one other thing... please pray for Monkeymom's dad... he fell and is having hip surgery... my prayers are with you guys!!

Courtesy of Bean :o)

Signs That You May Be Hung Over

* You're convinced that chirping birds are Satan's pets.
* Trying to gain control of the situation, you continue to order the room you're in to "stay still."
* Looking at yourself in the mirror induces the same reaction as chugging a glass of fresh paint.
* You'd rather have a pencil jammed up your nose than be exposed to sunlight.
* You set aside an entire morning to spend some quality time with your toilet.
* You replace the traditional praying on your knees with the more feasible praying in a fetal position.
* The bathroom reminds you of a carnival barker shouting, "Step right up and give it whirl!"
* All day long your motto is, "Never again."
* You could purchase a new television just by recycling the bottles around your bed.
* Your natural response to "Good morning," is "Shut the f*** up!"

I got an Email from my friend Andy the other day to this place called myspace.com. He wanted me to join it so that we could talk online together... not a big deal. We talk via Email a lot and it would be nice to IM back and forth. So I decided to join it. Here is his page... yes, he is on the eccentric side. He is an artist.. .what can you say? :o) I do not know anyone else on this site, but I thought some of you would get a kick out of it. I have looked around at some of the people... and let me say... STRANGE comes to mind :o) I have NO idea where he came up with the picture that he has on there... (just shows his eccentricity) but I am on there...so if anyone would like to join the madness.... :o)

Last night I am watching the news and they start talking about the Democratic candidates that are coming to St.Louis to get the support of St.Louis... well, I was listening to what they were saying and then one of the candidates (Edwards) says that he supports abortion up until BIRTH!!! I have MAJOR issues with this!!! I was so pissed off by his statement that I did not hear anything else that was said... I am hoping that Bush stays in office... but if he were to lose I DEFINETELY would NOT want Edwards to win. What a lousy piece of crap he is!! Someone should chop him up into little pieces for saying something as horrible as he did. Babies are babies and they are a beautiful, miraculous thing that should not be taken for granted or KILLED. I will stop on that subject, I know that it is a testy subject, but I had to get that said about such a horrible human being. Missouri tends to go democratic, our mayor is a democrat and is supporting Kerry. I personally do not care for any of the candidates, I am still sticking with Bush. I prefer him over any of the other candidates.
Things have been fairly quiet around here... I am ready for my kids to go away :o) They are driving me nuts being cooped up in the house for as long as they have been, but hopefully I will send them out for a little while today. I NEED A VACATION, preferably by myself or just with the hubby!!!! I talked to my grandparents for a while last night and they seem to be doing good. Grandma is not talking about her cancer, which does not surprise me. Everything is fine according to her. Which, I have to say I do not blame her for not talking about it. Seems that the rest of my family is going fine too. My cousin that is pregnant is having a girl. She is enjoying living in Alabama with her father and step mother. Which is a huge stress off of her mother and her sister. She is quite the pain in the butt.

I managed to get a few pics up of my daughters birthday, her friend's birthday party, the snow, my baby enjoying his spaghetti, and my brother TRYING to fit into my daughter's sleeping bag.... it is rather humorous. Other than that I have not done much of anything. Hubby had an interview with Edward Jones today and another one for Thursday and has an interview with Save-a-lot tomorrow and another one coming up sometime soon with Maritz... the interview today went great and they are impressed with his credentials and with his past work experience, so I take that as a positive. Just something that will get us through til his own business is up and running. There is still a lot of potential work for him with his own business, it is just a matter of time. I am proud of him for starting his own business but right now it is just not producing the income that we need to keep all our bills paid. :o) Wel, I am off to get dinner goin! Everyone have a great evening!!

This weekend was WAY more than I ever expected. Between Friday night's Chuck E Cheese party, girls sleepover Saturday night to the icy/snow stuff yesterday... then to top it all off bad news on Friday night. I will get back to the rest of the stuff later. I want to talk about the bad news. Friday night we went to Chuck E Cheese and when we FINALLY got home I had a message to call my aunt. Normally I wait til the next day but for some reason I picked up the phone and called her. Normally she calls if she has a prayer request of some sort... I could tell something was wrong right off and asked her if everyone was ok... I was NOT expecting the answer that I got. Turns out my grandma has breast cancer. She has known for at least 8 months and has refused to go to the doctor to see if it is cancer. She kept saying it was pointless. Well, her doctor finally got really peaved at her and told her to get a mamogram (she's been refusing for years) She agreed to go, she knew that it had grown and she felt she knew what it was anyways...turns out she does have cancer and she has already made up her mind that she is not going to do a masectomy... which if she were to go into surgery she probably would not come out of it anyways. Her heart is in too bad of shape to do it. She has also decided to not do chemotherapy. She does not want to go through all that sickness. I am not sure what other treatments there are, other than radiation which I am not sure she will do either.... that does not leave many options, if any at all... She still has to go to a specialist to figure out the rest. Needless to say I have been an absolute mess since then. I adore my grandparents and have always been very close to them. I have always been their favorite grandchild and have always spent a lot of time with them. To me, they are immortal... which is not true and I am having to come to terms with that... which I am not doing so good at. I have only lost one family member that I know and that is my great grandma who I was also close too. The thought of losing one of my grandparents makes me sick. I cried and cried on Friday night and have not been able to sleep all weekend. There are moments where I will just break down and start crying and this weekend has not been an easy weekend to try and get away. Anyways... of you are a prayer, which I know quite a few of you that read this are... I would greatly appreciate prayers for my grandma. Ok, I will move on to the rest of my weekend....
Friday night was Chuck E Cheese... which, I have to say I HATE that place. The kids had a blast of course, I just hated it. They have added a little section for little, little kids. For ages 3 and under... So I take my baby boy in there... he is playing on the jungle gym they have set up for them and I am watching him play by himself and the next thing I know some BRAT is grabbing my son by his shirt and a fistful of hair and yanking him to the ground... out of instinct I yelled "Hey, don't do that!" the kid looked at me stunned and never touched my kid again. I looked around realizing what I had done and guess what... NO parents were anywhere to be found... go figure!! I HATE that... Chuck E Cheese is NOT a babysitter!!! Especially to little brats that are there!!! I have 4 kids and there was somebody with EACH of my children at all times. my older 2 were allowed to play the games they wanted and wandered around with someone tailing them but my youngest 2... they were under our complete control. Then on Saturday we had a birthday party at noon at our neighbors house, so I went to that with the kids while hubby cleaned up around the house for our sleepover. Then girls started arriving around 4. 3 total. They were a little obnoxious to begin with but over all it was great. My hubby, oldest son, brother and dad decided that they were going to go to Hooters. So they went out to dinner. Hubby was good and did come back to help me out after we were done with the craft and nail painting. The girls stayed up watching movies til midnight and I finally said that was it to go to sleep. 3 of the 5 were asleep by that time. THe next morning was the start of all the bad weather so 2 of the girls left pretty early and the other one got stuck here til after 4, which was fine... I was just happy to have my home back after it was all said and done :o) My best friend did come over to help... THANK YOU SOOO MUCH!!! So that pretty much summed up my weekend...

