The end of life as we know it....

The ending was abrupt: Workers for the company, which shifted its baking and distribution operations to plants in Ohio and Canada in 2006, told workers Friday that operations would cease and cookies would no longer be made as of Monday.

The company cited rising prices for raw materials and fuel, and on Monday filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware.

The company that made Mother's cookies at the end was the Archway & Mother's Cake and Cookie Co. of Battle Creek, Mich. It was owned by Catterton Partners, a private-equity firm in Greenwich, Conn., which in 2005 purchased it from an Italian firm, Parmalat Finanziaria, which was plagued by scandals at home.

In 2006, Mother's Cake & Cookie Co. was uprooted from its plant on 81st Avenue in Oakland and relocated. About 230 employees lost their jobs.

According to industry lore, the company was founded in 1914 by a newspaper vendor, N.M. Wheatley, as a one-person shop. It expanded and moved to the 81st Avenue location in 1949.

Mother's later had a series of corporate owners: a Belgian company, Artal B.V., bought it in 1991; it was owned by Specialty Foods Corp. of Illinois in the late 1990s; in 2000, Specialty sold Mother's and Archway Cookies to Parmalat, which in turn sold the combined business to Catterton for an undisclosed sum.

Catterton said in a statement it "took a number of actions to remedy" the company's financial crisis, "but these actions were not sufficient to overcome the losses and return Mother's Cake & Cookie Co. and Archway Cookies LLC to profitability."

One of those efforts was to seek financing. "But, as you know, the credit environment is very difficult now," said Meaghan Repko, a spokeswoman for the owners, in New York.


"The owners came in to get rid of us, to chew us up and spit us out," he said, alleging their intent was to gain a profit by selling assets and neglecting service of trucks and other expenses.

"This is part of the economic crunch, with the CEOs taking the money out and not putting more money into the company," said Makely. "I'm too old to get a driving job. Who would hire me?"

Quirky Things

Oh good grief. My daughter Leisy tagged me on this. I'm supposed to tell you a few quirky things about me. And honestly, I don't think any of these are quirky but some people do tell me they're odd. So, you're welcome to add your own two cents worth about me (as long as you're nice).
1. I don't like to eat my own cooking. My family complains that they worry I am poisoning them. We sit down for dinner and they're eating my casseroles or homemade soups or whatever and I'm eating salad or cereal.
2. I don't like babies. Never have, never will. I enjoy teenagers lots more than babies. I never felt baby hungry or felt that my arms needed to hold and rock a baby. My own were fine but they were lots more fun when they grew up.
3. I can't sit still. My family does accuse me of being obsessive compulsive about it. I polish the countertops while we're around the island in the kitchen, I pull the neighbor's weeds if we're out side visiting, I'll pick up at other people's homes (just ask my sisters--they hate it), or I'll keep moving to exercise.
4. Speaking of exercise, I'm addicted to walking. I love walking. I do at least 3 miles a day but often 6+ miles. I love to walk early in the morning when it's still dark.
5. Lastly, I love even numbers and hate odd numbers. I can't stand the volume on the tv or radio to be on an odd number. If I can, I'll change a hotel room to an even number if it's odd. I'll finish reading on an even page number. I love the ease of even numbers. They're more friendly.

So, maybe I'm missing something but those aren't really quirky and I can't think of anything else. Can you?

Welcome to Fall!

Zeb and the giant pumpkin patch! Wouldn't that make a darling children's book?

Welcome to fall--my favorite time of year. This weekend the weather is supposed to become cooler and crisper. I'm looking forward to it! Enjoy.

Liberec, Czech Republic

This is an old church in the hills above Liberec in a community called Jested. I met the sweetest old man at the top of the tram line who told me in his broken English about the history of Liberec.




I wandered around the church and dicovered this beautiful leaded glass window. It's hard to see but if you enlarge the photo you can see it. This church was surrounded by apple trees and hanging laundry.






And lastly, the main town square had this McDonalds in a beautiful old building. None of the McDonalds employees spoke English so I just pointed at the pictures and smiled.

Off the balcony off our hotel room and this was THE nicest Best Western we have ever seen!



This is St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague. The sun was at a perfect angle. Isn't this stunning? It was late afternoon, on a perfect day. I just wandered around with my mouth gaping.


St Vitus Cathedral






From our hotel room window, this is the art museum in the background. I love the red tile roofs.



St. Vitus Cathedral from the outside.

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7 Habits of Happy Kids

This is what I've been working on for the past year. Check it out and go buy the book--you can get it on Amazon.com. Also, go check out www.seancovey.com and see the other cool stuff we're doing. There's a short video clip of the author promoting the book. I set this event up and Metta was there to help me. I was in NYC last week for the launch of this book and it was great fun!

I would love your feedback--good and bad--and any new story ideas.

My son-in-law's Medical Mission to Nicaragua

My son-in-law's Medical Mission to Nicaragua

On one of the days in Nicaragua we visited the landfill... the dump. People live there. It was disgusting really; the smell was nauseating, the flies were suffocating, and the vultures were circling. Driving in, we were all unprepared for what we saw. Cattle were grazing in the heaps of garbage and people were following to pick up anything of value.

