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Jun
4
Note: The entry methods for this giveaway are a little different than the other two kick off summer giveaways – please read the rules! Thanks.
I was going to post this later today, but I am knee deep in garage sale preparations so I needed to get it done early. Garage sales are a lot of work! Hopefully it will be worth it.
For my final summer kick off giveaway, I’m giving away a reader favorite 
You can enter to win an Apple iPod Touch 8gb with a $15 iTunes gift card.
Here’s how to enter:
The only required entry is to leave a comment here telling me a book you recently read that you loved. I’m hoping that in between work, school, and general craziness, I might get to read something for leisure this summer, so I’d like some suggestions. One comment per person, but there are other ways to enter.
This is where the rules are slightly different, just to avoid repeating what we’ve been doing for all the giveaways this week.
More ways to enter:
- Mention this giveaway on your blog (include direct link in your comment)
- For an extra entry, tweet on Twitter about this giveaway. This may be done twice per day; more than twice per day will not be counted. Leave a comment for each tweet with the link to your comment and your Twitter id.
- For additional entries, you can contribute to the fund to help send my son to march with his high school band at the Rose Bowl Parade. Instructions for that are below.
For each of the above that you do, leave one comment on this giveaway post, ie one comment for each tweet, one comment for mentioning this on your blog.
Your comments may not show up immediately. Please do not post the same comment/entry more than once; all the comments will show up shortly.
After all that, if you’d like to help me send my son to the Rose Bowl Parade with his school band, you are more than welcome to do so, and I will be forever grateful. For every $5 donation, you get five extra entries for the giveaway. So $10 = 10 entries, and so on. Of course, you do not have to donate to enter or to win. All donations will be used to help pay for his band trip. If I raise more money than the cost of the trip, I will give the excess to the band patrons association to be used to help other students who cannot afford to go. If this is something you feel called to do, I thank you from the bottom of my heart, and so does my boy.
If you donate, you can leave a comment on this giveaway post just stating that you donated, but you don’t have to. I get a confirmation email for every donation, and I can also verify donations in my Paypal account. I will have a record of your donation and the amount, so I can keep track of the entries. Please use this donate button for this giveaway; do not use the button that was in the previous giveaway posts earlier this week. Well, you can, but those donations will be entries for those giveaways, not this one. To keep track of entries correctly, each donate button is coded differently.
This giveaway is open to US addresses only. Please make sure you leave a valid email address with each entry.
This giveaway will end Wednesday, June 16 at midnight CST. This giveaway has ended; the winner will be notified and posted here after I recieve their reply. Thank you for entering!
Each entry will be assigned a number and the winners will be chosen via random.org. The winners will have 72 hours to respond to my email notification. If I do not hear back within that time I will pick another winner. This giveaway is open to US addresses only.
Questions? Email me at unexpectedblissmail at gmail dot com
Good luck! Thanks for joining my celebration to kick off the summer.
This is not a sponsored post. Apple doesn’t know me. If they did, I’m sure they would love me.
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Jun
2
The first Kick Off Summer giveaway is still going on, but I think summer deserves another giveaway:) The rules will be the same; the prize is different. But familiar.
Enter to win one of two - $100 Target gift cards. That’s right, there will be two winners this time. It just seemed like the right thing to do. Who doesn’t love Target? I’m reposting all the rules again, but they’re pretty much identical to the PowerShot giveaway.
Here’s how to enter:
The only required entry is to leave a comment here telling me your most memorable summer vacation. Did you go on a great vacation recently, or when you were a child? It could be a long trip or a short weekend getaway, just share your favorite summer trip with me. One comment per person, but there are other ways to enter.
More ways to enter:
- Subscribe to Unexpected Bliss.
- Follow me on Google Friend Connect (right sidebar)
- Mention this giveaway on your blog (include direct link in your comment)
- Follow me on Twitter (@UnexpectedBliss), leave a comment with your Twitter id.
- For an extra entry, tweet on Twitter about this giveaway. This may be done twice per day; more than twice per day will not be counted. Leave a comment for each tweet with the link to your comment and your Twitter id.
