Honor

I'd meant to post this earlier in the week but the computer kept freezing up on me.

ThreatsWatch.org and Media Lies have posts up with some thoughts stemming from the MilBlog Conference in DC.

From Media Lies:

There are, of course, honorable men and women in every category of life,
but the military attracts them in droves. There are also despicable cowards in
every category of life, and the military attracts a few of those as well. The
media has consistently highlighted the handfuls of despicable cowards in the
military, whose reprehensible acts have been exposed, and completely ignored the
honorable acts of the vast majority of men and women who serve.

Steve at ThreatsWatch has written a powerful commentary on how the media has tried to steal the honor of our soldiers and how one man found his again. Go read the whole thing. As someone put it - the post of the year.

Found via AWTM.

Tom-boyish Girly-Girl

The Mothership routinely has a 'talk' with me on my apparent obsession with guns. She's worried that a certain guy (that I would date in a heartbeat were he to ever ask me) will read this here blog & freak out & therefore never make a move.

I don't think I'm obsessed with guns & knives, I just like them a lot. I think they're fun & useful and I've almost always carried a pocketknife (or switchblade) with me - to work, to school, around running errands & sometimes even to church (if I'm wearing jeans instead of a dress). I've even saved lives with my knives - horsey lives, but lives nonetheless.

Mom is a very girlie-girl, very feminine and I can't picture her with a gun or knife in her hands. I'm still shocked that she rode ol' Pebbles once on the farm. She loves pink and dolls and ruffles and lace. I hated pink for years after making the foolish mistake of painting my bedroom pink & choosing pink carpet when I was 12.

I grew up as a bit of a tomboy. I had the horses & I was smack in between 2 boys in the birth order. I never dated growing up, partly because I could beat all the guys I knew arm-wrestling. I mean, come on, who really wants to date a guy you're capable of beating up?

I've softened up some since then. My entry-way is painted pink - a darker pink though. I love the shabby-chic look and Victorian houses. I go to tea parties but I also want to go to sniper school and drag-race a 'Hemi 'Cuda.

Mom & I were discussing this while decorating for the tea and I said I would be perfectly comfortable going to a tea room wearing a nice dress and concealed-carrying a .45.

Heh. That got a look.

A Mighty Fortress Is Our God

I grew up singing the old hymns, and I eventually got quite sick of the same ol' stuff each week and so became a fan of the new-fangled praise & worship choruses. Lately I've gotten to missing some of the "oldies but goodies" I grew up on.

.

So, I think I'll start a new tradition here in my tiny corner of the blogosphere. Every Sunday, I'll post a new hymn.

.

This was the first one I played in church, my violin debut. I remember I was shaking so hard I could hardly play, but I got through it. That's what I always think of when I hear this hymn played or mentioned.

.

A Mighty Fortress Is Our God

...

A mighty fortress is our God, a bulwark never failing;

Our helper He, amid the flood of mortal ills prevailing:

For still our ancient foe doth seek to work us woe;

His craft and power are great, and, armed with cruel hate,

On earth is not his equal.

...
Did we in our own strength confide, our striving would be losing;

Were not the right Man on our side, the Man of God’s own choosing:

Dost ask who that may be? Christ Jesus, it is He;

Lord Sabaoth, His Name, from age to age the same,

And He must win the battle.

...
And though this world, with devils filled, should threaten to undo us,

We will not fear, for God hath willed His truth to triumph through us:

The Prince of Darkness grim, we tremble not for him;

His rage we can endure, for lo, his doom is sure,

One little word shall fell him.

...
That word above all earthly powers, no thanks to them, abideth;

The Spirit and the gifts are ours through Him Who with us sideth:

Let goods and kindred go, this mortal life also;

The body they may kill: God’s truth abideth still,

His kingdom is forever.

Prayer

Please keep CUG jimmyb's wifey in your prayers as she goes in for a heart cath on Tuesday.

Falling In Love

This poem was on the favors that were at each place setting at the tea party.

~Falling In Love~

...

Nothing is more practical than finding God,

that is, than falling in love

in a quite absolute, final way.

...

What you are in love with,

what seizes your imagination,

will affect everything.

...

