Ward Campout

Near the beginning of June we went on our ward campout at a nearby state park. We got there after most people had eaten dinner, so we unintentionally drew a lot of attention to ourselves by setting up the Cache cooker and making a veritable feast of dutch oven jambalaya and 1-1-1 biscuits for dessert. It did smell really good, and it all tasted even better! Here are a few pictures of Jacob being cute, and swimming at Portage Lake the morning after we camped.

The kids did great in the tent, well Rebecca did anyways. It felt like Jacob was awake most of the night, he was just too excited to have us in our bed right next to his pack 'n play, and Rebecca on the other side in her little bassinet. He was throwing his blankets at me for some of the night and mostly just jumping around. He calmed down once Jeff let him lay by us, but it was an exciting night for the little guy.

Testing e-mail blogging - Oh My

Yes, I have been poked in the eye with an antler.

And yes, here lies the resting place of the first bike I owned as an “adult.”

Ann Arbor Art Fairs

We visited the Ann Arbor Art Fairs the other night as a family. The kids and I rode the UM bus to meet Jeff on campus, where we had a dinner of leftover beef wellington. Then we ventured over to the first set of booths and began our browsing. The best part was the Kashi booths where we got all sorts of free samples and where I got to do some yoga to end the day. They even let me keep the yoga mat, which Jacob is enjoying immensely. We didn't buy any art, but it was fun to see all the different things people create out of their various media, like this lovely bronze rabbit sculpture. We are happy to say we were among the vast throngs of people who attended this year - it is usually around a half a million people over the Wednesday-Saturday period.

Mary Poppins

Last night I finished listening to Mary Poppins by P.L. Travers. Pamela Lyndon Travers, that is. When I was younger I knew the author's name but assumed it was a man. Maybe that's what she was going for...

Anyways, the book was first published in 1934 and was quite enjoyable. The children go on different adventures with her in the book. Some of them are very fun, such as going Christmas shopping with a star named Maia from the Taurus constellation, the birthday party at the zoo at midnight where people are in cages and the animals are out and about, or going around the world in a very short period of time and meeting various animals. It is a little tricky to read/listen to books for which there is a film or musical, particularly if you are familiar with the latter beforehand. I was sad that the children don't ever meet Bert in the book, or that he is not even a chimneysweep, just a Matchman. And there are more Banks children in the book, too! Who knew?!

Mary is made to be much more kind and helpful in the Disney film, but she is one tough nanny in the book, which was kind of fun because by the end of the book the children were enjoying when she was "cross." She's also a bit more conceited in the book, which was also humorous. "She loved looking in the shop windows to see her new fur-trimmed gloves with her hands inside of them." And of course, with no songs in the book, there is no way to learn "biggest word you've ever heard", or "the word you say when you don't know what to say": SUPERCALIFRAGILISTICEXPIALIDOCIOUS. I suppose I am still vascillating between liking the book or the movie more, but maybe I don't need to decide between both.

I just placed a request at the library for Mary Poppins She Wrote: the Life of P.L. Travers as I thought it might be interesting to read about what her role was in making the film and if there were any issues she had with how it ended up. I liked the book enough to also request the second tale in the series (I didn't know there was a series!), Mary Poppins Comes Back. I'll let you know how the next one is!

Maybe I'll get to see the musical one day so I can add that to the versions of the story I'm familiar with...

*image via google images, jimandellen.org

It's really done

Just in case anyone besides Stacey has been waiting on the edge of their seat, you'll be happy to know that Stacey's master's project is officially "in the system" now at the Harold B. Lee Library.

CHEERS! HOORAY! IT IS REALLY DONE NOW. :)

If you feel a need to read the paper, use the link found below!

Hope you are all having a nice day.

http://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/ETD/image/etd2853.pdf

And I would ride 100 miles, and I would ride 100 more...

On Saturday Jeff rode in the Ann Arbor Bicycle Touring Society's annual century: "One Helluva Ride," so named because the route takes riders through the town/small area known as Hell, Michigan. Jeff's oldest brother also did the ride, along with our friend Brady. We are thankful for a kind home teacher who loaned Jeff his road bike so Jeff wouldn't have to be fixing things the whole way. Here's a picture of the finish line, and the odometer to show the exciting number. Since it wasn't a race there wasn't much fanfare at the end (besides watermelon), but I did my best to cheer for him and tried to get Jacob to do so as well.

Great job, Jeff! He finished in 6:16, riding at a rate of 16 mph (pretty slow).

Four Years

As of July 8, 2009, we have been married four years. While I cannot speak for Stacey, for my part, it has been an amazing experience, and has been the best part of my life up until now. I tricked the finest woman money cant buy into marrying me, and together, we have had two wonderful children. It has been an amazing time. Here are some highlights of the last year, covering the time period July 9, 2008-July8, 2009 (our last year of marriage). Feel free to search this blog to find the last three videos I have made, that cover our first three years. One day I will get some real video editing software and some more time, and make something a bit nicer. Enjoy.

Pictures

So, we had some pictures taken a couple weeks back at D&MH Photography, out of Beaver Creek, OH, and they turned out very well. Here are a couple. They are all of Rebecca (in case you were wondering if one or two were of Jacob).

Fourth of July

For the Fourth of July we spent time with several of our friends. It was fun to have a breakfast potluck, then we went over to Ypsilanti for their parade where we had a picnic lunch and then later that day we got together with some more people for a barbecue. We also kept up our yearly July 4th tradition of reading the Declaration of Independence. I am so thankful to be able to live where I do and have the freedoms that we all enjoy. In the words of Big Russ, the father of the late Tim Russert, "What a country!"

Her romper says I [heart] America. See how happy she is to live in this land?

Sorry to blind you with our white appendages.

Jacob holding the candy given to him, which I have been eating.

Jeff and the kids (they are really there) watching the Ypsi library bus go by in the parade. I thought the bus had a nice message on it.

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.