Rockin' Utah and the End of Summer

I know that summer actually doesn't end until next month, but for all intents and purposes, summer kind of drew to a close here today--because Sarah, Joel, and Eliza had to leave for school in South Carolina. It's great that they have that opportunity and that they have such a nice setup there, but we're all quite sad around here. It was so fun to have the whole family together for a few months! Little Eliza is just starting to use some new words, and her big smile is very contagious--so we're already missing having her, Sarah, and Joel around the house. Tomorrow the Barretts will come over for dinner, so we'll still try to have fun here (although it won't be quite the same without the Agates).

Today the newest resident of Fairfield, Utah was born--a baby cow! (Kind of like the baby butter cow in Springfield, only this one is black.) This little guy was born this morning just after I got to work. Isn't he cute? He was born in the pasture that is right between the Camp Floyd Commissary and the old school house, and I had to keep walking between those two places today, so I got to see the little calf a few times. He looked pretty skeptical about this strange new place, but he was up walking around and drinking milk, so he seemed to be doing well.

Here I am in today's pioneer getup--complete with bonnet--in front of the old schoolhouse. Don't let the smile fool you--I was still sad about having to say bye to the Agates this morning. :-( Today was "Rockin' Utah" out at Camp Floyd. Rockin' Utah is a program started by the State Parks Commission to try to increase interest in Utah's state parks. We had 50 people sign up, but only about 30 actually came. That was okay though, because that meant more food for us!

We had some Civil War reenactors come out and prepare a "period picnic" for the participating families. They made some delicious food (although the beef stew was a little too warm to be eating out in the hot sun). My favorite parts of the meal were the garbanzo bean salad and the shortbread cookies. The reenactors are really hardcore, and not only did they spend the night there in their tents last night, but they're staying there tonight as well. Some of them are not very friendly though. I think that they don't like mingling with people who aren't one of "them."

James and I were in charge of the school program this morning, which seemed to go over pretty well. The day's activities consisted of the school program, pioneer games, army drilling, lunch, and musket firing. It was a busy and tiring day! But there's no rest for the weary, so tomorrow I need to face the crazy five-year-olds in Primary. Last week I got punched in the throat by a disgruntled child, so we'll see what's in store for me tomorrow.

Today when I was driving home from Camp Floyd, I could see this crazy thunderstorm out over Utah Valley. Situated where I was in Cedar Valley, I was just west of the storm--complete with a rainbow--but then when I got to Saratoga Springs I encountered the downpour. It looked pretty neat though.

Binkies and Butter Cows

I have recovered from yesterday's blood drawing catastrophe! Today Mom and I had a very fun time going up to Salt Lake. I had an interview with a man in the LDS Historic Sites Division which is housed there at the Museum of Church History and Art. They have an internship opening--and the internship sounds awesome--but I don't know if the timing would be right on it. It really would be cool though, to get to work on writing the history manuals for the missionaries at the Church historic sites, as well as working on management plans and museum exhibit text for the various sites. We'll have to see what they say when they call back. The Museum of Church History and Art has always been #1 on my list of cool places to work (although Abraham Lincoln's house and Gettysburg are right up there too). I also met with the director of collections there at the museum. She has a sweet job! She's very nice, and I'm glad--even if I don't take the internship--to have met and chatted with those people today. I don't want to be an intern forever, so I wish that they would have a full-time job open up there!

After the job interviews, Mom and I went and had lunch at our favorite place--the Lion House Pantry. It was, as always, delicious. I had a tasty apricot/apple pie, and Mom had some delectable apple pie. It was a very fun and productive visit to SLC today.

This evening we had a great dinner over at Lindy and Nate's. Lindy is quite the chef! The highlights of the meal included the punch, the two types of tasty salmon, and the banana berry pie. Mmmmm!!

Yesterday Eliza, who loves her binkies, figured out how to have two in her mouth at once (and you'll notice she's carrying a spare). She thought she was quite tricky. She is so cute and fun, and I don't know what we'll do for fun around the Taylor house when the Agates head back to South Carolina on Saturday. Eliza is our little comedian.


