"Lizard's Home" by Isaac

Lizard was a kid. He had a lizard family and they were poor. Lizard had a lizard brother, and his brother said, "Can we always do the way we want to play?"to lizard's mom. Then they played and played and played, until they found an old lizard, and he was dark as a cloud, and he was gray. And he was dirty and dirty and dirty. Until he stopped and stopped and stopped. Until he found their home. And he knocked and knocked on the door. And then the door opened and he went into their home and he was all clean. And then he wanted to find somebody who loved him best of all. He found lizard and he was dark as a blue cloud. He wasn't old.

"Well, what an old lizard. You are dark as a cloud, and I love you and I like you, and you're all clean now."

The house was sticked together with wood and it was made out of wood, and it had nails to keep it all together. And the door was made out of gold. Clothes were made out of cloth. They were little and they were their size, and lizard had his clothes, but his brother wants to wear his clothes sometimes. Then they found a swimming pool. They all were there, and they decided to eat the honey.

The honey was on a tree with lots and lots of hives. It was by their home, with lots and lots of honey bees in the hives. And the honey was made from honey bees. They got in the honey bees home, and the bees were sleeping and sleeping and sleeping. But there were three bees that were awake in their apartment. There was a kid bee and a mother bee and a father bee, and their names were Sneegy, Neegy, and Fordy. Those were the honey bees that were awake in their apartment and they didn't sting until the lizards stole their honey and then the lizards runned and runned to their home and lizard had the biggest honey pot of all and he had enough strength for one hand to carry it.

But the other queen bees were always always do play-play and go home and play in our backyard and they'll never never see us again, and they'll never never sting us, and they'll always always drink their drink. They drink grape juice. And they drink, drink, drink. And one of them got a blue cup and that was lizard, and he wasn't sick. Lizard had a body stretch attack. He could stretch his neck to make his throat smaller and smaller and smaller. And that was the end. And they lived happily ever after. And The End.

Jeremiah's Thankful List

Apples.

Dragon kites.

Squishing. (as in, Play-Doh)

Jumping.

John's thankful list

I'm grateful for:

Bacon on scout camp-outs

The Envelope Theorem (it really makes things so much easier)

Laffy Taffy

A wonderful wife who writes flattering blog posts

The economy (really, it's pretty amazing to me what you can get in exchange for the amount of work that we do. We went to IKEA today so this was on my mind)

The Book of Mormon (we've been doing really quick scripture time in the morning and I enjoy Isaac's answers)

Inventors

Science Fiction novelists

Watermelon (the word, not the fruit)

the expression "the bottom of the barrel"

Danielle's Thankful List

Shoes.

My brothers.

Oranges.

Isaac's Thankful List

I'm very thankful for scriptures.

I'm thankful for lizard.

I'm thankful for our family.

And I'm thankful for my robot friend.

And I'm very very thankful for our table. (When asked to come up with one more thing to be thankful for.)

Alison's Thankful List

This week, in conjunction with Thanksgiving, our family has been remembering things we are thankful for. In family morning prayers, we have been saying only "thank-you prayers" for this week preceding Thanksgiving, in response to Elder Bednar's counsel to "periodically...offer a prayer in which we only give thanks and express gratitude. Ask for nothing; simply let our souls rejoice and strive to communicate appreciation with all the energy of our hearts."I thought I would post each person's list separately.

My Thankful List:

Opportunities to create music.

Prayer.

That I unknowingly married an incredibly forgiving man; that I knowingly married a loving, kind, compassionate, incredibly brilliant, outgoing, entertaining, respectful, encouraging, slightly clueless, righteous man, who loves me and helps me to become a better person, on my personal time-frame.

For Isaac's laughter, his desire to help others be happy, his honesty and imagination, that each bring a sparkle to my life.

For Jeremiah's sweetness, his capacity to learn, his need for physical affection, "kissing fights," the bedtime stories that he tells to me, the Primary songs that he sings to me.

For Danielle's willingness to obey, to be happy, to be a helper, to be my shadow and my friend, that she's a child I can love and not worry about (so far).

Good food. Fresh fruit, homemade breads in many varieties, good tasting water.

Chocolate.

That clean, well-fitting clothes are a normal part of life.

That I have so many simple ways to communicate with my friends and family over long distances.

For my testimony of Christ, His life, His Gospel, and His love for me.

Grocery Shopping...with Children

I went grocery shopping with three kids this morning, something I typically try not to do. But John needed to get to school, and our refrigerator is in a state that makes it very easy to clean (ie, empty other than condiments and eggs and leftover pasta salad), so I took the kids to the grocery store.

Danielle was buckled in the front, Jeremiah was sprawled out in the back with his Leapster2, and I convinced Isaac that it was advantageous to walk because then he could help me choose what to put in the cart. He helped pick out apples, we found out that 5 apples weighs twice as much as a bag of baby carrots, voted on whether to get red potatoes or yellow potatoes to make mashed potatoes with in a couple days but got both because we had a tie, and decided that since the bag of mini Oreo's weighed a lot less than the package of regular sized off-brand creme-filled cookies we should get the bigger of the two.

An interesting event from the store: While we were in the beginning of our excursion, choosing our apples, a lady stopped us and said, "I need to tell you: You're a wonderful mother." Hmm, interesting.

A fun conversation from the end of our trip: We had a cute (old, very old) gentleman bagging our groceries, and he asked, "Where'd you pick up those things in your cart?" "Well, this boy came from the produce, this one from the meat. But the little girl definitely came from the chocolates." They didn't have any bars to scan, though, which is good because I'm sure sure if I'd be able to afford them. They're priceless.

Maybe I'll take my kids with me more often. :)

Indulging

I've decided that instead of trying to achieve balance in my life, I should instead indulge.

I haven't been able to figure out how to do everything "completely" all the time, so I'm going to do the minimum most of the time, and then splurge every month or so.

Like getting dressed. Sure, in high school and college I would shower daily, dry and curl my hair, put on make-up, wear cute clothes that didn't have kid-stains on them...but now that is a ridiculous thing to attempt. Well, and have any sort of a life. So, I take a quick shower at the YMCA, dry off, put on some clothes that fit, run a brush through my hair and scrunch it with some mousse, and call it good. Fancy days I put on mascara and lip-gloss. Much more reasonable, and then I can "really get dressed" every couple months (maybe for a date-night or a wedding) and be pleased with myself.

So, I decided taht I should do the same things with cleaning our apartment and reading books. Instead of thinking I should be able to do it all, I am instead going to indulge. Every month, I can "indulge" in a clean house--get it all clean and make it stay that way for at least a day, and truly enjoy it, knowing it won't last for long, but also knowing it's possible on an irregular basis.

And, every month, I'm going to stay up way too late reading some book I just don't want to put down, and probably eat an entire bag of chocolate candy while doing so...and not feel guilty because I only do it once a month...and then truly enjoy it.

I think it's a good plan. :)

Personal Revelation

John spoke in Sacrament meeting a couple months ago, but I just spoke on Sunday. My topic was Personal Revelation, and I shared a few personal stories. I'd like to share them here, too, because the people who read this blog know me more than the people in our new ward, and I feel a little awkward with these other people whose names I don't know yet knowing more about my personal life (well, just a few stories) than my friends and family. Here are some fun stories, straight excerpts from my talk:


When John spoke, I told him that he could introduce our family however he wanted, and that I'd correct anything that needed correcting when it was my turn. While the things he said were all true, I'd like to expand on how we met. I believe he said that we met at a ward prayer, the Sunday our sophomore year began. He was right off his mission, as were his friends. I was nervous about meeting new people, and one o my friends and I got up the nerve to go talk to some very awkward-looking guys who looked worse off than we felt. These two students were right off their missions, and were also John's roommates, who he always declares I was flirting with. John and his roommates, and my friends and I, became good friends, and started going out on dates in different combinations. Pretty quickly, John decided that he liked me, and tried to pursue me. I wasn't so sure. After a couple months of this, one of my friends pulled me aside one night, and we talked and talked...and then she decided it was time to tell me all the wonderful things about John and why we were so obviously perfect for each other, how we were alike in these ways and complemented each other in these other ways. It went on for about two hours. Me trying to leave, her coming up with impossible amounts of ways we were perfect for each other. (She was a national-level debater in high school, and went on to graduate at the top of her class in the BYU Law School, so I was way out of league.) When I finally got free, I went to my room and knelt to pray before I climbed in my bed, and in the middle of my prayer, when it was clear I definitely wasn't going to pray about John, I heard the words, 'You should date John," in my mind. Instead of being humble or polite and agreeing to the task or sentiment, I thought back, "But I don't like John!" And again I heard the words, "You should date John." Still not humble, I made a deal. I thought, "If I like him when I wake up in the morning, I'll date him." I thought it wouldn't happen, but I was curious if it could. When I woke up, I liked John. I flirted with him extremely well, got invited to go shopping and to lunch with him and his grandparents, and we were dating the next day.

