Gateway Drug

I've heard people talk about gateway drugs in the movies, but I never gave it much thought. To really understand I believe you have to struggle to avoid drugs. Well I think I truly understand now that I have my own.

It's name -- Hot Cocoa. First you think, it's not really chocolate. Not the kind with saturated fat anyway. It's just a flavored sugary drink, no worse for you than gatorade or maybe even juice.

Next you consider Chocolate pudding, it's just chocolate flavored as well. It's like really thick cocoa is all. All your adding is maybe a little corn starch or something. It can't be much worse.

Next thing you know, your eating chocolate ice cream. After all it's very similar to the pudding maybe just add a little cream. Cream isn't that bad. It's like milk, so it's actually kind of good for you.

Finally you realize that you've completely lost control. Hello, my name is Tami and I'm a chocoholic. It's been one day since my last indulgence.

....and to the republic for which it stands.

Here is the answer to my previous question. Our government is becoming an Oligarchy because we could not hold on to our precious gift of a republic. Watch this short, educational video for further explanation. I found it very interesting and accurate.

http://www.wimp.com/thegovernment/

Can you say "Secret Combinations?"

Why are we socialists?

I haven't updated in awhile and thus far I have avoided writing anything political because I get very passionate about it and I feel unsure about how it comes accrossed in writing. But I have little else on my mind these days and I might as well record my thoughts and feelings here.

This is the greatest country in the world! The conditions in which it was discovered, defended, and designed are all so miraculous and divinely inspired. Our forefathers have given us a great gift and it is slowly dissolving before our eyes. Even though many people don't seem to notice.

People can say that socialism doesn't work, but now we can actually see why first hand. Businesses aren't being allowed to fail. America is great because the great ones rise to the top and the incompetent fall by the wayside. Without the natural consequences of failing there is no incentive to work smarter, to be creative, to make sacrifices. When companies like AIG pay themselves big bonuses (which is actually their pay agreement when they hired on). I don't call it greed. None of us sacrifice unless we have to. Why would we? It is human nature to do what we have to when we have to and not before. With the bail-out they didn't have to. This bail-out idea allows poorly run companies to continue to run poorly and that is the failure of a socialist society.

In this media driven day politicians don't have the guts to be Capitalists even though it is the only system that takes into account human nature. It appears too heartless to let losers lose, but there is simply no incentive to work hard when you can't lose. Who would study hard for a test if it wasn't going to be graded at all? No one. AIG paid themselves as if they were successful. And if they had succeeded no one would care what they paid themselves and it would be no one's business. That is the true american way and the american dream.

As Glenn Beck put it in his nine principle that american's can unite behind, "I have a right to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness, but there is no guarantee of equal results." In america if you work hard you can win and if you don't you can lose. If you take away people's ability to lose you will also take away the ability to win and that is the gift that we may be losing. If the goverment gains the power to decide who can lose and who can win this will no longer be "the land of the free and the home of the brave." We'll just be another country of sad, lazy socialists and no one will be risking their lives to move here anymore.

Theme Park Mania

The traveling Atkin family went on tour of the theme parks of southern California. It was a wonderful escape from the cold and snow. We started out in San Diego. It was wonderfully warm. Shorts and Flip Flop weather. I had to hit target after the first day to buy sandals for the family.

Monday we hit LegoLand. I didn't realize that they really made everything out of legos. The best part was that the park was fairly empty. The most challenging part was that they required that there be one adult for every child on the rides. I hadn't realized before that we were so outnumbered. It was some of my childrens' first experience with rides and roller coasters. They loved it. Caleb was pushing my tolerance levels. He didn't want to go on anything so we had to force him. Afterwards he always said it was the best thing ever. He never seemed to catch on that maybe new things were good.

Tuesday we went to Sea World. My sister came down to go with us and she helped out a lot. I hadn't seen her in over a year so it was great to get to see her and it was the first time she had seen our youngest, Lucy. She brought her new boyfriend, whom I hadn't met. He was very nice and it's always good to be able to put a face with a name. Lily loved the Buluga whales and Polar bears the most. I think she could have watched them forever. Jake made sure that we sat in the soaker seats for the Shamu and Dolphin shows. By the second Shamu show I knew to sit up high but Caleb, Lydia, and Jake were in the front rows. They were entirely drenched by the end and the day was over. It wasn't hot enough to be that wet, so that affected my kids memory of how much they enjoyed Sea World.