It will decide what will get you out of bed in the morning,

what you do with your evenings,

how you spend your weekends,

what you read,

who you know,

what breaks your heart,

and what amazes you with joy and gratitude.

...

Fall in love, stay in love,

and it will decide everything.

~Pedro Arrupe, St.

Kitty Crack

This was Sydney's first exposure to kitty crack, aka catnip. She went a wee bit crazy for a while. I think the bag is currently lost under one of the couches, so she's been making do with the puzzle I'm trying to put together.

Oh, How I Wish...

...this is how it was in the real world. From Blackfive's Uncle Jimbo...

UJ: Good Morning I'm Uncle Jimbo, subbing for Scott McClellan who really just
wasn't cut out for lying to you piranhas. The rules for this daily farce have
been changed to reflect the fact that your organizations are basically
adversaries and active opponents of the elected US Government. Consequently you
will now be treated as representatives of the side you have chosen, the bad
guys. I will tell you the unvarnished truth when it suits the purposes of our
country, and I will bold-faced lie to you when that furthers our cause. That
cause is freedom and the consensus 'round here is that you either don't share
those goals or are too idealistically ignorant to understand how to create it.
So, let the games begin.

Of course, this jewel from Frank J.'s In My World has always been a favorite...

"I think the president welcomes the fact that we are a democracy and people in the United States, unlike Iraq, are free to yadda yadda yadda," Fleischer responded, now staring at the Gameboy quite intensely, apparently fighting a boss monster in the game Metroid Fusion that he was playing.

"You’re not even paying attention to us!" shouted another reporter.

Fleischer then angrily chucked his Gameboy at the reporter, striking him in the head. "There, I paid
you some attention."

"Ow! That hurt!" cried the reporter.

"Ow! That hurt!" Fleischer repeated in a high-pitch, mocking voice.

"You’re the meanest press secretary ever!" the man yelled before running out of the press conference crying.

"Anyone else want to waste my time with one of your idiotic questions?" Fleischer asked angrily.

Sunrise

You Are Sunrise

You enjoy living a slow, fulfilling life. You enjoy living every moment, no matter how ordinary. You are a person of reflection and meditation. You start and end every day by looking inward. Caring and giving, you enjoy making people happy. You're often cooking for friends or buying them gifts. All in all, you know how to love life for what it is - not for how it should be.

What Time Of Day Are You?

I prefer sunsets, although I've seen more sunrises lately, what with my vampire schedule & all. God sure does a beautiful job with that paintbrush of His, both morning & evening.

Tea Time

Yesterday was the Ladies Tea Party at church. We had about 100 ladies in attendance and it was so much fun. Most of the china was provided by Mom & me, along with several other ladies in the church. Diana, Karla & Betty did the food while Mom & I decorated with the help of my aunts & Traci. The main color - pink.

A lot of the women wore hats & dressed up.
We had cheesecakes, several bundt cakes, canapes, little pinwheel sandwiches, creme puffs with chocolate & raspberry drizzles & lemon curd and fresh pineapple, strawberries & kiwi.

Ooooh, don't forget the chocolate-dipped strawberries!

These are some of the tea cups & tea pots we used. Grace, bless her heart, stayed afterward & washed all of the china for us. I was dreading having to do that.

I was a hostess, table-refiller & greeter. I borrowed Mom's hat & had to go buy a dress to match. One fella at church told me that hats should be worn more often. I agree.

Mom & I are considering planning the tea party for next year. My aunt said we need to wait about 6 months before thinking about it so we can all recover from this one.

Scary Monster

I actually used my hair dryer yesterday, for probably the 3rd time in the last year.

Poor Sydney kitty.

She was majorly freaked out. I turned the dryer off & held it out to her. It took a little while to get up the courage to do it, but she eventually got close enough to hit it. She wanted nothing else to do with it. She sat there, all poofy & fluffed up, hissing at the noisy monster who dared invade her house. She'd jump every so often and go start whacking my shoes, like they were the problem.

ZZZZzzzzzz...

Got up at 9 Saturday morning, worked all day decorating for the tea party at church, worked all night, got gussied up & spent all morning & most of the afternoon at the church before going to bed at 5pm Sunday.

Up & going for 32 hours and woke up after only 4 hours of sleep.

Grrrr...

