Lump the Mud Chandler

Chan and I were being silly in the car last week and making up funny names. At one point, I asked him what his name was, and he said it was, "Lump the mud, Chandler." Quite impressive. Now he won't drop it. Anytime you ask him his name, that's what he says.
Another funny - Rowan walks around saying Marshall's name. I sometimes yell up or down the stairs for Marsh and Rowan has started doing it. So everytime I yell Marshall, I hear a little voice say Marshall as well.

Bountiful Baskets

I started this week in a co-op that provides fresh produce. It's called Bountiful Baskets. (www.bountifulbaskets.org) You basically sign into their website between noon on Monday and Tuesday, make a contribution and then pick up at a certain time on Saturday. There are different locations to pick up at, we picked up at Day Break this week because the Lehi location was already full.
This is what I got this week for a $15 contribution:

2 bunches of bananas
5 tomatoes
1 cantaloupe
1 lb bag baby carrots
1 bunch swiss chard
1 bunch spinach
1 bunch lettuce
celery
pineapple
bag of apples
blackberries
15-20 red potatoes

It's easily $35 of produce when you price it out.
They also have other options other weeks. For $6.50 this week, I also got a mexican bunch shown below.


And 72 tortillas in assorted sizes. (I will be freezing some :) ) For $10

Rough Day

Every Monday I do a trade in the daycare at our rec center so we can have a free membership. I've been doing it for almost 2 years. It's been a good outlet for the boys to get to play with other kids in a different environment. Today was a particularly rough day. Almost immediately after we got there, some kid had a go at Chandler. See all the scratches around his eyes? I must say I was proud of him for not hitting back after it happened. I think it probably hurt so much he didn't know how to react. He was hit a few other times, and tripped on the playground as well.



Rowan fell off the slide and a chair today too, hitting his head both times. Needless to say, it started off as a rough day for both boys. I think it's all ok though, Chan still felt good enough to make faces like this:

New York City

Last week I made a super fast day trip to New York City. It was actually a sponsored trip to view an exclusive screening for Secrets of the Mountain, a movie that will be premiering on NBC this next Friday. I think a lot of people were just plain confused when I told them I was going to New York to a movie screening. No, I'm not suddenly famous, but I guess that's what happens when you build a blog as a business, and work with PR. :) The agency overseeing the project was one that I just happened to work with on a Carrabbas review a few weeks back. They were looking for some mom bloggers to come view the movie and give feedback since it is supposed to be a family friendly film and the idea actually came from a mom. I only had about 4 days notice but Marsh was able to get some time off work and my SIL was able to help watch the boys as well. The film was sponsored by Proctor & Gamble, and Walmart. It was all expenses paid and I'm dying to go back to NYC again.

I flew out at 8:30 am on Tuesday morning. Our plane actually sat on the ground for over an hour since we were getting all of this funky snow and the wings needed to be deiced.

Originally, I was only going to have about an hour and a half to get to the screening after the plane landed, so I wasn't excited about that. The flight was uneventful when we got in the air, although I'm not a huge fan of flying by myself because that means awkward conversation with whoever is sitting by you....for 4 hours. Here is the view from the plane as we rounded NYC to land.


When we finally landed at JFK, we waited on the plane for another 40 minutes before we could get off. The screening was supposed to start at 5:20, and I got off the plane at 4:45. Not great since it was at least a 45 minute drive into mid town Manhattan. My driver spoke hardly any English and was constantly slamming on the brakes. As we got closer to Manhattan, there were people EVERYWHERE. I've never seen so many people in a concentrated area. I got to the screening 20 minutes late and sat down to watch. There were snacks and delicious food, not to mention it was in this 2200 square foot penthouse at the top of The London. (53rd floor) Beautiful!


After the screening, we were able to talk to a producer who helped make the movie as well as another rep, and ask questions. The music for the movie was great as well, Randy Jackson was in charge of it. After the movie was over, I realized at this particular screening there were only 2 other mom bloggers. One was one that I have networked with but never met. Here I am with the other two bloggers as well as some awesome girls from the PR agency that I worked with, and a rep from aol.


Picture of the penthouse.




The view from the penthouse was crazy awesome. I tried to take some pictures, but they don't even do it justice.




After it was all said and done, I walked back to the hotel with the two other girls and checked into my hotel, Dream. Super nice as well!



The two girls I hung out with the rest of the night were super cool. One was from Sarasota, FL, the other from Portland, OR. We clicked very easily and had a great time walking around the city.







After wandering for quite some time, we ate dinner in our hotel because everyone kept recommending it. Restaurant was called Serafina and I had the most delicious heart shaped Lobster ravioli.



We stayed out until about 12:30 and then I was beat so I went back to my room, watched tv for a bit, and went to bed.





The rest of the trip was pretty uneventful other than the fact that I got some crazy motion sickness between the drive to JFK and the flight home. (I think I take after my sister Jer who gets crazy motion sickness.) I sat in between 2 old men the whole flight home, and it took 5 1/2 hours to fly home instead of just 4. I managed to keep my cookies in until later that night. I thought I could sleep the motion sickness off but that didn't happen. I'd love to go back to NYC for a longer trip, it's definitely amazing!

Easter Bunny

That sneaky Easter Bunny made his rounds. Chandler seemed pretty impressed when we told him the night before what the Easter Bunny does. For some reason I thought I had nice baskets for the boys, but when I looked in storage, all I could find was these purple pop up ones. They also got some adorable polos with sweater vests for church next week. I will be sure to take pictures.

Chandler's Basket

Rowan's Basket

The Bunnies that pooped jelly beans were by far the favorites.

HAPPY EASTER!

Food Storage

I'm partly writing this post because I can't stand to look at that nasty turkey neck again every time I pull up our blog. Thank you Marshall for that.

A while back I was talking with someone about food storage. I *think* it might have been Avry or my mom, but I'm not sure. We got talking about how the leaders of the church haven't talked about food storage as much lately. We concluded in the conversation that maybe we have been warned enough, and we should just do it.

After Marshall not having a job for 4 months and trying to jump start his business, he is working again as of last month. It's really been a huge stress relief. We don't have a ton of storage space, but we do have more than we've ever had, so we figured we should start somewhere.
The only pantry we have is pretty tiny, so I organized to optimize space in there.

Then we invested in another little stand up pantry, and that really helps.

We got a shelf and a ton of canned goods and foods that our family uses on a regular basis. Marshall's mom always puts the date on her food when she gets home from the grocery store, and I think that's really smart, so I decided to do that. That way, we use the oldest of our storage first.

I then stocked my deep freeze as well.

It's nice to have peace of mind, and now that we've made an investment, I think it will be ok to upkeep monthly. I will just replace stuff as we use it. I still need to figure out the whole wheat thing, but that scares me a bit because I'm clueless about it. I guess this is where I get on the phone with my mom. :)