We should be used to it, but it still stings when it happens. The LDS church has been inexistance for about 178 years now, and yet the intolerance and hatred always seems to surprise and hurt. The Washington Post did an article about how the community in Washington D.C. was trying to block the building of one of our churches on 16th Street (with about 45 other churches in the vicinity) for various reasons. The nastiest part of the article was this little tidbit:

And the Mormons are finding little support from the neighborhood's clergy,
including one pastor who said his objection is rooted not in architecture, but
theology.
"They don't accept Jesus as the Messiah; they accept him as the
prophet," said Edward Wilson, pastor at Church of Christ, a block from the
Mormon site. "It's wrong, I disagree with it, and I wouldn't want them in the
neighborhood."

To get a job as a pastor, those people have to at least have a graduate degree in religion - yet, I lowly religiously uneducated gal that I am know that the doctrinal issue he has with us is something he should bring up with the ISLAMIC church. That's their view, not ours. We're the flippin' Church of JESUS CHRIST of Latter-Day Saints! And you don't want someone in your neigborhood you disagree with? Blegh. So Jared found their church e.mail and sent a note to the offended/offending pastor:


Dear Mr Wilson,

This afternoon I read the story on the proposed new Church on 16th Street in the Washington Post (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/23/AR2008052302750.html?hpid=moreheadlines). Hopefully the Washington Post mis-quoted you in reference to the beliefs of members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The quote reads: "They don't accept Jesus as the Messiah; they accept him as the prophet."

Your quote could not be more untrue. My guess is that you were mis-quoted. I'd suggest contacting the Washington Post and asking them to correct the error so that you can set the record straight. Individuals so misquoted, who have failed to do so, have often lost credibility on matters of religion, and my assumption is that you are not interested in that happening.

If you were quoted correctly, I would direct you to the following website (created and maintained by the same church) which repeated attests and testifies of the divinity and saving mission of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ: http://jesuschrist.lds.org. They do not hold Him to be a mere prophet: "Mormons" do, indeed, accept Jesus Christ as the Son of God, the Messiah, the Alpha and Omega and their personal Savior. They are grateful for his mission and sacrifice and strive to live lives, showing their devotion to the Lord by blessing his children around the world.

With Love and Respect,
etc.

I hope this pastor reads this with a little more compassion than he usually does with those "untouchables" he disagrees with. This is my issue with religions where people are paid to teach others -it's a business, not a faith.

Rant over. Enjoy the holiday - go hug someone you don't agree with!

Dancing Queen

If you aren't family, don't watch this. It's short, but it's not for the adults - it's a kiddo distracter. Solei wanted to watch it over and over and over again. Well, mostly because it's all her, but it's cute nonetheless. You've been warned.

What's in a (band) name?

I needs help, people. My celtic trio is in need of a new name... like, today, and I can't for the life of me think of one. I like band names like The Charms, Solas, Oisre, The Cardigans, Bad Haggis, Flogging Molly, but finding one that fits our sound is though .

It's the three of us, two chicks and the world's most awesome guitarist. I thought maybe I coul find some cool Gaelic word with the Gaelic dictionary, and that's a start, but I need a word that describes us and is also not completely confusing. (You can check out our Myspace here for audio)

Ideas? Puleeeze? Thanks!

Newest member of the family

Jared informed me that our blog is boring, to anyone who is not as completely enamoured with our daughter as we are. Well, is THIS boring??

Don't ask me how he talked me into it, because I don't think he did. I really don't remember him actually asking if he could have one.

Go ahead, ask him why it's so practical. And a total buy. Realy, he'll tell you. He's already had one person he extoled its virtues to go out and buy the exact same bike. Same color. Creepy. One reason he desperately needed it was his old scooter could only go about 35mph, and even though he just commutes 3 miles to work, 35 just ain't gonna cut it with Atlanta drivers. Even if it is the back streets.

That's the old one. Italian. Actually used as a mail scooter. In Italy. They apparently don't care about getting their mail very quickly.

Okay, I know that my mom reads this so that is at least ONE person who is enamoured with our kid. So that picture was for her.

And that one.


