Ant and the Grasshopper

The Ant and The Grasshopper

This one is a little different... Two different versions...

Two different morals

Old Version

The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter.

The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away.

Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed.

The grasshopper has no food or shelter and dies out in the cold.

Moral of the story: Be responsible for yourself!

Modern Version

The ant works hard in teh withering heat and the rain all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter.

The grasshopper thinks the anut is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away.

Come winter, the shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while he is cold and starving.

CBS, NBC, PBS, CNN, and ABC show up to provide the pictures of the shivering grasshopper next to the video of the ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food.

America is stunned by the sharp contrast.

How can this be, that in a country of such wealth, this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so?

Kermit the Frog appears on Oprah with the grasshopper and everybody cries when the sing, ' It's Not Easy Being Green.'

ACORN stages a demonstration in front of the ant's house where the news stations film the group singing, "We shall overcome." Then Rev. Jeremiah Wright has the group kneel down to pray to God for the grasshopper's sake.

Pres. Obama condemns the ant and blames Pres. Bush, Pres. Reagan, Christopher Columbus, and the Pope for the grasshopper's plight.

Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid exclaim in an interview with Larry King that the ant has gotten rich of the back of the grasshopper, and both call for an immediate tax hike on the ant to make him pay for his fair share.

Finally the EEOC drafts the Economic Equity and Anti-Grasshopper Act retroactive to the beginning of the summer.

The ant is fined for failing to hire the proportionate number of green bugs, and having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes, his home is confiscated by the Government Green Czar and give to the grasshopper.

The story ends as we see the grasshopper and his free-loading friends finishing up the last bits of the ant's food while the government house he is in, which, as you recall, just happens to be the ant's old house crumble around the because the grasshopper doesn't maintain it.

The ant has disappeared in the snow, never to be seen again.

The grasshopper is found dead in a drug related incident, and the house, now abandoned, is taken over by a gang of spiders who terrorize the ramshackle, once prosperous and once peaceful neighborhood.

The entire Nation collapses bringing the rest of the free world with it.

Why Trampolines
Aren't Safe in Wisconsin.

Who says you can't buy a trampoline for five
Bucks?

4 hour crying jags...

Once Lyssa is asleep she will sleep for a decent amount of time. But in order for that to happen she has to actually fall asleep. The other night she went on a 4 hour crying jag, that I still don't know what the cause of it was. I know it wasn't food that I ate, and she wasn't having gas issues, and she was eating just fine, but she just kept crying. Grrrr. I hate nights like that thoughs. I know after awhile you just kind of have to let them cry it out. But then there is the listening to the cries that make you hurt because you know they aren't happy, and then after doing everything you can do, you just get annoyed that nothing is working. After that night, I got earplugs. Call me cruel, I don't care.

Lyssa's Blessing day

Yesterday was Lyssa's blessing. I don't have any pictures currently, so you'll have to wait. We had plenty of family come and be able to participate. My Bro-in-law was telling me while the blessing was happening, he thought she was going to just explode her diaper the way she was just laying there, the calm before the storm type attitude. But she did very well. Ethan gave her a beautiful blessing. Lyssa wore the blessing dress that I had been blessed in. All in all it was a good day. She handled being loved by many relatives like a champ.

Last Thursday, she had her doctor's appt. Doc. was impressed with her growth, gained 2 1/2 lbs, and two inches in height since birth.

My youngest bro. got his mission call about a week ago, and I just wanted to say YEAH! Pocatello, Idaho, it made me giggle. He had a little bit of a hard time pronouncing it while it was reading it out loud to us. Just made the moment better. I am going to miss that boy, but I can't think of anything better he could possibly be doing. I am so excited for him!

Lots have been going on, just too tired to care to write

Its funny, many people were giving me lots of advise about Mark's reaction to the baby before she was born. The biggest thing I have seen different has been his amount of physical affection he now gives. He has never been one to give kisses or hugs or what not. We tried to teach him, but all that ever happened was when I ask him for a kiss, he would turn his head, allowing me to kiss his cheek. And that was if I was lucky. He still does that, but now he will give me hugs and kisses anytime HE wants to give kisses and hugs. I like this change. He loves giving Lyssa hugs and kisses, but it is a very dangerous thing for him to do. He will literally end up smothering her with his love.

Baby Girl Lyssa Michelle Fike has officially joined our family as of Sept. 14, 2009 at 11:42 am. She was a week late and was scheduled for an induction the morning of Sept. 14, but decided that she wasn't going to be told when to come to the world and decided to finally start making her way into the the world of the 13th, about 10pm by making the water break. Mark did the same thing.

After calling Kate, my coach this time, and gathering stuff up, Ethan and I headed to the hospital. No contractions had really started, but seeing as I was already supposed to be induced in a matter of hours, they got me all hooked up. Labor moved slowly, ended up getting an epidural, and then needed pitocin to help get things moving around 6 am. Spent the next three hours trying to get some sleep while the nurses kept poking and prodding at me for one thing or another.

At 11 am, I hit the 10 cm and said I could start pushing if I felt the need, or if I could deal with the pressure, to just let my body do its thing and continue to push the baby down on its own. I wasn't in pain, thanks to the epidural, so I waited it out. My midwife was working at the office and was going to go for a lunch break, but after being told how far along I was, came up and checked on me. She then told me that this baby was only going to take about ten minutes to come. I didn't believe her. Mark had taken an hour and a half of hard pushing with the epidural having worn off at the beginning of pushing. So after about three contractions, Lyssa came and had the cord wrapped around her neck three times, not tightly though. They got it taken care of and everything went very smoothly.

She had taken to nursing very well, and has been a very sweet and mellow baby so far. Not too much fussing at all. I have been healing wonderfully. Thank you for all the thoughts and prayers!