If it's not one poop, it's the other...

After reading about all sorts of ways to make cloth diapering easier (and to avoid rinsing diapers in the toilet), I've discovered something...

It's really not that big of a deal to rinse a diaper out in the toilet. I don't actually have to stick my hand in the poopy-toilet-water or anything. I just hang on to a corner and swish it around a bit until the poop is mostly off, then put it in the diaper pail. My Mr. is not so fond of doing that (and not that I enjoy it or anything), but cloth diapers aren't too bad. Flushable diaper wipes would be nice, since I haven't been able to bring myself to use cloth wipes (I spend all this time trying to get the poop off of the diaper and into the toilet- so why would I want to have more bits of cloth with poop on them?!). We currently just use disposable wipes and toss them in the trash.

I finished cleaning up the 3-year-old's poopy diaper, sat down to read my email, and wham (that's not what it sounds like, but you get the idea), the baby takes his turn.

Thankfully he's in disposables until bits and pieces are all healed.

Cousins

They're exactly one week apart.

Wouldn't this be cool?

...I can say that because I'm not the one who mows the lawn.

Underage Tanning

Sorry for anyone who thought this post was going to be some sort of political commentary... My life is pretty much all-consumed by the new little one.

In the hospital, the little man's bilirubin levels were on the high side, so I had to take him to get retested yesterday. His levels had gone up, so this fancy portable fiber optic blanket (aka biliblanket) was ordered for him and delivered to us at home last night. It's definitely a step up from the grow lights I was under as a jaundiced baby. The main down side, is that now instead of feeling stuck in my house, I'm stuck in a three-foot radius that includes the crib, the changing table and the rocking chair. He doesn't seem to mind (really what more could a new baby want!).

I like to think of it as his own little tanning bed.

Oh cruel world...

Babies don't like bright flashes that go off when they're trying to sleep...

Baby

The baby is here! We left for the hospital around midnight, and the little guy was born at 5:43 am. I'm so glad that my sister and Mr were both there, I couldn't have gotten through the event without them.

The baby has light hair! Both of his brothers were born with very dark hair, so this might be our redhead. The other surprise was his size, his brothers were both under 7lbs. This guy was 8lbs 3oz and 20 inches long.

Pictures to follow...

No News Is No News...

Still no news on the baby front, at least the MY baby front.

A & N's baby was born last wednesday, and I got to hold him for a little while on sunday. He is a beautiful little baby. I love the little faces that newborns make when they are sleeping. Little half-smiles, worried faces... I love them all.

I'd be jealous, except that he was born via c-section, which doesn't sound like much fun to me... The good thing for them is that now N gets to start feeling better every day, whereas, I keep getting more and more uncomfortable every day.

:)

Taking care of each other

Last week I was having a discussion with some family members about whether the government ought to be in the business of providing welfare-type social services. One argument was that those types of services should be provided by private organizations, like churches.

I don't think that taking care of the less-fortunate among us should be viewed any differently than paying for roads and other conveniences that come along with living in a community. It benefits everyone when we make sure that all of our citizens have their basic needs met, regardless of what they may or may not "deserve". During the discussion we talked about the Sunrise Metro Apartments.

My gardening friend Patrick wrote this based on his personal experiences, and I thought it worth pasting here...

The standard litany I used to hear in community mental health services delivery was this, in order of immediate priority:

1) Provide water and other healthy liquids to drink, and healthy foods to eat, when and where and how people will drink and eat them.

2) Provide permanent housing where people will live -- housing that is safe, affordable, and healthy for the people who live there.

3) Provide community support. This can include places to socialize with peers, places to find medical and psychiatric treatment, places to find information about other services and opportunities. Places to fill in the gaps.

4) Provide the necessary supports to find (and keep) decent work for a living wage. Volunteer and part-time work is of value in itself, can be excellent for training and education -- but full-time paid work needs to be the primary goal, for as many people as can achieve it.

Offer those four primary services in effective ways to people in trouble, and many can go on to live good lives. The costs of emergency services (hospital emerg depts., police, fire, etc.) will drop. Jail and prison populations will be reduced. Alcoholism and other forms of drug abuse will decline.

Sometimes, some services need to be offered in creative ways to people who are in particular difficulties. There are many different approaches to filling in the gaps -- ways of adding necessary rungs on the ladders of support, to use a metaphor.

Despite widespread cynicism about so-called "government handouts" and the so-called "inefficiency of the public sector" (as compared to private enterprise) -- the overwhelming evidence I've seen (in short-term and long-term studies; in observation of many individuals and individual organizations; in my own life) has convinced me this is the cheapest and most reliable path to making a better life. For everyone.

Most people accept the necessity of paying for our roads and sidewalks and bridges and sewers. It bemuses and it saddens me, to think we still have conflicts over keeping our people off our streets; conflicts about removing our people from begging on our sidewalks; conflicts about providing our people with enough hope so they won't jump off our bridges -- and conflicts about helping our people to not throw their own lives into the sewer.

We all individually pay for -- and we all individually suffer from -- the suffering of others. One way or another. Personally, I'd rather pay for solutions to the root causes of problems, instead of band-aid reactions to the symptoms of problems.

All the best,
-Patrick

Good at Math

I had someone tell me recently that one of the best things you can do for your kids to help them do well in math is to tell them that they are good at math. I, personally, have never been very good at math. I've "known" that my whole life, but I'm not sure when it started.

My Mr. and I count with our 3-year-old and I've started telling him how good he is at counting and how he's good at math. My 5-year-old likes to work out addition and subtraction problems for fun, so we do that, and I compliment him on his math skills. I guess the idea behind the "you're good at math" compliments is that really, until they are in high school, there is no reason for any child to be "bad" at math, and that if young kids are told that they are good at math, they will be.

My 5-year-old (who is very good at math) has been getting a little bored with the adding and subtracting, so we've started algebra. :)

a+7=9 a=?

Things like that. He thinks it's pretty cool, and I'm afraid that my child-who-is-good-at-math will soon be better at it then I am (I guess I'd better start studying).

Next we're going to talk about story problems.

Smart Husband, Handsome Husband...

I was chatting briefly with my Mr via iChat, and I mentioned how I was feeling tired and just kind of all around blah-like today. (This of course has nothing to do with the fact that I am huge-pregnant and generally uncomfortable, and not sleeping well.) He, being the smart Mr. that he is asked, "Do you want me to comment, or just listen?" I told him comments were welcome. I thought he'd say to go take a nap. Instead he said that I should go clean up some of the piles of stuff that are sitting around the house.

My knee-jerk reaction was to tell HIM to go clean up the piles of stuff that are sitting around the house, but instead I took a breath and thought, hmmm, he's right, if I stopped sitting here and did something that involved moving around PLUS had the benefit of the house looking nicer, I might really feel better.

He's a smart Mr.

My brother-in-law put together a DVD slide-show for my Mr's (that looks like Mrs, but it's not) birthday last week. After we finished watching it, my sister-in-law said something about how he just keeps getting better and better looking. Unable to restrain myself, I burst out with "THAT'S WHAT I THINK!!!". I didn't mean for it to come out so loudly, and everyone had a good laugh over it, but really, my Mr. just keeps getting better and better looking. He's aging very nicely (for someone so young).

He's a handsome Mr.

Plus he rubs my feet/ankles every night. They hurt after a whole day of lugging around nearly 40lbs more than normal (and yes, I've almost gained 40 lbs, but this post is not about me).

Free Easter Egg Hunt!

The North Salt Lake Youth City Council is holding their annual
Easter Egg Dash
on Saturday, April 7th
10 am at Hatch Park in North Salt Lake (corner of Main and Center)
Free for children ages 2-12
Come with easter baskets ready!

Don't be late, because it only takes a few minutes for the kids to pick the fields clean. It's like the Swarm. I hope to see everyone there! The NSL Youth Council has put a lot of time into getting ready for the event. We have around 4000 easter eggs filled with candy and prizes.

