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Summer is over, school has started and now it is time to look ahead to your fall and holiday getaways. Don’t forget to find your hotel accommodations through HotelsCombined.

What makes Hotels Combined different? You can:

• Search all the best travel sites at once and find the cheapest price
• Read independent hotel reviews by other travelers
• Click to buy direct from hotels or your favorite travel sites
• Best Part, it’s easy and 100% free!

So where do you want to go this fall? Hotels Combined can help you stay for less!

I’d love to head to Gatlinburg, TN in October to enjoy real autumn weather! Spending Thanksgiving in the Big Apple? There are still choice rooms available! Wherever you want to go in the world HotelsCombined can help.

Please follow HotelsCombined on Twitter too!

Thanks to Hotels Combined for sponsoring my hotel and meals at IZEAFest!

I love cool stationery! Even though I don’t do as much letter writing as I used to, I love cool cards and notes. Recently I was introduced to a new company, Paper Culture. Paper Culture takes great pride in providing stationery without sacrifices including modern designs and premium quality stock paper.  Moreover, their mail and message program allows customers the option of having Paper Culture stuff, address, stamp and mail the cards on their behalf, and until January 1, 2010, the only charge for this service is the actual cost of the stamps!  Holiday cards, anyone?

All Paper Culture papers and envelopes are FSC certified as 100% post consumer recycled paper. When I received my sample pack the first thing I noticed was how think the cards were. These are not thin, wimpy cards their recycled paper is very sturdy. The second thing I noticed was how cool and modern their designs are. This is just on of Paper Culture’s modern baby shower invitations.

Paper Culture offers Baby Shower Invitations, Baby Announcements, Birthday Party Invitations for kids and adults and many more types of cards. The next party I plan, I will be getting modern stationery from Paper Culture.

Thanks to Momfluence and Paper Culture for the opportunity to review this cool new product.

Last Thursday I was excited to be one of 36 bloggers taking part in the Logitech Be Here-Be There Mom Mixer. We each received a Logitech Pro 9000 Webcam for participating. 20 of the bloggers were in North Carolina and the rest of us were at our homes around the country. We used the webcam and the new Logitech Vid software to communicate. I was very impressed with the video and audio quality. A lot of the ladies were saying it was much clearer than Skype and this camera is in HD! I have never had a webcam before so I thoroughly enjoyed learning how to use the technology.

The Logitech VID software is included with the webcam and you can invite friends, family and colleagues to join you on VID by sending them an e-mail. Today we got my mom signed up with VID and got to talk to her and see her, it was a lot of fun.

The awesome people at Logitech want you to connect with your friends too!They are offering The Mom Maven’s readers 20% off and free shipping on:

• Logitech Portable Webcam C905 (MSRP $99.99)
• Logitech Webcam Pro 9000 (MSRP $99.99).

Just click on the Logitech link above and use the discount code logitech_moms_2009. I hope you are able to take advantage of this great deal from Logitech.

Thanks to Maria Bailey, Mom Select and Logitech for inviting me to be a part of the Be Here-Be There event.

We don’t have any pets in our house. We used to have a cat but then we gave her away to my mother-in-law when her cat died. My boys have wanted dogs, cats, rabbits and fish but hubby’s answer is always “No.” We do live in a rather small house and there is definitely no room for a dog and I’m pretty sure a fish wouldn’t survive 30 days in the boys tiny, messy bedroom. I am happy to tell you we have found a solution! Zhu Zhu Pets!

These little guys are amazing. The hamsters and their accessories are sold separately, and most pieces retail for $8 and up so you can add to your collection as time goes on. These adorable little mess-free hamsters live and play in their hamster trail, they talk, sleep, and even brush their teeth! The technology is wonderful, depending on what activity they are doing they make cute little sound effects. Other than the basic hamster city there is also a hamster ball, slide, surfboard, skateboard and the traditional hamster wheel. Zhu Zhu Pets are great pets. They don’t eat, drink, stink, make a mess or die.

I am giving away 1 hamster (specific hamster may vary from the one pictured) and 1 slide!

Mandatory 1st Entry Go to the Zhu Zhu Pets website and look at all of the cool pets and accessories and come back here and tell me which one you like best.

