Headlines 2009

Quick background. My favorite news site is fark.com. It’s an aggregator, much like google news, drawing articles from thousands of different sources. In addition to being a news site, it’s also a user-based community. The main page lists headlines that have been submitted by users. So the headlines on fark.com are different from the actual headlines, but still summarize the article. For example, the first headline below (about American obesity) actually linked to a Newsweek article with the headline, “Is the Recession Making Americans Fatter?”

Anyway, the creativity of submissions is sometimes just awesome. Here are my highlights from the year.

Newsweek: American obesity jumps in last year. But not very high

Researchers use YouTube to study brain injuries. Presumably by reading the user comments

Sharks can be "cuddled like Dolphins", according to Dr Stumpy McStumperson from the institute of really bad ideas

Medical community applauds first double-hand transplant in U.S

Glacier threatens capital city of Bolivia, sparking warnings that people may one day have to walk for their lives

Experts warn that the Internet is running out of bandw

Good language skills in your youth may stave off Alzheimer's later. Good news for us people who have a way with words, not so much for those of you who...um...not have way, I guess

350-year-old skeleton discovered in England. Fans gather in hopes of hearing latest rendition of Like a Virgin

Sea turtle that lost flippers to shark attack fitted with artificial flippers so it can be attacked by shark again

Jehovah's Witnesses more likely to die in childbirth. Also more likely to be standing in doorway in event of earthquake

Astronomers are getting a close-up look at a cosmic eating machine that devours the mass equivalent of two Earths per hour and in the past has replaced Shelley Long on "Cheers"

Scientists discover first vegetarian spider, easily identified as the one shunned by other spiders and getting picked on by ants

Elementary school kids run through blocking and tackling drills with the Detroit Lions. Advice and encouragement were given, as well as physical fitness pointers. Hopefully the Lions learned something

Bolivian animal rights activists succeed in banning circuses from using animals, but now have to figure out what to do with 22 useless lions, a problem Detroit has faced for years

Before you get all outraged that Michael Vick is only getting a 4 game suspension, take note that it's a 28 game suspension in dog years

Kevin Costner and wife give birth to baby boy. Labor took three hours, cost $150 million, and was panned by the critics

Jessica Rabbit voted cartoon sex bomb, followed closely by Betty Boop, because every guy's fantasy is a head like a deformed potato with no chin who talks like a 9-year-old with Down's syndrome

Tired of her blowing away all the time, Harrison Ford puts large metal ring on Calista Flockhart

Michael Jackson's autopsy underway. Coroner struggling with first question: "Race: __________"

Shrek sidekick Donkey voted the most-loved movie animal, slightly ahead of Joan Cusack

Rosie O'Donnell denies that her partner has somehow escaped her gravitational field

Former ABC anchor Carole Simpson says legitimate TV news is dying. We'll have more on this story after a Jon and Kate Plus 8 update, and it looks like Britney and Li-Lo are at it again

To honor her brother, Janet Jackson will wear black for a year. If she really wanted to honor him, she would slowly fade it to white

Six Flags on the verge of filing Chapter 11. Restructuring terms will force debt collectors to stand in a gigantic zig-zag line for hours, only to have the check printing machine break down when they're next in line

Car manfacturers are listening to proposals to equip cars with social networking technology like Facebook. What could pos.... Michael is wrapped around a tree

Live Nation to acquire Ticketmaster for $2.5 billion, plus $700 million in convenience charges

General Motors bankruptcy inevitable. GM shares set to fall like a rock. OOOOOOHHHHH like a rock

Applications to the top liberal-arts schools drop 20% as students realize there is no longer any need to earn a Liberal Arts degree to remain unemployable

Citigroup analyst weighs in on which banks need to raise capital after recent stress test, which is kind of like a blind guy telling you your girlfriend is ugly

Target profit beats estimates on news that people are still willing to pay 20% more than Walmart for the same stuff on clean floors

MySpace slashes itself by 30%, a move that resonates with its user base

Clear Channel posts $3.7B loss. I'd explain more, but I have to cut to 10 minutes of commercials, followed by the new Nickelback song

New Gallup poll reveals Cheney is more popular than Pelosi, much in the same way that prostate exams are more popular than colonoscopies

Cheney accuses Obama of politicizing the Justice Department. Cheney. Accuses Obama. Of politicizing the Justice Department

Obama declares swine flu a national emergency, eyes Nobel Prize in Medicine

New Jersey likely to legalize medical marijuana, which can help to alleviate the pain of having to live in New Jersey

Carpenters face higher-than-average asbestos death rate, higher-than-average resurrection rate

...a lot like Christmas

4 Months and Counting

Weight: 15 pounds 6 ounces

90th percentile

Length: 26 inches

95th percentile

Did ya hear?!?! Leyla has 2 teeth! (I only took about 50 pictures trying to get a shot of them...don't mind the crazy eyes this was the best picture of the teeth!)

