Fiona, Kaisa & Nathan Judd

A few weeks back, I went with Nathan’s Mom, sister, aunt, & uncle to Gardner Village in West Jordan. What a fun day! This is a historic site-turned-shopping mall with several cute boutique-type shops and a restaurant and bakery. We were able to see just about everything since we spent the whole day!

My favorite shops were Elsa Belle (a darling little girl’s paradise where I got Kaisa’s cute beanies), Anastasia’s Attic (where mom got me a gorgeous skirt that I am getting for my birthday nest week), and the Storybook Nook (they have lots of cute toys and books for kids). I also enjoyed the Village Christmas Shoppe where I even found a great gift for my brother in the Army. These shops are full of cute decorations, doo-dads and clothes that are oh-so tempting! I had to keep myself from buying everything I wanted! There was a wide range of prices, so I think you could find something for any budget there. Most of the clothing was pretty expensive, though. Archibald’s Restaurant (named for Archibald Gardner who used to live there) was absolutely wonderful! I had a delicious Coconut Shrimp Salad and the Raspberry Lemonade was to die for! I highly recommend taking a visit to Gardner Village. But be sure to take your wallet!

Halloween is a very fun time to go. The whole place is decorated with life-sized witches. Here are some adorable pictures we took with Kaisa and the witches. Enjoy!

A Family Photographer in Lehi? Why Lehi? You’ve got all of Utah County! Well, check out some of the family photographs she’s taken and you’ll see one reason why we’ve like Hannah. She located in a fairly new community in Lehi that still has open fields close-by, which make for awesome family pictures.

• Location — Lehi is not that far from Orem or Salt Lake City.
• Talent — Some people have it, some don’t. Hannah does.
• Price — She offers a fair price for what she does.
• Quality — Hannah Stayner’s photographs look great!

Hannah Stayner does her photography our of her home. I know what you’re thinking, but follow me through on this one. She has a room setup to control and direct light and offer a solid background for portraits and whatnot. The real beauty of this family photographer, as far as location, is her outdoor work. If you go to her and just get studio-type photography done then you are missing out! Two of the three times we did an outdoor option, the time we didn’t was for Kaisa’s newborn pictures. And though the studio pictures are good, I personally have liked the outdoor ones. She’ll know where to take you for good pictures, it may not look like much more than a weed field, but it photographs great.

This Lehi family photographer knows her stuff. Utah County has a plethora of photographers, many are more expensive for very similar quality. By looking at her website you can see that Hannah has a talent for working with kids. And as you can see from our pictures that includes baby-type kids. I’m sure baby/kid photos are not easy to take, but she manages to capture those moments that you want to remember.

Fiona found Hannah through a small advertisement she posted on KSL or Craigslist or something similar. We’ve gone to her three times now and have been quite please each time! Pay her a visit, mention you read this post and that we recommended her, and get some pictures taken!

For those that know me well they know I’m an advocate of doing whatever you do online — find answers to questions, get your news, keep in touch with family, watch tv… Yep! You could easily watch tv, movies, documentaries, cartoons and more on a popular site called tv-links.co.uk, but tv-links is no more!. Jon Sheppard wrote more about TV Links just a few weeks prior, I think that’s what really did it. :)

In about July of this year my co-workers and I guessed how long the site would be up, (I believe Jon Sanderson won, cheers!) and most of our guesses were in the first quarter of next year. Although TV Links didn’t actually host the content, as the name suggests they linked to media on streaming video sites like YouTube and Google Video, it was still a thorn in the movie industry’s side. As I understand it, as companies like Google are made aware of the infringing media they must take it down, but the user may upload it again. I believe Google’s done a good job of finding a happy medium that is neither too infringing on copyrights or too lenient on uploaders, it would be impossible to police every video that’s uploaded.

So what’s a Internet user to do to get their needed fix of tv shows and movies? There will always be places on the web to get such media — whether it’s torrenting, streaming, ripping or burning.

But aren’t we all watching a bit too much TV anyway??

Hi, I’m Nathan Judd and I’m a choir widower…here’s my daughter, Kaisa Judd, who is, for all intents and purposes, a choir orphan. Our loving wife/mother is in three choirs right now and this has been a particularly demanding weekend for us, Fiona, and Fiona’s voice.

A gamer widow is becoming a popular term for those with spouses who are addicting to video games, be it console or computer. Believe it or not, there are support groups for these dear spouses, and I’m sure Fiona’s looked into them a time or two as I play Civilization III, IV, SimCity 4 and recently (but not all THAT often, check out my Joe’s Goals badge) Battlefield 2. Civ3 and Civ4 are particularly addicting, luckily I’ve never really got into MMORPGs, or massively multiplayer online role-playing games like World of Warcraft and EverQuest. And although I can see the appeal I’m not one of those guys.

