Hanging Out in DC

One of the lovely things about living here is the innumerable opportunities to see cool stuff. Friday we decided to get out and see something. Both Dan and I wanted to see Arlington, so we all went. I wasn't about to let him take Joshua and leave me behind!

The children were not impressed with Arlinton National Cemetery. They did think this statue was pretty cool, although I can't even remember who it was for.

And here is Marian crying that she doesn't want to walk. Yeah, she did that for a while- wailing and howling and refusing to walk. The kid is 5, for goodness sake!!

This was the part I really wanted to see- the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. We got there in time to see the changing of the guard, which I thought was really cool.

This is how Joshua felt about it. Sigh.

They were quite a bit more impressed with this memorial for a ship. I do not know what made it so fascinating for them. And Joshua is trying out his new pose. You can't tell, but his cap is sitting off to the side. I guess he thinks he gone gangsta.

We finally got everyone back to the van- with all that walking, there was a lot of complaing and drama. We had lunch in the car and decided to go see the 9-11 Memorial, since it was just a short drive away.

Sorry, I guess its called the Pentagon Memorial. Dan had to explain the concept of the memorial for me. Its a little complicated. On the diagonal are years, and along each diagonal line are the things that represent the people born that year who died on 9-11 at the Pentagon.

I do not know why they look like benches, but they do. The ones pointing to the Pentagon represent the people on the plane. The ones facing away are for people who were killed in the Pentagon. Each bench thing has a name on it, and there is running water beneath them.

The kids had a really hard time not scuffing gravel into the water. Callie got grumpy because she got into trouble. Anyway, once I got the vision of the memorial, I liked it better. It also made it more personal and more sad for me. It was good for us to see it, although I don't think the kids got it at all.

And here is the Air Force Memorial. I didn't feel the need to get up close and park and get kids out, if it was the same thing up close. I can see it fine from here. I think it is pretty cool.

So, that is what we did on Friday to work off that Thanksgiving pie!

Thanksgiving Festivities

We had a great Thanksgiving! I was a little worried, since I was not familiar with Dan's cousin, and I had been hearing such horror stories from some of my friends about their relatives. I should have known better. Dan's family is fantastic, and his cousin was as wonderful as the rest that I've met. So, yes, we drove out to see Dan's cousin E and her husband for the great Turkey Feast.

Here they are, although I don't think E is really excited to have her picture taken. She put on a FANTASTIC spread!

Check this out... real, facny dishes and everything! I was impressed. Someday we might actually have fancy dishes, but for now, I just basked in the delight of someone else's beautiful stuff. There was a very tasty Turkey and all the trimmings. She did something wonderful with the butternut squash. It was all quite yummy. I brought pie and that also was very good. It was a really nice day. I felt bad that E did all the work and all the clean up and I just showed up and ate. She was amazing and did a marvelous job on dinner. I like her a lot. Her husband is pretty neat too.

We spent the afternoon and evening at their house and the kids were surprisingly good. They were delighted with the toys there, and that helped a lot. Joshua was in heaven with the table, legos, and cars that they had. Having "new" toys makes a difference and the kids were enthralled with what E had at her house.

Ah, yes, Marian and Callie tormented the poor cats and the cats were so sweet. They allowed Marian to haul (and maul!) them around and never scratched or got upset! I was very impressed. The girls were thrilled to have a captive pet for a while.

We tried to get a family picture before we left, but Callie was so done. She had a meltdown and refused to cooperate. Look how annoyed Dan is getting here, hee hee hee. Me and Joshua don't care! Callie can be pretty funny when she's mad. Unfortunately, it got a lot less funny. By the time we got home she was so tired and cranky she couldn't even stand herself and she got to go straight to bed. Other than that, it was an absolutely perfect day! Thank you E!

Twilight Mania

I did go out to see Twilight last night. A group from the ward went; several of us carpooled in and then we had to meet up with the others. That was a trick in itself!

This is what the theater looked like. It was utter chaos and madness. Lots of screaming teenagers and just a mass of hyper humanity all stuffed into this hall. It was showing on 3 screens, and 45 minutes before it started, this is what it looked like.

They opened the doors 30 minutes prior to the 7:55 showing and I honestly thought there might be a stampede, with all the screaming and shoving. (Apparently the police were called for an incident in one of the theaters, but not ours!) My friends and I ducked into the #7 theater, although our tickets were mostly for #1. We had great seats, and settled in to visit till the show started.

Yep, we chatted and giggled and had fun. You can see S wearing her Twilight shirt. They were going to get me one, but I said no.

