Patriotism

My niece wrote this, and I thought it was very insightful, and wanted to share it hear:-) She makes a lot of sense:-)

Patriotism--Love of country and willingness to sacrifice for it.-

Word Web

What do you think of when you hear patriotism? Maybe you think of people throughout history that loved America; people like George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. Or maybe you have a patriotic hero from history that not everyone has heard of, but who loved their country, literally, to death. Perhaps it is someone that's lived during your lifetime, like Ronald Reagan. Have you ever looked around, though, and seen many people showing patriotism today? It's getting more rare, folks. Patriotism is disappearing. One of the reasons patriotism is disappearing is because... well, let's just put it this way: America's getting worse. What do I mean by that? It seems like crimes are increasing and getting worse, people don't care about laws, and most importantly, people don't care about each other, which is probably the root cause for not caring about laws. Of course, there are some laws, such as abortion, that people don't agree with, and for a good reason. When you just live your life, not caring about others or what you do, that's going to start impacting people everywhere you go. If you look back to WWI and WWII, people did care about others, they worked like crazy to show it and make a difference. Today, people are starting to get lazy; starting to take America for granted. Back when America was a bunch of people with goals, hard work, and love for her and her people, we were a great country. What can you do? Stop taking America for granted, work hard and show you care.Another reason patriotism is disappearing is because kids aren't taught to respect their country in school, so if they're parents don't teach them, they're not going to care at all. Kids, even though they might have told you that it was in school, freedom is not burning the flag to protest.A third reason is because we are forgetting God. I don't care what you say, our nation was build on Biblical ideas and principles. I once heard a quote by a Frenchman who came to America in the 18th century, wondering why our democracy worked so much better than France's. He basically said, "America works because it is good". America was founded on Christian principles and should continue to be. Now there are those people out there that try and convince you that America shouldn't be Christian because of "The separation of church and state." "You know guys, it says in the first amendment of the Constitution..." Guess what? The first amendment says "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances." OK, now tell me where it says that the government can't have Christian based ideas. Tell me where it says that we can't have anything that mentions God in public schools. Oh no, it doesn't! America is somewhat mixed up in a way, people are becoming lazy and uncaring. They are forgetting what America is and what it stands for. But deep down inside, I think everyone still has a little bit of patriotism, and they just need to find it and show it to the world. Not just when something bad happens to bring us all together, do it now. Don't say America is great, show that America is great. It's not great because we say so, it's great because we do so. It's the people and their freedom, not the government, not the powerful military, it's the people.

AT LONG LAST.....

.....WE HAVE OUR TRAILER!!!! It has been two years in the making, but we finally got it:-) Thom and Nic left on Sunday and they got home late last night. For those who do not know. Thom's mom and dad live in Arizona, they are retired and travel around in a camper trailer. They bought a new trailer 2 YEARS ago, and they decided they wanted to give us their old one, instead of trading it in. But it has been a trial for the last 2 years trying to get up there and get it. Now it is an older trailer, but in very good shape. My mother-in-law, God bless her wonderful soul, we love her so much, she is a little insane:-) She still has all the owner manuals that came with it, and there is plastic from day one on all the appliances, flooring and furniture. This is just the way she is. So while the colors are old and nasty(oranges and browns, you know old school), it is in fairly good condition. And heck it was free. Well except the money to get to it in Arizona, and now the money to fix my mom's truck (apparently while Thom was gone with her truck, he had to take her truck cause our van to pull it is broken down, apparently her truck got a few scratches on it, which we will of course pay to have fixed, don't know how they got there, but we are definitely paying to fix it. So not totally free, but still a couple grand on a 28 foot trailer, not too bad. The kids are going to have blast camping next year! We can not wait to go out, we are all so excited. And this also means we get to take our long-time trip in the making up to Washington to see my family up there, WAHOO!! SO excited for that! Thom had a real god time catching up with his dad, and Nic loved meeting his grandparents. Due to their ill health, they do not get out as much as they want, or used to, and we have not been financially in the position to go vist them, and it has been 7 years since we have sen them. They have never met, Rylie, Nic, or Will, and only saw Kayla when she was a week old, so kaiden was what? 2 years old. This was a much overdue trip. And with the use of our new trailer, we hope to never go that long without seeing them again:-) Here are some pictures from Thom and Nic's trip. Also this winter/spring we will be refurbishing the trailer(you know into more modern colors and stuff) so I will post pictures at that time, of the trailer.

NIC SO CUTE!!!

NIC AND GRANDPA TOBIN

GRANDMA AND GRANDPA TOBIN

DON'T KNOW WHAT THEY ARE DOING, BUT THEY ARE CUTE:-)

THIS IS WHERE THEY ARE STAYING RIGHT NOW, IT IS BEAUTIFUL!

