What was I thinking??? Empty Girls Rooms

Bringing Stuff down from Upstairs

Freedom Room

Girls Bathroom - Done

Rebekah's former room

Angel's Room

Rebekah's Room - What in the world?

Angel's Room

Angel's Room

Angel's Room

Rebekah's Room - Star Stickers on the door

Empty Rebekah room

I wonder what I was thinking...letting you girls...do whatever you wanted with your rooms...(smile)

"SMITH" Relics

There are just some things...that need to be "remembered"...I am discovering those "relics" that are part of our SMITH HISTORY....Though, I just threw away...this TREASURE...I wanted to save it...at least in PICTURE form....(smile)

And So It Begins.....

Girls Side - Washer and Dryer - Gone

Dave and Jenny, now, have it in their apartment

Another Angle to Jenny's Room

Jenny's Room - L Shaped

Second half of her room

Jenny's Room - With light fixture

Jenny's Room - one side of it

Girls Hallway - No more picture

Area that Caleb stored his stuff - is now EMPTY...

I took BEFORE pictures....downstairs and garage areas...but, didn't do it UPSTAIRS....However, today, we EMPTIED our FIRST ROOM....and a couple of small areas....beginning UPSTAIRS....Later, I will do BEFORE and AFTER shots....of the downstairs/garage areas...but, tonight...just these few....REMEMBER WHEN....is starting to set in......(it was tough trying to get pictures of Jenny's "L" shaped room)

COMPASSION

Compassion is not something that can be learned, put on, or even prayed for. Compassion is produced through living out the daily sufferings and sacrifices of a life freely given to God. (The Light and The Glory - God's Plan for America, Vol 1, p.190)

Spiritual Progress

As the great English Puritan theologian Richard Baxter put it: "Man's fall was his turning from God to himself: and his regeneration consistith in the turning of him from himself to God. . . . [Hence,] self-denial and the love of God are all [one]. . . . . The very names of Self and Own, should sound in the watchful Christian's ears as very terrible, wakening words, that are next to the names of sin and Satan."

And Thomas Hooker, the most articulate of the New England Puritain ministers, spoke for all of them when he identified their primary adversary as not Satan but self. "Not what Self will, but what the Lord will!" declared Hooker. self was "the great snare" and "the false Christ," "a spider's web [spun] out of our bowels, the very figure or type of hell." . . . The Puritans did not need to be overly concerned with the devil; if they directed their energies toward Christ and against self, Satan would have little enough access to them. (The Light and The Glory - God's Plan for America, Vol 1, p.186)

Farewell "HERBAL Tea Party"

BEAUTIFUL Table setting

Mom "Coke - Me - Linda Evans

L to R: (Sitting) Mom "Coke" - Me - Grandma Lorna Strang

(Middle row): Lori Hunt; Cathy Garrett holding Adam's new son; Joanna Ebanks

Dorothy Aleshe; Lilia Heintzelman; Linda Evans; Gail Munck; Barbara Foster;

Mary Meerdink and Sandee Spencer

(Way in the back): Becky Rogers; Lynn Whitcomb; Dana Holladay; and Sara Lynn

I don't have to worry, now, that few people will show up to my funeral in MONTANA, since no one will know our family....because...I had the best "living " funeral I could have ever dreamt of and had the JOY of "physically" being able to attend...(smile) Cathy Garrett threw me an "HERBAL Tea Party"...with my SISTERS over the years...long and short...and we each got to reminisce our experiences together...It was WONDERFUL to remember how we each touch each other's lives...Isn't that what this "mortal" sojourn is all about? How well we LOVE each other...????

COVENANT

Covenant is a word almost never heard in American life today, for it speaks of a commitment to Christ and to one another that is deeper and more demanding than most of us are willing to make. As a consequence, most of us modern American Christians are of little use to God in the building of His Kingdom. For the building of that kingdom, as the Puritians demonstarted, requires total commitment. (The Light and The Glory - God's Plan for America, Vol 1, p.183)

Getting Ready to DRIVE in MONTANA!!!

2005

Jeep Grand Cherokee Laredo

4-wheel drive

Seagreen

Had over 46,000 miles on it

2003

FORD - F350

Gray - 4-wheel drive

Over 85,000 miles

8 cylinder

Well, we did it...Traded the VAN and Hyrum's/Jared's black truck for the following:

Papa's TRUCK and Mama's JEEP!!!! Got to love it!!!! Ready to take on our new life in MONTANA and hopefully handle DRIVING in the SNOW once again...(smile)

Eagle Scout

Not that I'm trying to attain the glory of men or anything, but just lettin everyone know that I just had my Eagle Board of Review last Thursday night. That means I'm now an Eagle Scout. This is just a simple announcement.

You Like?

Everyone okay with the changes? I like the little "Support Our Troops" picture I added on the side. Ain't it cute!

Congress shall make no law...abridging the freedom of speech...or the right of the people...to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

"When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation."
"...And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor."

Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the determination that something else is more important.
- Dalai Lama
"How many legs does a dog have if you call the tail a leg? Four. Calling a tail a leg doesn't make it a leg."
- Abraham Lincoln
"He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance; For cutting off our Trade with...parts of the world; For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent..."
- Declaration of Independence

Provide loans to Auto manufacturers, Banks, Insurance companies without consent; Commandeer 61% stock of General Motors; Fire a CEO of the private sector; Establish a government-controlled health care system and control/dictate the type of medical care citizens receive...
"I guess this is just another lost cause, Mr. Paine. All you people don't know about lost causes. Mr. Paine does. He said once they were the only causes worth fighting for. And he fought for them once, for the only reason any man ever fights for them; because of just one plain simple rule: 'Love thy neighbor.'... And you know that you fight for the lost causes harder than for any other. Yes, you even die for them."
- Jefferson Smith_Mr. Smith Goes to Washington

Replacing car plates
Becoming "Utards"
back yard

extra boookshelf
Office
Messy Office
our dresser
Joel's 90 year old Grandmother had this made for us.
Bed: Picture says: "Always Kiss Me Goodnight"
Bedroom
Potty
bathroom/laundry room
Ghetto Kitchen table
Kitchen
Living Room
Living Room
front door
back
Front

Calvin Coolidge - The Rest of the Story

Garvin put on our family blog the following quote:

"If all men are created equal, that is final. If they are endowed with inalienable rights, that is final. If governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, that is final. No advance, no progress can be made beyond these propositions." ~ Calvin Coolidge

I would like to extend this quote…by a piece written by President Ronald Reagan from his book “Stories in His Own Hand” – Pages 64-68:

President Calvin Coolidge, derided by many historians, was one of Reagan’s favorites. One of the first things Reagan did after he became president was to hand Coolidge’s portrait in a place of honor in the Roosevelt Room in the West Wing of the White House. This story explains why.

President Coolidge – Written: September 21, 1976
“The names of some presidents are invoked by spokemen of both of both political parties as “men for all season,” epitomizing the greatness of America, Washington, Lincoln, Jefferson, etc. Then there are presidents whose names are brought up in party circles, hailed as great but if acknowledged by the other party at all with not quite the same enthusiasm.

There are also two lists of presidential names---one for each party usually held up to view for strictly partisan purposes. Each party lists past presidents of the opposing party as examples of that party’s terrible record.

The Democrats for example get laughs by mentioning silent Cal Coolidge. And truth is many Republicans chuckle a little and go along with the idea that he was a “do nothing president”. Sometimes I wonder if he really was a “do nothing” or was he a little like a LIFEGUARD on the beach who also seems to be doing very little when there is no emergency. If you take a closer look he is quietly being watchful.

Cal Coolidge is good for laughs but not all of them are at his expense. There was the press conference where a persistent reporter asked the President if he had anything to say about Prohibition. Cal said “No.”--- “Any comments on the world court?” --- “No.” “What about the farm situation?” Again the answer was “No.” The reporter said, “You don’t seem to haven any comment about anything.” Coolidge said, “No comment and don’t quote me.”

Probably no president has ever lived in the White House and maintained so unchanged his previous lifestyle. Which in Coolidge’s case was the simple even frugal life he had lived on a New England farm.

Shortly after he became president he sent his teenage son into the tobacco fields to work in the summer as he always had. One of the other workers surprised at this said to the young Coolidge, “If my father were president I wouldn’t be out here working in the field.” Young Coolidge said, “If my father were your father you would.”

But while “Silent Cal” seemed to be doing nothing as President, the federal budget actually went down and so did the national debt. Consumer prices fell but unemployment stayed at the figure we only dream of---3 ½ percent, which means everyone who wanted a job had one. Federal taxes were cut four times.

The number of automobiles on our streets and highways tripled during his years in the White House and radio sales went up 1400 percent.

In just the five years from 1922 – 1927 the purchasing power of wages rose 10 percent. It was a kind of Golden Era, in other ways.

So what if he was a “do nothing” president. Do you suppose doing nothing had something to do with reducing the budget, reducing the debt and cutting taxes FOUR TIMES?”

We're dead!We're dead!We're Dead!(Name that movie!)

SOCIALISM: State ownership of the means of production

Judge approves plan to sell G.M.’s assets
Sale to new, government-backed company part of bankruptcy proceedings

By Michael J. de la Merced
New York Times Mon., July 6, 2009

A federal judge late on Sunday approved a plan by General Motors to sell its best assets to a new, government-backed company, a crucial step for the automaker to restructure and complete its trip through bankruptcy court. . .

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31754208/ns/business-the_new_york_times

FREEDOM!

"If all men are created equal, that is final. If they are endowed with inalienable rights, that is final. If governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, that is final. No advance, no progress can be made beyond these propositions." ~ Calvin Coolidge