Me with R & D. We had a great time talking while waiting, and waiting, and waiting. And we waited a lot. At 7:55, a police man came in and told us anyone too rowdy or out of line woul be removed. The employees assured us the movie would start soon..... but it didn't.

I had a great time visiting with D. She is really cool, and I can overlook the fact that she is gorgeous as well, and we can be friends. Still, it was an hour late that the movie finally started. And it had no sound for the first 5 minutes. Grrrr. On the plus side, when the movie was over, they handed out free passes. Yay!

So, what did I think? Not impressed. I liked "Edward" much better as Cedric Diggory. Not attractive in this movie. I had a really hard time with the movie because I did not find Edward attractive at all. Other than that, I think it was good. Some artistic license was taken, but I liked it overall. Okay, so Jacob went a little overboard on the teeth whitener, and a few other minor complaints.... I'll have to watch it again to decide how I really feel about it.

Being Tourists!

Today was Mommy-Joshua Date Day. Joshua wanted to go see the Memorials in DC. Nevermind that its the coldest day of the year so far. Yep, it was suppose to be around 35 degrees today, and with that rotten wind..... it was miserable. Joshua and I took the Metro in, and when we started walking in that fridgid wind, I asked if he'd prefer to go to the Smithsonian instead. Joshua said no, he wanted to see the Memorials. So off we went.

We were hoping that sense it was so cold, the wait for the Washington Memorial wouldn't be too bad. No such luck. At 12:30 they were already out of all the tickets for the day. So we just posed for pictures.



We saw this very inaccessable memorial. I think it was the John Paul Jones one. Just a statue of this man who was a War Hero back in the Revolutionary war..... I think.

Then it was on to the World War 2 Memorial. We didn't linger, since we spent a lot of time there last time. And it was cold. Did I say it was cold?

We stopped by the Korean War Memorial. I don't think I had seen this one before. It was pretty cool. I liked it a lot. Love my face in this shot. I was concentrating too hard on getting the camera at the right angle. I really wanted the soldiers in the memorial in the shot.

Joshua was starving and we needed something warm. We spent an exhorbant amount on hot cocoa and hot dogs and it was delicious! It was cool too, because the birds would perch 6 inches from you, waiting for you to drop crumbs.


This was the thing Joshua most wanted to see. Thank goodness it has an indoor part that's heated. That's where the bathrooms were as well. So we spent a bit of time warming up and checking out the stuff inside, before going up to see Lincoln.

We saw this fine, fat fellow looking for lunch in the trash. I handed him a sour patch kid, which he took from my fingers and here he is, snacking on it.

I did not know there was a memorial dedicated to the signers of the Declaration of Independance, but here it is. Pretty neat, they have the signature of each person engraved in stone. We posed in front of Thomas Jefferson's.

We had seen on the map that there was a Jefferson Stone. Well, this is it. No clue why it is important, but by golly, we found it because Joshua wanted to see it.

And this concludes our trip to Washington DC. Which, if I may mention, took us 5 hours from steping on the Metro, to finding the car, which I lost briefly. And did I tell you how COLD it was?!! Freezing cold!

AAARRGH!

I finished exercising on my fabulous elliptical machine this morning. It was great- the girls were quiet and happy the whole 40 minutes. Wait..... that can't be good! I sneak upstairs to see what they are doing. They are playing very quietly in Callie's room. I check the mess on the floor. It looks like Callie has spread out all her "treasures" from her special box. And then I do a double take. There is a small pile of hair on the floor.

I at first assume that Callie found the keepsake of her "first haircut" which I never quite managed to get into her memory book. Then I come to the sick realization that it can't be. Its not much hair, but come on, niether of them has much hair! Callie denies all knowledge. Then she says Delaney did it. I can't see any bald spots. I check Delaney's head thoroughly.

Nope, no missint tufts of anything. Although she does have a snotty nose here. And she is getting a bit of a rattail in the back. If that had been trimmed, I'd have been okay. I'm just afraid to cut it because she has so little hair at all right now.

I turn my attention to Callie. The hair in my hand does seem to match Callie's color. Callie is also looking very guilty. Suddenly, I see it!

Can you tell where she trimmed?

Yep, check out that pony tail. She took a lovely chunk out of it. And check out tht face. She knew she was in trouble. Isn't she so cute?

Well, that's what I get for not dragging them out into the 30 degree weather! I could have gone running, but I was being thoughtful and letting them stay warm. Well, not anymore! Okay, that's a total lie. I don't mind running in the cold, but I have a tough time taking the girls out when its below 40.

Let us Rejoice!

