An Average Day

6:30am - Wake to the sound of a displeased baby. Go in to see him and he immediately becomes the happiest baby in the world. Breastfeed him, change him. Set him on the floor to roll and scoot around and play with toys while I check my email, my myspace, and read a few blogs.

9am- Lay Jonah down for his first nap. Shower or do something productive like laundry or cleaning. Unload the dishwasher. Get dressed.

10:30- Change Jonah. Feed him his brunch of cereal and a fruit or veggie. Get him dressed. Run errands, waste time online, or do something productive at home or just play with Jo.

12:45 - Jonah takes a second nap.

1:45- Breastfeed. Let Jonah jump in his Johnny Jump Up, etc.

4:15- Jonah takes a short third nap (yep, pretty great).

5:00- Kiss and love on Jo as much as possible.

5:30- Put Jo in his highchair to entertain himself with his toy while I make him some dinner (mix cereal and/or choose baby foods, tough work.) Feed him & clean him up. Some days he gets a bath here. Read him a story, change his diaper, give him some breastmilk, lay him down for bed.

6:30- Make Brandon and I some dinner. Load the dishwasher. Watch whatever show I have from Netflix. Have dessert and/or hottub. Blog or do something semiproductive online.

11:30pm- Get to bed.

Yep, that's pretty much my life.

For the past two nights Jonah has had a night waking/feeding again after about a month without. What's up with that?
I have been terrible about getting exercise and reading my scriptures lately. Hopefully the embarrasement of just writing that will help me recommit to do better.

What else is new?

Brandon is interviewing with a dentist in Heber today for an Associate position. Say a prayer for him to find a job soon! At least cross your fingers or send us some positive energy!!
He has also found a cute little office space that he could lease and begin a practice of his own here. Even if he does that he'll still need a second job cause the job in SLC is now only 8 hours a week. Yipes! He will continue to persue jobs in Heber this week and move on to Park City dentists next week if he hasn't found anything.
We found the house we want to live in. It is a big house on a hillside in Heber. It has four bedrooms, a basement, 3 baths, etc. It is beautiful. I'm turning in the rental application today. It is bigger and better than anything else we have looked at and is less than most things we have seen and way less than it ought to be but the owners have moved and need to get some money out of it. Now we just need to figure out how to afford it! It is very affordable (though everything here is at least 3x what we were paying in Oklahoma), we just don't have much income at the moment, hopefully we will by October 1st.

Goodbye IRS?

Utah Miners

(I did not write this, my mom received it from an online friend of hers)

I was talking with someone today and I got a different perspective on the mine disaster. I thought I would share with you.
Everyone thinks it is terrible that 6 men were killed and that Bob Murray
isn’t going to get the bodies out. (I think it is hard – that isn’t what I am trying to say here.) What about those people killed in 911, the Titanic, in wars that the bodies are never recovered, those deep sea fishing or what about all the auto accidents? Aren’t these tragic? We are still flying in planes, going on cruises, sending soldiers to war, eating sea food and driving cars. There are a lot more people die in these accidents than there are in the coal mines, yet no one thinks a thing of getting in their car or going on a cruise.

There were 3 men killed trying to recover these 6 miners and there were 6
others hurt. How many more does the general public and the families think
have to die trying to recover these 6??? When people talk about “what can I do to help the families”, I have said, “Please pray for them.” But I have now changed my mind a little. I don’t want you to think I don’t feel bad, because I know several of these families and I do feel bad, BUT….. Governor Huntsman from Utah is saying to close all coal mines that are more than 1,000 feet deep. Well why doesn’t he just come and take away all our food, clothes, houses, cars, etc. This is how we make a living. He has NO IDEA what it takes to mine coal. His committee consists of ‘non coal miners’ as far as we have been told. There may be one person that is from the UMWA that would have a clue.