We began handing out packets of food that we assembled. Rice and beans and other essentials. We then handed out plates of food. It was amazing to see how grateful these people were for a single plate of food. It was also terrible to see how desperate they became when the food began to run out. We had to place a number of big guys at the front of the line to prevent people from storming the tables of food. The hardest thing was telling the kids that they couldn't have more food because we wouldn't have enough for everyone.

Right now my life is wonderful, but if there comes a day when I'm feeling down or feel like my life is pretty tough, I'll think back to this experience. I could be living in a landfill eating garbage everyday - I am so lucky and totally take my perfect life for granted.

My First 5K!

Lehi Roundup 5K Run/Walk.

June 28, 2008.

TEAM OSWALD

(Back row: me, Metta, Debbie. Front row: Taylor, Laney, Leisy, Kent

Watch for this one!

Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. Futuristic mortal combat reality show based on 24 teens chosen via lottery to represent their districts.

I loved it and Daysa loved it. This is one of those books that I read and I said "OK, this will be big." Both Daysa and I are upset that we have to wait years now for the second one. This is a Young Adult book --watch for it to be released October 2008.

Henry Philip Hawes

Laney and Taylor had little Henry on Friday the 6th. Here's the story from Laney:

He came a little earlier than I had hoped, I missed two weddings this weekend (sorry Whitney and Bethany!) but I imagine it was all worth it. I woke up friday morning and headed off to the gym for kickboxing, i felt wonderful and class was going just fine until about six fifteen when I round house kicked to the left, and as I came down, I felt a warm wet sensation in my shorts. My first thought was, "o my goodness, I just peed my pants." I then realized that the liquid kept coming, so I tore off to the bathroom (all along the way, the water just kept coming) and realized I was soaking wet. Once in the bathroom, I concluded that I had probably not in fact peed my pants, but my water had broken, seeing as how it wasn't yellow and it just kept coming and coming!

I waited a bit and headed back to class to get my keys, jacket, and waterbottle where it was obvious to all (by my soaking wet shorts, and the puddle I had made) that I wasn't going to be finishing class. My teacher got excited and the class all cheered me off as a friend of mine (liliana, who is also nine months pregnant) walked me to the parking lot and wished me luck. It was all kind of exciting and scary- mostly because I realized I was going to have a baby and there was nothing I could do about it.

I put my sweathshirt on the car seat so I wouldn't leak too much in the car and I called Leisy to ask her what to do- she just laughed and said, I guess you should go to the hospital. I drove home and woke Taylor up and we showered, Taylor did our dishes from the night before and packed a hospital bag (of course we hadn't packed one yet) while I got ready to go (I figured since I wasn't having any contractions or anything, I might as well take the time to do my make-up and hair for the day). We then went to breakfast, ran a few errands, and set off for the hospital.

When we arrived at the hospital, I don't think they believed that I was ready to have a baby, but they did the tests and realized I was in fact ready to have a baby. They started pitocin a few hours later and voila, by six thirty pm, we had a baby boy. All I have to say about the whole labor and contraction thing is, thank heavens for the epidural! I thought maybe I could do it without (and I am sure I could have) but after feeling those contractions and all that pain, I don't know why I would ever want to! Everything was so much easier and better with the epidural. Unfortunately, the epidural didn't quite take as well as it should have, and a few times I thought I was going to die (really, I couldn't believe how badly it hurt), but the Anesthesiologist was always nearby, and he was kind enough to return and give me more medicine. Thank heaven for pain killers! Labor is so much better when you can't feel anything, and you can just chat with the doctor and nurses between pushes.

Anyway, here is our little bugaboo, he doesn't really fit in his car seat, and he is still a little squishy, but we quite like him and we have decided to keep him. We will post more pictures of the little guy soon. Thanks for all your well wishes!

The Magic of Ordinary Days

This is a very tender and sweet novel which takes place during WWII. Livvy is shipped off to marry a Colorado plains farmer, a man she has never met. Which in turn leads to her friendship of two Japanese girls and what she learns about life, herself, and trust.

I thoroughly enjoyed the history, the emotion, the sweetness of this book. I give it 3 3/4 stars. This is a pleasant read. And i just discovered that it has been made into a Hallmark movie. So if you don't want to read it, go check out the dvd.

Happy Mother's Day to My Mother-In-Law

Forget all those bad mother-in-law jokes. I have a great mother-in-law! Happy Mother's Day (a bit belated) to Grandma Carol. Thanks for all you do for us. And thanks for passing along great genes--see adorable and brilliant grandchildren (l to r Metta, Laney, Daysa).

Michael Connelly books

I've discovered a new author I really like. This guy ranks up there with Robert Parker. I don't know how I missed this author because he's been writing for a long time. Anyway I got The Brass Verdict as an ARC (advance reading copy) from the publisher. Sorry fellow readers, this won't be released until October 2008 but you can email me for my copy---first come first serve.

After I read The Brass Verdict I went looking for Connelly at the library and found Echo Park. I highly recommend both books. I give them both 3 2/3 stars!

