I love carbs, and carbs are so much better when they’re covered in a delicious sauce. I’ve been making my own tomato based sauce for months, and recently I added sugar as an ingredient to turn it into a marinara sauce and I’ll never go back. Seriously, homemade easy marinara sauce recipe is the best.

One of the reasons why I love this easy marinara sauce recipe so much, is because it’s so versatile. I use it as a pizza sauce as well as a pasta sauce. It would be great for dipping too.

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This review and giveaway was made possible by Double Duty Divas and Febreze. I was compensated for my participation in this campaign, but all opinions are 100% mine.If you watch TV, you’ve seen the commercials for Febreze. You know, the ones where people are blindfolded and asked to identify what they smell, when they’re stuffed in a car full of garbage or a house after a crazy party.

Well, I got to hold my very own Febreze test. It wasn’t quite as crazy, instead all I did was invite my friends over for a movie night.

We watched the movie and took a few surveys. Of course we popped some popcorn. One thing we noticed was that the run time of your average movie is enough time for someone to get used to the smell of fresh popcorn. If that’s the case, how long do you think it takes someone to get used to how their house smells?

That’s what we call being Noseblind.

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This is a sponsored post on behalf of The Motherhood, all words are my own. #BagItForward

If you’ve been in any store lately you’ll know that school supplies are out, and you can get quite a few deals! I don’t have any school age children, so these deals don’t help me that much. Then out of curiosity I did a quick search to see if any local programs needed school supplies. I found that our local Boys & Girls Club are in need of school supplies year round.

They need items like glue, scissors, construction paper, markers, and other school supplies that you can find on sale right now. I enlisted some help of family and friends and we went shopping for school supplies. I love giving back, and the fact that I could help out my community by shopping some of the best deals definitely gave me a great feeling.

Here are some of the items we gathered to donate:

The Boys and Girls Club of America is a great place for kids. They provide a safe place to learn and grow, ongoing relationships with caring adult professionals, life-enhancing programs and character development experiences, hope and opportunity for children.

I actually went to the local Boys & Girls Club when I was younger. I still remember all the fun art projects, help with homework, field trips, and the one mentor I worked with the most, her name was Robin and I thought that even her name was the coolest.

The original Boys & Girls Club in our town was destroyed by floods, but they now have a brand new location where I dropped off our school supplies. It was so much fun to see! The new location is huge and it was filled with kids of all ages. I think Aliceana wanted to stay forever.

Here we were right before donating with our huge tote of school supplies. Aliceana was extremely curious, I’m pretty sure she wanted all the “colors” for herself.

It was definitely a really great experience. I think I’ll make this an annual family outing, it was so much fun shopping for everything they needed  and so gratifying to drop it off. They even asked for our address so they could send us a little “thank you” note, how nice is that?

I definitely encourage you to find a great place in your community to donate school items. This time of year even 5 or 10 dollars can buy a ton of great new school supplies. If you can’t find a place to donate school supplies you can take part in Champions for Kids’ SIMPLE Giving program this summer! Visit your participating Walmart store between July 7 – August 1 and look for the purple product display and yellow donation bin. Choose school supplies and donate them right inside the store to help children in your local schools!

Did you donate school supplies, or are you planning to? Let me know who you helped out in the comments below!

 

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #JuicyFruitFunSide #CollectiveBias

I love chewing gum, it will always take me back to my rebellious grade school days, when we would have to sneak gum from the teachers, even though they almost always caught us. Back then one of our favorite gums to chew was always Juicy Fruit. Juicy fruit has grown up quite a bit since then and it’s now available in some really fun forms!

I’m in love with these little bottles, it makes the gum so easy to share and so easy to transport. These bottles have your gum ready to store in the car, home, or office.

I put together a list of some of the most important times when Juicy Fruit gum will come in handy.

Chew Juicy Fruit on Airplanes!

