Purina Pro Plan Selects $100 Visa Gift Card Winner!

I've finally gotten the information from BlogHer about the winning entry in the Visa Gift Card Giveaway!  It was...

Sarah from PS Mom Reviews!

I have sent the winner an e-mail (so look for it!) and I need a response within 72 hours so that BlogHer can send the prize.

Thank you to all who entered, and I look forward to continuing to work with BlogHer to provide more product reviews, and hopefully more giveaways for my readers!

Still Waiting to Hear Winner

I just wanted to update you all that I've contacted the company to check on the winner for the $100 Visa Gift card from Purina, and I've been told I should know that information early this week.  I haven't forgotten, and you haven't missed it!  I promise I'll let you all know who the lucky person is as soon as I know.

A Jane Austen Education: Even More Than I Learned from Clueless...plus Gift Card FYI

My first BlogHer book review is now live on the site. I'm so excited to be a part of BlogHer's book club, because I love to read, and I love free books, and I love to spout my opinion of things. If you'd like to read my review of A Jane Austen Education by William Deresiewicz, please head over and take a look!


Thanks to all who entered the giveaway for the $100 Visa Gift Card from Purina Pro Plan Selects.  The deadline has now passed for entries, and I wanted to let you know, the company will be choosing the winner (because one method of entry was going to their website and entering there, so I do not have that information myself) and I will certainly let the winner (and the rest of you) know as soon as I know.

Good luck!

Generic OTC Medicines: They're Not All the Same

I never had allergies as a child.  When I got married and moved to West Virginia, I was suddenly bombarded with itchy eyes and a stuffy nose.  I thoroughly expected that once I moved back to Missouri, all that would go away.  Clearly it was West Virginia I was allergic to, right?  Wrong.

After trying various allergy pills and sprays, I've found that Wal-mart's Equate brand Loratadine (which is the active ingredient in Claratin) works great for me.  I take the 24 hour kind in the mornings.  Every once in a while I start to think my allergies have eased up, and I'll stop taking it for a few days, but the symptoms always flare up again.

A couple months ago I ran out of my allergy medicine, and I happened to be at K-mart, so I decided to just grab some there.  Any chance to avoid Wal-mart is a chance I like to take!  So I bought a bottle of K-mart's Smart Sense (their generic brand) Loratadine.  I figured, same active ingredient, it will be the same, right?  Wrong.

I took this for a few weeks, and when spring allergy season came around, I began waking up every single morning with puffy, itchy eyes.  I kept thinking it was this new facial cleanser I'd bought, or maybe the new eye cream?  Or maybe the fact that I was sleeping with the windows open?  But I changed each thing that I thought might be the culprit, and nothing was helping my eye situation.  They even started bothering me during the day.

Then I ran out of medicine again, and this time, I bought my old faithful Equate brand.  And guess what?  The next morning, no puffy eyes.  They haven't been back.

So, I've concluded that all generics are not the same.  I plan to stick with the one that has worked for me for years, and I will never again buy another brand. 

Freschetta Review and Giveaway

Want a chance to win a free Freschetta Simply Inspired Pizza and a cute bamboo cutting board set?

The company wanted this review posted on my "regular" blog, so visit Stuff I Think About to read and enter.

Pro Plan Selects Review and $100 Visa Gift Card Giveaway

This is a sponsored review by BlogHer and Purina.

It’s no secret to my regular readers that my dogs are a huge part of my life.  I mean, how could they not be?  Just look at them:

Hi, I’m Rudy.  Yes, I know I’m cute.  It’s a skill that has served me well in life.

Hi, I’m Daisy.  Don’t hate me because I’m beautiful.

I was really excited when BlogHer and Purina Pro Plan Selects asked me to be a part of their Review Program, because my dogs’ health is very important to me, and I believe that nutrition plays a huge role in keeping them looking and feeling their best.

When Daisy and Rudy came into my life, I knew I would always feed them the highest quality dog food that I could.  I’d like to think it’s made a big difference in their health and well-being.  I know a woman who adopted one of Daisy’s sisters, and she (the woman, not Daisy’s sister) often tells me she can’t believe how soft Daisy is and how shiny her coat is.  I firmly believe this is because of the high quality food Daisy eats.  (And because she’s just naturally beautiful.)

So, anyway, back to the food.  Purina Pro Plan Selects is “select in what we use, and select in what we don’t.”  All varieties of this dog food are made with real meat and whole grains. The foods do not contain any artificial colors, flavors, or preservatives.  The variety I chose to review is Natural Chicken & Brown Rice Formula.  The ingredients list includes chicken, barley, brown rice, oatmeal, egg, carrot, tomato, sweet potato, and fish oil.   Sounds pretty tasty, huh?  (Well, maybe not so much the fish oil, but I know it’s good for dogs.  And people.).

I like that the food is made with real ingredients that I can actually pronounce.  It looks and smells appetizing, which can’t be said of all dog foods.  I didn’t notice much change in my dogs’ habits or appearances during the test period, except that Daisy’s coat seemed a little shinier.  I fed a pretty high quality food before though.

What you really want to know, I’m sure, is how did the dogs like it?  I thought you’d ask that, so I filmed this short video of Rudy the first time we fed the Selects:

35 seconds flat from bowl to stomach.

To be perfectly honest, Rudy doesn’t have the most discriminating taste.  He has been known to eat towels.

So, I decided to perform a more scientific experiment with Daisy.  (Plus, she heard Rudy was gonna have a video on the internet, and she was jealous.)  This was a couple weeks into feeding the Selects food, and we did a little taste test to see whether she’d prefer the Selects to her previous food.  When I explained the experiment to R, he asked if I planned to blindfold Daisy to make it a true “blind taste test.”  I opted not to subject her to that.

As you can see, she did go for the Selects food first, even though she ate both foods.  I figured she would eat both, so it was really just a matter of what she ate first, or which she seemed to prefer.  Unlike her brother, she does not eat towels, so I feel we can trust her judgment.

Now for the really exciting news.  As a part of this promotion, BlogHer is picking one lucky blog reader to win a $100 Visa Gift Card!  Leave a comment on this post to enter.  You can also enter by tweeting about this promotion or blogging about it, and leaving a comment with the URL to your tweet or post.  Or if you’re not a blogger or tweeter, you can follow the link to enter on the website.  Oh, and I suggest you buy your doggie a nice toy if you win.

Giveaway Rules: No duplicate comments. You may receive (2) total entries by selecting from the following entry methods:

1.  Leave a comment in response to the sweepstakes prompt on this post.
2.  Tweet about this promotion and leave the URL to that tweet in a comment on this post.
3.  Blog about this promotion and leave the URL to that post in a comment on this post.
4.  For those with no Twitter or blog, read the official rules to learn about an alternate form of entry.

This giveaway is open to US Residents age 18 or older.

Winners will be selected via random draw, and will be notified by e-mail.

Giveaway ends Tuesday, May 31, 2011.  You have 72 hours to get back to me, otherwise a new winner will be selected.

Whether or not you win, I encourage you to download a free $3 off coupon for Pro Plan Selects.
The Official Rules are available here.
To read other BlogHer reviewers' posts about Pro Plan Selects, check out the Round-up Page.
Visit Purina's website here.

Coming Soon!

Keep watching this space for reviews of products I love.  Or hate.  Either way, you'll read about it here!