Nestle Pure Life Grape Splash

I bought a six pack of this flavored water thinking it was regular water and what to my surprise when I went to take a sip? Grape? Grape flavored water! And it doesn't taste like crap! Like I said, I bought it by accident but it was actually very refreshing! I've been needing to drink more water and I haven't liked a lot of other flavored waters but this stuff tastes good. I have a hard time drinking water because it has no taste. I often have to freeze it and chew on the ice. This tastes even better if it's partially frozen. Like a Popsicle. Try it. You will like it. It tastes ten times better than diet cola.

iConcepts DeeJay XL Headphones

I got a pair of these "superior sound quality" 3.5 mm Stereo plug comfort cushion headphones in my stocking for Christmas. Santa did a very good job. These DJ-style headphones are extremely comfortable on the ears and the sound is incredible.  I can definitely tell the difference in sound quality between these headphones and my ear buds. They are big and thick so I wouldn't recommend using them at the gym or for working out. I think I wore them for a brisk walk outside once and my ears got sweaty really quickly.  I would recommend using them  for when you are on your laptop, gaming or watching movies. I am also happy to say that I've had them since the holidays and they haven't broken or fallen apart yet.  I decided to ask"Santa" where he got them from. This is the best part - Santa picked them up for only $5 at Five Below. I was so happy about Santa's discovery I went back and got two more pairs. You can't beat that price for a good product. Awesome find Santa!

5 Ways to Survive a Trip to Walmart

Top 5 ways to survive a trip to Walmart:

Let's face it. Going to Walmart isn't always fun. Sometimes you buy too much stuff. Other times you are battling it out with long lines and crowded aisles. I occasionally avoid it because I just don't want to deal with the crowds. Here are some tips to making your trip to the big W less painless. 

1 - 24 hour store = win. Go early or go in the middle of the night. Barely anyone is there and you can navigate your cart without hitting children, older folks or people moving slowly because they are preoccupied on their phone.

2 - Park far away. Don't fight for that close parking spot. Do you really need to park so close? Couldn't you benefit from a good brisk walk through the parking lot? It will make life so much easier on you. You won't have to fight for a parking spot and you won't have to worry about some idiots runaway cart hitting or scratching up your car. 

3 - Go alone. If you go with a friend or spouse, chances are you spend more time there and you will ultimately buy more stuff that you don't need. You know what you need. You can get in and get the job done and get out if you are by yourself. 

4 - For 20 items or less, the "Express Lane" isn't always express..so be sure to look at the other aisles before you go to the express lane. Keep in mind that sometimes people go in the express lane with more than 20 items and this can make your wait longer.

5 - If you aren't getting a lot of things, you can go to the other counters and check out. If you are buying a case of coke and hand-soap along with some headphones, you can go to the electronics or jewelry counter. You can also check out at the pharmacy if you are picking up prescriptions. 

Kyocera Rise Smart Phone Review

I bought my Kyocera Rise by Virgin mobile phone on clearance for only $30 at Target over a year ago in January 2013. Clearly this is very affordable for a pre-paid phone. It was a decent phone considering what I paid for it. I will start off with what I like about it and why I have kept it for so long: The slide out keyboard. It slides out and is very easy for typing and texting. It's also a solid phone. I've dropped it so many times without it breaking. I even dropped it on the sidewalk in a bad rain storm and didn't realize it fell out of my pocket. When reached shelter I realized my phone was no longer in my pocket. I figured I must have dropped it somewhere. When the rain let up I retraced my steps and found in on the ground completely soaked. I pulled the battery out and did my best to dry off the phone. Once the phone was dry I put it back together and recharged it. When I turned it back on - it worked. I couldn't believe it. I thought for sure my phone was a goner but it pulled through after being drenched. Unfortunately it stopped working a few months later. But I'm impressed that it lasted as long as it did. I replaced it with the exact same phone. This time I paid $40. Again, the main reason I have kept my phone for this long is because of the slide keyboard.It also has a decent battery life. The battery on my older phone was starting to go though so I think as time goes on the battery life gets worse and worse.

There are a lot of things I don't like about the phone. The phone can sometimes freeze up and shut down when various apps are running. Sometimes it shuts itself off and then turns itself back on. This doesn't happen a lot, but it surprises me when I suddenly hear my phone turning on ..when I thought it already was turned on. Some apps do not work well. Vine and Instagram are always giving me problems. I actually uninstalled the Vine app because my Vines would always "fail" and never get posted. This also happens with Instagram videos and some Instagram pictures. It's unclear if this is problem is happening because of poor Virgin Mobile service or with the apps. The videocamera on the phone isn't very good. This might be why the Vines are so bad. Another problem I have had is sending photos to Twitter. They just don't transfer. When I try to share a photo to Twitter, the phone says "sending tweet" and then it never completes. It freezes up and I have to restart the phone. This is very frustrating. 

I've already bought another phone but I am reluctant to officially switch over because I really don't want to give up my sliding keyboard. It's really the only thing keeping me to the phone. 

Nextbook 7" Dual Core Tablet with 8GB Review

I had this tablet for about 6 months, but I just gave it away to a friend a few days ago. Why? Well, it didn't really do what I wanted it to do. My main problem with it being the difficulty I had attempting to use the type-pad. I certainly wasn't expecting an "Ipad level" product, but I was hoping the touch screen would be a little bit more responsive. At times, I had trouble answering emails and even updating twitter and facebook statuses. The Nextbook 7" an android tablet and comes with Google Play installed. I was hoping to use it for Netflix but every time I used Netflix on the tablet, it would freeze. It just wouldn't work. I was really disappointed.  I was also disappointed about many apps from the Google Play store that were not available for my tablet. No Instagram...bummer

Now the good - the battery life is decent. It's lasts about 3 hours on average without charging. Obviously certain apps will run up the battery faster. Another good thing about this tablet is my 7-year-old niece thinks it's amazing. She claims the games are better than on her ipod and she likes having a bigger screen than her ipod. She told me she would rather have my tablet than her ipod. Every time she visits with me she wants to play on it. Come to think of it she might not be very happy when she learns that I have given it away. Oops. Anyway, my point is if you are getting this for a kid to play some games then I think it's a decent affordable product. I think my niece's ipod cost about $200 in comparison with my tablet which only cost $80 from Walmart - and she likes it better. I on the other hand needed something a little more than kid-centric games.

SmartyKat Runaway Rascal Remote Controlled Mouse Review

Well. It was fun while it lasted. I was excited when I first charged it up and then let her roll on the floor. You can basically just push forward or backward. If the mouse gets stuck you can back it up. My cat went after it and it captivated her. Only problem is the battery ran out after less than five minutes of playing with it. So I recharged it and then placed it back on the floor. The cat went after again and it seemed to be working.. but then again it ran out of juice right away. So I left it on it's charger for an hour. When I went back to it again, I placed it on the floor and it didn't move at all. It was dead. I charged it again for a few minutes and put it back on the floor again and it only went backwards. The cat kept looking at me wondering why it wouldn't move. She knew I was controlling it and she lost interest. Then I charged it again. Again, it died after a few minutes. Now it doesn't work at all. So it was a good concept but it's a piece of junk. Too bad because the kitty really liked her new toy until it died after five minutes.