The Great Global Warming Swindle

First of all, before anyone has an inclination to disregard anything I say from here on out, I want to clarify a few things. I am not some ultra-right wing nut job. I am not anti-environment. I actually am very pro-environment. I want us as humans to be better stewards of the earth. We need to clean up our waterways, preserve the coral reefs, protect the forests and animal populations. I want my grandchildren, and their grandchildren to be able to enjoy our planet and the many, many miraculous creations of God. I believe it is our responsibility to be good stewards of the earth and that we will be accountable before God for our actions.

With that being said, I am so sick and tired of the huge politically and financially motivated movement of global warming fear mongering. The science actually shows that humans are not responsible for climate change like some would have you believe. I received my bachelors degree in Biology, and as such feel I have more of an understanding of the science behind global warming than some literature or fine arts major that tries to discredit me. No, I’m not an expert, but with my background I can sift through the garbage, and the incorrectly presented data. I wish people would quit using (although very effective) the attempt at rhetoric to appeal to the pathos of man. Just because appealing to the emotions of humans is effective, it doesn’t mean it is right. They should have the integrity to display facts as they are, not distort them or intentionally misinterpret them to further their cause.

Also, I am sick of the absolute intolerance of any questioning and counter arguments against global warming. Whenever scientists bring solid evidence to show that it is not human caused, they get ridiculed by the media and general public. The media and general public now have a very fascist approach to this topic. They have an attitude of “you will agree with us or we will paint you to be a fool and an ignorant moron!” Whatever happened to respectful discussions and bringing facts to the table, not skewed data like that which was presented in “An Inconvenient Truth”? It’s like we are experiencing another Spanish Inquisition. Anyone that disagrees with the THEORY of global warming is regarded as a heretic.

There is a great video that explains, with legitimate science, that the global warming campaign is a farce. It is about an hour long, but well worth it. In the video, even the co-founder of Green Peace discredits the movement. This is a man that nobody can question when it comes to his desire to protect the earth. Watch it and learn a thing or two from some very qualified individuals.

The global warming, or now climate change, campaign is driven by people hungry for power and money. For example, Al Gore is considered by many to be one of the front runners for global warming activism. His net worth when he ran for president was about $1 million. Now, after his deceitful push for “climate change” awareness his net worth is estimated to be over $100 million. If he were truly so aware of human caused global climate change, wouldn’t you think he would implement many more “green” aspects in his own lifestyle? He is one of the worst hypocrites with this as he lives in his mansion in Tennessee and uses more energy to light, heat and run his house than almost everyone else in the world.

As for the temperature changes, it is frustrating to me that the global warming activists get so myopic in their own data that they fail to look at the bigger picture. They see that temperatures were rising in the 90’s, and that now they are cooling. They immediately jump to the conclusion, “well, it must be our fault as humans then”. What they fail to recognize is that temperature change can be much more dramatically affected by the sun. You know, that big ball of burning gas that heats our planet? Scientists have shown that during that period of dramatic warming on our planet, the solar flare activity was at an all time high. Then, suddenly, and inexplicably, it stopped. The recent lack of dramatic solar flare activity has since caused a global cooling. This myopic attitude isn’t new either. Back in the 1970’s many of these same outspoken global warming activists were predicting that we were headed for another ice age. The recent cooling temperatures is what spurred the change from calling it global warming, to calling it “climate change” so that they could cover their bases and still promote fear.

Don’t just take my word for it though. A great article in the Boston Globe explains it well.
"Stock up on fur coats and felt boots!" advises Oleg Sorokhtin, a fellow of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences and senior scientist at Moscow's Shirshov Institute of Oceanography. "The latest data . . . say that earth has passed the peak of its warmer period, and a fairly cold spell will set in quite soon, by 2012."
Sorokhtin dismisses the conventional global warming theory that greenhouse gases, especially human-emitted carbon dioxide, is causing the earth to grow hotter. Like a number of other scientists, he points to solar activity - sunspots and solar flares, which wax and wane over time - as having the greatest effect on climate.

If the proponents of global warming would care to look at long term data (meaning from polar ice records, geological records, botanical records, etc.) they would see that the earth is cyclical in its climate patterns. For the past thousands, and even millions, of years the earth has cooling and warming trends.

