Thanks Mom and Dad!

http://www.dailypress.com/news/opinion/dp-ed_suntopletter_0511may11,0,7289775.story

 

 

Thinking Free

I come from a family of free thinkers.  When we come together we express ourselves when we agree on something and when we don’t.  Sometimes our discussions lead to heated, passionate philosophical debates which become uncomfortable to some observers.  After the dust settles we still love and respect one another, at least from my point of view, and we still have hearty appetites at dinner. 

If pushed I lean to the “political right” in most eyes but my spirit cries out for truth in whatever form it comes.  I find truth in many of the writings of Leonard Pitts, Jr., writer, Pulitzer Prize winner and columnist for the Miami Herald.  One of his recent columns really struck a cord with me and is worth the read (titled UNIFORMITY KILLS FREEDOM). 

I dedicate this post to a wonderful, passionate woman, whom I admire for her ” sassy politically incorrect” posts and her constant push for us to think:  Angie

http://www.miamiherald.com/living/columnists/leonard_pitts/story/523915.html

PS Mom and Dad, THANK YOU!

Ignorance is bliss to those who profit by it!

The title of this post has been my mantra for awhile.  I’ve decided to change it and wanted to share some thoughts on what I’ve learned from my old mantra.  It is my desire to keep you from stumbling on some of these like I did.

My take on the infomercial people:  they are hoping that a few million people will purchase their product, gadget, book, etc. and at $19.99 to $39.99 a pop, they will become at least a millionaire.  Forget the money back guarantee or the life time guarantee…got a Ginsu Knife you want to get replaced?  Good luck!  The refund/warranty is only as good as long as the company stays in business.  The sellers are betting (with good odds) that your item will collect dust before you’d go to the trouble of sending it back for a refund/use a warranty.

Beware of half-truths, for instance one of the infomercials running of late has a woman selling her method/book on property something or other.  The paid interviewer states something about her best selling book…cough, gasp, wheeze…emphasis should be on HER because it is the only book she’s ever sold, of course it is HER best seller. 

Even when the company/person you think you’d like to deal with has a great reputation…CHECK IT OUT FOR YOURSELF!  Deal with people your friends and neighbors have dealt with AFTER you’ve ALSO read the fine print, checked with the Better Business Bureau (and read the next paragraph).  I’d also check the internet and watch out for multi-level marketing, there are tons of them and more starting everyday.  Nothing wrong with offering a product but when you are supposed to get more people to sell it than purchase it from you…BEWARE!

Watch out for the bait and switch.  It has become very popular, even among people of ”reputation.”   We were baited and switched by a friend of a friend AND THE “FRIEND” KNEW; she didn’t want to say anything/be involved in the transaction between us.  HUH?  Note to self: don’t confuse the word acquaintance with the word friend, no matter how friendly.  

Actions will always speak louder than words.  Start looking for the actions that are in direct conflict of the words.  Words must be backed up by past and/or present action or the words are only a promise/dream.  Notice how the media tell you not to put yourself in any danger but if you can get video or a picture of that tornado passing over your head, send ‘er in!  Then they play the video over and over and over at nausea with a small credit at the bottom of the screen.  Yep, THEY are looking out for YOU!

Now more than ever it is BUYER BEWARE!

More or Less

 Fear less, hope more; Whine less, breath more;
   Talk less, say more; Hate less, love more;
   And all good things are yours.
      — Swedish Proverb           

 

I honestly can’t remember if Momster or DLPSOY posted this somewhere but I’m pretty sure it was one of them.  If it isn’t then please let me know so I can correct this!

 

I LOVE THIS PROVERB!

 

 

About Humans

I don’t pretend to be a doctor or anyone who knows all about things.  I do know one thing that bothers me about some doctors who try to break us down into systems or machines.  As if that is ALL we are as humans.  As if we can eventually explain everything in the human body (or the universe) in the same terms as a machine or a systematic number equation to the finite. 

When we decide to think that we know everything about how the brain, chemicals, genes, etc. relate to one another I wonder what we will use as the “model” machine?  And exactly which mechanic will you trust to give you a tune up?  What constitutes the tune up?  Maybe the sci-fi movies aren’t so far from reality if doctors think they really know it already.  We need the differences that we’ve developed. 

