2011 July LOVE AMERICA

I love my cousins. I am very close to them. They are my friends. We enjoy being together. I think with all the crazy zanny fun in my family it is nice to be with people who understand that it is real and not a crazy made up life. As of 2011 I have one cousin living in CA that we go see in San Fran, two in Seattle which we never see Danny and Ashlyn- but we sure would like to see them. Everyone else has moved back home! It is awesome. For the 4th of July Scott is usually camping with his brother and nephews and dad but the snow kept them home:) We met up with my Aunt SUges kids as my uncle Denny's kids were in Jackson Hole. On Friday we saw the Centerville fireworks I feel like I live in small town America I thrill at it. It is Americana. Decore flags everywhere picnics fireworks parades. The parade comes right behind our home:) We spent a couple days at Jordanelle a local lake with our cousins. It was so fun. We play a game called nertz fast paced crazy. We went to the Dodo a family favorite for the smoked turkey sandwich with bbq sauce and peanut butter cream cheese pie. The kids call me Uncle Missy- a little joke. Fun to be with the Hills in from CA. Great to celebrate our freedom and this great nation.

A city remembers...

Can you believe that 9-11 was so long ago? It was really not that long ago at all except that it seems people forget very fast. In our city they do a memorial each year on September 11th. Aunt Sue had a doctor appointment right near the field they hold it in. It sits in front of our city hall. The night before we went to dinner with Kinikini's and visited the field. Kelsie and Kaden ran through the flags, there is one for each person who died during the attack on Sept. 11. The red and blue part on some of the flags holds the names of all who died that September. Kaden has so many questions. "So terrorist think God wants them to kill people?" He is in Kindergarten. He has always been smart. It is sad that a question like that one even exists. How do you explain something to a child when it does not make any sense to an adult? There was a group of school aged children while we watched the ceremony. I thought about the children left behind by all the people who died on September 11th or any day the world has known war. It is chilling to think of hate and how it ravages lives. Yet it can be hard to get along with family members at times. I wish I had all the answers and I knew the way to keep peace on earth. I do believe it starts in our own homes. Next we do what we can in our little communities. I have been working on the PTA board. It is weird to be in the PTA without having kids but when they asked me I felt like it was one way I could give back and support my local schools. I think that if everyone would do just a little bit-- big things could happen. Just smiling at a child can make a difference. Aunt Sue got a clean bill of health to celebrate she sat in the car while we watched soldiers retire a flag. They fired off canons, it was so loud but Aunt Sue could not hear a thing. There were family members there who have lost a loved one in Iraq. They had a whole section of flags for fallen Utah heroes. They cried as they held on to each other. I can't imagine what it would be like to have war all around me. It doesn't even effect our daily lives like it did in previous wars. Imagine sugar rations and all the hardships everyone endured while the world fought. Now it is simply hard to remember that we are even at war. I'm glad to have reminders that Freedom is not Free.

So Thankful

I was a little sad to hear that the 4th of July is the biggest day of beer purchases. Fire at the end of a stick mixed with alcohol- not smart. It has surpassed Superbowl Sunday for beer sales in America. I wonder if our forefathers imagined a time when to celebrate the great price paid we would drink, eat hot dogs and start fires? The up side is usually families gather together and often stories are told of how great our lives and country are. When I think of the 4th of July I get very humble and my heart swells with gratitude for the sacrifice of so many so that I can enjoy Freedom. I think of how hot I get even with air conditioning-- imagine being in Iraq. I also think of the families that won't have a loved one return home. If you study history, you see how war tends to kill people. Now days it is much less in number but each of them was still a real person who now has someone who misses them. Won't a day in the future be great when there is no more war? I can't wait. In the mean time I think I will do something nice for a service family I know, who is not with their loved one this holiday. I think I will also express my thankful heart to all who work for my freedom. Here is to making their effort not in vane.

