Thank You, John McCain: A True American Hero

"I would not be an American worthy of the name, should I regret a fate that has allowed me the extraordinary privilege of serving this country for a half a century. Today, I was a candidate for the highest office in the country I love so much. And tonight, I remain her servant. That is blessing enough for anyone and I thank the people of Arizona for it.

Tonight, more than any night, I hold in my heart nothing but love for this country and for all its citizens, whether they supported me or Senator Obama, I wish Godspeed to the man who was my former opponent and will be my president.

And I call on all Americans, as I have often in this campaign, to not despair of our present difficulties but to believe always in the promise and greatness of America, because nothing is inevitable here. Americans never quit. We never surrender. We never hide from history, we make history.

Thank you, and God bless you, and God bless America. Thank you all very much."

A Cheetah, a Tiger, & and a Hot Dog

For a long time Emily has been wanting to dress up Melinda's dog, Jessie, like a hot dog for Halloween. So when I found this costume, I had to buy it. Emily was a cheetah and Eli was Chase Daniel. In the picture Eli's making his football face. He's showing off his muscles. He was so excited to get his face painted with those two black lines under his eyes. He said next year he wants to be an alligator. This was Maysville's second year having trick-or-treating with the businesses around the square, so we did that. It's nice because it's before dark and it's neat seeing so many kids walking around the square having fun. That's where we took Jessie and she and her costume were a hit. There were people wanting to take her picture. Melinda said it was the most Jessie had ever walked at one time. By the time we finished she really was a hot dog! After we got home, Emily just wanted to stay and hand out candy. So Eli and I took the wagon and trick-or-treated around our neighborhood. After a few houses he said, "Mom, I'm gettin' a litte bit tired." I'm not sure how since I was the one pulling him in the wagon.

Country First Jack-O-Laterns

We decided that our yard signs and bumper stickers we're enough support, so we added our McCain-Palin Jack-O-Lanterns to the mix. Matt did Governor Palin, Alyssa did McCain-Palin, and Michael did Senator McCain. I wasn't able to help much because I was too busy roasting pumpkin seeds, making caramel apples, and hot gluing my thumbs together in an attempt to make Emily some cheetah ears to go with her Halloween costume. But the political pumpkins were my idea and I did find the patterns and took all the pictures. Eli was so cute running around outside tonight saying "McCain-Palin" while I was trying to take the pictures. Happy voting!

Pickin' Pumpkins at Hunt's Orchard

We took advantage of the beautiful Saturday God blessed with us earlier this month and went to Hunt's Orchard, North of St. Joe. Here we are on the tractor pulled hay ride that took us from the general store up to the pumpkin patch.

Here is Eli in the middle of the patch. Too many pumpkins to choose from! This was one of the few times Eli wasn't on the run and I was able to snap a picture. After we choose our pumpkins we roasted hot dogs and marshmellows. The orchard volunteers put on a short skit about the Beverly Hillbillies, but none of our kids would do the hoe down with Granny.

There was also a hay maze that the kids loved to crawl through. At first Eli was scared to crawl in, but once he did, he didn't want to get out. We had to send Michael in to keep track of Eli. The picture of Emily was taken in the very center of the maze. After our hay ride back to the general store, the kids spent a little time in the petting zoo and Emily and Eli took a train ride before we headed home.

Happy 3rd Birthday, Eli Christian

Here's a picture of Eli with one of his presents. Don't you just love the shirt he's wearing? Since I'm the one who writes this blog, I get to point out such things. :) It's really hard to believe that Eli is already 3 years old. He is definitely all boy--loves tractors, bulldozers, monster trucks, dinosaurs, and is always getting hurt. His latest scare was shutting the automatic sliding van door on his hand by pushing the button. Nothing in his hand was broken and now the button is disabled whenever he is in the van. ;)

I gave Eli a few choices of what he wanted on his birthday cake and he chose bulldozers. Jen, the girl in town who makes the kids' cakes, didn't have a bulldozer pan, but she has one of the icing printers and she can put any picture on a cake. So, Eli and I went to the Catepillar website and picked out two pictures for his cake. After we printed off the pictures, he couldn't wait until morning, so he could take in his pictures to the cake shop. He proudly presented his paper to Jen and then asked me everyday for a week if it was time to go get his birthday cake yet.

