501

Okay...so regarding my last post: the number I chose for the winner was 4, because I've been blogging for 44 months.

The 4th person who commented was Marsha. Yay for Marsha! And Marsha, you guessed it: you win a jar of home-canned pumpkin butter, made from home-grown pumpkins and home-processed pumpkin puree! I will be mailing that to you this next week! Hope you enjoy!

And for those of you who asked, here's the recipe that my sis-in-law Jen gave me:

Amish Pumpkin Butter

Ingredients:
1 can (29 oz) pumpkin puree
3/4 cup apple juice
2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Instructions:
1. Combine pumpkin, apple juice, spices, and sugar in a large saucepan; stir well. Bring mixture to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes or until thickened. Stir frequently.

2. Spoon hot pumpkin mixture into hot jars, filling to within 1/4 inch from top. Remove air bubbles; wipe jar rims. Cover at once with metal lids, and screw on bands.

3. Process in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes.

(It says it yields 40 servings, but I have no idea how large they consider a serving size. I think I tripled the recipe, and it filled 12 half-pint jars, so a single batch would produce about 4 half-pint jars or 2 pint jars.)

Unexpected

Winners of the local "Kick, Punt, Pass" football contest in their age division:Out of all 2 entries in the 6-7 year old boy category, Jonah came in 1st and Micah came in 2nd! Ironically, the only reason the twins did the contest was because Ammon entered the contest. But there were a lot more boys in Ammon's age category, and he had a lot harder competition. Ammon was really hoping to win, but didn't. The twins didn't enter the contest to win, but did!

For boys who don't really care for the sport very much, they were both elated with their prize of a new football and have both enjoyed playing with them! And they were also excited about their colored ribbons, and hung them up in their room to display as soon as we got home!

The Word Winner

Last year when I played the "Boggler for a Blogger" game, I had a lot of responses! This year--not so much. But thank you to everyone who played along. I just love playing this game (in real life and online). I decided before I posted the game/contest this time that the person/persons who commented with the biggest words, receiving the highest number of points, would be the winner(s). The scoring system in Boggle goes like this: 3 and 4 letter words = 2 points, 5 letter words = 3 points, 6 letter words = 4 points, and so on.
The winner this time around is Ammon who earned 7 points with his words: priest (2), series (3), and erase (2). Way to go!!! After he saw my contest on the blog, he took it very seriously and got the dictionary out and searched the boggle cube for over an hour!! He definitely did a great job for being 10 years old, and I think he's very deserving of the win!!!

The 2nd place honorary mention is a 3-way tie with 5 points each: Alyssa with tipsy, spree, & pity, Tiffany with seer, trees, & tries, and Meichelle with spry, stirs , & gipsy.

And now, as promised, this week I'm going to get back to editing my photos and updating my blog!

A Boggler for the Blogger

Here's the scoop: I'm behind on editing my photos. Since I've been moving for the past month, and getting ready for my upcoming yard sale this past week, I don't have time to work on my photos right now so that I can post some on my blog. I hate being behind on my photos and my blogging, but hey...what am I gonna do about it?

Oh! I know! Let's play a game to pass the time!

Do you remember my contest "Boggler for the Blogger" from last summer? No? Okay, well, here's the rules:

1. You discover words in the grid below, using the same rules as the game 'Boggle' (the word must have letters connected--horizontally, vertically, diagonally. No proper nouns, no made-up words, no foreign words, no acronyms. Words must be at least 3 letters long. No cube can be used more than once in each word)

2. You are ONLY allowed to comment ONCE. On your comment, you are ONLY allowed to put up to 3 words. You cannot put a word that someone ahead of you has already put.

3. The game will last for 5 days. Next Tuesday (July 13), I will pick random winners to receive prizes, and I will resume my regular blogging again!!! Have fun!!!

We have a winner!!!

Our elementary school adopted the motto "FRYS-Friendly Responsible Youth Staying Safe" three years ago. Each year, they hold a contest for kids to design a poster that illustrates the motto. They have a panel of judges that chooses the best poster from each grade. This year, Micah won from the kindergarten with this picture:
After the winners are chosen, they are treated to a pizza party during the lunch hour. They get to eat pizza and breadsticks and pop. After the eating is done, they color an identical poster to the one that was chosen with paints onto a larger canvas. After that's all done, the pictures are framed and remain in the halls of the school.