Don’t we NEED differences so that the things I’m not good at doing, someone else can do and vice versa. 

This is one small reason why I struggle about telling our story.  I really don’t see us as any different than any one else in life.  I love my son just as he is, I see my job as helping him to learn coping skills as opposed to changing him or his wonderful mind.  Most of the time my son is one of the happiest kids I’ve had the pleasure to be around.  

I’d written the previous before today (5-6-8).  I’m having difficulty sharing which is completely foreign to me.  But today I was blessed with a beautiful sight.  I had to share. 

As I walked to the school to register my son I saw five smiling, flapping boys come out of the building, one skipped, two others were talking in excited tones, one making happy sounds, another running toward the field.  I saw a tall slender man walking quickly behind them.  I smiled.  I smiled wide and long and looked at them; feeling their happiness, feeling their freedom,  feeling their joy at experiencing the day and a break from school work.  I thought of the teacher, the joy this can bring him too or the concern it could give as to later in the day lessons.  How blessed is this world for ALL these humans?  How blessed that they get to know the joy of the day?  How blessed I was to get to experience this joy from afar but with them? 

Thank God for the students, thank God for the teacher, thank God for the day, thank God for humans. 

Like Humans Do by David Byrne:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzmZXYKmTt0&feature=related

  

God

Thank you!

Miracles of Miracles, NO ONE DIED!

Rescuers amazed that 6 twisters caused no deaths in Va.

By SONJA BARISIC – Associated Press

SUFFOLK, Va. (AP) — It was a scene of haphazard destruction that stretched for 25 miles: Row upon row of homes reduced to sprays of splintered lumber, shopping centers stripped to bare metal, parking lots turned into junk yards.

And yet no one died.

“The only thing I can say is we were watched over and blessed,” Fire Chief Mark Outlaw said.

As residents and rescuers returned Tuesday to survey the wreckage from six tornadoes, they were amazed by both the scope of the damage and their good fortune. Even among the 200 people who were injured, most suffered only cuts and scrapes.

Authorities said people in the storm’s path had plenty of warning and were fortunate that the strongest of the twisters struck in the late afternoon, rather than at night, when most residents would have been sleeping.

The extra few minutes provided enough time for people to huddle in bathrooms or crouch in the back of stores as the tornado zigzagged for 10 miles. The twister, along with the storm that spawned it, left a 25-mile swath of damage across central and southeast Virginia.

Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, who declared a state of emergency in the hardest-hit areas, said about 145 homes were severely damaged in Suffolk, a city of 80,000 people west of Norfolk. Most of the injured had been released from hospitals.

“It is kind of amazing there weren’t more significant injuries,” Kaine said on WTOP radio in Washington, D.C. “You are talking about 145 homes; that is probably five to six hundred people directly affected by this tornado.”

As he toured damaged neighborhoods later, Kaine said the number of people hurt or killed would have been much higher had the tornado struck a few hours later.

“There’s definitely a miraculous quality to this,” he told reporters.

At least three people were hospitalized in fair condition as of Tuesday evening, said Dana Woodson, spokeswoman for the city of Suffolk.

The tornado that hit Suffolk touched down repeatedly between 4:30 and 5 p.m. Monday, when many people were still at work or on their way home.

Brenda Williams, 43, had been getting a manicure at a nail shop in a strip mall when the lights went out and she saw debris flying in the wind around the parking lot. She rushed to the back of the shop for safety, but the ceiling collapsed, burying her.

She wasn’t sure how long she was trapped.

She prayed, then hollered when she heard footsteps. A stranger pulled her out.

“I’m not lucky, I’m blessed,” said Williams, who had a 2-inch gash stitched above her left eyebrow and stitches on her right forearm. “I’m fine. I’m here. I’m in the land of the living.”

On Tuesday, she went back to the shopping center to retrieve possessions from her car, which was flipped on its roof in the parking lot. Other cars and SUVs were strewn about, some stacked on top of others.

