Thomas' birthday

Yesterday we went to Thomas' birthday party.  I made him a reversible Batman/Spiderman cape, because thats what he wanted.  ( I know, Spiderman doesn't wear a cape.  Too bad.)

Happy birthday Thomas!  And I hope you are happier today than you were in this picture. (Dec. 2010)

We just joined the ward choir

Today was the first time our ward has had choir practice since Wayne came back to the ward.  He LOVES  to sing in the choir, so I decided to join with him.  And surprise, surprise, Zac decided to attend also.

Wayne was the choir president for many years in the Cary First ward.  When he became a high councilor he had to quit because he was always gone from the ward, and of course he couldn't do it while he was in the bishopric.

I, on the other hand, never sing in the choir.  It just isn't my thing.  But I am doing it now to be with Wayne.  I am a very very average singer.

We got to the rehearsal this morning, and practiced "I am a Child of God" acapella.  We were all very familiar with the song, but our choir director changed some things and also had us go up a half step in the middle of the third verse, which was a bit tricky for me.

With only one rehearsal, we sang the song for  our ward conference.  Pres. Maxwell stood up afterward, and said "You have an exceptional ward choir.  It takes great talent to be able to sing acapella and stay in tune."

I laughed to myself and knew it wasn't me, it was the awesome singers who were surrounding me.  I'm just glad I didn't ruin it for the rest of the people.

CHANGE OF TOPIC

I just heard from Glinda M., (who has two sons on a mission), that our stake has to add another missionary photo display case to the wall of the stake center.  The two missionary display boards are completely full.  I think that is great.

ALSO

Today is the anniversary of my parent's marriage. They were married in 1952.  So this would be their 59th anniversary.  Except for the fact that they were divorced in 1978.

A funny story:  On their 50th "anniversary" my mom got a wild idea and mailed him a 50th anniversary card.  I don't think he took it too well.

The coming crash and the current wiener and a possible dam failure

The Coming Crash of 2013

By Peter Ferrara on 6.8.11 @ 6:09AM
http://spectator.org/archives/2011/0...crash-of-2013/

On Inauguration Day, 2009, President Obama seemed so politically blessed by the timing of developing economic trends. I expected that based on American economic history, recovery from the recession should have occurred some time during 2009. Even the longest previous recession since the Great Depression would have resulted in a recovery in summer 2009, as the recession began in December 2007.

Moreover, prior American history had shown that the deeper the recession the stronger the recovery. So I was expecting President Obama to pass his economic recovery plan, as foolhardy and ineffective as I believed it would be, and then to ride a wave of adulation as the economy roared back later in the year, which it should have done just on its own according to long established rhythms of the business cycle.
So even I have been surprised by the reality that President Obama's economic policies have been so disastrous that they have prevented any real recovery from getting off the ground, at what is now three and a half years since the recession began....
Read the rest at http://spectator.org/archives/2011/06/08/the-coming-crash-of-2013/



"Morally Schizoid Liberal Women and their Weiner Husbands"
 June 10, 2011
http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/06/morally-schizoid_liberal_women_and_their_weiner_husbands.html

"The saddest thing about the whole sordid, societally humiliating Weiner affair, is that it highlights once again the morally-schizoid nature of the modern liberal woman.  I've known many of these women -- a great many -- and it never ceases to confound me how smart women can be such ridiculous fools when it comes to choosing men...."




"Expert Warns Missouri River Could see Flooding of Biblical Proportions"


http://stlouis.cbslocal.com/2011/06/08/expert-warns-missouri-river-could-see-flood-of-biblical-proportions/

ST. LOUIS (KMOX) -  An expert on Missouri River reservoirs is sounding a very loud, very urgent warning about the chance of catastrophic flooding this summer.

Bernard Shanks, an adviser to the Resource Renewal Institute, says the Fort Peck Dam and five others along the Missouri are already full .....

Shanks was asked what he fears will happen should the Fort Peck Dam fail and set off a chain-reaction.

“There would be a flood like you’ve never seen,” Shanks told hosts Doug McElvein and Debbie Monterrey.  “It would be literally of biblical proportions.”

