Happy Birthday to a very special little girl! We can't believe you are 4 years old!!

Our baby girl in 2004

With her Grandpa M. in 2008

Cleanin' out the closets....

We have been systematically going through our house from top to bottom to get it cleaned and organized and ready to sell. It has been driving me crazy! It is incredibly hard for me to decide what to pack up and live without for the next 6 months or longer.

By cleaning it out, and packing up a bunch of stuff now, it will make it easier to finish packing if the house sells before B gets back from his deployment. And, bonus... he can be here to help me haul it all to the storage unit!

Husband Tag- We've been tagged

How long have you guys been married? 12 1/2 years
How long did you date? 4 months
Who is taller? He is.
Who can sing best? He does for sure. He is great at staying on pitch and has a really nice range, his made up songs are my favorite... he sings silly songs for the girls.  ...just like my dad did for us when we were kids, I love that about both my husband and my dad.
Who is smarter? He is much smarter than I am. It is kind of scary how smart he is. He has a Masters and got all A's in every college class he took! SCARY!

Who does laundry? Me. He will help sometimes, but I usually do it all while he is at work anyway.
Who pays the bills? We both do. We sit down and do it together. It's good because then we both know where our money is going.  
Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? I do.
Who mows the lawn? We both do. I love to mow the lawn, but he does it too.
Who cooks dinner? We both do. I usually do, but he makes it almost as often as I do. He is a really good cook. I am getting better.
Who is the first to admit when they are wrong? We are both very stubborn and really, neither one of us can admit when we are wrong, but we both know that we suck at apologizing and usually end of make a joke about our lame stubbornness. 
Who kissed who first? Hmmm... again, we both did. It was just one of those moments and it seemed like the "script" called for it.  
Who wears the pants? He does. I usually wear shorts. Ha Ha!

PuMpKin PAtcH and HaLLoWeeN NiGhT

At the top of the Giant Pumpkin.

Posing with their favorite pumpkins

On Halloween Night: Our Princess, Chinese Princess, and Sweet Shoppe Waitress

Election Day

WHY WOMEN SHOULD VOTE 

(The Night of Terror, Nov. 15, 1917)

By Connie Schultz

This is the story of our Grandmothers and Great-grandmothers; they lived only 90 years ago. (Mothers too for some of you.)

Remember, it was not until 1920 that women were granted the right to go to the polls and vote. The women were innocent and defenseless, but they were jailed nonetheless for picketing the White House, carrying signs asking for the vote.


(Above: Lucy Burns) And by the end of the night, they were barely alive. Forty prison guards wielding clubs and their warden's blessing went on a rampage against the 33 women wrongly convicted of 'obstructing sidewalk traffic.' They beat Lucy Burns, chained her hands to the cell bars above her head and left her hanging for the night, bleeding and gasping for air.


(Above: Dora Lewis) They hurled Dora Lewis into a dark cell, smashed her head against an iron bed and knocked her out cold. Her cell mate, Alice Cosu, thought Lewis was dead and suffered a heart attack.

Additional affidavits describe the guards grabbing, dragging, beating, choking, slamming, pinching, twisting and kicking the women.Thus unfolded the 'Night of Terror' on Nov. 15, 1917, when the warden at the Occoquan Workhouse in Virginia ordered his guards to teach a lesson to the suffragists imprisoned there because they dared to picket Woodrow Wilson's White House for the right to vote. For weeks, the women's only water came from an open pail. Their food--all of it colorless slop--was infested with worms.


(Above: Alice Paul) When one of the leaders, Alice Paul, embarked on a hunger strike, they tied her to a chair, forced a tube down her throat and poured liquid into her until she vomited. She was tortured like this for weeks until word was smuggled out to the press.

So, refresh my memory. Some women won't vote this year because...why, exactly? We have carpool duties? We have to get to work? Our vote doesn't matter?

I went to a screening of an HBO movie 'Iron Jawed Angels.' It is a graphic depiction of the battle these women waged so that I could pull the curtain at the polling booth and have my say. I am ashamed to say I needed the reminder. Frankly, voting often felt more like an obligation than a privilege. Sometimes it was inconvenient.

I wish all history, social studies and government teachers would include the movie in their curriculum. It is jarring to watch Woodrow Wilson and his cronies try to persuade a psychiatrist to declare Alice Paul insane so that she could be permanently institutionalized. And it is inspiring to watch the doctor refuse. Alice Paul was strong, he said, and brave. That didn't make her crazy. The doctor admonished the men: 'Courage in women is often mistaken for insanity.'

(All of the above story written by Connie Schultz of The Plain Dealer newspaper of Cleveland, Ohio.)

Daddy is Deploying...

He'll be leaving for Qatar at the end of the year for 

a 6 month deployment.

While all the girls here are sad, Dad is glad, 

proud to serve God and Country. 

and he jokes to help us feel better that it's okay because...

"I need to refill my man meter." 

....I think he is right, he puts up with a lot of 

prettiness around here!

Today is my Birthday...

Today in History

Born: Weird Al Yankovic (musician), 1955.

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Newbury, Vermont, received 12 inches of snow, which stayed until spring, 1843.

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Sleet

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You are kind and affectionate and have an amiable disposition. You are gracious and self-contained, a fluent talker, and an extensive reader. You have musical ability and should develop it. Marry young and choose a congenial mate, one who will encourage your talents.