Reality Pause

So I give control of the blog to Beckie and nothing gets posted. I thought she wanted to let everyone know whats going on… I blame Facebook. That is all anyone does now, is post to Facebook and ignore their blogs. I do it as well.

I could say that I’ve set a new years goal to write more often, but that would be a blatant lie. I don’t believe in new years goals. That implies that you can only make it a goal at new years and after you fail in a month or so (and you will fail) you can’t make a new goal until the next new year. You should make goals all the time. Fail a goal? Make a new goal right then! It is not going to be a priority for me to make sure this blog is up to date, this is Beckie’s blog.

I will make it a priority to pester Beckie to make her write!

As the attached photos indicate, Daelin REALLY enjoyed his birthday cake!

Ethan turned 3 on Saturday. Just a few random pics of the day.

Seven years ago today the twin towers were brought down in an act of aggression. Seven years ago this nation lost many good and courageous men and women. Seven years ago, we as a people lost the greatness that this nation once stood for. The terrorists won in a very real sense.

We now have a big government tracking its citizens. We now live in a world where honest citizens are searched simply because their name matches or closely resembles the name of a suspected terrorist. We have lost the freedoms that our ancestors fought and died for. Our government is telling our heroes that everything they believed in was worthless.

The biggest calamity that we have suffered is the single greatest thing that this nation was built upon. Our nation was fathered and mothered by people from all nations. Immigrants from around the world learning to live with one another. Instead of accepting these people, our government is rounding them up, and kicking them out. Our government is tearing families apart, and we as a people are letting them do so. Shame on us for letting it happen.

Our nation was founded on some very simple truths. The greatest of these is “In God WE trust.” Yes, we believe in equality. Yes, we believe in tolerance. But there is no place for religious intolerance, and no place for atheism in our government. Catholics, Baptists, Mormons, Lutherans, Muslims and every other religion should be able to peacefully pray with one another. All of these beliefs teach tolerance and love for our fellow man. Why do we not follow these beliefs?

The New Colossus

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,

With conquering limbs astride from land to land;

Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand

A mighty woman with a torch whose flame

Is imprisoned lightning, and her name

Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand

Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command

The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

“Keep ancient lands your storied pomp!” cries she with silent lips.

“Give me your tired your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

Emma Lazarus (1849-1887)

Well it was bound to happen, and it did. I told Keagan at the beginning of the school year, “You have to remember to get your sister every day.” ‘Well what if I forget?” Oh believe me, you will only forget once. I got a call today from the school at about 2:25. I was thinking it was probably the kids because I told them if it was raining to give me a call and I would come get them. So the phone rings, and no it’s not the kids, it’s the office at school.  It seems Natalia is in the office, pretty distraught, because her brother left her at school. I load up Ethan and Daelin, both screaming mind you, and head over to the school. About half way there, I see Keagan walking down the street. I ask him if he forgot anything, and he says yeah my sister. I told him to finish walking home and I would be back in a few minutes with her. I get to the office; she is looking pretty sad and worried sitting there. I can tell that she has been crying. She was in a pretty grumpy mood, why is she taking it out on me; I wasn’t the one who forgot her. I ask her what happened; she said she couldn’t remember where Keagan’s classroom was. Ummm, it’s in the same hall as you just down at the other end. It sounds like they were both looking for each other and probably crossed paths a few times. So needless to say, Keagan couldn’t play with friends today, drove him nuts, drove me nuts, let’s just hope he has learned and he will not leave school without his sister again.  

It’s been almost a week since pack meeting; I think I can finally blog about it. It was Keagan’s first pack meeting and he had to be there early for flag ceremony. We get to the stake center pavilion, and it’s just chaos. There are kids running everywhere, including walking on top of the tables and jumping from table to table. Yes I know that they are boys, and boys can be wild at times, but come on parents people are going to be eating there, and I personally don’t want a foot in my potato salad. The leaders are up there trying to talk and get things under control, it’s time for prayer and the kids are still being loud, but they say the prayer anyway. HELLO!!!! How are the kids ever going to learn to be reverent if parents aren’t going to teach them how to be? The parents are off talking amongst themselves, paying no attention to what their kids are doing. Of course the kids are going to run wild if the parents aren’t even going to attempt to corral them.  I know my kids aren’t perfect, but I was so glad that Keagan was sitting there listening while they were attempting to hand out awards. He even went and tried to help with the contest they had. They split up into two teams to see who could put a tent up the fastest. Chaos as well, Keagan’s team, the tent was missing pieces. The kids didn’t do much besides stand there, while the adults attempted to put the tent together. Needless to say, I was glad when it was over and it was time to go home. We had to give the kid a HUGE pat on the back for not walking on the tables, listening, and not running around like wild animals, even though they are most of the time.

