Tuesday, March 25, 2008

2008-03-21 Justin's birthday



We enjoyed a few days in Colorado Springs visiting Melanie and Michelle. I drove the leftovers from the Conley's move in a U-Haul trailer and listened to a biography of Reagan's presidency years while I drove which made the time pass quickly.



To celebrate Justin's birthday we ate dinner at Red Robin, his favorite, and then ate birthday cake at Egbert's. Justin enjoyed the attention.

2008-03-23 Easter



Despite a poor showing by the ward choir on a version of 'He Is Risen', we had a wonderful Easter of worship and fellowhip. The food was wonderful, the Easter egg hunt was fun. At first, Sarah didn't get the concept of picking up candy, but she caught on quickly. Thomas helped hide the eggs, but still wanted to be part of the hunt.

2008-03-25 Skipping breakfast is bad for your waistline

This morning Benjamin and Jack ate 10 pancakes each. Joshua had 3. Thomas was still asleep. I ate my usual oatmeal.

March 25, 2008
Skipping Cereal and Eggs, and Packing on Pounds
By NICHOLAS BAKALAR

Researchers have found evidence that Mom was right: breakfast may really be the most important meal of all. A new study reports that the more often adolescents eat breakfast, the less likely they are to be overweight.

The researchers examined the eating and exercise habits of 1,007 boys and 1,215 girls, with an average age of 15 at the start of the five-year study — a racially and economically diverse sample from public schools in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area.

The authors found a direct relationship between eating breakfast and body mass index; the more often an adolescent had breakfast, the lower the B.M.I. And whether they looked at the data at a given point or analyzed changes over time, that relationship persisted.

Why eating breakfast should lead to fewer unwanted pounds is unclear, but the study found that breakfast eaters consumed greater amounts of carbohydrates and fiber, got fewer calories from fat and exercised more. Consumption of fiber-rich foods may improve glucose and insulin levels, making people feel satisfied and less likely to eat more later in the day.

“Food consumption at breakfast does seem to influence activity,” said Donna Spruijt-Metz, an assistant professor of preventive medicine at the University of Southern California, who was not involved in the study. “Maybe kids eating breakfast get less refined foods and more that contain fiber. The influence of that on metabolism and behavior is something we’re still trying to sort out in my lab.”

For the study, which appears in the March issue of Pediatrics, the researchers recorded food intake using a well-established food frequency questionnaire and added specific questions about how often the teenagers ate breakfast.

They also included questions to determine the behavioral and social forces that might affect eating. For example, they asked whether the teenagers were concerned about their weight, whether they skipped meals to lose weight, whether they had ever been teased about their weight and how often they had dieted during the last year. They were also asked how much exercise they were getting.

About half the teenagers ate breakfast intermittently, but girls were more likely to skip breakfast consistently and boys more likely to eat it every day. Girls who consistently ate breakfast had an overall diet higher in cholesterol, fiber and total calories than those who skipped the meal; the boys who were consistent consumed more calories, more carbohydrates and fiber, and less saturated fat than their breakfast-skipping peers.

At the start of the study, consistent breakfast eaters had an average body mass index of 21.7, intermittent eaters 22.5, and those who never had breakfast 23.4. Over the next five years, B.M.I. increased in exactly the same pattern. The relationship persisted even after controlling for age, sex, race, socioeconomic status, smoking and concerns about diet and weight.

The authors acknowledge that the study depends on self-reports of weight and eating habits, which are not always reliable, and that even though they controlled for many variables, the study was observational, showing only an association between breakfast eating habits and body mass, not a causal relationship.

Still, Mark A. Pereira, a co-author of the study and an associate professor of epidemiology at the University of Minnesota, said that eating a healthy breakfast would “promote healthy eating throughout the day and might help to prevent situations where you’re grabbing fast food or vending machine food.”

Dr. Pereira added that parents could begin to set a good example by sitting down to breakfast themselves. “The whole family structure is involved here,” he said.

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

To Stretch or Not to Stretch? The Answer Is Elastic

Melanie (I think.) stretching at a yoga class.

