The kids and I are home today since the government’s decided today too is a holiday. That’s right! No 4th of July on a Saturday is going to cheat me out of a day off.
We’ve been living it up, doing all the things I think we’d do if I stayed home with them. Sometimes on these days I get lost daydreaming about being a stay-at-home mom. Oh well. That’s not happening anytime soon so back to reality.
I’ve managed to fold and put away all the clothes (though I have several more loads to do), pick up the bedrooms and get Helen to pick up her room and the toys in the living room for the promise of $1 to spend at the Dollar Store later today. The kids played “Sleepy Teddy” as Helen called it, where she laid down blankets and told Teddy to settle down while she read him Yertle the Turtle by Dr. Seuss. Then, the kids watches Play with Sesame Street and screamed every time Cookie Moster came on. Teddy loves Cookie Monster only slightly less than he loves Blue.
I cleaned up the kitchen, fed the kids lunch and gave my boy a bath in the sink (just to see if he’d still fit). Now he’s taking his nap in my bed (he refuses to nap in his room) and Helen is watching Yogi Bear while picking up the toys. She’s been working on picking up the toys for over an hour between distractions of watching cartoons. We’ll see how long it takes her to finish.
Oh, and I managed to purge both of the kids clothes of too small or soon-to-be too small clothes, so if you’re reading this Payne family, I’ve got another box of clothes for McKenna.
I just read an e-mail that Manette is having a neighborhood garage sale on July 18th. I’m so excited because I’ve been trying to decide when to hold a garage sale and get as much as possible out of my house and turned into cash. Now that there’s a date, I can spend tomorrow and Sunday as I like figuring out what I want to sell. I’ll need to work with Jay to get some tables from the church so I can start setting up sooner rather than later. It’s going to take me a while to price everything.
Now for a rant: I hate phone answering systems. I called the Harrison Hospital billing department because they sent me a threatening letter about a bill that hasn’t been paid. I’ve got my explanation of benefits showing it was paid within 10 days of the event, and I was excited to get this annoyance of their bad paperwork off my mind. Well, I call and follow the prompts only to have the phone ring and ring and ring and ring and ring (you get the picture). Frustrated I hang up and call back, deciding to listen to all of the menu items wondering if “leave a message” is an option I didn’t find on my first call. Sure enough, menu item 9 or something is “If you’d like to leave a message…” 9. Now the recording says they are closed today. Big shock, but you couldn’t put that up in front of the whole call? UGH! I leave a message. “Here’s my account number, name and phone. Here’s the billing number when you were paid. I expect this matter to be closed. Please call and confirm. Name and phone again.” Ugh!
On to my second call, this time to Olympic Pharmacy. Olympic is where we got Teddy’s stander. It’s not even ours yet, it’s on loan. First I call only to have the system automatically choose a menu item for me and send me into the pills-side refill line. As I don’t have prescription number to enter, I hit zero and pound. You can imagine where this takes me. Is zero correct? No. Enter your prescription number. Zero. Is zero correct? Let’s pick 1 for yes. We couldn’t find zero. Big shock! Would you like the main menu? YES! THAT’S WHERE I WANTED TO BE IN THE FIRST PLACE STUPID COMPUTER!
At the main menu it gives me lots of indecipherable menu choices that are the names of how they’ve broken up their business, but mean nothing to me. I have an extension number on my paperwork, but the computer never gives me the option of entering the extension. Finally I find the custom equipment repair department (or something equally specific) only to talk to a lady that tells me that she can’t help me because my equipment is a loaner and they are very busy next Saturday so she can’t tell me…I stopped listening. She says Tony will call me soon. We’ll see. UGH!
I miss customer service! I enjoy going to Red Apple, our local grocery store, because if you want to find an interesting beer the young guy that works there will tell you ten different things about each one and show you where they keep the cold ones. I enjoy my hairdresser where she asks if I’d like a glass of water after I rushed out of work to make by 4:15 appointment. The rest of the people out there in service, I could do without.
Enough ranting. Back to work. I’ve got thank you notes to address to people I met with at the Pentagon in May. Apparently the Pentagon mailroom decided that my cute light blue envelopes were threatening and opened them up only to send them back to me for no good reason. Customer service! Then, I’ve got to clean the bathrooms and do a few more loads of laundry before I can write up the grocery list and get ready to go shopping when Teddy wakes up.
