Environmentalism and the First Amendment

I've been corresponding with a friend about a few political issues surrounding Mitt Romney. She is an atheist and is concerned about the first amendment. She asked me how Mitt Romney felt about the separation of church and state. Well, I wrote her a VERY long response (she is indeed a true friend if she read the whole thing), but in it I mentioned the idea that the modern environmental movement is essentially a religion. I think there are a number of "religions" that have emerged recently, as so many people have become a little too "educated" and "sophisticated" for traditional organized religion. I believe the human need for religious expression is so deeply ingrained, it cannot be eradicated. It will simply take on different forms if one form becomes unacceptable. One of the most obvious of these modern religions is the Church of Environmentalism. I hope everyone will read this speech by Michael Crichton. I've talked about his books before, but this speech (he has a bunch of speeches and essays on his website which are very good) encapsulates some of his ideas very well.

http://www.michaelcrichton.com/speech-environmentalismaseligion.html

However, I wonder if anyone else has ever thought about the Church of Environmentalism in light of the First Amendment? The First Amendment forbids the establishment of religion by Congress. It's difficult for me to view some of the acts of Congress concerning environmental issues to be anything BUT the establishment of a religion, since many of these laws and bills coming through Congress are quite simply based on NOTHING but faith in this religion. It would be unconstitutional for Congress to pass a bill banning the sale of religious art for private use in the home. So how is it not unconstitutional to pass a bill banning the sale of conventional incandescent bulbs by 2012? This is a real bill that has already been passed. And if anyone tells me that switching over to compact fluorescent bulbs will have any impact on our environment whatsoever, I will very happily flood your email box with so many articles and references disproving this, that you will never think to doubt the wisdom of Gabrielle again!!!! LOLOL

Similarly, it would be unconstitutional for public schools to show movies made for the strict purpose of converting the viewer to Christianity, and dramatizing the literally hellish consequences for those who refuse to convert. So how is it not unconstitutional for schools to show "An Inconvenient Truth" which is so patently nothing but propaganda for the Church of Environmentalism? (Again, if anyone tells me that movie has a shred of objectivity, I will be more than happy to shut down your email program with articles and references proving that movie to be what it is-- religious propaganda.)

Anyway, food for thought. It would be interesting to do an analysis of public speeches by politicians over the last year, comparing the number of references to God to the number of references to Global Warming. LOL!!

I got in!

So I finally found out today that I am officially accepted into the bone marrow transplant study. Hurray! I emailed the coordinator this morning wanting to know the status, but didn't get any reply. Then I called back this afternoon because I'm wanting to do another round of steroids but needed to get the go-ahead from them, so the nurse had to contact the review board to make sure it was ok, and they said that not only was it ok, but that I'm also accepted into the study. So that is very good news.
I am going to try to do another round of Solumedrol. I've been trying to hold out, but last night was a very bad night (waking up with my legs seizing up, etc.), and today was also pretty bad. I was sitting down on the floor sorting laundry and very nearly couldn't get up. The state of the house and my laundry right now is pretty good indicator of how my legs are doing, and it shows right now. But anyway, tomorrow Dr. Hutton (the study neurologist) is going to call Dr. Tallman (my local neuro), and they're going to decide what to do with me. It's so great to have so much control over my own life...
In the meantime, Dr. Hutton's office is starting the insurance approval process. They have no idea how long this might take. The coordinator told me that sometimes the insurance companies will approve right away, like in a week, but other times it's not so easy and they have to go through the appeals process, and it can take a few months. No way to tell with me since they've never worked with UHC before. So basically I just hang out for who-knows-how-long until we get the go-ahead from UHC, and then everything will start. Good thing I'm getting so good at waiting. I'm sorry to any family members who might be wanting to make spring/summer plans. Don't plan anything around me, because if you do, that will probably be exactly when I'll be in the thick of everything.
So, that's the news. I'm glad to have some good news today since it looks like we're getting bad news out of Florida. The voting isn't all in yet, and I'm purposely not glued to the computer checking the stats as they come in from each county. Ben is doing that, and I assume if something good were happening, he'd probably come down and tell me. Oh well, whatever. I figure, if Romney wins, that's awesome. If McCain wins, the pessimist in me says he'll take the nomination, and if he does, then I guess in a way that's good for me because I will absolutely not care who wins the national election. In fact, I'll probably hope that the democrat wins, because I'm pretty confident they'll mess things up so bad that in another 4 years Romney will have another shot, and he'll win. Anyway, whatever. I'm a little tired of being stressed out about things that I have no control over. I have to say, though, I did get a very nice phone call this afternoon from McCain (my cell phone is still my FL number), and I was just a tad offended that Mitt didn't think to call me, too. Oh well, I guess I forgive him.

