the one about the land that I love

I am SO not very good expressing myself when it comes to my patriotism. But I am going to give it a shot anyway. I feel that I would be totally ungrateful if I didn't talk about this wonderful land I live in.
I like to think of myself as a very patriotic person. I get teary eyed when I hear the Star Spangled Banner. I got choked up at Mt. Rushmore both times I went. I love our beautiful flag and I wave it with all of the pride in the world. I don't really like to get into controversial and political issues. I don't really care much about politicians and their personal lives. I am a little embarrassed to say that I don't really follow a lot of the political mumbo-jumbo that happens every day. But I do know that I live in the best country ever and I am so grateful for that blessing in my life.

I am "affiliated" with a political party, but I don't even want to discuss that. That is not what this post is about. In fact, I have a lot of respect for whoever our president is, or who will be elected in the next few months. I can't imagine how difficult that job must be and I sure know that I don't want it. I may not always agree with all of the decisions that are made by our leaders, but again, I have a lot of respect for them and the job they do.

Of course, I also have all of the respect and love in the world for the members of our Armed Forces. I just can't imagine how difficult a decision that must have been for each and every one of the soldiers who have served our country to leave home and sacrifice themselves for you and me. This is my personal thank you to any soldiers or Veterans who may came across this silly blog.
I have always loved our Veterans and tried my best to thank them. Again, I am not very good at things like that. My Grandpa served in Korea. Thank you Pop! My father-in-law served in the Navy. Thanks Mike! An old friend of ours served in Iraq. Thanks Andy! And we also have other Grandpa's and Uncles and friends who have served all over the world. Thank you to all of you. I know that I would not live where I live today and have the freedoms I enjoy if it weren't for these amazing and brave soldiers.
So there is my lame attempt to tell you all how much I love this land, and how grateful I am to live in the time that I live. Even though we pay tons of taxes and fuel costs a butt-load, I still love America. I love that, among other things, I can practice whatever Religion I want, say what I want, read what I want, write what I want, watch what I want and buy what I want. I am so glad I can go with my family this weekend and camp in our trailer on our beautiful mountains. I am thankful that so many brave men and women and our founding fathers have given me those rights.

I love you America!!! Happy Birthday!

the one about more melt downs

Remember the story the other day about Quayd's freak out? Well, I have been going through some pictures lately and found another freak out. Well, two actually. (he he he)

#1. This is when we were trying to teach Quayd how to ride a bike without training wheels. He was NOT happy with us that day. This happened the summer before last. We had taken the training wheels off and lost one. Oops. He did not want to ride with no training wheels, so he showed us by not riding his bike for the rest of the summer.
Thank goodness the Easter Bunny brought him a new bike last year with training wheels, and he learned how to ride early last summer.

Meltdown #2 is actually kind of a sad story. Brett, Quayd and I went on vacation to South Dakota in the summer of 2005. It was such a fun trip, but on our last evening there we went to the Alpine Slide overlooking Mt. Rushmore. (In case you don't know, an Alpine Slide is one of those big slides that you ride a little cart down a mountain. You have to take a ski lift to get to it.) Well the whole way up the ski lift, Quayd was saying how he was going to ride down the slide with mom. We got to the top and looked around. There was lots of little tourist things to do. When we finally decided to go back down the mountain, we headed for the slide line. There were 2 lines. One said, "single and experienced riders only," and the other said, "double and less-experienced riders." We were all in the appropriate line. At the last minute, Quayd decided to ride with his Dad. He ran over, hoped on with Brett, I got on my cart on my side and off we went. I sped up and got ahead of them at the very top so I could take pictures. As they were catching up to me, I could hear Quayd crying. I was SO bugged! I thought to myself, "Here we are, doing something so fun, just for him and he is crying!" I was like, "Quit being a baby Quayd!" Seriously, I was MAD! Then with my camera.. Snap Snap...
Errrrrrrr!!! Big bawl baby!

Well, as they passed me, Brett yells at me to quit yelling at Quayd because he was hurt. Oh. Oops. They had wrecked on the first turn and Quayd got a NASTY burn on his hand. It was AWFUL! He still has a heinous scar from it. We ended up taking him to the doctor when we got home and they told us it was a pretty serious burn that will probably require plastic surgery someday. Since he is growing so fast right now, it would be hard, besides it will be very painful. Brett ended up with scars too. It was a pretty crazy wreck. So I guess that was a justified meltdown. The next morning, as we were headed out of town, we stopped at Mt. Rushmore. Quayd had a huge bandage on his hand. So sad! He also had bumps and bruises all over his body.


I don't know why I blogged that on an entry about Quayd's meltdowns. It really just makes me look like a bigger jerk, huh. Sorry Quayd. It was really so sad. He gets all emotional just talking about it, still to this day.