Just another calm day in the Mills house. After all of that I’ll leave you with a few photos of my kids. Helen in her new sparkle shoes and leotard from Grandma Kristy and Teddy, barely fitting in the sink. Too cute!
We’ve been busy in the Mills house. Here are the highlights:
- You’ll love this video of Teddy. He’s so adorable!
- The cat got out last night and I didn’t find her until 9 tonight. Apparently she got stuck behind some chicken wire in the neighbors’ yard and couldn’t figure out how to get herself out. I had to ask permission to go in the neighbors’ yard and grab her. She’s glad to be home, purring and cuddling. The kids will be excited to see her in the morning. Tonight they insisted that we go around the block wailing, “Patches! Here kitty kitty!” over and over again. Helen, in her best authoritative voice screamed, “Patches! Come here!” Nope. It took until the sun was nearly down and the background noises quieted before I could hear the faint “meows!” over the clink of the neighbors’ wind chimes.
- We’ve been invited to a Change of Command ceremony on Wednesday in California. We’re not going, but would love to be there. Bull Moose’s uncle is taking command of the 1st Marine Division. We’re so proud of Richard! What an accomplishment! If anyone has family serving with the 1st Marine, you know they’re in good hands.
- I’ve got to research how to get Helen tested for kindergarten. I found out today that Sylvan will admit her for kindergarten if she scores high enough on the local public school admission test. My mission tomorrow night (since I won’t be hunting for the cat) will be to find out who to call to get the test set up. Then, it’ll be studying time for Helen. I’m sure she can score well. I’m excited to see her try!
- I promised Joi a link to the Disney activity center, from which I printed cut-outs of Buzz Lightyear and Zurg for dear little Joel’s 3rd birthday. All you moms: You’ll love this link. It keeps Helen in coloring pages and craft projects. I love it.
- My cat has been throwing up all night. That has seemed to make her very interested in getting me to cuddle her. I know she’s not feeling good if that’s going on. She’s loving, but she’s not that loving.
- It’s always fun to watch Gingrich. “I don’t think Congress should be punishing the people.” Awesome!
- My kiddos are hilarious! Teddy discovered The Beach Boys tonight and was dancing up a storm. Helen loves riding her bike and zooms around like a champ every time she gets a chance. I’m so spoiled with her. She’s a very mature 4 year old, even when she’s acting like a crazy four year old.
- We watched Bill Cosby’s “Himself” which we haven’t seen certainly since we’ve had two kids. HILARIOUS! If you have kids, you must watch it. Thanks to Tart for reminding us of it. Gotta love Netflix streaming over Xbox Live. I didn’t even have to wait to get the video through our queue.
- I apparently never hit “publish” two days ago when I wrote this. Whoops. Better late than never I guess.
Here’s the shot I should have posted last weekend. This is Helen’s photo with a crew member from Kitsap Children’s Muscial Theater’s production of West Side Story. Who is that guy in the photo? He doesn’t look like much of a kid! Just kidding. Gene did a great job and Helen was so excited to get her photo taken with him. Thanks for posing Mr. Sedy!
Here are all the best shots of our trip to Lake Wenatchee State Park. On a 5 star campsite meter, I’d give the place a 3.5 stars. The bathrooms were close to the campsite, though not easy to get to weaving through other campsites. The playground was fun, though horribly covered in the bark that they put on every play area now. I don’t know what surface could be worse for Teddy to crawl through than bark! Give me pea gravel any day! The beach would have been fabulous if it was a little warmer and the winds were below gale force.
But, the best measures of the weekend were all up: Helen didn’t ask to go home until late in the day and then it was more a question than a demand. Teddy loved crawling all over in the dirt and was very upset when I cleaned him up for bed and refused to let him get down one more time to bite the rocks and throw sand into the wind. Chewie mostly behaved, barking a bit, but never running off. Bull Moose seemed to have a great time (sort of the point as this was his Father’s Day weekend request) and I got to 1) spend lots of great time with my family away from the chores of my house and 2) I got to get past page 350 in Witness (only 350 more to go!).
