Been a While...

So I did end up going to see Twilight last Friday... twice. lol. my friend just couldn't wait so she went and got us tickets to the friday morning showing as well. LOL. It was a pretty good movie. Of course things were changed some from the book, but I think it stuck to the spirit of the book pretty well. A few of the changes were a bit disappointing, especially the first time I watched the movie but I must say the second time watching it it was better cuz I just sat back and enjoyed the movie instead of critiquing it. lol.

We're now getting ready for Thanksgiving. We're headed up to my parent's house today and then we'll celebrate. We're considering going to Black Friday this year. I've never been before but I actually saw some things advertised this year that would be good. So, we'll see... Of course I could see myself spending too much money on "good deals" too so who knows.

Then we are headed home Saturday morning. Grandpa and Mindy will be moving some stuff in this weekend. Oh yeah, they are moving in with us for atleast a little while. Mindy just had her baby and she's going to look for a job around here so that will be good for her.

I'm going to try to convince Dennis that we need to go see Twilight on Saturday while we've got babysitters :) but who knows if I'll be able to talk him into it, he thinks since I've seen it twice he can wait until it comes out on DVD but I want to see it again, with him!

Well, I have a 2 year old that is having fun throwing fits right now (she was just hanging on my arm and it hurt of course so I made her get down and it didn't make her very happy) and of course she's crying so her sister is crying too. Well, a little rought housing fixed that. Nothing like picking on Charity to make her happy, lol. Here's to it hopefully being a good day!

Just so everyone isn't confused

I am no longer going to the midnight showing of twilight :( It turns out that we didn't have tickets but passes to get free tickets and of course, the theatres are sold out, but we got tickets for friday night so at least it won't be that long of a wait! A bit disappointed but oh well. Which reminds me, I still need to call my friend and update her on the tickets we got... better get on that!

Christmas Shopping

Amazingly, we are just about DONE with out christmas shopping! Normally, we haven't even started yet so this is pretty cool. Except that now i want to put up the tree and decorate for Christmas :)

Saturday we went into Salt Lake to do some Christmas shopping. The main thing we picked up I'm not allowed to talk about since it's for Christmas, but we also went to Toys "R" Us. I've never been there before, but WOW is that store FUN! They have all kinds of displays set up the kids can play with. We were there for around 2 1/2 hours and I think we only made it through 1/3 of the store! We were done at that point, or else we would have been there all day long, lol. They need an eating place like IKEA! But yeah, we still need to take Charity shopping for her to pick out presents for Dennis, Danielle and I and then a few more for family members and that's it. It's so nice to be just about done :)

Our marriage class that we've been going to is almost done as well, that will be nice when it's finished. It'll free up some time on Sundays. We've really enjoyed going to it but it's just eaten up the whole evenings since Church gets out at 4:30 and it starts at 5. Oh yeah, and we'll get a certificate when we're done :) Lol, I think I'm gonna put it in our anniversary book!

We love free stuff

Oprah, combined with snapfish is giving away free photo albums, except you pay for hsipping. Go here for details. It's only good until friday. I might just have to get in gear and go make one!

Update of all sorts

So, it's been a few days and what an eventful few days it has been!

Ok, first off (the good stuff)!!!! My friend Tiffany is the best EVER! She got us free tickets to the midnight showing of Twilight!!! (the girl's got connections!) So, her, Jennifer and I are going to get to go!!! I am so beyond excited!!! Yay! Yay! Yay!

Hmm, next, well Charity tried to scare me half to death yesterday. All 3 of us girls were in my room on the bed. Charity and Danielle were just playing while I was reading a book when all of a sudden Charity starts making gagging noises. Well, it seemed like forever but I'm sure it was only a few minutes when we finally got the quarter out of her. She's been into putting money in her mouth lately and I always make her take it out but I obviously wasn't paying enough attention cuz I had some quarters on my dresser. :( I don't think she intentionally tried to swallow it but was just sucking on it while eating some candy and down it went. She was able to make noise the whole time so I wasn't freaking out TOO much (if there is such a thing!). But we had a nice long talk afterwards about not putting things in our mouths, especially money and quarters. I just hoped she's learned her lesson so it doesn't EVER happen again... We'll see how long it takes Danielle to try that trick. *sigh* kids.

