WINNER!- Confessions MOM!!

First of all, I want to sincerely thank each and every person who nominated a mom in our Girlgetstrong “strong mom” contest whether you nominated yourself or another mom, or both.  (And to the dads, nieces, friends and neighbors who also took the time to nominate a wonderful mom, you are so AWESOME to support the women in your lives!).

We really appreciate the time you took to enter. Sian, Susan and I read every single entry over numerous times. Speaking for myself, I giggled, I snorted and I definitely had tears in my eyes. Reading everyone’s entries, whether long or brief, funny or serious, was a great reminder that EVERY mom is a strong woman.

Second, thank you to the award sponsors, many of whom are moms too and if you have a few minutes they’d really appreciate a visit to their websites.

It was very difficult to narrow the list down to six finalists and actually, we couldn’t.  But we were able to narrow it down to eight finalists unanimously.  That leaves the hard work to you – voting for your favorite! We’re glad we don’t have to do, because frankly, we’re emotionally exhausted and I for one fancy a big-assed glass of wine.

First though, here are a few notes on how we narrowed the list down because although we were tempted, we didn’t throw darts or use magic hats or random number generators.

• Although all the entries were absolutely amazing we were looking for a bit of humor, as stipulated in our “how to enter”. So if there was even an ounce of humor, the entry was considered.  Unfortunately, those entries that had no humor were not able to be considered (which actually made us re-think the whole contest for next year, because how dumb is that? …but that’s another post).
• We were very touched by the serious entries and after much discussion we agreed that we will carry those entries forward to our upcoming “inspirational woman award” where we will be partnering with Get Rocked Fashionably Fine Jewelry to give away jewelry worth almost $500 to one inspirational woman (we don’t have a firm date yet, we’ll keep you posted). We’re not really sure yet how that will work, carrying over the entries, but we had a hard time just letting them go so that’s what we’re going to try.

• Sian, Susan and I reviewed each entry independently. Then we got together and cross referenced our lists.  The eight finalists chosen were on ALL three of our lists, so it was unanimous.  There may have been a better or different way to do it but we felt that was the fairest way to go about it.  We were actually looking forward to fighting over the list, like American Idol judges, but since we all agreed on those eight independently we didn’t need to utter even one snide comment to each other.  Which is probably better anyway.

That’s it. Here are the entries, in NO particular order. Read them all, pick your favorite to win the fab prizes from our award sponsors and go vote on our home page on our regular weekly poll (right hand side, scroll down). Voting ends August 31 and the winner declared September 1, 09.  I *believe* the poll only lets you vote once per IP address, but don’t quote me on that. If you can vote more than once, we can’t limit you, so go ahead.  Better yet, though, get your family and friends and if you have a blog, your readers to vote for you. Good luck and thank you very much for participating.

~Melanie, Sian and Susan

The eight finalists and their entries:

1. Shannon Gilmartin says:

I am nominating myself because this story, which everyone seems to find hillarious, must mean I am strong, I made it through, and lived to tell the tale! (although I admit there may have been some wine or Bailey’s occasionally involved in the weeks of survival!)

My story takes place over a few weeks in February 2008, but it is a story of trying to move a family of 5 from Rutland, VT to Hamburg, NY. This was an awful mother/wife/human being experience for me. Hubby’s job was relocating to Ohio, so we left his company to move from VT back to Western NY where both of our families are. He had to be here for work (6 hours away from VT to NY) a couple of weeks before the kids school break, which is when both closings were, so I was at home with 3 kids for the last two weeks, trying to get everyone to and from school, activities, feed them, pack, etc etc.. Tom had 2 cars break down on him on the weekends he tried to come back to help, and I got a stomach bug the last week for 2 full days. Then we had an ice storm two days before the move, so we couldn’t get the moving van into our long country driveway (I tried and ended up nearly sliding down the hill into the yard – fortunately a tree stopped me LOL then had to spend half a day getting the truck unstuck from the side of my driveway – side note – ALWAYS take the insurance on a moving van! It was worth it!) and had to move things from the house into pick up trucks/SUVs and drive them to the truck in the “road” and unload, reload. UGH!!!!
I got to the new house with a few things in my SUV with kids and some family to help (Tom was still packing the truck with friends when I left). Everyone was tired, cranky and confused. We ordered dinner from around the corner. The pizza guys took an hour to deliver from two blocks away, and on top of it, screwed up our delivery and we didn’t any plain cheese pizza for the kids who were all a mess anyhow from moving and stress, as we tried to unload what we had shoved into my truck and my parents’ car. My daughter Mara lost her first tooth soon after we arrived and was dripping blood over the nice new white carpet (note cleaning supplies were in moving van somewhere between VT and NY), my other daughter Caitlyn threw up an hour later (also on the carpet) and my 3 year old son, Finn was miserable and confused as to why we weren’t at “our house” anymore. Tom got back at 3 am, he ended up having to get a trailer to attach to the 36 foot moving van because there wasn’t enough room for our stuff. The next morning, my dad, nephew and niece showed up to help us unload the moving van, my mom took the kids to my parents’ house to play, and we got to work. Emptied the trailer, and Tom took the truck for a drive around the block (we have a horseshoe shaped street) to drop the trailer off on the street so that we could get into the main truck and doesn’t the stupid truck BREAK DOWN about 1/4 of a mile away from our house, down at the opposite end of our street. DEAD not moving truck in the middle of the street. Now we had to grab my SUV, my nephew’s and a friendly new neighbor’s and unload the truck and drive the stuff to our house again because it was going to be “a while” before they got to help us from UHAUL. We ended up going to buy a hitch, hooking the trailer to my truck and moving some of the bigger stuff that way. At one point my dad was driving our snow blower down the street and riding a bike down the street in February in Buffalo. I am sure some year we will look back at this and laugh, but not yet. Feel free to laugh though, everyone else who I tell that story to says it seems like a tv sitcom episode. I do have to admit, the sight of my dad, 70 something trying to ride a bicycle in the snow was somewhat amusing…He ended up deciding to walk it…

