Saturday afternoons. . .

I hear that cats and dogs aren't supposed to get along, but Lizzie and Gracie didn't get the memo. I love days like this. Quiet, overcast, chilly without being outrageously cold. Working on a couple of client projects and sipping some java. Most excellent. I hope your day is special.

2 Generations. . .

My dad and me, Thanksgiving 2008. He still thinks he's taller than I am. :-) He doesn't look 76, I think. We all had a great day. Hope yours was, too.

3 Generations

This month marked the 11th anniversary of my mom's death. We took this picture quite a while ago ;-). I am the only woman left in this line. My mom was a holiday queen...holidays were very important to her and she resented her mom, Millie, on the left because Millie couldn't be bothered much. I admired my mom for doing the holidays in grand style...but I also admired why my grandmother wasn't a holiday fan. She was too busy, really. She was a single mom for a time, kicking her ex-husband out of the house for raising a hand to my mother as an infant. My grandmother got them through the depression by working as a hairdresser. When she met my grandpa, Sam, he decided it was his dream to live on the family farm and my city grandma became a farm woman. She plowed straight into it, and ran a small garden as well as the rest of the farm house, barns, animals, and life in general. Millie was...um...shall we say, a little on the cranky and snappish side most of the time. But, I admire her for her hard work. I admire my mom because she was the ultimate house manager. Everything was in order, spotless, ALL the time, even when she became ill. She was the glue that held us together, expanded family and all. It all changed when she passed. I'm not the one to carry that torch, but my kids and I have great memories because of it.
Holidays at our home are lower key. They are about all of us together, laughing, watching movies, and yep...eating. Instead of spending my time in the kitchen, they want me in the living room. Gifts are kept to a minimum, while the reason for the season is at the center. Expectations are different; I guess I could lament in some of the changes, but it's the people I miss, not the trappings.
In honoring their families, each generation takes from the last and forges their own traditions.

Thankful

Caught another bug this weekend, thanks to a sick teacher who felt compelled to cough on all of us. I actually got angry Monday morning when I woke up with a fever. I was looking forward to meeting with Missy and her hubby for breakfast--my only chance to see her for a spell. I decided fuming wasn't productive..although the adrenaline may be helping my recovery! Instead of fuming, I chose to count blessings instead. . .

When I am ill, I'm thankful that I'm alive
When I have pain, I'm thankful that I can feel
When there is too much going on, I'm thankful for my family
When the alarm rings too early, I'm thankful that I can work
When the phone rings endlessly, I'm thankful I have friends
When there is ugliness all around, I'm thankful that I can see
When my tinnitus is at its loudest, I'm thankful that I can hear
When my feet hurt, I'm thankful that I can walk
When life is overwhelming, I'm thankful for Yahweh

What are you thankful for?

7 random and/or weird facts about me:

1. I'm a sci-fi nut
2. I know how to tat
3. I can write upside-down and backwards (at the same time, if it's a good day!)
4. I nearly died twice--once as a baby and once as a toddler
5. I had my 'beginning' in a 400 year old house near the North Sea, in Thorpeness, England
6. I've had an out-of-body experience
7. I did editorial cartoons for a time for a newspaper in Garland, Texas

Tag, you're it!

Don tagged me a bit ago on this fun lil' thing:

Rules: Identify the person that tagged you and post the rules on your blog

Share 7 random and/or weird facts about yourself.
Tag 7 random people at the end of your post and include links to their blogs.
Let each person know they've been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.
(I'm lazy. You're all tagged! ;-D)

Rough days. . .

Warning: Whining alert! ;-)

The last couple of weeks have been rough. I came down with some kind of virus a week ago Sunday. Chills, fever, extensive muscle pain. I wasn't sure if it was some horrid lupus flare or what. Went to the doctor Tuesday after and got a script for antibiotic "just in case" and ended up taking it. It helped. . . now on probiotics to fix the after effects of antibiotic.

The Wednesday morning after election night we get a call around 2:30 am ---those calls that just about stop your heart. . .it was a life alert company for my brother. He had fallen when going to the bathroom, somehow hit his head against a dining room chair and cut it so severely that he couldn't stop the bleeding. He and I have gone back and forth about him wearing his life alert necklace to bed. He was afraid he'd set it off in his sleep (not gonna happen) so he wasn't wearing it. (What does some stupid sister know?) Therefore, as he was bleeding nearly to death, he had to crawl over to the button station in his living room and hit it to alert the company.

