Traffic Cameras: A Load of Crap

I think this is a load of crap. I got a ticket in the mail two days ago. I was going a supposed 11 over the speed limit (which I think it questionable. I very very rarely go more than 7 over. I typically stay with in the speed limit. I'm a good citizen!).

Here in Arizona, they were trying to improve the city by putting more cops on the streets with the hopes of them helping the people, than out on the highways/freeways getting speeders. To do this, they added traffic cameras that take your picture if you're going 11 + over the speed limit. Unfortunately, if I never got this ticket (like for example, I MOVED and it didn't get forwarded...) I would have a warrant out for my arrest. It does not take into account that I had 3 people tailing me and I was going the speed of traffic. My picture is not very clear in my opinion, so it could have been anyone driving! and I feel like it's a violation of my rights. I am also disappointed that instead of it's idealistic reason--less cops on the highway more on the streets-- it has moved to less cops on the highway AND less cops on the streets. We have less police officers than we did before the cameras.

This whole camera thing has a lot of flaws (which I'll list later) but Andrew and I were listening to a Steven R Covey tape a while ago about trust. And that there's a formula for becoming a great leader. Some that "communicates your worth and potential so clearly that it profoundly influences your life". And I think this is true, and I'm just going to copy some things that are off of his blog page. "there's four imperatives of leadership.

1. The first is to inspire trust. You build relationships of trust through both your character and competence and you also extend trust to others. You show others that you believe in their capacity to live up to certain expectations, to deliver on promises, and to achieve clarity on key goals. You don’t inspire trust by micromanaging and second guessing every step people make.
2. The second is to clarify purpose. Great leaders involve their people in the communication process to create the goals to be achieved. If people are involved in the process, they psychologically own it and you create a situation where people are on the same page about what is really important—mission, vision, values, and goals.
3. The third is to align systems. This means that you don’t allow there to be conflict between what you say is important and what you measure. For instance, many times organizations claim that people are important but in fact the structures and systems, including accounting, make them an expense or cost center rather than an asset and the most significant resource.
4. The fourth is the fruit of the other three—unleashed talent. When you inspire trust and share a common purpose with aligned systems, you empower people. Their talent is unleashed so that their capacity, their intelligence, their creativity, and their resourcefulness is utilized."

I copied these, because I think that what Covey says is true and that these cameras are not following this formula. In fact, I think it's doing the opposite. Arizona is being hit really hard by foreclosures and other things and I think that, we as a people and government, need to put the trust back in the people.

I thought these traffic cameras were a joke before I got the ticket and I still do (by the way it was a $200 ticket!!! that in its self is really high for there not being proof and a lot of flaws). I feel that it's just another step towards a big government, it's like living in China all over again, I feel like I'm back in a communist government.

Below are some objections to ticket cameras I found with links to why. I think that these outweigh the issues of speeding. I also just found out that pilots are complaining that the lights are bothering them while trying to land airplanes. It's just unsafe! Any way, I wish I could fight this some how! But I don't have a clue even where to start. Here's the links:

General
Ticket recipients are not adequately notified.
The driver of the vehicle is not positively identified.
Ticket recipients are not notified quickly.
There is no certifiable witness to the alleged violation.
Ticket camera systems are designed to inconvenience motorists.
Ticket cameras do not improve safety.
Taking dangerous drivers' pictures doesn't stop them.

Photo Radar Specific
Photo radar is still radar, and it can generate false readings.
This type of enforcement emphasizes ticket volume.
Ticket cameras are very inaccurate on certain roads.
Photo radar encourages artificially low speed limits.

Red-Light Camera Specific
Cameras do not prevent most intersection accidents.
These devices discourage the synchronization of traffic lights.
There are better alternatives to cameras.

Abby sitting on Santa's lap

Here's SOME of the pictures taken... we have lots. i'm only scratching the surface.

Moving

We've put an offer on a house which was accepted. We've signed the contract and given them escrow... so we're waiting to close. Andrew and I are so excited. It is in Maricopa, Arizona. Just south of phoenix.

Here's some random pictures

The front door:


View of the kitchen from the family room:
Here's another view of the kitchen from the family room with the lawtons in there:


It has a dog door!!


