Gobble Gobble

Happy Thanksgiving!!

I haven't put anything on the blog in a little while, so I thought I would take a couple minutes to wish everyone a happy Thanksgiving.

I think there is a tendency in today's time for us to focus on all the bad things going on in our Country and the world, especially if you turn on the news for just five minutes. With an on-going war, terrorist attacks in India just yesterday, the economy, and all the crap that comes with any political campaign it's even more important to remember the important things in our lives and those responsible for them. Maybe its because I'm another year older, and I'm finally starting to see the value in those things around me, but I for one have never been more thankful for my wonderful wife (who baked homemade brownies and EGGNOG PIE!! (and if you know Mindy, thats a HUGE deal)), our two great kids, and all the gifts that have been given to us.


Which brings me to my next point. After 18 years of formal education, I have always thought that Thanksgiving was in recognition of a bunch of Pilgrims and Indians eating turkey and having a group hug. That was until I read the original proclomation for thanksgiving by President Lincoln in 1863. I've cut and pasted it below, and would invite you all to read it. If this is the first time you've seen it, it may suprise you, and I'm sure that you'll understand why we never read it in school.

The year that is drawing toward its close has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added which are of so extraordinary a nature that they can not fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever-watchful providence of Almighty God.

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In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign states to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere, except in the theater of military conflict, while that theater has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union.

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Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defense have not arrested the plow, the shuttle, or the ship; the ax has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well as the iron and coal as of our precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege, and the battlefield, and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom.
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No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.

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It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged, as with one heart and one voice, by the whole American people. I do therefore invite my fellow-citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a day of thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners, or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the imposition of the Almighty hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it, as soon as may be consistent with the divine purpose, to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity, and union.

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In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed. Done at the city of Washington, this 3d day of October, A.D. 1863, and of the Independence of the United States the eighty-eighth.
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Abraham Lincoln

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Unfortunatly, I am afraid that we have become so arrogant as a Country that we think we have created our fortunes on our own without any help. We are so afraid of offending another person, that in the end, we offend the only One that we should be afraid of offending.

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Holy cow! thats a lot of writing, anyway, if you stuck with me and made it this far - I hope that you all are able to spend today with your friends and family. Enjoy your turkey, stuffing, and mashed potatoes and have a very Happy Thanksgiving!!

Candy! Candy! Candy!

So, after we failed to find the great pumpkin in Moriarty, we brought our good pumpkins home and got them carved up. Normally we cheat and buy those books out there now with the patterns in them and use those to carve up the pumpkins. We did that for Tommy's pumpkin (or Mindy's pumpkin, since tommy did little more than try to eat the top of the pumpkin), but Hanna wanted to design her Jack-O-Lantern herself. So she designed it, made the pattern, cut out the pumpkin all by herself. I personally thought it was the best Jack-O-Lantern on the block!

You'll also see some pics of the kids dressed up and ready to cause some trouble. Some friends of ours came down to go trick-or-treating in our neighborhood with Hanna. They did pretty good, we got rid of one bucket of candy to the neighborhood kids, only to gain three more buckets from Hanna's treat bag. We had a pretty good turnout of kids, a fair number of teenagers with no costumes - of course. (We told them to go to the houses with the Obama signs, you have to earn the candy at our house)

Anyway, here's some pics from the festivities....

Dad and Hanna strategizing her next cut. Tommy's just pulling hair.

Just grabbing a quick snack.

Tommy's (Mindy's) Jack-o-Lantern

The two Masterpieces!

Still hungry.

No, its not a family pic. (Actually the one on the right is Mindy, shhhh.. don't tell her I told you!)

See, We told you he was a demon child!

Hanna and her friends (Tripp on the left, Timmy on the right)

He thought we had a piece of the pumpkin and is ready to pounce!

Ok, just as a bonus, here is some video of Tommy walking. Its sideways, but I can't figure out how to turn it.

The Search for the Great Pumpkin

With Halloween quickly approaching we began the search for the great pumpkin. We thought a good place to look would be in Moriarty, NM (don't know why, i guess we just thought that might be where he hides from Linus until Halloween night)

Got some pics of the pumpkin patch, but we didn't see him in there, so we went to a corn maze... thought maybe he got lost in there and we could run into him; but we just got lost instead. After finding our way out of the maze, we gave up and let the kids play a little before we headed home in defeat.

Hanna on the search through the pumpkin patch

Thats just Tommy, Not the great pumpkin...

Which way do we go???

Hanna lasso'd he steer after some practice.

Tommy burying and Hanna in the corn.

Getting on my Soapbox....

First of all, I know that Jim "hijacked" my Blog some time ago, and has been much better at updating it than I was, but I needed to vent....

There is an old saying... "The Measure of a Man is Determined by the Company that He Keeps." I believe that statement to be true; and I believe it to be very relevant now.

