Ten in Ten Giveaways--Day 3 (Kohls Cash)

If you're sick of all this voting/giveaway hoopla then click here to read today's post Big Fat Lougies

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All this giving away is too much fun. I feel just like Oprah (except when she was poor).

Okay, can I just say that I'm sick of that Hannah Montana Bobanna song!? It's so melancholy. Let's pump up the jam a notch.

That's more like it. I just cranked the volume and I'm doing some fist pumping as I write.

I'm excited because today I got TONS of free scrapbook stuff. Does anyone out there still scrapbook? Can I see a show of hands? Cause I don't. But it's way cute stuff. I 'll get some photographic evidence to prove it.

Okay, I'm going to switch things up a little bit here because I just realized that the Kohls cash needs to be used by November 9th. Eeeeek. Can you shop fast? If not, I can.

My ex-door neighbor Martha has generously donated some Kohls cash. There are actually two Kohls cash prizes. One for $60 and one for $10. I'm going to give them both away today. (Two seperate winners.)

On Thursday and Friday I'm going to give away 2 tickets to the Bloggy Boot Camp in St. George on November 13th. (Two seperate winners.)

On Saturday I am going to give away Annette Lyon's new Chocolate Never Faileth Book.

On Sunday I'm going to give away a Cubworld CD and T-shirt (plus I'm looking into concert tickets. He's doing a show on November 13th in Provo.)

On Monday I'm going to give away a 2 night stay over Christmas break at my ex-door neighbor, Martha's studio apartment.

On Tuesday and Wednesday I'm going to start divying up the scrapbook supplies. I'm working to secure a few more prizes TBA so I might add a few things here and there. WOOHOO! If anyone wants to donate let me know. I'm getting TONS of hits right now so you could get some air time. (Just sayin'.)

Okay, so let's review. TODAY is Kohls cash day. Tomorrow and Friday are Bloggy Boot Camp days, so LET'S GO GET THE word out.

READY, BREAK!

(That was sports talk, in case you didnt' get it.)

Or as my hub's basketball coach used to say, "Get out there and DO a JOB!"

If you have no idea why I'm doing this giveaway and what the rules are, please click here for deets. I'm sick and tired of explaining it.

Why are you still sitting there? Let's get a move on, peeps. We got a big week in front of us.

Good Mood Gig from SAM-e

P.S. Winners and daily post coming later tonight.

Big Fat Lougies

Yawwwwwwn!

Tonight I folded all the laundry that I've been forgetting about since the voting games started.

For some reason folding laundry gives me and undeniable urge to curl up into a little ball and fall asleep on top of all the warm towels.

Instead I scrunched up a big ole' plaid fleece blanket and snuggled up next to Lulu on the floor. In front of a roaring fireplace. And listened to my hub read a motivational book about some big wig basketball coach to my kids.

What were the main points again? If you fail to prepare you prepare to fail? Something like that. Isn't it cool when you can turn phrases inside out to make you go hmmmmm?

Don't mistake activity for accomplishment. Hmmmm Another deep one. I would add, don't mistake inactivity for unaccomplishment. And while were at it, don't mistake accomplishment for activity.

Sometimes I enjoy being active more than I enjoy being accomplished.

Maybe that's my problem.

So my son got a fortune cookie today at school which said, "You need to stop wishing and be more practical."

Are you freakin' kidding me? That's gotta be an ancient Mormon Chinese fortune cookie, right? I can just picture the Queen Bee of the hive writing propaganda fortunes in between baking bread and canning tomatoes, can't you?

SIGH!

Can I just say that I lub my dog so dang much. She's like my favorite pet on the face of this earth. Sometimes, in the middle of the night, she sticks her head and her paws up on my bed just to tell me she lubs me. I open my eyeballs and there she is, looking at me in the dark. After I give her head a pat she stretches back out on the floor beside the bed and gives a deep sigh.

We're blissfully happy together.

So my daughter comes home from Hawaii tomorrow. She's checking her baggage right now.

In case you didn't know, we used to live there before we moved here. It's been a year now so we scraped our frequent flyer miles together to send her back for five days. To celebrate her 16th birthday. And her best friend's 16th birthday. And to go through the Laie Temple open house. And the Haunted Lagoon.

But mostly we sent her back to get our tennis rackets restrung.

She calls me every day and we talk and talk and talk like school girls. I want to hear every little thing about every little thing--what everyone looks like and smells like and sounds like--what everyone says. Usually she's walking through places my feet have touched a million times--past our old town house, (WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!) or through BYU-H campus, (WAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!) or along the Iron Rod, which is what we called the street that leads from the Beach to the temple.

For some odd reason my eyeballs are always on the verge of spilling their guts when we talk. It's not that I'm jealous or regretful, or even sad. It's not that I'm unhappy with my new life as a home owner and dog owner and big screen t.v owner.

It's just that Laie was my life. For years and years and years and years. And years.

And now it's not.

I hate it when things are not.

I wonder what she'll feel when she comes back. I wonder if she will go into post-childhood-home-town-depression? Maybe I shouldn't have sent her. Maybe it's better to push things down down down and not look back.


But she's speaking pidgin and eating seaweed and spam. She's going to the beach and playing ping pong on her friends kitchen table. People are hugging her on the street and in Foodland and taking photos of her at church. They're giving her free t-shirts and shakas and new tennis rackets.

"They laugh at my jokes mom!" She told me. "They LAUGH at my jokes!"

And everywhere she goes she says people tell her that they're voting for me. She said one day she was walking down the street and someone she didn't even know came running out of her house shouting, "I hope your mom wins! I'm voting for her every day."

