BOO!

Okay, I’ll say it. I really don't like Halloween. I didn’t always despise it. I loved it when I was a kid. The mothers in the neighborhood would stay home and answer the door while the dads took us kids trick or treating. What I didn’t know at that time was the fathers were trick or treating for shots.

I know some just love this “holiday” but as soon as I had kids I became anti-halloween. First let me say I love candy, especially Mallo Cups and Dove chocolate so candy is not the issue here. I’m not one of those people that scream about pagan rituals and anti Christian dogma.

What I hate is the costume dilemma. I’m creative in some areas but so not in this area. I can never think of any good ideas and I do not want to spend any money on any part of a costume at all. As a parent I tried hard not to use bribery in my repertoire but succumbed one Halloween. One year when my kids were little I said that if we skipped trick or treating I would take them to the store and buy them each a bag of any candy they wanted. They agreed. The next year before I could even bring it up they informed me that no way will they fall for that again, they wanted to go out and trick or treat. Rats.

We don’t get many trick or treaters in my part of the neighborhood. We live at the end of the street and there are no houses beyond us, just woods. The kids tend to stay deep in the neighborhood. I do enjoy the ones we get. I like to see the little ones in the costumes that the creative mothers think up. I even get a few past and present students come to my door. I also give out good candy. I hated as a kid when you got the really cheap stuff like suckers. I give out full size candy bars since I only get about 10 - 20 ghost and goblins.

So if you love Halloween and really get into it, great! Have a wonderful party or whatever. As for me, I’ll stay home and watch a scary movie. I like the movies that leave some things to the imagination, not all blood and guts in your face. I subscribe to the theory that less is more.

Ginny

Today my world became a little dimmer and heaven a whole lot brighter.

I Don't Enjoy This

College shopping today. Enough said.

Now I tried this little thing below and it worked. Don't ask me how, it's all in the numbers I guess. Apparently it only works in the year 2007. Try it and see if it works for you!


How to tell YOUR AGE BY EATING OUT

YOUR AGE BY DINER & RESTAURANT MATH


1. First of all, pick the number of times a week that you would like to go out to eat. (more than once but less than 10)

2. Multiply this number by 2 (just to be bold)

3. Add 5

4. Multiply it by 50

5. If you have already had your birthday this year add 1757... If you haven't, add 1756.

6. Now subtract the four digit year that you were born.

You should have a three digit number.
The first digit of this was your original number. (I.e., How many times you want to go out to restaurants in a week.) The next two numbers are YOUR AGE ! ------

Space; The Final Frontier

One of the most exciting things I ever saw was 13 years ago while in Florida. We knew the shuttle was launching on our last day there. While driving to the airport the countdown was on the radio. We pulled over and waited. Sure enough, there it was! It had a fat white contrail and flames coming out of the rocket boosters. It was the most dramatic and exhilarating sight. Maybe to the Floridians it was passe, they've seen enough of them but to me, WOW.



For a while the space program had lost it's glamour. It seemed like there were shuttles in space all the time. Sometimes I didn't even realize one was up. Then Challenger exploded in January 1986. For me it was that kind of event you remembered where you were and what you were doing. I was newly pregnant with Number One Son and was looking at baby things JC Penny on my lunch hour. Heard it on the radio on the way back to work.





Anyway, Discovery is up in space now and the commander is a women, Pam Melroy. It just so happens that Pam is from my hometown. Melroy is only the second woman to command a shuttle mission. She also happens to be the last. Seems that there are no more women in the space program that are qualified to pilot a shuttle. The only other female pilot was Eileen Collins, coincidentally from Elmira, about 100 miles south of me and she left NASA last year.

What's even more unusual is the commander on the space station is a woman too, Peggy Whitson. So all you young girls out there, study your math and science and you too can fly into space and history.



I would love to see a live shuttle launch in person someday. I'll add it to my list of places to go and things to do.









By the way, another space event that I remember where I was and what I was doing was on July 20, 1969 when we landed on the moon and Neil Armstrong took the first steps. I was 11 years old and on vacation at the 1000 Islands. My family was renting a cottage and we knew it didn't have a TV. My father packed up our black and white TV and brought it with us. We had everyone that was renting there in our cottage watching when it happened.

