The Trials of a Busy Mom

Category: contests (Page 2 of 7)

It’s VOTING time!

Friends, I posted about my entry to win a room makeover from the fabulous Mandi Here. Well, the time is now come to go wild and vote! You just need to go to Mandi’s blog HERE and cast your vote for #40. That’s my post about my boring, colorless bedroom. And then after you have voted, you can post a link to the contest on facebook and ask your friends to vote for me, you can post on your blog and ask your readers to vote for me, and you can call your mom and ask HER to vote for me (that’s what I’ll be doing, at least). You don’t have to have a blog to vote (at least I don’t think so) and you don’t have to have a facebook account to vote, you just need an email address. And I could REALLY use your votes, cause I totally would love to have a bedroom makeover!!!
Voting runs from midnight tonight (April 30) until May 2nd.

Thanks!!

Marvelous Makeover by Mandi!

bamboo wood floors; french doors; muted colors; vaulted ceiling traditional bedroom

Let’s talk about the bedroom, shall we? The bedroom is supposed to be “the sanctuary”, the “oasis of calm”, “where the magic happens” and all that. Right.

Wakefield Residence modern bedroom

When we got married, we used my husband’s old WATERBED that he had used for about 10 years. A waterbed? Really? You know how much fun it is to be pregnant and try to get out of a waterbed? Yeah. Real fun. So when we moved into our current house almost 10 years ago, we did not bring the waterbed with us. It felt like totally luxury to be sleeping in a REAL bed, on a REAL mattress. Not the highest quality furniture, I assure you. We were moving into a bigger house with a bigger mortgage, and at the time of our closing and move, my husband was unemployed. That’s right. Unemployed. As in, we really had no way to PAY for the nice new house, and were living on faith that he would soon find a job.

He DID eventually find a job, and we were always able to pay our mortgage. And as the family has grown and changed, I’ve had fun painting the kids’ bedrooms, and even painted our family room and living room. But NOT the bedroom. Funny, I just thought of the Sandra Boynton Book, But Not the Hippopotamus right there. You know, how all the cats and rats in their new running hats….
book

I LOVE that book, don’t you? Well, that’s how our bedroom has felt. Every other room gets some kind of paint job or work done on it, but the bedroom is left out.

It’s not like I haven’t TRIED. I’ve moved the bed around the room, trying to find the ‘right’ place for it. I’ve even made curtains. I’ve brought in a bookcase, taken out that bookcase when I needed it for the girls’ room, brought in a cute little rocking chair that I inherited from my grandma (but it just seems to be a place to hang clothes on it, let’s be honest). I’ve tried. But I can’t seem to commit to anything. I haven’t figured out what I WANT that room to look like. I’m not complaining about my room. We have a bed and dressers and a tv. It’s functional, just not fabulous.

bed

But there’s no STYLE. There’s no PERSONALITY. There’s no COLOR.

Nate Berkus would tell me to paint the walls a nice soft blue or green and then go with neutral or white bedding, right? But would he tell me how to position my bed with the windows that aren’t symmetrical, or what to do with the shelf on the wall, or how to make the room really SPECIAL?
Yes, I’m sure he would. But sadly, Nate has not volunteered to come out and do a bedroom makeover.

BUT– We have the next best thing! Mandi at Vintage Revival has been called the MacGyver of DIYers. I discovered Mandi when she made this teapot lamp on Studio 5.

I think she can make anything look pretty, and she doesn’t seem to be afraid to tackle ANY kind of project.

She could probably make a quilt out of gum wrappers, make a sofa out of old tires and patio furniture, and I’m sure she could do WONDERS with my bedroom.
Because talented Mandi is holding a CONTEST! A contest, wherein the winner of said contest (hopefully ME) gets to have the lovely Mandi come to their home, and makeover a chosen room. I could have MANDI in my bedroom! Wait, that didn’t exactly come out right. Mandi could help ME decorate our bedroom!

We’d be all painting together and doing some kind of fun glazing technique on the dresser, making window treatments, and I would feed her brownies and run and get a Cafe Rio chicken salad for her while she’s working hard designing and making something MARVELOUS out of my bland bedroom. We could chat about our mutual love for Nate (while I have attended Nate’s show, she has actually been a GUEST on his show! How cool is that?!), and be BFFs forever! And you know, if she saw other boring areas in my house that were crying out for some kind of cool clock or fireplace mantel or….something…I sure wouldn’t stop her from taking over my entire house, because I’m sure she could do wonders with it!

