I am Proud to be an American

~~~~~~~~~~At a time when our president and other politicians tend to apologize for our country's prior actions, here's a refresher on how some of our former patriots handled negative comments about our country.~~~~~~~~~

JFK'S Secretary of State, Dean Rusk, was in France in the early-60s when De Gaulle decided to pull out of NATO. De Gaulle said he wanted all US military out of France as soon as possible. Rusk responded, "Does that include those who are buried here?" De Gualle did not respond.
You could have heard a pin drop.
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When in England, at a fairly large conference, Colin Powell was asked by the Archbishop of Canterbury if our plans for Iraq were just an example of 'empire building' by George Bush. He answered by saying,
"Over the years, the United States has sent many of its fine young men and women into great peril to fight for freedom beyond our borders. The only amount of land we have ever asked for in return is enough to bury those that did not return."
You could have heard a pin drop.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

There was a conference in France where a number of international engineers were taking part, including French and American. During a break, one of the French engineers came back into the room saying, "Have you heard the latest dumb stunt Bush has done? He has sent an aircraft carrier to Indonesia to help the tsunami victims. What does he intend to do, bomb them?"

A Boeing engineer stood up and replied quietly: "Our carriers have three hospitals on board that can treat several hundred people; they are nuclear powered and can supply emergency electrical power to shore facilities; they have three cafeterias with the capacity to feed 3,000 people three meals a day,they can produce several thousand gallons of fresh water from sea water each day, and they carry half a dozen helicopters for use in transporting victims and injured to and from their flight deck.We have eleven such ships; how many does France have?"
You could have heard a pin drop.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A U.S. Navy Admiral was attending a naval conference that included Admirals from the U.S., English, Canadian, Australian and French Navies. At a cocktail reception, he found himself standing with a large group of officers that included personnel from most of those countries. Everyone was chatting away in English as they sipped their drinks but a French admiral suddenly complained that, whereas Europeans learn many languages, Americans learn only English. He then asked, "Why is it that we always have to speak English in these conferences rather than speaking French?"
Without hesitating, the American Admiral replied, "Maybe it's because the Brits, Canadians, Aussies and Americans arranged it so you wouldn't have to speak German."
You could have heard a pin drop.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
And this story fits right in with the above...

Robert Whiting, an elderly gentleman of 83, arrived in Paris by plane. At French Customs, he took a few minutes to locate his passport in his carry on. "You have been to France before, Monsieur?" the customs officer asked sarcastically. Mr. Whiting admitted that he had been to France previously. "Then you should know enough to have your passport ready."

The American said, "Well, the last time I was here, I didn't have to show it."
"Impossible!! Americans always have to show their passports on arrival in France!"
The American senior gave the Frenchman a long hard look. Then he quietly explained, ''Well, when I came ashore at Omaha Beach on D-Day in 1944 to help liberate this country, I couldn't find a single Frenchmen to show a passport to."
You could have heard a pin drop.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
If you are proud to be an American, please pass this on!
I am proud to be of this land. . . AMERICA.

I really have not managed

to get quite as much knitting done this month as I usually do. Might be the weather or maybe the other projects we have had going on. Never the less, all I have to show you are these two pieces.

I really love this little skirt. If you look closely at the first picture, you can get a glimpse of the white panties under it

I made these pants because I do not have much that is specifically boy. I was hoping to have enough yarn left to make a hat also, but once I got the little tie done for the waistband, there was nothing left.

I am also working on a project for a friend who wants 20 Waldo hats for her Halloween party. I am working on the eighth. Hope I manage to finish them in time:)

It is pretty difficult when you are 2 1/2 and 5 1/2

To spend the whole day with Great Grandma. Especially if it is cold and rainy and we have to stay inside.

But this week, it was sunny and we got to go outside.

We got to inspect Uncle Larry's new chicken coop

And hide in Uncle Kevin's raspberry patch.

And smell his flowers

And help Great Grandma pull some weeds

We even got to climb around on Uncle Kevin's waterfall above his pond. The water was turned off.

All in all it was a pretty good day. Even Great Grandma was happier because she could go outside for a little while. It gets pretty boring for her just sitting in her chair all day long and for us when we cannot play like little kids are suppose to do.

I was browsing Face Book

And discovered this amazing (I think) picture my grandson drew. Just thought I would share it with you.

All in pencil.

Recipe Swap Thursday

Therese, at The Musings of a Mom hosts a Recipe Swap every Thursday, I thought I would share this great and easy salad Stan and I enjoyed at
Anthony's Home Port in Everett on our Anniversary.

