Today after I picked Jackson up from preschool, we went to the grocery store. When we gott there he wanted to take his Weekly Reader that he got from school in the store with him so he could trace the letters. So we go in and go shopping and when we are waiting in line at the check out I started looking at his Weekly Reader. The cover of it has a little kid with a flag and it says Ready, Set, Vote! So I am look at his Weekly Reader and talking to him about it. On the inside of it there is a section that says "Who Will Be Our President?" and there are pictures of John McCain and Barach Obama out on the campaign trail talking to people. There is a little box on each one of the pictures and Jackson had colored in one of the boxes. The following is our conversation.
Me: What are these little boxes for?
J: We voted for the Prophet.
Me: Oh, you mean you the President.
J: Yeah, we voted for the President and he won. (pointing to McCain)
Me: Oh, why did you decide to vote for him?
J: Because he wears a tie!
In the pictures McCain is wearing a suit and tie and Obama is wearing a blue dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up and the top botton undone.
So there you go. Go out and vote and choose the one that wears the tie!
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Grace's First Food
Grace had her first food this week, with some rice cereal. Here's a pretty good video.
Soccer
Tara's been bugging me for a while to blog about the kids playing soccer and post a few pictures. We signed the kids up for soccer to play in a league at a big subdivision in our neighborhood. We signed them all up 2 weeks into an 8 week season, so they missed the first couple of weeks. They've now had 4 weeks, and seem to be doing better each week. Jackson scored a goal last week! Jackson's league is just chase the ball back and forth to the goal. Carter is one of the youngest in an under 8 league, but he seems to really enjoy it, and just runs around. Hallie was very timid at first but she's getting more and more relaxed and in to it as the weeks pass. If she'd get over her fears and try hard, I think she'd do well, because she's actually very athletic. Here's some pics of Carter and Jackson, we don't have a good one of Hallie because we've forgotten the camera a couple of weeks, and didn't get a good one before.
Friday, October 17, 2008
Recipe of the Week #2
Here are some Halloween/Fall recipes.
Pizza Dip in a Pumpkin
1 small pie pumpkin (about 2 ½ pounds)
½ cups finely chopped onion
¼ cup finely chopped green pepper
1 tablespoon butter or margarine
2 ½ cups pizza sauce
1 cup (4 oz) shredded mozzarella cheese
½ cup finely chopped pepperoni
½ cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
Breadsticks
Cut top off of pumpkin; scoop out seeds and fibers. Replace top; place pumpkin on an ungreased baking sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until hot. Meanwhile, in a small saucepan, sauté onion and green pepper, mozzarella cheese, pepperoni, Parmesan cheese and Italian seasoning. Cook and stir over medium heat until heated through and cheese is melted. Pour into hot pumpkin. Serve with breadsticks. Yield: 3 cups
Pumpkin-Apple Muffins with Streusel Topping
2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup canned pumpkin
½ cup vegetable oil
2 cups finely chopped peeled apples
Topping
¼ cup sugar
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon butter
In a large bowl, combine first five ingredients. Combine eggs, pumpkin and oil; stir into dry ingredients just until moistened. Fold in apples. Fill greased or paper lined muffin cups three-fourths full. For topping, combine sugar, flour and cinnamon. Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs; sprinkle 1 teaspoon over each muffin. Bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes or until muffins test done. Cool in pan 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack. Yield: about 1 ½ dozen
Pizza Dip in a Pumpkin
1 small pie pumpkin (about 2 ½ pounds)
½ cups finely chopped onion
¼ cup finely chopped green pepper
1 tablespoon butter or margarine
2 ½ cups pizza sauce
1 cup (4 oz) shredded mozzarella cheese
½ cup finely chopped pepperoni
½ cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
Breadsticks
Cut top off of pumpkin; scoop out seeds and fibers. Replace top; place pumpkin on an ungreased baking sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until hot. Meanwhile, in a small saucepan, sauté onion and green pepper, mozzarella cheese, pepperoni, Parmesan cheese and Italian seasoning. Cook and stir over medium heat until heated through and cheese is melted. Pour into hot pumpkin. Serve with breadsticks. Yield: 3 cups
Pumpkin-Apple Muffins with Streusel Topping
2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup canned pumpkin
½ cup vegetable oil
2 cups finely chopped peeled apples
Topping
¼ cup sugar
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon butter
In a large bowl, combine first five ingredients. Combine eggs, pumpkin and oil; stir into dry ingredients just until moistened. Fold in apples. Fill greased or paper lined muffin cups three-fourths full. For topping, combine sugar, flour and cinnamon. Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs; sprinkle 1 teaspoon over each muffin. Bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes or until muffins test done. Cool in pan 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack. Yield: about 1 ½ dozen
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Really Big Guy
On Sunday we went to a stake fireside with Coach Ingle and Shawn Bradley. Coach Ingle is a man that is in our ward that is the basketball coach for Kennesaw State Univerity here in Georgia; but coached at BYU when Shawn Bradley played there. It was a very good fireside. It was for the youth but everyone was invited; so we went. Shawn Bradley was a very good speaker. At the end he answered questions that the youth had. He is some interesting things about him. He is 7 feet 6 inches tall. He was only 19 inches when he was born; but 10 pounds. His wife is only 5 feet 4 inches tall. They have six kids. Since retiring from the NBA he now is the the athletic director and assistant principal for a school for troubled teens. Here are a few pictures of Shawn holding Grace; and with me and Mark.