So all I’ve got to do is win this contest! Easy, right? Not so easy. This is where YOU come in. This post is linked up to the Vintage Revivals Contest page and then, once the voting is open, from April 30 to May 4th, we all vote for me! Perhaps through our collective charm and charisma, we can get all our friends to vote for me, and our friend’s moms to vote for me, and that one creepy friend who stalks your blog to vote for me. If you feel inclined to post this on your blog and ask your readers to vote for me–all the better!

Let’s get Mandi here to put some pizzaz in that bedroom! (Again–sounds a little weird, but you know what I mean.)

How to do New York on the cheap

We decided to keep track of our expenses in New York, just to see how much our “free trip” cost us, and Ryan whipped out a little program on his phone and REALLY kept track. Every souvenir, even snacks he wrote down. I was kind of hoping he wouldn’t be so vigilant about the record keeping, but it was interesting to know how much we were really spending.

We already had the most expensive part covered. The prize included the airfare and the hotel, which was the MAJOR expense.

Date Category Description Amount
21-Mar Travel 2 bags checked $50.00
21-Mar Food Lunch at DFW $9.00
21-Mar Taxis Taxi from LaGuardia to Hotel $35.00
21-Mar Food Long Room NYC $36.47
21-Mar Food Walgreens (Snacks) $11.46
22-Mar Travel MetroCards (2) $58.00
22-Mar Food Lunch at the Met $22.50
22-Mar Clothing Hat $14.62
22-Mar Entertainment CityPass (2) $158.00
22-Mar Food Oatmeal $5.99
22-Mar Food Hi-Chew $3.46
23-Mar Taxis Taxi to Nate Burkus Show $7.00
23-Mar Food Lunch at Mangia Salad Bar $21.00
24-Mar Food Lunch at Ellis Island $22.32
24-Mar Souvenirs Souvenirs at Ellis Island $12.84
24-Mar Souvenirs Liberty Bear $13.07
24-Mar Souvenirs Souvenirs — Empire State Bldg. $27.40
24-Mar Food Baja Fresh $20.46
25-Mar Entertainment Hotel Internet $19.37
25-Mar Food Snacks at Central Park $12.00
25-Mar Tips Bag handling tips, etc. $7.00
25-Mar Taxis Taxi to JFK $60.00
25-Mar Food Dinner at JFK $24.41
26-Mar Travel Parking at SLC Airport $35.00

TOTAL: $686.37

If you break it down into categories, we spent
$85 on checking bags and parking (could have avoided that $50 if we were flying Delta or Jet Blue, or if we had not checked bags, and the parking fee if we had had someone drop us off and pick us up)
$102 on taxis (if we really wanted to be frugal, we could have taken public transit to and from the airport, but that just sounded like a huge pain)
$162.15 on meals. We went out to dinner with an associate of Ryan’s one night, and he picked up the tab. That was our most expensive dinner and we didn’t have to pay! The rest of the time, we didn’t really plan our meals, but when we were hungry, looked to see what was around. While not cheap, our lunches and dinners averaged about $25 each. Our hotel did not offer us free breakfast, but we made oatmeal in our room and that was good enough for breakfast.
$26.92 on snacks. We stopped in at Walgreens and got some snacks to drag along with us, and I also had packed some snacks from home, including a few bottles of diet coke in my checked luggage. Everything in NY is more expensive, so I should have let Ryan pick out snacks here at home, and we could have saved on the snacks. But sometimes, you are starving and just HAVE to buy a hot dog and some nuts in central park.
$158 on the New York Citypass. This is a real money saver! It included admission to ALL the attractions we went to, and we did them all. There were also a few extras that were included, like the audio tour at the Empire State Building, which was included with the city pass, and even though I would never have paid the extra cost, it was really a neat way to view the city and learn. And it saved us standing in a few lines to purchase tickets, so it was WELL worth the cost.
$67.93 on souvenirs. Yes, we are totally cheap. I would have liked to have gotten a really cute purse, but I didn’t end up doing that. The only thing I bought for myself was a hat, and it was kind of a necessity because it was cold and windy. We bought some stuff for the kids, and that was it.
$58.00 on two week long Metro cards. Even though we were only there 5 days, the week long metro cards were worth it. Otherwise we’d have to buy a ton of single use cards for $2.50 each, and that would have cost even more money.
$26.37 misc. This includes tips and internet. We used Ryan’s loaner smart phone for most of the time, but did splurge on one nights internet charges (almost $20 for internet each night is so steep, we tried to do without it)

