December 16, 2006

March 17, 2009 at 9:58 am · Filed under Anecdotal, Government, Personal discovery, Reviews

so I am reading another book…

So I am reading this book called “Letters From Mississippi…Personal reports from volunteers in the Summer Freedom Project, 1964, to their parents and friends.”

I feel pretty stupid but I didn’t realize that Mississippi was that big of a deal. The state refused to obey Federal law. Just out and out refused. And these volunteers are beaten and shot at (two were killed the first week of the project), arrested and beaten, chased with cars, run off the road, harassed. The voting registrar refuses to give the test to blacks and then when they are allowed to take the test, finds anything thing and everything wrong with it and rejects it. People are fired for registering to vote. Fired for allowing volunteers to stay at their homes. People who open their homes to the volunteers are threatened with bombings and sometimes not just threatened. The school houses are burned and/or bombed. Churches are bombed. The volunteers are kicked out a churches and read statements before the whole congregation about how evil they are and how they are ruining the perfection of race relations that Mississippi has.

It’s appalling. I am just embarrassed to find out that I really don’t know American history worth a darn. I don’t have any idea about the issues that have faced our country in the last hundred years. Guess I have a lot of researching to do.

Leave a Comment

December 14, 2006

March 17, 2009 at 9:57 am · Filed under Anecdotal

Christmas Wish Lists

We are working on our Christmas lists.  Ya know what?  I will just go ahead and tell you mine.  These are light things that we can take with us on a plane.

1.   Johnny Cash CD’s ….We already have Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison and A Boy Named Sue and Other Story Songs

1.b.   Dolly Parton — Silver Dagger

2.   Barlow Girl CD — Christian, preferably the one with “Not Your Average Girl” song on it only because I have heard clips of that album and not their newer one.

3.   Gift cards are always good.  Make sure that the store exists either where we are going (and you all know where that is) or maybe on the way there from here.  Or somewhere that we can shop online.  Borders (preferred over Barnes and Noble), Bath and Body Works, etc.

4.   An appointment calender book…I have a fairly specific style.  I want each week to have it’s own page with some sort of picture on the facing page.  I have seen a Far Side one and an MC Escher one that I liked.  The picture is on the left side and the week is on the right.  Something like that.  Either funny or pretty or mesmerizing.

5.   Orginizational stuff (okay, this isn’t really light or plane compatable but it might be or maybe I could mail it to myself).  ooh ooh ooh  I just remember something.  A “tool box”  The kind that you would put nuts and bolts and screws and little thingys and wigits in.  It has little clear plastic drawers.  I would like something like that for my beads.  With many, many small drawers.  I found these bins that hang from the self above them.  They are really cool.  I think taht I could put a couple hundred of them to work.  Oh, a knife/wrench magnetic strip.  I’ve always wanted one of those.  They had them at camp and I think they are the neatest things.

6.   Beading tools.  If you go to a craft store that has jewelry making supplies (Micheal’s for you Iowans) you should find tools.  Like nylon jawed flat nosed pliers.  Nice sidecutters.  Flat/smooth nosed needle nosed pliers.  Chain nose pliers.  Round nose pliers (I think they might be the same as chain nose but I can’t remember).  Basically, I have three really cheap pliers.  They need to be replaced and there are half a dozen others that I would like to have.

7.   If this hasn’t given you some ideas, I don’t know what else to tell you.  Just give me cash, I guess.  Image

And my daughter’s list…Should I ask her? or choose for her?  Well, she’s asleep so I am going to choose for her.

1.   A Thomas the Tank engine train — there are numerous kinds out there.  There is a kind called “Take-a-longs”, sold at Walmart and Target.  That is not the kind we want.  They are a little smaller than the others and they don’t fit the wooden track.  Places like Thinker Toys, Micheal’s during the holidays, carry the ones that fit the wooden track.

2.   Wooden toys.  Target had a set of wooden blocks (plain and painted — plain preferred as the painted ones are very slippery against each other) for $10.  They also had some other wooden toys that I like but I can’t remember what they were.