Just a year ago, I was struggling with my son Jeremiah. He has autism, and I don't remember exactly what he was doing or needing, but I was having a very difficult time trying to figure out what he truly needed. I knelt in prayer, because I knew that even if I didn't know what he needed, I knew that my Heavenly father did and could let me know what it was I could do to help him. As I was pleading, I heard the words, "Talk to Avis." Our branch had just combined with a ward, and I sort of knew Avis by sight but not personally since she was in the ward, and I had no clue why I should talk to her. I tried coming up to her in hall at church, but she was always busy talking to someone, or getting things ready for Primary...and I didn't talk to her. A couple weeks passed, and I was praying about Jeremiah again, and I heard this "Ahem. Talk to Avis." I felt slightly reprimanded, a little ashamed. And I made it a point to approach her the very next time I saw her. We made a plan to talk in a few days, she wasn't sure what about, but she got sick, and it fell through. When I finally caught up with her again, in passing on the way to Relief Society, I told her "You probably are wondering why I wanted to talk to you. My son has autism, and I've been having a hard time knowing what to do, and I was praying, and I felt I should talk to you." And she said, "Oh, I have some information for you." It took me a year, but I'm fairly certain that my answer, to talk to Avis, wasn't because she could tell me exactly what I needed to do with Jeremiah, which was what I wanted to know, but because my Heavenly Father knew what I truly needed was someone who understood from experience that sometimes having a son with autism is just hard.

When I was finishing my junior year in high school, my best friend peer-pressured me into taking the ACT and SAT. There was a place to write in colleges to send my scores to, so I chose a few from the list, including BYU because that's where many of my friends wanted to go. A few weeks later, I went to get the mail, and there was an envelope with "BYU" in the corner. And I simply knew that I needed to go there. It was just a simple feeling of "yes." I only applied to BYU, and I went there, and I learned many things, made wonderful friends, and met John. BYU was a wonderful experience for me.

A few weeks after I left for BYU, my sister left for a mission in Brazil. I think I was very homesick, but having so much fun that I didn't realize it. I think that my homesickness took the form of writing my sister letters at least weekly. Long letters. When my parents dropped me off at school, though, my dad bought my sister and I matching CTR rings, and I treasured mine. Because it was from my dad and reminded me of my sister...it meant so much. After the first real snow, my friends and I had a huge snowball fight. at some point my gloves had come off, and when I put them back on, my CTR ring didn't make it, which I didn't discover until I was getting ready for bed. We had been all over in the snow. I looked for my CTR ring the next day. I couldn't find it. I got some of my friends to help me. And as I was looking with them, I prayed that I'd be able to find it, that it was important to me. I felt that I should look by the sidewalk, far enough away from our snowball fight that it was very unlikely, and kept looking where I was for a few minutes, thinking that it was more likely to be where I was looking than where I was prompted to look. A few minutes later my friend went directly to the spot that I felt I should look, and picked up my ring. I didn't receive an answer to my prayer to find my ring because it was valuable or important or life-changing or critical to my testimony. It was a very little thing.

Candlelight Carol

Our ward choir will be singing Candlelight Carol by John Rutter. I hadn't heard it before, and I wanted to get an idea of what it sounded like as I learn to play it on the piano. This is the best video I could find, and it's in Welsh, so I don't understand much other than the "Gloria, gloria in excelsis Deo!" part. But it's gorgeous. And reminds me that Christmas isn't far off, when we can remember the birth of our Savior and rejoice in Him.

Family Update

From an email to a friend back in Wisconsin, asking how we're doing.

Things are hard here. John's working/studying/dissertating (we made it a verb) a lot, which means I'm a single mom most of the time. I'm usually fine with that, but some moments, hours, days, and weeks are much harder than others. I know the saying "If Momma ain't happy, then nobody's happy," but here it seems to work the other way.

I took Isaac out of kindergarten because he was thoroughly unhappy when he was home and I couldn't deal with it. It's full-day kindergarten, and it was just too long doing exactly what his teachers told him to do--seven hours every day...I would get so upset at him for being crabby, which wasn't what either of us needed to be feeling or doing. Now he's a happy boy again. We'll either homeschool for a couple years or start him in kindergarten next year, I'm not sure which yet.

Danielle's starting her "terrible two's" and has very stubborn (wrong) opinions about many things. Usually she's angelic, so the twos-ness always comes as a surprise...usually I can redirect her from her opinions, so it's not a big deal.

But, Jeremiah. Oh, my little angel boy. So sweet sometimes, so loving. And then he'll completely out of the blue start physically beating himself up. He gets upset, and I usually can't figure out why or fix it if I can, then beat himself up--slapping his face and throat, punching his body. And that's when I get completely overwhelmed and lost and confused and sad. I can't help it--it makes me so sad to see himself hurt himself, and I don't think he's in control of himself at that point, and I can't fix it. I don't like feeling helpless, even for a few minutes.

I can't figure out how to balance attempting to have a reasonably clean home, teaching children to be kind and happy, preparing food for them to hopefully consume (quietly, if it isn't asking too much), and time for myself. If I could get Jeremiah to stop shredding toilet paper all over our apartment it would drastically help this place look a lot cleaner. :) But not being able to come up with a plan has been really hard for me. If I hada well-thought-out plan and didn't follow by choice, it would be a lot easier. But I just feel stuck.

Our bishop took me aside after he set me apart a couple months ago, and he told me that I have much more to do than is possible right now. So at least I know it's true. I know I just need to choose wisely..but I don't know how. If we had thousands of dollars to spend on food every month, I'd just have everything prepared for me by somebody else--but we don't.

Though, I am learning a lot. I learned a few nights ago that even if a green crayon destroys a load of laundry (from someone else's laundry, left in the dryer), it's still more fun to fold if I watch a TV show while I fold it. Very good to finally learn. Laundry has been so boring and time consuming for the past eight years, and now I can almost look forward to it.

I'm learning how to distract my kids into doing what I want them to do, which has been very useful, and sparks creativity. I'm learning that I can get my kids to walk into stores, home from the playground, down to the car...creatively...mostly races and bribes of food. I'm learning to give Isaac more responsibility and trusting him to obey, which has been hard and good.

Just little tricks to make things easier. And I'm teaching Danielle things now that will make my life so much easier in a couple years, and I wish I knew how to teach Jer the same things. She's so easy to teach, I understand how to teach her...But I can't figure out how to get Jeremiah to sleep without an adult right next to him. I keep hoping that when Isaac's a little bigger, he can get Jeremiah to sleep, but I think that's more hope than actual possibility there.

That's the longer version of "I think we're doing pretty good, with exceptions, of course."

The weather here is perfect. Isaac, Danielle and I walk Jeremiah to school, and a sweatshirt is optional. Pants are preferred but not absolutely necessary. I can open up our windows in the afternoon and there's a nice, chilly 60 degree breeze to cool things down a bit. I love the winters here. It finally isn't summer anymore. :)

Fantastic Contraption

So John and I have a new hobby: We make physics devices from two to five in the morning while our kids are sleeping, for a date. I like triangles and cars, which I used exclusively until level 13, so this is just a different kind of car than I'm used to making. We couldn't embed the game, but here's a link (push continue then the start button):

My Cute Tank!