She continues to love baths, they're just getting wetter and wetter (for mom) as she learns to splash a little harder each time.

She loves baths so much that her mom can't help but let her stay in until the water starts getting cold and her feet wrinkle up. (Her piggies are quite ticklish)

She's starting to like baby food and it's a good thing, too, because I love feeding babies baby food! I think it's so exciting to watch them try things for the first time. She doesn't care for pears but she really likes sweet potatoes and bananas. (We're still working on keeping it all inside her mouth!)

Her brothers still adore her but they don't like that she's getting so heavy. They last about 10 seconds holding her most times. (I'm slowly learning that it's next to impossible to have all three looking at the camera at the same time...and to have them smiling [normal] forget about it)

She has been rolling for quite a while but now she almost never stays on her back. Now that she has that down she's been trying to get her legs under her and scootin' a bit. CRAZY!

Except for dealing with her first (and second) ear infections she's perfect!

A Few of My Favorite Things

Owen & Jack are definitely at the top of my list. It's ony been in the last year that I've felt so blessed to have twins. I will be the first to admit how hard the first couple years were, well maybe Nick would be the first to say it but I'm a very close second! We didn't have a clue what we were doing but we've managed and they still love us! They love being outside and always want to make sure we're watching them do all their "tricks" on the playground.

I love little girl tights! Leyla now has several pairs and they're just the cutest. I just can't resist tights and a cute dress.

(she's finally getting some chubs on her)

Snuggly footie pajamas from Costco. I've been impatiently waiting for Leyla to fit into 6 month clothes to buy these. I really wanted the cute pink pig ones but this was the only pair in her size. The boys even love them (I don't have any pictures of theirs). I've got to admit, though, that it kinda bothers me to buy footie pajamas in 5T, they're HUGE!

I love bath time with Leyla. It's pretty rare for the boys to ever take a bath- they do get clean, they just prefer showers. I've forgotten how fun it is to watch babies play in the water and soap them all up. Let's face it, I've basically forgotten everything about babies! It's exciting going through it all again, and this time we're able to enjoy it a whole lot more.

Pumpkin Patch

And we're not even in Oregon!

I heart Oregon, big time, and this time of year always makes me yearn to be there! I think pumpkin patches and Christmas tree farms are among the best things ever. It's just not the same going to Fred Meyer and digging through the giant cardboard boxes searching for those perfect pumpkins. Aunt Kenzie came to visit us for the weekend and we decided to search for somewhere more thrilling than Fred Meyer for some pumpkins. The boys are going on a little field trip in a couple weeks to a little farm so we thought we'd check that place out first. This 10 minute drive ended up being double that because we just didn't quite know where we were going. Once we found it Nick just drove right on by, not giving it a second look. It was a pretty sad little farm and it made me pretty sad thinking that it might be as good as it gets here. Nick had heard of another place about 30 more minutes away so, on we drove. Again, we really didn't know where we were going so we stopped at a gas station to ask around. No one seemed to know of anywhere to go except for one super nice guy who thought he saw a sign for pumpkins that very morning. Yay! He said he was headed that way and that we could follow him out there so, on we drove. Another 10 minutes of driving and we arrive to a little country house with pumpkins no where in sight. I guess it was just other produce a family grew and sold on their farm. Dang it. Feeling desperate, I call my dad to ask if he knew of anywhere we could go. He asks around his work and calls back about a little Red Barn that does pumpkins. By this time the boys were snoozin'

and the rest of us wished we were, but it was only another 30 minutes away so, on we drove.

Oh the pumpkins! The beautiful orange pumkins, green pumpkins, the cute gords, the kiddie straw maze- I loved it! And for a short while I was in Oregon...right here in Idaho.

Here's our loot back at home, and check out my bats!. I need a bail of straw to put them on (and the star needs to go) and I could definitely make another trip to the little Red Barn, I didn't even think about the inside of my house!

High On a Mountain Top

As you can tell by the posts below, we had a great weekend. Almost all my family met down in Park City, which just doesn't happen often enough anymore. It's hard when individual families start getting so big and busy that we can't coordinate a time when everyone can make it. There are now great great grandkids running around! My family is so great and it's such a privilege to be in their company. It was especially fun to see the cousins that I grew up with getting to know my family and all our kids being able to play together.

