bioME5 review

As we learned in science (for some of us that was many years ago) there are 5 natural biomes on the earth. These biomes include desert, grasslands, aquatics, forests and tundra. The bioME5 company makers of organic kid's apparel strives to draw attention to each of these biomes by personalizing their clothing line with the animals that depend on the different environments they live in.

The great minds behind the bioME5 are inspired by the visual learning processes in all children. I love this because as I have stated many times I love the hands on learning of children. The creators of the tees team the inspirational learning with a child's fascination and appreciation of natures beauty and diversity.

bioME5 tees come in long sleeve, short sleeve and baby bodysuits. Three different styles for different stages of growth and learning. I love it the little ones can grow up learning all about the wonderful animals on the face of the earth.

We received the super cute K for Kangaroo tee. The tee is 100% organic cotton which we discussed in this post and the great qualities organic cotton offers. The tee is made tagless and preshrunk. This is great as many times we have cut out the tags of clothes because they seem to irate our little ones. The cute part of the tee is that the word kangaroo appears to us to be upside down but in reality the child that is looking down at the tee will see the word clearly and readable.

This is a very cute tee of the tortoise. Many children like turtles but this shirt says tortoise which helps to open up their vocabulary knowledge even further. I also noticed that this long sleeve tee was at a great price on sale for 1/3 the price.

Don't forget the body suits for the tiny little ones. This particular body suit featuring the polar bear is for a limited time and bioME5 donates 20% of proceeds of all Polar Bear products are to The Detroit Zoological Society, leaders in the exhibition, management, and breeding of polar bears since 1928

Buy: you can purchase your choice of tee, long sleeve tee or body suit from the website of bioME5.

As stated in the post we recieved a tee from bioME5 to review for this post. The thoughts shared are my own and were not influenced in any way

Bret Michaels in hospital

One of my favorite bad time all time characters who is really a nice guy is Bret Michaels. I have been cheering for Bret faithfully as he competes on the show The Apprentice and have always loved him in the band in which is currently touring the Roses & Thorns concert series. Now Bret Michaels hospitalized with an appendicitis has been released from the hospital and is currently in a diabetic center. I hope he heals soon and gets better.

Saturday 9

1. As you get older, do you find that kicks are harder to find?

nope find them every day sometimes by taking my own foot and booting hubby and kids or by having a blast just living life

2. Who is your favorite relative and why?

hard to answer but other than my own children, and grandchild I would say my niece and nephews

3. Who is the most important person in your life?

my Lord and then my hubby depend a lot on both of them

4. Name one thing you used to do that you are not proud of.

There is not a lot there my kids know all

5. Tell us about the furthest you've ever been from what you consider "home".

florida

6. Who would you want to be locked in a room with for 24 hours?

hubby would be safest bet but

7. What are you doing this weekend?

nothing much enjoying life

8. Other than your own, whose car were you in last?

my brother in laws

9. Tell us about the last compliment that you've received.

hubby said I was pretty and son said he loves me

Prom Season

This six week saturday finds us getting ready for Prom again. This time 3 girls and 1 boy will be going and all I can say is

Prom Season can be very expensive!!!

MomDot : 6 Tear Jerker Movies

Small Talk 6 is hosted by MomDot Today’s topic is “6 movies that make you cry.” You can answer this with a list of 6 words, 6 phrases, 6 sentences, 6 paragraphs, 6 photos, 6 videos, etc . . .

1. Fried Green Tomatoes
2. Steel Magnolias
3. old yellow
4. Driving Miss Daisy
5. Glory
6. Rudi

Gods Green Earth

You can find more spiritual Sundays Post here

Earth Week is this Thursday and because I will always remember being told that we walk through Gods coloring book I thought this would be the perfect song for this week and Then Sings My Soul Saturday hosted by the blog Signs, Miracles, and Wonders.

Blog Hopping Saturday

Are you looking to meet new friends? Find new blogs to visit? Have a bit of fun? Well then you should do what I did and join the Saturday Blog Hop hosted by Empowering Mommy If you are coming by on the blog hop please check out a few of the post here. This week we are celebrating Earth Week so there will be giveaways from sponsors who make great products not only for the consumer but for the earth as well.