Speaking of funny babies, look at this--the famous Illinois Butter Cow had a baby! The little butter baby will be on display during the Illinois State Fair in Springfield from Aug. 8-17.

Speaking of Springfield, I sent a letter to the editor of the Illinois State Journal-Register the other day about the ridiculous situation with the state historic sites. I was so happy to see that yesterday they printed my letter along with a bunch of others on the same topic! If you would like to see yesterday's letters to the editor, click here. Here is the printed text from my letter:

Rich history of our state is significant
I was appalled to hear of the recent Illinois Historic Preservation Agency budget cuts. The dramatic downsizing of the agency because of lack of funding will hamper the ability of the state historic sites to accommodate visitors — a problem that will surely hurt the state’s economy, which relies heavily on tourism. With the upcoming Abraham Lincoln bicentennial celebrations in 2009, Gov. Rod Blagojevich could not have chosen a worse time to debilitate the state historic sites. Unfortunately, cutting funding to historical agencies seems to be a national trend, but no other budget cuts have been as profound, detrimental and untimely as those in Illinois. By taking money from the state’s main historical agency to fill gaps in the state budget, the governor and other officials are sending a message to the public that the history of their state is not significant. But the rich history of Illinois is most definitely significant. Resources set aside to preserve that history should not be used as an emergency fund to cover the mismanagement of money elsewhere. As Abraham Lincoln once said, “We cannot escape history.” But if Blagojevich does not act quickly to restore funding to the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, history may well escape Illinois.

Tiffany Taylor
Orem, Utah

What do you think? It at least made me feel better to let my opinions be known. Blagojevich still has a missing 1.4 billion dollars in the state budget. There was a funny article in the Journal-Register about how Blagojevich thinks he's the "king" of Illinois. At least there has been a significant public outcry against the cuts to the state historic site funds.

A Pretty Rough Day . . .

Sigh. This is how I am feeling after a very unpleasant visit to the doctor. Today was an interesting day, to say the least. I had to go to the doctor for a checkup this morning, and though the exam itself wasn't as bad as I had feared, the part where they drew my blood was worse than I had expected. I've had blood drawn before, and I didn't enjoy it, but it wasn't ever really a problem. Today, however, it was indeed a problem :-) I sat down in this big cushy chair with a padded back and large arm rests. Then the nurse pulled out six of those little plastic tube things for the blood. They don't usually take that much blood! But I was resigned to my lot, so I stuck my arm out and she chose the vein she was going to tap for blood.

I was okay for probably about three of the tubes, but then my head started feeling really funny. I started to sweat, my vision started getting fuzzy, and there was a ringing in my ears. I said, "I'm not feeling so well." The nurse said, "Yeah, you're looking a little pale. Just keep talking to me and lay your head on your other arm." So I put my head down and started mumbling about something, but the fuzziness in my head was quickly getting worse. She finished taking my blood, and my arm felt really tingly. The last thing I remember hearing her say was, "Bend your elbow to put pressure on the vein." Then, blackness . . .

The next thing I remember is feeling pressure on my back and arm. I thought I was in my bed at home, just waking up in the morning. I opened my eyes a little bit and saw the nurse there struggling to pull me up. My first thought was, "What is that lady doing in my room?" Then I realized that I was not in my bed, and the uncomfortable pressure I was feeling was from the chair. I had fallen back and was lodged in between the chair back and the arm rest. The nurse was afraid I would start throwing up in that position, so she was trying her best to pull me up while pushing the emergency call for help button on the wall. Finally I came to enough to help pull myself up, but then I started feeling really weird. I broke out in a cold sweat, and my stomach started turning. No one was answering the help button, so the nurse ran out into the hall to get someone. The other nurse came in, and they both started trying to dry off my arms and face which were drenched in sweat. About that time I started to throw up, so they popped the garbage can in front of my face, but luckily the nausea quickly subsided. They were putting cold towels on my face and giving me apple juice to try to help me recover. My whole body was really tingly and I felt terrible. After a few minutes one of the nurses started looking at my eyes. She said, "Yep, your eyes are dilated." I said, "What does that mean?" She said, "Well, when you pass out, your body pretty much starts to shut down. That's why you felt like throwing up." Great, sorry I asked.

