Sunday, September 28, 2008

P-E-O-P-L-E

P-e-o-p-l-e. That is usually what my husband spells out for me when I naively ask a "why?" type of question about something or someone that I have encountered. Not that either one of us think of ourselves as higher beings or anything of the sort. And we know we are most certainly lumped into p-e-o-p-l-e, too.

I love the quote in Men In Black as K is talking to James Edwards about joining the MIB:
Edwards: Why the big secret? People are smart. They can handle it.
Kay: A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it. Fifteen hundred years ago everybody knew the Earth was the center of the universe. Five hundred years ago, everybody knew the Earth was flat, and fifteen minutes ago, you knew that humans were alone on this planet. Imagine what you'll know tomorrow.
I been at two community consignment sales (for kids clothes/toys/etc) the past two weekends. For both sales, the last part, whether a whole day or just a couple of hours, was designated as 1/2 price sale. The consigner could choose to mark his/her items to be sold for 1/2 price or not. After the sale, the consigner could also choose to donate the left over items to charity or to pick up. Okay, I've been a consigner for one of these sales and I placed items in the sale that I was cleaning out...I did not want them back and if I could make at least 1/2 my marked price, then that is more than I was making on it sitting in my garage. And if it could be donated for someone else to use, then good. Better than sitting in around here doing nothing but taking up space. But that is me. So, I find it amazing to see all the Do Not Donate tags or Do Not Discount markings on children's items that have been worn, used, played with, and are not going to be gold mines of opportunities for more cash other places. But again, that is me. And I'll just sing Scott's p-e-o-p-l-e song.

My other "why" question of late has been over family. Seems that almost everyone is in crisis of some sort. And more often than not, the crisis is of their own making. Yet, these p-e-o-p-l-e keep looking to someone else to bail them out of their own crisis. I guess I get a little more agitated about this since it is family. With the other stuff, I can roll my eyes and sing the song and go on my merry way (probably with someone singing their own "people" song about me! HA!). But with family, I can't just walk away.

Then the big questions hit. Why am I so bothered by this? Am I a closet control freak and I can't do anything about this? Or is it because I've lived so much of this stupidity and have come out of it that I can't understand why others haven't come out yet? Or because I let go of worry, fear, control (an everyday battle) and strive to live my life in joy, not because of religion, but because of a relationship with Jesus and I so want my family to do the same?

Yeah, the last one is probably more to target.

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Oh, Bother. I've been Tagged!

Thanks, Holly.
I've been "tagged". I've seen a few variations of this floating around the blogging world and looks like I've been hit. So, apparently, I am to post the rules and then follow them. Well, here goes:

The "rules" of the game are as follows:
1. Post the rules on your blog
2. Write 6 random things about yourself
3. Tag 6 people at the end of your post
4. If you're tagged, DO IT and pass on the tag

Okay, rules posted, now to think of something random about myself.

1. I don't like being wet. I take showers because I hate stinking worse than being wet. Not a big fan of swimming. I'm made of sugar...I might melt.

2. I was the anchor leg of the mile relay team in HS track. At any given time there were only 1 or 2 of us that gave a hoot about being good, thus the reason I was the anchor leg - to try to catch up.

3. With a little patience and focus, I can usually teach myself to do just about anything...most of the time when someone has told me that I can't do it. Yeah, stubborn...that's not random info though, that's common knowledge.

4. I've attended 5 different colleges and have 2 Associate degrees to show for it. You'd think I could put it all together and have a doctorate by now. I was considering becoming a professional student at one point. I could never settle down for that long after being freed from my home town.

5. I wanted to be a Stormtrooper from Star Wars when I grew up. I liked the white click clackie uniforms. Maybe that's why I like my white click clackie Mac iBook and iPod. Does this mean that Steve Jobs is Darth Vader?

6. I like nice neat orderly things. I pick up things all day long in my house to make sure it stays neat and orderly - fairly. I have no problem throwing away things that don't get used. Too bad I use so much of the stuff laying around here.

