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. :)