Indianapolis Temple

Indianapolis Temple

Ode to Rita's Italian Ice and Custard

7/31/2009 05:51:00 PM Edit This 10 Comments »

Oh Rita, how I love thee.
Thou hast all sorts of flavors, new ones every day.
I have tasted not a single one twice.
Thine custard is thick and delish.
Thine ice is cold and Lara thinketh that it is better than ice cream.
I love thine Gelati's- custard on bottom, ice in the middle, custard on top.
Better yet, I love the coupons that make thee really affordable.
Three words that I love- 50 cents off.
Lara knows thy store front by sight and yells "ICE CREAM" when we pass by.
Which we usually don't because we're coming to thy store.
How I love thy Double Stamp Tuesdays.
Free stuff? I cannot pass it up.
I look forward to Fridays, my date days with Lara and Vivi.
We sit on thy patio and eat delicious eats.
We talk about food, toys, family, and whatever else Lara talks about.
My favorite flavor ice so far- Mint Chocolate Chip.
My favorite custard- is there any other? Chocolate.
Oh Rita's, how I love thee!

Smartmouth

7/28/2009 06:38:00 PM Edit This 3 Comments »
Me: Lara, put on your shoes. We need to go to the library.

Lara: Mommy, stop whining!

Melaleuca Product of the Week: PreSpot

7/27/2009 06:02:00 PM Edit This 2 Comments »

Lara wore a really cute pink overalls outfit that was given to her at a baby shower. The overalls have white eyelet lining the straps and has pictures of bears and flowers across the chest. Very cute. I look forward to Vivi wearing the same outfit next summer (or sooner the way she's growing). Well, I went to get Lara from daycare and she had green streaks on her bum from sitting on a bench with grass clippings on it. Oh no! But did I panic? Was I disappointed because Vivi would get a stained outfit from her sister? No! I know that the stains will come out with a simple treatment of PreSpot. PreSpot was recently reformulated so that it could be 4 times concentrated meaning less plastic in our environment. The new PreSpot also contains 3 naturally derived enzymes (lipase to tackle grease stains, protease to tackle proteins and amylase to tackle starch) instead of caustic chemicals that burn your fabric. There's a page of Frequently Asked Questions about PreSpot on Melaleuca's website. This is a must-have product for those with kids!

Angel Food

7/24/2009 10:29:00 AM Edit This 4 Comments »
A co-worker told me about a non-profit organization that runs a food program called Angel Food. It's an organization that serves families and individuals who just want to save money on buying food for their families. You order once a month by a designated time, and then pick up your food at your nearest location. Ours happens to be a church in Powell. On standard box of Angel Food is nutritionally balanced and can feed a family of 4 for a week. There are also fruit and meat expansion boxes that you can also purchase. The price of these boxes are about half the price of the same food at the grocery store and, best of all, it's not damaged goods or expired food. It's perfectly good food from companies that have agreed to partner with this non-profit.

At first I was a little hesitant to try out the program. Reed and I work hard to provide for our families and I didn't like the idea of possibly taking away from other people in need. But after visiting their website, reading about the program, and talking to my co-worker, I decided it was worth a try. The program doesn't have any limitations or qualifications you have to meet in order to participate. It's just for anybody who is on a budget and wants to save money.

We've been really impressed so far. The people are so nice when we go to pick up our food. You don't feel judged at all. The food is great and definitely a good price. We've been able to save around $100 off our grocery budget per month! Angel Food also helps us to use up everything we've bought before going to the store. We have our Angel Food in the middle of the month and I refuse to go grocery shopping until at least 2 weeks have passed. It forces us to be ingenious and go without things that we normally would hop over to the store to purchase. It also, *sigh*, forces me to cook.

Visit www.angelfoodministries.com to learn more!

Our Eventful Night

7/18/2009 07:33:00 PM Edit This 5 Comments »
Sometimes you just have to experience a night like tonight so that you can have something to laugh over later in life.

