Second Chance for Dell

Last Friday when I was home with Emily, I called Dell up again to see why they had no cancelled my order after my first call.

I called in the middle of the day and didn't have to wait long to get through to a live person. I probably waited less than 5 minutes after all the annoying "commercials" finished playing.

The lady said she saw that I had called before, but could I "tell her again why I wanted to cancel"? Yes, I want to cancel because you didn't send my order when you said you would.

Dell customer service lady: Oh, so the problem is with the delivery date, no? I can get you over to someone who can help with the delivery date ...

Me: No ... please ... I want to cancel my order. I don't want the machine any more.

Dell customer service lady: Okay, well I will have to email another department to ask them to process the cancel of your order.

Me: That's what the last person said when I called before and it was never cancelled. What is different this time?

Dell customer service lady: Maybe they did not get the message. I will email them right now. Please hold. Okay. I have emailed them and your order will be cancelled in 24-48 business hours.

Okay so 24-48 business hours from now, my order should be cancelled. Business hours? I wonder how many Dell business hours are in a calendar day? 8 business hours in a day? So in the next 4-8 days my order should be cancelled? Is this a game?

I will give them their 4-8 days, but I expect it to be cancelled this time or there will be no more Ms. Nice-Guy. Err, Ms. Nice-Girl. Err, whatever. It better get cancelled this time!

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Show and Tell

Emily's Pre-K class started doing Show-and-Tell in January. If it's your day to bring snacks for the class, then it's your day to show and tell. Unfortunately, Emily missed her first Pre-K Show-and-Tell day last Friday when she was home sick with the stomach bug.

Her teacher let her bring her Show-and-Tell item this week when she got back to school. Emily knew immediately what she wanted to bring to share with her class. She wanted to take an ultrasound picture of the baby.

I agreed to let her take the picture, but I secretly prayed that she wouldn't say anything totally embarrassing. And I do have reason to worry about something like that because she has said some pretty funny things about the baby situation in the last few weeks.

The teacher asked us parents to make sure the children were able to talk about whatever item they brought for Show-and-Tell. This morning before school, I was sorta quizzing Emily about the baby - where the baby was in the picture, when baby would be here, etc. She said "Mom, why are you asking me all of this? I just want to take the picture with me!"

She is one girl who is not afraid to say what she thinks.

This afternoon, she would not tell us much about what happened at Show-and-Tell. She just said that she showed her picture and one of her friends said the picture was beautiful.

She obviously does not feel the need to share a bunch of details. "It happened. It's done. That's all." *grin*

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Emily's New Bed and Furniture

A few weeks before Christmas, we went with Nanny and Pops to pick out some new bedroom furniture for Emily.

Emily calls it her new bed and furniture (dresser, nightstand, and desk). She says it's "comfy". I think that means she likes it.

I took some pictures a few weeks ago, but I haven't posted them because the bed is not made and the desk is not neat and organized. I keep thinking that I need to neaten things up and then take some new pictures. But I've decided that I'm not going to do it. This is real. This is how things looked on that day.

Dresser with Mirror. It covers up Emily's name on the wall so something will eventually need to be moved. I originally wanted her bed to be on this wall under her name, but I didn't have time to measure everything out before the furniture was delivered.

Round nightstand and desk with chair. The desk has a keyboard drawer and a corkboard on the back wall. Emily LOVES the desk.

This is the design on the top of the desk.

For now, Emily's bed is still by the window. The side rails are adjustable so it can be lowered when we eventually get her a mattress with box spring. Right now, it's as high as it can go so that we can store more things under the bed.

A close up picture of the headboard.

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Snow Angel

Check out my very own adorable snow angel. This picture was taken a day or two after Christmas. Emily just had to play in the snow. She wanted to make a snow angel.

And soon after this picture was taken, she threw the biggest fit because she got snow on her hands.

Now I know - gloves!

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Slow Saturday

Today has been a low-key day for us. Emily woke up earlier than I would have liked this morning and then we just relaxed and played around the house most of the day.

Late this afternoon, we did bundle up and go out to eat at Texas Roadhouse. I had the ribs, Emily had a loaded sweet potato, and Mike had the chicken tenders. Yep, we went to a steak house and nobody had steak. The chicken was good though. I tried some. And Mike ate half of my ribs, at my request.