3.   Also at Target they had a generic wooden train set.  There were a number of different sets.  As we have returned the Thomas table and train set to the neightboors, a set of her own, would not be amiss.  Talk to us before purchasing as we are thinking of getting her some – but more sets mean more fun tracks so just give us a call.

4.   Any crafty thing that she can do.  She loves to glue.  So if there is a glue that is easy for a 3 year old to use, buy us some!!!

5.   Sunglasses.

6.   Tatoos (temperary)

7.   Any musical/noise making instruments.  She loves it and as we are training her to be as annoying as we are, we don’t mind.

I can’t think of anything else.  Oh, maybe some little girl nail polish.  I think she would like to paint her nails (with some adult supervision of course)  Oh, and as always, books are always welcome.   We have read a number of the Thomas the Tank Engine books and have found that the original ones are great but the ones that are based off of the television series really suck so if you find some (probably at a thrift store as new they are fairly pricey) please just read through it and if it’s stupid or there’s no clear cut moral to the story, skip it because, seriously, some of them are really horrible.

I can think of a few things that my husband would like.

1.   Metallica CD — S & M  ; Metallica’s orchestral album

2.   Gift card to Border’s

3.   hideously ugly ties…just kidding

4.   any episodes of Family Guy

5.   A t-shirt that says “I’m appalled”  (Please check spelling)

6.   A Nintendo Wii  (Hey, it’s a wish list, not a likely to get list)

7.   A PS2, and the game Champions of Norath (a role-playing adventure game)

Okay that really is all I can think of … all, like it’s a short list.  Ha!  Anyway.  We love you all and can’t wait to see those of you that we are going to see…Sorry Nana and James and Ellen. I am sure that my parents would put you up if you wanted to come and see us. :)

Leave a Comment

December 13, 2006

March 17, 2009 at 9:56 am · Filed under Anecdotal

I MADE $30 BUCKS!!!

I made thirty bucks today.  “For doing what?” you ask.  “Absolutely nothing,” I answer.  I watched a 10 month old girl.  She did want to be held most the time but she’s really tiny so I didn’t really mind.  I will be watching her again on Monday and then during January, I am going to watch her 2 to 3 days a week.  Oh, and today was just a half day.  On full days I will get $50 a day.  Fifty bucks for doing what I normally do.  Of course, I don’t normally change diapers but I guess I can remember how.

I don’t really have anything more to say.  I am going to post this and then blog my Christmas list and then my daughters.  My husband will just have to do his own as he hasn’t left me with one.

Leave a Comment

Ahhh, the attempts at a social life

March 17, 2009 at 9:34 am · Filed under Anecdotal, Military

Ahhhh, the attempts at a social life…

Well, I here that this is a special situation and that almost any other base will be better.  It is next to impossible to get people involved here.  We had a Christams party tonight.  There were three couples, myself, (my hubby was working), and two kids, mine and a two year old.  We were in a room who’s maximum number of people was 183.  We did have some good food but there was lots left over (which was good because I love calico beans).  There was a gift exchange.  I guess I misunderstood the purpose of the gift exchange.  I found something for less then $5 that was really good (two bags of Hershey’s kisses in a Christmas bucket that I have moved three times and never used) and I received three floating holly candles.  Don’t get me wrong, I actually like them, but wait till you hear about the kids exchange.

Again, I misunderstood.  I got a cool kids toy.  Something that I knew my daughter would like and I figured other kids would like.  I didn’t want to buy some cheap piece of crap that would get thrown away the next day.  I didn’t stay under $5 on this one, I spent like $7.50 and got a set of wooden blocks.  They were way cool.  And my daughter got a Dollar Store magna doodle.  It’s cool and the pen isn’t broken (I stepped on the one that she already had and broke it) so that’s good, but it just felt so cheap after I put so much though into what we brought.  SIGH.

Oh well.  I know that sometimes it takes a while to get into the swing of things.  And next time, I will try to help some in the set up of the parties.  Like, this room was divideable.  We could have closed off three fourths of the room and had a much more appropriately sized room for the number of people that we had.