We didn’t see any Broadway shows, which would have seriously upped our total. We instead attended tv show tapings, which was also really fun.

So, there you have it. Our grand total for 5 days in New York City was under $700! How’s that for cheap?

Here’s to the Big Apple

Back in November, I was lucky enough to win a contest. A big contest, actually. A ‘shopping trip’ to NYC! It was during a promotion of four weeks of fly-aways from a local country station (101.5 the Eagle, to be specific). There were four different trips to concerts, etc, and honestly, I won the best one! Because it wasn’t associated with an event, I was able to push the trip back to a time when I could actually go, hence the after roadshow scheduling. When I was talking with Stacey, from Stoney Creek Records, she was great about the scheduling. The prize was supposed to be two nights hotel and the flights, plus $500 spending cash. But when I was scheduling, she told me she could just pay for two more nights of the hotel instead of giving me a giftcard, if I wanted. YES! Especially since the hotel is $300 per night! So, it should be a pretty fun trip.

I bought City Passes for us, so for one price we can now go to:
The Empire State Building
American Museum of Natural History
The Museum of Modern Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
and then we can choose either ther Top of the Rock tour or the Guggenheim, and chose The Statue Cruise or the Circle line Cruise

And if that weren’t enough to do, I’ve got us tickets to see the Late Show with David Letterman for Tuesday (so you could tune in Tuesday night and maybe catch a glimpse of us in the crowd!) I was a little worried when I got the call from the Late Show, and they told me I had to call a guy named Jack and answer a trivia question before they would let me have tickets. UGH! What kind of trivia question? Do I have to watch teh show every night? Do I have to know who the guest was the day before? So I googled something like “trivia questions for Late Show tickets”, and read up about other people’s experiences. I also took a quiz to prepare me. (Questions like ‘where did Dave go to school (can’t remember), what is the name of the production company (worldwide pants), who is Biff Henderson, what is the name of the Deli nearby (Hello Deli), and who runs it (Rupert G) and stuff like that. I read a few different web pages about Dave and the history of the show, and then I gathered my courage to call Jack. He put me on hold for a minute, then asked me the big question, “Alan Kalter has been a part of the show for many years. What is his job?” I knew that one right away! He’s the announcer! And it’s a good thing they didn’t ask me, “who is the announcer”, because while I would have said Alan right away, I don’t think I could have come up with his last name. So, tickets we have!

I also requested tickets for the Nate Berkus Show on Wednesday (not sure when that will be televised, but I’ll let you know). Isn’t he the cutest?

He’s the guy with the good hair, not the other guy who works at Lowe’s, by the way. Ryan may think I’m challenging his manhood a little by making him go to a ‘design show’, but he’ll just have to deal with it, and my tiny little crush on Nate, since I won the trip and I’m taking him as my guest.

I tried to get tickets to see Rachel Ray, but haven’t heard back from then. There’s always stand-by, I guess, if we decide we want to try to do that.

Just today I got a call from ‘the View’, since I had also requested tickets to that show. But they aren’t taping on Thursday, and we couldn’t do the time they offered us on Tuesday because it would conflict with Letterman’s show. No problem. Ryan is relieved, and said he “dodged a bullet with that one.” What? I was requesting tickets so I could have options, people.

We have actually been to the Late Show once before when we went to NY in 2006, but this should hopefully be a little bit slicker process, since we already have the tickets. When we went before, we had NO plan for our three day adventure, and literally just started walking around and ended up at Spamalot. This time, I’m trying to figure out how to use our time wisely, not just wander around aimlessly. And I don’t have the burning desire to spend hundreds of bucks on theater tickets. I’ve seen Wicked twice, otherwise that would be at the top of my list.

