Overwhelmed

I do not normally complain about the goings on in my life.  I figure that there are other people out there that have it worse than I do, so why complain about my trivial things.  But, I am feeling a little overwhelmed right now and would really love to share it with all of you.  We have had an intense six months!

Raconteur Daddy lost his job on Thanksgiving....yep that's right, nice boss huh?  So, it has been a very stressful time for us.  We have been doing OK by utilizing all the resources we could from assistance to unemployment, help from family and using what little savings we had.  Plus my mad budgeting skills came into play.  During this time, we also found out that we were unexpectedly expecting our third child!  It seems no matter how hard we try to be careful, we never get to decide when our children will come.  I guess God likes to keep me on my toes!  We are so very excited to be able to have another baby though.  Through this time, RacDad and I have really relied on each other.  We have turned to our faith to help us through, especially when it seems like too much.  I just keep remembering that God will never give us more than we can handle.  This time has been precious too.  It's been a blessing to have RacDad home to watch Little Man grow and change as he becomes a toddler.  He's also been able to appreciate our Sweet Pea and the wonderful young lady she's becoming.  We've had the time to be more active in our community and our church.  Even though our pocket book has been tight, we've been able to help and contribute with our time and work to help others.  We've been able to sit back and view our path and really take a deep appreciation for each other and our wonderful kids.  I don't know if I've ever been more in love with him!

Now, we are leaving our house to head back home to South Dakota.  This is bittersweet for everyone because we finally feel like we belong here, but we are excited to be closer to family too.  We will miss our closest neighbor and her family, and our friends from church and school.  We will miss our house, church, school, doctors and dentist.  On the other hand, we are looking forward to reconnecting with our friends and family in South Dakota.  We are looking forward to the new job that RacDad has and the exciting opportunities there.  We are overwhelmed by the thought of finding a new house, but we know that it's just another hurdle to jump to get back to being settled in.  I look forward to day trips to the zoo, hanging out at the Falls, going hiking in the Palisades, and allowing my kids to experience a childhood like I did.  Being around family and close friends is what is priceless in this transition.

So, Sweet Pea is on her way to Nashville to visit my brother and his family.  This is her birthday present this year from her Grandparents.  I still can't believe that she's going to be a Tween!!  Nine years old is quite the milestone....her last year as a single digit.  RacDad is starting his job.  Little Man and I are putting finishing touches on the house and it will be listed on the market within the week.  Well, I'm trying to get finished and Little Man is getting into the boxes.

We are blessed to have a family that supports us through this transition.  They have been wonderful to remind us that everything is going to be OK.  The most important thing is the emotional support that they give, not what they can provide.  That hope and optimism is what gets us through the day.

Thank you so much for also helping me through this too.  Being able to write and have something to focus on has been a great outlet for me and I appreciate each and every one of you that follow my journey.  I have made some wonderful connections and learned a lot of new things.  I'm looking forward to the exciting things that are going to happen this summer and in the future on OTTW.

New Facebook Promotion Rules

Facebook has again changed their rules.  Personally, I try to not get frustrated when rules and regulations, or appearances change....especially when it comes to something that is free.  Like when Blogger shut down for more than 24 hours last week or when Facebook changed their format on pages.  But, there has been some big commotion over the latest changes issuing giveaways and promotions on Facebook.  Facebook has not banned promotions or giveaways; they have simply decided that there will be a right way and a wrong way of doing them.  Here are the official rules about Promotions on Facebook.  Now I'm going to explain what all of this legal jargon means.

The first paragraph talks about what "Promotion Guidelines" means to Facebook.  Basically, it talks about the applicable Facebook rules and regulations that can apply to Promotions.  It also defines promotions as anything that is a competition, contest, sweepstakes, giveaway, or similar thing using Facebook.  (I will use the word promotion from here on out to describe all of these types of things.)

• What is important about that is the words competition and similar.  
• How this affects pages that do promotions is that no matter how they word something (i.e. 'product testers'), it can't be used if it is in any way a competition.  This means that if you have a list of people who 'liked' or 'commented' and you are only going to pick one or a few of them, then that is a competition and you'll have to follow Facebook's rules.

The second paragraph talks about how you talk about or provide an opportunity for a promotion.  It specifies that if you use Facebook to talk about or to provide a promotion; you have to make sure that you are following all legal rules and regulations for such things (not just Facebook rules).  It also suggests that if you don't understand the many rules and regulations behind promotions, to seek expert advice.

• What this means is that you can use Facebook to talk about or to provide a promotion opportunity, as long as it is legal.  They are correct that there are many rules and regulations behind hosting giveaways. There are disclaimers that have to be made.  There has to be consent of all parties involved (host and provider of goods/services).  There has to be honesty.
• How this affects pages is that they have to make sure that they are providing a legitimate promotion and not baiting people into doing something without the promised outcome.  They also have to make sure that all applicable disclaimers are made.  Most of us who provide giveaway should know about disclaimers and rules and have already implemented their standard disclaimers either in the post that it applies to or in general on a page.