That is why I am nominating myself for this prize.

2.   Beth – PlusSizeMommy says:

I am being conceited and nominating myself!
the reason is, I am a mom who blogs, I have 4 children, maintain my home, I have been through a lot in life and I think I am pretty darn strong!

My humorous story ?

Each and everyday is humorous to me. It has to be or I will be insane!
I use humor to survive having 4 children, lol
The funniest thing recently (funny now not then) was my daughter (age 3) was ahem picking her nose digging for gold the other day and I told her that was gross and to stop, her reply was, “Mommy them’s (referring to her contents of her nose) not gross them’s good ) UGG ICK!!!! I know gross humor but thats what is sticking in my head as latest funny story.

3.  ImWendy says:

Well I’m going to put it out there and nominate myself.

About 3 months ago, after almost 5 years of marriage my husband walked out. We had a good marriage, both of us were deeply in love, but he decided he didn’t want it anymore. I’m sure there were reasons I don’t know about, but we’ll just leave it at that. This is supposed to be funny, right? I’ve been a SAHM for the last 2.5 years, and when he left, not only was I completely heart-broken, but jobless and stressing about how I was going to do this financially. I can’t afford daycare for all three of my kids, even with a job, so he agreed to help until the 2 big kids go back to school. Needless to say, this summer has been the most difficult, stressful, trying summer I’ve ever lived through.

The first several weeks of the summer were filled with tears and underlying anger from myself and the kids. Noah is 6, Tessa is 4, and Tripp is 1.5. It was so hard to find my humor again, but I did it. It started with Twitter, and has slowly found it’s way back into our normal lives. Of course, there are still melt-downs, but we’re coping now. One of the things that had been upsetting me SO badly was Tripp taking off his diaper. It got bad. I couldn’t keep one on him! And even putting shorts on him didn’t help a whole lot because he would either pull them off or freak out when he couldn’t. So one night, in desperation to find a lighter side to it, I wrote a song about it. Imagine a smokey, bluesy beat and read this…

I fight you on the couch, just to get it on,
And when you get up, OOOOH I know it won’t be long,
You’re going to pi** on my floor, pi** on my floor
But I love you anyway!
You take that diaper off and then you run away,
I chase after you fast, then bust my weary a**
because you pi**ed on my floor, pi**ed on my floor
But I love you anyway!

The funniest thing was when Tessa started singing the cleaner version when she came across a puddle. lol. But that little diddy reminded me that it *is* funny, and it’s just pee afterall, and aren’t I thankful we don’t have carpet?!

@ImWendy on Twitter, btw.

4. ConfessionsMom says:

I am nominating myself, hoping that if I share my story I can help others find humor is low situations. This past winter, we traveled to China to bring home our third daughter. After returning home, I was jet lagged, sleep deprived, trying to bond with a terribly scared 11 month old, and brace myself for the upcoming holiday obligations. I definately fumbled my way to the coffee pot each morning, letting the dog out and seeing off my older two girls to school.

One morning there was a knock on our interior garage door. Thinking it was my husband taking pity on me and bringing me a surprise coffee, I opened the door. I was very surprised to find our neighbor standing there instead. I was even more surprised, because only my husband uses that door and I had answered it in my bra. I slammed the door, found a shirt, came back and apologized to my very angry neighbor. Apparently our dog had gotten out and entered his yard. He was prepared to really yell at me, but seeing me half naked with a baby on my hip altered his train of thought.

It’s important to put yourself (and myself) into others’ shoes before being quick to judge. I never know what they are going through at the time, even if their dog is running amuck!

5.  kay says:

I am nominating my sister in law Debbie, she is a new (ish) mom and could use some little treats. Her youngest was out with us for a day at the Park.
It was funny, because my brother and I have already raised our family and have grown children, this little one is his child with his new wife and at first they were not sure they could have children. Of course all of our grown children had each other and grew up together and the youngest is alone. hence , my brother and I took him out for a day to a big amusement park in our city where the most interesting conversation ensued. While we were getting him in and out of his swimsuit , (his dad, my brother, and myself) were talking about out childhood. About the things we used to do when we were little and that fun parks like this with water slides were not around when we were younger. The little one piped up and said in his most concerned and sad for us voice said, I know it was hard then, when you and daddy grew up in the old days, in the OLD WEST. My brother and I looked at each other and nodded and said, yup that is pretty much how old we are it was the OLD West.

