Dear Reader,

I am tired, had the runs this morning, vacuumed the WHOLE downstairs tonight, planned my intro to my first swing class, it's going to be clever and I learned all about Pack Rats, which we have in abundance here in the Sonoran desert. One has made a nest in Matt's car which stalled it on the freeway. They are the size of guinea pigs and they are not scared of us, the humans. But life goes on and it's enjoyable when your children are sometimes clever.

Grace prayed, "Please bless we can eat dinner. Please bless we can yell real loud..."

I asked, "Why do you want to yell?"
"Maybe if we yell real loud Heavenly Father will come down and see us."

I love the desert and I love the people who live in the desert and I love those people's pools. Although we haven't become good enough friends with any of those people yet to warrant an invite, but it's just a matter of time, really.

A New Post

So life has changed drastically since my last post. Anne started Kindergarten and Grace started Pre-school. And I realized for the first time that this whole toddler thing is going to end very soon. The time when I am sending my last kid off to the big school with lunch in hand and an extra barrette is not far distant. I've heard a thousand times it goes fast, and I believed it because I only have three. Other women who have four or more, now that era is a very long time for them. But for my little three it's a blur. sigh.

Since Anne has started school she has proclaimed her name is now "Alanah." She won't let it go either. I thought if I ignored it, "Alanah" would go away, like an imaginary friend, but she's insistent. She also says "like" like 50x's more and uses the word "butt," which may not be a big deal to yous out there, but it just one more sign of the loss of sweetness as her eyes begin to widen and mouth begins to grin while gazing on the big wide world beckoning her exploration. No more days of being couped up in a nice, safe home where PB&J's are served daily with a smile.

As for an update on the rest of us...Matt started his second year of school with a keen sense of "git 'er done." And I am trying regularly to flatten my three-baby-flab-bottom and not getting very far. Next month I will be teaching a swing dance class and a line dancing class, yep you heard it, LINE DANCING class at Sahuarita Dance Studio. I am way excited and have had some success in getting participants. We'll see if I can still "swing 'em out." Debatable.

A Joke

In memory of my Dad. Today was his birthday.

A guy with a speech impediment walked into a bar and asked, "How much for a beer?"
"Three dollars."
"Three dollars? That's alot of money! Oh- I'll take one," muttered the man as he quickly drank it down. "How much for a glass of wine?"
"Eight dollars," the bartender replied.
"Eight dollars! That's a lot of money. Oh well, I'll take one." He drank it down as he turned to leave said, "Thanks for not mentioning my speech impediment."
And the bartender said, "Thanks for not mentioning my hunchback."
"Hunchback? I thought it was your butt! Everything else is so high in here!"

I miss him and his jokes.

The Wisdom of a 5 yr Old

The other day I came into the kitchen to find yet another mess for me to clean. It had been a long day already and it was only 10:30. As I began cleaning it, I also began to grumble and then I heard Anne give a long sigh and say, "It's all part of having kids, Mom."

#36

I know I'm getting older. I stopped dying my hair more than a year ago and just recently admitted that I have a grey hair. Okay, a few. I dance in the kitchen and I'm a half a beat off, but my bum comes in on the next one. My laziness in not putting lotion on everyday is finally resulting in wrinkly skin in the sunlight. And two age spots have appeared on my face.

But there are good things about turning 36 too- We went out to lunch for my birthday and our skinny, skinny waitress asked if I would like a half or whole order of my salad. I said "half" and asked her if it's still a decent size portion. Her reply was, "Oh yeah, you're gonna need a box for that one."
When my WHOLE order came, I was confused. But Matt informed me that I ordered a whole. (It was my birthday, I was thinking of lots of things, like Holy Bibles and gaping holes of the universe, you know deep stuff.) So I started to eat my WHOLE delicious pecan chicken salad. And it was delicious. Miss "Skinny Skinny" came by and said, "Oh good, that's disappearing rapidly!" I didn't even blink. Even though I knew by this time, I really would finish the WHOLE thing. No box needed. Don't even bother looking. Squeaky clean. And I was right. And I really didn't care. In fact, I was satisfied and proud that Skinny Skinny could see that I ate like a hungry hippo until ALL the marbles were gone. On a scale of 1-10 of self-conscienceness, I gave myself a 1- just because I happened to notice Skinny Skinny was saying all the wrong things to the right customer.

