Voting

I have lived in Oklahoma most of my life and therefore never thought much of the rules revolving around voting until recently. You see, until moving away, it never occured to me that other states had different rules and regulations regarding voting. I guess I just always thought that voting was something regulated by the national government.

However, a few years ago, Clay and I moved to Montana and discovered that in MT, you could register to vote on the day of an election, which is very different from Oklahoma's laws which stop voter registration 24 days prior to an election. I have to admit that although I had made sure to register long before the elections, it was very liberating to find out that they encouraged people to register even on election day.

But the full impact of Oklahoma's voting laws did not hit me until we moved back to OK. Now that we are back, I have discovered how sketchy OK is about voting. In Montana, voting is advertised and encouraged in every way. Mailings are sent out to remind people to vote and to give information about candidates. In Oklahoma, voting has the feeling of an event attended by invitation only. It seems as if voting in OK is designed for the elite, the organized, and the elderly which in general would exclude most of the younger, more liberal, college population as well as those of us that are unable to spend all of our time tracking elections.

Now, I'm not trying to make excuses for my irresponsible actions. I understand that I should have registered to vote as soon as I moved back to Oklahoma so that something like this wouldn't happen. Nevertheless, voting in a democracy should not be designed to exclude a certain group of people. All people are created equal and should therefore share the right of expressing their opinions in democratic elections.

Valentine's Craft

After being absent from the blogging world for a few weeks due to illness, I thought I would share a little craft for Valentine's Day. It isn't anything fancy; just something cute to give the grandparents!

First, I started out by buying heart shaped cards and envelopes from Michaels for about $8. This craft also required a stamp pad, letter stamps, a ruler, and a precious baby foot.

I started out by stamping "Be My Valentine" on the front of the card. I used a ruler to keep the letters in a straight line and to make sure that "Valentine" ended up in the largest part of the card.

After letting the front dry, Clay and I proceeded to stamp Aubrey's foot and put it in the inside of the card. Although the pictures show each of us doing it on our own, it is really a two person job; one person is needed to hold the baby and another person to get the foot in the stamp and onto the paper. Also, at four months old, it is basically impossible to keep her fingers uncurled so that is why we chose the foot!

After that, we just added a sweet message and a little flower stamp on the front. And there you have it! A sweet Valentine's Day card to share with the family and a keepsake of that sweet little foot!