Christmas did come to the Carlsen house. We were sick before and after Christmas, but Christmas day was okay. Elizabeth loved unwrapping all her presents, as most of them were for her.
Wednesday, December 28, 2005
Christmas Pictures
Christmas did come to the Carlsen house. We were sick before and after Christmas, but Christmas day was okay. Elizabeth loved unwrapping all her presents, as most of them were for her.
Monday, December 12, 2005
More of Rachel
I've been asked to post more pictures of Rachel so here they are. At her two-week doctors appointment she weighed in at 8 lbs. 2 oz. and was 21 1/2 in. I don't think she shrank since birth, one of the measurements must be off.
Tuesday, November 29, 2005
Home Life
One of Eric's co-workers told him that child #1 was easy because it's two on one. With child #2 you have to go man on man. Child #3 and others moves to strictly zone defense. This past week, we've definitely used the man on man defense. Eric took all last week off and I gave him daddy duty with Elizabeth so I could just focus on Rachel and get some rest. You'd think you could sleep in the hospital but with nurses checking on you every few hours and other people constantly coming in during the day, sleep is hard to come by so I was so glad to come home.
Eric went back to work yesterday and my mom's coming in to town tomorrow so it's been one on two for almost two days now and it hasn't been that bad. Elizabeth is really good about playing on her own and she absolutely adores Rachel. She loves pointing to her nose and eyes and doing a little more poking than mom is comfortable with. She also likes to get right in her face and just chatter away. Rachel is still in the sleep and eat whenever stage but she is staying awake a little more now. We'll see here pretty soon if she continues to mainly sleep at night and save her awake stages for the daytime.
As for me, I'm recovering really well. I wish I could get out running or exercising already but the weather's too cold and I guess I should listen to medical advice to lay off for 6 weeks. Like every other postpartum mother, I would like to get back to my pre-pregnancy weight and fitness level as soon as possible.
If I can speak for Eric, I think he likes being a daddy to two cute girls. I still find it funny that he's scoutmaster with only girls at home like my dad was. Hopefully we won't have to wait until child #5 (if we go that high) to have a boy, even though girls would be nice to have if they turn out as cute as Elizabeth.
Anyway, life, though very different with a newborn in the house, is going well for the Carlsen family.
Eric went back to work yesterday and my mom's coming in to town tomorrow so it's been one on two for almost two days now and it hasn't been that bad. Elizabeth is really good about playing on her own and she absolutely adores Rachel. She loves pointing to her nose and eyes and doing a little more poking than mom is comfortable with. She also likes to get right in her face and just chatter away. Rachel is still in the sleep and eat whenever stage but she is staying awake a little more now. We'll see here pretty soon if she continues to mainly sleep at night and save her awake stages for the daytime.
As for me, I'm recovering really well. I wish I could get out running or exercising already but the weather's too cold and I guess I should listen to medical advice to lay off for 6 weeks. Like every other postpartum mother, I would like to get back to my pre-pregnancy weight and fitness level as soon as possible.
If I can speak for Eric, I think he likes being a daddy to two cute girls. I still find it funny that he's scoutmaster with only girls at home like my dad was. Hopefully we won't have to wait until child #5 (if we go that high) to have a boy, even though girls would be nice to have if they turn out as cute as Elizabeth.
Anyway, life, though very different with a newborn in the house, is going well for the Carlsen family.
Sunday, November 20, 2005
It's a girl!
No time for details, here are the vitals:
Name: Rachel Alyse Carlsen
Born: November 20, 2005 at 10:17 a.m.
Weight: 6 pounds 14.4 ounces
Height: 21.75 inches
Mother and baby are doing well. It went very fast this morning.
Sunday, October 23, 2005
Our Little Princess
First of all, I'm having problems posting the video that I mentioned in the last post so stay tuned for updates. There's a couple of cute things that our daughter has done lately that we should mention. A week or two ago we were all chowing down on tortilla chips at dinner time with salsa. It was a mild salsa, but Elizabeth had to copy us and try it. The first time she took a bite she was okay at first but started crying and shaking her head and shivering. It was kind of sad, but kind of funny. Then, like a dog to its vomit, she went back for more. This time it was even worse. She was screaming at the top of her lungs and her face got red. We gave her milk, but she didn't understand it would help. At that point we officially felt bad. I guess her little mouth is just a little bit more sensitive than ours. Let this be a lesson to you Elizabeth, never accept little peppers if your grandpa offers them to you.
On to the second item. Yesterday was a busy day. We went and saw Eric Dittman get married in the Columbus temple. This kind of interfered with Elizabeth's nap and she didn't sleep much. So yesterday evening we were driving to our ward party and listening to a book on CD (The World is Flat, interesting book, by the way). So Elizabeth must have decided that she didn't want to listen because she poked her fingers in her ears. Then comes the really funny part. She started slumping forward in her car seat and she eventually fell asleep, with her fingers in her ears. Her head was leaning forward and down and she was drooling on her shirt. It was great. I don't know how she slept with her fingers in her ears but I wish we had a camera.
One more thing...she just loves going outside. One of the few words she can really pronounce clearly is outside. She would stay outside constantly if we let her. It doesn't matter how cold, wet, or dark it is. She will go outside and play. She goes up to Alicia or myself and grabs our hand and pulls us over to the door. Then she puts our hands on the door handle and says "outside, outside!" and tries to get us to open the door. Once outside she likes going for walks. She is really good at holding hands now and she'll walk all the way down the street holding your hand. She just loves being outside. We've got a thing or two to learn from her. We used to just stay inside when it was cold and get bored. She's taught us that if you bundle up, there's no reason why you can't enjoy being outside in cold weather as well as warm weather. Looks like she'll be a good outdoorswomen and enjoy camping with us :-)
Tuesday, October 04, 2005
Long time no post
Well, I've been absent for a while. Mostly that's because of my calling. My father in law says Scoutmaster is one of those time consuming callings that's on the same order of magnitude as being Bishop. I imagine it's not as bad, but, as the September Ensign said, it is quite a bit of consecration. A couple of weeks ago I went to an outdoor training course so that I could be overwhelmed by all the stuff I have to buy, let alone the things I have to learn. But that's okay, because when I went to training they told me where I could go to really learn what I needed to know because a weekend wasn't enough to scratch the surface. Last weekend I went to more training and they showed me all of the wonderful resources for me to use because all day Saturday wasn't enough to tell me practically anything of what I needed to know. I know, I'm dripping with sarcasm. The scary thing is that it's true. A weekend really can't begin to cover all that I need to learn. But I'm getting past the overwhelmed stage and into the excited stage. I'm happy that I have a calling in which I get to do fun things like camping, hiking, backpacking, sledding, and more. I couldn't justify doing this much stuff without a calling and I'm excited to dive into it. A little bit too excited in fact, I think I got overzealous in planning activities and had to realize that the boys weren't quite as anxious as I was to go hiking.
I'm also in the process of trying to write a paper for work. We're going to submit it to a conference that will be held in Boston next July. I'm thinking I'll try to bring my family and have it double as our vacation. Hopefully it gets accepted. But writing the paper is done on my own time, which makes me even more busy.
Enough about me, Elizabeth is really cute. She really likes her doll now. She takes it and lays it on the floor and then puts a blanket over it. She then lays her pet doggy next to it and does the same thing. Then she'll move them to the miniature stroller and push them around. Then she moves them to the back patio. It's a blast.
She is much more interactive. She has mastered the correct pronunciation of one word so far..."No!" We tried not to say it too much, but it got difficult as she got older. She is very strong willed. Sometimes she knows what she wants you to do so she grabs your hand or pushes you out of your chair and moves your body to do what she wants you to. Such as putting on your shoes so that she can go outside. For your viewing pleasure there are a couple of pictures below. Also look at the videos, the latest one is adorable.
I'm also in the process of trying to write a paper for work. We're going to submit it to a conference that will be held in Boston next July. I'm thinking I'll try to bring my family and have it double as our vacation. Hopefully it gets accepted. But writing the paper is done on my own time, which makes me even more busy.
Enough about me, Elizabeth is really cute. She really likes her doll now. She takes it and lays it on the floor and then puts a blanket over it. She then lays her pet doggy next to it and does the same thing. Then she'll move them to the miniature stroller and push them around. Then she moves them to the back patio. It's a blast.
She is much more interactive. She has mastered the correct pronunciation of one word so far..."No!" We tried not to say it too much, but it got difficult as she got older. She is very strong willed. Sometimes she knows what she wants you to do so she grabs your hand or pushes you out of your chair and moves your body to do what she wants you to. Such as putting on your shoes so that she can go outside. For your viewing pleasure there are a couple of pictures below. Also look at the videos, the latest one is adorable.
Friday, September 16, 2005
My Garden Experience
For those of you who knew me in yonder years will probably wonder how tomboy Alicia got into gardening. I have always loved plants, even though my younger sister is the expert at plants as she is majoring in them. With our new house, I thought I'd try a vegetable garden since everyone I talked to said that everything just grows in Ohio, and they were right.
I grew some strawberry plants, carrots, cucumbers, tomatoes, onions, green onions, basil, and zucchini. The strawberries didn't produce anything this year but hopefully I don't kill them over winter and they'll come up next year. As for everything else, it came up in abundance. My advice, never plant a whole packet of basil or green onion seeds unless you eat pesto and onion salad everyday. I gave away most of my cucumbers as I found we didn't really eat them. I have tons of little carrots because I planted way too many of them so now I have to freeze them or make carrot cake and bread.
Next year I will be doing a few things differently. For one, I got sold on square foot gardening at an Enrichment night, a slightly different approach to gardening that the church unofficially recommends. Next year I hope to plant more variety with less excess food. I'm excited about it so here's to gardening!
