Wrong to let a boy grow up to be a man. Huh??

I thought that was the natural course of things. From a recent news story out of Germany:

"A boy of 12 is believed to have become the world's youngest sex change patient after convincing doctors that he wanted to live the rest of his life as a female. The boy - originally called Tim, but now known as Kim - has started to receive hormone treatment, in preparation for the operation that will eventually complete the sex change."

The line that really got me:

"It would have been very wrong to let Kim grow up to be a man."

Obviously somebody doesn't understand the meaning of right and wrong. How can it be wrong to let a boy grow up to be a man. That is just how things work. Next thing we know they will be saying it is wrong for a human baby to grow up to be a human. Lets make it grow up into a cow instead. What a messed up world we live in.

Images - Reflection

A pond adjacent to Harris Lake. (Taken 1/15/06)

Puke and concussions

Yesterday was a sick day at our house. Poor Dec spent the night curled up at the head of his bed with no covers after he was sick in the middle of his bed. We keep our house pretty cold at night so the poor boy must have been miserable.

While I was at work, I got a phone call from the school. I'm not sure why they always call me instead of calling Mom at home. The said that Mad was complaining of a headache and a stomach ache, and he had a low-grade fever of 99 degrees. This is the third time I've received one of these calls this year so I wasn't very pleased, or convinced. I asked to speak to him and he pretty much failed to convince me that he was sick, but I called Mom to let her know. When I arrived home I found out that she had picked him up. I was informed that he made a few attempts to look puny before settling into his normal home demeanor. When I got home I told him that from now on there had better not be any more phone calls unless chunks had been blown.

When I was a boy the hard and fast rule was that unless you threw up or had a pretty bad fever, you were going to school. Once when I called home after getting my head banged on the ice during recess my Mom said that I knew that Dad would not allow me to come home. I told her that I had barfed, which isn't necessarily a good sign after getting hit on the head, so she picked me up and took me to the hospital. They said that I had a concussion so I guess it was a good thing she came and got me.

When I got home, Can toddled over to me and then started crying. I couldn't see anything wrong, but he just didn't seem right. I was a little worried about holding him as he was drinking red juice and I had experienced the surprise puke of a two year old before, but he seemed to settle down. I got out the barf bowl anyway and we sat down to eat. Sure enough a few minutes into the meal, he started making some strange noises and we just got the bucket placed in time to save everybody's dinner from a shower. Of course, this kind of thing doesn't help the old appetite much.

Fortunately, today everybody seems better. Hopefully we're done with that adventure.

Images - Along the Trail

Hiking at Harris Lake. (Taken 1/15/07)

My kids do listen to me

Mad is doing a school project on the tundra. His teacher told him that he should make sure to talk about global warming and the effects it is having on the tundra. He told his Mom that he wasn't sure to write about this because Dad says that global warming is a bunch of crap. I guess he only listens to me when I'm talking about something important. I noticed this morning that he had put down that global warming is making the polar ice caps melt and thawing the tundra, so we need to make less pollution because it warms everything up. I asked him why he decided to put global warming on the project and he said that it was because he could not think of anything else to write. So he took the lazy way out and went with the rest of the gullible world.

While I certainly hold to the opinion that he global warming is a bunch of crap, I should do a better job of expressing on my views in a more thoughtful and comprehensive way. Mad's last project was on Sweden and I told him that one good thing about living in Sweden is that everybody gets "free" healthcare and one bad thing about living in Sweden is that everybody gets the same crappy healthcare. I was just ranting but he put it in the report anyway. I think that he could not think of anything else to say. He ended up getting a good grade, so I guess my rant did not hurt him.

Images - Piercing the Shadows

I took this last summer while I was supervising some boys at scout camp. (Taken 06/28/06)

Images - Beautiful Pond Scum

This pond was very striking with its surface of green. When we came around the corner and saw it Can said, "Oh, gwoss!" (taken 01/08/07 at Harris Lake, NC)

Pinewood Derby Night

Tonight was the big pinewood derby. Both boys lost more than they won, but they still came away smiling.

Sul's car won the prize for the most patriotic colors.


Mad's Car won the judges favorite award.

When the two cars raced against each other Sul won by a hair. I guess that if we build slow cars, at least they are both pretty equally slow. It may not be obvious, but Sul is putting his car on backwards because he found that it went faster that way. This may because we were trying an experiment. We made his car so that only three wheels touched the track to try and reduce friction. I think that putting the two wheels towards the front instead of the back helped it move faster.

