Pink Cowgirl Hats & Tall Tales

You've heard me mention SITS before.
Many of you already belong.
SITS stands for "The Secret is in the Sauce."

It's a place for bloggers to come together and have fun.
To find each other and support.
To read fun blogs and meet neat people.


AND, today is their SPRING FLING!

If you visit SITS today, you'll find tons and tons of giveaways.

I'm a big supporter of this group, and I've been trying to think of something to giveaway.

I can't spend much money right now, so I've thought of something that's uniquely me.

I'm giving away a pink cowgirl hat
(the same on in my profile picture)
and a short story, to be written by me,
as a bedtime story for your child...or dog...or boyfriend. Or just for you.

You give me some details, I'll supply plenty of imagination.



Leave me a comment to enter the giveaway.
(and go visit the SITS GIRLS!)



I'll choose a winner by midnight central standard time.





Did you know that I write for UpTake & for United Credit Source now?

Starting the New Year Out Right - A Texas Word Tangle Giveaway

In my mind, there's only one way to bring in the New Year...

besides rocketing in a space ship from NASA up into outer space to look for aliens...

ahem.


and, that's with a fabulous giveaway!!!

The gift package will include three books:

When her plane en route from Glasgow to London experiences horrible turbulence, Emma Corrigan is convinced she is going to die. She babbles all of her most intimate thoughts and secrets to the handsome American man sitting next to her. But the plane lands safely, and Emma bids him an awkward good-bye. When she enters the office on Monday and learns the CEO of the company, Jack Harper, is in for a visit, Emma is horrified to learn Jack is actually the man in whom she confided on the flight. He knows everything, including that she hates her job and that she is not quite sure she loves her boyfriend. But Jack does not fire her on the spot; instead, he quietly replaces the office coffeemaker she hates and gives her advice about her personal life, which she finds infuriating. So why can't she stop thinking about him?

Something Borrowed is as much about the meaning and value of friendship as it is about love, and it takes some risky chances that pay off. Rachel is celebrating her thirtieth birthday with her friends, including her lifelong best friend, Darcy, and Dex, Rachel's handsome friend from law school and Darcy's fiance. One thing leads to another and Rachel ends up in bed with Dex.

Goodnight Nobody stars Kate Klein is a feisty, charmingly insecure Connecticut housewife who trades in a life of late-night karaoke sing-a-longs and West Village brunches with her best friend Janie for a world of mini-vans and Mommy and Me pilates classes. Life in Upchurch, Connecticut, heats up when Kate discovers picture-perfect wife and mother Kitty Cavanaugh dead on the pickled maple hardwood floor of her recently remodeled kitchen. A former chronicler of celebrity gossip, Kate takes it upon herself to solve the mystery of Kitty's murder and the disappearance of Lexi Hagen-Holdt, another Upchurch supermom. Along the way, the mysteries and disappointments in Kate's personal life begin to unravel, including her marriage to the kind-yet-uptight Ben, and her unresolved crush on Evan McKenna, a former neighbor with whom a one-night tryst ended in disaster.

So, I'm giving away those three books
as well as:

this 11" Thomas Stir Fry Pan free from my grocery store.
(and since I have plenty of pans) I've decided to pass on to you.

It's dishwasher safe, oven safe, comes with a glass lid and is $70 in value.

And with this fabulous piece of cookware I am including
a package of Cajun Magic Jambalaya mix.




And this yummy chocolate brownie mix.







I might throw in some more stuff as a surprise, like a picture frame or a photo album...

But only the winner will know for sure.

Leave me a comment a day to earn an entry each day,
Tweet about it for 5 extra entries,
blog about it for five more.

Giveaway ends Tuesday, January 6th at midnight U.S. central time.

Awesome Giveaways

OHMommy, from Classy Chaos, is one of my favorite blogs to read.
And, she's having an awesome giveaway.
These boots.

I'd LOVE these boots.
Go comment on her site and enter!



There's another awesome giveaway...

One of my favorite online shops is having a giveaway to celebrate her 100th post!

Monogram Chick

She's giving away 2 of her favorite things: a monogrammed scarf and a preppy travel mug.
Go leave her a comment to enter and mention I sent you!

Twilight & True Blood Winner

Here's page 75 from the Twilight Movie Companion.
Lula said it was her favorite. She's our resident Twilight guru, so I had to mention her.

My good friend Kat is having a Twilight Giveaway this week, with tons of amazing goodies in anticipation of the movie...and a Lula-signed Twilight Movie Companion book!!

without further ado...

The Texas Word Tangle winner is

Jennifer from Crazy, Magic, Sometimes Hectic, Beautiful Life!

More Side Effects

The Vampire giveaway was going to end today at midnight,
but I've decided to extend it to Friday,
so you can get more entries.
One comment a day, every day, for more entries.
Post about the giveaway on your blog for three extra entries.


A while back I wrote a post about the side effects of football.
I still have a hard time looking at those photos.

Well, I'm here today to show you yet more side effects.

I should have know, after reading Shannon's post about her daughter and Valarie's post about her son, that these things happen in 3's.

It took me a week to clue in to our medical issue.
Girls, I think we all three win Mother of the Year Awards.

It was our turn.

Here we are in the orthopedic waiting room, where they have a chess board.
The waiting room was packed with kids and adults,
but no one was playing, so Donny and I did.

I checkmated him fairly quickly,
and then our second game was cut short.

And we headed back to an exam room to have the doctor look at our x-rays.

The Doctor identified the small fracture on his pinky immediately, and told us Donny needed a cast.

DARNIT.

That's the splint the emergency center had given us.

And now on to the cast making...

He chose bright green.

And he has to wear it for six weeks.

But, the kicker is, get this...he can still play football!!

Is that nutty or what?!!

Donny only has one or two games left.

