DISCLOSURE:  I received free products from Smiley360 to facilitate this review.  All opinions are my own.

I love coffee.  I drink at least a cup or two each day.  It helps get me going in the morning and it also helps me unwind in the evening.  I usually drink brewed coffee, from either my drip coffeemaker or my Keurig.  It's very rare for me to drink instant coffee.  While convenient to use, instant coffees usually don't taste as good as brewed coffee.  At least not for me.

Recently, I had the chance to try Nescafe with Coffee-mate.  It's a new 2-in-1 that combines Nescafe instant coffee with Nescafe Coffee-mate creamer.  It's available in three flavors:

• French Vanilla
• Hazelnut
• Sweet & Creamy Original

DISCLOSURE:  I received a free product from Klout to facilitate this review.  All opinions are my own.

It's the season for colds and the flu.  Each of my kids have already been sick at least once since school started at the end of August.  That means coughs, sneezing, runny noses and fevers.  Sometimes, it can be a struggle to get a temperature reading on my kids -- especially, the baby.  We have been using an external thermometer that you swipe on the child's forehead.  Sometimes she cooperates.  Other times she fights me.  But, if you don't do it correctly, then you don't get an accurate reading.

So, I was pretty excited to try out the Braun No Touch + Forehead Thermometer!  It would be great to not even have to touch my daughter's forehead and still get a good reading!  I could even do it when she's asleep without fear of waking her up!

What's In The Box?

• The Braun No Touch + Forehead Thermometer
• Protective Cap
• 2 AA batteries

DISCLOSURE:  I received free products from Vocalpoint to facilitate this post.  All opinions are my own.

I spend a lot of time on my hair.  It's thick and has a slight wave.  It's not wavy enough, though, to style curly and it isn't straight enough to just let it air dry.  It gets so frizzy.  I usually have to blow dry it straight and then run a flat iron over it to make it smooth and less poufy.

Recently, I had the opportunity to host a Girls' Night and try out three  hair styling tools from InStyler.  I've never tried any of their products, but I have seen  the infomercials for the original InStyler Max styling tool.  I thought it looked interesting, but wasn't sure it would be something that would work for my hair.

DISCLOSURE:  I received a free Sleep Number CoolFit Comfort Pillow from Smiley360 in exchange for visiting the Sleep Number store and reviewing the SleepIQ technology. All opinions are my own.

I don't sleep very well at night.  My mattress is over 10 years old and my kids are constantly jumping on it.  It's just not as comfortable as it used to be.  Plus, I cosleep with my 19-month-old and she still wakes up to nurse at night.

So, when I was offered the chance to try out the new Sleep Number beds, I jumped at the opportunity.   I've passed by the Sleep Number store numerous times, but have only been in once. A few years ago, I tried out one of the beds to see what my Sleep Number was.  My husband and I were given a remote that we could use to increase or decrease the firmness of the bed to see what we found to be most comfortable.  For me, a 35 felt great. My husband preferred something more firm.  I believe his was in the 70's!

DISCLOSURE:  This is a sponsored post in conjunction with USFamilyGuide.com.  I received free admission in exchange for a review.  No further compensation was provided.   All opinions are my own.

As many times as we've been in the vicinity of a Ripley's Believe It or Not museum, we've never had the chance to actually visit one.  Recently, we got the opportunity to go to the one in Baltimore's Inner Harbor. It opened in the summer of 2012 in the Light Street Pavilion of the Harborplace waterfront complex.

It's not hard to miss.  There's a giant sea serpent named Chessie wrapped around the front facade. My boys weren't really sure what to expect when we told them we would be visiting a Ripley's museum.  But, as we walked towards the museum, I could see their excitement building.

We visited on a cold, rainy Saturday morning.  Visiting the museum then seemed like the logical thing to do.  The museum had only been open about an hour, so it wasn't too busy yet.  There were several people just hanging out outside, looking at the exhibits in the doorway.  There's a 12-foot tall sculpture of the Transformer Bumblebee made entirely of scrap car parts.  I didn't manage to get a picture, though, since there were several people blocking him!  If you look hard at the picture above, you can see him below Chessie's tail.

DISCLOSURE:  I received a free product from BzzAgent to try and review.  All opinions are my own.

I actually reviewed Secret Outlast Clear Gel Deodorant about a year and a half ago.  I had no problems with it and gave it a positive review.  But, once my sample ran out, I never bought it again.  I had other samples of different brands to use and hadn't needed to buy any until recently.  So, I was pretty happy to get the chance to try Secret Outlast Clear Gel Deodorant again.  Especially, since I was down to my last thing of  deodorant.

I'm usually not very brand loyal when it comes to deodorant.    Often, I'll use one brand of deodorant and it would fine for a few weeks.  But, then all of a sudden, it would just stop working.  I'd start getting odor again, even though I wasn't changing anything about how I was using it.  So, I'd have to switch to a different brand.  That would work for a little while and then again I'd have to switch.

When I buy deodorant, I normally choose an invisible solid.  I like that they go on smoothly and don't usually leave any white marks on my clothes.  In the past, I've usually steered away from gel deodorants.  They usually don't go on very evenly and the majority of the ones I had tried in the past didn't go on clear.  They would dry clear, but you'd have to wait for it to dry.  Plus, it took a little while for the deodorant to dry.  So, I'd have to wait to get dressed while it dried.

DISCLOSURE: I received free products from Smiley360 and Scotties to facilitate this review.  All opinions are my own.

Our house is never without facial tissues.  There's a box in pretty much every room of the house.  They're in the bedrooms, the bathrooms, the living room and even the office.  We haven't really been brand loyal.  We've used Kleenex, Puffs, and various store brands.  One brand we've never used before (at least I don't think), though, is Scotties brand facial tissues.

Thanks to Smiley360 and Scotties, I recently had the chance to try Scotties Facial Tissues.   They sent a kit that included one box of Scotties 2-ply Facial Tissues, 2 coupons for a free box of Scotties tissues and an information sheet on the Scotties TREES ROCK program.

DISCLOSURE:  I received free products from Crowdtap to facilitate this review.  All opinions are my own.

We've been trying to green our home and daily routines.  We buy natural and organic foods and products. We recycle and reuse as much as possible.  We use reusable shopping bags when we remember to bring them!

One place where we haven't really purchased too many green products is the bathroom. Aside from natural cleaning products, we haven't really purchased natural toilet paper.  We've tried some a couple times and it just didn't seem to be as nice.  It was kind of rough and not very strong. It was also pretty thin.

DISCLOSURE:  I received free products from Crowdtap in order to host a Cottonelle Deck The Stalls Holiday Party.  All opinions expressed here are my own.

The Christmas season is here! We've already put up our Christmas tree and some decorations around the house. We have a wreath up on our front door and are planning on getting the Christmas lights up this weekend.

One area, though, where I really don't do too much decorating is the bathroom.  I'll change the hand towels to something more festive and maybe use a pine-scented air freshener -- but, that's about it.  So, recently, I had the opportunity to host a Cottonelle Deck The Stalls Holiday Party, where the premise was to decorate flushable wipes dispensers!  I would have never thought to decorate them and when I told my friends and family about the party, no one was really too excited to come.