Christmas night update

Well, we had a fantastic day today. Ian woke up about 7am and we went into the living room to check out what Santa had left. Ian opened his stocking and also open a Mr. Potatoe Head set. Ian thought it was pretty cool and enjoying opening those two things. Him, Kathy and I ate breakfast and started getting ready for the day. Kathy I exchanged our gifts before everyone got there, and I had a blast watching Kathy open her stuff. I have included pitures so you can see what I got. Many of you already know that Kathy got a webcam for christmas and she has already sent out a message to everyone.

Around 11-11:30 the rest of the family came over to wait for Maddie to get home around noon to start opening everyone's gifts. The kids got a lot of toys, Ian got a T-Ball set and a Black and Decker tool bench. Maddie got Barbie dolls and a jewelery box, and much more for both of them. We all had a great time opening gifts and then it was time for lunch/dinner. We had grilled chicken and mashed potatoes and green beans. And of course there were rolls. :)

Both of the kids had a sleep over at Grandma's house (my mom). We had a perfect dy and couldn't have asked for it to be any better.

Love, The Young's

P.S.

By the Way everyone we have a new addition to our family and his name is Jerome and he is a cat. We got him from the Human Society about 2 weeks ago and he is the perfect cat! Him and Jesse get along and have started to play with each other.

P.S.S

Tomorrow is a very special day. It is Ian and Gram's Birthday that they share. HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

Christmas Message from the Youngs

My Year in Fantasy Football

This commercial pretty much sums up how my Fantasy Football team did this year.

All is well in Breast land

The wait is finally over. I had the mammogram today and it turns out that one of the lympnods in my armpit decided to take road trip to my breast. It will just stay there now and I only have to go back if it changes size or shape.

I want to thank you all for you positive thoughts and prayers.

Jessica

Twas the night before mammogram

'Twas the night before Mammogram, when all through the house

Not a child was stirring, not even a dog;

The keys were hung by the door with care,

In hopes that morning soon would be there;

The women were nestled all snug in their beds,

While visions of healthy breast danced in their heads,

Twas the night before Mammogram and she is nervous.

Hanging out

Well I am enjoying this cold Sunday with my parents, the kids and all of the dogs. The kids were up earlier and we all went for a walk with Jesse. Jesse did great job on the walk. She has this new Gentle Lead collar. The collar does not let her pull on the leash when we are walking. The first day we got it we went on a hike and she responded great to it.

Today we brought Jesse to my parents house to be social with their dogs. They have two dogs, a medium sizes mutt and a wiener dog. (And they have three cats) She did great when we got there. All the dogs sniffed each other for awhile and Jesse even responded well to the cats.

We thought it would be a great idea to do this that way if we go out of town we have someone to watch the dog without them having to go up to our house. Jesse gets a little nervous sometimes and then she poops everywhere.

And now we are watching football. Go Rams! (Go Cowboys from Kathy)

I feel a lump in my breast, now what?

I asked myself this question just this past Friday.

"I feel a lump in my breast, now what?"

I am only 24 years old, I have a 2 years old son, a stepdaughter and a loving wife, what is this? The first thing I did what ask my wife to feel and make sure that I wasn't feeling things. Sure enough she feels something too. Now the panic sets in. I keep feeling it everyday to see if it went away, it didn't. Then I start to notice that my left breast feels bigger and it is sagging on one side. So my first day at work (I work at a doctors office) I make an appt to have an exam. The doctor also feels it and doesn't look like it is anything good.

The first she thing says is "You need to get a mammogram done."

Then I said "What do you think it is? Because I have had an infected Milk Duct before, but it didn't really feel like this."

She said "Welll its not and infected milk duct, and you have a family history of Breast Cancer so I think the next step is to get a mammogram and and then we will go from there."

I think to myself, I am only 24 years old could this really be happening?

And now I wait. That is what this game is hurry up and wait. And now I worry and wait for my mammogram on Monday. While I am waiting, I can't help but want to spend even more time with my family especially my son. To every woman out there, do your self-exams and get your yearly exams, don't put it off because it can only do good.

For more information please go to www.komen.org.

The Laramie Project

Last night Jess and I went to see a community college production of "The Laramie Project." This is a play based on the Matthew Shepard story.

Matthew Shepard

For those that don't know Matthew was killed 10 years ago in Laramie, Wyoming for being gay. Unfortunately the things the play speaks about still happen much too often today. Just a few days ago a man was shot in Syracuse, NY while sitting in his car. The reason given by his shooter - was because he didn't like gay people. You can read more on the story here.

One thing that happens in the play is the Westboro Baptist Church, led by Fred Phelps, comes to protest the trial of one of Matt's killers. You will love the name of their website godhatesfags.com . If you go to their "church" website be prepared. The signs they hold at their protests are hateful. What I find most frightening is they bring their children and have them holding these signs and spewing this same hate.

Well Mr. Phelps decided to come and protest the play here in Arizona. The community did a call to action and we had over 300 gay, lesbian, transgender, and straight people there to counter protest. It was beautiful. Everyone wearing red and protecting the sidewalks so people felt safe to go to the show. In from of the theater everyone had giant angel wings on, just like they did at the court house, to block the sight of Phelps' hateful signs. Phelps' supporters did come - all 10 of them. However, they stayed so far away no one knew they were on the campus. Not being able to get near the parking lots, walkways, or theater they were pretty much shut down. The community college sold out the performance that night and got a standing ovation. A few of the actors were so overwhelmed by the crowd (80 had been the most to attend) and the ovation they broke down right on stage. I imagine some of those young people were gay and to see the support from their own community was just too much. There wasn't a dry eye in the place. An email received today from the technical director of the play commented on the irony "Our show sold out, THANKS WESTBORO BAPTIST CHURCH, we made a lot of
money off of your CRAZY ASSES!"

The video gives just a small part of the play. It's an important part if you don't know Matt's story. I encourage you to take a few minutes and watch it. If you haven't seen the whole play I encourage you to keep your eyes open for a local production. Also there is an HBO version that was made. Unfortunately, the story still speaks to what is happening now. 10 years after Matt's murder hate crimes law for LGBT people still has not gotten passed. It made it through Congress this year but President Bush vetoed it. He clearly doesn't know Judy Shepard. I have had the opportunity to meet and speak with her a few times. She is an amazing woman that has taken on this fight to protect the rest of us even though her son is gone. Everytime I see her I just want to say "I'm sorry we haven't gotten this done for you." 10 years is a long time to fight and tell about the death of your child over and over. Her speech to Congress and her being at the door when they walked into vote is what got the job done. I wish she could have been in the oval office. I'm not sure even George Bush would have vetoed the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Bill (yes that was the name of the piece of legislation) with her standing right there.

Kath & Jess with Judy Shepard

HRC Dinner 2006

Halloween '08

We had a fun time for Halloween. I had the day off and Jess was able to get off early so we got Ian all dressed up and off we went around the neighborhood.

There was a neighborhood party happening. So Ian and I went in the bouncy.

 

  

Then with a kiss from Mom Mom (Jess) it was off to trick-or-treat

 

 

 

Great Obama '08 Pumpkin! It's not even ours :)

Maddie was with Jen but made an appearance so we could see her Gabriel out fit from High School Musical

 

Jess dressed up as well but mysteriously we don't have any pictures of that....hmmm a new conspiracy theory is born!

Wassup 2008

I remember the original commercial. This parody is amazing!

Pumpkin Patch

Well this weekend it really cool off here in Phoenix. The temperature dropped to around 75-79 during the day and around 60-65 at night. For some of you I know that is still warm, but on Saturday night it was cold with the wind, even Ian said it was cold. :)

Today Maddie didn't have school because it is Columbus Day so we relaxed during the morning and then in the afternoon we took the kids to the pumpkin patch and they had fun. We got them both little pumpkins and Ian did not want to leave. Then we went to the play area at the mall at that is when the chaos happened but not with our kids. At the play area there is a height requirement and rules and what not. Maddie does a good job being careful of the little ones and really just plays with Ian. Well today with their being no school everybody and their brother was there. First is started with 9 and 10 years old trying to be on the merry-go-round that is for kids like Ian's age. So I said something to them to get off. Then, there were bigger girls running and one of them ran over Ian and I yelled at them too. Then one boy climbed on top of one of the toys and decided to jump off. When he jumped, Maddie was walking by and he landed on her. She was ok and just has a little mark under her eye. But when we were at the all half of her face was red from rug burn. I must say I controlled myself very well. :) Then there were even bigger boys that were playing tag. So we decided to leave. Then while I was putting on Ian's shoes they ran into us and both Kath and I yelled at them. For me it was the second time of telling them to stop running.

So we were leaving the mall and I saw the Guest Services area and decided to make a complaint because all of those kids were too big to be in there. The Assistant Manager took my complaint, phone number and gave Maddie and ice pack for her face. He was also going to send another Security Guard over again. We were the third complaint today about the size of the kids. Whats funny is that is it just more the parents not being parents and following the rules. Blah!

Well when we got home Ian and Maddie drew faces on there pumpkins and then Ian dropped his again and cracked the top of it and it started leaking. Anyways, the kids had a great day today and got to play outside a lot.

I hope everyone has a great week.

