BEEP...... BEEP....... BEEP........ BEEP......... Every now and then we get woken up in the middle of the night by our fire alarms going off. It's a heart-stopping moment, and one that always gets Alfie and me rushing around in a panic (the kids
never wake up -- which is one of the reasons why Alfie and I hate spending more than 2 or 3 nights away from them!). Fortunately, it has never been due to a fire, just our high-tech smoke detectors warning us that the batteries are running out. Panic quickly recedes to extreme annoyance, and we always chide ourselves for not remembering to replace the batteries before they actually run out and scare us half to death. Somehow we never seem to remember when we last changed our smoke detector batteries!
I was recently introduced to a program that could silence those low battery beeps in our home forever -- Energizer's and the IAFC's
Change Your Clock Change Your Battery program, a simple but important reminder to check and change the batteries in your smoke alarms when Daylight Savings Time ends in the fall. What could be simpler or easier to remember?
Here's a snippet of their press release:
Daylight-saving time ends Sunday, Nov. 7, and marks the 23rd anniversary of the Change Your Clock Change Your Battery® program, created by Energizer and the International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC), which reminds people to check and change the batteries in their smoke alarms and carbon monoxide detectors during the fall time change. This message is simple, and the habit can be lifesaving. Forty percent of fatal fire injuries occur in homes without working smoke alarms, while 23 percent occur in homes in which at least one smoke alarm is present but fails to operate.
Firefighters work tirelessly to help reduce the risk factors by educating their residents on the importance of having a working smoke alarm. In many communities, fire departments are able to distribute free batteries to citizens in need as a result of the Change Your Clock Change Your Battery program. Over the past 22 years, Energizer has donated more than four million batteries to local fire departments. 23 years? Yikes, I must have been living under a rock or something. But all that is ancient history, because now we have blogs, Twitter, Facebook and the internet on our side, and we're all going to work together to spread the word and hopefully reach more people with this message than they've ever reached in the past 23 years! Who's with me? You? And you? Yeah, baby, we are on Fi-yah! Here's how you can help:
1) Visit the
CYCCYB tab on the Energizer Bunny® Facebook page,
www.facebook.com/energizerbunny, and make the pledge to change your batteries on November 7, and Energizer will donate 1 battery* to a local fire department to distribute to citizens in need.
2) Share this information with your Facebook and Twitter friends, and Energizer will donate 3 more batteries*.
3) Share your family's home escape plan and Energizer will donate 5 more batteries*.
4) Enter the
Energizer sweepstakes to win a smoke alarm/carbon monoxide detector for you and a friend.
Need more incentive to spread the word? How about a giveaway?
Win a Fire Safety Prize PackOne lucky Bonggamom Finds reader will win a Fire Safety Prize Pack courtesy of Energizer, consisting of a First Alert smoke, along with a 2-pack of 9volt Energizer Max batteries.
Required EntryGet Energizer to donate a battery via their Facebook program -- basically, visit
CYCCYB tab on the Energizer Bunny® Facebook page and do either #1, #2 or #3 above. Then come here and leave a comment telling me which one you did. This entry must be completed before extra entries qualify.
Extra EntriesFor extra entries, you can do any or all of the following. Please leave a separate comment for each extra entry with a way to verify the entry (i.e. tweet link, blog post link, Facebook id, Twitter id, etc.).
1) Send an email to 5 friends and remind them to change their batteries when they change their clocks, then leave a comment here telling me you did (1 entry).
2) Share the link to this giveaway (
http://tinyurl.com/2g5mjk5) with your Facebook friends, then leave a comment here telling me you did (1 entry).
3) Write on the
Energizer Bunny Facebook Page wall and tell them Bonggamom sent you, and tell them whether you pledged, shared the message, or shared your escape plan. (1 entry)
4) Tweet this, up to once per day (1 entry per day, leave a comment with the tweet link for each tweet):
@bonggafinds and the @energizerbunny are reminding everyone to Change Your Clock Change Your Battery on 11/7 http://on.fb.me/cD0S6
5) Tweet this, up to once per day (1 entry per day, leave a comment with the tweet link for each tweet):
Visit @energizerbunny on FB 2 donate batteries http://on.fb.me/cD0S6, enter 2 win a smokedetector on @bonggafinds http://tinyurl.com/2g5mjk5
6)
Follow Bonggamom Finds on Networked Blogs (1 entry).
7)
Follow Bonggamom Finds on Blogger(1 entry).
8) Join
any of the giveaways currently running on Bonggamom Finds (1 entry for each giveaway you've joined).
The RulesThis giveaway ends at 11:59PM PST on November 7, 2010; I will draw a winner at random on November 8 and post the winner's name after the winner confirms acceptance. US addresses only.
For additional giveaway rules, click here. Good luck!
* Note: Energizer will donate up to a total of 400,000 batteriesDisclosure: Energizer will be sending me a smoke alarm and battery pack similar to the one they are providing as a giveaway prize. Program information is provided by Energizer and is clearly indicated as such. The views and opinions expressed here are my own.
Here's the rundown on the FIRST SPARK™ kids PC:
THAT is what happens without sunscreen, and it's a very bad thing. I still feel pangs of parental guilt looking at it.
Great news, Northern California shoppers : Safeway is rolling out a new savings program called Just For U, and it's going to lower your grocery bills like never before. At first I was skeptical because I already love Safeway's Club Card program and I didn't want them to scrap it -- but I've since learned that the Just For U program doesn't replace the Club Card program, it enhances it.
I love Oroweat's Country Buttermilk bread, but I don't buy it too often because it's expensive ($4.79) compared to Safeway bread. Even on sale, it's usually about $2.50. So I'm overjoyed that it's on my Personalized Deals list for only $1.95! So I get to buy Oroweat whenever I want for the next 3 months without having to wait until it goes on sale, or having to hoard it and freeze it when it does.
I think this is the first time I've ever used a manufacturer's coupon -- it was for $1 off a $4 bottle of Newman's Own dressing. Thanks to the Just For U program, I didn't have to clip any coupons or remember to bring them to the store. My purse is messy enough as it is without it being clogged with a bunch of paper coupons!
Bertolli pasta sauce is regularly $3 per bottle, $2.49 with Club Card savings -- but this happened to be one of my Personalized Deals items, so I only paid $2.02 for it!
See that 10-pound bag of potatoes? It was on sale for 97 cents, and with the 50-cent coupon I got from the Coupon Center, I only paid 50 cents! Fifty cents for ten pounds of potatoes.... what is this, 1945? At that price, we'll be having potatoes for dinner for the next 3 days!
After the ride ended, a bellhop surprised us yet again with a complimentary photo of Alfie, The Pea and I screaming as our elevator plunged us to our doom (3Po and Jammy were quite envious of our photo, but not enough to overcome their terror of the Tower of Terror).
See how these Girl Scouts are smiling? That's because they all love this Coleman Sundome tent! Here's why:
If there's anything I love more than the romantic ambience of candlelight, it's the romantic ambience of a cozy fire. Unless we're the one lighting and stoking it. The flaming part is great; it's just the preparing and the cleanup part that's hot, sooty and frustrating! We haven't lit a fire in our fireplace for so long that we actually decided to board up our chimney. I miss that crackling fire, but fortunately My Blog Spark and Febreze have come to my rescue by introducing me to a candle that actually mimics the sound of a crackling indoor fire -- Febreze Home Collection's Wooden Wick Candles.
Chef Jennifer showed us how to make an awesome appetizers, pesto chicken, a fresh veggie salad and a peach-and-arugula salad.
