Lovely Labor Day — plus a book giveaway! Enter here!

It’s Labor Day weekend!  This is noteworthy for a few reasons:

1.  It’s a three-day weekend (HOO wah!)

2.  This weekend is the tenth anniversary of the day that Scott and I met (awwww) at a Labor Day picnic in the city. It took us a few more months of crossing paths before we actually went out on our first date, but there was something I instinctively knew that I liked about that dark-haired guy who was so easy to talk to and so welcoming.  Our lives turn on little moments like these ….

3.  My [wonderful, generous] parents watched the boys all day yesterday so Scott and I could clean the garage. I had been looking forward to this for months, which should give you a general sense as to the overall excitement level of my life these days.  We were ruthless about getting rid of things that had just been sitting there blocking our egress and getting wet every time the plumbing backs up.   After our triumph in the garage, we went to see the Angelina Jolie movie “Salt,” which I thoroughly enjoyed, even though action films are not my genre.  (Honestly, given that I have not been to a movie theatre since August 2009,  I could have seen “Ishtar” and I’d have been positively giddy.)

4.  We are coming up on a birthday … Mary’s birthday, which is traditionally celebrated on September 8th! And  you know what?  Last year, I did a birthday giveaway, and it was so darn much fun that I want to do it again.  So if you’d like to win a free copy of my book Mary and Me, here’s all you need to do:

1) Leave a comment below this blog post, sharing a happy memory of Mary.  It could be that time you played her in the church pageant in grade school, or the beautiful Madonna painting you saw while visiting a museum, or … anything!   Just leave a quick comment.  Don’t forget to fill out your name, and put your email address where requested so I know how to get in touch with you if you win (no one but me will see the emails, I promise.)  Enter by midnight on Friday, September 10th.

2) Tell all your friends, so they can enter too!

3) Check back here on Saturday, September 11th for the winner to be announced.  I’ll be putting all the names in a hat and picking one lucky winner.  Could it be you?  Leave a comment below and find out!

And have a fabulous Labor Day!