For each of the above that you do, leave one comment on this giveaway post, ie one comment if you subscribe, one comment if you follow me on GFC, one comment if you follow me on Twitter, one comment for each tweet, one comment for mentioning this on your blog.
Your comments may not show up immediately. Please do not post the same comment/entry more than once; all the comments will show up shortly.
Okay, that gives you a lot of opportunities to enter. After all that, if you’d like to help me send my son to the Rose Bowl Parade with his school band, you are more than welcome to do so, and I will be forever grateful. For every $5 donation, you get five extra entries for the giveaway. So $10 = 10 entries, and so on. Of course, you do not have to donate to enter or to win. All donations will be used to help pay for his band trip. If I raise more money than the cost of the trip, I will give the excess to the band patrons association to be used to help other students who cannot afford to go. If this is something you feel called to do, I thank you from the bottom of my heart, and so does my boy.
If you donate, you can leave a comment on this giveaway post just stating that you donated, but you don’t have to. I get a confirmation email for every donation, and I can also verify donations in my Paypal account. I will have a record of your donation and the amount, so I can keep track of the entries. Please use this donate button for this giveaway; do not use the button that will be in the upcoming giveaway post later this week. To keep track of entries correctly, each donate button is coded differently.
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May
30
I wrote about the purpose of these giveaways in my last post, and I really can’t think of a better way to kick off June and the start of summer than by having a giveaway. If you haven’t had time to slog your way through that never ending post, basically I’ve got some very cool prizes to give away. I’ve also got a son who has the awesome opportunity to march in the Rose Bowl Parade with the high school band, but the cost is out of our reach. So I’m borrowing an idea from another blogger who wanted to raise money to attend a blogging conference. This giveaway will be pretty much the same as any other giveaway I’ve held, except that you will have the option to earn extra entries if you want to contribute to my son’s band trip fund. No donation or financial contribution is required to enter or to win; there are many other ways to enter.
I’ve got several prizes, so we’re going to drag out the fun a little. I’ll announce each prize or set of prizes separately, so there will be some overlap. Here’s how the giveaways will work:
The first prize that I’ll be giving away is a brand new Canon PowerShot A3100 IS. Perfect for summer vacation, sporting events, or just having fun at home. You know you want one
Here’s how to enter to win this little baby:
The only required entry is to leave a comment here telling me if you have any exciting plans for this summer. Exciting is a pretty loose term; a picnic in the park is exciting, so is a family vacation. Just share your summer plans with me, because mine all revolve around a classroom and lots of homework, which is definitely not exciting. One comment per person, but there are other ways to enter.
More ways to enter:
- Subscribe to Unexpected Bliss.
- Follow me on Google Friend Connect (right sidebar)
- Mention this giveaway on your blog (include direct link in your comment)
- Follow me on Twitter (@UnexpectedBliss), leave a comment with your Twitter id.
- For an extra entry, tweet on Twitter about this giveaway. This may be done twice per day; more than twice per day will not be counted. Leave a comment for each tweet with the link to your comment and your Twitter id.
For each of the above that you do, leave one comment on this giveaway post, ie one comment if you subscribe, one comment if you follow me on GFC, one comment if you follow me on Twitter, one comment for each tweet, one comment for mentioning this on your blog.
Your comments may not show up immediately. Please do not post the same comment/entry more than once; all the comments will show up shortly.
Okay, that gives you a lot of opportunities to enter. After all that, if you’d like to help me send my son to the Rose Bowl Parade with his school band, you are more than welcome to do so, and I will be forever grateful. For every $5 donation, you get five extra entries for the giveaway. So $10 = 10 entries, and so on. Of course, you do not have to donate to enter or to win. All donations will be used to help pay for his band trip. If I raise more money than the cost of the trip, I will give the excess to the band patrons association to be used to help other students who cannot afford to go. If this is something you feel called to do, I thank you from the bottom of my heart, and so does my boy.
