The Wife

"No man achieves the supernal exalting status of worthy fatherhood except as a gift from his wife." - President Boyd K. Packer - Ensign, May 1998, 73

ipod

Hours of entertainment.

Who?

Sam and I were watching the Cardinals play the Mets recently. Sam is a big Cardinal fan. Cut out the Cards line up in the news paper and keeps it close to him when they are playing. Wore his Cardinals hat, and shirt to school on Jersey day. Usually they have to wear their school uniform.

I said to Sam "My Uncle Jim maybe at the game. He's a big Cardinal fan too." Sam said "Really?" I said "Yeah, Uncle Jim loves them, and I think he goes often."

Georgia was standing next to me, and she said "WHAT?" With a big confused looking face. So I explained again that my Uncle Jim is a Cards fan, and maybe he's at the game. She says confidently "no he's not!" Straight faced, and clear. It made me laugh because it caught me so off guard. I thought why does she have such a strong opinion on the matter.

I love when Georgia disagrees with something. She's so sure of herself. I don't even try to argue with her. She's made up her mind.

So I said "I don't know for sure if he's there, or not. I just know he's a big fan and he lives in the area." She said "well I thought Uncle Jim was in Heaven", and she said it with a tone like I didn't know what the crap I was talking about.

We were of course talking about two different Uncle Jim's.

Ben Stein

I got this forwarded email from a very beautiful friend of mine. Apparently it is making it's way around the internet. It was a writing from Ben Stein. Something he had read on the CBS Sunday Morning News. Very interesting, but something was a little off in the article. In the beginning it was written in a fairly mellow questioning tone like Ben Stein, but got very aggressive in the end. So I went a did 5 seconds of research on the internet and found out the second half of the article that was forwarded to me was added to Ben Steins original article. Here are his original comments:

Herewith at this happy time of year, a few confessions from my beating heart:I have no freaking clue who Nick and Jessica are. I see them on the cover of People and Us constantly when I am buying my dog biscuits and kitty litter. I often ask the checkers at the grocery stores. They never know who Nick and Jessica are either. Who are they? Will it change my life if I know who they are and why they have broken up? Why are they so important? I don't know who Lindsay Lohan is, either, and I do not care at all about Tom Cruise's wife.Am I going to be called before a Senate committee and asked if I am a subversive? Maybe, but I just have no clue who Nick and Jessica are. Is this what it means to be no longer young. It's not so bad.Next confession: I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish. And it does not bother me even a little bit when people call those beautiful lit up, bejeweled trees Christmas trees. I don't feel threatened. I don't feel discriminated against. That's what they are: Christmas trees. It doesn't bother me a bit when people say, "Merry Christmas" to me. I don't think they are slighting me or getting ready to put me in a ghetto. In fact, I kind of like it. It shows that we are all brothers and sisters celebrating this happy time of year. It doesn't bother me at all that there is a manger scene on display at a key intersection near my beach house in Malibu. If people want a creche, it's just as fine with me as is the Menorah a few hundred yards away. I don't like getting pushed around for being a Jew and I don't think Christians like getting pushed around for being Christians. I think people who believe in God are sick and tired of getting pushed around, period. I have no idea where the concept came from that America is an explicitly atheist country. I can't find it in the Constitution and I don't like it being shoved down my throat. Or maybe I can put it another way: where did the idea come from that we should worship Nick and Jessica and we aren't allowed to worship God as we understand Him? I guess that's a sign that I'm getting old, too. But there are a lot of us who are wondering where Nick and Jessica came from and where the America we knew went to.

How well do you know Apu?

http://www.beliefnet.com/section/quiz/index.asp?sectionID=600&surveyID=141

I got 13 out of 15 on this Apu quiz. If you don't know Apu, you don't know Apu.

Patrick

Patrick is looking like quite the little man these days. Suzi and I were talking about how our babies are looking big. Sad, and beautiful at the same time.

Garces Cousins

The Garces Family was in town this week. We all had a great time. Reminded us of how we all use to spend all of our free time playing together. Loved having them here. Kids all had a tough time saying bye for a month. We'll see them in Nov in Utah. Cute bunch. Amazing how quickly the years fly.

Inquisitive Sam

We started the New Testament today as a family tonight. Gave up on the Old Testament. We wanted to finish it by the end of December. No chance so were starting early on the NT to get a jump on it to see if we can finish it as a family by Dec 07.

We started with Matthew. Suzi was reading and I was doing commentary for the kids. If I read Suzi does commentary. Suzi was reading the 2nd chapter which covers the conception of Mary. I was explaining that Joseph and Mary were going to be married, when Mary got pregnant with Jesus. I explained that it was a bit of a problem in those days if you got pregnant and you weren't married at the time. So Joseph took care of Mary during that time.

Sam stopped the reading and asked "how do you get pregnant? Do you just pray real hard?" I said with a big smile on my face "well that certainly helps, but there is a whole bunch more to it."
I looked over at Patrick and he had his scriptures over his face, and he was trying to fight back a laugh I could tell. Patrick had the talk last year, so he is in on the know. So I said "Patrick he's gonna wish he hadn't asked that question when I give him the answer, huh?"

All the kids understand how the baby comes out, we just save the "how does the baby get in there?" stuff until they ask. Well Sam asked, and he is most likely going to get the answer.

He did try to get the cliff notes version before he went to bed. He asked Mom in the kitchen as he was headed upstairs for bed "does it just pop in there?" There is no stopping him now. He stumbled on to something.

Like I said to Patrick he's gonna wish he hadn't asked.

Front Yard Baseball

It's time for the baseball playoffs. So of course every boy in the country finds time to play a little baseball. Even if it's just in your front yard with one other player.

I found the boys playing a game in the front yard. I asked for an explanation of the rules. Here They are:

Home plate is in the flower bed Sam is standing in. First base is the tree. Second the tall grass. Third the shoe on the side walk (barely visable).

Home run is the a fly ball into the street. Ground rule double is anything that bounces into the street or gets caught/lost in a bush in fair play.

An out is anything that is caught. Doesn't matter if it makes contact with something. For example a fly ball out of the tree or bouncing off the house or a car that is caught is an out. An out is also tagging out the ghost runner or the runner themself.

Lots of ghost runners if there is only two players.

Each player gets two outs.

I noticed it wasn't easy to get a home run. The tree is in the way. It takes a hard shot above the fielders shoulders, but below the tree limbs. Love it.

Uncle Jim would love that Sam is of course wearing his beloved St. Louis Cardinals Hat. I brought him the hat after a trip to St L. And he loved it. Never takes it off when it comes to baseball time. I've tried to make him a Padres fan Dad. He would say, "sure I like the Padres", doesn't want to hurt anyone's feelings.