There are some days when I absolutely love my job. Last Friday was one of those days.

If I’m completely honest, there are a lot of events that happen in or near Atlanta that I could attend. But usually, my social anxiety and general introverted nature will get the best of me, and I’ll stay home rather than stepping outside my comfort zone. But when Walmart contacted me to find out if I wanted to go to a meet and greet event with soul singer and woman after my own heart India.Arie at an Atlanta store, I Could. Not. Say. No.

My daughter and I have been listening to her music together since she was little, and we love it. So I couldn’t pass up the chance not just for me to meet her, but to take my daughter with me.

The event was in honor of new album India (yes, we’re on a first name basis now…lol) recently released, titled “Songversation.” The album is full of the same type of soulful, inspirational music and messages that her fans have come to love over the years. And it was sponsored by Palmers — the company you probably know for their cocoa butter and skin care products. Given India.Arie’s image, it seemed like a perfect fit.

Not to mention the fact that one of the songs on her new album is titled “Cocoa Butter”, and the video features Palmers cocoa butter products:

We arrived early and waited patiently with other fans for India to arrive. The line of fans started off relatively short — maybe 25 fans or so. But this is Atlanta, and I knew that over time, the line would grow exponentially. I was right. And when she came out and greeted her fans, the excitement was palpable.

Of course, standing a few feet away from her was pretty awesome, but the opportunity to take a photo with her was quite a bit more thrilling.

I mentioned to India (I told you…first name basis…lol) that my daughter and I both loved her music. But my daughter is not a smiler. In fact, when placed in situations with people who she doesn’t know, you’d be hard pressed to get anything but a look of complete and utter disinterest from her.

As you can see, this is NOT a look of disinterest on her face here. India played with her hair to coax a smile, and it definitely worked.

When India pulled her back for a hug, she was almost beside herself. I’m just glad I had my camera ready to capture this perfect moment that I know my baby girl will never forget.

Personally, I’m just thankful that there are artists like India.Arie whose music I can safely share with my daughter, because it is so positive and uplifting. She is one of the few artists whose albums I can play from start to finish without worrying about the content. That is rare nowadays. Aaaaand…I just managed to sound like one of my own parents O__o

Anyway, thanks for this opportunity, Walmart. My daughter and I are among the legions of Atlanta fans who will never forget how gracious India was and who will walk away with an experience we’ll always remember.

DISCLOSURE: As a participant in the Walmart Moms Program, I’ve received compensation for my time and efforts in creating this post. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

John Grisham is one of those authors whose name you probably know, even if you’ve never read a single one of his books. My mother has always been an avid reader, and I distinctly remember a bunch of Grisham’s books being on her reading list. Unfortunately though, I’d never read one of his books, though I was aware that he writes legal thrillers. So when Walmart offered me the opportunity to review his newest book, Sycamore Row, via the Walmart Moms book club, I jumped at the chance.

Sycamore Row is actually a continuation of one of Grisham’s most well known books, A Time to Kill, which had also been turned into a movie featuring Matthew McConaghey. Well, I had not read that book, nor had I seen more than a few minutes of the movie, so I was completely unaware of the back story when I started reading this one. This left me reading the first half of the book with some confusion, since I had no point of reference.

Let me get into the story.

Jake Brigance is an attorney in small town Mississippi who finds himself in the middle of a will dispute when Seth Hubbard, a wealthy white businessman, names him as the estate attorney in a handwritten will that Seth created just one day before committing suicide. Seth warns Jake that there will be a fight, because of a couple of facts:

1. In the handwritten will, Seth left 95% of his very generous estate to his black housekeeper, leaving the remainder to his long lost brother and his church. The will cuts out his children completely, in no uncertain terms.
2. This is not Seth’s first will. There’s another, written under the guidance of powerful attorneys, that will no doubt come into play, because his children were named in that will.

Seth directs Jake to defend the handwritten will at all costs.

The book dives into the mystery head first. Who is Seth Hubbard, really, and just how rich was he? Why would he leave so much of his wealth to his housekeeper — a black woman, no less (for context, this is 1980s Mississippi). Why would he blindly trust Jake, a man he had never met, to defend his new will?

