Children are a gold mine!

Here is a website that will bring you to tears. It'll make you laugh so hard you are crying. If not you'll cry when you realize its not a joke!

http://www.landoverbaptist.org/news0203/childpurchase.html

Their slogan.... "We buy children"

Here is a christian group that is supposed to be strengthening families and instead it is tearing them apart. It sounds like their motive is to help families in financial trouble.....wow! thats fantastic. But if so then why would they take the child after doing so? How could someones elses child be an asset to a stranger? Do they need labour in manufactory? Maybe someone to bail hay in the fields? No.... I would suggest that they are doing their duty to God by indoctrinating children. As they say "when your child arrives they get their own bed and a bible"

I have many thoughts on this.

1. They are taking the responsibility and the privelege of raising children properly, from the parents.

2. A childs worth to his parents is far greater than the worth of that same child to another. Therefore, it is as if I were to sell my contact lens to someone who wants to see better. It will never have more value for someone else since it is a different perscription.

3. Is this comparable to the church encouraging adoption for teen mothers giving birth? I don't think it is. Firstly the family has not yet grown together and fused together. The child has not learned to grow and trust the parents. Also, adoption would give the child another family, not "a crib and a bible".

4. ......I've just read more. I'm starting to think that this url isn't even worth mentioning. Its sick. They talk about how they have worked out the worth of children according to the scriptures. Girls and Boys are worth different amounts and "coloured" are worth MUCH LESS! Unbelievable! The reason for this is (as they say) because "some races and sexes are of lesser value to God"

The prices range from $1150 US to $18000.

5. They blame the hard economic times which will lead to such heavy decisions on the part of the parents on Bill Clinton. If this is some sort shameless public support for the Republicans it failed. Everything in the reading that follows this statement would make a level minded reader tend away from an administration with such supporters. Not to say that being a republican is wrong (although south of the boarder I find myself sympathizing with the left more than up here) since one cant always chose ones supporters.

I would hope that people could talk about this website as a farce, even though it is not. I would hope that people would hear about it as a farce, so they would never want anything to do with it. Am I wrong in this? perhaps I'm missing something, but I will tell you that my heart sunk when I read it. I also know that if someone wants to keep their kids in America they can. My mom's family had 16 kids with no money, isolated in a northern Ontario community, with fewer social assistance programs than there are now, and they made things work.

Thats it for now. Read the article.


Eric

La Ferme Rouge

Lastnight, Eric and I went to a grand spectacle - La Ferme Rouge. We joined the Visser clan (nearly the entire clan, which is to say something). They specialize in steak and seafood. I ordered filet mignon and lobster tails. Deee-licious. Eric ordered filet mignon and snow crab. Yummy. Manny did the seafood buffet. Looked great. After dinner, the waiters and waitresses sang and danced. Dancefloor was a bit small but the place was jumpin'. Note to the population of dancers - please cover up unsightly flesh. It's never a good idea however attractively one might feel they are presenting themselves. The spectacle was something indeed - a nice piece of Canadiana. Actually, I've never been to a dinner theatre in Canada so it was a fun experience. The evening was topped off with a ferry ride across the Ottawa River at Masson Angers. Nice.

Catching Up...

I know. I haven't updated in a while. Ooops. In the meantime, Anders surfed for the first time during swimming lessons, Eric and I celebrated our 7th anniversary and the usual other stuff.

On Thursday, I tried to be the great and creative mom by having an 'art/creative' time with the kids. I gave Anders a bit of green finger paint to mess with while Konrad and I made snails. Unfortunately, Anders puts everything in his mouth - including cheap finger paint that I bought at the dollar store. I couldn't help but take a picture. While I was doing the photo shoot, Anders was gagging himself - and then we have the next picture. Not that you want to look terribly close, but Anders brought up his lunch (He's looking at it). So, the great mother moment took a turn for the worse when I continued to take photos instead of cleaning it up immediately. Then, for some reason, I decided it was time to trim Anders hair for the first time. Inexplicable. Anway, here's the result. A day in the life.

jakobjabber: She's okay.

jakobjabber: She's okay.

She's okay.

Yesterday, there was a big earthquake in Hawaii - and she's OK. I don't have her number memorized and I'm lazy like that, so I called the mom to see how things were in Hawaii. The earthquake was pretty scary, I hear. She was in bed when it happened. They felt the fist aftershock as well. E's on Oahu, though and the earthquake was on the Big Island. She still did not have power last night but things are ok.

I lost my kid.

Yup. I lost Anders yesterday. We were at the Museum of Science and Tech with some friends and Anders is super-fast on his feet. He doesn't care where he's going, he just wants to run. I was chasing him for a while, always picking him up and carrying him back to the group. I turned for a minute to check on Konrad and when I turned around, Anders was gone. The museum has twists and turns everywhere so you can't see 5 feet in front of you. Three of us searched the entire section and couldn't find him so we told the employees with walkie-talkies. After about one minute, I got a little concerned - imagining some weirdo picking up a cute little blond kid. Eeekk!!! But he was found. He was at the trains - not even near us. All in all, it was less than 5 minutes but it was horrible. When I met him at the trains, I saw the faces of the other women around - wondering, how did you lose your 1 year old? Honestly, the kid runs like a madman. It was a scary time but I'm glad that he was safe and sound.