Feeble Attempts

Michelle Malkin has posted a sampling of the hate mail (warning - very foul language) she has received from presumably "open-minded" and "tolerant" liberals. These emails were in response to another post she did that simply reprinted publicly released information.

Amazing how the left will sling racial slurs as long as they're aimed at a conservative, but then accuse the right of being bigoted.

Remember children, profanity is the feeble attempt of a weak mind to express itself forcibly.

Hat tip IMAO.

Tea Time

Our Women's Ministry at church is hosting a tea party this Sunday afternoon. Mom & I are two of the hostesses. We both volunteered our tea pots & cups, which meant counting all of them.

Tell me, what does a single lady who never entertains need with 15 china tea cups and 3 tea pots? At least they're all pretty & were on sale for at least 40 % off....

Now I need to find a frou-frou hat to wear, just because I can.

Pictures to come (maybe)

Blech

I had always heard that Green Goddess salad dressing was very good, so for Easter dinner with the family, I decided to make some. Found a recipe, got the ingredients and threw it together.

I tried it on my salad.

All I could taste were the anchovies.

Ick.

Never again.

Happy Resurrection Day!

Crown Him with Many Crowns
by Matthew Bridges

Crown Him with many crowns,
The Lamb upon His throne:
Hark! how the heav'nly anthem drowns
All music but its own!
Awake my soul, and sing
Of Him who died for thee,
And hail Him as thy matchless King
Thru all eternity.

Crown Him the Lord of love:
Behold His hands and side--
Rich wounds, yet visible above,
In beauty glorified.
No angel in the sky
Can fully bear that sight,
But downward bends his wond'ring eye
At mysteries so bright.

Crown Him the Lord of life:
Who triumphed o'er the grave,
Who rose victorious to the strife
For those He came to save.
His glories now we sing,
Who died and rose on high,
Who died eternal life to bring
And live that death may die.

Crown Him the Lord of heav'n:
One with the Father known,
One with the Spirit thru Him giv'n
From yonder glorious throne.
To Thee be endless praise,
For Thou for us hast died;
Be Thou, O Lord, thru endless days
Adored and magnified.

Show Me The Money

I just realized the other day that I 'made' more money while I was on unemployment after being laid-off from Cessna than I do now.

But, that's what I get for working for a non-profit organization.

Ewe's Not Fat, Ewe's Fluffy

My grandma used to have that saying on her wall up home on the sheep farm.

Anyway, I was hopping around my blogroll the other day & happened upon this post by SWWBO on weight.

I am fat (hate that word), the same clothing size she is. (A couple clients once said that I have 'black hips' and assured me that was a compliment. Not quite sure if I trust them.)

SWWBO brings up why she is overweight. I have to say that many of her reasons are the same as mine.

I have fibromyalgia, which combines lots of fun symptoms like chronic fatigue sydrome, insomnia (those 2 go together real well), vertigo and joint pain. Trust me, it's difficult to go out & exercise when you have pain shooting from your ankles all the way up to your hips & back and back down again. It's also difficult when you get severe spasms zinging through your knees when you try to jog. (Running your knees into 55-gallon barrels, pipe fences & telephone poles at a dead run on horseback ain't fun.) Add in a bad back and ... yeah.

I did the workout thing for a while. I had a membership at Curves and went 3-5 times each week. I also kinda followed the Weight Watchers program. Didn't lose a thing. Oh I'd drop 5 pounds or an inch or two, but the next time I was weighed & measured it would be back, plus a few more. I had a terrible time eating all of the WW points I was supposed to. I do have a tendency to forget to eat sometimes. I'll suddenly realize I'm dizzy & shaky and haven't eaten for 18 or more hours.

My schedule at work, the baby-sitting & other miscellaneous stuff I have to do keep me pretty much in a state of exhaustion all the time. With the insomnia, I'll get so run down that the basics become a monumental effort, let alone going out for even a walk.

Yes, I need to take better care of myself. Bridget's always saying I'm going to kill myself if I keep going at the same rate. There are studies out saying that if you are sleep deprived, you are more likely to gain/keep weight. I average anywhere from 2-6 hours each day, sometimes on the weekends I'll take several sleeping pills to get a full 8 hours. Lately I've had several days of 1-2 hours of sleep each.

