Winners, Giveway, Apologies and Exciting News!!!

Just because I’ve been silent here doesn’t mean that I haven’t had anything going on! ;-) There has been so much going on that two days of not blogging has turned into two weeks?!?!? Just how does that happen??? I have so much to say and to share that I hardly know where to start! I am going to try to do something that is extremely difficult for me…I’m going to get right to the point on a few things and not share every little detail….So here goes:
1. Why I’ve Been “Blog Silent”- First, we had some sickness in the family, followed by work for me (yay!) and then an exciting work opportunity for hubby! Throw in the start of baseball season for two boys, orthodontist appointments and other appointments and that doesn’t leave much time or energy to write! It has been doubly hard because I have had things going on behind the scenes that I really want to write about! Look for lots of posts in the upcoming weeks! Hubby’s new opportunity is taking him out of town and so I hope to fill my “spare time” sharing here! :-)
2. Apologies to Make- I owe a few apologies for dropping the ball. The first one is to Michelle, the winner of my Starbucks GC!

Michelle, thank you  for your patience with me. Your card is going out in tomorrow’s mail. I am so sorry for the delay. It is not intentional but I’m sorry I let it get pushed down my list of “to-do’s”.  I also have two items to mail out to two other bloggers (you know who you are) and they are going out tomorrow as well. I didn’t want your addresses for stalking purposes! Really!! :-)
Secondly I want to apologize to all who entered my Pampered Chef Giveaway. I have had a winner drawn and saved with a snap shot of random.org’s pick. I just haven’t posted for the same reasons I haven’t done anything else here! You have all been very patient, thank you! Sooooo, without any further delay, the winner is comment # 47 left by Taleah!

Taleah said:
Congratulations Taleah!!  I will be sending your information to Kim!
And last, but not least, I dropped the ball big time with this one! Amy from A Latte with Ott A. invited my to participate in her Iron Chef blogging challenges. So far, she has had a challenge for cooking with duck, lamb and  March’s theme was tomatoes and the sponsor was Red Gold Tomatoes. I missed the linky party deadline to get my recipe in! :( Amy, I am so sorry! I completely let the time get away from me. I was actually very excited about this challenge too! I had a recipe picked out right from the beginning of the whole challenge. It is a family favorite, thrifty and easy to prepare! I will be cooking it tonight and sharing the recipe here. My apologies also to Red Gold. They are amazing sponsors! I received this huge box in the mail stuffed with goodies!!! I couldn’t wait to blog about the goodie box and then one day turned into another…and here I am. :( Thank you Red Gold for sponsoring the challenge! You can check out  Red Gold on facebook and twitter for lots of other great tips and recipes. Click on the badge below to check out all of the delicious recipes that entered the challenge!

I don’t think the winner has been announced yet! April’s challenge will be baking powder, sponsored by Clabber Girl! Don’t miss it!  ;-)
3. Exciting News!- First, my DIY Solar Street Light

made the Top Ten at The DIY Club!

And I almost missed it!!! I wasn’t writing on my blog and I also wasn’t really reading much either! They announce the finalist tomorrow! You bet I’ll be reading then!!!!

I’ve reached (and passed) and awesome milestone…while I AWOL!!!! It’s amazing! I knew that I was getting close to 400 Friends/Followers before I went AWOL. I was very excited and planning a special fun giveaway from some of my real life friends to my online friends. I noticed that I had reached the BIG 400 and took a snapshot of it:

I was sooo excited!! I was all set to try and squeeze in time to post about this and when I logged back in later I had  399 followers?!?!? Made no sense at the time, but since I no longer had 400 followers, I couldn’t celebrate 400 could I??? So I went AWOL and when I came back, look what I found:

WOW!  How’s that for a reason to celebrate?!?!? So, in honor of my milestone, tomorrow (yes, I will back tomorrow) I will be having a simple and fun, easy to enter giveaway!

Last but certainly NOT least….I am very excited to announce that I have been accepted as a contestant in a very exciting blog and lifestyle challenge!!! I’m not sure that I can announce the specifics yet, as it hasn’t been announced on the host blog, but it is probably one of the most exciting things that I have been able to participate in since I started blogging! I can’t wait to share all the details as soon as I get the go ahead!!!

That’s all for now, but look forward to much more to come!