The Boogie Man is My Friend Book Giveaway!

The wonderful Kathryn Loving is giving our readers the chance to win all three of her Boogie Man books:  The Boogie Man is My Friend, The Rookies, and Behind the Shield.

If you've ever read her blog, The Boogie Man is My Friend, you know that she's a straight shooter with a bit of a quirky personality which shines through in these books.

Her first book, The Boogie Man is My Friend, deals with issues she has seen in her career and is, in my opinion, a great parenting book.  She talks about issues that no one wants to acknowledge and just when it gets to be too much, breaks up the tension with her signature humor.

The Rookies takes a break from the seriousness of dealing with the Boogie Man and takes a look at the lighter side of cop work, from her time as a rookie to her time as an FTO.  It's a light-hearted look at the folks who are trying their best to keep society safe.

Behind The Shield is a continuation of stories, drawn from her extensive journals.  Readers of her blog will "recognize" some of the people and stories she discusses.  I'm currently about half-way through her newest book and am enjoying it immensely.


So what do you have to do to be entered to win autographed copies of all three books?  It's pretty easy, just follow the prompts in the Rafflecopter below.  The giveaway will end at midnight (Mountain time) on October 16th.


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Because I Love You...

...and because I got some cool stuff for free!

Megan from BuildASign contacted me a month or so ago about doing a review on their products.  I was really interested in participating, but didn't have time to breathe, much less play around with their cool stuff.  Megan was super patient with me and gave me all the time I needed.

Last weekend, I made time to sit down at the computer.  I played with bumper stickers, window clings, decals.  You name it, I played with it.  It was super easy, and though I'm not the graphic designer in the family, I pretended I was.  I ended up designing some window clings that I think are kind of cool.

The site was fun to play around with and they got my order out to me faster than promised.  Megan told me to expect my order to arrive around February 16.  Imagine my delight when my order arrived on the 11th, just three days after I placed it.

Megan, in addition to being exceptionally patient with me, offered some really good suggestions to make sure that I was happy with the product.  I'm glad I listened to her suggestions.

I do have a problem, though.

I can't take a picture of the cling, because it's white writing on the white backing. So you'll have to trust me that it's pretty darn cool and Ripley's already sporting one (but RCC has Ripley at work, so I still can't take a picture).

I have ten to give away, but instead of using the Random Name Picker like I usually do, I'm going to give them to the first ten commenters. Family (Mom, Bill, Nebalee, Deejo) doesn't count because you're expected to put one on your vehicles and I've already got yours set aside.

I had such a good time with BuildASign that I've already got other projects in mind.

Last Day for Giveaway!

Don't forget that today's the last day to enter my giveaway!

Go here and leave a comment to be entered.  Good luck, everyone!

Did You Get What You Asked For? *Giveaway*

Well, if you didn't, here's your chance to win a $40 shopping spree at CSN stores.  Though I won't be getting any more modern dining room furniture until after ALL of the heathi are out of the house, CSN stores has some good stuff.  RockCrawlinChef moved some pretty cool furniture in when we got married, but I'm thinking that we might want stuff that we can entertain with.

I'm pretty sure that there's something that you want and had hoped you'd get it for Christmas, but it didn't show up under the tree.  'Cause, dang, I know that Santa did not drop off the consecutively numbered, semi-matching AR-15s under the tree that RCC and I were hoping for.

So...'fess up...what is it you wanted and didn't get this year?  And don't give me all that "I have my health/my happiness/a loving family and what more could you ask for" crap.  A book?  Jewelry?  A trip? The winning lottery numbers?

Leave me a comment with what you wanted by midnight CST on Wednesday, January 12th.  I'll plug your names in a random generator thingy and announce my winner on Friday, January 14th.  Entries limited to three (because I have some long-winded, smart-alec family and friends).

We Have A Winner!

The winner of the $50 CSN Stores gift certificate is . . .

Drum roll, please . . .

"Why yes that's a mini Schnauzer in the travel tote under the seat in front of me! Why yes, I paid a solid $100 each way to bring her along. Well, no, I don't think the screaming baby up three rows cost a single cent to fly with her Momma. She doesn't get shoved under the seat, either."

A real conversation between a fellow passenger & myself after a IAH to PIT flight a few years ago. My Schnauzer, Allie, flew very quietly under the seat in front of me in her little pet-tote. The infant, however, who flew for free, screamed bloody murder the entire trip.

Jennifer!

Jennifer, I'll be forwarding your email address to the promoter at CSN, so expect to hear from them within the week.  Enjoy whatever it is you find (be sure to let us know what you blow your gift certificate on)!

