For those of you who, like us, have someone in your household who is dairy-free, CHECK OUT THIS GIVEAWAY! Pardon the caps, I'm just really excited about this. How have I not heard of these goodies before? I can tell you that if I win this, I'll be spreading the love among my local dairy-free friends (it's surprising how many of them I have!) Thank you to One Frugal Foodie and Erin Baker!
Okay, so I am a serious blog-slacker. It's summer. I'm playing with my toddler and my new house... what can I say!?
But I saw a contest online today that I just had to enter and share with you... it's for three life-sized stuffed dogs. WHOA. Seriously cool. I mean, I only need one and I get to inflict, um I mean share, the others with two lucky friends if I win.
Why do I want to win these? Well... I'm not really a pet person, but I'd like to be! My parents are the same way, and so when they moved into a house with a large yard and a kennel, they just had to do something about it. So they got a wooden dog, named him Bosco and put him in their kennel. From a distance, Bosco is quite convincing, and their grandchildren love to sit on Bosco, pull his ears, etc. And he's such an angel... I want in on the fake-dog trend!!
I haven't decided which one I would want to keep - I might just let Peanut make the decision. She's been getting very decisive lately, and when she makes up her mind, she gets thoroughly excited if she gets to keep the one she picks. My heart, like Susan's, goes out to the German Shorthaired Pointer, but they're all way cool.
I know it's been a crazy one, but still. A month? Sorry!
So we sold our house, after 14 showings in 8 days... and two days later, our realtors showed us a house that wasn't on the market, which we promptly snapped up. :) We move in just over three weeks, which is a little scary, especially as the next week for me is going to be wrapped up in writing a talk I need to deliver twice at a conference next weekend. And the lovely Cellular Lola is coming to stay for a while next week - woohoo!
Peanut has been wonderful, she's such a toddler. We thought for a little while there that we might have been past the whole dairy thing, but we're not. Which is fine, it was just exciting there for a little while.
Most summers, I typically like to live in the basement with the air conditioning on - I don't like the heat or humidity. Ick! But I have a feeling that with a toddler, I'm going to be so tanned this summer... I already have a little sunburn and a little tan going on... She loves her blow up pool that we have on the deck. I don't know if it's the sunscreen or the water that's the attraction - I think it's 50/50 for her!
We enjoyed the Pioneer Woman's Crash Hot Potatoes the other day. I think I have single-handedly introduced 200 people to the recipe so far. Whoa they're good!
Go check out this post over at Rocks in My Dryer. I tell you - it's worth it!
I've become rather attached to Guitar Hero for the Wii lately. Serious fun. We've had it for a week, and I think it's hampering my packing abilities. That thing sucks up so much of my free time... :)
Nope. I did NOT have time to make a quilt and raffle it off to my adoring readers. But somebody did! Go enter yourself, and do me a favor and tell them I sent you!
I thought I typed it all in, but I just came back to start my Oscar's post, and my winner's post wasn't here!
So... without any further ado, let me congratulate Dee at the Diary of a Mad Crafter! If you want to email your address to lifeasamama AT gmail DOT com, then I'll get this out in the mail ASAP!
So, fellow yarn-aficionados...
It's time to start giving away some of that jewelry!
This contest is only open to participants in the Baby a Baby Swap - sorry to my other readers - but keep watching... there'll be another giveaway soon. As you can see here, the prize is a lovely set of drop earrings as well as a handy around-the-neck-holder-of-stuff. Perhaps you're like my crocheting friend who can never find her scissors? Or maybe it's your glasses that are always just out of reach... Use this to keep them right at hand. The jewelry is by Erin, and it's really lovely.
I've been trying to think of a fun contest for you all to do. Since I haven't had any brilliant dashes of inspiration, how about this... Leave a comment on this post about the quality you most look for in a mate. If you're married or in a relationship, what was it that attracted you to this person? If you're not, then what do you most want in your future someone?
(I have romance on the brain right now as we just had V-day and our anniversary is only a couple of days away...)
I am not going to judge the answers, but I'll take all of the eligible comments and draw out of a hat. I'll do that on Monday morning, so I can put the jewelry in that afternoon's mail!
So in the whole Bloggy Giveaway recently, I won a couple contests, and received a prize in the mail today... six pieces of jewelry from www.jewelrybyerin.com! THEY ARE AMAZING! Oh, sorry for shouting. They are, though!