I was excited last week to purchase Popcorn Pops tickets at half price- only $6 per ticket! Only catch was I had to buy 4 at a time (kids 2 and under are free) so we invited our friends the Dschaaks to come along to the concert tonight. We arrived at CAS with some blue skies above us, a good sign or so we thought. We got up to the ticket takers and discovered that this was a Picnic with the Pops concert, not Popcorn Pops... I had somehow gotten my dates mixed up. I tried to exchange the tickets and just pay the difference but since they were discounted tickets the ticket people told me that wasn't possible. I walked back to our group, dejected and feeling rather foolish. We decided to just go to a park and have our picnic dinners but then one of the managers of the event said that they would just take our tickets and we could go to the concert. Yay!

Oh, were it that the tickets would be our only snaffoo in our lovely evening. But no. It started raining about 20 minutes into the picnic (the concert hadn't started yet) and it rained for a good half hour. Our blankets were soaked and so were my jeans. I managed to keep Vivi dry and Lara was pretty dry also. We decided to tough it out for the first part of the concert. Lara loved it! Reed had taken her up to see the instruments while they were tuning and she came back and told me all about them. During the concert she would clap her hands and ask for more after the piece was done. She was having such a fun time but it was rather chilly and since we were wet that just made it worse. I knew that I would be forever kicking myself if we didn't stay for at least one song in the second half since Aaron Neville was the guest artist. We stayed for the first 2 songs and then started to leave when he started playing the one song that I really, really wanted to hear! He had sung a duet with Linda Rondstadt called Don't Know Much that Reed and I like to sing together. I was happy that I at least got to hear that song. Even though really, I wasn't supposed to be at that concert at all.

We were all glad to get home and change into dry clothes and the girls were exhausted. Kudos to the Dschaaks for being good sports! They were so positive throughout the whole thing, we couldn't have picked a better family with which to have a potential horrible evening.

At least she's happy!

You can't really tell from this picture, but everything is soaked.

The Dschaaks, also with everything soaked.

The sun did come out for about 10 minutes at the very beginning of the concert.

Melaleuca Product of the Week: No Work

7/14/2009 06:09:00 PM Edit This 3 Comments »
In the back of my mind this week is the thought that I need to clean the bathroom. So I have chosen my highlighted product because it's one that allows me to go a long time between cleanings of said bathroom, specifically the shower. I spray No Work on the walls after a shower or bath and it penetrates soap scum so that it doesn't stick to the walls. No Work makes my job easier and it's non-toxic. Big bonus.

A first for me

7/11/2009 06:43:00 PM Edit This 2 Comments »
Yesterday I took Lara and Genevieve to a little playground by our house. It was a really hot day and nobody was around except for this cute little boy. He saw us playing and came over to say hi, such a cute boy with chubby cheeks and big eyes. He pretty much told me his life story- 8 years old, he likes a cartoon called Baku Balls (or something) and had one of the toys which he showed Lara, he's a yellow belt in Tai Kwon Do, has an older brother, older sister, and younger brother and younger sister, a dad and 3 moms... Eh, what? I asked him more about his moms and he explained that he has a step-mom and she was working at that particular moment and that his other moms were married to each other... Eh, what? I tried to hide my surprise but I had never met someone who actually had 3 moms.

Bathtub Babes

7/06/2009 02:38:00 AM Edit This 7 Comments »
I gave Lara and Vivi a bath at the same time, for the first time, a few days ago. Usually we just pop them in the shower with us, it's much easier that way. But I was by myself because Reed is back at school, and Lara was absolutely filthy from playing outside. So a bubblebath it is! They were having so much fun that I had to run get the camcorder. I know, bad Mommy for leaving them in the tub by themselves. But I literally ran downstairs and ran back up! It was worth it for this cute video!


Melaleuca Product of the Week: Lip Balm

7/02/2009 07:04:00 PM Edit This 3 Comments »

This might seem like a silly product to have highlighted but I honestly can't function without my lip balm. With other lip balms and chapsticks I have to constantly keep applying them to be effective and they often feel very waxy. Sun Shades Lip Balm has 15 SPF and comes in 3 "flavors", my favorite being the vanilla bean. During the winter holiday season there's even more "flavors" which is really exciting!