another political post

go ahead and click away if you want, it won't hurt my feelings, I just thought it fair to warn you.

Is anybody else just the least bit worried about how chummy Russia and Venezuela are lately? There is a Russian navel fleet off the coast of Venezuela right now, and Monday they are set to do exercises together. Yes, I realize that Venezuela is tiny, and yes I realize that Chavez is a crazy dictator. BUT, there are plenty of other countries out there that would back an invasion into the U.S.

Russia is huge and powerful. It's government does not like ours. It never has. You can't convince me that Russia and the U.S. have ever been friends. Venezuela is small, but it has a lot of money from oil, or so it claims, and is in a strategic position to attack us. There are a lot of people in the world who would like to see us weakened and there are some Russian politicians who have actually said this very thing out loud.

So that's a problem. There are too many people in our country who won't fight. Who will welcome a new regime. Some may argue that we just did that when we elected Obama.

So what's the solution? I would like to see stronger borders. There are too many holes in our national borders. Let's stop letting our sons, daughters, husbands, wives, fathers, and mothers be killed halfway around the world. Let's bring them back and secure our own home. We can't save the world, but we can save our fellow Americans. I have faith that The United States of America will not fall into ruin. There is so much that can be written about this subject, but if you're really still reading this post, I won't bore you further.

But who really cares about national security and sovereignty when you can get a genetic test to determine which sport your kid will be best at!

BTW all my GA peeps - it's snowing here and it won't stop till April. Let me know if you want me to ship some to you.

Thanks a lot Dr. Husband,

I'm sick now too. So I hope you're happy after all that coughing and what not.

Of course, if I had not stayed at a friend's house past midnight talking, and then stayed up till two talking to Dr. Husband, I probably would be feeling a lot better too. Oh yeah, I also got up this morning at 3:15 to go shopping with another friend. It was only a little crazy. We stood in line for almost an hour and then when the store opened, people who had been waiting in the warm cars stampeded the entrance. But we got what we came for. Did you read this story about a man being trampled to death and a woman suffering a miscarriage during a Black Friday sale? People were killed so shoppers could save a few bucks. Tell me how this celebrates the birth of Christ? I hope that Wii game is worth spending eternity in Hell...

On a (much) lighter note, we had a really great time at our 2 Thanksgiving celebrations. Thursday was spent enjoying 10 pies. There was other stuff too, but we went for the pies. We also planned out our Black Friday plan of battle. And I must say that the kids, all 14 of them, argued only a handful of times and dealt with the problems themselves. Today we went to another friend's house. Today I went for the turkey. Although your turkey was still the tastiest Big Jay. You're an awesome briner.

I'll do an "I'm thankful list" later. Right now the only thing I'm thankful for is Kleenex and hot tea.

convo on the ride home
me: Sassafras, one day you're going to be old.
Sassy: what?
Pickles: and then she'll like Pokemon?
me: yeah, all old guys like Pokemon
Sassy: I won't be a guy!
Pickles: I think you already have a mustache
Sassy: I don't have a mustache!
Pickles: There's a 5th grader at school who has a mustache, but everyone says it's chocolate milk
Bud: I have a mustache!

Big Brother is watching you...so stop picking your nose...I said stop!

go check this story out. I tend to lean toward conspiracy theories. I never let my baby out of my presence when I gave birth in the hospital. I don't give out personal info. I try to use cash as often as possible so there is less tracking of spending. And so on. I question others' motives for a lot of things. And this kind of story sort of supports my 1984 like theory about govt having WAY too much info on us. The govt plans on using us against each other to keep us in line. This will disguised as keeping us safe. It will, in actuality, be an even greater invasion into our private lives. What will you do to keep your family's information safe? How much do you post about yourself on your blog? on Facebook? On Myspace? How much do you give out to track your behavior? My uncle has a cell phone with GPS. What's to stop the company that provides the cell service, or the company that provides the GPS service, or the company that made the satellite used to track his location, from having a virtual trail of his activity?

What a minute! What about the criminals? Don't we want to know where they are? Shouldn't the govt know where the bad guys are? Who's going to keep us safe from them? each other? or ourselves? Oh my! Please rescue me Mr. Obama! I know it didn't start with him, but he's the current holder of the Office of the President Elect. WHAT?!? There is no such office? He created it to further his image? Well I never!


