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.