Economic downturn

So the bad economy has recently hit closer to home for us - although thank goodness not this badly to us in particular. Shawna has a few friends whose husbunds have been laid off within the past month and none of them have any prospects for their next job. She told me about 7 women who met for dinner last week, and 5 of their husbunds were out of work. Many of them held professional jobs like engineers and are now getting turned down for jobs even at Wal-Mart. One couple we know is even exploring a job opportunity in Australia right now because they can't find anything else. The wife of a firefighter I worked with the other day just got laid off after over 15-years with the same company. The news this morning said that Citigroup is cutting over 50,000 jobs. Seriously? Wow. Now I'm not saying that my little family hasn't felt some of this economic pinch (just look at our stuffed bill holder) but our mini-struggles pale in comparison to many others right now. We feel very blessed that job loss isn't a worry for us, but feel terrible for our friends who are faced with this.
Along with all this, I just noticed the first Salvation Army "bell-ringer" of the season at the grocery store. All the charities in the country will be needing extra support now, but many of those who gave in the past can't afford to give again this year.
Let's take it on as our challenge to give the little bit that we can and do a little extra for our friends and neighbors, especially as the holiday season is almost here. Make some kind of family or personal goal, whatever. Just try to give something - because there's lots of people right now who truly need.

Halloween

Ok so I'm a loser for being the only family member to not dress up this year. Shawna and Sadie were Ladybugs, Austin was the Incredible Hulk and Dylan was a Firefighter. HJ and Margaret joined us along with Shawna's folks for a little trick-or-treating. We were only out for a couple hours, but had more than enough candy by then. Dylan cracked us up when he made a deal with Papa - who agreed to hold the "heavy candy bag" for Dylan in between houses for the price of two mini candy bars. The weather was pretty nice and everybody had a fun time. Hard to believe that the holiday lineup is underway

CHANGE - Yes We Can!!

It was exciting to watch as a new chapter in American History opened last night with the election of the next President of the United States of America. We have supported Obama's campaign all along the way and are excited for our Country to begin moving in a new, better direction.

Election Day

This morning I went and stood in line to vote, and couldn't help but think about how lucky we are to actually have the ability to vote for the people we'd like to have as our leaders. I've had LOTS of debates with family and friends about the issues that we're voting about, and while we haven't always agreed, it has been refreshing learning experience. I have paid more attention to this years' presidential campaigns than ever before. I also have had to decide for myself where I stand on many issues that I never really thought through in the past. As I researched and tried to become more educated I found myself more firmly entrenched in some of my original views and had a 180-degree turn of opinion on some others. Is there a perfect canidate? No, probably not. But just by learning more about how the world works and trying to find the people that can change things for the better has been a great experience. With some relief it ends today though, whoever wins will be announced tonight and then we will start living a new chapter in American History.
GO VOTE!!!!