It must be a conspiracy

I haven't been able to get on the Salt Lake Tribune website since friday. My web browser tells me that the server www.sltrib.com cannot be found.

What is going on? The part of my brain that thinks my opinions are more important than anyone else's opinions thinks that I have been banned for stumbling onto some sort of governmental conspiracy (yeah, that's it...). Has anyone ever been banned from the SL Tribune site for posting things on their comments sections? (I don't think I've said anything obnoxious, although I'll admit obnoxious is relative...)

I feel like I'm missing out though, the Deseret News just doesn't do it for me.

Story Hour

We weren't in there for an hour, it just seemed like it. I've read that children who wear cloth diapers toilet train faster than children who wear disposables. I think it's because parents get tired of changing cloth diapers faster than they get tired of changing disposables... :)

It's really not so bad, but for some reason I keep thinking that he's old enough to be using the toilet. He's old enough to tell me that he doesn't like his "new" diapers after all. He just doesn't get it. He can sit on the toilet for 20 minutes (it's good reading time- even my 5-year-old joined in on the fun) and do nothing but toot (which he does get excited about!) and then five minutes into a clean diaper, he "goes". It's driving me crazy.

How do I get him to do his duty on the potty? He does make some nice faces while he pretends to poop. It reminds me of my friend whose little boy said to her "don't strain yourself".

My Brother and the Shenpa

My brother is in an interesting position in life. He's trying to figure out what to do to support his family. Should he do something to make a lot of money? Should he do something to help others? I think Ideally, he'd like to do both (although maybe money is not so important to him....). I'd imagine he'd like to provide comfortably for his family.

Here's a really good post on his blog about money.

I want my money.

Check out his other posts too. I've really been enjoying his new blog.

Not so old...

..



HAPPY 30th MR.


..

Not Everything Has To Be A Contest

I tell my 5-year-old fairly regularly that not everything needs to be a contest. He's very competitive. He knows which kids at school are "ahead" of him in their homework books. He knows who is further along in their computer program. I talked to his teacher about it last time we had a parent/student/teacher conference, she said that there are 22 kids in the class and only 5 or 6 (I can't remember for sure) are girls, and the boys are extremely competitive with each other. She said it's something they're working on at school, and encouraged me to continue working on it at home.

Well, here is something that isn't going to help. My Mr. and I are having a contest of sorts to see how long we can make one tank of gas last. This isn't entirely fair because he drives into salt lake for school at least twice a week, so maybe it's not so much that we will be competing with each other, as we'll just be trying to each do the best we can. I've walked to pick up my kindergartner from school every day so far in the past two weeks. My Mr. does drive him to school on the way to work (it's been to cold to walk so far, and since the time change we've had a hard time waking up early enough to walk (it takes me nearly 30 minutes to walk the 1/2 mile to his school these days, I have to go very slowly). Lots of excuses. After the baby is born we'll see about walking to school (I need to find a group of kids for him to walk with- he just seems so little to be walking to school without me!).

In other news, my 3-year-old has sat on the toilet three times this morning. Right now he's in there reading his books. Nothing has happened yet, but I'm hoping.

Go Canada!

One of my Canadian friends mentioned how, in their federal budget, there will be extra fees attached to the purchase of new "gas guzzling" automobiles, and rebates on purchases of fuel efficient vehicles (not just hybrids either).

Hooray for a government that is getting it right! An article I found on the CBC Website says that it will hurt families who don't have a choice when it comes to smaller vehicles. I find it hard to believe that families HAVE to choose SUV's. Our minivan doesn't get the best mileage in the world, but it is not too much worse than a regular sedan.

It makes me glad to see a government holding those who want to drive large vehicles that waste resources financially responsible for their excess instead of trying to punish people who can't afford to drive new cars, which from what I can understand is what the Tailpipe Tax would do.

I would agree that imposing higher taxes on cars with higher emission levels would be good for the air, perhaps people would be more careful about taking care of their cars and driving cleaner cars, except that it seems to me, that people who drive older cars do so because that's what they can afford.

The Nicest Walmart in Utah...

According to an article in todays Tribune, the nicest walmart will now be in Cedar Hills (if it is approved). I thought Centerville was going to have the "nicest Walmart in Utah". I guess that was before they were allowed to swap cultured stone for the original plan of Farmington Rock.

Watch out Cedar Hills...

Here's a little snip from the Trib article...."It captures that colonial look well, which is a challenging thing for a building like that. The building is more attractive. . . . I think it looks great." Wright agreed, saying Cedar Hills is getting the nicest Wal-Mart in Utah.

Motivation

Over the weekend, I attended a youth leadership conference in Logan with my city's Youth Council. During the conference (and this is the 3rd one I've been to now), we get to hear some really good speakers. My favorite from this year's conference was Mike Schlappi. He was accidentally shot by his friend when he was a teenager, and paralyzed from the waist down.

He has taken a horrible experience and used it to accomplish amazing things. He was on the US Paralympic Basketball team for 4 olympics, and he presents an amazing story to motivate those he speaks to.

In past years there have been other speakers that I have found to be similarly amazing, people who go through horrible things, but use those experiences to do more with their lives than those of us who have things pretty easy and just continue on day to day doing what we always do.

It really makes me wonder about motivation. What makes some people step up in the face of adversity when others retreat? What makes ordinary people decide to do amazing things? What would I do if I were to face any extreme challenge in my life, and why would I need to wait until then to make a difference in the world?

Where much is given, much is required. I know what it feels like to hurt, but my life has been pretty easy. I've never been hungry without knowing where my next meal would come from. I've never really felt like my life was in danger. I have a comfortable life, so what do I need to do with it? I try to be involved in good causes, I am trying to be more patient with my kids, and do things with them to give them healthy childhood experiences. I guess it's difficult to say whether our everyday actions are "amazing" or not, at least short-term. Maybe our goal should not be to accomplish amazing things, but to not waste the time we have. I can sit and come up with excuses about why I should rest and not do anything all day long, or I can do something with my kids to teach them to serve others.

In for the long haul...

Several months ago, I discovered gdiapers and posted about them on my blog. I decided that they would work great with cloth inserts instead of the flushable inserts, and that not only would diapering the new baby be more earth-friendly, but it would also be more budget-friendly.

Since then, my fear of cloth diapering and my Mister's lack of enthusiasm over the idea (will I have to change the poopy ones?) kind of sent me back to the do-nothing-different approach, which meant disposables because I can buy them at the grocery store (or costco) and that is much easier than buying something online (I hate paying for shipping).

A few weeks ago my sister gave me a baby gift which included a starter set of gdiapers. If I had those, it would be silly not to use them, so pushed into action, I ordered 2 dozen prefold diapers and a couple more covers (and I got free shipping! Ha!).

I also ordered a toddler-sized cloth diapering package, since if I'm washing cloth diapers for one baby, I might as well wash cloth diapers for two-plus I'm hoping that my three-year-old will decide that it's uncomfortable to actually feel wet and decide the toilet isn't so awful after all.

I've been researching cloth diapering ever since the first package of newborn-sized covers arrived in the mail, and I've learned that you don't necessarily have to dunk and swish in the toilet (a huge plus in my book). Newborn poop "washes out like yogurt" (good to know, but I might not be making yogurt anymore...) and there are these cool flushable liners that you can use for solid-food-eating infants....

My Mr. is an easy going sort of person, and recognizes a good deal when he sees one. We've been spending approximately $30/month on diapers for the last three years (double that if you count child #1). That is $1080 spent on diapers. That we throw away. We figure for cloth diapers, we will spend approximately $350 total. I've already spent about $175 but that is on small sized diapers and the biggest sized diapers we will need, so I think the $350 is being generous. That's $730 difference! Imagine what I could buy with that! (My Mr. is imagining motorcycle stuff, and we'll let him imagine whatever he wants as long as he changes plenty of diapers)

Smart and Business-Minded

On Sunday, my 5-year-old was busy building something with his K'nex (His are similar to what is shown in the link). He built a nice set of dumbbells. After he had them all lined up nicely, he got out his piggy bank and set it up nearby. Then he went around the house recruiting customers.

