Making Our Voice Heard

A couple of months ago Richard and I started a Neighborhood/Community group called the "Freedom Forum". We meet on the 1st & 3rd Thursdays of every month and discuss topics such as the Constitution, our Founding Fathers, and the principles that our country was founded on. We educate each other, engage in discussions regarding current events and yes, we express some frustrations. I would like to invite anyone who is remotely interested to come join us and check the group out. Here is the link to the blog regarding the "Freedom Forum" & our meetings. http://freedomforumprovo.blogspot.com/


We have also put together a letter to send to all members of Congress (both in the House and Senate) along with a copy of the essay written by Ezra Taft Benson, when he was the Sec. of Agriculture in the Eisenhower administration, titled the "Proper Role of Government." Knowing that our letter with our 2 signatures on it would not make much of an impact in Washington, we set up a petition online where others who share our same view about the role government should play in our lives, could add their signature and give more "weight" to our letter & cause. We set our goal for 1000 signatures and got to work. We have sent e-mails, set up a Facebook Group, passed out fliers, and yesterday, Richard was given the opportunity to do an interview on a radio talk show out of Spokane, WA about our efforts and what the average citizen can do . Here is the link to the web cam & audio of the radio interview http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/1938717
He talks about what inspired him to get involved, the genesis of the group and the petition , and he just did an over all great job. I am really proud of him.


We have been doing the printing of the letter & essay a little at a time, due to the cost of printing, but we have the essays ready to go and are just waiting to accumulate signatures. So I am humbly asking that if you haven't signed onto the letter, that you read it & the essay and add your name if you feel the same way. Here is the link to a blog where you can read the letter, listen to or read the essay by Sec. Benson and find a link for you to add your signature along with ours http://properrole.blogspot.com/. Just a side note-the petition site asks for a donation, YOU DO NOT have to give a donation to add your name and the money does not go to our cause, but to the petition site for upkeep.


If you have added your name (which many of you have & I thank you), please just think of who (a spouse, sibling, parent, friend, etc.) you might share it with that might be interested in signing too. I am asking you to help me get the word out, anyway YOU know how.

I am sorry if this is such a heavy and serious post, but I feel like our country is in a perilous place right now & I appreciate you listening to me. I promise I will get back to writing "fluff" about the goings on in our family soon.

"Oh crap" & a heart attack

Every year that we go camping to Tony Grove, located in beautiful Logan Canyon, with our extended Parke family, we take home more than bug bites and the smell of camfire; we take home a story. 

There is always an adventure, which is usually a misadventure, which gets talked about at family gatherings for the next few months. The next summer it becomes resurrected and we laugh and joke about it all over again around the campfire.

This year the 'story' starred my brother-in-law, Steve and Richard's sister, Susie. And thanks to the quick thinking and camera work of Richard's other sister Mary; we have it all on film.

Oops!

Possible solution.

Susie dying that Steve got the van, with the brand new bumper they just put on, high centered on a rock.

I think this one is priceless.

(Notice my niece Ashlyn crossing her fingers)

Whew! It's down safe and sound.

Here's to reminiscing, next year's story, and praying it doesn't include me.

A Tirade & Dallin's Hand

Many of you have noticed that Dallin is sporting a new accessory these days. A lovely arm ornament made of gauzy material and ace bandage. And recently, the ace bandage has been upgraded with a fantastic fiberglass shell! Yes, it sounds a lot like a cast because it is. He has officially broken his hand.

I wish I could say he was doing something adventurous and exciting, but really he just was running up the stairs, slipped, and landed on it wrong. Richard and I were gone to our niece Brittney's wedding and Grandma Jeanne was keeping an eye on the kids. She heard and saw him do it and got the frozen veggies to put on it and he did not complain about it until I got home around 8:00pm which then was too late to take him anywhere. We wrapped it and said we'd go tomorrow. That was until he woke up with the stomach flu that had been ravaging our family that week. We tried to go anyway, but poor Dallin kept "losing his lunch" in the car and he just wanted to go home. By the time he was better he didn't complain too much about his hand and the swelling had gone down, so I chalked it up to a sprain, until I noticed he couldn't grip things with it. So off to the Dr's we went.......

