Rights and Liberties

So I'm sorting out what my thoughts are and I found a good article.

The Texas Polygamy Mess: What Will They Do With 416 Children?

They've found a 16 year old girl who is mother to four children. They are now trying to find out whether girls were transported across state lines.

I don't like it

The FLDS children were separated from their mums today. Something's wrong in Texas. You can't do that. This is America. You can't take over 400 kids from their parents without a case. This isn't a Nazi regime. The worst of it is the 911 call may have been placed by a woman who is known to have made other false 911 calls. This is looking very bad for Texas. How many good, really good, foster homes are there? Five percent? To be very generous let's say ten percent. Foster homes are for children from troubled homes and 'troubled homes' is a euphemism that covers a multitude of situations ranging from unfortunate to horrifying. It's a nightmare come to life for every one of those children.

I want to see an end to the under age marrying of girls to old men. I used to be a girl and I know how I'd feel if I had to marry a guy in his 40s or 50s. That's a geezer; that's ancient when you're a teenager. Those men are nothing more than ped*ph*les operating under the guise of freedom of religion in order to continue their ped*ph*lia. Training girls to be sweet at all times is twisted.

The kids have to be given back to their moms for now. They have to be. Help the ones who need help. Don't destroy 400+ lives.

Updated

Updated my Hair Care Routine page. Sure needed it. It was the same info since August 2007. I'm certainly not that static!

Talk radio

I like talk radio. Those crazy people. Except for Rush Limbaugh. I can't stand him.

God put the Founding Fathers here. It was no accident. He had a purpose for the United States. I believe it. When you learn about those guys: Franklin, Jefferson, Washington and all the rest, you gotta know it couldn't be by accident that they were all here at the same time.

This is the first time ever in modern history that fuel has become more expensive than people. Usually people (employment) are more expensive. Planes were not meant to fly like this in these economic conditions with fuel being so costly. Is $10.00 per gallon in the future? Where do we get our fuel? Canada, they're cool. Mexico, not as cool as Canada, but they're not killing us unless you're a tourist driving at night. The next three places we get the most oil from are Nigeria, Venezuela, and what? Saudi Arabia. Depending on these countries is definitely not a good idea. That's not news though.

Money drives the economy. That's why we're getting the rebate. Why is the government giving money back to everyone, even the lowest of the low income? Because they (that would be us) are sure to spend it immediately and that will be good for the economy.

That's what I picked up from listening to the radio this morning.

I made a bracelet and earrings today. Promising, promising. It was all practice. My fingers are sore but I'm happy. I need a clasp for the bracelet. I noticed a few minutes ago that I put the wire wrapped bead on my earring, one right side up and one upside down. Sheesh. I'm working on a wire Jesus fish earring. It needs something more but I like the simplicity of it. I should call it the Ichthys symbol earring, shouldn't I? That would be semi-intelligent. But really I'm the kind of person who calls the "William Tell Overture" the Lone Ranger song, so there is symmetry.

Feels like were on vacation. I don't know why. Maybe because we have all these stores nearby and I can do things like run to the bead shop for a 75¢ clasp. It's nice.

Working with son on his first research paper. His topic is John Deere. He made his bibliography cards today. I wanted to strangle him, but currently he's still alive. He shaped up when he realized he was on Mamma's very last nerve.

Happy Earth Day

The only reason I know it's Earth Day is because we heard on the radio yesterday that Ralph's supermarket is giving away free reusable shopping bags today. We wanted to get some but can't find a Ralph's around here so my husband went to Vons and purchased three. Vons ain't distributing them for free. Oh well. They're green and kind of pretty so I like them. We have a few from Wal-Mart, but they're black and say 'Wal-Mart' on them. Not very pretty.

Hopefully that nut, Ted Turner is wrong. He says global warming will make all of us cannibals in thirty years. Talk about a case of the crazies. He's buying up Nebraska and the ranchers are none too happy about that. He owns a lot of land next the lake in New Mexico where we live in winter, so maybe he's getting ready. My dance teacher works for him, does maintenance around his place, and she met ol' Jane one time.

A Wal-Mart is going up in New Mexico. We have acquaintances at the newspaper and in business and learned that of 100 job applicants (for the new Wal-Mart) six, count 'em, six, qualified for interview. The other 94 didn't pass the drug screening. Meth. Huge problem there. Huge problem. Everywhere.

FLDS

In ballet class the ladies said they saw some women from the FLDS on television. They said the women looked weird and creepy because the all wore the same style dresses and turn of the century hair styles. I don't have a tv so I couldn't comment. But I have an opinion. I did see a photo of one of the moms on DrudgeReport online. I don't think they look weird or creepy. I think they are trying to live a good life, a right life, apart from the world. I'm worried for the very young children that have been parted from their mothers - infants, toddlers, and preschoolers. That's not good for the children. There are few foster homes that are very, very good. My experience is limited and I only knew a few teens in foster homes when I was kid, but none of them were nice places to be. And where is the girl who placed the call to 911? The state doesn't have a case right now, does it? Are young girls being forced into marriage? I don't know. I suspect they are, but that's just based on the past case that was in the news. I really have no idea what's going on there, same as everyone else. If bad things are happening to the girls, wouldn't the women speak up for them? Maybe not, and that bothers me a lot.

P.S.

We're off to Palm Springs for a late breakfast at our favorite restaurant!

Sat. night

It was cloudy today. It's supposed to be the same tomorrow. I'd rather have sun.

Tonight I watched "Muriel's Wedding" on DVD. I sure like that movie.

My husband got a little mad tonight because I went to pick up the Mexican dinner he ordered for us. Well, that's not the reason he got mad but I wish that he'd gone to pick it up instead of me. I got there and they said they were out of ingredients to make his dish. I can't substitute anything for him because anytime I try to get something to take the place of what he asked for he says, "Why did you get that?" So if I'da ordered, for instance, chorizo and egg, or machaca, he wouldn't have liked it. As sure as I'm sitting here, anything I could have ordered he wouldn't have liked. And when I get back I heard him say kind of quiet over there in the kitchen, "I could have gotten something else." Shoot. No, I couldn't have. So he was fit to be tied. I didn't get the dinner for me either because if they didn't have one for him, then I didn't want mine. Actually I did, but I didn't have the heart. How could I enjoy a delicious din-din by myself.

So I sat on the sofa and, I guess you can say I stared. Out the window. And it was all quiet in here. Then I said, "I can't bear for you to be mad at me." And he said he wasn't mad at me, he was just mad. He's very particular about meal times.

He made a leftovers dinner for us and we ate together. And we made up. I should say, he made up. He said he couldn't have me crying at the dinner table and we laughed. It turned out to be a good night.

I did it

I made a friend at MySpace. I know, I know. I said I'd never go there again, but this is different. This is one, really, really, good, no!, great person! She's from high school! She's 50 already, that's the Class of '76, and I'm slip-slidin' to 50 myself. Her eyes are pools of deep blue just like they were when I knew her in ninth grade, and her babies and grandbabies have the same eyes. Those are some strong genes.

I have so many memories fading. I worry sometimes about what I have forgotten already. But I feel about her starkly clear. It's something about those adolescent years, high school, a time when the brain scans are all electric pink and blue and lime green.

The works of light and darkness

Ephesians 6:12
For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

I told my husband I had to find something in the the Bible. Proof. It's in there. Everything you need is in there. God's got it all written down for me, I just hafta find it. And I did.

Well

I put a dent in the front corner of the truck. That does not equal a good day. It equals a bad day.

You have to push buttons on this little panel on a little post to make the gate open. I make a circle round to line up right to exit the park. My circle I guess was no good. Hit the post thingie. I could hear the scrape of metal on metal for five inches in slow motion like nails across a chalkboard. The post thingie bent a little then, boing, went back into place. It's been hit a few times all right! Turned on the water works when I told my husband. I couldn't help it! I'm going to see if I can get an estimate for repairs while we're here. Whattya think? Between $1500 to $1800 for a five inch dent? Probably. Bodywork costs are lame. Ugh. Luckily, after he yelled a little he said it's only a truck. He said if we couldn't drive it he'd be upset, but for a dent? He's not upset. I sure love him. I'm really sorry I'm responsible for the worst dent on the whole vehicle though. He babies the truck.

We're going to Tetons and Yellowstone after all. That's the latest plan made after dinner tonight. Methinks I do not like plan making. I am not a proponent of trip planning. Rather, one must go and do what one can go and do when one can go and do it. When we are there, I'll say we're there. That works much better to me!

