Just doing our part.........

  

Over the past year, I've had a strong feeling that I should get involved in local government.  After declaring our candidacy in March, my husband and I had the opportunity last night to wait in our local courthouse for the results to pour in from the polls. 

We were both on the ballot for Republican Committeeman & Committeewoman for our township.  We both ran against an incumbent.  My husband won with 61% of the votes, and I won with 57% of the votes.  This committeeman/woman position is not a paid position.  We decided to run for the position because we felt we owed it to our community, as conservative republicans, to stand up for the values we hold dear.  They are the family values that brought us back to our hometown to raise our children.  Five days before the election, my husband, kids, and I went door to door, on the hottest day temperatures reached 106 degrees.  I loved knocking on doors and meeting new people.  I am so blessed to live in this community!  I love being surrounded by wonderful friends and neighbors who support the values that we are trying to preserve for our children. 

I would encourage all who read this to get involved in your community!  You can make a difference!  We all are, or should be, looking for those with values, character, and integrity, to stand up!  I recently re-read Gordon B. Hinkley's book, "Standing for Something," and came to realize that we can influence our community for good by electing those who bring us together in a spirit of cooperation, encouragement, and courtesy. We need to bring civility to our local government, electing those who demonstrate basic human kindness, goodness, temperance, and display respect for others in every aspect of their daily lives.  In the book, he also shared, “When righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; but when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn,” Proverbs 29:2.  It was not an easy decision to declare our candidacy for these positions, but after much prayer and pondering, we knew it was time for us to serve. 

My husband was also on the ballot for county prosecutor.  He was unopposed and won the republican nomination!  He will be on the ballot again on November 2 for the general election.  Voter turn out for this election was an amazing 40%.  (Our state projected a 20% turn out.)  We are so grateful for all those who voted for us!  Thank you, thank you, thank you!

June 2010 Youth Fair

Reserve Champion Poultry!

Visiting with the poultry judge.

Getting ready to show all 9 chickens.

Goofing off in the arena.

Powder Puff Pinewood Derby

The "Rainbow Porcupine Car" designed by our 10 year old.  It won the "Artistic Flair" Award.

This is what you get when girls design cars. Thank goodness there wasn't a weigh-in, these cars would have been too heavy for boy scout standards. At least they are darn cute!

The "Evil Slug-bug Car" designed by our 9 year old.   Her car was really fast and she was awarded "Best Original Design."

The Derby was held on June 9th.  Daddy was a huge help in building these cars with his girls.

Coach's Pitch Baseball

Flying past 2nd base and on to 3rd.

Big Brother did a good job as 3rd base coach and encouraged his little brother to run to home base.

Sneaking under the bleachers with a new friend.  The little boy had a bag of M&M's to share and my little girl was smitten!  She quickly abandoned him when the candy ran out.  Girls are so fickle.

Our boy hit a nice line drive past the coach's foot.

WOW! We have a 9 year old!

She received Magic Rocks, Bakeable Clay, Mr. Doodle Face, paint, and a new outfit. 

We made an amazingly yummy chocolate chip cookie cake.

Daddy Daughter Olympics

On Wednesday June 2, my girls attended their first "Daddy Daughter Olympics" for their Girls Activity at  church.  My two girls & Cousin K. had a great time competing in events such as, paper plate discus throw, javelin straw toss, 3-legged race, and obstacle course relay.  Unfortunately, the water balloon finale was cancelled because of a lightning storm, but my girls were sent home with a bag of filled water balloons to attack their daddy with.

Onlookers were unimpressed by my husbands impromptu display of his P90X bulked up biceps. Notice he is the only one smiling. 

The girls were awarded with medals.

Some Happenings in May

Zonked out while playing with her toy fish bowl.

I had the chance to work a very interesting temporary part-time job. I enjoyed getting to meet all kinds of people and I got to be outside and walk around all day!  The perfect job for me.

Our cherry tree had the best crop ever, even though we forgot to prune the tree. We made an amazing cherry pie, some homemade cherry pie filling to go over my hubby's favorite birthday treat, cherrio cream pie, & canned several jars of cherries.

Someone discovered the pile of dirt that our neighbors had hauled in for their landscaping project and decided to enjoy it toddler style!

Fun & Feats of Strength

I am a little behind on blogging, thanks to a busy & fun-filled summer.  The photos below were taken on May 16th.
 

My innocent little 10 year old was playing a dress-up game on the computer.  Uncle J. was laughing at the "paper dolls" in their skivvies.

The pure joy of running through puddles.

Some friendly brotherly competition as these two raced to remove some old fence posts from my mom's yard.

 

Pictured above are the removed fence posts leaning against the tree and the toddler girls splashing in the puddles.  In the background is the shed/small barn that Uncle J. built for my mom.  It turned out really nice!

My little princess had to wear all of the necklaces while she played with her cousins.

This puddle of water was great fun for toddlers!

The Chordettes - Lollipop

My 2 year old daughter looooooves this song. I am posting it to my blog so I can find it quickly for her. She sings "Lollipop" day & night. "Whalallypop-whalallypop-boom-boom-boom!"

Twelve Days of Crazy!

(To the tune of "12 Days of Christmas)
Twelve year old starts weightlifting (for 7th gr. football)
Eleven people to call back
Ten year olds are moody (but, a huge help around the house)
Nine chickens clucking (in my backyard & fattening up for county youth fair)
Eight year old has birthday
Seven person family (can't fit in second car when van has no A/C)
Six(th) of June hubby's birthday
Five Little League games so far(our 12 year old)
Four kids sleeping in tree-house
Three kids too scared (to sleep all night in tree-house, thanks to big bro!)
Two mini-hamsters (to babysit all summer)
One coaches pitch game (our 6 yr old)..............

.................and toddler starts potty-training!!! 

UGH!.....and summer has just begun!

Eggsperiment

Our neighbor gave us 12 fertilized eggs.  Eleven of them hatched, born on April 27th.  We now have 9 chicks because 2 met their demise, death by toddler.  She loved them so much, and baby chicks just aren't big enough for "bear hugs."

They are growing really fast and they eat non-stop.

It will be a several more weeks before we know how many roosters and hens we have.

 

This breed is called "Rhode Island Red"  They lay brown eggs and will weigh about 5.5 lbs.  The kids are planning to show them in the youth fair in June.

Hillbilly Engineering at it's Best!

What do you get when you combine an old dishwasher, scrap landscape timbers, and chicken wire???

............a Deluxe Custom Designed Portable Chicken Coop & Lawn Fertilizer!!!

Critters

This little frog likes to jump on me when I open the shed door. He is the exact color of the shed and even when I look for him, I never see him until he jumps out at me. My daughter enjoys finding him over and over again.

The grouchy turtle! My husband found him on a road near our house and brought him home one day after work. The kids enjoyed him, but he kept hissing and trying to bite them. We sent him and his bad attitude back to the woods.

One of the nine baby chicks that we now have after getting eggs from a hatchery. She calls it Plumpy, because it's big. I will share the whole egg hatching story soon in another post.