This giveaway is now over. Dawn is the winner. Congrats!

I recently posted about our awesome trip to Disney On Ice.  I now have another great event that we are going to and I’d love to have a local blogger (or non blogger for that matter) join us!  My kids have never been to the circus, so we are so excited that we get to go this year!  After seeing their reaction to Disney On Ice, I know that they are going to love it.  They love animals — I’m just worried about how many souvenirs we’ll end up walking out with! 

Now, I have 4 tickets for one family to attend the Ringling Brothers Circus here in Chicago.  The winner will have the option of choosing to attend one of the following opening-night shows:

November 5th @ 7pm in Rosement at the All-State Arena
November 18th @ 7pm in Chicago at the United Center

Exciting, right?  Here’s what you need to do:

Leave a comment on this post. I’d want to know which show you want to attend and why.

Each of these gives you one additional entry:

1. Twitter about this contest. Please leave me your username so I can verify. Or use something like this:

Win 4 Ringling Brothers Circus tickets from @blm03! Enter here: http://mythoughtsideasandramblings.com/2009/10/17/ringling-brothers-circus-giveaway/

2. Stumble this post and add this post to other social media sites like Digg, Kirtsy, Blogging Zoom, Reddit, Propeller, Etc. (1 entry for each social network).

Each of these gives you 5 additional entries:

1. Blog about this on your blog. Please give me the URL, so I can verify.

2. Add this to any forums you belong too. Please give me the URL, so I can verify.

3.  Comment on another post on this blog.  Let me know which one, so I can give you credit.

4. Subscribe to this blog using either my email or RSS feed

5. Add my badge to your sidebar:

<a href=”http://mythoughtsideasandramblings.com” mce_href=”http://mythoughtsideasandramblings.com”><img src=”http://i282.photobucket.com/albums/kk258/blm03_photos/MyThoughts125.jpg” mce_src=”http://i282.photobucket.com/albums/kk258/blm03_photos/MyThoughts125.jpg”></a>

If this isn’t working, please let me know. For some reason, WordPress seems to be eating the code up when I post.

Each of these will give you 10 additional entries:

1. Join my Spark E Crew at Social Spark. Click here to find out how to sign up. If you are on my crew, please leave your social spark ID, so I can verify it.

This contest will end at October 28th at noon CST! Good Luck!! Now, if you don’t want to wait, look for the box marked “MC Promotion” when purchasing your tickets and you can use these codes to get some great offers:

* Offer #1: Get 4 tickets for just $44 by entering the code “MOM” at select ticketing channels. Offer good on all weekday performances, which includes all weekday evening and Friday matinee performances; minimum purchase of 4 tickets required; additional tickets above 4 can be purchased at $11 each.

* Offer #2: All weekend performance tickets will be $4 off the original price.

* Offer #3: Get the best Circus Celebrity, Front Row and VIP seats available – We have reserved seats in these sections just for you! Enter the code MOM. No discounts available on these sections.

The above offers are good in the following cities:

* Denver: September 30 – October 11, 2009
* Boston: October 14-18, 2009
* St. Louis: October 15-18, 2009
* Cleveland: October 21-26, 2009
* Rosemont/Chicago: November 5 – 29, 2009 *available for purchase on Sept. 8. 2009
* Auburn Hills: November 18-22, 2009
* Charlotte: January 27-31, 2010 *available for purchase on Sept. 12, 2009
* Atlanta: February 12-21, 2010 *available for purchase on Sept. 12, 2009
* Cincinnati: March 10-14, 2010 *available for purchase on Sept. 21, 2009
* Dayton: April 29 – May 2, 2010 *available for purchase on Sept. 21, 2009

Hope to see you there!

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My goal was to blog from BlogHer.  Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to due to the internet working and my huge lack of sleep.  I have had a great time, and I have lots of great information and pictures I’ll be passing on.  I slept maybe 15 hours while it was going on, so needless to say my brain isn’t working (more than normal LOL).  After I get some sleep, I am hoping to blog more about this conference.

I met so many wonderful great women this weekend, and I hope I can go to BlogHer next year too!

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I am helping one of my friends with a Twitter Party tomorrow night and would love for any of you to attend!  No, seriously — there’s tons of prizes to be had:

1. Grand prize: $100 Gift Card (1)
2. Raggs Rocks DVD Activity Books (10)
3. Raggs Pawtographs (signed photo from The Raggs Band) (10)
4. Plush Toys (5)
5. Raggs Back Pack (5)

Isn’t that awesome?  Go check out The Media Moms to find out what you have to do to enter!  The twitter party will have experts in getting your children in media and print!  They will teach you how to avoid scams too.

Now, the other part of this post is for the Raggs contest.  This is pretty cool.  You can your kids on the Raggs TV show.  All you have to do is create a 2-3 minute video and upload it to their site!  Winners will travel like true rock stars and get an all expenses paid trip to tape an upcoming Raggs episode!  This contest goes through the end of June.

These are two events that you are going to be a part of!

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I wish I had some great Thanksgiving stories.  However, we normally end up going to somebody elses house for Thanksgiving, so I dont’ have to cook.  Ever.  Honestly, it is nice.  However, this year my parents are coming here for Thanksgiving, so I have to cook my own dinner (with some help from my mom I hope!  Though she won’t be coming up till Thanksgiving day itself, so I may not have as much help as I’d like! They are coming here so I have some company doing some Black Friday shopping (though my mom is refusing to go stand outside at Best Buy at 3 am.  Yes, I am that dedicated.  LOL)

I have a feeling this Thanksgiving I will have a ton of material to post about regarding my experience.  I don’t think Bill and I have ever made a real turkey by ourselves.  That is why its nice to know that Butterball has a Turkey Talk-Line.  You can call 1-800-BUTTERBALL  and talk to their meal preparation experts (writing that phone number down myself), or you can visit Butterball.com for Web chats with a few bloggers – Chris Jordan (Notes from the Trenches), Susan Wagner (Friday Playdate), and Roxanna (Miguelina) on November 11, 18 and 25 from 11 a.m.-1 p.m. CST.  They will answer all your turkey related questions. Now, if any of you have any advice for me, I’ll gladly take it.  We just won’t tell anyone. 

This post was written for Parent Bloggers Network as part of a sweepstakes sponsored by Butterball.

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Anyone who follows me on twitter knows I get a new cell phone last week.  First, I twitter that I missed the UPS truck on Thursday.  They wouldn’t come back and deliver, so I was disappointed.  Then the phone came on Friday, and I couldn’t figure out how to get the back off to put the battery in.  Then, due to some glitch in their system, I couldn’t activate my phone for 24 hours.  After all that, I was so ready not to like my new phone.

Instead, I really love it.  I have learned how to text message now (yes, I never knew how before).  I can check my email, surf the web, and even listen to the radio with my phone. I can even watch Live TV! It also takes pictures and videos. Granted, I haven’t learned how to use all these features yet. However, I plan on learning! This is one cool phone. I haven’t need a cell signal booster yet either. My favorite was that when we went to Navy pier on Sunday, it gave us voice directions. It told us what streets to turn on, and I was even able to see the traffic report! I could see on each expressway how fast everyone was going. I thought that was pretty cool. I will probably end up writing a review for the Instinct over at Lisa Reviews after I’ve had it longer than a week, but I have to admit, this is one cool phone.

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