Because he's soooo spiritual like that

The boys have quite a few animated "church movies" as we call them - animated scripture stories or movies with good morals, etc., to them and these are what I encourage them to watch on Sunday if they want to watch TV. Today Little J was so excited to tell me about their newest one and used words like "awesome" to describe it. He kept telling me I needed to watch it. He's never been so excited about a church movie before so I kept asking him what he liked about it and the truth came out. It was a video about when Jesus cleanses the temple of the money changers. And according to Little J it was so great because:

"He was like Indiana Jones because he had a really cool whip!"

Aaah, my little saint....

Le Artiste

Some of you may remember Little J's penchant for art. In all seriousness, he really is a great little artist. I am continually amazed at the detail his drawings have in them and the creativity behind the scenes he creates. He has a good knack for perspective in his drawings, which I know most kids at the age of 5 do not have.

He draws constantly. This is no exaggeration. I buy boxes full of notebooks when they are on sale for school and he fills those notebooks with his drawings. He uses up our recycle/scratch paper pile before it can even get recycled. My house is continually graced with piles and piles of his drawings. Here are a few pics of some of his drawings that happen to be sitting right here. I could have picked up 3 or 4 more without moving from my chair. They are everywhere!

A scene from last week when I was outside raking the leaves and Little Man was jumping on the trampoline. It even has Little Man's jacket hanging on the trampoline, which it was.

A random farm scene complete with smiling sun.

A Thanksgiving scene in our kitchen. He even included the hanging kitchen utensils, etc. on the backsplash under the cabinet and blinds on the window over the sink.

We have tried to encourage him in this talent, and often praise him for his good work. But you should have seen him Friday, SO PROUD of himself (and of course we are really proud of him) because he came home from school with a letter from his art teacher saying that his art work had been selected to be displayed at the school district's Education Center where "hundreds of visitors, teachers and administrators will enjoy the exhibit." He was especially excited about the special reception they are having for the artists and their families where we will be able to "give special attention to the artists." He really liked that part.

I have no idea which of his art work was selected to be displayed, but when JC was up at the school a couple of weeks ago doing his "Watch DOG" duties, the art teacher specifically commented to him on how impressed she was with Little J's work. I will be sure to take pictures at the reception!

Freedom of What?

I don't know how many of you are aware about the Freedom of Choice Act, but I think it is in everyone's best interest to become educated on this proposed legislation and act accordingly. It's no secret that I am pro-life and that I do not believe "choice" to kill a living baby is anything more than exactly that. A woman already "chose" what she wanted to do with her body and becoming pregnant is a possible consequence of that choice. You can't "unchoose." And to quote, Elder Russell M. Nelson, who I believe is an apostle of the Lord,

"This war called abortion is a war on the defenseless and the voiceless. It is a war on the unborn. This war is being waged globally. Ironically, civilized societies that have generally placed safeguards on human life have now passed laws that sanction this practice. This matters greatly to us because the Lord has repeatedly declared this divine imperative: 'Thou shalt not kill.' Then He added, 'Nor do anything like unto it.'... Man-made rules have now legalized that which has been forbidden by God from the dawn of time! Human reasoning has twisted and transformed absolute truth into sound-bite slogans that promote a practice that is consummately wrong." Ensign, October 2008

The Freedom of Choice Act, however, is particularly dangerous because it will elevate abortion to the level of a "fundamental right" and nullify over 550 federal and state laws that have already been put in place (most of which were voted into place). Here is a list of some of the things it will nullify:

- Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003 - *Can I just say that this is the most disgusting practice . I almost want to throw up just thinking about it. Sorry to be so graphic, but I think it's important everyone understands what this is. Partial Birth Abortion is what happens when the baby is already too big to be done away with the "traditional" way and the mother has to be dilated to deliver it. They deliver it feet first (because I guess the doctor is too cowardly to actually see the face of what he is destroying) and then basically suck the baby's brains out through the base of its skull before it is delivered fully. NO ONE can tell me that this is anything more than pure evil. Why don't you just pull it out and shoot it like the Nazi's use to? I think this ban was the best thing Bush ever did.
- Hyde Amendment (restricting taxpayer funding of abortions)
-Restrictions on abortions performed at military hospitals
-Restrictions on insurance coverage for abortion for federal employees
-Informed consent laws
-Waiting periods
-Parental consent and notification laws
-Health and safety regulations for abortion clinics
-Requirements that licensed physicians perform abortions
-“Delayed enforcement” laws (banning abortion when Roe v. Wade is overturned and/or the authority to restrict abortion is returned to the states)
-Bans on partial-birth abortion
-Bans on abortion after viability. FOCA’s apparent attempt to limit post-viability abortions is illusory. Under FOCA, post-viability abortions are expressly permitted to protect the woman’s “health.” Within the context of abortion, “health” has been interpreted so broadly that FOCA would not actually proscribe any abortion before or after viability.
-Limits on public funding for elective abortions (thus, making American taxpayers fund a procedure that many find morally objectionable)
-Limits on the use of public facilities (such has public hospitals and medical schools at state universities) for abortions
-State and federal legal protections for individual healthcare providers who decline to participate in abortions
-Legal protections for Catholic and other religiously-affiliated hospitals who, while providing care to millions of poor and uninsured Americans, refuse to allow abortions within their facilities

So basically, women won't have to be told the risks or alternatives to getting an abortion, there will be no restrictions or safety nets put in place to ensure safe abortion sites, my tax money will have to pay for them, any 12-year-old could walk in off the street and get an abortion without her parents knowing anything about it, and it will be against the law for any facility (even if faith-based) to refuse to perform an abortion. That's not progress. And I don't believe it empowers or protects women either. If you agree, go here: http://www.fightfoca.com/ to sign the petition against it. It takes thirty seconds, and could possibly make a difference.

To quote Edmund Burke, "The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing." I believe we should stand up for choice - the right choice - not simply for choice as a method.

Destructo

My house is pretty much tornado alley when it comes to my three boys living here. I try to keep the mess contained, but it is constant and fierce. Little Man has been a small factor in this until recently. I don't know what has gotten into him (his 2-year-old birthday maybe?) but he is one path of destruction after another. Today, on top of his normal mess-making rituals such as crushing goldfish crackers into millions of pieces or scattering 1,000 hot wheel cars all over the living room, he has: managed to lock himself in the bathroom and unroll an entire roll of toilet paper; he has emptied most of a bottle of lotion onto the carpet and all over himself; and he has emptied out an entire cabinet full of notebooks, construction paper, and other forms of crafty things and dumped them all over the room. When you factor in that he is asleep for a good 3 hours during the day for his nap, I'd say that he's pretty busy!

The Block

So my sister Tori came up Tuesday to go to her teen-idol boy band's reunion concert, New Kids On The Block. I was glad I wasn't a complete poser and knew the words to a lot of their old songs. It was the strangest demographics I had ever seen at a concert - all 30-something females! There were seriously only like 10 guys in the entire Sprint Center. There were bras and belts and thongs flying up on stage. I will say my sister and I both left with our underwear intact, however. We had awesome seats and could see all the synchronized pelvic thrusts and crotch grabs clearly. Tori stood there like a lovestruck teenager with misty eyes most of the time. I almost started crying when they came out because she was starting to cry. I only took a couple of pics on my crappy phone camera, but I'm sure Tori will have up her full report soon enough and she took tons of pictures.

See? No men anywhere.

It was a fun concert. I only laughed twice - once when Jordan was up on an elevated platform, backlit with a spotlight, and a fan (the electric kind, not one from the crowd) started blowing as he ripped his shirt open and the crowd went wild, and once when Joey was doing something on the floor that reminded me of a Sports Illustrated model crawling sexily through the sand toward the camera. They did a good job, though, and it was entertaining. Natasha Bedingfield (Pocketful of Sunshine) opened for them and I really liked all her songs. I may have to go check out her CD.

This picture looks like we are far away, but we were really close. Only 6 rows up off the floor and only a couple of sections over.

I had to be her scheduling agent because there were several blog friends that lived in this area that wanted to see her and hang out. So most of our time was spent going between her admirers. It was fun to have my sister up here even if it was only for a quick trip.

Arbitrary

Today was our annual Primary program. It has been delayed for several weeks, so I was glad to finally have it done. It was awesome, and even though I am the one who oversees it all, do not think I am tooting my own horn. I had nothing to do with its awesomeness. But it really was beautiful. We let a lot of the parts be filled in by the kids themselves and that brought such a sweet spirit to it to hear their little hearts. And of course they sang wonderfully. We have a small Primary compared to a lot of wards, and I thought they pulled it off beautifully!

