Goodbye and Goodnight

NaBloPoMo is over. The challenge was issued and accepted. In the end it took both the efforts of myself and Michelle to officially accomplish the task. I figure that is all well and good. Afterall, some days saw multiple blogs from yours truly.

I discovered that many of you would prefer I not blog about politics and that I instead stick to day to day activities of the family. While it was a struggle to come up with some blog material every day and I certainly did a poor job on some days, I can at least say that I did it. Perhaps not all "A" work, but I passed.

Now that it will soon be December, I hope that I can continue to maintain a healthly blog posting frequency. Every day is probably too much, but hopefully you all can tune in to hear me rant and rave and ramble 2-3 times a week.

Goodbye and goodnight to NaBloPoMo!

Christmas Dresses and Little Girls

...don't always mix. Some little girls LOVE to get all dressed up like a princess. Not my royalty. They think that fancy dresses are itchy and get in the way. Sorry mom, Harriet will NOT wear the little sleeve gloves you made to match the dress, so I took the pictures without them. I hope she'll wear them when we have to leave the house so she's not cold. She wouldn't wear a bow either. She doesn't understand bribery yet. Grace does, thus the bow in her hair.

I decided that I don't have it in me this year to go to some picture place, drive 30 minutes each way, wait in the waiting room until dresses and hair and nerves are shot and then come away with 2 poses that I half like and had to pay a fortune for. So, I took my own terrible pictures for free! (after all, we have a really nice camera now - no excuses not to use it.) Nerves still frazzled, hair still not too good, but dresses survived the ordeal.

Harriet was NOT happy about any part of the picture taking. I had to give her the favorite baby doll just to get her to sit down by her sister. No, she's not holding a baby we haven't announced! Just a doll that's almost as big as she is.

These are the final results. Please make honest comments. Tell me if I need a do-over. Do I need to dress them up again tomorrow and try again? I'm pretty happy with Grace's close up. I don't like any of them together - lots are cute, but not what I was after and none are "good" photos. I came up with nothing from Harriet, but I doctored up what I could. Would you want a glossy 8x10 of these at your house?

I'm just putting the two that I doctored and like best on the blog. Look at the flickr page for all the miserable shots...

Taking pictures of kids is a good way to put the scrooge back into Christmas! I'll try to get over it and decorate the tree this weekend.

addendum: David came home and thought Hattie needed a better photo, so we put her dress back on and took 20 more shots. Here's the winner:

Work, work, work

No rest for the weary around here. I have been gone from 7 AM until 9PM every night this week and I have to go into work even earlier tomorrow to get ready for a program review. Thus, it is a short blogging night. Luckily only 2 days to go.

Almost there, almost there, ...

I am finally getting close to the end of the month. NaBloPoMo has been a tough feat. Certainly some of my posts haven't been worth the ip packets that were sent over the internet. At the MRS the last couple of days I have been recommended to read several books. I thought I would pass it on,

1) Carl Sagan's The Demon-Haunted World. A plea for scientific literacy. Should be a good read.

2) Stephen Hawking's, God Created the Integers. It is about how math changed the world around us.

And finally, the last one isn't a book, but is a transcript of a talk given by John "Kappa" Cornworth. Check it out here.

Scientists Step Up

The annual Fall MRS meeting started today in Boston. Most of the sessions this afternoon that I attended weren't too interesting to me, but I stayed for the two plenary talks tonight. Both by Nobel Laureates and both talked about the need for scientists to confront global warming and our energy needs. It won't be the politicians, it won't be the movie stars, it won't even be the Al Gores of the world that will solve these problems. It will be the scientific community. Things look drastic and we truly need revolutionary ideas to confront our growing appetite for electricity. However, what we also need it a huge increase in renewable/sustainable energy research. Coming out of graduate school I really wanted to work for NREL (National Renewable Energy Laboratory) but they were laying people off. Despite the warning bells that are sounding we continue to neglect this very important area of research. We had the Apollo Project, we had Star Wars, now it is time for Green Energy. Let's hope the politicians can at least put some resources toward this so that science can solve yet another problem. Let the politicians get the credit too, let's just get a move on solving this problem.

The End of the Road Trip

Well we are back home. After a very fun and enjoyable Thanksgiving weekend at Brian and Wendy's we are back home. Driving was going well until we hit the New York-Conneticut border and then it was bumper to bumper gridlock for most of Conneticut and into Massachussets. We were on pace to get home in just under 10 hours, but instead it took 11 1/2 hours. Not fun with 2 kids and 2 dogs. The dogs were great and so was Grace. Harriet was pretty good, but near the end, fatigue set in. Also, she picked up Grace's cold so that made things bad. Luckily we are home and won't be doing anything more than a couple of hours anytime soon.

Of course now that I home, I got start thinking about Christmas lights. Do you have your lights up yet?

Diary of a Utah Fan-Deja Vu

Last year I was sitting on my couch and watched the improbable touchdown that BYU had to win the game with no time left. This year, I was in Pittsburgh listening to it on the internet and was pretty much discouraged by the way the offense played the entire game. When the Utes went ahead 10-9, I was hopeful but thought, "There is too much time left." Sure enough. BYU drove 88 yards thanks to 30 yards of penalties and 49 yards on a 4th and 18 play. How do you give up 49 yards on 4th and 18?

