Halling Go To Alaska

I dragged the girls out of the house at 6 am to go stand in line to see Obama in Reno this morning. The man does not disappoint. The energy there was amazing. We were fairly close - only about 100 feet away from the podium - which considering there were estimates of 12,000 in attendance, is pretty close. Here are a few pictures of our morning - which included 3 tired girls, lots of people, a walk uphill back to the truck and ended with a lunch at McDonald's (which was the requested menu by above-mentioned girls who were very patient). Here are M and S sitting on the curb waiting for the gates to open. B and S waiting for gate to open. The backdrop for the speech. The man himself. (Excuse my cheap $100 camera pictures!) Obama again. I am glad I went. I'm exhausted, we are having my parents and a friend over for dinner tonight, and I haven't started work yet. I see lots of coffee in my future!

Yesterday we took a trip to Apple Hill. It's a small community of orchards and vineyards where you can pick your own fruit. We had a good time. One of the farms is run by a former teacher who has opened up his land for educational tours. Did you know that just about any grape that you will find in the stores are given some sort of growth hormones to make them as plump and big as they are? Even the organic ones - they are just given a "made by nature" growth hormone. We bought grapes from him that he picked off his vines that morning. Absolutely delicious! Here is B holding one variety of pumpkin that is white. Don't remember what this one is called though because I had a sleeping 2yo on my hands which made listening very difficult for me! Here's M holding the same pumpkin. The farmer's son also raises chickens for the eggs and sells them for profit to get his college fund going. This was one of the baby chickens that S thought was "the cutest...

Here is a 12-minute presentation that ends with why Sarah Palin is the least experienced VP and why that could be a very bad thing. Found here.

This evening S was looking for her PJ's. But not any PJs her princess PJs. What did she ask me? "Mommy, where are my jamas?" And not 2 minutes later she was involved in taking apart a puzzle M was working on....while she was working on it. It's good she's cute.

Grabbed this link from a friend who found it how? Tried it. Verdict from kids? Yummy, can I have more?

Okay, this is going to be long. I'll be amazed if anyone makes it to the end! I don't even know how to concisely convey what I want to, so it won't be short and sweet - bear with me. It's religion and politics in my life. It's no less complicated because it's my life. If anything there is more gray rather than less. I just need to put all of this out there. Make of it what you will. Being raised Catholic we went to church every Sunday. Our family never missed unless we were on vacation. From early on I noticed that my dad never received communion, but he was always there with us. When I was about 8, shortly after I received my first communion, I remember asking my dad why he didn't receive communion. He was raised in a large Catholic family and attended Catholic schools through graduation. It didn't make sense to me why he was always going yet never fully "participated". His reply was something to the effect of it being a conversat...

Okay, so I'm supposed to be working, but every report I do I type today's date. I can't fathom that it is almost October already. I am planning my oldest daughter's 8th birthday party. Holy crap! That is almost as hard to accept as the fact that my baby is going to be 3 in December. Mind boggling, especially because I swear I'm not a day over 25. As I was just working something dawned on me. When you are a kid, you have the obligations of life - school and age-appropriate household responsibilities - everything else is gravy. You look forward to the fun stuff - hanging out with friends, playing, summer time, etc. I remember always looking forward towards the next weekend or the next vacation or when I would turn 10 (or 16 or 18). I just realized that once you "grow up" you can't live life like that. Many people do. But as an adult (especially if you are a parent) there is so much to do every day just to keep your head above water, that if yo...

Or not...and I hope if you're not you'll vote in this PBS poll as to whether or not Palin is qualified to be VP. http://tinyurl.com/547ox9

Updated to include the picture of S and her man! Okay, that pity party is over. I apologize if you read that. But sometimes you just have to get it out! Yesterday the girls and I went to a birthday party for a friend's 3yo. He and S are so cute together. They are constantly making eyes at each other. It's pretty adorable to watch. Especially because he is the strong silent type - a man of few words. She actually gets pretty quiet around him - which in and of itself is a minor miracle. They had a pirate theme complete with adult neighbor dressed up as a pirate. S wasn't too sure about it all until the pirate and her man sat down for a slice of pizza across the table from her. Here they are sitting together on the counter. Can you make out the cake on the left of the picture? It was an awesome cake. All the kids had a blast. We got home at bedtime and they promptly crashed. A good way to end the weekend. Granted they were still exhausted when they got up this morning - so not...

