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We were at my mom's house for lunch today, and she made chicken and some steaks that we brought over on this odd circular pan-thing. Well, SHE didn't know what it was called, but the food tasted just like it had been grilled! So tonight as the boys are finishing up their soup dinner (with leftover steak from lunch) I Google "stove top grill", and low and behold, I find it!

It's one of those as-seen-on-tv sort of items, which tend to be hit or miss (at best) on quality, but this seems to be a winner! It is a two-part design. There is a stainless steel ring with a reservoir where you put a little water and which also serves as a drip pan. This is the lip of the pan that you see from above. The cooking surface is heavy duty and convex so that the fat runs into the slots and collects in the drip pan below.

My mom uses a gas stove and our (current) stove is electric. I have some concern that it wouldn't work as well on an electric stove, but the sales pitch claims it works on electric too. (Not recommended for glass-top stoves, though.) So when we move out of this place into a house where I have room to cook and store cooking stuff, I'm totally going to get one of these! I can't wait to eat the chicken leftovers tomorrow...

Buy one admission and get one free at the Children's Museum of Skagit County through the month of January! Print the online coupon and bring it in to get the discount (exp. 1/31/09). See you there!

• Download the coupon
• More about the museum

My darling younger son, Micah, loves all things grownup. He loves key rings, wallets, purses, cell phones, etc. More than once he's temporarily lost my keys and secretly removed items from my purse. He also likes to remove Bryan's cell phone from the home charger. Of course the home charger has two small buttons one must depress to remove the phone safely, but Micah doesn't bother with such minute details. He just yanks the phone and cord apart. When Bryan became aware of this, he would tell Micah to stop doing that if he caught him in the act. So what did my dear Micah do? Force the cord back into the phone's charger jack. So, not surprisingly, after the charger has been yanked out and crammed back into the jack, the jack is no longer operable. Some might say ruined. Some might be right.

So yesterday Bryan and I went shopping at the Sprint kiosk at the mall. They say, sure, give us $150, and we'll give you our cheapest phone. How's that for encouraging customer loyalty? We say, um, no. So we traipse on over to the TMobile kiosk just down the way, find that they have a similar plan, free phones (for new customers) galore, and take hope. Back to the not-very-happy-to-not-have-made-a-sale rep at the Sprint kiosk. How much would it cost to cancel the service? Oh, just $200. Not good.

So we return home, phoneless and defeated. In our current financial situation, neither of these options are appealing or even feasible. But a phone must be had. So I turn to my trusty friend, The Internet. Unlocked phone? Not a good value, plus we'd still be saddled with the Sprint bills every month or cancellation fee. ((shudder)) And then like a bolt of lightning, the inspiration to Google used cell phones comes to me. And I find a very convenient website selling just that. Not only that, but they had categorized the phones by carrier so I didnt' have to waste time sorting through phones that wouldn't work with our service.

I was able to find a bluetooth capable phone in rather good condition with charger and have it insured and shipped Priority Mail for $50. Once it arrives, we can call Spint and have them activate it as a replavement for the sad, sad, broken phone, and we can ride out the rest of our contract (7 months). The best part would be their money-back guarantee of the phone. Once it arrives we have 20 days to return it and get back what it cost us (minus shipping and insurance).

It kinda feels good to not have bought a phone from Sprint for the ridiculous price they were asking! Seems like such a racket to me.




Now, of course, to keep Micah from the new(-to-us) phone.

I found a cool website where one can make a wish list with items from anywhere on the internet. They also have a feature to make a slideshow of all the items in a list, like the one you see below.

Kaboodle also has a polling system, so I could add a poll of three of the items on my list for you (three) to vote on. :)

The part that I really like is that I was able to add a plug-in to my browser that added a button to my toolbar (next to the Print, Stop, Forward, & Back buttons) so no matter what website I'm on, when I see something I want to add, I just click that button and it adds it to my list! Perfect.

Host a class, help a cause. And get a beautiful handbag and compact mirror to boot!

So I finally made the shoe purchase:

TheMonkeyBrothers Blog

Back in the spring I made a photo book (they call it a digital scrapbook) using the Creative Memories free software and service. I really like how it turned out. It is a sewn binding and hard, printed cover. I love it, actually. I know that Snapfish.com also has similar photo books, although I've yet to purchase from them.

