Long Titles Completely Defeat the Purpose, Sort of Like How Educational Reforms Get Re-reformed Every Four Years, Which Never Helps Anyone

I blog stalk when I'm bored and/or need attention. It's not that blogs give me attention, it's just a great distraction. So when nobody posts, I get even MORE lonely and bored, because obviously my friends don't care enough to update me (and the whole world) on their lives.

That said, I have absolutely nothing to write about, so I totally understand why my friends don't update their blogs every day. It's not like I have anything interesting to write about like Chris and Mari's Japanese Adventures or Megan's Hot Air Balloon Episode. (Notice I provided the link in case YOU were bored and needed blog-distraction.)

The other thing is, I always like it better when posts are FULL of PICTURES! Writing is fun, but PICTURES... they're colorful.

So I have also provided YOU with a picture. Just because I would want one to look at, too, if I
had read through an entire boring rant.

This is us at Oktoberfest. We had ingested viele bier. If we were talking Cinco De Mayo, it would be mucho cervesa. Or something like that. Who even knows how to spell anything in Spanish.

Ballpoints, Ballots and Hanging Chads

(alternately titled, True Confessions of a Florida voter)

My favorite thing about voting is receiving my "I voted" sticker. It's proof to everyone that I fulfilled a major right of my citizenship - that I care about the direction of my country. I know that it's a silly sort of pride, but I really don't care. I only get to puff up about a sticker once every four years, so I'm making the most of it.

(Although, I have to admit; these stickers aren't as cool as the ones last go-around... the ones with the big check on them. I love checks. It's like an extra helping of "good job!" on my sticker.)

As proud as I am of fulfilling my "patriotic privilege", I couldn't help feeling a little bit sad as I drove away, knowing that putting my little ballot into the machine was all I could really do to make a difference as to who our Commander-in-Chief will be for the next four years. There were signs warning against voter solicitation, which stopped me from grabbing people and letting flow my great political wisdom in a last desperate attempt to convince everybody in Precinct 4 to agree with me. Truth is, even if I convinced all of Precinct four, it wouldn't make much a difference. All the democrats live downtown.

In lighter election day news, there were no machines with which to vote today, in fact, no buttons to push at all. We had to fill our ballots in with ballpoint pens, like a standardized test (only most of the grades come out "D" or "R"). I'm not sure if other states are using the same system, but I found it humorous. No hanging chads to embarrass Florida THIS year!

Magical Pencils

I tutor. That's my job. I have 5 kids who, being forced to attend two hours of tutoring after all day at school, are rather rambunctious. I use whatever I can to keep the peace. Sometimes as a reward for good behavior I let them use my mechanical pencils. Hey, if it works, right?

None of the kids know what the mechanical pencils are really called. Devin has demanded "Kaman-ical" pencils, Joshua has politely asked for "one of them Mech-chem-animal" ones. Needless to say, I will not correct them or add "mechanical" to their spelling tests. It's kinda cute. It makes it worth it to tutor 5 hyper kids for two hours at a time when I'm asked if, please, they could, in the words of Tobias the first grader, use one of my "Magical" pencils.

Mr Bob Sweeney

Mr Bob Sweeney is my Mailbox Friend. We often check our mail at the same time in the afternoon. We met one day last spring when I ran out to vigorously greet my husband home from work. I have a tall (and attractive) husband who stands up well to having a wife thrown at him, so this is what he often gets. It's fun. After I threw myself at Jon and got a kiss in return, I went to check the mail, pretending that I was the least bit grown-up, and was greeted by an older man who introduced himself (it was Mr Sweeney) and said that that was the sweetest thing he had seen in a long time. His wife, Anne, is in a nursing home with Alzheimer's and he said he was encouraged by our obvious love.

It was a really nice thing for him to say and probably more encouraging for the newly married couple working our way through our first year of marriage "with fear and trembling" than for him. Today I saw him again and we talked about his son that went to UVA, how Jon was doing in flight school and Anne. Jon and I just celebrated our first anniversary - they just celebrated their fiftieth. He said Anne can no longer speak or use her hands & legs. She's basically bed-ridden. "She's comfortable. I guess she's happy," he said almost trying to convince himself, "or at least resigned..." In his voice was no trace of selfishness or frustration at the inconvenience of visiting a wife twice a day who can't respond to him, much less fulfill any of his needs. He was only concerned for her happiness. His frustration was at his inability to make her more happy and more comfortable.

