Response to your comments...

Wow! I love people with opinions!!!! Thank you for sharing! Don't worry K about the anonymous person, I know who it is and I respect this person's opinions and he always makes me think and see the other side of the coin. I completely respect what everyone has shared. I'm glad I have friends and family who have opinions and share them and think about the world around them. I think that is great!!!!:) Out of all of the comments I have to say that my good friend Mike's comment summarizes what I think a lot of us have expressed. (Mike, I hope you don't' mind me putting your comment in this post--I just think it is sooo good!)

" I was excited to read your comments and the comments of others on your blog. It was nice to hear someone who has such excitement regarding the election and voting. I wish that I could share such excitement. It is like watching a young child who still believes in Christmas. Politicians from both parties attempt to establish a persona that will appeal to the most voters. They read talks that are written by professional writers, and tell the public what they want to hear. They take polls through companies like Western Watts and then repeat what we want to hear as often as they can. The democratic convention and both conventions, for that matter, were like watching or listening to the Miss America contest—with less cleavage. Both parties are going to fix the energy crisis, cure cancer, cure AIDS, or end world hunger. Both parties claim to understand the common man, both parties are supposedly going to lower taxis and both parties claim that the other party is only catering to special interest groups. In truth both parties are pandering to special interest groups. I am from Idaho, the land of Larry Craig. Larry is the senator who stood up to the big politicians for Idaho’s interests, the man who fought for small town values. He is also the man who was arrested for soliciting sex in an airport bathroom stall. I wish I was more optimistic in our future. I wish that good honest people who actually wanted to create positive change where running for office—and I wish that I still believed in Santa Clause."

If only there was a person who would lead us righteously in every way and we knew for a fact that they were not misleading us in any way. But there isn't and we just have to work with what we have and go with what we think is right for each of us. By the way, I saw Sara Palin give her speech last night and I thought she is a very capable woman. I never really questioned whether she was capable or not, it just didn't seem to me like I could identify with her (I may have judged her too harshly before actually getting to know her, I tend to do that sometimes in my life!!!:):) But after listening to her speech I thought her stance on a lot of issues was right on and I liked what she said about the elite in Washington, she's not there to make friends with lobbyist and special interest groups, etc, but to really do what's right for the people of this country. I like her and may be what we need is a woman like her in Washington to straighten all of those men up!!!!:):) ha ha ha!!!!! :):):):):) (I love what she said about selling the jet plane on ebay!!! That's great!)

This is going to be a hard decision my friends!!!! I hope we can all be happy with our decision!!! I guess that is all that really matters, as long as we think that we are voting for the "better" person, I think we can call it good!!! And just pray to Heavenly Father that they will make righteous and intelligent decisions for this country!!!:) I guess if we do our part with our own selves and our families and try to make good citizens out of our children, we can hope for a better day! I have to say though that I was impressed with everyone's ideas and opinions. Thanks for sharing with me what you think and not be afraid to speak up your opinions. We don't all have to agree with one another, that is one of the wonderful rights that we have in this country. We can speak what we think and don't get in trouble!!! I also think that an intelligent, respectful conversation, where we can exchange ideas helps us shape our own ideas and not be so closed minded. Thanks for the AWESOME conversation!!!!:)

COMMENTS HAVE BEEN CLOSED ON BOTH OF THESE SECTIONS :):):):) THANKS FOR SHARING YOUR OPINIONS!!! I read every single one of them!!!

My Beef with Sara Palin and John McCain

I love politics. I've always been interested in politics and I've never been afraid to talk about it. I know people say "don't talk about politics or religion" but I love a good conversation about both. Without a question politics and morals are linked in every way and therefore a controversial issue. I have been particularly interested in this presidential election because I will be able to vote this year!!!!! Yay!!!! As you all know by now, John McCain picked Sara Palin (governor of Alaska) to be his V.P. and Obama picked Joe Biden (senator from Delaware and he also tried to run for president in this election, all of the democratic debates that I watched I always thought he was right on in a lot of issues). I had no clue who Sara Palin was, to be honest. After googling her, I found that she is a very accomplished woman politically, she's married and has 5 children (the youngest is just a few months old). Her oldest daughter is only 17 years old and is pregnant and "plans" to marry the father.

