Don’t Be Cruel—To Yourself

Posted on October 24, 2012 by

I’ve mentioned before that I am a follower of Dr. Laura.  As such I subscribe to her daily blog.  I thought I’d pass along one of her posts because I thought it was so relevant to me and most every woman I know.  It’s about body image and how to stop obsessing over it.

There are SO many more important things in this world to fixate our thoughts and actions on.  Worrying about wrinkles, lines and rolls isn’t one of them.

Here’s my favorite two paragraphs from the article, but If you have a sec, I highly recommend clicking through this link to read the entire post.

“In my opinion, women are to blame for this obsession with their bodies. I read a Glamour magazine survey (which obviously only sampled women who are obsessed with glamor) revealing that 97 percent of women are cruel to their bodies on a daily basis. After surveying 300 women of all sizes, the researchers found that, “On average, women have 13 negative body thoughts daily – nearly one for every waking hour. And a disturbing number of women confess to having 35, 50 or even 100 hateful thoughts about their own shapes each day.”

That is sick stuff. I feel sorry for these women who are more concerned about superficial things than their brain or character. They are not worried about choosing the right men, doing charity work, getting educated, or being aware of what is going on in their community and world.” –Dr. Laura

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Ann Romney–Classy Lady

Posted on October 22, 2012 by

I try to never talk about national politics mainly because I find it very frustrating to watch people who should be leading our country doing little more than dragging each other through the mud. It’s an embarrassment to our country and doesn’t say much about our ability to lead.

I do however consider my self a politically involved person.  I spend most of my time worrying about issues on a State and local level.  My husband and I have had great success in being part of the political process and bettering our own community.

My idea of a great candidate would be someone I could elect based on their own merits.  I DON’T want to elect someone based on how poorly their opponent believes they would do in office.

That’s neither here nor there, except for the fact that I am making an exception to talk about a national political subject because this post is about Ann Romney.  I’m writing about her because I think she’s classy.  She should be, and she is and I think it’s worth mentioning.

I actually wish it was her running for office and not her husband.  I think she’s done a better job of running a clean, non-negative campaign.

I’ve always admired Mrs. Romney but after seeing her on Jay Leno the other night, I’d now say I was a fan.  I think she did a great job of representing herself, her husband, the campaign and our country.

I like that she’s raised five kids and has been married for many decades.  I like that she knows about hardship and struggle after battling MS. I like that she supports her husband even though campaigning (again) isn’t the first thing on her list of fun things.  I like that she spoke so highly of Michelle Obama.  And I like that she is a big fan of Costco.  I am too.

This may or may not be a political endorsement, but I think Ann Romney and her family have a lot to offer.  I feel badly that seemingly good people like the Romney’s have to work so hard and spend so much money to convince the masses to let them give public service.

I wish there were more classy women in government roles in our country. We should be so lucky.

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An Amazing Feat of Strength

Posted on October 19, 2012 by

I realize this post is a shameless brag fest, but my kid deserves to be bragged about just a little bit. And if you can’t brag about your kids on your own blog, where can you brag?

Alyssa has been taking gymnastics lessons since July.  She has done amazingly well.  The sport of gymnastics really speaks to her skills and abilities.  She is a very determined, obedient little girl always wishing above all else to please.

When we started our lessons one of the things they did weekly was climb a rope.  The rope goes from floor to ceiling and is probably more than 18 feet to the top.  When Alyssa first started she only got a few feet off the ground.

After several weeks she got half way up the rope. A month or so in she could get most of the way up the rope. I was amazed at her progress and new found strength.

After about six weeks she was dangerously close to reaching the top!  For several weeks I thought she might ring the bell up top, but she just couldn’t quite get there. But she never gave up.

Then…all of a sudden one week she was ringing the BELL!  It was one of the most exhilarating moments I have ever had as a parent.  I knew how badly she wanted to ring the bell and how hard she worked to strengthen her arms and improve her rope climbing technique. It was a real thrill to see her reach her goal.

Now we’ve been in lessons three months, she can climb the rope ring the bell twice, goof around a little up top and safely lower her self back down and then do it all over again.  It’s a cinch for her now.  She’s also gained a whole new repertuar of gymnastics skills on the beam, bars and tumbling.  It’s been such an amazing process to watch.

I snapped this photo with my phone from across the room right after she started to come down.  It’s a little blurry, but I’m sure proud to have it.  She’s turning into quite a little athlete doing things I couldn’t do if my life depended on it.

