9/11 Never Forget

When we went to California last week for the funeral of a friend (Paula Giles), we spent Monday in Malibu. Pepperdine University students had placed nearly 3,000 flags on their lawn at the corner of Malibu Canyon Drive and Pacific Coast Highway, overlooking the ocean in remembrance of the victims of 9/11. This display was left up from Sept 11-19. I wish everyone could have seen it! What a beautiful way to remember those heroes. Many people were stopping and photographing the memorial. I decided to share a few of my favorites. (I have more on Facebook, if you want to have a look.) Never forget! If you want to see the whole story click on this link.
http://www.pepperdine.edu/pr/releases/2010/september/9-11-flag-display-2010.htm

I couldn't ask for more!

I had an amazing Independence Day! I feel so blessed to be able to live in America and be able to enjoy the freedoms that we have and, so often, take for granted. We didn't do anything really amazing to celebrate, but I just felt so happy to be able to enjoy such simple things.
1. Yesterday morning I woke up and said to Mom, "Will you go get some pancakes with me?" Kelly, Mom, and I went to Golden Corral and ate more than we needed to and went home full. How many people in this world can only wish for a meal like that? And we left food on our plates because we were stuffed.
2. We went to Wal Mart to get some extra things for our family barbeque we were going to have. Hot dogs, dessert, and lots of extras. All right there in one store. Plenty for anyone who needs it and we had the money in our pockets.
3. We spent the day getting the house and yard ready for the family to come. I feel blessed that we have a home that we can celebrate in with friends and family. A nice yard to relax in and feel the blessings of living in a beautiful, free country. Even when it has to be cleaned and the water fountain breaks, causing stress.
4.We had a barbeque dinner with the family (except Michael and Natalie, who are at her family's reunion, and Will, who had to work). Again, there was more than enough food for everyone to get more than their fill. We are blessed to be able to live so close together and see each other pretty much when ever we want to. We spent the night eating, relaxing, laughing, and swooning over a brand new baby, who other than a bout with jaundice, was born perfectly healthy to loving parents in a clean hospital, by means of quality medical attention and with care and supplies necessary to start out strong and healthy.





5. We were able to see much of the fireworks show from all the way across town. We sat on our front lawn and watched neighborhood children setting off fireworks late into the evening, beautiful reminders of our fight for independence over 200 years ago. "And the rockets red glare, the bombs bursting in air, gave proof through the night that our flag was still there."

I am so grateful to live in this country and to be able to feel God's protection over His promised land.


God Bless The USA
by Lee Greenwood

If tomorrow all the things were gone,
I’d worked for all my life.
And I had to start again,
with just my children and my wife.

I’d thank my lucky stars,
to be livin here today.
‘Cause the flag still stands for freedom,
and they can’t take that away.

And I’m proud to be an American,
where at least I know I’m free.
And I wont forget the men who died,
who gave that right to me.

And I gladly stand up,
next to you and defend her still today.
‘Cause there ain’t no doubt I love this land,
God bless the USA.

From the lakes of Minnesota,
to the hills of Tennessee.
Across the plains of Texas,
From sea to shining sea.

From Detroit down to Houston,
and New York to L.A.
Well there's pride in every American heart,
and its time we stand and say.

That I’m proud to be an American,
where at least I know I’m free.
And I wont forget the men who died,
who gave that right to me.

And I gladly stand up,
next to you and defend her still today.
‘Cause there ain’t no doubt I love this land,
God bless the USA.

And I’m proud to be and American,
where at least I know I’m free.
And I wont forget the men who died,
who gave that right to me.

And I gladly stand up,
next to you and defend her still today.
‘Cause there ain’t no doubt I love this land,
God bless the USA.

Dedicate yourself to preserve our freedom!!!!

All this election nonsense frustrates, overwhelms, confuses, and worries me. . . but the following words from almost150 years ago inspire and motivate me. I hope they do the same for you. I feel that these words are reflected in the events of our America and our world today... We are in a civil war and these crazy elections with all the insults, lack of answers or accountability, and fingerpointing and mudslinging feel like the battlefield of Gettysburg, in which we are fighting against our neighbors, brothers, and fathers. Forget, Barack Obama and John Mc Cain, where is Mr. Lincoln when you need him???? We DEFINITELY need him today ... If only men today could be so straightforward, honest, and simplistic. In these few words, Lincoln was able to call the nation to a renewed dedication and self consecration for the good of all.