This article from the NY Times is consolation for us flexibility-challenged folks.

By GINA KOLATA

NEWS about stretching seems to come in waves. Stretch as part of your warm-up. No, stretch after your workout. No, don’t even bother stretching. Or the doozy: Even if you think you like it, it’s been oversold as a way to prevent injury or improve performance.

The truth is that after dozens of studies and years of debate, no one really knows whether stretching helps, harms, or does anything in particular for performance or injury rates. Yet most athletes remain convinced that stretching helps, and recently more and more have felt a sort of social pressure to show that they are limber, in part due to the popularity of yoga. Flexibility has become another area where many athletes want to excel.

They’re like one of my running partners, Claire Brown, a 35-year-old triathlete.

“I always feel like, well, athletes should do yoga,” Claire said. “It’s supposed to be really good for running, and when I do it regularly, it does loosen up my hips and make me feel better for running.”

Yet she puts off going to yoga.

“It shouldn’t feel like an obligation, but it always does,” Claire said. “The good classes are often an hour and a half long, and I’m thinking: ‘I could be running, I could be biking. But here I am, stretching and breathing.’

“Isn’t it funny, though, that something that should be calming can actually cause stress because you think you have to do it?”

For the bottom line on stretching, there is an official government review by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published in the March 2004 issue of the journal Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise. Its conclusion, that the research to date is inadequate to answer most stretching questions, still holds.

The best that Dr. Julie Gilchrist, a medical epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control and one of the study’s authors, can offer is a few guidelines and observations about why studies have yet to answer the stretching questions.

If your goal is to prevent injury, Dr. Gilchrist said, stretching does not seem to be enough. Warming up, though, can help. If you start out by moving through a range of motions that you’ll use during activity, you are less likely to be injured.

In fact, Dr. Gilchrist said, in her review of published papers, every one of the handful of studies that concluded that stretching prevented injuries included warm-ups with the stretches.

That is one reason the studies so far have been inadequate. Researchers need to separate their variables, said Malachy McHugh, the director of research at the Lenox Hill Hospital Nicholas Institute of Sports Medicine and Athletic Trauma in Manhattan.

“What’s missing are studies of stretching alone and studies of no stretching and no warm-up,” Dr. McHugh said.

But it may not be so easy to do such studies, he admitted, because most athletes in strength and speed sports like soccer and football believe in stretching, no matter what scientists say. Suppose you wanted to do a proper study, with a control group that did not stretch. Good luck, he said.

“If you go to a team and say, ‘You guys are not going to stretch and you guys are going to stretch,’ they would say, ‘You can leave the room now,’ ” Dr. McHugh said.

Some athletes — gymnasts, hurdlers and swimmers among them — may need to stretch to gain the flexibility they need for their sport, Dr. McHugh said.

But distance runners do not benefit from being flexible, he found. The most efficient runners, those who exerted the least effort to maintain a pace, were the stiffest.

That study involved 100 people who were tested with 11 flexibility tests. Then they walked and ran while the researchers measured their efficiency. Those who were the most flexible expended 10 to 12 percent more energy to move at the same speed as compared with the least flexible. But that study did not involve stretching — it could be that the most flexible people would have been flexible with or without stretching. And even when studies do ask whether performance changes after a stretching program, they usually involve artificial laboratory situations, said Christopher Morse, an exercise physiologist at Manchester Metropolitan University in England who has published papers on stretching and reviewed the stretching literature.

“The problem is that what is actually studied in the lab has very little intrinsic links to what is happening” when people actually exercise, he said.

Stretching can make you more flexible, but does it change a naturally efficient runner into an inefficient one?

No one knows, Dr. Morse added, but there also is no evidence that it does.

And while holding a stretch temporarily reduces muscle power when measured in the lab, Dr. Morse said, many people also warm up in real life, counteracting stretching’s negative effect and enabling muscles to work with full force.

That means, Dr. Morse said, that those studies showing stretching makes muscles temporarily weaker “might have no real-world consequences.”

