Happy Birthday!

Just wanted to say Happy Birthday to my oldest and dearest friend. Life has taken us to different yet wonderful places, and though we seem to only keep in touch via cyberspace, she is still my all time favorite. She is a devoted daughter, wife, mother, and friend. She has survived more trials with more grace and a better sense of humor than I could ever hope to. I'm smiling now, oh wait, maybe those are tears, no no, just dust in my eye, thinking back on all the crazy things we did and the great time we had doing them! Love You!

Sharing Time...?

Demographic: Children age 7-11

History: We teach the 7-8 year old kids in primary. We have one child who we were told was a "troubled" or always in trouble child, but we kind of like him, he just needs a little extra structure, and he really takes you for your word. We'll call him Eddie.

Lesson: Our Body is a Temple

Question: What are some bad things some people choose to do/put into their bodies?

Answers: Alcohol, Coffee, Tattoos, Drugs (picture of a needle), etc...

Question: What are some good things we can put into or do for our bodies?

Answers: Eat nutritious foods, drink lots of water, don't stay up late, exercise...


Lesson Excerpt 1:
Teacher: I feel very strongly that you should never never drink alcohol, I have a friend who is my age (35-ish?) he wasn't drinking, but he was hit by a drunk driver, and now he can't do anything for himself. I worked at the nursing home where he lives and he can't feed himself and he wears a diaper. I had to change his diaper, and he is my age! And all because of alcohol.
Kids: Um, really not sure what to do with that.


Lesson Excerpt 2:
Eddie: Um, excuse me, why do you have a picture of a needle?
Teacher: That is our picture representing "drugs". People who do drugs sometimes inject them with needles and the get track marks and awful scars on their arms. These things give you a high (8 year old brain: 'they say "Hi"?') for a moment, but they don't make you truly happy. ('What does "Hi" have do do with being happy?)
Eddie: Um, excuse me, what about when I go to the doctor? Are his shots drugs?
Teacher: Yes, doctor's give you drugs, but that is not like the drugs we are talking about.
Eddie: Um, excuse me, do doctor's ever give you shots that aren't drugs?
Teacher: I don't think so.


Lesson Excerpt 3:
Teacher: It's important to get a good night sleep. Most of your parent's probably have you go to bed at a certain time because you need your rest.
Eddie: Um, excuse me, what about New Years Eve?
Teacher: Well, there are exceptions like that. It's okay then to stay up and eat and make toasts and play games with your family.
Eddie: Um, excuse me, what if you have to study for a test, can I stay up late then?
Teacher: I would say that would be a bad choice, because you should have managed your time more wisely (I just barely learned to manage my time and I am 27!) and done your homework when you got home from school.
Eddie: Um, excuse me, what if your teacher only gave you one day to study?
Teacher: Teachers don't do that, they always give you at least a week.
Eddie: Um, my school isn't like that.

Everything I never needed to know I learned in Primary.

Hmm...

"A government big enough to give you what you want is a government big enough to take from you everything you have." ~Gerald Ford

Us Too!

MomMil always finds the most thought provoking images...

All I need to know I learned from blog stalking...

I have a tendency to read other people's blogs, even stranger's blogs and think "Wow, that's neat, why didn't I think of that? or "Wish I had found that link first." Then of course I never copy that person's idea for fear of the minute possibility that since I found that stranger's blog by following links from blogs of people that I actually know, maybe that stranger does the same thing and might actually read our blog and catch me in my thievery.

Anyway, per usual I was reading a stranger's blog and heard an audio clip that I felt was worth liberating for my own post, just in case any of my fellow blog stalkers don't happen across the same blogs I do. I will preface by saying that I have my political opinions, but I won't pretend to understand all of the issues completely. However, there are some I feel strongly about and educated enough to argue about. A couple of those are core family values like the Right to Life and the sanctity of marriage between a man and a woman. I also believe that the Iraq War was unavoidable, and any president would have done the same thing as Bush in the wake of the terrorist attacks. I also generally believe that if we hadn't gone to war, most Americans would have been angry and said things like, "I can't believe Bush did nothing." Perhaps some decisions about the path of the Iraq War could have been different, but who can really say what the outcome of any choice would have been? Regardless, I don't envy anyone who had to be part of making those decisions. One thing I do know is that I have family who served in Iraq, were injured in Iraq, and would go back to Iraq, because they believe they did good things over there, and so do I, and I am grateful for their service. That being said, before you vote, make sure you know your candidate's policies and values because that should outrank their age, skin color or party affiliation.

Whew, I didn't realize I was going to get so political!

This clip is from Howard Stern, but don't worry, it contains nothing of what you might initially think of when you hear his name. This audio segment was done in Harlem, but I have heard similar things from people I work with here in Denver. Have a listen here.

Kill the Cook

You know the nightmare where you are at a hotel taking a shower have shampoo in your hair and are shaving your legs when the fire alarm goes off? Then you have to jump out of the shower wrap a towel around yourself and go outside in the cold in the middle of the night dripping with soap and shaving cream and wait for the firetruck to come? Yeah, that wasn't my nightmare, but my reality is that I have a wicked bad cold and had to get up at 5:30 am so I took cold medicine and went to bed early and Hoss was up til midnight studying and had just fallen asleep when the fire alarm went off at our extended stay hotel at 12:45am and we had to go out and wait in the hotel parking lot until 1:30am for the firemen to come and check every room all because someone was cooking a steak at 1 in the morning and set it on fire which resulted in smoke and set off the alarm!

Seriously, who cooks steak in the middle of the night? Who eats steak in the middle of the night? And who catches steak on fire when they are cooking on an electric stove?

We're expecting...

...to close on our new house in Denver before the 22nd of September!

After weeks of being residents of Wyorado, spending our weekdays in Denver hotels and weekends, yup you guessed it, at the Mil residence in Cheyenne (we just can't seem to get away from there...:), we are finally finally going to have a place to call our own.

Here is the newest addition to our family...

My favorite part is our luscious lawn! Well, at least the lawn part, I think maybe a little TLC will help with the luscious part. (Really my favorite part is the kitchen).

Why did we buy a house...

... when this is where Hoss spends most hours of his day and part of his night as a student going to class, studying, working in the lab making wax teeth, studying, assisting the 3rd & 4th year dental students, oh and studying...

University of Colorado School of Dental Medicine

....And this is where Rose spends most hours of her day as a speech pathologist working with elderly who have suffered a stroke or other neurological trauma... (In a perfect world I really want to work with little babies and toddlers, but my world isn't quite perfect yet, so hopefully that job is in my future.)

Briarwood Health Care Center

...Well, for my own sanity I can't stand living in a hotel anymore and mostly we needed somewhere to spend time together, so we figured what the heck, lets buy a house. We have plenty of room so this is an open invitation to come take advantage of having friends in Denver...but maybe not until October so we have a chance to move in first!