Happy Raturday!

*Photo courtesy of Me*

"I'm in your house stealing your pizza."

*Photo courtesy of Poppy's Mischief*

"One of us is on a diet. I have no idea why" 

*Photo courtesy of Poppy's Mischief*

"You make a nice pillow."

*Photo courtesy of Marymousehouse*

Review: Degustabox- November

My Degustabox came a couple of days earlier than I expected this month so this is the Degustabox for November. 

So far I've tried the Bean chips and Chicken Jerky. I'm looking forward to trying that Tikka Masala on some chicken since I've never tried that before. I've had the sour gummi bears before and I like them. That Ginger Beer is all Ken's since I don't drink. 

In this month's box was...

Briannas poppy seed dressing

Nibmor fruit and chocolate candy bars

Honees cough drops

Bruse Cost ginger beer

Ponti Glaze with balsamic and vinegar of modena

Chef's Cut chicken jerky

Beanitos chips

Sharwood's Tikka Masala simmer sauce

Oloves Healthy Olive Snack

Haribo sour gummi bears

Coupon for a free bag of Beanitos chips- not shown

The boxes are $19.99 a month and each box is a surprise. 

Favorite Video of the Week

When kids try things that they've never eaten before, it's almost always funny.

Freebie Friday!

Welcome to another edition of Freebie Friday, where I tell you what free samples and full sized products I received in the mail and how you can get them too. Someone asked me why I do a 'Freebie Friday" each week, so I'll tell you.

A while back I listed all the free samples and wins that I had received that previous year and so many people didn't believe that I could have gotten so many free things. So I decided to prove it by taking a picture every week and sharing the sites that I found the links to the freebies at. So now you too can get great free samples coming to your mailbox each week.

  You can find links to great at Hey It's Free and Freebie Shark.


This week I received:

Samples of Nutrish and Beneful dog food.

Samples of Nexcare bandages.

A $5 off coupon for dog food.

A coupon for a free dog food.


Did you receive any freebies this week?

Favorite Picture of the Week

Falcor fell asleep in his bed. Ken was gone for 10 days last month and Falcor would not leave my side so I put his bed right next to my computer table in the living room while I was on the computer. He was so happy when Ken came home. 

Happy Raturday!

*Photo courtesy of RatLogic*

*Photo courtesy of MrRat395*

"I didn't say stop. "I paid for a full 30 minute massage."

*Photo courtesy of RatLogic*

*Photo courtesy of Poppy's Mischief*

"I don't always blow raspberries but when I do, they're in your general direction and behind your back."

Review: Degustabox Subscription Box

Degustabox is a monthly subscription box filled with food and drink. The price for the box is $19.99 a month. This is the October box. 

You do not get to pick any of the products you get, it's a surprise each month. But they say each box contains 10-15 items and each box is worth at least $30. I like trying boxes like this because they usually contain products that I've never tried or haven't seen before. 

In the October box was...

Jones Soda: Pumpkin Flavor

Numi Tea Sampler Pack 

Palo Popcorn- 2 packs

Hometown Bagel Chips- 2 packs

Lovely Candy Fruit Candies

La Tortilla Factory- Pack of Low Carb Flour Tortillas

Wasa Thins- Snack Crackers

Energems

Crown Nut Sriracha Flavored Almonds

Barilla Marinara Sauce

Barilla Protein Plus Pasta

So far I've liked just about everything in this month's box and if I didn't like it, Ken did. The Pumpkin soda was different and while it was drinkable, I wouldn't get it again. But everything else was quite good and packaged well with bubble wrap so that even the glass bottles were fine. 

Have you tried this subscription box? Would you?

Favorite Video of the Week

I liked this song before I ever saw this video for it but when I saw the video I just had to laugh. Watch the video and then tell me...could you imagine anyone ever doing this at work? While it would be funny to just start dancing around like that, I seriously doubt it would happen.

Freebie Friday!