Bush Has Big Balls

You may wonder about the title but first: Today I'm home from school, I haven't felt good for the last few weeks, just not myself. To put it bluntly I'm experiencing "plumbing problems". Did you ever notice that when you research your symptoms online you convince yourself that you have several different things and none of them are good news. A little knowledge can be a bad thing. But if things don't change I guess a visit to the doctor is inevitable. Insert heavy sigh here. On with the rest of my post.


Ealier this week the headlines in my local paper and on a reputable
online news service sang out that President Bush wants more money for his war chest. To the tune of $189.3 billion, yes BILLION. I support our troops but should they still be in Iraq? My opinion, no, Afghanistan, yes. We should be focusing on the hunt for Osama and Al Queda.



I must say this guy has the biggest balls ever. On October 3 Bush vetos an expanded bill for children's healthcare, the Senate overrides his veto with enough votes (2/3's) but the House of Representatives fails to do so. Bush gets his way and children in this country get the shaft.



Today I'm reading the paper and see these little gems in an article called "Beyond the Headlines: The Budget" I'll type them exactly as they appear in the paper.



Special Education
The White House proposed a
$291 million cut to special education
grants to states, a 3 percent cut.
The Senate seeks another $748 million increase.





Nursing Education
Bush proposed a $44 million cut
from nursing education almost
one third of what was budgeted for
it in 2007. The Senate voted to add
$20 million.



Now I work in special education, I've seen what's out there. I wish Bush could have my job for a week to see what it's like and how we could use more money for more resourses. In my dreams I guess.

My son is a nursing student at a highly respected public university in the northeast. The government says that we are too rich to receive any financial aid for him. I swear the middle class is going the way of the dinosaurs. Someday in the not so distant future there will be 2 classes, the rich and the poor. Here we have a nursing shortage in this country and Bush wants to cut funds to help educate future nurses.. He does not see beyond his own wealthy little world.

Honestly, he's a lame duck making a mess for the next president to clean up.

I need a nap.

To Blog or Not to Blog?

These are some pictures I took while on vacation on Cape Cod this summer. I found this seashell with the letter J perfectly cut into it. How I wished my name started with a J. Oh well.

I absolutly love flowers. The colors and textures are beautiful. These flowers were in the garden of the house we rented on C.C.

My husband asked me why do I read blogs? I

thought about it for a minute or so and wondered is my own life so boring that I have to read about others? At this time in my life there is no drama, once there was and how I wish I knew about blogging then but that’s in the past. I have decided it’s because I like to learn about people. I find people interesting; I like to see what makes them tick. Reading blogs is a way to peek inside of a person’s life. You can find a lot out about a person by their blog. By reading mine you may see that I love my family, I have opinions on many things, I love nature and I’m an observant

person.

Some of the blogs I read are written by very funny people like Slick, Avitable, Certifiable Princess and Mr. Fab. Some are people that are struggling with things in their lives right now whether it is marriage, kids, job or health. Some are about life styles (sharing their significant partner with others) in which I would never be a part of but find the relationships fascinating. I leave a comment when I feel I can be helpful, supportive or if I agree wholeheartedly or

disagree with them. I don’t often comment on the blogs that get huge amounts of comments just because other people have beaten me to what I would say.


I enjoy blog reading for the same reason I like to go for a walk in the evening. I like to peek inside people’s windows (from the sidewalk people, I’m not a peeping Tom) and see how they decorate or imagine what life is like inside the house. Blog reading gives me the same opportunity from the comfort of my couch.

Why do I blog? Hhhhmmm, good question. For me it’s a place where I can write what I feel and maybe people can get a glimpse into the person I am. Some days, usually in the middle of the night I have a lot that I could write about. Other days, nothing. I don’t write for the shock value. I’m not particularly funny or a great writer; I just say what I feel. If people happen to find me, great. And since you obviously are a blog reader too, I think you’ll agree we all love to have comments left.

**You Got That Right

I enjoy all kinds of music except rap and techno but I love me some southern rock and roll. Probably because I grew up with it on the radio. The Allman Brothers Band, Black Oak Arkansas, Molly Hatchet, The Outlaws, Marshall Tucker Band, Pure Prairie League and of course Lynyrd Skynard. I went though the albums, 8 tracks, cassettes and now CDs.

