Pioneer Fun Trumps Bad Attitude

I'm in my third year as activities coordinator. 1st year- WOW! I get to plan parties!! How great is that! 2nd year- This is nice I know what I'm doing this year. 3rd year-Ugh...they want me to plan another activity. I really hate my attitude right now. So yesterday,(last Saturday) it was the pioneer breakfast activity. The alarm sounded at 5:30 and my grumbling began. I had forgotten cups, so as Jared drove out to the activity in a separate car (he had to work later that morning) I had some time to reflect on my poor attitude and ask for some help in the matter. I arrived to a lean showing of members-mainly the cooks and youth asked to help, but we ended up having a great showing. My spirits were lifted by the enthusiasm of others; their willingness and excitement to serve, and their energy and excitement to participate in the activities. All the children had a wonderful time. Despite my poor attitude the Lord had blessed our ward that morning. I felt my own prayers were answered as I left the activity feeling so uplifted.

Where Did I Put Those Rose Tinted Glasses?

Despite my great week there are a few things that are troubling me. A few days ago I was watching a late night news show where Barack Obama was being interviewed about his previous opposition to the surge that has succeeded in Iraq. I noticed how well spoken he was, how confident and I thought hmmm, he has a strong chance of beating McCain. I had visited his campaign site earlier in the month and had compared it with McCains. While I agreed with nothing that Barack was promoting, he was thorough on his plan of execution should he win the presidency. McCain, who I agreed with in SOME areas was full of catch phrases, and very unclear as to how he would go about the changes he felt were in order. But I've missed my point... Here is a portion of the interview: Moran asked what Iraq would look like now if Obama's policy of withdrawing in the face of the violence had been implemented.

"That is a hard thing to speculate," Obama said, "The Sunnis might have made the same decisions at that time. The Shii’as might have made some similar decisions based on political calculation. There was ethnic cleansing in Baghdad that actually took the violence level down. And so, as I said before. Nobody has a crystal ball. If we did you just hire the guy with the crystal ball."

It was one of those moments where I said... Did he just say that...did he just put a positive spin on "ethnic cleansing". Is ethnic cleansing the PC term for genocide? I waited for the interviewer to say something-anything about that statement. He just moved on.

Maybe I misunderstood, I thought. Surely that's not what he said.. So I googled it. The first article I came to was from a 2007 interview on the Today show.
DAVID GREGORY: You heard Secretary Rice say there is progress in Iraq that cannot be ignored. She spoke about when, not if, the United States prevails in Iraq. Do you see it that way?
BARACK OBAMA: I think it's important to understand that after two days of testimony [by Gen. Petraeus and Amb. Crocker], here's the bottom line: that having put an additional 30,000 troops in, and continued the same course we were on, we are now back to the horrendous levels of violence that we were back in June of 2006.
So there's no doubt that we've seen some measured progress in Anbar province, primarily because the Sunni tribal leaders made a political decision there that they would work with the coalition forces. We've seen a very modest reduction of violence in Baghdad, partly because entire neighborhoods have essentially been ethnically cleansed. Those are all positive things, but we are now back at the levels of violence we were 18 months ago.

Then I found the transcript from the interview that I had just watched.
I had not misunderstood. When has ethnic cleansing ever been an acceptable means of "reducing violence" during war. Isn't ethnic cleansing a horrid form of violence in and of it's self.

Closer to home, I was told second hand that the park that is supposed to be built around our new library is receiving opposition from environmentalists. I tried to look more information up about it, and have not been successful. I am so angry. Just miles away a builder plowed down thousands of acres of prime Sonoran desert at the base of a mountain. They plowed it down before they were issued permits to do so, built 3 model homes then abandoned the project due to the housing "slow down". Did it make the news?-NO. Did any protests take place? NO. Did KB homes just get a billion dollar loss tax write off. YES. This makes my blood boil.

Do you ever feel like the world has just gone mad?