For 25 cents I had a nice workout with very light weights, and the privilege of watching my son "make money". I think he'd open up the gym for anyone who was interested, so come on over.... My Mister's comment was that he takes after my side of the family (we generally don't like working for other people).

This morning while we were brushing teeth, my 5-year-old said, "mom, the black thing in your eye is called a pimple".

"I think you mean a pupil."

"Oh, yeh, a pupil... and when you are in the dark it gets really big, and when you shine a light in your eyes, they get really small."

It always surprises me a little bit when he spurts off information that he didn't learn from me. Now that he is in school it is happening more and more often. I'm having a hard time with the idea of having him gone all day when first grade starts next year (august 29th, and he can't wait). It's enough to make me consider home schooling him, just to keep him close to me. I won't though. He's having a great time in school. I'll have to be satisfied with our great discussions about pimples and whatever other information he decides to share with me.

Terry Wood and Divine Strake Fallout

Paul Rolly Reports in the SL Tribune:

Divine Strake fallout? Watch for KTVX, Channel 4 co-anchor Ruth Todd to disappear from the air within the next few days. Her contract expires this week and, reportedly, it won't be renewed. In a few weeks, according to rumblings among TV news types around town, the other Channel 4 anchor, Terry Wood, will be demoted to weekends.

Why?

The scuttlebutt around town is that KTVX's owner, Texas-based ClearChannel, went into a tizzy over the station's editorializing against Divine Strake, an idea that came out of the administration of George W. Bush, a particular darling of the redder-than-red owners of ClearChannel. And does it matter that the administration finally caved to public pressure and canceled the megabomb test just outside Utah's borders?

Apparently not.

I hope, if this indeed is what is happening that ClearChannel gets inundated with complaints. For your convenience, here is their contact information...

Corporate:
Clear Channel
200 East Basse Road
San Antonio, TX 78209
Phone 1-210-822-2828

Communications:
Lisa Dollinger
1-210-822-2828
lisacdollinger@clearchannel.com

Clear Channel Website:
webmaster@clearchannel.com

Television
Station Listing
Email: cctvinfo@clearchannel.com
Phone: 1-210-822-2828

Odds and Ends in the Kitchen

I sewed the valences and got them up (although they somehow turned out to be different lengths, so I'll have to fix that at some point). We shopped around for several hours looking for things to decorate with, and I think it turned out pretty good.

I'm not big on fancy "decor" so part of me feels a little funny in there still. I'm sure I'll get used to it, and eventually it won't feel like I'm sitting in a (very small) home-show dining room.




Now we just need to get the cabinets all finished.

One Day

If you work hard, you can change a lot in just one day... Sanding and scraping to get rid of the sand on the walls (never dump sand into paint for texture, I don't know what the previous owners were thinking!)...then dark paint first...
Next, the lighter paint which is "ragged off".
Finally, the wall board and trim.

Just a little more to finish up on monday...

Do you have your documents?

If you look hispanic anyway, you might need them with you at all times.

With HB 105, state and local police officers could take on some new immigration responsibilities.

When my Mister was on his mission in Peru, he had to carry his passport (or "documents") with him everywhere he went. Is that where we are headed? Will anyone who looks remotely hispanic have to worry about proving to any police officer they run into, that they are indeed citizens of the US?

This bill will make people who are not here legally even more unlikely to report crimes than they already are, and it will put extra strain on state and local police officers who should be spending their time protecting the public from CRIMINALS.

We're putting putty in a sieve. These petty little attacks on other human beings are not going to solve our immigration problems. Why in the world hasn't the federal government done anything about it yet?

Progress

This morning my three-year-old ran in to the living room and said "I want to poop on the potty" I was so excited, usually he just wants to wash his hands. We ran to the bathroom where I noticed the smell.

He had just pooped in his diaper. Bummer. At least he's starting to make a connection. He knows he gets a treat if he does something on the toilet, so he'd climb down, look in the toilet and climb up again.

It's progress.

Here he goes again...

Does Rep. Donnelson really think all of his bills to make life more difficult for illegal immigrants will make them go home?

According the this Salt Lake Tribune article, Rep. Donnelson wants to take away their ability to drive legally. Is it going to stop people from driving? Of course not, we'll just have that many fewer insured, trained (as far as you can call utah drivers education "training") drivers among us.

Another good idea by Mr. Donnelson!

Fighting Naps

Sometimes we all just need a nap. Ten minutes ago this little boy was throwing a huge tantrum. Nine minutes ago he was grudgingly climbing into his bed to have a nap because he needed one. Five minutes ago, he came upstairs to tell me he was done napping. Two minutes ago he fell asleep on the couch.

Life is hard when you are 5 1/2.

More Abortion Discussions

I've been having lots of discussions about abortion lately. People have strong views on it, so it can get to be a fairly intense discussion. There are a few things that I have not been able to resolve in my mind, until recently, maybe (I'm still working on it).

Abortion discussion from The World, According To Me

And discussions from Jen's Green Journal

It's interesting to think about being pro-choice and anti-abortion. I'm not sure where I fit in there yet. I've always felt like I couldn't say I was pro-choice or pro-life. (that's why I just say pro-responsibility).

The thing that I have been thinking about lately, is that people use the killing a life argument, but they want to include the exceptions for health and life of the mother and rape and incest. A life is a life no matter how it was created, so being against abortion based on the "killing life" exception doesn't make sense to me. However, even a very tiny fetus moves, and looks like a small person. I had an ultrasound with my current pregnancy around 12 weeks. It looked like a little gummy bear and he was waving his arms.

I believe that Heavenly Father will work things out and that an aborted fetus has not lost its "chance" for a body. I can't see Heavenly Father punishing something so innocent for the choices of its parents.

I think we have to learn to be responsible with out bodies and the choices we make. We know what can happen when we have sex, so to be responsible, we use some form of birth control if we don't want to have children, but we go into knowing that having sex can lead to pregnancy so we must take responsibility for the results of our choice.

I know that if I touch a hot oven I will be burned, so it would be irresponsible of me to not use a hot pad to take something out of that oven. I have to be careful to avoid the undesirable consequence. It would be irresponsible (and ridiculous) of me to touch the oven and then be angry that the oven burned me, because I knew that ovens were hot.

I think women should choose to be responsible (although I realize that some people veiw abortion as a responsible choice).

So in LDS views, is abortion a sin because it is murder or because it is being irresponsible with a power that should be sacred? I'd tend to go with the later, but like I said, I'm still trying to figure out how to view the issue consistently.

You don't deserve it...but we might force it on you.

Excerpts from the Salt Lake Tribune:

As expected, state lawmakers Wednesday rejected a proposed constitutional amendment intended to provide access to affordable health care for all Utahns.

"Proper health care is essential to the pursuit of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness in the citizenry," McCoy said. "Some of us don't live quite as well as we should. But at least we should be coming to the conclusion that we need to create a system where people have access to affordable, medically necessary care, in spite of themselves."

A Salt Lake Tribune poll in January found that 67 percent of Utahns supported amending the Utah Constitution to declare affordable, accessible health care a basic right.

But Kelly Atkinson, Director of the Utah Health Insurance Association, argued that the amendment would put the state on the hook for a massive bill. "Should that be the public policy of the state?" Atkinson asked. "Is health care a right? We don't think so." Health care might be expensive, Atkinson said, but those uninsured Utahns who need treatment can get it in emergency rooms.

Some members of the Senate Health and Human Services Committee also balked at the prospect of providing health care for Utahns who don't take care of themselves - including smokers and the obese.

The bill failed in a vote along party lines.

