Can we Start over?

Well everything is set now for the 2008 election year. We have been narrowing down who will run for well over a year now. Obama and McCain accepted nominations and announced their V.P. candidates this week. What I think. I want to start over. I can't even believe that we believe that these pairs are the most fit to lead our country.I don't know that I would vote for anyone of them to even be a governor. Usually I am proud to cast my vote on election day, but I am almost dreading it now. I don't really think anyone of these four is qualified to be the president and can't find myself backing anyone. I was not pleased with the choice between Obama and McCain and had hoped that their VP picks might give me more trust in one party or the other. Sadly neither of my preferences, Hillary or Romney were given much consideration. Now what will I do? I'm not voting for any four of these guys!

My Name is WHAT? My Name is What?

To the right on my blog I keep a list of things Kate says. Partially so when I get around to updating her baby book I will remember and also because I think it is fun for everyone to see. Kate is almost 17 months old now. She started saying "Dad" and "Dog" the other two members of the family back before Christmas when she was eight months old. And as you can see by the list of her most recent speech, she is not behind by any stretch in this department. She even has several two word phrases like "whats that" or "Hi Dad". She makes every possible animal sound, and even almost gets how to pretend, when we pretend that we are cougars and chase around or pretend we are a horse and give her a ride she will make the appropriate sound. Other common words she uses daily are "more", "jesus", "piggies", "hippie","dipping" and almost every part of the body... you get the picture. She is not slow of speech. But for some reason she just has not said mom. There was a short lived time where she said "Meem" which we thought could be "Mom", some "Mom sounds that didn't really seem to be associated with me, and more often than not she would just call me "Dad" too. In fact, when I lead the music in sacrament she sits with her Dad and points at me and yells for the entire congregation to hear "Dad, Dad, Dad, Dad" when we are suppose to be singing. It is possible that there has just not been a real need for her to use my name. It is not like she has to call me ever, we are almost always together. This must be the reason why after just 17 months she is finally figuring out my name is not also "Dad" but "Mom"! It seems that I can finally put "Mom" in that side bar as words she now says. I did conceive, grow and birth her, not to mention nurse her for a year and attend to her every need every minute of the day. I guess it is about time she learned what my name is.

Lucky Scottsdale!

My sister Amy and her family moved to Scottsdale, AZ about a week and a half ago. It didn't seem that far until a few days ago. Amy called me, as she is bound to do at least once a week, but it was after five. Seldom do we call each other when our spouses are home from work because we try to save our calls to entertain some of our more boring mommy down time during the day. When i got off the phone with her, I commented to Jake that it was unusual for her to call around dinner just to say hello. He informed me it was not five yet for her, because Arizona has different time than we do. No they are not in a different time zone, they just don't think day light savings applies to them. This made Arizona seem far away. Far away enough that we don't even have the same time. Scottsdale is silly for not doing daylight savings like the rest of us, but they are lucky they have the carpenters now.
Before Amy left I took some family pictures for them. This one is my favorite though it doesn't include Jeff.... sorry Jeff, but I know you are getting used to being left out of our family pictures by now anyways.

She is ready to start the season. She even has her "roar" down when we as her what a Cougar says. The best part is that she swipes her "paw" across in the air like a predatory cat as she says it. Or maybe the best thing is how I heard her "roaring" in her room late at night, so I went to see if she was awake, but she was not, she was just dream "roaring". Hilarious! The brain washing has been successful.

Oh the Blogging World.

A few months ago my ever talented -can do husband showed me how to track the hits on my blog. The tracking can't show me exactly who is looking, but it can show me what cities my hits are coming from, and what blogs traffic is linking from. I don't check this information often but I did today. What I found was very interesting. I noticed that I have tons of hits in cities where I don't know anyone, or at least know that I know anyone. Two cities in particular, one in Arizona and one in California. Who are you? I know you are looking. I also see that I have had over 500 different visitors- and around 50 regular visitors, those who view the site twice a month or more. This is also interesting since only about 8 of you ever leave comments. I am found of the blog and the connections it brings. I don't mind the strangers that stumble upon our lives and take some of it in, I don't mind that some of you who I don't really know well repeatedly visit my blog, I just wanted to let you know I know, so you might as well say something, leave a comment. You obviously find what I post and my life interesting as you keep coming back for more, so give it up, say hello, say something. I can see you silently starring and it is a little rude.

Celebrate

There was a lot to celebrate in July, but with Jake's bar we just didn't get to do much partying. So to make up for it Jake and I finally "got away" for the weekend. Okay so we only went to Midway, but we left Kate with her grandma (the first time she has been away for the night) and went on our own little vacation. Jake and I always talk about going on little trips, doing fun things, but when we seriously start planning we realize that we are just too responsible with our money and never purchase that cruise or airfare to somewhere fun. The solution-a half vacation which we have actually done before in Salt Lake. We had so much fun attending an outdoor theater at Sundance, staying and the Zermatt, going out to eat, swimming like Olympians and most amazingly sleeping in till our hearts content. It was a wonderful weekend, and good thing because we had a lot of July celebrating to make up for. Happy 26th birthday to me, Happy 5 year wedding anniversary to us, Happy Jake is done studying for the stressful CA BAR, Yes we did have a busy July!

