October Day at the Beach

So Paul took the laptop with him on his trip to Chicago this week... and I don't have all the pictures I want for posts. Here are some pictures (to be added to later) of our trip to the beach when Dad and Mom F and Lafe were here...


We hadn't been to the beach since a bit before Ella was born. So we were definitely ready to hit the sand again.

And hit the sand we did! In Abby's case, it was quite literal... I don't think she took more than 5 steps in the sand before she was completely laying down, playing and rolling around in it.


Bekah and Abby both showed little fear and less caution as they frolicked in the waves on the shore. Lafe was such a good protective uncle. This is how he spent most of his day--running back and forth on the shoreline with Bekah. She sure thought it was fun to run from the waves as they washed in.


Michael was completely engrossed in sand activities most of the time. He always loves the beach.


And Ella got her first introduction to it all. She was quite content... even when sandy Abby introduced her to... well... sand.


Lafe found a lot of neat shells. He was really fun to have on the beach.


For the first time, the three kids spent quite a bit of time and concentration building sand castles, etc. I was pleasantly surprised with the girls' attention span for it. Paul and Lafe lended their expertise, and they had a great time.


Then they started burrying themselves in the sand. Paul made mermaid tails for the girls... which they LOVED.


And here was our attempt at getting a family picture. I'm afraid this was as good as it got.


At least Paul and I can look at a camera and smile... somewhat consistently.

The water was really quite cold, and there was enough of a breeze to make it pretty chilly for the kiddos in their swim suits. I'm afraid we are past the prime time of beach days... but it was still fun to get out there and enjoy the afternoon.

Thanks again for coming to the beach with us mom, dad, and Lafe! It was a great day!

Welcome to Mack!!!

Congratulations to Libby and DJ!!
Today Paul's sister delivered our newest nephew!

David Mackay Jones
Born October 72 @ 1:13pm
8 lbs 7 oz
21 inches
...and oodles of dark hair!

Welcome to the world, little Mack!


Michael has lots to teach you about being a Frandsen boy!
He's already planning out what he'll be teaching you during the Christmas break!

health care reform...

this op-ed in the new york times gives a bipartisan snapshot at one way to improve health care.

the issue of health care reform is broad and difficult. op-ed piece tackles one element of the system (with a nod to IHC in utah...) i believe that wwell-informed guidelines with free, easy access and then integration of guidelines into doctors offices and hospitals could be helpful. the guidelines would have to be minimalist and carefully crafted or they could increase health spending, worsen care and have major health risks. potentially, some of these guidelines could be built into electronic ordering systems that would remind physicians that certain costly tests or imaging may not be necessary based on the patient's current vitals, results, symtpoms and chief complaint (with a link to the evidence based guidelines.) such suggestions would always need to have the option of being overridden, but it would make efficiency improving efforts more widely acknowledged and utilized. other preventative guidelines could be built in for automatic mail notification of patients for continuing care and screening.

a few examples... fairly recent guidelines on mild traumatic brain injury (kid gets knocked out while playing football) and CT scanning of the brain. one group from colorado put a small line in the print of it's guidelines stating that if the person is knocked out they should receive a CT scan--this one line is potentially devastating. the possible effects on cost and radiation placed on the american people if these guidelines are adopted more broadly could be very high. (all people knocked out DO NOT necessarily need a CT scan.)

conversely, a fairly recent set of canadian head injury guidlines were published that could reduce CT scanning in traumatic brain injury by approximately 30%+ in canada.

implicit in creating guidelines would be an approach that is scientifically rigorous and independently verified (without drug company or political sway.) the devil is in the details as seen above and if done wrong...a policy of this magnitude could be disastrous...

the guidelines would then need to be protected from tort-lawyers. america's current health tort system results in only 15% or so of jury awards going to patient's where there was an identifiable 'medical error'. the highest predictor of jury payout is characteristics of the patient's story (sympathetic or not.)

it would follow that patient's would be better protected from medical errors by independent committees of impartial experts in the field of medicine and patient advocacy to look fairly at mistakes and fair compensation. leaving lawyers out of it would be better for all involved...(i'm not biased:)

guidelines that are rigorously protected from lawsuits could potentially curb some of the defensive medicine and testing that takes place to avoid the constant specter of a suit. defensive medicine is not good for patients and it's not good for america.

however, even rigorously established guidelines could backfire and cause massive problems in the medical community (an example is the recent government mandated "antibiotics within 4 hours of pneumonia diagnosis" initiative.) antibiotics within four hours of pneumonia diagnosis has not been shown to improve outcomes, but medicare payments became tied to achieving this goal. some hospitals started giving out antibiotics to patients with cough before they saw the doctor because of long ER wait-times and fear of misssing the deadline and not being compensated for care rendered. this type of mis-conceived policy saw big increases in antibiotic use with potentially increased antibiotic resistance, drug costs and side-effects to patients that could have been avoided...

this particular health care reform is not straightforward...but intriguing.

