It's Over

I quit Facebook. Huge time suck. Felt like I was perusing a People magazine most of the time. Now I'll have more time for blogging.

The Triplets' Halloween Costumes

Paradoxical Thought

"Fathom the odd hypocrisy that Obama wants every citizen to prove they are insured, but people don't have to prove they are citizens."
~ Ben Stein

I just learned that in some cities, one does not even have to be a legal citizen to vote in some elections. WHAT?!

It was Early

Mr. Rellim and I returned from working out. It was 6:25 am. We encouraged the kids to come outside to look at the beautiful moon. Heavy boot sounds and loud voices alerted us to others awake on our block. The kids were a bit alarmed as we live on a quiet block. I said something like, "Oh! It's the ROTC guys!"

Rachel high tailed it back toward the house because she thought I said "Nazis."

Remember Colbert's Report to Congress Last Month?

Click here for a review. Then get ready for an interesting quote:

“Everything is changing. People are taking the comedians seriously and the politicians as a joke. ”

—American humorist Will Rogers (1879-1935)

Here's a Good One

State Park Photos

Here are a few funny snapshots from my family's "forced" outing this afternoon. We did manage to get a few good ones, but these made me laugh!

Vocabulary

I have a new link titled "Words of the Day," compliments of www.billoreilly.com. From this page, I gleaned a gem of a word that I intend to use at our next staff meeting:

honeyfuggle
[huh-nee-FUH-gle] To dupe or deceive by flattery; to obtain by deception

Wish me luck!

I Get This One

kerfuffle: A commotion or fuss, especially one caused by conflicting views

I Still Don't Understand

fungible

Funny Op Ed

I'm impressed by the Harry Potter-esk title as well as the vocabulary words - kerfuffle & fungible.

Barack Obama and the Chamber of Secrets.

Working Out

Mr. Rellim and I are now participating in 5:30 am workouts in an adult fitness program. I observe exercise physiology students and staff as well as a nurse available to take blood pressure readings. I notice that if someone's blood pressure is high, they are told, "GO SIT ON THAT BENCH!" Sometimes, the person will be allowed to walk around a nearby track while being scowled at by the blood-pressure-taker.

Like the adult person with the high blood pressure reading is being bad!

Tell ya what - if someone would use a scary tone of voice with me that early in the morning, I'd probably start to cry - or kick them hard and run home. Not sure which.

Anyway, I guess the workouts are going OK. It's so early that by the end of the day I've forgotten that I worked out, though. Weird.

Or maybe it's just the TIAs.

Hmmm . . .

A friend alerted me to this great quote.

"The wise man questions the wisdom of others because he questions his own, the foolish man, because it is different from his own."

--Leo Stein,
American art collector and critic

I Should be a Picker

Guess what I found at a yard sale today? I paid one dollar for it.

I Shouldn't Have Asked

These "instruments" were lying outside our back door. Apparently, whatever was in the toilet had to first be subdued by a long-handled paint stick before being plunged repeatedly down the pipe.

(and I was still trying to get over the spaghetti & meatballs on the living room carpet from last night . . .)

Government on Your Back?

You gotta check this out! Very well made.

Hip Hop

Rachel was listening to a new hip-hop song on the radio. The lyrics were something about a G-6 ("like a G-6"). I think it's talking about how a girl feels when she is around some guy - like gravity is six times the normal feeling between them. Whatever.

From the backseat I heard Quinn singing about a cheese stick. ("like a cheese stick")

Rachel and I laughed. Then Quinn laughed too. Because whatever could it mean if someone made you feel like a cheese stick?

I Corinthians 15:58

I didn't want to volunteer at church last Wednesday. I was tired. Probably they wouldn't miss me anyway, right?

Then I opened a letter from Ricardo, our Compassion International child who lives in Bolivia with his parents and four other siblings in a tiny home the size of our living room - maybe. For whom our Christmas Gift of $100 purchased shoes and clothing for all of them. And food. And a new roof.

He reminded me of this verse from I Corintians 15:58 (NLT):
So, my dear brothers and sisters, be strong and immovable. Always work enthusiastically for the Lord, for you know that nothing you do for the Lord is ever useless.

So I went to church with a cheerful heart and renewed spirit - because of a boy thousands of miles away who was moved to write a simple Bible verse for me.

Thanks, Ricardo.

Missing Word

I'm flipping through Laura Bush's book and lingering in some chapters longer than others. In it, she attempts to describe the feelings associated with infertility, miscarriage, and infant death, which touched generations of women in her family. She mentions that in the English language there is no word for missing that which we have never met - such as a woman who yearns for a child.

I need that word today. One of my sisters yearns for a child.

And strangely enough, I'm feeling the loss of family I've never met. My dad's father died at the age of 42. My grandpa was the youngest of 11 children. Eleven children who now would be in their 90s and who had many children and now have many grandchildren and great-grandchildren. My dad's mother had to move her family out of state only a couple years after my grandfather's death. Inter-state communication was not convenient in the 1960s. Now I yearn to know about this part of my family. I wonder what memories we might have made together.

Teens

A friend and I were lamenting the unintentional consequences to the family during periods of teenage angst. Her story was the best. After reaching the end of a 2.4 mile trail on a mountain in Yosemite last weekend, her 14 year old daughter plopped down and refused to walk back down. The young lady's father, using all his psychological training, was ultimately able to convince her to follow the family back down the mountain. And someday her family will appreciate not having left her up there . . .