We are at war and wishing doesn't make it go away

A good column by Liz Cheney (V.P.'s daughter) about how the battles in Iraq are only part of a bigger war and if we decide that we can just walk away, we'll only have to face the Islamo-facists elsewhere, perhaps here at home.

We are at war. America faces an existential threat. This is not, as Speaker Nancy Pelosi has claimed, a "situation to be solved." It would be nice if we could wake up tomorrow and say, as Sen. Barack Obama suggested at a Jan. 11 hearing, "Enough is enough." Wishing doesn't make it so. We will have to fight these terrorists to the death somewhere, sometime. We can't negotiate with them or "solve" their jihad. If we quit in Iraq now, we must get ready for a harder, longer, more deadly struggle later.

Overcoming Procrastination

I gave a talk last Sunday on overcoming procrastination. Here are a few of the quotes I used.

“life is such a precious gift, it should be guarded from needless dilution… 'Each day is not just another day but more like a falling drop of water, a golden moment of life's span adding to an increasingly rich pool of living.'” Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin quoting Thomas J. Parmley, April 1998

“Satan called a council of his agents and asked how they would combat the forces of righteousness. One said, “I’ll go and tell them it isn’t true.” Satan said, “No, that wouldn’t do.” The second said, “I’ll tell them it’s only half true.” “No,” Satan said, “that’s not enough.” The third said, “I’ll go and tell them it’s all true, but there is no need to hurry.” “Go,” Satan said. “That will get them every time.”” Patriarch Eldred G. Smith, Ensign, Nov. 1974, 25

“We are here [in this life] with a marvelous inheritance, a divine endowment. How different this world would be if every person realized that all of his actions have eternal consequences. How much more satisfying our years may be if . . . we recognize that we form each day the stuff of which eternity is made.” President Gordon B. Hinckley

“Procrastination, as it may be applied to Gospel principles, is the thief of eternal life--which is life in the presence of the Father and the Son.” Elder Joseph Fielding Smith

Goof Balls

The reason I don't have many pictures of the older boys is because when I try to take them they act like this.

Images - Mad and Mom on Hike

Mad and Mom on our hike at Harris Lake. (Taken 01/15/07)

Images - Lakeside

Another photo from our hike around Harris Lake. (Taken 01/15/07)

Images - True Can

This photograph captures the Can that we see and love every day. His whole face lights up when he smiles, and he does this often.

Images - Forest for the Trees

Snow day

I still have to work today, but the kids got the day off. They are running around deliriously throwing snowballs at one another, crazy with the idea that we actually have snow. As you can see, we have been buried under at least three-fourths of an inch of snow and it is still coming down. Before it is all done, we may have as much as a whole inch. We're hoping that the Governer will declare a state of emergency so that we can get our fair share of federal government disaster relief money.

I was a little worried about he commute (Note how the treacherous the roads look) but I managed to make it in. There actually were a couple of wrecks along the way. I can't figure out how they managed to do it, because even in the spots where there were microscopic amounts of slush on the roads, they weren't slippery. One of the wrecks was an SUV. I figure that it was some idiot with four-wheel drive fever. In an effort to show off his four-wheel drive capabilities he decided to take a bend at 80 mph, never mind that he would never have gone 80 around the same bend in "good" weather.

Images - In a Forest Alone

I don't know if this tree created its own isolation through a light-blocking canopy, but it just sat off of the trail on its own despite being in the middle of a largely pine forest. I am reminded of the Christmas story about the the beautiful pine tree that kept its foliage all winter long while scoffing at the ugly old winter oak for giving up all of its leaves to shelter tiny cold birds and animals.

Images - Four Ducks in a Row

We went on a hike at Harris Lake during our MLK break. (Taken 01/15/07 at Harris Lake, NC)

"Wise and happy or stupid and miserable"

In a New Years Eve devotional President Hinckley gave youth the following counsel

"Don't make the kinds of mistakes that will bring regret. You can be wise and happy or stupid and miserable. The choice is yours."

Seems pretty straitforward and remeniscent of Jacob's counsel in the Book of Mormon.

"O be wise; what can I say more?"

Images - Pet Moss

The kids have been collecting pet moss lately. Dec is showing me his pet named Porcupiney.