Sunday Catch-up

It's been a pitifully long time since I have written any kind of a decent letter, and this one probably won't be any better.
I'm just going to do bullet points since I'm so tired.

• No news yet from the research study. Hopefully early this week, maybe tomorrow.Joseph lost one of his two top front teeth. He's lost 3 lower teeth, but this is his first upper tooth. He looks really cute. It happened last week in church, he had just gone into his primary classroom and his teacher gave each kid a cookie. The cookie was a little hard (one of those sandwich type cookies) as he bit into it, and he said when he was chewing he felt something kind of like a rock, and then he felt to see if his tooth was out, and it was! But then he accidentally swallowed it. LOL!! Anyway, it was just the tiniest bit traumatic for him, so he came into Young Women with me and I wiped his mouth (there's always a little blood when a tooth comes out), and he sat next to me for the rest of the time. The tooth fairy did manage to find him and give him a dollar anyway, although Joseph very vocally does NOT believe in the tooth fairy!
• The boys redeemed their first 3 weeks worth of chore stars (5 cents per star), and bought Webkinz animals. I hadn't heard of these at all until like 2 weeks ago when another little kid brought hers to Tae Kwon Do and a couple of the moms started talking about them. And then the boys spent the night at Adam's house when I went to Houston, and he has several, and then Webkinz were all they could talk about for a few days. So this is the deal with Webkinz. They are these stuffed animals, there are lots of different kinds. They're pretty average stuffed animals, just a step above beanie babies. But each one comes with a tag and when you open it up, there is a secret code for you to be able to sign up and log into "Webkinz World." Once in Webkinz World, you find yourself in this room with your virtual pet. You start out with a certain amount of money, and you need to keep your pet fed and exercised and played with. So you buy food, you can buy furniture for his room, when you get more money you can actually buy more rooms, even a whole house, and a yard, etc. You can buy clothes, and pay for your pet to take classes. There is a virtual store where you buy things, a "Webkinz Academy" where you take classes (math classes have simple math games, language classes simple word games, etc.). There is a club house where you can take your pet to run on a treadmill or jump on a trampoline, or go into a game room and play games with other virtual pets who are also logged in at the same time. You can get the user ID's of your friends, and "invite" their Webkinz over to play (you both have to be online at the same time, of course). There is an employment office where you can get a "job" and earn more money. The jobs are all various types of games (trying to aim and throw newspapers to houses, for example), and there's also an arcade and lots of other places to play games or take quizzes or whatever to earn money. Anyway, it is VERY involved. It's pretty fun for the kids, but unfortunately, mine are not *quite* old enough or adept enough with the mouse to figure it all out on their own, so I've spent quite a few hours this week on Webkinz World with my boys. Sigh... I guess it's ok quality time with mom, but I'd MUCH rather be doing something *real* with them, rather than playing in some virtual world with them. I expect after a few weeks it will lose its novelty.
• A week and a half ago we had our YW New Beginnings night. The theme was "A pageant of values," and it was kind of like a beauty pageant, with each girl representing a value, wearing a formal dress of that color, and being "interviewed" with questions about that value. It was really, really nice. It sounds a little cheesy with just a brief description, but trust me, it was very nice and very spiritual. So I was responsible for coming up with a purple and orange dress. I remembered Rosalynde's old royal purple prom dress from way back when, and thought that would work. But when mama dug it out of the closet, over time it had changed from purple to red! Isn't that odd? So she sent Rachel's Rose Court dress (lavendar, close enough to purple, right?), and another old prom dress that wasn't orange, more of a peach, but close