Saturday, October 11, 2008
What ever happened to customer service?
On Friday we had a bad customer serive day. This is how it went.
I took Grace back to the doctor. On Wednesday when I took her to the doctor they said they wanted to recheck her breathing and lungs; so I went back. Her appointment was at 9:15. They did not call me back to see the doctor until 10:15! Sitting in the waiting room with a 5 months old and a 4 year old for an hour is not exciting. But because I love the doctors at this practice and it is not normally like this, I will continue to go to the them.
After the really long doctors visit I went to BJ's (equivelent to Costco and Sams except they will take manufactures coupons on top of their coupons). Any of you that know me well will know that I am a little obsessive about getting the LOWEST price on things. It makes me so happy to see that I saved more money than I spent. I think even if I was a millionaire I would use coupons. It thrills me to pay .50 cents for a box of Cheerios! Anyway, back to the real story. So I go in to BJ's and buy a butt load of stuff like usual. I get up to the check out and did the self check out. I scan all my stuff and then my coupons. I know that the machine is going to not let me use the manufactures coupon and the BJ's coupons because I have tried it before and one of the workers have to come manually enter it in. So I am expecting this. Well, I was not expecting what then happened. The worker came up to me and starts scanning my coupons. She sees that I have 2 $1.00 manufactures coupons for grape juice and have already scanned the store coupon for grape juice. She tells me that I can only use one of them. I say to her "I thought I could use two if they were packaged separately." She says "no you can't do that." I say "well I do it everytime I come in and they usually take them." She says "Well, I will let you do it this one time and you can't do it anymore!" (I am not very happy at this point.) I say back to her "when I bought my membership they told me that if the product was individually wrapped and then packed together I could use a coupon for each indivual item." She then flashes her name badge at me and says "Well my name is Corey and I am second in charge here and you are not suppose to do it" She then asks me if I bought two of something and I said no and she blows air through her lips like she is really disgusted, scans the coupon and walks away. After that I was livid. So I wrote her name down and I intend on writing a letter to BJ's. Also, later that day I looked up on BJ's website and read their policy about taking coupons and this is what it says
"Can I use more than one coupon?
You may not use more than one coupon on a single item. However, if you buy a multi-pack (a pack that contains multiple full-sized packages of a single product shrink-wrapped together) you may use multiple coupons.
For example, if you have 2 coupons for 50� off an 8-oz. bottle of face cleanser and you are buying a multi-pack that contains 2 or more 8-oz. bottles of face cleanser you may use both coupons" (taken from the BJ's website)
So doesn't it seem like I should be able to use 2 coupons if I buy Grape Juice that has 2 individual bottles packaged together?
Anyway on with the next episode of bad customer serive.
[MARK]: "Tara, Jackson, Grace and I go to Chili's for lunch. We arrived at Chili's at 1:10 pm. I know specific times because we had to be out of there by 2:00pm so I was checking the clock. We were told we had about a 15 minute wait. I looked around and noticed and told Tara there were 7 tables/booths that were empty, waiting to be bused, so it shouldn't be that long. We waited for over ten minutes and none of those tables were still bussed and now I would estimate that number had at least doubled, yet we still waited to be seated.
