Daily Dribble

First, some sad news. We have canceled our trip to Mexico. We called a few bishops down there and the swine flu is a problem in the Cancun area . . . all the missionaries have been told to stay in their apartments and they've canceled church for 2 weeks. We don't want to bring it back to our families, etc.

Second, some OK news. Tiffany won 1st runner up in the Motherhood contest. I still think she deserved 1st place. I should have mentioned the fact that her babies were very sick after birth, but I didn't use that card. DANG IT! She won a nice prize though. Thanks for your votes, it made her feel good.

Third, some great news. Emma had her dress rehearsal tonight and she did GREAT! It was a funny play and I laughed the whole time. There were a lot of great actors and singers and I enjoyed the whole thing. I should have taken my camera tonight, darn it. I will try and get some tomorrow.

GIVE AWAY TODAY

Hey everyone! This is my cute sis-in-law Tiffany and her wonderful kids. I need your help to REWARD this lady. I've been entering myself in this daily give away blog everyday for about a month. One day, they asked followers to enter a special mother in an online contest for Mother's Day. I entered Tiffany and she was selected as a finalist!

Now she just needs YOUR vote to win the awesome package (including baby headbands, scrapbook supplies, and jewelry.) Anyway, go HERE to read the essay I wrote about Tiffany (scroll down past today's contest. . . )

And then VOTE (hopefully for Tiffany and not a stranger).

And spread the word.

Please.

I really want her to win. She's the best. And all the stuff I wrote about her is true.

SERVICE BREAK

It's late Sunday Night and I hate to say it . . . I forgot to do the "Service" post with the family today. I mentioned this little error and Damian said, "I thought your service to the kids was to give them a break this week!" I guess he's not a big believer in the service posts.

So . . . this week I'm doing something different, but we'll do a double service entry during spring break, OK? So this is the deal:

The first 3 people to leave a comment on this post will receive, at some point during the year, a lunch date with me. Where and when will be up to my whimsy, but it'll be good! The catch is that you must participate as well. Before you leave your comment, write up a pay it forward post on your blog to keep the fun going (or be lazy and copy and paste like I did). Then come back, let me know you're going to play and sit back and anticipate the arrival of your lunchdate!

Just so you know, I did this on Facebook and only one person really got it. So I hope you all get it. I think Bloggers are smarter than Facers!

Life is like a box of Chocolates . . .

A while back A freaking long time ago, I held a contest with chocolates from my local chocolatier as the prize. I'm finally getting around to sending the grand prize to my friend Nicole. You can read about the contest and the entries HERE. You can read about the cardboard earring she mentioned in her prize winning entry and see some new photos of my bad boy middle school friend John that I put up for his wife HERE.

Nicole's been waiting patiently for 2 months for me to send her prize. I wanted to take a photo of the little beauties. Here is the lovely box:

Here are the chocolates. Nicole wanted anything with nuts so I picked these out for her:

2 Macadamia Nut Ginger Chew, 2 Hazelnut Chews, 2 Walnut Chews, a Maple Ginger Walnut, 2 Pecan Chews, a Pistachio Cup, a Lavender Fleur de Sel (this one has no nuts, but it's the chocolatier's signature chocolate) and a Peanut Butter.

Now Nicole, I sent these already and hopefully you already got them and enjoyed them. Something has been eating at me. I think I'll get it off my chest: See that chocolate, second from the left on the top row? While I was taking the photo, the wind blew the box over. Only one chocolate dropped on my front porch. That little ding mark on the bottom left corner was from my concrete. I blew it off, no harm done, right? I hope you're not sick and convulsing from contaminated chocolates as you read this. Please forgive me for photography on a windy day being an idiot Idiart. If you're upset, I'll make you some cardboard earrings to make up for it.

I bought myself some Valentine's Chocolate since my husband didn't. I thought I'd go for the sale items: Blood Orange Dreamsicle White Chocolate Hearts and Dark Chocolate Bing Cherry Truffle Hearts. I hope yours were better than mine, Nicole. I ate the whole 5 pack and hardly even liked it. I was having a lot of guilt about dropping a piece of yours on my front porch. Maybe that's why.

They look pretty on the outside but were yucky on the inside. That's like life. I might look gorgeous on the outside, but if you chewed on my arm, or even my pinkie finger, you would not like the way I taste. Life is like a box of chocolates, so they say.

Drumroll Please!

