I Admit IT, I AM A Flip Flopper!

Recently, I have been really thinking about what I believe in, as far a politics goes. I have been a Democrat forever, not because my family is, but because usually the guy I choose to vote for, promises something that I want. Well, as I have been watching the news, I have been a bit disappointed in the choices that Congress has been making and I have been praying to get over my stigma about being a rebel, and being a Mormon. What answer I got was through preparing my lessons in Seminary.

Contention is of the Devil. That is a fact. If politics is causing contention, than should I get as passionately as involved as I have been? I finally came across some scriptures, that Jesus Christ himself taught, "if we are not one, we aren't his." I was teaching a lesson about faith, and why it is important to band together as a members of our Church. That is reason enough for me, to put aside everything I have been arguing about to give in and have the faith to just not rebel anymore. It's not that I am conforming to running with the crowd, because most of my friends seem to share the same opinions of Gays and what not, but because the leaders of our Church follow Christ, if I am disagreeing on anything they say, I am not obeying Christ's teachings.

It is really hard for me to give in, and just allow myself to stop being stubborn and admit maybe some people are right. Though I am going to stop calling myself a Democrat, I am not going to call myself a republican either, in fact, I am not going to call myself a Independent either! I am not going to work at the voting booths anymore and I am not going to side with any political laws or views. If anything, I am going to start my own party, and consider myself a Middle Person. If I vote again, I am going to really consider what J.C. would choose if anyone. Being a Middle Person, does not always have to choose, like for example when you see two teams going to the Superbowl and you don't care who they are. Or when your parent's are fighting, you love them both, but each one wants you to take a side, that is a Middle Person. Why can't we all just get along? My view is, that the Second Coming is coming no matter what, and I have to live my life the best way I can, I am not going to waste it on contentious ideas. That is all I going to say on the matter, again. (or at least I am going to try to)

Margaret

Today is my mother-in-law's birthday, she is 75 years old. She lives in South Jordan, UT, on two acres in a house that she and her husband built over 40 years ago. I love her, and I wanted to let people know how wonderful she is.

She is a very generous and caring person. Not one person could ever speak ill of her. Currently she is a temple worker with my father- in- law in the South Jordan Temple. We miss her and hopefully in June, she will feel good enough to come here. Her name is Margaret and she is half Danish. Her family came from Holland as Saints. She has the most beautiful blue eyes and the sweetest smile. She really is like what a picture perfect grandma is suppose to be like.

Jason is the youngest of 12 kids. Four of those kids were adopted. Her heart is so big, that she litteraly had foster kids through all of Jason's life. He knew no different, he shared everything, even underwear. Two of the adopted where mentally handicapped. This was no challenge to her, she treated them as her own and I didn't even know they were adopted until a while later. She loves old horror and suspense movies, and books. She can also make anything from scratch whether it was food, clothing, or decor. She agrees with everyone, about everything, because she does not like contention.

She loves loves animals, and currently she has seven cats, three birds, 2 horses, and a bunch of dogs,and fish. Over the years, she had goats, pigs, turkey's, ducks, geese, chickens, a rooster, and a lamb she even let in the house. The city will no longer let her have her farm animals, after the horses are gone, she is not allowed to have anymore. Mainly because the neighbors have all sold their plots around them to home builders, and the home builders want their land. They live across a elementary school, and a church, that is beside that. Sounds like the perfect life huh? It's all because she made it that way. Jason's mom made it a big plus to marrying him.

Guns, Abortion, and Gays

Okay is this a hot topic, which everyone has a opinion on. When I vote, it's on the person not because of the party, though most people think I am one track minded like some other people I know. I am not, especially to the violent point like that some people, who seem to be very passionate about their beliefs. I don't push mine on others. My ability to look at things from both sides, sometimes makes life a little confusing for me. I think it is okay to own a gun, for sport. I think some people need it for protection. Our family owns several guns, and on special rare occasion, we liked doing some target practice. BUT, the truth is, no matter how much training we have or our kids have, having guns at a easy access is dangerous. NRA people say people kill people, and anti-gun activists say guns kill people. I say it's both. And the more likely you show your kid how easy it is to use your gun, the more likely I believe they are going to want to get it out when your not home and show their friends. For example, a young eight year old boy, Viv's age, who for what ever reason decided to kill his dad and his dad's friend with a gun. It was in AZ, and the boy said he learned how to shoot and use a gun through his own father. If a gun is around, the more likely that at the spur of the moment, maybe out of anger that someone would use it. Another example, crazy Phil Spector. He was obsessed with guns so much so, he would wear them in a hoister around the house. He would shoot at things at random in his own home out of boredom, and finally it ended up being a person. I don't want to take the rights of gun owners but I do believe certain kinds of guns, like machine guns are not made for hunting animals. Just because someone can create it, does not mean it should be available for just anyone to buy.

