Mitt Romney

This is one that you may not want to read if you are a staunch Obama supporter and/or hate Romney.

THIS IS SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT FROM NOW TO NOVEMBER---

Personal Information: 

• His full Name is: Willard Mitt Romney
• He was Born: March 12, 1947 and is 65 years old.
• His Father: George W. Romney, former Governor of the State of Michigan
• He was raised in Bloomfield Hills , Michigan
• He is Married to Ann Romney since 1969; they have five children.

Education:

• B.A. from Brigham Young University,
• J.D. and M.B.A. from Harvard University

Religion:

Mormon - The Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-Day Saints

Working Background:

• After high school, he spent 30 months in France as a Mormon missionary.
• After going to both Harvard Business School and Harvard Law School simultaneously, he passed the Michigan bar exam, but never worked as an attorney.
• In 1984, he co-founded Bain Capital a private equity investment firm, one of the largest such firms in the United States .
• In 1994, he ran for Senator of Massachusetts and lost to Ted Kennedy.
• He was President and CEO of the 2002 Winter Olympic Games.
• In 2002, he was elected Governor of the State of Massachusetts where he eliminated a 1.5 billion deficit.

Some Interesting Facts about Romney:

• Bain Capital, starting with one small office supply store in Massachusetts, turned it into Staples; now over 2,000 stores employing 90,000 people.
• Bain Capital also worked to perform the same kinds of business miracles again and again, with companies like Domino's, Sealy, Brookstone, Weather Channel, Burger King, Warner Music Group, Dollarama, Home Depot Supply, and many others.
• He was an unpaid volunteer campaign worker for his dad's gubernatorial campaign 1 year.
• He was an unpaid intern in his dad's governor's office for eight years.
• He was an unpaid bishop and state president of his church for ten years.
• He was an unpaid President of the Salt Lake Olympic Committee for three years.
• He took no salary and was the unpaid Governor of Massachusetts for four years.
• He gave his entire inheritance from his father to charity.
• Mitt Romney is one of the wealthiest self-made men in our country but has given more back to its citizens in terms of money, service and time than most men.
• And in 2011 Mitt Romney gave over $4 million to charity, almost 19% of his income.... Just for comparison purposes, Obama gave 1% and Joe Biden gave $300 or .0013%.

Mitt Romney is Trustworthy:

• He will show us his birth certificate
• He will show us his high school and college transcripts.
• He will show us his social security card.
• He will show us his law degree.
• He will show us his draft notice.
• He will show us his medical records.
• He will show us his income tax records.
• He will show us he has nothing to hide.

Mitt Romney's background, experience and trustworthiness show him to be a great leader and an excellent citizen for President of the United States.

You may think that Romney may not be the best representative the Republicans could have selected. At least I know what religion he is, and that he won't desecrate the flag, bow down to foreign powers, or practice fiscal irresponsibility. I know he has the ability to turn this financial debacle that the current regime has gotten us into. We won't like all the things necessary to recover from this debt, but someone with Romney's background can do it. But, on the minus side, He never was a "Community Organizer", never took drugs or smoked pot, never got drunk, did not associate with communists or terrorists, nor did he attend a church whose pastor called for God to damn the US.

Laura's Birthday, revisited

I began writing about Laura’s birth earlier in this blog but never finished. I believe the time has come to do so.

Friday, July 19, 1991: “Tuesday afternoon I had an appointment with Liz. The baby kicked when she was trying to get his heartbeat. He’s growing nicely. I couldn’t go to the bathroom so she gave me a test strip to test my own.”

On Wednesday, August 14, 1991, “…baby’s growing nicely. He’s very active—especially when I’m trying to sleep.”

Wednesday, August 21, 1991, I was catching up (which I seemed to do pretty often) and said about the previous Sunday: “[Alisha] was kind of restless during the talks so, since the baby was active, I told Alisha that he was kicking. She put her ear against my stomach and was excited when she felt him moving.”

On Friday, September 27,1991, “There are only twenty-four days left before the baby’s due. I;m to the point right now where I’ll be very glad when it’s out. Laying down isn’t comfortable for more than a couple hours, standing up for too long is tiring, and sitting gets uncomfortable very soon. Plus, I have to go to the bathroom a lot. I went twice this afternoon after my nap within an hour. So, I’m looking forward to its being born.”

Sunday, October 20, 1991, “As you may have gathered, the baby has not yet made an appearance. I’m getting a little anxious for it to happen. Everyone tells me all these ways to start things happening but in spite of my anxiousness, I think it will happen when it’s time and ready.”

Friday, October 25, 1991: “Still no baby. I wonder if we will have a November baby after all.”