And... we took more pictures but for some reason my card is bad and they all came out lime green and you can't see anything... so that's pretty much what we have.

If you go to this website and click on the windrose dr house you'll be able to see more pictures and stats on it too:

http://www.flexmls.com/cgi-bin/mainmenu.cgi?cmd=url+other/run_public_link.html&public_link_tech_id=oo5n66ww7eh&s=12&id=1&cid=1

(We got for slightly cheaper than their listing price-- good for us!)


Any way, we're excited! Hope you all come and visit us! We LOVE visitors.

Life update

i've been getting several requests to update them on my life lately... i feel this comic is better than words and best represents abby and me. i found it in the newspaper last week.

Mullet

I know I haven't written on here in a while.... and I will get back into it BUT in the mean time... I heard that David, my brother, now has a mullet... hhahaha... dork. and so... I would like to dedicate this post and this song to him... particularly the bolded part. ya big dufus!

Well I thought about the army
Dad said, son you're high
And I thought, yeah there's a first for everything
So I took my old mans advice
Three sad semesters
It was only 15 grand spent in bed
I thought about the army
I dropped out and joined a band instead...

Grew a mustache and a mullet
Got a job at chick-fil-a
Citing artistic differences
The band broke up in may
And in june reformed without me
And they got a different name
I nuked another grandmas apple pie
And hung my head in shame

Been thinking a lot today
Been thinking a lot today

Oh, I think Ill write a screenplay
Oh, I think Ill take it to la
Oh, I think Ill get it done yesterday

In this time of introspection
On the eve of my election
I say to my reflection
God please spare me more rejection
cause my peers they criticize me
And my ex-wives all despise me
Try to put it all behind me
But my redneck past is nipping at my heels

Ive been thinking a lot today
Ive been thinking a lot today
Ive been thinking a lot today
I thought about the army...

DAVID: GET RID OF THE MULLET

Abby can put herself to sleep... yay

Today, Abby was playing and we could hear her talking... then all of the sudden it got quiet. So we went to see what she was doing. She found a bottle, went into her bedroom, climbed up her crib (we have no clue how she did that because we had no idea she COULD do that), and then fallen asleep inside her crib. She had put herself to bed and to sleep!

Pretty impressive we think.

Hearing my dad's voice in my head...

While I'm on my posting addiction today, I thought I'd mention something to my dad.

Dad- As I'm walking around my house, I'm constantly hearing your voice in the back of my head. And you're telling me to "clean up! pick up after yourself!" The funny thing about this is every time I hear you telling me this in my head, I don't do it! I say, "oh i'll do it later" just like I use to do when I was at home. ... I'm still ignoring you dad!-- whether you're here or not, I'm not going to pick up after myself. haha

What does this say about me?

Poor Andrew, has to live in a messy house because his wife won't clean up after herself every time she hears her father's voice in her head...

Youth Conference Sequel

So last night I got a call from the missionaries... a late call actually. It was almost 10:00pm. They had spent the entire day trying to figure out who I was and how to get a hold of me. Actually-- interestingly enough, they weren't the first random person for our stake to try and find me this week. Anyway... They hoped they had finally figured out which sister helped translate for Yuge at Youth Conference and gave me a call. Their first question was,

Missionaries: "Hello, are you sister orton?"
Me: "yes"
Missionaries: "Did you go to Youth Conference last week?"
Me: "Yes" -- and in my head I'm thinking, uh oh... what did i do wrong. :)
Missionaries: "Do speak chinese?"
Me: "yes"
Missionaries: " Did you help translate for yuge?"
Me: "yes, why?"
Missionaries: "OH GOOD, we finally found the right number! Hi we're the missionaries for the aqua fria ward"

hahah... poor guys. Anyway, Yuge (which I still don't know if that's the correct name for her) had talked a lot about me to her parents and the missionaries. They were 1, glad that they found someone who spoke chinese and could help at Youth Conference and 2, glad that someone was willing to befriend her.

They asked me if I was planning on coming to her baptism. I said, that I had not been invited and did not know when she was going to be baptised but that I would love to go. And so they invited me to her baptism. Unfortunately, we're supposed to be in California that day.