I've been researching music a bit. Did you know that "She Bop" by sweet, funny, entertaining, Cyndi Lauper was written about m*st*rb*t**n. I never knew. It saddens me. I don't think it's funny or cute that she did that. See songfacts for reference.

I took my nitro radio station off my bookmarks. I looked up lyrics to songs I wanted to download and realized they're chock full and overflowing with biblical references...and blasphemy. I listened to it for years and years, unaware. Or maybe aware, but ignoring. Or maybe subconsciously aware, and embracing.

Once I was in a session with a psychologist. I told her I heard someone call my name sometimes, but no one was there. She put me under hypnosis, but I remember. And she said, "Do the voices sound like this?" And I told her no. I think she had knowledge of the occult. I am glad I never heard voices like the sounds she made. I did not like it and that's why I remember it. I told my dad I didn't want to go anymore and he let me stop. I never had to go back again. My dad, he does have good judgment in big decisions.

Secular music is far worse than it was 20 years ago. Where is it coming from. Where is it going. Subliminal. Pervasive. Invasive. Who of us can afford to remain impassive?

No nausea

Can you believe it? She had not one iota of nausea. She is doing amazingly well. She's going back to work tomorrow. Can you believe it? What a doctor!

I'm terribly sorry I can't write more right now. We've had a pair of bluebirds come to our yard every day this week. I'm learning an actual choreography from my belly dance teacher! My hair is doing well and now my sister wants to grow hers too maybe. (She is SUCH a total copycater of me. Tomorrow I shall put her in a headlock and make her call me Liliana the Great.) We're canceling Yellowstone and the Tetons after all because we'd have to dip into our nest egg for fuel monies. I got my new every day boots and they fit so I don't have to return them. The Lord is stirring up my heart and opening my eyes and revealing that which I did not see before, and I'm disappointed that I may have to repel a worldly thing that I enjoy.

I guess that's about it. And the weather...the weather in San Diego was hot today - 104 degrees was the high. It's supposed to cool down now. Thought I'd mention the weather because SchnauzerMom does and it's kind of neat to hear about other people's weather. (What!? I must be getting old. roflol!)

The Big Day

Welp! Tomorrow my sis is gettin' new girls. New big girls. Since she had her two babies she lost them and now she wants them back. She's getting a br**st a*gm*nt*tion. And I! I am taking care of her.

1) Prepare homemade chicken soup (it's the best for healing).
2) Make red jello with bananas.
3) Lending her my iPod with my excellent songs on it.
4) I shall ply her with fresh pineapple (thanks for the tip!).
5) Take my Seinfeld show collection to make her laugh.
6) Take beads and a book and pajamas for me.

That's the plan. I promised her I'd have her bouncing into the physician's office for her two day check-up. I have to live up to it now! She's quite anxious. I've emailed her, I've talked to her, I've been her confidante and sounding board for the past few months.

She's going to be deliriously happy! (But not on the first day.)

I'm hoping she won't get the nausea. She's prone to motion sickness so I'm concerned about that.

New shoes soon

I called in to cancel my dance class last night. My legs ached. Tonight I'll do a make-up. They're having a class called Lyrical Stretch which is more my speed today.

Didn't get the birfday dinner cooked. My husband told me I could make it today instead. He's so sweet to me. So I'm making him potato salad and fried chicken and gravy and salad tonight.

Tomorrow, finally, I'm placing an order for new shoes, which we also call poozins as in "shoezin in a poozins." It's part of the English language at our house. Using Helane's input which she kindly offered me (what? two or three months ago!) I decided to go for this pair:

I did try some on at the store although not this exact style because they didn't have it but I think a size seven should fit me. They are much lighter weight than I thought they would be so I'm glad about that. My hiking boots that I wear a lot are getting a hole at the pinky toe. My husband has been telling me to get new shoes for a year but I hate getting new everyday shoes.

I've never had black boots before. I've had brown, tan, burgundy, but never black. They'll go with jeans and skirts. Which reminds me. I must post about my new denim jumper. I was a bit surprised by the buttons.

Plum

I did my toe nails in plum. They look nice. I haven't done my toes since, ohhhh, last summer. My feet are nice and soft too. My pumice stone is awfully small though. It broke awhile back so I only have half now. Since then, I've been on a statewide perfect pumice stone search but none has been close to being adequate. In fact, all except the one I already use turned out to be completely useless. I've had a pink rectangular one and a blue one and one with its own handle just like the lady at the salon had when I went for my last pedicure in early 1997. She commented on how I held my tummy when we talked while she worked on my feet. I had a wonderful pregnancy. Never before, nor since, has a bologna and cheese sandwich been so heavenly as when I was pregnant.

All the pumice stones were worthless! The last one was the worst. I saw it looked like basalt which was kind of cool, kind of natural, and when I took it out of the box it was smooth oval shaped. I placed it in shower and everyone was making fun of it because...it resembles something other than a pumice stone. It resembles, well, a turd. That's a little too natural for me. Really, it's the ugliest pumice stone ever. I finally threw it away. Those manufacturer's need a new idea.

I absolutely must find a replacement stone before my last half of a half of a pumice stone breaks again. What will I do if summer arrives and my half breaks? It'll be too little to use then. [Teeth chattering!]

Plans made

Reservations are made for two weeks each in Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks in late summer 2008. They have a two week limit so no one is allowed to stay longer. We got full hook-ups too. We had to switch from going to Yellowstone first, then to the Tetons because Tetons was booked all through August. That's okay. Any order is fine with us. I'm glad we could get in.

That reminds me. Have you heard this one...

Do you want to make God laugh?

Then tell Him your plans.

Hahahaha! It's one of my favorites.

Is it vacation?

It feels just like vacation. My husband drove me to a dance shop and I bought a pair of the black capri length wide leg pants the dancers here are wearing. I was so happy I found a pair that fit well and isn't binding. Let's see. Will I be a doofus if I wear them and it looks like I bought clothes to look like the other dancers? Hmmm. That's so ninth grade, huh? I will probably wear them. But I'm gonna be extra cool when we get back to New Mexico because no one will have dance pants like mine. Woo hoo.

And we went to Fry's Electronics and I bought some Hallmark software for making cards. Ours got deleted somehow and our son likes to create cards. It was $29.99 and after I send in the rebate it'll be $19.99. Such a deal. The Fry's in the Bay Area (San Franciso area) is nicer though.

And I went to the bead store and died and went to heaven there. Soooo much cute stuff. They have a new employee who wasn't there last year. She started in October. Her name is Sue and she works three days a week for money for her daughter to go to college. She likes it because she gets to bead and get paid for it. She's made a ton of stuff and it's all over the store as samples. She is something else. And she's teaching classes and I want to go. I wrote my sis tonight and asked her to take a class with me.

I made two pairs of earrings tonight. Super simple dangles of fine chain and one pair goes down almost to my collarbone. One pair is made with light blue, plastic tulip beads a store gave me for free. One pair is made of garnet chips that I bought in Washington state two years ago! I will see if I get any compliments. That's the test you know. If I get even one compliment I'll keep them. If I get none I'll take them apart and do something else. I still haven't finished sewing my blouse. I've been busy! At least, it seems like I've been busy. I'm not really though. Just feels like it.

We had a delicious Mexican meal tonight. We like the Mexican food here in San Diego. It's what we're used to - home cooking so to speak. In New Mexico the Mexican food is quite a bit different and consequently to us it's not as good. It makes us pine for California. My husband said, "Shall we have hot dogs tonight or Mexican from the take-out place?" Aw shucks. I can't say I want hot dogs. I eat hot dogs, but if I have choice I'm saying Mexican food.

I've been eating peach pie with vanilla ice cream and whipped cream here. Ooosh. It's so good. I used to wonder why those northerners would ask questions like what they should eat in winter (to stay healthy and fit) because the vegetable selection there is not always good in winter. Growing up in southern California I took for granted the fresh veggies and veritable buffet of foods all year round here. We're enjoying it. In the tiny town we stay at during the winter the main market is small and limited.

I hear raindrops. It was sunny and clear all day and we were laughing about the forecast for rain. It's here!

Camel Dance parable

Many years ago I found this in a children's picture book. Tonight I searched for it online and found it, so now it can live at my blog and I will read it whenever I want. My husband would say no, but I think it's so me.

