Another Brick In The Wall

So let me review my ramblings, rants and raves today, let me start with the news.

Definitely not a rave, because this article just saddens me. It sounds as if an argument escalated into someone’s death. What happened to agreeing to disagree? When did we decide that everyone should be justified? And when did people decide that guns would solve problems?

South Carolina Mall Shooting Leaves 1 Dead, 1 Injured

Should we talk about more bad behavior? The following is another article for my rants column on this post. This woman exercises bad behavior on a flight, it appears other people place the blame on alcohol as she was drinking heavily prior to the flight. Personally drinking or not bad behavior belongs to the person that has no manors. This is world with an ever increasing population, with that manors should be playing a larger role in society not less as they appear to be. Isn’t it sad that someone would be restrained with duct tape on a flight because their behavior was so nasty?

Flight Diverted After Crew Restrains Unruly Passenger With Tape

This article is a rant and a rave all rolled into one! A gentleman in Missouri has been found guilty of hitting a construction worker with his car through a construction zone. It appears that the jury suggested 7 years for this drunken driver, too short if you want my opinion. I find this article a rave because YES he is going to prison for killing someone, but a rant because 7 years does not equal the life he took. I believe that he should get more time in prison, this guy was drunk when he decided – chose to get behind the wheel of a car – did the young college student get any choices? This should fall under a manslaughter charge smacked with at least 15 years.

Missouri Driver Convicted of Hitting and Killing Construction Worker With Car

The next article is more about judges that over-turn juries because they think the juries didn’t understand. I am really getting annoyed with these judges. Juries are people that have given their time for a duty for their country, they listen to all the information to make a decision in a case – and in cases like this for what? The smacks of a judge that feels the average person is too stupid to understand the decision they made about the law. I personally think too many judges are over stepping their boundary of presiding over cases, they are wanting to be the jury too.

Florida Judge Tosses Weapons Verdict in ‘Joe Cool’ Boat Slayings

What can I say about the next article? This is another teen who thought that he had some sort of rights in his mother’s home, that he became so enraged to stab her is vile. I blame the media, the left wing conservatives, and of course many parents for the problems with our teens these days. I remember when mine were young that other adults wanted to call the kids little people, like they were mini-adults with choices and decisions. I always corrected people, these are children, not little adults, they should be taught respect to other adults, to their parents, teachers, etc. There is a time for an opinion and a time to just get over yourself and deal with the situation.

Police: Idaho Teen Stabbed Mother Over MySpace Dispute

This article is just plain funny This guy steals women’s panties, he did have some assistance from a female accomplice. So what did they plan to do with all those panties? Did they have big plans to resale these and make money? Maybe the panties were for the female accomplice, his idea of getting her something sexy. In the end it is still theft which is just morally wrong – no matter what is being stolen.

Man Steals More Than 130 Panties From Dallas Victoria’s Secret

This article is from a nearby local paper. This 22 year old kid is getting the book slammed at him for manufacturing meth, the system has added another 8 years on top of his already 15 year sentence. Some real quick math shows that this guy gets 23 years for manufacturing meth – but go back to my article on the Missouri driver that killed the 22 year old college student. The guy that killed the construction worker / college kid gets 7 years and this guy gets 23 years without killing anyone directly? Hmm I am confused on the sentencing for drugs versus a person’s life. Don’t get me wrong the guy deserves prison, but the other guy that killed someone deserves a sentence more fitting the crime.

Towell sentenced to eight additional years in prison on drug charges

On a political note I was glad the election phase was over so I’d quit hearing all the bull passed around. Alas though now the Obama has been elected the bull keeps on coming across the news. The Indy Star wants to talk about how Obama won, and how he won the State of Indiana. Mostly he won the State of Indiana because we have plenty of not-so-brights living in this state. I seen my home state of Kansas was red, see those with real moral values live in the central plains states. I have seen more claims by the media that Obama brought out the black voters because they were tired of Bush. Personally I think that is lots of crap! The black voter came out because there was a black man running for office. I think this election was more about setting a piece of history than it was about the facts and where Obama stood. I still think it is ironic that Obama is only half-black with a strong white family raising him (remember his black father left the family when he was at a young age) that everyone is totting him as the great black man. I truly think the black voters will be disappointed with Obama in a few years as his white up-bringing shines through. I also thought is was interesting in another article I read that Obama is not truly the first black man in office. We have had several that were part black, with black heritage and/or linage similar to Obama’s. It appears simply that these men passed themselves as white same as Obama passing himself as black – because they looked the part. I seriously worry about where Obama will take us in the next 4 years.

Why Indiana turned blue

Then I can’t let the Prop 8 issue drop, after all the homosexual community can’t take the voted failure they received. This is another reason I am sick of the homosexual community, they lost in a popular vote, the state constitution will state that a marriage is between a man and a woman, period. The homosexual community has already started filing all their legal bull trying to get this religious item (marriage was created from the religious sector) changed to fit their needs, trying to force a religious item to go against the religious principles. Maybe the homosexual community should be more creative and come up with their own type of union, having the drive add that to the choices instead forcing others to change their choice. The homosexual are claiming this is a civil rights issue – sorry don’t see it. Homosexual have made a choice in how they chose to live how does this follow any civil right? What about my rights? The right not to have their crap taught in my schools, to my kids? If I can’t talk about the birth of Christ in school then why does this left wing radical group get books about the King & the King read in schools? They talk about letting the children learn and decide, but it is a one sided teaching now.