I grew some strawberry plants, carrots, cucumbers, tomatoes, onions, green onions, basil, and zucchini. The strawberries didn't produce anything this year but hopefully I don't kill them over winter and they'll come up next year. As for everything else, it came up in abundance. My advice, never plant a whole packet of basil or green onion seeds unless you eat pesto and onion salad everyday. I gave away most of my cucumbers as I found we didn't really eat them. I have tons of little carrots because I planted way too many of them so now I have to freeze them or make carrot cake and bread.
Next year I will be doing a few things differently. For one, I got sold on square foot gardening at an Enrichment night, a slightly different approach to gardening that the church unofficially recommends. Next year I hope to plant more variety with less excess food. I'm excited about it so here's to gardening!
Thursday, August 25, 2005
Book Review--Nickel and Dimed
I just finished listening to Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America by Barbara Ehrenreich. The basic premise for this book is that the author leaves her wealthy lifestyle behind for a few months and goes to three different cities to try to make ends meet with an entry level job, saying she's a divorced stay at home mother who's re-entering the workforce without any skills. This experiment is supposed to mimic most low-wage workers in America who were let off welfare during the 1996 welfare reform.
I thought it was an interesting idea for a book and it did open my eyes to the plight of a lot of low wage earners. Some who do have jobs still live out of their cars or roach infested hotels that charge an arm an a leg weekly rental rate since they can't save enough for one month's rent and deposit at a regular apartment complex.
My qualms about the book. First, there is a lot of foul language, a definite negative for me. Second, the author admits to using marijuana and tries to flush it out of her system for the drug tests she has to take in her third area. Other than that, the story was good but I must disagree with the conclusions on how to help the low wage class.
To begin with, I found out after I finished the book that Ms. Ehrenreich is a socialist. I, on the other hand, like to call myself a conservative. I don't think government welfare is right because the government with all its bureaucracy and bigness just can't seem to get things right. The welfare state it has created just seems to perpetuate itself instead of solving the problem. Whereas Ms. Ehrenreich believes the government should provide better rent control or subsidies, minimum wage increases, and health care for everyone, I believe the government should stay out for society's sake. Do I believe the poor should fend for themselves? Of course not. I do consider myself religious and believe that those of us who have means should be willing to help those who do not, but the government should not give free hand outs to those who "need it."
So instead of welfare handouts, I propose another solution that has seen much success, especially in other countries. I am a firm believer in education and how it can lift people out of the quagmire of poverty and open the world to them. For most of the poorer class though, they can't afford higher education if they even finish the free high school education provided by the government. To help with higher education costs or to train people in self-employment arenas, I firmly believe in the ideas of micro-credit organizations or the Perpetual Education Fund set up by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. These organizations give small loans to people that will provide training or a means of starting capital for a small business. The loan is expected to be repaid in the future but at a very reasonable interest rate. This little jumpstart helps people earn double or more what they used to earn and they gain a little self-respect and self-sufficiency in the process. From what I've read, the payback rate on the loans is very high. What's the payback rate on welfare checks? Um 0, nill, nada because it's given with no stipulations.
So that, in a nutshell is my two cents on Nickel and Dimed plus a little commentary from a middle-class white woman who hasn't lived in poverty.
For further reading on the subject of poverty, I would recommend an analysis called How Not to Be Poor prepared by the NCPA and also an article by the same name by Walter Williams.
I thought it was an interesting idea for a book and it did open my eyes to the plight of a lot of low wage earners. Some who do have jobs still live out of their cars or roach infested hotels that charge an arm an a leg weekly rental rate since they can't save enough for one month's rent and deposit at a regular apartment complex.
My qualms about the book. First, there is a lot of foul language, a definite negative for me. Second, the author admits to using marijuana and tries to flush it out of her system for the drug tests she has to take in her third area. Other than that, the story was good but I must disagree with the conclusions on how to help the low wage class.
To begin with, I found out after I finished the book that Ms. Ehrenreich is a socialist. I, on the other hand, like to call myself a conservative. I don't think government welfare is right because the government with all its bureaucracy and bigness just can't seem to get things right. The welfare state it has created just seems to perpetuate itself instead of solving the problem. Whereas Ms. Ehrenreich believes the government should provide better rent control or subsidies, minimum wage increases, and health care for everyone, I believe the government should stay out for society's sake. Do I believe the poor should fend for themselves? Of course not. I do consider myself religious and believe that those of us who have means should be willing to help those who do not, but the government should not give free hand outs to those who "need it."
So instead of welfare handouts, I propose another solution that has seen much success, especially in other countries. I am a firm believer in education and how it can lift people out of the quagmire of poverty and open the world to them. For most of the poorer class though, they can't afford higher education if they even finish the free high school education provided by the government. To help with higher education costs or to train people in self-employment arenas, I firmly believe in the ideas of micro-credit organizations or the Perpetual Education Fund set up by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. These organizations give small loans to people that will provide training or a means of starting capital for a small business. The loan is expected to be repaid in the future but at a very reasonable interest rate. This little jumpstart helps people earn double or more what they used to earn and they gain a little self-respect and self-sufficiency in the process. From what I've read, the payback rate on the loans is very high. What's the payback rate on welfare checks? Um 0, nill, nada because it's given with no stipulations.
So that, in a nutshell is my two cents on Nickel and Dimed plus a little commentary from a middle-class white woman who hasn't lived in poverty.
For further reading on the subject of poverty, I would recommend an analysis called How Not to Be Poor prepared by the NCPA and also an article by the same name by Walter Williams.
Sunday, August 14, 2005
New Calling
Well, my worst fears have been realized :-). I was called as the Scoutmaster. Not just the Scoutmaster, but also the 2nd counselor in the Young Men's Presidency and the Deacon's Quorum advisor. I thought that was a bit much but, sure enough, it's in the handbook. Anyway, I'm completely overwhelmed right now, mostly because there are just so many meetings and activities to plan and I'm not very creative. I'm trying to solicit ideas from as many people as possible. I'm sure I'll grow to love it (I enjoy camping, hiking, and all the stuff the scouts do) but right now I'm just trying to keep from drowning.
Elizabeth does not like nursery, I think she inherited my shyness. I'm not sure though, because she was fine the first week, but after that she literally clings to me when I try to drop her off. I think the first week another kid pushed her down. Oh well, "life isn't fair," right Bart? I've been having to stay for 45 minutes to an hour, and after that she cries unless a nursery worker holds on to her. But she is still a bundle of joy at home. She's understanding more and more. The other day at breakfast I was talking to my wife and mentioned that I thought there used to be some kind of fundraiser at home for the youth in which they sold large cookies. After a while Elizabeth started crying "me me me me" and reaching for the cupboard where we keep the cookies. She says "me me me me" whenever she wants something. It was cute.
She is also at the stage where she is starting to copy us more. The other day I was walking down the stairs in front of her (yes, she likes to go down the stairs like an now) and I noticed that she was crying and tugging at her shirt. It was a onesie so she couldn't pull it out. Then I realized that I had been outside and was sweating and I kept wiping off my face with my shirt. She was trying to copy me but couldn't. Scary thought.
We went on a family bike ride yesterday morning. It was fun, and we went early enough that the heat didn't kill us. It has been a miserably hot, humid summer.
In the last bit of news my company finally moved locations to our new office. I now live 2.5 miles away from work. I've been riding my bike in a little bit but that's a little bit scary because there are some high traffic areas. If I can ever get in good enough running shape I might run. But the problem is that I am so terrible at running. I mean, I am really, really bad at it. We'll see what happens.
Elizabeth does not like nursery, I think she inherited my shyness. I'm not sure though, because she was fine the first week, but after that she literally clings to me when I try to drop her off. I think the first week another kid pushed her down. Oh well, "life isn't fair," right Bart? I've been having to stay for 45 minutes to an hour, and after that she cries unless a nursery worker holds on to her. But she is still a bundle of joy at home. She's understanding more and more. The other day at breakfast I was talking to my wife and mentioned that I thought there used to be some kind of fundraiser at home for the youth in which they sold large cookies. After a while Elizabeth started crying "me me me me" and reaching for the cupboard where we keep the cookies. She says "me me me me" whenever she wants something. It was cute.
She is also at the stage where she is starting to copy us more. The other day I was walking down the stairs in front of her (yes, she likes to go down the stairs like an now) and I noticed that she was crying and tugging at her shirt. It was a onesie so she couldn't pull it out. Then I realized that I had been outside and was sweating and I kept wiping off my face with my shirt. She was trying to copy me but couldn't. Scary thought.
We went on a family bike ride yesterday morning. It was fun, and we went early enough that the heat didn't kill us. It has been a miserably hot, humid summer.
In the last bit of news my company finally moved locations to our new office. I now live 2.5 miles away from work. I've been riding my bike in a little bit but that's a little bit scary because there are some high traffic areas. If I can ever get in good enough running shape I might run. But the problem is that I am so terrible at running. I mean, I am really, really bad at it. We'll see what happens.
Tuesday, August 02, 2005
Charity Ride
So this past weekend I participated in a charity ride (MC-100) that our company does every year. The ride starts at a well known location, Young's Jersey Dairy. It's a pretty fun place that has ice cream, farm animals, mini golfing, and more. The ride has one day options of 25 and 50 miles, as well as an overnight stay that is 75 miles away. I opted for the 50 mile ride.
It went pretty well, the weather was nice. I was going along at a decent speed for my hybrid bike and a person who is generally poor at endurance events. But as I was coming back I became detached from the riders in front of me. I kept thinking, they should mark the roads so we know which way to go. Well, the inevitable occurred. I came upon an intersection and didn't know which way to go. Of course I didn't pick up a map and I decided not to bring my cell phone. So I asked some kids and a driver who was stopped at a stop sign if there were any cyclists around. I think I started in the right intersection but after a while I knew I was lost.