While driving about today I heard that today was the 30th anniversary of the death of Ronnie Van Zant. If you don't know of him, he was the founder and lead singer of Lynyrd Skynard. He and some of his band mates were killed in a plane crash due to the fact that it basically ran out of gas. It got me thinking about all the celebrities that have been killed in plane crashes. Off the top of my head I can remember:
JFK Jr.
Jim Croce
Stevie Ray Vaughn (helicopter)
Ricky Nelson
Glenn Miller
Otis Redding
Buddy Holly
Patsy Cline
Aaliyah
Davey Allison NASCAR driver
Alan Kulwicki NASCAR driver
Payne Stewart golfer
I'm sure there are more I don't know about but seems to me that if you travel for your job from gig to gig you should really take the tour bus. Be like Dave Madden.

**Seems so long I been out on my own
Travel light and I'm always alone
Guess I was born with a travellin' bone
When my times up, I'll hold my own
You won't find me in an old folks home
You got that right
Well you got that right
Said, you got that right
Sure got that right

It's a Boy!

An interesting article in the news today about a woman having a child. That is certainly an everyday occurrence but what makes this case different is that the father of this child was a soldier killed in Iraq two years ago. http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20071019/sc_afp/usiraqwomenscienceivf Before Brian Smith left for Iraq he had some sperm frozen but not for the reason you may be thinking. Not because he and wife Kathleen were afraid he would die there but because but there were fertility issues and in-vitro would be they way they'd eventually conceive. This article stated that other men were freezing their sperm in advance of going to war due to all of the chemicals they would be exposed to.

The unthinkable happened, Smith was killed and Mrs. Smith was now a war widow. She made the decision to try and have her husband's baby after his death. After all, they had planned to have a child before our president sucked this country into this debacle (my opinion, not hers and let me say for all to see, I support out troops wholeheartedly. My nephew served in Iraq with the 100st Airborne and came home safely. I have the utmost respect for anyone who joins the armed service and those who have layed/laid down their life for this country.)

While one can never really know what they would do in this situation, I'm pretty sure I would have done the same thing. How lucky for her to have a child with the man she loved, the man who also wanted this child. Unfortunately Brian Smith is gone but his spirit lives on in young Benton.

Now of course there are those that don't agree with Kathleen Smith's decision and they have the right. Some may bring up the fact that Benton will be one more fatherless child. Yes, that's true but I can't imagine a more loved child than he. What upset me in this article and prompted this post is the remark from this coward. I copy/pasted right from the article:

A medical professor at the Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences in Washington, who asked not to be named, agreed women who seek to have their late husband's baby are a rarity, and expressed doubt as to whether it was a good idea.
"It's very uncommon. And I don't think it's a good thing, or that it will become more common," he said.
"The problem is regret -- regret is high for those women," he said. "What happens when she meets someone else?"
"The other question is ethical: the guy hadn't planned to die so he didn't say you could use his sperm," the doctor said.

I'd ask to be anonymous too if I said that. REGRET? I know many divorced women who have children. The ex husband may be a bum but NEVER have they expressed any regrets about having their children. One girlfriend says the only good thing to come out of her marriage was havng her children. I know there are women out there that regret their children when it comes to catching a new man, Susan Smith, (no relation), comes to mind and I know that many men want a women without "baggage". I would like to believe that most women think of their children first and foremost. Would most women regret their child when they found someone new?? This women loved her husband, this was their life plan. Yes, he said she could use his sperm when he had it frozen. Not only that but this isn't anyone else's business!! I don't see how he could judge the situation like that.

I don't know, please tell me this isn't how most men would feel.

Kathleen Smith and her 15 mo. old son, Benton.













Okay, rant over. I plan on having a nice relaxing weekend and I hope you do to. :)

Ok, who did it??

I saw these in a catalog I received in the mail. I don't know of one female that would want one of these. I can think of several men in my life that would love one.

Life of a college student

Being a parent is a hard job. It's not for everyone. Some people realize that and don't have children. Others find that out after they have them. As for me, I'm a natural at it. I guess I was born with a huge mother gene.

Most parents want the best for their child. I say most because not every parent is fit to be one. But that's another post. As a mother of two sons, I'm their biggest fan, cheerleader and support system. One of the hardest things for me to deal with was when I was no longer the most important person in their lives. Or so I thought.

Last night son number 1 calls from college. I can tell right away something is not right. The flood gate opens and stresses come pouring out. He is a senior in nursing school, in the spring he will graduate with a 4 year degree as an RN. He already has a job offer but he has to get through this last year.

Seems that at this moment in time he is overwhelmed with life. He has a heavy course load, clinical work in the hospital to do, papers to write, projects to do, tests and mid-terms to study for and to top it off he is president of the university's racquetball team and has 3 tournaments over the next 4 weekends. He has to find time to get his drivers liscence renewed, it expired when he turned 21 in September. No beer with an expired lisence. He's burning the candle at both ends and feeling it.