So go hide under the covers so the bad guys don't get you. Don't worry, Big Brother will take care of you forever...

OK. I'm usually pretty easy going. By that I mean I usually wait till you are gone to be annoyed with you. It makes the world a nicer place. I mean I truly can be around most people, even annoying ones, and be pretty diplomatic about it. Everyone deserves the benefit of the doubt. Maybe you had a bad day. Maybe you have a tummy ache. Maybe you're stupid. I don't know. But tapping your damn foot through an A&P lecture while you also talk to your neighbor, in a class of 8 people mind you, is obnoxious. Blood cell mating guy is also tapping foot guy. So the associate program I'm in is not a graduate program, I get that. But some of the people in my undergrad classes will be going on to the doctorate level. And I think doctors, and future doctors, should be at least a little considerate of other people around them. Of course, if you think blood cells mate, and you're 30, maybe you won't be making it through the program. I'm just sayin...

It also could have been the fact that Dr. Husband is still sick. Methinks it's times for a blessing for that guy, maybe like last week would have been good. Sassafras was sick all weekend too. So she went to school with me today. Nothing is more pleasurable than taking a sick elementary age kid with you to college. And when I say nothing, I really mean being in labor. Or having a cavity filled.

She wasn't really that naughty. She was just whiny cause she didn't feel good. She did make me proud to be her mom at one point though. There is a little lounge for the undergraduate students in the hall where my classes are. She was chillin in there while I had a class across the hall. There were a few students hanging around in there too. Halfway through my class she opens the door and comes over to me. I smile at the teacher and explain she's not feeling well while simultaneously giving Sassy the mom look. You know, the one where your head is tilted down ever so slightly and your eyebrows are raised. Daggers aren't shooting from your eyes yet, but they're in the forecast. She was definitely told to stay in that little room. "Mom", she whispers. "They were saying inappropriate things in there, so I left."

Wow. My kid realized she was not in a good situation and removed herself to go somewhere safe. To her mom. I must be doing something right. Later she asked me what FYI meant. She thought maybe it was initials for a bad-word phrase.

My name is Michelle, and I'm a hair dye-aholic.
"Hi, Michelle!"
I let my hair be its natural color for a year and a half. Previously, I hadn't let my hair be natural for over ten years. I never varied too much from my original color, but just the same, I dyed it. So the other night I couldn't stand the itch any longer. I bought some dye. I felt like going a little lighter (usually I go a little darker or a little redder), so I got Dark Golden Blonde. I sat there for the obligatory 25 minutes, eyes burning, anticipating how beautiful my hair would be. I rinsed it, combed it, and waited for it dry so I could really see how it would look. I was sitting at the computer while I waited. Sassafras came downstairs and said; "I thought you were going to dye your hair." I told her I did. James came in right after and asked the same thing. So apparently I spent $8 to dye my hair virtually the same color it already was.

I got a new calling at church today. I'm a Sunbeams teacher. That means I teach the kids who turn/turned 4 this year. It will be the class that Hamster is in starting in January. I actually team-teach with another lady at church. But she doesn't teach as often. She's missing something socially, so she doesn't really get sarcasm or other references that I might find hilarious. Honestly though, sarcasm doesn't have much of a place in a room full of 4-year olds. They are very sweet little people, as well as frighteningly bright. And the other teacher is very kind and has a strong testimony of the gospel. The kids love her and I'm sure I will learn to also. I'm also grateful I get to stay with the kids, because they have way less issues than the grown-ups. Ain't nothing you can't cure with a lollipop and a hug.

Do you have Christmas fever yet? I've had it since August. I pretty much orchestrate the entire Christmas ordeal round these parts. Dr. Husband puts in his suggestions, and then I go crazy finding everything. I like unique gits. I like to get them and I like to give them. Like really hard to find things. Like the denim boots with tiny pockets and zippers on the side I had to have when I was 8. Thanks Mom! So Santa is bringing magic wands for my kids for Christmas. I thought it would be pretty cool to get them ones with lights in the ends and maybe made sounds, but the more I thought about it, the more I wanted ones that actually looked real. So I went to etsy.com, a very cool site btw, and found them ones that are carved with leather on the hilts. Do wands have hilts? I bought them from a seller who really gets into character and had me halfway believing they really are magic. The kids will be thrilled. So now I just have to rationalize buying magic wands to celebrate the birth of Christ.

