Awana Awards Night

They finished their books with time to spare and I'm so proud of them.  That's a lot of memory work!   Congratulations, Sweeties!

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Paint!

Everyone knows you put down a protective something on the floor. We got a big sheet of plastic from the paint store when we bought the paint. It immediately got paint spilled on it, feet stepped in the wet painted plastic and then tracked all over the place.

Here is the cleaned floor. With lovely paint that--coincidentally--matches the walls. What are the odds? We are either going to have to sand and redo the floor in another varnish or paint it somehow.  It's the project that keeps on giving.  And here is the partly finished room. I love it in spite of all my mistakes and can hardly wait to finish.  We have throw pillows and wall accents ready and we'll do some curtain somethings and the closet doors and baseboards. Look for a completion date somewhere in early 2010...

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New Puppy!

After waiting and praying for a couple of years, Tyler has been blessed with a dog! Some ranching friends of ours have a line of Border Collies that they have bred for four generations and they let him choose one of the litter. He's the smartest dog I've ever seen and we are happy to welcome Diggity to our family. 

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These are morning clothes

Out to the trampoline for a pre-breakfast romp!  And it is *warm* outside. And dry, so the boots are just for effect, much like the helmet. 

Life is good for the fashionistas in our family. 

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Jason's First Flight is Tristan's Training Flight

Preflight--about to go

Tristan at the controls for a training flight given to him by his more than awesome orthodontist. Thanks, Dr. Grey!

I gave Jason the camera as they were about to take off and told him to get some good pictures.


I thought he did pretty well, considering he usually loves to get photos of the inside of his mouth...

Post flight excitement. Seems flying really agrees with him, don't you think? 

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Cartoon That Speaks To Me

Thank you for the cartoon, Susanne!

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Ranting

This is about Barack Obama and the direction this country is going. I didn't vote for him, and I'll say it right out that I think he is the worst thing to happen to this country in...well, I don't have an exact time for "possibly ever".   And the worst of it? You can't say that out loud to many people because he's African American and you might be accused of being "racist".  Look, it's not his color that makes him a bad choice (how ridiculous is that!), it's his philosophy. You want an African American or a woman as president? There are a host of incredible people fit for the job. But why should that matter?  They have little minds that consider gender and color things that we should use as a measure of worth.  What does a person think and how do they conduct their lives?  Do they demonstrate excellence? Leadership? Courage? Integrity?  Faithfulness? Honesty?  It could go on and on. Choose a person based on who they are, not what Affirmative Action categories they fill--and certainly to call someone a racist simply because they disagree on one, five or twenty issues involved goes beyond petty.

I watched a documentary on Roman Polanski the other day. They talked about how tragic his childhood had been (Jewish in Europe in WWII--lost his parents to the Nazis, alone on the streets at a young age to fend for himself during the war, etc) and how talented and charismatic he was. He came to this country and became very popular.  But later on he also did some very horrible things and was on trial for it and fled the country when he realized he was going to be locked up. The commentator said that he couldn't get a just trial because people didn't like him because he was foreign. Because he was Jewish. Because he was short.  Oh, my goodness. I think he forgot to list "he wore white socks".  (Plus did he forget that he had just told us how popular he was?) It is more a sad reflection on that commentator to think Americans would not like someone based on those things.  Show us a true heart in bad circumstances and you've got us wrapped around your finger.  But be unkind, untrue, a liar, a rapist, a person who finds ways of getting around the law--yeah, we aren't so fond of that.  I won't go into the details of what he had done, but there were good reasons America turned on him, and it wasn't his outward appearance.  Just like it isn't with Obama. 

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