Ok, I decided that I was going to post my scrapbooking pages... I put up a link on the side bar for those interested... I know I talk about my scrapbooking a lot so I thought that I would add the pics up there so that I can show off what I do :o) I hope you enjoy!!!!

Last night was a lot of fun. I went over to my grandma's for the Korean food she made and ate and ate and ate :o) Totally forgot that I was trying to lose weight :o) My grandma ended up making about 250 mondu when it was all said and done. Everything was delicious. Grandma had Korean tv going in the background. Everyone was talking over one another, which is typical of Korean women. My brother and I went for the food and left :o) I have added some pictures to my pic area, if you are interested in seeing them. I am off to school my kiddos!!!

Yesterday was my big girl's 7th birthday... I just cannot believe how fast kids grow up!! Last night she wanted McDonald's since we are not going to Chuck E Cheese's til tomorrow night. She also got some money for her birthday so I took her up to Wal-Mart to pick out some stuff that she wanted. We also went to the dollar store to get a few things for the girls to do at the slumber party. Luckily I do not have to suffer through a slumber party by myself! My best friend is a TRUE friend :o) She has agreed to come to help me with the girls. We are going to eat pizza, do crafts, paint fingernails, make ice cream sundaes, and watch Barbie movies (BLEH!!) I am hoping to get some scrapbooking done while they are watching the movie :o) All the boys (My dad, hubby, brother and boys) are going to go out... (they say Hooters... we will see :o) ) they do not want to be anywhere near the girls.
Today is the Chinese New Year. Even though I am not Chinese, Koreans tend to celebrate it too. My grandma has been cooking for a couple of days and I am going to go over there and enjoy one heck of a feast with them!!! Hubby and the kids are on their own for dinner :o) My grandma has made over 150 mondu (which is sort of like eggrolls) and all sorts of awesome dishes!! I will be surrounded by a bunch of Korean women, but I am willing to do whatever I have to to enjoy some good Korean food!! :o) Even be around a bunch of loud, obnoxious Korean women.
The other night Bush gave his State of the Union address. I thought it was pretty good. I really dislike the way Democrats sit there with disgusted looks on their faces. Edward Kennedy and Hillary Clinton were 2 that the cameras liked to zoom in on. I do not mind that they think differently but Bush IS the PRESIDENT and deserves RESPECT. I would expect the same if there were a democrat as president. They deserve respect, regardless of the party... of course I think that Clinton would be the exception to that rule... :o) But regardless it is amazing to see how people react to others. I do like some of his proposed bills. The marriage one I am still unsure of, I do not know the details of what it is about. But the following day I recieved an Email from someone about the fact that Bush bashed gays and lesbians. I have NO problems with gays and lesbians...it is your choice and you will be judged in the end... not my place to judge them. I have friends and family that are gay. No problem. But I had an issue with the email. Here is the Email...

How dare you talk about the problems heterosexuals have had with marriage, and then somehow connect that with those of us who are gays and lesbians being able to marry. We haven't messed up marriage - that was already done
by heterosexuals. We aren't attacking marriage. We just want basic civil rights. You said gays and lesbians should somehow be given compassion even if not allowed to marry, but you didn't call for job protection for us, you didn't
call for the ability to visit sick loved ones in the hospital. In short, you beat up on us for political gain. God will judge you at the end of your time, and it won't be good. You're actions are cowardly, and a nod to the conservative, hateful part of your party. You aren't bringing this country together, you're putting us in debt, alienating our friends internationally, and are a dismal failure as a president. I would ask that you stop these actions as soon as you can for the sake of the country. I'm asking all of my friends to e-mail you as well with their opinion of your speech at president@whitehouse.gov, and to help defeat you in 2004 if this keeps up.
Michael Morris, Orlando, Florida

My problem is that marriage is a sacred thing...but WHEN did he bash gays and lesbians for other things??? Since when did gays and lesbians become something other than men and women?? Job protection should be for everyone... I do not remember ONE statement about job protection for men and women UNLESS they are gay or lesbians. Gay and lesbians are men and women... just like the rest of us... so they have a different sexual prefrence, so what?? I do not remember any statements of Bush bashing anyone. As far as alienating our friends internationally, I think that Bush did the right thing when he decided that it would be best to go after Iraq... and look at what happened... we CAUGHT Saddam Hussien. He is no longer a threat to the people of Iraq or to the rest of the world. Gee... he was really wrong to do that wasn't he??? People open your eyes and LOOK at what has been accomplished and NOT what party he is with. Yes, he is a republican, YES, he is a Christian... so he does not share the same views as others, that does not put him in the wrong. He is a great president and is there to get the job done, yes, we have paid a price with our military personnel. Thank our troops, praise them for their job, pray for their safety instead of condemn what they are doing!
You do not have to agree with everything he has done, but be respectful. He is our president and hopefully he will be our president for another 4 years after this year.

