Franklin D. Roosevelt: Flag Day Address June 13, 1942

"God of the free, we pledge our hearts and lives today to the cause of all free mankind.

"Grant us victory over the tyrants who would enslave all free men and nations. Grant us faith and understanding to cherish all those who fight for freedom as if they were our brothers. Grant us brotherhood in hope and union, not only for the space of this bitter war, but for the days to come which shall and must unite all the children of earth.

"Our earth is but a small star in the great universe. Yet of it we can make, if we choose, a planet unvexed by war, untroubled by hunger or fear, undivided by senseless distinctions of race, color or theory. Grant us that courage and foreseeing to begin this task today that our children and our children's children may be proud of the name of man.

"The spirit of man has awakened and the soul of man has gone forth. Grant us the wisdom and the vision to comprehend the greatness of man's spirit, that suffers and endures so hugely for a goal beyond his own brief span. Grant us honor for our dead who died in the faith, honor for our living who work and strive for the faith, redemption and security for all captive lands and peoples. Grant us patience with the deluded and pity for the betrayed. And grant us the skill and the valor that shall cleanse the world of oppression and the old base doctrine that the strong must eat the weak because they are strong.

"Yet most of all grant us brotherhood, not only for this day but for all our years-a brotherhood not of words but of acts and deeds. We are all of us children of earth-grant us that simple knowledge. If our brothers are oppressed, then we are oppressed. If they hunger, we hunger. If their freedom is taken away, our freedom is not secure. Grant us a common faith that man shall know bread and peace-that he shall know justice and righteousness, freedom and security, an equal opportunity and an equal chance to do his best, not only in our own lands, but throughout the world. And in that faith let us march, toward the clean world our hands can make. Amen."

A sad reminder

Today I texted Austin and said...

"We did so good on our cell phone minutes this month! It's the last day of the cycle and we still have 60 minutes left"

To which he texted me back with...

"That means we're losers"


{I'm no longer excited about having leftover minutes.}

For Sarah and Nicole

I'd like to say that those canvas pictures were a feat of crafting genius, but they were the easiest thing ever.

I bought the canvases at the craft store in the artist section, they were on sale for about $3.50 a piece.

Then I used my old school picture editor to turn my pictures Sepia, and took them to Kinko's on a jump drive. They blew up the pictures to the size I wanted, 11x17 in this case, and printed them on regular laser jet printer paper with a matte finish. This cost about $0.75 a picture. Regular photo paper won't work, so no need to print the big expensive versions at a photo store!

I then used man's greatest invention since the wheel....Mod Podge. Truly the most wonderful substance discovered on this planet.

I prefer the Matte version of Mod Podge, it looks cleaner than the others. I used a foam brush to paint layers on the canvases. You need about four layers before putting the pictures down, so I used a blow dryer to dry them in between to speed up the process. Paint on one last layer, and carefully lay your picture onto it. Voila!

And the most important thing...DON'T TRY TO PUSH OUT THE BUBBLES. Unless it's a huge wrinkle, it will go away as it dries. I ignored this fact on the first one I did, and I just ended up wrinkling the picture with all my smoothing efforts. The other two looked flawless after about an hour, even though there were tiny bumps right when I placed it on.

You can mod podge over the top after the picture dries if you want a shinier finish, but I just left mine as they were. The canvases are so light that you can hang them on a push pin instead of putting a nail in the wall. Easy as pie! =)

Without a doubt....

....this is the cutest baby that ever existed in the whole WORLD. This is why I love Halloween.
Photo courtesy of Scott and Nicole's blog, but I had to have something this darling on mine too!
Please take note of the monkey slipper on her foot. It just doesn't get better than that.

Aversion therapy

I ate one of these at the hospital















And then took one of these for my sickiness













And then felt like this


















In case anyone is keeping score, I no longer eat enchiladas (since I was 8), Barbecue pizza, or omelets.

Materialistic

Anthropologie is a weakness of mine. I could spend hundreds of dollars on frivolous things and not even feel bad about it. I spend hours looking at their website, just dreaming of owning every. single. thing. It was always a general lusting, until I found these.

Try and tell me those aren't the most darling shoes you have ever seen. I would wear those with EVERYTHING. There were almost 30 customer reviews, the most I've ever seen for one item, and they were all positive. {ALL OF THEM}. Everyone agreed that they were the most comfortable shoes, they could wear them for a 10 hour work day without a problem. Other reviews said you could change out the ribbon and that they looked even cuter with a red or yellow silk bow. Completely convinced of my absolute undeniable irrevocable need for these shoes, I prepared to purchase immediately. But of course, they were out of every size bigger than a 7.5. Of course.
So I called the store in Salt Lake and they were out.
So I called customer service and had them check every store in the country, and they were out.
Every single store.
Defeated, I decided to move on, start the grieving process you know? So today I thought I would look at them one more time. Hoping that maybe they suddenly weren't as perfectly adorable as I know they are. And there it was. A size 8.5. Good thing I already have an account created to order from them, because within ten seconds I was looking at my order confirmation. In some warehouse somewhere, my beautiful perfect pair of shoes is being packaged and shipped to me.

I love when stories have happy endings.

Sucker Punch

Read this short but amazingly hilarious article about a woman in Australia. I hope more men like that get what's coming to them.