Slightly different path, but the same result. A BYU win with hardly any time left on the clock. The game was a mini-season. Alternating between stellar defensive play, inept offense, big plays given up by the defense, enough offense to keep us in the game, but not enough defense when it was most needed.

At least I can say, wait until next year.

Rockin' in the Christmas Season

Well with Thanksgiving officially over it is time to start thinking about Christmas. Since we are away from home we can't do some of our traditional day after activities like the Turkey Bowl, and Christmas decorations, picking out the Christmas tree, etc. But, we have had a fun day in Pittsburgh. This morning we took the dogs to a dog park and they had a blast. I don't know if it was the smartest thing to do as it was very boggy from the rain and snow over the last two days. The dogs didn't seem to mind the mud, but the people were all walking around gingerly trying to avoid the muddiest spots. Despite our best intentions, Grace went running through some mud and left her shoe behind. Thus, one muddy sock (and the foot become sockless). Then Argos jumped up on me with his muddy paws and got my pants and jacket. But hey, it still was fun. The dogs were running around with each other, chasing balls, and sniffing other dogs. I'm just glad that Shadow didn't decide to roll around in the mud. They were dirty enough as it was and I'm sure Michelle wasn't so happy with us when we got back home.

The rest of the day we have spent lounging. I stayed home with Harriet while she was napping and everyone else went to the Natural History Museum. Grace was looking forward to the dinosaur exhibit, but unfortunately it was so packed that they weren't able to get into the exhibit for another 4 hours. They decided to skip it and came back home. Grace was disappointed but hopefully she will get another chance. After all, Carnegie Mellon does have the largest collection of Utah dinosaur bones.



After everyone was back we decided to have a billiards tournament. I was liking my chances as Brian and I have split 4 games and I felt like I was starting to find my touch. However, we were both eliminated and Wendy stole the championship. In fact, Alec seems to have my number. He has had some nice shots and currently I'm 0-3 against him. Hopefully that will change before we leave on Sunday.

Tonight Brian and Wendy invited the Seppe's over and they brought leftovers and we put out ours and had the traditional day-after left over meal. You can't complain about more turkey, mashed potatos, cranberry sauce, and of course pumpkin pie. Duane, who is an economics professor at Carnegie is also a rocker wanna be. He recently purchased an electric guitar and he brought it over to have a jam session with Alec on the keyboard.



After some Neil Young, the music turned to Christmas songs and Duane started rocking out to God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman, Joy to the World, and some other classics. Fun was had by all. Now if only I played the guitar.

One tired mom at the end of the day!

An International Flavor

For the first time in the last three years, we had Thanksgiving dinner with family. Brian and Wendy also invited several people they know here in Pittsburgh such that we had a Korean couple and Dutchman, and of course us strange Mormons. It was a very enjoyable time and Wendy (with help from Michelle) made an excellent meal. It was a little crazy in the house with 7 adults, 6 kids, and 3 dogs, but we kept the dogs from the turkey and made sure that everyone had plenty to eat. It was very interesting talking with the other guests about their experiences in America and how life differs in areas across the world.

In line with the day, I have to blog about what I am thankful for. While there are many things I appreciate and enjoy, there really are only a few things I just couldn't imaging life without. One of those things is family. Not just Michelle and my kids, but the extended family as well. I can't imagine driving 600+ miles with 2 kids and 2 dogs for many people. Yet, for family it not only was worth it, but didn't seem like much of a sacrifice. Of course we aren't home yet either.

The best part of all of this has got be Grace. She has had a blast here in Pittsburgh. For the week gearing up for our trip she was mainly excited to see Clare and Argos (their dog). However, it was Jeremiah that she has had a blast with. The two spent the entire day together playing with the dogs, playing pirates, playing games, and just plain hanging out. It is too bad that Grace doesn't get to hang out with cousins more often. Harriet has also had a good time but mostly with the dogs. She loves animals and Argos is just her speed. She goes from dog to dog to dog giving loves and pats. She also made a new friend today as the Korean couple had a 1 year old daughter that played well with Harriet.

Thanksgiving 2007 is now coming to an end, but it has reminded me once again the importance of family.

We Made It!

This year we decided to join in the great American tradition and head out on a road trip for Thanksgiving 2007. Thus, we loaded up our Pathfinder with 2 dogs, 2 kids, gear for everyone, cargo box on top of the car (we have a pregnant pathfinder now), dvds, ipods, and snacks. We thought we were done for when 25 minutes into the trip Harriet starting screaming at the top of her lungs. She wanted out of her car seat and she wanted out now. Luckily Michelle was able to calm her down and we continued on towards Pittsburgh.

After 623 miles, 10 hours, 10 minutes, 2 stops at the gas station, a couple of hours of the iPod, and 5 dvds later we arrived. Traffic wasn't bad and the kids were great. The fact that we only had to stop twice is a testament to how both the kids and the dogs did. Of course the dogs were just excited to come. They were looking pretty dejected last night and this morning and we starting packing and loading up the car. However, the second they saw the leashes come out, they knew they were in.

I'm not saying I would like to do this often, but the drive was actually fun for me. I grew up with road trips. My family would load up each summer and make treks to Yellowstone, The Grand Canyon, Arches, Capital Reef, Chicago, Washington D.C. and the like. We have some classic Chapman family stories such as showing up at Natural Bridges with our tent, but no poles, camping up in the mountains around Willard where God spoke to Brian, but not John, 17 year old me driving in D.C. rush hour traffic and also coming back from Chicago one Christmas and having the freeway closed right in front of us. Great memories and great times.

