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.