Enjoy and let me know what you think.

4 Stars out of 4

This is such a cool book. I LOVE it. I've convinced everyone at work to go out and buy this and then carry it with them. I refer to it often! And I'm trying hard to get the 8 Foods You Should Eat Every Day in to my diet.

I got my copy at Costco for $11.00. Definitely four stars for valuable information, great pictures, well laid out format, and easy to carry.

I told you I love Robert Parker and I finished this one last night. This is one of his Spenser stories--he's my favorite of the Parker's three protagonists: Spenser, Jesse Stone, and Sunny Randall.

This book was only moderately OK. Definitely not one of his better stories. If you love Parker you have to read it so you can say you've read them all, but if you've never read Parker, don't start with this one.

I just got three new ARC (advance reading copies) from a publisher yesterday. Hopefully I can review one of them by Monday! Happy reading this weekend.

Books--Glorious Books!

So, I’m going to blog about what I love (besides my family). I love books. I love to read. I love to talk about books. I love it when you strike up a conversation with a stranger and the talk turns to books. What have you read lately? What's your absolute favorite? Sometimes I’ll be sitting on a plane and crying over a book and you’ll know another true book lover by the knowing look in their eye or the nod of understanding.


Some of my favorite childhood memories have to do with books. In the summer I would bike ride several miles to the library. Not many people my age, including my own brothers and sisters, wanted to be at the library in the summer. In the dim and cool bowels of the library I could feel the books. They would quiver as I walked up and down the aisles running my fingers along the spines and I could hear them calling "read me, read me." There is something about a library that has such a comforting feel and smell. I feel nostalgic now when I visit our little local library and I’m thrilled that my daughter takes her young son to the library.

So, jump in. Offer your comments, tell me what you love and don’t love. And especially tell me if you disagree with my reviews.

MESSAGE FROM LEISY

goodbye and farewell

We bid Laney and Taylor farewell this evening as they boarded the "megabus" to Chicago! They were only here for the weekend, but it was splendid. Today church was quite a riot. One girl in the ward told me that she saw me (actually Laney) and leaned over to her husband exclaiming, "Leisy is pregnant and really pregnant at that! how did we not notice it before?!". I thought it was hystercial! It didn't help that we wore similar outfits.
My primary kids LOVED it. One told her mom that it was "creepy"! Kids are so dang funny.
Besides the art museum and Pasta Fina, we just kinda hung out. I am posting this picture and laney will probably KILL me, but I just can't help it. We had quite a few giggle fits today. Laney told her Latvia appendectomy story at dinner (the sister missionaries were over and had requested it) and it just never gets old or unfunny. The worst of the giggle fits was in the car while we were waiting for the Megabus to arrive. This is where the picture comes in. We started giggling about giggle fits and then really got out of control when Laney started losing bladder control. She is almost 7 months pregnant and is somewhat excused, but it was insanely funny. We were all crying. The people in the car next to us must have had quite the show watching us all make fools of ourselves. Sisters are good for that (laughing and making you look foolish).
The week has been stellar, but we are ready to have our house back to ourselves! Zeb experienced EXTREME sensory overload and is completely off the semi-schedule he had. Let's hope he can make a speedy and full recovery so that Kent and I can get back to sleeping :)

It's no secret!

It's no secret and I would love to tell you more. If you have any questions, about anything, please feel free to ask me.

Check out this site:

Mormon.org
Basic Doctrines

Weekend in Idaho

I desperately needed to get out of town so we called Dave and asked if we could invite ourselves up to Boise.

The food was great despite the look on Daysa's face.

We headed up to Idaho City above Boise to go
sledding and tubing. In the picture:Penny, Sarah, Bob,
K'annie, Bridger, me on the tube, Daysa, Dave,
and Michelle. (Phil is taking the picture.)

This was so much fun.

Hiking in the deep snow. Michelle and David bringing up the rear, Phil taking pictures.

My baby Daysa on the day of the big haircut! Isn't that hair gorgeous? But it was such a hassle. It is still in a baggie in my office. I WILL send it to locks of love if I can just part with it.

Do you think she looks more like Goldilocks or Rapunzel?

OK already! I know I've been terribly remiss in keeping up with the blog but I'm back! Here is my cute Zebber and his Valentine love bug which his mummy reports he loves (but I'm sure he only loves it because it's from Nannie Annie).

Phil and Daysa are off to their Wednesday night church activities and I have the house to myself---ahhhh peace and quiet and now I can catch up on this blog, bake some cookies for my neighbor who taught my lesson on Sunday while we were out of town, go to the gym, work on my next lesson, send thank you notes to the Boise family who put us up and entertained us over the weekend, send a check to Bryson to pay for the Wii we bought from him, finish the laundry, go outside and see if I can see the lunar eclipse, and then maybe I'll watch some tv. Ha! Ha! And so goes the life of a fulltime working mom and wife.

When I get the weekend pictures posted I'll tell you about our weekend get-away to Boise. For now I do need to finish the laundry, bake cookies, and write thank you notes.

Add your comments please. I'd love to hear from you.