Friday, November 1, 1991: “Well, baby showed up  Monday…

“Monday morning I work up around five and realized that I was having contractions. I debated on whether or not to tell Dan because they were pretty far apart and not very strong. I finally told him sometime around 6:30 or 7:00 that I thought we were going to have a baby. I called my mom at 7:00 and Dan called Paul around 8:00. Liz came at 11:00 to check me out and I was still only 3 cm. She stopped by again on her way to work at 3:00 and I was up to 5 cm. She went to work with instructions to call Jeannie first if things really got going…my mom and I had gone for a walk in the morning [to try and break my water] but it didn’t work.

“Finally around 5:30 I think, Dan called Jeannie and Liz…Jeannie got here and started setting everything up. Then Li got here and checked me out. I think by then I was up to 8 cm. My contractions weren’t any longer or closer together but they were certainly harder by then. They’d past uncomfortable and had almost reached painful. Dan would squat with me and that really brought the contractions on strong. I don’t remember when it was that I finally asked Liz to try and break my water but she had a hard time because the baby’s head was so far down. After the second try it broke on its own. Dan sat behind me for me to lean on or whatever and everything started happening.

“I remember pushing and thinking I wasn’t and pushing more and Dan kept repeating—maybe—what Liz was saying. Finally the head came out and then the body followed and we have a beautiful baby girl.

“I love Laura Renee and I’m so thankful to Heavenly Father for [her].”

There isn’t a lot to add to this. Liz had left some litmus paper for me to check for amniotic fluid. I did have a leak before the water broke but nothing major; I just kind of had a slow dribble that was annoying and turned the paper the right color but that’s it.

Dan wanted everything to be natural. He thought that because Native Americans used to squat to have their babies, that would be the way to do it. Well, I think under the right circumstances, that would be true. The right circumstances would include a lifestyle that includes a lot of squatting in everyday life. That would help the right muscles get in shape. I do not, and did not, have that kind of a lifestyle. I do a lot of standing and walking. I used to do a fair amount of squatting in the garden but that was only a garden-time activity, not year-round. So, I tried squatting. It hurt. I am not afraid of pain but neither am I a fan of it so I stopped. Looking back on it, squatting would have helped Laura get here faster, but that isn’t necessarily a good thing. Sometimes fast can cause more tearing. I do not remember if I had any tears with Laura or not.

Laura’s birth was a good thing. Alisha’s wasn’t bad, in fact, all things considered, I’d have to say it was pretty good; especially for a hospital birth. Laura’s was good in that it taught me that I could indeed do what my body was intended to do. Quite frankly, before she was born, I had some never voiced concerns. I knew that I could give birth, after all, I’d done it before. But I knew that it wasn’t going to feel good, after all, it hadn’t the first time. I did know that the most intense part would be fairly short compared to the whole process and that the end result would be a baby and that is how I got myself through it.

Really, the only thing I would like to change about Laura’s birth is to educate myself more about birth. With Alisha, I was young and dumb and figured that women had been having babies for eons; why, then, should I bother with child birth classes or reading anything or asking questions. I’d read enough to know the general process; that, in my rebellious mind, was quite sufficient. With Laura, I am not sure why Liz did not encourage me to read. Maybe she figured that if I wanted to read, I would ask; she did have quite a few books. Maybe she thought that since I’d had a baby, I had experience and didn’t feel I needed more information. Whatever the reason, more knowledge would have been nice. As it is, it was what it was and Laura was born and I had a new baby and life was good.

Laura at 6 weeks.
December 10, 1991

And at three months.
January 29, 1992

At 14 weeks.
February 4, 1992

And being Miss Happy Drooler in early August of 1992 because she knew that one day she would LOVE reading just like Mom does (check out the book, man!).

Alisha's Birthday

In looking this over, I realized that at one point, I wanted to write about the births of each of my children. I did start writing about Laura’s birth but that is as far as I managed to get so I thought I would read through my old diaries and journals. So, I hope the world (such as it is) is ready for my reflections on motherhood before I had given birth and the story of Alisha's birthday.

On Monday, May 12, 1986, I wrote: “It’s hard to believe that in less than two months (Alisha was supposedly due the end of June, beginning of July) [we] will have a little person to hold. It’s weird in a neat kind of way. We’ve got a baby now, we just can’t hold Baby yet. I imagine it will be hard at times but I think it will be worth it.”

The next day I wrote: “The baby is moving right now. It feels funny. It’s kind of like your legs feel after a hike in the hot weather and the blood is really pumping through your vessels only bigger. If you know what I mean. I had to get up to go to the bathroom about 4 million times because of Baby.”

On June 29, 1986, I finally wrote about the birth. “Saturday, May 31, I had the baby. She’s a girl and we named her Alisha Marie. I guess I had an easy labor. Everyone says I did. It was short, I know that much. I went to the hospital at two and went into the delivery room at three. At 3:24, I had a new baby and she let everyone know she was here.