Nana and Papa came by and tried it out. Nana refused to get on if Papa was driving. Heehee. I'll post the video of that later. Unfortunately I didn''t get a shot of Papa wobbling down the driveway.

I'll leave you with this disturbing shot of suburban, WASPy housewife stangeness.

Boring?? I wish.

For mom

I'm finally getting around to posting these pictures of Easter. I've been super busy not cleaning my house. My mom got Solei this uber cute dress and I desperately tried to get a decent picture for her. The results:

1. She wouldn't stop moving!

2. Girl has to sit sometime.

3. Okay, I could NOT get a good shot of the whole dress what with al the moving and such, so we gotta take whats we get. Look how faboo the dress looks on her, mom!

4. Dress. Plus a crazy look, but check out that dress!

5. Believe it or not, this is the best family shot we got. The next one was with Solei running away from us.

6. We're so dang hott.

Back Yard

Our back yard was just as bad a the rest of the house when we purchased it. Solei LOVES being outside so we really wanted to make the backyard somewhere she could play. A few weeks ago we borrowed a tiller, bought some grass seed and fertilizer and went to work.

Here are the results! A patch of GRASS!!!


Here is Solei with Daddy (and his new specs).

Mommy joined in the fun and we got this great little picture of our family.

Here's Solei and Daddy closing up the vent so that she couldn't put anything down it...

And finally! Here is the smartest 18 month-old baby ever. While we are a little biased, she is amazing!

Temple!

Our freakishly smart baby came up to me the other day with a picture she'd found somewhere - it was a gift I'd received in Young Women a mazillion years ago, and along with a sweet caption, there was a grainy black and white image of Christ's face.

"Mamee? Dis Jesus."

I stared at Jared in shock- "Did YOU tell her who this was?"

"Nope." Do you know what this means? This means she listens to me!!! (oh, and also forthcoming is a video of her counting to 10. GENIUS.)

So today, I took her to the LDS bookstore to get a picture of Christ for her bedroom. She really responds to them, and I figure with all the negative images she's getting in the world, she needs as many positive ones as she can get.

Right as we walked in she smiled and pointed at a picture and said "Temple!" Wow. So I went up to a picture of Christ and asked her who it was. "Jesus!" An another - "Jesus!" She recognized every image of his sweet presence. I considered buying a poster of the temple, but I thought about it and I thought it might be nice for her to see a picture of the temple in her room with her in it, so we headed down the street and I snapped pictures while Solei ran around the temple grounds laughing and shouting "Temple!"... and also "Truck!" There's construction across the street and I had to keep her from running to them. In between the wrangling, I got some good pictures that I think are poster worthy. Tell me which one you would pick? (I'm leaning towards #5)

#1.

#2.

#3.


#4.

#5.

An Open Letter to My Husband

Like I could keep my 2 cents to myself:)

Here's an Open Letter to My husband:

Dear Husband,

Over the last few years I have come to realize that you are not as crusty as you pretend to be. Deep down you are a softie, doing whatever you can to help another person in need (especially me), and I don't tell you as often as I should how grateful I am that you love me, despite your better judgement. When we got married I knew that I was marrying someone that was exactly right for me. You are insane, brilliant, and the most service-driven person I've ever known. Most of all you never stop trying. You try to understand me, to understand Solei, to make me happy (not an easy feat, I'll grant you) and to always be better husband and father. You are everything that I need. You never, ever let me get bored and I'm always surprised at how strange our lives can get.

The last three years have been a the happiest, most secure years of my life. Things have never been more in flux - we're always moving, always changing jobs, always flying by the seat of our pants, but you always let me know how much you love me, and that constant is the one reason why I let you get away with most of your crazy ideas. I'm also amazed at how much you do as a husband and a father. I always hear women wishing their husbands would take a more active role, and I am so grateful that no matter what, I can always count you to be at my side and taking care of everything with me- especially all that outdoor stuff and the bug killing duties. And the taxes!!! (I have never been more happy that I decided to say "I do" when I hear you say "Honey, the taxes are done!")