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Interpretation:
Hi from Danielle
Look I'm typing on the keyboard like mommy. Just like mommy I'm writing a message to all of you. Oh, look, i like the space key. Isn't it fun to push buttons? Oh, I just love playing with the keyboard. Hmm, which one should i push next. Ok, ALL of them! Yay! This is fun! Mommy is going to make me stop soon so bye I'll try to play again later!!!

Oh and Danielle ate a Ritz cracker last night! She's sneaky. We were playing Candy Land for Family Home Evening. Well, I had Danielle in the walker so she could play around us while we were playing. For our snack, I'd made us a cracker and cheese platter. I'd made sure to set it out of her reach cuz I didn't want her getting into them but Charity left one on the table! lol, and before we knew it Danielle was holding the cracker nibbling on it. She was making the funniest faces though she kept at it. Didn't even eat half the cracker before losing interest but it's got me excited to be starting her on food this weekend. I think I'm going to start with Peaches first but Dennis isn't sure about it cuz he thinks they might be too slippery. We shall see. (I'm saving sweet potatoes for thanksgiving :)

I'm getting excited for Christmas, I think we've got most of Charity's and Danielle's presents so that's really cool. I don't think I've EVER started Christmas shopping this early. Oh, and I got Laura something she will LOVE. (you can try to guess gamela, but I'm not telling!)

I've waited too long...

to try and get twilight tickets!!! Ahhh :( There aren't any left. Two friends and I just decided we wanted to go and it's too late... unless we want seats in the front row which, let's face it, just aren't worth it. So, it looks like I am going to have to wait at least until that next morning to get to see Twilight :( I'm bummed. Well, maybe I can figure out a way Dennis and I can go friday morning and then maybe my friends and I can go Saturday night or something. there aren't really any available friday night either :( Ahhh, the disappointments of procrastination!

Well, Obama has won.

And while I don't agree with him on a lot of the issues and I didn't vote for him. (of course I knew my choice wouldn't win, there just isn't a movement big enough yet to elect a president that's not a republican or a democrat) But, it is still nice that the craziness is over and we can get to the big task of uniting our country. Obama's speech was an inspiring speech, some of it aimed at that point. Well, I guess we'll see where the next 4 years take us...

So proud of myself

For the first time ever, I voted! I know, it's bad that I HAVEN'T voted before now but I finally went and did it! I am just so proud of myself. It was an adventure though. I thought I was registered to vote because I marked yes on that check box when I renewed my driver's license after we moved into the house but apparently it didn't go through or something so I had to do a provisional ballot and fill out the paper one instead of getting to use the machines :( But next time! lol.

The cute thing was that Charity on the way there talked about wanting to vote and she got an "I voted" sticker too. (She's quite proud of herself) On the way home I talked to her about tonight we'll see who wins the election and that we'll have a new President and she started getting all excited and told me she wants her present. lol, not quite what I meant but still a cute interpretation :) I know it won't be the "present" I voted for since I didn't vote democratic or republican but I still can't wait to see who win.

Oh, and for anyone that is wondering I voted Baldwin. He's with the constitution party and while I didn't agree with him on everything he's the one that was closest to what I believe in so... there ya have it. There were more issues to look at than just who was running for president and don't worry, I voted on those too. I'm still just so proud of myself for finally getting out and doing it!

All About the Issues

I know this is last minute and a little late for some but I'm still undecided and decided to compile a list of everyone and their stance on the issues to compare side by side. I figured I'd share, so here you go! I should have done this weeks ago!

It was really hard to find any specific issues addressed on McKinney's site so here's a link to the manifesto that is posted.

I hope this helps any of you out there who are still trying to decide! Here's a link that might also be handy to look through.

Marriage:
Barr/Root - States should be free to decide. more here
Nader/Gonzalez - couldn't find a statement
Baldwin/Castle - couldn't find a statment
Obama/Biden - couldn't find a statment
McCain/Palin - believes marriage is between one man and one woman but wants to leave any sort of legislation to the state level. see more here

Sactity of Life
Barr/Root - couldn't find any statement
Nader/Gonzalez - couldn't find any statement
Baldwin/Castle - wants to enact Dr. Ron Paul's sanctit of life act sets forth that every unborn child is a person under the constitution. see more here
Obama/Biden - supports roe v. wade, more on women's rights
McCain/Palin - wants to overturn Roe v. Wade and return the choice to the states, wants to promote adoption, see more here