Right after the Wilberg Mine Fire in 1984 that killed 27 miners, my dh was one of the many that went in to try to recover those fellow workers so I DO know what I am talking about. I had a neighbor ask me how I could stand having him go in the coal mine every day knowing how dangerous it was. My response to her then and to you now is, “How can you let your husband go to work, driving on the roads every day? There are a lot more car accidents killing more people in one day than there are mine accidents killing people in a full year.”

Now to my next statement: Last night alone there was over $25,000 raised for the families. This isn’t the first fund raiser, nor will it be the last as I know there was one in Salt Lake this morning and one tonight in our local High School. Let me tell you a little about these families. They are still getting a pay check until the men are pronounced dead. They are up there 24/7 which means mega over time will be paid to the families. They each have a $250,000 life insurance. Now an attorney is their ‘spokesman’ and I am sure he will help them sue Mr. Murray. He will automatically give the families a settlement but I am sure an attorney will try to get blood out of a turnip.

Please don’t get me wrong there isn’t a price you can pay for a life, I am
glad it isn’t my dh and I do feel sorry for them and I am morning along with the rest of our communities. But those that are saying to shut the mines down, think about it. I know that there is over 500 workers that will lose their jobs if Mr. Murray has to shut his mines down. Do you realize what that will do to the maybe 15,000 people living in our communities? That is just Mr. Murray’s employees. There are several other mines that if all mines have to be shut down will take probably another 1500-2000 jobs. If that happens then our power plants will have to shut down, and that will be another ??? jobs. We are already devastated. Please don’t pray to have the mines shut down. Pray that IF Mr. Murray has to shut his mines down, those other miners will be able to find a good job in our area (which won’t happen, even on the very best of days because there aren’t jobs in our area!)

I guess what I am saying is PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE pray for ALL the miners. Not just the families of those that lost their lives, but those that could lose their jobs, homes, cars, their way of living, their whole life. I am not a big fan of Mr. Murray’s but he really has been trying to do his best. He was right in there trying to rescue those men when the second collapse happened that killed 3 and injured 6. He has had very little sleep. This is going to ruin him. Again, please pray for ALL the miners as I know they will be losing their jobs soon.

Joyce, Emery County, UT

Everafter

I hadn't seen this movie since it came out in the '90s. I just finished rewatching it. My review will be very short.
This movie is an adaptation of the Cinderella story. It has a great script which is pretty much ruined by horrible, fake, bad British accents put on by nearly every actor in the film. Oh, and the story is set in France. Sad. I'd like this to be remade.

Tongue Obsession

The past few days Jonah has been doing a lot of this.
Did you notice he's sitting on his own here too?

Attention Shoppers

Brandon and I watched "Walmart: The High Cost of Low Price" this week.
Here are a few things I learned:

Wal-Mart, the biggest company in the world,...

...drives down wages in urban areas

...offers an overpriced, pathetic benefits package to its full-time employees.

...discourages employees from joining Unions

...encourages employees to work off the clock, acting as though their jobs depend upon it

...discourages overtime & regularly (illegally) moved or removed employee hours from their timecard/payroll to avoid paying overtime hours.

...is facing a class-action lawsuit for discrimination against female employees.

...is continuously being fined by the EPA for Clean Water Act violations.

...parking lots are a hotspot for crime because their few security cameras are often not monitors and most of their huge parking lots are without security patrols.

...hurts local business.


The WALTON FAMILY (Wal-Mart owners) Has Given LESS THAN 1% of Their Wealth to Charity (Bill Gates has given 58%).

The WALTON FAMILY Made $3.2 MILLION in Political Contributions in 2004.

A WAL-MART Worker may donate money from their paycheck to the CRITICAL NEED FUND, a program to aid other employees in times of crisis, like a fire or tornado. In 2004, WAL-MART Employees gave OVER $5 MILLION to help fellow workers. The Walton Family gave $6,000.

Most Walmart products are imported from other countries, rather than made in the USA.

Walmart's factories in China have employees that work 14 hour days, seven days a week and are forced to pay to live in the Walmart dormitory.

