Produce Produce Produce by the Pound (CHEAP!)

Superstition Ranch Market
4755 E Main St, Mesa, AZ 85205
(Off of Main Street, about 1/2 mile EAST of Greenfield on the SOUTH side of the road)

For any Arizona friends out there - I have recently RE-discovered this wonderful establishment to purchase produce! Many of you probably already know about it... but I thought I would pass along the info, just in case.

I went a few years ago, but forgot about it until my SIL Michelle reminded me! I mostly get all my produce through Bountiful Baskets Produce Co-Op. I still concur that Bountiful Baskets is cheaper and closer to me, but only by a smidge, and you do NOT get to choose which produce you receive. Which can be a REAL down side to the co-op... especially if I have a particular meal already in mind. Now, to give you a disclaimer, not ALL of the prices are amazing, you have to look for the produce that is insanely cheap and stick with it. Sometimes a good grocery store sale will beat their prices hands down. My rule of thumb is anything that is less than .75/lb is probably cheaper than the grocery store. And as you can see below, I mostly stay under .50/lb!

For a run down of the prices I received last week (11/11/09) to also convert you...here it goes. These blow grocery store prices OUT OF THE WATER:

Zucchini - .34/lb
Red Bell Peppers - .34/lb
Yellow Onions - .25/lb.
Cantaloupe - .25/each
Navel Oranges - .49/lb.
Fuji Apples - .49/lb.
Tomatoes - .69/lb.
Blackberries - .34/each container
Cucumbers - .34/lb.
Pears - .25/lb.
Kiwi - .34/each

Happy Produce Shopping!!

The Toddler Triathlete

What?!? You don't eat lunch with your goggles on? Food could splash in your eyes, you know.

Emma continues to be such an absolute delight. She is seriously at such a darling stage, I am tempted to follow her around the house all day and video tape all the hysterical things she does. At 22 months old, here are some of my favorite things about Emma:

• She still has a shoe fetish and will go all the way upstairs to retrieve my shoes if she wants to go shopping.
• We call her "Sir Mix Alot" with her singing. She now knows an array of songs, which she combines into ONE glorious song when she is singing around the house. Last night she sang, "A-B-C-D-E-F-G How I wonder what you are Q-R-S-T-U-V-W-X-Y-Z". She'll throw in people's names to make the song interesting. At about any time throughout the day she is singing something. It is really adorable.
• We still play the game... Who loves "fill in the person's name?". To which she screams "I do!". Yesterday after eating a particularly tasty PB&J sandwich she cries out, "Who Loves Peanuts? I DO!!!" When I laughed she continued the game for 15 more minutes.
• When she wants to get out of bed we will hear her say, "Mommy Hold You. OK." If I don't come she will replace the first phrase with "Daddy Hold You. OK". You can guess which parent buckles when he/she hears this pathetic plea.
• She is obsessed with the colors of our cars and our bikes. Many times a day she will yell "Mommy White" when she sees my car. This is fine at the house, but I get a little embarrassed out in public as I don't want people to think I am raising a cultural purist. :)
• She loves Barney and sings his closing "I Love You" song all day. Wherever she is in the house, she will run and find me for a huge hug when she gets to the line, "great big hug".
• For the first time this week she drew some scribbles and then identified those scribbles as an airplane. She really loves to color, but when she colors she INSISTS that any adult present in the home must color with her.
• When Greg gets home from work she wants NOBODY but her Daddy. She does not let me read to her or play with her or bathe her. Greg thinks it's adorable and I LOVE the reprieve. When she talks about her Daddy through the day, she always says "Daddy so nice. Daddy handsome." That he is my friends. That he is.
  
• Whenever she sees my cell phone she asks to "Call Glen, Call Glen".
• She loves to have her diaper changed. As soon as she poops, she will promptly come and find me and say "poopy, change you, ok". Then she will run to the living room, lie down on the rug and wait for me to come and change her. As soon as I change her, she will say "trash" and run the diaper to the trash, even without a prompting from me. The only annoying part is when she is not poopy, but insists on a diaper change... we think because she has just peed and she gets confused. Still. Who wants to waste expensive diapers on silly pee.
• She LOVES to play in the dirt. Especially the dirt that is covering my precious flowers. I have gotten mad at her a few times and now she scolds herself. So whenever she starts playing with the dirt in my flowers I hear a very stern "EMMA!" come from her little mouth. It's nice because I don't have to say it, I just give her that motherly look that tells her to stop.
• We borrowed Greg's dad's truck a few weeks ago. Emma is obsessed with trucks and now whenever she sees Grandpa Ray she exclaims "Grandpa Ray Truck!". She thinks that is his name... and I don't think he minds one bit.
• She is starting to take an affection to dolls. I caught her last week giving a doll a bottle at my Aunt's house saying "there go. there go.". Today she tried to change her doll's diaper. When she got frustrated with the task, she came running inside screaming "Mommy help you."
• Emma thinks farting is hysterical. Every time she farts, she dies laughing and says "Emma toot. Emma toot." Seriously how did kids know this is funny? Does farting ever NOT get funny? Not in our world, evidently.
• I have a "Children's Songs CD" in my car. Within 10 seconds of getting into the car. Every. Single. Time. Emma asks for the "ABC Song. OK." How can I resist? We sometimes listen to it 15 times in a row - and I pray for short trips.
  