Truth be told, there was something weird in the ribs - it had the texture of a pig knuckle, I guess. I don't really know what texture a pig's knuckle might be. In any case, I was happy to share my ribs with Mike tonight.

After we left Roadhouse, we went to pickup my prescription at the pharmacy. I had asked my ob/gyn to write me a prescription for chewable prenatal vitamins. I'm going to be real with you all. I'd been having a really hard time swallowing the (large, pink, aromatic) vitamins that I take every day.

Really, I'd been having a hard time swallowing any pills. They feel like they get stuck in my throat every time. Mike calls it "pill phobia" and I'm not disagreeing, but it is still hard to swallow them.

I've tried several things to make the pills easier to swallow - drinking milk with them, drinking a pop with them, putting them in applesauce, putting them in pudding, buttering the pills and cutting the pills into smaller pieces.

The chewable vitamins are going to be a lot easier for me to take. AND the prescription chewables are covered by our insurance and they are going to end up being cheaper than the over the counter vitamins. Sweet!

I love it when things work out as they should.

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Things Are Looking Up

Emily is feeling better today. Her fever is down and she is playing more today. Her appetite is still not very good and she can't decide what she wants to eat. I get her 10 different things and she doesn't end up eating more than a bite of each one.

We have been cooped up in the house for the last couple days and I'm getting a little stir crazy. I'm ready to fix my hair and put on my makeup and go somewhere. Except that it's so cold. And do I really wanted to get out when it's so cold?

And is Emily really ready to get out? She would probably rather stay home and play with her toys. So we might have to wait to get out until tomorrow.

We really need to get busy putting away the Christmas stuff this weekend. We've got stuff everywhere and it's making me feel like my house is a wreck. I've done a lot of work on the laundry and kitchen in the last few days, but there is still lots more to be done.

But first, Emily and I are going to have a snack and watch some television. Ahh, what a life!

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Dell-Aware

In early December, I decided to order a new laptop for Mike for Christmas. After a lot of research and some careful consideration, I decided on a Insperion from Dell. Cherry red ... 17-inch monitor ... Windows 7 ... 2.53 GHz ... a real sweet machine. And it had an estimated delivery date of 12/16/2009. Perfect! Just in time for Christmas.

So I place my order online and check that off my to-d0 list. I did not immediately get a confirmation email, which I thought was strange. Six days later, I finally got an email that said my order had been confirmed and it gave instructions to check the status of my order online. Good deal! So every day or so, I would go online and check the status of my order. It was in production so that sounded good. I knew it should ship soon since it was set to take 5-7 days for delivery.

A few days later, I went online to check my status and the delivery date had changed - to 02/23/2010. February? 23? 2010? Over three months past my original estimated delivery date? Are you serious? Their website said I would get an email if my estimated delivery date had changed. I hadn't received an email so I thought I would give them a day or two.

Two days later - still no email about the delivery date change. So I emailed Dell customer service to check the status of my order. Their website said that most emails are answered within 24 hours. Sounds good. So I wanted one day ... two days ... three days. No email. December 16th came and went. No laptop, no emails.

I sent another email to Dell customer service, again checking the status of my order and questioning my new estimated delivery date. No response.

This time, I called customer service. I waited on hold for about 15 minutes until someone picked up .. then hung up. Not nice! I called back and waited for about 20 minutes and finally got someone on the line.

Dell customer service: Hello, Mrs. S how can I help you today?

Me: I would like to cancel my order.

Dell customer service: Why do you want to cancel your order?

Me: Because you didn't delivery my item when you said you would.

Dell customer service: Well, let me check and see if you have an option to cancel.

(Me, silently: Yes, I do have that option and I will be cancelling this order.)

Dell customer service: Oh, yes ... (pause) ... I do see that your order has been delayed. Since your order has not been shipped, you will be able to cancel this order.

(Me, silently: Told ya.)

Dell customer service: I'll have to email another department to request a cancellation for you.

Me: Ok. Will you please send me a confirmation that you have cancelled my order?

Dell customer service: I cannot send you anything, but you can go online to the status page and it will show cancelled. Give us 24-48 hours to get the cancel processed.

Okay, fine, thank you very much.

