Surprising Facts about Utah

Here are some depressing/ surprising news articles about Utah that I was not aware of-- actually I had heard about the anti-depressant use and the plastic surgeons, but not the huge dollar amount spent on hair color and cosmetics nor that Utah is the No. 1 consumer of online porn-- no wonder there were so many conference talks on porn-- But with all of this together-- I think there is a bigger problem here. Given that the population of Utah is about 70% LDS, it does cause one to wonder why Salt Lake City is the vainest city in the country, why is anti-depressant use TWICE what the next state uses, and why are we the no.1 consumer of online porn? Wow-- these are not good statistics for Utah. What's the deal-- what do you think?: http://www.forbes.com/2007/11/29/plastic-health-surgery-forbeslife-cx_rr_1129health_slide_2.html http://articles.latimes.com/2002/feb/20/news/mn-28924 http://www.deseretnews.com/article/700066056/Antidepressants-flow-freely-in-Utah-as-1-in-5-women-partakes.html?pg=1 http://www.sltrib.com/business/ci_11821265

Having a Crew is Fun!!!

This evening after playing "pig" with the basketball my husband set up an obstacle course for the kids to race around. It was simple basically consisting of our still unbuilt green twisty slide pieces to jump over in a circle and a starting/finishing line. The kids had to hold a ball and run through the course as fast as possible. We laughed a lot-- especially at the 2 yr old twins. They were so cute and tried to do what they saw their siblings do, but couldn't quite make it. It was so much fun. I love having a bunch of kids. It's always a party around here!!!

A great article on why p*rn is so bad

I think this article on the effects of pornography is very enlightening. I think it is extremely helpful to understand as much as we can about these issues so that we can teach our children why they must be so careful.

http://nymag.com/nymetro/news/trends/n_9437/

The House

The house is finally moving along well again. the outside is completely covered in the black stuff ready to stucco and the inside is all insulated and the sheetrock is completely done. It is an awesome house with a great layout. We are so glad that they are finally working on it again!!!

Goats, Pregnancy, Soccer, Chickens and House building

Boy am I ever tired of driving an hour away for all our social events and church meetings. I never thought it would take this long for us to move-- we started the process in August of 2011. The house is going up pretty fast. If it follows the schedule, we will be in April 30-- we'll see. We got a great price on the lot and the house, but the builders have really not been good to work with. There are a couple things they changed, but overall the houseplan and lot are awesome and so is the view and we can't wait to move.

The goats have been pastured at our neighbors up the road, but they kept getting out so we brought them home after taking forever to catch them and then listening to their bleating afterward-- we decided to sell them. They were extremely cute and the kids really had a good time with them especially since we had them right here in our yard, so it was sad to see them go-- but until we have a fully fenced yard with a strong pen to contain them-- it just wouldn't work out. Maybe next year if the city lets us.

I am about 23 weeks pregnant. It has been fine. I feel good, I have plenty of energy. I have been slowly catching up on the housework and we even got a good chunk of the van cleaned out today- most notably the hay we had been hauling over tarnation for the goats.

The first soccer games of the season start on Saturday-- 5 games every Saturday for us. The kids love it and look forward to it and I like watching them and being outside.

The chickens survived the winter, the wild windstorm that took out our 50 ft. cottonwood tree along with the deck and all the other crazy weather this winter. We collect about 6 eggs a day, one from each chicken. The eggs are really good, much better than even organic store bought eggs. The kids take care of them religiously and they really love them. It has been a good learning experience for us all. We do need to build a better coop though especially since they won't be able to roam in our new yard until we have it fully fenced.

I wonder what our neighbors will think of us!! One of our neighbors homeschools and has chickens so at least they should like us!!

Funny 5 yr old sayings

"Do I lose a minute if I burp?"

"yes"

"O.K."

for his prayers he prays that he will be able to play the wii, the ipad and the kindle.

I guess 5 yr old boys care a lot about how many minutes they are allowed on the wii!

Ron Paul Support

Ron Paul drew a crowd of 5000 in Illinois, Newt Gingrich had 70 people not far away, Mitt Romney had a few earlier in the week in St. Louis and Rick Santorum had 150 in Kansas. The media still won't cover Paul's events. It is maddening.

http://www.infowars.com/ron-paul-draws-massive-crowd-of-5000-in-illinois/