Seven Days ago I had a little "Contest."

It wasn't really a contest, I'll admit. It was all about YOU making me feel good and me getting lots and lots of comments. You helped me surpass my wildest Blogging Dreams and wrote me 30 comments!! This so-called "Contest" was also about the chocolate bribe. So thanks, my friends . . . you did make me feel good. And I'll apologize right now for the fact that I can't afford to send you ALL chocolates!

Here are the winners:

Honorable Mention Prizes go to
Leslie A. in California
(she and I had mutual friends in college

and then later we happened to be in the

same ward, in a different state!)

and Kristi H. from my neck of the woods!

I read your blogs as soon as you post, yours are some of my faves. You both are inspirations to me . . . you're both sweet moms that love your kids, never complain and ADORE your hubbies. I like that about both of you.

Also, it didn't hurt that you both told me I'm beautiful. So what if you stretched the truth in order to win. I like a woman that will do anything for chocolate.

Leslie, I'm sending you Kristi's email so you can "invite" Kristi to your blog. Now that you are Honorable Mention Winners together, you're destined for friendship. I hope you can meet each other someday, you'd be BFFs, I know it! For the rest of you, too bad, Leslie's blog is PRIVATE. You'll have to take her awesomeness at my word.

OK, back to the prize: I've never tried the Toffee from Lillie Belle, but you can get the full description on THIS PAGE. Of course, if you'd rather have the 3rd place prize, it's the same price, so I don't care. Decide what you like and I'll get it to you ASAP.

Quick, Decide . . . So you can stop drooling all over your computer!

3rd Place goes to Tamara E. from California!!

Tammy and I grew up in Alaska together and used to play Horsie like Junie B. Jones and "That Grace" during recess! (Tammy, Junie B. Jones is the new Ramona Quimby of Children's Literature and you'll meet her when Bobby start school, I'm sure!)

You can choose one of three wonderful Chocolate Bars on THIS PAGE. I've only tried the Crunchy Fire Bar but I'd probably go with the Wild Thing bar. Unless you don't like Dark Chocolate. If that is the case, you'd better stick with the Pistachio Toffee Bar. And repent. And if the Honorable Mention Prize looks more delish to you, you can have that instead. I'm flexible.

2nd Place goes to Amber H. from my neighborhood!

Your comment made my day and so now I'm going to make yours!

You can choose either of these boxes, or remind me of your Lilli Belle favorite and I'll get those for you! I know you love their lavender chocolate, but there are 2 varieties, I think, so which one is it? (or you can have the 3rd or Honorable Mention prizes, too!)

1st Place goes to Nicole W. in SLC, UT!!

I was Nicole's Babysitter and then later, we were buddies and spent a whole summer having fun together. Another story, for another time. . . when I get a scanner and can fully blackmail this girl.

Nicole you made me laugh so hard when I read your comment! You get to design your own personalized box of YUM. This may take some time of drooling and reading to create the perfect combination. Choose 12 chocolates from the Ganache, BonBon and Nut & Chew pages and let me know which ones you want. I'll have your order shipped by this weekend!

And to satisfy your curiosity about my "cardboard earring creations" that you brought up in your comment . . . stay tuned, I'm working on a full disclosure post, just for you!

Thanks everyone for your sweet comments last week. You really made my week. I am preparing another contest and this time, there will only be ONE winner, so get ready!

250th POST PRIZE!!

This is my 250th Post. I've been blogging for almost a year and it's time to gift a faithful friend/stalker.

I want to see if I can break the 20 comments barrier and I'm bribing you, my faithful "readers" to show yourselves.

Please tell me which posts you enjoyed the most in the last year. Tell me WHY they're your favorite and if you brown-nose me enough . . .

I will be sending you a lovely box of CHOCOLATES from my Favorite Local Chocolatier (it's only 2 miles from my house, so it's not hard for me to make good on my promise!)

I know many of you are motivated by Chocolate, as am I.

So please, I want to know why you keep coming back to this blog, why you like reading it. Tell me your opinions so I can keep up the fun and excitement that is "THE SEVEN VILLAGE IDIARTS."

Thanks.You won't be disappointed. This Chocolate is worth the few minutes it will take you to share your opinions about my posts. I'll close this contest and choose a winner (or two) a week from today!

And if you're daring, I'll send you my favorite, the Red Velvet Almonds. Those will put some FIRE into your Christmas Prep!