A Wayward Blogger Returns

I've been gone awhile, haven't I? It's not that I've been deliberately laying low, it's more that I've been shamelessly lazy and have been using facebook to stay in touch. Facebook is so much easier than blogging (Hey, "friend" me! Look me up using this e-mail address: grannyskywalker@hotmail.com)! But, alas, facebooking, while easier, is not as in depth as a good old fashioned blog. :) So here I am again, back to blogging so that I can post a few pictures and talk about some personal issues that have really been bugging me. And no, I'm not talking politics. At least not this time. lol
First let's start with the pictures. In my last post I mentioned that I was going to meet a couple of blogging friends in person for the very first time. Randey had a business trip to Ohio and I tagged along, specifically to meet these wonderful people! This is Sue from Rabbit Run Cottage and her husband Bill. These are two of the nicest people on the planet! Sue is funny and charming and witty and stunningly beautiful! And Bill is her perfect match. Sue and I enjoyed a day of shopping and then she and Bill took Randey and I out for a dinner at The Cheesecake Factory (love The Cheesecake Factory!!).
Here's Sue and I, waiting patiently for our table.

On the left is Sue, another blogger who happens to be a friend of the other Sue (middle) and me, on the right. Sue and Sue were great fun together and made my day of shopping and lunching a true joy. Both of them are just so funny and great to be around.

And this is my friend Joan from Joan's Journeys. Joan is so very special to me. She's the one who first mentioned Weight Watchers to me so, for that alone, I feel like I owe her so much more than I could ever repay. But it's not just that. There's so much more and I really can't explain it. She's just...special. Period. I adore Joan and was thrilled beyond belief to get to meet her. :)
Here's some pictures of the beautiful scenery in Ohio, too. Look at these colors! Everywhere you looked, the colors were just exploding in all their Autumn glory!

I feel very fortunate to have gotten to go with Randey on this trip. Of course, it's only made me all the more eager to go on more trips with him. In fact, I'm hoping to go to Georgia in February to meet some more of my blogging friends! I'm very excited at the prospect.

Okay....that's all the fun stuff. Stop here if you're only looking for good cheer. This next part is a bit of a downer, if I do say so myself. I figure that most people have finished with reading this by now, though (who likes reading a long post anyway, right?) so basically, saying all this next stuff is almost like writing in a diary rather than blabbing my personal business all over the net. That's the attitude I'm taking anyway. (Yeah, I can be delusional like that when I need to be.)

Anywho, my issue starts with my relationship (or rather, lack thereof) with my mother. We've been estranged for years, although we did have a brief reconciliation a couple of years ago. Too bad it didn't last. :( I honestly don't know what I did to her that has made her unwilling to have a relationship with me, but she's darn sure reached that point. How does that happen? How does a mother decide she doesn't want anything to do with her own child? This all came to head a couple of months ago and it happened because of facebook (you'd of thought I would have sworn off facebook after this!) I noticed that my mother had started a facebook account and I sent her a "friend request". I know, it sounds stupid, but I thought it might be a way to start a dialogue with her. She didn't respond. Finally, after about three weeks, I rescinded that request and sent another one, this time with a message attached. That one she did respond to. She accepted my friend request but then sent me an e-mail saying that I had rejected her in the past and that she couldn't stand rejection again but that she would always love me and would just try to remember the good times. See, our most recent problem all started back in 2004 when I got into it with my sister and my mother decided to get involved with our argument. It had nothing to do with her and I will never, ever understand why she felt the need to take sides. How do you take sides when each side is one of your children anyway? Given the circumstances, I felt then, and I still feel today, that I didn't reject her, she rejected me. But whatever. The point was, I figured we'd never get passed it if we didn't talk about it. She asked me what she'd done and I told her a few things. Then I asked her what I had done to offend her. Next thing I know, she's sending me an e-mail telling me I need to look in the mirror, that I judge people and that I forget they have feelings. All true things. But I'm also willing to listen to another person's point of view. In fact, I thought that's what we were doing - sharing our feelings, getting things out in the open. Apparently, I was wrong. All I was doing was offending her again. She ended up wishing me "a happy life" and wishing me and mine "all the best in the future". She later sent me another e-mail, asking if I would consider meeting her at a neutral location to "either fix our relationship or know that it is over forever". Over forever? Really? How can a mother/child relationship be over forever? I've never killed anyone, I never slept with another woman's husband and I never committed treason against my country. So what the hell could I have possibly done to warrant my mother wanting nothing to do with me ever again? I declined that meeting with her. I kind of think that if she's okay with the prospect of never talking with me again, then her decision is probably already made. At any rate, all of that isn't the reason for my "downer" post. I've told this story to explain this next part. I found out recently that my daughter-in-law and my youngest granddaughter will be leaving Okinawa and returning to Florida in a couple of weeks and that my son will be joining them for Christmas (he won't officially leave Okinawa for several more months, though). They will be in the same area in Florida as my oldest granddaughter, as well as my in-laws and my sister and other family members, too. I was out shopping with my daughter Des last week when it occurred to me that we could go to Florida and spend Christmas with all of them! What a great idea! We haven't all been together for Christmas since 2003. What could be better? Des said she thought her boss would give her the time off and I knew Randey could get the time off so I called my sister to run the idea by her. Just as I was dialing the phone, though, it hit me. My mother would probably be going to my sister's for Christmas (she lives about 2 1/2 hours away from her). I asked my sister if that was the case and yes, indeed, it is. Not only my mother, but her sisters as well. In other words, there's no room at the inn for me and mine. Crushing blow, I don't mind telling you. No big family get together for us. I mean, really, my feelings were kind of hurt even though I know they shouldn't be. They had made their plans already so I wouldn't expect my sister to cancel their plans just to accommodate us. But it would have been so nice to have that big family Christmas one last time. The way the kids are all growing up, going their separate ways and all, this is probably the last year something like this could have worked out. But it just wasn't meant to be. Now here's the real downer portion of my post (at last, I've arrived at it!) I feel kind of like I'm on the outside looking in on this family sometimes. Not only will Christmas with them not be an option, but neither is anything else. My mom and my sister always spend Thanksgiving and Christmas together. Always. My sister is at my mom's right now, having spent Thanksgiving with her and gone shopping on Black Friday, etc., etc., etc. I'm not part of the group anymore. To be honest, most of the time, that doesn't bother me much. I'm so very bitter about my mother that I wouldn't spend time with her regardless. Something about being "disposable" in her eyes sort of takes away the drive to be close to her, you know what I mean? However, I do resent the fact that I will never matter enough to come first with any member of my family (not counting Randey and my children, of course). I know down to the very fiber of my being that I did nothing to deserve whatever it is my mother feels about me and I resent that her lunacy has cost me time with other members of my family. And I resent that those family members won't call her on it and, in fact, are okay that me and mine will get left out in the cold every single year during the holidays. There, I said it. I resent it like hell. And I really need to get over it. Because it's not going to change. These recent developments have taught me that much. But man, it really bugs me. I'm not sure what bugs me more, though. Not being able to fix whatever part of me there is that can't seem to get along with other people or being of so little importance to the people in my life that I'm easily dismissed and/or discarded by them. I want to matter. I just don't know how. I guess that's really the main part of this post. I don't know how to fix me. I don't know how to be the kind of person that matters and that is worth being with. And I sure as hell wish I did because life wouldn't be so confusing then.

Guess what? Guess what? Guess what?

Over the next week, I will be meeting two of the most wonderful bloggers in the world in real life! One of these women is someone who makes me laugh, makes me smile, makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside without even trying and the other one, literally, pointed me in a direction that totally changed my life. I can't begin to express how excited I am to meet these two. That's all I'll say for now. Hope to have pictures to post of these visits soon!
Enjoy Autumn, everyone!

Health Care Reform...Is what they're proposing really what we need?

I keep hearing about this "public option" and the "single payer health plan" and "universal health care" during the whole Health Care Reform debate. Being an ignorant housewife, I've found myself wondering; what exactly is the "public option" and the "single payer health plan" and "universal health care"? What do those words mean? Well, according to Wikipedia, they mean this:
A public health insurance option (public insurance option or public option for short) is a proposed health insurance plan that would be offered by the U.S. federal government. It is present in America's Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009 (H.R. 3200) as a Qualified Health Benefit Plan.

Universal health care is health care coverage for all eligible residents of a political region and often covers medical, dental and mental health care. Typically, costs are borne in the majority by government-funded programs.

Single-payer health care is a public service financing the delivery of near-universal or universal health care to a given population as defined by age, citizenship, residency, or any other demographic.
Single-payer health insurance collects all medical fees and then pays for all services through a single government (or government-related) source. In wealthy nations, this kind of publicly-managed health insurance is typically extended to all citizens and legal residents.
Australia's Medicare, Canada's Medicare, the United Kingdom's National Health Service, and Taiwan's National Health Insurance are examples of single-payer universal health care systems. Medicare in the United States is an example of a single-payer system for a specified, limited group of persons within a country.
Think about this for a minute. Obama and the liberal Senate and House are advocating a public option and, in some instances, have even come out to shill for this "single payer health care plan". You know, like the system we use for Medicare! - the very system Obama admits is so corrupt and poorly run that it enables millions of dollars in fraud, waste and abuse to slip thru the cracks every single year! Remember his address to Congress recently? Obama said fixing the broken parts of Medicare was how he planned to pay for the new health care plan. Yes, Obama has actually proposed to fix an obviously broken system while implementing an identical and yet even bigger system, all at the same time. Does that make sense to you? Let me put it to you this way...if you bought a house from a builder and found out that the plumbing leaked, the electrical work wasn't up to code, the woodwork was rife with termites and the foundation was cracked, would you make the decision to fix that house and, at the same time, hire that same builder to build you an even bigger house? No! You would figure out whether or not the first house was worth saving and, in order to do that, would go out and find a better, more knowledable and trustworthy builder to help you make that decision! (After first smacking around and/or suing the original bad builder first, I'm sure!) Then you would, hopefully, take the lessons learned from dealing with that bad builder and take pains to insure you didn't allow that sort of shoddy work to take place on your new house. The point is, you wouldn't logically think it'd be a good idea to throw good money after bad. After all, what's the definition of insanity? It's doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. It's time to tell your duly elected senate and congressional representatives to STOP THE INSANITY! I don't know about all of you, but I definitely would like to see the cost of health care in this country brought under control. But making bigger government is not the answer!

Go here to contact your senators and your congressional representatives. If you don't want this ridiculously inadequate and grossly misguided legislation to pass, let your voice be heard. Tell your elected officials that we need real health care reform and not just another program that will further bloat an already inefficient and incapable government system, particularly one that has already demonstrated such an amazing capacity for fraud, for waste and, most certainly, for abuse. DEMAND AN END TO THIS INSANITY. DEMAND REAL CHANGE! America can't afford the health care reform bills currently proposed by the liberal Democrats, America can't afford another huge growth in the size of our government and America can't afford to sit back and watch this happen without so much as opening our mouths to be heard.

First the U.S., Now the World! To Infinity and Beyond!

Is there no end to the Obama "love wave" that's been flooding the lands across the Great Pond? Good to know he's so beloved over there. They are his target audience, right? Right? I mean honestly! I found the announcement of Obama's latest accolade to be ridiculous in the extreme. Think about it. Giving Obama the Nobel Peace prize this soon into his presidency is like crowning the Dallas Cowboys National Champions at this point in their season. After all, the Cowboys have, just this year, moved into brand new digs that the whole world finds pretty impressive, they call themselves “America’s team” despite the fact that not all of America loves them (no word yet on if that makes those people racists or obstructionists), they’ve had big difficulties achieving their goals and have even suffered a couple of losses due to poor leadership and bad performance. But hey – there’s plenty of people out there that HOPE the ‘boys can CHANGE the path they’re on and pull a championship out of the hat so why not crown them now? After all, expression of HOPE and the promise of CHANGE are what really count, right? The decision by the NPP committee leads me to believe that this is the case. Can’t say I find that all that inspiring….

This woman is THIRD in line to the presidency. Am I the only one freaked out about this?

Like many in Washington (make that most in Washington) Nancy Pelosi is guided almost exclusively by the party line, which in her case, is the Democratic party line. Doesn't matter what she's talking about, doesn't matter the import or the consequences, I promise you ol' Nance will tout the Democratic dogma with her last gasping breath. Bet on it. This woman disturbs me on so many levels. Her single-minded determination to put party above country frightens me to my core. Most politicians irritate the hell out of me with their rhetoric and party line BS, but Nancy takes it to a whole new level. If she disturbs you, too, I'd like to hear about it. I get e-mails here and there from people who seem to enjoy my "political" posts, but hardly any actual comments on those posts. My husband tells me to keep writing them, though, because he knows I'm passionate about politics and this is a subject I spend a lot of time researching. We were talking about it tonight and I told him that I felt the political stuff was a big turn-off for those who read my blog and, if that was the case, it was a waste of time to post them. I mean, geez. If I just wanted to rant and rave, I can do that in the comfort of my living room chair and save myself some heavy typing, right? So if these posts are something you're interested in, please let me know. I'm equally as interested in your views, if you'd care to share them. I think we probably learn more from discourse than we do from agreement so I wouldn't at all mind hearing your opposing views. Of course, I also welcome hearing from like-minded people, too. It's always good to find out that you have things in common with others! At any rate, here's some of my favorite soundbites from Nancy Pelosi. I hope you'll take the time to listen to them (they're all fairly short) and let me know what you think!

For those of you who don't know, Van Jones was hired by the Obama White House as the "Green Czar" (a job title that sounds so wonderfully benign but truly isn't). Jones was an avowed Marxist and even declared himself a real live Communist back in the day. He also was a person who signed the "9-11 Truth" petition - a petition that claimed there was evidence that the United States government may have been either responsible for or knowingly complicit in the September 11 attacks. He's also positively famous for making racist comments such as this: "it’s just very, very hard for white people to hear the pain of the subjugated people in this country." Jones apparently values a so-called minority's pain much more than your average white guy's. Anywho, not only does Obama's Senior Advisor Valerie Jarrett think the world of Mr. Jones and his methods, so does Nancy Pelosi. Boggles the mind. (Jones resigned amid controversy on Labor Day weekend.)

Hear that people? She's got no problem raising taxes. Ever. Because that's just what we need, higher taxes. How else are we going to pay for the ginormous, bloated, inept and corrupt welfare state that our country is fast becoming?

It's just plain "un-American" to roust illegal immigrants. You know, I have no desire to make anyone suffer needlessly. Really I don't. But somebody really ought to clarify the word "illegal" to me because I am obviously misinterpreting it. I mean I read an article the other day about illegal immigrants buying houses here in America (with the help of that fine organization ACORN and our tax dollars!) so it must not be too illegal to be "illegal", right? And a town in Texas got itself in mega-hot water a couple of years ago when it passed a law making it illegal to rent a home to an illegal alien. And now law enforcement in the country has been forbidden to question a person to determine their immigration status. So what exactly does it mean to be "illegal" in this country? I'd ask Nancy, but she's too busy preaching to her base to take the time to answer me.

Wow. Once again, Nance is pointing out us "un-American" folk. And here I thought we were making her proud with our willingness to be "disruptors". Guess she's gotten grumpier in her older years, eh?

No pork, Nancy??? Really? What do you call some of these (keep scrolling. The best ones are on the bottom!):


$1 billion for Amtrak, which hasn’t earned a profit in four decades.


$2 billion to help subsidize child care.


$400 million for research into global warming.


$2.4 billion for projects to demonstrate how carbon greenhouse gas can be safely removed from the atmosphere.


$650 million for coupons to help consumers convert their TV sets from analog to digital, part of the digital TV conversion.


$600 million to buy a new fleet of cars for federal employees and government departments.


$75 million to fund programs to help people quit smoking.


$21 million to re-sod the National Mall, which suffered heavy use during the Inauguration.


$2.25 billion for national parks. This item has sparked calls for an investigation, because the chief lobbyist of the National Parks Association is the son of Rep. David R. Obey, D-Wisc. The $2,25 billion is about equal to the National Park Service’s entire annual budget. The Washington Times reports it is a threefold increase over what was originally proposed for parks in the stimulus bill. Obey is chairman of the House Appropriations Committee.


$335 million for treatment and prevention of sexually transmitted diseases.


$50 million for the National Endowment for the Arts.


$4.19 billion to stave off foreclosures via the Neighborhood Stabilization Program. The bill allows nonprofits to compete with cities and states for $3.44 billion of the money, which means a substantial amount of it will be captured by ACORN, the controversial activist group currently under federal investigation for vote fraud. Another $750 million would be exclusively reserved for nonprofits such as ACORN – meaning cities and states are barred from receiving that money. Sen. David Vitter, R-La., charges the money could appear to be a “payoff” for the partisan political activities community groups in the last election cycle.


$44 million to renovate the headquarters building of the Agriculture Department.


$800 million to clean up Superfund sites.


$32 billion for a "smart" electricity grid to minimize waste.


$87 billion of Medicaid funds, to aid states.


$53.4 billion for science facilities, high speed Internet, and miscellaneous energy and environmental programs.


$13 billion to repair and weatherize public housing, help the homeless, repair foreclosed homes.


$20 billion for quicker depreciation and write-offs for equipment.


$10.3 billion for tax credits to help families defray the cost of college tuition.


$20 billion over five years for an expanded food stamp program.

Most of those seem to be either "welfare programs" or "green programs". Yippee. Those'll help the economy...or, more likely, not. But this next list is the REAL pork. Check some of these out:

$1.8 million for “Swine Odor and Manure Management Research." (Yo, Researchers! Pig poop stinks. Period. Now send me my $1.8 okay? I got bills to pay)

$200,000 for "Tattoo Removal Violence Prevention Outreach Program" to get rid of gang tattoos. (And paying for tattoo removal is the government's job WHY???)

$75,000 for the "Totally Teen Zone" that encourages teenagers to play Wii and X-Box, listen to a DJ, and eat at a snack booth. (Wow. I had no idea I had started a government program here in my own house. I'm bitterly ashamed. No more X-Box or Wii for Randey and the boys!!)

$473,000 National Council of LaRaza. (This is a private, non-profit and non-partisan organization focused on reducing poverty and discrimination, and improving opportunities, for Hispanic Americans. Oh. Guess that makes it just another welfare program, basically.)

$400,000 "to combat bullying." (Let's see...tie the teacher's and administrator's hands to discipline a bully in school and then throw money at them to fix the problem instead. Classic welfare tactic.)

$50,000 for midnight basketball through the "At the Park After Dark" program in Los Angeles. (Really? Midnight Basketball?)

$5.8 Million for the "Ted Kennedy Institute for the Senate... for the planning and design of a building and an endowment." (Ah. Another monument to a politician. Now that's sure to kick start the economy!)

$1.762 Million for "Honey Bee lab" research. (I can't even imagine why anyone thought this was so worthy. Really.)

$215,000 for PhD’s to learn to write press releases. It funds a program at “Stony Brook University to teach scientists how to communicate with press." (I'm sorry, but if you have a PhD and can't figure out how to write a lousy press release, I don't think this program is going to help. I don't think anything will. Turn in your diploma and step to the back of the line, please.)

$1.5 Million for the scandal-ridden Alaska Sea Life Center to study seals. (Those wily seals...I'm sure they bear watching!)

$250,000 for Maine Lobster research. (Ummmm. Okay. Are they trying to determine Maine citizenship for these lobsters or what?)

$2 million for "the promotion of astronomy in Hawaii." (Well, hello! Star gazing is BIG over there. It's like "puff, puff, pass, Dude. Did you see that shooting star? Cowabunga, Dude!)

Senator Reid earmark to make “Nevada eligible for the Pacific Coastal Salmon Recovery Fund." (Must be all that Pacific shoreline there in Nevada, eh?)

$4.4 million for "Center for Grape Genetics" & "Center for Advanced Viticulture and Tree Crop Research" (It's important to know about grape DNA. Many a crime could be solved in we could only determine where that last glass of wine came from....)

$657,000 for "Brown Tree Snake Management in Guam" (Obviously a top notch program. Managing the tree snakes. Or is the brown snakes in trees? Or is it the trees that are called "brown tree snake"? Whatever. It's important. That's all you need to know.)

$480,000 for "Urban Horticulture" (Another one of them, thar green programs. It's the future of Amerika, I tell ya!)

$1.75 million for "Mammoth Springs National Fish Hatchery, complete visitor center." (It's not so much that we need to hatch some leetle fishes. No, no, no. We need to visit the leetle fishes and do so in relative comfort. Therefore, a complete visitor center is obviously in order here!)

Republican leaders say the stimulus package will add 32 new government programs at a cost of $136 billion. They object that many of the programs, once established, are likely to continue indefinitely (as most "social" programs tend to do). Media outlets are reporting the cost of the package at $819 billion. However, the Congressional Budget Office calculated that the interest on the debt generated by the bill’s spending will cost another $347.1 billion, making the total cost approximately $1.17 trillion. Thank goodness Nancy held off on padding this package with pork, eh?

I Love the Colors of Autumn....

I decorated my house for fall weeks ago, but have been a little lax in getting pictures posted to my blog. I'm a slug, want can I say. Anywho, first let me show you this wonderful purse my sister made for me. I ADORE this purse. I love the colors and I especially love all the pockets she sewed into the interior (all around the insides - WAY COOL AND CONVENIENT!!) and the pockets she put on the outside that are perfect for holding my cell phone, my gum and all those other little things that I like having within easy reach. (The ghost is a lapel pin I've had for about a decade.) Now if I could just convince her to make me a Christmas purse just like this. lol And then maybe a "spring" purse and, of course, a "summer" purse.....Now here's our Halloween Witch tree. I like this little thing. It makes me smile when I see it. The first thing I do in the mornings is get my coffee and turn on the tree. Great way to start the day.

This is the dining room. (The fact that it's a picture of the dining room table probably gave that away, though, huh?)

Here's a closer picture of the table and you can see my laptop there in the background. This is where I do all my research into things like the Health Care Reform bill (Lord, don't get me started on that!), the War on Terror (I don't care what Obama's peeps call it, it's still the War on Terror to me) and various other issues that pique my interest.

This is our living room, where I do most of my reading. I'm surprised there's not a big ol' butt print in the one chair - I spend so much time in it that it's practically molded to my body.

This is the fireplace - this is the sort of picture you get when you're looking into the sunlight. Duh.

These are the pumpkins in the entry way.

This is the dining room centerpiece (some of you might recognize it from Hobby Lobby!). I bought those cast iron monkeys at an antique store somewhere around Ft. Worth for $10 last month. I had set them on the table when I was unpacking them and decided I liked the way they looked with the settings.

And here's a close-up of a place setting. Not very elaborate, I know, but I like it.

Okay, there it is. Our household draped in its fall glory. I'm already thinking about the Christmas decorations. I'll probably start on them before Halloween is even over with. I can't seem to help myself. I made the mistake of watching a Christmas movie earlier this week and now that's all I can think of. lol

The Trifecta of Disgust: Polanski, the Media and Hollywood Idiocy

These next two clips are from around 1987. Diane Sawyer, for those of you who don't know, actually claims to be a real, live "journalist". Give a listen to these clips and let me know what journalistic skills she demonstrates here:


Go ahead and say it...the word that comes to mind when you think about the Great Diane's Interviewing Skills is "sycophant". ABC World News is going to be so much more factual with her at the helm, you can just tell, huh?
Now check out Whoopi Goldberg's words of wisdom regarding Polanski's crime.

The irony here is that Whoopi calls herself a humanitarian and an child advocate. Yeah. I'm not sure how you can advocate for children and still think a man can have consensual sex with a 13 year old. Those positions would seem to be diametrically opposed. But that's just me, with my uptight, judgmental thinking, I'm sure. I'm simply far too narrow minded and downright provincial to understand the highbrow workings of the media and/or Hollywood "artists".

(And people wonder why I'm so fed up with liberalism....)

By the way, if you'd like to read the transcript of Polanski's victim testimony, go here.

I am a racist...

at least according to the likes of Jimmy Carter, Janeane Garofola and Vanessa Williams. Why are they calling me a racist? Because I attended a Tea Party Express rally. Yeah. I went to a rally to demonstrate my disagreement with the direction our country is heading, therefore I am a racist. Who knew? And here I thought I was simply being an involved citizen. Goes to show you just how misguided and ignorant I am, eh? Oh wait a minute…just because Carter and his ilk have declared something as fact most assuredly does not make it so. I think I understand my motives better than they do and I’m pretty darn sure…nay, make that completely positive, that my reason for attending the rally had absolutely nothing to do with race and everything to do with disagreement with many of our political leaders. I’m an American. Voicing my opinion is my right. It’s also their right to tell me they disagree. I’m okay with that. But I’m not okay with them attaching scurrilous labels to my reputation based on nothing more than their unfounded beliefs. Calling me a racist because I went to a Tea Party Express rally is as ridiculous as calling Nancy Pelosi a conservative because she favors matching pantsuits over tie-dyed hemp t-shirts. The propensity of those on the far left to wrap themselves so quickly and tightly in the cold embrace of racism is foolhardy at best and downright manipulative at worst.
At any rate, as I previously said, my reasons for attending the rally were because I heartily disagree with the direction our country is heading. Our leaders are scaring the t-total hell out of me with their cavalier disregard for what is supposed to be an open, honest and well thought-out process. I’m referring to the development of laws in this country. Our lawmakers are, at this very moment, discussing the passage of a major, life altering bill that none of them even intend to read. Seriously. How can I say that? This is how: (please listen to this 36 second video. It will astound you !)

By the way, John Conyers is the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. That committee is charged with overseeing the administration of justice within the federal courts, administrative agencies and Federal law enforcement entities. Additionally, John Conyers is a lawyer himself. The fact that he talks about not reading these bills before voting on them is scandalous. The fact that his attitude is more the rule than the exception is even more so. These people are supposed to be the ones writing our bills and here they are telling us that not only do they not write them, they don’t even read them. That, ladies and gentlemen, is one of the many, many reasons why I attended a Tea Party Express rally. I am disgusted with our leadership and their lack of accountability. Even more so, I am disgusted with us, the citizens of these United States, for tolerating it. Stand up, America! Do your job as a citizen of our country and demand our leaders do their jobs. I don’t care if you’re on the left, the right or smack dab in the middle; whether you are a democrat or a republican or a libertarian or an independent or anything else, for that matter . Blind allegiance and apathy are poor substitutes for freedom and knowledge. Whether or not we agree on certain issues is moot unless and until we all come to the table with full knowledge of those issues. We have elected certain members of our population to represent our views and opinions in our federal government and those people are letting us down! Not only are they letting us down, they’re doing it with casual contempt, as if we are the fools for expecting so much from them! When they start saying that the very bills they’re passing are too complicated for even them, the people who are supposed to be writing those bills, to understand then we have indeed reached critical mass. It’s time to put a stop to this. Stop hiding behind your cynicism, stop turning a blind eye to the obvious lethargy and partisanship of our representatives and stop pretending that your voice doesn’t count. Our country is all about We the people; let’s stand together to make those words mean something again.

A TEA Party Rally and a Correction to a Previous Statement

I must correct something I said in my most recent post regarding Obama's proposed speech to our school-age children. In that post, I stated this: "Never in the history of our country has the President of the United States specifically addressed our school children through our public school system. Never. Ever. Has it happened. Until now." That was wrong. George H.W. Bush addressed school age children back in 1991 and Ronald Reagan did it in 1988. But here's the difference: neither HW Bush nor Reagan had the Department of Education compile a list of "activities" to accompany those speeches. Activities that included such gems as "how can I help the president?". I don't think that's the best civics lesson to be giving our children. I believe that the president is a public servant (I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong on that). I think he's supposed to serve and help us, not the other way around. I further believe that our children should be taught to support our country - not the person who holds the office of president of our country. The fact that Obama and the Department of Education outlined and distributed these "activities" lists makes his speech an actual lesson plan and I firmly, vehemently and most vocally object to our federal government dictating lesson plans to our children, particularly in this manner. I will say again, I misspoke in my last post (oh who am I kidding? I was downright WRONG!) and I am embarrassed to have to admit that. I detest inaccuracy in "reporting" - any reporting. I hope not to do that again. However, I stand by my protest of this speech. I think it's inappropriate. Period. And truth be told, I think the speech Reagan gave was inappropriate, too. It contained political opinions and views that had no business being touted in a public school classroom. I'm less offended by HW Bush's speech because it was an actual challenge and/or plea to children to stay in school. That's not to say I'm not at all offended by the speech. I am. Again, I don't think politicians have any business in the "teaching" arena. That's more the role of parents and the role of our local and state education offices.

Now that I've stated my mea culpa, let me move on. (Please! I so hate having to admit to a mistake! lol). I attended a TEA Party Rally in Dallas yesterday. Here are a few images from the rally:

The rally itself was fairly interesting. I've never gone to one before. I think there was some unnecessary far-right rhetoric spouted off here and there, but for the most part, I agreed with what was being said. I am against big government, period. I don't think the government should be so involved in our lives - certainly not to the extent most democrats seem to want it to be. I don't believe in bailouts, handouts, free money, affirmative action and/or press 1 for English. I do believe in personal responsibility, earning your way through life, paying your dues, teaching your children core values, communities helping citizens through local organizations...you know, the things that people do for themselves and each other without government programs dictating and paying the way. I don't agree with everything that was said at the rally...I think the treatment of gays by the right is appalling and downright stupid. But then again, I'm of the school of thought that you're born gay and not that you choose to be gay. I'm also not real big on the death penalty, although I have a big hole in my logic with that one because I do indeed think pedophiles and child murderers should be put down like rabid dogs. At any rate, my personal laundry list of beliefs aside, I'm glad I attended the rally and I'm glad I let myself be counted among the growing list of people across America who are fighting against this massive growth of our federal government. It's something I feel strongly about. How about you? How do you feel? And why?

Obama Plans to Talk to My Child...

***This is the response I received from my son's school superintendent regarding this issue. I must say, I'm relieved.
"The ***** (school district name redacted) ISD will not be showing the address on the 8th. Our technology will not allow for the video-streaming. We are going to put the address on the *ISD website so that parents can show their children the address if they would like. Please let us know if you have further questions."
Okay. Enough's enough. Have any of you heard about Obama's proposed "address" to all public school children that is to take place September 8th? Anyone? Probably not. Why? Because it's not been talked about much. The media has suddenly become deaf and dumb when it comes to one of Obama's little speeches. Usually, they're waiting around with bated breath...all aflutter of what the "Great One" will mutter next. Now, when he plans to address school children all across America, from grades K thru 12, the media doesn't seem to find it newsworthy. I checked CNN, FOX News, MSNBC, CBS, Google News, Yahoo News, The New York Times, USA Today, The Drudge Report and The Huffington Post. Only 2 of those news sources mentioned this story. Only 2! Want to guess which two? Yep, that's right...FOX News and The Drudge Report. Why is that? Does the rest of the media really expect us to believe that the President of the United States giving an official address to each and every public school child in grades K thru 12th is not newsworthy? Pul-leazz! These are the same people who think the style of shorts Michelle Obama wears is actually a headline event! Of course this speech is newsworthy! It's never happened before! Yes, you read that right. Never in the history of our country has the President of the United States specifically addressed our school children through our public school system. Never. Ever. Has it happened. Until now. So I ask you again...why isn't every news outlet featuring a story on this? I'd truly love to know the answer to that question.
Now, as to the speech itself, I've got a few questions regarding it, too. Questions such as; What is the point? What does Obama hope to accomplish? Why has Obama scheduled this speech to my children without my express permission? What exactly does this speech entail? Is an advance copy available? Is every school forced to air this speech, whether it wants to or not? Are students going to be given the option of not listening to it? Are parents going to be given the option of denying their child permission to listen to it? My understanding is that this speech is supposed to be a message from Obama to our children regarding "personal responsibility". I don't know about the rest of you, but I am fairly choking on the irony of a politician, any politician, talking to my kids about "personal responsibility". I think Obama's time would be better spent talking to himself and his fellow politicians on this particular subject. I think they need this speech more than my kid does.
I've written a letter to the superintendent of my son's school district asking these aforementioned questions. I eagerly await her reply. I'm extremely upset over this proposed speech because I simply think it smacks more of "indoctrination" than education. This politician has no business putting forth his ideas and plans to our children. He should put those ideas and plans forth to us, their parents. Unless, of course, the government has decided to take over the role of parenting. Hmmm. Maybe that's the whole point, eh? Go here to read the letter from the Secretary of Education to all schools in the United States.

My Week in Review...

It's been another one of those weeks. It started off with a money issue...something my youngest son needed ended up costing twice as much as predicted. Great. Like money grows on trees around here, right? Then it went on to a dental appointment that was a lot more involved than I originally thought it would be. I knew I was getting an extraction, but I didn't know that the dentist was going to do the prep work for a bridge ($1300 and much-o pain-o later, I figured out that this was no simple tooth extraction). Sorta made that first money issue seem like small potatoes by comparison. lol Then I found out that a wonderful blogging friend has breast cancer. Words can't even begin to touch that one. Shock and dismay are too mild of words to describe my feelings. That was followed up by another sad moment with my daughter. Her husband's headstone was finally set yesterday and she didn't want to go out there alone to see it. I'm afraid I was a little out of it from the dentist visit so couldn't go with her yesterday but we made it out there today. My heart felt like it weighed about a million pounds when I viewed it with her. It's a beautiful marker, but all I could think of when I looked at it was "he's too young to be here, he's too young to be here". Watching her wipe away the tears she didn't even realize she was shedding was heartbreaking. Next week she and I will work on making a floral arrangement to put on the marker. I want to make it, but I'm dreading that sadness.
Anyway... tomorrow morning I have to drive up to Oklahoma City to be with my dad who is having a stent put in for his heart. He wasn't having any symptoms of anything, but they thought they found a blockage during an MRI. After doing an arteriogram, they discovered that there wasn't a blockage where they'd thought there was, but that he had a problem with the left side of his heart. Hopefully, this procedure tomorrow will fix that. I sure hope so. We're all counting on it.
I hope next week goes a little more smoothly than this one did. I know I vowed to look for the positive side of things, but man...weeks like this make that sort of thing a real challenge, you know it?

Happy Birthday, Nick!!!!

Today is my oldest son Nick's 29th birthday. Can't believe that so much time has flown by since he was a tiny, little baby. Here's a recent picture of Nick taken by his wife Jodie in Okinawa. He's such a handsome boy man, isn't he? (And I can say that with all confidence that I'm not just prejudiced because I'm his mom. lol) Here he is at Christmas, teaching his younger brother Kaleb that he can still whoop him.

And here he is, holding his youngest daughter Kara. (Nick's a great daddy, too. Always involved, always hand-on.)

And here's a picture I took off of Jodie's snapfish.com account. This is actually a fairly common look for Nick. lol It's his "I'm the James Bond kind of cool" look.

Happy birthday, son. I can't tell you how proud I am of you, or how much you mean to me. There were plenty of times when you were growing up when I knew I hadn't a clue as to how to be a parent, but you were a tough kid and managed to turn out all right in spite of it. :) You are everything I ever could have asked for...you have a strong moral code, you show tremendous courage every day in your job, you demonstrate great compassion for your fellow man (your brothers have taken note of that and it's left a huge impression on them!), you have deep feelings and a ready smile. And a really smart mouth. All qualities I appreciate. I'm counting the months and weeks until you, Jodie and Kara return to the states and we can all see you. Can't wait to torture you with regular visits, once you're within driving distance again. lol

I know you're TDY right now so I can't talk to you to wish you a happy birthday voice to voice, but I hope you have a good one. Know how much you mean to all of us back home and call me as soon as you can. I love you, son. Love you, love you, love you.

Mom

If it weren't for bad luck...

My good friend, Lynne, from over at Lynne's Little Corner of the World recommended a series of books on her blog. They are called Royal Spyness and are written by one Rhys Bowen. As some of you know, I prefer to read books in hardcover rather than paperback and I prefer even more to buy those hardcovers on the "bargain" rack. I proceeded to search for at least the first book in that series somewhere, anywhere, at a discount price. No go. I looked in bookstores here in Texas and waaaaay over in Florida. Not happenin'. But. I did manage to find another book by this author. It's called Evanly Bodies and, up thru page 84, it was an excellent read. So what happened on page 85 to "lessen" my reading pleasure? Hard to say. Since there was no page 85. Yeah. Pages 85 through 116 were missing. Not torn out, not purposefully removed in any way...just missing. Bummer.'Course, I only paid $2.95 for the book so it wasn't a crushing loss, money wise. Still, it was a good story and I would like to have finished it! Back to the hunt...I've now expanded that hunt to include just about anything written by Rhys Bowen. I found another book from the Evan series, called Evan Blessed, yesterday at Half Price Books in Ft. Worth. I eagerly snapped it up, doled out my cash and brought it home...after first checking to make sure all the pages were there. lol Thanks for the recommendation, Lynne. I truly do enjoy this author's style (kind of reminds me of Dick Francis) and can't wait to read everything she's written! (You hear that publishers? I mean everything. No more removing of the pages, eh?)

Stupid Is as Stupid Does

Have you ever done something so dumb you amaze yourself? It actually happens to me more often than I care to admit. The other day, I proved yet once more just how big of a doofus I can be when given the right circumstances. It was the day we left for Florida. I was up at 5:00 a.m., getting ready, finishing up the packing (which Randey was totally rushing me through!), trying to do something with my hair so I didn't look like a raving lunatic all day, busy, busy, busy, busy, busy. Right before I went to slap some make-up on, I decided to change out my contacts. I use the extended wear kind and, quite frankly, I knew I'd left this last pair in too long. I did the left eye first (I'm a lefty. That's how I roll.) No problem. Wrestled with the new contact packaging for my right eye (don't know why it gave me such problems but I blame it for the temporary loss of sanity that ensued). I popped that right contact in and wham! the room started tilting a bit. Oh my gosh!!! I did leave that other set in too long! I was now legally blind in my right eye. I probably blew a retina or something. Maybe was even suffering from the dreaded Eyeball Expulsion Syndrome at that very moment! Oh the panic. How would I function? Would Randey start dressing me funny now that I couldn't see properly? What about my children? My grandchildren?? I'd never see them grow up! And the pain!! Heaven help me, but the pain was....wait a minute. There was no pain. There was nothing really. What the heck? Why was my vision so screwy in my right eye and why wasn't I laid out with the sheer agony of losing my eyesight? Because, Kari, you big dork. You forgot to take your old contact out before you put your new one in. **Sigh** The saddest part was, it's not like it's the first time I've ever done it. I just hadn't done it in awhile so it sort of took me by surprise. Really brought out the hypochondriac in me, too. Geez. Okay, so I calmed down and tried to remove the contacts. No go. Those puppies were stuck together like glue. I tried for what felt like forever before I finally had to go get Randey and admit what I had done. He had the nerve to laugh. A bit. I, of course, immediately let him know the seriousness of the matter and how insensitive and rude he was to not recognize that. In other words, I was an ass about it. It took a bit of wrangling, but with him shining a flashlight directly in my eye and me practically pressing my eyeball onto the bathroom mirror, we finally got the contacts out. Threw the old one away, put the new one back in and viola', I could see, I could see! Yeah. Like I said...stupid is as stupid does. And that day, I exceeded my stupid limit by leaps and bounds.

What a difference a year makes...

This is me, in August of 2008. I'd lost about 20 something pounds by this point.

And here I am today, after losing slightly over 65 pounds. I'm looking a little older maybe, but not quite as "hefty". lol Love that Weight Watchers!!