My first (and quite possibly last) giveaway!

**********UPDATED AGAIN*******

Congratulations Mary Katherine!!!! Mary Katherine was pregnant with me over Facebook when I had Lielle and she is the lucky winner of these beautiful Jamberries! I hope you love them as much as I do Mary Katherine! They are great for keeping nice nails while chasing busy toddlers!!! The winner from my Facebook launch party will be announced as soon as humanely possible!

************UPDATE*********

Dear everyone who has embarked on this Jamberry adventure with me willingly or unwillingly,

Today is the big day of BOTH raffles, and believe me when I say that no one has been more excited about that than me. However, after having our trip home delayed by four days (remember when a four HOUR delay was a big deal?), I arrived back at work today (without my luggage) only to find out that our school was mourning the sudden and unexpected loss of a parent of four sweet, wonderful children, two of whom I was lucky enough to teach in their preschool years.

As my family can attest, I have been beyond eager to hold the raffles. However, I’m sure that you will all understand that I will be delaying the drawings for a day so that I can return to my former irritating…I mean infectious enthusiasm and energy.

In a completely uncharacteristic move for me, I fell head over heels in love with a beauty product. Me! The one who has a hard time remembering to slap on some eyeliner and is lucky to make it to work with a little lip gloss.

In a much more characteristic move I impulsively decided I needed to become an "independent consultant" of these products within ten minutes of trying them.

And to help move things along in that department, I decided to try my first ever giveaway. So without further ado, meet Jamberry nails! The giveaway is for one set, which will be enough for two to three manicures.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

To see more colors and patterns, check out my Jamberry site!

Meanwhile, The Boonga is all about the accessorizing. While she waits to be old enough to wear Jamberries (there are junior sizes, but she would find a way to eat them), she's trying out something a little more baby friendly.

I promised her some Jamberries as soon as she's old enough not to eat them.

You Can Always Tell When It's The Baby's Turn To Do The Dishes...

It's easier to just to leave it all up to her anyway. But here's a "how to" that I find handy when The-Guy-Who-Knows-A-Song-About-A-Chicken isn't home to intercept the baby's help:

Hide the silverware (so that she doesn't realize you are beginning to unload the dishwasher).

Hand wash pots and pans in an attempt to delay the inevitable.

Take spices away from baby and explain that glass bottles aren't really a toy. Clean up one last speck of glass from the last time she thought playing with glass would be fun.

Wait until the baby's back is turned to wash out her favorite pot. Step around baby as she removes her second favorite pot from the cabinet.

Pull out the bottom rack of the dishwasher as quietly as possible. When baby comes running, explain that you weren't really emptying the dishwasher, just setting the table.

Hurry to grab each dish from the baby as she empties the bottom rack so that no more get broken today.

Tell baby not to bang the glass table with the ceramic dishes. Take baby off the dining room table and un-set the table.

Stop to change a diaper.

Hurry to grab each dish from the baby as she empties the top rack.

Try to put dirty dishes into the dishwasher faster than the baby can empty them, all while repeating, "These are dirty dishes! They stay 'in in in!'"

Give up until after the baby has gone to bed. Decide to fix her lunch for the next day instead.

Spend the entire time repeating, "This wa-wa (water) is for tomorrow. You already have wawa right there!" and "This moe-eesh (more please) is for tomorrow. You can eat that moe-eesh that's on your plate."

And Now for Another Exciting Episode of "Who Is This Woman And What's That Black Thing That's Always In Front of Her Face?"

Why does this mama person always have that black rectangle in front of her face?!?!?!?

Doesn't she know I have better things to do than just sit under a tree all day long?

Oh. Wait. She has stickers?

In that case, maybe I do have a little time to just hang around and be cute.

But only a little.

It's Way too Cold Around Here to Even Think About Having Any Cold Weather. You Know, Cold Weather. That kind of weather they have other places that aren't here.

This baby…ok toddler…loves to help! In fact, she's helping us to the point of sheer exhaustion. She helps unload the dishwasher. She still doesn't really care whether the dishes are dirty or clean. She'll lick either and scatter them on the floor.

Have you ever seen anyone quite so gleefully doing household chores?

She helps make eggs.

They're pretty good too.

She helps clear her place at the table…by throwing all her food on the floor when she's done.

And then later, hours and hours later, she helps by throwing away her food. Or at least she tries - she set this particular piece of banana on top of the garbage can for me to encounter later when I least expected it.

She couldn't throw it away because we have to keep the garbage can locked. Because otherwise she will help us empty the garbage.

She even helped Dad unwrap one of his presents. It's totally okay that he hadn't gotten home from work yet and didn't know he had a present waiting for him. Right?

One place she won't be helping out - the city's Snowfest. Never mind that this is Texas and it's only snowed once in the past six or more years. The sign said the snow fest was STILL being held! Still! One has to at least celebrate the lack of snow with some fake snow. Or something.

Unfortunately, the Snowfest was canceled due to inclement weather.

What exactly was the inclement weather that heralded the demise of the Snowfest?


Wait for it…


It was cold.

Yep. It was a doggone 37 degrees today and WAY too cold to have a festival celebrating snow. Drat. Think of all the help the little Boonga could have given them.