Amnesty and Leniency

I used to read the comments on the Salt Lake Tribune Letters to the Editor section of their online paper. I've stopped for the most part, because it seems like the people who comment are Anti-Everything, and I find it a bit tiring. I did read some comments following a letter praising Orrin Hatch for voting against the immigration reform package (or maybe it was criticizing Bob Bennett for voting for it- I don't remember). There were lots of comments to the effect of, "stupid illegals, we shouldn't give them amnesty! Yea Hatch! Boo Bennett- just wait until the next election! Stupid illegals!" Nice things like that.

Amnesty is a pardoning of past wrongs. No one was suggesting amnesty. Only leniency (see Wikipedia).

People broke the law to be here and work, and there should be a penalty for that, but the penalty should be lenient to those who do not break other laws, people who just want to survive. Here's a question, what kind of a crime is illegal immigration? A misdemeanor? A felony? I read something from Tyler at Davis County Watch awhile back about how illegal immigration isn't a crime per se. Maybe he can enlighten us with the specifics, since I can't remember...

A $5000+ fine per person didn't seem terribly lenient to me. Our economy draws these people here, and then punishes them. Yes they broke a law to be here, and many of them broke another law by using fraudulent documents, but we could solve both issues if we fixed our immigration laws. "Secure" the border (as much as is possible), allow people to work legally without using other people's SS numbers (right there that solves a huge problem of ID theft), fine them, or sentence them to community service or some combination of the two, and then enforce the laws.

How long is it going to take before we fix the immigration problems?

Milestones

The baby rolled over today. He decided he had finally had enough with tummy time, and rolled to his back (from his left side if it matters). He was really mad when mom put him back on his tummy to see if he'd do it again (he didn't, but can you blame him! Sheesh mom, I just rolled over, why'd you put me back!?).
He's also been enjoying patty-cake patty-cake lately (for a few weeks anyway). If he's in the right mood, and you can find the right tickle spot, he'll even laugh. There's nothing like a baby laughing to make you feel good.

Phrase of the day

"I'm telling on you!"

In the past it's been, "I won't be your friend unless..."

My three-year-old came upstairs crying (and to "tell on" his brother) because his brother had hit him. I sent him back downstairs armed with the words, "please don't hit me, that makes me sad". I'm trying to teach them to work out their problems themselves. Based on their frequency of trips to report the others bad behavior to mom, I'm not sure that they understand the concept.

At least my children are better behaved than this little boy (Really, what is up with the lack of parenting there! I hope those parents were embarrassed enough by the media coverage that they realize they need to buy a book on child rearing).

Goodbye New Friend

The dealership called, our van is all repaired. My Mr. just left to take the "fun little rental" back.

I'm kind of sad about it.

:)

Smaller Vehicles

Our van is getting repaired. The transmission went bad (under warranty, isn't that nice!). I scheduled to take it in this morning to get worked on, then we'd have it back by the end of the day, but when my Mr. dropped it off, they realized the transmission wasn't in yet- so they gave us a rental.

It's a pretty metallic green Kia Sportage. I like it more than I thought I would. It's fun to drive and fits all the kids (and the dog) and it feels a lot smaller than the van. It makes me want to trade the van for something smaller (but I can't, so I'm trying unsuccessfully to push the thought from my head).

Clarification on Wishful Thinking...

Today My Mr. and I were talking to some family members about the sad news of his motorcycle sale. Someone started talking about little boys and crashes and broken bones (which really makes me want to live a motorcycle-free life) and I said something similar to "be careful Mr., talk like that makes me want to ban any future motorcycle purchases...".

My Mr. was not too happy about that, so I feel the need to clarify. I don't love motorcycles, but I do love my Mr. I recognize that motorcycle riding is a big part of his "family quality time". I may joke about selling his motorcycle when he's not at home (which is not what happened, I should point out), I may feel some kind of wishful thinking about a motorcycle-free life, but I would NEVER EVER actually demand that he get rid of his bike forever, or ban him from getting a new one.

Happy Father's Day

Why I Love My Mr...

-He works hard (and he can do just about anything). Yesterday he fixed the plumbing on our trailer where the gray water tank had fallen off last fall, then he welded some steel supports to make sure it didn't happen again. He also recently fixed our air conditioner, and my computer. He does it all.

-He always manages to surprise me. I've mentioned getting a push reel lawn mower before, and he wasn't so thrilled with that idea, but the other day he said that maybe it wasn't such a bad idea after all. Then, of course, there's something else he's done recently that really surprised me, but I'm not allowed to talk about it yet. (Edit: I can talk about it now.)