I'm disappointed at this election year. I don't like McCain. I don't think he will make a good president. I'm sick about the high probability of Obama winning.

I just read another article about Central and South American countries bending to the will of Venezuelas president Hugo Chavez. Cheap fuel beats out US loyalties. He and Russian president Dmitry Medvedev and Vladmir Putin all seem very cozy.

So let me get this straight we have no good presidential nominee, Asia owns us financially, we may get a replay of the Cold War, terrorists can infiltrate our borders with ease, and the American people are at their witts end because they can't afford their McMansions and Plasma TV's, and are willing to move to a socialistic economy so they can mantain a false standard of living. We protest parks and look the other way for huge housing developments built on nothing more than speculation and tax write offs. GREAT! Time to build up that food storage, and go cry on my big pillow.

PS.
While in California IndyMac shut down. There were lines of people outside the bank demanding their money. I wonder what the depression looked like as it was happening. We all have seen it in retrospect.

I Love My Life!

I really do. My week has been productive and full. I have had three photo appointments, lots of play time with Hannah and Noah, visiting time with good friends and family and to top it off Jared and I are going out to see Batman. WOW, that's a good week. Something awful must be in the works... Just kidding...Really I'm kidding. Here are some pics of the Hopkins I took this morning.

I love the Hopkins! Aren't they cute. Their girls are adorable. Braelynne was not in the mood for taking pictures this morning despite my best efforts in peek-a-boo. But she managed to grace me with one smile-which was very appreciated. :) Next time I'm bringing candy...

I have to admit I'm staring to feel in a little bit of a photo rut. I need to break out and do something creative. Madison are you ready to be my model? I think I'm going to call you right now!

Here are some shots from last night.

Butterflies, Beaches and Bollywood

We had a great time visiting the Birds in California. I have to admit I was slightly apprehensive to drive there without Jared. But we arrived without problem. Getting home was another story, I'll get to that later.

It was wonderful to spend time with Malea and her family. We took the kids to the Natural History Museum, got lost walking the beautiful streets of San Marino, played at the beach, ate Armenian chicken, shopped, stayed up until the wee hours of the morning, and watched Bride and Prejudice-a Bollywood take on the classic. (I highly recommend it). Here are a few pictures of our adventures.

The Fabric District

LA Traffic

Natural History Museum

Manhattan Beach-Yep...Still cold in July...

I have always considered myself a beach person. HOWEVER it is very conditional-like over 80 degrees outside air and water temperature. It was in the 60's that day-Okay maybe it reached low 70's for short spurts. The kids didn't mind though. :) We saw dolphins too!

We had a great time! Our drive home went relatively smooth. We stopped at a rest stop in the middle of hell (somewhere between Indio and Blythe). The temp read 117 degrees. A desert wasteland. The bathrooms were clean-but the flies were horrid. Yuck Yuck Yuck. I was so afraid of overheating that I drove without AC for about 20 miles. Thankfully everything was fine until....................Tempe. Then without warning the Suburban's engine just cut out. This happened to us in Utah too. This is how it went. Driving in heavy traffic at 80 miles per hour then car loses power-then I put it into Neutral trying to cross into the far right lane (at a descending speed, and turn the ignition hoping it will start again. I had to do this about 20 times. I got off the freeway and put more gas in (it was down to only half a tank) and drove home the rest of the way without problem.

I will miss Malea and her family, but it is nice to be home. My schedule is filling up again with photo sessions. The kids start school in a couple weeks :( and I start classes again at the end of August.

Saturday we painted Hannah's room, and I took engagement pictures.

CRAZY FUN!

This summer has been CRAZY FUN. So crazy fun that thinking about journaling the months events sends me into a catatonic stare... "Mom...what are you looking at-why aren't you answering me?" "Dad! She's doing it again!...." Okay-maybe that's slightly exaggerated.


I have over 300 pictures documenting the past 30 days events...Where should I begin...

