Happy Veterans Day!

Today is Veterans Day and I am happy.  The kids school had a little program Friday morning to honor veterans.  And since the name of the school is Veterans Memorial they like to celebrate it.  I love their school! The teachers are great and the principal is great too. I sat at the program and watched the kids sing.  I had a rough week cause of elections, but as I watched the kids sing I thought, "you know, a lot of people here have different political views, and voted for different people, but I honestly believe ALL of us here love our country.  We are united in our love for America."  It made me feel better.  It made me feel peace.  

They had a lot of vets come.  One guy was a prisoner of war in Germany. I have so much respect for those men.  Whenever I see a vet a always try and say, "thank you for serving our country!"

Can you see Paul and Ellie on the front row?  Singing the Star Spangled Banner- it was so touching it made me cry.  Notice the jackets- this is a COLD day in Florida

I want to pay tribute to one of my favorite Veterans- my dad!  He served in Vietnam.  He only has 3-4 pictures of himself, so we are lucky to get to see 3 of them.

This is my dad on the left with Joseph McConkie on the right.  They were good friends growing up.

My dad with Joseph McConkie again.  Thanks men, for serving our country!

My Grandpa Bill also served in the Navy during WW2.  He would never talk about it. Once my brother asked him about it and he said, "don't ask me about the war."  Thanks dad, grandpa, and all the other men and women out there, for serving our country.

Going Private

Ok, I think I am going to make my blog private:(  I have just had to many people I don't know comment.  While no one has said anything offensive,   I felt a little strange having people I don't know look at my blog.   I also had some people from another country ask in broken English if they could come stay with us!  LOL.  While that sounds fun, and I wish I could trust people I have never met, but I don't.

My blog is pretty much journal, so I want to share it with my family and close friends. And lately, I have gotten a little bit more personal.  Just out of curiosity- What do you think?  Should I go deeper, more personal and make it private?  Or perhaps just go back to the light, fun, subjects and stay away from anything controversial?  And make it public for everyone to see?

Either way, I will make my blog public for a day or two.  I am going to keep it that way just for a short time so people who read my blog and aren't on Facebook have a chance to send me a message to add their e-mail address. 

So, if you want to be added to my blog list, and haven't already let me know, just message me your e-mail address.

I will try it for a while and see if I like it.  I may go back to being public, but we will have to see. 

Results

Today I am sad.  I am so sad.  I cried last night.  I cried this morning.  I am so sad for our country, so so sad.  I can not believe Obama won the elections.  I just can't believe it.  I worry about my future.  I worry about my children's future.  I try not to, but I do.  I feel like my country has died.  Tomorrow I will get up and move on.  But for today I am going to let myself feel what I want.  And I feel depressed.   

Election Day 2012

If you don't want to hear me on my political soap box, skip this post. 

Well, I voted today.  I voted for Mitt Romney.  I am praying to God that he wins.  I don't talk politics a lot, but today I want to share the journey I have been trough with my thoughts on Mitt Romney.  It's been sort of an evolution.

I have been so disgusted with politicians for so long that I don't trust any of them.  For a very long time I have been so sad by the dishonesty and corruption in our government.  I love our country, and feel like our leaders only love themselves.  So to me politician = corrupt.

Lets rewind not to long ago- earlier this year when they were trying to decide on the Republican Presidential Candidate. Romney was one of the candidates, and honestly I was not sure I wanted him to win.  Remember my politician equation? I am Mormon, he is Mormon, and I didn't want another Harry Reid, whom I am embarrassed by him.  So, I really didn't want a corrupt Mormon President in the White House to make all of us look bad.  I now know different.  I know Mitt Romney is a great guy.  Let me show you what changed my mind.

My first eye opening came when I was talking to my dad.  I told him my theory.  I asked him how Romney could get that high up without being corrupt.  My dad said, "he has money.  You can get in positions like that with money. You can do what you want and don't have to be corrupt if you have money."   So, I started to think, hey this guy may be good.  And maybe he has money for a reason.

My second eye opening came when Glenn Beck decided to do some research about all the good things Romney has done.  Stories started coming from everywhere.  I started to hear all sorts of great things that Romeny has done for people.  Glenn Beck ended up doing a hour show full of stories of people Romeny has helped.  He said they found so many stories that they could have done a whole weeks worth of shows.  Romney doesn't brag about these good deeds, do we don't hear about them.  Well, that and Obama controls the media.   I thought, this guy is just like my dad. I also thought, By their works ye may know them.  I really started to like Romeny

My third eye opening came during the first debate.  I started watching them, and after Romney talked about 2 minutes I thought, "This guy is a business man!!"  He sounds just like my dad!  It's just like listening to my dad talk!  He isn't a politician, he is a business man!  This is EXACTLY what our country needs right now.  I like this guy!" If you know a business man, you know what I mean.  They just have a certain way of talking, and thinking. 

