And....We're Back!

 "Oh what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to device." -Sir Walter Scott

First of all, I'd like to say that there are two more paragraphs to this article which you can read here.
Second, for those of you who do not know me well, I am posting this NOT as a POLITICAL or RELIGIOUS opinion, but because I think the point is interesting. I remember distinctly becoming "old and wise" enough to realize that peoples' "gods" change according to who/what group is in power (has the most money). There is a saying that I've heard, though I cannot tell you who said it, that states simply, "What do you do when G_d gives you lemons? Get a new G_d."
Lastly, and for the record, MY CREATOR does not change according to politics. The expectations are the same; Do all the good I can, in all ways I can. Do the best I can, then do better.
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OBAMA or A MORMON??
-Frank 'Appolus'.

It will be interesting to see how the Evangelical community responds to Governor Romney. The vast majority of Evangelicals consider Mormonism to be a cult and heretical... Will they vote for, not only a cult member, but one of high standing within the cult? It seems clear to me that G_d is creating a set of circumstances to expose what truly lies in the hearts of those who call themselves Christians.
For decades now the notion has been put forward, as a reason for being involved in politics, that we need more Christian men on Capitol Hill, we need a Christian man in the White-House. Nowhere was this more clearly seen and heard than when President Bush was running and re-running for office. Now, where will all those arguments go?
Will we be deafened by the silence of those whose true loyalty may lie in other places rather than in the Lord? Will we hear perhaps that "Mormonism is not really that bad, it may not even be a cult (shush, no using the "cult" word for the next 6 months, it will make people very uncomfortable)....

THE MANIPULATING of THE CHRISTIAN "POWER BLOK"
-by 'Davo'. (USA).

There is a recent history lesson in all this. I am old enough to recall the inception of the "Moral Majority" in the late 70´s and the rise of the religious right.

The religious right and it´s rise, as I recall, was focused on the issue of abortion. President Jimmy Carter professed to be a Christian and claimed a personal objection to abortion but was determined to uphold Roe v Wade as the law of the land. The opposition to abortion and Jimmy Carter by association and the dreaded Equal Rights Amendment were the two prominent issues that I remember that helped advance the so-called "Moral Majority" of that time. Ronald Reagan became the darling of the moral majority crowd and then there was the idea for a National Prayer Amendment to allow prayer back into schools which became another hook for getting more and more Christians on board to getting Reagan elected.

Well, the prayer amendment initially flopped and to pursue it was too costly from a political standpoint for Reagen so it was dropped.
The appointment of supreme court justices by both Reagan and Bush Sr., who weren't as conservative as promised, derailed the overturning of the abortion ruling. They did stop the ERA, barely.
I forget the dreadful evil that this amendment was supposed to have caused.

With all the religious political bluster that began in those days what has actually been accomplished in relation to it´s initial goals and all the promised expectations? Have they stopped abortion? No.
Did they get prayer back in schools? No. Have they thwarted the homosexual agenda? No. What about evolution being taught in schools? Did they keep the ten commandments in school? Are they stopping the assault on marriage and family today?

If G_d is with us why can´t we win these battles? If this is G_d and His leading, why has there been no fruit? Why all the failure?

As I look at things today in this country I have concluded that it hasn't made anything better but has likely made it worse. It has prejudiced many, many people against the gospel. Christianity has been reduced in many people´s minds as to fighting for religious control of this world as opposed to fighting for the eternal souls of those who are lost and dying in this world. You end up fighting the ones you are supposedly trying to reach.

Things I Love Tuesday: Part 10

91.  clean sheet night
92.  camping next to the river
93.  funny people (Mitch Headburg)
94.  date night
95.  audio books
96.  ice cold water after brushing my teeth
97.  laughing out loud
98.  road trips, with good music and even better snacks
99.  lazy saturdays, cuddling in bed
100.  being free ~ freedom!

Things I Love Tuesday: Part 9

81.  my iPod
82.  the smell of freshly cut grass
83.  soaking up the serenity in the mountains
84.  receiving a great gift
85.  home interior photographs
86.  lazy summer mornings
87.  road trips
88.  a clear schedule
89.  home organization (totally satisfying!)
90.  beach walks

Things I Love Tuesday: Part 7

61.  used bookstores
62.  photography
63.  new pens and notebooks
64.  fortune cookies
65.  organic smoothies
66.  liking what i see in the mirror
67.  suntans
68.  a true bargain
69.  pretty tattoos
70.  StumbleUpon

