December 19^th and 20th:

• Boys/Girls Licensed Hoodies $8 (reg. $18.99)
• Essential Home 10 pc Sets $29.99 (reg. $49.99)
• Rollercade $49.99 (reg. $79.99)

Don’t forget to follow @KmartDealsnNews and use the #KmartBLS hashtag for a chance to win every day!  For more info & rules: http://tr.im/KmartBLS.  Good luck!

ALSO !!! Kmart has extended their shopping hours from 6am-12am through December 23^rd and 6am-10pm December 24^th.

Happy Shopping !!!

The Plus Size Mommy

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I always try to help with our communities food banks when a food drive is going on and it really hits home when I hear about people not having food for their families. I have experienced first hand being a food bank participant and having to stand in long lines in the cold and rain and heat of the summer to make sure I have food for my family. My husband lost his job and was out of work for a long time and it was a REALLY rough time for us. The company he worked for was run by grant money and when the money ran out and the contracts not resigned he lost his job after being there for years. So I totally understand what the people are going through and the tough times.

I have always had in my mind that when this happened to us, when we got back on our feet that I would make a difference and do what I could to help other families make it through. The holidays are some of the hardest times too. You want to be able to make that turkey, and all the trimmings. You want to feed your kids good and healthy foods and be able to splurge sometimes on some cookies or special cereal. It is really tough when the money isn’t there.

So, when I found out that Conagra, a Wonderful company, that I have worked with in the past has put out a campaign to fight against child hunger, I was totally IN on it. Below is the information pertaining to the campaign and I hope you will help out and work towards making a difference.

• This holiday season, ConAgra Foods Foundation and Sandra Lee, of Sandra Lee Semi-Homemade, in partnership with Share Our Strength®, are launching the Champions Against Child Hunger contest to recognize those who are doing great work to help end child hunger in communities across the country.

• We don’t often take time to recognize the people helping those in need, so this contest gives us the opportunity to tell their stories and say thank you.

• It’s easy to enter – all you have to do is nominate a family member or friend – or even yourself at the Champions Against Child Hunger Web site,www.ChampionsAgainstChildHunger.org, through Jan. 22.

• For each submission, ConAgra Foods Foundation will donate $10 to Share Our Strength.  Then, you’ll have a chance to vote on finalists to raise even more funds.  And, the finalists and winner both receive grants for their hunger relief organization of choice.

o   Each of the top five finalists will receive a cash prize of $500 as a reward for their advocacy and passion for ending child hunger, and a matching donation of $500 to Share Our Strength or their hunger relief organization of choice.

o   The grand prize winner will receive a trip to New York City, a tour of The Food Network studios, and a cash prize of $1,500, as well as a donation of $5,000 to Share Our Strength or their hunger relief organization of choice.

• ConAgra Foods Foundation has committed an incremental donation of up to $100,000 to Share Our Strength.
• The Champions Against Child Hunger contest builds on the ConAgra Foods Foundation’s partnership with Share Our Strength and our commitment to building a community of people passionate about ending child hunger.

Thank You for helping to make a difference in children’s lives !

The Plus Size Mommy

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An identity is stolen every three to four seconds. Yours will not be one of them if you follow these tips, courtesy of Scott Stevenson, Founder and CEO of Eliminate ID Theft, an identity theft protection and credit-monitoring agency.

Beware of Skimming – During the holidays, stores use temporary workers to accommodate the shoppers who crowd the malls. These workers often go through a much-less thorough screening process than full-time, salaried workers. Often paid hourly at a minimum wage, these workers can be lured by the promise of quick money that skimming credit card numbers offers.

- Know what a skimmer looks like. Google Images has plenty of pictures. Skimmers are small machines that look similar to other credit card technology, and thus can easily be overlooked even when used out in the open.

- When possible, use cash. That way, you won’t be a target of identity fraud.

Be on the Lookout – From an experienced thief to a proprietary teenager, anyone can steal a credit card number and use it to ruin your finances and credit.

- Watch to make sure no one copies down your card numbers. Shred all receipts, as many of these contain credit card expiration dates, as well as the last four digits of the card numbers.

Protect Your Information – The National Retail Federation estimated that nearly half of consumers would shop online in 2007; more than 61 million people would do so from work, potentially spreading their financial information on more than one computer.

