Happy Birthday to Levi

Yesterday was Levi's 14th birthday. We had T.J. and Rachel over for supper. Pizza, cake, and ice cream. That's the best food.

You have to love the cake Elise made for him.


Happy birthday to you, Happy birthday to you.

Happy birthday dear Levi.
Of course Allen helped with the presents.
Waiting for her ice cream.

Mom and Dad.


Titus and Johanna.

April 15

It looks like April 15th is a day for sinking.

From William J. Federer's American Minute:

On APRIL 15, 1865, President Lincoln died. He was shot the night before in Ford's Theater. On APRIL 15, 1912, the Titanic sank. It struck an iceberg the night before. In 1954, APRIL 15 became the deadline for Income tax returns. Though the Constitution banned a Federal Income Tax (Art.1,Sec.9), Lincoln passed an emergency income tax to pay for the Civil War. It was repealed in 1873. An income tax was attempted in 1894, but the Supreme Court declared it unconstitutional in Pollock v Farmers' Loan. In 1913, with World War I threatening, Woodrow Wilson promoted the 16th Amendment, which was a one percent tax on the top one percent richest people. In 1942, with World War II, Franklin Roosevelt passed "the greatest tax bill in American history." John F. Kennedy stated April 20, 1961: "In meeting the demands of war finance, the individual income tax moved from a selective tax imposed on the wealthy to the means by which the great majority of our citizens participate in paying." In 1988, President Reagan said: "I believe God did give mankind unlimited gifts to invent, produce and create. And for that reason it would be wrong for governments to devise a tax structure that suppresses those gifts."

Cannibalism in Disguise

As a society, we are so desensitized that most people will not even bat an eye at the article below.

For me, I find it very disturbing.

From lifesitenews.com:

Biotech company using cell lines from aborted babies in food enhancement testing BY REBECCA MILLETTE

LARGO, Florida, March 29, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Pepsico, Kraft Foods, and Nestlé are among the corporations partnered with a biotech company found using aborted fetal cell lines to test food flavor enhancers, according to a pro-life watchdog group.

The internationally recognized biotech company, Senomyx, boasts innovation and success in “flavour programs” designed to reduce MSG, sugar and salt in food and beverage products. Senomyx notes their collaborators provide them research and development funding plus royalties on sales of products using their flavor ingredients.

Pro-life watchdog group, Children of God for Life (CGL), has called upon the public to target the major corporations in a boycott, unless the company ceases to use aborted fetal cell lines in their product testing.

“Using isolated human taste receptors,” the Senomyx website claims, “we created proprietary taste receptor-based assay systems that provide a biochemical or electronic readout when a flavor ingredient interacts with the receptor.”

“What they do not tell the public is that they are using HEK 293 – human embryonic kidney cells taken from an electively aborted baby to produce those receptors,” stated Debi Vinnedge, Executive Director for CGL, the watch dog group that has been monitoring the use of aborted fetal material in medical products and cosmetics for years.

“They could have easily chosen COS (monkey) cells, Chinese Hamster Ovary cells, insect cells or other morally obtained human cells expressing the G protein for taste receptors,” Vinnedge added.

Responses from major corporations to CGL’s letter campaign succeeded in warning the pro-life watchdog that these companies would need significant public pressure to admit involvement in and convince them of the need to change Senomyx’s unethical testing methods.

After three letters, Nestlé finally admitted the truth about their relationship with Senomyx, noting the cell line was “well established in scientific research”.

Pepsico wrote: “We hope you are reassured to learn that our collaboration with Senomyx is strictly limited to creating lower-calorie, great-tasting beverages for consumers. This will help us achieve our commitment to reduce added sugar per serving by 25% in key brands in key markets over the next decade and ultimately help people live healthier lives.”

“If enough people voice their outrage and intent to boycott these consumer products, it can be highly effective in convincing Senomyx to change their methods”, Vinnedge noted. “Otherwise, we will be buying Coca-Cola, Lipton soups and Hershey products!”

Note: This article originally stated, based on information provided by CGL, that Solae and Campbell soup were also partnered with Senomyx. However, LSN has since learned that while both companies were in the past partnered with Senomyx, they no longer have a relationship with the company.

To contact the companies:

Kent Snyder, CEO
Senomyx
4767 Nexus Centre Drive
San Diego, California 92121
email

Paul Bulcke, CEO
Nestlé USA
800 North Brand Boulevard
Glendale, CA 91203

email

Jamie Caulfield, Sr.VP
PepsiCo, Inc.
700 Anderson Hill Road
Purchase, NY 10577
email

Irene Rosenfeld, CEO
Kraft Foods/Cadbury Chocolate
Three Lakes Drive
Northfield, IL 60093
email

Gardening

It's gardening time. So far we planted a bunch of onions and a lot of potatoes.
These pictures are from when we planted the onions.
I don't think we will run out of onions for a while.
This is from the Potato planting. (Sorry they are poor quality because they were taken with moms phone.)
Here we are cutting the seed potatoes.

Time to plant all those potatoes. And we planted a lot.

Mom and Dad's Aniversary

Saturday was my parents 30th Anniversary!
We had T.J. and Rachel over for supper to celebrate.
(This picture was taken of them a couple of months ago.)

Elise made this really good cake. It had chocolate and caramel filling. Those are real flowers too.
Boaz and Allen playing with cars.
Cute little Natasha.
Papa and Titus.

Good Advice

From the blog of Michael Hyatt, CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishing:

.....................

If you are going through a difficult, uncertain time, here are seven better questions you can ask yourself and your team:

1. What if this isn’t the end but a new beginning?
2. What if the answer to my prayer is just over the next hill?
3. What if this is necessary in order for me to be prepared for the next important chapter in my life?
4. What if God knows exactly what I need at this particular time?
5. What if God is speaking to me through means I would not have chosen for a blessing I cannot see?
6. What does this experience make possible?
7. What will I be telling my grandchildren that I learned was so valuable in this season of my life?

For the full post go here:

http://us2.campaign-archive1.com/?u=52d5c7778a3adfda535c3b349&id=b898467408&e=75937cd531

Titus Andrew

My number 3 grandchild. Isn't he so cute?

Don't ya just love it when they smile!

He's a little over 2 months old.