This is Harvey the kitten. Actually I just called him Harvey, cause he's two-faced...get it? get it? get it?

This is on several news sites, so I'm kind of serving you leftovers, but if you haven't seen it yet, then here ya go.


So the little poll that I was running is over now. I had 2 votes for politics, 3 votes for kids and family, and 5 votes for random stuff. Well, that's about what the content is of this blog already, although I haven't done any computations, so we'll just keep the format as is. I'm pretty new to the world of blogs. I've been reading them for years, but just started writing at the end of August. So I wasn't really sure where I'd be going with this blog, but I kind of like it so far. It's like a slice of my brain. Like a tiny slice of brain pie. I'm glad you all find it so delicious!

This is my 50th post. I'm not doing anything cool like telling you 50 things about myself - I'll save that for my 100th post or something. I'll tell you one cool thing though. One time I traded a pick-up truck full of fire wood for 2 big billy goats. I got the goats and got rid of firewood I didn't need. I didn't really need the goats either, but we used them to clear away underbrush. One of the goats had his horns and one didn't. The one with the horns looked really mean but he was actually the nicer one. I just think the bald one was jealous. He had horn envy. What happened to the goats you ask? I'll tell you later...

Well GrandDad is being moved to a rehab center today. GrandNorma is optomistic, and if she is, then we should be too.

James is almost done being sick.

I didn't have a migraine today.

So things are looking a little brighter today. Even though it's overcast and there is snow falling from the sky. But the kids will be excited. There are some really awesome hills near here that are great for sledding. And you can get pretty good sleds here even at Walmart. In GA, we usually just used garbage can lids or laundry baskets. The poor kids just used cardboard pieces. Or nothing. But the snow only lasts for a couple days down there, so you gotta take what you get.

Somebody asked me what the UC was for in ucmama. That's my blogger handle for all you unedumacated folks. It stands for unassisted childbirth. Dr. Husband delivered Bud at home with just the two of us there. And we did it on purpose. That's usually the next question. I have to say that it was a choice experience. There is nothing else like it. It was beautiful and magical and not in the least scary. That's usually the question after the on purpose question. Was it scary? I felt very prepared and we also lived less than 5 miles from 2 different hospitals, even though I was sure we weren't going to need them. I put a lot of prayer, thought, and preparation into giving birth at home. It takes a lot of acceptance of responsibilty to do it and it's not for very many people. But I wouldn't trade that experience for the anything. If you want to know anything else about it, like the technical details, feel free to email me. If you have something nasty to say about it, let me preempitvely say mind your own business. Actually, I would probaly say something much nastier...

I would like to tell Eve that I hope she feels better very soon. This is not a nice time of year to be sick and have two sick babies. But when you let your kids eat off the floor...
Don't worry, I won't tell anyone :)

Also, a shout out to Nobody for calling me and asking if I needed help with anything and then coming over and bringing Big J and cleaning for an hour straight. J is into cleaning supplies and he had the best stuff ever. He got juice, ink, dog pee, and verious other nastiness out of the carpet, as well as making my kitchen sparkly. That is so totally what I needed and you are very good friends - Thanks.

I especially appreciated having a clean kitchen because I had ten people in it last night making candles for an Achievement Girls activity last night. 7 girls from church, 3 moms, and 1 friend of Sassy's were gathered into my kitchen as I taught them how to pour and dip candles. It was a lot of fun and I'm glad it only lasted an hour. Any moms whose kid was here last night - your daughter behaved beautifully and everything was fine. I hope she had a good time.

