Grandpa Bob was RIGHT!

I Guess its a Good thing Nico & Joce dont need this anymore!

And if you still havent guessed.......

Due Date August 17,2009 7 weeks along!

And yes once again I went through about 6-8 home pregnancy tests over the coarse of 6 weeks and they were all NEGATIVE! I guess I am the 1% on the box once again! Mamma always said I was special!

10 Crazy Nights!

Hope everyone had a great Christmas!  We ventured to Reno for Christmas (driving with Logan).  Going down wasnt bad (thank god someone invented the portable dvd player!  We had a great Christmas and got to stop and see some friends along the way and in Reno.  Then we tried to get home.  It all started with Logan tripping at Scheels and hitting a tile step.  He looked like a brontosaurus (he hit right between the eyes) and it was brusing up pretty bad.  But he was acting OK.  So we told the people at the store and they brought us an ice pack and we waited around for a bit and then headed out.  Logan then threw up after stopping in Winnemucca so we stopped in Elk at the emergency room.  After waiting two hours they did no tests no nothing and said he was fine.  Well by this time it was 6 or so so we got some dinner and decided it would be best to stay there just in case.  It never stopped snowing the whole night!  The drive to Jackpot was a blast!  Then the roads got better and then clear so we thought we were home free.  Then we get past Burley, ID and they tell us that I-86 is closed and we have to go to Tremonton UT to get through.  Well we werent driving two hours out of the way so I got on my handy lap top and found a cut across.  It ended up being a snow packed two lane country road that took a bit to get across but it was beautiful and saved us 45 minutes.  Once we hit I-15 it was a white out but we decided to try to keep going and maybe we could at least make it to Montana (we had given up trying to make work on Monday).  The we started seeing cars in ditches and people sliding everywhere and decided maybe we should eat dinner in Idaho Falls.  We heard that the roads were just as bad up ahead (and I had made reservations while driving just in case) so we decided to stay in IDaho Falls.  They must have messed up the reservation as when we went to check in the gal said hmm well I have suites still available so we got upgraded to a suite for nothing!  The next morning we got the wonder of driving over Moneida Pass in a white out, blowing snow and fog!  Once we got to Dillion though the roads were fine, but Logan was not!  We ate lunch and he didnt want to get back in the truck!  Needless to say we didnt get hoem until Monday afternoon, but we were safe!  I dont think we will be traveling anywhere for a while!

Dafoe Family Elf Hoe-down!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Happy Santa Photo Finally!

The Santa Saga

So, last weekend we dressed up and went to see Santa. After wiating 40 minutes for him to eat lunch, we tried to take the photo. They wanted $20 up front and Logan seemed like he would be OK. Nope! Meltdown, so I got in the photo and the guy didnt say smile or anything, just snapped the photo. It was awful!! So last ngiht we were at a store and saw Santa. This Santa didnt sit in waiting for the child he left, let Logan climb up into the sled, the gal snapped a couple of photos, then Santa snuck in behind Logan and we had a photo! Granted he wasnt dressed up and was chewing on a candy cane, but he wasnt screaming!

Merry Christmas!!

We have found out that Bills job is going to keep going so yeh for us!  We are also going to be making the interesting trek to Reno for Christmas with Logan.  Hope everyone is well and I will get more pictures up soon!

Halloween!!

Helena has a downtown Trick or Treat so seeing as how it doesnt get dark until 7 and we live in a rural place, I went into work early and left early to take Logan trick or treating with the daycare provider's (Logan too) children (Keona & Zaden)   Then we met up with another friend (Jen) and her children Grace & Andy with her oldest joining us later Jace).  She also owns one of the best kid store I have ever been in Outdoor Kidfitter Co.  You should check it out if you have never been in!  Anyhow here are some of the photos-Logan is a horse, Zaden a dinosaur, Keona a poodle, and Grace & Andy were Thing 1 & Thing 2 adn Jace was the murder guy from Scream!.   

Odin the Great's first bird!

Papa shot me a sharpy!! What do you mean I dont get to keep it???

Herrrre Moo Moo!

