Happy Blogiversary to Us and a Giveaway to You!!

We are celebrating being ONE YEAR OLD today!!
Well, WE are actually much older than that (one of us more so than the other...hee hee)(Just hysterical, Vanessa).
 But can you believe that this is the ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY of At the Picket Fence? 
We can't! 
The time has truly flown by and so much has happened in the past year, both to us personally and to this little ol' blog of ours. 
The biggest thing that has happened is that we have developed some truly incredible friendships with all of YOU! We have been blown away by the amazing relationships which have developed and how the benefits of blogging go so far beyond getting great DIY and craft tips. 
From our first Inspiration Friday when 82 friends linked up their posts to help support our first party to this past week which saw 474 of you show up!!  
From that very first week when we squealed and called each other as we made our way to 100 friends to the now almost 5,000 friends we are able to connect with through our Blog, Facebook and Twitter...we've come to cherish each and every one who takes time out of their day to spend with us here At The Picket Fence!
You've allowed us to share our hearts and tears through our Simply Sundays Series and Vanessa's Labor of the Heart Series.  You've laughed with us when we've shared our funny parenting moments, or those Good Grief moments we all experience on occasion.
You've inspired us beyond imagination at our Inspiration Friday...y'all blow us away!!
You've cheered us on through major home renovations, complimented our crafts, recipes and projectsand made us feel loved and validated and for that we say THANK YOU and to show you how much we appreciate you we have a fun giveaway...cause it ain't a party without some gifts!! 
But first, we thought it would be fitting to share a little more about ourselves since it is our anniversary and all.  Several of you throughout this past year have kindly bestowed upon us the Versatile Blogger Award.  And we decided it was finally time to answer the much dreaded...Tell us 7 random things about you! So here goes.  SEVEN things you didn't know about Vanessa and Heather...y'all asked for it!
First up, here are 7 Random Things About Heather:

We are taking a gamble here that if you learn SEVEN random things about both of us it may be "weirdo overload" and you might abandon us in droves...but we'll go out on a limb and hope you still like us when it's over! ;)
1.  I am left-handed.  No one else is in our immediate family.  Growing up I wore a t-shirt all of the time that said "if the right side of the brain controls the left side of the body, than only left handed people are in their right minds!" I thought that was very clever and very true.  Just recently I saw an old family photo of Vanessa wearing that t-shirt. Did I mention I am the only left handed person in our family...oh wait this just became about how weird Vanessa is, and obviously not in her right mind...but I digress. ;) Oh hardee har har Heather! ~Vanessa
2.  I HATE, LOATHE, GAG over Green Beans. Mom said I literally spit them out at her when I was just a few months old.  I still hate them.  On the other hand there isn't much else I hate food wise, which is bad. Really bad. 
3. I am a total Sci-Fi (science fiction for all you girly girls) geek! Like watched every season of the new Battlestar Galactica series on Netflix in a row, every night, for weeks, by myself, kind of geek! If it's set in space, on another planet, involves aliens, asteroids hitting earth or an apocalypse I'm all in. 
4. On the subject of entertainment.  I will read just about anything and everything I can get my hands on.  I ADORE the Mitford Series....but shhhh...I confess to loving the Twilight Series as well. As in read them over and over again and attended the marathons of Eclipse and Breaking Dawn...so did I just hear some of you running in the other direction? ;) 
5.  I laugh when people hurt themselves.  Not like mortally wounded hurt themselves, but stub their toes, step on Lego's in the middle of the night, bump your head on the car door kind of hurt themselves.  I try really hard not to...really I do...if you are ever with me and you hurt yourself, you've been warned. 
6. I have moved 14 times in 19 years of marriage...and that's about all there is to say about that since I just broke out in hives.
7. I have a potty mouth on occasion.  No seriously. I try and control it but...yeah not really.  So my favorite is the "S" word.  You might hear it if you ride with me in the car at all...this is because I have a lead foot and everyone always seems to be in my way...no really it's like I'm a "slow driver, school bus, lost person breaking at every intersection" magnet. You will also hear it on occasion when I come home hoping against all hope that the family members who were lounging around when I left might have felt the slightest motivation to clean up the kitchen.  If you followed me around in the morning you would hear it several times because I am always running late (oh wait that's random thing number 8). I say it a lot when I screw up the coding on the blog... anyway...yep...someone pass a bar of soap. ;) 

Now, for 7 Random Things About Vanessa:

