It's been awhile since my last update, and it's been a great parenthesis. I'm the proud great-grandmother of Vencenzo Matthieu Aaron LaFianza. Lucky me. Good job Sean and Laura. I thought you'd already done a great job with Eli and Eva, but now you've outdone yourselves.
Ernie and I have a new church. It's Faith Assembly of God here in Lothian, where we live. We've been going to Faith for about 2 years now, and it was a nice little church, the operative word being "little". We had only about 20 people and we were all old. No future there. Then, a miracle happened. A local church called New Hope Christian church wanted to merge with our church, and after lots of talking, that happened. They took our name and took over all the debts of Faith and we took there pastor, (our friend and pastor, Gary, just went away. One Sunday he was the pastor and the next, he was gone.) This pastor is Pastor Barnes. He's a very good man and I'm sure a very good pastor. Ernie and I thought long and hard about whether we should stay or go, but Ernie pretty much made the decision to stay. I'm good with that, I like the new pastor very much. Now, he's a screamer, and that kind of put me off, but I'm getting used to it now and barely notice that he does that. His sermons show a lot of thought and study and I like that too.
My family is clothed and in their right mind........so far. That's all I require.
The political scene is dreary. My dear friend June tells me that I have to have faith, and she's so right. I have more hope, which, as far as I understand it, is seeing something far off and knowing and being sure that it will come to pass eventually. Faith has to have evidence that I can see, evidence is something that can be seen that proves a point, and I'm not seeing much of anything so far. So, there you go. Hope!!!
I'm procrastinating and I have to stop now. Hope you all are healthy, happy and blessed.
Today, on the front page of the Washington Times, the other paper, the one we "right wing extremists" read, there was an article how the pork and earmarks in the new and improved Democratic budget totaled almost 20 billion, that's billion, dollars. Now that's a lot of pork. But, not to worry because one of the earmarks from our friend in Iowa is to study why pigs smell. Once we know why, I guess if we can get rid of pig smell and get down to less important things in this country.
On the same front page that told us how much of our new budget went to pork, was an article about a small business in Virginia that almost had to shut because of cutbacks in funding. It was finally privately funded to take up the slack, and the emotionally handicapped people that work there were able to keep their jobs. One of the employees has been there for 26 years. I'll bet that 1.8 million that was used to study pig smell would have looked good to them. Or what about the ball field in a part of Alaska above the Arctic Circle. Or the thousand and one other things that were funded by our leaders in Washington DC.
Another thing I'm wondering about is why Rush is a right wing extremist and why Bill isn't a left wing extremist. I think about that often as I scroll quickly down my TV screen past his program. What a joke, he's a political commentator, not a comedian. but his show is laughable, and that people take it seriously is even more laughable.
There are a few more things that I wonder about, but I'm so busy trying to find out who the veterans in my neighborhood are and to befriend them so that they won't all go postal on me because they're part of the "right wing extremists" in this country. Scary, isn't it. I mean the Homeland Security, not them. They're patriots and heroes that we should all be thankful to God for.
Well, that's it for today. I doubt if I'll be this mad tomorrow. Who knows, it's possible if I read either paper, and we get them both, actually three, the Annapolis Capital too. We should be very well informed. We should be!
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I might have mentioned, probably more than once, that I'm writing my memoirs. So far it's been fun, but now I'm at a subject that isn't fun. I've tried to write about this part of my life for a long time now, but I keep not being satisfied with what I've written. I've tried to sugar coat this part of my life, and sound stoic and strong about it, but it was like a punch to the gut, it hurts for a long time and you remember it forever. This part of my life isn't a pretty part of life, but it happened to me and it was a large part of who I am today and why I've traveled the path I've traveled to get here. I'm going to start again on this memory, and I won't sugar coat it because the sugar is a lie.
I'm going to write a letter to Haircuttery to find out why they publish one price and charge another. They told me that it was because my stylist is better so they charge more for her services. OK, fair enough. Why not publish that fact. J.C. Penney's does, so you know up frong that it's going to cost you more for each proceedure. Maybe I'll be OK with a stylist with less experience or less training. All I wanted was a perm, it cost me $87 dollars. Anyone can do a perm. You can do a perm yourself for a couple of dollars, if you have the ability to use your arms and hands to roll all those rollers. I don't.