So the goats...
We slaughtered one of them. Well, we had a friend do it. I was a little too squemish to do it. In hindsight, he may have been a little too jazzed about it. It was the hornless one. The meat was nasty. Our friend kept the rocky mountain oysters and gave us some of the other parts. I tried to hide it in stew, but we ended up just feeding it to the dogs. It's OK though, since I only paid some firewood for him. The horny goat was sold. I got $30 for him. Somebody in Carrollton cam and picked him up. Apparently it was goat-buying day for this guy, because he had a whole trailor full.

Ima go get an adjustment in a bit. Of the spinal variety rather than for my attitude. Having good friends and family has adjusted that pretty well I think.

I want to let my family know that I love them. I'm thinking about all of you. I pray for strength for my mom, my aunt, my uncle, and my GrandNorma. All of us grandkids/cousins are trying to keep in touch with each other and stay updated. We love you.

I'm pretty stressed. James was sick all weekend, so I was doing everything alone. I know that some women do everything alone all the time, but I don't. So it was kind of hard. It's also difficult not to get angry at James when he's sick. I know that's not nice, but I don't really get accused of being nice. It probably has a lot to do with the fact that when a wife is sick, she doesn't get to rest. She still has to take care of children, run errands, and do everything she has to do when she's not sick. Husbands, however, go to bed. And stay in bed till they feel better. They usually don't even have to get themselves water! Except for James. He has to get his own water.

Also, I had a migraine last night. When I get a migraine, it is a true one. With an aura that looks like colored pixels or crystals. And tingly toes. And extreme sensitivity to light and sound. And brain pounding pain that lasts for about 6-8 hours. I can't function when I have a migraine. I can't drive, I can't talk on the phone, I can't cook, I can't do anything but cry and/or throw up. So I took some migraine meds as soon as I started seeing the pixels. I don't usually do anything stronger than ibuprofin. James asked for robutussin when he was sick and we didn't even have any of that. But I will take anything I need to take not to have a migraine. The bad thing is though, that the meds make me very tired. So Boy Scouts was out. I laid on the couch and dozed while Sassafras yelled at, I mean watched, her brothers. The meds made the aura and pain go away. But I still felt pretty incoherent. And the day after is still pretty bad too.

So anyway, this post is so not funny. I'm terribly sorry and will try to remedy that problem in the future.

Oh wait! How bout this? I locked my keys in my locker at school today. With the key to the lock on my locker on the key ring. That was sitting in my purse. Inside my locker. So I went to campus security and asked for a coat hanger. Cause my mom taught me how to break into a house with a credit card, and my dad taught me to break into a car with a hanger. Anyway, I took the coat hanger and made a little hook at the end. Then, while James held his tiny blue LED to a hole in the side of the locker, I fished. I'm fishing for about 10 minutes and I can't see them in my purse. And I came to an awesome realization! I had put the keys in an odd pocket of my bookbag and I had had them all along... But should I ever need to get them out of a locked locker, I'm sure I'll be prepared :)

Apologies to my mother for making it sound like I come from a families of gypsies who taught all the kids to break and enter, pick pockets, etc. We are so not gypsies...

GrandDad is a little more stable today. Still not great, but small victories are good too. My aunt is down in Fl with him and my GrandNorma, giving him lots of love. I sent flowers today. They were mostly for GrandNorma, since GrandDad appreciates the thought, but I picked pink cause Norma's a pink kind of lady.

So, I kind of need to write/talk about a few things that don't have to do with anyone's health. Just to keep mentally healthy, I need to find some laughter.

The other day, in the lab at school, we were looking at blood cells under the microscope. One clueless guy in my class, who is planning on being a doctor, asked how the cells mated. Blood cells! The teacher said, "uhhh...they're blood cells". "Yeah, but how do they reproduce?", asked Clueless Guy.

Also this week, I bought 60 rolls of toilet paper, 30 rolls of paper towels, 500 Ziploc sandwich bags, 500 gallon size, and 500 quart size bags for $183.10 and that included shipping from Amazon. It was from an office supply store, so I bought it in bulk. Also, it was name brand, because good toilet paper is a luxury I refuse to compromise on. Just so you know, that toilet paper is a 2-month supply, the paper towels will last about 4.5 months, and the bags will last about a year. Woo-hoo for me! It was even cheaper than Sam's and I got it delivered to my house.

