Our Persisting Memories

Seriously. Or not seriously, but really, I do have pneumonia. The doctor says its in the early stages and has told me to be as lazy as possible and to avoid all responsibility whenever the chance arises by clearly stating, "I have pneumonia," and then coughing pitifully. That might not be what he said, but it's how this is gonna play out while I rest and sleep as much as possible. Here's my xray. 54353|400

Phoebe is definitely going to have curly hair. The longer it gets the more unruly (dirty blonde) and curly it gets. This picture is of how her hair is right after a bath. I LOVE IT! 53690|640 Phoebe now understands the word "kisses" and what it means to give one. All we have to do is ask for one and she leans her face toward us so we can lay a big one on her sweet, little face. Cousins were still in town at the beginning of the week. Phoebe loves popcorn and I had given her some for a snack. Casper was in the living room playing and she walked up to him and offered a piece of popcorn. He opened his mouth and she put it right in. He enjoyed the food and Phoebe was so delighted by this new 'game.' She went back about 4 more times just feeding him and laughing. Phoebe also got her 4th tooth! Her front, right tooth broke through and her left, front is dropping more. It is strange to look in her mouth and see those other teeth. Maybe now I can start feeding her...

My opinion on the election. I was going to write out something but found this article by Radley Balko (Most famous for his work on no-knock raids and the abuses of power the drug war represents). I share his opnion so I'm reposting the article here. Why the Republicans Must Lose from Reason Magazine - All Reason Articles from the Past Year: Page 1 by rbalko@reason.com (Radley Balko) I grew up in a particularly conservative part of the already conservative state of Indiana. I voted for Bob Dole in 1996 and George Bush in 2000, generally because—though I'm not a conservative (I'm a libertarian)—I'd always thought the GOP was the party of limited government. By 2002, I was less sure of that. And by 2004, I was so fed up with the party that I did what I thought I'd never do—vote for an unabashed leftist for president. Since then, "fed up" has soured to "given up." The Republican Party has exiled its Goldwater-Reagan wing and given up all pretense o...

Barack Obama will be the next President according to current polls. He might be slightly better than the alternative, but he won't change anything. Case in point from his recent economy speech. Once we get past the present emergency, which requires immediate new investments, we have to break that cycle of debt. Once we get past the present emergency, which requires new government intervention, we have to break the cycle of intrusion. In order to stop this horrorible thing, we have to do the very thing that caused it more, but we'll quit I promise. I'll have one last drink then I'll stop. I promise this time I'll pay you back. I'll still love you afterwards. Blah blah blah.

Reposted from reason hit and run blog is this piece explaining why Ron Paul voted against the 1999 "deregulation" that helped spur this bubble forward. Mind you these statements were made in 1999. Ron Paul in 1999 on the Current Crisis Brian Doherty | October 21, 2008, 5:55pm Especially interesting reading for those who blame, rightly or wrongly, Phil Gramm and his banking regulation reform for our financial mess. Ron Paul, the libertarian Republican, was against Gramm-Leach-Briley back in 1999, and here are some of his reasons why: "today we are considering a bill aimed at modernizing the financial services industry through deregulation. It is a worthy goal which I support. However, this bill falls short of that goal. The negative aspects of this bill outweigh the benefits...." "The growth in money and credit has outpaced both savings and economic growth. These inflationary pressures have been concentrated in asset prices, not consumer price inflation--keepin...

Phoebe has discovered the white nobs on the end of spring doorstops. Throughout my day I am constantly finding them in her mouth. For awhile I would rinse them off and put them back with a false hope she would leave them alone.......NOPE! I gave up and have put any away that I find, but I have not taken them off of the ones she has not gone after yet. Just the other day she actually tried to push me out of the way so she could get to the one to our room! I have also caught her going back to the original scene of her crimes to see if the white nobs have returned. One day I will be able to put them back! Sophia got to try for the first time (compliments of Granny) those frosted Mother's brand animal cookies with sprinkles. Sophia has only ever seen sprinkles on cupcakes so when Granny handed her one and asked her what it was she stared at it for a bit then said, "a cupcake!" Sophia watched the original Disney version of Peter Pan. Hook has a particular way of saying...

We're been hearing this a lot lately. Here's an interesting take from the Washington Post of all places. You can find the article at washingtonpost.com HERE Is Capitalism Dead? The market that failed was not exactly free. IS THIS the end of American capitalism? As financial panic spread across the globe and governments scrambled to contain the damage, reality seemed to announce the doom of U.S.-style free markets and President Bush's ideology. But this is wrong in two ways. The deregulation of U.S. financial markets did not reflect only the narrow ideology of a particular party or administration. And the problem with the U.S. economy, more than lack of regulation, has been government's failure to control systemic risks that government itself helped to create. We are not witnessing a crisis of the free market but a crisis of distorted markets. It's true that the Bush administration has stood for light regulation of capital markets. But it did not invent this approac...

Michael has been called to the Salt Lake City, Utah mission. He has to arrive at the Missionary Training Center in Provo Utah on December 10th. Wait what?! If you're not Mormon you're probably asking yourself this very question. They have missionaries everywhere though, even in Mormon country USA.

