Busy Mom Reviews

Peek is a great looking and super easy mobile e-mail device.

It's not a mobile phone, it doesn't access the web, it doesn't send or receive text messages and it doesn't take pictures.

So, what does it do?

It just sends and receives e-mail.

As a matter of fact, it even says on the box that "Peek is not for hard core techies".

Today's smart phones and PDAs can be complicated and overkill for people who just need to check their e-mail and the Peek does just that.

The Peek is $99 and available at Target and Amazon (currently $79.99) and it's $19.95/mo for the service. There are no contracts, no complicated carrier agreements, data plans or hidden fees. It measures 4.0 by 2.7 by 0.4 inches and comes in charcoal gray, aqua blue and black cherry red face plates, and the rest of it is silver.

When you open the box, you'll find a power cord, a carrying case, a Quick Start Guide, and a rechargeable lithium ion battery.

It was simple to set up (actually my kids did it) and I set up my Comcast e-mail and Gmail in minutes. All you have to do is put in your e-mail address and password.

The Peek supports 3 e-mail addresses, but the messages aren't separated, they go into the same inbox. So, if you are sharing it with someone, it needs to be someone who you don't mind reading your e-mail.

The QWERTY keyboard has rubber backlit keys (a tad stiff, but not a show stopper), many functions are controlled by the thumb wheel on the side of the unit. It's really that simple.

It can be set to either vibrate, ring or remain silent when new e-mail arrives, though the alerts are a little hard to hear sometimes. It's also got nationwide (USA) coverage, so you can take it anywhere with you.

Again, The Peek isn't for everyone. It only does e-mail, so it's not for people who are hard core techies.

It's a great solution for someone who doesn't need a device with bells and whistles, but who just needs to keep in touch by checking e-mail on the go.

Wii Music is a new game for the Nintendo Wii that lets you create music with more than 60 instruments and select from more than 50 songs to modify to your style.

It's not a competitive game and it's very simple. To play an instrument, you use the Wii remote and nunchuk controllers to mimic the real-life motions of instruments, but it does take some practice. The game begins with a long-ish lesson about how it works.

In the Jam Session mode, you select a song and one person plays the melody and the others select from harmony, bass, chords or percussion.

There's a advanced Drum Mode that uses the Wii Balance Board, but we don't have one, so I haven't tried it out yet.

There are also three mini games, Mii Maestro, Handbell Harmony and Pitch Perfect that can also be played with 1-4 players.

I think Wii Music might be best for younger kids, it can get kind of noisy and there's some flailing around involved. Older kids who've experienced games like Rock Band might not get excited about it, but you never know.

It's cute and would make a good Christmas gift for your young musician.

The suggested retail price of Wii Music is $49.99.

Don't forget, it's time to order your Entertainment Book for next year.

Buy the Entertainment Book and get coupon savings and discounts nationwide and your area on:

* Restaurant coupons and discounts for fine dining and fast food restaurants
* Discount coupons for sporting events, attractions and performance venues
* Discounts on shopping, home, auto and services
* Travel coupons for airlines, rental cars and hotels

A popular fund raiser for schools and groups, you can direct your purchase to support your cause here.

If you order today, you can get $5 off and free shipping.

Wells Fargo asked contestants to tell them their Someday Stories (has sound) dream and how Wells Fargo could help them achieve it.

Five finalists have been selected and are now in the running for the $100,000 grand prize. Additionally, Wells Fargo has teamed up with Boys and Girls Clubs of America, Habitat for Humanity and Junior Achievement. One of these charities will receive $250,000; but they need votes to win.

If you're on Facebook, you can become a fan of the contest page “Wells Fargo Someday Stories Finalists” to support the finalists and the causes.

Tripit is a free online travel organizer that takes all of your confirmation emails and puts them in one comprehensive and easy to read itinerary.

It also helps to:

-Quickly organize all your travel plans in one place - flights, hotels, cars, trains, cruises, event tickets, restaurant reservations and more

-Automatically get a master itinerary with all your trip details and weather, maps and city guides

-Easily access your itineraries online, in a personal calendar, via a mobile device or in print form

-Share your trips and see where your travel plans overlap with friends and colleagues

There's even a Tripit Mobile to access your information on the go and be sure to check out the Tripit blog.

Movember (the month formerly known as November) is a moustache growing charity event held during November each year that raises funds and awareness for men's health.