6. Night Owl Mama says:

ME! I Nominate ME!

We just left Walmart where I stuffed 2 grocery carts full of bags into the car with 3 hungry kids and 1 very unhappy screaming toddler. My patience was wearing thin and I was at the very end of my rope. Already warning the kids not to say a word on the way home.
I’m driving home going over in my head the last half hour of the eventful shopping trip of “buy me, I need, I said so” and all out floor kicking and screaming tantrums by my 3 yr old. Wondering if the glares and the looks were for his wild staged Gimme’s or my short responded Smile saying, “Isn’t he cute?”, “He must be tired”, “Sorry, He didn’t mean to snatch your cookies out of your cart” was just a few of things that I mumbled at folks who couldn’t help but gasp at my sons staged melt downs all while I held the 16month old screaming because I wouldn’t let him down to run the isle’s and pull down the glass bottles of Chardonnay wine that the store so skillfully placed on the bottom row across from the milk Isle. Someone had a brilliant brain fat on that one!
Day dreaming out the window while sitting at a stop light I was looking at the empty car seat in the car next to me, thinking how lucky she must be to be out driving alone at the very moment. Then I felt it. Rain? Couldn’t be. I looked up. Nope, clear skies. Then I was misted on the side of my face. I peek in my rear view mirror to see what’s going on. All I see peeking down the barrel of a water gun is a shinny eyed, huge smiling sweet 3 yr boy. I glared at him with a slight grin and said,”Who told you to shoot the driver?” He responded, “I’m here to make your day Mommy” and began Giggling. Yes he Was!! He made my day. At that point I realized I was the lucky one. Even when your at your shortest point having a sense of humor your children can still give you reason to Smile.

7.  Jennifer says:

I would like to nominate myself for the strong mom award. My name is Jennifer and I have been married for 13 years to my wonderful husband. I have 3 children ages 11, 9 and 3. All 3 children have special needs with very similar diagnosis, Apraxia – oral and limb, Sensory Integration Disorder, Hypotonia, ADD, Auditory Processing Disorder and severe feeding issues. My youngest in currently in therapy, physio, occupational and speech. Their special needs affect everyday of their lives.
I have been working at getting my daughter to sit on the potty. Potty training was very difficult for my 2 older children and I am finding the same issues with my daughter. We have books, a small potty and a Dora potty seat that she picked out that fits on the toilet, everything to make potty time a fun experience…..or so I thought.
I heard my daughter in the bathroom one afternoon recently as I have been really encouraging her to use the potty. I thought, wow this is it!!! She is finally doing it! No more diapers. No more wipes. YIPPEE. Well I wasn’t so lucky. I checked on her because I heard her playing in the living room. From behind, everything looked fine so I went to the bathroom in excitement to see what she produced. She had a bowel movement but not where I would want it. She decided to spread it all over the bathroom as high as she could reach. She conveniently finger painted it all over the tooth brush drawer, inside and out, towel cupboards and counter tops. Did I forget to mention that our bathroom is all white. This wasn’t the accent color that I would have chosen. I think she thought she was creating a masterpiece. Funny……I didn’t have the same thoughts. So after I took everything in and took a very long deep breath I went to go find my darling daughter. From behind she looked like an angel. Turned her around and she was a disaster. She tracked it all through the house and and it was as if nothing transpired. My daughter is still not toilet trained, comfortably wearing Dora pullups and at this point I don’t see Dora underpants in her near future.

8. Tigerlilly says:

When my oldest daughter was 21 months and my youngest was 3 months I was diagnosed with Ovarian Cancer. I was devastated having just lost my Dad to cancer. I remember laying in bed the week before my surgery looking at my daughters and crying because I would never get to see them grow into beautiful young ladies. The surgery came and went (full hysterectomy) and months later I was declared cancer free. By this point I weighed well over 220 lbs. Looking at my girls yet again I was determined to get back in shape. How terrible would it be to beat cancer and die from obesity. Today I am still battling my weight, but down to 183 lbs. My girls bless me everyday with a reminder of how precious every moment really is. If there was one thing I wanted my girls to know about me is that I would climb mountains to be with them… and its only because of them that I could climb mountains. Being a mother saved my life… thanks girls.

So, now for the funny part ….

One day we were doing our weekly shopping at the grocery store when my daughters started laughing and pointing and getting all excited.

Me: “What is it?”

Girls: “Mommy, Mommy, over there!!! CHOCOLATE!!”

I looked down the aisle to where they were pointing and did not see any chocolate but instead an African American man doing his shopping. When I realized what they thought, I spun on my heals and quickly left the isle, terrified they had offended him. It wasn’t until I saw the Axe commercial (the one with the man made of chocolate walking down the street) did I realize why they thought that man was made of chocolate. ***sigh*** no more t.v. for these kids. It makes life to confusing.