Looking for a ray of hope... just one. That's all I'm asking...

What is going on????

People are trying to raise children and pay mortgages and have babies and keep food in their refrigerators and hours are getting cut, hard working people are getting laid off, and there is a general consensus of hopelessness all around.

We aren't losers. We aren't unwilling to work, we aren't looking for hand-outs, we aren't sitting around doing drugs while our children cry in their cribs.

STOP SELLING YOUR STOCK, PEOPLE! Wait it out! If you keep selling, you're not going to get enough for it anyway and you're just making the stock market fall farther and farther. This economy is CRAP and we are paying for it.

This is getting seriously scary. Please help out those who need it if you find yourself in the position to do so.

God Bless America

This is so totally random

A Decade Later

My ten-year high school reunion was last weekend. TEN YEARS, MAN!

((Didn't anyone besides me see Grosse Pointe Blank??))

So, anyway... wow! I cannot believe how much has changed since high school. There are the obvious things: husband, kids, moving, working, not working. Then there are some less obvious things relating to my personal experiences... I was baptized, I've been through agony and elation, I've dealt with the California Family Court system, I've gotten to know my grandmother better, I've become closer with my mother and my sister, I've learned to appreciate what is good about California, I've missed the Midwest, and I've really figured out who I am.

I'm inspired to write

Top Ten Things I've Learned In The Last Ten Years

10. Diaper Smell will permeate any container the diapers are in.

9. Declaw your cat the day you find out you're pregnant.

8. You will become your parents and that's okay. Deal.

7. Grocery shopping is harder than it looks.

6. Take pictures.

5. Send thank you cards.

4. Cherish your siblings.

3. Make "I love you" a common phrase in your home and always say it like you mean it.

2. Family before friends. Friends before work.

1. God is knocking. Open Up.

Here's to the Grayslake Community High School Class of 1998! Go Rams!

((I feel compelled to disclose that I did not actually attend my reunion because it was six states away, but I wanted to be there and have still been profoundly impacted by its occurrence))

Woah.

This is craziness. Bear with me, read till the end.

Election Nightmare Scenario

5 Good Things About Today

Inspired by Byron...

1. I got to take a nice walk with my children.

2. An unexpected repair to the car will not cost nearly as much as I had feared.

3. I have cold Pepsi in the refrigerator.

4. My Verizon Wireless bill is less than it was yesterday.

5. It's Equinox day! My father-in-law stood an egg on its end. That's pretty cool (according to Wikipedia, you can do this any day of the year, but it was still cool).

9/11

I keep thinking that at some point September 11 will feel normal again, but that has not yet happened. I don't need to re-hash what happened seven years ago today, we all know that already. The feelings this date stirs up in Americans are individually unique while also universally alike at the same time... we all know where we were, what we were doing, who we were with. We remember trying desperately to reach our loved ones and time after time hearing the tell-tale tri-tone sing song sound of the phone company revving up to say "The call you have made cannot be completed at this time" and "All circuits are currently busy, please try your call again." The checklist in our mind of all the people we loved enough to check in on got longer as fast as we could make the calls, too many times having to place an asterisk next to a name indicating that we had not yet reached them and would have to try again in another 30 minutes. We wondered if we should risk going outdoors to physically locate our loved ones or if we were safer staying put. And we stared at the television screen, hour after hour after hour ...after hour.

Just a couple months ago, my husband and I stumbled upon a video on YouTube that took my breath away. It really shook me up. Someone somewhere has synced up video footage of the first tower falling and a 911 call made from that tower. Between the time on the video footage and the time on the 911 call, they are able to match them seemingly perfectly, and you can listen to a man, desperate for help, begging the 911 operator to work a miracle on his behalf up to the moment that the building crashes down around him and the line goes dead.

What can I say that hasn't already been said a million times?

God Bless us all. God bless the survivors, the families, the bystanders and the rest of us who watched in terror wondering if the images we were seeing on our televisions were some cruel joke.



High gas prices don't seem like that big of a deal today.

These Little People In Our Charge

Our children are our first real opportunity to define ourselves. Having children forces us to recognize the good and the bad in ourselves, because it's staring us back in the face. If we're grumpy and rude, our children will be grumpy and rude. If we're rushed and never have time for people, our children will never have time for people. If we're happy and giving, our children will be pleasant and generous. Now, obviously, this is a generalization, but isn't it amazing how much we shape our children, in every way? Being a parent makes us choose to be the type of person we want our children to be, because we know how much we influence who they will become. Subsequently, our children make us better people. We seem to want thanks from our children for everything we do for them, but don't forget to thank your young ones for everything they do for you. We catch ourselves losing our temper and we take a deep breath, because we don't want the children to hear us yelling. People stop swearing and smoking and drinking because they have children around. Just when we start to lose ourselves to our own selfishness, God gives us another reason to take care of our minds and our bodies. Parents don't take the risks that non-parents do, because if something happens to us, we wonder, what will happen to our children? Children give us a reason to be the best version of ourselves.

On a seemingly related note, check out "Angel in the Waters" by Regina Doman. It's simply beautiful. Non-parents be forewarned, the impact is much more significant for a parent.