I am so fine with every American having the right to vote for whomever he/she chooses. I do not think that either candidate or either party is COMPLETELY correct on EVERY issue. There are issues on which I disagree with each candidate. There are issues on which I agree with each candidate. I can’t say that I am ABSOLUTELY POSITIVE that I am making the right decision. Further, I don’t think that anyone can say for certain what either candidate will actually do once that man takes office. They are people, and as I learned while working in the temporary employment business, people are not controllable. Each person needs to make an informed choice and respect the choice of other people as well as other organizations.

I am SOOOOOOO tired of this election. I am sick of hearing lies coming from both sides (or spinning the truth) not just in the national elections but also in the local elections. Each time a commercial comes on the television, I want to SCREAM! According to the commercials, all candidates are liars, none are trustworthy, all desire to ruin the US, and if elected, all will show their true cad colors. I would love to hear the truth on the amendments, the candidates, the issues….. I am disgusted with the mud-slinging! Is that really what our country has become? Is that what our political system has become? Where will it go from here? What will it be like in four years?

Please, if you know me, feel free to send me any “unbiased” report that might help in making the best decision possible. Please, please, please, though, don’t send me anymore e-mails telling me that Obama is a Muslim who pals around with terrorists seeking to destroy the US!! Honestly, they might just put me right over the edge!

My mom has been here for the last 10 days, and her plane takes off for Arkansas in two more minutes. We had such a fantastic, relaxing time together, one of those “precious memories” times. Knowing that it will be at least six months until I see her again, hold her hand, wrap my arms around her for a big hug makes me sad.

I love you, Momma!!! And I miss you already!!

Mom and Dad and Me at Grandmother’s Birthday in August
(And My Goofy Carson’s Eyeball in the Background!!)

My mom is here visiting for a little over a week, and we have had such a fabulous time together! Mostly, she’s just hung out with me, although her favorite son-in-law has roped her into babysitting. We’ve also seen a couple of movies together, “The Duchess” and “Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day.” Keira Knightley was fantastic in her role as the duchess, a completely committed mother in a terrible marriage of convenience. We’d both definitely recommend it! We’d also recommend “Miss Pettigrew,” a sweet, flirtatious, and very funny story of a poor spinster and the relationships she develops in one day of her life during the Depression. Actually, we were both shocked that we’d not heard more about this movie. It’s no longer at the theatre, but it’s a “must rent.”

We’ve attended gymnastics classes, dance classes, and choir concerts together as well as laid around and visited for hours on end. She came with me to Bible study and was able to meet a lot of my closer girlfriends. Of course, we went to church together the last two Sundays, and it was so wonderful just to have her there next to me. While she’s done laundry, cooked dinner, given baths, and made beds, my favorite thing she’s done is to rub my head FOREVER. (I’ve always wondered why her momma hands don’t seem to ever get tired. In fact, I try to keep rubbing on my kids’ heads and backs as long as I can because I’ve always loved that she never quits!)

Since she’s been so precious while she’s been here, I think it’s only fair to let everyone know what to tell Santa she REALLY wants for Christmas…….

Our 1965 Mustang (For Sale, By the Way)

Rowland Taking Her for a Spin

The Wicker Creel

Wednesday night we received a phone call from our renter who lives over the garage in our Breckenridge cabin. He said that he heard the loudest explosion he had ever heard and ran out of his apartment. The entire metal roof had blown off of the cabin in sheets on the front lawn. The windows and doors blew out, slamming into the houses next door and knocking out their windows. Then, the fire began.

Evidently, there was air in the propane line, and it blew out a pilot light on one of the appliances, causing a build up of gas until the whole place finally just blew apart. The fire actually started after the house was blown apart.

We really didn’t have any idea what to expect as we drove the LONG 2 hours to Breck. Sometimes, we just sat in silence while other times we reminisced about the cabin, special family times there, all of the hard work and special touches, and what we might see when we got to the cabin. We didn’t know at that point if any of the other houses had been destroyed or if the garage and apartment had been destroyed, or even if there was anything salvageable from our “reality escape.” Phone calls kept coming in from various police and fire department officials as well as the insurance company.

Once we arrived in Breck, we saw that the highway was closed so that water could be tanked in from down the road as there are no hydrants near our cabin. The police let us go through, and we parked across the highway and hiked the last bit to the cabin. The only word that kept going through my mind was “surreal.” As the lights flashed from the police cars and fire engines and the smell of smoke filled my nose, I felt like I was in a movie. We walked with the fire chief all around the perimeter of what used to be the cabin with the garage still in flames and part of the log wall still burning. Broken glass crunched beneath our feet, and the ground was muddy from all of the water. It was difficult to even tell which parts of the cabin we were seeing and where the actual garage was. After a few minutes, Rowland gave a statement to the fire department, and we slowly walked back to our car, once again with the flashing lights blinding us as tears streaked each of our faces.

What now? We found a hotel, checked in, watched TV, and went to sleep. I felt like life was too normal during those hours, like there was something else that should be happening as our precious cabin smoldered only a few miles away. Rowland wasn’t able to sleep and went back out to the site where the fire fighters stayed all night and into the next day.

Thankfully, Rowland had not stayed at the cabin that night as he had originally planned. Thankfully, this didn’t happen while the kids and I were up there during the last month. Thankfully, there were no renters as they had just checked out on Tuesday. Thankfully, we have insurance, and it wasn’t our “home.”

