Common Sense

Last night I finished Glenn Beck's Common Sense, and Thomas Paine's, which is included in the back. Here are some quotes from Thomas Paine that I thought I'd share:

"A long time of not thinking a thing wrong gives it the superficial appearance of being right."

Oh, the list of things in our world today that this applies to...

"Time makes more converts than reason."

"Government, like dress, is the badge of lost innocence."

Fig leaves...

"I draw my idea of the form of government from a principle in nature which no art can overturn,viz, that the more simple anything is, the less liable it is to be disordered."

So unless there's only one word in 72 pt. font on each page, 1,000 page bills don't qualify.


Sorry to wax political on you, but I really think it is important to remember that our founding fathers didn't just sit around while their government abused them, they made their voice heard. I am proud of the many people in our country who are making their voices heard and encourage you to find out who your congressman is and voice your concerns when they arise. This is a great country, and we have the opportunity to keep it that way.

So maybe this is the longest book recommendation ever. Common Sense. Read it.

Don't Leave!

I changed our blog. I just like these colors better, but I'm not very good with computers so I know it doesn't look very great yet. Just consider this page "under construction", but also "open during contrucion".

Pretty Penny, Lucky Penny, A Penny For Your Thoughts...

Cute.

Cuter.

Cutest.

I've been trying hard to get video of Penny talking and singing like a madwoman but everytime I put a camera in front of her face she gets baffled by technology and goes speechless (one thing we already have in common). We have managed to get some more cute pictures though! She can hold her head up really good now, an exciting new development.

Also I think Penny might be part mermaid. She loves being in the water and really wails when you take her out. Come to think of it, when you take her out she sounds a lot like Daryl Hannah speaking mermish in Splash...Penny the 1/2 mermaid. Maybe that will give her a leg up when applying to colleges. Oh you're one eighth cherokee? Im one half mermaid.

Baby Makers

This picture is one of the reasons Idaho was particularly hard to leave behind this last time. We had a little farewell dinner with some friends on our last night, and no, we didn't just invite a random people with babies--these really are our best friends in Idaho and we just all happen to have new babies. Shauna (the girl to the left of me) had our babies the same week! How fun.

Caught Red handed (and faced)

This is me getting caught by Dave being the worst mom ever, and although it looks like Penny is about to slip out of her pajamas and off the side of the bed, I promise I was holding her very securely. And don't we look cozy?

Lately...

Penny has been cuter than ever lately. Although it's really hard to catch a smile, I have managed to catch some other cute faces on camera..

I couldn't put captions under each picture cause I'm blogtarded, but one of these is called the "blue steel". I'm sure you can figure it out.

Things I've done ("I" being Jessica)

I found this on my friend Melanie's blog and thought it was fun. You're supposed to go through it and highlight everything you have done. I wasn't going to do it at first but then I realized I'd actually done quite a few things, so I decided to share. It's fun, you should do it.

1. Started your own blog

2. Slept under the stars

3. Played in a band--The Zenith Byrds, you should remember this Sara, you and Allie gave me hell for my hit "Joker".

4. Visited Hawaii

5. Watched a meteor shower

6. Given more than you can afford to charity--I might be cheating on this one because it was mostly other peoples money that I raised to go to Africa...

7. Been to Disneyland--more times than I can count. By the way D-land lets you in for free on your b-day this year. I already signed Dave up cause his is on July 31.

8. Climbed a mountain--Half Dome!! It was amazing.

9. Held a praying mantis

10. Sang a solo-- Young Women in Action, 13 years old, first and last solo.

11. Bungee jumped-- Into, yes, into the Nile River.

12. Visited Paris

13. Watched a lightning storm at sea

14. Taught yourself an art from scratch-- Guitar? Is that an art?

15. Adopted a child

16. Had food poisoning

17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty

18. Grown your own vegetables

19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France

20. Slept on an overnight train

21. Had a pillow fight

22. Hitch hiked-- no but I've picked one up before, which might even be riskier.

23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill

24. Built a snow fort

25. Held a lamb

26. Gone skinny dipping

27. Ran a Marathon

28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice

29. Seen a total eclipse

30. Watched a sunrise or sunset

31. Hit a home run-- No. But I got hit in the head by a home run.

32. Been on a cruise

33. Seen Niagara Falls in person

34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors

35. Seen an Amish community

36. Taught yourself a new language

37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied-- When I was 10 it only took 75 cents. Enough to get a push-up-pop from the ice cream man.

38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person

39. Gone rock climbing

40. Seen Michelangelo’s David

41. Sung karaoke-- And risked lung cancer from second hand smoke at a dirty Idaho Falls bar to do it.

42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt

43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant-- I bought a homeless guy a sandwich at an Arby's once... does that count?