After initially setting up the story, there was a lot of legal maneuvering and background on a lot of characters in the town. My biggest issue is that it took a long time for Grisham to reveal what had transpired in A Time to Kill, leaving Jake in his current situation, three years later. There were a lot of references to it, but I was halfway through the book before I found out that Jake was in the good graces of the black community because he had successfully defended a black man on trial for killing two white men who had raped his young daughter. It was a case that had rocked race relations in the town and surrounding areas, and Jake was still dealing with the aftermath.

I guess the assumption is that most people have either read the previous book or seen the movie. However, since it was originally released more than 20 years ago, there may be a lot of people who are not familiar. I wish I’d learned the details of Jake’s history earlier on. My unfamiliarity made the first half of the book feel slow.

However, I will say that the story gets increasingly more interesting as the book progresses. We learn a little bit about a lot of people, but it’s enough to set the stage for a heated will dispute and show us that upholding the law isn’t always about doing what’s right. In fact, this story made it clear that it’s not always easy to tell what is “right” to begin with — particularly when there are millions of dollars at stake to muddle everyone’s judgement.

I stuck with it, and I’m glad I did, because Sycamore Row came to an unexpected and thoroughly satisfying conclusion. It was also a stark reminder that race relations in this country still have a long way to go. Though the book is set in the 80s, a lot of the attitudes and prejudices present in the book are still very much alive and well today. Reading it from the perspective of a black woman who currently lives in the South definitely gave me a unique perspective.

All that to say if you’re a John Grisham fan who is already familiar with characters, this book will definitely round out their stories for you. If you’re a new reader, you may want to read or watch A Time to Kill first to brush up on the background, as it will make the story a bit easier to process. Either way, it’s a satisfying legal thriller that will teach you a lot about what people are capable of when they can smell money.

You can get the book now at Walmart.com for just $16.36, more than 40% off the retail price. (aff)

DISCLOSURE: As a participant in the Walmart Moms Program, I’ve received product samples and compensation for my time and efforts in creating this post. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Most people who know me would probably never guess that I have a guilty pleasure: Playing ALL of the games in the Grand Theft Auto franchise. Yes. I love those notoriously violent, over-the-top video games. Just call them my escape from the real world. Quick reality check, though: They are not family games, and definitely not games that kids should play, or even watch, if you’re a parent who’s trying to decide whether you can safely get a GTA game for your kid. Don’t do it. But, if you’re an adult gamer, you’ll love this franchise.

As a huge fangirl, I’d been eagerly anticipating the latest release in the series, GTA V. As in impatiently checking the Rockstar Games website for more than a year. So, when Walmart gave me an opportunity to write about whatever I wanted this fall, a review of this much anticipated game was the only natural choice. And why I was in store on the day it released to grab my copy. (aff)

I’ll share why I love the game so much and be careful not to give away any spoilers

Why Play GTA V?

Above all else, what makes the GTA franchise great is the stories and the writing. Yes, the games are ridiculous and violent and full of criminal activity that no sane person would ever attempt. But unlike so many games that have tried to imitate this model (I’m looking at you, Saints Row), the stories are typically believable and follow a logical progression. The dialogue feels like watching real people having conversations, rather than some writer’s idea of what real conversations look like. Because of this, the games are infinitely entertaining. It’s almost as much fun to watch story lines and missions unfold as it is to play them. And even if you don’t do the missions (though I don’t recommend that, because they are really awesome), there is so much to do in the GTA world that it’s almost impossible to be bored.

All of those things are still true in GTA V, and in fact, have improved exponentially. The story is the best yet, in my opinion — and I’ve played EVERY GTA game. It is told from the perspective of three protagonists this time rather than just one. The interactions between the characters and their backstories make sense and really drive the game. What’s more, you get to play as all three characters throughout the game — sometimes on missions for a single character, and sometimes in interactive missions where you’ll have to switch between them in order to pass.

The three protagonists are shown above in order of when you meet them: Michael, Franklin and Trevor.

