Wanna Be a Winner?

I have recently won a "pay it forward" blog contest. As per the rules, I posted a comment on my friend Chantel's blog and was selected as one of the winners. Look at this awesome homemade gift* I received from her!

Yes, it is a lap quilt with an alien print. Perfect for naps or hide-and-seek, whichever you prefer.

Now that I have won, it's my turn to pay it forward to you, dear readers. Please post a comment in this blog entry and you could be a winner! Here are the rules - read carefully before deciding you want to participate:

1. Winners, you must post this challenge on your blog, meaning that you will pay it forward, creating a handmade gift for 3 winners who leave comments on YOUR blog post about this giveaway.

2. The gift that you send to your three friends can be from any price range and you have 365 days to make/ship your item. This means you should be willing to maintain your blog at least until you have received your gift and have shipped your gifts. And remember: it's the spirit and the thought that count.

3. When you receive your gift, please feel free to blog about it, sharing appropriate links.

4. [I added this one myself.] If you do not blog but wish to enter, please include your suggestion for an appropriate substitute for posting your win and future contest on a blog.

One final note: I will be happy to send a homemade gift, but if you know me at all, you'll know not to expect a blanket, quilt, freshly canned strawberry preserves or anything else along more traditional handicraft lines. If you are hoping for something a little "different," this is the contest for you. I promise not to disappoint.

Just for fun, and having no bearing on the contest, if you'd like to include what you wish I'd send you in your comment, feel free. One entry per blogger, please. A winner will be chosen via Random Number Generator after the close of the contest at 9:00 AM EDT, Friday, April 23rd.

*Super hot husband and adorable toddler not included. Cranky stubborn whiny toddler may be included, depending on the day.

Too Good To Pass By

My friend Jeannie posted this amazing anecdote on her blog. You should read it. Especially if you are at least intrigued by flying rodents in a church.

Adventures in Reading

Stellan has recently made the jump from short board books with mostly pictures to "real" books with paper pages and stories inside. This is a welcome development for us, and Stellan has been blessed with grandparents who have been more than happy to supply him with books on a regular basis. Our library is looking good, and Stellan enjoys reading time several times day.

Not too long ago, we read Dr. Suess's "The Lorax" for the first time. Stellan was devastated to think that all the truffula trees might be gone forever and he insisted that we plant a tree immediately. (That's my little conservationist!) Luckily for us, Kevin had recently been at a job fair where a recruiter was handing out business cards that are paper pulp with a tree seed inside. The card even includes instructions on planting the whole card to grow your own tree.

Stellan jumped on the job with zeal, and now we have a little pot out front with the seed card planted carefully.

With all this newfound book excitement, we have upgraded our reading venue. Instead of the couch, we have created a book nook in Stellan's room. We grabbed all our extra pillows and other soft stuff and piled in a corner where his bookcase resides. We also got a special basket for all his current favorites in the interest of easy access. Come by anytime and enjoy a good book in our nook!

No, Seriously.

I just got home from Girls Camp, which is a week long church camp for girls aged 12 to 18. We do it during Spring Break here in Florida because it's not as hot and we're less likely to have to cancel for hurricanes.

I led the 4th year campers (15 year olds) on the High Adventure, an overnight expedition during the first two days of camp. This year we went to Keewaydin Island off the coast of Naples, which is this tiny little deserted island with no trees and few bushes, but mostly lots of sand.

As the weather reports came in the days before camp, we started getting worried. The outlook was lots of rain and wind. Sure enough, there were tornado warnings as we were meeting before dawn for departure. We loaded the gear in the pouring rain, drove across the state in the pouring rain, loaded the boat in the pouring rain, and offloaded our gear in the pouring rain. One boatload of girls thought they were lucky because they left late enough that the rain had slowed. However, they encountered 10-foot swells on their way to the island and arrived just as wet as everyone else.

Once the rain stopped around 2 PM, the wind became a real issue. Sand washed over us constantly, as we had no shelter or protection from the elements. No tables or chairs, no shade, no trees, no nothing. We experienced some difficulty setting up tents because they kept blowing over, even once we had put the 5-gallon water jugs inside them. The fire took an hour to light, even with the help of liberal amounts of Boy Scout juice (lighter fluid). By the time we finished eating, sung a few songs and had a quick devotional, the girls were ready for bed. And the scant shelter their tents could provide. It was 8:30 PM.

In the morning, we had the sandiest eggs I've ever eaten for breakfast. We broke camp, loaded gear and headed for home. The girls got back to the main camp with some war stories to tell, and they were really proud of themselves. It ended up being a great experience for them, and helped them bond with each other. So despite the many challenges, I don't think any regret having gone. Also, they didn't complain about it once, at least not to me. Then again, who's going to whine about how hard it is to camp in rain and sand and haul gear while you're hauling gear with a woman who's 7 months pregnant?

We're going to have to come up with a different name for the trip. The term High Adventure shouldn't be so true every year. Seriously.

