Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Halloween: A History

Can you believe we have already had 4 Halloween's as a married couple?  Me neither.  Way too old.  And Halloween time is when it all began for Brock and me.  Our very first date was a Halloween date and it was so fun!  3 years later, he was home and Halloween was the first day we got to see each other after his mission.  That was a very special day.  Here are the pics of all of our glorious Halloween celebrations throughout the years!

Halloween 2005:  Pumpkin Carving date!



Halloween 2008:  Welcome Home!  A marvelous weekend in Colorado and a joyful reunion after 2 long years.




Halloween 2009:   Beauty and the....  Jimmy Neutron....  with Phantom of the Opera and a Cow.  Not our cleverest costume themes hahahaha




Halloween 2010:   Jimi Hendrix and his Guitar.  Booyah.  And then we were joined by the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles!





Halloween 2011:  Scooby Dooby Doo, where are you?




Halloween 2012:  Pac Man!!!



I love our tradition of dressing up with Steph and Jer!  Looking forward to next year and dressing up our cute little boy!  Woohoo!!!  Have fun and be safe trick or treating everybody! :)

Thursday, October 18, 2012

Let's think about this.

What would happen if everyone took all of the time, energy, and money they are spending on campaigns, seeking power, bashing politicians, and digging up dirt on others; and instead put that time, energy, and money into supporting our leadership and making a joint effort to improve our nation?

In a perfect world, that is what would happen.  But unfortunately, we live very far from a perfect world.  And there is no "one right answer" to all of our nation's problems.  In fact, there never will be, because in reality, one man's problem is another man's blessing.  It's the circle of life, and it's how the world works.

We have a presidential election coming up, and it is a big deal.  Four years is a long time, and President of the United States is a big position.  I understand how important this time is for our country, but I think people are being ridiculous.

It is a very close race.  There are two candidates, and there are millions of people supporting each of them.  All of these comments about people being "idiots" for even considering supporting one or the other, are false, ignorant, and cruel.  I have my reasons for the candidate that I support, but by no means do I believe that the opposing candidate is "evil" or any other (more harsh) words people are using to describe these men.

Our country is not set up so that one man can rule, reign, or take over.  It just won't happen.  So yes, the president has lots of influence, but he is not by any means all powerful; and any plan he presents will have to go through so many processes with people of differing views before any conclusion will be made as to whether or not the plan can be implemented.

So I do not believe that either candidate is capable of completely destroying or completely saving our country.  Once again, there is no right answer to everything.  But I do believe that whichever man is chosen for office will do his very best to achieve what is, in his mind, the best way to help our country.  And whichever man that is, there are millions of people in the country that stand behind him and support him.

Whatever happens, next month one of these men will become the President of the United States for the next four years.  We all have a choice to make.  We can choose to verbally slaughter our president and be bitter for years that the other man didn't win, or we can choose to respect the other half of the country who is happy with the outcome, and do what we can where we are to personally help make this country a better place.

Please exercise your right to vote.  Please exercise your right to share your opinion.  Please don't disrespect everyone around you because they have some different ideas as to what might help our country.  Everyone has different ideas.  The beauty of America is that everyone comes from a different background, and together our diversity unites us.  Let us stand together as the wonderful nation that we are, respect each other's decisions, and move forward with a resolve to do our part in individually serving our country the best that we know how.