A Memo

Memorandum
Home of the Michael Jared Frisby Family

March 27, 2009

To: Everyone

From: Jenni & Jared Frisby

Subject: The public dissemination of information regarding plans to expand the Michael Jared Frisby Family


Due to the excessive number of inquiries we have been receiving in regards to possible plans for expanding our family, it has become necessary for us to make a public statement regarding this family's position on the public dissemination of information regarding such plans. Therefore, we are taking the following position: until this family deems it appropriate to make such information public, we will be maintaining a policy of absolute silence on the matter of expanding our family. We will not respond to any inquiries, suggestions, comments, or other communication regarding the expansion of our family and, therefore, encourage any who might be inclined to make such communication to save their energies for more productive activities.

Should you have any questions regarding this family's position on the matter, please keep them to yourself as we will not respond to them.

Jenni R. Frisby

1 Year. . .

since this blessed day:


Yep, on Saturday, Mr. Frisby and I celebrated our first anniversary. It came a little quickly for both of us. So quickly that it was a little scary to watch it arrive.


Not all moments have been glorious, but they have been moments and it has been a wonderful year. We have decided that marriage is great and it turns out, Heavenly Father knows what He's talking about.

So, how did we celebrate the past year of marital bliss? We headed down south to visit Hearst Castle! Fortunately, the weather was amazing (I love California) and we had a great time. We drove down on Friday, stopped at one of the California missions along the way, ate lunch and did a tour of the castle. We then checked into our very cute hotel that was right across the street from the beach. When the sun was starting to set, we thought it would be fun to go for a walk along the beach, but by that time, the sun was going down and the wind had picked up, so when we got to the beach we decided it was too cold for a walk along the beach and just headed off to find some dinner. The next day we checked out and headed to the castle for tour number 2. The castle was really neat and there was lots to see. We'll have to go back again someday. After our tour, we got some lunch and then started on our way home. We stopped along the way to enjoy the scenery and to see another of the California missions. Then we ended up in Carmel for a wonderful dinner. It was a wonderful anniversary and we had a fabulous time!


San Miguel Mission


Mr. Frisby and I with the castle above my head. It's not that small when you get close


Me by the Neptune Pool


I told Mr. Frisby that if nobody uses this pool, it's a damn shame!


Mr. Frisby by the Casa Grande (the main house)


Yep, a little too cold for a walk on the beach


There was some fog on Saturday morning, but it made for some great pictures



Our cute little hotel



Some beautiful scenery along the way (again, it was a little foggy on the coast)


Soledad Mission

Thoughts From a Wednesday Morning

This morning I went to Michael's to get supplies for our Young Women activity tonight. While there, I saw entire kits to build models of the California Missions. In addition to just the mission building, these kits came complete with grass, fences, animals, roof tiles, etc. Upon seeing these kits, I thought, "man, kids have it easy these days!" Building a model of a California mission is a project that most kids in California do while studying California history in, I believe, the 4th grade. I remember building my mission model. I used styrofoam to make the building, adding leaves, grass, and twigs from our yard for the plants and spruced it all up with paprika to turn the roof red (like the tiles) and dried herbs for the ground. It was nothing fancy, but I actually had to build the thing myself. I remember some of the other kids' missions were built using sugar cubes, cardboard, etc., etc. Some rare kids with overambitious parents even built fancy missions out of balsa wood. But, we all actually built our own missions. None of this put a little kit together and throw some plastic animals in there. Then I thought about Legos. We had tons of Legos when I was a kid. And most of them were just colored blocks. We had instructions to build certain things, but we also just used our imaginations to make different things. Nowadays, Legos are more like puzzles. You buy the kits and the instructions tell you where each piece goes and each piece is specifically shaped to go in a certain spot. Kids really do have it easy these days!



While at the gym, I saw a guy who clearly was using the weight machines for the first time. It was funny because he was trying to be nonchalant about the fact that he didn't know what he was doing. I could tell, though, when he started to get in the lat pulldown machine backwards. This was after he looked at another machine for a little while, couldn't figure out what it was for, and just gave up on it. I often see people at the gym who really have no idea what they're doing. I want to help them and tell them that unless they do the exercises right, they may as well not waste their time. But, unsolicited workout advice from strangers is usually not welcome. So, I keep my mouth shut and my thoughts to myself. But, inside, I'm shaking my head because those are the people who are going to give up on it in several weeks because they're not seeing results. Knowledge really is power!



And finally, Spring is coming! Green leaves are starting to appear on our birch tree. All of the plants are showing new growth. The hummingbirds are out in force. The sun is shining and warm. And little flower buds are starting to appear. Huzzah and happy spring! In honor of the approaching Vernal Equinox, we are planting seeds in pots for our Young Women activity tonight. I am not a big gardner. Mostly, I'm pretty clueless when it comes to planting things or taking care of plants (I think my parents are praying that their yard survives our housesitting stint). But, I do think it's fun to plant something as small as a seed and watch it become a beautiful plant with flowers. It's amazing and I'm so ready for spring to come! Yay!