- Erase all cookies. Make sure no one can sit down at your computer and access your information.

- Use a shredder. Destroy old credit card bills and opt out of unsolicited credit card offers (www.optoutprescreen.com ). This reduces the chance of someone sifting through trash and discovering your personal financial numbers.

Think Before You Click! E-mails containing links to online stores often contain phishing software that records your personal information as you type. Find reputable online stores using a search engine, such as Google, and add these stores to your favorites so you don’t have to trust e-mail advertisements.

Look for the Lock, the padlock that is. This icon at the bottom of an Internet window, along with the “http” or “https” at the beginning of a Web site, denotes security. Other indications that a site is trustworthy include notations from TRUSTe, Verisign, The Better Business Bureau and McAffee Secure. Additionally, when a site has Extended Validation SSL (a higher level of security) the address bar turns green and the organization’s name is displayed to show that it’s been certified. You can also check to see if the company is Visa CISP (Cardholder Information Security Program) compliant.

Use Temporary Credit Card Numbers, provided upon customer request by many credit card companies, for online shopping. Even legitimate Web sites sometimes get hacked into; by using a temporary credit card number, you can avoid thieves racking up additional charges on your regular card.

Avoid Fakes. Some shopping sites that offer deep discounts really are too good to be true. These sites allow you to add items to your virtual shopping cart and enter your payment information upon check out, just like any reputable site, except the products never arrive-they never existed in the first place, and now the criminals have your money and your personal information! When possible, order through well-known sites like Amazon.com, eBay.com and Yahoo. Check to see if smaller sites have contact information that connects you to a live person, rather than just an online form. If a company skimps on contact information, it might be a sign to steer clear.

Shop in Private from your personal computer rather than one at work, a friend’s house, a hotel or the airport. You never know what cookies or hacking tools may accidentally be on public computers, and you don’t want your information stored where others can see it.

The Plus Size Mommy

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Where you can go to sign up and begin saving on your shopping NOW!!!

The Plus Size Mommy

NAPERVILLE, Ill., October 6, 2009 – Today, more than 3,500 OfficeMax associates will be joined by community members and celebrities as they surprise 1,000 teachers across the country with $1,000 worth of essential classroom supplies as part of the third annual “A Day Made Better” event. Each year, OfficeMax volunteers surprise teachers at 1,000 elementary schools across the United States, including Alaska, Hawaii, Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico, to celebrate their extraordinary efforts and call attention to the national problem of teacher-funded classrooms.

This morning at 10:00 a.m., OfficeMax associates and celebrities in select cities will arrive at the identified schools to meet with the principals and school administration to surprise the winning teacher with a large box of school supplies for his or her classroom that includes a printer, digital camera and essential classroom materials worth more than $1,000 per gift.

Celebrities taking part in the “A Day Made Better” nationwide event to show their support for teachers and give back to local communities include:

- Selena Gomez – singer and actress known from Disney’s Wizards of Waverly Place, Another Cinderella Story, and her debut album, Kiss & Tell, released on September 29, 2009.
- James Denton – film and television actor known for his role on Desperate Housewives.
- Maksim Chmerkovskiy with Debi Mazar – Dancing with the Stars duo featuring Maksim, a dance champion, choreographer, and instructor, and Debi, a seasoned film and television actress known for her recent role in the HBO Original Series Entourage.
- Michael Ian Black – comedian, actor, writer, and director known for TV comedy series The State, Viva Variety, Stella, and currently Michael & Michael Have Issues.
- Krista Watterworth – HGTV host and top designer on hit show, Save my Bath, and featured on You Should Live Here, 25 Biggest Decorating Mistakes and The Big Reveal. Krista’s designs are regularly seen on HGTV’s Spice Up My Kitchen.
- Richard Roeper – Chicago Sun-Times columnist and well-known movie critic.
- National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature Jon Scieszka, Caldecott Honoree David Shannon, and talented newcomers Mac Barnett and Adam Rex, on their Guys With Books tour.
- Young Adult New York Times Bestselling author Scott Westerfeld and Irish young-adult fantasy author Sarah Rees Brennan.

An OfficeMax survey conducted in June 2009 supports data first reported in a National Education Association survey in 2005: Teachers spend on average $1,000 of their own money each year to offset school budget shortfalls and ensure their students have the necessary classroom resources for learning.