"So as a manager walked by, I grabbed him and brought this to his attention, stating that we'd been waiting around 10 minutes and when we walked in there were 7 empty tables and booths that I could see that were waiting to be bussed and now there were even more and yet we still waited to be seated. His first response, word for word, was "Sir, I just walked by and you weren't here." I'm very mild mannered, so I just disagreed with him and told him we had indeed been there longer than ten minutes and he said he'd take care of us, and walked off. I cannot believe the the first response from a manager at this store would, for all intents and purposes call me a LIAR!!
"We were then immediately seated (why we weren't before, I don't know), and we were seated near the To Go area, so I went to one of the employees there and asked if there was a way to give feedback on the store, they said it was online. Then I asked if the gentleman that we spoke to was the only manager there today, and they said yes. I asked for his name and they told me Joel. I said thank you and sat down and noted the name. We then had great service from our server, she was very polite, kind and attentive.
"When time for the check came, the manager returned to apologize and took an appetizer off our meal. When I told him I was less upset about the fact that we were slow to be seated than the way that he responded to me when I told him what I'd observed, he then back pedaled more and then gave us another $10 in Chili's gift coupons. His apology seemed anything but sincere and only a way of trying to placate me, with my best guess being that it was only delivered because I asked what his name was from one of his employees, otherwise, I doubt I would have seen him at all.
(this is almost word for word from my complaint to Chili's on their customer feedback, with a few changes and the final comments ommited)"
I took Grace back to the doctor. On Wednesday when I took her to the doctor they said they wanted to recheck her breathing and lungs; so I went back. Her appointment was at 9:15. They did not call me back to see the doctor until 10:15! Sitting in the waiting room with a 5 months old and a 4 year old for an hour is not exciting. But because I love the doctors at this practice and it is not normally like this, I will continue to go to the them.
After the really long doctors visit I went to BJ's (equivelent to Costco and Sams except they will take manufactures coupons on top of their coupons). Any of you that know me well will know that I am a little obsessive about getting the LOWEST price on things. It makes me so happy to see that I saved more money than I spent. I think even if I was a millionaire I would use coupons. It thrills me to pay .50 cents for a box of Cheerios! Anyway, back to the real story. So I go in to BJ's and buy a butt load of stuff like usual. I get up to the check out and did the self check out. I scan all my stuff and then my coupons. I know that the machine is going to not let me use the manufactures coupon and the BJ's coupons because I have tried it before and one of the workers have to come manually enter it in. So I am expecting this. Well, I was not expecting what then happened. The worker came up to me and starts scanning my coupons. She sees that I have 2 $1.00 manufactures coupons for grape juice and have already scanned the store coupon for grape juice. She tells me that I can only use one of them. I say to her "I thought I could use two if they were packaged separately." She says "no you can't do that." I say "well I do it everytime I come in and they usually take them." She says "Well, I will let you do it this one time and you can't do it anymore!" (I am not very happy at this point.) I say back to her "when I bought my membership they told me that if the product was individually wrapped and then packed together I could use a coupon for each indivual item." She then flashes her name badge at me and says "Well my name is Corey and I am second in charge here and you are not suppose to do it" She then asks me if I bought two of something and I said no and she blows air through her lips like she is really disgusted, scans the coupon and walks away. After that I was livid. So I wrote her name down and I intend on writing a letter to BJ's. Also, later that day I looked up on BJ's website and read their policy about taking coupons and this is what it says
"Can I use more than one coupon?
You may not use more than one coupon on a single item. However, if you buy a multi-pack (a pack that contains multiple full-sized packages of a single product shrink-wrapped together) you may use multiple coupons.
For example, if you have 2 coupons for 50� off an 8-oz. bottle of face cleanser and you are buying a multi-pack that contains 2 or more 8-oz. bottles of face cleanser you may use both coupons" (taken from the BJ's website)
So doesn't it seem like I should be able to use 2 coupons if I buy Grape Juice that has 2 individual bottles packaged together?
Anyway on with the next episode of bad customer serive.
[MARK]: "Tara, Jackson, Grace and I go to Chili's for lunch. We arrived at Chili's at 1:10 pm. I know specific times because we had to be out of there by 2:00pm so I was checking the clock. We were told we had about a 15 minute wait. I looked around and noticed and told Tara there were 7 tables/booths that were empty, waiting to be bused, so it shouldn't be that long. We waited for over ten minutes and none of those tables were still bussed and now I would estimate that number had at least doubled, yet we still waited to be seated.