Oh, and it was pouring rain when we got there.  I mean pouring.  And then it was pouring when I got home and because I had gotten a ride, I didn’t have the garage door opener so I had to run around the houses, fell in the front yard, rolled and was back on my feet (I bet it looked hilarious, this fat woman, running through the rain, tripping over her own feet, rolling head over heels right back onto her feet and then continuing to run), through the back yard and then unloaded my stuff.  I was soaked.  Had water running down my forehead.

And my daughter had waaaaaaaaaaaaay too much sugar.  It was 11 pm before she finally quit crying and hollering “But I’m not tired!” and what not.  But now the house is silent and I should be going to bed but I don’t want too.  I have so many things that I should be doing.

I have Heather’s wedding gift to work on, Katies’s Christmas gift to work on, Christmas cards to work on, moving stuff to organize, (we know where we are going by the way so give us a call), dishes to wash, laundry to do, etc.  But here I sit, pouring my heart out to the masses (or at least my friends and their friends).

Well, I think I will do some of those things that I mentioned and end this blog.  Later.

Leave a Comment

December 10, 2006 — Ahh, the attempts at a social life

February 13, 2009 at 7:53 am · Filed under Anecdotal, Military

Well, I hear that this is a special situation, here on the Presidio of Monterey, and that almost any other base will be better.  It is next to impossible to get people involved here.  We had a Christmas party tonight.  There were three couples, myself, (my hubby was working), and two kids, mine and a two year old.  We were in a room who’s maximum number of people was 183.  We did have some good food but there was lots left over (which was good because I love calico beans).  There was a gift exchange.  I guess I misunderstood the purpose of the gift exchange.  I found something for less then $5 that was really good (two bags of Hershey’s kisses in a Christmas bucket that I have moved three times and never used) and I received three floating holly candles.  Don’t get me wrong, I actually like them, but wait till you hear about the kids exchange.
Again, I misunderstood.  I got a cool kids toy.  Something that I knew my daughter would like and I figured other kids would like.  I didn’t want to buy some cheap piece of crap that would get thrown away the next day.  I didn’t stay under $5 on this one, I spent like $7.50 and got a set of wooden blocks.  They were way cool.  And my daughter got a Dollar Store magna doodle.  It’s cool and the pen isn’t broken (I stepped on the one that she already had and broke it) so that’s good, but it just felt so cheap after I put so much though into what we brought.  SIGH.
Oh well.  I know that sometimes it takes a while to get into the swing of things.  And next time, I will try to help some in the set up of the parties.  Like, this room was divideable.  We could have closed off three fourths of the room and had a much more appropiately sized room for the number of people that we had.
Oh, and it was pouring rain when we got there.  I mean pouring.  And then it was pouring when I got home and because I had gotten a ride, I didn’t have the garage door opener so I had to run around the houses, fell in the front yard, rolled and was back on my feet (I bet it looked hilarious, this fat woman, running through the rain, tripping over her own feet, rolling head over heels right back onto her feet and then continuing to run), through the back yard and then unloaded my stuff.  I was soaked.  Had water running down my forehead.
And my daughter had waaaaaaaaaaaaay too much sugar.  It was 11 pm before she finally quit crying and hollering “But I’m not tired!” and what not.  But now the house is silent and I should be going to bed but I don’t want too.  I have so many things that I should be doing.
I have Heather’s wedding gift to work on, Katies’s Christmas gift to work on, Christmas cards to work on, moving stuff to organize, (we know where we are going by the way so give us a call), dishes to wash, laundry to do, etc.  But here I sit, pouring my heart out to the masses (or at least my friends and their friends).
Well, I think I will do some of those things that I mentioned and end this blog.  Later.