Gettysburg Address

Four score and seven years ago, our forefathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived, and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate it as a final resting place for those who gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate, we can not consecrate, we can not hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us, the living, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they have, thus far, so nobly carried on. It is rather for us here, to be dedicated to the great task remaining before us- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave their last full measure of devotion- that we highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain- that this nation under God, shall have a new birth of freedom- and that this government of the people, by the people, and for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

God Bless America

E Pluribus Unum... Out of many, one.

September 17, 1787 was the day that the Constitution was ratified and became law.
In hopes of persuading some of the delegates who were somewhat uncertain and unwilling to sign, Benjamin Franklin gave the following speech on the final day.

Mr. President
I confess that there are several parts of this constitution which I do not at present approve, but I am not sure I shall never approve them: For having lived long, I have experienced many instances of being obliged by better information, or fuller consideration, to change opinions even on important subjects, which I once thought right, but found to be otherwise. It is therefore that the older I grow, the more apt I am to doubt my own judgment, and to pay more respect to the judgment of others. Most men indeed as well as most sects in Religion, think themselves in possession of all truth, and that wherever others differ from them it is so far error. Steele a Protestant in a Dedication tells the Pope, that the only difference between our Churches in their opinions of the certainty of their doctrines is, the Church of Rome is infallible and the Church of England is never in the wrong. But though many private persons think almost as highly of their own infallibility as of that of their sect, few express it so naturally as a certain french lady, who in a dispute with her sister, said "I don't know how it happens, Sister but I meet with no body but myself, that's always in the right — Il n'y a que moi qui a toujours raison."

In these sentiments, Sir, I agree to this Constitution with all its faults, if they are such; because I think a general Government necessary for us, and there is no form of Government but what may be a blessing to the people if well administered, and believe farther that this is likely to be well administered for a course of years, and can only end in Despotism, as other forms have done before it, when the people shall become so corrupted as to need despotic Government, being incapable of any other. I doubt too whether any other Convention we can obtain, may be able to make a better Constitution. For when you assemble a number of men to have the advantage of their joint wisdom, you inevitably assemble with those men, all their prejudices, their passions, their errors of opinion, their local interests, and their selfish views. From such an assembly can a perfect production be expected? It therefore astonishes me, Sir, to find this system approaching so near to perfection as it does; and I think it will astonish our enemies, who are waiting with confidence to hear that our councils are confounded
like those of the builders of Babel; and that our States are on the point of separation, only to meet hereafter for the purpose of cutting one another's throats. Thus I consent, Sir, to this Constitution because I expect no better, and because I am not sure, that it is not the best. The opinions I have had of its errors, I sacrifice to the public good. I have never whispered a syllable of them abroad. Within these walls they were born, and here they shall die. If every one of us in returning to our Constituents were to report the objections he has had to it, and endeavor to gain partizans in support of them, we might prevent its being generally received, and thereby lose all the salutary effects & great advantages resulting naturally in our favor among foreign Nations as well as among ourselves, from our real or apparent unanimity. Much of the strength & efficiency of any Government in procuring and securing happiness to the people, depends, on opinion, on the general opinion of the goodness of the Government, as well as of the wisdom and integrity of its Governors. I hope therefore that for our own sakes as a part of the people, and for the sake of posterity, we shall act heartily and unanimously in recommending this Constitution (if approved by Congress & confirmed by the Conventions) wherever our influence may extend, and turn our future thoughts & endeavors to the means of having it well administered.

On the whole, Sir, I can not help expressing a wish that every member of the Convention who may still have objections to it, would with me, on this occasion doubt a little of his own infallibility, and to make manifest our unanimity, put his name to this instrument.

What a blessed nation we have been and still are! The Lord has stood by us when we have turned our backs on him. I have been, for some reason, blessed to be born and live in the Promised Land and He is still by us and holding out his hand in protection because He has consecrated this land. But, my fear is that we are headed quickly to that horrible day when this Constitution will "hang by a thread" and we will be that "corrupt" nation that, as Mr. Franklin said, would need a despotic government... I feel like this is the time... this election is going to tell us who we are and in who we trust. Is it still in God? I hope that we as a nation are not so corrupt that "the voice of the people" will choose to trust in Satan or his servants.

In God We Still Trust!

Some pictures from my summer

Hidden Valley Ward girls and leaders

Hidden Valley Ward Camp Leaders

I had so much fun!

Mom and me at Flathead Lake, Montana