Michael is a former criminal suffering through life in a mansion near Vinewood with his wife and two superficial, lazy and ungrateful kids. He spends all day getting drunk next to his pool and reliving the good old days when he was actively committing crimes. Franklin is an opportunistic young hustler who is trying to make money without getting his hands too dirty and meets Michael by chance on a job for his shady employer. His hands get a whole lot dirtier as a result. Trevor is Michael’s meth-dealing former partner, and the man is certifiably insane. Without giving away too much, let’s just say Trevor and Michael have lost track of each other over the years, and getting reacquainted isn’t pretty.

The richness and depth of each character is what makes the game so interesting. That you can switch between them whenever you’d like (when not playing a mission) makes it pretty much impossible to get bored or frustrated with the game. Can’t pass one of Michael’s missions? Switch to Franklin or Trevor. Or just do what you’ve been able to do in every GTA game and go wreak havoc throughout the city with any of the three characters.

Each player has missions only he can do, and each starts with a specific set of skills that you can improve throughout the game. For example, Franklin is a pretty great driver, and Trevor is an excellent pilot, but Franklin can barely keep a helicopter in the air. However, the more you do each activity, the better their skills will get. Each character also has a special ability that you can activate during tough situations. I won’t say what they are, but let’s just say these abilities can come in handy and give you an upper hand when you really need it.

What else is new?

In previous GTA games, the entire point of the missions was to make as much money as possible while building your criminal empire. That is definitely true in this case, but a lot of the missions in this game result in no money earned at all, because they involve situations the characters have no choice but to handle, whether they pay or not. But the missions that DO pay, pay well.

There’s also the added element of choice. During quite a few missions, you are required to select a crew to do a job with you. You can choose each person based on his or her skill level, but the folks who are competent are also expensive, and they’ll affect your final payout because they get a bigger cut. But the crew members you house can also affect the outcome of the mission, so you’ll want to make sure they’re capable. There are a few smaller missions during which you can choose the outcome as well, and the final storyline mission involves a huge choice to be made on your part that absolutely affects the game. That’s all I’ll say. *evil laugh*

Another new addition that has made mission play worlds better and much less frustrating is on-mission autosave. In previous GTA games, if you failed a mission, no matter how close to the end, you had to start over. As in from the beginning. As you can imagine, that got really annoying during long, tough missions. This time around, there are invisible checkpoints throughout a mission, so if you fail, but choose to continue, you start over from the last checkpoint rather than the beginning of the mission. If you get frustrated and quit the mission altogether, you will have to start over, but at least you’ll have the option to pick up from a point shortly before you failed. This alone made playing missions much more satisfying, as I could complete them in a single session rather than wanting to throw my Playstation against a wall after doing a mission over and over again, to no avail.

Also, anyone who has ever played a GTA game knows about the elusive 100% completion. This means you have completed all the storyline missions along with any side missions, bought all properties you can buy, and that you’ve found anything in the game that requires finding (packages, pigeons, etc.) Well, Rockstar Games made this edition more difficult, but also more replayable, because now, you have to do more than just pass a mission. You have to meet certain criteria in order to pass it at 100% with a gold rating. For example, getting gold might require a certain number of headshots during a shootout, or that you complete the mission in a certain amount of time or without a scratch on your car. Because you never know the criteria for 100% without playing, and passing, a mission at least one time, it’s unlikely you’ll do it on the first try. Which means you’ll be compelled to play through it again to improve your performance.

To give you a small idea of why you can spend hours and hours on end playing this game and why 100% is likely going to be difficult to achieve, here are just some of things you can do to pass the time in the open world of Los Santos and the neighboring Blaine County, all set in the state of San Andreas:

• Storyline missions
• Strangers & Freaks missions (many of which evolve into further missions)
• Parachute jumps
• Street racing
• Purchasing properties (many of which are crazy expensive and some of which will require missions)
• Visiting Michael’s shrink
• Playing with Franklin’s dog, Chop, in game or on your smart phone
• Hunting for elk with Trevor
• Exploring Mount Chilead, including a cable car ride to the top (and you can unlock a “treasure hunt” of sorts if you do so)
• Flying planes and helicopters
• Driving boats and jet skis or swimming
• Riding the ferris wheel or roller coaster at the pier
• Getting tattoos and haircuts
• Watching TV and listening to the radio (both hilarious, BTW)
• Shopping for clothes
• Customizing your vehicle in near infinite ways
• Upgrading and customizing your weapons when you purchase them at the gun shop
• Increasing your shooting skills at the gun range
• Playing tennis
• Doing yoga