That same day, I went to another store and purchased Mike a laptop. It may not be cherry red, but it's still nice. And it's not a Dell! Oh, and it was cheaper.

So here we are over 3 weeks after the call to Dell customer service. They have still not answered any of my emails to customer service. And, frustratingly, they have STILL not cancelled my order.

Let this be a warning to you - in my experience, this company has not acted reputably. And their customer service stinks!

Have you had a similar experience with Dell? Have you had a positive experience with Dell? Either way, I would love to hear from you.

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Sugar Plum

Many of you may not know this, but I like to call Emily "Sugar Plum". One night before Christmas, I told her that I hoped she had visions of sugar plums dancing in her head while she slept.

The next morning, she mysteriously had some "sugar plums" in the pocket of her pajamas. She gave those to me and I kept them with me all day.

Every morning since then, Emily has had sugar plums in her pajama pockets for me. Many days, there are hundreds of them! But now the sugar plums are getting silly. Sometimes they are dirty and need a bath. Sometimes they get lost. You just never know what's going to happen with the sugar plums in the morning.

Today, my sugar plum is not feeling well. I got a call from the school around 11am that she was running a fever. Mike went to pick her up and then rested in the living room all afternoon. She threw up one time. I hope it does not turn out to be a long night for us. Either way, I will stay home with her tomorrow.

It is supposed to be a very cold day tonight and tomorrow. The biggest school district in our area has already cancelled classes for the rest of the week due to the cold temperatures. So far, no word from Emily's school. She probably won't be there the rest of the week in any case.

Well, Emily's calling for me so I better run!

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Blessed Beyond Measure

In early December, Mike and I learned that the Lord had blessed us. We are pregnant with our second child. Well, *I* am pregnant with our second child.

I had been feeling dizzy several times a day, several days in a row. I thought that was awful strange. It's not something I even occasionally experience.

A few days later, we put up and decorated our Christmas tree. During all this, Mike said it would sure be nice if we were bringing home a new baby this Christmas. I had been thinking the same thing.

That same weekend, I took down the crib that had been in Emily's room for the last 4 1/2 years. We were getting ready to get new furniture for Emily's room and it just seemed like time to take down the crib.

The next day - the very next day - I woke up and just had this feeling like maybe I should take a pregnancy test because there were all these signs. So I did. And it almost immediately looked like a big + sign. So I did the only sensible thing and called Mike into the bathroom to look at it. "I think there's a plus sign." "Yep, it looks like a plus."

I intended to wait a few days and then call the doctor. But I didn't. All the people in my office seemed to be gone from our office for a bit that day. So I took that opportunity to call the doctor's office and let them know. They wanted me to come in to do some blood work. Yep, I'm pregnant.

Wow.

Blessed beyond measure.

This morning, Mike and I went in for an office visit and an ultrasound. Baby looked like a tiny gummy bear. His or her heart was galloping at 176 beats per minute. Wow!

Everything looked good. We'll go back in a month.

God is so good!

We are blessed. Beyond measure.

More details later. Thanks for your prayers!

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Hello 2010

Hello 2010, I'm glad you've arrived.

I've been waiting so long for you. It's a new year, a new decade, a new chapter in my life.

Out with the old ...

In with the new.

I celebrated the New Year just like I always do ... snuggled warm and cozy in my own bed. We got up very early on New Years Day to drive down to visit my parents. It was our family Christmas/New Years celebration. We had a really good time, ate a lot of really good food.

We didn't get to play outside much because it was soooo cold. The kids did get to go outside and ride their power wheels for a bit though. They were all bundled up in their coats and hats and gloves. Sooo cute!

Tyler was a pro at those power wheels cars. Emily had a lot of trouble keeping hers out of the mud and Carter just kept driving his little car in circles.

Carter was so so so excited to see Emily. He just kept smiling and giving her love pats and following her around. I'm not sure if Emily knew what to think at first. She knew that Carter liked her, but maybe not that much.

We had to come home on Sunday. I was prepared to come home to see all the snow melted, but that was not the case. We still had a lot of snow ... a lot of snow everywhere! And it was so so cold by the time we got home.

It's supposed to just get colder the rest of this week. That's not what I want!

We've got some fun things going on this week. But more about that later.

Hope you have a great 2010!

