Engleberts in Missouri [miz-er-ree]

Last night we braved the cold and took Violet and Alexander Trick-or-Treating. They got quite a haul – enough that I need to schedule a dental cleaning ASAP. I also took pictures of Vicki, Violet, and Alex for the Halloween Costume Contest. I should have taken Alex’s picture at “The Gates of Hell” haunted house when the kids went Sunday night. Be sure to send in your pictures before the Nov 5^th deadline.

The house is really quiet this morning. Eric, Steph and Alex left this morning for Forsyth to visit Eric’s parents. I made sure I got in some cuddle time with Alex and whispered in his ear not to forget that I’m the best Grandma. They’ll be back next Tuesday.I’m thinking about going to Granny Shaffer’s restaurant around lunchtime today. Maybe get some fried chicken, a piece of homemade pie, and a ticket to see President Bush on Friday.

Yep – the leader of the free world will be in Joplin on Friday working the campaign trail for Jim Talent. I’d like to see the president. I have a few questions to ask him like why he delayed my flight to Portland, how much longer in Iraq and why can’t my son-in-law’s unit get this cool new gear? Important stuff like that.

You might wonder why a staunch party-line Republican like me didn’t get offered a ticket. Mainly I suspect it’s because my liberal-leaning husband won’t let me donate large sums of money to the GOP. They also might have heard that my daughter is working for the opposition.

Yes, it’s true. Victoria is working for the Claire McCaskill campaign.Vicki claims that she had to work for McCaskill’s campaign as part of a class she is taking. I believe the “work as part of a campaign” part but I don’t think it had to be for McCaskill. That’s ok though. I’ve fooled her this time – I actually support McCaskill and not Jim Talent! heehee!My very liberal-leaning children (Amber & Vicki) wait to see who or what I’m voting for to decide how they will vote.

I first learned this a couple of years ago. I had gone down to our polling place to vote and noticed that Amber had not been in to vote yet. When I got home I gave her a call.

“Amber, you haven’t voted yet”
“I know mom, I just don’t know the issues or how to vote”
“That’s ok – we’re voting for (blah blah blah) and Stephanie really wants us to vote Yes on the Rockaway Beach issue.”
“Ok! I’ll go over and vote now!”

Later that evening I gave Amber a call to see if she made it to the polling place to vote. She did – and completely canceled out my votes by voting the exact opposite of everything I told her! Amber claims she did some research on the issues online before she went to vote but I know how it really went down behind the little curtain. “Mom chose A, I’ll choose B.” So this year I’m telling them the exact opposite of the way I really plan to vote. And if they don’t show up at the polls to vote – I’ll just keep the phone on the hook and count it as a vote for my team.

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Man! Chris L.* just can’t catch a break. St. Louis even beat Detroit as the Most Dangerous City. Check out this list published on Monday. Maybe we should all move to Brick, NJ?

*Laura’s husband Chris – we have a lot of people named Chris in our family!