I forgot to say something yesterday... HAPPY 7th BIRTHDAY BIG GIRL!!!!!!!!

Ok, now that I have said that... HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!!! :o)

I had to add this... my sick sick friends :o)

POSSIBLY THE BEST BLONDE JOKE EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A blonde walks into a pharmacy and asks the assistant for some rectum deodorant. The pharmacist, a little bemused, explains to the woman they don't sell rectum deodorant, and never have. Unfazed, the blonde assures the pharmacist that she has been buying the stuff from this store on a regular basis and would like some more. "I'm sorry", says the
pharmacist, "we don't have any" 'But I always buy it here," says the blonde "Do you have the container that it came in?" asks the pharmacist "YES", said the blonde, "I'll go home and get it."

She returns with the container and hands it to the pharmacist who looks at it and says to her, "This is just a normal stick of underarm deodorant"

Annoyed, the blonde snatches the container back and reads out loud from the container.........

" TO APPLY, PUSH UP BOTTOM"

My weekend was as it usually is. Friday night Leah, Deanna and I decided that we would try someone that Deanna had met for our scrapbooking. Supposedly it was a power layout class from 6-10. A little earlier than what we were used to and not as late as we are used to but we decided that we would give it a shot. Well, it SUCKED!! We did NOTHING for the first hour and a half, and then when she finally decided to start she went into her speech of how she got involved in Creative Memories and how she started out in scrapbooking... I DO NOT CARE. I was there to scrapbook and could really care less how she got started in it. I paid my $10 to scrapbook and get some new info. I did NOT get any new info and since she decided to waste my time on her stupid speech and telling us that to start we were going to organize our pictures and she would be back to talk at 9:30 (which is only a half hour before we were supposed to leave) I decided to heck with it, I am going to scrapbook and she can just talk while I scrapbook!! Oh, and WHY would my pictures NOT be organized?? How can you scrapbook with your pictures out of order... to me, pictures being organized is a given... it is critical for scrapbooking so you do not forget to put pics in your album!!! So needless to say it sucked, we did get a $10 gift, so I guess it was worth it and I did get 6 pages done :o) Oh and not to mention all the noisy women! ( I totally admit that I do not like people) After the "scrapbooking class" we decided to go and get a beer at Applebee's. I have a couple of friends that are bartenders and wanted to sit and talk to my friends for a while since we could not hear each other at the scrapbooking place. That part was nice, kick back have a beer and talk... gotta love girl talk ... :o) of course we sit and talk about everything... one of our fav topics is sex, which always gets Deanna (she is a prude) Here was the question of the evening... after giving a guy a blow job do you brush your teeth??? I do, it is the only natural thing to do!! Some do, some don't... to me, not brushing is gross :o) Anyways, that was the favored question of the evening. :o) The rest of my weekend was with my family and cleaning house and doing laundry... fun,fun.
On to books... my hubby bought me The daVinci Code a while back and I finally started it this weekend. Well, I have to say that it was an exceptional book!! I LOVED it!!! I know that a lot of Christians bashed the book saying it is ridiculous to even think that Jesus would marry, let alone marry Mary Magdelene. The book also goes as far as to say that they had a child together. It is all a matter of what your faith is. I do not believe that Jesus got married, let alone had a child. I do not think that it is entirely impossible that he did, I just do not think that he did. Then of course the Catholic bashing the book did... face it people, the Catholic church has been around for a LONG time, of course they have secrets... that is NOT anything new! The daVinci part of the book was very interesting. There were a lot of things about daVinci in the book that I did not know about him. Not that I would, I am not an art buff or history buff. There were interesting theories about daVinci's Last Supper and the Mona Lisa and the meaning behind Mona Lisa's smile. Very cool stuff that I never even thought possible. I also did not know that daVinci was gay (see, told you I did not know much about art history) overall the story line was very exciting with lots of twists to it. It did mention the Masonic organization in the book, nothing bad, which I found impressive, since most people bash the organization. Most of my family belongs to it, as did I. Yes, there is a murderer in the book... but see, that is where the FICTION comes into the book and makes it a FICTIONAL book... :o) I managed to read the book in just a couple of days and think that is a book that I will have to reread. I highly recommend it to whomever likes a good story.
I also finished reading the Key trilogy by Nora Roberts. They were all very good and was easy reading, relaxing reading, no brainwork required :o) All of them tied in together very well and had a very interesting story line. More romantic than anything but very neat.
On to other stuff... Dick Gephardt dropped from the race. WOW for you :o) He is someone that my grandparents and parents are close to. The families know one another quite well. My grandparents are friends with Gephardts parents and have always kept up and supported Dick, along with my parents. I even met him when I was younger...(yes, I admit that) But, at least I know the right way now :o) Gotta love the Democrats :o) Well, I am off to do some studying... my best friends hubby is sending me info on the "extra" books of the Catholic Bible... I think I will read through those books and see what I think of them :o) Bible research is always interesting!! :o)

Here is a poem written by my friend Andy... I will post them every once in a while.. he has plenty of them and if you would like to see them you can go here and read them... he is quite talented!! If you have a firewall you will have to disable it to read the poems... I had issues with that since I have a firewall. :o) I hope you enjoy!!!