Sadly, though, it was not just a place of memories, but a place of future plans, of decorating our first Christmas tree there this year, of spending our first Christmas and ski season in our cabin, of more “girl trips” and times together as a couple as well as with the whole family. Sadly, our plans for the next few months of creating more family memories will be put on hold, but our memories from the past year can’t be burned. There were only a few special items in the cabin, a wooden plaque made and painted by the children that said “DAD,” a special old bamboo fishing rod, an old green living Bible that my mom had given my dad back in ‘73, and a bowl and wooden rocker brought back from a Costa Rican mission trip. There were also some very special pieces of art that we were sad to lose but that can be replaced.

In our sadness, though, (and I must say that it has been especially devastating emotionally to Rowland) we have looked at the positive side of things and thanked God for His protection and His great blessings in our lives. And WE WILL REBUILD!!! I keep telling the kids that if I know their daddy, and I do, it’ll be even better than before!!!

The Newspaper Article

Nothing But Ashes

Sunday morning, Jia and I were having our usual clothing feud before church. I’m actually fairly accommodating, but I do require that the clothing is appropriate for the weather. Fall has finally arrived, and Jia had chosen a precious little Summer skort. (In fact, it’s a hand-me-down from her sister, and I’ve been trying to get her to wear it for two years! She’s hated it the entire time. Sunday morning, she fell in love with it!) I tried to go the route of some pink leggings underneath with a lightweight jacket to offer some sort of compromise. No dice! Not only did she want to wear this cute little skirt with bare legs, she also wanted to wear her tall black boots, basically go-go boots with a mini-skirt. I laid down the law, gave her a couple of choices, then went to get ready myself.

A few minutes later, my little princess came walking into my bedroom with tears spilling out of her beautiful almond-shaped eyes. I got on my knees and hugged her, then asked her if she wanted to talk. Her response, “I just want to go live in Heaven so that I can wear whatever I want to wear.”

As Grant would say, “I got nothing!”

I actually enjoyed watching the Biden-Palin debate last night. Although I’m a Mama for Obama, I really went into it with an open mind. Gov. Palin is obviously a very intelligent, successful woman with great confidence. I also believe that she is an honorable person who goes with her gut versus pressure from the outside. In addition, she’s funny. I think that if she lived near me, I’d like to be her friend. She seems like someone who would be a lot of fun with her quick wit, and she obviously likes to shop - lots of extra points from me!

As far as Sen. Biden is concerned, his appearance is a little too polished for my taste, but he is obviously also very intelligent, very qualified, and like Gov. Palin, seems to have a quick wit as well. I don’t know if he likes to shop or if someone else shops for him, but I would like to get the name of his dentist! He has the whitest teeth I’ve ever seen!

No, I’m not as shallow as I’m appearing. I’m not going to vote for anyone because of their teeth or their sense of humor. I am concerned with the issues. I’m concerned with the economy, with the health care system, and with single moms in particular. Yes, I believe that the church should be taking care of the underprivileged, but unfortunately, we’ve got a ways to go before that actually happens. I don’t want higher taxes, but if I made over $250,000 a year, and a few extra dollars could help some of my friends without insurance, friends who are self-employed or who have been laid off, I suppose I’d be willing to part with some of mine to help them. Robin Hood, socialism???? I hope not, but I know that I’m sounding a little that way.

Bottom line, though, after watching what I deemed an excellent discussion, I was thoroughly disappointed, even ticked off, when I got on the internet for a fact check and discovered that both candidates had lied about their opponents. Surely, they were just spinning the truth as most politicians are known to do, but they LIED. Gov. Palin lied, and Sen. Biden lied. (Gov. Palin actually lied more, but I”m not sure that that makes a difference.) Why do they have to lie? Let me hear the truth and then choose who I agree with the most. I’m not an idiot. I don’t think that I’m going to agree with anyone all the time. JUST QUIT LYING OR SPINNING OR WHATEVER IN THE HECK YOU CALL IT!!!!

Just thought I’d post a few pictures from the weekend with the girls. Seven very different girls who had a great time together, laughing, telling jokes, sharing deep secrets, crying, praying, and forging new friendships. It was a wonderful, wonderful weekend!!

The Friday Night Spread - Roast and Potatotes!!!

Anita, Angela, Jeannie, and Corina

Angela, Corina, Anita, and Jenna

Sarah Begging Me to Take Her Picture! HA!

The “juicy” pictures couldn’t be taken because I forgot to bring my battery charger! What happens in Breck stays in Breck!!!

Mom driving. Jia asks Dad, “Daddy, what’s Mom doing?” (Probably the same question asked by many passengers in my car!)

Driving through a lot of cattle land with strong “cattle” stench in the air.
Jia: “Did someone in here toot?”
Mom: “No, Jia, it just smells that way because of all of the cows outside.”
Jia: “You mean the cows are trying to go poop?”

Funniest sign (in Kansas, of course): “Please move over or slow down for stopped emergency vehicles.”
Really???? Are you sure you don’t want us to speed up or run into the back of stopped emergency vehicles?

Funniest sight: While spending the night on the road, we had to have two separate hotel rooms. Rowland and I were loading up the car while William was taking his shower. As we walked back onto our floor, William came walking down the hallway, hair dripping wet, with a towel wrapped around his body, otherwise naked.

On the way to Arkansas, second day into trip - Jia: “Where are we going?” (Welcome to our world, Jia!)

On the way home, second day into trip - Jia: “Where are we going?”
Mom: “Home.”
Jia: “What home?”

William in the middle of Kansas: “Mom, do you have any sleeping pills?” (Yea, right, William! Like Mommy shares her drugs!)

Carson was just generally funny, his cute sarcastic self! Where does he get that from??????