People who get irritated over stupid things irritate me. For example, I went shopping yesterday
and had the following encounter in the check out lane:
Self-Righteous Check Out Lady: Did you know this was the Express checkout?
(I was taken a little off guard not expecting a confrontation with the check out lady. I then took
an extra second to consider a million different possible responses but I couldn't decide which
response to give so I played it safe..)
Darin: Yes, ahuh.
(She was looking at me with a "You're in the principals office now you trouble maker" face. I was
clearly in violation of grocery store shopping law and she wasn't one of those slacker nice cashier
people who would just check me through the line anyway because it doesn't hurt anyone and
who honestly cares??? but she wanted to make sure I knew that this time I was caught; pulled
over by the illegal check-out line police. She was the Cop, Judge AND Jury.)
S-R Check Out Lady: The express lane is for people with 15 items or less. (...looking very
Purposefully into my basket of 25-30 offending items)
(I was putting my offensive items on the counter but she hadn't started checking them through
yet. I almost chuckled out loud when I realized she was seriously trying to reprimand me for this
heinous breach of grocery store policy.)
(I decided to be honest and reason with her. I'm a natural sarcastic, it was hard to not give in...)
Darin: The other checkout lines are backed up, this one is empty so I jumped in.
S-R Check Out Lady: We don't have baggers in the express lane.
Darin: Not a problem, I can bag my own groceries.
S-R Check Out Lady: If someone were to walk in behind you and see all of your items they might
be annoyed.
(Or the s-r check out lady might be annoyed. Are we seriously discussing this? I'm starting to
get annoyed.)
(I Purposefully looked behind me.)
Darin: Nobody is here but you and me. Which is why I chose this lane. Do you seriously expect
me to go to a different lane so I can wait another 10 minutes behind two people before being
checked out?
(Pause)
I'm a fast bagger.
She then proceeded to check me through appearing satisfied that she addressed the situation
and maybe because she singled me out this time that I won't do it again. I saved 28% and 8
minutes. I'd do it again.
One of a million responses: Take your next break outside. There's a big world out there past
those exit doors, you should check it out sometime.
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Phelps Reunion 2008
We had our annual Phelps family reunion over last weekend, this was our 4th one since we started this tradition. We try to do something different every year. We went camping a couple times and stayed in the valley a couple times and planned a number of fun things to do over a weekend. This year our original plan to go to Strawberry fell through so we made some last minute plans to do some fun things around town.
All activities are inevitably always geared toward the younger kids. Like it or not, the kids always get all the attention, so if you just plan around the kids then everyone can be happy to some degree. So we went to the Alice in Wonderland play at Broadway Palms Theater.
Before the show they serve lunch a la buffet and what better than bite size corn dogs, mac and cheese and pizza all washed down with root beer! After the show all my nieces and nephews got the casts autographs.
Here is tweedle dee and tweedle dumb:
Caterpillar and the White Rabit:
March Hare, Mad Hatter and Cheshire Cat
Come on! it was enough to bring the little kid out of anyone!
Queen of Hearts and Alice:
We took the kids swimming at the new Carson Jr High pool. Coincidentally that was were I also went to Junior High 18 or so years ago... I hadn't been back there since I left; it was kind of surreal. The kids pool is a new addition only added a couple years ago and is geared toward younger kids so of course Daniel had a blast.
We did all these activities over Friday and Saturday. I don't remember where we were coming from or going to in this picture but when he was quiet and I looked in the back seat Daniel was finally wiped out:
We also took advantage of the family being together to bless Rylie. This outfit was made by Heidi's mom:
I don't think I'll ever like wearing a tie.
Our final activity was the Science Center in Phoenix, that was so much fun.
I guess you had to be there for that but Daniel liked that nose blowing demo. We got so caught up in the fun that we forgot to take any more pictures while we were there.
All activities are inevitably always geared toward the younger kids. Like it or not, the kids always get all the attention, so if you just plan around the kids then everyone can be happy to some degree. So we went to the Alice in Wonderland play at Broadway Palms Theater.
Before the show they serve lunch a la buffet and what better than bite size corn dogs, mac and cheese and pizza all washed down with root beer! After the show all my nieces and nephews got the casts autographs.
Here is tweedle dee and tweedle dumb:
Caterpillar and the White Rabit:
March Hare, Mad Hatter and Cheshire Cat
Come on! it was enough to bring the little kid out of anyone!
Queen of Hearts and Alice:
We took the kids swimming at the new Carson Jr High pool. Coincidentally that was were I also went to Junior High 18 or so years ago... I hadn't been back there since I left; it was kind of surreal. The kids pool is a new addition only added a couple years ago and is geared toward younger kids so of course Daniel had a blast.
