The giveaway where I make you work

I am on a plane today with Savannah, flying to what might possibly be the very smallest town in existence in Missouri, visiting my grandparents. My hubby is back home holding down the fort and probably reveling in the fact that he will be eating bachelor food for the next few nights. I believe that frozen pizza and chili dogs and hamburgers are the only things on the menu. Nary a spinach leaf in sight.

So, today is my 200th post! Honestly, I hadn't planned on doing anything about it initially. It has taken me so long to get to this point that it's almost embarrassing.

But I do love to do a giveaway. And, as I alluded to in my last post, I am in need of your help. So I am combining the two in a sneaky effort to pull out some creative ideas from you, my invisible friends.

So here's the deal:

I am in the midst of deciding whether or not to start a little blog design business. I've played with it the past several months, and have done several for friends. And I love it (I actually love figuring out the code more than the design part - how's that for exposing my inner geek?). Some of the girls I've helped out have really encouraged me to jump in and just do it; I am still vacillating.

But regardless of whether I actually start it for profit, or whether I keep doing freebies, I'd like to set up a separate page. And to do this I need a name.

And I have not a clue what I want to name it.

So this is where you all come in. I know some of you are far more creative than I am, so I need your suggestions!

Now, the good part - what's in it for you?

Well. I haven't quite figured all of that out yet. It will be several different things, but the main thing that I know you will be interested in is a $20 gift card.

I was going to purchase one to Starbucks, but it has come to my attention that not all of you are Starbucks aficionados. So I'll give the winner a choice; Starbucks, Target, Sonic, or...let's say Chik-fil-A. Because that's what sounds good to me right now, and it will give me an excuse to drive to the one that is completely on the other side of town.

To be entered, you have to leave a suggestion for the name of the blog design business. It can be anything; trust me, there are no ideas that are too silly. I won't laugh at you. At least not any harder than I did at my hubby when he suggested "Jericho"; he came up with that one right after he finished doing some Bible study in Joshua. To be fair, he scoffed with equal fervor at my suggestion of "Sweet Savannah Designs".

You can see why I'm turning to you.

As for picking the winner, the following extremely random steps will apply; if my hubby and I agree on one that we love, that person will be declared the winner. If for some reason we cannot agree, I will do a random drawing.

I am moderating comments on this post since I'll be gone. And I cannot wait to come back and see what you all have thrown out there.

Thanks for helping a sister out!

On the cleaning warpath - and Project 365, Week 17

What I'd like to know is this; why do I have this huge compulsion to clean my house right before I go on a trip?

It never hits me at any other time, this weird need to have everything spotless. I'm usually ok if everything is just picked up. But give me a departure date and a plane ticket, and suddenly I can't scrub everything fast enough. And then? I'm not even around to enjoy it. I don't get it.

We're leaving this week for our short trip to Missouri, and I have been cleaning like a maniac all day today. And also planting a few flowers to try and brighten up our back yard.

Something about cleaning a lot tends to stress me out. I know it is a stress reliever for a lot of people, but I can't stand the thought that all of the hard work I just did is going to get messed up in a matter of minutes. And so I think I snapped a few times at poor Savannah, who would follow along behind me and, well, mess things up. Because she's 3 and she likes to play and she doesn't get why she should be banned from playing just because Mommy is a little off her rocker. I'm sorry, baby.

I wanted to post a few Project 365 pictures, since I completely missed last week.



Thanks to Sara for hosting!

I'll be back to post once again before I go. My 200th post is coming up (which sounds like such a low number to me, considering how long I've been blogging. Hmmm...must be the erratic and sparse blogging schedule I adhere to). Anyway, I think I want to do a little giveaway. But I'm going to make you work for it, because I need your input on something. So come by and help a sister out!

Happy Monday, y'all.

A dream come true....sort of

I believe I've mentioned a time or twenty that at the very top of my wish list is a piano. Preferably a baby grand, black and shiny.

Never mind the fact that we have no room in our house for one....I'd make room. Couches in the living room? Who needs those?

But hubby maintains, and I know he's right, that it would just be too crowded even for an upright, so I sigh and agree with him, and continue to dream.

Today we went to Kohls to see what kind of clearance deals we could snag. Savannah and Ricardo headed straight for the toys, while I shopped in the lingerie section (which, let me tell you, was a huge, huge exercise in futility).

I'm wandering among the many aisles of undergarments, where there was plenty of selection, just none in the right color and size for me, when Ricardo and Savannah found me. He was toting a big box and sporting a huge smile, and he said, "Look what I found!"

It was a keyboard. I started to smile and scoff in that, "Yeah, right" way, because after all, we're at Kohls. Not the best known for their excellent selection of electroncis, you know? But then he told me the price; originally $100, but marked down to $9.99.