Proposition 8 foes rush to file papers with court

Today I have said more than enough, and appears to be rants than raves in the news today. My raves today – I’m enjoying some Billy Joel on the computer, listening to his music that has followed me for many years. My youngest daughter is home sick today, I need to call the doctor because it appears she has strep throat. My darling hubby is still on vacation today, so besides sleeping (did another night with the Sheriff’s dept last night), we get some more family time with him. Actually since my darling is a telecommuter working from home every day we get more of his smiling face than other families probably do of their husband/dad. It is amazing that after 10 years of marriage I still love spending time with him, and since I don’t work I spend an extraordinary amount of time with him, day in and day out 24/7. He is still my best friend, and I never tire of talking to him. Remember the good things in life, and love always. Heck I still love my two older daughters, I simply don’t understand where they are in their lives right now. As their mother all I can do is pray for God to watch over them, to guide them back, and for the angels to keep them safe as they journey through these lessons of life. I heard this song the other day that so reminded me of my daughters. So listen, enjoy, and blessing until next time!

If you read my post about my life in 1962 then you’ve read that my family started with my teenage parents. My mom had turned 17 just two days before I was born, my dad at the time was 19; mom still had to finish her senior year in high school after the summer of my birth, my dad had graduated in May of 1962. As young kids still figuring out life they lived with my grandparents when I was born, that would be my dad’s parents. I could explain that initially my mom didn’t have intentions on marry my father nor on raising me. My mother was a straight A student, a National Honor Society student, supposedly with a scholarship to college. Do I believe she loved my father? I do believe she loved with the mindset of a 16 year old child, not that of an adult. She was idealistic as to who she was really marrying, and what was to truly be expected.

My father was another story.  This man originally had no intentions of marrying my mother, my mother was one a his girl friends, not the only girl friend. My father was what my kids call ‘a player’. He was a player to the extent that he actually had more than one class ring. In those days the having of a guy’s class ring meant the permanency of going study, that step before engagement. With that concept you would believe would be monogamy but not for my father, he saw it as opportunity. If a girl thought you cared enough to give her your class ring than he could probably get them to put out. Obviously it worked with my mother or I wouldn’t be here, concieved in the back of my grandfather’s car.

My folks were married with the blessing of a shotgun. It was my grandfather that drug his son up to the alter, or the justice of the peace ‘to do the right thing’. My father was forced to marry my mother, it was a case of the adults deciding what was best for these kids when they both made adult decisions to begin with. I truly feel the biggest mistake for everyone’s life was the choices made for these kids. My heart breaks when I think of the lives that ended up sacfriced in this case.

I’ll touch on more as I try to get through the years

Today’s raves, rants, and ramblings

Rave – Prop 8 appears to be passing, meaning in California the laws will be changed regarding marriage, in that it will require a man and a woman to be truly a married couple when obtaining a license!

Rant – Obama won the Presidency, I didn’t need a democrat to make my government bigger, to allow people to not take personal responsibility some more because the big (soon to be bigger by Obama) government will fix everything for them (remember it was the democrats many moons ago that gave us welfare, unemployment, social security, etc – all those bleeding, sucking government programs that allow the lazy to get lazier).

Rave – I love best friends, especially that one best friend since we were 20 – that would be 26 years of friendship! That she has been my best friend longer than I’ve had any kid, any spouse, any house, geez just about anything in my life to date!

Rant - I seen a mother dropping her high school daughter off at school today, that girl was wearing pajama pants to school! I have never seen this as appropriate attire for school, appears simply lazy. Has this mother thought about what she is teaching this child? Is this child going to be able to wear pajamas to work when she gets older? Who knows though, as our morals drop so do our values, therefore maybe this will someday be allowed in the workforce.

Rave – Thinking about my husband this morning as I woke him up after only 2 hours of sleep so he could appear in court. Here is a man that fought in the Gulf War, who earns a regular paycheck, then volunteers his time to be a Sheriff’s Deputy. For him it is the job of love, enforcing our laws, trying to put a dent in crime. He is on vacation from the regular job this week, so in turn decided to put in some extra time with the Sheriff’s department. He was on all last night only to learn he had to appear in court today because some derelict wants to contest a ticket. A ticket he received for driving while his license was suspended, now how can you contest that? I guess that part could go into the rant column!

Rant – That a child could be sent home from school for wearing a Jesus Christ Halloween costume (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,445904,00.html ) yet it is okay to wear vampires, devils, grim reaper, and other death embedded costumes.

Rave – That my oldest daughter actually does think about politics, has an opinion, and cares about political issues. I am happy that she has an actual vision of politics, what they mean to her, and how the choices of the politicians impact our lives.

Rant – That I sent that same 21 year old daughter this article, Born Gay or a Basher, No Excuse (http://americansfortruth.com/news/born-gay-or-a-gay-basher-no-excuse.html ). The idea behind the article for me is 1) how can homosexuality be passed on genetically if gay couples can’t produce children? Seriously all the scientist in the world can’t explain that one to me, in that how a homosexual gene is passed on when they don’t physically reproduce. By this concept of genetics homosexuality should be gone in a few years because if they aren’t reproducing in offspring then there will not be anymore. Number 2) is the moral fiber and the justification of something that is wrong. When does one decide that justification of a wrong act makes the act right, in my definition it is still wrong. As the article states, there are those that want to justify that it is okay for men to love boys, should we justify adults having sex with children? Is that not wrong? So how does one justify that homosexuality is okay? Not once did she touch on any of these subjects, no she went on about the twin’s study.

Now for my ramblings:

The news depresses me, I need to touch on the rants with so many news articles. I have homework to do, I have a house that needs vacuuming (my deal that sweeping and vacuuming happens twice per week since we have animals), I can’t find the desk or table I want for my sewing machine and serger for work areas. I also wanted a decent stand for the printer to be on, with door underneath to hid things like pens, pencils, paper, etc that the kids and I use when doing school work. Oh and let me say I love being able to download DRM free music from Amazon! I had an urge for some of my old music from those high school years – this week I down loaded Stevie Nick’s Bella Donna, Wing’s London Town, and Wing’s Speed of Sound. I have several of my high school year artists in greatest hits, but the greatest hits doesn’t give me all those songs from the old LP’s I use to listen too. Face it, when I listened to the old LP’s way back then, I couldn’t skip to the next song, so many of my LP’s I learned to love all the other songs they contained. I can listen to those old songs remember sitting on my bedroom floor, dreaming of the years after high school

Remember the good things in life!