Papa and Logan

Logan, Mommy & Miss Kate

"Zane"

Bill took this photo of one of the neighbors helping his folks this weekend, I cropped it and played with the color-We thought it looked good so I figured I would post it here!

The Dafoe Dog's new cousin-Blu the Lab with Cousin Nico

Mr. Odin-almost 4 months old!

"Elmer Fudd"

Logan Update

Ok, OK so I have been asked to stop ranting and talk about the munchkin! So Logan is getting big! He is 27 lbs and about 34". He runs non stop! He absolutely loves books! HE will grab as many as he can and come and sit in our laps just looking and listening! A friend of ours owns an outdoor kid store and Logan will be modeling at her 1 year anniversary party this friday. He has become such a little persona nd is so inquisitive that its amazing! He has an aquarium in his room and will just sit and look at the fish. As soon as we get home at night he immediately runs to his door and wants to visit his fishees. He also loves to be outside and gets very upset if we wont let him go outside. Its funny because he seems to enjoy the bad weather better than when its sunny (sort of like me and my "misty clouds"). I will try to post more Logan pics this weekend.

Have we ever truly been a democratic nation?

"Suddenly the door literally burst open and Whittaker burst in
like a tornado; some men followed him. We could see a crowd of
them on the porch. They were not in uniform. They looked as much
like tramps as anything. They seemed to come in-and in-and in.
One had a face that made me think of an ourang-outang. Mrs. Lewis
stood up. Some of us had been sitting and lying on the floor, we
were so tired. She had hardly begun to speak, saying we demanded
to be treated as political prisoners, when Whittaker said:

"You shut up. I have men here to handle you." Then he shouted,
"Seize her!" I turned and saw men spring toward her, and then
some one screamed, "They have taken Mrs. Lewis."

A man sprang at me and caught me by the shoulder. I am used to
remembering a bad foot, which I have had for years, and I
remember saying, "I'll come with you; don't drag me;

{197}

I have a lame foot." But I was jerked down the steps and away
into the dark. I didn't have my feet on the ground. I guess that
saved me. I heard Mrs. Cosu, who was being dragged along with me,
call, "Be careful of your foot."

Out of doors it was very dark. The building to which they took us
was lighted up as we came to it. I only remember the American
flag flying above it because it caught the light from a window in
the wing. We were rushed into a large room that we found opened
on a large hall with stone cells on each side. They were
perfectly dark. Punishment cells is what they call them. Mine was
filthy. It had no window save a slip at the top and no furniture
but an iron bed covered with a thin straw pad, and an open toilet
flushed from outside the cell . . . .

In the hall outside was a man called Captain Reems. He had on a
uniform and was brandishing a thick stick and shouting as we were
shoved into the corridor, "Damn you, get in here."

I saw Dorothy Day brought in. She is a frail girl. The two men
handling her were twisting her arms above her head. Then suddenly
they lifted her up and banged her down over the arm of an ironbench-twice."
From Jailed for Freedom by Doris Stevens

After receiveing an email today, I decided that on my lunch I would look into this as I didnt believe it could have happened here to women from powerful families (imagine the uproar if the LA Jail had even broken one of Ms. Hilton's fingernails!)! This did not happen in some russian country nor a backwards middle eatern place. This happened in the USA in 1917 to women who did nothing but stand outside the White House and hold signs asking to be allowed to vote. This was the worst but these women, a Vice Presidents; daughter, diplomats daughters and wives, women from weathly families, were subjected to this after being arrested (Sometimes with no law under which they were arrested) were starved, given wormy conmeal to eat, allowed to be ebaten by mobs while cops watched, etc..

As the current events (the election, the coverage of a woman being a VP candidate and shouldnt her place be at home raising her children) unfold on the news, I found it interesteing that I had never heard of this event. We werent taught in my school that this happened. Nobody ever mentioned that we did this to women nor have I seen this brought up presently when speaking about Palin and how she cant possibly be a mother and a VP (they told suffrages to go hom and have babies as well). The government seems to not want to tell us things that we may not like!

