Now I'm Really in for it!

Trying to catch up to big brother, I think.

Right on the money, eh??

Just something to lighten the mood around here.... (thanks, Coby for the pic!)

More Prop 8 Venting...sorry

Okay, I should have known by the 2 HUGE Obama pins she was wearing AT THE GYM that she would most likely be voting no on prop 8.
But I decided to make life interesting and strike up a treadmill conversation anyway. She was old- a traditional family values person, right? Here's how the conversation went (the short of it).
"Have you heard of Proposition 8?"
"Which one is that" (oh, goody- I'll convert her right away)
"The one about gay marraige"
"Oh, yes and I think it should be voted down."
"You mean that gays should not be able to marry?" (right??)
"NO, they should be able to marry! I don't think that religion should govern how we live. I don't think it's fair that they aren't allowed to marry because they are born that way"
(and I'm thinking, LADY, this country was founded ON religion. People wanted to worship what they believed so they left England! And what about "One nation, under GOD??")
(But trying to not seem too far the opposite way) "Yes, I do think many of them are born that way but I'm concerned about what my children will be taugh in school"
"Well have you seen the ad by the superintendent? He said that is a lie that they have taught it in Massachussets and that they don't teach about marraige here." (which is the real lie)
"His official website states that they have to teach about marraige in school"
"That must not have been his official web site"
(IGNORANCE!!!)
"Well and many charites and foster organizations have had to close down because they wouldn't give children to gay couples and were sued."
"Well someone else will pick that up"
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
So I kept on firing the ammo...
"61% of voters voted that gays and lesbians could not marry on Proposition 22 a few years back and 4 judges voted AGAINST the majority. I don't think they should have that sort of power"
"They HAVE to do that. They HAVE to do what is according to the constitution"
"They should act on what the voice of the people says, not what they think is right"
"Well they still have to go according to the constitution"
"Well it was nice talking to you (I had to leave). It's been very informative." (ptttttttttthhhhhhhhhhh)
"And I'm glad to see that you are taking an interest" (AN INTEREST isn't even the SHORT of it, lady)

It is hard for me to imagine that gays and lesbians will have legal backing for their belief that they should be able to marry (and use it in every way they can) and that those of us who don't believe that will have NO backing for even "opting-out" and taking our children out of school on the days that lessons will be taught and books read about same-sex marraige. To think that it will not happen in California is a naive way to think.
But they have decided to play dirty and I am glad to be on this side of it. I don't care how strongly I feel about it I would never flip off, yell cuss words at and be horribly rude to people who were exercising their right to freedom of speech (like me this Saturday, holding signs with others on street corners). Or steal yard signs, send out emails threatening to dig up the dirt on people supporting Prop 8, and make ads stating that everything that we are saying is a lie. It's getting to be a nasty war out here. Please, please pray it passes...

I'm a hobbyest...

and that is a problem when you like to do a ton of different things, plus take care of a family, keep a house, be active in church and devote time to promoting prop.8. SO, sorry for the lame excuse but the blog has taken the back seat in the stretch Navi of my life and may continue to do so for the next little bit (wasn't that a sweet analogy??). But while I'm on here at the moment, I'll catch you up on what I've been up to.

We welcomed a new addition to our family last Monday (enter: new hobby). After what seems like WEEKS of waiting she finally arrived in the mail. Readers, meet...

Canon Rebel XSi. She is a magnificent, powerful beauty. We are still becoming aquainted with each other but have already grown quite attached. If only we all came with an instruction booklet.

Plus she takes pretty pictures of my kids like

and

Also these love birds got married

and were nice enough to let me and my kids gank a day at the Newport condo with them. Yesterday we hit up Disneyland, renewed our passes and got to stay for the fireworks. It was a good day. Plus Darth Mal seriously stared down Carter and Carter somehow believes he scared him away with his "ligh saber" (aka. a glow stick) so he's been pretty proud today.

And that's what's been going on. Plus I decided I should try to clean the grount on the floor of my kitchen today but didn't test it in an inconspicuous spot. Once I figured out how much work that was really going to take, I had to finish because it looked ridiculous. (p.s. I scrubbed for about 1hr. and a 1/2 tonight and am still not close to being done. PLUS my hands smell like Clorox. Anyone have a good product for a grout cleaner? Anyone want to come put it to use in my kitchen??)

Let's Talk Politics

As the election approaches next month there is one particular issue that catches my attention even more than who is going to be the next President and VP and that is
PROP 8
If you don't live in California you probably don't know what this is. Let me enlighten you...
A few years back there was a huge vote over whether homosexuals could be legally married or not. 61% of the state voted that they could not. This year, 4 corrupt judges in San Fransisco turned DOWN that vote and decided that it was illegal NOT to let them marry. They overturned the vote of the entire state! Who should have that power??!
This November the state will be voting ONCE AGAIN to finally ammend (or not to ammend) to the California constitution that marraige is only between a man and a woman. Doesn't seem like a big deal, right??
WRONG!
It is HUGE.
If this proposition does not pass, my sweet, innocent and easily confused children will HAVE to be taught in school that same-sex marraige is normal and acceptable. I can't even tell you how much this makes me want to scream at the top of my lungs. I will seriously think about home schooling my children (and I REALLY don't want to home school my children).
Just watching THIS VIDEO (click) brings out the mother bear in me. (thanks, Kellee for the email)
Now, I have nothing against homosexuals. I'm not trying to say that they are bad people. That is not the point I'm trying to get across. But when all this starts to affect the lives of my children then I will fight it tooth and nail.
To learn how else the voting down of Prop 8 will affect not only our families but our society, visit THIS LINK.
Our state is not the only one going through this. Arizona and Florida will also be voting for the same thing. If you have not already heard of this and live in these states, Google it now!
Vote Yes for marraige!!