enough. Well, I swear that sizes have changed over the past 15-20 years, because that size 6 dress was the SMALLEST size 6 ever. I can squeeze into a size 6 if I have to, but no WAY was that zipper going to close over my rib cage, and it didn't come any closer on the girl who was supposed to wear it either. I felt awful, because 15 year olds are so body-sensitive anyway, I felt terrible for bringing over a dress that she then had to tell me was too small. So I ended up finding this bright orange satin-type material, and desperately sewing an orange formal dress for her to wear on Wednesday night. I finished Wed. afternoon, and it didn't fit the girl exactly (I was mostly trying to fit it on myself, something that is VERY difficult to do by yourself!); it was a bit too big, but better too big than too small. So anyway, if anyone ever has a need for a modest bright orange formal dress, let me know! The girl who wore Rachel's dress was so thrilled to be wearing a Rose Court dress (she's originally from OC, so she knew all about the Rose Parade). I took a bunch of pictures (naturally, it was a Pageant after all!) and have spent a few hours editing the pictures and putting them all up on our Young Women blog that I keep.
• Um, let's see. I got a cold this week. Ugh. I got allergies this year, too, from all the cedar trees that pollinate in January around here, so a cold on top of that has been a little miserable. Mosey got it too, but he was really only feeling bad for one day. I'm still dragging but hoping tomorrow is better.
• I've been so, so, so tired (MS fatigue tired), and my legs are getting bad once again. We went to Barnes and Noble on Friday night to buy some birthday presents and to have hot chocolate at the cafe. But by the end of the day, I've really had it. Even though I hadn't really done much during that day. I had gotten up and dressed, got the kids fed breakfast and off to school, dropped off Mosey for preschool, then came back and sat at my desk and paid bills and filed papers before going to get Mosey from school again (and when I drop him off and pick him up, I mean that very literally-- the school sends someone out to my car to get him, and then brings him to my car when I come pick him up). Then I sat and did Webkinz with him until Brigham and Joseph came home, and then I pretty much just sat around all afternoon doing piano lessons with the boys, and reading, etc. But anyway, all that walking (sarcasm) really wore me out and Ben had to heavily support me just to walk back to the kids' section, and then to the cafe and then out again. It's pretty frustrating. But so far no trouble breathing, and my trunk strength is still ok. I know I should call in for another round of steroids, but I really don't want to. I vascillate from the mornings thinking I'm ok, this is tolerable, to the nights thinking this is NOT ok, I can't stand it! It just seems so futile, since I know the steroids will make me feel miserable for 2 weeks, and I'll only feel good for about 4 weeks before everything comes back. Is it worth it? Obviously not quite yet since I'm not yet thoroughly motivated to call my doctor. I think I'll wait until I hear back for sure from Houston, and then talk to the nurse there. I know I'll be going in for a ton of baseline MRI's, and maybe they'll have an opinion on whether they'd want me to wait until after the MRI's before doing another round of solumedrol, of if they don't care, or whatever. It's just really annoying. Last night my bathroom floor was really bugging me. I wanted to take a bath, but the floor was dirty and it just seemed yucky. The floor just gets dirty so fast (white tile), and it grosses me out to walk on dirty bathroom floors, especially with wet feet after a bath, so I REALLY wanted to sweep it. Ok, so it is not a big bathroom (anyone who's been to my house can vouch for that), and sweeping it is maybe a 1 minute task at the *most.* So I dragged myself over to the laundry room to get the broom, dragged myself back to the bathroom and attempted to sweep. I did get it swept, but I ended up sitting on the floor, scooting myself along, mostly sweeping with the whisk broom and dustpan because after that LONG trek to the laundry room and back, my legs would no longer cooperate. It is so annoying to have even the very simplest of tasks just be so overwhelmingly difficult!!