Vampire Giveaway

I'm feel like having a giveaway!!
Here's what I'm offering,
two books:


This book, Dead Until Dark, is the first in a series of books about Sookie Stackhouse, a special waitress in Louisiana, that is awesome...
and it inspired the HBO show True Blood.

Everyone's read Twilight by now right?
And knows the movie comes out in a couple of weeks?

Well, you need the movie companion book!

One comment a day, for one entry a day. Contest ends Wednesday at midnight.
Winner gets BOTH books.

Luck in 3's.

I've won some contests recently.

Linda at Another Piece of the Pie gave me a year's subscription to

Everyday Food Magazine!

Thank you, Linda!!!




Then I won at Raspberry Lemonade for posting leaving a house cleaning tip,
which is ironic, because I'm a horrible house cleaner.

Here is the comment I left:

My house cleaning tip is to let the dog lick up all kitchen spills...hehe

Ok, I'm not the best housekeeper, unfortunately, but I do know you should change your air filters every three months and spray your AC unit outside with a hose every once in a while to clean it off. Use gloves to clean out your gutters because we have spiders here that bite...

and don't have kids, because they are NOT conducive to a clean house. hehe

They are sending me an initial pewter charm,
although it hasn't arrived yet.

Then I also won an adorable baby blanket from
Elaine at Miss Elaine-ous Life.
She sent me a mini cuddle from Ambajam



I don't have a baby,
but I think this will make the perfect gift to my cousin's new baby!




Thank you, everyone!!

Wicked Cool

Question: What do you get when you cross a Star Wars Storm Trooper
with a Giant Whoopee Cushion?

Answer: My children.

Question: What do you get when you mix Sunshine and Lemonade?





Answer: An awesome blog with a Wicked Cool contest hosted by the lovely Kat.

Kat is hilarious, witty, and wonderful and has an amazing blog.
She knows Latin and lives in Georgia.
She loves to travel.
She's an avid reader.
She's my bloggy BFF!

She's giving away prizes once a week...for TEN WEEKS!

How cool is that?! GO CHECK HER OUT!

Are you Up on Uptake?

Regarding yesterday's photo post, you guys are HILARIOUS!

I love some of the wonderfully creative ideas you came up with regarding that picture.

I wish I had an answer for you with what was going on in it,
but no one in my family seems to have any idea.

My mom has more old photos, so I'll see if I can get another one scanned sometime soon.


* * *


Next, let me announce the contest winner from last week.
(I know, I don't know what took me so long!)



I had planned to do a cute hat drawing video with the kids, but my printer ran out of ink, the kids wouldn't cooperate and I lost my desire to do it.

Long story short, I used that darn random number generator, adding in those of you with the extra entries. It was complicated, probably unnecessarily so!

Without further rambling, the winner of the 11" brand new fry pan and jambalaya mix is...

Scargosun!


And, as a bonus, I'm giving away a packet of jambalaya mix to:

Sassy Stephanie & Kimba!


Winners email me at rhea@tx.rr.com with your addresses.


* * *


Now, as you know, I've been job searching.
And, I've found some free-lance writing jobs and some blogging work,
but nothing full time.

I'm seriously thinking about applying to Target!!
I need something with good health insurance.


One of the places I am blogging part time for is called Uptake.
It's a travel information search engine, and I'm super excited!
I'll be posting about fun things to do and see in Texas...and possibly other places I've visited.

What I would love from you, is to click on over to Uptake and comment on posts with my name. Today...and any time you feel like it!
I don't get much comment love over there yet, and I've gotten spoiled with it over here.
You guys rock!!



I'll leave you with these photos of my pink streaks for now.

Natural lighting,
no photo editing,
no makeup,
crazy angles
weird facial expressions, and
I'm not even sure I brushed my crazy, frizzy hair.

It's Rhea Au natural con rosa!!
(I think I just mixed French & Spanish...and probably not even correctly)

and a plea for comment love at Uptake!!

Thanks!!

Is there a Magician in your Kitchen?

It's that time again. Time for a GIVEAWAY!!

What am I giving away?
You'll see...

but first, a quick recipe share

I have family in Louisiana and spent many summers and holidays in Baton Rouge.
One of my favorite dishes from that area is Jambalaya.

Meet the players:

chicken breasts, sausage, diced tomatoes, french onion soup, cream of celery soup
and a special jambalaya rice mix.

I special order this stuff and won't cook jambalaya with any other mix.
I'm a jambalaya snob.

I'm not going into details of the cooking,
but just know that I had to cut up sausage while the chicken cooked.

Opened all the cans and got them ready

Chicken's almost done

then you take the chicken out and put all the other stuff in.

Here it is about halfway through cooking:

This is my handy-dandy magnetic timer. I love it and can't cook without it.
It lives on my refrigerator.

While everything is cooking, I had to cut up the chicken.

Here is Annie on the kitchen floor...she may or may not be ready to pounce on any chicken scraps that might have been purposefully dropped fallen on the floor.

I know, Annie, it smells soooooo good.

You're such a beautiful girl.

It's done and should feed a whole family no problem.

Now on to our giveaway.

I received this 11" Thomas Stir Fry Pan free from my grocery store.
and since I have plenty of pans, I've decided to pass this on to you.

It's dishwasher safe, oven safe, comes with a glass lid and is $70 in value.

And with this fabulous piece of cookware I am including
a package of Cajun Magic Jambalaya mix.


And, I might throw in some more stuff as a surprise, but for now, that's all you need to know.

So, leave me a comment telling me about:
your favorite dish to cook for a big group,
or something you cooked recently,
or if you've ever been to Louisiana...or just comment about anything!

One comment per person, please.

And, post about it for an extra three entries.

Contest ends Friday night at midnight, Texas time (Central)