A Hallo-va-ween

We had a great Halloween today! It was the warmest in recent memory--it was +17 degrees Celsius at 8 pm. Considering 2 years ago we trick-or-treated in -17, I am feeling pretty grateful. It was a busy day for me. I am the room mother in Austin's class and had to organize the treats (including bringing two of them), and plan and lead out the games for the class Halloween party. We also did a pumpkin for the Pumpkin decorating contest and attended the Elementary School costume parade. Tonight I took the kids trick or treating while Rob handed out the treats.

10 down 5 to go!

Rob is working on his MBA--Masters in Business Administration--at the University of Phoenix online. His program consists of 15 3 credit classes, each of which is completed in a six week period. Last night at 11:28 p.m. he finished the requirements of his 10th course, a final 3000 word paper with 6 obnoxious tables to complete. Now he has only 5 more to go! I was up typing for Rob last night and this morning, the fog in my brain is unusually thick. I even went back to bed after the kids went to school. I don't know how many of you (are there any of you out there?) are tracking the exchange rate between the Canadian and American dollars, but the Canadian Dollar has dropped off dramatically with the drop in oil prices. Anyway I mention this because Rob's university courses just got way more expensive. Last year this time we paid $1800 CAD for a course, the one he begins today cost us over $2500 CAD. Boo Hoo. My brother-in-law thinks Canadians will save more due to lower gasoline prices and lower cost of consumer goods with low oil prices than we pay with a poor exchange rate. I vehemently disagree!

What love language do you speak?

I recently read one of the books about the Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman. He claims that there are 5 primary ways we can show and receive love, and that each of us needs one of these expressions of love more than the others. The five love languages are 1. Words of Affirmation, 2. Quality time, 3. Acts of Service, 4. Gifts, and 5. Physical Touch. In which of these languages do you feel most inclined to show love to others? Is that the language you like to receive love in? Is your love tank full, or do you need more of expressions of love in your love language? Is anyone out there like me, feeling multilingual in love languages?

The Wonderful World of iPods

Recently three of our family members got iPods, the first three ipods ever owned in our family. Alyssa got an iPod Shuffle for her birthday, Rob got an iPod Touch as a bonus gift when he got his new work computer and I got an iPod Nano as an anniversary gift from Rob. I have to say I am just thrilled with my new iPod and it has applications I hadn't anticipated. For example, today is laundry day, and since it has been a week since I last did laundry, there is a lot of folding to do. So, I put General Conference talks on my iPod and have been listening while folding. I also figured out today how to put the audio scriptures on. Earlier in the day, I put on upbeat music while I ran on my treadmill. Saturday night, I played the Primary Children's music for the Sacrament Meeting Presentation. I am the chorister and our presentation is this coming Sunday. As I listened, I had the sheet music out and conducted the music and practiced standing up and sitting down the "kids." Rob's iPod is very cool as it is connected to our home wireless internet. It also has a touch screen, and lots of games on it. What interesting ways do you use your iPod. Give me suggestions as I am interested in making the most of this new toy.

Pop Psychology

I recently read The Color Code and The Character Code By Taylor Hartman. In these books, Hartman defines four personality colors (types)and claims that we were each born with one of the four personality colors, though in the process of character development, we may evolve strengths and weaknesses outside our own personality type. The most charactered people have the strengths of their own personality type and have developed strengths from other personalities to overcome their weaknesses in their own personality. The colors are as follows:

Red
Motive: power
Needs: to look good, academically, to be right, to be respected, to be approved of, to hide insecurities, to please self, to have leadership opportunities, and to have challenging adventure.
Positive Attributes: decisive, assertive, action-oriented, task-dominant, determined, responsible, independent, logical, pragmatic, disciplined, confident, powerful, leader, productive, and proactive.
Negative Attributes: selfish, insensitive, arrogant, critical of others, always right, impatient, calculating, intimidating, bossy, demanding, argumentative, aggressive, tactless, obsessive.

Blue
Motive: Intimacy
Needs: To be good (morally), to be understood, to be appreciated, to be accepted, to reveal insecurities, to please others, to be autonomous, and to have security.
Positive attributes: intimated, compassionate, sincere, loyal, thoughtful, quality-oriented, well-mannered, analytical, committed, dedicated, emotional, dependable, respectful, deliberate and nurturing.
Negative attributes: worry prone, overly sensitive, self-righteous, self-critical, unforgiving, judgmental, suspicious, unrealistic expectations, perfectionist, low self-esteem, hard-to-please, moody, guilt prone, and jealous.

White
Motive: Peace
Needs: To feel good (inside), to be understood, to be respected, to be accepted, to reveal insecurities, to please self and others, to be independent, to be content.
Positive attributes: peaceful, tolerant, kind, satisfied, even-tempered, agreeable, patient, pleasant, accepting, easy going, good listener, inventive, considerate, diplomatic, adaptable.
Negative attributes: timid, directionless, indecisive, unmotivated, silently stubborn, lazy, lackluster, indirect communicator, avoids conflict, self-deprecating, indifferent, ambivalent, uninvolved, and unenthusiastic.

