Happy Halloween, and other stuff...

OK, mostly other stuff. All right, this post has nothing to do with Halloween! Stop badgering me already!

So, to go along with my last post, I thought you all might be interested in this. John Kline is a congressman from Minnesota who has made a commitment to avoid earmarks in legislative bills. He hasn't accepted one in 2 years! I think he is exactly the kind of guy we need to support. There is a petition to support his call to reform the earmark system and STOP THE PORK!

Hold the phone!

I just found out that one of my very favorite people to talk politics with had me ALL wrong! And if Jeff had me all wrong, maybe others do too! Yikes! So, to clarify, I am indeed a card carrying Republican, but I absolutely DO NOT agree with much of what Republican politicians DO. All this time Jeff thought that I was just a 100% party girl who loved all things Republican and followed it completely. What kind of an idiot did he think I was?!?! No. I am a Republican because I believe in the core principles of the platform. I am involved in the party because that is the only way I have any hope of finding politicians who might actually adhere to those principles. I'm not sure if you know how this works, but if you are involved in the party you actually get to choose which Republican is going to run in the general election. That is where the real choice lies...between those candidates that are differing on the details, not the over arching principles. The general election usually gives us 2 different candidates (yes, I know there are additional fringe candidates) who are so different ideologically that I don't need to evaluate the finer points.

So, do I love John McCain? No. He was the last person on my list of candidates that I liked. Will I vote for him? Yes. I'll vote for him because I have a better shot at him doing things I'll approve of some of the time. Probably not much with McCain, but certainly even less with Obama. Feel free to stop reading here, but I'm in the mood, so I'll keep writing. On to some of my views...

Let me tell you why I'm Republican. I vote based on very few core principles. I am fiscally conservative and I believe in small government. I am socially conservative, but I'll vote for a fiscal conservative over a social conservative almost always. It would sure be nice if we had one of those on the table right about now!

Along with small government, it logically follows that I am a federalist. If an issue can be decided by the states, it should be. Better yet, if an issue can be decided by individual municipalities, it should be. Even better than that, if an issue can be decided by individual families, it should be.

Some specifics, or random thoughts. Education. This is near and dear to me. Someone, who shall remain nameless, made a comment to me today that one of the reasons they are a Dem is that Dems are pro education...meaning Republicans aren't. Well now that is just silly. Dems are willing to SPEND more on education, but that is the only solution I have heard from that side of the isle. Now, don't be hasty, the Republicans are doing a pretty poor job with the solutions they are coming up with. NCLB, joke. Vouchers, never work. HOWEVER, they are trying to be innovative and come up with different solutions. Rather than, to coin a phrase, giving us more of the same. Oh wait, did somebody already coin that phrase? By the way, when you go to Nauvoo, they teach you the origin of the phrase 'to coin a phrase.'

Taxes. I can support politicians raising my taxes...as long as they cut 75% of the spending that is currently going on. All right 75% is a figure I just pulled from my backside, so please don't leave me a comment with specific figures and statistics on why that wouldn't work. Just stop spending my money on crap! And don't redistribute my wealth...I actually already do that on my own!

OK, I could go on, but I need to go to bed. The kids are already asleep and Jon's already there...ooh la la. Wink, wink.

So funny...

Elizabeth was just telling me why her ear hurts. It went something like this.

Bits: It happened when I fell down and hurt my self.
Me: When you scraped your wrist?
Bits: No, when I hurt my leg. You know, when I got a scrape and then a band aid was on and it then Jesus was by me and put new skin on it?

She cracks me up. Trust me, this all has nothing to do with the current hurting ear. And I wish Jesus would come put some new skin on me...like switching out all the crazy, post 5 babies, post 2 surgeries yucky stuff on my tummy!

A little inspiration...

I'd like to introduce you to my friends, cjane and NieNie. In truth, they are known to me only through the world of blogging (thank you Lindsey!), but I feel like I know them intimately. And you should too. Stephanie is a long time blogger who was in a plane crash this summer with her husband. The flight instructor that was with them died, while Stephanie and her husband survived with extensive injuries. Courtney is one of her sisters, who has taken over where Stephanie left off. These women have a remarkable understanding of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and their roles within it. They so clearly embrace it and exemplify it. But don't let that scare you if you aren't too "churchy." We all have lessons to learn from them on love, compassion, nurturing, passion, and so much more. I hope you'll check out their blogs and tell me that you come to love them as much as I do.