Another thing. Wal-Mart. I went there for a prescription and they charged me an arm and a leg. I tried to tell them that they made a mistake, but they insisted that they hadn't and that was the price. I paid it. Now I understand that they owe me money so I have to make a trip dwon there to get my money, because they shouldn't have charged me that much in the beginning. I knew that. I won't be going there for prescriptions again. I just want life to be simple and for people to listen if you tell them there's been a mistake. When you're old, people think you don't have a clue. I still have a clue, and I have more than that. I have a brain and I have a mouth and I won't just be treated any old way that people want to treat me. No sireee.
Well, I'm done venting for the day. And i just changed my blog to Joy and Grace. Maybe I did that prematurely. Maybe I should have waited a while for that. Ha.
I wish I knew how to put photos on this blog, I'd put one of me on there and instead of a question mark, there'd be me staring back at you.
I started my memoirs class again yesterday, and last night I spent about 2 hours writing. I thought of our family dog Wolf, and I wrote a memoir about him. He was a great dog, brown and black in color, a German shepherd mix I'm sure. He had big brown intelligent eyes, and I'd swear he could talk. He'd always be there waiting for us as we walked up Cherokee Street, the street that we lived on in Pittsburgh, Pa. He was a stray who just decided to adopt our house as his place of residence. We fed him scraps of food, no dog food. He got no shots, but he got lots of pets by all some of us kids, me, and my cousins Eddie and Johnny. Johnny loved Wolf as much as I did, but Eddie couldn't have cared less about Wolf and ignored him as much as possible. It's hard to ignore a dog who likes to be petted and will put his nose under your arm and try to get you to move your hand onto his head. Wolf wasn't a house dog, he was an outside dog......mostly, except when we sneaked him into the house. As soon as my aunt saw him, it was outside again for Wolf. I was about 11 when we had Wolf. I'll never forget him and I don't know if I ever cared as much for any of our pets as I did for Wolf.
We went to our church again for the first time since Ernie's surgery. Since we were gone those 6 weeks, our pastor left, a new church came and took over the church, it's still Faith Assembly of God, so New Hope changed it's name to Faith. That's the only thing that's the same. The new pastor seems like a very nice man, but he is a screamer, and I'm not sure we can live with that kind of preaching. We like a preacher/teacher. He is a very good preacher. So, we'll see. We've decided to give it a month and then talk about it and see where we are on the subject. If either of us really do not want to be there, we'll find another church home. It only took us 4 years from when we came back here from Pittsburgh to find this church home. I'm not sure we have 4 more years to look. The pastor that was there was an old friend of our, Gary Lauffer, and he tried to bring new life back into a failing church when he took over a little over 2 years ago, but it was only old people like us and it wasn't working. So, a new church and all new people, except for the few of us that were left at Faith. I know this is a good thing, I just don't know if it's for us.
It hasn't been the same without you. Actually, it's been a trip over the past few months, but we're ready to ride again. Ernie had a quadruple bypass, so I've been a busy little person taking care of him, with loads of help from my children and my grandchildren. Now I know why we have family and we cling to them so tightly. When the chips are down, you can depend on them. At least I can depend on mine. Ernie's doing well now, he needs less and less help and more and more supervision. HA. You know him, he'll push and push right past where he's supposed to be. That's why they called him the rock star of the cardiac ward in the hospital. Then at home his nurse and his physical therapist only came the first week because he was doing too well for them to justify coming any longer. God was so good to us on this. I know there was so much prayer going into this surgery and recovery, and I'm grateful for it all.
I'm over the Barack Obama thing now, I don't care if he decides to be black or bi-racial or even bi-facial, I'm over him and his family too. Too much information.
The snow is melting now and I'm glad to see it go. I haven't been able to get to church in so long that my church has changed hands and there's a new pastor and congregation and all that is changed. I won't know what's up when I do finally get there, which, God willing, will be this weekend.
I'm going to make the rest of my phone calls now. Lunch time is over so there shouldn't be a long phone wait now.
You're the best. Gina is a star. Nikki is amazing. Mary Jo is a rock. Tony is all beauty, all over, all the time. That's my kids.