You love Solei, you change diapers, you get up with her in the middle of the night, and you're always thinking of ways to make my life easier, and more fun. You accept my faults and my weaknesses, but you never let me dwell on them and help me turn them into strengths. You are always thinking of ways you can bring a smile to my face - be it a milkshake, yoga classes or 30-second hugs. And most of all: You love me for what I am. This is not nearly as lengthy and thorough as it could (and should) be, but don't worry, I'll probably think of lots more wonderful things to say right when your are trying to get to sleep tonight. I love you with all my heart. Thank you for all you do.

With Great Love, Wife

Open Letter

An Open Letter to My Wife:

Dear Wife,

Over the last few years I have come to realize that I am not very good a making you feel as special as you deserve. You do wonderful things for me and I want you to know how much I love you.

When we got married I knew that I was marrying someone that was exactly right for me. You are fun, energetic, social and loving. Most of all you are forgiving and patient. You are everything that I need. You put up with my crazy ideas, like driving to Alabama to buy a scooter or working on my home Root Beer project.

The last three years have been a roller coaster. We’ve gotten to know each other. We’ve moved four times. We’ve grown. We’ve traveled. We’ve had a child. I know motherhood was somewhere on your to-do list long after “rock star” and “retire” but I am so grateful that you were willing to take that plunge. You are a wonderful mother. We are both kind of lost sometimes as parents, but you are amazing. You’ve stood by my side and supported me through all that I’ve done.

You let me hold the remote. You clean up after us all. You cook wonderful dinners every night. You do our laundry. You love and care for Solei. You, well you know. And most of all: You love me for what I am.

This is not nearly as lengthy and thorough as it could (and should) be. I love you with all my heart. Thank you for all you do.


With Great Love,

Husband

Texamess

SOOOOOOO..... Still no posts by the wife. This whole blog thing was her idea. Let's all leave a comment about how much we wish she would blog instead of boring old me!!!



I've been very stingy about my vacation days over the last year. When you go from a job where you have 4 weeks a year to one where you get a mere 2 weeks a year, you kind of freak out. But it was about time that we took Solei out to meet my aunt and uncle and grandpa in Texas. (Two weeks minus two days...)

They don't get out to visit very often because they have their kids to visit and Jimbo's job at the prison gives him few vacation days (and they use them to plant their Pea Patch). Next time you are in Woodville ask Jimbo about getting locked in a cell...


We had a good a bad visit. It's kind of a long story but let's use these key words to create a mental image:

*10 acres just outside of Woodville, Tx
*Free Single Wide Mobile Home
*No Internet
*Mildewy Mattress
*The Plague

Okay the story really doesn't have the plague in it, but it might as well. After two days sleeping on the item listed before the Plague I felt like I had the Plague. The doctor said it wasn't the plague and gave me antibiotics to treat the sore throat that I got. Although I cannot specifically target the mattress as the source of my illness, Occam's Razor would teach us that it was. No amount of candle or air freshener or fans could stop the smell!

We spent twelve hours in our new van over night the first night. Solei only woke up screaming for an hour. The trip home was better. She loved her time with us in the car (and more so with the "Fishies" on Finding Nemo).

Here is the trailer (painted neon yellow-green to blend into the environment)



The weather and company were amazing. We had wonderful 70 degree, partly cloudy days. Aunt Wendy, Grandpa and Uncle Jimbo were amazing company and Wendy cooked some of the best food I've eaten.

This didn't end up being one of those relaxing vacations. I spent some considerable time underneath the trailer running wire and piping - next to the burrow of some animal that I never identified - thankfully. It was NOT more scared of me than I was of it.

Next time we are going to bring an RV.

Here are some pics:

Solei LOVED riding on Wendy's Golf Cart (Wendy and Jimbo live next door)

Solei had some dessert. The bowl became a hat:

The Stairs on Grandpa's Trailer were a seemingly endless source of entertainment:

The neighbors had goats which Solei had a blast "baaaa-ing" at. The neighbors also had this stone seahorse.

You can see some of the land in the background. We found a golf ball the other day and Solei and I had fun throwing it around the yard.



Here's a pic of Solei with Wendy, Jimbo and Grandpa. Solei had such a great time with all of them!!

Beard, Beard The Musical Fruit

So- nothing is more exciting in life than a beard contest at work. Imagine it, two weeks full of excuses not to hassle with shaving! Can you think of anything better???