Also, the argument that increased CO2 causes the temperatures to go up is false. It is the other way around, increasing temperatures (i.e. from the sun) causes the CO2 to increase. The data supports this completely.

That whole bit about polar bears becoming extinct is another unfounded statement as well. In an attempt to scare the unknowing into thinking we won’t have the cute and cuddly polar bears in the future, these claim that if we continue to drive our car or fly in a plane we will further drive global warming. This link explains quite clearly that the polar bear thesis is wrong and not a concern to believe in global warming.
As much as I despise the deceit behind the climate change scare, there are some good results that are coming from it. We as humans are more cognizant of the environment and the world around us. There has been a big push to not litter, to conserve energy, to not waste resources, to protect our supplies of drinking water, etc. One other thing I see coming from it is becoming independent from foreign oil. This is a topic for a whole different thread, but if we wanted to establish real, meaningful change in this world, we would not be so dependent on foreign oil.

Again, I am all for cleaning up our planet and taking care of it, but for crying out loud, enough with the lies and misrepresented data! Feel free to comment, but keep it civil.

New House

Finally! We are going to close and move in to our new house next week. The paper work is all done and finalized. We go to sign on Wednesday most likely (my work schedule won't allow me to go on Tuesday). We are so excited to have this horrific experience behind us after 2 months of headaches and nightmares with the underwriter. I really believe we had the absolute worst underwriter ever. Everybody involved with this process is livid with how the underwriter handled our case, delayed it by many weeks, and wasted way too much time.

We had way, way too many lost days because the underwriter would review our case, put it to the side and send a request to us wanting more information, often lame, redundant requests too. Then, after having to go through the third party and then to us, we automatically lost two days. We would immediately return the requested info only to have another lost two days in passing the info through the third party. Then after leaving the info on her desk for two days, she would finally return to our case. So, it was often an entire week wasted for every one of her inane requests. One example (there are dozens more, trust me) that illustrates how stupid the underwriter was is regarding the cabinets in the house. One day we received a request for documentation proving that the house had cabinets. We replied politely (I wanted to really tell her my thoughts, but had to remain calm and patient) that if she would look at the appraisal documents we provided from the beginning, she would see the photos of the cabinets in the house. Amazing! So many times she would ask for stuff she already had, but would waste another week because of her lack of a brain. So, thanks stupid underwriter for dragging this process out to an entire month past our original closing date.

We didn't want to stay with them, but they kept telling us for two months that we were almost there and that they should be done with it all "any day now". Had we known it would have been delayed so much, we would have gone with a different company much earlier, but we had no idea it would turn into such a circus. Well, we finally got nasty with her and told the company she works for that we had enough. We got our third extension from Zions bank (who we were buying the house from), and told the underwriter if she didn't have all the documents done the next day at noon, we were taking our case to another company. Lo and behold, they got right to it and things got done. Amazing.

The only thing that kept Lisa and me sane through the entire debaucle was the thought of getting into this home for so cheap. It was built last summer and just sat vacant while the market tanked. We have been renting a house across the cul de sac from it, and we knew the week it finally got handed over to Zions bank in foreclosure. Our real estate agent Gary (what an amazing guy, thanks for everything Gary) went to the bank with our own private appraisal and low balled Zions big time. After a little going back and forth they settled on a price that was way cheaper than it even costs to build the house. The house is much bigger than we wanted, but we decided for that price we would be foolish to pass it up. Basically, we are getting the lot for free and the house for $75 a square foot. Sweet mamacita! I guess that is one good thing that has come from the bad economy.

So here are a few pics of the house. This is the house looking at it from the South. We are at the end of the cul de sac, so it will be great for the kids to grow up playing in the circle.

Here is a view as you enter the front door and begin to walk upstairs to the bedrooms.

This is the kitchen.

This is the living room.

This is the mud room as you come in from the garage.

Here is a view of Provo Peak and Deer Creek reservoir from our master bathroom.

And here is a view of Mt. Timpanogas from our master bedroom. The views are fantastic from this house.

We love living in Midway and are so excited to finally own a house and to not have to pay rent any more.