THE few studies in real-world situations typically used military recruits. Some concluded that stretching was useless. Others that it prevented injuries. The stretching, though, was part of a training regimen, muddying attempts to decide whether the recruits had fewer injuries because they were better conditioned or because they stretched.

While the stretching debate goes on, some researchers who used to believe in stretching say they have become disillusioned.

Stacy J. Ingraham, an exercise physiologist at the University of Minnesota and a long distance runner, suffered from hamstring injuries when she was on a team. She stretched and stretched, for months on end, to no avail.

That made her wonder about stretching’s benefits, as did her subsequent years of coaching female high-school and college cross-country runners. Her runners stretched but, Dr. Ingraham said, stretching “did not seem to do what we’d been schooled about all our lives — it did not prevent injuries.”

She reviewed published papers, saw none that convinced her that stretching either protected people from injuries or improved performance, and became an antistretching evangelist.

“Runners don’t need to stretch,” she insists.

Dr. Charles Kenny, an orthopedist in private practice in Stockbridge, Mass., is even more adamantly opposed to stretching. The practice, he said, weakens performance and makes an injury more likely.

“If stretching was a drug, it would be recalled,” Dr. Kenny said.

Stretching the hamstring muscle, for example, teaches the muscle to relax when the knee is fully extended, Dr. Kenny said. But that is not what a runner needs. Instead, runners need to have their hamstrings stiff and activated when the knees are extended. Of course, one test of how passionate researchers are about stretching is to ask them whether they themselves stretch. Many say they do.

Dr. McHugh, who plays Gaelic football, which is similar to soccer, said he needs some flexibility to play, so he stretches.

Dr. Morse, a wrestler, also has a routine: “I get leg-muscle pulls, so I do low-level contractions, isometrics and dynamic stretches to warm up. And I stretch afterward.”

Dr. Gilchrist, who, at 40, runs, swims and lifts weights, has not been stretching, but is wavering.

“I am so inflexible I think it’s hazardous,” she said. “I am seriously considering stretching,” Dr. Gilchrist said.

But she is not thinking of yoga.

Dr. McHugh, for one, suggested that yoga may actually be more than most athletes need.

“I just saw a guy with arthritis in his knee,” Dr. McHugh said. “He was very flexible. He got into the lotus position, sitting on the floor with his knees hyperflexed in a figure-four. I told him this may not have brought on his arthritis but it is bringing on symptoms.”

Claire will be glad to know.

Sunday, March 16, 2008

2008-03-14 Music Man

Our stake had a 'road show' night with each ward performing a few songs from a Broadway musical. Our ward chose the Music Man. Here the cast:


I sang bass in Lida Rose - a barbershop quartet number - with Greg Seal, Rick Carter and once with Cameron Gleave and once with Dale Openshaw. This is a photo with Dale Openshaw.



Here is a not too flattering photo of me singing '..I'll pop the question ...'

Friday, March 14, 2008

1990 in Ocean City



This was when my hair started turning gray. I think it was either the sand in Ocean City or the rough treatment by my children. Melissa had left for BYU so she didn't go on this trip to Ocean City with us.

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Chicken and Leek Vegetable Soup


Chicken and Leek Vegetable Soup

1 leek cleaned and diced (incl. about 1 inch of the green)
2 carrots diced
1 clove garlic minced
1 c. celery diced (with some leaves)
1 tomato diced
¼ c. chopped cilantro
1 t. sea salt
1 t. ground cumin
½ t. black pepper

Sweat vegetables and then sauté on very low heat in 1 T. olive oil. Add the diced tomato when the onion is starting to turn clear. Cook until tender.

1 chicken breast

Cook on low heat (with some olive oil if necessary) until done – then dice.

2 c. chicken broth
1 c. potato peeled and diced
½ c. black beans
1 T. lime juice

Simmer potato in broth until tender; add beans, chicken, lime juice and vegetables.
Add water to desired consistency.

Bring to simmer. Cool. Reheat to serve.

