Saturday, September 12, 2009
Antelope Island Balloon Stampede...
The Davis County Tourism board has a had time winning. For the last few years they have hosted a balloon festival on Antelope Island and each time it has rained. They decided to bump the festival up this year a couple weeks to Labor Day weekend and while not a lot of rain, there was quite a bit of wind and clouds. The balloons were still beautiful to behold even if they didn't get to launch (at least while we were there.)
Friday, September 11, 2009
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Telemarketers Beware...
Just fair warning. I am NOT in the mood to talk to you today. I'm sure you are very kind and are only trying to feed your 2.5 kids and a dog but really...can't you find another job? Do you really like the abuse you are put through? Even my abuse (which is in the form of politeness). I don't get it. And I'm really sorry you have to have that job. Now just don't call me...ANYMORE!
Irritating salesperson from Q**** (The phone company that will remain mostly nameless): Hi, are you the person in charge of the Q**** phone account?
Me: We don't have a Q**** phone account. (We switched at least 5 years ago on the business phone)
Irritating salesperson from Q**** (The phone company that will remain mostly nameless): Do you know who you switched to?
Me: Yes (long pause)
Irritating salesperson from Q**** (The phone company that will remain mostly nameless):No I mean do you know the NAME of the company you switched to?
Me: Yes I know the name of the company we switched to. (long pause)
Irritating salesperson from Q**** (The phone company that will remain mostly nameless): *click*
Yep...she hung up on ME...can you believe it? Well in fairness, it was a wise move. I have told representatives of this fine company to remove me from their calling list MULTIPLE TIMES and once I even told the guy WHY we would not come back (all due to our personal phone account and the many hoops and crap they have put us through. Sucks when you have a monopoly on DSL.) Boy was he SORRY he asked. I think I may have convinced him to switch too.
Irritating salesperson from Q**** (The phone company that will remain mostly nameless): Hi, are you the person in charge of the Q**** phone account?
Me: We don't have a Q**** phone account. (We switched at least 5 years ago on the business phone)
Irritating salesperson from Q**** (The phone company that will remain mostly nameless): Do you know who you switched to?
Me: Yes (long pause)
Irritating salesperson from Q**** (The phone company that will remain mostly nameless):No I mean do you know the NAME of the company you switched to?
Me: Yes I know the name of the company we switched to. (long pause)
Irritating salesperson from Q**** (The phone company that will remain mostly nameless): *click*
Yep...she hung up on ME...can you believe it? Well in fairness, it was a wise move. I have told representatives of this fine company to remove me from their calling list MULTIPLE TIMES and once I even told the guy WHY we would not come back (all due to our personal phone account and the many hoops and crap they have put us through. Sucks when you have a monopoly on DSL.) Boy was he SORRY he asked. I think I may have convinced him to switch too.
Oh for having the Do Not Call list extended to business numbers.
Monday, September 7, 2009
Finally have some good stuff
to blog about and we just upgraded my computer so I have no access to my photo software yet. :(
Coming soon:
150,000 miles
Balloon Festival
Rocket Day
Coming soon:
150,000 miles
Balloon Festival
Rocket Day
I'm dying here!
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Really?
On Tuesday September 8, 2009, President Barack Obama will have a televised speech specifically for school aged children throughout the country. Reportedly the speech will "challenge students to work hard, set education goals, and take responsibility for their learning."
Many school districts in Utah will be notifying parents if their school decides to show it, and many will provide 'opt-out' activities for those children whose parents don't want their children exposed to such political rhetoric.
Really.
Have I gone down the rabbit hole? Do you remember the song in South Pacific called "You've Got to Be Carefully Taught"? Basically it is saying that fear, hate and prejudice must be taught. We aren't innately this way but grow that way from the influences around us that teach us.
I think as an American Society we are doing a HUGE disservice to our children. All the way from Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid down to inflammatory talk show hosts and conservative activists. We are carefully teaching our children that opposing ideas, no scratch that, opposing people are bad, evil, wrong. Is it so hard to believe that two people with opposing ideas can both love their country...so much that all they want is the best for it?
Apparently yes, and we see that example in our leaders, in Nancy Pelosi's thrilling autobiography she mentions a story about wanting to buy a house when her and her family first moved to California. Finding the perfect house with the perfect yard, in the perfect location, she asked the homeowner why they were moving. It turns out the family was moving to Washington D.C. to take a position in the Nixon administration. When she found out they were Republicans she decided she couldn't buy the house after all because there was no way she would live in a house a republican owned.
What were her children carefully taught? We have example after example on BOTH political extremes of hate being carefully taught.
Right wing author/columnist/commentator Ann Coulter has books out such as Treason: Liberal Treachery from the Cold War to the War on Terrorism or How to Talk to a Liberal (If You Must): The World According to Ann Coulter.
Obviously she has the right to speak her mind, but the approach she uses along with countless others is inflammatory, degrading and counterproductive to her position.
My question...what are we going to do to stop it? I am so tired of the arguments on both sides and frankly, the common phrase on both sides--'well the other side did it first' is just plain crap.
Are we back in Kindergarten? How about civil discourse. How about not jumping to conclusions. How about respect, Real respect. How about listening for a change before spouting off. How about teaching our children carefully. Carefully that all people have value. All people are children of a loving Heavenly Father. Carefully teaching them important truths that will guide them in making good and right decisions. Carefully teaching them that if you disagree with someone it doesn't make the other person a BAD person, it merely means they have a different opinion. Funny that we have been endowed by our creator with individual personalities and minds that DO NOT think the same. Do you think it chance? I don't. We have seen time and time again that growth comes from opposition. If we all agreed on every issue there would be no opposition. Without opposition there is no reason to progress, grow and become better.
