Tax payer money at work

Our tax dollars at work... He says he is a she and the taxpayers should pay for him to have the necessary treatment and surgery. Why? Because when he was a he, he killed his wife-- in self defense of course-- and is now serving a life sentence. He has been to court several times (hundreds of thousands of dollars I am sure) and lives in prison-- and we owe him! http://www.charlotte.com/nation/story/510856.html
Has the whole story... I love my country, but COME ON!!!!!

Thoughts on Motherhood and Service

A friend of my has a "thought of the week" on her blog. I am not talented enough at this blog thing to figure out how to put that on the side bar of my main blog, so I am just going to post one of my favorite quotes about motherhood and service. The quote is by Neal A. Maxwell, who passed away almost 2 years ago and was an apostle in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. For those of you who don't know, we as Latter Day Saints believe in modern day prophets and apostles like the church that Christ established in the New Testament.
Now to the great quote, "Women rock a sobbing child without wondering if today's world is passing them by, because they know they hold tomorrow tightly in their arms. So often our sisters comfort others when their own needs are greater than those being comforted. That quality is like the generosity of Jesus on the cross. (The kicker) EMPATHY DURING AGONY IS A PORTION OF DIVINITY...When the real history of mankind is fully disclosed, will it feature the echoes of gunfire or the shaping sounds of lullabies? Will what happened in cradles and kitchens prove to be more controlling than what happened in congresses? No wonder the men of God support and sustain our sisters in their unique roles, for the act of deserting homes in order to shape society is like thoughtlessly removing crucial fingers from an imperiled dike in order to teach people how to swim." Elder Neal A. Maxwell 1979
I love that quote-- you all know my love of politics, but I have to agree though political involvement and letting our voices be heard is important, what I do daily with my little girls will do more to shape this world. It is the single most important thing that I will do with my life and it will decide how I spend my life and the life to come. It is an overwhelming realization, but when we have precious and sweet moments with our dear little children it is worth every ounce of sacrifice.

My Sweet Girls

Hannah loves to pose. She loves for us to take pictures and movies of her... Sometimes it is okay to include her sisters... Too cute.

Ellie playing some computer games with a lovely hat... She loves putting stuff on her head and saying, "Mommy, do I look beautiful?"

Riley enjoying some chocolate frosting. We have an adorable movie of her eating it and not letting me near it, but that is way too big for me to figure out how to upload.

Busy and obsessed

Okay…okay… This has been a long time coming. I have been busy and obsessed and just haven’t gotten around to writing in a while. Busy because I have three small children that DEMAND my attention awake and asleep (The cat keeps waking Ellie up at night, so this morning at 4am she needed a band aid. Then at 4:30 she needed Daddy to sleep with her—why she didn’t ask Daddy herself I don’t have a clue. I began sleeping on the far side of the bed, so that the kids would wake him in the middle of the night instead of me, but now they just walk the long way, away from the bathroom, to my side of the bed to tell me that they have to pee or need a band aid. One of the many gifts of motherhood.) And obsessed because… I have discovered the Twilight Series by Stephenie Meyer. I had so many people RAVE about these books and tell me that I HAD to read them. One friend even telling me that they were better than Harry Potter… I thought—she’s blasphemous… how can anything be better than Harry Potter??? Why didn’t I read them sooner? Well, I know that I have an obsessive personality when I like something and I just don’t have time or patience to obsessed right now in my life. I am way too practical to get obsessed over any books—right?! And because I never thought that I would enjoy the subject matter of these books—1. It’s a cheesy romance—which I guess I do like a good romance, but it is hard to admit that I do. 2. Not only is it a cheesy romance, but it is a cheesy romance about vampires and werewolves. That is really hard to admit…But, here I go admitting… I have read all three books (Twilight, New Moon and Eclipse) and anything readable on her website and here I am reading the books again. I read New Moon in less than a day (I still made dinner and put the children to bed—I just stayed up until 4am in the morning—no worries I still got up with the kids at 7am.) I only stayed up until 2am with Eclipse, although I thought it was a better book. So, to all 3 of you reading my blog—have at it… I love the Twilight Series. I can’t wait for the other 2 books that she has coming out in the series. Breaking Dawn will be out on August 2nd and I find myself wanting a party at 12:01 am at Books A Million like they had with the Harry Potter books. I would stay up all night to finish it… But, I doubt they will do that—I may just have to order on Amazon and wait…Ashley is reading them, but not enjoying them to anywhere near the degree that I did or that any of my girlfriends have. As Anne’s neighbor in the Anne of Green Gables books always said, “That’s a man for you.” I do a appreciate him reading the books just so he can discuss them with me, but I am not sure if it is worth the teasing I am getting for liking a cheesy love story about humans, vampires and werewolves…
Enough about my obsessive disorder—I would talk about politics, but it leaves me feeling a little sad and hopeless at this point. I am beginning to feel that I will have to vote for McCain—because I am so scared of Obama. I think that Hillary is done and that Obama will probably be our next president. Sorry to all my friends that are Obama fans—you know that I am conservative to the core and he is not. Universal Health Care(maybe if we followed plans in Europe that included private companies—but our plan is like that of Canada and Britain—which are failing miserably), taxes put on us by the United Nations that would account for 0.07% of our Gross Domestic Product, promises of money to everyone, totally open and unprotected borders—not to mention the Supreme Court Justices that are waiting to retire—well, we can save that post for another day—right?! His message of “hope” is just not getting through to me… Promise to be better at writing in the future… Love to all, Shannon