Now, I hope you don't find what I'm going to say discriminating or critical against women in politics and careers because I think women are every bit capable of finding success doing anything they want to do. I'm a huge supporter of women getting an education and I have found deep satisfaction in my (short) career as a teacher (that hopefully is not over). However, I also strongly believe that "no success will ever compensate for failure in the home". I'm not sure if I find the 17 year old daughter being pregnant a complete failure, after all we can't expect our children to make good choices all the time and I have no clue what type of parent Mrs. Palin is. BUT (and this is where the BIG but comes) being the vice president of the United States is not a job where you can pick your hours and work 2 or 3 hours a day, (it's not even an 8 to 5 kind of job) and then go home to care for your family and actually be there for them. Unless you are superwoman (and you have more than 24 hours in one day)--and if that is possible please tell me what you're taking, what you're doing or what planet you live in--because in my world I had a hard enough time working 3 hours a day and caring for my young children. In my humble opinion, there is NO WAY you can give 100% to a full-time career and motherhood, but then again that is just Denisse talking. If she gets elected, someone else will raise her children. That is the simple truth. (Like someone else has been raising her children throughout her political career). Some may say it is really none of my business and it really isn't. But that fact totally changes the way I feel about voting republican. They say they are pro-life but if you are going to bring children into this world then give them what they are "entitled" to, and that is "to be reared by a father and a mother" (as hard as it might be sometimes). Again, in my opinion, the answer to ALL of our social problems (teen pregnancy, drug abuse, children not reading well and therefore not succeding in school, crime, etc, etc, etc) lies in the home, in the family. Of course there are times when you are there with your children trying the best you can and they make mistakes, but then at least I as a parent will have peace of mind knowing that I tried the very best that I could.

The other issue I have is with McCain. Did McCain pick a woman as his V.P for the heck of strategy or did he really think about it and decided that this is what is best for the United States??? I think he is just competing against Obama. It is all about strategy right now. The question I keep asking myself is, "If I vote republican, am I just voting because they "supposedly" have similar moral values as I do? and is that all that really should matter when you vote?" And of course McCain picking Palin for his V.P. is not the only thing I disagree with in McCain's platform, there's other ones like his stand on the war, education, economic reform, etc, etc. Yeah, we know what Obama's stand is on abortion, I'm against it. That is the ONLY issue that bothers me about him. I think he is exceptional and I don't believe in all the right winged emails that I get trashing him. I have been to his website and I have read every single stand on the issues and I agree with him on most of them. There is another website that you can visit http://americanpublicmedia.publicradio.org/engage08/selectacandidate/ and it will give you a bunch of issues and you choose the one you agree with. When you are done, it will tell you who you agreed with on most of the issues. Anyway, I wish I was better educated in some of the issues. I do have strong opinions about a lot of them. But at the end of the day I'm going to go with the person I agree with on most of the issues and also with my gut! I'm interested in knowing what you think. If you can tell me something that will change my mind about McCain/Palin I want to know. I may be opening a can of worms, but it's ok...I'm all for a good conversation. :)

A day with Jonathan, Daija and the belly...

Our dear friends Jonathan and Daija came to see us on Wednesday for the day. We had such a great time with them and I was about to bawl my eyes out when they left! You really forget how much fun you have with old friends until you see each other again. We met up with Scott in DC and had lunch with him then came home and Jon and Daij just spent the day with me and the kids!!!! It was soooo nice to be with them and see Daija with her little belly!!! She looks sooo cute and I can't wait to see what her baby is going to look like!!! We took the kids to the playground and it was cute to watch Jonathan with them, he is going to be such a good daddy soon!!! We had dinner and of course we played some Canasta Caliente!!! When they lived in Stonebrook we played Settlers of Catan or Canasta Caliente every Sunday at our house and enjoyed Daija's chocolate chip cookies!!!! (the best chocolate chip cookies EVER!!!!). We miss those days...it was just like the good old days on Wednesday! Oh man! I miss those guys! We were able to feel their little baby kick! It was awesome!!!! I had forgotten how cool it is when the baby kicks! He is really active!!! Thanks for coming guys! We can't wait for Thanksgiving!!!!! (and we can't wait to hold the little one!!!)

Jonners is always making us laugh with the funny faces he makes. He loves to quote movies, this time he was quoting Nacho Libre!!! It was hilarious!!! We were laughing so hard!!!

