My Granddaughter, Life and What is going on in Our Life

I have tried to keep this bog a bit impersonal but have realized that is crazy. How can I keep my private life separate and keep it real? There is no way to do that and be honest with my readers. I don't want to do that but I also don't want to constantly post about personal things. I will try to keep it brief unless I find that you all are interested. 

I haven't been posting much because I am out of town at the children's hospital in St Petersburg with my daughter. Her daughter Addison had open heart surgery on Wednesday. The surgery was planned. It was no surprise. We knew it was coming even before she was born. My granddaughter Addison was born with some serious heart defects and down's syndrome. We expected her to have surgery at the time of her birth but by some miracle the heart defects as bad as they were still allowed her to get enough oxygen and we were able to come home so she could get bigger and stronger before the surgery.

The surgery was to be done between the ages of 4 and six months. 

That time came this week. 

We were a wreck of course. But the surgery went well. Addison is a trouper!

Today it has been three days since the surgery and she is nursing, most of her tubes and Iv's have been taken out. She still has a chest tube but they will be taking it out today sometime.

 

Here she is the day after surgery. It is so amazing that she is doing so well and looks so good after open heart surgery. So many people have been praying for her. She is really blessed.

The doctors and nurses have been wonderful here at All Children's Hospital in St. Petersburg Florida.

And if it wasn't for the Ronald McDonald house and the help they have given us I would not have been able to come with my daughter and granddaughter to offer the support my daughter needed just by having her mother here with her. So please toss your change in the collection box the next time you visit your local McDonalds or buy a Happy Meal because part of the price of a Happy Meal goes to help the Ronald McDonald Houses all over the country. 

They have given us a room where we can sleep, shower and just regroup. They also supplied two meals a day at the house. I really hope and pray that you will never need the help the Ronald Mc Donald Houses offer but they are run totally on donations and every little bit helps. 

So needless to say the blog is on the back burner. I have some giveaways I will be posting after we get home and get settled back in.

Thank you!

Brilliant Lenses Cleaner and Optical Microfiber Cloth Review and Giveaway

When the opportunity came around for me to review Brilliant Lenses Cleaner and optical microfiber cloth I jumped right on it for two reasons. One we are a family of eye glass wearers. Four of us wear perscription glasses and my husband wears readers.

My thirteen year old daughter and my 4 year old granddaughter wear glasses. And if you ever had a child that wore glasses you know how hard it is to keep the lenses dirt and smudge free.

The second reason and the one that really had me jump was that my 13 year old loves to use my shirt to clean her glasses. And she prefers the one I am wearing. It didn't matter what material it was made of ........she swore my shirt cleaned her glasses better then anything. 

I can't tell you how many times I have been in stride and she was hanging onto the hem of my shirt rubbing away at the smudges on her eye glasses. It was a big pain in the you know what!

She doesn't do that anymore! The day the package arrived with my sample she snatched it out of my hands and tore it apart. 

She immediately  spritzed the cleaner on her eye glass lenses and buffed them dry with the micro-fiber cloth that comes with the kit. Her glasses were so dirty she actually did it twice to get rid of the built up gunk that was on her glasses. I barely had a chance to clean my own glasses when she stuffed one of the two bottles into the carrying bag and took off.

This is the sad story of my life sometimes lol.

About  Black Diamond Brilliant Lenses

Product Description
Brilliant Lenses Cleaner and optical microfiber cloth. A premium eyeglass cleaner with SR-8 that adds a protective barrier to lenses to resist scratches and soiling from water, sweat, dust and dirt. For ALL types of lenses.

Cleans glass and plastic lenses

Adds scratch resistance to lenses

Contains no Alcohol or ammonia

Great for phones also

Finally a lens cleaner that is Alcohol and ammonia free! Brilliant Idea! When you add in our SR8 scratch resistant coating you now can offer the most advanced cleaner/protector for ALL types of glass or plastic lenses. Double Pack: Two bottles (7ml ea) Brilliant Lenses Cleaner and optical microfiber cloth and carrying bag.

• Cleans Glass & Plastic Lenses
• No Alcohol or Ammonia
• Added scratch resistance with SR-8
• Comes with a Micro Fiber Cleaning Pad
• Also works on Phones, Monitors, and MP3 players!

