Prep time: 40 Minutes

Cook time: 1 1/2 Hours

Here’s what you need:

Broth:

• 9 cups water
• 1 tablespoon black peppercorns
• 2.5 lbs chicken pieces, skinned
• 3 celery stalks, each cut into 4 pieces
• 1 small onion, quartered
• 1 bay leaf

Pie Filling:

• 1 1/2 cups diced unpeeled round red potato
• 1/2 cup chopped celery
• 1/2 cup chopped red bell pepper
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 3/4 cup thinly sliced carrot
• 1/2 cup chopped leek (about 1 small)
• 1 cup fresh mushrooms
• 1/2 cup frozen peas
• 6 tbsp all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp black pepper
• 1 cup 1% low-fat milk
• Cooking Spray
• Biscuit topping

Biscuit Topping

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp sugar
• 1/8 tsp garlic powder <~ I used a full tsp
• 1 cup 1% low-fat milk
• 1 1/2 tbsp stick margarine or butter, melted

How you make it:

Broth:

• Combine all broth ingredients in an 8qt Dutch oven or stock pot, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium and cook, uncovered for 1 hour. Remove from heat.
• Remove the chicken pieces from broth, place in a large bowl, and chill for 15 mins.
• Strain broth through a cheesecloth-lined colander in to a bowl, and discard the solids.
• Set aside 4 1/2 cups broth, reserve remaining broth for another recipe.
• Remove chicken from bones, and cut the meat into bite sized pieces.

Pie:

• Preheat oven to 400˚F
• Bring 4 1/2 cups broth to a boil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add potato, chopped celery, bell pepper and garlic. Cover and cook 5 minutes. Add carrot and leek. Cover and cook 3 minutes. Add mushrooms and peas and cook 5 minutes, or until vegetables are tender. (We omitted the mushrooms and peas)
• Combine flour, salt and pepper in a medium bowl. Add milk, stirring with a whisk. Add to vegetable mixture. Cook over medium heat for 3 minutes, or until thickened and bubbly, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and add chicken.
• **We added seasonings like Garlic & Rosemary, a pinch of cajun seasoning, and some others… Season how you would like it! Just keep in mind some of the nutrition info may change depending on what seasonings you use.
• Spoon into a 13x9in baking dish, coated with cooking spray. Drop Biscuit topping onto mixture to form 16 biscuits. Bake at 400˚F for 30 minutes or until golden.

Biscuit Topping:

• Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with knife. Combine flour, baking powder, salt, sugar and garlic powder in a bowl. Stir in milk and margarine just until flour mixture is moistened.    Yield: 16 biscuits

Total Yield: 8 servings. Serving size; about 1 cup of chicken mixture, and 2 biscuits.

Calories: 327 (18% from fat) Fat: 6.6g (sat 1.8g, mono 2.1g, poly 1.7g) Protein: 26.5g Carbohydrates: 38.8g Fiber: 2.7g Cholesterol: 64mg Iron: 3.5mg Sodium: 668mg Calcium: 155mg

If you are curious, my scale said 230.2. I freaked. I spoke with my best friend, and she suggested going with her to Weight Watchers. I did what I always do.. I kept thinking of an excuse not to go. When my hubby got home, through tears, I told him what had happened earlier, and told him that I had decided I was going to try the Weight Watchers meeting that night. Of course, he was all for it. I changed, and took that first step.

We went to the Weight Watchers meeting that night, and I weighed in at 228.8. Their scale was being nice to me. I got everything all set up, and paid my first month’s fee. I sat down. I listened. I heard things that had gone through my head many times before, things that I knew, but never really paid attention to. It was crazy. This was really going to be a new start for me. I listened as our group leader explained the system and how I’ll need to track whatever I eat. Accountability. I’m only allowed so many points per day, and need to incorporate activity somehow. I started with 34 points per day… and after learning that some of the things I like to eat were 0 points.. I knew it wasn’t going to be horrible to stay within my point allowance. This wasn’t going to be terrible. I could still eat most of the things I love… Not interfere with the rest of the family’s meals… and lose weight? It seemed too good to be true… until the following week.

The very next Wednesday, after a whole week of tracking, exercising and whatever else I was supposed to do… The scale went down for the first time in years. I had lost my first two pounds. I know.. doesn’t sound like much, but to me… it was a huge accomplishment… I knew this was something I needed to keep up.