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Christmas Recap and More Snow

Mike's mom and dad brought Emily home on Christmas evening. I think she was glad to be home. She immediately went inside and checked out everything that Santa left. She wanted to see if he ate any goodies - and he did. He also left a note for Emily saying that he was sorry he missed her.

After Nanny and Pops left, we all sat down and opened the gifts that Santa left for us. Emily got a Nintendo DSi, in pink, of course. She also got some games for it, a couple books, a Perfection game, an Uno Moo game, a baby doll, and some other things that I can't recall right now. I think Emily was very happy with the things that Santa left for her.

Mike got a laptop, a new electric razor, an OU t-shirt, and a few other things.

Santa brought me a Kindle e-book reader, a cover and book light for my Kindle, some bubble bath (my faves!) and some other fun things.

Santa was good to all of us this year!

After we opened presents, we had a non-traditional Christmas supper - BBQ meatballs with cheesy rice. I think I prefer the traditional Christmas dinner - turkey and dressing, sweet potatoes, hot buttery rolls and more!

On Saturday, we got out and went over to Mike's parents house for the traditional Christmas lunch with the family. After lunch, we did a white elephant gift exchange. Mike got some Christmas mugs, Emily got a small candle, and I got a large pink croco purse/bag. As you can see, it was a lot of fun.

On Sunday after church, we went back over to Mike's parents house to open presents with his family. We normally do this on Christmas Eve, but of course we were snowed out.

It was a busy and unusual Christmas weekend, but we are so thankful to have family close and so thankful that we were able to spend time with them.

This weekend, we'll go down to celebrate Christmas with my family. Lets just hope the weather holds out! We're getting a couple inches more snow tonight on top of all the snow that is left over from the Christmas Eve blizzard. I have had enough snow! I am ready for some warmer weather and some sunshine!


At least we're headed SOUTH in a few days. Hopefully it will be warmer down there.

Hoping ...

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Unexpected Christmas

Christmas 2009 has definitely been one for the record books. Oklahoma City recorded over 14 inches of snow on Christmas Eve. Because of all the snow, we were not able to pick Emily up from Nanny and Poppa's house yesterday. She'd spent the night on Wednesday night to help decorate Christmas cookies and ended up having to stay two nights instead.

Santa came to our house anyway. He brought lots of presents and left a stocking full of goodies too. He ate some cookies and drank some milk and left Emily a letter saying that he's sorry he missed her. She'll open her presents as soon as she gets home.

The first thing Emily told Nanny this morning was that she was ready to go home. We're going to try to make that happen today. Mike has been out working on getting the car out of the snow drift this morning. He has made good progress. It would be very helpful if we had an SUV or a truck or something a little higher than a car.

Since Emily is not here to open presents, Mike and I decided to go for a walk in the snow. I wish I had taken my yard stick with me to see how high some of the drifts were. The south and east sides of the house were some of the deepest areas.

Someone had been walking in the snow before we got there. Maybe a bunny?

The snow collected on some of the cedar tree branches. The snow and high winds broke off the top of one of our small trees in the front yard.

It was so so cold outside this morning. I think the TV news guys said the wind chill was something like 7 degrees. So we did not stay outside for long.

We came inside and warmed up. Not much we can do until Emily gets home so I thought I would write a long, long blog post to take up some time. Ha!

This is really not how Christmas was supposed to be. Mike and I had it all planned out. We have some nice surprises for Emily and cannot wait until she opens her presents. Christmas morning without our child is just not right.

Yesterday was the same way. It was hard just watching the snow and not knowing how we would be able to get Emily home. I spent most of my day keeping busy - cooking, cleaning, wrapping gifts, and making Christmas cookies.

I swore I was not going to make all those cookies by myself, but what else did I have to do? I could not find my Christmas cookie cutters so I made all the cookies round. The decorating was all me. Isn't it lovely?

I think our Christmas dinner with the family is going to be postponed so I don't know what we'll have for Christmas lunch. Probably sandwiches, devilled eggs and sweets. I don't think I have anything more gourmet than that.

I can't wait until Emily gets home.

Merry Christmas everybody! JESUS is the reason for the season.

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Happy Birthday

So sorry about my lack of posts the last few weeks. I have been without a computer for quite some time. Then I got it back and something else messed up on it the next day. Sooo frustrating! But it looks like I'm back on track now.

