Category: Miscellaneous

Nana & Papa took the boys to the pueblo zoo today. Lots of fun, and we practically had the place to our selves. We saw all kinds of animals, but saying noah loved the otters may be an understatement.

Remember a while back when I blogged about a friend raffling off a gift certificate to Canvas on Demand?  Well we won that raffle and ordered our Canvas, two to be exact, and we love them.

The boys love saying bye-bye to the babies on the wall. 🙂

If you are interested Groupon is having a deal today for the 16×20 Canvas for $45, this is the size we have.

Okay it isn’t really an organizer, but it was a free and easy fix for the boys’ closet. When I lamented on Facebook about not having a dresser big enough to fit the boys’ t-shirts so they could pick their own, a friend suggested a free, easy fix. A pole with rope! Wouldn’t you know we had an old broom handle and a random length of rope lying around? Matt had it up within minutes of me telling him the idea. Noah happily chose his own shirt (and Ezra’s) on Sunday, shockingly he chose matching ones. Then today they both chose their own. 🙂

*I do not think they need a bigger dresser, it is a very nice dresser/diaper changing combo, but it is full of cloth diapers, shorts and pajamas.

Win a $75 Gift Certificate!

Totrags is having another contest. They are giving away three $75 gift certificates. The products are great, and $1 from every single item goes to cancer research.

As many of us know buying fresh produce for our families can be pricey. Thanks to my neighbor, I recently discovered Green Bee Produce. Basically you get a box of produce for $18.50 and $2.00 of that goes to the school where you pick it up. It is very nice produce, but it is not organic or local. I did email them to ask where they bought the produce from and they did reply that they stay as local as possible. The produce we received today came from California, Mexico, Idaho, and probably Ecuador (for the bananas). Our local grocery store doesn’t have local produce (very often) and not much organic anyway so this isn’t much different then what I would buy. I try to stay as local as possible, so most of the time I stick with the west coast, we get a fairly good variety that way thanks to our close proximity to California.

Now let’s talk value. Here is a run down of the produce we received and my estimates of what it would cost to purchase it at the store I usually shop. I am going off of memory and guestimates for the grocery store prices, but I will try to low ball it.

2 packages of Blackberries – the best deal I have seen 2 for $5
Pint of strawberries – $2.99
3.25 pounds of bananas – usually $.59/lb $1.92
1.25 pounds of Asparagus – $2.99/lb $3.74
1.25 pounds of romaine lettuce – (okay I have no idea on this one) $1.00/pound $1.25
1.75 pounds of apples – $1.50/pound $2.19
1 pound of tomatoes – $1.00/pound $1.00
5 pounds of potatoes – $2.99
3 pounds of pears – $1.50/pound $4.50
2.25 pounds of onions – $1.00/pound $2.25
2 green bell peppers – $2.00
1 red bell pepper – $1.50
3 lemons – $.39 each $1.17

Total store guestimate – $32.50. So I saved $14 and supported a local school.

I know I say this often, but i am really proud to be a dad of two little boys. I daily look forward to seeing them play,  as the little toddlers they are, but also look forward to the shenanigans of 8 year olds.

What Is a Boy?
By Alan Beck

Between the innocence of babyhood and the dignity of manhood, we find a delightful creature called a boy. Boys come in assorted sizes, weights and colors, but all boys have the same creed: to enjoy every second of every minute of every hour of every day and to protest with noise (their only weapon) when their last minute is finished and the adult males pack them off to bed at night.

Boys are found everywhere—on top of, underneath, inside of, climbing on, swinging from, running around or jumping to. Mothers love them, little girls hate them, older sisters and brothers tolerate them, adults ignore them and Heaven protects them. A boy is Truth with dirt on its face, Beauty with a cut on its finger, Wisdom with bubble gum in its hair and the Hope of the future with a frog in its pocket.

When you are busy a boy is an inconsiderate, bothersome, intruding jangle of noise. When you want him to make a good impression, his brain turns to jelly or else he becomes a savage, sadistic, jungle creature bent on destroying the world and himself with it.

A boy is a composite—he has the appetite of a horse, the digestion of a sword swallower, the energy of a pocket-size atomic bomb, the curiosity of a cat, the lungs of a dictator, the imagination of a Paul Bunyan, the shyness of a violet, the audacity of a steel trap, the enthusiasm of a fire cracker, and when he makes something he has five thumbs on each hand.

He likes ice cream, knives, saws, Christmas, comic books, the boy across the street, woods, water (in its natural habitat), large animals, Dad, trains, Saturday mornings and fire engines.

He is not much for Sunday school, company, schools, books without pictures, music lessons, neckties, barbers, girls, overcoats, adults, or bedtime.

Nobody else is so early to rise or so late to supper. Nobody else gets so much fun out of trees, dogs and breezes. Nobody else can cram into one pocket-a rusty knife, a half eaten apple, three feet of string, an empty Bull Durham sack, two gum drops, six cents, a sling shot, a chunk of unknown substance and a genuine supersonic code ring with a secret compartment.

A boy is a magical creature—you can lock him out of your workshop, but you can’t lock him out of your heart. You can get him out of your study, but you can’t get him out of your mind.

Might as well give up—he is your captor, your jailer, your boss and your master–a freckled-faced, pint-sized, cat-chasing, bundle of noise.

But when you come home at night with only the shattered pieces of your hopes and dreams—he can mend them like new with the two magic words—”Hi Dad!

so i moved the blog to another server. and the DB pooed. not like stephs no pooing post.

i hope it all works, we may need to find a new way to have email subscriptions, as that was one of the major explosions on the database.

I had been kicking around the idea of participating NaBloPoMo again, but hadn’t decided what I was going to do.  It was late last night, the first day, and I decided I wanted to, but realized that meant I would have to post, and I was too tired.  Boy was I relieved when I realized Matt had posted yesterday and I was saved!  I will be posting every day for the month of November, because I have so much important information to share.  😉  I only have to come up with 5 post a week in my mind since I have WW and PF and I am sure Matt will do a few posts here and there.

Get ready for some fascinating posts!

The other day we received a replacement property tax notice in the mail.  It explained that because the Governor and the Legislature have been unable to agree upon legislation to address funding for schools, and that the Governor vetoed the most recent funding option on September 4, 2009.  This veto resulted in a change in the property tax.  It was then explained that we needed to pay the difference.  Care to guess what we still owe?

$.01 yes that is correct.  They reprinted all of those forms and re-mailed them out to all of those property owners.  I think it is safe to assume doing that was way more costly than forgetting about that penny!  I am thinking of actually just mailing a penny in, I don’t really want to waste a check on it, I already have to waste  a freaking stamp!