I know I’ll be packing Juicy Fruit for my trip to California this week. You don’t want that unpleasant feeling of having your ears “pop.” Fun fact: This will only be my second flight ever! So I’m a little bit nervous. How great is Juicy Fruit Bubble Gum for plane rides? The flavor that you love in chewy bubble gum form, you better believe that this will be on hand!

Bring Juicy Fruit to the beach.

This adorable Juicy Fruit packaging is just begging to come along to the beach, don’t you think? I think the Groovy Fruity flavor will be just perfect while we’re relaxing on Carmel Beach. I can easily fit the container in my bag for sharing on our mini-roadtrip.

In your purse or diaper bag.

The other day I had a chiropractor appointment, and right as I was stepping into their office I realized that I probably should have brushed my teeth. I hate that feeling more than anything. I need to have gum on hand to get myself out of those sticky situations. I’m always wishing I had gum when I take Aliceana to the park, now I can stick it in her diaper bag and I’ll always have it with me.

Would you like to try the new Juicy Fruit flavors? Juicy Fruit demos at Walmart stores across the country.

The demo dates are:
July 25-27, 11:00am-4:00pm
August 1-3, 11:00am-4:00pm on Friday/Saturday and 1:00-6:00 on Sunday

I purchased Juicy Fruit at Walmart and you can too!

Want to know more about Juicy Fruit and all of their fun flavors and packaging? Check Juicy Fruit out online.

 

 

This post is part of a sponsored conversation on behalf of Mom it Forward and Pepcid, all opinions and words are my own.

I went 23 years before experiencing heartburn. It was our babymoon/early 1 year wedding anniversary, I was very pregnant and we were out to dinner and my first case of heartburn struck me hard. I never knew how terrible heartburn was until that moment. My pregnancy with Aliceana definitely helped bring on my first ever heartburn, but now, two years after being pregnant I still get heartburn!

I find that fried and/or spicy foods are what normally triggers my heartburn (and pizza lately,) but there are lots of triggers! Some of the most common heartburn triggers are; tomatoes, fried and fatty foods, chocolate, garlic, raw onions, mints, vinegar, citrus fruits or juices, spicy foods, ketchup and mustard, and coffee. Those are some of my favorites! So this foodie needed a heartburn solution.

I love using Pepcid Complete. You use it at the first sign of heartburn for relief, which is perfect. I don’t experience heartburn enough to have to take a daily dosage, so I love knowing I have Pepcid Complete for those nights that heartburn sneaks up on me. Only 1 tablet is needed to treat your heartburn and acid indigestion symptoms all day or night, and it only takes seconds to kick in. I think that means it’s time to order a pizza (maybe even a side of spicy wings) to truly enjoy without worrying about heartburn.

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This is part of a sponsored conversation on behalf of Netflix, I’m a member of the Netflix #StreamTeam and all opinions are my own.

Normally the Emmy’s are not on my radar, but when one of my favorite shows racks up 12 Emmy nominations I definitely pay attention. Of course I’m talking about Orange is the New Black. Netflix actually has 31 nominations in all, which is so exciting.

I think we should all celebrate with a mimosa.

It makes you wonder how long traditional television will be a part of society. Maybe even how long the “TV room” will be the heart of the home. There are so many great aspects of Netflix streaming services (and the competition, but I haven’t seen anything else really worth subscribing at this point,) that it really makes you wonder. Is Netflix  pioneering the new entertainment evolution?

Here are some of my favorite perks that come with a Netflix subscription.

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This is a sponsored post on behalf of Choose Cartons. All words and opinions are my own. 

My family loves to make eco-conscious purchases, whether it’s groceries or cleaning products. I love buying grocery items in cartons instead of cans.

Not only are cartons eco-friendly, they’re also so convenient. They keep food fresh (and a lot of times you can reseal for up to a week after opening!) They take up way less space. They’re also recyclable and renewable. Our family absolutely loves cartons.

During the month of July, you can help donate a tree just by tweeting! The folks at the blog, Choose Cartons , are partnering with Trees for the Future to donate a tree each time the hashtag #shopcartons is mentioned!