Thanks for stopping by

Project Earth H2O review and giveaway (2 winners)

Have you ever been to a little league game, a high school football game, an outdoor event and then waited to see the mess that was left behind after everyone left? I have because my son plays football, my children play little league and I used to work concession stage, and I have been to see the effects of carnivals, flea markets and the such. The Project Earth H2O company is trying to rid the world of such a mess. Project Earth H2O cares about the environment and focuses attention on helping others to be aware how they can help do their share to keep their area of the world clean.

There is a war going on for bottled water. Have you noticed that there is a record number of brands of bottled water? With all the waste that those little plastic bottles can make not to mention the money that one can spend on the bottles that can be used in one week alone. Project Earth H2O wants to make consumers aware of the negative environmental, economical, and health issues related to these little water bottles.

From the Project Earth H2O website:
•Providing safe, Eco-friendly, 100% recyclable, high-grade, reusable stainless steel water bottles.
•Donating $2.00 of every Ocean, Earth & Air bottle to non-profit environmental & humanitarian charities focused on preserving our planet.
•Donating $2.00 of every Get Pink™ Bottle to breast cancer research.
•Reducing the massive oil waste, unnecessary burning of fossil fuels, excessive plastic and water waste, and consumer demand that drives continued production.
•Project Earth H2o™ does not even charge you for shipping & handling + you receive a free extra sport cap with every bottle

What great reasons to use Project Earth H2O bottles. You can purchase these bottles from the Project Earth H2O website here

Win: Project Earth H2O has sent me enough of their great bottles so that two (2) winners will receive 2 of the great bottles each.

To enter this giveaway visit the Project Earth H2O website and let me know something that I did not share with you

Extra Entries:

• follow my blog
• tell me a way that you are doing your share to make the earth cleaner
• follow Project Earth H2O on twitter
• follow my blog on twitter
• follow Project Earth H2O on facebook
• tweet about the giveaway (1 entry per tweet) link in comment
• blog about the giveaway (5 entries) link in comment

Giveaway starts now and ends May 7, 2010. Good Luck and remember to place email in comment or on blog if you want your entries to count.

5 ways to reuse a cardboard box

We have all sorts of cardboard boxes. But what do we do when they are empty? We surely can not refill them all with stuff that we have. We do not need to throw them into our overfilling dumps. So I decided to find 5 great things to do with cardboard boxes:

1. garden path way. By breaking the boxes down into flat piecws and staking a cardboard box down you can use it for a walk way around your plants when watering



2. create puzzles by using a copy of a picture and gluing it onto cardboard then cutting it into odd shapes will result in a great jigsaw puzzle.



3. make a solar cooker impress your kids, impress your spouse, impress the neighborhood. You can find directions here



4. remove any plastic, tape, staples and add it to the compost pile. Cardboard will decompose and makes great compost



5. remail packages in them

Foodie Friday : Oven Fried Chicken

Oven Fried Chicken

1 1/4 c italian seasoned bread crumbs

1/4 c parmesan cheese

1/2 c mayonnaise

1/2 t salt

1/2 t poultry seasoning

1/4 t ground red pepper

8 skinned boneless chicken breast halves

stick together bread crumbs and parmesan cheese in a shallow dish. Mix together mayonnaise and next 3 ingredients Brush both sides of chicken with mayo mix and dredge in bread crumbs mix Place in foil lined pan coated with cooking spray Bake 425 degrees for 20 minutes or til done

go here for more great foodie friday at the blog Designs by Gollum

Happy Birthday Charlie Chaplin

In honor of Charlie Chaplin's birthday I am posting one of the great silent movie moments. To me he was one of the finer things in life. The by gone era of silent movies was a romantic time period in life.

