MLK Day/Equality Day

49 out of 50 states called yesterday Martin Luther King Day. But not Wyoming…no, we call it “Equality Day.” When I left Wyoming at the ripe age of 18 and headed to Oklahoma for college, I was a bit confused. So for those of you who are also confused, here’s a bit of a Wyoming history lesson. Wyoming is known as the Equality State because we were the first state to allow women the right to vote. This makes us sound very noble, however, the only reason we let them vote is because if we didn’t then Wyoming wouldn’t have had enough votes to count in the election. That said, Wyoming holds true to its equality roots and has gone on to be the first state to allow women to serve on a jury (1870), had the first female court bailiff (Mary Atkinson, 1870) and the first female justice of the peace (Esther Hobart Morris, 1870). Wyoming also was the first state in the Union to elect a female governor, Nellie Tayloe Ross, who was elected in 1924 and took office in January 1925. Wyoming is all about women and equality…thus the celebrating of Equality Day. I guess the state could keep MLK Day and have another state-wide holiday just to celebrate Equality, but why give kids 2 days off from school when you can keep it to just one?

Ok, enough about my home state, on to our weekend. Saturday morning we took a day trip to Richmond, VA to see the swearing in of VA’s new Governor. We choose not to talk politics on this blog because the truth is that in the end 1/3 of you would love us, 1/3 of you would hate us, and the other 1/3 would just be annoyed. So all politics aside, it was a great family trip and a cool thing to see. After the inauguration they had a parade that featured Minute Men, and had words of wisdom from George Washington, Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson. It was very cool. Then there were the bagpipes…Joe loves bagpipes (it’s the Irish in him). He said, “Why didn’t we have bagpipes at our wedding?” I had to gently remind him that I told him that he could have anything he wanted at our wedding, he just had to ask. Joe, being the easy-going guy that he is, didn’t ask for much, and not once during the entire wedding planning did he ever ask for bagpipes…not once! If he had asked, I would have done everything in my power to have them. So now we are trying to come up with some event where we can have bagpipes. Maybe Joe’s graduation party…then our neighbors would hate us. We’ll see.

On our way home we stopped at one of the greatest restaurants in America…The Cracker Barrel! Shopping and eating at one venue…and candy from my childhood. Ahhh, it can’t get much better than that. I had a traditional southern dish of Country Fried Steak and sweet tea. My mouth is watering just thinking about it. After lunch Ella slept the rest of the way home. We had a nice outing for the day.

Sunday and Monday were pretty uneventful. We had some friends over for lunch on Sunday, which is always a fun time. And Monday we stayed at home and cleaned out our closets. It was way overdue! My attitude was if it doesn’t fit then it’s going to the Salvation Army. I was able to clean out a lot of stuff that I haven’t worn in years, and I took it upon myself to clean out Joe’s closet too.

In other Murray news, Joe got a new job!!! PTL! I am so proud of him! He’ll be working as Legislative Council for a member of the House of Representatives (I won’t say who to protect the innocent). This is a great step for him and I know he’ll do a great job.

Finally, here are some of Ella’s funny phrases for the week:

While holding up Joe’s pocket Constitution and “reading” – Once upon a time there was a little girl named Ella and she had her boogies. The end. That was a great story, mommy.

She and I were in her room playing and she said: I’ll go show daddy. I’ll be right back. (while holding up her finger as if to indicate that it would be just a minute).

Yesterday when Joe was going to take a shower: Ella: Is daddy going to take a shower? Joe: Yes. Ella: Is daddy going to use soap? Joe: Yes. Ella: Is daddy going to use shampoo? Joe: Yes.
Apparently she wanted to make sure he was really clean.