Worst Stock Market Drop Ever

It seems that our economy has gone to hell in a handbasket.  The DOW dropped 777 points today after Congress failed to pass the 700 billion bailout of financial institutions today. 

 

I’ve reached the point of chuckling about it…because I don’t know what else to do.  I have no idea how our country is going to respond.  I hope we become less socialistic, but I’m afraid we will have the opposite response.  We don’t need another “New Deal”.  We need a cultural revolution.  Thrift, industry, delayed gratification, family values—all things that would go a long way in this country to solving many of our problems.  Bigger government is not the answer.

Weekend in Paul

Wow, what a fun weekend we had at Grandma Ro's house. We left after school on Friday, and Ty had his coaching clinic at CSI on Saturday, which he went to with Emmett, Clint, and Trav. Afterwards they played 18 holes at Burley. Kelsy came up and brought Atim Otii, my SDSU teammate who is working as an attorney in SLC on a project until November and living with our 90 year old Alaska friend Grace Anderson who has an apartment across from the conference center. Grandpa Jer-Bear took us fishing at Oakley Reservoir, and mom watched the girls.

On the way back to Idaho Falls, Kysa had major issues about leaving Grandma Ro. She sobbed on and off for about 45 minutes. We called G-Ro and let Kysa talk to her. After she got off the phone she threw an absolute fit, crying, "I need to get out. I need to get out right now! I don't want to go home!"

Today, Kysa has been having a fun afternoon playing with Gretchen Neilsen Moser's little girl Preslee, who is 4. Pres is trying to read a book to Kysa right now. She came over on Friday and will come over 1-2 times/week after her morning preschool. Gretchen was my high school basketball teammates and is now working in special ed at Skyline.

Big Girls

Kysa woke up at 5 a.m. in pain, and luckily I was able to get her in with Dr. Groberg at 11:30 today.  She’s in much better spirits after a dose of antibiotics.

 

She weighed in at 38 pounds and is 39 inches tall.  She’s in the 98^th percentile for height AND weight.

 

Shay still has a runny nose, but no ear infections.  She is right at 30 pounds and about 34 inches tall.  Which puts her above the 95^th percentile as well.  She just looks short next to Kysa.

 

Tonight some of us are headed to Rexburg for a BBQ at Coach Woodland’s house with Landon and S.J.’s family and Bill Riggins, who was the institute director when I was at San Diego State and now teaches religion at BYU-I.  I’m excited to see him and his family.  They are friends with Coach and Rich.  Ty has a city league game and I will probably leave Shay with him.

Raleigh's First Soccer Goal

I was so proud of Raleigh tonight--he scored his first soccer goal. His team also won for the first time, 2-0. He was pretty excited about it. He's got good bursts of speed. He's definitely one of the faster kids when he runs hard, but he's still figuring out how to maintain that top speed. The first game he'd just kick it once and then stand and watch it. He's figuring out that he's got to keep running hard after he kicks it so he can go kick it again.

I had a busy day. After Ty got home, I went to Gem Lake and swam in the river for about 20 minutes while Barb Ehardt jet skied, and then went to the 5:30 bootcamp class with Mandi. It was Mandi's first time and I think she really liked it and will sign up so she can get in really good shape for basketball. I'm hoping her friends will also decide to do it. It's a group fitness class at Apple that you have to pay for, but wow, it's been worth it for me. It's the best conditioning I've done since college, and probably harder than our pre-season conditioning for basketball. I love it. Earlier today I ran a mile in 6:55 on the treadmill. Then I did intervals until i hit the 5K mark.