“Teachers inspire and shape our country’s greatest asset, our children, and it is astounding that they are left to cover the cost of doing a good job,” said Bob Thacker, SVP of marketing and advertising for OfficeMax. “We hope today’s surprise events will generate a grassroots movement in support of teachers and demonstrate how easy it is to make a difference in your own community.”

To drive national support, OfficeMax is working with Adopt-A-Classroom, an innovative nonprofit organization that enables the public to adopt a teacher in an easy, accountable manner. Adopt-A-Classroom identified the needy schools for “A Day Made Better,” and those principals were invited to nominate one teacher who exemplified passion, dedication and innovation in the classroom.

“Our country will need up to 2.4 million more teachers by 2010, yet we continue to lose half of new teachers within their first five years largely due to lack of support,” said Jamie Rosenberg, founder and executive director of Adopt-A-Classroom, which has raised $10 million for teachers over the past decade. “Today’s ‘A Day Made Better’ events serve as a wake-up call to the country that teachers need our support now.”

OfficeMax first launched “A Day Made Better” in October 2007, and with the help of 3,000 associates each year, OfficeMax has been able to surprise more than 3,500 teachers across the country with a total of $3.5 million worth of classroom supplies. Emphasizing community action, the “A Day Made Better” event has helped increase donations to Adopt-A-Classroom, which has supported more than 30,000 teachers and one million students over the past ten years. For more information about “A Day Made Better,” visit www.adaymadebetter.com. To adopt a teacher, visit www.adoptaclassroom.org.

THANK YOU OFFICE MAX for helping with this cause !!
The Plus Size Mommy

Vistaprint is giving away  $5000 !! Vistaprint is holding a “Why I love Vistaprint” video contest!

This will be in the form of credit with Vistaprint. They have sooo many items to choose from and great quality. I use them for my business cards and promotional items and advertising. I have received a hat and t- shirt from them with my plussizemommy logo on them and I just love them, and so does all my blogger friends. They are always asking where I got them!

This contest is very easy to enter and there will also be 4 runner’s up. So what are you waiting for, go enter NOW!!!

Here is the link to go to to win your $5000 from Vistaprint !

http://vistaprint.com/video-contest.aspx

GOOD LUCK !!!

The Plus Size Mommy

Did you know teachers spend an average of $1200 of their own money on classroom supplies each year? That’s $4 billion annually! That’s why OfficeMax joined with Adopt-A-Classroom to create “A Day Made Better“—a national cause event founded to erase teacher-funded classrooms. This year, “A Day Made Better” will take place on October 6 where 1,000 teachers will be surprised in their classrooms each with $1,000 worth of essential supplies from OfficeMax. That’s more than one million dollars donated to help teachers! Principals at needy schools nominated the teachers for demonstrating dedication, innovation, and passion.

To pay-it-forward, OfficeMax and Mom It Forward have teamed up to create awareness about the issue of teacher-funded classrooms and to give you the opportunity to get involved and help a teacher in your community on behalf of the “A Day Made Better.” Here’s how…

Simply nominate a teacher of your choice to win this giveaway by following the entry requirements. Be sure to check out the prize and criteria!

Prize

One exceptional teacher will receive a ONE HUNDRED DOLLAR gift card to OfficeMax. This can go a long way when it comes to classroom supplies!

Criteria

This is a giveaway that is meant to be given away. What does that mean? You get to nominate a teacher by sharing why this person is exceptional and deserving of this giveaway. The best part, every story told helps raise awareness in an effort to erase teacher-funded classrooms. The winning teacher will be chosen based on the following criteria, so be sure to tell us why your teacher is most deserving:

• Dedication: does everything in his/her power to deliver the best possible education for his/her students.
• Innovation: thinks outside the box and engages his/her students through creative learning activities & programs.
• Passion: expresses a genuine passion for education and shares this enthusiasm in the classroom.
• Need: demonstrates a need for essential classroom supplies.

Entry Requirements

To enter your teacher, you are required to do two things.

1. Nominate them through a blog post or on Whrrl.

Write a post on your blog.

• You can include photos, video, etc. but please stay under 400 words or 3 minutes.
• Please include these links: http://adaymadebetter.com or @adaymadebetter.
• Include a link to your post in the comments section.

OR

Create a story on Whrrl.com.

