God Bless the USA

Today E became a US citizen. (OK... now it is yesterday). Bonnie took our kids for us and we were able to go down to SL together. We got there plenty early, which was nice. The only sorrow was that we couldn't sit together. They took all of the candidates for naturalization (the ones getting their citizenship), they took them all in separately. So the video of "THE OATH" is horrible. It is just the barrette of one woman and the fat hand of another. Oh, well. We are done with immigration!!! It can't get any better than that, fat hand and all. I sat by two husbands of new citizens. One of their wives was from the Dominican Republic and the other from Mexico. We all agreed that we were being treated better then we ever had been treated before when dealing with immigration. Then we realized that all of the people worked for the theater and not immigration. That's why they were being so nice! I was also pleased because I was able to educate two different people about the horrors of the immigration system and help them understand why so many people come here illegally. Always one of my personal secret agendas. : )




There was a representative of the DAR, Daughters of the American Revolution (which, of course, reminds me of Gilmore Girls). They put together a nice packet for each new citizen with passport applications and voter registration cards. Included was the greatest book called "The Citizen's Almanac." It includes things like Patriotic Anthems and Symbols of the US, Presidential and Historic Speeches and Landmark Decisions of the Supreme Court. I love this book!

Just as a reminder, here are some of the wonderful rights we have in this beautiful country of ours. Even more appreciated as I watch every second I can of the Olympics and often find myself horrified at the politics in China.

• Freedom to express yourself.
• Freedom to worship as you wish.
• Right to a prompt, fair trial by jury.
• Right to keep and bear arms.
• Right to vote in elections for public officials.
• Right to apply for federal employment.
• Right to run for elected office.
• Freedom to pursue "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."

And some of our responsibilities as citizens:

• Support and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic.
• Stay informed of the issues affecting your community.
• Participate in the democratic process.
• Respect and obey federal, stat, and local laws.
• Respect the rights, beliefs, and oplinions of others.
• Participate in your local community.
• Pay income and other taxes honestly, and on time, to federal, state, and local authorities.
• Serve on a jury when called upon.
• Defend the country if the need should arise.

I do love our country and I think it is so important that we each do our part to make it better. If we don't like what congress is doing, we should let them know... then vote them out! Same with the state legislature. Too many politicians just like "jobs" and I think they need to know its not OK to just do the same old thing. My fire in my belly right now is about the billions of dollars in tax breaks for big oil companies. Quit focusing on oil shale and get rid of those tax breaks. Or have the tax breaks dependent on the lowering of the price of gas. Or focus on the technology we already have to use less fossil fuels. Lets not help the big oil companies get more business! This is making me crazy, we all just keep buying gas. If we had the money, E would have built us a car that runs on air a couple of years ago.

OK, enough of that. Back to our splendid day yesterday. Here is an excerpt of a beautiful letter from President Bush that inspires me to be a better citizen and made the love of country flow right out of my eyes in the form of tears.

"America has never been united by blood or birth or soil. We are bound by ideals that move us beyond our backgrounds, lift us above our interests and teach us what it means to be citizens. Every child must be taught these principles. Every citizen must uphold them. And every immigrant, by embracing these ideals, makes our country more, not less, American."

"America's welcoming society is more than a cultural tradition, it is a fundamental promise of our democracy. Our Constitution does not limit citizenship by background or birth. Instead, our nation is bound together by a shared love of liberty and a conviction that all people are created with dignity and value. Through the generations, Americans have upheld that vision by welcoming new citizens from across the globe-and that has made us stand apart."

There were 195 new citizens yesterday. There were 48 countries represented. Honduras, El Salvador, Mexico, Indonesia, Peru, Canada... eight from China, nine from Bosnia, and even two from Iraq. The presiding judge was from Mexico himself. He had come as a migrant worker with his family. He became a citizen in 1970 and now he is a federal judge! What a great example of the wonders of this country.

So, full of patriotism we drive home listening to "our" favorite NPR. And as we drive down 7th toward our house we were greeted with the most beautiful surprise! The Bishop and his wife had a couple of scouts put out 8 flags in our yard and they bought bouquets of red, white, and blue balloons to grace our fence. Wow. It made E feel really special. It also made quite a statement in the neighborhood. We would watch people from the window driving by and rubber necking, wondering what on earth was happening. I also enjoyed neighbors just dying to ask what was going on but they didn't quite dare. We just let them wonder. I am planning a surprise pot luck dinner in our yard on Sunday evening to celebrate. You are all invited.



