Bragging rights!

Mason has been wanting to go out to Cabelas for a while. He and Jeff have been there a few times, but Cooper and I have never been privileged to go, until yesterday. The one thing Mason wanted to do was play the shooting game. So that was what we did first. Mason and Cooper both got a few turns, then it was Jeff and my turn. The object of the game is to hit as many targets as you can. For each target you hit, you get 10 points and I believe you are given 20 shots. Jeff's score was 60......mine was 160! Oh yeah! Who's the pro? I think I may have hurt Jeff's ego just a bit.

I didn't get any pictures but here are a few of Mason doing the shooting game from March of 2008.

Pre-School Field Trip

On Friday Mason's preschool went to Cat Tales. Cool huh? Well actually, after about the 5th cat that was in its house, or "in the back" all the kids were ready to go home. They all whined like big babies, and frankly, I was ready to go too. Over half of the cats were sleeping, and would only come around when they were given a treat. Unfortunately, our tour guide was not qualified to insert the plastic stick with a piece of meat through the fence. Seriously. The boys before the whining began.
A bob cat

Tiger of some kind.

The brother or sister to the above tiger.

Are you beginning to see a pattern? Yup. None of the animals would get up and come close to the fence.

A Lion that was WAY far away. I had to zoom in all the way just to get this.

Here is the last tiger. He finally gave us a little "action" but none of the kids were interested by that time.

Mason with his preschool class.

So at the end they said that feeding time is at 3pm everyday and that is about the only time the animals become really active. So if you ever want to go, go then. (Now that would have been really good info to know when the field trip was scheduled)

If you give a Cooper a green marker

If you give a Cooper a green marker, he will want a piece of paper to draw on.

When you give him the paper, he will get carried away and draw on both sides.

When he notices that both sides are full, he will draw on the table.

Only using the green maker on the table will become boring to him, so he will use the orange marker too.

When he is all done, he will stand back and admire his art work.

Looking at his art work full of greens and oranges will remind him of the pumpkin he wants to be for Halloween.

He will decide he needs to draw a picture of a pumpkin.

He will need a new drawing surface, so he figures his face will do.

He will get started with the orange marker, drawing the body of the pumpkin.

Then he will remember that his pumpkin needs a stem.

And chances are, if he needs to draw a stem, he will need to use the green marker.

Why we went private

First I want to say sorry. Sorry that in order to view our blog, you now have to log in every time. I know it is a pain. I don't like to either. Hopefully in a few months when everything settles down, we will be able to make it public again. I wish there was a way to block certain people.

Jeff's former employer emailed Jeff a very long pathetic email telling Jeff that he didn't like that I posted something about Jeff being laid off. He said he didn't appreciate me talking about him behind his back. Sure, I talked abut the situation, but never did I say the name of the company Jeff worked for or the owner's name, so unless you already knew that info, there is no way of you knowing who or what company I was talking about. Plus, there was nothing personal I wrote about the owner. I never slandered him or his character or wrote any of the horrible things he would say to Jeff or other employees who still work there. I could have. I wanted to. But didn't.

He continued to tell Jeff that I only got one side of the story, and that I didn't write the whole truth. Really? Was I suppose to call you up and get your side? That is not my job. I am not a reporter.

He went on to add things that Jeff says they never discussed. OK maybe the owner came away from their "meeting" thinking something totally different than Jeff. That's fine. Leave it at that. Was an email necessary?

Then he took it a step further, telling Jeff that, thanks to him, he has had to take on more responsibility. Gee, isn't that your JOB? You are the OWNER, if you CHOOSE to lay the person off who is running a good portion of you company, and CHOOSE to not replace them with another manager to run the company, then wouldn't some of their job functions fall back on you? It's a no brainer to me. How about you? Can you say....gilt trip?

Oh but he didn't stop there. He continued by telling Jeff that he has had some complains from patients about Jeff. The owner said he doesn't believe them, but it is what the patients said. OK if you don't believe it, then why say anything to Jeff about the complains in the email? He also said that one sleep lab doesn't refer to them anymore due to "shotty follow up practices". Of course, because the companies follow up practices were top notch before Jeff started. Sure. Whatever you say dude.

We just feel like the owner is trying to justify why he let Jeff go, and is trying to convince himself that it was a good decision. The email was totally unnecessary. Right now we don't want to give him any more reasons to feel the need to email Jeff for anything. No, Jeff did not respond to the email. He actually closed the email account after receiving it.

One last thing. Before all this happened, Jeff and I really liked the owner and his wife. They always came across as great people. They acted like they cared about Jeff as a person. The thing that bothered Jeff and me more than him being laid off the way he was, was seeing how they really are as people. It's sad.

Easter 2010

Here are the baskets the boys woke up to from the Easter Bunny.

Mason's

Cooper's

In the morning the boys went straight downstairs to check out their baskets. Neither Jeff or I heard them as I was asleep and Jeff was in the shower. So when we went down, this is what we found: (And Mason had already eaten his Cadbury egg and destroyed the evidence)
Mason got a Lazy Town movie, new sunglasses, and candy.

Cooper got a Thomas movie, new sunglasses, and candy.

We had Easter dinner at home this year and invited my parents, my brother Michael, and Jeff's parents.

As soon as I got out the camera, Michael got up from the table. Yeah, he's not at sly as he thinks, I knew what he was doing, I was able to get this picture of him anyway.

my parents

Jeff's parents

See the (bad) influence my father is on my son.