• Go to our custom Whrrl page at http://whrrl.com/search?q=omx, click “Start A Story” and upload photos and text about why your teacher is most deserving.
• Be sure to include the #omx hashtag in the text of your story.
• Post a link to your Whrrl story in the comments section.

2. Post these messages on Facebook and/or Twitter.

• Teachers spend avg $1200 of own $$ on school supplies annually! Help erase teacher-funded classrooms. http://bit.ly/3VUNvC PLS RT #omx
• Nominate a teacher 2 win $100 in OfficeMax classroom supplies. Enter here: http://is.gd/3vqV5/span> PLS RT #omx
• Join the “A Day Made Better” movement to end teacher-funded classrooms at http://bit.ly/UJ3LF #omx

More than 30 sites are participating in this campaign between now and Sunday, October 4. Visit http://momitforward.com for a list of all the giveaways! You may enter a different teacher on every site, but you may only win once!

Thanks so much for helping pay-it-forward to teachers in your community! Please join us on Tuesdays, September 22 and 29 from 9 to 11 pm ET for Girls Night Out (#gno) on Twitter if you’d like to meet the team behind the cause: @officemax, @adaymadebetter and @Adopt_Classroom. Hope to see you there!

Fine Print

The Plus Size Mommy

Scott Naturals – a new line of green paper products from Scott that I’m trying to get the word out about with giveaways of Green Gift bags – a reusable tote filled with SCOTT Naturals™ product coupons, a reusable water bottle, green light bulbs, and cleaning products from Clorox Green Works.

Scott Naturals Towels –

Get the job done with a sensible blend of 60% post-consumer recycled fiber! The fast-absorbing ridges soak up spills like other branded paper towels, and outperform 100% post-consumer branded recycled fiber paper towels.

The Mega Roll offers 50% more towels per roll than our Regular size, while SCOTT® Choose-A-Size™ eliminates waste by letting you select just the right amount for the job!

Packaged in 20% post-consumer recycled plastic, with cardboard cores made from 100% post-consumer recycled fiber.

The quality you expect from SCOTT®, with a sensible blend of 40% post-consumer recycled fiber! Offering 2-ply softness comparable to branded bath tissue and outperforms 100% post-consumer branded recycled fiber bath tissue products.

Packaged in 20% post-consumer recycled plastic, with cardboard cores made from 100% post-consumer recycled fiber.

Scott Naturals Napkins –

Keeping mealtime clean with a sensible blend of 80% post-consumer recycled fiber! SCOTT Naturals™ Napkins provide strength comparable to branded napkin products, and outperform 100% post-consumer recycled fiber napkin products.

Scott Naturals Flushable Wipes -

Breaks up like dry bath tissue after flushing! These new wipes contain natural Aloe Vera to leave you feeling fresh and clean, are free and clear of dye, contain no alcohol, and are made with 100% post-consumer fibers derived from sustainable resources. Available in 51-count tubs that hold 20% more wipes than the leading brand.

Also, if you visit www.scottnaturals.com right now, you can print valuable coupons for these wonderful Scott Naturals products! While you are there, you can also sign up to win  $500 . There are also wonderful “Going Green” tips to help on this mission and also you can go on the Scott Naturals “Clean Air Green Tour”.

I have teamed up with Scott Naturals to bring to one of my readers a wonderful giveaway.

Green Gift bags - a reusable tote filled with SCOTT Naturals™ product coupons, a reusable water bottle, green light bulbs, and cleaning products from Clorox Green Works.

One of my wonderful subscribers will win one of these Green Gift Bags !

Here is how you can win:

-please note, you MUST be a subscriber to this blog to win.

1. leave me a comment letting me know what you are doing to be more green in your life. = 1 entry

2. comment and share with us a green tip you know of that can help others with going green. = 1 entry

3. visit www.scottnaturals.com and come back and comment with your favorite feature of the new Scott Naturals. = 1 entry

4. follow me on twitter, I am @plussizemommy, comment and let me know u do = 1 entry

This giveaway begins NOW and ends on Sept. 12 at 8pm Eastern time. Winner will be chosen by random.org.

Winner will NOT be emailed but posted to this site by Sept. 13th. Please check back to see if you have won.

Winner has 48 hours to send me your home address at xbeth@yahoo.com so we can send your prize.

Thank you for entering and Good Luck !

The Plus Size Mommy