Dream a View

Like a vision she appears before me.
In my dreams, beckoning me to come seek her.
As I stand in my shadow.
She calls to me to come nearer.
What is this feeling I have found?
Why does the sight of her make my pulse pound?
Silky smooth skin and deep brown eyes.
Her sight, her touch, I fantasize.
Every curve is like a mile.
Her body, a road map to heaven.
As she graces me with her smile.
She lifts my spirits to the stars.
I dream a view,
not of landscapes or of sunsets.
I dream of you,
and it's the view of you that gets
me to realize now what I have found.
Not just another beauty
but an angel.

Andrew R Ko

My son dropped a plate on his foot today... my response.. you should not do that, it hurts... I am thinking that I need to work on my compassion. I have zero compassion and know that things like that happen. It was a plastic plate, how much damage could it do?? :o) He has a bruise on his toe and I have a dirty plate. Sounds fair to me :o) I did give him a hug and tell him he will live. My poor kids!! :o) We decided for our oldest daughters birthday she could have a sleep over with some of her girlfriends. She wants to watch movies (barbie) and paint her nails and do dress up etc... the whole girly thing... UGH!! Someone HELP me!!! My hubby and dad have decided that they will take the other 3 kids and go elsewhere because neither of them want to be around for the girly madness... my mom was SUPPOSED to help me and she realized that she cannot be here because she has some Korean dance thing that she has to be at... sooooo, I am going to be stuck home alone with a bunch of girls wondering WHY I had to have such a girly girl... So far there are 3 girls coming with a possiblity of a couple more. I am sure that it will be fine, I am just not used to girly girl stuff.
My mom does traditional Korean dancing for a group that she is with and I have to say that it is truly sensational. I love to see it and I LOVE the traditional Korean outfits. They are gorgeous and to see the traditional dance is awesome. Well, my mom called the other day and there is a group called the Little Angels of Korea coming to town. So as a treat we are going to all go see them. Here is a link that shows some of the stuff that they are going to do. I tried the website that they have on their flier but it looks like they are trying to sell the domain name and there is nothing on there. The fan dance pic that is on that site is the same dance that my mom has learned to do. The show is not til Feb 17th, I am going to try and take pics, if they are allowed and will post them whenever I can :o)
Jeff is off on a cruise for a week with his family... have fun Jeff!!! I hope that you have a great time and get some R&R... now if I can just convince my hubby that he needs to take me on a cruise... :o) If not then Leah and I will be going for a little trip on our own. I would LOVE to do the Disney cruise...Either that or the one up to Alaska... either way I would love to go on a cruise :o) preferably WITH my hubby, but I guess if I have to go without him I will :o) I think that a cruise would be terribly romantic and would be a perfect getaway with NO worries :o) Of course without children... Oh, well.. .I will keep dreaming :o) Hope everyone has a great day!!!

I have to say that things are going well... Last night Leah and I went walking, we both did quite a bit of stretching and grumbling but we managed to get through our walk. Plus, the time together to just hang out and talk is awesome. It is a great way to get me going. We had talked about a friend of ours from high school and I decided to give her a call and ended up going over to her place to talk. It was really awesome to catch up with her. She was the wild one of the bunch, she was the one that loved the Gothic stuff and got into drugs. I think that is what drew us apart from her... some of us had to grow up and others stayed where they were. Anyways, we got to talking about EVERYTHING last night and it is great to see that she has grown up and has learned from her mistakes. Not that I did not make mistakes, cause God knows I have made plenty of them. We just sat and talked and talked. It was wonderful to see her, I ended up staying at her home til after midnight and was stunned that the time flew by like it did. We decided that we all needed to get together again and talk. Leah had also grown away from her and is ready to talk to her again too. So I think that we will plan a girl's day and go to lunch or just hang out at her house. Amazing the way things work out!! I have defienetely enjoyed getting back in touch with some of my friends from school.
Other things are going good too. My Bible study is going awesome and I am loving the fact that I am getting back into it. I have decided on a one year Bible that I have and also a Mothers Devotional Bible. I figure, if I am going to have my children going to their Bible study that I should be doing it too and I am loving it!! :o) Plus, they are memorizing Bible verses and I am learning them also since we do it together. It is really cool to see my kids learn the verses and remember them week after week. Next is to find a church home... but we are making progress, so that is a positive thing!! :o)

This brought back wonderful memories of TX for me... and let me tell you.. it is ALL TRUE!!!! It took me a LONG time to get used to the streets in TX... and the people... if you are only 10 over the speed limit you are passed with dirty looks and they do not only pass you, but drive on the SHOULDER to pass you... you definetely have to be a deffensive driver in Houston :o) (God, how I miss that!!!)

HOUSTON TRAFFIC RULES FOR THE PEOPLE VISITING DURING THE SUPER BOWL
XXXVIII, FEBRUARY 1, 2004

1. You must learn to pronounce the name of the city. It is "Hue-stun,"not "Ewe-ston," and definitely not "How-ston." The street named San Felipe is pronounced "San fe-LEE-pay," not "San Fi-LEEP" or "San Fay-LEE-pee."

2. Forget any traffic rules you learned anywhere else. Houston has its own version of traffic rules. They are called "Hold On And Pray." There is no such thing as a high-speed chase in Houston. We all drive like that.

3. All directions start with "Go down to Loop 610," which has no beginning and no end.

4. You have the East, Katy, Southwest, North, South, Northwest, and Eastex freeways, which are actually I-10 East, I-10 West, 59 North, 59 South, I-45 North, I-45 South, and 290, but not in that order. Your job is to figure out which one you really want to get on, without any signs to tell you. God help you if you are in the wrong lane, or you will go around Loop 610 again, which is an endless circle.

5. The Chamber of Commerce calls getting through traffic "a scenic drive." It is if you love seeing wrecks and people risking their lives changing tires, running through pot holes, slamming on your brakes to avoid a collision, having people cut you off, seeing a lot of people's middle fingers, and exhaust fumes.

6. The morning rush hour is from 5:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. The noon-hour rush is 11:00 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. The evening rush hour is 2:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m., sometimes 9:00 p.m. (or 3 a.m. during floods, which we call "ponding"). The teenagers take the streets from 9:00 p.m. through 5:00 a.m., and Friday's rush hour starts on Thursday morning.

7. If you actually stop at a yellow light, you WILL be rear ended, or at least cussed out, and/or possibly shot. When you are the first off the starting line, count to 5 before moving when the light turns green, to avoid being "T-boned" by crossing traffic.

8. Construction on every freeway, loop, and tollway in the city is a permanent form of entertainment as well as a source of delays.

9. Kuykendahl Road can be pronounced ONLY by a native Houstonian. (It is pronounced "Kirk-n-doll.")

10. All unexplained smells are accompanied by the phrase "Oh, we must be near Pasadena."

11. If someone actually has his turn signal on, it is probably a factory defect and should be ignored.

12. All Suburbans have the right-of-way, unless you are driving an 18-wheeler or perhaps a Bradley tank.

13. The minimum acceptable speed limit on Loop 610 is 85 mph. Otherwise, you will be stopped by Houston's Finest for impeding the flow of traffic.

14. The wrought-iron bars on windows in East Houston are NOT ornamental.

15. Never look at the driver of a car with a bumper sticker that says,"Keep honking. I'm reloading." In fact, don't honk at anyone.

16. If you are in the left lane, and going only 70 mph in a 60 mph zone, the people who are passing you are not really waving at you.

17. If it is 100 degrees outside, then January 1st must be next weekend.

18. The Sam Houston Toll Road is Houston's daily version of a NASCAR race.

19. When in doubt, remember that all unmarked exits lead to the state of Louisiana.

20. Don't get on Main Street unless you really WANT to be on Main Street. Left turns and right turns are not allowed between the South Loop and Dallas (that's Dallas, Texas, not Dallas Street).

21. Don't get sick or injured. There are no parking spaces in the Texas Medical Center for anyone but doctors.

22. You don't have to wait for an exit to get off the freeways. Just follow the ruts in the grass to the frontage road like everyone else. This is how Houston residents notify the Texas Department of Transportation where exits should have been built in the first place.

Y'ALL ENJOY YOUR STAY IN HOUSTON, AND COME BACK REAL SOON NOW, Y'HEAR?

A very interesting conversation I had....


My best friend and I were having our usual daily conversation when we turned to politics, which we almost NEVER do... she told me of a funny conversation that she had with her brother in law... they somehow got on the subject of politics and because her brother in law works for a union and the union told him to back the democrats he is going to vote democratic.... WHY???? You do not even KNOW who the democratic candidate is going to be (not that any of them are any good) but because your UNION told you to vote democratic you are going to do it??? What the heck does a union know?? Are they experts in politics??? I am liking unions less and less. They are just stupid middle men that earn their income by taking away from the people that are actually out there doing the work... Of course the people that belong to the unions are stupid too. Why would you work your butt off and give a part of your union the money?? Sorry, off track.... I just do not get unions. Anyways, so they got into the fact of you do not even know what this candidate stands for, what he believes in and you are going to vote for him because your UNION TOLD you to?? What kind of free thinking is that?? WHY would you do it just because your union told you to?? Yes, I am Republican. Yes, I do believe in what Bush believes in (in most cases) but there are things that I agree with that the democrats are doing... but I would NOT vote the way someone TOLD me to vote!!! And people wonder why we have such issues.
I am going to touch on the Bush issue and allowing immigrants to stay in this country as long as they are being good little boys and girls and working... At first I was very upset with the decision and wondered WHY would he do that?? Why would he take away jobs from Americans?? Then I thought about it.... Americans are LAZY, they do not want to do some of the jobs that the Mexicans are willing to do... an example would be... when we were living in TX we had an EXCELLENT lawn service, it was all mexican guys that came and did it and did it CHEAP. We had a BIG yard when we were living in TX and my hubby hates doing lawn work and I refuse to do it ( I do all the inside work, I will NOT do the outside work) the heat also sucked!! It took them about 2 hours to completely do our yard,cut, trim the whole nine yards and at $30 a trip that is NOT bad. There are other jobs like that out there... hard labor that other lazy people refuse to do. They would much rather sit at home collecting unemployment or social security or whatever it is they do rather than go out and work their butts off to actually EARN a living... Personally I think that we should ship those lazy people elsewhere and KEEP the mexicans that are willing to do the work. I agree that it is not the way to FIX the problem that we are having with the lazy people in this country but it is a way to keep things up and going and keep the prices reasonable for some things. There were a lot of Mexicans in the area that I lived in TX (Clear Lake area, south of Houston) they would get up early in the morning go to the local gas station and stay there to get picked up to do work. More power to them if they are willing to go do the work and not sit on their butts living off of our welfare system and do the jobs that our own citizens are not willing to do!!! So, I guess you can say that I support Bush in what he decided to do. I know that a lot of people do not... but that is their opinion and I am fine with that too :o)
Leah and I decided that we are going to start our walking again... good luck to us... :o) We have slacked off majorly and are now ready to start again... so tonight we will walk, and will start our routine back up and do it 2 times a week and mantain our diets :o) I was not going to make any new years resolutions, they are stupid and get broken, so instead I decided that I am going to improve myself at my own rate... my plans are to quit cussing. (I can get pretty bad) continue a daily Bible study, find a church home for the family, walk/workout, mantain a healthy diet and to keep reading :o) so far the daily Bible study is working and so is me reading :o) now for the rest of it...:o)

I do these silly quizzes every once in a while... this one I got a kick out of.....hmmmm... me a saint?? :o)

What Famous Leader Are You?

