Thursday, July 23, 2009

An Addendum (see post below)

There was something I forgot I wanted to add. My cousin went to India last month with a service group. While there, she witnessed the most extreme poverty, worse than anything here in America. She visited the untouchables of India in leprousy colonies. These were people who had been kicked out of society for a disease they had no control over, a disease that had disfigured many of them, that had caused many to lose fingers, toes, even whole hands and feet, a disease that has no cure. They had all the misfortune and misery the world could give them, and yet they didn't complain about how the government wasn't taking care of them. My cousin only talked about what a happy and grateful people they were. In her own words, "I wll miss the happiness of people here in India and the sounds of India. People here are so different in ways than in the US. People in the US who are poor, or who don't have as much, I mean I am sure there are some that are still happy, but there are also some that aren't as happy because they see others and their wealth. But here, they don't have the materialistic things to see, or the wealth of their fellow neighbors, they just have their hearts. People here in India are so happy and grateful for what they do have."

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

It's Time for Tacy to Talk Politics Again

With the fourth of July this month and now Obama's healthcare plan all the talk, I feel like sharing my belief on the matter. The reason why Obama and many other politicians out there scare me so much is because of how far away from the Constitution and principles this country was founded on they want to take us. D&C 101:80 reads, "And for this purpose have I established the Constitution of this land, by the hands of wise men whom I raised up unto this very purpose..." This is the promised land we are living in. The Constitution was written by men truly inspired of God, this country founded by men inspired of God who later appeared to the prophet, Wilford Woodruff, so they could get their temple work done. Do you believe that this socialized healthcare plan of Obama's has been inspired by God? This land of promise was established to be a land of liberty and freedom. The Republic that those inspired men created for us is still the way things are supposed to be. Socialism takes away freedom. It forces people to be "charitable." It forces people to be "equal." Somehow this sounds very similar to the plan that Satan proposed in the pre-earth life--the plan that wasn't chosen. The one that was chosen was Christ's plan-a plan all about freedom and choice. We weren't put here to be forced to be good, we were put on this earth so God could see if we would choose to be good and to be charitable. Of course it doesn't seem fair that in the same city there could live a millionaire with no cares in the world and a homeless person without anyone or anything to care for him. But that is not for us to judge. If the millionaire is a bad person, he'll pay for it once judgement day comes. And if the homeless person is a good person, he'll receive his own celestial reward. Both people will be judged by a perfect Person in a perfect law. Does it seem too long to wait for that day to come? Not hardly when you look at it with an eternal perspective, remembering that this earth life is a very short spec of time when it comes to forever.

A prophet of our church and a man very educated about the government was Ezra Taft Benson. I think there is no better person to believe or better counsel to heed. In his talk, "The Proper Role of Government," he said, "This means, then, that the proper function of government is limited only to those spheres of activity within which the individual citizen has the right to act. By deriving its just powers from the governed, government becomes primarily a mechanism for defense against bodily harm, theft and involuntary servitude. It cannot claim the power to redistribute the wealth or force reluctant citizens to perform acts of charity against their will. Government is created by man. No man possesses such power to delegate. The creature cannot exceed the creator." If I, as an individual, don't have the right to take money from a rich person to give to a poor person, the government doesn't either. Are we really so eager to agree to this slavery? If this healthcare plan passes, what's to keep the government from taking away other freedoms--like free speech, like the freedom to choose my own religion? You may say, "Oh, it won't go that far." But it will. I know that despite what I believe and what I try to do about it, it very likely won't make a difference anyway. Our future has been fortold. Armaggedon and the fall of a wicked government and people in this promised will come. But then Christ will come, too, to reign in peace. I don't think His government will be anything like Obama's. No one will be forced into anything. There will be the right to choose and everyone will choose goodness. Whether it makes a difference or not, I still want to do what's right. I still want to choose the good part right now.

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Happy Birthday Lance!

Lance's birthday was yesterday, but we celebrated on Saturday by going to the aquarium. Lance got a couple of pretty cool photos of some of the fish... and sea horses we saw.
After that, we decided to be crazy and brave the heat so Skye could go to the petting zoo. While I'll never be so stupid again, Skye did have fun feeding and petting the animals.
They sure were desperate for those little pellets of food.
Skye found a feather and started petting the animals with it.
This is what our car said when we got back out to it. Of course, it wasn't really that hot, it just said that because it had been baking in the sun all morning. Eventually, it got down to 114 I think. Lance tried to take a picture of Skye's bright red cheeks from being in the heat, but none of them really turned out. We probably all looked that way. After getting home and cooling off, Skye had fun playing with Daddy. What a great Daddy, to let Skye do such weird things to him--or maybe for doing the weird things himself! We let him open one present that night (he had to wait to open the rest yesterday) and then went to Sweet Tomatoes, our favorite restaurant, for dinner. What a fun day, despite the heat!

Monday, July 20, 2009

A Gecko, Not Geico

So you've all heard me complaining about the heat here. Well, I've finally learned that there is ONE good thing about Phoenix in summer--the monsoon! Last night, Lance and I went outside to watch a lightening/thunder storm. It was one of the most amazing things I've ever seen! The first bolt of lightening I saw was the biggest and brightest bolt of lightening I've ever seen! And the booming thunder was the loudest I've ever heard! And then came the rain. It was all sooooo cool! It eventually started pouring, but we went in before that for fear of getting hit by some big object that the strong wind may have picked up! Of course the most amazing part of all of it was that Skye slept through the whole thing! The final bit to top it all of was this gecko that Lance discovered on the wall of our living room just before we got into bed. We're hoping it sticks around to eat all of the bugs in our house!

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

I Now Know What It Feels Like To...

have your leg above the flames of a burning fire. I know this not because I have had my leg above a fire, but because I have felt the sun singing my leg as I walked from my car into the grocery store when it was 114 degrees outside. I'm pretty sure the two feelings are pretty similar. My experience wasn't very pleasant.

Thursday, July 9, 2009

Skyebee

Monday, July 6, 2009

Just Me

So my mom thought I should put some of these pictures of me on here that she took the last Sunday I was in Utah. So, here they are.

Our Fourth of July

For our Fourth of July celebration, we decided to escape the Phoenix heat by heading up to Flagstaff. The whole trip ended up being horrible minus about half an hour of fun Skye had the morning of the fourth at this kid's play area. I did get some cute pictures of her, anyway, though, like this one of her holding our bag of leftovers from Olive Garden. She insisted on carrying it even though it was nearly as big as she was!For some reason, this girl LOVES bridges!


They had a very cool art festival going on at one of the parks where there was also a kid's play area set up with all those inflatable things. Her favorite one was this caterpillar tunnel thing she could crawl all around in. She liked putting her face near the air blowing into it.

She also had fun jumping around in here for awhile--as long as Mommy or Daddy were with her.

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

She's Definitely a Water Baby

Last summer, Skye had tons of fun playing and splashing around in this little kiddie pool at my parents. After getting used to going to the big pool or big splash parks nearly every morning for the last month prior to coming to Utah, I wasn't sure she'd have much fun in this little pool. But I was wrong. I guess water is water no matter where it is or how much there is of it, and Skye LOVES the water!
She had just as much fun, if not more fun, playing in the sprinkler which became our version of a splash park.

She also had fun splashing in the puddles that were left over from the sprinkler water. Pretending like she was a frog, she'd hop and "ribbit" over and over again!