Strategic Raffling

I've expressed opinions previously about my belief that winning big in the lottery is a curse, so I never buy into the hype when Powerball gets into the hundreds of millions. I find it interesting that people will wait in long lines for a chance to win 600 million but 125 million is simply not worth their time. When you get to that level of wealth, what's the difference really? This boycott does not however cross over into raffles and small gambling opportunities. I've employed some strategies through my extensive observation of these drawings. It's pretty simple and logical, but surprisingly not very many people do it.  The first rule of thumb is to look out for poorly attended events such as the boys' elementary school spring carnival. The weather took a nasty turn and was windy, cold, and rainy. Perfect raffle conditions! These items have been donated and someone has to win. It might as well be me. The second thing you must do is differentiate your entry. Do not fold it once and slip it in the box like everyone else. Roll it into a ball or fold it as many times as you can. The person who draws for some reason always goes for the different one. It also makes it more likely to fall to the bottom of the bucket and they usually dig deep for the lucky winner. Also I've found that late entries have a higher probability of being drawn for some reason. This of course is totally unscientific, but it works for me often. My latest win was a prize package including a Build-a-Bear workshop gift card, $25.00 worth of Little Ceasar's pizza (which is dinner often during baseball season) and a free deluxe car wash. My cost? $1.00. 

So the boys crashed our old Mesa ward's Father and Son's outing this weekend, so Sophie and I had our own little outing in town. We dined on Mac and Cheese at Logan's Roadhouse then went shopping where she had to have a purple cowboy hat with a tiara attached to it. She recently got her ears pierced so now she is feeling like she needs all kinds of accessories to compliment her new fanciness. She is constantly on the lookout for earrings that she must have for certain outfits and of course high heel to match. (She's going to have to get a job to support this habit.)

 Our next stop was Build-a-Bear which is a giant rip off if you don't' have a gift card that you won. (Also according to Wes, one of the founders of Build-a-Bear is a real piece of work. She was a client back in his Charles Schwab days and they used to cast lots over who would have to take her call.) But the kids dig it. Predictability, Sophie wanted her bear to be as fancy as she would like to be. They offer high heels for their bears (for $7.50! I could get real high heels at Payless for that much.) It seemed like a good idea until I walked in on this later in that night.

It was very disturbing on many levels. This bear we adopted is going to be trouble. Maybe the whole bad luck thing does extend beyond big lotteries.

It's April, Fool.

I am happy to announce that I have lived to tell about my big surgery, and am ecstatic about having it in the rear view mirror. I debated about whether to post some of the keepsake photos I was given. (I won't.) After all, you don't have a chance to see actual photographs of your insides very often. All I will say is that my appendix, an unwanted baseball-sized mass, and a couple other non vital parts are now gone. It is just fine because I wasn't using them anyway. The recovery was not too bad, and I have no reason to believe that I will have any ongoing problems.

Being the ADD busy body that I am, it was more mental torture than physical. (Although I did do a lot of math problems in my head that first night trying to figure out when my Percocet was going to run out. Math is hard when you are on Percocet.)The pain faded quickly, and thankfully I had no need to fear. By Day 3 I had switched to plain Advil and was driving to the store, Day 7 mowing the lawn, and Day 10 back in the classroom subbing for Jake's class. I haven't been brave enough to run yet but I did attempt a Jillian workout the other day. I was quickly reminded of the staples holding things together when I got to the ab portion. Jillian will have to wait a bit longer, but for all practical purposes I am back and feeling better than ever, for which I am truly grateful.

Surgery or not life marches on in the Whittaker household. It's spring which means little league around here. Jake and Dylan are both on the Minor League Brewers this year.Wes intentionally gave himself a demotion to assistant coach this year. The Brewers aren't exactly the Cubs of last year..Ok they are 0-4, but they are in every game and playing hard. Jake recently took over the starting pitching role and has started to be a formidable strike out threat. We were really hoping to get Milan on the same team with our boys, but because of the draft we were not able to. The cousins will match up on April 10th, so that should be a fun game with some serious bragging rights on the line. They are just a teensy bit competitive so I have a feeling all three boys will bring their "A" game.

Cute boys at the Opening Day Parade.

So conference Sunday fell on April Fool's Day this year. We had all Sunday to think of jokes to play. We put "Out of Order" signs on all the toilets for starters. It fell flat when the boys just proceeded outside to do their business. Nice. Jake got me pretty good when he found an old remote that Coco chewed up when we first got her and switched it out with our good remote. Coco was not appreciative of that one.

All joking aside, I thoroughly enjoyed conference. I am trying to the kids to at least pay attention to some of it, but honestly I am not sure they get much out of it. I tried the cute conference activity packets. That got us through opening song of the first session. It is a lot of work teach your kids about spiritual matters. I felt just a little inadequate this week as I read Sophie a book about the First Easter. She was all excited that her bedtime story was going to be about Easter. I proceeded through the pages all the way through the crucifixion and resurrection. She listened intently all the way through. At the end she was quiet for a minute then landed me with this one.."That's great mom, but what does that have to do with Easter?" Ouch.

I'm actually not sure what church Sophie belongs to because this is how she sees President Monson. It's a good look for his sunny disposition, don't you think? He should consider it for next conference.

Our kids do know all about the secular side of religious holidays. The inseparable duo, Lani and Sophie made some pretty fabulous glittery funny faced eggs.

The kids were off for Good Friday today. Unbeknownst to me Jake and few boys in the neighborhood made posters and raided the pantry to set up a lemonade/treat stand. I applaud their entrepreneurial spirit and am grateful to the good people of the world who stop for lemonade stands. (I am ashamed to admit that I am not one of them usually.) The boys, all of whom were first borns interestingly (except DB who was along for the ride), made a whopping 40 bucks. Not bad for a couple hours of work. It also helps when your merchandise is "free."

And finally, I had to include a couple pictures from Lani's fifth birthday. We claim her as one of our own, so it just wouldn't be right to not have her birthday acknowledged on the blog. (Why yes, this post is totally out of chronological order.)

My  fabulous sister and cute Lani. It's hard to believe how quick our babies have grown up! What would Sophie and I do without these two? Seriously..what are we going to do???!!!

We all thought Hudson walked on water, but now we know. I can't help but see Baby Jake in Hudson. It's like having a time machine.

Lani's so so old that she almost burned the place down. Happy Birthday sweet girl!