Being a full time college student and mom, I don’t have a lot of money to spend on clothes so I search out good deals. My son is 13 and knows the peer pressure of wearing the right clothes. I didn’t have name brand clothes in school so I never made the A-List. Sometimes I was even picked on. I don’t have to worry about that with my kids though because they can get name brand clothing deeply discounted at T.J.Maxx and Marshalls! Not only can they get clothes but all kinds of product like bedding! My daughter is not going to college but she is in dire need of a bedroom makeover and I want to go to the store and get this!

And then look at these great back to school looks you can put together!

I think I want those dyed sneakers for myself! I am a fan of saving money and if you are too, head to your nearest T.J.Maxx or Marshalls, they have back to school all ready for you! I only have a T.J.Maxx near me and that is where I am headed for some shopping. I need to see if they have those shoes. I would have a lot of comments at College if I wore em, LOL!

Edited: We went to T.J.Maxx Sunday and walked out with this adorable dress for just $14.99!

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Disclosure: This post was compensated. T.J.Maxx/Marshalls sent me a gift card to shop at their store in exchange for a mention on my blog. Opinions are my own.

Its getting towards the end of July and I am making my list for back to school, and for me, back to college! Both my older kids need bags for school. Colton doesn’t want a bunch of pockets he wants room for his books. He doesn’t have a cell phone or a netbook just an mp3 player. He doesn’t beed a bag with pockets for gadgets!So for him I would love to get the North Face Headwall

For Alyssa, she is just going into second grade so she really just needs a bag to bring her art stuff and library books in. For her I would love the Wildkin Ballerina

For me? I went through a whole semester with a $3 piece if crap bag with the worst shoulder strap ever and because I sometimes had like 40 pounds in that bag, I KILLED my back. I have to have a wheeled bag for college that is all there is to it. my bag of choice is the High Sierra. Pockets for everything including the laptop if I need it. But I also need to be able to take sneakers and clothes for the gym so the bag has to be roomy. I need to really think about getting the JanSport Driver 8!

I really do like High Sierra but I have never tried one. I really have to have a wheeled bag, my poor back is still mad at me. Now it just depends on where I am going to spend my money because chances are I am buying a bag for each of my kids too. I want to try the JanSport to check the height of the handle with me walking but I am sure it would be ok.

Last but not least I need a camera bag. I have one but its boring and beat up, I want a new one! Specifically I want a custom Slim Moxy from Martilena on Etsy!

Ok so I don’t NEED the camera bag for back to school but it sure is pretty!

So, you want to enter blog contests, but you are confused as to how they operate. I’m going to let you in on how a typical blog contest works. This is how they work on MY blog. There might be rules on other blogs that are different but for the most part they entries are usually the same.

1. The first contest entry is always a comment. If I am giving away a $200 vacuum, chances are the people that sent one to me for review would like you to go to their site and check it out. 99% of giveaways with a prize on the blogs I enter contests on (and I do that a lot) and here on my blog, want you to visit the site to learn about the product. Don’t skim over this usually mandatory entry because anything you post after that doesn’t count if you don’t follow that rule. Take 5 minutes and visit the sponsor. You could win something possibly worth hundreds of dollars, the least you could do is help them out and visit their site. There is nothing that bugs me more than having to write in bold letters that entries that say ” Enter Me”, “Sounds Good!”, “Great giveaway!”, “Thanks” etc are not allowed. Visit the sponsor. If you don’t have time to do that then don’t enter, because you won’t win. Not on my blog anyway.

2. Take advantage of extra entries. Get yourself a Twitter and Facebook account and sign up for Google. I can’t tell you how many winners have won on my site from tweeting! Connect socially by following the blogger’s twitter and Facebook accounts AND subscribe to their updates. These actions are usually extra entries in contests. Here is what you look for on my site:

That’s Twitter, Facebook, RSS Feed (subscribe) and StumbleUpon. You can also scroll down and sign up for email updates:

Tweeting: Just make sure you don’t spam your followers and copy the URL of your tweet. If you don’t know what I am talking about, when you post a tweet it says how many minutes ago you posted it and its a link you can click. If you click it you can copy the URL to paste here for your entry.

Facebook: Don’t lie about saying you like me and the sponsor on Facebook, I do check the entries! Please remember to read Facebook’s TOS which states you can’t go and post on the sponsors pages that anyone sent you. There are blogs that do this and get away with it but I don’t want to chance losing my Facebook over it. I encourage you to write on my page if you want (be nice I am quick to delete meanies). If you love a sponsors product please do tell them that.

