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Mother’s Day is coming up fast! Have you thought about what you’re going to do for your Mom? Flowers are always a great way to brighten up her day! Flowerspot.com has a great selection of flower arrangements specifically for Mother’s Day that are sure to make Mom smile!

As part of this blog tour with Flowerspot.com, I received a floral arrangement of my choice, and since my favorite color is purple, I chose the Lavender Indulgescents arrangement. It arrived beautifully, and I was very pleased with them. The flowers are boxed separate from the vase, so I had to put the water in the vase and set up the arrangement myself, but it was fun because my girls got to help me out. They even got to keep a few flowers for themselves too!

I don’t often have fresh flowers in the house, so anytime I can brighten up my home, it’s very cool.

Flowerspot.com is giving my readers a chance to win any selection from their Mother’s Day collection, up to a $50 value. All you have to do is leave me a comment! If you’d like, go check out Flowerspot.com’s Mother’s Day Collection, and let me know what arrangement you’d like if you win!

For extra entries you can:

• Follow @flowerspotweets on Twitter (http://twitter.com/flowerspotweets)
• Tweet about this giveaway. Just click the green button at the top right corner of this post!
• Mention this on your facebook page!

Be sure to leave a comment to your tweet and/or Facebook status for your entry!

To prevent SPAM, comment moderation is on, so your post *may not* be visible right away. I do check them frequently and will approve them asap!)

Entries will be accepted from April 27 – May 2, 2010 @ 5pm EST. Winner will be chosen at random. Winner will be notified via email and will have 48 hours to respond to claim their prize. Winner must be a resident of the USA. Again, you must leave a comment for each option you choose to enter. *Rules subject to change without notice*

Good Luck!

Everyone can help change the world for the better, one step at a time. American Express has joined with TakePart.com to bring you opportunities to make a difference and provide a platform to express your passion – in small manageable steps. Whether it’s voting for your favorite charity to receive funding from American Express, Volunteering time, donating, or just telling your friends, everyone can take a small step on Members Project and start making a difference.

I joined Members Project, and had a chance to look around the site.

Your Vote: A step closer to a big difference.

Vote every week for your favorite charity. Why? Because every three months, the charity with the most votes in each of the five categories (Arts & Culture, Community Development, Education, Environment & Wildlife and Health & Wellness) will receive $200,000 in funding from American Express.

Voting is open to everyone… All you have to do is register for Members Project and log in to cast your vote. Voting for the first round ends on May 24, 2010.

Volunteer: When an hour is more than just an hour.

Any amount of time is worth so much more than you know. Members Project can help you find the right volunteer opportunity for you. If you are an American Express cardholder, you can earn Membership Rewards Points by volunteering through Members Project. You can use those Rewards Points towards things you need, or you can donate them right back to the charity of your choice. To find some amazing volunteer opportunities in your area, go to the Members Project Volunteer Page.

Donate: Made simple

If you’d like to just give monetarily, Members Project  has made it easy to do that as well! You can search for your favorite charity by name, or narrow it down to certain areas. If you are an American Express cardholder and would like to donate Membership Rewards Points, you can do that through the Members Project Donation Page.

I highly encourage you to join and do you part.

** This is a post supporting Members Project from American Express. I have not been compensated for this post, however, by posting about Members Project, I am eligible to win a gift card provided by One2One Network.

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

7

Timestamp: 2010-05-04 03:08:49 UTC

In celebration of Earth Day’s 40th Anniversary, Anvil Knitwear, the official apparel sponsor of Earth Day Network (EDN), has created a limited edition eco-friendly line of activewear and accessories.

As the Official Apparel Sponsor of EDN, sales of Anvil eco-friendly products will benefit EDN programs year-round, including environmental education, green schools, climate change solutions, international partnerships and the organization’s overall campaign to broaden the environmental movement.

Track My T and Eco-Education: In order to encourage environmental education, Anvil has created the website www.TrackMyT.com, which allows visitors to track the origins of every Anvil T-shirt and see processes used for their manufacture.  It’s especially popular with kids and helps show them how the shirt they’re wearing came to be! • Did You Know? AnvilOrganic was selected as the official T-shirt of the Yo Gabba Gabba Live! 2009 Tour.