I’m also not too concerned about all the great FOOD in New York. We won’t have a lot of time to eat at fancy places, so we’ll probably just stop and eat when we are hungry. Except for one night, when we have a dinner invitation to eat with a Control4 dealer that Ryan works with. When Ryan told him he was coming to NY, he invited him to come and see his business and that he would take us out to dinner. Well, I’m all for free dinner, so I’m on board.

Ryan’s not much of a shopper, either, so we won’t be spending hours touring the garment district and looking for clothes. But, if we should happen upon cute purses or shoes, or see a store that’s especially inviting, I might just have to pull him inside. Hopefully there will be a chair or a bench where he can sit. But I’m such a cheapskate, I can’t see me forking out big bucks for some designer clothes, unless it’s a knock-off. We’ll have to see.

I have a lot to do before we go, so I don’t really know why I’m sitting here blogging, but I am. Since I will be having people come here and help with the kids, I’ve got to get the house in decent condition, make sure there are enough groceries, make a few meals for the freezer, return all the library books, catch up on all my primary stuff, clean the bathrooms, make the schedule, make sure the kids are caught up on homework, clean our bedroom, and pack. And I can’t just pack any old schleppy clothes, I want to look nice. Especially when the email from the Nate show specifically said, “Colors photograph best and we ask that you please refrain
from wearing anything all white or all black We all know that Nate has
great style and we expect the same from you! /Think Chic! /Absolutely NO
athletic attire or sweat suits, sneakers, oversized jeans, hats,
sunglasses, shorts, t-shirts with logos, busy patterns or casual tank
tops will be permitted in the studio. Men should wear nice pants with a
button-down shirt, sweater, or blazer.”
So no jeans and t-shirts for that show, I guess. Then I don’t know if it will be warm, cold, rainy or sunny, so I’ve got to watch the weather for next week and pack for all possibilities.

So excited!

So stay tuned for pictures, because I’m sure we will be taking LOTS of them!!

We all just want to be winners

I’m trying to win a car. Again.

I had to make a video of me singing about my love for a Mazda 3 (which is REALLY the car I would want. That or a Mazda 6). So I wrote the lyrics, then recorded the song. Cole helped film it and I thought it turned out cute.

I can’t figure out how to embed the video so it shows up right here on my blog, but here’s the link.

Now I have to get my friends and families to vote for my video so I can have a chance to win the car. Easier said than done. I guess people have an aversion to registering at Fox13 with their name, email and birthdate. Is that too much personal information to have to give, or do they just not want to take the minute it takes to register, or do they not want me to win a car? I don’t know. But I don’t have nearly the votes I thought I would. And I hate nagging at people to vote, and then nagging at them again every single day. I currently have 38 votes. Cheerleader girl video is in first place with 130 votes. But I’m surprised that there are several of those entries that don’t have a single vote. Why not? Do they not know that they can vote for themselves? If they went to the trouble to make and upload a video, you’d think they would at least vote for themselves, right? I feel bad for them and would like to go and vote for them, but I won’t. Because that would be one vote that I couldn’t vote for myself.

It’s a little discouraging to NOT WIN. People think that ‘Paige wins EVERYTHING’. That’s because they only hear about the things that I win. They don’t realize that MOST of the time, I lose. Really. I try for contests multiple times every day. And I don’t win. That means that every day, I lose. Over and over and over again, I lose. I’ve tried at least 10 times to win a car. I’ve qualified, then gone to the place on the appointed day, and I get my hopes up and get myself all excited. The ‘what if’ I actually win excitement and butterflies. That hopeful feeling. Only to have my hopes dashed when I don’t win. Again.

Nobody wants to lose. Megan’s basketball team is playing in their tournament right now. They’ve done GREAT with wins on Saturday and then again on Monday. Tuesday was their next to last game, and unfortunately, it did not end well for her team. They lost. By a lot. It was not fun. It’s not fun to sit through a game where your team is down by 20 points and you know they can’t win. By the fourth quarter, there’s no chance of a comeback, but you still cheer for them. And they still try. They did not give up, but played hard the whole game. I’m proud of them. But Megan is NOT happy. And to add insult to injury, her team is supposed to all wear dresses to school today. But she will survive. And even if her team does not win their game today, they will still be winners. But they may not feel like it for a while. Everyone just wants to win

I must have something wrong with me internally to have that NEED to win. I love winning! Even if it’s something dumb like silly movie passes to a movie that I’m not going to ever go to, or tickets to see Yani, there’s a thrill in winning. I guess life would be simpler and I’d have less disappointments if I weren’t always trying to win, but then I wouldn’t have the thrill of winning. Or the free things when I do actually win. And we have to lose some to appreciate the wins. Opposition in all things, right?