Here's my contribution:


As it turns out, I work with someone who is part Big Foot. You'd never guess it by looking at his feet, but those hair genes are unmistakable. (Bigfoot exists and I swear I will prove it some day!).

Once the contest was officially lost by me, it was time to see how awesome I could potentially look with some sort of facial hair.

Here's me sporting the "Friendly Mutton Chops":

This look lasted a full 24 hours. The guy mixing our paint at Wal-Mart was a little disturbed by the look, so were all the other people who saw Creepy McGee holding the hand of our little girl.

The next day was the handlebar mustache! These pictures totally doesn't do me justice. I am actually not entirely opposed to this look. If someday we were to move somewhere a little more rural, I'd totally sport this look (assuming of course my lovely wife goes blind and loses all feeling in her fingers, face, etc.)

In all honesty, this isn't that bad, right?

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

It's the day o' the green, and we celebrated in style.

On Sunday, our valiant hero made a fabulous corned beef and cabbage dinner, traditional Irish fare. And as you can see, like our valiant hero, it was smokin' hott.

Even Wonder Baby got into the spirit. Well, mommy did when she bought her the shirt, but hot DANG that's one awesome shirt.

Then today, I had a show up in Chattanooga and husband actually took the day off and came up with me! In honor of the day, I decided to look like the holiday puked on me.

We had a ball playing...

To.. um...well, no one. For some reason, the people that booked us dropped off the edge of the earth when it came to promotion.

But we still got paid, yo! So we rocked out anyway.

And Jared said I sounded good. And pretended like I didn't look like a raving lunatic. Honestly, this was better than the Ronald McDonald get-up I wore on Saturday, but I'll spare you the pictures.

Our next entry will be dedicated to Jared's face. Or rather, the stuff growing out of it. Feel free to remain at the edge of your seats.

Zoo Zoo Ma Goo

Saturday was arguably the coldest day of the year so far. It was a balmy 33 degrees and snowing. So what did we decide to do? Take our daughter to the zoo.





It all started on Monday when Missy (my co-worker) offered free tickets to the zoo. FREE. (That's my favorite "F" word). The thing was, they had to be used before tomorrow. So, rain or shine we were off to the zoo. (Tickets are normally $20 a piece)





The Atlanta Zoo was the second worst zoo ever (second only to the fake zoo they have in Utah - ATTENTION UTAH: DUCKS, DOGS AND CATS ARE NOT ZOO ANIMALS). At the gate we were told that only the reptiles and the pandas were out. The reptiles are kept in a warm place and the Pandas are apparently used to being cold. In spite of this we persisted. The lady at the gate was about as infomed as the zoo was exciting.

Notice the THRONGS of people behind us.



In spite of the cold we survived well. Solei wore her cute pink hat (she won't ever wear it for more than a few seconds). We hopped from heated (empty) building to building.





Solei did get to see some pretty cool stuff. She insisted that anything with feathers was a duck (especially the flamingos some 20 feet beyond the front gate - how the girl working at the gate missed them was beyond me). We saw elephants. They were huge. We were all amazed by the apparent size of their bladders. If you ever have a medium sized fire to put out and there's no fire hose available, but there is an elephant around, I'd suggest involving the elephant.





We saw the pandas eat bamboo. We saw the Lion on his rock. We saw the reptiles. We saw the Zebras. Luckily on the way out we stopped by the petting zoo. ALL the goats and sheep were out. Solei had a blast with them. Here's some video goodness if you can deal with the forever it takes to watch (Caution it's over ONE minute in length):












After the zoo we all warmed up on the ride home in our van.



We love you Sheep #2!!!

We're breeding a generation of super babies!

Like our Solei the wonder toddler? Then you'll LOVE Sierra the wonder baby! For those who haven't seen it, this video response to Solei's verbosity is now officially my favorite website.

Except for Zombo.com. And maybe emotioneric. But then Sierra calling out Solei is definately number 3.

Go Team Smith!

Alphawesome!

We're not sure, but she might be actually smarter than us. Pardon the nudity.



P.S. She may or may not have learned all these from PBS.

