Kelli, Kelli, Kelli

Hello Kelli!
Since you're the only person who reads my blog I might as well just address this directly to you. I tried to take a picture of my Christmas tree, but it didn't come out well at all so I'll try again later.
Okay, that's it for now.
I'm ready to rant about my least favorite "Christmas" song now.
Well, one of my least favorites, anyway!

A Beautiful, Horrific Day

There are so many memories of that day. It was an extraordinarily beautiful fall day. We had no idea how it would end.

I read the paper while drinking my coffee. I thought that the biggest news of the day was that the Bishop had Alzheimer's Disease. My husband called me and said to turn on the tv because a plane had flown into the World Trade Center.
It all happened in a blur after that. I just stood there, transfixed in front of the tv set. I called a couple of friends to make sure they watched too, but I just stood there, staring. It was so confusing at first, I remember wondering how on earth they would be able to reconnect the top and bottom of the first tower that was hit. I wondered how a pilot could go so off course as to run into a skyscraper. And then I heard one of the newscasters suggest that it was an act of terror.
Terrorism?
Here?
How could that happen?
And the rest went by in a blur. I was standing there watching in live time when the second plane flew in and hit the other tower. I was standing there when they collapsed. It was amazing that the sky was so blue that day, the sun so bright and suddenly there was a blizzard-like dust falling from the sky. People ran away, crying, covered in debris.

I live in a bedroom community in NJ. My husband commutes to the city every day. We were all deeply, personally affected by the murders that took place on September 11, 2001. I am thankful that I didn't personally know anyone who died, but that doesn't even matter to me because I feel as though I knew many of them. Todd and Lisa Beamer attended the church that several of my friends attend. The husband of a woman who attended my MOPS group was killed. I went to pick my husband up at the commuter parking lot and there were just so many extra cars there for days and days. How many of those cars belonged to victims, I'll never know, but I can imagine.

I think that those of us who live in NY, NJ, PA, Southern CT, and the DC area share a sadly unique bond. For weeks afterwards (it felt like months) the daily newspapers listed the names of those whose remains had been found, or of those who were still unaccounted for. We turned on the tv and every newscast featured some poor, tortured soul holding up a wedding or graduation picture of their missing loved one. I particularly remember a man whose wife had died, leaving him with a 6 month old baby. He had a freezer full of her breast milk, so at least she could continue to nourish her baby after she had died.

And so I sobbed off and on all morning today. I listened to the reading of the names at the Ground Zero Memorial Service because I need to hear their names. Each one of those people meant the world to someone, they must be acknowledged.

This is still so fresh for many, many of us. But no matter how long I live, I dare not allow myself to forget. I watch the coverage and let myself grieve because I want to remember how personal and how all consuming the sadness was.

Tags: 9-11 terrorist attacks anniversary

Please pray for my friend Kelli!

Hello Everyone,
Some of you may know my friend Kelli from the New Mercies Every Day blog. She's a member of our Blogging Chicks Blogroll. Anyway, she's having a 3-4 hour consult with a gynecologic oncologist tomorrow to determine what's what and to schedule surgery. Please keep Kelli, her husband, and children in prayer.
Thanks!
--Angela

Steal This Post Thursday Meme (better late than never!)

I got this idea from Michele, who stole it from Ethel.
Here are the directions:

"Go to Wikipedia and do a search for your birthday (day and month only, exclude the year).

Post three facts, two births and one death on your blog including the years."

Here are my results (for Jan. 23):
Facts:
1533 - Anne Boleyn, mistress of Henry VIII of England, discovers herself pregnant.
1943 - Duke Ellington plays at Carnegie Hall in New York City for the first time.
Births:
1832 - Edouard Manet, French artist (d. 1883)
1957 - Princess Caroline of Monaco
Death:
1976 - Paul Robeson, American actor, singer, and social activist (b. 1898)

My Mother's Day Brunch

On Sunday my darling husband and children took me to the Princeton Hyatt for Mother's Day brunch. They did a fabulous job! We have been to other Hyatts for brunch, and they were very nice as well, but Princeton is just incredible!
One of the extremely cool things they offered was a children's room. They had craft projects, a few toys, and "Nanny McPhee" on a dvd player. It was great because if the kids felt like wandering off, they had something to do, and we were able to sit and relax over a cup of coffee a little longer than we would've been able to otherwise. Here's what they made for me:


I had a great day! When we got home, dh took the kiddies out to a really cool park for a couple of hours so that I could lay around and relax. I read my book, snoozed a little, life was sweet! :)

Woo Hoo, I'm being quoted!! :)

A big old thanks to Christopher Taylor for linking to Reformed Chicks Blabbing! We were chatting the other day about Barnes and Noble causing the demise of public libraries (well, not exactly!) and Chris thought we were pundit-like enough to link to us.
Yay! Visit his blog!! :)

Announcing Thrifty Thursday!!

