A few things

I'm on my way upstairs to take care of my poor, sick, shivering husband, but here are a few miscellaneous items before I go:

First, something political in nature. I usually try to stay away from politics here, trying to follow the advice in General Conference to focus on the truth we share rather than on our differences---however, since this is from one of my favorite Mormon Democrats, Orson Scott Card, and a very thought-provoking and enlightening column (and new information, perhaps, to some of you) regarding the current financial situation, I thought I'd link to it here.

And now on to the topic of Balloon Animals. You know that guy at Brick Oven that makes balloon animals? He is, truly, a balloon genius. I LOVE seeing all the designs he can come up with. We went there awhile ago and Seb requested a monkey and Abe requested "A Honey Bear" (which is his bear's name--"Honey"--not that he wanted one of those bottles of honey shaped like a bear. There was some confusion about this at first, naturally).

This is a very, very good monkey.

But this bear is the best!! The guy said, "Well, I'll try to make him holding a little pot of honey." So he did, and do you see what else? He made a little bee to fly along that clear tube, buzzing around trying to get close to the honey pot. When you shake it, the bee flies back and forth. Isn't that awesome?

Lastly, Sam and I have been developing a hieroglyphic language to write in (H is for Hieroglyphics), so the above is the type of thing that greets me every time I walk past our message board. I must say, it's becoming quite a good language. It's really fun to write and decipher each others' messages. Each of us in the family has a different symbol--- Don't you think Malachi's is especially appropriate? Sam said the other day Ky was looking up at him and he thought, "Wow---he looks exactly like his hieroglyphic symbol!"