*throws in towel*

That's it.

I GIVE UP.

I resign.

No more. Finis! I quit.

Whoever installed carpet in this kitchen should be punished for all eternity by karma. I am a saint for having put up with cleaning carpet every time something gets spilled in the kitchen, rather than just wiping up what should be a hard, cleanable floor. Do you think seven children spill much? In a kitchen?

Chyeah.

And that bowlful of chunky black bean salsa just put me over the edge. Say hello, everyone, to our new, lovely, permanent plywood subfloor. Because the carpet has got to go.

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Now playing: The Go Find - Over the Edge
via FoxyTunes

Diapers disposed

It's official. Seven out of seven children use the potty. :)

I knew this day would come, even back when I had just one child. I knew, eventually, all the kiddles would be potty trained and I wouldn't have to lug a diaper bag around everywhere I go, but after very nearly fifteen years of at least one person in diapers, it just doesn't lessen the triumph! Squee-a-rama!

During the Saturday morning session of General Conference I found Mack naked on the toilet. He'd stripped himself down, diaper and all, and settled himself. We'd given a few unsuccessful cracks at potty training before that, so I wasn't overly optimistic, but I sat on the edge of the tub beside him and LO AND BEHOLD he pooped. And then an hour later, he peed. And later! And again! And though I was hesitant to start banking the diaper money, I couldn't help being a little excited.

He picked up on going #1 right away. #2 we struggled with a little more, despite his stellar beginning. For the rest of that week he pooped on the floor instead of in the potty. He knew it was coming, he's sometimes warn me, we'd sometimes sit with him on the potty, but he'd wait until he was off and alone to poop. *long-suffering sigh* So I decided bribery was the key, and candy was his currency.

I bought a big bag of Starbursts. I told him every time he went poop on the potty, he'd get one. All the other kids, of course, got jealous and whined and I said, Okay fine, today and only today, when you go poop on the potty *eyeroll* you may have a candy.

That first day was tragic. He sat on the potty three times, really needing to go, before finally pooping on the floor. No candy for him. But! All five of the others pooped in the potty just fine of course and each got their candy. He was a little jealous raving maniac by the end of the day, going in to sit and "poop" on the potty every ten minutes because he wanted a Starburst so badly; all he really did was sit there whining and begging, though.

But the next day, by golly, he pooped in the potty. Yay! Bribe! And the next day, and all the days after. It's been a couple of weeks of success, so I'm going to stamp this potty training file "Case Closed" and get on with my diaper-free life.

Well, mostly diaper-free; Mack and one other still need them at nighttime because they don't stay dry all night. But those are only wet diapers. As long as I'm not changing the poops anymore, I'm One Happy Mommy.

Utah Third District congressional race

I'm in the third district here, and I was pretty glad that our incumbent rep, Chris Cannon, was given the boot in the primaries. There are quite a few long-term senators and representatives I'd like ousted at this point. (I'm talking to you, Orrin Hatch, and you, Bob Bennet. Out! Now!)

KSL hosted a debate between the three candidates for the third district, Jason Chaffetz (R), Spencer Bennion (D), and Jim Noorlander (Constitution Party). Jim is a neighbor and friend from right here in Sanpete County. I know him well, and he is probably the most principled man I know. I voted for him two years ago, when he also ran (unsuccessfully) for congress. Without major party representation he still garnered almost 10% of the votes cast. He's a good man. In this debate his devotion to principles came through loud and clear, though in all areas except illegal immigration his action points, his purpose for running, did not.

I was pretty impressed by Chaffetz, I've got to say. Good thing I still have a couple of weeks left to decide where my vote is best placed. And in true Utah style, even the "Democrat" Bennion would be a fairly good vote, since he's pretty darn conservative, too. Hee hee, he's the only one that tossed around names of the Church hierarchy as though they were backing him. :)

I tried and failed to embed the video of the debate. If you're interested (which I doubt *g*) you can find it here: http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=4519503

What is history for, if not to keep us from making the same mistakes?

I post these articles and tidbits not to educate any of you, but to educate myself. When I focus on my children, my day-to-day grind, the next meal (etc.) I do fine. But when I have a quiet moment to think about the current economy, I'm terrified.

This is the perspective of a financial historian and professor of economics and political science:

My recommendation would be to abandon the idea of reverse auctions for toxic assets and instead use the $700 billion of the recently passed rescue plan for bank recapitalization. Although the Great Depression started in 1929, it took until 1933 for American leaders to grasp this nettle and recapitalize the banks. We can't afford to wait for years this time around.

A final thing that made the Great Depression such a catastrophe was that some of the worst shocks occurred right before the 1932 presidential election. There then followed an extended interregnum between the election and inauguration of the new president when no one was in charge.

The economy was allowed to spiral downward. It was this disaster that led us to amend the Constitution to shorten the time between presidential election and inauguration from 4 to 2½ months.

I didn't know that about the amending the Constitution. Interesting.