I know I’m probably forgetting a lot of the things you can do. And I haven’t even explored online multiplayer yet. My point is that although I have personally completed the storyline missions, but I’m still finding things to occupy my time in the game. I doubt I’ll ever obtain 100% completion, but that’s perfectly fine with me.

I’ve just been thoroughly enjoying the fact that the game has lived up to the hype, and I’ve got my husband hooked on it too:

Because it needs to be said again, I will reiterate: Speaking as a mother, this is NOT a game for kids. If you need further evidence after all I’ve said above, I have one word: Strippers. Strippers who will take the playable characters home with them if they “like” them enough — for adult time. After private dances that leave little to the imagination. You get the idea. Don’t let your young kids play this. Think of this as the Breaking Bad of video games. If you wouldn’t let your kids watch that show, you shouldn’t let them play this game. Only you can decide if your older teens can handle the content.

But adults? If you love open world, sandbox games, or you love great writing and are not easily offended, you will absolutely love GTA V. Game on.

You can get it at Walmart for the PlayStation 3 or XBOX for $59.99, or you can buy it packaged with the PS3 console for $269. (aff)

DISCLOSURE: As a participant in the Walmart Moms Program, I’ve received product samples and compensation for my time and efforts in creating this post. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Given the state of television these days, there just aren’t a lot of movies my family and I can enjoy together. Most of the options are either mindless drivel directed at kids with very little redeeming value, or full of so much adult content that I have to either ban my 8-year-old from watching altogether, or I have to talk through the entire film explaining what NOT to do as a result of the example presented. Don’t get me wrong — some of the latter lessons are useful, but after a while, the negative messages are just too much.

Walmart‘s goal is to provide entertainment that the entire family can enjoy by sponsoring quality films. They struck gold with “The Watsons Go To Birmingham,” based on the popular book by the same name.

The story is about the Watson family’s decision to leave Flint, Michigan to visit Birmingham, Alabama, the mother’s hometown, in 1963 during the height of the Civil Rights Movement. As you might imagine, children who were born and raised in the relatively integrated north had NO idea what was awaiting them in the segregated South.

But I’ll start from the beginning. The film stars Anika Noni Rose (also known as the voice of Disney’s Princess Tiana) as Wilona Watson and Wood Harris as her husband, Daniel. It also stars Skai Jackson of Disney’s Jesse as 8-year-old Joetta, and Harrison Knight as 15-year-old Byron and Bryce Clyde Jenkins as nerdy Kenny.

The family’s decision to head South was spurred by the Byron’s behavior. He had turned into quite the juvenile delinquent, and his parents were really worried about where his youthful misdeeds would lead him. So in his mom’s infinite wisdom, she realized he could really use the strict and effective hand of her OWN mother, who was back home in Birmingham, Alabama.

I won’t go into too much detail because I don’t want to spoil it, but I will say that the entire trip provided a real world education in race and cultural relations. The boys’ first experience being told they couldn’t sit at the counter of a whites-only restaurant was uncomfortable, to say the least. They quickly realized that the news stories they’d watched on TV in Michigan about the fight for civil rights were much more than just stories. They were real events in which even kids their age got involved, at the risk of their own safety and the safety of everyone they loved.

All of these things made the movie incredibly educational for my kids. My stepson was actually reading the book in school in the weeks before the movie aired, so it really came to life for him. My daughter had a lot of questions that I was only too happy to answer, and seeing this heavy content from the perspective of kids who actually had to live it made it really relatable.

But as much hard truth as the movie contained, there were also lots of threads of inspiration: The grandmother’s refusal to let racism drive her away from her home. The community’s will to go on in spite of a spate of bombings in places frequented by people of color. Kids learning that the world is much bigger than them. A son learning that his energy is better served working for the greater good than getting into trouble. A family and community truly coming together when it counted.