The Camel had her heart set on becoming a ballet dancer. "To make every movement a thing of grace and beauty," said the Camel. "That is my one and only desire."

Again and again she practiced her pirouettes, her relevés, and her arabesques. She repeated the five basic positions a hundred times each day. She worked for long months under the hot desert sun. Her feet were blistered, and her body ached with fatigue, but not once did she think of stopping.

At last the Camel said, "Now I am a dancer." She announced a recital and danced before an invited group of camel friends and critics. When her dance was over, she made a deep bow.

There was no applause.

"I must tell you frankly," said a member of the audience, "as a critic and a spokesman for this group, that you are lumpy and humpy. You are baggy and bumpy. You are, like the rest of us, simply a camel. You are NOT and never will be a ballet dancer."

Chuckling and laughing, the crowd moved away across the sand.

"How very wrong they are," said the Camel. "I have worked hard. There can be no doubt that I am a splendid dancer. I will dance and dance just for myself."

That is just what she did. It gave her many years of pleasure.

The moral of the story is satisfaction will come to those who please themselves.

Hair compliments again

At ballet tonight, where I danced like a camel, I was the recipient of three compliments after class. I'm on a roll with the compliments here. Maybe because it's the city and long hair is much less common (on any age woman). The teacher said I had lovely long hair and pointed to her back to show the other two students how long my hair was. The teacher also owns the studio so she sees me come in on Fridays for the belly dance class which is when I wear it down. Then one woman asked me how long my hair is. Heh. That was kind of redundant, but I pointed to about the same place. I didn't mentally muster up the words quickly enough in order to expel them all in a row to say "it's to the bottom of my bottom." Yeah, so I pointed mutely. Then the other student said she could never control the fly-aways, so that's what she liked about my hair. (I had it in a Chinese bun with a By Fox hair stick.) I thought to say I do have lots of fly-aways and that dirty hair keeps them smoothed down, but I could see everyone had freshly washed hair so I made an assumption that it wouldn't be well received and I wanted to leave the conversation on the up instead of the "Ewww" with these civilians. Heh. If only I could say out loud all the things I think. I would be so talkative!

When I was dating my husband he broke up with me. I was crushed. I was so terribly in love with him. Well. Plus he was the best, most downright decent, good man, I ever dated. But he was dating several ladies in addition to me pretty much at once, and he didn't figure the love was reciprocal.

So I wrote him a long letter, a break-up letter, left it hanging on his fridge in his apartment, took the photos of me I'd given him, got in my little Toyota and went home. I had to get all my thoughts out since it was the end so I wrote down quite a bit. Generally break up letters are not recommended. In this case however, it worked to my ultimate benefit.

Two weeks later he called and told me he wanted me back. I never, never expected it. We're going on 24 years now.

After we'd been married a few years I found he'd kept that letter I wrote to him scrawled on notebook paper. I was very surprised. He was working in the garage so I took the letter (it was written on paper that had a slight green tint to it and dark green lines) and held it out to him. He was up in the rafters rearranging things he had previously arranged (husbands sometimes have this proclivity) and I told him I found it in a box and asked him why he still had it. He said he wanted to keep it to remind himself of why he loves me. Perplexed, I asked "What do you mean? Don't you want me to throw it away for you?" "No, no. Don't do that," he said.

See, I'm so quiet and when I talk I'm so vanilla. I'm not even French vanilla or Neapolitan vanilla with chocolate and strawberry to liven it up. Just plain, plain vanilla. But when I write I can find words better.

So he said that when he came home and read that letter he was awed at all I had inside me. At the time, after we got back together he said, "Why didn't you ever say to me any of these things you wrote?" I shrugged and said, and this is memorable, "I dunno. I just didn't."

After that, back in 1983, I reeled him in real slow and careful like till he finally asked me to marry him. Apparently he couldn't quite decide whether marriage was a good idea (because I was 24 when he was 42), but I later found out he confided in his best friend who told him to go for it, so he got me a ring. What's he doing? Jumping off a cliff? Walking on hot coals? "Go for it" as a foundation for a lifetime together is any girl's dream come true, of course. (Rolling my eyes here.)

I love him so! After 24 comes 25 and that's gotta be worth something. I told him we'll have a big, giant party to celebrate. Haha! That's a joke because parties make me mental. Anywho, it's a good thing I wrote that letter and it's a good thing he took his friend's oh so very "thoughtful" advice.

Wishes

I've come across several beautiful blogs such as Restoring the Years and ...My Surviving Thoughts and The Family Revised. They're so fun. I completely admire that they blog about their family and I want to participate too! But I'm afraid to post much about our young 'un. It's so unfair because I could post some really entertaining stuff and I'd love my blog to be a repository for more familial memories. But I suppose, if you get a scare once you can never go back. I'm toast. What are the chances a p*d*ph*le would pass by my page. I am robbed of the joy of blogging what I want to blog.

CS3

We got a desktop a few months ago. We've had a few problems. With Vista. Don't make me say anything about Vista.

In New Mexico I called Dell for this problem. When I viewed my photos in My Pictures everything was dark and brownish. After five dreadful hours on the phone with them over the course of two days (don't make me say anything about that) the problem was fixed. However, an unexpected side effect was...I could no longer open RAW files in Photoshop at all. RAW files are the digital negative of a digital photo and one of the major reasons why I wanted a digital SLR. I googled the problem. I downloaded and installed a plug-in that I thought may have been deleted by Dell's technician (who muddled along worse than I). By the way, I phoned Adobe this week and they walked me through installing the very same plug-in. Still it didn't resolve the problem. The gal told me to uninstall and reinstall Photoshop which I had done before to no avail, but I grit my teeth and in all outward calmness told her I'd do it again on my own instead of over the phone (using up more minutes on our cell phone) and she said, do that and call back.

And I called Adobe a second time. This time they said Photoshop Creative Suite 2 is incompatible with Vista. What. What? What! They said I needed CS3 which is Vista compatible. No tech assistance for me! Why they didn't say so the day before and why the girl spent 45 minutes on the phone with me helping me with the install I don't know. Doesn't make sense, does it. Unless Adobe decided they're getting too many calls that are Vista related that cannot be resolved.

So I downloaded the trial version of CS3. Fixed my problem! Hooray! That's the good news. The bad news is the upgrade version is $199.00.

Don't make me say anything about that either.

Strictly long hair post

I have some hair comments building up so thought I'd write them down.

At the Messianic Synagogue last Saturday I received two comments. When I was in the restroom three senior ladies said my hair was beautiful. I wore it down which I rarely have done in the past, but am trying to do more often - a promise I've made to myself to enjoy the length. As I washed my hands they asked me questions such as how long it took to grow it to this length. I thought for a minute and said four years because I joined the Loom in 2004, and I pointed to my upper arm to show them the length I started with (24"). One lady said she thought it would take a lifetime to get it this long. Hehe! I said, "Oh no, if you don't cut it it will grow long." I combed my hair in the stall because I didn't want anyone to think I care about my hair. Haha!

Then as I walked back to my seat a gentleman in a wheelchair exclaimed, "I love her hair. Look at it." He stuck his hand out for a handshake as I turned the corner (he was at the end of the aisle) I shook hands and thanked him very much. I think perhaps he had cerebral palsy or some such thing. Their minds are perfect, sharp as a tack, but their bodies are not working, so I knelt down and chatted for a minute before I sat down. It saddened that me that he was wheelchair bound. There but for the grace of God go I.

Now then, an odd thing happened in the dance workshop. The Messianic Jews practice Davidic dance in their shabbat worship. As I entered the room they began to talk about someone and she had long, long hair. Who? I don't know. I was brand new so I didn't know one person. Nobody said anything to me about my hair in there though. Not that I expected it. I just thought it funny that they're talking about really long hair and didn't say, "Hey, she has long hair." It's like an elephant in the room sometimes. I just looked at the floor some and then smiled at a couple people. I had a great time learning three circle dances in two hours and the dancers were really nice. I almost tripped one of the teachers. I was supposed to turn but didn't so I was in her way. I apologized profusely and she said she was a klutz, which she definitely was not, and we both kinda laughed. Me, wishing I could disappear! Heh. There were even some men there. Male dancers are good to have.

The highlight of the reality of long hair though came when I was walking from my car to the temple. The wind was blowing. Not strong, but nice. And my hair blew around and tickled my wrists. That. Was a brand new experience! I am not against long hair tickling my wrists in the wind. I thought about fingertip length and when will I feel hair at my own fingertips.