It’s been 4 weeks now. I’m down 10 pounds, and I’m just 1 pound away from losing 5% of my starting weight. I’m going to hit that next week, and then go past it just a little bit. The number on that scale keeps going down. This is working, and I’m not going crazy. I’m exercising with friends (who won’t let me slack off), I’m eating meals that are still amazing, and I am noticing small differences in how I feel. I still don’t see the loss, but a lot of people tell me that they can tell in my face. My hubby is very excited for me, and every time I come home from a meeting, my girls celebrate with me when I tell them I’ve lost a couple more pounds.

What’s next? Well.. I’m attending meetings every week. I have an amazing support system, and I love them all. I really couldn’t do it without the support and encouragement from everyone. I know that this time is definitely going to be different, and this time, I’m going to lose the weight I need to lose… Where do I want to be? Right now, my goal is 80 pounds gone… I’m going to do it…

I’m going to use this blog to talk more about my journey, what works for me, and what doesn’t.. and to even share some healthy recipes that I find and love. I hope that in keeping this up here, I’ll be able to help someone else who is where I was/am.. and encourage them to get healthy too. It’s not easy, but it’s possible.

Stay tuned.

At least we got through Christmas… LOL

I’m totally done with being over weight.

I’ve tried so many things…. and none of them have worked. Well… mostly because it’s been my fault. I haven’t kept up with what I really should have. I got bored, I got lazy, and I just gave up.

Over the last couple of months, I’ve been worried. I actually went to a doctor to make sure the problems I was having had nothing to to with my weight, and he confirmed that my arm numbness had more to do with stress and pinching a nerve than anything else… But… It really freaked me out. I can’t have these things happening to me, and causing even more anxiety… I decided once and for all that I was going to make changes.

Last week, I spoke with a nutritionist, and was given all the info I need to get my body started. I was told to write down everything I eat, at least 3 times a week, to do weights 4x a week and cardio every day… Well… I’m doing great on the food part… The exercise part… not so much. I’m so caught up in work, that I haven’t done my exercise… and it’s totally my fault. I need to make more efforts on that.

Keeping a food journal has been very eye opening. I never realized how many calories I actually took in. I didn’t think I was eating badly, and I probably wasn’t… but I was eating too much. Yes.. There is truth to the statement “too much of a good thing”.

On Monday, July 23, 2012, hubby and I started keeping our food journal and wow. It has changed a lot about how and what we eat. I found myself making decisions I never would’ve considered before. For example, at lunch yesterday, I actually thought about having 2 or 4 tortillas… I made tacos, and I could’ve made 4, but instead, I gave up 2 tortillas, and just ate the filling with a fork to save myself 90 calories. It has been crazy! I never would’ve given it a second thought before I started writing it all down.

I have been going to bed hungry, but that’s good. I’m catching myself when I think about snacking, and making a conscious choice not to.

I do hope that this is just the beginning of a life long change. I have a goal.. I want to lose at least 80 pounds… It will happen.

Join me for the journey?

As I’ve said before, I typically don’t talk politics with people. I hate hateful confrontation, and that’s almost always what happens when you talk politics… But, yesterday was a very sad day for me, as I’m sure it was for many people. It was voting day here in NC, and a vote was taken on what was being called Amendment 1- The Marriage Amendment. This amendment would add into our state’s constitution that marriage is only recognized as being with 1 man and 1 woman… and that was it. It passed. It reminds me of that good ol’ Prop 8 debate in CA when I was living there. I voted against that one too…

For the last several months, I’ve heard news stories about Pastors preaching in their churches that gay marriage is bad, it’s not what God wants, it’s not right… One priest even went so far to tell his congregation to slap their son’s wrists if you see them fall limp, or make sure their daughters dress up as girls, and do girl things… He later backtracked, and said he was just joking… but if you see the video footage of this sermon, you sure as heck wouldn’t guess he was just kidding about any of it. I’ve driven by churches whose sign boards say God made Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve… I’ve seen people talk about how wrong it is for someone to be gay, and that a gay person can be changed… WTF? To all of this, I call bullshit.

I may be just a bit passionate about this whole thing… Not because I have friends that are gay (although I do) but because.. It’s just plain wrong. It’s discrimination, it’s ugly, and it’s hateful.