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Now playing: Sting - History Will Teach Us Nothing
via FoxyTunes

Kodachrome

Have finally figured out a way to make it easier for me to post pictures when I'm inclined to—yay flikr! Here are pictures of our camping trip last weekend (26-28 Sep 2008) to Kodachrome Basin State Park. We went with my sister's family—it looks to be a tradition in the making, this is our second year camping with them and we've already planned our trip for next year.



Macklin was excited to have his own Camelbak hydration pack, but when he got tired of walking he asked if he could be my Camelbak. :)

Click on any of these photos to go to the stream and see more captioned photos, because this is only a selection.


Heading off on our hike up the slot canyon.


Everyone needs a stick to hike with. Ethan, in fact, needs two.


Macklin found his own stick so he could be like everyone else. :)


Here are the two tinies, bringing up the rear of the hike but plugging along.


Mack and his daddy.


Most of the hike was sunny and warm. Here the parents rest in the shade while the kids climb up a sand and rock hill.


Atop a slickrock formation, which are so fun to climb all over.


Kyrie, on top of the world


Macklin climbed this tree, which was right in our campsite, all by himself.

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Now playing: Black Gold - Detroit
via FoxyTunes

That's what cruise control is for.

<vent>

I hate erratic drivers. The ones that blow past me in a 30MPH zone going 45 (cops where are you?!) and then, once I've gotten to the highway where the speed limit is 65MPH they're out there toodling at 50. Then I try to pass them and they speed up momentarily to 75 or something so I slide back in behind them, and they drift back down to 50.

And I honestly don't even believe they're speeding up out of spite. I think they see me preparing to pass them, they glance down at the speedometer reading 50 and with a jolt they speed up, and then they mosey back into their cigarette or coffee or distracting thoughts or the song on the radio and coast back down to 50.

I use my cruise control function extensively so that I don't have to think about my speed, I can focus on the road and the other cars and not have to worry, "Am I going too fast? Too slow? Keeping a more or less steady speed?" Seriously, I let the car do the speed part for me. I set it exactly on the speed limit (*angel*) and I don't have to worry about hidden cops with radar guns. Or annoying the other drivers around me with my constant speed fluctuations.

Grr.

(It'll take the shine off my halo a little bit when I tell you my speedometer is off by 5MPH, so when I set cruise control at 55MPH I'm actually going 60.)

</vent>

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Now playing: Oasis - D'You Know What I Mean?
via FoxyTunes

Continued investigation, further light

Have I ever shown you a picture of my siblings? I'm the youngest of seven, just like my tiny Mack. I love all my brothers and sisters.

Front row: Mike (1954), Keith (1957), Dave (1953)
Back row: Alyson (1968), Sherri (1951), Joan (1963), Shauna (1955)
Taken November 2007

We just got back from camping with my sister Joan and her family; she has three children who are the same ages as my Libby, Jackson, and Ethan. But the others, as you can see from the birth years, are quite substantially older than I am and we might not have as much in common. I kind of hero-worship my three elder brothers, and of the three I speak the most, via email, with Mike.

Mike reads extensively about politics, votes, economy, etc. I've discovered these past few weeks my grasp on science and ability to understand it, feeble though it may be, is gargantuan compared to my knowledge of economics. So I keep emailing Mike to get the situation translated into layman's terms. Here's what he said about Monday's failed Bailout Plan vote:

As simple as possible: Crafting the bailout must be dictated by an understanding of cause. There are two fundamentally incompatible views as to cause—

1. It was a failure of the market. Solution: regulation out the tailpipe.
2. It was a government caused failure of the market. Solution: let the markets work it out.

To me it's quite clear that B describes the cause. However, the problem is too big for the markets to sort out in the short term. (For example, if we think there are problems right now, contemplate what things might look like if the markets seize up and no one can get loans, at least for a while.) History taught us that the great depression came as a result of government distortion of the markets (a huge credit bubble, sound familiar?), followed by government doing the wrong thing (i.e. nothing) when the markets froze up because there was no liquidity (free cash) left. Businesses failed. Unemployment was huge. And the problem became much, much larger than it had to be.

Since Congress distorted the market by threatening harsh consequences if lenders did not make housing more affordable and did not lend to favored classes of people (i.e. those who were not credit worthy), government (i.e. taxpayers) must now step up and spread around the risk and the loss that their representatives created and encouraged. Congress (Remocrats and Depublicans alike) long ago wrote the check and committed us as taxpayers. The check is now simply being presented for payment.

An even more fundamental problem comes from putting the same people who created the problem in charge of solving it, and (of course) never holding them accountable. I am greatly worried by the fact that the bill didn't pass.

You know I am as free-market and anti-regulation and -intervention as they come. But, I am among those who say: something must be done.

See: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122264821035984089.html for further along these lines.

Which was a good and interesting article, if we can trust the WSJ as an impartial source of commentary about the situation on Wall Street. Of course I'm nervous about another depression, particularly because I can't see the masses knocking down the door in desperate need of graphic design during a depression. So I'm all for market correction without market crash.