Steven J. Phelps

I am a sporadic blogger, to put it mildly.  I have more  then my share of opinions and thoughts, which usually get bounced off Marcee at nauseum.  I have come to the conclusion that some celebrities are mistreated by their fame.  I am not talking about the Paris Hilton, Octomom, John and Kate plus 8 celebrities.  In my opinion, these type of celebrities use their fame to gain notoriety for themselves at the expense of their children or others.  To hear any of these type of celebrities complain about privacy issues makes me want to vomit!  They impregnate society with their private life and then when the fire gets to hot or personal, they  hide from the very cameras they struck a pose for last week.

I am talking about the celebrities like Tiger Woods.  I can hear the thoughts of the readers of this blog louder then the voices in my head.  Tiger Woods?  Mistreated?  I will agree that his behavior on a golf course is not the stuff of a role model.  I have been golfing; I understand the appeal of the game.  I have wanted to throw a golf club in the pond on occasion.  I  understand competition and wanting to be the best.  I also understand wanting to cuss and use such profane words  that could strip the bark off a tree or the paint off a wall. 

Why does the camera need to be in the face of golfers?  I don’t hear what is said on a basketball court  or on a football field.  It must be because these players do not play with such emotion or drive that they feel the need to use profanity to express their displeasure with the situation.  They must be socially conscious of the fans and their image and would do nothing to harm either.  If you believe this entertain this thought, even for a second, you are delusional.

Tiger Woods deserves his privacy.  He is not searching for the lime light or becoming a media man-whore.  He is living his private life, free of cameras.  I don’t turn on the  television and see pictures of him running around flashing people, making sex tapes, or anything else society has deemed lewd or lascivious.  Even if it is true he is being unfaithful to his wife and  daughter(s), (for the record, I do not condone or approve of such alleged behavior or actions) I do not  see him all over the tabloids with other women or hear about it constantly on the television gossip channels. 

If he and his wife are having trouble, it would be unfortunate, but it would be their business.  If they were all over tv and seeking attention, it might be a different story.   It is none of our  responsibility to judge or worry about anyone’s character by our  own.  If I had done things to jeopardize my marriage, it is between me and Marcee!  Get the cameras out of his (and all other athletes) faces and let the story rest.  If Tiger wants live his private life seeking the  national media, then analyze him all you want, but only criticize him (or anyone else) if you are perfect and without fault!

Well, to much has happened since I wrote my last post.  I am not even going to try to catch you up.  I am finishing my last class for graduation.  I will be officially finished with my bachelor’s degree on August 12th.  I know it has taken some time but there were some road blocks in the middle of the journey: taking a year and a half off, trying to find a wife, finding a wife, being engaged, getting married, having a child, being declared legally blind, etc.  After our family trip to Disneyland I will be taking the GRE and applying for grad school.

Kiersten is doing well; she practically potty trained herself.  She speaks very well and is in the 75% in height and 35% in weight. I don’t know why she is tall and skinny.  She just turned three and is looking forward to going to preschool, possibly at the beginning of the year.

Marcee continues at her job.  She has her moments with the work and the people, but for the good of the family, she plugs along. 

There are no new children in the plans.  Kiersten is a wonderful adventure and is not the reason we are not having another at the moment.  Our insurance has a maternity deductible of $7500.  Ouch, I know.  I am looking for new employment because I am more or less done with my degree.  We are hoping this new job that has benefits will allow us to have additional children, but we will see.

Maybe now that I am done with school for awhile I can keep this thing more up to date and entertaining.  Previously, my brother Bryan was doing the entertaining on this site with a lovely picture of me with BBQ sauce on my face.  Thanks Bro.

So it has been a while since I have written.  Life became hectic during the past four months.  I went back to work at Zions Bank on an on-call basis, working about 6-12 hours a week.  I don’t work on Fridays with the State and found I could bring in some additional money during the holidays.  It has worked out well and I didn’t forget as much as I thought.  I am still working with the State.  My hours are flexible, which is great for being on-call with Zions.  As long as I work my twenty hours and complete what they need me too, they have no problem with the other job. 

The fall semester just ended and I am very thankful.  It wasn’t extremely difficult, but I am ready for a break.  The next semester will start soon enough.  I have about 2 more semesters until I will be done.

Kiersten and Marcee are good.  Kiersten keeps growing faster then we can believe.  Other parents think their child is abnormally intelligent, I know mine is.  She still won’t go to nursery to save our lives.  I don’t know what we can do about it, other then let her grow up a little bit.  I had an Applied Parenting class and was told she needed to be left in the nursery and the leaders needed to ignore her.  Kiersten didn’t last a week before the nursery leaders brought her back to us. 

Things are going well for my little family; I hope they are for yours.

