Colorblind

As many of you know, both of my brothers, Allen and Jacob are colorblind (as was my grandpa). As a result, I have always been curious about this condition and have tried to learn about it during my biology classes in school. Why was it hard for my brother to drive when we went to New Mexico on vacation, and the traffic lights were turned on their sides? I often asked my brothers how things looked to them etc, but I never really got satisfactory answers from them until just recently. Jacob found a website that, to him, described perfectly what colorblindness was from a colorblind persons point of view... something he'd previously been at a loss to describe since he had never experienced seeing the world like a non-colorblind person. He shared this website with me, and it is great! It describes how colorblindness comes about and also provides color vision tests and examples of what a scene would look like to someone who is colorblind. I totally soaked it up. Here is an excerpt describing Protanomaly colorblindness (the type that Jacob has) from the website, http://colorvisiontesting.com/:

Protanomaly is referred to as "red-weakness", an apt description of this form of color deficiency. Any redness seen in a color by a normal observer is seen more weakly by the protanomalous viewer, both in terms of its "coloring power" (saturation, or depth of color) and its brightness. Red, orange, yellow, and yellow-green appear somewhat shifted in hue ("hue" is just another word for "color") towards green, and all appear paler than they do to the normal observer. The redness component that a normal observer sees in a violet or lavender color is so weakened for the protanomalous observer that he may fail to detect it, and therefore sees only the blue component. Hence, to him the color that normals call "violet" may look only like another shade of blue.
Under poor viewing conditions, such as when driving in dazzling sunlight or in rainy or foggy weather, it is easily possible for protanomalous individuals to mistake a blinking red traffic light from a blinking yellow or amber one, or to fail to distinguish a green traffic light from the various "white" lights in store fronts, signs, and street lights that line our streets.

Anyway, I loved learning more about how my brothers see things, and it really made me appreciate the colors I can see. I actually felt sad when I looked at the example pictures of the hot air balloons and Jacob told me that they both looked the same to him. All is not lost, though. Because of this deficiency, they are better at recognizing patterns, textures, and shapes and they use this to help identify things. Most of the time, colorblindness does not affect their lives. On a more random note, I recently learned that scientists believe that some beetles see many more colors than we can see. So, apparently, we are all a little bit colorblind.

Easter Sunday

I hesitated to post these pictures since I knew it would be so cliche, but I couldn't get around it since my kids are so cute. So, here they are: pictures from Easter Sunday.

I Fall

So, last night I jogged over to the Lilly's house to do an exercise video with Kara. I went directly into the kitchen upon arrival to get a drink (since I was a giant ball of wheezing, sweating, cotton mouthed exhaustion). Mike and Jill were in there cleaning up and Jill asked "Did you wear a helmet?" (a reference to the hard time I was giving Rose and Jake for not wearing helmets when they rode his motorcycle). I responded that ,"no, I don't jog THAT fast," to which Micheal piped in something to the affect of, "That makes you no less likely to get in an accident" (said with a teasing grin). As much as Micheal was joking, I have to confess that he is completely and totally right. I am truly a klutz sometimes. This realization was reaffirmed to me on Sunday. I had just enjoyed three hours of beautiful Easter messages, and it was time to go home. I walked down the hall to get Braden and Jade out of the nursery room. I looked pretty "springy" with a yellow floral skirt on and white heels with a green bow attached to the toe. I was about to the door when the unthinkable, unlikely, unfortunate, and not-so-uncommon thing occurred. I fell on my face. How did this happen? Well, of course, by some mysterious way, my high heel passed by my toe at the exact angle as to attach itself to the green loop of the decorative bow. So basically, my two shoes were tied together and I had nowhere to go but down. I got up quickly as a man from the ward said, "Are you OK?" He had a funny grin on his face like he was trying to suppress a very hearty laugh. I said, "I'm fine. My heel got stuck in my bow." To which he replied, "I saw that. Are you sure you're all right?" I felt like to only graceful way out of this was to make light of it, so I said with a smile, "I'm fine. I'm just glad the hall wasn't full of people. Only about two people saw me right?" Then he said, "Don't worry. I won't tell anyone." ... right. I would tell someone. I would laugh so hard if I saw someone do what I had done (assuming they hadn't hurt themselves, of course). Maybe he is more empathetic than I am. But anyway, that was really clumsy and awkward. So add this experience with the many times I've fallen off my heels, the curb, the steps... the time I fell backward into a tool box while taking a picture, the time I jogged on a pebble and rolled my ankle, or the time I stepped in a crack and broke my heel off of my shoe (I thought that only happens in movies) and it can only add up to one thing. Despite my efforts to be poised and graceful, I'm just a little klutzy. So please, if you can, catch me (or at least a picture of me) when I fall.

