Kidney Market

We like to watch White Collar on Netflix. Tonight we saw the episode Vital Signs, from season 1. Frankly, I sympathize with the bad guy. I went in expecting people waking up in a bathtub with their organs harvested. Nope. It turns out the bad guys are evil because they buy kidneys from willing donors and sell them to willing buyers. Wait a minute, isn't that a good thing? Apparently not, because bypassing the donor registry and a wait list makes you a white collar criminal.

The bad guys contact June when her granddaughter is bumped from her position on the wait list. They basically offer to get her a kidney for $100,000.00. When June tells Neil about this, the FBI comes in to save the day.

Let's look at the kidney market. There are about a hundred thousand people on the kidney transplant wait list. According to kidney.org, 4,573 kidney patients died in 2008 waiting for a kidney. You know why nobody is out there donating kidneys? It's because NO ONE IS PAYING THEM TO DO IT. Why is no one paying them to do it? BECAUSE THAT MAKES YOU A WHITE COLLAR CRIMINAL. We should let people sell their kidneys. Lots of people out there are willing to pay good money for a working kidney, and the donor has one to spare. The donor needs cash, so he would willingly sign the dotted line to feed his family--or his vices (IE. gambling, drinking, investing etc).

Currently, if you have money, and you need a kidney, your only option is the black market. Unfortunately, the black market is full of cutthroats, snakes and charlatans, not to mention extortionists. An open market with reputable channels would improve the quality of the product and allow more people to get what they want and need. Having willing donors also alleviates demand for unwilling donors.

You would think someone who could bring compatible buyers and sellers together would get a reward, maybe even a Nobel Prize. Instead, the guy saving lives and feeding families by lining up kidney transplants goes to prison. Here's the kicker, the show magically glosses over this problem. Everyone feels good about the happy ending in which the FBI pulls some strings to get the grandchild back to her original spot on the wait list. The ending doesn't satisfy. First, it means the FBI unjustly bumped a more urgent recipient off the list. Second, there is no guarantee the grandchild will EVER get a kidney. Even if she does, she will suffer through years of bad health waiting for it. If the FBI had just allowed the bad guy to facilitate a kidney transaction, the grandchild would have a new kidney within weeks.

Oh, and I want to be his lawyer. The FBI obtained their evidence against the bad guy illegally. They also committed some pretty serious crimes and torts against him. Kidnapping, assault, extortion, intentional infliction of emotional distress, interference with chattel, etc. He's got a pretty good pay day coming. I would represent him for a contingency fee.

30

Yesterday Nate turned the big 3-0. We had a good time. Nate decided to be excited to turn thirty and when Nate is excited, he becomes spontaneous. We dropped our kids off at Angie's. He decided that we were going to go to Olive Garden, but first he started telling me about the Mushroom Swiss burger at Burger King, and he decided that we should go buy one right then so I could taste it and so we did. We got to Burger King and the order taker asked him how he was. He replied, "I'm doing great! It's my birthday!". We then go to the window and the girl tells us that her manger was going to pay for our meal because it was Nate's birthday. She even gave us a BK birthday crown. The mushroom burger was very good. Then we stopped at Classic Sports and bought Nate some shoes for ping pong. This seemed really spontaneous to me, but apparently Nate had been thinking about getting these shoes for at least a day. So we bought some very nice shoes, and then we headed to Olive Garden and ate dinner, and ordered a few extra things on a whim, and they all tasted delicious.

So, in honor of Nate turning thirty, I've decided to list thirty things I like about Nate:

1. He helps me take care of the kids.
2. He's good with the kids and they're still alive and {pretty} healthy when I return.
3. He {and about 200 other people including me} thinks ping pong is a serious sport.
4. He can cook his own dinner and it usually turns out surprising well.
5. He loves cookies and ice cream.
6. He loves instrumental guitar.
7. He writes his own music on the guitar.
8. He wants to go to New Orleans, Venice, and Guatemala with me someday.
9. He knows the difference between larceny, theft, robbery, and conversion.
10. He doesn't know the difference between black and navy blue.
11. He cares as much about the dodge ball game as the 12-13 year old boys he's playing with.
12. He "doesn't like chocolate", but he loves the chocolate ribbons in moose tracks ice cream.
13. He still likes super heroes.
14. He helps calm the storms in my life.
15. He believes in me.
20. He plays ping pong with himself in the garage--I mean ping pong dojo. (He has this whole set up were he hits the ball against some rubber attached to a big board and then the ball returns back to him.)
21. He is incredibly loyal.
22. He reads his scriptures everyday.
23. I like the sound of his laugh when he laughs with his mouth closed.
24. He sings with me in the car.
25. He thinks I'm a good cook and never complains about any food given to him (unless he had to pay for it at a restaurant and he wasn't impressed).
26. He's working on some novels.
27. He is steady.
28. He has no desire to do dangerous things like, hang-gliding, motorcycle racing, bungee jumping, stunt driving, etc.
29. He sends me emails from work occasionally to let me know that he loves me.
30. He likes to watch movies with me late at night when the kids are in bed.
[And for a year to grow on]
31. Nate is wearing his Burger King birthday crown around the house for fun.

Washed Up

I was looking back at our posts from a couple years ago. We used to be pretty cool. We were like, blog all-stars. Now we're has-beens. We haven't posted in months, and I can't think of anything cool to say.

I'm making ranger cookies. That's pretty cool.

Ok, I'm done.

Payment in Popsicles

I think I read it on Nie Nie. Popsicles in exchange for child labor. It works. At least it did for my kids today. Let's hope it lasts. And that the police approve. The end.

The Songs I Cannot Sing

Basically we've had the plague, ie: PINK EYE. And now we are finishing off (actually some of us started off) with a cold. And then for a day or two I lost my voice.

One of the saddest things about losing my voice is that I can't sing.

Whenever we go on any kind of trip, whether it be to the store or to Australia, one of my favorite things about the entire trip is to get in the car and listen to music and to SING. I look forward to being into the car because I get to listen to music. And I enjoy the music most by singing along with it. It's not the same if I can't sing it.

Do you ever drive down the street and take a peek into the other cars to see what kind of people are in them? If you do, have you ever caught anyone singing their head off? I have, and it makes me laugh that I caught them looking just a tad bit foolish and they don't even know I caught them.

But then I realized that I may just be one of these "foolish" looking people.

I try not to get caught singing in the car. When I pull up to stop lights, I try to not be in direct eye sight of the person next to me so that they don't see me singing. If that isn't possible I try to sing covertly, and then am disappointed because they are cramping my style, causing me to have to postpone my joyous full singing moment until the light is green again. If it was my favorite part of the song, sometimes I start it over so I can enjoy it while my car is moving and therefore minimize my chances of being caught.

I've actually been wanting to write this post for many months. Am I a weirdo? Do you sing in your car? When you're driving alone? When you're driving with your kids? When you are driving with friends? (I actually rarely sing when I'm driving with friends. The radio is usually off, and we talk. MUCH safer that way--I've learned through scary/embarrassing near wreck experience...don't want to talk about that...moving on).

I guess it boils down to this simple question: Does the average person sing in their car on a regular basis or only enthusiastic singing weirdos?

Well at any rate, at least I'm not like that weirdo at SUU who likes to ride his bike around campus, listening to his i-pod (or similar device), singing at the top of his lungs songs only he can hear. I'm serious. He made me laugh on the inside and smile on the outside. Granted, there was some nervousness in that laughter, but when I see people of similar nature, I have to laugh, and I think of that SUU guy.

Blogger had a bad day

Probably all you of you know that blogger had an infamous bad day, that has been mentioned in much of blogdom. Well this bad day extended itself all the way to this blog. I know that I lost some of your comments. Some of which I never got to read and I wanted to very badly. I've been waiting around to see if blogger would remedy this problem, but I think it is a lost cause. If you would like to repost them, feel free to do so. I just wanted to let you know that I promise that I did not delete them. :)