Lately I have been dropping Raleigh off at kindergarten (or having my friend Marcia drop him off with her son Brennan), and then heading to Apple with the girls. When we get back they are ready for naps, but unfortunately not today and I only got them down about 5 minutes before Ty got home from school. They were full of it for me, and for him when they woke up. He hauled everybody to the soccer game and I met them there after the class.

oh what else, i also tried to take Kysa and Shay to get their pictures taken at Wal-Mart this morning. That didn't go so well. We didn't even get any because we couldn't get a good one of the two of them. Yes, they were bad, but the gal who was taking the pictures took forever to actually take the pictures. By the time she did her thing, it was too late. She missed a lot of good shots. It think you ought to have a rapid fire camera set up to get good candids of kids. But that's what I get for going to Wal-Mart. It wasn't planned anyway, they just had a good deal for a couple of 10 x 13's for 10 bucks and I thought "Why not?"

One cute thing...I told Kysa to say "Happy" when we were trying to take pictures, because that usually results in a cute smile. Sure enough, Shay joined in, saying "Happy" several times. Of course, now she won't do it because she doesn't like to do anything when asked. It's got to be on her own terms. Shay puts little sentences together like "I want that". And she says a lot of things we can't quite understand. Shay is cute, but I really hope she grows out of this bratty stage. But like Ty said the other day, when she's a teenager we might be thankful that she's "Miss No-No" when it comes to staying away from things like drugs and boys. :)

Tomorrow is the Homecoming Parade and Raleigh gets to go watch it with his kindergarten class. Ty is driving a vehicle so he will try to throw some candy to him. I don't know if I'll go or not...depends if the girls go down for their naps or not.

Oh...one other thing. Barb and I talked about starting an open water swimming group next summer. More on that later, but the goal is just to have some people to go swim the river with, like they do down in Burley with all the Rockscycling folks.

Weekend Update

On Saturday after the JDRF event at Snake River Landing, Ty took Raleigh and Shay out to Menan so he could watch the football games, and so I could take Kysa jetskiing with Cindy Leyland.  She is an awesome lady and has two jetskis, but her husband doesn’t like to go.  (Did I mention she’s a grandma?)  Anyway, Alicia Jones also came with us for the second time.  She’s a 9^th grader who is a really good basketball player and babysits for me quite a bit.  We had a blast.  Cindy led us underneath Broadway bridge and we went right up to the falls.  It was beautiful. We put in at South Tourist Park and enjoyed the stretch of water by Snake river Landing.

 

Kysa drove a bit…she said, “I go fasty”, and hit the gas hard.  She loves the water, although it was cold enough she realized it wasn’t a good idea to “go swimmin”.  I got in and swam for about 30 minutes and Kysa rode with Cindy.  It was a beautiful day.  We got back to the house and changed and went to Iggy’s Sports Grill.  While we were waiting, we walked out to the Pier and looked at the water that we’d been jetskiing in a couple hours before.  Ky found some rocks to jump off of, and said, “I do a SoupyJump!”   (Superjump!)  Then she told me, “mom, you do a Soupyjump!”  She’s so full of energy.  She actually did really great at the restaurant.  I prepped her, and she was wearing a cute dress so I think she sensed it was important to behave (better than she usually does anyway.)  It’s a lot easier when I have her 1-on-1.  I had to laugh though, in her booster chair she discovered she could do dips, so that kept her occupied for awhile.  She’s really into doing dips and her leg lifts especially.  She figured out how to do the leg lifts in the middle of the horseshoe shaped table at Apple’s nursery.  Now Shay is trying to do them too.  It’s gotta be genetic or something.  Ty knows what I’m talking about. 

 

When we got home from Iggy’s, we watched some shows together on the couch before bed, and I brushed her hair.  She LOVES having us brush her hair lately.  Speaking of hair, Shay now has enough hair for me to put all of it in a ponytail.  Kysa…not so much. 

 

Ty and I spoke in church today and KC and Chris Jones took care of Kysa and Shay so we could sit on the stand.  Raleigh sat by our primary pres. Marcy Bitter.  Even though we had to speak, it was way more relaxing than usual because we weren’t battling the girls.  We were so grateful.  We had the Bodily’s and the Murdoch’s over for treats a little after 8, and it was a blast for us and the kids.  They are great.  Maureen Peterson also came over to deliver a letter that Jordan wrote to us. (One of Ty’s players.)  I also had him in the basketball class I taught up at BYU-I.  He’s on a mission in Korea and doing wonderful.