Leave a Comment

December 6, 2006 — Life moves on and that’s weird

February 13, 2009 at 7:28 am · Filed under Anecdotal, Personal discovery

I realized something the other day.  I am getting older.  I know that seems so obvious but it just hit me.  Not so much that I’m getting older but that life is not turning out like I expected.  When my husband and I were dating and then when we were engaged, I had certain expectations of my life.  Some of them were naive, some were cultural misconceptions, some were out and out wrong, some were wishful thinking, and some were on track.  But regardless, those expectations have not been met.  Some of them have been surpassed by something better.
Example.  I had wanted at least five kids.  I figured that we were going to have them one right after the other, 18 months apart.  Well, that obviously wasn’t God’s plan.  We have one beautiful almost three year old daughter and there aren’t any others on the horizon.  If we continue to be fertile at our current rate, we aren’t going to have 5+ children.  It’s not so much weird to not have lots of kids, but weird to be okay with it.  If our daughter is the only one we ever have, I am okay with it.  It is a big adjustment but I’m okay with it.
I never thougth that I would live in California.  I wanted to stay in the Midwest.  Far enough from family that we are on our own but close enough to visit when we wanted to.  But now I am okay with living far from our family and friends.  It’s hard.  Very hard at times, but it opens up avenues of experience to me if I’m willing to go through some “hard” stuff.
I never thought that I would do the “military” thing.  Certainly never envisioned myself as the involved military spouse I am trying to become.
It is just so strange to realize that I have grown up.  I am an adult.  I have a credit card (which they keep raising the limit on, much to my consternation).  I have AAA.  If I get stranded, I call a tow truck and not my dad (although I would rather call my dad).  I could call a taxi if I needed to.  I am going to fly on an airplane (very excited about the plane trip).  I moved across the country on my own (with Nana’s help and cell phone).  I was a single mom for 2 1/2 months and I am going to do it again here soon.  And I’m okay.  I have my ups and downs but I am learning and growing and becoming the person that I wanted to be.  I didn’t know and still don’t know, how the final picture will look but, man, is it fun to work on.
Love you all and look forward to having you by my side as I travel this exciting road which is before me.

Comments (1)

December 4, 2006 — Feeling Blue

February 13, 2009 at 7:26 am · Filed under Anecdotal, Personal discovery

I don’t really have any reason to feel blue.   But I in fact, do feel blue.  I think that part of it is, I have been trying to do more creative things.  I have been making jewelry and painting wrapping paper and making Christmasy stuff.  All of this stuff makes me feel great…while I am doing it.  I think that I get like a creative high while doing it and for a little while after.  But the come down hurts.  And I think that’s what is happening.  I think that it’s worth it.  I really enjoy being creative and I think that I can adjust but it’s hard right now.
Hence the “sigh”.
But I made some really cool stuff last night.  I have wanted to do wire wrapping for a long time and I finally tried it.  I made two pendants (one I will have to rewrap), a ring, and a charm.  It was so much fun that I actually had to convince myself that since I could no longer focus my eyes, I should go to bed.
Same thing happened the other night.  I was having such a blast painting wrapping paper that I couldn’t make myself go to bed.
Maybe I am feeling blue because I am not getting enough sleep. Hmmm.  Maybe I should go get in my pajamas, grab my teddy bear (a.k.a. my hubby) and crawl into bed.  But the house is so quiet with the young missus in bed.  Again, “Sigh”.

Leave a Comment

December 1, 2006 — As They Say, “Kids say the darndest things.”

February 13, 2009 at 7:24 am · Filed under Anecdotal

Jael walked up to a sign the other day and said, “H… I… S… T… O… R… I… C… A… L… M. ..A… R… K… E… R.  That spells…sign.”

Leave a Comment

November 29, 2006 — Swallowing My Pride

February 13, 2009 at 7:23 am · Filed under Anecdotal, Personal discovery, Reviews

