My Pick

Well, after much thought, discussion and reading, I have decided that Mitt Romney is my favorite Republican pick. Due to Romney's faith, I know his chances of actually winning are fairly slim, but he is still my pick. As much as I would love to believe that Americans can separate a politician from his/her personal life, I just don't believe it's practical. For this reason as well as being pro-life, I have a very hard time voting for Giuliani. Don't get me wrong, I think Giuliani has credibility and has proven himself as a stellar leader, but I just have some issues with him. Sure, Romney is a Mormon, but I look at his success with his children and his faithfulness to his wife as well as his own track record with his business and 'saving the Salt Lake City Olympic Games' and think, why wouldn't this man be a stellar candidate? Well, he would, and that's why he's my first pick. Giuliani would come second, and either one would sure beat hearing Hillary's voice from the White House for the next several years. God help us.

Favorite things I like about Mitt (in no particular order):
1) I love the name Mitt.
2) He stands up for traditional values (marriage, life, etc.).
3) I like Mitt's hair.
4) He became a conservative governor in the bluest of the blue states where he had to deal with the over sized balloon, Kennedy, constantly nagging him.
5) He's been faithful to one wife (did you know she's had MS for several years?)
6) His children have all grown to be contributing, respectful and engaging citizens (none have gone to jail...)
7) He is an amazing business man. Look at his track record with Bain & Company as well as his own company, Bain Capital.
8) Hugh Hewitt likes him. Check out his book, A Mormon in the White House?

9) Conservative judicial nominations. 'Nough said.

I've had several friends point out that they think Romney is far too polished, and I would have to agree, but I also know that with politics comes a lot of being "polished." I worked for Senator Burns who certainly wasn't the most polished, but he was often looked down upon for not being more polished, so it's the old adage, "Darned if he does, darned if he doesn't." You know what I mean.

I love America!

A good reason...

OK gals, isn't this a PERFECT reason to stay home?? :) I love this little baby and can't wait to get home to be a bigger part of her life!

Family First

I was asked today if I thought being a 'stay-at-home-momma' was something I could enjoy doing. Absolutely. Ladies, what greater gift is there than to train little babies to grow up to be contributing citizens to this great country? I also don't think staying at home means a woman has to give up all her hopes, dreams or identity. I think getting to stay home with one's children is a gift, and it could also be a perfect time to start a little business. I have a few friends who are educated who have made the switch from career to being a momma. They have admitted to feeling a little depressed every now and again and question whether or not what they are doing is really important or making a difference, but I say "YES!!! You have the most important career any woman could have!" Staying at home with your babies is a season of life and doesn't mean you can't become a CEO someday or even the governor of NC (wink wink, H). My heroes are people that put family first. Thank God there are still a few folks that do this!

Done it again...

Well folks, Jill Phillips (www.jillphillips.com) has outdone herself again with her album, "Nobody's Got It All Together." I highly recommend her, as her words tend to penetrate the soul.

Random Thoughts Without Jack Handey

I decided to write down my own random "deep or in my case VERY random thoughts and questions" that I have had throughout the course of the past few days:

1) What the hoo haa is all this humming stuff about in Yoga? I mean, I love doing the exercise because it relaxes and tones me, but this humming is kind of strange... Aaaummmmm

2) My father is a mystery smothered in a conundrum wrapped in an enigma.

3) You mean it's a bad thing to ask a guy on the first date what his opinion of the situation
in Darfur is? Whoops.

4) Warm fizzes. Who doesn't love Laura Ingraham (http://www.lauraingraham.com/)?

5) Seriously, who farted?

6) Am I a naughty American because I don't like watching baseball?

7) Why are most guys my age so stupid? I really don't have anymore room underneath my
thumb...

8) Is it toxic to mix Spinach and soy? I have a tummy ache.

9) God, less of me. Less of my bad and sinful self.

10) There ain't no drugs on me. There ain't no drugs on me. There might be drugs on some of
you thugs but there ain't no drugs on me. Uh oh, I'm having flashbacks.

11) Come again? The 'human potential movement' wha..what?

My fav Jack Handy Deep Thought:
Probably the saddest thing you'll ever see is a mosquito sucking on a mummy. Forget it, little friend.

I shall have a post on Mitt Romney soon. Vaya con Dios.