   

Welcome to another edition of Freebie Friday, where I tell you what free samples and full sized products I received in the mail and how you can get them too. Someone asked me why I do a 'Freebie Friday" each week, so I'll tell you.

A while back I listed all the free samples and wins that I had received that previous year and so many people didn't believe that I could have gotten so many free things. So I decided to prove it by taking a picture every week and sharing the sites that I found the links to the freebies at. So now you too can get great free samples coming to your mailbox each week.

  You can find links to great samples at Hey It's Free and Freebie Shark.


This week I received:

An engraved personalized pen from National Pen Company with my name and address on it.

A sample of Insta Natural Vitamin C cream.

And a $5 gift card from Crowdtap.


Did you receive any freebies this week?

Recipe: Ground Turkey Zucchini Patties

About a year ago I made this exact same recipe but with ground chicken. I wanted to make it again but the butcher in the meat department of my grocery store refused to grind up a pound of chicken for us. He said it's a specialty item and they only sell it when it's on the shelf, they won't grind it up individually. So Ken asked when they might get some more in and the idiot actually said that they don't order it anymore because no one buys it. *headdesk*  But he was nice enough *note my sarcasm* to point Ken in the direction of the ground turkey. So Ken called me on his new cell phone *All the damn time when he's out. It's annoying.* and asked if ground turkey was ok. So I tried it and thankfully it came out just as good as the ground chicken but they don't stick together as easily as the ground chicken did. I'll have to tweek this recipe and either use less shredded zucchini or some bread crumbs to keep it from falling apart. They were tasty though. I'll definitely be making these again. 

You will need

1 lb ground Turkey

3 TBSP diced Cilantro

1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

2 cups grated zucchini

2 diced green onions

1/4 tsp Chili Powder

1/4 tsp Smoked Paprika

salt and pepper to taste

olive oil 2 teaspoons

After grating the zucchini, put it in a metal colander or food strainer and squeeze out as much moisture as you can. Otherwise the water will leak out in the pan when frying them. 

Mix together and drop by small spoonfuls into hot olive oil on pan. Flatten out a little with spoon if they don't spread out on their own. Then leave them alone and don't try to turn them for 5 minutes or they will fall apart. Fry on each side for 5 minutes. Serve with guacamole dipping sauce. 

Recipe for Guacamole

2 ripe avocados

1TBSP lemon juice

1 tsp mayonnaise

salt to taste

Peel the avocados and mash them. Add lemon juice, mayo and salt. Mix well. 

And when the hell did ground chicken become a specialty item? I could see it if I asked for ground filet mignon or ground lobster but chicken? I think they just had an excess of those chubs of ground turkey and wanted someone, anyone to buy some. lol 

Favorite Picture of the Week

My grandson is going to be Frankenstein for Halloween so my daughter was trying out green spray in his hair. lol 

Review: Vein of Love by R. Scarlett

Book Description

"Darkness isn't one shade, sweetheart." Three centuries ago, Molly Darling’s ancestors signed a contract in blood—daemon blood—to protect themselves from harm. On the eve she turns nineteen, Molly leaves for her birthday party against her parent’s wishes, sick of their warnings about her “betrothal to a demon.” Except that she’s very much betrothed, and he’s very much a demon—one who’s only agreed to the nuptials to use Molly’s ancient daemon powers. Brash, arrogant, and built like a Greek god, Tensley Knight keeps showing up to save Molly from otherworldly attacks, only to insult her a moment later. As Molly learns more about the demon world, she realizes two things: that her family’s safety depends on a successful marriage, while any chance of freedom she’ll ever have calls for Tensley’s demise. Yet sometimes Molly spots a tortured soul beyond those liquid grey eyes, and there’s no denying the way her skin tingles when Tensley touches it. In Vein of Love, safety requires sacrifice, foe becomes lover, and one must decide whether to kiss...or to kill.

