Thank you everyone for entering! A winner has been chosen and notified!

If you haven’t entered this awesome giveaway, it isn’t too late to enter! I have an awesome giveaway for one lucky Addicted to Saving reader! One reader will win a Scotties Gift Pack (like the one pictured above) and a $25.00 Target Gift Card! Keep reading for how to enter!

Scotties emailed me and gave me information on the 10 cities that will have experienced the worst allergies this year. Is your city on the list?

1. Jacksonville, MS *worst*
2. Louisville, KY
3. Oklahoma, OK
4. Memphis, TN
5. Knoxville, TN
6. McAllen, TX
7. Wichita, KS
8. Dayton, OH
9. Providence, RI
10. Richmond, VA

I’m not going to lie, I’m shocked my city isn’t on there (Tampa). I never had allergies when I lived in Connecticut. But ever since we moved to Florida, I’ve experienced itchy eyes and sneezing. For a while I was even getting allergy shots! For me, my allergies were triggered when my husband and I lived in a horrible apartment in the Tampa Bay area. Something about the apartment (we suspected mold) triggered all of my allergies. All of a sudden I was allergic to my dog, my cats, grass and even palm trees (per the allergy testing). Once we left that apartment, my allergies were not so extreme. But I do deal with itchy eyes and sneezing almost daily. And yes, we still have our animal babies. I was fortunate that my dog and cat allergies were not extreme. I’ve always loved Scotties tissues and thus it made perfect sense for me to post about them! Their tissues are durable and yet soft. The perfect combination for runny noses!

On Amazon, we can now order Scotties in bulk! Go HERE to see the available deals!

Everyday Health listed some great tips on fighting allergies. Go HERE to see the list. Below are some of my favorite tips:

1) Wear Sunglasses to Keep Pollen Out of Your Eyes- “The best kinds of sunglasses to wear are dark glasses that wrap around to block as much wind pollen as possible,” Dr. Hong says.
2) Kill Dust Mites With a Hot Wash – Wash all of your bedding in hot water and drying it in a hot dryer to kill dust mites. Keep stuffed animals off the bed, and wash sheets and blankets at least once a week in water that’s 130° F or higher to limit the effects of dust mites.
3) Take a Vacation From Pollen – During pollen season, head to places where there is less pollen. (For me, that’s the beach! Maybe this is a good excuse to go to the beach more often!)
4) Adjust Home Humidity to Control Mold – Mold thrives in moisture. To help control indoor mold, use a dehumidifier or your air conditioner to keep your home humidity close to 50 percent. Take the guesswork out of measuring indoor humidity with a device called a hygrometer. It’s also important to clean up water spills promptly, fix any leaks, and change the filters in your air conditioner and heating ducts regularly.
Go HERE to see the rest of the list.

And now for the giveaway!

One Addicted to Saving reader will win a Scotties Gift Pack and $25.00 Target Gift Card!

1) *Required entry* To enter, leave a comment on this post stating what you are allergic to. Or, if you are fortunate enough to not experience allergies, list any allergies that your family members deal with.

2) As a bonus entry, join Addicted to Saving’s Private Facebook Group. Leave a second comment stating if you are a new or existing member.

I approve all comments so it may take a little while for your comment(s) to appear. Thank you for your patience. On or after 8:00 pm on July 20th, 2015, one commenter will be randomly selected to win this prize pack. Scotties will provide the prize. This post is sponsored by Scotties. As always, all thoughts and opinions are 100% my own.

This post is sponsored by Resourceful Mommy Media. As always, all thoughts and opinions are 100% my own.

**This giveaway has ended. The winner has been notified.

I don’t write book reviews. As a blogger, I get lots of opportunities to review new children’s books, cookbooks, novels, biographies, cookbooks, etc. And I don’t do them. Why? With book reviews, usually the blogger gets the book for free. So that is a nice perk. I like free. But that isn’t the reason I decline book reviews. The reason I don’t do book reviews is because I don’t give myself time to read. Even though I absolutely love reading. (I have a stack of unread books to prove it.) I don’t give myself the luxury to sit down and read very often. But this book review is different. I actually sought it out. For some reason, I knew that I would not only enjoy reading this book but that I would relate to it. And for some reason, I knew that I would take the time to read it. So for the past two days, I’ve spent a couple hours a day by our pool reading the book while my son napped. Usually I spend naptime trying to get caught up on work. But I actually sat down, started reading and then became engrossed in the story of Jillian Lauren. And thus, I’m now here with my Everything You Ever Wanted: A Memoir book review.