In other news, I've got a pooch already. I guess this is what happens on your fourth kid, when your stomach is already use to being stretched out for huge babies. It says to itself, "Gut, we've done this before..." and then pooches out right away. Yesterday, someone came up and the first thing they said was, "Are you already showing?!" Yeah, uh, thanks for pointing that out. Then a lady I am friends with called me later saying she'd heard a juicy piece of gossip and wanted to confirm it. I told her yes, it was true, and asked how she heard the news. She said her 12-year-old daughter heard the above exchange and told her mom, "and then I looked, and you could totally tell." I tried sucking it in, but it doesn't work. Oh well!

And for my last piece of news, this Tuesday, all of you will be so jealous because my sister Tori is coming up from TX to go to a reunion concert of her teenage obsession when she was 13 or so. They came in concert to Dallas but she couldn't go that day, so she's coming here, which I am totally excited about. I was too old to get into all the pre-teen swooning when they hit it big, but my sister had her room plastered with their posters and played their music constantly. I remember she told me they were going to be as big as the Beatles. We went to their concert in Oklahoma City to see them once and then saw them going into their hotel afterwards. Donnie Wahlberg (that was a clue of who this group is) kissed my sister on the cheek. She bawled uncontrollably. But I am going to this concert with her, too, even though I am going to be a total poser. So come Tuesday night we are going to be rockin' the house at the NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK concert. Oh yeah!

The Votes Are In...

Well, it's over. I admit it, I cried. I still stand completely behind all my previous sentiments. But, I am ready to move forward and give President-elect Obama a chance. And I do recognize and appreciate the significance of this election. I hope he can deliver all his ponies and rainbows. If nothing else, we'll have some good revival speeches to listen to for the next 4 years.

My Last Political Post (yeah, it's long)

I read that 1 in 7 voters were still either undecided or open to discussion regarding their choice for the upcoming election. So I've been thinking about that. I know I only have like 10 readers, but if one of those readers is undecided, then I thought one last post would be worth it. I also started this out originally full of facts complete with non-partisan references, etc. But then I scratched that. So now I am just going to say what I feel, which may or may not be what you feel, and that is ok. Honestly, I don't think either side has all the answers. But here are my main reasons I will not be voting for Obama:

1. His economic policy: If you didn't see my earlier post regarding my feelings of the "redistribution plan" go here. I believe this program is socialist in nature. Socialists believe that capitalism causes wealth to be concentrated in only a small percentage of society, which creates an unequal society, and that that wealth should be spread evenly to create an egalitarian society. If I wanted to live in a socialist country, I'd go live in Cuba. I do not in any way believe America was meant to be a socialist country. I also believe that in many cases "equality" (term used loosely, because equality has now become very subjective) creates mediocrity. And don't even come back at me with the current economic crisis we are in now and how it is Bush's fault, etc. etc., and so we need some massive overhaul. The problems we face now go way back to when Clinton was in office when all the Democrats started demanding lenders lend to more "risky" investors in order to make housing opportunities more "equal" among minorities and the underpriviledged, while at the same time refusing to put into place necessary checks and balances. We see where that got us. I really feel strongly that this part of the Democratic campaign is the most dangerous and will lead this country down a very slippery slope.