So hip, hip, hurray for the USA and one of her newest citizens!

B, B, B... its all about B

I thought it would be fun for all of you to experience B's mind and its workings. The following are comments from B during sacrament meeting. We went to two sacrament meetings yesterday because apparently my niece is out of jail and wanted to bless her nine month old baby. Anywho, as B would whisper to me, I would jot down the things he said and try to "smile and nod" answers as often as possible to keep it quiet.

Our meeting:

• I really want a white light.
• How do you get chicken pox?
• Do chicken pox ever go away?
• Guan? (The speaker was just home from a mission in Guam.)
• Did you know Wall-e is only in fe-aters (theaters)?
• Do you want to own the movie Wall-e?
• When we are done with church can I see how fast I can run with these shoes? (He was wearing his new school shoes for the first time.)
• Maybe I can run 40 miles per hour.
• How do you spell Eve? and Wall-E?
• When are we going to get a GPS? When we get a GPS we can go to DiAnn's house.
• Where are my fingers? I can lip (lick? flip? He just said lip...) them off. Can I?

Next meeting:

• Hey look at the clock, it is almost over.
• How long do 1st graders have to stay in school? (He started school today.)
• After school tomorrow can we eat at MacDonalds? I want a new Star Wars toy.
• Saturday can we go buy another parakeet so Guapo has a friend? (Our neighbors gave us their parakeet.)
• Do you have your wallet with you?
• I have my wallet with me.
• Your name Julie, but her last name is Beck. (The speaker had just quoted Julie Beck.)
• When are we going to have humming birds?
• How many more days of the Olympics are there? Good thing you have it recorded. Then you don't have to cry because you have it recorded. Then you can delete when you're done. And don't delete it until you want to. And I know you deleted Star Wars, know why, because Darth Maul is scary!
• Remember the statues we saw on the computer? (The statue army in China.)
• Do you have any food? I'm hungry. I'm hungry. (Whinier now) I'm hungry, I'm hungry, I'm hungry, I'm hungry. (Louder)
• (Me: Please be quiet, you are embarrassing me.)
• I know.
• I - Want - To - Go - Home!
• How long is it going to take?
• Maybe it was starting when we heard the music at the beginning.

Thankfully E had some treats he shared with the monsters that held them over till the end of the meeting!

The meetings were great thankfully. Ours had a missionary that just got home in June from Micronesia. He spent 18 months on Pon Pei island and learned their language. Wow! I think he said only about 10, 000 people speak Pon Peian. He talked about the Book of Mormon and its power to change lives. Our second meeting we had an RM who served in Siberia. His mission was as large as the US from NY to CA... but only 10 cities in all of that space. Amazing. He spoke about teaching our children obedience. Topics I really needed to hear!

Church. Good times.

B and Death

B has been freaking me out a little lately. He had a couple of weeks there where he was consumed with the thoughts of death. First he was getting sick. A head cold that included pain and pressure in the sinuses. One morning he called me over to the couch and said, "Mom, I need to talk to you." As I walked toward him tears started flowing and he sobbed out, "I don't want to die!" I hugged him and tried to comfort him. Then he said, "I want to say a prayer so that I won't be scared to die." That just broke my heart. He was so scared! We prayed and he felt a lot better. Later on in the afternoon he told me, "Mom, I wasn't dying, I was just getting sick." Whew!

B has also bombarded me with questions about the body and the spirit, the Spirit World and the Resurrection. One day as we were leaving Walmart he started asking, "Does a spirit know its dead? Can a spirit see itself? Does it hurt to be a spirit? Will I know who I am when I'm a spirit? Will I like the same things?" I tried to get across the point that his spirit is "him" and he would still be the same B, but we left him pondering.

He has also questioned many times who would take care of them if Papa died, if Mama died. So, we have been covering that again. I told him I would take care of them or Papa would. "But, what if you both die?" he asks, crying again.

"DiAnn will take care of you."

"How will DiAnn know that you are dead and she needs to take care of us?"

He has a point there, I thought, as I answered, "We'll give her a call."

It didn't work... "How are you going to call if you are dead?"

"You can call."

"I don't know her phone number!" panicking now.