Unfortunately, Michelle doesn't share my enthusiam for the road trip. Anything over 2 hours is tough. Four is doable for the right people, six if necessary, but anything more than that is just plain absurd in her mind. She is probably right when you are dragging kids and dogs in tow. But, the drive was so relaxing. As we headed through western Mass and into Connecticut I enjoyed the New England towns we passed through. As we got farther south into New York and Pennsylvania the trees were actually still quite colorful. I enjoyed passing the Pennsylvania farms and enjoying the sites and sounds of America.

While I probably won't be driving to Utah any time soon, I hope that we can get out as a family and explore some of the world around us. Maine, Cape Cod, even New York City. Hopefully they are just a road trip away.

Road Trip

Well I have spent the night getting ready for our road trip. Bad weather, 600 miles, 2 dogs, 2 kids, what fun we will have. Hopefully the weather will be good tomorrow. Today we got our first snow of the year and had about 2" on the grass. Some of it has melted, but roads are going to be slick in the morning.

Grace is excited to see Clare and I think that it will be fun to get out of town for a couple of days. It will be a tight fit in our car with all of the people, dogs, and gear, but it wouldn't be Thanksgiving without an over the river and through the woods trip.

See you in Pittsburgh.

Hattie loves her Dada

When we still lived in SLC, I would often ride my bike to school and back. When Grace was in the age range of 18-24 months she would love to greet me at the door and help me take my cycling shoes off. Now that she is 4 1/2 she doesn't care so much when daddy comes home.

Hattie is now the same age as Grace was then and she loves it when daddy finally comes home. The second I walk in the house I can hear her squeal in delight saying "da da!" and she comes booking towards the mud room. Nothing beats that. It sure makes it worth while coming home from work to hear the squeal of delight.

Grace no longer comes to the door to greet me, and Michelle just posted about Grace's boyfriend. I thought that I had a few years yet before having to worry about boys and my daughters. Am I already going to have to use the shotgun and a shovel line? I sure hope not. But I may.

Gracie has a boyfriend!

Or, at least, she has a boy who really really likes her! His name is Collin and he is in her pre-school class. He has been telling his mom for weeks how BEAUTIFUL he thinks Grace is. They walked out of school holding hands today all the way to the car. He is a really cute little boy and Grace likes him a lot too. Uh, how early are you supposed to tell your little girls about boys?!!! We jokingly told her tonight that she's not allowed to kiss anyone, but she can hold his hand. She does not like it if you call him her boyfriend, but she is happy to call him her friend.

Busy, busy weekend

This weekend was full of adventure. It started with the mad dash from work on Friday to the church to head off on a scout campout. We went up to New Hampshire (where a ward member has 300 acres) in order to construct winter shelters that we will use in February to sleep in. Friday night was mildly cold (about 20 degrees), but Saturday was nice. The big issue for me was 20 boys with axes and bow saws. We had a couple of close calls with trees coming down awfully close to other people and one boy cut his finger, but luckily no serious injuries. In the end, each age group constructed their own shelter and it should be interesting to see how they hold up for February. The varsity and boy scouts constructed standard A-frame shelters with lots of hemlock to keep the wind and snow out. The Venturers decided for the McMansion look with plenty of "windows" and "skylights". Fun was had by all while I won't be sleeping in the shelters (I much prefer my walrus tent), it will be fun come February.I was already tired going into the campout and I didn't get as much sleep as I would have liked Friday night, but the boys did sleep more than normal. However, after all the work on Saturday I was tired, but there was to be no rest for the weary. I had to make the hour drive to the Stake Center for Stake Priesthood meeting. An hour up, 2 hours of meeting, an hour back and finally some sleep. Only, I had to go to PEC this morning, so off I was this morning. Church, then home teaching, and finally I get to blog and go to bed.

FYI-this blog will be going on the road starting Wednesday. We will be heading to Pittsburgh for Thanksgiving so stay tuned.

Beware shopping with Hattie!

If you ever take Hattie shopping, be sure to watch what goes through the register! Twice this week she has slipped things by me and I have bought stuff I didn't intend to. I didn't see the cashier ring it up because I'm sure I was distracted by trying to chase her through the checkout.

On Wednesday, I took her Christmas shopping. I bought tons of stuff and in particular two of the same thing (so they won't fight) for Grace and Hattie for Christmas. It wasn't anything too expensive, but when I got home to show David all the stuff, I found I had THREE of them in my shopping bag. Hattie apparently liked it and grabbed one off the shelf and threw an extra in my cart. Since toys r us is 35 minutes away, I won't be returning it... maybe it will fill a sub-for-santa request...

Then, last night, I took the girls to the grocery store to pick up about 4 things. I told them if they were good they could get a treat on the way out. Hattie goes nuts over M&Ms (she calls them num nums - well, any candy is a num num.) She saw a BIG bag of those pink cancer-support m&m's and grabbed it. How do you tell a 1 year old that they can't have pink m&m's? Well, the "cancer" m's were a bit more expensive, but whatever, it's for a good cause, so I let her put them on the conveyor belt. Grace chose a pack of gum and I thought I was good. When they told me the total, I thought it sounded a bit expensive - knowing the simple few things I bought, but Shaw's grocery is a rip-off, so I just chalked it up to them. I got home and looked at the receipt and I was charged for TWO bags of the expensive m&m's. I was so mad that the cashier had charged me for 2 bags. THEN, I went to put my things away and saw, yes, an EXTRA bag of m&m's in the grocery bag. HATTIE!!!! She totally put an extra bag up on the counter when I wasn't looking.

