Thursday, April 28, 2011

Allergies? FREE Zyrtec!

Suffering from allergies this spring?  Try Zyrtec (5 days worth) for free.  Just go to their website for their your free sample - click HERE

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Ladysignments - this Friday & Saturday (drop off Today!)


The women's version of the Kidsignment sale is Ladysignments - all women's clothes & accessories & shoes & jewelry, etc.  The sale is in Marion this weekend & is worth checking out!  If you're interested in consigning items, drop-off is today from 10am - 1pm.  Info below, or see their website for more info - click HERE.  

Ladysignments!!
This weekend: Fri/Sat, 8-4
All sizes and all seasons clothes, shoes, purses, bedding, table linens, etc.!
1806 N. Denver Drive, Marion

Pink Shopping Bags for $5.00, all proceeds to benefit Hands of Hope. Buy a Bag… Help Stop Abuse!

Find us on Facebook… more up-to-date updates! (Kidsignments - Marion)

Drop off:
Tues 4-7 and Wed. 10-1

Pick Up:
Mon 10-1 and 4-6

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

National Pretzel Day (Today April 26th!) - FREE PRETZEL!

Today is National Pretzel Day (who knew, right?)!

Go to the Marion mall to the pretzel shop and say "Happy National Pretzel Day" to get your FREE pretzel (no catch)!

Not in Marion?  See if there is a vendor in your area by clicking HERE

Free 20 Pack Duracell Batteries thru 4/30 at STAPLES

Some of you were in on this promo right before the holidays last year, but if you weren't you missed out!  Staples is offering 100% back in Staples Rewards (sign up for their program for free if you haven't already) when you buy AA or AAA 20 pack of batteries.  The only "catch" is that you don't get the $ back in cash, you get it in Staples Rewards so you have to spend it  in their store, but who doesn't need things from Staples, am I right?  Also, I think this is one of their deals that you have to go online to initiate, but Staples actually makes the process very simple, so once you're signed up, it only takes a few seconds to do. 

Maximum of 2 packs of batteries - go to Staples to get the deal!

Monday, April 25, 2011

Children's Place - Free Shipping thru today (4/25)

If you missed the Kidsignment sale, I'm sorry, because it was great!  And if you're still looking for summer duds for your kiddos, Children's Place is having a free shipping sale through today (Monday, April 25).  No code needed, just go to their site at http://www.childrensplace.com/

Saturday, April 23, 2011

Egg hunt is at 9am today (not 10)!!!!

So sorry!  Their facebook pages says it starts at 10am, but I just drove by at 8:10am and people are already lining up!  It starts at 9am, so head over now!  Should be fun!

After the Egg Hunt - Free Easter Pictures on Saturday

After you hit the million egg hunt with your kiddos this Saturday, take them over to Walmart (10am - 2pm) or CVS on 3rd Street (11am - 3pm) for a FREE professional Easter photo.  See each store for more info.

Happy Easter!

Friday, April 22, 2011

Today 4/22- Free cup of Starbucks Coffee (if you bring your own travel mug)



Happy Earth Day!  To celebrate, Starbucks is giving free coffee or tea to anyone who brings in their own travel mug.  Grab your mug and stop in on the way to work today!  (I think the only "catch" to this is that you have to walk into Starbucks do get the coffee - I don't think they're doing it in the drive-thru)

If you want to buy one of their travel mugs, they're 20% off today, plus your free cup of coffee.  Or, you can also ask for a ceramic mug "to stay" for your free cup of coffee/tea if you don't have a travel mug (you just have to give their mug back!).

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Million Egg Hunt April 23rd at 9:30am

We missed this last year, but I heard the event is a lot of fun, so we're going to try to make it this year with our little men and our newphews who will be in town visiting.  It is this Saturday, the day before Easter.  Bring your kids, some baskets/buckets for collecting eggs & maybe I'll see you there!


New Life Community Church & City of Marion - Million Egg Hunt


Public Event.Time Saturday, April 23, 2010 · 10:00am - 11:30am (doors open at 9:30am)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Location Marion High School Football Field

More Info Million Egg Hunt - Sponsored by New Life Community Church & The City of Marion

For ages 2-12 yrs old & Special Needs Kids

FREE Giveaways!!

Bikes, Baskets & More

For more information (765) 664-9412

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

March for Babies - May 7th, 2011 (Marion, IN)

The March for Dimes Walk is May 7th at Matter Park.  It is a 6 mile walk, raising money & awareness for stronger, healthier babies (& working against premature births). 