I am trying to learn from her.  Like her, I’d LOVE to make my weaknesses strengths.  She’s really inspired me to set some lofty goals.  Goals that right now I know I can’t do.  My hope is that like her, in a few months I can carry myself a little farther down the road of self accomplishment. Right now, it sure feels good to be trying.

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Home Ownership–Not Always a Fairytale

Posted on October 17, 2012 by

I remember almost 8 years ago when we bought our home being so EXCITED to move in.

The first second we got keys we drove to our new home and walked in expecting to be thrilled it was ours.  Instead, we were terrified. The kitchen floor was a small pond.  Five minutes later, we flushed the toilet for the first time and it began to overflow.

It was then that we realized that home ownership isn’t always a fairytale.

Over the years we’ve had things go wrong with the house. We’ve had furnace problems, replaced the water heater, and had some minor plumbing issues.  Each time we always panic and then come to our senses and ask around for a reputable service provider.

I recently called Superior Water and Air to come out and give me a bid on cleaning my air ducts. We’ve done a lot of construction this year, including all new floors upstairs and I know my vents must be disgustingly dirty after all the construction and living here 8 years.  Imagine how much dust you’d have or debris on the floor if you never swept or dusted.

Here’s my dryer vent before being cleaned. Gross.

As a free service, they cleaned my dryer vent while they were there. I was surprised at the amount of fluff they blew out of my vent.  We are religious about cleaning the lint trap on our dryer, but despite our best efforts it snowed like a blizzard as they cleared it out.

The technician Tyler told me my vent was fairly clean compared to most he’s seen.  That’s a frightening thought.  No wonder clogged dryer vents are one of the leading contributors to house fires.

While Tyler was clearing my dryer vent Carl worked up a bid to have my air vents and main lines cleaned out.  The price for air duct cleaning depends on how many vents you have in your home.  I have 17 vents and 3 air returns.

I should mention that although Superior has NOT paid me to write this post, they have offered me some free and deeply discounted services in hopes that I would have a positive experience and positive things to say about their organization, which I have.

The more I learn about Superior, the more I like them.  I especially like their business model.  They’ll be the first to admit they are NOT the cheapest provider in town.  But…they’ll also tell you that you’ll get the most for your money and you’ll NEVER have to worry about being ripped off.

The owner of Superior Rob Anderson explained that most of the large HVAC and plumbing companies in town pay employees on commission.  They have a base price point, but whatever they can actually get the customer to pay beyond that price becomes their paycheck.

So…if they think you’re an especially big sucker, you’ll get stuck with an especially BIG bill.  As a result of the crooked pricing scheme, these companies tend to have a high employee turnover.  Only those who are especially good at being dishonest get paid well.  The others quit.

Superior offers set pricing.  Because of that they retain their employees for a long time.  The two men who provided my service have worked with the company 4 and 1.5 years.  Both were super friendly, talkative and helpful.

I’m excited about the relationship I’ve established with Superior.  I know that when I have an emergency or a need to have some service performed like vent cleaning, I can get Superior’s reputable people in my home without worrying about being ripped off.

I hope this has been useful info on finding good contractors to work with. There’s nothing I hate more than paying WAY too much for something because I don’t know how much it’s supposed to cost.

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Sunny’s New Passion

Posted on October 15, 2012 by

My little girl was dying to ride “The Big Eli” The Ferris Wheel the Carnies bring every year on the 4th of July.  She anticipated the 4th all year long for this purpose.

She is not a lover of scary rides, so when it came right down to it, she chickened out.  So naturally, I forced her to. I knew she would LOVE it even though she was positively terrified at the moment.

As usual, I was right.  She loved it.  She’s talked about it pretty much every day since then.  She also gained a great deal of self confidence by conquering this huge fear. I hope it will lend her strength to be daring at our upcoming Disney Trip.

Many of you locals know that our new Scheel’s just opened in Sandy. It’s a ginormous sporting goods store.  You may NOT know that there is a Ferris Wheel inside the store.  Yes, the store is THAT big!

During it’s construction, we read that the store would have a Ferris Wheel. Sunny, a new connoisseur of Ferris Wheels, was ecstatic to learn this and asked every time we passed the store if it was open yet and if she could ride.

Well…that day came this week.  Me and Sunny rode the Ferris Wheel.  And yes, it was everything she thought it would be, maybe even more.

It’s very big for an indoor ride.

Each ride costs $1.  You can buy a token to ride at any register. It’s quite a bargain for such a big thrill.