I'm helping a friend paint her house. In return, which is unnecessary because I would have helped her paint for free but this sweetens the deal, she's trading me a deep freezer. she picked good colors, so it's even enjoyable. It really is hard to paint things if the color is bad.

I am pretty to sensitive to color. Being an artist, that's understandable I guess. You wanna know something weird about me though? I'm synaesthetic. I can "see" certain sounds. Like a high-pitched shriek from a kid in the backseat of a car is is sort of greenish-yellow. Or a door slamming is black and white tiny checks. Or several other combos that make my life interesting. It usually needs to be an unexpected noise. It's not like the whole world turns a different color, I just sort of see it behind my eyes inside my brain. Like I'm not weird enough right? But I've read a few things on it, and I listened to a radio program about it as well. My version is pretty mild. Some people have extreme cases of color-number type of things going on. I think it has to do with connections in the brain that are open in infants that usually close in adults. In infants, all the senses act together. If that continued into adulthood, we would go crazy trying to interpret all the input. So we separate it. Well in some people, these pathway stay open. Like in me. Cool, huh?

Well, I think this post is long enough...

I'm feeling sad today.

My grandfather, who taught me (sometimes through my mother) to do things like mix up words to be silly. Or to make up stories. Or to make virtually everything funny. To be a member of the look-em-up club. All you had to do to be in the club was to always be curious and look things up if you didn't know them. Granddad, who calls himself the silverback (as in gorilla) of our family. Who started learning Spanish in his 70's. Who researched our genealogy back to the early 1600's. My granddad is sick.

My granddad is in the hospital and probably won't leave it. He's suffering from numerous ailments as he starts his 85th year. We're sort of preparing for the end of his life. And I'm feeling kind of raw about it. I don't like funerals. I especially don't like viewings, but the funerals are bad too. But I'll go, because I think my mom and my sisters will need me there.

We need each other in times of grief. We need to be sad with other people who understand how much we love each other. All of the nice things that people say and do are needed too, but only family and close friends know you well enough to not say anything at all. So from more than 800 miles away, I'm trying to be supportive of my family and deal with everything here as well as preparing myself emotionally.

But he's still here for now, and who knows what may be. Just say a little prayer for my family and especially my step-grandmother, my mom, my aunt, and my uncle.

Mud and Donkey jokes

It's that beautiful time that comes twice a year here, where everything is covered in mud. It's between the Oh, aren't the leaves pretty stage that lasts for an hour and Oh, isn't the snow pretty stage. The pretty snow stage lasts about 2 weeks. After that the snow is black and gets pushed into giant piles in grocery store parking lots, and it ain't so pretty anymore. So the mud arrives, blown in on great grey* clouds. The clouds hang around to make sure the humans are irritated sufficiently by the mud, then they move on to bigger and better mudholes like Chicago, or like the top halves of Indiana and Ohio. So while the clouds quietly smirk, every pair of shoes we own gets covered in a thick black mud that dries to a color not unlike the clouds. And the trees tend to look a little grey too. And the houses. And the grass that has died. And the leaves that were pretty. And the... what? you get it? Moving on then.

So I'm getting into the groove of school again. It's strange what 10 years of experience outside of college will do for a gal. 12 semester hours as an 18 year-old freshman used to do me in, but I'm taking 17 hours now and the hardest class I have is bookkeeping. That may be because I'm kind of that's good enough type person. A big idea rather than a detail person, if you will. Or even if you won't.

But I really like going to school now. The buildings are really old and so are a lot of the teachers, but the curriculum is interesting. I was going to test out of some of the classes, but I decided to stay in them. They're fun and it'll be good to brush up on a few things.

I gotta go feed the kiddos before an activity tonight, but I leave you with a joke that Bud made up.

How do you get a donkey on the roof? With a shoe.
Yeah, not really that funny, but he likes it.

*grey - I like this spelling better. The e looks flatter than the a in the American spelling and has more of a sense of the actual color. Sort of squashed...


And if you haven't voted about the content of this blog yet, do it now! Or don't, cause I'll just keep blogging about whatever I want anyway. Not that I don't value your opinion dear reader, or maybe I really don't value your opinion and I'm just being narcissistic! I'll guess you'll never know...unless I blog about. This is getting too ridiculous even for me - BYE!

