Bloggy Giveaways

All right my first giveaway! I have wanted to do one for a while as a way to get some of the lurkers to come out. I was reading a blog and came across this wonderful mother of all giveaways. Currently there are over 700 giveaways to enter!! The question is, how long will it take you to enter them all?! But before you go enter other giveaways, keep reading and enter my giveaway. Then you can go see what other people are giving away.

I have some vinyl wall graffiti to give away! It says, "Cinderella is proof that a new pair of shoes can change your life." It's in a cutesy font with little stars. I can't take a picture of it because of the tape on top of it. However if you are unfamiliar with vinyl wall graffiti, here are a few pictures of some. Careful, you might become addicted to this stuff!





Alright now to the rules and how to enter. I will ship anywhere in the domestic U.S. (sorry for any inconvenience). All you have to do is leave a comment. Be sure to put your name and e-mail because Anonymous entries will be excluded. All entries must be received by Sunday, February 3rd 11:59 p.m. CST. The winner will be announced Monday morning. Good luck! Remember to check out the other giveaways too!

UPDATE

Since checking the stat counter is my new favorite hobby, I thought I'd share one more way someone made it to my blog today. Google "Walmart bowling shoes" and the fifth one down brings you to me. Only the internet could bring someone searching for Wal-Mart bowling shoes to me. I didn't even know Wal-Mart made bowling shoes. Do they??

The Invisible Counter

I just recently added an invisible counter to my blog, courtesy of Stat Counter. If you have a blog and don't have this, you totally need to sign up. It's free! It is so neat because not only does it tell you how many times people viewed your blog each day, it tells you where they are from and their path. I noticed someone logged on from Hawaii. I thought that that was pretty cool because most of the people that log on are from the northeast. I then checked the path of how they got to my blog. The person from Hawaii Googled "swallowed penny effects". Sure enough if you Google that, I'm the third site that pops up among medical sites. How funny is that!?! So yesterday two people actually logged on to my site from searching for information on swallowing a penny. Another person found my site through Googling "Sears Portrait Package". It's amazing to see how people get to my blog, even if it is for a second or two. Many of them come from my Sister-in-law, Alice's, blog. So fun! Sign up for this free counter if you don't have it already!!

A Blonde Moment

Miss Teen South Carolina's answer to a judge's question on why many Americans can't find their country on a map."I personally believe that U.S. Americans are unable to do so because, uh, some people out there in our nation don't have maps, and, uh, I believe that our education like such as in South Africa and, uh, the Iraq everywhere like, such as and I believe that they should, our education over here in the U.S. should help the U.S., er, should help South Africa and should help the Iraq and the Asian countries, so we will be able to build up our future for our children."

I haven't been blogging as much because I have felt like there's nothing really that has happened that is blogworthy. My husband reminded me of an incident from this weekend and asked if I had blogged about it yet. This blonde moment of mine is blogworthy.

To set this little story up, I have to start share some background knowledge. We received a free dishwasher back in February from a member of Freecycle. I immediately gave up the cabinet space for it. However, the dishwasher just sat and sat. On Christmas Eve, my wonderful hubby decided it would be the perfect time to install the dishwasher. This was his thinking...I am finally going to install that dishwasher. It will be perfect timing with Christmas and we are having guests over for a big Christmas breakfast. Here was my thinking...Are you nuts?!!? I have to cook for the party tonight and the party tomorrow afternoon. I have to clean the house for the 10 or so guests Christmas morning. We have a party at 6. UGH!!!!!! After going to my mom's to cook, Jordan showing up late to the party, cleaning the house late that night, and running the first load of dishes in the dishwasher (which didn't even make it through the entire cycle before messing up), I was frustrated to say the least. We were without hot water in the kitchen sink for the big Christmas breakfast. The day after Christmas, Jordan fixed the dishwasher (since every place was closed late Christmas Eve and Christmas Day).

The first few days that I was home while Jordan was at work, I admit I was a little scared to use the dishwasher. I loaded it anyway, and started the dishwasher-anxiously awaiting something bad to happen. I was so excited when it made it longer than it did the first time without breaking. However, the dishwasher kept running even though the knob had hit off and even past it. I just stopped the dishwasher by opening it. I didn't know why it wouldn't stop. I took the dishes out. They were a little dirty still. I did not want to tell Jordan that the dishwasher wasn't working AGAIN. I hand washed the dishes and didn't say a word. I tried another load. The same thing happened. I kept thinking, "Great, I have a dishwasher, but can't even use it." I couldn't tell Jordan. He was too excited about having installed it and it work. I continued to wash the dishes by hand for a few days. Finally, after a big meal, I loaded the dishwasher one more time. This time when I closed the dishwasher, I made sure all of the right buttons were pushed. I looked very carefully at the dial. Then I saw something that I had never noticed before-A NOTCH. I took a step back and totally felt like an idiot. The dishwasher worked fine. I had not noticed the notch and apparently had been turning the dial looking at the opposite end. Such a BLONDE MOMENT! In my defense, the dishwasher is black and so is the dial. The notch is black too so it doesn't stand out like some dishwashers that are white with gray notches. Maybe I should paint the notch so it's easier to see. I am so glad that I didn't tell Jordan that he needed to fix the dishwasher. I would've felt like more of an idiot if he would've been the one to tell me about the notch.

