Santa frustration

A little while back Zoee found something in the Toys R Us toy catalog that she wanted. It was this Disney princess doll center. It had a bath, swing and a high chair all in one. We planned on getting it for her for Christmas. Every time you ask her what she wants she will tell you she wants the baby thing with the bath and the swing. Well, we started to do a little research on the item and it got horrible reviews. We weren't about to spend 80 bucks on a toy that every review said was a piece of crap. I tried to ask her what else she wanted but she kept saying that was all she wanted. I finally found a better one online and planned on getting that. I figured I could just go get it at the store since it was 22 dollars to ship. I went to the store last night and they did not have it. The guy told me they were out of stock and told me to check another store. I called the other two Vegas stores last night but no luck. I went to bed pretty frustrated. I REALLY want to get this doll thing for her. I know she will be ok if she doesn't but I just wanted to see how excited she got and how happy she was.

I thought since none of the stores had it, I would just pay the 22 bucks to have it shipped and it would be done. I went online to order it and it said it will take three weeks to get to me because it has to come from the warehouse. What the crap!?
I have since called every store in Utah (thinking maybe my parents could buy it and ship it down to me). No luck. Every one is sold out. I called most of the stores in LA to see if they had it but still no luck. (and yes, I may be so stupid to drive to LA to get it but I am desperate)

NOBODY has the damn toy. I told Zoee today that I talked to Santa and he said that all the doll things were gone. She quickly came back with a response. She told me that when she talked to Santa at the church party, he said he would have his helpers build her one.

Great. I wish I really did have some elves that could build me one to give her. Oh well. Maybe next year.

I just called Nevada Power. I was on hold for 16 minutes and 28 seconds just to have the nice lady tell me that I am not on the account and they could not talk to me about anything.

Great.

16 minutes of my life down the drain for NOTHING!!

this is nate.
K, so we're not gonna make any excuses as to why neither of us have blogged in the past (nearly) 3 weeks. We've been busy, lazy, whatever. We just haven't posted. Sorry.
Not a whole lot has been happening over here lately. We've still got a handful of boxes sitting around from the move (coming up on 2 months now- WOW!) that we just continue to walk around or move from one not-good location to another. The house s great! We are loving it. So far the biggest downsides to the house are all the barking dogs in the neighborhood (it seems like every other house has at least 2 dogs) and the occasional really loud jet flying around from the air force base. But all in all it's great here. We're still adjusting to getting our way around on only a handful of main streets that we know and don't go exploring too far away from home quite yet. Our newest addition to the house are the new toilet seats we bought this afternoon. The ones that were here were cheap plastic ones that cave in when we sit on the lid ( giving the kids baths, etc.) and shift if you lean one way or another. I don't think I ever paid much attention to how much someone could spend on a toilet seat if you really wanted to. I'm pretty sure I noticed a couple seats that were selling for $40-$50. I was only a little surprised but then realized that that is an important piece of equipment you're investing in. A person will log many hours on the throne during its lifetime, why not make it a nicer experience for your tush?
Work is going great. I still really love my job...... even when I discovered a supply of pee-filled cups and potato chip bags in a holding cell that a crazy dude was being held in- here's the story. He's not just kinda strange, the guy is a frequent flier in our jail and we all know that he's seriously mentally ill; crazy. He's supposed to take medication for it, but he rarely is on it when he is brought in to us. And he has a history of getting really really violent while in custody. So he was taken to court the other morning and I was checking his cell (because he's a nut he can't be in general population) to make sure he wasn't trashing it or decoration with poo or anything like that. I really only expected to have to cell swept out and have the trash thrown away. Well, the trash I found was awfully organized and stacked in the corner behind the pony wall that prevents people from seeing them to their business on the toilet. Strange, who organizes their garbage??? Oh yeah, he's crazy, so no big deal. Being still a little odd, I put gloves on and picked up one of the cups which felt full. Again, a little strange, cause they don't get a whole lot to eat in booking, so why would anyone save their juice when they're so hungry? Oh well, he's crazy. I picked up the next cup, it's full too. Okay, this is the straw that broke the camel's back- what is in these; cause I know he's just saving his juices. I take the lid off and.... wait a second, that's no apple juice! Our juice is red, there's no apple juice in our whole jail I don't think. By this point it's pretty obvious that he's saving his pee for a reason. Next to these 6 pee filled cups is his paper bag that has chip bags tied closed at the top with the plastic wrap that the sandwich is wrapped in. This turd is making water balloons... It doesn't take a veteran officer to figure out that there's a good chance that all this ammo is planned for someone in a blue uniform and more than likely no one in particular since the crazies are so unpredictable. You learn pretty quick to have a certain amount of paranoia working in the jail. And that paranoia just paid off on tuesday morning. All that said, I still really enjoy my job.
We went this past saturday and got the kids' pictures taken. We found a guy on craigslist who is getting his photography business started and offered to take pictures for the first 10 people to contact him in order to help build up his portfolio. We (more Stac actually) jumped on the chance. Zoee has only had real picture taken 3 times ever and Gus never has. So we figured that for free, all we need is a couple decent shots and we'll have us a great deal. He said he'd mail us a disc of all the picture he took and we'll be able to do what we want with them. I usually wouldn't have taken a chance on the guy but by the pictures he had on his website, be was totally LDS (temple wedding pictures is usually a pretty good sign, right?) The link is here, which is some of the better ones, but there are more here. Zoee really wasn't cooperating much but Gus was all smiles most of the time he wasn't trying to eat rocks, sticks, or leaves. It was pretty cool and we got to spend a couple hours at the park in great weather.