Aren't my kids adorable?!!!

Spring project

While my kids have been enjoying playing in the gravel pit at our "almost ours" new house... I've been working on refinishing the canopy bed that my grandma gave me when I was Aubrey's age.

My mom has been great and comes up to help me with it. We are almost done and I can't wait until Aubrey gets to sleep in her princess bed.

Not much else has been going on around here. Our closing date keeps getting pushed back on our house so we have been sitting around waiting to hear word on the progress. I've been battling a cold for a week and I found out yesterday that Tucker has strep. It's too bad, spring has finally sprung around here and it's beautiful! At least we can still enjoy it from the confines of our circle. : )

Easter and other random stuff.

The kids had a great Easter this year. On Saturday, Cody and I had a presentation to go to, so Cody's parents came up to watch the kids. They took them to the Heber City Park for their annual Easter Egg Hunt. Our kids have never done that before and loved it! Too bad we didn't get pictures, maybe next year. Thanks for taking them Mickey and Cerola!

These pictures aren't in order of how we did things but oh well. Here they are all ready for church on Sunday. Cole is looking like a little man and not to brag or anything, but I bought Aubrey's dress for $3! (For all you Marylanders, ask Amanda Clauser -Hampstead Ward - about the store in PA that sells their stock of dresses twice a year for $3 a piece. Aubrey still has a few dresses that will fit her next year.) Cody's helping Tucker dye the eggs.
"Oohhh! Look how pretty!"

Just some brotherly love.

Aubrey received a pair of Little Mermaid sunglasses for her birthday and sports them around all the time. She thought Cole needed to try them on. : )

We've been busy getting last minute paperwork into our loan officer with hopes that we will FINALLY close on the house sometime this week. I think I've rescheduled Qwest and Direct TV 3 times with new move in dates. (Our original closing date was March 30th)

Tucker starts swimming lessons tomorrow, I started a spinning class and have been running quite a bit - these last 10 baby pounds are refusing to budge! I'm hoping that it's just because we've been stressed about the house and once we are in my body will finally kick it in gear.

One of my friends told me about this new thing on Walmart.com Go to their website and click on In Stores Now. You can sign up to receive tons of free samples from different products. My friend suggested using them for 72 hour kits. Not a bad idea, and they really are free. I received my first samples in the mail today.

Aubrey is 2!

Our little girl is 2 today! I didn't realize how much she's really changed in the last year until I looked up her 1st birthday pictures. She was a cute little chunk! And now she's our cute skinny girl with lots of hair!

We decided last minute to throw her a party yesterday. We thought we would be moving over the weekend, but that didn't happen, so we had her party instead. I like to make my kids cakes so I decided on this flower. Really simple, by far my worst decorating job, but she liked it and it tasted great! She probably would have loved a Little Mermaid cake the most, but I wasn't about to attempt that without some preparation.
Aubrey isn't one to be the center of attention, she gets shy, but knew right what to do when it came to blowing out candles!

Our princess was spoiled!

Happy Birthday Aubrey! We love you!

Tropical Dinner

In response to the recent, unwelcome snow storms (this entire week) I decided to make an awesome tropical dinner tonight in an effort to escape the wintry weather we are having in April. I made us some brown sugar glazed, barbeque grilled salmon with a pineapple salsa on top. The side dish as you can see in the photo was rice, and the meal was oh-so delicious.

Lisa made an amazing ocean breeze cooler to top it off (I know it looks alcoholic, but trust me this one was as virgin as they come). The cooler has pineapple, bannanas, mango sorbet, ginger ale and pineapple juice.

You would never have known it was 30 degrees outside or that we had experienced 5 days straight of snowy weather, despite the astronomical coming of spring. Our little family devoured the tropical dinner, even the kids. They love salmon. When I started to grill it up on the bbq they were jumping around chanting, "fishy! fishy! our favorite!"

What weird kids we have! For dessert, we are going to have my absolute favorite, strawberry shortcake. Ummmmmm, so good! And as if things weren't great enough, Lisa had the magic touch at the Red Box tonight and was able to rent the Adam Sandler movie Bedtime Stories even though it doesn't officially come out until Tuesday. What a fantastic Friday!