Tennis anyone?

-- Sent from my Palm Pixi

Poll

I decided to consolidate the T.P. suggestions in a poll at the top of the blog. Please take a moment to share your very important opinion. Thank you. If "OTHER" is chosen, please feel free to mention here, your choice. ;) xoxo

T.P. Debacle: The story of Poop.

Ok so it's not about 'poop' at all (sorry for the 'sticky' subject, he he he) but I liked the title I came up with so there.
Our family uses 'Quilted Northern' brand t.p. and always have. A while ago we noticed they started having shorter rolls, no biggie but weird. We did however have a conversation that's it's likely less t.p. and a bonus for them to sneak in the 'new size'. It's not like they announced their new campaign to shorted rolls like they would if the enlarged their rolls. Anyway, this week I noticed the t.p. is no longer 'quilted'. You've seen the commercials right? They have tiny little ladies (bugs I think cause there are antennae) hand quilting the squares? So... What's a girl to do but write a silly letter to the company for some sympathy for my delicate parts? Who knows, I could get some free t.p. out of it maybe. So off I went, mentioning what I did to you & adding we've used it for 13 years cause we like it so much and 'did you fire the little quilting ladies?' Giggling to myself for that addition, I sent it along with my first born's blood sample. That was a few days ago. Today they write back that yes they did shorted their rolls but their 'core' and 'loyal' customers have given them different feedback & are so pleased that they (are being manipulated) have made changes to the product & that in these economic times.... Yadda yadda yadda. Well, you know I couldn't resist a rebuttal so I told them that it is a shame that my 13 years of loyalty doesn't allow my comments to compare to the 'loyal' and 'core' that they spoke of cause I really thought of myself as both of those things. Anyway I closed with my 'opinion' that I don't believe for a moment that 'because of the economy' people are 1) pooping or peeing less = using less t.p. 2) it made it necessary for them to shorten their roll 3) stop quilting something called 'quilted' northern 4) changing brands at a drastic rate (feel free to tell me you've switched to cheaper t.p. & I will admit defeat). People like their t.p.! You could never get a Charmin user to use something else, it's their staple, like bread, butter, eggs, Charmin. :) Anyway, I enjoyed my 'talk' with the customer service elves at Q.N. And so it looks like I'll be shopping for a new brand cause mama ain't' usin' no cardboard on her personals folks. Have any suggestions and I don't like Charmin for some reason so don't waste you breath (Linda...don't do it! :) he he he). The End (for now)

-- Sent from my Palm Pixi

Pockets

Someone figured out he has pockets... Whoo hoo! :)

