LIttle Man is Growing Up!

I love Lin's very active imagination and his love of role-play. Just ran into this old picture and it reminded me of how much growth and change has happened in a short period of time. Lin's hair is now short. His little body is filling out. Lin still cries about getting dressed for church but goes to class by himself. He still loves "squoooshie hugs" and "beeeeg hugs". Lin's ever the romantic with flowers for mom. He presented me with a toy tiara to wear yesterday and called it "a gift of love". I'm lucky he's such a kind, thoughtful, and sweet big brother for Laura . He loves her "so much with all his heart".

Go Directly to Shauna's Nerd Blog!! & Welcome Home Sarah!

Just watched Shauna's tribute to nerdy boys. Fabulous!
Welcome home Sarah! Glad your mom had a great surprise birthday!
Now go directly to Shauna's blog and have fun.
I'm too sleepy to think straight.
Love to all!

Condi Rice for VP! Finally, someone is paying attention to me!

Okay, I've been talking about this for a while. I actually wanted to make "Condi for President" shirts but got caught up in the whole "Mitt Romney thing". I'd love Mitt as VP but there is no way two old white men are going to beat the Democrat's history making ticket. I still think Miss Rice would make an awesome president but I'll settle for VP. My dream ticket is Mitt and Condi for 2012! Yeah!

Here's a great article posted in "The Nation" by Nicholas von Hoffman
Vice President Rice?
[posted online on February 13, 2008]
Who's John McCain's scariest running mate? Take your pick on the Nation Poll.
Democrats who think it's going to be a cakewalk into the White House next November had best remember one name: Condoleezza Rice.
John McCain is a formidable candidate in his own right, but if he has the political imagination to do it, he can cause the party of Jefferson and Jackson indescribable angst with Rice as his vice-presidential pick.
Besides being the greatest two-for in GOP history, Rice brings other huge pluses to the decorated Vietnam hero. Indeed, she may be enough to elect the venerable hero/naval aviator.
McCain's troubles with the religious wing of his party could well evaporate with the churchgoing Rice at his side. She solidifies that part of his base overnight.
With Rice on the ticket, the GOP would have somebody to get enthusiastic about. The Secretary of State is immensely popular with Republicans. For a party that up to now has been clueless about how to run against either a woman or a person of color, Condoleezza Rice is pure political gold.
Woe to any Democrat who thinks taking her on in a debate is a sure thing. The woman is tough, fast on her feet and able to give better than she gets. Anyone who has seen her in action testifying in front of a hostile House or Senate committee knows that she will be able to wipe up the floor with a plodding, ordinary pol of a Democratic vice-presidential candidate. Take Rice lightly at your peril.
In the ordinary course of things the ideal vice-presidential candidate is relied upon to carry his or her home state and keep out of trouble. With Condi the GOP gets a lot more. It gets a superstar to match the Democrats' superstars. If it comes to name recognition, glamour and magnetism for conservatives, Condi is dandy. Also, it is a plus for the GOP team that she is a snappy dresser.
Rice's presence on the ticket deprives the Democrats of the we-are-more-diverse-than-thou argument. It makes McCain--whose ethnically diverse family includes an adopted daughter from Bangladesh--an even more attractive candidate for a certain kind of independent voter.
Rice can rightly be attacked for serving Bush and backing an unpopular and disastrous war. But McCain, who is extremely pro-war himself, is not going to select a running mate who is wishy-washy on Iraq. Rice is also said to have done a poor job running the State Department, where morale is supposed to have dropped faster than a subprime mortgage. However, you can put the number of voters who give a rodent's behind about the care and feeding of cookie-pushing diplomats in a phone booth, if phone booths still existed.
With Rice on the ticket the Republicans are freed up to run a much stronger negative campaign against either Clinton or Obama because the Secretary of State provides them with cover against charges of sexism or racism. They would be able to go after Obama's membership in Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ. Its minister, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr., with whom Obama is close, has won himself the militant tag from conservatives because of his association with Nation of Islam leader the Rev. Louis Farrakhan.
They can attack Hillary's experience claims as consisting of her being Bill's wife. They can challenge her boast that she is a strong, independent woman and paint her as a weak, hopelessly-in-love woman under the spell of a man subject not only to "bimbo eruptions" but also eruptions of smarmy deals with shady business figures.
Lastly, Rice is a notorious sports fan with excruciatingly detailed knowledge of much of its arcana. She's often said that her dream job is commissioner of the National Football League; however, in a pinch she would probably settle for Vice President of the United States

Thank you Charlton Heston!

Charlton Heston passed away yesterday. I was sad to hear this but happy for him. Alzheimer's is such a terrible thing. I think in heaven, Charlton Heston will enjoy meeting so many of the people he played in biographical movies. I think he will also be surprised at the many stories of people finding their faith through his films that will greet him, like mine.

