Later...

This comic was in the paper a couple of days ago and represents how I feel just about every day with my kids...

Hi and Lois

Scripture Power

For those of you not familiar with the primary song "Scripture Power", click on the image on the left.

Our primary has been singing "Scripture Power" during singing time recently at church. Blondie, being a new Sunbeam, has been trying to learn the words to the song. She has been singing it off and on lately: "Scripture Power, keeps me safe from safe," which is not correct obviously, so I was trying to teach her the correct words: "Scripture power, keeps me safe from sin."

After trying to correct her several times I heard her sing: "Scripture power, keeps me safe from cinnamon."

I guess when you don't know a word it makes more sense to you to insert a word that you are familiar with.

What are we teaching our children?

A sad commentary on the rising generation:

On Monday I drove M&M and 2 of her friends to their gymnastics class after school and we got to talking about what the girls got for Christmas. (Keep in mind that these girls are all 8 years old.) One of the friends piped up that she got a T.V. for her bedroom. The other friend said that she got an iPod (she already has a T.V. in her room). Then the two of them had a little discussion between themselves naming things that they have, trying to "outdo" the other (M&M says they do that often). They then proceeded to ask M&M what she got for Christmas. I can't even remember now if she answered the question or if she dodged around it and changed the subject.

Needless to say I was a little surprised at the parents of these girls and what they are thinking by giving their kids these things at such a young age. It made me reflect: What are we trying to teach our children? That material possessions are the most important things in life? What are these 8 year old girls watching on their T.V.'s and listening to on their iPods? When DH & I turn the T.V. on in the evenings, we are appalled at what is allowed to be broadcast across public stations nowadays. I would say at least 90% of what we come across during the evenings is trash that I would never want my kids (especially at their young age) being exposed to. We've made it clear to our kids several times that they will never have a T.V. or computer in their bedrooms as long as they are living under our roof. We feel that there is just no good that can come of it.

When I related the conversation to DH when he got home from work, we discussed the topic with M&M and emphasized that "things" don't make people happy. I'm proud of her and how she handles her friends - it can't be easy to sit around and listen to them discuss all the "things" they have. We also talked about doing a service project as a family each year (like the surgery dolls) so that our kids can see the importance of serving others and doing things for people who have less than us.

Then to top everything off, I came across this article in our newspaper's editorial section today. It was written by the editors of the paper and echoes a lot of the things that I feel. After reading this editorial, it made me reflect back on the incident that I related above.

Embarrassment of the riches
Deseret Morning News editorial

In 1966, 42 percent the freshman class at UCLA said they thought it was essential or very important to be "very well off financially."

Fast forward 40 years. Nearly three-quarters of UCLA freshmen surveyed in 2006 said being affluent is very important to them. A Pew Research Center poll mirrored those results. It found that among 18- to 25-year-olds in this country, 80 percent see getting rich as a top goal for their generation.

In a culture where the cover of Time magazine's 2006 person of the year was depicted with a mirror (a la the Queen in the children's story "Snow White"), conditions are ripe for some serious self-absorption. Or as David Walsh, a psychologist who heads the National Institute on Media and the Family in Minneapolis, told Associated Press, "Our kids have absorbed the cultural values of more, easy, fast and fun."

But Walsh also points the finger at indulgent parents. Walsh's research has determined, when adjusted for inflation, that today's parents spend 500 percent more money on their children than just one generation ago. It's almost as if parents have an "allergic reaction" to their kids being unhappy, Walsh explains.

So parents open up the wallet. They give their children an unprecedented amount of spending money. The parents shell out for the trendy fashions, cell phones and other consumer electronics, cars, camps and other "must haves." It sends the message that material possession are a premium.

What do we end up with? A generation so self-absorbed and pre-occupied with attaining wealth and all its trappings that it finds no value in cultivating relationships and serving one's fellow man, communities, churches or country?

Interestingly, this obsession with greed comes at the same time that college graduation rates are falling nationwide. There is, apparently, a disconnect between young people who want to be rich and those willing to attend college to improve their future marketability and to learn some important life lessons.

Hopefully, one of the lessons that college imparts is the importance of giving back and being part of something greater than oneself, as countless University of Utah students have learned through their participation in the Lowell Bennion Community Service Center. The center's aim is to foster lifelong service and civic participation, which, unquestionably, will have more positive, lifelong benefit than possessing the latest fashions or techno-gadget to come down the pike. If only more young people could come to appreciate those values.

My Obsession

I have an obsession and I am not ashamed to admit it: I am obsessed with finding bargains. I cannot in good conscience pay full price for something that I know I can get for cheaper (unless I am absolutely desperate). Much to my husband's annoyance at times, I have the hardest time buying something at the store when I know that I can get a better deal if I wait for it to go on sale or if I can find it on ebay. This week I have been almost to the point of desperation, but just when I was about to break down and buy something for more than I wanted to (it was even on sale for 15% off at the store), a deal on ebay finally came through and I was saved from doing the unthinkable! What, you may ask, is the item that I needed? - a color ink cartridge for our printer.

