Giveaway or to Not Giveaway...That is the Question

Ok, it is Monday and it is cold, windy and very gloomy outside. I'm on my umpteenth cup of coffee and now I have ideas racing through my head to try to cheer up this nasty day.

In three months, Mom Got Blog will have been in the blogosphere for a whole year! I can't believe it. To have gone from an idea that I was tossing around with my brother to being a semi-finalist in a national contest to readers from around the globe has been extremely rewarding and fun!

So, my mind is carefully sifting through many ideas to celebrate this occassion...and one of them is to have a giveaway! Now, this is something very new to this blog, but I think it might be pretty fun! 

What do you think? Leave a comment if you think this is a good idea....or not!

Stay tuned....

Big Dog= Microsoft, Underdog= Me

“Being an underdog by one point or 50, it doesn't matter. I'm glad we are an underdog. Underdogs have more that they can achieve. They have more enjoyment if they're able to climb to the mountain top.”- Jerry Glanville

I have had a blog post written for well over a month now to share with you the outcome of the Microsoft Office Winter Games Contest. I (along with the other contestants) was asked to keep mum about the results until the winner could be announced publicly and that request has been respected. But let me tell you, it has been very frustrating on my end. I found out the results Christmas Eve and each announcement date has been moved back "until next week", this week being no exception! Yesterday I received an email giving us the go ahead to share with our friends, family and supporters the news. I decided to scrap my old post and start all over again. So, here it is:

I did not win.

I know. I felt the same way.

I am so disappointed not to be heading to Vancouver in a couple of weeks. Experiencing the Olympic Games has been a secret dream that I have kept inside for as long as I can remember.  Only through this contest did I share that dream with everyone else. I do believe that I would have been able to share a unique voice (being an athlete myself) and behind the scene story that would appeal not only to athletes and fans, but would have drawn in those that are "fans in the wings".
Of course I am biased when it comes to my blog and its content, but your emails and comments of support have helped me feel that way.

One of the criteria for entering this contest was to have written a blog for at least 3 months. Well, after finger counting the months on my hand, I realized that I barely squeaked by on that ruling only having started my blog this past June! I really had no intention of ever getting a call, because frankly, I have no idea who actually reads this thing other than friends and family!

When I got the news that I was one of the five semi-finalists in this nationwide contest, I kept my cool. I didn't want to sound too giddy. I calmly took the information from the voice on the phone and asked "Did you get a lot of entries?" The answer was "Yes, actually, we did get a lot. Especially toward the end." After hanging up, something just came over me. I was 8 years old again and I started screaming and jumping up and down. My coach would have been so proud to see my jumping skills that day, because let me tell you, this girl can't jump and to see me try (plyometrics) during practice provides more than enough comic relief.

When the voting site was up and running and I saw my name and blog listed among the others, it was a "pinch me" moment. Then I started reading the other blogs and I thought, wow.  My little old blog is mixing with the big dogs- which have been around for years. Not months. Years. They were all social-site savvy. Me? I was (am!) learning as I go and I had to learn real quick to keep up. I did the best that I could.

On this particular day, it just wasn't good enough.

Thank you to those that wrote to me with encouraging "keep writing", "keep posting", "keep blogging!" "you tell a story and wrap it all up in a way that makes it enjoyable to read." I can't tell you how much it meant to receive your kind words!

And to those out there reading this little blog, thank you. Thank you for reading, thank you for voting in this contest and thank you for spreading the word to get votes!

I have felt like quite the underdog in this whole process. This whole month I questioned my writing and if this is something I should keep doing. Your support has helped me realize that I am 1 in 5 semi-finalists from a nationwide contest. That  means I must be doing something right, right?

Where one door closes, another is waiting to be opened.

An opportunity is out there, just waiting for me. I just have a little more mountain climbing to do.

"Thrill of Victory or The Agony of Defeat"

We are less than a month away from the 2010 Olympic Games! Before we know it, the world will be experiencing the opening ceremonies and we will prepare to witness true greatness unfold before our eyes, whether that be on the ice, slopes or in the snow.

