Ahh..Sweet Vindication

What do you call the cow that just had her calf?

De-Calf-inated!!!

Sorry..old joke

A few weeks ago I was literally sitting in the waiting room of the doctor's office pouring a Crystal Light Energy into a bottle of water when my sister Nancy called me and asked me if I had heard the news. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints officially clarified that the Word of Wisdom, found in the 89th Section of the Doctrine and Covenants, did not include caffeinated soft drinks.

HA....

You see, I never believed that it did...

I come from a pretty serious caffeinated soft drink world.  My father, the late beloved patriarch and Bishop was a serious Diet Pepsi drinker. To this day, we find crumpled Diet Pepsi cans around the ranch stashed in tree trunks and other unique places, and they always make us pause, smile and even tear up a little.

Revisionist history members of my family will claim that this isn't true, but I know that it is, at one point or another in all of their lives everyone of my grandparents drank coffee, and one of my Uncle John's favorite stories about him and my father involved the "re-use" of coffee grounds on a camping trip. There was a time in the history of the church when drinking coffee wasn't nearly the taboo it is now.  Listen, I'm not saying they were right, but it shows that we really should put a few things into perspective.

I have an aunt that used to say, "I'll worry about drinking a Coke, when they stop serving chocolate cake in the temple". (For those of you who only frequent more modern temples, there are a few with very yummy cafeterias in their basements)  Well, that is true, while the levels vary and there is a similar additional compound in cocoa, all cocoa does include caffeine. I actually had a woman in the church try to argue this with me one time, and all I could do was laugh, and think..."Are you seriously that desperate?"

I have always tried to look at the Word of Wisdom as exactly what it says, I'm pretty sure the Lord knew in 1833 what caffeine was since He is a pretty good chemist, and He made it a natural ingredient in lot of foods. Furthermore if the Lord said, "Don't wear orange shirts" I wouldn't wear an orange shirt.  I would not argue over whether I could wear a pink-ish orange shirt, or if I could wear an orange sweater, or if I could wear orange for special occasions.  I just wouldn't wear orange, and I wouldn't wonder if it was because no one really looks good in orange or if it was because the Lord was afraid bees would come after you if you were wearing orange...I just wouldn't wear orange!

A couple months ago in Relief Society (I wasn't there) apparently there was a long discussion over herbal teas vs. black teas. Now, I will admit to seeing Celestial Seasonings herbal teas in the cafeteria in the Washington D.C. Temple many, many years ago. But to me that is a serious grey area, and since I already have enough grey areas in my life I am not going to purposely add one more.

Now, back to my original thought.....HA, I can to have a Coke..you know, if I still drank pop. So, there all you self righteous, I'll give you their real meaning that the Lord didn't give the Prophet while I eat my chocolate brownie hypocrites, I can feel just fine giving my children their morning jolt of Mountain Dew.



My Family Crest....

I'd Like to be Frank

No, I don't mean I want to be blunt.

I want to be Frank...

Everyone always talks about a dogs life, well, that's Frank's life.  I want to wander around, visiting people, mooching food, taking long naps, have everyone love me, and never worry about anything.

Frank technically belongs to my nephew Jason and his wife Allison.  But, a subdivision house and three kids do not a good place for a hound dog make, so Frank lives with his "grandparents". Now, I use the term lives with pretty loosely here, because Frank doesn't really know where he lives.  I am pretty sure Frank lives at my house, my mother swears he's always at hers, and Nancy claims he's always at hers. 

Everybody loves Frank, I could have given him a way a couple dozen times over the years.  And even though my family says his name with derision, I think we would all miss him if he wasn't around.

Sometimes Frank is a challenge, for instance when he wants my dogs to come out and play in the middle of the night he comes under my bedroom window and barks until I let Tina out to play.  The other night I had been out checking the animals, then went to bed.  Around 11:30 I woke up to Scott opening the bedroom window and yelling at Frank to shut up.  Around 3:30 Frank woke me up again, not with his send out my friends bark or even his "I think this tree in the backyard might be getting ready to attack you" bark.  No, he just was barking, so I sent Tina out, she stood on the back steps growled then ignored him.  Deciding that he wasn't going to shut up and that we have had a few bears in the area, I grabbed a mag lite and headed out (yes, in my undies, because at 3:30 in the morning if someone is looking for a show I'm going to give it to them) I had just started out in the back yard and put the light out to the goat pen, there was Frank.  He apparently had nosed his way into the pen while I was checking on everybody (something he does regularly) and got caught.

One thing is for sure, Frank gets around.  I don't think anyone ever gets out of their car without Frank there to greet them.  He wanders around all day, greeting everyone, checking out all the dog dishes, playing, and seeing what is going on.  In fact I think the only one Frank truly annoys is my dog Dudley, who is not amused with Franks hippie dippie attitude.  Although when my husband took on the bear at our garage, it was Frank who stood by his side.