So I decided to do what any smart person would do when lost, pedal harder and hope that I find my way somehow. Just kidding (sort of). Of course, based on the location of the sun I knew the general direction I had to go. But eventually I stopped and knocked on someone's door and asked directions. You have to understand that this ride is in a very rural area, lots of corn fields, trees, and not many houses. Luckily the guy gave me directions that had me intersect with the trail. I ended up riding an extra 7 miles. It doesn't seem like much, but I was pacing myself to go exactly the distance left so I kind of tanked at the end. I probably would have made it in just over three hours, but the detour made it more like four.
Once I hit the trail again I passed some riders and asked if we were on the right path. I told them I had gotten lost and they said, "why didn't you follow the arrows in the street?" It turns out that there were little arrows about 10-30 feet before intersections. I guess I was expecting larger arrows or signs right at the intersection and I never noticed the arrows. Kind of like listening to the spirit, he never seems to shout for some reason.
At any rate, after feeling sufficiently embarrased and very angry at myself for being so stupid I thought I would continue the torture, punishment, humiliation, and embarrasment by detailing my stupidity on my weblog. Isn't the internet great?
It went pretty well, the weather was nice. I was going along at a decent speed for my hybrid bike and a person who is generally poor at endurance events. But as I was coming back I became detached from the riders in front of me. I kept thinking, they should mark the roads so we know which way to go. Well, the inevitable occurred. I came upon an intersection and didn't know which way to go. Of course I didn't pick up a map and I decided not to bring my cell phone. So I asked some kids and a driver who was stopped at a stop sign if there were any cyclists around. I think I started in the right intersection but after a while I knew I was lost.
So I decided to do what any smart person would do when lost, pedal harder and hope that I find my way somehow. Just kidding (sort of). Of course, based on the location of the sun I knew the general direction I had to go. But eventually I stopped and knocked on someone's door and asked directions. You have to understand that this ride is in a very rural area, lots of corn fields, trees, and not many houses. Luckily the guy gave me directions that had me intersect with the trail. I ended up riding an extra 7 miles. It doesn't seem like much, but I was pacing myself to go exactly the distance left so I kind of tanked at the end. I probably would have made it in just over three hours, but the detour made it more like four.
Once I hit the trail again I passed some riders and asked if we were on the right path. I told them I had gotten lost and they said, "why didn't you follow the arrows in the street?" It turns out that there were little arrows about 10-30 feet before intersections. I guess I was expecting larger arrows or signs right at the intersection and I never noticed the arrows. Kind of like listening to the spirit, he never seems to shout for some reason.
At any rate, after feeling sufficiently embarrased and very angry at myself for being so stupid I thought I would continue the torture, punishment, humiliation, and embarrasment by detailing my stupidity on my weblog. Isn't the internet great?
Wednesday, July 27, 2005
Movie Review--Primer
If you're looking for an original movie to watch that will twist your brain then check out Primer. This movie was an independent film made by a former engineer and math major. It was made on a shoestring budget ($7,000) but it doesn't show. In case you didn't catch the above clue this movie is science fiction. But, like most succesful movies and books of the genre, it doesn't deal with the science as much as the underlying psychology and human impact. It involves the time-old fascination with time travel, but adds a fresh new twist. By the way, it also won the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival.
The two main characters, Abe and Aaron, are engineers working on a project in their garage after hours. Well, after some time they find an interesting side effect of their intended device...it allows for time travel. But here is where it gets interesting, and slightly more plausible than other time travel stories. The device will only take you back in time to the point at which it was turned on. So, they try it out. Turn on the machine (using a timer), go hang out in a hotel, later in the day come and get in the box/room, sleep for a while, get out of the machine and it's the beginning of the day.
They are sure not to interfere with the copies of themselves in order to avoid bad consequences, at least in the beginning. But this movie quickly develops larger themes of trust and power. What would you do with this power?
This movie is impossibly complicated. If you don't like to think while watching movies then don't bother with this one. I had to go to online forums to even begin to figure out what was going on. I now have a good idea of the general concept, but the specific actions and events are beyond me. One poster said he lost count at watching the movie 23 times and trying to figure out what was going on. This is definitely a movie you have to think about, and it's potentially addictive.
I really enjoyed how original the movie was. The actors actually did a good job of acting like engineers. Unlike Hollywood movies, they stuttered, they talked on top of each other (a lot), they were sometimes monotonous. I think it was very appropriate, as it added a lot to the atmosphere, intensity, and believability of the characters. The rating says PG-13, the beginning of the movie says R, but it should be PG. It gets really intense, but that's just because of the situation. I've heard the movie got the PG-13 rating because an actor mumbled the word "fag" while talking on the phone. I barely even heard it.
Anyway, this was a very deep movie. This is the way movies should be made, good story and dialogue rather than relying on effects and big name stars. I recommend this to anyone who likes to watch movies for reasons other than going brain dead for two hours in front of a screen.
The two main characters, Abe and Aaron, are engineers working on a project in their garage after hours. Well, after some time they find an interesting side effect of their intended device...it allows for time travel. But here is where it gets interesting, and slightly more plausible than other time travel stories. The device will only take you back in time to the point at which it was turned on. So, they try it out. Turn on the machine (using a timer), go hang out in a hotel, later in the day come and get in the box/room, sleep for a while, get out of the machine and it's the beginning of the day.
They are sure not to interfere with the copies of themselves in order to avoid bad consequences, at least in the beginning. But this movie quickly develops larger themes of trust and power. What would you do with this power?
This movie is impossibly complicated. If you don't like to think while watching movies then don't bother with this one. I had to go to online forums to even begin to figure out what was going on. I now have a good idea of the general concept, but the specific actions and events are beyond me. One poster said he lost count at watching the movie 23 times and trying to figure out what was going on. This is definitely a movie you have to think about, and it's potentially addictive.
I really enjoyed how original the movie was. The actors actually did a good job of acting like engineers. Unlike Hollywood movies, they stuttered, they talked on top of each other (a lot), they were sometimes monotonous. I think it was very appropriate, as it added a lot to the atmosphere, intensity, and believability of the characters. The rating says PG-13, the beginning of the movie says R, but it should be PG. It gets really intense, but that's just because of the situation. I've heard the movie got the PG-13 rating because an actor mumbled the word "fag" while talking on the phone. I barely even heard it.
Anyway, this was a very deep movie. This is the way movies should be made, good story and dialogue rather than relying on effects and big name stars. I recommend this to anyone who likes to watch movies for reasons other than going brain dead for two hours in front of a screen.
Monday, July 25, 2005
Hawaii Travel Log (Posted by Alicia)
Star Date Saturday July 2, 2005
Flight to Honolulu--Wake up too early for our liking (4:30 am)
Reach Honolulu--This looks a lot like LA with low income apartments everwhere; Waikiki is a little more upper class with hotels everywhere; Parking garage is crazy
Hit the beach--AHHHH, warm, clear water
Star Date Sunday July 3, 2005
Early church at the Honolulu tabernacle--half the ward is visitors
Drive up Tantalus--finally some vegetation that reminds you you're on a tropical island
Stop at National Cemetery--burial site for soldiers fighting in the Pacific; A memorial not hit up by liberals like the World Trade Center's about to be
Star Date Monday July 4, 2005
Pearl Harbor and USS Missouri--beginning and ending of WWII involvement for the United States. Very emotional site--oil still coming up from USS Arizona where over 1,000 sailors were killed instantly
Hit the beach--AHHHH, water still warm and clear
Fireworks over the ocean at night--Happy Indenpendence Day
Star Date Tuesday July 5, 2005
Happy 12th Birthday Mark!
Drive up to North Shore--get out of crowded Waikiki, woohoo!
Stop at Schofield Barracks where Grandpa Schultz was stationed during WWII--is that really the same tank as Grandpa worked on?
Stop at Dole Pineapple Plantation--Did you know pineapples don't grow on trees, they grow individually on bushes. Fresh pineapple in Hawaii is better than anything you can get in the stores here on the mainland.
Hit the North Shore--waves dead this time of year (0-2ft) but we did see some kite boarders. Spent afternoon at Waimea Bay and saw a little of Waimea Canyon.
Drive back home through Laie.
Dinner at a shrimp truck which started up and drove away when we were done eating.
Star Date Wednesday July 6, 2005
Girls and boys split up. Girls go to flea market at Aloha stadium to buy souvenirs while boys go to Bowfin submarine museum. Shopping at the flea market was seeing the same trinkets over and over and over again for the same price. Eric of course had a hard time fitting in a submarine.
Take off for Laie and Polynesian Cultural Center. Travelled to many islands while staying in Hawaii. Drum roll from Tonga, coconut tree climbing from Samoa, poi balls and stick game (and tattoo for Alicia--don't tell the bishop :)) in New Zealand, hula dancing in Hawaii and much more. Temple beautiful but closed for regular use.
Dinner and night show awesome of course. Fire dancers the best.
Star Date Thursday July 7, 2005
Definitely more relaxing day!
Shop at Sam's club--same store as on the mainland.
Afternoon at Hanauma Bay snorkeling with the fish. Now don't touch the coral (unless the waves push you in it)!
Star Date Friday July 8, 2005
Another relaxing day.
Hike up Diamonhead Crater. How many steps were there?
Morning at the beach snorkeling a little bit.
Afternoon walking around, saw indoor aquarium at local store.
Evening crazy drive with dad trying to find where Grandpa Bartholomew's mission home used to be. Got a flat tire in the process and changed it in the Sam's club parking lot.
Star Date Saturday, July 9, 2005
Day to go home--sniff, sniff.
Pack up and head to airport--sniff, sniff.
Bye Bye beautiful Hawaii. We'll miss the constant and beautiful weather, warm beaches, and beautiful scenery. We won't miss the crowds (better in the off-season?), crazy streets, and crazy parking structure at the hotel.
Isn't vacation great? Now it's back to the real world, whatever that is.
