Los Suns

Last night the Phoenix Suns wore the "Los Suns" jerseys.  In part to support cinco de mayo. (I ate Mexican food for lunch)  The other motive was to show solidarity against the new Arizona law.  This law has brought forth great anger in this country.  There were bunches of people that boycotted the game.  I am glad that I live in a country that allows us to voice our opinions and also have a say in the laws that govern us. 

I think I fall on both sides of this law.  I was in Brasil for 2 years, I was there legally with documents.  I was not working, I was there on a LDS mission to teach people about my church.  I had people all of the time treat me badly because I was a foreigner.  I was asked for my documents by a police officer.  I obeyed the laws.  It is scary and not always fun to go somewhere different. 

This country was founded on giving immigrants a chance.  A chance at a new life and new opportunity.  Just as if an American wants to go somewhere else they should be given a chance.  That said it should be done legally.  Mr. Government needs to make that process easier, let people move around.  Let them be successful.  Now Legally means paying the proper taxes and obeying the law.  If you have a job you should be legal and pay taxes just like the rest of us.  Your health care should be your responsibility not our government.  If you do not do things legally then you should be punished.  That should be the federal governments responsibility not each states.  Thosee laws should be universal that way an immigrant in Utah or Texas knows what he should do to be legal.  Punishment should fit the crime.  Drugs, violence, etc. should be punished the same as a citizen.  If you send them back they will come back and do it again.  Lock em up, make them pay the price just like Joe Blow would.  Arizona has made it so their police officers have the right to see if you are legal, that can be a bit of a grey area.  If the person commits a crime and then they find out they are not here legally then you should punish, being in the country should not be the crime.  The good ole USA is about chances.  Let them in I say and give them a chance.

Just as there are bad people all over this world there are lots of good people that want a chance.  they want a chance at a good life.  They want a chance to be happy.  One of my favorite scriptures is in 2 Nephi 2:25-27 it says we are free to choose, but we pay the consequences of those choices.  What if one of these immigrants comes over and is a positive influence on his neighborhood and has the smarts to cure cancer.  I say lets give 'em a chance.

Why do I love thee....

  I am writing this tonight, gambling on the fact that not too many persons out there are reading it.  It has been way to long since my last post so I doubt that anyone still has interest.  In fact tonight's post is about my favorite woman, Jill.  I bet it will be a while until she reads this...unless someone tells her about it.  Which I will not mind, but let's see how long it takes for her to poke around here. 
  I watch way too much TV, but the other day I saw a "Miller Lite" commercial.  You might have seen it.  The guy and girl are sitting on a blanket in the park.  He comments how he loves the wide mouth bottles.  He has reason after reason for "loving" his beer.  Then the girl says "What do you love about me....?"  Now the male readers know exactly how I feel at thsi point.  Your tongue gets heavy, your eyes begin to roll around in your head and you get a bit dizzy.  What are we supposed to say??? I am yelling at the TV at this point, "get up run, run away.  Save yourself!!"  This is never a great moment.  Jill ask's this all of the time, I cannot ever come up with a good answer.  In fact, Jill, correct me if I am worng, but I think I have said I usually don't make a list of these things. (am I good or what?)
   Well, Saturday April 17th is Jill's birthday.  What a better time to come up with the list and put it all out there.  Guys, I am sorry that I am going to do this.  all of us will need to ban together and make a book or something.  "101 reason's we love you..." that could be a best seller.  FINE PRINT..... this list is not all inclusive nor does it reflect the entire opinion of it's writer.  If by some chance he has left something important off, it is not his fault.  The writer holds all power to adjust this list at anytime.   Results are not guaranteed, in fact the results could be negative, but here goes......
 Reasons I love you, Jill ......
  Amazingly enough I will put down the male answer first.  (I will keep it PG rated.)  You are a great lover.  Kissing is fun and you know all the rest.  BTW, that is getting better with age and since there is no chance of pregnancy it is actually fun! 
   Jill is not a great housekeeper, but that is one thing I like.  She never tries to clean her house better than Sara or Aly or her sister.  She is herself, I know she hates not being good at this, but it is ok.  I really like doing my part.  Dishes, vacuuming, laundry is not for a female only.  Everyone needs to pitch in.  Could you help me more, sure but I love you anyway!
  I love that Jill reads.  She is always trying to become more knowledgeable.  Sometimes very opinionated, but always informed.  Jill will research it out if she does not understand.  We do not read the same types of books, but she will share with me her books.  I find that attractive. 
   When I married Jill, she had no sports background.  NOW sports is her life.  She knows more about baseball than lots of men.  In fact she has made facebook comments that I do not think some people even understand.  Baseball is her favorite, but she watches football with me and lots of other things.  I wish she liked car racing, but she likes to tease me about my hick sport.  Oh well, like she tells me, most men would kill for a woman that knows what E3 stands for!  (did you know she kept stats for the baseball league, she even gave weekly reports to the coaches, batting averages, ERA everything)
  Jill has a great body.  Like everyone she gripes about sagging parts and extra weight, but I love it.  She is sexy and I love it when she tries  to make herself pretty.  Lots of women woul pay big bucks to have boobs like hers.  Sounds like someday I will be paying big bucks to make them beter.  Oh well, I love her body.
   Jill is a good Mother.  She does not feel that way, but she is.  She has stayed up until the wee hours of the morning talking to each one of our kids.  When I am wits end, she can find a way to help them understand.  I think she loves having teenagers.  Talking to Kate and Chris aobut girls boys and the tough things they are going through is one of her greatest strengths.  She loves to cuddle with Kolbie and watch a movie for the millionth time.  Even if it si one of those vampire movies or what not.
  She loves the movies.  Jill goes to a movie by herself all of the time.  Working at Old Navy she had days off during the week.  This gave her the chance to go to movies in the afternoon.  I like to go with her, but some movies I do not understand (Greg ,for do not want to see), so she heads out by herself and loves it.  We have quite the collection of DVDs.  Numerous times we have kept a red box long enough for it to be ours!
  Jill is becoming an expert on salt water fish.  Even if she loves bristle worms and is yelling at us to come and see one more.  Fish are stinky, and aften very dirty, but she has a fascination for our tank. 
  Best of all she is my best friend.  I love to talk to her and I think she actually listens to me.

