Jack (do I need to say anything else?)

Last night at tithing settlement, Jack told the bishop that 2 and 2 makes an elephant. We all had a chuckle and finished our visit. Then, as we were driving away, I asked Jack why 2 and 2 makes an elephant. His response was, "because an elephant has four legs."

While talking to Tanner a month ago, Jack insisted that he knows all about girls. "I know all about girls. They like pink and kitties." He should know. He's surrounded by girls at home.

Dead Peeps

I found these on my bedroom floor. I assume Mia was the assassin. She really wanted some peeps earlier.

September 14, 2009

Painting the barn

We all pitched in to help paint Grandma Barker's Barn. This is Dave up in the cherry-picker with Ryan.

November 1, 2009

Jack hurt his lip while horsing around. He demanded a band-aid. The blissful silence lasted for about 1 1/2 hours.

Halloween 2009

Jenny had some friends over for a Halloween party since she is too old to go trick-or-treating.

Jack & Mia had fun at the NDPA Halloween Carnival this year.

June 7 - 14: Yellowstone

August 6, 2009

Great news from Jenny and Lydia. Jenny's pony (mare) won 3rd place and Lydia's pony (gelding) won 4th place. In the showmanship category, Lydia got 5th place and Jenny got 1st place. Last year there were only 3 entrants in the 11 - 13 year olds. This year there were 8, so 1st place was a big deal.

June 5, 2009

Lydia was one of two 5th graders to receive the "Great American" award. She had to memorize the Preamble to the Constitution, the Gettysburg address, the US presidents, the Star-Spangled Banner, the states and their capitols, and the Pledge of Allegiance. So next time you see her, make sure to congratulate her.

May 14, 2009

Dave was involved in his third no-fault accident of the year. What is the deal with other people trying to kill his car?!?

March 6, 2009: NDPA Science Fair

Jenny and I want to thank everyone who took the time to help Jenny by answering the questions for her Science Fair project. Last night Jenny took first place in the 7th grade. Here's her write up of the project. All of you blonds out there will be happy to know that even though blond high school kids who took the test have a 95% chance of scoring lower on the test, you recover from it as you age.

Lydia got an honorable mention for her project. She proved that we as a society give preferential treatment to those of us who are born during certain months of the year.

February 14 - 28

Jack, Mia, and I went to Tucson for a visit with Grandma and Grandpa Flynn

February 14: The Dam Bathroom:

On the way to Tucson, we stopped to walk over the Hoover Dam. Of course Jack had to visit the bathroom.

Tucson Zoo

February 20

Mia ran off tonight while mom and I were making dinner. My parents live in the south-west out-of-city-limits part of Tucson. Lots of hills, cactus, coyotes, javalinas, and other wild animals and dangerous things. Jack and Mia were playing on the back patio with my mom's little yorkie, Duchess (small dog that yaps a lot). Jack came in to use the bathroom, and when I came back, Mia and Duchess were gone. After running all over and enlisting several neighbors to help look, we finally admitted defeat and called the police. Mia had followed Duchess down to a horse stable that we had gone to earlier this week, and was found by a neighbor who then called the police. The entire ordeal only took about 20 minutes, but I was panicked by visions of horrible things happening to my sweet (albeit rather energetic) little girl. Needless to say, Jack will be passing the "leash" down to Mia.

February 22

Yesterday morning my dad had meetings at the house, so mom and I took Jack and Mia back to the Desert Museum to finish our visit that had been cut short by the need for nap time. We saw hummingbirds, snakes, prairie dogs, and all sorts of desert animals, but Jack's favorite was the lizard that was on the trail in front of us. We stopped and watched him for a minute before he ran off into the bushes. My favorite part was when we stopped to look at the mountain lion. There were a bunch of Korean young adults who crowded around Jack and Mia as if they were the attraction. They didn't speak any English, but they learned their names and had to touch Mia's hair. They gave Jack and Mia "high five" as we left.

Last night we went to eat at Sweet Tomatoes, dad joined us for the first time this week. He said this is the busiest week of his entire life (work and Bishop stuff). He left after dinner to go to a youth dance, while the rest of us went to an old west gun show. There was a "native american" who sang and did a hoop dance, then there was a skit with gun fire and explosions. Jack and Mia loved it (except for the explosion - we were on the front row). After the show Jack got his picture taken with the "bad guy."

Today, mom and I left Jack and Mia with Dad after all his meetings were over, so we could practice the song we're singing in sacrament meeting. When we got back, he was walking with the kids and the dog out to the mailbox. The walk to the mailbox is about 3/4 mile on barely paved road, and my dad was not going to take any chances on losing someone. He had tied everyone together with a rope. After I parked to car, I grabbed the camera and ran out to get some pictures.

Grocery Smarts Newbie

I'm in my 4th week of following the advice of this website. I've spent a lot of money, but I've saved even more. Last year I spent on average $650/month on groceries. That was just buying what I needed. No stocking up, clipping coupons, or just buying the deals. This month I spent $500, but I purchased $1460 worth of groceries. WOW! That's a savings of 66%. Of that savings, $300 was clipping coupons. That certainly makes up for the subscription to 6 newspapers.

