Revenge of the Laundry Monkey!

I knew there was a lot of laundry build-up, but I didn't know it was this much...

A Big Helping of Pumpkin Pie!

Three Little Pumpkins...

...and a Jack-o-lantern!

Westmont College Fire

My sister-in-law,Rebecca, sent this prayer request (yesterday) and update (today) about the fire situation at Westmont College in Santa Barbara, CA. (a sister college of Taylor University). Until a couple of months ago, Rebecca was the women's soccer coach at Westmont. Carter and Rebecca have since moved to the cornfields of Indiana, but have friends, colleagues and students who are and will be affected by the fires.

I, personally have a special place in my heart for Westmont, as 1) it was one of my top college choices, 2) my music teacher and my best friend convinced me (for approximately 18 agonizing hours) that I had been requested to give my testimony to their entire student body for chapel, and 3) I was personally sung to by the Westmont Ensemble! :)

Will you pray for them?

Nov. 14

Hey all,
Some of you have heard, but a fire started in Santa Barbara that hit Westmont pretty hard. Because of sun downer winds coming over the mountains (70 mph gusts), there was not time for Westmont students to evacuate. Fortunately, Westmont has an emergency fire plan in place and all students made it to the gym for refuge. One of the dorms was burnt (half of Clark hall) and the Science building. Some other buildings burned down, but they were all going to be demolished by the end of the year (Westmont is in the process of building some new buildings.)

One of the sadder things that happened is that 14 faculty members lost their home. Westmont has "Faculty housing" that only faculty at Westmont can buy. Three of my former coaching colleagues lost their homes, along with 11 other faculty members that I worked with. I am sure they are devastated right now, and would appreciate any prayers. Below is a link to a "post fire" video that shows the Science building. This is the building that had a GREAT view that I would take recruits to at the end of our campus tour. Anyhow, I am just sure they would all appreciate prayers in this hard time! I know they are all thankful that there were no deaths, but it is still a large pill to swallow.

http://disaster.westmont.edu/www/system_status/

Nov. 15

Things seem to be settling down at Westmont, as all the danger of fire is away. Westmont has posted pictures of the aftermath on campus if you're interested...

http://www.westmont.edu/

...seeing these pictures were a good reminder for me to continue praying despite the danger being gone.

Love,
Rebecca

It Seemed Like A Good Idea At The Time!

On Sunday, a certain 7 1/2 year old attempted to make a plastic character fly by placing it on the handle of a shovel and stepping with all of his might on the head. It worked...sort of!

It's Good To Be Three!

For a special "half-day of school/Veterans Day" surprise, I took Colby and Ian to Eileen's Colossal Cookies store before we picked up Isaac from school yesterday. The cookies there are fantastic...as well as huge! Ian and Colby (surprisingly) chose red cookies and picked a blue one for Isaac.

Salute to our Veterans!

To: Our Veterans
From: Ian

Thank you to all who have served our country over the years in times of war and peace! We are proud of you!
Love, Isaac, Ian, Colby and Zane

Grandpa Jay Shaw- Army
Great Grandpa Arnold Shaw- Army (WWII)
Grandpa Steve Balyo- Navy
Great Grandpa Edward Balyo- Navy (WWII)
Uncle Rick Balyo- Navy
Uncle Marlin- Navy (Vietnam)
Ryan Kenneda- Marines
Samuel House- National Guard (Afghanistan)

To: Our Veterans
From: Isaac

Where's John Wayne?

So, Thursday a piece of our dog run blew off. Yesterday...the whole gate blew off in the wind.

The November wind has trespassed!

Crazy wind and tumbleweed infestation! I feel like we are on the set of a wild west movie! :) Here's the updated tumbleweed story from our local news!

http://www.kgwn.tv/_videos/pages/200811074657.html

Tumbleweed Trouble

Check out this interesting story from our local news...Hawthorne is the next street over from ours! :)

http://www.kgwn.tv/_videos/pages/200811060247.html

Nine Months!

This month, Zane's new trick has been pulling himself up on anything and everything that could possibly/remotely hold him (including, but not limited to Oquirrh, a moving vacuum cleaner and big brother legs).

Tonight, Colby said, "When Zane starts ta walk, I'm gonna ta build him a house!"...which is going to be very helpful if our house blows down in this Wyoming wind (part of our dog run gate blew off last night)!

At nine months, Zane loves his brothers, baths, the dog, cereal puffs, corn chowder and cars (to chew on) and he has just started thumbing through board books instead of just gnawing on them.

He does NOT appreciate mommy and daddy leaving the room and/or naptime/bedtime but... mommy and daddy sure are sleeping much better now that Zane is sleeping in a different room! It's great to be able to pick Isaac up from school without feeling like I'm going to fall asleep at the wheel!

Sadly, Zane's Hermit crab, one leg out crawl has morphed more or less into a regular crawl. Scott and I will miss that cute little thing!

When is My Check Coming?

Well, the results of the election are in, and I'm sure everyone has different thoughts and feelings regarding it. The article below sums up a good part of mine...