Songs o' the Irish

On Thursday, the kids and I had fun going to a little outdoor concert put on by the City of Mesa. It was two Irish men who played all sorts of instruments and sang a variety of Irish music. Much of it was like Irish pub songs that told silly stories and stuff and others were folk songs or instrumental pieces. It was fun. I think we might have been a minority since most attendees were over 65, but who cares. I'm totally in to doing stuff that a lot of young people would consider "nerdy". One of the women behind us, sweetly gave Braden and Jade a package of Cheetos from her little sack lunch provided by the assisted living home. They gobbled them right up. After awhile, the kids were getting hot and a little bored, so we found some shade near the water feature and took a couple pictures while the kids ate another snack. Braden was a little grumpy (as you can see by his refusal to give a smile) because he wanted to play in the water like some of the other little kids and I wouldn't let him. It was kind of driving me nuts. Here we are at the beautiful new Arts Center in downtown Mesa where there is a water feature that runs and meanders and falls all around the building. Here and there it goes under walkways and around various exterior features. To me it is clear that it is not a wading pool, but rather a piece of art to look at and listen to and visually enjoy. But I guess since there is no sign saying "Don't Play in the Water", it seemed fair game to the other parents and kids there. Am I the only one who finds this unacceptable? Anyway, after another family of kids came over and started climbing all over the "free public pool", we decided to head back to the car. All in all, it was really cool. I loved the music and spending time with my mom. There is something so fun and whimsical about the songs o' the Irish.

Just Pictures

I'm sick of writing tonight (wow, did I just say that?). Here is a post of just pictures.

Our Little Hike

This week was spring break for all the kids around here. I was really in the spring break mood and wanted to call up my super rad cousins from Cali and take an impromptu vacation and just chill in San Diego for a couple days. However, I realized that we really have no business spending all sorts of money on gas and food and stuff in the situation that we're in. So, instead I just made a special effort to do fun things out of the house with the kids (sorry, San Diego crew... I miss you guys). One of the things I got to do was go on a short hike with my kids and their aunt Jennifer. We went out to the San Tan mountains and it was so cool. We took a trail that was just littered with all sorts of rocks. This was perfect for Jen, since she has a rock collection. She loved finding the ones with sparkles all over them, and the "crystal" ones (any rock that was white or clear). Braden was thrilled about all the flowers and kept picking some for Jade. She'd hold on to them for a bit and eventually drop them, but it was cute anyway that he was looking out for her. The hike wasn't very long since it was a hot sunny day and I had forgotten sunscreen (duh!), but it was still nice to just be out in nature and watch the joy in the kids faces as they explored everything. We met two people with metal detectors who apparently were looking for gold. They were kind enough to take a picture for us (which I was grateful for because the self timer method had only produced a photo of our shoes, which aren't quite as interesting as our faces... I hope). We were all pretty hot by the end of the hike, so we went to Wendy's on the way home and shared two Frostys between us. The whole thing was so fun for me. Hopefully all the kids had just as much fun on our little hike.

Ultimate Frisbee

I really like taking pictures of people playing sports. The possibilities for awesome shots are so much greater than in other situations. I mean, you've got people flying in the air, subjecting their bodies to unnatural abuse for the sake of winning, folks crashing into one another, and best of all... nobody is bothering to pose for the camera, so the result is pure, unadulterated facial expressions that you can read like a book. Here are some recent pictures that I took while "the boys" played ultimate Frisbee.

A great picture of Justin being his normal good-looking self (believe me, this is hard to come by... he's a total poser when the camera comes out).

Daniel and Spencer flying in the air. (Check out the fantastic catch my husbands about to make)

Cameron showing off his famous smile.

Jared is pretty much the coolest kid I know (named Jared).

