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Circle of Moms Contest

May 30, 2011 By 3 Comments

My friend from high school and faithful blog reader, Kerry, sent me an e-mail about a contest that is going on at Circle of Moms for the top 25 Faith blogs. She suggested that maybe I should enter. I have never done any blog contests, but I thought it might be fun to enter one, even though I am a bit late. So I am asking for your votes and to spread the word. To vote for me, all you have to do is click the badge (it looks the same as the picture in this post) on the right hand side of my blog page and then click the thumbs up sign.  Or follow this link and click the thumbs up.  You can do this once a day until June 8.  So please vote, tell your friends, re-tweet, etc. Thanks so much for being wonderful blog readers and spreading the word about my blog in the many ways you do!

** To all my great proof-reading readers: I know I have a typo in my blog description with the word “like” and have e-mailed and asked to have it changed.

Filed Under: Contests, The Basket Wife

Seeds Family Worship CD Winner

May 23, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Sorry for the delay in posting the winner.  This weekend just got away from me.  Anyway, here is my random generator winner.  We had 8 entries in the comments (plus my friend Angie telling me she bought it herself).  And the last commenter and winner is Bethany!  Bethany, please e-mail me your address through my contact page and I will get the CD out to you this week.

We listened to the CD on the way to and from church yesterday and I thoroughly enjoyed it.  So again, I would encourage you to check out this CD and all the Seeds Family Worship music.

Hope everyone had a great weekend,

Filed Under: Contests

Seeds Family Worship

May 17, 2011 By 9 Comments

I had mentioned on my Master Resource List for parenting, a product called Seeds Music. Seeds Family Worship are different albums (digital or CD) that are Scriptures set to music to aid in kids memorizing Bible verses. I first heard about Seeds back in 2007 and sent them an e-mail to see if they had ever considered doing any albums for the ESV (English Standard Version of the Bible) because all of their albums were based on the NIV translation. Not that it is a huge deal, but we were working on Abby (then 3) memorizing Scripture in the ESV, and I didn’t want to buy music that might make things confusing in her mind. When I first became a Christian I read the NIV and I still sometimes get confused with verses because I had memorized initially in the NIV. Again not a huge deal, because memorizing Scripture is just great no matter what. But if I am going to buy something, I like it to be just what I want (part of the reason I am so stingy I guess!) But I still had no trouble recommending them because I thought their product was wonderful.

Back in 2007, I received an e-mail back saying that they had thought about the ESV, but for now were going to stick with what they were doing but may consider the ESV in the future. Well, I guess they kept considering it and maybe got a few more e-mails like mine because they have decided to switch over to the ESV and the first album having done so is out. It is called Seeds of Character, vol. 6 (there is also Seeds of: Courage vol. 1, Faith vol. 2, Praise vol. 3, Purpose vol. 4 and Encouragement vol. 5). One of the really cools things about purchasing one of their CD’s is that they give you two, so you can give one to a friend! So I purchased the newest album and would love to give one away to one of my readers. You don’t have to make any special comment, just comment (even just say “hi” if you have never commented before) and I will enter you in to win the Seeds of Character CD. You don’t have to have kids either.  This would make a great gift for any children in your life (friends’ kids, nieces or nephews, etc.).  The winner will be announced on Friday afternoon.

If you would to purchase some Seeds Family Worship music for yourself, right now you can get 20% off your purchase by entering the code BTW20 at the checkout. This is courtesy of Justin Taylor’s Between Two World’s blog that I HT below. You can see a video of one of the new songs at his site as well. Or listen to the whole album here for free. You can also download Scripture memory cards at the Seeds website that go along with each album. These are great tools for planting the Word of God into our children’s hearts (and these songs will get stuck in your head too, whcih is an added bonus!)

HT: Justin Taylor’s Between Two Worlds

Filed Under: Bible Verses, Christianity, Contests, More Favorites

March Madness Brackets 2011

March 14, 2011 By 6 Comments

We are running our annual Crispin Hoops Bracket here once again for the NCAA men’s basketball tournament. This will be our fourth year using the CBS brackets and our winners from past years are:

2008: Jobey Thomas (Professional basketball player for Varese in Italy)
2009: Cara Smith (Fellow basket wife)
2010: Angie Sears (Former basket wife)

So the ladies have a little streak going. Let’s see if we can keep it going (not going to get much help from me though because I am always in the bottom half!)