The run up to the current Presidential election has many people arguing vehemently about associations, age, buzz words, and a plumber that doesn't understand the difference between net and gross. At this point I'm completely sick of the political dialogue that currently exists. It is ignorant, pointless, and a complete distraction from the problems with the country. Rather than needlessly bashing politicians based on populist rhetoric I'm going to focus on causes to support. Early voting in Texas begins today. As such I have a link to the current ballot in Texas HERE . Please review this before voting. I highly suggest checking the voting history of the current group of candidates. Here is a map of the current Texas Congressional Districts so you can find who your representative is if you don't already know. To find your Texas House Rep go here . There are resources to look at the voting record of your Congressman, Senator, and Future President. Washington Post Fo...

Here's the current list of guesses as to where Michael will go on his mission. If you're not on the list feel free to make a comment with your guesses and it'll be added to the table. Guesser Domestic Domestic 2 Foreign Foreign 2 Bekah New Hampshire Rhode Island China Guatemala Jonathan Arizona Utah Sweden BJ North of New York Pennsylvania Germany Denmark Heather Colorado Brazil Peru Grandma Wisconsin Arizona Switzerland Italy Grandpa California Alabama Argentina Mexico Sherry Las Vegas Phoenix Ted Japan /TR> Cindy Atlanta Georgia New York Switzerland Rome, Italy Blake Bud Catey Michigan Vermont Norway Greenland Sue Hawaii/Pacific Polynesia California/South Okinawa New Zealand Jeff Florida California Peru Spain Michael

Thanks for letting us shoot your wedding. All your photos are up. I'll have them on smugmug shortly. Here's the link to the album. Just click on the thumbnail below. 46701 49891|640

44788|320 Man is this long overdue! So much, too much, has been going on in our house so sitting down to do a post is hard to do. I barely get to do e-mail some days! I have waited so long I know this is going to be long, I am really almost dreading it, but I know so many family and friends are looking forward to it. So here goes the novel....... Sophia is progressing well (but not fast enough in my opinion!) with potty training. She is telling us more often when she needs to go and is more willing. We have even had 3 Sundays during sacrament meeting where she has told us she needs to go and then she has gone in the women's restroom! We were so proud of her. The only problem is that when she does have to go she always tells us "poopoo potty". Not once has she gone number 2 in the potty so I don't know why this is her choice of words to tell us, but at least she is communicating! On a day I worked for my mom I let Sophia play in the sand box. I thought I had ...

I have some of the highlights up in the gallery now. I'm doing the last batch of fine tuning on the rest and will have them up within the week. 46937|640 46805|640 46721|640 46702|640 46901|640

The huge losses in the financial market have only shown me how little I understand about the inner workings of finance. Thankfully I know a whole lot more because of the crisis. Much like you quickly become more knowledgeable about a disease when you find out you've contracted it, this current mess has done well to at least give me a basic understanding of what happened. My analysis might be flawed, and even my lexical understanding of the market itself might be highly colored by analogous terms I understand better than econ speak but I think I know what's happening. Functionally everyone involved purchased things they could not afford and did so with easy credit that was available to them. Consumers did this, banks said they will give them the credit, the secondary mortgage companies like FNMA and FHLMC (Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac) who help provide the backing for these mortgages were complicit. These mortgages and other loan based credit are then bundled and sold to other fin...

I know there are many people who are very anxious to see the wedding photos. Fear not, they're on their way. There were over 1700 pictures taken, and we're currently doing the first run through. I'm doing initial processing while culling the bad shots out. After finishing the first run through I'll pick the best of each pose/framing and separate into groups: Portraits, Ceremony, Snapshots, Inanimate, Reception. I don't expect to be done for at least another week. Once that's done I'll have to find the highlights and give them an extra touch.

I have become increasingly aware over the last couple months that I am turning into my mother. As my sisters know, and now our husbands, my mom is TERRIBLE at recalling names. I say 'recalling' and not 'remembering' because she remembers all our names, but at the time she wants a name she cannot 'recall' it. I have been Tiffany, Gwendolyn, Punkin, and Jennifer (sometimes even the cats!) for I don't know how long. However, over the last few months I am almost consistently 'Jennifer'. I am with her at minimum 2 days a week, every week, and 90% of the time I am Jennifer and then eventually, "whatever your name is." This curse of name abuse is spreading. Sophia is often Phoebe, Dawn, and Lily (our cats). And the same for Phoebe. I am even calling the cats by their names! Sophia is messing up too. We had friends from out of town visiting a couple weeks back. They have a son about a month younger than Phoebe. His name is Max. Sophia go...

Sorry I didn't make this post earlier, but I've been increasingly lazy/busy. Heather has an update coming and it will be a large one. We keep notes of the what the girls are doing so don't worry you won't miss anything. You will however be greeted with a wall of text since we have a wedding shoot to do this weekend. Expect updates sometime next week. I have all my equipment now, and purchased a bat bag to carry it all. I'll post some shots with the different lenses when I get a chance. I'll probably take a ton of extraneous photos since I can only keep the rental equipment until the 8th. I'll find an excuse to use the 3 extra lenses. Here are some photo picks from the last few weeks. Oh and in case you haven't noticed there is a new link to the left. Click on it and you'll be taken to an album of our latest 120 photos. 46471|640 46015|640 45618|640 45228|640