At the very end we decided to let the kids play in the climbing area. We discovered this is a bad idea at a theme park, because you lose site of them. By the time I discoved Lily was missing a park worker was walking her back to us. She had gotten in line for a ride by herself. When they asked her where her parents were she said "I don't know." When they asked her what her name was she said, "Pink Princess." Luckily when they asked her where her parents were last she said "by the slides." And they were able to find us. Luckily once again the park was pretty empty.

Wednesday we went to the Wild Animal Park for the first half of the day and a beach called La Jolla Cove for the second half. We rode the merry go round and went on a tour bus. We also had birds eat nector out of our hands and fed ducks. Their favorite part was the petting zoo. The kids loved being so close to the deer. My favorite part was the Baby Rhino's. They might be the cutest baby animal I've ever seen. We had lunch at the beach and played on the shore. We could see tiny crabs, sea urchins, and lots of rocks, caves, and shells.

Thursday my mom was in town and she kept Lucy while we went to Disneyland. Lisa met us there and hung out for the first couple of hours. We hit the bugs life rides and attended the playhouse disney show. Then JoDee took Lily to the small kids rides and Jake and I took Lydia and Caleb on all but two of the rides at California Adventure Park. We first rode the Tower of Terror and Lydia, who is usually are bravest, was pretty affected by that one. She eventually got over it. At Disneyland we took them on Space Mt., which was their favorite, the Matterhorn, splash mt., and Pirates of the Carribean. The park was very empty. A five minute wait or less for every ride.

Friday we went to Universal Studios. It poured down rain, which damped everyone's spirits. We saw a few 3D shows and we rode the tour bus. Caleb couldn't quite grasp that the ride was a setup. He was very worried when the bridge starting falling, but when we passed the Bates Motel and Norman Bates pulled out a long knife and kept following the bus, he thought he was after us and he looked for him the rest of the day.

Saturday we went back to Disneyland. We got in an hour before the park opened, but that hour went quickly. We rode the new Nemo ride and got in line to see Tinkerbell. Once again it rained quite a bit. We saw the princesses (Cinderella, Belle, and Jasmin), we hit toon town and poohs corner. By 3pm the place was packed with people. Most of the lines were an hour long, so we left.

We really made the most of every minute of this vacation. Jake's view is that he came back more tired than when he left. I think it was a great time and great memories for the kids. Even though we came back to a flooded neighborhood. (JoDee's drive lane is such a glacial river that it actually bent brackets of our engine driving to her house and we had to tow it to the mechanics.) And now I am suffering from a pretty bad cold that I think is due to the extreme weather change. But I still think it was worth it. I certainly wouldn't mind going back right now.

Christmas 2008

Another year has flipped by like a page in a book. We really had a great year. I love family traditions and we are still figuring out what ours are. I come from a family that really had no regular traditions. So, I've brought none to our relationship. The ones I suggest come mostly from things I've seen on TV. My husband comes from a family that loves traditions, so he doesn't have to worry about me fighting him on any suggestions. His mother loves traditions, and we (his parents, and bother and sister's families) all live within a few blocks from each other. So she suggests things for the whole family and we all do it together. That makes 2 grandparents, 5 couples, and 11 grandchildren, soon to be 14.

One of our regular traditons is the Christmas Tree Hunt. The friday after Thanksgiving is for shopping and the saturday after is for tree hunts. Jake and I actually have decided to do fake, pre-lit, but we still love to tree hunt for grandma's tree. We play in snow if there is some and we take a lunch, hot cocoa, some ATV's, a chainsaw, and of course an arsenal of guns(not for shooting the tree). Then we help grandma string popcorn and cranberries while watching it's a wonderful life or whatever other Chrismas show. She loves any and all of them, even the one's starring Steve Gutenberg.

