And You Thought I Forgot

Ok, so maybe this week has been a bit chaotic. I have been sick since Monday, Mister Man since Tuesday at 3:30 when he puked all over the gym floor and had to be picked up -- had he waited twenty minutes, he would have been home on the bus! -- and Little Miss since 3:30am Wednesday. Plus, Tuesday was my PTO coffees (am and pm), I worked Wednesday and Thursday, and Wednesday was also our Back To School night. And you wonder why I haven't fully recovered yet (physically or mentally, of course).

Enough whining though.

On Tuesday, I closed the PIF contest. Of course I didn't pick the number until today, but I had fully intended to. Besides, it's ok if you have to wait a couple more days for the anticipation to build, isn't it?

So the winner is comment number 8. Oh wait. That was my comment. Yep, I can't win. Per my rules, I skip over that comment and the next one is the winner. Phew. The Post Office people (as lovely as they truly are at my PO) would certainly have given me an odd look if I mailed a package to myself!

So really, that makes it Irene! Yay!

Bob, tell Irene what she's won.

Well, Michelle, today Irene has just won herself a Dora cup that holds snacks and a drink! It's a Sip and Snack Canteen, the latest product from Zak Designs! (oooooo from the audience):

And that's not all. We're also throwing in two lovely books. As usual, we have found a Sandra Brown book, and we're also tossing in The Stone Diaries! (ooooo, ahhhhhh)



For the smaller members of the family, we're also including 4 Strawberry Shortcake gel pens for each girl. The dollar section at Target had some lovely items this week. (squeals of joy)

And finally, Michelle, Irene will be receiving three blank notecards. These notecards are handmade and have several special embellishments. Irene was so kind as to comment on the thank you cards that some cards simply had to be added into the prize basket. (Oooooooooo)


Michelle, back to you.

Thank you, Bob. Irene, I am sending you an email to get your contact information so I can get these out to you. If I don't hear from you by Tuesday next week, I'll select another winner. Thank you to everyone for playing, and I really appreciate those Disney tips!

And while we're on the subject of contests, this is a perfect contest for Irene except that I'm sure she already has it. The SITS girls are giving away a copy of Photoshop Elements 7 and Photoshop Elements 7: The Missing Manual here.

PIF Redux!

Soooo. I'm a bad person. For a couple reasons. Actually probably for lots of reasos, but we'll only get into two of them today.

Remember the Pay It Forward thing that Swistle started back in June? Yeah, me, too. Shelly won my prize for the contest I had in early August. She was moving to a new place and mail delivery was a bit sketchy at the place she was living in before moving, so we decided I'd hold onto it until she moved August 21. It would be like a housewarming present for her!

I mailed it yesterday. That's 33 days after I was supposed to, for those of me who are counting. And I did it only because she oh so politely asked if it had gotten lost in the mail. No, it got lost on the kid table and just sort of faded into the background. I saw it but didn't see it anymore. But it's finally in the mail (sorry, Shelly!).

And about a week ago, I received a prize that I had won from Joanne at Bebellyboo. I did take the appropriate photos but I forgot to upload them. Until she emailed me asking if I'd received my prize. Umm, yeah. Can I blame it on an unusually bad work month and back to school and in general being a moron? Yeah, I didn't think so.

Anyway, I did receive this beautiful package (see my lovely offwhite suede couch in the background? Ha! What was I thinking?)


She was so sweet. She even wrote me a little note. And do you see how nicely she packed it? Bubble wrap! That's Little Miss' favorite toy. All afternoon, I heard pop pop pop pop pop as she walked around with it.

Inside was a lovely treat for me. See all the super yummy smelling lotions and bath gels? I haven't used them yet because I have to do my appropriate thank you prior to partaking. Kind of like how I don't let the wee ones play with birthday presents until the thank you note is written. Guess what I'm doing after choir practice tonight (oh yeah, did I mention that I joined the church choir last week?).