I've been feeling a little out of sorts of late. Not really sure if there is one thing that is causing it or just a whole mess of things. I know part of it has to do with Tim being gone so much. It's hard with him gone, but at the same time it's hard when he's only back for a week or so and then has to leave again. Our schedule stays the same, but my role in it changes and the girls love having their daddy home, but it's hard. M (I'm going to have to come up with some better than their initials!) actually has been missing Tim a lot lately. She has always been a mommy's girl. She would talk to Tim on the phone when he was gone, but she never showed any signs of really missing him. I have always chalked that up the fact that when she was born he had just started back to school and was taking a minimum of 18 credits a semester and working part time along with his drill weekends. He graduated when she was about 18 months old. He missed out on a lot in...

George W. Bush has launched a new assault on birth control and reproductive freedom. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recently proposed regulations that could seriously undermine access to basic reproductive health services -- including birth control and abortion. Instead of striking a careful balance between individual religious liberty and patients’ access to reproductive health care, the Bush administration has taken patients’ rights and their health care needs out of the equation. This far-reaching proposal doesn’t need congressional approval. But, it can’t go forward without allowing for public comment. That’s where you come in. The deadline for public comments is fast approaching -- September 20 -- and we have to generate intense opposition to these dangerous regulations. I just sent HHS my comment urging them to stop efforts to block women's access to basic reproductive health services. You can do the same here: https://secure.aclu.org/site/Advocacy?pagename...

This here is one of the many reasons why I wouldn't even consider voting McCain/Palin. There is no way these people speak for me. It repulses me that the GOP (and it's right-wingers) want, and keep trying, to make things less equal and less free in our country. What I hear is, "Stay out of my life, but I won't stay out of yours if you don't believe exactly how I do." Constitution says all men are created equal, but not if you are gay/lesbian, poor, un/under insured, a woman (especially a pregnant one), or not "Christian". (I put quotes because any TRUE Christian would not be condemning others. Jesus taught love and compassion and helping those less fortunate than you.) There is part of me that wants to just put the blinders on and wait until November 4th and then celebrate. But then part of me wants to scream at our country and say WTF! I just cannot fathom how the McCain/Palin/GOP philosophy of treating others is going to help our country come toge...

Still can't figure out the embedding thing. But my day is made better by this message .

An American Hero, Ed Freeman You're an 18 or 19 year old kid. You're critically wounded, and dying in the jungle in the Ia Drang Valley, 11-14-1965. LZ Xray, Vietnam. Your Infantry Unit is outnumbered 8 - 1, and the enemy fire is so intense, from 100 or 200 yards away, that your own Infantry Commander has ordered the MediVac helicopters to stop coming in. You're lying there, listening to the enemy machine guns, and you know you're not getting out. Your family is 1/2 way around the world, 12,000 miles away, and you'll never see them again. As the world starts to fadein and out, you know this is the day. Then, over the machine gun noise, you faintly hear that sound of a helicopter, and you look up to see a Huey, but it doesn't seem real, because no Medi-Vac markings are on it. Ed Freeman is coming for you. He's not Medi-Vac, so it's not his job, but he's flying his Huey down into the machine gun fire, after theMedi-Vacs were ordered not to come. He...

My aunt sent me the link for this blog. I think more should read it. http://womenagainstsarahpalin.blogspot.com/

www.voteforchange.com Very easy way to get registered to vote if you aren't or find out where you are registered to vote if you already are. Pass it around!