Yeah, I know... The RAMS lost... how horrible is that??? I went out with my girlfriend, Bev, on friday to have a few drinks and just sit and talk. We had a great time and it was even better when my hubby decided that he would join us. Bev was pretty well on the loopy side when my hubby showed up and since he does not drink he had a blast messing around with her. We were extremely excited about the next days RAMS game and were talking about how the Rams could do it if they put their minds to it. We were really excited about the fact that our Rams could go all the way to the superbowl, yet again. Then the game comes, we held them off pretty good, the fact that we rallied back and tied the score in the last couple of minutes of the game is awesome. Then overtime comes, NOTHING, from either side, their guy misses a field goal and what happens?? We MISS it too. NOT that I am blaming Jeff Wilkins, because that is the farthest from the truth. I think that Jeff Wilkins is AWESOME and he is the best person on our team, by far. He is the one that got us as far as we got and I praise him for that. He is an awesome kicker and we need him on our team...for next year, we need BIGGER guys on Defense and Bulger to learn NOT to throw interceptions.... (thinking I need to be coaching:o) ) Who knows, if Lovie Smith goes to the Bears then maybe we will find someone that will be just right for our defensive coach :o) Our guys are awesome and I back the Rams 110%. I should have taken a pic of what I looked like on Saturday.. I had the Wistrom hairdo (blonde, curly hair, sticking up all over the place) I managed to get all my hair up in the stupid wig, and had on my rams shirt... I was a site let me tell you :o) But lucky for you guys I did not take any pics :o) After the game, I was devestated and decided to go to my best friends house and scrapbook for a few hours and work out my frustrations on my pictures :o) I did not watch the Patriots game but they won, so that is good. Then on Sunday we watched the KC/Colts game and the Packer/Eagles game.... BOTH of the teams that I wanted to win LOST on Sunday too... HOW HORRIBLE IS THAT??? So, I am going to root for the Patriots and be done with football!!! It is back to paying better attention to the Blues and wait for Baseball to start :o)
On to other things...the people that live next door to us are really nice people and she told me that she was pregnant a couple of week ago and yesterday she told me that she lost the baby. She is pretty upset by it. They were trying to add to their family and they have lost their baby. It is so sad to hear when someone looses a baby. I wish her and her hubby the best!! They have a cute little girl that is 6 and a baby that is 6 months old. They want to keep the younger ones close in age so will try again in a couple of months. Best wishes to them!!
The Blackhawk that crashed a few days ago was rather upseting news... I have a friend that flies them and he was supposed to be in Iraq now so I have tried getting a hold of him and have finally managed to reach him, he is safe and doing good, he is still in Germany... so that is good news!! He has been in the Army for a long time and loves it, he is a pilot of the Blackhawks and always has really cool stories. He has been many, many places, along with Korea, which is why we started talking in the first place (talked through a mutual friend before we became friends). I would love to meet him someday. We have managed to stay in touch via email and messenger for over 5 years and I think that is so awesome. I think it is so strange to create a friendship through the internet, then to mantain it for the years that we have...
A couple of days ago I got an email from Andy, he is having another one of his poems published... that is soo awesome!! Congrats to you!!! I have yet to see it, but maybe I can get him to send it to me and I can post it here for him. The CD of music that he gave to me is neat, he has quite the talent for that stuff :o) Well, I am sure that there is more that I could be talking about and I am sure that I am missing things...but my kids are requesting lunch... so I will be back later!! :o)