My Review

If I could just say something like, "Ends in a cliffhanger, don't bother." I would. But that really wouldn't make me feel any better and wouldn't tell other readers what this book was about and why I really enjoyed it up until that cliffhanger ending. But let me just state for the record that cliffhanger endings are never, ever ok. They just aren't. 

Molly finds herself betrothed to a demon through no fault of her own. Her family made a pact with a demon family 300 years ago and when her family bears a child with Daemon eyes, that child will marry into the demon family that they own the pact to. Holly is that person and her demon betrothed appeared to her when she was but a child and put a ring on her finger that showed they planned to come back for her when she got older. That ring also hid her from other demons so they couldn't claim her as their own. She has powers that she doesn't know how to control and eyes that are other worldly but can stop a demon in their tracks. Her parents haven't shown her the contract that her family has with the demon family so she doesn't understand what is happening when the demon she's apparently promised to show's up and saves her from a gorgon who was trying to kill her. 

Tensley Knight is a demon and knows he's betrothed to Molly, not that he's happy about it. He did have a life before this just as she did. But he's been ordered by his father to claim her and make sure that her position in their family is solidified by marking her- not that we ever really find out what that entails. 

Tensley is an ass right from the start but you get small glimpses of the good man he is under that hard facade. There's a good reason for the way he acts and the more I read about it the more I understood why he didn't want to let himself feel anything for Molly. 

I thought the pace of the book was great, it really kept me engaged because I wanted to to know what was going to happen next. A lot of stuff happened and there were several secondary characters that really added to the story. The banter and interaction between Molly and Tensley was wonderful and I looked forward to seeing them together each time they parted. This book was really about them getting to know each other, not trusting each other and all the dangers that came with the fact that they didn't talk to each other, especially how Tensley was trying to keep Molly safe and she didn't trust him because he never really gave her a reason to. 

There's some sexual innuendo, flirting at times, and one hot scene where Molly let's loose because she's under the effects of Tensley's blood but even though the sexual tension is high in this story, there's no sex. The story itself was really engaging so I didn't mind that because she's only 19 years old and a virgin. Not to mention that the guy she's promised to is a demon, so I wasn't too surprised that she didn't jump into bed with him right away. 

But that's why I was so irritated when this book ended on a cliffhanger. It was like a movie ending right in the middle and nothing being resolved. The story wasn't finished, and frankly nothing irritates me more than a cliffhanger that leaves the story wide open after reading a book that I was really enjoying. The story was good, the writing was great and that's the only reason it's getting 3 stars from me. 

I give this book 3 out of 5 stars. 

Disclosure: I received this book free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. 

Happy Raturday!

*Photo courtesy of martymousehouse.com*

*Photo courtesy of MrRat395*

"Do I look amused to you?"

*Photo courtesy of rosemarie hiermann*

"This corn needs a bit of butter."

*Photo courtesy of Poppy's Mischief*

"Finders keepers. It's mine now."

Review: Walmart Beauty Box *September 2016*

The Walmart Beauty Box is a subscription box that comes out 4 times a year and it's only $5 for each box. The Beauty Box is free you just pay the $5 for shipping and handling. Every time I get one, I think they can't add more to the box and this time I was surprised at just how much was in the box for a $5 fee. 

The boxes themselves are cute and there's always a little tissue paper in the box covering what they sent. 

This month when I opened the box, I have to say I was surprised to find so many samples of products. I love trying all these new to me products that I would never have tried if I hadn't received a sample or a full size product in one of these boxes. 

So here's what was in the box...

Village naturals concentrated mineral bath soak

Swisspers exfoliating cotton rounds

Cetaphil moisturizing cream

Vaseline Intensive Care, advanced repair lotion

Dove Advanced Care cool essentials deodorant

Dove pampering body wash, sweet cream with peony

Eucerin eczema relief body cream

Vitabath Bath and shower gelee

Simple Micellar Water- Make Up Remover

I was really happy with all the samples. I have a full size bottle of the make up remover because I use that. I also have a full size tube of that deodorant because that's the one I use. But Everything else is either a new scent or a brand that I haven't used before. I think for $5 this is one of the best subscription boxes out there for beauty products. 