Since the kids broke our camera we had to get a new one. I was sooo happy when it arrived that evening so I could take pictures with Jon and Daij. We were having fun playing with the settings. We had such a great time playing Canasta, even though the boys wasted us!!!! There will be a revenge though when we see each other on Thanksgiving!!!!!! It's not over boys!!!!!

Here is Daija sad that we lost!!! ha ha!!!! Don't worry Daij we will waste them next time!!!

Can't wait to meet the little guy!!!

Show us the muscles!!!

These two can be really silly together!!!

White Coat Ceremony

Scott is officially a medical student!!!!! Wooo hooooo!!!!:) He had his White Coat Ceremony this last Saturday. The ceremony was looong and the kids had a hard time but thankfully my mom and my brother were kind enough to watch them for most of the ceremony, so I was able to sit and listen to the speakers and share this special moment with Scott. It was quite inspirational and it made us very grateful that Scott is going into this profession. We are proud of Scott and this huge accomplishment! Now, he will get to work for the next 4 years and we will hardly ever see him!!! (then 3 more of residency and 2 more if he wants to specialize!!) We have a loooooong road ahead of us. But we are so happy to be here and grateful for so many blessings!!! He started orientation last Wednesday and today is his last day. Tomorrow he will officially start with classes. The hard work and long hours of study are here again!!! Everyone he has talked to has told him that the first year is very hard. I guess he will have to get into the routine and it will definitely make us grateful for the few hours a day we will have together. The kids had gotten used to seeing their daddy all day this last month. Brielle told me this morning in a very concerned voice, "mommy, I miss my daddy". I told her that her daddy is studying to be a doctor so he can help people. She responded with a frustrated tone, "I don't want daddy be a doctor" I told her, "doctors help people", she said, "oh, they help people, oh". It is so cute that she misses Scott and is so concerned all the time about where her daddy is.

I had the chance to meet a few of Scott's classmates, everyone is very nice and friendly. There are 177 students this year, 110 of that total are women, that leaves only 67 men in the class. Most everyone is single or dating. Scott is among the few students who is married with children, which I think is neat and makes him unique. His class is so diverse, there are students from so many different backgrounds. It is so neat!!! There are 2 other guys from BYU. He is the only BYU-Idaho student. While they were taking this picture we were there with the kids...Brielle wanted her daddy soooo bad. I kept telling her, "Brielle, you can't go right now, your daddy has to smile for the picture." Then, in a VERY loud voice she says in front of everyone, "SMIIILLEEE!!" All of the students started laughing...Scott had this huge smile on his face and turned bright red!!! It was a cute moment!

After the picture, the kids ran to their daddy and they both wanted to be held. In this picture Brielle is VERY upset that Scott is also holding Braden...

We attempted to get a picture of the 4 of us, but it didn't happen...Only the 3 of us ended up in the picture!

By the end of the whole thing, the kids had had it!!! They were hungry, hot and tired!!! You can tell in this picture that Brielle wasn't a happy camper!!! (By the way, my brother Kem took all of these pictures, he always catches the perfect moments!!!)

I am proud of this man!!!:)

There are statues of George Washington all over campus. Funny Brielle story:

When we first got here we went on campus to drop off some financial aid papers. The kids and I decided to wait for Scott outside. We were walking around and Brielle looked at the statue and pointing at it asked, "Mommy, who's that?" I told her that his name was George Washington and that he was the first president of the United States. She kept repeating his name for a while. A few days later, we were having a little FHE with the kids and I was telling them about prophets and I was showing them a picture of Joseph Smith and then I showed them a picture of President Monson and asked them who it was. Brielle said, "that's George Washington!" It was one of the funniest things I've ever heard her say!!!! I was laughing so hard!!! I had to explain to her that he wasn't George Washington and that President Monson is another kind of president!!!:)

Walking on campus to the metro station. Scott has to take the metro to go into DC. I drive him to the metro station from our house, which is about a 10 minute drive, then he has a 25-30 minute ride to GWU. The stop is right in the university though, he walks about 100 feet to his building.

It is quite the experience to ride the metro with kids...it's fun for the most part and sometimes it is just a lot easier to drive to the metro, park our car there and take the metro when we go to DC. Parking can be crazy there, they have meters for up to 3 hour parking but you are always worried that you have to get back to your car before it expires...anyway, the metro tends to just be a lot easier!!!

Brielle is covering her ears from the noise the train makes when it goes under the tunnels. She likes riding the train though and both Brielle and Braden say choo-choo and they get excited when the train starts moving!