I have another news article that was ’starred’ in my Google Reader that is up for my commentary today. This particular article originally ran August 15^th, 2008 from Fox News, but still deserves my commentary opinion.

    “Murdered Gay Boy’s Family Blames School for Letting Him Wear Makeup”

“The family of a gay teenager who was fatally shot in class blames the school district for allowing their son to wear makeup and feminine clothing to school — factors the family claims led to the death.”

A little review on my part actually shows that I am late to this party! Even Ellen DeGeneres has discussed this on her TV show, I am sure though in a much different light than I look at it. After all Ellen is openly homosexual (not gay, gay is happy, not some un-condoned sexual orientation) a sexual orientation I don’t agree with. Am I a homosexual basher – no. I will not openly go out to bash, hate, of anything of that existence toward homosexuals, but I feel morally homosexuality in wrong. My morality probably runs from the religion in which I was raised, the fact of our God given anatomy, and how that anatomy is suppose to work. Now off my homosexuality is wrong issues, and onto this boy’s cross-dressing habits.

When a person dresses in drag, as a drag queen, or a cross dresser I would really expect they might see some ridicule. I surely expect they made the choice to dress in drag of their own free will. Let me say up front I DO NOT THINK IT WAS RIGHT FOR THIS HOMOSEXUAL CROSS DRESSING BOY TO BE SHOT! Murder is not okay in any circumstances! This is about the lawsuit his parent filed against the school district. Back to my own free will issue, if this boy dressed in drag of his own free will how is it the school’s fault that he didn’t dress per code? This wasn’t the first time the boy had dressed in drag, he knew the ridicule, I am sure. At 15 years old didn’t his parents know or see him with the dress-in-drag issue? Did he leave their house dressed in drag? Don’t the parents have responsibility for their own 15 year old child? Does the child as a teenager share in any of the responsibility? It truly bothers me that people so look to blame others for issues that need to be placed squarely within their own personal space, home, and shoulders. The death of their son does belong to the boy who shot him, no one else can take that blame; but the clothing he chose to wear was also his own responsibility.

There truly is a fine line of acceptance of peoples’ differences. I truly don’t support homosexuality, cross-dressers, plus a huge host of other immoral activities, but not supporting is not lashing out. I would never lash out at their differences, on many levels it is their choice, not mine. I always feel that God works with each person, helping them find their way in this arena of life; it is not my position to play God, to demoralize those that have that battle of ‘doing the right thing’. But when one makes their choice to be whom or what they want they must accept the issues, and responsibilities that go along with that decision, period.

This could also go in my category of frivolous lawsuits, yet I feel others would take some sort of offense to it because of the issues at hand. I hope these parents don’t win this lawsuit. I do understand the pain these parents are going through at the loss of a child, trying to understand, but this is not the correct way to find solace. The better way to deal with the death of their son would be to deal with the child that shot him, sue his parent for neglecting an education of differences, of not liking something without persecuting others.

I read this article a couple of months ago, even ’starred’ it on my faithful Google Reader to write about here in blog world. Slowly I will get to my moral, value, and virtues of society, some through these different articles. This particular article may seem strange to save, but brings me to the heart of my thoughts on the death penalty.

This article at USA Today dated August 4^th, 2008– “Ohio inmate claims he’s too fat for execution” is appalling to me who cares how stupidly fat he has gotten himself he was given the death penalty now give it to him already!

“Lawyers for Richard Cooey argue in a federal lawsuit that Cooey had poor veins when he faced execution five years ago and that the problem has been worsened by weight gain.”

According to this portion of the article Coorey’s poor veins might cause it to take more time to hook him up to the equipment, an extra 15 minutes poking around to find the veins. Problem? I don’t see one, I think that extra 15 minutes tax dollars have to pay for is money well spent. Again hook him up.

“attorneys for Cooey say a drug he is taking for migraine headaches could diminish the effectiveness of the first of three drugs Ohio uses in its execution process.”

What it may take longer for this guy to die because he is on some medication the tax dollars pay for? I don’t think that is reason enough to stop the execution. Give this guy a choice keep taking the migraine medicine for those headaches now, okay so a little more pain at death or — go off the damn medication so death is faster. All a matter of choice, doesn’t take the Supreme Court to decide this, no reason for a tax dollar waste I mean an appeal. Of course then the idiot would probably scream his rights were being violated, like pieces of scum like this should have any rights what so ever!

“Cooey, 41, was sentenced to die for raping and murdering two University of Akron students in 1986.”

I am betting that this piece of crap didn’t show any mercy to the university students he raped and murdered. Did he think about their pain and suffering? Did he care what they might be going through before their death? I am sure he could have cared less as long as he was getting what he wanted at the time. I will never understand why bleeding heart liberals’ think pieces of crap like this should get any kind of reprieve from death. I personally think that lethal injection is too nice for the piece of garbage, death by the same means those university students died would make me feel better, let him feel the pain he inflicted upon them, a true ‘eye for an eye’.

When I reviewed for this blog post I found that the Ohio Supreme Court didn’t fall into his boat load of crap either. On October 9^th, 2008 CBS News printed this article “Ohio Inmate Not Too Fat For Death Penalty” stating that the Ohio Supreme Court doesn’t believe he is too fat to die!

“The Ohio Supreme Court has rejected arguments that a death row inmate is too fat to die by lethal injection.”

All I can say is YES!! This should have never even been considered an appeal. These death row inmates get far too much sympathy, including appeals!