And there are cool activities for the wee ones, too. I've never done origami before, but I've always been fascinated by it. I love that there are rules and order to it -- big shock -- but that it's also so creative! We're way into animals around here, so I'll be breaking this out tomorrow after work. Here's hoping I succeed at it!

I love this prize. It's completely unique yet totally (I've used that word a lot today, haven't I?) up my alley. Yay, Bellyboo!

So do you all remember what this means? It's another contest where you have the chance to win. The final prize has yet to be determined, but I think I've done pretty good here and here. I can almost guarantee the prize will involve books that are preread as I'm trying to get more bookshelf space for the wee ones but we have no more room to put bookshelves in the house. Only one solution, right? And I have a really cool Dora cup that I'll toss in. Beyond that, I have to do some thinking, but I promise it will be a good one.

So what do you have to do to win this fabulous array of prizes?

1) Comment below by next Tuesday September 30 at 12pm CST.

2) In your comment, give me your best suggestions for how to enjoy Disney in a day or what reservations I should try to get for umm less than a month from now. Or just perk me up and tell me that I didn't totallly (there it is again!) screw myself over by not making reservations before now.

3) One entry per person. If there are multiple comments from the same person, I'll only count the first one. If I comment on your comments, that doesn't count, and I skip over that entry.

4) I will use random.org to choose a number. Whoever has that comment gets the prize. I'll send an email and post the winner. If I don't hear back from the winner by Thursday, I will select a new winner.

5) If you win, you are obligated to hold a PIF contest yourself. Thus, the pay it forward portion! Because this involves holding a contest after winning, to win you must have a blog. And be in the US. Shipping gets expensive even here.

Good luck! Oh, and remind me to tell you about the Sandwich Bandit. I'm a bit creeped out.

Paying It Forward!

Alas yet another PIF contest has come to an end. I am actually starting to feel a little cheesy about these, as I feel like they're cheat posts, but I'm an honorable person and when I win one, I'm supposed to pay it forward. And there will be one more, as I have another prize headed my way. Yay me?


Before we get to that, some mild humor. Gotta make the post worth reading, right?


As of yesterday, I have five guests staying in my house through the weekend. My MIL, FIL, BIL, his girlfriend and my husband's best friend have all come up from St. Louis. And I found out last night that my other SIL and niece are going to drive up tomorrow. Wheee!


Last night I was conversing with my husband before shutting the house down for the night.


Him: Have you seen Fat Boy?
Me: No, but Little Buddy is up here already.
Him: Fat Boy is usually pretty good about going straight to bed.
BIL: Is Little Buddy Little Miss? And the other one is Mister Man?


Umm no, sorry. Those would be our cats (officially named Meow and Roar). And really, Little Buddy and Fat Boy are not exactly appropriate nicknames for any children, let alone the wee ones I birthed. But entertaining coming from a single guy.


Anyway, I thought long and hard about this one. As I mentioned, the silicone pans are optional. If you don't want them, you don't need to take them (they're used but in perfect shape). I love my silicone bakeware and use it frequently. I just discovered after all my baking last week that I have four round cake pans and only need two.




And for the rest of it?

I love drawing tools for kids. And apparently I'm channeling my inner panic about driving to Minnesota by myself in two weeks.

Cute little Chinese dress for a doll. I had to take it out of the bag, as it wouldn't photograph in the bag, but isn't it adorable? (I've also been told that this works as a wine bag cover if you're doing an Asian theme.)

I love my little totes. And so does Little Miss. Nice and happy and summery!

More books, of course. And yes, more Sandra Brown. They go well with the tote -- take them to the beach and let your mind unwind! Old School isn't quite as light, but it's an entertaining read. I've read it twice and just find the whole thing intriguing. Not a book to take to the beach.