While you’re there, you should probably also stop by their little deli and at least sample their home made fudge.  Our favorite was the Orange Cream and the Chocolate Mint.

So we’re counting this little outing as number 67 on the list.

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Good Things Utah Nomination Mystery

Posted on October 12, 2012 by

Some nice person out there has done me a HUGE niceness and nominated me for a “Doing the Right Thing” award from Good Things Utah on Channel 4. The nomination is for the Operation Undies project I’ve been working on.

I have no idea who nominated me using my maiden name, but I really appreciate it.  I hope it will open up a few doors for Operation Undies that I’ve been too timid to knock on.

I apologize for the ghetto-ness of this video, but that particular segment appeared to be the ONLY part of the show that is not on line.  I couldn’t think of any other way to post it.

If you know who is responsible for nominating Operation Undies, please fess up.  I’d like to thank them.

I’d also like to thank Carly Kerby from Living the Scream for telling me that this wonderful, nice thing had happened.  I was not notified any other way.  If not for her, maybe I would never have known people were saying nice things about me on TV.  I’m always up for a compliment.

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Regrets Can Lead to Resolution

Posted on October 10, 2012 by

This last week was a spiritual feast for my kind.  I’m a Mormon.  I always look forward to our Conferences where we hear from inspired leaders in the church.

The talks that resonate most with me always have very practical life applications.  I love the talks that help me see behaviors in my life that are causing pain or unneccesary hardship and offer solutions.

I found that most of those talks for me are coming from Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf. His most recent talk really struck me and so far (it’s been like three days) applying the principles he suggested have brought me greater joy and peace in my life (all three days).

It has to do with helping me manage my mother guilt.  I need all the help I can get to do this.  I have a lot of it. All the time.  Here’s a snippet from his talk.

I really recommend listening or watching his talk in its entirety.  I promise it will be 19 most powerful minutes of your day.

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Thin Crust Pizza? Yes Please!

Posted on October 8, 2012 by

While I was in my twenties I spent a few years living in upstate New York.  I thought I loved pizza before I went, but while I was there I discovered my true love–great, thin crust, New York style pizza.  It might be my first true love. (I didn’t meet Steve until after my New York minute)

Since returning I have jumped at any and every opportunity to eat my favorite food.  Over the years I’ve found a few places close by that come close to making great pizza.  My favorite restaurant was called Nevole’s.  It was great almost like being in NY.  Unfortunately, there was some family drama and the restaurant closed cutting me off from great pizza.

Since then I’ve been looking for a new place to get my pizza fix.  Enter Café Bella Rue located in Daybreak on Soda Row.  I told you about Café Bella Rue a few months ago when I blogged about their fantastic line of Italian Sandwiches. 

Since then, I’ve spent A LOT of time at this restaurant–because I like it and because it’s located across the street from my daughter’s gymnastics lessons.  She spends three hours a week in the gym and I now spend about that much time loitering or drinking Italian Crème Sodas on Café Bella Rue’s comfy lounge.

A few weeks ago I started smelling something SO delicious and familiar.  I noticed some new signage advertising a new line of Thin Crust Pizzas.

Imagine my absolute DELIGHT when Robert Avery, owner of Café Bella Rue, invited me back to sample and review the new pizza line.  After seeing and smelling the other people’s delicious pizza for weeks, It was finally my time to enjoy!

We visited the restaurant as a family on a recent Monday night.  Every Monday they have Mangia Mangia Monday’s giving deep discounts on their thin crust pizza.  You’ll get their featured Pizza for $4.99!  Also their fountain drinks are only .50 cents!

My girls enjoyed a cheese thin crust pizza. When we arrived at Café Bella Rue I was positively STARVING!  The cheese pizza came first and I couldn’t help snatch a piece.  It was delicious!

Steve ordered the pizza margarita, which was great especially if you appreciate pizza the way the Italians take their pizza. It’s shockingly good.  Simplicity is BLISS!

My love is veggie pizza so I ordered the Mediterranean Veggie Pizza.  It had bell peppers, artichoke hearts, red onions, mushrooms, green olives and feta cheese. Oh my goodness it was so good!  It was hard not to eat the entire pizza.

I love the personal sized pizza.  It was just the right about of food for my husband and it would have been for me too except that I just re-started Weight Watchers and I am trying to do a better job of eating the right portions of food.  I happily took home my extra and ate it the next day.  It was almost just as good warmed up the next day.

So here’s your call to action.  So if you’re looking for a fun wholesome and delicious activity for your family night, give Mangia Mangia Monday at Café Bella Rue a try.  It will be a unique experience at a bargain price.

