So This is Chrismas...

This Christmas we spent a few days in the OP before we headed to Boston to spend a week with the entire John family. We had a ton of fun with our new footie pajamas, courtesy of my mom. We took a few pictures for a Chirstmas card we will probably not send out until next year (oops, my bad). Here is Matt with the John family's Christmas Tree.
While in Boston we did a lot of singing. One night we sang to a group at a facility for the elderly and the next night we caroled for friend's of the family. This is the cool sign the hospital had up announcing our performance:
We had a ton of fun in Boston, so much fun in fact, that we forgot to take very many pictures. Hopefully Meredith and Carly got some good ones and will post them on their blogs. Here is a picture of Anthony and Alicia hanging out.We had a great Christmas week and hope everyone else did too.

Birthday Shout Out--Part 3

Yesterday was my mom's birthday. We got to go out for lunch with the Crane's on the Plaza before we headed back to Springfield.My mom is pretty great. She is one of the most thoughtful people I know. She is always looking out for others, especially her daughters. This past October she arranged for us to all get together in Salt Lake for General Conference. She takes lots of pictures, and even though we protest at times, it's fun to have them. I'm so blessed to have such a great mom. I hope your birthday was great. loves!

My mom has had a pretty big impact on my life. Here are a few photos of the fun times we've had through the years. As you go through them, you might see why I am who I am today.
I probably love the water/beach so much because I was introduced at such a young age.
Being exposed to delicious ice cream at such a young age is probably why I am addicted to it now.Visiting Nauvoo (and other church-related sites) is probably why I am so spiritual today. (Sidenote: I think this was the trip where the elderly missionary thought Laura was a boy, even though it was me that was dressing like one. Ugh, I was awkward. )
Probably why I am so cuddly and like to hang out with my family.

Birthday Shout Out--Part 2

This Monday was our very own Anthony's birthday.We were still in Boston, so we got to celebrate his big day with the John family. We went out for dinner at Vinny T's and Hillary made cheesecake that was so delicious which Alicia decorated beautifully.We flew back to KC that evening and got to have some delicious chocolate cake with the Cranes.

TJ is pretty great. He is a good sport, we have lots of fun together and he makes me laugh all the time. Love ya, Puffin!

Birthday Shout Out--Part 1

Happy Belated Birthday to Melanie!!

Mels is a pretty awesome girl and last Monday she turned 19. We were lucky enough to get to go out with the family for her birthday dinner and it did not disappoint.

Melanie in a nutshell:

Merry
Excellent
Lively
Animated
Neat-o
Interesting
Effervescent

Best wishes for your 20th year of life!!!

Sprint: When You Want Your Poor Customer Service Taken to a Whole New Level

WARNING: This post is dripping with sarcasm

Today I googled "poor customer service". The first link was a comprehensive, behind-the-scene look at bad customer service that only the news team at MSN.com can give you. Well, actually it was a simple, gimmicky article from 2007 that listed all the crummy customer service companies according to an MSN poll. (SURPRISE! The list included many MSN competitors!)

What did not surprise me was the company at the top of the poor customer service list. Whom do we Americans loath the most? Sprint-Nextel. How could something come from Kansas City be so terrible? Everything else- Carrie and the rest of the Cranes, college roommate Brad Borchert, delicious BBQ, Jazz, etc. has brought nothing but happiness.

All these pollsters did was ask people how they would rate the customer service. FORTY percent of Sprint customers said their customer service was "poor", while the second worst company (Bank of America- a company I feel that has MANY policies designed to suck extra money unfairly out of poor, stupid people like myself in college) only had 30%. Since the article is a year old, there is a 2008 update, and do not fret Sprint scraped their way into being only the third worst customer service company by improving from 40% "poor" ratings to 39%. How did they manage to turn this sinking ship around?

"The wireless carrier says it has stopped its automatic contract extensions and now rewards agents for solving customers' problems rather than for ending calls quickly."

How novel. Well, I still contend that they have a long way to go. I signed up for Sprint service this summer because they gave 15% discount to employees at Spherion, my employer. When I signed up over the phone, I made it very clear that the discount was the critical reason for me signing up. I was told that, unlike the flier I had read a mere 10 minutes beforehand, I could use the corporate discount after 2 billing cycles. Apparently clicking that computer button is too hard to do right away. Well, it has been five months, and I am still not getting my discount.