And without further ado:

Random Integer Generator
Here are your random numbers:1
Timestamp: 2008-08-08 22:27:11 UTC


That makes commenter #1 Ya-Ya's Mom the winner! If I don't hear from her by Monday night, I'll draw a new number, but since she told me she was interested in silicone, I'm hoping that she comes through! Tomorrow we visit some stupid Mommy moments.

Another Pay It Forward!

Do you all remember the fun Pay It Forward contest bomb that Swistle started last month? I finally received the second prize I'd won (apparently my husband isn't the only one who forget things -- K's Mama's husband left this lovely box sitting in the back of his car for ... awhile!).

Now it's time for me to pay it forward. See below for deatils, but first check out the cool stuff I won!



When I opened it up, I saw all sorts of cool stuff to love (and do you like how I've spared you yet another shot of the carpeting on my stairs? Welcome to the chair in my office).



Magnetic Cars stickers. They attach to fridges. Or in my case, the three inches of the side of the fridge that's visible. Yes, the Word Whammer has lost its coveted spot. The wee ones love these.

And I think I've mentioned once or twice that we like to go swimming. And spend just a touch of time at the pool. Definitely need something to toss around so we don't have to be jealous of everyone else. Check out the Tootsie Roll beach ball.

There's also a very cool book about animals that's a board book but with tons of words on it. As we're always trying to reinforce being kind and gentle and friendly towards animals just like we are to our friends. And we do read just a tiny bit....

And this is a great motivator to actually print out some of the pictures I take. I tend to ummm forget to do that sometimes. Like since 2000. Or so. December of 1999 to be exact. But I need motivation!

There's also this great notepad. It's supposed to be for a locker, as I believe it's magnetic, but this will go great on the top part of the side of the fridge that the wee ones don't have access to. Maybe then I'll remember to write down when I'm out of things I need ... like powdered sugar!

And I really needed another reason to drool and covet an iPod Nano. Of course I didn't win the one that the SITS girls were giving away *sigh* but I still want one. And my husband just bought one for himself since he was jealous of me having one when I went to work out and everyone else at the club having one. Me? I can't bring myself to buy one for myself quite yet, but ... now I have even more reason to get one, right?

Mister Man loves doing anything academic, as you may well know. We don't have any flash cards, but my husband is excited about trying these out on him. And I'm sure he'll learn addition even quicker now!

And what kid doesn't need more stickers? It seems like everything we do involves stickers. And a new stock is always appreciated!

Thank you K's Mama! And now it's my turn!

Quick refresher, post a comment answering the chosen question below. If you enter, you're agreeing to host your own Pay It Forward contest if you win.

The contest will be open until Friday August 8 around 5pm CST. I'll use a random number generator at that point to choose the winning comment. If a comment I make it chosen, I'll rerun the generator.

The prize will be a mystery prize again, but I will say that it's likely to include two silicone 9" (I believe) round cake pans. As I was baking my cakes this weekend, I realized that I have four of them, and that means that two of them are really just taking up space. If you'd rather not win those, let me know. The rest of the prize will be whatever I choose, but hopefully something the winner likes.

If I don't hear from the winner within three days of the end of the contest, I'll select a new winner.

So tell me about your worst parenting disaster (of your children, children you babysat, etc). Good luck!

Passing Along The Joy

Four o'clock came and went today, and my pay it forward contest has ended. Yay to the 13 people who entered (really, only 13 -- odds are good, people!). You were good sports, and I got some good guesses and info on the delicious variety of Asian food I won from Parking At Home -- thank you again!

I will say that I've been enjoying many of the boxed items for lunch when I don't have the time to make something real. And when I've neglected to go to the store to buy something that is tasty and also suitable for lunch.

My favorite is the anchovy rice noodle soup. You might agree with me if you tasted it, but I don't think that many of you would agree to taste it in the first place!

The good news is that the food I've tasted thusfar has been yummy AND easy to deal with. I've figured out that the ones in containers are dehydrated soup type foods and just need to be filled to the line inside with hot water. That I can do.

