Flat Stanley Visits Utah

When Flat Stanley arrived to Utah he was happy to get out and look around to see what Utah had to offer. Flat Stanley decided he wanted to go to the hair salon because his hair was looking shaggy and needing a trim. He was seated almost immediately in a chair. Flat Stanley explained how he wanted his hair cut to the hair stylist. He was nervous when the hot hair curler came near his head. The hair stylist let him feel more at ease and that he had nothing to worry about.
After getting his hair cut, Flat Stanley had to dry his hair. He wanted to make sure his hair looked presentable for traveling in Utah.

Next Flat Stanley decided he wanted to try a manicure and a pedicure.

This was the first time Flat Stanley has ever had a manicure. He had his finger nails trimmed, filed and his hands massaged. As part of Flat Stanley’s manicure he had a clear coat of polish put on his finger nails called a top coat. Following his manicure, next came a pedicure which was done on his toe nails. His pedicure included having his toe nails trimmed, filed and his feet massaged. Flat Stanley had a clear coat of polish put on his toes after his pedicure called a top coat. It was ha rd for Flat Stanley to sit still during the pedicure because his feet are so ticklish.

After his trip to the salon Flat Stanley wanted to go and see a real basketball game. There happened to be a game that he was able to get a ticket to. So we took Flat Stanley to the Brigham Young University to see the BYU Cougars play a team called Laval. Flat Stanley was amazed at how tall all the basketball players were. He thought it would be fun to play basketball himself.

When the basketball game was over Flat Stanley was ready for more adventures. At the home he was visiting he was excited when he saw the white cougar. He thought it was a cougar because at the BYU game he saw Cosmo the Cougar. Flat Stanley rode the cougar all around the house until the cougar got tired, then he layed down with the cougar while it took a rest from all the running.

Flat Staley enjoyed all his adventures in Utah but missed his owner Aaliyah. He loved visiting Utah where there was snow in the mountains and the trees were changing colors but missed home too much so he is on his way home now.

Camping In Alaska

This is one lucky guy, but you know that he's hurting really bad.

Polar Bear Attack in the High Arctic

This is from up in the NWT, this chap is lucky to be alive. The guy survived the bear attack. The bear jumped on him while he was sleeping in his tent and he managed to get it off of him and shoot it

One tough camper!


Wish a grown man would have stood by the bear so we'd get a better sense of its size.

This guy put up a fight, ouch!

Snopes says it happened.

The President without a country

By Pat Boone

"We're no longer a Christian nation." - President Barack Obama, June 2007

"America has been arrogant." - President Barack Obama

"After 9/11, America didn't always live up to her ideals."- President Barack Obama

"You might say that America is a Muslim nation."- President Barack Obama, Egypt 2009

Thinking about these and other statements made by the man who wears the title of president. I keep wondering what country he believes he's president of.

In one of my very favorite stories, Edward Everett Hale's "The Man without a Country," a young Army lieutenant named Philip Nolan stands condemned for treason during the Revolutionary War, having come under the influence of Aaron Burr. When the judge asks him if he wishes to say anything before sentence is passed, young Nolan defiantly exclaims, "Damn the United States! I wish I might never hear of the United States again!"

The stunned silence in the courtroom is palpable, pulsing. After a long pause, the judge soberly says to the angry lieutenant: "You have just pronounced your own sentence. You will never hear of the United States again... I sentence you to spend the rest of your life at sea, on one or another of this country's naval vessels - under strict orders that no one will ever speak to you again about the country you have just cursed."

And so it was. Philip Nolan was taken away and spent the next 40 years at sea, never hearing anything but an occasional slip of the tongue about America. The last few pages of the story, recounting Nolan's dying hours in his small stateroom - now turned into a shrine to the country he fore swore - never fail to bring me to tears. And I find my own love for this dream, this miracle called America , refreshed and renewed. I know how blessed and unique we are.

But reading and hearing the audacious, shocking statements of the man who was recently elected our president - a young black man living the impossible dream of millions of young Americans, past and present, black and white - I want to ask him, "Just what country do you think you're president of?"

You surely can't be referring to the United States of America , can you? America is emphatically a Christian nation, and has been from its inception! Seventy percent of her citizens identify themselves as Christian. The Declaration of Independence and our Constitution were framed, written and ratified by Christians. It's because this was, and is, a nation built on and guided by Judeo-Christian biblical principles that you, sir, have had the inestimable privilege of being elected her president.

You studied law at Harvard, didn't you, sir? You taught constitutional law in Chicago ? Did you not ever read the statement of John Jay, the first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and an author of the landmark "Federalist Papers": "Providence has given to our people the choice of their rulers - and it is the duty, as well as the privilege and interest of our Christian nation - to select and prefer Christians for their rulers"?

