A Need

Right now I feel the need to blog. My kids are napping which means I should be cleaning, washing, showering, wrapping, baking, mailing, working, etc. etc.

But instead I am reflecting. On this post, and this post. And on the Christmas 2 years ago in which we discovered that we would finally be bringing life into the world. We didn't even know then it would be two lives. And how even though we have the same traditions and still work ourselves to death over letters, decor, presents, 12 days, light seeing, parties, baking, and family just like everyone else-that now it seems to have just a bit more of a purpose. A bit more permanence. We are not only enjoying a Christmas season...we are embedding Christ into our family. At least that is the goal. And even when we fall short (read-get angry, make ourselves exhausted and sick, yell at our sick children), the purpose is still there. He is still there. He is the center of it all. And He is the reason that even though I am overwhelmed at keeping up with it all-I can have hope-because it's not all up to me.

Is it Just Me?

Hmmm...lack of blog posts lately...why? I'm not sure. I blame our 4GB memory card which makes it really easy to leave the pictures of life events on the camera instead of computer. So then when I sit down to blog about said events I remember that great picture of said event is still in the camera far away in the other room. And where is the cord again? What's the point?

I also blame Ryan who likes to take videos more than pictures which is all fine and dandy until I have to sort through which ones are appropriate and cute and then take forever to get them onto blogger....

so here is some of what has been going on and some of those pictures that have been captured:

• Our infamous night in the caves with several of Ryan's top 20 friends
• A great wedding with similar friends
• Our great tree extravaganza...first year we did not add lights--but lots of work just the same...thanks to Jill and Jeff for coming down to make it perfect.
  
• Thanksgiving in St. Louis...wherein cousin and crossword wars were abundant among other things

The Bears Who Say Oink

We had the swine flu on Halloween...but we had a great time anyway!

"Just like Daddy"

There's nothing better than being fogged.

What Happens in Vegas when Gma & Gpa Come for 10 days

• We go shopping (grocery store, kids clothes, mall)


• Adam and Rachel get new shoes since they walk better now


• We eat good food (Famous Dave's, Macayos, Cold Stone, Treasure Island buffet, Mom's cooking)


• Adam and Rachel get to go outside everyday with Gpa


• We clean out the kid's room inside and out (but we forget to lower their cribs and we make a big mess in the living room)


• We track down the mysterious smell in our laundry room and lysol the daylights out of our washing machine (not to mention figure out the smell was most likely a dead mouse)


• We teach the kids new tricks: (blowing kisses, putting on socks and shoes, the monkey song, walking across the room, signing milk, eating artichokes)


• We learn new words (Adam: go, uh oh, phone, hello, up) shoes Rachel: yuck, snap, up, uh oh)


• We let the grandparents take all the pictures and then forget to download them


• Ryan and I go to his 10 year high school reunion


• We talk about going to movies but never do


• We talk about leaving the house but figure out it's too hard
• Hear the sad news of Caroline Hemming's passing. Love to all her family.
  


• We debate every day about taking the kids to the doctor for ear infections.


• We finally take them on the last day only to find out they don't have any


• We go to a Halloween party


• We get free junior frosty's (if you don't have these coupons, you must get them)


• We go to the airport to get my brother


• We walk the strip from Spring Mtn to Tropicana only to regret it later (sort of)


• I go to the U2 concert with brother and friends (totally worth the lack of sleep and traffic)


• We get new sheets


• I go to the doctor and finally get someone to fix my throat problem!