Applefest Reunion

It has been 11 years and most of us were able to get together and see how our lives have changed since highschool... we're multiplying! Everyone either has a child or are with child and no one has really changed that much.

You guys all look fantastic and it seems as though we're all pretty happy with things in our lives. It was great to see everybody and I really hope that I'll be able to communicate more often (that won't be hard since it's been 11 years since I've spoken to most of you).

I have more photos that I am going to email to everyone since this site is taking way toooooo long to upload the photos. Please share the photos with those whom I don't have email addresses for - thanks!

Thanks Beth Ann for the organization and hosting and thanks to all who made it. I find it difficult to keep in touch with everyone so this event was great for me. I hope to see you sooner than the next 11 years.

My Helper

My son Konrad is growing up. Yesterday, he was very helpful. He helped carry laundry downstairs to the basement, carried bags in from the car, found wipes when I was changing Anders' diaper, guarded the attractively coloured buttons in the elevator when Anders was trying to push them. we were doing puzzles downstairs when Konrad took a break and started doing the downward dog and exercises. I asked him what he was doing and he replied ' I need to do exercises to get strong so I can carry boxes'. Very cute. He continued doing his exercises for awhile and then returned to finish the puzzle with me.

Thanksgiving Dinner There

Here is a picture of my parents' home in Codrington. It's the bungalow with the coniferous tree out front. They've lived there longer than I've been alive. A long, long, long time. Their offer on another home on Manitoulin Island has been tentatively accepted so they'll be leaving their home and moving on to the farmhouse in the other photo. They're very excited about this move - they have exciting plans and they will be living near friends. Yay!!

We went to my parents home for Thanksgiving Dinner after visiting the others. Ken and Wendy made it, as well as Chris and her friend Betty Lou. Oh - there's also Molly. Dinner was lovely, of course. My mom went contrary to tradition and cooked a stuffed pork loin. Very nice. And of course the pies were there again. This time lemon, pumpkin and apple. Perfect. We discovered during this visit that a friend is actually growing kiwis outside of his home - here in Ontario. Crazy. We all wanted to see this marvel vut we couldn't make it over. Perhaps one day Eric will be successful in his attempt to try all fruits from bushes/plants. This takes some explanation, I suppose. While travelling, Eric will pick fruit off of any tree and try it - eat it. While walking down the boulevard in Monaco, he tried to pull the oranges and lemons off of the trees. While walking through a neighbourhood in Marseilles, he plucked some kind of berry off of someone's tree. This berry stained everything so there was no way Eric could proclaim innocence if a mad Frenchman ran out of his house shaking his hand or a stick at Eric. Yes, if there is any fruit of good report, he seeks after these fruits - including kiwis.

Thanksgiving Dinners Here and There

Yo. Yesterday was the Jakob Family Feast. Eric's mom has been cooking and baking all week in preparation for the event. Six pies, squash, turnip, stuffing, 2 turkeys, potatoes, carrots. I fared well until the pies came out later in the evening. They were YUMMY!!! Pumpkin, apple and berry. No one could resist. It was a good time - we got to see Jason and Julie and the kids. We all went to see 'Open Season' with the kids. I have never seen so many trailers before a movie - there were 7 at least.

Crazy Boat Rides

Yesterday we made the trek to Barrie. The kids surprised me - Anders sat in his seat for 6 hours straight without a break. I didn't get out to pee for 6 hours straight, either. Quite a feat - I think that's a first for me.

We went out on a boat to visit someone's cottage on Georgian Bay lastnight. The day was not ideal. There was a pretty big rainstorm going through the region and it was very windy therefore the waves were very choppy. The waters were very rough for about half an hour. I'm not accustomed to boats so I was a little nervous at times - the kids looked kinda green. It was fun, though. A little cold, but fun. I have no particular rants today. I'm sure Eric would. Something about getting up in the morning with the kids or something like it - not that he actually got up. He just dislikes the thought.

Can house be organised with 2 young boys

Okay I think the short answer to this is yes. However, this is somewhat of an ignorant answer or at least in our case, not the best answer.

I was at Denny's last night (the post Gen. conference priesthood session ritual) with the boys and I put this question out to the gents. A member of the stake presidency started to say that it happened for them when his wife decided to stay home from work. I responded that Jenn has been home for a year and a half. Dont worry, I was sure to add that she is not the problem since it wouldn't be fair to expect the responsibility to be souly hers. I continued that she cleans and I clean often when I'm at home but that our house still looks like a disaster. He then admitted that he didn't have 2 boys so close together and offered that as the answer to our problem. I have to agree with him.

When I asked the question, I was looking for solutions to the problem rather than excuses to have a messy home but unless our efforts start producing some positive results, I'm going to have to believe its just not meant to be. Not meant to be that is unless we were to give up some of the peripheral responsibilities such as home teaching, preparing things for our callings at church, being diligent with employment responsibilities, forfeiting some of my leisure activities (this would be harder for Jenn since her leisure time seems to be even more limited) and above all, we would have to give up just spending good clean wrestling and gardening time with the kids.

So the long answer, I think is "sometimes" and would be qualified by adding that sometimes it is possible to keep a clean house with 2 little hellians running around but most of the time the cost is too great.


Eric