• She LOVES the website starfall.com (a great website for teaching children the ABC's). Now when Greg or I are on the computer, she comes running at full speed yelling, "Fall. Lap. OK." Just as a side note: Her favorite letter is "M" and she asks for it first every time.
  
• Last Sunday we were practicing with the stake choirs for our upcoming stake conference. I am playing my violin with the children's choir and Greg is singing with the adult choir. Both choirs were singing a combined version of "I am a Child of God" and Emma and I were sitting in the back of the room to listen. As soon as she recognized the song she started singing full voice to the lyrics. When they were finished she was so excited she starting YELLING "YEA! YEA!" and clapping fanatically. The whole choir erupted in laughter. She then noticed Greg in the choir and yelled even louder, "Daddy! HI! Daddy!". More laughter followed. She certainly does not mind being the center of attention. Wonder where she gets that from?
  
• We just love our little miracle daughter!! We feel so grateful to be her parents.

So Long, Farewell, Auf Weidersehen, Good-bye

Is it us?

Do we emit a foul body odor?

I swear I brush my teeth at LEAST once every few weeks... but our dear friends just keep abandoning us! It's really horrible. Last week our close friends Trent and Sarah and precious chubby Rowan left the inferno of Phoenix for the sinful inferno of Las Vegas.

I don't really like to talk about it. But, if I must, I best do it here for the world wide web to feel my pain.

(BTW, don't answer the odor question TRENT, it was rhetorical.)

Pictured above are the three of them all decked out as "Newsies" for Halloween. And pictured below at their going away "packing party". The invitation went a little something like this... "Come over for a farewell BBQ with us, and if you happen to move a couch or bed while you're here, we wouldn't mind." Clever, those two. Very clever.

The Porters moved into the Kyrene Ward the very same Sunday as Greg and I. August of 2006. We had them over for dinner with the Leavitts, a few weeks later. We laughed so hard our cheeks (on the face, not the bum, GEEZ) hurt. We haven't stopped laughing since. :) How lucky we are to have friends like the Porters. They are the kind of people that buoy you up and support you and invite you over for game night and babysit your kid and kick your booty in exercise class and joust back and forth with sarcastic jabs. What better friends could you want?

As our last "Hoorah" - we went down to Casa Grande on Saturday to watch Sarah, Bonnie and our friend Holly participate in a triathlon. As Greg and I have our triathlon in almost 2 weeks, we thought it would also be wise to see what these events were all about. It got us so excited!!!

Sorry Sarah - you knew this picture would end up here. She borrowed my new road bike and took it on it's maiden triathlon voyage!! Just one minor set back - the helmet on backwards. We laughed at her the entire 40 minutes she was riding. Just glad she didn't have her swimsuit on backwards as well. In her defense, it was my helmet and she had only worn it once before. Still funny. Man though... isn't that a SEXY bike???

Holly crossing the finish line. I just love this picture. I was so proud of all my friends!! It was the first triathlon for all three of them and they did SO AWESOME!!! GO GIRLS!

My brush with fame! Sione (from last season's The Biggest Loser) was also in the race. I was so star struck that I actually went up and talked to him. Mumbled on about how impressed I was with his weight loss and more jumbling about how I thought it was cool that he was still so active. I'm sure I was embarrassing, but he was SO nice and cordial.

The girls after the race! WHEW!

And why in the WORLD would you do a triathlon if not to consume MAJOR calories at IHOP afterward? Oh wait. I didn't do the triathlon, but still consumed calories. Oops. In any case, IHOP was our last supper with the Porters before they hit the road to their new abode in Vegas.

So long Porters!!! You will be GREATLY missed in Arizona!!! Come back again real soon. We'll leave the light on for ya'.

BOO!

If baby elephants and their accompanying "peanuts" scare you... let this be your warning that the next few images could make you queasy and irritable.

We enjoyed a great Halloween. Complete with a family run through Kiwanis Park and a most excellent ward party. Here are Greg and Emma on the hayride for the kiddos. They ride up and down a rural street in Tempe and the home owners hand them candy. It is a fun tradition in our ward and one that I was pleased for Emma to experience. Judging by her chocolate covered mouth in this picture, I think we can safely assume that she was pleased as well.

Trying to win our church's pumpkin carving contest, Greg carved a "CTR" in our pumpkins. It reminds all pumpkins of the world to always "Choose the Right". Heaven help us all if even the produce of the world starts choosing the wrong. :)

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!