Flight to Honolulu--Wake up too early for our liking (4:30 am)
Reach Honolulu--This looks a lot like LA with low income apartments everwhere; Waikiki is a little more upper class with hotels everywhere; Parking garage is crazy
Hit the beach--AHHHH, warm, clear water
Star Date Sunday July 3, 2005
Early church at the Honolulu tabernacle--half the ward is visitors
Drive up Tantalus--finally some vegetation that reminds you you're on a tropical island
Stop at National Cemetery--burial site for soldiers fighting in the Pacific; A memorial not hit up by liberals like the World Trade Center's about to be
Star Date Monday July 4, 2005
Pearl Harbor and USS Missouri--beginning and ending of WWII involvement for the United States. Very emotional site--oil still coming up from USS Arizona where over 1,000 sailors were killed instantly
Hit the beach--AHHHH, water still warm and clear
Fireworks over the ocean at night--Happy Indenpendence Day
Star Date Tuesday July 5, 2005
Happy 12th Birthday Mark!
Drive up to North Shore--get out of crowded Waikiki, woohoo!
Stop at Schofield Barracks where Grandpa Schultz was stationed during WWII--is that really the same tank as Grandpa worked on?
Stop at Dole Pineapple Plantation--Did you know pineapples don't grow on trees, they grow individually on bushes. Fresh pineapple in Hawaii is better than anything you can get in the stores here on the mainland.
Hit the North Shore--waves dead this time of year (0-2ft) but we did see some kite boarders. Spent afternoon at Waimea Bay and saw a little of Waimea Canyon.
Drive back home through Laie.
Dinner at a shrimp truck which started up and drove away when we were done eating.
Star Date Wednesday July 6, 2005
Girls and boys split up. Girls go to flea market at Aloha stadium to buy souvenirs while boys go to Bowfin submarine museum. Shopping at the flea market was seeing the same trinkets over and over and over again for the same price. Eric of course had a hard time fitting in a submarine.
Take off for Laie and Polynesian Cultural Center. Travelled to many islands while staying in Hawaii. Drum roll from Tonga, coconut tree climbing from Samoa, poi balls and stick game (and tattoo for Alicia--don't tell the bishop :)) in New Zealand, hula dancing in Hawaii and much more. Temple beautiful but closed for regular use.
Dinner and night show awesome of course. Fire dancers the best.
Star Date Thursday July 7, 2005
Definitely more relaxing day!
Shop at Sam's club--same store as on the mainland.
Afternoon at Hanauma Bay snorkeling with the fish. Now don't touch the coral (unless the waves push you in it)!
Star Date Friday July 8, 2005
Another relaxing day.
Hike up Diamonhead Crater. How many steps were there?
Morning at the beach snorkeling a little bit.
Afternoon walking around, saw indoor aquarium at local store.
Evening crazy drive with dad trying to find where Grandpa Bartholomew's mission home used to be. Got a flat tire in the process and changed it in the Sam's club parking lot.
Star Date Saturday, July 9, 2005
Day to go home--sniff, sniff.
Pack up and head to airport--sniff, sniff.
Bye Bye beautiful Hawaii. We'll miss the constant and beautiful weather, warm beaches, and beautiful scenery. We won't miss the crowds (better in the off-season?), crazy streets, and crazy parking structure at the hotel.
Isn't vacation great? Now it's back to the real world, whatever that is.
Friday, July 22, 2005
Pictures from Hawaii
Well, a picture is worth a thousand words. It would take at least that many words to describe our trip to Hawaii so I'll just put a few pictures up (for now, at least).
Saturday, July 16, 2005
Book Review--The Stars My Destination
So when I was traveling to Rhode Island the airline magazine had a list of the top 15 science fiction books of all time. I wrote down the list and decided to start reading them. After all, I am a nerdy engineer, I should at least try to fill my role in life. The first one I chose to read was The Stars My Destination.
I enjoyed this book a lot. It is kind of a remake of The Count of Monte Cristo. One of the reasons I enjoyed it so much was because of my disdain for modern formulaic movies. You know what I'm talking about...the good guys are perfect and incredibly strong, the bad guys are pure evil, yada yada yada. It's just as bad with chick flicks. Girl meets guy, girl hates guy, girl and guy fall in love, girl and guy get in a fight and break up, guy does something nice to get girl back. Yuck, where's the originality? But I digress.
So, as I was saying, I liked this book because it wasn't very formulaic (in most ways). The protagonist was a guy bent on revenge. We wasn't very likeable, in fact, I'm sure many people reading the book would hate him. First of all, let's define the setting. The book takes place in the distant future, I think after 2500 AD, if I recall. In this time period people have mastered the art of teleporting (called jaunting in the book). I'm not sure if it's strictly teleportation, but the idea is that you can physically move locations by thinking about it. There are, of course, restrictions. You have to have physically been to the place to where you're trying to jaunte. Secondly, you have to really have your bearings right upon being there, not just get a glance of the place. So, to protect from invaders they have some locations with darkened lights around the walls and mazes to get to rooms. This development is important to the story. Oh, one more thing, people can only go hundreds, maybe thousands of miles. They can't go from planet to planet, for instance.
The book starts with the protagonist, Gulliver Foyle, being abandoned aboard a spaceship. He was the only survivor in some accident, and he doesn't remember what happened. After 170 days another spaceship comes around. He triggers the emergency lights to let them know that there is someone on board worth saving. The other ship approaches, slows down, and takes off without him. Pretty much the rest of the book is about him finding revenge. But it's much deeper than that, and there are some great twists in the story by the end.
Much like The Count of Monte Cristo the protagonist is uneducated. He has to learn in order to exact his revenge. There is a part where he is in jail with a mentor as well. Although it follows that story closely in outline, the particulars, especially the ending, are different enough that it is really its own story.
It's very interesting noting the role of religion in both the futuristic science fiction books I've been reading. In this book religion has been all but outlawed. There are so-called "cellar christians" who practice their religion in cellars out of sight. Although this is the case I think the book is showing how terrible the world would be without the hope that comes from religion. There were definitely religious undertones that seem to indicate a favorable outlook towards religion. The pornography of the day was pictures of cellar christians singing hymns, kneeling in prayer, kissing crosses, etc. An interesting twist on things. Again, I think the author was trying to show how wrong this situation was by showing the counter case. The same is true of the theme of revenge. I somewhat disliked The Count of Monte Cristo because it's basically glorifying revenge, but this author gets it right in the end, I think.
The most important part about this book is that it was exciting. It was a fast read and very interesting. But it was not just fluff, it tackled difficult issues and the characters had some depth to them. I would recommend this book to others. It didn't have much bad material, probably the language was the worst. But even that wasn't excessive. One final note, the science of the future was beleivable (as much as is possible with futuristic novels) and wasn't over the top. The technology facilitated the story, instead of it being the story.
Well, I've got to post about our trip to Hawaii, but that will take much longer so we'll save that one to a later date.
I enjoyed this book a lot. It is kind of a remake of The Count of Monte Cristo. One of the reasons I enjoyed it so much was because of my disdain for modern formulaic movies. You know what I'm talking about...the good guys are perfect and incredibly strong, the bad guys are pure evil, yada yada yada. It's just as bad with chick flicks. Girl meets guy, girl hates guy, girl and guy fall in love, girl and guy get in a fight and break up, guy does something nice to get girl back. Yuck, where's the originality? But I digress.
So, as I was saying, I liked this book because it wasn't very formulaic (in most ways). The protagonist was a guy bent on revenge. We wasn't very likeable, in fact, I'm sure many people reading the book would hate him. First of all, let's define the setting. The book takes place in the distant future, I think after 2500 AD, if I recall. In this time period people have mastered the art of teleporting (called jaunting in the book). I'm not sure if it's strictly teleportation, but the idea is that you can physically move locations by thinking about it. There are, of course, restrictions. You have to have physically been to the place to where you're trying to jaunte. Secondly, you have to really have your bearings right upon being there, not just get a glance of the place. So, to protect from invaders they have some locations with darkened lights around the walls and mazes to get to rooms. This development is important to the story. Oh, one more thing, people can only go hundreds, maybe thousands of miles. They can't go from planet to planet, for instance.
The book starts with the protagonist, Gulliver Foyle, being abandoned aboard a spaceship. He was the only survivor in some accident, and he doesn't remember what happened. After 170 days another spaceship comes around. He triggers the emergency lights to let them know that there is someone on board worth saving. The other ship approaches, slows down, and takes off without him. Pretty much the rest of the book is about him finding revenge. But it's much deeper than that, and there are some great twists in the story by the end.
Much like The Count of Monte Cristo the protagonist is uneducated. He has to learn in order to exact his revenge. There is a part where he is in jail with a mentor as well. Although it follows that story closely in outline, the particulars, especially the ending, are different enough that it is really its own story.
It's very interesting noting the role of religion in both the futuristic science fiction books I've been reading. In this book religion has been all but outlawed. There are so-called "cellar christians" who practice their religion in cellars out of sight. Although this is the case I think the book is showing how terrible the world would be without the hope that comes from religion. There were definitely religious undertones that seem to indicate a favorable outlook towards religion. The pornography of the day was pictures of cellar christians singing hymns, kneeling in prayer, kissing crosses, etc. An interesting twist on things. Again, I think the author was trying to show how wrong this situation was by showing the counter case. The same is true of the theme of revenge. I somewhat disliked The Count of Monte Cristo because it's basically glorifying revenge, but this author gets it right in the end, I think.
The most important part about this book is that it was exciting. It was a fast read and very interesting. But it was not just fluff, it tackled difficult issues and the characters had some depth to them. I would recommend this book to others. It didn't have much bad material, probably the language was the worst. But even that wasn't excessive. One final note, the science of the future was beleivable (as much as is possible with futuristic novels) and wasn't over the top. The technology facilitated the story, instead of it being the story.
Well, I've got to post about our trip to Hawaii, but that will take much longer so we'll save that one to a later date.