Abortion. This morning I was reading about the ordering of the FDA to have 30 days to allow seventeen years to go buy the morning after pill without prescriptions. I am against that. Because it's available, it will make it a excuse to have even more pre-martial sex without consequences. The pill is only to be used within the first 24 hours of unprotected intercourse. But how are the pharmacy people going to know that? I am worried that even more people, not just teens, will use it beyond the night after. I can imagine people getting mad, or having a bad day, deciding because it's there and so easy to buy, that they will use it to kill their fetus, no matter how far along they are. I can imagine the harm it would do, if it did not kill them but made them deformed and defected some way. It would be like a horror movie.

I don't get how some people can complain about their gun rights, saying government wants to control everything but those same people want the government to control the gays ? Aren't they hypocrites? I understand their reasoning behind it. Mostly because of their belief in God. But not everyone believes in God. Aren't they pushing their beliefs on others? It's just a observation. I love our country and the freedom we do have compared to some other countries. I supposed if anyone disagreed with our core beliefs, they have a right to their own opinion and they can move out if they choose. I understand we have to have certain rules to protect the innocent. Does that include two men kissing? Chances are, most everyone has seen it already on TV. So if we deny the gay people should have rights to insurance and civil unions, shouldn't we go as far as completely taking it off the air? I mean, in other countries, like in the middle east for instance, the media is controlled by the government or/& religion in power, everyone must believe in the same thing or else. Do you know the answer? Ellen is married,so she says to a woman, shouldn't we burn her at the stake?

Geesh, this is just such a hot topic and I am just sharing some thoughts. Like anyone of them matter, to anyone who is in charge. I know what I believe in, I don't push my opinion on others, and I am trying to remember that Jesus loves everyone, so should I.

Always Moving...

I have moved a lot. From State to state. Across the country. Literally, I moved 12 times, during all twelve years of school. I am not counting before school age or after. It took some serious thinking to figure it out, sitting down with my mom. It seems so unreal, that it had been so many and not due to my parents being in the military but because my dad was like a Jack of All Trades, and I think he had ADD.

I have fond memories of moving and some not so great. The earliest I can recall was when my dad was a trucker. It was the summer between kindergarten and 1 st grade when we moved from S.L.C. to a trailer town in the middle of nowhere called Wamcenter, Wy. The trip was a bad one because I remember having my kitten, Snowball (the one I stole) in the back of the sleeper in my dad's truck with me. It was night and as he was driving, that stupid kitten got her nails stuck in my thigh. I screamed and screamed until he stopped and he had to unlatch her from my leg. Then she got kicked out, she had to ride with my mom, who was driving a pick-up, and I guess, that kitten went crazy on her too.

I can recall just about all of my trips, but the ones that stood out, were times like when my father had the bright and brilliant idea of hooking a full sized semi-hay trailer to our pick-up and it ended up almost making us go off a cliff. It made us fish tail from guard rail to guard rail, and when the guard rail ran out, God saved us, because the trailer turned on it's side before we went off the edge. It was just me, my baby brother,my mom, and a cat with kittens, sitting in the front seat. Later that night, we stayed at a motel, and people in the town helped set up a huge bon fire where they burned all of our broken stuff. Including my doll house, that had a elevator.

We had good moments too, on all of our moves, we manged to take in any sites that were near by. I think my favorite time moving was when we came from Juneau to Utah, because we got to ride the ferry for three days during Halloween. The kids and I, literally ran from one end to another, and we found kids are board who would play tag with us, but the Purser sure did not like it! So we did get into trouble.

I could talk and talk about all of our moves, as an adult, I too tried to incorporate some sites for our kids. On the way here, we stopped at the Glen Dam in AZ, and we had plans to stop other places too, but it was a week before Christmas and we were sort of in a hurry. In Texas, we ran into some heavy fog going across the pan handle. And in Oklahoma we had snow and ice. The bad thing was, right before our trip we bought a duo DVD players and one of the kids stepped on the cord and broke it. Our heat went in our van, so then we were freezing. That made things miserable. I also tried a energy pill that I got from a gas station, and I remember thinking I was going to die because my heart was having some serious misbeats. I don't think Jason knew it was a bad as it could have been. The kids were great though, even Clark and Viv got along.