This year we added some new traditions. First we always deliver treats to neighbors, but this year we decided to do it while caroling and on a hay ride. It snowed on us and we knew very few of the lyrics to entire songs. Also, we changed our annual Christmas eve party from great grampas house to grandmas house, so we had more control over the party activities. We had a nice dinner, the extended family exchanged gifts between cousins, kids, and granparents, we had the annual homemade pinata, and this year we added a live nativity play with the grandchildren (super cute). Also many of us (Jake and I included) decided to start a chrismas eve Pajama tradition.

Christmas Day was for the kids to open the gifts from us and from Santa. Jake gave me a gift that he kept at his mom's in order to completely surprise me (which he did.) He gave me a Vita mix blender which I have been talking about ever since the kids and I spent about a half an hour standing at the demonstration at Sam's Club. The demonstrator made smoothies, and soups, and ice cream and we just kept on eating. Seeing my kids slurp down a smoothie made with fruit, carrots, and cabbage and ask for more, sold me. Now I just have to buy some fruit and carrots and cabbage.

The holidays seem over now but we are still partying. Caleb was born on new year's eve, so I still have to decide how I want to do his birthday party and bring in the new year. Then in mid January we are doing a week long So. Cal. theme park tour with the whole family, the same 23 people minus his siter and brother in-law who do not have children yet. I don't think this will become an annual tradition, but it should be a lot of fun and offer a lot of memories. Or at least a lot of pictures and stories for posting.

Facebook Frenzie

After much coersion, Amy and Jeff Gabbitas finally convinced me to join facebook. I must also credit Amy with convincing me to make a blog. I should definitely thank her, because it's all been great fun. Even though I really didn't need any help to clean my house less. For those of you who have not yet joined, you definitely should. It's fun, like a blog but a little more interactive. It doesn't require as much creativity, but for me that's a good thing. It doesn't require constant updating, so it should take up less time. But I spend more time viewing, since I have access to the pages of more people. I have discovered that adding to your friends list is similar to collecting trading cards. It's kind of addicting and there is a tendency to compare one's list size to others.

One interesting phenomenon is that almost my entire list consists of people whom I've met in Bakersfield. I have been reflecting today on the implications of that fact. There are several possibilities. One might be that I was a very likeable person back when I lived in Bakersfield and since then not so much. That is possible. Another is that Bakersfield people are very into joining facebook, and people I know from other places aren't participating. A third option is that Bakersfield is populated by very friendly, social, and fun people. That one is very possible. I'm sure there are other possible reasons, but the fact remains that I really like people from Bakersfield.

Utah is a lot more family oriented. Especially my rural neighborhood. Everyone in my ward has extended family in the ward, usually several generations. We spend all our time and do all our activities with my husband's family. It seems that is the way it should be, but I do miss having close friends to do things with. But I'm glad for my kids that they will be tight with their cousins. I used to not feel like I fit in with my in-laws but it's getting a lot better with time. They are getting used to my quirky ways and I am finding joy in having some family traditions. In Bakersfield people seemed to have a way of treating friends and even strangers as family. I know this for a fact because I was often the stranger. I haven't found the same to be true around here, but perhaps that's because I now belong to such a close family and so does everyone I now. We don't have many strangers, I can count the non-members that live in my ward boundary on one hand. So of course we know those few and they get a lot of attention.

Today is my birthday by the way. I've gotten really bad at celebrating my birthday. I'm in such a hectic, frenzied state of life, that I actually forgot it was today until Amy reminded me. I was going to plan something special for myself to give my husband a break from trying to please me. (I'm not good with surprises which has scared him away from trying.) I had a few ideas, but then a Work Christmas party and a school dance recital were both scheduled for today. I may still plan something for myself for friday, but it sounds like a lot of effort and makes me tired thinking about it. The holidays are kind of a lousy time to have a birthday. Unfortunately all of my kids were born during the holidays. I do work really hard to make birthdays special for them anyway. And that is one more reason that I forgot mine was today.

Bako weather, in Utah?

Okay, maybe I was a bit premature in my wallowing about snow and cold. We had one storm and I was gearing up to expect more of the same from now until spring. But this is a picture of my 3 yr old and her neighbor friend today in our yard, just about one week before Dec. It's 62 degrees outside. Of course they like to wear their swimsuits inside even when there is snow out. I am loving this weather, but also feeling a bit guilty when I know people are praying for snow and rain for watering crops and drinking.