This set was my favorite - and even though they don't match my outfit, they went on as soon as I took this picture to share with you:
But really, I don't need that much new jewelry. What would happen would be that I'd wear one piece over and over again and forget about the other, just as lovely, pieces... so I have decided to share the wealth!
Keep watching over the next couple of weeks, because I'm going to have some random giveaways - not connected to any giant Bloggy Giveaways or Blog Parties. Well, maybe I'll save some for the Blog Party.
So I'm totally drooling over these pendants at Littleput Books on etsy - and you can even enter for a chance to WIN ONE!! or at the same blog, a chance to win some gorgeous earrings...
That's the drool. On the other hand, I'm sad because I just set up plans today for my brother and sister-in-law to come down to our house and watch the PACKER GAME on our gigantic-really-insanely-enormous screen. We were going to feast on wings and snacks and really kickoff football season with a big bang - and then appease my Mister by watching the Bears play after them. But I just doublechecked and the Packers aren't going to be shown here. We only live a state away! Too bad that St. Louis is a lot closer than Green Bay - they're televising the Rams.
"I am a stranger in a strange land." - Exodus 2:22
If only everyone around here embraced the deep love I have for the Packers. Ah well. It is my duty to convert them away from their Bear-lovin' ways.
If I were able to do all of the jobs I'd ever wanted, marketing would be one I'd love to try. Here's a way for you to see how fun / addictive thinking about things like that is! I'm racking my brain right now to come up with the entry for the day! Let me know if you put an entry in - I'd love to hear what you came up with!
okay I'm following their rules: The guys over at Nuts and Milk are having a contest and giving away free money... $250 to be exact! All you have to do is follow their simple rules to enter the contest. Nuts and Milk is a blog about tech news & online tips & tricks.
Another contest out there involves being funny... go check it out. That one's for $350!!
Growing A Life is having a whole week-full of contests to celebrate her Flybaby's first birthday... go on over and check it out!
I just won a copy of Brandilyn Collin's book Coral Moon over at Camy's Loft... so as soon as I've read it, I'll be giving it away here! See, one of you can share in the winning-ness!! How fun is that?
Tips for Toddlers is giving away a Baby's First Kisses doll... how cute is that? Peanut has a little stuffed bunny that makes kissy noises, and it's her favorite stuffed animal. Seriously. She puts her face up to it and I push the bunny-belly and it makes kissy noises and Peanut just goes nuts! What the heck would she do with a DOLL THAT DOES THIS? I can only imagine...
Ok, all - here's some contests to go get yourself over and enter!
My Two Boys is giving away a Signing Time dvd...
Musings of a Housewife is giving away an Eliza Grace tote...
Musings of a Crunchy Domestic Goddess is giving away a doll sling. I know the perfect little girl to receive this!! (No, not Peanut. She just eats the tags that stick out of dolly bums. She's not really into carrying them around yet! It's the Mister's god-daughter that would get this...)
Gosh, Shannon's got a lot of parenting advice up at her blog today, so I think I'd better brew myself some decaf (I pretend it helps) and blearily flip through blogs this morning...
Don't know what is going on with Peanut recently, but she doesn't particularly want to fall back asleep after one of her midnight snacks. She used to sleep through the night so easily; I always felt bad telling other new moms about it... but now I'm hopping up and down every hour and a half or so to go coax her back to sleep. Which means I'm dopey now. Better go get me some parenting advice!
Since I know there's a lot of readers out there, and obviously we all love contests, I thought I'd point you to one for a Christian chick-lit book... go check it out!
Have you seen the latest contest over at 5 Minutes for Mom? They are giving away a phenomenal TV, thanks to BestBuy! Go check it out. And if you win, enjoy! I know, I know, I was just talking about my 92" TV, but rest assured that if we win this, it won't be staying with us. It will be seriously regifted.
Come on now, who wouldn't mind a regift if it looked like this:
My 99th post is to let you know the winner of the contest! Jennifer, over at Gabby Gwenhwyfar, is the lucky winner of my box of books! Since she has little ones, there may even be a book or two in there for them...
Check Shannon's blog for more prizes and winners!
So after the craziness of this weekend and yesterday (I spent the day with my nieces and sister-in-law), I declared today to be a quiet day...
Peanut has slept most of the day (lucky her!) and I have alternated between entering contests through the Dog Days and reading Harry Potter. I had promised Mister I'd stay behind him, so I let him get 350 pages ahead of me, and snuggled down today with a cup of chocolate-raspberry coffee and the book... I'm now about 250 pages in, but am rationing it... 30 pages here, go enter a few more contests, clean something, then back to the book...