He spent 47 minutes on the phone with me last night spilling his guts over his life in general. I of course listened to him, offered suggestions, told him that we all go through it. We all get through it, there's light at the end of the tunnel, you're in the home stretch, all the cliches you can think of. At times he would say nothing, I would say nothing. The two of us would be silent. I realized that he just needed the emotional connection with mom, even if it was over the telephone. Just knowing that I was at the other end of the line was comforting.

It was breaking my heart that I couldn't do anything to help him. I couldn't hug him or give him a smile. When one of my children is hurting, I hurt along with them. When he's stressed, it stresses me although I would never tell him that. I finally suggested he go for a walk, get some fresh air, have some ice cream, put a time limit on his studying for the evening and get some sleep. We hung up. I don't know what he did after that. I will give him a few days and then call him.

I realized last night that I am still the most important person in his life, it just shows in a different way now. He may be 21 years old but still needs dear old mom when the going gets rough.

I couldn't love him more. The above picture is mom and son at Lighthouse Beach in the town of Chatham on Cape Cod this past summer.

Good Vibrations

Today there was an article on Yahoo about phantom vibrations that people are having. I'm not talking about vibrations of the ghostly kind but rather vibrations from their Blackberry and/or cell phones. Read about it here.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071010/ap_on_hi_te/phantom_vibrations. They actually feel a vibration where there isn't one. Similar to a person who has lost a leg but still feels leg pain.



I had a cell phone once. It was always on the kitchen counter. I never remembered to take it with me. It eventually became my #2 son's cell phone. I love lots of people and I'm pretty sure they love me too and I enjoy talking with them but do I need to speak with them immediately whenever and wherever I am? Ninety nine percent of the time, no. I sort of like the fact that I'm not connected at the hip to everyone I know. Sure there have been a few times I wish I had a cell phone, recently when I had car trouble and had to use a germ covered public telephone is one but not enough to go and get me one. I'm behind the times, still living in the '70's and I like it that way.

I have a calendar, it's on my wall. I have an address/phonebook, it's in a drawer. I have a phone, 4 actually in my house. If I need a reminder, I write a note. And test messaging, I don't have a clue, nor do I want one. I don't need all of this electronic stuff to make my life simpler. I know myself and I would end up frustrated with it all.

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for the advancement of science and technology, I'm just not good with it. I love my DVR (very similar to TEVO)

I like the fact that I don't have to answer a cell phone, I'm not crazy about answering my home telephone either. Peaceful and quiet, no one bothering me, heaven. Many times there is no TV or music on in my house. I'm not one that needs background noise. I'm in noise all day long. Some days I come home and I don't want to talk or be talked to. Comes from dealing with students all day long.

Speaking of Number 2 son, here he is at about age 16 months and his senior picture. I look at him everyday and am grateful for a healthy, smart, good looking child. How did I get so lucky? He has the most beautiful eyes, they're a combination of green, teal and aqua.

Cherry Bombs

I am a very curvaceous woman. I guess you can say I've got curves in all the right places. All my life I've been well endowed on top (and other places too) and it's been somewhat of a catch 22. While I can fill out jeans and a sweater pretty well, they also attract unwanted attention at times. But that's another story. Here's the the thing with being big busted; when eating, if something falls off of your fork it lands smack dab in the middle of your chest. Does it fall into your lap where you have your napkin? Noooooo. It has to land right on my boobs. I have ruined many a shirt this way. I'm certainly not a slob and am a slow eater, it's not like I'm steam shoveling it in. When I eat I am extra careful not to get any food on myself. Some people can eat and never get anything on them. I'm sorry to say, I'm not one of them.

We went out to eat on Friday evening with Sean's brother and wife. I wore a new white sweater that had a v-neck and some lacy bits around it. It shows just enough of the girls.We are sitting at a square table for four with Sean to my right. While eating my salad (and being extra careful because any salad dressing will stain, I was having honey mustard) I look down and notice some nice red splotches on my sweater! WTF! I wasn't eating anything red. I look closer and see a tomato seed. It seems that Sean was was having a battle while trying to spear a cherry tomato and it exploded. Did tomato guts land on him? NO. They squirt in my direction and landed on new white sweater. Long story short, the tomato lost it's battle and my sweater was collateral damage. I hope it washes out.