Mondays the day...

I haven't posted in so long I figured I had better post something even if it is just ramblings. Things have been a little tense around our little town this past month and I need to vent or I am going to have a serious meltdown.
Freeport-McMoran (the mine in Morenci that Joe works for) announced a month ago that there was going to be a mass layoff. The price of copper is below production cost and I guess they figure laying off a ton of people is going to solve the problem. They didn't give anyone a clue as to who was going to get layed off. They offered an early retirement package and this past week Joe brought home a paper offering a deal for anyone who would leave voluntarily. Pretty much the only thing keeping our little town alive is the mine. It is the main source of employment. The air in the town is heavy. You can feel the stress and tention anywhere you go and the only thing anyone talks about is this layoff. Well Monday is the day they will start to let people go. My heart is heavy when I think of all of the families I know that could be effected. It makes me sad to think the future for these families our little town could be grim. They are going to layoff 1550 people so who knows what the outcome will be. That is about half of the mine.
I don't like posting negative things on my blog because I hate to dwell on the negative. The only reason I am posting this is to ask for your prayers for the people that are going to be effected by this. Not us imparticular but for the whole group. I know there is going to be a lot of anger and contention all next week and I am hoping nothing to serious happens. If you are a reader of this blog and you or any of your family members work for Freeport, know that our prayers are with you. Thank you all for everything you do.

ALL ABOARD!!!

We have this great family that lives in Duncan that adopted us. Joe used to work for this family when he has a lot younger and they adopted him then and the kids and I were adopted as we came along. They got us tickets to ride the Polar Express Train for Christmas this year because they knew how fascinated the boys are with trains. It was such a sweet gift and we can't thank them enough.
I don't know who was more excited to ride a train, Darrell and Tad or ME! They had so much fun. We boarded at 6:30 p.m. and they gave all of us hot chocolate and chocolate chip cookies. They read the Polar Express book to us on the way to the North Pole. After about 30 minutes we got to the North Pole and we saw SANTA! Who knew he would still be around. He got on the train and visited all of the train cars. He gave each of the kids their very own bell. Darrell and Tad LOVE them! The ride back was for 30 more minutes and we sang Christmas Carols and had a ton of fun. It was to stinkin' cold to put them in their pajamas so we looked like hum-bugs in regular street clothes. Oh well. We are going to go back but I think next time we are going to go all the way to the grand canyon and stay the night then come back the next day. These aren't all of the pictures I wanted to post some are on another camera so I will post them as soon as I can get them.

Joe, Darrell, and Tad

Our Conductor

Darrell, so excited to finally be on the train

Joe and Tad on the train

They had so much FUN!

Darrell with his Hot Chocolate, Tad didn't want to drink his.

Darrell getting his bell from Santa

Darrell with his bell

Tad with his bell.

Outside the Train Depot they had tons of amazing lights

Their Bells