And yes, the apple candies are REALLY apple-y. In fact, I'm going to send along a few of those to share with my pay it forward winner. Feel the love!

And according to my friend's mom, the mystery food that I couldn't decide if it was like oatmeal or something else may have multiple purposes. As originally intended, it is a breakfast food. It's roasted brown ride porridge. And no, I haven't tried that one yet. However, Parking At Home is also right in that frequently it's just crumbled up atop other soups, etc.

Parking at Home was also correct that the second mystery item was ramen noodles. I haven't made those yet, either, but I loved ramen when I was a poor college student, so I'm looking forward to trying the "real" stuff.

And now... for the unveiling of my mystery prize!

First, I have three books that I hope the winner will enjoy. Sandra Brown is one of those authors who writes a pretty entertaining novel that's really brain candy. I haven't had much of a chance to read since ummm my wee ones were born, but fingers crossed this will be passable. The Life of Pi is actually a book club book, so it's been read by me and has some underlining in it (sorry!) but it's a really thought provoking book while being a good read.

Second, I have some books for a small child. These are two that my wee ones enjoyed, and they aren't the most common. Crawlies Creep is a popup book where the creepy crawlies demonstrate their prowess (the owl blinks, the crocodile snaps, etc). I always loved pop ups! I'll Teach My Dog a Lot of Words is Mister Man's favorite. It was the first book he read by himself (outside the Bob books)!

Four refrigerator magnets are the next part of the prize. I thought they were so cute and homey. This is where having a stainless steel fridge doesn't work out so well.

Who doesn't need a cute little stuffed bunny? I never got into the collecting of Beanie Babies (my stuffed animal collection was already too large), but I always think they're so cute!

I know Little Miss loves carrying around purses, and the winner has a daughter (oooo, how's that for a clue?). I thought this striped tote would be perfect for her.

Now I have to hope the winner is Christian. Or at least celebrates Christmas. I love the old fashioned Washington Post look, and this ornament perfectly captured the look. I know I'm five months off, but preparation is a good thing, right?

And lastly, you all know about my apple-y candies. I'm going to share a handful of these with ...

Random Integer Generator
Here are your random numbers:10
Timestamp: 2008-07-23 22:42:07 UTC

The tenth commenter was a new visitor to my blog: Shelly Overlook of Scenic Overlook! Congratulations, Shelly! I hope you like your prize. Remember to pay it forward with your own contest. Your prize won't be in the mail tomorrow, as I'll be in the office, but I'll try to get it out on Friday.

And if I ever receive my second PIF prize, I'll do the second PIF contest. However, I haven't heard from the contest sponsor since getting the first email saying I won (I did follow up once), so maybe not.

Tomorrow, we'll be back to our regularly scheduled blogging! Here's hoping that some of the new readers come back to visit again.

Anyone Hungry?

Really, that was just a rhetorical question. I'm not sharing. Well, actually, I am sharing, but not the food pictured below. That food is what I won from Parking At Home's Pay It Forward contest! It arrived yesterday, and I'm so excited!

I'll admit that there are a few items that I'm a little unsure of what they are, but I've sent the images to a friend of mine who's mom will know and can give me cooking instructions that aren't in a language that doesn't share characters with English. Were I not headed to Cirque du Soleil tonight and then out to dinner with some friends, I'd be eating one of these tonight!

It looks like the Mother Lode, doesn't it?

When I spread it all out on the floor (with Meow's help, of course), I realized that it really is the Mother Lode. And yes, I'm anal retentive enough to unpack it and organize it. It didn't do this just for the picture. I'm aware that I have isues.

This is some roasted corn tea and some green tea with roasted brown rice. I've never tried either (green tea, yes, but not with the roasted brown rice). The friend I sent the pictures to said the corn tea tastes vaguely like popcorn. Basically, I'm all in on that one!


