Dec 12.

Its Dec. 12, less than two weeks to Christmas.  Im sitting here on the couch waiting for Jenna to go so sleep, but it could be quite awhile as she took a late Nap AGAIN today and last night it was almost 11 before she finally fell asleep.  Tonight is the Perigee for the Moon and its full so the Moon is spectacular and I want to get out and photograph it some but I cant till she goes to sleep.

Sam is snoring away so loudly its almost unbelievable.   I have my Christmas shopping done and I know its driving Yvette crazy with what is in the boxes I got her.  Work has been fairly slow the past few days and thats good, but I have to put out my Goals for the coming year and I have no idea what to shoot for.  

Its Coming

Chrismtas that is.   Tomorrow is the first of December.  I still have to do my Christmas shopping, but I will probably do most of that online.   I still don't know exactly what I am going to get for Yvette, but I need to think of something good.  I have the wish list to go by so I can find soemthing there.   Though i am hoping to think of something to come from my heart or that she hasn't thought of.   Its been a long weekend over Thanksgiving and tomorrow is back into the routine of work and school.   Then next week I have another short week as I have two days of vacation.  I had 5 days left for the year and needed to burn them up since they won't carry over and I won't get any payment for them. If I didn't use them then they would be gone. I also need to sit down with a 2009 calender and figure out what we are going to do for the year as I am supposed have my vacation scheduled for the entire year.

Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone.  I suppose I should give the traditional "What are you Thankful for" list.

First of all I am thankful to The Lord for all the blessings and grace he has shown our family and myself.  I am thanjkful for a wife who loves me, four healthy children, a house, a stable job, enough money to see that our needs are met and even most of our little wants.    I am thankful to live in a country that I can be free to say what is on my mind, to worship God and tohave a say in our governmental process.   

I know that we often minimize or even forget Thanksgiving in the headlong rush toward Christmas.  The actual event is overshadowed now by "Black Friday."  We need to make sure to take the time to really stop and thank the Lord for the blessings we have in our lives.  

 

Tuesday night

Sitting here in bed on a Tuesday night, not doing much other than some surfing and playing Stargate Wars.  Yvette is watching "Paris Hilton's BFF" and just taking it easy this evening.  Tomorrow is the day before Thanksgiving.  So far the past two weeks have been quiet at work for the most part and its nice to have time to breathe and think.

Christmas is approaching fast and I;m trying to finish getting the lights up on the house.  And as was mentioned, I need to get the front porch cleaned off.  I want to finish getting lights on the porch and the candy cane lights along the driveway.  I will make  sure to get pictures once its gets finished.  Also coming up is a spectacular conjuction of Venus, Jupiter and the moon, but I don't think I can get a picture from home. Too many tall trees. I may be able to get it from up on the roof.  But may have to find somewhere clear to the southwest to get what I want since it is only going to be around right after Sunset.

Thinking of Christmas I have to figure out what to get a certain person.   Gas is down below 1.70/gallon right now which is nice.   

Trying to think of what else to write about  but I don't want to rant anymore about politics or the economy right now.  I'm being told, blog about me, blog about the kids, or life.  

The kids started the thanksgiving break with an early release day today.  Its nice that I don't have to be up at 6:30 tomorrow morning.  I can sleep in for a little bit and snuggle.  Then on Thursday is Thanksgiving dinner with the family at my sister's place.   Monday is back to work, but then I get a couple of days vacation.  I had about 5 days I had to burn before the end of the year.   After that its normal work days till the 23rd when we are taking the kids up to Bryson City to do a "Polar Express" train ride.  Back to work for Christmas Eve and then off for the rest of the week.  I get the 29th and 30th, back for the 31st.  THen of course new years day off, but we are taking a mission trip so I start off the year with a vacation day, which is my birthday as well.

Of course I have a feeling that the slow reprieve we have had at work will be short lived.  The first of the year is always really busy with everyone cramming to finish year-end reporting and doing 1099 forms.

 

--not much

Not much to say tonight.  Sitting here waiting for the twins to go to sleep watching "Sword in the Stone"

Once they do will go join Yvette in our room for some quality time.  I'm glad its the weekend.  I hope its not too cold tomorrow, I'd like to try and get the lights up.

I know, I know

Its been forever since I blogged. 

Well the election is Over, and Obama is our president Elect.  Congratulations to him.  It is a historic moment in American history.  In some ways I feel it shouldn't be.  Don't get me wrong, this is not a racist statement.  But rather a comment on race and racism.  Yes we have moved great strides forward in race relations to get to the point where a black man can be elected.  But how much greater a comment on race relations would it be if race were not even mentioned or a factor on either side.  If we could truly be color-blind and not even think twice about it.  It seems to me that many of those who scream most loudly about racism are the same who keep pointing out race and racial issues.   To me, his race was a non-issue.  No portion of my decision to vote or not vote for him was based off his race.  I looked at his policies, his stated goals and formulated my decision from that.   

In other news, Congress is raking Paulson over the coals in what they see as, deception in the Bailout plan.  The stock market continues to plummet despite the re-assurances of the Federal Government and treasury department.  Japan has officially slid into recession and that sent stocks plummetting again.  One bright spot in all this is that the collapsing stock market has also cause the commodities futures market to take a serious dive as well and Oil has dropped below $60 a barrell.  This translates into gas below $2.00 a gallon around here.  As the price drops, hopefully this will offset some of the economic worries and encourage some consumer confidence.  Retailers are already cutting prices because of the economic slump and dropping gas and energy prices can only help.   However, I understand that some congressional democrats are proposing a massive federal Gas tax to get prices back up.  They are worried that with lower gas prices, consumers will start buying large SUV's and other vehicles with lower gas mileage.  And in fact since gas has come down there has been an increase in large vehicle sales.  But why is this a bad thing?  Because there is still a push to reduce CO2 emissions for global warming.    