Things I Love Tuesday: Part 6

51. Big Blue Bears

52.  Nature Hikes

53.  Flowers on the wall

54.  Short hair, cute dresses and Texas sunshine

55.  Winged feet

56.  Laughing Dog Productions

57.  Common interests

58.  Nightfall on the lake

59.  Turtlespirit (my sweet friend Susan)

60.  Orchids with faces (look close)

Things I Love Tuesday: Part 5

41.  mommy/baby time in the soft green grass

42.  figuring out Photoshop

 43.  43 things (very interesting)
 

44.  Lego art

45.  amazing music in my soul! Drum Sex by Brent Lewis

46.  the smell of peonies

47.  my playful kitty

48.  big shoes/little shoes

49.  remembering last summer's baby belly

50.  baby buns

Things I Love Tuesday: Part 4

31.  playing in the river

32.  The way my oldest daughter makes her bed

33.  red lipstick

34.  our forever rings

35.  Mario's Pizza

36. baby feet

37.  cute scarves, hats and mittens (the only reason i look forward to colder weather)

38. giant sun flowers

39.  the word “serendipity”

 40.  the huge pomegranate tree in my front yard

A Horse of a Different Color

Ok, so I managed to have a moment to myself to check my e-mail; there were none.  When I signed out, my homepage popped up with some of today’s “top stories”.  Since I’m pretty much over the Royal Wedding thing, and have not one care about Bin Laden (other than to doubt he is actually dead—probably hanging out somewhere with Elvis and Jimmy Hoffa) I came across this picture.

Photo credit to Yahoo.com

For those of you who don’t know, “Yum! Brands” owns fast food restaurants such as KFC and Taco Bell.  The Kentucky Derby is pretty much self explanatory, but for those of you just joining our planet, it’s a horse race.  As if I wasn’t already grossed out by fast food, especially Taco Bell and KFC, they went and advertised like this!   While meats in the US are inspected by the FSIS,( Food Safety and Inspection Service)  the USDA grades meats into eight categories:   Prime, Choice, Select, Standard, Commercial, Utility, Cutter and Canner.  The latter of the three are used to make ground beef and other items such as hot dogs.  It is fair to make mention that this “grading” system is optional.  Given the present advertisement, I wonder if they’ll add a ninth category…Derby. Eeeeewwwwww!

(Shhhhh.....If you listen carefully, you can hear a million PETA activist preparing to tear down my door.)

Note:  For those who don't know me, I love animals.  I have four spoiled rotten, over fed, lazy cats, not counting the neighbor's cat who sits on the kitchen window each morning waiting for his morning ration of crunchy morsels and some lovin'.  I also have an equally spoiled Australian Shepard who we love dearly.  Bet they'd like the Derby grade.

Winds-day (Brrrrrr....)

First of all, I want to tell you all that I am very caught up in the whole Princess wedding thing, especially since I'm attempting to plan one of my own.  I don't obsess over it, but I do find that I am browsing pictures of Kate Middleton regularly of late.  I can't help it!  She looks so absolutely happy!  I do think it ironic that we (as a society) are spending so much time looking at what she is wearing; admiring it, copying it, writing about it...
History tells us of a time when we didn't look so kindly on such lavish lifestyles, even by royalty.  But alas, she's just a Princess, she should get to enjoy it.  I certainly do.

Enjoy the read, it is a snip-it of my own history.

I am very thankful to have my Prince Charming. He was my first love...WAAAAY back in 1994. You should have seen us. Everyone knew it too. You could just look at us and tell. So why on earth would two people who love each other so much just end it? There is quite a bit of debate about the "reason" we broke up, but I know the truth now. As much as I wanted to have that "rescue", I had to rescue myself first. Even though I knew without a doubt that he loved me more than anything, I still didn't feel the fairy tale was complete. So, in my youthful ignorance, I went off searching for the “Happily Ever After”. Here’s how my fairly tale went…

“Once upon a time, there was a silly girl who only bought into one side of the story. She thought she could just have her prince, and children and castle and she would live happily ever after. Boy was she wrong!”

The Universe (religiously neutral) decided to teach me a lesson. At the time, I thought Karma (for the lack of a better term) was kicking my behind for continuing to make ridiculous choices. So, what did I learn (finally)? I learned to love myself. I learned to look in the mirror and see a beautiful person looking back, and know that I didn’t need anyone else to tell me that (even though it is nice to hear). I learned to be giving, even when I had nothing to give, and forgiving even when I was short on forgiveness. I was rescued from the illusion that I needed another person to make me whole and didn’t have to invest any time into myself.

