Okay, I'm going to make some people mad here, I'm sure, but I have to get this off of my chest. Presidential politics is kicking off in high gear and from what I'm seeing so far, we are going to be as divided a country as we have been in the past two elections (at least).

The topic that is really getting my goat today is abortion. I just read that the Obama campaign is putting out an anti-McCain ad regarding McCain's stance on anti-abortion. A comment was made stating that John McCain will make it illegal for women to have an abortion...women would no longer have a choice.

What??? Women would no longer have a choice? Sister, you have a choice from before the first time you drop your drawers! Women still have and will always have the choice to say "no," or to protect themselves against unwanted pregnancies or insist that their partner do the same. To say that women would no longer have a choice is such an asinine statement to make. Everyone pretty much knows how babies are made and if you go through the motions, then you most certainly have made your choice.

I rant about this because I know some women personally who would pitch a fit about not being able to have their "oops" abortions - multiple "oops", even though they certainly know their bodies and what their bodies are capable of doing, they continue to "make their choice". Yeah, stupidity is a good reason to keep it legal.

Why don't we see campaigns against anti-stupidity? I guess we'd all be illegal at some point in our life then, huh?

There is nothing that will get my attention faster or make me jump higher than to be greeted by a precious little-bitty blonde with her five adorable little fingers sticking up in the air showing me, "Mommy, poopoo."

Ewwww!! Yukkkk!! Run, run, run, to the bathroom, don't touch anything on the way, barf, gag, ewww, yuk.

Apparently, she has become quite aware of her bodily functions AFTER the fact. I've tried to introduce the potty, which she loves to sit on, but just doesn't get the idea of what is actually supposed to happen while there. But she will tell me, "wee wee" and grab herself after the incident and of course she has to go examining herself to see what is the issue after the "poo poo" fact.

Ewww. But this is a stage we are in and it will pass all too quickly and later I'll reminiscence and laugh. However, I should be in really good shape for as much as I have to jump and run with her!!

A headline on my Yahoo! news caught my attention and after reading it and getting a giggle out of it, I thought maybe this will show up as a new comedy routine somewhere - SNL perhaps?

Lloyds TSB - the 5th largest banking group in the UK had an issue with someone on staff taking offense at a client's password:

Steve Jetley of Shrewsbury discovered this firsthand, after he changed his telephone banking password to "Lloyds is pants" ("rubbish" to us American sods on the wrong side of the pond). Upon calling in, Jetley discovered that his "pants" password didn't match what was in the system. Instead, his password had been changed to "no it's not." Initially, this was no big deal.

"I thought it was actually quite a funny response," Jetley told the BBC. "But what really incensed me was when I was told I could not change it back to 'Lloyds is pants' because they said it was not appropriate. I asked if it was 'pants' they didn't like, and would 'Lloyds is rubbish' do? But they didn't think so."

"Barclays is better," didn't meet with approval either, seeing as how Barclays is another, even larger UK bank and a Lloyds competitor. At that point, Jetley was suddenly told that passwords had to be one word. When he offered "censorship" up as an appropriate password, he discovered passwords were required to be just one word, and no more than six letters long (not terribly secure, that). This undoubtedly came as something of a surprise, since his previous password had been accepted by the system, but the staff manager in question was apparently adamant.

Lloyds has since apologized, and told Jetley that the staff member had been let go. The bank also clarified its password policy, stating, "Customers can have any password they choose and it is not our policy to allow staff to change the password without the customer's permission." Lloyds did note that it is "disappointing" that Jetley chose to express his dissatisfaction by changing his password, indicating, perhaps, that he should have expressed his satisfaction by finding a different bank.

Oh, yeah, I can see this on SNL for sure.

We had some very good friends over for dinner last night. We always enjoy their company and it had been a while since we had visited with them. Laura has celiac disease so I was not sure what I could prepare for her to eat. I googled (God bless Google, huh?) celiac disease recipes and of course came up with a ton of stuff. Okay, I'm not a gourmet chef by any stretch of the imagination, but I enjoy cooking dinner for my family and friends, so I was really at a loss here.