I do think that, to a certain extent, it is genetically pre-disposed. I am built just like Mom's side of the family. (I wish I could switch Dad's nose for Mom's & vice versa with the build. Well, not his build, but his family's skinniness.)

I did lose 30lbs one summer when I worked at Cessna. I was putting in 90-100 hours each week in an un-air-conditioned factory (way over 100 degrees). I would usually eat a sandwich or apple on my way to work at 3 in the morning, live on Mountain Dew until lunch, then eat a half pack of those sandwich crackers at noon for lunch. I'd usually grab something from a drive-thru on the way home after a 12-16 hour day. It was during that time that I burned out for the 2nd time and ended up in the ER several times for the vertigo.

Happy Happy Joy Joy!

It's carnival time! Woo-Hoo! And the tickets are cheap...

The Friday Ark is, as always, up at the Modulator.

The Carnival of the Cats will be up at Begin Each Day.

And...

The Kansas Bloggers Round-Up will be up over yonder at Three O'Clock in the Morning.

Have fun!

(Don't feed the wild animals & watch out for those carnies.)

Good Book

Mom & I were in a restaurant recently & overheard some people talking about this Book of Judas that has been in the news lately. One woman was saying that Christians always freak out whenever we think the Bible is under attack & that we don't listen to reason. She said there's no proof the Bible is true or reliable.

I should've gone up to her & suggested she read I Don't Have Enough Faith To Be An Atheist by Frank Turek & Norm Geisler.

This book is great (even though I'm not all the way through it yet) and several chapters are about the historicity of the New Testament and the number of identical surviving copies.

Bird Watching

(Sorry 'bout the fuzzy pic.)

I set a bird feeder up in front of the big picture window in the living room for Sydney. The other day, she was sitting so still, I though she had fallen asleep.

Nope. She was crouched down, staring down the birdies that were infringing on her front lawn.

Last night, the front door was open (the screen door was shut) and Syd suddenly began freaking out - growling, hissing & hair all fluffed up. (I didn't realize she had that much hair.) I looked out and there was this big orange tabby neighbor-cat, a tom, who had decided to use the step as his 'bathtub'. That did not sit well with the mistress of the house.

She was awful cute though, a fluffy furball running around trying to 'protect' her house & staff.

Grrr *Evil Sociopathic "Child"*

I swear, this kid is going to be on America's Most Wanted someday.

One of the girls from this post yesterday got arrested for battery this morning after she bit another girl's ear! It took 3 of us to get her off. One was pinching her nose & trying to pull her head back, one was pushing on the pressure point under her jaw and I was pushing on her Adam's apple as hard as I could until she released. This chick is 14 or 15 and the one she attacked is 10.

On Monday she attacked & tried to strangle a teacher.

I just found out that she was placed here after putting 3 of her cousins in the hospital. She also has a warrant out for her arrest in another county. It may be from the cousin incidents, but who knows.

This girl is vicious, violent and fights very dirty.

And some genius put her in a Level 6 facility instead of lock-up because... ???

Like I'll ever get a decent answer to that one.

Missions

My friend Bridget keeps flipping out about my planning on being a missionary. At least once a week during work, she starts going on & on about how I can't go & if I do, how I'm going to be tortured & killed.

I keep reminding her that I have nursing school to finish (& that I have yet to start that) as well as theological training from a missions agency before I could leave.

Not to mention that I have no idea where I'm going. I mentioned that I have always felt a pull toward the Middle East. Call me crazy, but I would love to live in Jerusalem or work as a nurse in Baghdad (that one'll drive Mom nuts). That doesn't necessarily mean I'm going there. I could end up there or in China or Africa, South America or Europe somewhere. My mission field could even be right here in Kansas.

Anyway, Bridget keeps coming up with all these reasons I can't go - I'm not married, I'll get my head cut off, I might get married first (Pfft!), It's too far away, Other people should go instead of me, It's not my responsibility to go, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.

As far as the responsibility thing goes, as a Christian it is my responsibility to go. The entire Bible is a book about missions. Every feel-good Biblical promise that you hear quoted so often is followed up by "for the Glory of God" or "so that the nations may see the Glory of God" or something along those lines. Don't forget the whole "Go into all the nations and preach" thing.