Oooo...I am so telling mom about your potty mouth Heather! Hee Hee! (You mean OUR mom...the same woman who had a few choice words for dad when he secretly shaved off his mustache making him look 10 years younger than her...that mom??) 
Ok...so I'm going to ease you into the inner workings of my world so I don't scare you off too quickly!
1. I HATE intensely dislike peas. Doesn't matter if you saute them, drown them in butter, add cheese or any kind of seasoning, I just don't like them. Never have, never will so don't go wasting your time sending me your fabulous pea-related recipes ok?! But I do love green beans so it worked out well that Heather and I could just trade vegetables!
2. I am totally schizophrenic when it comes to my musical tastes. One second I'm listening to a violin concerto and the next I'm rocking out to Def Leppard...their greatest hits CD was in my Christmas stocking along with Hall and Oats and Sade`...what does that tell you about me? I love jazz and old standards (Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald) and I also love Norah Jones and Michael Buble. But on a warm summer day you might find me running errands around town with the sunroof open and The Rolling Stones or Led Zepplin blaring (not with the kiddos in the car of course). I also have several mixed CD's of '80's music...told ya...schizo! 
Do you still like me? Cause I'm just getting started!
3. I've only ever gotten highlights in my hair but have never done an all over color. So I have the same exact color hair that I had when I was a little girl with just a few highlights thrown in to cover up the rapidly increasing gray hair. And speaking of hair, I may or may not have just recently come across a photo of me from back in the day which may or may not show me sporting a haircut slightly resembling a "permullet". What's a "permullet" you ask? Not only is it business in the front and party in the back...but the business in the front is permed. I want to say in my defense (not that this is actually true or anything) that I did not know I was (or wasn't!) sporting this "do" and completely blame my mother who was responsible for my haircuts at that age. If that photo actually does exist, it will be destroyed so don't get any ideas Heather! 
4. Last Sunday in church I was sitting next to a gal who blatantly picked her nose (we're talking digging for gold here folks!)  throughout the entire service which, in and of itself was gross enough. But then when we heard the pastor say that it was time for communion it took the situation to a whole new dire level. Suddenly my hubby and I found ourselves only being able to pray for the communion plates containing the crackers and "wine"/grape juice to come to our side first so that we could pass to her instead of the other way around. Of course, that didn't end up being what happened. The plate was passed to her and as she rummaged with the finger in question through those crackers I quickly realized that I was going to have to do something I had never done before...I was going to have to "fake" taking communion. There was NO way I was going to put one of those crackers in my mouth! So, as the plate was passed to me I gingerly selected a cracker which I then put on the seat next to me and when the pastor indicated that it was time to "break the bread", I pretended to put it in my mouth and chew it up. I think the Lord understood, don't you? As of today that cracker is still in the bottom of my purse which is where I stealthily put it instead of my mouth.
5. And speaking of communion, I believe it is now time for a confession. You all are super special because NO ONE knows this and my mom might just kill me for it. But, once when I went to visit them with the kids and we were looking through old photos I found my 7th grade school pictures and realized why my mom was encouraging me to put on a little bit of blush that day. I seriously could have been one of the vampires in the Twilight series (how bout that Heather?)! Plus I had yet to learn the benefits of tweezers so my dark, bushy eyebrows weren't doing me any favors either. So, when everyone was asleep, I went downstairs and took all of those school photos and buried them at the bottom of the trash can in the garage. I would say that I'm sorry for this act of rebellion, but I'm NOT! I felt as though I was doing my duty by sparing anyone from seeing me that way so technically I'm just a giver, right? 
6. For me, being rebellious is not cleaning up the dishes right after we eat dinner. Leaving them in the sink overnight makes me feel kinda naughty...I'm so wild and crazy, right? Sometimes I even leave my pj's on the floor in the closet all day long! Although, from the previous things I've just shared with you maybe I'm more rebellious than I realize...hmmmm...
7. One of my all-time favorite websites is Awkward Family Photos. I literally laugh until I feel sick every time I'm there and when Heather and I were together after Christmas we spent an obscene amount of time going through the photos and crying from laughter! You will find many variations of the previously mentioned "permullet" on this site.

So, are you still going to come back and visit us here now that you know the sordid details of our lives?
We hope so because as our way of saying THANKS for being such wonderful friends and supporters to us, we are going to be giving away a
$100 Gift Card to HomeGoods (also good at TJ Maxx!)

And we are going to make this super easy to enter to win:
1. (Mandatory) Just leave us a comment telling us you want to be entered, please include a way for us to contact you, if you do not have a GFC account or blog.  Of course if you want to tell us what you love about At The Picket Fence or how much you love us, how we've changed your lives and made the world a better place...well that's okay with us too..;) (1 entry)2. (Optional) Follow us on Facebook or via Email and leave us a separate comment to let us know you are. (1 entry per following format) *See the links below*3. (Optional) Twitter or Facebook about the giveaway and our Blogiversary with link back to blog post included and leave a separate comment letting us know you did (1 entry) 
GIVEAWAY WILL BE OPEN UNTIL MONDAY THE 6th at MIDNIGHT! 
WINNER WILL BE DRAWN AT RANDOM AND ANNOUNCED ON TUESDAY THE 7th!!


Thank you again for meeting us here today (and throughout the past year!) at the Fence,