Want more info or want to register?  Click HERE

GRANT COUNTY (Marion)
May 7, 2011
Matter Park
301 S Branson St
Marion, IN 46952
Walk Distance: 6 miles
Registration Time: 8:00 AM
Start Time: 9:00 AM
Chapter: Indiana
Phone: (317) 262-4668

Friday, April 15, 2011

Sam's Club Free to Public this Weekend - 4/15 - 4/17 (Trial Weekend)

Sam's Club is open to the public this weekend for a free trial membership.  

FREE 4/15 – 4/17 From 11am-6pm


Shop at Samsclub.com (125x125)
Have you ever wondered if a Sam's Club Membership is worth it? Well, this weekend you can try them out for FREE! Shop Sam's Club with NO Membership 4/15 - 4/17 from 11am - 6pm.
Non-Members welcome to come shop and try out great samples.

High Fructose Corn Syrup Continued... Article from the New York Times

Article referenced in yesterday's post from the New York Times is below - it is worth taking a few minutes to read!

April 12, 2011, 8:30 pm

How to Save a Trillion Dollars

In the scheme of things, saving the 38 billion bucks that Congress seems poised to agree upon is not a big deal. A big deal is saving a trillion bucks. And we could do that by preventing disease instead of treating it.
For the first time in history, lifestyle diseases like diabetes, heart disease, some cancers and others kill more people than communicable ones. Treating these diseases — and futile attempts to “cure” them — costs a fortune, more than one-seventh of our GDP.

But they’re preventable, and you prevent them the same way you cause them: lifestyle. A sane diet, along with exercise, meditation and intangibles like love prevent and even reverse disease. A sane diet alone would save us hundreds of billions of dollars and maybe more.

This isn’t just me talking. In a recent issue of the magazine Circulation, the American Heart Association editorial board stated flatly that costs in the U.S. from cardiovascular disease — the leading cause of death here and in much of the rest of the world — will triple by 2030, to more than $800 billion annually. Throw in about $276 billion of what they call “real indirect costs,” like productivity, and you have over a trillion. Enough over, in fact, to make $38 billion in budget cuts seem like a rounding error.

Similarly, Type 2 diabetes is projected to cost us $500 billion a year come 2020, when half of all Americans will have diabetes or pre-diabetes. Need I remind you that Type 2 diabetes is virtually entirely preventable? Ten billion dollars invested now might save a couple of hundred billion annually 10 years from now. And: hypertension, many cancers, diverticulitis and more are treated by a health care (better termed “disease care”) system that costs us about $2.3 trillion annually now — before costs double and triple.

It’s worth noting that the Federal budget will absorb its usual 60 percent of that cost. We can save some of that money, though, if an alliance of insurers, government, individuals — maybe even Big Food, if it’s pushed hard enough — moves us towards better eating.

The many numbers all point in the same direction. Look at heart disease: The INTERHEART study of 30,000 men and women in 52 countries showed that at least 90 percent of heart disease is lifestyle related; a European study of more than 23,000 Germans showed that people with healthier lifestyles had an 81 percent lower risk.

And those estimates might be on the low side. Dean Ornish, the San Francisco-based doctor who probably knows more about diet and heart disease than anyone, says, “My colleagues and I have found that more intensive diets than those studies used can reverse the progression of even severe coronary heart disease.”
In his latest book, “The Spectrum,” Ornish recommends that people at risk eat stricter diets (more plants, higher fiber, lower saturated fats and so on) than those who are generally healthy, but it’s not all or nothing — the more you change your diet and lifestyle, the healthier you are. “What matters most,” he says, “is your overall way of eating and living. If you indulge yourself one day, eat healthier the next.” I’ve been preaching similarly for years. But the trillion-dollar question is, “How do we get people to eat that way?”

I don’t have an easy answer; no one does. But it for sure will take an investment: it’s a situation in which you must spend money to make or save money. (Yes, taxes will go up, but whose taxes?) Some number of billions of dollars — something in the rounding error area — should be spent on research to figure out exactly how to turn this ship around. (The NIH, which pegs obesity-related costs at about $150 billion, just announced a new billion-dollar investment. Good, but not enough.)

