AWESOME QUOTE

From William Boetcker (1873-1962)

• You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.
• You cannot help small men by tearing down big men.
• You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich.
• You cannot lift the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer.
• You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than your income.
• You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatreds.
• You cannot establish security on borrowed money.
• You cannot build character and courage by taking away a man's initiative and independence.
• You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves.

--William J. H. Boetcker in 1916

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

SCARY TIMES.......

A plumber dares to question the "great" B.O. and he is harassed, investigated and humiliated.

A reporter dares to question the "great" BIDEN and she is cut off, threatened and shut out of further interviews. Not to mention the fact that her husband has also been subjected to scrutiny.

The three major newspapers who endorsed McCain have been asked to leave the B.O. plane for daring to have a different opinion.

What does this say about the future of free speech in this country if we all have B.O. for the next four years? Will everyone who speaks against him be singled out, investigated, and silenced??? OR will all the media fall in line with him (kind of like they have already done during this election cycle) so the American people will never know the truth about anything? What does this say about religious freedom? If we don't agree with his "christian" beliefs will we also be silenced?

For once I find this Halloween very scary............................

THE WEDDING

Ever since she was born, I have always hoped Claremarie would get asked to be in a wedding. In fact, Sam would say I have been obsessing about it. (I'm not sure what he means unless it has something to do with the fact that I have humiliated myself by asking two near strangers if they needed a flower girl for their weddings?!)

A couple of summers ago my awesome cousin Natalie took pity on me and promised that she would have Claremarie in her wedding if she got married. I thought that was so sweet of her considering the fact that she has 6 nieces of her own. Well, Natalie got engaged last Christmas and married on Oct. 11 (for complete wedding coverage go here) and true to her word, she asked Claremarie to be a candlelighter. Yeah!! I was so excited. Claremarie was excited too but this was really more my dream than hers I guess. I'm not sure why it was so important to me other than I got to be in several weddings when I was little and always think back on that fondly or maybe it was more about wanting to see my little girl dressed up like a princess in a fairy tale setting. Probably a little of both.

Anyway, thanks Natalie (and Cody) for making one mom's dream come true. I promise to stop harassing strangers about having Claremarie in their wedding. Now I just have to work on getting Camden into one!! Anyone need a ringbearer???

THE VISITOR

Tonight the doorbell rang and I went to answer it and the man said, "Hi, I'm from the Obama campaign for change and hope and I would like to talk to Sam Park." I opened my mouth to say, "Oh, what is BO going to change other than make America into a socialist nation?" but then thought the better of it and just said, "Sam's not here." Sam was so disappointed in me. Oh well. It didn't seem worth it and judging by the short amount of time he spent on our street he wasn't finding many willing listeners.

We are off for the weekend (to my cousin's wedding-Yeah, Claremarie gets to be in it!! More about that when we get back.) and some of the week for a little mini vacation. I'm looking forward to being "unplugged" for a few days so that means no computer (I'm going to miss that especially facebook. For some reason Sam doesn't think Facebook is enough to warrant me needing a laptop!) and no news (I will not miss this!). To those I owe e-mails to I'm sorry I will hook up with you when I get back and to those who desperately need to reach me try my cell.

Have a great week!

A ROUGH FALL

Between politics and the Huskers, it has been a rough fall around here.

As far as the Huskers go it looks like it is going to be awhile before we are back. Last night as we were leaving the game (at the end of the 3rd quarter, which we have never done before), Sam said, "We should have known our defense isn't that good when a running back who has never played defense can switch positions, start for our team, and be one of the best players." I guess we will just have to suffer through this year and hope for better days ahead. My problem is trying not to buy into Sam's ever-optimistic view that we are always going to win. He always gets me to thinking that it is possible even when I, as a realist, know that it isn't!!


As far as politics go, I'm trying to support McCain but I just feel no excitement for him whatsoever. If I didn't honestly believe that electing a snake-charmer like B.O. is so dangerous to the future of our country I don't think I would even vote this year. I feel like this bumper sticker so aptly says how I'm feeling and I'll apologize in advance to those of you who this will offend.

We're Screwed 2008