Here are my favorite shots of the weekend:
We forgot to get his hip brace off him as soon as he got out of the car so I’ve already washed it tonight. It was DIRTY! Notice the long pants, even on a 75 degree day. Note to anyone looking to buy Teddy clothes: As he can’t feel parts of his legs and he gets around almost entirely on his knees, please don’t buy him shorts. He doesn’t get to wear shorts ever. I tried it once to sad results. Teddy couldn’t feel it, but his poor knees were SO red.
We weren’t at the campsite long before we ventured down to the lake. The winds were howling. Teddy, who doesn’t like the window down in the car because of the wind in his face, tolerated the wind quite well. I have so few shots of my boy and I together. I like this one.
Check out my big girl throwing the stick to my old boy. Chewie seemed to love the swim, bum back legs and all. It was probably nice for him to get to move his back leg without all the pressure of walking on it. Helen loved throwing him the stick and rushing in and out of the waves. She’s fearless most of the time.
As with all good camping trips, this one was a bunch of short bursts of energy gapped by snack time. Here Teddy enjoys some raisens while watching Daddy make dinner. He sat at the table for long stretches, kicking his legs, looking around and laughing. He was having the best time. He’s always asking to go outside when we are at home; he loves being out of doors (and wears the camo to prove it!).
Earlier this week Helen received an invitation for a birthday party on Saturday. When I told her she wasn’t going to be able to go because we were going camping, at first she was sad, but then her spirits perked up when I answered yes to the question: “Can we roast marshmallows?” Notice the white spot of marshmallow dotting her left upper lip. I made her stop after three marshmallows, plus countless others the were burned up in the fire or dropped on the ground. Here too Bull Moose shows off his exceptional marshmallow roasting skills, honed through years of Boy Scouts and camping trips. The fork he is holding is even collapsible, an engineering marvel!
Helen got hold of the camera and had to take a few shots. Notice the placement of her finger in the upper left corner. Too cute!
She moved in for a closer shot.
And then I grabbed her and snagged a pose of the two of us. Notice the years on my face. Ouch! Can someone buy me some botox for my birthday? Just kidding. That’s what happens I guess when I try to put my eyebrows on the top of my head. So much for the natural look in a self portrait.
Meanwhile, Bull Moose was laid back with his paper and a beer. Gotta love camping!
And the kids quickly got bored of photo time and did what any little kid does on a camping trip in 2009…they watched the DVD of Monsters, Inc.
Off to the tent at 10 pm, the kids were still in the best of moods and willingly posed in the glow of the battery lantern (big thanks to Waterman for the wedding gift 9 years ago…still works).
The next morning, Teddy was still in fine spirits, and he was back to eating. This time he’s partaking in a healthy camp breakfast of mini chocolate donuts, cheetos, oatmeal, and milk. I almost forgot; he had grapes too.
As it was morning and he was going to have to change his clothes anyway, I let him play in the dirt while I packed up the tent. Does it look like he was having any fun?
Helen meanwhile was a fabulous helper. While I rolled up the sleeping bags and bed rolls, she would take the last thing I’d put away and run it over to the Xterra to stage for loading. It made the packing up go much faster and kept a lot of dirt out of tent, seeing as I didn’t have to run in and out and in and out across the dry and dusty campsite. Here she’s working hard to keep hold of the under-tent tarp while the wind whips it out of her hands.
And that concludes my camping trip in pictures. It’s late. I’m off to bed. Good night!
To celebrate Father’s Day, we went to Lake Wenatchee State Park for a night of camping. This is the first camping trip for the family since last summer’s attempt at a night of camping by Moses Lakes. Teddy is much older now and much more mobile and Helen made it until 7 pm before asking to go home (that’s a record compared to her quick demands last year to leave IMMEDIATELY).
The first video is Teddy delighting in an afternoon snack, while sister dreams of heading to the much-too-cold lake and I diligently work to put up the tent. Thankfully, by the end of the video, Bull Moose is riding to my rescue. The tent was getting the better of me. Enjoy.