  Ok like I said before this list not complete and I am sure I have forgotten something very important.  Jill I love you!  I hope Your birthday is the greatest.  You deserve it, SMILE you will always be my favorite.  Next time you get that hankerin' to ask me why... please refer to this post.  I will not be able to revive it from memory.  My tongue will probably be tripping over itself.  HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

Red Headed Step Child

What to post about?  Lately I have had major anxiety, over everything.  This includes friends, work, school, everything!  I go places and feel very frustrated.  I think it really shows sometimes.  Church has become a wierd place for me to go.  I feel like I have lots of friends (that is not the truth, but that is for another post), but I feel weird.  Kolbie is having issues with friends, Jill is Jill, Chris says no one cares if he is there anyways.  What to do??? BUT that is not what I want to post about.

Sometimes we get sucked into the why me stage, we forget about the blessings we have.  I have a place to live (at least for now).  My kids go to school and try, but they have a school.  I have a family that I love, and I have a job.  What else can I ask for.  My life is good, sometimes it is better than I deserve. 

Right after Jill and I were married we got involved in Amway.  Not the smartest decision we have ever made.  We never made it rich in fact I think I lost money and some friends in the process.  Inviting someone over and then ambushing them with a multilevel marketing scheme does not bode well for the future of a friendship.  In that process I did have a couple of great learning opportunities.  One of those were some cool positive learning experiences.  My first was a book by David Swartz called The Magic of Thinking Big.  I have read this book several times.  It helps me to see my life in a different light.  The other good thing I found was a song called Cat's In The Cradle (LP Version).  These two things have been with me for a long time.

Now is the time to harness these ideas and work on my life to produce a better life.  I need to be propelled towards sucess.  Positive and productive thoughts will help me to suceed.  Jill and are in sort of financial problem, but I know that we can make it.  Why not try the hardest I can.  Church will be church, what am I really there for, social? not! My testimony growth is what I need to grasp.  I am not perfect, I do not have a temple reccomend, but I can try.  Kolbie's friend problem will be a battle.  She can find a better way.  If that means changing friends then so be it.  She is a beautiful girl and if someone wants her not to be happy then she will find someone else.  Chris can do it.  He has put his mind to the play thing and he is suceeding.  He will find a way to achieve greater respect from those around him.  We have a great big labrotory to practice and experiment.  There are more opportunities for us.  Think Success, not failure.  Now I need to start living that advice.  Get to the top by following the plan. 

Sorry to put you through my self motivation, but it will help me to get the results I need.  Thank you!

James family Tradition!

  One of the traditions that we have as a James family for Christmas Eve is called our "Memories"  each year we are to submitt a page for our memory book.  Each of us has our own book and we distribute copies to everyone of our paper.  We have done this for about 10 years.  With 4 kids, spouses, grandkids and Mom & Dad that has translated into a fairly large book.  One that I am sure we will keep for years to come.  This year I went back and read some of the highs an lows out family has had over those 10 years.  It was funny, sad and well worth the time. 
  Anyways this year our theme was your favorite toy.  I challenge each of you to post a comment of what your favorite was.  Here is my list of favoite toys from my 2009 Memory.

Memory 2009

By Greg James

My Favorite Toys

This year we were asked to share what our favorite toys were growing up. There were a few toys that I can remember as a kid. We had a pretty awesome toy box that was made to look like a box car. I can remember the sand box that Grandpa James built for us and then it later turned into the East side of the house. We had a cool tire sunk in the ground that we could climb on and pee into. I still have lots of baseball cards, but those did not make it on my list of my favorite toys. What did? Well here goes:

#3 Baseball Gloves; I can remember owning 3 different gloves growing up. My first was the small type for peewee and then I graduated to a larger glove that I think I used until I was 14 or 15. After that I “earned” a new Mizuno glove from Uncle Terry. I got to pick it out and I cherished that thing. I would rub it down at least twice a year. I still own that glove to this day.

#2Green Nerf Ball; this toy did not last long, but I enjoyed it. It was squishy and I could throw it in the house. Dad would never catch me because he could not hear it hit things. The dog eventually found it and tore it to pieces, but before that I had my good use from it. I set up my own imaginary games in my room. If the ball hit this target then it was a double or out depending. I kept the stats and had my own league. That was until dad found my stats I had left lying around and he trashed them. I loved “playing” those games.

#1 Strat-o-matic; my number one favorite toy was my strat games. I purchased these games with my own money when I was about 1o years old. I first bought baseball, football and later basketball. After my mission I got the Hockey version. Since then I have purchased more recent cards and I even have baseball for my computer. I loved this game because I could play it solitaire or with my friends. In seventh grade we set up a football league with a bunch of my friends. After school they would come over and play the games. I was the Philadelphia Eagles because Scott Wright wanted the Cowboys. Of course we kept the stats and would “publish” them for everyone to see. I only allowed 7 points in our season and that was the run back of my first kick off. Kevin Olson and I played numerous basketball tournaments. At Inkley’s we played hockey in the break room at lunch. I think I treasured those games more than anything.

It is funny that I know I had numerous more toys growing up. I am sure there are plenty that Mom and Dad suffered over at Christmas time, but the most simple and practical are the ones I remember the most.