Not only was it a great weekend because I was nestled with my family up in the mountains but, also because it was conference weekend, and, although I have a lot to watch on DVR, still, the talks that I did listen to were, of course, quite inspiring. One such talk was exactly what I have been needing. I think we all go through times where we see other families and can't imagine them being anything but put together and perfect. Lately I feel like I just can't get it together, there's always something needing to be done. Always more cleaning, always more work, never enough time with my kids and husband. My testimony should be stronger, my prayers more thoughtful, and my knowledge of scripture stories more...shall I say, accurate? It's incredibly hard to prioritize all these things, to do any of them well, and to ever go to bed feeling like I did pretty good that day. A part of this talk talked about how we should pray to the Lord to help us love our spouses more; to earnestly pray for our spouses. It's made me think about how much I should be asking for help, such a simple (should be anyways) thing that I honestly don't hardly think about. I'm not just talking about asking Nick to do the dishes or Jack to put his clothes away. I'm talking about sincerely asking our Father in Heaven for help with the things that we truly desire. More loving relationships, more meaningful service, and more happiness. I know He wants to give us these things and it takes but a small effort on our part. So do it. We can do it together.

Hanging Out: Park City Style

We stayed in a great Cabin, fit the whole family, Nick and I even scored a king size bed! Six bedrooms, four "family rooms", two dining rooms, a theater room, and deer outside the bedroom window every morning- it really was great! It's the kind of place I've always wanted to spend Christmas, maybe someday.

Owie is certainly getting better with the camera, you can see all of our heads in this one!

Grandpa with Leyla.

Colby had been talking to Leyla and she thought he was just so funny! Wish I could have gotten her smiling with him, it was so cute to watch.

My pretty sister, Jessi. We missed having Jeremiah there with us.

The boys' best bud there, Brylee.

Conference Weekend at Park City

I can't even tell you how many times the kids watched Robin Hood. Brylee, Jack, and Owen could always be found snuggled up together watching movies on the couch.

So fun to see Janice and her daughter, Ayla (who has the most beautiful hair with ringlets all over!)

Shaylee playing Go Fish with the boys. There were a few times when it was just her and Owen, and he loved that. She was so great to play with the boys. I remember when she was a baby I was so in love with her, always wanting to hold her and be with her. She has grown up so fast I can't believe it!

Here's Mackade, my cutie nephew! He loves Leyla, he just stares at her and steals her sucky.

Lyssa and Leyla. She, too, was super great with the kids. She LOVES babies and couldn't keep away from Leyla and Mackade the whole weekend. Wish she lived closer, I'd make her into a real babysitter!

Delicious

My sweet baby, that is.

Typical Night

For the longest time we really struggled with bedtime. The boys would never stay in their beds, there'd be screaming, crying (and not always just from the kids) and it would seriously take us a couple hours of fighting with them before they'd finally go to sleep. It's drastically different now. Promise them a couple books before bed and everything goes as smoothly as possible, even the three nights when Nick has night school and I'm home alone with the kids. After a shower they'll get themselves dressed, we have them finish picking up any toys, brush teeth, say prayer, read books, and they jump right in bed! Usually the only real fight is who gets to sleep on the bottom bed, odd how neither of them ever wants to sleep on top. So here's a few shots of a now typical night in our house.

Even dad is smiling!

Don't mind the spots of spit up. Leyla hasn't been feeling good for a couple days and is continually spitting up. Poor girl.

Remember I said the boys dress themselves at night? We are almost in desperate need of jammies. We're down to odds and ends and stuff too small. I've been waiting for it to get colder because all the jammies at the stores are winter ones and would be way too hot right now. Soon though.

Owen is always asking to hold Leyla, then almost immediately starts complaining how heavy and big she is for him.

He also loves to read to her. Owen is much more attached to Leyla than Jack is. I think most times Jack asks to help with Leyla just because Owen does and he feels neglected from Owen. See, they don't care much that mommy can't spend as much time with them, they care when their brother isn't paying as much attention!

Practically a Professional

Every year my work sponsors us to participate in the Pocatello Marathon, aka Run the Gap. We can choose from the 5K, 10K, half, and full marathon. I, not being a true runner, participate in the 5K. Last year I was pretty proud of myself by not walking at all, and this year I was proud of myself just for finishing! I think I about doubled my time, haha. I had origonally planned and really training for it and running it. I was about 10 weeks post pardum and thought I could be pretty prepared for it in a months time but I just didn't have the time to get out much. I borrwed a jogging stroller from a lady at work and brought Leyla along with me. It was a great morning, kinda cloudy and breezy but not too cold. It really was pretty enjoyable.