Oh yes, it IS an important day!

I realize an historic inauguration is about to take place, but I haven't seen or heard of change *I* can believe in ...

Until now ... Lloyd and I have decided to paint our front door red! Because the builder already used 4 paint colors (none of them red), we've been debating how to squeeze in a red door without taking on reducing the other paint colors to 3 (I'm not interested in repainting a 2-year old house already!), but we think we have it figured out. Now we just have to find a red shade to go with our existing colors.

House just before we moved in

A red door (not necessarily the right red)

Our door that's going to be sporting a new paint job soon (with 2 very cute 3rd graders in front of it last year)

If that's not enough to have our mind taken up with change we can believe in, we bought an ironing board cabinet thing that goes into the wall. Lloyd's been wanting one for a very long time -- for me, of course -- and we finally used a Lowe's gift certificate from my mom.



So now we'll have change we can believe in. Whew!

Most Amazingly Wrong Quote of the Day

"... the American government is the greatest force for good in the history of mankind."
~ Sen. Harry Reid, "The Good Fight", 2008

See, this is so odd to me since Senator Reid and I are from the same faith (and he's got a 40-year head start on me), the one that teaches us how families are the building blocks of society, divine institutions, and how much power we have to do good and if not in just our family units, then in our church ward families and in our communities. And, is it too not PC to recognize that the gospel, the true love of Christ is really THE greatest force for good in the history of mankind?!

But, somehow Sen. Reid has gained the wisdom that the American GOVERNMENT is the greatest force for good in the HISTORY of mankind .... Um, OK.

Funny how cartoons like this ring with so much truth, though ....



I also think the Senator lost sight long ago of the roots of American government and the good it did and how government has turned into something now our founding fathers would not recognize as being fruits of their sacrificial labors. Sen. Reid must be equating big, bloated, and usurping individual and states' rights as "the greatest force". Oh, OK, then on that note I would agree with him.

P.S. If you're wondering how I came across this quote, I'm currently reading "The Good Fight". It was a gift from a family member who figured since he was from NV and is Mormon and we like politics, that we'd like this book. Um ... OK so reading it and trying to remember that he can't feel it when I slam the book closed from time to time ... :-) (just kidding -- he does have an interesting life story)

"Heavenly Father said we shouldn't work on Sunday"

This past weekend, Lloyd worked. He signs up to work typically 2 Saturdays a month and these days doing MRI that means 8-2. Except this Saturday he agreed to have them add on a stat case at the start of the day and the last appointment wasn't UNTIL 2 so he actually worked 7-3. The kids had a primary meet-the-teachers breakfast in the morning and then after that I wanted to take them on a bike ride, but Sheridan's bike had a flat so we determined to do something later when Dad got home and stay home and get some things done in the meantime.

I did the wash, worked on figuring out how to remove ads from our Beyond TV recordings, and straightened up the downstairs. Then I sat down for a while, but couldn't ignore the massive tree covered in decorations calling out to me from the living room so resolved to get that done once and for all. In the mean time, the kids had total leisure. Philip seemed oblivious of what I was doing at all and Sheridan peeked in once and quickly made herself scarce. I had a choice of getting the work done (because I really really did not want to do that at all, let alone by myself) or playing taskmaster and I opted to get something accomplished.

Later the kids went back and forth to a friend's around the corner and when Dad came home we loaded the twins and the 3 friends (siblings) up to go to the park for the 1 hour of daylight left and the day just got away from us so before I knew it it was Sunday and after arriving home from choir practice after 5PM, the reality of the kids having done nothing to help around the house, no chores, no putting away laundry -- NOTHING -- and facing a busy week with that start, I cracked the whip.

I really wanted the kids to see how much they could do in 15 minutes. I hadn't given them a time limit, just the things I wanted them to do and it should have only taken about that long, but Lloyd threw in a few things (he took the cleaning part very seriously) and that was after they stalled complaining they had to do anything at all. Sheridan brought out the big guns that "Heavenly Father said we shouldn't work on Sunday" so I let her know that he also said "Honor your mother and father" and if she'd been doing that, then we wouldn't be having this conversation.

It's not like we're perfect parents (no one would accuse us of that!) or bad, either. We all have our faults so if you want to call it that, my fault this weekend was "making my kids work" on Sunday. Of course, they have their own free agency to choose not to accept chore money for it on pay day. We have been reading the Book of Mormon together as a family and are in the process of setting goals together as a family for this year. We are trying.

But, I could not bear the thought of going into a week in disarray even if it meant breaking the complete and total peace that is our home on the Sabbath Day (yes, I'm kidding -- I have kids, remember?!). The Sabbath Day is a principle I had to master when I joined the church because the entire weekend had previously been open for errand running and going out to eat, things that are hard to get done when you work M-F, but setting aside the Sabbath really does help one put their life in order. Now that I am responsible for other beings to understand that concept and DO it, it's 2 steps forward, 1 step back, but I think the kids learned a lesson about working on Saturday and preserving the Sabbath day. We'll see.