All of this happened last Saturday. But yesterday I got a lovely compliment from my sister. We were going to belly dance class, it's tribaret style which is new for me by the way. It includes lots of pops and locks and I love the look of it. As we were walking to her car (cause we went to a restaurant for dinner after class) she said my hair was exotic and made me look exotic. What? Me, Liliana, exotic. Bwa hahahaha! I felt really good. God bless little sisters.

I washed it yesterday. I put some of my Kara leave-in on the midsection, but not the ends. I should do the ends. They need it certainly. End care is exceedingly important in the maintenance of long hair. But it decreases the fluff factor and I needed the look of fluff at the ends since I knew it would be worn down. What I've been doing instead is heavily oiling with avocado oil and leaving that oil on the last 1/2 of my hair for days (three days that is) in lieu of everyday ever so light oiling. Last week I even did a scalp wash despite having the ends heavily oiled. I had fluffy, clean hair at top and oily from half way down to the ends. No one knew because I wore it in a cinnamon roll or braided bun. The neighbors may have wondered why the woman next door was air drying clean hair with ends that wouldn't dry out. That's how it looks - like the top is dry and the ends are wet - although it's really oil. I have to have it bunned and out of the way for dance on Monday and Thursday. I've been wearing it down Friday for belly dance and it's still clean enough for shabbot on Saturday (I didn't go today) or church on Sunday. I haven't been to church here in San Diego yet. Tomorrow I will.

Sorry no photo for this month yet. And oops, the month is nearly ovah! Where did March go?

Video of the Day

Get Service at YouTube.

You might need a tissue.

A new day

Sunday and Monday were bad days. They are the reason I like New Mexico. At first I had no tears. I was dry.

My husband said today is the first time he's seen me smile in days. I didn't know that. But it was only two days. He kissed me several times and brushed my arm lightly when he walked past. He bought me my favorite cinnamon rolls.

I knew it was coming one way or another. Thought I got through well, but "it" on Wednesday wasn't "it" at all. Haha! In other words what I was prepared for I weathered well, but the unexpected. Well now. The unexpected by definition is unexpected.

Heb. 11:1-2 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. That's one to make you think. I've read it before. I've always liked it. But its meaning I didn't quite grasp. I think I do now. It's funny how something will become clear so all of a sudden. It's amazing really.

I want to type more but I can't because I have this stupid noisy keyboard.

Let's see. Where's my suit of power armor and my plan book! I have a new start to make. My first new start kinda died a natural death, so this is the new, new start.

It is a day

And I am here and I am forging ahead. I have no peace. Peace evades me at the moment, but I know it's there. Somewhere. Well, right here. I just can't see it. The ocean fills my nose.

Jamie Lee Curtis

She's my kind of woman. Great article about her, short, at CNN. Of course, I love the grey hair. She's gorgeous. She's real.

I own Grishko 2007s

I did it. Bought my first pair of pointe shoes! I think they fit well? They feel bizarre on my feet. Very foreign. They are not too shiny, and not too pink. The box is not too big.

I hope...I can dance in them.

Tonight at 6:30pm I take them to class for the teacher to look at them and approve them. Then! I take them home and sew on the ribbon and elastic. Woo hoo! This is Jessica who did the trying on with me. She wears Grishko 2007s too. Hmmm. Funny that's what I ended up with too, huh. I look like a lunatic because I'm excited. She has a perfect smile because she's done this hundreds of times. She was very nice and easy to talk to. I liked her a lot.

I got pads for inside the toe. They're gel pads. There's a lot to know about pointe shoes. They die. Yeah, that means, I think, they break (the arch part?) and then they offer up no support for the foot. They die. It can happen very fast if you have strong feet and depending on how hard you dance and how often. I don't know. I have a lot to learn about toe shoes.

Shopping tomorrow

Finally! I'm going pointe shoe shopping tomorrow. I met my new teacher, Laila, tonight. I sat and observed the adult ballet I/II class this evening. It's more advanced than my class in New Mexico. I expected it because this is the city. More competition. I'm a little anxious, but it'll be good for me. Going en pointe never panned out in New Mexico because my dear teacher went into a divorce. She had bigger fish to fry than starting Liliana en pointe. And no place to buy shoes there anyway. We're residing in the middle of shopping mecca for the next two months. When I see her in October, hopefully I will surprise her with my new ability!

Today went okay. I kept my Psalm in my mind and it helped. Psalm 119:165. I picked it out in December. Or was it January? On this last drive I seem to have misplaced my Bible notes book. It was almost full and I've needed it for reference on a couple occasions and I can't find it. I may have to buy a new one, but where is my old one? The notes are irreplaceable.

I'm interested in the skirt-wearing concept brought up by Stagecoach and Crowning Glory. When I worked outside the home I always wore dresses. I like dresses a lot. I liked pike skirts especially. Black. As a college student I wore ruffled skirts with long johns (flowered ones) underneath. I wasn't modest though. I was definitely not modest.

I am happy today. Generally, overally, happy. My hair is happy too; a natural extension of general happiness. I had the best shower in months. Plenty of water and my hair said, "Whoa, this is great!" I had to keep my face out of the spray because it was so strong it woulda blown my face right off and swished it down the drain. It was like a fire hose or something. Sheesh. Well, full-timers can't be too picky about showers.

Everyone drives so fast here. I was tail-gated and I had vehicles speeding by me right and left, both lanes at the same time. Everyone is in such a hurry. I had to concentrate so hard on my driving. Do they not realize that they use more fuel and gas when they drive that fast? Do they think accelerating to the next stop light will get them where they're going that much faster? I was exactly the same three years ago. Radio blaring, lead foot, no waving, smiling, or acknowledgement. Git outta my way, pretty much. My eldest son used to ask, "How come everyone gets out of your way when you walk, Ma? How do you do that?" I told him walk with purpose and make no eye contact. I never used to say excuse me either. We noticed in our travels, some areas of the country you hear "Excuse me" more often. It makes you stop and think. Well, it made us stop and think and be more courteous.

So my husband had a Toyota truck tail-gating him. She pulled out into the next lane and they were at a stop light together. She thought she had a fast truck. Past tense. She saw what a fast truck is when that light turned green. It's called a Ford, baby. Yeah, eat my dust.

Yes, indeedy. We're back in the city again!

Braided bun held by two sticks

I cannot count the hours I've tried to make my hair go into a decent braided bun. Today I made one and it's not too bad. I know I could pull it all back into a pony tail, put on an elastic, then make the braid, but I really don't want to cause extra breakage. Therefore, I struggle with trying to get it tight enough to look "done" and to stay in place for more than five minutes. I didn't bring matching sticks as I thought a couple unmatched sticks would be adequate, but today I wish I had two matching. Anywho, the purple one is the one Fox made for me. It was my very first hair stick ever. This bun stayed in place for about, hmmm, five hours, till it started flopping around and annoying me. I was real proud of this bun today so I needed a picture of it. It's actually not lopsided, not one hair pin, and it's situated at the perfect place in terms of longitude and latitude on my head where it looks best. Quite. An. Accomplishment.

I also cooked an excellent St. Paddy's corned beef and cabbage dish. My husband liked it a lot. I want to make albondigas (a Mexican soup) next.

A Harley dog

A very cute dog driving down the road.

Yuma, Arizona.

Short day tomorrow

We'll be traveling just five hours.

We decided to give our son next week off for Easter. That means it's time off for the whole family. Oh boy!

I ordered Powerglide's French lessons for our son. I look forward to seeing what it's like and how it's set up. We won't get to play with it till tomorrow when we get to our next destination which is...the middle of nowhere. It'll give us a shorter drive into California next week though.

My blouse is half sewn. I'm not sure I like how one ruffled sleeve turned out. I bunched the ruffles in one spot a little too much. It might not show.

I oiled my hair with EVOO this morning but didn't get round to taking my shower so it'll just have to stay oiled till tomorrow. That's not a bad thing though.

Oh no

Oh no! We have the stomach flu at our house. Our son fully barfed. He's grown up so much. Last time he barfed was when he was seven and it was not very neatly done. This time he ran out of bed and tossed up in the bathroom trash can. Yay for ten year olds vs. seven year olds.

So I'm hoping I don't get it. Last time I got the stomach flu was at this very, exact campground in 2005. Here's a write-up detailing the pleasant event. It's great to have an archive to store the special moments of your life.