Fun times in Utah...

So I'm still playing catch up from our long time away. After Yosemite and Lake Tahoe, we headed to Utah. Paul had an interview, so he stayed for 1 1/2 days and headed home. I stayed with the kiddos for the next two weeks.

During that time I spent lots of time wandering around--sometimes with realtors, sometimes not--looking for areas to perhaps settle once we find a job. We finish our time in residency in June, and the search is on! It feels like such a big decision! Any looking we do now is all preliminary, as we don't yet have a job. But I feel much less anxiety about the upcoming future after scouting out the valley a little. Hopefully the housing market keeps tumbling in Utah and we'll be able to find a great place for a great price. !!

But in addition to "business," we had a lot of fun, too! Here are a few things I got pictures of.

Gardener Village with Jill and kids. We always love hanging out with them, and Grandpatty came (she took the picture) and we enjoyed a picnic on the grass after seeing the witches and Halloween decorations.


Gardner Village has always been one of my favorite places to spend an afternoon, with all the fun shops and things to see. Although this time it was a little less relaxing (as we chased kids the whole time and lost Abby once...) we still had a great time. Thanks for coming Jill!

We got to go to one of Lafe's football games. His team is undefeated and we got to see him catch and run a great interception! Michael adores his uncle Lafe, and he was a lot of fun around the kids during our time with him.


I really wanted my kids to see the leaves changing, as we just don't get to see that part of the year in California. We heard a storm was coming, which would bring rain to the valleys and snow to the mountains. So we hurried up the Nebo mountain the night before with a hot dogs and marshmallows for roasting.



The storm came a little early, and it was very cold and a little drizzly. I guess my great idea wasn't so great after all, but we still had a memorable time and listened to BYU beat the Aggies over the suburban's speakers (thanks for the sacrifice Dad F).

For the kiddos, the highlight of any Utah trip is their Grandpatty. She had several things set up just for them... a teddy bear's picnic, several sets of 2 dolls, a tent for Michael to sleep in, camping chairs for sitting, dress up clothes ready for playing, and Halloween decorations for little hands to break. We used the backyard trampoline well, and left our marks all over the house. Paul's mom thoroughly enjoys her time with her grandkids as she reads, sings, cooks, drives, chases, and sleeps with them. They truly feel loved by her.

Here is a picture of the kids with their Grandpatty one night singing and dancing like princesses (and a prince) to the tune of "I Know You..."


Conference weekend was a lot of fun. Between the Sunday sessions, we kept up the tradition of taking an afternoon walk with Grandpappy, and stopped off at a playground.



We also took a trip to the zoo, meeting up with Melinda, Jonny, and Aaron. We got to take our good friend Judy Barrows and her grandson Cole with us, too. He and Michael became fast friends.



Thanks to many helpful hands, this was a great trip for us. I even got to do some girl things... like a 2 girls nights with Hannah and Melinda (we missed you, Libby!), an afternoon with my fun BYU roommates, and a baby shower with some friends from our University of Utah ward. Oh, and of course, some shopping without kiddos. My only regret is that I didn't get up to Oregon to see my family. But that trip will have to wait for another time.

Whew! What a busy few weeks. Mom F drove home with me and waited for Lafe and Dad F to come a few days later to enjoy a California vacation with us. But I'll save those good times for another post...

Thanks, everyone, for our fun times in Utah!

Images From Yosemite...

Although it has been a few weeks since our visit to Yosemite, I am playing catch-up and wanted to document some of our fun times with some of the pictures from the trip. Forgive me for the next few posts that will recap our last few weeks.

Although our time there was short, Yosemite was a great time for us. After a hurried departure, a "dual yorking" as Paul says, and a late night (early morning?) arrival at our campsite... we were able to slow way down and enjoy a peaceful morning in beautiful surroundings.


