Article on AZ Central-- PEEPS!!!!! :)

Easter is coming up and that means the return of those yellow, marshmallow treats called Peeps. The popular, chick-shaped candy has been around for more than 60 years.

USA TODAY Network shares some surprising facts about these iconic marshmallow confections:

1. Peeps were once made by hand and took nearly 30 hours to create.

Peeps are owned and made by Just Born Inc., a candy company located in Bethlehem, Pa.

The company is named after Sam Born, a Russian-born founder and confectioner, who started the brand in 1917 after immigrating to the United States. His candy company grew and eventually acquired Rodda Candy Company in 1953.

"They were primarily interested in that company for the jelly bean technology," Matt Pye, the vice president of corporate affairs for Just Born, told USA TODAY Network.

"But while the family was touring the Rodda Candy Company, in the back part of the factory were these women with pastry tubes squirting these marshmallow chicks by hand," Pye said. It took the women 27 hours from start to finish to make the Peeps mostly because it took the marshmallow a long time to cool before it could be packaged for consumers.

The Born family figured out a way to automate the process and quickly cool the Peeps. By 1954, the company had shortened the manufacturing time to only about six minutes.

Today, Just Born makes about 5.5 million each day in a variety of shapes and colors.

2. Original Peeps had wings.

The original Peep had two small wings coming off the back of each bird.

Just Born initially included those wings in the process as well, but it made the automation process more complicated, according to Pye.

In 1955, the company decided to skip the wings to streamline the process, he said.

3. Peeps stores exist.

You can find Peeps on grocery store shelves and in candy stores, but there are also several brick-and-mortar shops specializing in Peeps.

The first Peeps-theme store opened in 2009 in Oxon Hill, Md., right outside Washington, D.C.

Since then the company has opened two other locations: one in Bethlehem, Pa., and another in the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minn. The stores carry Peeps of all colors, flavors and shapes in addition to Peeps-brand merchandise such as T-shirts and plush toys. They also sell other Just Born candies such as Mike & Ike's and Hot Tamales.

4. There are bunny Peeps. Yes, bunnies.

Even from the very beginning, the company made bunnies in addition to chicks and very quickly introduced other shapes by the 1960s, Pye said.

Today there are bunny and chick Peeps available in a number of colors including yellow, blue, lavender, orange, pink and white. Just Born also makes marshmallow treats for other holidays including trees for Christmas, pumpkins for Halloween and hearts for Valentine's Day.

That being said, chicks still rule supreme. Four out 5 Peeps purchased are shaped like chicks, according to a statement from Just Born.

5. Facebook groups are dedicated to disliking Peeps.

Not everyone loves to eat the marshmallow candies. They can be "a little bit polarizing," according to Pye. "(People) either love them or hate them when it comes to consumption," he said.

There are Facebook groups dedicated to disliking Peeps, for example. And it seems at least one columnist each spring writes about his or her disgust for the candy. "They're just candy – and gross candy at that," Brian Moylan wrote for The Guardian in 2012.

An estimated one-third of all Peeps purchased are not eaten but instead used for decorations or for craft projects like dioramas, according to Pye.

"We think there are more people who love the brand whether they eat it or not," he said.

What do you think of Peeps?

This past weekend

This past weekend was pretty low key for me. Usually I feel that I am always busy on the weekend and do not have much time for just relaxing :( But this weekend I had some down time. On Saturday my husband and I went to Turf Paradise in Phoenix and saw the horse races. It also happened to be the weekend that the "drama" llamas were there along with camel and ostritch races. The camel races were a sight to see! They were pretty fast with the riders on them. They were fun to watch because they would run a little bit then stop and try to buck the riders off. They would then either stand and not move or slowly walk to the finish line. The race was only a few yards for them. The ostritch races were very funny. I think the funniest part was seeing the riders on them and them looking as though they would fall off at any point. The ostritches were more of a trouble to control and race. They did not cooperate the same way that the camels did or especially the horses are controlled.

On Sunday I helped my husband build our crib and changing table that we received for Christmas. Some of the parts and instructions on the crib were quite confusing! But after a few hours we managed to build it and it looks beautiful! I am so happy to have one more thing accomplished for the baby. The only bad part about the crib is that we built it in our living room and now cannot fit it into our bedroom :( oops! So now we may have to take it apart and fit it into the bedroom. The rest of the weekend was laying around and playing with the dog.

Capstone Paper

The topic that I choose to explore and write my capstone project on is rehabilitation programs for the accused criminal. I am a public service/policy major emphasizing in criminology. I am particularly interested in rehabilitation programs rather than just incarcerating law breakers. I would like to explore what rehabilitation programs work, what makes them work, and to what population it has been successful with. Do rehabilitation programs really stop repeated offenses? I believe that the more we know about why the rehabilitation programs are successful, the more we can understand the criminal and the thought process of breaking the law. Also exploring the cost and benefits to society that rehabilitation programs bring about rather than incarceration can be interesting to look at. I think that too many times citizens believe in taking the fast and quick path to throwing convicts into jail/prison, when they may benefit better with a rehabilitation program.  I would like to dig deeper into the different kinds of rehabilitation programs that are in use right now. So far my research has been hard but very interesting. It is outrageous the amount of money that citizens have been paying for incarceration!