Corny as it is to say so, if we can put a man on the moon we can create an environment in which an apple is a better and more accessible choice than a Pop-Tart. Some other billions of dollars must go to public health. Again: we built sewage systems; we built water supplies; we showed that we could get people to eat anything we marketed. Now all we have to do is build a food distribution system that favors real food, and market that.

Experts without vested interests in the status quo come to much the same conclusion: Only a massive public health effort can save both our health and our budget.

Can we afford it? Sure. Dr. David Ludwig, a Harvard-affiliated pediatrician and the author of “Ending the Food Fight,” says, “The magnitude of the deficit is small when you consider costs of nutrition-related disease; the $4 trillion that the Republicans want cut over a decade is about the same as the projected costs of diabetes over that same period.”

In last week’s issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, Ludwig made a number of concrete suggestions, like restructuring subsidies, regulating the marketing of food to children and adequately funding school lunch programs.

His most novel ideas use existing and future technologies to help the food industry retain profits while producing less junky products: devising a method of preserving polyunsaturated fats, for example (dangerous trans-fats are widely used simply because they are stable) or making bread with real whole grains instead of refined ones. (His research demonstrates that people who eat ultra-processed grains rather than whole grains for breakfast go on to consume 600 to 700 calories more than other people each day.) “I’m not arguing that the food industry should be philanthropic,” he says. “Its purpose is to make money. But the goal of the government should be to encourage industry to make money by producing more rather than less healthful foods.”

The best way to combat diet-related diseases is to change what we eat. And if our thinking is along the lines of diet improved = deficit reduced, so much the better. If a better diet were to result only in a 10 percent decrease in heart disease (way lower than Ludwig believes possible), that’s $100 billion project savings per year by 2030.

This isn’t just fiscal responsibility, but social responsibility as well. And the alternative is not only fiscal catastrophe but millions of premature deaths.

Thursday, April 14, 2011

Aldi's Food - Beware of HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP!


I want to start this post by saying that I'm not out to get Aldi or anything, and also want to let you know that I shop there myself at least once a week.  I get milk, eggs, cheese, produce, and a handful of other things at Aldi on a regular basis.  I was turned on to Aldi when I moved to Marion, and was impressed by the affordable prices of most of their items.

However, in the last year and a half since I've been a regular shopper there, I have been increasingly frustrated/shocked/disgusted by how much CRAP is in much of their food (including their "Fit & Active" brand).  I believe that Aldi food is cheaper than most stores, but I believe that it truly comes at a price (pun intended), the price of our HEALTH.  

Almost EVERYTHING I see at Aldi that has a nutrition label lists HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP as one of the top ingredients.  What really pushed me over the edge was this morning when at Aldi I picked up a package of "All Beef" hotdogs and read the label, and the 3rd ingredient listed was HIGH  FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP.  Really?  In hotdogs????

Why is food at Aldi so cheap?  The government subsidises the production of corn, which leads to the production of cheap corn syrup,  and thus a cheap filler that Aldi puts in most of their food. 

And, in addition to HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP, I'm frustrated by the fact that all of their items list ENRICHED FLOUR (flour stripped of all nutrients - NOT a positive thing, even though "enriched" has a positive connotation) as a top ingredient, and many of their items are very high in sodium. Additionally, quite a few of their items still have trans-fat.  Really, most of it is junk, junk, and more junk.  High in sugar, high in sodium, low in fiber.... everything that is bad for us. 

So, the purpose of my posting is just to remind you to be aware, whether shopping at Aldi or anywhere else - READ the nutrition label before making a purchase.  If it lists HIGH FRUCTOSE  CORN SYRUP, think twice about buying it, and if you can at all avoid it, do not make that purchase.  What we put in our bodies, and in the bodies of our families TRULY has an impact on our health.  My husband just was telling me this morning about an article he saw yesterday (for article CLICK HERE) that said that for the first time in our history, deaths due to LIFESTYLE choices outnumber the deaths from communicable diseases.  WE ARE KILLING OURSELVES with the choices we are making - choices to eat crap, not exercise, sit in the sun without protection, not drink enough water, not eat enough fruits and veggies, purchase and use toxic chemicals and add to the toxins in the air and destruction of our environment, etc.  We do not always have to be victims to our health - there are MANY things we can do to prevent illness and disease.... reading the labels at Aldi (& anywhere else) is just a start! 

Okay, off my soapbox for the day...

Monday, April 11, 2011

Kidsignments - Kids Consignment Sale - THIS WEEKEND!

