She has my vote!

Last night I watched the speech given by Sarah Palin and I was impressed. A few things that stuck out to me.

1. She is a women and mother who acts like it. She wore a skirt not a pant suit, She embraced her femininity, and seemed to have a sense of womenhood to her. Some might say What the...? I am tired of seeing Hillary Clinton as the face of women in politics. It was a breeze of fresh air to see those traits in her.

2. She is a conservative. I do not agree with McCain on a lot of issues as he is not conservative enough for me. He is the better by far of the two candidates but still some of the things he has done is, in my book to liberal for me. This is a women who has, according to the record cleaned up a great deal of corruption in the Alaskan government. She has Americas best interest in mind. Everything about her says "Conservative"

3. She can hold her own. Boy howdy can she take on the idiots, as I call them. She addressed the many things that have been said about her with some great comments that were delivered with class. What is more is that there is a rumor the teleprompter broke and the last half of her speech was extemporaneous!

4. She did not come seaking this position that she has been offered. She is not the natural candidate and it does not seem to be something that she has spent a lifetime working toward. The founding fathers were the kind of people that when duty came and taped them on the shoulder they steped up to the call.

Indeed last night she won me over. I am now able to vote for McCain with some inthusiasm.

I have heard several criticisms of her today and I will address those as well.

The first and formost is from a lot of mormon women who, citing the proclimation on the family says that she should be at home taking care of her family. Without a question a mothers place is in the home. However this, in my opinion, is a hypocritical statement. Sarah Palin has not been told since she was a little girl by the prophet that she should not work outside the home. Let me show you the hypocracy. The church teaches that we should keep our homes neat and clean.(http://www.lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=d6371b08f338c010VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD&locale=0&sourceId=1918767978c20110VgnVCM100000176f620a____&hideNav=1) I have been into far to many LDS womens homes that are pig pens. Or what about your missionary responsabilities. When was the last time you talked to someone about the Book of Mormon, or better yet gave one out? We have been taught these things all our lives but still we do not do them. Those same critics who condenm her for not being a stay at home mom should look in the mirror at about 10:00 in the morning and say, "Do I love my husband? How would I feel after a long day at work coming home to this?" If you are committed to being a great mom why not be committed to being a great wife as well. If we are going to hold people to the standard of perfection why not start with a perfect wife or husband? (Guys, some of your yards look like crap!)

The hypocracy runs rampant.

How can you pass judgment on a women who has not been taught when you yourselves having been taught do not do what you know you should? I am not justifying women working outside the home, I am saying get the danm mote out of your own eye first!

You have those who say she does not have enough experience. Ha! perhaps that is true, however lets look at who they are running against; enough said. Let us also consider her running mate. No matter what I dislike about McCain he is without a doubt a man with experience.

Jesus said "By their fruits ye shall know them." I would ask anyone to examine the fruits. Five Children - Unselfish. Beat back Corruption in Alaska - Integrity. Conservative - Holds onto values. I would ask anyone who would like to make an informed decision to 1. get the mote out or your eye and 2. study the fruits.

I could be wrong about her, (Remember rule number one is that I am never wrong and there is no rule number 2 :)) but from what I have seen I think I am right. I have never met the perfect candidate. I hope to live to see the day when we have one, IE the savior when he returns, but until then I think that Sarah Palin is a great pick for VP.

Greatfull

I have been reading some of my friends post on their blogs. Some have had deaths in their family, children in the hospital, and boughts with cancer. It makes me so greatfull for my life. The last tragedy that my family suffered was when my father died more then a decade ago. Daniel was in the hospital for heart surgery almost 11 years ago and is now playing tackle football. I have been blessed beyond measure in my life. A friend of mine mentioned a particular year that was the best year of his life. My best year was last year and the year before that it was that year. Every year seems to be better then the last for me. I am not sure why some have more trials then other. I do not think I will ever know in this life. All I can do is be greatfull for the little trials that I have to endure and the unnumbered blessing that I receive every day. My heart and prayers go out to all those who have so many trials.

Time on my hands.

This Saturday I shoveled somewhere between 4 and 5 ton of rock. I now have rock on both sides of my house. There will no longer be mud there all winter long. It was a lot of work but I managed to pull it off. I might add that it is nice to finally have my sons big enough to be a big help in all of the projects. As I stood there admiring my handiwork I realized that I have now put in garden boxes, a lawn, window well covers, buried the trampoline, built a deck, finished a basement and put in flower beds. The only thing that is left that is relay pressing is I need to finish the bathroom basement. I am not sure what I will do with my time once that is done. Maybe I should take up fishing.

1957 VS 2007

For the most part I do not forward emails but this one I loved so much I just had to send it to the people I know. So here it is, a comparison of 1957 to 2007. We have come so far in the last 50 years and at the same time we have become so dumb in the last 50 years.

Scenario: Jack goes quail hunting before school, pulls into school parking lot with shotgun in gun rack.
1957
- Vice Principal comes over, looks at Jack's shotgun, goes to his car and gets his shotgun to show Jack.
2007
- School goes into lock down, FBI called, Jack hauled off to
jail and never sees his truck or gun again. Counselors called in for
traumatized students and teachers.

