Political Rant

I know that this election is definitely a hot topic and that people’s emotions are running high, but I had a pretty crazy encounter dealing with the election. At work, I’m working at a different library branch (I won’t mention it by name, but most of my friends and family know) and the patrons are very different than where I was before. A few days ago an older man stopped by the desk just to tell me that I “better not vote for Obama or he’ll come back and get me” and when I told him that he won’t know who I vote for he said “Oh, I’ll know, so you better not vote for Obama!” This was completely out of the blue, no previous conversation, I wasn’t wearing anything political or anything. Just an old man yelling about how I shouldn’t vote for Obama. Now, why was this necessary? It just irritates me to no end that people assume that if you look like them or live in the same community that you must be just like them and think like them. Sorry old man, not the case.

And while I’m complaining about the election and politics in general I’ll go ahead and vent about another issue: Christians and politics. Why do people assume that if you profess to be a Christian that you are going to vote Republican? I am a Christian and I’m not ashamed to say that in all the Presidential elections I’ve voted in so far, I’ve yet to vote for a Republican and I’m a registered Democrat. When I tell some of my Christian friends this, they are shocked. I think that Christians tend to forget that Jesus was one of the most radical and revolutionary figures of His time. I’ll even go so far as to say that Jesus was pretty liberal for His time too. I also think more Christians need to think beyond the abortion issue when they are voting. If anyone is using birth control, then you need to think hard about the slippery slope of reversing rights. I think this election is making people think more about a lot of issues – and I hope that more Christians can see past the party stereotypes and vote for who they think is the best candidate regardless of their party affiliation. I also hope that Christians can at least try to be more open-minded and not assume that the world’s going to hell if a Republican is not in office. We are supposed to believe that God is in control – and I believe He is in control whether a Democrat or a Republican is in office.

New Sandy Pictures

Here is a new picture of Sandy basking in the sun...

Here is Sandy hiding/sleeping inside a blanket - this is her new favorite thing to do!

September Birthday Dinner

Here are me & Chad (above) and me & my Dad (below) outside of the Cheesecake Factory where we went for the September Birthday dinner this year.

Jessica's Birthday Dinner

Here is a picture of me & Chad before we went out for my birthday dinner at Outback.

Here's the birthday cake Chad got for me!

Cabarrus County Fair

This year Chad & I decided to check out the Cabarrus County Fair. I had never been before. It was pretty cool - lots of animals that could win prizes, crafts, fair food and rides. We mostly looked at the animals and then got some food. Here are some of the animal "families" we saw. Here is a donkey family.

Here is a goat family.

My favorite "family" - the pig with all the babies.

Chad & Jessica at the Fair

Here's Chad standing by one of the John Deere tractors.

Here's me in front of the craft area.

Here's Chad at the highlight of our day at the fair - eating a funnel cake. Probably the last funnel cake we'll get to eat this year. Summer = funnel cakes for us!

Jessica's Birthday Trip

For my birthday this year Chad & I both took the day off work and we decided to go to the Lazy 5 Ranch in Mooresville. It is a drive through park with all kinds of animals - both "regualar" and exotic. They also have a petting zoo area and some other animals that you can look at, but not pet. Because most people feed these animals while they drive through, when you drive up they all come running hoping that you have food for them. Here is one of the llamas looking at Chad and hoping for some food.

Here is some kind of deer/antelope thing looking in my window for food.

There were also a lot of emu and ostriches and they come right up to the car too. Here's a picture of an ostrich with some baby ostriches - the baby ones were cute, but the adults kindof freaked me out.

Some of the more exotic animals

There were a few really exotic animals at the Ranch, including this Zebra who came right up to our truck.

They also had a few giraffes too.

This guy was running around with hay stuck in his horns, which was pretty funny.

I think he may be some type of antelope, but I'm not sure.

Cow pictures

Here is a herd of some kind of cows, you can see two calves play fighting.

Here is one of the cows with HUGE horns.

Here are some Water Buffalo with their calves too.

The "sandy" Deer

There were tons of deer at the Ranch and I started calling them the "sandy" deer because their fur was kindof reddish and it reminded me of our cat Sandy's fur.

Here's a close up of a "sandy" deer.

More animals...

Here's one of the llamas up close and personal...

There were a lot of goat/deer/hooved animals that I really wasn't sure what they were at the Ranch. These guys below were very persistant and followed our truck very closely hoping for some food.

These goat type animals were always near the tree roots and sometimes blended in with the color of the roots.

Pigs, pigs everywhere!

I think my absolutely favorite animals at the Ranch were the pigs. I know pigs are not exotic, but I think they are so cute. There were lots of pigs of all different sizes and ages - even some very tiny babies as you can see in the next few pictures.

Here's a close up of one of the baby pigs - so cute!

Prarie Dogs

At the Ranch they had a Prarie Dog mound - I'm not sure how many were in there, but you can see one of them starting to peek out of one of the holes.

Here's another one eating.

Me & Chad at Lazy 5 Ranch

Here's Chad in front of a very old John Deere tractor.

Here's me with one of the goats.

Some of the "un-pettable" animals

There are quite a few other animals at the Lazy 5 Ranch that are not allowed to be petted - some for very good reason. There were 4 or 5 camels, but only this one came up close to the fence.

Here are some animals you definitely wouldn't want to pet - porcupines!

There were also 3 giant tortoises.

Ring-tailed Lemurs

There was an island of Ring-tailed Lemurs. They were very fun to watch jumping all over the place and playing together.

Here's a picture of me in front of their island.

Sleeping In

I LOVE to sleep in whenever I can. Almost every day that I go into work late or have the day off and I'm able to sleep in I wake up to find both of the cats on the bed with me. This morning even after I got up for breakfast they both stayed in bed and Sandy even moved over to take my spot too. I think they like sleeping even more than me!

Harrisburg Flooding

Because of the remnants of Tropical Storm Fay Charlotte and the surrounding areas had a lot of flooding. Cabarrus county schools had to cancel classes one day because of the widespread flooding. We were very fortunate that we didn't have any flooding at our house or in our immediate area. But, Chad's parents neighborhood was completely flooded and people had to be evacuated in boats! Luckily Chad's parent's house is up on a hill and did not have any flooding or damage. Here is a picture of their road when conditions are normal...

...and here it is totally flooded over.

Chad said the water was waist deep over the road here.

More Flood Pictures

This is someone's driveway and mailbox.

Here's the "normal" picture...

...and the day it flooded.

C & J Services new tradition

C & J Services has officially been in business for 1 year and is still going strong! Last year Chad had me help him work on Labor Day since he had just started the business and this year he had me working again on the Friday before Labor Day. He said that will be C & J Services new tradition that I always help him sometime during Labor Day weekend! Here's a picture of Chad using his new paint sprayer.

Here's a picture of me painting the hitch of a trailer.

Here's a picture of the finished trailer we worked on.