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Identical twins apparently do not have identical DNA.



The Claim: Identical Twins Have Identical DNA
By ANAHAD O’CONNOR
THE FACTS

It is a basic tenet of human biology, taught in grade schools everywhere: Identical twins come from the same fertilized egg and, thus, share identical genetic profiles.

But according to new research, though identical twins share very similar genes, identical they are not. The discovery opens a new understanding of why two people who hail from the same embryo can differ in phenotype, as biologists refer to a person’s physical manifestation.

The new findings appear in the March issue of The American Journal of Human Genetics, in a study conducted by scientists at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and universities in Sweden and the Netherlands. The scientists examined the genes of 10 pairs of monozygotic, or identical, twins, including 9 pairs in which one twin showed signs of dementia or Parkinson’s disease and the other did not.

It has long been known that identical twins develop differences that result from environment. And in recent years, it has also been shown that some of their differences can spring from unique changes in what are known as epigenetic factors, the chemical markers that attach to genes and affect how they are expressed — in some cases by slowing or shutting the genes off, and in others by increasing their output.

These epigenetic changes — which accumulate over a lifetime and can arise from things like diet and tobacco smoke — have been implicated in the development of cancer and behavioral traits like fearfulness and confidence, among other things. Epigenetic markers vary widely from one person to another, but identical twins were still considered genetically identical because epigenetics influence only the expression of a gene and not the underlying sequence of the gene itself.

“When we started this study, people were expecting that only epigenetics would differ greatly between twins,” said Jan Dumanski, a professor of genetics at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and an author of the study. “But what we found are changes on the genetic level, the DNA sequence itself.”

The specific changes that Dr. Dumanski and his colleagues identified are known as copy number variations, in which a gene exists in multiple copies, or a set of coding letters in DNA is missing. Not known, however, is whether these changes in identical twins occur at the embryonic level, as the twins age or both.

“Copy number variations were discovered only a few years ago, but they are immensely important,” said Dr. Carl Bruder, another author of the study at the university. Certain copy variations have been shown in humans to confer protection against diseases like AIDS, while others are believed to contribute to autism, lupus and other conditions. By studying pairs of identical twins in which one sibling has a disease and the other does not, scientists should be able to identify more easily the genes involved in disease.

John Witte, a professor of genetic epidemiology at the University of California, San Francisco, said the findings were part of a growing focus on genetic changes after the parents’ template had been laid. This and other research, Dr. Witte said, shows “you’ve got a little bit more genetic variation than previously thought.”

In the meantime, a lot of biology textbooks may need updating.

Dr. Dumanski pointed out, for example, that as his study was going to press, the following statement could be found on the Web site of the National Human Genome Research Institute, the group that financed the government project to decode the human genome: “Most of any one person’s DNA, some 99.9 percent, is exactly the same as any other person’s DNA. (Identical twins are the exception, with 100 percent similarity).”

That, we now know, no longer appears to be the case.

THE BOTTOM LINE

Identical twins apparently do not have identical DNA.

Monday, March 10, 2008

2008-03-08 Canyonlands Five-Mile

Here's Melanie and me on our stroll/ jog. It was nice of Melanie to keep me company as a tortoise rather than sprinting off like a hare.


Here's Michelle nearing the finish line:



Supposedly you can see the photos if you look at: http://picasaweb.google.com/gtheath/20080308Moab



Rank Age Gender
26 1 6 MICHELLE EGBERT 00:36:04.
33 1 25 JEFFREY CONLEY 00:36:49.
207 11 123 MICHAEL FORD 00:45:55.
654 68 364 MINDY CHRISTENSEN 00:59:44.
758 31 323 TOM HEATH 01:07:53.
759 62 436 MELANIE CONLEY 01:07:54.

Michelle placed first in her age group, sixth among all women, and 26th overall!
Jeff placed first in his age group, 25th among all men, and 33rd overall! Grandpa was last in his age group ):

After the race we went to Arches National Park and walked to Delicate Arch.