During the course of the ordeal, my glasses ended up on the floor, and at some point I guess I was tugging on my hair to try to keep myself conscious--because my hair was all crazy. (Well, I know it's usually crazy--but it didn't look that crazy when I left this morning.) After a few minutes they determined that I was good to go, but they said that if I tried to drive myself home I would probably pass out. Thankfully Mom had come with me this morning! So I went back out into the waiting room where Mom was waiting for me, and she said I was quite a sight--my clothes were wet, my face was wet, my hair was wet and sticking straight up, and I was white as a ghost. She wondered what they had done to me. :-)

But, it's all good now. I had a nice, long nap this afternoon (although I was having strange dreams about dinosaurs eating little candy people), and now I can relax because the doctor visit is over. And, all's well that ends well, right?

Field Trip Fun

Yesterday was the best day of work ever because Camden, Riley, Sid, Eliza, Lindy, Sarah, Joel, Mom, and Dad all came to Camp Floyd for a field trip and picnic! The girls loved wearing their ranger badges (Eliza was even decked out in her ranger attire) and doing their Junior Pony Express Rider activity books. They thought the movie was a little boring, but the grown-ups found it quite informative. They also liked trying on some Civil War hats and hearing about all of the soldiers that used to live there. They thought the petrified potatoes in the museum were pretty gross, but liked seeing the diamond ring that was found during one of the archaeological digs.

We then went on a tour of Stagecoach Inn. Everyone's favorite part was the men's washroom with the bathtub and potty chair. We then had a fun picnic out under the 150 year old trees and enjoyed the beautiful weather. Thank you for the fun visit everyone!

Cove Fort Days and the Mad Serbian Dictator

On Friday, Mom and I had a very fun trip home from St. George! We were both in the mood for a drive-in hamburger, so we stopped at Mel's in Beaver. They had just the type of yummy hamburger we were looking for. We then, of course, went to the cheese factory to get some cheese curd and ice cream. They had my new favorite ice cream flavor there: birthday cake! Then we headed to Cove Fort for Cove Fort Days. It was such a fun event! The missionaries had a lot of fun things going on. We went on a tour of the fort, then we posed with the two funny oxen (those are real oxen in the picture and, yes, they are big), and had a fun time looking around the "Pioneer Camp." Seeing the Stagecoach Office at the fort was especially meaningful to me--since I'm really in to stagecoaches these days. They even had a real stagecoach there at the fort and were giving people rides in it! It was quite an enjoyable event. I hope that they do it every year. Thank you for the fun vacation, Mom!!!

While we were in St. George, a few more things went down with the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency in Springfield. The agency had to lay off virtually all of its seasonal employees due to Gov. Blagojevich's 3 million budget cut, and they are having to close a number of sites--including LINCOLN'S TOMB!!--for a few days a week. That is bad news, especially with the Lincoln Bicentennial coming up in 2009. Unfortunately, laying off all of the seasonal workers will only save the agency $150,000, so they still need to figure out how they are going to cut out another 2.5 million dollars from their operating expenses. Basically it's nothing but bad news for Illinois history people. I don't know what this will mean for the future of the IHPA--since they run all of the major historic sites (except Abe Lincoln's house which is an NPS site), including the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum. Governor Blagojevich's budget cuts are preposterous! Especially since he is currently under investigation for a missing 2 billion dollars that he claims has been used for "miscellaneous" government expenses. Three million isn't a lot of money to Blagojevich, but it is to the IHPA. People in Springfield are starting to refer to Blagojevich as the "Mad Serbian Dictator," which is actually an accurate description. His dad was from Serbia, and he is indeed mad (as in insane) and a dictator. He obviously doesn't care about the history of Illinois, and he's going to do everything he can to take the state down with him as he heads straight to prison. As I've said before, Illinois is infamous for having corrupt governors.