We did it!!! We have now wiped away two of our student loans. We have two more left--well, two more companies to pay off. They are our biggest loans too. So far we have paid off 27% of our debt. Lee made the payments this afternoon. I guess they won't clear for a couple of days, but that's okay! We are on our way to financial freedom!

If the above doesn't make you happy, the pictures below should.

The girls like to hug each other, and Cal got in on the action too. (The red eye remover did something weird to Cal's eyes in the third picture.)

Photos from 11/13/08--Happy Birthday to Brita on that day!

A funny thing happened on Lee's
way home from a Court of Honor.
Fuel dropped to $1.89!
YAHOO!

People will be lining up to get a great deal!

Image from: http://www.projectbronco.com/History/78_79_History/gas_lines_01.jpg

We got Lee's schedule today for the holidays and it's awesome! During the break he only has to work Christmas Eve and the 30th and then has the rest of the time off until the 5th of January! It's great because he won't be taking any vacation days either.

Happy Veteran's Day!

After Lee's pancake breakfast, cleaning the bathrooms and getting everyone ready, we went to a Veteran's Day Parade in Waynesville, Missouri. It was a nice little parade. We are enjoying Lee's break.

Shanna and flag



All the kids before the parade


The popcorn bag is basically empty, but this is the candy we got at the parade! We brought some of the kids' Halloween candy for a treat because we didn't know if they would throw candy at this parade or not. But we didn't use the Halloween stash at all. (More for that New Year's pinata, right?!) We made out quite well today.


An attempted photo of Lee and I by Clark


A little better one by Clark


A hot pink Camero...nice...too bad it doesn't hold 6 people!


Cal and Clark...some guy gave us three of these flags which was really fun!


Clark searching for some candy


Cal soaking in all of the wonderful, big emergency vehicles


Clark and Cal again


Cal enjoying it all


A big army truck...we see a lot of these around base


We are almost done with our Christmas shopping, thanks to Lee today. Well, it was really quite easy since our kids are getting pretty much the same type of Christmas they did last year. But it is very nice to have it almost all done! Last night for Family Home Evening I read a story called Squanto and the Miracle of Thanksgiving. (Well, I actually paraphrased it, but showed them the pictures from the book as I went along.) Then we played a matching game from the Friend. The pictures used for matching were of a house, the scriptures, food, family, etc. And when my boys got a match I asked them why they were thankful for that particular thing--like why they are thankful for a house. We then had hot chocolate and family scripture reading.

Happy Veteran's Day! Enjoy the rest of the week!

Hello Everyone,

We had a busy week last week. Because of Veteran's Day, Lee gets off today (Monday) and tomorrow! This morning I laid in bed for awhile because Lee was taking care of the kids. After the girls got up they both came and found me. It was so cute because they came up to the side of the bed and were smiling and laughing because they were so glad to see me. It was so sweet. There is a Veteran's Day parade in Waynesville tomorrow, so I think we'll go to that.

Some highlights of the week:

Girls well baby check-ups & immunizations (They did very well with the shots!)
Helped out with missionary zone conference lunch
Flu shots for the family--except for Lee, he received the spray in Texas
Lee and Clark helped at a Boy Scout service project
Normal shopping and cleaning!

There are probably a few things I am forgetting to mention, but we were busy last week.

The kids did pretty well in Sacrament meeting yesterday, for which we were grateful! My first lesson went pretty well. I'll be teaching this Sunday School class to new members and investigators every Sunday, so I hope it goes well. I will have one break this month as Stake Conference is in two weeks.

Saturday night Lee was looking on eBay motors for an idea in case our van broke down in the near future. While looking we found something interesting. Now, if you were to ask me what my favorite minivan was, I would say the Honda Odyssey. Here is one that is currently on eBay Motors: You can Buy It Now for $19,900. It has 39,460 miles and is a 2006.