Josie Starr Reeve

Josie Starr Reeve

May 6, 2011
7 lbs 11 0z
20.5 inches

On Friday morning I was running around like a crazy person. My friend Brooke came over to help sew and she even mowed my lawn! I was beginning to have some contractions. There were kids all over, and I took Ellie to school. I came home and started having regular contractions. Brooke strongly encouraged me to go to the hospital. So after a little more than a half hour of timing I called Nate. He got Ellie from school and we headed to the hospital in Cedar City. On the way the contractions got a little less regular but STRONGER. I was definitely feeling lots of pressure. My mom picked up Ellie and Will at the hospital. We went in and I told them that I thought I was in labor. We got ready and they checked me and I was at a 6 (I had been at 4 and 80% effaced for over a week) but it was hard to tell because my bag of water was getting in the way. They checked me again a little later and decided to break my water when the doctor came a few minutes after that. Everything was ready to go. (And I was feeling PAIN and PRESSURE.) So NO epidural. (Secretly this was my wish. Go fast, save money, no drug after effects. Forced to do it because it was taken out of my hands.)

So basically I had Josie completely natural with in 25 MINUTES of entering the hospital building. I would say my entire active labor was 3 hrs give or take a little. CRAZY. I would do it natural again if I knew it was going to be that short. ;)

The hospital people were surprised I was so calm. I give credit to God for that. They were even surprised that I didn't scream. What they didn't realize is that when I am in severe pain, even talking is too much. I whispered the answers back to all their questions.

Josie and I are both healthy. This is the best recovery so far and it did feel good to be drug free after it was all over. ALL my nurses were the BEST! I loved them.

Josie is so sweet. The nurse called her Queen Jose (not the Spanish boy's name, but jOs) because she was a screamer, but that is only because she was hungry we figured out. So that smart nurse help me supplement Josie with formula. Now she is very chill and trying out all sorts of facial expressions, going through a lot of laundry, looking curiously at us from time to time, and of course SLEEPING. She has this tiny little girl scream sometimes that is adorable even if she is mad. She is already looking different from the picture above which we took the day she came home. The kids love her, but Will is having a hard time adjusting I think, and he's a little too enthusiastic about helping her. He feel asleep and I am so HAPPY right now. Ellie just got home, so I better go.

Don't forget to see Nate's post below and suggest a movie/TV show/documentary you like. :)

netflix

So we are doing the netflix thing. I think it would be cool to have a bunch of suggestions from you fine people. If you would be so good, leave me a comment telling me your favorite movie and why you like it so much.

Thanks.

I Want to Live in Word World

"Welcome to the place where words come alive!"

Word World is a wonderful kids show that that teaches children the fun of reading and phonics. Frankly, I like because it is somewhat of a pleasant show to listen to in the background.

Every time I watch it, something astounds me: Pig has a cooking show. I always think "Why?" We have cooking shows on our planet because cooking is something that half of the population has trouble with at one point or another. On Word World all one has to do is find the letters that spell a particular food item, "build a word", and the food magically forms! How wonderful is that? If I want a pie, I only have to find three letters, "p", "i", and "e", squish it together, and WAHLA!: blueberry pie. (At least that is what it looks like in the show. I'm sure you could spell out pumpkin pie if you really wanted to.)

How EASY and MESS FREE! This is why I want to move to Word World.

Not to mention that if I want to build a rocket ship, all I would have to do is find the letters for "rocket". Or if I wanted say, a Jeep Wrangler, all I would have to do is dig up a few letters and I would get a JEEP! What a great world!

And Word World has letters floating around all over the place. They keep them in buckets in their homes. Dog digs them up out of the ground. Pretty much, this is a win-win situation.

Take Two: The New Poll Should Work This Time.

Sorry. It works now. If you would be so kind as to leave your feedback, that would be nice. :)

New and Refined Poll

Please check out our new and refined poll on the right, and let us know what you think if you so desire.

Please note that the legal disclaimer on the previous poll applies to this poll as well.

Time to be Funny

So the last post I made was about pain. And after pulling up my blog for several days to check what was up with YOUR blogs, I got to thinking that it was time for something less painful up on mine.

Then, Nate posts, "A Time to Kill". Ironic? Well I'm not sure about that, I still haven't figured out the true definition of irony. It's a tricky one.

Well, not to belittle Nate's post in any way, in fact he made some good points, but I think it is finally time to get back to something a little more fun and happy again. Nate's post was really a review for the second Batman movie. This post is going to be about the Singles 2nd Ward movie.