"It is on the cell phone." I could see that he wasn't convinced so I tried a different route. "The police will call DiAnn." That seemed to calm him down.

Hours later he started again, "Who is going to take care of us if you and Papa both die and DiAnn dies, too?"

"Susan," I answered without missing a beat.

"OK," he was satisfied with that answer.

I don't know... do you think B knows something I don't? We shall see I guess. My children do tend to have prophetic abilities. Months ago Silvina called to tell me she was pregnant and she had just found out they were having twins! After I hung up the phone in my excitement I called out to S who was sitting right in front of the TV watching a program. "Hey, Sarah, Silvina is going to have two babies!"

S answered without taking her eyes off of the television, "Yeah, a boy and a girl." Hmmm. I did tell Silvina what she said, and now Silvina calls her the little prophetess. Because, sure enough, she had a boy and a girl. Go S!

They also have uncanny abilities to forecast when I am going to be angry... sometimes. Other times they still seem oblivious and are surprised when they get in trouble. So, maybe we are all safe for a while.

E is funny

This is a picture of E and his brother when they took down a huge tree in my father-in-law's yard. The kids loved seeing him spray saw dust everywhere so he just kept going. He loves to make the kids laugh.

E had a really bad Sunday a while back. He has this bad habit of leaving the keys in the ignition in the van with van turned on. Not running but lights, radio, etc. left on. He also is always late on Sunday morning... so we run out to get in the van and the battery is dead! We only would have been a couple of minutes late if we could have left then but...

So, of course we think about jumping the van's battery. Two problems... 1. We used to have a battery in the garage we have used in the past when he left the keys in the ignition, but unfortunately he had just given it to his dad the week before. 2. E also has a bad habit of selling our cars, without fail the jumper cables go with the car he sells. Well, he has recently sold the Durango and, go figure, we have no jumper cables. To get to church we had to cram three car seats into the back of the little car and still take two cars. We were so late it was humiliating to walk into the meeting. Bad day for E.

Last night my neighbors were over and we were talking about Breaking Dawn. Neither of them have finished it yet. They totally freaked when E started talking about the book. He just kept jibbering nonsense in Spanish even, but they ran away in fear.

I find it hilarious that E loves Bluegrass music. Someone at work gave him free tickets to an outdoor concert of Bluegrass and we were in heaven. The Mike Irvine band played followed by Fire on the Mountain. It was great. I love to see how much E enjoys it and he cracks me up when he asks, "How could anyone not love this beautiful music?" We even bought a CD.

The last story is from when DiAnn and her girls went to church with us. As we left the house I noticed his "trick pen" in his pocket. When you click the pen to use it a jolt of electricity is sent to your thumb. I knew E was hoping that someone would need a pen. The opportunity arrived towards the end of sacrament meeting. Morgan and Heather were drawing pictures with my kids and we needed one more pen. E was thrilled to offer up his pen. He held very still waiting for the moment, I had to turn away because I was afraid of getting the giggles. Sure enough, JOLT and a little yelp. Then every one had the giggles as the pen was passed around. Good times. Sure do love my husband.

R & L's Birthday and S's Birthday

Could it be true that I didn't ever blog R & L's B-day? It was so darn cute.

So, first to assuage my guilt, I must cover S's birthday because I probably didn't blog that either. Happy Birthday S!


Here are some cute pictures of S. When their b-day is on a weekday we make a cake as a family, hence the lovely and may I say elegant princess cake. My favorite would be to have a dress like hers with real M&M's on it. I think everyone has fun helping to decorate, then when the cake doesn't look so great, I can pretend that it is because of the kids helping. : )

The other cake was a lovely store bought cake and S did a "mordida" (took a bite of cake) after we sang to her. Gotta love that blue frosting!

Then we have a party on Saturday with a pinata. I am afraid that is pretty much stuck as a tradition for life. They love the pinatas and we are finding better and better prices. S's was $12 and R & L's was only $8!





I was in a dilema with the twins. One wanted Hello Kitty, which I love as well, so I thought we could just go with that as the theme. But then R started saying things about L's b-day. She didn't realize it was her birthday as well. See, R wanted Diego. When I started looking at Diego things then R accepted that it was her birthday as well.
We ended up only finding a Hello Kitty pinata... so we glued a Diego napkin to one side making it half Diego and half Hello Kitty. I also ordered a cake that was half and half. It was a masterpiece! I love birthdays.