• We ignore friends and most of the things on my To Do list
• They leave; I get the flu; kids most likely get the flu; further ignoring things on the To Do list
  

WHAT YOU WOULD’VE ASKED THE EXPERT IF YOU ONLY KNEW WHAT TO ASK

So I think this’ll be the title of a book I write someday. Now I basically just need you guys to re-word the title for me: I think it’s the most redundant sentence fragment I’ve ever read. And secondly, I kind of need you to write the book for me. That’s it. Just the title and the actual book. I’ll handle everything else. Here’s the gist:

I've learned a few lessons from professionals in my life. There was my Air Conditioner Salesman friend who told me to replace our air filter every month in the summer. I laughed at him, and froze our A/C unit solid 3 months later. Fortunately he also knew how to get a warranty company to replace a destroyed air conditioner. My truck driver father taught me the finer points of driving. He taught me to never turn your wheels when waiting to make a left hand or U-turn until you’re actually ready to turn. If you get rear-ended with your wheels straight, you move forward a few feet. If you get rear ended with your wheels turned already, you lunge into oncoming traffic. Or there was the time I soaked the roots of all my weeds in Roundup with little success. Only to have my chemist Father-in-law explain that Roundup is absorbed through the leaves and stems of plants, not the roots. I tried again and killed everything 24 hours later.

It’s good to ask the expert. But what are you supposed to ask? Many of the greatest tips and tricks in life are tidbits of wisdom you’d never think to ask, and are so routine to the experts, that they rarely think to tell. So what are you an expert at? What have jobs, classes, or life experience taught you? Do you have any tips on things that could make life better, easier, cheaper, or just more interesting for the rest of us? The ability to put yourself in someone else’s shoes often results in a better outcome for both parties. So tell us what it’s like in your shoes. Teach the layman what you’re an expert on. I’ll get us started:

Airlines

If the security line's extremely long and you notice the First Class/Crew/Handicapped line is shorter, you can ask for a special "non metal detector" search. People with pacemakers and other medical conditions have to go this route. You'll be hand-searched, but if the line's significantly shorter and you don't have a problem with a federal employee invading your personal space, it can be a time-saver.

Never pay an overweight bag fee. Pull anything you have to out and stick it in a bag/box/jacket, etc. and keep it with you. Worst case scenario: if you have too much carry on baggage they may ask you to gate check it at the plane (for free), or 90% of the time they'll let you on without a problem.

If your plans are flexible, ask the gate agent if they need volunteers to give up their seats. If the flight is overbooked you can often get a free future roundtrip ticket, a hotel room, and meals. They place volunteers on a first come first served list so the sooner you ask the better your chances.

Yes, your luggage may be lost. For several days (though rarely forever). Be prepared, and don't pack anything too valuable in checked baggage.

Your flight may be delayed or cancelled. If you're flying somewhere for a major event, cruise, etc., give yourself at least a 24 hour cushion.

If a flight is delayed/cancelled due to weather or Air Traffic Control, the airline owes you nothing but the next available flight on their airline (which may be several hours, or even days later). If the flight’s delayed/cancelled for any other reason (maintenance, crew scheduling, etc.), they owe you a hotel room for the night, meals, and the next available flight on any airline at no additional charge. Don’t assume that because you’re flying from Las Vegas to Phoenix in summer means you’re immune to weather delays. Your inbound flight could’ve been from Alaska, and your flight could be delayed/cancelled due to bad weather last night in the Arctic. You still get nothing since the initial cause of the delay was bad weather.

If your flight’s delayed and you hear airline employees mention a flight’s going to “Triple 9” that means it’s going to cancel. When a flight cancels it shows up in airport systems as “999”. Employees will often delay telling passengers the flight’s been cancelled until they’ve found replacement flights, hotel rooms, etc.

Pilots and flight attendants are trained and authorized to fly one type of aircraft. So you may sit for hours as mechanics try to repair your 757, while a 737 sits idly by at the next gate. This is one reason Southwest and JetBlue have been so successful. Until recently they’ve been the only major US airlines to fly only one type of aircraft. That way all parts, mechanics, and flight crews are interchangeable.

Airline employees (at the airport, or the 800 #) have the ability to do pretty much anything you want at no additional charge. They're just not supposed to. If you get a nice one (sometimes you'll have to hang up and try several different employees), they can do anything you need.

If you see a soldier in First Class, know that they didn't pay for the upgrade, nor did the taxpayers. It's something airline employees like to do as a way of saying thanks.