In the U.S., Movember is being utilized to get people talking about prostate cancer, a very serious health issue for men.

Participants in Movember (known as Mo Bros) start the month clean shaven, and along the journey of growing and grooming get people to talk about health issues normally avoided, at the same time raising money for the cause.

Since Movember’s inception in 2003, almost 200,000 Mo Bros have sported a Mo and more than $29 million has been raised globally for prostate cancer research, including $740,568 raised in the United States last year.

Movember is the biggest international event supporting prostate cancer.

We Cheer is a cheerleading simulation game for the Nintendo Wii.

The idea is to simulate the demonstrated cheerleading moves on the screen with your body movements using two Wii controllers as pom poms. It has multiplayer modes and a lot of great up to date music.

The characters are a little Bratz-y looking, just FYI. You can customize them and you can also recruit new squad members, unlock new teammates, outfits, songs and more.

It's actually a good workout (there's even a workout mode) once you catch on how to do it. There's a lot of talking/instruction before play.

It's a lot of fun, my 14 year old daughter loves it and we haven't talked the boys into trying yet, but I think they'll like it, too.

By now, most Americans know that the current economic downturn has but endangered many businesses, both small and large.

Currently, the auto industry is facing a crisis, and GM is about to go under and it's hotly debated whether or not the government should intervene financially to keep it from collapsing.

There's no doubt that no matter your opinion on the matter, that the demise of one of the big 3 automakers would have far reaching effects.

I'm not affiliated with GM and I gain nothing from this, but I do want to point you to a site (by GM), GM Facts and Fiction, where you can learn more about what is going on and the challenges they face as Congress meets next week to discuss providing financial relief.

Splenda sweetener is now available with fiber. It has no calories and 1g of fiber in a packet. Each packet sweetens like two teaspoons of sugar.

It tastes great like regular Splenda sugar substitute and you can put it in your coffee or tea, on cereal and bake with it, too and get a little extra fiber while you're at it.

Also, visit Holiday Planning Made Easy from Splenda for holiday tips, recipes and more

I was delighted to be able to attend the first ever meeting of the Precious Girls Club (has sound) last week.

The Precious Girls Club is a new virtual world website and chapter book series for young girls from Precious Moments. It has been carefully crafted with input from kids today as well as their parents and it features age-appropriate characters and messages.

In addition to the virtual world, there's also Precious Girls chapter books that are inspirational and age appropriate.

Check it out for the little girl in your life today.

Mr. Clean Magic Eraser now comes with the scent of Febreze.

If you're not familiar with Magic Eraser, it's great and can work miracles on soap scum and crayons marks on the wall.

The good folks at Mr. Clean sent me a whole package with stuff to compare Magic Eraser with a "leading brand" (yes, it actually came labeled "leading brand") cleaner.

The tiles came pre-soap-scummed (mmm...scum) and my photo shows the results after just a few wipes.

Try out Mr. Clean Magic Eraser with Febreze, pick some up before the holidays since we all know there will be much cleaning going on in just a few days.

My friends at Hallmark have some great new items for the holidays.

In addition to recordable message Christmas cards, there are some fun light-up gift bags and adhesive gift wrap.

Also new this year is a recordable keepsake ornament.

Also, there's another Hallmark Greeting Card Competition!

This one is about parenthood, and it's for parents, grandparents, aunts, or uncles to send in funny or endearing pics of their kids, along with a greeting, for the chance to have it turned into a Mother’s or Father’s Day card. The grand prize is $2,500.

Hurry, though. Contest ends December 7th, 2008.

If you have an athlete in the house, no doubt you've heard of Pre-Wrap, the colorful stuff that goes on under a bandage wrap.

It also has a number of other uses such as a headband or ponytail holder.

Be sure to check out Pre-Wrap.com, a successful business started by a 13 year old volleyball player (and daughter of a fellow blogger) where you can get most any color Pre-Wrap and athletic tape your heart desires.

Go check Pre-Wrap.com today for great Christmas gifts for your athlete.

One of the things that drives me crazy camping is not being able to find stuff in the dark. I'm always putting my flashlight somewhere and I hate reading with one in one hand. So, I was thrilled when I learned we were going to try out the new Eureka N!ergy 9 Five-Person Family Tent.

