Who doesn't LOVE the George?

For Christmas 2002 my sis-in-law Lynette got us our first George Foreman grill. You never forget your first...tearing up...fling fling... At the time, our family consisted of the 4 of us...Mike, Crystal, McKee and Seth. It was perfect and we have loved you long time...oops, wrong post...eh hem. Back to the grill. We loved the ease and clean up of the grill and the fat dripping off the food. As you can see from the double chin, we needed the fat dripping off feature!

But look how tiny Seth was, it was his first Christmas!

So...over the years our family has grown.
We are now in need of a bigger grill. My Mom a couple years ago bought us a Hamilton Beach counter top grill which we've enjoyed, but it's not the same as our George Foreman grill. The bonus of the new grill was that the plates come out and can go in the dishwasher.
HUGE BONUS! But, it's still not quite big enough.
The only problem was...it's not the George we had come to love and depend on. Hey, how could you not rely on a product named after a man and his 80 sons? So for the last couple years I've been in search of the right counter top grill. George now has many different models, and the one I finally fell in love with is this one...

I found this one on sale on-line for $79.97. After putting in coupon code bb I received $10.00 off and after tax and shipping my total was $88.06. Cha Ching! I'm so excited because this grill in Target was $119.00 before tax, so I got a great deal! If you want one, I would recommend going to this site, I just ordered it this morning and it's already been shipped (I received the email.) The other awesome deal with buying it here was that it came with bonus plates. So not just the waffle plate, grill plates, griddle, and baking plate... it came with OMELET PLATES!
I'm thrilled because one of the main reason I wanted this was because of the waffle plates. We have a waffle iron that only makes 2 small waffles at once, this one is much bigger and used in conjunction will make waffle time much faster. I would have loved the red one, but the only one it showed on the website was silver, and that's not too bad I guess. I can't justify $40 for a color.

That concludes this infomercial...but wait there's more...for only 25 easy monthly payments of not $79, not $59, not even $39...we will also throw in the added bonus...(I love infomercials)

Bob That Head

Our good friend John was so generous and treated Mike and I to the Rascal Flatts concert on Valentine's Day! We had such a great time. I haven't been to a concert since I was about 11 or so, and it was Paul Simon with my mom. That was a great concert too, and we had a great time. But, to be able to go and see a band that I love with my husband, not too much can beat that. John brought his friend Sarah and she was so much fun. She and I laughed most of the night. We went out to Friendly's for dinner and then made our way downtown to the Blue Cross Arena. We parked a couple blocks away and walked in the freezing cold, lined up and showed the guy our tickets. We found our seats and anxiously waited for the show to start. We were really impressed that Jessica Simpson, who opened for Rascal Flatts, started right on time 7:30 on the dot the music started. To answer everyone's question JESSICA WAS NOT FAT...actually, I would love to have a body like that. She has a good voice, but I'm still not sure if I'm impressed with her as a country singer. We spent a lot of the 40 minutes that she performed laughing for 2 reasons. 1. She makes the funniest faces when she sings. It was hilarious and very distracting. 2. They had the back 1/2 of the stage that spread along most of the floor of the arena blocked off so she couldn't go there. I'm surprised they couldn't just tell her not to use that part of the stage because it was for Rascal Flatts. But if nothing else, we were entertained by her.

I will definitely go and see Rascal Flatts again in concert. It was an awesome show!

One thing I've learned over the 7 1/2 years of being married...

The more children we have, the harder it is to get a good family photo! My parents never took us to get one when we were growing up, there were 6 of us, and now I understand why! But, we are fortunate enough that Grandpa Simmons, my father-in-law, is a photographer and is willing to put up with us once a year to get a family photo. It really means alot to me to have these pictures. So, here is what we came up with this year. Nothing fancy, but at least we got everyone in it, no one's crying and there was minimal yelling through gritted teeth! :) Do you like the color better or the sepia tone to print for the wall?


As these were uploading I was looking through the "rejects" and I might even like another pose a little better. Decisions, Decisions. But overall, I have to say I have a pretty cute family.

SWM Ventriloquist Seeking SWF Ventriloquist For Friendship and Possibly More

(Get ready....another post from MIKE....you've been warned)

For those so far removed from "single" (like myself), here's a brief review of the acronyms.

SWM = Single White Male
SWF = Single White Female

So, do you ever feel like a ventriloquist? Come on, think back as far as you can and see if you can relate.....to my night last night.

Never in a thousand years (or 34.8 years) did I ever think that my days as a youth longing to be a ventriloquist would ever come true. Well, they came true....and the little lifeless doll ran around and bit my dreams in the hootie! (yes, hootie, as in Hootie and the Blowfish, but then used in the mid to late 1990's as a slang word for the buttocks)

Darius says: "HEY - Nice hootie!"

Where was I? Oh, yes, ventriloquism and last night.

So, who would have thought that I'd actually get a chance to use the ventriloquism I once practiced as a young boy growing up in "da hood" of Greece (one of the safest places in the country, so they say) NY? Well, last night it happened.

What was so special about last night? Well, last night was the night we went to my parents house for the annual family photo. "Ah Yes" some of you minions might be saying now, because you know what's coming. But, for those who don't know, or don't have children over the age of 4 months, let me explain. I have 4 wonderful (at times) children (at times.) So, this means that Grandpa places us all in our respective spots and we try to sit up straight and smile at the camera. We had simple, predetermined, pre-announced, pre-threatened plans to make sure this doesn't take 48 hours to accomplish.

So, there we are, sitting in our spots. Mom and I put on our best smiles and the kids start looking in EVERY direction, and doing EVERYTHING that we didn't need for the photo.....and then comes the ventriloquism that I once thought was so cool. I'm sitting there, eyes focused on the camera in my own tunnel vision world, with the best smile I could give, while trying to bark out commands. "Seth, hands down." "Brooke, smile like a princess." "Tyler, look at Grandpa." McKee was doing well just sitting there and doing what Grandpa asked. "Tyler, tell Grandpa 'choo choo train'." "SETH, LOOK AT THE CAMERA." "I was going to give you guys a cookie, but I'm not sure now." "Look at the camera everybody." All the while I'm grinning and trying to keep focus......Hootie and his blowfish would be proud!

Rumor has it that after about 45 minutes of this act, we got a good photo where everyone was looking at the camera, and a few people smiled.....even this guy --->

Crystal might post the picture later if you all behave!

Fortunately I've already found my SWFV (that's you Crystal, in case you are wondering) and I don't miss the days of sitting next to girls saying "you're hot, wanna make out" without moving my mouth, so if they said "NO WAY YOU FREAKING SCUM BAG!" I could then just blame it on the doll!!!

Breakfast Conversation

Brooke "Mom, one of my butt cheeks is itchy."

Mom "Did you scratch it?"

Brooke "yeah"

Mom "good, is it still itchy?"

Brooke "No, I just scratched it for a really long time."

Seth "Did you scratch it all night?"

Brooke "No, just in the morning."

I love kids. They are hilarious. You can't find this kind of great conversation in a fancy restaurant! These 2 are really close in age, only 23 months apart, and they fight the most of all the kids, but also are very sweet together most of the time. When they are getting along they are usually getting into trouble. Here they are sitting on the kitchen counter. Crazy kids.