In an effort to get excited, early-rising kiddos away from other sleeping campers, Paul rushed the kids out in their pajamas to explore.



Paul is so good at having fun with the kids when we are out and about. He manages them so well and really helps them to have a good time while I hold and care for Ella. He is wonderful with them.


Abby can play princesses wherever she is...







I joined them when Ella woke, and we enjoyed some beautiful, peaceful scenery.

After a few walks, we came back to breakfast and packed up to see more of the national forest.


Something that was so interesting (in a frightening way) to me was all the warnings about bears. I guess there was a video playing as he checked into our camp about bears breaking into cars for food or items that looked like food/coolers. So we were told to clear out our car completely and store any and all food in these "bear boxes" for protection.


It brought the reality of this "natural" experience home for me.

We drove around and out of the park that day. We stopped along the way to admire particularly beautiful spots.


Ella enjoyed herself, too...



Although the stay was short, it was very enjoyable and probably just the right amount of time for now. We'll be back though!

live presidential blog debate...

we will be live blogging the debate right here unless stevie decides the country's future is more important than peter's birthday (happy birthday peter...) either way, come here to find out where we will be live blogging the presidential debate tonight--9pm eastern, 6pm pacific.

the weeze...

i have been looking forward to this concert since i bought the tickets months ago.

gratefully, amy agreed to accompany me to see weezer last night and they did not disappoint.

two exhibits for you to judge:

this first youtube recording gives you a sense of how quirky rivers cuomo is. stevie, you would love this guy in concert...



this second video gives you a full-length sampling of my favorite song of the night. singing at the top of your lungs and jumping around to these boy's music is unavoidable in this setting. if you want to get the full experience, turn off the lights, get everyone in the house to stand really close together, turn the volume up until it rattles your insides and sing as loud as you can while jumping up and down...



i wish you could have been there.

yosemite..!

having lived in cali for 2+ years, we figured it would be a shame to move out of the state without visiting yosemite. so we tacked a stop to the park on to our trip to tahoe. we are definitely glad we did.

as you can see, this trip took all the room our new vehicle had to offer...and then some. i worked the overnight just before we left and when i awoke from my morning nap, we slogged through the task of putting the finishing touches on the packing amy had gratefully done in the previous days.

the drive to the park became a study in patience. abby is a known yorker. she struggled with motion sickness 2 years ago on our first trip to big bear on the 'rim of the world highway'. she hadn't had problems since, but she had yet to be tested to the degree the yosemite trip would test her. at one point, abby kept crying at regular one minutes intervals for 10-30 piercing seconds at a time. amy and i were starting to reach our wits end as we couldn't find a single reason why she would be assailing our eardrums at such regular intervals. however, it soon became sadly apparent what she was feeling...nausea. as her crying reached a crescendo, she threw up all the raisins, string cheese, crackers, juice, water and whatever else we'd been stuffing her with to keep her happy. as the smell and the crying from the vomit filled the vehicle with amy and me frantically stopping everything (including driving) to catch the remains of her heaving, bekah looked over horrified at her pale, queezy sister and started vomiting herself. this dual yorking exceeded our ability to catch and contain. amy and i gave into the stench and mess with the next 45 mintues filled with trips to the trucker's bathroom, cold wet clean girls and scrubbing of carseats.

soon we were on our way once more--with a renewed sense of adventure and excitement.

one of my favorite moments was after entering the park in a caffeine induced state of wakefulness and stopping for a bathroom break with michael. i felt like i was stopping for a break on a road-trip with a boy whose company i cherish. we steppeed out into the crisp night in awe of the star-filled sky and the clean federally maintained bathrooms (classic government work--clean, reliable, but not flashy and no soap.)

that night we pulled into the 'housekeeping' campground in the yosemite valley. we drove into the park in the dark of night. we noticed the beautiful trees, but could not see a single rock formation with no moon. we unloaded our camping equipment as can be seen below. we worked as quietly as possible since all the tarp tents were open to the night air and the exclamations of excitement and protest from our kids as we got them ready for bed.

the girls and i slept in two sleeping bags zipped together with a neighbor's bag (thank you brian) over the top. the girls loved it (more than i?) as they pawed and kicked me out of affection all night.

on awakening, we were met with beautiful scenes right out of a movie. the beauty of this campground was stunning. it was a really nice time with the kids that morning as they screamed, and waded through this beautiful campground.



