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Check out who I'm Rolling with...


I am the Featured Blogger this week over at The Blog Rollers~! If you have not signed their blog roll you better hop over there and do so and you might be the next Featured Blogger! To the ladies at The Blog Rollers...thanks for letting a sista roll!!
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Box Tops for Education with Pillsbury and Totinos Giveaway

**This contest is closed-- Winner is Meet the Browns**


The generous folks at My Blog Spark recently sent me a "Top This" prize pack that included a coupon for one box of Toaster Strudel and one box of Totino´s Pizza Rolls, a Box Tops For Education certificate worth 10 bonus Box Tops as well as some great school supplies just in time for back-to-school. If you have been a Momfiles reader for a while then you know what a HUGE fan I am of Box Tops for Education. What a simple way to give to your kids school without putting a dent in your wallet! The prize pack also gave me an additional amount of Box Tops to clip and send into the school. You can even enter here for a chance at winning 5000 Bonus Box Tops for your school!



With back-to-school quickly approaching, I am starting to brainstorm some ideas for breakfast, lunch and after-school snacks. With the girls being in 2 different schools this year there is very little time to actually cook each day. Toaster Strudel is a great option for a quick breakfast in the morning. I won't lie, I have even stolen one on occasion from the kids to have with my coffee on the go! We are big fans of the Cream Cheese Danish variety. You can't go wrong with the hot, yummy flaky layers of pastry and the do-it-yourself icing!


A great little after-school snack or an evening snack would be Totino's Pizza Rolls. I remember having these when I was a teenager after school. These are great because the kids (or husband) can heat them up themselves.


Now for the fun part: one lucky reader will have a chance to win a "Top This" prize pack! Just leave a comment telling us what some of your favorite things about the first day of school is. Please be original. Saying "I want to win" or "pick me" disqualifies your entry.
Want an additional entry (You must complete the above method to qualify for extra entries)?

You can Twitter or Facebook this giveaway, and please leave a separate comment/link for each entry to count. (one Tweet per day!)

You can also place our button on your blog or follow us (please leave a blog link in your comment or specify if you are a new or current follower).

Be sure to have a visible email address in your comment if you do not have a Blogger profile. Giveaway is open to US residents only. Deadline to enter is August 12, 2009 at 11:59 pm EST. Good luck, and thank you My Blog Spark for sponsoring this great giveaway!
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Vent Day Wednesday

Welcome to this week's edition of Vent Day Wednesday. We hope you enjoy the video and be sure to leave your vents in the comments!

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Oh how I love a good deal!

Look what I found today at one of my favorite shopping spots. This cute necklace was originally $18. I picked it our for my older daughter since it has all of her favorite colors in it.

Lucky for Chardie she has a smart mom who never pays full price. Check out the price tag!



That's right....90% off baby!! I just love clearance shopping. I get so excited over finding steal like this. We bought a few other necklaces and earrings for back to school and spent under $20! Dwayne will give us a thumbs on this one since y'all know how much he loves holding on to his money!
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House projects suck

Well I was hoping to have something nice to post but unfortunately it's not going to work out that way. We were planning to have a very relaxing and uncomplicated weekend. The biggest task we planned was to replace the threshold of our front door. When Dwayne removed the old one we found that we had rotten wood in a variety of places. This has made a 30 minute project turn into an all day event and will be continued tomorrow. I have been into the hardware store (I dare not say the name before I get reprimanded by the husband) three times today already. Looks like some pain relief meds will be in order for us tonight. This is one of those days I wished I lived in a fully maintained apartment! I chose not to post pictures cause it's just too ugly to show anyone. Hope everyone else is having a great weekend!
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WARNING: Cuteness overload!

Look at little Gracen, Tanyetta's sweet baby. I just LOVE LOVE LOVE this photo of her! The shirt is priceless!!
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Tuesday night on TNT giveaway

There are some exciting new and returning shows on TNT. Every time I can get a chance to have my turn with the TV I try to tune in to some really great drama! HawthoRNe, starring Jada Pinkett Smith, airs on TNT Tuesdays at 9pm ET/PT. You can check out a clip here and you can even watch full episodes to catch up!

