Body Worlds & David's Kitchen Review

Every year for the kids birthday we take them out to dinner at a nice restaurant. This year I saw the Body Worlds ad and offered Theron the choice of going to see Body Worlds and having lunch out or going out for a nice dinner. He chose Body Worlds.

We went on a Friday morning. The kids were out for Fall Break, so no skipping school. The place was packed. It was simply amazing. I wish that I could have taken pictures. I so wanted to touch the bodies to see what they felt like. There was so much information that it was mind blowing. I really would suggest paying the extra for the recorded tour. It got to the point that I couldn't process everything I was reading because it was just so much. I really wish that I could have spent more time, but I was soon starving and so tired of standing and moving so slowly. We were there for a little over 2 hours. I wish it didn't cost so much so that I could go back and see it again. I really suggest if you are interested in your body at all and can swing the cost you should go to see this exhibit. The things I was amazed by was the amount of blood vessels, so cool, and that the spleen is so small. I thought it would be bigger for being so important and hearing about it on ER so much.

We then headed over to David's Kitchen. It's a Chinese restaurant on 45 W 3300 S. It used to be located in this tiny dive that was next to a bar. It stunk like smoke when you would go in, but the food was so good you would soon forget about the initial smell. Now it's at it's own location, I'm still not crazy about the ambiance. David needs to get a feng shui practitioner in there. David hangs out in the restaurant and suggest things to eat and asks how you like everything. The thing you must have and that they are known for is their pot stickers. They will offer you this right when you sit down. The correct answer is, "Yes." They had some great lunch specials. I had the low mein with fried rice and egg rolls, Theron had sweet and sour shrimp, Kenneth had Szechuan chicken. All the lunches came with the hot and sour soup, which I love. We have searched for quite a while for good Chinese in Utah. We do like PF Chang's, as well as Sampan, but David's is the best non-chain Chinese we have found in Utah. Thanks to Michelle Larsen for introducing us. The prices are very resonable and the food is really tasty. When I was looking online for a website to link to, there weren't any, I read some reviews that said the service was horrible. The service isn't the best, but I will usually cut a place some slack for not super-attentive service when the food is good enough, which this is. The majority of reviews say that David's Kitchen is the bomb, which it is.

Kangaroo Zoo

I think this place is seriously one of those, "Why didn't I think of that?," kind of things. It is great. Okay, I think it's a little pricey, but that's because I have 5 kids. If I just had to pay for 1 then we would probably hang out there more. It's just a big warehouse with a bunch of blow-up climbing and jumping things. It's a little loud with all the blowers, but not too horrible. There are comfy places for moms to sit and chat while the kids run around like crazy, having the time of their lives. We went there last Monday when Amber was campaigning for "Aunt of the Year." Sophia and Orion had and appt* and so we took them with us. *We will discuss this in a future post. First, we went to McDonald's where the kids played and ate crap food while Amber and I ate Cafe Rio. Then we headed to Kangaroo Zoo. We weren't able to stay too long as I now have to pick up kids from school. Apparently, it's too cold to ride bikes anymore. How I wish I was a mean mom, like my mom. Did I mention that I NEVER had a ride to school. I walked in whatever Mother Nature was cooking up that day. Sometimes it was horrible and really scary and other times it was fine. Still, I am alive and well and I walked my whole elementary school years. How did this turn into "I walked uphill both ways in snow up to my chest" post? Oh, well. We had a great time at Kangaroo Zoo and I think that I will probably go back with Dylan sometime in the winter when we are going crazy from staying indoors.

Conference Commandments - Oct. 2008

When I was growing up my parents had a tradition of putting together commandments that we had heard during General Conference. We would do it on Sunday or Monday after Conference. We would each pick something that we heard from a speaker. Then we would make a list of the "Conference Commandments." I decided to continue this tradition this year as my children are now mostly old enough to actually hear and understand something a speaker said. I did help Dylan with his though. Here are ours for October Conference.

Conference Commandments-October 2008
-Be like the Savior.
-Temple marriage brings joy.
-Be unified.
-Prepare for the temple.
-Choose faith.
-Have a gratitude attitude.
-If we are prepared, we shall not fear.