This month, something amazing has happened. Yes, it has. Dan has paid off his student loans. I know. You are impressed. As well you should be. Dan made it his goal to have them paid off 5 years after they started needing to be paid. We were very good.

We both had a crummy summer after graduation BYU, but we made good money and were debt free at the end of the summer. Then Dan started Law School. He wasn't allowed to work, and I had a dreadful job and we lived on about $1200 a month.

We decided to start our family and along came Joshua, at the begining of Dan's second year. I didn't really work anymore and Dan could only work 20 hours a week.

We loved having Mini-Me.... I mean, Joshua. And then we had Marian, so I could have my own little clone too.

2 little kids, before Dan graduated Law school. 2 little kids, stuffed into our little two-bedroom apartment.

Marian was not quite 2 months old when Dan graduated. Yep, here is our cute little family. It was a proud day. And Dan had a few months before it was time to start paying back what he'd borrowed. By Fall, when the bill started coming, Dan had the goal of repaying it all within 5 years. Gulp!

This summer, we had the chance to go back and visit the Law School. Dan enjoyed it more than I did, I expect!

Callie just loved the duck that was nesting in front of the school front doors. That totally made her day.

The point here is to say that this week, Dan made his final payment and he paid off the balance of his loan. We are student loan free! We owe no man! Okay, not completely true, there is the house thing, but other than that, we are debt free! Whoopee for us! And Whoopee for my fantastic sweetie pie who made a goal and stuck to it!

Be Afraid; Very Afraid

I have been following a lot of Prop 8 stuff in CA. Partly because I have family there, but also because I see it as a trend that will continue. That is why you are getting more on that topic right here, right now. My Aunt Sue has some interesting and insightful things on the topic (actually, all my family does!), and I am going to quote her here:

You have probably all been following the news on the demonstrations by the “no on 8” people. They say we have taken away their civil rights. For those of you out of the state, domestic partnerships are legal in California, and those people have all the legal rights of a married couple. They just don’t have the word “marriage”—that’s what the fight is ostensibly about.

Never mind that Mormons are 2% of the population of California and 5% of the voters—we are a convenient target, and we don’t fight back. In Massachusetts, it was a Methodist church that was sued for not allowing a gay wedding on their property. They lost the suit, and their tax-exempt status as well. This led me to my belief that the gays are being used as pawns in a much larger agenda that has as its goal the loss of our freedoms of religion, speech and association.

Just this week, I read a quote that expands on that. I wish I could give it attribution, but none was given, other than it was in a publication called NRO. That person said: “The current conflict over marriage is in part a proxy for a larger ongoing conflict about the role of religious people and religious values in public life. As courts come to endorse the principle that sexual orientation is just like race, American government is going to find itself in the position of treating traditional faith communities just like racists.”

That means that anyone who opposes homosexuality on moral grounds will be prosecuted for hate speech. That has already happened in Canada. All the anti-discrimination laws we have put into place to protect the downtrodden will be used against any religion that does not accept homosexuality as normal. The lawyer who defended the Methodist church in the Massachusetts case said he found it incredulous that the court put a supposed civil right in front of a constitutional right. But those are the times we are living in.

That kid!!!

Yes, this kid. This cute, adorable child is entering a new age of exploration. She is growing up and learning all kinds of wonderful new things.

And I'm thinking that Delaney is trying to kill me. No, I know she doesn't do things like some other people's kids (Jen, Heidi!), but she's getting to be a bit much for me! I had read that people who's infants were rotten, were happier with them when they became toddlers. And people who had perfect babies, felt that when they becme toddlers, their children were much more difficult. I am finding that this is quite true! I am sure that Delaney is no different from my other 3, but she was such a perfect, fantastically sweet baby, that this attitude and trouble is surprising me.

This rail? It overlooks the front entryway. Its a 4-5 foot drop onto tile if she falls over it. She thinks she's so smart. And she is feeling delighted that she can climb up on it. Check out that face.

She has a bruise on her cheek today. Why, you ask? She wanted something out of the fridge.... not her sippy cup, not the grapes. When I closed the door, she screamed and threw herself to the ground and bonked her face on the stool. I will mention that this is not the first time- she had a spectactular lump on her forhead from the same thing not too long ago.

The other night I went to check on her before I went to bed. I found a naked baby in the crib. The smarty-pants had figured out how to take off her jammies! Now she constantly has her clothes in a state of disarray and walks around with her shirt half off or her pants half down. She thinks she is pretty funny.