Happy Birthday to me!

Why didn't anyone tell me I had eyebrow hairs growing on my temples??

Want the Skinny?

I have created a new blog called, "Want the Skinny?" www.wanttheskinny.blogspot.com It's "a blog for conservative, busy women, who may not have time to do the research on current events and political/social issues. I'll get the whole low down and then give you the skinny. Disclaimer: All content is pure opinion, mixed with the word on the street and added bias."

Hm. I'm quoting myself. That's kind of cool. I am an "other source" voice to myself. Like I know something or something. What narcissistic pleasure!

Anyway for further explanation of my new blog go to the "Introduction", my first post, to see my reasoning behind creating it. If you want. You don't have to by any means, but I wrote it just to make it clear that I don't know a lot and don't proclaim to be some sort of know it all in all my redundancy. See?

I hope you take a gander and enjoy it. There is more to come, but I happened to have created it at a time when I am taking a vacation from politics, like Bob, (from his problems).

Double Helix

So I just finished "The Double Helix" seen below on my nifty bookshelf. It's a quick read and quite enjoyable and it even has pictures! My kind of book. The reason I thought I'd read it is because I feel like an imposter when someone notices my autographed Bill Nye the Science Guy photo and think I love science. The truth is, I love Bill Nye. I watched him often because he'd dance in his videos and the basic science he taught, with his three stooges humor, was about my level.

I actually picked it up because it looked interesting. And I thought it would make me a little less dull. You know, more well rounded and such. So what I found interesting was the race it was to discover the secret to life and get the Nobel Prize. There were a few scientists and countries on the brink of discovery and an American studying in Britain with British people and stuff, proved the double helix theory. It was a fascinating read even though most of the science was just cool words to me. But at least I could spell them out. And he gave this great recognition to the sole female on the team at the end, acknowledging her struggles at the time in a science world full of men. He recognized he played into the dufas act sometimes as well. It was a nice touch.

I recommend this book to all English majors and dufases.

SUBPOST:
Anne and Grace made our treat for FHE! The ingredients were, maple syrup, chocolate syrup, 1/2 can of Stephens Mint Hot Chocolate, honey, cinnamon, sugar and graham cracker crumbs!! MMmmmmm-MM! Bedtime was really late last night.

And Anne caught 15 baby frogs in our driveway during the rain storm. She wanted to keep one as a pet even though we told her he would die. Sure enough we found him all dried out stuck to the box this morning. It's not easy being green...and cute and jumpy.

MJ

Alright, alright, alright, alright. I soooo was not going to write about Michael Jackson, b/c everyone else is, but I've been offended now by Mr. O'Reilly, some other guy on the radio, the guy in the line behind me at the store today and now a random blog I was just sent a link to. They're all dissin' the man for his money, too much air time, lack of normalcy, whatever.

Some of you may not know that I have been a die hard MJ fan FOREVER! So much so that when my husband was told on the phone of the news, all I heard was, "uh, she's happy right now, I better wait to tell her." And then two of my friends called me to ask, "Annie, are you okay?" (My Mom and Stephanie call me Annie, and neither of them called me, but if they had, they would have said that and it would've been really funny.)

Let's just get a few things straight here about Michael Jackson. Here's why I think he deserved all the "remember the times" coverage-

#1- In his later years he definitely displayed behavor as a, shall we say, FREAK. I admit it. Freak freak freak. I whinced whenever I saw the pajama wearin', umbrella donning, black/white feathered hair guy. He hit a low and he was slow. I felt sorry for him, but unlike most of you, I still think he is innocent. He made bad choices, uh-huh, but I happen to agree with the jury.