He foresees a very real threat of “chest-high” water in St. Louis before summer’s end.....

Christian equals backward, according to Chris Matthews

"On Thursday's Hardball, Chris Matthews determined that Democratic Congressman Anthony Weiner could be in danger of being forced out of Congress by Blue Dog Dems who face uphill battles in red states because, as he put it, "people in the rural areas of this country who are Christian conservative culturally - you can say backward if you want...don't like this kind of stuff."

Read more: http://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/geoffrey-dickens/2011/06/10/matthews-weiner-trouble-because-his-behavior-offends-culturally-ba#ixzz1Ouq8RoRh


Please add me to the list of people who are proud to be conservative culturally and backward, true blue, through and through.

Sarah's antique quilt

While I was at Sarah's house the other day (at the baby shower), she showed me a quilt that was made by someone in her family (her grandmother?  Bob's grandmother?).

I thought the colors were great.

Cutest car seat cover

Anne came over during Janette's birthday dinner to give Janette something for her baby.

Malerie had sewed this darling car seat cover-up for Janette.  It is the cutest one I've ever seen.  The straps have really cute ribbon flowers on them.

Here is my good friend Anne and my dau-in-law Tiffany.

Zac got his Eagle!

Zac just got back from his final board of review....and....

Nanny nanny boo boo!  I have another son that is an Eagle scout!  Hurray hurray and hurrah!

(Notice the stupid looking short shorts he had to wear to the board of review.  WHY do the scouts insist on having such short shorts?!?!)

Watch out for when QE2 ends on June 30

http://www.dailywealth.com/1752/The-Beginning-of-the-Panic

"The Beginning of the Panic

By Porter Stansberry 
Tuesday, June 7, 2011 

In the next few weeks, our country will enter a period without precedence in our experience.

 

On June 30, the Federal Reserve has pledged to cease buying U.S. Treasury bonds. This is the second time since the financial crisis it has intervened in the Treasury market in a major way. The program of buying new Treasury issues has been dubbed "quantitative easing II" (QE2).

 

We'd wager not one in 1,000 Americans has any idea (or at least any real understanding) of what has been going on in the market for U.S. Treasury bonds since the financial crisis. For the last nine months, the Fed has been printing up new dollars and buying huge amounts of newly issued debt from the U.S. Treasury – $600 billion of bonds. And these purchases followed a $1.75 trillion program of quantitative easing that ran from March 2009 to March 2010.

 

It is no exaggeration to say that a printing press has kept our economy going for the last two years. But what will happen when the printing stops?"  (Read the article for more.)

Here is another article commenting on the article above.

http://www.shtfplan.com/forecasting/panic-to-ensue-we-are-about-to-enter-a-period-without-precedence-in-american-history_06082011

Obsessive Compulsive Finisher of Quilts

One of my daughters-in-laws gave me a partially finished twin size quilt that she and her mother had started many years ago.  Some of it was in strips and some was in squares.

I am obsessive compulsive when I get a bag like this.  I have to figure out how to use up all the fabric and make charity quilts out of it.  I can't stand to see the fabric go to waste.

In just a few hours, I made four baby quilt tops.  They may not be the most beautiful in the world, but once they have batting and backings, they will be appreciated by somebody.

Today I was a Macho Muscle Woman

There is a woman in my ward that I had befriended, and she was moving out of the ward.  I felt like I should go help her move since not very many people knew her.

Four men and I packed a whole moving van.  All the things that were too heavy for me to move, I shoved along the floor.  After two and a half hours, we were all dead tired.  I'm sure the men were more tired than me, since they carried all the heavy furniture and I just pushed it.

We were worn out, and faced the whole job of unloading the moving van into her storage unit.

I called the church just as Young Women and Young Men were ending, and begged for more help.  Miracle of miracles!  A whole bunch of people showed up to help us unload.  That took another hour.

I don't know how we would have survived if we had to unload that whole thing by ourselves.

Not a Bishopric anymore

We had a nice dinner at the Neish's to commemorate the release of the University Ward bishopric.