Now on to the numbered points:

1. Says that in order to use Facebook for promotions, you have to use an app to do it. 
• I'm sure that most of you have seen these on Major Company pages, like Clairol, Oreo, Lays Potato Chips, etc.  
• The app is linked to a tab on your sidebar.  OR, you can make a 'Canvas Page' which is using html to create a tab that people can enter on.  Either way, you have to have a separate tab on your page that people can click on to enter and submit their information to.  
• Small businesses and bloggers can participate in something like this if they know how to work FBML or if they hire someone who can do it for them and then teach them how to monitor and update it as needed.
2. Says that you have to put a disclaimer on the promotion releasing Facebook from all legal liability.  
• That's as easy as copy and pasting the three points listed.  It's important to make sure that the last one is on there because it informs people that their information is going to a specific third party and not Facebook.  You also have to inform them of who that third party is.
3. This one states that you cannot use Facebook platforms (like comments, friending, or 'like' buttons) as the only way to enter a promotion anywhere.  
• How this affects bloggers is that if you have a mandatory or extra entry into a giveaway on your blog that involves anything on FB, you have to make sure that the only way for that entry to count is if they comment that they did it on your blog.  Just doing it can't count.
4. This one talks about how you cannot make anyone do anything on Facebook to get an entry into a promotion.  
• You cannot force anyone to do anything, like comment anywhere, or like a picture or wall post, or upload anything other than the app, like a picture.  
• There are only three things that you can make them do.
• You can require them to 'like' a page.
• You can require them to 'check in' to a place.
• You can require them to connect to your app.  (The only way they can now enter a promotion on Facebook.)
5. You cannot use Facebook features to vote.  
• This means that you cannot ask people to 'like' anything (such as a picture, post or comment) to gain entry into a promotion.  
• You also can't use 'voting' like this to award a promotion!  
• This affects people that use Facebook to get ideas and want to know what the mass thinks is most popular and award for it.  What they can do instead is use the new 'Questions' to poll a large group, but this takes out the ability for individuals to get credit for their idea or to win anything for it.
6. Says that you cannot inform winners directly on Facebook.  More specifically, you cannot use Facebook to contact them directly to tell them that they've won something, no matter where the promotion took place.  
• What you can do is publicly congratulate the winner on your status, just don't link their name directly.  
• You can also link the winners post on your blog or direct people to check your blog to see who won.  
• The important thing here is that you are personally emailing or contacting winners directly using a method other than Facebook.
7. States that you can't use Facebook's name or logos in any promotion.  
• It basically is an expansion of Rule #2.  This is releasing Facebook from any association or liability with any promotion you are doing.
8. Is just more definitions.  
• I don't think I need to further define the definitions.

I hope that this clears the air for those who were wondering how these changes could affect them.  Personally, I fully support these changes.  I think that it is very fair to have a created app as a source for entry.  It secures people's information so that other entrants can't see their email addresses, etc.  It also frees up traffic.  Traffic gets very bogged down when large amounts of people flock to one page at a particular time.  Also, as a blogger that provides giveaways, I can't understand why these blogs wouldn't want to have that traffic go to their blog!  Anyway, I will be much happier when my Wall isn't inundated with picture after picture of giveaway related stuff or 'contests' being held every day.  It will be nice to start seeing some real talk and information again.  I prefer to relate and communicate on Facebook.

As far as the things that these changes take away from (like providing access for small businesses and WAHMs to get their products and information to the general public), I have plenty of ideas on how to fix that.  But that's another post for another day. 

***Please remember that I am not a lawyer and do not base any of your personal actions on Facebook on information written here.  If you are concerned about any actions that you wish to take, please check out all official Facebook rules and regulations.  If anything is unclear, please consult an expert.  I am writing this to simplify the information and this is my interpretation of the rules put forth from Facebook.  Facebook is not affiliated with this post.***

"Life's not fair" lessons....

I have felt bad that I haven't spoken much about parenting my oldest.  She really makes being a parent easy.  Just recently, an interesting piece of information came to light and I thought it would make an engaging post.

Here's a little background for you.  We belong to a small town school system that has grown leaps and bounds in the last few years.  They pride themselves on "strong, upstanding morals" that are upheld throughout the school system.  They use the "Discipline with Purpose system" and seem to be very conscientious about student behaviors.

Now, what we learned from another parent was that the PE teacher was picking two captains in class to pick their own teams.  I thought that this kind of practice had been long done away with.  So, one night, I asked our daughter about it.  She said that it did happen.  She explained that the teacher will ask who has not been captain yet and then pick two people who had their hands up.  She said that she had been captain once, but everyone else lied and have been captain two or three times.  She also said that she was often picked last and it wasn't very fun.  I reminded her that she gets picked first for other things and that it's not that big of a deal.  I also found out that this doesn't happen at every class and the teacher does pick randomly too.  That was the end of that conversation and life has been rainbows and roses for her since.

Out of curiosity, my husband and I were asking friends about this practice and what they would do about the situation.  We surprisingly were given many responses about how this is good because it teaches kids that 'Life isn't Fair'.  Now, I agree that picking Captains once in a while is good because it can be a learning experience.  But to think that 'Life isn't Fair'...What a horrible thing to teach a child.  What a cop out as a parent!  No wonder there are so many people out there with a helpless feeling, thinking that 'Life isn't Fair'.

Life IS fair!

Life is about balance.  When something bad happens, something good usually follows.  We need to teach our children that even though bad things happen, good things happen too.  We need to give our children the tools they need to be able to get through an unpleasant or bad situation.  To persevere in the face of injustice and to handle hard times with grace because it will get better.  We need to teach them that there is always hope.  Yes, bad things happen in life and that really sucks, but bad things will pass with time.  People get sick, but then they recover.  People lose their jobs, but then they find a new opportunity.  People pass away, babies are born.  What a wonderful balance there is to the world.  Full of hardships and extreme joys.  What an amazing spectrum of feelings we endure.  Without the bad, how can we truly appreciate the good times.  To just simply say that 'Life isn't Fair' and leave it at that is teaching them that when something bad happens that there is nothing you can do about it and it will never get better.  Teaching helplessness, hopelessness and indifference should have no place in our children's lives.  I promise that no matter how bad you think things are right now....they will always get better.