Snow Show

I have had a hard time sleeping, I am having some physical pains. It is beautiful in WI. I'm loving the winter weather. The snow falling and the street I'm staying on looks like a post card capturing the all American Dream street. As I glanced at the beauty of the white world I saw three little black bunnies dancing in the snow. At first sight I thought I was imagining them. They were palying in the snow, rolling around in the snow, sliding down little hills, chasing each other across the snow. I wanted to join them and make a snow angel or snow man. As I moved they all sat up and looked at me and were frozen, so still. Then they continued to play and run all over this beautiful winter scene. Mary told me they live under her house stoop. I wanted to tickle their tummies and feed them carrots. They are just darling. It made me miss my Mungo. Anth said Aunt Sue and Mungo are both doing good but I miss them. I wish I was home with them right now... I am having a good time but I am getting nervous to fly again. I feel like the bunnies were another way of God speaking peace to me. I loved watching them play. It was predicted to be the most server weather WI had ever had this weekend. It did snow and ice and sleet and blow but I can't imagine it being the worst ever. Some areas near us got 18 inches in a day... that is tons of snow. We were lucky to not get to sever. The Lake was very stormy and the waves breaking on the shore looked beautiful. I love seeing more of America, we have been back here so many times but never in the dead of winter. I looked up our church here, but they were cancelled due to the awful storm. It seemed funny... the post office is rain or shine but I guess church is not.

Loves of my life... FREEDOM

Last night I listened to the Pres. talk. I admire that he took action and made a decision and that he has not given up. Many blame him. I wonder if we let go of blame and worked on unity what sort of things we could accomplish as a nation. It made me think of another of my loves...

Freedom: (My Earthly Home) America has many faces: her mountains, forests, and fertile valleys; her cities, towns, and homes; her majesty; her solitude; and her people. America is the land of promise, “America the Beautiful,” I long to travel her seacoasts, mountains, cities, her beautiful and quiet places, in a special thanks for the blessings that are America. We have not celebrated often or deeply enough the birth of this promised land, this choice and beautiful and still-young land, which we possess as the Lord’s gift in freedom and joy—just as long as we serve him. It makes me sad to see us as a Nation turn away from God. I was raised with a respect for the men and women who at great peril sacrificed for my freedom. July in Utah is great because we celebrate twice; once on the 4th and again the 24th. Fireworks, graveyard visits, picnics, hymns of praise, and the fabulous Parade. I marched in it as a young girl; I passed out from the heat. Anthony got to be on a float one year. Scott and I sat in front of Aunt Sue’s apartment and President and Sister Hinckley waved and smiled right at us. For several years Scott worked the parade route with broken floats. We are living in the best of all times of the entire earth because the Gospel in its fullness has been restored and we are in a land of liberty. I come from freedom loving family. My Scharrier ancestors were with the Waldenses a religious group like the Huguenots, who were offered religious freedom in Germany escaping torture in France. My Grandpa and Grandma Scharrier came to America to be with the Latter Day Saints. Now days Americas seem to twist the very principals we were founded on. We pray for leaders who follow God and protect family values to lead us. I love America, I love to be free. These are a few photos of my Scharrier family. Two of my dads cousins Al in New York and Ilse in AZ. We love to visit with them. My dad loved his family and his freedom.

VOTE

I remember the first time I got to vote. I was so very excited to exercise my right to vote. It is a right that came with a huge price paid by many others who came before me. I love that I live in a free country where I can make a difference and have a voice. It is a humbling blessing to stand inside a warm library, with no fear for my life and cast a ballot. We did wait almost two hours. I pray we get a wonderful turn out this year; by people who have taken time to study the issues and the long term effects of the votes. I was thrilled to run into three friends at the polls. We were the youngest by 25 years minimum. It makes me wonder why my peers are not more interested in the future. Of course that is a stereotype, saying my generation is less interested. But it feels real. Liberty, justice and equality have become banners for calling good evil and evil good. It makes me sad to see how our nation is slipping.

The Glass globe ballot jar (to the right) was like the slot-top wooden ballot box, this 1884 box with a glass chamber is typical of the devices used to secure single party tickets. The image of the glass ballot box became a symbol of democratic self-government. Imagine my wait today if we didn't have technology. Of course I wouldn't have had the right to vote back then. In the Utah territory it was around 1870 when Women could vote. Utah was one of the first states in the union to allow it. It wasn't until 1920 when the 19th amendment granted women the right to vote. I'm not big on the women's movement. I feel women are amazing and gifted daughter of God and don't understand why any woman would feel inferior to a man. We are different. One isn't better than another to me. My vote is: I love men- I married the best one and I love being a woman.