If you donate, you can leave a comment on this giveaway post just stating that you donated, but you don’t have to. I get a confirmation email for every donation, and I can also verify donations in my Paypal account. I will have a record of your donation and the amount, so I can keep track of the entries. Please use this donate button for this giveaway; do not use the button that will be in the upcoming giveaway post later this week. To keep track of entries correctly, each donate button is coded differently.
This giveaway is open to US addresses only. Please make sure you leave a valid email address with each entry. Each entry will be assigned a number and the winner will be chosen via random.org. The winner will have 72 hours to respond to my email notification. If I do not hear back within that time I will pick another winner.
This giveaway will end Wednesday, June 9 at midnight CST. This giveaway has ended. I will verify the entries and notify the winner via email; as soon as I hear back from the winner, I will announce it here. Thanks for entering!
I will post another “Kick-off Summer” giveaway on Wednesday, June 2. To simplify record keeping, each giveaway will be separate and will have separate entry methods, even though the dates will overlap some. Good luck!
Questions? Email me at unexpectedblissmail at gmail dot com
This is not a sponsored giveaway. I purchased this camera myself; Canon does not know I exist. Their loss, I know
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May
30
I really didn’t mean for this to be such a long post. I start to write these days and I just can’t stop the words. I hope you can stick with me til the end.
Have I mentioned that my oldest son is a musician? I’m sure I have He plays the piano and the bass clarinet in the school band. Our local school takes band very seriously here; the high school band always wins area competitions and has huge support in the community. As the mom of a non-athlete, I really appreciate a school that values other extracurricular activities.
My son will be is in high school now (that still hasn’t sunk in). The high school band gets to march in the Rose Bowl Parade in Pasadena California next December! What a huge honor, and how exciting for those kids. My son can’t hardly wait to get started marching. Conditioning starts in June; the parade route is over five miles, so they have to get in shape for it. In August, the band will practice daily from 8am to 4pm. This is a lot of work, and they emphasize that the kids have to be serious and committed to stick with it. My son is. Music is his life, and he hopes to get a music scholarship.
About this trip to the Rose Bowl. It’s expensive. When I found out about the trip earlier this year I called the mom in charge of fundraising for the band. She gave me all the details including dates, prices and a partial list of upcoming fundraising events. The preliminary price she gave me seemed within reach as long as we did the fundraisers and saved any money he earns mowing yards. My son has participated in every possible fundraiser, but it’s hard to sell candy bars and plants when every other school group is selling the same thing. He has two yards this summer; it’s hard to get mowing jobs in this economy. There are literally dozens of ads for lawn services at any given time, and most of our past customers aren’t able to afford it now.
The band chairperson called me last week with the final details and price for the trip, and the price is actually almost double the amount I was originally given. It’s going to be about $1000 for the travel (bus), hotel, meals and activities. It’s actually a great price for a trip of that magnitude. But it’s still out of reach, and the $86 he has accumulated from the fundraisers makes just a tiny dent.
So I’m borrowing a great idea from another blogger who wanted to raise money to attend a blogging conference (thanks Ashley!). I mentioned in a previous post that I had been blessed by a local business with some things to give away here, for whatever purpose I wanted. I’ve already had a couple giveaways, but I’ve been waiting to give away the items I still have. After wracking my brain for the past few days about how to break it to my son that there’s just no way for us to send him on that band trip, I remembered Ashley’s brilliant idea.
I have two grand prizes and several smaller prizes to give away. There will be several ways to enter as there always are for any of my giveaways. In addition, if you are so inclined to help send my son to the Rose Bowl Parade with his band, you can earn extra entries. No purchase or financial contribution is required for this giveaway.
The giveaway is made possible by some generations donations and assistance from some angels who live in my community. They’ve helped as much as they can, and it is a huge help. I’ve talked this over with them and have gotten their blessing to use these items for this purpose. It’s not a sponsored giveaway; the prizes are items that I have purchased.