So I want Frank's life, maybe for just a few days, but the biggest thought in his mind is where to ...SQUIRREL.  Oh, did I mention he gets a little distracted?  Sometimes when I get home with my groceries I have to hurry because Frank can somehow get those little knock kneed legs to get that incredibly long body clear up into the van or truck for his favorite groceries.  I have seen him reach hamburger buns in the middle of the ...SQUIRREL.  See what I mean, so for a dog's life, I'd like to be Frank.

Vacation

As noted in a lot of previous entries...Scott and I work alot. Especially this summer, since my work has had some major issues. So we knew that since we had both put in for vacation time for this week (using the end of month beginning of next month week to avoid deadlines) we kn had to get a serious vacation in. We hadn't really been on a vacation in a couple of years, if you don't count family reunions and long weekends in Salt Lake. So we loaded up El Presidente and headed out. If you really want to spend some quality time together, travel 2600 miles in 10 days with your family.

Heading out I was pretty excited. You see growing up my parents always went on long car vacations. I think I was about 3 or 4 at the earliest that I remember. My parents loaded about 10 of us into our family transport (at the time it was a 1ton dually GMC crew cab, and while they are all the rage now, they were pretty rare then especially east of the Mississippi). Anyway, I think the truck got about 5 gallons to the mile back then. I spent the whole trip as my Dad's right hand girl...or as my sisters remember, leaning heavily on him, standing up next to him on the seat of the pickup. Because back then we didn't even know where the seat belts were, let alone that we were supposed to wear them.

But, I digress... So the Dederick Family headed out, we went west to Salt Lake to drop in at the base and then across northern Nevada, spending the first night in Winnamucca. Unbeknownst to me that the annual Winnamucca livestock auction was going to take all the hotel rooms in that town. After finding a nasty room for the night we left early the next day and drove on in to San Francisco.

We checked out the Golden Gate bridge and went down to Fisherman's Wharf for a rocket boat ride in the bay. The kids loved it (btw, taking El Presidente downtown San Fran was a little difficult, but as chief driver I did it beautifully).

That night we went to our hotel room near Oakland and decided it wasn't going to work...knowing that we wanted to be in San Jose the next morning we decided to strike out heading down I5 and find a room on the way...big mistake. There were no rooms! We tried 8-10 story Hyatt's, Hilton's, and Marriott's, only to be told they were completely booked. By 11:00 that night, the poor Marriott clerk took pity on us and found us a couple of rooms down the street at a Hampton. The next morning we discovered that we were in Silicone Valley, and the reason for the hotel room shortage was the San Francisco Marathon that was going on Sunday morning.

We headed out the next morning and right after pulling onto the interstate I saw this!!!

My children did not appreciate nor understand why I had to pull over and take pics

 We went down to the Winchester house then over to Monterrey. The Gilroy Garlic festival was just winding down when we went through there, but I couldn't get anyone to agree to stop. When we got to Monterrey we took a glass bottom boat out in the bay to see a lot of jellyfish which I think are creepy looking.

 The next morning we went to the Monterrey aquarium which was awesome and then headed to Fresno to visit the big trees.  

Do we look like beach people??  I think everyone could tell we were out of towners! 

While I would like to say we spent an awesome day in the Sequoias, that would be a lie. The only thing cool was the few sequoias we got to see, because of my poor navigational skills. Scott's GPS system hates me, and she totally set me up trying to get off the mountain. We ended up on a dirt road with no place to turn around for 6 miles...the end of which was blocked by a green livestock gate and the stupid GPS in my hand then said, "Make a U turn if possible".

The next morning with Scott navigating we headed south to Anaheim for 3 days of Disneyland and California Adventure. I have to admit it is pretty fun to have kids the age that you don't have to worry about them being tall enough for the rides or having to wander around, hunting down Princesses for pictures.

We had a great time, mastered the art of the Fast Pass, and loved Cars Land. Did I mention that we loved Cars Land??? Not realizing that Cars Land had only been open for 6 weeks did make it a bit crowded, but the family loved it anyway.

We got home late each night not feeling our feet, but back up the next morning ready to do it all over again.

Saturday we headed over to Las Vegas, where we stayed at Circus Circus, I know what you are thinking, but they have redone the rooms and we stayed in a very nice room. We took the kids down the strip and over to Fremont Street, and while they thought it was an experience, it isn't something they are real anxious to go back to. 

 Sunday we headed home, our goats, dogs, pigs, family and even the chickens had really missed us. We spent Monday recovering and then it was back at work Tuesday morning.

I did realize a few things on this trip:

I have no idea how my parents managed that with a ton of kids across the states for 2+ weeks at a time.

 My family is definitely more Monterrey than San Francisco

Hotel waffle machines are treated timidly as a nuclear reactors

While my family likes being to together, there is such a thing as "to much"

Perry the Platypus shirts are the second most popular in Disneyland

 I never want to live in California

Finally: I can't wait to do it all again!!!