Let's see. It was titled Bad Case of the Blahs.

On my mind

I keep thinking of the Israeli folk song and circle dance called "Hava Nagila." It's such fun.

Finally, I cut my blouse out. I did it at my uncle's house. All I need is someone's house to cut my patterns out. Heh. Perhaps sewing will commence tomorrow. Perhaps.

There may have been a problem with the way I cut out one of the sleeve parts. I won't know till I see it together. It's a bit of a handicap being unable to visualize, but I can't visualize. The layout picture of the selvages was confusing.

Wore my hair down again today. Twice in the past week. Both times my husband commented that he liked it. I would say I'm on to something but to be correct, I'd have to say Karen-Marie is on to something. It was her advice. I don't know if there's really a hyphen in her name or not.

Generally, I was grumpy today. My face hurts. It's just one of those things if you know what I mean. It'll be gone tomorrow. When I was little and I said, "Mom, my face hurts." Her reply would be It hurts me too. (That's an old one!)

I have a new iPod Nano. My husband gave it to me for Valentine's Day. I like it a LOT. I didn't even know I wanted it when he gave it to me. Want to know my playlist that I listen to when I go to bed? I know you do. Who wouldn't. Here it is:

"Watching Airplanes" by Gary Allen
"Fast Cars and Freedom" by Rascal Flatts
"Cleaning This Gun (Come On In Boy)" by Rodney Atkins
"How 'Bout Them Cowgirls" by George Strait
"All-American Girl" by Carrie Underwood
"Give It Away" by George Strait
"What Do Ya Think About That" by Montgomery Gentry

(Those were all country which I just started listening to in New Mexico. There are lots of genuine cowboys in the state of New Mexico.)

"Days Of Elijah" by Robin Mark
"Revival" by Robin Mark
"You Never Let Go" by Matt Redman

(Those were songs we sang at church and I miss my church.)

"Cat's In The Cradle" by Harry Chapin (At our son's request.)
"Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald" by Gordon Lightfoot

(Those two are folk songs.)

"Raincoat" by Kelly Sweet
"We Are One" by Kelly Sweet

(Jazzy blues by a new young talent. She's only 18.)

My playlist smiles me to sleep every night.

Right now

At the moment, I feel, hopeful.

What happened

Where's my Favatar? There's supposed to be a little purple butterfly next to my URL in the location bar. Where'd it go? I'm not even going to try to put it back. There's like 6,000 HTML errors on my page as it is. If I do anything it'll probably explode. I tried to get comments working the other day and they're not working either.

Uh oh. Their site seems to be...gone.

Murray Springs Clovis site, AZ

Yesterday's hike near Sierra Vista, Arizona, way down south by the border.

It's called 'Clovis' because of the arrowheads found in the area belonging to the Clovis people round about 11,000 years ago. They were people who hunted big, big, game such as mammoths back when mammoths were here. There's a sign says "Columbus was not the first one here." Hehe! So true.


We were fortunate there was cloud cover all day so it was perfect weather for a hike. Wait another month and it'll be blazing hot to walk very far in the sun.


We crossed the San Pedro river. Yes, indeed, that's a river. Well, we're in the desert ya know. Ha! It runs northwards and much of it is underground. There's a riparian area not far from this spot and the cottonwoods are gargantuan.


Someone put a lot of effort into building this unique picnic cover.


Here's one of the cottonwoods I was telling you about. This one is 130 years old and 36 feet around the base! In the summer it will be prettier. Right now it has no leaves. There are lots of birds singing here. See the old shed on the left? It's tiny by comparison.

See, I told you there were birds. Heh. There's a feeder near the tree. There's a bookstore too, inside of what used to be the house belonging to a rancher. It's teeny. There are other more brightly colored, prettier birds in the area such as regal Kingfishers and perky yellow Goldfinches. Just don't say that to these two birds. It could hurt their feelings.


Here is another plain desert bird.

I tried out my ballet hair pins today. One fell out, I don't know where, so it's somewhere on the trail I guess. The other didn't stay in. Maybe they're only intended to be used in a tightly wound bun and mine was too loose.

I wanted my photo taken in this spot because the branches overhead form an arch. My photographer did not listen to my instructions to include the arch so you'll have to take my word for it - there's a lovely natural arch over me. And my husband is making funny faces at me while I'm trying to look unaffected, so now I look like I have a mouth full of Jujubees.

Get your hair forecast

Tonight's result of my quality online time. A cute site created by a meteorologist/computer man married to a curly haired woman. I hope it works for straight haired women too.

http://hairforecast.com/hairforecast/find

I have a pair

I have a pair of new earrings and best of all they will coordinate with the peasant top that I'm now highly motivated to cut out tomorrow. It's purely by chance they go together because I never plan ahead. It took me three tries to finish the second earring. First I left the thread sticking out where I thought I'd gone though the beads so I had to start anew. Then I forgot to add the focal bead (which I scrapped in the final pair anyways) and didn't notice it till I finished. Duh. Next I inadvertently clipped the wrong thread. I was angry with our son so my bead concentration was shot. That's the reason. Finally I finished though. Perseverance.

We went on a hike today and we're going to a museum tomorrow. The mesquite trees have an abundance of buds. You can almost see the tiny leaves popping out day by day.

Redid it

I made a new earring with better bugle beads and I daresay, it's pretty too. No time to take pictures, so I'll photograph the set after I make the mate tomorrow. I was afraid the second try just wouldn't be any great shakes, but my husband likes it better than the first. I used translucent neutral colored beads instead of the metallic copper/silver/gold/bronze mix and substituted a glass leaf as the focal bead instead of a round wooden rosette.

School was okay. We discussed three poems that I enjoyed (son, not so much) and we learned about Anne Hutchinson and Mary Dyer who left the Massachusetts Bay Colony for Rhode Island. I like learning about women in history.

We buttoned up the trailie and pulled in the slides and went to the dump station to empty all our tanks. Have to do that once a week because there are no sewer hook-ups in this park. I haven't been outside on the trails at all. It's too chilly outside. I miss my old classes and I'm just inside teaching or beading or making dinner. I cooked a dynamite fried chicken meal tonight with fresh, steamed green beans. My husband bought a new frying pan and it's real big so I was able to cook eight thighs and that means two lunches and a second dinner. We're in favor of tasty leftovers.

P.S. - I thought natural light was the key to photographing the earrings, but it's not. Artificial light shows jewelry best and much more accurately.

Obama or Clinton?

I'm so curious to see who will earn the democratic nomination. If Hillary does, and I don't think she will, I'll vote for McCain, hands down. I'm a Republican. If Obama wins though? I think I would vote for him.

We wait.

As it stands McCain is our party nominee and every day that the Democrats waste picking their nominee is time in McCain's favor.

Test run earring

Mainly I wanted to do something with the olivewood beads I ordered from Bethlehem, Israel. I've been holding on to them. I hold on to beads way too much. Must be some sort of affliction. For some weird reason I feel so connected with my beads. I can pore over them for the longest time.

I realized I've learned a bit about beads since I bought my first ones at Wal-Mart about three years ago. The seed beads I used tonight - I realize now they're junk. They lack so much in uniformity, size, shape, and the colors look like they're rubbing off such that I find them unusable. Anyway, here's a mock-up, but I don't think I'll make a mate for it because the bugles look pretty bad. Come to think of it I used these same beads for a tank top embellishment and after I washed the top all the beads were one color; no color silver color! Why did I keep them? It's for certain. I must be one cookie short of a dozen for not throwing them out then.

Another view to show how they would hang from the ear.


I'm going to rework the design with different (as in better) seed beads and see what I can come up with out of the beads I already have. The wooden beads are from Israel. Oh, I already said that. (I like 'em a lot.) The others are oval, glass pearls.

For my archive

No photo here, but sometimes I gotta preserve stuff for future reading or for my descendants or something. Jen W. wrote this. It did not go unnoticed by me!

Your hair looks awesome. I love the look of classic length on you!

It's a keeper. :)

Arizona sign

Welcome to the Grand Canyon state!


New Mexico landscape.


We liked this overpass in Arizona.

Beaded dragon earrings

We're in Arizona. It's a little on the cool side, but I haven't been outside much. I haven't gotten much exercise since we left and I'm atrophying all over. Bummer. Our wifi has been a little spotty and I've been mostly offline. My fingers aren't atrophying though. I have a picture of my dragon earrings to share and it's not bad. I got the pattern from a book. I'm frustrated with trying to photograph my beadwoven earrings so they show well and this is as good as it gets so far. They're shown against a background of very fine styrofoam. Haha! Well, you do what you can do, right? And they're on a dusty laptop that's been taken out of storage because Vista is not doing any good on my desktop.