Ordinarily I might make chicken enchiladas or a meatloaf dinner, but both recipes have wheat flour - gluten - in them (I'll post my recipes below - I'm a short-cut cook - I like easy!!). So, we all decided that burgers and hot dogs on the grill would be great. Laura brought her own bun and everything else was okay for her.

But the highlight of my cooking evening was dessert. I found a flour-less peanut butter cookie recipe that fits my style: easy. Laura said it was the first pb cookie she had in over three years. I was so happy to oblige and she was happy for the simple recipe. We also had Breyer's All Natural Ice Cream and a chocolate syrup that I found at Market Street called AH!Laska Organic Chocolate Syrup that is gluten free, tree nut free, this free, that free, but FULL of wonderful chocolaty taste. Do I sound like a commercial? The cookies, the ice cream, the syrup, ahhhhh, was a taste delight.

Our evening ended way too soon, but we all had kiddos to put in bed so we'll have to get together again soon! But for those reading this, enjoy the recipes below:

Flour-less Peanut Butter Cookies
(good for those who can't eat gluten - and good for everyone else, too!!)
1 Cup Peanut Butter (I used an organic creamy, but whatever PB you use will work)
1 Cup Sugar
1 Egg
1 tsp real vanilla (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Roll into balls and place on greased cookie sheet or baking stone. Flatten in criss-cross with a fork. Bake 10-12 minutes and allow to cool. They might be crumbly, but oh so tasty.

Lori's Chicken Enchiladas
I cook without measuring many times, so bear with me on this.
Servings: oh, I don't know...four or so
2-3 chicken breasts
8 flour tortillas
1 pk cream cheese
1 tub of sour cream (I think it is the 8oz size - not the biggie)
1 small can of green chilies (I like Hatch the best)
grated cheddar cheese - how much depends on how much you like cheese, I guess!
1 can red Enchilada sauce (again, I like Hatch the best)

Oven on 350. Grease a glass baking dish (I would guess a cake pan will do the same) to hold enchiladas. Cut cooked chicken breasts into small pieces and set aside On each tortilla, spread equal amounts of cream cheese, then top with a dollop of sour cream - saving some sour cream for the top of your enchiladas. Spoon a little bit of green chilies on each tortilla, then place chicken on each tortilla. Sprinkle each tortilla with grated cheese then roll up and place side by side in greased dish. Top with remaining sour cream and top with enchilada sauce and more grated cheese. Pop in the oven until cheese is good and melted. Yummy. Tasty and most definitely not low fat!

Easy Meat Loaf
Again, I rarely measure anything. It's my Grandmothers' fault. They would add a pinch, throw in a dollop, smell if it is ready, etc.
1 pound lean ground beef
1 egg (maybe two depending on how much bread goes in)
1 cup spaghetti sauce (or ketchup, but sauce already has more seasonings in it)
1 cup bread crumbs (I have used the Italian seasoned crumbs)

Mix all together, pop in oven at 350 for about an hour and voila`, meatloaf. Easy. Add in some mashed potatoes and green beans and you're set for dinner.

John McCain (or the people around him) must be one of the most clever persons around. Following up on the heels of the Democratic National Convention, he announces his Vice-Presidential running mate, Alaska governor Sarah Palin - a woman!!!

No matter how this election turns out, it will be historic. We will either have our first woman VP or our first African-American president. How cool is that? As long as the candidates are ready and capable of leading and have the right stuff to do so, it is cool.

But I say John McCain is very clever because, well think about it....the Dems can't say she is too young because Obama is only three years older, if they say she doesn't have enough experience, well, Pot, meet Kettle. And the kicker for me was if anyone dare says she can't lead, or she's not ready because she has young children, especially a baby with Down's Syndrome, oh my, can you imagine the backlash from mothers all over the country?? Ouch.