Post any cool designs in the comments!

Isaac

Some things about Isaac...

Isaac's responsibility this month (I kept forgetting at the week-marks to change responsibilities) is Keys. He is in charge of locking and unlocking the door. He does a very good job.

Isaac was struggling to pay attention in his class for the first couple weeks, but now he's doing great! One of the first days of school he brought home 8 mostly blank worksheets; yesterday he brought home 8 completed (and completely correct) worksheets. He is great at math, and really good at reading...but writing letters is harder for him.

He still has the cutest inflections when I have something special for him (and anything slightly out of the ordinary is special). "You made me applesauce bread? And you brought me a slice? Really? Thank you!" It reminds of Hannah. :)

We had dinner with some friends (who had the big screen TV with football on it mentioned below), and the little 12 month old boy had woken up after we arrived, an was fairly (sleepy) sad. Isaac kept trying to help him be happy. He tried playing peek-a-boo around furniture, bringing him different toys, and was sweetly talking to him.

Isaac and Jeremiah (and sometimes Danielle) play crazy running-around-the-house games together...they climb up beanstalks, they hide from each other, they stay away from the lava... Isaac tried to teach Jeremiah how to play freeze-tag, but Jeremiah didn't really understand. (Danielle followed the instructions reasonably well, though.)

One of Isaac's favorite phrases is "MOM, we have an EMERGENCY! EMERGENCY!" I'll suffice to say MANY things apparently are considered emergencies.

Jeremiah

Sweet things Jeremiah has been doing lately, other than locking me out of the apartment (see below):

Singing most of the words to "If the Savior Stood Beside Me" in Primary on Sunday. Well, not just singing...more like...belting it out. He used the right words bout 85% of the time, and the other 15% was "panda mommy panda mommy." (He sang in tune, too.)

Holding the top of his head with a huge grin, while we were in the monkey exhibit at the Zoo. A monkey was running along the rope that keeps the people out of the monkey area and in the people area, which Jeremiah was holding onto, and when it came to Jeremiah the monkey simply jumped over him and landed on the rope on the other side of him! It was crazy, and very surprising! Jeremiah wasn't quite sure what to think about that monkey jumping over his head--he took a stunned step back and grinned and held his head to keep safe.

Waiting patiently for his turn and following verbal instructions. (Thank you.)

Saying "I'm sorry" and meaning it (most times) when someone is hurt or tips over or is sad.

Saying good-bye to specific kids in his preschool class when he leaves school.

Holding Danielle's hand when we walk somewhere (I hold her other hand).

Singing Isaac's alphabet chant from kindergarten and getting the letters mixed up: D, D Zebra, dih, dih, Zebra!

Watching football on a big screen TV (muted) and standing in front, punching, saying, "Fight! Fight!"

Psychotic

That, or manic-depressive. I can't decide which.

Me, actually. Not my kids, not the weather (thought it could very well be described as such).

I seem to be having highs and lows, with the lows coming unpredictably. Well, the last one came unpredictably. I'm self-medicating (large doses or books, usually daily), and so far it's been working, and it's been about 9 days. (I need book recommendations, please.)

For example, today would have made most people a little crazy, but not me. I took Danielle and Jeremiah to the YMCA (I exercised...lightly...and shortly) while they played in the childcare (today was the first time I took them, so I didn't want to be gone for too long). And when we were ready to leave (well, after the 3.5 minute tantrum about leaving the Spiderman action figure there), it turns out the car wouldn't start. I walked the kids home--just 3 miles, 95 degrees, and pushing a 90-pound stroller (but I was very happy that I had the stroller). After we relaxed at home for 30 minutes, it was time to get the stroller down the flight of stairs (up wasn't fun, either) and walk Jeremiah to school. I decided to take the stroller first, before the kids (any other way is ridiculous, for those who don't have kids). Danielle followed me, down the stairs and back up. Jeremiah locked us out. Of course, I didn't have key, phone, purse, anything. Not even a bribe. (It's rather tricky carrying the stroller down the stairs while carrying anything else, in my defense.) He sang songs at the top of his lungs...so at least I knew he was okay. When I'd knock and ask/yell at him to open the door (I wanted to make sure he could hear me), he'd say, "No! Never! Not today!" (knock, knock) "Not today!" I tried bribing him with fruit snacks ("not today!") and apples and juice and other things that were inside, but to no avail. Then, I tried bribing him with kisses. And it worked! He definitely got kisses for opening the door. (He was on time. I'd allotted extra "just-in-case" time, thinking we wouldn't need it.)

Yep. It's almost time to go pick up the kids. Life is good. Right now. Check back in a couple hours for my evil half to be dominating.

(Again, with the book recommendations. I know there's some good stuff coming out soon. Quantity and quality both count here, though.)

Danielle

Danielle has truly been a joy to me these past few weeks. She is so happy, so joyful, so incredibly cute and genuine.

I finally figured out how to get her to sit still so I can put her hair up: I sit her on the countertop of the bathroom sink, she puts her feet in the sink and brushes her teeth, and she's in one place long enough that I can get a few elastics in her hair so it mostly stays out of her face for a reasonable amount of time each day. Then she looks in the mirror afterward and exclaims "So CUTE!!!," which of course, is so cute.

She answers questions... How old are you? "None," holding up one finger. What's your name? "Duh-nell" She makes many requests to go on walks in the stroller. Two of her favorite new words this week are Cinderella and robot. She loves to read books, and is constantly asking me what things are while I'm driving. She always wants to know what color, and likes to tell me everything is "eeen!" (green, but sometimes pink. Yes, they sound the same.)

She still loves to have two fingers in her mouth, especially in new situations. She wants to do everything that her brothers do, including go potty (standing, of course). She is still my best eater and my best listener, and the easiest to get to sleep.

Danielle absolutely loves Cinderella (and princesses in general). I bought her a Cinderella doll; Jeremiah loves Cinderella and her "ooh, pretty princess dress" as much as Danielle (I'll chalk it up to princesses being a novelty here). So, Danielle's Christmas wish-list consists of baby dolls and princesses. :)

Arizona

So, we made it. We had a crazy month in August with two weddings in two states we weren't living in and the craziness of packing and cleaning up our house in La Crosse and then moving into our apartment here.

We're doing well. My boys all enjoy their schools, and John has the fewest hours in class. :) I'm starting to have a nice schedule and figuring out when to do what with the most productivity and happiness. I got pulled over (first time ever) because I still had temporary plates on the car and it had expired the day before (we had gone to the dealer to pick up our plates and he didn't have them ready and told us to come back Monday, so it's totally not my fault and I thanked the officer for pulling me over--that's his job, right?). Isaac's having a hard time adjusting, but Danielle and Jeremiah are happy little clams. It should be a good, different, interesting two years.

Today John was sustained and set apart as the Assistant Scoutmaster (is anyone really surprised? He's been in Scouts since we've been in family wards...He brought his Scout shirt, and we packed really lightly), and I am the ward organist and a Primary worker. I tried to not accept the organist calling, and our bishop looked at me and recommended thinking about it and giving him a call within the next few days--I left him a message a few hours later accepting it. :) And I'm Jeremiah's Sunbeam teacher. He's the only one. At least I know exactly how many kids will be in class each week. :)

WALL-E<==>Satan

In case you missed it, over at the Millennial Star, there's an opinion piece about WALL-E. The basic premise is that the film is environmental propaganda, and that the environmental movement is a tool of the devil to take away our freedom, therefore WALL-E is chief wrench in Satan's toolbox.

Poet's Inc. was first to "break the story" as it were, and my comment got big enough to be worth posting here.