And with that, Happy Wednesday!

Chicken Pox, Part 2

Wow. There were lots of comments on my last post. I had absolutely no idea that it would cause such a stir. Mostly because I was just joking around. Mr. Frisby can verify this - I asked him to read my post before I posted it to see if he could tell I was just trying to be funny. Apparently this is a hot issue, though, and I actually do have strong opinions on it, all joking aside. Since you've all shared your opinions and comments, I will now share how I really feel about this issue.

I believe that trying to be germ-free is a good thing. Cleanliness is next to godliness, after all. I believe that vaccinations are a wonderful, life-saving little invention that has made the world a better place. I am also well aware (more aware than most, as a matter of fact) of the capacity of human beings to have an infinite number of variations in their health and function, regardless of the circumstances surrounding their development.

That said, I also firmly believe that we have a tendency to take things too far. The theory I mentioned in my last post about our immune systems becoming hypersensitive when they don't have to work very hard is completely logical to me. And, I believe, helps to explain the undeniable increases we see in our day and age in the number of people suffering from allergies (that includes hay fever type allergies as well as food or substance type allergies) and in the number of antibacterial/antiviral resistant organisms that attack human beings on daily basis.

In my last post, I joked around with the example of the chicken pox vaccine. However, it just represents all sicknesses that everyone wants to avoid even though they're almost never fatal. Let's use the example of the flu vaccine. (And, as a side note, I've never had a flu shot in my life - primarily because of my opinions on this matter.) I am aware that the flu can be a dangerous illness, especially certain strains of it. However, just the other day, I was reading about how there are now certain strains of the flu virus that are becoming resistant to the vaccine. So, they're scrambling to update the vaccine to try to cover these strains now (by the way, flu vaccinations only protect you against a few strains of the bug. If you've had the shot, pray you only come in contact with those few instead of the hundreds of other strains that are out there). The point is, you have to ask how beneficial the vaccine really is. So, maybe a bunch of people avoid being miserable for a week. It may even prevent a few deaths. However, on the flip side, we're creating circumstances which perpetuate the development of stronger organisms that have a much higher capacity to be lethal. We take medications to beat the bugs that our body can't take care of itself. If those bugs become resistant to our medications, where does that leave us? I'll tell you - up a creek without a paddle, to use the old saying. We're stuck.

Let's go back to the chicken pox example. I would rather all of my kids have the chicken pox and be done with it than to have what I consider another unnecessary vaccine. I had the chicken pox when I was little. I'm sure I was miserable. But, guess what? I don't remember it. And that's one more thing that I'm now immune to. Does this mean that I'm not going to have my kids get that vaccine? No. Society has made that decision for me. With so many kids now getting the vaccine, the chicken pox isn't really going around anymore. So, were my kids to not get the vaccine, it would still be pretty unlikely that they get the chicken pox as kids. However, if they got it as adults, it would be worse - and more dangerous. So, unless I could ensure that my kids would really catch the chicken pox, they've got to get the vaccine.

Now, let's bring this all full circle. I used to be a germ freak - I still am in some ways. Then I served my mission and spent seven months in a third world country. That taught me many things about health. First, vaccines are great. There are many illnesses which are fatal or crippling and sometimes your body isn't strong enough to handle them. Thank everything for those vaccines. Polio, MMR, Smallpox, Tetanus. Those are necessary because those are potentially fatal diseases. And I am thankful that I had those vaccinations because I know that not everyone does. Second, your body is a lot stronger than you think it is. Imagine being a germ freak walking around a third world country amidst diseases and germs of all sorts, sharing the roads (if there were any) with the local livestock, eating from dishes which cockroaches have been crawling on. I realized that if my body could handle those germs, then I really don't have a lot to worry about in relatively clean America. Let's be clear - I am a handwasher. Handwashing is the single most important way to prevent the spread of sickness. I work with stinky, smelly, sweaty athletes with athlete's foot and who knows what else. I am a handwasher! But, there are germs all around. There are germs on your body right now. You can't get rid of all of the germs around you. So, I wash my hands and do my best, but I realize that my body can handle a lot of what gets thrown at it. And, third, I learned that everyone's immune system works differently. This became obvious when my companion and I would eat certain things or be in certain situations and one of us would get sick and the other one would be fine.

With all of that said, I reiterate my point. Avoiding sickness is great. Vaccinations for dangerous and lethal illnesses are spectacular. But, with all of this effort to eradicate germs, we take away the natural processes for beating the bugs that attack us. We create an environment that makes us as organisms weaker and less capable of defending ourselves. We also create an situation which makes it easier for other organisms to become stronger and more lethal. They no longer have to fight against several billion slightly different immune systems. They just have to fight against one little vaccine. For those illnesses which our body can handle itself, I say let it do it's thing.

I told you I have strong opinions.

Thank You, Chicken Pox!