I love Micah's artistic abilities! He loves to draw and color. He creates the cutest little stick figures--they look like Mr. Potato Head. They are so adorable! His poster is of him helping another child on the playground. So cute! He was thrilled that he won the contest! This is the poster that is now framed and displayed in the school:

Good Job Micah!

Random Contest

If you are reading these words, click on comments and tell me your name.

After I have 25 names in the comments, I'll pick 3 names randomly by number to each win a prize. It's just that simple!

Identity Identifying

Do you ever identify people by something other than their faces?

For example, you're in a public place and you spot the back of someone's head, but you recognize them because of their hair.

Or you're walking down a street and see a person ahead of you and you know who it is just by the way they walk.

Or you hear a voice and you instantly know who it is that's talking.

It got me thinking...if I posted pictures of somebody's lower half rather than their upper half, would they be recognizable and identified correctly?

So here's my experiment:

do you recognize any of the following people?

how were you able to identify them?

what do you think they all have in common with each other?

Identities 1 & 2

Identities 3 & 4

Identities 5 & 6

Concerto Contesto

Remember how I said the next contest would be easier?! Well, here it is...

Concerto Contesto!

Here's the rules:

Correctly match the Photo with the correlating Concert we were at!!!

Photos are numbered and Concerts are lettered.

The first person with the most (or all) correct matches wins a Sur-PRIZE!

Contest ends Wednesday, August 26!

Good Luck and Happy Guessing!

PHOTOS:

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

CONCERTS:

A. Faith Hill & Tim McGraw

B. Nickelback

C. Firehouse

D. Big & Rich

E. Poison

F. Chicago

Champion Contestants

Many thanks to Jen and Melissa for playing along with my more difficult contest! You would both be excellent contestants on the real TV game Wheel of Fortune!!!
The complete phrases were:

1. LEO THE LION KING--difficulty level: medium
(Leo the Lion is the horoscope sign for part of August, and Lion King is a movie)
Jen and Melissa both got this one

2. AUGUST RUSH HOUR--difficulty level: hard
(August Rush is a movie, and rush hour is a common traffic congestion problem)
Jen got this one

3. HOT SUMMER NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM--difficulty level: easy
(Hot Summer Night is a song about summer, and Night at the Museum is a movie)
Jen and Melissa both got this one

Jen for getting 3 of 3, you win the title of champion contestant and your prize is a package of animal fruit snacks--a frequently used summer treat in our house. Melissa, for getting 2 of 3, you also win the title of champion contestant, and your prize is that knowledge!!! Thanks again girls! (And for the rest of you, I promise the next contest will be tons easier!!!)

5,000

I started this blog in May 2008.
In October of '08, I decided to add a blog counter.
Are you my 5,000th visitor since then?
(It's a small rectangle box at the bottom of my right column)

Before/After Contest

One of the first computer games our family owned was Wheel of Fortune. We got it when I was in middle school, way back in the days of the old and slow computers! When I was a teenager, Wheel of Fortune used to come on T.V. right after Jeopardy. My dad loved watching Jeopardy, and I loved watching Wheel of Fortune! My dad knew many of the correct answers on Jeopardy before the contestants did. And in the same manner, I would know the correct phrase on Wheel of Fortune before the contestants figured it out. I'll never be a brainiac like my dad or my husband, but I always felt smarter after watching and playing along with the Wheel!

My favorite category on the WoF game was the Before/After category. That meant there was a 'before' phrase and an 'after' phrase that were connected by one common word. For example: "Rock n Roll Band Aid". Rock n Roll Band is a phrase and Band Aid is a thing, with Band as the common word in both. Got it?

My new contest is a Wheel of Fortune puzzle using the Before/After category (minus the wheel and the cash)! Here's my rules:
1. I have created 3 phrases with blanks. The phrases have a common theme (hint: summertime and movie titles).

2. The letters 'R', 'S', 'T', 'L', 'N', and 'E' are already given in the phrases (those are always given in the final round of Wheel of Fortune, so it just seems fair).

3. Try to figure out 1, 2, or all 3 phrases; the person with the most right will win a SurPrize!! If there are a lot of people that get all 3 phrases right, I'll pick a random number.

4. The contest ends this Wednesday, July 29. I'll announce the winner and the correct answers after that! Good Luck!!!

Phrase 1:

L E _
T _ E
L _ _ N
_ _ N _

Phrase 2:

_ _ _ _ S T
R _ S _
_ _ _ R

Phrase 3:

_ _ T
S _ _ _ E R
N _ _ _ T
_ T
T _ E
_ _ S E _ _

Where in the World is......

