School Days

School has started and at the very last minute we were informed that Ally and Lanie would be able to transfer back to Warner from Parma. Ally did K at Warner and was moved to Parma for first grade. We are delighted to be back at Warner and the kids have the best, most wonderful teachers. Lanie ended up with my cousin Melissa and Ally has Mrs. Valentine, whom everyone loves! So far school has gone very well. Lanie knows quite a few kids in her class including her cousins Madi and Caylee. Ally has been re-acquainted with friends from her first year at Warner and a couple friends from church.


It is hard to believe I sent my babies off to Kindergarten and second grade this year. I'm just trying to take it all in and enjoy it all. Activities are beginning and will fill our days to the max. Hopefully we'll be able to keep everything running smooth and we'll have an excellent school year.

Shoes, shoes, shoes

Spending money on shoes used to be so much more fun. Not that it isn't fun to buy shoes for the kids, it just used to be more fun to buy them for myself. New soccer cleats, new tap shoes, new tennis shoes, new dress shoes and a new pair of "cool" shoes...Oh, my!

Summer Cold

VBS was a fantastic week and I feel honored that I was able to be a part of it. I will post pictures this weekend but there were close to 300 kids in attendance,45 of them kindergartners that were able to head through my super messy craft station. Friday and Saturday were totally recovery days for me. I think that the long days actually wore me down and I have been suffering from a cold/sinus infection since Thursday night. Every time I get sick I think man I shouldn't let the kids drink after me but that rule usually lasts about a week and then we are all drinking out of the same cups again. I think Ally is going to be the next victim hit by this summer cold. More later...

VBS at Spring Arbor Free Methodist Church
Spring Arbor, MI
August 10 - 14
6:30 - 8:45
We would love to see you there! This year I am in charge of the crafts for the Kindergarten department so I doubt you'll see much of me this week! I'll post about it later~

Wednesday Tip of the Day

I work for a dentist, here are some tips to hopefully make your visits a little easier...
1. Be nice, especially to the front desk girls. Who do you think decides who gets to come at the best times of the day! Just kidding but seriously get in good with the girls at the front desk and they will take care of you. Treats help but mostly just being nice will go a long way.
2. Schedule appointments first thing in the morning or just after lunch. In my experience these are the times in the day the office is running on time and/or ahead of schedule.
3. Ask for a discount. You may just be surprised (especially if you are nice). If you pay cash ask if there is any courtesy when you pay in full we almost always give 10%, if not a bit more.
4. Don't be afraid to ask questions. There are lots of things in the dental world that gets said between the workers that sounds like another language. If you want to know what the Dr. and staff are talking about, just ask. Sometimes we get talking all technical and forget that patients don't know the difference between amalgam and composite. Earth speak: amalgam = silver filling, composite=white/tooth colored filling.
5. Be honest about what you can afford. If you don't have the money in your budget right then ask if you can work out a payment plan or if there is anything that can be done while you are saving up. Keep in mind if you have a cavity it isn't going to go away or heal itself. It will only get worse and more expensive!

Hope these little tips help, if you have any questions please feel free to ask.

The A-Z's, random facts that you now know about me!

A - Apples - if I eat them with the skin on, my lips swell and get all itchy.
B - Boys - I was always nervous to mother a boy, not sure why, God blessed us with two girls.
C - Cats - We used to have two, they were Satan in the form of animal.
D - Dentistry - When I was little I wanted to be a dentist, my grandma told me that was the most disgusting job ever and I wouldn't want to spend my day digging in people's mouths. Now I work for one.
E - Econ - I failed micro economics once and macro economics once, not my finest college moments!
F - Fair food - I love it, too bad it doesn't follow my healthy eating guidelines, this is why I will be avoiding the fair this year.
G - Green - My favorite color besides black.
H - Horses - My brother and sister had horses, one time I went into the barn to see the kittens and let all the horses out of the barn. That was fun, I was the only one home and they were running through the town.
I - Ice Cream - My grandpa took me for ice cream every night one summer, no lie, every night. My first job was at an ice cream place, I am a master scooper:)
J - Jokes - I hardly ever get them, my husband says my hair is really blonde, that's why both our girls ended up that way.
K - Korea - I am 1/2 Korean. Maybe someday we'll visit.
L - Limes - Besides being my favorite color, essential ingredient in guacamole.
M - McClintic - My maiden name.
N - New Car - I have never owned one.
O - Overwhelmed - How I feel a lot.
P - Pampered Chef - I love their stuff, I only use stones when baking.
Q - Quiet - Something my voice is not.
R - Rob Bell - He makes me think. Velvet Elvis is a great book.
S - Snakes - I HATE them, though I try to be casual about it with my kids, I don't want them to have the same fear.
T - Tahiti - My dream vacation.
U - Ugly Betty - One of my favorite shows.
V - Volleyball - I played in 8th grade, I could nail an overhand serve!
W - Western Michigan University - Go Broncos!
X - XOXO - I love hugs and kisses.
Y - Yellow - This is not a good color for me.
Z - Zoo - What else is there besides the zoo?
Now you have to copy and post on your own blog, with your own A-Z! Have a great day.

Fabulous

So we had the best weekend!
Friday - Our great day in South Haven
Saturday - We had some little projects around the house that we needed to work on and got quite a bit done. Trent's parents kept the girls for us and we had a night to ourselves. We decided at the last minute to head to Eastwood Town Center in Lansing for dinner and a movie. We went to PF Chang's for dinner which was ok. Normally I would be more excited about dinner there but I didn't love what I ordered, always a bummer. It was kind of like eating stir fried jerky, so if you have this on your list of things to experience, try the Beef A La Sichuan. I thought it was going to be more like the Mongolian Beef but spicier, I was WAY off base.
Trent was all excited about seeing the Dark Knight so that was next. Have you seen it? Now it is breaking records all over the place and almost everyone I have talked to has said how fantastic it is, but I didn't love it. I know I sound like I am complaining; dinner now the movie but I really did have a good evening. Don't get me wrong, I didn't hate it, but I think it was just a little too dark and twisty and long for me. Would I see it again probably not, will I see the next one, probably will rent it.
Sunday - Trent's aunt Jann extended an invite to all family that was available to come for lunch and hang out by the pool for the day. I was so happy we were able to go and we had the most relaxing fun day. The kids just had a blast playing with each other, it is so fun to have cousins that love to be together. Trent took the kids home and I went to a water aerobics class. I'll be honest I wasn't expecting a huge workout from the class but again I was way off. I feel like I spent about 15 minutes treading water alternating between just using legs, then arms, then only the right or left sides ~ it was tough. Then we had to kick across the pool using only our legs, I didn't think this was going to be that difficult, wrong again. I will definitely do this workout again.
All in all it was a fabulous weekend and I am sad it is over, tomorrow begins a new week and a new weekend to look forward to!

Wiggle your toes in the sand

Sometimes I complain about living in Michigan. Sometimes it is the weather, sometimes it's the lack of a booming economy and sometimes for no good reason. Yesterday we went with our friends/cousins to South Haven, MI and hung out all day.


The beach that lines Lake Michigan is so beautiful and the homes are absolutely gorgeous. When you are hanging on the beach is is easy to forget where you are and about "regular" life.


