Jingle Jangled

When I'm driving around town, I like to listen to the local radio stations. There's a furniture store here called "Edward's Furniture". They have a catchy little jingle, "Nobody cares like Edward's Home Furnishings!"

A few days ago, I could hear Kaia singing in her bedroom, "Nobody cares about Edward's Home Furnishings!" I had to laugh, just one little word changed and the jingle has an entirely different meaning.

Some people might feel that way about Edward's, but I have a special place in my heart for them and for one of the local radio stations, Q92. Every year, they get together and sponsor the "Edward's Furniture $10,000 Fully Furnished Fall". From September to November, thousands of people enter the contest. The winner gets to choose $10,000 of home furnishings! I have entered that contest every year for the last 8 years.

I just started my blog this May and I haven't posted much that happened before then, but last November (Friday the 13th to be exact) I actually won that contest! It is still hard for me to believe that it really happened. It was so amazing! We are so blessed. I truly believe I won that contest because we have been living within our means and had not purchased any new furniture for nearly 10 years. This is strange, but somehow I knew I was going to win. I just had a feeling.

At the time we didn't have a camera, so these pictures aren't the greatest. I went and got a disposable camera and when I scanned them in they were a bit crooked, but I don't care enough to redo it.

Here's our sectional and ottoman:

Our kitchen table (that we sold in July to help pay Zeke's tuition):
My bench is my favorite:

It was so awesome and surreal to have 3 delivery trucks pull up in front of my house and bring in all the new stuff! But maybe even more awesome was the fun we had the week before. Zeke and I decided if we won, we would give away all of our current furniture to people in our neighborhood. We felt like we had to give back in some way. This was truly something I will never forget! People were SO grateful. It was so fun! Our old furniture wasn't the greatest, but it was decent and free for the taking.

Winning this contest also explains why we had that fancy new table to sell in the midst of our financial troubles this year. Then, we were also incredibly blessed with good neighbors who gave us their old table. You get what you give :) Thanks again, Dan and Rachel, we love our "new" table.

If you want to enter this year's "Fully Furnished Fall",
go here or to one of the stores to enter.
GOOD LUCK!! You never know if you might be the lucky winner!