Ouch

I'm sure I'll laugh about this someday. But not today.

We accepted a calling to teach Sunday School and today we gave our first lesson to the 16-18 year olds.

He introduced himself, then introduced me to the class, and called me by his EX-wife's name!!!!

Ugh. I've done it to him, too. Her name starts with a T, my name starts with a T. His name starts with a K, my ex's name starts with a K. So it happens. After 24 years of saying "This is my wife, ____," he said it one more time.

But it sucks. 

2nd Amendment

I have lots of liberal friends, (OK, probably less than a football team, but, you know, lots!)  and  I always try to think of them when I post things here or on facebook. My intent is not to offend anyone, but rather to express my own personal views.

Jared Loughner was sentenced to life in prison plus 140 years for the shooting of Congresswoman Gifford and his other victims. He is a disgusting, creepy character with a smirk on his face and he deserves the worst our system can possibly put him through for his reign of terror. Watching Gabby Gifford is heartbreaking and inspiring at the same time. Seeing the photos of his dead victims is powerful. The surviving  victims are pushing for stricter gun laws and I'm not sure that would have made a difference at all in this case, or in any of the other cases where crazy people open fire on innocent victims.

Jared Loughtner bought his gun "legally" although there is no doubt that he lied on the ATF form about his recreational drug use. Had he been unable to purchase a gun this way, do we really think he would not have obtained one in another way?  Anyone who is willing to murder a 9-year old girl is certainly willing to steal a weapon to do it. Honest people already jump through a lot of hoops in order to keep and bear arms. What more can we possibly ask of them? American citizens have a right to own guns if they so choose. I do not own guns. I think I'd rather take my chances than have to make the decision to fire on an intruder in the unlikely event that one would enter my apartment here in our small Utah community.

I haven't done my research. I don't know know what Mark Kelly is specifically asking for, and maybe it's reasonable, but I stand by my position that stricter laws DO NOT deter criminals from breaking the law. Those who wish to obtain guns will do so regardless of the laws prohibiting it.

That's all. Back to math homework.



I have been a terrible blogger lately. I mean, I'm SUPER busy, but everybody is super busy, right? 

We had Ashli's baby shower a few weeks ago, and I think I already blogged about it, but I wanted to go there again. This picture kind of captures the whole emotional experience. He gets it. He's there. I'm so blessed.

 So.. the shower! Ashli and I started talking about her baby shower early this past summer. We said "Let's do it in October" and it seemed SO far away at the time! She wanted a baseball theme and she wanted the men to be there, too. So we tossed around ideas for that. As we talked, we realized that LOTS of people would want to be involved in throwing her this big bash to celebrate little Riken coming into this world. I was still kind of anti-Ashli's dad at that point, and she laid it out for me. She said "If people can't get along, they just need to stay away from the hospital when the baby is born." We were sitting in her backyard, and her meaning couldn't have been more clear. It was time for me to cowboy up and remember what was important. So we wrote out a list of who would want to be involved in Ashli's shower, and we decided that Mack's Mom and myself would do the food. We live the closest and it would be the most costly of the ventures, so the Moms should do that. We asked my sisters to put together some shower games, and asked Kurt's girlfriend, Tracy, to do the invitations and the decorations. She is like a scrapbook store in and of herself. She used to do segments on "Good Things Utah" for scrapbooking stuff, so she was the perfect choice for that. It was important to Ashli that everybody she loves was in the same place at the same time, so I sucked it up and decided to be nice to Kurt and Tracy and just do it for Ashli's sake. They wanted to do their own shower for  Kurt's side of the family, but it's not what Ash wanted, so we all just came together. It was definitely the most unusual shower planning of all time. Tracy would text me questions about colors and tables and stuff, and I texted her back, and it all just came together without any of us actually sitting down in the same room and planning anything. My sisters arrived the night before to help us decorate baseball cookies and binky baby cupcakes, and we all got to the "venue" (the Moroni City park:) several hours early to make sure everything was just the way Ashli wanted it. It was great. The men stayed for the whole thing, we had great food, and people visited with each other. Nobody had to sit in a circle to play games. My sisters just went to each table and passed out the stuff for games, and it was so casual and so comfortable. Exactly how Mack and Ashli like their lives to be. Surrounded by people they love.

And this happened. I NEVER thought it would. We all got together for a family photo, and it was great. We're crazy and dysfunctional and the divorce was ridiculously painful for me. But we're a family and Riken has made us all see what is really important. We can't wait for this baby to get here. He is just what we all need. 

I CANNOT WAIT!!!!!