Well, there are only a few things I like better than a good giveaway, and there are only a few things my husband likes better that a good experiment, so I was super excited when I was asked to do this giveaway/review/experiment!

Before I explain the experiment and the prize pack, let me tell you a bit about Seventh Generation (I am quoting from the information I was sent):

Did you know that the laundry detergent you may be using could contain little-known chemicals called optical brighteners? And According to scientific research, these can cause allergic reactions, are toxic to small fish and other aquatic life, and can pollute your waterways.

When ultraviolet light hits optical brighteners coating your clothing, the brighteners convert UV rays into visible light to create an optical illusion. This tricks the eye into thinking the clothing is whiter and brighter, and therefore cleaner than it really is.

So how can you avoid these optical brighteners? Seventh Generation makes it easy because their laundry detergents are not only free of optical brighteners, but they´re also non-toxic . In addition, because Seventh Generation liquid laundry detergents are both hypo-allergenic and biodegradable, you can rest easy knowing you made a considerate choice for your family and the environment.

So, to conduct my own experiment, Seventh Generation through MyBlogSpark sent me a prize pack including 2 identical test t-shirts, a black light, and Seventh Generation liquid laundry products. I was asked to then wash one shirt in my normal laundry detergent and the other in the provided Seventh Generation laundry products. Well, check out the results (remember the shirt looking light means it DOES have optical brightners):

As you can see, my Conventional Laundry detergent is brighter under the black light and thus contains optical brightners.  Seventh Generation does not! Now, I was really excited to try this experiment out and to see these results! You can learn more about the Seventh Generation Laundry Products here and you can sign up for their newsletter here.
You can click here to print a coupon for $1 off Seventh Generation Liquid laundry products.

AND one LUCKY Beckeesdeals reader will win a prize pack of their own from Seventh Generation with a set of Seventh Generation laundry products:

Here is how to enter the Giveaway (PLEASE make sure to leave an email address in each comment so I can reach you should you win):

MANDATORY ENTRY (Must do this first for other entries to count): Just leave a comment sharing your favorite tips for keeping their families healthy at home.

Once you have done that, you can get up to 7 extra entries by doing the following things (Just make sure to leave a separate comment for each entry, and leave me your email address in each comment so I know how to contact you should you win):

1. Become a Google Friend follower of my blog (You can do this over on the right side of the blog where the followers box is). If you are already a follower, just let me know that in your comment.

2. Subscribe to my blog via Email or an RSS feed/reader. (Yes-you can use this entry if you are already an email or RSS subscriber- just let me know how you subscribe to my blog).

3. Become a Facebook fan of the blog here.

4. Follow me on Twitter here.

5. Tell me how you found this giveaway/blog.

6. Go like Seventh Generation on Facebook

7. Go Follow seventhgen on Twitter

This giveaway is for USA and Canada residents only.

Be sure to leave a comment for each entry with your email address. The winner will be chosen using Random.org on Thursday December 16, 2010 at at about 11:59 PM Central Time.

***Please note that I was sent the above mentioned package from Seventh Generation, through MyBlogSpark along with information about this Project, but any opinions expressed are my own. They are also providing the Prize pack for the giveaway***

I am a BzzAgent on Bzzagent.com, and as such occasionally I get to try some awesome products. In the past I have tried and told you about Elmer's Crafters and X Acto Products, Got2b Smooth Operator Lustre Lotion, and Scrubbing Bubbles Extend a Clean. I love trying new products and telling you about them, so I was SOOO excited to tell you about the newest product I was able to try.

Bzzagent.com sent me a coupon to try out the new Welch's® Healthy™ Start ™100% Juice. I was also sent some coupons to share with friends (which I have been sharing). Before I tell you what I thought, let me give you some facts about this product straight from them:

Start your day off right with the goodness of grapes! Read all about the new Welch's® Healthy™ Start™ 100% Juice:

• Two servings (1 cup) of fruit in every 8oz. glass
• 100% juice - no added sugar
• 260% daily value of the antioxidant vitamin C - 2x the vitamin C of the leading OJ*
• Natural antioxidant power straight from the grapes**
• Good source of calcium
• Comes in three delicious flavors, perfect for the whole family -Grape, Blueberry Pomegranate Concord Grape and White Grape Orange Mango
• Suggested retail price of $3.79 per 59 oz. carton
• Available in the refrigerated aisle of grocery stores and Wal-Marts everywhere
• Online at welchs.com and facebook.com/welchsgrapes

*Per 8 oz. serving: Welch's® Healthy™ Start™ has 260% daily value C of vitamin versus Tropicana Pure Premium Original Orange Juice 130% Daily Value of vitamin C.
**Per ORAC lab testing of the juice

Well, you cannot argue with the health benefits, and it does switch up the morning OJ routine, right?! So, let me tell you what I thought!

