I work with the BEST people!! - updated

About a week ago I got word of a Twitter contest that Baylor was putting on. The contest was simple, the person who "tweets" a picture with the most people giving a "Bear Claw" by 5pm today would win 4 tickets to this weekend's Baylor vs. Texas Tech football game at the Cotton Bowl.

Now, I don't twitter. I have an account so occasionally when I hear something I can look at it. I didn't even know how to "tweet" anything, much less a picture. So, while I was intrigued I didn't give it much thought. Then I had a great idea! What if I got my class and a couple others to take a picture. Surely, a hundred kids or so would be enough to win! Fast forward to this week and I asked several of my amazing co-workers to help make the picture happen, and then they asked some other people. I'm sure it wasn't easy for them, they are all very loyal to their own colleges! We made a plan to meet on the playground and snap a quick picture...we may or may not have used the valuable time we were supposed to be spending teaching our kids about being safe in the restroom!

Anyway, the picture turned out great and the kids all looked like they love Baylor like I do...even those die-hard Horned Frogs, Longhorns, and Aggies put up a "Bear Claw" for me! When it was all said and done we had 251 claws! Way more than I had imagined. I went home Monday night "tweeted" my picture and crossed my fingers. Up until that point, Baylor had been giving updates on the current leader. The leader for the next two days was a wedding photo with 34 claws. I was feeling confident but was getting worried that my picture didn't go through for some reason. Then, this afternoon there were all kinds of updates, first 43 claws, then 66 claws, then 68, then 166. I was really nervous now, why didn't they post my picture? Five o'clock rolled around and I updated twitter and there it was! Our picture totally won the contest! When the Baylor guy emailed me he told me he was trying to build suspense by waiting until the last second to post my picture, I was sure to tell him thanks for that!

I'm so excited, but I'm even more grateful for all my teacher friends that went way out of their way to help me do something kind of silly! I mean, I know they would have rather been teaching about the restroom so it was so incredibly kind for them to make such a sacrifice! :)

I NEED TO ESPECIALLY THANK MRS. CHARLENE DENEISE ROTHENBERGER BECAUSE WITHOUT HER, THIS MASSIVE UNDERTAKING CERTAINLY WOULDN'T HAVE BEEN POSSIBLE. NOT ONLY DO HER SUPERB PHOTOGRAPHY SKILLS SHINE BRIGHTLY IN THE PICTURE, HER AMAZING ABILITY TO COMMAND THE ATTENTION OF OVER 250 PEOPLE AT ONE TIME IS SIMPLY, REMARKABLE. I OWE THIS WIN TO HER AND HOPE THAT SOMEDAY I MAY BE ABLE TO ADEQUATELY THANK HER FOR BEING SUCH AN INCREDIBLE EXAMPLE OF WHAT AN EDUCATOR SHOULD BE. THANK YOU SO MUCH DENEISE!

Here are the comments the picture has gotten:

-okay did these people call a fire drill or something? :) congrats!
-Love it!
- I bet these kids are all future Baylor Bears now.
-One never knows when the seed planted will bear fruit! But those kids now know about Baylor in a positive way!
-kudos to the person who counted all 251 of these sic 'ems!

Isn't it amazing how I can write so many words about a silly little contest! :)