This year once again, it doesn’t cost anything to enter and the prize is a $50 gift card to your choice of Amazon, iTunes or Dick Sporting Goods. Here is how you can enter:

1. If you played with us in the past, you should receive (or already have) an e-mail sent to you to play with us again this year.

2. If you haven’t played with us in the past and would like to, you can get an invitation in one of the following ways:
- leave a comment on this post with your e-mail address
- send me an e-mail at erin@marriedtoaballer.com with your e-mail address
- send me a message through Facebook (if we are friends) and I can send you an invitation through Facebook

So come play with us. You don’t have to be family or close friends. We love to have as many people as possible to watch the standings change each day as we all talk a little trash on the discussion board. Hope to see you there,

Filed Under: Contests

Contest Winner

January 1, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Thank you to all who entered my contest this week.  I am thankful to have such wonderful readers who comment and encourage.  Although I want to keep the focus of this site on being an encouragement and properly reflecting on my own life, it is nice to hear from people as well!

I used random.org to generate the contest winner.  And as you can see from the image, the winner was #2, which was Mai.  Mai, you should have received your $50 Amazon giftcard via e-mail.  If not, please let me know.

Happy 2011 to everyone,

Filed Under: Contests

Last Day to Enter the Contest

December 31, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Today is the last day to enter to win a $50 Amazon gift card (purchased on my own).  It is very simple too.  Go to Monday’s post and at the end are the ways to enter.  If you have already done one of the requirements, please leave me a comment.  You won’t be entered unless you leave a comment.  The contest will close at midnight Pacific Time (US).  I will use random.org to generate the winner and announce it tomorrow morning.  Thanks so much for all who have entered!

Filed Under: Contests

Check Out my New Digs

December 27, 2010 By 15 Comments

Yesterday I launched the new site designed by my very talented brother. If you read these posts in an RSS feed, click through to check out the new layout. I am really excited about some of the new features here on this site:

1. Home Page
Before you would land right on the blog when coming to Married to a Baller. But now you come to my home page, where you can find my three newest blog posts, some family pictures (which will be updated ever few months) and a featured video (which will be updated every few weeks).

2. Easier Navigation
I hope that you can now more easily navigate through my site with the tabs and search bar at the top. Some of the pages and categories have been shifted around a bit, but for the most part, the general setup is still the same. Pages should load faster now as well as my brother gave me a quick tutorial of how to keep the pictures from turning people’s computers into something that seems like it’s running in mud.

3. New Logo
Not only do I have a new site design, but now I feel all official by having a logo to go with it that correspond to my Facebook page and Twitter account.

4. Connect Easily with Me
On almost every page you will be able to click on an icon to connect with me via RSS feed, Facebook, Twitter or e-mail.

5. Re-tweet or “like” my posts on Facebook
I would love for you to share my posts with others by using this new feature located at the end of each post.

6. Separate Basket Wives section
This was a big reason for me wanting to update the site. There used to be a separate Basket Wives site where women could get information about this lifestyle and get connected with other women who had lived in certain countries/cities. The site has been shut down and a Facebook group took over to function in a lot of respects. But I really wanted to have a permanent place where women could come and get information and not have to search through discussion posts. So the Basket Wives area is now there to hopefully do that.  I did not want to turn this site into a site just for Basket Wives because I have things to blog about that I believe people in all walks of life can relate to, so the Basket Wives section has become a separate area. In there you can find information about Birthing Overseas, as well as women who have volunteered to be contacts for information about birthing abroad. There are also various topics (some still in the works) on packing, traveling with children, language learning, health insurance, etc. But the part I am most excited about is the map you see on the Basket Wives page. I have collected contacts for almost 200 cities across the world of women who have lived there for some part of a basketball season. During this week, I will be entering these contacts into the map. Basket wives and girlfriends will be able to go to this map and find women who have been in or around the city they are headed to and then e-mail them for information about the city. The ballers can even use it to find a player’s wife or girlfriend who has been in a city, e-mail them and get in touch with their husbands/boyfriends to find out information on a club such as whether or not they pay on time and how they are with accommodating for living quarters, etc.  You simply locate a pin and click on it for the person’s information.

So to celebrate this new look, I thought it was time to hold a contest. I am giving you the chance to win a $50 Amazon gift card this week by doing any of the following:

1. Subscribe to my RSS feed.

2. Follow me on Twitter or “like” my Facebook page.

3. Re-tweet this post or “like” it on Facebook.

4. Link to this post on your own blog.

5. For those who don’t Twitter, Facebook, blog or have an RSS reader, you can simply comment on what your favorite thing is about the new design.