Scenario: Johnny and Mark get into a fistfight after school.
1957
- Crowd gathers. Mark wins. Johnny and Mark shake hands and end up buddies.
2007 - Police called, SWAT team arrives, arrests Johnny and Mark. Charge them with assault, both expelled even though Johnny started it.


Scenario: Jeffrey won't be still in class, disrupts other students.
1957
- Jeffrey sent to office and given a good paddling by the Principal. Returns to class, sits still and does not disrupt class again.
2007 - Jeffrey given huge doses of Ritalin. Becomes a zombie. Tested for ADD. School gets extra money from state because Jeffrey has a disability.


Scenario: Billy breaks a window in his neighbor's car and his Dad gives him a whipping with his belt.
1957 - Billy is more careful next time, grows up normal, goes to college, and becomes a successful businessman.
2007 - Billy's dad is arrested f or child abuse. Billy removed to foster care and joins a gang. State psychologist tells Billy's sister that she remembers being abused herself and their dad goes to prison. Billy's mom has affair with psychologist.


Scenario: Mark gets a headache and takes some aspirin to school.
1957 - Mark shares aspirin with Principal out on the smoking dock.
2007 - Police called, Mark expelled from school for drug violations. Car searched for drugs and weapons.

Scenario: Pedro fails high school English.
1957 - Pedro goes to summer school, passes English, goes to college.
2007 - Pedro's cause is taken up by state. Newspaper articles appear nationally explaining that teaching English as a requirement for graduation is racist. ACLU files class action lawsuit against state school system and Pedro's English teacher. English banned from core curriculum. Pedro given diploma anyway but ends up mowing lawns for a living because he cannot speak English.

Scenario: Johnny takes apart leftover firecrackers from 4th of July, puts them in a model airplane paint bottle, blows up a red ant bed.
1957 - Ants die.
2007- BATF, Homeland Security, FBI called. Johnny charged with domestic terrorism, FBI investigates parents, siblings removed from home, computers confiscated, Johnny's Dad goes on a terror watch list and is never allowed to fly again.

Scenar io: Johnny falls while running during recess and scrapes his knee. He is found crying by his teacher, Mary. Mary hugs him to comfort him.
1957 - In a short time, Johnny feels better and goes on playing.
2007 - Mary is accused of being a sexual predator and loses her job. She faces 3 years in State Prison. Johnny undergoes 5 years of therapy.

A great loss...

Today I announce with a heavy heart the loss of one of our family. After having almost 4 years of enjoyment with her my baby is no longer with us. It has been a source of great sadness and pain in the Stock home. We will always remember her with fondness and love. We will ever look at our time with her as special and preciouses. I sold her to a retired gentleman this weekend. My dune buggy is no longer mine. It has been a lot of fun to build these cars and I will miss them.

Tragedy or Stupid people?

So this week we had a tragedy here in Utah. There was a family doing a hand cart reenactment along the same path that their great great grandpa had done. It was on a 2 lane road in a small town here in Utah. A pickup truck came over a rise with the sun directly in the drivers eyes and not being able to see the truck plowed into them and killed the grandpa and a 14 year old girl. Complete tragedy. There are those who blame the guy in the truck for not seeing them or driving different so as to not hit them. But as tragic as this is I have to say it was the stupid people "playing" in the middle of the road. Ever since I became a father I have told my kids not to play in the middle of the road. In this tragedy we have a family that is pulling handcarts or driving wagons down a road with children all around. There is no shoulder on the side and they have a car with flashers on in front of the group. Heaven forbid we put someone BEHIND THEM!

Anyway, I am saddened by the loss of life for such stupid reasons. It seems that if someone would have said "Hey lets not do this on a paved road where 2 and 3 thousand pound vehicles travel" this could have been avoided. There are millions of acres of unpaved wilderness and roads that could have been used. I was the young mens president for 8 years in two different stakes and I found that if I would stop and think things through and then run the idea by some other people to think about it we could identify potential problems with outings and activities.

This is not an isolated thing. I hear stories of kids having loads of freight fall on them and kill them because they were riding on the forklift. There are those who loose kids out of car doors because they were not buckled in and it goes on and on.

There are a lot of people who I care about a great deal who read this blog and I just want to say lets all learn from this tragedy and be a little more intelligent about what we are doing. If you see something that is stupid be quick to speak up and say something about it. If that 14 year old girl had been one of my friends daughters or my niece I would be heart broken and torn up something fierce about it. Lets just all think about the things we do so nobody has to endure a stupid tragedy.

Thanks for letting me spout off.

Lisa's top 10

Today Lisa turned 37. I made her a top 10 list. Some of them are inside jokes and you will not get them but most of those who know her will join her for a good laugh.

Top 10 reasons why things are

better for Lisa at 37 then 36

10. No more seeing the bluick out the front window all day.

9. According to Krislyn…Now all she has to do is clean the kitchen and do the laundry.

8. The blemish on the front of the house has been there long

enough that there is no need to remove it.

7. No more visiting teaching reports.

6. You’re one year closer to never being able to retire.

5. You can still lie and say you are only 32.

4. Your husband has discovered where the power button is on the vacuum.

3. Not everyone gets to have a rusty VW beetle in front of the house.

2. You are no longer married to a fat man.

1. You have had enough bladder incidents that nobody cares anymore.