9-11

As I have spent much of the day a little teary listening to discussion and memories of 9-11, I thought I would share what that day was like for me and my feelings about all of this. I believe it was a Tuesday (right?). It was a beautiful sunny day and Jon was playing hookie from work (one of the only times in our entire marriage). I was indulging and watching a little T.V. in the morning, something unusual that I rarely did, when the station turned to fuzz. I started flipping and was only able to get reception on one channel...the one station that had it's antenna on the top of the Empire State Building instead of the World Trade Center. Did I mention that we were living in NJ then? So, we knew immediately what was going on...literally minutes, maybe seconds after it happened. The next few hours were a blur.

Our first order of business was to track down Jon's dad. We had dropped him off that morning for a flight out of Newark. You can imagine that we were somewhat frantic to find out what flights were involved in the terrorism. He was in the air, and his plane was rerouted to St. Louis if I remember correctly. Luckily he has spent his entire adult life traveling and immediately booked the train to SLC before it was full. I believe he still spent a night or two. Incidentally, shortly after his train left SLC, it wrecked.

We spent the rest of the morning tracking down our friends who we knew might be in harms way. This was a lot of people. Fortunately, all the people who would have been in the immediate vicinity of the towers were not there that day for various reasons. I like to think the Lord was watching over them. We have several friends who spent hours trying to find a way out of the city, and back home, as all the tunnels and bridges were being closed. We had several friends in the Navy stationed at the Naval Weapons Station, Earle. Greg's ship was in the harbor immediately.

We watched the first tower fall and cried. Our friend Billy was watching from the roof of his office building a few miles away from us and he threw up. So went the rest of the day. Watching news, crying, talking to people, etc. Jon called the Red Cross to volunteer to go into the city as a nurse (they never needed him). I know we spent much of the day waiting for news on survivors. We lived close enough to the city that the OR where Jon worked was shut down to all non-emergency surgeries to keep the space open for those injured. None ever came that far.

That evening a friend stopped by. He happened to be the Stake Executive Secretary at the time. For those of you who don't know what that means...he was the secretary to our local church Stake President. The Stake President is responsible for overseeing about 10 wards, so a couple of thousand people. At any rate, he told us the EVERY member of our stake had been accounted for. This was a REMARKABLE thing! We lived in an area where a LOT of people worked in the city. A LOT of people had the potential of being directly in harm's way. I gained a testimony that day of the order of the Church. The organization of the Church is set up to insure that EVERY member is taken care of, and it certainly happened that day.

I'm sure there were more tragedies and more triumphs that day, but these are the things that I remember. 9-11 is absolutely vivid in my memory. I won't get into the ramifications of that day here, as I know we can all agree that that day was horrific and changed our country forever. I'll just say that I am grateful to all those who choose to serve our country, to protect it and keep us free.

Out of the doldrums...

What could take me out of the doldrums of blogging? Sarah Palin, of course!

My favorite quote? "The difference between a pit bull and a hockey mom? Lipstick."

I LOVE THIS WOMAN!!!! Who the heck heard of Sarah Palin before Friday morning??? Now I think I have died and gone to Heaven. Oh My goodness!!! I am so fired up as I sit here listening to her speech at the RNC. I don't know that she was the most qualified choice McCain could have made, but she was an absolute stroke of genius. First of all, she just leveled the playing field for those fence sitters looking for a historic election. Second, for those of us who choose to be involved in the republican party, we FINALLY got ourselves a conservative on the ticket! Third, she is the girl next door. She comes from a real family who works hard. They don't come from Ivy League schools. They are people from small town America. Fourth, this woman can speak. Have you heard her??? She is fabulous. Fifth, just thought of another one, she actually wears a skirt instead of a pant suit. Thank you for being a woman Sarah Palin!!!

I love my Country. I take pride in the fact that I choose to be involed in choosing our leaders. John McCain was not my first choice for the endorsment of the republican party. He stands taller in my eyes by choosing Sarah Palin as his running mate.

Clarifications

Abby (2) just cleared things up for me. I'm a girl. Jon's a buddy. Now she keeps calling me "mommy girl". Better yet, she keeps referring to Jon as "Daddy buddy girl." did I mention that I laugh a lot?