Okay, there is my 6 random bits of info about me, now onto tagging 6 other bloggers:
Kristy, you're up, sister.
Cate, I'm sure you have some witty things to add.
Stacee, I'd just like to know more about you.
Maria, you haven't posted in a while, this will give you something to post on. :)
Andrea, oh, anyone with another 7 year old Hunter needs to do this, too!
and Janet, as if you didn't have enough to do.

Okay, there you have it. If you haven't been tagged and are reading this, please feel free to post a comment with your 6 random things.

Enjoy!

Monday, September 15, 2008

Less Than Pleasant

Okay, I admit it...I have been a little on edge today and I probably could have been a bit more pleasant at the store this afternoon, but doggonit, give me a break, people!!

I just don't understand why a person has to park their grocery cart and walk somewhere else to retrieve an item and then rather than hurry back to their basket to move it out of the way, will just stand and continue to block the progress of anyone else waiting to get to a cart-blocked item.

THEN, when the person returns to the cart with others waiting to get to those blocked items, does person move the cart? NO! Person peruses over items in the basket and checks and double checks. Okay, okay, I'm still calm, she probably has a lot on her mind and it is just a slip - not an everyday rudeness. We all have those moments.

So I round the corner to get down another aisle blocked by woman on phone and friend with cart. Phone lady gets off the phone, I say very politely, "excuse us" (us, because I have family with me), and cart friend sees me, but says nothing to phone lady. "Excuuusse Usss," I say a little more sweetly but a touch louder. Cart friend still just looks at me while phone lady continues conversation with her. "Yeah, HEY, Hello! Excuse US!" Well, now they both stop and look at me, then move and I see them continue to look at me as we go down the aisle. Yes, I could have and should have continued to be more polite, but apparently it was getting me nowhere...and now I'm the rude lady in the store according to these two.

Final straw: I had a dozen eggs, some of which mysteriously broke in my basket (two children in and around basket - yeah, it's a mystery). So I picked up another dozen eggs. Now, how many times have you picked up eggs in the refrigeration aisle to find them busted open? Unpleasant, isn't it? So, I though I would be polite and take the eggs to the front so they could determine what to do with them from there - instead of leaving them to be found later. The cashier, who not only didn't speak very clear English, also didn't understand it that well, either, kept trying to scan the broken eggs so he could "exchange" them for me. "No, I haven't purchased those eggs and I don't want to, I just didn't want to leave broken eggs in the back." Again, he wanted to scan the eggs for me. "NO, I don't want THOSE eggs, I haven't purchased THOSE eggs, I want THESE eggs, I just didn't want to leave broken eggs for someone else to find." This went on for a while before he finally told me they would just throw them away. Pity, there were some good eggs left in the carton. But after all of that, who am I to argue with store policy?

So, yeah, I could've been way more pleasant today. Way more. Sorry 'bout that.

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Luann - Home school comic

YES!!! I love it! This was forwarded to me from one of our very "social" home-school groups.

Beautiful Babies

It's been a day. Not a bad day at all, just a day. I love home-schooling Hunter and challenging Hadyn on new things, too. It's really a SAHM (stay-at-home-mom) dream. But there are the not so dreamy parts of the day, too. I am finding it very challenging for myself to educate a 7 year old and entertain an almost 2 year old at the same time while Daddy is in his home office working. It's not impossible, just challenging.

And then there is the constant cleaning. I find myself with an almost OCD type of thing going on when I walk into a room with toys and stuff scattered all over the floor. I feel compelled to stop, bend over, pick it up, and put it where it belongs. All day long I do this. So by the end of the day, I'm toast.

After dinner and kitchen clean up, I just want a nice neat house to look at. So, I've sent my children to Hadyn's room to play.

And that is where the beautiful babies part kicks in. My son and daughter are playing so preciously together right now. They are "cooking" and bringing me all sorts of taste treats to try out. Some, I tell them are wonderful, and some need some more work. They think it is funny and they are enjoying playing with each other. Hadyn just adores her "bubby" and Hunter finds it fun to play "down" with his sister sometimes. I just love watching them play in the room together then run down the hallway to give me a treat. So precious.