Does anyone remember the separation of church and state? Now, I’m not saying to go crazy, and take prayer out of schools, or take “In God We Trust” off of our currency… but in this instance… Civil Marriage is NOT a religious entity. You get married in the CHURCH for that, and the state recognizes that as a legal marriage.

The thing that gets me… is that this SHOULD NOT be a religious argument in the first place. Not once have I heard people fighting for the churches to allow gay marriage… Not one single time. What is being fought for is their civil rights, as humans, to love who they want to love, and be recognized by the state as a legal marriage. It’s the right to have medical insurance, the right to the same tax deductions as a married couple get, the right to the same benefits and liberties that any heterosexual couple can have… just because they can.

I grew up in a very Catholic Family. I still hold many of those values in my heart, but when it comes to things like this… there is NO WAY, at all, that I can be in favor of discrimination. There’s a long road ahead… There’s a lot of fights yet to be had. But seriously… This country has GOT to get their act together.

When Don’t Ask Don’t Tell was repealed, everyone was so scared of what was going to happen. What did happen?? Absolutely NOTHING. Those service members were finally able to be themselves. They didn’t have to hide anymore. They didn’t have to worry about losing their job because of who they loved. They still, however, do their job as they are assigned to do. They still fight the wars, treat the wounded, and bleed red blood, just like everyone else does… THAT was a step in the right direction.

I know so many people who completely disagree with me… and I know a lot who will back me up here… All I’m saying, is who the hell are we to choose who someone else can love or not? Who are we to decide whether it’s right or it’s wrong?

There are more things I will probably discuss in the future… but this one.. right now.. is on my mind. I am sad, that the people who voted last night passed such a law… I hope there is some way to appeal it. I hope that someday, everyone has the freedoms that they deserve.

What do I mean? Well, for example. A few weeks ago, a group called Store Brand Formula wanted to hold a Twitter Party in order to bring awareness to their products. Now, I’ve worked with Parent’s Choice for a couple of years now, and I know their product very well from when the girls were babies. So, anyway. The day had arrived. Everyone was getting ready to hold a real conversation about the money saving benefits of buying store brand vs name brand, and how it didn’t matter what brand you bought, since they are all the same, nutritionally, why spend $30 when you can spend $15… etc etc. Well, word got out about this Twitter party, as it should have, and the people who are very pro breastfeeding and very anti formula feeding came around and basically shut down the Twitter Party before it even had a chance to begin.

I was so upset when I found out about this. Why? Because I know that had store brand formula not been there, I would’ve spent a whole lot more money on formula than I needed to. I didn’t know much about formula when they were born. They, of course, were my first children. I was blessed with twins, so imagine that shock to the wallet when we ran out of all of the samples the hospital gave us, and had to start buying formula on our own. We were planning on just staying with the name brand that was sent home with us, not knowing that each can was going to cost us around $30. Oh, and by the way, my children were not shy when it came to eating. I think we went through a large can of formula every 3 days or so. It was expensive! We didn’t know about Store Brand Formula, let alone any regulations by the FDA that made all infant formulas nutritionally equal. I had just assumed you get what you pay for. Boy was I wrong. I knew there had to be a better option, and sure enough, we sat down with a bunch of formula cans in our laps, and went through the labels on all of them. We found out that they were all the same darn thing, but these store brand formulas were almost half the price of the big name brands. It was pretty eye opening. Had we not thought to sit and block the aisle at the store and search through all of these labels, we may never have known about the similarities in the formulas, or the money savings we were able to have.

Back to the whole point of this post… The folks at Store Brand Formula never had any intentions of telling people that formula was better than breast feeding. They never wanted to sway anyone on their decisions of how they were going to feed their baby. Their sole reasoning behind that Twitter Party, and any of my work that I’ve done with them, is to let people who are ALREADY using infant formula, that if they are buying the big name brands, they are spending too much money. They want to let those parents that have already decided to use formula, either as a supplement, or exclusively, that there is a money saving alternative that will provide your baby with the best nutrition that a formula can provide. Not once have I ever heard them say that people should use formula. NEVER. They have always been very cautious in how they do their promotions, and for that, I have loved being a part of their crew.