I went to the mall the other day to pick out a pretty dress for a party I had to attend for Dr. Husband's school. This is not familiar territory for me so I made to sure to stop and get a mall field guide before I went in. I needed to know if there were any newly discovered creatures since I was a teenager. I was expecting the usual skanks and whathaveyou. This is the Midwest, so there were plenty of mullety types walking around too. I went too late to see the fit seniors powerwalking.


One species I totally should have been wary of was the kiosk skin care lady. When you visit the mall as infrequently as I do, you just forget that there's snake oil salespeople at every kiosk. So she did her thing and wasted my time for about 10 minutes. Then when she was trying to grab my wallet and push cleansers down my throat, I yelled "Look at that girl's skin over there!" She turned around and I pulled my arm away and sort of ran away. I was pretty proud of myself for outwitting the kiosk lady without having to chew my arm off.

What I wasn't expecting though, was the guy sitting at the manicure station next to me. I only get my nails done once or twice a year, so I kind of look forward to the experience. Apparently the guy next to me was really into it. He was finishing up as I was getting started. I don't have a problem with guys getting their nails did, because nasty craggy fingers are kind of gross. I wouldn't reccommend french tips to most guys though.

So anyway, this guy looked like a delivery person of some kind or other. Not that there's anything wrong with that. He's waiting for his clear polish to dry and he starts making faces at himself in the mirror that covers the wall behind the manicurists. Like cutesy faces. He wrinkled his nose up. And made coy little smiles to himself. And puckered his lips ever so slightly. Then he turned to the lady doing my nails and said "I feel so beautiful!"

There was nothing in the field guide covering that one.

So I'm not having such a great day today and I am taking kids to school and there's lots of yelling going on and there's just not a whole lot of love flying around like there is most mornings. It's one of those mornings where you just want to keep all your kids in bed with you and have all-day snuggle fest but if you really did that everyone would just end up crazy by the end of the day. I get the older kids off to school and I'm on the way to Hamster's school. I'm thinking about all the things I have to do, and all the ways things are not going according to my plans, and getting more than a little upset. And from the backseat comes the softest 2 yr-old voice singing I am a Child of God. I have to tell you I almost lost it. But since I didn't want to take Hamster into school and have the sweet sweet teachers there worry about why I was sobbing, I held it together. But it was really hard to do.

I think we get the kids we do for a reason. For our particular personalities and situations. My kids innately know just when to run up and give me a hug, or put their hand on my cheek, or sing a funny (or sweet) song. My heart would not be complete without them. Thank you Heavenly Father for the spirits you sent into my life.

I was homesick a while back and really missing GA and most especially my friends and family. But you know what? I have some really great friends here too. And some really great friends that have moved away from here and whom I miss very much. I still talk to them, but I can't just stop by their house or call and invite them to IHOP at 10PM. And other friends who don't write blogs (yet). And some who do but I'm not sure if they'd appreciate a link. Does that cover everyone? But they are awesome. Midwest is pretty good sometimes. I must say that the education here is better than in the South. I'm sure you can tell by my writing - HA! And the corn is so good, I have dreams about it.

I'm really glad we moved our family here. We have really grown together as our own little unit. We needed to be somewhere on our own, even though my mom misses her babies. I'm sure you understand, and if you don't there's something wrong with you. Well sorry, somebody had to tell you. Also, your zipper is down.

Anyway, just from the 2 votes so far on my little poll up there on the right, I know what you really stopped by for.

So here ya go. More hilariosity from out here in corn-ville.

On the way out the door, Pickles was supposed to grab his piano books. In the car I asked him if he had his books. "Yeah, I got my books, but I ain't got no talent!" So I told him to go back into the house to get it...

Bud said he wanted to be a robot when he grew up. And go to the moon. I told him he could be whatever he wanted to be, but that being a robot meant he would have to wear metal undies. He said he'd have to think about that.

And this is a story that happened a while ago, but some of y'all haven't heard it. We were riding home from school when Bud wailed from the back seat, "Moooooooooommmm! I keep NOT brushing my teeth and they're still there. I want the tooth fairy to come!"