Okay, here goes.  I was wrong.  I was wrong.  I was wrong. I was wrong.  You know, no matter how I say it, it doesn’t sound right.  Maybe it’s the words and not the emphasis.
Now you are all wondering what I was wrong about (Angie has an idea).  A friend of mine sent me a newsletter that her chiropractor sends out.  It was about the dangers of the flu shot and how they don’t really work and getting sick will keep you from getting cancer and how the flu doesn’t really kill that many people, it’s just the fear mongering pharmaceutical companies lying to sell more drug.  I was like, “Yeah! Take that!”  I mean, they had the world’s leading immunogeneticist saying how bad they were and stuff.
This friend of mine has sent me, shall we say, somewhat unreliable, information in the past and I really wanted to research this stuff for real.  So I asked my husband, always ready to play the sceptic, how to do this.  He shows me how to look up a name in Google and so we do.  Yeah, Hugh Fudenberg, MD was in Google all right.  His license was rovoke because he was a crackpot who refused to believe legitimate research and therefore advised his patients badly.  That was not looking good for this anti-immunization paper so we looked up the statistics that they quoted.  From the CDC.  And they were all made up, too. Everything.
The flu does kill a lot of people.  Mostly in the danger zone so I am probably not going to rush out and get a flu shot.  Neither is my daughter.  She is not in a high danger enviroment.  But the flu shot isn’t killing people and the flu is.
So, you are all saying, “Becky, you’ve never taken a die hard ‘anti-flu shot’ stand.  Why did this deserve an ‘I’m wrong’ statement?”  Well, because we also read up on the other immunizations that the CDC had information on.  And yeah, immunizations aren’t the devil.  AAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!
I really like hating immunizations.  I really like blaming them for all the crap that’s going on.  I liked blaming ADHD on immunizations.  I liked the feeling that I was just a little bit better than everyone else because “I knew the truth!”.  <sigh>


<SIGH>


So, we will probably get our daughter immunized sometime in the nearish future (we still don’t believe in doctor’s so who knows when we’ll be in a situation where it’s convienent).  But we are glad that we waited and we will probably wait on the next one.  My brain being as it is, I can’t remember what made us decide that waiting was still a good idea.  I don’t know.  Maybe we didn’t and I just blocked that part out.  But anyway.
I am sorry to everyone that I “preached” at.  I am sorry that I felt “better” than you.  Forgive me?

Leave a Comment

November 27, 2006 — Hubby Got His New Job!!!

February 13, 2009 at 7:22 am · Filed under Anecdotal, Military, Traveling

We don’t know what it means but he has a job.  He’s going to do fuels…yeah, and now you know as much as we do.  We know that it deals with petroleum based fuels (gas, diesel, etc) and cryogenics.  And now you really do know as much as we do.
He leaves for Texas (I can’t remember where.  It starts with an “S”) January 8th and graduates February 21st.  Because it is so short, my daughter and I probably won’t be coming home for that time.  And we don’t know where we’ll be going after that.  My husband turned in his “Dream Sheet” (where we would like to be stationed) tonight but I don’t know how long it takes until you know.  Hopefully we know before he graduates.  We chose all overseas bases except one in Alaska.  What’s the benifit to having someone pay for you to move and live somewhere if you don’t take full advantage of it?
To be honest, I am really excited and really scared.  I mean, there’s always a possibility that we’ll get stationed in Utah or Missouri (and to be honest, I don’t know anyone who’s gotten based on one of their “Dream Sheet” bases).  It’s just scary to realize, “Here we go.”  In less time then my husband has been in casuals, he will be doing his job.  The thought of moving overseas is exciting and scary.  Exciting because, hey, we’ll be living overseas and experiencing new cultures and living in places that people pay to go.  Scared because living in California has made me realize that I do in fact miss my family when I don’t have the option of driving home over a weekend.  It’s scary to realize that I will be very, very far from them.  But exciting to know that my daughter will know that there are other cultures besides “American” out there.  She may even have the chance to learn another language.  Of course, then she could talk back and I would have no idea what she was saying but it’s exciting.  Scary because I don’t speak a second language.
You can all be praying for us as these desisions aren’t made by us and we don’t really know what’s going to happen.  But he does have a job, our life has a direction again, and life is good here in California.

It occured to us the other day that we are leaving California in December and going to Iowa and then to northern Minnesota.  In the dead of winter.  What are we thinking?  Have we lost our minds?  Will our bodies be able to adjust?  Will the people that we visit turn their heat way up for us?  We stayed with friends a couple of winters ago and they didn’t want to turn the heat on.  Being from Missouri where it was 20 or 30 degrees warmer, we hadn’t packed adequately.  I think we had one sweatshirt between the two of us.  We traded back and forth during the day and then hurried to bed so that we could be under the covers and cuddled up.   But we will be prepared.  I even found the winter coats.  We will be prepared.

Leave a Comment

Older Posts »