What a difference an hour and fifty minutes makes! Yay for grass!
Friday, September 09, 2005
Thursday, September 08, 2005
Please: Stop Talkin' and Start Walkin'
I feel the need to articulate my position in what has become known as "The Blame Game." Here it is via comments at Brooks' site.
Dear Brooks: Your last post and this first comment illustrate the reason why I am a conservative-bordering-on-libertarian. I can do a much better job managing my money and resources than the federal government EVER will, so just gimme those dang taxes back and I will live off of MY savings, MY retirement, MY food storage, and MY 72-hour emergency kit. My family and my church will ALWAYS be a more efficient means of security and rescue than the freaking government.
Jamie -- TRUE DAT all the way girl. I have been thinking the same thing about the Government. Give me my damn money back and lets just play 'everyone fend for themselves' I never thought that I would begin to understand the mentality of people that hate the government and start militias, but after this week I feel differently. Dubyah's good-ole-boy buddy as the head of FEMA held his last job as the commissioner of an arabian horse association? They're pointing at the other guy with one hand and scratching their butts with the other. Such an embarrassment!
Girl, you know it's true! Watch out Brooks, or you're gonna have to move to Montana with the rest of us crazy libertarians! You can write your manifesto and start your militia right down the valley...
I would love to be in Montana right now. It's been one of those weeks where it hurts having my parents so far away. I just can't believe what I've seen with my own eyes down at our civic center. People, children, have lived through hell this week in New Orleans. The looks on their faces breaks my heart, but I know they need help and I am glad that our community is here to do that.
There are several people/institutions to blame for this mismanagement and, really, no one to blame. Don’t blame the federal government---it’s NOT THEIR JOB! Remember, “establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty”? It doesn’t say PROVIDE the general welfare or PROTECT and PREVENT natural disasters. It’s common sense, people. Who knows better what your town needs—your senator or your mayor? Your governor or the president? Logistically it doesn’t even BEGIN to make sense to expect the feds to plan and execute emergency preparedness from region to region (only the church can do that! ). So SHUT UP and go help some people, will ya?
Dear Brooks: Your last post and this first comment illustrate the reason why I am a conservative-bordering-on-libertarian. I can do a much better job managing my money and resources than the federal government EVER will, so just gimme those dang taxes back and I will live off of MY savings, MY retirement, MY food storage, and MY 72-hour emergency kit. My family and my church will ALWAYS be a more efficient means of security and rescue than the freaking government.
Jamie -- TRUE DAT all the way girl. I have been thinking the same thing about the Government. Give me my damn money back and lets just play 'everyone fend for themselves' I never thought that I would begin to understand the mentality of people that hate the government and start militias, but after this week I feel differently. Dubyah's good-ole-boy buddy as the head of FEMA held his last job as the commissioner of an arabian horse association? They're pointing at the other guy with one hand and scratching their butts with the other. Such an embarrassment!
Girl, you know it's true! Watch out Brooks, or you're gonna have to move to Montana with the rest of us crazy libertarians! You can write your manifesto and start your militia right down the valley...
I would love to be in Montana right now. It's been one of those weeks where it hurts having my parents so far away. I just can't believe what I've seen with my own eyes down at our civic center. People, children, have lived through hell this week in New Orleans. The looks on their faces breaks my heart, but I know they need help and I am glad that our community is here to do that.
There are several people/institutions to blame for this mismanagement and, really, no one to blame. Don’t blame the federal government---it’s NOT THEIR JOB! Remember, “establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty”? It doesn’t say PROVIDE the general welfare or PROTECT and PREVENT natural disasters. It’s common sense, people. Who knows better what your town needs—your senator or your mayor? Your governor or the president? Logistically it doesn’t even BEGIN to make sense to expect the feds to plan and execute emergency preparedness from region to region (only the church can do that! ). So SHUT UP and go help some people, will ya?
Pobrecita!
We were so busy with the yard and housekeeping/cleaning this week, we must have gone up and downthe stairs a million times. Heidi tried to follow me up on Tuesday afternoon, but she just couldn't make it! She crashed at the bottom and stayed asleep for another hour or so (I moved her to a bed, of course)! Poor tired girl!