I think I must be the only one who notices these things. Maybe I'm just very sensitive on the issue of bi-racial children. I thought that President Obama would take the occasion of his inauguration to emphsis the fact that he is bi-racial. He didn't. It would have been a great gift to all of the bi-racial kids in this country if he would have at least alluded to it once. He mentioned his father, who is black, twice.....but never once mentioned his mother and grandparents who raised him. They're white. There are many bi-racial kids in this country who could have benefitted from a mention by him that he's bi-racial. Sometimes they have a hard time......other kids can be hard on them.....black kids won't accept them and white kids won't accept them. Now the president of our United States of America is a bi-racial person. I hope all of the bi-racial kids out there are proud, and remind all those who had a problem with them that the president is like them.
Now, on to another inauguration disappointment. Mrs. Obama's dress. Nothing. Absolutely nothing about it was special in any way. It didn't flatter her, it was dull and uninspiring. I know it only cost $1600, a pitance as opposed to Mrs. Reagan's dress or even Hilary Clinton's dress. But still, where was the bling, the pop, the bang. None of that. Very dull.
And what about Chief Justice Roberts fouling up the oath. On purpose? I'm suspicious of it. So, he had to come back and do a do-over. What's that about. I guess it pays to be careful, especially if you're Barack Obama. The president knew the words, Justice Roberts didn't. You would have thought he'd have at least read it over a few times before he got up there to issue the oath. Bad show.
By the end of the day I couldn't look at another minute of the Obama's. Too much of a good thing?
My mother was very ill in her lifetime, actually two times. Tuberculosis was a real problem in those day, my Aunt Esther died from it, and my mother had it, not once but twice. The first time was before I was born, so she had to have been 18 or 19, since she was 20 when I was born. She was in a sanatorium then, and everyone thought she was going to die, but she had a message from God and HE told her she was going to get well, so she told her sisters and brother to go home, she was going to be fine. She was, of course, since she lived to be 90.
The next time she had tuberculosis was when she was about 30. That time, she was so afraid of going to the sanatorium that she was making herself sicker, so my Aunt Jo, her younger sister, decided to take her into her home and nurse her back to health. This decision was a huge risk to the family of Aunt Jo, and indeed, both myself and my cousin Betty paid a price, because we have always had a positive result to a skin test for tuberculosis and have had to have an x-ray to rule our tuberculosis.
My cousin and I shared a room with my very sick mother. It was all my aunt could offer, and she did it. She also boiled all of mother's dishes and linen, washed her everyday, waited on her, bought the food that my mother needed to recover, ( an expense that she could ill afford), and nursed my mother back to health. Dr. Aaron visited everyday and then less often until she was well.
My mother and her 2 sisters were very close. For years they only had themselves to rely on, and that's how they got through a very hard time when they first were let out of the orphanage. When my Aunt Betty finally could buy a home of her own, the first thing she did was have her sisters and me come to live with her. That was her dream, to have her sisters live with her and have a safe place to live. She helped my Aunt Jo buy her first house, and my mother helped her in her business. They helped each other.
You don't see that so much now-a-days. They really felt that they were each other's keeper. I got my strong sense of family from seeing it modeled before me all my life. I know that family can mean the difference between living and just existing. If my Aunt Betty and my Aunt Jo weren't there for me, I would have had to be put into an orphanage, because, at first, my mother couldn't take care of me at all, so they did. I'm grateful that I was dropped into a family such as that. I think God was with my from the very beginning of my life. But then, I think He's with everyone like that, so I must not be special.....just unique.
Am I the only one that's a little offended by the fact that only the black people in this country, and around the world, really, are making an identification with Mr. Obama? I know, he's black, he's African American, but he's also white, he's Caucasian, too. I don't really buy this thing where if you have one drop of African-American blood, you're black. Balderdash, I say. Your still just as much whatever is on the other side of that hyphen as you are African-American. I know whereof I speak, I have grandsons who are biracial, being white and African-American. I'm offended that they are considered black. I would be offended if they were considered white. They are both. Mr. Obama's white parent and grandparents were there for him every step of the way, but when he went with hif black father for awhile, he became Barack Hussein Obama and he found his black identity. So, now we throw away our white identity, and all the good he found on that white side of the family. It seems to to me. I want to take some credit for Mr. Obama, I'm white but so is he.
so we went out to eat at a small diner nearby our
house. (we have the be very selective to find GF options around here!
but we were able to narrow down a few places with a few meals -with
minor adjustments of course- where we cant eat.) anyhow we're all
looking at what we want for dinner off the menus and Eva says "mom look
I drew you name".
now she says this a lot actually. usually it's some silly scribble that she is veyr proud of. circles and lines and what not. to which I say "good job! keep practicing!" and she beams with pride. so in auto-pilot-mothering-mode I turned and said "great job....." no wait! she had written my name! oh my goodnes!
right in front of her on the scribble paper menu thingy they give in classy restaurants like local diners where the letters:
M O M
yep. mom.
she remembered from last week when I told her how to spell it. (she aska billion times a day how to spell all sorts of words, but as she's still learning what letters are what this rarely goes anywhere. she just enjoys asking!)
