Earth Day

With earth-day having just passed and all the noise we hear daily on the subject I thought I would add my little voice to the fray.

I love this comic strip!

Joseph Smith used these words to describe the religious fervor of his time. “In the midst of this war of words and tumult of opinions, I often said to myself: What is to be done? Who of all these parties are right; or, are they all wrong together? If any one of them be right, which is it, and how shall I know it?”

Similar sentiments are probably felt by many towards the environmental clamor we are currently experiencing. The tactics employed by many environmental enthusiasts have been so offensive, loud, and ridiculous; I doubt I am the only one who has disagreed with their motives based solely on their appalling behavior. Recently things have become slightly more civil and reasonable, yet a large amount of doom and gloom is still preached, and contradicted, leaving us in the same confused situation.

I recently read a quote by Elder Neal A. Maxwell that helped me come to terms with the environmental issues. He said,

“This restored work not only involves the things of eternity but is also drenched in daily significance. True disciples, for instance, would be consistent environmentalists— caring both about maintaining the spiritual health of a marriage and preserving a rain forest; caring about preserving the nurturing capacity of a family as well as providing a healthy supply of air and water... Adam and Eve were to 'dress the garden', not exploit it. Like them, we are to keep the commandments, so that we can enjoy all the resources God has given us, resources described as 'enough and to spare (D&C 104:17), if we use and husband them wisely.” (Elder Neal A. Maxwell, A Wonderful Flood of Light, p. 103)

I realized that it does not matter whether global warming is real, or if the weather patterns are changing. This earth is Gods creation and as stewards we have a responsibility to respect and care for it.

Hugh Nibley said “We have taught our children by precept and example that every living thing exists to be converted into cash, and that whatever would not yield a return should be quickly exterminated to make way for creatures that do” (Brother Brigham Challenges the Saints, p.4).

As a family we have decided to change some of our habits we think may be too wasteful. We are doing this not because of media pressure, because we think we can save the planet, or even to save money (of course that wouldn’t hurt), but rather because we feel it is one more way we can show our love for God.

“The very object of our existence here is to handle the temporal elements of this world and subdue the earth, multiplying those organisms of plants and animals God has designed shall dwell upon it. When we have learned to live according to the full value of the life we now possess, we are prepared for further advancement in the scale of eternal progression-- for a more glorious and exalted sphere.” (Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses 9:168)

Every individual is in an unique situation, and therefore must decide for themselves how much they are able to do. Remember “…it is not requisite that a man should run faster than he has strength”, do what you can. I hope this has not been too preachy; my intention was to perhaps share an alternate view to all the noise we are daily bombarded with. If you’re looking for a place to get started here is a website Shannon and I enjoyed going through the other day and picking out a few new thing we wanted to do.

Silence

♥I got up today at 7:30, but I didn't have to.
♥I finished the book I've been reading.
♥There are no fruit snack wrappers on the floor.
♥The toilets are flushed.
♥The fridge is unlocked.
♥The TV is off.
♥I sewed 15 blankets today.
♥I went to 4 different stores today.
♥The fruit at Wal-Mart remains intact.
♥I know where my keys are.
♥I know where my phone is.
♥There are no stuffed animals sleeping in my bed.
♥I showered alone today.
♥Nena hasn't had any treats today.
♥I haven't found Lexi choking on any large food items.
♥All the markers have their lids on.
♥Lexi went to bed on time last night and was not woken up.
♥The lights upstairs are all off.
♥The toilet paper roll is not empty.
♥The garbage can is not full of toilet paper.
♥The words "Naked Ponies" have not been mentioned in any prayers.
♥Nobody has asked for any treats today.
♥I know where my shoes are.
♥The only teeth I've brushed today are my own.
♥There are no partially eaten bananas in any of the following locations: the kitchen counter, the couch, the computer desk, my nightstand, the bathroom counter or the toilet seats.
♥The house is so quiet!

Myra is visiting her grandparents until Tuesday and an eerie silence has fallen over the house. What did we do before we had Myra? We sure miss her.