PLEASE NOTE: I am not saying I don’t need a partner or anything like that, so keep reading…

I finally understood that in order to find my “Happily Ever After”, I needed the love of TWO people; me and my prince. With this realization firmly planted in my heart, mind and soul, the most unexpected thing happened; the Universe (again, religiously neutral here) gave back my Prince Charming. He actually did rescue me, as much as I have rescued him. We’ve always loved each other, even during all of those years apart.

When we were reunited after thirteen years, we exchanged shoe boxes of items we had kept from the wonderful times we had together. There were movie ticket stubs, love letters, pictures, flowers, a ring, a necklace, and random notes written on tiny scraps of paper….Later, we admitted that we had carried a picture of one another in our wallets, secretly, for all these years (I carried our prom picture but have a larger version framed). 

I am living Happily Ever After

This is the first ring he ever gave me.  He kept it and gave it to me for Mother's Day last year.

You can see how worn it is from being in his wallet for so many years.  He still carries it now too!  

Things I Love Tuesday: Part 3

21.  butterflies

22.  Asheville

23.  kissing

24.  exploring a big city

25.  sleeping in my own bed

 

26.  sunsets

27.  the perfect pair of jeans

 

28.  chatting on the phone with my guy (even when he’s just pulled out of the drive way)

29.  painting

30.  ♥ falling in LOVE ♥ (all you need is love!)

Fairy Tales….

During college, my concentration was in Sociology.  I had a very educated instructor who was quite adamant when it came to certain topics; especially equality between sexes.  When I took the first class with her, she definitely said some things that I needed to hear at the time.  She’d say, “Stop waiting for the Prince on the white horse to ride in and rescue you.  You have to rescue yourself!”  and,  “ Fairy tales are all the same, a perfectly capable female waiting around for a Prince to come ‘rescue’ her.” (envision air quotes). The more I learned, and the longer I was in such classes, the more I would analyze movies and books…even commercials.  I eventually came to what I considered to be a “realist’s” view, sharing the sentiments of my former instructor.  Today, however, I was (after a VERY busy day) tooling around on the internet when I came across a video of the “Royal Wedding”.  I couldn’t help but watch that beautiful woman, in her beautiful dress walk down that mile long, red carpet lined isle to her waiting Prince.  Prince!  I watched them say their vows, though I couldn’t hear it well for the blaring Star Wars Episode V in the background—don’t lose the irony here.  At that moment it occurred to me.  While he may not have rode in on a white horse to “rescue” her from an evil witch with poison apples or indentured servitude, she still married a prince!  Also at that moment, it occurred to me, she and I are not so very different.  After all, I'm beautiful, I have a beautiful dress, and, best of all, I already have my prince charming! Anyone have a mile or so of red carpet?

Things I Love Tuesday: Part 2

11.  brightly colored eggs

12.  flip-flops

 13.  home sweet home

 14.  enchanted places

15.  more blossoms than leaves

16.  making a new friend

 

17.  red roses

18.  growing beans in a jar

19.  painted toes

20.  fuzzy caterpillars

Cluckin' Bunnies

The Easter Bunny has been laying chocolate cream-filled eggs for so long, I forgot it was a mammal. Just so you are aware, I had to ask my 12 year old how birds were classified. He quickly informed me that they are “Aves”…Right? Because why would a woman with a college background know that? One would think with four years of Latin under my belt, I would have at least have had a guess. Alas, when the ever-working degree in Sociology/Pre-Law, is coupled with several years as a legal assistant, the only birds one typically deals with are either “Jail Birds” or “Stool Pigeons”.

A bit of lore I do happen to know is as follows: The goddess, Eastre, was worshipped by the Anglo-Saxons through her earthly symbol, the rabbit. The Easter bunny has its origin in pre-Christian fertility lore (with four kids, I don’t need any of that!). The Hare and the Rabbit were the most fertile animals known and they served as symbols of the new life during the spring season. They were not made of chocolate at first either. Germans, who introduced the first edible bunnies, made them out of pastry and sugar. Personally, I’d rather have the chocolate!

I was recently asked whether I would outwardly express such personal religious or political views (synonymous by my definition) in my blog, especially given a holiday scenario; probably not. Therefore, I feel it is only fair to warn my readers who may be expecting such expressions, you will be very disappointed. Because I do have a tendency to be “brutally honest” (inherited, no doubt, from both my father and mother) when it comes to these topics, I had not yet thought of a way to express my feelings toward the subject matter with certain diplomacy until the other night.

While dozing lazily on the sofa late one evening last week, it came to me. We were watching The Matrix (for the hundredth time I’m sure) and there was a conversation between two of the characters that pretty much says it all for me. One said to the other “Not every one believes as you do!” The other responded simply, “My beliefs do not require them to.”

Here’s hoping everyone had a wonderful day, no matter what you believe.