Shared with The Finer Things In life

Food on Friday :

Food on Friday: hosted by Ann Kroker

keeping with the earth day theme and spring time fun

Dirt Cups

2 cups of cold milk
1 package (4 serving size) instant pudding (chocolate flavor)
3-1/2 cups (8 ounce container) whipped topping, thawed
1 package (16 ounces) chocolate sandwich cookies (crush them into tiny pieces in a plastic bag)
Gummy worms or insects

Pour the milk into the mixing bowl and add the pudding mix. Beat with the wire whisk until well blended (about two minutes). Let pudding stand for five minutes. Stir whipped topping and 1/2 of the crushed cookies into the pudding (very gently) with rubber scraper until mixture is all the same color. Place about 1 tablespoon of the remaining crushed cookies into the bottom of each cup. Fill cups about 3/4 full with pudding mixture. Top each cup with the rest of the crushed cookies. Add gummy worms and insects to decorate. Put cups into the refrigerator for about one hour to chill them-- and enjoy!

Tropicana Deal of The Day:

For today only Tropicana has a special deal where you can use two (2) of your Juicy Reward points to recieve a Fandango reward. Head over to Tropicana website to get your deal of the day. This deal is good for today only so you need to hurry to cash in on such a great deal. The deal is good for 24 hours only on Tropicana and the Fandango promo code that you recieve must be used by June 16th.

I wrote this review while participating in the Tropicana Juicy Insiders Ambassador program by Mom Central on behalf of Tropicana. I received 12 free Juicy Rewards points and a $50 Visa gift card to use in redemption of the points and to facilitate my review

Cottonelle Roll Over Debate Has Been Settled

I recently posted on the great roll over debate. I now want to share with you that this great debate has been settled with teh Cottonelle Roll Over. The Cottonelle Roll Poll that some of you may have shared your opinion came out with America voting by an overwhelming amount for the winner the roll over. Cottonelle is honoring the winner by introducing the new, improved Roll Over package. We recieved a pack of the new Cottonelle Roll Over toilet paper and must say that it was pleasing to everyone. The softness was appreciated by every member of the family and I loved the fact that there was no mess or waste. The new Roll Over Cottonelle has been specially designed to roll with ease leaving a cleaner roll behind. The tissue paper now comes off easily with no waste because the new Roll Over Cottonelle is made so that the toilet paper will come off smoother and cleaner.

“I wrote this review while participating in a blog campaign by Mom Central on behalf of Cottonelle and received a sample to facilitate my candid review. Mom Central sent me a gift card to thank me for taking the time to participate.”

Ultimate Blog Party

I believe I am a bit tardy for the UBP party hosted by the blog 5 minutes for mom as I have seen many great post up and around the blogs all ready.

Introducing myself as the blogger from Annie's Home

First of all my name is not Annie but rather my nickname and my favorite doll of all times. I named my blog Annie's Home because my dad gave me the nickname Annie and my blog is my home on the web. So put it all together and you can find me at Annie's Home. Now with that out of the way let me share with you a bit about me. If you are new here you may not know that I am a mom of 6 and grandma to one little precious Princess and have 2 special nephews and a lil diva for a niece. If you have been here before then you know that I am a doting grandma on my Princess and a mom who loves to care for my kiddos so I share lots of great family tips, cook so recipes are tops with me both getting new ones and sharing old ones with you all, and since you can imagine how much a mom of six has to clean I love to get and share information on cleaning tips, scheduling and what works for me and you.

I love to meet new friends online and have met several. I love to chat, share messages, and visit blogs. You can reach me on twitter @shopannies or here on my blog.

The Ultimate Blog Party offers many great gifts and if I was lucky enough to win any of them I would be delighted my top choices would be:

• #40 - 3 day 2 night stay in Kissimmee Florida at Holiday Inn Main Gate valued at $250 provided by Holiday Inn Main Gate (my family so deserves a lovely vacation)
• #50 froggy girl designs $50 gift certificate provided by Froggy Girl Designs
• #70 $25 gift certificate from Kroger's provided by Saidah @ A Proverbs Wife
• #104 $50 Vanilla Visa Card provided by Shoot Me Now
• USC#15 $50 Target gift card provided by Haley Quarles of Love, Life, Family ... and then some

There are so many great prizes from etsy shops to gift cards involved it is hard to pick just a short list because I would love to have any of them.

