I’ve decided to do something a little bit different. You see, what I failed to mention is that I too can be a little bit random. When I opened the giveaway, I was still unsure of how the winner was to be chosen. I know a lot of people use Random.org for their contests/giveaways, so, at the time, it sounded good. There were about seven ladies – 14 entries – who registered for the giveaway (thank you so much), so there really wasn’t a need for such commotion to decide a winner randomly. Well, I started thinking. I could be just as random as the next generator. Heck, if you have children, then you know they can be just as random in their thoughts as well as with their actions at any time.

I say all of that to say again, that I decided to do something a little bit different. We just bought these Popsicle sticks which we call tally sticks when we’re doing our math. It pained me to spend $1 on the package because I know somewhere, packed up in the boxes that still remain in our home is a bundle of Popsicle sticks that we saved after my children, with great effort, licked every bit of frozen fructose off of so we could recycle them and use for art projects, etc. I’m sure I’ll find them sometime soon.



I labeled the sticks with the entry names and made one for each entry submitted, and tossed them into this box. I taped the bottom so no sticks would get stuck under the flaps. River mixed the sticks around, Lily mixed the sticks around, and I even let Canyon do it because you know when two do it, then everyone must do it too. I even got in on the fun and mixed them around the final time.

The question was who would be the one to pull the winner. I thought about letting River do it, but he would have asked a lot of questions before drawing the winning stick. Questions that would have lead to a systematic way of him pulling the winning stick that could have possibly given one contestant an advantage. Since we were going for random, he was out. I then considered letting Lily pull the winning stick, but then River would have commented and since we’re going for random, I didn’t want to experience his predictable response. The only one left was Canyon. I knew I could depend on him to ask no questions, just pull a stick, and go on about his business. In this instance predictability won over randomness.

So, without further ado…click here to see who is the winner.