I'm currently getting over a cold. However, that current issue aside, I think I have a pretty strong immune system. I don't get sick often - in fact, I can probably count on one hand the total number of sick days I've ever taken in my life. I also don't have any allergies except one (I'm allergic to Mangoes. I know, it's very sad). I recently read an article in a magazine which brought up the theory that sometimes allergies are caused by a, shall we say, trigger-happy immune system. Your immune system is on the lookout for invaders in your body. In our current germophobic society with hand sanitizer at every turn and vaccinations for anything you can imagine, our immune systems get a bit bored since we're taking care of the bad guys for them and so they look for any little offender that gets in their way (sort of like the cops in Sunnyvale). Hence, your body overreacts to things, like peanuts or bee stings, etc, etc, etc. I'm not going to try to convince you either way - I'm just saying, that's the theory.

Back to me and my immune system. As I said, I feel like I have a pretty strong immune system, and I'll tell you why. When I was growing up, we didn't have vaccinations for everything. I didn't have a Chicken Pox vaccine like most kids today. I had the Chicken Pox. I didn't come home from school and wash/hand sanitize my hands before I ate or played with my siblings. I kindly shared and ingested all of the germs I picked up at school. So, my immune system had to work. And because it has had to work, it doesn't waste its time on little things like peanuts or a bee sting. It takes care of the real bad guys. And I am thankful for having had the Chicken Pox!

This is not to say that hand sanitizer is bad (I use it often) or that vaccinations are bad (thank goodness for the MMR and smallpox vaccines!). I'm just saying that maybe we should give our immune systems a little credit and let them do their thing. When I have kids, I think that instead of the doctor giving them a shot of the chicken pox vaccine, I would actually like him to give them a shot of the live virus to ensure that they get the Chicken Pox. I would like to prance them around the waiting rooms of hospitals during cold season so they catch some germs or two. I want their immune systems to work! Bacteria and viruses are evolutionary. They adapt to withstand the the medicines we create to destroy them. Now we have bugs that are resistant to many of our medications. I say, let our bodies adapt to become resistant to those bugs. We can become invincible!

Communication

At church on Sunday morning, one of the sister missionaries came up to me and asked if I speak Portuguese. I told her I did and she then asked if I would go with them to an appointment that afternoon with a lady they had contacted. The woman was from Portugal and spoke English, but she had a pretty thick accent and the missionaries thought it might be helpful if I was there and could speak Portuguese with her. I agreed to go with them and Mr. Frisby also decided to come. All went as planned and we met the missionaries at the lady's house. She was an older lady and immediately reminded me of all of the older Portuguese women that I had ever come in contact with on my mission in Portugal. We started talking with her and I asked questions and talked with her in Portuguese. We read some scriptures in Portuguese. Most of the time she was speaking Portuguese, but sometimes she would speak English. I was speaking mostly in Portuguese and then translating for the sisters. So, after about an hour or so, we got ready to leave and the missionaries asked me to pray in Portuguese. So, I prayed - all in Portuguese - and after I finished, the lady looked at me and said, "oh, you speak Portuguese." I sort of laughed and then confirmed that, yes, I speak Portuguese. She seemed a bit surprised and told me that I spoke very good Portuguese. I thanked her, we left the house, and we all had a good laugh. I wonder if she realized that she was also speaking Portuguese?

Smallness

I am little. At least, this is what I'm told by others. Sometimes being little is not good. Like, if you're playing football or basketball. Or if you're trying to reach something on the top shelf. Or if you're trying to see the stage at a concert. Littleness is not the preferred quality in those situations. But, sometimes being little is really good. For example, I went to the Adidas store looking for some workout pants. All of the workout pants I saw were more than I wanted to pay. Then I wandered into the kids' section, found a fabulous pair of pants that fit perfectly, and paid half the price that I would have for an adult pair. A couple of weeks ago, I went looking for a watch to use when working out. I needed one with a stopwatch. All of the adult watches I looked at were 40, 50, or even 60 dollars. A bit much to pay for a stopwatch/clock on a wristband, I thought. I mean, it's not like I was trying to make a fashion statement. Then I took a peek at the kids' watches. Half the price and it had exactly what I needed - a clock and a stopwatch. Yes, it was hot pink and a little more noticeable than the adult watches, but it fit and it was half the price. Again - not trying to make a fashion statement. Awhile ago, I was at the store looking at beanies. I found a cute North Face one that was blue and had flowers. It was more than I was willing to pay for a beanie, though. So, I went over to the kids' section and - what do you know - they had the exact same beanie for half the price! It fit (better than the adult one, as a matter of fact), so I bought it. I have several clothes/accessories from the kids' section that were way cheaper and totally fit because of my littleness. Of course, it does not work in all situations. I would not prance around each day all decked out in children's clothing or I would look like I did two Halloweens ago when I dressed up as a kindergartner. But, in certain situations, the children's section is the way to go. So, although it has its disadvantages, sometimes I rather like being little.