I grew up watching "The Ten Commandments". Arnold Friberg, the noted LDS artist designed sets and costumes. According to Wikipedia, "Friberg, a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, also contributed the manner of Moses ordaining Joshua to his mission at the end of the film: hands on Joshua's head. Friberg, demonstrated the LDS manner of performing such ordinations, and DeMille liked it." In our ward building is a picture by Friberg of Moses parting the Red Sea and you can see that Heston was his model. As a child, I watched this film on a annual basis. It really taught me the story of Moses and to love an appreciate his story as an archetype of the Savior. The movie does a good job of showing how ungrateful, petulent, and disobedient the Hebrews were. Only those born in the wilderness could follow with a pure intent. Great symbolism for our own battles with sin and how it has to be completely left behind for us to fully follow the Savior.

Ben-Hur is an epic movie with stunning images. This was the only large picture I could find from the production but if you have a chance, check out the DVD at the video store. Judah Ben-Hur's story of conversion has always stuck with me. His joy at finding his loved ones healed of leporsy. His sorrow as he helps carry the cross beam. I also loved Victor Mature in "The Robe" for the same reason. "Ben-Hur" and "The Robe" were novels, then movies in popular culture that showed big strong men breaking down and finding faith in Jesus Christ. No wonder these stories are so well loved.

The last picture is from "The Hawaiians". My kids will recognize the title because I always tell them about the "Moo Kau's Aunty" character who looks at her kids and says, "You doctor, you lawyer, etc." Love it! I do the same thing on a lesser scale with our kids. I've asked them questions and made suggestions since they were little. I figuare things only happen if you dream big for your kids and plant seeds of faith in them. You can become whatever you want to in life but dream big! Aunty, on the other hand, is the shrewdest business woman on the islands and Heston's only match. She wants to build a dynasty. I want to build one too but I'm not as fanatical. I'm only telling my kids "Dentist, Lawyer, Optomestrist..." Haven't decided on the other three yet!

My sincere condolences to the Heston family and a thank you to Charlton Heston for the wonderful roles he played and especially these three that have touched me the most.

THANKS NATE & SARAH!

I need to thank Nate and Sarah. For my birthday, they bought the perfect gift and I really appreciate it. Here are some pictures taken with the new camera. Laura at 19 months old. She's a curly topped blue eyed bundle of love.
Paige is a beautiful bumble bee buzzing about the backyard.

It was great to have the camera for Wads and Tammy's visit!

Here we capture the "sleeping chunka". Laura loves to fake being asleep.

Our two little ones - Laura and Lin.

Thanks again Sarah and Nate for the thoughtful gift!

Good Friends

There are no greater friends than Lin and Paige. They have loved each other from day one. When I babysat, one of Paige's favorite comfort positions was to lay next to Linwood on my lap. Lin would be nursing and Paige would wrap her body along side Lin and snuggle close to him. She would quiet right down. As toddlers, they loved to dress up in costumes. Paige was a bee and Lin a ladybug. Or Lin was Superman and Paige was Batman. Most often Paige was Pooh to Lin's Tigger. I'm glad they're such good friends as well as uncle and niece.

Ariel just had a great 11th birthday party at Pinewood Park with many of her great friends from school. I love Tweeners. They are so sweet. Everyone played well together and had a great time. They enjoyed relay games, tug-of-war, a water fight and Costco cupcakes. Lots of fun! Sorry no pictures. We were silly and forgot to have a SD in the video camera for stills. I'll post a picture soon with the haircut Ariel gave herself. It is a beautiful pageboy. I was amazed she could do it herself. Wow!

Mandy with Justin and Rachael in the backyard. Mandy is really lucky to have so many friends her age living in the neighborhood. Justin is just a year younger. Rachael and Mandy have been friends since Kindergarten. These are those special forever friends. I love to watch Laura and Carter at play. I love everytime they greet each other with so much excitement. I love when they zoom around pushing toy strollers or grocery carts. Carter can say "Laura" pretty clearly. They love to share....sometimes...you also need to watch the sippy cups! Ooops!

So Sad

I feel sorry for my little ones. The perverts make life so different for them. Case in point: Ariel would like to ride her bike by herself around our neighborhood. She would like to walk with friends to school. It's no fun to say, "No". She's asking to do healthy, wholesome things but we live in a world where pre-teen girls can't be outside by themselves. They have great neighborhood friends so we're lucky that way. We've started walking in the evenings. It's nice. Time to talk as we walk. Mandy skateboarded along side us the first night.

Because of the perverts, our children play alot of computer & video games. They like visiting with friends on MySpace & Facebook. So what's the problem? I monitor their sites and our computer is in the living room. Well I got on Ariel's site and her bulletin section is filled with gross pornographic stuff from someone listed in her friends. I had Shauna look at it and she says it looked like the friend had been hacked. So sad the world is such a place.