HAPPY BIRTHDAY POOKIE!

I love you Randy! Happy 30th Birthday!

Jacquie and Randy Sr- thanks for giving birth to this wonderful guy. xoxo

Food For Thought

I came across this article on McDonalds- all I have to say is oh my gosh. How many of these things did I eat growing up!?! McNuggets were my favorite thing to eat at McDonalds when I was younger!

These two paragraphs are taken directly from The Omnivore’s Dilemma (by Michael Pollen):

“The ingredients listed in the flyer suggest a lot of thought goes into a nugget, that and a lot of corn. Of the thirty-eight ingredients it takes to make a McNugget, I counted thirteen that can be derived from corn: the corn-fed chicken itself; modified cornstarch (to bind the pulverized chicken meat); mono-, tri-, and diglycerides (emulsifiers, which keep the fats and water from separating); dextrose; lecithin (another emulsifier); chicken broth (to restore some of the flavor that processing leeches out); yellow corn flour and more modified cornstarch (for the batter); cornstarch (a filler); vegetable shortening; partially hydrogenated corn oil; and citric acid as a preservative. A couple of other plants take part in the nugget: There's some wheat in the batter, and on any given day the hydrogenated oil could come from soybeans, canola, or cotton rather than corn, depending on the market price and availability.

According to the handout, McNuggets also contain several completely synthetic ingredients, quasiedible substances that ultimately come not from a corn or soybean field but form a petroleum refinery or chemical plant. These chemicals are what make modern processed food possible, by keeping the organic materials in them from going bad or looking strange after months in the freezer or on the road. Listed first are the "leavening agents": sodium aluminum phosphate, mono-calcium phosphate, sodium acid pyrophosphate, and calcium lactate. These are antioxidants added to keep the various animal and vegetable fats involved in a nugget from turning rancid. Then there are "anti-foaming agents" like dimethylpolysiloxene, added to the cooking oil to keep the starches from binding to air molecules, so as to produce foam during the fry. The problem is evidently grave enough to warrant adding a toxic chemical to the food: According to the Handbook of Food Additives, dimethylpolysiloxene is a suspected carcinogen and an established mutagen, tumorigen, and reproductive effector; it's also flammable. But perhaps the most alarming ingredient in a Chicken McNugget is tertiary butylhydroquinone, or TBHQ, an antioxidant derived from petroleum that is either sprayed directly on the nugget or the inside of the box it comes in to "help preserve freshness." According to A Consumer's Dictionary of Food Additives, TBHQ is a form of butane (i.e. lighter fluid) the FDA allows processors to use sparingly in our food: It can comprise no more than 0.02 percent of the oil in a nugget. Which is probably just as well, considering that ingesting a single gram of TBHQ can cause "nausea, vomiting, ringing in the ears, delirium, a sense of suffocation, and collapse." Ingesting five grams of TBHQ can kill.”

Anyone want Chicken McNuggets now?

(Our New) HOME SWEET HOME!!!

We have some pretty nice neighbors I hear.....

I Want to go to Graceland

My step-dad and mom are going to Graceland today in celebration of her 62nd birthday. I RRREEAAALLLLLYYYY want to be there right now with them, road-tripping to Memphis and cruising down Elvis Presley Boulevard. After Graceland, they are going to Tupelo, MS to see Elvis' birthplace. Lucky them!

Graceland is awesome. The last time I made my pilgrimage was in 1999, after Elvis' aunt Delta died and the curators of Graceland decided to show the kitchen on the tour of his house. The tickets to see the mansion, airplanes (2 of them), and the "Sincerely, Elvis" museum cost $18 back then. Probably more now. I really want to go. Did I say that already?

Ok, ok. You can make fun of me now.

My Backpacker

He went, he saw, he conquered. He says he had a good time.

Check out this cute kid!!!

Soul Man
Lonely (longer but definitely worth watching!)

Randy's already told me that I can't force our kids to be this cute. I know, I just hope to teach our kids Elvis' greatest hits so that they can entertain me while driving around in the car. That's all.

New Pictures!

Here are our newest pictures of mine and Randy's S.A.W. Day and of our day in the snow yesterday. We had so much fun! Enjoy!

Go Colts!

Interesting....

You know how tigers are becoming extinct creatures, right? Well, sounds like some scientists are doing something about it- IVF. That's right, in-vitro fertilization.