Ice-cream Faced Kids

So, after the below stated Family Home Evening activity at the Mesa Temple, we went home and had a treat. Ice cream cones! I haven't had an ice-cream cone in ages and there is something liberating in licking that sweet deliciousness instead of using a spoon. It was the first time for the kids and they loved that they could eat their "dishes" (as did I). It was fun to watch Jade with her cone because she was so hazardous. She really didn't understand that you have to hold it vertically at all times. She got really sad when it fell in the grass, but after removing a couple leaves and grass pieces, we were back in business. I was impressed at how neatly Braden ate his. Here are some classic pictures of ice-cream faced kids.

Really Amazing

Lately we've been doing Family Home Evening during the day because Spencer has been working Monday nights. This Monday, we went to the Mesa Temple Visitor's Center and looked at the display titled "Reflections of Christ". We also watched the documentary about how it was created. Basically, it is photographs of many parts of the Saviours life... from His miraculous birth, to His great sacrifice in the garden and on the cross and finally His Resurrection. It was a great way to start thinking about Easter and the beauty that surrounds this season. I highly recommend it (as well as the upcoming Easter Pageant) to anyone local. It is really amazing.

Little Fishes

I would like to make an announcement! We just received not one, but two new additions to our little family. Yes, I broke down and bought the kids each a pet. Don't worry, though. I haven't lost my sensible mind all the way. I bought each of them a 12 cent goldfish. I got the idea when I found a really cute fish bowl at Saver's for a dollar. So far, the kids have been really good about just looking at the fish. When I first brought them home, Braden asked if he could hold them. However, after I explained the need for fish to be in the water in order for them to breathe, he hasn't wanted to hold them. He and Jade are both content with feeding them one goldfish flake each for breakfast and dinner. The orange and white one has been named Flowers, and the silver one is HeFin (I suggested to Braden that Fins would be a cute name, but he decided that HeFin was more like a name). So, welcome to the family little fishes!

Field Trip!

On Saturday we had the opportunity to go to the Southwest Airlines hanger at Sky Harbor Airport in Phoenix. Uncle Allen (Spencer's Uncle Allen, not the kids Uncle Allen) works there, and they had just gotten a new Boeing 737 in and he invited us to come take a tour of the hanger and check out the plane. We had to go around dinner time, so we ate pizza while we took the tour. It was so fun to take the kids there and let them experience it all. They were pretty attentive to Allen's descriptions of the parts and such. Braden kept pointing to things and asking, "Uncle Allen? What is this part of the airplane?" Jade really liked sitting in the jet engines that just absolutely dwarfed her. We also got to climb the tall latter and go inside. I loved the new car smell as we entered. We sat in the cockpit and tried on the oxygen mask (which made us sound like Darth Vader) and explored all the other parts of the plane that we don't normally get to see. Then we went out toward the runway and watched as planes landed and took off. It was a really cool experience for all of us. Here are some pictures of the field trip!

Eating pizza in one of the jet engines

Jade touching part of the wing

Testing out the new seats

Me and the kids in the aisle

Braden wants to fly this monster!

Daddy being Darth Vader

Braden and Daddy peeking out the pilots window

Pretending to be blown away from (or sucked into?) the jet engine

Braden and I chillin' in one of the engines

It's Working!

Lately Braden has been very interested in taking part in conversations. In his little world right now, there are a lot of adults and we often enjoy conversing and laughing with one another. He has started recognizing this, and has wanted to be included in these exchanges. We will often hear him saying, "I have a really funny story". He'll then expect everyone to pay attention to him just like we would if a fellow adult had said something like that. I don't think this is wrong, and I love hearing what he comes up with. I think it's funny to have a three-year-old child that acts like a peer. But, sometimes other adults aren't very interested in hearing what he has to say (he's just a kid, after all (wink)). Well anyway, yesterday Esther was over and Braden told her that he had a great story. So, in Esther's usual manner, she turned her complete attention to him and said, "I want to hear your story, Braden." *Note: This is one of the qualities that has most endeared me to Esther. She doesn't just pretend to be interested in listening to children, she truly wants to hear what they have to say because she really cares about them. So, back to the story, Braden began by saying, "Once upon a time (as all stories begin, right?) there was a butterfly swimming on a leaf (? not really sure how that works). He was a righteous butterfly. He went to church and read the scriptures and was nice to his friends and made good choices." And the story went on... But that first part was just neat to me. I know it's silly, but to hear him making up a story about a butterfly who follows good principals really made me smile. Lately, I've been making a greater effort to surround my kids with good influences. I've decided to go a month without listening to my typical genres of music and replace them with calm instrumental music and primary songs. I wanted to see if it would make a difference in their life. I thought that it would also help Braden to be more involved during singing time at primary (church) if he knew the songs. Well, I guess I didn't realize how much the songs I play in the car impact them. This first week or so that I've been doing this, I've heard Braden singing new primary songs around the house. Jade is happier in the car. They are both more willing to listen. And I am a better mom, because by surrounding them with songs about the gospel, I've surrounded myself with that same sweet influence. So, when I heard Braden's story about the butterfly, it was further fruit of my labors (and his perceptiveness) and it had to make me smile. I think it's working!