Much like the bill that was passed last year that paid off FHA loans by the government and allowed banks to reap the profits. Also the legislation that was passed that allowed people who own half million dollar houses to be bailed out of their mortgages. And now today, the House may vote to approve a bill that from what I have read and heard on teh radio, in the newspaper, etc.. the American people have told their Senators and Congressman that they dont want. The Senate already did it! What ever happen to "government of the people, by the people, for the people?" Is that only SOME People? Maybe we do need this Bill, maybe it is a good thing to teach our children to overindulge adn the government will bail you out. But is we do need it, why isnt it being explained? Why does it include decreasing a tax on Puerto Rican rum for goods sake? Arent these people supposed to be representing their constuents in Washington? If 85% of American are saying dont approve this bill in this manner (and yes I acknowledge that surveys can be scewed), why isnt Washington trying to explain it to us so that more will buy off on it? Do they believe that we are too stupid to understand? Or that we will just get in the way if they tell us? What ever happened to democracy?

What is this world coming to?

What is this world coming to when you can make $170,636, have a half million dollar house AND STILL GET THE GOVERNMENT TO BAIL YOU OUT! I was horrified to see that this is going on! I mean hey I get bailing out soemone who tried to get thier family out of the projects and got stuck with a $200,000 mortgage but jesus! I guess we should have been irresponsible and bought that $400,000 house we couldnt really afford!

http://www.hud.gov/fha/home080730.cfm

Fact Sheet: FHA to Provide Additional Mortgage Assistance to Struggling Homeowners
Information by State Print version

The President has signed into law legislation that will allow HUD's Federal Housing Administration (FHA) to continue providing targeted mortgage assistance to homeowners. The Hope for Homeowners program will continue FHA's existing and successful efforts to provide aid to struggling families trapped in mortgages they currently cannot afford. Under the program, certain borrowers facing difficulty with their mortgage will be eligible to refinance into FHA-insured mortgages they can afford. The program will be implemented on October 1, 2008.
Homeowners May Already Be Eligible For Assistance
Families should not wait to seek mortgage relief. Right now, homeowners can determine if they are already eligible for mortgage assistance through FHASecure, FHA's existing refinancing program. They can obtain information through any of the following options:
Contact a local, HUD-approved housing counseling agency at HUD.gov;
Contact the HOPE NOW Alliance at (888) 995-HOPE; or
Call FHA at (800) CALL-FHA.
Sustainable, Affordability Homeownership
Hope for Homeowners maintains FHA's long-standing requirement that new loans be based on a family's long-term ability to repay the mortgage. FHA only allows owner-occupants to be eligible for FHA-insured mortgages. Borrowers must also meet the following eligibility criteria:
Their mortgage must have originated on or before January 1, 2008;
Their mortgage debt-to-income must be at least 31 percent;
They cannot afford their current loan;
They did not intentionally miss mortgage payments; and
They do not own second homes.
Features of FHA-insured loans under the new program include:
30-year, fixed rate mortgage;
Maximum 90 percent loan-to-value ratio;
No prepayment penalties;
$550,440 maximum mortgage amount;
Extinguishment of any subordinate liens; and
New home appraisals from FHA-approved appraisers.
HUD, Treasury, FDIC and the Federal Reserve will form the Congressionally-mandated Board of Directors and work together to establish additional program standards.
Voluntary Lender Participation
FHA will continue to offer lenders an alternative to foreclosing on borrowers. Similar to FHASecure's recent expansion, lenders will be encouraged to write-down the outstanding mortgage principal balances to 90 percent of the new value of the property. In many cases, reductions in principle will cost lenders less than the losses associated with foreclosure.
Market Stability and Liquidity
By continuing to slow the rate of foreclosures, this program will support FHA's existing effort to stabilize local housing markets. From September 2007 to June 2008, FHA has guaranteed more than $93 billion of mortgage capital.
Funding
FHA will insure up to $300 billion in new loans. Borrowers will pay an upfront premium of 3 percent of the original mortgage amount and an annual premium of 1.5 percent of the outstanding mortgage amount. Any additional costs incurred by FHA will be reimbursed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Program Timeline
The program will last from October 1, 2008 through September 30, 2011. Since September 2007, FHASecure has helped more than 290,000 families obtain safer, more affordable mortgages. FHASecure is on pace to help 500,000 families by the end of the year.