Anything I can do, you could do better...

You could do anything better than me.

(Am i the only nerd who knows that song from Annie Get Your Gun???)
So the missionaries were coming to dinner on Sunday and I rarely get to have guests so I sortof go all-out and I was bustin' my (quickly rounding) rump to make rolls and dinner, set the table, clean up a bit...and they called and said one of the Elders was too sick to make the appointment. Anyway, point of the story is....I made some suprisingly sweet dinner rolls! I think I've made rolls maybe 3 times in my life and they turned out fabulously, hence my title for the post- if I can do it, you can do it, and probably better than I can. SO, HERE is the recipe from my all-time favorite website, Allrecipes.com. I check this site ritualistically for the featured recipe of the day. YUMMMMM!!!

So my project this summer was to work hard on food storage. When I started I honestly didn't know the difference between a pint and a quart. While we don't have much stored up in the way of dry stuff- wheat, flour, sugar...I have filled almost all of my newly-bought collection of jars with lots of nummies. I took inventory yesterday and here's how we've come out:

15Q. 1pt. tomatoes
12 pints ground beef
6 1/2 pints apricott jam
2 pints apricott juice
11 pints yellow peaches
51 pints pears
1 pt. raspberry jam (not my favorite. The recipe used 6 cups of shredded zucchini and a box of rasp. jello)
4Q. 4pts. dilly beans (spicy, garlicy, dilly...oh so yummy)
And just look at this beautiful rainbow of delicious preparedness...
Like I said, if I can do it, you CAN CAN too. (p.s. if you have ?s or need help, CALL ME!!)

I mentioned that my mom and I did some redecorating while she was here. It has been requested that I post some pictures and I wasn't very smart and didn't take any "before" pics, but here are some after.

I would take some of the bathroom but my bathroom is seriously too small and all you'd see would be the texturing on the walls. But my Mom can really do decorating better than me. My home looks half-way decent because it has been graced by her hands. I'm really hopeless. Mom, please stick around always so I will have a beautiful home (and so you can buy stuff to put in it).

What's your favorite thing your Mom does better than you??

Some Random Catching Up...

Last week Spencer was on a backpacking trip in Colorado with his dad and some friends which would have meant that I would have been all alone with my kids for 8 DAYS except I got smart and called my Mom a couple months ago and lured her into coming (MUAHAHAHA! You fell into my little trap, Mama) and having girl time, which turned into "redecorate my house" time and "spend lots of money" time (so serious girl time). It was awesome and SUCH a relief to have her here (I honestly don't know how people single-parent. I would be the whiniest single parent ever) but I am glad to have my hubby back. He just can't quite be replaced and I like it that way.
In other news, the orthodontist's office called as a follow-up to my appointment and asked what I wanted to do. I asked how much the retainers would be. She said the Dr. would only charge me for one (benefits of being friends with the Dr.) but it would still be $210.
I think I threw up a little in my mouth.
So bottom line, I'm not doing anything right now. Thanks everyone for your comments. But I seriously had a SERIES of nightmares concerning me and braces and spacers, bands, wires, bracets, and cancer sores. It was aweful and I didn't want to make those nightmares a reality.
Thirdly, Dallin H. Oaks was here this weekend to reorganize our stake (I'm sorry if you have no idea what this means. He is one of the 12 apostles of our church) and it was SO SO awesome to have him here. He gave some awesome talks and Spencer, Carter and I all got to shake his hand. I got to sing in the choir and it was just so great. So this weekend was just really special.
So for a story about an annoying person I encountered yesterday...I was in Walmart and had to get the oil changed so I pulled into the TLE and dropped off the van, did my shopping, paid for groceries and headed back to the TLE to stand in a short line to pay for my car. Anyway when I first entered the store upon dropping off my car I didn't want to haul my kids alllllllllll the way to the front of the store to get a cart and there was a very convenient cart parked by the tires. SO I threw the baby in it and off we went, everything okay. Back to the line...there wasn't a lot of room in the line so I had the cart kindof off to the side (maybe 5 feet away) and did not have Nolan buckled in because the buckle was busted (convenient cart, remember??) and this guy in line starts "talking" to Nolan (in a totally obvious way wanting to start a conversation with me) going, "Hey, you sure are cute! Where is your seatbelt? You could just fall right out of there and that would be it! You should be buckled in, etc..." (first of all, can I just say I hate when people do this? its a lame excuse for trying to tell you what they don't have the guts to just come out and say directly to you) So anyway, I'm all, "Yeah, this one is broken and I didn't have time to get another one (thinking: yeah, yeah, the kid is fine, leave me alone)"
"Well I bring my 13 month old Granddaughter all the time and i always buckle her up. It only takes one time of them falling out and that's it" (what exactly does "that's it" mean??)
"I got the cart over there and it was broken and since I am in front of him the whole time I'm shopping I didn't think it was a big deal"
"Sometimes ladies have their bags wide open and they are reaching for something and I tell them that I could have taken whatever was in their bag when their back was turned."
(me thinking "I'm sure you do")
But DUDE, this guy would NOT let it GO.
I paid for my oil change (finally) and walked out to the car, started unloading and I KID YOU NOT, HE WAS PARKED RIGHT BY ME AND CONTINUED TO BADGER ME ABOUT THIS.
"He is just too precious and all it takes is one time"
Now I'm not a rude person but I finally had to go, " SIR, I UNDERSTAND. THANK YOU." (Yeah, and you thought I couldn't get FIESTY, huh?? : )
WHAT IS WITH THESE PEOPLE??? WHO WAS THE LAST PERSON WHO HARPED ON YOU???