The high winds had tossed two smashed cars inside the shopping center, which had been stripped of its facing, leaving its steel skeleton exposed. Wiring and bits of insulation hung from metal beams. Shattered glass covered the carpeting, which was soaked from the heavy rains. A lone black hiking boot lay in a parking spot.

Inside a military recruiting center at the strip mall, a phone remained in place on a desk, its cord ripped out of a wall that no longer exists.

Naomi Britt, who cares for an 87-year-old woman, was at the woman’s home in a Suffolk subdivision when she heard what she thought was an 18-wheeler.

“I grabbed her by the hand and said, ‘Let’s go,’” said Britt, 60.

She led the woman into a bathroom just as the lights failed.

“I got down as far as I could and we just held hands and prayed,” she said.

After the roar had quieted and the house had stopped quaking, Britt opened the door to find rubble around her. Nothing remained of a neighbor’s house but a cinderblock foundation.

“If we hadn’t been in that tub, we could have been sucked out of that attic and out of that roof, and we’d be gone,” said Britt, who was at the nondenominational Open Door Church, where out-of-state relief workers were being fed and sheltered.

The National Weather Service confirmed that tornadoes also hit Brunswick County, about 60 miles west, and Colonial Heights, about 60 miles northwest. Three other twisters hit in Isle of Wight and Surry counties, and along the line separating Gloucester and Mathews counties, all in southeast Virginia. The other tornadoes caused far less damage than the twister that ravaged Suffolk.

In Suffolk, some roads remained blocked Tuesday, and it was not clear when residents and business owners would be allowed to return to damaged neighborhoods. Emergency workers with search dogs combed through rubble while inspectors assessed the damage.

The Rev. Tony Peak said the storm’s timing spared the city more heartbreak.

“Most people were at work. There were homes out there flattened like a bulldozer had run over them. But nobody was in them.”

Retirees Joe and Ruth Silberholz jumped into a closet and slammed the door behind them as they heard the storm arrive. They emerged to find their home damaged but standing.

Their neighbors were not so lucky. The couple found a woman and her 3-year-old grandchild had been blown out of a sunroom in their house, landing 30 feet away. The woman was at the edge of a small lake, the child in its shallows.

“The house must have just exploded,” Ruth Silberholz said.

The little girl was covered with blood from a cut but appeared otherwise fine. She and her grandmother had bumps and bruises.

Jon Fisher and his wife lined up with about 30 other people at the entrance to their neighborhood Tuesday, waiting for police to escort them back to their homes to retrieve pets. They said they were told they would have to leave again and not be able to take anything else with them.

“We have no idea what’s going to happen next,” Fisher said. “We don’t know anything at all. We don’t know how badly the house is damaged. We don’t know where we’re going to stay, where we’re going to live, when the kids can go back to school.”

Tom Becker was in Atlantic City gambling when his grown daughter called and told him his neighborhood had been devastated by a tornado. Becker rushed home Tuesday and found bare concrete slabs where neighbors’ houses had been.

Becker’s house was barely standing, and he looked wistfully inside at family portraits still hanging a wall.

“I just want to get in there and get the things that are important to me,” he said, choking back emotion. “I know now that it’s gone.”

Associated Press writers Bob Lewis in Suffolk and Larry O’Dell and Michael Felberbaum in Richmond contributed to this report.

Living with a Difference - Sequence I

I invite you to read about our journey and learning experiences in hopes that it will help you or loved ones find themselves in similar situations.  I hope and pray that you find comfort, peace and the positive aspects that Living with a Difference intends.  I hope you I can tickle your funny bone along the way too!

I’ll be making the individual posts and then copy them here for the sake of continuity. 

Posting this for our love of God, standing in faith, praying this reaches those that need and seek His love and peace.

*******************************************

Sometimes it is hard to know where to begin, so why not begin with the beginning! 

 

The cast of characters:  My husband is Hungry Hubby, Big Boy is my oldest son, Young Son is yep and me, I’m Wailing Woman.  For more on how these names came about, click here.

 

 

LIVING WITH A DIFFERENCE – PEEING ON A STICK!

 

Peeing on a stick, how complicated could that be?  Well for one, I can’t quite pee the way the stick chick in the illustration does it.  Her stream looks to be one foot long and steady as she goes… mine…not so much.  

