Opinions and Religion

My sister and I went up to my mother's house today to decorate her house for Christmas.  Why on earth my dad can't do it....I don't know.  Oh yeah.  He would hang some tinsel from the dear antlers and call it decorated.  Or at least that's what my mother's version of the story would be.  (Hi, Mom!)  She reads my blog now.

While decorating, my sister and I were once again divvying up her stuff.  My dad once told my sister that the day after she dies we'd better high tail it up to their house and get stuff before he's hauls it down to the Deseret Industries or D. I. for those of us in the area.  For those not, it's a LDS run thrift store.  It's craptacular.  Then my sister and I started making plans for what we were getting rid of and what was going to come to our houses.  I said that we were going to make a spectacle of ourselves hauling out all that crap to the sidewalk the day after we plant her.  I suggested it would be a yard sale and my sister said, "No.  An "estate" sale."  Because we all know how important and useful an old lady's stuff is.  I said, "We will hang a banner that states, "Well, she ain't gettin' any deader!""  There's a lot of sentiment in our family.  My only request to her death is that it be in the summer, when it's warm.

Anywho..

My beef of the day is this:  The Government and Conservative Leanings of the State of Utah.

There was once a day when the State of Utah was close to 90% LDS.  Those days are gone.  In Salt Lake County the Mormon to non-Mormon ratio is about 1:3.  In Utah County (Provo) where I live the ratio is higher maybe 4:5.  In Weber County (Ogden) and Davis County (Bountiful) it's probably somewhere in the middle.  In the less populated counties (Cache, Morgan, Summit, Juab, San Juan, Kane, etc) it's probably higher.  Then in Washington County (St George) it's probably quite low.  All in all the Mormon to non-Mormon ratio in the State of Utah is lower than 50%.  I saw or heard a recent guess on the percentage of Mormons in the State of Utah in the next 10-15 years will be 30%.

Utah Representatives and Senators you need to start representing people of all beliefs and non-beliefs.  The State of Utah can no longer be run like an extension of the LDS Church.  It's called separation of Church and State for a reason. 

Since moving back to Utah 15 years ago, working in the PTA for 13 years and working for a school district for 7 years I cannot in good conscience call myself a Republican any longer.  (I'm not a registered Democrat, Mom!  Don't freak.)  I vote Democrat on the state and local level because we need to have some equality of thinking in this State.  If I lived in Colorado or California or New York I'd still consider myself a Republican.  But not in Utah. 

We have had a particular Representative and Senator for our area serving for several years.  I want to throw up every time I hear either one of their names because they or so biased and so unfair. 

The laws and regulations that come up on capitol hill are ridiculous.  It's the same in small government as it is in large--let's make it possible for the rich to stay rich.  Not that I'm against being rich---bring it on.  But the State of Utah is so bent on taking public moneys, public school moneys and putting it all towards programs that are so STUPID.  Like taking money out of public school hands to pay tuition to private schools.  95% of Utah students go to public school. HELLO!  And by damn, if you didn't go along with that ridiculousness then your association is battered and beaten up every way you turn.  That's just a small representation.

Not everyone is a Mormon in this state.  Not everyone is in a white, heterosexual, two-parent household.  It's time for the State of Utah to start thinking outside of their narrow minded box.

Disclaimer:  These are my thoughts.   I am LDS.  I am very active in the Church.  I have served a mission.  I have held multiple callings over my lifetime.  I read my scriptures and pray every day.  I have Family Home Evening every week.  I go to Church every Sunday.  I have a testimony of Jesus Christ as my Savior.  I am not a Republican. This is not the thought of all members of the LDS Church.  But I have met several wherein it is.

Glasses

My mother sent me and a few others this email:

"do i want to go get new glasses.  you know i'm suppose to die. the ones i have are so skewed.  i see double, they won't keep clean.

but they could be laid across my eye sockets so i'll look like i'm in repose do nothing."

 

She's so funny.  I responded that she might as well.

 

 

Pumpkin Bread

A week or so ago a friend on Facebook asked for my recipe for Pumpkin Bread.  I got this recipe when we lived in Illinois and my husband was in graduate school.  A friend of mine there went to regular meetings for La Leche League and at one of those meetings someone brought this bread and shared the recipe.  It's the best recipe I've ever had for pumpkin bread.  I've tried others "just in case" but this one is the bomb.


3 1/3 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
3 cups sugar
1 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
4 eggs
2/3 cup water
16-29 oz. pumpkin*

Sift the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg.  Add the rest of the ingredients and mix until smooth and blended.  Grease 2 pans with unsalted butter, Pam, whatever you like to use.  Divide the batter between the pans and bake at 350 degrees for 1 to 1 1/2 hours.*

*The original recipe calls for 16 oz. of pumpkin but I only buy the big 29 oz. cans of it.  I used to add the entire 29 oz. to the recipe but now maybe I'll use most of the pumpkin--20 oz.   I eyeball it.  It makes the bread really moist but it takes longer to bake.  You just have to watch it closely after it's been baking for an hour.

False Alarm

I'm not pregnant.

Late

I'm 43 years old and my period is 5 days late.  My youngest is 10.  My oldest is 17.  What kind of hell on earth am I looking at? 

I'll be the oldest mom at everything.  Everyone will ask if they are my grandchild.

I haven't changed a diaper for 7 years. 

I don't know if my poor little boobies can take another year of a child hanging off of them.

I don't know if I can survive the up all nights, the pooping, the Terrible Two's.

I don't know if I can take a 50 pound weight gain, more stretch marks, debilitating heartburn. 

I don't know if I can take another natural childbirth at home.

How am I supposed to get back into shape?  How am I supposed to run a couple of Ragnars next year?

