Ruckus Media Giveaway Winners

Welcome to Diet Zehlahlum! The Saturday feature that from the Zehlahlum Family that you love because it's not your life! Diet Zehlahlum is "lite" on stress, seriousness, and thought. Please note that the title Diet Zehlahlum makes no guarantee that you will lose weight while reading. In fact, we recommend that if you want to lose weight you step away from the computer AFTER reading this post and try some jumping jacks or something.

Today's Diet Zehlahlum is all about WINNERS. 

Enjoy.

Here are the results from my Ruckus Media Giveaway!

I'd like to once again thank Ruckus Media for giving me this opportunity to give these great apps to you! I received the apps I reviewed for free, but my opinions are, as always, my own. 

I'd also like to thank (do I sound like I won A Major Award?)  all of my readers for playing along and for waiting patiently for this late-night edition of Diet Zehlahum.

  

There are the Zehlahlum-Professional, but random, I promise, results!

The lousy handwriting is thanks to me, the randomly generated numbers are thanks to www.random.org, and the pink artwork is courtesy of Pickle. 

The grand prize winner is "Zentmrs" who gets three apps of her choosing! 

The first place winner is "Tasha" who gets two apps of her choosing!

Congratulations to you both and I'd love to hear which apps you pick and what you think of them! Please contact me via email so you can collect your prizes! To the rest of you...so sorry, better randomness next time!

Birthday

Yesterday was my husband's birthday.

I alternated between spending the day celebrating him and barfing my ever-lovin' stomach up and cleaning up from Peanut's barf, and tending to Pickle who is still not well. He's not barfing, but has another stomach malady that we won't discuss on the internet. Boohoo is as ever healthy as a horse. When I told her that she indignantly informed me, "I NOT HORSE!"

Andrew is now a sexy 29 years old, father of three, military man, wife of one bedraggled and beat-down woman (me), musician, and owner of a sweet little kitty. He did three years of college and then dropped out and joined the military when it turned out that we couldn't pay our bills on no-income. He went back to school in the nights while working full time and raising first Peanut and then Pickle. He supports my flights of fancy and comes up with some of his own crazy ideas regularly as well. He is very deliberately holding our family together and keeps lying to me telling me that "we're going to love this someday".  He takes great care of himself and runs marathons. He is super smart and doesn't waste all of his time watching asinine sports on tv. He has a great sense of humor even if he does have a penchant for lame jokes.He doesn't hassle me about my subpar housekeeping, will eat anything I put in front of him, and even likes my family pretty well.If that doesn't have Great Man written all over it than nothing does.

We are very lucky to have him in our lives and we all know it. I'd include some touching pictures, but really, I've been too busy barfing/cleaning up barf to anything that artsy.

I love you, babe!

Ahem, all you readers out there! Don't forget to enter my giveaway. Entry closes tonight!! So far only three have entered and since I'm giving away TWO sets of prizes your odds are really good!!!!

Time Machine

One year ago, in the morning, this is a portion of what I posted on my blog:

 Psalm 62: 5-8

"Rest in God alone, my soul,

for my hope comes from him.

He alone is my rock and my salvation,

my stronghold; I will not be shaken.

My salvation and glory depend on God;

my strong rock, my refuge, is in God.

Trust in Him at all times,

you people;

pour out your hearts before Him.

God is our refuge."

 

That was at 9:46 in the morning. We didn't know why we hadn't gotten a court date. Everyone who was on the same timeline as us had gotten dates months and weeks before we had. People had found out that they passed weeks and days before we did. We were just endlessly waiting. What else was there to do? 

 

All along I had wanted to be in Ethiopia for her second ("second") birthday and I had now watched that dream die in front of me. We didn't even have a court date yet. My prayer changed to please let everything happen before court closes for the rainy season. Boohoo had already waited so long and apparently I knew (without knowing) what havoc the wait was wrecking in her little heart and mind. I was sad. I was angry. But ultimately, I was bolstered by my faith. 

 

Just a shade under three hours later this is a snippet of the email that I found in my inbox:

"Dear Zehlahlum Family,

Congratulations! 

We learned today that your court case in Ethiopia was heard and approved on March 24, 2010.  

The next step in the process is to travel and escort your children home! 

We have received a visa interview date for your family of May 4, 2010...."

In case you're a new reader, which is likely since I think I only had six readers at that time, we were not in Ethiopia for Boohoo's "second birthday". We we were here. In the United States. Home. It was Mother's Day. But that's a post for a few weeks from now....

So what was I doing on March 24th, 2010? I have no clue. This is what I was blogging about though. I was literally having adoption nightmares. (Coincidence much?) I had the same one for two nights in a row. Our case was being heard in court and I was having adoption nightmares. No kidding.