Something to think about

The following was written by Ben Stein and recited by him on CBS Sunday Morning Commentary.
My confession:
I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish. And it does not bother me even a little bit when people call those beautiful lit up, bejeweled trees, Christmas trees.. I don't feel threatened. I don't feel discriminated against. That's what they are: Christmas trees.
It doesn't bother me a bit when people say, 'Merry Christmas' to me. I don't think they are slighting me or getting ready to p ut me in a ghetto. In fact, I kind of like it It shows that we are all brothers and sisters celebrati ng this happy time of year. It doesn't bother me at all that there is a manger scene on display at a key intersection near my beach house in Malibu . If people want a crïeche, it's just as fine with me as is the Menorah a few hundred yards away.
I don't like getting pushed around for being a Jew, and I don't think Christians like getting pushed around for being Christians. I think people who believe in God are sick and tired of getting pushed around, period. I have no idea where the concept came from that America is an explicitly atheist country. I can't find it in the Constitution and I don't like it being shoved down my throat.
Or maybe I can put it another way: where did the idea come from that we should worship celebrities and we aren't allowed to worship God as we understand Him? I guess that's a sign that I'm getting old, too. But there are a lot of us who are wondering where these celebrities came from and where the America we knew went to.
In light of the many jokes we send to one another for a laugh, this is a little different: This is not intended to be a joke; it's not funny, it's intended to get you thinking.
Billy Graham's daughter was interviewed on the Early Show and Jane Clayson asked her 'How could God let something like this happen?' (regarding Katrina) Anne Graham gave an extremely profound and insightful response. She said, 'I believe God is deeply saddened by this, just as we are, but for years we've been telling G od to get out of our schools, to get out of our government and to get out of our lives. And being the gentleman He is, I believe He has calmly backed out. How can we expect God to give us His blessing and His protection if we demand He leave us alone?'
In light of recent events... terrorists attack, school shootings, etc. I think it started when Madeleine Murray O'Hare (she was murdered, her body found a few years ago) complained she didn't want prayer in our schools, and we said OK. Then someone said you better not read the Bible in school. The Bible says thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, and love your neighbor as yourself. And we said OK.
Then Dr. Benjamin Spock said we shouldn't spank our children when they misbehave because their little personalities would be warped and we might damage their self-esteem (Dr Spock's son committed suicide). We said an expert should know what he's talking about.& nbsp; And we said OK.
Now we're asking ourselves why our children have no conscience, why theydon't know right from wrong, and why it doesn't bother them to kill strangers, their classmates, and themselves.
Probably, if we think about it long and hard enough, we can figure it out. I think it has a great deal to do with 'WE REAP WHAT WE SOW.'
Funny how simple it is for people to trash God and then wonder why the world's going to hell Funny how we believe what the newspapers say, but question what the Bible says. Funny how you can send 'jokes' through e-mail and they spread like wildfire but when you start sending messages regarding the Lord, people think twice about sharing. Funny how lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene articles pass freely through cyberspace, but public discussion of God is suppressed in the school and workplace. Are you laughing yet?
Funny how when you forward this message, you will not send it to many on your address list because you're not sure what they believe, or what they will think of you for sending it.
Funny how we can be more worried about what other people think of us than what God thinks of us.
Pass it on if you think it has merit. If not then just discard it... no one will know you did. But, if you discard this thought process, don't sit back and complain about what bad shape the world is in.

