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.

Tags: awww,pitiful,poor bj,sick
Categories: BJ, BJ's Life
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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!

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 more.

Phoebe had her 15 month well check. She is 30.5 inches and 19.11 pounds. STILL not over the 20 pound mark! Heavens, this kid eats but is still so tiny. She will truly be my “little girl” growing up.

I believe Phoebe’s frustration and anger with Sophia’s harassment has waned. Instead of consistently yelling back at her and trying to bite she just cries or runs to me. So now the situations of abuse usually go “Sophia don’t hit! Phoebe don’t be so sensitive! Sophia say you are sorry! Phoebe calm down.” Phoebe does still bite and scream but chooses the weepy path more often. Sophia just has to LOOK at her wrong and she runs to me with sadness in her face. This cycle is getting tiring and old.

Sophia is even better with her colors now and finds so many ways to show that she knows them. Things have more labels with them now. A shirt is no longer just a shirt, but a red shirt, or a blue pillow, white sock, etc.

Hmmmm, don’t know if this anything to brag about, but Sophia has gotten to the point with time outs that all BJ has to do is tell her it is “time out” and she goes to her room and closes the door and stays until one of us gets her out. It is nice that we are no longer having to drag her in there crying and upset but now it seems TOO easy. We still explain to her why she was in there and she has to apologize but it makes me wonder what she is REALLY starting to think about “time out.”

Months ago we caught Sophia saying “shut up” and so of course my reply was “Don’t say shut up. We don’t say shut up.” Out of nowhere she has become a broken record of saying those exact 2 sentences. It can be anytime, anywhere and she will just say “we don’t say shut up, don’t say that.” But now she is saying “shut up” so I am trying to break her of saying NOT to say it. Grrrrr!

We had our church’s Trunk or Treat party Friday night. Sophia was a cowgirl, Phoebe was a Pirate Princess, and I was a pirate too. I have not dressed up since I can’t remember when so it was a lot of fun, and I didn’t have to buy a single thing for my costume (thanks to borrowing from BJ’s family) which was even better! It was way past Phoebe’s bedtime so she was exhausted and sort of out of it for most of the time. Sophia enjoyed a few games before it was time to ‘trunk or treat’. She loved it of course, and Phoebe just sat dazed and tired in the stroller. She at least managed to get 5 pieces of candy! Sophia got a few handfuls herself and it has been nothing short of a mini battle each day to not have her try and eat candy all day. I have kept it up high and offered in great moderation, but she sure likes candy like her mama!

Saturday we went to the Dallas Arboretum for their fall festival. I was amazed at all the pumpkins they had. It was thousands upon thousands! Sophia thoroughly enjoyed herself and all those pumpkins. I had forgotten how beautiful the Arboretum was and it was such a lovely walk. We didn’t get to see nearly half it because it is so big. We took time to have a family picnic with sandwiches I brought. Phoebe’s favorite part was the pumpkin patch because she got to play around in some hay and roll the pumpkins.

Saturday night BJ started a low grade fever and by Sunday morning both the girls had them too. I enjoyed a quiet time at church with no fighting with kids during sacrament meeting. It was the Primary Program and all the kids did a wonderful job. I sure am going to miss those kids and being a part of the Primary Organization when I am released.

Tags: Dallas Arboretum,Halloween,pumpkins,teeth,Trunk or Treat
Categories: Heather, Weekly Family Update
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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 of any allegiance to limited government. In the last eight years, the GOP has given us a monstrous new federal bureaucracy in the Department of Homeland Security. In the prescription drug benefit, it’s given us the largest new federal entitlement since the Johnson administration. Federal spending—even on items not related to war or national security—has soared. And we now get to watch as the party that’s supposed to be “free market” nationalizes huge chunks of the economy’s financial sector.