I am very tired of hearing the breast feeding folks attack the people who are formula feeding. I would understand it if the companies said that their product was superior to breast feeding, but I don’t recall any of them doing that. Why should they feel that they can attack other moms who can not or just choose not to breast feed, for what ever reason. I know I felt bad that I couldn’t .. But I wasn’t able to. It wasn’t a choice for me. If I had someone yelling at me, telling me I was going to harm my girls because I was using formula, I probably would’ve felt even more guilty. There’s no reason for it. If you are a pro-breastfeeding person, great. But, keep in mind, not everyone feels the same way, and yelling at someone, or attacking them is not a way to get them to believe the same things you do.

Store Brand Formula is a great choice when using formula for your baby. Check out the Store Brand Formula website, and you can compare labels for yourself. You can also check out the formula money savings calculator.

* Yes, I work with Store Brand Formula, and Parent’s Choice. Yes, I am being compensated for my time on this post. YES my opinions are completely MY OWN.

It all started one day back in, oh… September ish.. One of my friends invited me to join her and another friend to run this Disney Princess Half Marathon together. I was a little bit hesitant, but I figured, I had plenty of time to get to running. I jumped head first into this trip, and couldn’t wait. We bought our plane tickets, registered for the run, reserved our hotel, and printed out our training schedules. We started a workout program, and swore to run the plan. The excitement was immeasurable… and then reality hit.

Time got in the way. Life got in the way. I fit in a run here and there, but certainly didn’t fit in the full training as I should have. I know. It was totally my fault for not staying completely dedicated to running. I did max out out a 6 mile run, and had every intention of building.. but I just always had an excuse as to why I couldn’t run that day. Work, kids, tired, whatever. Then January was here, then February, and I started to panic. Enter the OMG what have I committed myself to panic mode. I was thinking (daily) What if I don’t maintain the 16 minute mile they require? What if I don’t finish? What if this, what if that… I was stressed…. and it was all my fault. Yep.. A lesson was going to be learned one way or another.

Finally, Thursday February 23rd had arrived… We had decided to drive up to Raleigh that night rather than get up at 230am to drive up Friday morning. I was packing, making sure I didn’t forget my 3 pairs of shoes, running clothes, casual clothes, and all other necessities. I had dinner with my family, gave everyone hugs and kisses, and off I went.

Our drive up to Raleigh was smooth. We got up to our hotel near the airport and just relaxed. We had to be up really early to catch the shuttle up to the airport for our early flight. We went to bed and set our alarms for 430am.

At 430, our alarms started to go off. I checked my phone, and saw a missed call. That missed call, was from the airline calling to tell me that our flight had been delayed by 2 hours. Unfortunately, we were already awake, and going back to sleep was not an option. We took our time getting ourselves ready and headed down to eat some breakfast. Our shuttle took us over to RDU. We checked in, got through security and waited. We had been delayed because of the minimum rest requirements for airline crew. Hey. I don’t function properly without enough sleep. I certainly don’t need a sleepy flight crew flying our plane! Our flight was quick and easy.

Arriving in Orlando, reality set in. I had 2 days left. Breathe. Our first day there we spent at the expo, and enjoying just being there. The next day we headed out to the Magic Kingdom and hit all the cool rides. Can you guess what the first ride we went on was???
SPACE MOUNTAIN! LOL

We needed what we called a wake up coaster, and that did the job well. Of course we hit up all of the classic favorites. We headed back to the expo to take care of any last minute purchases… and went back to our room early. We prepped all of our gear for the next morning and grabbed a good dinner.  We knew that the next day was going to be rough. We had to be on the bus early.. like 3am early. Naturally, as we were finally settling in to bed, we got hit with a bad case of the giggles. It was probably due in part to some of the nervousness that I was experiencing, but it was much needed laughter. Alarms were set, and to sleep we went.

Up early, we dressed grabbed whatever we needed for the morning and headed down to get on our bus over to Epcot. Even at this early hour, the bus was abuzz with conversations. Everyone was very excited about what was going to be the Disney Princess Half Marathon. I was excited, scared, and everything in between. I couldn’t wait to get out there and get going. Everyone was lining up in their assigned areas. The energy was just amazing. Big screens and loud music led to the Fairy Godmother counting down the beginning of the race. Fireworks glowed against the dark, early morning sky. I was off on my first Half Marathon. I was positive that this was going to be like nothing I’ve ever done… Sure enough.. It was.