Brilliant Lenses^TM with SR-8^TM  provides gentle superior cleaning while imparting an invisible durable barrier that resists scratches, soiling and water spots.
Treat Your Lenses with the protection of SR-8

• SR-8 is a Polimer Additive that reduces surface tension making cleaning easier each time it is used.
• SR-8 Coats the lens leaving a protective barrier
• SR-8 Improves scratch resistance
• SR-8 Will not dry out protective coatings

My Thoughts

I love this product! It cleans eye glass lenses squeaky clean. I will have to take their word on it that it prevents scratches. So far we have been very lucky with our glasses and haven't had any accidents that may leave a scratch.

I've also used it on my cheapo sunglasses and it is amazing how clean it gets them after they had been on the bottom of my purse.

The Giveaway

Prize: One lucky reader will win a double pack that comes with two 7ml pump bottles of cleaner, a micro-fiber cloth and carrying bag.

 

Deadline to Enter: October 24th 2010 11:59 PM Eastern Standard Time

Open to residents of USA only

The winner must provide email contact and address to ship excluding a p.o. box.

The Rules 

REQUIRED: You must include your email address in the comment form. I will need it to contact you should you win. If you do not leave an email address with at least one of your entries I will be deleting all of your entries.

MANDATORY entry. 

All other entries will be deleted if you do not do this first.

LIKE Brilliant Lenses on Facebook

Or

Follow Brilliant Lenses on Twitter @BrilliantLenses

Come back here and leave me a comment letting me know which you have done. Leave your twitter name or facebook name in the comment.

If you have done both. Leave me two comments and you will earn an entry for each one.

EXTRA ENTRIES

Would you like more chances to win?

 
1)  Follow my blog and leave me a comment letting me know for one extra entry

 
2)  Blog about my giveaway and earn five extra entries. Leave five comments with an email address and the link to your blog post.

 
3) Follow me on Twitter and Tweet my giveaway. Leave a  comment with the link one extra entry. You can do this once a day.

4) Sign up for email updates from Times R Tuff earns you 3 more entries. Leave one comment for each.

Form on the right sidebar. You must confirm your email subscription for this to count!

5) Like my facebook page earns you 4 more entries. Make sure you leave a comment for all four entries.

Disclosure

I was not compensated for this review other then a free product to try out and one to share with my readers. 

The products was provided free of charge to facilitate my review.  

This Product Was a Free Giveaway

Sponsored by Tomoson.com

Kraft Homestyle Comfort Food House Party

This weekend I hosted a Kraft Homestyle Comfort Food House Party.

What is that you ask? A House Party?? House Party is a website where you can apply to host a party featuring different products from different companies. You receive a box of products to try out and share with your guests. Each hostess box is different depending on the party you are hosting and what the product manufacturer is supplying. 

Check out the House Party website to see what parties are accepting applications. Read the party information to see what products are in the hostess package.

I was chosen to host a Kraft Homestyle Mac & Cheese party. House Party, Kraft and Pyrex sent me some free goodies to try out with my friends and family.

Everything on my table except for two bags of the Kraft Mac & Cheese came in my hostess box. I was blown away when I saw the great Pyrex baking dish and 3 Qt Stainless Steel Covered Saucepan that came with all of the kraft goodies.

The theme of the party was comfort food. So what better way is there to comfort my friends and family  then to grill some hot dogs and brats to go with the Kraft Homestyle Macaroni and Cheese?

That is Brats as in sausage and not brats as in the children LOL.

The kids were starving long before I planned to throw the dogs on the grill so I quickly whipped up a package of the Classic Cheddar Homestyle Mac & Cheese. It was a snap to get it done even though from the looks of the packaging and instructions it looks more complicated then it is. 

The Homestyle Mac & Cheese is suppose to be more like real old fashioned homemade mac & cheese. I tell ya it tastes real good. Not like the regular mac & cheese that we eat all the time from a cardboard box. You have the option of cooking it on the stove in a pot and then pouring it in a baking dish and baking it with a bread crumb topping. Or you can just serve it straight from the pot.

Today I did both. We tried all three flavors. Classic Cheddar, Four Cheese and Old World  Italian with Parmesan & Romano cheese sauce.

 Four Cheese with bacon and a cheddar cheese topping.