If you read my blog at all, you know that right now I’m struggling with a lot of things. You probably wonder why I’m even trying to do this for my son, for a band trip. I know that in the big scheme of things, this is not a priority. If you are a parent, you might understand. My son is in the ninth grade. It’s never too soon to start thinking about college, and for us, thinking about college means thinking about scholarship opportunities. We’ve talked to his piano teacher about things he can do and competitions he can enter that will improve his chances at getting a music scholarship. This is not a whim of his that he will get bored with next week. He’s been taking music lessons for over five years. He’s good at it. I’m not just being a proud mom; music professionals have told me this. So to me, this is not just a fun trip. It’s an investment in his future. Yes, it is also the trip of a lifetime. A trip that we would never be able to send him on if not for the band. The band doesn’t get to do this every year; they may not get to do it again while he’s in school. I can’t be certain that there will ever be a second chance for him to go.
If you think it’s wrong of me to want this for my son, I understand. I do want it for him though, and I’m willing to do this to try to make it happen. You all get a fun giveaway with some great prizes to kick off the summer, and if you want, you have the option to help a boy follow his dream. Participation in anything is always optional.
For so many of the struggles and trials that I’m going through right now, there is nothing I can do right at this moment to change or affect the outcome. Being stuck in a holding pattern with no possible forward movement is frustrating, to say the least. In this situation, which also seemed impossible a few days ago, there is something I can do to try to change the outcome. This giveaway was going to happen regardless; I’m just mixing it up a bit.
The giveaway will be posted later today; I hope you’ll check back for the exciting details.
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May
12
Sometimes I am overflowing with words. Then there are days like today when there’s just nothing. My mind isn’t empty (don’t ask my family if that’s true); it’s actually racing 100 miles a minute trying to figure out how and when I’m going to get everything done that needs to be done. With all that going on, the writing cannot find it’s way out. Surely this condition won’t last long.
I do have to say one thing, because it’s on my mind. If you have children, particularly boy children, and people talk about how their boy teens are eating them out of house and home – believe them. They are not exaggerating. All the boys in my house are apparently going through massive growth spurts right now, because they’re starving all the time. There’s no such thing as leftovers anymore, because they’re eating three times what they ate a few months ago.
In honor of all those families with teenagers who have a hard time keeping enough food on hand for the starving, growing kids, here’s my second blogiversary giveaway. Compliments of my local sponsor of course, but I was able to choose what I wanted to give you for this. How does a $50 Target gift card sound? My Target doesn’t have food, so that’s no help with feeding the masses, but there is plenty of other good stuff.
This giveaway is for one $50 Target gift card.
Here’s how to enter:
Leave a comment here and tell me your favorite inexpensive food dish. Cause I need to expand my recipe file to feed these boys. This is the only required entry. One comment per person, but there are other ways to enter.
More ways to enter:
- Subscribe to Unexpected Bliss.
- Friend me on Google Friend Connect (on right hand sidebar)
- Mention this giveaway on your blog (include direct link in your comment)
- Follow me on Twitter (@UnexpectedBliss), leave a comment with your Twitter id.
- For an extra entry, tweet on Twitter about this giveaway. This may be done up to two times per day only. Leave a comment for each tweet with the link to your comment and your Twitter id. I will delete any comments for tweets that exceed the two per day limit.
For each of the above that you do, leave a comment on this giveaway post, so one comment if you subscribe, one comment if you follow me on Google Friend Connect, one comment if you follow me on Twitter, one comment for each tweet, one comment for mentioning this on your blog.
This giveaway will end next Monday, May 17 at midnight CST. This giveaway has ended. I will verify the entries and delete the duplicate comments/tweets, then notify the winner. Once I hear back from the winner I will post it here. Thanks for entering!
Open to US addresses only. Please make sure you leave a valid email address with each entry. The winner will be chosen via random.org and will have 72 hours to respond to my email notification. If I do not hear back within that time I will pick another winner.
As soon as I hear from the winner I will announce it here. Thank you for entering!
Questions? Email me at unexpectedblissmail at gmail dot com
This is not a sponsored giveaway. This gift card was purchased by me from a gift that was given to me. I own this gift card and am giving it away all by myself.
If you don’t see your comment right away, it will show up shortly. I’ve been getting crazy spam comments lately, so my filter is blocking a lot. I will make sure all the giveaway comments are posted, so please don’t submit twice. Thanks!
