No summer here

It has been cold and rainy here for awhile. We were at a friends house yesterday. The boys and Nicole could play in the garden because there was a break in the weather. They learned to shoot a bow and arrow. Thomas is actually pretty good at it. But today it rains again. My garden is very green. Most of my flowers love the weather. I do have rust on my roses, and the vegetable plants are all leaves, and very little fruit. We need some sun! Global warming really means one part of the planet is too wet and cold, and the other part too hot and dry. Balance is what we all need. Juergen said it’s suppose to warm up this week. I hope he is right. I have spent most of the summer in the house.

abortion is big business

Gingrich

Gingrich was the former speaker of the house. He is the last person to balance the US budget. They give the credit to Clinton, but it was Gingrich who pulled off that miracle (Republican Revolution in the House). He is a true fiscal conservative.

Contract with America 1994(Gingrich)

On the first day of their majority, the Republicans promised to hold floor votes on eight reforms of government operations:

require all laws that apply to the rest of the country also apply to Congress;
select a major, independent auditing firm to conduct a comprehensive audit of Congress for waste, fraud or abuse;
cut the number of House committees, and cut committee staff by one-third;
limit the terms of all committee chairs;
ban the casting of proxy votes in committee;
require committee meetings to be open to the public;
require a three-fifths majority vote to pass a tax increase;
and implement a zero base-line budgeting process for the annual Federal Budget.

DANCE

Philip, Thomas and Sarah Dance

United treated us so badly last summer. I would fly with someone else if I had a choice! They have to work on their people skills.

keeping my eyes on Gov. Haley Barbour

I'm very interested in Politics. I don't think I would vote for Sarah Palin for President even if I like her...and I really like her. One of the people I find interesting is Gov. Haley Barbour. I love to listen to him because he is humble and strong and wise and balanced all at once. I don't know much about him but I’m going to keep my eye on him. If the republicans have a future leader, he might be it? I also like Tim Polenti, but I think he lacks the authority and confidence to get elected to national office. He is a smart guy, and would have been my pick for VP. Like I said, I like Sarah Palin very much, but I just don’t think she has what it takes to be the President. I do expect great things from her….after all you don’t have to be President to be great!

uncomfortable with the hype

Know one can question that Michael Jackson was a brilliant talent. He was mega famous. But did he deserve the world wide media coverage he got over the last week, and everything "stopping" to cover his funeral? Also, I found it odd that so many act like he is a black hero. He was a very troubled person, and he probably died from drug use. Famous ok, a hero...no. I just feel uncomfortable with that. His family lost someone they loved. I am sorry for them. Michael Jackson seemed to have a million friends at his funeral, but was said to be a lonely man. It also makes me question how many of these folks love Jackson, and how many are just trying to promote themselves? I find this kind of sad. I can honor his talent, he was brilliant. I am very cautious about all the rest. I can not blame his family for trying to preserve a positive legacy for him...but stuff is bound to come out. I suspect it will get really ugly. How many of these people will be trying to distance themselves from Michael Jackson in the coming days? I'm uncomfortable with the whole thing. I do not want to speak ill of the man, I just question the hype!

hope in action

I read a story just now about a fan of Michel Jackson who lives in England. He registered to win a ticket to the memorial and then got on a flight to LA. He found out he was not one of the few fans who won a ticket. Then a women who did win 2 tickets gave one of her tickets to him. I'm not a fan of Michel Jackson, but I had to smile at the faith this man had to just get on a flight and hope for the best. Good for him! Do you have that kind of faith? I do. We had an invitation from the Thai adoption board to come to Thailand to pick up Philip. We bought our tickets and packed our bags. Two days before we were to travel, we got an e-mail saying do not come. We could not reach anyone because it was almost New Years. So we decided to go anyway. They didn't let us adopt Philip, or even see Philip. We were in Thailand for two weeks and were looking at returning home with out our son. It was devastating! But we called a women who had been an exchange student in Oregon. My parents where her host family. She worked in the Thai government, and her boss was good friends with the Prim Minister of Thailand. He made some phone calls, and all of a sudden we got to see Philip, and we got to adopt Philip. We had to stay one extra week in Thailand, but it worked out! I admire the faith or hope that would cause someone to just get on a flight and see what will happen.

Oh man....

Philip was late getting home from school today. I was getting worried. I called Juergen to ask him what I should do because Philip was already 40 minutes late. He said calmly that I should wait another half hour. If he didn't show up in 30 minutes I should call him back. So I waited and worried and tried to pray. 25 minutes later Philip comes home. I asked him why he was 1 1/2 hours late? He had to stay after school because he had gotten in trouble last week...but he told Juergen yesterday he would be late. Ahhhh!!!! So I call Juergen to tell him Philip was home. Juergen calmly says, oh yes I forgot...he told me he would be late! Ahhhh!!!!! Men!!!!! If I didn't love Juergen so much, I would be pretty mad at him. Philip was 1 ½ hour late and I was so worried! He could have saved me a little stress! So next time you see him (Juergen), give him a hard time for me, ok! And don't worry...I wrote this post to make Juergen smile. I'm not mad anymore. I really do love my man! And Juergen, you don't have to say your sorry for forgetting Philip had to stay late. I'm sure you're just so busy at work, you didn't think of it!

Still, flowers are always a good idea!