Life is full of the good and the bad. Here are some from my life:
Awesome updated website = Good
Freaking out in front of my students = Bad
"Mrs. Peaden? Do we need to stay for next hour to make sure you are okay?" ... "No! No, thank you dear student... I will be just fine."
Pizza for dinner + cuddling with David on the couch while he watches basketball = GOOD
Syracuse loosing their basketball game = BAD
Spring Break in one week = GOOD!
Syracuse loosing their basketball game = BAD!
(Oh, did I already say that? Well.. I am really upset about it. This was probably the only year for the rest of my life that I even had a SHOT at beating David in his bracket. Syracuse!?! Why did you let me down?)
Being Super Teacher = GOOD!
What are the good and bad's of your life? Is your bracket as trashed as mine?
David and I spent our entire weekend watching the NCAA college basketball tournament and we loved every second of it (except maybe the times when our teams lost). Naturally David's favorite part was watching so much basketball. However, my favorite part was watching the commercials. You need to understand that because we don't have TV, we were watching the games online. (We hooked our laptop up to our television.) With the online player, all of the commercials were the same. They just kept repeating the same commercials over and over again to the point that we basically have them all memorized. It was interesting to see that some of the commercials got more and more annoying but other commercials got funnier and funnier the more we watched them.
David and I had differing opinions on some of the commercials and we got to the point that we would analyze each one as it came on the screen. Below you will find our summary of the 2010 NCAA basketball commercials:
D- Thumbs Down - I don’t like it because I don't like the "I'm a PC" phrase. Also, this commercial gets old. Quickly.
S- Thumbs Down - I don’t get it. It took me about 20 times of watching the commercial to be able to understand what he says at the beginning of the commercial. Then the weird noise in the background annoys me.
S- Thumbs Up - I love this commercial, I hate that I love it... but I do. Favorite parts? The wife at the beginning: "What are you doing?" "What party?" Also, the girl on the bus looking at the boy like he is crazy. And I love the teched out sound of the music. This makes me laugh EVERY time. Even just thinking about it makes me laugh.
D – Two Thumbs Up - I love everything about this one. Especially the wheels. It looks really cool. The car driving looks awesome and I always wish that the commercial would last longer so I could look at it more.
S- Two Thumbs Up - Two words: Incredibly Awesome. (Go Lexus, you rock.)
D- Thumbs Up – I like the music, I like Chad Ochocinco, I like the drawing. I think it’s really creative. AND they make the drawing move like Chad Ochocinco actually moves in real life.
S- Thumbs Up – Did you know that Chad Ochocinco used to be named Chad Johnson or something like that and he changed his name to Ochocinco because his jersey number is 85. He wanted to put Ochocinco on his jersey and they wouldn’t let him, so he officialy changed his name to Ochocinco. I think that’s cool. Also.. this commercial makes me want to dance.
D- Thumbs Up AND Thumbs Down - I really hate it when commercials make you go to some other website, and so that really annoyed me. However, I think that the idea is really cool and I like that they had actual college coaches talking about it. Plus, what really won me over was when we finally went to the website and watched the whole video and it made me happy. I think that the ending is stupid, but I won't ruin it for you. (This link takes you to the the full 6 minute video, and all of the 30 second commercials.)
S- Thumbs Down - What does this have to do with Capital One? I have no idea. It's a poor attempt to try to get the basketball audience involved in their credit card commercial. However, as a side note... we did go to their website so I suppose it is at least somewhat effective.
D- (Shantel decided to go to their website during the halftime of one of the basketball games. I adamantly opposed giving in and going to their site, but I thoroughly enjoyed it.)
D- Thumbs Up - I love everyone's faces. I don't like that the lady at the end sounds like the robots mom. She should sound like a friend.
S- Neutral - The only thing I would change is that I want the robot to drop his tray before the guy stops talking and looks at him. It would have been more dramatic that way. I would give this a thumbs up, but I just love the other Intel commercial SO much (see below) that this one doesn't even hold a candle. However, it's definitely not a thumbs down.
D- Thumbs Up - “Man, you dance like… Man” “What? I dance like a man?” Great comedic effect.