I just can’t believe how the State of Ohio did the right thing, even following through with this creeps’ execution a few day later.

On October 14^th, 2008 CNN released the following article: “Inmate executed after Supreme Court rejects obese argument“. All those non-sense claims were not only thrown out of the courts but the execution went on!

“Richard Cooey was pronounced dead at 10:28 a.m. ET, said Andrea Carson, spokeswoman for the Ohio Department of Corrections. The execution went as scheduled, she said, with “no problems whatsoever.”"

Did I read that correctly? Did it say the execution had ‘no problems whatsoever’? I guess being obese and taking migraine medication doesn’t stop the lethal injection from working. Thank you Ohio for showing everyone that it lethal injection works! And just because he was claiming to be obese it didn’t stop him from a real pig-out prior to execution.

“Ohio does not serve a “last meal,” as death-row inmates are given the opportunity to eat breakfast before a scheduled execution, Carson told CNN. But on Monday night, she said, Cooey ate a “special meal” consisting of a T-bone steak, hash browns, french fries, four eggs over easy, onion rings, four pieces of toast, a pint of Rocky Road ice cream, Mountain Dew and bear claw pastries. He did not eat breakfast Tuesday, Carson said.”

Personally if I ate that much in one sitting I would have keeled over from massive coronary brought on by over-eating! But at least he got to feel ’special’ before he died – did his victims get this kind of mercy? This article explains a little more as what the crime was that got him the death penalty.

Cooey and a then-17-year-old accomplice were convicted of the brutal murders of Wendy Offredo and Dawn McCreery, students at the University of Akron. The men had been tossing concrete slabs onto Interstate 77, and one of them struck Offredo’s car.

Pretending to “rescue” the women, Cooey and Clinton Dickens took the victims to a remote field, according to prosecutors. There the students were subjected to a three-and-a-half-hour period of rape, torture, stabbings and fatal bludgeonings. Cooey carved an “X” into the stomachs of both women, prosecutors said.

Did anyone else read that portion which stated he tortured these young women for three and a half hours? I personally think that the death penalty of lethal injection was too good for this creep! Whatever happened to Judge Roy Bean, and his motto “Hang’em first, try’em later”? Okay I would give the creeps trials but I really think some good ole’ fashioned hangings would slow some of this down. I am far from the concerned liberal for these creeps! I hope the families of the victims rest a little better with Cooey’s death, only to bad, so sad that his buddy didn’t get the same punishment – who cares if he was 17 years old when he committed murder!

Sound harsh? Think not! I am sick of mercy for creeps; it appears we just keep breeding creeps in this world.

It has been an interesting week on a personal side, a week that blew up this weekend, and with all that turmoil I find trouble sleeping tonight. I find when there is turmoil my mind goes around like a never ending merry-go-round, complete with the carousel horses moving up and down. I tried laying in bed looking under each horse on that carousel, but alas I still did not find my answers, therefore I am up staring at my computer screen, playing another computer game (Beach Party Craze) trying to make some sense out of other peoples actions and my feelings. In my mind I try to determine when is it time to draw a line on another person’s actions, is okay to allow them to use hurtful words to you, is it enough for them to constantly place blame upon you, when is it enough that the yell at you instead of speaking civilly. Where is my line? As I ponder those question it becomes of great importance for me to contemplate more moral beliefs and values, do I maintain those beliefs and values if it means that I may not see another person that means something to me? If someone close to me was a drug addict or a criminal would I remove them within the closeness of my life because of my personal moral fiber I feel they would infringe on. As I think about this I think about a stranger, or a friend, would I accept being treated badly from either? Would I accept bad behavior from someone I called a friend? No I would not. I have lost friendships in the past and/or simply chose not to have a person as a friend that did not fit into my moral beliefs and values. So why do I look at those carousel horses hoping it would appear different when these people are my children.

I look at this picture and think of my middle daughter, the beautiful giggle, the lap climbing, blankie hugging, kisses for mommy girl and my heart breaks. She is presently making choices I just can’t deal with, maybe another could but I just can’t because her choices are against my moral fiber. I worry that some of my feelings are the dreams I had for my girls growing up, and I don’t understand what happened to those dreams, they were the typical mom dreams to me. I know I can be a strict mother, but I simply wanted so much for my daughters. I wanted them to be smarter than some of the other girls, to dream and hope to accomplish things for themselves in life. I wanted to see them succeed, to not get caught in a too young relationship in high school, to graduate high school, to go to college, to earn a degree they could be proud of. I had visions of them graduating from college, finding a good job, and somewhere in there finding that nice man. The man that treated them like queens, bought them flowers and jewelry to make their eyes tear with love; a man that loves them to such a depth he would trade his life for theirs. More dreams of them getting married, the white dress, the hugs, kisses, and tears; then of course the grand kids. All my dreams for my daughters are very idealistic, straight from my generation’s mommy book. I wonder if kids today see those dreams that differently, and if they do, why they do. This daughter is 18 years old now, a senior in high school, a time we should be laughing, enjoying. Twice now I have lost this time with daughters, my first daughter and now my second; both would be over moral values and issues. I believe society is much to blame, I do not now nor will I ever begin to understand when it was decided homosexuality was okay? Did our children lose this when it became okay on television, when Ellen decided to ‘come-out’ in prime time, or when we as parent quit taking them to church? How conflicting for them to understand sexuality when is incorrectly displayed on television and within society. I am more miffed that this daughter thinks and/or feels she is lesbian when she has always been interested in boys and/or guys. I think that a great number of society’s children are confused, as this daughter is. I think she is afraid of men, forgetting and/or not understanding that men have tender sides, sweetness to show a woman if and when it is the right man. I have tried to let her relationship with this other girl not affect me but it has, and it has her too. I wonder if all her angry words at me, her new hateful attitude toward is because I do not accept her girl friend nor her sexuality. I will not accept it within my home, it is against my moral beliefs. I have asked her to leave, to move out, it really shouldn’t be that hard for her anyway she had not been home most of the week. I only top the issues off when she not only doesn’t come home, but doesn’t call. When I was trying to bend my own moral beliefs to work with her, I still felt she wasn’t coming to terms with the rest of my rules. I see this as my house, and as long as I am paying the bills I expect respect (no yelling, cussing, or screaming), I expect someone that will help around the house, I expect consideration (phone calls, communication), I expect at 18 that she can take personal responsibility for her own choices without blaming someone else. I find it ironic that she wants to be the adult yet doesn’t appear to take responsibilities for those choices. We bought this girl a car, nothing fancy a used $4000 car, with that we set the ground rules that were in-turn broken, plus we were lied to; we took the car back. She seems to think we are the bad guys in this, as if we owed her that car, we felt the car was something in response to her doing good in life. I am odds emotionally regarding this girl.