This time of year is when I print out the family calendars for my family. I love making the calendars, even though they are very time consuming for a couple weeks out of the year. The problem with the family calendars is that it takes a LOT of ink to print 8 calendars with full-size color photos to go along with each of the 12 months, plus the cover. It usually takes one whole large color ink cartridge plus a little more. I like to have the extra ink cartridges on hand before this time of year comes so that I can be sure that I don't run out while I am printing. Well, this year I made a mistake. I knew that I had an extra color cartridge so I thought that I would be okay. So, I'm busy printing out the calendar pages when I get the low ink light from the printer. That always means that I can print several more pages though, so I continue to print until I notice a color change in the middle of printing a page. When that finally happened, I went to the closet to pull out the new ink cartridge and to my dismay I realized that it was the smaller cartridge which is HALF the size of a large cartridge. AAAAH!!! Needless to say, I was not very happy with myself. Why didn't I check a month ago and actually look at the cartridge to make sure that I had what I thought I had? I knew that this would not be enough to print out all of the calendars, so I quickly went to ebay and looked for a new one to bid on. These cartridges are NOT cheap and I can usually get one for about 1/2 price on ebay.

Unfortunately I did not win an auction until yesterday and I ran out of ink on the new cartridge yesterday. I almost went to the store and bought a new one, but I was able to get enough calendars printed out that I can mail them to everyone and print out my calendar next week when I get the new cartridge. Since I don't have to mail the calendar to myself, I will be able to finish it before the new month and have it up by February 1st (our calendars go from February - January so I don't have the mad rush of printing them at Christmas time).

P.S. - My husband said to me several times this week, "You know, you can just go to the store and buy one."
To which I think to myself, "Yes I can, but that would go against everything I believe in..."

Family Calendars

I'm almost done! I've been working on the family calendars for my parents and siblings for the last couple of weeks. It's a lot of fun and DEFINITELY a LOT of work! The printing is probably the most time consuming part of the project because each page has to be printed individually and they can't be allowed to stack up in the printer out-tray or the ink (which takes a LONG time to dry) will smear onto the following page. First the calendar side has to be printed and then the photo on the other side.

This is what my husband's office looked like a couple of days ago. I learned the hard way last year that if I stack the pictures too soon (even after several hours), they can stick together and the ink will come off on the neighboring page - which means that I have to reprint both pages. This year I put the pages all over the place in my husband's office to ensure that they got plenty of drying time.

When I was binding the calendars last night, Blondie came into the office to see what I was doing. I told her that I was making books out of the pictures so that we could hang the calendar on the wall. She came and sat down in the room and started flipping through the calendar that I had just bound and thought it was pretty neat - especially the pages that had her on them and pictures of the cousins that are her age. Then Kitty came into the room and I decided that I probably shouldn't let them play with the calendars that I was binding for this year so I went and got some of the previous calendars that I have done (this is my 5th year of making the calendars). They both thought that was pretty neat flipping through the pages and asking who was who and pointing to the people they knew.

Now I just have to punch holes in them to hang on the wall and then they will hopefully be mailed tomorrow or Monday.

Flute performances

Today I had my performance on the flute at our neighbor's house. It was fun and I made it through the songs just fine. It's been a long time since I've played a showy piece like I did tonight. Now that I know this will be an annual event, I can already start planning for next year. Plus my mom will most likely be out here next year so she can accompany me (plus she has a lot of the accompaniment parts to my flute solos).

I also played for our ward choir during Sacrament Meeting today. We had ward conference and the Stake President took the initiative to ask what my name was during the musical number and thanked me by name for playing when he got up to speak. DH thinks that I may be in trouble now that the Stake President has heard me play and has learned my name...

Discovery Gateway

We went to the new Utah Children's Museum today, which is now called Discovery Gateway. Personally I think that it costs WAY TOO MUCH money for what they have in the museum. It was $8.50 per person and we even had to pay for Kitty (and that's with a discount for being Utah residents). Plus you have to pay to park at the Gateway. I didn't think that it was much improved over the old museum - other than being in a bigger building. The kids did end up having fun in the end but I'm not sure if we will go back for some time.

Kitty saying "cheese" for the camera.

The first exhibit that we went to was a large open area with different tables set up to build on with different objects. (Above) M&M has built a structure with blocks to see how they would withstand earthquake forces.


Luke trying out the controls on a life-flight helicopter.

Kitty managed to get her hands on 2 baby dolls and a stroller (these were hot items in the child-size town). When we finally made it to this part of the museum it was getting fairly crowded and Kitty was the only child among our kids who would stick up for herself and hold onto things when another child came to try and take it. She's definitely got a fiesty side to her...