First, I need to be perfectly honest and fair and tell you that I do not like Grape juice. I like white grape juice somewhat, but overall, grape juices are not my thing. However, I was really excited to try out either the Blueberry Pomegranate Concord Grape or White Grape Orange Mango flavors. Sadly, I could only find the plain Grape. (I am still on the lookout for the other flavors to try so let me know if you see them anywhere Omaha Readers!!)

I tried the juice, and it was good for a grape juice, but the real test was in having the children try it. I have a 7-yr-old girl, Salsa, a 6-yr-old boy, E Dawg, a 4-yr-old boy, Army, and a 2-yr-old girl, Cat. One morning before breakfast I got out the Welch's® Healthy™ Start™ 100% Grape Juice to go with their breakfast. They could not wait to drink it!

Salsa sadly shares her mom's dislike of Grape juice so she did not like it, but E Dawg, Army, and Cat LOVED it! They could not get enough! It was GREAT to see them asking for something healthy to drink. Even after school that day they came home and asked for more juice instead of a cookie or chocolate milk. I was very pleased that the kids loved it so much!

I recommend checking at your local store for this new Welch's® Healthy™ Start™ 100% Juice and giving it a try! And if any of you Omaha readers find the other 2 flavors around-let me know so I can try them with you! I am sure they are fantastic!!

Oh-and while you are thinking about Welch's® Healthy™ Start™ 100% Juice, you might as well stop over to Facebook and like them here.

Remember, as with EVERY Friday, today is Mega Swag Bucks day! That means more chances to earn more Swag Bucks! So, makes sure to use Swag Bucks for all your searching needs today!

If you have not joined yet, click on my referral link here and start earning Swag Bucks with me! This is a GREAT time to join-with Mega Swag Bucks going on today!! As an FYI, I have gotten $130 in Amazon Gift cards so far and I have enough to get another $10 with 29 Swag Bucks left. (450=$5 Amazon card).

If you are new to Swag Bucks, please read my explanation of Swag Bucks here. And my explanation of the changes to Swagbucks here.

Did you know All You Magazing has a daily FREE sample? Well, today's is a free sample of Lanacane Anti-Chafing lotion. Go here to get yours!

This is a long post, but hopefully amusing-lots of funny Black Friday tales and lessons learned! Please read it and share your Black Friday experiences and deals with me!

Most years, I do all (or most) of my Christmas Shopping on Black Friday. I am usually one of those very organized shoppers with a list of where I am going, when I am going there and a plan for how to get all the deals I need to make Christmas happen for cheap! Since Walmart price matches, I generally try to do as much of it as I can pricematching.

Well, this year, I only needed a few things as I did most of the Christmas Shopping for this year right AFTER Christmas last year. It was a new experience for me. I almost skipped Black Friday altogether this year as I thought Wes (my hubby) had to work Black Friday (he did work but only 1-10pm). So, Wes and I looked through the ads and found that there were a few things we wanted at 3 stores.

The stops would be as follows:

1-Midnight stop at Walmart...hoping to get an art set for on child, PJ's for all 4 kids, a writing toy for another kid, and the super cheap towels.

2-6am Menards stop for: pop up tent & tunnel, "Cuddle Up" (Snuggie imitation-Wes wanted to get me one for Christmas), Wii remote charging station, and "Cuddlee Pets" (imitation Pillow Pets) for all four kids.

3-Stop at Younkers to use $10 coupon and possibly get nicer "Snuggie"-like item.

Obviously with 4 kids at home one of us shops and the other stays home with the kids-especially when the first stop is at midnight. In years past, Walmart has been my first stop and I have gone in and grabbed the toys I was after and hurried out while everyone else was still fighting over electronics. This year Walmart split up the sale so electronics doorbusters went on at 5 am and the other ones (the ones I needed) went on at midnight. I thought it would make it easier for me to get in, out and get what I wanted without SOOO many shoppers at midnight.