It's one of Eureka!'s quality, solid tents with a fiberglass frame and full coverage fly as well as 2 windows, 2 roof vents, and 2 large mesh sidewall panels provide ventilation and light. It also has a gear loft and 2 storage pockets

But, this tent is cool because it's powered! It has 3 glowing 12 volt outlets for items such as phones, a reading light or a fan and the outlets double as night lights and they are powered by the rechargable E! Power Pak.

We've had Eureka! tents before and as always, set-up was very easy and the kids are thrilled with the possibilities of life's conveniences that can be brought to the great outdoors and I totally love the Eureka 12v Flexible Reading Light.

It measures 9 x 9 feet across the floor and it's 6 feet tall and weighs 15 pounds, 6 ounces. It retails for about $150 US and the accessories such as the E! Power Pak are sold separately.

The Skil Multi-Cutter is a great little lightweight hand held cutting tool for materials up to 1/4" thick.

I really like this thing, it's got a variety of uses from breaking down cardboard boxes, opening those stubborn plastic packages, cutting vinyl flooring, cutting wallpaper and more.

It does a great job, but it takes a little practice and I had the best results cutting in only straight lines.

At $50, it would make a great family Christmas gift, handy to have around the house.

Roxio Creator 2009 is a suite of applications for manipulating most any type of data you can put on a CD or a DVD and even Blu-ray. You can burn, edit or back up audio, data, video and more to create projects to enjoy and preserve your memories.

It's amazing how many cool things you can do with it. It's easy to use and there are online tutorials to help you through. I've enjoyed it even though I lost much of my digital data when my computer crashed a while back. I'll have a great way to organize the digital media I collect in the future, though!

I'm still learning about it and I've enjoyed the photo editing tools and am working on some DVDs for Christmas gifts. My next project is to do something about all the home video we have from over the years.

Learn more about Roxio Creator 2009.

I. Love. This. Thing.

The Vtech Kidijamz Studio is so much fun. It's an interactive music station where kids can compose their own songs and play them back as well as interact with built-in familiar songs (don't worry, it comes with head phones) and there's an audio input jack so you can play other devices through the speaker.

There are rhythm keys too add background as well as filler keys with cool musical riffs to round out your musical creation. Don't forget the turntable that makes scratching sound effects!

There's also 10 different musical instrument buttons and kids can even learn about musical stylings such a reggae, jazz and more. It also has an iPod-like detachable music player and headphones with a record/playback feature.

The Kidijamz Studio has a microphone to sing along with as well as a song book and a light-up keyboard to learn to play along with the built-in songs.

It retails for $59.99 and would make a great Christmas gift for you your child.

We had the opportunity to try out the Monopoly Video Game for Wii EA Games and Hasbro this week.

I opened it and asked my 12 year old son to get it up and running and I'd be there in a minute and we could have some mother-son bonding time. He was playing when I got there and I asked if he was having fun and he replied, "What is this?"

Parenting fail: Monopoly not played in childhood (yet).

Anyway, with a quick tutorial on the concept, we were up and going.

Monopoly for Wii is easy to use and has some fun graphics. The little Monopoly guy ("Mr. Monopoly", I think) talks you right through everything and makes for faster game play than the traditional board game.

The traditional board is very familiar and you can even fight over who gets to be the dog, just like you did when you were a kid. This edition has a fantastic collection of Monopoly boards all in one place! There are cool new, never before seen boards that you can unlock after you fill your "passport". They have fun new themes, music, properties, playing pieces and more.

You can play with 1-4 players, and the computer fills in the other players, so you could even play alone if you wanted. However, be warned that the computer players are pretty good!

It took me a little practice to be able to spot what properties I already owned and the auction part when you want to sell something took a little concentration at first, but it is pretty straightforward, overall.

It also has several fun, interactive mini-games you can play and unlock more as you go.

There's also a fast-paced "Richest Edition" way to play in addition to traditional play and up to four players can complete a game of Monopoly in 30 minutes!

This mode includes mini-games to advance play and it makes things go quickly and players can join in the frenzy of buying and trading property. After competing at the Monopoly-themed mini-games, a roll of the dice determines how many properties you're dealt, but you must pay rent on any already owned property you receive, so there's lots of trading going on to avoid going bankrupt. This mode includes some game-leveling events, so a big lead doesn't always make a runaway winner.

It's a lot of fun, and the Monopoly Video Game for Wii would make a fun holiday gift for the game lover in your family or give it to the group for some family fun!.

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