Ellen Degeneres!

Ellen Degeneres is an awesome human being!

My daughter, Kylene, was watching an Ellen Degeneres show about 3 months ago when Ellen announced her Stimulus package giveway. She said if anyone needed money, to email her.

Kylene emailed Ellen. She didn't email her asking for money, instead she emailed her stating "In this economy everyone is in need of money and there are others who need it more than me. All I'd like is do is to be able to take my son to Disneyland. Being a single mother, working 40 hours a week and now getting ready to go to nursing school at night, I hardly have time with my 3 year old son. I've tried several times to save for a vacation with my son, but something always comes up and the trip gets cancelled. He's crazy about Mickey Mouse and Nemo and to see his face light up at this age when he sees Mickey or Nemo would be the best."

The Ellen show finally called her Friday, October 16. They told her to follow Ellen on Twitter, that the show will be in Dallas on Tuesday, October 20.

Kylene arranged to take off work Tuesday and we drove 4 hours to Dallas. We took off at 6:00am arrived at 10:00am. Not being sure when these Tweets would start coming through, we wanted to make sure we were in Dallas when Ellen started Tweeting!

We killed time visiting a Mall, going over to Dealey Plaza where Kennedy was shot, and spent quite a bit of time at a park so Jayden can run off some energy. At this time we are beginning to think this is all a waste of time and just a huge goose chase. Who wouldn't start believing that when you've been up since 5:00am, making a 4 hour drive for something you're not sure about. And waiting 5 hours for a Tweet! While at the park, around 3:00pm, our first Tweet from Ellen pops up:

"Do you have a pair gloves and need a place to store them? Follow me on Twitter!"

Hmmm, that might mean a new car! But where?

Then the second Tweet came in 15 minutes later:

"I like lemons. I also like Lemmon Avenue in Dallas. That's where Sewell GMC is."

Ok - we run to the car, punch in Sewell GMC in the GPS and head to over to the dealership!

My daughter is on the edge of her seat asking me to 'hurry'. But you can only go so fast through city streets! We finally arrive and I tell Kylene to jump out of the car and run. As she did, several people were parking their car and running over to the dealership as well. Ellen had quite a few 'Tweeters' in Dallas following her today.

I park the car, grab Jayden and head on over. After a few minutes, we were told the show would not start until 6:00pm, so we had 3 hours of waiting time. While waiting, I started thinking about the 'hints' Ellen was throwing in her Tweets. 'Gloves' and 'Lemons'. Since we had 3 hours to spare, I told Kylene I was going to go find some gloves and lemons, just in case she asks for them. It might be the key to be in the running for prizes.

I run over to Target and grabbed some gloves, and head to a corner store and grab some lemons and back to the dealership.

We wait. 3 hours can be a long time when the energy of Ellen is around!

Another Tweet comes in "Dallas followers go to Sewell GMC @7474 Lemmon Ave. Be there by 5:30! Write my name on a dollar, give it to Jeannie & you’re in the running!"

Kylene pulls out a dollar, writes Ellen on it and gets a Raffle ticket.

6:00pm and the show starts. Ellen appears on a big screen and we all scream our hellos.

Her assistant, Jeannie, calls off 12 ticket numbers. Kylene is not one of them. Bummer.

Ellen comes back on and tells the 12 winning ticket holders that they will be given a bag full of goodies, and they need to come up with a halloween costume. One will be the winner of the GMC truck sitting in front of them. They have 20 minutes to come up with their costume.

20 minutes go buy and Ellen comes back on. She calls out 5 names of the 12 contestants. The 5 lucky winners are given a key to the GMC. She tells them one of the keys will start the truck. If yours starts the truck, it's yours.

A teacher from North Dallas is the lucky winner.

Ellen thanks everyone for coming out and then right before she goes off the air, Ellen says "Wait! There's one more person I'd like to meet. Is Kylene Parker in the audience?" Then the legendary scream happens. Kylene has a pair of lungs on her that won't quit!

Ellen tells Kylene she's sending her and Jayden to Disneyland and tickets to her show. All happening next week!

So, what we thought was turning out to be a wild goose chase turned out to be a great day!