Spring Cleaning WIth Clifford the Big Red Dog

Everyone can do their part to help to keep the Earth looking its best. I remember The Little Lulu cartoon show themed "Do Your Share" where the gang goes around town cleaning up, recycling and making the place look better. Just like the cartoon did for me the following books can inspire children to want to do their share.

Brother and Sister Bear team up to clean up and help save the world from pollution. This book is great and shows how a child can get others interested enough to do something about the problem of pollution

Clifford helps to clean up in this great book. This book would be a great one to start a recycling project with your child. Our family recycles all that we can and it has become a family project as well. It seems every day that the teens are bringing home a new idea of what to recycle or how to reuse. Together your family could do your part to make the Earth a better place.

Toothache Remedy needed

Aloha Friday has reached us once again a day to take it easy and relax like Kailani from An Island Life says they do on Friday's in Hawaii. On Aloha Friday we relax, take it easy and ask each other a simple question today my question has to do with what happened last night when I woke up with a toothache which has now gone away. So my question is:

Do you have a simple toothache remedy? What is it?

Origany review and giveaway

The first giveaway to celebrate Earth Day is an outfit from Origany. Origany is a lovely company that takes pride in being environmentally conscious. Origany creates conscious clothing and accessories from organic Cotton and other eco-friendly materials. Origany calls their clothing line "Clothing Made Organic by Nature." Origany wants others to know that going green does not mean they have to give up what they love in clothing. They can still have the beautiful colors, the great designs, and the super soft feel of clothing that kids and adults alike love. Origany designs clothing for babies and toddlers that are organic in nature yet are sophisticated and super soft to the touch.

Origany creates clothing in size 0 to 24 months that are great for little ones to play in. Using 100% certified organic cotton Organy clothing is super soft. The colored part of the garment is created with low impact eco friendly dyes that are better that are better for the environment than other dyes that have and are being used. Baby Alpaca combined with certified organic cotton are also used in the toddler garment clothing line. Baby alpaca fiber is naturally eco friendly fiber, warm and super soft. Baby alpaca is warmer than wool and helps to keep the child warm by trapping the body heat in and offering thermal insulation. The material is strong, does not easily pill, break or stain making it the perfect material to use making clothing for young children.

Organic Cotton is perfect as well for the child wearing the product as well as the earth. Organic Cotton helps to cut down on the air, water and soil needed to grow and harvest. With 25% of the world's insecticides being used on cotton crops organic cotton helps to cut down on this. Cotton grown on land free of chemicals for three years are certified as "organic"

To help celebrate Earth Day and to help make others aware of the great clothing that can be green and well made the Origany company wants to offer one of Annie's Home readers the chance to win this super cute outfit in sizes to size 6.

We received the same outfit and must say it is adorable. Soft and well constructed are the first words I would use to describe the outfit made by Origany.

Buy: you can purchase this outfit on the Origany website here

Win: for your chance to win this adorable outfit you must visit the Origany website and let me know what your favorite piece is.

Extra Entries:

• follow my blog
• subscribe to my blog
• follow Origany on twitter
• follow Origany on facebook
• follow my blog on twitter
• tweet about the giveaway (1 entry per tweet) link in comment
• blog about the giveaway (5 entries) link in comment
• comment on any post (1 entry)
• enter another giveaway (2 entries)

Giveaway starts now and ends May 6. Good Luck if your email is not in comment or on blog you can not win.

Top Three Thursday

A new meme to me can be found at a new blog to me Keeping Up With Kelly. Thanks to the UBP I am finding even more things to do.

What are your Top 3 Restaurants you like to eat at?

1. Long John Silvers: love this restraunt both for me and hubby to eat alone as well as their family meal deal. Granted it is a chain of restaurants but they have great tasting food
2. River Boat at Cave In Rock they have the best fish sandwich around, delicious and right on the river this is a great place for the family to visit and eat
3. Ryans: with large eaters this is the place to eat delicious food fills one up fast

What are top 3? Play along here

Thousand Word Thursday : Bucket Head Brothers

These two will do anything it seems. At Easter time they tried their buckets on their heads to see if they looked good in bucket hats LOL.

