the big 800 and a big, whoppin' giveaway!

Wowza. Blogger changed its formatting a while back so that it included a running count of the posts you have written. And this, my friends, marks my eight hundredth blog post.

I started blogging 3 1/2 years ago. It began as a travel blog, documenting a road trip Rory and I were taking throughout Canada and the western half of the United States. This was the first image I posted in my very first post. A map of our planned roadtrip:

On that six week roadtrip I began taking photoshop classes through jessicasprague.com which opened up a whole new world of digital art, fonts, online scrapbooking... and so I started posting what I was learning, documenting the important things, like how much I love the Teriyaki restaurants out west.

And classy scrapbook layouts about our cat.

And lovely layouts showcasing the best picnic location we've ever found. (and we've enjoyed a lot of beautiful picnics...)

Once we returned home, we ended up hitting the road again and lived in Nebraska for two years while I worked as a program director at a Bible Camp. The blog morphed into an easy way to stay connected to friends and family back in Minnesota. I also got very crafty while in Nebraska. Sort of found a new passion out there for fabric and paper and ribbons and crop-o-diles.

And then we came back to Minnesota and had baby Ivar. And the blog became an incredible outlet for writing about mamahood, the gift of family and frankly, any thought or rambling under the sun.

It's no secret. I love to blog. I love, love, love it. And I love even more that YOU come to read. I have a very consistent readership and for that I am so, so grateful. I love this space. I love documenting life like this and I love the back and forth that a blog provides whether you comment, drop me a line or pick up the phone. It makes life more full.

So to celebrate, I am going to do my FIRST EVER GIVEAWAY!!! At least, I think it's my first ever. Have I done this before?

I am putting together a smattering of my very favorite things. Including: my two favorite cd's: Andrew Peterson's Counting Stars and Sara Groves' Invisible Empires (or, if you already have this album, which you might because my blog readers tend to be Sara listeners...you can pick from any of her cd's), haribo fruit salad gummies, the Jesus storybook bible, bridge mix, and the greatest little Q and A 5-year-journal a lucky blog reader could hope for. People, all told, this is over a $60 value. And it's stuff you're going to love. Or love to eat. And love to listen to.

Now I'm going to get gimmicky on you. I'm going to do the whole leave a comment to win thing. But I'm also going to go the route of if you tweet about this giveaway and/or mention this in your facebook status and/or your blog you may enter three more times. And finally, if you are a follower or become a follower, you get to enter one more time. Up to five times. Stop me now, people.

Recap of the five ways to enter:
1. Leave a comment telling me your favorite kind of candy (I changed the settings! It's super easy now!!!)
2. Tweet about this giveaway with a link to this post or blog
3. Update your facebook status with a link to this blog
4. Become a follower. If already following leave a comment telling me you already follow
5. Mention this giveaway on your own blog

Now, the small print. This giveaway is open to EVERYONE. Even my mom. Even Rory's mom. In fact, if either of you won, it would be quite handy not having to pay the shipping. Former employees of mine (heh) may also enter. If you were ever my Sunday school teacher, or even better...if I was ever your Sunday school teacher, you had better leave a comment. If you're brand new to this blog you can enter. If you've been here since the beginning you may enter too. If you've been silently following and never commented before I want you to leave a comment the very most. Pretty please!

I will announce the winner next Monday. You've got one week!

So that's that. 800 blog posts. It's a whole lot of words. It's a lot of thoughts, stories and ideas. So, so happy I've kept this thing up. Here's to another 800.