Blast From The Past (or Future?)

Back last fall, while shopping for Malachi's birthday, I came across a neat Hot Wheels car at the store. The "Back To The Future - Time Machine"! I was surprised to see it, and pleased that it was only 97¢! What a cool toy... made me wish I had one when I was younger.

Of course, Malachi will play with his car, not really knowing what it is until he's much older. Those movies aren't the cleanest to watch. In fact, I grew up watching them when they came on tv. What a surprise when I bought them on DVD and found that the tv versions were re-dubbed.

Anyway, I can imagine the surprise Malachi will have when he's finally able to watch the movies and realizes what a cool toy he already has, and has been playing with for years. That's gonna be fun.

By the way... I wasn't stupid, I bought two. One for me of course! ;)

~Matt

Week Rundown (03/18/12-03/24/12

Sunday

Today was "Spring Alive" at church. We had a morning service and an afternoon service with dinner in-between. Since we didn't have evening services, we came home and took naps! Then we were lazy around the house.


Monday

Today started 'spring break' for Lydia and Mysia. Lydia is using the time to get some rest and catch up on some homework. She still has work, so Mysia is getting to spend her day at the Boy's & Girl's Club, which she enjoys.

I had quartet practice this evening. Lydia and the kids spent the evening at home.


Tuesday

First day of spring and we get rain!!! It was also a bit colder than it had been. I was glad I had mowed over the weekend. The kids spent most of the evening playing on the computer and Nook.


Wednesday

Tonight we went to church. Afterwards, we came home and ate some snacks before bed.


Thursday

We spent the evening at home, getting a few things done and letting the kids play.


Friday

The last day of "spring break". We spent the evening at home, rearranged a few rooms... including our bedroom. Not much fun! lol!


Saturday

Like always, today was slated to be busy. Lydia had quite a bit of homework to do. The kids spent the day with her. I attended the Men's Shoot-out, held by our church. I had a great time spending time with the guys, shooting guns and enjoying the nice sunny weather.

After my fun, I headed up to Branson to man the KWFC booth for the health expo being held at the Tri-Lakes Center. Attendance was a little low, but I got to visit with several folks and even had the chance to see the SIX and Dino perform!

Lydia let the kids play outside for a bit. For supper, she took them to McDonald's. They both loved the "mommy day"!


~Matt

Why I’m Not Supporting “HARDEE’S Restaurants”

I don’t know how many of you who read my blog watch much television. We do, but most of it is through Netflix. The programming on local tv stations isn’t the best, and we like being able to choose what to watch, whenever. One of the best things about services like Netflix... no commercials!!!

That was the issue this last Sunday. As a family, we were watching "the Amazing Race". We like it due to the fact that it's both entertaining and educational. Mysia and Malachi were glued to the tv. To our surprise, the highly offensive Hardee's commercial was aired.... Twice!

I was disappointed... it was shown in front of my 7 year-old daughter and 4 year-old son. Lydia scrambled for the remote. Too late. Why that it was allowed to air during what would be considered 'family programming'?

I decided to write both our local tv station and Hardee’s with my disappointment. I got an immediate email response form Hardee’s:

"CKE Restaurants, Inc., owner and franchisor of Carl’s Jr. and Hardee's restaurants, adopts a creative approach to our advertising. We do not aim to offend anyone with our efforts, but merely to offer entertaining content. We understand that not everyone may view our advertising the same way, so we respect all views and welcome all comments, which are forwarded to senior management. Thank you again for taking the time to contact us."

Wow... that didn’t make me very happy. The response from KOLR10’s Station Manger on Tuesday was a relief:

"This is a national commercial that is not placed by KOLR10 locally, and I’m sure many TV stations are getting complaints from families like yours who are objecting to the content. I am passing the comments along to our network so that they will know how families like yours are responding to it. Thanks for taking the time to let us know how you feel."

Needless to say, you will not find me getting food from Hardee’s. If they think that I support that form of advertising, they’ve got it wrong.

