This last weekend, I had the chance to go to SeaWorld thanks to them and IZEA. I haven’t been to SeaWorld since I was probably ten years old. Any chance to get out of Chicago in February is a good one, but to SeaWorld?! I was saying “SQUEEEE!!!!!” for weeks until the day to leave arrived.

I almost feel bad about how much fun we had on this trip – I don’t really want to rub it in. But we got the VIP tour of the park with front of the line ride access, lunch with the Sharks, dolphin petting and feeding (OMG), and center-stage seats for the Shamu Believe show. I normally try to put some kind of ‘constructive criticism’ into my review posts to keep them real. But this trip? Flawless.

I asked one of our tour guides how much the park has changed in the last 30 years. I knew it was a lot, but didn’t expect her to say, “Hmmm… well, I think the Penguin Experience was here back then. But that would be it”. But if you think the reason they invited us is because of all the new stuff they have added over the years, you would be wrong.

They invited us because of The Manta. I seriously can’t do this ride justice in a post. Ted comes close in this video of our hard hat tour of the construction of this unbelievably cool new roller coaster:

The Manta is opening in May of 2009. And someone who enters this giveaway is going to be one of the first people to ride it!

It is so completely easy to enter this giveaway that it’s not even funny:

1 – Blog Comment:
Leave a comment on this post sharing why you want to take your family or friends to SeaWorld to ride Manta.

2 – Twitter Tweet:
Tweet out why you want to go to SeaWorld and ride Manta in 140 characters or less. Be sure to include http://urlbrief.com/f4fae1, #mantamania and @eMom in your tweet to be registered. For example:

@eMom I want to go to SeaWorld because @tedmurphy made the best Manta video ever! #mantamania http://urlbrief.com/f4fae1
(But you really should put in your own reason, because, well, just because we want to know. )

3 – Blog Post:
Write a post about why you want to take your family or friends to SeaWorld and ride Manta. Be sure to leave a comment or trackback on this post with the URL of your post.

Each tweet, comment or post counts as one registration. A person can enter up to three times. The winner will be chosen at random by IZEA based on all valid entries.

We will be giving away a SeaWorld Schwag Bag to one winner who enters on Momsational. IZEA will choose the grand prize winner randomly from all entries on the 6 blogs participating in the giveaway. The bloggers participating in the giveaway are the ones who went on the SeaWorld trip with me – Julia Roy, Sarah Austin, Lucretia Pruitt, Alex Schek and Ted Murphy. There we are!

The Manta Mania Contest (the “Contest”) is open to anyone who (i) is a legal U.S. resident and legal residents of Mexico, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Venezuela, or Dominican Republic and (ii) is at least eighteen (18) years of age. Official contest rules.

This giveaway is now closed.

Kmart and Izea have hooked me up this year for Christmas. This week I received $500 to go shopping at Kmart. And I also got $500 to give to one of you – woot!

Kmart's Martha Stewart Decorations

My dirty little secret (literally) is that I am a terrible housekeeper. My home is almost always messy with a sink full of dishes. But I have one domestic gene that seems to emerge only in December. I clean my house, I decorate it to the hilt, I bake cookies (LOTS of cookies), and I buy my one issue of Martha Stewart Living every year. I have every holiday issue she has put out since the publication started – as I can obviously  only handle the thought of being that organized and domestic once a year. So this may sound like a bad TV commercial, but I seriously went straight to the Martha Stewart Christmas section the minute I got in the store.

I kind of put everything in sight into my cart then had to talk myself down and put a bunch of it back. My tendency to get dorky about Christmas verges on embarrassing. (But not this dorky). I decided I didn’t want to drop all $500 on Martha Stewart decorations and got myself out of that section as fast as I could. I did end up with some pine cone garland and new Christmas stockings – I pat myself on my back for my discipline.

Kmart Wool Coat

I shopped on Wednesday, which also happened to be my 40th birthday. I should have gotten Christmas presents… but I have to admit I splurged a bit on me (I deserve it! I turned 40!). So check me out in my new wool winter coat. Soooooo cute. And 40% off! Soooooo cool.

So to appease my guilt (ok, I didn’t feel that guilty), I shopped for the family. I don’t know about you, but my kids somehow seem to always have a growth spurt in the fall. So that when I buy them new clothes for school, by December they are already outgrowing some of them. I swear it happens every year, even though I try to buy big. It irritates the heck out of me, so I bought them each three outfits. Now they will at least not be walking around in floods come January.

Craftsman Reciprocating Saw

Then I walked around and was happily surprised to see that Kmart now sells Sears’ Craftsman tools. My brother owns a auto repair shop and he always asks for Craftsman tools for Christmas. So I got my hubby a Reciprocating Saw because a jerk we let stay with us once took his and sold it for money (I kid you not). But now hubby is happy.

Since I work at home, I thought it would be a good idea to get some new PJs, because that’s pretty much all I wear these days. But I decided after looking around that there was nothing there that I would be comfortable showing you that I bought. Everything was either frumpy and made me look way over 40… or, well, erm… the exact opposite of frumpy.

I know, I know, I’m rubbing my shopping spree in. So let me get to it – you want to know how you can get $500 for your own shopping spree, right? Here’s what you have to do:

There are two ways to enter to win a $500 Kmart Gift Card

ENTRIES ARE NOW CLOSED – GOOD LUCK EVERYONE!

1 – Go to Kmart.com and do a ‘virtual’ shopping spree. Tell us what you would buy (with the Kmart Item numbers) that adds up to $500 or less. Make your wish list and leave it on a comment on this post.

2 – If you are on Twitter, simply copy and paste this tweet: “RT @eMom is giving away a $500 Kmart Gift Card on her blog – simply comment or tweet to enter : http://urlbrief.com/7dfb6c”

Each tweet or comment counts as one registration. One entry by blog post comment and one entry by tweet per contest participant.

Winner will be selected via a random number generator on December 17, 2008; deadline for entry is midnight December 16, 2008. Official Holiday Hoopla contest rules from IZEA.

Kmart is the sponsor of this post and of my shopping spree. IZEA is the sponsor of the Kmart $500 Gift Card giveaway. And I thank them both, because this was way fun.