Rainy Days

I think this is one of my all time favorite pictures of Anna. I took it sometime in February, but never got around to posting it. It was right after a big storm and we went out looking for puddles. The best puddle was actually more of a mud bog, but soooo much fun. I love the expression on Anna's face, so bright.

Here's some more moments from our splashing session:

Readers

I was downstairs working on some things and all of a sudden I realized the house was unusually quiet. Not usually a good sign, I headed upstairs to find out what inevitable mischief Anna had fallen into. Much to my surprise, this is what I found. Daddy and daughter were having a little read-a-thon together. I don't know that I could have had stronger feeling of love and gratitude for my family than I did walking in on this scene.

Presidential Candidate Healthcare Proposals: A Random Post from Jeff

I realize that I'm a healthcare policy nerd and that most folks find this stuff boring. I try to avoid talking about policy with most people and limit most of these kinds of discussions to friends and family members who are fellow "political junkies". Still, it never hurts to educate yourself, especially with an election coming up. The Kaiser Family Foundation (highly respected and credible source for healthcare policy issues) has developed an excellent website for comparing and contrasting the major candidates’ healthcare policy platforms.

If you’re already annoyed or completely bored at this point please don’t read the rest of this and go directly to the website. http://www.health08.org/sidebyside_results.cfm?c=5&c=11&c=16

I've been tracking this stuff pretty closely. To a certain extent it's all fairly predictable. The Republican candidates mainly talk about increased competition and tax incentives for individual purchasers. The major Democratic candidates all offer proposals aimed at achieving universal health insurance coverage (not "socialized medicine"! ...whatever that means?), generally by strengthening employer-based coverage and providing access to government-sponsored plans.

There's been a lot of media coverage lately about the big dispute among the Dems, which is about whether or not to include a mandate that everyone must have insurance (Clinton, and former GOP candidate, Mitt Romney, support the idea, Obama opposes it).

I'm basically a right-leaning moderate, so the very idea of such a mandate makes me squirm. However, as a practical matter, it's absolutely essential for these kinds of "universal coverage" models to work. Clinton and Obama propose new federal regulations which would require health insurance companies to insure people on a guaranteed issue, community rated basis. (Guaranteed issue means they can't turn you down for coverage. Community rating means everyone pays the same premium, regardless of health status.) The practical problem with both of these well-intentioned concepts is that healthy people quickly figure out that they're paying artificially higher rates to subsidize coverage for unhealthy people. Many of them, therefore, opt out of the system and decide to take their chances, rather than "overpay" for coverage. This creates a vicious cycle of spiraling rate increases, as the risk pool steadily gets less and less healthy and more and more people find coverage too expensive to purchase.

An individual mandate solves this problem. By forcing everyone to have coverage, healthy or not, you stabilize the risk pool. In my semi-educated opinion, the guaranteed issue, community rated model is simply unsustainable without either a mandate or some form of single-payer national coverage. Since the latter seems unlikely to happen in the foreseeable future, mandates are probably the way to go.

http://www.health08.org/sidebyside_results.cfm?c=5&c=11&c=16

MCV Ball

Every year the Medical College of Virginia holds a Winter Ball. Jeff humored me by purchasing tickets this year. He's not much for dancing and none of his classmates went, so it really for my benefit that we ended up going. We did have a bunch of dental and medical students from our ward going and it was fun to hang out with all of them.

The ball ended up being kind of a funny, but fun experience.

First, it felt a little strange to get all gussed-up for a dance. It felt like a major throw back to high school. (Except for the drunk girls dancing with the DJ.) So weird to go to church and have conversations revolve around if you'd found a dress yet. Fun though too. I went dress shopping with some girlfriends and out to dinner a couple of weeks ago and had a blast.

Second, I'm not so comfortable with the artform of applying make-up. You probably noticed my freaky-eye make up in the pics. My friend Christen and I were going to go to the mall before the dance and get "over-the-counter makeovers" at the mall. You know what I'm talking about, right? The ladies at the counters who do random make-up jobs on people that walk through mall. Anyway, that plan fell through when we found out there was a $50 purchase required. So lame. So, I decided to invest in some five dollar Walmart make up and attempt to do something myself. Hence, freaky-eye makeup girl. I found some you-tube instructions on how to do the so-called "smoky eye." (Try for yourself here.) When I finished my attempt I came down and Jeff said, "Oh. That looks different." I think he was just surprised, but not exactly the response I was hoping for.

Third, I've never had an excuse to buy gold shoes. When will I wear them again? Possibly never. Anna likes to walk around in them, though, so I guess I can justify that it was money well spent.

Me, Christen, and Lissa

Loving the chocolate fountain

Sarah, Christen, Me, Jana, Sara, Marci, and Heather. So funny we all ended up in black.