I love the Kidsignments sale in Marion, and want to make sure no one misses it!  I put a post a couple of weeks ago about it, but wanted to remind everyone it is this weekend - Friday and Saturday 8am - 4pm at the Fairgrounds.

AND, if you're consigning items, the drop-off for items is tomorrow (Tues 4pm - 7pm) and Wed (10am - 1pm) at the Fairgrounds.  If you're interested in consigning items, or just want to know more about the sale, check out the website at:
http://www.marionconsignments.com/

Again, a quick summary is this is a weekend sale for kids items - everything from clothes, furniture, toys, books, games, etc.  The prices are fantastic, and the sale is a lot of fun - you'll see every mom in Marion there (including me!).

Make sure you get yourself a homemade baked pretzel while you're there.... they are delicious!  There will also be cookies & various other yummy baked goods.  Great deals, shopping & sweets... what's not to like?

Hope to see you there! :)

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Favorite thing of the week: Aquaphor Healing Ointment (MIRACLE Ointment!)

This is a very random posting, but I have to tell you about my new favorite product of the week - Aquaphor Healing Ointment.  This stuff is amazing.  Thanks to my friend Launa who told me about this on Friday, I picked up a jar, desperate for anything to make my 1 year old's horrible skin rash/crazy eczima go away.  My poor kid has had a horrible horrible rash/dry skin from his eczima, and has been scratching so much he's bleeding.  I've tried baby lotions, oils, hydrocortizone cream, diaper rash ointment (Rx based and over the counter), and nothing has helped.  Launa told me this stuff was the best, and that I could put it on my kid at night and he'd wake up healed.  I was skeptical, but desperate, so I tried it.  HOLY COW!  The next morning he was about 85% better, and by day two, he was healed!  THANK YOU LAUNA!  So, in case any of your kiddos have crazy dry skin/eczima, I HIGHLY recommend this product.  Oh, and Launa says that the generic brand is not the same, so pay a few bucks more for the real stuff.  Cheapest place to get it seems to be Walmart, but about $7/jar - remember to get the kind in the jar.  It is clear and greasy, and as my husband said "makes your kid look like a greased pig", but it works! 

Product info: 
Aquaphor Healing Ointment 3.5 oz Ointment - Aquaphor Advanced Therapy Healing Ointment is a non-irritating, fragrance-free skin protectant from Eucerin. Designed to provide relief for severely dry, cracked or irritated skin, Aquaphor Healing Ointment offers temporary protection from minor cuts, scrapes and burns; relief from chapped or cracked skin and lips; and protection from the drying effects of wind and cold weather. Get protection that will restore your smooth, healthy skin with Eucerin Aquaphor.

Monday, April 4, 2011

Williams Sonoma FREE Cooking Class 4/10/11

Free Cooking Class at Williams Sonoma 
April 10, 2011


For those of you lucky enough to be near a Williams-Sonoma, see below from the RedPlum.

Who doesn’t love fresh pasta? This Sunday, April 10, you can learn how to spread the love…for free! The culinary experts at Williams-Sonoma are teaching the fine art of making authentic Italian style pasta from scratch. This hour-long technique class is free and includes tastings of prepared dishes. Plus, participants will enjoy 10% off on select same-day store purchases. The classes are being offered at all Williams-Sonoma store locations, however space is limited. Class times vary by location. Call your local store to register for this event. To find the store nearest you, simply follow the link at the end of this post. Chiao, bella!http://www.williams-sonoma.com/customer-service/store-locator.html?cm_type=fnav

If you're in Marion, the closest stores are:

1.  JEFFERSON POINTE / FT WAYNE
4130 WEST JEFFERSON BLVD
FT. WAYNE, IN 46804
(260) 459-6311
43.4 miles
KEYSTONE AT THE CROSSING
8702 KEYSTONE CROSSING BLVD
INDIANAPOLIS, IN 46240
(317) 848-1431
50.0 miles

Saturday, April 2, 2011

Hostess House Resale Shop - 75% off

Grant County women... the resale shop in the basement of the Hostess House (on 4th Street) is having a spring cleaning sale - items marked with a red tag are 75% off.  They have some neat eclectic jewelry in there that is worth stopping to check out for 75% off!  Much of the clothing items & other accessories are picked over pretty well, but I did find a pair of CARS pjs for my son for $1!  Sometimes treasure hunts are worth the HUNT.  :)

Open Mon - Fri 10am - 4pm, Sat 10am - noon