My Best Regards, Honestly and respectfully, Ben Stein

LOL! Great Blog with Secretary Paulson as the Rabbit!

http://executivesuite.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/09/24/the-mad-as-hell-series-continues/?dbk
September 24, 2008, 10:32 am
The Mad As Hell Series Continues…..
By Joe Nocera
Today’s guest blogger is Daniel Alpert, a managing director at Westwood Capital, whom I’ve quoted quite a bit in my column the past few months. Why? Because he has been dead spot on in anticipating virtually every iteration of this crisis. Last night he sent me (and others) this note about the testimony of Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson Jr. and Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke. It aptly sums the current the state of play. I asked him if I could reprint his note here at Executive Suite. Happily, he agreed.
Secretary Paulson has told us since last week that he’s late, he’s late for a very important date and has no time for a reasonable legislative debate (although willing to indulge in the “hello/goodbye’s” of congressional testimony, provided it doesn’t take too long). But instead of following him through the looking glass, like naïve and curious Alice, let’s pause and take a peek though the glass before taking the leap of faith the Treasury and Fed are asking of us.
As with Alice’s Wonderland, a lot of what Bazooka Hank and Helicopter Ben are saying is lacking in sufficient detail or simply doesn’t make much sense:
1. We were told today in the testimony, among other things, that private risk capital has withdrawn to the sidelines throughout global markets, on the very same day (albeit later in the day) that Warren Buffet has signed up to a brilliant and opportunistic $5 billion investment in the newly chartered Bank of Goldman (the Secretary’s former firm) at essentially a discount to market (a combination of preferred shares and warrants for common shares). Furthermore, Goldman apparently feels sufficiently comfortable with market liquidity to announce an additional $2.5 billion offering of its common shares.
2. Chairman Bernanke is using the argument that there is a meaningful valuation differential between hold to maturity values and market values of troubled securities. When management of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac tried to advance that very same logic to the government a few short weeks ago, the government said “no sale” and within days they were under conservatorship. There is no objective way to compute so-called “hold to maturity value” in an environment where ultimate cash flows from such securities are in serious doubt.
3. We are being told that the purpose of the $700 billion request is to recapitalize distressed institutions that so desperately need to sell us their sludge, in order that that the system may survive. But we are also told that those same institutions will back away from participating if we dare to ask for equity participation. We are essentially being asked to believe that if we throw a lifeline to a drowning man, he will refuse it because we want to be paid for the rescue (as the boards of AIG, FNM, FRE, and BSE proved, right? - um, not);
4. On the other side of the looking glass is a world in which taxpayers recover their handout (or maybe even profit handsomely) after buying impaired securities at higher than the values they have been marked to by financial institutions to date (which, in some cases may not even be adequate markdowns, as the government found out when teams from the Fed and Treasury went into other institutions and ultimately recommended that the government take them over or shut them down). This scenario can only be based on the recovery of the assets underlying those securities - American homes - to levels approaching their bubble-era value. Note that the Secretary never uses the word “bubble” - always preferring the milder description of the decline in value as a “correction.” Well, on our side of the looking glass we still see a bubble having burst - no different than that of the property bubble in Japan 18 years ago (although mercifully to a lesser degree, we will see declines of about 30% from peak, whereas the Japanese experienced nearly an 80% decline) - and no reason why values should “recover” to anywhere remotely near the debt driven bubble levels during the lifetimes of our Treasury Secretary and Fed Chairman (and we wish them a long and happy life for all the suffering they have endured these past months);
5. A number of comments by the Secretary and the Chairman, during today’s hearings, hinted that ownership of the impaired securities may result in the ability to restructure underlying mortgages. While wholesale takeovers of actual mortgages and securities in certain classes, such a sub-prime mortgages, may result in the Treasury having some potential ability to restructure underlying debt, the fact is that with regard to CDO’s, CDS’s and subordinate tranches of Alt-A and Prime mortgage securitizations, there would normally be zero access by the treasury to the underlying mortgage collateral. Such toxic paper, where the bulk of the write-downs have been experienced to date, is specifically designed to grant control of the mortgages to the senior-most classes of the securitizations, many of which senior tranches are still performing. The securitizations were designed to pass risk to the subordinate tranches for precisely this reason. The fact is that much of the subordinate MBS classes, CDO’s and CDS’s were never really “money-good” because existence of a bubble that everyone chose to ignore given the quick profits to be made by flipping out of that paper;
The Treasury is asking us to step into a distorted world that makes little sense, based on trust and fear. We endorse the authorization of funding to enable the government to save any institution that they judge is systemically critical (and on that judgment, we actually WOULD trust the Secretary and Chairman, although we think there should be some sensible minimum institutional size limit). That alone is enough - it tells the market that the world will not be coming to an end, that the banking establishment (now, just banking, no IB’s anymore) will survive intact (albeit with, hopefully, better regulation), and that it will be sufficiently well capitalized to do what it is supposed to do.
The notion of doing all of that without taking over whatever portion of the equity of the troubled institutions that is commensurate with the aid being given (and, as Senator Dodd has suggested perhaps a bit more for safety’s sake) is indefensible….and, in fact, the testimony given today couldn’t defend it. What would Warren Buffet have said to Lloyd Blankfein if we were asked to take the preferred shares he bought today without the equity warrants he received? He would have said “no deal!” And that is what Congress must say as well in defense of the American people.
Don’t worry about what the administration asked for, just pass a bill that works along the lines suggested by Dodd (although we really think some of the help to homeowner protection measures suggested are ineffective – for something we think really works, see the second half of our report from Friday, September 19th. It’s even possible that our two exhausted leaders are secretly hoping congress does the right thing to give them the political cover they need to be able to explain to the financial establishment that they simply hadn’t any choice but to take equity. The world won’t come even remotely crashing down if the Dodd proposal, or something like it, is passed….and the President will surely sign it.
Note, we said nothing so far here about executive pay. While we appreciate the outrage and certainly believe that, merely as a business matter, management of institutions should refrain from drawing anything other than very reasonable base salaries if they are rescued, that is really a matter between management and their boards/shareholders. If shareholders are heavily diluted by a rescue, we imagine that there will be an outcry heard all the way to the “C-suite” that will sufficiently influence that issue. In any case, the matter is of far lesser import than the key issues above.

