My brother, then and now

So, I've been cleaning up my digital archives of life, when I came across something I thought I'd share, a pic of my little brother on Christmas morning I don't know how many years ago. He's standing wearing his brand new TMNT slippers.

Fast forward 15 years or so, and here's my little brother again, dressing up.


Yes, that's right, he managed to land the gig as Joseph in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat, Vegas edition. I have to give him props, even if he is going a bit bald. In this picture, I think he looks like the guy who plays Joseph up at Playmill in West Yellowstone. Anyway, I encourage you all to go see the show if you can. I would if I were in the state.

Leave My Food Alone!

Another overreaching federal gov't initiative has come to my attention. HR 875, or the Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009, is yet another way the gov't is saying, "You can't take care of yourselves, so we'll take care of you for you." Here is the text of the bill. It's lengthy. I've scanned it.

Overall, yet another bureaucracy will be established to make sure all food establishments, including small farms, local growers and restauranteurs, etc. are following gov't imposed safety guidelines in dealing with our food. I know, many of you think, "Great. I am all for not getting food poisoning, etc.!" However, let's delve a little deeper here. How do you know that what the gov't's standard for safe food is is really what's best? They will probably require more preservatives, more pesticides, more chemically altered food, etc. because that will supposedly make food "safer". This could be death to organic farmers and local growers. Not only that, but I am not convinced that all these chemicals we keep pumping our bodies with aren't doing long-term damage. What the gov't says is best may not be best for us.

I have no desire to leave it in the hands of the Federal Gov't to decide what kind of food is best for me. I am a responsible adult who can research for myself, take risks for myself (AKA, eating food that is deemed "not safe" by the gov't) and being accountable for the consequences of my decisions, thank you very much. I've signed this petition and urge you to do the same if you feel strongly that we need to keep the gov't from getting its hands any further into the food business.

Grrrr! I feel like there are so many battles, on all fronts: cap and trade, the Federal Reserve, health care reform, food safety. Can't they leave us the $#%@ alone to make our own decisions and deal with our own consequences. That is a large premise upon which this country was founded. It's called LIBERTY. Enough already!

Honey, where did the ___ go?

Sabrina's family has a disease. It's incurable, and all the women on her mom's side of the family seem to have it. It's the curse of needing to be constantly cleaning up.

Tonight Sabrina requested a strawberry chocolate shake. As we didn't have any ice cream (I buy it but I think there are some big crickets that get into our freezer and eat it all or something like that) I used ice cubes and milk. I also used frozen strawberries. That's a lot of frozen stuff. So, not having one of those blenders that eats iPhones, I used both a Cuisinart and a blender to get it all chopped up. I was using a wooden spoon to scoop the ice cream like substance from machine to machine while utilizing the plastic bag the strawberries were in to rest the spoon on (no need to get anything else dirty). One of the times I was scooping, I turned and my ziploc bag was gone.

"Where'd it go?" I demanded.

"Where'd what go?" came the ever so innocent reply.

"My spoon holder."

"What spoon holder? I didn't see any spoon holder."

"The plastic bag that the strawberries came in, I didn't want to waste it."

"Oh, I thought that was garbage, I threw that away."

And thus it goes. Whether it be socks, shoes, newspapers, computers, or even plastic ziploc bags I use as a spoon holder, I am constantly trying to keep Sabrina from putting things away before I'm done with them. However, this is a multi-generational disorder, and as such, any time we go to family parties I have to make sure I never put anything down or else I'll never see it again.

Is optimal the enemy of good?

Lately in my life, (maybe it's the side of me trying to budget) I've really done my best to get the best possible deal when I buy something. It doesn't matter if it is contact lens solution or a new cell phone, I do my research and try to find the best solution at the best possible price. I'll wait for weeks or even months depending on what it is to get the best deal I can. (Black Friday anyone?) The problem is that in the end, I'm not sure that it makes me any happier doing it that way. I spend hours pouring over reviews, read pages and pages of user comments, and check at least half a dozen websites trying to find the best product for as cheap as possible. And what usually ends up happening? A couple days after I buy it, it goes on sale cheaper somewhere else. Or a new model comes out with more features than what I just bought. Funny thing is what I purchased was good enough when I got it.