Paradise Bakery & Cafe Review

I really enjoy a nice sandwich/salad/soup/dessert type establishment. Paradise Bakery and Cafe was not my favorite though. The main problem I have with this one is that there is something better just a few blocks down the road. If Paradise was the only game in town then I think I would be fine, but the fact that Flour Girls and Dough Boys is just down the street, it ended up falling way short for me. Like my sports metaphors? I decided to go there on Tuesday, which was windy and cold, so a perfect day for some warm soup. I took my pal, Dylan. I was hoping to miss the lunch crowd so we went a little after 1pm. Unfortunately, it was packed. I didn't realize that this was a franchise, so they definitely know their stuff. It was run very efficiently and there was always someone near to answer any questions. It's set up cafeteria style. They hand you a cookie bite and a menu when you walk in. If I wasn't overwhelmed with the noise level and the amount of people there I probably would have been won over with the cookie bite. They have the main bakery area first, where they also do breakfast items in the morning. I picked up a cinnamon roll first. I wanted to compare it to FG&DB, since that is what I always get there. Then I chose to have the Paradise Club & Fire Roasted Tomato Soup Combo. They give you a chocolate chip cookie with your sandwich so technically you don't need to order a dessert. My total for the combo and the cinnamon roll was a little over $10. It would be just a few cents cheaper at FG&DB, super close, so price is not an issue. We then got our water and utensils and started looking for a place to sit. It was packed and it's a fairly big place. We got the very last table, literally. It was a tall table, something I wouldn't have chosen, if I had an option, but Dylan loved it. The food was good, but I thought the tomato soup at FG&DB was better. I had it just a few weeks ago. The sandwich was tasty, after all it did have bacon. Dylan and I shared the lunch and then started on the cinnamon roll. Yuck. The texture was more along the lines of what I would expect from Smith's bakery. Kind of like a dry pastry. True, I'm sure it was fresher in the morning, but the ones at FG&DB are so amazing. The frosting was a melted butter with cinnamon and sugar type. So it was a crusty, too sugary frosting. I decided to take it home to Kenneth. I prefer the cinnamon rolls that are more like a bread dough and have the cream cheese frosting on top. I can definitely finish that kind. Do I recommend Paradise? Yes and no. If you are somewhere outside of Utah Valley and you feel like stopping somewhere like this, then I think it is really worth it. Hopefully, it's not as busy as this one was. However, if you are in Utah Valley and you feel like stopping somewhere like this, then stop at Flour Girls and Dough Boys. It's just a few blocks down from Paradise and the food and atmosphere are superior.

Words of General Conference

I saw this on my sister-in-law's blog. I thought it was so cool. She borrowed it from a blog she read on LDS Media Talk - this is what you get when you enter the full text from General Conference into Wordle. The size of the text is determined by how often that word was used. I thought it was very cool. Enjoy.

4th Photo Tag

My friend, Stacey, had a fun tag on her blog. You count the fourth picture in your picture folder and put it on your blog. Here is the fourth picture in mine.
This was Christmas day of 2002. We were in Oregon with Kenneth's whole family. I can't believe how little my kids were. l-r Opa, Sophia, Ian, Nana. Thanks, Stacey.

I tag Amber, Colleen, Jen M. and Marie.

My Best Girls

1974
back row: l-r Wendy, Alison, Kimberli, Bradley
front row: l-r Brenda, Amy, My dad, Deanne, My mom, Cutest Baby (oh, that's me), Becky (missing is baby brother Jared, not even a twinkle in the eye yet.)

Now, you all know I love you, but I have to say that my best girls are my sisters, my sisters-in-law, and my mom(s). This last Thursday we had a Pelo girls get together up in Park City. We had a blast, of course. I am so sorry that the rest of the world doesn't get to be Pelos because we are amazing, strong, beautiful, hilarious and sooo much fun. Also, humble, don't forget humble. We did some shopping at the outlets and the thrift store. We sat around and ate yummy food, dinner by Mom and desserts provided by my sister, Wendy, who has a yummy looking, and now I can say that what comes from it is yummy tasting, website. We talked about serious things, funny things, mommy things, more funny things, helpful things, hilarious things, touching things and laughing really loud things. The love was palpable. I stayed up late talking with my sisters, Brenda and Wendy and then until 3 am talking with Wendy after Brenda fell asleep. I am so blessed to have all these wonderful women in my life. Family is the best. Mushy love to all my girls.

Park City 2008
back row: l-r Deanne, Amy, Me, Becky, Brenda, Simeon (belongs to Amy)
front row: l-r Melody, Renae (mom), Alison, Wendy (Missing is Sweet Kimberli & Amazing Mychael-Ann)

Taekwondo Belts

On Tuesday Sophia and Theron received their new belts in taekwondo. Sophia moved up to senior yellow and Theron moved up to senior green. They are doing such a great job. I think it is wonderful that they are involved in a physical activity and progressing so well.

Student of the Month

Sophia was chosen as Student of the Month in her class at school. This is her first time and she was very excited. I am really proud of her. I know she tries her best and does a great job. Good job, Sophia.

