Atilla the Hun is to the Germanic tribes of Europe as kidney stones are to my flanks. Just as Atilla violently forced his way into the villages of primitive Europe, leaving behind him a trail of blood and destruction, so too do kidney stones forge through the annals of my body.
These are the types of things that run through my mind at 3 am when I am high on Vicodin and can not sleep. I am not normal, am I? History nerds should not be prescribed potent pain killers.
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Mismatch Day at School
Today was mismatch day at the girl's school. They took some pictures of each other. Enjoy. Grandma, it looks like you are mad at Sibley.
What is that about?
Do me a favor.
Y'all click on the Joshua Enslen family link and check out Alaina's beautiful paintings for her upcoming art show. She is so talented and I am so lucky to have her in my family. Good luck Alaina! I know your show will go well! The pictures of the kids are precious too!
Saturday, January 26, 2008
Skyler's Fieldtrip to Don's Camp
The cacti that look like they have furry wigs on them are called cholla. The tall ones are called saguaro and they only grow in Arizona and northern Mexico. Skyler is in front of a saguaro skeleton in one of the pictures. They usually live for about 200 years. It takes them about thirty years to grow about three feet and then they grow an arm about every fifty years. (So the one in the upper left is really old, at least two hundred years.) When it rains they swell up, so you can tell whether or not it has rained lately by looking at them.
Skyler's 4th grade class went on a field trip to Don's Camp, an old western camp, where they hiked, panned for gold, and did various other things. Skyler and her friend, Hattie, had an old-fashioned western shootout, but with cameras instead of pistols. Skyler turned out to be the best roper among the whole group of 4th graders and their parents. She roped a metal steer three times in a row!
Skyler brought a couple of small pieces of gold pyrite (fool's gold) home to Sibley. (Sibley was home with strep throat.) Sibley was more than just a little excited. She took pictures and made videos of her new treasure. Remember getting excited over little things like that?
Friday, January 25, 2008
HAPPY ANNIVERSARY TO US!
Bryant and I celebrated our anniversary yesterday, or we tried to but it didn't quite work out. Sibley got really sick. I was teaching her class, so Bryant came and checked her out. By the time I got off work, her fever was over 103 degrees. So we ordered Ruby Tuesday take out and will do the whole date thing on Saturday. And I am taking Sibley to the doctor today.
On a different note, I got to sub Sibley's class twice this week and it was a lot of fun. She has a really cute class. I loved calling roll and hearing them say "hewe" instead of here, because they can't pronounce their "r". None of them made fun of my accent, which is amazing. One of them asked me if I slept at the school and had a bed there and ate breakfast there. (Maybe because I was their sub for two days in a row?) They said some other cute things that I should have written down, but did not have the time. Kindergartners keep me so busy that the day just flies by. Speaking of, one of my favorite things is to hear them try and estimate what time it is. Yesterday one kid guessed 60:80. Also, they are so affectionate. They always hug me and want to hold my hand. I just love kindergartners.
On a different note, I got to sub Sibley's class twice this week and it was a lot of fun. She has a really cute class. I loved calling roll and hearing them say "hewe" instead of here, because they can't pronounce their "r". None of them made fun of my accent, which is amazing. One of them asked me if I slept at the school and had a bed there and ate breakfast there. (Maybe because I was their sub for two days in a row?) They said some other cute things that I should have written down, but did not have the time. Kindergartners keep me so busy that the day just flies by. Speaking of, one of my favorite things is to hear them try and estimate what time it is. Yesterday one kid guessed 60:80. Also, they are so affectionate. They always hug me and want to hold my hand. I just love kindergartners.
Monday, January 21, 2008
A Great Article
You'd better duck — if you're a Mormon
By Doug Robinson
Deseret Morning News
Published: Tuesday, Jan. 8, 2008 12:58 a.m. MST
I missed the memo that said it's A-OK to make disparaging and often erroneous statements about Mormons. Apparently, they are fair game.
Sure, these are hypersensitive times, when name-calling or perceived bias against any group will get you the Don Imus treatment, but you get a free shot with Mormons. You can say what you want about them with impunity.
If you denigrate a racial group, you're racist.
If you denigrate women, you're sexist.
If you denigrate Mormons, you're hip.
No one would openly suggest that you shouldn't vote for Hillary Clinton because a woman can't lead the country, especially an ornery one.
Nobody would dare say that you shouldn't vote for Barack Hussein Obama because he's black, or of Muslim descent, or because he has a name that sounds like a terrorist. One Clinton worker even apologized for alluding to Obama's use of drugs as a youth, so apparently it's wrong to disparage former drug users, too.
But nobody is shy about saying you shouldn't vote for Romney simply because he's a Mormon. It doesn't even register on the PC-O-Meter.
Just like that, 6 million Americans have been virtually disqualified from running for president. They've been rendered second-class citizens. They're foreigners living in America . They face a glass ceiling.
How un-American is that?