In your studies, you surely must have read the decision of the Supreme Court in 1892: "Our lives and our institutions must necessarily be based upon and embody the teachings of the Redeemer of mankind. It is impossible that it should be otherwise; and in this sense and to this extent our civilization and our institutions are emphatically Christian."

Did your professors have you skip over all the high-court decisions right up till the mid 1900's that echoed and reinforced these views and intentions? Did you pick up the history of American jurisprudence only in 1947, when for the first time a phrase coined by Thomas Jefferson about a "wall of separation between church and state" was used to deny some specific religious expression - contrary to Jefferson' s intent with that statement?

Or, wait a minute . were your ideas about America 's Christianity formed during the 20 years you were a member of the Trinity United Church of Christ under your pastor, Jeremiah Wright? Is that where you got the idea that " America is no longer a Christian nation"? Is this where you, even as you came to call yourself a Christian, formed the belief that " America has been arrogant"?

Even if that's the understandable explanation of your damning of your country and accusing the whole nation (not just a few military officials trying their best to keep more Americans from being murdered by jihadists) of "not always living up to her ideals," how did you come up with the ridiculous, alarming notion that we might be "considered a Muslim nation"?

Is it because there are some 2 million or more Muslims living here, trying to be good Americans? Out of a current population of over 300 million, 70 percent of whom are Christians? Does that make us, by any rational definition, a "Muslim nation"?

Why are we not, then, a "Chinese nation"? A "Korean nation"? Even a "Vietnamese nation"? There are even more of these distinct groups in America than Muslims. And if the distinction you're trying to make is a religious one, why is America not "a Jewish nation"? There's actually a case to be made for the latter, because our Constitution - and the success of our Revolution and founding - owe a deep debt to our Jewish brothers.

Have you stopped to think what an actual Muslim America would be like? Have you ever really spent much time in Iran? Even in Egypt? You, having been instructed in Islam as a kid at a Muslim school in Indonesia and saying you still love the call to evening prayers, can surely picture our nation founded on the Quran, not the Judeo-Christian Bible, and living under Shariah law. Can't you? You do recall Muhammad's directives [Surah 9:5,73] to "break the cross" and "kill the infidel"?

It seems increasingly and painfully obvious that you are more influenced by your upbringing and questionable education than most suspected. If you consider yourself the president of a people who are "no longer Christian," who have "failed to live up to our ideals," who "have been arrogant," and might even be "considered Muslim" - you are president of a country most Americans don't recognize.

Could it be you are a president without a country?

---

My hat goes off to Pat Boone a Hollywood actor who dares to stand up and be counted for what is right.

Zen For Those Who Take Life Too Seriously

1. SAVE THE WHALES. COLLECT THE WHOLE SET.

2. A DAY WITHOUT SUNSHINE IS LIKE, NIGHT.

3. ON THE OTHER HAND, YOU HAVE DIFFERENT FINGERS.

4. I JUST GOT LOST IN THOUGHT. IT WASN'T FAMILIAR TERRITORY.

5. 42.7 PERCENT OF ALL STATISTICS ARE MADE UP ON THE SPOT.

6. 99 PERCENT OF LAWYERS GIVE THE REST A BAD NAME.

