Maybe This Man is "Change We Can Believe In"

President-Elect Obama selected Pastor Rick Warren to give the invocation at his Inauguration. The GLBT (Gay-Lesbian-Bi-Transgender) community thought this was a slap in the face to the millions of gays who voted for Obama.

"During the course of the entire inaugural festivities, there are going to be a wide range of viewpoints that are presented. And that's how it should be, because that's what America is about. That's part of the magic of this country is that we are diverse and noisy and opinionated," he (Obama) said.

I was glad to see our next President stand up to these activists. If this country is to truly come together, then both sides must have the opportunity to take part without emphasis on left or right but rather as Americans.

Thanksgiving is over. On to Christmas!

I hope everyone had as happy a Thanksgiving as we in the Swensen household...at least me. Marla made the turkey and stuffing from our mother's recipe. I can't remember the
last time I had good, old-fashioned, made from bread stuffing. I made all of the side dishes. Lisa was in charge of clean up. Besides those already mentioned,present were Taylor, Nick, Aaron, Erik, Megan and Andy and their darling little ones. We ate at 1:30 so that all food had settled well before bedtime. Mid-afternoon, Marla, Drew, Taylor and I went out in the golf cart. After visiting the ducks on the pond, Taylor was complaining about how slow our cart went. He even ran beside it and showed me that he could run as fast as the cart could go! For a video, check out Marla's blog for Thanksgiving day. The picture on right is Erik with Kayley, Megan and Andy's miracle baby.

Friday I played golf while Erik and Arne went to Joey's for Chicago hot dogs and had a nice visit.

Saturday morning, Marla and I hiked Pinnacle Peak. According to my car clock, we completed the 4 mile hike in less than 90 minutes. If that's true, I'm pretty impressed with this 66 year old body!

Erik ate dinner with his parents Saturday night and then went to Lisa's. Erik, Lisa, Taylor, Nick and Brit went to Cosmic bowling. It didn't start until 10 so was WAY beyond my bedtime.

We skipped church this morning to get some things done around the house. I had to do laundry as Arne had no clean boxers...again! This open house schedule makes it difficult for me to get chores done. It's 8 PM and I'm just finishing up the last load in the dryer.

The picture below is from Friday night when Erik, Lisa, Nick and Brit went to Barcelona, a nightclub in Scottsdale. I guess they had a pretty good time. Brit swore off alcohol for at least the next day. :-)

Not Much Happenin'

I know it's been two weeks since I last logged in but REALLY there's not much news. We have Open House every day from 11-5. Booooring! Today I watched Brad Pitt on Oprah. While he's good looking, I would rather be outside. I did take a very long walk to get the mail today. :-) Last Saturday, Marla and I hiked Black Mountain. My quads (upper thighs for those non-exercisers) were very sore for three days. Guess I'm not doing enough leg work during my workouts. :-(

I'm reading a very interesting book about the Trinity. It's called "The Shack." I recommend it to everyone, even those who don't believe in God.

I'm getting concerned about President-Elect Obama's promise of "change." He keeps picking people with Washington roots. Not what I envisioned. Joe Biden and Tom Daschle aren't exactly new to Washington, nor Raul Emmanuel and Eric Holder. How about some new faces???

USA Make History

This morning in the fitness center locker room I hugged a black friend as we both hoped this would be a new beginning for America. While I didn't vote for him, I now think the election of a black man (I hope this isn't offensive as I think we are all Americans and don't like the hyphenated-American designation for anyone, including myself as a "Danish-American") for President is a good thing. Hopefully, it can move us beyond the anger and cries of racism. Do I think there are racists in America? Yes, I do, but I believe they are small in number and come on both sides. Watching the tears flow down the cheeks of Jesse Jackson as he listened to Obama's excellent speech, I couldn't help thinking how proud he must be to see a black man elected to the most powerful position in the world. Rev. Jackson had marched with Dr. Martin Luther King in the civil rights marches of the early 1960's.

The economy is heading further south and we still have enemies who wish this country destroyed. I wish the Obama family well and pray for their safety as he tries to lead our country through this very difficult time.

Halloween weekend with Erik, Kadin & Gracie

I flew to Albuquerque on Friday, Oct. 31 to spend the week-end with Erik and the girls. Friday evening we went uptown where the girls trick or treated at the local businesses. Saturday evening we went to Pumpkin Glow, the Haunted House and then to a family dance. On Sunday, after church, we hiked to Fireman Park and back. The whole week-end was lovely Autumn weather, in the mid-60's. After walking the girls to school Monday morning, I flew back to Phoenix. It was a wonderful week-end and I thank Arne for letting me leave while we're trying to sell our house.