After the nice ceremony, we went to my mom's and had the best food in the world! Peruvian food of course!!! I'm so lucky that Scott LOVES Peruvian food!!! We had a feast! We were all exhausted by the end of the day!!! (I will post pictures of our house soon...we still have to paint the dining room, we ran out of paint...the kids broke our camera on Saturday (I have NO IDEA how it happened...I can't keep up with them!!!!!!!) I took some pictures of the house but they are in the memory card and I can't upload them into the computer because the camera is broken!!!!!! I was soooooooooo mad....I keep telling myself that it's just a material thing and it's not worth getting mad at my kids about it! I went online last night and ordered a new one (like we have all this extra money laying around...YEAH RIGHT!!!! but I can't live without a camera!!! as soon as we get the new one I will post them.)

Goodbye to Rexburg, Hello Virginia...

We finally have the internet!!!! Yay!!!! We've been waiting and waiting and we finally got connected yesterday! Oh man! Where to start...we have been crazy busy unpacking and painting and just getting situated here in Virginia...so far...we are LOVING it! It has been a wonderful change for our family and we are loving every second of it! Packing was a NIGHTMARE, I really don't know who in this life can enjoy packing! It basically was excruciating! It seemed to never end...we kept bringing stuff out to the trailer and we finally finished on Wednesday July 23rd in the evening. We were all exhausted!!! Poor children were so confused and thank goodness for our friends Matt and Sarah who watched them for us while we were packing, I don't know what we would have done without them. I'm glad it's over!!!! The next day we had a 4 hour drive to Boise to finalize my citizenship process and take the oath. We drove there and back the same day, the ceremony was neat and it was short and sweet. I am officially a naturalized citizen. Scott's mom, dad, grandma and sister were nice enough to drive all the way there to join me for the occasion. One of my very best friends Ashley and her mom Linda also joined us, I have known the Anderson's since I started college in 99, and they are like family to me!!!

Saying goodbye to Rexburg...these pictures were from our last Sunday there...

I'm official!

Ashley and I

The next day, Friday, we were planning to leave early in the morning, but of course that didn't happen...we were soooooo exhausted. We slept in, Scott's mom made a nice breakfast and we headed out around 1pm, we needed to do some shopping in Idaho Falls so we didn't actually get on the road until 3pm. We had an itinerary of the places we were going to stay. Our first stop was going to be Cheyenne, WY, we got there around 12:30am. only to find out that the biggest rodeo in the U.S. was going on that weekend and anything 2 hours west or east of Cheyenne was booked!!!! GREAT!!!!!! We were dying!!!!! The kids did sooo incredibly well considering the circumstances. We drove about 2 hours and finally found the most ghetto hotel in Sydney, Nebraska, but at almost 3 in the morning with two crying children we were grateful to Heavenly Father for this place! The next morning we MADE SURE to make reservations in Des Moines, where our next stop was going to be. The kids were truly amazing during the whole trip, we had a few times when they were screaming at the top of their lungs but overall, they watched movies and took naps. I'd sit with them in the back seat and they loved that!

The Teton's. I do get nostalgic when I think of Idaho. I'm going to miss my daily drive past the temple on my way to work and of course these beautiful mountains. I do also miss being able to see for miles and miles ahead. You can't do that here with all the trees!!!:)

On Sunday, we headed to our next stop, Cleveland, OH. We stayed with the Heaton's for 4 days and we had the best time! We are really so blessed to have them as friends! It was so relaxed and we visited some of the Church sites there and it was incredible!!!!! We left Thursday and stayed with my mom in Arlington. Our trailer got here on Friday. My brother Kem helped Scott unload everything!!!! I really don't know what we would have done without Kem!!!! Gracias hermanito!!!!!:)

At the Kirtland Temple, I love those beautiful green doors.

Justin and Stacey were awesome, they watched our kids while we toured the sites. Thanks guys!

Aren't these 3 the cutest little kids you've ever seen???? (And Jack is making the move on Brielle already!!!!!!! ha ha ha ha ha!!!!) I love that little boy!!!! He has the cutest personality!!!

Johnson's Farm

This is at the Johnson's farm as well and this is one of the places where Christ appeared to the Prophet Joseph! I bawled my eyes out during this whole trip! It is impossible to deny that Joseph was a true prophet!!! Everyone needs to visit these places. Visiting these places has been one of the most spiritual experiences of my life!!! Thank you Justin and Stace for everything!!! I loved every second of being in Cleveland!!!