By partnering with Trees for the Future, Choose Cartons, an Evergreen Packaging initiative, aims to help replant as many of the valuable resources they use for their packaging as possible.

In fact, they are donating up to 10,000 trees during the month of July. All you have to do is tweet.

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I received a promotional credit to conduct this review, all opinions are my own.

I’m not a fashion blogger, but I still love to dress nice. My friends are almost always annoyed by the fact that I’m almost always dressed in a pretty dress. I say dresses are the lazy girls way to look presentable. I love sundresses in Summer and a dress with a pair of leggings in Winter.

I often spend too much time browsing clothing websites. Live The Look is one of my new favorites, a fun new way to shop.

You can shop by your favorite style including; bohemian, edgy, glamorous, ladylike, preppy, casual, sporty, or modern. They have a great collection for each of these styles.

The other way you can shop is by your look. Do you need a top to go with your favorite pair of blue jeans? How about accessories to go with your favorite little black dress?

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Disclosure: This post was sponsored by SONY through their partnership with POPSUGAR. While I was compensated by POPSUGAR to write a post about SONY, all opinions are my own.

There’s a hilarious new movie coming to theaters on July 18, starring Jason Segel (one of my favorite actors ever) and Cameron Diaz. The movie is about a couple, married with kids, who try to reignite their romance, only it backfires. The movie is called Sex Tape, so I’m betting you know where I’m going with this.

Here’s the hilarious trailer that you have to watch. Seriously, you have to.

I think most married couples can relate to their situation, not the losing a Sex Tape to the Cloud situation, but the “…oh it’s been a while, hasn’t it?” feeling that you unfortunately get used to when you have kids.

“It’s a Revealing Comedy from the Director of Bad Teacher.”

This movie reminds me of one of the many stories from the early years with my husband (no, not a Sex Tape!) it was our 6th month dating anniversary to be exact. AJ wanted to surprise me by taking me away to an extremely fancy hotel in Milwaukee. Now to start this story, I should add that AJ and I are pretty much famous for having extremely bad luck. This is definitely one of those, “It could only happen to us.” stories.

We got to Milwaukee, and I still had no idea where we were going. We got to the hotel and the restaurant that the hotel boasted about online was just a glorified cafe in the lobby, so we had no idea where to go to dinner, the hotel was haunted, and half of the jets in the hot tub in the room didn’t work. Wait, back up…did I just say the hotel was haunted?

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This shop is part of a social shopper marketing insight campaign with Pollinate Media Group® and Playtex, but all my opinions are my own. #pmedia #RefreshYourNursery  http://my-disclosur.es/OBsstV

This little girl, just turned two yesterday. Two years old, can you believe it!? On one hand it feels like the time flew by, on the other hand it’s hard to remember a time without Aliceana.

Of course we had a puppy dog themed party to celebrate her 2nd birthday, give me a few days to recuperate and I’ll give you a recap. It’s been a good 2 and a half years since I decorated my daughter’s bedroom, well then we would have called it her nursery. I wasn’t a blogger way back then so I never really got to show it off! Let me tell you, it’s pretty cool. We chose two themes; Star Wars and Owls and we just kind of rolled with it. It turned out so cute, and she loves her bedroom.

Here’s our little corner where we love to read to her, she’s at the point where she let’s us read for about 20 seconds before choosing another book. That chair has been a huge part of a whole lot of sleepless nights, we would try to rock her back to sleep in that chair when she wasn’t feeling too great, and of course way back when she was just a baby that was where she had all of her night time bottles.

Then we have her Star Wars R2D2 chair where her talking Chewbacca rests. Chewbacca is one of Aliceana’s favorite words.

Aliceana loves saying all of the Star Wars character’s names. These pictures above her changing pad (she has 3 of these above her crib too) serve as geeky flash cards where we practice saying “Stormtrooper” “Darth Vader” and more. We also have a Boba Fett lamp, because it fit the room so perfectly.

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