Back to Iowa

I flew to Iowa on Thursday, October 16. Mark and Marla drove from Omaha, where they picked up Megan and Drew, to Des Moines to bring me back to the farm. Thanks to Craig Peterson for the loan of his van. Don, Jan and the Burns' girls arrived at the farm late afternoon and Matt arrived later in the evening.

Friday, the temperature never got above 47 degrees. Needless to say, we didn't go outside, which made for a long day.

Saturday afternoon I spent some time with Gwen Peterson. Gwen was on death's doorstep a few weeks ago but she looked and sounded great. She has such a wonderful attitude.

After leaving Gwen, I joined other family members at the Methodist Church where I witnessed the marriage of niece Katie Kalkwarf. The reception was at the Starlite in Fort Dodge where I shared a room with Megan. During dinner, I had a long conservation with my aunt Nita.

Picture with my siblings...Marla, Kevin, Jan, Larry and me.

Sunday I went to Jody's home on Lake Panorama. We went for a boat ride on a lovely Autumn day. That evening we went to her daughter Chris and Randy's home in Des Moines for a celebration of Amanda's 23rd birthday. Monday we drove the pontoon across the lake so that it could be taken out of the water for the winter. Definitely the end of summer!

I flew home on Tuesday where Arne had been working hard to market our home. The stock market sure isn't helping.

Where are we headed?

After a good week-end with several people stopping in to view our house and one couple who seemed truly interested, I get up this morning and start reading the financial news. Even with the government "rescue", it appears we'll be continuing on this downward spiral. After years of saving and managing debt, it seems Arne and I will be punished as a result of those who didn't save and who spent above their means. Not a comforting thought.

My baby's 39!

Today is Aaron's 39th birthday. I honestly feel like I'm 39 so how can this be? Aaron called last night and we talked for over 90 minutes, much of it about politics. He was trying to convince me I should vote for Obama. I told him that he and his father could do that. Happy Birthday, Aaron!

Party Leaders Back Revised Plan for Bailout

After several weeks of wondering if our life's savings are safe, the federal government has taken it upon themselves to bail out those who bet on subprime loans. I thought we should let them fail and the markets will adjust. I just can't see the federal government handling this in a successful manner. I pray I am wrong. (L to R: Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House, Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson and Harry Reid, Senate Leader.

We had Open House this week-end with a few visitors. Tomorrow we will go on MLS so we will have more exposure to buyers. We have dropped our price $30K from where we started, which we thought was very conservative. We only have a couple weeks to make a decision about The Villages so will see what happens.

Sedona with Girlfriends

Tuesday morning, eight "Lit Chicks" drove to Sedona, checked into a hotel and headed to Oak Creek Golf Club where we only played 9 holes. The scenery was spectacular. We got back to the hotel around 5 and had Happy Hour by the pool. For dinner, we drove to uptown Sedona. I had salmon which was sooooo good.

Wednesday morning we had 9:30 tee times at Sedona Golf Resort. We were counting putts so I didn't focus as much on my round. My golf was very inconsistent but the views were so spectacular, I didn't care. The weather was nice also, cooler than in the Valley. Between golf and dinner, we had a short discussion of "The Pillars of the Earth" which we will discuss further when we meet in October. We had dinner on the patio of a very nice Mediterranean restaurant. enjoying chianti under the stars.

Thursday morning we played Verde Santa Fe, near Cottonwood. The course reminded me of the rural Iowa courses. Again we just played for putts. I didn't win any money either day but had a great time.

The stock market was up and down all week. Thursday night I was afraid to look at our portfolio which didn't have much damage. We are pretty much in fixed income funds but I was concerned about Fidelity after the collapse of Merrill Lynch, AIG and Lehman Brothers Brokerage. This is a frightening time, much like the collapse in 1929 which led to the Great Depression.

Stock Market Drops 504 Points

It seems as though financial institutions are collapsing all over the country. Those of us who saved all our lives are going to be taken down with the millions of people who irresponsibly spent more than they could afford. I am feeling very sad today for our country. I have long been opposed to big government, but alas, it is the will of the majority and it's taking us down.

From Robert Higgs in The UK Independent:

The trouble is, however, that now, even more than then, the American people have little interest in liberty. Instead, they want the impossible: home ownership for those who cannot afford homes, credit for those who are not creditworthy, old-age pensions for those who have not saved, health care for those who make no attempt to keep themselves healthy, and college educations for those who lack the wit to finish high school. Moreover, they want it now, and they want somebody else to pay for it.

If you think that Fannie and Freddie’s bust is a big deal, just wait until Medicare comes crashing down. Then, the wailing and gnashing of teeth will be truly unbearable. As that day rapidly approaches, however, you’ll notice that the politicians are doing utterly nothing to forestall it.