Anvil’s Earth Day line uses products with earth-friendly inks from its Eco Collection, including the AnvilSustainable (made from plastic bottles) and AnvilOrganic tees. Items include t-shirts, hoodies, hats and bags and are available at the Earth Day Network Store. I just bought the Eco Goddess Tee!

About Anvil Knitwear Anvil Knitwear, Inc., a socially and environmentally responsible manufacturer of sportswear and accessories, is a leader in the sustainable apparel industry with its AnvilOrganic®, AnvilRecycled™ and AnvilSustainable™ brands. Anvil was recently ranked the world’s sixth-largest organic program and the largest domestic purchaser of U.S.-grown certified organic cotton. Anvil offers 17 affordable eco styles made from a variety of fibers such as certified organic cotton, transitional cotton, recycled cotton, and recycled PET bottles and blends in addition to its over 90 traditional styles.

I was sent a couple of Tees for my girls and I to try out, and I have to say, they are super soft and comfy! In fact, my girls are wearing their “Green is Good” tees right now! They are a bit large… but they won’t take them off!!! Today, while wearing their shirts, they are the “Green Police”. They’ve been telling me about all of the things we should be doing to help the Earth.

Anvil Knitwear is offering one of my readers a Ladies’ “Eco Mommy” and Children’s “Green Is Good” Tee for a giveaway to help celebrate Earth Day.

All you have to do is leave me a comment!

You can also gain additional entries by:

Tweeting this giveaway:

Celebrate Earth Day with @MommyBrain & Earth Day Network! Win EcoMommy & Green is Good Organic Tees! http://bit.ly/csPlFJ  #EarthDay

Mention this on your facebook page!

Be sure to leave a comment to your tweet and/or Facebook status for your entry!

To prevent SPAM, comment moderation is on, so your post *may not* be visible right away. I do check them frequently and will approve them asap!)

Entries will be accepted from April 22 – May 1, 2010 @ 5pm EST. Winners will be chosen at random. Winners will be notified via email and will have 48 hours to respond to claim their prize. Winners must be a resident of the USA or Canada. Again, you must leave a comment for each option you choose to enter. *Rules subject to change without notice*

Good Luck!

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

9

Timestamp: 2010-05-04 03:12:30 UTC

It is important, as a mom to not only adopt energy practices in my home but to also teach my kids how they can be more environmentally conscious. I love when my girls catch things I should be doing. It makes me proud that they really listen to these Earth saving ideas.  It’s also easy to forget that we don’t necessarily have to spend a ton of money on green roofs, or solar panels to be “green,” it’s the little everyday acts that can really add up!  SYLVANIA thought my readers would be interested to learn about the 40 for the Future Earth Day Challenge, a campaign created by lighting leader SYLVANIA to rally and inspire consumers to save 40 million kilowatt hours of energy in the 40 days leading up to Earth Day. It’s a great way to celebrate the planet, and your kids!

The 40 for the Future Earth Day Challenge is designed to show consumers how easy it is to “green” their lifestyles, their homes, their offices and their communities.  To make a commitment to this challenge, consumers are invited to visit http://earthday.sylvania.com where they can select simple, everyday actions – whether it’s changing to a CFL, unplugging a phone charger or turning down the thermostat – that they choose to take for 40 days, and their energy savings will automatically be tallied by an online meter.

All those who take the SYLVANIA 40 for the Future Earth Day Challenge will be rewarded with a coupon for $1-off the new Halogen SUPERSAVER light bulb or a SYLVANIA ENERGY STAR-qualified CFL.   In addition, weekly winners will be selected in a random drawing to receive annual passes to The National Parks system and a Grand Prize Winner will be the lucky recipient of a carbon-neutral, three-night Disneyland vacation for four that includes airfare, hotel and park passes.

I actually got a chance to try out these new SYLVANIA SUPERSAVER Halogen light bulbs, and they are really neat! They look very much like incandescent bulbs, but save a lot of energy… and money! They also don’t heat up like those incandescent bulbs, which I like a lot! We used them in my girls’ room, where they can actually reach the lamps. They know not to touch the bulbs, but that doesn’t always stop them.

If you’d like to win some bulbs to try out for yourself, all you have to do is leave a comment!

You can also gain additional entries by:

Tweeting this giveaway:

Celebrate Earth Day with @MommyBrain & SYLVANIA! Win new HALOGEN SuperSaver Bulbs! http://bit.ly/cdjnsr #EarthDay

Mention this on your facebook page!