Had he lost consciousness (and given the amount of blood he lost, it's a miracle he didn't) he would have bled to death. I would estimate, from the 'crime' scene, he lost at least 2 pints of blood. . .rapidly. He severed a vein and they had a dickens of a time stopping it in the hospital. We spent a very long 5 hours in ER; me running a fever and looking like hell, and my brother sleeping peacefully as fluids were being pumped into him. So, I finally started to comfortably doze off in his little room as we waited for CT results, my head in my hand, and he yells, "WHAT'S THE MATTER?!?"

So, once again, we battled him to get a script for home health care, and to pay for a private pay "sitter" to stay with him for the time he needed to be watched. They wanted someone with him for 24 hours, expecting me to do so (He was to be awakened every 2 hours all day and night). Hubby nixed that, and the wrestle began. He didn't want to pay someone to stay with him overnight...but I drew a boundary line and he relented. Some of my family think I'm pretty selfish for having boundaries, I think.

I worked at home for the next few days trying to play catch-up and managed to snag a cool mural job. That didn't take very long, and was fun....I was given carte-blanche to "just do it." I loved that.

I subbed today at the school where the student who is emotionally disturbed goes. I had emailed his teacher a few times last week to see if I could come and visit with him at lunch. No responses. Apparently, he was doing okay after a week at a psychiatric hospital after medication adjustments. I showed up for work today expecting to be able to give him a big birthday hug--but he was taken back to the hospital and no one told me. The prognosis isn't good for long term and he may end up in a state hospital indefinitely. He's becoming violent to himself and others.
This hit me hard. The last time he ended up in the hospital was on a day that I had been gone for a week because they had a potential hire for the job I kept subbing for. I showed up that day to fill in and he was...not him....if you know what I mean. Different.
It breaks my heart. I came home and just cried. He hasn't had a chance. His parents are horrible. His only chance has been his grandmother. . .and she has given up.
Would you pray for him? I can't say his name, but God will know who you're praying for. Thanks.

(Yes....it's funny and ironic that I can have such compassion for a near stranger, yet set boundaries and get frustrated with my brother. Jesus said there'd be days like that. . . .)

"I spoke with Him this morning. . . "

Nicole C. Mullen "I Know My Redeemer Lives"

Damp parades and all that. . .

Congratulations to President-elect Barack Obama. Your people ran a significant and successful campaign. I will be praying for your safety and wisdom, and your lovely family, every single day. There are calls all over blogdom for prayer and support for our new president. Calls to refrain from speaking ill of him; to believe the best of him. I think that's great.
Did we do the same for President Bush? No. We didn't. Period. Well, except for the crazy, right-winged, religious nut-cases, that is.
The media has changed drastically in the last few decades. I don't know where I'd be had I continued in journalism. There is no objectivity in reporting. Chris Matthews actually came out and said his job was to make Obama a success in the next 4 years. Is that whether O merits that success? Or will we be fed only the successes? Will the Fairness Doctrine, if put through, apply to mainstream media also? At least conservative talk radio is readily identifiable. Mainstream media is adept at its deception.
Back to my prior point: I am ashamed of our country. We present a very poor image to the rest of the world. We blame President Bush for this image, but that's a big fat lie. When a leader disappoints us we start in on him or her and it never stops. The people we elect are bashed and battered and left in the gutter. Heck, if we don't want them elected we're allowed to make continual SNL parodies till some of us want to vomit. I noticed the self-righteous Obama camp never asked SNL to stop mocking Sarah Palin. And, where was the ACLU when Joe Wurzelbacher's privacy rights were being illegally and immorally violated? I know we're all supposed to be in a state of euphoria over the changing of the guard, but, frankly, I'm very worried.
The majority of us have no idea of how our government works, nor do we take part in any kind of service to our country. It's absolutely shameful.
I wrote President Bush a thank you note...a few times. I heard a woman from Canada ask Mike Huckabee why Americans are so cruel to George Bush. She said Canadians love him. Israel loves him. Why don't we? "He's kept you safe," she said. She's right. We've been safe for the last 7 years. All of my soldiers who come back tell me that they are proud of their work in Iraq. It wasn't just George Bush who took us into Iraq.
This article says what I feel: Treatment of President Bush.When Barack Obama makes his mistakes (and he will, just like Bush and the others, and with the help of other leaders) how will he be treated? Well, probably a little better, thanks to Chris Matthews.
Before we try to bless the new administration, I believe we need to repent over the treatment of the last. What are we teaching our next generations?