What's your best money saving tip? Let's talk about our tightwad tendencies and favorite frugalities every Thursday!
Okay, I'll go first:
I save leftover hamburger buns in the freezer to use as a binder in meatballs and meatloaf.

What about you?

Now, a return to our regularly scheduled blogging....

Well, I'm back. Is anyone in the world bothering to look by now? I just really needed a break. Life sometimes gets in the way of the blog and then at other times the blog gets in the way of life. I'm not sure which was going on, but I'm back. Guess what happened? Someone sent a spam comment. Lucysomebodyorother was offering us a chance to get a degree over the Internet. From someone who sends spam to other people's (all but abandoned) blogs?
I mean, Great Wall of China, who would ever fall for that???!!!!

Tomorrow is Mother's Day here in the U.S. You know what I'd like best of all? Well, you know, world peace and everything....but after that I'd just like an entire day to sit and read and sip coffee-centered drinks and maybe get some sushi, and just chill out in solitude.
We'll see what tomorrow brings, hmmmmmm????

My Marathon Man

Woo Hoo!!!!!!
Ed completed the Boston Marathon! He did really well. He finished number 4328 out of about 22,000 runners!! I'll have more info later. This is the first picture that we've been able to get. I'll have more as they become available.

He is not here. He has risen as He said.

The resurrection of Christ was the most remarkable of events. Never before has such a thing happened, nor ever again.
So today, between bites of chocolate and devilled eggs, let's reflect on the magnitude of Christ's rising from the dead. All of our hope lies in the reality of this great gift. He has risen, and if we are in Him, we shall do likewise.

I hope that you all had a Happy Resurrection Day!

It's Marathon Day in Boston!

Hello Everyone!
I'm double posting. This is pretty much the same thing I'm saying on the Reformed Chicks Blabbing site, but I'm giving you an actual photo! No, it's not an actual photo of my dh, but it IS an actual photo taken at last year's Boston Marathon, so there! :)
I'll update when I have more info, and hopefully post some cool pix!
Please pray that things go well! :)

An Ode to Jack Bauer (with apologies to Shaft)

Jack

Who's the guy from CTU
Answer him, or he'll shoot you?
(Jack!)
You're d**n right.

Who is the man
who'll torture with the cord of a lamp?
(Jack!)
Can ya dig it?

Who's the cat who goes right in
Sentax gas won't injure him?
(Jack!)
Right on

You see this cat Jack is a bad mother--
(Shut your mouth)
But I'm talkin' about Jack
(Then we can dig it)

Doesn't eat or shower
and no one understands him but me
(Jack Bauer)

***********************************
I'm responsible for this little ditty, but I was inspired by the folks at Blogs4Bauer. Can you dig it?

I have officially seen everything

I cannot believe this. I mean, really. There is just nothing left to "invent" now. Whatever happened to throwing the diaper on top?

Wow.
These are called "Pee-pee Teepees." They are little cotton cones that you can place strategically to avoid being sprayed.

Why, oh why did I let myself get sick?

Ugh. That's all I'm saying right now.
Well, not really.
I'm also saying that it is really, really hard to get kids back into some semblance of a schedule when they've been running amok for a week. Ask me how I know.
This is going to take me a few days. Not to mention the mountain of laundry, and the piles of clutter.
That's it! I'm not getting sick again!
Hmmmm....I hope not, anyway.

Nighty Night!

I almost forgot to post something here today. Yikes!

Okay, I'm feeling about 50% better. I had to mention that, because someone has already noted that the purpose of this blog seems to be so that I can have a place to discuss my health. So there you go!!

Tomorrow I'm going to try and teach school.
And do a week's worth of laundry.
And make a list of things to pack for the weekend.

Dh is running in the Boston Marathon. I'll have to post his bib number so ya'll can watch out for him!

A Big Old Thank You!!

I want to take this opportunity to thank Michele, the chief Blabbing Reformed Chicks! She spent a lot of time beautifying my blog and graciously helping me to overcome my lack of technical ability.
Smoochy-smooch!!

Join the Menstrual Revolution, try a Diva Cup!!!

