Bless America {2} Maceys

Macey's is our local grocery store. 

It's nice and its really close to our house but sometimes I find myself missing Woolworths. 

Today I walked into Macey's and found this on shelves:

Then I bought all of this for $2:

I no longer miss Woolworths. 

Bless America!

Bless America {1}

A post by Phil:

You may remember Kaylee had a "Thankyou Australia" series going on our Australian blog to point out little bits and pieces of Australia she appreciated. Those around me know that I also frequently find occasion to exclaim "bless America" for my own little favourite parts of living here in the US. It is in that spirit that I wish to enact this Bless America series to share with our friends and family in Australia and the US some of the best perks of living in the US. 

Coupon Combinations

Kaylee and I have a little neighbourhood Sonic we like to visit. For those unfamiliar, Sonic is America's favourite drive-in. Or so they claim. But it is certainly ours. You pull up in your car into one of the bays, order through the speaker and then watch while a girl in roller skates brings out your food. It's a fun place to eat. 

But even more satisfying then this little 50's flashback? The prices. Especially when you come loaded with coupons like we did yesterday. After a fun morning at the waterpark with Kaylee's little sisters we took to Sonic to feed the clan lunch. Our order consisted of the following.

2 Sonic burgers

2 gourmet hotdogs

2 servings of mozzarella sticks with marinara sauce.

2 medium slushies

1 Route 44 real-fruit strawberry lime slush - thats a 44oz (1.3L) drink for those not yet blessed with this experience.

And how much did we pay for all of this you ask.

$9. Nine, yes nine dollars. Because Sonic, like most of the stores here I've encountered in the US lets you combine discounts and use multiple coupons in one go. Even if the actual coupon says otherwise. 

And so today for coupon combinations and frugal fast food I say, Bless America!

Hoover Dam

A post by Phil:

Since moving to the US I have had to adapt to certain things. Things like driving on the opposite side of the road, not using the metric system, factoring consumer tax into purchases at the register, eating fruit and custard with my dinner etc. You know, all those everyday things which serve to remind you you're in another part of the world in just case you start to feel a little too at home. Whilst I haven't struggled too much with any of these adjustments, there has been one lingering change I just haven't been able to adapt to:

Language. 

I don't mean accents and vocabulary, I mean language. As in bad language. You see, back home Phil is a conservative kinda guy. A 'haven't sworn in my life' conservative kinda guy. Australian Phil grew up in a home where fart and crap were swear words. I once had my mouth washed out with a bar of soap for saying shut up to my brother. True story. But apparently here in the US I'm a potty mouth (see I told you I'm doing ok with the american lingo). Here in the land of the brave and free, everyday Australian words like [this is the part where some Americans should cover their eyes] damn and hell are swear words. And try as I might to leave those words at the border and adopt substitutions like dang and heck, sometimes they just slip out. It's not that I mean to swear. I'm sure I've apologised to my BYU students enough times for the class to realise I don't mean to offend them. It's just that when you grow up hearing these words over the pulpit at church, its hard to accept that these everyday words are now swear words. So every once in a while when I'm around other Australians it's nice to be able to relax a little and not worry that I'll innocently offend my American friends.

That said, it should come as no surprise that I felt great delight that in our recent trip to Vegas with the Peruccas we visited Hoover Dam. Yup, excited as I was to see this engineering feat, a part of me was just excited that for a little while... I could say Dam in the US guilt free. Did I make the most of this opportunity? 

You bet I did. 

The day we went to Hoover Dam was Chantel's 14th birthday. As far as I know it was her first dam birthday party. I think she had the best dam birthday yet. We drove past the dam lake, parked in the dam parking lot and walked across the dam road. We took a ton of dam photos, crossed both sides of the dam border (Arizona and Nevada) and even walked across the big dam bridge. 

It really was spectacular and so it is with great pleasure that I can share with you the 

BEST DAM DAY I'VE EVER HAD! 

Now for some Dam photos. 

Lake Mead, the reservoir upstream of the dam. 

The white markings on the rock shows how much water levels have dropped in recent years.

Downstream view from the Dam:

The bridge in the background is the  Mike O'Callaghan – Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge completed in 2010. 

Its construction was an engineering marvel.

Two old fogies. The good looking one is Kaylee

Looking downstream of the dam at the Colorado river. 

The Dam is 221m high, so the water level drops dramatically. 

Constructed in the 1930s, over 100 lives were lost in its construction

Pretty cool - one tower sits on the Nevada side with Nevada time, the other Arizona.

The view from the  Mike O'Callaghan – Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge, the Hoover Dam Bypass. 

It sits 840 feet (260m) above the Colorado river.