It would be one thing if most of those who oppose Romney did so because they disagreed with his politics or character. But Romney is one of the few candidates who has no character issues, a "squeaky clean" man who has a distinguished record of accomplishments, success and service, with no divorces, no affairs, no scandal. The only thing opponents can say about him is that he belongs to a church they don't understand.
A Harvard law professor called Romney the most qualified of all the candidates and "the perfect candidate for this moment in time." But there is his Mormonism, he noted.
Even the self-styled PC chief of police, Al Sharpton, once jumped in on the action, saying, "As for the one Mormon running for office, those who really believe in God will defeat him anyways."
Mormons don't believe in God?
For his penance, all Sharpton had to do was endure a family home evening in Utah .
It's open season on Mormons. A few days ago, Miami Herald columnist Dan Le Batard stated on ESPN and in the newspaper that part of the reason fired coach Cam Cameron failed was because he got stuck with a Mormon quarterback — not a rookie quarterback (which he is) but a Mormon quarterback.
"And you'll have a hard time finding a leader anywhere in sports who was as unlucky this year as Cameron," Le Batard said, noting that because of injuries, Cameron was forced to play "a United Nations huddle of a Mormon quarterback, Mexican receiver, Samoan fullback and some guy named Lekekekkkkerkker."
Now Mormons are foreigners?
Ignorance makes no difference. You can say Mormons have four wives or that they aren't Christian, and no one cares.
Imagine the uproar if Le Batard had written that the Dolphins suffered because they had to play a black quarterback for part of the season? Or a Catholic?
The Salt Lake Tribune has had a field day for more than a week since learning that Mike Leavitt and some of his like-minded cohorts met early in the morning to discuss Mormon theology and governance while he was Utah 's governor. What if it had been a Bible study?
Nobody seems to mind when former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee says his religion "defines me." Or when Obama says his church guides "my own values and my own beliefs."
People worry that Romney will take his orders from his church leaders. They don't worry that Obama will take orders from his church, whose "10-point vision" includes two references to its "non-negotiable commitment to Africa," with no mention of America . Oh, and the church statement begins by noting on the Trinity United Church of Christ Web site, "We are a congregation which is Unashamedly Black."
It's a different set of rules for some out there. You can print newspaper cartoons disparaging Mormons. You can harass their families as they walk to their biannual conference with all sorts of foul language. When someone commits a crime, you can note the criminal's religion, but only if he's Mormon. You can make them a one-liner on Leno. Good luck reconciling all this with the paranoid political correctness that's so in vogue.
Meanwhile, the most politically correct presidential election field ever assembled — a woman, a black, a Mormon, a Baptist, etc. — has gone politically incorrect, but only when it comes to you know who.
By Doug Robinson
Deseret Morning News
Published: Tuesday, Jan. 8, 2008 12:58 a.m. MST
I missed the memo that said it's A-OK to make disparaging and often erroneous statements about Mormons. Apparently, they are fair game.
Sure, these are hypersensitive times, when name-calling or perceived bias against any group will get you the Don Imus treatment, but you get a free shot with Mormons. You can say what you want about them with impunity.
If you denigrate a racial group, you're racist.
If you denigrate women, you're sexist.
If you denigrate Mormons, you're hip.
No one would openly suggest that you shouldn't vote for Hillary Clinton because a woman can't lead the country, especially an ornery one.
Nobody would dare say that you shouldn't vote for Barack Hussein Obama because he's black, or of Muslim descent, or because he has a name that sounds like a terrorist. One Clinton worker even apologized for alluding to Obama's use of drugs as a youth, so apparently it's wrong to disparage former drug users, too.
But nobody is shy about saying you shouldn't vote for Romney simply because he's a Mormon. It doesn't even register on the PC-O-Meter.
Just like that, 6 million Americans have been virtually disqualified from running for president. They've been rendered second-class citizens. They're foreigners living in America . They face a glass ceiling.
How un-American is that?
It would be one thing if most of those who oppose Romney did so because they disagreed with his politics or character. But Romney is one of the few candidates who has no character issues, a "squeaky clean" man who has a distinguished record of accomplishments, success and service, with no divorces, no affairs, no scandal. The only thing opponents can say about him is that he belongs to a church they don't understand.
A Harvard law professor called Romney the most qualified of all the candidates and "the perfect candidate for this moment in time." But there is his Mormonism, he noted.
Even the self-styled PC chief of police, Al Sharpton, once jumped in on the action, saying, "As for the one Mormon running for office, those who really believe in God will defeat him anyways."
Mormons don't believe in God?
For his penance, all Sharpton had to do was endure a family home evening in Utah .
It's open season on Mormons. A few days ago, Miami Herald columnist Dan Le Batard stated on ESPN and in the newspaper that part of the reason fired coach Cam Cameron failed was because he got stuck with a Mormon quarterback — not a rookie quarterback (which he is) but a Mormon quarterback.