We're teaching Hamster to count, he gets to 11 and then gets caught in the 8, 9, 10, 11, 8, 9, 10, 11 loop that frequently catches wee ones. So he started being funny and whenever I say 1, he says 4. And then 2, he says 4. And 3, he says 4. And on and on. And then he gets to where he's laughing so hard, he can't say it anymore. I love him and all his curly mop-top fluffiness!

I pledge allegience to the flag of the United States of America
And to the Republic, for which it stands
One nation, under God
Through liberty and justice for all
Amen

I think are some positive aspects of the results of the election. I think there are far too many negative blogs/news stories out there, and even a few of my posts have been kind of down. So here are a few of my thoughts on this historic occasion.

1. Black Americans can now feel like their vote matters. I think a lot of white Americans underestimate the amount of negative vibes, for lack of a better brain...er, word, that black folks feel sometimes. Lemme 'splain. Lots of white folks say, yeah, history sucked, but move forward and stop whining. Most white folks do NOT think the white "race" is superior to the black "race." That is my experience anyway, and unless you are new to my blog, you know I grew up in the South. There was a lot of prejudice from both sides down there, but not as much actual racism. I'm not gonna deny that there is racism in the South, from both sides, but it's more about assuming generalizations. K, so hopefully having a black pres will help everyone feel more connected as Americans and stop looking at things through race colored glasses. And as a bonus, maybe Jesse Jackson would be out of a job. I may be totally off on my presumptions about how black folks see it, but I think I may be on to something.

2. Next point. We will most likely NOT have a terrorist attack on our soil in the next 4 years. That is actually quite comforting to me, since I have lurved ones living in some big cities. And I don't want any Americans dying. I still get teary-eyed when I think about the Twin Towers coming down. I think with Obama being pres, other countries around the world will be more willng to hate us less. I have many other thoughts on this too, but this is a positive blog, remember?

3. I'm REALLY looking forward to exploration in alternative fueling options. I think our dependence on foreign oil is assinine. We are intelligent enough to come up with something else and now is the time. We have, relatively, endless amounts of free resources in wind and sun. Why the crap aren't we putting more research into that rather than subsidizing farmers to grow soil sapping, expensive, polluting corn ethanol. Obviously paying farmers to grow corn does not gaurantee votes, huh W?

I've got to run Sassafras to church, but I wanted to get some thoughts down. I've been kind of depressed today thinking about the issues that I'm not in favor of, i.e. national healthcare and I needed to do something to perk myself up. So this is what I came up with. Hope you likey.

I was sorely disappointed by the political atmosphere here in Iowa. It was overwhelmingly Democrat in nature, which in itself doesn't bother me. I've actually had some good conversations with Dems before, in fact a lot of my friends are Dem. and they were able to explain their convictions. Let me reiterate before we go on that I self-identify as a Libertarian/Constitutionalist.

As I was saying, my Dem friends are almost all highly intelligent thoughtful people who genuinely want to help others. And can support their decisions. What gets me, and there are far more Dems who think like this, is that so many vote Dem because they want handouts. There is someone who we have known since we started school here who voted Obama. For some reason she told my kids, and they said don't you realize that he wants to raise taxes? She said, yeah, but only for people who make more than 250K.

Hey You!!! You are in a doctorate program! How much money do you think you are going to make in your practice? And the people who think they are not going to have to pay for their own gas or mortages anymore. Sadly they are right. They probably will get they shit paid fo. I can write dialect like that, I got south of Atlanta cred.

So I decided I would vote for Brak. Not Barack. Brak.

<


I think if cartoon characters ran the world, things would probably make a lot more sense.

Sorry, this is all I got tonight. My first day of school kind of wiped me out. Congratulations to Mrs. Raz on her new baby. We love y'all!

