Disclosure: I won a Kindle Fire in a contest. I found out TODAY, and I am more than a little excited about that. I was not paid for this post.I was not asked to write this post. I am just excited about winning because I love my Kindle. This post isn’t really an ad, but it does express a lot of love for my Kindle (the one that came out in 2010 that my hubby gave me for our anniversary last year) and excitement about the new Kindle Fire that I will be getting (the one I won). That’s right. I love my Kindle. In the event of a house fire, my Kindle is high on the list of things to grab. It is behind living things like hubby, children and dogs, but it is ahead of the daughter’s turtle. It is a lot lighter than the shelves of books that I would grab if I could but probably couldn’t because fire moves fast.

Last year, in September, for my wedding anniversary, my husband bought me a Kindle 3. I love him, and I loved my new Kindle. It was (and is) awesome. I loved it so much that I even got crafty in order to protect it. And it’s more than a year later, and I am still writing about my Kindle and how much I love it and how much I love my awesome hubby (not in that order).

The only problem was that my children (specifically my oldest and youngest child) would steal my Kindle. They wanted to read it. My youngest daughter also started stealing my Kindle. This made it difficult for ME to use my Kindle.

For my oldest daughter’s birthday, she received a Kindle. I now had my own Kindle more often PLUS her siblings sometimes “borrowed” her Kindle instead of mine.

I love my Kindle. I read books everywhere. I also listen to audiobooks loaded onto my Kindle while I drive, and I drive a lot. It is a well-used electronic device and probably one of my favorites. It is just awesome.

I didn’t think there was a way to make it better although I tried when I bought it pretty skins from DecalGal and more pretty covers.

My husband has even become jealous of it a time or two.

Recently, he was asking me about possible Christmas presents. I mentioned I’d like a Kindle Fire. He didn’t think that would be a very good present because I’d know about it (I am constantly in the Amazon account). What else did I want?

I wasn’t sure. I really wanted to check out the new Kindle, but I also love my current Kindle. I’d have to get back to him.

And then just the other day I was browsing through web sites on Blogher, and I saw a contest to win a Kindle Fire. It also told me about a new social media site called chime.in. I joined chime.in and entered the contest.

People followed me on chime.in almost immediately, and there isn’t anything really to follow yet. Still. I had followers, which is just another word for minions, right?

And then today, I received an email. I had won the Kindle Fire. I pinched myself. I updated my status on facebook. I called and texted my hubby. I took a phone call from my daughter that confirmed yes, my status update was real and yes, I did win. And then I went and read the email again (it still existed!) and realized I was supposed to respond. (Duh!) So, I did. And I am now going to anxiously wait for my Kindle Fire to arrive in the mail sometime after they are released on November 15.

My daughter asked me if this meant my son would be getting my current Kindle. I hesitated. I love my Kindle. Many of the things I love about it are things that I don’t think are features on the Kindle Fire. For instance, it has a really long battery life. It also doesn’t have any glare when I read outside or if my eyes hurt. I’m not sure I’m willing to pass it on to someone else. Can’t I keep both? I’ll let him borrow it sometimes.

The great thing is that there is still a contest sponsored by Blogher and Chime.in, and three more Kindle Fires will be given away over the next three weeks. You can win one too.

This is the contest I won: http://surrenderdorothy.typepad.com/surrender_dorothy/2011/11/lets-talk-blogs-to-books-and-give-away-a-kindle-fire-why-not.html

Here are links to the current and upcoming contests:

• Tuesday, November 8 – Monday November 14 — win with Stephanie O’Dea Enter here!
• Tuesday, November 15 – Monday November 21 — win with Momo Fali
• Tuesday, November 22 – Monday November 28 — win with Sassymonkey

And here is the announcement that I won the Kindle Fire: http://chime.in/user/BlogHer/chime/71726767491305472

If you go to that last link, and it says someone else’s name instead of mine, I finally pinched hard enough to wake myself up. If you see my name, it means I’m not dreaming.