I am not one that normally buys subscriptions to magazines, but last year I agreed to let my hubby buy me the subscription to Ivy Cottage, which is a magazine for scrapbookers. I LOVE the magazine. They have awesome layouts and have lots and lots of new dodads to add to scrapbooks. But I have had NOTHING but trouble with the stupid subscription!! I do NOT recommend it to anyone, just go buy it in the store, you will get it faster and will not have to deal with the stupid people at their offices. They are NEVER there, you leave messages with secretaries that do not know squat and get a call back a week from when you call. They are snippy and rude on the phone and "do not understand why you do not get your magazine." I did not even get one of the months and called and told them I did not get it and they said they did not have anymore and would add 2 months to my subscription, I said wow... you cannot fulfill the subscription that I had to begin with and PAID for and you want to give me 2 months free which in actuallity is only one month since you did not have the one that I was expecting?? Then the magazine does not get here till the last week of the month for that month... they are out in the stores for weeks, but the subscribers do not get it til late in the month! I told them that I would never recommend their magazine and would tell people how bad their subscription service was, especially since I talk to alot of people that scrapbook... so here I am bad mouthing their crappy service :o) DO NOT GET THEIR SUBSCRIPTION!!! THEY SUCK!!! I would quit buying their magazine but I like it too much, I will just buy it from the store from now on. (Another excuse to go to the scrapbooking store, as if I needed a reason to go) :o)
I read the first Patricia Cornwell book, Postmortem. It was ok, it was slow in parts and because it was written in 1990 forensics were not as good as they are now, so it is interesting to see how limited they were in what they could do forensically and to see how new DNA testing was back then. My best friend's hubby bought her the rest in the series so it will be good to read the series and move up in the years and to see how technology really helps out forensically. My best friend started the series several months ago so she is several books ahead of me. I do not have to buy them so that is a plus :o) I will either start the next book in the series or will start the Nora Roberts Key Trilogy...
My hubby has been working hard on keeping his business going, he is doing really well at it. I am very proud of him for starting his own company and giving 110% He has been building a website for my parents store it has a way to go but that is the beginning of it. Unfortunately my parents have zero input so he is just doing what he wants to do and putting in info that he can get out of my parents. He is having fun with doing his own design though. He likes that he has the chance to do what he wants and just design it any way he wants to. He also did a website for some friends that own a billiard store, but for some reason that site is down. Here is another one that he has done for another friend that owns this company. He is a super great guy... which I had a friend to set him up with :o)
My cousin got a 156 on his LSAT and is quite upset about that. He wanted a 160 so that he could easily get into Tulane College, now he is going down there to see if he can talk his way into the school. It is a crappy situation. He wants to be an International Business lawyer and Tulane is his #1 choice for schools. He has been at Mizzou for the last 4 years completing everything that he needs to go on to another school. He had a full scholarship to Mizzou and is extremely smart, so I know that he can do it. It just sucks that he did not get the score that he needed for the LSAT. Other than that life has been fairly uneventful!! The Blues are sucking so we will not talk about them, the RAMS play on Saturday against Carolina so CHEER CHEER CHEER for the RAMS!!! We have all our players back and in good health, so lets cheer the guys on for a VICTORY!!! :o) Grant Wistrom was on the news this evening telling everyone to CHEER as loud as they can for them :o) Gotta LOVE my Rams!!! Well, I am off to spend some time with the fam! Everyone have a great evening!!

This is another really good Email that I got from a friend of mine that was a Marine. I am not partial to any certain branch of the service but this one is really neat!!

The Marine

This is a poem being sent from a marine. For those who read it, his letter is at the bottom of this page to his dad. It makes you truly be thankful for all of our troops.

THE MARINE
We all came together,
Both young and old.
To fight for our freedom,
To stand and be bold.

In the midst of all evil,
We stand our ground,
And we protect our country
From all terror around.

Peace and not war,
Is what some people say.
But I'll give my life,
So you can live the American way.

I give you the right
To talk of your peace,
To stand in your groups,
And protest in our streets.

But still I fight on.
I don't bitch, I don't whine.
I'm just one of the men
Who is doing your time.

I'm harder than nails,
Stronger than any machine,
I'm the immortal soldier,
I'm a U.S. MARINE!

So stand in my shoes,
And leave from your home.
Fight for the people who hate you,
With the protests they've shown.

Fight for the stranger,
Fight for the young,
So they all may have,
The great freedom you've won.

Fight for the sick,
Fight for the poor.
Fight for the cripple,
Who lives next door.

But when your time comes,
Do what I've done.
For if you stand up for freedom
You'll stand when the fight's done.

Corporal Aaron M. Gilbert~
~UNITED STATES MARINE~
~ 'USS SAIPAN, PERSIAN GULF~

MARCH 23, 2003
HEY DAD, DOWN HERE.
Do me a favor and label this "THE MARINE" and send it to everybody on your distribution list. Even leave this paragraph in it. I want this rolling all over the U.S. I want every home reading it. Every eye to see it. And every heart to feel it. So can you please send this out for me? I would but I am sorta on the USS SAIPAN and my e-mail time isn't that long.
You know what Dad, I wondered what it would be like to truly understand what JFK said in his inaugural speech, "When the time comes to lay down my life for my country, I do not cower from this responsibility, I welcome it."
Well, now I know. And I do, Dad, I welcome the opportunity to do what I do. Even though I have left behind a beautiful wife, and I will miss the birth of our first born child, I would do it 70 times over to fight for the place that God has made for my home.

I love you all and I miss you very much. I wish I could be there when my wife has our child, but tell her that I love her, and Lord willing, I will be coming home soon.

~SEMPER, FI.~ ~AARON~

Something that I got in an Email that I thought was kind of interesting :o)

PROOF THAT THE WORLD IS NUTS!


In Lebanon, men are legally allowed to have sex with animals, but the animals
must be female. Having sexual relations with a male animal is punishable by
death. (Like THAT makes sense.)

In Bahrain, a male doctor may legally examine a woman's genitals, but is
prohibited from looking directly at them during the examination. He may only see
their reflection in a mirror. (Do they look different reversed?)

Muslims are banned from looking at the genitals of a corpse. This also
applies to undertakers; the sex organs of the de! ceased must be covered with a brick
or piece of wood at all times. (A brick??)

The penalty for masturbation in Indonesia is decapitation. (Much worse than
"going blind!")

There are men in Guam whose full-time job is to travel the countryside and
deflower young virgins, who pay them for the privilege of having sex for the
first time. Reason: under Guam law, it is expressly forbidden for virgins to
marry. (Let's just think for a minute; is there any job anywhere else in the
world that even comes close to this?)

In Hong Kong, a betrayed wife is legally allowed to kill her adulterous
husband, but may only do so with her bare hands. The husband's lover, on the other
hand, may be killed in any manner desired. (Ah! Justice!)

Topless saleswomen are legal in Liverpool, England - but only in tropical
fish stores. (But of course!)

In Cali, Colombia, a woman may only have sex with her husband, and the first
time this happens, her mother must be in the room to witness the act. (Makes
one shudder at the thought.)