We had a hard day today. I think this was in part caused by our Moment yesterday. I think it was caused because let's face it. I let myself act like a jerk when I should have been keeping myself accountable. I also need to remember that we have a LOT of milestones/trauma-versaries coming up. Before the end of this summer we will PASS: her first year home, her birthday, and her being with us longer than she's been in an orphanage. Big stuff for a little girl. 

A year ago after reading that email and calling my husband and calling Chrissy I wrote a post about passing court and being assigned travel. (and then I called everyone I knew). I said things like this:

I DID NOT KNOW I COULD BE THIS HAPPY. THIS IS INSANE.

LITTLE MISS.

I LOVE YOU BABY

AND

WE. ARE. COMING. 

 

Thinking back on that day now I remember talking to Holt and literally falling to my knees I was so happy. My body was shaking, my voice was shaking. I couldn't hold myself up. I couldn't believe it. I was happy. I was thrilled. I cried. I called Andrew. He was that excited/calm thing that men do. He called me back later to tell me that after his lunch break he came back and the people he worked with had bought him pink balloons and signed an "It's a girl!" card. I wasn't scared yet. That did come later and sooner than I would have thought, but this day was nothing but surreal celebration. 

 

Be that as it may. One year ago my daughter was still not an integral REAL part of my daily life. I find that hard to believe. Haven't we been doing this forever yet?

 

Tonight, I'll be going to bed and going to bed after a hard day is always challenging. But tonight, my mantra will be "less than a year, it's been less than a year...."  

A moment

Tonight. After just an average normal day of good parenting and bad parenting there was a moment. Just one moment, not a minute, maybe just longer than a second, just a moment. And in that moment of bedtime routine my eyes met Boohoo's eyes and our eyes stayed together. It was just a moment out of a day out of a year, but it was a moment full of trust, from both of us. It left me blinking back tears.

Ruckus Media Giveaway

I am very excited about what I get to do in this post. Super excited! Not only do I have something to give away, but it is awesome! I'm super (Anybody remember my 'Thuper Thursday posts?) proud to give this product the Zehlahlum Family Stamp of Approval! Now, I don't actually have a real stamp, but if I did it would have a big Z on it and ten thumbs up: 8 white ones, two black ones. Any stamp creators in my audience?

We all know that I'm cuckoo about my ipod Touch. I've written an ode to it here and there's a dozen or so other posts where I talk about it too. Seriously. And no, I'm not ashamed of myself. If you don't have one, buy yourself one...immediately.  If I ever do another Lust List it will have an iPhone on it because I'm frankly surprised that I'm living without one now. It's a testament to my stamina and strength of character really.

All that to say that when I was contacted by the Ruckus Media Group about sampling and trying a few of their apps and then hosting a giveaway. Oh. my. stars. I was stoked!! Even with all my fine app experience I wasn't familiar with them so don't feel bad if you aren't either. I mean, don't linger in your ignorance, but don't beat yourself up over it.

Ruckus Media produces storybook apps for kids. Now. I know what you're thinking and it's probably the same thing that I thought initially. I've seen the storybook apps that are out there for kids and frankly, the ones that I've seen I'd give a great big "ehhh". They haven't been anything that impressed me much or that I'd pay money for. In fact, I've had a few before and I actually deleted them from my iTouch. They were lame and annoying. My kids can be lame and annoying independently. I'm not about to pay for anything to support them in that endeavor. As much I love tinny music, glitchy programs and audio that's hard to hear...thanks, but no.

But, these apps from Ruckus Media...they are incredible. Truly. These are the highest quality children's app that I now own. I didn't even know that a storybook app could be this good. The first thing that I thought when I was reviewing one of the stories was, "This is what I want to be going through my kids' heads when I read to them." I envision them fully immersed in the book, imaging the characters in an engaging way, losing themselves in the pictures, feeling the emotions of the story. That is how good these stories are, they are the real thing, they are books that just happen to be on my iPod.

The storybook apps that I was lucky enough to download were: Goldilocks, John Henry, and Andrew Answers. Goldilocks and John Henry are retelling of the original story so what makes them so great? Let's start with Goldilocks because I think that's my favorite. It's also Boohoo's favorite. The story is read by Meg Ryan (see what I mean about quality?!) who uses an adorable little southern drawl. It matches perfect the way the story has been adapted by Tom Roberts with a folksy twist using phrases like "just a hoot and a holler away" and "she was off like a jackrabbit in coyote country". The story is the same, but it's been retold in a way that makes it engaging and humorous for kids who would tell you they're too big for a story like Goldilocks and for their parents who are listening along. The illustrations are done by Lazlo Kubinyi and they are simultaneously simple and whimsical. They draw you in right away with the detail, but have a very classic look to them. And this is going to sound weird, but bear with me...(ha! get it?!) Papa Bear is a hunk! Seriously. At first I just thought I was really weird, but then my mom was watching the story and she thought the same thing! He's very studly. You'll have to get this app and let me know what you think, but way to go Mama Bear! ;) The story of Goldilocks is just over thirteen minutes long, which I also think is great because then I'm not looking for something else for the kids to do after two minutes. It's engaging and keeps their attention long enough for this momma to grab a shower!!