Insurance

If you have any assets at all, your car insurance coverage should be at least 100/300k bodily injury, $50k property damage, and $100/300k uninsured motorists coverage. The minimum legal requirements are woefully inadequate. For example: the law only requires $10k property damage in most states. If you hit somebody's new $30k car, $10k worth of insurance still leaves you on the hook for $20k out of pocket. You could lose everything.

Raising your deductible from $500 to $1,000 is a good way to save money on your auto or homeowners insurance premium. Just make sure you can afford the higher amount if you did need to file a claim.

Don't file small insurance claims, especially if they're not much more than your deductible. They'll stay on your insurance record and could raise your premium for up to 5 years.

Tickets, accidents, and insurance claims stay on your record for 5 years. Though most companies stop punishing for minor tickets after 3 years. If you live in a city where attorneys can keep tickets off your record (3 cheers for Las Vegas), they're worth every penny. Far better to pay a lawyer once than your insurance company for years and years. Traffic school is the second best option if an attorney's not available.

Buy term life insurance. Whole/Universal/Variable life, etc. are far more expensive, and are best used as a tax shelter for the rich. The reason most agents will try to sell you whole, universal, and variable life insurance is that they make about 10 times the commission they do on term policies. Don’t mix life insurance with investments. Term life insurance is extremely cheap (a healthy man in his 20’s or 30’s can get $1 Million of coverage for about $20-25/month. Or enough insurance to pay off a mortgage for about $10/month.

Health Insurance: The expert doesn’t know any better than you on this one. Every health insurance company I’ve ever dealt with has been run by con artists who scam you and doctors out of your money and will give you the run around until you die (sometimes literally) before they’ll pay a claim. Knowing insurance law means I usually get problems resolved within months rather than years.

Pizza

If you buy pizza regularly, delivery guys remember who tips well and their food always gets delivered first. If you're not a regular customer and you need the pizza asap, tell the person taking your order to let the delivery guy know you'll tip well if they deliver it right away. They can often make it to your house within 15 minutes if you promise a big enough tip. note: It takes about 2 minutes to make a pizza, and 8 minutes to cook.

Don't ever stiff a pizza delivery guy. They know your name, address, phone #, and usually your credit card #. And if you ever order again, they spend a lot of time alone with your food. 10% (minimum of $2) is a reasonable tip. Slightly more is always nice if they get it to you quickly.

Never pay "menu price" for pizza. When you call, ask what specials they have.

Hotels

Hotel prices are almost always negotiable. If you have too much dignity to ask for a lower price, a simple flinch will often save you 10-30% without saying a word. Ask how much for a room and when they tell you, flinch. I like to make a little gasp to accentuate the surprise on my face. I've saved hundreds at hotels, car dealerships, mechanics, furniture stores, doctors, etc. without saying a word. Just swallowing my pride and doing a simple half second flinch.

Homeless

Most homeless people have mental problems. They’re too sane to be locked up in an institution, but too crazy to hold down a job. While there are certainly scammers out there, most of the homeless pushing a shopping cart or collecting cans have few other options. A full day of can collecting usually pays about $7 or $8 at the local recycling plant.

Lifeguards

Lifeguards are trained to scan their water every 15 seconds. They’re taught to scan in various patterns: up and down, side to side, concentric circles,…. to keep from falling asleep.

Don’t try to rescue someone from drowning without a flotation device to keep between you. They will latch onto you and push you under. If you absolutely have to go empty handed and are getting pushed under, you don’t have to punch people like in the movies. Push yourself further underwater. They won’t follow you. Then you can surface and try again.

Test Taking

On multiple choice tests most teachers/professors/test-writers will give several possible options that are only slightly off the correct answer. You can look for the answer that most resembles the majority of the other answers, and usually find the best option. A few examples:

The Portuguese word “I speak” is:
A. Fala
B. Falo
C. Folo
D. Hablo

Before reading on, can you guess the correct answer?

