Ahhh, politics!

Life has been a little different lately with the very important presidential election coming up and Prop. 102, which I have been very involved in. It has led to some interesting 

events, conversations and thoughts. 

Not even 24 hours had passed after I put up my Yes on 102 sign in my yard before I got a message from the opposition (in the form of a sidewalk-chalk-wielding teenager).  It reads...

"Gay marriage should stay!

They are human just like you! 

Lesbians and Gays Rock!"

First- gay marriage can't stay because it's not here- yet.

Second- of course they are human but that doesn't mean they have a "right" to call what they do "marriage."

Third- how do you define "Rock?"

I quickly watered the street thus destroying the oh-so clever message and then called the guilty party and told her very nicely that if she wants to put signs about propositions on her yard or write on the street in front of her house she is welcome to. But leave mine alone, please!

The best NO response I have heard from the phone bank about Prop. 102 was a man who told my friend, 

"I am for gay marriage, I think they should be miserable like the rest of us!"

Seriously, I am not kidding! The most convincing argument I've heard!

Rustin's non-white friend said to him at school today that Rustin was a racist because he said he didn't like Obama. 

To which Rustin (13) replied, then you must be a racist against white people because you don't like McCain. The boy just walked away.

Chloe (10) at dinner when we were arguing about which is better, Hamburgers or hot dogs, 

"I bet John McCain likes hamburgers!"

Olivia (8) responded out of the blue, 

"I bet Sarah Palin likes pomegranates!"

While listening to talk radio on the way home from gymnastics, Chloe asked me to turn the volume up so she could hear a recording of Joe Biden's comments about "when Obama gets elected there will be an international crisis to test him and it probably won't be apparent at first that he made the right decision." And then when we got home she wanted to stay in the driveway with the car running because she wanted to hear what 

Rusty Humphries 

(awesome conservative radio talk show host)

was saying about it and hear an interview with 

Joe the Plumber 

(who is a celebrity in our house).

On the way home from the eye doctor (I'll post on that later) Rustin and I heard a talk radio guy say something was "underwhelming" and Rustin asked me what it meant.  I said it was the opposite of "overwhelming" to which he replied, 

"I guess that means 'whelming' is just average then." 

Very funny Rustin.

Then he asked "Mom, are you going to go home and blog that?" Is he a mind reader or something? Then he repeated our whole conversation pretending he was me blogging it. It sounded exactly like what you just read!

When I was canning about 50 pounds of food storage this morning (just in case Obama wins the election)and I was happily listening to Rush Limbaugh - and contemplating. I wondered...

How can I make Russ' medical practice sooo BIG that the government can't afford to let it fail?'

I was trying to picture life with Obama as president, a filibuster-proof amount of democrats in congress, the "fairness doctrine" voted into law (basically the end of talk-radio, the only place conservatives can get the TRUTH now that NBC, CNN, The New York Times, etc. have lost all journalistic integrity in their attempt to get Obama elected) and I was thinking about how "lucky" Obama was that there was a huge financial meltdown just a month before the election (the current administration's party ALWAYS takes a hit for that no matter who is at fault) and for a half a second I thought, wouldn't it be nice if we had an international incident that got people really thinking about who would make them SAFE! And then I realized what I was really saying (in my head) and felt really bad for wishing bad things on my country even to save it from something worse, like an Obama presidency. But that is how much it freaks me out! 

Heaven please help us (and me)!

Fall Break

MONDAY= EARLY VOTING DAY

Fall break started with me voting for Sarah Palin... Oops, I  mean John McCain for president and YES on Prop. 102!! Signed, sealed and delivered.

(NO on 101, 200, 201 and 300 and YES on the rest- if you were wondering). 

 

TUESDAY= LUNCH LADIES

Then on Tuesday afternoon Jennie Blaser decided to get together with some girlfriends to see a movie and go to lunch. The funny thing was that the movie wasn't playing when we thought it was so we went and played Pictionary and Taboo at my parent's house instead. It ended up being TONS OF FUN and way better than any movie, even if it was made by Mormons! 

 We headed over to Wildflower Cafe for a delicious lunch with even more friends! 

(Janae, Ingra, Jennie, Liz, Susan, Becky and Mandy) 

I love the ladies in our ward!!! 

THURSDAY= OUR PRETEND CAMPING TRIP

On Thursday we really wanted to go camping but weren't able to because of football conflicts so we pretended we were camping and set up our pop-up trailer next to our house! 

It was actually really fun. I built a fire and we cooked hot dogs for dinner. 

We went in the trailer and played lots of fun games while Rustin and Russ were at football. Our favorites were the game where you each draw 1/4th of a body and then fold it over so the next person can't see what you drew but has to add onto it. You end up with some pretty funny creatures! 

