Today is the last day to enter to win the whole line of CeraVe skincare products! It is good stuff!! Go enter now!!

WOW! Did you know that today is Domino's Global Pizza Day? Why, you ask, is this important for me to know? Well, because that means that Domino's Pizzas ordered online today are 50% off!! I am typing this as I enjoy my late lunch of Domino's pizza! Go check out the details on their facebook page here. Oh and FYI-MAKE SURE you turn off your pop up blocker before you try to order or it will not work-took me forever to figure that out! :)

One of my favorite things about Thanksgiving is the leftovers! I love figuring out different way sto use them in new exciting recipes. I usually do a turkey noodle soup and a turkey pot pie, but then I am a little stuck on what else to do with the Turkey. So, I was excited when I heard that Hellmann's is holding a Hellmann's® Turkey Challenge!! Check out what it is (as they have described it on their website:

Hellmann's has all kinds of ideas to make turkey dinners more delicious. Each week, we'll spotlight one of our most popular turkey recipes. But are there other recipes you'll like even more?

The Hellmann's Turkey Challenge gives you a chance to tell us. Each week, two Hellmann's® recipes will challenge the spotlighted turkey recipe for your vote. You can even vote as many times as you like.

I love that I can try different spotlighted recipes and try them out! YUM! Go check it out and vote for your favorite!!

By way of disclosure: I was entered for a chance to win a Hellmann's® prize package in exchange for this post. No monetary exchange took place.

Well, here I am in Chicago...

Wes is at his conference and Chicago is living up to its name...it is a WINDY city today!

So, I am chilling inside for a bit and thought I would write a quick post or two. What to know something really funny? Look:

Ignore the mess, but notice that they gave us 2 double beds rather than the King size bed we were supposed to have...funny...they say they will move us to a King room today. Here's to hoping they really will!

A couple weeks ago I asked whether you were CeraVe's biggest fan. (If you did not read that post you should go check it out and read all about their contest...videos for the contest will go up on December 1st for you to vote on-that is next week!!)

Since posting about that contest to find CeraVe's biggest fan, I was sent their entire line to try out myself.

What is it?

I was sent:

• CeraVe Hydrating Cleanser
• CeraVe Foaming Facial Cleanser
• CeraVe Facial Moisturizing AM with SPF
• CeraVe Facial Moisturizing PM
• CeraVe Moisturizing Lotion
• CeraVe Moisturizing Cream

According to their website:

The CeraVe Skincare line includes six elegant, yet affordable formulations, making it an ideal choice for your daily skincare regimen.
All CeraVe Skincare products provide the benefits of unique, patented MVE® delivery technology and are formulated with essential ceramides and other skin-nurturing and protective ingredients—including vital humectants and emollients—to replenish and retain needed moisture.
MVE is a registered trademark of Healthpoint, Ltd., and used under license

What did I think?

Well, as mentioned recently on this blog, I am not a fan of face washing as I always feel like there crap all over my face after I am done washing it. Sometimes it feels greasy, or filmy, or just like I have some sort of thick foundation on my face. Also, I have pretty sensitive skin, so I often break out more with facial cleaners (break out into zits sometimes, but usually into rashes-ugly rashes).
For the purpose of this review, I wanted to make sure to give these products a good test so I have been using them for the past week.
The first time I opened the products up I noticed they were not full of overwhelming scents. In fact they are basically scent free. Sometimes I like scented lotions, but sometimes they really just distract from the lotion for me. Especially if they are scented and the scent conflicts with my perfume or my shampoo or whatever other scented items I have on. These products could be worn without any scent conflicts.
I first tried the Moisturizing Lotion first. I Loved how they both felt on my hands. I felt like my dry hands were soaking it in. I have nasty scar on my left hand caused many years ago by a steam burn between my thumb and my pointer finger:

It is an ugly little imperfection that I can usually ignore, but as the weather turns and my skin gets dry, that scar really grates on my nerves. It gets more and more dry, and most lotions don't really help the scar. It remains dry and nasty. However, this lotion made my scar feel soft over about 90% of it (There is still a stubborn part that just always feels rough). I was amazed how well it worked on that. The Moisturizing Cream works equally well.
That being said, lets talk about the part that was a real test for me-the facial cleansers. As I mentioned, I am not usually a fan of facial cleansers or lotions at all. I first tried the Foaming Facial Cleanser on my face. If I am going to us a cleanser, I am a big fan of foaming ones, I feel like I can see them working. When I put it on my face, it felt...well just good. Not greasy, or slimy, or filmy, just good. In fact it felt really high quality. I felt like I was using top of the line skin care that would make my skin heal...it almost felt medical grade (in a very great way). I really felt like I could feel it healing and cleaning my skin.

The best part for me was that after I washed it off, it did not leave any kind of a thick, filmy feeling. My face simply felt clean! When I used the Hydrating Cleanser it had a similar effect.

I was worried that the Facial Moisturizing Lotions (AM & PM) might feel weird on my face since I don't out much lotion on my face, but found them to feel, like the other products, just good! My skin felt like it was being pampered and healed and I really liked it.

Often when I find a product I like, the cost of it makes me think twice about whether I can afford to use it. That is not the case here! The entire line of CeraVe products retails for a suggested price of $79 and is available in many drugstores (You can find locations near you by checking the store locater on the left side of the CeraVe website) That is a great price for this whole line!

What can you win?

One Lucky Beckee's Deals winner will win the same thing I was send to review-that's right, the ENTIRE line of CeraVe products (Suggested Retail Price $79):

• CeraVe Hydrating Cleanser
• CeraVe Foaming Facial Cleanser
• CeraVe Facial Moisturizing AM with SPF
• CeraVe Facial Moisturizing PM
• CeraVe Moisturizing Lotion
• CeraVe Moisturizing Cream

Please enter to win using the Rafflecopter form below (If you are having trouble seeing the rafflecopter form or are seeing the wrong form, refresh this post by clicking on the POST title and it should refresh and show the correct form).



As it says in the Rafflecopter form "Please note that the giveaway will end on 12/9 at 12:01 AM EASTERN time. That means you have until 11:01 PM on 12/8 Central time to get in entries. Please note that winner will be picked at random by Rafflecopter after the giveaway ends! Also, Facebook is not affiliated with this giveaway and cannot be held responsible for it in any way."

**By Way of disclosure, I did receive CeraVe® products to review as well as a set of products to give away to a reader in exchange for my upcoming review and for sharing this information. No other compensation was given and all opinions I share are always my own!**

Have you seen my newest giveaway? I am giving away a pack of Carmex lotions and creams!! Check out my review and enter the giveaway here! Giveaway ends tomorrow night so enter quick!

Thanks to Chex and MyGetTogether, I was able to have a Chex "Mix-change" party last Saturday! It was a twist up on the usual holiday cookie exchange parties!

Though I invited a lot of people, few were able to make it (darn holiday season is so busy)! Those of us there had a great time though and tried LOTS of different kinds of Chex Mix. Let me share some of the pictures from the party with you, but first may I recommend that you go check out the Chex Mix recipes here. I tried all 5 of the ones listed there for my party (plus a few more), and I liked all of them! See the pictures of them below!!

Here are a few pictures of the party (Please note that for some reason when I uploaded them they all went out of order and will not work right...sorry):


I loved this party and it gave me the opportunity to tell lots of friends about all the options for Chex Mix you can use through this holiday season! I LOVE that Chex Mix ix so versatile! You really can do so much with it! Do you have a favorite Chex Mix recipe you could share? PLEASE leave it as a comment if you do! I would love, LOVE to try your recipes!!

Thanks to Chex and MyGetTogether for allowing me to host such a fun party!