Next came the Cups of Instant Rice Noodle Soup. I'm imagining it like the Lipton Cup 'o Soups, but man these are huge! Two meals at least, I'm thinking!

This is the first of my mystery items. There is no English translation anywhere on this, although it appears to my untrained eye to be some sort of breakfast item. If I figure out how to cook it.

We move on to my lifetime supply of nori! The good news is that nori never goes bad. If you've had it for awhile and it gets a little soft, just pop it in the microwave, and it'll crisp right up. These are the whole sheets great for making all kinds of sushi (and snacking).

The lifetime supply also comes in mini-snacking size. This is 24 packages of precut nori. I think I need to have a sushi party someday soon!

This is another soup, anchovy flavored. And yes, I do like anchovies. Salty, but yummy. The cooking may be a slight challenge, but I'll figure it out. This is a front runner for dinner tomorrow.

More mystery items with no English translation. They appear to by ramen noodles, however. I just have to figure out how to cook these, too!



And lastly, who can complete a meal without some candy? Really.... I'm still trying to figure out how I have yet to dive into these. My only excuse is that I was exhausted last night when I got home after work and the wake and watching my friends' kids (we brought them home from the wake because they were SO done -- including the younger one jumping up to grab his grandpa's beard) that I forgot I had them and just went to bed.


So now that I have my treasured Mother Lode, it's my turn to run another Pay It Forward contest. This one starts once the post goes up. I'll run it until Wednesday around 4pm (CST) next week and post the winner that night, the 23rd I think.

My prize is again a mystery, but hopefully it will be somewhere in the league of the Mother Lode, although I don't think I can be quite that cool.

Rules:

1) If you are entering, that means you are committing to run a Pay It Forward contest on your own blog once you receive your prize. Don't disappoint me!

2) To enter, comment below between now and Wednesday July 24 at 4pm CST. Your comment should include guesses on what my mystery items are and how I should cook and eat them. Hopefully I'll have the real answer from my friend's mom by then!

3) Enter only once, and please have a blog so that you can carry on the torch.

4) I'll use a random number generator on Wednesday to pick the winner and post. I'll also email the winner, so be sure you reply by Saturday the 26th so I can get your prize out to you.

Good luck! And THANK YOU again to Parking At Home!

What A Description Of Blog Readers!

Ok, a couple of housekeeping items before we get to the crux of today's post.

First, I managed to win a couple of Pay It Forward Contests that other bloggers were hosting, which means that I'll be hosting contests to ... pay it forward. I can't wait to see what I've won from K's Mama. Parkingathome had a rocking (in my opinion) prize of a ton of Asian food. I think I've mentioned a few times that sushi is my favorite, and these are all right up that alley. Needless to say, now comes the debate. Do I host multiple pay it forward contests, or do I host a single contest with multiple winners and multiple mystery (but apparently well received!) prizes? Vote, and I'll go with majority rules on this one. Gotta love second (and third) chances, right?

Second, the SITS girls (in keeping with the contest theme here) have posted their third week giveaway a $100 Target gift card. Raise your hand if you couldn't use this one. I didn't think so. Head on over to SITS and enter! You have until next Saturday.

***********

On Friday, I was joking around with my husband. We were on the way to my parents' house after stopping at our own house to pick up the wee ones' special blankets. (The wee ones had gone straight from brunch to my parents' house and needed to nap.) As we were driving past our house, I saw a critter run into our landscaping. I'm a bit protective on our landscaping (yes, more to come on that later) and requested that he go chase it away. After much rolling of the eyes, he acquiesced and went to go scare the offending pest. However, he left his door open. I started slowly rolling down the street as soon as he hopped out of the car. He quickly ran back, and I pretended I was going to make him jump into the moving car (really, I'm not that mean OR stupid).