Okay, here's my offical Word of Warning: The content of this post is female in nature. If you are an easily skeeved out male, you probably want to stop reading now!

Every now and then (well, probably once a month) someone from the Well Trained Mind message boards will ask "Does anyone know about the Diva Cup (or its sisters the Keeper and Moon Cups.)?" They will inevitably get a whole range of answers.

Someone will say "I tried it, but it didn't work for me"
Someone will say "I love it!" (Okay, that person is usually me!)
Someone else will say "Yuck! Are you living in the dark ages?"

Can I just say that I love this thing? I go around recommending it to anyone (well, any female) over the age of 13 who will actually sit still long enough to listen.

• I love the fact that I get to just breeze past the "feminine protection" aisle of the store.
• I love it that after the $30 investment, I'm all set for a couple of years.
• I feel that I'm helping the environment by not tossing more junk into it.
• I appreciate the fact that I don't have to worry about wrapping/hiding/covering up messy leftovers so that my dh and sons don't have to see them.
• And lastly, many women report that they have fewer yeast infections and less severe cramps as a result of using menstrual cups.

Imagine what would happen if more women started using devices like this? A multi-million dollar industry would be affected. I wonder what the landfills would start to look like?
Think of the fun things you could do with that money if you saved it all up after a year. If you spend about $66/year on pads and tampons for one person, you'll save yourself over $30 in the first year alone! If you've got other menstruating females in your home...well just do the math!

The company that sold me my Diva Cup gives you three free cloth panty liners with your purchase. Now I will tell you that I had my doubts about the cloth liners at first, but now I totally love them!!! They are made of a very soft flannel, and they come in pretty patterns. I really only wear them as backup because the Diva is such good protection.

Okay, that's my little rant for today! Now I'm going back to bed because I am still sick and the cough was so bad that I had to take the cough syrup with codeine and it's making me sleeeeepy.

You know what? I think there should be an IQ test for prospective voters.

I can't believe this. I just watched this video where a teenager goes around asking girls at a high school if they'd like to sign a petition "To end women's suffrage." And guess what? All but one of those whom he showed on camera signed it!!! Only one of the girls shown actually knew what suffrage is. Granted, I'm sure that there were others, and he certainly edited to get his point across, but gimme a break. I really do think that people need to be tested before they're allowed to vote.
Okay, I'll write the test. That's the only way I can be sure to pass!

Musings....

Q. How can you tell when you've got a true-blue friend?
A. She comes to your house when you're as sick as a dog and picks up your four kids and takes them off for the afternoon with her one kid.

Wow!! I think I'd better add her to my life insurance policy or something. So I was able to go to the doctor and find out that I either have a throat infection or an abscess. I can try taking regular old antibiotics, but if they don't work I'll have to switch to one of those nasty kinds that make your stomach feel like it would've been easier to deal with the throat.

Okay, I'm going to try and stop complaining now. And just count my blessings. I'm thankful for friends (including the ones who got together with the above mentioned friend so that my kids had plenty of playmates.) I'm thankful for modern medicine, which I often resist, but can be pretty handy sometimes. I'm thankful for my children who came home saying they missed me after being gone for a few hours. I'm even thankful for the one who is standing here yelling at me that he doesn't want any cheese crackers! Oh, and I'm thankful for a husband who volunteered to bring home Indian take-out for dinner. Very thankful for that.

Okay, that feels better!
Now I need a nap.

Is it possible that someone snuck into my room and stuck razor blades down my throat?

Every time I swallow it feels like there are razor blades in my throat. Unless of course I have taken pain meds. Which I think I will take now. And then of course there's the nasty cough that won't quit and further irritates my throat. We're skipping Gymnastics today. I wouldn't let someone like me drive my kids anywhere.
Ugh.
By the way...did I mention that it is hailing outside? All over my tulips?

Yeah, so I'm writing on this one, okay?

Here I am now!! I've decided that it isn't nice to leave my poor blog all unattended for so long. And now that I'm spending more time on the Reformed Chicks blog, I might as well mozie on over to my own.
So I'm sick today. Feeling lousy. Not up to teaching. So fortunately my children have good play skills and active imaginations. They've been getting along pretty well today, for the most part. They've cut up cardboard boxes and made them into forts and castles.
They've made a spy club, complete with fastidious notetaking and spy gear.
They've played Hullabaloo (for the first time.)
They went exploring in the yard.

Now they're watching Cyberchase.
Time to heat up left overs.