I guess what I'm getting at is that while I think that doing research and making sure you're getting a good product, it's OK if it's a non-optimal solution. As an engineer, that's hard to deal with. If an optimal solution exists I should achieve it, right?

Is anyone else obsessed with Amazon?

I am not one to like shopping all that much. I usually have an objective and a budget when I go to buy something, and I want to get in and get out. I don't browse too much (unless I see a killer deal). However, I love shopping on Amazon. I love being able to look at all the ratings and reviews. I love that I can shop while Adie is taking a nap. I love that my stuff arrives at my doorstep and I don't have to go out into the heat. Besides, where we live, no stores are very close-by, so I love avoiding an extra trip to the store.

Also, they have excellent customer service. We bought a ceiling fan from them and it arrived broken, and they shipped us a new one the next day. Once we sent something to my dad and he wasn't home for a while and wasn't able to pick his package up from the UPS place so they shipped it back to Amazon. I called and they re-shipped it overnight to my dad for free, even though it was not even Amazon's fault that he didn't get the package.

Anyway, Amazon is not paying me to market for them, although, they sure could ;) I just really love their service. If I could legitimately grocery shop on Amazon I would.

By popular demand...

Sabrina finally acquiesced to the plethora of comments regarding your privation of bump progress pictures. Without further ado, here is Sabrina at 35 weeks (and Adie pointing at the baby).

And for comparison's sake, here is Sabrina at 35 weeks during her last pregnancy. We both think that this pregnancy hasn't taken quite the same toll as last time.

Calling the thought police...

Everyone, beware of what you put on your facebook account. You never know who's watching.

We really have sold out for "safety". We (meaning society, not particularly Sabrina nor me) would much rather the government make sure we're "safe" than not, and that means that we end up with circumstances where the government hears (or in this case reads) us say the wrong word and show up with a helicopter and the SWAT team. Fortunately this event didn't happen in the USA, yet.

You're getting more rights, aren't you excited?

House Democrats have unveiled a plan to make health care a right. You heard it, a right. That means regardless of who you are, you guaranteed to get access to affordable health care. Sounds great, doesn't it? Who doesn't want top notch health care as a right, with the wealthy footing the bill for 1/6 of the country? Um, I don't.

The Democrats have figured out a new way to tax you. Under their plan you will either have a health care plan or be taxed close to equal the cost of a health care plan. That's right, your latest "right" gives the government to tax you if you choose to not take advantage of it. This isn't national defense or the federal highway system, this is health care.

I'm actually upset enough with the government on this one to not be able to coherently pull together my thoughts right now. Expect another rant soon explaining why this borders on the most asinine thing the government has done yet. House Democrats say it will cost $1.5 trillion. I say at least triple that. Everything Obama's done so far that we've seen results on, they've come back and said "I guess we were way too optimistic, weren't we?" This will kill our economy. Mark it down. I don't usually go out on a limb like Sabrina does, but if any semblance of their plan passes, we're hosed.

I'm not saying that we don't have major problems in health care. We do. But to pretend that solving our health care industry means forcing everyone to pay into a socialized (call it what you want, it's socialism) health care is ludicrous. If you actually believe this (meaning their plan, not the need for reform) is a good idea and have thought it through with solid, logical reasoning, please feel free to comment. I just don't believe its possible.

4th of July Trip

Alright, here comes a long wordy and picture-y post. I know everyone was on the edge of their seats, waiting to find out all the details of what we did the week of the 4th. Don't worry, you're wait is now over! As soon as we decided we'd make Arizona our home, my mom traded one of their timeshares for this 4th of July so we could meet up. She chose Payson, Arizona, which is about an hour northeast of Phoenix, a beautiful little town in the mountains, where it was much cooler than Tucson, and only about a 3 hour drive for us. We spent time at the condo, playing cards, swimming (no pics of that, thank goodness), eating on the deck, walking near the creek, visiting the ponies, etc. It was a really, really nice place to be. We did get out though on a few day trips as well, so we'll let the pics tell a lot of that story.

