Who would have thought that deactivating my Facebook page would be such a big deal? To those of you who enjoy reading about other people's lives as much I do - I'm sure you'll understand. I really don't think it's because I'm a busybody or I'm nosey...I just think it's fascinating to be able to know what is going on in someone's head and know what their day-to-day activities are.
It makes me sad that I won't be able to see pictures of their kids and/or see the updates of what is going on in their lives. I am quitting Facebook for a variety of reasons. My main one is that I need to focus on homeschooling the kids more. I find myself just itching to see who is doing what at any given moment. Not a good thing when in the middle of a math lesson. So, along with some other factors, I decided that this was as good a time as any. But it still doesn't help with the hurt I'm feeling over "losing" my friends. It is truly like breaking up.
As I was sending out messages letting my FB friends know that I was deactivating my account I actually got teary-eyed thinking I was probably going to lose touch with many of them.
Hopefully I will learn of many more blogs so that I can follow my friend's lives.
I'm hoping to get Christmas letters out in the next few days...better get to it now that I have more "free" time! :)
Monday, December 13, 2010
Friday, October 22, 2010
Christians who vote for pro-abortion candidates...
I had another big, long post written out and I've decided to nix it. I mean, at what point should I stop examining the hearts of people and let happen what is going to happen? Don't get me wrong - I am trying not to judge people. It's difficult though. My basic point in my whole thought process is this: How can a Christian vote for someone who is pro-abortion? I have always wondered it. But this election, we finally have a candidate for senate (Joe Miller) who is clearly the most conservative out of all three.
We have asked for people to step up and run for office and then when they do, (if they are conservative) they are picked apart. If they don't use the right credit cards, we'll hear about it on the 5, 6, and 10 o'clock news -- top story. Joe Miller has definitely not run the smoothest of campaigns and I'm sure he made some mistakes in his life he's not proud of. Haven't we all? Even little ol me has some skeletons I'd rather not tell the world. My opinion on Joe Miller is that the millions of dollars that have been spent to uncover his entire past amount to NOTHING!
I've seen Lisa Murkowski in action ever since she was in local government. I even thought then that she was too liberal to be a Republican. She is more of the same in Washington - wants to just print more money and then spend it. Borrow and spend...borrow and spend. She is listed on a pro-abortion website as being one of their top three pro-abortion republican woman senators they want to see re-elected. (http://www.thewishlist.org/LMurkowski.htm) That should tell a Christian person something. You might say I have no right to judge. I am merely questioning. I truly do not understand it.
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- Lisa voted to rescind the law which prevented US tax dollars from paying for abortions around the world (See S.Amdt 65 to H.R. 2, January 28, 2009)
- Lisa voted to affirm “Roe v. Wade” was a Constitutional right that applied to all citizens, including Alaskans (See S.Amdt. 260 to S. 3, March 12, 2003)
- Lisa voted multiple times to support taxpayer-funded abortions (and embryonic stem cell research) in the US (See S.Amdt. 3330 to S.Amdt. 3325 to H.R. 3043, October 18, 2007 S.Admst. 2708 to H.R. 2764, September 6, 2007 and Senate Bill 5, April 11, 2007)
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She is pro-amnesty/open borders, pro-cap and trade (cap and tax), she is part of the "global warming is man-made" cult, and I could go on.
Some say it's her seniority that they're voting for. Whatever. We don't even know if she'll retain it - that's still in question. And with the unions and other democrats supporting her, do you really think she'll stay as a Republican and, if she does, do you think she'll actually vote the way you would want her to?
I know I won't change the minds of people who have already made the decision, but I would ask those of you who are still on the fence to use your vote wisely. You can even leave it blank. Just please consider the unborn and the candidates who will do their best to save them.
NOTE: I moderate comments before they are published. Thank you for your thoughts. I appreciate all of them.
We have asked for people to step up and run for office and then when they do, (if they are conservative) they are picked apart. If they don't use the right credit cards, we'll hear about it on the 5, 6, and 10 o'clock news -- top story. Joe Miller has definitely not run the smoothest of campaigns and I'm sure he made some mistakes in his life he's not proud of. Haven't we all? Even little ol me has some skeletons I'd rather not tell the world. My opinion on Joe Miller is that the millions of dollars that have been spent to uncover his entire past amount to NOTHING!