I called today again. It's the fourth round of calls I have made to their customer service to remedy this problem. After being put on hold, and I felt that putting me on hold was his strategy to get me to hang up, for 20 minutes, I was told that they had messed up my corporate discount request, and he would have to apply for me again, and it would take another 2 billing cycles.

Sprint embodies everything wrong in the world. Boy, this is the most cathartic blog I have ever written.

"You better watch your back, *****!"

Yes, some one just yelled that at me. Apparently asking someone to stop wrestling in my doorway makes me a *****. Let me explain.

After work today I decided to come home and study rather than go to the library. It is rainy and cold I didn't want to deal with the wetness and puddles that are Missouri State after it rains. So I ate some homemade tomato soup, put on Tony's Red Sox sweatshirt, and started my last (yay!) assignment of the semester. About 5 minutes after I start reading I can hear these people talking right outside our door. At first I'm just annoyed at our apartment, it has INCREDIBLY thin walls. I tune it out until I hear this loud whack! I look out the peep hole to see who would be banging on my door. I see these two middle school aged kids--a boy and a girl, both of whom I think may be a bit slow--that I've seen around the complex. I open the door and ask if everything is okay. They assure me they are fine and apologize for hitting my door. I ask them why they hit the door. They said one of them tripped. Whatever. I know that isn't true but I say okay and go back inside. Not even a minute later I hear another bang! against the door and a sign we have on the wall and the mirror over our couch move. What is going on out there? I am really mad because I have a lot to do tonight and I need to work on my assignment. For the next minute I keep hearing these weird noises. Finally I look out the peephole again and see the two of them in the middle of a fight. The girl flings the boy off her back, then he runs back and knocks out her knees and tackles her. I decide to grab my phone so I can call our apartment complex office in case of emergency and open the door.

Me: WHAT are you doing?
Boy: (Sheepishly) Teaching her [the girl] how to fight.
Me: That is a bad idea.
Boy: I think it is a good idea. She needs to know how to defend herself.
Me: Nope, it's not. Get off of her right now.
Boy rolls off her (and reveals WAY too much crack in the process).
Boy: You can't make us do anything. We aren't doing anything wrong.
Me: Yes you are and yes I can. You both need to go home right now or I will call the office. You have banged into my door many times and if you do it again I will call the office and have one of the maintenance men come over and take care of you.
Girl: Let's get out of here.
Me: Yes, go home.

The boy doesn't say anything to me, but they kind of walk off. I go into my apartment. I can now see them out our living room window. The boy starts yelling towards the window as the girl walks towards her apartment. I can't exactly hear what he is saying, but judging by the shapes his mouth was making I could make some pretty good guesses. I walk outside and hear him yell, "You better watch your back, *****!"

So I tell him I heard that and he ran home.

All I wanted to do this afternoon was study and now I feel bad because I was mean to special 8th graders. It's these watching-my-back times that I'm glad to have Tony around. He is much stronger and a much more skilled "fighter" than me (or that kid).

Scene what?

We have a new addiction and it is Scene It? on xbox. No, we do not have an xbox, but our good friends Pat and Steph do. We've spent hours both Friday and Saturday night playing. I'm a bit bugged that Anthony has won so many times, but I'm pretty sure his wins can be attributed to the fact that he has SO MUCH more experience with video game controllers than I do.
It is hard to describe for sure what it is that makes Scene it? on xbox so fun. I've played many versions of Scene It? (ESPN, Harry Potter, Friends, Regular) and it was alright, but certainly not addicting. I think it is the wide variety of puzzles and games. I'll give him props--Anthony is pretty tough to beat on anagrams and crosswords. The credit roll and movie poster challenges tend to up my score. There is enough variety that everyone can be good at something. So, if you have an xbox and are looking for a fun game, Scene It? may be the game for you. Especially if you want to invite us over sometime soon.

Acute Labyrinthitis

Don't be too alarmed, but this last week I had a bout of "acute labyrinthitis", at least according to the first doctor I have seen since I got my swollen "stress bump" checked out at the BYU student health center in 2002 or 2003. Carrie continues to mock me for never seeing a doctor, claiming that I am being an idiot when I avoid going to the Missouri State Taylor Health and Wellness center because it is free for me. She claims that if I was seriously ill that going in early would not only be practical but would help me feel better. Little does she know I would rather suffer silently than admit real weakness.

