Stop covering him already!

Why is the media giving so much air time to Pat Robertson's comments about Haiti? It just encourages him.

Silver Lining

We watched the pilot for the Knight Rider reboot series on Hulu last night. We weren't terribly impressed. It looked more like a soap opera than we expected. All the younger adults in it looked like models, not like the FBI agents/linguists/scientist geeks they're supposed to be. My husband was able to point out one positive thing about the series.

Silver Lining

We watched the pilot for the Knight Rider reboot series on Hulu last night. We weren't terribly impressed. It looked more like a soap opera than we expected. All the younger adults in it looked like models, not like the FBI agents/linguists/scientist geeks they're supposed to be. My husband was able to point out one positive thing about the series: finally, Val Kilmer is not going to be French kissing onscreen (he does the voice of K.I.T.T. ;) ).

The Three R's

I am now officially teaching dd5 reading, 'ritin', and 'rithmetic. I've been teaching her to read out of old phonics textbooks for a few months now; it's going so well that now I sometimes have to tell her to stop reading and go to bed (sniff...she takes after her mom...and her dad...). A few weeks ago I added a daily sentence of copywork to her formal education. And on Tuesday, we started her kindergarten math book; I decided to go with the Math K5 worktext for several reasons:

1) It looks like fun. In fact, she begged today to do three sheets instead of the two I'd told her she'd be limited to.

2) It doesn't require a packet of specific manipulatives. IMHO, math manipulatives are over-hyped, for popsicle sticks work just fine to practice addition and subtraction, manipulating actual coins and bills is more meaningful than playing with plastic tokens, and I want to teach fractions with freshly-baked pies and pizzas (yum!).

3) Math K5 covers the basic subjects I want her to learn during her kindergarten year (which in many states would still be a preschool year for her due to her fall birthday) while I study her learning preferences in order to decide between Saxon and Singapore math for her later use.

Vacation is over!

And I have so many fun things to write about. The wondrous places I went and people I saw in exotic locales (OK, Amarillo, Texas and Oklahoma City), parenting milestones reached (and then retreated from, in the the case of our infant), and book reviews of deep literary works (Clancy, anyone?). You know, sometimes weblogs really NEED to shut down for a bit. 'Tis a noble endeavor to spare the internet the unfolding of such weighty content a while so that more servers can come online.

Christmas Break

I'm taking one! A real one, where I'm researching hotels and landmarks ahead of time. I hope I can turn over the landmark researching task to dd5 in a year or two....It's a learning opportunity, y'know!

New in Town

We recently watched the movie New in Town starring Renee Zellweger and Harry Connick Jr. It had some funny moments, and Harry Connick Jr. was handsome. HOWEVER, why didn't they film it in Minnesota?? The movie is full of Minnesota jokes and references to New Ulm events and structures, yet the movie was filmed in Canada. We never see New Ulm! A city with its own unique German heritage and a tourist destination in its own right! Lame.

This film is a caricature of Minnesota cliches; it's like the movie makers were trying to turn Fargo into a "rom-com", leaving out most of the senseless violence. The so-called Minnesota accent was overdone. I'm married to a Minnesotan and have lived in and visited that lovely, sometimes very cold state; people in the Twin Cities area, at least, don't speak with the strong accent this movie had them using. And while scrapbooking may be popular there, I can't imagine a Minnesota woman pulling out her scrapbook and showing each page thereof to her new boss right off as her boss drives at night on unfamiliar, snowy roads.

Whew!

It's official. My brother is still a punk. He is not even dating anyone, much less engaged.

Facebook Fun

My punk baby brother (OK, he's actually about 24 years old and studying engineering at BYU) just posted on Facebook that he's engaged! What??? I didn't even know he was dating anyone all that seriously. If this is for real, I'm in shock. But, knowing him, I will continue to suspect a hoax until he confirms the news personally. This is the boy who bleached his hair right before I got married and proclaimed to anyone who would listen that I was going to get so mad at him for ruining my wedding pictures with his crazy hair. I didn't get mad; I had more important things on my mind than the trivial detail of his hair color....things like, was I going to go through with the wedding?

Baby blessing

Today my husband gave our new baby a name and a blessing in church (see this link for an explanation of how that is done in the LDS church). It was a beautiful day, made even better by the presence of many relatives who sacrificed to travel in the snow and be a part of the event. Families are wonderful...when they're wonderful. ;)

Pink Brain, Blue Brain

I just finished reading Pink Brain, Blue Brain tonight, an interesting book about differences between boys and girls by neurophysicist

Biggest news of the year!

Born Thursday in the "wee" hours!

