FINALLY, WE ARE FAMOUS.......

When Sam and I first moved back to NE in 1997 we decided to try and visit every town in the state. We can't exactly remember why but we think it was for three reasons:

1. We had heard about someone doing something similar to this in MN and thought it was cool.

2. Unlike most transplants who live here or people who drive across in the middle of the night, we happen to think NE has some beautiful scenery and some really cool little towns in it.

3. It was something to do to re-familiarize ourselves with the state after having been gone for a few years.

There are rules to our little adventure:

1. We have to be there together (Sam and I).

2. We have to actually spend time in the town either by buying something from the local store, exploring a historic sight, or by playing on the playground (This one is new since we had kids. No we didn't do much of that before kids.)

3. We have to take a picture of something that has the name of the town on it.

4. We will end our big adventure in a town called Parks (in the southwest corner of NE) for symbolic reasons of course and provided the town is still there by the time we get to it.

So on our way to our tanking trip, we spent one day visiting towns. We actually hit our 200th town that day. Who knew there are over 700 towns in NE? Anyway on that day we stopped in a little town called Nickerson. It is kind of close to Fremont. Sam was taking a picture of us by the town sign and all of sudden we hear someone yelling, "Hey, exactly who among you is a big fan of Ramon Janssen?" (As you can see by the picture Nickerson is his home.) We turned around to see someone else with a big camera headed our way. Come to find out he is a reporter from the Fremont Tribune who is visiting every town in Dodge County. He actually walks through each town to see what he can see, who is friendly etc. He was quite interested in our story but he didn't know if he could fit us into his article. Well, he did and here is a link if you are interested. He even has a picture too.

http://www.fremonttribune.com/articles/2008/09/15/news/local/doc48ce7911a077b673655592.txt

Definitely the most exciting thing that has happened to us on our quest so far. Well I guess there was the one time when my sister was almost picked up by the town drunk but I'll save that for another post.......

P.S. No, I'm not pregnant. I think my shirt just got caught on my fat roll!

P.S.S. If you think that picture is bad just be happy that the reporter didn't take a picture of me playing tether ball in the Nickerson park. Now that would be scary!!

WHEN IS THIS OVER???

I'm so tired of listening to all the debate and the cliches that are coming out of each of the political party's mouthpieces. But I am particularly annoyed by hearing the following from three different people today. It is so obvious that it is not an original line but rather one that willing accomplices seem to have latched onto and are spreading like a bad rash.

"Jesus was a community organizer. Pontius Pilate was a governor."

Oh please give me a break here. One of the people I heard saying it was Susan Sarandon. Like I would ever take political advice from her anyway.

I don't know how you feel, but the Jesus I love and serve doesn't fit into any job description and can't be described by definitions that we try to assign to make ourselves feel better or use for political advantage (i.e. community organizer, liberal, or even conservative).

9/11

Just spent the last two hours watching actual footage from different, amateurs who were shooting in NYC the morning of 9/11. I feel like I've been through the wringer so I can't even imagine the horror those people who were there experienced or witnessed. The confusion and trauma, just so overwhelming........ 7 years seems like along time in some ways but when you are grieving 7 years is barely a drop in the bucket. The pain is still very real. Those families that lost loved ones still need our prayers.

Makes one stop and think and I'm just throwing this out there, not endorsing. Can our country afford to have someone as president who thinks that Iran is a small country, small problem to deal with? Can we afford to have someone as president who is going to negotiate with Al Qaeda and other terrorists? Can we afford to have someone as president who thinks that Russia and China are countries "who have it going on"?

Back to 9/11. That entire day I was obsessed with making sure we had milk. It was a very strange coping mechanism. That was shortly after I quit my full-time job so I was already going through a major life change not to mention that I didn't sleep for about 50 hours straight because I was so engrossed in the coverage. Even when I did sleep, I would dream that the trade center rescuers had found someone alive only to wake up and be so disappointed to find out it was just a dream. It was definitely a horrible day but one we can't afford to forget.

1st Day of Preschool

He was very excited to be going..........

me, not so excited to have him go. :-(