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.