The movie culminated in a heavy scene reminiscent of a bombing that students of Civil Rights will know all too well. I’ll leave it at that.

All told, we genuinely enjoyed the Watsons and would absolutely watch it again to pluck additional messages from it. I also live tweeted during the premiere, and this happened:

"@jennaepetersen #Watsons is making me want to go shopping 4some vintage clothes ANR &all the ladies look amazing!" Thx 2 @JohnettaBoone!

— Anika Noni Rose (@AnikaNoniRose) September 21, 2013

Yes. Anika Noni Rose retweeted me and responded. Night. Made.

If you missed the movie when it aired on the Hallmark channel, you can get the DVD at Walmart. The DVD includes a 135-page educational manual about the Civil Rights Movement that has already been adopted by Birmingham Public Schools and is no doubt a great addendum to what your kids are already learning. We’re going to get the DVD in large part so we can get the book.

Did you get a chance to watch The Watsons? What did you think of it?

DISCLOSURE: As a participant in the Walmart Moms Program, I’ve received compensation for my time and efforts in creating this post. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

One of the things my husband and I have tried to instill in our daughter since she was a toddler is a love of reading. I remember that books were some of my best friends when I was her age, and I loved using my imagination to vividly visualize the things I was reading. This focus on reading has worked, for the most part, and she can often be found lost in a book.

Among her favorite reads is the Dear Dumb Diary series. She started reading them a couple of years ago when my niece passed several of the books down to her, and she always loves getting a new book. So when Walmart offered us the chance to get a new book from the series in advance of the TV premiere of the Dear Dumb Diary movie tonight on the Hallmark Channel, we were only too happy to oblige.

My daughter read and reviewed “Dear Dumb Diary: My Pants are Haunted.” These are her words:

I just read a Dear Dumb Diary book, and mainly the book is about a girl named Jamie Kelly who has a beagle. Her beagle is mad at her because she didn’t give him her leftovers, so he kept eating holes in her pants and she thought her pants were haunted.

I liked this book because most of the characters act crazy sometimes. They were sometimes a little cocky, but it was funny. It was one of the best books I’ve ever read.

My favorite part of the book was when a girl named Angeline asked Jamie if she could have her pants. Jamie said yes. When Angeline put on the pants, she found out that there were big holes in them, and everybody was staring at her.

I think the author Jim Benton should keep writing these books. I would definitely like to read more. They are really funny. Thanks for listening!

My daughter devours these books, and we can’t wait to see the movie based on the series. It premieres tonight on the Hallmark Channel. If you miss it, you’ll get another chance to watch on 9/13 and 10/11. If the books are any indication, this is the type of film that would make for a great family movie night. You can also grab the DVD at Walmart stores for $16.96 starting Tuesday.

Check out the cute and hilarious trailer:

You can also get some inspiration for fashion looks based on the movie over at Pinterest.

DISCLOSURE: As a participant in the Walmart Moms Program, I’ve received product samples and compensation for my time and efforts in creating this post. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

My family loves video games, and while my husband and I will keep the adult games in our room, we always like to get our hands on a few that we can play as a family. So when I first learned about Disney Infinity a few months back during a trip to Walmart headquarters, I was understandably excited. In the months since, my daughter has been seeing commercials for the game on the Disney Channel, and she’s been begging to get it. So when we picked up the Disney Infinity starter pack for $74.99, I knew that she’d want to play it right away.

It is available for Wii, Wii U, XBOX 360, Playstation 3, and even Nintendo 3DS. We opted to get the XBOX version since it is the console we tend to use most often for family gaming.

Infinity is an appropriate name for a game with tons of play possibilities. You can play with characters from a variety of Disney movies, and the starter kit includes Sulley from Monsters University, Captain Jack Sparrow from Pirates of the Caribbean, and Mr. Incredible from The Incredibles. The kit also includes the Disney Infinity base, which is absolutely essential for game play, a play set piece, which opens up the worlds for the included characters and a power disc, which gives the characters some additional powers.