Sunday, June 26, 2005
Sunday, June 12, 2005
Rhode Island Does Exist
So my brother once said that he thought Rhode Island doesn't really exist. Think about it. It's tiny, can easily slip through the cracks, and you've never met someone from Rhode Island have you? Well, I verified this month that it does actually exist. I went to a training course there in Middletown. I was there with four of my coworkers and it was a nice week. It turns out that the city right next door, Newport, is quite the tourist area. It has a few streets right near the beach with lots of shops and restaurants. We also went and took a tour of the 96 room mansion built by one of the Vanderbilts right on the ocean, it's called The Breakers. Let me tell you, it was awesome. At one point we walked out onto this huge veranda that overlooked a large lawn with the sea just beyond it. It felt like it was straight out of a movie. Awesome place, gotta love the Gilded Age. It only took two years to build, but they had enormous amounts of people helping. Some rooms were built in paris, taken apart, and reassembled here. It required 40 servants to keep the house in operation. Oh, and this was just their summer cottage, they only stayed there two months out of the year.
When we left I began talking with the worker at the gift store (only way out, of course). We were mentioning how great it would be to have lived there. But I said that I would rather live in my house now with air conditioning than that house then. She said that's true but it was probably a lot better back then because of "global warming and everthing." I was tempted to say, "Right, I'm sure that 1 degree has made all the difference," but I didn't.
When I got home Elizabeth had the beginning of a cold. It turned out to last about a week and a half. Of course Alicia got it, after staying up with Elizabeth almost all night a few weeks ago. Then I got it. It's just barely starting to go away for me. But now Alicia got pink-eye. The good news is that it appears to be the bacterial kind since we used some of Elizabeth's old pink-eye medicine on it and Alicia is doing much better. (Please don't turn us in to the FDA, I promise I'll do it again...was I supposed to say never do it again?).
The cold put a dent in my training for the bike tour this summer. I'm getting excited about that and enjoying cycling more and more. The only problem is that it's an expensive sport. But that's okay, I've got must of the essentials. I've been riding home from work a few days a week, when I've been healthy. That'll be pretty much impossible when we move to our new building, due to the traffic.
Speaking of which, I had a nice holiday this week. Near our company's current location, there is some construction work going on. This Thursday someone decided to use a back-hoe to cut up concrete encased power wires. That gave us the afternoon off.
Alicia has been busy as usual. Her garden is doing well, despite the fact that it's incredibly hot and humid out here and my lawn is becoming diseased and dying (no joke!). She has tomatos, carrots, strawberrys, basil, and some other vegetables that I don't care for too much. Hopefully we'll get some fruit out of it this year.
Alicia also went to cub camp a couple of days this week. The kids did boating, swimming, archery (take cover!), shirt painting and other stuff. Alicia went boating with them and helped them with some other activities. She had fun being a little kid again (still?).
Speaking of little kids, Alicia is starting to show. The baby has also started to do some kicking and pushing. It's pretty cool when that happens, reminds you that there's really a person down there. (<sarcasm>Sorry, pro-choice people might be offended by that, there's a fetus there, not a person until it's born</sarcasm>).
Elizabeth is being a cutie, as always. She's become our resident artist (see above picture). I'm saving this wall because it will be worth millions someday. Whenever she hears music now she likes to spin around and around and make herself dizzy. It's very silly. She also likes to copy whatever daddy is doing. Yesterday I was working on Alicia's bike, fixing the brakes. Well, Elizabeth just had to grab the tool I was using and try to work on the same part I was working on. Whenever daddy waters the lawn by hand she also comes and grabs the hose and holds it like she's watering. It's so cute.
Well, we're off to Hawaii this week! So it might be another few weeks before there's an update. But we'll keep all of our intent readers posted :-).
When we left I began talking with the worker at the gift store (only way out, of course). We were mentioning how great it would be to have lived there. But I said that I would rather live in my house now with air conditioning than that house then. She said that's true but it was probably a lot better back then because of "global warming and everthing." I was tempted to say, "Right, I'm sure that 1 degree has made all the difference," but I didn't.
When I got home Elizabeth had the beginning of a cold. It turned out to last about a week and a half. Of course Alicia got it, after staying up with Elizabeth almost all night a few weeks ago. Then I got it. It's just barely starting to go away for me. But now Alicia got pink-eye. The good news is that it appears to be the bacterial kind since we used some of Elizabeth's old pink-eye medicine on it and Alicia is doing much better. (Please don't turn us in to the FDA, I promise I'll do it again...was I supposed to say never do it again?).
The cold put a dent in my training for the bike tour this summer. I'm getting excited about that and enjoying cycling more and more. The only problem is that it's an expensive sport. But that's okay, I've got must of the essentials. I've been riding home from work a few days a week, when I've been healthy. That'll be pretty much impossible when we move to our new building, due to the traffic.
Speaking of which, I had a nice holiday this week. Near our company's current location, there is some construction work going on. This Thursday someone decided to use a back-hoe to cut up concrete encased power wires. That gave us the afternoon off.
Alicia has been busy as usual. Her garden is doing well, despite the fact that it's incredibly hot and humid out here and my lawn is becoming diseased and dying (no joke!). She has tomatos, carrots, strawberrys, basil, and some other vegetables that I don't care for too much. Hopefully we'll get some fruit out of it this year.
Alicia also went to cub camp a couple of days this week. The kids did boating, swimming, archery (take cover!), shirt painting and other stuff. Alicia went boating with them and helped them with some other activities. She had fun being a little kid again (still?).
Speaking of little kids, Alicia is starting to show. The baby has also started to do some kicking and pushing. It's pretty cool when that happens, reminds you that there's really a person down there. (<sarcasm>Sorry, pro-choice people might be offended by that, there's a fetus there, not a person until it's born</sarcasm>).
Elizabeth is being a cutie, as always. She's become our resident artist (see above picture). I'm saving this wall because it will be worth millions someday. Whenever she hears music now she likes to spin around and around and make herself dizzy. It's very silly. She also likes to copy whatever daddy is doing. Yesterday I was working on Alicia's bike, fixing the brakes. Well, Elizabeth just had to grab the tool I was using and try to work on the same part I was working on. Whenever daddy waters the lawn by hand she also comes and grabs the hose and holds it like she's watering. It's so cute.
Well, we're off to Hawaii this week! So it might be another few weeks before there's an update. But we'll keep all of our intent readers posted :-).
Monday, May 30, 2005
Urgent Care
A couple of Sundays ago Elizabeth woke up with eyes sealed shut. I was pretty scared, but once we washed them out she could open them. But her eyelids were still very swollen and her eyes a little bit bloodshot. I wasn't very familiar with pink-eye but it turns out that's what she had. So we had a visit to Urgent Care that morning and got her some antibiotic eye drops. That cleared it up right away. Although, a friend of mine in medical school says that well over 90% of pink-eye is viral. They just give the drops anyway because "it can't hurt." But now I've got pink-eye, although I don't think it's from Elizabeth.
On to more Elizabeth news. We're trying to teach her to say Mama. She has the "d" sound down but she can't seem to make any other consonant sounds (besides "no no no no"). She says "dada" for both Alicia and me. It's pretty cute though, when one of us walks in the room she gives a definite "dada" sound.
She's definitely a smart girl though. Whenever she gets ahold of someone's keys she tries to go to a door handle in the house and stick the keys in. I am amazed because we never use the keys in the door, we just use the garage door opener. I don't know where she learned that.
We also got another comment today about how cute of a face she has. Of course I'm biased but I really think she's a cute baby/toddler. It just seems like her face and body are so much better proportioned than most kids (maybe because she's tall and a little bit thin).
Alicia's indoor soccer team won their tournament and she got a T-shirt. I'm pretty jealous, she has like 3-4 T-shirts from wining intramurals and the like. My basketball team lost intramurals in the final game once. I think that was the hardest loss of my life. I don't have any intramural t-shirts. I guess I shouldn't complain though, if I would have just stuck with volleyball I would have had a few national championships, and I've got a few other victories under my belt.
For our anniversary we went to this huge international supermarket called Jungle Jim's. It was fun. We also went a saw a movie (Revenge of the Sith, what else?). Alicia asked for a family picture so we'll be getting that soon as well. She knew the only way I would agree to that was if she asked for it as her present for some special occasion.
Not much going on in my life, besides the usual busyness. I mostly stained our back deck, it looks pretty nice. Our grass is growing nicely and I had to trudge through the lawn the other day with the lawnmower. I've been riding my bike home from work when the weather has been cooperating, which has been nice. I just finished reading The Davinci Code (I know, I was probably the last person on earth who hadn't read it). It was a fun book and I enjoyed the new twist on the age old plot. Obviously I didn't agree with some of the material, and it was obviously arranged to maximize the "conspiracy theory" but it was still entertaining.
Today (Memorial Day) we went to the ward picninc. People were playing softball and having a great time, even though it was drizzling. We enjoyed that. Elizabeth fell asleep in my arms so I held her for a while so Alicia could talk to her friends. Elizabeth is getting to be a good sleeper in noisy situations.
Then we went for a bike ride. Alicia dropped me off near my work and I followed a trail out to Xenia. It was a good ride of nearly 18 miles. I think riding to and from work is helping because I made the ride without too much difficulty. Alicia rode to Xenia with Elizabeth and started the other way on the trail. She probably ended up riding 6-7 miles, which is a lot trudging Elizabeth behind.
On to more Elizabeth news. We're trying to teach her to say Mama. She has the "d" sound down but she can't seem to make any other consonant sounds (besides "no no no no"). She says "dada" for both Alicia and me. It's pretty cute though, when one of us walks in the room she gives a definite "dada" sound.
She's definitely a smart girl though. Whenever she gets ahold of someone's keys she tries to go to a door handle in the house and stick the keys in. I am amazed because we never use the keys in the door, we just use the garage door opener. I don't know where she learned that.
We also got another comment today about how cute of a face she has. Of course I'm biased but I really think she's a cute baby/toddler. It just seems like her face and body are so much better proportioned than most kids (maybe because she's tall and a little bit thin).