However, I just found out about Lulu.com. Not only do they do photo books, but pretty much any type of soft or hard cover book you'd want. I definitely think I'm going to try them out next!

Check out Lulu.com...

Micah has become a good enough walker to want to walk outside now. It's amazing to me, really, that he doesn't scream to get out of the stroller all the time. I'm sure it will be soon.

He's been wearing these adorable handmade leather shoes from Minitoes, except his are a nice banana color. They're just like the "famous" brand, but only about $15. He also has some sandals in the same style of shoe. He gets a lot of compliments on them. I highly recommend them for all babies and toddlers, even pre-crawlers (...we lost so many socks before getting these!). But for real walking outdoors, he's going to need something a little more sturdy and protective of his little feet. He's a 4.5 but baby shoes rarely (if ever) come in half sizes.

So I am considering three brands of shoes for Micah's first pair of "real shoes."

1. See Kai Run: Caleb has been wearing See Kai Run for three sizes now. I will be buying him a new pair for fall, too, since his current pair are sandals. (The soles are perfect for adding a lift for his left shoe. These have nice, ultra-flexible soles; super-soft leather, and easy Velcro closures. They come in all sorts of fun colors and styles and cost between $32-36. Unfortunately, we can't bring ourselves to spending that on more than one pair at a time, so he gets some variation of brown to be able to match most of his wardrobe. I am leaning more toward this brand than either of the others for style and satisfaction reasons.

My friend Hannah, who lives in Texas, is making custom tote bags and embroidered bibs. She made a web page where you can order a cute custom tote. They come in two different sizes, large (say: cuter than your diaper bag) and small (say: cuter than your purse). Here are some of the totes she's made.

Aw, man!! I forgot _____. You name it, I've forgotten to buy it while grocery shopping, only to realize it after returning home.

At McChord we had a great list of things we buy BY AISLE, thanks to a handy directory the commissary had printed out for customers to take.

No such luck here, and I am not going to spend a single minute diagramming this commissary myself. But I did find The Ultimatest Grocery List at Grocerylist.org. It's a downloadable (ie, printable) PDF with common grocery items and even a "Random impulse buy". I suppose that's to limit us to one. Which would be a good thing for me.

The list even reminds us to bring our own canvas bags (I'd have to bring at least 20), clip coupons, etc. Nice.

So now I just printed my list, and I'm going to the pantry and fridge to figure out what we need. Then I'll send my darling husband to the store to get the listed items on his way home from work. And we won't forget anything. :)

Sidebar: I sometimes (because I'm not organized enough to always do it, nor would I want to plan that much) pick out a few recipes I'd like to make in the next couple of weeks and make sure I put all the ingredients for them on the list. Might even do that now too.

Back before we knew our new baby was going to be a boy, Krissy gave me a TON of baby girl clothes her (adorable) twin girls had outgrown. I was so grateful and excited about it, too. I think the main attraction of having a little baby girl, to me, is that there are a whole lot more cute girl clothes.

But of course, it was not meant to be. So I decided to take the clothes to a store called Once Upon a Child to see if they'd buy any of them from me. Once they buy them, one gets cash or (10% more) store credit. I'd done this with Caleb's stuff at the Tacoma store and it is a great option for getting cute like-new clothes for a fraction of the regular retail prices of the mall. (I can't shop at regular stores anymore without experiencing sticker shock!)

So I went to the nearby Once Upon A Child and experienced some of the most rudeness I have ever experienced in a retail store. Here's what happened:

I arrived at the store and hauled a VERY HEAVY laundry basket of clothes out of the car. A gentleman exiting the store held the door for me and noticed I'd dropped something on the sidewalk. I stopped so he could pick it up and put in back in the basket. Side note: Thank goodness for the gentlemen left in the world. Anyway, I walk into the store at 5:59pm. I know they stop buying at 6pm. I waddle up to the counter and say in my nicest, most apologetic voice, "I know I'm cutting it close, but is there any way you could look at my stuff?"

There are two women behind the counter. The one who appears to be in charge looks at me and says, very curtly, "Actually, no. I'm not taking anything else."

Ok. I get that I'm there at the last minute. But in my experience as a sales associate in two separate clothing retail store (and I'm sure any store!), you treat the customer with courtesy because if they're not happy, they're not going to do business with you. (Read on!)