YEAH, PICTURES

RANDOM CUTENESS

MAKAYLA'S NEW HAIR CUT (NOT A GOOD PICTURE BUT YOU GET THE IDEA, SHE REALLY WANTED BANGS!)

RYLIE'S NEW HAIR CUT (NOT A BIG CHANGE, BUT STILL CUTE)

CONFLICTING EMOTIONS

Well I am sitting here at work on a beautiful Friday night, and I am feeling depressed.e Now don't get me wrong I hated high school. But tonight as I sit here, bored cause everyone is across the street at the football game not shopping. I am wishing I was at the football game, or in a small region of my heart back in high school **gasp, shock**!! I am listening to the Tigerettes sing the national anthem, and do there thing (cause I can only listen from where I sit, I can not watch) And I am missing my Senior year, the cheering, the games, the friendships, just the fun! And no, I would NEVER want to live through high school again. Just sometimes like tonight I am feeling, what is that word, nostalgic? A little sad. Well that is all I have for now, just wanted to talk it out a little, but did not feel like talking to myself:-)

I have been working ALOT, bout 40-60 hours a week, at my PART TIME job. The kids are all doing great, we have been having some mild cases of the stomach flu going around. Me, Thom and Will got it, *fingers crossed* that nobody else gets it. Thom is having kidney problems again, BLAH! But he is surviving so far:-) Thom and Nic are going to Arizona this next week, they are leaving on Sunday after church to go see Grandpa Tobin, and pick up our trailer. Yes for all who know, two years in the making and we are finally going to get it! Honestly I will not believe it till I see it on the side of my house:-) My good friend Melissa cut the girls' hair this week, I will post pictures when I can:-) As if you did not know, they are ADORABLE!!!:-)

LOL, TOO CUTE!!!!

I have been so busy this morning. Making calls, and just dealing with different stuff. While I was on the phone with Verizon, doing our 'migration', apparently Verizon bought Sprint out, so we have to 'migrate' over to Verizon. I was on the phone with them for over half an hour, I had my bedroom door shut, cause it was loud with the kids playing, but I kept checking on them. I had given the boys snacks, and then went back to my room. About 10 minutes later, I went back out to check on them, and this is what I found. LOL, he is so precious. I knew he was tired, but I was trying to make it wait till noon, it did not work:-) But how cute is he?!?!?!?!?

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY BABY, I LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!!!

Well today is mine and Thom's 9th anniversary! We have been together for over 9 years, that seems so crazy to me! I know some of you are saying, "I thought you got married in December, there is snow in those pictures." Yes we had our big ceremony in December. But we actually got married in October, to speed up the adoption process with Kaiden, and Thom. So these are our wedding pictures, but we were officially married 2 months prior:-) So happy anniversary to me! We are very blessed to have found each other. And to have spent the last 9 years building our family, and lives together. God sure knew what he was doing when he brought us together. We are so grateful for our 9 years, and looking forward to another 90:-) That is all I have for now:-)

MY DADDY GIVING ME AWAY
HAPPY COUPLE, I LOVE THIS PICTURE!
WE ARE SO BLESSED!
THIS IS A FRAMED COLLEAGUE THAT SITS IN MY LIVING ROOM, I WAS TOO LAZY TO TAKE IT ALL APART AND SCAN EACH ONE, LOL. IT LOOKS SLOPPY HERE, BUT IT IS REALLY PRETTY IN IT'S FRAME. AND YES THAT BABY IS KAIDEN! HE THINKS IT IS SO COOLTHAT HE WAS AT OUR WEDDING:-)

NIC'S HEART APPOINTMENT

Well Nic went to his doctor today to see about his heart murmur. His doctor(Dr. Marsden, the ONLY doctor I trust with my children) said he has a silent heart murmur(http://www.med.umich.edu/1libr/pa/pa_inmurmur_car.htm), he was actually surprised that an Insta Care doctor found it.(he does not think too highly of Insta care doctors, cause they are not trained in pediatrics, so generally get things wrong when it comes to diagnosing children, at least in Southern Utah anyway). He said that sometimes it is there, sometimes it is not. But it is normal, and nothing to be concerned about, it may go away as he grows up, it may not, but either way, he can lead a normal healthy life. Unless he shows signs of a problem(shortness of breath, blue lips, ya know the normal things), to not worry about it. He said that if he sent Nic to a cardiologist right now they would laugh in his face, because they are so common. So that makes me feel better. It will always be in the back of my mind while dealing with him, but I will try to not worry about it:-) So that is my story there, Nic is happy and normal:-)

Also we finally got our picture from the conference this year, the one that took place in Heber. Here it is. You can really tell how much weight I have put on, I am SO fat in it, especially my face, it sickens me! But I love a man in uniform, so he makes the picture better, so hot! He is too ingrained with Marine protocol still, so he is always looking cranky when in this uniform, apparently, they are not allowed to smile while in uniform, you gotta be serious. So that sucks, but oh well, it is still a nice picture.