Dancing Stars

That's what Stellan calls "Dancing With the Stars." And he loves that show. It's a combination of the flips and tricks, flashy costumes and lively music, I think. Also, he doesn't have to pay attention for more than 3 minutes at a time. So we decided to have a little get-together for the premiere with his friend Kirk (and Amy and Sean, Kirk's parents).

In honor of the event, we made star-shaped (and other similar motifed) cookies and made snarky comments about the contestants. OK, the kids made the cookies, the grown-ups were snarky. The kids didn't watch a whole lot of dancing, but they did have lots of fun making cookies and playing.

What To Do...

What do you do with all that extra daylight we're all saving?

Go fly a kite. The weather today was perfect kite weather, so we took advantage and headed to the park for some late afternoon fun. Stellan loved it, although we did have one near-catastrophe; Kevin kicked a soccer ball past Stellan, who dropped the kite string without a second thought to chase the ball. Luckily, Kev caught the spool as it went flying by him. Good save, honey!

Pi(e) Day: Epic Fail

Don't the picture fool you, it didn't go well. In fact, the whole meal was a disaster. First, the chicken tikka masala ended up so salty it was inedible. Even Kev couldn't pretend he could eat it (and I think he's pretty good at pretending he likes my cooking). But I had hoped that the strawberry cream pie I stayed up late making the night before would redeem me. No such luck. Oh, it looked beautiful, fresh whipped cream, delicious strawberries (please note the 3.14 strawberry slices on the very top); but underneath the cream layer had turned into mush, taking the crust with it into a slushy abyss of grainy disgustingness.

Better luck next year, I guess.

His Heart Is In The Right Place

[We are driving home from the park, and Stellan knows naptime is imminent.]

Stellan: No go home, Mommy.

Mommy: That's where we're headed. We had fun at the park, now we're going home.

Stellan: I don't wanna go home!

Mommy: Where should we go instead?
Stellan [pointing at a seedy efficiency apartment/motel building]: There!

Mommy: What would we do there?

Stellan: Eat chocolate.

A Day At The Beach

Most of the weather during the visit was chilly and/or rainy (chilly meaning in the high 60's, to put it in perspective). However, we had one absolutely beautiful day we chose to spend at the beach. It was gorgeous. And fun.

Uncle Matt Comes To Town

We had so much fun with Uncle Matt, Grandma and Grandpa. In fact, Stellan still looks for them hopefully out the window. Here are some highlights.

Super Visitors

My dad, stepmom and brother (the oft-mentioned Matt) came to visit us for a week. Stellan wasted no time putting them to "work" on their first night. Here is a video that you shouldn't feel obligated to watch all the way through, but you will enjoy if you're the doting grandparent/adoring Stellan fan type.

Super Visitors from Krissie Cook on Vimeo.

Keep Thinking Positively

As you may know, dear readers, Kevin is wrapping up his thesis (OK, he's pretty much done, but FAU is dragging its behemoth leaden feet) and job hunting. If you weren't already sending positive energy out into the universe, praying, offering sacrifices to the employment gods or some sort of combination of those, please start. Because Kevin said that if he has a job offer before the show leaves town on March 21st, he will buy us tickets (and not the cheap seats) to Wicked. Which we have never seen, in case you're the fanatic type and you wish to decry us (and I know some of you Wicked fanatic types read this blog!).

So in the name of Broadway in Miami Beach, hope Kevin gets an awesome job offer. Oh, also so we can get that washing machine and dryer I keep dreaming of.

Made For Walking

I know what you're thinking. Shoes. Whoopee. You may recognize that these are, in fact, new shoes. But what you may not know is that this is the first pair of new tennis shoes I have purchased for myself since high school. We won't say how long it's been, since I already gave you a clue to my ancient heritage in my last post.

So, yeah, I bought new shoes! This is a big deal for me. A really big deal. I've been very satisfied with my sisters' hand-me-downs for all these years, but now I'm far away from my sisters. And all my other shoes have begun to show signs of not just wear, but of extreme distress. For example, there was the day the soles of both shoes of a pair completely separated from the upper section of the shoe, leaving my feet to flap around like talking Muppet shoes. Or the pair in which the tread was so far gone that I slipped three times in one day on the tile floor in our house. (Which is quite a feat, considering how dirty/sticky/scuzzy most parts of our tile floor can generally be found.) Or the shoe that tore itself in half one day as I tightened the laces.

The worst part is that I still wore each of those pairs of shoes a few times even after the said calamities occurred.

Kevin used to mock me for having so many pairs of tennis shoes. But since the obliteration of my healthy stock of shoes, he felt so bad that he got me a gift card for Christmas to buy shoes. New shoes. For myself. (I am famous for being very willing to buy nice things for others but extremely cheap and unwilling to buy stuff for me.) Which I did with great jubilation. Any bets on how long I can keep them looking new?

Am I Dating Myself?

Because with all the hype accompanying the 25th anniversary remake of "We Are The World," I was transported back in time to when I saw the original at Amy Morrell's house. On Betamax.

For Matt

Welcome Home, Uncle Matt! from Krissie Cook on Vimeo.