Despite that defeat, low-income advocates still hope legislators will put some of the state's $1.6 billion surplus toward health care for poor Utahns. They offered a pumpkin pie to House Speaker Greg Curtis with just a sliver cut out - representative of funding for health care programs. "If he and the governor can partner to save soccer, they can put away some money for health care,"

67% of Utahns favor access to health care for all, but our politicians are not listening to us. Who are they listening to? Apparently to Kelly Atkinson, director of the Utah Health INSURANCE Association. I wonder why they are against affordable health care for all? What does it cost taxpayers for all of the uninsured Utahns to get care at emergency rooms? What a joke.

I find it amusing (in a sad, pathetic way) that the same newspaper has an article about a bill that would "force all Utahns to purchase catastrophic health insurance for themselves and dependents - policies tied to huge deductibles and health savings accounts - or something better." The bill was pitched as a "way to stop the uninsured from freeloading and forcing everyone else to pay their health costs."

After all, all those uninsured Utahns are uninsured because they aren't responsible.

Buyer's Remorse (The Costco Version)

I just put two wild-thing boys to bed. I'm hoping they stay there and maybe even fall asleep before morning. To settle my nerves I had a (small) dish of vanilla bean ice cream with too much chocolate syrup. It was good, and relaxing, and I'm feeling much better (although I am shivering under my blanket and may need to go warm up my heating pad).

The bad news is that the ice cream is almost gone. And there won't be any more until March. The problem is Costco. I allow myself one "big" shopping trip a month and other trips are only for things like milk (and maybe some sort of fruit or lettuce or something like that, but that's it, really!). This month (I actually went January 28th and decided to count it for February since I had already been in January) I spent way too much. It's a common problem with shopping at Costco. It's nearly impossible to get out the door with less than $100 worth of groceries (unless you only buy milk), and it is much too easy to spend quite a bit more than that.

The last trip, I (and my Mr) spent nearly the entire month's grocery budget. Then Winegars had a case-lot sale of sorts (which I find impossible to resist) and there went the rest of the grocery budget. My Mr. has challenged me to make it through the entire month without buying anything else but milk. That means once the current jumbo-costco-sized bag of lettuce is gone, no more salads. Sadly, that also means no more ice cream.

The good news is that from our recent food-shopping-sprees, we are well stocked and since this is a short month, we'll probably survive. I need to make yogurt though (and some hermits) so that I don't feel too deprived.

Go have some Ice Cream

The last few days of warmer weather are making me excited for spring. (Punxsutawney Phil said it will be an early spring this year!) I've been watching the front flower bed for the first tips of crocuses to pop up through the soil. I'm feeling the need to go to the garden center to pick up some pea seeds (I have to plant them before my neighbors do, you know- and now that I'm thinking about it, the new raised bed in the front yard that didn't get bulbs planted in it last fall would be a great place for peas- then pumpkins...).

My blog has been fairly well consumed by politics lately, so I thought it would be nice to have a post about something else.

Spring is wonderful all by itself, but spring also means that summer is coming, and what does summer mean (besides fresh tomatoes from the garden)? Ice cream! I can eat ice cream without shivering under a blanket. I suffer, because I love ice cream, but summer is much nicer. Here's a picture of the then-two-year-old enjoying an ice cream cone in the backyard last summer.

Health care for children, Medicaid not top priorities

I'm so glad that our legislature keeps busy with "message" bills. What would they do without those? Hmmm, maybe talk about things that would actually improve life for the residents of Utah?

An article in today's Tribune says that funding to expand CHIP is likely to only get half of what Governor Huntsman wanted.

What will it take to convince our government to stop wasting time and money on morality bills (and I'm all for morality) when we have children and families who don't have access to health care.

Access to quality health care for all SHOULD be a priority, shame on our legislature for thinking otherwise.

Choice

It's amazing what happens when you take some time to think about something (really, I encourage everyone to try it!). I was thinking about what might happen if elective abortions were suddenly made illegal in Utah.

I think that there would be a lot of desperate women who really feel like abortion is their only choice seeking other methods of ending their pregnancies. I'm not using this as a justification for allowing abortions, but I think before we make something illegal we need to think out the consequences of doing so.

M.A. commented in my earlier post on the abortion bill that ideally people would always be conscientious and responsible, but that real life doesn't always work that way. I don't know what the statistics are on abortions in Utah or why women seek an abortion, but obviously there must be women who feel like it is their only choice. I'm disgusted that there are still insurance companies who will pay for drugs like viagra but not birth control.

So, it seems to me, that before we go banning something, we ought to work a little harder to reduce demand for it. Spend the 2-4 million dollars on education and health care reform so that all women in utah know what their options are, and that those options are accessible to everyone. Reduce the demand for abortions, give women options and information, then talk about challenging Roe vs. Wade.

Until all women in Utah have some basic level of sex education and accessible options for pregnancy prevention, banning abortion would only shift the procedure into a much less-safe black market.

Weightier Matters and the Abortion Bill

I remember reading this article by Dallin H Oaks when I was a student at USU. It has stuck with me ever since. I used to feel really conflicted about the abortion issue, after all, shouldn't a woman be able to choose? It's her body.

Yes, she should be able to choose, and she can. Aside from rape and other circumstances where the choice has been taken away from her, a woman can choose whether to have sex or not. A woman can choose to use some form of birth control. It should not come as a surprise to any woman that having sex can result in pregnancy. If it does, then we need some major education reform in Utah (either in the home or in schools, I'm not picky). It would be nice if males had a more direct consequence from having unprotected sex. They don't though, and using that as an excuse for a woman to avoid responsibility for her choices is ridiculous.

Somewhat as a side note, I learned something new recently. On my gardening/composting discussion forum (obviously we talk about other things too) someone posted an article about a woman who was arrested after she had taken the first part of the Morning After Pill. The jail's nurse for whatever reason did not allow her to take the second pill. I don't think the original story had anything to do with moral objections by the nurse, but on my discussion forum, that's how it was brought up. I didn't know anything about the morning after pill, although I did do some reading about RU486 in college. I had always assumed that the two were the same. I was wrong, and I think a lot of people make the same assumption. The Morning After Pill (also known as Plan B) is not an abortion drug. It prevents pregnancy much in the same way that birth control pills and IUD's do (and it is supposed to be available at pharmacies without a prescription for women over 18 years old). Anyway, back to the main issue- I just thought this was interesting.

Abortion is a responsibility issue, not a choice issue.

That said, I'm not sure how I feel about the bill to ban abortions. I'm glad to see that the bill includes the exceptions that it does, but I'm unsure about the financial cost of defending the bill. Who decided to change it from the original trigger bill anyway?

Voucher Discussions with Paul Neuenschwander

I sent an email to Sheryl Allen and Paul Neuenschwander asking them to vote No on vouchers. I heard back from Sheryl Allen within a day or two. She encouraged me to email Paul Neuenschwander, which I found amusing (she voted no, he voted yes).

After the voucher bill passed, I heard back from Paul (we've had quite the email conversation lately, so I can call him by his first name). Here's what he had to say:

Thank you for writing. You likely know by now that the bill passed and I voted in favor of it. Let me give you my reasoning. As I examined the matter and stripped out the emotions, my decision came down to a pure business decision. We have 150,000 students coming in the next 10 years and that is on top of the 550,000 students we
currently have. We need to fund the students in some way or another. I found this to be a partial answer of that funding. If I can move a student out of the system in which the tax payer has a $8,000 burden for only $2000 (the amount the fiscal analyst thinks will be the average) that makes sense for me. We can save many thousands each student by building this private/public partnership. The fiscal analyst also thinks not more than 4000 leave the system. Even at 4000, if we save $5000 per student, that would amount to about $20,000,000 in savings. This would be good for the system. I hope that helps you understand where I am coming from. I know it will not satisfy everyone, but I did receive numerous emails from other constituents that wanted me to vote for them. Thanks for writing and please feel free to keep me informed of your opinion. I will be happy to share my thinking process. Paul

I emailed him back:

Thank you for your reply.

I am disappointed in the way you voted. Tax money should not be spent to support private, for-profit businesses. In business, the higher the demand, the higher the cost. With more children able (although I have serious doubts as to how many children this bill will actually "help") to attend private schools, the cost of private schools will increase. Supply and demand. Pure business.

