Chadders Review....

Well, ya'll, this is going to be my first ever restaraunt review!
Monday I had to take the kids to testing in American Fork, and we were in desperate need of some lunch before the 25 mile drive home.
West Valley City has a new burger joint called Chadders, we have not been there yet. So while in American Fork we were looking for a place to have lunch and we spotted a Chadders. We decided to chance it.
The very first thing that I noticed when we walked in was that more than half of the menu was missing, or so I thought! After standing there looking somewhat confused, I realized that the entire menu was indeed there. It was just a particularly small menu. I was greeted by a very friendly guy who tried to take my order. It took me a minute to try to figure out which of the 3 combo meals offered that I wanted.... Eventually I came to a point where I just had to pick one and get on with it. The kids meals were easy enough to choose from, 3 options there as well, burger, cheeseburger, or grilled cheese. Also on the menu were milkshakes, veggie burgers and fries, another 3 choices. I admit the fries were not my favorite. I have been raised on Mcdonald's from birth and fries are just one thing I don't mess around with, the only exception to this rule is real fries with skins and all..... The burger however was awesome. It was not something really special, however they offered to put raw onions or grilled onions on my burger. I went with the grilled and it made all the difference in the world. Otherwise it was just a plain old cheeseburger. Price wise I thought that $16.00 was a bit steep for a combo meal and 2 kids meals. But I am cheap and I prefer to spend $6.00 on the dollar menu at McDonalds. What I was really impressed by though was that they had fry sauce! It has become increasingly harder to get fry sauce in Utah. Some places still have it but most of the time you have to ask for mayo and ketchup packets to mix up your own. (you really don't want to get me started on the different varieties of this sauce either, we all have our favorites)
When we had eaten our lunch and left I had commented that I was not quite sure about that menu, they did not even have a chicken option.... In the end we decided that we really did like having fewer choices. The Menu ended up being a hit even if the prices were not. It seems it is alot easier to make a decision when you have fewer choices. Sometimes I wish we had fewer choices in alot of areas.

So on a five star scale I give it a 3.
The prices were high the food was not anything special although it was good and the fries were not great. But the menu was.

I think Spring may have finally sprung....

It finally feels like spring may be here and I am saying this while, I know it could very well snow in June.... It has been known to happen!

However having lived in Utah long enough, I know that we have to take every opportunity to get out doors and enjoy the good weather while it lasts. Soon it will be so swelteringly hot, we will be complaining once again...

Well back to spring, I thought I'd share some photos, Elyssa and I went to Wheeler Farm on Saturday and we had a really great time. The babies were out.... well some of them anyway. The lambs, baby goats, and calves were frolicking. I was also able to get some really great photos of Elyssa as well.

She is in love with this little fella' he was the very first friend she came upon, we were able to visit for a good 10 minutes before moving on.
We took some crackers to feed the ducks and geese. In the first pond there were a lot of geese and only one white duck. The geese kept gobbling up all of her crackers and she finally decided to move on but before we left, Elyssa chucked one last cracker way out into the pond toward the white duck and said, "There you go AFLAC!"
Wheeler Farm is a really great place to take photos, as evidenced by the families with photographers tagging along or the occasional bride in full wedding attire. The old feeling of the buildings lends itself well to photos. I love the brick and the texures and the old wooden doors and locks around every corner.
This guy was just showing off, typical....

This baby was so sweet and gentle and loved the attention he was getting from Elys. It was everything I could do to keep her from climbing into the enclosures.

The following photos are some of my favorite of Elyssa at the farm.

These little lambs were only 2 days old and they were so adorable....

This is a photo of the funniest little chicken I have ever seen. It is very fluffy and has blue markings. Because of this chicken I want to raise chickens. Justin won't let me.

Stuff I found really interesting in the news....

This was yesterday's news, Thought that I would share it anyway.....

Jews perform sun ritual for first time in 28 years

By MARK LAVIE Associated Press Writer
AP Photo/SEBASTIAN SCHEINER

JERUSALEM (AP) -- Devout Jews around the world on Wednesday observed a ritual performed only once every 28 years, saying their morning prayers under the open sky in a ceremony called the "blessing of the sun."
Tens of thousands of worshippers stood next to the Western Wall in Jerusalem's walled Old City, the holiest site where Jews can pray. Hundreds headed to the ancient desert fortress of Masada, while others prayed on the roof of a Tel Aviv high-rise and congregated on road sides.
"God created the world in seven days," said Yona Vogel, one of the estimated 50,000 who attended the Western Wall prayers. "On the fourth day he put the sun into orbit and every 28 years it returns to the original place that it stood when God created the world."
The special blessing - called the Birkat Hachamah in Hebrew - was marked in many time zones, starting with members of the small Jewish community in New Zealand. In hundreds of places, from Israel and Italy to New Zealand and Kyrgyzstan, observant Jews rose before dawn for outdoor prayers and dancing.
The prayer came on the eve of the weeklong Passover festival, in which Jews commemorate the exodus from slavery in Egypt. The timing was coincidental, but added to the joyous feeling felt by many worshippers.
The Orthodox Jewish Chabad-Lubavitch movement scheduled live Webcasts from seven locations as the sun moved across the Earth, starting at 8 a.m. local time in Christchurch, New Zealand, followed by events in Brisbane, Australia; Jerusalem; London; New York; Colorado Springs, Colo.; and Honolulu.