Last night I took both M and B to our local Girl Scout service unit's Fall Festival. B is in her second year of Brownies and M just had her first Daisy meeting last week. (Daisies are the step below Brownies.) Essentially all the Girl Scout troops in our area get together for a night of food, games, and fun. For $5 a person you get a "meal" of a hot dog, bag of chips, homemade cookie, and a drink. Then the various troops have booths that range from face painting, crafts, and games like the ring toss. This year as well as last year they had a bounce house. I have yet to find a kid who doesn't like bouncing! I left S at home with dad. Last year Tim was out of town and having the little one was exhausting for me. Not to mention that they were all younger so I didn't really want them totally running off without me. This year the forum was a little bigger. They rented out a much bigger facility, so there was more room to run. With S at home, I actually got...

As seen here. *If you grow up in Hawaii, raised by your grandparents, you're "exotic, different." * If you grow up in Alaska eating moose burgers, you're a quintessential American story. * If your name is Barack, you're a radical, unpatriotic Muslim. * If you name your kids Willow, Trig and Track, you're a maverick. * If you graduate from Harvard law School, you are unstable. * If you attend 5 different small colleges before graduating, you're well grounded. * If you spend 3 years as a brilliant community organizer, become the first black President of the Harvard Law Review, create a voter registration drive that registers 150,000 new voters, spend 12 years as a Constitutional Law professor, spend 8 years as a State Senator representing a district with over 750,000 people, become chairman of the state Senate's Health and Human Services committee, spend 4 years in the United States Senate representing a state of 13 million people while sponsoring 131 bi...

Via bitchphd. http://www.michiganmessenger.com/4076/lose-your-house-lose-your-vote Kick 'em while they down.

*Update* Okay, I'm coming back to this video. This video was posted to one of Tim's friend's from the guard facebook page. Tim's friend is obviously not of my political ideology; although, as I mentioned in a previous post, that fact does not preclude someone from my list of friends. I'm not even sure if this is going to be coherent or not, but I'm going to try. As we sit and remember what happened 7 years ago today, I am reminded of what my thoughts were at the time. Tim was active duty at the time, and I had a personal fear that he would have to go and be a part of the retribution for this act of terrorism, but at the same time I knew that who ever flew these planes into the World Trade Centers and the Pentagon had to be dealt with. This was not acceptable. Once it was connected to Osama bin Ladin and the troops were headed to Afghanistan, I was content that we would defend our honor as a country. When about a year later there was talk about Iraq and Sadaam Hu...

Just a few pictures from this week. Four deer - 2 adults 2 babies. Right off one of the busier side roads in town. Self portrait of B - She kind of looks like the deer. S wearing daddy's swim goggles Here are all 3 in the backyard just after breakfast. Check out the 'do on M!

how this makes me feel. But I do know that I like what is said here .

I'm not sure if it's because every day is back to having purpose with school work and a schedule, but *pre-emptively knocks on wood* my kids have been pretty decent lately to each other. A month ago, geez, I wanted to strangle them every 5 minutes. This week, there has still been the bickering and whining like there is in a house with 3 kids, but there has been much more laughter and happily playing together. It is so nice to hear. Part of me thinks both M and B are just adapting to this school at home thing together and realizing that they have a wonderful playmate in each other. Although, I'm sure it is a fluke. All 3 birthdays are coming up, and that is a recipe for disaster. B's is first in October. She loves the presents that ALL. FOR. HER! Unfortunately then M's birthday is in November and B has trouble dealing with the fact that M is getting stuff that she didn't get. And poor little S has to wait until December for hers - of which she wants everything th...

Well, I've finally decided to take a step...towards the doctor's office. I'm not a fan. I'm not a person who gets sick a lot. For the most part when I am sick, I debate about going to the doctor. I hate going and paying to see the doctor only to have them tell me to go home, rest, drink fluids, and it will pass. I have 3 kids, I school at home, I work part-time. I don't have to "rest" as it is intended to mean. I am fairly good about the maintenance doctor visits, though. So since I had a horrible case of vertigo May 2007, I have never felt quite "normal". I always felt like the world might want to spin - even if it didn't. And since this most recent case of vertigo a month ago, I am not even close to the "normal" I was before. I'm thinking I have a long-standing history of oddities in my wellbeing that maybe somehow are connected. So I made an appointment with a D.O. I'm hoping that maybe he provide some insight ...