Zoologists are taking a tiger's egg, another's sperm, fertilizing them in a petri dish, and implanting them in a female LION. Lions do well with pregnancy and giving birth in captivity, while Tigers don't. Turns out- it's working- Lions in captivity are now giving birth to Tigers and are raising them as their own (despite the stripes and different colors). The next time you go to the zoo, you may see a lion carrying around her little tiger cubs- weird!

Randy brought up a good point though. Tigers are pretty much solitary animals and lions are pack animals- so won't that totally change how tigers are? Maybe, but I guess at least they can save a species that way.

Bible Verse of the Day???????

Ok- so I have my Google homepage customized with a bunch of "stuff"- things you can add to your homepage, such as the local weather, news, world webcams, spanish word of the day, things that happened this day in history, etc.... ya know, stuff like that.

Here is the official Bible verse of the day sponsored by isearchbible.com:

the son of Mahli, the son of Mushi, the son of Merari, the son of Levi.
1 Chronicles 6:47

Wow. That's it. That's all you get from the Good Book today.

The only cool thing is that my nephew's name (Levi) is in the verse.

Wish I'd thought of this answer in physics class!!!

GUESS WHAT DAY IT IS!!!!?????

It's our 5th annual (drum roll please.....)

S.A.W. DAY!!!!!!!!!!!

I love you Randy. With all that I am. Life has never been as good as it's been these last 4 years. Except for Jun dying, that part sucked, but we have overcome a lot and have learned to love and be loved. I am so happy! Hope you are too, Pookie Roo.

XOXO

Useless Facts of the Day

-A whale's penis is called a dork.
-Because of the rotation of the earth, an object can be thrown farther if it is thrown west.
-The average person spends 6 months of their life sitting at red lights.
-In 1912 a law passed in Nebraska where drivers in the country at night were required to stop every 150 yards, send up a skyrocket, wait eight minutes for the road to clear before proceeding cautiously, all the while blowing their horn and shooting off flares.
-More Monopoly money is printed in a year, than real money throughout the world.
-Caesar salad has nothing to do with any of the Caesars. It was first concocted in a bar in Tijuana, Mexico, in the 1920's.
-One quarter of the bones in your body are in your feet.
-Crocodiles and alligators are surprisingly fast on land. Although they are rapid, they are not agile. So, if being chased by one, run in a zigzag line to lose him or her.
-Seattle’s Fremont Bridge rises up and down more than any drawbridge in the world.
-Right-handed people live, on average; nine years longer than left handed people.
-Ten percent of the Russian government's income comes from the sale of vodka.
-In the United States, a pound of potato chips costs two hundred times more than a pound of potatoes.
-A giraffe can go without water longer than a camel.
-A person cannot taste food unless it is mixed with saliva. For example, if a strong-tasting substance like salt is placed on a dry tongue, the taste buds will not be able to taste it. As soon as a drop of saliva is added and the salt is dissolved, however, a definite taste sensation results. This is true for all foods.
-Nearly 80% of all animals on earth have six legs.
-In the marriage ceremony of the ancient Inca Indians of Peru, the couple was considered officially wed when they took off their sandals and handed them to each other.
-Ninety percent of all species that have become extinct have been birds.
-There is approximately one chicken for every human being in the world.
-Most collect calls are made on father's day.
-The first automobile race ever seen in the United States was held in Chicago in 1895. The track ran from Chicago to Evanston, Illinois. The winner was J. Frank Duryea, whose average speed was 71/2 miles per hour.

Tagged!!! (Thanks Martha)

A- Available or married? Married

B- Best Friend? Randy and "the Kristens" (Cornwell and Alderson)

C- Cake or Pie? Cake with lots of icing!

D- Drink of Choice? Ice cold chocolate milk

E- Essential Item? Soap

F- Favorite Color? Black or red (I can't decide!)

G- Gummi Bears or Worms? Worms- they last longer!

H- Hometown? Ellettsville, IN

I- Indulgence? Rocky Road ice cream

J- January or February? January- Randy and I celebrate S.A.W. day!

K- Kids & names? No kids yet. Names picked out: Zyre Jun, Elexis Rain, & Aven Knight

L- Life is incomplete without? Christ's love being expressed through us

M- Marriage Date? March 20, 2004

N- Number of Siblings? 3 sisters

O- Oranges or apples? Apples (you can dip them in caramel or have 'em plain!)