I think the modern environmental movement (I'm talking lobbyists here not lovers of songbirds and blue skies like Tim and Alison) invites some of this hysteria on itself. In a more perfect world people watching WALL-E would realize rather quickly that trash overwhelming the earth is not a practical way to destroy the planet. It is literally impossible to run out of places to bury things; it's just not reasonable. So, the film's message must not be "throw away less stuff" but something more abstract, and picking an unrealistic doomsday scenario would be smart to do purposefully so the audience is not distracted from the real theme.

The problem is, the EPA issued a pamphlet saying exactly that (we are going to run out of landfill space) in the 70's. And consequently we have a bunch of legal requirements to recycle things from the ensuing panic. The scientific basis for running out of landfill space? The guy typing up the pamphlet at the EPA felt like putting it in.

So there are a lot of people who don't really appreciate being jerked around by environmental policy of dubious benefit and consequently become a little hypersensitive about it. And so the logic goes "obviously this is not about saving the environment because this makes no sense, therefore it is about having power to make me do stuff, i.e. Satan"

Now while the link between "don't throw away plastic bottles" and "don't have any babies at all" is obviously VERY tenuous, I felt it deserved a better shake than what Bryce gave it.

Now for a real world example! Global warming; look kids, it's real. The temperature of the Earth had been going up until 10 years ago and may still be; it's a wiggly graph. There are good reasons to think we might be causing it; computer models of climate with elevated CO2 levels have higher temperatures, it's a greenhouse gas, etc.

One possible solution is to reduce CO2 by using a cap and trade system where the total carbon emissions allowed in the US are converted into certificates and bought and sold. This has the advantage of allowing the carbon gains to be made in the easiest locations through the market mechanism. So the free markets work their magic and we save the planet.

At the same time, however, we just chose to let someone else (or at least a regulating body appointed by elected representatives one of which may have been voted for by us) decide how much we get to breathe .

So we have a balancing act, combining the strength of our conviction that human CO2 warming is real, the size of the danger if the problem is ignored, and the cost in lost liberty if it is not.

I think the problem with "Wall-E: the religion of environmentalism" that has touched a nerve is the same problem the climate lobby has; rigid intolerance.

It is possible to disagree that WALL-E is propaganda and still be a good Mormon. It is possible to believe we need more nuclear power plants and be a good environmentalist. When Bryce Hammond or the Sierra Club publicly suggest otherwise, I think it becomes reasonable to start worrying about what image these self-appointed spokesman have created.

Spore

So, Spore is the newest computer game that we've invested in. We bought the Creature Creator for Isaac's birthday. All three of my boys love to make creatures. Here's John's latest invention [it took some sort-of-clever trickery to make it appear to fly -John]

Another Speech Delay?

Like her brothers, I'm suspicious that Danielle has a language delay. At her 18-month check-up, I talked to her nurse about it. We concluded that because she's about 6 months ahead of where she should be in all other areas, we'd give her 3 months to start talking some more. I think the minimum standard for an 18-month old is in the 10-12 words range, and mostly Danielle would just say "mom mom mom mom mom" pretty incessantly. She did point at things and say "this" and "that" a few months ago, but then stopped.

This week her language has really picked up. She started saying "daddy" after John came home from Scout camp, then added "eyes" and "hi" and "bye" earlier this week. Today she brought me the book "Little Red Riding Hood" and asked "big bad wolf?" Then later she was carrying "Little Red Riding Hood" under one arm and an (empty) ice cream bucket over her elbow like a basket...the book has a picture of Little Red Riding Hood carrying a basket over her elbow. She's very cute, and constantly surprises us with how smart she is.

Stamping Pancakes

I made pancakes for breakfast. They weren't very good. I used the leftover pancake mix from our ward picnic for the Fourth of July. (I'm a pancake snob.)

Well. Breakfast was a few hours ago, and apparently there were a few pancakes left on the table.

Isaac says, from the table, "I'm stamping pancakes!"

"WHAT are you doing?!" John and I were a little confused.

"I'm stamping the pancakes! To make them taste good!" Isaac happily explains.

John goes over there and then pokes his head in the living room, and tells me, "Um, he's stamping pancakes? Does that mean we need to throw them away?"

Laughing at John, I tell Isaac, "We don't stamp on our food. The ink isn't good for our bodies. Ink from the stamps isn't food, and we only eat food. Food is good for our bodies, not stamps."

Isaac is sad, a little disappointed. "I wanted them to taste good." I guess he knows better than to think Krusteaz tastes good, and so I feel pride as a mother.

We all return to our respective projects, on our respective rooms. After the bathroom sink is running for a complete minute, I realize that maybe there's a new project going on that I didn't know about. So I go to check it out.

Oh. It's Isaac. Washing the stamps off his pancakes. And then bringing soggy pancakes (still stamped) to the table.

"Isaac, we don't wash pancakes." I try to say it gently. I don't want him to feel reprimanded...

"Why?"

"Well, when we wash pancakes, they get soggy, and then they don't taste good anymore."

"I was just trying to make them taste good and get the stamps off."

"Oh. We don't wash pancakes."

I guess the pancakes didn't taste good today.

Arizona

We're moving to Tempe, Arizona. All of us. In, oh, about 5 weeks. Just to let you know.

We were going to send just John for 2 semesters. We changed our minds and all of us will stay for 2 years.

So along with the regular packing and cleaning, I need to get the boys registered for school and do a ton of paperwork and find renters to pay us to live in our house and finish arranging transportation needs. Fun? :)

Isaac's Update

Yes, it's been way too long since I wrote Danielle's and Jeremiah's updates.

Here's what Isaac has to say: Hmmm...go to grandma's house or...do something!

That was brief. Isaac turned 5 a few weeks ago, and we had a clown party for him. When his preschool class did the "Jobs" unit, he drew a picture of being a clown when he grows up. Personally I thought it was a better choice than being the president of the United States. So we had clown ice cream cones and a game of pin the nose on the clown and things to dress up as a clown like face paint and big bow ties...and I didn't take into account that these are Isaac's friends who are very shy. One of his friends participated in the games...nobody wanted to dress up like a clown...only one of his friends didn't want ice cream (how is this possible!?!). It was a fun party and Isaac enjoyed having all his friends and family there. When I asked him which of his friends he wanted to invite, he started naming them: "My friend Hannah, and my friend Mary, and my friend Daniel and my other friend James," until he named all of his aunts and uncles nearby and a few friends from school (with prompting). So that's who he invited. (His aunts and uncles participated in the clown games, just not his friends from school. In case I needed to clarify.)

Isaac currently likes to sing. He carries a melody pretty well. Sometimes he'll sing the real words to a song. When he gets to choose a "bedtime song," he's invariably chosen "Thomas the tank engine loves his friends," which the makers of Thomas the Tank Engine certainly don't know, and the words change periodically, with the same theme line of "Thomas the Tank Engine loves his friends" and then some hard thing that Thoms has to do because of his friends... I guess it may be genetic... One of his grandpas always sings wonderfully made up songs as well. :)

Isaac likes to read, and reads himself books. He memorizes them, and recites them to himself, with wonderful inflection and voices for characters. He also likes to play the piano (sort of like he sings "Thomas the Tank Engine loves his Friends") and write letters to people. He continues to amaze and frustrate us with his computer literacy, and often shows me how to play complicated video games at grandma's house. He laughs and laughs and laughs, and everyone around him must laugh when he does. It really isn't optional--his laugh is so infectious! He has a wonderful imagination and is extremely creative. We signed him up for art classes this summer, and last time he was given three long strips of paper...he pasted them together and scrounged for some strips of cardboard and made a dragon, complete with a whale in it's stomach.

John took Isaac to see WALL-E last week, and since they went, almost every day Isaac's wanted to see a movie at 4. We haven't gone back yet. Isaac's almost finished with his 20 hours of summer reading, and I'm trying to figure out if we can do it again. He has had so much fun with the reading and with the prizes--we went bowling (he was sad because he didn't win--Mary did, and she really used the bumpers to figure out the best angle to throw the ball down...literally...seriously...not by accident), had a scoop of ice cream, a personal size pizza, a lunch buffet. Isaac is always very sad when he doesn't win or get his way (we're working on that one). He's very sweet. His teachers in Primary and preschool just say that he's the sweetest boy and always kind to the other children, and chooses the "good kids" for his friends.