Also airing tonight is Saving Grace starring Holly Hunter, on TNT Tuesdays at 10pm ET/PT. Here's a little sneak peek of tonight's episode. For more information on these shows and others go to TNT.tv

Giveaway:

TNT is giving one Momfiles reader the chance to win a full-sized AUTOGRAPHED poster of Jada Pinkett-Smith! How cool is that? You will also get the Saving Grace- Season 2 DVD set. All you have to do to enter is to let us know if you are a fan of either of the shows mentioned in this post. Saying "I want to win" or "pick me" does not count.

Want an additional entry? (You must complete the above method to qualify for extra entries)

You can Twitter or Facebook this giveaway and please leave a separate comment/link for each entry to count. (one Tweet per day!)

You can also place our button on your blog or follow us (please leave a blog link in your comment or specify if you are a new or current follower).

Be sure to have a visible email in your comment if you do not have a Blogger profile. Giveaway is open to US residents only. Deadline to enter is July 29, 2009 at 11:59 pm EST. Good luck and thank you to TNT for sponsoring this great giveaway!
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Just random

Wow, I did not think I would say this but I am ready for the girls to go back to school. I have enjoyed having them around and they are so helpful to me but it's just time to go. I have not been on a proper schedule at all. My eating is so not right. Too much snacking with the kids around or I just don't eat on time. I am always scattered all over the place and I don't like it. I much prefer most things to be planned out and scheduled. I make myself sound so dull and boring but if you have a few children you might be likely to get what I'm saying. I am trying to also stay away from the computer a little more too. It seems that social networking is almost taking over my life and I am not allowing that to happen. I am taking charge and will do my best to stick with my plan. Sorry, I told you it was random!
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William video

This video was done by Briahnna while she and her sister had their best friend over. William is so silly!

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Questions for my parent friends

From time to time I come across things that are child related that I draw a blank on. I always resort to my blog parents to help me out. Here goes my first question. Have you experienced teeth grinding with your toddler? William has been doing that recently and it's not all the time but periodically throughout the day. It think he is mesmerized at the fact that he has teeth! Is there anything you can do about it? We usually take our hand and put it on his mouth and say "No! Don't do that" I'm not sure how well that's working. Any advice on this one?

My next one is that I suspect my kid has nasal allergies. He tends to sneeze a lot in the morning and evening hours. Do you have a toddler with allergies? If so how was it determined that they are in fact allergies? Does it require medication?

I know some of you wonder why I am asking you these questions and not the doctor. Well, his doctor thinks I need to fatten him up, others would swear he is two and quite big for his age. I just don't always trust everything the doc says. Thanks for taking the time to help me here!
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Vent Day Wednesday

Welcome to this week's edition of Vent Day Wednesday. Folks please leave your vents in the comments section and feel free to remind Dwayne how stupid he is. Enjoy!

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Giveaway winners

Thanks to everyone who participated in the Tide Loads of Hope Vintage t-shirt giveaway. The three winners are Beautiful Mess, Melissa, and Haley O. I know you all will LOVE your T-shirts!Don't forget to buy the yellow cap Tide to help with a great cause!
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Skin Free™ review and giveaway

I was contacted and offered to try out some products from the Skin Free™ company. I will admit I was a bit hesitant since I have done this before with another company with some negative results. When I hear something is natural and free of just about everything I get a little nervous. Those types of products are usually not the best. Well was I ever wrong! I received the four products shown in the photo. They are the Extra Moisturizing Soap & Shampoo Bar™, Super Moisture Butter Creme™, Whipped Tamanu Body Butter™ and the Niaouli Butter Stick™.