It felt great to spend the day with no where to go or nothing to do. We got the the beach around 10:30 and played until about 4:00. Then we went to dinner at Clementine's, where they have the best Ranch dressing ever! We wandered around the town just going in and out of local shops that had lots of fun stuff to drool over.
We ended the day at a fantastic ice cream place and had two very sleepy children on the ride home! Though Lanie made her intentions fully clear "mom, I'm just going to shut my eyes for a couple minutes, but that doesn't mean I am sleeping"


With the sandy beaches of Lake Michigan less than 2 hours away we definitely need to get there more!

The good, the bad and the yucky!

So eating healthy is good and bad. Let me break it down...
The Good
1. Feeling better
2. Weight loss
3. More energy
4. Hmmm...I'm sure there are more good but just not coming to me right now
The Bad
1. It is EXPENSIVE
2. It can be a bit restricting
3. I miss Diet Coke, Aspartame and all
4. Did I mention expensive?
5. Time consuming, it is much quicker to go through the drive through or purchase a pre packaged, preservative filled meal
6. Organic fruits and veggies don't last as long, they need the preservatives to last more than 2 days without wilting/molding
7. Requires a lot of thought and label reading
8. Vegetable based breakfast sausage
Yep, I bought frozen veggie breakfast sausages. What do they taste like you ask? How about a mixture of goo and cardboard, yeah I think that about sums it up. I'm really making a good effort but this is where I will definitely have to draw the line. They were super disgusting and I think made Trent almost lose his appetite which is a difficult task. So I think I still had a good dinner minus the cardboard and goo rolled up to look like a sausage, Trents dinner I don't know you be the judge.
My dinner...
egg whites scrambled with reduced fat cheese, mushrooms and onions
whole wheat english muffin - I only ate 1/2 of one of the halves
turkey bacon and about a tablespoon of hashbrowns, I just needed a little taste...
coffee (black) - my new lifeline to caffeine
Trents dinner...
6 egg omelet (the whole egg, not just the whites) with mushrooms, onions, like 5 pieces of bacon and cheese. Oh yeah, don't forget the package, yep an entire package of sausage gravy
A huge mound of hashbrowns
coffee, with more creamer than coffee
I guess the healthy eating for the family is a work in progress...

Fun New Blog

Blog hopping has led me to this great site. Right now they are having a contest to win an ipod, you can learn how to enter here

Wednesday Tip of the Day

After you wash and dry your sheet sets put them into one of these large Ziplock "Big Bags" with a couple dryer sheets. The next time you change your sheets they will smell freshly washed!

We Can't All Come and Go by Bubble!

Last night my friends and I went to see Wicked at the Wharton Center in Lansing. "We can't all come and go by bubble" may just be my favorite line! We were in the very last row of the entire place but the show was so amazing it didn't even matter. I had heard from several people that it was a great show and they were so right. If you have an opportunity to see it, I would highly recommend it. I don't want to give any of the story away in case you haven't seen it but if you have and you can remember some of the other great one liners feel free to comment! **A piece of advice, if you do go and are tempted to buy the soundtrack there, don't. It was $28.00 and everywhere from wal-mart to itunes carries it for around $10.00.

Papers, papers everywhere

We seem to have an issue with papers...projects the kids do, the newspaper, mail, junk mail, stuff from church, bills, coupons, a tree or two from Fidelity (they send me very faithfully stacks of papers that make NO sense to me), I am actually going bonkers trying to come up with a way to harness everything. We don't have an office and that is part of the issue, so the kitchen counter, table, computer desk whatever gets cluttered with all of the above. I feel like I am a pretty organized person but the papers are taking over! I guess I am just bitter because it is 1:20 am and I am still cutting coupons from like 6 papers ago, 1/2 of them are expired. I think I'll go to bed.

The Rock Wall

In March Ally climbed the rock wall at Dicks Sporting Goods in Okemos. Every time we go there we spend about 30 minutes playing on the escalator and watching people on the wall. This trip Ally decided she was ready to do it herself. We were so proud of her, she did great!

Bug Howse

I love the new experiences of kids and the creativity of my own. They found this plastic container in a pile of stuff my Aunt Laurie gave us. They took out the beanie baby and came back with the "bug howse". Ally is learning to spell and if you have been there or are heading there let me tell you it is tough. Why wouldn't you spell house that way, she looked at me and said h o w s e, and made the w sound a couple times and just stared at me.
If I were a bug this is for sure where I would want to live. Though I probably wouldn't live long without air. My kids love "light bugs" and the other day Ally actually wanted to bury Emily, her dead firefly. I told her we could probably just get away with throwing her in my flowers, that's probably where she would have wanted to be anyway. Luckily this suggestion was met with no opposition. She opened the door and flicked her into the flowers.

Need a pedicure?

I will be in Alexandria in November maybe I should check out Yvonne's salon...GROSS!

Summer vs. Winter

Why do summer days go so fast and winter days seem to go so slow? Daylight is already starting to end earlier and before you know it we'll be needing a sweatshirt when the sun goes down.

Working Woman of the Week

So following my friend Sara on twitter led me to find that she is the Working Woman of the Week. Sara that deserves a shout out and a link! It doesn't say how she won this honor but way to go! I can't wait to see the plaque.

I love white bread

I was raised on white bread, pure carb loaded, goodness stripped out, delicious white bread. We had bread at every meal. My dad used to make spaghetti or macaroni and cheese sandwiches with buttered bread. Sounds gross but those millions of carbs mixed together are fantastic. Don't believe me, try it yourself. Next time you have spaghetti, take a piece of fresh white bread butter it up, with REAL butter of course, put some spaghetti in there, fold it in half and dig in. This can also be done with original blue box Kraft. Using any other brand, easy mac or homemade has not been tested therefore I can't be held responsible. If you try it let me know.
So I am trying to make the switch slowly but surely to wheat. I have heard that unless it is 100% whole wheat you may as well be eating white, I think that is good advice but I guess I'll continue to try. I have found whole wheat tortillas and whole wheat english muffins that are good but I just can't get into a slice of dry, hard, seedy wheat. My last purchase of bread was "whole grain white" I think this is just glorified white bread but at least it sounds high tech.
I have been trying to add healthier foods to my diet and cut out those that I know are just plain bad. I gave up Diet Coke, again and haven't had any fast food in 3 weeks. I miss the Diet Coke but amazingly I am doing ok without the fried foods. I'll keep you posted on the white to wheat progress!

Family Camp

Family Camp is held at Somerset Beach Campground every year. We just spent the week "camping" with most of Trent's family. I use the term camping very loosely as Trent's parent had a room at the Applewood Lodge. Air conditioning, a real bed and our own bathroom is our camping experience. I know, really roughing it, but I'm just not much of a camper. His parents volunteer for the week and my wonderful sister in law was gracious enough to offer to keep the girls while Trent and I worked the beginning of the week. I stayed out there Wed-Sat and we had so much fun. I feel blessed that my kids were able to spend the week there.
Luckily she can just jump in the lake to clean off!
Playing in the sand is a big part of the day
Sawyer, Cecily, Ally, Wittaker, Lanie, Grammy and Roarke

Saturday was a yucky rainy day, we had planned on staying but the rain sent us home, it gave me a head start on laundry and getting back to life.

The best of the week:
The beach and the beautiful weather
Bible school for the kids
Time with family
Nightly Church service
Learning how to play speed Scrabble
Catching up with friends
The worst of the week:
Hoards of attacking mosquitoes!