Just as I thought, the movie had a little cheese in it, but as I also thought it had moments of great humor. I have to share my absolute favorite part.

Dallin was visiting Hyrum's ward for Sacrament meeting. Hyrum now has 6 kids and one on the way. Hyrum's wife is the chorister, and is holding a sleeping baby while leading the music. Hyrum hands his 6-7 year old twin boys kraft singles to eat, and after the boys open them, one of the twins flings his cheese at the man in front of them. Hyrum peels the cheese off his face and says, "Sorry Chad." Chad responds with an annoyed, "We do this every week, Hyrum." And about about two minutes later, Hyrum has to take the twins to the bathroom and he drags Dallin along with him. Hyrum starts telling him about what going to church is like with the kids (you know what he means), and all of a sudden you hear the sound of the toilets flushing and you see water rapidly creeping out from underneath both stalls, and then Hyrum says, "WHAT are you DOING?"

This is where I laughed my head off.

The inflection in his voice was absolutely perfect because it contained many inflections at once. The incredulous-ness in his voice, seeking to understand why. What would possess you child to come up with such a thing?? The shock at what just happened and yet he can remember when the twins probably squirted all the glue all over the kitchen floor last week. The horror of having to clean the disgusting mess up. All contained in one sentence.

Well after typing this, I realize it's not going to be as funny as watching it. I hope you find it funny. Perhaps I thought it was so extra funny because it was so late and I was tired. But I suspect the real reason why I thought it was so funny because William flooded the bathroom about two weeks ago.

"WHAT are you DOING??" If I didn't utter it aloud, I was definitely screaming it on the inside. :)

A Time to Kill

To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
2 A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;
3 A time to kill...

Ecclesiastes 3:1-3


I’m watching a movie as I type this. The movie involves widespread chaos and mayhem. Most of it is caused (directly or indirectly) by one man. That man could have been stopped on multiple occasions. The only problem is that the way to stop him on those occasions would have involved killing him.

They should have done it. Of course there is an argument to be made that they did the right thing by not killing him. It just isn’t the right argument.

There is a law that says, in essence, “Thou shalt not kill.” That law must yield to the higher law whenever it would cross it. What is that higher law? That is a fair question. The first answer is the easiest for me--that God’s will in any given situation is the higher law. That answer is easy for me because I have faith in God. I have bought into the rhetorical appeal to God’s ethos. I trust him for who he is. If God says it is time to kill, then I believe it is time to kill. We won’t go into the can of worms that opens–e.g. the “God told me to do it” defense to murder.

The next answer is that societies have set up governments and endowed them with the right to take life. This answer is harder for me because I don’t know that society has the right to break the laws outlined in Exodus 20. It isn’t hard to think of governments that have abused the right to take life. For me this is a utilitarian consideration. Society comes together and decides certain rules under which it will function, with certain punishments attached. By making the rules and enforcing them, society prevents chaos and its children, including murder.

A complete discussion of the pros and cons of capital punishment is outside the scope of this post. There are several theories of punishment. One is retributive justice, which calls for punishment that will set at right the disturbed moral balance. One is deterrence. Deterrence can be broken down into general and specific deterrence. General deterrence envisions punishment as a means of discouraging everyone from breaking the law–stocks come to mind. Specific deterrence is designed to stop the criminal himself from breaking the rules in the future. The single most effective form of punishment for specific deterrence purposes is capital punishment–kill the criminal. I maintain that for certain criminals, specific deterrence is society’s highest priority. This is especially true in the world of mass murder and comic books. Take one life lawfully to save the unlawful taking of many lives.

Of course, society’s rules should include enforcement mechanisms and procedures. Enforcing the laws without following the proper procedures is a violation of society’s rules because law’s necessary companion is order. I don’t advocate vigilantes taking life to save life, but self defense and defense of others are situations in which society has approved the taking of life without following procedure. I advocate shooting the guy holding a gun to someone’s head--if it makes sense under the circumstances. For example, if the guy holding the gun is going to escape and kill lots more people–kill him. Another example is when you have the villain in custody, and he is likely to escape or direct further mayhem and murder from jail. In that case, go through the procedure and execute him swiftly.

This is taking longer than I thought by the way.