"Jack-o-lady with weird arms and bow legs"

Then we wrote stories about them in the same way. Each person writes a few sentences and then folds it over and passes it on and the story gets longer and sillier as you go! It's a great family night game by the way. After laughing our heads off at our creations and creative writing we took a small break and watched The Office and then headed out to make S'mores when the boys got home. Yummy! We kinda felt like we were camping, we smelled like smoke and everything! That night we all spent the night in the trailer (except the teenagers, Tess and Rustin).

FRIDAY= DESERT RATS

The next morning we got up and headed out to the desert to do some dirtbiking! 

Rustin on the Martin's Quad

It has been a while since we have gone but it felt great to be out there cruising through the cactus forests. 

Olivia brought her friend, Kaitlyn 

Josie came with Chloe 

We went with our family of friends, the Martins! 

Randy, Riley, Rustin and Cooper tossing the football

We had a great time playing football and cards and killing wasps when we weren't riding. 

When we got home it was still hot and we were exhausted and sweaty so we decided to hop in the pool. It was cold enough to be REALLY refreshing! 

I love swimming in October! It makes the whole Arizona desert thing worthwhile. I feel like I've triumphed over the elements or something. Anyway, it was a perfect combination of desert fun and poolside relaxing to make fall break fun.  

Cooper warming up after swimming with us

SATURDAY= FOOTBALL (OF COURSE!)

Saturday Rustin's team had another football game. Unfortunately we lost to the Outlaws. They didn't have a very good record and we beat them bad last year which caused both coaches and players to be unprepared for a team that REALLY wanted to beat us. 

Rustin on a blitz taking down #75 (who, I swear is the biggest guy on both teams)

The Outlaws scored first and got their two extra points for the kick. We scored shortly after but missed our kick (our kicker was on vacation) and that was enough for them to win. We got down to the 8 yard line in the last 5 minutes of the game but were unable to make it in. 

Picture me on the sidelines screaming "GET HIM RUSTIN!"

Rustin made some AMAZING tackles though. The kind you hear clearer than you see. He just nailed this huge running back, Smack! I was happy about how well he played but what more can you do? There's always next week. 

Rustin's Clinches the Win in Overtime!

Rustin and the Sabers had a big game against their rivals, The Horsemen, on Saturday, Oct. 11. Many of his teammates attend the same jr. high as the Horsemen and have been listening to a lot of taunting and trash talking for the last few weeks. This game was a must win. 

Rustin #34 is working hard for his team and making some big hits.  They scored first and led 8-0 for most of the game. The Horsemen came back to tie in the fourth quarter. 

Overtime again!

Rustin is the defensive captain and I don't thing there is anything I like more than watching him Russ giving signals back and forth during the game.  I'm not sure what this one means but it worked.  We scored on our third down in overtime and were in the lead but then it was there turn to try and tie it up again. Man, was the crowd crazy! The Horsemen parents and coaches were going ballistic, even telling an uninjured kid to lie down on the field so they could get an extra injury time out and slow down the end of the game.  Back to the story, it was their turn and on their first down...

they fumbled the ball on the handoff and guess who jumped on that live ball?  Rustin! He dove right on it and ended the game with a big WIN for us. His friend Cole #22 said after the game "I turned around to dive on the ball and Rustin had slid under me and was already on it!" Everyone was freaking out and our kids and parents were going crazy! After the ref had blown the whistle and we had technically won the game, a Horsemen player was still trying to rip the ball out of Rustin's arms as he stood up! Rustin kept holding onto it until he was SURE the ref had seen HE had it and that we had won. Russ ran out onto the field and gave him a HUGE hug! 

 I was video taping the play and had no idea that it was Rustin who had jumped on the ball in all the confusion until about 5 minutes later when someone was asking if I had seen the big hug Russ gave Rustin. Then I was the most excited and crazy parent there! Ahhh, football.  I am trying to get the video uploaded but unsuccessful so far. Because I didn't know it was Rustin who recovered the fumble (I'm looking at a tiny screen in the sunlight) I stopped recording before he stands all the way up with the ball (and the kid hanging on) but it is still a great shot! For now the pictures do say 1,000 words! 

Good Job Rustin and Go Sabers!!

Are you ready for some FOOTBALL?

One of Rustin's greatest loves is playing football! He loves to get out there and hit people and help his team to victory. He has played Pop Warner for 5 years and this is his second year with the SABERS.

He plays fullback and linebacker and is a great asset to his team with his enthusiasm and hard work! HE LOVES TO WIN! (He gets that from the Koskis and the Crawfords)

He is mixing it up with the Mustangs.  

We won, 16-0.