Anyway, while I was at work on campus I started to feel woozy. I assumed that it was because of low blood sugar because all I had eaten that day was a 2 bowls of Kix. I love Kix because it is light and delicious. I feel like I could eat a whole box, but that is probably because it does not fill me up very much. I only had an hour before Carrie would come to pick me up, so I decided to wait until i got home to eat. But my lightheadedness escalated quickly. I stumbled down to teh student union building in search of the most food for my buck. The obvious choice: Wok and Roll - local Chinese fare. Carrie finds it hilarious that when I was feeling lightheaded and nauseous I went and ate a plate of greasy Chinese food. But it seemed like a great choice at the time.

I ate my "2 item combo platter" and stumbled back up to the fourth floor of our building where my office is to wait for my blood sugar to reach normal. It didn't, and the room continued to spin around me.

Carrie finished work and came to get me and I slept for the rest of that day, only to wake up for a few hours to eat some chili and to watch the Truman Show. I went back to sleep with Carrie near midnight to wake up again at 8 the nest morning. I still was feeling a bit woozy, so finally went to the campus health center where I was diagnosed with "acute labyrinthitis, also called vestibular neuritis --- This is an inflamation of the balance apparatus of the inner ear, probably caused by a viral infection."

I have since fully recovered. It just went away after awhile.

I have always disliked tag

I have never liked the game of tag, and so I was very reticent to participate in this blog tag. It is probably because I was and still am a very slow for how small I am. I remember my own father asking me to "unhook the piano" I was clearly carrying with me to first base during one of many little league ground outs.

But then again I did not like any sort of recess games. Recess games were always a big deal, and thus everybody knew that I was not good at them. When I was little our school was being renovated so we of the Mary Lee Burbank school shared recesses in first grade with Daniel Butler kids and then in 2nd and 3rd grade with Roger Wellington school kids. There was always intense rivalries in playground kickball, soccer, and football. I remember being consistently picked near the end. Those were some tough times, but then again, I was a bit of a social idiot in elementary school.

So that's why I have always hated tag, and so I apologize for being so slow to respond.

6 Questions Tag:

1. Six places I go often: Hill Hall (Missouri State psychology building), MSU Center for Assessment and Instructional Support (graduate assistantship), Spherion Staffing Services (my job), church, and the left side of our loveseat (where I use my computer to do HW and use the internet)

2. Six people who email regularly: I email my boss every day to let her know I am at work and she responds. I email myself often research articles and nerdy sport statistic spreadsheets that I have made. My grandmother, Rosemary Fletcher, has emailed me for almost 10 years and when I was on my mission she printed out her emails and sent them to me. My mother has followed in her mother's footsteps and emails every week, but she has put her own original stamp on her family letter. Facebook, blogs, and graduate school have ended what email habits I used to have.

3. Six of my favorite restaurants: Logan's Roadhouse, Cielito Lindo, Papa Murphy's, Hickock's, Red Robin, and Tucano's

4. Six places I would rather be right now: in bed, Sportscenter anchor desk hosting sporscenter, Turku, Finland (especially if it was Christmas time there), Helsinki, Finland, Rome, and London.

5. Six TV shows I like to watch: Sportscenter, Seinfeld, Cash Cab (it makes me feel smart), The Presidents or The States specials on the History Channel, the Office, and Most Extreme Challenge or America's Funniest Home Videos with Carly in the room because she laughs hysterically when she's sees other people get hurt, which makes me laugh.

6. Six people I TAG: Anyone who feels ths need.

6 Quirks:

1. I have annoying hairs at the end of my nose. I do not think anyone else can see them very well unless they get very close to my face and they are looking for them, but I hate them all the same. I have been picking at them for years. When I get nervous I will rub and pick at them so much until I have a big red spot at the tip of my nose.

2. I hate the feeling of dry glass in my hands. Sometimes if I feel like a glass is feeling too dry I will run the outside of it under water before using it to drink something. It gives me the heebi-jeebies.

3. I never learned to tie my shoes right. I started strong, but I never progressed to what Carrie has told me is the "adult" way to tie my shoes. This explains why i lost every tying-the-shoes-relay-race in elementary schoo. That, and the piano I was carrying when I ran back then.

4. I can sleep anywhere at anytime. Airplane, strange place, subway train, it does not matter.

5. I can get so energized/competitive at things that my body shakes from the catylcholamine levels - the chemical that is released during "flight or flight" moments - especially if I feel slighted or severely disrespected.

6. I am a rule nazi. For example, if people cut me in line I have a tendency to immediately do whatever I can to humiliate the cutters so that they learn their lesson. Punishment does not work unless you do it immediately. Otherwise you are wasting your time.