I wear my wife's eyeglasses because she wants me to see things her way

“I wear my wife's eyeglasses because she wants me to see things her way.” ~Jayson Feinburg

So maybe some day Philip will have some fun with it and use this Jayson Feinburg saying. For now -- it's touch and go. Glasses arrived today, picked them up this evening. Philip was good at the optometrist. We could tell he was happy to see better. Going out to the car afterward, he exclaimed how he could see some signs down across the street. On the short drive home he decided the glasses were giving him a headache. Or maybe it was the Nintendo DS he was playing (no, it COULDN'T be THAT!). So he's gone back to saying he doesn't like them and was definitely not up for posing for pics. Not sure if it's because of the glasses. Or having to put down the DS for a minute to take them.

So these are a few I got. He thought the sad face was warranted, apparently.

But, then did agree to do me a big favor and gave a wan smile.

I think he's adorable. And, his taste in glasses is amazing. (And they are titanium so can't break no matter how they're twisted so Mom likes that!).

He was disappointed to hear I'm going to be looking for sport goggles for him. He thought that would be an excuse not to wear them. Hehe, I love that little guy!

First glasses, now braces! What next??

Philip (9.5yo) got a referral from school for failing the vision screening so over the Christmas break, we took him to the optometrist. Leading up to it, we heard no end of declarations how he was NOT going to wear glasses. We figured it would be a big battle getting to the appointment. Thankfully, it was not. The optometrist was really good with him. I clued him into Philip's state of mind on this. He told us how anyone that's told they do NOT need glasses tries to talk him into finding a way that they DO need glasses. Seems to be the rage to wear glasses. Somehow Philip ended up doing just fine which is good because he DOES need glasses. We let him pick them out right there even though I know of a good online site to buy them for much much less on .... I figured we better just keep going with the flow. Anyway, the glasses aren't in yet, but Philip picked a very stylish pair. I'll share a pic when he gets them!

So yesterday I had the twins to an orthodontic consult appointment. Getting ready to leave the house, Philip said, "First glasses, now braces! What next??" LOL. He has repeatedly told us how either will ruin his life. My bank account is happy to report that they DO need braces, but not for another few years still. :-)

Annual Pilgrimage

I have been a member of the church for 7 years now. We have developed a tradition since of going to Salt Lake over New Year's each year. Since my husband alternates when he has his kids (now only 1 of them left under 18), he's had to do some trading around so they can join us, but we've managed to keep up the tradition so far and the 5 of us made it this year again. I enjoy living in the "mission field" as they say, but sometimes just want to be in the land where so much sacrifice was made, where I can feel the spirit so strongly, even just walking around on the grounds of Temple Square. As an adult convert to the church, I really hunger sometimes to be fed of the things I didn't have in my life until such a late (ha!) date.



We had hoped to see Marvin Goldstein play piano, but he had apparently been hurt in a car crash so had a sub to play for the soprano, Karen Larsen. The music was all very good even though the kids asked after every song, "Can we go now?" It wasn't nearly as cold as last year -- THANK GOODNESS!! I do not like the cold, but it's a necessary evil if the kids are going to play in the snow.





We also took in Bedtime Stories. We went to the Provo mall off the I-15 to enjoy the larger theaters they have there than we have in Vegas. Silly thing, I know, but I miss the large movie theaters like we used to have in CA so thought it would be fun to see the movie there. The movie was good, but I don't know that I'd recommend rushing out to see it. This one can wait for DVD.

We also decided to try to find President Hinckley's gravesite on the way back from sledding. We didn't tell the kids because we thought they would complain. They really wanted to get back to the hotel and swim or get on with whatever else they thought was important. But, I really wanted to see his gravesite and Lloyd did, too, so I fought with my Palm Treo (I really need a new phone!) and got the driving directions that we managed to mangle, but we found the cemetery and just drove in and really went right to it, just knowing that it was on a hill. I really miss President Hinckley.

I hope I can keep this blog up. Life is so busy these days, just when I think I maybe kinda sorta am on top of things, another ball gets thrown in to juggle so it's a risk thinking I can keep this up, but I'll try! And, thanks to Kathy for asking about my blog again today ... I figure even if everyone else has given up on my blog, she still had hope!

OK, I'm back (post election stress on hold for now)

I don't know what happened ... I had so much to say, but nothing I wanted to commit to this blog! This election was just the weirdest thing. "My" candidate didn't make it anywhere close to the party's nomination, I wasn't sure what I'd do in November, then I wanted to fight like heck for the other party's candidate NOT to win ... Oh well, 2009 is going to be an interesting year. In reality, I didn't really have a candidate. The one I thought I liked the most would not have been "small government" enough for me and the one that touted small government ... well, he didn't have the personality or charisma to do what he said he would. I guess it serves us right we are where we are now, for being too complacent for too long. I would have been happy with "my" candidate, though, I suppose, but then the Republican party can't seem to quit slicing and dicing their own so good luck to the next good man or woman that steps forward. I'm sure we'll make mincemeat of them as a party, too.

So that's an explanation for my absence from sharing thoughts. Now on to more fun stuff!