-- Sent from my Palm Pixi

The kids

-- Sent from my Palm Pixi

Camp Nakanawa

So, this past weekend I went on a spur of the moment 'womens retreat' (no boys and no kids. seriously, there wasn't even a baby. i was surprised) for church. I only decided the week before that I would go cause I didn't want to drive to Crossville Tennessee by myself (hour 45min north east) AND I had never been there. Mike agreed to keep the kids for his first overnight by himself with either of them. Anyway, I just needed to get away all the sudden and the thought of getting to canoe on the beautiful lake I had heard of was calling my name. I only knew 2 others were going at first and later 4 but knew it didn't matter cause I needed the trip for me to recharge my batteries after a hectic last 3 months (surprise newborn and all). The overnight started at 3pm Friday night and would end Saturday at 3pm. I couldn't leave till after work at 5pm with my 2 passengers and new bffs ;) but we prayed we'd still make it for 7pm chow time. he he he. We totally did! What was better there were way more people there that I didn't know would be there and they saved us bunks in their cabin, whoo hoo (although later I think a few regretted this. he he he he)! So we were in Cabin 18 and it was divine. After dinner was a quick and quirky uplifting meeting given by one of our local leaders and his wife. I caught up with some friends and aquaintances that didn't know I had a new baby so I got to brag on her a bit then it was off to rain sprinkling on the bon fire for SMORES. :) yummy. Back at our cabin, we had a fun time telling our worst date, chatting about life, text talking and laughing. It was so nice to visit with everyone that way because at church, we are busy and reverently going from task to task but here on the overnight it's for letting your hair down. I could only do what any reasonable person would do... I performed my old Go Fight WIN cheer from High School, a basket ball cheer called Dribble Shoot and as a freebee, did a 'hurkey' for the first time. Oh and let's not forget spirit fingers. :) Anyway, we all about settled down at 230am! I however could NOT sleep and was praying multiple times for sleep to overcome me. It did not work and at around 330 I started playing battleship on my phone then emailing Michael from my phone to tell him that dispite having a GREAT time, I don't have a pillow, my sweater is making a horrible replacement and conducting heat, people are breathing heavily or snoring (which i'm used to with Mike but don't have a pillow to put over my head, then it was downpour raining, everytime someone moved their bed squeaked and it was all amplified cause I was exhausted and just wanted to go to sleep for goodness sakes! lol. Anyway, in the middle of emailing him inside my sleeping bag, trying to be quiet and not light up the room... suddenly, I got a text from across the room. Linda was up and said, "I see you glowing over there". I was soooooooooooo relieved I could 'talk' to someone so we texted back n' forth for about 15 min. I saw Rachel glowing too so I texted her also. I admit, giggled once then we both went out to the bathroom. When we got back, I think she tripped and we giggled again and Linda got BUSTED and told to (shh). Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. BUSTED!!! Anyway, I was alone again after that and tried to play Hearts or Battleship during the monsoon that ensued. Finally after 4am I fell asleep!!! Yikes. Only to be woke up at 630am by a woman from another cabin walking by outside, talking at full voice saying "IT LOOKS LIKE ITS GOING TO BE A REALLY NICE DAY OUT!" That was it, I was now up after 2 1/2 hours of sleep but a thing about me, I'm happy when I'm up so I just made the best of it. Still raining but on and off light rain, I went out to take pictures of the grounds. The lake looked beautiful (i'm sad i didn't take a new picture once the rain stopped and sun came out :(.) and women were out and about, fishing, writing in journals, reading books on the rocking chair porch and going on walks as everyone slowly woke up for breakfast to start at 8am. Breakfast was yummy, I left soon after to go read over my sunday school lesson for the next day and then some of my friends came over to rock my car (where I was reading). They were ready to have fun, even though it was still raining but they had ponchos on and were going to defy the weather. I couldn't resist so I went with them. It seemed as though there would be no canoeing sadly as I looked forward to that the most. We took a walk around the grounds and found a tetherball court. I basically whipped my new muse, Linda and it hurt her, bad. :) he he he. I got to know Emily who is new to our area and we all shared stories about this and that. Whomever was wearing my cowboy hat, 'had the floor'. Lucky for us, when we got back to the boat house, the sun was out! We decided quickly to get a paddle boat although, we decided to put all 4 of us in it and it was comical cause we were just going in circles! We went back and traded it in for canoes and I was in HEAVEN! It felt like Girls Camp type of thing all over again. Although, we NEVER stayed somewhere this nice. It just reminded me of my sister Katrina cause she loved camp, couldn't wait for me to go and love it too and always made it fun. I wish you were there with me Katrina, next year, come to visit the second weekend in September and we are sooo there! Linda and I 'raced' Stacey and Emily and again, totally schooled them, he he he. We had such a great time. We even got a tan after the sun came out and it was breezy so it was just wonderful. I can't wait to go again next year and hope you want to come to, anyone can whether you are LDS or not, we all just have to pay the fee for the grounds/meals. Anyway, here is the photos I wanted to share....

Itasca imparting her wisdom to everyone. We are rivited!

My friend Rachel, also our babysitter before C.G. joined us.

Vivian, isn't this an awesome picture!?

Emily, Linda (she doesn't know how to make a serious face as you will see throughout! lol), Stacey as we were all talking. 2nd pic is 630am when everyone was in denial about waking up. Beverly is glowing in the back corner, she was up all night too but I couldn't text her cause I didn't have her number :(.

1. cool pic of leaves on the steps with boat house in back drop 2. the boat launch. Both pics are between rain storms.

blurring self portrait with 'the hat" and.... GO DODGERS! :)

This is the wig wam where we had our meeting and social on Friday night.

Ahhhh....

The coolest cabin in town basically, #18!

1. Linda with her famous face pulling. 2. Emily ROCKING "the hat". Amazing!

Breakfast with the group. Clockwise from me: Lila, Beverly, Itasca, Heather, Vivian, Stacey, Michelle, Linda, Emily and Rachel.

Braving the rain!! Lila, Stacey, Linda (with an almost normal face. ha ha ha) and Emily!

Teammates for life baby!