We sat next to a cute family who was also enjoying the yummy pizza.  They arrived and left on this cute pile of bikes.  The bike ride over must have made for a great family night.

In case you’re keeping track, this is number 206 on the list.

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The BEST Way to Change Your Smoke Detector Batteries

Posted on October 5, 2012 by

We love our little house.  It feels really BIG to us even though I’m certain it’s one of the smaller houses in the neighborhood.  We’re small people so a small house works for us.

Even though the house is small, we have very TALL ceilings.  This is a problem for small people, especially when the smoke detector starts chirping for a new battery.

One of the other things we love about this house is our great neighbors.  Especially the really tall neighbors like Michael here.  He’s my 16-year-old six-foot, eight-inch (last time I checked) neighbor boy.  He gets an invitation over to our house about every six months when the smoke alarm tell us it’s time for him to pay us a visit. We can’t even touch the ceiling even if we were brave enough to climb that high on the latter.  It’s no problem for Michael though.

So why am I blogging about this?  Mainly because these pictures are so funny, but also as a public service to remind you to check the batteries in your smoke alarms.

You don’t have to wait until they start chirping to change the batteries. As new home owners, we bought the ladder Michael is standing on at 2 in the morning when a smoke detector started chirping every 90 seconds and we had no way to get to it.  If we’d been more proactive we could have taken care of it at a more convenient hour.

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Dining at Disneyland–Eat Well, Save Money

Posted on October 3, 2012 by

We’re planning trip to the DL in the near future. Thus the reason for my four part Disneyland series of posts.

In case you missed them, here they are…One, two, and three.

This final DL post is about eating at Disneyland with out going broke.  I don’t consider myself a cheapskate when it comes to vacations, I just like to spend my money on things that matter the most to me. When it comes to dining at Disneyland, paying $7.00 for a corn dog isn’t exactly a great value.

I’ve complied a little list of ideas that have helped us spend our precious Disney bucks wisely.

IDEA ONE:  Take your lunch.  If you’re planning to be in the park ALL DAY, take food for at least one of your meals.

We invested in these HOT/COLD bags.   They cost about $3.00. They DO work and WILL keep your food frozen for many hours.

The Parks don’t allow you to bring in a cooler, but they DO let you roll in whatever you’d like in the bottom of your stroller. The HOT/COLD bags fit nicely there.

A sample meal we’d take would include a packet of deli lunch meat, a tray of King’s Hawaiian Rolls, a large bag of chips, some fruit and some string cheese.

I like to bring foods that are easy to assemble.  No mayo or mustard on my sandwiches at Disneyland, too messy and time consuming. If there’s leftovers, they make a great afternoon snack.

IDEA TWO: You’ll also save a small fortune by bringing in your own cans or bottles of soda and or water. My husband (who will appreciate me calling him out) NEEDS a steady intake of Diet Pepsi flowing a regular intervals.  If I had to pay for each of his sodas at park prices, we’d have to take out a second mortgage. With a few frozen water bottles in the HOT/COLD bag, the soda stays ice cold all day.

With all the money you’ll be saving on meals, you won’t mind making a stop outside the TIKI  ROOM for some DOLE Pineapple Whip.  If you’ve never had it, it’s the best soft serve frozen treat EVER!  And while you’re waiting in line at It’s a Small World, you’ll really enjoy eating a cotton candy!  Or take your savings and splurge at the Blue Bayou the restaurant inside Pirates of the Caribbean ride (we call it the Evil It’s a Small World ride).

IDEA THREE: If you’re really interested in saving money we’ve had great success and enjoyment eating dinner inside our hotel room with food we’ve prepared at home.  All you need to do is be sure to select a room with a microwave and prepare a few simple meals in advance.

We’ve loved eating our home-packed ham fried rice, taco meat burritos or even spaghetti with meatballs. They’re an easy meal that just needs to be warmed. At the end of a long day at the park, sometimes the last thing you want to do is file the whole family into a restaurant to be waited on. Can you hear the crying kids right now?

Don’t take any of these tips to mean that eating at Disneyland isn’t worth it.  We really look forward to a hot loaf of sour dough bread at California Adventure and lots of other Disney delicacies.

Take the money you saved and put  somewhere else. We LOVE a few of the Socal restaurants like Wahoo’s.  Look at this plate.  It’s Combo 10 on their menu board.

Put your money into what you want most and you’ll be more satisfied with your Disney Trip.

 

 

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