TAG!

We've been tagged by our good friends, Melissa and Brandon.


I know you are all dying to know more about us, so we happily obliged.

Thank you for giving us the opportunity to talk about ourselves. :)

6 Questions Tag:

1. Six places I go often: work, Missouri State, the gym, church, Wal-Mart, and the library.

2. Six people who email regularly: This just makes me feel bad because I don't get many regular emails. Clearly I need to be better about staying in touch with my friends and family.

3. Six of my favorite resteraunts: Cielito Lindo, Olive Garden, Macaroni Grill, Ruby Tuesday, Red Robin, and Papa Murphy’s (does that count?).

4. Six places I would rather be right now: Laying by the pool, getting a massage, going on a shopping spree, visiting family and friends, or on an extended vacation. But really, I do like to just relax at home (which is where I am at right now).

5. Six TV shows I like to watch: Cash Cab, Jeopardy, Law and Order, The Office, Unwrapped (Food Network), and The Soup.

6. Six people I TAG: Jill, Emily, Laura, Carrie, Candace, and anyone else that wants to share a part of themselves with the blog-o-sphere.

6 Quirks:

1. I hate getting into an unmade bed. It really bothers me when the sheets seem “wrinkly” or bunched, so if the bed didn’t get made in the morning, I will make right before we get in.

2. I like to keep records/make lists. I can tell you what we had for dinner on almost every given day this past year. I can tell you what days I went to the gym, forgot to read my scriptures, bought gas (and at what price), or did laundry. As I’ve gotten older I’ve gotten more thorough.

3. I blow my nose kind of loud. I don’t mean to. I just never mastered doing it in a quiet way.

4. I am really concerned about getting salmonella poisoning from chicken. Whenever I am preparing chicken, I always make Anthony check to make sure it is cooked through.

5. I love melted cheese. I often make restaurant choices based on what kind of cheese dip they have.

6. I love to tease people and push buttons to get reactions. For example, my dad drives a SUV and I like to give him a hard time about his “carbon footprint.” Tony is a die hard Red Sox fan and I like to point out Yankees players that some might find attractive.

Finally Cashing In On My Love of Sports

It seems like so far in my life, all I have done is contribute to the giant cash cow that is professional sports. There is a history that must be told...

It all started one day after we had moved to Belmont and I was hanging out with my new first-grader buddy, Andrew Creedon. Andrew, with an older brother around, had already moved to the level of sports loving where he spent his personal money on sports- he had a very cool baseball sticker book about the 1987 season. I was still blowing my 50 cents on candy mostly. I quickly became obsessed with the sticker book. I remember spending all of my money on packs of stickers. Good players got stickers that were twice as big, while the smaller players' stickers were smaller. I may have perused that book so many times that I can tell you who the big sticker players were for each team. I know an odd amount of information about the baseball season of 1987, the first "year of the home run". My love of baseball baseball exploded after that, as did my spending on baseball related materials, as I branched out quickly into baseball cards and earning enough "fun points" to go to games with my Dad by doing chores around the house. From Topps to Major League Baseball, these corporations had ingeniusly ensnared another young mind to sports addiction.

I practiced and honed my early math skills with sports statistics. It was pretty difficult to wrap my elementary school brain around earned run average, but I got it. I learned long division and percentages all with the help of batting averages and free throw percentages.

But up until this last week sports had only taken from me. Sure, it has given me hours upon hours of entertainment, but financially sports has never given back, and that is not because I did not have plans for it to. I, along with every naive middle schooler from the early nineties, thought that I would be able to sell my baseball cards for a profit at some later date. I do not think that those cards have appreciated at all in value since then, but I could be wrong. I also had dreams of becoming a professional player and broadcaster, but those dreams have seriously faded with the reality of my lack of physical size and ability and the impracticality of a sports journalism career. I still hold out hopes that after I have made my millions I will start at the bottom of a baseball organization and work my way up, capitalizing on my organization psychological background. Doesn't it seem like Theo Epstein or Danny Ainge would love to have someone enlightened like me with the Sox or Celtics?