How can the nations see the Glory of God unless we as Christians go & tell them?

Yes, there are people here in America who haven't met Christ yet, but there are so many more out there that have never even heard His name.

Wow, this has turned into quite the little sermon, hasn't it. Not my original intention, but oh well.

Grrrr *Evil Children*

These are not the cute, sweet little kids from Sunday School. These are the juvenile delinquents from work who only *think* they're cute.

Feel free to ignore this post as it's only me griping & whining.

We have 12 girls at work right now, half of them are fairly new. Yesterday, 1st & 2nd shifts had 5 restraints. The day before, they had 8.

EIGHT!

And 4 of those were with 2 girls who would attempt to either run or beat up on staff and then when they were restrained, the other would try to 'help' her.

This morning, both of them ran. At 3 o'clock in the flippin' morning.

I only hope and pray that nothing bad happens to them while they're on the run, but if it does... well, maybe that's what they need to wise up & realize that that behaviour isn't exactly very smart.

I've also been called some... let's just say interesting names lately. I have several good comebacks for when they call me a b****. But, since I'm supposed to set a good example for them, I do a lot of internal censoring.

And I do mean a lot.

I've tried using logical reasoning with them -
"You called me a b****. Let's think about this. I am politely trying to help you do what you need to do to move back home or to a foster home. I have never been rude or mean to you and yet you are standing here yelling that I'm a b****. Who's the one that is acting like one?"

Unfortunately, logic seems to be a wee bit beyond their grasp.

I've always wanted to use the "It's Miss B**** to you", but that would be rude. There's that censoring thing. Not to mention that's what they'd probably call me from then on.

And of course, there's "Yes, I am. So why are you pushing someone who is such a b****?"

Kids Say The Darnedest Things...

Yesterday I was helping out in Mom & Pop's pre-Kindergarten Sunday School class. There is one boy who is autistic in there and he needs a helper all to himself. Don usually handles him but he wasn't there today. So Dad & I split duties with him.

Mom was praying before the story and as soon as she said "Amen", this boy piped up with "I don't know why his (my Dad's) head is so bald!"

Dad is already bare on the top and just got a very, VERY short hair cut on the rest, so his head is rather shiny and balder-looking than before.

At the end of the class, one little girl informed me that her dad says I look like a rock star.

Huh!?!?

I can only guess she got me mixed up with Peanut, 'cause I'm only in that class every other weekend. Peanut is the pretty one with the sassy haircut and she's there every week.

Lucy

I have a little '98 Dodge Avenger (Lucy) that I bought after selling Lily, my '97 1/2 ton Dodge Ram to Dad. (I still have visitation rights.) When I first got her she drove fine. After a while, she started doing this little bumping thing while idling or driving very slowly. It almost felt like the engine was missing, but Dad played with it for a while and said it felt like the tranny was always trying to shift.

I don't have the money for tranny problems right now, so I was wandering the car section at Wally-World when I saw some Slick 50 stuff. I grew up using STP in Lily & Nelly, the '84 3/4 ton Ford diesel I used to drive, but I went ahead & picked up a bottle.

After going through 1 tank of that stuff, I thought she felt a little better, so I went back & got another.

She's still not perfectly smooth, but the improvement is remarkable.

Last Words

Your Famous Last Words Will Be:

"I can pass this guy."

What Will Your Famous Last Words Be?

*snicker*

Last words of George Appel, before being executed in the electric chair - "Well, gentlemen, you are about to see a baked apple."

Will No One Think Of The Beans?

Run over yonder to IMAO & check out FrankJ's editorial on the bean situation.

Can monkeys be trained to pick the beans? I don't care if they can, because
I will not eat beans picked by filthy monkeys. Monkeys should be locked in cages
and kept away from our precious beans.

Beautiful. *wiping a tear from my eye*

Okie Vacation

Two weekends ago, the Mothership & I went down to Oklahoma for my last 4-day weekend. We went first to Oklahoma City to her cousin Sharon's, who has a business framing pictures. We picked out matting & what-not for a print Mom has and then headed off to Sequoyah Bay State Park.

