Rebecca's Blessing Day

On Father's Day we were lucky enough to have both my parents and Jeff's parents in town visiting, so they were all able to be here for Rebecca's blessing at church that day. Here are a few pictures. Since she's a pretty big baby I was worried that the dress I (and my 2 sisters and my sister's 3 girls) wore as a baby might not fit her, but in the end it was just perfect. She even got to chew on some lace which apparenty was delicious. Jeff gave a beautiful blessing and it was neat, I thought, that it was on Father's Day that he got to exercise his Priesthood in this way. He really is such a wonderful dad to our two kids, I don't think I could say that enough.

This is one of the last ones we took. I guess she was pretty tuckered out.

Dad's eyes are open! Hooray! :) Rebecca looks like me, I look like my mom, my mom looks like her mom...I'll have to post pictures of all 4 of us so you can see these resemblances even more!

Can you see that red hair?? Love it!

I wish I could better describe how sweet Jacob is to his sister. I love how excited he gets when he comes downstairs in the morning and sees her, or how he waves goodbye to her on his way back upstairs for a nap, or how he runs to comfort her when she starts crying. Look for a future blog post dedicated to this brother-sister bond.

Taxes Again

So, there was a tragic train crash in Washington DC. This was somewhat interesting regarding that accident (written by Sarah Lawsky, a law professor):

The [Washington] City Paper reports that the National Transportation Safety Board repeatedly recommended that Metro (more formally known as the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, or WMATA) retrofit or replace these older cars, but Metro refused. Why? Because “WMATA is constrained by tax advantage leases, which require that WMATA keep the 1000 Series cars in service at least until the end of 2014.”

What are these “tax advantage leases”? They appear to be standard sale-leaseback transactions, in which WMATA sold equipment, including train cars, to another party and now leases it back. The other party gets various tax advantages (depreciation, credits and so forth) associated with owning the equipment, and WMATA, which as a tax-exempt organization cannot use these advantages, gets cash. But apparently the leases did not include language that permits WMATA to break the leases if newer, safer equipment comes along.

Thus sale-leasebacks, which are purely tax-motivated transactions, may have locked Metro into using outdated and unsafe equipment and thus made this crash even more deadly than it might otherwise have been.

Taxes can do all sorts of things. Wow.

Little Houses

We recently got a few pieces of furniture from some friends who were moving and I was telling my brother in-law how it was proving difficult to find a place for everything in our row house. He sent me a link to this video. I hadn't heard this song before, but I loved the words and I guess it made me stop and think twice before resorting to the complaining I wanted to do. Here's to a few more years in our little house!

A little white house, in the heart of town, On a little sad street, just a little run down, Became a home, for Bill and Sue, Two newlyweds, who did the best that they could do. And when they brush each other, passin' in the hall, Sue would smile and say: "This place is pretty small. But you know, love grows best in little houses, With fewer walls to separate, Where you eat and sleep so close together. You can't help but communicate, Oh, and if we had more room between us, think of all we'd miss. Love grows best, in houses just like this. Before too long, Sue and Bill, Were makin' plans, for Jack and Jill. Oh, happy day, when the news came in But what to do, when they found out Sue was having twins. When they could not pass each other in the hall, Well, Sue would smile and say: "This place is really, really small. But you know, love grows best in little houses, With fewer walls to separate, Where you eat and sleep so close together. You can't help but communicate, Oh, and if we had more room between us, think of all we'd miss. Love grows best, in houses just like this. That little white frame house still keeps them warm, Though it's been thirty-two years, since the kids were born, And when they look back now, they hold each other tight, And whisper in each other's ears: "You know you were right. Because love grows best in little houses, With fewer walls to separate, Where you eat and sleep so close together. You can't help but communicate, Oh, and if we had more room between us, think of all we'd miss. Love grows best, in houses just like this. Yeah, love grows best, in houses just like this.

Jacob's New Hearing Aids

On May 13th Jacob was fitted with hearing aids. He got a sticker that day that says "I am not a tube puller!" which refers to the tubes that connect the hearing aids to his earmolds. So far he has done a pretty good job of obeying the sticker and keeping his hearing aids in place, and if he does take them out he brings them to me and stands fairly still while I put them back in. After naptime and first thing in the morning he points to his ears since he knows it is time to put the hearing aids in.

It is hard to tell how well they are helping him since he doesn't talk enough to tell us, "Hey, they work!" but he does seem to notice random sounds more than before, which is fun and cute because he points to his ears. We are hopeful that correcting the hearing loss, coupled with a lot of repetition on our part, will help him learn how to talk more. Here's to our favorite only-sometimes-tube-puller!

Jacob wonders what this thing is as he pushes it up from behind his ear...