This is Adie in front of the waterfall at the Snowflake temple. We were going to try to go in and do a session or something, but you have to make an appointment and our timing was off so we would have been waiting around in Snowflake for about 2 hours trying to kill time. If you have ever been to Snowflake, AZ you'll know it's pretty small and I am not sure, after we tried to visit the two closed pioneer historic sites there, that we would have found something to do. We decided not to go in. However, the grounds, as is always the case at a temple, were very beautiful. Brett and I hope to go back there. That day we also went further east and visited a little town called Eager, AZ. I lived there for a year when I was Adie's age. I don't have a lot of memories of it, but my mom does and she had a really good time reminiscing. It was her first teaching job after graduating from college. It was fun to see her so nostalgic. This little trip also included driving through the White Mountains, which are so gorgeous. I miss the pine-tree-filled mountain terrain.

The next day we went to Sedona, and being that is it so picturesque, we have lots of pics from that day. This is one of our favorites that Brett caught. Notice the natural circle formed by the clouds and the shape of the rock formations. Anyway, we are so going back to Sedona, hopefully this fall. If anyone from either AZ or UT wants to meet us there for a hiking / camping excursion in say, October, we're game. It's a day's drive from UT and only a few hours for us Southern Arizonans. We were there for only a day but we want to explore a lot more.

Here's my mom and stepdad walking up to a church that is set right in the hillside of some of this beautiful scenery. I wouldn't mind having that view while I was going to church.

This is Cathedral Rock. We went on a little jaunt to get up closer to this beautiful formation. I love this picture with the old shed. This was an awesome little hike. I just wish we had known to bring our swimming suits.

Grandpa and Adie heading out on the trail.

You can actually hike and wade through this creek (Oak Creek). Again, I wish we had known to bring our swimsuits. Don't worry, Adie got in and got soaked ;)

Here we are wading through the creek before Adie decided to get her whole self wet.

Drink break, near the end of our hike. By this point, although you can't tell, Adie is pretty much soaked.

Same tree stump a few minutes later. Adie decided she wanted to take a nap here. No, she's not in pain, she is just closing her eyes to get a little rest. As it turns out, she was really serious about that. She refused to leave the stump. A very tired, hot, pregnant mom started getting a little impatient at this point so there was a mini tantrum.

This is how she felt about finishing the last 1/4 mile of the hike after the tree stump incident.

And, this is what she wore after the hike. We didn't bring spare clothes (I know, so unprepared). However, many of you know, Adie is obsessed with this green shirt that was formerly mine (that's a post for another day). In any case, it served as a good substitute for normal clothes on our drive home. Besides being a little off the shoulder, it fits her fairly well as a dress.

Here we are on the 4th of July visiting the Payson parade. It lasted maybe 10 minutes, with a couple of old cars and people dressed up in colonial period dress. They also gave out flags, beach balls and candy. Adie was happy, so that's what counts. The 4th of July is an especially important day in our household because it's Brett's birthday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BRETT! The poor guy has always had to celebrate his birthday amidst a million other activities. He's a good sport about it though. My mom and stepdad watched Adie while we went to lunch, we got him an ice cream cake and I told Adie the fireworks were for Dad's birthday so throughout the whole show she kept yelling, "Happy Daddy!" Just a word about the fireworks, although no pictures, because I am pretty sure y'all have seen them before, if you want a really good fireworks show, go to Payson, AZ. It was like 45 minutes long, right on a lake, so the reflection was spectacular. It's one of the best shows I've ever seen. I was surprised for it being such a small town. The only problem was being at the end of a pregnancy, no amount of sitting on the ground is comfortable and then there's the whole bathroom issue. I was really dreading having to walk back to the car after sitting w/o a pit stop for so long, but we made it back. I am sure I had the pregnant waddle walk though.

This is breakfast on the deck. As you can see, Adie is clearly a morning person ;) She inherited that morning look from her mother.



Here are just a couple of pictures of Adie riding on the horse swing that had there. They made a tire swing into the shape of a horse and you can ride it. She loved that. She has been really into riding "horses" lately, so this swing was a dream come true.