I've seen Lisa Murkowski in action ever since she was in local government. I even thought then that she was too liberal to be a Republican. She is more of the same in Washington - wants to just print more money and then spend it. Borrow and spend...borrow and spend. She is listed on a pro-abortion website as being one of their top three pro-abortion republican woman senators they want to see re-elected. (http://www.thewishlist.org/LMurkowski.htm) That should tell a Christian person something. You might say I have no right to judge. I am merely questioning. I truly do not understand it.
-------------
- Lisa voted to rescind the law which prevented US tax dollars from paying for abortions around the world (See S.Amdt 65 to H.R. 2, January 28, 2009)
- Lisa voted to affirm “Roe v. Wade” was a Constitutional right that applied to all citizens, including Alaskans (See S.Amdt. 260 to S. 3, March 12, 2003)
- Lisa voted multiple times to support taxpayer-funded abortions (and embryonic stem cell research) in the US (See S.Amdt. 3330 to S.Amdt. 3325 to H.R. 3043, October 18, 2007 S.Admst. 2708 to H.R. 2764, September 6, 2007 and Senate Bill 5, April 11, 2007)
--------------
She is pro-amnesty/open borders, pro-cap and trade (cap and tax), she is part of the "global warming is man-made" cult, and I could go on.
Some say it's her seniority that they're voting for. Whatever. We don't even know if she'll retain it - that's still in question. And with the unions and other democrats supporting her, do you really think she'll stay as a Republican and, if she does, do you think she'll actually vote the way you would want her to?
I know I won't change the minds of people who have already made the decision, but I would ask those of you who are still on the fence to use your vote wisely. You can even leave it blank. Just please consider the unborn and the candidates who will do their best to save them.
NOTE: I moderate comments before they are published. Thank you for your thoughts. I appreciate all of them.
Sunday, September 26, 2010
A Surprise Hunting Season 2010
My idea of hunting season is Robert getting vacation from work for approximately two weeks from the end of August until about the 10th of September. Dad, Robert, and Little Robert usually head up to the Denali Highway (between Paxson and Cantwell) around August 30th, set up camp, and start hunting September 1st. Well, this year it turned out a little different.
Robert drew a caribou permit for the Tier I hunt. This was his first time to draw a permit so we were excited to get a chance for some yummy caribou meat. Caribou season opened August 10th and stays open for a while so we knew he had plenty of time to hunt for caribou when moose season opened September 1st.
A friend of my dad's came up to the house around August 16th and let dad in on a not-too-well-known secret. A judge had ordered Fish and Game to open up a special moose hunt from August 15-25. During normal hunting season it's legal to kill a moose with four brow tines, or a spike/fork, or one that has antlers wider than 50 inches. This hunt, however, was changed to three brow tines instead of four. So Dad decided he just had to go. Robert couldn't get off any earlier and there wasn't too many other people who could go on a moment's notice, so Yours Truly was the chosen one. Now, as much as I used to love hunting and still love the outdoors and fishing, I have become comfortable with the idea that I stay at home now and let the boys go out and do the killing. They hunt it; I cook it. I'm not sure if Dad would have gone alone. He says he wouldn't have, but he would have been really disappointed letting that hunt pass him by. So we left August 17th and headed up to Clearwater Creek. I drove the motorhome (a feat in itself), and Dad drove his truck and pulled the trailer with the four-wheelers. Just past Paxson we spotted a cow mooose, stopped to look at it, and saw some Ptarmigan. Ptarmigan are Alaska's state bird. They are pretty dumb chicken-like birds and just stood there while Little Robert got his .22 rifle out and shot three of them. He was so proud of himself and the picture I took of him shows it.
We hunted every morning from about 7 am until noon when it started getting really hot and the moose were bedding down for the day. We saw lots of caribou, but we didn't have Robert's permit (anyone in the family can shoot it), and Robert still wanted to come up during his time off to hunt. We saw a couple of bull moose but we weren't sure if they were legal. Finally, we saw three bull moose on Friday around noon. They were a ways away and we lost sight of them after watching them for a few minutes. We decided later that night to go back and just see how long it would take us to get to that spot so we could get up early Saturday and find them again. We ended up seeing one of them and just couldn't pass up the opportunity to shoot it since we saw it was legal. After Dad shot it he and Robert headed down to the spot where it was down and I looked behind me and saw another bull moose. It was so difficult to resist shooting it too - I could tell I had the "fever" right then!
