fiscal responsibility...

most of obama's moves to date have been fairly centrist and i have been pleased with his openness and pragmatism.

however, i will undoubtedly vote for a fiscal conservative in the next election cycle and for shutting down a single payer system if that's what he pushes as a health-care plan without bipartisan support...

senator gregg makes a good case here...

and as ella is demonstrating, this next move would not be a healthy one (for ella, swallowing that thing in front of her. for obama, cramming health care legislation down our throats without two sided debate and contributions...)

enjoying stake conference...

my favorite part of stake conference...was my kids and their mom.

i'm in the middle of 14 days of work in a row (including conferences) and this time together before going to work rejuvenated in ways hard to describe.

obama's gitmo...

obama picks and chooses his favorite campaign pledges. once again, i am in favor of what he's doing, but think it funny the hypocrisy of all the bush/gitmo haters that love obama...

read about it here...

A New Weapon in a Loosing Battle...

Where have you been all year, Mr. Clean??


On my last shopping trip to Target, I found myself on the cleaning supplies isle staring Mr. Clean in the face, wondering if he could really help me.

You see, Abby and Bekah have spent the last year doubling my efforts to keep a clean house.


We, of course, have the typical toy scattering that happens throughout the day.
There are the liquid spills... at the end of the day, I have added 7-8 kitchen clean-up towels to the laundry.
After cleaning up daily cereal "snacking" messes, I moved all cereal boxes to the top cupboard.
These girls also love to be "helpful" with preparing breakfast, lunch, and dinner...
Even Ella leaves a radius of food debris wherever her high chair is situated.
And I won't even start on the potty-training situations that occur...

Making cookies... Paul usually takes off their shirts to keep clothes somewhat clean :)

But the messes that grate at me the most are the "colorings" that appear throughout the house. On the walls, cupboards, and chairs. On counters, toys, and appliances. These suckers don't come off.

Of course, every mother of young children has similar household woes to tell. I'm not asking for any pity... just documenting so my daughters can feel my empathy when they have toddlers of their own. :)

But wait! Say no more! Magic Eraser to the rescue!


These babies wipe it all away. And not just a little random Crayola. Dried up food on the wall next to the table? Gone! Sticky fingers on cabinets? One wipe! I love these little treasures, and will be filling my cleaning cupboard with them for the next couple of years.

I know they've been around for quite a while. I'm just rediscovering them... and it is wonderful!

The only thing I haven't been able to really clean is ballpoint pen on the walls. Any ideas?? I've already tried hairspray...

It makes me wonder what marvels my daughters will be cleaning with when they are mothers. Maybe by that time the walls will clean themselves...

Now that would be Magic!

THE House-Buying Trip to Utah...

This week I had my 3 x 10 birthday (my dad says it doesn't look so bad when you count by decades. Ha!). Thanks to so many who wrote such wonderful thoughts and recalled so many fun memories. It was touching.

For my birthday, Paul bought me a house!


He did, however, let me in on the surprise and I got to help pick it out... you know... And, per my request, we spent the day working away to make it more ready for our family to move in at the beginning of June.

This was Paul's major task: clearing the massive amount of tumbleweed that covered the "yard."


Whataman! He really took it for the team on this one, while I daintily dusted the construction dust and debris and did other cleaning to make the house move-in ready! Oh, and I dreamed up lots of schemes about where to put our minimal amount of furnishings.

But that's only part of what made this trip worthwhile. After Early Easter Dinner #1, the masses gathered for a rockin' dance party with Uncle Stevie and Aunt Hannah... courtesy of "Michael's Rockin' CD..."



(Stevie is teaching Michael how to play the 'air guitar' with style,

and Bekah and Abby are wearing their favorite dress-up clothes. Justsoyaknow.)

i

Other notables that made this "get things done" trip fun, too!:

• time with the NYHipster
• letting the kiddos play and play and play outside
  
• 2 batches of "Hannah cookies"
  
• a quiet lunch with Mel while Aaron was recovering from his surgery
  
• faxing and calling and over-nighting and stressing about last-minute house-closing details
  
• introducing Hannah to IKEA (can you belive the girl had never been??!?)
  