I think back to my oldest, and wonder what has made her choose what she has? Educationally she is doing well, about to earn her college degree, but she left my house at 18, about 8 weeks before high school graduation. She too had gotten in relationship with another girl, now she can’t decide if she wants a relationship with a guy or a girl, so she going to do both. Now I can’t begin to determine in my mind how any kind of committed relationship can be worked when you are talking about a 3 person relationship. I still am lost that she doesn’t plan on getting married because she thinks a committed relationship can be had without any paper or commitment to God. Of course it is tonight that she shares with me that ‘ole loser boyfriend’ (the I have a problem with authority, I like to sleep as a favorite pastime, and I don’t know what a shower is) boyfriend, is moving back in with her – eee gads – I thought when she sent him to stay with his father, to think about what he was doing with his life, to think about a career, that she might actually be thinking in a way I consider level headed; but obviously I was thinking all wrong. I am only guessing that the reason he left is really because my daughter wants a girlfriend and a boyfriend – she wants to live with both! Talk about a break in my moral beliefs. This isn’t even on the other side of the street of my beliefs, this one is on another street in a whole different city!

I have spent so much time trying to determine what is right and wrong in this, how at this point I just don’t feel good about seeing my daughters. I’m not sure how other parents deal with these sorts of things, or had they even feel, but I am not dealing well at all – after all I am not sleeping tonight! I wonder if I am a bad mother when I don’t want to see my children, when the disappointment weighs so heavy on my heart and soul, on my moral values, that seeing them only makes issues worse for me. I thought tonight about telling them ‘when you have nice husbands that know how to wear nice clothes, shower, have jobs, then come and see me; until then call me a couple of times a year to let me know your around’. I doubt I’ll have my daughter’s home for Christmas this year, I just don’t think my brain will be up to that merry-go-round ride.

I believe at one time I mentioned the Creative Junkie, how much I totally love her writing, the style in which she writes, she is descriptive and entertaining all wrapped into one nice blog! I find her comedy, her wanderings, and overall thoughts so incredibly enjoyable due to the fact we are so close in age, and that I find her thoughts and memories vaguely familiar and similar to mine. Oh don’t worry there are some very noticeable differences, like her 2^nd husband soul mate is Nate, where my 2^nd husband soul mate is Chuck; I find it interesting they are both techy type <read geek> guys, but her guy is IT where mine is Telecom. There is more similar differences, but let me get on with my meme that I found on her website. This meme is about our husbands so here are some thoughts about my techy type soul mate:

What is his name?

I noticed over at the Creative Junkie that her husband has a name that he really doesn’t use, but has a nickname taken from his God given birth-certified name. With that comes my husband’s name located on his birth certificate versus the name he goes by. Charles Lee is his given name, named after an uncle that died 3 months before his birth. His uncle was a man that fought in Vietnam, contacted cancer from Agent Orange, dying painfully on Christmas day. Like the uncle he was named after my husband doesn’t go by ‘Charles’ or ‘Charlie’ nope his nickname is ‘Chuck’. I always get into the small wanderings <or wonderings if one doesn’t get lost like I do> of the mind, where did anyone get the nickname ‘Chuck’ for Charles? Don’t you wonder about that, see the strange things I wonder about! So many people have nicknames from their real name, but not I, nope I am the name that resides on the white paper they call the birth certificate – well except for the last name that changed with marriage. I guess I had one person in my life that gave me a nickname, a play off my name, my grandfather, and he is the only one that ever called me by that nickname until the day he died.

How long have you been married?

Wow we have been married over 9 years; it will actually be 10 years in February! When I entered into this marriage all those years ago I wondered how long I would make it married, how long he would stay; all my old fears from the prior marriage still hanging on to me mentally. My first marriage lasted 9 years; I filed for divorced within approximately 3 weeks after our 9 year anniversary, deciding finally enough was enough. That marriage was 9 long years of tears, screaming, anger, and regret. This marriage has been 9 years of happiness, smiles, kisses, sharing, just everything I thought a marriage should be. This marriage is the difference of being in love with your soul mate, not settling on the issues in a person that counts. I plan on staying married to Chuck for many more years, I mean someone has to take care of him when get old, right!

How long did you date?