So, check your receipt twice before leaving the store with Hattie! I wish I could say I will do that, but it is all I can do to get the bags AND Hattie out of the store and into the car. I'll just make a little pile of my extras and give them away as gifts. Aren't you excited to see what I give you for your birthday next year? :-)

Kindergarten is coming!

Today in the mail we got our first official notice for kindergarten. Grace is loving preschool and is going to love being able to ride the bus to school each day when she finally starts kindergarten. It is hard to believe that she will soon be five, but my little girl is growing up and will soon be in school full time and before I know it (and before I'll be ready) she will be a teenager and driving and dating. For now, I can take comfort in the fact that she is still daddy's little girl. Just daddy's little girl that will soon be in school every day.

Grace at preschool.

Dear Blog, David Forgot

David forgot to blog today and left straight from work on a young mens camp out in New Hampshire. He is way too type A personality to just let it go and begged me (also type A personality, but about other things) to please put a word on the blog so that he gets counted for the day. I had a horrendous day, so I don't have lots of time to do anything cool or fancy. Bottom line - Grace and Hattie can't breathe the same air without fighting about it... the car ride to Pittsburgh is going to be a long one :-)

Who is my candidate?

Is this my candidate?

I am currently watching the democratic debate on CNN and first, I am disgusted with how CNN has managed the debate. It took 25 minutes before a candidate besides Clinton, Obama, or Edwards got to say anything significant. CNN really hasn't given equal time and coverage to all of the candidates. Second, it is just cementing in my mind that nothing is going to change unless we have a dramatic change in both the White House and in Congress. Sure President Bush has a horrible approval rating, but Congress has a lower approval rating. The democrats have done nothing since the 2006 election and it is almost as if they are playing politics in letting things get worse so that they can pile it on the republicans. And what makes me mad is that republicans would do the exact same thing. Why can't we move beyond party affiliation and start working across the aisle to solve the complex issues facing this country. I will say though, that if I vote in the democratic primary I would probably vote for Senator Biden. If there is a democratic candidate for me, is he the one?

Five things you may not know about me

The quality of the blog definitely suffers when I am trying to blog each day. I should have just committed Michelle and I instead of just me to blog every day this month. That would have made much easier.

Anyway, my fried Jared has been doing list of 5 things so I thought I would add my 5 things that not everyone knows about me.

I am a closet Dixie Chicks fan. I may not agree with their politics, but I find their music very appealing. You can't help but sing along with Wide Open Spaces and they seem to be able to mix a nice blend of country and rock with good lyrics.

I'm a sucker for Skittles. Chocolate has no appeal to me and most sweets don't tempt me either, but for some reason I can't resist Skittles. If there are some in my house there won't be for long. Luckily all the women in the house prefer the chocolate sweets so I don't have to fight much over the few Skittles that make it to the house.

If I had to do my college education over, I think that I would have gone into bioengineering. My only exposure to biology was in high school. In college I did have several bioengineering classes, but it wasn't until I was in graduate school and into my job at Lincoln that I realized how much fun the world of biology is. This may also be in part to Michelle who was a biology major. It really is a fascinating science and I think that I would have really enjoyed blending engineering with the biological sciences. Oh well, I guess that I will just have to enjoy crystal lattices and thermodynamics.

My favorite hobby is not basketball, cycling, or any other sport. I really love to backpack. I still have a dream of doing a multiple week backpacking trip. When living in Utah I always wanted to do the Highline Trail in the Uintas. It is a 160 mile trail from Mirror Lake to Flaming Gorge. Now that I live in New England, I think it would be fun to hike at least part of the Appalachian Trail if not the whole thing. I have been to the northern terminus of the AT and it was a lot of fun. I would love to solo backpack but I know that will never happen. I find it extremely peaceful and relaxing to be in the mountains and communing with nature.

To round this out, one additional item that you may not know about me is that I am man enough to cry. Michelle makes fun of me, but for some reason I tend to be the emotional one when it comes to books, movies, and those kind of things.

So there you go, if you ever come across a backpacker eating Skittles, listening to the Dixie Chicks, while crying over the lyrics you will know it is me.

Scout leaders well paid

My Mother called yesterday and asked if I had read the Deseret Morning News. I hadn't and she said that I should read this article about scout leaders in Utah. Apparently the head of each council makes a very generous salary. In Utah the average salary is $37,000. The council heads made from $130,000-$200,000 putting them well above the average Utah salary. Of course there was lots of justification and rationalization about heads of other non-profit organizations and talk about how Scout salaries are high across the country.

My favorite justification was the 60-80 hours of work a week. While there are some people that truly do work that most just say that they do and they really don't. To put it in perspective to work 80 hours a week you have to work about 11.5 hours a day, 7 days a week, or 13.3 hours a day, 6 days a week. Some people do this week in and week out. A few more do this on occasion. I've had a couple of weeks pushing 80 hours and it wasn't any fun. My point is, that very few people that say they work 80 hours actually do. It almost is always more like 50-60 hours. Even with the long hours is the salary justified?