Lots of things have happened that I'd like to share, but I can only do one thing at a time.

This weekend, I celebrated my birthday. On Saturday night, Mike and Emily took me out to a wonderful pizza dinner with a little shopping afterwards. Then we went home and enjoyed some angel food cake with fluffy white frosting - that Emily helped me bake.

(In case you wanted to know, the frosting is by Betty Crocker and comes in a small blue box. Sometimes this frosting is hard to find. My WM Supercenter does not carry it, but I can find it in a small local supermarket.)

Mike and Emily also got me a set of "Magnolia blossom" wall plaques that I saw online and really liked.

On Sunday after church, we went to The Cheesecake Factory with the family to continue the celebration. I had their Shepherd's Pie for lunch followed by their Red Velvet Cake Cheesecake. It was so so good. It had layers of red velvet cake and cheesecake finished off with white chocolate. Yum!

All in all, it was a great weekend filled with fun, family, and great friends.

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Would you do me a favor?

One of my friends from my hometown just had a major surgery to treat appendix cancer. She is still in the hospital and could use some encouragement.

Would you go to her website and leave her a message?

Her name is Heather Chandler. She's a young mother with two children. Lets lift her up while she's going through this tough tough situation.

Here's her website: http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/heatherchandler

Thank you all very very much!

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Red Velvet Cake Balls

Over the last few days, I've been working on making some red velvet cake balls. The "recipe" is really simple. The execution is the difficult part.

All you need to do is make a boxes cake according to the package directions. I used a 9X13 cake pan, but it doesn't really matter. After baking, let the cake cool about 30 minutes crumble the entire cake into a large bowl. Mix an entire can of frosting into the crumbled cake and mix well. This will be the filling for the cake balls.

Next, cool the mixture for a few hours or overnight in the refrigerator. Then use a cookie scoop to form into small balls. Then dip into white chocolate - I used almond bark. Also, I put the balls onto a cookie sheet and stuck the balls into the freezer until they were firm before I dipped them. I think this is important because it is very hard to dip the balls when they are soft.

Cool the dipped balls on waxed paper. Enjoy!

See? Simple and so yummy good!

You can use any combination of cake and icing. Red Velvet cake and cream cheese frosting sounded good to me, but you could do chocolate cake and chocolate frosting or white cake with chocolate fudge frosting.

Have you ever made these? If so, what cake/frosting combinations did you use?

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Buttery Peanut Brittle

Okay so this weekend I experienced a cooking first. I actually used a candy thermometer while making my buttery peanut brittle. In years past, I'd experimented with microwave methods. Laugh if you want, but it actually turned out pretty good a couple times. But when it flopped, it flopped big time.

So this time, I got out the candy thermometer and jumped in with both potholders.

Here's the recipe:

Peanut Brittle

2 c. sugar
1 c. light corn syrup
1 c. water
2 c. raw spanish peanuts
1/2 tsp. salt
1 Tbsp. butter
1 tsp. baking soda
2 large greased cookie sheets

In a heavy 3 qt saucepan, over medium heat, combine sugar, corn syrup and water. Cook until 234 degree is reached on a candy thermometer. Add peanuts and salt, stirring constantly up to 305 degrees.

Quickly stir in butter and baking soda. Pour at once onto cookie sheets. Spread very thin with spatula. Break up when cool.

And that's it ... simple as that. *wink*

If you follow me on twitter, you might remember the tweets about the candy thermometer and how I sat down for one minute and suddenly the nifty candy thermometer was 15 degrees over where it should have been. Yeah. Don't do that.

Well that's all for today. Come back tomorrow to see what other goodies I'll be sharing with you.

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A Week of Traditions

This weekend, I started gathering up things to make some Thanksgiving goodies for our family gathering. We usually go down to my family's house for Thanksgiving and then stay up here in OKC for Christmas Eve/Christmas Day.

So this week I would like to share some of my family's Thanksgiving traditions and recipes. But first ... I am a little behind on reporting all the happenings around here.