Our Vacation - Texas 2008

Thursday the 26th...
Lanie woke up about 7:30, she is my early riser always! Since she was up Ally and I both were up also, we are sharing one room. Our biggest issue last night where everyone was going to sleep. We could have two rooms, two beds, but the girls wanted me with them so we have 1 room, 1 bed and an Aerobed. Who is sleeping with mom? Since we couldn't agree the girls got the bed and I ended up on the lovely Aerobed, at some point in the evening we all ended up on the air mattress and the lovely bed was empty.
We get up to see what's happening, Lanie sees the pool and decides she is ready for a swim at 9:30, I think we got out of the pool around 7:00 - FABULOUS 1st day of vacation.

Friday the 27th...
More swimming, more relaxing. It is HOT here and sitting in the sun actually sets your skin on fire. Dinner time rolls around and I am so excited, we're in Texas, I bet we'll eat something yummy! Nope, the kids choose Cici's Pizza ~ Yuck, not my favorite place.


Saturday the 28th...
Absolutely beautiful day today, of course we spent the morning and afternoon swimming and went to see King Fu Panda in the evening. My brother Corey was home and spent some time in the pool with us, the girls loved that. I'm sure he will appreciate the picture with the pink swimming cap popping up here.

Sunday the 29th...
We were planning on church today but everyone is exhausted and slept in so we didn't quite make it but had a great day just relaxing and catching up with the family.
Monday the 30th...
Grandma had to work until about 12:00 and Grandpa had a Doctor appointment. We were planning on going to the water park, Hawaiian Falls but Grandpa had an issue with his foot and wasn't able to get wet:( One of the things we do every year is go to Chuck E. Cheese, aka germ central, so that is what we did today.

Tuesday the 1st...
Spent the day at Hawaiian Falls with Grandma. We had a fabulous time. Both girls were so adventurous by the end of the day going right down the biggest slides. They both loved the lazy river and wave pool. Lanie wasn't a huge fan of the bucket that dumps like 5000 gallons of water over the entire kid section every 10 minutes or so, can't say that I blame her.


Wednesday the 2nd...
Grandpa had a meeting at work today and Grandma worked today also, so my friend Wendy and her kids came over to enjoy a little pool time. The kids have a sleepover with just Grandma outside on the porch, I was not invited.
Thursday the 3rd...
Woke up around 7:30 surprised to not find Ally in our room. Her and Grandma made it all night in their outdoor tent! We got ready and headed to Sam Moon in Dallas, the girls made out with new jewelry and accessories thanks to Grandma.
My cousin Garrett and his wife Emily arrived today from Arizona. My Aunt Tammee and Uncle Dave moved to Texas a couple years ago and live in Longview about 3 hours from my parents. We had lunch and spent a couple hours in the pool, yes we have logged a lot of hours in that pool! Ryan and I took the girls to see Wall E, another great movie. Lanie made it about 15 minutes into the movie and she was out. Both girls are going to be needing a vacation from their vacation.
Friday the 4th...
Spent the day just lounging around. We swam a bit, napped a bit and just hung out. We are all pretty worn out. We went to the fireworks in the evening and just had a great time! Tomorrow we leave, very sad, but we will be happy to see Trent.



Saturday the 5th...
Today we leave. We started the day with breakfast from McDonalds and went swimming of course. Eric surprised the girls with bumper boats for the pool, they had a fantastic last day in Texas.

Making Waffles

My brother Ryan and Lanie made Belgian Waffles for breakfast, she was super excited to help!

My soccer star

Not a vacation post, but one that is long overdue. Lanie started playing soccer in the fall and LOVES it. We don't keep score with kids this young BUT if we did it usually looks a little like this:
Lanie 10, other kids other team 0. This little boy Landon, was her biggest competition all year.

$80.00

Last night we went to see Kung Fu Panda, Awesome Movie! $80.00 is the reason we don't go very often. For Grandpa and Grandma, me and the girls and one of my brothers to get in my dad shelled out $47.50, the lady behind him about had a stroke when that total was given. Three medium popcorns, a box of Buncha Cruncha, a large bottled water and 2 large drinks added another $32.50. Luckily the movie was great and the money wasn't a total waste.

It looked like it was going to storm last night but it missed us by a couple counties. This morning started a bit overcast but the sun is shining bright as I type. Ally and Lanie are in the pool with my brother Eric and his girlfriend Joanna is heading over to hang out for the afternoon. The pool has been great entertainment for the girls the only thing they have asked to do over and over again is head to Chuck E. Cheese, a yearly tradition.

I'm Baaack....

So it has been a very long time since I have had a couple minutes to post, the days are just too busy. Well I should be able to be bit more regular for at least the next 10 days, I'm on VACATION! We arrived in TX late Wed night or I guess it was really early Thursday morning. Our flight left Detroit at around 9ish (we were supposed to leave at 7:52). We left a little late for a couple reasons...
1. Air Force One was on the runway waiting to depart, I guess when the President is around no one else is allowed to land or takeoff. We didn't get a chance to see the plane but we were looking for it.
2. We had to wait about 30 minutes for some people that came in late from their connecting flight. I did really feel bad for these people. Everyone was staring them down as they were finding their seats which were of course toward the back of the plane, we all knew because of them we were departing even later. The poor dad of the group was dripping with sweat, I mean dripping. It was obvious they had been running to get to the plane.
3. As we got closer to Dallas we had to do a bit of circling due to bad weather. We circled for about 45 minutes waiting for the storm to break but it was just not happening. The pilot kept us well informed and let us know we needed to divert to Oklahoma City for fuel while we waited for the storm to pass. Our next announcement was to let us know Oklahoma was overwhelmed with all the other planes that needed to do the same thing so we were going to head to San Antonio. San Antonio is about 4 1/2hours away from Dallas (further South) so this was about 45 minutes out of our way. We were only on the ground a short while in San Antonio about 45 minutes and then we were ready to head back to Dallas. As we got closer to the airport we had to do the whole circle thing over again as all the planes that were diverted before were now trying to get landed in Dallas. So we circled for a bit more and about 5 hours from the time we left Detroit we finally landed in Dallas and my poor dad who was waiting for us the whole time brought us home!

So here we are 10 days in Texas, yesterday it was 97 degrees but in the shade it just doesn't feel that hot. We began our day in the pool at around 9:30 and got out around 6:00. The kids had a fabulous time and thanks to generous amounts of sunscreen and a partly shaded pool they don't look crispy fried:)

Free Money?

I guess this is the next paypal, I don't know but I just confirmed 25.00 in my bank account. Every person that signs up from my link by May 15th earns 25.00 in their account and 10.00 in mine. Sounds like easy money to me...

Question of the Day...

Have you ever received one of these emails?

Sorry, guys, it's quick and for a kid's school project! (And you are the ones I thought might follow through - either because you have kids, you like science, or you're just plain nice.) This is for a science fair project. If you could do this I would appreciate it! DON'T ASK, JUST PLAY! Copy and paste this entire letter into a new e-mail (PLEASE do NOT hit FORWARD), then read the list of names below. If your name is on the list put a star* next to it. If not, then add your name (in alphabetical order), and do not put in a star. Send it to ten people and send it back to the person who sent it to you. Put your name in the subject box! You'll see what happens...