7. I FEEL LIKE I'M DIAGONALLY PARKED IN A PARALLEL UNIVERSE.

8. HONK IF YOU LOVE PEACE AND QUIET.

9. REMEMBER, HALF THE PEOPLE YOU KNOW ARE BELOW AVERAGE.

10. HE WHO LAUGHS LAST, THINKS SLOWEST.

11. DEPRESSION IS MERELY ANGER WITHOUT ENTHUSIASM.

12. THE EARLY BIRD MAY GET THE WORM, BUT THE SECOND MOUSE GETS THE CHEESE.

13. I DRIVE WAY TOO FAST TO WORRY ABOUT CHOLESTEROL.

14. SUPPORT BACTERIA. THEY'RE THE ONLY CULTURE SOME PEOPLE HAVE.

15. MONDAY IS AN AWFUL WAY TO SPEND 1/7 OF YOUR WEEK.

16. A CLEAR CONSCIENCE IS USUALLY THE SIGN OF A BAD MEMORY.

17. CHANGE IS INEVITABLE, EXCEPT FROM VENDING MACHINES.

18. GET A NEW CAR FOR YOUR SPOUSE. IT'LL BE A GREAT TRADE!

19. PLAN TO BE SPONTANEOUS TOMORROW.

20. ALWAYS TRY TO BE MODEST, AND BE PROUD OF IT!

21. IF YOU THINK NOBODY CARES, TRY MISSING A COUPLE OF PAYMENTS.

22. HOW MANY OF YOU BELIEVE IN PSYCHO-KINESIS? RAISE MY HAND.

23. OK, SO WHAT'S THE SPEED OF DARK?

24. HOW DO YOU TELL WHEN YOU'RE OUT OF INVISIBLE INK?

25. IF EVERYTHING SEEMS TO BE GOING WELL, YOU HAVE OBVIOUSLY OVERLOOKED SOMETHING.

26. WHEN EVERYTHING IS COMING YOUR WAY, YOU'RE IN THE WRONG LANE.

27. HARD WORK PAYS OFF IN THE FUTURE. LAZINESS PAYS OFF NOW.

28. EVERYONE HAS A PHOTOGRAPHIC MEMORY. SOME JUST DO NOT HAVE FILM.

29. IF BARBIE IS SO POPULAR, WHY DO YOU HAVE TO BUY HER FRIENDS?

30. HOW MUCH DEEPER WOULD THE OCEAN BE WITHOUT SPONGES?

31. EAGLES MAY SOAR, BUT WEASELS DO NOT GET SUCKED INTO JET ENGINES.

32. WHAT HAPPENS IF YOU GET SCARED HALF TO DEATH TWICE?

33. I USED TO HAVE AN OPEN MIND BUT MY BRAINS KEPT FALLING OUT.

34. I COULDN'T REPAIR YOUR BRAKES, SO I MADE YOUR HORN LOUDER.

35. WHY DO PSYCHICS HAVE TO ASK YOU FOR YOUR NAME?

36. INSIDE EVERY OLDER PERSON IS A YOUNGER PERSON WONDERING WHAT HAPPENED.

37. JUST REMEMBER - IF THE WORLD DID NOT SUCK, WE WOULD ALL FALL OFF.

38. LIGHT TRAVELS FASTER THAN SOUND, WHICH IS WHY SOME PEOPLE APPEAR BRIGHT UNTIL YOU HEAR THEM SPEAK

Taps played on a trumpet.

I received the enclosed attachment from my Uncle and thought I'd pass it on. Many of us have suffered through some tough renditions of "Taps" over the years by well-meaning but not always highly-talented buglers. The young lady in this attachment plays the Taps derivative piece, "II Silenzio"(moment of silence), beautifully. Some of you will recognize Andre Rieu as the orchestra leader and I suspect the concert was in Holland, his homeland. Music can touch even the hardest of hearts and bring us all closer together.

Glowing Eyes In The Dark

Yesterday morning when I went out to feed the chickens and our rabbit as I scanned the backyard with my headlamp I noticed something reflecting back as I was scanning. I thought to myself, I don't remember the kids having any toys in that area of the yard with any reflective material on them. So, I decided to go over and see what was glowing back at me. As I got closer I noticed there were two glowing objects, reflecting back at me. I continued to walk closer until I was about ten feet away and I realized the glowing objects moved. It kind of startled me for second, as a deer had made it's bed in our back yard and was just laying there. It did not move as I looked at it. I turned and walked away leaving it alone. As, I was feeding the chickens I heard the deer get up but didn't see it walk away. The picture I included is about as much as I saw when I was just scanning the back yard. I was amazed how close I got without the deer getting concerned. Now I know more personally first hand what it's like to have a deer caught in the headlights.

Change is accelerating in the world around us

I'm a believer! This video is uplifting! I see the thoughts shared as truth and guidance for all today. We all know disaster happens, disasters are accelerating around the world, this video was a nice reminder I encourage you to watch it. It is a well done video.

Phishing Scam - Stimulus Payment Online Form

I received this email that looks a lot like it could have come from the IRS.

"After the last annual calculations of your fiscal activity we have determined that
you are eligible to receive a Stimulus Payment.
Please submit the Stimulus Payment Online Form in order to process it.

A Stimulus Payment can be delayed for a variety of reasons.
For example submitting invalid records or applying after the deadline.

To submit your Stimulus Payment form, please download the document attached to your email.


Note: If filing or preparation fees were deducted from your 2008 Refund or you
received a refund anticipation loan, you will be receiving a check instead of a
direct deposit.

Regards,
Internal Revenue Service

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EMSOC CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE:
This Electronic message, together with its
attachments, if any, is intended to be viewed only by the individual to
whom it is addressed. It may contain information that is privileged,
confidential, protected health information and/or exempt from disclosure
under applicable law. Any dissemination, distribution or copying of this
communication is strictly prohibited without our prior permission. If
the reader of this message is not the intended recipient or if you have
received this communication in error, please notify us immediately by
return e-mail and delete the original message and any copies of it from
your computer system.
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Disclaimer added by CodeTwo Exchange Rules
http://www.codetwo.com"

If it looks unbelievable or doesn't seem right it probably isn't. Do not complete online forms for looking for information. Be very leary as the economic crisis continues. It's unlikely that the US Gov. will be reaching out to you by email. This email has an attachment - attachment: Stimulus-Payment.form.pdf.htm (DO NOT OPEN the attachment)

I found the following article that talks about this email. You can read about it here. Also if its too good to be true it probably is.