The Cousin's Party

We have a lot of traditions on my Mom's side of the family during the month of December. One of them is the cousin's party. My grandpa and his siblings have a nice dinner party one night while the kids have their own party (the cousin's party). This year's party was at the creek. We ate, went on a hayride, the adults swapped crazy white elephant gifts, and the boys jumped into the cold creek while it was pitch black like crazy kids. My Aunt Kim brought a girl with her to the party. She said she had been on a hayride before. However, our redneck hayride is unlike anything that she had encountered. We had a lot of fun. This is always our favorite thing to go to. I took tons of pictures on the hayride, but it was pitch black outside and the flash made Carson blink in almost every picture. I'm slide show happy so here are the pictures from the cousin's party in a slide show.

The Slide Show

I finally figured out how to do a slide show! Hooray! These are all of the pictures from the Tennessee Trip. I know I already posted some, but since I figured out how to do the slide show I have to post it!

Turning off the Computer

Normally my blog entries consist of pictures and stories of our family. My sister-in-law, Alice, hates blogs like that. She reads mine because she has to (plus we're so far away she can keep up with what's going on in our lives). Her blog is full of funny stories. Check it out...after you finish reading this entry. Anyway, this entry has some humor in it...just for you Alice!

I have two e-mail accounts that I check regularly. One I created when I got married, goldengirlof85@yahoo.com and the other meagangold@gmail.com. I have reasons for having both accounts. The yahoo e-mail lets me have access to yahoo groups like freecycle, LDS YW, and FHE Swap. The gmail account is my "adult" account. This is the one I use on my resume and at FSU. It sounds more grown up than some silly goldengirl one. Anyway, I have noticed that within the past few weeks when signing in to my yahoo account that the num lock key has not been on (since I need it for my address). It is ALWAYS on. It's been bugging me because I'll attempt to sign in and the screen will say that the user and/or password is not correct. I'll look and see that the 85 was not typed in. Sure enough, the num lock key light is not on. Tonight I have figured out why that keeps happening.

We were getting ready for bed. Carson stopped and said, "Mommy, turn the computer off." Normally we leave it on. I don't know why, we just do (maybe because we're afraid that it won't come back on since it's 6 years old). Before I could say anything, Carson ran to the computer. In the past he's turned the monitor off, so I assumed that that was what he was going to do. Instead, he pushed the num lock key first, and then turned the monitor off. He did not even hesitate at which key to hit. Since the light for the num lock key went off when he pushed it, just like the monitor, he thought he was doing me a favor and turning off the computer. My num lock mystery was solved.

Pictures from Vacation in Tennessee

Alright I totally gave up on the whole slide show thing. Alice, you'll have to help me. I uploaded my pictures to Flickr, but couldn't figure out how to put them on my blog. So anyway, here are the pictures. First, we made our way to Knoxville to see Alice and LeGrand and nieces. Carson had so much fun with the nieces. Now I am missing having someone to play with Carson. Here's a picture of Bella and Carson eating olives. What kind of kids eat olives?? Next we traveled from Knoxville to Waynesboro, VA to visit Jordan's cousin Joe. They have two girls, one is a few months older than Carson. They were fun to watch because they're both two. Mason and Carson played together, but then had their two year old "this is mine" fights. While visiting cousin Joe, Carson got to play with the adult's toys. Carson loves tractors so he was so excited that uncle Dirk had a tractor he could ride. As if that wasn't enough, cousin Jarrett's toy is a bus he bought. Seriously who owns a bus???! It cracks me up. After Virginia, we went to Jordan's parent's house in Kingsport, TN. While we were there, it snowed. I LOVE the snow!! It's so magical. I guess it's because I'm a Florida girl. However, Carson did not have the same outlook on the snow. He thought it was neat to watch, but when we came out to play in it he did not like it. This picture is of him running back inside. We also went to the new natural history museum while we were there too. Carson had a blast digging for bones.
We ended up having a wonderful trip. Now I have tons of catching up to do...laundry, Christmas decor packed away, etc. That's always the worst part about coming home from a trip.

A Much Needed Vacation and an Unfortunate Event

We just got back from our trip up to Tennessee to visit Jordan's family. Can I just say I LOOOOOOOOVE Tennessee. Now that I have graduated, Jordan needs to hurry up and finish school so we can move there! Jordan had 2 weeks off for Christmas vacation. We decided to go to Tennessee for a week. We visited Jordan's brother Legrand's family in Knoxville, cousin Joe's family in Virginia, and his mom and dad back in Kingsport, Tennessee. It was a lot of driving, but it was a blast! It even snowed while we were up there! Check out the slide show.

****UPDATE - Alright I am trying to figure out the slide show thing. I uploaded my pics to flickr, but it's too late and I'm not understanding how to get them here. So I will work on that...

When we got back home, I had a message for an interview on Wednesday. We got back Thursday. I was so bummed at the missed opportunity. I called the lady back that night and she said I could probably interview Friday. Friday I called back and she said they had already filled that position. It was frustrating, but I'm sure something better will come along.