Devout Jews emphasize that they are not worshipping the sun, but rather paying homage to God.
"We make a special blessing on this day to remember the day that God created the world and put the sun into orbit. It's as though he is creating the world anew," Vogel said.
Modern science may have overtaken the astronomy of the scriptures, but scholars say the blessing still has symbolic value as acknowledgment of the divine role in the universe.



*Something else that is not mentioned here and I thought was noteworthy is that this sun celebration only overlaps Passover once every 1000 years... I am sure if you google this topic you will find lots of interesting things to read about. You can go to www.ap.org and search the site for more info



*also of interest as I was reading this I found another article, This other article was talking about how an Israeli archaeologist has unearthed the foundation of the very first settlements of the Hebrews as they came into Caanan. What is really cool about this is the settlements are in the shape of foot prints..... Wow no coincidence there! I believe that they have found five such settlements in the same shape. The URL is http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1076836.html

She went to the Beauty Salon....

She was overdue for a haircut!

So I made an appointment and took her down and she had her hairs cut and her hairs washed and she had her nails done.....

Now she looks like a whole new doggy.




BEFORE

AFTER

Chocolate and Science mmmmm delicious!

Today I took the kids to the Discovery Museum at the Gateway.... They were hosting a Chocolate Fest. It was held by the American Chemistry Society. The whole hands on exhibit was about how chemistry affects Chocolate. We did several experiments, and at the end we went through a room that had chocolate vendors, including Mrs. Cavanaugh's, C. Cummings, and then there were some chocolate tastings as well. The best part well after the Chocolate of course was that the first 1,000 attendees got in free! Free Chocolate, there is nothing better than that!

It was very well organized and we had a wonderful time.
The first activity was Chocolate as an Acid neutrilizer. We took PH strips and dipped them in vinegar and then we stirred up some chocolate chips in the vinegar for a few minutes. After that we used the PH strips again and we were able to see the difference in PH levels.

Q. What did I learn?
A. When you get acid reflux eat chocolate!

Next we learned that water and vegetable oil do not have electrolytes while Gatorade and Chocolate milk have tons of electrolytes.

Q. What did I learn?

A. That when you need to rehydrate drink Gatorade or better yet Chocolate Milk!

Then we moved on to discover that chocolate and gum do not mix.... but why? It is because the oil causes the gum to dissolve. It makes a huge mess in your mouth. I could get really technical but I only remember the basics, sorry.

Q. What did I learn?

A. Under no circumstances should you ever eat chocolate while chewing gum.... throw away the gum and enjoy your chocolate!

We also learned why an m&m will dissolve faster in different solutions that others. We dropped an m&m into each of 3 cups the first was just plain old H2O, the second was H2O and we added 1 tsp. of sugar, the third was H2O and we added 3 tsp. of sugar. The m&m coating dissolved fastest in the plain H2O. Then in the second place was the H2O and 1 tsp. of sugar. The reason behind this was because the sugar took up most of the room in the solution. When there was not any sugar present it was able to dissolve faster.

Q. What did I learn?

A. Frankly I don't know!

We moved on to one of the more interesting experiments, in which we had to use one of our senses....

This was very cool, 1st we had to choose a mystery liquid to put into a balloon, but only a few drops. Then we had to blow up the balloon and tie it. after that we sniffed the balloon and it smelled like vanilla! We were able to sniff the ones that had been sitting there for a little while and it was pretty amazing. The ones with orange extract smelled like a lemon-lime beverage, but still like a rubber balloon. The vanilla one also still smelled like a rubber balloon. However the chocolate one smelled like Chocolate with out the rubber balloon smell. The chocolate scented balloon was the strongest smelling. And you know what? They had made one and stuck it under the table and it was orange and vanilla scented and it smelled like a dreamcicle.

Q. What did I learn?

A. I really like Chocolate scented balloons!

The last hands on project we did was to make white chocolate roses.....

I don't have photos of our White Chocolate roses because our hands were very messy at this point. We were able to take small rounds of white chocolate the size of pennies and flatten them and shape them into a rose and then we put them on skewers to take home.