Thursday, March 6, 2008

2008-03 Leftover Cafe Rio Salad Soup


I made this soup with leftovers from our Cafe Rio salad dinner on Sunday

Leftover Café Rio Salad Soup

1 medium onion (diced)
1 clove garlic (minced)
1 cup chopped celery
2 carrots (diced)
¼ cup chopped cilantro
½ yam (peeled and diced)
(some broccoli florets if you want)
1 tomato (diced)
1 tsp sea salt
1 tsp ground cumin
Pepper to taste


Sweat and then sauté on very low heat the onion, garlic, celery, cilantro and carrots with spices in 1 Tbs of olive oil. When onion is turning clear add tomato and yam. Cook until tender.

2 c. beef broth
1 can tomato sauce
½ c. cooked rice
½ c. black beans
1 c. chopped shredded pork

Mix in soup pan and warm.

Add vegetables to soup pan. Thin with water to desired consistency. Bring to simmer. Let cool. Warm before serving.

The pulled pork, rice and black beans are leftovers from Café Rio salad recipe. You can use other leftover beef or pork if you want.

Tuesday, March 4, 2008

2008-03-02 Natalie's update

Hello Family,

It has been over four months since I've last written. Our computer crashed in November. We were able to retrieve almost all of our documents, except for ALL the updates I've written in the last four years. These were all saved in Microsoft outlook and this is the ONE program that we couldn't retrieve. I've been in denial since it was so much work writing these memories to preserve a little of our family history. Thank goodness that Tom saves most of our emails, so I can retrieve a majority of these updates. Needless to say the loss was depressing. For a while, I lost the desire to continue writing. It is amazing to look back over the last four months and realize what I've missed documenting as the girls continue to grow, as do I -- literally!

So starting with more recent events, we had a nice relaxing weekend. It has been a while since we didn't have some major event to support or head-up on the weekend. The girls went to Brooke's birthday party on Saturday. During the party, Brian and I made visits to home improvement centers. We are busy getting estimates on some built in cabinets, as well as looking at granite for our kitchen countertops, and getting paint estimates. We figure that we've been here almost three years. It is time to start settling in. I am just afraid that I'll spend the money getting our house to where I feel satisfied, and we'll move. That is always my hestitation, but I've already missed out on two years plus of home improvements. Our most recent purchase, the piano, has made me realize even more how big of a difference an upgrade can make. We've thoroughly enjoyed having the piano in our house. It makes our house look nicer, and it is so nice to have Brian sit down in the evenings and play. The girls have fun with it too. Brian bought the Suzuki method CD and book for the girls to get familiar. They like tinkering "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" on the keys. They have a short attention span and rarely last more than five-ten minutes, but it is fun to see them have an interest in learning.

Brian is becoming quite the pianist. At our ward Valentine activity, Brian, jokingly, played a Debbie Gibson "Lost in Your Eyes" love song. He has this 80's music book. He spends a lot of time playing (and singing) different love ballads from the 80's. I only get annoyed when I wake up singing the songs. It isn't a good thing to have the Bangles, Michael Bolton, and Bette Midler running through your head. :) We knew it was bad when Elsa randomly would start singing the lyrics word-for-word. There are better things to teach your children. The fun part of it is that a few of the cheesy love songs are from Disney movies. The girls love it when they recognize the songs that Brian is playing.

Today, it was finally nice weather. We've had lots of freezing rain and temperatures in the teens. You can't really enjoy being outside when there is ice covering everything. It isn't even safe to walk to the mailbox. To have it warm up to 50 degrees seemed like heaven. After church we went to a nearby park. The girls call it "the alligator park" because there is a riding toy in the shape of an alligator. It was a muddy mess since the snow just barely melted. The girls didn't care. They loved running around, playing, and just getting fresh air. We enjoyed a nature walk down to the docks and watched a male swan attempt an attack on two females. The females fled quickly. Ava said, "I guess the mom and dad didn't want to be by the baby." She has no idea. Oh, the beauties of nature. It really was so beautiful, and it made me grateful to live in such a nice area. I love the calming effects of the water.