Now I have to share my secrets! I tell my girls how they should date 2 years; really get to know the person before they marry them. Somehow though my oldest thought that living with them is the same thing as dating; I have informed her differently in no uncertain terms, but since she is now 21 years old she listens to me not. I still haven’t understood what moral, future attributes she sees in a man that doesn’t want to work, has trouble with authority <his own words to me>, and considers the highlight of his day how many hours he can sleep <which he informed me is his favorite thing to do>. My 21 year old daughter though has been putting herself through college, is in her senior year, has worked at 2 different internships with corporations, has an after college job offer from one of those corporations, and is thinking about an internship in Europe. So what does she see in this guy she was living with, the word is was, thankfully he is off doing some soul searching, moving home with his father - now maybe she will come to her senses. Okay back to my relationship with my husband! I actually meet Chuck on the internet we spent time just passing IM’s and emails back and forth. He tells me he tried to contact me before our conversations really began, but I was always busy. Part of my lack of interest in him was his age at the time he was under 30 years old, which in my eyes made him still a baby. I was 35 years old, had set an age limit of 30 years old for all the younger men that kept bugging me < and yes I dated lots of those younger guys>. Because of our age difference I maintained an IM and email friendship for some time, at least until he talked me into talking on the phone. Chuck became my friend, I enjoyed chatting online with him, I thought he was funny, and we bantered back and forth it seemed without missing a beat. I finally agreed to meet him in person, and that in-turn wrote the rest of the story. : evil: In the end I meet him in person in July 1998, at that time I wasn’t sure it was more than a friendship, he actually spent another month convincing me to go out with him again. The second time was the charm, from then on we actually dated. By October he asked me to marry him, in November we became engaged officially.

How old is he?

Today my boy-toy is 38 years old, getting closer to the big 4-0 every year Sad thing is the closer he gets to that big 4-0 I get to the big 5-0 – the problem with being older then the man of my dreams is I am always older than him

Who eats more sweets?

Now that is a tossup, it totally depends on who has the sweet tooth that day. Chuck will periodically have a candy bar, but his sweet tooth lies in pastries. You can catch that man with some homemade muffins, cakes, pies, and/or cookies anytime; I haven’t talked about dragging him past the Krispy Kreme donut stands. Unfortunately his sweet tooth and mine are the same, I also love pastries, and homemade baked goods; thank goodness I don’t make them too often – there is a reason I don’t! I have one added sweet, mine is ice cream – hmmmm.

Who said I love you first?

Oh he did I knew he was going to say it before he did too First he left me a note, actually a sweet card in my car, in that card he said he had something to tell me, that he didn’t know how I’d react or feel about it, but he had to tell me. He had actually already told me he loved me with all his actions, long before he spoke the words.

Who is taller?

Well he is at 6′3″ and me at 5′7″ – and I always thought the man of my dreams should be taller. I mean there was a time in my life that I loved wearing 3″ heels, short skirts, and showing off my once great legs.

Who can sing better?

I would say neither of us although we are both singing stars within our own privacy. Chuck is also a wonderful drummer when he sings.

Who does the laundry?

I’m sorry I find this about as funny as Andy did at the Creative Junkie; how many men do the laundry Actually when I worked outside the house at a real job he helped with the laundry, it was much more a 50/50 job.

Who sleeps on the right side of the bed?

Right now I sleep on the right side of the bed. Is there something special about sleeping on the right side of the bed? I am only sleeping on the right side because it is the side closer to the bathroom see I often need to pee in the middle of the night, unlike my husband. So personally I don’t care about the direction of the side of the bed, it is just ‘where is the bathroom’.

Who mows the lawn?

Will it use to be those things we call teenagers in our home, but since the middle daughter got a real job this last summer, we lost our slave lawn mowing labor. It turned out that I mowed the yard more than anyone this summer, which I felt okay about. Since Chuck works everyday to keep us in this lifestyle <hmmm can we call it a lifestyle?>, I figure the least I can do is make his life a little easier with my daily free-time he has provided for me. Actually is pretty peaceful to mow our yard, it is several acres, so I grab my MP3 player, fire up the ole John Deer, and ride – here is another place that I am a singing star Thank goodness neighbors can’t see or hear me :embrass:

Who cooks dinner?

Me, me, and me Actually it is a joke in our house, when it is Chuck’s turn to cook we know we are going out for dinner. He can cook on a grill too – he has turned into the typical man when it comes to cooking! What is amazing is before our marriage he actually cooked! And even when I worked he took turns with me in the kitchen!

Who pays the bills?

Will he earns the money so I spend the money right, that is the way I always heard it should be Actually I pay the bills, when went to a real job every day I was the head of accounting & finance departments, therefore have a better understanding of those things called budgets, credit reports, and due dates. Just ask him about that due date thing, he kept getting them mixed up – then there was the money due the State of Wisconsin because he didn’t understand the guidelines of filing as ‘head of household’ on your taxes.

Who drives?

He does, just don’t mind my white knuckles holding onto the dash and door handle. Actually he does a good job driving, it is just faster than my driving. I give Chuck crap because recently he has had a couple of wrecks (one with a deer, the other with high water), but reviewing my record with his, he is a better driver. In the past I’ve gotten numerous speeding tickets, along with several wrecks; but my in the last 15 years my driving record has been pretty clean!

Who is more stubborn?

He is – absolutely, with no doubt! I believe even he would agree with that one; except when it comes to the kids. He does compromise on issues with the kids, only because I can get pretty damn stubborn too!

Who kissed who first?

It was a joint lean in, lips meeting kiss. We both knew that is what we wanted, it was pretty even on who started it. And of course I remember where, when, the look on his face, the smile on his lips, the gleam in his eyes.

Who asked who out first?

That one is really hard since we were talking online already, but I would definitely say him. He kept bugging me about meeting, but in the end I think he was surprised when I said ‘how about we have that meeting’

Who proposed?

He proposed – both times He proposed before we went looking for rings, but that was more ‘how about we get married’ sort of thing. I thought it was so incredibly sweet that he wanted me to have a formal proposal though. Originally he had planned dinner, roses, the whole romantic picture for the proposal; but with his usual luck a few days before his big plans he realized he would be asking me on Friday the 13^th So that we didn’t do the proposal on the 13^th I got a small dinner at our favorite Mexican restaurant on Thursday the 12^th, where he got down on one knee in front of the entire restaurant to propose. I thought he might lose it when the people and staff in the restaurant realized what was happening, and a crowd drew around us.

