Trick or Treat - For some a trick - for others a treat!

Here is a break down of Obama's economic plan that even a child can comprehend! Although I do support various points Obama has made when I saw this I had to laugh! This comic really hits the nail on the head for those concerned about the socialistic tax plans Obama has voiced and various views of the Democratic party!

Noche de Hogar - Halloween Style

We found pumpkins! Finally, we located calaveras (pumpkins) here in Mexico and we were able to have our annual FHE pumpkin carving night! We had a great time and ended up carving a MUCH simpler design than we had planned. (I had drawn a Darth Vader cut out to put onto a pumpkin for my little man... but Holy Cow was it difficult! - Especially with only a little knife, a larger knife and a screwdriver.)

We had great fun and named our pumpkin, Bob!

Programa de Primaria

Our children had the opportunity to participate in their second Primary Program here in Mexico. The children shared their testimonies and comments in the Spanish Language and sang in both English and Spanish. After our little man said, "El hogar es donde siento amor." (The home is where I feel love.) he then looked right at my husband and I and gave us a two finger salute. Then he jumped down from the podium as a ripple of laughter rolled through the audience. My husband and I had to keep from laughing out loud. (It took some effort.) Afterward various members commented on how impressed they were with the language abilities and pronunciation of our childrens Spanish! What a blessing it has been to be here and to be welcomed by these amazing people. We are so grateful for this wonderful opportunity!

Gigantor... Who?

At breakfast this morning we were talking about giants (no recollection as to why) and our eldest daughter asked:

"How tall was Gigantor?"
"I don't know. Who exactly is Gigantor?"
"You know, in the scriptures."
While looking at my husband for some help; "Could you tell me which story?"
"Yeah Mom, David and Gigantor... you know."
"Oh, you mean Goliath."
"Yeah, him."

So cute!

Tip of the Day!

This morning my husband woke up to make our family a wonderful breakfast. He found some of the children already up watching Saturday morning cartoons - then he heard, "Hey Dad; Look at this I am winning tons of money!" The voice coming from the office area was the voice of our little 8 year old daughter. When he entered the office he found her on the computer playing rounds of poker and she was annihilating the computer - she had already won $600!

The tip of the day is to make sure, when you install a new router on your computer network to reinstall all of the security blocks as well! But then again, maybe we could let her practice... we are spending Christmas in Las Vegas!

United Nations Anniversary Celebration

The children's school had a flag celebration and parade of students for the annual celebration of the United Nations Anniversary. Each student was to wear clothing that represented their country. There were beautiful and unique costumes as well as current, modern clothing. Our children chose what they wanted to wear and we did small, floral prints and ginghams with jeans for the girls and Matthew wanted to wear his cowboy clothes to celebrate America's history!

The night before we made some small versions of the American Flag and our little ones enjoyed celebrating America's particitpation in the United Nations. We had a great time and the children have made great friends while we have been here - after this experience their friends will span the globe. We have friends from Argentina, Columbia, France, Germany, Kenya, Mexico, Korea, Japan and Spain - this experience has blessed out lives in so many ways - friendships being one of thos tremendous blessings!

La Casa de la Zacatecana

In Leiu of Halloween's approach our daughter's school classes traveled into the city of Queretaro, Mexico for a mysterious field trip. We visited "La Casa de La Zacatecana" (The home of the woman from Zacatecas) while we were there we heard a ghost story legend that truly did scare many of the students.

The legend states that 'La Zacatecana' and her husband lived in this beautiful home and were quite wealthy. They lived there with their servant who had been an orphan before they employed him. 'La Zacatecana' had fallen in love with the gardener of the house and her husband confronted her with his knowledge of her clandestine love. 'La Zacatecana' then plotted with her servant to kill her husand, which he did. 'La Zacatecana' then proceeded to kill the servant and bury the bodies in her basement. A short time later, while 'La Zacatecana' was sleeping, assassins entered her home and killed her in her bed - they then took her body and placed it in the middle of the street in front of her home for the people of Queretaro to find. To this day noone knows who killed 'La Zacatecana'.

The home had been bought and sold many times and it is claimed to have the ghost of 'La Zacatecana' roaming the grounds. The legend claims that is why noone has lived in the home for any length of time.

Our daughter enjoyed touring the grounds and hearing about the legend and most of her classmates enjoyed it as well. One of the highlights of the trip was looking in a window at the museum and seeing a 'reflection' of the face of 'La Zacatecana' peering at the group out of a window. We also saw the skeletons of the husband and servant that were down in the basement! We enjoyed hearing of one of the legends of Mexico and being able to enjoy our time together!

Civil Disagreement

I am one who stands on the side of supporting traditional marriage. We are a country that is extremely diverse. I feel that, collectively, we have accepted all forms of diversity as a part of our culture and we have discovered ways for each of us to live together in our society courteously and kindly. I feel that we can continue to live together in this society and allow all people the right to pursue happiness as they so choose, without calling for the change of basic laws.