Jacob's audiologist only does pediatric fittings of hearing aids and though she is wonderfully patient with children, she is also pretty tough. We are big fans.

Jacob likes symmetry. Here he points to show us that his left ear is missing something...

Trip to Kirtland

The Friday before Memorial Day we left to take a quick trip to Kirtland, Ohio, about three hours and a bit from our house.

We ate dinner in the car. Some of us left our manners in Michigan.

We had to stop to fix a fuse or two, so Jacob got to hold Rebecca for a bit.

Friday we spent the night at my mom's cousin's house. They live just a few miles from Kirtland and know a lot about the area and about my ancestors that came through there. We enjoyed visiting with them.

Our first stop on Saturday morning was to the Kirtland Temple. The temple is owned by the Community of Christ today, and the early Latter-day Saints truly sacrificed so much to build a house of the Lord and thus obey God's command to do so. It is a beautiful building, made even more beautiful because of all that happened there when the Lord accepted it as His house and Joseph received all the Priesthood keys.

We walked down to Historic Kirtland and had our picnic just outside the visitor's center.

Rebecca did a little bit of sunbathing after the picnic.

Here we are in the room above the Whitney store (below) where they held the School of the Prophets. Again, a simple yet beautiful place because of what transpired there.

They set the Whitney store up just as it would have been back in the 1830's. Newel K. Whitney kept a remarkable accounting of what every single customer bought and what he had in stock.

N.K. Whitney donated his sawmill to the church, and it was here that timber was cut into proper sizes for the beams in the temple. Jacob liked watching and listening to the wheel as it turned in the water at the sawmill.

One last family picture in Historic Kirtland...

After we made it home Saturday evening, Jacob had the important job of helping dad bring things in to the house. Notice the hand up to make sure nothing falls out. When we moved here last summer, it felt silly at first to make our way out to the parking lot with all our stuff in a shopping cart left near the complex by someone who has no car, but that's just how things roll around here, and we've found them to be quite handy.

We had a really nice time in Kirtland and we'll be heading back in a couple of weeks when we take Jeff's parents there for their first visit!

D-Day

So, today is the annivery of D-day. It was an amazing event from which much can be learned. Three things: 1. Both Stacey's and my grandpa served in World War Two, along with millions of others who did so. We really do owe a lot to that generation of folks who gave up so much to give us so much. So, a picture of Lamro, then Mac. 2. Here is great speech that Ronald Regan gave about D-day.

Visitors Galore!

A few weeks back we had Jeff's mom, his sister Amy, his sister Kristin, and his brother David,his wife Megan and their four kids come visit us for a few days. Jeff's aunt and uncle live here in Ann Arbor where they are serving an LDS mission so they were able to join us for a lot of our outings. It was great to see everyone and we had a nice time. Here are a few of the highlights, or at least some pictures:

Jacob had a lot of fun with his cousins.

The day after everyone left he was bored with me pretty fast.

Not the best picture, but this is evidence of our visit to UM's Central Campus. We decided to ride the big blue bus and then Jeff showed us around campus. Thanks go to Grandma for staying home so a couple kids could nap!

Jacob took a bath that Saturday night with a little help from Grandma Hoopes. Looks like they both had fun!

Rebecca is exactly three weeks older than her cousin Abigale. We loved getting to see her for the first time! They got along pretty well as you can see here (especially once we had them switch places. Rebecca was kind of squashing Abby).

Here I am holding two cute baby girls!

We took a trip to the Ford Rouge Factory where we had a tour of the Dearborn Truck Plant where they make Ford F-150s. They weren't in production that day so we'll have to try making another trip. Some of us got to go to the temple together which was wonderful. We ate out, we ate in, we went to Gallup Park, and just generally had a fabulous time. We hope you come again!

2 Months Old! *Updated*

I'm quite convinced that life sped up a bit since Rebecca joined our family a couple months ago. Today she is 2 months old, which makes Jacob 20 months old, which means Jeff is 311 months today and his birthday is a month from today, and I will turn 312 months old later this summer (no, not on the 20th of a month, I feel a little left out). In the sheep photos I just took, the lighting was better once I closed the blinds but her facial expression is just fabulous in the shadowy pictures, thus they get posted as well as a better one. Here are some other pictures because she is just so cute. And as a side note, it is a little interesting to feel like I am holding myself as a baby, at least from what she looks like compared to the pictures I've seen (like the one below of my and my older sister).

**Stats**

14 lb 1 oz

23.5 inches tall

16 inches head circumference

Big and healthy! No wonder my arms hurt a lot. :)

The Lanyard

By Billy Collins

The other day as I was ricocheting slowly
off the pale blue walls of this room,
bouncing from typewriter to piano,
from bookshelf to an envelope lying on the floor,
I found myself in the L section of the dictionary
where my eyes fell upon the word lanyard.