Jeremiah's Update

This post is the second of three, in the attempt to give my kids equal attention, and is centered on Jeremiah.

Jeremiah. We're working on potty training with him right now, and sometimes it goes pretty well. Yesterday he didn't have any accidents! I made a chart for us to make a green dot when he goes potty and a red X when he has an accident, which helps remind me to take him potty. The tricky part with him is I don't think he registers that he needs to go, which means we need to remember for him.

A week or so ago he and I were exiting a store and one of his friends from school saw him and excitedly was telling his parents "That's Jeremiah! He's in my school at Southern Bluffs! Hi Jeremiah!" After a minute of prompting, Jeremiah said "Markos!" Sometimes I think that everything inside of him just doesn't know how to get out. And he probably had a hard time connecting someone from school with someone at the store (I know I have a hard time with that, at least).

In his special book for Primary, I filled in the following:

One of my favorite things to do with my family is "family tickle time." It's pretty fun...and he has such a great cracking up laugh!

My least favorite thing to eat is grapefruit. He won't touch the stuff. Everything else he'll eat. Just not grapefruit.

My favorite Primary song is "Whenever I hear the song of a bird" and he sings all the words. :)

When I grow up I think I want to be a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle or Spiderman. He's been practicing. He has some pretty refined moves.

If I could visit any temple in the world it would be Hong Kong China. The Primary president brought in 20 pictures of temples around the world and let each child choose one.

If I could meet anyone in the scriptures it would be Jesus.

One way I try to follow my Savior is by saying prayers. Jeremiah says the sweetest prayers. Granted, all the phrases are taken from prayers that we say with him. Maybe it's just his little voice. But it is very sweet.

School ends next week. Jeremiah has grown so much this past year. He speaks in small full sentences at least some of the time, and communicates what he wants very clearly. He does have a bunch of obsessions, including Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Spiderman, and some "stims," including spinning toys on a surface and spinning toys in the air and (hopefully) catching them to do it again (not such a great idea during Sacrament meeting). He loves to cuddle for a good 20 minutes when he wakes up and 20 before he goes to sleep again at night. He loves to go to Grandpa's house and to eat "brown" (usually brownies). He knows his colors and some letters and most of the words to songs from Primary and school. He's a very sweet little boy.

Gardens

This year we bought wood and made two 4x4 gardens in our backyard. We combined strategies from square foot gardening and lasagna gardens, and up until yesterday it seemed to be going very well.

We made our garden boxes and filled them with layers of compost, manure, dried grass and leaves, and peat moss--not necessarily in that order--and covered them to "cook" which wasn't necessary, but speeds up the decomposing process and it was a mite too early to plant over here.

Yesterday I (finally) planted our tomato plants that have been so good on our kitchen sill. One of the stems broke as I was planting it--I'm not exactly sure how.

And then last night there was a thunderstorm. And looking at my sad plants, it appears that a rabbit came by and had a snack. I wanted to get a fence around the garden beds, but needed to plant the tomato plants before I got the fence up.

I was just looking at the garden with Danielle. She broke one of the plants in half.

From our gardening experience so far this year, we have beautiful soil and one tiny tomato plant left. Maybe one of the other plants will miraculously survive, but with so little left of them it's hard to imagine.

Danielle's Update

In an attempt to give my kids equal attention, this post is the first of three, centered on Danielle.

Danielle is such a sweet little girl! She's 17 months old now. She's all girl. From her hair (which apparently always needs a couple more butterfly clips) to her shoes (which are typically changed at least three times a day to keep her happy).

She just started dancing--she'll push a button on a toy guitar to play a song, take 2-3 steps backward, and start marching her feet or spinning in circles. Usually spinning in circles. After the 10-second song is over, she repeats the process.

She loves to read. I've been trying to read to her off and on (like all good parents should), but up until the past month she's always pushed the books away and tried to squirm away. Now, however, she finds the books she wants, thrusts it to me (or John is I'm not around), sits on the floor, adamantly pats the ground next to her indicating that I need to sit as well, and refuses to be content until we read that particular book. Her favorites this week are "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see?," Panda Bear, Panda Bear, What do you see?," "Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What do you Hear?," (are you noticing a theme here?) and "Go Away, Big Green Monster!" (which I recommend to all children between the ages of 1 and 6--it's a paper book, not a board book, or I might recommend it to the younger set as well).

Danielle also has a genetic predisposition to electronics and communicative devices. I don't know what else to chalk that up to. She's obsessed with the computer and has figured out the mouse-pad on the laptop.

Danielle has been practicing nodding and shaking her head "no." Naturally, she gives her opinion quite frequently. "Do you want a drink?" Emphatically nods. "Do you want to eat breakfast in your high chair?" Seriously nods, then walks to her high chair and attempts to climb in by herself. "Are you ready for bedtime?" Slowly shakes her head "no." "Should we read a book?" Her eyes light up and she nods as she walks to get a book. All very cute and deliberate. The cute-ness might be deliberate cuteness, as well.

She plays crawl-across-the-crib with me when I come to get her from her nap. I ask, from the hallway, if she's awake (she probably nods, but I don't really know), and then come to get her out...and she crawls to the other side of her crib! So I peek at her over there, and she giggles and crawls super-fast to the other side of her crib. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. (I usually just take her out after that. This could go on for many many minutes.)

Danielle will officially be old enough for nursery in four weeks. I did leave her there last for the third hour of church because I taught in Relief Society. We've been going to nursery during Sunday school for a couple weeks now. We'll continue to do that until she can go by herself. She likes to play with the toys, and she likes the little colored chairs that are just a tiny bit to big for her. She loves singing time.

She's a happy and cute little girl! And we ALL love her dearly.

Choose Your Own Adventure

Top 4 ingredients in Marshmallow Mateys

No, I'm not currently a health nut. But the top 4 ingredients are...

1. Whole grain oat flour.

2. Marshmallows.

3. Sugar.

4. Corn syrup.

Um, the sugars content is 13 grams...of a 30 gram serving. Breakfast cereal? High-sugar snack/dessert? Does anyone really want their kids eating this "food"?

(Yes, I do think that the whole grain oat flour is wonderful for our bodies, and corn syrup is better without the "high-fructose" part.)

Birthday Cake

Today was John's birthday! Happy birthday, honey! (I thought I'd mention that even though the rest of this isn't about him.)

Danielle was so sad in her crib tonight. I guess she'd been crying for a while before I came home, so about ten minutes after I'd been home I retrieved her from her crib (standing with tears streaming down her cheeks) and started walking around our house to figure out if there was something specific she wanted. When she saw John she gave him the evil eye and didn't want to be within a few feet of him. Then I wandered into our kitchen. And the reaching and grunting/whining started.

There was a frosted cake on the counter and Danielle wanted some. She helped me make it this afternoon. I think she was extremely upset that she was put to bed without getting any cake! She was also thirsty and some family was over watching the last songs of American Idol, but I really think it was the cake.

Is anyone surprised my son would say this?

Speaking of show-and-tell at pre-school Isaac said "The planet Earth doesn't love it when Romello brings shooting robots"

Naturally anthropomorphizing his home planet to facilitate a mecha discussion. That's my boy!

Math Comic

Faraway Child

I read "Faraway Child" yesterday. It's been on my to-read list for a few months now. It's a fictionalized story of a mom who has an autistic daughter (PC would be "daughter with autism"), from an LDS perspective. (The author is an LDS woman who has an autistic daughter, and bases the story off of her experiences with her daughter.) I'd recommend it to anyone who wants to know what it's like to raise an autistic child: the hopes, fears, struggles, griefs, joys, peace.

