Like most of the country, I have sat by horrified and deeply saddened by the incident that took place at Ft. Hood last week. I have been further saddened by how Major Hasan has been portrayed as some fundamentalist Muslim on a religious mission of some sorts and the ensuing death threats against Muslims in the Ft. Hood area. Whatever the reasons motivating Maj. Hasan, of which I am sure there were many, none of them justify further killing or threats of any kind. Hate begets hate. If we all, or even a few of us, respond to this incident by targeting Muslims because one of them made a horrendous decision not in line with their faith, the chasm will grow and more horrible incidents will ensue. As Ghandi said, an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.
So, I am writing to propose a way to refocus those energies and to respond to the situation with love. Show our troops some love and get yourself educated on S.1963 - the Caregivers and Veterans Omnibus Health Services Act of 2009. The goal of the bill is to increase mental health services to veterans. Our veterans are suffering tremendously and the VA, and the rest of the country for that matter, are woefully ill-equipped to manage the severity of the problem. We are sending these people out on multiple deployments in a war zone unlike any other before. Whatever your political take on the wars, I think we can all agree that we need to take care of our veterans. I support this bill, but encourage everyone to do their own homework on it.
If you discover you support it, please call Senator Coburn's office and ask him to remove the hold from the bill. He alone is preventing the bill from leaving committee and reaching the Senate floor for a vote. The Committee on Veterans' Affairs has a statement about it here. Senator Coburn has his rebuttal here. If you believe the bill should be supported, please call your senators and ask them to support it. If you don't know how to contact your senators, go here.
I have hesitated for some time to post this because too often well-intentioned posts about how to offer support to our troops get thread-jacked by those wanting to debate the validity of the wars. I am the daughter of a veteran who served in two wars and I am proud of my dad's service. I am also a flaming liberal who vehemently opposes the wars. If I can separate the soldier from the action, then you can, too, and I respectfully ask you to do so here. If you want to say anything hateful, discriminatory, or negative, please make your own post. I don't post publicly very often because it's easier to deal with my small community. But, our troops are part of the larger community and we ALL need to come together to support them. It isn't enough to put a ribbon on the back of your car and wear an American flag pin. The heart of our country is action and I am asking you to take some positive action today to help support our troops and turn the events at Ft. Hood into a forceful, positive response from the country in support of our combat veterans. Many thanks.
Originally published at diaper bag princess. You can comment here or there.
I know it's weird to post that you've had a boring day, but I totally did. I was nearly dying of boredom.
Cary got me up at seven thirty this morning. Which isn't bad - he's still not used to the time change, but I don't actually mind: I need to get up earlier than I have been, so this is actually the most perfect excuse in the world to get up.
Do you know how much is on at seven thirty on a Saturday morning? Nothing. Yeah, even with my bazillion channels from Bell, there is absolutely nothing to watch (actually, TV in general has nothing to watch on TV these days).
So I decided to do some cleaning. I am so in a Monica mood right now. We're talking borderline obsessed right now. FYI: not pregnant.
Okay, so anyway, after the whole cleaning up and waiting for my hung-over husband to get up (different story, another day) I laid around and waited. And watched some really lame shows on the DIY network. And waited. And then Shane came over. Then we went to Home Depot. Then we bugged my mother in law at her house, THE END.
Today does not mark my best of days lived awesomely. I think I'll just forget about it.
I don't like not having anything to do. Makes me feel lazy.
Ugh...still sick pretty much morning, noon, and night. I'm feeling like it is getting better but then I'm running to the bathroom all over again. Much of my research has been when this will end, even though with Nathan it never did. I'm praying for a normal time period when 12 weeks comes and we stop with the throwing up. I'm over it.
We told Nathan last night that we we're going to have another baby. We were going to wait till after 10 weeks but last night - out of nowhere - the kid says "Mommy, do you have a baby in your tummy?" When Mike and I wouldn't answer him he started screaming it. MOMMY, DO YOU HAVE A BABY IN YOUR TUMMY?!!?!!
When we decided to sit him down and tell him the truth that yes there was a baby in my tummy he immediately said I'M GOING TO HAVE A BABY SISTER! LOL. I explained we don't really know what they baby will be yet. He said he wants a brother but keeps calling the baby a she. Mike keeps correcting him saying he. I giggle. I showed him pictures of what the baby would look like in my belly at just 8 weeks. He asked if we were growing an ant. I told him no and then he said it looked like a baby chicken. What exactly is he learning in preschool anyways?
He's really excited and when he remembers about it he's all smiles and giggles. I think once baby Caleb gets here for "Christmas" next week with Mike's family then it will sink in that we're going to have a baby at our house too!
Saying Maddy is my "mini me" is such a understatement.
Last night I was reminded just how much of a "mini me" she really is.
She wanted to get in on the betting action from a few weeks ago so during dinner she bet her father to see who could guess how many pairs of shoes she has.
They teased back and fourth and finally he decided to guess 15 pairs. Maddy (who had not counted them) guess 21 pairs.
After dinner she and I ran upstairs and I watched while she counted and counted and counted, emptying two overflowing drawers of shoes onto the floor.
The final verdict was 22. The child has 22 pairs of shoes. At that moment I realized not only to we look alike and have the same personality but we have the same LOVE of shoes!! CUTE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I'm still trying to catch up.