This About Sums It Up

What July Fourth Means to Me
Ronald ReaganMonday, June 7, 2004
Editor's note: When he was president, Ronald Reagan wrote the following piece for Independence Day in 1981.
Aide Michael Deaver later wrote: "This 4th of July message is the President's own words and written initially in his own hand."

For one who was born and grew up in the small towns of the Midwest, there is a special kind of nostalgia about the Fourth of July. I remember it as a day almost as long-anticipated as Christmas. This was helped along by the appearance in store windows of all kinds of fireworks and colorful posters advertising them with vivid pictures. No later than the third of July – sometimes earlier – Dad would bring home what he felt he could afford to see go up in smoke and flame. We'd count and recount the number of firecrackers, display pieces and other things and go to bed determined to be up with the sun so as to offer the first, thunderous notice of the Fourth of July. I'm afraid we didn't give too much thought to the meaning of the day. And, yes, there were tragic accidents to mar it, resulting from careless handling of the fireworks. I'm sure we're better off today with fireworks largely handled by professionals. Yet there was a thrill never to be forgotten in seeing a tin can blown 30 feet in the air by a giant "cracker" – giant meaning it was about 4 inches long. But enough of nostalgia. Somewhere in our growing up we began to be aware of the meaning of days and with that awareness came the birth of patriotism. July Fourth is the birthday of our nation. I believed as a boy, and believe even more today, that it is the birthday of the greatest nation on earth. There is a legend about the day of our nation's birth in the little hall in Philadelphia, a day on which debate had raged for hours. The men gathered there were honorable men hard-pressed by a king who had flouted the very laws they were willing to obey. Even so, to sign the Declaration of Independence was such an irretrievable act that the walls resounded with the words "treason, the gallows, the headsman's axe," and the issue remained in doubt. The legend says that at that point a man rose and spoke. He is described as not a young man, but one who had to summon all his energy for an impassioned plea. He cited the grievances that had brought them to this moment and finally, his voice falling, he said, "They may turn every tree into a gallows, every hole into a grave, and yet the words of that parchment can never die. To the mechanic in the workshop, they will speak hope; to the slave in the mines, freedom. Sign that parchment. Sign if the next moment the noose is around your neck, for that parchment will be the textbook of freedom, the Bible of the rights of man forever." He fell back exhausted. The 56 delegates, swept up by his eloquence, rushed forward and signed that document destined to be as immortal as a work of man can be. When they turned to thank him for his timely oratory, he was not to be found, nor could any be found who knew who he was or how he had come in or gone out through the locked and guarded doors. Well, that is the legend. But we do know for certain that 56 men, a little band so unique we have never seen their like since, had pledged their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor. Some gave their lives in the war that followed, most gave their fortunes, and all preserved their sacred honor. What manner of men were they? Twenty-four were lawyers and jurists, 11 were merchants and tradesmen, and nine were farmers. They were soft-spoken men of means and education; they were not an unwashed rabble. They had achieved security but valued freedom more. Their stories have not been told nearly enough. John Hart was driven from the side of his desperately ill wife. For more than a year he lived in the forest and in caves before he returned to find his wife dead, his children vanished, his property destroyed. He died of exhaustion and a broken heart. Carter Braxton of Virginia lost all his ships, sold his home to pay his debts, and died in rags. And so it was with Ellery, Clymer, Hall, Walton, Gwinnett, Rutledge, Morris, Livingston and Middleton. Nelson personally urged Washington to fire on his home and destroy it when it became the headquarters for General Cornwallis. Nelson died bankrupt. But they sired a nation that grew from sea to shining sea. Five million farms, quiet villages, cities that never sleep, 3 million square miles of forest, field, mountain and desert, 227 million people with a pedigree that includes the bloodlines of all the world. In recent years, however, I've come to think of that day as more than just the birthday of a nation. It also commemorates the only true philosophical revolution in all history. Oh, there have been revolutions before and since ours. But those revolutions simply exchanged one set of rules for another. Ours was a revolution that changed the very concept of government. Let the Fourth of July always be a reminder that here in this land, for the first time, it was decided that man is born with certain God-given rights; that government is only a convenience created and managed by the people, with no powers of its own except those voluntarily granted to it by the people. We sometimes forget that great truth, and we never should. Happy Fourth of July. Ronald Reagan President of the United States