• Ok, whining over. The boys have been pretty good. They've said some funny things recently. Mosey has this uncanny ability to drive his big brothers crazy at times (and vice versa, I must say), and one afternoon a few days ago Brigham came in from outside really frustrated with Mosey. I asked him what was wrong and he said with this BIG dramatic sigh and a VERY exasperated voice, "Mosey just messed up the WHOLE ENTIRE UNIVERSE!!" Oh my goodness! I know Mosey can cause trouble, but wow, that's quite a LOT of trouble for one four year old! And then this afternoon we came home from church and I told the boys they all had to pick up toys while I made dinner. Mosey quickly informed me that there were way too many toys for him to pick up, so I told him maybe from now on he needs to think about that before getting out quite so many toys! He thought about that for a second and then said, "I know, but I just keep forgetting to pick up all my toys." Oh, boy, don't I know it!
• I observed something Friday night and yesterday that I've been waiting for ever since the twins were born. One of my boys so engrossed in a book, he didn't even hear me when I spoke to him (several times). Joseph is such a good reader now, and he loves it. He's been reading the "Magic Treehouse" series at school (there are about 27 of these so far, they are short chapter books, about 75 pages long, about this sister and brother who go back in time to different points in history and have adventures). So he got one (#7) at Barnes and Noble Friday night, read nearly half of it while we were there, and then finished the rest of it yesterday after we got home from a birthday party. I'm so excited for him! I remember the first time being bitten by the book bug (with "The Littles" series), and have been smitten ever since! Brigham isn't *quite* there yet, but his teacher just did reading evaluations last week, and emailed me and told me that not only is Brigham caught up, but he is now reading *above level!* I am very proud of him. Reading isn't super-easy for him and he gets quickly frustrated, but he's been working hard and it's paying off.
• I've been reading the boys"Where the Red Fern Grows," and we just read last night the chapter when Rubin Pritchfield gets killed when he falls on Billy's axe while charging to try and kill Old Dan and Little Ann. I had forgotten that section, but when I got to it last night, it all flooded back. That part of the book really disturbed me as a little girl. But I read it anyway, and we had a small discussion about how Rubin wasn't a nice boy, and had made a series of bad choices, but he still didn't deserve to die and this was why Billy was so very sad even though Rubin had been so terrible to him. Then today during Sacrament Meeting, Joseph whispered to me asking if I thought "Where the Red Fern Grows" is a true story or fiction. I told him it was fiction, but probably based on some real things that happened to the author or people he knew while growing up. I hope this story isn't too intense for my little guys. I don't know how we'll handle the end. Joseph named his Webkinz dog "Little Ann," and I'm afraid he's really going to be devastated. Should I maybe accidentally "lose" the book? And somehow never manage to get to the library to check out another copy? Or just read it and be glad that my kids can be introduced to grief and tragedy through a fictional story and not actually through real life experiences?
• The boys are kind of fixated on the macabre and dark aspects of life. A couple of days ago on the way home from somewhere, they were all sitting in the back of the car describing what they thought Hell would be like (monsters and scary bugs and fire and stuff). And yes, we have talked about how Hell isn't actually a place with fire and brimstone, but they're imaginations go there anyway. And they like to play "Voldemort" a lot, coming up with these story lines with a stuffed animal or something playing the part of Voldemort, and various other stuffed animals (or whatever) fighting him. Maybe we need to stick with some lighter, happier literature for a while.
• Ok that's it. It's 5:30 PM and I got just about 9 hours of sleep last night, but I'm still soooooo tired I can't keep my eyes open. Must go lay down for a while before it's bedtime for boys.