So here's the scoop on today's best deals.

It's a little confusing but the bottom line is this:
BBQ sauce is 25 cents a bottle
Kraft salad dressing is FREE!
Chicken is $1.77/lb

Kraft has specials going for "Super Bowl" parties

Kraft BBQ sauce (18 oz) is $1.25
Kraft Salad dressings (16 oz) are $2

But if you purchase 3 of them you get $3 off your purchase of chicken (boneless skinless chicken breasts are $1.77/lb)

So I bought:

7.37 lbs of chicken for $1.77 each for a total of $13.05

I also bought 5 BBQ sauces and 4 salad dressings (9 items) for a total of $12.25 (I used a coupon for $1 off 2 salad dressings) with a $9 discount on the chicken.

plus Kraft salad dressing is offering $2 off your next purchase for every 4 bottles.


My total for the chicken and the Kraft products is $16.30 with $2 off my next order.


Orville Redenbacher popcorn is 25 cents a box (4 packages of popcorn)

If you buy one for $2.99 you get 3 for free.

But I used the $1 off 2 boxes coupons (I got 4 boxes so I used 2 coupons) then the boxes come to a total of 99 cents for all four boxes


Nabisco crackers are 99 cents a box (6.5 - 10 oz) + a free can of Easy Cheese (not my favorite, but Dave loves it)

Nabisco crackers are $1.99. But I used $2 off 2 boxes (I bought 12 boxes so I used 6 coupons). Plus, if you buy 3 boxes of Nabisco crackers, you get for free: Easy Cheese, velveeta, or Kraft cheese slices. So my total for 12 boxes of Triscuits (9oz) and 4 cans of Easy Cheese was $11.88.

Jack had an accident with the tire swing on Friday. His teachers called and had me pick him up. After cleaning him up and checking out his teeth, I decided not to take him to the doctor or dentist. He will lose those teeth in the next 1 1/2 years anyway.



Jenny's first choir concert was last week. This is her good friend Baylee.

Midway

We had a great weekend in Midway away from all the hassles of life. No school work, no house work, no soccer. Just an enjoyable weekend with the family. We went swimming and shopping, watched movies and played games.
Thursday Jenny got braces!



While we were waiting at the orthodontist, Jack pulled his hand out of the cast!



Last Wednesday I came home to find water seeping up underneath the sidewalk. Evidently there is a secondary water line that was run incorrectly and was not capped. The business building behind our house tried to tie into that line and turned it on. Since it wasn't capped, the water just made a mess under our sidwalk.

Saturday in Park City

Jack and Mia got to ride the planes while we waited for the alpine sliders to come down the hill.





Jack shows off his new cast. He chose green this time.

Jenny wasn't excited to have her picture taken

Lydia, Jenny, and Dave rode the alpine slides with Brad and Jaston Duncan.


Oh, yeah, and Lydia's team won their game. It was in very spectacular fashion. Regyn, who plays forward, headed the ball in for a goal. And the forward for the other team was so frustrated by losing, that she received a yellow card after trying to take out our goalie.

I'm too tired to write. I think I did really well to get as far as uploading pictures to the website. Let's just say that I'm really grateful to Google Calendar so I can keep track of who is doing what, when, and where. Let's not even think about the why right now. That was supposed to have been taken care of when we made the schedule.



All you have to do is take a look at the calendar at the bottom of the page to see that we were overzealous in our scheduling. Here are some of the highlights of the past month:


August 25 - School starts for Jenny, Lydia, and Jack

Soccer games every Tuesday, Thursday, and twice Saturday for the girls for the entire month of September

September 12 - At the Adams' Family reunion, Jack falls off the play ground and breaks his arm (notice the cool cast).

September 26 - Western Days at Challenger. (Jack enjoyed dressing up like a cowboy today. I will have to reimburse the school for the sandbox that he brought home in his boots. It was left on my kitchen floor.)

But that is only the highlights (or lowlights)




Now for a little political controversy. For those of you who didn't get to read Dave's email, I would like to include opinion of the current financial crisis. This is his response to the recent email that some Democrat sent out in response to the $85,000,000,000 bailout plan.

By the way, anyone who happened to forward the first email to their friends, helping propagate blatant stupidity, please send on my response such that we might help the President do the right thing in guaranteeing that our financial system does not have to suffer what Japan's did 20 years ago when they let their banking system collapse. It took them nearly a decade to recover. (By "recover", I mean get back to where they were when it collapsed.)