I will be the First to admit that I am not President Obama's biggest fan. But darn it, I will NOT teach my children to hate him, to be disrespectful of him, or to diminish the office he legally and lawfully holds. Much of this furor was fueled by a Farmington Elementary showing a video about service to the kids. I don't agree with everything in the 'I Pledge' video. There are probably 5 or 6 phrases in that video that make me cringe. But darn it...there are another 3 minutes of pledging to do things that are right and good.
I pledge to find the good in opposing views and respectfully and carefully teach my children to treat all people with respect.
Many school districts in Utah will be notifying parents if their school decides to show it, and many will provide 'opt-out' activities for those children whose parents don't want their children exposed to such political rhetoric.
Really.
Have I gone down the rabbit hole? Do you remember the song in South Pacific called "You've Got to Be Carefully Taught"? Basically it is saying that fear, hate and prejudice must be taught. We aren't innately this way but grow that way from the influences around us that teach us.
I think as an American Society we are doing a HUGE disservice to our children. All the way from Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid down to inflammatory talk show hosts and conservative activists. We are carefully teaching our children that opposing ideas, no scratch that, opposing people are bad, evil, wrong. Is it so hard to believe that two people with opposing ideas can both love their country...so much that all they want is the best for it?
Apparently yes, and we see that example in our leaders, in Nancy Pelosi's thrilling autobiography she mentions a story about wanting to buy a house when her and her family first moved to California. Finding the perfect house with the perfect yard, in the perfect location, she asked the homeowner why they were moving. It turns out the family was moving to Washington D.C. to take a position in the Nixon administration. When she found out they were Republicans she decided she couldn't buy the house after all because there was no way she would live in a house a republican owned.
What were her children carefully taught? We have example after example on BOTH political extremes of hate being carefully taught.
Right wing author/columnist/commentator Ann Coulter has books out such as Treason: Liberal Treachery from the Cold War to the War on Terrorism or How to Talk to a Liberal (If You Must): The World According to Ann Coulter.
Obviously she has the right to speak her mind, but the approach she uses along with countless others is inflammatory, degrading and counterproductive to her position.
My question...what are we going to do to stop it? I am so tired of the arguments on both sides and frankly, the common phrase on both sides--'well the other side did it first' is just plain crap.
Are we back in Kindergarten? How about civil discourse. How about not jumping to conclusions. How about respect, Real respect. How about listening for a change before spouting off. How about teaching our children carefully. Carefully that all people have value. All people are children of a loving Heavenly Father. Carefully teaching them important truths that will guide them in making good and right decisions. Carefully teaching them that if you disagree with someone it doesn't make the other person a BAD person, it merely means they have a different opinion. Funny that we have been endowed by our creator with individual personalities and minds that DO NOT think the same. Do you think it chance? I don't. We have seen time and time again that growth comes from opposition. If we all agreed on every issue there would be no opposition. Without opposition there is no reason to progress, grow and become better.
I will be the First to admit that I am not President Obama's biggest fan. But darn it, I will NOT teach my children to hate him, to be disrespectful of him, or to diminish the office he legally and lawfully holds. Much of this furor was fueled by a Farmington Elementary showing a video about service to the kids. I don't agree with everything in the 'I Pledge' video. There are probably 5 or 6 phrases in that video that make me cringe. But darn it...there are another 3 minutes of pledging to do things that are right and good.
I pledge to find the good in opposing views and respectfully and carefully teach my children to treat all people with respect.
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
More Random Bloggy Things to Blog About
*Emily had her first fieldwork of the new school year yesterday. They are learning about Utah and transportation starting with the Mormon Pioneers. So yesterday they hiked 4+ miles of the path the pioneers took to come into the Salt Lake Valley. The highlight of the trip? 2 dead Moose. Yeah...I'm shaking my head too.
*Tim's Math and Astronomy teacher met me by the car today when I picked up my kids from school. She started the conversation with,
*Tim's Math and Astronomy teacher met me by the car today when I picked up my kids from school. She started the conversation with,
"Are you Tim's Mom?"
Surely a phrase that makes a Mom's heart skip a beat. ;) But as it turns out she just wanted to 'say hi' and tell me he is 'doing great'. ~Mom's heart beats again and urges lips into a smile~
*I am so OVER allergies. Or at least I wish I was..."bwahhhaaaahhhaaa"
*Ethan on our way home from walking Savanna to school yesterday morning.
Me: You are getting to be a big boy.
Ethan: No, I'm a medium boy.
*Savanna upon finding out that she got to go to school YET AGAIN this morning.
*I am so OVER allergies. Or at least I wish I was..."bwahhhaaaahhhaaa"
*Ethan on our way home from walking Savanna to school yesterday morning.
Me: You are getting to be a big boy.
Ethan: No, I'm a medium boy.
*Savanna upon finding out that she got to go to school YET AGAIN this morning.
"Oh Goody!!!"
*Sierra's constant refrain over the last couple of days.
"When does soccer start again?" Thanks goodness for tomorrow. I hope we can find some cleats that fit!
*Sierra's constant refrain over the last couple of days.
"When does soccer start again?" Thanks goodness for tomorrow. I hope we can find some cleats that fit!
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Therapy
Frustrated, irritated, tired and stressed?
Snip green beans on the porch. It is good therapy.
Snip green beans on the porch. It is good therapy.
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