Sure, refusing to kill someone is noble and can separate hero from villain, but killing someone can also save lives. The greater good is served by taking the life of the one who will take the lives of many, and it is not noble to stand by while people die just so you can avoid being the one to pull the trigger. There is a time to kill.

Ok, one last thing. The movie ends in a lie, because “sometimes the truth isn’t good enough.” At first it really bothered me, but then I thought, “what greater irony than the atonement?” Punish the one innocent man as if he were the most guilty, to make the guilty innocent. I think the ending may be an intentional (and imperfect) atonement reference. There were some interesting lines at the end. “Why is he running?” “Because we have to chase him.” “He didn’t do anything wrong.” “We’ll chase him, because he can take it.”

Just so we're clear, I think the truth is good enough and the atonement is the truth.

"You mock my pain!" "Life IS pain, Highness. Anyone who tells you otherwise is selling something."

So I was eating my lunch, and needed something to read while doing so. I decided to once again attempt to read about hypno-birthing. It lasted about two minutes.... :)

{Now before I begin, on this little "discussion" about my hypno-birthing reading experience, please know that I am not against it or other forms of natural birthing. If it works for you, I am so happy for you. Please do it with my un-needed and/or un-asked for blessing. }

So why did it last for only two minutes? Well, I'll tell you. I made the mistake of once again beginning with its premise. Towards the beginning of the book, the author tells a little story (true story) about a doctor at the turn of the century in England. He worked in a hospital with educated women and he saw a lot of well to do women, come in to the hospital and give birth. It was a loud, painful experience for them. Then he went into the English slums to help a woman give birth without a sound except her steady breathing. She refused any kind of drug to help with pain. After the birth the doctor asked her how she did it. Wasn't it painful? And she told him that it didn't hurt. "Was it supposed to hurt doctor?" she asked him. Then later the doctor had a similar experience with another woman and he began to ask the question "Why?"

And I'm thinking, "Why!?! I'll tell you why! Because those women are incredibly LUCKY that's why!!! Something is wrong with the pain sensors in their uterine muscles, that's why!"

Of course I know what is coming on next....he is going to blame society's and medicine's unnatural attitudes about birth.

Now please let me state here that to a point I actually agree with him. I do believe that I personally make my own pain worse because of stress and fear. This is why I bought the book (for a $1.50 at a yard sale) in the first place. I want some pain management skills to help me get through the labor in a happier manner.

But today with a little help from The Princess Bride, I remembered why this whole thing upsets me so: They mock my pain. Or at least I feel that way. I feel that the are telling me that the pain I felt was unjustified. Well let me tell you. I felt pain. The biggest pain of my life. I didn't expect it to hurt as bad as it did. It did it all by itself. And you are trying to make it sound like it isn't a real thing. Do you think this makes me feel better? When you go through a painful experience, physical or emotional, do you want to hear someone tell you that so&so went through the same experience in a dignified and painless manner, and you should be able to also?? NO! You want some sympathy! And furthermore, nice MALE hypno-birthing enthusiast doctor, why don't YOU give birth sometime and tell me if it doesn't hurt.

Anyway, sorry. As I stated in the paragraph before I got away with myself, I REALLY do believe that if I could stay calmer it wouldn't hurt as bad as it has in the past. But I am NOT trying to say that it wouldn't hurt at all.

My friend Clair, who I admire, is a firm believer in natural home birth, not that it is exactly the same thing as "hypno-birthing", but it is still a natural attitude about birthing--that a woman's body is built to accomplish this task. I think it was a very smart decision for her to give birth that way. (I think it was a smart decision for pretty much all the people I know who have felt good about it and then done it.) But did she tell me that it was pain free? NO. It hurt her too. But it was worth it to her to give birth naturally at home, and she knew how to manage the pain.