There was one other trip, I have to include, was the move from Ohio to St. George. We were on a deadline because Jason had a job to go to. And before the trip, I was sure to save plenty of money to go. But the days before we left, we had to clean our house. I had to pay my sister and her boyfriend to help because I was in such a rush. We gave them a old car, we gave them money, but it wasn't enough. She begged and begged, and we ended up giving her a total of $300, thinking maybe this would be the last time I would see her. When we left, Jason drove a huge U-Haul ,my brother in his car, which had two of my kids behind us, and I drove a old pick-up loaded with a 3 wheeler and stuff. On our move, we got a flat tire in Indiana, and then I lost a tire in Missouri going 72 miles per hour, late at night. Should have seen the sparks fly! It actually caused our back axle to break. So then we ended up getting a car hauler from the U-Haul, so we carried on. By the time we were in Colorado, we were just about out of cash. It was a big mistake to go through the mountains in the fall. We stopped in a small ski town and a nice lodge owner next to a gas station we were at, took us in for just $15.00. The next day, we did run out of money, and the kids ate pop tarts all day. When we arrived through the Utah border, we ran out of gas. So we had to wait for my parents to drive 6 hours to meet us. Talk about a trial and a blessing. Who knows what adventure awaits us in our next move, whether it be small or large. I miss the fun of having the CB radios, making a big deal out of seeing the state signs that greeted us at the borders, and all of the new places to see.

Modesty Should Be For All Ages, Especially In The Locker Room!

There is a problem. Well, I guess it's my problem. I have images burnt in my brain that I wish I could erase. I am sure my kids do too. Mostly because of being members at the Y.M.C.A. I know some people make think I am shallow, or overboard. But, honestly, shouldn't people try to make a effort to cover up when small children are around? ( or me?) Today, I walked right into the locker room and I could not look away fast enough when a older, non fit naked lady walked right towards me, in which anyone standing outside of the door could have clearly seen her. It is really difficult to train yourself to look at the floor when I walk by the Sauna and right there, in plain sight would be a old naked lady, sitting right in front of the window. It has happened more than I could count. We have dressing rooms, and even corners, but it seems like I am the only person who has a problem with this. I did not want to have the image of some nude person bending over, or what kind of scars they have. Even if I had a pristine fit body, I would still cover up. I know in other countries, nudity is no big deal. But what about the innocence of children? It's hard to keep Viv to refrain from making a comment, too.

The boys are having just as hard of time in their locker room. Their stories are grosser than mine. They have a steam room with a sign on the door saying you must wear a towel. But hardly anyone obeys. The fact is, I doubt those benches get cleaned often. Modesty should include not only young people but old. I know some people when they get older, that get past being embarrassed. All of the prodding and poking over the years by doctors, properly had something to do with that. I for one, believe that when I get older, I am going to make a effort to be modest no matter the circumstance. I just wish other people felt the same way.

Jumping On A Trampoline Is Better Than Playing Video Games, Right?

We have been sick for a while and then the weather turns out really nice. My parent's gave us their trampoline because they moved into a town home after the fire. So, what do you think happens when the trampoline has been up less than a week? Well...I just turned the computer on , which was upstairs, and I heard Clark screaming bloody murder! It's was loud enough to hear through the walls and closed windows. So, then I knew it must have been serious.

Before I got downstairs, I could hear the complaint. His right ankle had already begun to swell to abnormal size. Jason said it's just a sprain. But judging from the way it looked and how he was acting, I was not sure about that. I needed to stay calm, and remember all the times I had to teach first aid to Scouts. So, I called my mom. She said take him to the hospital. So I said okay. Then Jason said "no", but in my mind, I was conflicted. So I talked to Shawna, and she had the sense to tell me to call the doctor. So I did, and they told me if he can move his toes and foot, he will be fine until the morning. Huh? That is not what Web MD says! So, I told myself, just calm down, he stopped screaming, and I should just go ahead, wait, and enjoy myself at the RS dinner I was going to. And that is what I did.

When I got there, Lori, who is a RN, told me that if it started to heal, they would have to rebreak it in the morning, if it was broke. That would be torture on the little guy. So I left the party to take him, and I am glad I did. Hours, later, Dr. Carter (Stake Pres. Carter) let us look at the films, and sure enough, there was a difference in both of his ankles. A gap between his growth plate, which is right at the knuckle of his ankle. OUCH! What can be done about that? I don't know. And not knowing is making me sick. We are still waiting for the radiologist report. S

So, what to do about the trampoline? The last time we owned one, was back in the spring of 2005. One night Sabrina broke her arm on the neighbors, trampoline! It was a buckle break, ( where bone over laps the bone) near her right wrist. It could be visably seen, but she didn't seem to cry about it much at all, until we went to he hospital and her sweet smile was wiped right off her face when they failed to numb her enough to reset it! She had a awesome hot pink cast, for the whole summer, and even into September because it was having a tough time healing. Right after this happened, it sat in our yard, childless, until we decided to give it away to some friends. At first, I wanted to burn it, but what good would that do? It's great excerise, even I can vouche for that. (because I secretly get on it at night) Any suggestions?