Jess

Annual Taekwondo Camp

This weekend I instructed at our annual Regional Taekwondo Camp. I am one of 3 staff members in charge of Instructor Certification. For this year we had a different format and did the test first thing so we could focus on improving their skills instead of reviewing. It worked very well. We will probably stick with this format because of the great results.

Saturday was a rainy day at camp. There would be sun one minute and then a downpour. This really dropped the temperature and by the time it was time for the campfire it was freezing and windy. We managed a decent fire in the wind and let the campers ask questions of the staff and we told some stories about our time in Taekwondo. Everyone had a great time.

After everyone was sent back to their cabins for lights out some of us were left chatting around the dying fire. Some campers that had been coming for forever talked of their favorite times of past camps and it became obvious that the most impactfull moments were from the staff demo done at midnight. We wake the campers up and have a silent performance with only flashlights lighting the room. The campers do not know this will be happening. While one was not planned Sr Master Babin after hearing the stories felt it was so important that we went to work at 10:30pm and created this years demo. The feedback today from the campers was great. I had all of my students on staff perform a form with me. Two of us did it backwards while three did it correctly. Then one stayed and we did a hybrid of the sixth degree black belt form. Everyone was very impressed.

Unfortunately, Jess was unable to come which was a bummer. It's always something we have enjoyed doing together but she was unable to get off work.

Tired from a long hard weekend but very satisfied with all that was accomplished.

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Rainbow Festival and a Coming Out of Sorts

The annual Rainbows Festival was held here in Phoenix October 4th and 5th. This is a type of gay pride event but on a much smaller scale (no parade, less performers, etc.) I am always in charge of getting volunteers to work the booth for the Human Rights Campaign. For those of you that don't know I am on the Board of Governors for this organization. This year I am the gala dinner co-chair, membership co-chair, community events co-chair, and volunteer co-chair. Needless to say this keeps me busy.

This year we were extremely short staffed for the booth. I was going to have to be there all day Sunday with very little help. My mom says to me right before the weekend, "If you don't need me to watch the kids then I'll come help you." Now she has come and walked the festival before so it wasn't a big deal for her to go but to spend the whole day there was a big deal.

We got to the booth around 10am and set up. Then spent until 5pm signing up new members and educating people on voting No on Prop 102 and encouraging them to donate money to Arizona Together, the group fighting the amendment. Proposition 102 is the so called Marriage Amendment, which will write discrimination into the constitution here in Arizona. Arizona was the first and is the only state to ever defeat an anti-gay amendment. However the legislators have decided to ignore the voters and put it back on the ballot. It was a great day and I enjoyed having my mom there. The gay community LOVES interacting with supportive parents. I know it always has an impact on my mom when she hears some of the stories of parents that have disowned their kids or are currently making it hard for them to be who they are. She always has a little bit of support to share with them and gives them hope that their parents can one day be accepting of them.

This leads me to my "coming out" portion. I have been maintaining another blog that I write under the name Lezzymom- more political and opinionated. This blog has been featured on C-Span for some of the political commentary I made on the Democratic and Republican National Convention - which I must say was pretty cool to see your website pop up on screen and be featured followed by a top news blog. It was very cool!

This has led to me being asked to be a contributing writer on another blog called Lez Get Real - A Girl's View on the Gay World. My first article was posted yesterday and was on Prop 102. You can read it here. The best thing was one of the first comments was from a straight man supporting the No Vote and wanting to stop the discrimination.

I have not wanted to overly push my political views here (nudge maybe but not push) so I have kept it separate. However, I am very proud of these blogs and that the writing is being recognized. If you all visit feel free and please leave a comment.

cowboy fans

Woo Hoo football is back! What makes it even better is he is wearing one of my other jerseys. It was very funny to see him walking around in it.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Stormy night

We have been hav
ing many stormy nights here. Ian doesn't like storms very much. He is sitting right next to me signing rain and saying storm. But now he is trying to touch the key board. This is his message to everyone:

447859+3*7/\\\
O

LOL! have a good night everyone!

Jess

Ian in Maddie's Wardrobe

Bad Storm

Had another bad storm last night. Apparently our neighbor's tree couldn't take it. Ended up in our yard.

Weekend in Sedona ends by Rocking with Melissa Etheridge

Jess and I were able to spend a weekend up in beautiful Sedona for $20. Yep that's right $20. We were supposed to sit through and 1 1/2 hour timeshare presentation but they let us out after 30mins. They even gave us $100 to use at restaurants, gas stations, and shops.