Alicia's indoor soccer team won their tournament and she got a T-shirt. I'm pretty jealous, she has like 3-4 T-shirts from wining intramurals and the like. My basketball team lost intramurals in the final game once. I think that was the hardest loss of my life. I don't have any intramural t-shirts. I guess I shouldn't complain though, if I would have just stuck with volleyball I would have had a few national championships, and I've got a few other victories under my belt.
For our anniversary we went to this huge international supermarket called Jungle Jim's. It was fun. We also went a saw a movie (Revenge of the Sith, what else?). Alicia asked for a family picture so we'll be getting that soon as well. She knew the only way I would agree to that was if she asked for it as her present for some special occasion.
Not much going on in my life, besides the usual busyness. I mostly stained our back deck, it looks pretty nice. Our grass is growing nicely and I had to trudge through the lawn the other day with the lawnmower. I've been riding my bike home from work when the weather has been cooperating, which has been nice. I just finished reading The Davinci Code (I know, I was probably the last person on earth who hadn't read it). It was a fun book and I enjoyed the new twist on the age old plot. Obviously I didn't agree with some of the material, and it was obviously arranged to maximize the "conspiracy theory" but it was still entertaining.
Today (Memorial Day) we went to the ward picninc. People were playing softball and having a great time, even though it was drizzling. We enjoyed that. Elizabeth fell asleep in my arms so I held her for a while so Alicia could talk to her friends. Elizabeth is getting to be a good sleeper in noisy situations.
Then we went for a bike ride. Alicia dropped me off near my work and I followed a trail out to Xenia. It was a good ride of nearly 18 miles. I think riding to and from work is helping because I made the ride without too much difficulty. Alicia rode to Xenia with Elizabeth and started the other way on the trail. She probably ended up riding 6-7 miles, which is a lot trudging Elizabeth behind.
Sunday, May 15, 2005
And there was much rejoicing
Well yesterday Patricia went home (and there was much rejoicing...Just Kidding)! Actually, it's the other way around. Yesterday afternoon was worse than a funeral, I could practically smell death in the house. Patricia, you are missed. I found it interesting how quickly Elizabeth took to Trish. Usually Elizabeth is kind of shy and reserved around people she doesn't know but she sure warmed up to Trish right away.
Alicia performed in a classical music recital put on by our ward on Friday night. She performed the opening theme from Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto Number 1. It was very good, but Alicia is insistent on focusing on her mistakes. This is my chance to get a word in edgewise and say that she did a great job. I enjoy that piece a lot and she played it well. It was especially impressive considering that she had to perform right after a sister in our ward who is studying piano performance or something like that.
In other Alicia news, she had her first doctor appointment this week. They said that the approximate due date she gave them doesn't match with what they think it should be. They think the baby will come earlier. So they are going to do an ultrasound and see what's going on. It took me a few minutes but I finally realized what was going on...Twins! Alicia wants me to say that I'm just kidding...probably so that it doesn't come true.
So, back to Elizabeth's cute doings. She still loves the animal book, and now she can make more sounds. When it gets to elephant she makes the elephant sound now and moves her arm up like the trunk of an elephant. One of the letters on the book is ice cream for I (it's not all animals). We usually make licking sounds and she's picked up on that now too. It isn't a fraction as cute when I write about it as when you see it so I'll take a video and post it soon.
Alicia performed in a classical music recital put on by our ward on Friday night. She performed the opening theme from Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto Number 1. It was very good, but Alicia is insistent on focusing on her mistakes. This is my chance to get a word in edgewise and say that she did a great job. I enjoy that piece a lot and she played it well. It was especially impressive considering that she had to perform right after a sister in our ward who is studying piano performance or something like that.
In other Alicia news, she had her first doctor appointment this week. They said that the approximate due date she gave them doesn't match with what they think it should be. They think the baby will come earlier. So they are going to do an ultrasound and see what's going on. It took me a few minutes but I finally realized what was going on...Twins! Alicia wants me to say that I'm just kidding...probably so that it doesn't come true.
So, back to Elizabeth's cute doings. She still loves the animal book, and now she can make more sounds. When it gets to elephant she makes the elephant sound now and moves her arm up like the trunk of an elephant. One of the letters on the book is ice cream for I (it's not all animals). We usually make licking sounds and she's picked up on that now too. It isn't a fraction as cute when I write about it as when you see it so I'll take a video and post it soon.
Sunday, May 08, 2005
Instant Lawn
In big news this week we finally finished sodding our lawn. We got a pretty good crew from the Elder's Quorum over and got it done in just over an hour. It's nice to have a lawn in the back and we're excited to be able to play with Elizabeth on it.
I other news, Patricia (formerly known as Hermana Bartholomew) has been out visiting us this week. It's been nice having her here and we immediately put her to work. She rolled the dirt in our lawn after I tilled it and she babysat the other night while I took Alicia out for Mother's Day. I told her it's for her own good. I remember coming home from a mission. You're used to all of this productive hard work that lasts all day. You enjoy serving people. It's hard having unstructured time and thinking about yourself so much for a change. So I made sure to give her a service oriented environment. It's nice having a sister in law :-)
On to the good Elizabeth news. There are a few things I want to mention. First of all, she is getting to where she can understand if I am asking a question by the tone of my voice. Whenever I ask a question she answers by saying "Na," with the a as the same sound as in apple. The only problem is that I have no idea if that means yes or no.
This week I got a live trap to get the groundhog in our backyard (I caught an opossum but no groundhog yet). The first night I was working on putting it together I had to get a hammer and bang on it for a minute. Well, she loves working with daddy, and as soon as I put the hammer down she rushed over to get it and she started hitting the trap with it. She does the same thing when I try to sweep or mop the floor, she usually grabs it from me before I start, let alone finish.
One final cute thing I will mention this week has to do with a book that we read to her. It has the letters of the alphabet and an animal or other object for each letter. We usually make the animal sound for each animal as well. When we get to M, which is monkey, we make the monkey sound and put our hands under our armpits and heads, like monkeys do. Well, today I read that book to her and just before we got to monkey she curled both hands under her armpits. It was so cute.
Oh, don't forget to check the videos link on the right side, there's a new video. That's all for now.
I other news, Patricia (formerly known as Hermana Bartholomew) has been out visiting us this week. It's been nice having her here and we immediately put her to work. She rolled the dirt in our lawn after I tilled it and she babysat the other night while I took Alicia out for Mother's Day. I told her it's for her own good. I remember coming home from a mission. You're used to all of this productive hard work that lasts all day. You enjoy serving people. It's hard having unstructured time and thinking about yourself so much for a change. So I made sure to give her a service oriented environment. It's nice having a sister in law :-)
On to the good Elizabeth news. There are a few things I want to mention. First of all, she is getting to where she can understand if I am asking a question by the tone of my voice. Whenever I ask a question she answers by saying "Na," with the a as the same sound as in apple. The only problem is that I have no idea if that means yes or no.
This week I got a live trap to get the groundhog in our backyard (I caught an opossum but no groundhog yet). The first night I was working on putting it together I had to get a hammer and bang on it for a minute. Well, she loves working with daddy, and as soon as I put the hammer down she rushed over to get it and she started hitting the trap with it. She does the same thing when I try to sweep or mop the floor, she usually grabs it from me before I start, let alone finish.
One final cute thing I will mention this week has to do with a book that we read to her. It has the letters of the alphabet and an animal or other object for each letter. We usually make the animal sound for each animal as well. When we get to M, which is monkey, we make the monkey sound and put our hands under our armpits and heads, like monkeys do. Well, today I read that book to her and just before we got to monkey she curled both hands under her armpits. It was so cute.
Oh, don't forget to check the videos link on the right side, there's a new video. That's all for now.
Sunday, May 01, 2005
Sunday, April 24, 2005
Big News!
In an effort to ascertain how many people actually read our blog, as well as generate some more interest, we decided to make the big announcement here. Alicia is pregnant. Hopefully the "select few" already know about this, we've tried to make the appropriate calls. But in actuality we won't get burned by this because very few people read our blog anyway. She's due sometime around Thanksgiving.
In other Alicia news, her indoor soccer team is undefeated. She is enjoying playing there and is doing quite well. It'll be a shame when she has to stop. She also had a meeting this week for the Mom's Club that she goes to. It was some type of cooking meeting, she brought cookie bars. We're straying into unfamiliar territory here talking about cooking and all ladies groups so she'll have to fill you in on the details.
In other news I've been struggling with our lawn. I applied some winter fertilizer last year but I don't think that I did it very evenly because now there are some yellow streaks in some places in the lawn. I think I also applied it too late. Anyway, I'm deciding what to do about it. It's not too bad so I think I'll just keep watering and hope the green parts take over. Since our lawn is also lumpy I'm thinking of overseeding in the fall. I just learned about it the other day and it seems pretty cool. You basically apply a little bit of top soil over the existing grass and then put grass seed on. It's supposed to work quite well and give a nice look. Now that Trish is back maybe she can advise us, assuming she hasn't forgotten all of her "worldly" knowledge. A friend of ours in the ward helped us this week with my lawnmower. I left it with a tank of gas all winter and the carburetor clogged up. I was pretty worried but when he told me what it was and helped me fix it I was very grateful (it's a new mower). We still haven't been able to sod the rest of our lawn, the weather out here is terrible lately.
In other news I finished my script to grab books from GospeLink.com and prepare them to go on a Palm handheld. It was fun little project and I'm excited to have a plethora of LDS boosk available on my palm.
Elizabeth update time. Can I just say she is so much fun to tickle. She just loves it. I'll start making my tickling sound and she'll pull her arms in close, but she also waits for me to get to her. (I think she has a love/hate relationship with tickling). Then I jump in and she falls to the ground and starts laughing and laughing. It's the cutest thing. She also loves it when I give her piggy back rides. It's getting to where I can't lie down on my stomach without her jumping on my back. She also loves doggies. We took her to the pet store the other day. She just loved looking at the doggies. I keep thinking that maybe with both of us we can convince Alicia to let us have a dog but so far no luck. She also likes dancing. If there's music she'll start waving her arms and twisting her upper body. She definitely got her enjoyment of dancing from Alicia. She's a cute little girl, that's for sure. She has lots of personality and is always doing the silliest things. She's very entertaining and definitely energetic. Makes it difficult during church though.