Crazy Hair

Ty had some fun while brushing Kysa's hair tonight.

Backyard Gymnastics

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Nothin' But Trouble...#2

Fashion Statement

Kysa decided it would be fun to raid the headband drawer and put on all of
the headbands she could find. You can see the result. The girls also had
fun "riding" the big red bull in the living room. For some reason,
headbands have been really "in" the last couple of days for Kysa and Shay.

Raleigh's Friends

Raleigh is really enjoying his kindergarten class and his friends in the
neighborhood. Neighbors Taryn and Drew Chapman came over after school
yesterday, and Brennan Bodily came over today. They have all been keeping
themselves busy by digging in our garden area that didn't ever get planted this
summer. Taryn really enjoyed playing in the dirt...she didn't want to come in for anything.

Raleigh also likes playing with Logan and Caden Taggart and Amy from across
the street. Amy is a lot older than Raleigh but she likes to play games
with all the kids and jump on the trampoline. She's really a sweet girl.
Kysa tells me almost every day, "Mom, I gotta tell you someping--Amy's comin
ovey." Then she grins.

I went to Raleigh's "Back to School" night at Ammon elementary. All the kids have little cut outs hanging up in the hallway that say one thing that they like to do. Raleigh's little guy says, "I like to play with my kitten." Ahhhhhh...isn't that cute!

True That, Anderson

I watched Sarah Palin's speech twice tonight.  Once with my kids still awake, so maybe I should say I watched it 1.5 times.  I stood the entire time, and actually the kids played as nice together as they have in a long time.  They must have sensed mom was into something historic. 

 

The second time I watched it with my husband, I probably drove him nuts with my annoying "oh, just wait" and "the next part is awesome" comments. 

 

Then I had a chance to hear the post-speech commentary on CNN.  Not our network of choice, but we like to hear what the other side has to say...thus the Wolf Blitzer quotes.  (He also said Palin's speech was a "grand slam", by the way, and that "a star was born".)

 

I think Campbell Brown and the rest of the pundits don't know what to do with themselves.  Here is a strong, well-spoken, accomplished woman in the national spotlight who is the MOST POPULAR governor in the entire country, with 80% approval.  Unfortunately for them she doesn't fit the template they were hoping for in a female leader.  She is NOT pro-choice, she is NOT progressive, and she is NOT a member of the Washington elite.  She has a LIFE outside of Washington--outside of politics for that matter.  She has five kids--"how dare she have that many kids!"  I can hear them now.   

 

Campbell Brown has been one of the most vocal and unfair critics of Palin in the past few days, but I think that even Campbell is a little torn after hearing Palin's speech because she is genuinely likeable.  Campbell said, "

 

But it was hilarious how quickly the pundits began drawing the attention away from Palin, talking about how well written her speech was, even mentioning the supposed main speech writer by name.  Bless Anderson Cooper's little heart...a few minutes later he actually said, "I don't remember anyone mentioning the speech writers of other candidates." 

 

True that, Anderson.

 

Not surprisingly, the others quickly shifted attention to a different topic.  None of the pundits commented on Anderson's observation, and I'm sure they were all thinking, "SHUT UP ANDERSON!"

 

My husband and I noticed that right away, and I admire Anderson for having the guys to actually say something about it.  He also said something about how mainstream America doesn't necessarily give a rip about what the talking heads say on Sundays on Meet the Press.  Well he didn't use those exact words, but his point was that Sarah Palin may have more of an impact on voters than anyone realizes, even though she's not at the top of the ticket. 

 

I will repeat myself, I don't think the liberal media knows what to do with themselves.

 

GAME ON!

She Hit it Out of the Ballpark!

Sarah Palin's speech was awesome. It's not surprising at all to me that "she hit it out of the ballpark". It is surprising that I can attribute that quote to CNN Analyst Wolf Blitzer.