It’s a great trio of personalities to start out with, because the characters and their respective play sets (the worlds in which the  characters can play) are immediately recognizable. Plus, we all just think they’re really cool looking.

In order to play the game, you place your chosen character on one of the circles on the game base. You can add a second character for two-player gaming, and a power disc or play set piece to expand the gaming possibilities.

My only caveat is that there is no cross-compatibility between play sets. For example, Sulley can play in the Monsters U world, but Jack Sparrow and Mr. Incredible cannot. This is true for all the character-specific areas, with the exception of small mini-games where any character can play. It was a bit of an unfortunate discovery, since my daughter and I wanted to play together. However, additional characters are available for each play set, so you can, for example, purchase Captain Barbosa or Davey Jones from Pirates for collaborative play in that environment.

But even if you have characters from different stories, two-player gaming is still possible. The game starts off in an open world where all the characters can interact with one another. Also, the “Toy Box” feature allows players to build their own worlds. We haven’t spent a whole lot of time doing this yet, but I know that my daughter will love creating her own features and obstacles once she gets started.

The other great feature of the game is that game progress saves to each individual game figure, so my daughter could take her game pieces to a friend’s house to continue playing from where she left off. And the pieces are also compatible with all consoles on which the game is available, so our XBOX figures would still work on a Wii or PS3. I think that’s a great strategy that will make the game more widely played and accepted.

We’ve had the game for about a week now, and my daughter has asked to play it almost every day. My husband and I like to get in on the fun too, and I’d say that makes it a winner. We’re definitely going to expand our game play options by adding some new characters and power discs, and I think they’ll make great stocking stuffers come Christmas time. Especially once Disney adds to the character roster. It appears that characters from Phineas & Ferb and Toy Story are coming soon!

If you’d like to see for yourself just how the game environment looks and works, check out the Disney Infinity website before you go pick it up at Walmart.

DISCLOSURE: As a participant in the Walmart Moms Program, I’ve received product samples and compensation for my time and efforts in creating this post. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Confession No. 1: I loved the Smurfs when I was a kid. Not the “watch it every time it was on and remember each episode by heart” kind of love, but the “amused by these little blue creatures who sang a cute song” love.

Confession No. 2: I did not like the first Smurfs movie. I just wasn’t amused by some of the characters and it was a lot cheesier than I remembered.

So when I visited Walmart headquarters in Bentonville earlier this summer and had the opportunity to preview a few scenes from Smurfs 2, I honestly didn’t have high hopes. But the few short clips that we got to see told me I might want to rethink this one. I’m really glad that I did.

This past weekend, my family and I got to attend the blue carpet premiere of Smurfs 2. Honestly, it was a fun movie with a much better story line than the first.

Briefly, the second Smurfs movie focuses on Smurfette and her background. I can remember always wondering why she was the only girl in Smurf village, and this movie helps to answer that question. It also gives us more insight into why Gargamel is always in such hot pursuit of Smurfs.

This time, he’s figured out a way to create Smurf-like creatures — who he calls the “Naughties.” There’s just one problem. They’re not blue, and therefore, he can’t exact any of the Smurfs’ magical blue essence from them. He comes up with a predictably diabolical plan to steal the secret formula to turn them blue and use their essence to rule the world.

Oh, and did I mention that Gargamel is a celebrity this time around? Yeah. There’s that.

Far fetched and ridiculous? Of course, but it was a really good time. I found myself laughing out loud throughout the movie, and my daughter has already asked if we can get it on DVD when it comes out.

It’s definitely most appropriate for younger kids and nostalgic parents like my husband and I, but tweens and teens might still enjoy it.

The Smurfs 2 will be released nationwide tomorrow, July 31, if you’d like to make a family outing of it. Plus, if you head to Walmart, you can pick up the Smurfs movie value pack, which includes The Smurfs DVD, a movie ticket to see The Smurfs 2, a pre-order of The Smurfs 2 on Blu-ray + DVD combo pack AND a chance to win a West Coast Customs Smurfs Dash Electric Vehicle.

DISCLOSURE: As a participant in the Walmart Moms Program, I’ve received compensation for my time and efforts in creating this post. All thoughts and opinions are my own.