It's kind of cool! Please keep this going. Don't mess it up, please:

Bloomsburg Division Aaron, Adam, Aileen, Alastair, Alexis, Allison, Amber*, Amy**, Andrea*, Andy**, Angela, Angie, Any, Ann**, Anne***, Asha, Ashley, Astin, Austin, Barb*, Barbara, Beth, Bill*, Bryan, Carenna, Carey, Cathy,Charlie, Cheryl*, Chris, Cindy, Colleen, Connie, Corrie, Dana, Dawn, Debbie, Dennis, Diane, Donna*, Eileen, Elaine, Emily, Erik, Erin, Evelyn, Frank, Georgia, Gina*, Hamilton, Hayley, Heidi, Jackie*, Janet, Janie, Jannette, Jeannie, Jeff, Jen, Jenny, Jennifer*, Jessica, Jill*,Jim, Joanne, Joe, John*, Judy*, Julie, Julia, Kajene, Kara, Karen*, Kate, Kathy***, Kelli, Kelly, Ken, Kendi, Kevin*, Kim**, Kristy, Lauren*, Leigh Anne, Lettie, Liliana, **Linda, Lisa***, Liz, Lori, Lorraine, Lorri, LuAnne, Luz, Mandy, Margery, Maria*, Mark, Marsha, Martha*, Martina, Mary**, Maureen*,Meagan, Melanie, Melissa**, Mia, Michael, Michele***, Michelle*,Milann, Mira, Naira, Nancy*, Noreen, Pam, Renea, Rich, Robyn, Sally, Sandy, Sarah, Sharon, Sheila, Sherol, Sherri, Sonjon, Stephanie**, Susan*, Suzanne*, Tania, Tammy, Teresa***, Theresa*, Therese, Tiffany, Tina, Toni, Tony, Tracey, Troy, Wand, Zaivy

So if I send it to 10 people and the person that sent it to me in what way will the person that started the email for the "school project" ever get it back or know the results? Maybe I'm missing something, will someone enlighten me?
PS...I did send this to 10 people and not a darn thing has happened.

Tea Vs. Sweet Tea

So I love McDonalds tea, it is one of my very favorite drinks. I don't do tea that isn't fresh brewed and since I am from the south I am familiar with tea and sweet tea. In TX there are two things you should know about drinks. 1. Everything is Coke. At a restaurant if you say I'll have a coke don't be surprised when they say what kind? This is where you respond Dr. Pepper, Diet Coke, Orange or whatever soft drink you were wanting. 2. If you order tea they will ask regular or sweet, most establishments from Whataburger (one of my first destinations when I get to TX) to fancy restaurants will have 2 pitchers one for regular tea and one for sweet tea. Sure you could put the sugar in yourself but it is so popular they do it for you. I personally don't care for sweet tea, it is just, well too sweet. Now if you are here in Michigan you have noticed that Mickey D's has rolled out there new sweet tea campaign. So here is my beef (no pun intended) with the campaign. You can order a large sweet tea for 1.00 or get a plain ol large tea for 1.69? WHY in the world would you need to charge .69 more for tea that doesn't have the added sugar or whatever they use to make it sweet? In a world that makes sense wouldn't you think you could argue that the sweet tea would be more expensive due to the added expense necessary in the sweetener? I don't know maybe I am just disappointed with service issues all around, what do you think?

Dear Target - Part II

Dear Jason,

Did you even read my letter? I am wondering how many other people receive this exact response on a daily basis? Absolutely unacceptable for a store of Target's caliber. I am shocked at the response but in no way surprised given the absolute disregard for customer service in the first place.

In no way did you even address my complaint, you just repeated what I already knew. Will anyone be brave enough to actually address my concerns or will I continue to receive a stream of computer generated letters? I guess we'll see on my next response.

Dear Target - The Response

Dear Maria Wilson,

I'm sorry for any disappointment due to our registry return and exchange policy.

We will issue a full refund for most new and unused items returned within 90 days, with the original receipt, packaging and accessories.

Since this is a gift you'll need to ask the gift giver for the gift receipt which we gave when it was purchased. If that's lost, don't worry there are still two options for making your return. If the gift giver has a copy of the original receipt, they can simply take it to the Guest Service desk and request a reprint of the gift receipt. If they don't have the original receipt, the gift giver will need to take the item with their card or check to our Guest Service desk and ask about receipt look up. Most purchases made by check, credit, debit or GiftCards can be located and returned with this process, within 90 days.

Of course, we know that the unexpected can happen. That's why your Jackson Target store will accommodate two no receipt returns a year for you on small gifts under $20. Just bring in your ID and the gift to explore this option further.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts and comments with us. Your feedback is helpful in our continual review of our return policy. We're always glad to hear from you, so if you have any further questions or comments, give us a call at (800) 888-9333. You can also check with a Guest Services Team Lead at your store, or visit us on Target.com. Any way you choose, we're here to help!

We hope to see you again soon at Target.

Sincerely,

Jason
Target Gift Registries

Calling all wii owners...

My girls are getting a wii for their birthday's, any suggestion on games? They are going to be 5 and 7...

Can you get dad?

This statement should be music to my ears but it actually hurts just a bit. Last night at bed time I was tucking Ally in and a bit teary eyed she said "when you are done scratching my back can you get dad"? Trent was actually coming in at the same time and asked her what she needed. She told him that she would talk to him about it when mom left. I could tell Trent was a bit nervous about how I might react to being left out so he was explaining to her that whatever she needed to say she could go ahead while I was there. She said no so I excused myself from my back scratching duties, gave her a kiss told her I loved her then let her pour out her heart to her dad. Inside I am screaming, why the heck don't you want to talk to me?
She rides the bus to the Y on Thursdays and takes swimming. This child is not a fan of change, she likes to get on the bus the same place every day and she likes to get off the bus at the same place every day. So when Thursday rolls around she isn't too excited to have her schedule changed. She loves swimming but gets nervous about everything else. Where do I go, who will help me, what will we have for snack, who will pick me up, where will I change in to my suit, who will sit by me, and the list goes on.
So last night she is telling Trent that her eyes hurt when she swims. And she doesn't know where to go to wait for us to pick her up. I'm thinking why can't she ask me about those things? I shouldn't care, I know that Trent is the best dad and I am so proud that Ally feels comfortable enough with her dad to discuss things when she is hurting. And it's not just Ally, yesterday at conferences for Lanie her teacher was telling us how much Lanie loves her dad! Does it leave me feeling a bit like chopped liver, yep. But it also makes me realize how lucky I am to have such a close family.
So we'll see how the day goes today, Ally had a tummy ache this morning which without a fever is almost always a "nervous" sign. I am hoping she makes it through the day. I sent her to school with some saltines and some Tums and had to explain to her that if she got sick at school we wouldn't be able to get her. She knows throwing up = going home and no Y, she has done this a handful of times this year, but we're on to her. As I am telling her this I am thinking I probably wouldn't want to talk to me either! Oh well, kids learn how to play their parents and right now I am the mean one, I guess that is ok, someday it will be Trent's turn.

Dear Target...

I would like to express my deepest disappointment with Target's lack of customer care. In looking at your "values" section online it mentions your commitment to the community, environment and diversity but I did not see any section that outlines your commitment to your customers.
I have worked in retail before and completely understand the need to put a return policy in place. I also understand that unfortunately there will be individuals that will try to undermine your system however, there are times when policies should and can be modified. I am writing to specifically complain about the Target store on West Ave. in Jackson MI.
I have a friend that recently had triplets. As you can imagine there were and still are many items that are given to them as gifts and Target was one of the stores they chose to register with. When you offer the public a chance to register with your company you should also know that there will be times when an exchange or return needs to be made and maybe a gift receipt was not attached. When my friend and husband tried to exchange packages of Target brand diapers they were told that was not possible as they have each returned too many items without receipts within Target's specified time period (which they were told was unknown how long the time period would be).
I am shocked that common sense would not allow them to just trade the diapers from size newborn to size one. So in your own words: "Responsible. Accountable. Committed to continuous improvement." (found on your "values" page) I challenge you to come up with a more customer focused return policy and make it easier to shop at target. I would also like someone to address my specific complaint. Based on your above mentioned statements here is what I would like to know:
1. As a consumer I believe that denying the right to exchange an item that was obviously purchased at your store is irresponsible, especially when a couple registered with you and persuaded people to shop in your store.
2. I would like to know in what way you will be held accountable.
3. I would also like to know in what way you think you can improve.

