Month: April 2008

Photo Update on Our Fun Lives

Post author By McAdmin
Post date April 30, 2008

Pace and Chase working hard to get the ground ready for the gravel! It was a lot of work for all of us, especially Pace, but we love the play area! We have videos of the play area that we finished, but I’ll have to take a photo so I can stick it on here.

Chase got so thirsty that he got a chair, got this juice out of the fridge, and took a swig (yes, this is exactly how I found him). I guess Daddy has taught him well! 🙂

Daddy threw out the rickety bar stools, but Chase insisted on sitting at the counter anyway, on a regular chair.

Chase enjoys "holding" baby Luke, who is super cute! Note Chase’s "responsible face," a look that he gets whenever he is holding a baby! We are sad that the Paynes are leaving us in a month to go to Tennessee. 🙁

Pace gave me these beautiful white flowers (I LOVE the lilies) because I had a hard day last Thursday. He is very thoughtful and wonderful*! *P.S. Pace and I went against 3 other couples in The Newlywed Game at mutual last week, and we won! Yay for us!

And….. no comment on this one! Although I do want to mention that Chase has been going poop on the toilet almost every day for the past month or two. Good boy! It makes for a much easier clean-up, and his reward is a treat from his Easter basket. Now how do I make him pee in the toilet too?….

Ranting

NYC calorie-count rule effective immediately

Post author By McAdmin
Post date April 30, 2008

NEW YORK (Reuters) – A federal appeals court said on Tuesday that a new rule requiring New York City fast food restaurants to post calorie information on menu boards is effective immediately.
The health code provision, which affects businesses that have at least 15 establishments nationwide, requires that restaurants post caloric information on menus and menu boards in the same font and format used to display the name or price of the menu item.

-source

Personal

What a weekend

Post author By McAdmin
Post date April 28, 2008

SO many things to talk about, hopefully Joy will do a better job later. Lost was great on Thursday, Friday we finished a playground area for Chase, and met Graham’s very nice friend who enjoys his presence, Saturday we laid around dead tired from Friday, and yesterday we had a good time at the Gardner’s house. Anyway, I’m just posting a note from work, so pics and video to come later.

Deals

Free online classified ads

Post author By McAdmin
Post date April 23, 2008

So I just found this site, owned by Ebay, called Kijiji. A competitor with craigslist, but definitely not as supported by my local people. I really like some of their features.

How do you buy/sell stuff online? You still pay ebay/amazon fees or have you switched to a free service?

Deals

Someone explain this one

Post author By McAdmin
Post date April 23, 2008

Ok so I’m not the smartest with percentages and such, but someone explain to me why this place offers 3.3% for a 6 month CD while the annual return on the savings is 3%. Aren’t CDs returns locked, so if I buy a CD I definitely get 3.3% in 6 months… why would I even think about 3% in a year then? This is from the online bank ING.

Personal

California Love

Post author By McAdmin
Post date April 21, 2008

I was just thinking about California, when the classic 2Pac song just came to mind. Hence the title. ANYway, we had a wonderful time in California, visiting my fam and some friends. It’s always nice to go back there, especially they had consistently warm weather (get the hint, Utah?). And surprisingly enough, the traveling wasn’t bad at all, thanks to no delays, Chase being a little older, and because JetBlue is the best (legroom, tvs, lots of snacks– need I say more?).

Here are a few photos of when Gino, Jessica, Chase and I went to Howarth Park (a fun place where I spent countless hours training with the cross-country team in jr. high and high school). Chase loved this place, and so did we! The weather was absolutely perfect; 80 degrees, no wind, and not a cloud in the sky. There was so much to do there, including a carousel and the classic train ride (we used to ride it when we were little!). Take note that Gino is such a cute uncle!

We also got to spend time with my good ol’ best friend Jamie and her son Bryson. It was fun to observe how "boyish" our boys are and to just catch up with each other. Thanks to Jamie’s mom Jeanne for watching the boys so Jamie and I could go out to lunch, and thanks to Jamie for taking us back to the airport! It was so fun to see you guys!

Chase enjoyed riding the fire engine at Grandpa and Grandma’s house, and reading stories with Grandma. He liked hanging out with whoever was around at the time!