We had a very relaxing time. Visited the resort's spa and had some jacuzzi and sauna time. We then headed to dinner at the resort hotel.
The next day we ate breakfast at the Red Planet Diner. We had eaten there before with Mike and Heidi and remembered they had good food. It is a fun place to eat because of the decor. The restaurant is all based on an alien theme so it's like you are eating on another planet. the ceiling is a giant spaceship. Luckily the food is made for earthlings and very good.

After checking out the some of the shops we decided to get new tattoos. We found a small shop owned by a very nice family. The man that did the tattoos is Native American and was a blast to work with. The tattoos are below and to answer everyone's first question - yes they hurt.




After a relaxing time we headed back to Phoenix on Monday. We had tickets to the Melissa Etheridge concert later that night. We had great seats (5th row) and she gave an awesome 3 hour show. Started on time and with no opening act, just all her. Lots of great songs and energy throughout. The whole concert was based on her telling the story of her life. It was a great blend of music and time just to hear her tell about her journey. We ended up right at the stage by the end of the show.




It was a nice relaxing get away that the Mommies were in need of! Thanks to Grammie, Grandma, and Auntie for allowing it all to be possible!

-KJ

Milestones for the Kids

Well Tuesday was a big day in the Young house. First after school while the kids were with Grammie, Ian told Grammie he had to "Pee". Apparently he walked around saying that and then headed into the bathroom and to his potty. Grammie took his diaper off and he indeed went pee pee in his potty. He got much praise from his sister and Grammie. Madison even decided she wanted to dump the pee into the big toilet and flush it. She also wanted to make sure he got a prize which turned out to be a book Grammie had. We are not pushing the issue but he does like to go and sit on his potty from time to time. We'll see what happens from here.




Later that night Maddie lost her first tooth while at Jen's house. I received a call while I was at work to let me know. She was very excited that the tooth fairy would be coming that night. The tooth fairy brought her a dream pearl to go on her special bracelet. It's from a set that comes with a tooth fairy story about how the tooth turns into a pearl. She puts the bracelet and the tooth in a bag and in the morning the tooth has become a pearl and is hanging from the bracelet. She was very excited to show off her bracelet the next day!

So based on these big accomplishments we are expecting them to be landing jobs soon and contributing to the household!

-KJ

Tough Couple of Weeks

Well these last two weeks have gone by fast but have been very busy and while exciting, hard on everyone. Jess has started a new job but is in the training phase. So this means she has been working two jobs. Long hours and hard on her. But Monday she will just be working at Parkway Medical Center. She is having a great time meeting new co-workers and learning a new job. Ian thinks it sucks because he is not seeing much of her (so do the rest of us).

Maddie had her tonsils taken out on August 5th. She did great. No tears and really was very brave just walked off with the nurse like it's something she does everyday. Made it much easier on all the Moms that's for sure. Her recovery went well. She did have to go to the ER because she spiked a fever. She was in a lot of pain that day and wasn't drinking enough. They were afraid she was getting dehydrated but gave her some meds and the popsicles started going down again. She was able to start 1st grade on time a week later. Here is her picture from the first day of school.


The same day school started, August 11th, we had to put one of our dogs, Destiny, down. She had been having lots of trouble with her bladder. Antibiotics hadn't solved the problem which meant extensive tests and probably surgery. That seemed like a lot for a 12 year old dog so with the vets agreement that it was probably a good idea we had her put to sleep. Jessie, our other dog, is doing ok. She is a little more nervous without her friend. But she never has liked to be home without us and now she really is by herself. She also seems scared to go outside by herself now. She will come around I am sure.

We will miss you Destiny

A sad start to the week

On Monday afternoon we had to put Destiny Dog down. Her bladder was not working very well. We tried one round of antibiotics and it helped for a few days but then there was no further progress. It was a sad day and Destiny will be missed. We still have Jessie, the brindle colored dingo. (she isn't really a dingo but looks like one.)

A quite Suday night...

We had a great family day today. We washed the cars and the kids had a blast. Then it was tubby time followed by dinner. Now both the kids are asleep and we got a little cleaning done and the baby was a big help with the vacuum. Tomorrow is the first day of school so the family needs to get some rest.

Jess

Winding down from a busy week

This week felt a little crazy. Maddie had her tonsil's taken out on Tuesday and I started my new job on Tuesday as well. I am still teaching as well so it was working 3 12 hours shifts and then finally getting so rest time. Maddie is doing well after her surgery, she starts the first grade tomorrow and is very excited. Ian got new shoes today. They are Vans and it is the first pair of tennis shoes that I have found that fit his fat little feet. He was very excited to put them on after we got and walk around in them. Every time we got into the car after that he wanted to take them off along with his socks. He has never had to wear socks before so I am sure they felt weird.

I hope everyone had a great weekend!

Jess