Monkey Baby is 9

When Theron was born he had severe reflux. My two older kids had spit up, but nothing like this. It started in the hospital the day after he was born I noticed that he spit up this greenish-yellow stuff. The nurse assured me that it was normal and nothing to worry about. A few days after we returned home he still was spitting up a lot and it had the same yellow tinge, not colostrum yellow, but bright yellow. We took him to the pediatrician on call, who assured us that it was normal and nothing to worry about. A few days after that we took him back to another doctor who sent us to the hospital for an upper GI. It was nice because he drank the barium and then proceeded to throw it up while they were all watching. Validation. At his two week check his weight was down to 7 lb 12 oz, he had weighed 8 lb 13 oz at birth. The doctor decided to put him on some acid reflux medicine and see if that helped. He told us to come back at the end of the week for a weight check. So when he was 3 weeks old I took him in to the doctor, his weight was about 8 lb, but the meds didn't seem to be helping. The doctor had me take him to the hospital for some blood tests and told me to come back later. I came back and was sitting in the waiting area when my doctor came out looking very agitated. He asked the receptionist if she had heard from me because it was important that he talk to me immediately. He saw me and took me into a room. He there informed me that I needed to take Theron to the hospital immediately, that he was severely dehydrated and that if we didn't get an IV in him soon his heart could stop. O. K...... So I drove over to Kenneth's work and told him to come with me to the hospital. I was a little shaken, as you can imagine. When we got there they started to try to get an IV in him. It took them over 2 hours because he was so dehydrated. It was a horrible week as he went through many tests and we received no answers. We tried numerous medicines, and formulas. He just kept on projectile vomiting everything. We finally put him on a super expensive, nasty smelling, hypo-allergenic formula. He seemed to do better, so we went home. After a week at home he was still not doing well so we ended up at Primary Children's. Luckily that was only a few days, with still no answers, but many, "it's not this," which can be a good thing. They put him on a new medicine and we kept on trying whatever we could think of. After we went home he was still struggling on the medicine and so we tried one more, Erythromycin, an antibiotic. It worked! It was a miracle drug for us. He started keeping everything down and grew super fast.

When he was sick he looked like a little monkey because he was so skinny and he had dark hair on his body.

So we called him our little monkey baby. Even during this really hard time he was the happiest baby. When we were in the hospital he was alert and he would smile at the nurses. They said he shouldn't be smiling like that so young, but he did. He's always had the best smile and laugh. Crazy cute kid.

Fast forward to my boy turning 9. You would never know that he was a sickly baby. In the morning of Oct 2 he received his main present. We gave him a DS to replace the one that was stolen over the summer. He was very happy about that.

Unfortunately the day was very busy for him. He had piano right after school, then taekwondo, then scouts, where he earned his Wolf Badge. So we didn't have any special party for him on that day. Friday I let him stay home from school to make up for such a busy birthday.

Sunday we had cake and ice cream at my parents with the cousins and aunts and uncles. It was a lot of fun. He used his birthday money to buy a DS game, and two lego sets. I can't believe my monkey baby is so grown up and handsome. He is amazing in school and everything he is involved in.

I am just so grateful that I am his mother. He is such a wonderful boy.

Tagged-8 Things

8 TV Shows I Love to Watch:
Heroes
Chuck
Pushing Daisies
The Office
Oprah
Psych
Burn Notice
Monk

8 Favorite Restaurants: (In no particular order)
Zinn Bistro
The Tree Room
Grappas
David's Kitchen
Osaka
Trellis Cafe
Bajio
Royal India

8 Things That Happened Today:
Shopping with Mom and sisters.
Stayed up until 3am talking with my sisters.
Drove through Provo Canyon.
Made out with Kenneth in a parking lot.;-)
Picked up kids from school.
Did a load of whites.
Made my bed.
Ate Costco muffins.

8 Things I am Looking Forward To:
Body World Exhibit
My parent's 50th anniversary
Halloween
Thanksgiving
Christmas
Twilight Movie
Harry Potter Movie
Hanging out with Kenneth tonight.


8 Things on My Wish List:
To live in perfect weather all year round.
A big screen TV.
More storage space.
More bookshelves.
Unlimited energy.
To be able to live fully in each moment.
Have my hair done.
Someone to clean my floors.

8 People I'm Tagging:
You, who didn't get enough sleep last night with your new baby and new haircut.
You, who just finished cleaning up vaseline.
You, who loves those cute creepy crawlies with the red hourglass shape.
You, who has such cute kids and a Butterscotch colored cat.
You, who just went to Brian Head.
You, who shot your first handgun.
You, who cheated on her stylist.
You, who makes amazing looking cinnamon rolls.