It will be interesting to see what happens.

I was surprised when I got another email from him...

Thank you. We have numerous public/private partnerships. Most of the health delivery system is provided by companies in the private sector. They can provide the services to those who need them better than the state can do it. It is the second largest budget item. Historically only tax money has been used to fund public schools. With this public/private cooperation, we are hoping that some of the services (in this case education) can be provided less expensively than just funding the public schools. It will certainly relieve the situation. It is not the only answer and in fact the fiscal analyst said only 4000 students will take advantage of it. Given our current enrollment that is less than 1%. But, if we had to finance them in the system it would be upwards of $28 million. With this partnership it is about $8 million. No matter where we have them, we have to pay for them. I for one want to make sure we do all we can to help educate our kids in the best possible way and I think this partnership is one step. Paul

And my final email back to him (you never know though, he might email me back again- if he does I'll edit this post to include it)...

Paul,
Like I said, it will be interesting to see what happens. I truly hope that vouchers are able to help the education system. I have my doubts, but we will see.

I do find it rather amusing that you use health care as an example of sucessful private/public partnerships. Our health care system is probably more messed up than our education system.

Thank you for the discussion. :)

He has voted completely opposite of what I would have liked for him to vote. I realize that my views are more moderate than many of the conservative voters of Davis County, so I can't expect to always feel represented, but his voting record has been frustrating for me. It's nice to have civil discussion with him about an issue, even if we disagree. It helps me to remember that he really probably is a very good person. It's been interesting.

What Number Do I Call For This?

I'm not sure what the outcome was, or if there has been one yet, but it seems like someone was proposing a bill to allow anonymous reporting of bad driving. I really could have used that number the other day. My family was driving home from visiting with Grandma and Grandpa on a Sunday evening. The car ahead of us was veering in and out of three different lanes, obviously not just intending on changing lanes. The driver wasn't speeding, and my Mr. made the comment that the person must be aware enough to know they were drunk. It would have been nice if there was some number I could have called to report that driver and have a UHP officer get them off of the road.

Along the same lines, I think it would be nice to have an anonymous tip line that we could call and report idiotic legislation. Then if one legislator gets enough complaints, we could have them removed for being incompetent.

Are We Ready to Face Facts?

No one is asking for radical changes, but if we don't stop pretending that what we do doesn't matter, they might be forced upon us (or our children).

PARIS (AP) - The world's leading climate scientists said global warming has begun, is "very likely" caused by man, and will be unstoppable for centuries, according to a report obtained Friday by The Associated Press.
The scientists - using their strongest language yet on the issue - said now that world has begun to warm, hotter temperatures and rises in sea level "would continue for centuries" no matter how much humans control their pollution. The report also linked the warming to the recent increase in stronger hurricanes.

"The observed widespread warming of the atmosphere and ocean, together with ice-mass loss, support the conclusion that it is extremely unlikely that global climate change of the past 50 years can be explained without external forcing, and very likely that is not due to known natural causes alone," said the report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change - a group of hundreds of scientists and representatives of 113 governments.
The phrase "very likely" translates to a more than 90 percent certainty that global warming is caused by man's burning of fossil fuels. That was the strongest conclusion to date, making it nearly impossible to say natural forces are to blame.

What that means in simple language is "we have this nailed," said top U.S. climate scientist Jerry Mahlman, who originated the percentage system. The 20-page report, which was due to be officially released later in the day, represents the most authoritative science on global warming.

On sea levels, the report projects rises of 7-23 inches by the end of the century. An additional 3.9-7.8 inches are possible if recent, surprising melting of polar ice sheets continues. But there is some cold comfort. Some, but not all, of the projected temperature and sea level rises are slightly lower than projected in a previous report in 2001. That is mostly due to use of more likely scenarios and would still result in dramatic effects across the globe, scientists said. Many scientists had warned that this estimate was too cautious and said sea level rise could be closer to 3-5 feet because of ice sheet melt.
Nevertheless, scientists agreed the report is strong.

"There's no question that the powerful language is intimately linked to the more powerful science," said one of the study's many co-authors, Andrew Weaver of the University of Victoria, who spoke by phone from Canada. He said the report was based on science that is rock-solid, peer-reviewed, and consensus.

"It's very conservative. Scientists by their nature are skeptics." The scientists wrote the report based on years of peer-reviewed research and government officials edited it with an eye toward the required unanimous approval by world governments. In the end, there was little debate on the strength of the wording about the role of man in global warming.
The panel quickly agreed Thursday on two of the most contentious issues: attributing global warming to man-made burning of fossil fuels and connecting it to a recent increase in stronger hurricanes. Negotiations over a third and more difficult issue - how much the sea level is predicted to rise by 2100 - went into the night Thursday with a deadline approaching for the report.

While critics call the panel overly alarmist, it is by nature relatively cautious because it relies on hundreds of scientists, including skeptics. "I hope that policymakers will be quite convinced by this message," said Riibeta Abeta, a delegate whose island nation Kiribati is threatened by rising seas. "The purpose is to get them moving."

The Chinese delegation was resistant to strong wording on global warming, said Barbados delegate Leonard Fields and others. China has increasingly turned to fossil fuels for its huge and growing energy needs. The U.S. government delegation was not one of the more vocal groups in the debate over whether warming is man-made, said officials from other countries. And several attendees credited the head of the panel session, Susan Solomon, a top U.S. government climate scientist, with pushing through the agreement so quickly.

The Bush administration acknowledges that global warming is man-made and a problem that must be dealt with, Bush science adviser John Marburger has said. However, Bush continues to reject mandatory limits on so-called "greenhouse" gases.

Enough is Enough

Representative Glenn Donnelson is at it again. Now he wants to make local police officers play the part of ICE too. Now, instead of just trying to keep up with KEEPING US SAFE FROM REAL CRIMINALS, local police officers will also have to take on the role of immigration officers.

People live here with out documentation. They are part of our communities, their kids go to school with our kids, they go for walks around the block pushing strollers, just like I do. They are witnesses to other crimes, just like the rest of us could be. Do we really want them to NOT report crimes because the local police could have them locked up and deported?

Sounds like a grand idea Mr. Donnelson.

I am so tired and frustrated with people who spend so much time and energy attacking people, when they should be attacking the real problem. The immigration system in our country has some major problems. If we could get it fixed, we wouldn't have to worry about paying for emergency room care for undocumented workers or their families, we wouldn't have to worry about whether it is "legal" for undocumented students to get instate tuition, and we wouldn't have to worry about "those darn illegals" stealing our identities.

We all need to contact our representatives and our senators and our congressmen and tell them to stop dinking around with immigration bandaids when they should be curing the illness.

Too Much Time on My Hands, or Diversionary Tactics...

This is what the boys ate for lunch today. I wasn't sure if they'd eat the cold whole wheat pasta, but since there was ranch dressing to dip it in, I shouldn't have worried. There was also a side of slightly-runny-home-made-yogurt (with berries in it). If I use real milk, it turns out pretty well, a little runnier than store-bought, but spoon-able. If I use powdered milk it's pretty runny, which is fine, I just have to remember to serve it in a cup.

The boys love eating things that can be shaped into faces or flowers or whatever. I think it must be similar to the satisfaction of biting the heads off of animal crackers.

After I got the lunches assembled (mostly from left-overs out of the fridge) I thought to myself, wow, you have too much time on your hands. It's not really true, I realized, it's just that all of the things that I should be doing are not what I want to be doing, so I find ways to postpone them.

My lunch was also left-overs, but not in the shape of a face, in case you were wondering.

In-State Tuition

There was a nice editorial in the Trib yesterday. The author of this editorial says that Rep. Glenn Donnelsen who is sponsoring HB224 (to prohibit undocumented students from receiving in-state tuition) has misinterpreted the federal law. Reading the federal law, I can see how it might be misinterpreted.

