So Thursday, June 11th I'm driving home from another long day at the office and I'm flipping through radio stations as I sit in traffic. I catch the tail end of a promotion for some contest called My Rona Home. I think Hhhhmmm... that sounds cool and then quickly dismiss it; gotta keep my feet on the ground and my head out of the clouds you know, I have a family to support.
I arrive home exited to see my girls. As I enter the living room, there is Nicola completely engrossed in something on the computer. Her face lights up, "...hey sweetie, do you want to hear about a really neat contest?" "Is it My Rona Home?" I replied to her surprise. "YES!!! I heard about it on Breakfast Television this morning. Come sit! I'll tell you all about it." So Nicola proceeds to read the details to me from the website (<--- Click to see site) and tells me that the online contestant registration closes on Sunday, June 14th.
After kicking the idea around for 2 days we finally decide to dress our family up (see picture above) and submit our online application. Saturday night, just before bed, we finally sent it in and proceeded to lay in bed daydreaming about all the "what if's".
Like any other raffle, contest, lottery or promotion we figured it was a complete longshot that we would even get a call but we still enjoyed the pillowtalk into the wee hours of Sunday morning.
To our surprise, the longshot became a reality on Sunday afternoon (June 14th). WE GOT THE CALL... and to make a long and crazy story short, a little over a week later we've been through two telephone interviews, one live interview and one live interview/presentation on camera. In an absolute whirlwind, we've gone from daydreaming applicants to Top-100 to Top-10. This Friday, June 26th (Maggie's 2nd birthday, by the way) sometime between 9:00am and 10:00am, Nicola and I will be on City TV's Breakfast Television, here in Calgary, to conclude a week long introduction of each of the the Top-10 families to the viewing public.
Naturally, we are both excited and nervous. By the end of this upcoming Saturday we will know whether or not we've been selected to the Top-5 from which they will ultimately select their two families for the show. I don't even want to talk about the steps that will follow this next selection. One step at a time.
Keep your fingers crossed for us. We'll let you know if we make it past Saturday. Does anybody know what color makes you look....ohhhh say, 60 pounds lighter on television? I'm just a little worried about looking like Shrek next to all these tiny TV people. :)
JRM 6/22/2009
PS: Sorry we haven't provided an update in over a month on Lyla. She is doing excellent... eating, growing, sleeping and full of smiles. Maggie is so sweet with her... it melts our hearts. Pictures to come... JRM