Moving along to the legend of John Henry. The music in this story is to die for! I guess if you don't like B.B. King you wouldn't be impressed, but we're big fans over here at the Zehlahlum House. Since listening to this story with the kids a few times I've found myself with the theme song stuck in my head! "Yeah, my name's John Henry and I'm a natural man..." This story is Peanut's favorite. I'm not surprised it's about a baby born with a hammer who drinks coffee, wrestles chickens and builds train tracks. It's basically every little boy's dream. This story is narrated by Denzel Washington (again with the quality). The illustrations were done by Barry Jackson and are quite different than those in Goldilocks, but they fit the tone of this story perfectly. The colors are brighter, the pictures are humorous, and they're exactly what this exaggerated tale calls for. Can I mention the music again? I just love it. John Henry is even longer than Goldilocks and takes twenty two minutes to be watched all the way through. This story also won the Parenting Magazine Best Video of the Year Award. 

Now, in case all of that excellence in story, music, narration, and illustration isn't enough for you, here's a kicker. There are three different ways that these apps can be used. They can be watched as a video which is what I've just been talking about. They can also be read as a book for an older user. The story is in a text box and it has the same great illustrations. Pages are turned with an easy swipe of a finger. The third way is just brilliant though. You can read the story yourself while recording your voice onto every page. This is a fabulous feature for military families. Before daddy or mommy deploys, is TDY, or if they're "just" working a mids shift and basically miss all of their child's awake hours they can still be involved. They can record the story and then the little one can sit down and watch the video while hearing their parent's voice. Not a military family? How about an adoptive family? Think about how this could help with separation anxiety or attachment issues with a parent who has to go back to work. Not an adoptive family? How about aunts, cousins, or grandparents who live far away? The next time you're together have them record the story and then your child can listen to it back at home and keep those bonds strong. It's easy to do and works very seamlessly with the story.

The next app that I was given is a little different than the first two. It is "Andrew Answers" and was written by Alan Katz who is a best-selling author of children's books. This story was written for Ruckus Media and is combination game and story. It follows a cartoony character Andrew through a misadventure with his teacher, parents, school system, and eventually the president. It's a silly story that gently pokes fun at adults from a child's perspective. It's only available in the video option unlike the other two that I received, but it does have the accompanying text on each page. What sets it apart are the "in book" games that have the reader tipping and tilting the iPod/iPad to walk Andrew through a maze to the principal's office and to guide his parents' car into the parking lot. This was a little difficult for Peanut to do as a 4 year old, but he was able to get the hang of it (there are two difficulty settings) and he thought it was a fun challenge. He also laughed at the story line and challenged his own vocabulary by naming words that Andrew could have used as well.

Woooo. I know this was a long post, but I clearly have a lot to say about most things and about these great apps. While I did receive them for free and also some for a giveaway, these reviews are my honest opinion. There have a great selection of other apps as well one with music that won a Grammy, another two that were nominated for a Grammy, multiple other awards, the talents of John Cleese, Meryl Streep, Elvis Costello, Garrison Keeler, and Robin Williams. They also have "Present for Milo" which is exclusively for the iPad and has garnered many many awards. I wish we could have tried that out. I think that my kids would have loved that. They also have more storybook apps to come out this year as well as a whopping 75 under contract. So clearly, this is an up and coming company worth keeping an eye on!

Now for the giveaway!!!!


There will be two winners drawn at random. The Grand Prize winner gets their choice of THREE of these apps and the First Place winner will be able to choose TWO apps. The giveaway will run until Friday, April 15, 2011 and I'll announce the winners on Saturday. I'm going to give you lots of chances to win! Please note that these apps currently only work for iPhone/iPad/iTouch! Plans for Android apps are in the works, but not here yet.


Required: 
1. Go to Ruckus Media and tell me which app you think looks interesting. 

Optional:
2. Tell me what story you'd like to see made.
3. Tweet this giveaway
4. Facebook this giveaway
5. Be a follower/subscriber of my site

Sunday Prayer

"Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.

 

Where there is hatred, let me sow love,

where there is injury, pardon;

where there is doubt, faith;

where there is despair, faith;

where there is darkness, light;

where is sadness, joy.

 

O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek

to be consoled, as to console,

to be understood, as to understand,

to be loved, as to love.

 

For it is in giving that we receive;

It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;

And it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

Amen."

Saint Francis of Assisi (1182-1226)

I love this prayer. I think it is beyond beautiful and oh so true.

I'm fairly certain that Saint Francis was neither a father nor an adoptive father, but wow.