Blue Heron at the Gardens

This week Dylan and I made it to the Gardens again. This time I decided to do something that I have never done before at the Gardens, try to make myself throw up. Okay, my original plan was to be the "fun mom," but instead I ended up being the "sick mom." I decided to roll down the long hill at the entrance. I was so freaking sick by the bottom. What is wrong with me? I am old. I don't have the stomach of steel that I once possessed. I used to be able to spin for 5 minutes straight as a kid. I actually think it has something to do with height instead of age. Oh, wait, I was laying down at the time. I guess I'll have to go with the age one then. I was sick the rest of the day. It was bad.

The Gardens were gorgeous though. The weather was nice, too nice. I got burned. The super cool thing was this Blue Heron that we saw at the pond.

He was across the pond originally looking like a penguin, weird.

Then he came over by the fish and just stood there.

We were hoping he would try to eat one, but he never did while we were there. It was really cool though.

Next we sat in the rose garden and it smelled amazing and had a beautiful view.

Lessons learned: No rolling, old lady. Wear sunscreen, don't you know better by now? You would think that a woman of my advanced age would be wiser.

Dylan Swims

After the kids went back to school I wanted Dylan to get into swimming lessons. My sister knew of a woman in her ward, Sheila, who has a pool at her house and teaches there in P. G. So our two little boys are taking swimming lessons together. They have progressed really well. They both passed level 1 and are moving on to level 2.

She had us do a few things at home in the very beginning that really helped Dylan. He was supposed to lie down in the bath and I was supposed to knock on the side while he counted. It was getting him used to having his ears in the water. Then he would flip over and practice blowing bubbles with his face all the way in the water. Those two things helped him so much in his lessons.

I'm totally impressed with how well he has done and if I could figure out how to put video on here I would show you and you would be impressed as well.

Harmons: The Cheese Capital of Utah

I've been hearing about this amazing Harmons for quite awhile now. I like Harmons I really do. They are solid in my book. I have had great success at finding things there that I couldn't find elsewhere. Still, a grocery store is a grocery store, right? Uh, no. We stopped by the new Harmons store at Bangerter Crossing on Saturday. It's amazing. First thing we saw when we walked in was the gelato counter. We decided we might have to have dessert a little early, but we wanted to check out more stuff first. Next was the cheese counter. As stated in my previous post I love cheese. As we were looking at the cheeses one of the cheese attendants approached us and told us all about the cheeses. They have over 300 cheeses. If you see something that you want to try you just grab it and bring it up to them and they will slice you off a sample. Kenneth is a real cheese connoisseur (yes, I had to look that word up to spell it). His mother is British and they lived in England for awhile so they had a lot of different cheeses growing up. Me growing up it was mild cheddar, mozzarella and Kraft parmesan. My love of cheese and most foods has come about from marrying into the Rawlings family. Thank you, Kenneth and Mom Rawlings. Back to Harmon's. Kenneth found a cheese that brought back memories of his childhood so we decided to get it. It was a nut gourmandise. It is a mild softer cheese. We bought some Anna's cookies to go with our cheese. The cookies were recommended by the cheese lady. We also tried their garlic brie. It was the tastiest store brie I have ever had. They have samples everywhere. We sampled other cheeses, meats, flavored olive oils, cookies. Then we headed back to the gelato. I had hazlenut gelato and Kenneth had prickly pear Italian ice. We were only in 1/4 of the store. It's huge and I'm sure there is more, more, more to see, like the upstairs. Anyway, if you are looking for a cheap date you should head over to Draper to visit the new Harmons and have a gelato. Do it!

TKD Test & Primary Program

Saturday morning we were double booked with the Primary Program practice and a taekwondo test. I went to the practice and Kenneth went to the test.

I was helping out with Dylan's class at the practice. They are a great class, except that Rawlings kid. He can't hold still to save his life and his life was threatened many times, so I know. The practice was a little crazy, but the actual program the next day was wonderful. The kids did an amazing job and the music was so beautiful. The sign language songs are my favorite. Good job, Amy Chatlaine, for teaching the kids. I loved it.

I made it to the very end of the TKD test, but I just missed Theron breaking boards. I was so sad that I missed it. He was testing for his senior green belt and Sophia was testing for her senior yellow. They both did great, except they had to do their poomses again this week in class to show their teacher that they really knew them before he would pass them. They should get their new belts this next week.

I'm so proud of my kids and how well they did in the program and in their TKD test. They are awesome.

Friday Night with the Schmaelly's/Restaurant & Movie Review too.