Next, we have proof of how windy it was at the lake. The wind was a blessing, keeping the rare Washington mosquitoes at bay most of the day. Helen desperately wanted to swim, but the temps and wind wouldn’t support it. None-the-less she got to wade in to her knees and enjoyed it thoroughly. If she was eager to get in the waves at Lake Wenatchee, then she’ll be happy to get to North Carolina the next time we visit.
In David Harriman’s Fundamentals of Physical Science course (Part 1: The Scientific Revolution) he starts and ends the course with a comparison of scientific versus non-scientific cultures.
I’ve been sharing the story from his last lecture over and over again today, and so I must share it will all of you as well.
Harriman recounts the story about an island in the Pacific Ocean during World War II. American troops had arrived at the island, previously only inhabited by a native tribe.
Upon arriving on the island, the Americans clear some land, put down a runway, build a control tower, put a man atop the tower, and planes filled with food start landing on the island.
The natives watched this activity with a great deal of interest. They returned to the other side of the island and promptly cleared some land, put down their version of a runway, build a control tower-like structure, had their tribal elder climb the tower, put coconuts over his ears like headphones, and waited for planes to land.
They could copy the American behavior, but they didn’t understand the causality behind why planes were landing on one side of the island and not the other. They were willing to go through the ritual to please the gods, assuming if you did the ritual properly the gods would reward you. The planes never landed for them.
In the first lecture of the course, Harriman tells the story of the Kuba tribe and their belief in their god Mboom and his 9 children, all named Woot. Harriman tells us that for the Kuba,
…it’s always some consciousness, some mind, some will that is making things happen. And, if it’s not one of these gods, it could be some kind of person. For example, the Kuba believed in magic rituals, and the leaders of their tribe knew how to invoke the right magic and control the world around them, allegedly. But it’s always the will of somebody that explains why something happens.
Okay, so that’s a lot different from what we believe, right? How would we put what a scientific society believes? Why does this marker fall down when I let it go? Gravity. We would say, well, it has mass–it has a certain property–so that it is attracted by the earth and falls down. So…it has certain properties; it has to act that way. Whether anybody wills it or not is completely irrelevant. So that’s what we call causality. Things happen the way they do because of what they are.
Harriman tells us that the Kuba also accepted beliefs even if contradictory. There could be two stories about how the world originated that contradict each other, but that was of no matter to them. Both could be true because it was not constant, but whatever the gods willed it to be.
Harriman says the Kuba hold these beliefs because their tribal elders tell them it is true. They accept beliefs on the basis of authority. In a scientific culture, people demand evidence. “If I say Joe killed Bill…[you’d] demand evidence that Joe actually killed Bill. Whereas for the Kuba, if the tribal elder says Joe killed Bill, that’s pretty much the end of the story.”
Contrast the non-scientific culture of the island natives or the Kuba with the scientific culture of the Greeks, and the later science of Galileo through Newton.
As the Greeks created science they moved from a belief that things happen because of the will of a consciousness (a god) to a natural causality. They relied on logic and evidence. Two things that contradicted each other could not both be true, and certainly were not true because the gods wanted them to both be true. They were the first to develop mathematics beyond arithmetic and used detailed observations in astronomy to predict behavior of the planets and stars. But, they didn’t get far in physics.
Next came modern science (Galileo through Newton) and proof that the physical world obeys mathematical laws. That concept would have shocked the Greeks.
1. Modern science applies mathematics. Newton discovers mathematics can be applied everywhere.
2. Modern science demands experiments. The Greeks could make progress in astronomy (relying on observation) versus in physics. Galileo did his experiments with bowling balls. Newton did his optics experiments. If you don’t do the experiment you are creating only qualitative statements.
3. Modern science has a role for scientific instruments. Improving telescopes continue to drive astronomy discoveries. Design of an accurate thermometer was a step toward improving the gas law. Pendulum clocks accurately measured time delays.
4. Modern science asks you to follow the evidence, every step. Newton showed people that every step must connect to the evidence. Instead of creating a conclusion and selecting data to support it, start with the observations.
This morning I got my carpets cleaned! Hooray! Boy did they need it. I’ve been waiting a long time to finally get it done. I’m so happy. After spending the weekend treating the house for fleas (stupid dog!), it was a nice treat to get the carpets sanitized and deoderized. Let’s hope that does the trick and my flea problem is gone.