Someone is getting squished but it's not Rustin, he is right behind him bending over a little. They have had an injury laden season. The quarter back broke his arm at the first tackling practice and then the back up quarterback strained his knee two weeks ago and is out for a while. Our backup's backup, Dash (that's really his name) did pretty good these last two games, they won them both. The record for the season is 3 and 2. The very first game they had set the record for the longest Pop Warner season game ever! There were two overtimes and it lasted almost 3 hours long and was 105 degrees outside. We lost after having the ball about 1 foot from the end zone and not getting it in.

Gymnastics "Mini Meet"

Chloe and Olivia have been taking gymnastics at USA Fitness Center for about 8 months now and recently had their first "Mini Meet." 

It is a meet to help prepare the girls for when they are competing in higher levels.  About 2 months ago both Chloe and Olivia moved up to level 3 which is where they will learn most of their skills. Chloe goes twice a week and Olivia goes once.  They are both quite good and have different strengths. Chloe is long and graceful, Olivia is short and strong but they both charm the judges and the coaches.  While the meet was going on I was having my own melt-down on the sidelines.  Before we left for Rustin's football game that morning the video camera fell from off a high shelf and busted the main controls. I was still able to get it to work and I always have our new little digital camera in my  purse so I knew I could take video clips with it if I needed a backup. I was able to video some of Rustin's football game but when Olivia got up on the beam for their first event it WOULD NOT WORK!!! No big deal, I had my backup plan. I checked my purse and after searching and searching...NO CAMERA!!! I was so mad! I had just got it for exactly this kind of thing and I always carry it in there but it was home on the counter.  I tried over and over to mess with the video camera and convince it to work but to no avail. My regular camera was having a hard time taking good action shots because the gym lights were not bright enough and they were turning out blurry. To make matters worse, when they started the floor rotation they completely flipped the order that the girls performed which meant Chloe went first and I didn't notice. So I not only didn't get any video, or photos, I barely even saw the ending myself. That's when I started crying. Yes, I cried. I had pictured this cute blog with little video clips of their beam, bar and floor routines and great action shots of them doing their best tricks but NO! I guess I need to get my blogging addiction under control! The girls had no idea any of this was going on and had a blast! They were all smiles! 

Here is Olivia saluting the judges after her awesome floor routine!

Chloe shows off her first gymnastics medal

Olivia's patriotic outfit matches her new medal!

After the mini meet we went to Denny's with Tess, Rustin and our mini-champions!

The Official Dunder Mifflin Launch Party!

Angela and Phyllis need to resign and elect the Hirsches as the new co-presidents of the Party Planning Committee cuz their Office Party ROCKED!

Brooke's looking a little tired from jammin' on Sam's drum set at the beginning of the party. She is good! Toree can't help but pose for this picture with my favorite blogger, Beckie!

We played the Office DVD game while we waited for the season premier episode "Weight Loss" to start.

 

Every one got really cool SWAG!  The kids love rearranging all the Office magnets and writing on the little white boards on the fridge.  

Rustin and the Taylor boys wore their Dunder Mifflin T-shirts and knew the answer to almost every single question! 

We all settled in the back yard and watched the hilarious episode in the backyard on the BIG screen they had set up. 

Of course there were tons of yummy snacks! Good thing no one weighed all of us on a big scale after the party!  

Thanks Hirsche Family, it was a blast!

Thank You Letters for Abigail

This was my third year teaching the constitution lesson to local 5th graders, but it is the first time I have ever received...

  thank you letters from the kids! 

 One whole class wrote to me, 25 precious letters in all.  

I have absolutely loved reading them and looking at the cute pictures they drew.  What sweet and funny kids.

 

When I teach I really capture their attention with the objects I bring in my little suitcase; a replica key from Independence Hall, an umbrella, candle and holder, hammer, pictures of myself, Washington and Benjamin Franklin and a big copy of the Constitution.  The most popular comment was that they loved my blue dress (even the boys)!

 The most frequently asked question was whether the replica key from Independence Hall would still work or not.  I decided to contact the curator and find out once and for all.  She said that you could still use the old key to unlock the front door from the inside!  I can't wait to write the kids back and tell them!  They especially like the key because I let them pass it around the room and see how heavy it is.  It is an old fashioned, cast-iron key (lovingly pictured in the top letter).

I had a lot of kids say they were coming to the fair and couldn't wait to see me there, or they hoped I would come visit their school next year.  Some kids said they couldn't go but gave me good reasons why they couldn't. One kid had a football game and needed revenge because the other team beat them in the playoffs last year. Another said her mom had to work. 

 

This kid's note was short but he drew this great picture of a 

military chipmunk?!

What great kids (and teacher) to give me such an unexpected treat!