this picture catches the whole family in front of the quaint river with a sandy beach that is all covered with water to overflowing in the spring.

amy and i managed some quiet alone time in front of this gorgeous vista that appears when you emerge from the western entrance tunnel while the kiddos watched nemo in the parked car just feet away.

michael let nemo go for a few minutes to come out as well to enjoy the view.


the other photos i included of ella enjoying the view aren't posting for some reason, but she was there too and thoroughly enjoyed herself.

so anyway, yosemite was everything we thought it would be. while in future years we may find ourselves in yosemite attempting an altogether type of vacation (long hikes, crazy rock climbing etc.) this idyllic one-night camping trip with views from the road suited our young family just fine.

why i will vote for barack obama...

amy's been fielding questions from concerned friends about my rumored support for barack obama, so i'll lay it out there for everyone to read..:)

1-intelligence and pragmatism. barack's campaign has been a model of intelligent and measured decisions. he carefully and steadily guided his campaign and brought down the clinton political juggernaut. he did it smartly, by identifying weaknesses in the enemy and attacking in measured doses without bravado or stupidity.

barack is fluent about the problems americans face. the problems we face are enormous and multi-faceted. barack consistently lays forth workable solutions where mccain lays out one-liners or reactions to barack's plans.

2-republicans failed healthcare. like most physicians, i am for universal coverage. i hate basing my prognosis for a condition on the insurance coverage of a patient. wholesale reform is needed and 8 years of bush has made things worse. mccain gives token thoughts on tax deductions and 'deregulation', but it feels too much like what bush has already tried...a lot of nothing.

sure, i'm scared that barack will place too much power in the hands of bureaucrats and that healthcare will go down in flames like social security is. however, i think something needs to be done sooner than later or there will be mutiny in the general public and that mutiny will lead to much more drastic and damaging plans than what barack already proposes. the devil is in the details, and mccain is not a details kind of guy.

3-international relations. mccain talks as if foreign policy is his strong point, but this is where he is most scary. barack's visit to germany a month back bordered on inspiring. i believe america holds an important moral ground on the world stage. bush has tarnished that in large part because he doesn't know how to talk to people coherently. barack's willingness and ability to inspire through rhetoric and find common ground is just what america needs. can you imagine the smugness mccain displays in public during the debates playing out over late-night negotiations with russia's new prime minister, or with iran's current president?

4-american men and women are dying. mccain is looking for any excuse possible to stay in iraq. any setback and he'll be ramping up our involvement in the name of victory. his rhetoric on this subject frightens me. we need to responsibly hand over control of iraq to iraqi's. sure, let's avoid a power vacuum, but let's get out as quickly and responsibly as possible.

5-no more leadership vacuum...please. the last two weeks have seen two men fumble and bumble their way to delays in the financial rescue of our country. bush gave one heady speech over the radio to the public that was unconvincing and mccain 'suspended' his campaign to push himself into the spotlight that ultimately derailed delicate negotiations. we needed a leader to spell out the gravity of the problem before us. we needed someone to convince the american people to act swiftly and courageously in supporting their congressman on passage of a financial rescue that may have been too little too late in stopping a credit freeze that may see us fall into the worst economic times the country has seen since the great depression.

there is something to be said for a man (or woman) who inspires confidence and can communicate effectively with those he leads.

6-a fiscally divided america. the ever widening income gap between the haves and have-nots in america is shameful. i'm not talking about taking from the rich and giving to the poor. i'm talking about enriching the poor and the middle classes and thereby lifting all. call it trickle-up economics if you will. over the last 50 years the wage gap has increased the most under republican leadership. it will cause unrest and hatred in the country. barack speaks to this and it's important.

7-i am a believing mormon. here's the clincher for many of you reading this blog. can a believing mormon vote democrat? doesn't barack support proposals that the prophet has spoken against? yes and no.

first off: president faust was a democrat. barack does not support gay marriage.

secondly: even on issues that barack doesn't line up with thomas monson's views, that's okay!!! i believe it is counterproductive for a religion to align itself solely with one party. mormonism clearly does not align itself with one party. contrary to cultural mormon thought--you can vote however and for whomever you want and still hold a calling, be a bishop, a member of the first presidency and take the sacrament. please don't be held hostage by a few issues and abrogate your responsibility to truly judge the candidates by their whole message.

there you have it.

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