Election Day at the Warren's

I love voting! I can still remember the first time I voted. It wasn't a presidential election year and I didn't know much about the city or the candidates because I had just moved to Utah to go to BYU, BUT I did find a candidate who was running for city council that spoke about an issue that mattered to me. At BYU,parking is an never ending problem. On campus you have to park in very specific lots. That is to be expected. The irritating part for me was that the apartment complexes cram so many students into these units that it is very difficult to provide enough parking. And if by chance, you actually wanted to visit someone in another complex, you can not park in their parking lot. You have to park out on the street and "hike" to the apartment. In a Utah winter that is such a pain. Long story, shorter! I got towed from a friends lot late one night and when I went to the impound lot to get my car they informed me they only took cash. WHAT!!! It was very late (or extremely early depending on how you looked at it) and I didn't have a bank account in Utah thus a trip to an ATM would have been expensive to a college student, so my friend took me from 7-Eleven to 7-Eleven cashing checks until I had enough to get my car back. So when a fellow BYU student announced he was running for city council, and promised to change the way these towing companies took payment for impounded cars, I was very excited. He got close to winning and made the current council take notice of the problem. The city began requiring towing companies take a credit card payment. It was a great lesson for me how government can effect even the smallest issues.

Lily too has been bittin' by the voting bug. Her Kindergarten class had a little mock election for class president to get an idea of how the process works. Lily won the primary election along with 2 other classmates. She had to prepare answers for questions that "concerned" her classmates. Here are the too funny questions and her VERY serious answers.......

1. What rules will you make?

Lily answered, "That the teacher is in charge. Don't be mean."

2. When someone gets hurt how will you take care of them?

Lily answered, "I will help them up and help them get to the teacher and she will help them get to the nurse."

3. Will you let us eat snack and get drinks? Why or Why not?

Lily answered," YES! If you are good you can get snack, if you're not good, NO! It depends on your attitude." Yep, her exact words. I think she's heard that before.=)

4. Will you let us go to centers? Why or why not?

Lily answered, "If you do your work you can go to centers"

I had to go into Lily's class yesterday afternoon to talk to her teacher and Lily proudly told me she won the class election. She was walking a foot off the ground. Her teacher then told me about the class discussion that had happened earlier yesterday. Mrs. J was showing the kids pictures of the candidates and telling a little about their families, nothing political, and one of the kids spoke up and said, "My daddy said he is not voting for the baby killer." Mrs. J said she ended the discussion after that comment. Kids are great! I then quizzed Lily on what else was said and she said "the smartest boy in the class" said that guy will steal our money. Too funny what kids pick up out of things they hear. The PTA also held mock elections for president at the school and McCain won. Lily was wanting to see who won the real Presidential Election when she came home from school yesterday, and when I told her we wouldn't know til tomorrow morning she was disappointed, and then this morning when she asked who won and I told her, she fought off tears! I tried to explain that it was OK and that Obama would be a good president and nothing in her life will change. Then she said she was just mad that her guy didn't win. If Lily is anything, it is passionate!!!

This is a funny comic that a friend sent me. Seems to fit in my life at the moment. Kids, Halloween, and politics!!!