I was doing something and realized I did not know where she was, and it was quiet. Too quiet. She is now officially 21 months today, by the way. I went looking for her and found her hiding on the stairs. She had the zip lock bag of leftover zuchinni muffins in her hand and was scarfing one down as fast as possible. The sneaky thief had managed to get the bag from the back of the counter, open it, and was eating them!

Worst of all was when I woke up yesterday morning. 45 minutes earlier than I wanted to get up and nearly an hour before Delaney usually wakes up, she came strolling into my room. What?! The clever girl had figured out how to get out of her crib, and had moseyed into my room to wake me up, and boy was she pleased with herself!

She's trouble. I'm telling you. She also learned to climb up onto the bunkbed (but not down). I have discovered pink (washable, thank goodness!) marker all over the house. Yep, in the kitchen, in the hall, and in her room! Currently her hair is pink in spots as well, from her drawing on her head. And yesterday, she had a temper tantrum because she got into the van and sat in Marian's booster seat. I had to physically put her into her own carseat and she was pretty mad about that.

Good thing its all just a phase!

Preaching to the Choir

My friend Gerry emailed me this and I thought it worth sharing. I know most of you are not in CA or are already in agreement. Still, I like being armed with info in case the need arises where I need to defend my position. Plus, I think that this issue is going to keep coming up and will be a matter that affects us all. So, here are some interesting stats:


1. Mormons make up less than 2% of the population of California. There are approximately 800,000 LDS out of a total population of approximately 34 million.

2. Mormon voters were less than 5% of the yes vote. If one estimates that 250,000 LDS are registered voters (the rest being children), then LDS voters made up 4.6% of the Yes vote and 2.4% of the total Proposition 8 vote.

3. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) donated no money to the Yes on 8 campaign. Individual members of the Church were encouraged to support the Yes on 8 efforts and, exercising their constitutional right to free speech, donated whatever they felt like donating.

4. The No on 8 campaign raised more money than the Yes on 8 campaign. Unofficial estimates put No on 8 at $38 million and Yes on 8 at $32 million, making it the most expensive non-presidential election in the country.

5. Advertising messages for the Yes on 8 campaign are based on case law and real-life situations. The No on 8 supporters have insisted that the Yes on 8 messaging is based on lies. Every Yes on 8 claim is supported.

6. The majority of our friends and neighbors voted Yes on 8. Los Angeles County voted in favor of Yes on 8. Ventura County voted in favor of Yes on 8.

7. African Americans overwhelmingly supported Yes on 8. Exit polls show that 70% of Black voters chose Yes on 8. This was interesting because the majority of these voters voted for President-elect Obama. No on 8 supporters had assumed that Obama voters would vote No on 8.

8. The majority of Latino voters voted Yes on 8. Exit polls show that the majority of Latinos supported Yes on 8 and cited religious beliefs (assumed to be primarily Catholic).

9. The Yes on 8 coalition was a broad spectrum of religious organizations. Catholics, Evangelicals, Protestants, Orthodox Jews, Muslims – all supported Yes on 8. It is estimated that there are 10 million Catholics and 10 million Protestants in California. Mormons were a tiny fraction of the population represented by Yes on 8 coalition members.

10. Not all Mormons voted in favor of Proposition 8. Our faith accords that each person be allowed to choose for him or her self. Church leaders have asked members to treat other members with "civility, respect and love," despite their differing views.

11. The Church did not violate the principal of separation of church and state. This principle is derived from the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, which reads, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof . . ." The phrase "separation of church and state", which does not appear in the Constitution itself, is generally traced to an 1802 letter by Thomas Jefferson, although it has since been quoted in several opinions handed down by the United States Supreme Court in recent years. The LDS Church is under no obligation to refrain from participating in the political process, to the extent permitted by law. U.S. election law is very clear that Churches may not endorse candidates, but may support issues. The Church has always been very careful on this matter and occasionally (not often) chooses to support causes that it feels to be of a moral nature.

12. Supporters of Proposition 8 did exactly what the Constitution provides for all citizens: they exercised their First Amendment rights to speak out on an issue that concerned them, make contributions to a cause that they support, and then vote in the regular electoral process. For the most part, this seems to have been done in an open, fair, and civil way. Opponents of 8 have accused supporters of being bigots, liars, and worse. The fact is, we simply did what Americans do – we spoke up, we campaigned, and we voted.

Powow & Lunch

I got to do something fun. Well, somewhat fun. The school had a Kindergarten Powow and afterwards was their Thanksgiving Lunch, where parents were invited to partake with their kids. Dan had the day off, so I didn't take Delaney with me. Callie wanted to come, and I think she had a good time.


Here is Marian in her costume, doing the Enrty Stomp Dance. Or actually, just shuffling along. (With the flash, all the other pictures have massive demon red-eye that I cannot fix with the program I have.)