Personally, I say no. This points to one more thing showing the greed in our country. This salary comes from Friends of Scouting fundraising drives where many LDS wards are given quotas. I remember this when living in the South Salt Lake stake. We were in a poor area of SLC and we were suppose to raise an enormous sum for that area. This meant going to all homes in the neighborhood, member and non-member alike, getting donations from people who have never had anything to do with scouting all so that we could fund the enormous salaries of the Council head. Ridiculous!

I need a vacation!

Making some cookies!

After three straight days of being the primary care giver at home I am ready to get back to work. I need the break. After playing with kids non-stop, and dealing with a sick Harriet (curse the parent of the sick child at story time at the library) I am worn out. Too bad Michelle was gone all day on my day off. She had Relief Society stuff most of the day and then a horse riding lesson and then some tutoring. I could have used the help, although I know she is just laughing saying that I had it easy today.

Despite all the work, today was a lot of fun. As I mentioned yesterday, I bribed Grace with a treat if she did her line in the Primary program. She didn't let me down so today we made snickerdoodles. Quite possible one of the finest cookies and certainly one of mine and Grace's favorite. Everybody got in the action and the cookies turned out quite well.

I promise that nothing "weird" was in the cookies.

While we waited for the cookies to bake, it was tag and hide-n-seek. Grace almost had me fooled on this one, luckily I thought it was fishy that she said she needed her shoes before hiding. Hattie still doesn't get the hide-n-seek, but she sure has fun running around the house playing tag with us.

Oh, you found me.

Finally Dad was exhausted so we sat down for some books and some lunch. I tried to get a nap in the afternoon while I let Grace watch a movie, but no luck. Like I said I need to get back to work so that I can rest.

What, I'm not suppose to be climbing on the table?

Grace's Day

Grace excited for the Primary program at church.

Wards around the world during the months of October and November are having their Primary programs. Today our ward had the 2007 production starring for the first time, Grace. She had been really nervous about saying her part. The past two Sundays the Primary has been practicing in the chapel and each Sunday Grace had been too nervous to say her part. This was a surprise to everyone, because Grace (unlike her Mom and Dad) is always raising her hand and saying things in class and in Primary.

So, with diligent practice and a few bribes at home, Grace prepared herself for her big day. The Primary program started and Grace was looking good. She was involved and singing during the first song, but as any 4 year old, she slowly got distracted as the program progressed. First it was the piece of tape with her name on it telling her where to stand, then it was her friends around her, but finally it was time for the Sunbeams to go to the pulpit. Grace's class is large (10 Sunbeams) and the first 5 went and said their parts. As it got to be Grace's turn it wasn't looking good. A noticeable pause as she came up to the pulpit. She shyly peeked around the pulpit looking for the loving smiles of Mom and Dad. Slowly she stood up to the pulpit and started saying her lines with the help of her teacher. Then when it looked like she was done with her line and about to leave the pulpit Grace realized she was not done. She turned back to the microphone and said, "Wait, I have one more thing. I help wash the car."

An extra picture for all you enjoying this blog at home.

Victorious in conquering her fear, she returned back to her spot. Satisfied that she had presented how she is helpful at home and knowing that she was going to get to help make snickerdoodles when she got home.

As for Mom and Dad, we were laughing at our curious little 4 year old. She had just completed her part in the first of many Primary programs. I'm sure that she will get more and more comfortable with speaking in the chapel and next time I probably won't have to bribe her with anything more than a box of brownies.

Grace smiling so hard that she can't keep her eyes open. But, the real reason for this picture is to show off the new fabric that we recently used to recover our dining room chairs.

Diary of a Utah fan

Today was one of the few times that I have been able to watch the Utes as they had a game on CSTV. The Mountain West breaking away from ESPN and forming their own station has been disastrous in my opinion. The fact that the mtn. is jointly owned by CSTV and Comcast just isn't good. In my opinion it is Comcast that is keeping the mtn. from being on satellite tv. They want way too much money for it. So fans everywhere suffer. I wish that I could have enjoyed the game more, but the Utes just wiped the field with the Cowboys. Not a game at all. A 50-0 victory, but the Utes sure have frustrated me this year. They lose 27-0 to an awful UNLV team and lose at home to Air Force, but have now run off 6 straight wins. A win over NM and BYU and the season will be complete.

Daddy-Daughter Time

With Veteran's Day tomorrow I have a long weekend away from work. I was hoping to be able to get some good family time in, but Michelle was busy today and has things scheduled for Monday. So, I still get family time, but instead of all of us doing something together it is just Hats, Grace, and me.

We had a blast today despite the colder than normal temperatures. I actually woke up early and started raking leaves as soon as the sun was up. It was frigid outside and I had to come in every few minutes to warm up my hands. Once Michelle was out the door the fun began. We played one of Hattie's and Gracie's favorite games with Dad, dump'ems. Grace actually captured some good action shots of Hattie getting dumped.

"Hey Dad, do you want to play?"

"Hattie relax, lean back, don't worry about a thing."

And she is down!

After they wore me out playing dump'ems we moved to something a little less physically demanding and add some fun with Photo Booth. We got some great shots in before Hattie was done with the artsy stuff and she was ready to do some work.

Honest, my hair use to look like that!

Headless Daddy

Seeing double.