Ok Musicophilia was just plain fascinating. It's by Oliver Sachs, the author of Awakenings . The book explored the unique relationship of the Brain and Music. As an amateur musician myself I enjoyed traversing the journey with sever tic's that calm when music is played. Those who have lost all capacity to remember, until music is involved. The miracle of perfect pitch and all it's connections. I even did some tests myself. After reading an encounter with a composer/musician who had lost perfect pitch after a stroke, he discovered he could remember the pitch of a song and then pull the perfect pitch out of it. I tried it myself and in 90% of all songs I can do the same. Think it, sing it, and then play the recording and be Right On! The exceptions are songs that I've played/heard in multiple keys. I think I'm going to have to get this for my mum for Christmas.
Julie and Julia was rude delight. I completely understood Julies need to do something that made her stand out. And what an undertaking, trying to cook every recipe in Julia Childs' Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Julie struggles, and has issues, and loves Buffy the Vampire Slayer. She swears, hates aspic (meat flavored cold Jello). Cooks a mean Crepe, and tries an egg for the first time. You salivate at some of the descriptions, feel tremendously sorry for her husband on occasion, and root for her to succeed. A great read, Highly recommend for all who struggle with mattering.
Then I embarked on a couple of Austen fan fiction. Austenland is the story of a Pride and Prejudice obsessed single woman who's wealthy relative bequeaths her a holiday living the story and time period. She struggles along, trying to find her footing in reproduction Regency England. She makes out with a 'servant', predictably hates the Darcy stand-in, and along the way learns about herself. It wasn't horrible, just fluff, and not the best fluff at that.
Rude Awakenings of a Jane Austen Addict is the story of a Regency girl, obsessed with (you guessed it) Pride and Prejudice, and as the result of a gypsy fortune teller, and horrid horse riding accident, ends up in the body of a girl in LA who's just caught her Fiancee cheating on her. Well mayhem ensues, and her friends don't really understand her lack of memory and weird fascination with all things technological. Eventually she learns about herself, and manages to snag the right man. I felt a bit at sea in this book at first, and the technological discovery became ridiculously redundant before long. I did find, however that this is meant to be book two of two, and I imagine that would have helped.
And here would be the naughty book of the bunch. April told me I should read it, and I got it on CD and read it in my car. I kept having to turn it off at the bank drive through, and Taco Bell because it was beyond racy. It was interesting having a different cultural view, as the three protagonists in the book were three strong African American women. That was about the best part of the book. I was blushing far to many times. Yeah, this is not for the faint of heart. And Definitely NSFW!
Catching Fire. What can I say? An excellent follow up to the fabulous Hunger Games. If you haven't read these books, mark them in your schedule, buy them now, but for your sanity's sake...wait until the third and final installment comes out next year to read them.
Good Lord I love these books. I'll recommend them to anyone. They are gripping, philosophical, post-apocalyptic, and with gritty and engaging characters. Katniss and her family and friends face the latest challenges with the government, and life will never be the same. This book is full of twists and turns, and meaty encounters. You will eat this book up. READ IT! (Next year)
Kate DiCamillo's The Magician's Elephant was just one more occasion for her to showcase her remarkable talent to spin a tale that enthralls and engrosses you. The book is lyrical, beautiful, haunting, and hopeful all in one. In this story an orphan visits a fortune teller to see if his sister is still alive. She tells him that he should follow an elephant and that elephant will lead him to his sister. At the same time a Magician is performing and decides that today he want's to really DO magic, and summons an Elephant, much to everyone's surprise. I cried 4 times. I'm not gonna lie. I finished the book mourning the fact that I had no one to read it to. I even called my dad and told him that. It is beautiful.
The World According to Bertie is the latest in the 44 Scotland Street novel series by Alexander McCall Smith. This book, like all the ones before it in the series, are written serially and published in a Scottish Newspaper. It is really fun visiting these characters again. Seeing Matthew meet his soul mate, following Angus Laudy as he tries to get Cyrill acquitted, and hearing Bertie tell more than one person that he thinks his new brother Ulysses looks just like his psychotherapist. A delightful addition to the series. Great character study, and almost like a visit home, via Big Lou's coffee shop.
a) One Christmas she stays at school, not wanting the drama of home, and has Christmas with friends. She then goes home to an empty house, and is overwhelmed with loneliness. She has a conversation with God, telling him that she knows it's supposed to be enough that his son came, showed us a new way, offered freedom and love. Jennifer then says that it is enough....but "Please don't make it have to be enough". I totally resonated with that place of celebration of who God is, but with that bit of fear that says "Please let me not be so alone that all I have is you".
b) She shares the journey she has of dealing with failed relationships, and also walking with a friend, Hannah, who wrestles with and then chooses to cheat on her spouse. Jennifer shares Hannah and her husbands pain in the aftermath of the infidelity. She talks about how they all go to a wedding together, and all three of them are in their own pain, Jennifer because she wishes it was her, and Hannah and her Husband because they're still reeling. She also shares about how Hannah and her husband conceive a year later. She talks about how that baby is a place for them of choice and renewal, but also a reminder. Jennifer shares that it's also a place of sacrifice for her, as it's a reminder to her of what she doesn't have yet. I feel her all to well.
c) Jennifer shares how, in the early church, they would often give communion to those dying so it would be bread for the journey. She shares from the story of Elijah, who was asleep by a brook when the angel came to awaken him and feed him. "Rise and Eat lest the journey be to great for you". She shared that communion was not a place of great meaning all the time, but instead it became what she needed to complete the journey. I like that imagery. I think I'll give it a try if I'm ever allowed to lead it at church.
Ok. Soon I should have October's great and Terrible reads posted. Enjoy.
