My Loonyverse: See the world through my eyes.

Pillsbury Giveaway

Every once in a while there is a contest or giveaway that you just *know* you will win because it is perfect for you or someone you would love to win it for. When that happens, especially with the wonderful advent of the bloggy giveaways I enter every single one I can find that I qualify for. One such case recently was the Pillsbury giveaways they have been having recently.

In the grand scheme of things it's not a huge prize, but I just for some reason really really wanted to win it for Devon. Since she was a tiny little thing she has loved the Pillsbury doughboy. We used to call her our "woohoo" girl.

Anyhoo to get to the point, I found out right before we left for San Diego that we won not one of the prize packs but two. They were waiting for us at the post office this morning.

While Ian or the cousins I am sure would enjoy having their own little plush woohoo doughboys, it is a Devon thing and I decided to spread the love and give one of them away to y'all. Each box came with a plush doughboy that says *woohoo* and a Pillsbury Bake-off Prize Winning Recipes cookbook with 175+ recipes and tips in it.

To make it clear- I am hosting the giveaway, I am not being sponsored in any way, just passing along an extra (brand new) prize package that I won. While I appreciate that Pillsbury has given several of these prizes to bloggers to share with their readers that is NOT the case here, it's all from me, including sending the winner the prize.

Do y'all love Pillsbury as much as I do? Is there anything that doesn't taste fabulous in a crescent roll?

For your chances- for 1st entry (MANDATORY) let me know what you think about Pillsbury- your favorite product, how you like to use it, etc... Even if you haven't tried, anything, but keep it about Pillsbury. Any I want to win, pick me, I really need this, I never win anything that gets picked by the randomizer that says any of this crap and I will choose someone else.

Extra Entries:

Follow me - I lost most of my followers when it switched over to Google Friends and I want y'all back.

Follow me on Twitter- dddiva and leave your name in the comments.

Tweet about this giveaway and leave me the link. You can do this once a day.

Add me to your blogroll. http://myloonyverse.com

Blog about this giveaway or add me to your Mr. Linky and leave the link in the comments.

Add my button to your blog and leave the link in the comments.

Grab the code here.

I can only ship to the US and Canada, so if you are legally allowed to give out your info online (or get your parents to do it for you) and you live in the US or Canada, you are eligible.'

After the mandatory entry, you get one entry for each additional thing you do- tweeting is once daily.

I use randomizer and I will email the winner who has 72 hours to respond, if I don't have a response by then I will choose a new winner.

Ends 11:59 pm, July 15th 2009.

Travel plans- update, Happy 4th of July

Plans have changed - again. Looks like Devon and I will be the only ones going to San Diego. Dawn is sick and the mini diva has interviews.

While it is a shame the tix are non-refundable, we are planning on having a blast.

Legoland and the aquarium are for sure as we have the tix from her win.

It looks like the bay - we're staying at the Loews on Coronado bay- has the best stuff for the 4th starting with a parade at 10 and ending with fireworks over the bay.

The littlest Diva also printed out directions for the outlet mall- hint, hint mom!

Oh- and just in case you plan on staying there be aware- parking at the hotel is even more than the Loews at Universal- $22 a night, $28 for valet. Yes, even for paying guests.
I'm sorry, but why are they trying to nickel and dime (well, dollar and more dollar) you when you are at a 5 star hotel? The cheapie inns never charge you to park, or for internet access. Yes, there's a fee for that too. I don't get it.

Anyways, as you probably know we're celebrating Dev's sweet 16 there, so she found a few places that offer freebies- one she picked up today from Sephora for 3 free lipglosses. if you haven't signed up as a member there yet, do, so you won't miss out.

We won't be back online until Monday evening at the earliest so I wanted to wish everyone (well, those who celebrate) a safe and happy 4th of July.

Menu Plan Monday for 6/28

This will be a short week as we're leaving for San Diego Thursday morning. Still hot as all get out so the menu will be fairly light.

Tacos with all the fixings
Salad with grilled chicken
Pulled pork BBQ sandwiches, cole slaw
Grilled hot dogs, corn on the cob

Safe Sunday & Quotable Sunday memes

Today I am going to be doing two meme's and since the Quotables will be about children I figured I'd put them together since my SS is also in quotes this week. After adding your link for Quotable Sunday, please scroll down and participate in Safe Sunday (speaking out about child abuse) if you have anything to share there.

Quotable Sunday- Head on over to A Daily Dose of Toni to play along.

It takes a village to raise a child.
African Proverb

It is very difficult and expensive to undo after you are married the things that your mother and father did to you while you were putting your first six birthdays behind you.
1928 Study

You can learn many things from children. How much patience you have, for instance.
Franklin Jones

Nothing you do for children is ever wasted. They seem not to notice us, hovering, averting our eyes, and they seldom offer thanks, but what we do for them is never wasted.
Garrison Keillor

There are only two lasting bequests we can hope to give our children. One is roots; the other, wings.
Hodding Carter

To value his own good opinion, a child has to feel that he is a worthwhile person. He has to have confidence in himself as an individual.
Sidonie Gruenberg

Safe Sunday (speaking out against Child Abuse)

Child Abuse casts a shadow that lasts a lifetime.
Herbert Ward

Child abuse does not go away, but 90% of child abuse is preventable.
Karen Adams

Child abuse happens all year long. Abuse doesn't take a holiday, doesn't take a day off, and we can't either.
Jane Donovan

It's important to talk about it. You raise awareness. But you can also prevent it (child abuse) by not letting it be a secret.
Chris Witty

I'm not a figment of my (or your) imagination.