Also, for those who just listen to the 10 second sound bites on NPR and CNN, when the talking heads refer to it as a "buyout" (as if it's a bad thing), they are correct in their terminology. The US Government is purchasing the assets of AIG at pennies on the dollar. As part of the loan, the US Treasury ended up with 80% of the stock as well. It was a pretty savvy purchase/"buyout". Many experts expect the US to actually make money on the deal. The $700 BILLION buyout of junk loans is also a great deal along the same lines. The Wall Street Journal stated in a recent editorial that the US Treasury could easily earn $1.5 TRILLION on those loans as they are sold back into the system over time. That's a 200% return over just a couple of years. That's around 20% of the national debt. How smart would Bush look if his emergency "buyout" completely paid for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan? Bank of America made a very similar "buyout" of Countrywide Financial. Everyone lauded them for making such a great deal. These loans that are being purchased are backed by actual property...houses. The last thing most people want to do is default on their loans, destroy their credit, and end up on the street. If the US Treasury can purchase these loans at $.50 on the dollar or better, wouldn't you consider that a great deal? Even in California and Arizona, where home values have dropped 30%, this would still return a great profit.

This isn't the government offering to salvage a few favored banks. The banks have already lost the money. They've written most of these loans off their balance sheet as a complete loss because there is absolutely no market in which they can sell the loans to get the cash they need to operate. The problem with the current financial system isn't that it's bankrupt; it's insolvent. If you've ever heard the term "grease the palm" with some cash. Right now, the US banking system has no "grease" and the entire system is at risk of freezing up like an engine without oil. The banks need to have a certain amount of assets to back their loans. If they don't meet the minimum criteria, they can't borrow money from the Federal Reserve. If they can't borrow from the Federal Reserve, they can't lend. Thus, we, the American people, can't borrow either. No more credit cards... No more new home loans... No more anything... It's not that people aren't good credit risks and the banks aren't good banks. It's just that everything is frozen. People can't purchase. Stores close. People lose their jobs. More people can't purchase. More stores close. More people lose their jobs. Welcome to the Great Depression revisited.

I hope you aren't listening as Barak and other Democrats blather on about the flaws in the idea. Again, you're getting 10 second sound bites rather than actually learning about the issue. He's a lier who is playing on everyone's fears and the lack of education of the majority of Americans. It's true that the "buyout" isn't perfect, but there really isn't time to work out all the kinks. Last week, the market was entering a tailspin that would have been the last straw. After the government came out with the offer, people started talking about how the US financial system was days, not months or year, but DAYS away from complete collapse. This "buyout" is averting a situation that would make 9/11 look like just another bad day on Wall Street.

Don't just take it from me. Warren Buffett, an outspoken Barak supporter, is endorsing the buyout. His quote on CNBC was, "I think the Treasury will pay back the $700 billion and make a considerable amount of money." He's probably wishing he had $700 billion to make the purchase himself. In fact, he's already invested $5 billion in Goldman Sachs knowing that the firm will recover as these junk loans are turned into regular mortgages. He's planning on making his share on money on the deal.

Sorry to rant, but nearly everyone I talk to, including people I highly respect and consider to be well educated, don't understand what is really going on. This is my chance to ensure that at least a few people I know are educated on what is really going on since the talking heads on the news don't do it.

Have a nice day,

Dave

Thank goodness for school

Monday morning I took Jenny, Lydia, and Jack to school. I came home, and Mia took a nap. I had such a nice alone time. I was finally able to clean some rooms that really needed special attention (Jenny and Lydia's rooms).

Jack had a great time his first week of pre-school. The first day a girl brought her dinosaur named "Jack" for show-and-tell. The teachers were confused about whose dinosaur it was, and sent it home with Jack (he was wearing a dinosaur shirt and the dinosaur's name was Jack). He was sure excited to get a new dinosaur toy. He wasn't too disappointed when we took it back on Wednesday.

Jenny and Lydia started school in their new building. Lydia's 5th grade isn't considered part of the Junior High, but they have their classes in the same building and get lockers, too!

Weber County Fair

Jenny and Lydia both did well in showing the ponies yesterday at the Weber County Fair. Jenny's pony won first place in one class and "Reserve Grand Champion" in another (you'll have to ask her what all that means). Lydia's pony won third place in his class.

The final class was for showmanship. This time it wasn't the ponies being judged, but the girls. Jenny and Lydia were both in the same class. Jenny won first and Lydia won third.

On the sidelines, Jack, Mia, and I had a fun time, too. We walked around the petting zoo (trying to avoid touching any of the animals because they were too scary). Jack had to visit the toilet and I finally convinced him to stand up to do his business. In the ten seconds it took me to lift him up to aim in the toilet Mia disappeared. She ran out of the bathroom, and when I finally found her she was trying to run underneath a clydesdale (the largest breed of horse). Maybe it was so enormous that she couldn't see it, but she had no fear for that giant beast.

New Ward Boundaries

Last night our stake had a meeting and rearranged all the ward boundaries. Lydia's best friend got put in a different ward. She is very sad.

While Greta and Andrea were at our house, Greta, Jack, and Mia went outside without permission. Mia pushed Jack off the slide (which is on the patio when not being played with.) He fell on the steps and is lucky to have not lost any teeth.

Barker Family Reunion

Such a great time at the Barker Family Reunion. Jenny and Lydia had fun with their cousins.

back row: Jenna, Kati, Jenny, Ashlin
front row: Megan, Heidi, Lydia, Jordan





Day 5 of potty training. We're doing great! Jack has made it all day with no accidents (even through church).