One thing I like about living so far away from the city: We have land. And kick ass neighbors with ADD who like to build things. So he uses his own lawn mower and clears the empty lots behind us and builds his and my kids a baseball field. His, mine, and the Mad Dad all playing…

And the couch, it used to belong in our living room. We are such rednecks… hehehe.. it’s now their backstop.

~~Andrea, email me or something and tell me how to delete multiple pictures off of this server. I can see where the photos section is, but instead of removing them one at a time?

~~Toni

He’s almost 6 weeks old today. Here are pictures of his baptismal.

My youngest(in green and pig tails) and Gabezookey, during the Children’s Church Time

Auntie Baloney with Baby Noah..

The Stone Family–My sister, her husbandCraig, Noah and Gabzookey

The Dude:

SQEEE!! New Baby…

I love them. I also love the look on Gabezookey’s face.

And some of them are blue because my dumbass forgot to turn off the “indoor” feature and turn on the “outdoor” feature. hehehe..

~~Toni

Was actually a nice day too. No crazy homeschoolers, met some new people (yes, ME!), had a good time, ate lunch there (surprisingly good), even corrected the bad grammar on one sign and had the guy laughing at it (“Tattoes IS not working today”–that’s what it said and how they spelled it). Got in free thanks to my membership to MOSI. Not something we’d do all the time like Busch Gardens, but it was a nice, fun, little break.

Off with the pictures!!

See my sleeve? Even my short ass, ON A FREAKING STEP STOOL, still could not reach the sharks (quit laughing Mother)!

This ray was HUGE. And I mean really flipping big!

U-G-L-Y…no make that F-U-G-L-Y!

You can’t see me…. Peek a boo!! (look closely, there’s a white Goby peeking his head out of the sand)

My Little Hermit Crabs:

Don’t let this fool you: This turtle was really, really, huge.

We got to see some South African Penguins up close:

Sea Dragons:

This thing was a YELLOW Plecosamus. He was actually cool looking:

And if you are wondering why I have so few of the teenager, it’s because I have to go all Ninja-Homeschooler with a Camera on her ass. She runs from me.

~~Toni

In Sarah Palin’s Acceptance Speech last night. One only needs Google the facts to prove this. From Yahoo News and the Associated Press:

Some examples:

PALIN: “I have protected the taxpayers by vetoing wasteful spending … and championed reform to end the abuses of earmark spending by Congress. I told the Congress ‘thanks but no thanks’ for that Bridge to Nowhere.”

THE FACTS: As mayor of Wasilla, Palin hired a lobbyist and traveled to Washington annually to support earmarks for the town totaling $27 million. In her two years as governor, Alaska has requested nearly $750 million in special federal spending, by far the largest per-capita request in the nation. While Palin notes she rejected plans to build a $398 million bridge from Ketchikan to an island with 50 residents and an airport, that opposition came only after the plan was ridiculed nationally as a “bridge to nowhere.”

PALIN: “There is much to like and admire about our opponent. But listening to him speak, it’s easy to forget that this is a man who has authored two memoirs but not a single major law or reform — not even in the state senate.”

THE FACTS: Compared to McCain and his two decades in the Senate, Obama does have a more meager record. But he has worked with Republicans to pass legislation that expanded efforts to intercept illegal shipments of weapons of mass destruction and to help destroy conventional weapons stockpiles. The legislation became law last year. To demean that accomplishment would be to also demean the work of Republican Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana, a respected foreign policy voice in the Senate. In Illinois, he was the leader on two big, contentious measures in Illinois: studying racial profiling by police and requiring recordings of interrogations in potential death penalty cases. He also successfully co-sponsored major ethics reform legislation.

PALIN: “The Democratic nominee for president supports plans to raise income taxes, raise payroll taxes, raise investment income taxes, raise the death tax, raise business taxes, and increase the tax burden on the American people by hundreds of billions of dollars.”

THE FACTS: The Tax Policy Center, a think tank run jointly by the Brookings Institution and the Urban Institute, concluded that Obama’s plan would increase after-tax income for middle-income taxpayers by about 5 percent by 2012, or nearly $2,200 annually. McCain’s plan, which cuts taxes across all income levels, would raise after tax-income for middle-income taxpayers by 3 percent, the center concluded.

Obama would provide $80 billion in tax breaks, mainly for poor workers and the elderly, including tripling the Earned Income Tax Credit for minimum-wage workers and higher credits for larger families.

He also would raise income taxes, capital gains and dividend taxes on the wealthiest. He would raise payroll taxes on taxpayers with incomes above $250,000, and he would raise corporate taxes. Small businesses that make more than $250,000 a year would see taxes rise.

MCCAIN: “She’s been governor of our largest state, in charge of 20 percent of America’s energy supply … She’s responsible for 20 percent of the nation’s energy supply. I’m entertained by the comparison and I hope we can keep making that comparison that running a political campaign is somehow comparable to being the executive of the largest state in America,” he said in an interview with ABC News’ Charles Gibson.

THE FACTS: McCain’s phrasing exaggerates both claims. Palin is governor of a state that ranks second nationally in crude oil production, but she’s no more “responsible” for that resource than President Bush was when he was governor of Texas, another oil-producing state. In fact, her primary power is the ability to tax oil, which she did in concert with the Alaska Legislature. And where Alaska is the largest state in America, McCain could as easily have called it the 47th largest state — by population.

MCCAIN: “She’s the commander of the Alaska National Guard. … She has been in charge, and she has had national security as one of her primary responsibilities,” he said on ABC.

THE FACTS: While governors are in charge of their state guard units, that authority ends whenever those units are called to actual military service. When guard units are deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan, for example, they assume those duties under “federal status,” which means they report to the Defense Department, not their governors. Alaska’s national guard units have a total of about 4,200 personnel, among the smallest of state guard organizations.

FORMER ARKANSAS GOV. MIKE HUCKABEE: Palin “got more votes running for mayor of Wasilla, Alaska than Joe Biden got running for president of the United States.”

THE FACTS: A whopper. Palin got 616 votes in the 1996 mayor’s election, and got 909 in her 1999 re-election race, for a total of 1,525. Biden dropped out of the race after the Iowa caucuses, but he still got 76,165 votes in 23 states and the District of Columbia where he was on the ballot during the 2008 presidential primaries.

FORMER MASSACHUSETTS GOV. MITT ROMNEY: “We need change, all right — change from a liberal Washington to a conservative Washington! We have a prescription for every American who wants change in Washington — throw out the big-government liberals, and elect John McCain and Sarah Palin.”

THE FACTS: A Back-to-the-Future moment. George W. Bush, a conservative Republican, has been president for nearly eight years. And until last year, Republicans controlled Congress. Only since January 2007 have Democrats have been in charge of the House and Senate.

EPIC FAIL… Major Epic Fail and Majorly BUSTED.

And just for fair comparison, here is the Fact Check on Obama’s Speech

And if you can actually read, you will see that only one time did Obama not “hit the mark”. The rest of the comments, made by people other than Obama,, just did not elaborate in the short time they had.

Sad, really, that this country is leaning towards voting for someone who, quite possibly, could die (he is the oldest person to ever get the nomination) while in office, leaving Palin as our President; versus someone who is young, ready, willing, and able to take the lead.

Scary times ahead folks. Very Scary.

~~Toni

I need to try much harder…

~~Toni