Who has more siblings?

Seriously I’m not sure who does! I would beg to guess it is me, I think his father only fathered one other child. My father on the other hand had me, my full-brother (who died when we were teens), another daughter supposedly with a woman he had a one-time thing with; then in his 3^rd marriage he adopted her son plus they had a set of twin girls (these twin girls are about 2 years older than my Taylor). See my dad likes to spread his genes out, I know Chuck’s does too, just doesn’t appear his took as well with all the woman

Who wears the pants?

That really depends on the topic at hand, as we trade those pair of pants

Now that was long! I have homework (from my lapse of thinking I wanted a college degree, now questioning myself) that I have procrastinated in the worst way that I must complete!

All my life I have fought certain types of addiction. Some in my family had a love affair with alcohol, and yet others had their affair with prescription drugs. With addicts is a certain type of behavior, I call it the compulsive behavior, that desire to do something to extremes. Although my addictions have never been illegal items, nor items like gambling, my addictions still affect everyone in my family on different levels. Because of these compulsive habits I have a hard time staying focus long-term on one thing, I have trouble balancing my life. I’ve learned to force myself to stop certain items when I find my behavior extreme compulsive, generally I found I lost balance because my family has started nagging me :grin:. Right now my addiction is games I like playing online games, I belong to Shockwave where for approximately $5 per month I get to download and play a variety of games whenever and however much I please.

My game addiction has actually been around for several years, pretty much since I started being a stay-at-home mom and wife. I’m not sure why but the games offer me a kind of mind numbing entertaining time. I turn on the television, but unless it is a good movie during the daytime there really isn’t anything on I want to watch. At night I play games because everyone else picks a television in the house, unfortunately they enjoy watching items I don’t. My youngest is 9 years old, loves watch the Disney station and Nick, there is only so much Sponge Bob one can take. Another television is taken usually by the now 18 year old, she likes to watch things like Rob & Big, The Real Life, and The Hills, all television that belongs to the teens. Now my husband and I have some shows we enjoy watching together, then there are those shows he enjoys that I don’t like everything on the Military channel. So what has transpired is that they watch television while I play games on my computer, I get to spend time in some way with them because my computer is in the front room with the main television (for another week or so at least). I do go through times were I am not as interested in playing my silly computer games, then I am compulsive about a sewing project, digital scrapping I want to get done, or a remodeling project. The crazy thing about me is that I generally do something compulsively, spending hours doing it with all my gusto, then the motivation dies, and the project and/or item sits until I drum up interest again! When I am in-between gusto on projects again I always have my computer games

I also find my computer games when life is brothering me, when I am tired of thinking about issues, problems, and items that include raising teenagers. For some reason my computer games offer me that sweet comfort, not requiring any real demands on me, only the chance to conquer them, because of course I want to win! I like winning, my kids tease me about the enjoyment of the game not the winning of the game, but I must find the strategy to win the game! Is that saying something also about my addition, is it something I know I can win at when I feel I am losing at other things? Now that might be consideration! My favorite games are action/strategy games along with word type games. In the concept of winning it does make sense that I play to win, to conquer, as once I’ve won the game it is rare I will ever play that game again! An example is all the Diner Dash games, I enjoyed playing them all, even got expert on the majority of them, but once I won the game I was done with the game. Once I am done with a game I am on a search for another good game that needs my attention to win! I’d actually spend more time playing PlayStation games if I had a television available to actually play, but then again the games to me aren’t as much fun as the computer games I do like most the racing games, especially liked the Underground series of games for PlayStation.

Maybe someday I will consider more about my addiction to games – I never had this addition until being a stay-at-home mom – don’t tell me it is boredom because I have plenty to do! I do have other addictions you know

I like reading blogs. Actually if I spent less time reading blogs I’d probably have more time to write at my blogs – what a concept. My favorite blogs to read are my crafting blogs. When I can’t sew or scrap it makes me feel good to read what others have accomplished. I also find them great motivators, along with a chance to learn different techniques. I understand though there might be times when one would like to spout off about another topic, I only wished they would take it to another blog – maybe run a separate one from the crafting blog as I have. I decided to drop two my sewing blogs that I generally read because of politics. I really don’t want to hear about their politics on my crafting blogs.

Now since they talked politics, and I am at my personal rants and ramblings blog I will give opinion to what they talked about.

This is my first one: http://sewingfantaticdiary.blogspot.com/2008/10/i-have-faith.html. I generally enjoyed learning about her techniques, even though I wasn’t overly inspired by her choices. She appears to be a gifted seamstress, but all of her ideas appear to be the same. Even if she takes a new pattern, by the time she makes the adjustments for her fitting, and her tweaks it appears to me to be the same as much of the rest of the items she made. But on to politics – she is an Obama supporter. I really don’t have a problem with it, but this post is not her first to go on about Obama. My issue is that she is not going on about his beliefs, about the changes he wants to make for the country, what makes him truly better to her than McCain. She goes on about small minded people who have short-sightedness about who Obama is. Even though I am not an Obama supporter, even I have corrected people who didn’t explore who Obama was but felt to believe bigoted emails. What surprises me is how I feel she makes this a race and/or color issue! In the beginning many of the blacks didn’t want to claim Obama as black – because his mother is white! He is not in line with the black race, this man was raised by a white woman, in private schools – can we say privileged. What makes anyone think he is special in knowing what it truly feels like to be the average Joe. I am not an Obama supporter; not because of any race issue (heck I don’t even think about it because he is half white!), I don’t like what he believes in for our Country. He is a democrat, he is for more government policies, bigger government as the government does more for us, provides us with more, which in turn increases my taxes. Look it was the democrats that gave us unemployment, welfare, social security, plus a host of other government entities that cloud my tax dollar, give to people that often don’t deserve it. I don’t want any more government entities such as these that fix things for people that don’t know how to nor want to fix things for themselves. If Obama has his way he will use our tax dollars to save all those people that didn’t know how to manage their money, got their homes foreclosed on, take away their repercussions to making bad decisions in life. He talks about more government laws to protect us, like I need more big brother! These are a few reasons why I don’t want Obama – heck this man doesn’t even have the experience to run our country! He has been a senator – not a governor – therefore hasn’t had to make the kind of decisions I think are necessary experience for the presidency.    

