This week my sister-in-law Janie’s super-cute (and super-functional) JJ’s are being featured in a giveaway at I Love Giveaways.

Click here to jump over and enter – they’re giving away 2 JJ’s and 2 of the new and oh-so-cute JJjr’s. They are very sassy indeed.

So go get you some sassiness. You’ll be so glad you did.

Unless, of course, you’re living with teenagers. In which case you may have all the sassy you need.

…I am so proud of Shannon I can hardly contain myself.

Granted, I happen to agree with her on the issue at hand. But I’m not proud of her because we see eye-to-eye.

I’m proud of her because I don’t know many people who could address such a controversial topic with the amount of grace and thoughtfulness that she conveys in her post. She articulates her viewpoint beautifully, and she does so in a way that’s not insulting or condescending to those who might have a different opinion.

In fact, Shannon has set the bar so high that her commenters have followed suit. As a result, there’s a real-live discussion going on, not a shouting match.

Click here to see for yourself.

Rock on, Mrs. Rocks. Mighty well done indeed.

In a decision she’s sure to question a thousand times over once she realizes THE FULL EXTENT OF OUR CRAZY, sweet Lysa TerKeurst from Proverbs 31 Ministries has graciously asked Shannon, Melanie and me to lead a couple of sessions on blogging at this summer’s She Speaks conference in Concord, North Carolina.

(And can I just tell you? Lysa has to be the most encouraging person I’ve ever met in my life. Because every single time I hang up the phone after talking to her, I am ready to climb a mountain or compete in some sort of race.)

(That is saying something, my friends.)

Anyway, Big, Rocks and I don’t have everything set in stone just yet, but I believe that one of our sessions is going to be called Shannon Makes Many Good Points While The Other Two Talk Incessantly About Sarah Jessica Parker’s Hair.

The second session is probably going to be Shannon Shares Valuable Information And Insight While The Other Two Hide Under The Table And Whimper.

It’s going to be fabulous!

And seriously, we actually do have something resembling a plan, a plan that requires all three of us to PAR-TIC-I-PATE and talk out loud and stuff. You can read all about what we have up our sleeves – as well as all the other sessions that are being led by people who actually write books and speak in front of large groups and things – right here.

I’ve never been to a conference like this one, but it sounds phenomenal. I know there are a lot of you out there who have ideas for books because YOU ARE LEGITIMATE WRITERS, UNLIKE YOURS TRULY, and She Speaks provides an opportunity for you to receive valuable feedback from peer critiques, sit down with publishers (FACE TO FACE AND EVERYTHING) and get great advice from published writers.

And in addition to the writing track, there’s a speaking track, a women’s ministry track, and a next generation track. You can get info about each of those tracks here (look in the left sidebar for specifics).

There’s also an opportunity for you to earn a scholarship to attend the conference if you (like me) are not exactly in a season of life where you have big piles of cash money for things like conferences and traveling hither and yon across these continental United States. In fact, there’s a scholarship contest going on right now at Lysa’s blog.

I KNOW!

I really do hope that some of you internets will join us at She Speaks. Just think – we could drink diet Coke IN PERSON! Not that that’s necessarily an incentive for you to travel across the country, of course, but Mel, Shannon and I would absolutely love to have some bloggy buddies there with us.

Crazy loves company, you know.

Oh yes ma’am it does.

Erica from Bonbon Charms contacted me a few days ago to see if I’d be interested in doing a giveaway with her Valentine’s charms. And because I absolutely love her jewelry and had such a blast doing the giveaway back in December, I said something very refined and elegant like “OKAY!”

And like magic, a new giveaway was born.

This one will work much like the last one:

1. Click over to Bonbon Charms.
2. Look at all the great Valentine’s charms.
3. Come back here and leave a comment telling me which one you like best.

I’ll close comments on Monday, January 28 and then use random.org to draw for three lucky winners who will receive the charm of his or her choice.

And here’s something that I think is way cool. If you see a piece of jewelry you love at Bonbon Charms and wish your sweetie knew about it for Valentine’s Day, you can fill out the contact form, tell Erica exactly what you like and who needs to know about it, and she’ll email that person with a gift suggestion.

Because sometimes the menfolk need a little gift-giving assistance, oh God love ’em.

Finally, if you can’t wait even one second to order something before I draw for the winners, you can use the coupon code BOOMAMA through February 14th and receive a 20% discount off your order.

I think that is quite sassy.

Enjoy, y’all!

This giveaway is now closed.

After two weeks, over two thousand comments and at least five hundred pleas for vacuuming help from the pet owners of America, the Oreck vacuum giveaway has finally come to a close.

And we have us a winner, my friends!

Commenter #45 – Katey

Katey, I just sent you an email. If for some reason you don’t get it, email me from the gmail address you used when you commented.

Thanks, everyone, for such incredible participation in this contest!

And congratulations, Katey!

Well, after a six week-ish hiatus, Big Mama and I return to the wonderful world of podcasting by covering a completely random array of topics for your listening pleasure.

And we use the word “hiatus,” by the way, to make it seem like our podcasting break was TOTALLY PLANNED, but the fact of the matter is that we just never got around to recording anything because we were too busy eating cake and watching TV.

We also did a good bit of sleeping.

This week we talk about Big Mama’s hair woes, our teenage fondness for writing notes in church, how chocolate chip cookie dough and Cheetos can completely derail parenthood, various blog-related Google searches that crack us up, our deeply academic appreciation for the Old Testament, and why you wouldn’t want either one of us to ever be in charge of starting some sort of fire.

In short, it’s the least entertaining entertainment that the interweb has to offer. Which makes us understandably proud.

And I’ll go ahead and warn you that I had some microphone ish-ahs on this podcast, so I apologize in advance for the technical difficulties. You can rest assured that I will work tirelessly to fix those ish-ahs just as soon as I can tear myself away from my Dairy Queen chicken tenders.

My, they are tasty.

Click here to listen on the web.

Subscribe via iTunes here.

Subscribe via RSS feed here.

If you have any questions you’d like for us to answer in the next podcast, fire away, my friends.

And as always, we thank you for your patronage.