I fiddled with amethyst and red last night and decided I don't like it, so I'm going to take it apart and try again. I like amethyst and red just not in this particular earring. I think I'd like it in all dark red. The red in the center is of brighter seed beads. I thought I'd try blending them in the middle and make them dark at the bottom but I think now I should have made the bottom bright red to draw the eye down the length of the earring then out into the universe. A person doesn't need their eyes stuck in the middle of an earring.

On the road tomorrow

We're pretty well ready to leave tomorrow morn. I'm dead tired. There was more to do than I thought. Next post will be from Arizona.

1" trim

I got my one inch trim straight across and it feels great. Isn't it funny how just a small trim can be so refreshing? The odd thing is that I was at 41 7/8" before I went, he cut off one inch, and now I'm at 40". Hmmm. Very vexing.

Nevertheless. I like it.

Category updated

I did some housekeeping in my blog today and added all the stuff I've beaded to the 'Beading' category.

It turns out the truck had a pin hole in the booster or something like that. It will be fixed tomorrow. We have a giant, long hill, about a ten or twelve mile long incline to pass to get to San Diego so we need the truckie to be in tip top condition. And my husband cleaned the inside of the truck today. It's all nice and clean now. He was gone all morning till about 2:00pm. Tomorrow he goes to the doctor for the results of his cholesterol test.

I'm trying to select bead colors online and while I was doing that I thought I ought to finish a pair of earrings I started about six months ago. I finished the partly started earring tonight and I believe I like it. It dangles so far it tickles my shoulder! It's a dark blue/purple background with a metallic green, fire-breathing dragon. It's so pretty. I only made one boo-boo. When the pattern called for three red beads I used fuchsia. Drats. I was too far along to fix it so it's permanent. It's not majorly noticeable. Hopefully. It had to be a loud fuchsia I chose as the wrong color.

Didn't see Ivan today. Tomorrow is the day now. Mañana, as they say. Mañana is my favorite day.

Fuel forecasted to pass the $4.00 mark in the spring. That's a bad thing. A very bad thing. I'm so thankful that we went to Alaska and Nova Scotia and all across Canada already. At four bucks a gallon we won't be driving a lot this year. Looks like we can still make it to Wyoming though. I sure hope so anyways. We can get there and stay for a couple months. I hope to see the fawns when they're just born or very young.

There was bird screeching like crazy outside early this morning. The sun had barely risen and he woke me up! But I went back to sleep.

Milestones of a long hair

Since I'm getting a trim I decided it's a good time to record technical stuff I notice about this length. Milestones of sorts. Brace yourself for a very deep, complex posting. Heh.

My length is 41.5" and I preface this with fair notice that I'm a shortie at 5'2". My tall girlfriends must spend more time growing their hair to reach these same milestones. Sorry pals! And I'm not only short, but also short waisted. How do I prove it. You know those cool hip hugger tights sold in the dancewear shops? They go all the way to my waist. Bummer.

Onwards and upwards!

When I comb it out at this length I noticed recently that I can't just comb downwards if there are very many shedding hairs in the comb. Instead, I must hold my hair against my body and then pull the comb outwards, away from my body, else I can't maneuver my arms far enough to remove the shed hairs because they're so long. Cool, huh. Kinda.

And several times I have pulled a hair off my arm thinking it must be a stray, unattached hair ready for the trash can, only to find it is still attached to my noggin. Kinda cool too.

It gets caught quite more often when it's down than ever before - in a closed car window, in door latches in the house, underneath my bottom when I sit, or someone else's if they're close beside me!

I believe this length is a boon for my ends because when combing out I can tilt my head a bit and it falls to mid-thigh length in the front. I can then slowly, gently comb through those tippy ends while keeping them flat against my thigh. Why is this significant and why is this a milestone? Good question! Because now I don't have to cause those fragile ends to flip each time I do a comb through. By holding the hair stationary and flat the ends endure less abuse and less manipulation; two things which are always beneficial to maintain and attain longer length.

It is a delight to the senses to feel the totality of the length.

As of now, I am braced to pass the longest length of hair that I've ever had in my life. Well, except that I'm getting a small trim tomorrow, so that will delay me a little bit. But delays and waylays are life. You can't really properly make waylay plural, but I took some artistic license here. It's my blog. I can make up any words I want.

I'll be fifty years old in 2009 and I am glad I'm still doing new things!

Those are my deep thoughts of the day.

Mistakes

Oh dear. I returned a body tight that was defective. I didn't know I picked priority shipment that is rather expensive. I ended up paying $16.95 to return a $13.00 item. Yeesh. The post office girl told me the price after I filled everything out and I should have told her I needed to change it, but I didn't. My husband hasn't noticed my costly stupidity so I haven't mentioned it.

A warning light came on in the truck Friday night, so he has to take it in to Ford tomorrow. We don't want to get on the road pulling the trailer with any warning lights on on the dash. I hope they don't have to order parts. I hope it'll be a minor fix.

I finally found little beads. Really little beads. At Caravan Beads I found Miyuki size 15. I want to try to make one of my patterns smaller, and smaller beads might do the trick. They have a pretty good selection too! Delicas are used for beadweaving because of their uniformity, but smallest Delicas only come in size 11. I asked around and two people said the Miyuki seed beads are uniform enough to use with brickstitch.

If my husband is home early enough I'm getting a trim tomorrow. I have to do it this week for sure because we're leaving Saturday. I had planned to do it on the Spring Equinox but it is not to be.

30 minutes

Thirty minutes I spent on the phone just getting a bicycle part sent to a new shipping address. I was so patient. I pat myself on the back for being so patient with the girl on the phone. She put me on hold for so long I thought she forgot about me. I almost hung up. Phone etiquette dictates that if a customer is on hold someone should pick up the phone after three minutes and keep them informed of what's going on. I guess they don't teach that anymore.

Everything is really beautiful to my eyes. I'm gonna miss the quail and the bunnies and the birds.

March is the season that the ocotillo bloom! We hope they received good rains so we'll see good blooms at Anza Borrego in southern California.

Lord

I been on this tricycle a long time. When you givin' me a two wheeler?

Quality time

It could be that sometimes I spend too much time on my computer. One night a couple months ago I found a ton of '70s commercials at YouTube. And I'm talking quality stuff. Remember the crying Indian? Remember Euell Gibbons? Remember the Creepy Crawlers commercial? I had Creepy Crawlers. Well, I spend a couple hours downloading all this high quality stuff and the next day our computers didn't work. Turned out we have a certain about we can download per day and if we go beyond the amount we get penalized. That's lame. So ever since then I don't do too much YouTube all at once. But here's a goodie. Remember those educational Coronet Films? I tell ya, there are so many films from school that I wish I could find for my son.

Here's one from 1959, such a very good year. The year I was born. It's titled Books and Their Care. They don't make 'em like this anymore. My husband thinks I'm one disturbed homeschooling mom. Haha! Our son actually enjoyed it. The part about how to care for the spine of a new book is good info. A lot of people don't know you should do that, but my mom showed us when we were little. She's a major bibliophile. No joke.

I feel better and

For two days I felt so bad for our son. He's handling the incident well though. I'm pleased with him. Working through difficulties can build character and I believe he's going to be a man of good character like his father.

They "let him go" at his volunteer job. This child is industrious and has been going to his "job" seven days a week since we arrived in August. But a problem regarding liability arose. He had been working outside more with the men, the rangers, and he had been in and around heavy equipment and the management was fearful that an accident could happen. I don't blame them a bit. I do understand and they are correct in their action. But for a child it's a bitter pill. He loves the rangers and thinks the world of them. He was tearful for two days. Now he's getting control and he says, "Mamma, I've been hired and fired and I'm only ten years old. Who else can say that?" Haha! He is my heart. One must have a sense of humor, yes? I think the management could have handled it in a kinder fashion, but such is life. We crumble or we get stronger. Or we turn angry and ugly. We're trying to help him get strong, and I do not want him to become sour. I do my best to help him with that. Other people, I'm thankful for the other people in this park, they are helping too. They talk with him and it's therapeutic for him to talk about it - to talk it out. We're leaving sooner than expected now. We're leaving here March 1st. It leaves us enough time to wrap up loose ends here.