This afternoon Teddy and I went to Seattle for his urology appointments. His kidneys are growing well. His bladder looks good, though the doctor would like to see his cath program produce volumes under 60 ml. We’re welcome to cath him more than 4 times a day. Ugh! Plus, his oxybutenin was upped a bit since he’s gotten bigger. Let’s hope that does the trick.
Meanwhile, while there, we got his feet measured for new shoes (the ones he wears at night and naps). We got the last pair in January. Five months per pair? These shoes are getting expensive. Not to mention that the next pair will likely require a new bar too (read massive $$$). Ugh! Ugh!
But, Teddy tolerated the drives over and back well. He wanted to go home almost from the moment we got to the doctor’s office. Don’t know quite why. He’d already been through the ultrasound (like a champ) and must have thought that was enough for the day. His attitude after only one doctor’s appointment is a good reason why I don’t do the marathon days at Children’s. He’d be impossible by the end.
I’ve reset the house (with Bull Moose’s muscular help) onto the freshly clean carpets. The computer is back in place (obviously) and the only things left are five or six more loads of linens (I think I have too many linens) and to move back in the toys. I promised Helen she could help move in the toys, so we’ll be doing that together tomorrow night.
I should get to bed. My plan is to wake with the birds in the morning for a 4 mile run. We’ll see if snooze gets the better of me. I only need 5 hours of sleep, right?
This story came up the other day at work, so I thought I’d post the full excerpt. (p.527, paperback)
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Roosevelt’s public triumphs in the summer and early fall of 1895, coupled with his tireless campaigning on beholf of his board and his party, prompted rumors that he was actively working toward the nation’s highest office. The Commercial Advertiser’s above-quoted suggestions that he might succeed Grover Cleveland as President was taken up by the Ithaca Daily News, which formally endorsed him for the Republican nomination in 1896. In Brooklyn, a certain Reverend A.C. Dixon proclaimed from the pulpit the hope that Theodore Rosoevelt might soon enter the White House, “as he incarnates the principles upon which Government is founded.” At No. 303 Mulberry Stree, Jacob Riis serenely countered all criticism of the Commissioner’s high-handed actions with: “Of course! Teddy is bound for the Presidency.” What was more, said Riis, Teddy knew it.
“Let’s ask him,” Lincoln Steffens suggested. The two men dashed across to headquarters and burst into Roosevelt’s office. Riis put the question directly. Was he working to be President? The efect, wrote Steffens, “was frightening.”
TR leaped to his feet, rand acround his desk, and fists clenched, teeth bared, he seemed about to throttle Riis, who cowered away, amazed.
“Don’t you dare ask me that,” TR yelled at Riis. “Don’t you put such ideas into my head. No friend of mine would ever say a thing like that, you–you–”
Riis’s shocked face or TR’s recollection that he had few friends as devoted as Jake Riis halted him. He backed away, came up again to Riis, and pu this arm over his shoulder. Then he beckoned me close and in an awed tone of voice explained.
“Never, never, you must never either of you remind a man at work on a political job that he may be President. It almost always kills him politically. He loses his nerve; he can’t do his work; he gives up the very traits that are making him a possibility. I, for instance, I am going to do great things here, hard things that require all the courage, ability, work that I am capable of…But if I get to thinking of what it might lead to—”
He stopped, held us off, and looked into our faces with his face screwed up into a knot, as with lowered voice he said slowly: “I must be wanting to be President. Every young man does. But I won’t let myself thing of it; I must not, because if I do, I will begin to work for it, I’ll be careful, calculating, cautious in word and act, and so–I’ll beat myself. See?”
Again he looked at us as if we were enemies; then he threw us away from him and went back to his desk.
“Go on away, now,” he said, “and don’t you ever mention the–don’t you ever mention that to me again.”
Riis and Steffens were so crestfallen that afterward they did not even mention it to each other. Yet Roosevelt himself could hardly ignore the specter they had raised. He could not stop people addressing him–quite correctly–as “President Roosevelt,” and he would have been less than human had his heart not lurched sometimes at the sound of that phrase.