So, I will continue to try to win a car. And trips. And tickets. And I will invite friends to go to silly things with me when I do win. And some of those contests might involve asking my friends and family to vote for me. And I hope they will. But I’ll try not to let it hurt my feelings when they don’t.

And one day, I will win that car.

Christmas music–it’s not just for December (and a giveaway)

Yes, I am listening to Christmas music in my car. Why not? There’s tons of fluffy snow out there and it’s below freezing. And I’m driving, so I have the right to chose any CD I want. Right? Not if you ask my kids. They think Christmas music should only be played from Thanksgiving until Christmas. Sure, if you are talking about the overplayed radio Christmas songs that every radio station plays the same exact version of over and over. On that, I agree. But when it’s a beautiful CD full of original arrangements, music from other lands, and the majestic sounds of an amazing orchestra and choir as well as the world renowned King’s Singers, that’s just not your everyday Christmas music. It deserves to be listened to all through the year. The King’s Singers voices singing beautiful Christmas music with the Choir is lovely and calming. Oh, and there are bells. Lots of bells.

Of all the concerts I have been blessed to perform in with the choir, the King’s Singers concert was my favorite so far. Every concert is amazing, and I can hardly believe I get to participate in these amazing concerts! But it is ok to have a favorite.

If you have never heard the King’s Singers singing “O Holy Night”, you have missed out, my friend. The heavenly sound of the mens’ voices blend perfectly with the orchestra and choir. It’s what I imagine Heaven sounds like. Seriously.

And since I’m in a giving mood today, if you do not have a copy of this Rejoice and be Merry CD, leave a comment here and I’ll randomly pick one comment to win this CD. Really. Because you should hear it for yourself. And because I’m nice that way. And if you don’t win, you can purchase this CD at Deseret Book.

Mama’s Holiday Wish List

Mama’s Holiday Wish List Meme

TodaysMama and GameStopp are giving away a sleighful of gifts this holiday season and to enter I’m sharing this meme with you.

1. What is your holiday wish for your family?
–I wish that my family could all enjoy EACH OTHER and realize the many gifts that they already have in their lives. I wish that we can also truly remember the Savior and the greatest gift of all.
(p.s. I also wish for a clean house.)

2. What is your Christmas morning tradition?
–We make the kids wait on the stairs until we are all ready to go down to the living room and see what Santa brought. We listen to Christmas music as we open presents, and then we eat and enjoy the day!

3. If you could ask Santa for one, completely decadent wish for yourself, what would it be?
–A new car. Specifically a red Mazda 6. How about it, Santa?

4. How do you make the holidays special without spending any money?
–We bake a lot of goodies, we go to many free concerts, we enjoy parties with loved ones, and we watch the Charlie Brown Christmas special and any other Christmas shows or movies that we remember to record. We also have a little advent calendar that is filled with treats or little notes that inform the kids of one special thing we’re going to do that day, like..”play in the snow and then drink hot chocolate”, or “sleep under the Christmas tree”.

5. What games did you play with your family growing up?
–I loved the game “The Inventors” or “Inventions” or something like that. I wish I had that game today. I always love the invention “the eye protector for chickens” and I even had little song I sang about it. (Yes, I’m a weird one. But you already knew that, right?) We also played Life and Monopoly.

6. What holiday tradition have you carried on from your own childhood?
–The Christmas morning lineup I remember from when I was a kid. Sometimes we’d have to go back to the stairs and “do it again, with the same level of excitement, please” because the camera wasn’t right, or the light wasn’t right for filming. We haven’t made our kids back up and rewind, but we do make them wait.

7. Where would you go for a Christmas-away-from-home trip?
–I was just looking at the pictures from the trip we took to Cancun. It was a December trip, but we came back right before Christmas. It was wonderful! I would LOVE to take my family to Cancun one year, and spend our Christmas break there.