The Honest Truth

I have been feeling the need lately to make this post. I'm not really sure why, but I have truly felt a lot of prompting. Maybe, I have danced around the subject without really meaning to, and I am truly not trying to offend anyone. I would like everyone to know that I have a testimony of Jesus Christ and his atonement. I know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is true. I believe that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God, that our Heavenly Father and his son Jesus Christ appeared to him, and that through this event The Book of Mormon was brought forward. I know that Thomas S. Monson is prophet of God, as much as Moses, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were. I know that Christ will again return to this Earth. I believe that I will see my loved ones again, and that if I am true and faithful, I will have my husband and family for the eternities. I love the gospel of Christ, I love my Heavenly Father, I am grateful for His plan. I invite anyone seeking to get down on your knees and pray for His direction.

My New Intolerance

Well, let me start out by saying that I’m a gun loving, scripture quoting, middle aged, mini-van driving Mormon Mom. That right there puts me in a conservative category. If people only knew how conservative (to the point of libertarianism) that puts me, it would probably scare them a lot. However, that being said, I would also like to point out that if whatever you believe, put forward, embrace, practice etc.; that as long as you don’t infringe upon my rights, tax me for it, teach it to my children or expect me to practice, preach or defend…that’s fine.


BUT…that doesn’t mean I have to like it. In this day and age of “tolerance” I think people are a little confused. You see, I believe in free agency, you can make you own choices, do your own thing, as long as you don’t force it on me. Maybe I’m getting over saturated with “free thinking” or maybe a little of Grandma Smirl is showing up, either way I’m tired of pretending that “whatever you want” is OK. It isn’t and I’m not going to argue with you. Honestly, you can find your way to hell all by yourself.

So many people equate being conservative with being provincial. “How quaint, do you believe the Earth is flat too?” they ask smugly, believing they have a superior intellect. Well, I may be from Kannah Creek, Colorado, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t seen a little of the world. I traveled extensively growing up, lived overseas, read a pretty big variety of subjects, have a Bachelors of Science degree in Biology and can name my senators and congressmen. Maybe they think my traditional beliefs are the result of a low IQ, that if I was just a little smarter I would understand…trust me, I’ve had IQ tests (it isn’t the problem).

There is an old saying that first you tolerate evil, then you defend it, then you embrace it. I’m not going to tolerate it anymore without saying something. So, if I have offended you…oh well. Please do not mistake my intolerance for ignorance, I understand your point…I just don’t agree with you.

Mesa County Fair

WOW..I can't believe it is fair time.  Of course growing up the fair was always the first full week of August.  How do I know? Well....

 

Yeah...that's me.  Mesa County Fair Queen 19--- well, that part doesn't matter. I was driving home last night with Shirley Flanagan from Institute, and as we drove past the fair grounds, I couldn't believe all the cars, lights and activity.  It was awesome!!  You see, I started going to the fair when I was 5. Yes, back in the day (as they say at my work) they let even younger than normal kids into 4H.  So, I joined with my big sister Ellen.  We were in the Unaweep Club, the Loma Club and finally in the Orchard Mesa Club.  I couldn't take steers until I was 8, but until then I took rabbits and other little things.  Back then the fair was one thing and one thing only...a livestock show! The old ranchers on the fair board had no use for all that foo foo stuff.  Livestock was serious business. The fair was hot, dusty and there was one little snack stand.

Fast forward to the end of my junior year of high school, my boyfriend broke up with me and I was in serious need of some validation.  I had never even thought about trying to be Fair Queen, to be honest, I hadn't paid them any attention over the years.  But, my sister Ellen had a secret wish...she had wanted to be fair queen, but because of her illness she never went for it.  So, she talked me into filling out the application just before I went on a 2 1/2 week 4H trip down to Louisiana.  The interviews were the day after I got back, I threw on a dress and my Mom drove me in, I knew they were going to ask me about current events, so Harriet, ever the news hound, filled me in on the way there. About 2 weeks later, I was surprised when they announced my name at the ceremony, Ellen was thrilled.

Little did I honestly know what I was in for...you see that was a pretty pivotal year for the Mesa County Fair.  There was a new Extension agent, and a few new members of the fair board and they had decided that it was a county fair  not just a livestock show. I did interviews, I rode in parades, I went to lots, and lots of committee and planning meetings. I learned how to get businesses involved, I learned how to book a carnival, and I learned how to organize.  That year the fair had a carnival for the first time, we had Tommy Roe come and give a concert (you may remember his one hit "Dizzy"), we had watermelon eating contests, water fights, and even a greased pig contest and I got to participate. I think we started something that year.  After that the carnival became standard, the community involvement started to grow and the fair took off.

I went last year and was surprised to see some old faces, who now have kids showing animals. I couldn't believe how much it has grown, and I am so glad.  The Mesa County Fair is now a huge community event, just as it always should have been.  Those old men that were on the board are probably rolling in their graves, it's to bad they missed such a fun time. 

So, GO TO THE FAIR!!!!!