There was a large time lag between the Powow and lunch. On the plus side, Joshua's lunch was scheduled for that time and we crashed his lunch table! I'm not sure if his stronger emotion was embarassment or happiness that we came to sit with him.

Then it was Marian's linch time. She was delighted to buy lunch and to be able to get ICE CREAM with it. She even ate everything on her plate! Except for the confusing blob of cranberry. Who puts gravy and cranberry on their trukey? They served the turkey drowning in gravy, so I certainly wasn't going to adorn it with slightly sour cranberry stuff.

Here I am with my girl! I think she had a good time. As an aside, her hair was quite cute this morning. However, after being windblown on the playground, it was pretty wispy. Sigh.

Fall Frenzy!

I love fall! I especially love it here, where the leaves are turning beautiful colors and its so fun to look at. And I like crunch-crunching through them when I run. That always puts a smile on my face. The drawback is that these lovely leaves fall in the yard and we have to do something about it.

Yeah, Delaney wants to know why we have to work on such a gorgeous day. It was pretty warm, around 70 yesterday.

So we put the kids to work. Yes, there is an extra one in there. The fantastic kid accross the street. We raked a huge pile of leaves. And then....

Joshua launched himself into them, after a run accross the yard.


He got some pretty good height and landed in the middle. Then all the kids did that. The neighbor boy actually did a flip int the leaves. My children were not that adventerous!

Even Marian got into it, and she had complained that the leaves were full of ants. Then they buried each other in the leaves.

Funny kids, having a ball!

.... And then they all left and I bagged 6 bags, mostly by myself.

Husband Tag

Husband Tag- I like it!

1. Where did you meet your husband?
At the first Ward function in our BYU singles ward in August 1998. Okay, that’s where we first SAW each other. He came over a few days later to get to know my sister better and ended up getting to know me better!

2. How long did you date before you got married?
Hmmmm…. We went on a date, then he dated other girls, then he spent a lot of time with me, and eventually he talked me into just dating him in late September. We got engaged just after Christmas...

.....and married after school was out-April 24, 1999.

Math is not my strong point…. 7, 8 months?

3. How long have you been married?
We’re hitting the big 10 this April!

4. What does he do to surprise you?
On purpose? He brings me things from his trips, usually chocolate because he knows what a pig I am. However, unintentionally, he continually surprises me with the things he does, and his efforts to make me happy.

5. What is your favorite feature of his?
His smile, and that really cute look he gets when he’s all pleased with himself. He's so cute!

6.What is your favorite quality?
Just one? He has so many, but guess I’ll go with his good nature. He’s so mellow and easy-going; it offsets my neurosis. He’s my rock and I rely on him to be my stabilizing force, so I don’t spin out of control. He's also a great Dad, and he has no problem being silly with the kids. Its adorable. Oh, wait, I mean, it so.... rugged, yes, very rugged!!

7. Does he have a nickname for you?
Pumpkin

8. What is his favorite food?
Anything I make with love! Okay, I don’t know what his absolute favorite is. He happily eats whatever I make and tells me its yummy. Pizza maybe. If dessert counts, his favorite is Jello Poke Cake!

9. What is his favorite sport?
Baseball, hands down

10. When and where did you first kiss?
In the kitchen of my BYU apartment, shortly before Thanksgiving. It took him long enough. I thought I was going to have to make the first move!

11. What is your favorite thing to do as a couple?
Exercise. We liked doing family walks, but now the kids refuse to walk, and we can’t leave ‘em behind. We like to go biking or walking together, but we need a babysitter for that. I guess our Triathlons are our favorite things to do together as a couple. Here we are after our first one together (his 3rd) in 2005- we've done it 3 consecutive years now!

12. Do you have children?
4 little cuties. Dan has his 2 clones, I have my one, and then there’s Callie, who looks like my grandmother.

13. Does he have any hidden talents?
This is a family site, please!

Um.... he is great at doing the job that needs to be done, even if it's not what he wants to be doing.

14. How old is he?
He just turned 33

15. Who said I love you first?
He did! I couldn’t make myself say it, but I knew it.

16. What is his favorite music?

Oooh, I don’t know. We don’t like the same thing, so I don’t pay attention. I’m so bad!

17. What do you admire most about him?
The way he doesn’t stress about stuff, and he can let go of anger. He doesn’t stay mad, and I cannot stop!

18. What is his favorite color?
Green

19. Will he read this?
I don’t know. He looks at the blog, but mostly for the pictures!

And I tag all my married friends!