Simon is Six

It was such a busy day yesterday that I didn't get a chance to do a birthday post for Simon. That and the fact that it was strangly an emotional day for me. I actually don't like to remember the day of Simon's birth very much or for that matter I don't really like to remember the first several months of his little life. What I do like to think about is the sweet little boy Simon has become. He is such a happy go lucky kid, he is always making us laugh, always solving Olivia and Andrew's fights for them, always hugging and kissing, always bursting out in made-up songs, and goofy things are always coming out of his little mouth. I can't imagine life without Simon. I find myself wishing he would stay 6 for a very long time. He is wise beyond his years and has already endured more than most people have to endure their entire lives and I love him. Happy Birthday, Little Man!

Andrew

Happy Birthday, Andrew! I miss you.

Fear

"The tenth most common fear is Michael Jackson."

-Unsolicited wisdom from Andrew

Yoo Ee Ay Land

We had the great pleasure of accompaning our good friends to Disneyland over UEA. We are so happy that our kids love the Enger kids as much as we love the Engers! Melissa is my very oldest friend (we go way back to kindergaten) and I love every minute I get to see her! I'm just glad that Ryan and Robb get along so well. Melissa and I had a hard time pulling them away from each other every night. I guess that's better then them not liking each other. Anyway, here are the pictures I promised long ago...

Melissa and Robb

The kids in the Toon Town jail.

Waiting for Big Thunder Mountain.

Drew and Jake. These two are two peas in a pod.

"Star Wars" - an a capella tribute to John Williams

This is pure genius...

A New Day

I feel a sense of peace and hope for our country today, that I haven't felt in a long time. It feels really good.

Edit - That was Brook, but I feel pretty good, too.

Disneyland

Pictures soon to come, I promise, Engers...

This is for you, Mom...

Olivia went to a Fancy Nancy birthday party today and she had nothing in her closet to wear. I pulled this out of my hope chest thinking it would be way too big. Boy was I wrong! Mom, was this dress this short on me at age 8!?! For those of you who are not my mom, my mom made me this dress to wear on my baptism day. Pretty cute, huh?

Pumpkins

Which of these pumpkins do you think will get kicked in first?

Happy Birthday Drewbie

It is crazy that we have a son in the double digits now. We are way to young for that! :) Drew had a great day which started out with a surprise visit from Grandma and Papa. The only downer was that Drew had to go to church on his birthday (I tried to tell him that 3 hours of church was way better then 7 hours of school on your birthday). He didn't believe me. What a sweet face he has. We love you Drewbie!!!

This one's for you, Dave

Greatest Rod Decker moment ever.

Singing. An editing flub. The gag reenactment is worthy of an Emmy.

And Ed Smart raising the "liberal" bogeyman is just gravy.

Sad story

The national debt just became a 14-digit number.

If this keeps up, we might need to start writing checks that look like this:

Putin rears his head

"When you consider even national security issues with Russia, as Putin rears his head and comes into the airspace of the United States of America, where — where do they go? It's Alaska."

For the record, I thought it was funny when Obama accidentally said there were fifty-eight states. (See how reasonable I am!)

Gotta love the Letterman

Game 3

We finally won a game. Yay for us!!! We must be really good coaches . :) The kids finally figured out how to play soccer as a team rather than as an individual sport. Way to go guys!! Drew finally found a position he likes playing. He didn't let any balls through on his watch. Wish us luck for Saturday.

Happy Birthday.

Sorry babe, I'm 2 weeks and 3 days late. Thanks for working all day, coaching soccer and then taking us out to dinner and to the climbing park on your birthday. You are truly the best!

What is wrong with us?

Right now, CNN Headline News is showing live footage of the latest, greatest OJ Simpson trial.

Meanwhile, the federal government is seriously considering a $700 billion bailout to huge multinational financial firms that recklessly went for profits at the risk of killing our economy. (I'm not sure I can adequately address the complexities of this crisis so I won't try, but this is basically Enron times 100 or more.) Some of that money will surely fund huge payouts (golden parachutes) to the CEOs of these failed companies. The government admits that some of the payouts will go to foreign banks. The money is to be administered by the Treasury Department with no oversight.

I have opinions as to what politicians are responsible for this, but this is bigger than politics. This is theft on a grand scale. You'd think that the fact that every man, woman, and child in America is getting signed up to pay $2000 to bail out these clowns would get our attention away from the OJ trial. This is an issue that all Americans of any political stripe should be outraged about. I hope you'll educate yourselves and then call your senators and representatives right away.

Here are a few quotes about this crisis that I think are right on.

Alan Grayson, candidate for U.S. House from Florida:

String 'em up.