Rach and Mr. Daddy, while you both cracked me right the eff up with the MILE HIGH club comment, it came in after the deadline for comments.  So, for second place, Rachel, I'll make sure that Mom puts her Cherry Cheese Filled Pastry (or whatever the heck she calls it) on the menu for either Saturday or Sunday.  Hope that's an okay consolation prize.

But the MILE HIGH comment got me thinking...now, stop groaning and shaking your heads, I do think on occasion...

While the MILE HIGH CLUB is usually used in reference to flying, doesn't that also mean that most of the people in Denver and the surrounding mountains are also members of the MHC?  After all, we live a mile above sea level.

Time to Vote

It's time to choose the winner of the $50 CSN gift certificate!  The winner will be determined by vote, so hop on over to check out the comments on this post and leave your vote in the comments here.  We'll close voting on Wednesday, August 11th at midnight.

Vote as often as you'd like (and, no, you cannot vote for yourself).

An Anniversary, Random Thoughts and a Give-Away

Today's my blog's two year anniversary, almost 300 posts.  Scary isn't it? What's scarier is that I have followers. Lost one, but gained eight. I won't complain. It's better than losing eight and gaining one.  Yikes!

I spent about ten days traveling for both business and pleasure and repeatedly some random things popped into my head:

• I love to fly in flip-flops. It makes going through security super easy and I can take them off during my flight. The only problem is that I'm always afraid that I'll lose a toe or two on the escalators, so I end up curling my toes as far up under my feet as possible. If I could retract them, I would.
• Why is it that the upper-end hotels never have fart fans in the bathroom?  Seriously, after eating conference food and traveling, I really need a fart fan in the bathroom.  Here's a tip: even rich people's shit stinks. (Not that I'm rich, far from it, but my company puts us up in n-i-c-e hotels.)
• While we're on the bathroom subject. Single-ply toilet paper. Really? Conference food, no fart fan and single-ply TP - is it all a cruel joke? C'mon for what you're charging per room, buy the good stuff.  Hell, even I can afford two-ply TP.
• When we were in San Antonio there was a football coaches' conference with 15,000 football coaches in attendance.  Can we say testosterone poisoning?
• Bedroom vanity. No, not the kind of vanity that Cosmo tries to instill; the furniture vanity. Even if I owned one, would I ever be able to find it for all the books piled on top? Even though I've got Eloise, I still read paper books and my TBR pile hasn't gone down a whole heap (or at all - it may have grown).

And to celebrate my blog's two-year anniversary...a CSN give-away. The best random travel thought comment will win a $50 CSN gift certificate, good at any of their two hundred stores. I've done a couple of reviews about products I've received from CSN and have been pleased with both the products and the service.  Get your comments posted no later than Sunday, August 1 at midnight MST.  After I've recieved all the comments, I'll post them and we'll have us a little vote-off for the best random travel thought.

PS - not a single one of you can give me any grief about my trichophobia after the comments I recieved on the ear hair post. I think I've just proven that we *all* have some form of trichophobia.

Check It Out

Hop on over to Girls With Guns, a collaborative blog between myself and Mrs Mom.  Leave us a comment on the most recent post by midnight tonight (May 2) and be entered into our give-away.

Re-Gifting!

So, three of my give-away winners didn't claim their books.  Know what that means?
It means that I got to plug more names into the Random Name Picker and choose three more winners!
I chose from the 200th post commenters, not including family (sorry Mom and Bill), previous winners or those who didn't claim their books.  What that means is that even if you commented late, you were included the drawing this time around.

Crazy Sweet: T!nK

Cutting Loose: Sara

Loose and Easy: Shannon O'Donnell






I've got all of the other books packaged and ready to ship.  Y'all have no idea how hard that was to do, because I've loaned out my entire set and I just love these books.  It took all of my self control not to just sit down and read them all from start to finish before I mailed them out.

Winners!

My good friend and fellow GunDiva, Tara Janzen, is an amazing author with more than twenty years as a published author.  We met when she was doing research for her current series.  I just happened to be the lucky co-instructor in her pistol safety course.  We clicked and quickly became shooting buddies. I was there when she learned to become one with her rifle; it really was beautiful and magical.

As an invisible writer, I was initially star-struck to meet a real, honest-to-God, paid author.  With seemingly millions of books to her name.  As we became better friends - and after I was "killed" over and over again at the gun shop for a scene in one of her books - I finally broke down and asked her to read some of my work.  She was honest.  I love her for that.  What I had presented to her was crap, though she was kind enough not to put it that way.

She was also the one, who, after reading some of my stories over at Tales, told me those should be published.  Since she'd been honest in her review of my previous work, I knew it was high praise.  She gave me the courage to submit my query.

Not only do I count her as one of my dearest friends, she's a hell of a writer and I love her books.  Since I love them so much, I thought I'd share with you.