The flute

Last week I was a little bummed out that I wasn't asked (or even considered) to play a musical number for Grandpa W's funeral. So I made the decision that I needed to get some musical numbers ready and make sure that people know that I'm ready and more than willing to play any time (on either the flute or the piano). So last week I started practicing a little bit every day. One day DH asked me if I was practicing for something. I responded that no I wasn't practicing for anything in particular, just trying to get some of my skills back (fingers & embouchure get a little rusty when you don't practice regularly).

The very next day I got an invitation to play at a neighbor's house for a Music Fest that they are organizing. So I showed the invitation to DH and said, "Well, I guess I have been practicing for something." I'm excited and a little nervous for it. The couple that is putting this on are both very musical and they moved into the ward about 2 years ago. The wife (Cindy) has accompanied me before on the flute and we all sing in the ward choir together (she also played the piano for me when I was the ward choir director). Last year Cindy threw a surprise birthday party for her husband which was a night of music where anyone of all ages & talents could perform anything they wanted (Cindy asked me to play a flute number). They enjoyed the evening so much that they are doing it again this year. The event is this coming Sunday and I've picked one song that is really hard and I have never played before with an accompanist. I also picked a backup song in case we can't pull this one together in time. It will be a fun and challenging experience for me and give me a chance to play some songs that I normally don't get a chance to play for others. I also got called that same day by our ward choir director to ask if I could play for a number for ward conference this Sunday. Yea!!

It's interesting because we've had a few lessons in YW over the last couple of months about developing & sharing your talents. I think that sometimes gets hard when you get older because people seem very hesitant to ask others to share their talents. Whenever we get a new music chairperson in our ward and they send around a sign-up sheet for musical numbers, I always put my name down for the flute & piano and yet I very rarely get asked to play. And there just aren't many opportunities to continue with music when you don't play professionally.

Repeat after me: one...

We were reading scriptures together the other night and just recently we've started including Kitty in the reading. She is becoming an excellent talker and she loves to repeat what everyone says. (Before the kids can read themselves, we have them repeat the words from a verse so that they are included and become familiar with the language of the scriptures.)

A few nights ago I was telling her the words to say and she was repeating them back to me when I got to the word "one" and she quickly said "two".

I guess she's learning to count as well...

Family, family, and more family!!

All of Heath's family were able to make it out to Utah for Grandpa White's funeral and they all stayed in our house! We had 9 extra people staying here Thursday & Sunday nights and 10 extra people on Friday and Saturday nights. I spent all of last week cleaning and making room for everyone once I heard that Grandpa had passed away. Amazingly I think that everyone had a good time and enjoyed themselves while they were here. (Unfortunately we don't have our new sectional for the family room yet - we finally picked one out and ordered it just before New Year's, but it's going to take about 2 months to get it in.) I think the only problems we encountered were lack of sleep from staying up too late talking, watching movies & playing games and Clark taking a few spills down our stairs (luckily they are short flights of stairs and are carpeted so I think he was more scared than hurt). All of the kids played well together - and the adults did too. It was fun to see everyone again despite the sad circumstances and see how much all the kids have grown. I also enjoyed catching up on everything that has happened recently and hearing everyone's plans for the near future. Take care everyone until we see you again!

P.S. - I think I'm ready to veg out on the couch in front of the T.V. for the next week...

Grandpa W

DH's grandfather passed away last week. He was 86 years old.
Obituary: Colonel Boyd Barnard White
Grandpa W was a really special man whom I got to know when DH & I were dating. We used to meet at his house for weekends while DH was attending BYU and I was finishing up at Ricks College. He would wake up early in the mornings and have a pancake breakfast waiting for us when we finally crawled out of bed. I always enjoyed hearing his stories about the wars he fought in and about growing up on the farm. He definitely lived a very different life than any of us do today. It's been sad to see him lose those memories over the last few years and to deteriorate health-wise.

The funeral service was very nice and he was buried with military honors. This was the first military funeral that I have been to. There was a gun salute, Taps was played by 2 buglers, and a bagpiper played Amazing Grace. It was an absolutely FREEZING day and the kids were all crying from the cold by the time we left the cemetery. We all felt sorry for the bagpipe player who was wearing a kilt and no gloves!

More fun in the snow

January 4 & 5, 2007
My kids absolutely LOVE playing out in the snow. When Kitty sees the older kids getting their snow gear on, she rushes to the closet to try and find her things as well.

Making a snowman with Dad.
The kids think it's fun to make snow angels while laying on your stomach. In the picture above, their cousin B is joining them.

The lip

December 31, 2006
Kitty has perfected the pouty lip - where do they learn these things?

She was being told that she couldn't
have any more chocolate in this picture...

Rolling over

December 28, 2006
DH rolled the odometer over in his car just after Christmas. It went from 99,999.9 miles to 00000.0 - it's an older odometer which doesn't go up to 100,000. He was on Bangerter Hwy on his way to work.