Bonus Enteries

• Subscribe and/or follow my blog-1 entry each. Current subscribers/followers get entries too
• Leave a comment on another (non-giveaway) post and leave me a comment with which post you commented on.
• Tweet this “@MomMaven is giving away Zhu Zhu Pets! Have you entered? I did! http://bit.ly/CaJWZ” you may do this 3x a day. Leave a separate comment for each.

This giveaway is open to US Residents only. The winner will be chosen at 9pm on 9/3/09. Good Luck!

I participated in this review and giveaway as part of my association with Mom Select.

The winner of the 250 custom printed cards is #54, Jeccica! Congratulations!

Make sure you’ve entered all of my other giveaways:
Yoplait Whips! Summer Cool Down Pack

Unexpected Gift

PUR Flavor Options Pitcher

Chicken Soup for the Soul: Extraordinary Teens

I have worked with teens for almost 30 years. I have been a youth leader, mentor, teacher, friend and a lot of other things to the teens in my life every since I graduated high school. 14-18 year olds are my favorite ages to work with. At that age the kids are really figuring out who they are and what God created them to do. They aren’t afraid to dream to big and try new things.

Chicken Soup for the Soul recently published “Extraordinary Teens” which is filled with stories from over 50 amazing teenagers and young adults. Some of them are famous like Brenda Song, Donald Trump, Jr. and Anna Kournikova. Many are names you have never heard of like Desiree Amadeo, Margaret Lewis and Trevor Schulte. Each story is inspiring in its own way and no two stories are the same. There is even the story on page 221 of someone I follow on Twitter @PencilBugs. He is an amazing young entrepreneur who started his business at age 9!

I am thinking about requiring my teenaged sons to read this book. I’m sure it will challenge them to overcome obstacles, think outside of the box and take a stand for what they feel is important.  If you would like a copy of Chicken Soup for the Soul: Extraordinary Teens you can click on the link to order or you can enter to win a copy! I will be giving away 2 copies of Chicken Soup for the Soul: Extraordinary Teens.

Mandatory 1st Entry Leave me a comment telling me about an inspirational teen that you know.

Bonus Entries

• Leave a comment on another (non-giveaway) post on my blog and tell me where you commented. You can do this up to 5 times on 5 different posts.
• Tweet this “@MomMaven is giving away Chicken Soup For the Soul:Extraordinary Teens. You can enter to win it too! http://bit.ly/hsr9g #giveaway” you can do this 3 times a day. Leave the tweet URL in the comment.
• If you haven’t done so already check out the new Purex 3-in-1 Laundry Sheets, and leave me a comment that you did this. This link is trackable so I will know if you really did it or not.

Good Luck! This giveaway is open to US residents only and will end 9/2/09 at 10:15pm.

As a kid part of the fun of lunch time was seeing what mom had packed for lunch and trading some of it with a friend because I wanted what her mom packed! In the spirit of that lunchtime ritual, Hellmann’s® and Best Foods® Mayonnaise have teamed up with musician and actor Billy Ray Cyrus to encourage people of all ages to celebrate their favorite childhood ritual and join the virtual Sandwich Swap ‘n’ Share program to raise money for Feeding America®, the nation’s leading domestic hunger-relief charity.

Please join me and team up with Billy Ray Cyrus, in contributing to this very worthy cause. For every sandwich created as part of the virtual Sandwich Swap ‘n’ Share program on Facebook.com/hellmanns,Hellmann’s® and Best Foods® will donate 7 lunches to Feeding America®!

If that isn’t enough to get you to click over right now, you just might win something, too! Each sandwich created will automatically enter you for a chance to win a $250 grocery store gift certificate. And for every friend on Facebook® that you share your sandwich with, Hellmann’s® and Best Foods® will donate an additional 7 lunches to the charity.

So let’s get clicking on over to Facebook.com/hellmanns and help feed the hungry in America!

I am a VERY picky water drinker. I like natural spring water the best. I buy a lot of bottled water. Here in Florida, the tap water tastes nasty and I never drink it. We use it to cook, clean and make lemonade and iced tea with, but not to drink plain. On the other hand, living in hot, steamy Florida means we must drink water daily to stay hydrated. I have witnesses too many cases of heat exhaustion and heat stroke not to keep my family drinking water.