US Code, Title 8, Chapter 14, Subchapter II, Section 1623a says:

Notwithstanding any other provision of law, an alien who is not
lawfully present in the United States shall not be eligible on the
basis of residence within a State (or a political subdivision) for
any postsecondary education benefit unless a citizen or national of
the United States is eligible for such a benefit (in no less an
amount, duration, and scope) without regard to whether the citizen
or national is such a resident.

It's confusing, and from what it looks like to me, Donnelson might just be right (as far as following bad law goes). It looks like unless a citizen of the US can get in-state tuition regardless of residency, an undocumented student can't. But non-resident citizens CAN get in-state tuition after meeting some other requirements (one of which is residency for a certain period) which an undocumented student who has lived here and graduated from a local high school has already met, so then it would seem that an undocumented student should be eligible for in-state tuition.

I guess after reading the actual law, I would have to support Donnelson's bill IF he left out the part where undocumented students can't ever get in state tuition, because that is not what the law says. Leaving out that part makes the whole bill a big waste of time. It would be passing a bill that changes nothing. I'm glad they're making good use of their time up on the hill.

Who's Responsible?

My son wants a bird. A parrot specifically, so that he can teach it to talk. He also asked recently when he would stop being a kid and become a grown-up. You might wonder what these two things have in common... After he asked when he'd be a grown-up, I told him that there wasn't a set age at which someone becomes a grown-up. He then asked, "are some people kids forever?".

In some ways, yes.

It all comes down to one word. Responsibility.

One of the requirements for my son to prove he is responsible enough to help take care of a bird (which will NOT be a parrot) is to keep his toys picked up without whining. It's an important lesson to learn, to take care of the things you have and not expect someone else to come along and clean up the messes you make in your life. Be responsible for yourself and for the "things" in your life.

Responsibility is a big issue to me, and I could go on, but I'll save it for future posts.

Not so Inconvenient...

I finally saw Al Gore's movie, An Inconvenient Truth yesterday. I'll admit that I was not looking forward to it. A movie with Al Gore doing all the talking? What could be more boring!

I was pleasantly surprised. It was really well done. According to my father's science-community friends, it is pretty accurate too. There is some question as to whether warmer ocean temperatures increase the strength of hurricanes, but otherwise, the science is there and backs up everything in the movie.

I've seen and heard people argue passionately about whether global warming exists. My first thought is that whether global warming exists or not, there is nothing wrong with conserving resources. If it doesn't exist, you've saved yourself some money by using more efficient light bulbs, walking or using mass transit (or carpooling), and insulating your house. If it does exist, you've saved yourself some money, and done a small part to help keep our planet healthy. It's way too easy to blow off the idea of recycling or doing anything else that might seem "crazy, liberal, hippie, sierra club"-ish. I believe that we were created by a loving Heavenly Father, and that he placed us on earth and asked us to be good stewards to the things we have, so why do we go around driving SUV's when no one else is in the car? Why do we need to fill two huge cans with garbage every week? Why do we waste so much, and then make fun of people who are trying to be good stewards?

Between this movie and the current inversion we are suffering through, I'm really interested in learning more about what I can do. I hate that I can't let my kids play outside because the air is so disgusting. I don't even want to walk to pick up my son from school because I don't want to be outside any longer than I have to. We all have sore, tired eyes. We all feel a little more congested than normal. I blame the air.

Back to the movie, the title is interesting to me, because no one is asking anything terribly inconvenient of anyone. No one is suggesting we go live in a tree somewhere. The suggestions for improving carbon dioxide emissions are mostly small things that any of us can do without much trouble.

This website has the following list of suggestions, for more information on each suggestion and links go to the website.

What can I do?
Replace a regular incandescent light bulb with a compact fluorescent light bulb (cfl)
Move your thermostat down 2° in winter and up 2° in summer
Clean or replace filters on your furnace and air conditioner
Install a programmable thermostat
Choose energy efficient appliances when making new purchases
Wrap your water heater in an insulation blanket
Use less hot water
Use a clothesline instead of a dryer whenever possible
Turn off electronic devices you’re not using
Unplug electronics from the wall when you’re not using them
Only run your dishwasher when there’s a full load and use the energy-saving setting
Insulate and weatherize your home
Be sure you’re recycling at home
Buy recycled paper products
Plant a tree
Get a home energy audit
Switch to green power
Buy locally grown and produced foods
Buy fresh foods instead of frozen
Seek out and support local farmers markets
Buy organic foods as much as possible
Avoid heavily packaged products
Eat less meat
Reduce the number of miles you drive by walking, biking, carpooling or taking mass transit wherever possible
Start a carpool with your coworkers or classmates
Keep your car tuned up
Check your tires weekly to make sure they’re properly inflated
When it is time for a new car, choose a more fuel efficient vehicle
Try telecommuting from home

Many of these things are things that my family is already doing, and most of them are things that are also money savers.

Save some money, take care of the earth, help improve air quality.

Someday, if my Mr. and I ever get to build a house, we'd like to include a solar panel, so I've been reading about solar panels and discovered that Rocky Mountain Power has a net metering system, where any power you create off the grid, is used first, reducing demand during peak usage times, and reducing your power bill. Any power you generate that you don't use is sold back to the power company. It's a good deal for everyone! Solar panels are not cheap, so it will have to wait until it can be bundled into the cost of building a new home.

In the meantime, I've signed up for one block of wind generated power from Rocky Mountain Power. The more demand for renewable power, the less it will cost. One block is equal to 100 kwh and adds $1.95 to your monthly power bill. I'll increase the amount we are purchasing in the future to cover all our power usage, but it's a start. You can find out more at theRocky Mountain Power website.

Growing Up

My Mister (who is wonderful) has been having discussions with his brothers about upcoming vacations. In their family, (off road) motorcycle riding is a big deal, and most (if not all) of the camping trips revolve around "rides".

The youngest of the brothers, who is married with a fairly new baby, made the following comment in an email: Let's talk about who this vacation is for. It is a vacation for our family to disrupt the blidge of daily living. I go to school from 7:45 am till about 5 pm everyday. I work twenty hours a week. Every other time I have avaliable is spent with my family. I love to play with my little girl and talk to my wife and be with her. I see them everyday!!! Is that bad? Do I love to see them everyday? Of course I do, but the point of the vacation is to have a break from that daily routine. Why in the world would I go [on vacation] to do the exact the same thing I do at home. I want to ride my motorcycle and go to the river and swim and have fun around the campfire.

My Mister LOVES to go riding with his brothers. I think that there are very few things which rate above that particular activity, but after reading that email from his brother, he was a little irritated. Little brother needs to grow up. Fun with brothers is great, and I try to encourage appropriate amounts of that sort of activity, but not at the expense of my sanity or my children's time with their dad.

I'm not all that old (although sometimes I feel otherwise), but I can see over the last 10 years or so what "growing up" means. I appreciate my parents even more for all the sacrifices they made for me. As a child, the world revolves around you and what you want (or what you don't get). As you get older, you realize that you have to sacrifice your own wants in order to fulfill your responsibilities.

We can't live "college life" forever, no matter how hard we want to hold on to that time in our life. I loved college. There was always something going on, something to "do", and everything was about having fun with relatively few responsibilities (that's leaving out the actual school, homework, and job part, but I managed to fit those in and still have plenty of fun). I have a friend who didn't get married as early as I did. She is now done with her MSW and is working on getting her LCSW certification. I'm envious. Part of me would like to be there, but that's something I sacrificed because I wanted other things in my life. There will be a time for those things later.

Little brother is obviously still in the egocentrism part of his development. We all go through it. Some people just have a harder time moving on than others. For his wife's sanity, I hope he figures it out soon. Family vacations are not so much fun if the "men" go off and leave the wives at camp to tend the children.

Sometimes you just have to grow up (and you just might find that being a grown up has it's very own set of perks and amusements).

A Commentary on School Vouchers

This was in today's deseret morning news....

