3 Modern Inventions that have Changed my Life!

Since we haven't really done anything too exciting lately to blog about here's what I came up with...

These are three things that have changed my life for the better. I think I couldn't live without them but, in reality, I really could.

The TiVo/DVR. This lets me (and the kids) record our favorite shows. Some people still resist this thinking that they will watch too much t.v. but I think it's just the opposite. For all the times when I would just be sitting at home with the t.v. on but flipping through the channels with nothing to watch, this solves that problem. I like to think that now I only watch what I want to watch and in 1/2 the time. I can fast forward through the commercials and fast forward through the parts of the show I don't want to see. I had Oprah and ER's to watch into the summer.

A couple of years ago Parley gave me an ipod nano for Christmas. It has been one of the best things ever. I love to listen to music while I exercise. I can remember using my walkman with cassette tapes. I'd try to record songs off the radio from various cd's. That got old real fast. Then I got a portable cd player but it was big, hard to carry and each cd only holds about 13 songs, most of which weren't what I wanted. I love my ipod. I can download only the songs I like. I think I'm up to about 150 for exercising. If I'm not "feeling" a certain song, I just hit a little button and it flips to the next song. It's great!

I know, you've probably all seen this infomercical and I normally don't give into infomercials, but this really does work. Being one to wear flip-flops and sandals as long as I possible can, my feet really take a beating. I always have dry, cracked heels pretty much year-round. I've tried professional pedicures and the cheese grater thing you use in the shower but nothing worked like the "Ped Egg." It works wonders. Don't knock it till you try it!

Spiderman

Parley has a friend who has a friend who KNOWS Spiderman. He arranged for Spiderman to visit our house the other night. The kids were so excited and were watching out the window until he arrived. Parley said that Josh saw him first and yelled out with an excited voice to Lauren and Taylor that Spiderman was here. Then, Parley said, as Spiderman got closer to our front door, a look of sheer terror crossed Josh's face and he ran into his room and slammed the door. Lauren and Taylor loved it and got some good lessons on spider web "throwing" all while Josh cowered in his room. I finally had to pull him out and we couldn't get any further than the bathroom without Josh going into HYSTERICS. Notice in the last picture we are hovering in the background.

p.s. Did you know that when there are no tall buildings to swing from, Spidey rides a zippy little black scooter?

Rise and Shout the Cougars are Out

Yesterday we were lucky enough to have 4 football tickets to the BYU vs. UCLS game given to us. Parley was VERY excited to go. Since we have 5 people in our family but only 4 tickets, Lauren decided it would be fun to stay at her friend, Josie's, for the day. It was me and the boys. Parley was nervous about how BYU would do, but as you can see from the score (which was the final), BYU did great. Good job Cougars! Sorry Annie, better luck next year.....

p.s. My favorite part of going to football games is the kettle corn :)

Yippee, Yahoo!!

Yesterday was Josh's first day of preschool. I know I blogged about this last year at this time, too, but it's a big deal with Josh. This is a new teacher this year. Lauren and Taylor both had her and she's awesome!! We've been working with Josh for months on this and if you know Josh, at all, you know that it has to be HIS idea. You can't MAKE him do anything.

The day arrived and he did NOT want to go. He cried and screamed. Luckily preschool doesn't start until noon so we had a few hours to work on it. We started goofing around and I teased him that if he didn't go he'd have to stay home and get lots of kisses from me (most of us know how much Josh HATES kisses.) He decided, after some bribing with McDonalds, that he would go. And he did. And he loved it. And he went again today! His teacher said he did great and even participated in class!!

p.s. this is me trying to be sneaky and take his picture. Heaven forbid he would actually smile and pose for me :)

This is for Paige

I have a neice, Paige, who loves Eggo Waffles and home made pancakes. My sister Gwen is a good sport and makes Paige pancakes, often. I saw this new pancake batter on Because I Said So Reviews. At first I had the same thought she did, pancake batter in a can? It seems like it would be yucky and full of preservative "stuff." I guess it's organic and pretty tasty.

Need Job Will Travel

I wish I was here! I'm really sad that Labor Day has come and gone and so has summer. Parley reminds me that it's still warm into Sept. and sometimes into October but it's just not the same. I LOVE it when it's so hot that all you want to do is go swimming and you are dry and hot the minute you get out!

Some people love fall but I only see it as a precursor to the inevitible snow that comes with winter. I'm not ready, nor will I ever be. If anyone has any great job for Parley in Southern California, Hawaii or Arizona I'm all over it (I'll talk Parley into it later). :)