If you are new to Jillian’s story, Jillian was a college dropout, a drug addict, and an international concubine in the Prince of Brunei’s harem. And she describes the early years of her life in her book Some Girls: My Life in a Harem. Nope, I haven’t read it. And yes, I have ordered it on Amazon as I plan to read it as soon as it arrives on my doorstep. In her new book Everything You Ever Wanted, Jillian continues her story as she is now sober, falls in love with a guitarist in a rock band, marries said guitarist and they plan on starting a family immediately. While I can’t necessarily relate to all aspects of Jillian’s early years, I can relate to her most recent years. As Jillian and her husband Scott begin trying to start a family, their attempts are in vain. And after trying practically every resource at their fingertips, they decide to stop trying and adopt. And they adopt in Ethiopia. Those are the reasons I felt so compelled to read and review this book. And as I started reading, I realized my story is actually even more comparable to Jillian’s than I initially thought.

Once they adopt, she describes, with brutal honesty, her thoughts and frustrations on attachment, cocooning, parenting, the reaction of the outside world on her parenting, her exhaustion and her doubt on whether or not she is a good mom. I don’t know about you, but I’ve felt all of those feelings. If you haven’t adopted, maybe attachment and cocooning aren’t words in your vocabulary. But I bet you can relate to questioning if you are a good parent. In the book Everything You Ever Wanted, Jillian Lauren shows just how messy parenthood really is. And she shows that it is okay to be honest and vulnerable about your thoughts as you navigate the road of parenthood.

Jillian also explains with specific detail every step they go through to work through their son’s attachment issues and sensory processing disorders. When you adopt children “from hard places”, their brains have not developed the way babies who are born to parents who immediately meet their needs, feed them immediately when they are hungry, play with them when they are awake, etc. Children from hard places often know neglect, malnutrition, abuse (either intentional or unintentional), lack of nurturing, etc. With these forms of neglect, their brains often lack the necessary components to easily attach to their parents and they also struggle with sensory issues. Myself and my husband walk this walk with our son whom we adopted from Ethiopia at the age of 10 months. While our son is thriving, we are always mindful of aiding his attachment to us. So we parent him differently than many families parent. And we are also watching him closely for sensory issues and are trying to parent in a manner that encourages sensory development. It is at times, exhausting. Not that parenthood in general isn’t exhausting. But parenting a child who you need to rehabilitate requires specific actions. And to read about the struggles of  Jillian’s son Tariku, shows me just how familiar their story is to my own with my son.

Through all of the hurdles she faces, she writes with humor, sarcasm and brutal honesty. If you are someone who likes having open and honest conversations with friends, reading this will seem as if you are hearing the good, bad and ugly from a close friend. And you may even be inspired and emboldened to stop hiding behind a facade of perfection and begin telling your story, whether it is good, bad or ugly.

The book Everything You Ever Wanted: A Memoir came out today on paperback. It is available on Amazon right now for $11.91. (The Kindle version is $9.99) Remember – prices on Amazon are subject to change. If you would like to read a memoir of a woman who has the strength to tell her story, without hiding behind fakeness, I highly recommend you read this book.

Have you read Jillian Lauren’s book Some Girls: My Life in a Harem? If so, what were your thoughts?

And now for the giveaway! One lucky reader will win a copy of the book Everything You Ever Wanted: A Memoir ! To enter, leave one comment on this post sharing one of the obstacles you have encountered as a parent. Or, if you are not yet a parent or don’t plan to be a parent, share what parenthood obstacles you have witnessed in the lives of your friends.

This giveaway will end 5/12/15 on or after 8:00 pm EST. The giveaway is sponsored by Resourceful Mommy Media.