We're going to spend two months in San Diego! My husband made reservations today. We had reservations for one month all set. That's our usual. But we decided to leave here earlier, March 1st now, so we needed to move our reservation in San Diego up. Well, the lady who does reservations remembered our son and when my husband hemmed and hawed about which dates to reserve she said, "Just make your reservations for two months." And guess what. That's what he did. I am happy!

And I didn't want to go to dance, but I went anyway and I'm a better person for it. I feel lots better inside and out.

The moon was brilliant on my way home from class. It's nice to see things. Sometimes I look, but I don't see. Tonight I looked and saw. It was very big and very bright.

She's back!

And we're all doing the happy dance! Things are not the same. I don't think they'll ever be the same because this is now and that was then, but God heals and restores. That we know, on that we depend, and for that we give thanks.

Tooth fairy

The tooth fairy left five bucks under the pillow and forgot to pick up the lost tooth.

Our son said, "Hey look! The envelope is still under my pillow and my tooth's still in it too." My husband bellows, "What happened here!" He's such a man. I said, "Well. I guess the tooth fairy is perimenopausal and she forgot to pick up the tooth."

I've got two mouths full of baby teeth filed away as it is.

This must be the last one?

Ouch

Someone broke our son's heart today.

We told him he had a good run. We reminded him every day can't be peaches and cream.

But still, I feel so badly for him.

Tomorrow's Monday

It's President's Day tomorrow which we don't usually take off from school, but our son wants it off so he did most of his studies while I was at church tonight. How can I say no? So tomorrow all we have left to do is history. Woohoo!

My hair has been behaving very well. Several times over the past two weeks I didn't even braid it for bed. I just lay it over the top of my pillow and...hardly any tangles in the morning. That's weird. In a good way. I finger combed it and then ran a comb through it easily all the way to the ends.

I received the nicest email from Collette. Gosh, it left me with all kinds of warm fuzzies. I have to write and ask her if I can share part of it. I intend to weave some of what she said into a discussion with our son as I think he will profit from it.

Ho hum

The days are too short. Can't get everything done.

And I am frustrated in dance. I am dealing with adding new hands so we will be uniform, adjusting movements that I was doing wrong, adding the rest of the choreography, and changing my direction in the beginning so we can mirror each other. My confidence is shot. What good is muscle memory if the moves are changed. Aye yi yi.

Son lost a tooth tonight. A big one. Surely it'll be the last one? I keep thinking he's done, then he loses another!

Don't Leave It On The Desk

From Maedean. Where does she find these things!

Don't Leave It On The Desk

There was a certain Professor of Religion named Dr. Christianson, a studious man who taught at a small college in the western United States.

Dr. Christianson taught the required survey course in Christianity at this particular institution. Every student was required to take this course his freshman year, regardless of his or her major.

Although Dr. Christianson tried hard to communicate the essence of the gospel in his class, he found that most of his students looked upon the course as nothing but required drudgery.

Despite his best efforts, most students refused to take Christianity seriously.

This year, Dr. Christianson had a special student named Steve. Steve was only a freshman, but was studying with the intent of going on to seminary for the ministry. Steve was popular, he was well liked, and he was an imposing physical specimen. He was now the starting center on the school football team, and was the best student in the professor's class.

One day, Dr. Christianson asked Steve to stay after class so he could talk with him. "How many push-ups can you do?"

Steve said, "I do about 200 every night." "200?

That's pretty good, Steve, " Dr. Christianson said. "Do you think you could do 300?"

Steve replied, "I don't know.... I've never done 300 at a time."

"Do you think you could?" again asked Dr. Christianson.

"Well, I can try," said Steve.

"Can you do 300 in sets of 10? I have a class project in mind and I need you to do about 300 push-ups in sets of ten for this to work. Can you do it? I need you to tell me you can do it," said the professor.

Steve said, "Well... I think I can...yeah, I can do it." Dr. Christianson said, "Good! I need you to do this on Friday. Let me explain what I have in mind."

Friday came and Steve got to class early and sat in the front of the room. When class started, the professor pulled out a big box of donuts. No, these weren't the normal kinds of donuts, they were the extra fancy BIG kind, with cream centers and frosting swirls. Everyone was pretty excited it was Friday, the last class of the day, and they were going to get an early start on the weekend with a party in Dr. Christianson's class.

Dr. Christianson went to the first girl in the first row and asked, "Cynthia, do you want to have one of these donuts?"

Cynthia said, "Yes."

Dr. Christianson then turned to Steve and asked, "Steve, would you do ten push-ups so that Cynthia can have a donut?"

"Sure!" Steve jumped down from his desk to do a quick ten. Then Steve again sat in his desk.
Dr. Christianson put a donut on Cynthia's desk.

Dr. Christianson then went to Joe, the next person, and asked, "Joe, do you want a donut?"

Joe said, "Yes."

Dr. Christianson asked, "Steve would you do ten push-ups so Joe can have a donut?"

Steve did ten push-ups, Joe got a donut. And so it went, down the first aisle, Steve did ten push-ups for every person before they got their donut.

Walking down the second aisle, Dr. Christianson came to Scott. Scott was on the basketball team, and in as good condition as Steve. He was very popular and never lacking for female companionship.

When the professor asked, "Scott do you want a donut?"

Scott's reply was, "Well, can I do my own push-ups?"

Dr. Christianson said, "No, Steve has to do them."

Then Scott said, "Well, I don't want one then."

Dr. Christianson shrugged and then turned to Steve and asked, "Steve, would you do ten push-ups so Scott can have a donut he doesn't want?"

With perfect obedience Steve started to do ten push-ups.

Scott said, "HEY! I said I didn't want one!"

Dr. Christianson said, "Look!, this is my classroom, my class, my desks, and these are my donuts. Just leave it on the desk if you don't want it." And he put a donut on Scott's desk.

Now by this time, Steve had begun to slow down a little. He just stayed on the floor between sets because it took too much effort to be getting up and down. You could start to see a little perspiration coming out around his brow.

Dr. Christianson started down the third row. Now the students were beginning to get a little angry.

Dr. Christianson asked Jenny, "Jenny, do you want a donut?"

Sternly, Jenny said, "No."

Then Dr. Christianson asked Steve, "Steve, would you do ten more push-ups so Jenny can have a donut that she doesn't want?"

Steve did ten....Jenny got a donut.

By now, a growing sense of uneasiness filled the room. The students were beginning to say, "No!" and there were all these uneaten donuts on the desks.

Steve also had to really put forth a lot of extra effort to get these push-ups done for each donut. There began to be a small pool of sweat on the floor beneath his face, his arms and brow were beginning to get red because of the physical effort involved.

Dr. Christianson asked Robert, who was the most vocal unbeliever in the class, to watch Steve do each push up to make sure he did the full ten push-ups in a set because he couldn't bear to watch all of Steve's work for all of those uneaten donuts. He sent Robert over to where Steve was so Robert could count the set and watch Steve closely.

Dr. Christianson started down the fourth row. During his class, however, some students from other classes had wandered in and sat down on the steps along the radiators that ran down the sides of the room. When the professor realized this, he did a quick count and saw that now there were 34 students in the room. He started to worry if Steve would be able to make it.

Dr. Christianson went on to the next person and the next and the next. Near the end of that row, Steve was really having a rough time. He was taking a lot more time to complete each set.

Steve asked Dr. Christianson, "Do I have to make my nose touch on each one?"

Dr. Christianson thought for a moment, "Well, they're your pushups. You are in charge now. You can do them any way that you want." And Dr. Christianson went on.

A few moments later, Jason, a recent transfer student, came to the room and was about to come in when all the students yelled in one voice, "NO! Don't come in! Stay out!" Jason didn't know what was going on.

Steve picked up his head and said, "No, let him come."

Professor Christianson said, "You realize that if Jason comes in you will have to do ten push-ups for him?"

Steve said, "Yes, let him come in. Give him a donut."

Dr. Christianson said, "Okay, Steve, I'll let you get Jason's out of the way right now. Jason, do you want a donut?"

Jason, new to the room, hardly knew what was going on. "Yes," he said, "give me a donut." "Steve, will you do ten push-ups so that Jason can have a donut?"

Steve did ten push-ups very slowly and with great effort. Jason, bewildered, was handed a donut and sat down.