But sports never has given me anything financially back, that is until a few weeks ago when I went on to a local sports trivia show on the radio and won! Carrie used to work at the same radio station, and thought that the guy who did the trivia show, Charles "Chuckles" Booms, was a bit eccentric. Judge the picture for yourself. The day after the Red Sox came back from impossible odds to beat the Rays they ran a sports trivia show themed: The Biggest Sports Choke Jobs. After hearing the locals struggle with the first two Red Sox related questions, I felt that I had to call. But by the time it was my turn the Red Sox questions were over, and the host smugly said that he doubted I was going to get this question right: During the NFL playoffs, the Houston Oilers were killing the Buffalo Bills 35-3, but ended up losing to the Bills. Which QB led the Bill comeback?

Luckily for me, my best friend Jon Hook was obsessed with everthing Houston because he had just moved from there, and we watched that whole game. I knew that the question was tricky because Jim Kelly, the hall of fame Bills QB was hurt and his back-up was in that game, Frank Reich. My answer garnered $15 at a local eatery.

I have now decided that i am calling this sports trivia show as often as they will let me and cash in on my previously useless knowledge.

Thank you Frank Reich for leading that memorable comeback. Thank you Dad, for raising me right. Thank you Jon Hook, for being obsessed with Houston Oiler football. To all of the sports fans out there: Do not despair. Sometimes it does feel like you are involved in a horribly abusive, one-sided relationship. But sometimes sports pays.

BOO-yah!

I hope everyone had a safe and happy Halloween and no one found any razor blades in their candy! We had a great time. We really like to make the most of our holidays so we had a Halloween week. We started things off last Saturday at our ward's Trunk or Treat. Anthony is on the Activities Committee so he was busy setting up and cleaning up and I painted faces with the Primary Presidency. It's a good thing I'm in school because I could never make it as a make-up artist. We dressed up as Michael "Squints" Palledorus and Wendy Peffercorn. What you can't tell from the picture is that I am wearing a swimsuit (the jacket was to enhance modesty and to keep me warm), my sunglasses were on the table, and Anthony pegged his pants.

Tuesday night Anthony went to a cornmaze with the ward youth. Our fun continued on Wednesday when we went to the Jones Pumpkin farm to find a pumpkin. Turns out the lady who owns the farm grew up in Brookline, MA. Anthony makes friends wherever he goes. Thursday night I baked pumpkin chocolate chip cookies and our traditional ghost cake (spice cake with cream cheese frosting).Friday (Halloween) we hung out with our friend Katie and her sweet daughter Lizzy--the cutest Snow White in town. Then we stopped by a party hosted by a one of Tony's fellow students in the I/O program. All in all we had a fun Halloween week.

*Bonus Material: So we re-watched the Sandlot to get ideas for our costumes. We did a google image search. Anyways, this is the guy who played Squints all grown up. Not exactly how we pictured him...

OMG ROFL!!

So last night Anthony and I went out to eat and then over to Barnes & Noble to hang out for awhile while our food digested. While perusing the shelves I came across this shocking book:
Some of you may know that I thought Anthony was a bit of a player when we first met. He just laughs and says I'm ridiculous, and up until this point all my evidence was circumstantial. But now his new book proves my point! The writing on the front even looks likes his handwriting! Anyways, coming across this book pretty much made my night. Even though I'm sure it is trash, I wish he really wrote it because I wouldn't mind the royalties.

BTW, I had no idea there were so many vampire books out there. Apparently it is a growing genre. As are teen books written in weird text-speak. It was hard for me understand all the slang and acronyms so I did a little internet search and found this fabulous site. Yay, now I can write my blogs using a quarter of the keystrokes! Score. TTYL! BFN!

Disturbing thoughts

I have a midterm due in about 24 hours. For the most part, I've got things well under control. Unfortunately, it seems like the harder I try to focus, the more random my thoughts become. Right now I am sitting in my room listening to the smooth sounds of Josh Groban's Closer and trying to articulate my thoughts on systems theory and family financial planning. But there is this ice cream truck driving around our apartment complex. And that is making me think of a both a disturbing Law and Order: SVU I once watched and the creepy child catcher from Chitty-Chitty Bang Bang. I used to be really scared of that guy. Oh well, at least it is still warm enough that the ice cream man is making his rounds...

Ode to my Dad

Today is my dad's birthday. I don't think he ever looks at this blog, but he still deserves a shout out for being so great. We've been friends ever since I was young.
Favorite memories of my dad include, but are not limited to the following:

• My earliest memories are reading the "Jesus Book" (Illustrated New Testament stories) and singing "Love at Home" with my dad before bed and how he would sometimes fall asleep in the middle of the song or reading.