We did all these activities over Friday and Saturday. I don't remember where we were coming from or going to in this picture but when he was quiet and I looked in the back seat Daniel was finally wiped out:
We also took advantage of the family being together to bless Rylie. This outfit was made by Heidi's mom:
I don't think I'll ever like wearing a tie.
Our final activity was the Science Center in Phoenix, that was so much fun.
I guess you had to be there for that but Daniel liked that nose blowing demo. We got so caught up in the fun that we forgot to take any more pictures while we were there.
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Update on Rylie
When looking at our blog it has been noted that we are neglecting to keep everyone updated on Rylie. This has nothing to do with her since she has delighted us with her smiles, amazing ability to socialize and her natural ability to make you happy. It's just that babies are so consistent with their daily routine that it is hard to find noteworthy things to bring up for a blog-- so today we are just sending out the latest photos of Rylie. She is now 8 weeks old, 13 lbs and is an absolute doll. As my sister in law Myr would call her-- she is a trick baby because she is making Darin and I think we may want another baby due to her wonderful personality and easy going ways.
"Look at my cool brother"
Daniel cracks Rylie up! She loves her brother and Daniel has really loved her (at least when he gets most of our attention).
"Look at my cool brother"
Daniel cracks Rylie up! She loves her brother and Daniel has really loved her (at least when he gets most of our attention).
Saturday, July 5, 2008
Relaxing kids
I found these pictures of Daniel and Rylie, this is the same bouncy seat and I think they are both about 1 month old in each picture. Do they look like siblings?
They need to make bouncy, vibrating chairs in adult sizes because they make it look pretty comfortable!
They need to make bouncy, vibrating chairs in adult sizes because they make it look pretty comfortable!
Our July 4th
We had intentions of going to the July 4th celebration (on July 3rd) in Avondale with my brother and his family but instead spent the day in the ER making sure Daniel was ok, which he was. So, in spite of missing that opportunity the city of Maricopa had their own celebration that we went to.
We got there early and only stayed about an hour. Most of the things there to do were geared towards kids between 5 and 10 years old, but we did get sprayed by the firehose from the fire truck which was fun.
I think this year is the most hot and humid July 4 in Arizona that I remember, it felt like DC again.
We had dinner there and shared slushies, then made our way home before the real crowds showed up. Later when the fireworks started we were able to watch out the window since it was only about half a mile away.
Notice the little ribbon in Rylie's hair, it looks like the 4th of July fireworks!
Finishing the slushy after dinner
Daniel chose this spot to sit down, I'm not sure why. He sat down and crossed his legs just like this:
The monkey straps on his back like a backpack and his tail is the leash so we can hold on to him without him darting off on us, which he tried to do from time to time.
While we were in line for the slushy he started running circles around me and Heidi just to try and get us all tangled up in the tail. He's funny.
This was us after we got hit by the spray of the fire hose.
We got there early and only stayed about an hour. Most of the things there to do were geared towards kids between 5 and 10 years old, but we did get sprayed by the firehose from the fire truck which was fun.
I think this year is the most hot and humid July 4 in Arizona that I remember, it felt like DC again.
We had dinner there and shared slushies, then made our way home before the real crowds showed up. Later when the fireworks started we were able to watch out the window since it was only about half a mile away.
Notice the little ribbon in Rylie's hair, it looks like the 4th of July fireworks!
Finishing the slushy after dinner
Daniel chose this spot to sit down, I'm not sure why. He sat down and crossed his legs just like this:
The monkey straps on his back like a backpack and his tail is the leash so we can hold on to him without him darting off on us, which he tried to do from time to time.
While we were in line for the slushy he started running circles around me and Heidi just to try and get us all tangled up in the tail. He's funny.
This was us after we got hit by the spray of the fire hose.
Friday, July 4, 2008
Emergency Room
So, we had our first Emergency Room visit yesterday. That was the first time I've ever been to the emergency room ever, although this time it was for Daniel. That was quite an experience, filled with scary, worry, adrenaline, grossness, awkwardness, more worry, tiredness and then finally relief.
We thought we had baby proofed our house pretty well, all the lower cabinets have child safety locks on them. But if there is one thing we've learned it's that Daniel will defy all laws and rules to get to a piece of candy. Well, he saw mom put the Tylenol away in the bathroom medicine cabinet and like any kid would, he just thought it was candy, albino skittles or white chocolate M&Ms or something.
Daniel used his step in the bathroom that he uses to wash his hands with at the sink to climb up on top of the bathroom counter, then got in the medicine cabinet and took the Tylenol off the top shelf. The cap to the bottle was child proofed, so I don't know how he got it open other than I also know how determined he can be.
Mom discovered him after a minute; pills were all over the counter and in the sink. He had what looked to be pill-powder residue on his shirt. She didn't know if or how many he might have swallowed so took him to the emergency room.
