I need to post about Christmas, but I wanted to send out one last reminder that I will be making my blog private on Friday. So if you haven't sent me an email to get an invitation and you want to continue reading my blog, please don't delay.

Christmas Season, So far

Don't you love the Christmas season? I do... For so many reasons. We always end up doing lots of fun stuff as a family. We had a great start of our Christmas season. Dallin has really been into trains for awhile now so when my parents found a Santa train ride only 10 minutes away, we were sold! It wasn't anything fancy like the Polar Express rides, but it was a lot of fun. It was a 45 minute train ride with lots of singing and Santa time. The train only seated 60 people so it was small and cozy. It gave each child lots of time to talk to Santa. Afterwards each child got a small gift from Santa and got to sit on his lap and tell him their name and what they would like for Christmas. Then we had hot cocoa and cookies. Dallin was in heaven. Elise admired Santa from afar. Dallin actually sat on Santa's lap and talked to him, a first. I was shocked!
Last weekend was Jon's company Christmas (oh, I mean "Holiday") party. It is downtown at the convention center and it is always really fancy. They serve the BEST food! It's a great excuse to dress up and go on a date! But I am not a dress shopper, so thankfully my SIL Katie let me borrow one of her cute dresses. Thanks Katie! We had a blast even though we didn't win any raffle prizes. Maybe next year we will win the first class round trip tickets to Hawaii. I won't hold my breath. :) These two seriously crack me up! They were getting such a kick out of wearing mommy and daddy's shoes. The best two kids ever!

The Time Has Come....

Well my friends, it is time for our family to go private. If you would like to continue reading my blog please leave me a comment or email me at jenmarie15@gmail.com and give me your email address so I can send you an invitation. We will official change over January 1st (just for convenience sake).

UPDATE: If you want an invitation you really need to email me because I will only send them to those who have emailed or left a comment. So don't get left out... Email me. :)

A Proud Wifey!

I'm really proud of Jon for speaking at a city council meeting and standing up for something he really believes in. And for posting on my blog! So far we have seen two articles on the city coucil meeting. You can read them Here and here and here.

Raymore City Council Meeting

Here is a rare post from Jon instead of Jen.

Monday, I had the oppurtunity to speak at our City Council meeting in support of a bill that will allow people to defend themselves with the most appropriate tools, even while inside city buildings. Currently, most common self-defense weapons are banned from city buildings, and we actually heard the Mayor and a councilwoman suggest alternatives such as salt shakers and chairs to ward off violent, armed, criminal attackers.

A friend of mine made some excellent factual/legal comments, and then I made some comments regarding my personal experience (see the video). Then the bills were read, and then extensively and humorously debated, but I didn't put that two hour video here. After we heard various gems of wisdom such as how the Kirkwood, MO City Council was asking for it, and that the Ft. Hood shooting could have only happened at an Army base because [unarmed] Marines would have been more courageous and stopped the [armed psycho] guy, eventually it went to a vote. We got a veto-proof majority of votes in favor, but this is just first read, so it will have one more vote, and then a veto-override vote (the Mayor talked to me after the meeting and promised to veto it).

Sheriff's Citizen's Academy

Jon and I "graduated" from our Sheriff's Citizen's Academy class last Wednesday and let me tell you, I am sad that I won't be going to the Sheriff's office this Wednesday. It was so much fun learning about the Sheriffs Office (dispatch, investigations, patrol, courts, jail...). We had a great time and HIGHLY recommend for anyone to check out to see if your county offers something similar. This is our class.

We had some really annoying storytellers, but mostly it was a great bunch of people. They guy on the left in the red shirt is our sheriff and I REALLY like him. This is the first thing you see when you go to our Sheriff's office website:

"The Sheriff has issued a message to anyone with the intent to criminally victimize citizens in Cass County;

CRIMINALS BEWARE, Citizens in Cass County have the right to self protection."

AMEN!! How can you not like him!!!

A few weeks ago I got to sit in at dispatch and listen to all the 911 calls on a Friday night. I was expecting to hear some crazy stuff, but apparently Cass county isn't too exciting. The most we hear about was some cows on the road and a few suspected drunks. But today I got to sit in at the jail and that was really interesting. I REALLY enjoyed it. I was there for 7 hours and I was siting in the master control station (the person who opens and closed every door and pretty much communicates with any prisoner for any need they have, which was A LOT) for the men part of the jail. The lady in there watched over all the men (from Minimum to Maximum security). It was amazing how sweet she was to all of them, no matter what they were there for and the even more amazing them was how SUPER NICE they were to her. It was really an eye opener to see what a prisoner life is like and what it is like to be the deputy over them. In another few weeks I get to go on my ride along. I'm sure that will be fun too!!!