By Gwen & Shannon, Motherlode mamas
With more than 550 comments and nearly 4,000 names on a spreadsheet, this washer/dryer giveaway sponsored by Metro Builders Supply ranks at the top of Motherlode’s coolest giveaways for Northwest Arkansas moms. There were so many compelling comments and e-mails that we could never have chosen based on merit. So www.random.org had to do the choosing for us.
Drum roll, please ….
Let’s give it up for the winner of the incredible front-loading Whirlpool Duet washer AND dryer on pedestal stands — Tracy Easterling! Tracy is from Huntsville and has two children, 9-year-old Erin and 6-year-old Kross. Right now her laundry room is filled with dirty clothes and a teeny, 10-year-old washer that she fell out of love with the first time she laid eyes on one of those front-loading beauties a few years back.
“When I walk past them, I just can’t help but go up and stroke them lovingly,” she joked. “I covet them.”
Well not anymore. Tracy will be able to wash all that piled-up laundry in just a few loads instead of the five or six (or 10) it would have taken before. And that’s good news for a mom whose kids get dirtier than most.
“We have nasty, grungy, manure-covered clothing,” she said.
That’s because her daughter and son are very involved in showing cattle across the state through the Valley 4-H Club, the Arkansas Junior Cattlemen’s Association, the Arkansas Angus Association and the American Angus Association, she explained. (Tracy’s cute kids are pictured here with one of their prize-winning calves.) The kids are also involved in various sports.
Her husband, Stacy, manages to generate his own share of dirty laundry. He manages Easterling Wood Products, a lumber mill and dry kiln owned by his family. They also produce mulch for landscapers and nurseries across the state. In his spare time (ha!), Stacy coaches both of the kids’ baseball and softball teams and manages their registered Angus cattle herd.
Tracy is the neatest one in the family since she has a desk job. She’s a secretary for the University of Arkansas’ Department of Agriculture. That’s where we called to tell her the good news Friday afternoon.
She was practically speechless. “Tracy? Is this Tracy Easterling?”
Finally, after a little squeal from her end (it had obviously started to sink in), she found her voice: “Oh, my gosh. I have had the worst day. This is totally amazing!”
Tracy, who grew up in Northwest Arkansas, expects a few phone calls from some of the friends she e-mailed about the washer/dryer contest but didn’t win.
She had written to them, “If one of you wins, I’m bringing my laundry to your place!” She said she’ll gladly let them take her new luxury items for a spin.
Tracy also commented on the site, like so many of you did. If you missed it, here’s what she said:
“We’ve been Metro customers in the past. They do have great customer service.
I wish I could attach a photo of my living room. There are no words to describe the mountain of laundry that lives there at this very moment. We have spent 6 of the last 7 days on the road – Spring Break to showing cattle in the snow. Every time I see commercials for the big front loaders, I weep just a bit.
Whoever wins this set is very very lucky – even when we are talking about doing the household chore that everyone loves to hate…”
Congratulations, Tracy, and happy washing!