2. His healthcare policy: Healthcare is a big issue for me because my husband is self-employed, so it is not cheap or easy to have adequate coverage for our family. I realize our healthcare system does need some tweaking, mainly because of the insurance companies, but his plan leans way too much toward nationalized healthcare, which I am totally against. When I lived in England, where the health care is nationalized, their medical system was a joke. If you were old, you might as well pick out your coffin because you were put on the bottom of the list. People sat around and basically rotted away from cancer or other ailments because they had to wait for months to see the specialists they needed. That, and the doctors were so apathetic about the whole thing they just prescribed pill after pill to people without really trying to get to the root of the problem. JC grew up in Mexico, where health care is also nationalized, and you will never hear him tooting the horn of how great nationalized healthcare is. His grandma nearly died a few years ago because she had breast cancer and couldn't get the treatment she needed because she was put off for months. If it hadn't been for his dad pulling a few strings with a private doctor, she would have died. It is true that under Obama's plan there would still be the opportunity for private health insurance, but compared to a plan where the government pays the bills using tax-payers money, obviously the cost of those private doctors and care would not be comparable, so essentially the private health industry would fall apart and/or only the elite would be able to afford them, which isn't that what is being fought against now? And again, where there is no drive to be better or do better, then you don't get any better, and what incentive would doctors have who do not have the opportunity to make a lucrative career out of taking care of people. Yes, some may be in it out of the goodness of their hearts, but come on, we all know money talks.
3. His possible appointment of Supreme Court justices. Very possibly, if elected, Obama will be able to appoint up to 3 Supreme Court justices, which as you know, would massively affect the direction of this country's policies. He said that judges that "understand the importance" of what it is like to be "poor, black, gay, disabled, and old" are what he would base his criteria on when selecting them. Hmmm....I am not poor, black, gay, disabled or old, and the majority of people I know are not either. I would hope that the top justices in the country would not be chosen because of their sympathies and/or predjudices toward certain demographics. I don't expect a judge to be appointed because they "understand the importance" of what it means to be a woman or a Mormon or married to a Mexican. What about the majority of the people who do not fall into those categories?

4. His moral compass. I do not think he is a bad person, but I don't believe in a lot of his beliefs ranging from abortion to gay rights to affirmative action. I could expound a lot more in this area, but suffice it to say, there IS a right and a wrong. I do not believe in the fuzzy gray area of "oh let's make everyone happy so no one gets their feelings hurt" rhetoric. The Constitution was established to govern a moral people. If we are amoral, how can we make moral judgments and decisions? Once you start amoralizing government, then you soon become a nation without morals because everything is "ok." Scriptures tell us that when the majority of people no longer choose the right, the nation crumbles. I do not believe in "pro-choice" because a woman has many choices already - she has the choice to have protected sex, or not have sex, she has the choice to give an unwanted child up for adoption. Freaking animals have rights, so why wouldn't an unborn child have at least as many if not more rights? I do not believe marriage should be defined as anything else but marriage between a man and a woman. If a man and a man can marry or a woman and a woman can marry, why can't I start to live another "alternative" lifestyle? Why can't I get another husband or my husband get another wife? Or why can't I marry my uncle? Why can't my 8-year-old get married? (NOT THAT I WANT ANY OF THESE - IT'S JUST AN EXAMPLE). Oftentimes, the "rules" that are established to protect those who do not follow the mainstream are just actually reversed prejudice to those who do. Case in point: If my kids want to say the pledge or pray at school, they should be able to. But I digress... these topics could be posts in themselves. Anyway, I could go on and on, but the point is I think Obama has an agenda, and it is not one I agree with.

5. His lack of experience. When you look at their backgrounds of governmental responsibilities and contributions, Barack Obama is like the kid brother trying to tag along and convince the big kids he really is cool enough to hang out with them. It's like comparing someone with a doctorate to a junior in high school. I love this quote from Arnold Swarzenegger,"John McCain has served his country longer in a POW camp than his opponent has in the United States Senate." Seriously, everyone is all up in arms about Palin's lack of governmental experience, but she is not the one running for the President! Obama is. If elected, he WILL be President and he has no experience.

So there you have it. This post could have been much more eloquent, thought-out, probably more "politically correct" and much, much longer, but these are the main points I have concern with. I know I'm the one who said it, but I know I'm not the only one who thinks it. And even if I was, oh well. This election is an important election, and one I have for the most part kept my mouth shut about, but as I said in the beginning, if stating the reasons I am voting or not voting the way I am will help someone make their decision, then I am not afraid to put it on the line.

That being said, if Obama is elected, I will afford him the same respect I feel the office of the President deserves. I remember once in 5th grade when Reagan was elected, a kid wrote on a piece of paper "Assassinate Reagan!" and hung it up on our classroom bulletin board. He got in trouble, but where do you think he even learned that kind of thinking from?? I think it is irresponsible and disrespectful when people (especially parents) bad mouth the President of the United States. Even as this election nears, and I have answered questions from my kids or explained to them why I am voting for McCain, I have never once said a negative comment about Obama. I have only explained to them what I believe and why I feel that McCain most closely follows those beliefs. Because I don't want them being ignorant and saying disrespectful things if Obama is elected. Anyway, I don't know where this part came from, but now I am done. Don't forget to vote on Tuesday!