Gold shoes and a double-breasted suit.

Frustration

I wish I was taking a nap. In fact, I had just got Anna down, read a couple chapters of my book, and was just getting cozy and drowsy when...

maintenance shows up.

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Don't worry that I put in the order over two days ago. I swear they pick the most inoppurtune times to come over.

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You feelin' me, Chelsea peeps?

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Okay, maybe I'm a bit cranky and over-reacting but still...

In Response to Rachel's Favorites

So....that was a little uncomfortable for me. I really am not a fan of someone else talking about me, but I guess it was only fair that Jeff get to blog my favs since I did his. Still, it was a bit of a power struggle to give over full blogging rights to Jeff. (Who knew I was such a control freak.) I did learn some things about myself, though, from reading my favs from Jeff's perspective.





1. I never knew that I such a wide variety of expression including glee.


2. I have always loved the US of A, but after seeing the list of shows I watch, I've learned I'm actually very patriotic. I support America shows.


3. I really like the phrase "drop some bones." Good one, Jeff.

4. I may have to invest in some Liderhosen-like work out clothes. Then I can look fit and Nordic and really live the "lifestyle."

Thanks Jeff for being kind in your post. You know all dirt, thanks for keeping it clean!

Rachel's Favorite Things - From the Perspective of One who Truly Knows

Now it's my turn (Jeff). Rachel was about to post a list of some of her favorite things and I thought it inappropriate for her to do this herself. She needed more of an "objective" point of view to identify some of her favorite things that don't neccessarily immediately come to mind. So, she reluctantly relinquished her blogging power to a lesser, inexperienced, blogger. Here goes...

Chocolate Rachel loves chocolate in all of its many forms. However, nothing warms her soul more than a nice cup of hot chocolate. And believe it or not, she would prefer a cup from the local 7-eleven over anything that those guys at Starbucks could whip up. She loves the creamers "Sev" offers, especially Amoretto.

Blogging If you have not figured it out already, Rachel likes to blog. It's a good way to stay in touch with people living so far away from many of our good friends and family. I like that she likes blogging for two reasons:
1. I am horrible at staying in touch with people and her blogging efforts mitigate some of the frustration that is normally directed at me
2. It's a great digital journal for our family


Interior Design Interior design has become one of Rachel's favorite things over the past few years. I look forward, and I'm sure she looks forward, to the day that we have the resources to actually "design" our home. It will be a lot of fun to watch her go to work.


Barnes & Noble Ahh.....Barnes and Noble. For all of you mothers out there, if you have not figured this out already this is a great place to take a break for a couple of hours while your husband takes care of the kids. Rachel periodically takes a trip to B&N in the evening to sit down, sip a hot chocolate, and enjoy some leisurely reading sans Anna and Jeff. We all need some time to relax, right?

Exercising This is Rachel's preferred method of exercise. And I must say that she has embraced the Nordica lifestyle. Alright, she doesn't exercise on this piece of equipment, but she does like the treadmill. She likes to exercise at our local YMCA and with friends whenever possible. She also likes healthy foods and would probably shop at an organic market if we had the funds. We both like to go into health/organic food stores to browse, drool, and dream of the day when we can drop the bones necessary to buy "good" food. We usually only buy some dried fruit or specialty drinks these days.

Denver/Real Estate Now that we know we're moving to Denver Rachel has spent quite a bit of time searching the internet for a place to live. She loves to see what's out there and think about what our next adventure will be like in the mile high city. For those of you who don't know, Rachel loves change and new adventures. She is always so optimistic about the future and excited about what is yet to come.

Reading Rachel loves reading and usually reads two or three books every month. Jane Austen happens to be one of her favorite authors. Currently, she is reading "Pope Joan", "Freakonomics", and "Teaching Your Child Inner Discipline".








Reality Television Now it's time to go to a long-time favorite - American Idol. Anyone who knows Rachel can tell you that she is a reality T.V. aficionado. She is a little ashamed of this fact. Personally, I think it's pretty endearing. It's entertaining to watch her viewing her shows. I often glance over at her during one of her programs to see a slight smile of satisfaction and a little sparkle of glee in her eye. Some of her favorites, whether she admits it or not, are American Idol, America's Next Top Model, Project Runway, The Hills, and everyone's favorite (especially since Hulk started hosting) American Gladiators.

Real Simple Rachel loves her magazines. Real Simple covers topics such as home and self-improvement as well as recipes and other Rachelesque delights. Rachel also loves Better Homes and Gardens. Her favorite place to read her magazines is an airport or on an airplane. Unfortunately, with the arrival of Anna air travel is no longer the leisurely activity that it once was. Now, Rachel is resigned to reading magazines and books whenever Anna is sleeping or not around.