Do you want to go to Juvy?

The kids (once again mostly Tanner) have been full of funnies lately.

• Tanner randomly asked Tayler when he was being disobedient, "Do you want to go to Juvy?" Seriously. I asked him what juvy was, and he looked at me like an idiot and informed me it's kid jail. OK, so he's using the reference correctly. Should I be proud of or concerned about my 6 year old?

• Tayler has been potty-training (his choice, not mine) and was so excited to see his poop in the toilet. "Look Mommy, poop fishies." Yeah, it was floating. We're very high class around here.

• Tanner was watching Tyson photoshop the last wedding he shot, and we asked him if the little girl in the picture was cute.

"No."
"So she's not your type?"
"Nope."
"So, what is your type?"
"More like Wii, Gameboy, and Xbox."

I can see him playing video games day in and day out at age 30 while living with me. Nice!

• I was trying to help Tanner realize his potential and was telling him he could do anything he set his mind to. He responded, "So if I set my mind to jumping on your head, I could do it. One day I'm going to jump on your head cuz my mind is set." We encourage lofty goals around here.
  

True Confessions

1 - I attended a political protest rally. Yes, I am one of those now. I even took my 2-year-old to join in the festivities. It was cool to be at the state capitol, exercising first amendment rights. Truthfully, though, I stayed way back, out of the news camera range. It was a cause I believe in, but I mostly went to support some good friends.

2 - I already have tickets to Twilight opening night at midnight, and I'm excited, even if it ends up sucking. I'm a geek. It doesn't take much to excite me.

3 - I bought the David Archuleta cd. He's just so cute, in an I'm-almost-old-enough-to-be-his-mother sort of way. Once again, I'm a geek. I'm fully aware of this.

4 - I still attract weirdos. I thought it would end when I was married and no longer "out there." Now I don't attract them to ask me out and stalk me, I just attract them to converse with me. Take, for example, my experience last week. I'm out to lunch with a friend, minding my own business. It comes time to get shoes on kids and leave (yes, it was fast food once again. Perhaps my choice of dining locations is partially to blame for the weirdos), and Tayler isn't so sure he wants to put on his shoes. As I put them on him, he's gently pushing my stomach, making his point. A random man runs over, grabs Tayler's hands, and starts sternly warning him not to hit his mother. Looking back, I should have told him to keep his hands off my child and left. He had less right to touch Tayler than Tayler had to touch me. But at the time, I was caught a little off-guard by the situation and just hurried faster to get the shoes on and leave. In the meantime, I was lectured about teaching children respect and the fact that all boys should be Scouts or they should be shot. Like I said, weirdo. Things like this happen to me on a regular basis. Am I the only one these things happen to? Do I look like I'm nice and want to talk? Because seriously, I'm not nice. I'm grumpy. And I really don't want to talk to you weirdos.

5 - I took Tayler out to run errands in his PJ's in the middle of the day. It gets better. He also was wearing unmatched shoes and I was completely aware of this when we left the house. He's going through a phase that he will only wear pajamas. I dress him, and two minutes later he's changed into pj's. I change him again, and the cycle repeats. I was tired of the fight. Same with the shoes. He lost one of his favorite Thomas the Tank Engine shoes, but he insisted on wearing the one remaining, so I gave in. At least he had on two shoes, right? Poor kid is definitely a third child.

On a More Serious Note

This election got me very interested in government. Not that I wasn't interested before, I just needed a refresher on the roots and foundation of our country. So I reread the Constitution and some thoughts of the founding fathers. I must say that instead of giving me hope, it was a little disheartening to see our country going in a direction that was warned against by those who founded it.

First, the thought that struck me first in reading the Constitution that had never stood out before was that it seems to be written as more of a protection for the people than a direction for a country. I was very taken by the lack of what the government can do and the excess of what it may not do. It seems that the founders of our country were determined to provide a protection for the people from the government. It seems today that our government (and a lot of the people for that matter) feels it is its responsibility to provide for and take care of the people. That does not appear to be the original intent. The intent was a country that was free from the interference of government in their day to day existence.

The second, most disconcerting, point that struck me was in the description of our nation by the founding fathers. Maybe it's just me, but do some of these quotes send cold chills up and down your spine?

John Adams: "Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."

James Madison: "To suppose that any form of government will secure liberty or happiness without any virtue in the people is a chimerical idea."

Benjamin Franklin: "Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters.

George Washington:

1- "Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens....And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education...reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle."

2- "Towards the preservation of your government...it is requisite...that you resist with care the spirit of innovation upon its principles, however specious the pretexts. One method of assault may be to effect, in the forms of the Constitution, alterations which will impair the energy of the system, and thus to undermine what cannot be directly overthrown."

In this day and age, the mention of God in government is nearly forbidden, but in the days of our founding, those who directed and established this country mentioned the Divine guidance that they received throughout the Revolution and the drafting of the Constitution. I could not find one piece of work from those original "politicians" (I hate that word. It doesn't seem to describe the great men of that time.) that denied the power of God in the establishment of our country.

Hopefully, we can return to the greatness of our nation, but I'm afraid that the path has already gone a different direction. We are becoming less religious, less virtuous, and less moral each day. I can only hope that our nation as a whole can learn from the greatness of the past and regain that decency that seems to be lost.

Happy Halloween

Halloween this year has seriously been weeks long around here. Or maybe it's only seemed like it. It started a while back with a church "fall festival" thing. I count it as Halloween. The kids had fun with the face-painting and other carnival-like games.

Next came a Mother-Daughter costume party for Activity Days girls, which, or course, I'm in charge of. I hate dressing up. That part wasn't my idea. We did a dinner with an "icky" menu like tapeworms and goblin mucous along with bat droppings and toe scabs. Everyone just had to order and get whatever they happened to choose. That part was fun. We had Tyson come and do posed pictures of all the girls with their moms, and that was also fun. The planning, set up and clean up, not so fun. Here's me and Kayla. I really go all out with costumes, as you'll notice. It was quite a stretch.

Next was the annual Halloween carnival for McKayla's school. It is seriously packed with people. I remember it being fun last year. This year, I was already telling the kids before we got inside that if Tyson hadn't decided to leave work and meet us there, we would be turning around. I was done before we started! It's a costume carnival, so the kids at least got to use there costumes more than once. Seriously, though, it's way too crowded. Not my favorite. I wonder why I remember it being so much fun. Oh, that's right, I didn't have a two year old last year :)

And finally, Halloween. We started with a breakfast of "pumpkin" pancakes.

We had dinner at Nana's house early before trick-or-treating and then rushed home for the main event. Tyson took the kids out while I stayed home and handed out the candy. You can't beat the 60 degree weather during trick-or-treating. Here's some pics of the real thing:

McKayla as Hannah Montana

Tanner as Indian Jones

Tayler as, well, a cowboy on a chicken

McKayla's, I mean Hannah's, nails:

Tayler and his future bride:

Grandpa as Hannah Montana (ooh, scary!) I warned him that if he put it on, I was taking a picture. I don't know if he knew it would end up here, though.

The pumpkins