Last Friday Kenneth and I went out with Gary and Christine Ishmael to celebrate Gary's 53rd birthday. He looks young, but it's all the plastic surgery and Grecian Formula, promise. First stop was Daybreak where Christine was working at the "Oh Sweet Sadie" (look for the mention of Christine on their site) art & gift show with her amazingly cute items from her This & That Creations. She and her partners are super talented. Their stuff was sooo cute. This was my first trip to Daybreak. It was adorable, just as I had heard. I don't want to live their, but the community looks really nice and the houses where the show was located were amazing.

After looking around we headed to dinner at McCool's at The District. This is an Irish Pub. We even had a waiter named Shane. We asked him to say something in an Irish accent and he told us he was Italian so he couldn't do that. Irish pub, Irish name, Italian??? He was a good waiter anyway. Kenneth and I had the fried cheese plate for an appatizer. What is a fried cheese plate you ask? It is deep fried cheese that is then set on a plate. Crazy! Crazy good, that is. I love cheese. Christine and Gary had pierogis, which are basically potato dumplings, yummy. Kenneth had a lamb sandwich w/brie, Gary had fish and chips, Christine had a steak salad, and I had buffalo shepherd's pie. Kenneth's was not the best, kind of bland, but he had yummy sweet potato fries and regular fries. Gary said his was good, but they served it with chips (crisps) instead of fries (chips). They were fresh made chips though. Christine said her salad was good. Mine was the best though. There was another 1/2 lb (approx.) of cheese on top and inside was tasty, tasty goodness. So if you are looking for a lot of melted cheese and good comfort food I would recommend McCool's and then hit the movies at The District. Which we did.

We intended to see Eagle Eye, but there were no seats together so we ended up going to Ghost Town. We were very happy with that selection. It is a funny film. Ricky Gervais is the lead and he is hilarious. You may remember him from such films as Night at the Museum and Stardust. He is also Michael on the BBC version of The Office. Problem: 2 totally unnecessary "F" words. Seriously. It felt like they threw them in just to make the movie PG-13. This movie goes to show that if you can make women laugh that you can get someone as hot as Tea Leoni. That women don't need a hot doctor to make them happy, just a real person that they can enjoy being with for the rest of their lives. I do recommend this movie, great date film.

Forever Strong Review

Last week Kenneth and I were able to attend the Utah premier of Forever Strong. This is a sports film about a high school rugby team. The film is based on true events, events that happened, but didn't happen to all the same person like in the movie. The rugby team is here in Utah, Highland Rugby. They are an amazing team with an amazing record. Here's my disclaimer: my brother is the executive producer. I promise to not let that effect my review. Famous people we saw at the premier: Brad Pelo (my brother), Gary Cole (from really far away), Elder Nielsen, Carol Makita.

Back to the movie. The movie stars Sean Faris (remake of Yours, Mine and Ours) as a punk kid with serious anger issues, Penn Badgley (Gossip Girl) as the bad influence friend, Gary Cole (Office Space & recent appearances on Psych & Desperate Housewives) as the coach of the Highland team, Sean Astin (Lord of the Rings, Rudy) as a detention center counselor, and Neal McDonough (Minority Report, Band of Brothers & this seasons Desperate Housewives) as Sean Faris' father and coach. There are several local celebrities as well, Chunga, Big Budah, Dave Fox, as it was filmed here in Utah.

Yes, it is a typical sports film. Yes, it has a happy, inspiring ending. Yes, lessons are learned and lives are changed. Even with all the sports movie cliches and predictability I still enjoyed it very much. It's funny and moving and exciting. I love a good sports film. Really I can't remember a bad sports film that I've seen. It's a formula that works. I don't understand rugby and it looks super violent, but I do understand Coach Gelwix and the kids, so that's all that matters. For those of you that live in my neighborhood you will recognize the Ishmael's son Eric in the film. He is an extra in the detention center, but as one of the few minority's in the film, and in the state of Utah, he gets a lot of face time. Did I mention that Sean Faris looks so much like a young Tom Cruise sometimes that it freaks me out? Pardon the moment in the film of horrible lighting on Coach Gelwix's wife. Horrible. I can't believe that the lighting guys and director didn't see how bad it was. She looks at least 20 years older than Gary Cole does in the scene. It is rated PG-13 for teen drinking and drug use, but that's it. Good movie, go see it. That turned out to be a lot of work for a little shameless plugging of my brother's movie, I mean a lot of work for such an impartial and objective review of my brother's movie. Really, you should see it.

Here are some pictures of the NYC premier taken by Coach Gelwix's daughter, Jenny. Thanks, Jenny!