Whether or not you speak Portuguese, you should be able to determine that B is correct. Why? 3 of the 4 answers begin with an F. So it’s probably one of those 3. But we can also draw clues from answer D. Since it’s not likely that anyone will make 2 mistakes on the same word, we can assume that since the first letter is wrong, much of the rest is probably right. So we look for things that the other options also have in common. For example, the second letter is probably an A since 3 of the 4 options give us that choice. So knowing the first 2 letters are probably Fa, we’ve narrowed it down to options A or B. Since 3 of the 4 choices give us “o” as the last letter, we’re pretty safe in assuming B is the right choice.

Now another example. Only I won’t even give the question. I know this works because I took dozens of college tests without ever reading the questions (when you know as little about the material as I did, there's no point). I’m not saying it’s the best method, but I was able to pull a 60-70% on most tests without reading a single question. Still probably best to study, but if you’re unsure on a question, a 60-70% chance is a lot better than 25%. Note: Clever test-writers can consistently beat this technique, but they’re rare.

A. 2,360
B. 4,350
C. 2.35
D. 2,350

Don’t cheat! Have you figured it out yet? The last option is correct.

More on tests: There are numerous rules on what you can’t bring into a test. So focus on the few things you can. I was shocked how many anatomy students missed the question about how many ribs the human body has. I may have looked like a fool with my hand up my shirt, but I got it right. This technique can be particularly useful on math tests. If a standardized test doesn’t specifically state “Figures not drawn to scale” then they almost always are drawn to scale. I know the exact measurements of each digit on my hand, my palm, my fingernail, etc. Not only are these measurements useful in life (it’s like a built in tape measure), but they’re extremely handy on a geometry/trigonometry test. In addition to your body, you’re often allowed to bring a blank sheet of notebook paper to a test. Before the SATs for example, I memorized the angle from the bottom corner of my paper to where each blue line met the margin. When other people were punching away at their calculators to determine angles, I simply placed my piece of notebook paper over the angle to see where it hit the margin. I could read angles to within 1 degree in about 3 seconds.

Mark questions you’re unsure of so you can go back to them at the end. You’ll often find clues to the correct answer in other questions.

Grocery Stores

Don’t feel too bad if you leave your cart strewn across the curb in a parking lot, especially if the weather’s nice. Bag boys go on cart duty about once an hour and consider it a nice break from being inside. If you don’t put your cart away in inclement weather, there’s a special spot in Hell reserved for you.

Taxes

If you normally get a large tax refund, stop giving Uncle Sam an interest free loan all year. You can claim as many allowances (deductions) as you want on your paychecks. The IRS gives loose guidelines: ie. 1 deduction for self, 1 per child, etc. to help you estimate. But you’re allowed to enter as many as you want. If you’re unsure, ask your employer if you can see/revise your W4.

Disneyland

You can buy Disneyland tickets on e-bay for about half price. People buy multi-day passes at a large discount and essentially rent you the ticket for the day. Note that this technique doesn’t work at Disney World where they’ve taken to fingerprinting multi-day pass holders.

So let’s get started on this book… Tell us what you know!

General Conference around the world

Amy recently posted a link to this: October '09 General Conference on her Ask Amy blog. My closet-righteous self secretly clicked on it tonight, when everyone else had long since gone to bed. And the screen popped up: "what language do you want to listen to conference in?" On a whim I clicked Portuguese. Figuring the mental strain would keep me a little more attentive. Then a thought occurred to me. My old mission president does the Portuguese voice-over translation representing Jehovah in the temple. I wondered if just maybe he did conferences as well. And sure enough, as President Monson stood to speak, he was drowned out by the familiar voice of my former mentor. The linguist who'd risen up from the poor streets of Brazil to put himself through college and master 5 languages. The man who patiently tried in vain for several months to teach me Italian; in Portuguese. It was good to hear his voice and reminisce. As the final "amen" was said, I went to turn off my computer, but then wondered, do they use the same translator for all the speakers?