S- Two Thumbs Up - This is a clever commercial and I like it a lot. Coke… way to stick it to the scientists. Who doesn’t want to go back in time? Also, I really want to know what happened to the guy at the very end of the commercial.
D- Two Thumbs Up - I'm all for this cloning thing. Everyone is up in arms about global warming, lets put some heat on the scientists to get this cloning thing done. This makes me laugh.
S- Thumbs Up - This makes me laugh, which is why it gets a Thumbs Up. However, part of me is offended/feels awkward about the whole thing.
Super Cuts (All of them - Sorry we couldn't find any links)
D- Thumbs Up - I like the idea of it, and I like the facial expressions.
S- Thumbs Down - These are fine… but for a haircut commercial they should make the haircuts look better. I don’t like any of them.
D- Thumbs Down - They should have thrown the “Bidibibibooo yeah yeah” in this commercial too.
S- Two Thumbs Down - HP and UPS... I think your arm scanner thing is really cool. But.. I really, really don't like the Australian/Scottish guy. Sorry.
Angry Bags Fly Free - Southwest (Sorry no commercial, but apparently they are VERY upset that their competitors would have the audacity to charge for bags.)
D- Thumbs Down - Too Angry. It's okay to be upset about baggage fees but they are at the "Obama's health care just passed" angry instead of the "I have to pay an extra 20 dollars to get my bag on the plane" angry.
S- Thumbs Down - Your attempt at making yourself seem like an equal opportunity employer for women was poor at best. The one woman was awkward.Better luck next time.
(S- p.s. Southwest... I appreciate that bags fly free! I really do. Thank you.)
(D- Me too.)
We found THIS commercial when looking for the Angry Southwest commercial. We like it a lot better. It's so happy. (S- I like the carnival music in the background, who can be angry with carnival music around? D- "In the dark... no peanuts or nothin!" Love it.)
D- Thumbs Up- I like the girl’s sarcastic remarks. "That's pretty far..."
S- Thumbs Down - Am I supposed to know who that girl is? Because I don’t. (This is influenced by my heavy dislike for THIS commercial.) (p.s. In my research I found out that this girl is named Ellen Page. Yeah... still don't know who that is.)
D- Three Thumbs Up - Do I have three thumbs? No. But if I did they would all be up for this commercial. So many favorite quotes to choose from... "This is completely and totally awesome!" ... "Ohhhhhhh... What?" I absolutely love this.
S- Two Thumbs WAY WAY Up - We saved our favorite commercial for last. This kills me. I seriously have to stop whatever I am doing every time it comes on because I love it so much. So true to life, so clever, so incredibly hilarious. Also, I want everyone to notice that in every shot there is a girl that walks by in the background. Little details like this are worth buku bucks in my book. Please... go watch it again. I know that I just did... and probably will again.
Also about this commercial:
D- The casting on this commercial was brilliant. It really does look like the same two guys. Their voices are perfect. They deserve Emmy's.
S- We have no idea what this Intel thing is, but David and I both agree, we want one.
We hope you enjoyed this post, we feel it was one of our best. Please feel free to add your own Thumbs Up/Thumbs Down in the comment section below!
Isn't David funny? I love it when he randomly posts on here. Apparently so does everyone else because he gets a million comments on each post he writes. I just love reading his posts, they make me happy. :) I have started a couple of different posts over the last couple of days, but each time I feel like I have to defend my actions described in Davids "Moments with David and Shantel: Installment 1." However, everything happened exactly like he describes it. I will just say that the Kitchen Aid is a lot harder to clean than the mixer I grew up using. (Emily... I use a fork to make pancakes! I would never use a Kitchen Aid... silly. Oh and also, to everyone else who commented, we still dont have a mixer... but will be getting one soon!)
Moving on... I thought that I would give you a little insight into what David and I like to do for fun. One of our favorite things to do is play Facebook Attack. It is a world domination game (like Risk, which ironically.. I detest) but is an application on Facebook. We love it because we are able to play throughout the day and over the course of a week or so. It keeps us entertained and we love making bets on who will win. Unfortunately, I tend to lose... ALWAYS. I think that I have him right where I want him and I may even win several games (We usually play at least 3 out of five... but have played up to 12 games at the same time with the ultimate winner being the person who took over the world in the most games.) but he always ends up pulling his armies together to come out on top.
