Heckuva day

I had a really crappy day yesterday. Well, half day I guess, work didn't go too badly. Lisa and I ordered some baby pictures from this company, Our365, that came to the hospital and took some cute baby shots of Leah. They did a followup shoot a couple weeks ago at our house, and we were excited to see how they turned out. So the guy calls up last night and shows us our pics online, and they were fantastic! Asher looked so happy, and Leah was so smiley and happy and adorable, it just melts your heart to see such a cute baby (at least it did mine, and I'm completely unbiased). Then we got to the part where we see how much this will set us back - and my jaw hit the floor. The cheapest package, with all of five pictures, was $170!! The cheapest package that included a CD (which would give us the copyrights on the pictures) was almost $400! I couldn't believe they could charge that much. It was an outrage - to take such great pictures of my kids, and hold them hostage with a price that was WAY out of our range, unless we wanted to blow our entire Christmas budget on only pictures. Lisa just started crying after we hung up, she soooooo wanted those pictures and to not be able to afford even the cheapest package was upsetting to say the least.

But then, the real kicker came. Lisa got a call from a friend of ours in our ward. She wanted Lisa's help in getting caught up on her scrapbooking, saying "I'd like to get it done before I die." Lisa said "yeah, I know how you feel." And her friend said "No, I'm dying. The doctors gave me until December." She has leukemia, which we knew about and thought was in remission. Apparently it's back, and now it's spread, even to her bones. She's a young mom, not even 30, with a 2 year old and a 1 year old. All night I kept thinking "how is her husband going to raise those kids alone? How are they dealing with this?"

Lisa went visiting teaching that night, so I had the kids by myself until about 11, and they were NOT happy. They kept crying and waking up, one after another, even both crying at the same time once or twice. And every time I'd get frustrated, I'd picture my friend, doing this alone every night without his wife to relieve or help or comfort him or the kids, and I'd find the patience to keep holding my kids and comforting them. The only solace in the whole situation came from knowing about eternal families. Lisa and I were there when they got sealed in the temple, bound eternally as husband and wife. Knowing that makes ALL the difference, at least to me. Knowing that, as long as I keep the commandments and treat my family like I should, I will have them forever, no matter how long or short I have them here. My friend will have his wife again, whether she lives to December or to 2048 (which I hope is at least the case). Our thoughts and prayers are with them, but we also know that death is not the end of life. And that helps.

A bittersweet election day

Well, the big day is finally over, and I'm relieved, if not completely satisfied. McCain lost, big surprise there. It's his own fault, really. He didn't start to play hardball with Obama until a week before the election. By then, it was already over. Sarah Palin was the only reason he got as many votes as he did. Hopefully she'll be back in 2012 to try and take back the Republican party from all the liberals and quasi-liberals that have taken it over.

The one really good thing (and about the only one) was the passing of Proposition 8 in California, along with similar measures in Arizona, Flordia, and Arkansas. All the angry protests and picketing can't change the fact that a majority (even if it was a slim majority) approved the traditional definition of marriage. It's ironic that there are so many angry and hate-filled protests with people chanting 'stop the hate'. Their cause would gain a lot more credibility with people if it didn't have so many fanatical nutjobs behind it. Not that I want it to do so, I really hope the traditional family continues to be the fundamental unit of our society. But they certainly aren't going to make many converts with angry rallies and hate-filled protests.