Reviews by Friends of Tegansmom

LauraBelle says "More Minty Than Mint Chocolate Chips" about Andes Creme De Menthe Baking Chips

LauraBelle — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 05:36:59 GMT

I'm not very adventurous when it comes to baking, especially holiday baking. I make the same things every year. Rum balls, whiskey balls, kahlua balls, mint meringue cookies, peppermint bark, and dog biscuits. For the past few years I haven't been able to find the mint chocolate chips that I used in the mint meringue cookies. They're one of only four ingredients (egg whites, granulated sugar, and food coloring make up the rest), so it's kind of integral. This year I found Andes Creme De Menthe Baking Chips, and decided to try this instead.

The Andes baking chips are much smaller than regular chocolate chips, or mint chocolate chips for that matter. The Andes chips look like you took a typical Andes mint and chopped it in much smaller pieces. They still have that chocolate/mint/chocolate sandwich thing going on. They also taste much more minty, and much less chocolatey than the mint chocolate chips.

The mixing and baking was all the same. They still mixed in the same and still placed the...

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LauraBelle says "This Product Does Exist!" about Dishwasher Magic Dishwasher Cleaner & Disinfectant

LauraBelle — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 05:07:30 GMT

We get a lot of soap buildup in our dishwasher. You can look through all my reviews here to see the troubles with that. Mostly the problem seems to be not enough water pressure to hit all the way around. This causes the soap to sit in the tray. They have garbage disposal cleaners, so why not dishwasher cleaners? I was happy to find one, Dishwasher Magic Diswasher Cleaner & Disinfectant.

With the Dishwasher Magic, you remove the cap on the 12 oz. bottle, but leave the wax plug. It gets placed either upside down in the silverware rack or in another secure place somewhere on the bottom rack. Run the dishwasher on its hottest cycle; this is needed so that it melts the wax plug. This is to remove limescale and rust, but I wanted to remove excess soap.

I tried this and it cleaned the inside of my dishwasher wonderfully, well most of it. Again, I have really bad water pressure inside my dishwasher. The stainless steel interior was sparkling throughout, except on the door where the soap tray is....

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LauraBelle says "Ultra Connectivity" about Vizio - High Definition Blu-ray Disc Player VBR110

LauraBelle — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 02:34:00 GMT

In my line of work as an entertainment reviewer, I need to keep up with the Joneses. And in this case the Joneses all have Blu-Ray players. It got to the point that I was turning down some things I had a chance to review because I didn't have a way to view Blu-Ray discs. In addition to that, my DVD player conked out on me.

I think it could have possibly been fixed with a good cleaning, but either way, I was without a way to watch DVDs out here in the living room, and the one hooked up to the TV my husband watches (we maintain a happy relationship by maintaining different TV viewing schedules) doesn't work either. I had a choice of the one in my son's room, my daughter's portable DVD player, or my computer. I chose my computer, which just didn't get as loud as I wanted it to with some discs. I started talking about buying a Blu-Ray player when I caught a good sale after Christmas, but it turns out I didn't need to as somehow Santa knew that's just what I needed.

Santa brought me a Vizio...

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LauraBelle says "Everything I Could Want" about iHome iP9BR Clock Clock Radio for iPhone / iPod

LauraBelle — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 22:14:59 GMT

If there's one thing those of us that have iPhones and iPods need, it's a way to charge them and play them through speakers. The prevailing maker of these audio systems is iHome. When i got my first iPod Nano, 2nd Generation, I was on the search. I wanted one for my nightstand to act as my radio/alarm clock. I bought a Jensen that did the trick at the time, but now that I'm on my 2nd iPod Nano and my 2nd iPhone, I needed something else.

The Jensen worked adequately with that first Nano, but it didn't work with my iPod Nano 5th Generation and didn't work with either iPhone. I couldn't even insert my iPhones, and the 5th Generation iPod Nano wouldn't charge and wouldn't play through the speakers unless I monkeyed with it a lot, so it really wasn't worth it. Additionally, it only had one alarm, and it was hard to figure out how to turn the alarm off, so I ended up just changing the time when I wanted to sleep in.

This made it easy to make up a Christmas wish list this year. At the top of the...

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LauraBelle says "Can't Get Past the Smell" about The Healing Garden Starter Kit, Lavendertheraphy

LauraBelle — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 16:18:54 GMT

It's not like I don't appreciate people thinking of me and giving me a gift, as I do. And I always love little lotions and stuff. I've used products from The Healing Garden before and really liked them. I couldn't wait to try this little gift set I got for Christmas in the "lavendertheraphy" for relaxation.

This set comes in a nice little travel case and includes a body soak, body lotion, body mist, bath and shower gel, and a body pouf. I took the "cleanse and calm bath and shower gel" into my shower with me one morning and couldn't wait to be relaxed. Just opening the bottle I was inundated with a terrible smell. I thought it must get better after you put it on. It didn't. It was hard to even consider myself clean with that smell on me, making it far from relaxing. I may have been cleansed, but I wasn't calm. Sure it smells like lavender, but there's another scent in there that's hard to place, but is highly disturbing.

I thought maybe it was just the bath and shower gel, so I tried a...

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LauraBelle says "As Good as Any Name Brand Razor" about Up & Up Women's Razor

LauraBelle — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 09:46:48 GMT

I don't know how often I can tout Target's brand Up & Up and its products. Everything is either the same as the name brand or better. I'd been looking for a cheaper disposable razor, but didn't want to sacrifice a good shave. I tried the Noxzema razors, and those were basically a bust. Scanning the shelves I thought why not try the Up & Up Women's Razors? They couldn't be any worse than the Noxzema ones.