All kidding aside, it really was pretty spectacular to see this man made marvel sitting amidst a pretty impressive natural landscape. And while I knew that leaving there would mean I'd have to go back to watching my Australian language again, it just gave me one more reason to feel blessed I could live in this beautiful US of A. Bless this dam country!

randomly

While I was going to check on my blog for today I came upon an unfinished post,

well unfinished would not do so...

Here's our gem Jocelyn, er Voldemort. 

Sometimes I forget she's only 10, then she does stuff like this that reminds me. :) 

She was so proud of her hand-made, hand-stapled mask.

Priceless.

And what did my very own child husband do?

Joined right into the show of course.

Not sure how many times I've said it on the blog and and I know I'll say it many times in the future, Philly-boy is a child and my husband. And I'd have it no other way.

And in case you  needed a pick-me-up today please view what we saw going down the freeway...

Looks like this pick-me-up needs a put-me-down!

Better believe that everyone was snapping pics of this one. Poor girl didn't even know...or didn't even care.

Precious.

And back to ma boy. Ma snow cone lovin machine. Told you, kid at heart this one is. 

If I want to make his summery day all I need is a dollar and a snow shack and all his dreams come true.

There you have it. The now finished random post.

Kennecott Copper Mine

My friend Heather is awesome. We're both the same as we like to find fun but inexpensive things to do to keep our husbands happy ourselves busy. May is free admission to the Kennecott Mine so she suggested we give it a whirl.

I've never been there before (such a bad Utahn) and having been asked about it many-a-time by foreigners, who always seemed to know more about it than I did, I decided it was time I saw what it was all about.

And there was certainly a lot to see: A hole so big and deep it can be seen from space, monster trucks as big as houses and the big tire! 

Plus, I can now sound educated when I try to tell people that Utah has one of the biggest mines in the world. (Because people who talk about mines = educated right? right.)

Here's the the hole, as much as I could get into the camera that is. Seriously it is miles and miles deep. They use open mining so you can see the whole process right out in the open.

Our asian pal made an appearance again too. He likes to tag along on our sunny outings.

Cute little Henry was such a good little trooper. Look at those blue eyes. Kennecott was his mid-nap entertainment.

 Kevin, on the other hand, was not as good as Henry...

he was making faces and saying the big trucks weren't super cool.

Oh Kev...

It was cool to learn about the mine and how much comes out of there, what they do for Utah and our economy and how concerned they are with the environment.

We loved spending time with Heather and Kev and doing something out of the ordinary. Thanks guys!

(Kev's asian friend came too)

expecting the inevitable

Change is a naughty word in my vocabulary. Always has been, always will be.

I cried when I moved to Australia, leaving dear USA behind.

I cried when I moved to America, leaving Australia behind.

While growing up, my parents planned a trip and suddenly our neighbors decided to join us (whose child was my best friend).

Did I get excited? No, at least not immediately. I had to process it and re-plan in my mind.

Planning is my key in life. I plan everything, thus change scares me. Honestly scares me. 

I know its an irrational thing because change is ever-present. And can be somewhat exciting if I do say so.

Nothing can be completely expected and routine in life, except for change. Now you see why change and I can have a love/hate relationship. I can plan on change, but then it is the change that upsets me.

So today that is where I sit. Torn by change. Both in a good way and a bad way.

Part of me loathes big mr. change whereas the other part loves him;

(ok not love, like is the extent of it)

But change today is good, allowing me to practice for the change that will come tomorrow, and the next day, and the next.

Preparing me for the inevitable.

So I guess this is just my vent, my rant, my thoughts, whatever you want it to be. 

But for me its my way of trying to accept change and its presence in human life. And to face it without the waterworks and a frown on my face.

I'll work on the frowning part first. Waterworks seem to be my thing. :)

Easter 2012

For Easter this year we were back in the land of white eggs and Sweetart bunnies.

(funny the things you begin to crave when you live overseas- sweetarts kaylee? really?)

So we set out to give Phil his first egg dyeing experience. We bought this cute "egg creature creation" dyeing kit this year which was a lot of fun. Plus we joined the Perucca's for joyous fun. 

Approximately 60 egg fun to be exact.

We made some beauts...

and some not so beauts.

Braden was determined to make a "poop" egg. Such a boy. Such a boy.

Some celebrities even joined us for our egg-stravaganza. It was a party!

The guest list included...

Eminem, and jocey too!

Kanye

And Prince William and Kate.

Oh and I can't forget the bogan and the Aussie who made the trip.

Who's the bogan and who's the aussie? oh I crack myself up!

We got to help find the easter eggs in the backyard the next morning with the fam.

Course Truman (parental's dog)  found the most. He made sure we didn't miss a single one.

 There's my  kid er man with one of his creations. He just kept going and going with those eggs!

He loves everything and gets excited like kid would. 

Makes life exciting. :)

Good Easter. Good Friday? Good Easter.