WRONG! Dead wrong! First, when I left my house at 11:40ish, the streets were empty except for a steady stream of minivans making their way toward Walmart-no joke! I walked in to the store and could hardly walk in it was so crowded. I was lucky enough to have a nice manager hand me a cart (they were basically gone) as I walked in (that is one benefit to pregnancy-people want to help you out generally). So I fought my way through the people back to the PJ's and grabbed the 4 pair I needed-surprisingly the exact ones I wanted for each kid. ALL towels were long gone by the time I made it to them, so I made my way to toys. The art supplies I wanted were all gone, but I DID get the writing toy I wanted. So, I was ready to make my way to a line.

There was one employee on that side of the store that was herding people into a HUGE long line that went from the last check stand, through the sections of toys, health and beauty, pets, Christmas and all the way into the garden area. It was insane. It would have been a fine idea if that was the ONE store line and it fed into all the checkout stands, but no. It fed into only ONE checkout lane-ONE! I realized this and told the employee I was not done shopping when he tried to convince me I HAD to get in that line to check out, and I made my way back over to the grocery side of the store where I got in another long line. (Not even CLOSE to as long as that other line.)

While waiting in line I had the guy behind me pinch my butt, then an older guy rammed into my cart with his cart and tried to cut in front of me in line. When I said "Really?! You think so?!" to that guy and told him to go to the back of the line, the butt pincher behind me did and said nothing. Then tried to act like he was ready to defend my honor AFTER the older guy was gone (it was pretty funny).

There was a woman in front of me that had lots of heavy stuff and no cart and I had a cart and hardly anything in it, so I moved my stuff to the front part of the cart and offered her the back of my cart for her to rest her stuff in while we waited in line. She took me up on it and we started to talk. As we were getting closer to the front, I realized I had gotten the WRONG size for one of the PJ's and luckily I had made this friend, so she watched our cart as I ran back and (luckily) found the correct size.

After over an hour in line, I made it to the front finally! I made it home from Walmart at about 2:30am, and thought I would throw in a nap.

When the alarm went off at 5 am, I turned it off and went back to bed. I woke up around 6:30/7 and ran over to Menards in my PJs. There I was able to score the Cuddle pets (all 4) and the tents. The Wii chargers were sold out, and the snuggie things were made of really coarse feeling felt so I opted to leave without one!!

Waiting in that long line was quite amusing as the lady in front of me was very funny, and the lady in front of her was even funnier. The one2 up from me kept having people ram into her cart, and she never even flinched or got upset at them. We told her how impressed we were that she was so patient, and she said "Honey, I work at the casino! This is nothin!"

Then the 2 guys behind me in line were both a little gangster looking, and they were telling me the funniest stories about the other places they had already been. I heard tales of Toys R Us, Walmart and Target. The funniest of which was the one guy telling me he saw a lady with 2 HUGE carts full of stuff at Walmart at 1am struggling through the parking lot, so he started to rush toward her to help, and she yelped and started running through the parking lot. He said to me "I guess I look pretty scary running over to help at 1am." He thought it was hilarious. The other guy saw a fight break out and a man escorted from Walmart at about midnight (I had seen the escort out and wondered what had happened so it was interesting to hear from someone that was back there). FYI the fight was over a pricematch for $99 Wii's.

After I went home, content with my shopping and feeling done for the day, Wes wanted to go get the nicer looking Snuggies from Younkers for my present. We went over and got them (as I stood in line for over an hour he took the kids to see Santa in the mall-with NO line BTW). I have to admit-I learned I am NOT a pet person...a mom and daughter in front of me in line were saying "I just don;t know which one he will like better, he is so picky...maybe I should grab the other one?" I assumed they were talking about the pillow pets they were holding for the grandkids (they had been talking about them a lot). Then the daughter said "Let's look at them together" then she walked over and grabbed a second pet bed and set it next to the one they had and they proceeded to discuss the DOG's color and pattern preferences...I was baffled-I thought dogs were colorblind, but then again, I have never had a dog. Do they really have preferences?! Seriously pet owners, do they?!

All in all I had a successful day and got most of my goal products, but I also had a few things I learned that I want to share:

1-We are all in this together-we are all stuck in this crazy crowd trying to get the best deals, so lets try not to make it so miserable on each other-no need to be mean. Remember the things your mom and dad taught you and don;t pick on other kids, don't push and shove, and be nice! (That does NOT mean you need to be so nice as to give up the things you want to someone else that wants it to-go get what you need, but don't trample others to get it).

2-No sir, there is no cutting in line no matter how old, how frustrated or how aggressive you are-that young little weak looking pregnant lady WILL stand up for herself! I will NEVER start a confrontation, and in fact I will always try to be pleasant and kind to others in there, but so help me, if you get in my face I WILL defend myself and as my father-in-law says, "If it is a matter of who can pitch the biggest fit, I can if necessary."

3-Black Friday is stressful-the economy is bad, and we ALL want/need that deal to make Christmas happen, so it is probably a good time to be patient and to help out a stranger and do some service for others-like the lady without a cart. It did not hurt me at all to share mine with her, but it sure made it easier on her!

4-Patience, Patience, Patience!! Would I on any other day wait in the Disneyland length lines at a store? No, no I would not. Would I have the patience for it? No, but on Black Friday I put on my most patient face and head out the door!

5-Black Friday shopping is NOT nearly as fun alone! Thank you for all my friends and family who have gone with me in the past and made it an FUN experience! Those of you that can share with me the cart crashing and we can laugh at it together! Those who have waited in those eternal lines and talked to me and helped further develop our relationships as we tried to make a stressful situation fun! Thanks Wes, Mom, Andrea, Melanie, Spence, Lindsey, Lisa, Laurie and all the others that have joined me in my madness over the years!!

6-If you can, bring a buddy with you to Black Friday-it really is better that way (see lesson 5).

So, readers-did you do Black Friday?! Any funny stories or GREAT deals you got?! I would LOVE to hear about it!!!

I have been really wanting to try these Wendy's new Natural Cut French Fries with Sea Salt, but have not had a chance yet. Well, now I can try them FREE and so can you! Just go here and print out your coupon for free fries.

Thanks Mom on Dealz.

Are you by chance in search of some good, free holiday music you can download?! Well, look no further! Here are som places to look:

• Amazon has a free song each day for their 25 Days of FREE Christmas Music.
• Amazon also has a FREE Timeless Christmas (Amazon MP3 Exclusive Sampler).
• Target also has 13 free songs to download.

WOW-what an insane week! I am PTO co=president at the elementary school and we decided to quickly put together a cookie dough fundraiser BEFORE the holidays, and Ihave spent a lot of time with my kids selling cookie dough, then a lot of time at school collecting order forms, money, and all that good stuff! So, I am sorry my off line life has taken completely over my online blogging so far this week!

Have you missed me on here as much as I have missed blogging?! I have sure missed sitting in my warm PJ's at my computer blogging about all the great deals out there!! I still need to let you know how my Black Friday Shopping went (yeah, I am that far behind!!). I have about 2000 emails to go through to find the best deals for you and I have a new giveaway post all ready to go up later this afternoon. Wow!

ANd I have NOTHING planned (well-except preschool and a 1st grade choir concert) today so I can finally dedicate some time to the blog.

There are still 2 GREAT LOW entry giveaways going on here at Beckeesdeals! Another one should be posting today or tomorrow! I LOVE being able to give away great prizes to my readers! Please go enter the 2 open giveaways!

You can find the Dave & Buster's $25 Power Card giveaway here. It is an awesome prize and only has 3 entries right now-that's right, 3!!! It ends next Wednesday (my Salsa's 8th birthday)! Go enter!

The Carmex Giveaway is here. It has only 19 entries and ends on Thursday, December 16th.

More readers entering giveaways means that I can get more sponsors to give away great prizes like these! So please go enter!

Right now you can sign up to receive a FREE PAIR OF GLASSES, lenses included, through coastalcontacts.com.  This is for Utah Residents only.  The first 1,000 people will receive this offer, so hurry over.  Simply go here and enter your email address.  On December 2, you will get an email telling you how to obtain your free glasses from coastalcontacts.com.  You must have a valid prescription ready to submit on December 2 to get the free glasses.  There is a limit of one per household and you will have to pay shipping-shipping is approximately $8.00-not bad for a pair of glasses!!  :)  Go enter now. 

Thanks Utah Deal Diva