As an athlete, I find that I play hard, do my very best in competition and wait for results to be posted to see how I did. With almost any competition I have ever competed in, results are posted either immediately or at the very least the next day in the newspaper (or online). Waiting longer than that, well, would be torture.

Well, the last few weeks I have been struggling. Struggling with how to get results to you, my friends, family (and supporters that I have not met) that voted for me in the Microsoft Office Winter Contest. The announcement of who will be blogging from Vancouver has been postponed, again, until next week. I wish I could tell you why, but unfortunately, I do not even understand the logic behind it. I have had the song "I'm Tired" from the movie "Blazing Saddles" sung by Madeline Kahn looping in my head this past week, especially this part:

"I'm tired.
Tired of playing the game.
Ain't it a crying shame.
I'm so tired."

 I wish I could award all of you a gold medal for patience!

I went through YouTube and found something that will tickle the heartstrings of any sports fan. This is how most of us growing up in the late 60's and through the 80's experienced sports. It caught one's attention and held it for the length of the program. This classic opening started my love affair with sports.

I have experienced the very tag line which made this clip famous.

Victory or Defeat, I will pick myself up, dust myself off and return to the start line. That's what every true athlete does, right?

Anticipation is Keeping Me Waiting

My fingers are still crossed!

Many of you have asked if I have heard anything from the Microsoft Office Blogging Contest. Not yet.  We have all been patiently waiting and should find out within the next couple of days. However, the wait will still continue as the official announcement will be made January 7th at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. And you can bet that if I am lucky enough to make the cut, what happens in Vegas (on Jan. 7) will most definitely NOT stay in Vegas!

Thank you for all your support through this journey; It has meant so much. I am still extremely hopeful that I will be able to go to Vancouver and share the Olympic story with you!

**Update ** Winners will be announced to the public on January 14th. Wish me luck!

Last Voting Day In Blogging Contest

That's right folks. It has finally come. Today is the last day to cast your vote for me in the Microsoft Office Winter Games Blogging Contest!

I arrived home yesterday totally exhausted from what seemed to be an eternity- lasting road trip from Pittsburgh, PA. The actual driving wasn't bad; there was really no traffic, but the silence was making it seem longer than usual.

Gone are the days of passing the time playing "car games" with the kids; they are old enough now that those time-wasters have been replaced by the DVD player and i-pods with headphone wires snaking out of their ears. They come up for talk about every hour; sometimes it's "Can we stop soon?" or "How much longer?" (yes, this question is STILL asked!) and "Can you please change the radio station?" but most of the time it is talk of our visit and what was fun about it. This trip was different because we were all spent and they stayed "plugged-in".  Both my husband and I were so tired that our brains could barely form complete sentences, so our answers to eachother were a lot of "mm-hmm's". I drove for about 4 hours before I asked for the switch and I was barely strapped into the passenger side seat before I was off to a crick-necked slumber.  About an hour later, it was my husband's request for the car sleep-coma that put me back in the driver's seat. The last 3 hours weren't too bad after my nap, a cup of coffee and the radio.

We pulled into the driveway and my eye quickly caught a glimpse of a package that was in the door. We all got excited wondering who it was for. I mean who doesn't get excited? These days, the joy of receiving a letter in the mail from a friend is lost on emails. Now UPS & FedEx have that honor.  So, we get to the door and see that the package is for me. Woo-hoo!

I opened it quickly to find a letter (which I had already received by email, by the way) and a present! I love presents! It was a black T-shirt that read "Blogathlete" on the front and "Blogging from the Games for the Gold!!".

I am "blogging for the Gold!" Today is my last shot at making it to the finals and your votes are helping me reach my goal!

Even through tired eyes, I can see that Gold would look great on a black t-shirt, yes?

YES!

Thank you for your votes and fingers are now crossed!

A Dream is A Wish Your Heart Makes

I have been saying to myself "Please pinch me" for the past week.