Thank You, Maria Wilson

I heart this blog!

Sara had a reference to this site, it is worth checking it out, very funny stuff!

Hiatus

I have been on hiatus...No reason except for how a 24 hour day seems to be crammed into like only 12 hours. I'm not sure exactly how it happens but it just seems like there is too much to do in a day. Three days last week I left my house at 7:10 a.m. and didn't get home til after 8:00 or 9:00. So I keep thinking I need to update but when 12:00 a.m. rolls around I am just ready to go to bed. I know some people do this all the time but it is starting to leave me a little drained and tired of driving...With gas being oh such a great value it is hard to drive all over town and not watch the gas gauge head south and think that is 50 bucks I could have spent on something way more fun.

Things of note...

Last time I was getting my hair done my hair dresser was telling me about another one of her clients (we'll call her Abby to help the story flow better), whose friend called and told her she HAD to check out this person's myspace page. So she goes to myspace and thinks she is looking at her own site as all the pictures are of her~ This person actually posted Abby's pictures and called them her own. She even went so far as to post a picture of Abby and her sister and claim it was identity stealer and her girlfriend. That would be just a touch creepy!

Sunday I wore sandals to church even though I had to step over a little pile of snow. I REFUSE to put boots back on, for pete sake it is spring.

Reality tv, I admit I love it. The biggest loser is my favorite show. I am totally pulling for Kelly I never expected her to get this far. She should be so proud of her accomplishments!

Do you ever completely forget things and know there is something you are forgetting but for the life of you cannot muster what the thought was no matter how hard you try? Seriously my short term memory is shot these days, we'll just blame that memory loss on the kids...

Spring Break

Ally: Can I call Anna...
Me: She's in Florida
Ally: Can I call Faith...
Me: She's in Maryland
Ally: Can I call Alyssa...
Me: She's in Florida too
Ally: When is spring break going to be over?

LOST

April 24th is when the next episode will be on. I thought they gave up breaks in the middle of the season when they decided not to even start the show until January...Yep, I'm bitter!

Oh Yeah, It's Spring

My poor plants are just a bit confused.

March Madness

It begins today and I am excited, I actually moved patients around this afternoon so my boss could watch the MSU game. I love March Madness basketball and the excitement of the game. Here is Trent's picks -



If you pick a perfect bracket you can win $5,000,000 on yahoo sports. All I can say is go Trent!

The Bachelor

I have so much to say about the new Bachelor, I just don't have time to post it now but it's coming. I can say the world is just full of idiots with Stacy topping the list.

Eggs

I can't believe it is almost Easter, it seems like it was Christmas just yesterday. Tonight we colored eggs with Carli, the girls had a great time and loved putting on the glitter.

Healthy=Expensive

I went to the grocery store today with the most organized list, menu plan and stack of coupons ever! I came out with one of the largest grocery bills I have ever had, and the only non food items I bought were razors AND I stuck to the list. Normally razors would have been a bigger contributor but today they were on sale and I had coupons so my new razor and 4 refill pack only ended up costing 8.00, 1.99 cheaper than refills on my current razors 3 pack. I joined Weight Watchers last week, I need to drop some pounds and unfortunately the only time I am successful is when I have to pay someone once a week to weigh me. So I got a paper today, mapped out the sale items, pulled my coupons, got out my Deceptively Delicious and Weight Watchers cookbooks and planned out our week. It is so much easier and cheaper to eat crap, we all know about the dollar menu? For $1.00 you can get a double cheeseburger, if you want a salad with chicken it is going to cost you like $5.00. The same scenario fits at good ol' Meijer. I had a huge list of fruits and vegetables including carrots, celery, potatoes, cauliflower, butternut squash, broccoli, spinach, lettuce, beets, avocado, sweet potato, onions, lemons, limes, strawberries, blueberries, grapes, and watermelon. Most of these items will be taking a trip to my blender for various recipes, but these items alone really boosted up the bill. So our plan this week is to not eat out even once, not for dinner, lunch or breakfast. I think we will find that we will spend about the same amount on food, I'm just not used to spending it all at once. However, I am looking at our tomorrow and Ally has ballet til 6:00 and her spring musical at 7:00, not sure when I am going to fit in one of the healthy meals I have all planned out. Do you think she could eat cranberry pork chops or chicken taco bake on the road? I am going to try to get creative and avoid a drive thru, we'll see how it goes. My victories continue, tonight my kids ate chocolate pudding and guess what the main ingredient was? Avocado...I love my new cookbook!

I am Kate Austen

I took the who are you quiz on facebook today and discovered I am Kate Austen, who knew...There are only a few differences between Kate and I.
1. I haven't stolen a baby and called it my own
2. I haven't killed anybody
3. I am not wanted by the law for countless broken laws
4. Last but not least I'm pretty sure if I was stranded on an island and woke up every day with no make up or flat iron there wouldn't be two gorgeous men fighting for my affection

I also wish every LOST episode was a throwback pop up video, I love it. I also would like to state before the episode begins in 13 minutes that I believe Michael will be Ben's accomplice on the boat.
I'm also loving the fact that they are actually bringing story lines together I recently read an interview that by the end of the season we will know if Aaron is considered one of the Oceanic Six and who was in the coffin at the end of last season. Can you tell I'm loving LOST!
I just hope it doesn't get to jiggy with the whole time travel thing. If you happen to know what show Daniel Farraday played on before LOST please let me know it is driving Trent crazy.

It's okay it's old...

So Sara reminded me that I haven't blogged about "the chair". Have you ever had one of those moments where you wish you could just sink into the floor? Well this is one of those stories and I guess in a way I did sink to the floor...A couple weeks ago we were at a friends for small group and dinner. We are getting ready to eat and I go to sit down, then at the last second, I decide to sit in a different chair because I notice it had arms. I pick up my glass of water to move and yep this is what happened next...

Nothing, I mean nothing boosts you up like breaking a chair as you are going to sit in it! I mean seriously, I am holding a glass of water (not a drop spilled by the way) still crouched, trying to wrap my head around what just happened. Lissa, the owner of the chair, was so sweet and said "that's okay it's old", I'm thinking to myself - yeah...yeah it is old because it is an antique!!! I'm not sure if they were able to save the chair or not but I feel absolutely horrible about breaking it and am seriously considering a diet.

Deceptive

So for my birthday I got the greatest cookbook, Deceptively Delicious by Jessica Seinfeld. If you have kids you need this cookbook, it is filled with recipes to sneak fruits and vegetables into everyday foods. I have successfully blended cauliflower into macaroni and cheese, mashed potatoes and chicken chili. They have totally eaten spaghetti with sweet potato and cauliflower and didn't even bat an eye. How do you accomplish this amazing feat? You puree the vegetables so they are completely smooth like baby food, then the deception begins. My kids have no idea the veggies they have been eating and I feel so triumphant. It is almost like a game to figure out what I can sneak into their food.

Complete sidenote, Sweet Home Alabama is on right now and I heart this movie, alot!