We started playing the game over the summer while we were both working on computers and had a little extra time to take our turn throughout the day. However, now that I am student teaching and work at night, I don't have as much time to take my turns as David does. This generally results in David grabbing the computer after we have been home for a couple of minutes, pulling up Attack and handing the computer to me. It is super fun, and he is so cute about it. He loves it.
Sometimes, however, I surprise him by taking my turn when he doesn't expect it. Last night was a great example of this. We had a friend over after we got home from work (Who brought us a DELICIOUS dinner! Thanks Megan, you ROCK and your photography logo is going to be AWESOME!) and after she left we were just relaxing on the couch. I love to just snuggle up to David on the couch. We had been there for about five minutes just cuddling and talking to each other when he said something about how he was waiting for me to take my turn in Attack. I told him that I already had taken my turn earlier in the evening. He was SO excited, but he tried to hide it. At the same time that I said, "What? Are you going to make me stop cuddling with you right now so you can take your turn?" He said, "Don't you want to go finish your burrito?" We both started laughing, and he frantically tried to convince me that he really wasn't trying to get rid of me! I got the point though and told him that he could take his turn.
He is so funny and I love playing this game with him. If any of you would like to join in our games, it is actually MUCH funner to play with more than two people, however, we don't have anyone who will play with us. Let us know and we will start a game with you! Maybe even set up a Facebook Attack tournament. Haha. This makes me smile because I know that David would be so excited.
The only thing that David loves more than Attack is College Basketball! Thank goodness Spring Break is next week during the big tournament! I don't know that he would get any studying done... he loves the basketball too much!
After my immensely successful recent post, I have been promoted to write occasional columns called "Moments with David and Shantel." I hope you enjoy them. Please be aware, the opinions expressed in this column do not necessarily reflect the opinions of "thepeadenlife" or Shantel Peaden.
Friday February 26 (About 7 PM)
Shantel: Do we have a hand-mixer?
David: No.
Shantel: Didn't we get one of those for our wedding?
David: Yes. We took it back because you said that we did not need it because we have a Kitchen-Aid. So we would never need a hand-mixer.
Shantel: You should have told me that we did need a hand-mixer and not let me take it back.
David: Yep.
Shantel: Next time we go to the store we are buying a hand-mixer.
David: Okay.......why do we need a hand-mixer?
Shantel: Because the Kitchen-Aid is hard to clean.
David: Okay.This is a hand-mixer, which we will soon be purchasing. If you read this and you are the wonderful person who gave us a hand-mixer for our wedding, we sincerely apologize. We were wrong to return the hand-mixer and we should have kept it.
So what did we need the hand-mixer for...well I am not sure but Shantel did make these delicious Butterscotch bites that I loved, here is the recipe. I don't think she needed the hand-mixer for this recipe, I just really like it. Plus I do not know what she needed the mixer for.
6 tablespoons butter, softened 1/2 cup brown sugar 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 1/3 cup butterscotch chips 2 tubes (8 ounces each) crescent rolls (According to the recipe "I like the recipe version", but I don't know what that means) 1 cup contectioners' sugar 4-1/2 teaspoons milk 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1. In a small bowl, mix the butter, brown sugar and cinnamon, then stir in butterscotch chips. 2. Open up each tube of crescent dough, then cut each tube into 4 rectangles. Spread with butter mixture. Roll up each rectangle jelly-roll style, starting with the long side. 3. Cut each into six 1 in. slices; place cut side down into two greased 8-in square baking dishes. We just used a cookie sheet so ours were flatter rather than looking more like cinnamon rolls. Bake at 375 for 14-16 minutes or until golden brown. 4. In a small bowl, combine confectioners sugar, milk and vanilla until smooth. Drizzle over warm rolls. Yield: 4 dozen.
Good luck!
Installment 1 Post 1: Moments with David and Shantel.
Being Super Teacher = GOOD! 