And beautiful. Yup. God loves me.

Saturday, September 6, 2008

Political Rant

Okay, I'm going to make some people mad here, I'm sure, but I have to get this off of my chest. Presidential politics is kicking off in high gear and from what I'm seeing so far, we are going to be as divided a country as we have been in the past two elections (at least).

The topic that is really getting my goat today is abortion. I just read that the Obama campaign is putting out an anti-McCain ad regarding McCain's stance on anti-abortion. A comment was made stating that John McCain will make it illegal for women to have an abortion...women would no longer have a choice.

What??? Women would no longer have a choice? Sister, you have a choice from before the first time you drop your drawers! Women still have and will always have the choice to say "no," or to protect themselves against unwanted pregnancies or insist that their partner do the same. To say that women would no longer have a choice is such an asinine statement to make. Everyone pretty much knows how babies are made and if you go through the motions, then you most certainly have made your choice.

I rant about this because I know some women personally who would pitch a fit about not being able to have their "oops" abortions - multiple "oops", even though they certainly know their bodies and what their bodies are capable of doing, they continue to "make their choice". Yeah, stupidity is a good reason to keep it legal.

Why don't we see campaigns against anti-stupidity? I guess we'd all be illegal at some point in our life then, huh?

Thursday, September 4, 2008

Ewww. Yuk.

There is nothing that will get my attention faster or make me jump higher than to be greeted by a precious little-bitty blonde with her five adorable little fingers sticking up in the air showing me, "Mommy, poopoo."

Ewwww!! Yukkkk!! Run, run, run, to the bathroom, don't touch anything on the way, barf, gag, ewww, yuk.

Apparently, she has become quite aware of her bodily functions AFTER the fact. I've tried to introduce the potty, which she loves to sit on, but just doesn't get the idea of what is actually supposed to happen while there. But she will tell me, "wee wee" and grab herself after the incident and of course she has to go examining herself to see what is the issue after the "poo poo" fact.

Ewww. But this is a stage we are in and it will pass all too quickly and later I'll reminiscence and laugh. However, I should be in really good shape for as much as I have to jump and run with her!!

Monday, September 1, 2008

New English Comedy Routine?

A headline on my Yahoo! news caught my attention and after reading it and getting a giggle out of it, I thought maybe this will show up as a new comedy routine somewhere - SNL perhaps?

Lloyds TSB - the 5th largest banking group in the UK had an issue with someone on staff taking offense at a client's password:

Steve Jetley of Shrewsbury discovered this firsthand, after he changed his telephone banking password to "Lloyds is pants" ("rubbish" to us American sods on the wrong side of the pond). Upon calling in, Jetley discovered that his "pants" password didn't match what was in the system. Instead, his password had been changed to "no it's not." Initially, this was no big deal.

"I thought it was actually quite a funny response," Jetley told the BBC. "But what really incensed me was when I was told I could not change it back to 'Lloyds is pants' because they said it was not appropriate. I asked if it was 'pants' they didn't like, and would 'Lloyds is rubbish' do? But they didn't think so."

"Barclays is better," didn't meet with approval either, seeing as how Barclays is another, even larger UK bank and a Lloyds competitor. At that point, Jetley was suddenly told that passwords had to be one word. When he offered "censorship" up as an appropriate password, he discovered passwords were required to be just one word, and no more than six letters long (not terribly secure, that). This undoubtedly came as something of a surprise, since his previous password had been accepted by the system, but the staff manager in question was apparently adamant.

Lloyds has since apologized, and told Jetley that the staff member had been let go. The bank also clarified its password policy, stating, "Customers can have any password they choose and it is not our policy to allow staff to change the password without the customer's permission." Lloyds did note that it is "disappointing" that Jetley chose to express his dissatisfaction by changing his password, indicating, perhaps, that he should have expressed his satisfaction by finding a different bank.

Oh, yeah, I can see this on SNL for sure.