“On the news, a family dies…” That is an actual quote from my then 7-year-old son during a vacation in Arizona.   It’s one of my favorite quotes from my family’s vacation quote book.  Yep, we actually collect random and ridiculous vacation quotes taken completely out of  context,  just because we say so many dumb things  while traveling together.  Reading through them helps us remember fun times and makes us  laugh at ourselves.
Here’s the story of “On the news, a family dies…”
Two years ago we took our whole family (9 of …

Here’s the thing. If you read my weekly Palooza column (and if you like really strange holidays, you should), you already know how the Cancer Project plans to send hot dogs hiking.
But it seems they’ve gone to new heights. They are now suing Kraft (makers of Oscar Mayer dogs), Sara Lee, Nathan’s Famous, Sabrett, and Hebrew National, demanding they place wiener warning (WARNING: Ol’ Frank here causes CANCER) labels on packages sold in New Jersey.
Sure, the official warning label will probably be worded a bit differently, but you get …

Okay guys (and by guys, I don’t mean people in general, I actually mean guys, as in the gender laden with testosterone) this post is basically meant for you.  But if you fit within the estrogen half of the population, I think you might just want to read along for kicks.
Guys, do you believe in the vacation fairy?  You must, right?  What other explanation could there possibly be for magically getting from point A, where you pick your vacation destination, to point B, actually arriving at said vacation?
That’s all it …

Here’s the thing. My recent trip to a local super mart store seemed to culminate without instance. Until I saw my receipt.
Near the bottom of the print-out, a section marked “Healthy Living” or something to that end, caught my eyes, informing me that I’d made $2.34 worth of healthy purchases. The receipt went on to say that this intrusion would help me with identifying healthy deductions for other needs.
What?!?!
At first, I thought perhaps I’d purchased an item that could be considered tax-deductible or whatever where insurance was concerned. Since I’d …

RoadTrip Soundtrack

Once the weather starts to warm up and the sky is bright blue with big fluffy, Simpson’s-like clouds… that’s when I start to think about vacations. My favorite type of vacation is going anywhere near an ocean, but to me, the most fun part of vacationing is getting there.
The thing about roadtrips is that it doesn’t matter if you’re going to another part of your state or across the country. What makes a roadtrip a roadtrip, is who you’re with and THE MUSIC. The perfect music and the long …

Last night I made my annual trek down the road  to the Spanish Fork rodeo. I live in a city full of real honest-to-goodness authentic cowboys and once a year I get brave and pull out my cowboy attire and become a cowboy wannabe.
I’m pretty sure the “real” cowboys can spot a cowboy wannabe from miles away. Perhaps it’s because my cowboy hat came from Pac Sun in the mall. You know the ones… made to look bent and worn and well used.  Perhaps it’s because my …

T-minus 14 days until the first day of school and we’ve received my second-grader’s teacher assignment and school supply lists. Before “serious” conversation can occur, let’s dispense with the preliminaries, shall we?
First came the question of why my kids had 67 days of summer break, while Phineas and Ferb have 104. And they asked the question as if I knew the answer, when my head is jello after a two-month break from school. I say, what’s wrong with the year-round system. (Of course I say that primarily to get their …

It’s an hour till dinner.  You have no plan.  You don’t want to run to the store, but you can’t come up with anything to cook with what you have on hand.  Does this sound familiar?  Most days, this is the story of my life.
What if you could just mark a check-list of  the items you have in your cupboards and fridge, and then someone would tell you recipe after recipe of what you could make with what you have?  Sound too good to be true?
I found this cool and …

Maybe I hadn’t thought through all the details when I agreed to take my son to play putt putt golf with a couple of his friends.
So much so that I volunteered to take him to a movie, swimming for a week (assuming the temperature climbs back over that 70-degree mark), and even asked him to name his price – the price that would get me out of 18 holes of self-imposed torture.
I say torture because I know how difficult it can be to have more than two people playing putt …

My grandmother used to wish and wish for “the good ole days”, and at the time, I could not understand what made her hindsight view of “the good ole days” so rose colored. I know from stories my father has shared that those times were not, by any stretch of the imagination, always so “good”, and in fact, at times, were quite horrible. I smile now remembering what my grandfather, a much wiser man in my opinion, would say.  “The good ole days? Why we’re living ‘em, Ivy. We’re living …