My three boys

Funny joke

I got this in my email box yesterday, one of those forwarding things that everyone hates. But this one made me laugh. It's a joke that probably many of you will find to be in terribly bad taste. But funny nonetheless.

Bob was in trouble. He forgot his wedding anniversary. His wife was really mad. She told him, "Tomorrow morning, I expect to find a gift in the driveway that goes from 0 to 200 in 6 seconds AND IT BETTER BE THERE!!"
The next morning he got up early and left for work. When his wife woke up, she looked out the window and, sure enough, there was a box gift-wrapped in the middle of the driveway.
Confused, the wife put on her robe, ran out to the driveway, and brought the box back in the house.
She opened it and found a brand new bathroom scale.
Bob has been missing since Friday.

Good news!

We JUST walked in the door and I know some of you are waiting to find out how things went, so here's a quick update.
In a nutshell, everything went great!! The doctor said I was "just the kind of candidate we are looking for." He went over my medical history in detail with me, I filled in some of the gaps. We discussed some of the other treatment options, discussed the bone marrow transplant itself, and then we did a physical exam.
First was the walking test, this was what I was most nervous about, but it went very well. He had me walk up and down a long hallway in the hospital. I could go as slow as I wanted I just couldn't stop, touch the wall, or obviously use my cane. I was able to go 320 meters!! So that puts me officially at 4.5, according to the EDSS.
After that he did the normal gamut of reflex testing, sensation testing, eye exam, coordination testing, etc. I was pretty nervous going in because, although we gave ourselves more than 4 hours to get there (mapquest said 3 hours), we were a little late. It was rainy all the way out, and then of course we hit Houston rush hour going into downtown. And THEN, the address on the Baylor website for the MS clinic was incorrect, so we were about 10 minutes late when we finally parked. Ben rushed ahead to make sure the doorway we were heading to was the right one, and I was trying to hurry, and my foot caught on the ground (brick paved sidewalk), and I started going down. This is always how I trip. My foot will catch on the ground and I just do not have the reflexes or muscle strength to be able to stop myself. By the grace of God, there was a woman walking past me just at that moment and she saw me about to fall and quickly told me to hold on to her, so I grabbed onto her shoulder and was able to stop myself from falling. Of course this really shook me up. The last thing I needed was to walk into the clinic with a ripped skirt and bloody knees because I fell coming in!! Also, I got really worried about my walking test. I had forgotten to take my Baclofen this morning (that's the medication I take for spasticity), so I was extra spastic and stiff. Of all mornings to forget! The reason was just that I wasn't doing my normal routine and I am, if nothing else, a creature of habit. But anyway, I was saying lots of prayers and I knew everyone else was praying for me, and sure enough everything ended up fine.
I told Dr. Hutton I hadn't taken my medication, and maybe in the end it is better for him to see me as I "really" am, rather than how I am with medications masking some of my underlying symptoms. In any case, the resident working with him got "perfect examples" of several classic MS reflex symptoms.
So anyway, he is going to recommend me to the board that makes the final decision, but he did say that they base their decision on his summary of my case, and so it almost certainly means I will be admitted into the study. He says it takes about a week, so I should hear by the end of next week or the beginning of the next. At that point, I'll be going back and forth to Houston a lot for preliminary testing of all sorts. I'll find out more about the timeline of all of that once I get the final green light.
So, that's the good news! Now my legs can do whatever they want to do. Although I also have permission to do additional steroid treatment as needed.
Thank you for all of your prayers and support. I needed it this morning. It wasn't a very auspicious beginning to the appointment, but it turned out really well.
The boys did well while we were gone. They spent the night at the twins' friend Adam's house (he's also the bishop's son), and then Mosey went home from preschool with a friend in his class.
So we are going to have a little celebration tonight with some friends, and then go to bed early! We are tired!

Off to Houston

Sorry I haven't been updating very much. Maybe a relief to some of you. It's been a busy week. I was scheduled to go to Seattle yesterday for my screening, but found out last Friday that Baylor is now recruiting patients, so I'm going to Houston in the morning instead. I'll be the first patient going through the screening process there so I'm hoping for the best. My appointment is at 9:30 CST, so any prayers that can be spared would be appreciated.
My legs have been giving me some more trouble. I think I'm still ok and that I'll slip in under the 5.5 disability score, but I wish I was a little more confident going in there. I think when I get up in the morning I'm at a 5.5, but by the end of the day I'm more like 6.5. A couple weeks ago I was at a 4.5 so I'm definitely seeing some deterioration, as I expected to as the steroids leave my system. But it is in the Lord's hands, and whatever will be, will be. But I certainly wouldn't mind prayers.