In other Alicia news, her indoor soccer team is undefeated. She is enjoying playing there and is doing quite well. It'll be a shame when she has to stop. She also had a meeting this week for the Mom's Club that she goes to. It was some type of cooking meeting, she brought cookie bars. We're straying into unfamiliar territory here talking about cooking and all ladies groups so she'll have to fill you in on the details.
In other news I've been struggling with our lawn. I applied some winter fertilizer last year but I don't think that I did it very evenly because now there are some yellow streaks in some places in the lawn. I think I also applied it too late. Anyway, I'm deciding what to do about it. It's not too bad so I think I'll just keep watering and hope the green parts take over. Since our lawn is also lumpy I'm thinking of overseeding in the fall. I just learned about it the other day and it seems pretty cool. You basically apply a little bit of top soil over the existing grass and then put grass seed on. It's supposed to work quite well and give a nice look. Now that Trish is back maybe she can advise us, assuming she hasn't forgotten all of her "worldly" knowledge. A friend of ours in the ward helped us this week with my lawnmower. I left it with a tank of gas all winter and the carburetor clogged up. I was pretty worried but when he told me what it was and helped me fix it I was very grateful (it's a new mower). We still haven't been able to sod the rest of our lawn, the weather out here is terrible lately.
In other news I finished my script to grab books from GospeLink.com and prepare them to go on a Palm handheld. It was fun little project and I'm excited to have a plethora of LDS boosk available on my palm.
Elizabeth update time. Can I just say she is so much fun to tickle. She just loves it. I'll start making my tickling sound and she'll pull her arms in close, but she also waits for me to get to her. (I think she has a love/hate relationship with tickling). Then I jump in and she falls to the ground and starts laughing and laughing. It's the cutest thing. She also loves it when I give her piggy back rides. It's getting to where I can't lie down on my stomach without her jumping on my back. She also loves doggies. We took her to the pet store the other day. She just loved looking at the doggies. I keep thinking that maybe with both of us we can convince Alicia to let us have a dog but so far no luck. She also likes dancing. If there's music she'll start waving her arms and twisting her upper body. She definitely got her enjoyment of dancing from Alicia. She's a cute little girl, that's for sure. She has lots of personality and is always doing the silliest things. She's very entertaining and definitely energetic. Makes it difficult during church though.
Here's a cute picture of Elizabeth with my phone (not sure where her scabs came from).
Ayudame Hermana Bartholomew. I know, it's a terrible picture.
Sunday, April 17, 2005
Sunday, April 10, 2005
Spring is in the Air
The weather is finally getting nice out here, it's been mostly in the 70's this week. As a result, we've been spending a lot of time outside, we sure enjoy having a home and our own lawn. Elizabeth is finally OK with the idea of walking on the grass, she was a little shaky at first. We also went for a bike ride yesterday and it was very enjoyable. To top it off we stopped and got some frozen custard at Ritters, very yummy (although I think Nielsen's is better).
In other news this week, Elizabeth is getting more and more grown up (I know, I sound like a broken record). When she had a dirty diaper Alicia said, "Do you have a dirty diaper?" Upon hearing that she walked over to the closet with her diapers. Alicia opened it and Elizabeth got a diaper out. Then Alicia said, "go lie down." So Elizabeth walked over to the carpet and laid down on her back. It's the cutest thing. She still loves it when we read her stories, although she pretty much only has attention for "Hop on Pop," by far her favorite book. She's been a little bit sick this week but she seems to be getting over it.
I, on the other hand, still had remnants from the flu. I stayed home on Monday and Tuesday as the flu had moved into my respiratory system and I could barely talk. On a separate note, however, I got the results of my cholestorol test back and they said I'm okay. I better eat more french fries.
Alicia got started on her garden this week by planting strawberries. We also planted some carpet phlox on the hill. That hill is a mess. It has a wire mesh, probably to prevent erosion and runnoff. They planted some kind of ugly plants on the hill before we moved in. They wouldn't be too bad except they don't cover our hill entirely. Anyway, we'll work on that in the future and post pictures. We're looking to finish sodding our back lawn in a couple of weeks.
I'm also excited because I got my Palm Pilot this week (Zire 31). There's a few reasons I decided it was time to get one. I will enjoy having the scriptures and manuals at church without having to lug everything around in hard copy. With all the stuff we have because of Elizabeth that's an important reason. I am also looking forward to having the scriptures and other books with me wherever I go. It has an mp3 player as well, which is an added bonus. Of course, there's the standard reason of using it to keep track of my schedule and activities. I'm in the process of working on a Python script to get content from the GospeLink site and converting it into a format that can be used by Plucker to make a book that will go on my handheld. I've never programmed in Python before so it will be a hack, but it should be fun and useful.
Alicia just got called as the cub leader (or whatever the title is) for our ward. I'm sure she'll do a great job and enjoy it. The meetings are at the church so it's nice that we're so close. Elizabeth will have to either go with her or maybe I can go in early to work on those days and get back in time to watch her.
We had a good weekend this week and we had a few friends over. It was fun to watch Elizabeth interact with kids near her age (a little bit older). She is finally getting to the point where it really seems like she's playing with other children, although her idea of playing is taking toys away from other kids (we're raising a bully). Anyway, we'll have to work on that one.
In other news this week, Elizabeth is getting more and more grown up (I know, I sound like a broken record). When she had a dirty diaper Alicia said, "Do you have a dirty diaper?" Upon hearing that she walked over to the closet with her diapers. Alicia opened it and Elizabeth got a diaper out. Then Alicia said, "go lie down." So Elizabeth walked over to the carpet and laid down on her back. It's the cutest thing. She still loves it when we read her stories, although she pretty much only has attention for "Hop on Pop," by far her favorite book. She's been a little bit sick this week but she seems to be getting over it.
I, on the other hand, still had remnants from the flu. I stayed home on Monday and Tuesday as the flu had moved into my respiratory system and I could barely talk. On a separate note, however, I got the results of my cholestorol test back and they said I'm okay. I better eat more french fries.
Alicia got started on her garden this week by planting strawberries. We also planted some carpet phlox on the hill. That hill is a mess. It has a wire mesh, probably to prevent erosion and runnoff. They planted some kind of ugly plants on the hill before we moved in. They wouldn't be too bad except they don't cover our hill entirely. Anyway, we'll work on that in the future and post pictures. We're looking to finish sodding our back lawn in a couple of weeks.
I'm also excited because I got my Palm Pilot this week (Zire 31). There's a few reasons I decided it was time to get one. I will enjoy having the scriptures and manuals at church without having to lug everything around in hard copy. With all the stuff we have because of Elizabeth that's an important reason. I am also looking forward to having the scriptures and other books with me wherever I go. It has an mp3 player as well, which is an added bonus. Of course, there's the standard reason of using it to keep track of my schedule and activities. I'm in the process of working on a Python script to get content from the GospeLink site and converting it into a format that can be used by Plucker to make a book that will go on my handheld. I've never programmed in Python before so it will be a hack, but it should be fun and useful.
Alicia just got called as the cub leader (or whatever the title is) for our ward. I'm sure she'll do a great job and enjoy it. The meetings are at the church so it's nice that we're so close. Elizabeth will have to either go with her or maybe I can go in early to work on those days and get back in time to watch her.
We had a good weekend this week and we had a few friends over. It was fun to watch Elizabeth interact with kids near her age (a little bit older). She is finally getting to the point where it really seems like she's playing with other children, although her idea of playing is taking toys away from other kids (we're raising a bully). Anyway, we'll have to work on that one.
Sunday, April 03, 2005
The Scourge Fell Upon Them
So, Elizabeth threw up a few times this week, and a couple of weeks ago. Last Saturday and the one before Alicia had a 24 hour bug. I finally got it this weekend. It was like a full flu but in 24 hours (thank goodness). As usual Alicia handled it with her stoic attitude while I whined and complained the whole time. Mostly I was upset that I didn't get to play basketball. Also, seeing as how this was conference weekend it was my chance to have fun and feel like I was skipping church :-). But the good side is that Alicia let me lay in front of the TV all day and I got to watch a rare basketball game (go Illinois!).
Elizabeth is fine now though. She really enjoys when we read books to her. She has her favorites and wants us to read the same book to her over and over and over. It's very cute. She also understands more words. She knows "kisses," "bye-bye," "lunch," and other words as well. She also puts her hands together for prayer and yells when we say "Amen." She is just growing up. She's becoming more and more of a toddler and getting to interact more and more. For a cute new video of her go here.
It's getting to be spring and that's very enjoyable. Alicia and I have already taken Elizabeth out for a few bike rides in her bike trailer. We're planning what to do with our backyard this spring. Alicia's thinking of some vegetables, carpet phlox, and wild flowers. We need to clear off the junk that's already on the hill and sod the rest of the backyard. So that will keep us busy for a while.
Finally, we enjoyed general conference quite a bit. We listened to it over the Internet, which made it easy to handle Elizabeth's naps and energy. Actually, I have an FM transmitter so we got the signal over the Internet but broadcasted it to our stereo downstairs and in the bedroom, depending on where we were. I'm a geek, I know.
Elizabeth is fine now though. She really enjoys when we read books to her. She has her favorites and wants us to read the same book to her over and over and over. It's very cute. She also understands more words. She knows "kisses," "bye-bye," "lunch," and other words as well. She also puts her hands together for prayer and yells when we say "Amen." She is just growing up. She's becoming more and more of a toddler and getting to interact more and more. For a cute new video of her go here.
