Universal Kindness

Happy Thanksgiving {a day late}.

This is our newly adopted turkey, Daphne.
Isn't she precious?

Daphne was left in filthy, unsafe conditions on a farm in upstate New York, when she and a group of broiler chickens were confiscated by the local SPCA after a number of the birds in their flock wandered into the road and were hit by cars.

Daphne was underweight, tormented by internal parasites, suffering from foot and keel sores, and so dirty that you could barely tell that her feathers were white. Daphne was in great need of medical attention when she was rescued. Thanks to Farm Sanctuary Daphne has a second chance at life.

As Vegetarians we have been accused of caring too much for animals.

We have been told that we care more about animals than we do humans.
I never have understood where people come to that conclusion. I don't think that they understand that when you become compassionate towards the most lowly animal, like Daphne, you become even more compassionate towards all of God's creatures.
It's not human kindness but universal kindness.

Saint Francis of Assisi, is our family's patron Saint {he is the Patron Saint of Animals after all}. He said, “If you have men who will exclude any of God's creatures from the shelter of compassion and pity, you will have men who will deal likewise with their fellow men.”

Human kindness is all around us; My BIL Jason was overcome with human kindness last week walking in the Susan G. Komen San Diego 3-day for a Cure. I was showered with kindness when I was sick, and I can mention numerous other times when kindness was unselfishly given to me and my family.

Universal kindness, is a little harder to come by; people don't see adopting a turkey for Thanksgiving as being kind, they see it as being weird.
Yet, opening your life to animals is one of the most compassionate and kind things a human can do.

On the other hand I have been disappointed in humans today.
It being Black Friday and all.
I hate how we prioritize "stuff". {And it seems like it is getting worse and worse every year}.
I don't care if you're Christian or not, but this whole -I have to wake up at 2am and run through the store like a crazy woman, pushing people out of my way, so I can get a lame DVD for $1.97- seems the exact opposite of human kindness.
It just doesn't seem right to me, the day after we celebrate all of our many non-materialistic blessings, we go capitalistic crazy. Where's the kindness in that?

Oliver

This is my great grandpa Oliver Granger Williams.

I don't really remember him that well. I do remember his house and his raspberry bushes (which has now been turned into a grocery store parking lot.)

I remember his girlfriend Pearl and going to his house after he died.

But most of all I remember his white flowing, poofy hair.

{my great-grandpa Kirby, me and my great-grandpa Williams, 20 years ago!}

When I was pregnant we didn't find out what the sex of the baby was. So naturally we had picked out boy names and girl names. We loved the name Henry for a boy and we were considering Olivia for a girl; a play on my grandpa's name Oliver.
{I'm sure you could have figured that out, but I felt you needed the explination.}

Well {spoiler alert!!} we had a boy and named him Henry.

Some how, thanks to genetics, Henry has inherited certain characteristics of my family. (Or should I say past family members have been reincarnated in Henry).

It seems to me that Henry has inherited great-grandpa's white billowy hair.

Maybe we should have named him Oliver.
It's not too late to change it, is it?

A photographer in the making

Man, I love this kid! I can't believe how big he is getting.

He's not a baby anymore...

In fact he has turned out to be quite the little stinker, who is a crazy tornado that gets into everything and destroys the house faster that I can keep up. He pushes the dining room chairs up to whatever he wants now, cleaning out drawers and discovering fun things to play with...including my camera. Nothing is safe from this little monster! I took out my camera tonight to see this:

And 124 other photos. Mostly of the carpet. And of Myla. And where was I when he was taking all 124 pictures? Honestly I don't know....not taking a nap-I can tell you that! Here are a few of my favorite untouched pictures that Henry took {and I so graciously named}.

Table

Daddy's shoes {and mini fan}

Myla's bum with a collection of linens

Escape

Hide-a-way {or the escape from Henry}

Mama {I know I said I didn't know what I was doing or where I was....obviously I was sitting on the floor}.

Sunset Myla

Wet Kisses

I hoped you enjoyed Henry's photography portfolio. I thought it was so sweet!

Choices.

So...what would you do if offered these two choices?

Survivor's Guilt

Everyday I work with those that are dying and those that are still here now that their loved one is gone. A common occurrence is Survivor's Guilt. Simply put this is a mental condition that takes place when an individual survives while their loved one dies, usually as a result of a traumatic, unexpected death but it can happen to all. It is the "Why not me?" complex.

For example we had a wonderful, professionally successful patient recently who passed away in her early thirties. Obviously she was far too young but the kicker is she had a twin sister. Can you imagine the poor surviving sister asking herself why not her?

But then there is this heart wrenching story I, along with countless others, have been following. This is Chad Arnold, 39, from Colorado showing his scar where he had a liver transplant several months ago. The donor was his brother Ryan Arnold, 34. Ryan came forward along with Chad's other siblings, cousins, in-laws, and friends offering part of their livers to Chad who selected Ryan to be his donor.

Well, something went horribly wrong and Ryan who was married with children died from complications shortly after the surgery. What a nightmare and not just for Chad. What about all of those that had also offered their donations? Are they wondering if only they had been the donors perhaps they would have survived the surgery or are they living with the guilt knowing deep down they are feeling relief they were not selected as the donor?

My heart goes out to this family and all of those involved. I mean what on earth can someone say or do to provide comfort for something like this? Man, life can be complicated, can't it?