I made the Classic on the stove top for the kids. I made the Four Cheese on the stove and then added crumbled bacon and a layer of cheddar cheese on top. I then baked it in the oven.

With the Old World Italian I  poured it into a backing dish, added some grated mozzarella cheese and then topped it with the bread crumb topping.

Sorry I forgot to take a picture of the Classic I made for the kids!

 She loves her Mac & Cheese!

We all had on the comfy socks to keep our feet warm and comfy.

I didn't get a picture of the bottom of the socks but they have cute little macaroni shaped no slip stuff on the bottom. So cute!

So which one was my favorite? We'll we took a pole and it was a tie between the Classic and the Old World Italian.

I think I liked the Classic made on the stove much better then the four cheese baked in the oven. To me the baked Four Cheese was a bit dry. But I loved the Old World Italian that was baked in the oven. I'm not sure what the difference was. They were both baked in the oven at the same time for the same amount of time.

Thank you Kraft, House Party and Pyrex! We had a great time and everyone loved the Kraft Homestyle Mac and Cheese!

Disclosure:
I was not compensated for this review other then the free products I recieved in my Hostess package. The products was provided free of charge to facilitate my review thanks to House Party, Kraft & Pyrex! All opinions are my own!

Winner announcement

The Random generator at Random.org  picked

And The Green Momster is the winner!

Congrats and thanks for entering! 

I have emailed the winner!

Wordless Wednesday

New Sunkist S’alternative

Have you seen the new Sunkist S'alternative website? Your probably wondering what a S'alternative is? I know I was so I bopped on over to the Sunkist S'alternative website to see what it was about. I was surprised to find this handy info.

More and more studies show that too much sodium in your diet is simply unhealthy, leading to a large number of diseases and other health problems. According to a 2010 study by Bibbins-Domingo, if every American reduced his or her daily sodium intake by 400 milligrams, 32,000 heart attacks, 20,000 strokes and 28,000 deaths could be prevented each year. Click here to learn more about the dangers of sodium.

PASS THE LEMONS NOT THE SALT 

Using a fresh squeeze of Sunkist lemons is a delicious, sodium-free way to flavor food, boost potassium intake and promote good health! Click here for tips on using lemons to cut down on sodium and enhance the natural flavor of food. 

S’alternative is a flavorful salt alternative using fresh-squeezed Sunkist® lemons. The result is enhanced natural flavor with increased potassium and reduced sodium! Share your favorite recipe featuring Sunkist lemons as a S’alternative and you could win up to $1,000 grocery gift card!

Want to enter the recipe contest? Check out this link. and see if you can come up with a recipe worth $1000 grocery gift card.

“I wrote this blog post at the request of Sunkist, making me eligible

to get $10 in free Sunkist Lemons.”

New Ragu Old World Style Traditional Sauce

Wow I was so happy to see that Ragu came out with a new flavor of sauce. This one looks like a keeper. What a great way to get your kids to eat more veggies. Sneaky moms know best right? I know all my kids love spaghetti and the grandkids too.

See what Ragu says about their new Old World Style Traditional Sauce.

If you're having trouble finding time to prepare nutritious meals for your family while adjusting to new back to school schedules, relax, you're not alone.  According to a recent "Feed our Kids Well" survey conducted by Ragú®, half of moms say that during the back-to-school season they have less time to prepare nutritious, home-cooked meals for their kids.  Fear not, Mom; Help is on the way! 

To help make sure your kids get the veggies they need (and the meals they love) Ragú® Old World Style® Traditional Sauce now has 2 servings of veggies in every half cup!   Available soon in major retailers nationwide, the healthy, great tasting Ragú® Old World Style® Traditional pasta sauce that is already a kitchen staple has a new, naturally thicker recipe.

 

Healthy, delicious and now with a naturally thicker taste the whole family will love, Ragú® Old World Style® Traditional Sauce is a perfect component to pulling together quick and tasty meals during this busy time. And Ragú® wants you to be among the first to try out their great new recipe! To be one of the first to taste Ragú® with 2 servings of veggies in every half-cup visit them on facebook.com/ragusauce for more details.

"Disclosure: I was entered for a chance to win a Ragú® prize package in exchange for this post.  No monetary exchange took place."