Once safely in the car, the following conversation ensued:

Me: Well, at least you were smart enough not to close your door. Had you done that, I would have completely driven away.
Husband: I'm not a complete moron, even though you sometimes think I am.
Me: I don't think you are, but you have to admit that sometimes you do things that aren't say the smartest option.
Husband: You're the only one who thinks that!
Me: Oh, that's so not true.
Husband: Ok, so who else thinks that?
Me: silent
Husband: You don't blog about me, do you?
Me: Maybe. But not by name or anything.
Husband: What could I do that you'd blog about?
Me: Umm, some of your dressing of the children. Oh, and your cooking incident from earlier this week.
Husband: What cooking incident?
Me: Uhhh, maybe when I was making the Thai Beef Lettuce Wraps. And you were having some issues?
Husband: I wasn't having any issues.
Me: Yes, you were! What about your not at all many tap of the garlic?
Husband: I didn't want to break the garlic.
Me: It was going in the blender. How was breaking it going to be an issue? Besides, there was also the cutting of the cilantro with the paring knife.
Husband: No one knows that there's anything wrong with that.
Me: So not true! Plus, what about the total not-julienning of the pepper?
Husband: Oh come on, who's ever even heard of julienning let alone knows what it is?
Me: People who read my blog....
Husband: What, you've found a community of psycho mommys who love to cook?
Me: (thinking about this really hard) Well, depending on your definition of psycho, I suppose the answer is yes. But I'd go with quirky over psycho.
Husband: And yet more proof that the internet is good for anything.

Awww, isn't he a good sport? And yes, I told him that the whole conversation was going to end up on the blog. Fortunately, he's ok with it. And to his credit, sometimes he does really good things, too. In fact, one day this week I promise to dedicate a post to something he's done recently that's solved a huge recurring problem for me. Yay, hubby!

Pay It Forward!

For whatever reason, the blogging community (and it is definitely a community, as I've come to learn) is rife with contests. I've mentioned a few of them on my site, as it's always fun for people to win things -- and some of them would be really cool to win; who couldn't use a bouncy house? Or popcorn? Or a really fancy schmancy Brighton handbag (yep, week 2 of the SITS six weeks of summer)? Or heck, twenty days of giveaways? (See the button to your left. No, your other left -- there, click it!)

I've talked about other people doing contests, and I sort of feel like I should reciprocate in some way. Mostly because of all that good Catholic guilt I had placed upon me as I was growing up. But much like I delayed blogging because I didn't have the faith in myself that I could do it and thus kept putting it off, I've delayed holding a contest of my own.

Enter Swistle. She has what I think is a great idea. She's hosting a Pay It Forward contest where we're all starting the paying it forward. Essentially, you enter my contest here. Whoever wins is then obligated to host a pay it forward contest where they give something away and whoever wins that contest is thusly obligated, etc. It's kind of a virtuous circle, if you will. And I like being virtuous.

What's my prize? I don't know yet. And thankfully, I don't have to know yet, which is part of the fun. I can promise that it will be an at least somewhat cool package -- which means more than one item. I may even get creative enough to have a theme.

How do you enter? All you have to do is post a comment below. In your comment, tell me a little about a childhood pet. If you didn't have one, tell me why you didn't (I'm just curious -- no novels needed, just a brief overview). One entry per person.

Who's eligible? Because this requires paying it forward, only bloggers will be able to enter (sorry for any reader without a blog -- but hey, good time to start a blog, no?). And because I can only commit to paying postage in the States, I'll request that you be located in the US (although I don't think I really have any international readers anyway).

How will a winner be chosen? I'll use a random number generator and whoever has that number comment wins. Ta-da!

When does the contest end? The contest will go through Friday July 4 at ohh around 8pm CST. (Note: I obviously have children too small to take to fireworks. What a bummer!) Get your comment in before then! Friday night I'll post the winner... and if I'm lucky, the prize, too! Or maybe it will be a total surprise to the winner. It depends on how busy I get this week.

Oh, and like I said... this is a group effort. Go check out all the other contests that bloggers have put together for this pay it forward hoopla! Good luck!