Kid Zone Program Manager

I am assigned to Fuller Elementary School as a Kid Zone Staff. My Program Manager at Fuller Elementary School is Miss Carla. Miss Carla is responsible for the Kid Zone program at Fuller. She oversees all the assistant program managers, activity leaders, and assistant activity leaders. She is the laizon between parents, school and the Kid Zone program. She helps plans the special events that happen throughout the school year. She attends meeting with other program managers at other schools and superviosors (supervisors oversee multiple school sites). Carla orders the supplies that are needed each week for the program. She is there each day for morning program and after school program. Carla works with the faculty at Fuller and coordinates classrooms and resources for Kid Zone.

Miss Carla has a sister that worked with Kid Zone and got her introduced to the program. She started out as an activity leader and worked her way up to Program manager. She is currently trying to interview for a supervisor position. Kid Zone offers training for each level you work at. They do training prior to each program session for 1-2 weeks depending on the position. They discuss the responsibilities and procedures for each duty. Off site training would be CPR/First Aid.

Miss Carla would stress having a positive attitude, team player, responisble, go-to attitude and willing to be silly when considering this job. One must be always ready to be hands on with the kids and willing to jump into activities. They also must be strict and responsible with the kids in order to prevent accidents and to ensure safety of everyone. Being upbeat and smiley is a plus because kids will feed off the staff behaviors and will be more willing to have a good time and follow directions when the staff is engaged and happy.

I am interested in her job because it carries more responsibility than just playing with kids for a few hours. I enjoy more of the business part of the role. Miss Carla has to keep track of the paperwork for each staff and kid involved in the program. She has to work with budgeting and inventory. I enjoy the business side of work, but also being able to interact with the kids each day. Miss Carla is perfect for the job because she can act like the boss when the situation calls for it but also be silly and play with the kids.

Spring Break 2015!

Wow, last college spring break! I ended up going to Las Vegas with my husband for the weekend at the start of spring break. We have not had a proper honeymoon or a vacation since getting married, and it worked out we both had vacations from work for part of the spring break. We drove up Friday night and stayed until Sunday evening. I have never been to Las Vegas, so I was very excited to go. I think my favorite part of the trip was going up the mountain right before hitting the city and seeing the city from a high peak and all the lights from the strip in the distance.

Las Vegas is really the city that does not sleep! People were up walking around at all hours during the night, and the city was so beautiful with all the lights and people. During the day it looked funny without all the glitz and glammer and rather dirty. During our trip we walked around the strip and went into many of the hotels/casinos. I wanted to see all of them! Each one was unique and very cool! I loved all the decorations all over and everything to see in the hotels! They were enormous! My feet were so swollen after each day of walking aorund! I also realized that I could get seriously fat in a town like Vegas, if I stayed long enough. The food was delicious everywhere we went!!

We plan on going some other time, after I have the baby and seeing more of the hotels that we missed walking through. We couldn't stay longer because we both had to work later on during that week.

Leadership roles at Kid Zone

At Kid Zone you are put into leadership roles right at the beginning. The interview process is to see whether or not you would be a good fit for Kid Zone and working with kids, but also on what leadership roles you can be placed into when being hired. I have been fortunate enough to have previous leadership roles and experience with working with kids, that I was hired on as an "AL" which means Assistant Leader. At each school you have a site coordinator that looks over more than one school, a supervisor, assistant supervisor, assistant leader, and assistant student leader.

As an AL I am in charge of a certain age group of kids and lead/instruct different clubs that we have. My coworker Deyzi is an AL and she is in charge of the tennis club. I am working with the 2nd-5th graders along with two or so more ALs because of the amount of kids in that age group. I mostly oversee "centers" time, where we have different stations that the kids can go to and play. On Wednesday I am in charge of homework club. I oversee the kids that they are accomplishing their homework. Kid Zone is always putting the employees in leadership roles. We are expected to be leaders at all time and to strive to go higher in leadership roles.

Over spring break, I worked at a kid zone spring break camp. I was put into a leadership role that had me in charge of all the kindergartners at the camp. This was a huge role and one that I was a little nervous about, but found it very fun and rewarding. I thoroughly enjoy being in leadership roles, and am happy that it makes me come out of my comfort zone and put myself out there.

The Bachelor

So, I am like many women and girls out there who watch the bachelor religiously. I have loved the drama and the fun dates that the girls seem to go on with the bachelor. But I can't help but wonder if the show could actually find true love for the bachelor. Do people think that someone could fall in love with someone that quickly and in that way? I wonder what their feelings really are for one another. Do the women realize that the dates they are on are not realisitc in the least bit and that once he picks one the fancy dates are over? I love the show but sometimes I feel the show is one of the stupidist show out there because it is so unrealistic. I do not like the concept of the "fantasy suite". I do not think that it is appropriate for the show to be airing a show that lets you know there is a designated area to spend the night with the bachelor and most likely have sex. You really wonder if these relationships have any chance to make it.

Do the women get paid to take leave from their job and film this I wonder?