Disneyland and Grandparents--what could be better?

Sunday night we headed down to L.A. to be with Matt's parents. Monday we visited Disneyland and then Tuesday they got to come with us. Abby was on cloud 9--Disneyland and Grandma and Grandpa. She was pretty darn happy. Warning: there will be a lot of pictures! I know you probably do not want to see them all, but I turn the blog into a book and Abby will want to see all of these, so oh well! I love pictures--especially if they are of Abby.

First day of Disneyland:
CA Adventure has a great play area and Abby loves the slides and places to climb.
Second day of Disneyland with Grandma Barbara and Grandpa Roger:
Eating lunch (brought it to save money!)
Aladdin show
After two days in Disneyland we spent the next day helping Matt's parents find out information on the backyard patio they want to do. They want to have a place where we can all go outside and a patio is a great way to do that. We love ours.
Walking out of the patio place--Abby likes to flip over while holding on to two people as they walk!
Grandma and Grandpa treated us to lunch at a popular L.A. restaurant called Philippes. They are known for their french dip sandwiches and I must say they were darn good. As a matter of fact, I want to eat one right now!
Abby trying her first pickled egg--she's braver than I am!
After the restaurant we visited Union Station and saw the trains--Abby was excited and it was a pretty cool place.
After two long days of fun I found Matt and Roger crashed on a bed and Grandma singing songs to Abby after her bath--so cute.
When we returned home we went and bought some fish. We ended up with six koi to see how they do. So far Abby named two of them--the black one is "Midnight" and the biggest white and blue is "Cougar." She is working on the rest. Right now they seem traumatized by their new home and like to hide from us. They have not eaten the food we give them, but we hope they will adjust. Abby is so excited to go out and see them. What fun it is to have fish in the pond.
We also finally planted something in our back planter. Small palm trees were on sale at Home Depot, so we picked up a few. They look so good in the yard.
It seems that many of our friends are having children and so I thought I would make and send them a baby blanket. I will not say who as I am sending them this week and I do not want them to know. But here are two of the blankets. One for a girl and one for a boy.Matt mentioned the Kirby sales people in our last e-mail. Although we did not buy the vacuum it sure did pick up a lot of dirt out of a carpet that has only been used since September! Take a look:

Free Carpet Cleaning

Yesterday Jen invited in a door-to-door salesman who promised a free carpet cleaning, apparently as part of an effort to sell his cleaning service. How could Jen say no to a free vacuuming and shampoo? As it turned out, he was not selling a service, but rather a vacuum. I pulled into the driveway just as two Kirby vacuum salesmen stepped into the house.

The two salesmen did a silly two man routine where one worked on us and the carpet while the other went to check on other agents and came back to schmooze us over every fifteen minutes. As the one vacuumed I searched the web for dirt on the Kirby company. Here is what I found:

1. Everyone loves the vacuums--they are legitimate. I don't believe that the vacuum was just on 1/3 power, as the salesman claimed, but it still did pull out a heck of a lot of dirt (maybe 5 cups or so from a 10ft. x 10 ft. patch of carpet that was just vacuumed by a newly purchased and Consumer Report celebrated vacuum). After he disassembled it it was obvious that he was not secretly importing dirt--it really came from my seemingly clean carpet.
2. The company is frequently criticized for two "scams":

• "Scam" #1: They make empty promises to potential employees and ultimately don't pay them squat for their work. Our guy confirmed internet rumors that he was expected to do 60 demonstrations a month and that they have a high turnover rate.
• "Scam" #2: They use high sales pitches to pressure buyers and charge highly fluctuating prices that leave some feeling burned. Our guys told us the vacuum cost $2,700! He then discounted us $200 for our vacuum in a trade-in, then knocked off $100 because he liked me so much (right). When I laughed at the $2,400 price it magically dropped to $1,830 or so. Too bad for the salesman I also checked ebay and found that online they sold for $300 and up. I refuse to pay more than $300 for a vacuum, even if it comes with a paint sprayer attachment (somehow I doubt that does a quality job spraying paint).

I'm not sure any of this qualifies as a scam, but they certainly misrepresented themselves and do charge exorbant prices; still, the product is pretty amazing.

Has anybody else had any Kirby experiences?

We Love Nice People

This week we were so blessed to interact with some of the nicest people. Let's quickly go through the week and you will see what I mean. First, Abby had gymnastics and swimming--twice this week (Tuesday and Thursday). This was because we will miss it this next week since we are at Matt's parents house. All of Abby's coaches are outstanding. They do an excellent job of being firm but kind and constantly trying to motivate her to be a little better. She is getting braver at going under water and always willing to try new things in gymnastics. Here are a few pics from both days.

Tuesday Matt got to come with us since he has 2 weeks off before he teaches again.
Abby on the beam.
Abby flipping over the bar all by herself.
Look! She is even sitting down and sort of listening to the coach!
On Tuesday after gym and swim we went to a little Bugseum. It really was a store that advertises itself as a museum to get people to come. They had some cool bugs to see and it was free. Here are Matt and Abby outside the store and checking out the ants. The tarantulas were pretty cool--but too difficult to get a good picture of.
My best example of nice people occurred Thursday evening. One of my piano students trades for babysitting and so she stayed and played with Abby while Matt and I ran to Michael's to see if we could have our diplomas framed while there was a good sale. We met a wonderful women at the custom frame department who devoted a great deal of time to helping us. She priced the cost of custom frames--which we definitely could not afford and then helped us get frames and mats. She also helped us with a few other projects we were doing. We framed a waterfall picture for the bathroom and a BYU basketball program from my sister and her family that Matt received for Christmas. The woman ended up telling us to go to dinner and that everything would be put together when we returned at no cost. Isn't that amazing? So we shared a meal and even found a mirror for my music room for an awesome deal at Ross! When we returned she had everything put together (it would have taken me hours and she handled everything with gloves, special tape and backing, etc.) Plus she did some extra things for us in regards to the program and did not charge us! She was AMAZING. We told the manager that we had some of the best service we've ever received in a store. We went home quite happy.
Diplomas hung above the piano.
New mirror for my voice students.
Our new bathroom decoration: waterfall picture taken by Matt's department chair.
One other change to our home and more nice people!. . . .Tuesday on our way home we passed by the new homes in our area where the company that built our home was finishing laying sod. They looked finished and there was sod just sitting there. So Matt went and asked what they were going to do with the extra sod. The man ended up telling Matt he could have the sod! So Matt put it in our trunk (took a couple trips) and ended up getting over $200 worth of sod which we wanted for our front yard, but could not afford right now. We wanted there to be less mulch and more grass in our front yard. Matt spent the next few hours laying the sod and it looks great!
Saturday I held my first music recital in Bakersfield. Ten kids were supposed to perform and only one was unable to make it. They all played so well and I was so proud of them. Here we are after the recital--celebrating and eating good food. I cannot wait to hear what they will sound like in the Christmas recital. For 6 of the kids it was their first recital! The best part is that I am blessed to work with the best kids and parents--another example of nice people. They bless my home and my life and I am so happy to share with them something I love so much.
Finally--pond update. Matt planted the plants outside the pond and finished the mulch. We will have fish on Friday!
Now we are at Grandma's and Grandpa's and tonight (Sunday) we celebrated Great Granny Ruth's 86th birthday with a yummy dinner and dessert. She is such a wonderful person and we are so grateful that we can share in her life. We love you Granny!
Here is Abby giving Granny her birthday card after dinner.