Education & Homeschooling
Barr/Root - shift control from government to parents. more information
Nader/Gonzalez - believes there is an over emphasis on standardized testing. click here for more information
Baldwin/Castle - wants control of education returned to states, communities and parents. click here for more information
Obama/Biden - wants to reform no child left behind; wants voluntary, universal pre-school because wants to focus on education at younger levels; couldn't find a statement about homeschooling. more...
McCain/Palin - believes parents should have choices in which schools their children attend, more here, one more link I like about his plans for education

Health care
Barr/Root - encourage privitization. see more
Nader/Gonzalez - supports a single-payer health care plan. for more info
Baldwin/Castle - doctors and healt organizations need to answer to the people. for more information
Obama/Biden - reforms to the insurance system in America through regulation. see more
McCain/Palin - value of employer provided insurance shows up as additional income for employees but plans for a $5000 tax credit that off sets that and leaves consumer with more money, see more here

Social Security
Barr/Root - encourage privitization. click here for more info about this and other entitlement programs
Nader/Gonzalez - couldn't find a statement
Baldwin/Castle - couldn't find a statement
Obama/Biden - do not want to raise retirment age, against privitization, more about senior and social security
McCain/Palin - couldn't easily find a statement

Energy
Barr/Root - develop natural resources, for more info
Nader/Gonzalez - wants to focus on wind and solar power more here
Baldwin/Castle - couldn't find a statement
Obama/Biden - hybrid cars, 10% from renewable energy by 2012 more here
McCain/Palin - domestic oil, putting money into forms of renewable energy including nuclear, see more

Privacy and Security
Barr/Root - defend free societ and limit goverment scrutiny and access to people's. privacy. more info
Nader/Gonzalez - supports restoration of civil liberties and the repeal of the Patriot Act. more info
Baldwin/Castle - oppose any legislation or executive order that imposes on people's right set out by the 4th and 5th amendment. click here for more info
Obama/Biden - wants to strenghten the privacy and civil liberties board. for more info
McCain/Palin - couldn't find any specific statements to this

Iraq War
Barr/Root - withdrawal without undue delay. more info
Nader/Gonzalez - rapid withdrawal of troops from Iraq, targeted withdrawal of 6 months. more info
Baldwin/Castle - wants to begin the process of safely extracting our troops from Iraq. more info
Obama/Biden - redeploy combat brigades from Iraq within 16 months (summer of 2010), a residual force will remain to conduct target anti-terrorism missions and protect American diplomatic and civilian personnel. more info
McCain/Palin - leading advocate of the “surge” and the counterinsurgency strategy carried out by General David Petraeus. more info

Taxes
Barr/Root - reduce taxes, reform tax code, fairer and simpler, flat income tax. more info
Nader/Gonzalez - Fair Tax Where the Wealthiest and Corporations Pay their Share; Tax Wealth More than Work; Tax Activities We Dislike More than Necessities. more info
Baldwin/Castle - couldn't find a statment
Obama/Biden - middle class families will see their taxes cut, families making below $250,000 will see no tax increase, no family will pay higher tax rates than they would have in the 90s; more info
McCain/Palin - wants to keep tax rates low. more info

Border Security and Immigration
Barr/Root - borders never fully open, never fully closed; eliminate benefits for illegal immigrants, more than location of birth to determine citizenship. more info
Nader/Gonzalez - raise purchase power to level of 1968, enforce laws against employers, more info
Baldwin/Castle - secure borders, prosecute those who hire illegals, and cut off money supply to illegal. more info
Obama/Biden - make our borders secure, crack down on those who hire illegal immigrants, allow those already here in good standing to pay a fine and apply for citizenship. more info
McCain/Palin - secure our borders, set up program for undocumented to resolve their status, more info

Second Ammendment/Gun Control
Barr/Root - Government should not limit or regulate gun ownership. more info
Nader/Gonzalez - couldn't find a statement
Baldwin/Castle - uphold right of citizens to keep and bear arms. more info
Obama/Biden - couldn't find a statement
McCain/Palin - the right to bear arms is a fundamental right we have a duty to protect. more info

Foreign Policy
Barr/Root - America should not be world's policeman, bring troops home, "American foreign policy should emphasize swift, decisive and winning action against those who vowed would harm us. This means defense, not foreign intervention." more info
Nader/Gonzalez - doesn't say anything specific but talks about israel, tibet, and middle east. more info
Baldwin/Castle - close borders, quite meddling in other countries, wants to preserve an independant free nation. more info
Obama/Biden - willing to meet and talk to the leaders of any nation, increase diplomatic presence. more info
McCain/Palin - couldn't find any specific statements