Happy Holidays everyone.  Here is one of my favorite pics from Thanksgiving day.  It's all the boys, Tim, granddad, and cousin Kyle.

Thanksgiving was busy and full of family, fun and football.  We ate, and ate, and ate!  I'm eating my bowl of oatmeal this morning and my exercise bike and jogging stroller are calling me.  Our Thanksgiving was spent with Tim's parents at their church (they rented it out).  My sister-in-law's family was there too. The boys ran through the halls and played outside on their playground.  Ryan made a friend from SIL side of the family, Mason.  He was younger than Ryan but has had a cleft lip and palate repair, so he doesn't talk much, and knows some sign language.  They got along beautifully.  Plus I had opportunity to visit with Mason's mom who has had some similar challenges in having a special needs child.  We both were giving thanks for our very special and much loved children.

After the dinner at the church we came back to our home with my mother and her husband Graeme.  We enthusiastically watched the Dallas Cowboy game and were not disappointed.  Is Tony Romo a hottie or what? LOL  

After the game we went back out to visit more people and eat more!  We went to my SIL's house and watched "Survivor" and finish the night up with family.  When we returned home we were all ready to visit our warm, cozy beds. 

I however, had a wild notion to get up at 4am and travel out to the early morning sales.  Well after seeing the line at Best Buy extending around the building and 3 police cars in the parking lot handcuffing some people, I decided the savings of $30 on an MP3 player was not worth it.  I presently returned home to the comfort of my quiet, warm and dark home by 5am. 

When we finally got up, we started our Christmas decorating.  When I got to bed last night it just looked like all the boxes vomited red and green everywhere. LOL I’m trying to make sense of it this morning.  This is when a visit from Nick Berkus would be helpful.  

So that's our holiday, very simple, and nothing too exciting.  A visit to my SIL, a phone call from my dad, a football game enjoyed with my mom.  The way that most of us celebrated the holiday.  However, I was reminded not to take these simple things for granted and to savor each of them.  After a short battle with breast cancer, a homeschooling mom from one of my online social circles died on Thanksgiving.   She had young children and in many ways is like us.  So in honoring the life God has given me, I am renewed in my spirit to take care of myself and live my life with passion, love and perseverance.  I hope you will too. 

Here is Lorrie's website:  http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/grisoniranch

Good Morning.

We are all waking up with some changes in our country today.  I voted yesterday and over all, everyone I voted for won here in Texas; however, nationally there has been some changes that could propel legislation that I would oppose.  I will be watching closely, and I will start writing those letters and calling like I've always done when I don't agree. 

One issue that I've very opposed to is the use of embryonic stem cells or unborn babies to find cures for illnesses.  There are plenty of stem cells that can be used from adults and from a newborn baby's cord blood to do the research necessary to find these cures.  Seizures is one of the diseases that could be cured from the stem cell research, so I've very interested in that research.  Today, adult stem cell research has cured many people (it's somewhere in the thousands) and embryonic stem cell research has cured zero.  Just to make sure you understand, the media will say that the new leaders in the house of representitives are now looking at furthering stem cell research, what they are saying is furthering EMBRYONIC stem cell research.  No one is against STEM CELL RESEARCH in general, it is simply which stem cells are used.  They try to spin the story to look like conservatives are against stem cell research in general but they are not.  The end goal of embryonic stem cell research is human cloning.  For instance, if someone had a specific disease, they would create a cloned embryo of that person, a baby.  Then they would harvest the stem cells from the embryo and kill it. They then would use the stem cells to cure the person.  It is one thing to abort an embryo due to rape or incest, which I have mixed feelings about.  It is something entirely different to create one for its parts.  Unfortunately, once we have started down this path the next step is to let the embryo grow larger and then harvest organs for transplant.  You may think this is outrageous but truthfully the science and special interest money is planning on these events. 

Here is a simple website that explains details about the different kinds of research. http://www.stemcellresearchfacts.com/index.html  

What is also interesting is that the public schools and virtually every college is teaching evolution and not creationism.  Therefore, people will start to believe that embryos are only “blobs” of tissue that just “are a product of millions and millions of years of evolution” and not babies created by God for a special purpose. With this path, the ethical questions of cloning and tissue harvesting will not be brought up.  That is why it is important for us as Christians to direct people to sound creation science professors and to Jesus.  That way they will start to understand that we do come from a creator and that God has a special plan and purpose for each person, even before they are born. 

I have some other concerns about the Democratic agenda as well, but this is all I can stand for today. LOL 

It’s time for people to wake up and stop worrying about what is the next big fashion craze or when is the finale of “Dancing with the Stars”, and start deciding what kind of country we want to live in, and start making that happen. 

Prayerfully,

~J

Good Afternoon.

We have been enjoying the Halloween holiday this week.  We have decorated bat, ghost and pumpkin cookies; "trick or treated" with friends, and we went to a couple of festivals.  We now have double the candy that we started with to hand out to kids.  LOL Tyler was a pirate (Jack Sparrow), Ben was a Jedi (Anakin), and Ryan was a firefighter (daddy).  All very cute.  

Today I've been sorting through kids clothes for the winter.  Ben grew out of 80% of the clothes that I had set aside for winter, and so had Tyler. This year, the two older boys are so close in sizes that I can simply move Tyler's too small clothes over to Ben's side of the closet.  This makes life easier for me.  I always dread the whining that ensues while I make them try on each piece of clothing to see if they fit.  You just can't go by the size anymore. So this is only solution I could find. It was painful, but we are almost finished.  LOL

For my birthday last weekend, Tim had the boys visit family and we had the whole weekend alone.  I really didn't want to visit anywhere.  I wanted to sleep in my bed and sleep in late.  I wanted to go to a nice restaurant locally.  I wanted to scrapbook and stay up late watching movies with Tim.  We did all those things.  It was romantic and restful and was one of the best birthdays of my life.  We had a wonderful dinner at III Forks and enjoyed visiting uninterrupted for the whole weekend. 

Tyler and Ben are continuing with Cub Scouts.  They are have several camping trips over the next few months.  (Yes, the thought that came to mind to me as well -- COLD!)  I can't recommend the Cub Scout program enough.  It is a great way to teach young boys how to grow up to be great men.  

Elections are coming up soon, on November 7th.  Tim voted early, and I will probably do so this week.  I found some good websites that seem to be accurate and look at how different candidates have voted in the past.  Here they are   http://ww3.intelligentvote.com/default.aspx  and http://www.freemarket.org/portal/ . 

Before I go, I wanted to post a link to a African webcam.  We have been watching the animals come to a watering hole in South Africa.  It is amazing.  We have seen giraffes, hyenas, gazelles and a baboon.  The boys have had great fun watching it. 

Have a great afternoon!

Jen