Workers in Central and South America work in inhumane conditions as well.


I recommend renting the dvd.

Primaries

"You will almost certainly love Ron Paul if you look at his views closely. Government-provided services are always more expensive than those provided by private businesses in a free market, because the government does not rely on customer satisfaction for revenue. That is why Ron Paul wants to eliminate many federal programs.
Our originally small federal government protected our rights, while local governments addressed the needs of thier communities... but now Washington D.C. manipulates our local governments by withholding funds(to fix roads, for instance), and it invades our financial privacy with the IRS. That is why Ron Paul wants to eliminate federal bureaucracies like the IRS and the Depts. of Education and Transportation.
His campaign now has more money than John McCain's, and it's only
getting bigger. He will be elected if we educate others and register
Republican to vote for him in the primaries." - Andrew Winningham (law student and my good friend)

Temple Square

Did some touristy stuff with my friend Lacey in Salt Lake City this past Friday.



Though it took the Mormon Pioneers 40 years to build the Salt Lake Temple, now in a mere manner of minutes, you can build your own (courtesy of the LDS Museum of Church History and Art's gift shop).

Pure Joy

Jonah with Rusty.

Doctor B

Brandon's first day making money as a dentist!! Tuesday, August 14, 2007.




So, we didn't end up living off of credit cards for the past month afterall. We lived off of money from stocks we didn't know existed until recently that we had four years worth of uncollected dividends on. Thank you dearly departed Grandpa J! The money's about gone now, but Brandon will be getting his first dental paycheck soon!

Decisions, Decisions

Currently Brandon is working in the office of another dentist in Salt Lake City. He can only work half-days, so he is commuting an hour each way, five days a week for only four hours of work per day. He wants to open his own practice up here in Heber City. But when? Should he look for another part-time job at a Park City practice or just jump in and get a business loan and get his own practice started asap?? Either way, he will probably end up only working at this SLC practice for 2 or 3 half days a week soon. But he is learning a lot from the awesome dentist who owns the practice and is also making money:)

Home ownership is looking like it might be further off than previously planned. I am going to look at a couple houses in Heber today and tomorrow with my realtor, but renting is looking like a more feasible option suddenly. Proving income is hard as an independent contractor, the dentist B works with might consider putting him on salary (instead of a percentage of his production) for two months so we can get a home loan with a decent interest rate, but maybe not. Also, if we have to take out a business loan, a home loan at the same time isn't the most appealing idea. I spent all afternoon yesterday looking at rental homes in Park City (halfway between Heber and Salt Lake).

The lowdown: We need to make some money AND we need a new place to live by October. Cars may also become a factor since they are both having a few troubles and neither have snow tires or four wheel drive. Lots of change on the horizon.

What a Morning!!

Jonah woke up earlier than usual this morning (6:30), but he went to bed early too. I let the cats out of the mudroom on my way to his room and noticed water on the floor and an usual sound. Oh no!
I went in and kissed Jonah and opened the blinds on the windows. Back to the mudroom. I looked under the sink and sure enough there is a mist of water spraying all over. I look for a way to turn off the water and find none. Brandon has left for work and Ryan and Elaine should be up by are not. I wake them.
Ryan also finds no way to turn off the water. I put towels on the floor. We head to the boiler room to find seven water valves. We turn a couple but nothing happens. I call Brandon, he doesn't know how to turn off the water. I call Alan (my FIL, the home owner) at home and on his cell but can't get ahold of him and I know he's not at work yet. I finally give in and call a plumber even though it seems like a very small, easily fixable leak.
I wring out towels and empty buckets while I take care of Jonah for an hour and a half. Ryan and Elaine have left. Alan calls from work and tells me how to turn off the water for the whole house. The plumber arrives, fixes things, charges an arm and a leg.
While the plumber is here Jonah is napping and I'm assisting the plumber in between trying to revive a dying hummingbird who had smacked into a window (he didn't make it and I almost cried) and killing what appears to be a termite infestation in my bathroom.
I baked cookie dough and treated myself to lunch, cookies & milk and an episode of Gilmore Girls online during Jonah's second nap. He's up now so I'm off. Hopefully the afternoon will be less eventful.