oh yeah, since we never posted anything from Halloween, here's a couple pics from our Halloween breakfast. Halloween pancakes:

And here's the reaction to the spider pancake:

(sometimes being a parent has its sick perks)

So, I think that pretty much is it. Not a whole lot else.

Oven Fried Chicken Tenders

12 thawed chicken tenders

1/2 cup Buttermilk (I didn't have this so I just used milk with a little lemon)

1 1/2 cups reduced fat cheese crackers (I used Cheese its)

1/4 t. salt

1 t. creole seasoning

1 Tablespoon oil

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Place crackers, salt and creole seasoning in zip lock bag and crush. Dip tenders in buttermilk and then in the crackers. Do it to all the tenders. Spray pan with cooking spray and put the oil on the pan. Put the pan in the oven for 3 minutes to heat oil. Take the pan out and quickly put the tenders on the pan. You should hear the chicken start to sizzle. Reduce the oven to 400 degrees and cook chicken for 10 minutes. Turn tenders over and bake for an additional 3 minutes

Serve with ranch, honey mustard or BBQ sauce.

I have been trying lots of different recipes lately and this is what we had for dinner last night. I found the recipe in the Weight Watchers cookbook. I was a little unsure of how they would turn out but they were delicious and they are kid friendly too! We will definitely make them again!

ADULT Boggle?

Tonight we played Boggle. It is our favorite game to play and we play it a lot. Here is a list of words we each got in one round.

Stacy got the words-
Cute
Sunny
and Toes

Nate got the words-
Tits
Balls
and Labia

It is interesting to see on paper what really goes on in someones mind. :)

Have you ever...

had days when you are just really tired of your kids? I think I have had a few of those lately? I have tried really hard to be patient but the last two days have been pretty rough. Don't know if it was me, them or something else but I am just really glad the day is over. Glad tomorrow is a new day and hopefully it will be a better one.

Night.

The finished room

We finished the laundry room and it looks awesome! I am really proud of what we accomplished and I think it looks great.

Step 1-Paint the white on the walls for the white stripes.



Step 2- Tape. This was the worst part of the job. It was a lot harder than I thought it would be. We used a laser level to get the lines perfectly straight.
Caulk the edges of the tape with painters caulk. This stuff is amazing! It prevents any paint leaking into the texture of the wall and makes a perfectly straight like when you pull the tape off.

Step 3- Paint the blue.



Step 4- Paint the green and let dry. Go to Home Depot for more paint because you realize you will need another coat of green. Peel off tape when paint is still tacky.

and here it is all done...

I love it so much! I want to do something like this in the bathroom now. I wasn't sure how it would look but it turned out great. Can't wait for the next project!!

Coming Soon...

Our new and improved (and a little wild) laundry room.

The path of destruction

This all happened in one day.

By one little boy.

First: His sisters room. This room was clean when she left.

Next stop: His room. All the toys all over and all the clothes out of the dresser.

A quick stop in the bathroom to empty the garbage can.

Then off to the kitchen: Stop by the cabinets under the sink. We now have locks on those since it is where we keep all the cleaning stuff.

Turn around and hit the Tupperware cabinet. This is one of his favorites.

Onto the dish towel drawer. He really likes this one too.

Next is the garbage can.

The result of the garbage can stop.


Finish off by heading to our bathroom. I caught him playing in the toilet too but didn't get a picture of that.

And here's the culprit.

Meet Star

She is the newest member of our family. She is adorable and lots of fun.

We had talked about getting a cat once we got into a new house. I was a little unsure of it because I vowed I would NEVER have a pet. They are high maintenance, they shed, they stink and they are just one more expense that isn't necessary.

Well, my heart got the best of me when I saw this little thing and we brought her home. She has brought a lot of joy to our home and we are glad we have her.

This is Nate.

I'M SO FREAKING SICK AND TIRED OF THIS POLITICAL SEASON. BEYOND SICK. BEYOND TIRED. BEYOND ANNOYED, BUGGED, WORN DOWN AND OUT; I'M JUST DONE WITH IT ALL.