When I saw that they were looking for bloggers to review the PUR Flavor Options Pitcher, I jumped at the chance. I have always wanted to try this product but, I was afraid to buy it and then not like it. I received the pitcher and raspberry and lemon Flavor Options bottles. None of us drink flavored water but we were all willing to give it a try.
We read the directions, filled the reservoir with water and let it do its work over night. The next day, instead of opening another bottle of water we all tried the PUR water without the flavor options. My husband and kids said it tasted fine, better than the tap water, but I am the super picky one. I agreed with them, it is a great improvement over our nasty tap water, but it still was no match for my bottled water. Next we tried the Lemon Flavor Options in varying quantities. It is nice that you can add as much or little flavor as you like. My 14yo is the only one who really liked the flavored water.

We have concluded that my husband and sons will continue to drink the PUR water and we have begun using the filtered water to make our lemonade and iced tea with, which makes them taste much better! I am continuing to drink my bottled water. We figure we will be buying about 50% fewer bottles of water (since I have always been the main consumer of this item) so we are still saving money and landfill space by using the PUR Flavor Options Pitcher.

You can win your own PUR Flavor Options Pitcher.
Mandatory 1st Entry
Visit the PUR Flavor Options website and then come back here and tell me what flavor you would like to try.
Bonus Entries

• Subscribe to my blog via my RSS feed, leave me a comment
• Follow my blog via Google Friend Connect, leave me a comment
• Tweet This: “I want to win PUR water from @MomMaven http://bit.ly/Xae4y” you can do this 3x a day. Leave the tweet’s URL in your comment
• Digg, Stumble, Mixx, Prop and/or Fave on Technorati this post and receive 1 entry for each, leave separate comments

This giveaway is open to US residents only and will end on 9/2/09 at 10:00pm EDT. Good Luck!

As part of the Florida Mom Blogger Mixer at Disney World we were treated to lunch on the 2nd day at the Hollywood Brown Derby at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. I had never eaten at this restaurant and was very eager to give it a try. We were seated in a separate, small room that just fit our group. We had one dedicated server and she was just great.

We ordered a few different appetizers off the menu so we could test them. None of them were foods I cared for so, I didn’t try any. Our server shared with us the story behind the famous Cobb salad, which was originally created in 1937 at the Original Brown Derby in Hollywood by Robert Cobb for theatre magnate Sid Grauman.  In case you didn’t know the Cobb Salad is made up of finely chopped greens, turkey breast, egg, bacon, tomatoes, crumbled bleu cheese, avocado, chives and Cobb dressing.

For my entree I chose the Grilled Rib Eye Steak – with arugula, crispy sweet onions, gorgonzola, red bliss potatoes, and oven-dried tomato vinaigrette and it was to die for! For dessert I chose the signature dessert of the Hollywood Brown Derby, the Grapefruit Cake. It was good but I enjoyed helping Tina finish off her Bananas Foster much better!

Have you ever eaten at the Hollywood Brown Derby? What is your favorite menu item? Leave me a comment and let’s talk.

These are the remotes that control the electronics in my living room. There is one for DirecTV/DVR, VCR, DVD player, CD player, stereo and DVD recorder. When we were first married my husband numbered the remotes in order so that I could turn on the TV and stereo, it was crazy! After almost 18 years of marriage, I have learned how to use most of the remotes, I don’t touch the DVD burner . When the boys were younger we had to type up instructions so that our babysitters could watch TV!

With the new Yamaha neoHD you can get rid of all the other remotes and just used the neoHD remote. This easy to use, intuitive media controller is an amazing tool for simplifying your home media mess.  The user simply selects Watch, Listen or Play using the remote cursor, then chooses the desired source. All the other menus, such as song lists, are also easy to view, understand and make selections from.

For me, having only one remote would mean fewer headaches when I wanted to watch television or listen to the radio in the living room. It would also mean not having to make sure you used the correct remotes in the proper sequence to access the DVD player. How would the neoHD make your life better? Leave me a comment and let’s talk.