The issue of legalizing same sex marriage that is now before us will change the bedrock of the founding of our country. I believe that the morals this country were founded upon have been and are being directly attacked. These are the morals that protect not only family but also protect religion, freedom of speech, the right to bear arms, etc.

The rights of citizens will be altered if this measure to legalize same sex marriage passes - parents will no longer be able to teach their chosen religion without being legally incorrect and possibly held in contempt of the law; churches will be in contempt for teaching a strict adherence to the ten commandments and the scriptural teachings of Jesus Christ; schools will have to change curriculum to welcome same sex marriage, polygamous marriages, gender confusion, gender change choices, etc. Local governments, National Laws, Federal Taxes, Insurance providers etc. will have to recognize and cover polygamy, same sex marriages and gender change operations or confusion and the subsequent identity changes that would incur.

Although all of us have the right to choose for ourselves what to believe we must realize that these practices are not the norm. These are the exception. I feel that people need to be educated in a manner that allows them to have an open mind but to be taught correct principles and then allow them to govern themselves in relation to their personal belief system. It has been given to the parents and teachers of religion to insure that our children have been taught sufficiently to then choose for themselves. I believe that options and exceptions to the way a child is reared should be shared around high school age when each person has sufficient understanding to choose for themselves what manner of life they would like to lead.

Let me be clear that I abhor prejudice in all forms; including the prejudice against people who practice various religions; all prejudices against race as well as sexual preference. That said, I applaud the opportunity we have to voice our opinions and to disagree CIVILLY at times.

Crossing this threshold of departing from traditional marriage as the 'legal norm', to me, marks the beginning of the unraveling of the basic rights of the country's constitution. The legal norm was what this country was founded upon - even at the time of the founding fathers there were surely those who had various beliefs regarding race, religion and sexual preference. The constitution supports the rights of all people and when necessary changes have been made in the constitution to insure that all people were treated equally. Those changes were vital and important and in accordance with what the people chose. The constitution begins with "We The People" and the voice of the collective whole was united and became the basis for the forging of our Constitution.

If states choose not to legalize same sex marriage it does not mean that the people are bigots or prejudice; it means that the people are exercising their right to voice their beliefs and that the majority supports traditional marriage. We each have the right to voice our opinions and beliefs and that in no way diminishes anyone's ability to form relationships but it does allow the law to continue to forbid polygamy, marriages to minors and other activities our society deems as unacceptable.

If we begin down this path of legalizing something other than the Constitution's legal norm for families we must understand that we are on a slippery slope that leads towards altering the legal norms for the entire Constitution and all the rights that we as a people have been given will be available for a vote. There are unalienable rights that we have claimed and I would suggest that one unalienable right is that of having a mother and father in the family. I know that is an unalienable right of the human race because God himself mandated the necessity of both a father and a mother, not only in His commandments but in how human life is created. Of this right, I have no doubt. I do not believe that we can continue to destroy traditional families without repercussions as an entire society - all races, religions and sexual preferences combined.

We ask that "God Bless America" and state, "In God We Trust". We state that we are "One nation under God" and that we are "Indivisible". Yet, how can we ignore the basic tenets of the ten commandments by getting rid of families with a mother and father (who we are commanded to honor); allowing abortion to act as a method of birth control when we are commanded not to kill; forgetting to love our neighbors as ourselves no matter what their race, religion or creed are? How can we state that we are 'indivisible' when we have become so divided regarding politics, principles and prejudices?

Perhaps these are the exact reasons why so many question the existence of God - because our laws speak against His existence. Thus, my question is: Do we feel that we can maintain the right, collectively, as a nation to call upon God for protection when we are continually abandoning what He has asked of us?

A hunting we will go... A hunting we will go...

This past weekend our family tried our hand at geocaching! After some initial map confusion (meaning Mom was in charge of the map, GPS system and directions) we were finally able to drive to the basic destination! We parked and walked for a bit along a nice sidewalk...then we turned off the sidewalk and ventured into grass, prickers, cactus and bushes! We had fun following the GPS' directions to locate the cache! When we finally got to a small cliff on the trail we all voted that Dad go down and retrieve the cache!

Dad climbed down the cliff, over some dirt and into - yes, into - some cactus to retrieve the cache! He was bleeding a bit and was in some pain... but, he found it! We were so excited to open it up and add our names to the list of 'finders'! When geocaching it is customary to bring things to place in the geocache and to take something out of the cache. We placed some toys from the children, some American and Mexican coins and we retrieved the stone statue that is pictured! It is a wonderful momento of our first modern treasure hunt! We had great fun - minus Dad pulling an entire cactus chunk out of his leg!

We have already mapped out some more caches to hunt! We not only enjoyed finding a little piece of treasure but the view was spectacular as well! This is a wonderful activity for families to enjoy together - every member of our family had a great time hunting for hidden treasure! Enjoy the pictures and let us know if your family enjoys geocaching as well!