Happy Halloween!

I Can't Tolerate Intolerance!!!

I got an email the other day with this image and a very disturbing message. The subject said, "CHRISTMAS STAMP What The Hell Is The Matter With This Country?? The message went on to convince everyone to boycott the purchase of this stamp stating "it would be a slap in the face to all those Americans who died at the hands of those whom this stamp honors."

I went out to www.snopes.com and found out that most of the content of this email was false including that this is a holiday postage stamp. In fact, it's not even available anymore except by special order. The part that bothered me the most was the mentality that allows people to think Muslim = Al-Qaeda terrorist. The message listed seven terrorist attacks separately blaming MUSLIMS (in caps) for each one. The purpose of this message was to spread hatred and intolerance towards anyone who calls themselves a Muslim. How can anyone think this is OK to send to anyone?

I'm still scratching my head because the person who sent me this is a loving mother, wife and daughter. She is a regular church-goer too. I had to send her a reply telling her how outraged I was. It was pretty harsh because, of course, I didn't wait to calm down before banging a message out and clicking send. Part of me regrets using the word "bigot" in the message but part of me doesn't........

My Buckeyes Win Again!!!

ALL HAIL THE MIGHTY BUCKEYES!!!! SUPREME CONQUERORS OF N0T-SO-HAPPY VALLEY!!!!

I did it!!!

It took me all day Saturday to make this! I've never learned to sew and the six-piece pattern looked very intimidating. It took a few calls to my mom and a visit to my crafty neighbor to figure it all out. Can you guess what my daughter is??? (you have to pretend there's a wand in her hand) Click here if you still can't figure it out. I'm very proud that there are not arms prodtruding from strange places and the neck hole is where it should be! She's set for Halloween!

Rainy Fall Day

I took some snapshots yesterday because it was a beautiful, rainy fall day.

I love my dad!

So it turns out my first (and only) anonymous comment on a post was from my dad! I envisioned this middle-aged woman with too much time on her hands going through strange people's blogs and living vicariously through them. I was thinking, WOW! Some total stranger finds my life and what I have to say interesting. Silly me! I'm so glad my dad confessed and let some air out of my balloon! My family is awesome and they're all so much fun to argue with. If they're the only ones reading this, I'm happy!

Advice for those planning a kid's party....

Let me preface this entry by saying I love a good party. I really do! More and more, though, I'm finding that my kids are being invited to HUGE blowouts hosted by their friends that are complete free-for-alls. I know the parents have the best intentions and only want to put together something fun for thier kids and their kid's friends. It's a nice sentiment! But they're getting carried away and safety is being sacrificed. So far, the majority have produced no serious injuries/incidents but I think it's just a matter of time.

If you're planning a party for elementary aged children or younger, here's some tips that I recommend:

Invite only as many children as you can safely supervise yourself or let the parents know they need to stay.

If holding the event at a public place, make sure the establilshment is properly staffed for safety and that the kids can be contained and not wander off.

Keep the activities flowing from the start to the end of the party so the children's energy is properly directed.

Keep the guest list to children who your child suggests (of course steer them away from those whose influence is not desirable).

Do not view the party guest list with a social agenda for yourself (i.e. invite so-and-so's child because the mom will be mad at you if you don't).

Don't keep track to see if those children who were invited reciprocate the invitation later. If you're child doesn't care, why should you?

NO PINATAS!!!

If you ignore any of the above, provide alcoholic beverages to the parents who stay to dull the traumatization they will be experiencing.

After the gruelling pair of parties that my kids and I attended this past weekend, I am seriously considering removing my kids and myself from the local party circuit!!! My kids might be sad, but they'll be safer!

"SC" Digraphs

My son did this in school last week. My favorites are "scary" (not sure what it is but it sure is scary!) and "scream" but "scorpion" is pretty good too, don't you think?

Dia de los Muertos

I finished! This is my best day of the dead altar ever! I got help from my parents and mother-in-law on what to put around each picture. The cloth I used to cover the altar was a gift from my cousin in Huatusco. It's beautifully embroidered and was the perfect touch. I might attempt to make some pan de muertos with a recipe I found. The only thing I have to add is a Cleveland Indians flag for grandma. :)

Thoughts on Religion

I’ve come to the conclusion that religion in this world makes people do crazy irrational things. I’ve seen examples of it in many denominations. It appeared most recently on an episode of Survivor China. There was a player who described herself repeatedly as Christian. This seemed to override any of her other defining characteristics which I’m not sure was the result of creative editing or something she thought of herself. At one point, she was forming alliances solely based on others who were also Christian. Logically, this strategy didn’t make a lot of sense (for more reasons than I want to bore you with on this blog) and the end result of it was getting voted off very early in the game. Of course her take on this outcome was that was God’s will but I can tell you her actions had a lot more to do with her getting voted off than God did.