Allow me a moment to collect my swollen tear drops.

Allow me another moment.

May I have just one more?

Maybe I'll just finish this post tomorrow. I wanted to tell you that I finally found out who I am and where I come from. All because my brother spit into a cup and had his DNA tested.

All those years of teaching about identity construction and reconstruction and the answer was right there in a big fat lougie!

Better a lougie than a fortune cookie. That's what I always say.

(Actually I've never said that before, have I?)

Can't wait to see my daughter!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ten in Ten Giveaways--Day 2

If you want to read my brand spankin' new, hot-off-the-press post for the day, scroll down to the next post, or click That Shakespeare Thing.



If you're only here to enter the Ten in Ten Giveaway, this is the place:



If you haven't done your Christmas card photos yet, this prize is for you!

Shanna Ormond, who goes by Just SO on her blog, Thesegolilypad is generously donating a free photo shoot. Go check out her cwork on her Photog Blog.

I lub Just SO, just SO dang much, (even though she saw me at Macey's buying Diet Coke (for my hub) and she didn't introduce herself). I finally met her last May at some blogger conference thingie where we hit it off right away. So much so that we kinda sorta disrupted Annette Lyon's workshop (sorry Annette). As we got talking I was pretty sure she was Tamn undercover. (I was dead wrong.) (But I know something you don't know.) (hee hee) (That's called dramatic irony, btw.)


Anyways, this prize includes an hour long shoot at a location of your choosing. (SO is located in Utah County.) You will get a disc with all of your photos, editing included. It can be a family shoot, couple, senior or infants. (No large, extended family, please.


If you don't live in Utah, I bet you know someone who does, who needs a Christmas present. I'm happy to play Santa for you. (You're welcome.)



For deets about the hows and whys of this Ten in Ten giveaway click here


In short, alls you have to do is post this link to your blog, Facebook or Twitter to get the word out and ask your peeps to cast a vote for Debbie.

http://www.sam-e.com/job/entries/506


Once you post the link, make sure you leave a comment on either my facebook wall or here in my comment box so I can enter you in the drawing for the prize of the day. If you post the link on all three venues you get three entries.


I'm throwing in an extra entry for voting.


Feel free to enter every day. Winners will be announced each morning at the top of my blog.

P.S. Tomorrow I'm giving away a free ticket to the Blogger Boot Camp in St. George on Novemeber 13th so spread the word.

That Shakespeare Thing

If you only want to enter the giveaway click here.


If you want to read my post for the day, read on.



Hey, so I got Miley Cyrus to write a song about my SAM-e Top 20 experience. Turn up my playlist and check it out.


Mahalo Miley!


Before I go any further with this contest thing there are a few things I need to clear up about my bio on SAM-e. Things of which I'm sure all of you have noticed.


First of all, one of my pals from the BYU-H concert choir tour sent me an email advising me not to marry Bill Shakespeare. She was concerned that I might get an STD.

I'll take my chances. True lub doesn't discriminate. That's alls I'm saying.

Wait, can I say one more thing? I took one of my twins out to lunch the other day and while he was shoving fried cheese sticks into his mouth he said, "Mom, I don't get that Shakespeare thing. You're already married."

"Oh honey," I said. "I was just trying to relay information about myself without having to come right out and say it."

"What information?" said my son.

"Well what did you learn about me from that bio?" I asked him.

He thought for a minute. "That you want to marry two guys?"

I explained to him that I didn't want to be all straight forward and say, "I like Shakespeare. And I like tennis. And I like Mozart. And I like Pad Thai."

Later on, while biting into his cheeseburger, my son said, "What if the judges don't know who Shakespeare is?"

"Oh, they'll know who Shakespeare is! Don't worry."

"But what if they don't get it? What if they think you really want to marry him?"

"He's been dead for 400 years," I told him.

Later, on the ride home, he got really quiet. "Mom," he finally said, "are you sure the judges are going to get that Shakespeare thing?"

I hope I don't lose because I just know my son will blame it on that Shakespeare thing.

Okay, second point, I KNOW! I KNOW! I KNOW! I KNOW! I used Fourth twice. I left out the Fifth. It has been brought to my attention, okay! One of my teachers, my ex-office mate, an old neighbor, one of my young women advisors, two of my sons, and several others have all emailed me and highlighted the error of my ways.

My twelve year old caught the error 30 seconds after I posted it.

"Mom, you messed up," he said, and then he began reading it. Fourth, I'm a writer! Fourth."If you're a writer, why'd you write Fourth twice?"

"I'm a writer," I said. "Writers are good with letters, not numbers."

My 2nd counselor asked me if I was being ironic because I bragged about how organized I was right before listing Fourth for the second time.

Ironically I can be ironic without even trying. One of my many mad skillz.

But fer reals, I'm pretty upfront about the fact that I'm dumb, right? So get over it.

And anyway, I cain't change it now. Once the profile is posted it's tattooed across the collective conscious. And sub conscious. You will always remember me as the girl who could make five points in four shots.

So I decided on my back up plan if I don't win this job. I'm going to write a novel about a harsh dystopian society where 20 people are thrown together in an arena and forced to fight it out to the death over a Good Mood Blogging job. I'm going to call it The Voting Games. The main characters will be joyologists and joy fairies and chief happiness officers who love puppies and cupcakes and all things sparkly. (Especially vampires.) They will be passionate, adventurous, infectious, optimistic, vibrant and enthusiastic characters who use exclamation points, lemonade, mustache bandanas and cleavage as weapons.

In the sequel, the winner will get to marry Bill Shakespeare.

I'm going to call that one Catching Fire.

Get it? Catching Fire?

Ba dum bum