 I am still amazed that I have been chosen as one of five finalists in the Microsoft Office Blogging contest. What is even more amazing is the outpouring of support that I have received from family, friends and folks that I don't even know. I wish I could share the deep thanks and appreciation I feel for the encouragement you all have given me to continue my quest to fulfill my lifelong dream of being a part of the Olympic Games.

I enjoy both the Summer and Winter Olympics but seem drawn more toward the Winter Games. Maybe I'm partial to my Uncle Bill's stories of competing in the Bobsled or the fact that I compete in another winter sport of speedskating, but regardless of these, I get excited to see each and every sport that are the make up of the Winter Olympics. I keep thinking how incredibly cool it would be to be able to compare my experience with that of Uncle Bill's. Would the Games have the same feel? Would the athlete's anticipation and excitement be the same?

To have the opportunity to see the best of the best compete in their individual sport and the experience the Winter Olympic Games is a dream that my heart has wished upon since being a young girl. To be able to write about it and share with others that story is icing on the cake.

Please let me take this opportunity to say thank you for inspiring me to keep writing and to keep chasing after my dream.

Voting continues through 11/29/09 at http://officewintergames.com/ .

"Beat" of the Day

A HUGE thank you to the Parent to Parent blog written by Jennifer Gish on the Times Union.com website for sharing my story about my bid for the Olympic Blogathlete Team through the Microsoft Office Blogging contest.

Click here to see her article.

Another thank you goes to Kristi Gustafson who pens On the Edge  for sharing my info.

I really cannot thank you enough for stopping by to read and for casting your vote for me each and every day.

For once, I am "speechless".

Yes Virginia, There is A Laundry Fairy...NOT!

I have been patiently waiting for the Laundry Fairy, Dish Fairy, Vaccuming Fairy (you get the idea) to make their way to my house to help me prepare for the holiday season. They have been remiss in their visit, which must mean they are on vacation.

I have been so busy trying to keep up with the Microsoft Office Blogging Contest, that I was really hoping that they would have stopped by already.

No such luck.

So, I am off to the "Everest" of laundry piles to be placed neatly away, will wade through the dishwasher unloading and loading, vaccum and dust with a one-two, one-two and call it a day. I'm sure that is when they will arrive all happy and relaxed and ready to start with their tasks.

Um, thanks, but I gotcha covered...this time.

But....if all goes well, I will need them to come back around February as I have a chance to go to the Olympic Games in Vancouver and blog all about it! You can help me get there! Voting is still going strong until Nov. 29th at http://officewintergames.com/

The Cookie Tells All

Can a cookie really predict the future?

My husband and I went to run errands yesterday and decided to go to lunch at our local P.F. Changs.  As we walked in the door we were greeted with a hello and behind the hostess was a tray full of desserts. Oh, my! The chocolate cake seemed to have 12 layers and my stomach growled.

We made our way through lettuce wraps (one of my favorite things on the menu), soup and lunch bowls. We were so full that cake was now (thankfully) not an option. Our waitress then brought to-go containers and two fortune cookies.

I've always been one to read the Horoscopes in the paper.  I know that the daily predictions written are so vast that it could apply to anyone and anything, but did you ever read one that was spot on to your day? Like it was written just for you. I think the same thing of fortune cookie sayings.

My husband and I were discussing the blogging contest I entered last month through Microsoft Office and the US Olympic Committee and how excited we were for the possibility of my going to the Olympic Games in Vancouver and blogging about it! It seems so surreal that I am a semi-finalist!

As an athlete, I am used to visualizing the outcome of events. I visualize the track I will be skating on and the feeling of the ice. I try to visualize myself in the pack of skaters that will soon be jockeying for position. I look for the time in the race to make my pass and how my blade looks crossing the finish line. I have been trying to visualize what it will be like to board a plane near my home and how it will feel walking into the frenzied airport in Vancouver. I am so close to a lifelong Olympic dream, that I can almost taste it.