We've been busy these last couple of weeks. Brian has been traveling a lot for work lately. He has also been interviewing for other jobs in Chicago and Scotsdale (it never seems to end). In addition to these prospects, Lilly has encouraged Brian to go out in the field as a sales manager. We are reluctnat to move to some random city for another couple of years. We headed up a BYU alumni dinner last weekend. We are the Indiana Chapter Co-Chairs. ("Ugh" is all I can say about that. We have "sucker" written on our foreheads.) Brian finished his basketball season last week after losing games in double elimination. This now frees up his Tuesday evenings. He is still busy with Elder's Quroum business on Wednesday evenings. Two weeks ago, he started a course to get scuba certified. He goes Thursday evenings 6:30-10/11pm. Basically, when he is in town, we get him home Monday nights and the weekends, for which we are grateful. I always notice a change in the girls behavior if he has been gone for a while, especially in Elsa. She is a daddy's girl through and through. Ava still insists on having me do everything for her, with her, or by her. She is my baby, at least for a couple of months. I've been encouraging her to "be a big girl" in preparation for the baby. Her preschool teacher mentioned that she has noticed a positive change too. Ava can be stubborn though, so it takes a lot of time and a lot of patience. She has gotten quite used to me saying, "My patience is gone." Today I was frustrated because I was trying to get them in the car after church. They were running around outside in the mud. I was going on about how they need to start listening to me better and obeying when Ava said, "Mom, you're not having much patience. That's not good." How quickly they learn to turn situations on their parents.

The girls started up gymnastics again. We have their lessons on Thursday evenings, which has its pros and cons. The pros - their classes run somewhat concurrent with each other, and since Brian is gone on Thursdays, it helps pass the time. The cons are that it is in the evening, during dinner time, at the end of a long busy week of preschool and swim lessons. They love it though. After the first week, Elsa asked me everyday if it was gymnastics day. I now wish I had enrolled them in the fall since they enjoy it so much. I tried to get both girls to start swim lessons, but Ava bailed out in the first five minutes of her first lesson. After last years experience, I didn't push it. The policy is no refunds after the first lesson, so basically I paid $68 for three lessons last year. I wasn't going to provide the same luxury this year. It isn't that Ava isn't interested. She is just a fair weather person (like her mother). The pool isn't heated and Ava has no interest in being cold. She would love it otherwise. She sits at the water's edge and watches intently as the other kids swim and splash. Elsa continues to enjoy it and gets so much satisfaction in learning new techniques. She is the same class as her neighbor friend, Emma, which makes it even better.

February was filled with doctor's appointments. Both girls got strep throat, Ava then Elsa a week later. Then last Sunday we took Elsa to an instacare place because she had been up the night before screaming about her ears. Turns out her screaming was valid. She had double ear infections. She finished a week of antibiotics and seems to be doing great. Brian and I have been fighting recurring colds, but that is the worst of it for us. Thankfully. We all seem to be doing well now. (I'll keep my fingers crossed.) The flu virus has been rampant at church and preschool. Each week, half of the kids in the girl's classes are absent from illnesses. So far, none of us have had it. I hope it passes by us. I can have the girls wash hands and try to avoid public places as much as possible, but it is really out of our control. I'd have to quarantine them otherwise.

We spent Friday at the Children's Museum with hundreds of other children, if not more. If they were going to catch something, this would be the place. They loved seeing the new Curious George exhibit, as well as old favorites - the dinosaurs, aquarium, science center, etc. They didn't want to leave, but finally hunger was a compelling enough reason. They had eaten all the snacks I brought and were hungry for more substance. So was I. We were there from 10am-3pm. I am trying to get out as much as possible in the next couple of months before this baby arrives. It will be nice to have this baby born in the spring/early summer. We won't be totally homebound, but won't be going to a lot of places either, at least for the first few weeks.