Uncle Gideon?
(did you find yourself singing the finish as Carmen Sandiego?!!!)

Gideon left this week for a few days, and the boys already miss him. So I wanna play a game. I came up with this poem in my dream last night:

He's in a place known by a nickname for a single star.
From Salmon, you can get there by plane or a long ride in a car.
If you take out 3 letters, the city itself would spell "Luck".
People in the area wear big hats, have big cattle ranches, and drive big trucks.

Any guesses? The first person to get the answer right, or the person with the closest answer will win a surPRIZE! Only one guess per person please! I'll let you know on Monday what the answer is and who the winner is!!! Good Luck!

Who Won?

Well...Ammon picked the lucky #7, and that person was NICOLE!
Congrats Nicole, you win a gift card to Barnes & Noble with your comment of the book "Ramona Quimby"! Will you please email me at joshkala@yahoo.com with your address so I can mail that to you?!
There were lots of fun responses; thanks everyone for playing along--it makes me feel validated. I love interacting with people through blogging, and when I have a contest, it's more of an interactive way to keep in touch! I think I will try to have 2 contests a month! I have fun doing them, and I hope you all do too!

'R' You Game?

My parents' home is in a nice rural neighborhood. Right across the street from them live the Greer's. They are neighbors of the best kind: super nice, always helpful, and quiet! One Sunday when I was in Junior High, I was at their house, and their daughters Sue and Carol introduced me to the game Scattergories. I was hooked! I thought it was so fun and I was grateful for any opportunity that I had to play it with them after that.

Years later, Josh and I received that game as a Christmas gift the first year we were married. I was so excited! I am a competitive person and love to win. Unfortunately, my marriage to Josh has been bad for my competitive complex. You see, he almost always beats me at Scrabble and Monopoly and Scattergories (just to name a few). I'm not quite as in love with the game anymore because of him!!! He always finishes his list of items before the timer is done, and shuts it off mid-game, which prevents me from completing my list! But, I've thought of a new contest that would be fun, and I'm not allowing Josh or Ammon to compete this time, which means YOU have a chance to win!

Introducing...my next contest: Media Scattergories!

I randomly rolled the letter dice from the game, and I want you to tell me one of three things that starts with the letter "R ": 1. The name of a book you've read, 2. The name of a movie you've seen, OR 3. The name of a song you've heard.

The same rules as last time apply: Please only one guess per comment, and only up to 3 comments per person!

I'll have Ammon pick a random number on Monday night, so if your comment was that number, you win! After that, I'll announce the winner and their SurPRIZE ! GOOD LUCK!

and the winner is...

the submission of "foes" by Ammon!

I never let Josh see any of the results, and he picked number 13, which was one of Ammon's responses! I admit I feel a little weird that my 9-year-old son has now won 2 of my contests. I promise that this contest was not at all rigged. Ammon asked me the other day what my next contest would be, and I told him he'd have to wait to find out. When he read my blog yesterday, he was so excited! He was so cute, he spent an hour looking at the Boggle Cube and then looking up words in a dictionary. I did not help him nor did I tell Josh about it!

I am, however, also giving an honorable mention to Mick, who submitted the word "else", which neither Josh nor I found!

Both winners will receive a box of this (I thought it looked fun & yummy!):

Thank you all so much for playing! It was exciting to see so many words that were discovered! I can't wait for the next contest!!!

A Boggler for the Blogger

I am a lover of games-group activity games, card games, board games, computer games. Growing up, my family had a few games that we all could play together, and did so usually at Family Home Evening, games like: Chinese Checkers, Pass the Pigs, Uno, Yahtzee, Charades, and Boggle. I like to play games now with my own family too. I have many and we play them often, games like: Doodle Dice, Candyland, Bingo, Chinese Checkers, Charades, and Boggle. Notice any similarities between the two lists?! I thought it would be fun to play one of those games with you. So here's my new contest "Boggler for the Blogger".I randomly shook the game and took a picture. Find a word in the grid above, and tell me the word in my comments. The rules of regular Boggle apply, as well as a few others:
1. The word must use letters adjoining in a chain-the letters can be adjacent vertically, horizontally, or diagonally.
2. The word must have at least 3 letters, and it can't be a proper noun or an acronym.
3. No cube can be used more than once for each word.
4. Use only one word for each comment, with a maximum of 3 comments.
5. You can NOT use the same word that has been already said in a previous comment.
The game will end on Wednesday night. I will have Josh pick a random comment number, and that person will win a "surPRIZE"!!!! Good Luck and Have Fun! I LOVE this game!!!