Q. What did I learn?

A. Playing with Chocolate is just as much fun as eating it!

After this we were given a goody bag with a kids newspaper and other goodies from the American Chemistry Society and ushered into "The Chocolate Room." Here we were given a small paper sack and told to gather the chocolates that we wanted. Mrs. Cavanaugh's gave us a choice of 1 chocolate where as C. Cummings told us we needed to take one of everything and they had about 8 different chocolates on hand! On the end of their table they were hand dipping strawberries in chocolate and told us to make sure we ate one right away.... my favorite! Then we went to the last table and we were given 4 squares of chocolate each, and told to take them home and have a family chocolate tasting. I know what I am having for dessert!

We really enjoyed our Chocolate Fest experience and we were also able to explore the children's museum as well and that was great fun!!!! If you have not taken your kids to the Discovery Children's museum I encourage you to do it. We had tons of fun and it is so much cooler than the old Children's museum.

Thrift Store Treasure Hunting

I love to hunt for treasures at my local thrift stores. I usually come away with something really fantastic that I just can't live with out. For example I bought a Cutco Knife for a quarter.... oh yes I did, as a matter of fact I went back a few months after that excursion and found the exact same Cutco Knife for 50 cents and I bought it. These knives retail at $80 each. So I went looking for a potato masher one day and low and behold I found a Cutco masher for 50 cents wow! I really was stoked about that one, and they all match, with the rosewood handles.....

Ok, so my latest greatest find, the one I am all giddy about is this green jacket I found at the DI (Deseret Industries for those of you not in Utah). I was actually not hunting for a jacket but I found one anyway. The first thing I noticed about it was the color.... oh, it was the most fantastic shade of green. Then I checked the size and it was just my exact perfect fit. Finally the price came into play 5 Whole Dollars!!!! I didn't care what it took, IT was going home with me. The last thing I noticed, and that was not until I got it home, was that it was LEATHER real, genuine leather. Can You Believe It???

I am a thrift store junkie..... I used to hate it when my mom would take us to the Second Hand store to get all of our "New School Clothes". Now it seems like the cool thing to do with every one searching for vintage and retro style clothing. And now there are cool stores for teens that are second hand stores such as "Plato's Closet" and "Kid To Kid" for younger kids, all of which I shop and love. My kids don't mind so much shopping there as long as they are picking out the clothes and I am not forcing them to wear plaid pants from the 70's. We usually stick to good looking jeans (meaning no holes in the knees) and some shirts with no stains. America's throw aways are not what they used to be..... We are such a wealthy nation or atleast we think we are. That we don't hesitate to throw something out just because we are sick of it or it is just not our style any more. I love this kind of recycling. Generally you can find things at the thrift stores that are practically brand new. I have walked out with things that have their original price tags on them! I have also purchased serving dishes for weddings and events that I have catered. And once I got a bundt pan for a buck.... Miss Erin called me one day and asked if I had a bundt pan she could borrow and I said I did not, however I just happened to be at the DI, in the kitchen section and walked by one as we were talking, so I picked it up. And then there was the time I needed to replace someones crockpot lid. (It took a tumble in the back of my car) I found the lid I needed, they had tons to choose from.

Ok if you are a thirift store junkie I want to hear about your best find ever! Oh and Happy Hunting.....

Jeremy Riddle Concert

Tonight was the Jeremy Riddle Concert and his CD premier for his second album. Steadfast opened for them. Steadfast is a local band and as far as I know the members still attend Life Church in West Valley. They were really, really, good!!! The Worship atmosphere was incredible, there was such an attitude of praise. Jeremy Riddle came on the stage and he was very sick with a cold. We would have never known it after he started playing and worshiping. He really gave it everything he had. You could completely see that he was doing it for the Lord and not for us. It was so refreshing to be in that kind of atmosphere..... God was in the house as always and His people were praising Him!

I got to thinking while we were there, how deafening the music and the praises of His people were. And I thought to myself, How much louder it must be in the throne room of Heaven?
I can't wait to get there and make my joyful noise!!!!

Most of us in this photo have been involved in the worship team at our church at one time or another in some way or another. We love it and we worship at church however, there is a responsibility that comes with that. We have to draw people into worship, and we have to be very careful not to be a distraction. So it is really nice to be able to come to a concert and let someone else draw people into worship, let ourselves be drawn into worship without worrying about anything else. Most of us on the praise team don't get that kind of experience very often. We usually wait till monday morning when we are in the car alone and we are worshiping and driving. (I dare say that is as dangerous as texting while driving, you see I have a tendency to worship while I drive and I tend to close my eyes while I worship.....) Most of our worship time comes when we are alone, not with a group of Jesus Followers. So tonight I found myself "Surrendered In Praise."