P.P.S. These aren't all the letters/numbers she knows, just the ones Jared could grab in time for the videoing. Thanks to mom for these, Solei is addicted to them!!

SPEAK!!!

Today while I was sitting at a red light at Roswell Rd. and Hwy. 41,when Solei gets really excited and starts shouting "Cuck!! Cuck!! Mamee!! Cuck!!" And she was pointing at...
The Big Chicken. She was yelling "cluck!" in Solei-speak!! She's been paying attention when we read her those animal books!! So we decided to check out all the other animal sounds she knows...

She walked early, now it's just a matter of time before she starts telling off random barnyard animals in their own language.

Political Awakening

Normally I shy away from making political commentary on my blog – although I probably shouldn’t. I’ve had some interesting experiences over the last few months and quite an awakening.

The candidacy of Mitt Romney is something that has made everyone very aware of Mormons and how they perceived in society. During a conversation with a woman I work with the other day mentioned that she didn’t think that Americans would vote for a Mormon. To me that was something odd. I never thought that anyone would seriously discriminate against someone because they were Mormon. People can think you are nuts all they want, but there have been so many successful members of the church that I thought those days were past. I’ve been exposed to SO many successful Mormons that I never imagined that anyone would be discriminated against because of that.

My political awakening began with this conversation. The next step was an editorial piece that I read on the web a few weeks ago. The author essentially stated that if America was not “ready for a Mormon president” then as a Mormon he was not capable of being president and therefore was not a full citizen and did not have the full rights of other citizens.

I thought long and hard about that and the thought really hit me hard – Am I really a second class citizen because of my Religion? I was honestly a little hurt. After all, in Jr High I was voted by the teachers to be the most likely to be the President of the United States. I would never have dreamed that I was somehow deemed incapable of running the country because of my religion.

After some time I stopped and thought about politics in the United States. There has never been a woman elected to the presidency. There has never been a minority elected president of the United States. Suddenly I realized that what I felt was what millions and millions of people have felt. They were all constantly told that someone of their race or gender could never be president of the United States. To me this was a window into the lives of my black brothers and sisters. It was eye opening and enlightening. For a short time I understood a small part of what it was to be a minority in this country. My respect and admiration for the many people who have fought against discrimination grew exponentially.

This election is historic. For the first time ever there are serious contenders for the presidency who are both women and from a minority. While many say they wouldn’t vote for one of these types of people, it for the first time seems like that will not be prohibitive. This is an historic election. This election will drastically change the course of presidential politics, regardless of the outcome.

I don’t like political parties. I don’t really like any of the candidates. My feeling is that Bush has done such a poor job of everything that the Democrats will make it look easy in the next election. Deep down inside there is a big piece of me that is willing to look past some major issues and hope that presidential history is changed and American never looks back.

My money now is on Obama – not because I like him, but because I think he will win.

By the way – when did Bill Clinton go from being an ex-president to being the creepy old guy chasing kids off his lawn?

An open letter to John McCain:

You looked so fresh, so ready to take over the world back in 2000 when you ran against Bush. Your loss was unfortunate, but you took it really badly. You've spent the last 8 years doing all you can to undermine the White House with your nutty legislation to get back at Bush for the nasty fight you two had back then. I'm not a Bush fan, but I'm definately not a fan of your bills and your vindictive attitude.

And now in this race, I'm absolutely appalled at your behavior. And how insanely creepy you've become. You think after your poor performance in the debates and your general nastiness that you can actually win over the rest of the party? I'm so terrified you'll ask Huckabee to be your running mate and then the morons here in the Bible Belt will vote you in, then you'll keel over and die since you're 79 already and we'll be stuck with Huckabee, who has repeatedly made biggoted comments and then apologized like he didn't know if wasn't polite to be a bigot. That will go over REALLY well with Islamic countries.

So Mr. McCain, no way will I vote for you. And if by some act of insanity Huckabee wins the nomination, I'm moving to Canada because I know the South is dumb enough to vote him in, and the apocalyse won't be far behind.

Sincerely,
Rocketgirl

P.S. Vote Floyd 2012.