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she just said to me as I type this...
"mom, I really really want this peice of chocolate" *big sigh*
and she was so cute I said "ok you can have it".
"for real, mom? are you sure?" (long pause of disbelief)
"mom, can I really have it? are you only kidding? Can I really put it in my mouth and eat it???"
"yes, honey, I said it was fine. go ahead, eat it (just don't make me regret it!)"
and she smiles this mischeivious smile and puts it in her mouth in pure childhood delight.
So exactly how bad a mom am I that b/c I SO rarely allow my kids candy that they stare in disbelief when I grant them permission to eat it?
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ok one more Eva-ism b/c I don't want to forget it....
(I'm terribly long winded, so forgive how long the pre-story is to this tiny little story)
Eva is very curious about things other people do that she (or our family) don't do.... and vice versa.
in our house we don't celebrate halloween. she wants to know why. I could go into the theological arguments of why we have decided against it (which btw aren't b/c "it started as a pagan holiday"... but that it a WHOLE other post) but she was 3 after all. simple is better sometimes. a lot of the times actually - evenw ith adults.
so I just explained that some people celebrate different holidays. in our house we don't celebrate halloween, but the neighbors do. it's fine what they do, but we don't. that's all. (I'm not trying to build an anti-halloween army here...)
so she thinks about this and is settled. she asks about a few more holidays and what not. she asks what "jewish" means b/c Sean and I were talking about a jewish friend and chanakah and we explained about it. "why can't we celebrate chanakah?" was of course the next question. I just explained that it wasn't a holiday we celebrated but some of our friends do... so in simple terms I explained the holiday and about the lights. she wanted in on that! (she loves anything candle related - that's a big fascination for her right now)
totally different note - we have a rule in our house. we don't say "stupid". well the kids don't. I slip and do say it sometimes. b/c frankly some things ARE stupid. but.... this too easily becomes a name to call one another and it's hurtful to be called "stupid" by another person - even your little sister so it's a no no in our house. she often reminds me if I slip and use the word stupid to describe my feelings about oh... how the GPS is trying to take us into town some random way with closed roads etc... she's quick to remidn me that "we don't say stupid, mom!"
one day after saying it she says "mom, why does the neighbor call me stupid?". and I say maybe his mom didn't teach him better. and that she should remember how hurtful it feels to be called stupid and not say it back. she thinks very thoguhtfully over this and says:
"or... maybe in their house the celebrate "stupid" but we don't in our house."
I LOVE her logic hahaha
I am so sick today. It's moved mostly from my head to my chest. complicated by the fact that I have asthma, it's turning into bronchitis. bleh. so I've been on my normal remedies. the annoying thing is that there is a huge difference between remedies for bronchitis and remedies for acute asthma attacks. trying to find one for bronchitis for people with asthma is actually difficult! heh. but since I've had this most of my life I've got my own things that work well from trial and error....
- warm tea. NO cold drinks. none. whatsoever.
- warm foods - no cold foods.
- no dairy AT ALL
- chicken soup
- eucalyptus in various forms
- rest - not moving around too much
- sleeping sitting up (I HATE this one, but if I lay down I will end up in the ER being too short of breath)
- nebulizer treatments (which I don't have right now b/c I rarely get this sick anymore... so I'm trying to deal with it without it)
- lots of vitamin C
I've tried various other remedies but these are the handful that work best for me. I'm sad that my family is stuck home from the New Years Eve festivities... but as soon as they cold air hits my lungs I can't breath. Same happens to Eli... so we're sitting this year out. maybe I will be well enough to get out some tomorrow.
for now, I'm lazy
and haven't done a thing all day. every time I attempt a chore I end up
wheezing and panting trying to catch my breath so I gave up. It's not
worth ending up in the hospital over.