I'm having a GREAT day. Contests and an engrossing book? What more could a girl want?
Hello all, and welcome to my little corner of the blogosphere called life as a mama...
If you stay for more than a few minutes, it might become obvious that I looove to read. I think most bloggers probably do, since we're all about words - our own, others, etc.
My giveaway for this is a box of books. All sorts of books. Some Christian fiction, some just regular fiction - but all sorts of things to tempt your reading palate. It so far includes six seven nine fourteen books, but that number will only grow!
Because books are so heavy, I'm afraid that this contest will only be open to citizens of the good ol' US of A, but I welcome all internationals to just leave me a comment anyway!
Have a great one, and I'll be stopping by your blog sometime this week! In case you're completely confused, click on the cute little puppy to take you to a whole lot of goodness....
Edited To Add: Seems like a lot of people have decided to make books their prize. If I win a book at another contest, it will be up to my winner if they want to receive their prize right away, or if they'd rather wait for the book I won to get here, and then have it included in their package... And of course, all of Shannon's guidelines are to be followed here...
EDITED AGAIN: Comments will close Friday morning at 8:00 Central Time. The drawing will be that morning - it'll take me a while to sort through all of these comments and get that done... I'll let you know by about 10:00 am.
So. I've been really absent from here lately. I've developed into a lazy-meme-oriented blogger. And here I am to pass along a couple of thoughts, and pretty much disappear for the rest of the weekend.
We are having a party on Sunday to welcome a friend to town - she got her undergrad / grad degrees with me while i was getting mine, and then went off to medical school while i worked and got married. now that she's beginning her residency, we are both thrilled that she ended up in the same town as i live! she's already just slipped easily into my group of friends, but we wanted to give her a formal welcome to town. but my brother and sister-in-law (who just moved from 9 hours away to 1 1/2 hours away!!!!!) are using it as an excuse to come down, and some friends from ohio decided to come back to town for it, too!!
So basically my place is the happening place for my group of friends this weekend. And thankfully it's going to be fairly cool and seasonable for the next few days, so the massive amounts of frisbee playing will at least not cause heatstroke.
Because the Mister and I are dorks, we decided to make the "official" reason for the party a celebration of National Ice Cream Appreciation Month. Welcoming my doctor-friend is just a bonus! So we're having a great big sundae bar for dessert! Mmmm.... Ice cream.
On an unrelated note, what do you think about Harry Potter? I didn't get into them until the first three books were written, but I have to say I've definitely enjoyed the rest, ordering books 6 and 7 from amazon.com so that I could read them on the first day they were in print. Mister doesn't read a lot of fiction, so he was content to watch the movies - until Goblet of Fire came out. At that point in time, he was convinced that these were really good stories and was sick of me saying "oh, but they left out so much good stuff!" and then between audio cds for the car and reading some in print, he polished off #s 3-6 in a very short time. Needless to say, we were looking forward to tomorrow as a "try to get stuff done while passing the book back and forth" day, but we're spending it with friends and family instead.
I read insanely quickly - I just re-read book 5 in probably about 4 or 5 hours. That's really fast. So it's not really fair to my normal-paced husband... because otherwise I'd be bursting with excitement wanting to tell him what happened a few hundred pages past where he is. Because of this, I promised him that I will only at any point read up to where he is. No further. I want to be able to share the discovery with him, and will hold myself back. This is gonna be tricky, but I love him more than I love these books, of COURSE!
I do have to say that I'm making these for snacks for the next few days, just so that we feel like a tiny bit connected to the Potterexcitement... but we're not going nuts!
When I come back from the weekend, look forward to the Dog Days of Summer! I have a fun giveaway for you - it's definitely something I've enjoyed and want to share with one of you...
Well, readers of mine, we have a winner!
It's my swap-partner Heather, aka Top Hat! There were five entries, and the random number generator gave me #4 as a result, which was laam dark...
Isn't it cool? It's very fun... I'm really liking it. That splash of green makes it, in my opinion! Now I just have to play around with design ideas. Good dark colors to use for text and borders, but fun colors to use in the banner, etc!
Heather, I already have your address from the swap, so look for your gift card soon! Hope you enjoy Starbucks... (I just got home from vacation yesterday and your package came with my pile of mail today, and it's great, THANKS!)