My Favorite Picture

Every year Ally's ballet studio has a daddy daughter dance around Valentine's Day. Trent takes the girls and they have a special night together without mom. Every year I want to sneak over to the studio just to watch them together. I love watching Trent interact with his girls, he is so amazing and they love every minute of him.

Tell Someone Who Cares

Tonight I ran into Kohl's after I dropped the kids off at church. Ally was in desperate need of new shoes so I decided to see if I could find any good deals. I did find her some shoes as well as a great appreciation for the grandparents in my kids lives. There was a little girl about five shopping with her grandma, here is a snippet of their conversation
Five year old: "Grandma how about this shirt I think it's cute"
Grandma: "You are going to need to tell someone who cares, we gotta get the he** outta here, American Idol is about to start"
I'm not sure where else to go with this story but to feel comforted that these are words my kids will never hear from their grandparents...

Blank

So I finally have a couple minutes to blog and my brain is apparently on empty. I am sitting here but not one darned thing is coming to mind. Huh, maybe I'll take that as a hint that it is time for bed...

That's what VCR's are for

Last night I had the privilege of going to Family Reading Night with Ally at her school. Quite honestly it has been a long week, we have had something to do every night and heading back to Parma at 6:30 was the last thing I wanted to do on a Thursday night. You may think this post is going to be about my t.v. addiction, but keep reading...So Jason Colthorp was the "celebrity" reader, I am now a Jason fan. He was hilarious, had the kids engaged in the story and seemed like a genuinely nice guy. He interacted with the kids and it didn't even seem to bother him when the kids interrupted or said things not quite appropriate for the moment. Ally even jumped off my lap so she could sit closer to him, quite a move for a clingy kid. As he is answering questions about what he does he tells the crowd that he will be moving to channel 10 as of Monday so look for him there at 11:00. He tells the kids that's pretty late so they might miss him when a dad yells "hey that's what VCR's are for". Maybe it was just me but it caught me a bit off guard to hear of someone still recording on a VCR. Quite honestly I had actually forgotten that function of the VCR. We don't have DVR in our house but I seriously thought I was the last person in Jackson without it. Until that guy mentioned it I had totally forgotten we even had the capability to record t.v. Granted you can't watch the tape till it is actually done recording your show but thanks unknown dad for reminding me that we do have the power to record. And by the way the book he read was Skippyjon Jones and it was a great book!

Her favorite "toy"

When people ask what to get my kids as gifts I usually stammer and say "I don't know" and this is why. Today was clean up day in Lanie's room. She is ready to retire her Dora Castle and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse both of which she just got for Christmas. All morning she has been playing in her clubhouse with cans of food. This is her clubhouse...

yep, it's a box

Penicillin and Clown Make-up

These two items may not seem related at all to you, but to one of the patients in my office - these items could cause an allergic reaction. Since we need to know any allergies you have we have a box marked OTHER. Honestly, this is the first time I have seen clown make-up but I am wondering if I should add it as a permanent resident on the medical history. You never know when we might bust out the clown paraphernalia when you are hyped up on nitrous and Novocaine:)

Do you back up?

So I get my computer back tonight and I guess it was an easy fix. Bryan said it wasn't too much to get it back on track but to make sure I have my files backed up because generally with the 2006 Dell's it is the hard drive that crashes. Again such comforting words! Luckily I do back up, the threat of losing my entire itunes collection and family photos was just too much for me. I found free offsite at mozy.com, if you sign up, mention me and I will get some additional storage space. I am going to try to stop complaining about my computer now...

I guess you have to enter a referral code or my email address for me to get credit. Here is the code: 3B8H88

Blue screen of death

So a couple weeks ago I'm downloading some pictures and the "blue screen" comes flying at me! Have you seen this screen? It has a bunch of technical stuff and the comforting words your computer is doing a physical memory dump as to not harm windows....HUH? So it shuts down and when I go to turn it back on the blue screen is the only screen my computer wants to present. After it sits for a couple days I decide to call my friend Bryan who usually bails me out when my computer and I disagree on how it should run. Of course me vs. computer the computer wins. Computer vs. Bryan, Bryan is triumphant and he says it's a driver issue with 2006 Dell computers. You may remember a couple months back I was ready to smash my Dell with a sledgehammer. I am still feeling this way and am really disappointed with the lack of concern from Dell customer service.
This being said they certainly won't be receiving any further business from me. I feel I was duped into buying a computer that was more than I needed, translation: cost a lot more money AND has had issues since we purchased it AND the last rep I spoke to told me it was a known issue with the model. The fans have been replaced twice with no correction of the problem and now they won't even consider looking further into the matter as my warranty has expired. If it was a new issue I would expect that I would need to pay for service or get a new warranty or whatever. But this is an ongoing issue, a problem that has not been resolved since 2006 and new fans, a new motherboard and BIOS updates have all been unsuccessful. Is it really too much to ask for your computer to not sound like a jet engine preparing for take off? I think not! Macbook, here I come...

Letter to my pastor...

I just wanted to thank you for the grow survey. The timing for me could not have been more perfect as my lowest scoring area was missions. Honestly, I have in the past dreaded "missions month" and it is probably my most missed month of church in the year. I know that sounds horrible...
This year after the survey, after talking with my small group, I have tried to examine my heart and find a new perspective. I think I personally feel so insignificant sometimes here in my own little world how could I impact someone across the universe? I guess I didn't think that my prayers or pennies counted. It didn't seem like it was a big enough sacrifice, but I guess every baby step counts. When I was in Florida I came across an article about Haiti's poorest eating dirt to survive. I thank God for putting that article in front of me, when I got home we got the hand out that outlined missionary family's and different church projects. Lo and behold our church has a program with goats in Haiti! It was exciting and pointed me towards a way to reach out. So I guess I just wanted you to know that my heart has been touched by the missions focus and thank you. Without that survey, without the missions focus I would be none the wiser and probably would have just glossed over the article, and gone through the month only half in to it. I really enjoyed hearing Blake Wood yesterday and learning more about Mel Hayward's adventures. Sometimes new perspective is all we need.
Thanks again, Maria

facebook

So I signed up for a facebook account a while back, but I'll be honest, I think it's tough to navigate. Maybe I just need to spend some time messing around with it but I am in need of a facebook lesson. I find it difficult to sometimes even get back to my own profile. So if you have an account look me up, hopefully the more I use it the more it will make sense!

Lost and Redneck Weddings

Ok, so what happened to Lost? I missed the season premiere last week because we were flying home from Florida. I thought last week it was on Thursday for a special premiere. I still haven't seen it because my computer has a "blue screen" error but that is a whole different story. I have been waiting for it to replay as I know ABC, and I know they just have to re-play the episodes to fill in. So last night I assumed that it would be back to Wed night, I check the listings and find Wife Swap, Suppernanny and Cashmere Mafia, no Lost. What the heck? I check yahoo tv this morning and find that it is on tonight following a re-broadcast of the premiere. Did I miss a memo that it was moving to a new night? A new night that does not work well for me if the writers strike ever ends. How am I supposed to watch Ugly Betty, The Office, Grey's Anatomy and Lost when they are all on at the same time and we don't yet have Tivo? So I am in the kitchen doing dishes and pouting about no tv and Trent yells "turn on 58, hurry". The girls at his his work have been talking about this show, My Big Redneck Wedding. Have you heard about it? If you haven't, and you want a good laugh, check it out on CMT! Geneva and Kyle were featured last night and wow, here is just a bit about them...
"Geneva and Kyle are 18 years old, redneck and in love. Deep in the Appalachian Mountains of Tennessee, this worry-free couple chose the public golf course with its busy driving range for their chapel. Fearing neither flying golf balls nor Geneva's traditional parents, they're going whole hog with all the fixings -- pork rinds, ground souse meat and pickled pig's feet. Attire is camo for all the guests. A tractor brings in the bride. That is, if the groom survives his own bachelor party -- a full-on bottle rocket war where the fireworks are aimed at each other. Somehow, these two are set on showing their friends and family that they're young and fun, but their marriage is the real deal with a beautiful country-themed wedding in the great outdoors."
And, no I didn't make that up. When other shows come back, this one still may be searched out when I need a laugh:)

I love you so so so......