Reasons

My Psychology 101 professor used to have the same discussion with us college students every day, by asking "Why do we do the things we do?". It was his favorite question, and he took pride in writing it on the chalkboard at the beginning of every class and spending an hour asking it repeatedly. The entire semester, our homework was to read the textbook on our own time, while every single class time was used to discuss the question. Needless to say, it's a question that I hate now, but one that I also commonly ask myself now, too.

After analazying my blogging, I discovered four reasons for doing it. The first two are the reasons "why" I started blogging:
1. to keep in touch with Family and Friends. I live several hours away from my family, and it's an excellent way to stay up-to-date on their lives and feel close to them, and vice-versa. And because I'm a stay-home mom that doesn't have a big social life anymore, it's awesome to keep in contact (in an easy, sort-of way) with distant friends as well. It's just so simple and can be done from my home and I love it!
2. to Focus on the Positive aspects of my life. When I started this blog last spring, I was going through a bit of a difficult time. I had some depression, and was focusing on so many negative parts of my life. Before I started to blog, I decided to only put positive things on it to help keep my focus where it needed to be. It has really helped!

Throughout the last year, I've had different styles of blog posts, and I've realized two reasons "why" I write what I do, and "why" I keep blogging:
1. to Record events, daily family happenings, and my thoughts. It's like a FUN online journal for me. I used to be a regular journal writer, but after I got married and had children, it became very sporadic. I wish that it wasn't that way, because it's such an important part of my life and I have so little written about it. For this reason alone, I'm so grateful that I blog!
2. so that I can Remember life as it was, as it happened. I never want to forget all the little details of life as it passes me by. And yet, I unfortunately seem to do just that. I've looked back on several of my blogs much later after they were written to help me remember details that happened or my thoughts about them. I love to relive my memories and happy moments of my life, and blogging allows me to do just that!

I had a contest on my previous post to see who could guess the most reasons "why". I put the beginning letters of my four reasons to help everyone guess, but I think it actually hindered the guesses! Thanks to all FIVE of you for participating! The results are: 4 out of 5 guessed two of the right reasons. Since there's such a huge tie, I'm giving the prize to Ammon (he's the youngest player, and a regular reader of my blog!). But I will be having another contest next week, a random one, so that anyone can win!!! I do hope you'll play along again!

100

I began this blog in May 2008. I have written stories and posted photos for a year now! And remarkably, this is my 100th post! There are two reasons that I started blogging, and two reasons that I continue blogging. So...I'm excited to announce another contest: If you can guess the four reasons for my blogging, then you have the chance to win 100 Grand candy bars for every person in your family! The contest starts today, Friday May 22, and will end Tuesday May 26. Good Luck!!! (oh, and a little helpful hint: the first two reasons kind of start with the letter "F" and the last two reasons begin with the letter "R".)

EGGcellent Information

The award of EGGcellence goes to ANGELA!!! Great Job! She got 9 of 11 answers correctly on my Egg trivia from my previous blog. Thanks to all of you who played along, all THREE of you! (Angela, please email me @ joshkala@yahoo.com with your address so I can mail your prizes to you!)

As promised, here are the answers...

1. What color of eggs doesn't Sam-I-Am like in the Dr. Seuss book?
b. green eggs (with ham of course! I made this an easy one to lure you in!)


2. Eggs contain nearly every nutrient known to be essential to humans:
TRUE. One egg contains 13 essential nutrients, including high-quality protein, choline, lutein, riboflavin, folate, iron, and zinc and also vitamins B12, A, D and E.


3. The yolk of an egg equals:
c. 1 tablespoon. And the white of a large egg equals about 2 tablespoons.


4. The white of the egg is mostly mucus and fat:
FALSE. It is mostly protein.


5. Hard-boiled eggs stay good in the refrigerator for:

b. 1 week, if they are uncracked and unpeeled. Expiration dates on egg cartons reflect "food quality" not "food safety". You can keep fresh uncooked eggs refrigered in the carton for 3 week without any significant quality loss.

6. Eggs have been a part of springtime traditions before Christ was born:
TRUE. Centuries before Christ was born, people celebrated the return of the sun and rebirth of nature each spring; eggs and rabbits as Easter symbols come from ancient times. Eggs represented new life, rebirth and renewal, and because rabbits are so fertile, they were connected with the fertility of spring, or season of rebirth after the dead of winter.