I want a little realism like that here. One of my favorite stories about this, that I read in a magazine, goes like this. Some details I am fuzzy on now, but I will do my best. The story is about a woman (and her husband), and I think she was some sort of athlete, perhaps even a little famous. But the point is, that she and her husband were completely into hypno-birthing. They went to all the classes, they had her mind visualizations all set. Very prepared, they went to the hospital to do this hypno-birthing thing. Well it turns out that during the labor process, she felt what many women feel at this time in their lives: PAIN. Her helpful husband tried to help her visualize her favorite visualization, "the fawn in the forest." Well, I won't repeat what she said because she swore, but let's just say she chose to get the epidural. Now, I'm not promoting the epidural here. She said in the story, that next time, she might want to try hypno-birthing again and more power to her. All I am saying is that the pain is REAL. That's all. If you find a way to manage it, that works for you, go for it even if it is hypno-birthing. But don't try to tell me that my pain is ALL in my head.

Perhaps I need to go somewhere else to learn pain management skills......I don't think hypno-birthing and I are such a good combination. It's a shame though, because that book was really a good price.

too funny

This was just too funny to keep to myself.

The Dance

For her last story tonight Eleanor wanted to "dance to music." I enjoy dancing with my kids. Usually we rock out, but this is Sunday night. We danced to some elegant, churchy songs. There is something about dancing with your little girl. I really like my Ellie.

My thoughts wandered a bit, and I thought about Ellie's wedding reception. My only demand will be one dance with Eleanor...and one with Meridy. I really liked dancing with Meridy at our reception. That was almost seven years ago.

Name a Reeve

We've got a short list of names that we like, but are not sure which one to pick. I am curious to know what the general populous thinks. So please feel free to vote! If you have any comments you are more than welcome to leave them here.

Now for some background on the names, and perhaps some insight on why we can't decide and what the heck we are thinking.

Josie Adelle Reeve
Josie is a great-great-grandmother of mine. My uncle loves to do genealogy work and he passes on names to my mom. My mom liked the name and suggested it to us. Nate really liked it from the first. We are trying to find out more about her. If it turns out she was a bootlegger, I might feel differently about the name, but I am banking on the fact that she was probably a great lady. I have always loved the name Adelle so I would like to use it somehow. This name is probably on the top of the list at the moment.

Anika Starr Reeve
Frankly, I just like the name Anika. It's a little different while still being a "real" name. Starr is a family last name on the Reeve side.

Macy Starr Reeve
Macy would be a fun name because she will be born in May (all things going according to plan). I think it's cute and a little different.

Liberty Grace Reeve
This has a long story to it, which I actually don't want to completely delve into, because I actually don't remember all the details. I think that is a little bit "out there", but not too far out. We would call her Libby. Grace is a family name. But then we found out that celebrity, Joey Lawrence, named his daughter..."Liberty Grace". I felt shocked and betrayed! For crying out loud----WE made it up! Well, it lost some of it's charm, but I haven't quite let it go.

I'm not opposed to mixing it up a little bit, to Josie Starr Reeve, or Macy Adelle Reeve, etc.

So what do you think?

Legal Disclaimer: We maintain the right to listen to your opinions and then not follow them. We maintain the right to come up with a completely different name out of the blue, and then shock you by naming our child that name instead. We acknowledge your right to name your child what you like. We maintain the right of giving you our opinion on your name if it is asked for.

Twenty-Eleven

Welcome 2011! I'm hoping for a good year.

But....

I have to ask: Why are we still saying Two-Thou-sand-and-E-le-ven? I mean, it made sense the year Two Thousand, when it was 2000. It was actually somewhat short, an what else was there to call it? And it even kind of made sense in Two Thousand and One. We were still just getting used to this "Two Thousand" thing. But now? Do we really need to drag "Two-Thou-sand-and" into it?

I motion that we that we turn a new leaf and all start saying Twen-ty-El-e-ven. It's easier to say--well at least a little bit. And it's easier to think. You write down a '20' and then an '11' for the date. When I thought "Two-Thousand-and-Ten" this past year, I was always trying to remember where the zeros went. It would have been so much easier to think to write a '20' and then a '10'. And there is a precedent for this sort of thing we used to say Nineteen-Ninety-Nine. We refer to the year 1492 and the year Fourteen -Ninety-Two. See? It's perfectly logical.

Hey, remember back when it was '99. That's all we said: '99. We never even thought twice about it. Heck, lets just call the year 'Leven. The '20' will be there for a hundred years. The only thing that will change will be the last two numbers. They are the only ones worth mentioning over and over again.

What a great idea! Any one out there with me???