Stay tuned for the conclusion of this story.

Disney Princess Half Marathon

Our first day at Magic Kingdom
Lunch with Piglet
Lunch with Tigger
LUNCH!
Visit from Eeyore
Visit from Winnie the Pooh
Causing trouble
Up early (3:30am)
Trying to get to the race area
I'll see you again when the sun is up
There's the finish line. I'll be back.
Waiting to start the race

My daughter thought it would be funny/rebellious/cool to post on her Facebook wall just how upset she was and how unfair her life here is; how we work her too hard with chores, never pay her for chores, and just in general make her life difficult.

She chose to share this with the entire world on Facebook and block her parent’s from seeing it. Well, umm… she failed. As of the end of this video, she won’t have to worry anymore about posting inappropriate things on Facebook…

Maybe a few kids can take something away from this… If you’re so disrespectful to your parents and yourself as to post this kind of thing on Facebook, you’re deserving of some tough love. Today, my daughter is getting a dose of tough love.

 

I’ve seen mixed emotions about his..um… method of punishment… things like:

• “What a waste of a laptop and bullets He could have just locked it or sold it. LOL. The kid deserves punishment but the gun thing was a little too much.”

• “I love the part where he said his kid should’ve known better knowing he was an IT. ) yeah, sweetie, definitely not a smart move on your part. You go dad for not taking that crap from your kid!”

Me, personally, I think he is awesome. He gave her several warnings, and she made a bad choice. My girls know that there is no such thing as a right to privacy when it comes to the computer in our home. They will not have facebook accounts when they are young, and when they finally do get one, it will be closely monitored. Sure, kids get upset at their parents for various reasons, but to publicly write the things she did was just wrong.

Watch the video, and please… do tell me what you think! I’d love to hear all opinions!

httpv://youtu.be/kl1ujzRidmU

ETA: So as this story unfolds on the internet, I’ve seen comments from people saying that if he could shoot a laptop, maybe this is an abusive household, or violence begets violence… My personal opinion on that… Gimme a break!  He didn’t beat his child on video, he didn’t duct tape her and put her in a closet, he didn’t do anything but get her where it hurts… Her laptop. Too many kids are more or less addicted to technology. The computer is raising so many kids, more so than the parents. I think it’s about time that a parent stood up to their kids… So… What are your thoughts?

Let me give you a little background on this…

Back in 2005, just three months after my girls were born, we were involved in a car accident that totaled my 10 month old Chevy Equinox. A month after that, I became a minivan mom… Something I swore I would never do… but something I’m so glad I did now. Hee hee. I went to Honda, in Roseville, CA and leased a 2006 Honda Odyssey. It was a fairly simple process. We agreed to 12K miles a year, knowing we’d not even get close, etc, etc… It was a decently easy transaction, considering the situation… and I started my love for the Honda Odyssey right then.

I loved that van. I never thought I could love a van, but I did. It had all the space we needed. We could take family around and on trips. It was easy to drive, and had great safety features… We loved it so much that we really wanted to keep it. Well, the end of our lease was coming up, and we weren’t sure how to deal with it. So I called Honda Financial, and we just renewed the lease for one more year. We did that two times, and at the end of that second time, we had to either buy it or turn it in… and this is where the experience begins.

This Honda Odyssey was a 2006, with 65K miles on it. The maintenance was kept up with. We really took care of it. Of course, it was our primary vehicle, and we wanted it to last us… I had taken it to the local Lejeune Honda Dealership a couple  of times for it’s maintenance checks, and each time had left with a weird feeling. The first experience was just after we moved out to NC from CA. The month before we made our cross country drive, we took the van in for it’s 30K mi check up. We had fluids replaced, filters replaced, everything checked and cleaned, and well, the works… It wasn’t cheap, but we knew we’d be good for the drive… and we were. Just a little bit after we got to NC, I’d say it was about a week or so, I took it in for an oil change. Surely it needed it. Well, while I was waiting for the van to be done, someone came to me holding a set of vials.