Had it been me, I would have said something like, "Gee, I'm really sorry, but we can't take anything else today." Or, "Well, no, but you could come earlier tomorrow."

Right at this moment is when I lose my grip on the VERY HEAVY basket I'm carrying. The thing tumbles to the floor and lands sideways, spilling about half of its contents. Nevermind that I'm very obviously pregnant (I look "ready to pop" according to some people), have a small child with me, and I'm right in front of the opening where the clerks go behind the counter. They stand there and watch me pick it up (I assume they watch, I don't look at them, but there is no way they don't realize what's going on). This takes at least two minutes, which seems like an eternity when I know they're just standing there doing nothing. It would have taken longer if my three year old son didn't have 10 times the manners of those "ladies". HE helped me put the clothes back in the basket! (I love this boy!)

I am soooo angry when I get outside. With much difficulty I put the basket into the back of the car. (Bryan had put it there for me at the house.) I get Caleb in his car seat, I buckle myself in, and proceed to start crying. Why?! I guess it was the disappointment of having to do all that work for nothing on top of how rude I think they were.

Back to Caleb for a second, he hears my voice change and asks me in his sweet little voice, "You tired, Mama?"

I say, "No, I'm not."

He is trying to figure out what's going on here; I'm avoiding looking at him thinking this will be better (probably wasn't) . He figures out I am crying, since I'm no actress. He asks me, "Why you sad, Mama?"

What do I tell him? He knows I'm crying, I can't tell him that I'm not sad. So I say, "Oh, those ladies were not nice. They didn't have manners, and it made me sad." I'm not saying this was the best choice of words, but at the time, they were the best I could manage.

"You('re) ok, Mama. (It)'S ok."

This makes my heart grow and I wipe my tears. How can I not feel incredibly lucky to be loved and cared about by this tiny little boy? How can the (in my opinion) rude behavior of two strangers not pale completely in light of the grace of my flesh and blood? I feel blessed, and I thank Caleb. I tell him he's right, I'm ok, and off we go to get some dinner.

!!Retelling this makes me cry again, knowing the blessing this child is on my life!!

Anyway, when Bryan gets home I tell him what happened. He agrees with me that it was rude. He's not as outraged at their poor customer service as I am, but he's not the type to be outraged at much anyway. So I get online and start looking for other similar stores. They seem to be increasing in popularity, but most are still consignment shops. I don't really want to have to wait to see if the clothes will sell and then get some money for them, so I'm avoiding those. But what is this? Kid To Kid, grand opening July 20th, is buying now! Color me there. I shoot them an email saying I have stuff for them to check out and asking for an appointment.

I receive a call from Kid To Kid the very next day and get an appointment for today. The lady I spoke to was very polite on the phone. I was encouraged.

So today I load up the clothes again (this time in a Sterilite tote with a lid I tape on just in case) into the car and drive over there. There are three women working in the store, and one of them offers to go get the box for me from the car. (I love you!) I tell Caleb to hold my hand so we can show the lady to our car. She says he can stay in the store and play (they have a play area set aside for customers' kids). Ordinarily I wouldn't do this, but since the store was closed and we were parked just in front of the store, I agreed. (He happily went to play "cooking" with a tea set and a toy microwave.)

I have to say, this store is 10x better than the local Once Upon a Child. It is much more organized, which to me is very important, and they have a lot more "gear" than OUC. They also carry a small selection of maternity clothes, which OUC does not have. Already the customer service is 100% better. I don't know about the clothes I brought with me, but I'm sold! After they sorted through what I brought (they have to be very picky), they offered me $90 in store credit and I took it. I could have gotten cash (20% less) but I know I could spend that $90 with ease in that store. I already have a double umbrella stroller in mind. Too bad I have to wait until the grand opening.

So, I'm not saying Once Upon a Child is a bad store. I had nothing but good experiences at the Tacoma store. But I will definitely not be recommending the local store to anybody I know or meet, and I will definitely be raving about Kid to Kid to anybody with a child!

The items they didn't buy, and a few winter-weight things I didn't even take in, I plan to hand off to my sister-in-law who just had a baby girl. I feel like I've benefited enough from Krissy's generosity and I can spread the wealth a little. :)