More Olympic Thoughts

Jake and I have the TV on way to much lately. NBC is getting all the attention with the Olympics. Previously I doubted how into this year I would be when I didn't love the Opening Ceremonies. I did enjoy it in the playback and have continued to enjoy this years Olympic experience. I have stayed up way to late waiting for outcomes from the other side of the world. I do have other thoughts though, things I am just not loving. I am just not loving the way the Chinese are representing themselves. I was disappointed to hear about the lip sync scandal, where the seven year olds voice was heard but another girl lip synced during the Opening because the seven year old was deemed not attractive enough to represent her country. Also they are either starving their gymnasts to prevent them from going through puberty or they are totally lying about their age. I am fairly certain after the games our girls will be awarded the team gold when they discover that the Gymnasts put forward from the Chinese are really 12, below the legal age to compete. I am also sick of the Michael Phelps show. I realize he is amazing. I am excited that an American is breaking all those records, but I feel like it is rude to the other amazing athletes and swimmers to only talk about Phelps. His name is said more than any other, more than "The United States" even I bet. He is great, but I get it, he is great, let us hear about others who are great and see other sports aside from swimming, volleyball and gymnastics. Maybe coverage would also be improved if the commentators didnt just make predictions the whole time but shared interesting stories and facts about the athletes and their sports. Maybe the could not talk at all and their could be VH1 style pop ups in the corner telling us how Michael Phelps doesn't produce lactic acid like most humans, or how the mens volleyball star grew up on welfare, or how the rules in the Czech for water polo are different than in the US. I guess I was just really looking forward to this years Olympics and getting into it like in years past and it just hasn't happened.

Opening Ceremonies

I'm watching the Opening of the Olympics on NBC right now. I have been preparing to watch all week, and by preparing I mean watching the Today show and taking on their complete opinion for who I should cheer for and everything else Chinese. I have been looking forward to the ceremony and even contemplated having a gathering a friends over for Chinese food and watching them. I'm glad I didn't. I am not finding them very entertaining. Perhaps I am just not in the mood even though they are being hosted by my imaginary best friend Matt Lauer. Perhaps watching on my small television interrupted by commercials pales in comparison to the live version, of which I was privileged to see when the Olympics were in SLC. Perhaps I am just tired of being alone with Kate with Jake off to another Young Men's event. Perhaps it is the lack of good food in my house to eat, maybe a couple pounds of fortune cookies like they sell and the foreign foods market on Bulldog would have made the evening more complete. I'm disappointed. I am sure I will enjoy watching the events still and get teary eyed at the stories. but it hasn't started with the bang that I had hoped for.

On another note my daughter is no longer a baby. I realized this week that she is a little girl. Her interests have changed dramatically in the last week. She use to like books and the dog and most any of her baby toys. Now she is obsessed with dolls and babies, her play horses in their barn, necklaces and fake jewelry and she just colored in my lap for over 30 minutes. Along with all of this has come the enjoyment of cuddling... hooray.. and lots of hugs. I guess now that she is old enough it is time to start planning her Olympic path in gymnastics, if we can get her away from her coloring books that is.

California wears me out!

Well it has been a long week and I am exhausted! Jake and I left for California on Sunday morning. It took us over 13 hours to get to Fresno. We spent about a day there before we said goodbye to Jake while we stayed with his parents. He was off to Sacramento to take his California bar. While he spent three days writing and trying to recall information he learned three years ago I spent three hours a day napping and another one watching What Not to Wear. It was stressful, painful and boring, not for me but him, but I am sure he did wonderful. And we will get the results around Thanksgiving. Of course one of the reasons that pushed him to take the test is that he paid for it two years ago before he decided to take the Utah bar instead and that money is held for two years. This test costs over $1000 to take so it seemed worth it, until we actually found out that our two years expired just days before the test almost as we were packing the car to leave. Oh well we will just re pay, but this is such our luck. I hitched a ride with my Mom to Los Banos mid week, about an hour away, to visit with my grandparents for two days. Then Jake swung back to pick us up as he traveled from Sacramento to Fresno. We spent a few more days in Fresno with his family. Even extra family was around because his sister was having an open house for her wedding a few weeks ago. We spent some time on the farm, swimming, boating at the lake- Kate loved the boat- at the new cabin, and seeing The Dark Knight, which was spectacular and also the first movie Jake and I have seen in a theater in over a year and a half. I know pathetic right. On Sunday morning early we headed back to Heber, for another 13 plus hour drive in the heat of the day through the desert. This time with Lisa and Rodney's wedding presents,more luggage,and two hitchhikers (DeeAnn and my Mom). Like I said we are exhausted but it was fun to get away.