Want to enter? Get a new e-mail address!

If you are going to enter sweepstakes and contests you should really have a seperate e-mail address specifially for this purpose.  This will reduce the amount of spam in your personal e-mail account.  It is easy to get a free e-mail account through hotmail, gmail or yahoo.  Check this account often because many contests and sweepstakes require you to reply within 24-48 hours in order to claim your prize.

Do you have your new e-mail address now?  Try your luck at these sweepstakes:

• Win A trip for winner and three guests to Universal City, CA to attend the premiere screening of Shrek Forever After on May 16, 2010 . Trip includes round-trip coach class air transportation, 3 nights’ hotel accommodations and a $400 stipend to be used at winner’s discretion. One entry by May 6, 2010  http://www.shrek.com/sweepstakes/shrek_sweeps.html
• You can only enter Ford's 2010 Ford: Operation Drive One Sweepstakes if you are active or retired military.  You can win a private Toby Keith performance, a 2011 Ford Mustang or Trip for two to attend the 2010 Ford 400 NASCAR race.  One entry by November 12, 2010.  http://fordvehicles.emipowered.net/operationdriveone/home/
• Enter the Iron Man 2 sweepstakes from IMAX to win an Iron Man Statue, (10) Imax Ticket Vouchers, ACDC Sountrack, Comic Book Reprint and Stickers and Iron Man Poster.  One entry by May 10, 2010.  http://www.imax.com/
• 3 winners will win Rachael Ray cast iron 1.5-quart fondue set, set of three Alessi Mami porcelain fondue bowls, and set of Paderno World Cuisine chocolate molds.  Make sure you click the "do not want to subscribe" link.  One entry by May 31, 2010.  http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/sweepstakes/12038
• Enter the Williams-Sonoma Home sweepstakes for your chance to be 1 of 3 winners who will be taking home a $500 William-Sonoma Home gift card.  One entry by June 1, 2010.  http://wshome.promo.eprize.com/sweepstakes/

Check back soon to learn about entering local sweepstakes!

Winning Adventures: It All Started With A Mouse

There was a time that I never thought I could win contests or sweepstakes.  Nobody wins them, right?  WRONG! The first time I realized I was wrong about this assumption was June 2009.  A Jacksonville, FL radio station was giving away a trip to Disney, including four 3-day park hopper passes to Disney, three nights at a Disney World resort hotel, and VIP parade viewing. 

I had never really entered anything before but all you had to do was video tape your kids re-enacting a scene from a Disney movie and they would pick one winner.  The radio announed there was only 48 hours to the deadline but only 3 people had already entered.  Normally I wouldn't have time to pull it together but we had just moved to the Jacksonville area and hadn't made any friends yet.  We picked a scene from Peter Pan...my 5-year-old son was Peter Pan, I was Captain Hook and my 18-month-old daughter was Tinkerbell.

Two weeks after entering I learned that people really do win these contests -- we had won!!!

We scheduled our trip for early October 2009 (it was a week after my son's 6th birthday and a week before my daughter's 2nd birthday which was really magical!)  We requested to stay in the Contemporary because my husband loved that the monorail went through it.  It was better than expected because you could actually see Cinderella's Castle from our hotel room!  The first night we arrived they were having Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party (we didn't have tickets for that) so we watched the fireworks from our balcony.  Yes, the picture below is the actual view we had from our balcony!

It was tough to get the kids to sleep that night and my daughter ended up waking up at 2 a..m - prepared to head to the Magic Kingdom!  We didn't get to the park at opening, instead we opted to have breakfast at Chef Mickey's in the Contemporary and celebrate the kid's birthdays.

Typically I try not to sugar them up too much in the morning - but heck, we were at Disney and celebrating their birthday!  So they had their birthday cupcakes and sang and danced with Mickey and his friends - all before 10 a.m.

Our next grand adventure was at 2 p.m. when we received V.I.P. parade viewing.  It was awesome to have reserved seats where we could see the parade well without fighting the crowd.  It was even more awesome that ALL of the characters in the parade interacted in some way with my son.  I wish I had tons of pictures from that but my daughter was alseep in my arms the entire time and my husband was video taping it.

We had an awesome three days and I'm so happy my kids remember it - I know they do because everytime we ride the monorail through the Contemporary they ask if we can stay there again!  It wasn't until after we took the trip that I started entering more and winning more.

Yes it's true, it all started with a mouse.