Anniversary of 9/11

According to Wikipedia, "The September 11 attacks were a series of coordinated suicide attacks by al-Qaeda upon the United States on September 11, 2001. On that morning, nineteen Islamist terrorists affiliated with al-Qaeda hijacked four commercial passenger jet airliners.The hijackers intentionally crashed two of the airliners into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, killing everyone on board and many others working in the building, causing both buildings to collapse within two hours, destroying at least two nearby buildings and damaging others. The hijackers crashed a third airliner into the Pentagon. The fourth plane crashed into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, after some of its passengers and flight crew attempted to retake control of the plane..."

I remember being on the golf course that day. One of the gals in my foursome had a son-in-law who worked at the Pentagon while another had a brother working there.Because of the three-hour time difference,the Pentagon had been hit so these ladies were late getting to the tee box because they had called their loved ones, who hadn't gone to work that morning after hearing of the planes crashing into the Towers. We played our 18 holes after we all agreed, there really wasn't anything we could do about something happening over 2000 miles away.

This picture is my dear colleague, Colleen Rice, circa 1998. We were heading over to Ellis Island, on a sight-seeing trip after attending an educational conference in Rye, NY.

I worked at the Foothills Food Bank this afternoon from 1-4 and were we busy! I interviewed 7 clients and we gave them food for almost 30 people. In addition, I wrote several gas vouchers. I heard some desperate tales today...$900 arears on her electric bill, employer owed another three month's wages but went bankrupt, young man who just got out of jail after serving 8 1/2 months, another woman whose employer stopped paying and she wondered how she would feed her children, a woman whose husband is a firefighter but only makes $32,000/year which wasn't enough to feed their four children.

THEN, I went to Supercuts and the girl cutting my hair asked about the shirt I was wearing. I explained that I had worked at the Food Bank all afternoon. She began to quiz me on how she could get food as she was trying to decide whether to pay bills or buy food. Yes, the economy is in a bad way. Oil prices caused the price of everything to go up. Oil is coming down and hopefully, so will the price of food and other goods. In spite of this, I still say God Bless America!

Election Woes

(Denver Post Photo)
How do Mary Matlin and James Carville do it? Mary's a Republican and James a Democrat. They've been married for over a decade. Arne and I can no longer discuss politics without an argument. This week it was the flag controversy. Apparently, the Republicans got hold of dozens of American flags which had been left in garbage bags next to a dumpster after the Democrat's convention. The Republicans think this is not the way to treat the flags. I wonder about recycling. Why not use them at another rally?...which is what the McCain campaign chose to do. Some Democrats then accused the Republicans of "dumpster diving." This country is very divided and I would like to see Congress less divided. They need to work together for what's best for the country, not just their party or state. I like McCain's motto..."Country First."

Nothing too exciting this past week. Kayley did get home and I stopped by on Thursday to hold the little sweetie. Friday was golf and lunch, then happy hour with eight gals in celebration of two birthdays. Saturday and Sunday we had Open House. A few people stopped by but it's time to do some advertising and get the house on MLS.

Feminist for Life

I read where Sarah Palin was a member of Feminists for Life. I checked out their website and decided to join. It's only $25 per year. I never thought of myself as a feminist because I always thought they were pro-choice but these women are pro-life. Their mission is to get at the root cause of abortion; i.e. poverty, lack of support. Feminists for Life

I just remembered the letter I received from my principal in November 1971, stating that from now on we would be allowed to wear pants, if we so desired. As a second-grade teacher who liked to get down on the floor with my students, I was thrilled. By the time I retired in 2001, it was hard to tell the younger teachers from the students. I felt many of them dressed in an unprofessional manner. Their clothing was suggestive and provocative. This was part of the deline in our culture. Young males enjoyed the dress of these young teachers and the female students. Since retiring, I have heard many stories of teachers, male and female, having sexual liaisons with students. I recall very few incidents during my 32 years in public education.

While I'm on the subject of education, I would like to go on record as saying that I believe the Federal Department of Education brought about the decline of the public schools. Besides the money flowing into Washington, D.C., some of which was never accounted for, the DoE dictated how much states would get returned for their public schools, based on their adherance to certain curriculum standards; i.e. sex education, environmental ed, safety programs, drug programs and more. Time was taken from basic curriculum to make room for these additonal programs.

"The Reagan Administration had little sympathy for the newly created U.S. Department of Education, which they regarded as Carter's political reward to the National Education Association (NEA)."Changing Federal Strategies for Supporting Educational Research, Development, and Statistics - September 1998

I am REALLY going to try and update this blog more often...once a week??? My nephew, Andy, is so good about updating his baby daughter Kayley’s story every day.

