New giveaway in the Back Room!

Don't miss the Shoe-la-la book review and giveaway (with two winners) just posted in Grandma's Back Room, courtesy of Scholastic Press. Hurry and enter -- contest ends Thursday at midnight.

525,600 minutes ago

I interrupt the regularly scheduled Sunday programming to present this announcement:

Today is the ONE-YEAR BLOGIVERSARY of Grandma's Briefs!

Yeah, baby! One year ago today I set out to create a blog to help ease the distance between myself and Bubby, to share my successes and failures as I venture out on the grandparenting road. Since then, this little site o' mine has seen 396 posts, 2,393 comments, 15,385 unique visitors, and 44,748 page views.

Most of all, though, this site has seen YOU! And it's YOU that has made Grandma's Briefs such an awesomely incredible experience for me!

There simply are no words to describe how much I appreciate you showing up and reading and commenting on my words and pictures, making it seem like this crazy journey I'm on -- the same one taken by millions of others, yet oh-so personal to me -- matters to someone besides myself and my family.

You all mean the world to me, and I'm offering up a few prizes as just a very small token of my gratitude for the difference you've made in my life. I'd like to give each and every one of you a great big bear hug, but a little giveaway will have to do.

But first ...

Darren Rowse, masterful mentor and blogger extraordinaire of Problogger, recently proposed a 7 Link Challenge that I thought would make a perfect one-year-blogiversary post. Darren's challenge is to present seven links in seven themes that best represent to new and long-time readers what one's blog is all about and to possibly introduce one and all to a few posts they may have missed.

In that vein, here are my answers to the 7 Link Challenge (Be sure to keep reading after the links for details on my blogiversary giveaway!):

1. Your first post – And so it begins ... featured -- naturally -- an absolutely adorable photo of Bubby.
2. A post you enjoyed writing the most – One woman's pleasure is another's worst job ever. I absolutely hated, hated, hated this job but I found writing about it rather cathartic because I knew I would never, ever, ever again be in a position to have to work such duty. Plus, I kind of enjoyed making you all say "ewww!" over the stinky job instead of the usual "awww...!" over the always precious antics and photos of Bubby.
3. A post which had a great discussion – Wanted: Crazy, quirky confessions. Wow! I loved reading all the quirky things you all got going on, and apparently you did, too. This post had the most comments of any other so far, and it doesn't even include the equally quirky comments I got when posting the same thing over on Vibrant Nation.
4. A post on someone else’s blog that you wish you’d written – There are so many great blogs I read by interesting and insightful women, but it's the posts of Pat at Mille Fiori Favoriti that I envy the most. Not one particular post, but every single one. Why? She's a grandma, just like me, but she lives in this wonderfully exciting place (NYC) and has the most awesome photo skills to document the world in which she lives and travels. I don't hanker so much to write posts like her; I just want to be able to take photos like her ... and take those photos in places as awesome as those in which she takes hers.
5. A post with a title that you are proud of – Bikes, trikes and big-boy beds. Other than the always adorable photos of Bubby, there's nothing particularly special about this post. But I think the title just flows well -- and tells exactly what the post is about.
6. A post that you wish more people had read – With this kiss, I thee wed. Without the first kiss, there would be no me and Jim, thus no Brianna, Megan and Andrea; no marriage between Megan and Preston; no Bubby. Ultimately, without that first fateful kiss, there'd be no Grandma's Briefs. Well, this post isn't about that kiss. But it is about the anniversary of that kiss.
   
7. Your most visited post ever – Two men and a toddler (haircut) was published last August, but to this day I still get at least one -- often more -- clicks on it daily. I like to think it's because it is such a wonderfully wacky documentation of Bubby getting a haircut by Preston and his buddy. I shudder at my stats, though, showing there may actually be a more disgustingly pedophiliac factor to the searches that result in some of the visits. I've considered deleting this post because of the thought of what's behind the searches, but I love the photos too much to do that -- and I hope the icky folks doing the searching feel gut-wrenching guilt when they unexpectedly click on the wholesome photos of Bubby getting his hair done by Daddy.

And now, for the Grandma's Briefs One-Year Blogiversary giveaway:

Like I said above, I'd like to give all of you something. But what I have is three prizes to award, at random, to three folks who comment to this post telling me Why do you read Grandma's Briefs and/or what topics or features would you like to see more of in the coming year?

The prizes are:

Grand prize: A Grandma's Briefs One-Year Blogiversary tote bag filled with a few books from my stack of advance reader copies from publishers, plus homemade chocolate chip cookies made by Grandma (that's me)!

1st place: A Grandma's Briefs One-Year Blogiversary tote bag and homemade chocolate chip cookies!

2nd place: Homemade chocolate chip cookies!

(Do note that I'll ship the prizes within 24 hours of making the cookies so you won't be getting stale yucky pucks in the mail!)

Comments received by midnight MST Wednesday, July 28 are eligible for the drawing; winners announced Thursday, July 29.

Again, I appreciate you all! Thank you for reading. Thank you for caring!

Update on Sunday, July 25, 2010 by Lisa

Okay, I'm the biggest dork of a grandma in the world, as Megan just pointed out that the Rent song -- and the facts -- show that it's 525,600 minutes in year, not what I originally had as the post title. Correction to title made! Thanks, Megan!

In the Back Room: Giveaway - Books for grandmas

Because it's the first of July, because I love my readers (that's you guys!) and because I received two really cool books from a publisher, I have a new giveaway going on in the Back Room. This time 'round it's a package of two books by and about today's wacky grandmas. But you don't have to be a grandma to enter or to win -- these books make a great gift for the grandma in your life.

Head to the Back Room now to check out the giveaway and enter to win!

Good luck!