MIZZOU-RAH!! Missori 69 Nevada 19

Despite the rain, we had a great time at the Missouri-Nevada game on Saturday. Lance met us at the gate and made sure we had everything we needed. We ended up sitting on the 50 yard line with Uncle, Chad and Jiggs, so the kids had a great view of the field. MU's fake punt that resulted in a touchdown happened right in front of us; what an awesome play! It just doesn't get any better than that!Here's Chase looking for a receiver. Chase was 23-28 passing with 405 yards. Coffman and Maclin put on quite a show for us as well with 127 yards and 172 yards receiving.

Mizzou on the ground: 132 yards rushing with 80 of those belonging to Washington. After Mizzou had put the game out of reach, we got to see Chase Patton take over at quarterback. He had 72 yards passing and he rushed for a touchdown. This kid could have been a starter on a different football team, but being raised in Columbia, he knew from the time he was a little boy that he wanted to be an MU Tiger. He chose to join a team where he knew he would play back-up because being a Tiger meant that much to him. Wow, what a guy!

Homeward Bound: Here are Michael and Alyssa wearing their Daniel jerseys that Lance bought them. The look on Michael's face was priceless when I told him that Lance knew Chase and the rest of the football team. I didn't realize that Michael was unaware of that little bit of information. He's already wondering if Lance can get Chase's autograph for him. Michael will be a "rock star" among his friends with the autograph of the next Heisman Trophy winner. Go Mizzou!

Back to School

There's nothing like the smell of new textbooks and pencil shavings, unless you're a Mom who really isn't ready for school to start again. I really enjoy having the kids home over the summer and I'm always a little sad when they start back. Here is a picture of the first day of school (another one of my picture taking traditions that they'd love to skip, but I won't let them).

Alyssa is a Freshman... yeah, I know that one slipped up on us, too. She is really enjoying the year so far and all of her classes, except shop. She's going to make us a footstool, but she said it might take her the entire year to get it done. I think she'll get the hang of it before too long. We've have four extra girls at our house all weekend as they were making t-shirts for homecoming. I'd forgotten what a big deal a first homecoming is to a freshman. The girls are so excited. We really enjoy Alyssa's friends...they are a great bunch of girls. Emily and Eli especially like it when they come because the girls always play with them.

Michael is in 7th grade and it's an easy guess as to what his favorite part of the year has been so far--FOOTBALL! This is his first time playing and he has been giving 110%. He gives us detailed recaps of every practice. And he has all A's and A-'s in his classes. His coach has been preaching what Mom and Dad have always preached--school work first. Somehow he seems to be listening to coach, which is fine; we're just glad it's all coming together for him. He's plenty smart, he just didn't want to do the work, now he realizes if he wants to play football he has to do the work.

Emily is in 2nd grade and of course she loves everything--except PE. Same as every other year. As much as I hope she will eventually like sports, I just don't know. Her favorite class is art. She says looking forward to art is what "keeps me going". I laughed when she told me that. I keep forgetting to tell her art teacher, I know she would appreciate hearing that story. Emily has blossomed into quite a reader. One night she was sitting on the couch reading an article in my Reader's Digest magazine titled, "41 Things Your Doctor Knows, But Doesn't Tell You." She told me she didn't think doctors should do that, so she read the article. What happened to reading Dick and Jane?

Eli misses the kids when they are at school. He asks me repeatedly throughout the day if it is time to go pick Emily up from school. When we get there, he showers her with hugs. Ten minutes after we've been home, he fights with her. Go figure!