The Credit Crisis — Visualized

The Credit Crisis — Visualized at Get Rich Slowly

Interesting and informative video. It is obviously a simplification of an extremely complex issue so take it for what it is worth.

Glenn Beck - Current Events & Politics - Glenn Beck: U.S. dollars in circulation skyrocketing

Glenn Beck - Current Events & Politics - Glenn Beck: U.S. dollars in circulation skyrocketing

Check this out. And seriously, DEBT IS DUMB!!! We can not spend our way out of debt. We can not buy things we can not afford. This is just crazy.

Crandall Family pictures

These are some pictures our sister-in-law, Andrea, recently took of our family. She did a fabulous job capturing all of us smiling at the same time. Lukie was constantly saying, "all done, all done" in a rather mournful voice. However, he would occasionally chime in saying, "Cheeeese!"

Crandall family pictures

Crandall Family Pictures

Our Profile

As most of you know, we are in the process of adopting. I thought I would let you guys take a peak at our profile. This is a few of the pages from about the 16 we made. At first, I was overwhelmed by the task of putting this together, and I didn't know where to start. Then Corey downloaded Adobe Photoshop Elements (the cheaper of their programs at about $70) and it really made it easier to put this whole thing together! I plan on using this same program for "scrapbooking" in the future, because I have never had the creative juices, space, or money to be a full blown scrapbooker.
So, here it is:

kids live nativity

Our church has a live nativity every year at Christmas time. This year Abby was an angel and Luke was a lion. They did great and looked very good!





In this video, it does not show up very well but, Abby and Luke just look at each other and smile. Luke has a very cute little smile. I love my kids! There are some pictures that my parents took that captured the moment very well. I'll get them and post them.

our family

Abby, Corey, Miriam, Luke

Corey, Cam (my brother) holding Kaden, Brycen, Dad, Mom holding Luke, Abby, Miriam. This picture was taken at our annual Wright-Oligmueller-Crandall family Christmas/Thanksgiving bash. We rent out a gym, eat, play and be merry. Good food, good family, good play, good time.

our beautiful and silly little girl

These pictures of Abby are just beautiful. She is growing up very fast and I am loving being her daddy. Miriam took these pictures and it just captures Abby's playfulness and beauty ... she takes after her mom in both areas.

The silly shot ... now imagine trying to discipline Abby when she looks at you like this. This is her desperation face. The one she makes when I have some important piece of wisdom, correction, or lesson to impart to her and I say ,"Abby look at my face." She whips out this face and it is really hard not to laugh. I am getting better but it is a struggle not to laugh at this.

the red chair

We got some good pictures of the kids. Luke is wearing a suit outfit given to us by a dear friend, EB and it looks great on Luke.

Abby wearing her "reindeer ears"

cut little faces laughing

kids in the snow

Miriam took the kids to a little hill right by our house after a recent snow. Luke was not as big a fan as Abby was. Miriam pulled the kids in the sled and Abby apparently loved going down the hill in the sled.

travelling with kids to aftrica, being the "other guy"

So this post is not about me but about Scott Hanselman. I don't know the guy but just read his blog, which is mostly about computer technology and programming.

But his wife is from Africa and so they travel there somewhat often. He has some interesting posts about this lately.
Here are a couple.
South Africa 2008 - Travelling Long Distances with Kids and Babies
South Africa 2008 - Being The White (or Black) Guy in the Family
South Africa 2008 - Fence Culture
South Africa 2008 – My Passport is Full

Interesting and funny stuff, especially if you have traveled abroad and seen different cultures.

Dan's ATV accident

My brother-in-law (miriam's brother) was in a bad ATV accident. You can see some of the details on the Block Family Blog.

thoughts by jesse and shanee on election

Jesse and Shanee (missionaries in Nepal) that we know from Truman State had something to say about the election. If you are interested go here.

too cool

The morning of luke's surgery, the kids with my mom and dad (pa, lukie boy, abby, mimi)

luke surgery - done and coming home

We are now home. Luke is recovering pretty well. He is a cute little guy. Because the doc did a good job and lukey boy is recovering well, we didn't have to stay at the hospital overnight. This is definitely a good thing because Miriam and Luke will both sleep better at home than at the hospital. Luke took a bottle of milk and ate some food, so he is doing pretty well.

Children's Mercy is a good hospital. There are parts of it that aren't the greatest but overall, I think they do a good job. Our nurses were helpful and attentive. We were also in a relatively new area of the hospital and it was nice. They have a play area with an Xbox 360, a nintendo wii, and a pinball machine (and some other toys for the babies to play with). Yeah, it is probably a good thing we didn't stay overnight in the hospital.

This is just after first seeing Luke after he woke up. He sat up like that the whole time he was wheeled to his room.

Pa and Luke taking a walk to the play area. Thanks for the help Dad!

Luke driving his truck around in the play area. He really enjoyed this.

Getting the "mandatory" wagon ride out to the parking lot. Abby was very concerned about making sure Luke got to ride in the wagon. She told Miriam this over the phone.

luke surgery - out of surgery

We have had this doc before for Abby's tonsils and adenoids removal and she is great. She is very friendly and super helpful. She was kind enough to get some pictures for us. We are waiting to see Luke. He hasn't fully awakened yet.


The before picture. In the upper left corner of the picture you can see the yellowish white area (just to the left of the uvula and just to the right of the blood spot).

The after picture (it is oriented a little goofy, sorry my fault). You can see the incision just to the left of the uvula. They removed the cyst without any problem.

what they don't say about your money

A good article about what obama and mccain won't tell you about money

I don't know much about this author. What I do know is that in the above article he hits some pretty good points. And it highlights some of my frustrations with the way both Obama and McCain campaign's are talking about this.

I have to admit, I was extremely excited when in the VP debate Sarah Palin said this

"Never will we be exploited and taken advantage of again by those who are managing our money and loaning us these dollars. We need to make sure that we demand from the federal government strict oversight of those entities in charge of our investments and our savings and we need also to not get ourselves in debt. Let's do what our parents told us before we probably even got that first credit card. Don't live outside of our means. We need to make sure that as individuals we're taking personal responsibility through all of this. It's not the American peoples fault that the economy is hurting like it is, but we have an opportunity to learn a heck of a lot of good lessons through this and say never again will we be taken advantage of."

This is a complex issue and there is a lot of fault to go around but it is not just greed on Wall Street ... there is plenty of greed on main street to go around. I myself had started down the path of financing my life with debt. Then I LEARNED DEBT IS DUMB!! Check out Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University, you'll be glad (or you will be angry at me and hate Dave Ramsey).

Anyway, this is just an example of an issue that I feel like the candidates for president are just saying what sounds good instead of just saying it like it is. At least Palin mentioned that we all have some responsibility for how we choose to spend our money.

luke surgery - in surgery

Luke is now in surgery. He went int at about 1:50pm and should be done in about 45 minutes.

luke surgery - prep

Luke in his gown getting ready to go to surgery. He loves playing with his cars and of course he has his blanket with him.

Luke and his mommy sitting on the hippo (it's the table).

All in all Luke is doing pretty well. My dad (Curt) is here with us and Luke is enjoying him being here. Luke is obviously hungry as he hasn't eaten since 7am and hasn't had anything to drink since 9:30am. He should be heading to surgery soon.