Be sure to leave a comment to your tweet and/or Facebook status for your entry!

To prevent SPAM, comment moderation is on, so your post *may not* be visible right away. I do check them frequently and will approve them asap!)

Entries will be accepted from April 22 – May 1, 2010 @ 5pm EST. Winners will be chosen at random. Winners will be notified via email and will have 48 hours to respond to claim their prize. Winners must be a resident of the USA or Canada. Again, you must leave a comment for each option you choose to enter. *Rules subject to change without notice*

Good Luck!

So, hubby and I were doing some spring cleaning this weekend… I came across one of my old utility bills from November ’09. I mentioned how I was really surprised about how our water bill recently went from $100+ per month to around $30 per month. I thought.. “Wow.. really? did we cut back that much?? ” I didn’t see how we could have, considering we were already pretty frugal and hadn’t really changed our habits too much. Anyway.. after finding this bill, I thought I understood… I saw a charge that really shouldn’t have been there…

The area we live in has our own little sewer system so we don’t have to pay the city for it. We do still pay the city for our water though.. Well, this old bill showed a charge of around $30 for water and around $70 for sewer! Well, I pay our community system $38 per month for sewer already… I thought, it had to be a long shot, but I called the city today. I explained to them about finding the bill, and how I was concerned about the large difference in charges. Whether I was supposed to be paying it, and I wasn’t now, or if I wasn’t supposed to be paying it, and was owed a credit. They agent that took my call was a little confused, so I gave her my account number, and told her my November bill was over $100, and my most recent bill was just over $30. I told her what community I lived in and explained how we had our own system that the residents paid for. She started looking through everything and realized that something wasn’t right. She told me that she’d go through our billing history and give me a call later with the results, but it definitely looked like we were due a credit. Later on yesterday, she called me back and told me that she was still going through the bills, and would call me back in the morning.

Well, I just got that call. She went through the last year of bills, since we moved in… and get this… I now have a credit of $448.51. No kidding… That’s just about a year’s worth of water for us. Holy Cow!

I know situations like this can be rare… but you never know! I find it a little frustrating that the city would basically find a mistake, fix it in their system, but not notify me, or just credit my account. Why did I have to call them to get this little interest free loan of theirs paid back to me? Did they hope I’d never find it? I’m sure. But it’s taught me a lesson…

I use e-bills through my bank. I don’t get paper bills (Go Earth!)… so I tend to log into the system, see the amount due and just pay it. I don’t usually go through the bills line by line, trusting that the company knows what they’re doing.. Not anymore. I’m going to make sure I check them out from now on, especially if I notice a huge discrepancy like I did on this one. If I would’ve looked earlier, I would’ve noticed I was being charged sewer when I shouldn’t have been, and would’ve saved $450-ish over the last year… and that’s a lot!

Has this ever happened to you? How did you get it fixed? Was the company willing to work with you? or did they give you a hard time?

Starting back up where I left off:

13. Buy from local farmers! There are so many times that I’ve gone into the grocery store and found grapes trucked in from Chile, or who knows where.. Trucking in those fruits and veggies costs the Earth some valuable air from the emissions! If you buy locally, you reduce that carbon footprint and you know you’re helping your local farmers!

12. Use water efficiently in your home: Make sure you have a full load before running your dishwasher, buy water-efficient fixtures, and make sure you fix any leaky faucets! Look for the WaterSense label on various products to make sure they are water efficient!

11. Reduce Reuse Recycle: Something we’ve been doing lately is using the Mulching setting on our lawnmower instead of bagging it. The cut grass ends up decomposing and returning to the soil naturally. Instead of trashing things, reuse them! Plant seeds in egg cartons to start them off, or make a planter out of a plastic ice cream tub!

10. Travel Green! Stay in hotels that encourage their guests to use less water or energy. Re use your towels a couple of times before sending them to the laundry. Look for local food and souvenirs to reduce the need for major transportation. When you leave your house, unplug electronics and appliances that aren’t being used while you’re gone! Here are more tips on how to travel green.

9. Talk to your electricity provider about how much of your power comes from renewable “Green” power sources like wind, or solar. If green power consumption is an option, check the price differences. Check out the Green Power Locator!