Today we thought we might have a chance to actually listen to the adult Sunday school lesson; boy were we wrong.  Kiersten was fine during sacrament, except when she started to cry when she needed to be changed, like clockwork I tell you.  We took her to primary because she kept saying, “Mommy come wif.”  Marcee managed to sneak out and when Kiersten noticed, I was able to calm her down.  She played without looking for me or hovering around my ankles.  I decided it was time for me to leave.  Five minutes later, the nursery worker brought her back because she was concerned she had a cold (runny nose) and didn’t want to get the other kids sick.  I took her and wiped her nose while she was screaming for her mama.  Marcee took her and everything was ok.  She stayed with Marcee for the remainder of Relief Society and I went to Priesthood. Kiersten was really excited to go home.  I wonder what will happen next week.

Yesterday, my mom and I went to the Moran Eye Center in Salt Lake City.  I researched the retinal specialists and chose Dr. Bernstein as the doctor I would try to get an appointment with.  I anticipated the appointment would take the greater portion of an afternoon.  A visit to the opthamologist normally takes three hours or so when I see my opthamologist in Provo.  We went to the exam room relatively quickly.  I gave the nurse my background and she dilated my eyes.  It normally takes about a half hour for my eyes to dilate and then the doctor has his examination.  Instead of a customary half hour wait for the doctor exam, my mom and I waited an hour and a half.  They were really busy. 

When I finally got to see the doctor, he did his exam and then addressed my concerns.  I wanted to know, as did my mom, my present child or future children’s chances of having RP.  Any children Marcee and I may have, have a 50% chance of having RP.  Our children could not have any symptoms, they all could, or some will and some won’t .  The doctor seemed to think the version of RP I have is not a fast moving type, which is comforting.  There are more tests to be done, but I am comforted with this news.  I hope any further digression will be minimal.  Obviously, I hope none of my children get it.  I suppose what I want most is research to move in warp speed from the turtle pace it is moving in now.

People often ask how Kiersten behaves at church.  My answer is that she is quite well behaved during sacrament meeting.  She is able to be distracted enough to be somewhat quiet.  She will read a book, draw, or eat some dry cereal.  She gets really excited when the sacrament is passed.  She cannot wait to get one of those little water cups, putting it up to her mouth and pretending to sip on it all meeting long.  I think we were all at this stage.  When sacrament is about to end, she usually has to be excused for a diaper change (it never fails, end of sacrament, when we are about to leave the house, or waiting to see the doctor). 

I, usually, take her to nursery and try to duck out before she sees me leave.  I will stay in the hallway for a minute until she notices I am gone and starts to bawl.  Marcee gets a seat in Gospel Doctrine class and waits for me to bring her back because she will not stay alone.  Recently, we don’t even bother taking her to the nursery room and just take her to class with us or come home.  Today, she started asking to go to the nursery.  I don’t know if she was hungry and wanted a snack or what.  I still had to stay, let’s not be silly.  She kept a close eye on me for about 10 minutes.  She started to venture further away from me, playing with distant toys without making eye contact as frequently.  When the leaders asked for the toys to be picked up, Kiersten knew what to do and how to do it.  She can thank her mother for that. 

She gets really excited for snack time, runs to the small table and plops down in a chair and waits patiently.  She enjoys the goldfish and pretzels, while spilling the water cup on the table or herself multiple times.  I am very, very sneaky and managed to disappear while she waited.  I was in the hallway for some time, peaking through the door every so often.  She didn’t even notice.  I only made one appearance when a little girl ripped off Kiersten’s glasses.  Kiersten didn’t cry or hit; she just tried to put her glasses back on.  She cannot completely get them on, so I came in and put them on and snuck back out.  After another while of checking on her, I decided to go to class with Marcee and let them bring her to us if there was a problem. 

After the class ended, I checked on her again and went to Priesthood.  I was fully expecting to meet up with Marcee after church ended and find Kiersten in her lap.  I was surprised when I didn’t find Marcee in the hall.  I went to see if she was picking up Kiersten in the nursery room.  Marcee wasn’t there either; Kiersten was though.  She was quietly sitting on a carpet sample while they sang songs.  The leader had cut outs of fishes taped to a poster board.  Under the fish were song titles.  She had a child pick one off the board and then they would sing that song.  Kiersten wasn’t excited about the songs; she was excited about the fish.  She was in the leader’s face every time a song was to be chosen.  When they sang “Ring around the Rosie” she jumped around in excitement.  She never would fall down with the rest of the kids.  They sang this song three or four times, changing the way they rotated each time.  One time they walked backwards, then hopping, then laterally.  Kiersten hopped in the middle of the circle every time.  Time ran out, the children left and Kiersten wanted the fishes.  I had to pick her up and drag her out crying. 

I never thought I would see the day.  I don’t know what changed in her.  Maybe she was more entertained, maybe, the leaders made more of an effort to entertain her individually.  It was a welcomed and unexpected break.  Hopefully, she will remember the fishes next week.

…except elderly people and now Kiersten. After two #2’s and three #1’s, Kiersten has decided she does not like her new potty.  She prefers to go around and say “soggy pants,” and wear diapers.  I wonder when the magical time will come where she WANTS to go in the potty. Whenever that may be it is not now. 