7. The word Easter comes from:
b. Eostre, the Goddess of Spring. She brought the birth of spring, and was symbolized with eggs and rabbits. After Christ lived, and as Christianity spread around the world, it was easier to incorporate Christian festival days into those that already existed, so Eostre became Easter. Christians adopted the egg to represent Christ's resurrection.


8. The most expensive jeweled eggs in the world today were made by Ukrainians:
FALSE. Carl Faberge' created the most expensive jeweled eggs for the Czars ruling Russia to give as gifts. He made the eggs out of precious metals and gems in the late 1800's and early 1900's.


9. The first Cadbury's chocolate egg was made in:
a. 1905. Chocolate was introducted to Europe in the 15th century, and in the 1800's, France and Germany began making dark chocolate eggs for people to give as gifts. In 1905, Cadbury's created the first milk chocolate version.


10. The full moon determines the date of Easter:
TRUE. The holiday is usually celebrated on the first Sunday after the first full moon after spring begins. Easter can be anywhere between March 22 and April 25.


11. Eggs were first painted in bright colors to:
b. represent spring sunlight. The decorating of Easter eggs now varies from culture to culture.


12. Which came first? The chicken or the egg?
Supposedly it was the goose, but come on, weren't all animals created on the same day by God? So, I believe the chicken came before the egg!

'EGGS'travaganza!

Our spring ward party was at the end of March. As the Ward Activities Coordinator, I choose when and what we do at ward parties. It's quite fun, actually--it's like having a giant birthday party and inviting everyone you want to come, without having to pay for it!!! (I do have a budget though.) I chose the theme "'Eggs'travaganza" this time because it was only a few weeks prior to Easter. Unfortunately, the date I chose for the ward party was also the last day of school before a week-long spring break, so there was only about 100 people who came--which is 50 less than usual.For decorations, I cut up large egg-shaped posters, decorated them with purple patterns, and wrote fun egg phrases on them, for example "don't put all your eggs in one basket". On the tables, I put Cadbury's mini eggs as edible centerpieces, and had pencils wrapped in swirling purple duct tape and egg trivia forms for people to fill out.

The dinner menu this time was biscuits and sausage gravy, scrambled eggs with diced green peppers, and mini cups of fruit, with bread pudding for dessert. (here is 240 eggs before being scrambled)After dinner, the activity for the youth was an egg triathlon. Every participant was assigned a number which was pinned on them. They were given three hard boiled eggs, and used those eggs to earn points in the three categories: Egg Roll, Egg Toss, and Egg Relay.

(This is the triathlon area before it started. I put plastic down so I didn't have to clean up spilled eggs on the floor. The three separate activity areas were taped to show point lines)

The youth with the highest scores, out of a possible 15, received golden eggs with gold-wrapped chocolate candies inside. All of the other participants received a candy-filled plastic easter egg. (Here I am with my helper Danielle tallying the results of the triathlon)

Now you can be a part of a contest! See if you can answer correctly my Trivia questions! To the first person who gets the most right before Monday May 18, I will send some candy-filled plastic Easter eggs! (I know this is way past Easter, but I don't care). I will post the answers on Monday! Good Luck, and please no cheating by researching!
1. What color of eggs doesn't Sam-I-Am like in the Dr. Seuss book?

a. White

b. Green

c. Yellow

2. Eggs contain nearly every nutrient known to be essential to humans:

True or False

3. The yolk of a large egg equals:

a. 1 teaspoon

b. 2 teaspoons

c. 1 tablespoon

4. The white of the egg is mostly mucus and fat:

True or False

5. Hard-boiled eggs stay good in the refrigerator for:

a. 24 hours
b. 1 week
c. 2 weeks

6. Eggs have been a part of springtime traditions since before Christ was born:
True or False

7. The word Easter comes from:
a. Eastran, a medieval spring feast
b. Eostre, the goddess of spring
c. Eastermna, a Jewish festival

8. The most expensive jeweled eggs in the world today were made by Ukrainians:
True or False

9. The first Cadbury's chocolate egg was made in:
a. 1905
b. 1925

c. 1945

10. The full moon determines the date of Easter:

True or False

11. Easter eggs were first painted in bright colors to:

a. honor the colors of the earth

b. represent spring sunlight

c. confuse chickens

12. Which came first?

a. the chicken

b. the egg

c. the goose