To Ve(gan), or not to Ve(gan) that is the question!

I am not a hater of all militant meat eaters but I eat vegan on most days. The reason is that I've found that it's a wonderful way to treat and prevent several health problems (like bleeding ulcers, migraines, and ba-donk-a-donk) that I deal with. The problem with this lies in my growing desire to feed my family vegan in order to address some of their various issues as well. (Don't get me wrong, we none of us are dieing, it's just easier and less expensive to prevent rather than treat.) Owen and Dylan both heartily eat their veggies and fruits but if I dare to serve a meal without meat or other animal products, I get many rueful looks and comments. I have begun using meat flavored tofu, tempeh, and other meatless meats in place of cooked animal with great success. Owen and Dylan usually can't tell that there's a difference and no one suffers the consequences of eating too many animal products. Owen still fights my determination to vegan-fy the whole family. He has made his feelings clear with the wearing of this shirt... I remain undeterred.

Dylan had a fabulous birthday yesterday! Our many thanks to those who participated or sent gifts. The above is an incomplete rough draft of the scrap pages that I'm putting together but I wanted to at least share a gist of our celebrations. I'm very sick today so I will also postpone sharing all of the details until later.

Birthday Dylan

Dylan's other best friend, Zeek announcing that the cake was finally bubbling.
Bubbling lava/ Indiana Jones cake. Yum!
Dylan and one of his best friends, Julianne
Dylan with his big birthday grin right before leaving for school.

Dylan-xs

Dylan often gets up earlier than 6am to draw. This morning's picture was of his future baby brother. He called him Dylan-xs or extra small. Dylan has been instrumental in helping us decide on the age group/ sex of the child we will be adopting and so he felt that he should be able to name his new brother. I told him that we were not going to call our new brother Dylan extra small but another name that is just his. This did not make Dylan happy but by the time we were walking to school, he'd accepted it.

Captain Huggyface

One of the secret joys in my day is watching PBS with Dylan. One show that Dylan has really been into is Word Girl. Word Girl is a superhero who fights crime with the use of big words. At the end of the show, the commentator asks Word Girls side kick, Captain Huggyface, to show in action what this or that word means. When Captain Huggyface receives praise for being correct, he does a dance. It's the sort of dance I've actually ended phone conversations to watch- its that funny to me. Here's a link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ni_8ZEoBm0A

Reply about pictures

Due to the response of my latest post, I wanted to comment further on the pictures that we lost. Thankfully most of the pictures that were lost had a duplicate or I had scanned into our computer. Only 6 pictures survived and they were ones from the day we sealed Dylan to us in the Provo Temple. I think that it's remarkable that those were the only ones unscathed (and coincidentally the only ones that I can't find the picture CD for). The one's that were the most painful to lose were the baby pics of Owen and me. Luckily there were only a few of those. I'm usually very conscientious of the care of pictures and would never put my beloved scrap bag into the garage. Unfortunately, we've been moving everything around lately and I had put it out there temporarily which is why I didn't remember about it when it began to rain. I'm still really sad about losing all that stuff but it's gone so I might as well get over it. Everything we own is really just future garbage anyway so I just threw out some of the stuff sooner than expected.

Lost in the Flood

This morning I braced myself and commenced the cleaning out of our recently flooded garage. It was a mess! Excising mold, funk and rot was the order of the day. Among the things destroyed were our sleeping bags, some little kid toys, and worst of all, my scrapbooking bag. In it contained scores of pictures from mine and Owens childhood, professional pictures of Dylan, beautiful paper etc. As I combed through all of the pictures trying to find any that were salvageable, my mind wandered to those who's wake of destruction is much more severe than mine. The people of East Texas who are dealing with the devastation of Hurricane Ike. The things lost? Much more than mere pictures. Homes, cars, family members... I read a story in the news that reported that at least 17 people are missing- presumed to have been washed out to sea. At that moment I wished so badly that we had the resources to rush down to Huston, don work gear, open our wallet and do something. Unfortunately all that we have to offer is prayer so I prayed with all the energy of my soul that the hearts of those who have enough to give would be softened. That humanity would reach out to our brothers and sisters who have lost so much. It really humbles me to think of how blessed I've been in my life to not have suffered such loss and I pray that those who have lost everything will be able to find respite, comfort and healing.

Tagged!

Okay, So I haven't had much time for thoughtful introspection, it's been a furor of getting the next thing done on our list to become a foster home! My sister-in-coolness, Michelle, tagged me so I'm going to play...

Six Random things about me:

1) I have an action oriented mental picture of every name I know (i.e. If you say Owen Spencer to me I instantly visualize Owen kneeling across the marriage alter drinking a diet coke giving me a big thumbs up, if you say John McCain I see an old man in army fatigues swinging a lasso screaming "YE HAAA!!!" I don't know why- I'm just warped! and yes, you can email me to ask if I'll share my metal picture of you but I may not share it:D)
2) I'm a HUGE opera fan! I'm too poor to actually watch a live opera but I love my cd's (yes I still listen to cd's. I know, wake up from the dark ages right!)
3) I really want to live in South America at some point. Preferably for several years.
4) I secretly (not any more I guess) wish that I were Asian.
5) If I were to work full time outside of the home, I would want to be a landscape designer.
6) I often have dreams about roller skating.