Do you have a subscription to this box? Are you thinking of signing up for one now?

Sam's Club: Moms and Dads Welcome Baby Box

A few weeks ago I found a link to sign up for a free baby box for new parents. You didn't need to be a Sam's club member or sign up for anything else, so I signed up for it because there's always people around here having babies. There's 2 new babies in my courtyard and I'm sure their mom's would love some free samples. 

It came in a cute box and had 3 freebies inside it. 

Inside the box was a newborn diaper sample, a baby book and a baby wipes sample. 

Not a bad freebie from Sam's Club. 

Freebie Friday!

Welcome to another edition of Freebie Friday, where I tell you what free samples and full sized products I received in the mail and how you can get them too. Someone asked me why I do a 'Freebie Friday" each week, so I'll tell you.

A while back I listed all the free samples and wins that I had received that previous year and so many people didn't believe that I could have gotten so many free things. So I decided to prove it by taking a picture every week and sharing the sites that I found the links to the freebies at. So now you too can get great free samples coming to your mailbox each week.

  You can find links to samples like these at Hey It's Free and Freebie Shark.
Did you know you can sign up at Tomoson and get free products too. You can also sign up at these sites and get products at a great discount. No Kidding Coupons, AMZ Review Trader, and Elite Deal Club.

This week I received:

A sample bag of Beneful dog food.

Tampons and liners.

2 Sample doggie poop bags.

A $5 Amazon gift card from Crowdtap. It used to be you'd get a $5 gift card for every 1000 point you earned on the site but now it take 1500 points to get a $5 gift card so I probably won't have one each week now.


Did you receive any freebies this week?

Recipe: Fajita Chicken and Vegetables

I love Fajitas but I'm trying to cut out the bread, tortillas, rice and noodles down from most of my dinners. So I came up with this so that I still get fajitas just without the tortillas and it came out really good. 

Recipe:

3 Chicken tenders or 2 chicken breasts cut into chunks

1 bell pepper- chopped into 1 inch slices

1 yellow onion cut into 1 inch slices

2 TBSP. oil

1 cup mushrooms chopped

1/4 cup slices black olives

Fajita seasoning pouch

1/2 cup cheddar cheese grated

1 cup of Guacamole

1/2 cup homemade or jar salsa

1 can refried beans

salt to taste

Heat oil in large pan. Add bell pepper, onion and mushrooms to pan and saute until tender. Remove vegetables from pan and add chicken. Cook until almost cooked through, add vegetables back to pan and add fajita seasoning pouch. Let simmer for 4 minutes. Add to plate and top with a pinch of grated cheese and a spoonful of black olives. Serve with homemade or jar salsa, guacamole and refried beans.

Ken found a new product called Fajita simmer sauce by Ortega and that's what we used. It was good. There are other packets of fajita seasoning in the store that you can use or you can use Chili powder and cumin. 

This ended up being really good and I didn't even miss the rice or potatoes that I usually make with dinner. I'm still learning to make diabetic friendly meals but this didn't make my blood sugar spike so I'm calling this a win. 

Favorite Picture of the Week

My brother and his best friend went and got matching tattoos. It's a Maltese Cross to symbolize my brother being a retired Fire Fighter and his best friend being an Army Medic. I think they came out good. 

I'm A Guest Reviewer At I Smell Sheep!

Book Description

In her twenty-fifth adventure, vampire hunter and necromancer Anita Blake learns that evil is in the eye of the beholder...

Anita has never seen Damian, her vampire servant, in such a state. The rising sun doesn’t usher in the peaceful death that he desperately needs. Instead, he’s being bombarded with violent nightmares and blood sweats.  