Now my second one: http://gorgeousthings.blogspot.com/2008/10/and-now-for-something-completely.html. This woman makes truly wonderful garments, her seamstress skills are truly amazing – but I am done reading her blog because I really get tired of the side items not sewing related. This particular post was a little song she wrote slamming President Bush. She obviously feels the problems with the economics of the country right now belong to President Bush. In reality Bush seriously didn’t have a thing to do with this. This folks is fallout of two items that are the thanks for President Reagan; the Trickle Down Economics Package and the changes in the banking rules of 1987. To think that George W could make the changes, and have them take effect within his term in really short sighted, these things take longer than that to cause these kinds of problems. She then goes on to call the wars stupid; I guess she doesn’t care about 9-11, about the fall of the towers, about our sons, husbands, and fathers over there in these wars fighting. I found her whole little giddy song simply insulting to my intelligence, to my husband’s military service, to my belief in our country. I believe that some people are too small minded to truly understand why we are in these wars, the extent of time these wars are going to take, and those that have lied to us – those that called us names are some of the same countries that supplied these weapons to people like Saddam. My personal belief is that the UN was weak, Saddam had broken his pact long ago, the UN should have gone into Iraq long before we did. The entire UN was created to stop rulers like Saddam after Hitler, yet we have people that want to believe in the Monroe Doctrine – think we should bury our heads in the sand. If we were not present in these wars folks there would be more bloodshed on our soil, these terrorist are busy right now, but if we try to bury our heads again we will pay the price.

I dropped these two blogs from my Google Reader now, no reason to get myself upset with them. I can get my panties in a bunch from the news alone, therefore when I want to de-stress I want to read those fun & easy blogs, my crafts without the other bs.

I often ponder items about our society, the moral standards, responsibilities to each other, where I think we are going, and what I feel are our failures. I am sure I am not the only person to make these ponderings, but I truly wonder if people think about their actions, take moral responsibility for those actions. When I started this personal blog, I wanted to cover my opinions on morals, items in the news, and life in general. Lately I have been starring items through my Google Reader to post responses to on my blog. This article in the Indianapolis Star caught my attention:

     Mom accused of neglecting kids at McDonalds

State police arrested an Indianapolis woman Monday after she allegedly left three small children alone in a vehicle for more than a half hour while she was inside a fast-food restaurant.

Contessa M. Irvin, 25, was held in the Marion County Jail this morning on initial charges of child neglect after police say she left her three children ages 5, 3 and 10 months, alone in a vehicle in the McDonald’s parking lot in the 3800 block of West Morris Street, Indiana State Police Sgt. Anthony Emery said. …. “

Even though the article itself was appalling the thought that mom could go inside, sit down, eat lunch, while leaving her 3 small children in the car; I found some of the comments left even more appalling. Obviously there is a sector of our population that feels this mother was just in leaving her kids in the car, after all she was right inside the restaurant. But it is not that she could see them mind you, obviously not when you read this section of the article:

Witness Robert Shoulders told Sunier that one of the children climbed out of an open window and onto the vehicle’s roof.

“Shoulders stated that he had went into the restaurant approximately 20 minutes prior to Trooper Sunier’s arrival announcing to the patrons for the parent of the children to come outside and retrieve them,” Emery said in a statement. “He stated that no one responded.”

Either she didn’t notice her children climbing out the window of the car, or she simply did not care. I assume there was an absence of caring since she didn’t take ownership of the children when the witness went looking for the mother before the police showed up.

Some of the commenter’s suggested mom obviously needed a break is all, they shouldn’t be so hard on her. EXCUSE ME! I am a mother of three children, two of my children were from my first marriage, and predominately counted on me as literally their everything. There were times I wanted to scream, times I wanted to run away from all the work and responsibility, but I took those on when I decided to have these beautiful children. Parenting is taking the good times with the tough times, staying home when there is no sitter, giving up an extra because the kids need something. If a mother needs a break there is something called a ‘babysitter’, which is a real person that sits with the kids, takes care of the kids in a similar fashion as the parent would (or should).

Other commenter’s suggested this was okay because their parents had left them in cars when they were growing up. Oh I see, no matter how wrong something is if our parents did it to us then it is okay for us to do it to our children! I must have missed this lesson!! My parents left me in cars when I was young, by age 7 even left me home by myself (this is another topic about teenagers having children!) – does this mean I did it to my children. No I didn’t leave my kids in cars, or home alone like I was because I knew it was inherently wrong, imagine using God given judgment. How can a parent do the job of protecting their small children if they aren’t even there! This mindset is just wrong, it is simply saying if our parents beat us, then it should be okay to beat our children – my goodness people think about this concept.

I am also struck at how people haven’t realized how life has changed. Maybe there was a time it was okay to leave kids in cars, towns were small, neighbors were people we knew, families that knew families, trust that was a bond in a community; but that time is no longer. We live on blocks that where we don’t even know the people within the houses closest to ours let alone the entire neighborhood. Towns are rarely small, and even the small towns don’t boast families, and neighbors of the old towns; they aren’t towns full of citizens that you can trust your life and property with. When the communities are so different, don’t people see that parenting also has to take on another role? Parents need to be the protectors of the children; I sure wished this woman would have remembered that before she enjoyed her Big Mac.