A Poem: March 11th

March 11th

written 3-11-93 Russia

Two days before my Brother's birthday

Eleven days before my Dad's

Yesterday, it meant only tomorrow

In a few hours, the roles will be reversed

Just another day

Life in another country

New experiences each day

Man has a way

Of making the extraordinary

Commonplace

Russia

Living in former Godless Russia

As a missionary

I've preached at church services

In old communist buildings

But today is just a day

Not special
Today I spoke to Russian students

Little spiritual knowledge

But much curiosity

But today is just a day

God forgive me

Next Time: In praise of Home School Kids Write

Collecting State Quarters (Crazy Dave's Give-a-ways)

I started two valuable collections in 1999.

I started my collection of children and my collection of state quarters. Legally, I can only give one of them away on the Internet. Before I tell you about my state quarter give-a-way, let me tell you why collecting state quarters works for me.

When the quarters first came out I got one of those Extra large size books for a family collection. I enjoyed collecting so much that I decided to get 3 smaller size books for each of the children. In the apartment years finding quarters was easy, I'd go through the quarters before I used them in the laundromat. I also paid $8.00 in tolls a week mostly in quarters so I had plenty to work with. Getting A transponder for tolls and buying a house with a washer dryer nearly killed my quarter collecting. But I trudged on. Anytime we got change in our house I sifted thought it quicker than (insert speedy reference here).

Then a couple years ago the kids wanted to start getting an allowance. Perfect. That requires me each payday get a roll or two of quarters and sort through them before the kids had a pay-day of their own. The kids always exuberant when we find new quarters. It is interesting how their personalities manifest themselves in which state coins they like. Emma likes Kentucky because of the horses, and prefers other coins with animals on them. She is a little upset that no state has the motto "The bunny state" with cute little rabbit coin to match. Charlie likes Indiana because of the Car, Ohio and Florida because of the Astronaut stuff. I had to stop Lucy from putting a nickel in her mouth today so she hasn't really acquired a taste for quarters yet.

So when the Hawaii quarter came out at the end of last year we waited in anticipation to complete our collection. They didn't come to our local bank until February. By then we already had the 4 we needed to complete our set. But that wasn't enough for me. I still had the collecting bug so I have in the past 2 months collected a 5th set just for the fun of it.

So that's why State quarter collecting works for me. To find out what works for other people go to Kirsten's Works For Me Wednesday site at We Are That Family. But before you do, I want to tell you in honor of today being my 50th post I am giving a collection of all 50 state quarters away.

You could use them to start a collection of your own. Or that's $12.50 you can use to stimulate the economy. Or you could use them to learn how to flip quarters from your elbow and catch them in midair. Click here for a demonstration.

To enter just leave a comment on this post or on my face book feed of this post. The sidebar has the official rules. The contest runs until 8:00 p.m EST 3/23/2009

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Next Time: March 11th

And the winner is ... me.

My wife is an optimist when it comes to contests. Any time there is a giveaway such as $5,000.00 given for doing a phone survey for your latest meal at Bob's Taco Barn, Amy is certain that we won. This is often before we even enter. The truth is we often enter but hardly ever win.

Now, in the blogging world, there are give-a-ways galore. I even host one on this very blog. (Check our next post for more details.) Many enter, few win. I don't often tell Amy when I enter, because otherwise she would be devastated with how often we are not slated to win.

Now for those of you who don't know, Amy loves Cheetos. That is even her screen name in a few places here on the world wide web. So when Carma of Carma Sez was giving away a huge bucket of Utz Cheese balls, I thought to myself, "That's for Amy." It turns out that these particular cheese balls don't have riboflavin, the ingredient that gives Cheetos it's Cheeto-ness. But it's not like we were going to win them, was it?

It turns out we won! Here is Carma's post announcing the winner of her giveaway.

Carma's only contingency was that the winner get a picture of them and the cheese balls at a popular regional locale. Well across from my local Walmart there is what remains of mine and then my kids', first amusement park: Santa's Village. And to celebrate winners, I of course had to wear my 2005 World Champions Cap.

Thanks Carma from all of us for all the Utz. MMMM Tasty!

Next Time: Crazy Dave's Give-A-Ways State Quarters.