In the last two days, the U.S. stock market has gone up by $1 trillion. That's because of a $700 billion direct transfer from taxpayers to financial corporations like AIG and, I guess, the expectation that another $300 billion will find its way into the deal before it's over. So tax dollars are being used to prop up the stock market, something that never happened even in the deepest depths of the Great Depression. It's corporate communism. That's the context.

Here is more context. $700 billion is over $2000 for every man, woman and child in America. For a family of seven, like mine, it's over $15,000. Someone just took $15,000 from me and my family, and gave it to anonymous bondholders whom I've never met, who have done nothing for me, to whom I owe nothing and -- right now -- I really don't like.

More context: you could take one percent of that amount -- one percent! -- and pay off the delinquency on every home mortgage in arrears in America. And keep people from losing their homes. But ordinary people get nothing from this Administration except grief.

Al Franken, candidate for U.S. Senate from Minnesota:

It is simply unacceptable to hand this much money to the Treasury Secretary and then just sit and hope we see it again. If we're putting our tax dollars -- $2,000 for every Minnesota taxpayer -- on the line, we should demand independent oversight to make sure our money is being used well. A good start would be telling CEOs of companies involved with this bailout that in the public sector, there's no such thing as a golden parachute -- so all excessive compensation, bonuses, and severance agreements are hereby cancelled. But we also need to restore the regulatory framework dismantled with George W. Bush in the White House and Norm Coleman in the Senate so that this doesn't happen again. And after eight years of an economic policy that's put Wall Street first and ignored Main Street, we need real relief for struggling homeowners and better regulation of financial products.

Edit to add a quote for party balance from South Carolina senator Jim DeMint:

This plan will not only cause our nation to fall off the debt cliff, it could send the value of the dollar into a free-fall as investors around the world question our ability to repay our debts," said DeMint. "It's also very likely that this plan will extend the cycle of bailouts, encouraging other companies to behave in reckless ways that create the need for even more bailouts, triggering an endless run on our treasury.

The plan caused the dollar to take a nosedive today, resulting in oil prices increasing $18.

Soccer coaches

I received a phone call this week that stopped my heart. Andrew's soccer team did not have a coach and if we could not do it the team would cease to exist. I am not a sporty person and Ryan is not a soccer man. But what else do you do? I agreed to coach the team and then persuaded Ryan to help. I have no idea what we have gotten ourselves into but I figure we can endure anything for 9 weeks (I hope!). Anyone know anything about soccer? Any tips would be accepted at this point, and I mean any tips!

A birthday story in two pictures

Olivia takes a moment to consider how to use her birthday wish...

Two seconds later, note the bewildered look on Olivia's face, the red glow of the candlewick, and the drifting smoke. Anyone want to guess who is sitting to Olivia's left?

first day of school

Here are pictures of the first day of school. I wanted to get Simon getting on the bus for the first time but he was way too excited. He didn't even turn around to say bye to his poor mom!

Serving

While up in Salt Lake we took the kids over to Great Grandpa's to help him out around the yard. We thought this would be a good way to help the kids learn service. We weeded and swept his front yard and pruned a few bushes, too. Olivia helped out by trimming the grass and Grandpa even taught the kids how to kill snails with salt. They killed all of them except one, which they kept as a pet for the rest of the day!

Olivia turns 7

Olivia was really lucky this year and got 2 birthday parties. The first one was a combined party for her and her good friend Megan (who shares her birthday). The kids enjoyed a swimming Luau at Megan's house. When we went up to Salt Lake we did another party with the cousins. Since Olivia is the only girl cousin we had to pick something the boys would equally enjoy. We decided to take the kids rock climbing. They all had a great time and were all great climbers! Uncle Matt and Uncle Andrew would have been proud!

The Dog Days of Summer

I can't believe that summer is over and we have already finished the first week of school. This was the fastest summer on record. We kept our days full with swimming, day camp, Wii, reading (we managed to read 3 novels over the summer), playing with friends, we had visits from Grandma, and Papou, Papat, Kyle, and Liam, went to Vegas, and up to Salt Lake twice. Here are a couple of my favorite pictures...

4th of July

Las Vegas

We spent some time every day at the pool.

You would think Ryan would get enough pinball at his brothers!

Holy Matrimony, Batman!

What did that cake ever do to you?

Aunt Arlene, Uncle Steve, and (cousin) Jim surprised everyone by flying in from Southern California for the party.


Cousins Olivia, Rachel, and Ally

Brent provided the muscle...

... and did his best impression of a Disneyland ride

Holiday light show

The Sweet Joys of Summer

Olivia has been asking for days to have her nails painted. We finally had a quiet moment so I gave in. Of course she wanted every finger and toe painted a different color. When Simon found out what was happening of course he wanted in to. So after Olivia I painted Simon's finger and toe nails. He is quite proud of his goth nails.

Of course the fun could not end there. They insisted that I too needed my nails painted. I think more of my fingers got painted than my nails...



Aren't I lovely?