He also loved the Charlie Brown statue at the mall! It’s funny because this is how he acted when he saw the Snoopy statue last time we were here! He got a pair of sunglasses at the Children’s Place, and of course he had to try them outside when we got back!

View of the pond (aka "Lake Phil") on my parents’ property — beautiful!

We met up with Pace, Ryan, and Tina in San Francisco (Pace went to a conference there from Tues.-Thurs.). We had dinner and it was nice to be together (sorry you weren’t there, Rachel)!

Gino and Jessica also took cute photos, so I may post more later. Fun!

Ranting

Uh oh, chemicals are bad

Post author By McAdmin
Post date April 21, 2008

It’s not a good monday morning when you read the headline, baby bottles banned in Canada, questionable in other countries and there as a picture are the baby bottles in your kitchen cabinets. This article came across the health report:

Canada is moving to get rid of products with a chemical common in plastic baby bottles, the United States is expressing concern over its safety and some retailers are planning to stop selling these items.

Obviously the companies that make them are saying wait, it might not be harmful at the levels that we use… hello! You make baby bottles! You shouldn’t be allowed to use something that is harmful at ANY level! Meanwhile, blessed animal testing concluded:

Relying on the results of animal studies, it expressed concern about possible links between BPA exposure and early puberty and prostate and breast cancer.

Honey, clean out those plastic bottles, we’re switching to glass.

– source

McUpdate

Man in the mirror

Post author By McAdmin
Post date April 20, 2008

Starting with the man in the mirror, I’ve started on a path of self change. This life changing experience can be done with or without religion, drugs, or doctors. You will need muscles and determination. What is this life changing program?

SMILING

Let me explain how I came to this conclusion. I recently had some time to sit in bed without my family in the house, nice and quite. I decided I didn’t like the way I was acting. I seemed to be pessimistic, always looking for how to insult or complain; and not that I always vocalized it but the thoughts would always come. Thinking that wasn’t the type of person I used to be, or want to be, I decided I’d figure out how to change. So after many repeat plays of Michal Jackson, and 4 day trip with my boss, the impression hit me in the airport on the way home to my amazing family. You should be smiling, you have an awesome life and you are headed home to have a great time. Smile.

So off I was, set to smile no matter the perceived consequences. As we were waiting to board the plane, I smiled. As I went to the bathroom, I smiled. As we sat down in our seats I smiled. And I felt great! For the first time that week I was excited and enthusiastic. This was great! Then I looked over and saw the stewardess, she seemed to have a long day and was not smiling about this red eye flight to UT. So I determined I would smile at her and see if this was contagious. She started into the safety speech, I think I was the only one watching, and for sure the only one smiling at her. Then as she came by for drinks she was met with more smiling and politness. By the end of the flight she was smiling! It worked, it is contagious.

So now for the experiment. I need to smile as much as possible for a whole week and see how I feel and who else around me catches on. I’ll tell you now it’s not as easy as you think. You’re face starts to hurt, and you frequently forget that you should be smiling. So, I challenge you to join my experiment. Smile as much as you can this week, smile when you usually wouldn’t, in the car driving by yourself, in the morning, at work, smile all the time. You’ll be amazed at the change in your attitude and in the reactions that you’ll get from around you. Report back her in the comments, I’ll start off the reporting with my experience with Joy.

Chase

It’s my birtday and I’ll cry if I want to

Post author By McAdmin
Post date April 14, 2008

This is Chase, it’s my birfday and I wanted you all to have a place to say your things to me since I’m in CA and not available via my normal phone and video chat. 1, 2, 3, Blastoff!

Public Service Announcement

Malt-O-Meal recalls breakfast cereals : salmonella

Post author By McAdmin
Post date April 14, 2008

(The cereals) were distributed nationally under the Malt-O-Meal brand name, as well as private labels including Acme, America’s Choice, Food Club, Giant, Hannaford, Jewel, Laura Lynn, Pathmark, Shaw’s, ShopRite, Tops and Weis Quality. The cereal bags have “best if used by” dates from April 8, 2008 (coded as APR0808), through March 18, 2009 (coded as MAR1809).

The company urges consumers to discard any unused cereal bearing the effected dates. Retailers have been notified to remove affected product from their shelves.

I knew I didn’t like that cereal for a reason… please be aware if you eat any of these brands.

-source