44. Visited Africa

45. Walked on a beach by moonlight

46. Been transported in an ambulance

47. Had your portrait painted

48. Gone deep sea fishing

49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person

50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris

51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling

52. Kissed in the rain-- Thanks honey.

53. Played in the mud

54. Gone to a drive-in theater

55. Been in a movie-- Many of my own self-produced hits. As well as an infomercial where I played basket ball behind one of the original Duke brothers from the Dukes of Hazard.

56. Visited the Great Wall of China

57. Started a business-- Several. "Refrigerator Art"- When I was about 8 or so I sold crappy drawings door to door to old ladies and marketed them as "refrigerator art". Dang I was cute.

58. Taken a martial arts class

59. Visited Russia

60. Served at a soup kitchen

61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies

62. Gone whale watching

63. Got flowers for no reason

64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma

65. Gone sky diving

66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp

67. Bounced a check

68. Flown in a helicopter

69. Saved a favorite childhood toy--American Girl Dolls.

70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial

71. Eaten Caviar

72. Pieced a quilt

73. Stood in Times Square

74. Toured the Everglades

75. Been fired from a job-- Kind of. Sister Holt I did quit first, that's what it's called when you stop coming to work, so the e-mail was unnecessary.

76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London

77. Broken a bone

78. Been on a speeding motorcycle-- Dave just bought one.

79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person

80. Published a book

81. Visited the Vatican

82. Bought a brand new car

83. Walked in Jerusalem

84. Had your picture in the newspaper

85. Read the entire Bible

86. Visited the White House

87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating

88. Had chickenpox

89. Saved someone’s life-- Oh I'm sure I have, haven't we all?

90. Sat on a jury

91. Met someone famous--Please. Mya, Rascall Flatts, Jo Dee Messina, David Hasslehoff, and I spoke on the phone to Jewel (not a lie).

92. Joined a book club

93. Lost a loved one

94. Had a baby-- YEAH!! Penelope.

95. Seen the Alamo in person

96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake

97. Been involved in a law suit-- Well it was really my dog, Charlie's, fault. He dragged me into the whole painful litigation process, for which my parents are still paying.

98. Owned a cell phone

99. Been stung by a bee

100. Seen Mount Rushmore in person

I want to!

For all of you who are clambering for more pictures of the peepster, trust me, I want to post some. However we seem to have lost our camera charger in the move!! It kills me missing so many precious moments. So just know that we are looking and pictures are hopefully on the way.

In case you were wondering...

How to wear a wig and make it look natural. I stumbled across this little gem of a page as I was looking for ideas on how I should get my hair cut. Irony at its best.

Tiny Baby

Before we left Rexburg our friend Scott Wheeler (www.scottwheelerphoto.com) took family pictures for us. He also took some of just Penny and they turned out grreat! (And by "they" I mean "it" because this is the only one I've seen so far). She is just as angelic as she looks in this picture. She's very reasonable and an efficient cryer, only doing so when she needs something and stopping as soon as she gets it. We love her and so far she thinks we're alright too.

Penny Waking Up...

Penelope Picture shoot...

So here are some more pics of Penny, she keeps getting more cute every day! And i use too many exclamation marks.

more pictures!

So Penny has a sweet mullet. It's awesome. Her mullet hair is over and inch long red/blond and a little curly-ish.

Welcome to the family Penelope!

Well, 2:20, May 15th 2009, Penelope Nieman entered the world! The delivery went great, Jessica did a great job pushing for about an hour till the top of Penny's head was exposed. Then the Doctor came and 2 pushes later she was out! 7 lbs 6 ounces, and 19 inches of perfect baby girl. She's a cutie, with a fair amount of blond hair. She's just getting used to using her eyes in this bright world.

We're still taking suggestions on middle names! Right now we're thinking May or Fey... any ideas?

Baby on the way!

So no baby yet, but we've had a pretty exciting time at the hospital here in Rexburg. Here's the timeline so far:

Thursday 7:00 am - get to hospital,

8 am - induction attempt #1 results in Jessica's water breaking,

9 am - induction attempt #2 works, 9 am to 4 pm sleep/rest but no dilation yet!,

4 pm - 7 pm friends visit and Lindsay wins Ticket to Ride,

8 pm - 4:30 am really really painful contractions... but Jessica dilates from a 1 to a 2.75, enough for an epidural!

Joe also came in to visit for a while around 11, and at 2:30 Jessica's parents finish their long trek from Irvine, and make it to the hospital! We're really excited they could make it up here.

The good news is once Jess got the epidural she dilated really quickly to a 5, then we were able to get some sleep and when we woke up she was at a 7-8! So as of now we're almost at a ten which means that Penelope should be coming out in the next few hours!

Here are some pictures from the hospital as well as some form our trip to Jackson Hole last week.

Getting the epidural from Todd... it was both of our firsts... not really.

Top line is the baby's heart rate, bottom line is contractions!

Mango flavored ice chips yum!

Yes we watched Baby Momma... for the millionth time.