Yellow
Motive: To have fun
Needs: to look good socially, to be popular, to be praised, to be approved of, to hide insecurities, to be noticed, to have freedom, and to experience playful adventure.
Positive attributes: fun-loving, playful, carefree, enthusiastic, optimistic, trusting, hopeful, happy, charismatic, sociable, forgiving, spontaneous, outgoing, lively and positive.
Negative Attributes: uncommitted, self-centred, disorganized, flighty, undisciplined, vain, afraid to face facts, inconsistent, unfocused, an interrupter, disruptive, impulsive, obnoxious, and naive.

So look at the various motives, needs and attributes. Consider which package comes most naturally to you. That is your personality color. Then, to determine how charactered you are, assess how you are doing at developing strengths outside your personality color and overcoming the weaknesses of your color. If you have weaknesses outside your color, work hard on overcoming those especially. They are really slowing you down. Please comment on this post. I am interested to know what color my friends and family are.

Thoughts on the Canadian Federal Election

Yesterday Canadians voted in a federal election. Of the house of Commons' 308 seats, the breakdown was as follows; Conservatives 143, Liberals 76, NDP 37, Bloc Quebecois 50 and New Democrats 37. Early in the election it looked like the Conservatives had a chance at a majority government. However, as the compaign progressed, Conservative support fell apart in Quebec and although the Conservatives picked up quite a few seats in Ontario and added 16 altogether nationwide, the majority proved unattainable. This is disappointing to Conservative supporters, but I think there is a lot to take hope in for those who support the small "c" conservative movement in Canada.

First, consider Quebec. The Conservatives held on to their 10 seats neither gaining or losing seats. The significance here, in my mind, is that votes in Quebec were not decided on Canadian Unity issues. Remember, the Conservative Party's predecessors the Reform and Alliance Parties were anathema to French Quebec. In this election no one was saying, a vote for the Conservatives is a vote to break up the country. Since the last election, the Conservatives have recognized Quebec as a nation within a united Canada and have limited the role of the federal government, and largely resolved the issue of transfer payments to the provinces. The Conservatives problems in Queber related to youth criminal justice and Harper being characterized as cutting funding to arts. I think between now and the next election, the Conservatives will be able to learn from this. I think they primarily need better advice about Quebec and more on the ground campaign support. What I think they also need is a strong French Canadian Conservative spokesperson campaigning alongside Harper. Anyway, my point is that no one can say that support for Conservatives is unattainable in Quebec.

The reason this is so important, is because Ontario is protective of Quebec and tends to vote for parties that have strong credentials as a national party capable of adequately governing in Quebec's interests. Any rhetoric that Liberals have used in the past arguing that the Conservatives would break the country apart is now completely discredited. Now Ontarians are free to vote according to their own preferences. Now Ontarians who are small c conservative are free to vote Conservative.

This election will have difficult repercussions for the Liberal Party. That party is deeply in debt and has a leader who will likely be the last one to see that he needs to step aside for new leadership. The party is very divided in terms of policy and though Bob Rae and Michael Ignatieff both have strengths that might win them the leadership, it seems the opposition to each of these men within the party is as strong as each of their support. In time, the Liberal party may remake itself and be strengthened, but for now, it is facing at least a couple of years of intense struggle and many years of debt.

Meanwhile, the Conservative party is well-funded and the conservative movement in Canada is growing. There are now conservative think tanks, the senate will gradually become more Conservative and gradually there will be more balance in the civil service. Also, if Canadians live with the benefits of Conservative government and conservative principles, gradually more Canadians will see the benefits of this way of thinking. The Conservatives are plank by plank building a strong conservative movement. In turn the Conservative Party is moving toward the Centre in the Canadian political spectrum where its support can be more broad than within the Reform Party. I hope that in this process of maturation, there will be more leaders emerge who can be trusted to speak to the media without expressing views that represent more than just the right wing branch of the party. I thoroughly support Stephen Harper's leadership, but I think it is now time to build the team up to a greater degree.

So there are my thoughts on the election results. I hope there will be a greater spirit of cooperation in this parliament. Canadians would like to keep their government for about 3 years this time. And, Canadians need to get used to minority governments. I believe they are the way this country will be for a long time.

Good Autumn Times

It's autumn time at the Doigs! This weekend was Thanksgiving and our 12th anniversary. For our anniversary, Rob and I went to the Cardston temple on Friday night. Mark's caregiver is here from 4-8 and we were able to get dinner and do a temple session and be back in that time. Alyssa who is now 11 babysat the other kids and they did just fine. On our first anniversary when we already had a 2 month old baby, I wondered what we had done to put such an abrupt end to the honeymoon. Now 11 years later, it feels like it was a great idea. I'm so grateful to Alyssa for being capable of and willing to babysit so that we have the chance to strengthen our marriage and our gospel commitment. Yesterday Alyssa announced that she would like to babysit once a month so that we can attend the temple. Good times are coming!

We enjoyed Thanksgiving dinner with Rob's family on Sunday and I spent the days on Saturday and Monday in the traditional Thankgiving pursuit of harvesting. In our cold room are now 6 gunny sacks full of, altogether, 250 lbs of potatoes. Admittedly I planted too many, but who would have thought individual potatoes would grow to the size of footballs? We also harvested the carrots and cleaned out the flower beds and other now dead vegetables. We're ready for winter. Don't get me wrong though, I certainly hope it does not come soon!