That was NOT easy! Winners announced.

It was so fun reading the entries for my Rewarding the Faithful contest and giveaway! Thanks to all of you who played along and are looking to make life a little easier ... or at least get a good laugh when it's not.

I wish I were a millionaire and could get an Easy Button for everyone who played! Well, I guess I wouldn't have to be a millionaire...I'd just need an extra $239.60 + tax. And shipping. Okay, maybe I'd need to be almost a millionaire.

Anyway...

Announcing winners.

I have already explained why Emz is winning. So there's her.

The Grand Prize is going to SuperKate! And the Almost-Won-the-Whole-Thing Prize goes to MiddleAgedRunner! Ladies, tell me your Nuun flavor of choice... best to give me a few ideas because I don't have everything.

The Random Winner is Nelly! Whoa, Nelly! I have always wanted to use that expression. I'll bet you hate it. You need to go tell the world about your name woes over on this website. It's one of my new favorites :)

And I'm giving a button to Krystal.

And some Nuun to Sprout.

So all o' y'all, tell me where your goods are going...contact info in the 'Contact XL' tab up top.

And if you didn't win, thanks so much for playing!

You're all winners in my eyes :)

(did that make you want to de-follow me? remember, I watch Barney)

Rewarding the Faithful...

One year ago, I wrote a post.

One person commented.

Emz.

The Great Lady of the Treadmill was my first introduction to "fitness" blogging. I didn't know there were genres back then. She was one of my first followers...I have NO idea how she found me. The post was simply that I was super excited about closing in on 1000 pageviews. Woo hoo, right? :P

Fast-forward to today, I have held onto 500+ followers for a little over a week. Surprisingly. I'll be the first to admit I have a weird blog. One day it's pictures of my kids at the zoo watching the otters at feeding time, another day it's about running up some insane hill, and then there was the day we played the boobs-to-bloggers matching game. So, yeah... it's weird. But that's me :D

The parenting/mommy bloggers get bored by my running posts, and the runners get bored by my parenting/mommy posts, and the boob fiends...well, they quickly realize that the boobs featured on my blog are fully covered (except the scary boob-scarves) and go on their merry way.

Back the the 'reward' part of this post...the point of it...

I mentioned a few weeks ago that when I hit 500 followers, I would have a super weird cool giveaway. (note: the word order is important...not a super cool weird giveaway). I've decided that Emz gets a prize for being around and regularly commenting (even though she has not been lately... a-hem...but ummmm... living in the glass house, I don't get to throw stones) for pretty much the whole time I've been at this.

Everyone else who is interested can enter to win the prize.

What is the prize?

It's a mood-lifter, an ego-stroker, a reassurance-giver...

Who wouldn't want one of these?

I have one. It's at the top of my stairs. I wanted to bring it to Long Beach and whack it after every mile of that half-marathon...but I thought "nah...that'd be really obnoxious." Then I found out the Dead Jocks Van 2 had one at the Hood to Coast Relay...so definitely obnoxious but also cool :)

The buttondude's semihuman/robotic voice puts me at ease every time I whack the button. The most stressful and difficult of situations suddenly becomes, if not easy, at least relaxed. There is something about being calmly informed,

That was easy

that makes those words feel true.

So Emz gets an Easy Button. She can put it on her treadmill, and when she hits 20 miles, she can give that sucker a whack.

CONTEST and RULES of ENGAGEMENT

The rest of you awesome people will be competing to win your very own Easy Button, as well as a brand-new Nuun water bottle, a tube of Nuun (you can pick the flavor from my selection), a $25 Foot Locker gift card, and a $10 iTunes gift card (not pictured).

This part will not be a random drawing. The contest winner will be chosen subjectively by me based on responses to the following question:

Where would you likely be using your Easy Button?

That's the contest part.

Here's the giveaway part...

• If you don't want to get creative and all you're interested in is 'easy'...simply leave a comment saying "That was easy" to let me know you're interested in winning just an Easy Button. 
• These lazy easy people will be pooled with those who didn't win the contest, and one person from this pool will be chosen at random to win an Easy Button. There might be some extra goodies thrown in, too :)

Are we understanding this? There are two things ... a contest and a giveaway...you can enter one or both. Got it?


You needn't be a follower to enter either the contest or the giveaway.


Contest ends and entries for giveaway close Friday, November 18, 2011 at 11:59 p.m. PST.


Good luck to all!!!! And thanks for following :)


Disclaimer: the Nuun was a gift from those awesome people :) and the rest of the prizes are provided by me as a way of thanking all of you! And if you really want 'easy,' you can go buy yourself an Easy Button right now at Staples for $5.99+ tax.