Heading home from work yesterday was more eventful than I am accustomed. Riding a motorcycle to work naturally means that I drive slower and much more defensively. I do not want to be a grease stain and a bunch of annual flowers.

The first part of my ride home is through a residential area. The speed limit is 25mph for about 2 miles. There have been many police sightings along the way so I am doing exactly 25mph. At one point the road narrows significantly at a 3 way stop. A clunker of a junk heap pulls out behind me. He is swerving back and forth and is carrying a snow tube thing out his window. Swerving back and forth he gets right up behind me and then goes to pass me.

Right next to me, this guy is swerving back and forth, driving with one hand, and not paying attention to driving. There is no way I am going to let this guy hit me, so I sped up, fast. Then I stop at the stop sign. This moron barely misses me as he pulls up along side me on the right hand side and starts cussing at me. I inform him of his idiotic way of driving and his reply was simply, “What are you going to do about it.”

Anger and fear flooded over me. What would I do if he were to get out of his car and come over to me. Probably drive off. So I did. But behind me I heard the squeal of spinning tires. In my rearview mirror, I watch him peel out into the neighborhood. What a winner.

Remind me, we are not moving to that neighborhood!

It started out innocently. A health fair sponsored by work. Police dog demonstrations, gym, insurance, and corporate sponsor representatives, and the villain in our story, the blood mobile, collecting blood for the Red Cross.

I had never donated blood. For one reason or another, it just never happened. I do not know why I went  to donate. Why was this day any different than any other day? I do not know, but in I went. They had me answer a bunch of questions. Easiest survey I ever took. Tested my blood for iron content (50 whatever that means) and then laid me down on a bed. This is where the problems began. I was wearing a shirt that said, “I’m not dead yet.” Either this shirt saved me (my vote), or was the cause of my problems.

I had them stab my left arm, since I am right handed and did not want to lose the ability to use my right arm. They prepped my arm, and stabbed me. Did not hurt at all. BUT! The lady accidentally pulled the needle out of my arm. Yeah, I fountained blood everywhere! Got on my clothes, the bed, all over her white coat, made a mess! She started screaming for someone to come help, after she stopped my blood flow. They cleaned me up and moved me to a different bed and stabbed my right arm. One arm one stab. They then sucked the blood out of my right arm while they sanitized the first bed. Six minutes 30 seconds is how long it took me to fill up the blood bag. During those six minutes, we all joked about how this was my first time, how much of a mess it made, and the fact that I did not have to clean it up.

So now I am done, I am really thirsty so I go to get a drink of juice. Walked right over, opened the cooler, took out a can, popped it open and drank about half of it. Sat down and… The world began closing in around me.  I knew I was fainting. My memory says that I announced I was fainting and for someone to take my juice. And then everyone was yelling at me to get me to lie down and put my legs up. In actuality I dropped my juice which got their attention. I was a nice shade of green which got them running. I did tell them I was fainting and going to drop my juice, told them about five times, after I had dropped my juice of course. I may have said something before hand, but there is no proof of that. They really were yelling at me. I could not hear anything. They kept telling me not to worry about the juice they got it. I need to lie down and put my legs up. I finally caught on to that part.

They put an ice pack behind my neck, and one on my chest. They made me stay like that for about 10 minutes before they let me sit up. After they took my blood, I was there for another 45 minutes in total. They kept making me drink juice and eat cookies. When I finally went back into work, they almost insisted that they escort me in. I felt a bit less than normal the rest of the day. But what a journal entry that adventure became!