Here’s another example that I observed in the same week. I belong to a group of Catholic moms who gather once a month. (I’m not a very spiritual person so I participate to see if some of their holiness will rub off on me.) We were talking about the new addition to the church bulletin of advertisements and a few of the women said they would like to know which ones were Catholic so that they could support those businesses. I had to clamp my hand over my mouth not to say anything. Really! You would go buy something from a Catholic vendor on the sole basis of their religion regardless of the quality of the product or the relative price? Conversely, you would turn down a good deal from a Muslim or a Methodist, if there was a Catholic out there who offered an substandard alternative? This makes no sense to me whatsoever yet I know people do it all the time!

Don’t even get me started on the extremists out there whether they be Muslim, Mormon, Christian, Catholic (notice how I broke Catholic out of the Christian group – it’s the southern influence), and all the cults who pretend to be religions (yes Scientology, I’m talking about you). We’ll save that for another entry.

My New Favorite Place

On Wednesday nights, Orchardside stays open until 8pm for knitters. I made it to Raphine, VA yesterday evening. It's a beautiful time of year for the drive. You should see the variety of people who gather to work on projects and unwind from their hectic lives! They're all ages, all backgrounds with only knitting in common. Carole, the owner of the shop, has created a little bit of heaven on earth. Thank you, Carole!

Deep thoughts from a 4th grader

Found this on my daughter's desk just now. I think it's a work-in-progress. I'm so impressed! OK, I'm a little biased....

Barack Obama

I have friends who tell me the United States is not ready for a black man to be president. That's such a load of crap! I can't believe there are still people out there who can judge a man by his skin color and think that matters at all! Look where a good old white-boy has gotten us. If you're going to make judgements based on skin color, I'd say we should never have another white man as president, given the track record of the past two!

I know Barack's campaign is in trouble because of the Hillary fundraising juggernaut. Below is a message I got from the Obama campaign people. Everyone do what they can to help! Go Barack!

Message form Obama Campaign:

Last night each of the presidential campaigns reported their third-quarter fundraising numbers.

The results are clear. We continue to build the largest grassroots movement in history, but Washington lobbyists and special interests rallied to help Hillary Clinton out-raise us for the first time.

If we want real change in this country, then we need to prove that together we are stronger than the lobbyist-driven money machine that has dominated Washington for too long.

The situation here is simple. We are $2.1 million behind. We must close that gap right now. I need you to make a donation.

Hillary Clinton aggressively seeks money from Washington lobbyists and special interest PACs. She's even said that these lobbyists represent real Americans.

She's wrong.

I think it's time to turn the page on that kind of politics, and that's why I have not accepted a dime from Washington lobbyists and special interest PACs in this race. We rely on a network of more than 350,000 ordinary people to make us competitive -- more supporters than all the other Democratic candidates combined.

Washington lobbyists have chosen their candidate and are determined to provide her with an overwhelming advantage. But you can even up this contest.

In the face of the most entrenched political machine in Democratic politics, I believe a movement of ordinary Americans can change our country. And you can prove that right now.

I love October!

My favorite holiday is approaching! I think I have more Halloween decorations than I do Christmas ones! I got Scott (husband) to bring down all the boxes today between football plays. Now to get them all set up. My Mexican Day of the Dead altar is my favorite thing. I have pictures of loved ones who have passed away and each of them is surrounded with tokens/symbols of their favorite things. It's a nice way to remember them. I'll post a pic as soon as its set up. In the meantime, here's one of my daughter in front of something we've named "Frankenchickenstien." These works of art are up all over town and are created by Mark Cline. He's awesome! Check out his haunted house, if you're in western Virginia.

A message to my beloved Buckeyes: Others may have their doubts about your number one ranking but not me! You deserve it and I hope you keep it through this year's National Championship! GO BUCKEYES!!!!!!

I have a blog!

My husband totally doesn't get blogs. Why in the world are you posting your thoughts, ideas, life happenings on the internet and who in the world would care to read them?! I don't know - but I DO know that I love reading others out there and feel like bloggers have their own communities that trascend geographical limitations. It's so cool! Anyway, I hope I don't bore everyone with what I put out there and end up making a few more friends - you can never have too many! Thanks for visiting!