You may have noticed (and some of you emailed and let me know) there is a decided lack of pics of me. It's not just on the blog, that's my life. I detest having my pic taken because, well, if I thought I looked as bad in the mirror as I do in pics I'd be under the knife all the time.

Honestly I do consider myself cute, just not photogenic. My friend Trina made it all fancy for me.

Today, however, for the first time in the blogosphere I'm going to let y'all see that I am a living, breathing human being, closing in on 50 fast.

To what do we owe such an honor? Well, I'm not one to brag *cough cough choke choke* but I am going to be a weekly contributor for Pink Lemonade. Yes, that's right, bouncing bread and blown up oven aside, I'll be writing about anything to do with the kitchen and cooking and such. What can I say I didn't show those posts, just my pretty bento.

Anyhoo they wanted a pic of me, so natch the little diva's (and mostly me) thought I should ham it up. I always feel like such a dork in front of a camera, might as well act like one, right?

I'm super-excited and I hope you'll check it out, the first piece will run when we get back from San Diego on July 6th.

Four Foods on Friday meme 81

I had so much fun with the WW meme when I ran across this one at Fun, Crafts & Recipes I had to play along.

Here are this week’s four questions.

#1. Clair’s question. What’s the biggest kitchen blunder you’ve made? When we got a new oven after the mini-diva's fiasco I didn't read the instructions and realize there was a second step so while I assumed the oven was on it really wasn't and when I went to check on dinner (a slow oven-roasted brisket) it was still raw. Naturally we had invited guests.

#2. What’s your favorite snow day beverage? Dawn's super-yummy, super special hot chocolate, served with a candy cane so it gets the slightest hint of peppermint.

#3. What’s your favorite way to eat celery? With cream cheese and sliced pimento stuffed green olives

#4. What’s the most most unappealing looking food you can think of? Guacamole- I love the taste but it took me a long time to get past the teething baby diaper look of it.

Great sites :)

GivesMeHope.com is this great site where people share their stories about good things that, well, give them hope. A couple of the really good ones:

"I work in a bank - a place where good news is hard to come by recently: Today I spoke with a gentleman who told me he needed to know how much money he had. When I asked if he had a large purchase coming up, he said yes. "I'm buying clothes for the man who asks me for a quarter every day on my way to school," he replies. This gentleman was 12. GMH"

"When I was at the store, a family couldn't afford all of the groceries they were going to buy. As they were putting the ones they could afford in their cart (which wasn't that much) the lady behind them said "I will pay for them." The family thanked her repeatedly. This happened 5 years ago and I still smile when I think about it. GMH."

"I was at the store and I saw a really attractive guy in his twenties in a wheelchair. Just as I was thinking how terrible it was that someone so attractive had to lead such a different life and depend on others...he held the door open for me."

You really need to check it out. It's very happymaking.

Another good site is OperationBeautiful.com. People put Post-Its on mirrors and such with messages like "You're beautiful" or "You are perfect just the way you are." It's very good because people are far too hard on themselves and their bodies.

:D

Wordless/Mostly Wordless Wednesday- missing Auntie's Birthday

Since Ian missed Auntie's Birthday we had to make it up to him with a little cake we bought- barely big enough to hold all the candles.

I decided to play along with *almost* Wordless Wednesday. The pics really do tell the story.

Step 2 Water Rush Quarry Review

I won a Step 2 Water Rush Quarry sand and water table for Ian from Life Starring the Kids & Me.
It totally ROCKS!
We've not had a chance to get sand yet- or even take it outside- yeah, it's in the living room/den with all his other crap like the horse and trampoline.
He's already having a blast with it.
Pitched a fit when his mama had to take him to visit his daddy and other grandparents.
I'll be honest with you, I've been pretty loyal to Little Tykes since my kids were little- those are some toys that can take a beating.

I have

to say that from what I have seen so far, so can Step 2.
I'm pretty sure they never intended for an oversized 2 1/2 year old to get in the darn thing, but not even a little dent, and Ian is... well, to be kind I'll say rough on toys.
You can see he's having a blast- and gets the most intense look of concentration when he's operating the crane.
His fave thing to do- send his matchboxes and trains through the tunnel and down the slide.
And while this is intended for children, I will admit the rest of us have played with it as well- we set the dumptruck that comes with it at the end of the pit near the slide and prop the slide up a bit and try to land in it. ;-)

I can only imagine it will be more fun with sand and water.
We LOVE LOVE LOVE that it breaks down super easily and the pieces fit inside and the red part makes a nice little cover for the rest of it- you can leave it out and not worry about the neighbors' cats making a giant litterbox out of it.
One thing that we've noticed- the drain does not stay shut- this may be because it is empty- not sure about that part, will update when we know if it will stay closed when there is some weight from water or sand or whatever on it.