As heard at bedtime a couple nights ago
Me: I love you so so much
Lanie: I love you so,so,so,so,so,so,so,so(continues for another 58 times) much. But it really comes out more like "ho" because of the way she says her "s"
Me: Wow I am so lucky, I love you this much - arms opened wide
Lanie: I love you the biggest mucher - arms opened as wide as they can go
Me: I am so lucky that God gave you to me
Lanie: Yeah, I know it, with her nose scrunched up and giggling

Was it the Haircut?

One of my favorite parts of any sporting event are the statistics they pull from past events. Some of my favorite examples are:
The last time a team came back to win after being down in the 4th quarter was...
The only other team that came back to win after scoring no points in the 1st half was...
The last time a team won after the quarterback was sacked this many times was... yada yada, you get the picture. The next time you watch a game look for the comparisons they make to "the last time" it really makes the game more entertaining.
So I am waiting and wondering if anyone will comment on Tom Brady's haircut and blame their Superbowl loss on the fact that it appears he got a little trim before the big game. I don't know but I am sure somebody at ESPN could find out how many Superbowls were won or lost when the quarterback sported a fresh do on the day of the big game. Who knows if Tom would have done his research the numbers may have proved he should have held off...

Right Now

Right now I am thankful for...
My mother in law - she is out on a bike ride with the kids, and I am outside checking to see if the weather might just force us to stay in Florida and extra day or so
My vacation time at work that allows me to take a break in the dead of winter
Fresh fruit, we just had the most amazing strawberry shortcake drenched in ice cream and whipped cream
The sun, it is amazing how much I missed being outside
Heated pools, the girls swam this afternoon and even with sunscreen Lanie's cheeks are a touch pink and her freckles are back
My husband and the fact that he actually is excited for us to come home, he was missing us by his 2nd day alone

Struggling to Survive, Haiti's Poor Eating Dirt

Reading the Tampa paper this morning I came across an article with this title. Recently our church took a quiz called Grow, it asked 3 questions in 14 key areas and allowed you to score yourself on different aspects such as prayer, bible knowledge, evangelism etc... My lowest area, Misssions...It's not that I don't support missions, or want to help. I think I feel so insignificant in my own town that to tackle the world seems next to impossible. However, as I read that the people of Haiti are forced to eat "cookies" made of dirt, salt and vegetable shortening it made my heart just ache for these people. Food prices around the world have spiked due to the higher oil prices and prices for basic ingredients such as corn and wheat have also increased due to the global demand for biofuels.
The most depressing part? At the market in the La Saline slum, two cups of rice now sell for 60 cents. 60 cents? I am sure most of us can find 60 cents in our cars, pockets, couch cushions, the washer a variety of different places. So what am I going to do now that I have this knowledge? First I will pray for the people of Haiti and second I will search for an organization that helps these people. I never read the paper, thank you Lord for putting this article before me and opening my eyes to greater issues than my own...

Can we live here?

Ally asked her dad tonight if he could come down so that we could live here and we wouldn't have to go back to the cold. Looking at the Michigan weather forecast I am wondering the same thing?

Bippity, boppity, boo and a little crying too!

As you know we, me and the girls, are in Florida for a visit with my in-laws, nope Trent isn't with us. I am super lucky that my in-laws will take me without their son and I am ok with coming without him. My mother and father in law are such wonderful people and we have had such a great time. We got in super late on Friday night, I think we pulled into their house at 2:00 am, and we'll be here until Thursday evening. The temp has been a bit chilly for Florida but AWESOME compared to what we left. Saturday was in the 60's and we weren't afraid to pull out our capri's and sweatshirts. Floridians had on coats but hey we're in Florida I'm not taking off my flip flops off until we head back to the cold. We spent the day just moseying... we slept in, rode bikes, hit a flea market and made a run to Target for a few of the things we left home. We had dinner at Crispers, which is kind of like Panera, with really good flatbread pizzas. Sunday I awoke to Lanie telling me it was time to go to church and I was going to miss it. The night before I confirmed that church was at 10:00. I can see the church out the side window of the house, so we need to leave at oh, 9:59 to get there on time. I of course jump out of bed and it's like 8:15, I am thinking to myself thanks for starting my day with a mini heart attack Lanes...We went to lunch at Sweet Tomato's which is a soup, salad, pasta, bakery buffet - it was very good and I left there feeling like I never wanted to eat again I was so full, but isn't that what you do on vacation? We then went to see the Manatees at Apollo Beach, outside of Tampa Bay. The power plant there discharges warm water and the Manatees move in when the water gets cold. The girls thought this was really cool and the girls got their science lesson for the day! Monday the temp was prob about 67 and we spent the entire day at the Magic Kingdom, which was just a fabulous day. We got a little later start than we should have but thought it would give the girls a little more staying power for the 8:00 fireworks display. We saw the Wishes Come True show at Cinderella's castle with Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy, the Princesses, characters from Peter Pan and the mean witch from Sleeping Beauty. Lanie's face was priceless as she marveled at all the characters on stage, until the witch arrived and scared her. Her face went from magical to downright ready to go, "me no want to see mean witch" were her exact words. Ally being the good big sister that she is said "it's OK Lanie, she'll be gone in a minute". After the mean witch was gone smiles returned and we made our way to Toon Town at the back of the park. We saw lots of characters along the way but as we tried to get in line, they were already closed as the character had another adventure to get to. That was a bit disappointing on this visit we only got Bert's autograph from Mary Poppins, we already had Mary's...
We then saw and walked right by the Tea Cups as me, Grammy and Boppa all knew we would get sick twirling round and round, I almost puked the last time I went on that ride, yuck. We kind of wandered for a bit at this point because everything had a 45 minute wait and we had an appointment at the Bippity Boppity Boutique in 45 minutes. The girls had an appointment with their fairy Godmother in training to get there hair and nails done. Since they were running about 30 minutes behind they give you a pager and you can go back out into the park as long as you stay within a certain distance. We were able to ride Dumbo while we waited and then we headed over to our special appointment. This was a Disney Dream for Ally and Lanie well, not so much. Ally picked the princess hairstyle that came complete with tiara and diamond Mickey clip. Not sure what Lanie was thinking when she picked the Pop Princess funny colored hair sticking all over the place do. They don't let the girls see their hair as they are doing it I guess for a big exciting reveal, Ally was turned around and her face was priceless, she was so excited. Lanie was turned around and her face was also priceless as she started to cry and tried to tear out her hair!!! Ok, so as you can imagine all things Disney are not cheap and I am tearing up because I am so disappointed that she is disappointed and of course I am thinking, am I really going to have to pay for something we are going to be pulling out immediately?? They can't modify the hairstyle at all so the lady was ticking me off, because I thought if we just pulled out the colorful crazy ratted thing on top of her hair she'll be fine and we'll just move on. She tells me no but I can do whatever I want to it after we leave the salon, at this point the tears are about to start streaming down my face. I am not even sure who said "do you want to look like a princess like your sister", Lanie nods yes pouty lip and all and they redo her hair. I guess this is what I wanted to happen but didn't really expect it. Once again Disney deserves a shout out for its excellent customer service. So after that ordeal the girls looked adorable, Lanie was much happier and we went to have some lunch. We ended up at the Starlight Cafe and that was really disappointing. Everything is usually fantastic at Disney but my food and Ally's was not very good, I maybe would have complained had I not been drained from our Boutique experience. There was also some creepy Alf like character singing and trying to make jokes, couldn't they have put someone like I don't know, Mickey up there? Note to all reading, don't go there, I just don't recommend it. We continued our day on different rides and adventures, we only waited for like maybe 10 minutes for it's a small world and we waited about 50 minutes for the Peter Pan ride. You may have just noticed I didn't capitalize it's a small world, either does Disney, it kind of puzzled me...
We skipped the Spector Magic parade to ride a couple additional rides and were able to see the fireworks over Cinderella's Castle. All in all it was a fabulous day, the girls did well with the exception of the hair meltdown, and the only thing I could have asked for was just a bit more time, we didn't even see 1/2 the park. Oh well, I guess that gives us something to look forward to. Today was like 75 and sunny and we spent the day riding bikes, relaxing, laying in the sun and the girls had a chance to swim. Sorry for all of you that are braving the pouring rain and dropping temps, I guess you will be waking to something really exciting. More about our trip later...