I am an energized conservative voter who is not only excited about Sarah Palin, but I am actually excited about John McCain after being very negative about him earlier.

Photo: Courtesy of Reuters

Here is one of my favorite sections of her speech:

"Before I became governor of the great state of Alaska, I was mayor of my hometown.

And since our opponents in this presidential election seem to look down on that experience, let me explain to them what the job involves.

I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a "community organizer," except that you have actual responsibilities. I might add that in small towns, we don't quite know what to make of a candidate who lavishes praise on working people when they are listening, and then talks about how bitterly they cling to their religion and guns when those people aren't listening.

We tend to prefer candidates who don't talk about us one way in Scranton and another way in San Francisco.

As for my running mate, you can be certain that wherever he goes, and whoever is listening, John McCain is the same man. I'm not a member of the permanent political establishment. And I've learned quickly, these past few days, that if you're not a member in good standing of the Washington elite, then some in the media consider a candidate unqualified for that reason alone.

But here's a little news flash for all those reporters and commentators: I'm not going to Washington to seek their good opinion - I'm going to Washington to serve the people of this country. Americans expect us to go to Washington for the right reasons, and not just to mingle with the right people.

Politics isn't just a game of clashing parties and competing interests.

The right reason is to challenge the status quo, to serve the common good, and to leave this nation better than we found it."

And the quote that just made me cheer for this lady who is tougher than nails...

"What’s the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull?

Lipstick."

Here is what one Global Warming blogger had to say about Palin on her blog:

"I want to know more about these issues - but I do appreciate a smart, talented, well-spoken, feisty woman who chooses to charge through public service which can’t be easy to say the least. I was undecided until tonight, but I’ve edged closer to McCain/Palin as a result of this woman’s speech. I’m not there yet, but closer. You still have to prove some environmental concerns to me, and we have to know more about Iraq and what we plan to do there - but I’m anxious to learn more. Thanks, Gov. Palin, GOP VP Candidate for adding some tangible excitement to this race. Last night’s convention coverage was a bore - but tonight - wow - you packed it in - and all I can say to that, is “Go Get ‘Em Girl!”

If she was inspired, imagine how conservatives feel right now!

BLATENT HYPOCRISY

I can’t wait to hear Sarah Palin speak at the RNC tonight. 

 

It’s been infuriating to see the liberal media’s hypocrisy as they criticize her for accepting the nomination for vice-president, because she has a pregnant 17 year old daughter and a baby with down’s syndrome.  “How can she put her daughter through that?”   “How can she care for her baby with special needs?”

 

If I was pregnant at 17, I would feel AWFUL for the rest of my life if my mom didn’t take the nominations.  It would be way worse if she turned it down.

 

As for her little baby…her husband is obviously going to be able to be there.  It’s not like she’s a single mom trying to do this.  The kids will have tons of family support.  Even when Dr. Laura talks about this, she talks about how important it is that a parent is home with the kids…I don’t see why it matters if dad is willing to be there. 

 

It’s okay for a democrat woman to work outside the home, but not for an conservative evangelical.  It’s okay for a liberal’s family members to make moral mistakes, but not for a conservative evangelical’s.

 

I have heard several people on cable news show say what amounts to—“See, abstinence doesn’t work.  Gotta give em condoms and birth control.”

 

Just because someone makes a mistake doesn’t mean it is wrong to strive for a higher standard!  Heaven forbid we teach our kids correct principles.  The liberals think we all need to cater to the lowest common denominator.  Just hand out condoms and birth control and all will be well.

 

The feminists simply don’t know what to do with themselves.  The potential first woman V.P. is a conservative.  It’s okay for them, but not for a conservative.  It’s okay to work if you have 1,2, or 3 kids, but definitely not 4 or 5.  Someone actually said that! 

 

I hope people recognize this blatant hypocrisy.

Marathon Training Schedule Revisited

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