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May
11
Finally a winner! Cassandra is the winner of my first iPod touch giveaway. I hope this is okay with her, but I want to share with you her response when I notified her that she had won the iPod touch:
OMG, ARE YOU SERIOUS?!! Freaking WOW!!!
I love that! Notifying the winner is just so much fun. Visit Cassandra’s blog, tell her congratulations and keep entering my current iPod touch giveaway.
I promised that I’d have some other, smaller giveaways this week to celebrate my two year blogging anniversary, so check back tomorrow for that.
Congratulations Cassandra ~ enjoy!
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May
5
Update 5/15: The giveaway has ended, and the winner will be contacted and announced soon.
I said I’d have the new giveaway up today, and I’m going to make it! It was so hard deciding what to give away. I wanted to be able to do a couple of giveaways instead of one huge one ~ more winners = more fun.
Also. Since I missed my actual “blogiversary” a few weeks ago, I’m claiming the next nine days as my Blogiversary Week. I think it deserves a whole nine days. So throughout the next nine days, I’ll be having several smaller giveaways that will only run for a day. Those will have their own separate posts and entry requirements, so check back for those through May 14.
For this first giveaway: I want to give you guys what you really want. And since so many of you really, reallywant an iPod touch, we’re going to do it again! I hope no one minds a repeat
One winner will receive a brand new Apple iPod touch 8gb with a $15 iTunes gift card.
Here’s how to enter:
Leave a comment here telling me something that you are looking forward to. Maybe your own blogiversary, anniversary, birthday, graduation, vacation or just a night out. What’s coming up in your life that you are excited about? This is the only required entry. One comment per person, but there are other ways to enter.
More ways to enter:
- Subscribe to Unexpected Bliss.
- Mention this giveaway on your blog (include direct link in your comment)
- Follow me on Twitter (@UnexpectedBliss), leave a comment with your Twitter id.
- For an extra entry, tweet on Twitter about this giveaway. This may be done as often as you want. Leave a comment for each tweet with the link to your comment and your Twitter id.
For each of the above that you do, leave a comment on this giveaway post, so 1 comment if you subscribe, 1 comment if you follow me on Twitter, 1 comment for each tweet, 1 comment for mentioning this on your blog.
This giveaway will end next Friday, May 14 at midnight CST. The giveaway has ended. I will verify the entries and notify the winner. As soon as I hear back from the winne I will announce it here. Thanks for entering!
Open to US addresses only. Please make sure you leave a valid email address with each entry. The winner will be chosen via random.org and will have 72 hours to respond to my email notification. If I do not hear back within that time I will pick another winner.
As soon as I hear from the winner I will announce it here. Thank you for entering and check back for more giveaways this week!
Questions? Email me at unexpectedblissmail at gmail dot com
This is not a sponsored giveaway. This iPod touch was purchased by me with a gift card that was given to me. I own this iPod touch and iTunes gift card and am giving it away all by myself.
If you don’t see your comment right away, it will show up shortly. I’ve been getting crazy spam comments lately, so my filter is blocking a lot. I will make sure all the giveaway comments are posted, so please don’t submit twice. Thanks!
Note added 5/9: I’ve never had to set a limit on the tweets for a giveaway before, but I am seeing tweets being done several times per hour, sometimes just a minute or two apart. Please be reasonable and use good judgment – I think once per hour is plenty, but certainly less than every few minutes. Thank you.
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May
5
I’m trying to do some updating to my blog, so there might be some wonkiness for the next day or two. It’s just me trying to figure out this techy stuff; eventually I’ll get it.
I’ve got a new, wonderful, exciting giveaway coming up for later today – woohoo! A few details now: someone who operates a small business in a close city heard about me from someone I go to church with. This family wanted to do something to help me get this blog back in gear. They offered to sponsor a giveaway or two, but because of the Blogher guidelines for giveaways, we had to figure out the best way to do it. This company is seasonal and very local, so they weren’t looking for advertising; in fact, being mentioned on a blog about family that probably isn’t read by too many locals isn’t really anything they would benefit from. They still wanted to do something. So, they gave me a gift card, to do whatever I wanted with, as long as it would benefit this here little blog. I could use it to buy a new computer or printer, whatever I need. Or I could use it to buy some items to give to You! Can you guess what I decided to use it for ?