But, wouldn't this be more fun???! You can But It Now on eBay Motors for $19,780. It has 18,060 miles and is a 2006. It's a Mercedes-Benz RClass. Yeah, I'd think I'd go for this one.


But we wouldn't be buying either of these for awhile. Our backup plan is a Chevy Caprice station wagon. Our van is working fine right now, but it's always good to have a backup plan, right?

Yesterday Lee did a little treasure hunt for the boys. We have lots of Halloween candy (over 10 pounds) that we are saving for a New Year's Day Pinata. So for their prize Lee got some of the Halloween candy out for the boys. Lee does a good job at pictures.


Clark finding his candy


Cal finding his


Clark and Cal...what handsome boys!


I was playing around with the babies on Saturday and Shanna was laughing, which isn't unusual, but I thought it would be a good time to get a picture of her smiling and one of her and Haley together.


Haley is still working on some food. Thanks for the sweatshirts Ruth W!


Friday night Cal was giving the girls rides in this laundry basket. It was very cute. The bad thing was that Cal would only do one girl at a time, so usually the one not in the basket would be crying.


Hope you all have a good week! I hope some of you get the day off tomorrow.



Now for a little about Proposition 8:

For my friends who are not of the same religion as I, please feel free to ask me any questions concerning the recent coverage of the protesting in California dealing with Proposition 8. I have seen some very un-true and quite nasty things about my church and beliefs. Just for the record, we are not polygamists! Lee has only one wife: me. I promise! Some of those people I saw protesting are way out of date with the times. Last time I knew, having more than one wife was illegal (and it still is.) And we don't force young girls into getting pregnant (actually our doctrine is that NO sexual relations should occur outside of marriage.)

Plus, we definitely don't hate gays and lesbians, we just don't agree with their actions. Just like I don't agree with a married man having an affair with another woman. It's wrong and against God's commandments. You know when you read about unnatural affection in the Bible? That is referring to gays and lesbians. Maybe a guy does have an attraction to another guy, but these feelings should not be acted upon. It would be adultery/fornication--just like a married man having an affair with another woman. I am so glad that Propostion 8 passed, which banned marriages of gays/lesbians in California. Marriage should only be between a man and a woman.

Something else I've seen is that this proposition infringes on their rights. As someone pointed out gays basically have all legal rights, just not the right to get married. All I have to say is that same sex marriage is WRONG. The same would be true of a parent that had a genetic inclination to be quick to anger and physically abuse his/her children. He/she should never be given the right to do so just because they are the child's parent. It's just WRONG!

Like I mentioned earlier, if you do have questions about my beliefs please ask. The media is often wrong--and on purpose too.

This is from lds.org:

The Church does not condone abusive treatment of others and encourages its members to treat all people with respect. However, speaking out against practices with which the Church disagrees on moral grounds – including same-sex marriage – does not constitute abuse or the frequently misused term “hate speech.” We can express genuine love and friendship for the homosexual family member or friend without accepting the practice of homosexuality or any re-definition of marriage.

To read more: http://newsroom.lds.org/ldsnewsroom/eng/commentary/the-divine-institution-of-marriage

Well, things went on as usual this morning and the world hasn't come to an end. Though I could have cried myself to sleep last night. We were watching the BBC last night on the internet for the election coverage. Sounds ironic I know, but after viewing Fox and CNN online last night several times, they were way behind on the electoral votes and weren't even streaming any election broadcasts online.

Anyway, one lady that was interviewed in Chicago I think it was, was saying how great it was about Obama's projected win because he was African American and what great strides our country has made in electing a black president. I don't care if he/she is white, purple, black or pink! If that is the ONLY reason why she voted for him I am SHOCKED. I really hope she likes all of his socialist ideas too! I voted for McCain because he had a better agenda than Obama not because of the color of his skin.

At least he doesn't go into office today and hopefully his plans will be a long time in coming or will never materialize. I pray he does a decent job and doesn't ruin our country.