#2- Okay, I think I made #2 above. He never led a normal life, was a complete wreck later in life, but I still liked him.

#3- I have loved Fred Astaire since I could watch movies at the MGM theater in Las Vegas with the couches for seats and conehead, genie like hairdos of the cocktail watresses serving the Mormon family 7Up. But, Michael Jackson had something more. Hard to compare the two, I know, but they were both entertainers and dancers. Their techniques were amazing, but Michael Jackson's moves were jaw dropping. Until the "gotta go pea, oop, now it's gone" move. (That's when the whincing began.)

#4- Before the "GGPONIG" move, I wanted to dance even a little bit like Michael. I watched "Billie Jean" over and over and was mesmorized. Then the "Beat It" video over and over until I could do some of those moves. Yep, I can still do them and like to, but it's a challenge, thanks to my big bum. The point is that he has been a huge part of my dreamy life of being a really good dancer since I was ten. Yep! Me and another million kids around the world, so can we just take a break from the Wall Street Minute for a month and remember the glove? the moonwalk" the "Ow!" and the high water pants? C'mon people! IT'S MICHAEL FREAKIN' JACKSON!!!!!!!

#5- I could do without all the "Whose kid is it anyway" crap though. That's gotta stop.

#6- "OW!"

You're Not Alone....say it one more time.

You're not alone. Gracie ate watermelon for breakfast. And Gracie ate more watermelon all day. And the rest of the day was filled with "accidents," dirty dishes, dirty clothes, more accidents, Cheerios spilled EVERYWHERE, another accident, watermelon juice drippings turn sticky EVERYWHERE, another accident, spit up, near blow out, more accidents, two in a row, as a matter of fact and then gardening for FHE which led to mud in the house and another accident. I am not exaggerating. At one point the word "hell" was addressed to my child. I won't disclose the exact phrase I used, but I knew the line of inner peace had been crossed and I did NOT care. I can only take so many pee pees on my floor. And to top it all off, Grace has been singing "...an earthly home, to parents kind and dear." on and off all day. Just that line. That one single line from a song full of lines! But I believe with all my heart that I am not alone. And that probably was a tender mercy I received because I actually did read my scriptures this morning.

Yep! It's brown!

For those of you who know me from my former singlehood and childhood, I've been getting a lot of comments about my hair. No it's not dyed. I am no longer a blonde so down with the stupido blonde jokes!! They no longer apply to me- they never did really, despite what my father-in-law will tell you. I could swear I've always been so much intelligenter than that. With every child my hair gets darker and darker. My aunt didn't even recognize me when she saw me last year. Crazy. Being a brunette isn't so bad though. I kinda like it. My eyebrows do too.

"Beautiful"

I was just at Wal Marts and my cashier who was very fast, referred to me, as "Beautiful."
"Did you just call me 'Beautiful?' I asked.
"Yes. I'm sorry. Is that okay? You're too young to be called Ma'am and I don't know your name yet." I quickly learned that she believes life is too short to complain about someone calling you beautiful, as some customers do. I was more than happy to smile and reassure her again that I didn't mind.
"Well, you have a good day." I said.
"You too, Gorgeous."

All the King's Men

Just some thoughts from my wonderings....
It's happened time and time again in the history of the world, when civilizations have become weak and almost non-existant because of their proclaimed leaders. There are numbers of examples in the Book of Mormon as well, Look at Alma 51. The story of Amalichiah and his kingmen. The freemen were for the laws of freedom that had been established and Pahoran wasn't about to change them. The Kingmen had new ideas and wanted to alter the law. Amalichiah said, "I'm your man!" and there was a dissent. Moroni said, we gotta do something about this and while they were thusly occupied, the Lamanites came in and took over. Now the strongholds Moroni took so many pains to build for his people were being used by the Lamanites to maintian their position of power! Okay, there are many parallels, but the one I'll bring up is this Amalichiah guy. He got the people, kingmen, so riveted on his goals that they wouldn't even fight for their freedom when they were being attacked. I can apply that in so many ways right now to what is happening. First, socialism is taking away our freedom. It is not the Lord's way. And our people don't see that so they're not fighting against it. Second, many liberal agendas have taken over our universities, they are being taught a need to alter the law. Whether that's "choice" or "freedom in marriage" or the need for universal healthcare, the stongholds that have held our country together are now being abused by political correctness, equal opportunity employers and and an "everyone wins" mentality (even though you didn't work for it). The third and a bit into another field of parallelitlaly (nar nar) is the absolute dissension within that leads to their capture. I'll let you read between the lines on that one.
Uh...more parallels on that one later-
BTW, Anne lost her 3rd tooth during Sacrament meeting on Sunday. She turned to me with a bloody grin and said, "My tooth just fell out!"
I put that part in so this feels more like a normal blog.

