Much ado about ...Nothing

I really haven't had a lot of things to write about recently.  My sleeping is totally messed up (as always) and so my days and nights are switched.  At the moment, it's is almost 5 in the morning.  Am I up early?  Nope...I woke up at 11pm and I'm still up.

I am going to play around hopefully here, and add some photos from my trip to Vegas that my Sissy took me on.  I think part of my problem with updating this site, is that when I was in Vegas I came across a new addiction for me.  Benefit Cosmetics!

Before going to see the "Phantom of the Opera", I went to the Fashion Show Mall in Vegas, which was right across the street from our hotel, the Wynn!  My husband and I have been to Vegas so many times, I can't remember them all.  One of our favorite places to visit in Vegas happens to be the Fashion Show mall.

I thought I might get a little "pick me up" in regards to my face.  I didn't really want to hurry back to the hotel to actually apply my own make-up, so I ended up stopping off at the Benefit Cosmetic counter and OMG, let me just say I have seriously found my all time favorite make-up!

The lady that actually got my hooked on it, was named Shannon and she had the brightest PINK hair, I've ever seen.  It's looked like her real hair, so I don't know where in the heck she found that shade of Pink, but it worked for her!  She totally rocked the look and she was awesome!  She gave me loads of samples and I am hoping that my husband and I can go back to Vegas and I can run across her again, and tell her how much I love these cosmetics.

Anyhoo..Since I've been back from that trip, I've been re-finding my love of make-up.  When I became a Mom, I guess you could say I took a little break from my daily make-up routines.  Okay, a BIG break...more like ten years!  Sad isn't it?

So since finding these new cosmetic's, I have been also watching you-tube video's of how to apply make-up and how to correctly use these new products, which btw, I've invested my child's education funds into, so that this little mama looks and feels good about herself.  I don't feel too guilty, because my daughter is also now finding the love for these cosmetics and is also trying to snag them away from me.  In fact, I am now missing three products and will be asking about them in about an hour, when I wake her happy butt up for school, as to where they are.

So that's what I've been up to.  Trying to take some time out for me, to learn how to look and feel good about myself.   I am still entering my ten a day snail mail sweeps.  I was so worried that when I was on my last trip, that I wasn't going to actually keep up with my goal.  However, I made them all out in advance and put sticky notes on them, for my husband to mail off for me each day.  He is a trooper, let me tell you!

In fact, I occasionally make my entries up in advance.  At the moment, I am about a week ahead of myself, which is nice as I can take a little break from it all.  I love entering sweepstakes and I don't think that will ever change, but even I need to do something different, from time to time.

As far as wins, I think the latest things I've scored on is:

A 4 week Trial Membership to Blockbuster from "ampm Man Facts"
15 Pizza Cash Coupon from the "Huggies Enjoy the Ride" promotion
Ten (10) minutes of pre-paid telephone calling minutes!* by playing the " Colgate-Palmolive Mother's Day Instant Win Game".

and that's about it.  nothing too special to be honest, but it all counts...a win is a win, right?  I do wish I could win something a little bigger (I know it must sound greedy, huh?) but I would really love to go on a vacation with my family.  Either to Disney or England.  I haven't been to England in over 7 years and I am really missing it.  Of course, I wouldn't turn away any cash prizes either, as I could use it to bankroll my benefit addition! 

My First Twitter Party

was tonight!  It was Marshall & TJMaxx and it was kinda cool.  I still don't understand it all that much, as it  goes kind of fast.  The website that I used for this party was TweetChat.  There was several winners over the coarse of two hours.  I, however wasn't one of them.  But that's OK, cause I am still learning.  Going to TweetChat helped me keep track of all the tweets coming from the host and the guest.  The direct messages that came to me, from other guest, was in BOLD and made it easier to keep track, when someone spoke directly to me.

There is another place on the internet that does the same thing that TweetChat does.  It's called Tweet Grid.  I haven't used it yet, so I can't really comment on it.  But you might want to save both those websites, and consider using them, if you ever participate in a Twitter Party.  I thought tonight's party was fun and the time went by really quickly.  I believe it was for two hours, only I got in at the last hour of it. 

Have you ever participated in a twitter party?  If so, please share your thoughts and/or experience with it.  I am trying to learn more about twitter, cause it does seem to be one of the new ways to enter sweepstakes.

May's Sweepers Meeting

Well today is the second Saturday of the month, which means "Sweepers Meetings!"  I haven't been in several months (Actually this was my first meeting for this year..yikes!)  but I did enjoy myself today. I have been a member of this club for probably four or five years, but I've made many friends and I truly enjoy the comradeship of it all. 

Of course, it's always fun to participate in the drawings that we have.  In case you have never been to a sweeper's meeting in your area, here is a little bit of how our club does it, each month.  Most clubs follow a very similar pattern, I'm sure.  (If I've already written about local clubs, please forgive me.)

We meet once a month, in a local eatery, that has a separate dinning hall, that allows us to hold our meeting with a little bit of privacy.  The place that we go to, actually doesn't charge us to use this dinning hall, but does hope that we bring business to it, by eating their food and drink.  This usually isn't a probably, as we have our meeting during lunch time, and I would say about half of us, if not more, eats something.  They have really good food, so it's not hard at all to do.

We start our meeting around 1pm and it usually goes until 3pm.  That's how long we have our room booked for.  This same room is also used by other people for family reunions, other club meetings, or what have you.  I like this time of day, since I am *SO* not a morning person.  In fact, if it was later, it would only suit me better.  But then I am lazy.