My experiences with Jeremiah are much different. But so much closer to what she describes than how anyone would describe a typical child. But her feelings, inadequacies, joy and appreciation and comfort when something finally goes right...those are all the same.

John looked over at me a few times as I was reading, and saw me sobbing at least three times. He kept asking if I was certain I wanted to keep reading this book. I don't know that it was necessarily heart-wrenching, just incredibly close to home.

Computer Time

We've had a little disagreement with Isaac on how much time he can spend on the computer. As soon as we walked inside Grandma's house yesterday he went over to the computer to play "the nice shooting game." I convinced him to come over and eat (or at least drink) with us, and he kept telling me he wanted to be excused to go play on the computer. After dinner, he (prompted by me) opened a meeting in which all the adults submitted a vote on how much time he spent on the computer. After he had all voted (Isaac voted for 62 minutes) we gave him the option of choosing the mean, median, or mode. He chose the mode--perhaps because it sounds like the most?--which was 30 minutes. I didn't vote, but I used the Mom Card to outlaw computer time on Sundays. Isaac was happy to be the center of attention and to hear everyone in the room say that they wanted to play with him when he comes over, rather than have him on the computer all day. Happily for me, everyone in the room gave appropriate time allotments and was willing to participate in our discussion. :) Now I don't need to worry about Isaac having too much computer time at Grandma's house: He helped to make the rule.

Pictures!

I went into the backyard tonight and saw this! The boys were just swinging and giggling together. It was lovely. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Jeremiah had a spontaneous photo shoot tonight. He was so happy to be swinging gently back and forth, back and forth. Content. He's never liked to swing, so these are his first "swinging pictures." His occupational therapist at school has worked with him on swinging this year, and now he loves loves loves to swing. (He didn't want to come inside, just "sit" on the swing, very sweetly.)







Danielle likes to "take pictures." This is her being sad that it's against the rules. Also, this is why we don't frequently post pictures of Danielle (unless she's eating, restrained in her high chair and distracted).
This is actually Danielle waking up Isaac to get him ready for church. I tried to get pictures, but none of them turned out. Just imagine. She was a very good Sunday morning monster.

Isaac has aspirations to be a photographer. All credit for the following go to him.

A picture when she thinks she's going to get the camera...
...and a mostly happy one that I took of the two of us right after.
(Restrained...and getting ready for a walk.)

Notice the brotherly love. The sisterly lean. The thinner rims on the glasses.

Our kids are growing. They are sweet and good, sometimes attempt politeness, sometimes share of their own free will. We love them. And we're so glad that it's spring and we can play outside and go on walks again!

Irrational panic leads to misallocation of resources: an example

Slate.com has an interesting article about the what really causes most cancers in the United States. I'm guessing that many of the things you've heard of that cause cancer wouldn't make a list of quantitatively significant causes.

The article has a thesis for why this happens, and it talks about the consequences. In general irrational fear of small probability events leads to a mis allocation of resources to prevent these small probability events.

This is a theme I've noticed a lot in modern society; we get all worked up over something and then we expend lots of costly effort doing our best to prevent a rare occurrence, while meanwhile the more likely but less dramatic cause gets short shrift. What's worse, typically the cost is paid in dollars and freedom.

The Book of Mormon describes a secret combination (think conspiracy theory) that would exist in the latter days (today) Ether 8:22-25:

22 And whatsoever nation shall uphold such secret combinations, to get power and gain, until they shall spread over the nation, behold, they shall be destroyed; for the Lord will not suffer that the blood of his saints, which shall be shed by them, shall always cry unto him from the ground for vengeance upon them and yet he avenge them not.
23 Wherefore, O ye Gentiles, it is wisdom in God that these things should be shown unto you, that thereby ye may repent of your sins, and suffer not that these murderous combinations shall get above you, which are built up to get power and gain—and the work, yea, even the work of destruction come upon you, yea, even the sword of the justice of the Eternal God shall fall upon you, to your overthrow and destruction if ye shall suffer these things to be.
24 Wherefore, the Lord commandeth you, when ye shall see these things come among you that ye shall awake to a sense of your awful situation, because of this secret combination which shall be among you; or wo be unto it, because of the blood of them who have been slain; for they cry from the dust for vengeance upon it, and also upon those who built it up.
25 For it cometh to pass that whoso buildeth it up seeketh to overthrow the freedom of all lands, nations, and countries; and it bringeth to pass the destruction of all people, for it is built up by the devil, who is the father of all lies; even that same liar who beguiled our first parents, yea, even that same liar who hath caused man to commit murder from the beginning; who hath hardened the hearts of men that they have murdered the prophets, and stoned them, and cast them out from the beginning. (emphasis added)

I can't help but wonder, if we're constantly panicking about borderline irrelevant things, that maybe there's some kind of more nefarious purpose at work. There are lots of irrelevant things to panic about, who gets to decide what is deemed panic worthy? It's hard for me to believe that there's some shadow organization pulling the strings on each and every alarmist story, but perhaps fostering conditions such that this kind of behavior is encouraged could be easily and subtlety done.

In any case I'm glad someone pointed out that eating a folic-acid free muffin while chatting on a hands-free so your cellphone can be 5 feet from you while sunbathing is just a little silly.

Feed the Head

Okay. I know it sounds a bit creepy. But, really... It's not! A little strange, maybe, but fun. Give it a whirl! Feedthehead.net
(John found it first, not me!)

Addition

I'm working with Isaac on adding. We went on two walks today and tried to find 5 robins and 3 dogs. We found 9 robins and 2 dogs on the first walk, the last dog on the second walk, and then Isaac said, "We're on level two now! Now we need to find 6 robins and 5 dogs. If we find a cat we win!" When we were looking for 5 robins and had found one, Isaac said we had to find four more. (Et cetera.) We had a lot of fun walking around the block with Danielle.

Isaac (and Horse, his invisible horse) were eating carrots and milk in the kitchen (because that's obviously what horses like best), and Isaac was explaining to Horse about how he "went on a walk at Grandma's house and fell down on the street and got an ow on his leg and that the bad alligator scratched his leg and that too much and a lot make too much and too much and too much and too much and too much." (I suppose that would make 4 * "too much" = "a lot.")

Who's Who?

Blonde hair, brown eyes, about 40 pounds and a little over three feet tall with glasses...A perfect description of Jeremiah!




And now, a good description of Isaac, too!




He likes the black plastic frames more than the nice metal ones that hopefully won't look quite as nerdy in pictures. :) He's been good at keeping his glasses on today; he told Grandpa, "My eyes don't work so good, so I need to wear glasses and now they're perfect!"

The boys are very sweet rambunctious loving brothers.









Now we just need to come up with a simple descriptor to throw out when people say, "I just can't tell your boys apart"...

Boys just wanna have FUN

I'm keeping the boys home from school today because they are coughing and Isaac says his throat is scratchy so he "can only breathe like chugga chugga chugga chooooo." So, of course, they're playing horses outside. Isaac's been trying to train Jeremiah to be a horse, or to be his own horse and rider, rather than being Isaac's horse. It's mostly working. The past few days they've been playing together more than egging each other on, and it's been great. I think being able to play outside has a lot to do with that. Playing tag inside gets a lot of tears, but playing tag outside gets a lot of laughing. They've both figured out that if one is crying, the other had better start too, or else will get into trouble. So Jeremiah starts crying because Isaac "helped him fall over somehow" and after a few seconds, Isaac starts crying and comes up with "I have an ow on my hand!" Funny boys.

I love Google!

Just one more reason.

Cute Kids

A couple days ago i had hiccups. Isaac said, "Mom. Stop hiccing-up!"

Danielle likes to throw away her own diapers--she picks up the dirty one and crawls it over to the garbage can, stands up, and tosses it in.

Danielle can walk!!! She's decided that she prefers walking most of the time now.

Jeremiah always wants to hold Danielle. He says, "Hold you baby? Hold you?" And she usually lets him a for a few short seconds...