Crazy Hot: Michelle Pixie

Crazy Cool: Mad Woman

Crazy Wild: Mrs Mom

Crazy Kisses: K Erickson

Crazy Love:  Dual Mom

Crazy Sweet:  Ian

On The Loose:  Vinomom

Cutting Loose: Life with Kaishon

Loose and Easy:  Foursons

...and, finally, Breaking Loose goes to Taylorvillegirl











Please email your physical addresses to me at tel835@hotmail.com so I can get them in the mail to you ASAP.  I hope you love them as much as I do.  And, guys (no - really - the penised-Americans) who read my blog, if you've won one of these books, don't let the cover put you off...my big, bad Marine brother loves them!  He just hides them inside a Playboy or some other such manly thing.

Any books not claimed by Sunday evening will be re-gifted, so fair warning.

Thank you to everyone for helping me celebrate my 200th blog post!

True Story Tuesday - Mommy Fail!

As always, thanks to Rachel and Mr. Daddy who host this little "embarrass ouselves" party each week.

Head on over there for some more horrifying, "I can't believe he/she did that, I'm so going to use this as a bribe/extortion against my blog buddies" stories.

Mommy Fail

Many years ago, when my children were still small and cute we joined my parents for a vacation to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.  I was super excited because it was the first "real" vacation my children and I had had together (and, quite possibly, the last - after all, I was a struggling single mother of three who wasn't getting any child support.  Life is very different now).

Monster, my youngest, was seven years old at the time and  prone to not being able to sit still.  He still can't.  The thought of him strapped into an airplane for more than, oh, five minutes, was not a pleasant one.  But we were going to Mexico, by God, and he was going to have to sit still and not get us thrown off the plane.  Even he was worried about how he was going to get there alive.  I assured him I had a plan, for I know very well the virtues of the extra-label use of Benadryl, so I bought some cherry-flavored children's chewables.  I assured him that the Benadryl would just make it easy for him to sleep on the plane and that when he woke up we'd be in Mexico.

Worked like a charm.  Dosed him up when we got to the gate and by the time we took off, his little head was nodding.  Score one for Mommy.

A few days later, we went out on a party boat (no, that's not the Mommy Fail) for some snorkeling and a lunch at a "private" island (which must have been co-owned by about forty other party boats).  Then we sailed over to another island for a hike back into a pretty waterfall.  The day was going beautifully.  Well, except for the chaffing on poor Digger's thighs from the lining of his wet swim trunks during the hike (no, that's not the Mommy Fail either!).

On the way back to Puerto Vallarta, there was music and dancing on the deck.  We all had a good time dancing around, right up until Monster stepped on a bee and got stung.  He dropped like a rock and started crying (hell, I would have too).  One of the crew scooped him up, took him to the bar and ordered up some tequila.  He poured the tequila over Monster's foot, scraped the stinger out and then put a cotton ball soaked with tequila on the sting.  Monster was in heaven.  For the remainer of the trip, if his cotton ball began to look like it was drying up, we had to put more tequila on it.

We got back to the condo without any problems or any further complaints from Monster about his foot.  The tequila seemed to have done its job of numbing up the bite.

At bedtime, though, his little foot started to itch and burn, so I went to get the Benadryl.

As soon as he saw me with the Benadryl, he wailed, "I don't want to go to sleep!  I want tequila!"

And that, my dear blog buddies, was the Mommy Fail.

It took a long time to convince him that Benadryl was actually for bee stings and that the sleepiness was just a bonus.  I don't remember if we ever got him talked into taking the Benadryl or not, to be honest.

Yay!  Y'all've just read my 200th post!!!

I had no idea, when I started this blog, where it would go, or if it would go anywhere at all.

I was clueless about blog etiquette (still am for the most part - there are so many "rules"),

But I'm getting the hang of it.

I didn't know if anyone would read my blog, other than my family.

And then I got my first followers and they've been so loyal (Thanks K. and T!nK),

My own bloggy support group.

In the past year, new followers have signed up and stayed with me.

How crazy is that?

I've never done a give-away before, but I thought I'd give it a try.

Don't count on it happening often.

Unless TALES FROM THE TRAIL sells,

But that's a whole different story.

So...comment away...

Ten randomly drawn commenters will receive a copy of a book from my favorite GunDiva,

Tara Janzen.

Be sure to check back for the winners!

And, please, for the love of God, if you've never commented before,

Quit lurking!

You may miss out big.

Really big.

Thank you, everyone, for helping me celebrate my 200th post.  I entered everyone's name (well, except Allenspark Lodge) into a Random Name Picker provided by Classtools.net and chose ten winners, who will be announced tomorrow (Wednesday, March 24th).