Things have otherwise been going fine. The boys are good. Mosey is enjoying being four. Last weekend we went to the San Antonio zoo for his birthday celebration. It is a very nice zoo, although it is a little hilly, making it a bit of a workout for Ben pushing me in the wheelchair. Still, the Miami Metro Zoo has my heart as being the best zoo. With the Denver Zoo being a close second. We did see some interesting things, including a baby wallaby climing into its mother's pouch! And the lions were having something of a roaring fest as we were going by, so that was pretty cool to see also. They have a nice little children's area with these tunnels that actually go out into the prairie dog exhibit so the kids can stick their heads up in this plastic dome thing and see the world from a Prairie dog's point of view. There is also a little aquatic area with a place for the kids to "fish" for plastic fish using magnetic fishing poles. This and the bat cave (probably the best bat exhibit I've seen) were the hits for the kids.

We ate dinner at Carino's and *almost* finished listening to HP 7 on the way home. We finally finished on Sunday afternon. Now what?! I really liked the last book, although J.K. sure is brutal about who she kills off, isn't she? I want to find another series for the kids to listen to that will be a good follow-up to Harry Potter. Any suggestions? I loved "The Dark is Rising" series, and I think the boys would like it, too, but maybe it's too advanced for them? Probably not, since they enjoyed Harry Potter so much, but part of me doesn't want to feed them all the "good stuff" too soon, know what I mean? Anyway, I'm open to suggestions. I love series, but stand alone books are good too. I started reading "Where the Red Fern Grows" to them, but I'm a little ambivalent about that, too. That was the first book I ever read that made me cry, and was certainly one of the very most memorable books to me as an elementary school student. I want them to be able to have those personal experiences with books, and that is why I'm a little hesitant to introduce some books to them too early, even though I know their comprehension is certainly at a high enough level to understand what is going on. I would just love to find books, real novels, with interesting characters and story lines, that are a little more appropriate to 6 year olds. Where the Red Fern Grows is about a 13-14 year old boy, and I think my boys are still too young to really identify with a character that much older. Same is true for the Harry Potter books, honestly. But there aren't any novels with 6 year olds as characters, are there? At least, not really geared toward boys. There's always the Ramona books and I think there are a bunch of "Junie Bee" type books (not sure if that's the name), but those are definitely geared towards little girls. Plus, they're so short. They're good for me to read to them, but not what I'm looking for in an audio book which I want to last a good long time. I just downloaded Diana Wynne Jones "A charmed life: the worlds of Crestamanci" (or something like that), and we started it today. We'll see how they like it.

Brigham and Joseph got sparring gear for TKD (helmets, gloves, feet protector thingies, etc.) and today they got to use them for the first time. I was pretty impressed with them! There are some kids that "spar" mostly by trying to keep away from their partner, but Brigham and Joseph were both right there in it, not afraid to give or receive punches and kicks. I guess that's one of the benefits of growing up wrestling and fighting with someone exactly your same size. Brigham especially was doing very well, using his kicks and blocks and stuff really well.