Pilgrims and Indians

On Friday morning, I went to Emily's school for the traditional Thanksgiving lunch. Emily went to lunch at 10:30am with the Pre-K and Kindergarten kids. They had turkey and dressing, mashed potatoes, green beans, rolls, and pumpkin pie squares. All the kids had made either a pilgrim hat or a indian hat. Emily made an indian hat - probably because of the colorful feather.

After lunch, they got to go out on the playground and play for a bit. Of course, Emily had to point out Jaydon to me. He even let me take his picture with Emily. The teacher said that Jaydon is a really good kid, very sweet and courteous. That makes me feel better that she's got some good friends.

While Emily and her class went back to class, I headed out to look a blue shirt for Emily and some Christmas presents. I found a lot of things including a beautiful purple dress but not a blue shirt. It is really hard to find just a plain light blue shirt for a girl. Everything is turquoise or has some kind of design on it.

A Big Star

On Saturday, we celebrated Madison's 10th birthday. All the little girls went over to Nanny's house on Saturday afternoon for a pedicure party then Saturday evening the whole family came over for pizza, salad, and Hannah Montana cake. Madison got a lot of nice gifts. I can't believe she's already 10 years old!

Southern Living

I've been looking at my Southern Living magazine to see what new recipes they might have. They always have SUCH good desserts. I've been looking at the Pumpkin Pie Spectacular which has pecan streudel and maybe the Caramel Pecan Bars. They also had an idea for a tabletop decoration - Caramel Shopping Bags. Anything caramel is good in my book, but that shopping bag they had made was so cute! If only I was so talented. I love my Southern Living magazines!

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A Beary Fun Day

Yesterday, we went to Sarah's 7th Birthday Party at Build-A-Bear Workshop.

The kids got to pick out an animal ... Emily picked out a bunny with soft pink ears. Then they picked a heart for their bear and went through a ritual where they rubbed it on their cheek, touched it to their ear, and kissed it before putting it inside their new friend.

Then they got to help put stuffing in their animal - they got to choose how soft or firm they wanted them.

Then the animals were sewed up with their stuffing and their heart inside.

Next, it was time to get their friends a bath. Emily was soooo cute brushing on her bunny. She really worked it over good, brushing her all over even her big pink ears. She knew exactly what to do.

Meet beautiful bunny "Sweetheart".

This is the whole group with their animals.

After everyone got their bears fixed up and dressed, we went out to the food court in the mall and had cupcakes and opened presents.

It was SUCH a fun party and Emily really likes her pretty bunny.

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The Feast Is On

This week in Emily's school folder, we got our "assignment" for the Thanksgiving Feast party. Yes, we were assigned a food item to bring. The paper said "1 cooked pumpkin pie".

Okay, fine, no problem. I have never made a pumpkin pie in my life, but how hard can it be? I could go the canned pumpkin route or I could use those little pumpkins that we got at the pumpkin patch the other week.

But you know these are four-year-olds we're talking about. I'm pretty sure they are not going to care much what the pumpkin pie tastes like as long as it comes with whipped topping. I may just pick up one at the grocery store. It just depends on how much time I end up with.

I usually make my homemade cracker jacks around Thanksgiving. This year, I am looking to find a new kind of popping corn to use. When we were at the pumpkin patch a few weeks ago, they were selling kettle corn. The popcorn had these huge puffy kernels. I wish I could find some corn like that for my cracker jacks.

I have not decided on anything else to fix for Thanksgiving. Note to self - maybe I should ask Mom what I need to bring. Wait, she'll read this before I even get a chance to ask. Love you Mom!

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Piggly Wiggly Flu

On Saturday, we took Emily to the county health department to get her first of two H1N1 shots. If you recall, we just went to get the seasonal flu shot a few weeks ago and so it did not take Emily long to figure out that today was going to be a repeat of that performance. She was understandably upset about what was about to happen.

Luckily, we did not have to wait very long. We pretty much just walked right in and filled out the paperwork. They were having a "vaccination blitz" which meant that there were probably a dozen places you could go to get shots this weekend.

I had to hold Emily and she was crying and it was awful. After we were done, she got to choose a bear and she got a sticker for her shirt. On the way home, I asked why she cried and she said "because I wanted a bear". Ha!

Here's a picture of Emily with her new bear. She was a little put off that it didn't have a face.

I asked her to show me a model's pose and this is what happened ---->

Hehe, so cute.

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