Life-Changing FOOD STORAGE

Okay, don't skip this post because it says "food storage," even though I would have skipped it if I saw it on your blog-but that's beside the point.
The book is called, "I Dare You To Eat It" and it's excellent and inspired. This LDS woman wrote it about her woe's of heeding the Prophets call to prepare and how despite her culinary challenges(she hates to cook) and daily grind, she obeyed and succeeded. I am telling you, it's a fabulous read. She just signed a contract for it to be sold at Costco, Sam's Club and B&N online and I think Amazon, so hopefully people will pick it up. This book has completely inspired me to not only get my food storage under control, but to be a better Mom and Christian. I absolutely loved it and it was a total answer to my prayers as of late..."Heavenly Father? ......pinto beans? for why?" You can go to her website and read more about it and order the book if you'd like. Go to http://www.idareyoutoeatit.com/ and get more info. There's some pretty entertaining reading on this site as well.

My Tribute to George W. Bush

I picked up “Truman” by David McCullough, at a used book shop and thought it would be a good book to have, but I couldn’t imagine a duller subject than Harry S. Truman, but why was it such a thick book? I wondered if I would ever read it. I paid my $4.50 and took it home. About a year later I actually read it. And absolutely loved it. Times were tough for Truman, who became President by default. He was elected for a second term and was faced with strikes, war, peace talks, and more talks, he was faced with the middle east/Palestine issue, dropping the bomb, the potential downfall of the economy and the post WWII building of the economy. He was a hero one day in the media and a villain the next. He was called simple, incompetent, delusional and many other demeaning names. Yet he saved our country from global catastrophic circumstances and national debilitating consequences. He was seen by the public many times exactly the opposite of who he really was and what his intentions really were. But he remained true to his values and sense of duty no matter how the media portrayed him and therefore what the public thought of him. As far as foreign affairs went, the President cannot be an effective Commander-in-chief if information is public, so why does the media and the citizens of our country have the gall to demean our president and his decisions based on what we think we know. As you may have gathered I felt this biography had a repeated history of our time under the watch of President George W. Bush. He faced many of the same challenges and had to make many tough decisions in a hostile environment from the Congress and sometimes the world. Karl Rove wrote, “These tough decisions—which became unpopular in certain quarters only when memories of 9/11 began to fade—kept America safe for seven years and made it possible for Mr. Obama to tell the Terrorists…”we will defeat you.” The war in Iraq has been won and we are a safer country because of it.
As far as the home front goes, Mr. Bush cut taxes for those who pay them, and he cut taxes on capital and investment savings, which meant economic growth. We have the strongest economy of any developed country. He warned against the growing largeness of Frank and Freddy. He felt they had too much power and knew the consequences would be dire if they fell. He was not listened to. And he was right.
There are many things Mr. Bush did right. I feel very strongly that he served our country well and lived up to the ideals we have held precious as a country for more than two centuries now. “He was right to stand for a culture of life. And he was right to appoint conservative judges who strictly interpret the Constitution. And Mr. Bush a man of core decency and integrity was right not to reply in kind when Democratic leaders called him a liar and a loser. The price of trying to change the tone in Washington was to be often pummeled by lesser men. “ (Karl Rove-Wall Street Journal) No president gets everything right. But I believe George W. Bush got the big things right. God bless him.
And God bless President Barak Obama. He deserves our prayers like all those who went before him. It’s not an easy job. I think he’s discovered that already.