If you haven’t seen the commercial, here is the youtube link. Warning, I realize this may be very offensive to some of you, so watch at your own discretion... http://youtu.be/xdGsKzmCgB0

On another note, I was warned in the email reply from Hardee’s that it is “prohibited” for me to share their email response. But to be honest, I don’t care:

"This e-mail and any files transmitted with it are intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to which they are addressed and may contain confidential and/or privileged material. Any review, re-transmission, dissemination or other use of, or taking of any action in reliance upon, this information by persons or entities other than the intended recipient is prohibited. If you have received this e-mail in error, please contact the sender and delete the material from your computer. Please note that any view or opinions presented in this e-mail are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of CKE Restaurants, Inc. ("CKE") and/or its subsidiaries. Finally, the recipient should check this e-mail and any attachments for the presence of viruses. CKE accepts no liability for any damage caused by any virus transmitted by this e-mail."

~Matt 

Week Rundown (03/11/12-03/17/12)

Sunday

Since Malachi was sick, Lydia stayed home with him during the morning services. Mysia, Abigail, and I ran the church vans. Mysia got to hang out with Granny and Grandad for the afternoon. I arrived home and Malachi was doing good, so we decided to take him to church. Unfortunately, he did not get a nap. He started feeling bad right before services started, so we came home. Sure enough, he vomited several times this evening! Mysia wasn't feeling too well either.


Monday

I stayed home with both kids. We all rested... or tried to. They weren't too happy that I made them stay in their beds for most of the day. We did play a little and I let them enjoy some outside air before Lydia came home from work.

Since I was around kids with sickness, it was suggested that there would be no quartet practice. So after getting the kids ready for bed, I did some grocery shopping while Lydia worked on homework!


Tuesday

Mysia came home with a note from her school nurse reporting that she had a slight temperature. She complained of a sore throat and her glands on the side of her neck were bulging. Before bedtime, they had gotten much worse. In fact, it was so bad that she wouldn't turn her neck back and forth, up or down. We knew something was wrong.

We dropped Malachi off with my folks and rushed Mysia to the ER. After waiting for an hour or more in the waiting room, we got in and they admitted her into a room. They gave her an IV and ran a cat scan. We then waited on the test results.


Wednesday

It was past midnight when they told us that Mysia is being admitted into a hospital room. She has an abscess in the back of her throat that they want to keep an eye on. It's not very big, but they could get worse. Under worse scenario, the abscess could block her airway.

Around 5am, she was moved to a room and we were able to get some rest.. about two hours worth! The throat surgeon visited after 8am. The abscess was too small to drain, so he is recommending that they keep Mysia for at least a day. She'll be kept on IV antibiotic and steroids to get rid of the infection. He said her tonsils are very close together, and once the infection is gone, we'll be talking about getting them removed in two weeks.

I went into work for half a day, and then headed back to the hospital. Lydia had spent the entire time with Mysia. Mysia had many visitors throughout the day, including Malachi! She actually enjoyed some of it, but was tired when I showed up (so was Lydia). Mysia's main complaint was the IV in her arm. Lydia ended up spending the night at the hospital while I went home and crashed.


Thursday

Malachi had once again spent the night at my parent's house, but got dropped off at daycare by Aunt Abigail. I headed to the hospital to relieve Lydia so she could make it to class and then to work. By noon, the doctor released Mysia. Her and I went to Wal-Mart to pick up the prescription, which still wasn't ready to be picked up. After waiting 30 minutes, we headed home. We rested until time to get Malachi. The weather was so nice, we got to spend some time outside. I took the opportunity and actually mowed the front lawn!


Friday

Things were back to normal, and the weather was super nice! After we all got home, we enjoyed some time outside, and then spent family time together this evening. I went to the church and picked up the van for tomorrow.


Saturday

We got up early, ate breakfast, and picked up church kids for the church skating party! Both Mysia and Malachi did pretty good skating. Malachi was frustrated that he couldn't skate fast, and kept falling.

Mysia had her friend Katie over afterwards, and they spent the day together. The kids spent time outside in the nice weather, then inside watching some tv, playing the Wii, and then playing with toys. Malachi was bummed that he didn't have a 'friend', so I tried to spend some time with him.

I took the chance and mowed the back lawn, it was surprisingly long on some parts. I think I may need to sharpen the blade! Wow... and spring hasn't officially arrived!



~Matt

SoGo Madness 2012

The Madness has started!

This year I get help with KWFC's 3rd annual SoGo Madness tournament. They take the top 16 songs from the Ozarks' Top 20 of last year, put them in brackets, and let the listeners vote. It's a unique contest to see what song wins.

After some discussion and testing, this year, the voting is on KWFC's Facebook page. The polls are simple and easy to do. The voting is not limited to those who live here in the Ozarks. It's going to be neat to see who the winner will be.

 ~Matt