If you do any of the above things, leave me a comment about all that you did in the comments section. Each one that you do gives you a separate entry (so if you post this on your blog, join me on Facebook and re-Tweet this, you get three entries). You can enter with as many options as you would like.  Each entry will be numbered chronologically and I will use a number generator to select the winner. The contest will run until Friday, so please spread the word!

Working on getting the site complete,

Filed Under: Contests, The Basket Wife

Earth Day 2010

April 21, 2010 By 2 Comments

I thought March flew by, and it seems April is doing just the same.  I can’t believe that tomorrow is already Earth Day.  I kept thinking I had another week until it came around!

To be honest, last year was really the first time I seriously thought about Earth Day and the way my life was impacting our planet.  In the past, I had randomly thought about ways I could improve my stewardship of the Earth, but last year was the first time I actually set some goals on Earth Day.  Next year I hope to include environmental stewardship as a category in my New Years Goals, which I review at the beginning of every month, in order to keep them more fresh in my mind.

So how did I do with some of the goals that I set last year?

1. I definitely switched to using more natural cleaning products.  Although I am not fully converted, I used a lot more baking soda and white vinegar (even when my kids complained about the smell!)  I made some small changes using a reusable microfiber cloth on my Swiffer sticker, in lieu of buying the disposable wet cloths.  I also cut way back on my paper towel usage.  When we got to Italy in September, Joe had purchased a big pack of rolls, and I never purchased any more in the time we were there.  Once again, not a huge change, but a good small step for me.

2. I did a bit better at using my cloth shopping bags.  I really love the Baggu bags and really just need to purchase some more to have on hand.

3. On the other hand, I don’t know how clear our sockets have stayed.  I wanted to keep less things plugged in, but that habit has not kicked in too well yet.

One change I had not planned on making, but did during the year was the switch to cutting back on the personal products I use and the amount of chemicals in each product.  This really kicked in when I found out I was pregnant with our 4th child and was really convicted about how I had always been careful about what I ate, drank and breathed while pregnant, but not so much about what went on my skin.  I am still a product junkie and am in search of my perfect product combination, but I am using much less now and have definitely noticed a beneficial difference.

I also made the switch to using reusable dryer sheets, whcih I really love.  I purchased the Static Eliminator Re-Usable Dryer Sheets and they will be coming with me overseas from now on as well!  I always missed having dryer sheets due to the static our clothes would retain, and now I can save space by just packing reusable ones.

One other way we are celebrating Earth Day this year is by taking a pledge to go fast food free for 2 weeks.  Honestly, this isn’t a huge step for us as we don’t eat out very often, but the pledge was started by a student in the Connections Academy system of schools that Abby attends.  So it was a neat way to see what other kids are doing for Earth Day and for her and I to talk about the impact even our eating has on the Earth.  Check it out and join the pledge!

And if you are interested, my friend Maria is once again running a contest for Earth Day on her blog.  Go check her out and enter!

Filed Under: Contests, Green Living, Health, Our Family

Bracket Game Update

March 15, 2010 By Leave a Comment

It seems that you may not be able to join our bracket game without an invite if you haven’t played with us in previous years.  If you are having problems joining, send me an e-mail and I will e-mail you an invite.  Everyone else get your picks in before the first game!

Filed Under: Contests

March Madness Brackets 2010

March 11, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Living with a professional basketball player means that March means only one thing: Madness Time!  For the third year we are running our Crispin Hoops Bracket.  We have had some good turnouts the last two years and hope to have an even better one this year.  Once again our winner will receive the prize of a $50 gift card to either Amazon, iTunes or Dick’s Sporting Goods (sorry our prizes are not very original!)  Our past winners have been:

2008: Jobey Thomas (fellow professional basketball player)
2009: Cara Smith (fellow basket wife)

To join click on the above link and enter our group’s password, which is “crispinhoops”.  Once you have your account set up you can make your picks after the selection show.  If you have any problems join, please shoot me an e-mail at erin@marriedtoaballer.com.

Please don’t be shy to join if you don’t know us very well personally (or not at all).  The game is open to all, so invite your family and friends.  Hopefully I can stay out of the bottom half this year, but history has proven otherwise!

Filed Under: Contests
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