 

I first try my normal position with my legs at the ten and two position but that produces a shower.  So I rise to my gas station commando stance but I’ve already relieved too much and I’m chasing the small bursts with the stick until it seems completely wet.  Well that experience sure didn’t seem to be clear, it wasn’t blue nor was it easy. 

 

What?  Negative.  No, I just knew I was pregnant.  I felt it.  So I got a cup and peed into it (much easier for me) and dipped the second stick (the double pack was on sale).   J  Apparently the first stick didn’t get soaked with the hormone because this time it was CLEAR…I was pregnant!!!!!!

 

Hungry Husband and I can’t keep secrets very well.  Especially when the news is good so we drove to my parent’s house and then to his mom’s house spreading the glorious news.  After two years of trying we were going to have our first child. 

 

I felt pretty healthy during my pregnancy.  We got up nearly every week day and walked one to three miles before work.  I had quit smoking and popped the prenatals.  We continued to compete in CW dance competitions until I was at the fifth month.  At 39, I still felt WAS young even though I was officially in the “at risk” zone of having a child.  I enjoyed the pregnancy and marveled how my body changed.  The doctor gave me a leave of absence five weeks before my due date because of swelling but apparently I didn’t have preeclampsia. 

 

Fast forward two weeks, my water breaks, emergency C section because he was big and breach.  “I see a boy butt,” the nurse exclaimed.  We were elated!  We missed the low Apgar numbers being tossed across the room.  But the numbers were always going up and eventually everyone was happy.   He peed on one nurse and she jokingly lamented about being peed on.  She even wrote about it on the Apgar card (a souvenir).  Aren’t we the lucky ones, to know he took his first whiz at 11:04 pm on his birthday!?!?!  Now HE would be showing ME how to pee in a stream and hit the target!

 

The Church of Oprah

THE CHURCH OF OPRAH

If you haven’t seen this yet, it is worth a peek. 

I’m going to discuss the content of what Oprah and Tolle are talking about and the “new age” religion (and that is what it will become despite other intentions).

People who do so well for themselves in “this world” terms have a very difficult time dealing with it.  Winfrey has looked to Tolle (for now) because he is telling her what she wants to hear or believe…or feel (whatever term they want to use). 

It is difficult for people like Tolle and Winfrey to imagine that this in itself is ideology and easily could produce a “religion.”  They are searching and believe they’ve found the “answer” to it all.

My questions; What if an inner spirit wants to be negative, hurt people, hurt the people who support the church of Oprah for example.  Is that okay if the inner self wants to do negative works or negative things?  This is where it comes back to “I Universe” junk or new age “that I am in control of everything around me” and in my life.  WHAT? 

I’m sure we don’t all believe the same even if we all went to the same church, synagogue, temple, mosque, cathedral, etc.  Since we all have free-will and make a choice to either listen or ignore God then YES, we do make our own beds in many ways; however one cannot control the missed path of another who decides to drink and then drive their vehicle into an innocent.  THAT certainly didn’t get planned in most days; it is a consequence of an action.

Which brings me to something else…we are NOT machines.  It seems that scientists, physicists, mathematicians, even some physicians try to break humans down into these systematic beings.  Some I’ve heard think at some point we will be able to describe and explain everything through math and physics.  HAAAAAAAA!  Got to laugh at that one.  Because just when they get things so figured out…BAM!  They discover something they never saw or considered before. 

I’m all for trying to understand things and learning, discovering with awe and wonder, not with pompous, self-important, effacing purpose.

The truth is no one knows.  We believe we know, we feel we know, we think we know, we have faith but we don’t know.

O Kaaaaaaaaaaaaaay…

The searches for today made me pause for a giggle or two.  Hope you get one too!

Search: 

happy Easter!  ….HUH?  Thought that was quite a while back, must be in another country???

Search: 

canvas garages  ….love it when someone is browsing!!!

Search: 

link:http://www.autismspeaks.org/  …this search under Google pulls up my Wii post…WT?

Search: 

Mary Kay Pushers  ….never heard that before and laughed my head off.