Friday, January 29, 2010

Health Care Crisis?

Below is a letter written by a young physician by the name of Dr. Starner Jones. His short two-paragraph letter to the editor of his newspaper in Jackson , Mississippi accurately puts the blame on a "Culture Crisis" instead of a "Health Care Crisis". It's worth a quick read:

Dear Mr. President:


During my shift in the Emergency Room last night, I had the pleasure of evaluating a patient whose smile revealed an expensive shiny gold tooth, whose body was adorned with a wide assortment of elaborate and costly tattoos, who wore a very expensive brand of tennis shoes and who chatted on a new cellular telephone equipped with a popular R&B ringtone.
While glancing over her patient chart, I happened to notice that her payer status was listed as "Medicaid"! During my examination of her, the patient informed me that she smokes more than one costly pack of cigarettes every day and somehow still has money to buy pretzels and beer.
And, you and our Congress expect me to pay for this woman's health care? I contend that our nation's "health care crisis" is not the result of a shortage of quality hospitals, doctors or nurses. Rather, it is the result of a "crisis of culture", a culture in which it is perfectly acceptable to spend money on luxuries and vices while refusing to take care of oneself, or, heaven forbid, purchase health insurance. It is a culture based on the irresponsible credo that "I can do whatever I want, because someone else will always take care of me".
Once you fix this "culture crisis" that rewards irresponsibility and dependency, you'll be amazed at how quickly our nation's health care difficulties will disappear.


Respectfully,


STARNER JONES, MD

I saw this exact same thing with the students at the high school where I taught math. They couldn’t afford a calculator and the school bought them breakfast and lunch each day but they still all had cell phones, ipods and bought sodas and candy bars every day.

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Hair Curling Video

Here is a video I shot of curling Lizzy's hair with a straight iron. I didn't understand the description of how to do it when I read it on the hair website, and wasn't able to do it myself until the hairdresser showed me how. So, here is the video.

Sunday, January 24, 2010

Curly Girls and Vacuuming



I got my hair cut recently, and while I was there I asked the stylist if she knew how to make spiral curls using a flat iron. I had read on a hair website with little girls' hairstyles that you can quickly and easily make spiral curls with a flat iron, and it's safer than holding a burning hot curling iron right next to their scalp for 15 seconds for each curl. The stylist did know how, and she showed me... it is easy and fast, and so I did it on Lizzy's hair today for church! Doesn't it look gorgeous! For those interested, you take a section of hair, clamp it at the top with the flat iron, just as if you are going to straighten the hair, and then wrap the hair down and around the flat iron. Then, twist the flat iron in a downward direction until the hair is coming out of the center of the flat iron and pointing out towards you. Slide the iron down the hair, and voila! Instant spiral curl.

Also attached are some videos of the kids... been a while since I posted any of those. The first one is of Rachel face-planting on our bed, and the second is one of the reasons I LOVE my swivel sweeper... because Lizzy can use it to sweep up her messes!

Monday, January 18, 2010

CSA Time Again!

It is time to sign up for a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture). For the uninitiated, this is a fantastic program where you buy a share in a local farmer's crop, and then all throughout the harvest season (June through October, in Utah), you receive a shipment of freshly picked organic vegetables. Eating "local" this way helps save our precious natural resources, as the vegetables you buy from the grocery store have usually been shipped long distances to get here (remember the ads for fresh vegetables from Chile at Smith's?). Plus, the taste of vegetables grown to ripeness and picked that same day is unbelievable. If you have a horribly black thumb, as I do, and would like to integrate more vegetables into your family's diet, as well as help save the environment... then, sign up for CSA this year! I use East Farms, and I get a half share, which was a ridiculous amount of vegetables for our family of 4! You can sign up here: http://www.eastfarms.net and if you want to see a sample, I blogged every week last year about what I received from them, with pictures and recipes... so check it out, starting in June of 2009.

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Merry Christmas!





We had an incredibly busy holiday season this year. It all started on December 23, when my sister Michelle got married. The wedding was at the Layton courthouse, and then afterward, my family and her husband's family all came over to our house for a celebration. My mom brought champagne and sparkling cider, and we all had a fun time toasting and watching football. Then, on Christmas Eve, Jason's family came over (except for one brother, who was at his in-law's) and we had a lovely dinner and gift-opening. In the picture, you can see all the grandkids in the hats that Jason's mom made for them all. After our kids went to bed on Christmas Eve, Jason and I set up the Thomas train set we got for Lizzy and Rachel on the living room floor, so it would be the first thing they'd see when they came out in the morning. Lizzy was SO excited about it, she didn't want to open any other presents, and she didn't want to go to my mom's house, either! Jason had to work on Christmas, so we opened presents with the girls before he left, and then the girls and I got ready and headed over to my mom's house. We opened presents with my mom, sisters, step-dad, cousin, and uncle, and then had a delicious Christmas dinner. The day after Christmas, we went to my dad's house to open presents and have yet another delicious holiday dinner with him and my stepmom, and her family. The next day, the 27th, was my 30th birthday... and by this time, I was ready to change my birthday to another month... but, we still had a fun time with my family, eating some more extremely unhealthy food, and opening awesome presents. Unfortunately, by the afternoon, Rachel had had enough holiday fun, and she developed a fever, and was sick for the next 24 hours. That meant we did not attend my sister's birthday party (the one who got married) on the 29th. Then, on new year's eve, we went to our friends' house to party with them. Unfortunately, Lizzy got the fever and threw up on their kitchen floor. She was quite miserable, and we left at 8:30! She had the fever and felt awful for 24 hours, just like Rachel, and then it was 2010 and the holidays were over. Whew.