Jeremiah gets lions and tigers confused. So lately he's been requesting to watch "Tiger King" and refers to Danielle's cute pink lion as "the pink tiger."

Danielle likes to make animal noises. She loves to "aaa-aaH" like a sheep, in particular. She and I were playing with her pink lion and she wanted it to make elephant noises, and made wonderful elephant noises herself. She takes after her mom!

Isaac and Jeremiah both like to sing songs all day long. They both have most words memorized, and Isaac will make up his own words for melodies he knows. It's very sweet.

Jeremiah was making a racket last night while he was supposed to be falling asleep, so Isaac said, "Jeremiah keeps waking me up, mom. Tell him to be quiet!" (It was actually very sweet. :)

Time and Weather

So...sometimes I think that the whole Daylight savings time is ridiculous. I'm always okay with the "fall back" part, it's the "spring forward" part that is so terrible. But this year with Jeremiah's bus suddenly arriving an hour earlier...oh boy. We're still adjusting our bodies to a new time. (And next year I'll remember to start changing the time--bedtime and waking up time--by ten minutes a day a few days before the clocks change!)

I took Jeremiah out to the bus, and I thought, "Wow, I didn't need to put my coat on! This is a lovely lovely day!" It's about 37 right now. Just for some perspective. 37 is SO WARM! A good 60 degrees warmer than than January and February. I love March!

Contentment

Right now I am perfectly content. Life is simple, life is routine. Our house becomes messy and clean again quickly (this goes both ways, which is important!). We eat and clean up many times a day. I get kids dressed and ready for each day, and eventually into pajamas before bed...only to do it all over again. We read books, we have naps, we exercise at times... We have family home evening and family scripture study and family prayer. I have some time for just me (I repeat, SOME, not an incredible amount, but enough).

So, how long until something happens to throw us out of our routine...? In the plans are:
1. The boys are out of school come June.
2. We're (planning on) sending John back to ASU in September.
3. Someone will probably get sick...

I'm definitely enjoying this blessed though temporary state! And my kids are cute, too. And my husband is wonderful. And I just am feeling incredibly lucky right now.

Isaac's leaning against his bed "reading" a Winnie the Pooh book, following the words with his fingers, singing,

"Follow the piglet! Follow the piglet!
Follow the piglet, Don't go astray.
Follow the piglet, Follow the piglet,
Follow the piglet, He knows the way!"

Over and over and over again.

(This is apparently a rendition of "Follow the Prophet," a favorite Primary song of his. Replace "piglet" with "prophet," and there's the chorus. :)

From the kids...

Here are some cute things our kids have said lately!

During family home evening tonight we reenacted the story of David and Goliath. Isaac chose to be Goliath for the second replay.

John: (What does Goliath say?)
Isaac: Choose your character!
(snickers from the audience)
John: I am David, and I am coming to fight you to protect my kingdom...
Isaac, flabbergasted: A BOY!?!
(John tosses jelly beans at Isaac, who dodges the first two and then collapses on the floor groaning "I died!")

---------------

Isaac was really sad when he woke up yesterday, calmed down after his request to pray over apple muffins was granted, but had a fit when Jeremiah started saying a prayer when it was Isaac's turn... Jeremiah said, "Know what? You are so sad."

---------------

Danielle and I were playing on the living room floor this afternoon. She randomly looked up and said "Dad?" So I looked up and saw him coming to the door. She must have heard him park in the driveway...

Sore muscles= Working hard

I associate sore muscles with hard work. Exercise, stress, strain, repetitive movements and motions.

So I know that I've been working hard when...

I have muscle spasms at the computer, from the computer (or at least the amount of time I've worked on the computer). Did you know that it takes much effort to hold my arm in a comfortable position when I'm dominantly using the mouse? It does. I never would have thought that. Maybe I AM a geek.

(Aaah! The pain of occasional acceptance!)

Making Hummus!!! and Roasting Garlic

We're having our Visiting Teaching Conference tomorrow during Relief Society (the men are taking care of the Primary and Young Women), and I volunteered to make a couple "spreads" for our crackers. A "Sun-Dried Tomato Hummus" and a "Warm Broccoli Cheese Spread." The hummus recipe I was given called for a mix I couldn't find at two stores, and I don't have mayonnaise in my house so I'd have to buy that too...so I made a different recipe. And oh boy! It's SO good! I love hummus, and I've wanted to try making it for a while, and now I have, and I don't know when I'll stop! So yummy! (Okay, I love beans and make tons of stuff with them, and I grew up eating them straight from the can--garbanzo and kidney, at least--so if you don't love beans in general as much as I do, hummus might not do it for you like it does it for me. But, oh! It's good!)

So the recipe I used called for roasted garlic, which I didn't happen to have on hand, so I looked up how to roast garlic (super easy!) and I did! (Also something I've wanted to try but lacked motivation for!) Oh, and of course while my garlic was roasting, I was munching on Cherry Cordial Hershey's Kisses (also yummy...) but after a few minutes I couldn't force myself to eat them because I was smelling this strong garlic smell from my kitchen. So next time you have a craving that you don't want to give in to, try roasting garlic. It worked for me, this time at least. (And if you don't use fresh garlic, it's easy and cheap and kind of fun--try it!)

So, if church isn't cancelled (temperature plus wind chill factor should be in the -25 to -40 range, but we'll see if cars start or phone calls are made), I'll get to share yummy goodness at church, otherwise...there's no way it's lasting until we reschedule the VT Conference, so... :)

Sun-Dried Tomato Hummus Recipe
1 15 oz can garbanzo beans or chickpeas, drained and rinsed
3 tbsp sun-dried tomatoes, chopped
2 tbsp roasted garlic
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp lemon juice

Combine in food processor or blender, blend, and enjoy on crackers or pita bread!

(In the case of your food processor not working...mash it up and mix with a hand blender. :)

Thinking Happy Thoughts

"I've spoken of the shining city all my political life, but I don't know if I ever quite communicated what I saw when I said it. But in my mind it was a tall, proud city built on rocks stronger than oceans, windswept, God-blessed and teeming with people of all kinds living in harmony and peace; a city with free ports that hummed with commerce and creativity. And if there had to be city walls, the walls had doors and the doors were open to anyone with the will and heart to get here."

-Ronald Reagan
From his farewell address to the nation in January 1989

tag

5 things I was doing ten years ago:

1. Debating as a four-person team in the Wisconsin state debate tournament (we took second place!)
2. I was stamping out foam math manipulatives for first and second graders with friends (Eagle Scout Project)
3. I was playing guitar for the (lower level) Jazz band, guitar for the (lower level) show choir, cello for the orchestra (last chair), and French Horn for the (higher level) band (first chair)
4. I was playing Necromunda (fun tabletop game with little painted sci-fi gang members) at next generation listening to Daft Punk - Discovery.
5. I was getting in one of at least three unreported car accidents (the at least is, three I remember)

5 things I will do now:

1. Get by Dental Abscess fixed (most likely by getting my tooth pulled :( )
2. Work on my puddle (see previous post)
3. Fill out 1099s, 1096s, W2s, W3s, and a myriad of other forms after an hour commute to Black River Falls, Wisconsin
4. Learn International Finance (I have a week before I teach it)
5. Make a smart whiteboard out of my laptop using a Wiimote

5 things I'll be doing 10 years from now:

1. Installing printable solar panels on my roof
2. Wait, in 10 years I'm going to be 38. This list is stupid.
3. But I can't stop: I'll be up in the middle of the night talking to my team in Mumbai about development on the new game.
4. From my libertarian base of operations in Antarctica... or space. I can't decide.
5. Reading Jay's novel.

5 favorite toys I have:

1. Alison's Tupperware spatula: it is just so cool in many and multiple ways.
2. Kongregate.com
3. FlashDevelop
4. news.ycombinator.com
5. My pinewood derby car (it's got a real, working, LED light-up propeller)

5 favorite toys I want:

1. Wiimote
2. RepRap
3. BugLabs
4. Anybots
5. Electric Car

5 people to tag

1. Todd
2. John
3. Thomas
4. Lawson
5. John

Look at this!