**Those of you who are just about to jump down my throat for what I'm about to say can just stop right now. I've heard it all; Yes, I realize it's a blessing that I can vote at all, Yes I realize there have been countless lives given just for me to have a say in who leads this country, Yes I realize that things are really bad right now and that my voice might mean something in the whole scheme of things, Yes, I get it all. So save your breath for someone else, cause I'm tired of being told all that too.**

I probably won't vote.

There, see, I said it (ooh, and I know some of you are just dying to say something to inspire me to get out there and just choose someone. Nope, Probably not gonna do it. It's not cause I'm lazy, not cause I don't care(I actually do in fact,) not cause I have no opinion, not cause I haven't been educated (or done some research myself- which is much more valuable;) No, it's not for any of those reasons. My major reason for choosing not vote goes something like this:

I am registered as an Independent. I have been registered as an Independent since I first registered to vote for a reason. Neither the Democratic or Republican parties fit the combination of beliefs and stances that I support. I'd rather not vote for someone only because they are the lesser of 2 evils (funny- pun not intended but couldn't be more fitting in this case!) I feel that this election season carries a LOT of weight considering that roller coaster rise the country has been through in the past 12+ years (yes, that includes both the Bush terms, the Clinton years, and beyond.) And as such, I feel a little.... *disappointed*.... that the only 2 (let's face it, it's not like someone other that Obama or McCain has a realistic shot at winning this) people that have made it as close as they have are as poor a candidate as they both are. (I know this is gonna get many of you to just jump in again.....) Obama lacks experience. McCain lacks the change this country needs. Score: 0-0. Obama is gonna get a LOT of votes only because there are people out there who will vote racially. McCain will likewise receive a LOT of support from the good 'ol boys club for the exact same reason. Score 0-0. You go back and forth and the scores are still 0-0 in my opinion. (I'd like to go on but I think you get the idea; I'm not gonna go into specific issues.) I feel pretty strongly about some of the major issues affecting us all right now and neither of those men fit who/what I'd like to see in the White House cause they sure have a big mess to clean up and it sure isn't gonna be easy or fast. We're in for a long ride.

I really really do wish that negative tv ads were not allowed. I really really wish someone could come up with a better forum for candidates to express what they wish to do/accomplish/support/do for the country than what we have cause it's nothing but face to face mud slinging where both candidates won't fess up to the truth of their past so they can appear less left or right winged. I really really wish they would realize how much they shoot themselves in the foot when they don't give specifics on what they want to do, again, just to hide their past and appear less left or right. They've used red and blue to represent the democratic or republican states and all that either candidate wants is to make it look like they're a very appealing shade of PURPLE. How about telling everyone what you really think, admitting that it likely won't turn out that way although you'll still push for it, and acknowledge that it'll more than likely end up being a compromise since that's what's bound to happen with a bipartisan democracy.

I have a real hard time supporting one candidate over the other just because one sucks worse than the other. I think I'm left disappointed that this is the best we're left with when you consider that our political system is (arguably) the best of what's out there. Either the system has failed us or it's just a sign of the overall (bad) direction the country has degraded to or a combination of both.

I care.

But I don't care to vote for an individual I don't support.

I love this country and consider it a blessing to have been born here.

I do feel obligated to vote but also feel obligated to not waste my vote.

I care; perhaps too much.

Little road trip

I have been wanting to take a road trip to Kanab for awhile now. I wanted to go and take flowers to the cemetery to my grandma's grave and just go back and look around. We finally decided to do it. We left yesterday morning and got home this afternoon. It was so good for me to go. We had my sister Kaylee with us and I think it was good for her too. The kids had fun and Nate was such a trooper doing all the stuff we wanted to do and listening to us reminisce about old times. Here are a few pictures of Kanab. They really mean a lot to me.

Grandma's house






Zoee thought it was pretty cool that her name Bernice was on the big rock. She loved hearing stories of Great Grandma Robinson and thought it was great that they had the same name.



We left flowers and some of grandma's favorite things- Diet Coke and Tic Tac's

We headed to the park after the cemetery for a picnic and some fun. This was the same park that we would always walk to when we were visiting grandma. It was quite different but it brought back a lot of memories.

After the park we headed down to the famous Denny's Wigwam. This was always a regular stop when we were in Kanab. We usually went there several times. (sorry fuzz, the stamp machine is gone) We played there for awhile and then walked down the main street with all the little shops. It was a lot of fun. We headed back to our hotel after that because we were all pretty tired.

We got up this morning and headed to the sand dunes (another tradition). It was fun and Zoee loved running on the big mountains of sand. Gus kept eating the sand but seemed to like it.

The trip was a lot of fun. The only thing that could have made it better would have been to have grandma there to hug.