Blogging for entries: Oy what can I say. This entry gives me the most problems. You CANNOT use mass sites to blog as giveaway entries. That means you can’t use sites like Cafemom.com as your “blog” . It violates the terms of service on their website by promoting other sites AND I am not taking the heat for your mistake. Blogger gives away free blogs, and so does WordPress.  Also I would love it if you posted more than just the link. Not rigid on that but its nice when people leave longer comments about a cool giveaway. And please for the love of everything good, DO NOT COPY AND PASTE!! Especially images! I have copyrights on the bottom of the site and on my policies page, pasting my photos without permission is stealing but also because its uploaded to my server you are stealing the bandwidth that I pay for. Its very wrong. Please do not take my photos! Save the product stock photos to your own computer and upload them to your own blog please!!

Grab a button: Blogger and WP both use HTML and I have provided the code under my button. THAT you can copy and paste!

Most giveaways use random.org to draw a random number from the total number of comments left for the giveaway. This means you need to leave a separate comment for each entry. Its time consuming, yes, but if you really want to win you will do whatever you can. I won a stroller because I kept coming back doing my daily tweets! If you try to enter and say you did all of those things but only use one comment then you only get one chance.

If you ever find you need to ask me a question about the extra entries or if my site has a malfunction or even the sponsor, don’t hesitate to contact me from twitter or Facebook or email me. My contact email is candyclcATgmail.com. I try to be clear and concise with the giveaways and I know its fun to win so I don’t want to make it difficult for you. If you win I generally will contact you within 2 days.

Now for some FAQ in general:

Q. How did you get all the free stuff?
A. Well, not to burst anyone’s bubble but the stuff is not free. I have to write and prepare the review and if there is a giveaway that’s even more time, and that is time away from my family and from August-May, that is time away from my studies. Aside from the time lost I have to pay fair market value taxes on the items I get. So its not really as cool as you think, and whether its time or taxes, its not free. I love reviewing products but I know that its a bigger responsibility than most people think it is.

Q. I’d love to review XYZ, can you share how others can be lucky like you?
A. No! Review blogging is very much like a business and in that business are contact that really don’t want to be passed around to just anybody. I have spent a YEAR working on gaining readers and traffic and because I did that, companies notice. I worked my butt off to get where I am and it shows. If you want to review products, gain a readership and traffic on your blog. Make your blog awesome so readers keep coming back. Join communities that talk about blogging. I’m not sharing confidential information with anyone.

Q. Is there anything I shouldn’t be doing when commenting on blogs or entering contests?
A. Well you can refer to the question above, don’t ask bloggers for contact information in a comment! Bloggers have contact emails and forms. Not that they will share information that is private but it just looks bad openly asking a blogger for confidential information. Also, when you are entering giveaways, PLEASE remember to come back and visit again even if you don’t win. And feedback is almost always welcome. Well maybe not on blogger sites like Dooce but she is huge and at her status she doesn’t really have to care either way.

And the cardinal sin of giveaway winners… YOU NEED TO ALLOW UP TO 8 WEEKS FOR YOUR PRIZE TO BE FULFILLED. Do NOT email bloggers because you didn’t receive your prize within a week. They don’t hold the prize, the companies do. You should get a gift code right away of course but do not pester the blogger. Be patient!

I know this is a lot of information to take in but you need to know that we as bloggers are getting burned out by people just not following a few simple rules and guidelines. We want to promote these great companies and by your visiting them it helps, and by your entering the giveaways the right way it makes our job so much easier.

Having a year of college under my belt I can say that I packed on some pounds from eating food I got at the cafe at school. I want to keep losing weight (thanks to the flu I lost a few pounds) and I don’t want to reverse it.

The worst part is the food at school isn’t that good, except maybe the salad. Anyway I have a problem. Thursday I have ten minutes between my 2 classes. I will be in class from noon until 7 PM. Now I am pretty sure the 2nd class, the 5 hr class, will have breaks but I will assume they will only be ten minutes.

This class is my bakery production class so concentration is good but also protein. I am not a vegetarian. I need to obviously bring my food with me. I am not bringing brown paper lunch bags so I need something to hold the food. I need filling and tasty options that are low on grease and carbs. I want to feel full. I do love all kinds of fruit. Not a big fan of bread but do like a turkey ham sandwich.