-He wants me to be happy. On days when he's been at work all day, and at school half the night, he comes home and gives me a foot rub and asks me if my day was okay with the kids, even though I know that he's probably more tired than I am.

-He's a good dad. He talks in a silly voice because it makes the baby laugh. He's good at playing monsters with the kids, and he lets them jump all over him. He also changes poopy cloth diapers.

-He's handsome. I said this in an earlier post... My SIL commented on how my Mr. is aging nicely, and I couldn't agree more. He just keeps getting better and better looking.

Happy Fathers Day Mr.

Sacrifice

My Mr. sold his motorcycle yesterday. He loved that motorcycle, and I know how difficult it must have been for him to let someone else drive it away, knowing that he won't be able to go on rides with his brothers anytime soon. It was actually even hard for me, which I didn't expect. A teenage boy is the new owner, and I kept wondering if he would take good care of "El Diablo". I felt the same way when we sold our pet Ferris the Ferret (ferrets do NOT make good pets for babies or small children). It's easy to get attached to things.

There are several things which led us to decide that selling the bike was a good idea. Here they are, in no particular order...

1.) My Mr. would like a new bike (the blue one pictured is his current dream bike, and is making the sale of the old bike easier to deal with) at some point, and this is a good time of year to sell motorcycles, and his old bike was still new enough that if we sold it now, we'd still get a pretty good price for it.

2.) Having a baby has been more expensive than we expected, and it came down to canceling some camping trips to pay the hospital bill or selling the motorcycle. We all decided it would be better to not have a motorcycle for a year or so and still go camping than to have a motorcycle that you can't ever take anywhere.

3.) My Mr. is currently in school and isn't able to ride his motorcycle much. He hadn't started the bike since february when he went to Moab with his brothers, so it didn't make sense to keep it around when he just doesn't have time to ride.

He may be going through a mourning period, but he'll be okay. I'm grateful that he was willing to sell it (it was even his idea...), and that his priorities are in the right place.

Another Grown-Up post

My last post on age has me wondering....

Sometimes I feel, as a parent, that I'm winging it. Most of the time.

I don't remember ever feeling like my parents were winging it. I never questioned that they knew what they were doing. Now that I am there, I think they must have, and it's an interesting position to be in. Kind of like when my Mister laughs when the boys get excited about "pulling through" in a parking spot because he remembers telling his dad to "pull through" too.

I am the parent now, and I remember how I viewed my parents, and it's scary and strange and fun to think that my kids view me in that same way.

I am the authority, for a few more years anyway.

Am I a grown-up now?

I was writing an email to a friend and said that I could drive my Mister's truck to go shopping for a bridal shower present for another friend, because my Mister would be staying home with the three kids and probably wouldn't want to go anywhere with all of them.

I feel more "adult" than I did in high school, but I don't feel any more "adult" than I did in college. How has time passed so quickly that I now have three children? The scary thing is, is that time will continue to pass quicker and quicker and before I know it, my children will be having children of their own.

Our van needs a new transmission (covered under the warranty thankfully) and I took it in to the dealership to get it checked. The guy/person/man/whatever that helped me was someone who I went to high school with (which is why I have a hard time referring to him as a grown-up person because if he is, then so am I).

The older I get, the more I realize that ages that seemed so old to me, aren't so old after all. My Aunt, who I used to go stay with as a child, will always seem 26 to me. That's the age she was when I first became aware that she had an age. Imagine my shock the year I turned 26.

On the road again...

I told myself that I would start running again once the baby started sleeping through the night. I took him in for his two-month check up a couple of days ago where the doctor asked how long he was sleeping at night. I told her 3-4 hours at a time, and she said that he really ought to be sleeping for longer stretches than that (tell that to him, is what I thought). Apparently he heard what she said because last night, I fed him around 11pm or so, and he didn't wake up again until 5:45.

After he went back to sleep, I was wide awake and I kept thinking about how good it would feel to be outside in the morning air with my ipod. I tried to rationalize by saying that 11-5:45 wasn't really the WHOLE night, but the lure of the cool air and the ipod were too strong. It's really nice to have a desire to go running that is strong enough to help overcome the torture of the first few weeks of running after a 9-month hiatus.

I thought I'd start easy with my two-mile loop, but as I was going I decided I could do the three-mile loop. It took me about 30 minutes, which I thought was pretty good for my first time back. Now lets hope I can keep it up.

White Horse Prophecy

I've heard about the "constitution hanging by a thread" before, but not of the "official" (or unofficial) White Horse Prophecy until I read the article about it, and subsequent letters to the editor in the Tribune.