Before they left on their 3 hour tour... :) Seriously Linda, you are killing me! You are hilariously and seriously like a 7 year old boy with all these faces! bah ha ha ha ha ha. (I can't stop giggling at all these faces). Stacey, you look AWESOME in 'the hat'! xoxo

this was my view and somehow when they took a picture of us, it didn't take ;( so you didn't get to see how awesome Stacey and I looked. ;)

Anyway, I cannot wait till next year already and hope even more ladies go. :) Thank you Michael for encouraging me to go! xoxo

,,d...........d../.;/'c`":;> (evan's "wonderful" contribution to this post. also i'm pretty sure he tried to hack into my friend Rachel's blog. so sorry!)

Going for a RIDE with smokey

-- Sent from my Palm Pixi

Just Moments

It's official, I've put too many pictures on my blog! It literally wouldn't let me put more pictures on this post (probably cause of whatever settings are on my new camera that i still don't know how to use. yikes). Anyway....

Here we have Evan at a local park, he had a ton of fun... as usual. :)

Yes, that is snot. he he

Some cute spectators.

Here's my little Angel experiencing Mom's favorite... Air popped Pop Corn! He has NEVER witnessed mom's problem before cause I wait till he's asleep to eat it so he doesn't inturrupt my Popcorn and Ovaltine 'ceremony'. ha ha ha. So... here he is tentatively watching the corn pop then becoming THRILLED and Amazed! Not only that but he was very careful not to touch the "Hot" Popcorn but once I gave the OK, he was also good about only eating one at a time. I was careful to even let him eat it cause you can easily choke on it, especially for my little baby. He LOVED it!!!! He is the best son ever! We sat down on the couch together, eating handfuls of popcorn, drinking ovaltine and watching Yo Gabba Gabba. Does life get better than this?! giggle giggle giggle. Quite possibly the best part was the next day he ran towards the kitchen yelling... "COOOORRRNN!!", like a little corn superhero. Ahhh... I'm so lucky. :)

C.G. hangin' out in Evan's bed while he and I got him dressed for the day.




Cute smiles and faces.

Some of Evan's sad but true Evanisms: saying "WHYYYY!?" with is hands up after dropping something he shouldn't or knocking over toys (like towering blocks). Also saying "Nooo, ba baby, doan do dat!" (no, bad baby. don't do that). I promise, he's really doing something bad if I say that to him, poor little guy but I do resolve to not tell my son he is a bad baby (i didn't know i was saying that but obviously i was). :( I will however tell him something he did wrong isn't good and give a consequence. You'd have to hear him say it though, it's really funny and cute (sadly). He as also learned the dreaded word... "F A R T". yikes! I do not like saying it but I'm pretty sure I described it as something he did once and he just caught on immediately. And today... he had a lot of gas, so we had a lot of giggles. :) So, need a laugh? Come on down.

[next blog post I'm working on: Camp Nakanawa overnight]

Where were you...

Where were you, How did you feel, What did you do... On September 11th, 2001?

Mike and I lived in California at the time. We were asleep still, being 3 times zones away from New York. Mike's mom Jennie called us 'early'. We knew right away that it must be something serious. She asked us if we had our T.V. on or had heard the news and we hadn't cause we were sleeping but turned the T.V. on as we talked only to be shocked by what we were seeing. After we hung up we were glued to the Television when all of the sudden a second plane hit the second Tower! We called my parents house to tell them. We had barely comprehended that this had just happened and the reporters were still speculating this as an accident but when the second plane hit, there was no mistake. Suddenly the first tower crumbled to the ground! I could not believe my eyes and started to panic about what was going on. I was concerned for the safety of our country and wondered if there were other planes about to do the same somewhere else. My mind was reeling, thinking of friends on the east coast and I did call the one I could think of, Holly. She was being evactuated from her building in CT and I think grateful I cared to worry about her. I could barely get ready for work. Somehow doing hair wasn't exactly my idea of honoring the day. I became more numb as the day progressed with the Pentagon getting hit and the plane going down in the field in Pennsylvania. I felt depressed and truthfully fearful. Everyone I saw that day was also feeling the same, we were like zombies. I wanted to join the military (I have always admired service men/women) and help defend our country but the best thing I could do for now was PRAY. That I did for weeks and months as the information unfolded about the truth and plans were made to protect.
Since that time, we are still protecting our freedoms and safety from radicals. Our war in Iraq is still dangerous but hopefully coming to a close. Our military pride has been so much better but could be stronger in my opinion. I am still praying for our soldiers to be safe and effective. I hope you will do the same if you are not already. God Bless.