“Alisha was 6 pounds (actually 5 pounds 15 ¾ ounces) and 20 inches. Last Wednesday she was up to 6 lb. 11 ½ oz. and still 20 inches. She lost to 5 lb. 6 oz.”

Friday, July 18, 1986, I wrote: “Having a baby is definitely worth all the fatness, lost sleep, and everything.”

Some things were not as I remembered. Mainly that we got to the hospital at 2:00 rather than the 3:00 I remembered.

I remember that contractions started sometime in the early morning. I’d been experiencing Braxton Hicks contractions and so I didn’t think much of those I was having this particular day. We’d spent the night at Fernando’s parents; I don’t remember if the plan was for me to stay there that day or to go home to Grandma and Papa’s but I ended up going home. Now that I think about it, that was most likely the plan because my mom and sisters were planning on spending the day there.

Papa was reading the paper or a book or watching television and I was sitting in the chair that I often did to work on homework. It was good for that because Papa had made it and the arm rests were parallel to the floor so I could put a board across the top and have a sort-of-desk. It worked well and I did lots of school work there. I wasn’t doing any homework this day, however. I’m not sure if contractions were getting uncomfortable or not but they were coming fairly often but I still didn’t have a clue what that meant. At some point, my water broke. I knew enough to know that that was a sure sign that something some happening. I looked at Papa and he looked at me and I said, “Uh, oh.”

Grandma was taking a bath and I went through the kitchen into the hall at the bottom of the stairs and knocked on the bathroom door. “I think we have a problem,” I said. I must have told her what had happened although I have no recollections of it. She said I should call the hospital and would wait for my mom to come. Then we’d go to the hospital. I called the hospital and waited for my mother. Becky and Marie stayed with Papa while Grandma, my mom and I went to the hospital. The road never seemed so bumpy as it did that day.

We arrived at the hospital at 2:00 (I am not sure why I always remembered it being 3:00). I hadn’t done any paperwork so that all had to be done before I could be admitted. It being my first baby and a good four to six weeks before the due date the doctors had come up with, they weren’t in any hurry. I wished they would but one of the women said, “Oh, it’s a good thing you aren’t in a hurry.” I remember thinking, ‘Who says we’re not?’

Once I was admitted, things are somewhat blurry. Dr. Saunders, the doctor I usually saw, was out climbing Mt. Shasta (can’t find fault with him for that—it was a beautiful day). Dr. Morris was available but he was the only doctor in the practice I hadn’t met. Now, I am not sorry, Dr. Morris was very good and I’m glad I had him rather than the other doctor in the practice that I had met but didn’t like.

They told me to go to the bathroom. I was scheduled for a cesarean section due to the fact that I had vaginal warts and the doctors weren’t sure if I’d be able to stretch enough to get a baby out. I think they hooked me up to a monitor and they must have done a vaginal exam because they were amazed at how far dilated I was. So far that it made the C-section not an option (which I now thank my lucky stars for). It being customary hospital practice to hook up an IV, I must have had one but I do not remember it if I did. I honestly do not remember if I had any pain medication. If I did have the IV, it would have been easy enough for them to give it. I remember Grandma calling Fernando and saying that if he wasn’t there for the birth, he’d have her to answer to. He made it. I remember that at one point he told the doctor that if it came to a choice between me and the baby, it would be me.

At some point, they told me to push. They told me to use the Valsalva maneuver (which I did not know by name then). I was supposed to hold my breath and push with all I had. I did. I don’t remember how many times I pushed but out came a baby and she squalled. I don’t remember Apgar scores; neither do I really remember anything much else. I do know that I had an episiotomy which must have been stitched up. Fernando stayed with me while my mom and Grandma went with the nurses to the nursery to clean Alisha up. I do not remember at what point they brought Alisha back but I’d fallen in love before the birth so it didn’t matter. I wasn’t the most confident mother, but I also knew that I could do what mothers for eons before me had done.

Now, looking back, I notice some things that I didn’t at the time. The pushing was overmuch. I don’t know why they have women push like that when it is not often necessary. I pushed so hard that I had broken vessels in the whites of my eyes, on my face, and on my chest. Why? Alisha wasn’t a large baby; great amounts of force were not needed. I also don’t understand why an episiotomy was done other than it was pretty routine at that time. Again, she wasn’t a large baby. Maybe, due to the amount of force I was exerting, I would have torn. If I’d have been having the kind of birth with her I did with Joseph, it’s possible there would have been no tears. Whatever the case, it happened as it happened and I had a new baby and she was my world.