Many of you know that my husband is in his last year of residency (no, we aren't done. We still have a year of fellowship after resodency). We have been married for 10 years. During that time, we both graduated from college in Utah (GO UTES), he went to medical school in Omaha, internship in Spokane, BACK to Omaha for Residency, and soon we will be off to Scottsdale for fellowship. That is an awful lot of cross country moves in 10 years, but we are happy to go on new adventures. AND one of my favorite things about moving is discovering all the new things unique to the places we live. And as we have actually lived 7 of our 10 years married here in Omaha so far, we have had lots of time to discover great hidden gems around our city.As with all cities, the holiday season brings lots of fun activities. and I am a SUCKER for a free family event! (I am also a fan of inexpensive ones!!) Visit Omaha has a great list of activities you can do over the holiday season and in fact has a site it launches just for the Holidays. This site covers events for families, kids, adults, well...for everyone! Free as well as costly and all kinds of options for fun! I was sent a few of the free and inexpensive upcoming activities to share with you (These are just ones coming up this week--near Thanksgiving. There are more I will share in an upcoming post!):

Holiday Lights Festival – The festival lights up Omaha’s downtown and has been an Omaha tradition for over 10 years. The Festival kicks off with a special lighting ceremony on Thanksgiving evening, November 24th at 6 pm. For more information on the Holiday Lights Festival, visit www.holidaylightsfestival.org.

***Cost Information: This event is free.

After the Thanksgiving lighting ceremony, you can go to the Nebraska Wind Symphony Concert at the Holland Center. This free concert – part of the Holiday Lights Festival - features more than 85 local musicians. The concert takes place on November 24th at 7 pm. To learn more, visit www.nebraskawindsymphony.com .

***Cost Information: This event is free.

***Cost Information: This event is free with membership and free to non-members on Sundays. For non-members, admission is $6 for adults, $3 for children between the ages of 3-12, and free to children under 3.

The Tree Lighting Ceremony kicks off Christmas at Union Station (at the Durham Museum). This event takes place on November 25th from 4-7 pm. A highlight of this year’s celebration will be a performance by jazz singer Camille Metoyer Moten, who will perform along with a Christmas carol sing along, cookie decorating, holiday crafts for kids and visits with Santa Claus. To learn more, visit: http://durhammuseum.org/about/whats-new/details.aspx?ID=230 .

***Cost Information: This event is free with museum membership. For non-members, admission is $8 for adults, $6 for seniors and $5 for children between the ages of 3 and 12. Children under 3 are free.

Please go check out the Visit Omaha holiday site to see the other fun upcoming events. Oh, and go check out The Visit Omaha Facebook page where you can enter a contest called the “Happier Holiday’s Giftaway.” The winner gets a two night “stay and play” at Midtown Crossing!!! That is awesome!! If I don't win it, one of you should!

Oh my goodness!! Do you remember my post the other day about all the SWEET Old Navy Coats this season? Well, I hope you are ready for an amazing sale on them because Old Navy is having a PRE Black Friday Sale!!! Check it out:

Can you read what that says? It says that on THIS SATURDAY 11/19 from noon until 5PM Adult Outerwear is 75% off and on SUNDAY 11/20 from noon until 5PM all Adult Sweaters are 75% Off (In store only and clearance items do not count).

In case you need some motivation to go, let me show you the Old Navy coat I got a few weeks ago:

Oh, and I am SOOO in love with this one I tried on that I might just go back to this sale and purchase it:

Seriously, I think I will go get that Red coat...I LOVE it, LOVE! If you want to see some of the other GREAT coats my sister-in-law and I tried on, go check out this post about our Old Navy shopping trip!! Then head over to Old Navy for the in ad sale on SATURDAY 11/19 from noon until 5PM Adult Outerwear is 75% off or on SUNDAY 11/20 from noon until 5PM all Adult Sweaters are 75% Off!!

As I am preparing for one of my favorite days of the year (Black Friday), I thought I would repost my funny shopping experience from last year. It is a long but (hopefully) fun read! I know I have a lot of new readers over the past year that might get a kick out of this post! If you are a long time reader, you may want to re-read it so you can use my lessons learned to help prepare for the big shopping day! :)

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 price matching.

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 one 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. 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 te old 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, Thank goodness 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 one 2 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 ( who were both a little gangster looking) 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 trying to push one cart and pull the other! 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 let's 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 too-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, 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-do you do Black Friday?! Any funny stories you can share?! I would LOVE to hear about it!!!