Camp

Camp was really great. Better than I anticipated. I was a first year leader which meant I spent my days overseeing the first year camp girls activities that the Young Women Camp Leaders taught. Basically I hung out got to know the girls and made sure no one got lost or burned camp down.

Sunrise on Mount Lemon

I loved getting to know the other leaders and having the opportunity hang out with the amazing women I know from my ward at church. The Young Women of today are amazing. I came home feeling renewed, inspired and spiritually uplifted. Camp for me was a gift from the Lord. A gift I needed more than I knew.

UTAH!

We began our trip in Cedar City, visiting The Colberts. Rand and Jared have been friends since they were boys. I'm so grateful we have been able to stay in touch all these years. We really enjoy their family and feel blessed that they are a part of our lives. It is of great consequence to have friendships that time and distance have no bearing on. Sniff sniff... They showed us an amazing time. Here are some pics from our Taylor Creek hike in Zions Canyon.

SALEM!

We look forward to this trip every year. The kids can not wait to play with their cousins. In fact when we leave I can always count on at least an hour of wailing and gnashing of teeth...We have a couple traditions that we count on when we go. The Freedom Run, The Balloon Festival and the Stadium of Fire Fireworks. This year we purchased tickets to go into the stadium due to Miley Cyrus, the Blue Man group and our niece performing. We also fit in a trip to Park City to watch our nephew play Rugby, a hike to the Grotto, installing a toilet, a trip down citizenship lane, swimming swimming and more swimming, and lot's of shopping. I love shopping in Utah. I don't know what it is-but they seem to have better sales and selection. Maybe it's just that it's the only time I ever spend 6-8 hours straight browsing the mall. At any rate it is quickly becoming a favorite tradition when we visit. The kids are totally set for school!

The Freedom Run

When I signed our family up for this back in April, I thought it was a fabulous idea. The we started training... Uh Oh, I thought. What have I done... BUT, the kids were so excited about the race, I figured well the excitement will propel them along. I was right. We had so much fun! Noah was awesome. He and Jared took off- Noah ran full force for two miles, then took a couple short walking breaks and finished strong just over 41 minutes. Hannah ran the first mile straight then ran and walked alternating blocks. When she caught up to Aunt Sorena she opted to stay with her while I ran ahead to catch the boys. This was really hard for me... Was I abandoning her? Shouldn't we stay together? I really didn't want to miss Noah crossing the finish line. Sorena encouraged me to go on ahead, and Hannah nodded all to eagerly. So I ran to catch them, and was able to get pictures of everyone at the finish line. Hannah was able to spend some special time with her Aunt Sorena having fun dumping water over their heads- creating memories with her that will last a life time. I am so grateful for the family we have.

The Balloon Festival

The road to citizenship...

We were able to spend some time at a "Ellis Island" festival in Orem. I was able to pick up some great teaching tools, and the kids thoroughly enjoyed the production about early immigrants and playing in the restored army jeeps.

The Grotto Hike

Park City

Every summer, I can't believe how much my nieces and nephews have grown. This year was no exception. My nephew Kage is no longer a boy-at all. He is a low talking, rugby playing, muscle of a young man. And boy can he run...

Stadium Of Fire

This is what Noah thinks of Miley Cyrus...

Is grandma having fun yet?....

Of course she is!

Bajios and shopping-what more can a girl ask for?

What shall the men do while the ladies are at play?

Install a toilet. Jared installed a toilet downstairs with his dad. He asked me if I wanted to flush it...How about I take take a picture of it instead. :)

With our trip coming to an end, we drug the night on as long as we could. We played with fire, and ate dumpster dive donuts well past midnight.

On our way home we stopped in St. George to see the Whitney's.

They fed us a very yummy lunch (BBQ chicken pizza, check her link for the recipe). We loved getting to visit with them.

It has taken me several hours to finish this entry. I am so grateful for the family and friends we have been blessed with. I had the opportunity to talk with my niece who was just married a couple of years ago and is graduationg from BYU. She mentioned how each year keeps getting better and better. I couldn't agree more.