8. Check out GameStop and tell us, what are the three top items on your GameStop Wish List this year?
–If I were to win this prize, I would totally be picking up the Donkey Kong Country Returns game for the Wii, Sonic Colors for the Wii, and Toy Story 3 for the Wii.

What a fun contest to enter. We could so put those games to good use. If you want to enter this one yourself, check out Today’s Mama for the rules.

It’s voting time!

If you know me, you know it’s my goal to WIN our family vacation, because otherwise there will probably not BE a family vacation. So that means entering contests, and sometimes it means begging for help from friends. That’s where you come in–YOU, my FRIENDS!!!

I need as many people as I can find to VOTE for the picture I submitted.

The top 5 with the MOST votes win the Summer Nightastic getaway for 4 including Park Hopper Tickets and 2 nights at a Disneyland Resort Hotel!

So–go on over HERE and vote for #24, which is our lovely colorful Natalie at the M&M store. And, because I will probably hound you until you DO vote, would you just do me a favor and let me know you voted? Then I’ll know I can stop hounding and nagging you incessantly. Voting is limited to one vote per verified email address, which means you have to vote, put in your email address, then I think they’ll send you a verification email which you have to click on to make sure your vote counts (or you may just have to sign up and register, I’m not sure). but I know it will be relatively painless. I have to beat out 221 other people, so I need all of you! So go and vote. Vote from work, Vote from home. Ask your friends, your boss, your children, your dog–anyone who has an email account–to vote. Please? Please, please, please, please? Won’t you vote for me?

Remember–Go HERE, and vote for NUMBER 24.

Thank you!!!!!

We’re asking for your help

There is a super go-getter mom on at our school, who has taken on the project of Replacing disposable polystyrene trays with re-usable trays.

I mean, REALLY–Why are we using all of this polystyrene? She’s gotten a grant from Walmart and is now trying to get a $5K grant from Pepsi to support this project. Our project includes purchasing reusable trays, bowls, and flatware for our school cafeteria. By making this switch, our school has estimated an annual savings of $3,000 per year. There would also be a significant reduction in the non-biodegradable waste from our school.

Yuck! This is the amount of trays they used in ONE WEEK.

So, my goal is to help spread the word. To get this grant and help move us toward our goal of REUSABLE trays, we have to WIN this contest. In order to win, we need votes, and lots of them.

Could you take a moment to vote? Pretty please?

It’s easy. Just go HERE and vote for our project. You will have to register once with Pepsi, but once you do that you can come back and vote every day!

Voting ends on June 30th, so we still have lots of time to spread the word. We are currently 68th, and the top 10 ideas will each win $5,000. So that means we have to beat out at least 58 other ideas before the end of the month. Can we do it? Yes we can! But we’ll need ALL of your help to do it.

first –please go and vote
second–could you spread the word? Post this on your blog with a link to this post or to this contest?
third–come back every day and vote again?

Hey! cool! There’s a WIDGET that you can put on the blog! I feel so newfangled. You could put that widget on YOUR blog, too, if you wanted.

Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!
I don’t have great prizes to reward you for voting, but you will get that nice warm and fuzzy feeling of doing something good, right?

My talented sister

I’ve mentioned that my sister is an artist, right? Yes, you knew that, I’m sure. She’s illustrated a few books now, and does the artwork on Music and the Spoken word about once or twice a month, which is really fun to see her drawings on tv.

She’s illustrated a new book about adoption. It’s a sweet book that will touch the hearts of anyone who has adopted or even knows anyone who has adopted. Once Upon a Time: An Adoption Story is a darling little book that helps children understand adoption and how much love is involved. Ashley Hansen Bigler (the Author) and Amy Hintze (The Illustrator) have done a wonderful job together in explaining adoption in a simple and very loving way.

You can buy the book right now (before it’s even in stores) if you want by going HERE, or you can contact Amy through her BLOG, and she can sell you a copy as well.

If you ask nicely, she may even sign it for you. Or, if you are feeling lucky, there’s a giveaway HERE, where you can enter to win your own copy of this beautiful book.

I should probably run my own giveaway, but lately my giveaways haven’t been doing very well, so I’ll just point you in the right direction instead.

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