A story, and a giveaway because I can't give you a gift without boring you to tears first.

When I was a kid, my parents used to drag us around to auctions all over the country. Now this is not your Sotherby's auction where everyone knows where everyone stands on price, and you're paying $12,000 for a scarf once worn by Jackie O. Nope, this is auctions where you have to be as skilled at listening for the price, as the auctioneer is skilled in his (or her) fast talking.

I'll be honest with you. They were almost always unbearably boring. That's probably why I don't go to auctions now. Who wants to wait around for 7 hours to find out that one thing you really wanted had an opening bid of double what you were willing to pay.

I save all my excited bidding and over spending for ebay.

So anyway, when I was around 7-ish, my parents went to an auction and bought me this:

Seems like a sucky gift eh?
I didn't think so. You see, I had been saving pennies since I knew what a penny was. Everyone gave them to me. I guess they all thought they were worth nothing, but I, in my wise 7 years, knew that 10 pennies made a dime, and a dime could buy a piece of candy. If 10 pennies can buy you a piece of candy, what can 3000 pennies buy you???

Many days in the summer, we'd dump the penny jug, just to see how much money was in it. We'd spend hours making stacks of 10 pennies, in rows of 10 stacks. I would ALWAYS cave and take my money to the bank before it was full to the top.

The older I grew, the more I'd throw in nickels, and then dimes, and now, I put in everything from my pockets. I also for the record, steal Gene's pocket money from his bowl when he empties his pockets at night. Oops. ;)

A few years ago, we decided that we'd save our pocket change, and use it for our honeymoon when we got around to that point. We didn't get super serious about it (the change or the honeymoon) but when we remembered, we'd put our change in there.

In the past few months, it grew closer and closer to the top of the jug. In all my *super young and youthful* years, I've never filled it to the top. NOT ONE TIME! I was excited at the prospect that it was close. Then, Gene got a new van at work, and brought home a box of change from his old van (he keeps tons of pennies in there, but won't let me have them. grr). Now it's only a couple inches from the top. I'm gonna make it!!

THEN...

Gene says last Thursday, "let's go on a honeymoon." And I say "What the...?" and then yes. Then he reminds me we have the honeymoon jug. Woot! (forgotten found money!) I called the bank, yep, they'd exchange it that day, so I pulled out some ziploc bags and started dumping.

Unfortunately, change gets stuck in the throat of the jug so you have to stick your finger in there to get it unjammed and moving.

This kids, is why you don't put change in your mouth. YUCK. God knows what diseases were crawling on my finger. (this is where my Mother-in-law gets all woozy heh).

Off to the bank I went, and in a very short period of time, they had it counted. Like, minutes. It would have taken us kids the entire day to count that. *sigh*

So because I was gone for a week, and really didn't get a chance to post, (did I mention I want a laptop.. like NOW), I decided to buy you guys a couple souvenirs in Estes park!

I found the most cutest shop EVER, called "Granny Gingham" and easily could have dropped a grand in there, but Hmmm.. something tells me hubs wouldn't be all that happy about that. Instead I found a couple things that frankly I want to keep for myself. LOL

The first prize is a bag of wildflower seeds. I knew it was perfect when I saw it because it has a goldfinch on the cover! It's by company called "Potting Shed Creations". It's filled with seeds like the California Poppy, Blue Flax, Black-eyed susans, Partridge Pea, and a ton more. It covers 100 square feet, which is like, .01% of what I'd need. LOL. I want a whole 1.5 acres of wildflowers... ahh.

I just have wild weeds.

I thought that wasn't enough, so I have 2 second prizes.

They are glycerine hand therapy fro Camille Beckman. This company has been around forever, in fact, I wanted to carry their stuff when I had my shop back in 19-dickety-2.

One is passion pear, and the other is french vanilla. They are little, about 1/4 of an ounce, but they fit in your purse or pocket nicely for a little extra boost when you need it.

Now, how do you win? Well first, you have to:

Guess how much money is in this jug.

ACK!

Closest gets the wildflower seeds, second gets the first choice hand cream, and third gets the one left.

Here's the rules:
1. Leave a comment with your guess. You can only enter one time. I'll know, so don't do it 7 times. Not even a guess under your "grandma's id" on your computer, blah blah. I'll know. Trust me on this.
2. Anyone can enter, even friends and family.
3. You must come back to claim your prize.
4. I'll announce the winners next Wednesday evening. It'll be a nice end to your hump day!

Here's a couple hints:
1. It's more than $50.
2. It's less than $1000
3. It's a nice mix of all coins.
4. It wasn't all the way full!! *sob* I had about an inch to go.
5. I caught my husband stealing quarters out of it and gave him a tongue lashing.

now GO!

P.S. Potting Shed Creations and Camille Beckman did not sponsor this giveaway. I did. In fact, they probably have no idea that I exist. *sob* Wouldn't it be nice if they knew I *heart* them, but alas, they do not. *sniffles*

P.P.S. Over there -----> On the right, you should click "follow me" because I plan on having regular giveaways now! At least a couple a month if not more. How will you know? Oh the humanity!!!