This is Alisha taken in January of 1987

Illegal Immigration

Don't get me wrong, here. I believe that the United States should welcome all who chose to come here. I also happen to believe that those who chose to come should have to follow the rules. If you chose to come and want to stay, do it the right way. If I were to go to Mexico or Denmark or Ghana or any other country, I would expect to have to abide by the rules of that country; I would not expect to be catered to.
Also, in spite of what I read and what the books (and the people who write them) try to teach us, I find it difficult to believe that illegal immigrants are contributing to our economy. How can they? It does not make any sense to me.
So, here is an email that Paul sent me this morning:

From the L. A. Times
1. 40% of all workers in L. A. County ( L. A. County has 10.2 million people) are working for cash and not paying taxes. This is because they are predominantly illegal aliens working without a green card.
2. 95% of warrants for murder in Los Angeles are for illegal aliens.
3. 75% of people on the most-wanted list in Los Angeles are illegal aliens.
4. Over 2/3 of all births in Los Angeles County are to illegal alien Mexicans on Medi-Cal, whose births were paid for by taxpayers.
5. Nearly 35% of all inmates in California detention centers are Mexican nationals here illegally.
6. Over 300,000 illegal aliens in Los Angeles County are living in garages.
7. The FBI reports half of all gang members in Los Angeles are most likely illegal aliens from south of the border.
8. Nearly 60% of all occupants of HUD properties are illegal.
9. 21 radio stations in L. A. are Spanish speaking.
10. In L. A. County 5.1 million people speak English, 3.9 million  speak Spanish. (There are 10.2 million people in L. A. County.)
(All 10 of the above statements are from the Los Angeles Times)

Less than 2% of illegal aliens are picking our crops, but 29% are on welfare.
Over 70% of the United States' annual population growth (and over 90% of California, Florida, and New York ) results from immigration.
29% of inmates in federal prisons are illegal aliens.

We are a bunch of fools for letting this continue!
Legal citizens paying billions for illegals incarceration, anchor babies, welfare, health care and crime against lawful citizens while they pay nothing.
No other country in the world allows such abuse of their borders and sovereignty.

HOW CAN YOU HELP?
Send copies of this letter to at least two other people. 100 would be even better.
This is only one State. If this doesn't open your eyes, nothing will.

1. Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery. -- Winston Churchill    
2. You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity, by legislating the wealth out of prosperity.  
3. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving.
4. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else.  
5. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it.  
6. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them; and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work, because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that is the beginning of the end of any nation.

Thoughts from the Accident and Beyond

Daniel helped Amena out of the Durango. He tried to help me but was unable. When he couldn’t, he sat down with his knees up and his arms around his knees and put his head down and cried. Then (I might have this out of sequence but you should get the gist of things) there were angels surrounding the Durango; their feet and the bottoms of their white robes were visible. Then a semi drove by and Daniel went with the angels and suddenly people were swarming all over. It would have been somewhere in there that I heard Daniel comforting Cedric because that is sometime between when the accident happened and when the rescue people/vehicles arrived.

Daniel was given the choice of staying or leaving and chose to leave but he knew that I would understand why. Funny that I’ve spent so much time thinking about that. I do understand. Laura saw him in the Durango and said it looked like he was asleep. He didn’t have any obvious injuries which means he had internal injuries. Injuries I’m sure which included brain damage. Why did he choose to go? Because although had he stayed the same things would have been accomplished that were by his death, it would have been harder for those he left behind. He would not have been able to do the things with Paul that Paul so looked forward to. He would not have been able to do the things he used to do. He would not have been, in many ways, the same Daniel we knew and loved. If you read what he wrote in his 7^th Grade Time Capsule Journal about giving me the gift of more time, you should be able to understand why he chose to go.

Daniel was there when each of the children had any surgical procedure. He spent a lot of time, and still does, sitting on the feet of the beds of his brothers and sisters. He has been with us since the accident and will be for a while yet, but then he has a mission. I am pretty sure that he will still be able to come to us, but having helped us over the hard part, he will need to move on as nothing stays still.

Cedric was given a taste of heaven. He does not speak of it, but he remembers it and that makes living in this world difficult although it is getting better. I can see this in him. It was very difficult for him. He missed Daniel something fierce. He did not want to be here. He wanted to be with Daniel. Who can blame him?

Daniel's Birthday (14th)

Not mentioned previously, today is Daniel's birthday. He's 14 today. At 7 pounds, 12 ounces, he surpased his older sisters in birth weight and only Laura was longer so he was my fattest baby to date.

I cannot believe I did not post this when I thought I did one year, four months and ten days ago.

Million Dollars

More writings from Daniel’s 7^th grade time capsule composition book dated 10/4/10:

If I had a million dollars, I would give it to people who needed it for food. I would give it to people who need food because I would have to be one of the people who don’t know what they are going to be able to eat or don’t know if they are going to eat at all that day. Then with a little bit of the million dollars I would donate to science or something like it because I think some of the things they invent are kind of cool and save a bunch of people a lot of money. Then with the last little bit I would put in a metal box and bury it somewhere because some time in the future someone would find it and would be all excited about it and would be able to use it on something they wanted.