We have five drawings each month, which you can enter.  You are not required to, but it is fun to participate.  The five drawings consist of: 5 decorated envelopes, five first class stamps (.44 cents at the moment), $1 lottery tickets, $1.00 for the cash drawing, and 5 Picture Postcards.  The limit that we have is one entry for everything, except for the lotto and the cash drawing.  Those are unlimited.

It all depends on how many people are in a club, as to how they split the pot up.  For us, we usually have two winners for each drawing.  The $1.00 lottery tickets and the $1.00 cash is actually drawn only one winner, and the other winner is the club.  The funds received from these two drawings, goes into our "pot" and is used for our Christmas party that we have at the end of the year.

Another thing that is done at our meetings is Promotions!  These are fun little games for our members, to win prizes.  Each month a different person hosts these promotions and sponsors the prizes.  We've played games like Bingo, guess the number of ??? in the jar (jellybeans, candy, whatever you want), Blackjack,  20 questions (we did this one today and it was a lot of fun, I must say) and so many more.  I must say, I am horrible at thinking of promotions.  I think it stems from my experience of low self esteem. ( I am still working on it, what I can I say?)

Something else that we are doing is creating Baskets.  They can be any size or theme.  We sell raffle tickets and then draw a winner from that.  I actually won one of this months baskets and I am thrilled with it.  The person that put it together is so good at putting these things together and I know I will get a lot of enjoyment from my prize (which included various sweeping supplies)  I might even take a photo of it, and share it with you guys.  It wasn't in a typical "basket" form, but something else, that I thought was very creative!

The money that is collected for these basket raffles, at this time is going towards the National Sweepers convention.  The National convention gives away TONS of prizes each year, and a lot of the prizes given away are actually given to the host, to giveaway.  Our group usually takes the money collected and purchase a visa gift card or two, and gives it away.  The National Convention always mentions who donated the prize, which I think is nice.

Another thing that our group does, which is nice is everyone donates something small to whoever is celebrating a birthday in that same month.  It can range from decorated envelopes, 3 x 5 papers/cards, stamps, candles, candy, and whatever use you can think of.   We had two birthdays this month and I think it's a really nice treat for the birthday person.

While we are at our meeting, we also share what we have won during the month since the last meeting, and we take turns and go around in a circle.  After wards we share other sweepstakes related news.  Weather it's a local mall drop box, or something seen in the paper.  We bring Official Entry Blanks to the meeting, if we find any and share those.  This is where some of us can find out new information.  We share tips or tricks on entering sweepstakes. 

Today has been such a beautiful day and I did enjoy myself.  Of course, winning my prize didn't hurt either! :) The only downside, is now I'm pooped!

Crapola

Yep that's the word that comes into my mind, when I realize how long it's been since I've last written on this blog.  I can't believe that a month has almost passed and not one post from little old me.

What have I been up to, you may wonder?


Well, basically  I went on a trip win, with my sister (who I call Sissy..I know, I know.  Original, isn't it?) and have been back home for almost a week.  My Sissy actually won the trip last year from an online sweepstakes.  It was the only prize and it was a good one, if I do say so myself. (Which I just did.)

The prize included airfare, flight for two people, hotel stay for 5 nights/6 days at the Wynn (which is a swank hotel btw), up to $350 per person for show tickets, up to $300 per person for salon/spa services, a tour of the Hoover dam and a helicopter tour with champagne brunch at the Grand Canyon.  I don't think I've left anything out.  AVR $6,000!  Whoot!

Now we couldn't actually take the helicopter tour of the Grand Canyon, because my Sissy is also a little person, like myself.  Nowadays, no one wants to be liable when helping anyone on and/or off of helicopters, airplanes, whatever.  Now my Sissy could have taken anyone with her and if she had taken someone of average heights, who is more able bodied than myself, then it could have been more possible to have done this Grand Canyon tour.

In fact, for many years Sissy has said that if she ever won a trip to Vegas, she would take our Mom.  Mom loves Vegas as much as we do and it's been awhile since she's been out there. However, when Sissy won the trip, Mom wasn't feeling all that great and didn't think that she could handle all the walking that was likely on this trip.  So Sissy extended the invite to me.

Sissy talked with the company that handled the arrangements of the trip and let it be known that we were both disabled.  The company actually did great on most things and since we couldn't take advantage of the helicopter tour, we ended up getting another show added onto the itinerary and it was awesome!  They also changed the Hoover dam tour to one that included the Grand Canyon, so we wouldn't have to miss out on that.  I will go into more of how that went, later on.

So Sissy and I ended up seeing the Beatles "Love" by Cirque De Solei at the Mirage as well as Phantom of the Opera at the Venetian.  They were both really good shows.  I would probably have to say that I enjoyed the Phantom better.  Not sure why, but since we were on the second row, that might have had something to do with it.  But the music on both performances, where wonderful and thoroughly enjoyed.

I am hoping to upload some photos from our trip later on.  I do have a flickr account, and might add them there.  I'm still unsure of how to put them on here, without making it take forever for the page to load.  I'm still learning, what can I say?

At the moment, I am tying this on my laptop and it's acting weird . So I will go ahead and post this, so that maybe my readers, if I still have any, will know that I didn't drop off the face of the earth.  I am hoping to post again a lot sooner, than last time.  Maybe in 21 day instead of 24.