Sunday Sunday

Happy Sabbath, blog world! Today I was informed by a 21 year old missionary that blogs are for "old people." He was trying to figure out the difference between Facebook and Myspace and blogs, none of which he was familiar with 2 years ago before he left on his mission, so we were trying to help him transition to "civilian" life (he goes home Tuesday. 6 months too late. But I digress.) Anywho, somehow our definition of what a blog is caused him to decide it was for old people.

Hrm... Jared and I have both blogs and Facebooks AND Myspaces. I figure that means we are old but are in denial. Also, we are addicted to the internet. And attention whores. But we all already knew that.

Back to our Sunday. Before I get into the nitty gritty, here is a picture that has nothing to do with anything, except it helps illustrate the points that: A) Our daughter is cuter than any other baby in the history of us having babies, and B) Jared got her to keep a bow in her hair for almost a whole minute.



SO, after Cutest Baby Ever was done being photogenic, we had the Smiths and the missionaries over for dinner. Interesting side note - the Smiths asked if their baby (also known as Cutest Baby Ever in the Smaller and Quieter Than Our Baby category) could sit in a closet the while we were eating dinner. Apparently she likes sleeping in them. Another intersting side note - we have no closets that aren't completely filled with junk, so she slept NEXT to a closet.

For some weird reason, Jared and Joe decided it would be fun to have a dinner made up of Ramen and Spagetti-O's. The Ramen got omited, but we all did have corn dogs -which to my chagrin, our baby adored. Dang it. And butterscotch cookies that Mandy had to make Joe or he threatened to leave her. When he said that he laughed, and I think he was being sarcastic, but he seems like a man who takes his cookies seriously.

It seemed like a good time at that point to take a picture in which Joe looks undead, I look heavily medicated, and Mandy looks creeped out.

I should frame that picture, a memory of how they spent their first wedding anniversary. I'll bet this is how everyone dreams of spending it.

Then, we rushed out of the house to catch a class held at a local Baptist church, with the title: "Mormons, Muslims and Me." - a 6 week course. We'd been curious when we saw the sign up in front of their church, and met our bishop's wife there, mom (she tipped us off about it), the missionaries and some other friends from the ward. We were quite the sight, walking in, dressed up (not a common thing at churches anymore) and with the missionaries - whew!

The topic was Joseph Smith, and was taught by their preacher who had studied the church during his doctorate work. He began his talking by announcing that it was his goal to prove that Joseph Smith was a fraud. He proceeded to attempt it by going through his life, giving half-truths and completly false and widely known refuted falsehoods, with very little documentation. It was so sad to hear someone talk about something so wonderful as the restoration of the gospel, but missing the point completely by only researching the detractors of the church.

His main problems with Joseph Smith were his failings - which he had, just like all of us, and the pastor repeatedly commented how he didn't measure up to Christ. Prophets are people - imperfect, every single one of them. Christ is our example and our Savior, and if God only depended on perfect people to send forth his gospel, there wouldn't be anyone to do it!

One part that did make me giggle though was when he talked about the First Vision and how you should never start your own church if you disagree with yours... good golly, Baptists are Protestants! That's exactly what YOU did!

There are 4 more weeks to go - I may go. We'll see. I stayed in the lobby and kept baby occupied but I could hear over the loudspeaker, and I couldn't help but look at my beautiful daughter's happy face and be so incredibly thankful that I can share with her the gospel - the joyous knowledge that our Heavenly Father loves us, loves his Son and that we can return to him. That he didn't leave us here without a lifeline - we have inspired and wonderful scripture, commandments to follow. As difficult as it can be to follow, I'm so thankful we have a path to follow. We have a prophet on this earth that speaks to us in our day. We have a way to return to His presence. And my Cutest Baby Ever gets to know the joy of gaining and having a testimony of that too.

Now that's some good news.

Our Third Anniversary

It's been a tough holiday season, but the best part about the end of the holidays is our anniversary is right around the corner and I get to make our annual look-back-at-what-we-did-this-year video. Some people can scrapbook, heck some people can even cook and keep their house from being a disaster, but this is what I can do. Special thanks to Jared for not minding all the irritating pictures I took all year, and for also not punching me in the face for 3 straight years now.

and here's a tiny version for non-youtube-abled folks: