Hmmmm, what am I doing here?  Well in a nutshell it goes like this..... Hmmm, It isn't going to fit, you'll have to read the long version.  I have a teen age son.  (Yes, my hair is gray)  I have spent hours coaching him, as well as the girls, (and everyone else's kids who come around) about relationships.  Specifically relationships between young men and women.  Questions that I ask them are, what is dating?  How can you be going out if you only know each other in a chat room?  Do you know that your not even capable of havng the kind of feeling for a permanat relationship?  We talk often, especially when the kids have friends over, they call our chats, "The Lecture"  Well, I don't know about you, but every now and again, my son will come and find me and say, mom talk to my friend.  And that is why I am here, cause Gus says that every now and then, someone needs a mom type person to chat with to get their perspective back.  I will talk about any topic, they don't embarass me, and I can just listen.  My number one priority is to help get kids, (teenagers) to be the best people they can be and to be happy people. 

I like ice cream too, and if you ever need to have a long chat, just make sure you have some handy.  Caramel is good too, with whipped cream. 

Embrace your innocence.  Cover yourself with it like a cloak.  It wont last forever, and it sure makes life simpler.  How old are you?  Your just a kid.  Your young and full of potential.  You have a long life to live and too soon you will be expected to grow up into responcible adults.  Go swimming, go to same sex sleep overs, go window shopping and lay out under the stars.  Go camping, explore the world around you.  Contribute to your commmunity in smalls ways.  Go and visit the elderly in a nursing home.  Save some money from you summer job to buy gifts for a child whose name was hung on the christmas tree in you local grocery store.  Help you mom clean the house one day, just because.  Take your dad out out for ice cream. 

When my children were babies, I couldn't wait until they were teenagers.  Teens have something so special to share with the world.  Full of potential and promise.  The world is your Oyster (yes I borrowed that). You are the pearl with in. 

I challenge you to "Embrace Your Innocence"

When was the last time you held a new born baby?  How about a toddler?  What is it about them that make you want to just hold them and keep them safe?  When I see a young person, I think of all they have to offer, all they have to give, just by being themselves.  How do you see yourself?  Do you want to protect yourself and stay safe?  You should.  I'm not really talking about physical safetly, (although that is important), but emotional safety.  You may have heard some say that in order to really live, you must take emotional risks.  That is almost true even.  However, in order for that to be true, you must be emotionally mature, and that, takes time.  On occasion you may find a  young person that is emotionally mature enough to take relational risks, but young people, protect your hearts, your innocence, reclaim your innocence.  I just want to wrap you up in my arms and hold you tight.  I read your blogs, and some of you are hurting, and I feel for you.  Living shouldn't hurt. 

Don't jump into relationships, (and don't jump into bed), protect yourself, and give yourself the chance to grow up, without stunting your growth.

embrace your youth, once it's gone it will never return.

This is so true I just had to share.  I don't know who the author is, just recieved it in my email.

I just spent several hours observing teenagers hanging out at our local mall. I came to the conclusion many teenagers in America today are living in poverty. 

This morning I want to share with you one of my favorite quotes.  Written by a E. G. White (1827-1915).  To learn more about her visit this web site http://www.whiteestate.org/about/egwbio.asp  OK heres the quote.

Circumstances have but little to do with the experiences of the soul.  It is the spirit cherished that gives coloring to all our actions.  A man at peace with God and his fellow man can not be made miserable.  5 T 488

This quote says to me that is it up to me to have a good spirit and not hang on to feelings of anger and hatred, and other negative emotions.  If I always choose happy emotions, even when bad things happen, I will not be unhappy.  I might still be sad, or be angry, or upset, but if I choose not to hang on to those feelings I will always be a happy person.

Have you ever wondered why the sky is blue? Why the grass is green? Why water is wet, and how can it dry out your skin?  What is wetter than water, and how can something be wetter than wet?  How do dodgs know who to trust? and why do babies need rocked to sleep?  Do you know at what instant you go to sleep at night? Do you wake up when you roll over at night?  How do the stars keep their course in the sky?  What keeps the sun from burning up? Why is life unfair?  Why arn't relationships easier? 

I would answer life's puzzling questins if I could, but I can't, and if I could, they wouldn't be puzzleing now would they.  But time keeps ticking on, second after second, and it is up to us to live up to life's potential.

Hmmm, what a line of thinking for today.  Ah well, better to think of strange things than to think of nothing at all.

Just wanted to wish everyone  happy 4th. 

 We took the older kids to spend part of the week with their grandparents.  So just the baby at home.  Funny, he doesn't seem to miss them yet.  Joey is playing with balls and running through the house laughing and yelling.  He is such a sweet child.  Maybe I'll take him swimming this afternoon.  But first we have some work to do around the house.

"When we get into combat, I'll kill you myself," a sergeant once told the lanky medic.  No one wanted a soldier who refused to carry a gun.  Twice his commander tried to have him court-martialed as unfit for service.  "conscientious objector...no!"  He would say.  He didn't object to service, only to killing.
     At Okinawa the Americans had taken the plateau above a high cliff when the enemy swarmed out in force from their hidden caves.  Overwhelmed, the Americans pulled back to the base of the cliff.  Above them remained only the wounded...and the Japanese.  Helpless to aid their wounded comrades above, they could only huddle beneath and listen to the cries and gun fire.  Then, something amazing happened.   From the top of the cliff a wounded soldier dangled from a rope.  At the top of the 400 foot Maeda Escarpment a lanky medic stood, heedless of the enemy all around him, to slowly lower first one, then another wounded man.  At the end of the day his commander said, "You saved a hundred lives today."
     "Impossible," the brave medic replied.  "Maybe fifty."  So when they wrote his Medal of Honor citation they split the difference, crediting him with saving 75 lives.
     "The bravest man I have ever met," his commander later said, "was the man I tried to have kicked out of the army."

Visit this site  http://www.homeofheroes.com/hallofheroes/2nd_floor/opportunity/hero_1/0_frame.html

What a busy weekend.  We ahd a special service at church on Saturday to dedicate our baby to God for His service.  It was a beautiful service.  Our Pastor's husband and 5 yo son sang a special song for us and my husband read a letter to Joey that we had written,  My sister-in-law took pictures, but I haven'thad time to look at them yet.  My in-laws and my mom and sister came down for the dat to attned the service then come home from church with us for the afternoon. 

Sunday was normal family stuff around the house, plus a trip to the swimming pool with the kids and a Vacation Bible School meeting at the church.

Last week we finished picking the radishes out of the garden, picked alot of lettuce, ate fresh brocoli.  We should have tomatoes by the end of the week, as well as green beans, peas, and summer squash.  I love garden harvest.

And I have a busy day lined up.  have to get going or I'll never get done.

I tried to use the mindsay link for my daughter in my last post, but cant figure out how to use it.  Help please.

Thanks

OK, this is your mother speaking here.  I've seen some stuff posted in the last couple of days that worries me.

If you have your phone number on your blog, GET IT OFF, NOW!!!

Never use your real first and last name on the internet.

Never give your address, or your street on the internet, or even a nearby landmark.

Please don't make it easy for internet preditors to find you.

If anyone else has any other safety ideas, please share them.  There are alot of young people here, and I want everyone to stay safe.

Ok, I'm going to share another story, and no I'm not the author, but it's a good story and because you can make a differance even if you don't know it.

One day, when I was a freshman in high school, I saw a kid from my
class was walking home from school.  His name was Kyle. It looked like he was
carrying all of his books.  I thought to myself,"Why would anyone bring home all
his books on a Friday?  He must really be a nerd." 

I had quite a weekend planned (parties and a football game with my
friends tomorrow afternoon), so I shrugged my shoulders and went on.  As I was
walking, I saw a bunch of kids running toward him.  They ran at him,
knocking all his books out of his arms and tripping him so he landed in
the dirt. His glasses went flying, and I saw them land in the grass about
ten feet from him.

He looked up and I saw this terrible sadness in his eyes.   My heart
went out to him.  So, I jogged over to him and as he crawled around looking
for his glasses, I saw a tear in his eye. As I handed him his glasses, I
said, "Those guys are jerks.  They really should get lives" He  looked at me
and said, "Hey thanks!"  There was a big smile on his face. It was one of
those smiles that showed real gratitude.

I helped him pick up his books, and asked him where he lived. As it
turned out he lived near me, so I asked him why I had never seen him before.
He said he had gone to private school before now.  I  would have never
hung out with a private school kid before.  We talked all the way home, and I
carried his books.

He turned out to be a pretty cool kid.  I asked him if he wanted to
play football on Saturday with me and my friends.  He said yes.  We hung all
weekend and the more I got to know Kyle, the more I liked him. And my
friends thought the same of him.

Monday morning came, and there was Kyle with the huge stack of books
again. I stopped him and said, "Wow boy, you are gonna really build some
serious muscles with this pile of books everyday!"  He just laughed and handed
me half the books.

Over the next four years, Kyle and I became best friends.  When we were
seniors, we began to think about college.  Kyle decided on Georgetown,
and I was going to Duke.  I knew that we would always be friends, that the
miles would never be a problem.  He was going to be a doctor, and I was going
for business on a football scholarship.  

Kyle was valedictorian of our class. I teased him all the time about
being a nerd.  He had to prepare a speech for graduation.  I was so glad it
wasn't me having to get up there and speak.

Graduation day, I saw Kyle.  He looked great.  He was one of those guys
that really found himself during high school. He filled out and actually
looked good in glasses.  He had more dates than me and all the girls loved
him! Boy, sometimes I was jealous.

Today was one of those days.  I could see that he was nervous about his
speech.  So I smacked him on the back and said, "Hey, big guy, you'll
be great!"  He looked at me with one of those looks (the really grateful
one) and smiled.  "Thanks," he said.

As he started his speech, he cleared his throat, and began "Graduation
is a time to thank those who helped you make it through those tough years.
Your parents, your teachers, your siblings, maybe a coach...but mostly your
friends.  I am here to tell all of you that being a friend to someone is the
best gift you can give them."

"I am going to tell you a story." I just looked at my friend with disbelief
as he told the story of the first day we met.  He had planned to kill
himself over the weekend.  He talked of how he had cleaned out his
locker so his Mom wouldn't have to do it later and was carrying his stuff home. 
He looked hard at me and gave me a little smile. "Thankfully, I was saved.
My friend saved me from doing the unspeakable."

I heard the gasp go through the crowd as this handsome, popular boy told
us all about his weakest moment. I saw his Mom and Dad looking at me and
smiling that same grateful smile. Not until that moment did I realize it's depth.

Never underestimate the power of your actions. With one small gesture you
can change a person's life.  For better or for worse.  God puts us all in
each other's lives to impact one another in some way. 

Sorry if I'm being repititious.

I found this link while visiting foreverloved 

http://cbn.com/cbnnews/news/050616a.asp

Please read this.

Yesterday we went out to the garden to see what veggies we would ahv for dinner.  We picked 2 very large bowls of green beans, a little brocoli, 1 tomato, 4 summer squash, 3 zuchini, and 1 green pepper.  Tomorrow we will ahve more beans, some peas, more squash and zuchini, hopefully more tomatoes this week, I cant wait until the tomatoes are ripening more than one at a time.  We also have lettuce, beets, and turnips, oh and some garlic, yummy.  I love the garden harvest, and watching the veggies grow.  I like to thin the veggies cause then I know how big they are getting.  My husband goes with me so I don't pull stuff up before its ready. 

We should be canning beans tomorrow.

We just have a little garden, I wnat to triple the space for next year.

Well, we just discovered that our 15 mo has reached a big milestone in his life.  Everyone notes the new teeth, new words, taking steps, etc.  Well, our Joey, he picked up one of the girls stuffed puppy's and barked.  Can your baby bark?  I remember years ago, a radio show had a segment called, make your Grandma bark, and if you did, you won tickiet to the latest concert going on.  Can you make your grandma bark?  How about your baby?  He yips like a small dog, and has the soft bark of a puppy, but when he sees a dog on TV, he has the large dog bark just waiting for astonish you.

Arn't babies amazing.  They really remind me how much God loves us and that life and growth are wonderful miracles.

In January my second cousin dumped her 3 children, ages 3 1/2. 2 1/2, and 9 months, at my house for a few weeks while she got her act together.  I live 5 hous away from her in another state.  2 weeks after she was supposed to have picked the kids up she asked if I would become guardian for the baby.  So I found all the paperwork and got her and the alleged father to sign the papers and went to court to file for guardianship.  It was granted on April 29, nearly 3 1/2 months after the kids came to stay with me.  Keep in mind that all of the sudden I had 3 kids in school, one in highschool, one in middle school, and one in primary school, and then the babies.  All three in diapers, and I was working, so I had diaper to buy, baby food to buy, formula, and pay for babysitting for three kids.  I got off easy and only had to pay $6.50 per hour.

On May 5th, I had to take the baby to Iowa, 5 hours away, for paternity tests.  She saw the baby for the first time, and guess what, he didn't know her. ( on May 8 her aunt broght her to my home to pick up the two older children) I never heard from her again until June 6, when she emailed me to let me know that they needed to retake the paternity test, the testing agency forgot to talk pictures of the baby and his mom.  Well, I didn't want to go back to Iowa, so I called the Child Support agency, cause they are the ones who ordered the test, and they made arrangements for me to take him to a local testing center.  I found out last Wednesday that the paternity test was positive, and the mom emailed me again (finally) to ask if I had pictures for her.

She has ticked me off too many times and I don't want to send her pictures.  She hasn't contacted me but 1 time in the last 2 months, and she wants pics?  She has sent no money, no diapers, no food.....  The father wants us to adopt the baby and we want too.  We love the little guy like he was our own.  The mom thinks that she will get baby back by Christmas, but I"m not giving him up, she signed over guardianship to my husband and me, and we will not give him back to the home he came out of.

He spent the first 9 months of his life strapped into swings and car seats, could hardlu sit on his own and couldn't crawl.  He learned to crawl after only 1 week with me, and is progressing as he should be now.  She never askes to talk to him on the phone, shoot, the last time she called was 2 1/2 months ago.  nd he loves to talk on the phone. 

I'm just so frustrated with her, I know it must be hard to give up a child, ( I couldn't do it)  but she really already has given him up.  She's seen him one time in the last 6 months. 

The answer is $5.  Can you believe it?  $5 to file for guardianship and 5 minutes at the court hearing 3 weeks later. 

Ok, I"ll quit now.  But I'm keeping my Baby!!!!

Sorry, your all going to have to bear with me.  The following is an email I typed to the baby's mom, and decided I shouldn't send to her.  It would tick her off royally, but I need tp post it, so that I feel like I"ve made myself clear.  That being said....

What a long horrible day.  Teenagers, mine are available if anyone wants someone to work.  I'll even pay you to take them off my hands.  Ugh, what is with you teens and your attitudes?  Am I really out of line for expecting my kids to help with some of the housework?  Should they really get to play on the computer all day, with no responsibilities?  Should they be allowed to say, I won't do the dishes or the floor, and I'll clean the bathroom, but intend to slam stuff around and wake the baby up, and then not help with the baby?  They want me to cook and clean, and take them places and buy them clothes, and take them out to eat, but not help around the house.  They want to live high, and the complain when the money doesnt go far enough, and they complain about being economical so that we can afford to do some of the things they like to do.  And when I scrape together the money to send them to summer camp, I'm given a list of things that they must have before they go,  hmmm shaving cream, foundation, flip flops, new swim suit, etc, etc. 

Kids threatening to kill their siblings, and smash their heads in, I swear, I don't know if their really meaning it our if they are just expressing their anger.  I should be able to leave these three home alone watching the bby so that I can go grocery shopping, but no, they might kill each other, so they all have to go with.

Why do kids think that it is acceptable to yell and scream at their parents, I didn't raise them to think this was exceptable, but somewhere they feel they are intitiled.  Maybe I'm wrong here, and I"m taking advtage of them, but what happened to my sweet, kids, tenderhearted children, and how can I get them back?

This evening we were back in the garden picking veggies.  Zuchini, sweet peas, green beans, beets, turnips and tomatoes.  Yummy.  God is good, and he provides a bountiful harvest.  My sweetie is taking charge of canning the green beans.  We have 17 quart jars filled.  That is about 10% of the total number of jars of beans that we want to but up.  I need to find some recipes for the turnips, you can only eat so many of them raw, but I like to shred them and cook them in stir fry.  I would love to have enough beets to can them as well, we'd use about 100-150 quarts over the winter.

Just after we came in from the garden the doorbell rang.  I couldn't figure out who would be at the door, so I went to the door and opened it to find out.  There were two young ladies, whose car ran out of gas, just about a 1/2 block away.  So I took the girls to a gas station to get a gas can and gas.  They had a cell phone but didn't want to call their parents because they weren't where they were supposed to be.  ugh.  My son has a cell phone, and I sure would wnat him to call me first befor going to strangers.  I would deal with the offence later after I knew he was safe.  He has a cell phone so he can keep me updated when changes occur.  The nice part is that he pays for it himself.

Anyway, if my kids get into a tight spot, please give them a hand and help to keep them safe.

1) Be active in the your churches youth program

2) Organize and lead out in Vacation Bible School

3) Serve on the Church School Action committee

4) Teach grades 1-6 Bible study class

5) Take in a total of 4 children not born to us

6) Plan summer vacations and other summer plans

7) Take kids swimming

8) Keep refridgerator full of healthy food

9) Clean house and pay bills

10) Spend 8 hours a week driving oldest son to work

11) Have a successful garden

12) Preserve produce from Garden

13) Do laundry

14) Type church newsletter & update address book

15) Wash the dishes

And do all these things with a 15 month old baby hanging on to you legs. I may ahve missed something, if so, I'll update later.

An elderly man in Florida calls his son in New York. The father says to
the son, "I hate to tell you, but we've got some troubles here in the
house. Your mother and I can't stand each other anymore, and we're
getting a divorce. I've had it! I want to live out the rest of my years in
peace. I'm telling you now, so you and your sister shouldn't go into
shock later when I move out." He hangs up, and the son immediately calls
his sister in the Hamptons and tells her the news. The sister says,
"I'll handle this!" She calls Florida and says to her father, "Don't do
ANYTHING until we get there! We'll be there Wednesday night."
The father agrees. He hangs up the phone and hollers to his wife,
"Okay, they're coming for Thanksgiving. Now, what are we going to tell
them for Christmas?

yes, I'm borrowing the writing of someone else again.  If I knew who it was I would give them credit, but it has been in a file of mine for years, and there was no author listed.

I need a job.  Soemthing with flexible hours and a good paycheck.  Something where I can organize things, and meet people and have an expence account.  I want to where skirts and heels to work.  I want to be able to create and use computers, sell things or ideas.  I don't want to be tied to a desk all day.  I want to make a differance, and do stuff.  I don't wnat to do a job that anyone could do, I wnat to do a job that I will excel at.  I want to work 9-4, with an hour for lunch, 4 days a week, I want to have every Friday off.   I need 2 weeks off every summer, as well as Christmas break, and spring break.  In addition I need at least 4 additional Mondays off.  I can type, use Word, Excel, Power Point, Access and other Office programs, in addition I can create newlettsers, event flyers, sales brochures, edit photos, and much more. I'm a great people person, and put myself 130 % into what ever job I am doing.  I have organized and planned camping trips for 30-40 people, directed Vacation Bible School for our church for the last 8 years, Directed youth programs for 5 years, and am willing to continue my education to becomethe best in my field.

If you know what job I should be applying for, please let me know. 

I've been reading blogs this evening and I find myself wondering why kids are in such a hurry to grow up.  They arn't ready for grownup relationships, and when they attempt one they find themselves getting  hurt, feeling rejected and in general becoming very depressed.  Why do they do this to themselves?  They lose focus of the things that should be important to them and get all jumbled up?  Why do you get all torn up about relationships that have little chance of lasting.  Unless you are looking to get married, what is the point of dating?  And please don't tell me it's to help you recognize the "right " one.  That will set me off on a whole series of what my kids call "The Lecture"  The Lecture is ever changing and each session is usually 2-3 hours long, and almost always served with ice cream.  You may ask, what qualifies me to give this lecture?  Well the answer is simple.  I was a mom at 17, I have 4-8 children in my home at all times, at least that many that call me mom, Some of my kids are teenagers, and of all the friends that stood up for my sweetie and I in our wedding ( we were the first of our group to get married)  They have all been married, and divorsed, and all but 2 are on their second marriage.  And oh, btw, sweetie and I celebrated 15 years in June.  While those qualifications don't mean I know everything, I do know a great bit.

Tell me, Why are 14 yo's teasing about having sex?  Why are 15 yo's focused so much on a special someone?  Tell me this, what are three activities that you are involved in that have nothing to do with the opposite sex?

Why do I worry about you kids?

WE are going camping for the weekend.  A bunch of the family has reserved campsites at a location about 2 1/2 hours from here.  We will be in tents with no electricity, after all, it isn't really camping if you take a camper with all the convienieces of home,  is it?  The cousins are bringing  the kayaks, and the campgroun has a cave that they give tours.  The tours are baot tous and you get to paddle throught the cave.. Actually, I'd bet the have moters on those boats.  Sounds like fun to me.  Swimming, toasted marshmellows, roasted corn. 

Hmmmm, now I need to start making lists of thinks to pack, shouldn't be too hard, all the camping gear is together, then just need food, and clothes.  We are in for great weather I thinkhig 70's to mid 80's.  Oh , and we need jackets for the cave.   Have a great weekend everyone.

Over the weekend I learned that I do not like wet caves.  I didn't think it would be too bad, I love the coal mines in West Virginia, we tour one of them every couple of years when we go there forteh Family reunion.  But this cave in Iowa, that was a differant story.  Very low ceilings, like about 18 inches above the egde of the boat for long stretches.  Some beautiful things in the cave though, in the areas where we could sit up in the boat.  Glad the tour only lasted 30 minutes.  Went into town to see the towns reinactment troup doing their local history skits.  Very interesting.  Loats of blanks fired.  Joey loved the noise and flashes. 

We discovered that Joey loves dogs.  Several dogs there at the campground.  However as much as he loves them, he is scared to death of them.    By the end of the weekend though, he'd get close enough to touch them if we were holding him. I guess we'll have to make sure he sees more dogs in the future. What a child!!!!!  He slept well in the tent, much better than I did.

“Could there be one?  Could there be that one person that was created to fit with your like those favorite pair of jeans you just can’t bring yourself to throw away?  The one you kiss so many times just because you are scared that if you don’t get that last kiss in, right now, you may not get another chance to kiss her again.”

The above paragraph is taken from the blog of pecheluver .  Visit him for the full understanding of this entry.  I was formulating my response when it occurred to me that this was the lecture that I promised the kids a few weeks ago.

Yes, there could be one, or two or more.  I don’t believe that there is only one person for any other person.  That doesn’t mean that we should go around marrying everyone, just because there is more than one person that you are compatible with.  In His time, God will put in your path persons, or several people with whom you could make a successful match.  He offers you a selection; however, once you have made your selection, you are to be true to your choice.

I don’t see anything so out of the ordinary with your list.  It is concise and explains what you need out of a relationship.  It is very good to be able to recognize that.  Most people go into a relationship before they know what they want, and end up making poor choices.

However, even a poor choice can become a successful relationship, if both persons involved are willing to work at it, but especially if they bring God into the relationship.  With God at the center, the relationship cannot fail.  Your list, while excellent, may need to be revised on occasion, your needs may not remain the same as your looking, and if someone truly loves you, they will be meeting the criteria.  (However, don’t overlook the fallibility of humans.  We all make mistakes on occasion, but if she loves you she will ask your forgiveness, and if you love her, you will forgive her.)  Now I’m curious, how about her list?  Do you measure up to your own criteria? 

Love is a choice we make.  Love is the principle pf giving what is needed most.

Some ways of telling of you are in a healthy relationship:

          (Some of these differ according to age groups)

                   You are the best person you’ve ever been.

                   You get better grades

                   Your work performance improves

                   You are more conscientious about morals and beliefs

                   You are happier

                   You get along better with your peers

                   You are willing to develop new interests

                   You like to just be together

                   You have better emotional balance*

                   You find generation gaps are narrowing

Some warning sings of a bad relationship:

          (Some of these differ according to age groups)

                   Your grades start slipping

                   You’re grouchy and moody

                   You don’t get along with your friends and co workers

                   You start withdrawing from other people

                   You abandon your interest

                   You have increased depression or other emotional issues*

                   Your relationship is mostly in the bedroom

                   You withdraw form civic responsibilities

The above lists are not the sole determining factors of determining a healthy or unhealthy relationship, but if you find yourself without several of the pluses, or with several of the negatives, I’d suggest reevaluating your relationship.

*I am not saying a healthy relationship is a cure for clinical depression, or other mental health issues.

All relationships take work.  In a couples relationship both parties must be willing to put in a 100% effort.  Sometimes that 100% varies from day to day as we travel our individual pathways in this life.  You should never forget that you are still an individual.  One of the most common things to hear at a wedding is that the 2 individuals are becoming united into one.  One what?  I’ll tell you, one family.  They are still 2 separate people, just pulling the same oar.  While they may have their differences, they have similar goals and basic values.  You may have to make sacrifices to make your union work, but you should never, never lose yourself.  Always remain true to who you are.  If you can’t do that, then you need to reevaluate.

“Is there one or do we make a person “one” by compromising and sacrifice?  If so, what is so wrong with that? Isn’t it still love?”

In conclusion, I would still have to say, that there is at least one person out there for each of us, and we can make a person “the one” by compromising and sacrifice.  Even if you find “the one” you will still compromise and sacrifice.  In fact, those two things are very important in a lasting relationship, and you can do both while still being true to yourself. 

Night one of Vacation Bib;e School.

Our program the year is "The Jerusalem Marketplace"  I have a great staff of helpers creating the back to bible land atmosphere.  Basket making, weaving, and pottery making ore some of the shops that you can visit in our church's basement.  Eastern music and dancing, along with bible time snacks.  I'll see about getting some pics up later this week, when my little computer nerd gets home. 

I forgot a few things at home, and one of my staff had car trouble and didnt show up.  But the kids were great, all 17 of them. A great turn out for our little church.  A great time was had by all, and looking forward to tomorrow night.

Can you think of anything sweeter than the kiss of a baby?  they way they just want to show ou they love you, and trust you. 

They come toward you with their mouth open and plant a wet one right on your face.  (your mouth is their preferance unless you can divert them at the last second).  And then they snuggle in pressing their face against your mouth waiting for your kisses.  They stay put as long as you go on kissing them, like they cant get enough.  and then add neck nibbles and they are sooo happy.  They just know that they are being loved and they love you so much back.  No games in a babies kiss, no demands, no hurt feelings.  Baby can kiss everyone and justs shares the love around.  How can you be jealous of baby kissing someone else?  you can't, you just bask in the expression of their love. 

Kiss a baby, share in the love.

Well Vacation Bible School is over for another year.  Yea!!!, don't get me wrong, I love it, the planning and decorating, the singing, the stories, the children.  Oh yeah, the kids, the few days of the year I feel really special.  All those hugs from kids that don't even realize how much work you put into the program, but seem to know that you just care.  I love them all.  When my son comes home this week, I'll get him to help me post a couple of pictures.

Kids, (all you out there who fit this  description)  a caution  for you.  Don't place so much importance on relationships with a boyfriend or girlfriend that you lose focus of who you are.  This is a time in your life to discover who you are, and if you don't take the time to get to know yourself now, you will have a harder time in relationships later.   Take it or leave it.  But I worry for you, some of you are so dependant on your significant other.  Tell me what interests you have that are differant than your bf/gf. 

I want to thank everyone for their comments, and if you haven's read yesterdays entry, please do so before responding to this one.  Also, this is more about kids who cut as a fad than those that have deep depression issues.  My statements here aren’t intended to offend, but to seek information that will be helpful to the ones we love.  I do believe there is help for everyone, and that by learning as much about it as we can, we enable ourselves to better help them.

A reoccurring theme is that cutters need the physical pain to help them forget, or to help them to feel, or because they need an adrenalin rush.  What happened to healthy expressions of these needs?  Train for a marathon and you'll feel a burn, your body will get healthier, and you'll have less time to focus on the emotional pain, and you may even learn how to deal with the emotional pain.  How about weight lifting, not small weights, but real weight training for a good muscle burn? 

Or what about this?  Everyone has their own emotions to deal with, but having lived with severe physical pain for 18 years, I don't understand why anyone would choose that for any reason.  To have to relearn how to be intimate because of severe muscle spasms, to have to relearn to walk, to nearly scream in pain, just sitting in the car, to have to be dressed and undressed because you can't move your arms, to have someone hand you an 8 lb newborn baby that you crumple under the weight.  To have 6 inch needles stuck into your legs and low back to determine if there is any nerve damage, (we are talking about somewhere above 100 needle sticks here).  To wake up screaming in pain as your mid back muscles spasm, to not be able to lift cooking pots, that’s the pain that I live with on a daily basis.  Do you want to share that pain too?  Oh to be able to go for a run!  I could walk a mile, but would spend the next 2 weeks in bed. And what about the stomach issues, I get up in the morning with my stomach hurting so badly that I can hardly move.  Ask my kids if I'm exaggerating?  And meds don't help much.  I understand pain.  I understand depression; it's all apart of the disease.  I also understand emotional pain, I've talked about my sister who cuts, my son and his friends, I have a sister with 4 children, all 4 of them have heart defects, one of her 16 month old twins has had 3 open heart surgeries, has had her chest cracked 4 times and is on more heart meds than your grandmother.  My brother died when I was a small child, I've had a man die in my arms, literally, my 12, (who was not born to me) was raped by her biological father when she was 3, and the list goes on and on.  I understand emotional pain.  I don't understand cutting.  I don't believe it is due to a mental illness.  I believe it has to do with choices.  Now, how to help them make better choices? 

My sweetie girl Steph is very sad today, she found out that her dog is probably dying.  Visit sweetiegirl at sweetlips101 and leave her some love. 

My kids have spent weekends with their grandparents form the time they were toddlers, less than a year old.  When Steph was about 2 this one dog Penny adopted her and since then Steph has been one of her puppies.  (My mother-in-law raises little mexican dogs, this was one she kept)  Penny has never liked me, cause I take her baby home with me.  She has slept with Steph and has taken care of her for many years.  One year ago we moved further away, and Steph doesn't see her very often anymore.  Appearently, Penny has been moping around for the past year and it looks like shes going into kidney failure.  So we shall see what happens.  I know none of us can afford to keep her on IV's very long.  Goodness, I even cried for Steph, I wont miss the dog, but it sure does hurt when your baby is hurting.

Well, the family and I are headed to Iowa to spend the weekend on the lake.  We will all be sunburned by the time we get home I'm sure.  We don't get to see Jaidyn and Makale, their mom left last night headed to Washinton State with them.  It is doubtful that she will return to Iowa.  I'm so ticked at her taking those kids away from everything that they know, again.  That means we wont get to see them again.  WE took care of them for four months, they kind of steal your heart.  On the bright side of things, that means she wont be able to make things stressful while we are there as we are guardians of her youngest son, and we are just counting the weeks until I can file abandonment charges in our state and have her rights terminated so we can adopt him.  We are halfway there just 3 months to go. 

Have a good weekend all!!

The peaches will be here this evening, then tomorrow or Friday will be the jam making day.  Oh and I must make a yummy peach pie, I think that is my favorite fruit pie.  This I think is my favorite time of the year.  A little further down the road I will try to get a couple bushel of pears to can, and then several bushel of apples for applesauce and applebutter, maybe some apple jelly.  Then it will be time to start planning the holiday baking.  This is the only time of the year that I use my oven, but I love to make coookies and Christmas is the best time to bake, cause then I can give most of them away.  If you can point me in the direction of a good peach cobbler recipe, I'll be forever greatful.

School is starting.  Are you ready?  Classes and friends and new teachers, sports and clubs.  How will you spend your time after school?  who will you hang out with?  What activities will you participate in?  How much sleep do you need to function well at school?  Do you eat a proper diet, and does it help you to think better?

Is it important to you to get good grades?  Are you planning to go on to college when youve finished high school?  What are you going to study in college? 

I think, when I grow up and go to college I want to study psychology, and education-special needs, and office management, and public relations, and advertizing.  Hmmmm, well, at least I have a few years before I need to decide.

In the space of a few seconds you can go from the bottom of the deepest dark pit, to the highest heights.  Emotions are often like a seesaw, and we swing, up and down, then down and up.  Feelings happen at the same time and emotions are at war with each other.  Do you choose the emotion to win, or is it to be a playground experience?  Each emotion must have its time, and I"m thinking that saving the positive emotions, until the negative emotion is handled, is the choice I would make.  Would you make the same choice, or a differant choice?  Can we choose? 

Does the experience or situation make a differance in the way you handle your emotions?  Do the stakes control the high or low of the emotions?   Can we control how high we go or how low? 

Do you have a plan for dealing with negative emotions in your life?  Have you ever had to put that plan to the test?  Did it work? 

Girls, this is just for you. Pull up a chair, grab a cup of cocoa, and settle in.  This is longer than I planned, but please stay until the end and give me your thoughts.

I want to talk about friendships again, particularly girl friends, and how relationships change.  While we were children we had best friends that we just knew would be our best friend for life.  But then she moved away, or we moved away, or someone new moved in and we let that new person into our circle of friends.  Now let me ask you, what is best friend?  What qualifies them to have that position?

And then we add the unrealistic expectation to them and to ourselves that we be best friends forever.  First of all, forever is an extremely long time and never, ever ends.  And this would be fine, if we never changed or our friend never changed.  But things to change, and so do we. 

So let me tell you my opinion of what a best friend really is.  A best friend is someone with whom you have connected with by unexplained means.  Sometimes you don't even know what draws you to them.  You may or may not enjoy the same activities or hobbies, but they are always there for you, and you are always there for them.  This person doesn't have to be in your own peer group even.  When my son was 8 years old, he once said to me, "Mom, your about the best friend a guy could have" WOW!  Talk about an ego trip for mom.  A best friend doesn't always agree with you, but you have the understanding in your relationship that you my express your opinions freely and even when in disagreement, you never let the issue come between you.  Be careful whom you call a best friend, and make sure they meet the qualifications for the position.  Let me ask, is the friend who never has time for you even a "friend" at all?  If you don't chat and spend time together, are you truly even friends, or are you acquaintances? 

When I was a child, we moved around quite a lot, so never spent more than about 2 years in the same school.  I never made any really close friends until my freshman year of high school, where I attended a boarding school.  I made close friends that year.  Girls that even today, I consider to be my best friends.   Now, they were from the south, and I was from the north, so after that one year where we were in school together, I wasn't able to spend much time with them.  But we kept in contact for a few years by phone and by letter.  After a few years we lost touch with each other, however, we were in each others weddings and always got in touch to report the big things in our lives.  I still don't see my friends much.  We phone once a month or so, but what makes them unique enough for me to continue to be my best friends, is that when we call, or get to visit, it is like we have never been apart.  There was a time when we were not able to contact Dawn for years at a time.  She was working her butt off to become an airline pilot, she was single minded and worked hard often living in conditions of extreme poverty to pay for her flight training.  She had taken a side tour, and joined the army to receive their helicopter training, but during basic training, suffered a stress fracture in her right foot.  Continuing to run on that foot for several weeks, caused much stress on the left hip, which then fractured.  She spent months in bed recovering and because of the numbness in her feet, it was thought she would never fly again.  During this time, I had no contact with her.  Finally, she recovered and was released form the army and hired by a commercial airline.  At this time we were able to reestablish our friendship, and truly it was like we'd never been apart.  For 3 years she would visit us once or twice a month and stay for several days at a time, and then one day, she met someone.  He is the nicest southern gentleman I've ever met.  Gentle, sweet, and in love with her.  As her relationship with this man developed, she came to visit less and less, and now it's been a couple years since she visited.  He has grown daughters, and she is now a grandma with grandma issues to deal with.  She also has a new husband, (well, 3 years now) and in-laws.  It is right, that she focus her attention on her family.  We don't get to talk as much, but I know that whenever we are together, it is like we have never been apart.  

I have another friend like that.  She came into my life about 5 years ago, and we were working on a project together, which is how we became friends.  We became quite close, and 2 years after she and her family moved to our area, they moved out of our area.  I haven't seen Mel for 3 years now, but when we pick up the phone and chat, we don't really have to catch up; we just pick up where we left off.

Now, back to my childhood friends that were to be my best friend forever.  There are 2 of them.  One of them I knew from the cradle.  Until we started school, we were together more than not.  Our parents were good friends you see.  I haven't seen Nicky since 8th grade, but I would still call her my best friend.  The other friend I only knew for 2 years, in second and third grades.  I would also still call her a best friend.  However, these childhood friendships aren’t working relationships.  They will always hold a special place in my heart, but I don't even know them.  I’m sure if we ever find each other again, it wont take us long to catch up with each other, but I doubt they would be friends to whom I could take my every problem.

A best friend forever is really someone who plans to be your best friend until circumstances change so much that the relationship is difficult to hold together.  Is it possible for a friendship to remain unchanged as we grown up?  I don't believe so.  Do you change from year to year, or even month to month?  How can we expect a friendship to remain unchanged when we ourselves are constantly changing?  Our needs, wants, desires, interests, all change as we go through life.  And when we finally meet that special someone, who takes our breath away? Why then our priority is in developing that relationship.  At this point is when your best friend may begin to feel left out.  The difficulty is in juggling this new relationship, with the old one.  Generally speaking, I would say that the most common situation is for you and your boyfriend to spend time together with you friends and his, as well as make time to see your friends individually.  However, you won’t have as much time to spend with the old friend.  And that’s ok, because, she should be making new friendships as well, and even placing herself in the position of finding a boyfriend too.  This is when neither friend feels left out.  But what about when you are the one left behind?  Well, this is when you need to show understanding of the maturation process and start letting go.  You may need to search out other friends or activities, because you can not expect they same level of friendship anymore.  And this is healthy and normal.  Please don't be jealous of your friends that are moving on with their life.  There may be situations where you don't agree with your friends choice, and as friends you should feel comfortable talking to them about it, but once you've given your opinion, it's time to let the matter drop.  If you aren’t comfortable talking to them, you may not be a close a friend as you thought.  And sometimes they grow apart from you before you grow apart from them.  This is where we struggle as it is hard to let go when they have found someone and you haven't.  Don't be discouraged as this is also a normal thing to happen.  Once you let go, then you will be able to develop additional relationships. 

Sit up and take note now, while I tell you what happened in my sleepy little rural town. 

It was 6 am, when the 11 yo child walked to her fathers bedroom and stated ," Dad, I smelled something and woke up, and there was a man sitting on my bed"  The man actually followed her to her dad's room, and dad escorted him outside while the step mom called 911.  He had come in through her bedroom window.  His story, "The woman in the purple van dropped me off, she said I could stay here".  

Very scary to happen in my little town, to my daughters best friend.  The girls are a bit freaked out, and with good reason.  Thank God no one was hurt.  The man has posted his bond and was released.  The locks have all been changed and window locks added.

I'm truly sorry that I do not know the source for this story, but I wanted to share it with you today.

The REAL Deal...

Does evil exist? The university professor challenged
his students with this question. Did God create
everything that exists?

A student bravely replied yes, he did!"

"God created everything?" The professor asked.

 "Yes sir", the student replied.

The professor answered, "If God created everything,
then God created evil since evil exists, and according
to the principal that our works define who we are then
God is evil".

The student became quiet before such an answer. The
professor was quite pleased with himself and boasted
to the students that he had proven once more that the Christian faith was a myth.

Another student raised his hand and said, "Can I ask
you a question, professor?"

"Of course", replied the professor.

The student stood up and asked,"Professor, does cold exist?"

"What kind of question is this? Of course it exists.
Have you never been cold?" The students snickered at
the young man's question.

The young man replied, "In fact sir, cold does notexist. According to the laws of physics, what we consider cold is in reality the absence of heat.

Every body or object is susceptible to study when it has or transmits energy, and heat is what makes a body or 
matter have or transmit energy. Absolute zero (- 460
 degrees F) is the total absence of heat; all matter becomes inert and incapable of reaction in that temperature. Cold does not exist. We have created this word to describe how we feel if we have no heat.

The student continued. "Professor, does darkness exist?"
The professor responded, "Of course it does". 

The student replied, "Once again you are wrong sir, darkness does not exist either. Darkness is in reality
the absence of light. Light we can study, but not
 darkness. In fact we can use Newton's prism to break
 white light into many colors and study the various wavelengths of each color. You cannot measure darkness. A simple ray of light can break into a world of darkness and
illuminate it. How can you know how dark a certain space is?

You measure the amount of light present. Isn't this correct? Darkness is a term used by man to describe what happens when there is no light present."

Finally the young man asked the professor. "Sir, does
evil exist?"

Now uncertain, the professor responded, "Of course, as
I have already said. We see it every day. It is in
the daily example of man's inhumanity to man. It is
in the multitude of crime and violence everywhere in
the world.

Well, the girls are off to school, so it's just the baby and I today.  We need to do some grocery shopping and then stop by the schools to leave the rest of their lunches.  I didn't get to the store yesterday, soooo, time to finish up.  Other than the Store, I think Joey and I will spend the day on the floor reading books and playing with cars and balls.  (he is all boy you know)  nap time should give me some time for Mindsay and email.

I've been holding my tongue (or fingers if you will).  But I keep coming back to the angry persons whose largest contribution is to complain about the governmental organization, or lack there of.  Let’s step outside of the hurricane box for a moment.

I'm an event planner.  No, not professional, I don't get paid for it, but I plan events for our church, specifically Vacation Bible School.  (This isn't a religious post, so don't get your undies in a bundle)  Now, it may seem to some that VBS isn't a very big deal, and anyone could plan a program for the kids.  While I agree that most of us could plan the event, how many of you have actually planned that kind of event?  I'm talking about choosing the program, motivating the volunteers (which isn't the same as paid employees), putting together a budget, sharing your vision of the event, handling the advertising, getting the supplies together, finding donations, (because the church never has enough money to fund the entire program) Deciding on the decorations, and getting the decorating done, answering everyone’s questions, and handling differences of opinions and sometimes choosing between different ideas, with out hurting feelings, holding the event 5 nights in a row, and dealing with all the little things that come up each night, planning for the final program with the parents, and after it is over, taking the decorations down, sorting, storing, and tossing, everything that you gathered up for your program, laundering costumes, and other cloths, drapes, etc, Sending in the report to the church officials, and oh I'm sure there is more, but I think you see my point.  Have you done this?  This is a huge job, and after doing this for many years, there is no way I would want the president's job.  It must be a nightmare knowing that whatever you do, a lot of people are going to be angry.  I don't recall a single president with a 100% approval rating.  The way this country is divided politically there will be about 50% (give or take) of the population that will always be upset with the decisions of our country's leaders.  So what to do about it? Pray, pray for our leaders, pray for wisdom, and courage, and discernment.  Support the efforts that are taking place, and contribute where you can.  Let’s build up our public servants instead of tearing them down.  And when the next election rolls around, I want those of you who are complaining about this government to throw your hat in the ring and run for the office yourself.  How much support will you get?

Please use moderation of language when responding or I will go to screening replies, I have a lot of teens and preteens that visit me here.

It is quiet Saturday for me, keeping to myself, listen to music that I choose, and reading what I want to read and not having to worry about what the kids are doing, because they are off with Dad.  It is a day for the renewal of my spirit, as this last week, and yes, the last month has been hard for me.  But today is for peaceful contemplation and the refreshing of my spirit.  I have plans for the day, including chatting with friends, blogging, reading for edification, listening to soothing music, and making a plan for the next few weeks, or the stress will make me crazy I'm sure. 

The mess that Katrina left weighs heavily on me, combined with the helplessness of not being able to fix it immediately.  That people are suffering and dying, and babies are hungry with filthy diapers is unbelievably hard to grasp.  A few weeks ago, the company that makes the diapers that I'd been using for my young son changed fragrances.  It was not a good change for him as he broke out with the worst diaper rash I have ever seen.  I'm just imagining babies with rashes and sore bottoms.  I called the company and they said that the fragrance would be changed back to the original, but to use a different brand (that they make) until the new fragranced diapers would be removed (sold) off the shelves.  Then they sent me coupons for 4 jumbo size boxes of diaper.  For those of you who haven't bought diapers recently, that’s about $90 worth of diapers.  I think that Proctor & Gamble (makers of Pampers and Luvs) needs to send a couple of semis with diapers down there, along with the makers of Huggies and even the store brands, bad things happen when you change brands for some babies. 

Here is the Midwest, we didn't even get any of the rain, and we had sunny weather the whole of last week.  The kids went swimming and had sleepovers, and did those last things of the summer before school started, including Middle School and High School orientations for my kids.  Life goes on, with only the rising price of gasoline and produce and the new reports to keep us informed of the conditions in the wake of Katrina.  I've been to town once since Katrina hit New Orleans, and sadly haven't seen any local relief efforts for them. I am part of some state wide groups that are taking action, but it seems so sad that locally there is little if anything being done. Well, I'll have to see what can be done about that. 

I want to say that the blogs that have focused us on Katrina have shown a lot of ideas, and kept us all up on most of what’s happening, both in the disaster areas, as well as various relief efforts, but I want to encourage all to do what you can, but don't forget to be grateful for what we do still have, and to keep blogging about your lives and not just Katrina.  There are many whose lives are disasters even living with in the areas that remain untouched by Katrina.  Depression is heavily prevalent, and there is much good that we can do by keeping their spirits up, there are lives we can influence for the better, even lives we can save. 

My husband just drove through town, gas prices went down by 5 cents at our regular gas station,  Wahooooo

I have to say, I'm wiped out.  I honestly don't see how any woman works full time and manages to take care of her kids and house, and their activities, and havea life of her own, etc.  First day of work is over again for the season, and they put us on the phones again already.  It's amazing the stuff one forgets in 6 months.  And I pankc when I don't know things.  I have 16 or so catalogs to learn and oh, I have to figure out what food items can be shipped to Iraq.  got to get the kids to be able to focus on homework, when they are home, they were a bit hyper and unable to focus, and really gave me  headache tonight.

Joey was very glad to have Gus home again.  We haven't seen him for about 10 days, and he was the first thing Joey saw when he woke up this morning.  He just sat on Gus and kept calling me to come see who he had found.  It was too darn cute.  Joey doesn't like me to be gone during the day, and that makes it hard to leave for work.  But only this week for training at the call center, then will work form home which will be easier, cause I can see him on my breaks.  

Night all, have to pack lunches and check the washing machine, then I'm headed for bed, I'm not ready for tomorrow.

Well, It seems I once again have more life than I really want, so I've had minimal time to let ya'll know whats going on here.  Just trying to keep up with my many friends and aquantances here.  I think though, that while I certainly have been busy, you really don't wnat to know all the details of my dull life.  Kids and  stuff, you know? 

But my Joey boy is a real sweetie.  I'm taking hime to meet his maternl grandmother next weekend.  I hope his mom stays away, she doesn't know I'm coming.

Sweetie is having  a long day, and will be tired when he arrives hme tonight.  The kids are a bit restless, but if everyone does there chores it should be calm by the time he arrives home.  Dinner is ready to be warmed up for him.  Steph prepared dinner tonight, friend chicken, noodles with a white sauce and green beans.  I'm really pleased with her interest in cooking.  Gus found his missing Literature book today, so he can prepare for his test in that subject this week, hopefully he will be ready to take it on Friday.  He also has to turn in at lest 2 other assignments this week, but hopefully he will get a few extra lessons in because he will miss all next week.  Mary has a ton of hoeworok tonight, but she is trying to get out of chores becuse of it, but the chores must be done, so she may e up later this evening.  Joey is a happy guy tonight, after eting his first good meal since Thussday.  I don't know what's up with him, but glad he's a happy boy again.

I have some charts to create tonight, and meeting minutes to type, ugh, thats a job I'm not happy to hve gotten volunteered for.  So hoping for some quiet time fter the kids go to bed. 

When we were in elementary school we learned about things that are the same, and things that are different.  We watched Sesame Street where they sang that little song, “Three of these things belong together” and you had to decide which one thing didn’t belong.  We learned about opposites, up and down, in and out, large and small, quiet and noisy, etc.  And when we are trying to decipher how our children feel we ask them, “Does that make you happy or sad”.  We were taught that the opposite of happy is sad.  

I disagree; I believe that you can be sad about something in your life without being unhappy.  I believe that happiness is a choice that we make, not a result of something or someone in our life.  The opposite of happy is unhappy, the opposite of sad is glad, glad and happy are not synonyms.  Happiness is how you choose to relate to the world around you, gladness is how you feel about something that you experience.  We wrongly state, “He makes me happy” when we should be acknowledging that “he makes me feel loved” We are able to choose to be happy even when life isn’t going our way.  When the chips are down, can you still smile and find the good in life?  I think that many of us don’t want to be responsible for our own happiness, that way we can blame someone or something else whenever we are feeling low.  A happy person can and does feel sadness and grief, but can also look at the positive things going on around them, they can admit to having hurt feelings and being overwhelmed by life going on round them.  A happy person spreads smiles and good cheer around them, often even when they are down.  (Now I’m not saying that you should stuff your emotions, all emotions have a place and need to be acknowledged and dealt with.  There is a time and place for dealing with negative emotions, but there also comes times, when we must move on.  Dwelling on the bad or sad times isn’t going to help you or anyone else. )   

So how to be happy?  Well, I’m not sure that there is a pat answer for that.  I know that you have to know who you are and like that person.  You need interests of your own and you will know why you like or dislike the things in your life.  You can set aside feelings and make decisions based on facts, instead of emotions.  Here is a quote that I love

Circumstances have but little to do with the experiences of the soul. 

It is the spirit cherished that gives coloring to all our actions.  A man      

 at peace with God and his fellow man can not be made miserable.

 Ellen G White (1827-1915)  5 T 488

So what spirit are we cherishing?

I’m humbled by the experience of making the Top Blog list.  I never dreamed I would write something that was so well liked as to earn that distinction.  To join the ranks of those I consider to the best writers here on Mindsay.  I enjoy reading a large variety of writers and find that I have been reading many of the top blogs.  I feel very insignificant when compared to those writers.  We are privileged to have many well thought out, and well written bloggers here on Mindsay, and I know that I have learned much from them.  I truly hope I don’t shame the distinction of the top blog list.

The doctor gave Joey some medicine that made him really loopy, once that took effect they sliced open his toe. And drained the puss. and bandaged it up and he was good to go.

I'll be out of town for the weekend. I'll try and get cought up when I get home on monday or tuesday. Have a great weekend. And stay safe.

The Quiet Sermon

A member of a certain church, who previously had been attending services regularly, stopped going. After a few weeks, the pastor decided to visit him. 
 
It was a chilly evening. The pastor found the man at home alone, sitting before a blazing fire. Guessing the reason for his pastors visit, the man welcomed him, led him to a comfortable chair near the fireplace and waited. 
 
The pastor made himself at home but said nothing. In the grave silence, he contemplated the dance of the flames around the burning logs. After some minutes, the pastor took the fire tongs, carefully picked up a brightly burning ember and placed it to one side of the hearth all alone. Then he sat back in his chair, still silent. The host watched all this in quiet contemplation. As the one lone ember's flame flickered and diminished,  there was a momentary glow and then its fire was no more. Soon it was cold
 and dead. 
 
Not a word had been spoken since the initial greeting. The Pastor glanced at his watch and realized it was time to leave. He slowly stood up, picked up the cold, dead ember and placed it back in the middle of the fire.  Immediately it began to glow, once more with the light and warmth of the burning coals around it. 
 
As the pastor reached the door to leave, his host said with a tear running down his cheek, "Thank you so much for your visit and especially for the fiery sermon. I shall be back in church next Sunday." 
 
We live in a world today, which tries to say too much with too little. Consequently, few listen. Sometimes the best sermons are the ones left unspoken. 
 
If you don't stand for something you'll fall for anything! 
 

Well, Sweetie and kids arrived in MS last night bout 9 oclock, and slept out under the stars.  This morning they were bussed to a relief station that is located about 1 mile from the golf coast.  It seems they spent the day clearing the relief station of ruined supplies.  Sweetie says they filled approximatel 10 huge garbage containers of ruined clothes.  (a startling thought to realize that alot of items donated after Katrina were lost to Rita)  Tonight the guys are sleeping in the computer lab of the boarding school that is housing and feeding them this week.  The thing about computers though, is that they must be kept cool, so the guys have a/c, and are counting their blessings.  They did realize that they forgot a few things, but will manage to catch a ride into Walmart tomorrow.  

Tomorrow they will get a tour of the damage areas, it will be interesting to hear their reactions as they were already in shock from the things they saw today.

I didn't get to talk to the kids, and I only spoke to sweetie for less than 5 min.  Roaming calls are expensive, but I do want to hear from him for a couple mins every day. 

Please continue to pray for the displaced families and for those assisting in the relief efforts.

I wish I could have gone, but I know that with Joey I wouldn't have been much help. 

17 me

18 pictures

19 art

20 writing

21 friends

22 poetry

23 disney

24 mindsay

Step one: Go to the Live! page and copy "tags" 17 - 24.

Step two: Paste them in your blog.

Step three: Blog a post involving five of those tags.

When I joined mindsay way back in June I searched and searched for a picture of me to use for an id picture.  I looked through over 2000 pictures in my digital files and found less than a doz of me.  So I use a beautiful picture of my baby boy.

I have made many new friends and I have also improved my writing and typing skills.

There, I did it, not sure why, but I did.

Goodness, I wish I had something super intelligent to say today but I don't.  I don't keep up with politics; I don't even read the local newspaper very often. My life is organized around an 18 month old child and his teen aged siblings.  My oft repeated quotation of the day has been, "Oh lets get you a clean diaper" which leads me to this though, Do you need a clean diaper?

Nothing makes Joey so happy as to have his diaper off and his little bottom clean.  He’s been freed of the confining protection.  The diaper, as necessary as it is, restricts air flow and keeps his little boy parts inaccessible, as well as keeping the rest of him and his surroundings clean and dry.  With the diaper off, he is free to reassure himself that everything is as it should be, and then high tails it across the room laughing and squealing in delight as he attempts to escape the new diaper.  With the new diaper in place, Mr. Joey is ready to face new adventures happily.  That new diaper doesn’t stay fresh very long; we use 8-12 new diapers everyday.  That’s a jumbo sized box every 10 days or so.  The used diaper goes into the garbage, then to the dump.  Don’t ask to see last weeks diaper, it’s long gone, never to return. 

We go through life making messes in our lives, mistakes and bad choices.  We clean up the mess and then go on, hopefully having learned form our mistakes.  But what do we do with the diaper?  Well, I know that it is very rare for a person to actually throw that diaper away, for some reason they want to hang on to that mess for the rest of their life and wallow in it.   Several times a day we need a fresh diaper, but what are we doing with the old ones?  Sure, sometimes it’s easy to carry them to the garbage can and let them go, but other times we are too busy, too upset, to lazy, and those nasty diapers keep piling up.  (Do you know what happens to used diapers after they’ve been sitting for a week, or two, or three?)  Pretty soon we are drowning in the stench of our past messes. 

This past winter I had 3 toddlers come to stay with me, all of them in diapers.  We filled the diaper pail at least once a day.  After 1 week, I’d had enough; it was time to potty train the oldest one.  But I learned that diapers that sit around for a week waiting to go to the dump are nasty, very nasty. 

So tell me, if I open up your closet am I going to find old, nasty diapers that should have been tossed long ago?  They add up quick.  And soon there are so many that you need a huge dumpster to remove the nasty mess that has over taken your life.  What is the point of having a nice clean bottom, if you’re living in the filth of your past?  What we need to do is deal with the garbage and get it moved out, never to be seen again.  True, it will still shape how you react and respond to life, but it wont be taking over your life anymore.  You will be free to face new adventures.

I have to apologize, I am reduced to equating everything to baby issues, I need a night out with adults!! 

Had to add the John Mayer tag for MsDania

Sometimes we are in such a hurry for good things to happen that we forget to live through the ordinary everyday things.  We forget to find pleasure in the small things.  My life revolves round my kids.  Dirty diapers.  Homework.  Church youth group.  Extra curricular activities, (its homecoming this week), packing lunches, etc.

Today I'm going to list some of the small blessings in my life

1. baby kisses

2. no left  overs at dinner

3. homewrk finished on time

4. nap time

5. empty laundry baskets

6. a clean sink

7. fresh towels

8. phone calls fro old friends

9. phone calls from new friends

10. the approval of my 15 yo son

11. sweetie getting off work on time

12. milk, butter, and eggs on sale

13. $85 worth of free diapers

14. baby saying a new word

15. a freshed cleaned storage room

16. iced coffee milkshakes

17. my soft slippers

18. bubble baths

19. silky lotions

20. kids spending there own money

21. new friends

22. cold water

23. hot showers

24. freecycle

25. good music

26. the words "yes dear"

27. the ability to read

28. the promise of new life

29. peach jam

30. funny jokes

31. baby pictures

32. baby blowing raspberries on my tummy

33. Sleeping babies

34.Sleeping Sweetie

35. regular paychecks

36. laughing children

37.snickers bars

38. a good book

39. time to spend with family

40. sending suprise gifts

41. sleeping in

42. the early mornign breeze

43. digging in the garden

44. fresh garden tomatoes

45. peaches & strawberries

46. Blues Clues

47. smiles

48. cell phones

49. hugs

50. brownies

there are so many more, but I"m going to stop for now.  What are 5 of your small blessings?

OK, I'm sharing form my email again, this is a really neat story.

I try not to be biased, but I had my doubts about hiring  Stevie. His placement counselor assured me that he would be a good, reliable busboy.But I had never had a mentally handicapped employee and wasn't sure I wanted one. I wasn't sure how my customers would react to Stevie. He was short, a little dumpy with the smooth facial features and thick-tongued speech of Downs Syndrome.

 I wasn't worried about most of my trucker customers because truckers don't generally care who buses tables as long as the meatloaf  platter is good and the pies are homemade. The four-wheeler drivers were the ones who concerned me; the mouthy college kids traveling to school; the yuppie snobs who secretly polish their silverware with their napkins for fear of catching some dreaded "truck stop germ" thepairs of white-shirted business men on expense accounts who think every truck stop waitress wants to be flirted with. I knew those people would be uncomfortable around Stevie so I closely watched him for the first few weeks.

I shouldn't have worried. After the first week, Stevie had my staff wrapped around his stubby little finger, and within a month my truck regulars had adopted him as their official truck stop mascot. After that, I really didn't care what the rest of the customers thought of him. He was like a 21-year-old in blue jeans and Nikes, eager to laugh and eager to please, but fierce in his attention to his duties. Every salt and pepper shaker was exactly in its place, not a bread crumb or coffee spill was visible when Stevie got done with the table.

Our only problem was persuading him to wait to clean a table until after the customers were finished. He would hover in the background, shifting his weight from one foot to the other, scanning the dining room until a table was empty. Then he would scurry to the empty table and carefully bus dishes and glasses onto cart and meticulously wipe the table up with a practiced flourish of his rag. If he thought a customer was watching, his brow would pucker with added concentration. He took pride in doing his job exactly right, and you had to love how hard he tried to please each and every person he met.

Over time, we learned that he lived with his mother, a widow who was disabled after repeated surgeries for cancer. They lived on their Social Security benefits in public housing two miles from the truck stop. Their social worker, who stopped to check on him every so often, admitted they had fallen between the cracks. Money was tight, and what I paid him was probably the difference between them being able to live together and Stevie being sent to a group home.

That's why the restaurant was a gloomy place thatmorning last August, the first morning in three years that Stevie missed work. He was at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester getting a new valve or something put in his heart. His social worker said that people with Downs Syndrome often have heart problems at an early age so this wasn't unexpected, and there was a good chance he would come through the surgery in good shape and be back at work in a few months.

A ripple of excitement ran through the staff later that morning when word came that he was out of surgery, in recovery, and doing fine. Frannie, the head waitress, let out a war hoop and did a little dance in the aisle when she heard the good news. Belle Ringer, one of our regular trucker customers, stared at the sight of this 50-year-old grandmother of four doing a victory shimmy beside his table. Frannie blushed, smoothed her apron and shot Belle Ringer a withering look.

He grinned. "OK, Frannie, what was that all about?" he asked.

"We just got word that Stevie is out of surgery and going to be okay"

"I was wondering where he was. I had a new joke to tell him. What was the surgery about?"

Frannie quickly told Belle Ringer and the other two drivers sitting at his booth about Stevie's surgery, then sighed: "Yeah, I'm glad he is going to be OK," she said. "But I don't know how he and his Mom are going to handle all the bills. From what I hear, they're barely getting by as it is."

Belle Ringer nodded thoughtfully, and Frannie hurried off to wait on the rest of her tables.Since I hadn't had time to round up a busboy to replace Stevie and really didn't want to replace him, the
girls were busing their own tables that day until we decided what to do.

After the morning rush, Frannie walked into my office. She had a couple of paper napkins in her hand and a funny look on her face.

"What's up?" I asked.

"I didn't get that table where Belle Ringer and his friends were sitting cleared off after they left, and Pony Pete and Tony Tipper were sitting there when I got back to clean it off," she said. "This was folded and tucked under a coffee cup." She handed the napkin to me, and three $20 bills fell onto my desk when I opened it. On the outside, in big, bold letters, was printed   "Something For Stevie". "Pony Pete asked me what that was all about," she said, "so I told him about Stevie and his Mom and everything, and Pete looked at Tony and Tony looked at Pete, and they ended up giving me this." She handed me another paper napkin that had "Something For Stevie" scrawled on its outside. Two $50 bills were tucked within its folds. Frannie looked at me with wet, shiny eyes, shook her head and said simply: "truckers."

That was three months ago. Today is Thanksgiving, the first day Stevie is supposed to be back to work. His placement worker said he's beencounting the days until the doctor said he could work, and it didn't matter at all that it was a holiday. He called 10 times in the past week, making sure we knew he was coming, fearful that we had forgotten him or that his job was in jeopardy. I arranged to have his mother bring him to work. I then met them in the parking lot and invited them both to celebrate his day back. Stevie was thinner and paler, but couldn't stop grinning as he pushed through the doors and headed for the back room where his apron and busing cart were waiting.
"Hold up there, Stevie, not so fast," I said. I took him and his mother by their arms. "Work can wait for a minute. To celebrate you coming back, breakfast for you and your mother is on me!"

I led them toward a large corner booth at the rear of the room. I could feel and hear the rest of the staff following behind as we marched through the dining room. Glancing over my shoulder, I saw booth after booth of grinning truckers empty andjoin the procession. We stopped in front of the big table. Its surface was covered with coffee cups, saucers and dinner plates, all sitting slightly crooked on dozens of folded paper napkins."First thing you have to do, Stevie, is clean up this mess," I said.I tried to sound stern. Stevie looked at me, and then at his mother, then pulled out one of the napkins. It had "Something for Stevie" printed on the outside. As he picked it up, two $10 bills fell onto the table.Stevie stared at the money, then at all the napkins peeking from  beneath the tableware, each with his name printed or scrawled on it. I turned to his mother. "There's more than $10,000 in cash and checks on table, all from truckers and trucking companies that heard about your problems. "HappyThanksgiving,"

Well, it got real noisy about that time, with everybody hollering and shouting, and there were a few tears, as well. But you know what's funny? While everybodyelse was busy shaking hands and hugging each other, Stevie, with a big, big smile on his face, was busy clearing all the cups and dishes from the table. Best worker I ever hired.

Ok, I have to say I deleted the responses.  I don't like open conflict, and I have never intended my remarks to hurt anyone else, therefore, I will not allow even for the sake of posterity, for someone to leave remarks on my blog where the intention is to hurt.  Sorry folks, but it's my blog, my rules.  I enjoy discussions, but not outright meanness, and if you didn't intend to be mean, then I'm sorry if I recieved your response that way. 

Maybe I'm over reacting, so sue me.

btw, for those who are curious, the response didn't have anything to do with what I posted on my blog, just an old issue that I removed myself from, as I had been in the wrong before and realized that I had over stepped the line of what was appropriate, so I left the disagreement, as it was really none of my business,  6 weeks later, they want to take it up again, and I don't want to involve myself anymore.

I googled sweetest day, this is what I found.....

Observed the 3rd Saturday in the month of October, Sweetest Day observance originated in Cleveland in 1922. Herbert Birch Kingston, a philanthropist and candy company employee wanted to bring happiness into the lives of orphans, shut-ins and others who were forgotten. With the help of friends, he began to distribute candy and small gifts to the underprivileged.

On the first Sweetest Day, movie star Ann Pennington presented 2,200 Cleveland newspaper boys with boxes of candy to express gratitude for their service to the public.

Another popular movie star, Theda Bara, distributed 10,000 boxes of candy to people in Cleveland hospitals and also gave candy to all who came to watch her film in a local theater.

Primarily a regional observance celebrated in the Great Lakes region and the Northeast, Sweetest Day is gradually spreading to other areas of the country. People tend to take the Sweetest Day tradition with them when they move. Ohio is the top state for Sweetest Day sales, followed by Michigan and Illinois. Texas, California and Florida are among the top 10 states in sales.

Over the years, Sweetest Day has evolved into a time to express romantic love and also to show appreciation to friends. 

Here's the link for that article  http://www.theromantic.com/sweetestday.htm

What are your plans for Sweetest Day?

Whats your favorite place to go on a date?

Why?

It seems that Italian food and quiet walks win the majority of the dates, so tell me, what is so romantic about spaghetti sauce?

EEEEEEEEK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Theres a mouse in my house!!!!!!

ok, i'm going to check on the laundry, pack Sweeties lunch, and go to bed, ugh, How did it get so late?

Kids can sometimes drive you crazy.

TEACHER: Maria, go to the map and find North America.
MARIA: Here it is.
TEACHER: Correct. Now class, who discovered America?
CLASS: Maria.

 __________________________________________

TEACHER: Why are you late, Frank?
FRANK: Because of the sign .
TEACHER: What sign?
FRANK: The one that says, "School Ahead, Go Slow."

_________________________________

TEACHER: John, why are you doing your math multiplication on
 the floor?
JOHN: You told me to do it without using tables.

__________________________________________

TEACHER: Glenn, how do you spell "crocodile?"
GLENN: K-R-O-K-O-D-I-A-L"
TEACHER: No, that's wrong
GLENN: Maybe it's wrong, but you asked me how I spell it.

__________________________________________

TEACHER: Donald, what is the chemical formula for water?
DONALD: H I J K L M N O.
TEACHER: What are you talking about?
DONALD: Yesterday you said it's H to O.

__________________________________

TEACHER: Winnie, name one important thing we have today
 that we didn't have ten years ago.
WINNIE: Me!

__________________________________

TEACHER: Goss, why do you always get so dirty?
GOSS: Well, I'm a lot closer to the ground than you are.

_________________________________

TEACHER: Millie, give me a sentence starting with "I."
MILLIE: I is...
TEACHER: No, Millie..... Always say, "I am."
MILLIE: All right. "I am the ninth letter of the alphabet."

_________________________________

TEACHER: George Washington not only chopped down his
 father's cherry tree, but also admitted it.
Now, Louie, do you know why his father didn't punish
him?
LOUIS: Because George still had the ax in his hand.

__________________________________

TEACHER: Now, Simon, tell me frankly, do you say prayers
 before eating?
SIMON: No sir, I don't have to, my Mom is a good cook.
 ______________________________

TEACHER: Clyde, your composition on "My Dog" is exactly
the same as your brother's. Did you copy his?
CLYDE: No, teacher, it's the same dog.
 ___________________________________

TEACHER: Harold, what do you call a person who keeps on
talking when people are no longer interested?
HAROLD: A teacher.

God Bless the USA
By:
Lee Greenwood

If tomorrow all the things were gone
I'd worked for all my life,
And I had to start again
with just my children and my wife,
I'd thank my lucky stars
to be living here today,
'Cause the flag still stands for freedom
and they can't take that away.

I'm proud to be an American
where at least I know I'm free,
And I won't forget the men who died
who gave that right to me,
And I gladly stand up next to you
and defend her still today,
'Cause there ain't no doubt I love this land
God Bless the U.S.A.

From the lakes of Minnesota
to the hills of Tennessee,
Across the plains of Texas
from sea to shining sea.
From Detroit down to Houston
and New York to L.A.,
There's pride in every American heart
and it's time we stand and say:

I'm proud to be an American
where at least I know I'm free,
And I won't forget the men who died
who gave that right to me,
And I gladly stand up next to you
and defend her still today,
'Cause there ain't no doubt I love this land
God Bless the U.S.A.

I'm proud to be an American
where at least I know I'm free,
And I won't forget the men who died
who gave that right to me,
And I gladly stand up next to you
and defend her still today,
'Cause there ain't no doubt I love this land
God Bless the U.S.A.

From a friend in the south, but most of this applies to my mothers hometown in WV

Only a Southerner knows instinctively that the best gesture of solace
for a neighbor who's got trouble is a plate of hot fried chicken and a
big bowl of cold potato salad. If the neighbor's trouble is real bad,
add a banana pudding.

Only a Southerner knows the difference between a hissy fit and a
conniption fit, and that you don't "HAVE" them, you "PITCH" them.

Only a Southerner knows how many fish, collard greens, turnip greens,
peas, beans, etc., make up "a mess."

Only a Southerner can show or point out to you the general direction
of  "yonder."   (I constantly had to explain this to folks in the Army)

Only a Southerner knows exactly how long "directly" is, as in: "Going
to town, be back directly."

Even Southern babies know that "Gimme some sugar" is not a request for
the white, granular sweet substance that sits in a pretty little
bowl in the middle of the table.

All Southerners know exactly when "by and by" is. They might not use
the term, but they know the concept well. They also know that "just
down the road" can be 1 mile or 20.

No true Southerner would ever assume that the car with the flashing
turn signal is actually going to make a turn.

A Southerner knows that "fixin" can be used as a noun, a verb, or an
adverb.

Only Southerners make friends while standing in lines. We don't do
"queues," we do "lines"; and when we're in line," we talk to everybody!

Put 100 Southerners in a room and half of them will discover they're
related, even if only by marriage.

Southerners never refer to one person as "ya'll."

Southerners know grits come from corn and how to eat them.


That fried green tomatoes are not a breakfast food.

When you hear someone say, "Well, I caught myself lookin'," you know
you are in the presence of a genuine Southerner!

Only true Southerners say "sweet tea" and "sweet milk." Sweet tea
indicates the need for sugar and lots of it -- we do not like our tea
unsweetene! d. "Sweet milk" means you don't want buttermilk.

And a true Southerner knows you don't scream obscenities at little old
ladies who drive 30 MPH on the freeway. You just say, "Bless her
heart, she's doin the best she can." and go your own way

To those of you who're still a little embarrassed by your Southerness:

Take two tent revivals and a dose of sausage gravy and call me in the
morning. Bless your heart!

And to those of you who are still having a hard time understanding all
this Southern stuff, bless your hearts, I hear they are fixin' to have
classes on Southern talk as a second language!

And for those that are not from the South but have lived here for a
long time, ya'll need a sign to hang on ya'lls front porch that reads
"I aint from the South but I got here as fast as I could."

Bless your hearts, Ya'll have a blessed day.

Tonight I'd love to have something wise or sweet or funny or sad,or soemthing to share with you, hawever I don't.  I will tell you that we just took an apple crisp out of the over (no you can't have any of this one, it has to go to church, but maybe I"ll make another one tomorrow)  and the laundry is being washed and dried as I type.  The kids have had the last 2 1/2 days off af school and that has made the house a it more chaotic than usual.  Have a good night, and I'll catch you all tomorrow.

So today is the first day of November, which means that in my home, it is the first day of the Christmas season.  Its time to strat thinking about the decorations and the menus, the parties, programs, travel, gifs in jars, burning holiday fragranced candles, the annual family Christmas letter, Christmas cards, and Christmas music.  Thanksgiving is a day where we get together with family and make Christmas plans. 

We are supposed to have a cousins Christmas reunion with my husbands cousins this season, but I'd guess we don't get everyone to show up, even though we all live within about 3 hours from each other.  I don't think all the cousins have been together since their grandma died 9 years ago.  Pretty sad I think for a family that all lives that close together. 

My sister will be home from DC, she makes it home for most Christmas's these days.  the rest of my sisters are close and we get together either usually on Christmas eve, and we do the Christmas day thing with sweeties family.  Which reminds me, its time to clal the sister in aw and see whats up for Thanksgiving this year.

I think I may be insane!

I just took on a day care baby, and changed my hours at work to accommodate the second job.  I am now available and expect to be working 85 hours weeks starting oh in the next 2-3 weeks.  Thank goodness I can do housework, laundry , fix meals, and play with Joey while I'm babysitting.

Wish me luck!!!

My son has his learners permit.

Anyone see Dateline on Friday? I know that some of you have, as I've seen a couple blogs talking about it. I didn't see it, we don't have television here, but I’m intrigued by the number of people that still are uneducated in the importance of internet safety. I’m not just talking about kids here either. Internet predators are out there.

If you don't believe me then spend some time in chat rooms, go to yahoo chat and read through some of the chat rooms that are available, even those that are categorized into seemingly harmless everyday topics have some extremely perverted conversations in them, including religious chat rooms. Check out some internet email groups that are listed in the directories and have absent owners and moderators, they get hit with spam of a horrible nature, I know, as I have membership in some 40 different groups, most of the ones I have joined are moderated well, with active moderators, if they aren’t, I generally leave the group. Sexual innuendo and more, get rich quick schemes, etc.  

Mindsay is no different, there are a lot of people here, most of them are safe as they appear people, but I wouldn’t want to place any guarantees on that when meeting someone for the first time.  As a parent, if I found out my kids was arranging to meet an online friend without me being there, they’d be grounded from the internet so fast, if fact, that might me the end of internet service in our home. 

What we say and show on mindsay does make a difference, I recall in the last 4-6 weeks a mindsay friend of mine lost her volunteer job because of what she posted on her blog.  I’ve heard of peoples blog entries coming up on google searches when employers google prospective employees.  If you recall several years ago Vanessa Williams lost her Miss America crown when it was discovered that she had posed for nude pictures, someone had access to them and sold them without her permission, and the damage was done. 

Lets consider something, what makes a person susceptible to becoming a victim of a predator?  (and btw, your NOT hearing me say it is the victims fault)  What causes some people to be more at risk than others?  The answer is simple.  Most, but not all, victims fall into a category of people who are not having all their needs met.  If we don’t eat, we  starve to death, if we don’t drink water, we become dehydrated, if we don’t sleep, well, if you go long enough without sleep, you will fall asleep when you need to be awake.  These are some of our physical needs.  We have emotional needs as well, these are the ones that put us at risk.  Those that suffer from low self esteem are more likely to post information on the internet that will help predators find them, or interest predators into seeking you out.  Posting seductive to x rated pictures of yourself, and leaving come hither messages are offering yourself up to be targeted.  We can keep ourselves safe online, by being very general about our locations, by keeping our addresses and phone numbers private, by using anonymous user names, including instant messengers, blogs and email addresses.  Never post your personal information to groups that you belong too, anyone can join that group and retrieve it, and don’t create online databases with friends and families personal information.  Being careful about posting our children’s names and birth dates, oh my, how easy it is to say, oh my daughter turned 18 today, guess what, now everyone knows you have a teenage daughter, and how hard is it to find my family members on mindsay?  I’m thinking of the information I’ve posted on my blog about my family, most of you even know my kids names, and ages already.  Ugh, what was I thinking?  If you look around, I’ve even left my phone number out there in a few places.  And even while doing it, I weigh the risk with the benefit, and I’m not sure the benefit is ever worth it.  I will share why I leave a phone number though, sometimes the despair that comes through the post that someone has left is so heart rending that I feel the need to reach out and give them options, my information is available if they want to check me out at that point, and I would never try to get someone to meet with me, unless we were already long standing friends.

 I have met internet friends, and I have some rules.  The first is, always meet in a public place and make  someone whom you know aware of where you are going, and how long you will be there. Next,  never meet anyone in secret. And if you feel the least bit uncomfortable, leave isn’t worth the chance.  Our body is made to give us danger signals,  pay attention to them. 

As for you young people out there, if you want to meet your online friends, make sure a parent goes with you, never, never, never meet anyone alone, and never give out your personal information online. 

This is open, if I missed anything, feel free to jump right on in.

Its been a good day, and I do want to thank everyone who nominated my blog all the way to #3.  It is a message that bears repeating, so you will see this post again in the future as well as previous posts I had made on this topic.  Traffic to my blog has been more than I could keep up with today, so if I didn't visit your blog I am sorry I missed you.  If you have any tips on personal safety, I'd like to make a compilation for another post.  All responses will be credited.

Thanks again!!

foreverloved found this for me, thank you so much!!!!!!!!!

I've left the link so to give credit where credit is due.  I've edited out the parts that don't apply to me.

This is my life, I think my family thinks I'm Cinderella.

http://www.stlyrics.com/lyrics/classicdisney/theworksong.htm

[Cinderella:]
Cinderella, Cinderella
All I hear is Cinderella, from the moment I get up
till shades of night are falling
There isn't any letup, I hear them calling, calling
Go up and do the attic and go down and do the cellar, you can do them
both together
"Cinderella."

How lovely it would be
if I could live in my fantasy
But in the middle of my dreaming
they're screaming
at me
Cinderella

[Jack:]
Every time she'd find a minute
That's the time that they begin it
Cinderelly, Cinderelly

[Stepsisters:] Cinderella!

[Jack:]
Cinderelly, Cinderelly
Night and day it's Cinderelly
Make the fire, fix the breakfast
Wash the dishes, do the mopping

[Girl mice:]
And the sweeping and the dusting
They always keep her hopping

[Jack:]
She goes around in circles
Till she's very, very dizzy
Still they holler

Rock the baby, fold the laundry, wash the dishes, make the dinner,

pack our lunches, make our breakfast, doesn't matter if we don't eat it,

not to mention buy the groceries, pay the bills, take me driving, buy me cheering shoes

find my clothes that I forgot to put away, find our shoes, sign my homework,

vacuum the floor, cause we don't care, but please make sure we get time to play

ugh, a mother work is never done.   Somedays I really feel unappreciated!!

Here's wishing you a wonderful Sunday of football, and housework.    Joey was practicing sliding on the kitchen floor, he does quite well at timing his slides to end at you feet.   The kids are grudgingly doing their chores, and I have the laundry started and am working on Christmas planning and preperation.  If we get enough cleaning done I want to do some baking this afternoon.  Some cookies and stuff.  Nothing goes together better than football and fresh baked cookies.

What do you know?

Mindsay is sleeping.

I really need to post something here, but life has been so crazy that I don't even know where to start.  We go to my grandma's birthday party tomorrow, she is 80 years old, and we will have a great time, she is even making my husbands favorite potatoe dish.  Our family has pot luck when we all get together, it's so much easier that way. 

A little boy was selling newspapers on the corner,

the people were in and out of the cold.

The little boy was so cold that he wasn't
trying to sell many papers.
He walked up to a policeman and said,
"Mister, you wouldn't happen to know where a poor boy could find a warm place to sleep tonight would you?
You see, I sleep in a box up around
the corner there and down the alley and it's awful cold in there for tonight.
Sure would be nice to have a warm place to stay." 

  The policeman looked down at the little boy and said,
"you go down the street to that big white house
and you knock on the door.
When they come out the door you just say John 3:16,
and they will let you in."

So he did. He walked up the steps and knocked on the door, and a lady answered.
He looked up and said, "John 3:16.."
The lady said, "Come on in, Son."
She took him in and she sat him down in a split bottom rocker
in front of a great big old fireplace,
and she went off.
The boy sat there for a while and thought to himself:
John 3:16..I don't understand it,
but it sure makes a cold boy warm. 

  Later she came back and asked him
"Are you hungry?" He said,

"Well, just a little.
I haven't eaten in a couple of days,
and I guess I could stand a little bit of food,"
The lady took him in the kitchen and sat

him down to a table full of wonderful food.
He ate and ate until he couldn't eat any more...
Then he thought to himself: John 3:16...
Boy, I sure don't understand it
but it sure makes a hungry boy full.

She took him upstairs to a bathroom
to a huge bathtub filled with warm water,
and he sat there and soaked for a while.
As he soaked, he thought to himself:
John 3:16... I sure don't understand it,
but it sure makes a dirty boy clean.
You know, I've not had a bath, a real bath,
in my whole life.
The only bath I ever had
was when I stood in front of that big old fire hydrant
as they flushed it out.
The lady came in and got him..
She took him to a room,
tucked him into a big old feather bed,
pulled the covers up around his neck,
kissed him goodnight and turned out the lights.
As he lay in the darkness and looked out the window at

the snow coming down on that cold night,
he thought to himself: John 3:16...
I don't understand it
but it sure makes a tired boy rested. 


  The next morning the lady came back up and took him down again to that same big table full of food.
After he ate,
she took him back to that same big old split bottom rocker
in front of the fireplace and picked up a big old Bible.

She sat down in front of him and looked into his young face. "Do you understand John 3:16?" she asked gently.
He replied, "No, Ma'am, I don't.
The first time I ever heard it was last night when the policeman told me to use it,"
She opened the Bible to John 3:16
and began to explain to him about Jesus.
Right there, in front of that big old fireplace,
he gave his heart and life to Jesus. 

He sat there and thought:

John 3:16......don't understand it,
but it sure makes a lost boy feel safe.

wishes  sent this to me, I liked it and thought I'd shar it with you.

The Lord's voice

A young man had been to Wednesday night Bible Study. The Pastor had shared about listening to God and obeying the Lord's voice. The young man couldn't help but wonder, "Does God still speak to people?" After service he went out with some friends for coffee and pie and they discussed the message. Several different ones talked about how God had led them in different ways.
It was about ten o'clock when the young man started driving home. Sitting in his car, he just began to pray, "God...If you still speak to people speak to me. I will listen. I will do my best to obey."
As he drove down the main street of his town, he had the strangest thought to stop and buy a gallon of milk. He shook his head and said out loud, "God is that you?" He didn't get a reply and started on toward home. But again, the thought, buy a gallon of milk. The young man thought about Samuel and how he didn't recognize the voice of God, and how little Samuel ran to Eli. "Okay, God, in case that is you, I will buy the milk." It didn't seem like too hard a test of obedience. He could always use the milk. He stopped and purchased the gallon of milk and started off toward home.
As he passed Seventh Street, he again felt the urge, "Turn Down that street." This is crazy he thought and drove on past the intersection. Again, he felt that he should turn down Seventh Street. At the next intersection, he turned back and headed down Seventh.
Half jokingly, he said out loud, "Okay, God, I will". He drove ! several blocks, when suddenly, he felt like he should stop. He pulled over to the curb and looked around. He was in semi commercial area of town. It wasn't the best but it wasn't the worst of neighborhoods either. The businesses were closed and most of the houses looked dark like the people were already in bed.
Again, he sensed something, "Go and give the milk to the people in the house across the street." The young man looked at the house. It was dark and it looked like the people were either gone or they were already asleep. He started to open the door and then sat back in the car seat. "Lord, this is insane. Those people are asleep and if I wake them up, they are going to be mad and I will look stupid." Again, he felt like he should go and give the milk. Finally, he opened the door, "Okay God, if this is you, I will go to the door and I will give them the milk. If you want me to look like a crazy person, okay. I want to be obedient. I guess that will count for something but if they don't answer right away, I am out of here."
He walked across the street and rang the bell. He could hear some noise inside. A man's voice yelled out, "Who is it? What do you want?" Then the door opened before the young man could get away. The man was standing there in his jeans and T-shirt. He looked like he just got out of bed. He had a strange look on his face and he didn't seem too happy to have some stranger standing on his doorstep. "What is it?"
The young man thrust out the gallon of milk, "Here, I brought this to you." The man took the milk and rushed down a hallway. Then from down the hall came a woman carrying the milk toward the kitchen. The man was following her holding a baby. The baby was crying. The man had tears streaming down his face. The man began speaking and half crying, "We were just praying. We had some big bills this month and! we ran out of money. We didn't have any milk for our baby. I was just praying and asking God to show me how to get some milk."
His wife in the kitchen yelled out, "I ask him to send an Angel with some. Are you an Angel?"
The young man reached into his wallet and pulled out all the money he had on him and put in the man's hand. He turned and walked back toward his car and the tears were streaming down his face.

He knew that God still answers prayers.

There are turkey's on the top bar of the swing set!!!!!!

Looks like dinner to me.

Good morning!!!!!!

25  shopping days until Christmas!!!

Help me wake up!

somehow, I'm up and I got to mindsay, but I'm still sleeping, I can't even get my eyes open to see what I"m doing.!

I thought I'd try again this morning to post.  At least I can see what I'm typing this morning.  Yesterday I worked almost 8 hours before they called me and told me they didn't need me anymore.  And thats fine, 7 1/2 hours is plenty for one day.  I have 8 hour shifts for this whole week.

We have snow, about 3-4 inches.  It looks like a winter wonder land out there, but I wish theyd get the strrets and parking lots cleaned up better.  It's cold here too, in the teens, and my wierd doughter doesnt' want to wear her boots to school.  She walks home and her tennies are wearing out and have holes in them.  They'll last the winter if she wears the boots.  ugh, children, does anyone want mine?

Are you ever so busy that you truely wonder if it's really worth it?  The activities, the clubs, the games?  You wnat to give your kids the best start in life for what?  The rat race of a life that you have?

What I want is serenity.  Peacefullness.  Healthy, happy, contented  kids.  Time to chat with my friends.  A smaller home with less upkeep.  I want to work hard and be paid accordingly, then be able to go home after 8 hours and enjoy my family.  I want a swing on the front porch and veggies in the garden in the summer, and a fire in the fireplace, good book to read and time to read it in the winter. 

WOW it was warm today!!!  a whole 17 degrees warmer than it was yesterday!!!  And that made it 11 degrees F.  Geez I don't know what I'll do if it gets any warmer.

OMG  it's so cold out that we cant get the house warmer than about 60 degrees, shich is too cold with a toddler in the house imo.

I'm sorry, the best of mindsay isn't in individual entries in several catagories,  The best of mindsay is the relationships that are formed, the friendships that have been made, the desire to interact with each other.  The best of mindsay is following up with the person who has gone missing for a bit, encouraging someone through a rough time in their life, sharing the good times and milestones and accomplishments.  The best of mindsay is an outlet for our creativity in written form.

Sorry to rain on your parade, all of you with great entries for the year, but the best of mindsay is all relational.  Without all of you, your great entries of the year would be meaningless.

My New Years Resolutions

1) Hygiene

      a) improve skin care

      b) Make time to wash my hair at least every other day

      c) Brush my teeth more than once a day and use a whitener

      d) moisture treatments for my dry hands once a week

2) Exercise 

      a) walk 15-20 minutes a day

      b) use weights and do stretching exercises every day

3) Business-make my new home business a success

      a) make phone calls-daily

      b) maintain web site-daily

      c) do paperwork and filing-daily

      d) attend all training meetings

      e) maintain inventory

10 random things about me in no particular order

1. I collect children, mine, yours, the neighbors, and all their friends, and I like it

2. I like Christmas music all year round

3. I love to take a long soak in  hot bath with a good book

4. Chocolate truffles from Swiss Colony are better than sex

5. I want to solve all your problems

6. I try to stay involved in my kids lives

7.  my favorite shopping buddy is my 15 1/2 yo son

8. I have directed Vacation Bible School for our church for the last 8 years

9. My idea of a nice vacation is leaving the family at home

10.  I would rather have a few really close friends than an excess of aquaintences

It occurred to me today that while I have been reading blogs and chatting with friends, I haven't updated my blog in a long while.

Well, my life is so wrapped up in my kids activities that I don't often think that it is my news to update, and as 2 of my kids and my husband all have blogs I tend to not blog about there news.

But I have to say, that I'm loving being laid off and I've almost been able to reclaim my house.  Dishes are getting done and laundry is caught up and I'm able to spend a bit more time on the computer.

Right now, I'm wishing for some better sleep at night.  Joey has a bit of a cold and he isn't sleeping well at all, which means neither am I. 

Thats it for now, hopefully I'll be inspired to write something a bit more worthy of your reading time  :)

Later friends!

It's really just too much. 

Have you ever seen a toddler wash the dishes?  Beware, the whole kitchen is going to get wet, and no, you can't move things fast enough to keep the kitchen dry, the best case senario is to give the child a bottle brush and a plate.  As soon as he is done eating he demands to be let down form his high chair and pushes a chair up to the sink.  I try to be done eating by the time he is, so I can get a head start on the dishes.  Before I let him down form his chair, I wash his hands and face and give him the dishcloth to wash the high chair tray.  While he is washing the tray, I run dish water, and try to get the jars, and other really breakable things done, whil hollering at the older kids to get the dish drainer emptied and start drying so I can get as many dishes done before Joey is done washing the high chair tray.   Once he is finished he voices his displeasure at being helpd hostage in the chair to the point where he wins his release, at this time he grabs a chair and swiftly pushes it up to the sink, so to get up there in time to help.  ( I'm frantically trying to finish before he gets there)  He climbs up on the chair and starts throwing anything on the counter into the sink.  Then he grabs for a washcloth, sponge, scrubbie, or brush.  At this point I try to have any dipping devices out of the dishwater, you know, cups, bowls, serving bowls, mesuring cups, pots or pans, because dipping and pouring are 2 of his favorite activities. Then he washes whatever he can reach while I try to finish the dishes.  Once we are done, I strip him, (cause he's soaked) and grab a towel to dry him off, then go find dry clothes.  Hopefully I'm still dry, but not usually, time for me to go get dry clothes too.  Then I'm back to the kitchen to mop up the water off the floor and dry off his chair.

Does that tire you out as much as it does me?

Do you race to see who can wash the most dishes after each meal?

What a child!!!!

I may have posted this before, but it's still good, I just got it in my email box.

At a fundraising dinner for a school that serves learning disabled children, the father of one of the students delivered a speech that would never be forgotten by all who attended.

After extolling the school and its dedicated staff, he offered a question:

"When not interfered with by outside influences, everything nature does is done with perfection. Yet my son, Shay, cannot learn things as other children do. He cannot understand things as other children do.

Where is the natural order of things in my son?" The audience was stilled by the query. The father continued. "I believe that when a child, like Shay, physically and mentally handicapped comes into the world, an opportunity to realize true human nature presents itself, and it comes, in the way other people treat that child."

Then he told the following story: Shay and his father had walked past a park where some boys Shay knew were playing baseball. Shay asked, "Do you think they'll let me play?"

Shay's father knew that most of the boys would not want someone like Shay on their team, but the father also understood that if his son were allowed to play, it would give him a much-needed sense of belonging and some confidence to be accepted by others in spite of his handicaps.

Shay's father approached one of the boys on the field and asked if Shay could play, not expecting much. The boy looked around for guidance and a few boys nodded approval, why not? So he took matters into his own hands and said, "We're losing by six runs and the game is in the eighth inning. I guess he can be on our team and we'll try to put him in to bat in the ninth inning." Shay struggled over to the team's bench put on a team shirt with a broad smile and his Father had a small tear in his eye and warmth in his heart.

The boys saw the father's joy at his son being accepted. In the bottom of the eighth inning, Shay's team scored a few runs but was still behind by three. In the top of the ninth inning, Shay put on a glove and played in the right field. Even though no hits came his way, he was obviously ecstatic just to be in the game and on the field, grinning from ear to ear as his father waved to him from the stands.

In the bottom of the ninth inning, Shay's team scored again. Now, with two outs and the bases loaded, the potential winning run was on base and Shay was scheduled to be next at bat. At this juncture, do they let Shay bat and give away their chance to win the game?

Surprisingly, Shay was given the bat. Everyone knew that a hit was all but impossible 'cause Shay didn't even know how to hold the bat properly, much less connect with the ball. However, as Shay stepped up to the plate, the pitcher, recognizing the other team putting winning aside for this moment in Shay's life, moved in a few steps to lob the ball in softly so Shay could at least be able to make contact. The first pitch came and Shay swung clumsily and missed. The pitcher again took a few steps forward to toss the ball softly towards Shay. As the pitch came in, Shay swung at the ball and hit a slow ground ball right back to the pitcher.

The game would now be over, but the pitcher picked up the soft grounder and could have easily thrown the ball to the first baseman. Shay would have been out and that would have been the end of the game. Instead, the pitcher threw the ball right over the head of the first baseman, out of reach of all team mates.

Everyone from the stands and both teams started yelling, "Shay, run to first! Run to first!" Never in his life had Shay ever ran that far but made it to first base. He scampered down the baseline, wide-eyed and startled. Everyone yelled, "Run to second, run to second!" Catching his breath, Shay awkwardly ran towards second, gleaming and struggling to make it to second base. By the time Shay rounded towards second base, the right fielder had the ball, the smallest guy on their team, who had a chance to be the hero for his team for the first time.

He could have thrown the ball to the second-baseman for the tag, but he understood the pitcher's intentions and he too intentionally threw the ball high and far over the third-baseman's head. Shay ran toward third base deliriously as the runners ahead of him circled the bases toward home. All were screaming, "Shay, Shay, Shay, all the Way Shay" Shay reached second base, the opposing shortstop ran to help him and turned him in the direction of third base, and shouted, "Run to third! Shay, run to third" As Shay rounded third, the boys from both teams and those watching were on their feet were screaming, "Shay, run home!" Shay ran to home, stepped on the plate, and was cheered as the hero who hit the "grand slam" and won the game for his team.

That day," said the father softly with tears now rolling down his face, the boys from both teams helped bring a piece of true love and humanity into this world."

Shay didn't make it to another summer and died that winter, having never forgotten being the hero and making his Father so happy and coming home and seeing his Mother tearfully embrace her little hero of the day!

I'm on my way to the child support hearing, pray for the best.

Ok, so I have to admit to having read a few blogs and not everyone is in agreement about Valentines Day, and while some may have good reasons for their feelings may I suggest you read wierdkid 's blog today.  He posted the nicest things about his family, not a sweetheart, but his mother, father, good friends, etc. 

Some have mentioned the commercialization of the holiday, and that is true, Valentines Day is just one of the over commercialized holidays we celebrate, but then, stores are owned by people and companies trying to reach the American dream, can you blame them for wanting to increase sales.  My husband I an attended a couples party Sunday evening hosted by members of our church.  Without Valentines day, the 6 couples that gathered, wouldn't have without our children, 8 kids in total, and the evening would have been spent chasing Joey instead of getting to know our friends better.  To my mind, holidays are days to remind us to take special care of the people we love, yes, we should love all year round, we should be special to each other all year round, but sometimes we all need a little reminder to say hey!  I appreciate you.  At our dinner party, our hostess, who owns a specialty fudge shop in Janesville Wi.  (Fudgelies)  served chocolate dipped strawberries.  Huge strawberries in imported real chocolate.  ($28 a doz strawberries)  They were really the best I've ever eaten , and so inspired me to go to the grocery store and buyt strawberries and chocolate flavored melting chips and dip strawberries for my children.  YUMMMY!  even if they weren't dipped in imported chocolate, my children certainly felt special.  and the dozen or so I made only cost me $6. 

My husband and I have several times of the year where we try to do something a little special and valentines day is one of them, however, rarely on the day itself.  One year on Feb 13, we went to see Titanic, I think that was in 98.  Now going to a movie may not seem that special, but I've only been to the theater maybe 5 times since then.  We have a date on our anniversary, and the anniversary of our first day (Black Wednesday)  We try for his birthday and then again in December.  Thats 5 times a year where we make an effort to do something special, and we can't afford to do something special like that any oftener.  And it spreads things out nicely, Feb, May, June, Oct, and Dec.  My daughter loves Mothers Day, (she like to plant my flower beds that day.

Its been years since I was single on Valentines day, But I remember making Valentines for girlfriends, haeing dinner parties with my girlfriends and in general just enjoying the availability of speciality chocolates.  Other things you can do are make valentines for nursing home residents, and go visit them, even if you don't know them, they love company, Help at a community event, baby sit for a friend, so she can get out with her spouse.

Alot of us arn't hearts and flowers people, Please don't ever waste money on a greeting card for me, that is silly, but wish me well, and lift a glass to our friendship and I will gladly return the toast.

There are plenty of days that don't include everyone, but I don't get upset.  How about Secretaries Day, Teachers Day, National Nurses Week, Black History Month, Bosses Day, Veterans Day, Clergy Appreciation Week? and there are many more that don't honor ME, But I don't throw fits because they are times for appriciation for certain people groups of which I'm not included.  Why must you be upset because there is a day to honor Love?

Just ramdom thoughts, and probably not that well put together, but it bugs me when people who don't feel included in a focus holiday try to poor cold water over the warm fuzzy feelings that others savor.

Culver's flavor of the day...................

Mint Brownie................

Oh my God!!!  To die for!!!!! 

It's a quiet day on Mindsay, however, I supposed everyone had the same trouble I did and couldn't do anything here for a few hours this morning.  I'm glad to see the site working again. 

Melinda, if your reading this, I just wanted to tell you tat as soon as you make your first post, I will give you a shout out and post a link to your blog here, that way Gus and Steph and others can visit you and make you feel welcome here.

Illness has invaded my home.  No more peace and quiet here, except the wrong kind.  I have one child that I have to keep checking on to make sure she is still with us.  We are forcing her to take in liquid, because if she doesn't drink she is on her way to the hospital for rehydration. This nasty virus has caused horrible sores in her mouth and her lips, tongue, and gums are swollen and raw.  She has a lovely cocktail of scripts to take, and thank God, I see improvement finally, she's been sick for a whole week.  My oldest son, also has the sores in his mouth, although not nearly as bad as Mary.  He is doing well with fluids and hopefuuly is on the mend.  My little guy started vomiting on Saturday, and is following that nasty diapers.  Joey isnt eating, however he is drinking well, as long as it is in the bottle.

Steph is well so far, and so is Sweetie.  I tell you, it sure would be easier to take care of my sickies if I wasn't so sick. 

Sure do hope it's nice enough outside to air out the house soon, I hate the sick house smell, that comes when everyone is ill.

Do popcycles count for liquids?

• walks in the sunshine
• playing at the park
• digging in the garden
• planning the planting
• sleeping in
• waking up to sun shining in the window
• relaxed schedules
• having all the kids home
• no homework
• open windows and fresh air blowing through the house
• spring cleaning
• cleaning in the basement
• playing in the sandbox
• mud puddles (need I say more)
• naps in the sun
• picnics on the lawn
• bonfire to burn the branches collected off the lawn from the winter winds
• friends visiting
• planning Joey's birthday party (he'll be 2 tomorrow)

From my email box......

One day there was a blind man sitting on the steps of a building with a hat by his feet and a sign that read:  "I am blind; please help."

­A creative publicist was walking by and stopped to observe.  He saw that the blind man had only a few coins in his hat.   He dropped in more coins and, without asking for permission, took the sign and rewrote it.

He returned the sign to the blind man and left.  That afternoon the publicist returned to the blind man and noticed that his hat was full of bills and coins.

The blind man recognized his footsteps and asked if it was he who had rewritten his sign and wanted to know what he had written on it.

The publicist responded:  "Nothing that was not true.  I just wrote the message a little differently."  He smiled and went on his way.

The new sign read: "Today is spring and I cannot see it."

It's been awhile since I've posted anything very personal.  I guess thats because I don't really have much of a life outside my family and believe me, they keep my busy. 

Some of you know our youngest child wasn't born to us, and we haven't been able to adopt him yet.  Adoption costs are outrageous if you ask me.  The delay with the adoption is causing some trouble with in the extended family and stress levels are high.  Alot of people walking around on tip toes when it shouldn't even be nessissary. 

Joeys birth mom is really putting pressure on her aunt because she is upset at having to pay child support for Joey until we can petition for the adoption.  It doesn't do to remind her that we never would have gone for child support if she had just forwarded the money that the father is paying for child support.  OH NO! She couldn't do that.  She has been keeping the child support for the father for the last 6 months.  It doesn't matter to her that she hasn't had the child in her care for 16 months now. 

Anyway, I've spent hours on the phone with adoption agencies, and adoption attorney's offices, trying to find competant services for a reasonable price.  Trust me when I say, adoption isn't available at a reasonable price.  We have to pay over $2000 to an adoption agency to come and determine if we are suitable as an adoptive family.  Go figure, we have legal guardianship and if we somehow wouldn't be approved for the adoption, he would still live with us.  Makes alot of sence to me, how about you? 

Joeys just turned 2 yo and has lived with us for 2/3 of his little life.  And let me tell you, he couldn't be more our child if he was concieved the old fashioned way and I'd birthed him myself.  I even think he looks like me.  And he sure is a cutie. 

(maybe I shouldn't mention that Joey's birth mom is pregnant again?)

When I make soup in the crock pot I fill the 7 qt pot and hope that if there are leftovers, that there will be enough left for two of us for unch the next day.  Someone suggested that I make double portions and freeze half for a day when I don't have time to cook.  Hmmmm, I have 3 teens, 1 toddler, and 2 adults, I don't think I own a large enough soup pot to make double portions at the same time, and I sure don't have enough freezer space to freeze a whole meal.  Are we piggies?  I'm thinking we must be to eat that much food at one time.  When I make pancakes I multiply the recipe times 4.  Flip pancakes for 20 minutes  or so, then sit down to eat.  If I'm lucky, I'll have a couple for the baby to eat at snack time.

Laundry, hmmmm.  Minimum of 12 loads of clothes a week, including probably 2 loads of towels, 1 load of dish towels, that doesn't include sheets, ugh.  And I hate folding socks.  So does everyone else in my family, so I'm the only one that takes the time to sort them.  And then if only I could keep the girls from wearing my socks.  I'ts bad enough that they wear theirs without shoes and get them nasty dirty, but I don't need any help wearing my socks out.  There are 6 of us, and the one on the track team sometimes wears 2-3 par of socks a day, however we have a minimum of 84 dirty socks in our house every week.  ICK.

Dishes.......  I wont even talk about the dishes........

I must say, I"m glad the nasty but that visited our house only lasted the one day.  I tell you the truth, I haven't been sick like that in forever, and I hope it's another forever before I experience it again.

Sunday morning, the family was felling better so we proceed with the plans for the weekend.  We drove Gus and Steph to Wisconsin Dells to work then headed over to my moms for the afternoon.  Spent the day, doing, I"m not sure what, visiting I guess, then headed over to my In Laws for supper.  Chris and I took the food and cooked for them.  My mother in law was just finishing the 3 acre lawn mowing  and was ecstatic to not have to cook dinner.  We had a lovely evening on the deck.

Back to my moms for the night, and she made home made waffles with fresh strawberries and whipped cream for breakfast.  so yummy.  Then we went to town to do a few errand together.  I found a Playschool picnic table at a yard sale, and then back to her house to sand her stairs.  Hopefully the kids staying with her this week will get that job finished so they can stain and varnish next weekend. 

We got home about 10 pm, and unpacked the car, and sent the kids to bed.  I am more unstressed than I've been in ages.

From my email box....

Several times my daughter had telephoned to say, "Mother, you must come to see the daffodils before they are over." I wanted to go, but it was a two-hour drive from Laguna to Lake Arrowhead.   "I will come next Tuesday", I promised a little reluctantly on her third call.

Next Tuesday dawned cold and rainy. Still, I had promised, and reluctantly I drove there. When I finally walked into Carolyn's house I was welcomed by the joyful sounds of happy children. I delightedly hugged and greeted my grandchildren. "Forget the daffodils, Carolyn! The road is invisible in these clouds and fog, and there is nothing in the world except you and these children that I want to see badly enough to drive another inch!"

My daughter smiled calmly and said, "We drive in this all the time, Mother." "Well, you won't get me back on the road until it clears, and then I'm heading for home!" I assured her. "I was hoping you'd take me over to the garage to pick up my car."

How far will we have to drive?"

 "Oh...just a few blocks," Carolyn said. "But I'll drive. I'm used to this." After several minutes, I had to ask, "Where are we going? This isn't the way to the garage!"

We're going to my garage the long way," Carolyn smiled, "by way of the daffodils." 

"Carolyn," I said sternly, "please turn around." 

 It's all right, Mother, I promise. You will never forgive yourself if you miss this experience."  After about twenty minutes, we turned onto a small gravel road and I saw a  small church. On the far side of the church, I saw a hand lettered sign with  an arrow that read, "Daffodil Garden." We got out of the car, each took a child's hand, and I followed Carolyn down the path. Then, as we turned a corner, I looked up and gasped. Before me lay the most glorious sight. It looked as though someone had taken a great vat of gold and poured it over  the mountain peak and it's surrounding slopes. The flowers were planted in majestic, swirling patterns, great ribbons and swaths of deep orange, creamy white, lemon yellow, salmon pink, and saffron and butter yellow. Each different-colored variety was planted in large groups so that it swirled and  flowed like its own river with its own unique hue. There were five acres of flowers.

"Who did this?" I asked Carolyn.

 "Just one woman," Carolyn answered. "She lives on the property. That's her home." Carolyn pointed to a well kept A-frame house, small and modestly sitting in the midst of all that glory. We walked up to the house. On the patio, we saw a poster.

"Answers to the Questions I Know You Are Asking" was the headline. The first answer was a simple one. "50,000 bulbs,"  it read. The second answer was, "One at a time, by one woman.
Two hands, two feet, and one brain." The third answer was, "Began in 1958."

For me, that moment was a life-changing experience. I thought of this woman whom I had never met, who, more than forty years before, had begun, one bulb at a time, to bring her vision of beauty and joy to an obscure mountaintop. Planting one bulb at a time, year after year, this
unknown woman had forever changed the world in which she lived. One day at a time, she had created something of extraordinary magnificence, beauty, and inspiration. The principle her daffodil garden taught is one of the greatest principles of celebration.

That is, learning to move toward our goals and desires one step at a time--often just one baby-step at time--and learning to love the doing, learning to use the accumulation of time. When we multiply tiny pieces of time with small increments of daily effort, we too will find we can accomplish magnificent things. We can change the world.

"It makes me sad in a way," I admitted to Carolyn. "What might I have accomplished if I had thought of a wonderful goal thirty-five or forty years ago and had worked away at it 'one bulb at a time' through all those years? Just think what I might have been able to achieve!" 

My daughter summed up the message of the day in her usual direct way. "Start tomorrow," she said.  She was right. It's so pointless to think of the lost hours of yesterdays.  The way to make learning a lesson of celebration instead of a cause for regret is to only ask, "How can I put this to use today?"

Julio and I took Joey for a walk this morning.  We always go the 1/2 mile to the stop sign then back home.  Joey rode in the stroller for the first 1/2 mile, then begged to walk.  He walked the whole 1/2 mile back home.  WOW!  He does like our walks though, so I'm trying for 3 times a week.  We want to swim the other two days a week this summer, so maybe I can boost my metabolism and drop a few more pounds.  My goal for the next 3 months is 10 lbs.  I know that doesn't seem like alot, but to me it will be.  I've lost 20 pounds since last August, and I feel like I"m lots thinner.  all my summer clothes are too BIG.  It really is great.  Another 10 pound will put me 1/2 way to my long term goal.  Slow and steady wins the race you know.......

I give up!!!!

I simply don't have time to read the last 12 days worth of posts.  If I missed anything important let me know.  Was on vacation with the family, went camping, and didn't have internet (computer either for that matter)

From my Email box.......

This is a statement that was read over the PA system at the football game at Roane County High School, Kingston, Tennessee, by school Principal, Jody McLeod.

"It has always been the custom at Roane County High School football games, to say a prayer and play the National Anthem, to honor God and Country."

Due to a recent ruling by the Supreme Court, I am told that saying a Prayer is a violation of Federal Case Law.
As I understand the law at this time, I
can use this public facility to approve of sexual perversion and call it "an alternate lifestyle," and if someone is offended, that's OK.

I can use it to condone sexual promiscuity, by dispensing condoms and calling it, "safe sex." If someone is offended, that's OK.

I can even use this public facility to present the merits of killing an unborn baby as a "viable means of birth control." If someone is offended, no problem...

I can designate a school day as "Earth Day" and involve students in activities to worship religiously and praise the goddess "Mother Earth" and call it "ecology."

I can use literature, videos and presentations in the classroom that depicts people with strong, traditional Christian convictions as "simple minded" and
"ignorant" and call it "enlightenment."

However, if anyone uses this facility to honor GOD and to ask HIM to Bless this event with safety and good sportsmanship, then Federal Case Law is violated.

This appears to be inconsistent at best, and at worst, diabolical. Apparently, we are to be tolerant of everything and anyone, except GOD and HIS Commandments.

Nevertheless, as a school principal, I frequently ask staff and students to abide by rules with which they do not necessarily agree. For me to do otherwise would be inconsistent at best, and at worst, hypocritical... I suffer from that affliction enough unintentionally. I certainly do not need to add an intentional transgression.

For this reason, I shall "Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's," and refrain from praying at this time.

"However, if you feel inspired to honor, praise and thank GOD and ask HIM, in the name of JESUS, to Bless this event, please feel free to do so. As far as I know, that's not against the law----yet."

One by one, the people in the stands bowed their heads, held hands with one another and began to pray.

They prayed in the stands. They prayed in the team huddles. They prayed at the concession stand and they prayed in the Announcer's Box!

The only place they didn't pray was in the Supreme Court of the United States of America - the Seat of "Justice" in the "one nation, under GOD."

Somehow, Kingston, Tennessee remembered what so many have forgotten. We are given the Freedom OF Religion, not the Freedom FROM Religion. Praise GOD that HIS remnant remains!

• took all the kids with me on a 2 1/2 mile walk this morning
• took 16 yo son for a hair cut
• took kids to swimming pool
• went grocery shopping
• deposited kids checks into their savings accounts
• sent older kids to a movie with their dad
• baby and I took a bath
• baby is now sleeping peacefully, regaining strength, because tomorrow is a whole new day to wear mom out
• the house is way too quiet right now
• want to come over for coffee and an ice cream sunday?

• Squash
• Zuchini
• Green Beans
• Peas
• Beets
• Brocoli
• Cauliflower

All ready to be picked today.  And lets not forget the weeding that must get done either.

So far......

66 qts of green beans

32 qts of beets

4 qts of brocoli

4 1/2 pints of sugar snap peas

To date we are giving away the extra zucchini and summer squash.  Today I made a chocolate zucchini cake, very yummy.

Tomatoes coming soon along the green peppers, if we have enough, we are going to try freezing some of the peppers.

• Life is busy,
• peaches are here 
• going to MI for blueberries tomorrow
• need to find some me time
• son's hair is blue
• daughter turned 13
• 20th year Class Reunion for husband this weekend
• lost 2 lbs
• the garden is abundant with tomatoes
• zuchinni is almost done
• cucumbers are producing well
• replanted beets, hope to harvest mid October
• day care kids are driving me crazy

Truely, I am still alive, but busier than ever.  We are moving in a few weeks, where too?  I don't know yet, wehave unitl the first of November to find a house.  It's stressing me out for sure, i just want to know where we are going, ya know? 

We packed most of the books this past weekend.  25 boxes of them so far.  

For those of you who host Christmas, and even some that don't. a friend came up with this idea and I think it is great.........

This is my tree without the usual blue lights, beads, balls, and bows, however, I think I like it just as well, or even better.  I did find some neat white and silver bells to add for next year, and I will be looking for more white homemade typr ornaments to add for next year.  I also need a topper for my tree, I once had an angel that I had crocheted, but I gave it away one year, and havent had time to make another one.  A tree needs just the right topper as I believe it tells alot about the person who decorated it. 

Merry Christmas to all, and happy decorating to all of you!

Help me welcome my friend flutterbyfly  to mindsay.  Trust me, she's going to be alot better read than I ever am.

The first picture is my son Gus and his date Emily.  They do look nice together I think.

The second picture is my daughter Steph and her date Tanner.  Very nice looking couple. 

Overall, I can say we experienced Homecoming to the fullest.  All the kids had fun. (and so did I)

Someone tell me why kids are so bitchy to their parents, and all nicey nicey with the rest of the world.

Sometimes I give Joey snacks to eat in the car if we are going to be on the road for long periods of time.  Peanuts are a recent favorite, so I put about 1/2 cup of nuts into a snack size zippy bag, buckled Joey in the car, gave him his nuts and headed to school to pick up the big kids.  Almost immediately after the kids were in the car Joey started screaming.  Now, he is a bit spoiled and the big kids tease him, so I waited a few moments, then asked the kid sitting next to him what he was screaming about.  She said that he was screaming because he was picking his nose and couldn't get the booger out.  He vehemantly argued the point, so I asked Mary to check on him.  At that point, she discovered that he had a peanut stuck up his nose.  I pulled over, to check this out.  After about 3 minutes, I finally got the peanut out of his nose, and he kept stating over and over, "I'm all right, I'm all right"  so I got back into the car, and pulled onto the road, cause I had to get the oldest one, Gus, to work.  No sooner had I pulled onto the road, then he started creaming again.  "Joey, what is the matter now?" I asked him.

His response was pricesless.

wait for it........

wait for it.........

"YOU TOOK MY LAST NUT!!!"

Oh goodness, we all cracked up, at which point he angerly shouted at us to quit laughing at him.

Can ya'll do me a favor and repost this information

My niece Crystal, 3 1/2 yo, finally recieved a new heart on Tuesday night. 

Well, I have discovered that the heart/lung machine will be used for 2 days to give her body and the heart a rest.  At the same time they are doing a plasma exchange to rid her blood for the rejecting antibodies.

Please keep praying

The latest updates from Crystal's web site, www.caringbridge.org/visit/crystalclausen  bring the reality that she may be slipping away from us. Today I am requesting your thoughts and prayers for Crystal, her parents, grandparents, siblings, extended family, her caregivers, and her doctors. Crystal has touched the lives of many in her short life, and I continue to pray for a miracle.

Please repost this on your blog and pass it around. And if you do go visit her web site, please sign the guest book and leave a few word to let the family know that they are in your thoughts. The guest book brings much comfort to my sister and her husband.

The latest update is very encouraging, after yesterdays downer.  you can kind of tell when the parents are feeling very discouraged.  I still can't imagine being in their shoes.  We are going tomorrow to see Crystal and family.  My Joey (born on the same day as Crystal and her twin Charity)  really wants to see her, so we will take him to look in the window at her.  My husband is going as well, because we know that it will be tramatic, but, it seems to be important to him.  We want to be ready for any reaction that he has.   I have to admit that I am curious about the Berlin heart, which is an external heart device. 

My mom is starting to crack under the stress of this situation.  34 years ago on Dec 18, my mom gave birth to a little boy with the same heart defect that Crystal was born with.  That long ago, it was undetected until he died at 1 week old. He died on Christmas day.  Its' starting to get too too close to Christmas for her, and she said tonight that she doesn't think she could take it if they manage to keep Crystal alive, only to have her die on Christmas too. 

36 Days after recieving her new heart, Crystal gave up the fight.  Her body was just too sick and she couldn't get well.  She had a major stroke this morning and was declared brain dead.  Her parents made the decision to discontinue life support systems, and Crystal died shortly after noon.  She was held after she died by her mommy.  She hadn't been held is 27 days.  We are looking forward to the day when we shall see her in heaven, in her perfect, healthy body.

Hug your children and your babies.  You never know how long there are with you.

Christmas Poem

The embers glowed softly, and in their
 dim light, I gazed round the room and I cherished the
 sight. 
 
My wife was asleep, her head on my chest, My daughter
 beside me, angelic in rest. 
 
Outside the snow fell, a blanket of
 white, transforming the yard to a winter delight. 
 
The sparkling lights in the tree I believe, Completed
 the magic that was Christmas Eve. My eyelids were
 heavy, my breathing was deep, Secure and surrounded
 by love I would sleep. 
 
In perfect contentment, or so it would seem, So I
 slumbered, perhaps I started to dream. The sound
 wasn't loud, and it wasn't too near, But I opened my
 eyes when it tickled my ear. Perhaps just a cough, I
 didn't quite know, then the sure sound of footsteps
 outside in the snow. My soul gave a tremble, I
 struggled to hear, and I crept to the door just to
 see who was near. Standing out in the cold and the
 dark of the night, a lone figure stood, his face
 weary and tight. A soldier, I puzzled, some twenty
 years old, Perhaps a Marine, huddled here in the
 cold. Alone in the dark, he looked up and
 smiled, Standing watch over me, and my wife and my
 child. “What are you doing?" I asked without
 fear, “Come in this moment, it's freezing out
 here! Put down your pack, brush the snow from your
 sleeve, you should be at home on a cold Christmas
 Eve!” For barely a moment I saw his eyes shift, Away
 from the cold and the snow blown in drifts. To the
 window that danced with a warm fire's light then he
 sighed and he said "Its really all right, I'm out
 here by choice. I'm here every night." 
 
"It's my duty to stand at the front of the line, that
 separates you from the darkest of times. No one had
 to ask or beg or implore me, I’m proud to stand here
 like my father before me. My Gramps died at ' Pearl
 on a day in December,” Then he sighed, "That's a
 Christmas 'Gram always remembers.” My dad stood his
 watch in the jungles of ' Nam ',And now it is my
 turn and so, here I am. I’ve not seen my own son in
 more than a while, But my wife sends me pictures,
 he's sure got her smile. Then he bent and he
 carefully pulled from his bag, the red, white, and
 blue... an American flag. I can live through the cold
 and the being alone, Away from my family, my house
 and my home. I can stand at my post through the rain
 and the sleet; I can sleep in a foxhole with little
 to eat. I can carry the weight of killing another, or
 lay down my life with my sister and brother. Who
 stand at the front against any and all, to ensure for
 all time that this flag will not fall.” So go back
 inside," he said, "harbor no fright, your family is
 waiting and I'll be all right.” But isn't there
 something I can do, at the least,” Give you money," I
 asked, "or prepare you a feast? It seems all too
 little for all that you've done, for being away from
 your wife and your son.” Then his eye welled a tear
 that held no regret, “Just tell us you love us, and
 never forget. To fight for our rights back at home
 while we're gone, to stand your own watch, no matter
 how long. For when we come home, either standing or
 dead, To know you remember we fought and we bled, Is
 payment enough, and with that we will trust, That we
 mattered to you as you mattered to us."

Friday, December 14th, 2007, starting at 6pm to 11 pm Central time. 

A few of the items that will be on the auction are:  Picture frames of various types and sizes,

Wall plaques, Small Mantle Clock, Christmas Décor, Pampered Chef items ,

Mary Kay Items, Gift Certificates, Online Advertising subscriptions and much more.

I usually start in Nov, when I say happy HOLIDAYS I'm wishing them a Happy Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years, and whatever holiday they celebrate.  In Dec, I often alternate between Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays because there are stll more holidays after Thanksgiving. 

It's unreasonable I know, but I get almost as frustrated when people comment on my saying  Merry Christmas, as they get upset when others say Happy Holidays instead. 

Holiday is derived from "Holy Day"  making Happy Holidays just as religious as Merry Christmas.  I can remember, maybe 20 years ago, when christians were preaching the commercialization of Christmas and how we should avoid the celebration of a holiday steeped in pagan tradition.  Now christians are on a mission to save Christmas. 

I think the hardest thing I have ever done is to tell my children that their cousin had died.  We knew she was very sick, we knew that her time was short, even having only a few hours left.  I have never, not ever experienced pain and grief such as this before.  For the baby that never had a chance to live a full life, for myself, I can't bear the thought of losing my child, for my sister and her husband who did loose their child, for my children, whose sorrow and grief are great. 

There was a web site set up to update us all on Crystal's progress, and we wold leave messages there in the gurst book.  I am currantly making a scrap book of the journal and guest book entries for my sister.  I had to sort the entries for the day she died, the ones before she died and the ones after she died.  I just read all the entries form that day.  I've copied the entries of my two oldest children. Their pain is nearly unbearable for me.

My dear baby girl, I love you so much. I never thought I would have to say goodbye. I don't know how to say it either. I didn't get to see you a lot but you meant so much to me. Being your oldest girl cousin I feel I need to be there to talk to you about boys, school, life, and everything else. Now I will never get the chance to do that. From lack of spending time with you I don't know that much about you but the one thing I do know is that you were always a fighter. With everything that you went through you always stayed with us. Now your rest.

Cindy and Cliff- Just remember Life is Beautiful. She might not of had the best life being in the hospital but she was a beautiful child and I love her so much. I will miss you forever and always.

Your loving cousin Stephie

Dear Crystal,

I don't know how to say goodbye. You never made sense to me. I never had the chance to be your friend. All I wanted was to be there when you had your first school play, or piano recital, or basketball game. I just wanted to do the things, an oldest cuzin is supposed to do. But that was not to be. I never had the chance, just like you never had the chance, to get to know me. I'm sorry I couldn't have been there for you more often, even though you might not understand, I very much wanted to be. Now, I will never get to see you smile again. I'm going to miss you.

Love, Cuzin Gus.

I weep for my sisters loss, I weep for the loss of this tiny life, and I weep for the grief of my children...........

We left the house at 8:30 this morning to drive 1 1/2 hours to visit our old church.It was a beautiful service today with a baptism.  I was allowed to tinkle the piano keys during the service, and afterwards got to do some duets with the organist.  Now you need to know that I'm not a great pianist, just ok, and the organist is definately an amateur, but the organ is programable, and has some cheats, so together we sounds really, really good.  After church we stayed for a pot luck meal and visited with our friends that we haven't seen since we moved away in September.

We drove home the long way, to make a couple stops.  When at last we were almost home, a local city law enforcement official noticed that we have a headlight burned out.  Ok, not a big deal, but I'm a worrier.  Hubby hasn't had time to get his drivers licence changed yet, so he has an out of state licence (and it's been more than 30 days since the move)  and I have out of state plates on the van, cause, might as well get my money's worth out of them, right?  However, the state gives you 30 days to renew and update those things after a move, so I"m worrying.  Oh, and I'm not wearing my seatbelt either. To top it off, my 3 1/2 yo is buckeled into his car seat calling, "Officer!   Officer!"  I was able to shush him, but when the Officer was finshed handing off to my husband a written warning for the headlight, and reminding us to get the plates and licence updated, we asked him if he would mind chatting with our young son in the back seat.  He was very nice and chatted with Joey about Christmas and such.  Joey was thrilled.  I can just about gaurentee that was the most unique stop that officer made today. 

and how well do I know you?

I know I have some mindsay friends that I know better than others, and some new friends that I don't know very well yet.  So to exercise my brain, tell me 3 things that you know about me, and I"ll tell you three things that I know about you..

• my landlord is getting me a new stove sometimes to day, cause I have a burner that doesn't work, even after putting a new element in. I did clean after he moved the old one out, it wasn't so bad.
• my heating element on my dryer went out. I ahve 7 loads of laundry waiting to be done
• my sons car has a flat tire, bent rim and shattered hubcap, but he doesn't remember hitting a curb or anything else, grrrr (therefore I had to get up earlier than usual to drive kids to school

Please forgive me,

I promised someone false eyelashes tips from a  internationally known make up artist,  I found the info, but can't remember who wanted it.  Please email me chellyschultz@yahoo.com

Joey has always hated to have his hair cut.  So every so often I ask him if he is ready for a hair cut.  His usual answer is no, but when he says yes, I ahve to move quick.  Earlier this week I asked him if he wanted to get a hair cut and he said yes, so I got out the clippers and buzzed him.  He was good for a while, then started crying and wanting his hair back.  I, of course, think he is the most handsome little man, and I love his hair buzzed, and kept encouraging him and telling him how cute he was.  He looked and me deep in my eyes and exclaimed,

"Have you LOOKED at me?"

you know, one of the  reasons that I rarely post my thoughts on blogs that can be construed as controvercial is that some people want to argue with you without presenting facts or even a reason for their opinion preferring instead to waste time and energy with a find it somewhere in my blog, I'm sorry, give me some web sites to do some research, or even, take the time to read the information I gave the links to, instead of disregarding it outright.

OK, back ot regular programmin

Earlier this year I had decided that I wanted to write and mail cards or letters at least 1 per day during the week.  now I haven't done as well as I'd like, generally I do 4-5 at a time, and I've only done this 3 times since the beginning of the year.  My last mailing of 5 handwritten cards went out almost 2 weeks ago, and in the past 10 days I have recieved confirmation by phone, email, IM, and snail mail letter from all 5 recipients.  Now I love email, IM blogs, and phone, but there is something really special about getting a card or letter in the mail.  I have this weeks cards ready to go out, just need to get stamps first thing Monday morning.

Someone SAVE me!

My daughter insists that I do crunches every night!!

I remember forever ago when we did have the option to block a user from our blog.  Do you remember?  I was in favor of the blocking feature.  I still am.  The only user I have ever blocked is google .  that googlebot drives me crazy.  I have disagreed with my friends and even inserted myself into peoples blogs where my first fisit to them made me feel strongly enough to post.  I've been bashed and scolded.  and I walk away.  A few years ago, I had a major disagreement with someone I know from real life, and I did change my setting so that reply's must be approved, and I didn't approve replies from this person and her son.  Finally they quit visiting, but I didn't block them, they were welcome to visit, but not to comment, because they were being mean and nasty, and that wasn't what I wanted on my blog.  Every no and again, she visits, and sometimes comments, but she has ceased being nasty, so I leave ler replies.  I refuse to get into the middle of someone elses argument, even if I am offened by one side or the other, it really isn't my business.  I refuse to respond to the blogs of some of my friends where I have a major conflict of interest.  they are intitiled to thier opinion, and I simply don't have time to fight for my basic beliefs here in the cyber world. 

One of my good friends here is a teacher, and truthfully, I'm not that fond of teachers, I prefer to homeschool my children as much as I can for that reason.  Another good friend has a structured homeschool, and you know what, I don't believe in that form of education either.  So what do I do?  I UNSCHOOL..  It really doesn't matter though, I respect both women and their position in this world. 

I have christian friends and friends that arn't,  I have republican freinds and democrat friends.  I do NOT take offence when my morals and beliefs are questioned, and I do NOT impose my belief structure on you either.  Block a user because they challenge you?  I wouldn't do it.  Remove a friend because we are disagreeing about something, again, I wouldn't do it.  I don't read every blog that you post, especially if the topic doesn't interest me.  Or I might read every post just to see what kind of nonsense your up too. 

When I started this blog, it was at my son's request, so that I would be available for his huge network that needed a "mom"  so he would have someone to send them to when they needed some friendly advice.  that was the purpose of this blog for a couple years.  As I started making adult friends, I added a personal blog.  If you are unaware of that blog and are interested let me know.  Itis still much more private, although the blog posts are nearly alway public these days, (before thoses were always network only)  My other blog is adult only as well.  Why?  because I needed a seperate place where my kids and their friends were not the main focus.

Life has thrown me a curve or a million in the last 14 months.  I am not the same person that I was, nor will I ever return.  For that reason, I will continue to post provate blogs, because there are some of you that would be incredibly hurt by my feelings, others would be offended for those that are hurt, and quite honestly Mindsay, I need you, so I choose to not get into the middle of a huge brumble bath.  And while your thinking about leaving mindsay, think about those here that NEED you.  Sure you may have offended someone, and they may have offended you, but they are not the only people in you network.  Some of the rest of us need you to stay.