The next couple of hours can only be described as traumatizing. LOL! We had to get the moose gutted since we would have to leave it at the kill sight overnight. My dad was on some new medicine that (we later found out) makes his heart rate slow down. He became really tired early on and so I had to do the gutting. Let me tell you that I have seen caribou dressed out, but never a moose. They are HUGE!! Waay bigger than caribou! I followed my dad's instructions and was so tired that, at one point when I accidentally poked a hole in the stomach and green stuff spewed all over my face and hair, I either had to laugh or sit down and cry. So we all laughed. Neither my dad nor my son can hear very well so I was very worried about bears this whole time too. It's difficult to gut/skin a moose while trying to listen for movement in the bushes at the same time.
The next morning we went back and it took us almost four hours to get the moose packed up. It was a lot of hard work, but a very good time with my dad.
When we got back to Anchorage my mom was very tired from having watched Cheyenne for five days. I said, "I don't even want to hear it...I've been inside of a moose!"
Robert, Little Robert, and Dad were able to go back up there the beginning of September and get a caribou. Right after they shot it they were approached by a AK State Trooper from Glennallen. He had a film crew with him from National Geographic. Turns out it was the same Trooper from a couple years ago when my Dad was fined after he shot from the road at a dummy moose that the Troopers had set up near Paxson. A good laugh was had by all and National Geographic interviewed them for a documentary they are doing which will be aired sometime in March. I'll post when we hear exactly when that will be shown. The Trooper tried to get Robert to join...who knows at this point? We're keeping our options open.
So that is our hunting story for this year. There's always more to the story, but that's all I'll share this year. Haha!! :)
Saturday, August 7, 2010
"No" new job update
A lot of people have been asking me lately about Robert's job situation. Even my parent's long-time mailman is curious. Well, there is not much to report.
Robert is still currently working for the US Post Office as a Transitional Employee - going on three years now. Transitional Employee (TE) basically means that he has no assigned route, works long hours (12 hours/day, 6 days/week), works at different stations, and gets no benefits whatsoever - other than the good pay. Equally frustrating is the fact that yesterday he found out that two TEs who were hired this past February are getting promoted to permanent full-time positions - because they are prior military. As much as I appreciate the fact that they have served our country, shouldn't the preference end once the job has been given? They applied for and received the position because of their military experience but once they have the job shouldn't seniority kick in and count for something? Poor Robert's blood pressure is through the roof now.
We have applications in with the US Customs for the Northern border (we are already through the application process and waiting for a position to open up), the US Border Patrol on the Southern border, and also the US Forest Service as a Law Enforcement Officer in Idaho or Montana. Just waiting to hear back from any of those agencies and we'll take whatever we can get.
So there it is in a nutshell. We are so thankful that we are able to stay in my parent's house and save up for the time when we do move. After the non-summer we've experienced this year it is proof-positive why we are wanting to leave Alaska. Of course, if Robert were given a permanent full-time position with the Post Office we would stay longer. Who knows???
We are in God's hands and whatever will be will be. It's actually very comforting to repeat that over and over and over....
Robert is still currently working for the US Post Office as a Transitional Employee - going on three years now. Transitional Employee (TE) basically means that he has no assigned route, works long hours (12 hours/day, 6 days/week), works at different stations, and gets no benefits whatsoever - other than the good pay. Equally frustrating is the fact that yesterday he found out that two TEs who were hired this past February are getting promoted to permanent full-time positions - because they are prior military. As much as I appreciate the fact that they have served our country, shouldn't the preference end once the job has been given? They applied for and received the position because of their military experience but once they have the job shouldn't seniority kick in and count for something? Poor Robert's blood pressure is through the roof now.
We have applications in with the US Customs for the Northern border (we are already through the application process and waiting for a position to open up), the US Border Patrol on the Southern border, and also the US Forest Service as a Law Enforcement Officer in Idaho or Montana. Just waiting to hear back from any of those agencies and we'll take whatever we can get.
So there it is in a nutshell. We are so thankful that we are able to stay in my parent's house and save up for the time when we do move. After the non-summer we've experienced this year it is proof-positive why we are wanting to leave Alaska. Of course, if Robert were given a permanent full-time position with the Post Office we would stay longer. Who knows???