Proponents of private school vouchers have seized the rhetorical high ground, using terms like "equal opportunity" and "parental choice" to justify their efforts. The Deseret Morning News has apparently been dazzled by this doublespeak.
Let us set the record straight.
Salt Lake City School District supports both universal excellence and public school choice. We offer a variety of programs, philosophies, and instructional strategies. Twenty-five percent of our students exercise meaningful choice, enrolling in schools outside their residence area. We are proud of our ability to use data to drive instruction, our menu of effective interventions, and the pathways we have built for advanced learners.
Our committed public educators have much in common with talented teachers in private schools. We do not blame parents who think vouchers may help them do what is best for their children. On the contrary, we hope they'll stay with us, work with us, to find the solutions they desire. Nevertheless, we challenge those who have already abandoned public education to think about the harm vouchers will do.
Vouchers let Utah legislators off the hook. They do nothing to address underfunding of public school programs. They will not reduce class size, train teachers, develop innovative curricula, rebuild unsafe facilities or pay rising transportation costs. Powerful legislators say, "More money is not the whole solution." We agree. However, less money is no solution at all. Vouchers mean fewer dollars for public schools in a state that already ranks dead last in per-pupil funding.
Vouchers deepen social divides and leave taxpayers without a voice. Even "means-tested" vouchers cannot provide equal access. Transportation and tuition costs will continue to discriminate, further dividing our community. Private schools choose the children they serve, and they tend not to serve children with special needs. Who will ensure that students on vouchers will not be counseled out of their private schools because they prove difficult to teach or discipline? Private schools typically do not meet accountability standards required of public schools, and taxpayers would have little say in how voucher dollars might be used.
Vouchers do not prevent "double taxation." All families pay education taxes only once. Tuition is a voluntary payment to a private institution. People who hire private security firms do not get vouchers from police departments. Private school tuition is not a tax in any sense of the word.
Vouchers compromise the separation of church and state and violate the Utah State Constitution. Respect for religious diversity has never been more important than it is today. We must shore up the 200-year-old constitutional protections for our rights of conscience. By opening the door for public money to flow to religious institutions, in direct violation of Utah's constitution (Articles I and X), vouchers chip away at those safeguards.
Make no mistake. Vouchers are weapons employed in a strategic attack on our public institutions. The voucher movement betrays the public good by encouraging narrow-minded self-interest and a willingness to turn away from our responsibilities to each other. The goal is to funnel government support toward private and corporate gain and to de-emphasize government's social stewardship.
Voucher proponents do not care for the students who will suffer as a result of their plans. We hope our representatives will care and will refuse to give up on the civic mission of public education.
Heather Bennett, Doug Nelson, Kristi Swett, Cliff Higbee, Mark Maxfield, Alama Uluave and Laurel Young are members of the Salt Lake City Board of Education.

Honeycombs

I haven't bought honeycombs for awhile, although it's one of our "favorite" breakfast cereals. It goes on sale fairly often, so the other day, I bought a couple of boxes.

Something has changed.... From internet searches, it appears that Post has changed the ingredients a bit, upping the fiber content. Normally I'd say that's a good thing, but the texture is now reminiscent of styrofoam pellets. I'm very disappointed.

I'm going to have to start buying the fake brand. Hopefully they are not as concerned about fiber content.

Ethics Reform

Here's a quote from a Deseret Morning News article about Governor Huntsman's State of the State speech. (emphasis added by me)

The biggest surprise in the speech that came on the second day of the 2007 Legislature was the ethics reform package, which includes a gift ban as well as a two-year "cooling-off" period for executive branch employees who want to lobby after leaving government. "It's an idealistic experiment," Senate President John Valentine, R-Orem, said of the reforms, which the governor said he would implement quickly through an executive order. "We've got to see how it works. ... There are a lot of unanswered questions."
Both Valentine and House Speaker Greg Curtis, R-Sandy, said they saw no need for the reforms and questioned whether they'd be able to talk to former lawmakers who have joined the administration, including Jeff Alexander, a former member of House leadership. Lawmakers have long been reluctant to pass ethics reforms, even for the executive branch. Curtis said Huntsman was no doubt attempting to pressure lawmakers to enact their own reforms. "That's the role of the governor. Absolutely," the speaker said.
House Minority Leader Ralph Becker, D-Salt Lake, said he hoped lawmakers would feel obligated to take action but wasn't holding his breath

I have never thought much about Governor Huntsman. I always kind of viewed him as buying (through money or his name, take your pick) the position, but I have been impressed with some of his goals recently. Funding education, doing more than just throwing money into the prison system as a way of dealing with meth addiction... I also liked what he had to say about ethics reform.

I find it interesting that the senate president and the house speaker both think the reforms are not needed. It seems to me, if reforms aren't needed, then they aren't going to negatively affect anyone, but they would make the general public feel warm and fuzzy, so they would be a good move politically. If Valentine and Curtis don't see that, then maybe they're trying to avoid ethics reform for other reasons...

Building Forts

A few days ago during lunch, my Mr. told our kids all about the forts that he and his brothers built when they were kids. The 5-year-old's eyes, especially, got bigger and bigger.... Here are the boys with the flag that the 5-year-old designed. He spelled the words "Stop" and "No" all by himself, but had to ask for help when he wanted to write "Please Knock" on the back side of the flag. I believe the main pictures on the flag are of skulls and cross bones.
The kids often make little forts out of their small blankets and couch cushions, but with their dad's help, they had a fort that filled the whole family room. I think they are planning on doing it again (and sleeping in the fort) when the baby is born.

New Posts

In the past, to post photos, I have used Photobucket to post pictures on my blog. For the past several months, photobucket has not been working- I can't upload any pictures to it, so my blogging has kind of slowed down.

Today, thanks to my sister's Mister, I signed up for a Flickr account and am now able to post pictures again.

That's why there's a rush of posts today- I'm catching up.

Better than eating out...

One of my new-year's resolutions was to plan ahead better for meals. The first week, was really good (we ended up with way too many left-overs though). Since then I have not done as well, although I think it is too much to expect to have perfectly planned meals every night. Sometimes you just have to have pancakes or chipped beef gravy on toast.

I was in the mood for mexican food, but our dining-out budget was used up, so I decided to make enchiladas one night. I planned ahead, and when the Mr. was grilling up some chicken for another well-planned meal (chicken broccoli alfredo), I had him grill some extra chicken. I chopped it up and put it in the freezer. On the day I wanted to make enchiladas, I took it out to defrost.



The enchiladas are made with chicken, olives, sour cream and enchilada sauce from a can. The filling is rolled into corn tortillas, then smothered in more enchilada sauce. On the side, I made spanish rice (in rice cooker, add a little tomato sauce, garlic, and chili powder to water- mix well, add rice and turn on), refried beans (we bought a bunch of dehydrated refried beans for our food storage, and they are actually pretty good), and topped everything off with chopped lettuce, tomatoes, olives and a dab of sour cream (oh, and shredded cheese of course). The Mr. had to take a picture of it, he thought it looked so nice.

Usually I just let people serve themselves, but this meal needed to be served plated. The kids were not huge fans of the meal, I think the enchilada sauce was a little too spicey.

Why have I forgotten all my snowboard lingo?

My Mister took our 5-year-old snowboarding last week. We rented the board the night before, and the 5-year-old spent all evening and the next morning strapped into his boots "practicing".

He did really well. Less than halfway down the mountain on their first time down, the 5-year-old said to his dad, "let go, I can do it myself!"

Way to Go PTA!!!

When my 5-year-old started kindergarten last fall, my Mister and I joined the PTA. We don't actually participate, but we paid our dues. I think that the local PTA does some really nice things for the school (which is why I joined/gave money to support them).

Several months ago the PTA was doing an anti-drug week of some sort, and one day, my 5-year-old brought home a can of soda pop that had a sticker on it saying something like "I CAN STOMP out drugs". It was very clever. I put the can in the fridge, and forgot about it.