Here are the bishopric and the wives after their release.

Here we all were the day they got sustained, April 27, 2008.

Quilts for two new grandbabies

Janette picked out some vintage circus fabric, and Rachel picked out some fabric with flamingos and other animals on it.

I made these two quilts using those fabrics.

Vision of Armies in the Sky

On the night of 22 September 1827, young Joseph Smith climbed the Hill Cumorah and received the gold plates. The same night in the adjacent town of Mendon, New York, neighbors gathered to view wonders in the sky. One neighbor, Vilate Kimball, remembered detailed events of the heavenly wonders. She wrote that she and her husband, Heber C. Kimball, had already retired to bed and were awakened by John Greene, who was desirous that they see the sights in the heavens. Vilate wrote of their astonishment at the scenes that passed before their eyes: "We looked to the eastern horizon, and beheld a white smoke arise towards the heavens. As it ascended, it formed a belt, and made a noise like the rushing wind, and continued southwest, forming a bow, dipping in the western horizon.

"This bow grew larger, stretching into transparency, and soon even stranger sights appeared. Within the bow an army moved, as Vilate described, "commencing from the east and marching to the west. They continued moving in platoons, and walked so close the rear ranks trod in the steps of their file leaders, until the whole bow was literally crowded with soldiers.

Vilate claimed that she and her neighbors saw swords, muskets, bayonets, and uniforms, some including caps and feathers. They even heard "the clashing and jingling of their instruments of war." However, what most amazed this small neighborhood gathering was the unusual order exhibited by the entire army: "When the foremost man stepped, every man stepped at the same time." The gathering of neighbors gazed upon the strange and wondrous scene "for hours, until it began to disappear."

Frightened by what she had seen, Vilate exclaimed, "What does all this mean?"
Father Young answered, "Why it is one of the signs of the coming of the Son of Man."

After learning of the advent of the Book of Mormon, the manifestation's meaning became more clear, and they joined the Church in 1832.
**
Taken from the book, Stories From The EARLY SAINTS Converted By The Book of Mormon, Edited by Susan Easton Black, Bookcraft, SLC, UT

Fancy Nancy birthday party

My granddaughter, who is 4 and a half, loves Fancy Nancy.  Here is a birthday party made by one really ambitious and talented mom.

(This is the same designer who made the cute baby shoes.)

http://www.fleetingthing.com/handmade/for-fun/Fancy-Nancy-birthday-party/&2_11_43

Remember "Lorenzo's Songbook"?

I was very happy to see on Facebook today that Bryce is "in a relationship".  That is exciting.

I babysat Elizabeth and Thomas this morning.  They painted the patio with paintbrushes and water, then they watched an old videotape from 1990 called "Lorenzo's Songbook", that my kids watched when they were little.  Elizabeth kept covering her eyes when the dorky child actors broke into song, I think thats the same reaction Adam used to have.


And who says I'm the only doom-and-gloomer around?  Here are a bunch of economists and their gloomy predictions:

http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/suddenly-everyone-is-warning-about-the-next-financial-collapse

NC Quilt Symposium

The North Carolina Quilt Symposium quilt show will be held this weekend, June 3-5 at the Peace College gymnasium in downtown Raleigh.  Fri-Sat 9 am-7 pm. 

 Entrance fee is $5.   I have two quilts in the show.  Children under age 5 are free, and you can push a stroller around if you want to.

http://capitalquilters.org/ncqs-html/dayofun2011.html

Its over!!!

Hallelujah!!!!!!!

Today I mailed Zac's Eagle Scout packet to the Boy Scout office!  This has been the biggest pain in the world to get this boy to complete this paperwork!!!

(Oh, I forgot.  It was equally as big a pain to get Seth to finish his.  But mercifully, I can't remember whether it was a pain to get Isaac or Bryce to do theirs.)

And looking ahead, I feel great happiness knowing I don't have any more sons that need to do their Eagle.  I am free!  Hurray!

Wayne is starting to meet people in our ward

Since Wayne was released last Sunday, he got to attend my ward (or, I should say OUR ward) for almost the first time Sunday.