The Dafoe Family's current reads!

Well we have been reading through a couple of book right now as home improvement, one year old munchkins, 3 dogs and life in general let us! Anyhow, there are two really great books that I would highly recommend to everyone! One is Randy Pausch's The Last Lecture. Its a wonderful book written by a Carnegie Mellon professor who recently passed from pancreatic (thanks Julia!) cancer. It was written so that he could teach his children life lessons after he was gone. It has great lessons abotu hwo to deal in general with life and stay upbeat and happy no matter what! Great quotes as well. The other is The Jungle Effect that comes complete with a back section of recipes (that we are converting into crock pot recipes). The verbage addressess how indigenous recipes adn eating can combat many of the health problems seen in America today! And Logan's current favorite read is Brown Bear Brown Bear What Do You See? alon with his other hard back books. Hope everyone is doing well in this crazy world we have!

Quote of the day! Given the times this says a lot!

"No problem can be solved from the same consciousness that created it."
Albert Einstein

What the hell!!

Ok I must rant abotu the government! What the Hell is this country coming to?? Now we are going to completely wipe the slate clean for the banks that caused the whole pyramid scheme in the first place and force tax payers to be landlords and realtors?? Not with my money! We pay our bills on time, comtribute, and even though offered turned down a huge mortage and nicer house because we are RESPONSIBILE! What ever happened to being responsible for your actions?? If you take credit you cant afford and get your self in a bind, I am sorry. But why should I, who doesnt have a $300,000 house, a boat, a 4 wheeler, toys, designer clothes, expensive vacations, etc.. be paying taxes just so that the ones that got rich get slapped on the hand and then are let go to keep their millions? Why shouldnt the ones that are responsible be held responsible?? Make them buy these mortages.

New Myspace

In the spirit of "merging" we have created a new Dafoe Family website. You can find us at my space under Dafoe Family! Come and visit us!

New Favorite Commercial

We have a favorite commercial!  IF any of you havent seen this you should find it!  Its a HSBC commercial that has tree huggers protesting logging,  The cops come and a lady protester is being arrested and says to one of the loggers are you happy.  Then it shows her being bailed out of jail by the logger and she puts on her helmet and gets on his bike.  THen its obvious that they are married and the theme is different people have different preferences!  

Hello Everyone!

Hey everyone!  We decided to start a Blog to keep in touch!  Just a little update for anyone whom we havent spoken with in a bit.  Jamie took a job with Montana Tunnels Mine, Logan is a tank and we have a new puppy!