Five Things Meme

Five things I was doing 10 years ago
1. Living in AZ for the summer, hanging out with Sarah, Annie, and Melodee a lot
2. Hanging out with, dating, and kissing a lot of guys while deciding if I should go back to Utah and marry Brandon
3. Working first as a directory assistance operator then as an assistant to the home closers at Homes by Dave Brown (they offered me a permanent position which I didn't take)
4. Wearing short shorts and dresses
5. Wearing Estee Lauder's Pleasures perfume everyday

Five things on my to-do list today
1. Clean the house before more guests arrive
2. Do laundry
3. Kiss Jonah a lot
4. Change my sheets before Brandon gets home from backpacking
5. Make dinner

Five snacks I enjoy
1. Chips and Salsa!
2. Ice cream
3. Carrots
4. Fruit
5. Banana bread

Five things I'd do if I were a millionaire
1. Buy a fabulous house.
2. Pay off my parent's house or buy them a new one.
3. Save money for my kids schooling, weddings, cars.
4. Hire a housekeeper and someone to cook once a week.
5. Travel!!

Five things I'd never wear again
1. Really uncomfortable shoes
2. Eternity perfume
3. Overalls
4. A jumper dress
5. Suspenders (really cool in third grade)

Five favorite toys
1. laptop w/ internet
2. food processor
3. wakeboard
4. Scuba gear
5. Brandon

The Past 48 Hours

The past 48 hours have been spent with my closest cousin-in-law, Alisha, and her two-year-old daughter, Jocelyn. We had a great time. I love talking to Alisha and I love listening to Jocelyn sing and talk. Jonah is facinated by Jocelyn and loves everything about her (except if she picks up a toy he has dropped and doesn't immediately put it back into his hand). And though I would never say Jocelyn is a terrible two, she is busy, messy, and into everything. I was always nervous about our not-quite-childproof house, especially since it's mostly not our own stuff in here. No major disasters though.
My friend Holly was supposed to come over this afternoon after Alisha and Joselyn left, but didn't. I was kind of relieved because I'm tired and want to relax, and also need to clean the house. And our friends, Ryan and Elaine, called today to ask if they could sleep over tomorrow night. Yeah! But though I was dreading a night alone in the house tonight, I'm actually looking forward to it now. So many visitors since we've been here!!

Peas

Yesterday Jonah tried vegetables for the first time. He likes peas.

Last Weekend

Near Flaming Gorge, between Vernal and Dutch John, UT.


Last Thursday night when we were supposed to head up to Flaming Gorge with Brandon's dad n' family, we found out that B's sister Katie had come down with what we now believe to have been a case of the measles. We decided to go anyway. It was a three hour drive thru wild wilderness I have never fully appreciated before. We saw tons of deer around sunset just before arriving at Camper World.
We arrived to a warm welcome from about 40 members of the J. family. There were B's two uncles, one aunt, and eight of his first cousins, each with their signifigant other and seven with children. We had a great time.
I had a great wakeboarding run on Saturday and was SOOO sore on Sunday, hadn't gone in two years. Jonah liked napping on the boat and Brandon liked boat surfing. I didn't take a lot of pictures but I'll share what I've got. I'm lucky to have such great extended family in-laws:)



We saw a herd of wild mountain goats on our way to meet up with the river group for lunch.


Lunch on the river after 27 from our group floated the Green river in rafts.




Brandon surfing. You can let go of the rope and keep surfing behind the boat without one!

July 31st

Jonah turned 6 months old.

He decided that day that now he LOVES his Johnny Jump Up and can really jump. He is also quite mobile, though not quite crawling he can roll and wiggle to get wherever he wants.

Flaming Gorge

Here's where I've been for the past three days. More to come...