Just Because

-- Sent from my Palm Pixi

Calling all candle lovers...

So I have these super nice & super old (mostly votive & mostly 'party lite' brand) candles that we have un earthed from the deep dark depths of or linen closet. Yes they have lost some smell but they're still perfectly good burning candles. But alas, I do not burn candles very much anymore since I've become more sensetive to the strong scents (party lite isn't too strong to begin with) & just stopped using them. Questions being, do you want them & when do you want to come and get them :). Didn't I mention though... They are free. First come (aka 'comment') first served.

-- Sent from my Palm Pixi

Take one, take two.

We love the Dodgers :).

-- Sent from my Palm Pixi

FRIDAY FIVES

5 Things that are always in my fridge

1. MILK it get's used the most. Mike and I drink 2%, Evan sometimes drinks Vitamin D (but even if I put Ovaltine in it lately, he does NOT want his milk? I'll have to ask Dr. Coleman about this one... hmmm.). I use Milk for Ovaltine, Cereal of course and recipes.

2. O.J. and/or Apple Juice. Sometimes you just need something besides water that is also in there but not worth a number. Michael and Evan staple respectively.

3. EGGS, even though I don't eat eggs as much as I used to, I have to always have them. Favorite things to make with Eggs: Fried Eggs over medium with yummy real buttered toast. MMM! Fried Egg Sandwich, Egg salad sandwiches and last but not least, Deviled Eggs.

4. String Cheese (and all other cheeses). You would think this is for Evan... :/... no? It's actually for me my friends and I only eat Frigo brand cause I don't play.

5. Soft Taco size Flour Tortilla's. What we make with these... Our favorite is Tuna 'wraps'? We make the Tuna from a can with mayo but add a chicken seasoning to it, scoop about 2 spoonfuls on the tortilla, top with your favorite cheese (i love mild cheddar, mike uses American. American is not cheese to me but cheddar I'm sure is boring to others). Fold it up and crisp it up in a lightly oiled frying pan, on both sides till you think the cheese is melted. It IS delish!

and I can't leave this post without showing you my newest day dream since we're on the subject:

LG 4 door Refrigerator and it doesn't actually have to have a water station in the door but this one does.

Labor Day Weekend Project

Growing up in my family, every Memorial and Labor Day weekend were spent as a family on our yard (except my older sister Katrina who was "allergic" to weeds... riiiiiiight). We pulled weeds, raked, trimed trees and bushes and carried it off to burn in a pile later on a designated 'burn day'. Then my dad would usually give in and take us to fast food or let us order pizza! That was always a treat. After 13 years of marriage, this is the first time I have performed manual labor like unto my childhood in order to beautify my yard. This is what we did... Recently at the end of our driveway, we had someone take our rock from the back yard and line our landscaping at the entrance to our driveway (not pictured, sorry) and it looked GORGEOUS and the best part... the rock is free cause it's everywhere here in Tennessee and piled up in our back yard around our trees. Well, Mike has longed for many years to have some sort of edged curb between our landscaping and grass. He had some dreadful suggestions over the years, one being something that looked like a concrete poured curb. YUCK! Anyway, a friend with lots of rock on their land invited us to come get as much as we want so we can finish the rest of our landscaping! Whoo Hoo! Today, Mike and I set Evan up in the truck with his favorite, a "Super Why" (PBS) DVD and Cora had her hanging toys, we put the windows down (it was a breezy and beautiful day out. Finally under 90 degrees!). Mike and I picked through the piles of rock for the ones we needed and got 5 bins full (still not enough!). Mike was very impressed that I never complained about the labor, saying not everyone would be so willing to help with this part. It made me realize, we really haven't done any service together or big yard work etc (we've paid landscapers to put our ideas into reality). Honey, I'm sorry you didn't know I was a machine and could work all day outside or inside on a project, especially if it was with you. wink. Anyway, here is the (almost) finished project of which we are extremely satisfied with. What do you think? (click for larger views)

sorry to make everyone feel guilty, it was a truthful tease about commenting but i'm glad i got so many responses. we feel the love always but appreciate the extra love comments today from everyone :). xoxo