I just sat through orientation for school today. For the latest associates degree I will be working on. It was pretty boring, what with all the reps for different organizations/associations, etc. We had to sit though a sexual harassment talk. Whew! I'm glad I listened though, because know I know grabbing the instructor's nuts is a BAD idea. But we did get free breakfast AND lunch! And a free pen that I have already lost. I'm going to be able to have a schedule that lets me get the kids to and from school. Which will be awesome except for Wednesdays when they get out an hour early. There will only be 5 other people in my program. This can be good and bad. More personal attention is usually good, but only having 5 different personalities may get a little old. I don't mean my own 5 personalities, I'm good with them....I just mean the others in the classes. Luckily I can test out of a couple classes. I may even be able to test out of 3 of the 7 classes. How great would that be?

Ok, a couple of kid funnies and then I have to go make dinner...
Hamster's favorite Thomas train is Percy. Only he doesn't say Percy, he says it like a 2 yr-old usually says it. So Pickles laughed "He said pussy! Isn't that so funny? I can't believe he said it that way - that's hilarious!" So while I'm trying to figure out which kid at school taught Pickles that word, he says "you know, like pussy cat!" Oh good, Pickles is still innocent. But we've got to get Hamster from shouting Percy at any store that carries Thomas products, because I'm getting strange looks from other parents. Good thing this happens to other parents too, right Nobody?
You don't mind if I link to you huh? Ok, cool. Also, the kids think it is outrageously funny to call each other blubber nuggets. Or to ask if those particular nuggets are for dinner.

BTW, Nobody is my newest friend here and she's awesome! Woo-hoo for Nobody! And she's watching my kids tomorrow because for some reason, my kids don't have school. But Dr. Husband ;P and I do. So don't beat them too much Nobody. And I don't usually leave them in closet for more than 2 hours for misbehaving. If anyone from DFCS is reading this, I'm kidding...
mostly...

at the church trunk-or-treat
with Sassafras handing out candy,
Hamster, Pickles, and Bud in the back

friendly anonymous trick-or-treater
in front




My o-blog-atory Halloween post

Bud was a care bear. He asked to be a ninja turtle, so since I'm such an awesome mom, I bought him one as soon as costumes went on sale. Like in August. So he could play dress up and get plenty of wear out of it. Then the dog chewed about an inch square out of the shell, and Bud wouldn't wear it anymore. It was ruined he said. Luckily, every year my wonderful mother and sisters patrol the after-Halloween costume sales for Christmas presents to fill our dress-up bucket. A couple years ago, Mom bought Bud a care-bear costume. It's blue, his flavorite, and has a little heart on the butt. It's also too small for Bud now. But it was in the dress-up bucket Thursday when we went trick-or-treating. And it was dirty, and Bud wouldn't wear anything else. Not the awesome leopard, not the skelly-bones, not even the moccasins and fleece tunic I made Pickles last year.

So I tried to get a good shot of the black socks (he wears black socks cause they're cool and easy to tell apart from Pickles' red socks) in the pictures. You can see the black socks because the care bear costume goes halfway to his knees. And halfway to his elbows. The legs are sort of pulled down in the pic. When he was walking, they would really ride up.

But he was happy. Which is good, because it annoys me when kids are crying in places they're supposed to be having fun. Just ask Pickles, who has had a melt-down at the zoo, the library, the movies, a hockey game, 2 aquriums, and any museum we have ever visited. We love him, bless his heart, he's just sensitive. So we were out with our care bear, our tiny ninja, our big ninja, and our kid who pulled whatever he could find from the dress-up bucket and called himself a wild thing. See, Pickles had a ninja costume too when we started, but could not, and still can't, find it.

BTW, Pickles wears red socks because when he asked for them, I looked everywhere for the stupid things. The only red socks that are sold for kids are athletic. Pickles wanted crew, like he was used to wearing. So I bought a bottle of Rit dye and boiled a pack of socks for an hour so they would be sure to be red and not pink.

While we were out trick-or-treating, a tiny Batman ran up to Bud and said "You're a care bear. I hate care bears," and ran off. So me, being a mama bear who totally had Bud's back, yelled "YEAH? WELL HE HAS MORE CANDY THAN YOU!" I wanted to push him down and steal his candy for totally dissing my cute little care bear, but his mama bear was standing there too, and you don't mess with corn-fed Midwestern women.

Also, this is how much I paid for gas yesterday. Too bad it was polluted with corn ethanol, but this IS Iowa.