(1st Visit to the InstaCare)

........and this is where the tirade begins.

I am not a fan of "Universal Health care". After living in Canada, and experiencing their Socialized medicine, I can live without it! Thank You very much! (Side Note: Most of my Canadian friends could live without it too & wonder why America is so anxious to jump into it). It is NOT efficient, quality care, and it is definitely NOT free.

Now, I am not saying that our health care system is perfect either. There are definitely some pretty big kinks to work out. Part of those kinks are constructed by the wonderful litigious society we live in. WE SUE OVER EVERYTHING! Do you know that in Canada, if people are traveling to the states, the insurance company requires them to have special insurance? Just in case, they get sued. We, the American citizen are viewed as "sue happy, warmongers", as the nice little Canadian grandma told me, not so nicely, in the check out line one day.

(Dallin with Todd Seamons, our PA, that we absolutely love.)

So, I figure one of the kinks in our system is that our Dr.'s are afraid of getting sued to death! (And from having a brother who is a Dr, I know that their malpractice insurance is outrageous). Thus they are trying to cover their butts, all the while, making their "loin cloths" out of our cash.

My example of this is the experience we have had with Dallin breaking his hand. It has taken 2 weeks, 2 different Dr's, 3 office visits, 2 X-rays, and $110.00 of co pays (not to mention my deductible) to figure out just "how much" his hand is broken. But now they have all their bases or butts covered and Dallin's hand is in a "permanent cast" for another 2 1/2 weeks due to a spiral fracture. But he is getting along with his cast just fine and has enjoyed having everyone sign it.

The Finished Product.

Voting for NieNie

I know that some of you fellow bloggers of mine read NieNie's blog the "NieNie Dialouges", ( http://nieniedialogues.blogspot.com )what you may not have known is that you can vote for her blog to be awarded "Most Inspiring Blog" from the Blogluxe Awards that recognizes women bloggers.
I have only read Nie's blog for about a year or less and I may not catch each one, but I never leave her blog without reaffirming my resolve to be a better mom, wife, and to just be grateful for all the blessings that Heavenly Father has so graciously given me. If you feel the same, I would encourage you to vote for Nie too and encourage a blog that uplifts and encourages by viewing struggles through Nie's unique take on life.


To vote go to www.socialluxelounge.com/blogluxe . You can vote once in each category per day.



Please, feel free to spread the word.

The Other Reason Why

Besides running, my other reason for not blogging is because I had a piano recital coming up and I was struggling to learn my piece. Since this was the last recital before my teacher, Nathan Giles, leaves on his mission to Toronto, Canada, he asked if there was a piece I wanted to learn. I love "Canon in D" by Jhoanne Pachelbel, so I said if we could find a easy enough version of it, that would definitely be my choice.

From the video of me playing my piece you can not tell that I had practiced at all!!! I only played half as well, as I had practiced. I am not a performer. My hands were shaking and I was extremely nervous. But I did make it through and recieved my 1 year completion certificate.

For now, this will be the extent of my piano education. My piano lesson budget has now been changed to a guitar lesson budget for Ashton. At least, we are still making some sort of music.

Sorry, I couldn't get the video to upload, but you really didn't want to see it anyway, believe me.

The Reason Why

So, if you have been a reader of my blog in the past, you probably noticed a decrease in the frequency of my blog posts since March. I figured I would let you in on the reason why.

It's because I have been doing a lot of this...

....No, not looking like a pregnant squirrel. It was cold, so I had 2 shirts on. Plus, it was 7am, & I was still puffy. At least that's my excuse. I've been RUNNING!!! YES, FOR FUN!!! WHY you say??? Let me explain.

After the holidays, I was the heaviest I have ever been. My "muffin top" was not appetizing or attractive. I was very down about myself and my appearance and decided I needed to take control and do something. Our ward has an annual 5K every year in September, that I have never participated in. I decided to change that this year. I decided I was gonna run that 3.1 miles if it killed me! So I had my goal & something to work towards.