"So as a manager walked by, I grabbed him and brought this to his attention, stating that we'd been waiting around 10 minutes and when we walked in there were 7 empty tables and booths that I could see that were waiting to be bussed and now there were even more and yet we still waited to be seated. His first response, word for word, was "Sir, I just walked by and you weren't here." I'm very mild mannered, so I just disagreed with him and told him we had indeed been there longer than ten minutes and he said he'd take care of us, and walked off. I cannot believe the the first response from a manager at this store would, for all intents and purposes call me a LIAR!!
"We were then immediately seated (why we weren't before, I don't know), and we were seated near the To Go area, so I went to one of the employees there and asked if there was a way to give feedback on the store, they said it was online. Then I asked if the gentleman that we spoke to was the only manager there today, and they said yes. I asked for his name and they told me Joel. I said thank you and sat down and noted the name. We then had great service from our server, she was very polite, kind and attentive.
"When time for the check came, the manager returned to apologize and took an appetizer off our meal. When I told him I was less upset about the fact that we were slow to be seated than the way that he responded to me when I told him what I'd observed, he then back pedaled more and then gave us another $10 in Chili's gift coupons. His apology seemed anything but sincere and only a way of trying to placate me, with my best guess being that it was only delivered because I asked what his name was from one of his employees, otherwise, I doubt I would have seen him at all.
(this is almost word for word from my complaint to Chili's on their customer feedback, with a few changes and the final comments ommited)"
Friday, October 10, 2008
Recipe of the Week #1
Well, when I started this blog I thought about putting a section of recipes and adding a new on each week. Never did it. But the other night I taught a class about crockpot cooking and the girls (women, but I like to call all women "girls") wanted more recipes so I thought I would start adding them on here and if they are that interested in getting my recipes then they will also have to read our somewhat boring blog. So here is my first recipe. They will not always be crockpot recipes; but maybe the first few since they were wanting more.
Fudgy Peanut Butter Cake
Category: Crock pot
Serves 4
3/4 cup sugar, divided
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/3 cup milk
1/4 cup creamy peanut butter
1 Tbsp vegetable oil
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 Tbsp baking cocoa
1 cup boiling water
In a bowl, combine 1/4 cup of sugar, flour, and baking powder. In another bowl, combine the milk, peanut butter, oil and vanilla; stir into dry ingredients just until combined. Spread evenly into a slow cooker coated with nonstick cooking spray.
In a bowl, combine the cocoa and remaining sugar; stir in boiling water. Pour into slow cooker (do not stir). Cover and cook on high for 1 1/2-2 hour or until a toothpick inserted near the center of cake comes out clean. Serve warm with ice cream.
Fudgy Peanut Butter Cake
Category: Crock pot
Serves 4
3/4 cup sugar, divided
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/3 cup milk
1/4 cup creamy peanut butter
1 Tbsp vegetable oil
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 Tbsp baking cocoa
1 cup boiling water
In a bowl, combine 1/4 cup of sugar, flour, and baking powder. In another bowl, combine the milk, peanut butter, oil and vanilla; stir into dry ingredients just until combined. Spread evenly into a slow cooker coated with nonstick cooking spray.
In a bowl, combine the cocoa and remaining sugar; stir in boiling water. Pour into slow cooker (do not stir). Cover and cook on high for 1 1/2-2 hour or until a toothpick inserted near the center of cake comes out clean. Serve warm with ice cream.
Monday, October 6, 2008
Smile!
We had a family home evening on Smiles today (we're using the New Nursery Lesson Manual from Church, it's great!). We decided to let the kids show us their best smiles and take a picture and post it. These aren't really their best smiles, because they had to make some crazy faces too, of course. They're still really cute. You can see Hallie's snaggle tooth. I'm going to pull that thing in the middle of the night!
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
I love fall
I love fall. I love having the windows open and crisp air. I love the smells. I love the colors. I love fall fabrics. I love my new blog background. I love it all. But one of my favorite parts is that it is cool enough to go out walking. On Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, Jackson goes to preschool and I walk him to school in the morning. At the beginning of September when I would leave it was still pretty hot; but now it is so nice. Well, I think it is nice but the kids are a little cool. Today I did not walk Jackson to school in the morning but I decided to go walk and pick him up at noon and it was only65 degrees! I love it! Here is a picture of Jackson and Grace all bundled up the other morning when it was only 48 degrees.
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