P- Phobias/Fears? Spiders, any kind of bugs (except the kind I drive)

Q- Favorite Quote? "If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams,
and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours." by Thoreau

R- Reason to Smile? When Randy makes it home safely when he's been gone

S- Season? Winter- I love CHRISTMAS!!!!

T- Tag three people! Kristen/Nate, Lisa S, Melanie

U- Unknown fact about me: I keep a book with all my patient's names (dead and alive) in it who have made me become a better nurse

V- Vegetable you hate? Cauliflower (unless it has that good cheese sauce on it that mom used to make)

W- Worst habit? biting my nails

Y- Your favorite food? Ice cream, crab legs, tootsie rolls

Z- Zodiac? Cancer

Something funny for today

I laughed so hard!

CHRISTMAS IN INDIANA

Christmas this year was bittersweet for my family. We are all missing my grandpa and feeling his absence. On the other hand, I got to spend some good quality time with a couple of friends, as well as my family on Christmas day. We had a great time hanging out, playing games, and just being with each other. Mom made a fantastic Christmas dinner too. Christmas night it began to snow! It was so peaceful...watching the cold white stuff cover everything. I had hoped for a white Xmas, and it happened!
We thought we were flying back on Tuesday afternoon, but our airplane had some kind of mechanical problem. So our flight was canceled and Randy and I ended up staying all night in Indianapolis in a hotel the airline chose. We went downtown Indy, ate dessert and had drinks in a rotating restaurant in one of the hotel high rises. Talk about romantic! The next morning, we flew out of Indy at 6 am (3 am California time), had a layover in Atlanta GA, then in Austin TX, and FINALLY we made it into LA at 1:30pm Wednesday. I ended up coming down with the same cold Randy had for the past week, so I called into work sick on Wednesday night and we both fell asleep by 8 pm. Whew! What a Christmas vacation! Click on the pic above to see more!

Hope everyone had a blessed Christmas!

To my dear family and friends:

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

Since I have to work most of this week before we take off to Indiana on Friday, I just wanted to spread some cheer. Click on the above pic for our California Christmas pictures. Look for Indiana Christmas pics after we return!

Hope you have a wonderful, safe, and blessed Christmas!

Check these out!

Follow the links to new pics of our sleepover with Levi and Conrad, Thanksgiving celebration, or Randy's last softball game of the season.

Can I just say how excited I am that the Christmas season is FINALLY here?!?!?!
Fa la la la la, la la la la!

Randy Has a Point

After I made a typical "midwestern" grammatical error tonight, and after Randy got finished correcting me, I asked him, "Oh gosh- what will our kids be like?".
His reply?
"They probably won't be able to stand themselves."

World's Highest Website

Check it out!

It's a sad, sad day at our house

Randy, Nick, and Andy took off work tomorrow so that they could sit all night long outside Target, so that when the store opens tomorrow they would be able to each buy a brand spankin' new Playstation 3. I went by Target today around 12 noon, and already there's a line of about 20 people waiting to buy the 12 the store was selling. I went to KMart then, and the electronics guy told me that they were supposed to get 2 but he had just received a call that none would be coming. He did have some advice, though- he said he had just talked to someone at Sam's Club and they had theirs in stock already, and the line outside the store wasn't long at all. So, off I went to Sams and low and behold- 2 people were in line! I was excited- I called Randy and he was excited too- but all hope faded fast as the first guy in line told me that the manager had just come out and said that they only have one to sell- maybe another will come overnight. That's one. A single solitary Playstation. That means one of the guys in a line of two will be able to get one. What a crock of you-know-what. I went home and called every store in Ventura County that would possibly get some in, and most of them said they were getting 2 or 3 but had lines atleast 20 people long. Fryes' manager said that store was getting 20 consoles, but 40 people were already in line. I even called stores in Indiana where my sister lives, her best friend lives, and my parents live (three separate towns). Same story there- 20 people for every 1-2 consoles. I'm holding out hope that my step-dad's friend who is a manager at Target will be able to get one for him. But, as the old saying goes, I won't be counting my eggs until they're hatched.

Sorry Randy. I tried. I think we should just boycott Sony for good. Corporate jerks (that's the nicest thing that can be said about them).