Cathedrals, a t-shirt, and a Book Meme

Still scrubbing carpets, but the end is in sight!  I post a quickie here before I get back to making my living room beautiful for the holidays.

1.  For a post about the work mothers do, visit writeathome here.  I loved this post!

2.  Joy received her t-shirt last week.  (She was the winner of the contest I held for my 102nd post).  She posted about her new t-shirt here.

3.  I got tagged with a book meme by the wonderful blogger at A Table For Four.  Here are the instructions:

     *Grab the nearest book

     *Open to pg. 56

     *Find the fifth sentence

     *Post the text of the sentence on your blog with these instructions

     *Don’t dig for your favorite book, or the most intellectual one.  It has to be the closest one.

Hub took my laptop with him to visit one of his clients today.  So, instead of posting in my bedroom where I usually write, I am sitting at Hub’s desk in his home office.  The closest book to me here is “1001 Ways to Reward Employees” by Bob Nelson.  I know, I know, it probably doesn’t sound that exciting unless you are a business owner.  But, the rules state that it has to be the closest book.  Had I been in my bedroom writing I would have been able to grab a much different book.

The fifth sentence on page 56 says, “In many cases, production rates doubled.”

A gripping sentence if you are seeking to motivate your employees.  I’m not going to reveal just what caused the production rates to increase.  You’ll just have to get the book yourself and turn to page 56.

I am now supposed to tag three more bloggers to do the meme on their blog, but I am never sure who has the time or desire to participate in such things, so I am going to leave it open to anyone who wants to do this.  It was easy, and actually quite fun.  If you decide to do the meme on your own blog, let me know so that I can read the fifth sentence in your book.  I think it will be interesting to see what books are used for this meme.  If you want me to officially tag you at your site, let me know.  I will be more than happy to do so.

Enjoy your day!  The carpets are calling!

 

A Two Part Post

On behalf of Yawlin and myself I would like to thank all those who sent their positive thoughts and good wishes our way regarding our sick little guinea pig. Unfortunately, S’mores didn’t make it.  He died about five hours after bringing him home from the vet. 

Yawlin and I had managed to get him to drink a syringe full of fresh squeezed orange juice and, a couple of hours later, one more syringe of water before Yawlin went outside to play with friends.  After awhile I heard Yawlin say, “Just a minute guys, I need to check on S’mores.”  He came bounding up the stairs with his friends in tow.

I followed Yawlin into his room and saw S’mores curled up by his water dispenser.  Yawlin was closest and could tell immediately something wasn’t right.  “Mom, is he–?”

“I’m not sure, Yawlin, let me check.”  I looked closer.  “Oh no, I don’t think he’s breathing.”  Hub and Huh had followed us into the room.  I looked at Hub and said, “Is he breathing?”

Hub leaned close to the cage and then quietly confirmed that S’mores wasn’t breathing.  Yawlin let out a wail and I gathered him in a hug.  Yawlin’s poor friends didn’t know what to do, they just backed up to the wall and quietly watched what was going on.  I did my best to comfort my son and then Huh gave him a hug as well.  She wasn’t particularly fond of S’mores, but she didn’t like to see her little brother hurting.

We wasted no time in taking care of S’mores.  Yawlin carried S’mores with him when he went to the garage to pick out a box to bury him in.  He carefully put S’mores’ towel in the bottom of the box and then positioned S’mores in the box so that he looked comfortable.  He placed one of S’mores toys in the box and then wrote a note that said, “I love you, S’mores.”  He folded the note and put it between S’mores little paws.  Hub helped Yawlin bury S’mores in the backyard next to Chello, Huh’s bird, who died earlier this year. 

Yawlin is doing okay.  His friends stayed through the funeral and one invited him to sleep over at his house that night.  He has agreed to wait one month before deciding if he wants another guinea pig.  I told him that he might decide that it’s kind of nice not having to clean a cage every few days and that the space on his dresser can be used for other things.  On November 24 Yawlin will decide if he wants to shop for another guinea pig or sell S’mores’ things and pocket the money. 

Shhhhh, don’t tell Yawlin, but I’m secretly hoping he chooses the latter.

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The contest celebrating my 102nd post is officially over.  I included anyone who commented on that post and Hub drew the winner out of my purple smiley face bowl.  And the winner is……..

Joy Erickson!

Check out Joy’s blog.  There is a different topic of conversation there every single day.  By the number of hits she has received, you can tell it is a popular blog.  I try to visit it regularly.

Joy, I will be contacting you to get information about the shirt we will be making for you.  Congratulations!

 

CONTEST!!! Um, Cuz it is Post Number…102!

Since joining the blogosphere last February I’ve noticed that many bloggers make note of their 100th post by doing something special such as posting 100 things about themselves, or posting 100 goals, or announcing it in BIG LETTERS, some have even hosted contests.  I made a mental note about it and decided that I wanted to do something special for my 100th post.  The problem is that I made a mental note about it; I didn’t write it down or track it very closely.  The other morning I happened to be glancing through my blog stats and noticed that I had 101 posts.  OOOOOOPS!  So much for making a big deal about post #100. 

Oh well, post #102 can be cool too, right? 

BIG ANNOUNCEMENT!!!  KWEENMAMA’S KASTLE HAS NOW REACHED POST NUMBER ONE-OH-TWO!!!!

And to celebrate #102 I am hosting a contest.  In hosting this contest I am able to sneak in a shameless plug for my husband’s side business, “Wordalize It!”  And what do you win?  A custom t-shirt such as the two pictured below. 

Just an example, folks.

And yet another example

The purpose of my blog has been to write about family life, to promote FAMILY, and to share and receive ideas on bettering families, so this prize is a way for one lucky winner to celebrate their family by winning a t-shirt sporting the names of their family members.  The examples above are only two ideas.  Some people choose to put their surname as the biggest word and then the first names of the family members surrounding it.  If you are the winner you will get to choose size, shirt color, word color, font, and design.

And what do you have to do to win this fabulous prize?  Well…we need ideas for Halloween costumes.  Every year my mom hosts a family Halloween party, and we always try to have a creative costume.  We’ve been pirates, the “Adam’s Apple Family” (apples tied around our necks), babies, and two years ago, since we were hosting a foreign exchange student from Vietnam, we made him be the Vietnamese soldier and the rest of us were his prisoner’s of war. 

Leave a costume idea in the comment section and you will be entered into the contest.  It’s that simple!  The contest runs until 12:00 p.m. MST Saturday, October 25, 2008.  A number of things are being accomplished with this post:  I get to celebrate post #102, I still promote family, I help Hub spread the word about his business, I get to send a winner a t-shirt to celebrate their family, and we get ideas for Halloween costumes!  Sometime after 12:00 p.m. MST on Saturday, October 25, 2008 the names of all entrants will be placed in my purple smiley face bowl and Hub will draw out the lucky winner.  Make sure to include your email address in your comment if you don’t have a blog URL so that you can be contacted.  The winner will be announced in a post on Monday, October 27, 2008.

***Make note:  If you are not the winner and would still like to order a t-shirt(s) feel free to email me at kweenmama at yahoo dot com.  Though there is a website, it is still under construction and it will be easier to place an order that way–besides, anyone who orders from my blog will receive $5.00 off of each item they order.  One of the biggest sellers has been framed family names in a cloud (like on the shirts above).  We can email a sample picture of one to anyone who is interested.

So, share those costume ideas…you just might win a shirt!

And, thanks.