The Shivers

I was in the bathroom on Sunday taking care of some business (eh hem -clearing of the throat-) when I noticed a little creature hiding out on the trim around the door. It was a scorpion! AHHHH! I hate scorpions! Give me a dozen spiders over one of those suckers, because they just creep me out. I thought about calling Spencer to rescue me, but he was outside, and I didn’t want that thing to get away. So I took care of it myself. I got out the spray poison and doused that hideous thing. It got pretty ticked off and started doing its awful scorpion-that’s-ticked-off crawl out into the open. If you don’t know what this looks like, it is tail raised and pincers extended like it’s about to give someone a not-so-friendly hug. Anyway, that is when I took action with Spencer’s heaviest shoe. I whacked it as hard as I could using the heel of his shoe. It fell on the ground and stopped moving, but I wasn’t sure. I flipped it upside down with a stick and whacked it again as hard as I could and this time it spray painted the floor a little and the tail/stinger was deposited on the shoe. Only then was I satisfied… almost. I left him there to have Spencer pick him up and throw him away… just in case. It gave me the shivers.

Note: I found another one the next day too. Yuck. Not fun.

Wish Me Luck, I'll Need Some

Have you ever had a defining moment that made you want to change something so bad that you start taking action immediately? I had one of these last Saturday. We went swimming at Esther and Justin’s new place. I had been so excited to go. Kristi and Ben and Daniel and their families were all going, and the event promised to be a ton of fun. So, we were all there in the one bedroom apartment, kids running everywhere, people taking turns in the bathroom to change, smiles on everyone’s face, having a blast. Then it was mine turn to change. I put on my suit that I haven’t worn since last summer, and happen to see myself in the mirror. The phrase that came to my mind was “This is worse than I thought”. The suit still fit me, but I kinda wished it covered a LOT more while I stood there in front of the mirror. I know what the problem is. I’m a stress eater, I’ve had a lot of stress (and therefore food) and to top it off, I’ve stopped exercising. So, what was I expecting, really? Anyway, after hiding under winter clothes for a few months, wearing my swim suit was a defining moment for me. I decided that night to set up some cool people to exercise with. With fun people motivating me, perhaps I will get some results and feel better in the process. I start on Monday, so in about one month, I’ll let all you in blog-land know how I’m doing. In the meantime, wish me luck, I’ll need some.

Home-Made Crafty Toys

Well, our internet has been down for 5 days, and now it has finally been restored to us. Hooray! So, what I did, was wrote my blogs in a word document and now I'm going to post one each day and you can pretend that it was posted 5 days ago. There are three to look forward to, and the first is right here...

The other day, Jade was taking a nap, Spencer was sewing something, and Braden and I were in the sewing room with him. We were a little bit bored, and Braden really wanted to be part of the project that his daddy was working on, but it wasn’t really something he could help with. So, I was thinking of something he and I could do that would be an easy and fast project. I decided to make snakes out of some old scraps of material, and fill them with some old rice that JulieAnn had given us for crafts. It was so fun to have Braden decide how long it should be (of course, he would have liked it longer, but we didn’t have enough fabric) and what color buttons we should use for eyes etc. He also helped me scoop the rice into the funnel and watch the snake fill up. We had so much fun, that we made one for Jade too. In theory, the snakes were a great use of things that some people would throw away. After about 2 hours, though, I started seeing some rice around the house, and the snakes looked like they had been dieting a little. They were sprouting holes! I’ve repaired a number of them, but I think it’s going to just keep happening. They are still a cool idea, but next time I think I’ll use double layered fabric, and I’ll make the seams at least ¼ inch (they were really small to try and save fabric and make the snakes longer). But for while they lasted, it felt really good to see the kids playing with their home-made crafty toys.