He has attended the Morrisville ward only a few times, when he was on duty at work and needed to be close to the computer.  Before he was in the young adult bishopric, he was on the high council for 5 years, so during that time he only attended our ward about 9 times a year.  He figures he hasn't sat with Zac regularly in church since Zac was about nine years old.

I ENJOYED sitting with my husband!  I LOVED it!  And I enjoyed introducing him to every person we saw.  "Have you met my husband?  Isn't he awesome?"  (Actually I left off that last part.)

Then on Monday we attended our ward's Memorial Day picnic.  We sat in our camping chairs with our cool new aluminum camping table between us, while I pointed out all the different people and told him their names.

Oh, and I did the same thing on Saturday at a wedding reception we attended.

I hope that if I tell him names every week, over and over, he will eventually know some of these people.

Siamese Cats from my youth

I saw these cats at an antique store a few weeks ago.  These were the exact same cats that my sister (either Cheryl or Cindy) had in their bedroom when I was young.

Check another prophecy off the list

I have started to collect all the prophecies which modern apostles and prophets have pronounced "fulfilled".  Here is one from President Ezra Taft Benson, in 1991. 

In the Lord’s preface to his revelations in the Doctrine and Covenants, He warned: “The day speedily cometh; the hour is not yet, but is nigh at hand, when peace shall be taken from the earth, and the devil shall have power over his own dominion.” (D&C 1:35.)

Today—some 160 years after this revelation was given—we see the fulfillment of this prediction. Satan, in undiminished fury, is displaying power over “his own dominion”—the earth. Never has his influence been so great, and only those who have taken the Holy Spirit as their guide and followed counsel from priesthood leaders will be spared from the havoc of his evil influence.

From the First Presidency message, "Strengthen Thy Stakes", Jan. 1991.

http://lds.org/ensign/1991/01/strengthen-thy-stakes?lang=eng

That is amazing that twenty years ago, a prophet actually stated that peace had already been taken from the earth, and the devil had already been given power over his own dominion.  When I read a scripture verse like that in the Book of Mormon, I could think it was still in the future.  But no.  Its already here.

Janette's Birthday

Janette,

Thanks for taking pity on Seth and taking him away from that wretched state of bachelorhood.

Thanks for giving us a new grandbaby (soon to arrive).

Thanks for living in North Carolina instead of some far away state.

Thanks for making delicious homemade salsa that I could die for.

We're so happy you are our daughter-in-law.

Happy Birthday!

For the First Time, Majority of Americans Support Gay Marriage

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/05/22/time-majority-americans-support-gay-marriage/

For First Time, Majority of Americans Support Gay Marriage

Published May 22, 2011

| FoxNews.com

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/05/22/time-majority-americans-support-gay-marriage/#ixzz1N5j0y7RF

"A  recent Gallup poll shows 53 percent of Americans support making gay marriage legal, Reuters reports.

The poll shows a significant change in mood on the issue from a year ago, when an equal majority opposed same-sex matrimony.

The latest Gallup findings, Reuters reports, are in line with two earlier national polls this spring that show support for legally recognized gay marriage has gained a newfound majority among Americans.

According to Gallup, Democrats and political independents accounted for the entire shift in its survey compared to last year, when only 44 percent of all respondents favored gay marriage, while 53 percent were opposed."

We can read in the Book of Mormon that the tipping point comes when the majority choose wickedness. At that time, we have already "ripened in iniquity".

http://lds.org/scriptures/bofm/alma/10?lang=eng

Alma 10:19Yea, well did Mosiah say, who was our last king, when he was about to deliver up the kingdom, having no one to confer it upon, causing that this people should be governed by their own voices—yea, well did he say that if the time should come that the voice of this people should ^achoose iniquity, that is, if the time should come that this people should fall into transgression, they would be ripe for destruction.

http://lds.org/scriptures/bofm/hel/5?lang=eng

Helaman 5:2For as their laws and their governments were established by the ^avoice of the people, and they who ^bchose evil were ^cmore numerous than they who chose good, therefore they were^dripening for destruction, for the laws had become corrupted.