Sent home

I woke up this morning to realize that I'd had a leak of amniotic fluid. (Yes, the barometric pressure has been dropping steadily, and we have a winter storm headed our way.) We moseyed into the hospital birth center about three hours later, by which time they were unable to confirm that I'd leaked amniotic fluid. Since I wasn't then and still am not in active labor, I'm glad they sent me home. I was definitely having contractions (still am) but nothing regular, and no apparent "progress" was being made. It really is a letdown to go into the hospital excited and nervous just to hear three hours later (they're quite busy today) that they're not going to keep you at the hospital. However, as the nurse was bidding us farewell, she said she hoped we had some shoelaces (to tie off the umbilical cord) in case we get stuck at home because of an ice storm.

How's that for a mixed message? "We're sending you home because we can't confirm that you're close to delivering your baby" and "We hope you're ready to deliver the baby at home by yourself"?

Morning conversations

Dd5 was up today before dh left for work. She followed us into the bathroom and received a "knuckle bump" from her daddy for something good she'd just done. The contrast in fist sizes was quite cute, so I pointed it out to her. She then proceeded to point out daddy's big feet and big legs. She looked at my nose and said, "You have a small nose. No, you have a medium-sized nose." I responded, "Yes, you have a small nose." She then looked up, way up, to daddy's face and he got a pained expression knowing what was coming next. "Daddy, you have a big nose!" He's not pleased about his nose size and is very happy that dd5 appears to be taking after me in the nose department. He tried to hide his nose from her after that.

Morning conversations

Dd5 was up today before dh left for work. She followed us into the bathroom and received a "knuckle bump" from her daddy for something good she'd just done. The contrast in fist sizes was quite cute, so I pointed it out to her. She then proceeded to point out daddy's big feet and big legs. She looked at my nose and said, "You have a small nose. No, you have a medium-sized nose." I responded, "Yes, you have a small nose."

Artemis Fowl

Thanks to my husband, I'm now reading the Artemis Fowl series. I read the first book a while back but didn't feel then the desire to get the second book. However, that was before I read the graphic novel of the first book, which dh borrowed from the library twice in a row.

The Proposal

Dh and I went on a date last night! First we stuffed ourselves full of German food at a local restaurant, then we went to see the movie The Proposal.

It was an OK movie. As someone who used to work day-in, day-out with fiancee and spouse visa applicants, I found I was rooting for Sandra Bullock's character to get deported and barred from the USA forever. She's the protagonist, so I'm fairly sure that's not the way the film writers imagined audiences reacting.

{Proof}

Last night, I watched the movie {Proof}, based on the play Proof that I saw just last month.

Addictive website for this expectant mother

Before my first child was born, I probably read over 100 birth stories on the internet. That helped me prepare for childbirth quite well (that, and the Bradley birth education class we took), and I had a nonmedicated delivery in the hospital with a supportive OB/GYN. This pregnancy will be the first time that I give birth in the USA, which is likely to be a different experience than my last two deliveries, if only for cultural and technological reasons.

Instead of reading birth stories from mothers' perspectives now, I find myself drawn to reading experiences related on an OB/GYN nursing forum. Apparently, it's not usual in the USA to have a doctor be the primary medical person checking on the mother. They often just "show up to catch". Nurses seem to have a much bigger role in monitoring labor in this country than I have experienced thus far. Fortunately, I plan to be assisted by a certified nurse midwife this time. However, if she's not able to make it, I need to know all I can about the issues that will come up with the registered nurses in a typical labor and delivery unit. I don't want to clash unnecessarily with them just because of my ignorance of their expectations.

Debt musings

To most people, myself included, a reasonable amount of debt is generally acceptable as long as a person enters into the debt intending to pay it back. I have one relative who appears to purposely run up bills knowing that she might get out of paying them because of her specific situation (I won't go into details). To me, such behavior is theft. I also consider some debt "better" than other "debt", e.g. purchasing a modest home or going back to college outranks "shopping therapy" at the mall or a new boat.

I am aghast at what has happened to the national debt and deficit in the past year. Republican or Democrat administration, our leaders have heavily indebted the entire country to a degree that appears to be impossible for us to ever pay off without severe budget cuts, which I can't see our federal politicians making. I think it's a shame for anyone to not get the best medical care possible, I want to see financial support for the development of solar energy and other forms of renewable energy, I want lots of money given to students to allow them to get the best educations they can, I want everyone to be able to have a job, I don't want banks to fail, I want our country to give generous foreign aid, I want a strong fine arts scene, and I want a strong military. However, as a nation, we don't have unlimited funds (unless we print them, but PLEASE don't let us go down that road), and we must prioritize what we want and adhere to a balanced budget. I'd even be happy with a close-to-balanced budget. But what we have now is a deficit just this year of over $1.6 trillion dollars. Can we ever pay back our debt? Or is Congress indebting us to an immoral degree? And more pragmatically, who will keep loaning us money and on what terms? Will our country become prey to "predatory lenders"? Hmmm, I'd really rather muse on something else for a while.