David Archuleta & The Mormon Tabernacle Choir

Julia and I attended this live when we were dating.  Thank you for the free tickets Grandma Behra.  The dancing and singing was very impressive.  This was, indeed, a very classy performance.  I recommend it and now you can watch it.

Lincoln

The best Abraham Lincoln film around is the new Spielberg film.  It is very well researched, quotes from his life extensively, and a great film.  It also focused on Lincoln's role in the passing of the 13th Amendment (outlawing slavery as the first constitutional mention of slavery) and his family life.

Some quotes:

"With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations."

"I have always found that mercy bears richer fruits than strict justice."

"We all declare for liberty; but in using the same word we do not all mean the same thing."

"Stand with anybody that stands right. Stand with him while he is right and part with him when he goes wrong."

"We begin with equality, it’s the origin, isn’t it? That’s justice. See, we’ve shown that if people can endure awful sacrifice and yet cohere."

Another terrific reference--
Abraham Lincoln: The Prairie Years and the War Years by Carl Sandberg
The book was a Pulitzer Prize winner and Sandberg interviewed people who knew Lincoln personally in compiling his account.

A Gem Amongst the Suburbia

A few weeks ago I found this on my walk:

Nestled among the many houses and apartments, this little gem seemed calm and serene. It's always nice to find a little patch of countryside close to our home.

Trick-Or-Treat

This Halloween we had "secret plans and clever tricks," to quote the Roald Dahl book we read recently at Barnes & Noble about a mastermind crocodile who wants to eat " nice, juicy" children. We planned for Joe to be Jonah from the Bible story and for me to be the rainbow fish from the children's book (much thanks to Elise for the idea). We were going to make our car into the whale with big white teeth in the trunk and a tail in the front so that Joe could sit inside while we passed out candy to the kiddos at the ward trunk-or-treat. However, the weather was rather bleak and rainy that day and we ran late so it didn't quite work out the way we planned.
Joe did dress up as Jonah though and I threw together a rainbow fish costume the night before so we were Jonah and the fish or as one girl guessed the old man and the sea. After the ward trunk-or-treat and chili cook off we went to a fun Halloween Party where we got to chat with some friends.

Joe said, "We look like rockstars!" I think by that he means he looks like a rockstar. I look like a fish. haha - Joe got tired of wearing most of his Jonah costume pretty quick.

On Halloween night we had no plans. We had gotten some candy and hoped some little ghouls would stop by trick-or-treating. Joe wanted to get a movie so we stopped off at Hastings where we ran into two couples from our ward! Joe invited one of them over for games at our place and they accepted! After pizza, jenga, and lots of fun they left and Joe and I were excited to have just had our first guests over to our apartment (besides family). Alas, there were no trick-or-treaters to be found, but that didn't stop me and Joe from eating all the candy in the house. Happy Halloween!

Miss Atomic Bomb

My wife is the real Miss Atomic Bomb...unfortunately, she also dropped a bomb on me and left to the Relief Society social tonight...I'll forgive and make up...

Thank you Brother Flowers and company for the poetic synthesis.