• General Conference and the traditional mid-Sunday walk
  
• Early Easter Dinners #2 and 3
  
• birthday pie
  
• a very violent children's theater production--Tales of the Arabian Nights (tell your kids what "beheading" means before going to this one... yikes!)
  
• lots of snow (I'm going to have to beef up the winter clothes budget next year)
  
• an early visit from the Easter Bunny
  
• mid-potty-training-woes
  
• Ella's scooting progress!
  
• time with cousin Aaron
  
• lots of calls about estimates for home improvement projects
  
• and just fun times with family

Another highlight was taking Michael to General Conference. Michael loves Conference time. He knows them by name has his favorite (L. Tom Perry... he played football, you know...). We came across some tickets to go to the Saturday morning session.

I told Michael, and he just lit up. He talked about it the whole week before we were to go. In one of his prayers, he said something like, "I am grateful that Conference is coming up. And I am especially soooo grateful that I get to actually go to the Conference Center to see President Monson and the Apostles and that I just actually be there when they speak to us."


But wait! Aren't there rules about these things? Isn't there an age limit of 8?? Um... yes. But, you see, there was the circumstance of a certain mother who made a promise to a certain 5-year-old.


Props to Aunt Hannah for getting Michael through the security check without telling a lie. And Michael was so well behaved that I don't feel a bit guilty. It was a wonderful morning... thanks for coming with us Hannah and Mel.


And special thanks to Grandpatty and Grandpappy, Hannah, and Lafe for your logged hours of time with our kiddos to help us get everything done. You are the best!

Now we are home and I get to switch gears to packing. I don't know where THAT's going to fit into the schedule... but it will get done one way or another!

barney frank and the democrats...

man up people. admit your mistakes. lets correct the problem and stop playing lame power games. stuff like this will hurt the democrats in the mid-cycle election.

regardless, this is a really fun exchange between barney frank and a law student at harvard. i've been unimpressed with barney frank from the time he started rambling about the republicans to blame right after the talk broke down with mccain and obama at the negotiating table as candidates.

unfortunately, this exchange reinforces why i would prefer limited government albeit with sensible regulations when needed...

day in day out...

my one day off and a few evenings have been punctuated by little enjoyments.

michael, amy and i filled out brackets. michael and i have been filling them in after each round. my young byu fan insisted on taking byu to the finals (he had them winning 101-10.) i tried prompting him by stating that byu had never made it past the round of 8. it had no effect. (we are incidentally dissapointed with uncle matt for not picking byu in the first round for a measly point...was selling your fan-soul worth it...?)

in michael's defense, he misunderstood the tournament. the morning after byu lost, michael asked amy whom byu would play next. she informed him they had played their last game. tears came to his eyes as explained he thought byu would be playing another losing team. poor guy.

he's perked up though as many of his other teams are doing quite well (he is ahead of me at this point.)


ella is a joy. she is growing in leaps and bounds. i have been gone most days this week and often leave before she awakes and get home after she is asleep. it was heart warming one morning when she couldn't finish nursing because she kept craning her head around to see me wherever i walked. she is a light and delight to us...








abby's vocabulary has exploded in recent weeks. the inflections in her voice are priceless and her prayer's are 10 x's longer than they were two weeks ago. she was my 'go to' girl for the food prayer until recently..:) isn't this photo a scary presage of things to come..?


bekah still commonly asks me how my work was, how she missed me (and i missed her), and how sad we both have been from the time apart. who couldn't love coming home to that?

bekah often decides she is no longer 'bekah'. she is just 'byu'. she is 'byu' here in all her glory...

legalization? seems to make sense...

here the economist lays out its case for legalization of all drugs--not just marijuana.

much of what is said makes sense. i've been on board for years...

what say you? the big downside is the potential for increased use.

but think of the billions saved on a seeming pointless game of 'catch the bad drug dealer' that kills good policemen and destroys inner city neighborhoods. and these drug lords of the inner cities' supply of money and power would dry up very quickly as regulated 'drug stores' would sell a cleaner, cheaper product.

am i out in left field here?

convince me otherwise.