It's getting to be spring and that's very enjoyable. Alicia and I have already taken Elizabeth out for a few bike rides in her bike trailer. We're planning what to do with our backyard this spring. Alicia's thinking of some vegetables, carpet phlox, and wild flowers. We need to clear off the junk that's already on the hill and sod the rest of the backyard. So that will keep us busy for a while.
Finally, we enjoyed general conference quite a bit. We listened to it over the Internet, which made it easy to handle Elizabeth's naps and energy. Actually, I have an FM transmitter so we got the signal over the Internet but broadcasted it to our stereo downstairs and in the bedroom, depending on where we were. I'm a geek, I know.
Tuesday, March 29, 2005
Book Review--Pride & Prejudice
Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen
(Review written by Alicia not Eric)
I must admit, I am a woman very partial to chick flicks and sappy love stories, with plots of course. I’ve realized in the past year that this book and the A&E movie series based on it are my all-time favorites. I can read and watch this story over and over to see how true love helps to make a good man better while lust only results in emptiness and a never-ending search for something more. The book also shows that no matter who your parents are or how silly your family may be, you can still rise above it with some sense as Elizabeth Bennett does.
Sunday, March 27, 2005
Easter in Ohio
Easter Dress and 30 second bonnet.
Happy Easter! We finally decided to splurge and buy Elizabeth something nice. Hey, since we only go to church twice a year Elizabeth better be wearing something nice (just kidding, we go every week). You'll notice that Elizabeth is happy in this picture, which is quite different than the rest of the week. A molar has been coming in on the bottom and she's been very fussy. She decided to start banging her head against anything and everything, although she prefers hard objects. That's part of the reason she has the bonnett on, so that children's services won't come after us because of all of the bruises. She has been much happier, however, since her tooth came in. Now it's just one little bonk and then the crying. For the most part we have our happy baby back. For more Easter pictures go here.
In other news, Alicia finally got a bike. Hers was stolen last year but it was a pretty cheap bike. We decided to go with something a little bit nicer and went to a real bike store. It's costlier but should last for a very long time. We hope to go on family bike rides this year since I got my bike and a trailer for Elizabeth last year. There are many bike trails in this area and come spring time the area is gorgeous.
Alicia has also been playing in an indoor soccer league, which I think she's been enjoying a lot. I went to a game and saw her score two goals, they were excellent shots. It was interesting seeing how all of the sudden the guys on the team started acknowledging her and passing to her. She was no longer viewed as a "necessary evil" like the other s on the team.
Sorry to bore with information about us, back to Elizabeth. She's getting more and more grown up. She now says "Uh oh" whenever she drops something. She is understanding more words. After eating we say, "do you want a cookie?" and she points to the cupboard with the cookies. She understands when it's time to leave the house and says "bye-bye." Hopefully she'll be speaking soon. And then she needs to start writing novels and making money for us so she can earn her keep.
Wednesday, March 23, 2005
Elizabeth's 15 Month Checkup
Elizabeth just went in for her 15 month checkup. She got the chicken pox vaccine (kids are so spoiled these days - I had to crawl on my knees because I had sores on my feet when I got the chicken pox...and it was uphill...both ways). She's been pretty fussy lately and the doctor said one of her molars might be coming in. But on to the big news, she was 33 inches tall and 22 lbs 4 ounces heavy. That translates to over 97th percentile in height and 50th percentile in weight. She's tall and skinny and she has me to thank for it!
Book Review--The Mysterious Affair at Styles
Alicia and I decided to start reading books to each other in the evening. It's a good way to spend some quality time together and encourages us to turn off the TV. Actually, we got the idea from our friends, the Poppletons. The first book we decided to read together was a book by Agatha Christie titled, The Mysterious Affair at Styles. This was the book that introduced the illustrious career of Hercule Poirot, an obsessive compulsive Belgian detective. Detective work has long been considered one of the fields in which obsessive compulsive disorder would be an advantage, but I can't accuse Agatha Christie of following the crowd since she may have come up with the idea (I haven't read any Sherlock Holmes so I can't say anything about him).
I've read a few Agatha Christie books before and thouroughly enjoyed them. I enjoy movies and books that have good plots, and by nature, most mysteries need to have good plots. I'm absolutely atrocious, however, at trying to figure out who did it. This book was no exception. I don't want to give too much away but let me just say that towards the end of the book I thought I was going to be disappointed, it seemed anti-climactic. But then she delivered in the end and the story ended up being very good. I enjoy Hercule Poirot, he's slightly arrogant but I think that makes him more interesting.
Briefly, the book is about a rich elderly woman who dies in the middle of the night. Accusations of poisoning are made, and everyone thinks they know who did it. She had recently remarried a younger gentleman who appears to be in it for the money. But it doesn't take long before evidence starts appearing on all the cast of characters. This book moved very fast, I was excited every night to read it. Furthermore, we had to keep a dictionary at the side of the bed to keep up with the new words (definitely some good SAT material there). If you're tired of John Grisham's books being flat and hit and miss, try books with real plot, read Agatha Christie. Although, I would recommend The Murder of Roger Ackroyd first, it's a classic. The Mysterious Affair at Styles is avaible free of charge at Project Gutenberg.
I've read a few Agatha Christie books before and thouroughly enjoyed them. I enjoy movies and books that have good plots, and by nature, most mysteries need to have good plots. I'm absolutely atrocious, however, at trying to figure out who did it. This book was no exception. I don't want to give too much away but let me just say that towards the end of the book I thought I was going to be disappointed, it seemed anti-climactic. But then she delivered in the end and the story ended up being very good. I enjoy Hercule Poirot, he's slightly arrogant but I think that makes him more interesting.
Briefly, the book is about a rich elderly woman who dies in the middle of the night. Accusations of poisoning are made, and everyone thinks they know who did it. She had recently remarried a younger gentleman who appears to be in it for the money. But it doesn't take long before evidence starts appearing on all the cast of characters. This book moved very fast, I was excited every night to read it. Furthermore, we had to keep a dictionary at the side of the bed to keep up with the new words (definitely some good SAT material there). If you're tired of John Grisham's books being flat and hit and miss, try books with real plot, read Agatha Christie. Although, I would recommend The Murder of Roger Ackroyd first, it's a classic. The Mysterious Affair at Styles is avaible free of charge at Project Gutenberg.
Sunday, March 20, 2005
Book Review--Spoiled Rotten
Well, I’ve (Alicia) decided to write mini-reviews on the books I’ve read recently. I’m not an expert in literature or a master in writing but I thought I’d give my two bits, good or bad, for whoever wants to read it. Here goes nothing.
I was led to this book by a reference in a general conference talk by Joe J. Christensen about greed, selfishness, and overindulgence (Ensign May 1999). I recommend the conference talk and also the book Spoiled Rotten. Fred Gosman isn’t a psychiatrist or any kind of Phd., just a parent and writer who wrote down his observations of how parents across the country are letting the kids run the house instead of the parents. This book is a quick read. The examples come straight out of when I was growing up in the late 80s and early 90s. Although Atari or Barbie’s may not be the fad now, the underlying concept is still alive—we spoil our children too much in this overindulgent society. While I read the book, I started getting mad at the parents who made the kids feel like the center of the universe with everything revolving around them and their wants. Children aren’t the center of the universe and they need to know that by something called discipline. Discipline isn’t just punishing but helping set boundaries and guidelines for our children to live by.
Gosman shows five ways that we can spoil our children:
1. Possessions
2. Not effectively disciplining for misbehavior
3. Mediocre effort is tolerated
4. Opinions unreasonably deferred to
5. Children not held responsible for actions
I hope you read this book so your child isn’t spoiled rotten and can contribute meaningfully to society instead of thinking that society owes them everything.
Spoiled Rotten: Today’s Children and How to Change Them
by Fred Gosman
by Fred Gosman
I was led to this book by a reference in a general conference talk by Joe J. Christensen about greed, selfishness, and overindulgence (Ensign May 1999). I recommend the conference talk and also the book Spoiled Rotten. Fred Gosman isn’t a psychiatrist or any kind of Phd., just a parent and writer who wrote down his observations of how parents across the country are letting the kids run the house instead of the parents. This book is a quick read. The examples come straight out of when I was growing up in the late 80s and early 90s. Although Atari or Barbie’s may not be the fad now, the underlying concept is still alive—we spoil our children too much in this overindulgent society. While I read the book, I started getting mad at the parents who made the kids feel like the center of the universe with everything revolving around them and their wants. Children aren’t the center of the universe and they need to know that by something called discipline. Discipline isn’t just punishing but helping set boundaries and guidelines for our children to live by.
Gosman shows five ways that we can spoil our children:
1. Possessions
2. Not effectively disciplining for misbehavior
3. Mediocre effort is tolerated
4. Opinions unreasonably deferred to
5. Children not held responsible for actions
I hope you read this book so your child isn’t spoiled rotten and can contribute meaningfully to society instead of thinking that society owes them everything.
Wednesday, March 16, 2005
Monday, March 14, 2005
Movie Review--The Work and The Glory
This past weekend Alicia and I saw The Work and the Glory. It is a movie made from the first volume of a popular book series (in Mormon circles) of the same title. It follows a fictional family (the Steeds) as they interact with real people and events during the beginning of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Overall I thought it was a pretty good movie. The acting was good, the story was good too. The movie was well done, but it lacked something. I think it just wasn't very powerful, not as much as the books at least. I really enjoyed the books (except for the last one) but they definitely pick up steam as time goes on. I felt that the conversion stories were toned down, it made the movie not as compelling as it could have been. But it is definitely better than some of the other "Mormon" movies out there (do NOT see The Book of Mormon Movie). I think that The Other Side of Heaven and Singles Ward are better but this is a movie I would be happy to have in my library.
Saturday, March 12, 2005
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A big hello
Well, we finally decided to take the plunge and join the numberless masses by creating a "blog." We thought this would be the best way to update our family on what's going on in our lives, since we're so far away from everyone. For now why don't you head on over here to take a look at some videos of Elizabeth.
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