And now, with Damian at his most vulnerable, Anita needs him the most. The vampire who created him, who subjected him to centuries of torture, might be losing control, allowing rogue vampires to run wild and break one of their kind’s few strict taboos. 

Some say love is a great motivator, but hatred gets the job done, too. And when Anita joins forces with her friend Edward to stop the carnage, Damian will be at their side, even if it means traveling back to the land where all his nightmares spring from...a place that couldn’t be less welcoming to a vampire, an assassin, and a necromancer.

Ireland.

Denise B and I both wrote reviews for this book for I Smell Sheep. I'm a guest reviewer over there today so head on over there and check out the double review from both of us. 

Happy Raturday!

*Photo courtesy of martymousehouse.com*

"I is a rat burrito"

*Photo courtesy of martymousehouse.com*

*Photo courtesy of martymousehouse.com*

"I'm pretty sure the aliens won't want to probe a rat."

*Photo courtesy of martymousehouse.com*

"This cake batter needs more rat hair."

*Photo courtesy of martymousehouse.com*

Where's George?

Have you herd of Where's George? No? Well it's a website that let's you add the serial numbers of your paper money and track when someone else adds that same serial number to the site. I added 11 bills ranging in value from $20 to $1 dollar bills to the site a few years go and tonight I received an email that someone else has one of the $1 dollar bills and added the serial number to the site. If you click on the picture it tells you when I added it and how many miles it's traveled since I added it. 

There's all kinds of info on the site about the bills I entered. All the data can be found on this page about them. How many other people have found the bills and entered into the site that they have it and where it went after they had it if someone entered the serial number into the site. 

I thought it was kind cool the way people are tracking the paper money they have. The way I found out about the site was I got a few dollar bills with Where'sGeorge.com written on the paper money itself. So I went to the site to see why people were writing that on the money and added the serial numbers of the money I had so the last person who had the paper money I had just got, could see where it was now. 

I thought it was kinda cool. Have you heard of this site? Have you entered any money into the site? Would you?

Favorite Video of the Week

I love watching kids try new foods. But this, was so funny.

Freebie Friday!

Welcome to another edition of Freebie Friday, where I tell you what free samples and full sized products I received in the mail and how you can get them too. Someone asked me why I do a 'Freebie Friday" each week, so I'll tell you.

A while back I listed all the free samples and wins that I had received that previous year and so many people didn't believe that I could have gotten so many free things. So I decided to prove it by taking a picture every week and sharing the sites that I found the links to the freebies at. So now you too can get great free samples coming to your mailbox each week.

  You can find links to samples like these at Hey It's Free and Freebie Shark.

Did you know you can sign up at Tomoson and get free products too. You can also sign up at these sites and get products at a great discount. No Kidding Coupons, AMZ Review Trader, and Elite Deal Club.

This week I received:

A sample of Truvia sweetener

A coupon for a free small bag of Lays potato chips.

And a $5 Amazon gift card from Crowdtap.

Did you receive any freebies this week?

Recipe: Roasted Zucchini

Ever since finding out that I have diabetes, I've been trying to make more vegetables and less rice, noodles or dishes with a lot of carbs. So I've been looking into ways to cook vegetables and roasting them really seems to be my new favorite way. Now this might not seem like a big deal to you if you've been doing this for a while but it's new to me because my mom told me to just cut them and throw them in boiling water and boil the hell out of them. It also boils the taste out of them. lol 

So here's my recipe for Roasted Zucchini. 

1 Zucchini- cut into 1/4 slices

2 TBSP. oil

1/4 tsp. Smoked Paprika

1/4 tsp. Onion Powder

1/4 tsp. Garlic Powder

1/4 tsp. Season Salt

1/4 tsp. Thyme

Place sliced zucchini in a large bowl and add all ingredients. Toss until well coated. Place zucchini in a single layer on a foil lined baking sheet and bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes. 

Do you have a tasty zucchini recipe?