Last night I made pizza for dinner, so my Mister pulled out the can thinking that the 5-year-old could drink it with his pizza. he looked at the ingredient list, since it was a store-brand and a name we were unfamiliar with. It had caffeine in it! What in the world is the PTA doing sending home caffeinated beverages with kindergartners? If I had noticed several months ago when the can came home, I would have called the school to make sure that something like that didn't happen again, as it is, it's kind of late...

I'm sure that whoever was buying all the cans of soda pop just picked out a bunch of different kinds and overlooked the fact that this one contained caffeine. I can't imagine anyone knowingly buying caffeinated drinks for elementary school children.

Playboy

Today in the mail, we got an advertisement from playboy. Sign up now, free issues! (something like that, I tore it up pretty fast)

I am disgusted that something like that would come in the mail unsolicited. What if my 5-year-old had gone to pick up the mail? I've gotten advertisements from Victoria's Secret before, but they at least usually have an email or phone number to call if I don't wish to continue getting those advertisements. I'm not sure what to do about this. We got an equally disgusting magazine advertisement several months ago. I'm wondering if my Mister's ESPN magazine subscription is getting his name put on lists we would rather not be on...

Any ideas?

Edit:

I posted this in the comments, but thought it would be good just to include it in my post too. There is a form you can fill out with the US Postal Service to block sexually explicit mailings from being sent to your address.

Form 1500

Number Three

I mentioned a while back that we had had two semi-big financial drains (right before christmas!) hit us, and that I was worried about what the third thing would be (since bad things happen in three's). Well, we got home from visiting family and discovered that our furnace wasn't working (right after christmas too!). We got it fixed fairly quickly- we were wearing extra layers for about a day, so it could have been worse. One of the motors died.

There's number three. Hopefully we can take it easy now.

I read somewhere that you should save 1% of your home's value each year to pay for repairs and things. Not a bad idea. If I didn't have to pay so much more in taxes this year, I might be able to do that! :)

Rearranging the household budget is one of my favorite activities (I already said that I was weird) so this will be interesting to try to work in... Better to be prepared than surprised.

Yogurty Yogurt

A few weeks ago I attempted to make homemade yogurt. The result was a nasty rubber-cement consistency that immediately went in the garbage (it was so bad, I didn't even try to feed it to the chickens). I'm not sure if the problem was with temperature or that I let it "yogurt" for too long. Maybe both.

For christmas, my sweet Mr. (who puts up with all my strange habits- and even adopts some of them himself- you should see him herd the chickens...) bought me a yogurt maker. It should actually be called a yogurt incubator, since that's the only thing it does. You still have to boil the milk and mix in the starter, then refrigerate and flavor.

My first batch in the yogurt maker was a big hit. The boys were really excited about it, and could hardly wait until it was done (you'd have thought yogurt was some rare treat). A little tart, because I only used about half the amount of sugar in the berries, and slightly runnier than store-bought yogurt (the Mr. said it was like a smoothie), but very tasty. I think if I use less water in the berry/sugar mix it will stay thicker.

My second batch just went into the fridge.

I'm very happy.

My next batch will be with powdered milk.

I wish I had taken a picture of the yogurt in the little jars when I first poured the berries on top. It looked like some sort of fancy dessert.

Give me (and you) a break...

I've had a couple of experiences lately that have been rather frustrating. It seems that there are many many people in the world who expect everyone around them to accept their weaknesses (or ignore them maybe) but that are not willing to do the same for others.

Why are we so hard on each other? I was reading an article on LDS.ORG that was about strengthening marriages, but the point can be applied in any relationship no matter how minor. I don't think most people go around with the intent of hurting others. Most hurt feelings occur from misunderstandings. If we choose to assume the best in people and talk out problems if they arise instead of choosing to be offended and hurt, life would be a lot less complicated.

Christmas is a nice time of year because so many people are a little kinder. At costco a couple of days ago, I was rounding a corner with my huge costco-sized cart and nearly crashed into a grandfatherly sort of man. I apologized because it seemed like the polite thing to do, and this man looked surprised and said that there was nothing to be sorry for, and gave me a big smile. How hard was that? Not very.

On a somewhat-not-very related note, I ran across this post in a local blog A Liberal Mormon. It seems like a group of people who believe the teachings of Christ (be kind, help those around you, etc...) would be a group that could really do some good, but they choose to be confrontational and their goals seem so misdirected. Apparently the former leader of the group, Reverend Joel Hunter, has resigned because he felt that poverty, aids, and global warming should be added to the group's issues. There's a nice quote from him: My position is, unless we are caring as much for the vulnerable outside the womb as inside the womb, we’re not carrying out the full message of Jesus.

Some people choose to be offended easily, and some people choose to distort perfectly good messages of love and kindness. If only everyone had parents like mine, people would be a lot less crazy. Of course, it's not really my place to say who is crazy and who is not, is it...

Something Scary!

There was an article in today's paper about children suffocating in their car seats. It's a little scary since car seats are so convenient with small babies. You strap them in get them in the car, and then they can stay in the car seat when you're running errands or even after you get home if they've fallen asleep- which is pretty common.

The article suggests only using the car seat in the car, even if it means waking a baby that is napping.

My second son sat in his car seat a lot. I was busy with his older brother, and he was a really mellow baby. He would just sit there looking around, so until he got fussy, I let him stay there. I guess I won't be doing that again. It's a good thing for another reason too, son #2 has a flat spot on the back of his head. The dr. kept saying it would pop out, but it hasn't. Maybe less time in a car seat is beneficial for head shape too.

It's a....

Yesterday was my ultrasound appointment. So I thought.

I scheduled it at least two weeks ago, and was a little disappointed at the time that I had to wait so long to get an appointment. I got to the hospital (after arranging for child care) with my mom (since Mr. had not made it back from the hunting trip yet), only to find out that they had no record of my appointment. I think the woman thought I either had the wrong hospital or was trying to weasel my way into an appointment.

I had even called the day before to ask a question, and they asked my name before answering anything (which made me think they had looked me up on the computer). Everything seemed fine then, but there was no appointment made for me when I got there. The next available appointment was three weeks later (by then, the poor kid would be so big, you wouldn't be able to see anything).

It's unkind to shock pregnant women like that, so of course, I started crying (just a little, I couldn't help myself!) the receptionist must have taken pity on me because she said that even though they were double-booked all day, I could come back in an hour and a half and they'd squeeze me in.

The unexpected change made for some interesting child shuffling, prevented my mom from getting much done at work, and pushed my pie baking back to today (the pies are almost done, I just have three lemon meringue left to make).

Finally I got in for the appointment that I really did make, and I have no idea why it wasn't in the computer system... Anyway, everything looked good, all body parts accounted for and all.

And it's a boy.

I'm not sure whether to be disappointed or relieved. Maybe a little of both. I'd like to be able to buy little girl clothes and do hair and all that, but really, when you consider that I have a hard time getting my boys' hair brushed on a regular basis, maybe I'm better off.

Dirty Secrets about Santa Clause

This morning I was giving my 5-year-old a hug and was about knocked over backwards by his breath. It was bad. I told him he'd better go brush his teeth because his breath was smelly. He said, "like Santa?".

Huh?

Apparently last year when he got a chance to sit on Santa's lap and tell him what he wanted for Christmas, Santa had smelly breath. Santa always leaves toothbrushes in our stockings, maybe he needs to keep one out for himself. Or maybe we could start leaving breath mints instead of cookies (someone needs to look our for santa's dental health)...

Since he's in kindergarten this year, I'm waiting for the day that my 5-year-old comes home from school saying that so and so told him that there's no such thing as santa. I've been trying to think of what I will do when that time comes. I don't want to lie to him if he asks directly, but I want him to believe for as long as possible. Believing is magical, and every childhood ought to have as much magic as possible.

I've had a couple of suggestions. The first is to tell him that santa only brings presents to those who believe (although the mother that told me that wondered if she was just teaching her child to lie to her....). The other was to say, "some people believe and some people don't, but it sure is fun to believe so why don't we?".

There's also explaining about how santa represents the spirit of giving, just like the wise men brought gifts to baby Jesus.

What would you do?