Let me get this straight, our economy is in the dumps, and we need to encourage investments to get it going again.  So Obama proposes increasing capital gains taxes, which would stifle investment.  Not because there is a need for increased revenue, but to promote economic fairness.   Energy and gas prices are dropping, which could add to economic recovery on the consumer side, but because it might lead to buying big vehicles the government wants to increase gas taxes to make sure that it is painful to fill up at the pump. Once again reducing economic recovery.  

Anyway... enough ranting for now.

I will try to post again soon

at Great Big Sea

Not the best Shot, but we had a great time.   After the concert we hung out at the bus for a bit.  Didnt get to meet any of the band, but did get Andy (who works with them) to take some stuff on the bus and get it signed.

Monday Night

Its Monday, about the only quiet evening we will have this week, especially for Yvette.

The babies actually went to bed earlier than they have in awhile, mostly because we insisted on turning off the TV and not watching Blue's Clues for 30 times in a row!

They fussed for a while but calmed down and finally went to sleep.  Tomorrow night is the Great Big Sea concert that Yvette and I are going to, then Wednesday night is Yvette's favorite, New Kids on the Block.  The night after that is Cheetah Girls for Yvette and Stephanie and then Friday Night is Halloween.  Told you its going to be a long week.  I think by saturday we will be ready to stay in bed till Monday and not move!  Of course the kids probably won't let us do that.  Its starting to actually get chilly around here.  I forgot to get a jacket this morning when I left, but the jackets work got us (with the company logo) came in so I had something to warm to wear on the way home.  Gas is still going down in price, its 2.29 at the cheapest station I saw, 2.36-2.39 most everywhere else.  Let's hope it goes down further, below $2 per gallon would be nice.  And as I mentioned in another post it might help get the economy going again. If energy prices come down, then other prices can come down too and that will hopefully raise the consumer confidence and stimulate spending.  Since this is coming together with the first "payouts" from the bail out package it might turn things around.   The stock market is still taking a pummeling, but the dollar seems to be gaining strength in world markets.  

On the other hand, Obama seems poised to take the presidency and bring in super majorty in the senate with him.  Combine that with an increased majority in the house and just as this country gets its feet under it economically the Left will veer this country sharply socialist with the attendent economic stagnation that brings.  Look at Europe, they are moving quickly back toward capitalism after seeing the disaster socialism has brought, especially France.

McCain is trailing in the polls, but not by much and he could make a comeback.  I pray he does.  I have my strong disagreements with him, but I am much more worried about an obama and Democratic congress.

--coming up blank

Well, I know I should keep up with this better, probably going to be a short blog tonight. I can't think of anything much to write about, so I will just put down whatever randomness comes to mind.
Right now I am wishing My daughter would just fall asleep already. Its getting late and she is showing no signs of wanting to sleep. This is getting later and later every night. How can you FORCE a 2yr old to go to sleep?

Gas prices are on the way down. We are at 2.44/gallon locally. If we can get it back down to around 2/gallon then things will be much easier and maybe prices of everything else will ease off. Of course if that happens then people won't feel as pinched, maybe consumer confidence will rise and we can get the economy on a real positive note again.

THe alphabet song, twinkle twinkle little star, and "Ba Ba black sheep" all have the same tune.

I am concerned about the presidential election, but more so about congress than the presidency. Yes the president can influence his party to get his policy ideas into and through congress, but ultimately he is has little real domestic policy power. If the democrats get Congressional super majorities and the white house, we are in for some very serious times in this country. But then again I think that happens whenever any party maintains the control of the Executive and legislature. Afterall it was under the republicans this last time that the federal government doubled. Neither major candidate really supports cutting the size and scope of the federal government. Obama appears to be a Marxist, and McCain has a dubious record on really wanting to follow the constitution. Its a shame that 3rd party really isn't viable. It most often reduces the vote to "who one dislikes the least" instead of "who is right for the job."

I am looking into options for getting large prints of some of my better pictures. I created one that would have been about 36x27 inches I think and the framing options and everything brought it to almost $400 dollars (ack).

The one?

A friend asked me today, How did I know Yvette was "The One?"
Its a good question, one I should answer and always remember the answer too.
It wasn't immediate, there was no instant knowledge. But then of course, we didn't meet face to face for months after we first started communicating. First on the havens, then by phone, and letters. We had up and downs even while never having seen each other. Then finally we did meet face to face and spent about 3 weeks together before she had to go back home. I was pretty sure by then she was the one for me. If possible, I would have asked her to stay. As it was, it was almsot 2 more years before we got married.
Love is not a feeling, or perhaps its Far far more than a feeling.
Love isn't just happiness and rose petals. Love, real love, is staying there when you are so pissed off you can barely see straight and not disappearing. Love is giving yourself FOR the other person, not just to them.

1 Cor.13: 4-8

4 Love is patient. Love is kind. It does not want what belongs to others. It does not brag. It is not proud. 5 It is not rude. It does not look out for its own interests. It does not easily become angry. It does not keep track of other people's wrongs.

6 Love is not happy with evil. But it is full of joy when the truth is spoken. 7 It always protects. It always trusts. It always hopes. It never gives up.

8 Love never fails.


Now I pray that I can live up to that standard because sadly I fall far short far too often.
Yvette, I love you and how you have forgiven me so much just humbles me.