Nike and iPod Sport Giveaway

I am giving away an iPod Sport. We all ran around this holiday season doing for everyone under the sun. We all ate everything under the sun, too. This will help you know how much you're running around in the future.

Anyone with a U.S. mailing address may enter.

Entries:

Leave a comment here for an entry. Your comment can be about the prize, my blog, your blog, my cute puppy, your cute puppy, a funny story, pretty much anything interesting.

(Please, no comments saying "Enter me" or "Neat contest!" or "Mine, Mine Mine!" or any other lame-o non comment. Also, no sob stories about how you/your daughter/your mailman didn't get a Christmas this year, chewed off your last working limb to feed it to your/your neighbor's starving children, need to send your child to Fiji for medical reasons or any other lame-o sob story. Everybody has a story which could surely break our hearts. A contest entry is absolutely not the place for said story. Not now, not ever, not in this or any other contest in the world. You know who you are - or maybe you don't? Anyway, I'm telling you now. Please cooperate. The rest of the world thanks you in advance. Lame-o comments or sob stories will be disqualified.)

Subscribe to my blog by using the subscribe button at right, leave a comment letting me know you subscribed, with the email address you used to subscribe.

Blog about this contest and leave a comment directing back to your blog.

Follow tammigirl (that's me!) on twitter.

Post a tweet on twitter and leave a comment here directing back to the link.

Send an email about this contest to your friends and copy me. Then come here and leave a comment saying you did.

Leave a link to this contest anywhere tens of people will see it and leave the link to wherever you dropped it here in a comment.

I will use a random number generator to choose the winner. Entries which do not follow the rules will be disqualified, but will not be removed from the comment queue. This way people can snicker with their friends about how some people did not follow the rules and will surely be disqualified.

*The first ten people to enter the contest will each be eligible to receive five bonus entries. If you believe yourself to be one of the first ten legitimate entries you may make five more entries by leaving up to five comments asking for your bonus entry. Please wait until each of the first ten entries has been made before you begin asking for your bonus entries.

Make sure I have a way to contact you. If you win and I can't figure out how to reach you then you really didn't win, did you?

Good luck!

Christmas Is So Close, I Can Hear It Breathing!

Yesterday the mall was crowded! No surprise there, huh? The final Saturday before Christmas and people sure were crabby with their families as they shopped. This year I did almost all of my shopping online. I did about 90% of my shopping on Etsy and Amazon. Never before has Christmas shopping been so stress free. Of course, there's still the not-so-trivial matter of deciding on gifts which are 'just perfect'.

The only reason I was at the mall yesterday is because I was the chauffeur for a group of teens. They shopped and did whatever teens do at the mall, which likely included loud moments in Chipotle and/or the food court, while I walked around the mall browsing shops I don't usually enter. I watched dozens of children anticipating their turn with Santa, had a kiddie burger in Johnny Rockets, and engaged in conversations with a few strangers.

Mostly, though, I just walked around with a big honkin' grin on my face because I was happy to not be stressed over shopping. I could still use some stocking stuffers, but frankly I'm leaning towards filling their stockings with Slim Jims and candy and gum because: a) I'm lazy, and b) They are big so there wont be so much judgment about me giving a metric ton of candy to smaller children (which I would also do, just sayin') and c) We seem to have hit the point where suitable stocking stuffers are much more difficult to come by.

I hope your Christmas season has been as comfortable as mine. I hope you have everything you need to fill Christmas with love and joy and laughter and memories. Check back here for something very special. If you're one of the first to find it, you'll be glad you were. That's all I'm going to say - for now.

LOL: Legacy Of Love

It's a difficult thing to put into words. The two sitters in this photo have given everyone who knows them a lot to think about. Once a person comes into their home they feel warm and welcome. They belong. That's a big deal all by itself, and a great thing to teach. They never give up their dignity, or try to take yours away. That's not so say they aren't a lot of fun, because they are. My grandparents are 82 years old this year, by the spring of 2009 they will be 83. They have been married 65 years. (I think they're both more fit than I am.)

How can I explain to people who have never met them the magic of a popsicle, or a lunch box? Or a pudding cup or noodles rolled out on the table? Could you possibly understand the tragedy of the Ben Franklin stove being removed from the front room? How the the triumph is when everything stays the same? Somehow I doubt it.

