Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand

Between their loved homes and the war's desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heaven-rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

"[T]he flames kindled on the 4th of July 1776, have spread over too much of the globe to be extinguished by the feeble engines of despotism; on the contrary, they will consume these engines and all who work them." --Thomas Jefferson

Let tyrants shake their iron rod,
And Slav'ry clank her galling chains,
We fear them not, we trust in God,
New England’s God forever reigns.
What grateful Off'ring shall we bring?
What shall we render to the Lord?
Loud Halleluiahs let us Sing,
And praise his name on ev'ry Chord.
-From “Chester”- a popular American song during the Revolutionary war.

"resistance to tyranny...

....becomes the Christian duty of each individual... Continue steadfast, and with a proper sense of dependence on God, nobly defend those rights which heaven gave, and no man ought to take from us.” -Congress of Massachusetts, 1774

They love their land, because it is their own,
And scorn to give aught other reason why;
Would shake hands with a king upon his throne
And think it kindness to his majesty.
-Fitz-Greene Halleck, 1790-1867

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, with liberty and justice for all.

Used for a sermon before the Revolutionary war:
Is. 33:22
For the LORD is our Judge,
The LORD is our lawgiver,
The LORD is our King;
He will save us.
Is. 33:22

The funeral on Tuesday went well; afterwards we went to the house where Grandma grew up, just outside of town. I never realized what primitive conditions she grew up in! We are so spoiled nowadays. They didn't have plumbing until she was out of high school, and to wash clothes one had to boil water on the stove then carry it to the wash house and hand wash the clothes. Other than that, I was told at least twice at the funeral that I didn't look eighteen- Gee, thanks, that's only the thirty-millionth time I've been told that. Next the well meaning person inevitably says, "You'll appreciate it when you're forty". NO! I won't! It's a CURSE! I am tired of being told I look thirteen and no one will ever tell me that when I am forty. I am trying to think up a clever reply to this sadly familiar comment, but so far the only one I’ve come up with is “Yeah, don’t you wish people would say that to you?” And I figured that was too rude to use.
Any ideas?

“Peace, above all things, is to be desired, but blood must sometimes be spilled to obtain it on equable and lasting terms.” –Jackson

In war: Resolution
In defeat: Defiance
In victory: Magnanimity
In peace: Goodwill
-Winston Churchill

“If you ask any American, who is his master? He will tell you he has none, nor any governor but Jesus Christ.”

“resistance to tyranny becomes the Christian duty of each individual….. Continue steadfast, and with a proper sense of dependence on God, nobly defend those rights which heaven gave, and no man ought to take from us.” –Congress of Massachusetts, 1774

Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom –Benjamin Franklin

Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. 2nd Cor. 3:17

“The history of liberty is a history of limitation of government power, not the increase of it.”
–Woodrow Wilson

“Every time the government attempts to handle our affairs, it costs more and the results are worse then if we had handled them ourselves.” –Benjamin Constant, 1833-1891

“Liberty exists in proportion to wholesome restraint.” –Webster

“Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add “within the limits of the law” because law is often but the tyrant’s will, and always so when it violates the rights of the individual.” –Jefferson

Fourth of July-My country’s birthday

The fourth of July is only a week away. I hope to be able to post my favorite quotes relating to my country throughout the week. Keep checking back! Tomorrow we are all taking the day off from work, the business and dance camp to attend the funeral of my great-uncle. It’s our mini-family reunion for the year. Depending on when we get back, I’ll post again tomorrow. We’ll start off the patriotic celebration with a bit of poetry:

Before I was a traveled bird,
I scoffed, in my provincial way
At other lands; I deemed absurd
All nations but these U.S.A.

But now I’ve been about a bit-
How travel broadens! How it does!
And I have found out this, to wit:
How right I was! How right I was!
-Franklin P. Adams

"Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God!"
-Popular saying during the Revolutionary War.

Whoa!

We now have at our business wireless high speed internet. So, for the first time ever, I am using wireless, high-speed internet. So far I am extremely uncomfortable using it. Previously on our computers the online process went something like this:

1- make sure no one needed to use the phone
2- start dialing; clean desk or spank boys while waiting to connect
3- bring up all the pages you wanted to read and wait half an hour for them to load
4- disconnect so people could use the phone; read your pages, write post
5- make sure no one needed to use the phone, connect again and post.

I keep thinking, “I have to disconnect so the phone is free”.

Jen and I are both handling dance camp better this week- she’s getting used to the exercise and I’m too busy to mourn her absence. Since I’m so busy I’d better go get to work. Farewell.