But where to start. I couldn't run to save my life! I hated to run in high school. Honestly, I think it took me 16 minutes to do a mile in gym class and I haven't attempted to run since then. But in my neighborhood I am surrounded by runners and 2 of my sister-in-laws run, so I figured if they can do it, so can I.

Luckily, I ran across a schedule in my Family Circle magazine that was tailored to someone just starting by alternating walking and running. It worked well. I wasn't overwhelmed, and little by little, built up my minutes and miles, until I could run without having to walk.

My great neighbor and friend, Carrilyne, in all her wisdom, suggested that maybe I should run a race before September. I'm sure she knew I would need motivation to keep going and September was still a long ways away. She told me about the Utah Valley 5K and since it goes right past our neighborhood and it wasn't until June, so I still had plenty of time to get ready, I thought that maybe I could do it. I checked it out, talked to Richard, and my sister in-law Shaleece said she would come from Pocatello to run it with me.

I signed up. I was committed.

My sis-in-law,Shaleece, my heroine, stretching.

So I ran. On the treadmill when the weather was bad, which it was a lot of the time. Then finally outside on real pavement. Then the call came. Shaleece was going to run the Ogden 5K on May 16th and wondered if I wanted to give it a try. I still had not ran the whole 3.1 miles and the Ogden race was only 2 weeks away, but I figured what the heck and did it anyway!

I loved it! It was a great feeling! It was a wonderful running day!

We figured that if we could do it within 31-32 minutes that would be good. We did it in 30:21! And if we hadn't been stuck in the middle of the pack, I'm sure we would've shaved of those 21 seconds and then some.


Yeah! We did it!

I didn't think I really liked running until I ran that race. It was just something I endured to reach a goal. But that adrenaline rush of beating a time and running it the whole way, just spurred this little competitive part of me. Now I looked forward to getting the kids to school so I could go run. And I'm sure Ben's pre-school teacher got tired of seeing, & probably smelling, me in my running clothes, but I didn't care. I had a mission, and that mission was to run.


Now, I wish I could report a ton of weight loss, but I can't. I've only lost about 7-8 lbs since Christmas. But I can tell the difference in how things fit and how I feel. I can also run 4 miles (if I push it), where in the beginning I had trouble running for 1 minute. Plus, and maybe this is the best part, my "muffin top" has gone from "jumbo size" to just "regular" and that is good enough for me!

Easter 2009

The Easter Bunny usually visits us on the Saturday morning before, so we can get the candy/ Easter Bunny thing out of the way before Sunday. That way on Easter Sunday we can focus on the true meaning of Easter and celebrate the resurrection. Well, we did things a little different this year, since Ashton had a cub scout hike on Saturday morning. We colored eggs on Saturday evening and did our egg hunt and baskets on Easter morning.

Dallin's favorite egg. A "Y" for BYU.

Ashton finding all the high hidden eggs.

Ben with some of his haul!

The poor Easter Bunny(ies) had to wait until really late to visit our house (12:30), because Ashton and Dallin stayed up watching "The Ten Commandments" with mom and dad. The boys really enjoyed it and thought it was as good as movies they come out with today. I guess that's why they had a hard time falling asleep when the movie was done! Too much excitement.

Since this is Emma 1st year of understanding that something special was going on and being able to participate, we all enjoyed watching her color eggs and basically, stuff as much chocolate in her mouth as she could fit! She must take after her mom and Grandma!

Emma coloring eggs and everything else!

Ashton showing off his egg finding skills.

Dallin & Ben's favorite basket surprise.

We also enjoyed a yummy Easter dinner complete with Ham, cheesy potatoes, homemade rolls, veggies, and strawberry shortcake. We even had a table cloth. And if you come from my family, you know it is an important dinner if you use a tablecloth!

Ben is going to get me with his scary, blue, monster fingers!

Emma checking out her new doll clothes the Easter Bunny left in her basket.

OPEN THE CHOCOLATE, PLEASE!!!

Benjamin pretending he's eating the egg, shell and all!

All in all, Easter was a"EGG"citing success!