1 bag of prewashed baby spinach

6-8 large strawberries sliced

Toasted Almonds or Hazelnuts.

The restaurant served it with Hazelnuts, we fixed it at home with Almonds

Girards Raspberry dressing

Poppy Seeds

For Stan and I, I place a serving of spinach on a plate. One bag makes 4-6 salads, depending on how much spinach you like.

I add two sliced strawberries each serving

toasted nuts, sprinkled with poppy seeds and dressing to taste.

We enjoyed this as a meal with some French bread, buttered and topped with Herbs de Provence and toasted under the broiler.

Stan asks me why I

always take my camera with me wherever I go. Well, it is for moments just like this!! Four bucks in a field just down the road from our house. I took the pictures from my car window because I was afraid I would spook them if I got out.

There was one spike and three prong horns. Olivia was so excited to watch them. It was the first thing she told Great Grandma when we got to her house.

July 10, 1965

Young, in love, idealistic

July 10, 2010,

Older, in love, smarter.

45 years. We have experienced the highest of highs together. We have reached the peaks together, and we have fallen into the deepest of valleys together. Always, our love of God, and one another has sustained us.

Our love has matured, it is no longer a young love based on feelings, physical and emotional. It is now a love based on maturity and respect. I love you as much today, Stan, as I did when I was 18.

Here is to at least 25 more years.

I do not know what happened to the second picture. It was visible on my blog all day yesterday, although I was told others could not see it. Today it is not on my blog and I cannot seem to fix it. Oh well, wasn't ment to be:)

Summer Reading List

If you have not visited the fun blog listed on my side bar, it is time. It is called BlogTrotting.

They are having a great time connecting other bloggers and allowing each a moment to shine and showcase their little corner of the world.

Currently, they are asking us to share our summer reading list with them. I do very little leisure reading, but I will share with you what I hope to finish this summer.

1. The Overton Window. A novel by Glenn Beck.

I bought it two weeks ago, but Jesse took it home to read it so I have to get it back from him. I do want to read it before I go to Washington DC in August.

2. Culture of Corruption by Michelle Malkin. I first became aware of Michelle when she lived and worked in Seattle for the Seattle Times. Michelle is the founder of two of the Internet's top conservative blogs, michellemalkin.com and hotair.com. Michelle tells it like it is with absolutely no pandering.

3. Courage and Consequence by Carl Rove. I am about 1/4 of the way into this book. It has been put aside though because of the painting and because it seems that if I sit down with empty hands, my knitting needles seem to find their way into them. Really, I need to finish this one.

4. Finally, Conservative Victory by Sean Hannity. I think this man is a true American Patriot.

For years, he has been sponsoring concerts every summer. All of the proceeds from these concerts go into an account to pay for education of the children of our fallen warriors. Some day, God willing,I will be able to attend one of his concerts.

I know, probably to many this is a boring list, but it is my list and I am sticking to it:)

Paint

We are making some paint progress.

Thursday's are one of Stan's days off, so yesterday, in spite of the 90+ weather, we did a little painting.

The first three pictures are of our living/dining room and the last two are still in the kitchen. The red is the same red we used in the kitchen.

Since this is mainly a large open space with just a short division wall between the kitchen and living/dining room, I want to use the same paint throughout.

The wall behind both of the tables are the same color. It is called Sand.

The ceiling and all other walls are painted a lighter shade of sand. We have a little of it on the wall and ceiling in the living/dining room.

I have to say, I absolutely love the colors and am very anxious to finish the job. The ceiling is a huge job, but maybe we can get it finished this weekend. After we finish the paint, we will be replacing all of the trim. So far, we are planning to paint it the light sand color.

Maybe I will be able to post "finished" paint pictures by Monday.

Stan"s Day off

Our walls on Wednesday night.

Thursday Morning Stan started priming. It was actually a pretty shade of gray.

By afternoon he was painting. I started helping at this point, doing some of the cutting for him

Before we took the tape and paper off. We were actually still painting the other wall.

Two walls finished and I love it!!

We still have not found the perfect color for the other walls and this weekend, I am sure we wil prime and paint the living room side of the wall with the door way in it.

We brought home a taupe, but it just was not right so went back for more color swatches tonight. We will definitely know when we have found it though:)

Stan cracked a good one while he was up on the ladder. With the straightest of straight faces he said to me, "Our taxes went up on the house." As I was blustering about how can they in this economy, he said, "Yeah, they said something about reading about all of the improvements on Face Book."

He does have a good one at times:)