Then the next day (that was today actually), I got a call from Yuge's step father. He said that the missionaries were supposed to ask me if I could give a talk at yuge's baptism and was wondering if I had accepted. I said, that they had not asked me. So he formally asked me and I couldn't tell him no that I would be in California. After I accepted, I realized that I didn't know what language I should do my talk in. I asked and he said "chinese of course!" ..... which is not so great. Seeing as i'm STRUGGLING IN CHINESE and i don't know ANY church lingo! I don't even know how to say the church's name or how to say baptism in Chinese because we're not allowed to preach the gospel in China yet. This is going to be very interesting, by far the hardest most challenging talk I've ever given in my life. Apart from never giving a talk at a baptism and having not gone to a baptism in a very very long time... that alone isn't so great but to have to do it in CHINESE!? I am in way over my head.

Though, I feel honored that I made that big of an impression in her life that they wanted me to talk at her and her mother's baptism. Her having not very many friends and such, I feel that it's very important that I go. Plus, this is nice, I've never really had a missionary moment. SO we're leaving our vacation early to go to a baptism.

Now I just have to give a talk in chinese.... sigh. And my chinese side kick who ALWAYS helps me in Chinese... is off in Taiwan on a mission so I can't turn to her for help, because it'll be january by the time she gets my letter. Fortunately my life has been surrounded by RM who went on chinese speaking missions. I've gathered them in and told them they have to help me! Hopefully things will go smoothly....

hopefully. I won't say I'm not nervous... because I am.

Translating at Youth Conference

Well, I thought I'd go ahead and write what is on my mind. Last week, we had youth conference. I am currently a secretary in YW for our church's youth group. Our Presidency just changed last week, as we got a new president because our old president moved to UT.

In the middle of the switch things were going a little crazy. We were told not to plan for future activities; to just wait for the new presidency to come around. So we didn't plan for youth conference... we waited and waited and waited... and still no one was called.

So the question was, who can go to Youth conference? There is only one girl old enough to go to Youth Conference-- Bethany, who is 17.

The bishopric decided that since our president was in the process of moving she couldn't go. And the two counselors couldn't go because they are both pregnant and wouldn't handle the overnighter well. The bishopric also decided that I shouldn't go because I have a child at home..... why they decided this FOR ME, I don't know. And instead of asking another member of our ward to go, they were going to make Bethany go with her old ward (the ward she was in before the ward split last April). Any way, I felt like I really needed to go and I didn't think it was appropriate to have her go with a different ward and have her be an extra responsibility for the leaders in that ward. So I had to jump through hurdles with the bishopric and YW presidency to be able to go to youth conference.

When I finally got the "go ahead". Bethany's mom called, she didn't feel it was safe that I drove up to Youth Conference so we drove with the YM in the Bishop's car. Thank goodness that man is holy!--otherwise he would be a dead man. He scared the geebies out of me! He was such a horrible driver. I thought maybe he was tired, but he drove horribly to Youth Conference and back. Every time he tried to hear what the person in the passenger's seat was saying, he would lean over towards the passenger to hear him. And as he leaned over, he took the wheel with him! We almost swerved into cars every time the kid spoke to the bishop. I was hoping the boy would stop talking and just fall asleep to avoid any accidents. He was worse than a chinese taxi driver... in five minutes, he managed to almost crash 3 times, run a red light, go straight in a right turn only lane (side note: one of the YM mentioned this to the bishop, that he was in the wrong lane, and the bishop replied, "oh you're right! we'll have to merge!" The bishop's version of merging was pressing on the gas.... he barely made it past the car in the correct lane). And most of the time, he didn't even realize what he was doing-- like running through a red light! He also didn't use the round about correctly. ..... I think we would have been much safer if I were driving than bishop... anyway.

I went to youth conference. The friends that bethany was suppose to have I guess were more aquiantances than friends. And she ended up hanging around me most of the time instead of the other girls. We are only 4 years difference in age, so we got a long. I made her go to the dance and dance with me out on the dance floor. She's not a very big dancer but I am, however, I'm not a very appropriate dancer for church dances. So in order to save her embarrassement and me from being told to stop dancing inappropriately, we just hung out on the wall like wall flowers on wallpaper.

