State Mottos

Last night, my DH and I went to an adult Valentine's Dinner at church. I wasn't super excited to go. But it ended up being an enjoyable time. Dinner was delicious. A sort of Heavenly Chicken but even more Heavenly! (Heavenly Chicken was my favorite dish that my mom made when I was in highschool.) The chicken was served with home made rolls as good as my mom's...and that's saying something. Also there was white rice and this delicious salad. The salad was bought in a bag from Costco...had 3 little packets with it...craisins, blue cheese, toasted nuts, a really lovely salad dressing. All you have to do it to toss it together. (I now need a Costco membership!)

After the dinner and chatting, we played a very authentic game of Jeopardy. There were probably about 30 of us, separated into 3 teams. Just like the TV show, we played single, double and final Jeopardy. Truthfully, when I saw my team, I really didn't think we had a chance of winning. We did have a slow start that didn't last very long. Boy did we rake in the point!

There were some really great topics...James Bond, Star Trek, Capital Cities, TV City Locations. That last one was great...the answers were What is "Desparate Housewives," "Grey's Anatomy," "Prison Break," "Gilmore Girls," and for 2000 points which I earned for our team "The Office." The answers were the names of the cities were those tv shows are based in. Another fun topic was a topic based on what people were doing in our ward. Of course I can't remember the exact title. I'll have to ask my husband.

Our team got most of the James Bond, Star Trek, Capital Cities...or and Natural Disaters points. So by the time it was Final Jeopardy, we were leading by about 2400 points, I think. Still, a precarious position with one team trailing not too far behind and the other team, well...very, very far behind. But you never know with the last betting. So with the topic of "Michigan" to bet on, and our team trying to figure out how good of a chance we had based on how long each of our team members had lived in this state, Steve K* said that the magic number for us to win no matter what would be 9100 dollars. So we put that down. The Answer...Michigan's State Motto... Ooh...did all the players on each team groan...and moan and whine.

But from the back of my, where the only single elderly gentleman of the party sat, came the answer. We were so happy! We had the golden answer. The other 2 teams had no idea...what so ever... Made up something in Portuguese that we didnt' quite understand. And the other team wrote "What is 'Freeze or Die?"

The correct asnwer is "What is 'If you seek a pleasant peninsula, look about you?'" An odd motto, yes. But I looked it up on good old Google today and found out that we actually have 2 mottos in this state. The second one being more powerful: "I will be defended."

The wikipedia page I found listed all the state mottos. And I wouldn't be a good Buckeye if I didn't research my own home state of Ohio. It's motto is: "With God, all things are possible." That caused me to think about OTHER things that happened in Ohio and I said to myself...what a marvelous motto. When we listen and hasten to follow the directions of God, we will be blessed. We are blessed to have a country where we can have these sacred mottos for our states. It is so nice to see the hand of the Lord over and over again in my daily life. In little things that I never even thought about...like a state motto.

If you want to read up on your own state motto you can find a list at this website:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._state_mottos.