A few moments later, Elder Richard G. Scott began his talk. And what was my surprise to hear another familiar voice? Not of a translator, but of Elder Scott himself. Speaking directly to the Brazilian people in their native tongue, with his gentle monotone voice, and a horrible Spanish accent overshadowing his technically perfect Portuguese. Then another memory came rushing in. Of a time when an Apostle was to visit our small town in Brazil. The stake president's wife came to my companion and me in a panic. "Help! I'm supposed to make the food for Elder Scott, and several visiting General Authorities at Stake conference. What do you white people eat?!!" We told her tales of exotic foods. Entire meals in fact that didn't contain beans and rice. She nearly fainted. Then we assured her they'd be happy to eat whatever she made. This kind sister poured her heart and soul into that meal. And to this day she still tells the story of the thanks she received. When the leaders were through, Elder Scott left the group, walked into the kitchen, and asked if she was the one who'd prepared such a marvelous meal. He then thanked her profusely, telling her it was some of the best food he'd ever eaten. Only later that day at conference did we realize that he'd spoken to her in Portuguese. I've never known anyone past their 20's who successfully mastered a foreign language. But as Elder Scott explained, he visited the Brazilian people often, so he figured he should learn it. And so he did, in his 70's.

I've often been asked what I like so much about Disneyland. And my reply is usually, the quality. The amazing little details that most people will never know about. And I was glad to see that same principle hold true today in the church. There probably aren't more than a handful of people in the world who'd recognize that monotone spanish/portuguese hybrid voice as Elder Scott's, speaking directly to people he cares about. So I figured I'd share.

Proposition

Okay, so I want my friend to come visit me. What will make her come? You. Hopefully 2 or 3 or many of you at the same time. What do you need to do? Pose for (and pay for) some amazing pictures! Trust me-she made us look good so she has to be good :)

Browse her site here and see her prices here and let me know when you want her to come! And if you live in AZ or anywhere else close to there-shoot her an email and she will deliver!

Our Conference Weekend

Before:

(I have a hilarious picture of this event that was too inappropriate to make the internet-but I highly recommend visiting us to see it)

During:

After: Local Las Vegans will recognize this as the Lied Discovery Museum. Ry has wanted us to go for a long time and we finally did!





In years past I would have sat and taken notes during conference. I would have blogged about the talks and speakers that stood out to me. But since nap time does not correspond to the broadcast, I had to be content with "church" in the background of our everyday routine. But thank goodness for DVR so I can watch the sessions again!

Hat Trick

You know I can't leave them out entirely...These guys have been up to some new tricks. Here are 3...
She actually took 4 steps before we got the camera out!

Just the Two of Us

As soon as my lifelong friend, Scott, told me he was getting married Labor Day weekend, we were determined to go. As soon as he told us it was going to be in Savannah, GA, we were thrilled to go. So we dropped off the kiddos at gma and gpa's (w/o tears thank you very much) and headed out:

Day One: Fly into Jacksonville, FL and road trip our way to Savannah. See so many Waffle Houses that we were determined to eat there. Good thing there was one right next to our hotel (and every other hotel in the entire state).


Day Two: Enjoy the sites of Savannah. Which for Ryan meant the trees-


and for me meant things like actually knowing who Juliet Gordon Low is and seeing her house:


other random sites:
Of course, the wedding:

Notice that we don't have a picture of the bride? Yet, Ryan thought the ice cream toppings warranted digital remembrance. He still says it was the "best wedding ever."

Day Three and a Half: Instead of heading straight to a hotel after a long day, we did this vacation Fitzgibbons style and drove in our Sunday best to Orlando to go to...Disneyworld...where else? It was only 5 hours away...




Day Four: The day of the 3 failed alarm clocks/wake up calls and the shortest 3 hour drive ever amid 25 police cars to make our 11:30 am flight. Thanks to some skilled driving, some luck, and some airport know how, we made it (still in the A group thank you very much).

We came home to some very cute and happy kids...but that's another post. This one is just about us.