• Learning how to swim. My dad would let my sisters and I ride on his back for a bit, then he would stand up and we would "fly" off.
• When I was in sixth grade our family got a paper route. It was supposed to be something that us kids could do to earn spending money. My dad got up every day and did most of the work,which believe me, was tough. We lived in North Dakota and it was cold!! For the next few years, whenever I wanted something I'd ask my parents to pay for it with the "paper route money." They got tired of that.
  
• My dad let me raid his closet and wear his old clothes when baggy sweaters and flannels were in style. Today I'm mostly grateful that was before the age of the digital camera--pictures of me in that era are disgusting and (thankfully) a bit harder to find.
  
• My dad puts up with being seriously outnumbered pretty well. Driving cross country with six female bladders would put any man to the test, but Dad was very practical about things. He made sure to tie a bucket to the top of the van/station wagon to ease the inevitable pit stops.
• When my dad's company moved buildings I went with him one night to pick up a few things they were getting rid of. It was the dead of night and we were driving a van with tinted windows and using a dolly going in and out of a deserted office building. I felt very sketchy and that is the night we became "Horace and Jasper."

Happy Birthday, Dad!!!!!!

Carrie, Carrie and Candace do KC

Last weekend I spent a few exciting days with my college roommates Carrie and Candace. It was the first time we had all been together since this sad day when they left me for bigger and better things:
Thursday afternoon Carrie and I picked up Candace from the airport and headed straight downtown. Well, maybe not straight downtown. Apparently Carrie and I don't know metropolitan KC as well as we thought we did. We did have the aid of a Garmin, but those things are limited by the ability of the people using them knowing how to operate them and where they want to go. Oops, my bad!

We had lunch at P.F. Changs and then walked around the plaza, occasionally ducking into stores that were way out of our price range. We even tried a few things on. Carrie and Candace looked cute in these bucket hats,

but Carrie quickly nixed the trendy tee I found.

We checked out the Power and Light District. We got there right when KC Live! was just getting started. We should have known it wasn't exactly our scene when we were carded before we could even get in, but once Carrie asked the security guards what there was to do if you didn't drink and got laughed at, we quietly exited.

I wasn't satisfied with our previous shopping trip so my friends were nice and humored me and we also checked out Target. Although we found a lot of clothes on sale, they didn't quite do it for us. We still had fun striking poses in the dressing room.

Candace wanted to get a souvenir from her trip, and we did find some cool "ruby slippers," but she ultimately decided against it.


We rounded out our first day with free ice cream (thanks for introducing us to the Sheridan's ice cream club, Carrie!), staying up late chatting, and watching an old favorite, Ella Enchanted.

Friday morning we went to Independence and Liberty Jail. Although I haven't heard it myself, Elder Holland gave a recent CES Devotional centered around Joseph Smith's experiences in the Liberty Jail. Candace told us a bit about it and now I am very interested in reading the transcript once it is posted here. I like visiting both of these places. I always leave feeling a bit better about things and things were no different this time.

Here we are in the children's area,


and again in the front amongst the elephant ears. We know it is okay to take pictures in the shrubbery because the missionaries told us we could.

We walked around in Independence a bit and boy are we glad we did! We found out that the world is ending next year! You can go ahead and thank us for passing along this valuable information. Here are Candace and I just after we found out the news!

Don't think we were rude by taking a picture. If you click and enlarge the picture, you see that we were just following directions. (Look at the top of the sign.)

That night we went to a Royals game. My sister, Laura joined us.

It just so happened to be "Buck Night," so we helped ourselves to hot dogs, small soft drinks, and peanuts for only a dollar a piece.


I think the high light of the night for me was when Garth Brooks (via the big screen) led us all in singing "Friends in Low Places." When I told Tony about that he said it was an appropriate song for the Royals because they are in, this is an exact quote, "low places." To borrow a line from my favorite Full House character Stephanie Tanner, "How rude!"

A few years have past since we all got down together, but we showed we could still bust a move.


Billy Butler became my new favorite Royal after getting a hit in the 7th to earn everyone in the stands a free ice cream sundae. Even though the Royals lost, we were still winners. That's right, we got free ice cream both nights!

Saturday morning came too fast! It was sad saying goodbye, but I'm glad we had enough fun that we want to make it happen again. Those of you who couldn't come--we missed you! Carrie and Candace, thanks for the efforts you took to make this awesome weekend happen!

Today is Carly's (Anthony's sister) birthday.

Happy Birthday, Carly!!


We hope your birthday is a BLAST!!

But also really r e l a x i n g . . . .