A little hike

So, last Saturday we finally had some warm weather. My friend, Riley called me and asked if I wanted to go hiking with him. We had family plans for the morning and the evening but there was a few hours in the afternoon that I thought I could get away. Since we only had a few hours we decided to tackle a short but intense hike up a mountain just east of the University. We just went straight up, no path and amazingly made it to the top (I have the blisters to prove it), and back in our time limit, (mostly because we just slid down the mountain on the way back, the north faces of all the ridges were still covered in snow). Shannon let me borrow the trekking poles I gave her for Christmas, they worked great. We were the first up this mountain this year, it was so nice to get out finally and enjoy one of the best parts of living in Logan.

Max elevation: 7373 ft
Total distance: 3.7 miles (there and back)
Elev Gain: 2339ft (very steep)
Time: 3 hours

If you look close you can see the structures at the top (I still don't know what they are)

Tagged

A-Attached or Single? Attached
B-Best Friend? According to Myra, everyone is a best friend, right down to the guy bagging our groceries. If that's the case, I could name a lot of people. But if I had to name one person, it would definitely be Chad. My girls come in a close second.
C-Cake or Pie? Strawberry Short Cake
D-Day of Choice? Saturday! Especially if I get to sleep in, which never happens.
E-Essential Item? Chapstick
F-Favorite Color? Green
G-Gummy bears or worms? Worms
I-Favorite Indulgence? Anything sweet. Especially chocolate.
J-January or July? July! Although my birthday is in January, I would much rather be in warmer weather.
K-Kids? 2
L-Life isn't complete without? My family
M-Marriage date? November 15, 2003
N-Number of brothers and sisters? 1 awesome sister
O-Oranges or apples? Probably apples - Oranges are too much work
P-Phobias or fears? Ever since falling and breaking my ankle, I have a minuscule fear of heights.
Q-Quote? I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. - Henry David Thoreau (He has a lot of great quotes. Check out this link.)
R-Reason to smile? My girls. They are always making me smile. And when Chad comes home from work, because then I get to share the load.
S-Season of choice? Spring - I love it when it starts to warm up after a long cold winter and everything is so new and fresh and clean.
T-tag 3 people: Chad, Judi and Erica
U-Unknown facts about me? I earned the Ranger award, one of the highest awards you can get in Venturing Scouting.
V-Vegetable? Broccoli - we have been eating tons of it lately. Even Lexi loves it.
W-Worst habit? Not listening as well as I should.
X-x-ray or ultrasound? I'm not really sure what this means either, but since x-rays usually mean broken bones and ultrasounds mean babies, I'd much rather have an x-ray, I mean ultrasound. :-)
Y-Your favorite food? Pasta!
Z-Zodiac sign? Capricorn

Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

It all started out somewhat nicely. The sun was shining, the girls and I all slept in. I actually made a nice breakfast - hashbrowns, eggs and bacon, mmm. I even sold 3 items on Etsy that morning. After a lazy morning, we were getting ready to go for a walk to the Post Office and Library when I told Myra to go into her room and pick out some clothes to wear. I heard this big boom and a scream. I ran into Myra's room to find that her dresser had fallen over on top of her! I'm sure I let out a little shriek as I ran to lift the dress off of her. As I lifted it up, I couldn't get it to stay up, so I had to rest it against my back as I lifted her out from under it. Then once I got her out, I sat it back down on the floor. She was crying hysterically as I checked her out. She had big welts across her chest, arms, and thighs. But, no bleeding and she was able to move. So, I called the doctor to see what they thought and they said to bring her in, just to make sure. I then called Chad and I was pretty upset at this point. Mostly because I kept thinking of how much worse it could have been. What if Lexi had been in that room with her? Chad offered to go to the doctors with us and by this time, Myra was back to normal, exclaiming quite vehemently that she did not want a shot! Of course the doctor said that she looked fine. Just some bruising, especially on her legs. Myra left the doctors office, skipping down the stairs. We still aren't sure exactly what happened. The thought that the dresser might tip over had never entered our mind. It had always seemed so sturdy. We think that Myra opened the top couple of drawers and it became top heavy and tipped over. We are just extremely grateful that things turned out alright. It could have been much worse. Now I have a huge mess to clean up. I needed to go through the kids clothes though, so now I can't put it off anymore.
So, that took up the early afternoon. Chad went back to work for a couple of hours while the girls and I took it easy for the rest of the afternoon. My sunburn was killing me and of course, the kids kept jumping on my sore legs and Lexi with her razor sharp nails kept scratching me. Then the chaos began again. I picked Chad up from school so that we could run to the store. The entire time, both kids were bawling over this and that. I'm not sure what Lexi's problem was, but we had to carry her around most of the store. Myra was upset that she couldn't sit in the back of the cart. Then she kept running off. We caught her sneaking a few grapes, but when she took a bite out a of pear, that was it. Chad took her, bawling, out to the car while I checked out, with Lexi, also bawling. Once home, I hurried to make dinner. Myra and Lexi continued to cry about this and that. Then, once we were having dinner, Myra gave Lexi a piece of bacon. Of course she started to choke on it and so when I went to get it out of her mouth, she threw up in my hand. Unfortunately, she had eaten Lasagna baby food for dinner. Yuck! My dinner wasn't so appetizing after that. Once we got her cleaned up, the crying resumed until Myra started choking. I was certain she was going to throw up as well, but luckily we were reprieved from that little yuckiness. Once we all settled down to finish dinner, we were doorbell ditched. The crying then resumed and we headed upstairs to get two tired and grumpy girls to bed. But not before Myra decided to pick her nose and wipe it on our bed. But now, silence....
Ok, so I'm sure everyone else reading this could come up with their own (and probably worse) version of a very bad day, but for us, it was pretty frustrating. Luckily, the kids are safe and sleeping and Chad and I are looking forward to reading a couple more chapters of Fablehaven tonight. On a happier note, I got my first passport today! :-) England, here we come! Also, while we were on the horrible Walmart trip, I bought $50 dollars worth of fabric. It was exciting for me, anyway. I'm trying to get ready for this summers Gardener's Market and the fabric was on sale. Well, that's the end to my little dramatic day. Goodnight.

Baby Animal Days

Every year, the American West Heritage Center in Cache Valley has Baby Animal Days. We went last year and it was a lot of fun, so of course, I wanted to go again this year. I had originally wanted to go on either Thursday or Friday, so the crowds wouldn't be so large, but the weather was too cold. So, on Saturday morning, I talked Chad into going with us, along with our friend Riley and we met up with the Days. First of all, we went right at 10:00, when they opened, and it was already packed! It was such a nice day though, I'm sure everyone else just wanted to get out and enjoy the nice weather. Janelle and I waited in line for Camille and Myra to ride the ponies. Myra got her face painted while we waited. Myra enjoyed the pony ride, even trying it with no hands. The highlight of the trip though was seeing all the baby animals. There were cows, pigs, lambs, chicks, bunnies, horses, goats and more. Myra is so brave with the animals. She wasn't shy about going right in, putting her arm around the animals and even giving some of them a kiss. Ugh!






She loved it though. She even had no qualms about petting a snake. The guys all got to try out throwing a hatchet and I have to say, Chad was amazing. He hit all 4 hatchets in the target. Very impressive! We really had a fun time, especially enjoying the nice weather. That afternoon Chad and Riley went hiking. I won't write about it, because I think Chad wanted to. He's got some great pictures though. We also went to my work party Saturday night at Cafe Sabor. My favorite. Tax season ends tomorrow, so I'm done with work. If you haven't done your taxes yet, you better get them finished up soon. :-)
Sunday was the nicest day we've had this year so far. So nice, in fact, that I got totally sunburned. Chad and I have been reading the Fablehaven books together again in preparation for the next one coming out next week. So, we all went outside. Myra played in the dirt, Lexi sat on a blanket eating crackers, afraid of touching the grass while Chad and I read. Chad was smart and sat in the shade, but I just wanted to enjoy the sun. Two hours later, I was fried. I didn't really think about sunburn since it still was a little cool. Myra got a little pink on her arms too, but not bad. I've got to remember to wear sunscreen! Anyway, the nice weather was great. Today is suppose to be nice too, but then it's suppose to get rainy and cold again. Ugh! Won't it ever stop?