Yes, taste it. I asked my husband to turn the plate that held the cookies a few times while I closed my eyes. I wanted this to be a true test of fate. With eyes closed I reached down and felt the cellophane wrapped confection. I opened my eyes and quickly unwrapped the cookie. I broke the crisp shell in half and pulled out the narrow slip of paper which read "Nothing is impossible to a willing heart." Now, I had a 50/50 chance of getting this cookie. Who knows what the odds were as the waitress reached in to the 100's of cookies and grabbed this particular cookie that would end up in MY hand. My husband took his cookie and as he read "The love of your life will appear in front of you unexpectedly!" He jumped back, looked at me and said "Whoa! You just came out of nowhere!" (He is so amazing!).

What really freaked me out is I turned the fortune over and read the Chinese word of the day:

(e`r) (yu`e) which means: February.

So, does this help me visualize Vancouver in February? I'm going to take the approach of yes. I think this was written and meant just for me on this day, having a lovely lunch with my husband as we discussed this very topic.

You can help my dream come to fruition: Voting is still happening each day until 11/29/09. Log on to http://officewintergames.com/ and help me share the Olympic story with you!

Sharing the Olympic Dream

My Uncle Bill driving the Four-Man Bobsled

Lake Placid, NY 1980

What most of you may not know is that The Olympic Games have been in my family for a long time. My grandfather was a boxer back in the games (I'll have to ask my mother for the exact year) and his son, my Uncle Bill,  participated in the 1972 Olympic Games in Sapporo, Japan as the driver of the Four- man Bobsled team.

As a young girl, I remember looking at all of his pictures, framed and arranged in a "gallery" that hung in a hallway. The magic and excitement seemed to exude from each photograph; the beauty of the Olympic flag being carried into the Opening Ceremonies, my Uncle in his "Country outfit" with the red striped scarf and long leather coat with a beaming smile. Even team members in the cold sled sharpening "barracks" looked exciting.

 

My uncle is a retired Navy Seal and it was always evident in unspoken terms that you didn't want to mess with him. Ever.  If business needed to get done, well, it would. But, that part of him was never, ever on the surface. He is a very kind, quiet man. A gentle giant if you will. A true family man that was always supportive and full of great stories of diving days (he always brought back the most amazing shells from the ocean), travels and athletic competitons that brought him around the world.

He taught me how to strive to be the best in any sport I chose to participate in and most importantly, how to play fair and be a competitor with good sportsmanship.  It is a code that I live up to even to this day.

In preparing for the 1980 Lake Placid Games, my uncle and his team trained in Lake Placid, NY at Mt. Van Hoevenberg every weekend. Looking at these pictures, I still can't believe that they were driving these big hunks of metal with a motorcycle helmet and a track suit down an icy mountain.

Let me please preface the next sentence with  He is Okay.

Unfortunately, my uncle's Olympic dream of competing in the 1980 games came to an end about a month before the games started as his sled flipped on a training run and he broke his back. Again, he is okay. I believe that he never returned to Lake Placid after that. I've tried to get him there to see me compete in speedskating events, but he doesn't travel much anymore.

That experience fueled a lifelong athletic dream of following in his footsteps one way or another to go to the Olympic Games. I have played many, many sports and reality is I am just too old to compete at that level. I know, I know. What about Dara Torres? I guess what I'm trying to say is that I don't think my family (or me for that matter) are willing to commit the time that is needed to compete at that level. It's hard enough for National level meets. I am certainly competitive and will "play" for as long as my body will let me, that's for sure.

My Olympic dream will have to happen in the form of the written word. I have a 1 in 5 shot in making it to the finals of the Microsoft Office Winter Games blogging competition where I then have a 1 in 3 shot. Not bad odds.  One in Three. I'd say that would be the difference of a Bronze, Silver or Gold Medal.

I am shooting for the Gold! You can help me get there!

Vote for Kelly at http://officewintergames.com/. Cast your vote every day until 11/29/09.

I so want to add my own picture gallery to the hallway and maybe inspire my kids or nieces and nephews the way my Uncle Bill inspired me.