I almost hugged him. I've never had a Mailbox Friend, and who knew when I got one that he would be exactly what I want to be when I grow up. I hope that the gratitude I feel right now for what Jon and I enjoy together stays. I hope that I remember Mr Bob Sweeney's selfless love every time I am tempted to be selfish with my husband. And most of all, I can't wait till I get to meet Mr & Mrs Sweeney in heaven, and the four of us can hang out. And I can say thank you to them for the encouragement their faithfulness brought to our baby marriage. I can't help thinking how lovingly Jesus looks at this whole painful time in the Sweeney's life and thinks how very much Mr Sweeney's love for his wife looks like the way Christ "loved the church and gave Himself up for her".

And that is the account to-date of my Mailbox Friend Mr Bob Sweeney, who looks just like Jesus.

APA Format Says to Only Capitalize Words With More Than Three Letters. bob.

Today, while driving home from work, I was stopped behind a truck with a bumper sticker reading, "I fish. ((picture of a fish)) I VOTE."

...Please pause to reflect...

Perhaps this doesn't strike anyone else as odd. (OR perhaps it doesn't strike anyone in Pensacola (aka: "Redneck Riviera") as odd.) Honestly, though, I can't see that fishing aligns a person with any particular political party, thus striking fear into the hearts of members of the opposite political party when viewed on a bumper sticker. Crazy liberals probably get mad when they see "I love Rush Limbaugh and I Vote" stickers. I may get scared when radical hippies display their right to vote, but I'm just not sure what to think when fishermen staunchly proclaim the same rights.

Maybe drivers are supposed to read into the truck stuck to the sticky end of the bumper sticker. Maybe it says, "I don't care about the environment. I love ozone-depletion." or "I use the bed of this truck to haul reclaimed lumber so that we don't needlessly waste trees. I love ozone."

I don't know. Maybe it's just the most refreshing opinion about the current election precisely because it doesn't try to make sense. In which case, I want one.

"I Hang Out. ((picture of a pinata)) I VOTE."

Just a Thought

Hopefully I will soon put up a fun or funny post. Bear with me, however, as this is a beautifully-put opinion, and perhaps warning to Americans, about the upcoming election from Lori Kalner, a Christian woman who watched Germany turn sour during the 30's and 40's and survived the ensuing Holocaust. Keep in mind, that I don't believe Kalner is suggesting that Obama will lead us to another Holocaust, nor do I suggest that myself by this post. This article merely points out the progession of moral compromises that lead to the downfall of a society and a nation. If we cannot vote for a perfect candidate, let's vote for someone who upholds the way of Christ, regardless of their appearance as a "good man".

"Good Americans, like the good Germans of my youth, many think that the issue of their nation centers around the economy. I tell you now that the fate of the greatest nation on earth does not depend on money.
Every issue must only be judged worthy and true by the Word of God. Prosperity comes to a nation and a people who serve the Lord first. That is a basic spiritual principle which is seen in every book of Holy Scripture.
But here is the TRUTH: of all men in the US government this Obama has most strongly encouraged and urged the on-going slaughter of the unborn... "the useless mouths" of America. This slaughter is performed in the name of "A woman's reproductive rights."*
In the land of my birth, the Holocaust all began with the first step of legalized abortion. Abortion was ENCOURAGED by a downturn in the world economics.
Scripture teaches us the survival of a nation is not about the economy. the only nation which will stand is the nation which follows the Lord and the true teachings of scripture."

"If my people, who are called by My Name, will humble themselves, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land." 2 Chronicles 7:14



*A note from a not-very-smart-person who studied biology. Scientifically, life begins at conception. (I am not even arguing the Bible here.) If life begins at conception, then a fetus is NOT scientifically (or morally) part of that woman's body, any more than (forgive the analogy) a parasite is genetically part of a cat's intestinal tract. How, then, is abortion not murder for selfish gain?

Many are the roles of the military wife. She must be supportive, creative, outgoing (or she won't have any friends), patient and flexible. I am not yet any of these things, but I do try. Below I am practicing "supportive" and "cook", which wasn't on the list, but I suppose it should be.

Enjoy.

(Those are Walnut-Encrusted Pork Chops, for the curious. But it doesn't qualify as "creative", because I got the recipe from Cooking Light.)