The Sunday Sinner

Here's Gracie in time out all ready for church on Sunday morning. Now seriously, how long can you be mad at a little girl in a dress and pig tails? I think this is the most adorable picture I have ever taken...possibly, but maybe not, my girls have a lot of candid camera moments. Am I a Mom or what?

All you have to do is give Madelyn a big smile and she'll respond with the same. I love it. She is growing too fast, as all babies do and I don't like it!!

We had a fabulously sunny, perfect weather day at the Tucson Zoo. All the animals were out and quite active, which was new for me. Every time I go to a zoo animals just seem lazy and spoiled only rousing when dinner's on the stick. But these animals were definitely out and about, which was really cool. The polar bear was swimming around, doing flips, making faces and pooting for everyone to smell. It was great! That's my kind of zoo! Okay so the latter two details were lies, but he was awesome to watch.

The day Madelyn was blessed was awesome.

The Jist of It

The jist of my talk was this: Give people the benefit of the doubt.
We all have expectations of people and products, as described by my Tickle story, but when it comes right down to it, Christ didn't lecture the woman brought to Him in adultery. He told her to go and sin no more. He knew what she needed and didn't need to hear. So there wasn't critisizm, scorn, or a lecture. He sent her on her way. The reason we can give people the benefit of the doubt is because Christ is the only One who knows motives, histories and hearts. Assuming we know and emotionally reacting to them, doesn't draw us any closer to the Savior.
Who is another perfect example of this? Pahoran. Alma 60. Moroni didn't mince words. His army was being beaten, starved, they were losing ground and even the women and children were being murdered. He sent notice to Pahoran for provisions and heard nothing, so he wrote again but this time he called Pahoran thoughtless, slothful, wicked and even a traitor. These accusations were extremely offensive in a day when your word is your bond. But what did Pahoran do? After explaining that his seat had been usurped he said, "...in your epistle you have censured me, but it mattereth not; I am not angry, but do rejoice in the greatness of your heart." Moroni was seeing people he loved die. All he wanted was liberty and Pahoran saw that instead of seeing a hot-headed epistle writer who had no clue what he, Pahoran was dealing with. Get it?

So the next time your spouse doesn't listen to you, some guy pulls out in front of you or some stranger scolds your children, give them the benefit of the doubt. You don't know where they have been. And include yourself as well. Give yourself the benefit of the doubt. The spirit will let you know what is needful in improving, but knows when you're running faster than is necessary. We need this in our homes, neighborhoods, communities and heaven knows we need it in our country right now.
For more on this topic I highly highly highly recommend the book, "Bonds that Make Us Free" by the Arbinger Institute.

What's the deal with Lot's wife anyway? That is what I learned about today. But it's late. I'll write my thoughts about her later.
Note: I'm actually enjoying this bloggio thing Karrie. I'm still kinda writing it for you, so I hope you enjoy it. I could just email you all my random thoughts....but why when I have such nice pictures on my blog?

If you'd like to read my Tickle story, I posted it below...

To my family...the Pickard Video of 2008 is about to be released! They are ready to be mailed, we just need money to do it. Just kidding. It's my goal for the week, but it's gonna be a big week so I may fail at my goal which is why I don't believe in goals. The whole New Year's Resolution hooplah is a bunch a crock. Failure and guilt are not my things so that's why I take great measures to ensure I never fall into their pits. So forget it. I'll have the video to you...eventually.

WireTap from Canada is my new found favorite entertainment. Go google it and listen to a couple episodes...if you'd like recommendations as to which are the best, let me know. It airs on NPR-look up your local listings. Also, the BBC production of "Cranford" is fabulous and BBC's version of "Bleak House" by Charles Dickens is wonderfully dark with mouth-gaping twists. And of course, Rush Limbaugh is a favorite as I wash my dishes, in case you were wondering, which you probably weren't.