Right there in the lingerie deparment, he found a plug, knelt down on the floor, took it out of the box, plugged it in, and tested it out. Oh, how I wish I had my camera at that moment. And, oh how happy he was that I did not. He kept muttering, "I feel weird doing this over here..."

The keyboard worked. And unlike other super cheapy keyboards I've tried, on this one you could play actual chords, instead of just two warbly sounding notes at a time. A definite bonus.

So the keyboard came home with us. Savannah was in heaven.

Here's what the little beauty (ahem) looks like. Don't laugh - it's better than nothing.




Now if I can just ignore the fact that the label says "Spectrum" instead of "Steinway", we'll be in business. That, and the fact that the keys are super small, and when I go to play an octave, my fingers keep overshooting and the result is some majorly disonant sounds. And of course, no sustain pedal. I did mention it was $9.99, right?

Who says dreams don't come true?

Flip Flop Frenzy

So, yesterday I put on my cute little black wedge sandals and went shopping.

I was feeling mighty sassy at first, but then, since I obviously haven't worn them all winter, they begin to rub a little. After about 3 hours of walking around, they were really starting to rub. A lot. My poor little feet were so happy to get home and kick those shoes off. So much for vanity.

And then as I was inspecting the damage done in the form of little red welts on the top of my feet, it hit me - Linda's Flip Flop Frenzy. Today. Where we all show off our brand new shoes that our flip-flop buddy sent us. The kind of event where you are expected to take pictures of your feet, self-inflicted welts not withstanding.

However, the only redeeming factor that I have going on right now is that I got an amazing, relaxing, paraffin-dipping pedicure on Monday, thanks to a lovely gift card from some friends.

So maybe you'll focus on the pretty toes instead.

I was matched with the lovely Jamie from Purposeful Pursuit. I don't know about you, but I get so giddy when I get real mail, so I was thrilled when I got my package from her.

Aren't these darling?

And these little bracelets are the best color combination ever...I think that Savannah is going to fight me for them, though.

Jamie also sent along a little bottle of pink polish for Savannah, which thrilled her to no end. I had no peace until I sat down and painted her toes. Don't look too closely, I never claimed to be a pedicurist.

Jamie, thank you so much - I couldn't have asked for anything better! And thanks to Linda for hosting!

The vacation in my mind

If I could pick one of my favorite things in the world, sleeping in would be pert near the top of that list.

That might possibly make me sound lazy, but it's true. I love it. I don't always get to, but this fine Saturday morning, my hubby was home, and so he took care of Savananh while I blissfully snoozed away part of the morning.

At 9:15 I was half-awake and I heard him tell Savannah that they were going to take a walk. I sprang out of bed in my fuzzy state - fuzzy brain, fuzzy hair, fuzzy teeth - and stumbled to the living room where they stared at me as I announced that I wanted to go with them.

There is a truck stop about a half-mile or so away from our house, and this is where we occasionally rent our $1 Redbox movies. (Whoever invented Redbox? Genius.) We rented a couple of movies last night - Slumdog Millionaire for us, Dora for Savannah - and so they were just going to walk down the road and return them.

They waited for me to throw on some clothes and brush my teeth, and then we set off on our walk. It had rained all day yesterday, but this morning was bright and beautiful. There was a slight chill in the air so we wrapped Savannah in a blanket.

There is something....I don't know, special, I guess, about doing something with your family that you don't normally do. We take walks in the evening, but walking to a truck stop at 9:30 in the morning is not usually on our daily list of activities. We had to cross a busy street to reach it, and we were surrounded by the roar of semi-trucks speeding past.

We haven't taken a road trip in a long, long time, but just walking into the parking lot of that truck stop made me want to drop everything and drive to California. Or Pennsylvania. Or Idaho. Anywhere.

We returned our movies, and then Ricardo wanted to go look around inside. So we joined all of the travelers from everywhere wandering around and we wandered, too, looking at all of the over-priced packages of gummy bears and dried fruit, bratwursts riding a sizzling carousel under a hot light and cases of stale donuts. (To which Savannah said, "Hey, donuts! Can I have a treat?" Umm....no..) A lady walked by with a bag full of licorice, cherry red and green apple, and a guy stood at the coffee dispensing machine, and taste-tested all of the different flavors available, glancing around to see if anybody was watching him.

We didn't buy anything, just looked and people watched, and then left five minutes later. We walked away and I told Ricardo, "All truck stops are the same, aren't they? Don't you feel like you've just been on a little vacation?"

He smiled and nodded.

And then we walked back to our house, home from our mini-vacation.