Monday, September 05, 2005
Last of the Weekend Pictures
We had big Labor Day plans, but the yard has eclipsed all of them, so we'll just enjoy the memories from Saturday...*sigh*
Uncle Mike, Grandma Rosalie, and Heidi coming ashore
All Aboard! 
More Float Pix
After chicken -n-rice dutch oven dinner, we made smores around the fire.
T Jay hid in the tubes
Here we all are coming ashore.Sunday, September 04, 2005
Rakin' the Ranch
Me: T Jay, look over here at me [taking picture]
T Jay: Just a minute, I'm rakin' the ranch.
[note: He's 3; the ranch is 32 acres....]
Labor Day Weekend Fun, Phase I
My Sister-in-law brought her 2 kids to visit us this weekend form North Dakota (her husband--Rich's Brother Jess--is a B52 pilot stationed at Minot, but he's been in the Indian Ocean for 4 months). As usual, the wee cousins had a great time playing together, enjoying Grandma's House and The Ranch.On Saturday, we worked on the yard until 2:30pm (when it started to rain), then we jumped in the car and drove down the valley to the Paradise fishing access, a few miles past the ranch. The rest of the family was there with all the gear for floating the river. We loaded the kids onto a raft and we tethered ourselves to it and headed down teh Yellowstone River toward 
the ranch. Mom and Dad Melin took some pix of us all in the water, so I will post those when I get them.
the ranch. Mom and Dad Melin took some pix of us all in the water, so I will post those when I get them. Here you see (top) Addie and Danny playing in the sand AFTER the float; Addie & Heidi on the raft--it took Heidi a while to get excited about the raft, but once she hit the water, she was pretty happy; and all the cousins in the raft (that funny little blondie is my niece, Summer).
Today on our favorite after-church radio show, "A Prairie Home Companion," Garrison Keillor and friends sang THIS song...
I'd never heard it before this weekend, but it's really chokes me up after this week's events. No matter what you think about the cause or effects of the natural/human disaster in New Orleans, you have to feel for everyone suffering from this personal/logistical/political nightmare.
On a lighter note, I will soon post the pictures from our fun river float and dutch oven dinner out at the ranch yesterday. We like to call it a survival drill, but whatever you call it, it was a lot of fun!
I'd never heard it before this weekend, but it's really chokes me up after this week's events. No matter what you think about the cause or effects of the natural/human disaster in New Orleans, you have to feel for everyone suffering from this personal/logistical/political nightmare.
On a lighter note, I will soon post the pictures from our fun river float and dutch oven dinner out at the ranch yesterday. We like to call it a survival drill, but whatever you call it, it was a lot of fun!
THINGS THAT MAKE YOU GO "HMMMM"
Friday, September 02, 2005
Exchange at the Presidio
This is the statue I was telling my friend about--it's a page from my 1996-98 scrapbook.
The Caption reads: "I joined the Mormon Battalion of Iowa Volunteers, Company C, Infantry, as a Private number 47 and took up march on the 20th of July 1846." -Christopher Layton. I thought it was an amazing twist of fate that I returned to Tucson for school and joined the Institute Choir the same year we were to perform at the dedication of the Mormon Battalion Monument, which commemorates my GG grandfather Layton posting the US flag near the Presidio of Tucson. Not only did I get to honor a great ancestor, I got to sing in a trio for President Hinckley. (Pres. Hinckley presided and spoke at the dedication along with the mayor and Congressman Jim Kolbe).
The Caption reads: "I joined the Mormon Battalion of Iowa Volunteers, Company C, Infantry, as a Private number 47 and took up march on the 20th of July 1846." -Christopher Layton. I thought it was an amazing twist of fate that I returned to Tucson for school and joined the Institute Choir the same year we were to perform at the dedication of the Mormon Battalion Monument, which commemorates my GG grandfather Layton posting the US flag near the Presidio of Tucson. Not only did I get to honor a great ancestor, I got to sing in a trio for President Hinckley. (Pres. Hinckley presided and spoke at the dedication along with the mayor and Congressman Jim Kolbe).
Caption: December 14, 1996-Tucson
President Hinckley came to dedicate the monument downtown, I was seated to his left with the choir. The Trio sang "How Firm a Foundation" as he entered the area and he gave us a smile. The Ft. Huachuca Army Band was there, too, and they played a moving rendition of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic."
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