Easter Egg Hunt

Saturday we went to some friends, I know it's hard to believe but we do have friends, house for dinner. Then the guys went to the Priesthood session of conference while us girls and kids stayed behind for an Easter egg hunt and egg dying. Cooper was so excited. Can you tell?
Mason finding an egg.
Mason and his loot.
Cooper and his loot. Here is one of Mason and one of Cooper's eggs. Mason's other eggs had his name on them, just in different colors. Cooper's were all green with "Percy" written on them (shock huh?). I can't show them because I used them in the green bean casserole for Easter dinner.

**Mason just found out that I used two of his eggs so he is roaring at me like a dinosaur.

Crafty time

This last weekend I went down to my sister DeAnne's house for a girls/craft night. I stayed up until 2:30am finishing this (and two other) sets of letters. The other two are for Christmas presents, but I like the way they turned out so much that I might keep one of the other sets (it says a different word) and make another to give away.

Thanks DeAnne for a great night and fun craft!

Cross dresser

After church on Sunday, Cooper changed into his pj's (Sunday tradition). I left my boots laying around and Cooper thought it would be fun to cross dress.

He could barley stand up in them!

Please help me...

what do you have on your workout play list?

Girls Night Outt

Saturday night I went out with three friends who I grew up going to church with. Heather and I are in the same ward now and Kimberlee is getting married in May and will also be in our ward then. Shelley, darn her, lives in Illinois, but was "up here" (or is it over here?) for a visit. We went to Applebees and had a great time!

Me and Shelley

Kimberlee and Heather

Jogging

Well I have kept my goal and have jogged on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Yesterday morning I was really tired and didn't want to get out of bed, but did. I really had to push myself to jog, it was like my body was pushing against me. Hopefully this will get easier. Also, on the days that I jog, I am really tired for the rest of the day. I thought exercising was suppose to give you more energy...

Big Horn Show

Jeff took Mason and Cooper to the Big Horn Sport and Recreation Show this morning. Jeff's Dad, my Dad, and my brother, Michael also came along. I, on the other hand, had NO interest in going, so I spent time running other errands.

If you look closely at the pole, there is a leopard climbing up it.
My cute boy.

Here is a video of the leopard.

When the boys got home Cooper told me that he learned about Cats....big ones.

Bountiful Basket

There is a company based in Utah (I think) that is gets fresh produce at really cheap prices and then passes those savings onto their customers. They just started this program in Spokane a few weeks ago. The people who assemble each basket are volunteers, just one more way of saving money. This week I decided to get a basket to see if the produce is any good and if it really is worth the money. For $15 I got:

15 red potatoes

8 tangerines

6 grapefruit

13 apples

7 bananas

1 head of lettuce

1 bunch of celery

2 bunches of asparagus

3 cucumbers

1 lb baby carrots

3 beats

The only thing I have no clue what to do with is the beats. Anyone know what to do with these?

Reminder

Lets play a round of "name these pictures"

Any guesses?


The first picture is red hard wheat.

The second picture is red hard wheat ground into wheat flour.

Did anyone get either picture right?

The real reason I posted these is because I FINALLY used my grain mill I got for my birthday. Every time I have made pizza dough, post grain mill ownership, I have thought to myself, hey self you could make some wheat pizza dough! Then my lazy side would kick in and say nah that would take WAY too much time. Well yesterday I kicked the lazy side to the curb and ground some wheat. Yummy! That pizza good! And the best part was that it only took a few minutes to grind the wheat. Eating the yummy pizza, reminded me of how good the food was that I ate at a class I went to where I learned how to cook with wheat.

The second reminder I got was from Mason. While I was rolling out the pizza dough, Cooper was playing with the un-ground wheat. Cooper spilled some on the floor. I looked at the spilled wheat and said, "ah crap". Then Mason said, "Mom you are really good at saying things we are not suppose to say".

Thanks for the reminder Mason.

Flash Freezing

Tuesday I got another 40 pound box of fresh (never been previously frozen) boneless skinless chicken breasts for $1.58/lb. These chicken breasts are so big! They are at least twice the size of Costco's frozen chicken breasts. Last time I got the chicken I made 16 meals and froze them. With the remaining chicken I portioned it into amounts our family would eat and froze those portions in freezer bags. I really liked doing it that way, but if we had someone over for dinner I had to thaw out another bag, even if I only need half of it.

So this time I decided to try flash freezing. I'd never done it before, I just knew that frozen chicken (or other foods) from the store have been flash frozen first so that the chicken isn't stuck together in one big clump, thus allowing you to use the right amount of chicken or other food for each meal. I looked it up on the internet and all it said was to use cookie sheets and put wax paper over the cookie sheets, then place the desired food on the wax paper, being careful the food is not touching, then freeze until completely frozen (2-24 hours). Sounds easy enough, well it was!

The first batch I froze, I portioned into meal sizes and added in the bags either BBQ sauce, Italian dressing, or an oil/honey/soy sauce/garlic marinate. I ended up with 9 meals. Now I am so excited to fire up the grill!

The second batch I cut the breasts either in half....

or in strips....and froze them. Then I put them into freezer bags. I ended up with three gallon size bags of halved breasts and one gallon bag of strips. My freezer is so full of chicken now. Not only do I have this 40 pounds, but a few weeks ago frozen boneless skinless chicken breasts were on sale at Safeway for $1.69/lb so I got 28 pounds then. The same chicken is on sale again at Safeway this week, I am seriously considering getting another 20 pounds. Am I crazy? I don't know...we do eat way more chicken than any other meat... and I do have room in my freezer for it...but then I wouldn't have room for anything else if there was a great sale on another food item.