Dr. Christianson finished the fourth row, and then started on those visitors seated by the heaters. Steve's arms were now shaking with each push-up in a struggle to lift himself against the force of gravity. By this time sweat was profusely dropping off of his face, there was no sound except his heavy breathing; there was not a dry eye in the room.

The very last two students in the room were two young women, both cheerleaders, and very popular.

Dr. Christianson went to Linda, the second to last, and asked, "Linda, do you want a donut?"

Linda said, very sadly, "No, thank you."

Professor Christianson quietly asked, "Steve, would you do ten push-ups so that Linda can have a donut she doesn't want?"

Grunting from the effort, Steve did ten very slow push-ups for Linda.

Then Dr. Christianson turned to the last girl, Susan. "Susan, do you want a donut?"

Susan, with tears flowing down her face, began to cry. "Dr. Christianson, why can't I help him?"

Dr. Christianson, with tears of his own, said, "No, Steve has to do it alone; I have given him this task and he is in charge of seeing that everyone has an opportunity for a donut whether they want it or not. When I decided to have a party this last day of class, I looked at my grade book. Steve here is the only student with a perfect grade. Everyone else has failed a test, skipped class, or offered me inferior work. Steve told me that in football practice, when a player messes up he must do push-ups. I told Steve that none of you could come to my party unless he paid the price by doing your push ups. He and I made a deal for your sakes."

"Steve, would you do ten push-ups so Susan can have a donut?"

As Steve very slowly finished his last push-up, with the understanding that he had accomplished all that was required of him, having done 350 push-ups, his arms buckled beneath him and he fell to the floor.

Dr. Christianson turned to the room and said, "And so it was, that our Savior, Jesus Christ, on the cross, plead to the Father, 'Into thy hands I commend my spirit.' With the understanding that He had doneeverything that was required of Him, He yielded up His life. And like some of those in this room, many of us leave the gift on the desk, uneaten."

Two students helped Steve up off the floor and to a seat, physically exhausted, but wearing a thin smile.

"Well done, good and faithful servant," said the professor, adding, "Not all sermons are preached in words."

Turning to his class, the professor said, "My wish is that you might understand and fully comprehend all the riches of grace and mercy that have been given to you through the sacrifice of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. He spared not His only Begotten Son, but gave Him up for us all, for the whole Church, now and forever. Whether or not we choose to accept His gift to us, the price has been paid."

Anybody there?

Am I the only one still up?

Guess what

BusyHSmom is IN THE HOUSE!

Hi!

How was your day? Mine was not too bad. We did homeschooling for a half day and then I washed my hair and got cleaned up for belly dance class. This month I have two belly dance classes every Friday. Tentatively, I'm planning to go dance at El Paso with my teacher on March 1st! I have half the choreography learned and if I can learn the rest and get a costume together too, I'm gonna do it. The odd thing is I actually have a bit of confidence performing the first half. Could I possibly have some measure of that same confidence to learn the rest? I have to get rid of that monkey in my mind who chatters away at breakneck speed telling me all the time that I'm no good. I need to believe in myself. I've spent so many years doubting that it's hard to get over that hump. I have a feeling everything is really pretty and green with lots of flowers on the other side.

On Thursday night I didn't journal because I came home sore and tired. I was the only one who showed up for ballet so my teacher worked me at my level, er, a little higher I'd say! I ate dinner (my husband made me a plate) then I went straight to bed. I was beat.

Tonight my Middle Eastern dance teacher said I have a nice voice. That was sweet of her. And she had me go up in front of the class and teach chest isolations for about three minutes all by myself. It was a little scary I tell ya. I went real slow and explained it as four points; go right, back, left, front. I did it slowly a few times then said connect the dots and smooth it out. Some ladies were looking pretty challenged like they were trying real hard and not getting it. It scared me. lol! I think I should have said not to worry if you don't get it tonight. Keep trying and as with all good things, it takes time to get it right. Wish I had said it, but I only just now thought of it. Well, it was a long three minutes. It's a good class though. You can feel a good group and I felt it was a great group of ladies. They were very enthusiastic and a laughing group. Laughter is good when you're trying hard.

Oh my gosh. I've got to get my costume ready. I gotta go to bed from thinking about this. I need to adjust my fringe on the bra. I need to adjust the bra. I need to alter the hip belt smaller! I gotta figure out some sleeves to attach to the bra straps because people don't want to see 48 year old upper arms. I need a head band. I need a necklace and earrings. And oh yeah, a SKIRT and veil to match. Duh. I've had my bedlah sitting in a box for three years awaiting this very moment.

I did pray. In case you're a person who asked for prayer for your mom this day, I didn't type it out loud, but I prayed it.

Lyrical routine

We actually learned the first part of a dance routine in lyrical class tonight. I need to practice it. I wrote the steps down. The choreography is to a song called "Raincoat" by Kelly Sweet. It's a bit of a bluesy pop-jazz song; smooth, slow, calm. Here it is at YouTube. The moves are pretty too. The other girls danced it better but it's to be expected since they're familiar with the teacher and her style. I notice she doesn't teach in counts of eight. She describes each move. It does cause you to let the music move you more so than the counts. I think this may be a good thing. In college everything was done to counts. It can cause you to dance too mechanically. That reminds me. I used to think everything in counts of eight when I was a student. I used to cook tacos in count of eights.

The dance studio was so cold. I never did get hot. The gas was turned off by the gas company. My dance teacher is going through a lot. She said every day it's something. I feel so bad for her.

No Nano yet. Next payday I think. I did get fabric to sew a top. Let's see if I can find the pattern link online. Found it! McCall's 5050. I'm making style D. I decided to sew only this and make sure it fits. I usually have to adjust the bust a little but I have trouble with shoulders being too wide on me. With the elastic neckline on this one I don't expect the shoulders to be an issue.

The key. I found the key!

Yesterday I told my son to hand in his history lesson paper. He gave it to me and it was torn. It was illegible. It had tear stains on it. After 30 minutes of work it consisted of three sentences. But the Mamma cannot cry during school.

So I said, redo this paper. This time type it. See how it goes. You have it all in your mind you just need to get it in written form. Twenty minutes later he handed in his paper with the biggest, most beautiful smile. It was the best paper ever. Thank-you, Lord. I've found the key! The key to the universe! I am mother of a boy child and since I don't think like a boy, I am learning as I go along. Second time around even, since my older boy is 29. I am a slow, but a sure learner. For my children's sake, I'm sorry I don't learn faster.

And so he took a picture of my hair for me in the afternoon. This is February sitting down hair. I don't think I've had a sitting down hair photo before. And this is my hair with curls. Yes. Curls. I wore it up all night in three twisted loops. Took it down 15 minutes before the photo was taken. This is the very best my hair can do for curls. I love curls, but I cannot have curls. Boo hoo.

Tomorrow we go to Cruces and I hope to get fabric to sew something like a blouse on my new-old machine. I hope we might get a Nano-Pod too. But I just have to wait and see on that.

Politics and horsemen

There's a very good political article at Fox News. I'm still off the daily horrifying news, but my husband knows what I like and he sent this one to me. It's titled:

Virtue of Contemplation on Super Tuesday

A quote:
Contemplation prepares the soul to recognize messages of real beauty, goodness, and truth. It also enables us to pick out the impostors along the way.

There's an interesting character in the park. I hope to meet him. Our son met him today. He rides his horse all across America. For reals. He's got a couple pack horses and one he rides. He's staying in a tent with one of our illustrious camp hosts. He's been doing riding across the country since 1993. He's got a web page at Horseback America Expedition. I didn't know he was still here so I hope I get to meet him soon.

a lost day

I woke with one of those headaches. Took a a Tylenol PM and went back to bed and woke up still with a headache at 3:00. Took a couple Excedrin and it went away and I went for a bike ride for three miles to try to perk up my body. A whole day lost. Didn't wash my hair. I missed the Catholic church's fiesta where they carry a cross down the street and have a big potluck. And I didn't practice dance at all.

But we did watch a Rocky movie tonight which I thought would be way stupid, but it was surprisingly good. We used to enjoy going to see the fights. I like to scream at the fights. We haven't gone in ages though. I used to like Oscar de la Hoya a lot. Sylvester Stallone did a good job in the film. I was impressed that his acting was quite good. My favorite scenes are when he's talking to his son and gives him the low down on what it be like, and when he's at his first day in training.

Forgot to mention that the roadrunners were here day before yesterday. I fed them but they haven't been back. They must be eating well somewhere else.