Guess who's 32?

This guy!

Wow I can't believe I'm married to a 32 year old! Ugh. That must mean I'm getting older too.

Here are 32 reasons why DAN is such a great guy.

1. Dan is a great father. I'm not being biased at all here. Dan takes Henry every day for about 4-5 hours while I am at school. He takes Henry to the park and to the library. They go on bike rides at night together. He is so gentle and kind.

2. Dan is smart. Super {scary} smart. He has an associate's, a bachelors, two masters, is working on a third masters and he wants to get a Ph.d. But it's not just that, Dan reads a ton: like 2-3 books a week. He reads the news every day and he subscribes to The Week, Entertainment Weekly and Newsweek, so he is always up to date on everything that is going on. Sometimes I ask Dan to just stop talking about smart stuff---I just want to talk about nothing that makes me have to think. You never can win an argument with Dan because he always wins-because he is always right-because he has researched it! I know a lot of smart, intelligent people, but Dan is one of the most well rounded, know something about everything, smart person I know.

3. Dan laughs out loud. I don't. If something is remotely funny Dan laughs. He will be watching a show by himself and be laughing out loud. He is very lighthearted.

4. Dan is our full time dishwasher. He always does our dishes...and for that I am very grateful.

5. Dan is very compassionate and loving towards all animals. He hates to see any animal in pain or anguish (you may remember previous blogs about Bluey and Ike).

6. Dan is very empathetic. Dan deals with people dying everyday. He is able to see what they need and how he can help. It frustrates him that he can't do more sometimes. He know how it feels to deal with illness and death and he portrays that to his patients.

7. Dan is a Vegetarian and he is very compassionate about Vegetarianism and Animal rights. This is a change in him that I would have never expected to see when we first met 10 years ago.

8. Dan is a very good cook and an even better baker.

9. Dan is blessed with the gift of discernment. He is able to see people for who they really are and what their true intentions are. This {unfortunately} makes it really hard to lie to him :)

10. Dan is simplistic. He doesn't need much to be happy. He doesn't need fancy clothes or a fancy phone (in fact up to this past week he has had the same cell phone for 8-9 years!) He is happy with what he has.

11. Dan loves to learn; thus this is why he is the smartest person I know. But it's just not academia that he is interested in. He wants to learn about other cultures, about traveling, about other faiths...etc. etc. He is like a sponge and he wants to know everything!

12. Dan is my best friend. He knows me better than anyone. Enough said.

13. Dan loves the outdoors and doing outdoor activities like hiking and rock climbing.

14. Dan enjoys musicals and he's proud of it. It takes a true man to be able to identify who 24601, Elphaba, and Christine are!

15. Dan has the most lovely blue eyes. This is the one characteristic that Henry inherited from Dan.

16. Dan is easily hurt by his family. Maybe this isn't a good thing, but I think it shows how sensitive he really is. He wants to feel validated in everything that he does, and he wants to be validated by the people he cares the most about. {He'll probably be mad I put this down!}

17. Dan is realistic. He is not easily swayed by keeping up with the Jones'. He knows his limits and the limits of our family.

18. Dan is an insomniac. Again, this may not seem like a good thing. But almost once a week I find Dan passed out on the couch with the T.V. and lights still on. It makes me laugh every time!

19. Dan is very forgiving. Sometimes even when he shouldn't be.

20. Dan is lucky. He always seems to win door prizes and raffles.....and he got me didn't he?

21. Dan loves Cinnabons. Gross.

22. Dan humors me. He takes me shopping, and follows me to stupid school events. And he {usually} has a great attitude about it.

23. Dan is tolerant. Maybe it's the social worker in him, but he is strongly adamant about equality, equal rights and justice. He jokes that he is a bigger feminist than I am.

24. Dan has so many diverse interests. Dan loves all types of movies, books, and music. He is like a fine potpourri really.

25. Dan is great at wood working. He made the cutest little table for Henry, which he loves!

26. Dan enjoys sports. This is why I don't consider Dan a nerd. Dan loves college football the best, but he keeps up with baseball, football (NFL), basketball and so many other sports.

27. Dan has a fantastic memory. Dan remembers little details, dates, locations and names. He sometimes gets mad at me for not remembering the same stuff that he remembers. Well, sorry not all of us have a photographic memory!

28. Dan is slow to anger. I'm sure his siblings are surprised about this. And since Dan is a red head, you'd expect that he has a bad temper. Now yes, a lot of things get on Dan's nerves, and he complains, but really truly getting angry-it doesn't really happen.

29. Dan proudly serves our country. Dan is a veteran of the Army, he served for 9 years. Recently Dan returned to the military as an LDS chaplain.

30. Dan is a great provider for our family. Yep he's my sugar daddy!

31. Dan is a great conversationalist. He is constantly asking questions and wanting to know all the details and information that he can. He is great at meeting someone for the first time too. Dan can talk to anyone about anything, and he can keep a conversation going, even in a stale room.

32. Dan loves board/card games and he is a good loser!

Well that's it.....no, I could go on and on.
Dan is awesome, cool, funny, sweet, and hott!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABE!

Election Day

I don't know who this guy is or what kind of person he is and to be honest I'm not even quite sure what a County Commissioner does, but he sure has a cool name!