Some people get to name mountains- I am going to name this rock- can you guess? I name this rock �Liver Rock�, and if you can�t tell why you didn�t study anatomy hard enough in school. Jen is more interested in the tiny flowers nearby. 

The great raid

I watched the last part of the movie "The great raid" this afternoon- now there's a movie to inspire patriotism. If I was an emotional person(like Jen), I would have cried over it. If you haven't heard of the movie, here's a brief summary of the story from my favorite movie review site, Pluggedin:

"1945. More than 500 American soldiers remain as Japanese POWs at Cabanatuan POW prison camp in the Philippines. For three years, they've been regularly tortured, overworked and starved. The infamous Bataan Death March is over (approximately 15,000 prisoners—both Filipino and American—died during it) but the future still looks bleaker than the past.

That's partly because it seems that the U.S. has abandoned these POWs, at least until the war's over. But that may be too late. Even if the Allied forces win, it's known that the Japanese plan to annihilate all prisoners rather than see them freed.

These men are not forgotten, though. As the sun sets on the evening of Jan. 27, Lt. Col. Henry Mucci leads 121 hand-picked Rangers on a two-day trek toward the prison camp. Joining forces with local Filipino guerillas, they infiltrate Japanese lines and, on the night of Jan. 30, begin their multi-pronged rescue offensive. Their only advantage is the element of surprise.

This isn't fiction—it really happened. And it's referred to as the most successful rescue mission in Unites States military history. It's an unforgettable and inspiring story that—with a little creative license and added element of romance—is now being retold to generations far removed but forever indebted."

I generally don't endorse violent movies- I had a chance to see this movie in the theater, but turned it down because of the violence. But I have to say I enjoyed(as much as one can) this war movie; and I liked it a whole lot better than the similar WW2 movie "To end all wars" because of the joyous ending.

Day number two

Of Jen being gone. Twenty-three days to go. I don't know if I can make it. I miss her companionship. There's only one thing to do:

Ho! Ho! Ho! to the bottle I go
To heal my heart and drown my woe.
Rain may fall and wind may blow,
And many miles be still to go,
But under a tree I will lie,
And let the clouds go sailing by.
-J.R.R. Tolkien

P.S. Hopefully you all know me well enough by now to know that I'm joking about the beer part of this post.

This is as close as I got to any bear.  

The view from our campsite-Mueller State Park. 

Our Trip

Thursday June 1st
We left NE at 8am and got to our campground at roughly 7pm. Seeing the mountains for the first time was absolutely thrilling. We camped in Mueller State park- and when we arrived at the park, it was snowing. When we set up our tents and bedding, we discovered only two air mattresses worked. What with the temperature being well below 45 and with only a sleeping bag beneath us, we all had a miserable night.
Friday
We went to Healthquarters and got checked by Dr. Frahm, who does muscle response testing. We trust such methods over normal Doctors’ checkups. Then we went to a store to buy more air mattresses and blankets. We briefly visited Garden of the gods but were to tired to see it all. That night the campers next to us decided to stay up till the wee hours of the night singing, swearing, yelling and drinking. If they weren’t drunk, they were preeetty close.
Saturday
We visited the U.S. Air Force Academy and got a very nice tour from Jason. Jason makes a very good tour guide. After that we spent a short time at Focus on the Family HQ, the most exciting part of which was when we went through THE wardrobe into Narnia.
Sunday
We stayed at camp, went hiking, and talked to a really neat home-schooling family camping just a little ways up from us- they had five kids whose names all started with a T. It was also Jonny’s 7th BIRTHDAY!
Monday
Finished up at the Garden of the gods- took lots of pictures, and I got my FREE Zebulon Pike bicentennial poster from the visitor’s center.
Tuesday
We went to three really cool places- The American Numismatic Association Money Museum-“See more money than you’ve ever seen in your life!” The Colorado Pioneers museum, which was an old ornate courthouse, and Van Briggle pottery. It was beautiful pottery- Mr. Van Briggle rediscovered an ancient Chinese glaze back in the 1900’s.
Wednesday
We drove to Golden gate state park- it seems like most of CO is state parks. We took the scenic route there, which usually means Mom gets us lost, but this time she didn’t. And it was truly wonderfully scenic.
Thursday, our last day.
Most of us sat around and enjoyed our ISOLATED campground, did a little hiking. It was also Andrew’s 9th BIRTHDAY!

It's good to be home.

We got back last night at 11pm.
The mountains were amazing.
I am tired of washing my hair in a bucket.
I am so thankful for our house, running water, beds, etc.
Maybe I will post on Monday- check back then!