Hi everyone,

So I have a new hobby; I have been dabbling in open source flash development for a few weeks now, and I've finally made something fun. It's basically a pond that you can drip water on using your mouse. I think it makes a cool looking effect; it's fun to see the ripples bounce around. If you hold down shift while you click you build walls for the waves to bounce off, and if you hold down ctrl you create source points that emit waves over and over again. If you push space bar, nothing happens yet, but I'll make it do something sometime. I like to make antennas, or see how high (light blue) I can make the waves using source points.

I'm "It"?

Five things I was doing ten years ago:
1. Going on my first date: to a carnival with The Grossest Boy in my class. And I liked it. :)
2. Deciding I'd wait until I turned 18 to get my driver's license.
3. Show choir before school.
4. Attempting to pole vault (and do all the other "field events" in track and field).
5. Getting my name in the local newspaper for finishing first for my school in a cross country meet.

Five things to do today:
1. Sew 99-6" squares together to make the front of a baby quilt.
2. Laundry.
3. Prepare a spiritual thought for a presidency meeting.
4. Decide which frozen vegetable to microwave to go with homemade chicken nuggets and roasted potatoes for dinner.
5. Laundry.

Five things I want to do in the next ten years:
1. Take my family (as in "husband and children") on a backpacking trip.
2. Run a marathon.
3. Discover my favorite type of cheesecake.
4. Overcome/accept my fear of heights and go on a ski-lift so I can learn to ski.
5. Go on a weeklong retreat, by myself, and sleep and be massaged and eat yummy food and not do laundry and sleep and be pampered. And sleep.

My favorite toys:
1. My piano!!!
2. My YMCA membership--they watch my kids for me so I can shower!, I mean, exercise.
3. John's laptop.
4. My Tupperware spatula. It's just perfect.
5. My foot spa.

The five greatest things about being a mom:
1. Being the one that is loved the best.
2. Feeling giddy inside when my kids eat their vegetables first at dinner.
3. Being here to watch them learn: Jeremiah going from 3 words to entire sentences over the course of a year, Danielle climbing stairs and starting to walk, Isaac sitting through Sacrament meeting quietly and reverently and happily.
4. Having a magical ability to blow kisses to "owies" that makes them disappear.
5. Enjoying, relishing the peace and quiet when they are all asleep.

Triathlon

I'm going to do a triathlon! Which entails getting into shape to do a triathlon, which is more the point than the actual race. But my first goal is to run, swim, and bike the equivalent of an Ironman triathlon over 30 days. That should get me on the right track, at least. (Okay, so that will really get me on the right track. Really, really.) Hopefully this will pan out, and not be one of my goals that happens to slip away. :)

The New Hampshire election results vs. how the votes were counted

So we had the New Hampshire primary yesterday, and in case you hadn't heard, John McCain and Hillary Clinton came away the winners. Depending upon what corners of the internet you may or may not frequent, you might have heard some griping about Diebold election machines not being secure, or not producing a paper trail, like... cash registers and ATMs. The point is there is a vocal minority in this country that feels the 2004 election was stolen by manipulating Diebold machines in Ohio in favor of Bush over Kerry. That's a whole can of worms you can dig into on your own time.

I'm interested in yesterday's primary because the same stuff is coming up again. A significant portion of New Hampshire's ballots are cast on Diebold machines and electronically counted by a contractor, so people get excited about elections being fixed. In order to put everyone at ease, I've taken the liberty of dividing up the votes in New Hampshire by how they were counted. First the Republican side:

Hand Count DieBold

McCain 0.407135252 0.372577136

Romney 0.267352775 0.337703393

Huckabee0.131181763 0.109349308

Giuliani0.083105442 0.088986452

Paul 0.091747907 0.074386983

Thompson0.01365259 0.011925392

Hunter 0.00582427 0.005071336

As you can see, McCain wins in Diebold districts as well as hand count country. Romney gets a pretty significant pop (about 7%), but not enough to win so most likely no one needs to get excited about thievery, although we'll come back to that 7% in a minute.

Now lets look at the Democrat side:

HandCount Diebold

Clinton 0.349822101 0.408148875

Obama 0.396352206 0.361315898

Edwards 0.174669246 0.170363373

Kucinich 0.018567135 0.012520736

Richardson 0.056651352 0.043876818

Biden 0.002107154 0.00223294

Dodd 0.000604511 0.000216966

Gravel 0.001226295 0.001324396

Umm... ouch, Obama wins handily in the hand count and gets trounced when the votes are counted with a Diebold machine. Okay so that's got a lot of people excited; I don't think it will make CNN but the blogosphere has been abuzz with this stuff since about 3 a.m. this morning. Time to burst the bubble, there is serious reason for concern that we've got an omitted variable here causing some bias. The basic idea would be that there is something about some districts that makes them more likely to like Clinton and more likely to like Diebold voting. When whatever it is is high, Hillary wins on a Diebold, when whatever is low, Barack wins in the handcount.

So, getting to the bottom of the mystery requires coming up with a good candidate for whatever. I think the obvious one is rural vs. urban. Rural districts are more likely to handcount and probably have different voting patterns than the bigger cities. It does seem a little strange to propose that the first Black presidential candidate will do great with the farm vote and poor with the city folk, but its worth checking out. If you break down the results by districts with less than 500 votes (small) and bigger than 500 (Big) we could expect Obama to keep up his small-town prowess and flounder in the bigger cities regardless of how the votes are counted. That would be reassuring.

Trouble is, if you break it down, Hillary only beats Obama in small towns when Diebold is involved, and she only beats Obama in large towns when Diebold is involved, so while a confounding factor may still exist, rural vs. urban is most likely not it:

HandLarge HandSmall DieLarge DieSmall

Clinton 0.3545872 0.3391518 0.408443 0.377682

Obama 0.3941885 0.4011972 0.361330 0.360515

Edwards 0.1746202 0.1747790 0.170061 0.202193

Kucinich0.0180392 0.0197493 0.012549 0.009537

Rchrdson0.0546921 0.0610384 0.043827 0.047687

Biden 0.0022736 0.0017343 0.002240 0.001430

Dodd 0.0005246 0.0007832 0.000214 0.000476

Gravel 0.0010743 0.0015665 0.001332 0.000476

Looking at the Republican side, Romney's pop is at least partially explained this way; he's 4% better in large towns in the hand count, so that should lead to more votes coming out of Diebold machines for him. Obama doesn't have that, it's Hillary that does better in the big cities.
HandLarge HandSmall DieLarge DieSmall

McCain 0.394895825 0.421448304 0.372023608 0.398820692

Romney 0.285647897 0.245958063 0.339336997 0.260251943

Huckabee 0.130470142 0.132013949 0.108648215 0.142589118

Giuliani 0.081248548 0.085276935 0.089320037 0.073170732

Paul 0.090388041 0.093338164 0.073739909 0.105065666

Thompson 0.012702347 0.014763824 0.011860344 0.015009381

Hunter 0.0046472 0.007200761 0.005070891 0.005092469

There's still plenty of room to be unconvinced that Diebold had anything to do with the New Hampshire result other than counting it. The real issue here is that private, closed, insecure, and unverifiable voting erodes confidence in the fundamental function of our country. In The Worthing Chronicles, Abner Doon overthrew an intergalactic society by eroding it's institutions one by one, while leaving the most valued alone at least in public. When he finally exposed the corruption he'd introduced into their most valued institution, they're whole society imploded.

America means a lot of things to a lot of people, but the one overriding safeguard and principle we value is that of representative democracy. Our government serves us, the people, because if it ever doesn't we have the power, using our franchise to vote, to turn things around every two or four years. Our whole system depends very heavily on the condition that the People choose their government. The whole untraceable voting machines thing gives people a reason to disbelieve they have any power at the federal level. Seems like a hefty price to pay to give election officials and the associated press a little convenience.