Mosey has developed an attitude. He has started just saying "no." Or flat out refusing to stop what I tell him to stop, or do what I tell him to do. What is going on?? He has been my easiest child by far, and now he's giving me attitude? The problem (and it's a tough one) is that I cannot back any of my threats or promises of consequences with physical dominance. Not that I need physical dominance to discipline him, but a child is far more likely to go into time out when they know full well that if they don't, mom will just pick them up and take them there, like it or not. Unfortunately, Mosey knows I can't pick him up and take him to time out. So I can't really tell him he's getting a time out, because I have no way of enforcing it. I've been using the star system to try to encourage him to help out (cleaning up after himself, doing simple chores), and that has helped a lot. But today we were at "Extreme Fun" (one of those inflatable toy places), and he dropped some crackers on the floor and refused to clean them up. I tried reason (it's your mess, you are responsible for cleaning it up. If everyone just left there messes around, think how filthy our world would be?). I tried enticement (remember, you get stars for cleaning up your messes). Finally I tried threats (Ok, I'm going to count to ten. If you don't pick up your crackers by the time I get to ten, you will not get your star for cleaning up today). Nothing worked, I got to ten, and that was that. The problem is, I don't feel good about taking away his star when he already did a bunch of other cleaning up stuff. If I start taking away his hard-earned stars, he'll start thinking there's no point in trying to earn them, and the stars will lose their motivating power. Any suggestions? I would have told him he had to go back to the car and sit there for five minutes thinking about how sad it is that he doesn't clean up his messes, and that he isn't obeying his mom. But I couldn't drag him unwilling out to the car, either. I need to be more creative, but it's pretty hard. He's not quite old enough to really understand long-term consequences. So me telling him that if he doesn't clean up his crackers then he won't get to play with X when he gets home, doesn't mean that much to him at this point (like the threat of losing a star). I need something immediate, but which doesn't require any physical ability on my part to enforce. Suggestions are well-appreciated.

Ok, that's it for tonight. I need to get to bed early because we're leaving the house at 5:00 AM for the 3 hour drive to Houston.

Yep, he's definitely getting an attitude.

Two pictures

Brigham at the park




Chrissy on the chair

Mosey is four!!

Aww, isn't he cute? He has been so excited about this cake!



He's still plenty silly, even though he's now four.




I didn't take a picture of him blowing out the candles of his cake because I was videoing it (see below), so I had to take another picture after I cut his piece. He wanted the piece with "four" on it, which was a HUGE piece! Surprisingly, he ate a good bit of it. Plus a scoop of Blue Bunny birthday cake ice cream which we've been saving for this occasion.




Here is the cake. My writing is pretty pathetic. I'm definitely no Christine (my sister-in-law who is a really, really good cake decorator). The gel icing I was using had some watery pockets in it which messed up the "M" and messed up some of the "cat footprints" I made around the edges. Oh well, Mosey didn't seem to care.

So today Mosey turned four! He has been very excited about his birthday. When I woke up the boys for school this morning, I said, "Happy Birthday Mosey, you're four now!" He looked out the window (it was still dark outside at 6:45 AM) and said, "I don't think my four year old birthday starts until it is light outside." A half hour later or so, when it started to get light, he told me "Now it's light enough outside for it to be my birthday." Funny kid!

I asked him if he felt any bigger now that he was four. He said, "I feel a little bit bigger, but not as big as a big boy." When Ben came home from work, he asked Mosey if he could run faster and jump higher, and Mosey enthusiastically said, "Um, I think, YES!" And proceded to demonstrate exactly how fast he could run and how high he could jump.

He really wanted to eat his birthday cake for breakfast, but I told him he had to wait until Dad got home from work. So he ate oreos instead. :-) He went to lunch with me and my friend Stephanie from church, but he was being a little snickerdoodle. I'm not sure why. Maybe it was the oreos from breakfast? The waiter brought him a complementary ice cream sundae with a candle, but Mosey was laying down on the booth bench, covering his eyes and meowing. He refused to blow out the candle or taste the sundae. So I had to do both for him. :-) He would only crawl out of the restaurant, and Stephanie had to carry him meowing (at least he wasn't kicking and screaming) out to her car. Oh well, I hope this is not to strong of an indication of how this next year will be!

I asked him what he wanted for dinner, and, predictably, he said "birthday cake!" I told him of course he was having cake, but he had to have something else, too. Under heavy suggestive pressure from Joseph, he decided on Ramen noodles. Yes, my kids have such sophisticated taste.

