We just finished making up our family list of New Year's Resolutions and we're feeling really optimistic about actually accomplishing them. This is our first year giving the resolution thing a try and the kids have really embraced it, even creating a list of two individual things they'd like to do over the next year.
I'm particularly excited about the "visit 5 national/state parks" goal. We've already identified the parks and planned when to take them. It's going to be particularly important to have these kinds of things this year because our main family vacation is going to be moving... tons o' fun there :P It's reassuring to know tho that we've planned far enough in advance to know what we're doing all the way into September, which gets us past the move and into the next school year. So though we can't plan every little detail I think that it will help the kids feel more secure with all the change going on.
We're particularly looking forward to getting to know the church body we've identified as a serious contender over in Ft. Washington, it will be a hike, but if things work out with the church and the school it will be more than worth the effort when the time comes to move. Dan and I scouted/attended services last week and really enjoyed the message. Dan even talked with a man who spoke enthusiastically about a young couples group at the church... do we still qualify for young?!
Well, we wish all of the best for all of you out there that may (or not) see this - Happy New Year and God Bless!
As a parent I want my children to have the same sweet memories I have of certain things. Advertisers know this as "nostalgia" and they find it in your brain and use it as a mechanism to make you think that you only have one chance to buy something. This Disney Vault for example, we all know there probably is some kind of "storage" something somewhere, but "locking" it away and making unavailable to drive up short term sales... that's just rude.
And if you're going to be rude why would you be rude to parents of small children? How does that make good business sense? Sure they have a lot of movies to work with and so they can rotate them and sell more of one at a particular time than say a little trickle over a longer period of time. Maybe they've done measurements and have determined that the sales are greater with this strategy, but what has it done to the good will of their audience - to the mom or dad who just really wants to get the one particular movie that's locked away in the vault?
I'd think it would work better to just let people buy what they want when they want, maybe even put together sets that were created during a certain decade... I don't know, I'm just really really tired of seeing that vault close and feeling a tinge of advertising induced fear. So far it's annoyed me enough so that I've actually bought zero movies, how effective is that?!
Let's pretend I'm a restaurant critic for a moment. I don't like clam shell in my seafood gnocchi and yet I had some... tiny little pieces of delightful crunchiness. It scared me, I thought I was going to be stabbed in the gums. So do I complain to the waitress, no - because it's a seafood dish and there are whole clam shells in the dish so it's reasonable to assume that there could have been a piece of a shell or two in there, right?
Would you complain?
My lettuce was droopy too, I could have gotten fresher from my own plastic bag of salad at home. The only thing that I really liked was the butter, it was good.
Today I went to lunch with some co-workers and I took one bite of my turkey burger and knew I wasn't going to finish it, it was saltier than a Wendy's burger and that's saying a lot. I tried to eat it, but when push came to shove I couldn't. My friend Christine had the same thing and said the same thing, "It's really salty." But this time I said something to the waitress, she said it's very peppery and I said, no it's really salty and she said it's suppose to be spicy and I said, I've had it before and this is really spicy and Christine chimed in "It's really salty." The waitress offered me a re-do, I said no, she offered me a new plain burger, I said no thank you and then she took my plate away.
She comes back with the bill and says "I took your sandwich off", I was delighted - I know the turkey burger is normally really good, so I'll be back!
Here I am down in the ATL having a good time chilaxin' with the Hambricks. Lil' Pumpkin Head is so cute it's hard to put her down.
We had a fun day yesterday, helping pick out a Christmas tree and Christmas outfits for the christmas picture. Tree's up and decorated looking all fabulous with it's red bows.
I'm heading out tonight to get back to my kido's, miss those crazy nuts, but it's been a gret flash back to itty bitty baby times :)