Shared on Thousand Word Thursday here

Two Ways to Make A Texas Sheet Cake

Chocolate Texas Sheet Cake

1/2 c shortening

1 stick margarine

3 T cocoa

1 c water

Put on medium heat and boil. Remove from heat and add....

2 c flour

2 c sugar

1 t salt

1/2 c buttermilk

1 t baking soda dissolved in buttermilk

2 eggs

1 t vanilla

Mix all then add to hot mix. Batter will be thin Pour into greased cake sheet pan Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes

Icing

1 lb. powder sugar

1 stick margarine

3 T cocoa

3 1/2 T evaporated milk

1 c pecans, chopped

Heat margarine, milk, and cocoa til melted and well mixed Add to powder sugar and blend til smooth Ice cake while warm Add nuts on top

White Texas Cake

1 cup margarine

1 c buttermilk

2 c flour

2 eggs

1 t salt

1/2 c sour cream

1 t almond extract

2 c sugar

1 t baking soda

In large saucepan, bring butter and buttermilk to boil. Remove from heat and stir in sugar, eggs, sour cream, amond extract, salt, soda and flour (add flour last and beat the entire time you are adding the flour to avoid lumps) Pour into a greased 15 inch x 10 inch x 1 inch pan Bake 375 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes or til cake is golden brown and test dine Cool

Frosting

1 stick margarine

1/4 c milk

4 1/2 c powder sugar

1/2 t almond flavoring

1 c pecans, chopped

In saucepan, combine margarine and milk boil, Remvoe heat and add powdered sugar and almond extract Mix well Spread over cake and sprinkle with nuts

Thankful Thursday : Be Thankful Every Day

Psalms 150

1. Praise ye the LORD. Praise God in his sanctuary: praise him in the firmament of his power.
2. Praise him for his mighty acts: praise him according to his excellent greatness.
3. Praise him with the sound of the trumpet: praise him with the psaltery and harp.
4. Praise him with the timbrel and dance: praise him with stringed instruments and organs.
5. Praise him upon the loud cymbals: praise him upon the high sounding cymbals.
6. Let every thing that hath breath praise the LORD. Praise ye the LORD

Well today we find ourselves on Thursday again and we begin to write a list of all things that we are thankful for. Why does this have to be on Thursday? I believe we should give thanks everyday don't you? I believe that we should be thankful to get up in the morning, thankful for the bed we go to bed in at night, thankful for the freedom to post what we want on our blogs, thankful for readers who have become dear friends to read them, thankful for the friends that we meet and talk with daily, thanks for my two friends who gave birth just yesterday and again today (no not the same friend of course), thankful for the hospitals and doctors that helped to deliver these high risk moms and babies in a safe fashion, thankful for my friend who went through surgery, a tornado scare while in the hospital, and still came out praising God and knowing that he was with her, thankful that this friend in my time of need sent me a message that she was praying for me. This list could go on and on as the fresh breeze of April and its warmness brushes across my face feels great. So once again we come back to the question of why Thankful Thursday and the reason is that the dear bloggers of Spiritually Unequal Marriage has created a place where all bloggers can go and list their wonderful list of what they are thankful for so to them I say thank you as well. I am thankful where bloggers like me and you can go and list the blessings that God has bestowed upon us When the world looks dark on days that we travel through look up because there is always something to be thankful for

Delicious Strawberry Shortcake

Delicious Strawberry Shortcake

1 quart (4 cups) strawberries, sliced
1/4 cup sugar
2 1/3 cups Original Bisquick® mix
1/2 cup milk
3 tablespoons sugar
3 tablespoons butter or margarine, melted
1/2 cup whipping cream


Heat oven to 425°F. In large bowl, mix strawberries and 1/4 cup sugar; set aside. In medium bowl, stir Bisquick mix, milk, 3 tablespoons sugar and the butter until soft dough forms. On ungreased cookie sheet, drop dough by 6 spoonfuls. Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until golden brown. Meanwhile, in small bowl, beat whipping cream with electric mixer on high speed until soft peaks form. Split warm shortcakes; fill and top with strawberries and whipped cream.