Yep… those are the vials… The first large vial is “my” transmission fluid, and it should look like the far left tiny vial. The second tall vial is “my” brake fluid, and it should look like the second clearish tiny vial. The third large vial is “my” power steering fluid, which should look like the third yellowish tiny vial. The last one on the far right is my coolant.. and that one isn’t much different. I felt like something just wasn’t right… I called Honda corporate, and asked for them to help me out. Of course they came back telling me that the mechanic did indeed take those samples from my car. Sure.. whatever.. I decided I would only take the van there when I had to… Of course, the next time I took it there, they tried pulling the same thing on me.. Whatever.

Ok, so fast forward to November 2011. Our lease is just about over. Honda Financial says we need to take the van to a dealership to finance it through them. We figure, we’ve had a great run with them over the lease, let’s try it out. I didn’t feel like driving an hour to Wilmington, so I figured it would just be a fairly simple loan app and go home. Um, No….

I pull in, and park the van. A Salesman, I think his name was Keith, comes to the van and just about opens my door.  My hubby tells him that we are interested in purchasing our leased vehicle and want to know what our options were. Of course, we get the whole “Well have you seen the new models?” question, and he tells my hubby we need to go outside and check the newer models out, so we can think about maybe turning ours in. We hesitantly go outside as he walks us through the new features. Hubby takes it for a test drive, and we got back into the sales guy’s office. The whole time it felt like he was talking to my husband, and not me. When we asked about what it would take to get us into a new one, he disappears for a bit and comes back with a paper showing us $570/month payments. I seriously Laughed Out Loud… I told him that payments had to be around what we had now… We had a budget and were perfectly fine with just purchasing our current vehicle. He left for a little bit longer and came back with $499/m payments… Again, I laughed and just said, can we work on a purchase of our current van… He didn’t want to deal with it so he shook our hands and we were out the door. Wow.. This was on a Saturday.

The following Monday morning, I called Honda Financial and explained what had happened. The agent I spoke to advised me that I just need to speak with the finance manager, and offered me the number to two other Honda Dealerships somewhat close to me. Both were 30mins or more away, but, if they were willing to help, it would be worth it. I called Pecheles Honda in New Bern. I hadn’t heard of them before, so I figured, I’d give them a try. I was connected to their Finance Manager, Brian Villenueve. I told him what had happened at Lejeune Honda, and what we were looking to do (purchase our lease), and gave him whatever information he needed to look into a loan for us.

The wait was on.

He called me back later on that day, explaining the options, and told us that it would be much easier to get us a lower interest rate if we were trying to get a newer vehicle. I had no idea that vehicle age, mileage, etc played into the loan rates we’d be offered, but wow.  He explained why different loans were weighted differently, etc. So I asked him… What would it take to get us into a newer model? Knowing full well the rates that were given to me from Lejeune Honda, I had no hope of really getting into a new vehicle. He asked me if I was free the next day, and I said that I could make myself free, and head over there to talk to him in person. I had a sneaking feeling that it was all because they wanted to sell me a new vehicle, and was expecting the worst… But really, it was so different.

On Tuesday morning, I got everyone off to school, and off I went to New Bern. I was so not sure how this would go. I was hoping for a quick in and done visit with the people at Pecheles Honda. It didn’t turn out like that, but the experience wasn’t a bad one either. So I get there, and was greeted at my car by a salesman with an umbrella. It wasn’t raining too badly anymore, so I kinda giggled that I wasn’t going to melt. He asked if he could help me, and rather than run around with a sales person, I told him right away that Brian, the Finance Manager was expecting me. The salesman brought me over to Brian, and the day began. Brian had obviously been through all the paperwork, and credit information before I got there. He had a nice folder with a bunch of papers in it that contained just about everything about me, and our previous lease. Brian explained the process of financing our 2006 Honda Odyssey, and  how because of the age, mileage, etc, it was harder to get really good rates to purchase our leased van. He told me that although he understood that I wasn’t initially interested in a new vehicle, it would be easier to get within my budget on a new model. He gave me a minute to think about it, and I figured, why not take a look at the new models. Brian went and got the Salesman who greeted me. His name was Dean Gilliken, and he was more than happy to show me a couple of the new Odyssey Models. I, of course, was instantly in love with the 2012 Honda Odyssey. It had bluetooth, USB, a back up camera, and a few other features that my 2006 model didn’t have. None of it mattered though, unless we could get into my budget. Now the work began..