Cyclops Hattie

It had finally warmed up enough for the kids to bundle up and go out so after I tracked down some mittens for Harriet, we went outside and raked some more leaves. Grace even got her wheel barrow out to help me as we piled leaves in the wheel barrows and then pushed them up the hill to dump the leaves in the mulch pile. Harriet had the best time as she got to ride in the wheel barrow up and down. Someone had to keep the leaves from falling out.

After everyone's noses were red, it was time to come inside. We all came in to warm up with Grace's favorite meal (ramen noodles) and it was only then that I finally heard the dreaded, "I wish Mommy was home." I quickly convinced her that we didn't need Mommy and we finished lunch, put Hattie down for her nap and had some more fun until Mommy came home.

Stayed tuned for more fun on Monday. Plus, tomorrow Grace has a speaking part in the Primary program. I hope she doesn't get nervous in front of everyone.

Dear Blog, David's tired.

So I once heard a story about Heber C. Kimball. Supposedly he was known for his praying. One night he had a visitor in his house who decided he wanted to listen in on one of Heber's personal prayers. This is what he heard, "Dear Lord, Heber is tired, goodnight. Amen."

So it is tonight that I say Dear Blog, I'm tired, more in the morning.

Potty Time

Harriet turned 18 months 2 weeks ago and is starting to show a lot of interest in the toilet. This a big change from Grace. We had a hard time with her showing any interest and it took a while to get Grace potty trained. Hopefully with Harriet it will happen much quicker. The sooner I don't have to buy diapers the better.

As you can see from the pictures she has the process down: 1) sit on toilet, 2) get the TP, 3) flush it all away.

Leaves, leaves, and more leaves

The bane of my New England fall life was in full force tonight. Not only did I have to drive an hour from my house, but then I had rake leaves, and then drive the hour back to my house. You have to love service, but I sure could do without the drive. But, what can you do when you live on one side on the ward and the other side of the ward is where the service is at.

Of course with any good Mormon service project there were plenty of donuts and hot chocolate afterwards. We actually had a really good turnout (~25 people) so we made fairly quick work of the leaves. Then we enjoyed our treats and were done for the night.

Now if I could just get 25 people to help rake my leaves. I do however have some pretty good helpers.

Fall back and Spring forward

Well it is official. I am already gearing into winter mode. Something just isn't quite right when I leave work and come home in the dark. It is depressing to leave my office and have the sun already set.

If there is one thing I don't like about living in Boston it is the early night. Even during summer the sun sets quite early. I miss the days of dusk being at 9:30 at night. Here, we are lucky to have light past 8:30. If you are in the woods, it is getting pretty dark at 8. Now, couple that with the end of daylight savings, and the approaching winter and we have sunset at 5 PM or so. The native New Englanders begin their hibernation until March and we all get ready for the long New England winter.

I wonder sometimes if it would be smart to stay on daylight savings year round. I know that I would appreciate the extra hour of light at night much more than in the morning. I also hate the changing. It is hard with kids. It has taken until today for Hattie and Grace to get back on their normal routine. Sunday was very difficult. Hattie normally takes a nap around 1 PM so church is already pushing it. This Sunday, Hattie's second in nursery, didn't go well for her partly due to the time change. Just after 12, one of the workers came out to find me. Despite the fact that they were in the middle of snack time, Hattie wanted out. She really wanted to sleep, but that wasn't about to happen. With both Michelle and me teaching during the third hour, I was desperate to get Hattie to go back to nursery. No luck despite my reasoning with her. I tried to convince her that she needed to cherish her nursery days, playtime, snacks, singing, etc. Church only goes downhill after nursery. My arguments fell on deaf ears and I was stuck with her in deacon's quorum. Luckily, she was quiet and my lesson went well.

Anyway, I am rambling, but I still think that we should stay on DST year round. What would the harm be? If anyone is interested in time check out http://www.time.gov/exhibits.html for some interesting website exhibits about time.

Mothers who know

Last month in the LDS General Conference, Julie Beck, president of the Relief Society, gave a talk entitled Mothers Who Know. While most of the talk is rather benign and standard fare, President Beck said several things that have really caused a stir, especially among LDS women. A couple of weeks ago, Radiowest spent an hour discussing the talk with several active LDS women. I came away from that program feeling depressed for LDS women. There are several groups that struggle inside the church such as boys who are worthy but choose not to go on missions and singles over 30. I came away from the Radiowest program thinking the same thing about LDS women. On one hand they are told to become educated, but on the other hand they are told to stay at home raising kids, cleaning, cooking, and making sure to "... bring daughters in clean and ironed dresses with hair brushed to perfection; their sons wear white shirts and ties and have missionary haircuts." That is an ideal that Michelle and I never achieve. I don't know if we even really try. Sunday mornings are a struggle especially if I'm not around. Why add one more stressful item onto an already stressful situation?

After reading the talk, I felt that President Beck is missing one key ingredient, fathers. Times have changed and it is no longer 1950. Fathers play an important role in not just providing financially and providing priesthood leadership, but they should also be participating in the day to day nitty gritty. I try my best to help clean the house, dress the kids, cook meals, and help raise the kids. Most dads of my generation participate more fully in "homemaking" as President Beck called it and I believe they should. This sometimes means that I sacrifice personally in not being able to do something that I want, but that is what being a good father and husband is all about.

I am a firm believer that we aren't all cut from the same cookie cutter. While it is easy and convenient to think that all situations can be fixed in the same way, life is never that simple. When it comes down to it, we are a church that believes in personal revelation. Whether that means waiting five years after marriage to have kids (as Michelle and I did) or having mom work while dad stays home with the kids, we should have the faith and trust from our leaders and those around us to be able to decide those things for ourselves without having the judging eye upon us.