Not only were they not worse than the Noxzema razors, they were much better. It shaved so close. I don't feel like I'm walking out of the shower with a 5 o'clock shadow under my arms. And my legs are silky smooth after using this razor. And to have these razors be cheaper than any other ones on the shelf other than the typical Bic type, was a real bonus.

The jelly-like orange coloring of this disposable razor makes it like the more upscale disposable razors like Soleil, and it works just as well, if not better. The shape can be a bit puzzling, making it seem like it wouldn't work well....

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LauraBelle says "Making It Okay to Turn Older" about It's Complicated

LauraBelle — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 07:01:51 GMT

Earlier I wrote a review of Old Dogs, talking about who I choose to take as my dates for movies, based on the movie criteria and genre. I never considered taking anyone else to It's Complicated. I figured this would be me treating myself. First, it's a romantic comedy, and secondly, it deals with being middle-aged. It's not something for my husband, and it definitely wasn't for my kids. So I was shocked when my 16-year-old son wanted to come with. He appreciates a good comedy, but this? It turns out he thought the commercials were really funny, and he also wanted to see John Krasinski who co-stars. Granted, he was the youngest person in the theater, but he really ended up enjoying it, just as everyone else did in the theater.

Jane and Jake Adler (Meryl Streep and Alec Baldwin) have been divorced for ten years, ever since he had an affair with Agness (Lake Bell), a much younger woman he later married. Although previously not able to be in the same room together, they are now thrust together...

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LauraBelle says "Some Things Never Change" about Did You Hear About the Morgans

LauraBelle — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 16:40:32 GMT

Watching Did You Hear About the Morgans, I thought some things never change. Wilford Brimley is still alive and kicking, and looks amazingly the same. I only wonder if he's still eating oatmeal. Sarah Jessica Parker seems to still be a fashion maven, even when she isn't appearing on Sex and the City. Hugh Grant still has the same romantic comedy sensibility about himself. I don't think he's right for any type of role other than a guy trying to win over the girl in the end. He always plays that role it seems, yet he's successful. So if it's not broken, why fix it?

Parker and Grant play recently separated Meryl and Paul Morgan. He desperately wants to get back together with her, but she just can't seem to bear it. Both lead very busy lives, running their own compaies, and in addition she heads up a few charities as well. She seems to be his only charity as he keeps showering her with gifts as he begs her to come back. He tells his assistant a star isn't enough and asks if he can purchase...

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LauraBelle says "With This Cast, It Should Have Been Better" about Old Dogs

LauraBelle — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 15:11:37 GMT

When I see previews for movies that are coming out, I gauge it by who I'll take to the movie with me, whether it will be my 16-year-old son, my 13-year-old daughter, my husband, or whether it's a movie I'll go to alone. The action movies are my husband's all the way. The comedies are my son's, and the family movies are my daughter's. For me, it's all the romantic comedies. Truthfully, many times I go during the day, so I end up going alone to some movies even though I know someone else would enjoy it with me.

I was wrong on my choice of "date" for Old Dogs, yet ended up going alone anyway. With stars like John Travolta and Robin Williams, I thought for sure it should be my son to go with. He actually wants to see nearly every movie that comes out, including some romantic comedies, but don't tell him I told you that. i really wanted to see this one with him, but he'd just started on the wrestling team at school, and I knew he didn't have the time, so I went alone. Halfway through, I was...

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LauraBelle says "Feeding On Our Fears" about "EVERYBODY'S FINE"

LauraBelle — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 04:03:15 GMT

The family in Everybody's Fine could be anybody's family. It shows how far we've come and how family life has changed. What we're experiencing now is the end of an era. I don't think it will be as prevalent in twenty to thirty years, but it's prevalent to most of us, as it's how are families are or tend to be.

This is what happened to the families of the 50s and 60s where Dad was still the breadwinner and Mom stayed home and took care of everything at home. We don't have that anymore. Both parents are more often than not the breadwinners and parents share in the parenting chores. This makes both parents just as involved.

Yet in Everybody's Fine, Robert DeNiro plays Frank Goode, a dad who worked hard all his life with the intention of giving his kids a better life than what he had. He wanted them to have the best. He worked at a company that coated the telephone wires and likes to say he coated a million feet of wire to get his kids where they are today. To him they are the most successsful...

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Jolie says "buyuggsboot.net is a scam! Ugg Boots from China that are fake." about www.buyuggsboot.net

Jolie — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 05:22:46 GMT

Background on Buyuggsboot.net

A friend of mine at Viewpoints recently passed along a site called www.buyuggsboot.net. She found it online. www.buyuggsboot.net is a web site that sells all styles of Ugg Boots at discounted prices.

We werent certain if www.buyuggsboot.net were the real or not. But after a thorough review of the site, we thought it was legit. Buyuggsboot.net looks like a reasonable reseller of Ugg Boots. The page is designed well, the pictures look authentic and they make claim to having the real deal. They also consistently site throughout the web site having customer satisfaction commitments.

To add to the thought it was authentic, the pricing seemed good but not amazing. As you probably know a typical pair of Ugg Boots cost about $110. On Buyuggsboot.net the cost was $89.00- approximately a $20 savings. Seemed like a good deal, but they werent so cheap that I thought it could be scam. As an aside, last year Nordstrom had a similiar sale on Ugg boots so the pricing seemed...

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