Sorry it’s been so long without posting–things have been very busy. We finally have a decent day weatherwise and are hoping to take some pics of the snow today–it is totally, completely, and in every other way insane. Today is the first day we haven’t had heaps of snow fall upon us in over a week. And it’s gearing up to get started again…oh, joy.

I can’t stand to watch the salivating, nearly hysterical nonsense that passes for news coverage lately, but the little I have seen has included a lot of comparisons between Obama and Martin Luther King, Jr. So today, on the day when we are suppose to remember Dr. King, I’ve been thinking about what is probably his most well-known speech, his “I Have a Dream” speech. In which he said, of course, “I have a dream, that one day a man will be elected president not for his ideas but because of the color of his skin.”

What? That’s not what he said?

I fear that Obama’s inauguration tomorrow makes a mockery of Dr. King’s dream–the dream of a color-blind society, a nation where people are judged “not by the color of their skin but by the content of their character”.  Or more to the point, where a President is elected not because of the color of his skin, not because he is glib and a good speaker, but because of the content of his speeches.  How many of those who are weeping on the mall tonight are there because they believe in his fiscal policies, or his foreign policies, or in any of his stated policies or plans?  (Not that it is an easy task to find out what they are since he is very good at talking a lot and saying very little.)

Is it historic that a black man was elected president? Given our nation’s history, certainly it is. But is it good if the color of his skin (and the glibness of his tongue)  are the main reasons he will be inaugurated tomorrow? In my opinion, definitely not.

I’ll be honest, I hope he doesn’t do well as president. Not because of the color of his skin, because I don’t care about that. I hope he fails because I am opposed to every stated policy and plan that he has named. I think he will push this country further into an economic mess, he will make government larger, his foreign policies will hurt us, and he will drive us farther down the path towards socialism. (Which, incidentally, has failed abysmally in every nation it has been tried in–why anyone thinks it would work here I don’t know.) I am opposed to him not because of the color of his skin, but because of how he says he will run the country.

Now that is what Dr. King was talking about.

~Amy~

YAY!!!!!!!

I cannot say anything more at this time.

~Amy~

I can’t really specify this issue on here in any detail, at this point anyway, but some of you got very good news from us over Christmas. It was presented to Derek as being a definite thing, but now we’re not sure when it will happen or if it will even happen at all. Please pray that God will accomplish His purposes through this and that we will be able to gracefully handle whatever happens. Also pray specifically for Derek–he’s having a hard time with this debacle. It’s hard to believe that God is in charge when what you see is human incompetence and stupidity. Not that we are doubting that God is in charge or having a crisis of faith or anything like that, this is just extremely frustrating!

Other than that, things are going back to normal after the holidays. We’re back to school today, I have a three column to-do list that practically fills a legal pad sheet of paper, and I need to go make sure the driveway is clear. Yep, things are back to normal here. 

~Amy~

So since I promised I’d post about what I did on leave, here are some more shots of what happened.

After we dropped off the girls with her sister Joy (thanks Joy and Erik!), Amy took me to the Martin Guitar Museum and Factory in Nazareth, PA, where they’ve been making their guitars since 1859 (they actually go back to 1833 and before).  You can actually get a tour of the factory floor, which I found absolutely fascinating:

Guitar sides with bracing being glued in

Only $50K for this fine piece of work

(see the whole album of photos at http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2007773&l=46e5b&id=1489127713)

Amy and I also checked out an old abandoned dam and paper mill near Fort Drum while I was home.  I found it on the Old Abandoned Buildings of Northern New York website (http://oabonny.freehostia.com/index.htm).  The album of pictures is at http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2007850&l=24d8d&id=1489127713.

I have been trying for days to get the rest of the pictures uploaded, but the atrocious internet service (that I’m paying $65 a month for) won’t let me upload the pictures that I’ve resized to be significantly smaller.  So enjoy the link to my Facebook page, as I apparently won’t be able to upload anymore pictures to the blog for the foreseeable future.  Amy mentioned that I was able to see the President, and that was pretty cool.  Photos, of course, will have to wait until after the deployment now, which is a real bummer.  Text is usually not a problem, but the internet speeds are slower than dial-up at this point.  I am beyond disgusted with the ’service’ that Soldiers here are getting from this internet provider.  I’m thankful to have it, but for that money getting this level of ’service’, it’d almost be better to have none at all.

On the bright side, things are progressing well here in Iraq and going relatively quickly.  I’ll be able to give updates more often now that I know that photos are now a no-go.

- Derek

He's gonna melt all yer snow for ya!

Or, if you prefer, you can have an action figure…

He's a PVC pop star- with wicked awesome HAIR

Either way,  Amy asks and I deliver!  Since I can’t shovel for her, I have to send my minions to take care of her.  ;^D

Oh, and sorry about the lack of updates- I’m working on them now.  Really.

- Derek

Here’s some pictures of our latest storm (not that it’s over–it’s still snowing a little):

Pathway from our drive to the side door of the garage.

 Yeah, and to give you perspective, that fence comes up to my forehead.

The front of the house.

I wonder how far Victoria’s windows will get covered this winter? And I need to put the nativity on a table or something–poor baby Jesus keeps getting buried.

The door from the kitchen to the yard.

 Again, some perspective: when you go out the door, you take a step down onto the patio.

Yeah, I think we have enough snow.  The scary thing is that this almost all from the last 10 days or so–that warm spell we had two weeks ago melted most of what we already had.

We were supposed to head south today, but because of the weather we decided to wait till tomorrow. The worst seems to be over here, but it’s still snowing a lot south of here. Supposedly there will be a window of time between tomorrow morning and evening when there will be no snow–I guess we’ll see if they’re right! The good thing is that it’s supposed to warm up considerably by Saturday–so much so that there is rain forecasted!–so hopefully we won’t have a problem getting home .

 

~Amy~ 

 

Lizzy’s appointment went very well. I liked the doctor. The diagnoses were pretty much what we expected:

Asperger’s:  http://www.answers.com/topic/asperger-s-syndrome

non-verbal learning disability: http://www.med.umich.edu/1libr/yourchild/nld.htm

and anxiety.

He’s going to write out the testing results and mail them to me, and then I’ll take them into the clinic here and get her set up with a psychologist or whatever for behavioral therapy.  I am so happy that this is finally done.

Oh, and he said that her IQ was normal, so to all those who tried to write her off as mentally retarded, I say “Nyah!” and thumb my nose at you.

~Amy~

Saw this and it made me laugh so hard that I startled Victoria. I had to post it.

An interesting side note–when we lived in Belgium I picked up a little Flemish/Dutch vocabulary. (A little, as in I could decipher it, not speak it.) “Vader” in Dutch means “father”–pronounced with a short a, not a long one–it even sounds like father. And the word “darth”, though I don’t think it is a real word, it certainly sounds forboding. I guess George Lucas didn’t care if  part of the world wasn’t shocked at the end of The Empire Strikes Back.

In other news, while the President was in Iraq yesterday he went to Camp Victory and Derek got to see him. He’s gotten to see him twice now, so that’s pretty cool.

This week will be crazy busy–I’ll post after Lizzy’s appt on Thursday to tell how that went, if not before. I’m trying to be more faithful at posting–really!

~Amy~