Recently friends of ours in the ward made a decision for him to quit his job and stay home with their two kids. Personally I think this was great, and I'm sure that they think it is the right decision. Being a stay at home mom (or dad) is hard work and is under appreciated. Does this make her any less of a "mother who knows"? I would suggest no.

Plus, many families don't have the option and both parents must work to make ends meet. I am thankful that Michelle can stay home with the kids while I earn enough to support the family. We have to do without some things, but our kids our better off. It is a sacrifice I am willing to make, but I feel for those who don't have that luxury.

What are the proper roles for mom and dad in today's world? Should we still have traditional roles, or should both parents (in the case of two) be a hybridized parent? Let me know what you thought of the talk.

Halloween 2007

(Grace and Hattie on our road with their Thomas trick-or-treat buckets)

Sorry it took almost a week to post about Halloween, but, well, we're a busy bunch. Halloween was seriously a crazy day. From the moment we woke up we were on the run.
Grace had school that day. I dropped her off and ran to do some quick visiting teaching treat drop-offs and came back for her school Halloween party at 10:30. They did a "play." Mrs. Reardon read a scary story and the kids acted it out. They worked on it for a long time before-hand and it turned out really cute. Then, they had Halloween games and TONS of treats.Oh, wait, excuse me. In Massachusetts where everyone is politically correct to a fault, we can't call it a Halloween party. The school called it a "Harvest Party." We were told to NOT wear halloween costumes, but that the kids were making harvest masks to wear. Unfortunately, you get punished if you follow the rules. I told Grace she couldn't wear her costume to school, but half of the other mothers let their kids come in costume, so the kids whose parents did as they were asked were tortured to watch their friends parade around in costume. I was really mad about that. Anyway, they did parade through the high school with their masks. (Grace's pre-school is a high school program where high school kids help certified teachers to run a real pre-school.)

In the end, a good time was had by all. We raced home from school to eat a quick lunch and get Hattie down for a nap. I promised Grace that we could carve pumpkins, so we did that together and then she wanted to make Halloween drawings on the driveway which required picking up leaves first, so that took quite a while. Then we raced inside to clean up our house a bit for some friends to come over and shortly after that, Hattie woke up and it was 4:00 and time to trick-or-treat the neighborhood!

We only have about 4 or 5 houses to go to in our neighborhood. They are mostly retired couples who delight at seeing the kids which makes it really fun. We have lived here for 3 Halloweens and have only had a sum total of 3 trick-or-treaters at our house. None this year.
Our first stop was to Roger and Jeanne's. They are our dear people and wonderful neighbors and fantastic friends. They are the elderly couple across the road from us - I'm sure we've mentioned them before. They are like grandparents to Grace and Hattie.After this quick trick-or-treat run, we headed to the other side of our town to our friends the Smith's house. They invited us to go around their cul-de-sac and stay for pizza. So, more trick-or-treating. Grace was in a full run around the neighborhood and we could not keep up with her. Hattie was just mellow and was so polite and took one treat for her bucket and just went with the flow.We got home after 8pm stuffed with pizza and candy and way too tired to light our jack-0-lanterns. In fact, we just lit Grace's today! We had to light the one that she picked on her pre-school pumkin patch trip.

Are you ready for some football?

If there is one good thing about being Mormon and living on the east coast it is being able to watch the entire schedule of football games. Church is from 10-1 which means that I am generally home by 1:30. I miss a few minutes of the first quarter and then it is all football from 1:30 until midnight.

Of all the sports I enjoy playing and watching, I most enjoy NFL football. Michelle will tell you that I would watch any game that is on. Probably true. I can't stand the Patriots and yet have had to endure many games of their's over the last 3 years. While I cheer for the Steelers, I will watch any game. I won't do that with baseball or basketball, but football has a hold on me. It is the one sport that I wish I would have played in high school.

As I mentioned, one of the down sides to living in Boston is having to watch the Patriots games. This despite the fact that often (especially this year) better games are being played elsewhere. Still, I am of the philosophy that a bad football game is better than no football game. Perhaps I shouldn't speak too soon because I don't know if I would watch a Miami-St. Louis game.

Today I finally got to watch a Patriots game that I enjoyed. It was the first time in NFL history that teams a combined 15-0 were playing each other. While I was cheering for the Colts and was disappointed by the 24-20 loss, at least it was finally a good game. Of course that thing that concerns me now is that my Steelers are the only real obstacle left for the Patriots. Hopefully they can come into Foxborough and pull off the upset and keep them from going undefeated.

The People Roundup

Today we went through the roundup. You know what I'm talking about. While this was my first time, Grace, Harriet, and Michelle are old timers when it comes to getting flu shots. I generally have felt that being healthy, I should let those truly in need get their shots. However, with everyone claiming that there is plenty of vaccine to go around I headed down. Besides, after yesterday's rant I decided that I should maximize my return on my investment in health care and go and get a flu shot.

I don't know if it was the people sharking in the parking lot, the long lines to get the shot, or the police officer (herding) standing around. But whatever it was I sure felt like a piece of livestock. I waited in line, I filled out my paper work, I received my shot. It was get me in and get me out. Knowing my luck, the shot will do me no good and this will be the first year of me getting the flu. Check back the end of the month and see if my prediction comes true.