Oh, it is politics and there will be more negatives pouring out of both camps than positives, and everyone's dirty laundry will be aired, but for this brief moment...the smartest move seems to be on the side of GOP.

Election year. Don't you just love it.

Home schooling is going pretty well for us so far. Hunter has told me on more than one occasion how much he is liking home school. He should. So far, we've gotten done with school work by 10 or 11 o'clock in the morning with an 8am starting time. Next week we'll add in a few more subjects, so it should take us until Noon to complete the work. Of course, that's not counting any outings we make.

On Monday we had a "Not Back to School" party with one of the home school groups and Hunter met another boy named Hunter, who is also 7 years old, and is also in 2nd grade. Both boys thought that was the coolest thing ever! Then yesterday we met up at our neighborhood park with another group and Hunter got to meet even more boys to play with.

I heard a moms yesterday talking about the "socialization" issue many have with home schoolers. The point was made that at "school" you meet and play with kids from your same age group and for the most part, the same socio-economic status (with district boundaries and all). In home school groups, you meet and play with kids of different ages and different socio-economic backgrounds. More likely what you'll meet and work with in the real world. I had not thought about it that way, but yeah, Hunter likes to play with older and younger kids as well as kids his age (and with the same name!).

Hadyn is just blending in with all of this so well. I realized today that she is actually going to be picking up on so much more than I would have been doing with her if Hunter were away at school all day. This morning I gave her a coloring book and her crayons at the table while we were doing school work. I had her repeat the color names back to me and then we would say them in Spanish. It was then I realized, I wouldn't be this detailed with her right now otherwise. And she seems to like having bubby around all the time, too.

Well, I'm being told it's lunchtime. And Backyardigans is almost over.

Today is the first day of school for many North Texas kiddos. Mine, too, however we are homeschooling, so it's back to school work, not necessarily back to school. Hunter was so excited this morning to start. We got up early and got ready as if we were leaving to make it to class by 8am, and at 8 o'clock, we started. He did a journal page - and wrote about how excited he is - then we started with our first day of work.

I'm using the My Father's World curriculum for 2nd grade, so everything is pretty much laid out for me. I've got a board on the wall showing what all we have scheduled for the day and will check off as we finish. Today we learned what the Pledge of Allegiance means:

Okay, I'm dragging out my soapbox again, but this time regarding track athletes in the Olympics. PEOPLE, YOU ARE OLYMPIC ATHLETES - KEEP RUNNING UNTIL YOU CROSS THE FINISH LINE!!

I am so frustrated with watching these athletes in qualifying and finals slowing up before they cross the finish line. I still remember well over 20 years after the fact that you don't ever do that. I would have gotten my tuckus chewed off for doing that and here I'm watching world class athletes doing it. Am I the only one that had a coach to ride my butt like that? I just watched one guy just nearly lose out on all medals because of it, but no one points that out.

Whatever. Yeah, I'm not an Olympic athlete so what do I know?

Oh yeah, I also know that you should have the baton firmly in your closed hand before you pull your hand away from it. Bummer.

August 15th
At Hunter's request, today we went white water rafting in Taos, NM, on the Rio Grande. It was awesome. The water level wasn't too bad and we got some Class 3 rapids. Hunter wants to go back in May or June (however, I think the water level will be too much for him to be able to go on then). Yeah, he's hooked. And he did great. Our river guide, Jake at Far Flung Adventures, was so excellent and worked with Hunter so well.

Yeah, Scott and I will want to go back and try some more adventurous rapids for more adrenaline rush!

My baby girl is 22 months old today. We are only two months away from her being a whole 2 years old. Man, time flies and crawls at the same time.

It seems it was just a few months ago that I was miserably pregnant with her, but on the other hand we look at each other questionably and wonder how 22 months can seem like 10 years! HA!

I just have to look at this cutie pie smile and laugh. This is why God made her so cute - to make up for the fiesty, stubborn, onery little girl that she is.

Precious!