They gave Daniel Charcoal to drink which is supposed to be an absorbent. I don't know how you liquefy charcoal but it sure didn't look good. He drank probably 1/2 of a cup of the stuff. They said that it tastes like chalk but it looked like black ink. With a lot of coaxing he finally got it all down. They told us that we had to stay there 5 hours and they had to test him once right then and then again after 5 hours to measure the content of Tylenol in his blood.
First they wanted him to pee in a cup and I just had to stare at the cup and say "ummm......" not sure what to do. There were so many reasons why that wasn't going to work, I didn't know where to start. He's not potty trained although we're still practicing, but if he was potty trained we haven't tried peeing standing up yet and even if we did I'm pretty sure he can't pee on demand, even for a drug test.
I finally said he just turned 2 last month and he's not potty trained; so they had to take blood instead. I guess they thought he was 4, that's why they gave me the cup.
He did so great giving blood, he didn't yell or complain or flinch at all, he didn't even make a face when they inserted the needle. They thought he was behaving so maturely they still couldn't believe he was only 2 years old.
He threw up all the charcoal and everything else in his stomach about 2 hours later while I was holding him in my arms. He drenched me, himself and his bed and the floor. We had to strip him out of his clothes and I had to take my shirt off. That would have been a nice picture, both of us half naked covered in black inky vomit.
He threw up a couple more times and blew out a diaper so bad we had to change his bed sheet again. After the second blood test they finally gave us the all clear. The results of his test indicated that he either didn't take any Tylenol at all or didn't take enough to even register on their test.
I assume that Daniel tasted the Tylenol, found it bitter so spit it out and got some on his shirt.
So if there was anything to be gotten from this experience it's a reminder to always be vigilant around a 2 year old.
And the hospital gave both me and Daniel new shirts to wear home, although after being there for 5 hours and covered in vomit for 3 of them, walking out of there without a shirt on was hardly a second thought.
Daniel got a football shirt, that's the only kid size they had.
They had to take blood from both of his arms
Daniel with dad wearing their new souvenir shirts from the ER
We thought we had baby proofed our house pretty well, all the lower cabinets have child safety locks on them. But if there is one thing we've learned it's that Daniel will defy all laws and rules to get to a piece of candy. Well, he saw mom put the Tylenol away in the bathroom medicine cabinet and like any kid would, he just thought it was candy, albino skittles or white chocolate M&Ms or something.
Daniel used his step in the bathroom that he uses to wash his hands with at the sink to climb up on top of the bathroom counter, then got in the medicine cabinet and took the Tylenol off the top shelf. The cap to the bottle was child proofed, so I don't know how he got it open other than I also know how determined he can be.
Mom discovered him after a minute; pills were all over the counter and in the sink. He had what looked to be pill-powder residue on his shirt. She didn't know if or how many he might have swallowed so took him to the emergency room.
They gave Daniel Charcoal to drink which is supposed to be an absorbent. I don't know how you liquefy charcoal but it sure didn't look good. He drank probably 1/2 of a cup of the stuff. They said that it tastes like chalk but it looked like black ink. With a lot of coaxing he finally got it all down. They told us that we had to stay there 5 hours and they had to test him once right then and then again after 5 hours to measure the content of Tylenol in his blood.
First they wanted him to pee in a cup and I just had to stare at the cup and say "ummm......" not sure what to do. There were so many reasons why that wasn't going to work, I didn't know where to start. He's not potty trained although we're still practicing, but if he was potty trained we haven't tried peeing standing up yet and even if we did I'm pretty sure he can't pee on demand, even for a drug test.
I finally said he just turned 2 last month and he's not potty trained; so they had to take blood instead. I guess they thought he was 4, that's why they gave me the cup.
He did so great giving blood, he didn't yell or complain or flinch at all, he didn't even make a face when they inserted the needle. They thought he was behaving so maturely they still couldn't believe he was only 2 years old.
He threw up all the charcoal and everything else in his stomach about 2 hours later while I was holding him in my arms. He drenched me, himself and his bed and the floor. We had to strip him out of his clothes and I had to take my shirt off. That would have been a nice picture, both of us half naked covered in black inky vomit.
He threw up a couple more times and blew out a diaper so bad we had to change his bed sheet again. After the second blood test they finally gave us the all clear. The results of his test indicated that he either didn't take any Tylenol at all or didn't take enough to even register on their test.
I assume that Daniel tasted the Tylenol, found it bitter so spit it out and got some on his shirt.
So if there was anything to be gotten from this experience it's a reminder to always be vigilant around a 2 year old.
And the hospital gave both me and Daniel new shirts to wear home, although after being there for 5 hours and covered in vomit for 3 of them, walking out of there without a shirt on was hardly a second thought.
Daniel got a football shirt, that's the only kid size they had.
They had to take blood from both of his arms
Daniel with dad wearing their new souvenir shirts from the ER
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