I’ve got a few more entries to verify from the giveaway that ended yesterday, then random.org can work its magic and I can email that winner. Then I will go shopping! This new giveaway will be up by this evening, so look for it. And Happy May!
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Apr
30
It’s another dark and rainy weekend here, so hopefully I can get some reading in. Here are a few of the posts I loved this week, enjoy.
First, Ashley at Putting God First Place is giving away almost $1000 in prizes with Give! Win! Send! starting May 1. She is trying to raise money to attend the Relevant Conference in October, so while no donation is required to enter, you can help send Ashley to Relevant and earn extra entries by donating. Help a girl out and get a chance to win great prizes!
Now for some incredible reading:
Lori’s Reflections ~ Chill, Be Sick, Be Loved and Live Out Plan B
Moms Sharpening Moms ~ On Cruising and Battling
Healthy Spirituality ~ Internal Non-Violence – Discovering My Violent Heart
Mayhem & Moxie ~ The Universal Truths of Motherhood
Shaun Groves ~ There’s No Such Thing as a Self-Made Man
Home With the Boys ~ For Every Mother of Boys Got boys? Then you need to join the MOB Society!
The Gypsy Mama ~ How to not splinter your daughter’s heart
There, that should keep you busy for awhile Seriously good stuff. Have a wonderful weekend!
For more great reads, visit Saturday Stumbles at It’s Come 2 This
Do you need a little Unexpected Bliss in your life? Then subscribe to get this bliss in your reader or by email.
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Apr
26
Update: The winner has been notified by email. As soon as I hear back from the winner I will announce it here. Check back soon for more giveaway fun!
You know it’s going to be a good week when it starts with a giveaway, right? I went to a carnival fun night at a local school this weekend, and I won an awesome iPod Touch and iTunes gift card in their raffle! I don’t need an iPod touch, in fact I would probably never figure out how to use it, so I am giving it away to one of my lucky readers! Can’t beat that, can ya?
This is a brand new Apple iPod touch 8gb with a $15 iTunes gift card.
Here’s how to enter:
Leave a comment here telling me what you would do with this iPod touch if you win – would you keep it or give it away, and to whom. One comment per person, but there are other ways to enter.
More ways to enter:
- Subscribe to Unexpected Bliss.
- Mention this giveaway on your blog (include direct link in your comment)
- Follow me on Twitter (@UnexpectedBliss), leave a comment with your Twitter id.
- For an extra entry, tweet on Twitter about this giveaway. This may be done as often as you want, leave a comment for each tweet with the link to your comment and your Twitter id.
For each of the above that you do, leave 1 comment on this giveaway post, ie 1 comment if you subscribe, 1 comment if you follow me on Twitter, 1 comment for each tweet, 1 comment for mentioning this on your blog.
There will also be an additional chance to enter later this week; I will provide another opportunity in an upcoming post about Mother’s Day, so check back.
That is a lot of chances to win!
Open to US addresses only. Please make sure you leave a valid email address with each entry. The winner will be chosen via random.org and will have 72 hours to respond to my email notification. If I do not hear back within that time I will pick another winner.
This giveaway will end May 3, 2010 at midnight CST. This giveaway has ended. I will verify all entries and choose the winner using random.org. The winner has 72 hours to respond with their mailing information. If the winner does not respond within 72 hours an alternate will be chosen. As soon as I hear from the winner I will announce it here. Thank you for entering and check back for more giveaways this week!
If you don’t see your comment right away, it will show up shortly. I’ve been getting crazy spam comments lately, so my filter is blocking a lot. I will make sure all the giveaway comments are posted, so don’t submit twice. Thanks!
Good luck!
This is not a sponsored giveaway. Apple doesn’t know me, although I’m sure we would be BFFs if they did. I own this iPod touch and iTunes gift card and am giving it away all by myself. Cause I want to.
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My boys
Where did those little guys go?Cuteness overload
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