My fourth eye opening came during the last debate.  It was a spiritual experience for me.  That sounds cheesy but it really was.  When they started debating I saw so much hatred and anger in Obama's face.  I saw Romney full of peace.  I had so much anxiety- then I felt peace.  It was during this debate that I realize Romney is brilliant, and listens to the spirit.  I sat there and just soaked up the good feeling of peace.  It was incredible.  I felt like everything is going to be ok.  I don't know what that means, or who is going to win.  I just know that Romney is a remarkable man who has a relationship with God and the Holy Ghost. Like that means anything to anyone else anymore. 

So that has been my own personal evolution of Mitt Romney.  That is why I voted for him.  I really believe this election is everything for our country.  It is a choice between capitalism and socialism, light and dark, good and evil, hatred and love, anger and peace, Harry Potter and Voldemort.  I honestly can't believe it's this close!   I did not vote for "Revenge"  I voted for, "the love of country"   No matter what happens, I believe God is in charge.  And as George Washington put it best...  "the event is in the hands of God"

Red Ribbon Week

Red ribbon week consists of every morning being crazy.  The up-side to the craziness is that it's easy to wake up my kids in the morning! Crazy day was the only day I got pictures- I couldn't resist 'cause Ellie looked so cute.  They were supposed to be as crazy as possible, crazy hair, inside out clothes, mismatched socks.  I'm sure the teachers loved that day!

Ellie went a little EXTRA crazy by turning her shirt inside out AND backwards!

I bought these cute fake purple eyelashes that she loved!  They actually stayed on all day, I couldn't believe it!  She also had a cute sticker rhinestone butterfly on the side of her face that you can kind of see.

Just a taste of what all the kids are going to be acting like for the next 6 hours. Good luck teachers.

We did Ellie's hair like this last year.  The day before Crazy Day she told all her classmates she was going to do her hair like this.  So that night when I told her we were out of hair coloring and I wasn't going to color her hair the next morning she pretty much has a panic attack.  She "HAD" to have her hair colored cause the kids would be expecting it!!!  She told them she would!!  So, I went to Walmart at 10 at night for color hair spray.  I hope my kids remember all these things I do for them. 

I couldn't resist more pictures:)

My 3 crazies. Did I mention our morning consisted of a colored hair spray bathroom we could hardly breath in?  We all had to keep running out to breath.  Just watch, they are going to come out with some study that colored hair spray causes cancer.

Oh what a mean kid!  I mean Crazy kid!

This was Paul's idea of crazy- wearing my makeup in a strange fashion.  While I wanted to say one thing, I decided not to crush his excitement and so I told him it looked awesome.  Because, it did!

Fall

As devastating as Hurricane Sandy has been to other areas, it brought a nice cool breeze to us here in Southern Florida. Which resulted in "fall" type weather.  A couple days before Halloween we went to a "pumpkin patch".  It consisted in a bunch of pumpkins they shipped in from who knows where so we could feel like we actually have seasons here.  Which is completely not true, we only have hot and hotter.  Does it sound like I'm complaining?  I'm not, the weather has actually been stunning lately.  I love it.  A little cool in the morning and warm enough to swim during the day.  perfect.  We went to this fun little place with friends from the neighborhood.  Good times. 

Can you guess the kids?

Me and Gabe

I actually had someone take pictures of me instead of my taking all the pictures!  Thanks Kam:)

Kam, Me, Lauren, and Kendra

Let the fun begin!

Carving pumpkins in Jake and Lauren's garage

Ellie.  She needed a black and orange shirt to wear on a day during red ribbon week.  I only had this black shirt, that actually had pink flowers on the front.  I cut out this pumpkin out of felt and stitched it on the front of the shirt.  I figured she could wear it to school on Halloween day as well.  She loved it!

A great night

Well, another Halloween has come and gone.  It was a great night.  It was cool enough to wear pants, but I had a long sleeve shirt on and was to hot and had to go change.  Wishful thinking.  Anyways,  My kids were just awesome and had such a great time.  Our neighborhood is safe and clean and full of good families so I felt pretty good about letting Paul go trick or treating with a friend.  Plus, he had his light saber.  

I mean, who is gonna still this kids candy?? No one!! 

Here is what our street looked like with all the trick or treaters. 

Kyle as a Jedi

This kid can act!  Look at that face!

Ellie's Princess Leia costume was too hard for her to make good time in, so she opted for the Dutch girl for a more speedy night.  I actually wore this costume when I was a little girl.  One of my Aunts made it for me so it's pretty special to me.

Beautiful little Dutch girl.  And yes, we are Dutch.

One of our friends Sheree- Look at that face paint!  She did it herself- she looked awesome!

Ok, so this is pretty much the funniest costume I have ever seen.  This is Sheree's husband, Rob.  He said he was his, "mother in law"  LOL  No, really its the cat lady!

Awesome costumes guys!

  The Supers!  I love the McKenzie's costumes!  You guys looked great!

Ellie with the trading piles- sometimes the best part of the night!

  After trick or treating we headed to our friend, Kam's house  for cider and donuts. Only it was Gabe's bedtime so I had to leave and ended up spending an hour to put him to bed. That is a whole other post.

Have I mentioned we have 11 LDS families living in our neighborhood?!  It is great, and was a lot of fun to see everyone out last night.    The night was a success!