Don't have much for you today. I am in major need of a recharge...
...so I'm off on a short road trip -- which means that tomorrow's post will actually be about travel!
And in the meantime, I have a new post up at LA Moms Blog.
I did want to remind you that you still have one week to enter my Summer Road Trip contest over at my review blog, SoCal Stuff. First prize is a Nintendo DS handheld game system plus a Crosswords DS game to play on it!
In four more days, my daughter will be finished with this crazy, stressful, transitional first year of middle school.
No one is more excited about this than I.
We will have about two weeks before she gets right into her crazy, stressful, transitional ummer of gymnastics. This will be her fourth summer of training for Fall competition... but when her level 6 "compulsory" season ends in November, she will be moving right on to level 7, which is the first of the "optional" levels.
Explanation: Compulsory gymnasts all perform the same routines with the same skills on the four women's events - vault, bars, beam and floor. When they hit the optional levels, they create their own routines and can pick and choose among the skills -- it is their option.
So for the last three summers, Megan has trained for 25 hours per week. But because she will need to be ready to go in January with her brand new optional routines, the head coach wants her to work for an additional 10 hours each week during the summer. I know - that's like having a full time job. And she's not exactly thrilled with the idea of having so little time this summer for play...
...so we are doing what we can do have some fun. We are leaving next week on not just one, but TWO road trips. We will also be returning to San Diego for a rare summer gymnastics meet. All of these trips will be chronicled here on the blog. YES! Travel posts again!!
And to kick off all this summer travel in style, I am holding a contest over at SoCal Stuff: First prize is a Crosswords DS game -- and a spanking new Nintendo DS to play it on! I am also giving away a road trip kit with products that will help make your drive go smoothly. Click here for contest details and to enter.
I've been busy web surfing, researching material for this blog's new focus on travel -- after all, as a SAHM without a trust fund, it would bankrupt me to try to keep this thing populated just with accounts of my own journeys...
... which is why I've found myself attracted to the numerous contests and promotions that offer a dream vacation as a grand prize. Here are just a few of them:
Every time you purchase something with a Mastercard in July or August, you are entered in their big summer sweepstakes: Grand prize is 500 airline tickets - for use by you, your family, and/or friends. And if that card is branded with American Airlines, Continental, US Air, Frontier or Midwest Airlines, every charge enters you in the contest twice. You also get double entries for booking a flight on any of the above-mentioned airlines.
Hotels.com's Hotels For Life Sweepstakes
Grand prize is a six night stay in a three-star or more hotel every year for the next 25 years. You may enter once a day by playing a trivia contest (easy questions PLUS they give you hints). Also, a instant winner prize of a $25 pre-paid Visa card is awarded once every hour. This promotion ends on August 28, 2006.
By submitting your own travel story and photo, you're entered in a random drawing to win the following Grand Prize:
• 5 rooms for 5 nights in any Sheraton in the world!
• round-trip airfare for 5
• $5000 fun money for you to spend
• 5 digital cameras to capture the whole thing
You may enter up to five times, and you can earn more entries by passing the information on to up to four of your friends (who then will have to submit their own entries). The catch, of course, is that your friends' email addresses will be added to Sheraton's list -- so you may want to ask their permission before you do this. You will be granting Sheraton the right to use your story and likeness on their website. This contest ends August 31, 2006.
Marriott's Dream Destinations Contest
First prize: Three MILLION Marriott points or frequent flyer miles from your choice of participating airlines (American, United, Delta, Northwest and Hawaiian Air) -- which should buy you a LOT of travel. Approximate value: $45,000.
But don't hold your breath -- this contest has been running for a year and won't end until October 2007 (!) so it will be a while before you find out if you're the lucky random winner... and in the meantime, you can expect to be contacted a lot about Marriott Vacation Club timeshares.
Of course, none of these companies is offering these prizes out of the goodness of their hard little corporate hearts. Besides the promotional value of getting more visitors to their sites (where they will have the opportunity to sell you on something else), they are gathering your information to use for other marketing purposes. If you can live with that, go ahead and enter away!
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