I whole heartedly expected to have loved and then lost this new Odyssey… But it seemed that Brian and now Dean were very interested in helping me get it. I was given all of our options. Some with  a down payment and some without. Of course the down payment helped when it came to getting the monthly payments within our budget. It just meant giving up some of the savings we’d been working on building since moving in to our new home. After a couple of phone calls home, and standing out in the rain for a bit… We decided to go for getting the new Odyssey. Now, just a little bit longer, and a little bit of paperwork, and the new van was mine.

At the end of the day, I spent nearly 7 hours at that dealership. I know Brian and Dean had to be ready to move on from me at some point, but they never let on.. Hahahaha. In fact, they were both very courteous, friendly, and willing to do what they could to make sure I was able to leave Pecheles Honda with a vehicle in my budget. At the end of the day, I was pleasantly surprised at my experience with Brian and Dean… It was such a huge difference from my experience at the Honda Dealership here in Jacksonville. I’m very grateful to you both for all the time and work you put into keeping me in the Honda Family!

Anyone in the area who is in the market for a vehicle, if you’re considering Honda.. I highly recommend you go see Dean at Pecheles Honda… If you end up buying/leasing with them, you’ll probably get to work with Brian too… Tell them I say “Hi”, and please tell them that I sent you! They’ll know I kept my promise to tell the world about their awesome customer service..

I guess this whole story can be summed up as.. If you don’t get the service you deserve at one place, go to another one.. You’ll eventually find someone who cares enough to work with you… This rings true to any business.. not just car dealerships…

** Disclosure- I have not been compensated by Honda, Pecheles Honda, or the employees mentioned in this article. I just wanted to let everyone know the great service I experienced.

Hello friends, I like to keep my FB private except to those I am friends with. So if you all would do the following, I’d appreciate it. With the new FB timeline on its way this week for EVERYONE, please do both of us a favor. Hover over my name above. In a few seconds you’ll see a box that says : “Subscribed”. Hover over that, then go to “comments and likes” and un-check it, by clicking on it. That will stop my posts and yours to me from showing up on the bar side for everyone to see, but most importantly it limits hackers from invading our profiles. If you repost this I will do the same for you. You’ll know I’ve acknowledged you because if you tell me that you’ve done it I’ll “like” it.

or like this:

With the new ‘FB timeline’ on its way this week for EVERYONE…please do both of us a solid favor: Hover over my name above. In a few seconds you’ll see a box that says “Subscribed.” Hover over that, then go to “Comments and Likes” and unclick it. That will stop my posts and yours to me from showing up on the side bar for everyone to see, but MOST IMPORTANTLY it LIMITS HACKERS from invading our profiles. If you re-post this I will do the same for you. You’ll know I’ve acknowledged you because if you tell me that you’ve done it I’ll ‘like’ it. Happy New Year and thank you!….i took this from a friend,so here goes everybody…

These posts led me to do some research, and I found out that these posts are truly a hoax.

If I were to hover over your name and uncheck “comments and likes”, I would no longer be able to see YOUR comments and likes anymore. It doesn’t stop my posts from showing up in your news feed. I mean… You friended me… Don’t you want to see my updates and keep up with me?

If you do not want your posts to be public, then check your privacy settings! You can make things public by default and only hide certain posts from the public, or you can make them visible only to friends by default and choose which ones you want to actually make public at the time of posting. It’s up to you. How?

On the top right hand side of your facebook page, you’ll see a small arrow pointing down. Click on that, and go to Account Settings.

Right in the middle is “Control Your Default Privacy”… From there choose Public, Friends or Custom.

Now, to cover how your friends see posts by OTHER people on your timeline…

Click on “How You Connect”

Next click on “Who can see posts by others on your timeline? (Note: Stories about likes, friendships, and some other types of wall content aren’t included in these settings.)” Choose your setting there.

Click “Done”

In the case of Hackers getting into your site… Your timeline has nothing to do with that. It’s all about your password. Make sure you choose a strong password. Using all numbers, all letters, or even important dates doesn’t work very well. It’s easy to figure out. Instead, make a password that includes letters, both lower case and upper case, numbers and special characters… Make it harder for someone to figure it out!

I hope this helps to ease your minds a little bit. I know that privacy weighs strong on EVERYONE’S minds! Best thing I can tell you… If you’re worried about someone seeing something you post… maybe you shouldn’t post it… nothing is truly private anymore.. especially, not on the internet!!!