Monday, September 22, 2008

Friday, September 19, 2008

Pinewood Derby




Our Ward is doing a Pinewood derby. The rules are as follows: 1) It has to fit on the track. 2) No open Flames. Mike originally wanted to do fuel cells, but motors are cheaper. (aka his wife vetoed it:D ) So this is the start of his car, and I'll be sure to take pictures at the Derby. Wish Mike luck!

Thursday, September 18, 2008

Womens Privilage

My Grandmother sent me this E-mail about the women who fought for the right to vote. I would strongly encourage all of you who are old enough, men as well, to make sure to not only be a registered voter...but to make your voice heard and VOTE. That is what this beautiful land of America is about. The people have a voice here. And it's not just the men...it's any member of the United States of America. Even if you don't like either of the candidates. It is our PRIVILEGE to vote and we have ancestors who fought for that to be so.

WHY WOMEN SHOULD

This is the story of our Grandmothers and Great-grandmothers; they lived only 90 years ago.

Remember, it was not until 1920 that women were granted the right to go to the polls and vote. The women were innocent and defenseless, but they were jailed nonetheless for picketing the White House, carrying signs asking for the vote.

And by the end of the night, they were barely alive. Forty prison guards wielding clubs and their warden's blessing went on a rampage against the 33 women wrongly convicted of 'obstructing sidewalk traffic.'

(Lucy Burns)
They beat Lucy Burns, chained her hands to the cell bars above her head and left her hanging for the night, bleeding and gasping for air.

(Dora Lewis)
They hurled Dora Lewis into a dark cell, smashed her head against an iron bed and knocked her out cold. Her cellmate, Alice Cosu, thought Lewis was dead and suffered a heart attack. Additional affidavits describe the guards grabbing, dragging, beating, choking, slamming, pinching, twisting and kicking the women.

Thus unfolded the 'Night of Terror' on Nov. 15, 1917, when the warden at the Occoquan Workhouse in Virginia ordered his guards to teach a lesson to the suffragists imprisoned there because they dared to picket Woodrow Wilson's White House for the right to vote. For weeks, the women's only water came from an open pail. Their food--all of it colorless slop--was infested with worms.

(Alice Paul)
When one of the leaders, Alice Paul, embarked on a hunger strike, they tied her to a chair, forced a tube down her throat and poured liquid into her until she vomited. She was tortured like this for weeks until word was smuggled out to the press.
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/suffrage/nwp/prisoners.pdf
<http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/suffrage/nwp/prisoners.pdf>

So, refresh my memory. Some women won't vote this year because-
-why, exactly? We have carpool duties? We have to get to work? Our vote doesn't matter? It's raining?

Last week, I went to a sparsely attended screening of HBO's new movie 'Iron Jawed Angels.' It is a graphic depiction of the battle these women waged so that I could pull the curtain at the polling booth and have my say. I am ashamed to say I needed the reminder.

All these years later, voter registration is still my passion. But the actual act of voting had become less personal for me, more rote. Frankly, voting often felt more like an obligation than a privilege. Sometimes it was inconvenient.

My friend Wendy, who is my age and studied women's history, saw the HBO movie, too. When she stopped by my desk to talk about it, she looked angry. She was--with herself. 'One thought
kept coming back to me as I watched that movie,' she said. 'What would those women think of the way I use, or don't use, my right to vote? All of us take it for granted now, not just younger women, but those of us who did seek to learn.' The right to vote, she said, had become valuable to her 'all over again.'

HBO released the movie on video and DVD . I wish all history, social studies and government teachers would include the movie in their curriculum I want it shown on Bunco night, too, and anywhere else women gather. I realize this isn't our usual idea of socializing, but we are not voting in the numbers that we should be, and I think a little shock therapy is in order.

It is jarring to watch Woodrow Wilson and his cronies try to persuade a psychiatrist to declare Alice Paul insane so that she could be permanently institutionalized. And it is inspiring to watch the doctor refuse. Alice Paul was strong, he said, and brave. That didn't make her crazy.

The doctor admonished the men: 'Courage in women is often mistaken for insanity.'

Three Musketeers





I was holding Gavin today and Mikey looks at me and says, "Is Mikey turn, hold it."
"Do you want to hold Gavin?"
"Mikey's turn...a hold...a Gawin."
After holding him for a while I decided I'd better go get my camera, so I take Gavin with me to my room to get my camera and I hear Mikey saying, "Hey! Is Mikey's turn...a hold it." So I quickly grabbed my camera and headed back into the livingroom. And boy am I glad I got my camera out. I love my munchkines.

Thursday, September 11, 2008

Gavin's Blessing

Caroline and Gavin, sleeping in Grandpa Adams' bed. They're so cute!








Gavin is such a happy baby. And he looks so spiffy in his blessing outfit.











Here's our sweet baby Gavin. He was blessed in Carthage ward on Sunday the 7th. Thanks everyone who got to come!