His cake was a store bought cake on the clearance cart at Walmart. I feel a little bad. When the twins turned four, I made two cakes, one of them a carebear cake (for Joseph), and the other a dragon cake (for Brigham). I threw them a birthday party and invited all their preschool and Sunbeam friends. Their party was 2 days after Hurricane Katrina, and we of course had no power, but we had the party anyway in the sweltering heat and 95% humidity. I had made the cakes a few days ahead of time in anticipation of the hurricane-caused power outage. I iced them that morning, but since it was so hot and humid, by the time we actually ate them, they were quite melty. Anyway, I feel bad since I went to such comparatively little effort for Mosey's 4th birthday. I resolve to have a much better celebration when he turns five.

He did get some presents. I found this box of Kapla blocks on clearance at Target. They are really cool! They are these incredibly precisely cut wooden blocks, about 1 inch wide, 3 inches long, and maybe a third of an inch thick. They are so precisely cut and balanced that you can build these really neat towers, balancing them end-on-end. All of us got involved in building with them, and when it was time for bed, Brigham told me he wanted to get a thousand piece box of the blocks for his birthday. "We LOVE them, mom!" And Mosey ended the night enthusiastically declaring, "I loved my birthday! I loved the cake and the presents and the glow-in-the-dark stickers!" (Stickers were from Grandma Jackee, and he immediately took them upstairs and plastered every single one of them on the walls of his bedroom and closet). So I guess it was a success, store-bought cake and no party notwithstanding.

Here is Mosey blowing out his birthday candles. If you watch a little beyond the blowing out part, you'll hear what he wants to do with his birthday cake. It's pretty funny.

Kids LOVE getting their picture taken

This picture is from Thanksgiving. I had done family shots for each of the Turner siblings' families, and then one big group shot, and then we wanted just ONE more shot with all the grandkids. Well, several of the kids had obviously totally had it by this point. This is the best shot I got. It wasn't even worth doing any head-swapping! But I love it anyway because it is sooo funny.

Happy Birthday to Ben

Happy birthday Ben!!
33 years ago your mom was in complete shock, having given birth not to one baby, as everyone had expected, but to TWO babies! Angee (baby A) and Ben (baby B, although the A/B correlation was not planned).
I hope this year is a good one for you, you surely deserve it.
Thank you for being such a wonderful dad to our boys. They love you.
Thank you for being such an excellent provider for all of us. I'm so lucky to get to be a stay at home mom.
Thank you for sweeping the floors and doing laundry and loading/unloading the dishwasher, and putting the boys to bed and for the countless times you lifted/carried me in and out of cars, bathtubs, beds, and anywhere else I needed to go. I hope your back is recovering. And I hope you'll never have to do that again!
But thank you for giving me the confidence that if you do need to do all that stuff again, you'll do it happily and with love.
Thank you for being the dependable rock I've needed so badly over the past several months.

I love you.

Destruction and Mayhem

Other families have the charming tradition of eating their gingerbread house on New Year's Eve. At least, growing up, my family did. I thought I'd institute that tradition with my own children. It didn't quite turn out as I imagined.


Here is our lovely gingerbread house, made by the boys and Grandma Frandsen and me in the family room of the in-patient rehabilitation unit of the hospital. It was quite the feat getting all the treats on the gingerbread house rather than in my boys' mouths.




Here are my boys getting ready to consume the gingerbread house on New Year's Eve night. I should have known what was ahead by the expressions on their faces.




And the mayhem begins.




Yeah. Other families have the tradition of eating their gingerbread house. Our family now has the tradition of wreaking complete and utter devastation on our gingerbread house.




The aftermath.

10 pictures from Christmas vacation

A horrible picture of a pretty tree.




Brigham learning to ride his bike--just one training wheel on.



And now, no training wheels!! He's doing it! Ben's close behind, just in case.




Christmas morning; Brigham's immersed in the modeling clay his cousin Ryan sent to him.




Christmas morning; Joseph is immersed in his Petz Vet computer game on the new laptop that Ben got (well, new to Ben anyway)




Joseph looking handsome while riding his bike.

Joseph practicing his biking skilz.

Mosey's just having a good time. Not *quite* ready for a two-wheeler yet.

Mosey's telling me a story, I'm not sure what it was about, but it was definitely something very important. He's wearing his new Christmas sweater.

Mosey showing me how he can do handstands. Crazy kid!