THE "I WANT MY MOMMY" ELECTION

I brought this up several months ago ... a slogan for this election. "I want my mommy." The phrase really says it all. This is not an election where the American voters were looking for someone to protect their freedoms. Instead, it was an election where people were looking for someone to take care of them. Self-sufficiency seems a bit old-fashioned right now. Why work so hard to be self-sufficient when candidates are falling all over themselves to provide the American people with womb-to-tomb or, if you will, cradle-to-grave paternalism. The voters who put Barack Obama into office bear little resemblance to the people who fought for independence 224 years ago. Colonists fighting for our independence actually left their bloody footprints along the icy roads of New York and Pennsylvania while marching to engage the British troops. Today we can't even drum up a decent plurality of voters who will vote for liberty, let alone fight for it.

This has been a "what's in it for me" vote. Are you going to give me health care? Are you going to make sure my job is guaranteed? Are you going to cover my child care costs? You aren't going to make me pay taxes, are you? How about all those evil rich people? Aren't you going to take some of their money away from them and give it to me? After all ... I work for my money, they cheated and stole for theirs. Make them pay their fair share of taxes. Me? I'm tired of paying any share.

The big question for me today is whether or not freedom, economic liberty and self-sufficiency can make a comeback in America. Right now it seems that a dismaying number of Americans think that they are owed a living; that it is the government's job to guarantee their economic security. Can we ever turn that around and return to a time when people accept the responsibility for their own lives and eschew the idea of using government as a tool of legalized plunder?

Several times in the last few day's I've mentioned the concept of "The Tipping Point." I'm using that term in the context of voting and taxpaying. Right now we are at the point where about 43% of American income earners pay absolutely NO income tax. I've been saying for years that if the Democrats ever gain absolute control in Washington we're going to see that percentage climb ... climb to over 50%. That's the tipping point. Imagine a political campaign where the majority of voters do not pay income taxes. Imagine a campaign where the majority of voters actually get a check from the government instead of writing a check to the government. Can you hear the Democrat campaign themes then? "Vote for the Republicans and they're going to make you pay income taxes."

In fact ... I've already developed the Democrat campaign themes for the next several presidential elections:

2012: "Vote for the Republicans and they're going to make you pay income taxes."

2016: "Vote for the Republicans and they're going to make you pay your own Social Security and Medicare taxes."

2020: "Vote for the Republicans and they're going to make you pay for your own health care."

2024: "Vote for the Republicans and they're going to make you pay for your own place to live."

Here we are my friends. We're at the point where virtually every voter out there understands that they can use their ballot as an instrument of plunder. For those of you who went to government schools, that means they can use their vote to take money away from other citizens. That would be the difference between a Democracy (rule of man) and a Republic (rule of law).

Reprinted from Neal Boortz's website. To see the article in its entirety go to http://boortz.com/nuze/index.html

Mommy For President

I voted this morning and took Ian, Colby and Zane with me. They were really good, (partially on account of a surprise I told them they would get if they were good, which was watching an episode of the Backyardigans, my favorite cartoon!) even though it took about an hour of standing in line.

During that time, Colby asked me if he could play in the jungle (a bunch of plants in a corner of the building), Zane fell asleep in my arms, Ian read all the "vote now" signs, and we talked a little bit more about what all the people in line were waiting for.

As we were leaving the building, the boys asked me several times if we were done voting. When I said, yes, we are all done and you boys were really good, Ian then asked in all seriousness,

"Are you going to be president, now?"

I love my boys!

Costume Time!

Every summer, my extremely creative mom lets our boys (or their mama) and their cousins (check out the caringbridge website on my sidebar for Riley and Brenna's cute costumes) choose what they would like to be for Halloween. She then sews all of those costumes, puts together great little finishing touches and sends them to some SUPER-EXCITED grandkids! This time, Grandpa and Grandma Shaw got to personally hand them out to the delighted youngsters!

Handing out costumes- October 16, 2008

Pre-trick-or-treating- October 31, 2008

Aren't these cute costumes? I just love having the boys dress up and pretend. And it is so fun to go around in costumes asking for candy with all the other little ragamuffins from the neighborhood and then spending the next several days and nights sorting and re-sorting it all!

(Now for my soapbox...you can skip down to the next picture if you want!)

But, it really bothers me that Satan is given such encouragement from all of the creepy, scary, inappropriate things that are simply glorifying him. Witches and ghosts and other whatnots opposite of God's goodness are candy-coated to the point that we treat them with excitement, cuteness and fun. But, remember Saul in the Bible? Remember when he went to witch of Endor? Also, check out Deuteronomy 18:10-12

" For you were once in darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord..." Ephesians 5: 8,9

"...Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, if anything is excellent or praiseworthy-think about such things." Philippians 4:8

Pre-trick-or-treating-October 31, 2008

This year, Isaac and Ian wanted to be knights (also, the career Ian wants), Colby wanted to be a race-car driver and Zane wanted to be a pumpkin! :) It was pretty hard for them to put away the costumes until Halloween, so I think my loads of laundry will decrease, now that they can play with them whenever they want! Isaac and Ian are already outside jousting this morning and Colby said he's going to wear his race-car outfit everyday after breakfast!

Wow! That is a lot of candy (Thankyou, Lord God, for allowing us the privilege of living in America!) for 3 little boys...and mommy and daddy! The boys are excited to play candy store, now...with so many choices, it will be hard to decide what to "buy"!