To find out more, I googled, and found an interesting article from the Wall Street Journal.

Here is a nice little excerpt...

"There have been several Republicans that I have known who thought that they were that individual," says Mr. Hartley [executive director of the Utah Republican Party], citing Todd Nielson, a GOP congressional candidate who failed in the 1996 state primary and Republican LaVar Christensen, currently vying for a seat for Utah's Second Congressional District. They have intimated to him that "the Constitution's hanging by a thread, and that they would be there to defend the Constitution," says Mr. Hartley.

...[but] frankly, I would worry about anybody who thought they were fulfilling prophecy".

I apologize for the (minor) change in context. It made the article more amusing.

Naked Bottoms

This morning after swimming lessons, I told my 3-year-old to go sit on the toilet. During the time it took me to set the baby down (still in his car seat), my 3-year-old had gone into the baby's bedroom and wet his pants (and the floor).

After that, he sat on the toilet, but of course nothing came out. When he was done, he couldn't find any underwear, and I couldn't go look just at the moment, so he's been half naked ever since.

Being naked is a good thing for toilet training, because he hasn't had any accidents since this morning, and he has run up the stairs to tell me "mom, I have more pee". "Okay", I say, "Go put it in the potty!". He even pooped on the toilet (today may be the first day in a long time that I have not had to rinse a poopy diaper or poopy training pants out in the toilet...).

I'm so proud.

So if you see a naked 3-year-old at the park, don't worry, we're just potty training.

The new working class

Today during swimming lessons, I sat and watched several workers at the pool. They're installing the big slide inside and working on the splash pad outside. One thing that I noticed is that most of them were hispanic. Several years ago it would have been teenage boys doing that sort of work. When I was in high school, fast food workers were generally all high school students as well. One of the criticisms I have hear about the guest worker program is that it creates a new working class. It seems rather obvious that there is already a new working class, but it's a working class without the protections that a guest worker program would have provided (to all of us).

I'm disappointed that the immigration bill wasn't passed. There were several things about it that I wasn't thrilled about, but I recognized that there were going to have to be some major compromises. Now we get to just keep going the way we are with no solutions to the immigration problem. And people who are so desperate to work here get to do so by using fraudulent documents.

Our government owes it to all of us to fix this problem, and we owe it to our fellow human beings to give them the opportunities that we enjoy because we were lucky enough to be born where we were.

Free Movie in the Park

The North Salt Lake Youth City Council is sponsoring a free movie night at Hatch Park in North Salt Lake.

Hook

SATURDAY June 16th

Movie starts at dusk

Bring your friends and family (and a blanket to sit on)

The youth council will be selling concessions, so come enjoy the movie, and support the great youth of North Salt Lake!

Second Day of Swimming Lessons

Today someone pooped in the pool.

A few minutes into my 3-year-old's class, they moved the class to the other side of the pool, set up cones, and brought out some bleach. There were three or four teenage boys with nets, scooping very small brown chunks out of the water. I briefly wondered if it was my boy who was responsible, but his teachers didn't get him out of the water, so I figured it must have happened during an earlier lesson.

After the lessons were over, we went to a family dressing room where I started getting the kids rinsed off. As I was rinsing, I noticed that my 3-year-old had pooped in his swim diaper. One of his disgusting poops. Not the grainy ones, but the chunky flaky poo ones. (sorry about that, I hope no one plans on eating ever again)

My son pooped in the pool. I'm so proud...

(and to all the other parents of children in the pool... I'm so sorry... (although I guess there's so much chlorine in that water that the poop probably wouldn't hurt anyone))

On another note (sort of) those nasty poopy diapers are not because of a lactose intolerance. We had him tested and everything came back normal. The labs didn't find anything wrong with him. The Dr. suggested seeing a GI specialist at primary children's. We're debating.... The cost...The pain (for the 3-year-old) of getting poked and prodded... We're weary of the nasty poop though, so maybe we'll go.

First day of swimming lessons

My 5-year-old went happily off to class with his teacher. This is his 3rd or 4th session of swimming lessons, so he knows the routine.

My 3-year-old lost his enthusiasm as soon as we arrived at the pool. He wasn't at all interested in joining the "fun" no matter how much his poor teacher tried to talk it up. I sat with him and nudged him until he was sitting at the edge of the pool. With about 5 minutes left in class, he finally decided it might be fun enough to make it worth climbing into water that he considered far too cold for regular enjoyment. He did try to escape a couple of times though...