Any ideas? I do not like cheese but can tolerate one mozz cheese stick. Not a dairy fan at all actually. Not a big nut fan either though I LOVE cashews. Also, who makes a great lunch tote? I want to get it personalized! Thanks everyone for your inputs and please if there are links for lunch totes and college (and waistline) friendly foods I can eat fast please do share your links

I bought my first dSLR in 2007 and it was the Nikon D50 model. It was being phased out to make room for the new models that were coming out. I never really did learn how to really use that camera before I upgraded to more megapixels and a better sensor. I ultimately bought a d90 this past January and took a photography class and really learned how to take photos and I have been in love ever since. Nikon is a trusted leader in photography and has been for many many years.

I received the d3000 model for review in the mail 2 days ago. The first day was spent charging the battery, reading the manual and just really looking. I needed to distance my brain from trying to compare it to the d90 which is a higher end model. Nikon wanted me to review this camera specifically for entry level consumers. They want my opinion on how this camera performs from a newbie perspective. So for the next 30 days (eat your heart out Morgan Spurlock!) I, along with my admittedly new to photography husband, will be reviewing this camera and reporting what we find along the way.

I have taken photographs with it. I didn’t use my offboard flash or my prime lens because I wanted a real representation of what I would get if I never used a dSLR before. Before I get real technical on you like I plan to in a couple days I want to tell you this. My husband used my D50 for his beginner photography class last semester, and only having THIS camera for one day I can say without a doubt that the D3000 would have been the PERFECT learning camera. Why? Because it has built in help and menu’s that help you choose what you need and when you feel advanced it walks you through setting the exposure and speed!

Now I do have a photography blog and that is where you are going to find my photos. But for now I will leave you with a taste-straight out of my camera, resized and sharpened for web only!

Click For Original Image!

Okay now stay tuned for the next installment when I will go over the specs of the D3000 and tell you what it can do

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This is not a paid post. I did not recieve free product for this review. The camera featured in this review in on loan from Nikon.

They say it happens in the blink of an eye. You have kids and then before you know it they grow up and you are left wondering how it happened. My first born son, Colton, was my only child for nearly six years. I gave him the world, he loved me endlessly. He broke me in as a parent. I was 19 when I had him. Greg and I had been married for 9 months before we got pregnant with him so we didn’t really have a lot of time alone. I had bad parenting moments that poor Colton was the witness to. I had good parenting times that he was witness to as well. I learned how I wanted to be a better parent overall because of him. He also taught me more about compassion than anyone ever has. I wasn’t raised in a very compassionate family. 2 working parents, 3 kids, 3 step kids, all within 3 years of age of eachother. I could always call my mom for parenting advice if needed but I pretty much just went on instincts and Greg and I parented the best way we knew how. I feel bad that Colton had to have noobies for parents but he so far has turned out pretty good.

He has turned into the most amazing 13 year old kid. As far as school goes, aside from sloppy penmanship, he is super smart with math. He isn’t a fan of science though which is the opposite of me. He is very musically talented. He is getting computer smart too. Since he is switching to the Jr/Sr. high school this year with a better lab, I hope they teach the computer programs this year. I wouldn’t be surprised if he learned how to use excel this year.

He is also the most amazing big brother to Aiden. Every single day he comes home from school he will scoop up Aiden to play with him. Aiden adores Colton. I am so happy they have that bond because being 11 years apart I was really scared they wouldn’t be close. Colton will go off to college (or the military he wants to be a marine) and I am sure Aiden will miss him like crazy. He loves his sister too but she is annoying he says, but if anyone tried to mess with her Colton isn’t afraid to mess them up to protect her.

So as I start a new chapter in parenthood I just want to freeze time for a minute. I want to savor the fact that Colton doesn’t hate his parents. He loves hanging out with us. He doesn’t beg for stuff because he is humble and knows the value of a dollar. He does his chores when asked and doesn’t complain. He is a sweet soul. He is special. I am proud of him. I hope he continues to make good choices and its going to be hard from here on out to resist temptation. He should be okay. He has a lot of people that love him!

I haven’t talked about this in depth but wanted to write this out. My dad has been battling a staph infection in his blood for nearly a month. It started in Washington State and now here in Michigan. He just never really was recovered after they released him. My mother has been keeping me updated as my dad was in a LOT of pain and was getting lightheaded again. Today, a couple hours ago in fact, my mom called and they found out why. The Staph has eaten holes in my dad’s aortic valve and he has to have it replaced. Today. I have been pretty stoic up until now but this is just too much. My dad has been through way too much. He couldn’t hurt a flea and now he has to endure this pain because of a nasty infection that they have no idea where it started. If karma is real then my dad and my mom should have earned enough through going through all this to grant them their lifetimes wishes!