In so doing, we noticed a really odd couple dancing on the dance floor. It was a 14 year old boy with a narely beard that looked amish and a chinese girl that had not been in America long enough to have changed culturally. (AKA, she still wore her clothes like most Chinese kids do-- all those who've been to china, you know what i'm talking about. They were sports pants up past their belly button--which they can do because most chinese have flat butts-- and she had a red stringed necklace with a very yellow fake 20 k gold heart attached. Everything about her screamed Chinese). To me, I felt like I was back at home. To the kids around her, I don't think they understood. In fact, I KNOW they didn't understand.

Bethany and I watched the odd couple for a while and then realized that he was half stalking her and she had no friends. So I went up and asked if she spoke Chinese. She said yes and was so relieved that I could speak Chinese too.

Here's her story:

She grew up in Beijing (she's now 14). Her biological father left her and her mother when she was 1. She says that he's doesn't like her because he's had the chance to come back and see her and he's bluntly stated that he didn't want to see her. I wonder what that had to deal with, whether it was because she was female and he wanted a male which causes problems with the 1 child policy or what... I don't know. Anyway, and then not to long ago, her now step father was traveling through China and met her mother. They fell in love and he wanted to bring her back to America, so he did. A month ago, he and her mother got married in Beijing and moved back here to Phoenix. As far as I know, I could be wrong-- I haven't met her parents yet, but her mom doesn't speak English and her stepdad doesn't speak Chinese. Her now step dad, is LDS. And the Chinese girl (Her name is Yuge--- I think!? :S... this horrible but I never really caught her name because when she told me we were out on the dance floor and the music was really really loud) and her mother are taking missionary lessons from the missionaries with a RM translating.

So with that said, she was struggling through Youth Conference. Having no friends and not understanding the language. She looked lost and sad. So Bethany and I took her under our wing. I translated for her and we got the half amish/half stalker boy to stop bothering her. I unfortunately haven't had a chinese class in 3 years. It's been even longer since I lived in Beijing and it's been a year since I've actually literally spoken Chinese. I'm very sad to say that I struggled remembering my vocabulary. It felt like a knife stabbing my heart everytime I couldn't remember words that I remembered learning. Fortunately, I remembered enough, that when I couldn't remember a word, I could describe it in chinese, and then she could tell me what the word was. Unfortunately this made it very difficult and long to translate when I couldn't remember most words.

The other struggle I had, was the fact that I don't know ANY church lingo. NONE. And I was translating for church meetings. So... I was describing Satan to try and figure out what Satan's name is, in chinese. I was describing him as a very very bad man who does very very bad things... until she finally clued in on who I was talking about and would tell me. But any chinese was better than nothing. I felt horrible though that my chinese was sooo bad. I'm glad, however, that I was able to help her and that I had the feeling that I should go and do this because like the Stake Young Women's president said, this was no coincidence. And with that said, I know that Heavenly Father is mindful of each and every one of us. He loves us and wants us to be happy, and he will do whatever he can to help his lost sheep. And though I wasn't actually ment to be there to translate and befriend other YW, I know that that was Heavenly Father's intentions.

Apart from re-aquainting myself with chinese. I was mistaken for youth no one thought I was a leader because I talked and did things with Yuge and Bethany. And I got hit on by some football players. It was a great trip! Nothing like a little self esteem booster. :)

Abby's stripping addiction

Abby's new favourite thing to do is to take off her clothes. And our back yard has a see through fence and behind the fence is a running trail where we get a lot of runners, walkers, dogs, police... any one. And I always get funny faces and I'm sure it's because I let Abby outside wearing a diaper, socks, shoes, at least a shirt and pants or a dress and sometimes now that it's 70 degress (we think that's cold) she gets to wear a sweater. BUT when I let her back in... we're lucky if she's even wearing a diaper!

I noticed she likes to use her clothes as a dirt moving device. I hope she realizes soon that clothes aren't a dirt moving device.... shovels are!

She also does this in her crib. I leave her wearing pajamas and a diaper. I come back in the morning and I'm VERY VERY lucky if she has a diaper on!

Where does she get this from?? I blame Andrew's side.