As my family and friends know, I am a conservative. I have voted Republican since LBJ. A couple of years ago, I became disenfranchised with President Bush and the Republicans in Congress. I was not happy with their spending, spending, spending, so I switched my voter registration to Independent or Party Undeclared. Arne has been behind Barack Obama all year. He attended a rally here in Phoenix last spring at which Obama spoke. He believes Obama is the leader we need in Washington. I haven’t been convinced. I listen to his speeches and while he talks about Change, I only hear more of the same, spend, spend, spend.Picking Joe Biden as his Vice-President enforced my thinking that there would be no change with this ticket. I was never excited about McCain as a candidate but last Friday morning I became very excited about this ticket. Sarah Palin excites me because she’s smart, articulate, energetic and non-Washington. I may even get involved in the campaign to elect McCain/Palin.

(Arne took this picture of me with Joe Biden in Oct.'07 when Joe was speaking at Iowa Wesleyan as a Presidential candidate. We had gone back for Homecoming.)

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August 11, I had outpatient surgery to remove a growth on my left eyeball. It was a long 10 days waiting for the biopsy results but the results were worth the wait as there was no evidence of cancer. Praise the Lord! My first week of recovery went pretty good but on Aug. 20, my eye was really painful. I went to the doctor the next day and it turns out that my eyelid was pulling up the new growth and the eye couldn’t heal. The doctor put in a contact, which was removed four days later. My eye is EXTREMELY sensitive to light. They both burn and I have to put drops in every 30 minutes. On Aug. 25, the doctor told me the eye was healing slowly and the sensitivity was part of the healing process. I don’t go back to the doctor until Sept. 9. I’m not a patient person anyway and this is really testing my patience. :-)

Erik and the girls were here for a week, August 3-10. We spent three days at Arizona Grand Resort . Taylor spent a full day with us and the kids, Erik included, swam from 10 AM to 8 PM. I finally went down one of the slides on the last day. I don’t know why I waited so long as there was really nothing to it for an old roller coaster rider like me. :-)

This picture is of Grandpa, Kadin and Gracie before Erik and the girls headed back to New Mexico. I'm always sad when they leave and I look forward to the next time I see them.

Great Adventure

After spending July 15-21 at The Villages in Florida, Arne and I decided we want to move there. We picked out a lot and a house to be built. Now we're trying to sell our Terravita home. Arne has been working really hard and actually, we're doing things we should have done a year ago. :-(

Many people have questioned our decision to do this. Why would you want to leave family and friends to move across country to a place that's hot and humid? Well....initially I had those same questions and that's why I wanted to spend time there during the summer. I don't think it's any hotter or more humid than Arizona this time of year. We've been here almost 30 years and are ready for a change in climate. While I love the desert, Florida has a lot of green and lush foilage. Besides, Arizona is much hotter and humid that when we first moved here.

As for family and friends, I will miss them but Arne has said I could come back at least four times a year. I only see Erik, Kadin and Gracie that often now. Fortunately, Southwest has direct flights to both Albuquerque and Phoenix.

Rain in the Desert

We went to church this morning but the rest of the day I've been inside, staying warm and dry. I watched the Patriots disembark in the pouring rain. This is Super Bowl Week and the FBR Open. Things are crazy as people and hotels rent out rooms at prices three times the regular price for this time of year.

On the political side, Barack Obama won the South Carolina primary handily. Of course, the Clintons brush it aside as just being a "black" state. I hope our country is ready to elect the RIGHT woman or black candidate. Hillary Clinton is NOT the right woman candidate. Our Arizona senator John McCain is doing well on the Republican side.

After voting all of my life for Republicans, I am now an Independent. I have been unhappy with the big government and spending of the Bush Administration. I've been reading "The Audacity of Hope" by Barack Obama, recommended reading by Arne, who has already re-registered as a Democrat so he can vote for Obama in the Primary. After reading "Because They Hate," I favor a candidate who is strong on national security.

I'm back!

I didn't do a very good job of keeping up this blog in '07. Perhaps I can do better in '08!

To finish up 2007...

In September, Arne and I flew to Galveston, Texas and boarded Royal Caribbean's Rhapsody of the Seas for a 16-night cruise through the Panama Canal and ending in San Diego. We had a great time. Arne took classes and I did lots of reading.

In October, Arne and I flew to Iowa where we spent a night on the farm with Mark. I took a walk over to the "old place" where I grew up. It was SO QUIET! I could actually hear the voices of Larry, Jan and Marla.

As  I walked around the buildings. I was reminded of so many events from my childhood...climbing up the backside of the corn crib, spying on my siblings as they played "house" in the empty crib bin.

Walking behind the crib, I remembered the basketball hoop on the side of the barn and the horse tank where we cooled off on a hot summer day...the tree in the middle of the drive that Mom planted when Kevin was born in 1959.

From the farm, we drove down to Mt. Pleasant where we attended Iowa Wesleyan College's Homecoming. We saw many friends with whom we had gone to college, including Jesse, Ron and Jan, who were in our wedding party 44 years ago.