Happy Birthday

So it has been a while since I have been off the couch. I spent my birthday yesterday curled up on the couch praying that I wouldn't cough because it just hurts too bad. I started feeling sick Monday night, by Tuesday morning it had caught up with me and I had a fever, bad cough and just all around achy. I tried to go to work and was sent home by my friend Julie that did not want to get sick. I don't blame her I wouldn't have wanted to be around me either. I thought if I went I would be ok, but sadly that was not the case. Ally started this bug last Thursday. Lanie was fighting it off Friday and by Monday night it had gotten to me. Lanie and I are both going to the Dr. today to verify what we do or don't have. On the up side my husband did give me Guitar Hero III, which I am pretty excited about, we haven't opened it yet because yesterday was such a crappy day. Maybe tonight we'll be rock stars...

Thought for the Day...

Imagine What You Can Achieve. Achieve What You Can Imagine.
Support. Participate. Volunteer. Give.

Found on the web page
Chelsea Center for the Arts

Weekend at Bernies?

If you loved the movie Weekend at Bernies you may get a kick out of this story, seriously people are such idiots. I need to start a new blog just to post the dumb things people do!

A mistake?

This mom made up a crazy story about her daughter's dad being killed in Iraq to get Hannah Montanna tickets. What is wrong with people???

Twins

I saw a video clip from msn news today about a mom that had one of her twins in her pant legs. Amazing story however, I can't get past their names. Curt and Curtis, huh? Isn't that kind of the same name? I don't have twins but I have twin brothers and sometimes their names just seemed like one. In this particular situation I guess they kind of are...

I am Normal

The other day as I was sitting on hold I found myself blog hopping through the friends of friends blogs, I am not sure exactly where I found the post on "normal" but it was like reading a good book, it inspired me, got me thinking...
"Normal is getting dressed in clothes that you buy for work and driving through traffic in a car that you are still paying for - in order to get to the job you need to pay for the clothes and the car, and the house you leave vacant all day so you can afford to live in it.” ellen degeneres
Wow! This quote hit me like a ton of bricks! I so don't want to be normal but, I am. I think there is so much for me to accomplish, so much I can accomplish but how do I do it? I wish I could answer myself.
How do people go from normal to extraordinary? We are all brought into this earth the same way, we all age day by day, and we all grow up influenced good or bad by our surroundings. Most of us eventually leave home to begin our own lives, sometimes doing what we intended to do and sometimes just being caught up in the motions and sometimes doing something amazing. When Mary was born she had no idea she would give birth to the Mesiah, when Ben Franklin was born, who knew he would harness the power of electricity? Every day there are people making a difference, I am caught in the motions. Don't get me wrong I thank God everyday, well pretty much everyday, for what I have and for what I don't have. I have an amazing family, amazing friends, and things that I love in my life. But I am still normal.
What do I want? I used to want a high power career, a lot of money, a big house and a nanny. Thank goodness we grow up, and sometimes we change. What do I want now? To make a difference in the world, to be a good example to my friends and family, for God to be proud of me. A song that often times plays over and over in my head is American Baby, by Dave Matthews..."God's grace is gone and the devil is proud" I certainly don't want to make the Devil proud. What can I do to make God proud? This is my new quest - to be used for God's glory in whatever, not in what I want but where he wants me. This will be hard, it is difficult to actually let God be the Lord of your life and not try to put your own will ahead of his. I know I am selfish but I am going to try, I will consciously continue to seek and hopefully find my way out of normal.

Four degrees...

This is our temp this morning in good ol Michigan unless you want to go by wind chill which is -8. We will be heading to Florida at the end of the month and that date can't come soon enough! We are lucky that Trent's parents now winter in Lakeland, Fl and my parents live full time in TX. We love warm places to visit!

I believe

This was sent to me from my dad...Thought it was a good one to pass along.

I believe... That just because two people argue, it doesn't mean
they don't love each other. And just because they don't argue,
it doesn't mean they do love each other.

I believe... That we don't have to change friends if we understand
that friends change.

I believe .... That no matter how good a friend is, they're going to
hurt you every once in a while and you must forgive them for that.

I believe.... That true friendship continues to grow, even over the
longest distance. Same goes for true love.

I believe .... That you can do something in an instant that will give
you heartache for life.

I believe ..... That it's taking me a long time to become the person
I want to be.

I believe..... That you should always leave loved ones with loving
words. It may be the last time you see them.

I believe .... That you can keep going long after you think you can't.

I believe ..... That we are responsible for what we do, no matter how
we feel.

I believe .... That either you control your attitude or it controls you.

I believe ..... That heroes are the people who do what has to be done
when it needs to be done, regardless of the consequences.

I believe.... That money is a lousy way of keeping score.

I believe..... That my best friend and I can do anything or nothing
and have the best time.

I believe..... That sometimes the people you expect to kick you
when you're down, will be the ones to help you get back up.

I believe....... That sometimes when I'm angry I have the right
to be angry, but that doesn't give me the right to be cruel.

I believe..... That maturity has more to do with what types of
experiences you've had and what you've learned from them,
and less to do with how many birthdays you've celebrated.

I believe..... That it isn't always enough to be forgiven by others;
sometimes you have to learn to forgive yourself.

I believe...... That no matter how bad your heart is broken the world
doesn't stop for your grief.

I believe....... That our background and circumstances may have
influenced who we are, but we are responsible for who we become..

I believe ....... That you shouldn't be so eager to find out a secret.
It could change your life Forever.

I believe ....... That two people can look at the exact same thing
and see something totally different.

I believe....... That your life can be changed in a matter of hours by
people who don't even know you.

I believe...... That even when you think you have no more to give,
when a friend cries out to you - you will find the strength to help.

I believe...... That credentials on the wall do not make you a decent
human being.

I believe ...... That the people you care about most in life are taken
from you too soon.


The happiest people don't necessarily have the best of
everything; they just make the best of everything they have.