Kick off Earth Day Week

In honor Earth Day which will be on April 22nd I have decided to have a week long celebration starting today and ending on April 22nd. So have a piece of cake and get set for a week of earth day tips, recipes to enjoy and great reviews and giveaways.

Is it Under or Over

I thought of the great Cottonelle over or under debate today as I looked at the roll of toilet paper hanging there on the roller with only just a few sheets remaining. I must tell you that with five (5) teens and three (3) adults the roll of toilet paper needs changed often. I am going with the over on this one as that is how I normally see the roll of cottonelle. My hubby on the other hand would go for under but then since I change the roll more than him my way counts here. Vote for the way you roll at Cottonelle Roll Poll

“I wrote this review while participating in a blog campaign by Mom Central on behalf of Cottonelle and received a sample to facilitate my candid review. Mom Central sent me a gift card to thank me for taking the time to participate.”

Gilberts Goodies 20% discount

Gilberts Goodies sell delicious cookies and cookies dough that are handmade and do not contain wheat, gluten, peanuts, nuts, soy, milk, corn, corn syrup, transfats or perservatives and are low in sodium. Takes all that out and still are delicious. There will be a giveaway where one reader will be able to win some delicious cookies in May but til then you can save 20% off all purchases through the month of April in honor of Autism Awareness Month.

Where did they all go

outdoor wednesday hosted by A Southern Day Dreamer

During our recent Easter egg hunt we had lots of fun but did not find all of the eggs

Mommy found one look who's gonna get it? Are we sure it is even there? Someone grab it and put it in your bucket.











Shortly after that things got a little bit harder as the little ones continued to look for eggs but would end up needing a bit of help

Even my mom would get in on the act. I believe everyone would get in on the act

The lil diva started wondering just who had hid those Easter eggs for the hunt

The ones that hid the egg snuck off wondering just where they had put all the eggs and which ones were missing.

ex Mex Macaroni & Cheese Casserole

Tex Mex Macaroni & Cheese Casserole

1 pound extra-lean ground beef
1 small onion, chopped
2 tablespoons tomato paste
3 teaspoons chipotle chile powder
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1-1/4 teaspoons salt
12 ounces whole-wheat rotini pasta
3 cups milk
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1-1/2 cups (about 6 ounces) shredded reduced-fat cheddar cheese 1-1/2 cups (about 6 ounces) shredded reduced-fat pepper-Jack cheese
1 cup crushed baked tortilla chips (about 2 ounces)
Directions

Heat oven to 375 degrees F. Coat a rectangular 13 x 9 x 2-inch baking dish with nonstick cooking spray. Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Crumble in beef and add the onion. Cook for 6 to 7 minutes or until beef is no longer pink. Stir in tomato paste, 1-1/2 teaspoons of the chile powder, 1 teaspoon of the cumin and 1/4 teaspoon of the salt. Add 1/4 cup water and cook 1 minute. Set aside. Meanwhile, cook pasta following package directions. Drain and set aside. While pasta is cooking, make the sauce. In a medium-size saucepan, stir together milk, flour, the remaining 1-1/2 teaspoons chile powder, 1 teaspoon cumin and 1 teaspoon salt. Bring to a simmer and cook for 1 minute until thickened. Off heat, stir in 1 cup of the cheddar and 1 cup of the pepper-Jack cheese until a smooth sauce is formed. Stir the cheese sauce into the pasta. Spoon half of the mixture into the prepared baking dish. Top with the beef mixture and then the remaining pasta. Sprinkle the remaining cheese and crushed chips over the top. Bake at 375 degrees F for 30 minutes until bubbly and browned.

Special Exposure Wednesday

special exposure wednesday hosted by the blog 5 Minutes for Special

This little guy is our nephew who loves to spend time outside. He is a super cute go getter. The words that he cant say come through in the love and hugs he gives so freely.

Look what I found ....

find more great wordless wednesday pictures at Go Graham Go and Look What Mom Found and 5 minutes for mom