IF

[IF]
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
But make allowance for their doubting too,
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream--and not make dreams your master,
If you can think--and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings--nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much,
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And--which is more--you'll be a Man, my son!

--Rudyard Kipling

Quoted in a letter to Barack Obama from Jamie Lee Curtis and so very apropos.  

Congratulations America!

You've made the right choice!

The Worst Thing About Election Day 2008...

is that Tim Russert won't be here to give the play by play.  Although I love Tom Brokaw, it just won't be the same!

Halloween Re-Cap!

We spent the evening in the Bland's neighborhood.  Huge score for the boys!  We didn't even go too far as the little girls were tuckered out pretty quickly.  Between the two boys, they probably have about ten full size candy bars, that should make Josh happy at lunch for a couple of weeks!  Betsy made cheese fondue for dinner and we had chocolate fondue to celebrate the completion of trick or treating.  And a way to get some more food in the Daddy's tummies as they chose to  tour the neighborhood with rum and cokes.  I decided that pound cake is WAY better for the fondue than the angel food I've had in the past.  Yum!

Here is our "Dirt Bike Rider".  He is so stoked that Boone's old riding gear fits him now!

A little Spidey love!

One of many poses all night long.  Boone is very insistent that he was not "bad" Spiderman.  He is trying not to become bad.  We decided the word "conflicted" was a better word to describe Dark Suited Spiderman.

Hope you all had a Happy Halloween and one that was as warm as our was if you were toting kiddos around!

I Voted!

Well, we both did but I wasn't privy to Josh's ballot.  I took lots of pictures as we went through the process this year because I want to be able to tell the story for the boys.  I want them to know how very important this election is for us now and for their future!  So with hope for change and some prayers for victory, I'll get this off in the mail!