Wonder of Wonder, Miracle of Miracles...

We have potty trained our twins!! Today is the two-week anniversary of the beginning of no diapers for 3-year-olds!


... although we'll be purchasers of pull-ups for sleeping times for a while, I think...

Some commentary on the experience:

• Potty training these girls has turned the bathroom into party central!
  
• During the first few days, I felt like I was spending all day in the bathroom.
• Poor Ella was nursed in the bathroom a time or two.
• The main bathroom has never been so clean... and the bleach cleaner has never gone so quickly.
• I've been plunging a toilet at least once a day this week--the first time, our babysitter had to do it.
• Abby likes to assign familial roles to what comes out in the toilet according to its size... a dadda, a mamma, or a baby.
• Panties can be considered pretty accessories to any outfit. One might find it needful to show them off to others at the park.
• Potty calls have extended the going-to-bed time span. Whaddayado?
• Our diaper budget is now replaced by a hefty toilet paper and hand soap budget.
• Trips to the park and the store are much more complicated now... as are quick trips in the car... and I don't even want to think about our upcoming trip to Utah.

But it is really fun to see the independence and self confidence that emerge as this important milestone is (mostly) successfully met. I love the exclamations of success and the congratulations that comes from each member of the family.


Hooray for the sisters! Big girl panties are great!

A Little Man...

Michael is out of school this two weeks for Spring break. I have loved having him around. He is such a fun friend for me to have around, a great playmate with his sisters, and a loving presence in our home.

Being around him all day every day this week has really made me realize what a big kid he is becoming. Where is the time going? He has just a few of the endearing "little boy" traits (sleeping with his "swingy bingy" monkey, an occasional nose picking :), needing me to tie his shoes...) that I am hanging on. But he has become so independent and self-assured. It is an amazing process.


Earlier this week I had to keep getting on Michael about playing music on our iTunes on the computer. "The computer is not a toy" I kept telling him. Finally he told me that "I just like music so much, I just want to listen to so many of my favorite songs!"

So we sat down together to make him a CD. I was a little shocked when he told me exactly which playlists to go to and which songs he wanted. "On 'Amy's favorites,' I like number 6 and 14. On 'Workout' I like 23..." and on and on it went until we had about 25 of his favorites.

His choices startled me as well. He picked quite a few "Paul" songs... ifyaknowhatImean--Weezer, Killers, and even a Rancid (YIKES... luckily it was a mild one...). There was Cake, Gorillaz, and Avril Lavigne. The "boy songs" from High School Musical, of course, and a few classic Michael Jackson and Beach Boys.

He has been happily listening to his CD ever since. He is so proud of it. And I am enjoying it with him. As long as I can repress the "turn it down" tendencies that start creeping up!

Then this exchange happened today when he was going across the street to play with his best friends, the Rowleys:

Me: "Remember to be a good friend, Michael."

Michael: "Okay, mom. And remember to be a good mom to the girls."
(pause... turn back)
"And help them to do things that are good."
(walk forward a bit. stop. turn back)
"And I want you to tell me all about it when I get back."

Me: "Okay, Michael. I love you."

Michael: "I love you, too."
(run forward. stop at the sidewalk. look both ways over and over and over as he runs across the street. stop at the sidewalk. look back and smile and wave. run to the front door without looking back again)

And so it is happening. My little boy is turning into a little man day by day. And my girls are growing so fast. Time is flying by. It feels like I am still a newlywed. Still a new mom. When did we finish medical school? And are we really buying a house? And where are these gray hairs coming from?

And does this post make me sound old??

Oh, man. I think it does.