Now I had to decide which of the Ismail family members were going to try them so it ended up being Briahnna and myself. Briahnna has been using the Super Moisture Butter Creme™ to see if it would help relieve and repair some dry patches she developed on her face. Would you believe that it got rid of it in about 2 days time? I wanted to post photos but a 12 year old girl would NOT be having that! I tried the Niaouli Butter Stick™ and oh boy was I impressed! I have some rough feet (I admitted it) and this Butter Stick was just the antidote! It was not greasy and it keeps my feet moisturized for the entire day. I use it before I go to bed and when I get dressed for the day.

I also tried out the Whipped Tamanu Body Butter™. I am currently using it for massages. I keep it at my bedside for when the hubby is sweet enough to give his old lady a nice foot rub! It is so nice and once again, NOT greasy! I have used it all over and it is really good, leaves your skin baby soft. Now I have not yet used the Extra Moisturizing Soap & Shampoo Bar™ because I am saving it for when William runs out of baby wash. I think it might be good for his skin and hopefully less drying. He is showing signs of nasal allergies so I would think the lack of fragrance will be a plus for him. Overall I really think I will order the Niaouli Butter Stick™ and the Super Moisture Butter Creme™ on a regular basis. Now for the fun part, it's your turn...


One lucky reader can win $30 of Skin Free™ products of their choice. All you have to do is check out the Skin Free™ site and tell us what products you would like to try if you won the $30 gift certificate.

Would you like an extra entry? (you must complete the first method to qualify for extra entries)

1. You can tweet this giveaway and leave a link to your tweet (one tweet per day)

2. You can place our button on your site (leave a link to your site)

**Be sure to leave an individual comment per entry method.

The deadline to enter is July 21st at 11:59 pm EST. Giveaway open to US residents only.
Good luck and a special thanks to Skin Free™ for sponsoring this giveaway. Skin Free™ products are available on cvs.com and drugstore.com
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Wordless Wednesday


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As seen on TV


Do you purchase any of the "As seen on TV" products? I recently saw something you connect to your garden hose that turns it into a power washer. I really want to get one. Dwayne might not let me since I have one of those Pedi-paws things that has been used once (by Dwayne)! I insisted that I had to have it and have yet to actually use it.


Do you have any of those items that you swore you would use and just had to have it and it collects dust? You know you do...admit it, I want to know!
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Flashback Friday & our 400th post!

It just dawned on me that we are on our 400th post! Thanks to all of our friends that have been following us and taking time to leave comments. I never really thought we would get this far or we might run out of things to say so I guess I was wrong! I leave with this great old school hit and the Ismail family theme song. Have a great holiday weekend!


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Getting William to not wake up at night

Okay, if you read yesterday's post you would know that William was sick and waking up throughout the night. I knew I had to do something about this since this means Dwayne and I are not getting our sleep either. We do not do the pick up at night thing or the sleep in our bed thing so I had to think hard. I came up with something. As a matter of fact, it is what has worked all along. Strangely William can go 6-8 weeks sleeping perfectly through the night them Bam! He starts waking up a few times at night for about 2-3 days. I end up changing his bedding and voila, he goes back to sleeping through with no interruption. I have even found that moving his crib around to the opposite side of the room seems to do the trick. Your boy Dwayne aka "Ismail the Great" likes to call it Feng Shui. You let him tell the story he would say he made it all up on his own! I find it amazing how subtle changes can make a huge difference.

Do you have any tricks to getting your baby/toddler to sleep through the night? If so please share.
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What kinda Wednesday is this?

So sorry, no Vent Day today because I am taking care of a sick little one. Believe me I had lots to vent about. When you live with Dwayne you could never run out of stuff to say! Today I am running off of about 2 hours of broken sleep. William has a head cold and has decided that he needs to whine all night long. He seems just fine in the day though. I am so lucky that Dwayne really takes the most care of him at night since I have the all-day shift. I have so many little things I want to write about but my brain is not really connecting with my fingers at the moment. Thank goodness for spell check! I hope everyone has a fabulous day! I think I am going to take the girls out so I can sneak by Starbucks for a quick pick-me-up.
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