Happy Birthday Justin!

Today is my 28th anniversary of becoming a Mom. Which means today is Justin's birthday. I taught him a couple of things and he taught me a boatload of stuff. I'd like to thank him for becoming an Eagle Scout, serving a mission, marrying in the Temple, graduating from college, falling in love with his child and wanting to spend time with the family. I'd like to thank him for the big brother he has become. He has made those decisions easier for everyone else.

Here's to many more birthdays and time spent together. I love you Justin.

Time flies

Today is my baby girl's 12th birthday. She will hate me for this picture but it is so. . . . .so Baywatch. (You know, every mother's dream for their daughter.) She has looked older than her age for awhile. This picture was taken last year in Hawaii, when her surfing instructor asked her if she was in high school, when she was still 10 years old and in the 5th grade!

Emily is a great kid, straight A student, piano playing, dance studio gym rat.

She hates riding her bike but loves these rollerblades. Here's to broken arms. Put your helmet on.

April 19, 1995

Fourteen years ago today, I spent the day packing my bags for my first trip to Oklahoma. Lonny had been asked to transfer to Tulsa and his company sent us out here to decide if we could live here. We had our doubts. Five years earlier a job in Tulsa had been offered and immediately turned down. The television was on as I prepared to leave my children with my parents for a few days. And the only thing that was on the TV that day was the OK City bombing. I had a million reasons to not want to live in OK and now I had another. We arrived here the following day. Tulsa is 90 miles from OK City but the bombing was on everyone's mind. Each store and restaurant we visited had a jar collecting money for the victims and their families. It didn't take long to realize that Oklahoman's are compassionate, they were grieving for their neighbors. The people in OK won me over.

Today in our newspaper I read the following, taken from an article by Julie DelCour: "On April 19, 1995, 19 children perished in the Oklahoma City bombing. Another 213 children were victims themselves or sons and daughter of those killed or injured.
. . .many survivors helped [with] an outpouring of donations. The large and small checks, the jars of pennies, the $1 and $5 bills stuffed in envelopes, came from everywhere.
So generous were contributions to the Oklahoma Disaster Relief Fund that a separate Survivor's Education Fund was established to aid children eligible for assistance once they reached college age.
From enormous tragedy has come enormous promise.
Thanks to the scholarship fund, 154 students have attended one or more semesters of post-secondary education. Another 31 still are in secondary schools and have not yet aged into the scholarship program. Seventy nine have completed one or more degrees or certifications and 27 have earned graduate degrees. Three became lawyers, two veterinarians and two are pharmacists.
A handful of children who were inside the day care that fateful morning sustained severe injuries but defied the odds and survived.
One of them is in college. That outcome should remind us that even in the wake of unbearable and inexplicable evil we should never underestimate the power of the human heart to come forth with unbounded good."

For the first couple of years I lived in Oklahoma I would get asked if I had ever thought I would live in OK? I always felt bad about my answer because it was that I had never thought about OK, period. And yet here I am, fourteen years later, surrounded by some really amazing people. They are generous and should be really proud of what that generosity has accomplished.

Who did we use to laugh at?

It's been a long two years?

Eric got one of these Little Tike cars for his second or third birthday. Geoff was mad then that the car belonged to Eric and not him. It looks like he still wants one of these beauties.

Kirsten is angelic, the wing span ridiculous.

Emily was supposed to get this picture while he was in mid-air, and she did, except his religion was showing. Which may leave you wondering why is he jumping off the wall in a blizzard while wearing shorts and a t-shirt anyway?

Kirsten and Colton are trying to be polite but is the crazy uncle back from his mission or straight out of an institution?

Happy Birthday Kirsten and Colton too!

Today is Kirsten's 4th birthday. Try to ignore the guy in the background (more about him later) and look how cute she is in her dress and shoes from Gwandma and Papa.

We spent the weekend in Midland for Easter and Colton's first birthday. Kirsten and Colton have both celebrated their first birthday on Easter Sunday. Is there a mathematician out there who can figure out the odds of that happening? (Eric? Geoff? Annalee? anyone?)

Pay your taxes!

Just a gentle reminder for our elected officials. (courtesy of Tulsa World)

I think I have missed at least 17 blog worthy moments in the recent past so stay tuned. It doesn't help that my camera is broken, Emily's camera battery is dead and her flashdrive was missing but all is well now.

If you are interested in tea today perhaps the following will put you over the edge. It was taken from the Neil Boortz show. I found it amusing and annoying at the same time.

Dear American liberals, leftists, social progressives, socialists, Marxists and Obama supporters,

We’ve stuck together since the late 1950s, but the whole of this latest election process has made me realize that I want a divorce. I know that we tolerated each other for many years for the sake of future generations, but sadly this relationship has run its course. Our two ideological sides of America cannot and just will not ever agree on what’s right. So let’s just end it right now while we can do it on friendly terms. We can smile, shake hands, chalk it up to irreconcilable differences and each go our own way.

So here’s a model separation agreement.

Our two groups can equitably divide up the country by land mass, each taking a portion. That’s going to be the difficult part, but I’m sure our two sides can come to a friendly agreement. After that, it should be relatively easy. Our respective representatives can effortlessly divide other assets since both sides have such distinct and disparate taste. We don’t like redistributive taxes so you can have those. You are welcome to the liberal judges and the ACLU. And since you hate guns and you hate war, we’ll take the firearms, the cops, the NRA and the military. You can keep Oprah, Michael Moore and Rosie O’Donnell. But you are going to be responsible for finding a biodiesel vehicle big enough to haul them around.

We’ll keep the capitalism, the greedy corporations, the pharmaceutical companies; we will keep Wal-Mart and Wall Street. You can have the homeless, the homeboys, the hippies and illegal aliens. We will keep the hot Alaskan hockey moms, the greedy CEOS and all of the rednecks. We’ll keep the Bibles and we’ll let you have NBC and Hollywood.

You can be nice to Iran and Palestine and we’ll retain the right to invade and hammer anybody that threatens us. You can have the peaceniks and the war protesters. When our allies or our way of life are under assault, we will provide them with security. You won’t have to worry about it. We will keep our Judeo-Christian values. You are welcome to Islam, Scientology, Humanism and Shirley Maclaine. You can also have the UN, but we will no longer pay the bill.

We will keep the SUVs, the pickup trucks and the oversize luxury cars. You can have the compacts, the subcompacts and every Subaru station wagon you can find. You can give everybody healthcare, if you can find any practicing doctors. We will continue to believe that healthcare is a privilege and not a right. We will keep “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” and the national anthem, and I am sure you will be happy to substitute in their place “Imagine.” I’d like to teach the world to sing “Kumbaya” or “We are the world.” We will practice trickle-down economics and you can give trickle-up poverty your best shot. And since it so offends you, we will keep our history, our name and our flag.

Would you agree to this? If so, please pass it along other like-minded liberal and conservative patriots. And if you do not agree, just hit delete. In the friendly spirit of parting, I’ll bet you ANWAR which one of us will need whose help in about 15 years.

Sincerely,

John J Wall

Law student and an American

P.S. You can also have Barbara Streisand and Jane Fonda

Can you see me now?

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Colton learned how to climb the stairs while he stayed at our house. It was just so tempting and oh so simple. It looks like his mom is watching . . . but is she really?