At least everyone was a trooper. Harriet didn't even cry and either did Mom or Dad. Only Grace had tears but a couple of slug bugs on Daddy's arm where he got the shot and everyone was in a good mood again.

How about you, did you get your flu shot?

Health Care in Crisis

I often wonder what it will take the politicians in this country to actually act on something that is in crisis before it is too late. Washington D.C. is so polarized right now with neither Democrat nor Republican doing much to help this country. I am disgusted with them. The revolution of change that the November 2006 election was suppose to bring fizzled out before it even started. The only thing lower than President Bush's approval rating is Congress' approval rating. The only thing lower than Congress' approval rating is Vice President Cheney's. Can we actually reach out across the aisle and work together to solve one of the three most important issues confronting the people of the United States?

Despite claims to the contrary neither party listens to the poor in this country. They only nominally listen to the middle class. This despite our huge majority in the populace. Health care is becoming such a huge issue in the life of the middle class that it won't be long before either, a) it is completely broken, or b) Congress and the President attempt a half-ass (sorry but I had to say it) fix of the system. As you can tell I don't hold out much hope of a workable system. All of this and I am actually one of the lucky people who has employer based health care. However, since starting in 2005 at MIT, I have seen my premiums increase by 33%. Premiums that were already 300% higher than I was used to. Health care now comprises around 7% of my annual salary despite the fact that I cost the system a grand total of about $300 in 2007 (admittedly my family cost more, but even with that we are one of the families insurance relies on thanks to our good health). I have no problem with the idea of pooling resources and risks across a broad swath of the populace, but things are getting out of control.

The reason that I bring this up is that yesterday we were notified of our new benefits package for next year. Working for MIT has been great. I have been willing to accept a lower salary in part because of the work environment, the "prestige" of the MIT name, and the generally good benefits. However, with the steady increase in health care costs, I have been asking myself what benefits do I have for working for MIT? I could easily be making more money in industry to cover any "lack" of retirement benefits. If I lose my edge in benefits, what is left, prestige? After working here for 3 years, the prestige has some foundation, but if other institutions received the same amount of research dollars as MIT, they would also have some of this prestige.

Anyway, when health care finally starts becoming an issue for the middle class will Congress finally act? And if Congress acts, what should it do? I have my theories for what has broken the health care system and I think there is plenty of blame to pass around, pharmaceuticals, insurance, physicians, nurses, lawyers, and even us. There is no easy fix and no easy answers. How do you tell a profession that they easily need to take a 50% pay cut. I would be upset if people told me that as well. But in reality, the amount of schooling they go to is no more than your English professor, your philosophy professor, or your average physicist/scientist. We have created the god myth among the populace about health care and we pay accordingly. If things go wrong we can't believe the MD (major deity) was human and we seek restitution (certainly not justice) in the courts. We drug ourselves into better health when we get too lazy to exercise, too lazy to eat right.

What is the answer? Can we actually have an affordable health care system in this country, and still maintain our edge in innovation? I recently listened to a NPR piece about Michael Moore's movie Sicko. While I believe he has some valid points, he painted a way too, "the grass in greener over there" scenario of other countries. In France for example, they have two health care systems, one for the common man, and one (much better) for those one can afford it. Is that what we are destined for? Can the common man really have uncommonly good health insurance? I hope so, but for now I will begrudgingly pay my premium each month while still grateful that I can actually afford health insurance. I don't now for how much longer, but at least for now.

NaBloPoMO

When talking with Jared the other day he asked if I had given up on the blog. Sure, I hadn't posted for awhile, but given up, no. Of course he was probably egging me on since I have been a slacker. Sure I wanted to blog about sleeping in a tent with Grace, Janie, and Evan. Sure I wanted to blog about my Mother's big 70 birthday party held here. Sure I wanted to blog about our big summer that saw visits from Debbie and Emily, my parents, Christine, Jane and her kids, Jared and Tara, Brian and Wendy and their kids, Michelle's jury selection, Mount Katahdin, Scout Camp, Park City, OMVPE workshop. I could go on and on. But for what reason? I already know that my friend Bryan hates to read the boring mundane stuff of my blog.

Than along comes Nablopomo. How can you resist a name like that? Jared challenges me to it, and I accept. I will blog every day for the month of November and maybe I will just get back into the swing of things. Maybe I will even post about important and weighty matters, not just the fluff about the weather and what not. Anyway here is to Nablopomo, may I blog every day.

FREEDOM!!!

This past Sunday was the Sunday that every Mormon parent of a toddler dreams about. After 18 months of not being able to pay attention in Sunday School and Priesthood/Relief Society, we finally have relief. No longer do we have to chase the little monkey doodle all over the building. After Sacrament Meeting is over, simply take Harriet down to nursery and let her play with the other 16 kids under 3 and let the 3 nursery workers (shouldn't they have more with all those kids) deal with the little noise makers.

Harriet was great. We have slowly adjusted her over the last couple of weeks with Michelle or me going in with her for the first hour. When Michelle dropped her off on Sunday there were no tears, no looking back and she was in and having fun. What isn't to like? Treats, toys, friends, church only goes downhill from there. Where is my treat between Sunday School and Priesthood?

Here's hoping that I can actually get something out of church the final two hours. All I know is that nursery is a great idea. Why can't we do it at 12 months?