I just don't think Heavenly Father can keep sending down His pure little spirits to a world where they will be raised by two homosexuals. At some point He is going to say "I'm not doing this anymore" and all hell will break loose.

"The Last Nail" speech by Ron Paul today

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-olNr4UuVqY&feature=player_embedded


(Watch the YouTube or read the text)


RON PAUL: The last nail is being driven into the coffin of the American Republic

Speech by Ron Paul today in Congress.


The Last Nail The last nail is being driven into the coffin of the American Republic. Yet, Congress remains in total denial as our liberties are rapidly fading before our eyes. The process is propelled by unwarranted fear and ignorance as to the true meaning of liberty. It is driven by economic myths, fallacies and irrational good intentions. The rule of law is constantly rejected and authoritarian answers are offered as panaceas for all our problems. Runaway welfarism is used to benefit the rich at the expense of the middle class. Who would have ever thought that the current generation and Congress would stand idly by and watch such a rapid disintegration of the American Republic? Characteristic of this epic event is the casual acceptance by the people and political leaders of the unitary presidency, which is equivalent to granting dictatorial powers to the President.

Our Presidents can now, on their own:
1. Order assassinations, including American citizens,
2. Operate secret military tribunals,
3. Engage in torture,
4. Enforce indefinite imprisonment without due process,
5. Order searches and seizures without proper warrants, gutting the 4th Amendment,
6. Ignore the 60 day rule for reporting to the Congress the nature of any military operations as required by the War Power Resolution,
7. Continue the Patriot Act abuses without oversight,
8. Wage war at will,
9. Treat all Americans as suspected terrorists at airports with TSA groping and nude x-raying.

And the Federal Reserve accommodates by counterfeiting the funds needed and not paid for by taxation and borrowing, permitting runaway spending, endless debt, and special interest bail-outs.

And all of this is not enough. The abuses and usurpations of the war power are soon to be codified in the National Defense Authorization Act now rapidly moving its way through the Congress. Instead of repealing the 2001 Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF), as we should, now that bin Laden is dead and gone, Congress is planning to massively increase the war power of the President. Though an opportunity presents itself to end the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, Congress, with bipartisan support, obsesses on how to expand the unconstitutional war power the President already holds. The current proposal would allow a President to pursue war any time, any place, for any reason, without Congressional approval. Many believe this would even permit military activity against American suspects here at home. The proposed authority does not reference the 9/11 attacks. It would be expanded to include the Taliban and "associated" forces—a dangerously vague and expansive definition of our potential enemies. There is no denial that the changes in s.1034 totally eliminate the hard-fought-for restraint on Presidential authority to go to war without Congressional approval achieved at the Constitutional Convention. Congress' war authority has been severely undermined since World War II beginning with the advent of the Korean War which was fought solely under a UN Resolution. Even today, we're waging war in Libya without even consulting with the Congress, similar to how we went to war in Bosnia in the 1990s under President Clinton.

The three major reasons for our Constitutional Convention were to:
1. Guarantee free trade and travel among the states.
2. Make gold and silver legal tender and abolish paper money.
3. Strictly limit the Executive Branch's authority to pursue war without Congressional approval.

But today:
1. Federal Reserve notes are legal tender, gold and silver are illegal.
2. The Interstate Commerce Clause is used to regulate all commerce at the expense of free trade among the states.
3. And now the final nail is placed in the coffin of Congressional responsibility for the war power, delivering this power completely to the President—a sharp and huge blow to the concept of our Republic.

In my view, it appears that the fate of the American Republic is now sealed—unless these recent trends are quickly reversed.

The saddest part of this tragedy is that all these horrible changes are being done in the name of patriotism and protecting freedom. They are justified by good intentions while believing the sacrifice of liberty is required for our safety. Nothing could be further from the truth.

More sadly is the conviction that our enemies are driven to attack us for our freedoms and prosperity, and not because of our deeply flawed foreign policy that has generated justifiable grievances and has inspired the radical violence against us. Without this understanding our endless, unnamed, and undeclared wars will continue and our wonderful experience with liberty will end.