I will be 61 years old when this child graduates from high school.  61!!!  That's only 4 years till retirement!

If I have one do I have to have another so they don't grow up as an only child?

The braces. 

The maturation talks. 

Kindergarten. 

Immunizations. 

First date. 

Baptism. 

Scared of the dark.

Teaching them to read.

Preschool.

High School.

Junior High.

I was hoping to finally get out of PTA.


eep.

Maybe it's menopause.

Snoring

My dog is laying at the foot of my bed snoring.  Loudly.  She even has that "ccccaw shoo" sound going on.  It's kind of cute.

But do you know what's not cute?  Sleeping in a hotel room with Darth Madar and her oxygen machine and Snorey McSnore Snore who needs a C-pap machine! 

My mother's old oxygen machine literally made her sound like Darth Vadar--Ho perrrrr, Ho perrrrr--when she was on it.  Now it's this steady stream of air.  In fact if you were sleeping in the same room with her you'd lay there wondering if each breath was her last because it was like this:  Ho...........crickets..........perrrrr. 

Then you got my dad.  When we were kids he could snore so loud that you would hear him clear across the house through closed doors like he was lying in the same room.  I remember waking up one night thinking there was a tiger in my room.  I was scared to death!  Then I got to the point that I would go into my parents' room and poke him so he'd stop.  By the time I was 20 or so I would lay in bed and yell, "Dad!  Dad!  Roll over!"  To which my mother would awaken "the dead" and he would roll over long enough for the rest of us to go back to sleep.

My mother used to say that she didn't hear him.  How the...What the hell?  They would be asked to stay in hotels when visiting relatives so as not to upset the nighttime balance.  She said that if she went to sleep before he came to bed then she didn't hear him.  Which is really the truth because I have the same dilemma here although my husband doesn't sound like he's going to swallow the house.

So this past weekend my sister and I took my parents up to Logan for a wedding.  Beautiful day.  Beautiful couple.  But we had to share a rather small hotel room.  My sister started coming down with a cold and didn't sleep much of the night and I tossed and turned quite a bit.  And "apparently" I was gassy.  But that's neither here nor there.

During the night my dad was sleeping on his back.  Because his hip hurt.  Because he's old.  It went like this:  Cccccaw..............................................ng hng ng hng *smack smack smack*.      Cccccaw...................................................ng hng ng hng *smack smack smack*.  He would stop breathing!  My sister had nothing else to do since she couldn't sleep so she would count the seconds until he started breathing again.  The longest one was 45 seconds.  He would snore, not breathe, then start making noises and smacking his lips until it was time for the next snore.

I don't know how they both stand it.  But I'm glad they have each other, not breathing or breathing all night long.  The End.

Where Are You?!

One thing I have noticed over the last several years of being a mother is this:  your kids always want to know where you are.  From the first child I ingrained into them that they must always tell me where THEY are.  They could go play anywhere in the neighborhood as long as they told me where they were going next.  If they were switching to another friend's house they would either come tell me or call me before they would go.  My oldest was so good at this task that the other children naturally followed suit. 

I only had one child who really pushed the boundaries of this rule once.  She had gone next door to visit a neighbor who's children were all gone but loved for little visitors to come calling.  I realized she was missing from the house and sent the my oldest and his friends out to see if they could find her.  30 minutes had gone by and we had gone to every house on the block asking if they'd seen her.  Nobody had seen her.  I am usually a pretty level-headed person even in situations like that one but after 30 minutes of her missing I was starting to feel the panic rise.  I had just headed into the house to call the police when one of the neighbor kids came to my house and announced they had found her next door.  We had knocked on the door but no one had answered.  I yelled at her and explained why I was so upset then sent her back out to play.  Whew!  Crisis averted.

I bought our first cell phone 8 or 9 years ago.  It is a dinosaur compared to what we have now and the plan was terrible.  This was back when no one gave out their cell phone numbers except for emergencies as they were still so expensive to use.  Cell phones are a wonderful invention.  They allow us to be able to get in touch with anybody at almost any time.  They allow us mothers to go to the grocery store by ourselves and not have to worry about leaving the kids home for a minute in their own care. (Come on.  You know you have all done it at least once.)

The day our oldest turned 12 we never hired another babysitter again.  The hubs and I would go out to eat, go shopping, go here and there together--without the children--and never have to worry.  We left for longer and longer amounts of time because we both had cell phones and the kids could call to bitch about each other at will.  It was almost like we were still right there.  We bought our oldest daughter a cell phone, then our oldest son.  We could get in touch with them at any time through talk or text.  These conveniences are nice but it makes it so we spend more and more time apart because we can connect electronically.

Last night the hubs and I went to see a movie and then out to a late dinner.  We were driving home, about 5 minutes away from the house when my phone rang.  It was our youngest.  He said, "Mom?  Where are you?"  I told him.  Then, "When are you coming home?"  I told him. 

When I got off the phone I mentioned to my husband that kids always want to know where their parents are.  Even I, as an adult, want to know where my parents are.  Each one of them has a cell phone and up until a month ago a house phone, too.  There are time when I will call my mom's cell phone and get no answer.  Then I'll call my dad's cell phone to ask where she is.  No answer.  Then I would call their home phone.  If there was no answer then I would naturally assume they were both dead.  Because that is the most natural conclusion to draw.

When one of them finally call me back I usually say,  "Oh good.  You're not dead."  Then I ask "Where were you?"  It's my right to know.  I made them parents.  It makes me happy to know the location of my parents.

All of my kids no matter how old they are will call me if I'm not home when they get home from school.  "Mom?  Where are you?  When are you coming home?"  I let them know and they seem to feel better about that. 

You know, you'd think they'd be more excited to see me when I walked through the door.  But usually all they really want to know is, "What's for dinner?"