We rented a cabin there and then spent the next several days doing Bible study, antiquing & just chillin'. We have never seen so many antique shops as we did there! I got 3 new teacups (yeah, really *needed* those) that are very pretty and all on sale!
On Sunday evening, our last evening there, we decided to drive over to see the dam. Saw it - cool - & then decided to see where a couple of roads went. We ended up in Fort Gibson and saw the old fort. There were the ruins of several log cabins there and some really cool twisty trees. Wish it had been open so we could've toured it, but no such luck.
The stone house below was also in Fort Gibson. We thought the chimneys were neat.

We wound our way back home and then headed back to OKC on Monday to pick up the picture - Sharon did a lovely job. We got back just in time for our Perspectives class.We both could've used another week but we're glad we got the opportunity for that much.

Christian Pakistani

A Christian teacher was arrested in April of 2001 for allegedly slandering Mohammed.

Want to know what he said that was so terrible?

He truthfully answered a question from 3 Muslim boys about Mo's 9-year-old wife and gave her name, Aisha. He also told them to look in the Koran & ask their spiritual leaders any other questions they had pertaining to Islam.

For that, he was arrested, denied bail and at one point (in August 2002, still awaiting trial with no bail), beaten by a fellow inmate.

Voice of the Martyrs is often unable to get information on these prisoners, so I don't know what has happened to him since.

Manicure Time

One of the few physical features I actually like about myself is my hands, or more specifically, my nails. They grow nice & long and I've had people ask me where I get them done. Nope, I tell them, they're homegrown.

Well, I guess the little cousins, Elf & Lil'Un, don't like my nails. So, I'll be chopping them off soon. Looks like this'll be a good time to pick up the ol' violin and see how the wrists fare.
(See all the old scratches? Blame the Psycho Kitty...)

Heh...

Was just talking to my SIL Shell-Bell on the phone and heard this over the line: "BoBo, get off the cat!"

Update: Just found out that the little one (1 1/2 years old) has discovered the microwave. Shell-Bell has to keep a Pyrex container of water in there, but even that didn't work when he set it for 80 minutes and turned it on...

He also dipped his hand into some (cooled) grease from the grill and promptly smeared it all over the top of his head.

And "helping" wash the dishes? Try dropping glass bottles into an empty sink...

The Women's Retreat

Two weekends ago I went to Rock Springs 4-H Camp up by Junction City for the church's yearly women's retreat. The theme was contentment, using the Proverbs 31 lady as an example.

I almost didn't go after finding out that all of my close friends weren't going. I didn't know who I was going to hang out with. Last year, a lot of the weekend was taken up with extra fun stuff we could do in between sessions and we stayed up until the wee hours of the morning playing Encore. (Nic could go for hours on Showtunes alone...) But this weekend went well.

It rained most of the time and I had worked the night before and was up for 26 hours by the time I went to bed Friday night, so after lunch on Saturday I wandered around the camp and took some pictures before doing a little Bible study and taking a nap.
There is an old farmhouse there that has a spring coming out of the hill right behind it. It is corralled into a stream that goes into a water wheel right by the house & also around the back to the small water fall pictured above and then into a pond, part of which is seen below. Even with the grey skies and constant cold drizzle, I thought it was lovely.
Several women shared their testimonies and the speaker had some great insights into how to abide in Christ's love and simply be contented with what we have been blessed with.

During one session, several ladies put on a little skit, written by another lady in the church, about how discouragement with never living up to the Proverbs 31 lady can keep us from even attempting to emulate her. The skit played off of the movie The Incredibles with one lady in red & black with the Incredibles symbol on her shirt, replacing the "I" with a "P31". Another lady was the nemesis, Sluggard, in white tights, a black bodysuit & cape and a pointy black wig. Let me tell ya, the entire room full of ladies just about split when L came out in that get-up. I have 1 picture, but it's fuzzy and too far away. (Darnit)

Anyway, it was a good weekend and I also got to visit with some ladies that I usually don't.

Heathenish Me

I was joining my friends yesterday after the church service when I realized I hadn't been there for 2 weeks and I've missed 2 or 3 weeks of my Tuesday night Bible study.

Sad, sad, sad...

Women's retreat and then vacation and I think I forgot to tell most of them where I'd be. Oh well. Good thing they're the forgive & forget types...