Little Helpers

I was putting laundry away today and Lexi was "helping" me. I snapped a couple of pictures and then remembered that I had pictures of Myra doing the same thing at about the same age. Can you tell which one is which?

The Little Sneak

For some time now, Myra would suddenly appear with a treat that we kept in our cupboard next to the refrigerator. At first, I figured I had just left the treat bag on the counter and she had gotten in it. Then I began to wise up and realized she was somehow getting into the cupboard. My first, fearful thought, I might add, was that she was getting up on our stools, walking around the counters, over the stove and then getting into the cupboard. Finally, one day I just asked her to show me how she would get her treats. At first, she declined, but then I asked her to get me a treat and she was quick to show me. Here's a video I took today of her re-enacting her sneakiness.


The funny thing is, that after she would get a treat, she would make sure to shut the cupboard and put the stool back - leaving us quite bewildered. Myra is getting smarter and smarter every day.

Here's some other recent pictures. Myra, always the troublemaker, got into some fingernail polish. I can't believe she was even able to get the lid off. Then at the same time, isn't she so cute?





Lexi on the other hand is starting to learn a lot from her sister. She likes to get into things. Here's a picture of her exploring our messy closet. She's also been very clingy to me. She always wants me to pick her up and she'll just follow me wherever I go, saying, Mamamamama. It's so cute!

Playtime

Myra enjoys Lexi's birthday present way more than Lexi does. Although Lexi does love to watch.

Birthdays, Bear Lake, Bowling and New Teeth

Wow! We have had a busy week. I have a lot to tell, so I'll just jump on in.
Last Tuesday was our little Lexi's first birthday. My parents came up to visit in the afternoon. They gave her this really cute Noah's ark toy with finger puppets. She wasn't too interested in opening up the presents though. Thankfully Myra was at hand to help.
That evening we had a few friends over for cake and ice cream. We gave Lexi the whole cake and she wouldn't even touch it. When we cut her a small piece, she finally started to play with it and eat a little bit of it.Lexi enjoyed sharing her new toys with her friend Maddie.

It was a fun first birthday for Lexi.

Then on Thursday, Grammy came to our house with Lexi's birthday present. We didn't open it until today and Myra enjoyed it much more than Lexi. Myra went with Grammy, Natalie and James to Bear Lake on Thursday, then we headed up when Chad got home from work on Friday. It was fun to get together with not only Grammy, but Natalie, Doug, James, Blake and Chad's cousin, Chris. We had a fun time playing Killer Bunnies, playing Wii and going bowling on Saturday. We even got to see cousin James take his first steps - to me I might add(I had a graham cracker he really wanted!) We also celebrated Natalie's birthday Saturday. Then everyone came to our house on Sunday for dinner and more games. Grammy stayed with us until Tuesday, when she had to head back to Natalie's house. We've had a fun week, but are ready for things to get back to normal a little. Lexi had two new teeth come in and they were a long time coming! I thought they would pop out a couple of months ago, but they just barely made their appearance, and boy has she been grumpy. And Myra is still recovering from an immense sugar rush. We got rid of most of our candy this weekend, so hopefully she'll start calming down soon.

A couple of other things... A few people have asked how to do this in their blog - ♥☼►♪◄♣♫
I found this nifty little link to an ALT code reference sheet. It's a lot of fun. Check it out!
www.UsefulShortcuts.com
Also, we added a fun game to the bottom of our blog. So scroll down and see if you can beat my high score!