We are in God's hands and whatever will be will be. It's actually very comforting to repeat that over and over and over....
Monday, July 12, 2010
Politically INcorrect
Okay. So I rarely feel the need to vent (to anyone but my family anyway), but today is an exception. We had an end-of-season dinner at a pizza place for my son, Robert, and his baseball team. The kids all sat together and the parents sat at another table. I was seated with one of the fathers. He is a nice guy and I know he was just intrigued by homeschool, but he started questioning our decision to homeschool and I left feeling a little flustered. I'm not frustrated that he asked the questions he asked, but I am frustrated that every time someone challenges me I go on the defensive instead of the offensive.
He started out by saying that there are a lot of teachers in his family and they have degrees and what makes me think I can teach my child without a degree. Yes. He said that. I know, I couldn't believe it either. Thing is, he didn't say it in a challenging tone - it was a very nice tone, if a tad condescending. I replied that we (Robert and I) have always thought that parents are the best teachers. He couldn't argue with that...and didn't. Then he went on to say that we should be sure and get Robert in competitive sports in school because kids need to know how to handle competition in the "real world." This led into the discussion on "socializing" our children and I assured him that we are teaching our children to be responsible, hard-working adults.
I told him that he would be surprised at how many public school teachers (and their spouses) homeschool their own children. When Robert was going into kindergarten and I was beginning to homeschool him, I even had the local kindergarten public school teacher urge me to not give up on homeschooling and to try for a few more months.
Anyway, this father later went on to tell me about his two homes, one of which is a 2500 square foot, 3-story home on Nancy Lake in Willow. He then asked me if I was a stay-at-home mom, to which I replied that I was and he said, "Oh, well then that's how you do it (meaning homeschool). It would be nice if we could do that too, but we just can't." I said, "Well of course you can't -- you have two houses to pay for. We could have "things" too, but we choose not to."
Anyway, some of this conversation might sound like it was very uncomfortable, but I assure you that it was not. It was a very nice exchange. It wasn't until I was home that I really started to think about how I handle challenges to my personal beliefs. I defend instead of going on the OFFensive. At one point he said, "I just don't understand why you would choose to homeschool." I wish I would have thrown it back and said, "Well I don't understand why you would choose public school." But that's not "politically correct" I guess.
He started out by saying that there are a lot of teachers in his family and they have degrees and what makes me think I can teach my child without a degree. Yes. He said that. I know, I couldn't believe it either. Thing is, he didn't say it in a challenging tone - it was a very nice tone, if a tad condescending. I replied that we (Robert and I) have always thought that parents are the best teachers. He couldn't argue with that...and didn't. Then he went on to say that we should be sure and get Robert in competitive sports in school because kids need to know how to handle competition in the "real world." This led into the discussion on "socializing" our children and I assured him that we are teaching our children to be responsible, hard-working adults.
I told him that he would be surprised at how many public school teachers (and their spouses) homeschool their own children. When Robert was going into kindergarten and I was beginning to homeschool him, I even had the local kindergarten public school teacher urge me to not give up on homeschooling and to try for a few more months.
Anyway, this father later went on to tell me about his two homes, one of which is a 2500 square foot, 3-story home on Nancy Lake in Willow. He then asked me if I was a stay-at-home mom, to which I replied that I was and he said, "Oh, well then that's how you do it (meaning homeschool). It would be nice if we could do that too, but we just can't." I said, "Well of course you can't -- you have two houses to pay for. We could have "things" too, but we choose not to."
Anyway, some of this conversation might sound like it was very uncomfortable, but I assure you that it was not. It was a very nice exchange. It wasn't until I was home that I really started to think about how I handle challenges to my personal beliefs. I defend instead of going on the OFFensive. At one point he said, "I just don't understand why you would choose to homeschool." I wish I would have thrown it back and said, "Well I don't understand why you would choose public school." But that's not "politically correct" I guess.
Saturday, July 10, 2010
My first post
I'd like to start this blog so that friends and family can keep up with our ever-changing lives...especially now that we are in a transition phase. Well, aren't we all, right? So I will be updating this as regularly as I am able. My mom really doesn't want me to start this as it will only mean more of my time taken, but I do have some free time. :)
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