Since I have lost my jovialness, if that is a word, I will now tell everyone what made me laugh today:

1. Kiersten going to the bathroom for the first time in her new training toilet, then clapping and saying “all done.” Getting her to this point has not been a laughing matter. Marcee would try to get her to sit on a normal toilet before she gave her a bath and she would scream bloody murder.

2. My wallet took a bath in the washing machine. Yeah I could cuss and get pissed, like I did when my phone decided it wanted to go out to sea with the dead fishes, but what would that accomplish?

3. Some stupid announcer on ESPN saying the Yankees have a shot at sweeping the series against the Red Sox (at Fenway).  First of all, they don’t have any chance and secondly BIG PAPI is back.

4. Kiersten saying she had lots of magnets by saying she “had lots of maggots!”

5. Perhaps the best of all, Marcee saying she doesn’t like to shop anymore!

Now that I am wheezing on the ground, I have to fold my underwear.

I know, I know, it’s been a while. This summer has been one of the craziest summer I have experienced.  At the beginning of summer I was fortunate enough to be offered a job with the state in Adult Protective Services.  APS is the state agency given responsibility to investigate claims of neglect, abuse, or exploitation of vulnerable adults (disabled or elderly). I volunteered with them a semester or two ago and was lucky enough to happen to see the job posting.  The job has been really good for me, flexible hours, less strict of a dress code, looks tremendously better on my resume (because it is in social work), I have my own office, more time with Marcee, Kiersten and textbooks, etc.  I am hoping it will evolve into more hours and benefits, but we will see, I suppose. 

The second half of summer I am taking three classes, Abnormal Psychology, Statistics for the Behavioral Sciences, and Intro. to Sociology.  I’ve decided I like the quickness of the 7 week schedule.  I am a notorious starter and not a finisher.  I usually poop out about mid-term and scramble to get everything in at the end of the semester.  This semester has flown by and I only wish I would have tried summer school sooner. 

Perhaps the best news of all, I am slated to graduate in April of 2009.  It is about freakin’ time.  I am waiting to get approval from the department chair to see if I can get Internship credit for working at my job.  He said it is a probability and only requires a two page paper a week. Sounds like a good deal to me.  If that goes through and I take six classes in the spring, I will be done, for now.  If it doesn’t work, I will take 4-5 classes in the spring and finish in the summer.  There is a light at the end of the tunnel. 

As for exercise and weight matters. I still run frequently, about 12 miles a week.  I have plateaued recently and have began to implement weight lifting into my weekly routine.  The lowest weight i reached was 178 and am holding steady at 185, but wanting to lose more.  My job has also helped give me more time to exercise.

I have an appointment with the “big boys” of retinal speciality.  My opthamologist has been great throughout my life.  He doesn’t specialize and research my retinal problems, this new doctor does.  He even has a laboratory named after him.  I am not expecting a cure, just some more information and ideas on heredity.

Life with Marcee and Kiersten keeps me on my toes and adds some relaxing flavor to my life. I know that when I come home from the stresses of work or school, I can have the best relief in the world, baby kisses and hugs.  Marcee and I have been trying to simplify our lives a bit.  We decluttered the house, taking more then I expected to the DI and garbage.  We have also decided where we are extravagant financially and have made steps to reduce the extras and save the money for any number of things, anniversary, doctor bills, grad school, home improvements, a down payment on a new home, etc.

Overall, I am trying to live up to my 9th grade seminary teacher’s entry in my yearbook.  He said I would be remembered “for my desire to be a better person.”  Hopefully this can be said about us all.  If your life is on the fence, you will eventually slip and hurt yourself, to put it mildly. 

Well Kiersten just woke up from a nap and I feel like being silly.  I’ve been told I am not as much fun since I lost weight.  I will have to work on my stand-up routine. 

Please leave a comment or I will give you a virtual “wet willy!”

A- Attached or Single? Attached

B- Best Friend? Marcee, Kiersten
C- Cake or Pie? Cake
D- Day of Choice? Saturday
E- Essential Item? IPod
F- Favorite Color? Navy Blue

G- Gummy Bears or Worms? Gummy Bears
H- Hometown? Orem/Pleasant Grove
I- Favorite Indulgence? Brownies with Ice Cream
J- January or July? July
K- Kids? Just one, Kiersten
L- Life isn’t complete without? Marcee, Kiersten, Family, Red Sox
M- Marriage Date? December 27
N- Night or Morning Person?  Morning
O- Oranges or Apples? Apples

P-Phobias? Snakes, An Accomplishmentless Life
Q-Quote?  Our best examples in life are those we consider to be our worst.
R- Reasons to smile? Kiersten, Red Sox World Series Champions
S- Season of choice- Fall

T- Tag 4 people.  Susie, Shermie, (in an email format), Bryan, and Kevin
U- Unknown fact about me? I am legally Blind, wait is that unknown?
V- Vegetable or Fruit? Fruit
W- Worst Habit? Chewing on Straws

X- X-ray or Ultrasound?  X- Rays?
Y- Your favorite food? Pepsi, Brownies, Fettuccini Alfredo, Salad, Chicken
Z- Zodiac Sign? Libra