In Santa Cruz, Bolivia, it is illegal for a man to have sex with a woman and
her daughter at the same time. (I presume this was a big enough problem that
they had to pass this law?)

In Maryland, it is illegal to sell condoms from vending machines with one
exception: prophylactics may be dispensed from a vending machine only "in places
where alcoholic beverages are sold for consumption on the premises." (Is this
a great country or what? Not as great a! s Guam!)

Banging your head against a wall uses 150 calories an hour. (Who volunteers
for this stuff?)

The strongest muscle in the body is the tongue. (Hmmm. . . I won't touch
THAT one!)

The ant can lift 50 times its own weight, can pull 30 times its own weight
and always falls over on its right side when intoxicated. (From drinking little
bottles of...? Did the government pay for this research??)

An ostrich's eye is bigger than it's brain. (I know some people like that)

Starfish don't have brains. (I know some people like that too)

And, the best for last. . . .! . Turtles can breathe through their butts. (Do
you think they have bad breath?)

After finally getting over the crud I decided to call my friend Andy that is home visiting. He left on Friday, so that was my last chance to see him for a while. After picking up my brother from wrestling practice, I went to his mom's house to see him. It was a nice visit and I really enjoyed seeing him. It has been 10+ years since I have seen him and he has not changed one bit. Still the same guy he always has been. He is living out in LA working for an Insurance company and writes poetry and music on the side. He has had his poetry published in a book and has had his music recorded. No, he is not gay, he has a thing for Asian women (he is half Korean, like me) :o) It was great to see him and it brought back a lot of memories of us in high school, we never dated (I do not think that Asian guys are good looking and it would feel like incest) but we hung out a lot and we did go to dances together, as friends, and we always looked out for one another. My senior year he moved to Chicago and did modeling up there. Now he is out in LA... Hubby did not get to meet him, but hopefully Andy will get to meet him then.
There is one thing that I do not understand about men... My hubby thinks because I was friends with guys in high school that I must have had a thing for them, dated them, slept with them... My thing is... It IS possible to JUST be friends with a guy!!! MOST of my friends from high school were guys. I did not have all that many girlfriends because I did not like them, they are mean, backstabbing, whining b*tches. I prefered to hang out with the guys. They were a lot more fun than most of the girls that wanted to go to the mall and paint their nails and googoo gaa gaa over guys. I did have girlfriends in high school but they were more like me, did not care about primping in front of a mirror for hours on end, talking about boys for hours on end. I had boyfriends in school, not a lot, but a few. I was a band geek and I know it, but us band geeks hung out and had a great time. :o) (Yes, I went to band camp, 2 times to be exact:o) ) I was not a slut, I did not sleep with whatever guy walked my way... I just had a lot of guy friends and loved it that way. I just do not understand a guys way of thinking. I do not think that the guys I hung out with thought up ways to nail me... we were just friends, hung out, played volleyball, football, watched movies and talked for hours on end, went to parties like everyone else. What is wrong with that? They looked out for me and I always helped them out of girl situations they did not want to be in or have :o)
Oh, well. Since I have been sick I have managed to find a little time to read. Hubby has been sick too and we have been juggling the kids together and it has given me a little time to catch up on reading. I read Jonathan Kellerman's Flesh and Blood, Janet Evanovich's One for the Money and Tami Hoag's Ashes to Ashes. Hubby bought me the second in the key Trilogy of Nora Roberts and I bought the first one in the Trilogoy yesterday so that I could start on that and I also got Dan Browns Digital Fortress. I would love to get Dan Brown's Davinci Code, but that is on my waiting list :o) My best friend also lent me Postmortem, Body of Evidence, All That Remains, Cruel and Unusual, and Body Farm... all by Patricia Cornwell, along with The Red Room by Nicci French and Night Whispers by Judith McNaught. So, I have some reading materials for the next month or more. :o)
The Flesh and Blood by Jonathan Kellerman was ok, it took me some time to get into it and it had its slow points and fluff that could have been left out. I skipped paragraphs and was not lost at all going on. It had a lot of loose ends that would have been better off being better described and some of it would have been better off being left out all together. Janet Evanovich's One for the money was a good one. She has a lot of books in that series, I read the fourth one, not knowing it was part of a series and have started from the beginning so that I can read it in order (I am anal that way) and Ashes to Ashes was a really good suspense one. I did not figure out the killer to the end and that was a nice change :o) I have also read Tami Hoags A Thin Dark Line, which was a really good book too. She knows how to write books :o)
I will update and I go through the rest of the books. Hubby did get me a romance, not realizing it was a romance (he recognized the author as one that I liked and picked it up without reading about it) called Lawless by Nora Roberts and it was ok. I am not big into romance, but it was an easy read and I did not want to not read it :o) Especially since my hubby was thoughtful and bought it for me :o)
On to sports... This is a Bye week for the Rams, which is a good thing, Good Luck to OU in the Sugar Bowl!!! WHOOO HOO that the Cowboys are out of the playoffs!!! :o) and that is about it for me :o) Other than... RAMS BETTER GO ALL THE WAY!!!! :o) I want to see them win the SUPER BOWL AGAIN!!! :o)

Hubby and I were going to go to PF Changs for our anniversary dinner but the wait was an hour and 45 minutes and I decided that the wait was not worth it so we went to Bambino's Italian restraunt. We had a good time, it was nice to get out and just relax for a while. My hubby bought me the converter and the tote for my die cut machine, which I am soo excited about!!! He wanted a PS2 game called Manhunt, rather disturbing game, but it was what he wanted, so he got it :o)