of them, in my opinion, sounded appealing. Nor did the picture of the woman molesting the cheeseburger.

Very briefly I wondered what was wrong with me. Everyone enjoys fast food every once in a while, right? The sight of that McDonald's food made me feel queasy. I realized then, that I hadn't eaten McDonald's since before Halloween... that's 7 months ago, and the reason I stopped is because that last McDonald's meal had me in the bathroom all freaking night. Not something I wanted to do again... ever.

I refreshed the page on facebook, and another McDonald's ad popped up, a different one this time. The slogan on this one read something about getting a 'delicious, well deserved lunch'. Am I the only one who yelled out 'Bullshit!' when seeing this ad? In my opinion, McDonald's isn't 'delicious' and if a fat ass, high cholesterol, greasy skin, lethargy and heart disease are 'well deserved' then by all means, I'll take 2, right?

The ads angered me, sorry to say. Why? Because facebook, while yes, used by people of all ages, is mostly a younger-based social media site. People my age- we can think for ourselves. We can see that McDonald's ad and say, 'Whatever, that food is garbage' and continue clicking. A younger audience, however, will see that ad and say, 'Mmmmm, I want some McDonald's'.

Fast food every once in a while is okay, yes, but that's just not the case nowadays. Fast food has become an accepted meal several times a week for some families.

And people wonder why the obesity rate and diabetes rate in the US has skyrocketed, especially in children, over the last 10 years. It's partly because fast food places are allowed to market on social media sites, and have commercials that draw kids in.

Smoking ads on TV are illegal, right? Packs of cigarettes must carry a disclaimer, issued by the government,