"And you'll have a hard time finding a leader anywhere in sports who was as unlucky this year as Cameron," Le Batard said, noting that because of injuries, Cameron was forced to play "a United Nations huddle of a Mormon quarterback, Mexican receiver, Samoan fullback and some guy named Lekekekkkkerkker."
Now Mormons are foreigners?
Ignorance makes no difference. You can say Mormons have four wives or that they aren't Christian, and no one cares.
Imagine the uproar if Le Batard had written that the Dolphins suffered because they had to play a black quarterback for part of the season? Or a Catholic?
The Salt Lake Tribune has had a field day for more than a week since learning that Mike Leavitt and some of his like-minded cohorts met early in the morning to discuss Mormon theology and governance while he was Utah 's governor. What if it had been a Bible study?
Nobody seems to mind when former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee says his religion "defines me." Or when Obama says his church guides "my own values and my own beliefs."
People worry that Romney will take his orders from his church leaders. They don't worry that Obama will take orders from his church, whose "10-point vision" includes two references to its "non-negotiable commitment to Africa," with no mention of America . Oh, and the church statement begins by noting on the Trinity United Church of Christ Web site, "We are a congregation which is Unashamedly Black."
It's a different set of rules for some out there. You can print newspaper cartoons disparaging Mormons. You can harass their families as they walk to their biannual conference with all sorts of foul language. When someone commits a crime, you can note the criminal's religion, but only if he's Mormon. You can make them a one-liner on Leno. Good luck reconciling all this with the paranoid political correctness that's so in vogue.
Meanwhile, the most politically correct presidential election field ever assembled — a woman, a black, a Mormon, a Baptist, etc. — has gone politically incorrect, but only when it comes to you know who.
Sunday, January 20, 2008
THIS JUST IN.......
Bryant sold his first house! Congratulations Bryant! We are so proud of you. May this be the first of a great multitude!
Friday, January 18, 2008
Skyler's Literature
For Skyler's ALP (Accelerated Learning Program) English class, she was to write a movie review from an animal's perspective. I found it on the floor in the living room today after she left for school. I thought it was really cute and wanted to share it. (Her teacher evidently liked it too, because she gave her a 100.) Here goes:
Have you ever shared spaghetti and meatballs with some animal? Well in Lady and the Tramp they do that. It's so romantic. Who doesn't like romance? I don't know who doesn't, but I love romance.
By the way, my name is Mouse, the mouse. You can just call me Mouse, or M. I love the movie. It was squeakerful.
I think the actors are so squeakitating that I almost jumped out of my seat. I love Hillary Downmation who plays Lady. And Brad Pawsley who plays Tramp. They are so in character. I love the actors in this film.
I love this movie. I love it. Love it. I hope I persuaded you to see it because it's off the cage. I squeak, squeak, squeak at the screen. It was so good. On a mouse scale of 1-10 shredded cheese, I give it a 10!
Have you ever shared spaghetti and meatballs with some animal? Well in Lady and the Tramp they do that. It's so romantic. Who doesn't like romance? I don't know who doesn't, but I love romance.
By the way, my name is Mouse, the mouse. You can just call me Mouse, or M. I love the movie. It was squeakerful.
I think the actors are so squeakitating that I almost jumped out of my seat. I love Hillary Downmation who plays Lady. And Brad Pawsley who plays Tramp. They are so in character. I love the actors in this film.
I love this movie. I love it. Love it. I hope I persuaded you to see it because it's off the cage. I squeak, squeak, squeak at the screen. It was so good. On a mouse scale of 1-10 shredded cheese, I give it a 10!
Thursday, January 17, 2008
SCHOOL PROJECTS
Skyler had a school project for Social Studies in which she was to make a model of ancient Arizona Indian housing. She decided to make a Hohokam apartment style pueblo. Whenever Skyler has a school project to do, Sibley HAS to do one for her teacher. She decided to make a Navajo hogan. Anyway, she decided to implement some of her own original architectural elements, like the straws, which she says are blowholes. She likes to blow into them so as to give her little Navajos air. She is truly one of a kind. Coming soon: video of the girls playing their guitars
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
Sometimes my girls get my camera.....
and I find pictures like these. They love the porch swing that my parents gave them for Christmas. (It was the huge present under the tree that they practically salivated over.) They eat breakfast and lunch on it, put pillows on it and lie down, pose for pictures on it, etc. Also, they love that our cats enjoy playing in brown paper sacks.
It's Fruit Pickin' Time Again!
We have clementine oranges and pink grapefruits coming out of our ears. We've already given them away to everyone we know, and look how 
much we still have left! Anybody got a hankerin' for some citrus?
much we still have left! Anybody got a hankerin' for some citrus?
New Year's Eve Slumber Party
Our girls brought in the New Year with the Nichols, who live just down the street. They had a great time, as you can see from the pictures. The most exciting part of the night was not the fireworks, though, but when the cat's head got shut in the garage door! Don't worry - he's okay now.
I wish there were some pictures of Skyler, but she was the photographer.
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