Heidi, Tashina, Elizabeth, Robin, Owen and Angie You've been Tagged!

Here are the rules:
1. Link the person who tagged you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Write six random things about yourself.
4. Tag six people at the end of your post.
5. Let the tagged person know their life is ruined by posting on their blog.
6. Confirm to the tagger (me) that you've posted.

He was lost but now he's found

Last week around the time the rains started, we lost our kitty. We were all concerned but I kept hope that he had found a loving person to take him in that he liked better than us. This morning as we approached the front door of Dylan's school, we noticed a cat trying to get into the school and being shooed away by the principal. It was our kiwi! Dylan and I were really happy that we had found him! I brought him home and he ate for a full 10 minutes. Poor little thing was lost outside all this time in the rain and cooling weather... it really makes me sad to think about it. The chihuahuas were happy to see him. After some dog/cat banter, they all cuddled up on the couch for a nap.

The 100 Year Flood

We had a 100 Year flood here in Lubbock this past Thursday. It was caused by Tropical depression Lowell. It is said that Lubbock has never seen rainfall of this magnitude anywhere on the history books!

The 100 Year Flood

Lubbock received 7.5+ inches of rain this past September 11th. It was called a 100 year rain storm as there was no rain totals recorded ever that high. The preceeding pictures were taken at various times during the day. Ultimately you'll notice that our beloved playground at maxy park was completely submerged in water.

TEXAS!

Today on our way home from school I asked Dylan what his favorite part of today was and he told me that it was saying the Pledge of Allegiance. This intrigued me and I asked him if he could say it for me. He did, with his hand on his heart. Then came from his lips this:
"Honor the Texas flag; I pledge allegiance to thee, Texas, one state under God, one and indivisible." I was surprised! I actually knew the Texas pledge but hadn't thought about it in 6 or 7 years (since I was working in the school system). For those of you who don't know, Texas is actually the Republic of Texas (since 1835) and as such, can fly its flag at the same height as the American Flag (although no self-respecting patriotic Texan would ever do such a thing!) Texas became a state under annexation or bypassed the territorial phase of statehood (which to my knowledge is the only state in the union to do such). Here in West Texas, American pride runs deep, Texan pride runs deeper! I believe that placing hand over heart as little children has a lot to do with that. So I'll close this post in the spirit of things "REMEMBER THE ALAMO!"

Scrap book stuff

The Someday File

Have you ever heard of the "someday" file? We all have them. They're created when something unpleasant/ intense/ or annoying happens in our lives. You or someone around you (because there's always someone there when these things happen) will say "Someday You'll look back and find this funny or sweet or special." These words are uttered because there doesn't seem to be an appropriate response to what just happened. Yesterday I added to my someday file. We had to purchase a certain type of fire extinguisher to have in our home in preparation for the fire marshals visit for a fire inspection (Yup, it's required for foster care). It was not cheap! Dylan was enamored with it- he just stared at it and stroked it lovingly for most of the afternoon. Several times Owen and I had to remind him that a fire extinguisher is not a toy and that he shouldn't touch it to which he would reply "But mom, we have to test it out so that we can practice for a real fire!" This is where I made my mistake- I pointed the instruction panel out to Dylan and said "Sweetie, we don't have to actually try it out. The instructions are right here if we ever needed to use it see." Dylan said "OH COOL!" and read the instructions over and over out loud to himself. After a while it seemed that he was getting use to the presence of such a cool thing and was losing interest. Not true. I literally left the room for 30 seconds when I heard "SHSHLLLOOOOOOO" I ran back into the living room to see the whole room coated in yellowish white dust. Dylan was standing there holding the extinguisher with an impish grin, the exhaust hose of the extinguisher was still smoking. He had totally emptied it requiring us to replace the extinguisher. The house was a mess and I discovered that I'm totally allergic to the contents of a fire extinguisher!

Oh well. Someday I'll look back and this will be funny to me.

Behold Your Little Ones

This week for FHE we decided to introduce Dylan to the art of conducting a meeting. Yesterday I sat down with Dylan and let him pick the lesson topic, the songs, a scripture and an activity. Then I went over with him the typical protocol of introduction, asking people to help with prayers etc. We didn't think that this experience would be more than just an introductory learning exercise for Dylan and that Dylan would need lots of help. Tonight came and Dylan took charge! He performed the act of conducting a meeting like a pro! It was clear that Dylan felt the importance of Family Home Evening and his roll in tonight's meeting. Owen and I just looked on with amazement at our little son's natural leadership abilities! This isn't an experience that is new to me. I am constantly impressed at the instinctual spiritual abilities of little children. Yesterday in primary a boy of eight gave a very comprehensive talk on the gift of the Holy Ghost that was clearly given with the help of the Holy Ghost. There have been many times in a quiet moment that a child will utter a comment that is so pure and powerful that you know that this little person is being inspired by a Heavenly Father who knows an loves all of us. It is such a blessing to be associated with little children and to be blessed to be a mother despite my lack of fertility! It is an honor to be Dylan's mom and to help him discover his talents and develop his abilities. I am really looking forward to the time (which is approaching very soon) that Dylan will be a big brother and good example to other children in our home.