Amazon's New TOS and What It Means For My Reviews *UPDATED*

**UPDATE**

So today 10-6-2016 I received an email from Amazon.

"Hello,

Based on a policy change to our Community Guidelines, some of your reviews will be removed. We recently updated this policy to prohibit incentivized reviews, which includes those posted in exchange for free or discounted products. Incentivized reviews posted prior to this policy change are being retroactively removed if they are excessive or do not comply with the previous policy.

Your reviewing privileges will not be affected by this action, but you will not be able to resubmit the reviews that were removed.

To learn about our review policies, please see our Customer Review Creation Guidelines."

So I went and looked and they deleted over 100 of my reviews. Poof! Gone. Completely uncalled for. I'm sure I'm not the only one, I'm sure hundreds of people are getting this email and completely shocked that their reviews are now gone too.

--------------------------------------

So yesterday Amazon changed their Terms of Service so that they no longer accept reviews for products that were given to people free or at a discount. A few people tried to submit reviews yesterday anyway and posted the email they received which said something like, "We're sorry, we could not accept your review because we no longer accept reviews for products that were given free or at a discount."

Others have said that over the last year that Amazon has decided to erase all of their reviews and in some cases ban them from writing anymore reviews at all.

Here's a link to the new TOS in case you're wondering what I'm talking about.

But here's an excerpt from the new TOS.

"Customer reviews are one of the most valuable tools we offer customers for making informed purchase decisions, and we work hard to make sure they are doing their job. In just the past year, we’ve improved review ratings by introducing a machine learned algorithm that gives more weight to newer, more helpful reviews; applying stricter criteria to qualify for the Amazon verified purchase badge; and suspending, banning or suing thousands of individuals for attempting to manipulate reviews.

Our community guidelines have always prohibited compensation for reviews, with an exception – reviewers could post a review in exchange for a free or discounted product as long as they disclosed that fact. These so-called ‘incentivized reviews’ make up only a tiny fraction of the tens of millions of reviews on Amazon, and when done carefully, they can be helpful to customers by providing a foundation of reviews for new or less well-known products.

Today, we updated the community guidelines to prohibit incentivized reviews unless they are facilitated through the Amazon Vine program."

So from this point forward, I will no longer be posting reviews on Amazon for products or books whether I purchase them or not. I don't want to get banned, be sued or have any problems with Amazon since I do purchase from them quite often. I will however still post reviews on my blog so before I accept a book or product for review from this point forward, I will be informing those sending me products and books to review that the review will no longer be posted on Amazon. Sorry but I won't be taking any chances with my Amazon account getting banned.

Review: Degusta Box Subscription Box

So this is my second month getting the Degustabox and I have to say, I'm pretty happy with it so far. This is the box from September and it was a good one. We're really liking these boxes.

In this box was...

A bag of PopCORNers- Popped corn chips. 

A bottle of lemon Sparkling Bitters- Flavored sparkling water.

Toosum- Oatmeal bar. 

2 Packs of BustaNUT- Flavored peanuts. 

Sam Mills Quinoa and Corn pasta. 

Entenmann's Mini Chocolate chip muffins. 

Nando's Peri Peri sauce. 

3 jars from English Provender- 2 chutney's and a lemon curd. 

Michel Et Augustin butter cookies. 

Hak's Ratatouille sauce. 

Zollipops hard candies.
A full size box of Honey Bunches of Oats- Honey Roasted cereal.

Have you thought about signing up for a subscription box like Degustabox? It's $19 a month and as you can see, there's quite a bit in the boxes.

You get 10-15 full size products each month. You don't get to pick the products, it's a surprise but I kinda like that. Most of the stuff this month are products that I've never tried and everything has been great with the exception of the sparking water. It was lemon flavored water with a dash of bitters and it was not tasty at all. Maybe if it was added to a drink of some kind. maybe.

Does this sound like a good box? Would you ever try a subscription box like this?