Fiona is currently in the Wasatch Chorale (I always thought it was Corral, like for horses, but have recently been “corrected”), Because We Also Sing (a Women’s choir that practices in Taylorsville), and was recently invited to sing in Rob Gardner’s Joseph Smith the Prophet. She’s at a performance tonight in Abravanel Hall in Salt Lake. Despite not liking being left home — well, we actually do like it sometimes — we are very excited for Fiona’s wonderful talents and her desire to share them with others. I am trying to more fully support her in her own development, culturally, socially and otherwisally. And she develops beautifully by music, and always has. Although she gets sick, dizzy and nauseated playing first person shooter video games, sometimes music has the same effect on me…. :)

Just kidding honey! I love you! Thanks for being beautiful, talented AND wonderful — Band-aid

My father-in-law sent Fiona a link to keep me honest and share some insight on CFLs that I didn’t know. First, I have to thank him for reading our blog, and say that he’s much more on top of things than I’ll give him credit for sometimes. This is one of those times and I thought I needed to do some more homework to see if I should be more alarmed.

I had no idea CFLs contained traces of mercury. The stuff in thermometers? Well, it used to be, now digital and alcohol (because it expands like liquid mercury) are more common. Mercury is toxic to human and wildlife, especially with prolonged exposure and especially for children and pregnant women/unborn children. Mercury (Periodic Element Hg, 80) has been used to find gold, display temperature and fill fillings. Yep! Mercury is the main ingredient dental amalgams. I knew fillings had mercury, I but I hadn’t realized the danger of periodic element 80, and I have a lot of cavities. Because the amount of mercury vapor is so small it “has not been shown to cause any … adverse health effects”.

But this post isn’t about the dangers of mercury, it’s about using CFL bulbs as a viable, and safe, alternative to incandescents, especially knowing how much mercury is in these bulbs. It’s important to note that coal-power plants produce a large amount of mercury (but not nearly as much as nature’s volcano eruptions!), alongside other less-desirable byproducts, and incandescent bulbs use more of this “dirty electricity” and produce an overall less-desirable environmental outcome (Note the chart on the below). According to the Energy Information Administration, part of the Department of Energy, nearly 50% of US electricity comes from coal. By comparison, 80% of France’s power is nuclear, but that a whole new discussion.

The other option is to recycle CFLs when they burn out. While recycling centers for these bulbs is not easy to find (check your local recycling centers), bulbs can be dropped off at my new favorite store, IKEA. Now, not everyone has an IKEA nearby, but if you are lucky enough to, drop off some dead CFL bulbs before you peruse the store. You can also drop off your bulbs at our house, I’m sure we’re going sometime soon.

While pregnant women may have to go without their shark and swordfish, it’s just a necessary precaution. As for our family, after weighing the pros and cons I think we’ll continue to use CFL bulbs for our lighting needs. I hope the following links help you make the best decision for you.

The article my father-in-law sent: CFL Bulbs Have One Hitch: Toxic Mercury
Mercury Dangers: Mercury Thermometers and Your Family’s Health
Wikipedia: Elemental Mercury

Growing up I there were some TV shows that, for some reason, I just loved. Perfect Stangers (1986-1993, 8 Seasons) was one of those shows. If you were to ask me yesterday what I liked about it I would say it was most definitely Balki. He was from a made up country (I know, I looked it up in our atlas as a kid, I was convinced it was real), had a strange accent and funny way of saying everything…He was any kid’s best friend. One of the best things about sitcoms then is they didn’t have the adult humor that’s so prevalent in today’s sitcoms and even kid’s movies…Shrek comes to mind.

I caught the last bit of Larry Applegate (Mark Linn-Baker) and Balki Bartokomous (Bronson Pinchot) on ION television, channel 16 where I am, and was fairly disappointed. Have I grown so much since then? Apparently so. Even as my youthful self I could tell the show went downhill, or “jumped the shark“, when Larry and Balki married their girlfriends from upstairs and moved out of their apartment. It wasn’t long after that the show series ended. It show was no doubt amusing and humorous, but not the highlight of TGIF that I remember it to be.

I long for the days of awesome Saturday morning cartoons (He-man, Merrie Melodies & Bugs Bunny, Voltron) and a “Family Hour” on television that I don’t have to censor or be ashamed of to watch. We don’t watch much TV, with the exception of The Office, but it would be nice to know there’s quality non-trashy TV there for my kid(s). Then again, with the advent and popularization of thing Internet thing, Kaisa and her siblings will watch shows much differently than I did. Which is a good thing, I’m sure.