I will be taking my laptop and using Twitter for updates but I might not be blogging all that much today. Besides lack of sleep (from late night blogging) I have to arrange care for my children today and I have care for them but I am not sure how late we will be out with driving to the hospital. Its over an hour from here.

Thank You so very much to all who have been praying for my dad so far and please please continue!

EDITED: Talked to my sister and my dad’s surgery is on hold while they pump him with the strong antibiotics to make sure the staph is all gone. They ordered the video from Washington to see what they saw then because of his valve went bad in 2 weeks they won’t delay the surgery. If they find it was on there in the first scan but they blew it off I believe my parents will have a case against that hospital. In the mean time he has to have a scope for his stomach to find out why he can’t eat. They are suspesting the Staph caused a blockage.

I know you all have been entering the contests like crazy and that is so freaking awesome! Thanks All! I just wanted to post a more personal note and let you know this is a busy weekend! Saturday was spent testing this from Hayneedle:

And Sunday is the day I am going to see my parents. My dad got a bad bad bad staph infection that made it to his blood stream and nearly killed him. He is on the mend but not himself. Normally its just a bump in the road but he fought throat cancer last year. He has been through so much. I am taking them a Zuvo water filter because their water tastes bad. I already did a review of it and I look forward to having my mom review it as well.

Look forward to more giveaways this week and remember the Little Tikes Spray& Rescue Fire Truck is ending tonight 6/27, and Monday I will be listing the Soda Stream and Hayneedle $100 gift card! There is much more in store as we are halfway through this great birthday event.
(and as a side note, holy cow I have never seen so many entries on this blog, you all are amazing!

I know, I know a bit dramatic, but it got your attention, right? This week marked the last week of the Aquafina FlavorSplash campaign. I have to say I am a little sad, as I loved getting the flavors each Monday! This week we had the pleasure of tasing Peach Mango. I say pleasure because honestly it didn’t sound appealing but the second I tasted it my mind was definitely changed. This flavor took the number 2 spot in my favorites! I really enjoyed it as it seemed perfect for the hot weather!

How can I sum up my experience with Aquafina? I would have to say it was both positive and enlightening. I am a person that rarely tries new flavors when I drink waters so this was a great campaign to get my taste buds to try new things. I also got to share my experiences with you and some coupons too! As far as the flavors, here is how it went down, my faves:

Strawberry Kiwi
Peach Mango
Raspberry
Grape
Wild Berry
Lemon

I am so glad to have been a part of the Aquafina FlavorSplash campaign. The product is good AND affordable and its really helped me drink more water which is definitely a good thing. And the flavors, love them! Thanks Aquafina and Mom Central for having as a part of this tour!

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I am a participant in a Mom Central campaign for Aquafina FlavorSplash and have received various FlavorSplash samples to facilitate my participation. Mom Central will send me a gift card at the end of the program.

We are still plugging away over here at Yoursphere. I didn’t think I would spend as much time there as I do but hey, I can’t get enough of the little mini games that you can play in ourWorld! I earned Colton some gems by playing and with that he could buy things to decorate his condo in ourWorld! Check it out!

He has a freaking TREE in his condo, and in true Colton fashion his “bed” is made from speaker boxes! He is going to need to play and level up so he can earn himself a dining room table and chairs!

Colton did his first blog entry too. I had to twist his arm. Mom is the blogger here and he could have cared less. I think he is just shy. At any rate its easy to do, the tab is right at the top as soon as your child logs in and it has an option for video and pictures to insert and smilies, almost like a real blog. I think its neat. I think the whole platform is great, no strangers trying to chat with my son. I can log in anytime I want and see exactly what he is doing. He is about to be a teenager so in my opinion its even more important to monitor the social aspects of his online life. He doesn’t like to socialize on the computer he just likes to play his army games for now but I am sure it will change.

If you are the mom of a teen or tween and you would like to sign up for a free membership at Yoursphere, use Colton’s special code YSMC-0062, so I can be entered to win a $1,000 gift card and YOU can be entered in a $50 weekly drawing

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I wrote this review while participating in the Yoursphere Test Drive program by Mom Central on behalf of Yoursphere. I received a free lifetime Gold membership on Yoursphere.com, Yoursphere t-shirts, and a $50 American Express gift card to facilitate my review.