I am getting excited for the arrival of this baby. My anticipation grows along with the size of my belly. The girls are thrilled to feel the baby move and love talking to her. They are both eye level to my stomach, so it is pretty much in their faces all day long. Lots of times, Ava will walk right up to my stomach and say loudly, "Hi baby Sunny face." This is her name for the baby. Elsa and I favor Greta. Brian is still pushing for Lena or Cora. I told him that I have more face time with the girls, so Greta will most likely win out. Ava still insists on Sunny face, which I told her that can be her special name for the baby. I am trying to figure out where to put the baby. We want to keep a queen bed upstairs for guests, but then will need to do some moving around with bedrooms. I keep thinking that I have plenty of time to figure these things out, but realize that the next few months will go by quickly -especially as we are contemplating a move, home improvements, and adding these things to our already very busy lives. It doesn't get dull around here.

I could fill you in on all the other details of the past four, at least two months since we saw you at Christmas, but I'll spare you....for now. We hope you're all well. We miss you.
Love,
Natalie

2008-03-03 Sarah dodges a bullet

Sarah pulled a food storage container into the master bath, climbed on the counter and found a bottle of baby ibuprofen. She ate up to 24 tablets ('Cannie!' she said.) Mindy called the poison control center who gave her instructions. Our prayers were frantic and fervent. Fortunately a tummy ache and lethargy were the only ill effects.




Had Sarah swallowed tylenol (acetominophen) it could have been fatal or resulted in liver failure. Of 348 children with liver failure, the leading cause was tylenol overdose, half of which were inadvertent.

"The cause of acute liver failure (ALF) in 348 children included acute acetaminophen toxicity (14%), metabolic disease (10%), autoimmune liver disease (6%), non-acetaminophen drug-related hepatotoxicity (5%), infections (6%), other diagnosed conditions (10%); 49% were indeterminate." J Pediatr. 2006 May;148(5):652-658

I'd suggest keeping tylenol under lock and key if you have to have it in the house at all.

2008-03-03 Skiing at Brighton (again!)



Mindy and her children stayed overnight while Coray was in Hawaii, and we went skiing at Brighton. Grandma was kind to entertain Sarah while the rest of us played. Will had a lesson, and then skiied with us in the afternoon. I asked him if he liked skiing. He said that his whole family skied so he had to, but he didn't like that much. He said the lesson was horrible. Abby skied behind Grandpa following his turns for much of day. She is becoming a confident skier, and she wanted to try some moguls. She trailed Grandpa closely down the mogul run, but on the last mogul she crashed. Nothing hurt but her pride.

Saturday, March 1, 2008

2008-03-01 In Defense of Food



We had Grandma's high school book club friends and their husbands over for dinner. As an activity we tried to write a few 'Pollanisms' based on the book “In Defense of Food.” The author, Michael Pollan, condensed the book into a short diet mantra (“Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”) that has a haiku-like resonance, and its 2-3-2 sequencing lends itself to some tweaking.

How much wisdom can you pack into a seven-word, Pollanesque slogan?

Some examples:

Ate plants. A big heap. Still hungry.

Love eggs. Eat ice cream. Check cholesterol.

Trust God. Love thy neighbor. Give thanks.

Pray daily. Share with others. Find joy.

Be honest. Tell the truth. Then run.

Depression sucks. Time is wasted. Breathe deeply.

Earn ten. Only spend nine. Happy one.

Go out. Turn Television off. Live life.

Listen carefully. Think it over. Then decide.

Didn’t listen. Pushed button anyway. Died suddenly.

From Grandma's friends:

Let go. Trust in God. Have Joy. (Julie Baker)
Stay active. Love the Lord. Feel joy. (Marsha Quist)
Parent wisely. Teach children especially, To love. (Paula Heath)
Don't worry. Think the worst. Enjoy life. (Susan Hertz)
Get up. Pick it up. Put away. (Bonnie Yeates)
Dark chocolate. Makes you happy. Share often. (Helen Hinckley)
Smile nicely. Agree politely, then - Play golf. (Henry Yeates)
Listen carefully. Play the game. Rule justly. (Julie Baker)
Walk daily. Look both ways. Enjoy friends. (Tom Heath)