Andrea and Richard

Today is the day where we recognize and honor our veterans and troops. Veteran’s Day has even more meaning to me personally. My Uncle (dad’s brother) fought, and lost his life, in the Vietnam war. I never got the chance to meet him. I hear stories about him from my grandma and that’s pretty much it. Because he served and fought for our country, he did not die in vain. Today Richard and I honored him by visiting his grave and laying flowers. We honor all our troops; freedom comes at a cost.

Today is a very special birthday for Andrea; a major milestone in her life and I’m very fortunate to be able to celebrate it with her. This is our fifth birthday together and our second as husband and wife.

For Andrea’s birthday this year, we drove down to Sonoma for some romantic wine tasting. We also stayed at the beautiful Inn at Occidental in the Wine Country Room.

Be on the lookout for pictures and write-up soon! Happy birthday my love!

Thirty one million five hundred fifty six thousand nine hundred twenty six seconds. That is the break down of how long we’ve been married in terms of months, days, hours, minutes, and seconds. Today marks our very first anniversary as husband and wife and what a special day it is. It was today, thirty minutes passed nine A.M. at California State University Stanislaus at Warrior Lake we took our vows and exchanged rings forever binding us legally and spiritually connected as a team. It is today, that each of us are no longer just Andrea or Richard, but Andrea and Richard (and Stripes) walk together through sadness, happiness, anger, fear, frustration, danger, and whatever else maybe in our paths, united and connected as one.

As we spend today together, we will look back on our journey so far and also look ahead to the journey that awaits us. Today is a day that we appreciate where we were and where we are. Today we recognize that apart, we are strong, but weak and together we are invincible.

Today I recognize that I would have or want no other by my side. That despite everything I done right or wrong, Andrea continues to be stability for me when everything else in life seems turbulent. Andrea is my guiding light and my source of hope when all else seems bleak. Thank you my love for being there. I love you, happy first annivesary.

The reason why i’m so excited about this election, this is the very FIRST time i’ll be voting for a President. I registered to vote in 2004, but did not vote in that election. I also have the privilege of sharing my 30th birthday on election day this year.

So you might wonder why i’m a Republican, also known as the Grand Old Party (GOP). You might think it’s ironic that I work for the Government (Republican’s believe in smaller government). You might also wonder how I could be a Republican living in, mostly Democrat, California.

Here’s why:

• Strong family values.
• Less Federal Government and more Local and State Government.
• Right to bear arms.
• Personal decision making rather than Government deciding for you.
• The value of hard work and not depending on the Government to provide for you.
• Oppose universal health care ( all the tax payers would pay for everyone else)
• Capital punishment ( I believe in the death penalty)
• School choice and vouchers for the education system.
• National security (strict foreign policy/ large role of military/patriotism/support of military on the offense)
• Free trade and capitalism.

…and the number one reason why i’m a Republican:

TAXES
REPUBLICANS BELIEVE that Americans should keep more of what they earn through lower taxes and that tax policy should not suppress incentive by penalizing success.

Some say the Republican Party is for the rich, but like Mike Huckabee stated,

“I’m not a Republican because I grew up rich, but because I didn’t want to spend the rest of my life poor, waiting for the government to rescue me.”

Proud Republican and supporter of John McCain and Sarah Palin.

…to be continued.