All in all, we had a great time. You know how sometimes vacations get long and you are ready to get back to your normal routine? Well, this vacation was not like that. We had 5 days and we would have liked 5 more. We had a blast and it was just so nice to get away and relax.

242nd post

Apparently my last post was our blog's 242nd post. *Warning, what follows is the ramblings and reminiscings of how good it used to be. Gosh, I'm getting old.* I'm sure the number of you out there who recognize the significance of this number in my life can probably be counted on one hand. 242 was the apartment number my freshman year of college.

One of the interesting things about life is that some times we can isolate one event that triggered a sequence of events that changed our whole life. For me, that was attending Y weekend at BYU 10 years ago this fall. It included hanging out with people I've not seen since, managing to never get pushed underwater in pool games, and meeting my friend Matt. Matt and I both wanted to live in Heritage Halls. At the end of Y weekend, I asked Matt if he'd like to sign up to be my roommate the following year. While we didn't know each other particularly well, I think we both thought that if we roomed together, we wouldn't be moving in with someone who could potentially turn out to be one of the "crazy" roommates.

Anyway, a year passed, and because of our asking to be put together, we were assigned to apartment 242, with Clark and Leandro (who asked to be in that apartment) and Nate and Brian, who also asked to live together. There was a mixup and a kid named Jon who thought he was moving into 242 got booted to 243. Nate later went on a mission and Jon moved in. Funny thing about these guys, I actually still keep in good contact with most of them. Clark will claim he's responsible for me being married. Jon kept me on the straight and narrow of engineering until we parted ways for grad school. Brian has been one of the friends most willing to drive long distances to hang out (provided there's photography and no letter writing involved). Nate somehow ended up moving into the same married student ward as me and we got along better once I wasn't always reminding him to wash his dishes. Leandro, to my knowledge, still lives in Provo and is known by lots of people there. Matt, ever the stalwart friend, makes quite good food, and keeps promising to give me some. Maybe I'll get Matt's food the same time that Brian gives me pictures from the last 9 years...

DDAIWDBIYDTP

Trip preparation

We recently took a trip to the mountains in north eastern Arizona. We were faced with a hard decision before we left. Do we take our little car, which gets better gas mileage, or our bigger vehicle, which gets worse gas mileage and which we're trying to keep the miles down on. Well, we decided to do the "responsible" course of action and decided to take our little car. I came home from work, ready to pack the car, and this is what I was faced with:


This is where I was to put it:


And after careful consideration, this is where I put all of it:

Adie was glad. I think she remembers one too many vacations in the small car where she got to share the back seat with everything that didn't fit in the trunk.

Sedona

Since Sabrina's hasn't posted anything yet, here's a picture Sedona, one of the places we visited last weekend. I suggest you click on it and see the larger size image. It was quite a pretty place. Like a cross between Zion's and Bryce Canyon National parks, but with a town in the middle of it all.

Help Wanted: Good Vegan / Vegetarian Recipes

I hope everyone had a great Independence Day weekend and contemplated long and hard about our incredible Constitution and what we can do to keep it from going completely down the toilet ;) However, our 4th of July weekend is a post for another time (hopefully soon, when I am not unpacking, figuring out meal plans so I can replenish our fridge, cleaning, etc.)

As I mentioned in a post some time ago I am trying to revamp my diet somewhat drastically. So far, I have caved more than I've been successful, but I keep trying to get back on the horse and try again. I have continued to read about diet, nutrition, etc. (Thanks to all who have given me some interesting book recommendations. I have been devouring them). I am still convinced I'd do best with as little animal protein in my diet as possible. Actually, after reading most of the China Study (which I highly recommend, by the way) I feel like my whole family should eat this way, but I had better start with myself first. That being said, I am still not equipped with enough recipe and food ideas to sustain a vegan lifestyle, let alone a vegetarian one.

Our readership has offered such wonderful advice in the past so I was hoping some of you could help me out once again. Even if you have just one vegan or vegetarian recipe that you just love, it would help me out. Or, maybe you know of a website with some great recipes that would fit the bill. You can leave me a comment with a recipe or link, or you can email me at sabrinamillar[at]yahoo[dot]com. Any help would be very much appreciated.