The Prophet Joseph stood on these very stairs!!!!

Our last day with the Heaton's.

Unpacking hasn't been as HORRIBLE as packing but it is still a pain in the butt!!!! I think that by the end of the week we will be done. We are so close to being done with painting, we just have the dining room and the kids' room. Anyway, that is the story of our move all the way here!!!:) I have to say that the worse part was definitely the packing part, the driving wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. We are ABSOLUTELY LOVING the area where we live in Fairfax. We have everything within a 10 minute drive and by everything I mean shopping. I know, I was really worried about the traffic and feeling somewhat claustrophobic with all the trees but I'm not feeling one bit claustrophobic! It might take a lot for me to move back west again!!!!:) The trees are beautiful and I guess after living in Idaho for 9 years you just get used to brown all the time. And Idaho has its own beauty and I loved every second of living there, so many good things happened to me in Idaho! (how can I NOT LOVE Idaho!!!!) but Virginia is just different. We are really enjoying our time here so far. It's only a 25 minute drive into DC (not during rush hour of course!)...the people are really friendly here and it's nice to know that there are good people in this world, no matter what their faith is.

The kids are adjusting...Brielle has had the worst time with this move. During the first week she'd say "I want to go home" like 10 times a day! It broke our hearts...I bought a puzzle map of the US and showed her where we used to live in Idaho and where we live now...I think that helped a little. She's doing a lot better and the last time I heard her say "I want to go home" was on Sunday and she only said it once. We've been going to the playground behind our condo almost everyday and they love it there! We have yet to go to the pool that is part of the community where we live. Hopefully we'll get around to it by the weekend. Our ward is really friendly, I do miss the wonderful sisters Lindsay and Stephanie from our ward in Idaho! They were awesome! And the nursery was A LOT smaller than the one at our new ward...we went from 2 or 3 kids to 18 to 20 kids!!!!!!

A SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE EVENTS

For the most part things did run smoothly during this whole process, but we did encounter what I have decided to label "A Series of Unfortunate Events"...

1. I will begin with the first night that we got to Virginia. We first came to the condo to get the keys and check that everything was looking good for the next day when our trailer was arriving. Everything looked good so we headed to Arlington where my family lives. We got there around 7pm. My family lives in a huge apartment building and in order for visitors to park there you have to get a visitor's parking permit from them. When we got there however, the office was closed and we didn't think it would be that big of a deal. The next day, Scott and I walked out only to find out that our car was gone. My heart started beating really fast thinking that it may have gotten stolen!!!!!!! The next worst thing happened...it had gotten towed because we didn't have a visitor's permit. My brother gave us a ride to get our car back. It was $100!!!! Our money went to these morons who decide to make a living out of towing other people's cars!!!! I better move on to the next unfortunate event before I start getting too upset about it....

2. The next thing that happened to us was our first Sunday here...we ran out of diapers...I should have checked on Saturday how we were doing with diapers, but there was too much going on. So we had to head to Wal-Mart on the Sabbath to go buy diapers. The realtor gave us two sets of keys and I don't know WHY we didn't put the house keys in with our car keys. Our house was a HUGE mess and we didn't want to spend the time searching for our keys, so we headed out without locking the door...or so we thought...when we got back it was about 9pm and our door was locked. We tried the back door, locked. We couldn't break in through any of the windows...we sat there for about 20 minutes...until this nice couple walked in and asked if we were ok...we told them what had happened...she let us use her phone to call the realtor...hoping that he would have an extra set of keys...he was out of town, so he had to send his father-in-law to his house to go get the keys for us...we met the father-in-law there and thankfully we were able to get in to our house at around 11pm!!!!!

3. The third unfortunate event happened that Sunday as well, in nursery...Braden just turned 18 months and we were soooo happy that we were going to able to sit in Sunday School and RS and Priesthood in peace!!! We took Brielle and Braden and in a matter of 15 minutes the brother in charge was back with Braden...he had bitten 2 children in a matter of minutes!!!!! Why do kids have to bite!!!!! Anyway, so now Scott and I have to take turns staying with Braden in nursery until this whole biting thing gets under control! With almost 20 children in that nursery, I can understand how difficult it would be to keep track of every child...but he loves being there and this last Sunday he was great, he just did his own thing...children, children...