There are a number of reasons why I would not vote for Barack Obama, and this is certainly something that (in my opinion) should raise a few eyebrows. How many people with "questionable" morals and ethics, or organizations with "shady" practices (putting it very lightly) does this man have to be associated with before more Americans stand up and say - "Ya know, maybe this guy has no business being the leader of the Free World!" It seems like a legitimate question to ask.

And then there's this whole "Joe the Plumber" thing... did everyone miss the point?! The latest thing I heard is that the Plumbers Union came out and said that he isn't a plumber and he's giving plumbers a bad name, and the Union is going to have a Pro-Obama rally. The whole point is not whether he's a plumber or a roofer, or a waiter, or whatever... he is an Average Joe, he represents the average American citizen, an average person with some common sense. And he questioned Obama's tax plan - well heaven forbid he question "The One" - (we know who Oprah is voting for - but I thought Keanu Reeves was "The One"... ) Just a little Matrix humor for those who didn't get it... :)

The other day Hanna came home from school and said hat the kids on the bus were chanting "OBAMA". So she started yelling "MCCAIN! MCCAIN!" She asked the girl sitting next to her why she was for Obama, and the girl said, "because McCain will bring more war." Ok, first of all, he isn't going to make more, he is going to allow us to finish the ones we're in. And like Jim explained to Hanna, war itself isn't good, but it brings good things. The United States exists because of a war. The fact that an African American can run for President is because of a war. The reason the elementary school kids can ride the bus home yelling "Obama" or "McCain" is the result of war. And of course, the reason I can get on my blog and say whatever I want to say is, you guessed it, the result of war.

I think too many people in this country have taken for granted all the freedoms that we have and the reasons in which we have them.

October in NM = Balloons!!

So if you didn't know, October in New Mexico brings the Balloon Fiesta. I believe that this is the largest balloon festival in the world. This year there were over 600 hot air balloons that came from all over the world to fly. I thought that a bunch of balloons wouldn't be that exciting, but you can go down on the field and walk right among all of them as they inflate and take off.
This year we made it to the field for the special shapes assention, and the special shapes glow that evening. The special shapes are any balloon that is not your typical shape - we saw a pepsi can, a castle, a stork, monsters,... you name it it was there. Here are a few pics from the field.

The Wells Fargo (formerly known as a bank) Stagecoach

The two bees kissed in the air

"Twist of Fate" Owned and Flown by one of my co-workers. This is them flying during a competition where they had to drop a bean bag on a small target.... Doesn't sound to hard till you realize that you can't steer to the target. Takes alot of skill and knowing the wind currents!!

These are from the nightly glow and fireworks....

The landscape during an October night in Albuquerque

Felix the Cat

You can walk right up to them.

It's October, had to get a jack-o-lantern

The nightly fireworks show!

Elk, drama club, and melons

Elk season started this last tuesday. I took the week off to go, so off I ran to the New Mexico mountains. It looks alot different up there than it is down here in the desert. There are rolling hills with lots of trees and small grassy meadows. I would have taken a picture but I left the camera at home. Anyway... I'd like to say that I don't have a picture of my elk on here because I didn't have the camera, but the truth is I didn't even see an elk. I did get to watch a bunch of deer for about an hour. That was pretty cool, they were about 60 feet from me munching away on the grass. Next year Mindy and I both are going to put in for tags, so maybe we'll have better luck. Of course if it goes like it normally does, Mindy will tag out and I'll be left with nothing except listening to her brag about it for the rest of our lives.

Hanna is in full swing now with school and her many activities. She is now going to gymnastics 2 times a week, drama club (like she really needs to be taught drama!), and she was picked by her teacher to be on the student council. Its keeping her busy, Mindy too for that matter.

Tommy just had his one year checkup. All is good, he got a bunch of shots that he didn't like, but other than that he weighs 22 lbs (40th percentile), is 30" tall (50th percentile), and his head is 48.5 cm - the 95th percintile... its no wonder he can't walk yet, that monster melon on top of his neck keeps toppling him over. I'm suprised he can even stand for as long as he does!

Hanna goes to her first concert, Tommy Turns One

Last week, Hanna had a chance to go to her first concert. The NM State fair is here, and some neighbors of ours had some tickets and asked Hanna to go along. The saw Corbin Blue and Vanessa Hutchins. For those of you without young kids, they are two of the stars from High School Musical, and for those of you without any kids, or don't ever talk to a kid, High School Musical is this generations version of Grease. Oh, by the way, she didn't just get free tickets, she got free front row tickets. No concert will ever be the same for her!

Rock on!!

WWWWHHHHOOOOOO!!!!!

Its been a year already, hard to believe but Tommy turns one today. We had a couple people over yesterday to open a present or two and have some cake. Pretty tame party, although Tommy did feel it necessary to attend his party in his underwear... Guess he thought he had to spice it up somehow! Got a few pictures below, I think his favorite toy so far is the balloons Mindy picked up, followed by the boxes the real toys came in!

Tommy makes a mess of his cake!

Once he figured out what to do with the wierd colored boxes he was pretty excited.

More presents!