I invite everyone to try to be as great as them. And if you can't do that, I invite you to, at very least, create a legacy of love for your family as special as they have done for us.

*Those people standing in the back? A bunch of rabble-rousers. My mother, aunt, and uncles.

Get This, Travel Industry:

I do not want to go on a repositioning cruise, no matter how low you price it. No, not even for $39 a day does this sound like a fun idea to me. Unless, of course, I can 'reposition' to the exact same place I started in the first place for super cheap as well. Then, all I need is the magic element of time.

You see, although I live a life of total freedom from any responsibility, my husband and children seem tied to these 'responsibilities'. I warned them against this type of thing, but nobody listens to me. Apparently they can't even admit to themselves how much they want to emulate my life of total glamor. Silly, silly people. The dog enjoys the same freedoms I do, but he has no passport.

Hints? Tips? Suggestions? I'm all ears.

Hale Farm and Village: Bath, Ohio

We're accidental tourists. We were looking for a place for lunch and got kind of (way) off course. The countryside was pretty, so we weren't complaining. But we were hungry. All of the sudden I saw a sign and whipped into the driveway. It was NOT McDonalds. It was Hale Farm and Village. "I used to come here where I was a kid!" I exclaimed to my husband. Most men would be bewildered, but he took it all in stride. He suggested we should go in. We did.

We paid for our entry and I grabbed his hand and took him first to the tiny little cabin across the creek. From our first step inside that door we were mesmerized. The ladies shared information with us about windows and ladders and crazy amounts of people living in the small space. (Nine children in one room all winter!) We visited areas where people were making candles, making baskets, weaving on looms, and spinning wool. We spoke with many intelligent and lively people who were each enjoying their job and making it a memorable experience for us. We walked in the rain sans umbrella with no care at all. We weathered a tornado alert in what I think is the most beautiful building in all of the village. They played the piano and sang songs, all while staying in character - and in 1863. A beautiful little girl danced around the room while adults sang The Battle Hymn of the republic. It was magical. What a great mistake we'd made that day! We enjoyed it so much we took our children back a week later.

What an interesting and fun place. If you are in the area I suggest you take a day and check it out.

*The picture is the family in front of the Hale House.

MsGulliver, You Are a Winner!

A winner has been selected using a random number generator. The randomizer says the lucky number is #2: msgulliver! Congratulations! I hope you enjoy the book.

"Petite Anglaise" available today in the U.S.

Some of us have been reading Catherine's blog for years. We've been expecting this book and waiting for the day it would be available here in the United States. Today's the day! Here's a chance to win the book, which is certain to be a good read. Her blog, even when you would like to jump in and offer girlfriendy (or even motherly) advice, keeps you coming back for more. I told you about her quite a while ago. Did you go read? If you would like to win a copy of her book, leave a comment. Please make sure I have a way to contact you if you win, either on your blog, or via email.

Your comment can be about her blog, this blog, your blog, your puppy, your flower garden, your new handbag - whatever, just try to make it interesting for us. Anyone may leave a comment at any time, but the book will only be shipped to a U.S. address. Deadline for entries is June 30th at noon EST. Good luck!

A trip around the sun with few blog posts to show for it

Shame on me! I've hardly posted at all in the past year. You don't need to scroll too far down the page to see the post about graduation - in 2007.

Sometimes life is a lot like "Lather, rinse, repeat", isn't it? This year there was another senior year in our house. Another prom. Another graduation! The puppy is still wonderful, the prizes are still being won.

So this is me this fall: THREE KIDS IN COLLEGE. When did this happen? My cousin recently reminded me about the time we were on the phone and I said to her "Carrie, I have to go. Michael is coming down the hall with a watermelon again!" Michael was probably four or five at the time. He graduated last Sunday.

In an email another cousin sent to me just three days ago: "You were right when you told me so many years ago that despite moms telling me it would go fast I couldn't appreciate it until it happened. It does go fast...too fast. I mean you have three kids that have already graduated high school and here I was feeling old cuz Adriana was going into middle school! :p"

Thanks, Melisa, for reminding me that no matter how old you feel, I'm older. And her email was well timed, too. She sent it just a day before my birthday.