Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Maternity Update

So after much prodding from friends and family I realized I hadn't updated people on the newest baby news. So just before Christmas we found out that we will be having a baby boy. Abigail was a little upset as she was sure it would be a girl, but we explained that our family could only have one princess. The boys had a mixed reaction, but now all are happy with things. So we are open to any good boys names, since we don't have too many good ideas yet, and your suggestions are welcome.

Thursday, January 10, 2008

Christmas Trek West (then back East)

So Sherrie has been giving me a hard time for reporing on the overly reported Iowa Caucuses (overly reported in Iowa, but I am doing this for the benefit of posterity and history, right?). I guess this blog is for the family, I should let people know what has been happening.
Since our summer plan are up in the air with the baby coming, we wanted to make our trek west to Utah and Idaho. So with the van loaded with Christmas and the kids all googly-eyed with the pre-Christmas excitement, our trip begain. We headed out at 3:00 AM the Friday before Christmas and made great time...but we ended up in Laramie, hanging out at a truck stop for 4 hours while the roads west were closed. The kids were remakably patient, especially since we didn't move for a while. Our friends the Parks from Waukee were in the same situation, and it is nice to see good friends even far from home. We luckily got a hotel room for a warm night's rest. It was near zero in Laramie, and with the wind this is a real blessing. We made it to Utah by noon the next day. We had a wonderful time with Sherrie's family, and stayed there through Christmas day. We headed to Idaho on the 26th and were able to take some tractor rides play with cousins, and relax. All my siblings were around so it was good to be with them. Suffice it to say grandpa and grandmas house was full and noisy, but they wouldn't have it any other way. We went down to Lisa's on the 31st and passed the New Year's celebrations by resting for a long drive. The drive home was much more pleasant weather-wise and we made it back a day before I had to be at work and Cole had to be at school. How great it is to be with family, but always nice to be home. Happy New Year to you all!

Thursday, January 3, 2008

Iowa Caucus in Grimes

So I thought I would fill you in on the results of my precinct for the Iowa Caucus. It was held in the Elementary school here in Grimes. First off there was about 5 times the expected turnout. They figured 50 people would attend and actually had between 200 and 250 or more. They had a person from each campaign give a two minute speech on why his or her candidate was the best choice. No one was there for McCain, Giuliani, or Duncan Hunter, but a former Arkansas Congressman spoke for Huckabee, a local woman volunteered to speak for Ron Paul, and another Grimes local spoke for Fred Thompson. Josh Romney was there to speak for Mitt, and received the loudest applause from the audience. Then the people filled out little pieces of paper with the name of the candidate and submitted it. In all it took about 45 minutes to complete. The results from my precinct were..
88 Huckabee :(
66 Romney
Some for Fred and McCain
12 for Paul
0 for Hunter
0 for Giuliani
It was a little deflating for a Mitt fan, but for all the Mormon Conspiracy theorists, I only knew of 7 people in Grimes who are active Mormons, and there are alot of people who are not LDS, but support Mitt because he is the best candidate, and does not rely on the LDS congregation network to spread his message and the congregation's leaders to promote his candidacy (yeah maybe a veiled comment on another candidate...) The results look like a Huckabee win with Mitt in second trailing by 8% points. The race for third is a race with McCain and Thompson. All that is on the TV is the Caucus results. Mitt is a little disappointed, Huckabee is promoting his evangelical network, and maybe the biggest news is that Hillary is running in 3rd for the Democrats (albeit a close 3rd).

I hope that Mitt will pull out a good one in New Hampshire, and South Carolina leading into Super Tuesday. Of all the candidates he has dedicated time and resources to all these states and wants people to know that he has the experience and ideas to take the nation in the right direction.