This isn’t to say that Barack Obama would be any better. Government would undoubtedly grow under his watch. And from my libertarian perspective, he has been increasingly disappointing even on the issues where he’s supposed to be good. We may not go to war with Iran in an Obama administration, but we’d likely become entrenched in a prolonged nation-building adventure in the Sudan. Obama’s vote on the FISA bill and telecom immunity also suggests that, for all his criticisms of President Bush’s use of executive power and assaults on civil liberties, Obama wouldn’t be much better. On the drug war, Obama has promised to end the federal raids on medical marijuana clinics in states that have legalized the drug for treatment, but he wants to resurrect failed federal criminal justice block grant programs that have had some disastrous effects on civil liberties.

While I’m not thrilled at the prospect of an Obama administration (especially with a friendly Congress), the Republicans still need to get their clocks cleaned in two weeks, for a couple of reasons.

First, they had their shot at holding power, and they failed. They’ve failed in staying true to their principles of limited government and free markets. They’ve failed in preventing elected leaders of their party from becoming corrupted by the trappings of power, and they’ve failed to hold those leaders accountable after the fact. Congressional Republicans failed to rein in the Bush administration’s naked bid to vastly expand the power of the presidency (a failure they’re going to come to regret should Obama take office in January). They failed to apply due scrutiny and skepticism to the administration’s claims before undertaking Congress’ most solemn task—sending the nation to war. I could go on.

As for the Bush administration, the only consistent principle we’ve seen from the White House over the last eight years is that of elevating the American president (and, I guess, the vice president) to that of an elected dictator. That isn’t hyperbole. This administration believes that on any issue that can remotely be tied to foreign policy or national security (and on quite a few other issues as well), the president has boundless, limitless, unchecked power to do anything he wants. They believe that on these matters, neither Congress nor the courts can restrain him.

That’s the second reason the GOP needs to lose. American voters need to send a clear, convincing repudiation of these dangerous ideas.

If they do lose, the GOP would be wise to regroup and rebuild from scratch, scrap the current leadership, and, most importantly, purge the party of the “national greatness,” neoconservative influence. Big-government conservatism has bloated the federal government, bogged us down in what will ultimately be a trillion-dollar war, and set us down the road to European-style socialism. It’s hard to think of how Obama could be worse. He’ll just be bad in different ways.

The truth is, unless you vote for a third-party candidate (which really isn’t a bad idea), you don’t have much of a choice this November. You can either endorse the idea of a massive, invasive, ever-encroaching federal government that’s used to promote center-left ideology, or you can endorse the idea of a massive, invasive, ever-encroaching federal government that’s used to promote center-right ideology.

Sadly, if the GOP does lose, it’s likely to be interpreted not as a repudiation of the GOP’s excesses, but as an endorsement of the Democrats’. When the only two parties who have a chance at winning both have a track record of expanding the size and scope of government, every election is likely to be interpreted as a win for big government—only the brand changes.

Voting yourself more freedom simply isn’t an option, at least if you want your vote to be taken seriously (and I’m not denigrating any third parties here; I’m just reflecting reality).

Which brings me back to why the Republicans need to get throttled: A humiliated, decimated GOP that rejuvenates and rebuilds around the principles of limited government, free markets, and rugged individualism is really the only chance for voters to possibly get a real choice in federal elections down the road.

Of course, there’s no guarantee that’s how the party will emerge from defeat. But the Republican Party in its current form has forfeited its right to govern.

Tags: election
Categories: BJ, Philosophy etc
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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.

Tags: irritated,political BS,rhetorical pandering
Categories: BJ, Philosophy etc
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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–keeping monetary policy too easy. This increase in asset prices has fueled domestic borrowing and spending.”
“Government policy and the increase in securitization are largely responsible for this bubble. In addition to loose monetary policies by the Federal Reserve, government-sponsored enterprises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have contributed to the problem. The fourfold increases in their balance sheets from 1997 to 1998 boosted new home borrowings to more than $1.5 trillion in 1998, two-thirds of which were refinances which put an extra $15,000 in the pockets of consumers on average–and reduce risk for individual institutions while increasing risk for the system as a whole.”
“The rapidity and severity of changes in economic conditions can affect prospects for individual institutions more greatly than that of the overall economy. The Long Term Capital Management hedge fund is a prime example. New companies start and others fail every day. What is troubling with the hedge fund bailout was the governmental response and the increase in moral hazard.
This increased indication of the government’s eagerness to bail out highly-leveraged, risky and largely unregulated financial institutions bodes ill for the post S. 900 future as far as limiting taxpayer liability is concerned. LTCM isn’t even registered in the United States but the Cayman Islands!”
.”..My main reasons for voting against this bill are the expansion of the taxpayer liability and the introduction of even more regulations. The entire multi-hundred page S. 900 that reregulates rather than deregulates the financial sector could be replaced with a simple one-page bill.”

I wonder how many of Jacob Weisberg’s favorite economic thinkers and politicians were this prescient this long ago? Add this to the “it’s all the libertarians’ fault” file.

Tags: financial crisis,Ron Paul
Categories: BJ, Philosophy etc
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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 Peter Pan; it is more like “Petah Pan.” Sophia picked up on it and for the rest of the movie would repeat, “Petah!” Days later she is still going on about “Petah! Petah!”

Sophia has always been a bit of a gassy child but something is up with her this week!!! I’m worried to light a candle in this house from all the gas that little girl is putting off! I have not changed anything about her diet and she is not eating beans or broccoli and yet she is blasting us constantly. I am only mentioning it in this post (because admittedly this IS a strange thing to write about) because it is SO MUCH! BJ and I have been in complete shock and awe from this. I would hate for her to grow up to be Ms. Toots Too Much.

Sophia finally got cowgirl boots! I have been shopping around for months until I found out Stride Rite was going to get them in for the Fall. I have been waiting for about 2 months and then Granny took us shoe shopping. They had them in multiple colors and styles but the metal tipped, light pink ones were iresistable. I was stressing over getting them too since we have been also planning for months for her to be a cowgirl for Halloween. Having the boots was the last thing we needed to get and would complete the outfit perfectly. If we didn’t get them in time I was going to have to make her a pirate like the rest of us. We also got treated to new church shoes and some sneakers for the Fall/Winter. Thank you Granny! She has loved showing off her cowgirl boots to anyone who will look.

My sister Jennifer and her 3 kids arrived in town as well as my other sister Tiffany. We enjoyed 2 nights with “Auntie Tiffduhdee” as Sophia says, and have been having Jennifer stay with us off and on between my mom’s house and here. Tiff left this weekend but Jenn is here to stay for another week, which I am excited about because I feel like the kids haven’t had enough time together. We all went out to eat at Babes Chicken House Saturday night. For anyone who has not been there they are a great family style dining restaurant with great fried chicken and home cooked style veggies. They will pretty much bring you an unlimited supply of mashed potatoes, cream corn, green beans, salad, and biscuits if you ask. It is all so yummy and I definitely recommend it as a place to eat! Phoebe even surprised me with how much chicken she ate.

My discipline is rubbing off on Sophia too much I think. I caught her playing with 2 of her stuffed animals. The larger one “Meow Kitty” was the daddy and “Penny”, the much smaller pink one was the child. She had them facing each other and in a rough voice said “Do you understand?” Penny’s reply, “No! Do YOU understand?!” Meow kitty, “Tough luck!” This is added onto by her telling me when I make her upset that I need a “pop” or to got to “time out” or “go to bed”. I would actually like the last one, going to bed at anytime I want sounds nice.

Sophia hurt both her knees by falling on the concrete out back. She whines to me telling me she hurt her knees but I was busy with Phoebe so I said from afar, “Oh baby I’m sorry. Kiss Kiss.” I guess I was supposed to actually go over and kiss her because she came up to me, smacked my butt (I was bending over tending to Phoebe) and said in a demanding voice, “Mama! I need kisses!” So I sat her down and obliged.

Sophia has taken on with a passion pretending to be a cat. Everyday she is a “kitty cat” and will crawl and meow, even when she is asking for things or trying to tell us something, it will be in her meow voice. I, of course, at times play along with it and treat her like a little kitty cat and meow back at her. So she and I established who we all are in the house: I am Mama Cat, BJ is Big Cat (her words not mine), she is Little Kitty, and Phoebe is Baby Kitten.

All the cousins, Jennifer, BJ and I enjoyed an early morning trip to the duck pond to give the ducks their ‘breakfast’. They were very hungry and ate every crumb of bread we brought. It is so much fun when they come up so close to you and are willing to take it from your hand. The kids had a blast needless to say.

This weekend Phoebe FINALLY cut tooth number 3! It is her top left and has only barely broken through the skin, but it is there! We now have proof there are more teeth in her head, they were just taking their sweet time! Hopefully this marks the beginning of several more teeth coming in very soon.

The highlight of the week was going to see Neil Diamond live in concert with my sisters and our dad. We purchased tickets for his birthday that was in July but the concert wasn’t until now. We went to the Claypit to eat Indian food beforehand and it was very different but delicious. It was so nice just having the 4 of us go. Growing up we used to have daddy-daughter dates so it was nice to have another one all these years later and to share it with my sisters. Some of you might think, “what the heck?! Neil Diamond?! Is she nuts?!” I know I am 26 years old and ND seems like a strange choice of music for me, but there is history there. My parents like ND and listened to him while I was growing up. I have known of him and his music for as long as I can remember. I saw The Jazz Singer very young as well. I can remember car trips when we were on vacation and trying to fall asleep and hearing his music playing over the radio and either not being able to sleep or simply finding myself singing along. I don’t think anyone can listen to ‘Comin’ to America’ and not be moved somehow or enjoy the song in its simplicity. The man is nearly 68 and he can still perform so wonderfully. He took time to speak with and about the audience. His voice is not as strong as it used to be but it was still sensational. All in all it was a great night with great people.

Tags: bj,Heather,Phoebe,Sophia,Weekly Family Update
Categories: Heather, Weekly Family Update
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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 approach. By the middle of the last decade, experts across the spectrum believed that U.S. financial institutions faced outmoded restraints on their ability to innovate. Thus, the Clinton administration, supported by then-Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, refused to tighten regulations on financial derivatives, memorably dubbed “financial weapons of mass destruction” by Warren Buffett. The 1999 repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act, a Depression-era law separating commercial banking and investment banking, passed with overwhelming bipartisan support in Congress and was signed into law by President Bill Clinton.

We’ll never know how this newly liberated financial sector might have performed on a playing field designed by Adam Smith. That’s because government interventions of all kinds, from the defense budget to farm supports, shaped the business environment. No subsidy would prove more fateful than the massive federal commitment to residential real estate — from the mortgage interest tax deduction to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to the Federal Reserve’s low interest rates under Mr. Greenspan. Unregulated derivatives known as credit-default swaps did accentuate the boom in mortgage-based investments, by allowing investors to transfer risk rather than setting aside cash reserves. But government helped make mortgages a purportedly sure thing in the first place. Home prices seemed to stand on a solid floor built by Washington.

Government support for housing was well-intentioned: Homeownership is a worthy goal. But when government favors a particular economic activity, however validly, it must seek countervailing control to ensure the sustainable use of public resources. This is why banks must meet capital requirements in return for federal deposit insurance. Congress did not apply this sound principle to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac; they were allowed to engage in profitable but increasingly risky activities with an implicit government guarantee. The result was that taxpayers had to assume more than $5 trillion of their obligations. Contrast U.S. experience with that of Canada, where there is no mortgage interest deduction and the law requires insurance on any mortgage over 80 percent of a home’s purchase price. Delinquency rates at Canada’s seven largest banks are near historic lows.

The new capitalist model that emerges from this crisis must operate according to more consistent principles. The Fed should set interest rates with the long-run value of the dollar in mind. Government must be more selective about manipulating markets; over the long term, business works best when it is subject to market discipline alone. In those cases — and there will and should be some — in which government intervenes on behalf of social goals, its support must be counterbalanced with taxpayer protections and regulation. Government-sponsored, upside-only capitalism is the kind that’s in crisis today, and we say: Good riddance.

Tags: capitalism,free market,washington post
Categories: BJ, Philosophy etc
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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.

Tags: michael,mission
Categories: BJ
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