No cookie nibbled by a French novelist
could send one more suddenly into the past --
a past where I sat at a workbench at a camp
by a deep Adirondack lake
learning how to braid thin plastic strips
into a lanyard, a gift for my mother.

I had never seen anyone use a lanyard
or wear one, if that’s what you did with them,
but that did not keep me from crossing
strand over strand again and again
until I had made a boxy
red and white lanyard for my mother.

She gave me life and milk from her breasts,
and I gave her a lanyard.
She nursed me in many a sickroom,
lifted teaspoons of medicine to my lips,
set cold face-cloths on my forehead,
and then led me out into the airy light

and taught me to walk and swim,
and I, in turn, presented her with a lanyard.
Here are thousands of meals, she said,
and here is clothing and a good education.
And here is your lanyard, I replied,
which I made with a little help from a counselor.

Here is a breathing body and a beating heart,
strong legs, bones and teeth,
and two clear eyes to read the world, she whispered,
and here, I said, is the lanyard I made at camp.
And here, I wish to say to her now,
is a smaller gift--not the archaic truth

that you can never repay your mother,
but the rueful admission that when she took
the two-tone lanyard from my hands,
I was as sure as a boy could be
that this useless, worthless thing I wove
out of boredom would be enough to make us even.

Taxes, again

This was in an article by the Columbus Dispatch; "The agency also announced yesterday that it is launching a campaign to inform all taxpayers who might face a higher tax bill in 2010 as a consequence of an income-tax cut that was part of the federal stimulus package passed in February." Yes, some "income-tax cuts" do not mean the same thing for everyone.

Letter

Dear Mom,

Some things are better at a distance.

Love,

Jacob

The Luckiest Little Kids I Know

So, mother's day came and went. We had a talk in sacrament meeting where the speaker talked about several kinds of mothers. The first was "mother forgotten", and he talked about all the old people in nursing homes. Well, yesterday there was another case of "mother forgotten" at our house. Mothers day came, and neither of my children said a word about it. Neither of them thanked their mother, gave her hugs or kisses, got a card, or did much of anything to recognize the special occasion.

This is not uncommon. My children are, for the time being, rather unappreciative and ungrateful as far as their mother goes. However, there will come a time when they will realize, as I have realized, how amazingly blessed and amazingly lucky they are. They have the best mother money could buy* (or that could be traded for, stolen, gifted or bartered for). They have an amazingly smart, talented, and good woman as a mother who loves them unconditionally and will help them grow up to be amazing people. She sets an amazing example for them, takes amazing care of them, and otherwise is an amazing mother. She has actually been recently granted a fairly prestigious award as a result of all this. So, that is that. Here's to these two little kids, who as of yet, have no idea how lucky they are.

*So, I have been thinking about this, and if you are lucky, one day you might get some economics/financy thoughts on the outsourcing of motherhood and the conditions under which such outsourcing is not only rational, but good. As a result of having a mother better anything that money could buy, such conditions do not hold my children's case. Some things cant be bought for money.

Learning from the Soviets

So, we're having company come this weekend. So, I asked around at all our neighbors house's, and got loaned enough food to at least make everyone who comes falsely believe we are at least not starving and impoverished. I knew taking that Soviet history class would come in handy some time.

Merry Christmas! in May and Some Mowin'

That's right, folks. We who make up Team Hoopes are not afraid to pull out last year's cousin gift exchange gift in the month of May.  (The fact that the gift recipient wasn't exactly walking at Christmas is not relevant...nor is the weather in Michigan...)  

I announced to the little man that we would go try out a new toy outside that blows bubbles.  He repeated bu- bble (slight pause between syllables) to me and I was so excited!  We went downstairs and opened up his bubble mower, I put it together and we headed out back.  He got right to work!  See for yourself:

Taxes

So, there was a new tax plan suggested on Monday. I am sure everyone here is extremely interested. All the articles I have ready on it were so biased and stupid, I didnt know what to do. I just read this: http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editorials/la-ed-taxes6-2009may06,0,1859318.story It is the first article of this type to link to academic studies, all of which decry the stupidity of the plan. The authors involved are all well known folks--one has some work I am currently basing a research paper off of, and two of the others where at a small tax policy conference I attended several weeks back. I find it fascinating this administration is so anxious to use what "science" says about some issues (stem cell research...), but not about others (tax policy). There is certainly an ethical side to tax policy to which economics cannot speak, but, to the side that it can, this plan is ridiculous and flies in the face of what academic research suggests is good policy.