My First Win.

Hey mom- have I ever won anything? I can't think of a time. The closest thing is at our Senior all nighter I won one of the over 300 prizes they gave out. But it was a lame gift card to a spa that wasn't really enough to get anything done and I've never been a spa goer anyway. And pretty much everyone got something so I think of it more of a party favor.

I did get an honorable mention in one of my grade school reflections contests, and given my lack of winningness I was pretty excited about that. And I got 2nd place in the ASL competition I went to one year, I was pretty proud of that but also very disappointed I didn't win. I didn't win any scholarships out of high school or get voted for any of the yearbooks "best"s or " most likely to"s. Although I always thought it would be fun and exciting to actually win something, I have accepted the fact that I am just average.

Intermountain is set up in regions, and the region I work in consists of 3 hospitals. Our region puts out a weekly newsletter that I browse though most weeks. This summer they had a picture contest of places people were visiting over the summer. Even though I wasn't working, I would look at the newsletter just to see the winning pictures. Then when Todd and I got to Alaska, I went to work. I told Todd I wanted to win this contest, and Alaska was just the place to do it. So we got snap happy. Pretty much all the winning pictures were just of landscapes, so I might have slacked a little on pictures of people and the boat, but we did get some pretty amazing shots.

Only a 2 weeks before the end of the contest I finally got around to sending in my pictures. I didn't know how many I was allowed, so I sent in 4, hoping I wouldn't get disqualified for multiple entries. I figured when I didn't win I would send in a few more. That next week as I browsed the newsletter I purposefully went slow and didn't rush to find the pictures, which are usually in between the middle and the end. I suppressed getting excited because I know so well the let-down feeling. For some reason this week the picture contest was on the very last page. As I scrolled down, it was the strangest feeling ever. Almost unreal. I thought I had been transported to some new world or something.

Sorry if the picture is cut off. Click on it to make it bigger and see the whole thing

Not only did I win, I actually won FIRST PRIZE!! Everyone I told was disappointed when I told them the prize was a mere pair of movie tickets, I think my excitement made them think I must have gotten something more awesomer. I actually haven't even gotten around to picking up the tickets yet, I just think it's cool that I won!

Funny story, Todd actually took this picture and put it in our list of ones we liked well enough to submit. When I saw it on his list I asked him if he was sure, because I didn't really like it that much. As I looked at it more it did grow on me, and we actually blew it up to frame and put up in our guest room. I picked it because it went the best with my favorite picture and they complemented each other well. So I must give most of the credit to Todd, who both took the shot and inspired me to submit it.

However, given my history, I must still count it as a win for me. (Todd was good at sports, he's won lots of times). Love you babe!