Happy Valentine's Day

I got home from work last night (Yes, I worked in an ICU on Friday the 13th and it wasn't that unlucky. Just a typical day.) and was surprised by the loot in my daughter's bag. She is in kindergarten and they had a party for Valentine's Day in class on Friday. One kid actually had these special Lego boxes that had a Lego rose inside made from about 30 Lego blocks. The box could then be taken to a Lego store to get more Legos for free. My husband and I couldn't even begin to fathom how much a gift like that would cost for 17 kids! Then, there was all the candy, pencils, etc. I sent her to school with Valentine's Day cards that came with little tattoos. I am wondering what happened to the days where you just got a card and maybe one of those chalky candy hearts that had some silly comment on love.

Anywho, I woke up this morning and made pink chocolate chip pancakes in heart shapes for my family. The daughter then was all concerned about the color and if that would it taste funny and so on. Her brain is just growing in leaps in bounds, I tells ya. I enjoyed my coffee in a new mug made by the daughter for Valentine's Day.

Lastly, I took the this picture with my cell phone on Valentine's Day a couple years ago. It is still one of my favorites. Smooch!!!

History in the making

I never did comment on the election this past year even though it was in my thoughts often. What an amazing day. I never thought, especially after the incidents on 9/11, that a black man with the last name of "Obama" would be elected as president. I didn't think Americans had it in them to look past the name and the race and pick a candidate like him. I was pleasantly stunned by the open-mindedness the election showed me still exists in the populace. It really has given me a smidge of hope for the future.

We used these events to have some great discussions with the daughter as Dad watched all the debates and we talked about what it meant to vote. The daughter and I even watched some of the inauguration day coverage in Starbuck's while she sipped her hot cocoa. It is funny, I am not sure some kids understand some the importance of this election because they are sort of color blind. After talking to my daughter, she makes it seem like skin color is just another characteristic of a person like hair color and so on. She sees it as something that makes all look different from one another, but she doesn't see all the history and baggage and discrimination associated with it.... yet. It became clear when we were talking about Martin Luther King Jr, (someone they were talking about in her kindergarten class). She was truly perplexed that he was shot because someone didn't like what he was saying. She just couldn't get her head around that one. She was wondering why they just couldn't ignore him, or walk away or just wait their turn to talk. Some days, I swear her brain has grown a couple more millimeters and I can almost hear those neuron pathways being built.

If only more people thought like that, we might be a more peaceful society.

Based on talking to her more and more, I don't see her dealing with racial problems, but more of gender problems. The gender differences are rearing their heads in kindergarten, but not people's ethnic backgrounds.

Anywho, enough rambling for now. I have to go spend some time on facebook next. :)

It has been a busy month

I can't believe how fast the time is flying these past few weeks. I had to blow off another book club meeting and was unable to even get past chapter 3 of the book, 'The Painter from Shanghai". I loved the book from the first paragraph, but I was too busy to stay focused on a book. I've been crafting and prepping for the holidays, spending time with friends and family and working. However, I thought I would share one quick story and some pictures. The forest picture was taken about 10 miles from our house where we hunted and cut down our own Christmas tree.

My daughter was the victim of some teasing at school and was told by the "mean boys" that she was bad and that Santa wasn't going to bring her anything for Christmas. She believed them, but not her parents. Then, she received a letter in the mail from Santa Claus. She began to believe that he would visit. She was sad again when she said, "Santa isn't going to visit me because I don't need anything from him." I was proud of this. She realized she had had everything she needed, but on the other hand I wanted to cheer her up. "Maybe he'll bring something you haven't thought of and surprise you." She liked that idea alot, but as the month progressed she decided she wanted a train from Santa. She drew a picture and wanted to mail it to Santa. She based the picture on one of her favorite books about Tootle the Train. So, Santa delivered an electric train fully installed under the tree for Christmas morning. She loved it and squealed, etc. She was happy Santa ate the cookies she had made and that Rudolph ate the apple she left for him. Then....a couple days later she was in the bathtub lost in deep thought. She then says to me, "How come Santa didn't bring me a wooden train set?" Ah, guess she'll have to learn to be more specific next time.

Road Trip!!!

Yep, we finally did a roadtrip. Due to a scheduling error in my favor, I ended up with a 5-day weekend. Of course, that meant I had to work the whole Thanksgiving holiday weekend. We loaded up the car and headed north to Mendocino, Fort Bragg and Humboldt Redwoods State Park and down through Napa Valley. The scenery was fantastic. The wine country is just gorgeous in Fall. The daughter struggled with the concept of where we were going and what a roadtrip was all about, but she started to get the hang of it by the last day.

We drove through a redwood tree, walked the streets of Mendocina, went to a Pygmy Forest, and saw Glass Beach in Fort Bragg. I love exploring on roadtrips.

Happy Halloween!

I was able to help at the daughter's school this morning for the Halloween festivities and it was a blast. She was so excited, she was up at 6 a.m. bouncing around the house yelling 'It's Halloween!!." And, we have creepy, blustery Fall weather with leaves blowing around everywhere. We hope you have a great day. I've included some October pictures for your enjoyment. One includes a shot of my latest 'thing.' :)

"Hurly burly"

Loving the foggy Fall morning

Oh, thank the goddess. Foggy Fall weather has arrived with chilly mornings and the strong possibility of rain this weekend. I took the dog for the morning walk and I just loved taking in big breaths of that wet, cool foggy air. Everything seems so hushed and muffled. Things are in a grey haze more than 2 blocks ahead. Mmmm. Loving it!

Of course, some trick-or-treaters and a certain soccer girl may be getting a bit wet, but it is about time we got some moisture around here.

Hooray!

Oohh, and my new toy arrived today from Hong Kong. Pictures to follow. What a happy day!

In God We Trust?

Over the last few years, it seems like the Christian-based religious groups in this country are gaining too much power. It really raises the hackles of my strict Constitutionalism beliefs. People came to this country for freedom. Freedom from oppressive regimes, from religious persecution, poverty, etc. The founding fathers made sure that our rights would be guaranteed in the Bill of Rights and the Constitution. They explained how there should be a separation of Church and State. I love that history. I love our roots. People come to our country now because of that, claiming asylum from persecution from another country and we take them in.

What I fear though is that we maybe slowly slipping into more of a religious state as the religious groups gain more political power and have their views legislated, placed in state constitutions and sometimes brought to the Supreme Court.

The latest thing to really get my goat is Proposition 8 in California. It is a proposition to add an amendment to the state's constitution that defines marriage as only between a man and a woman, thus negating all the same-sex marriages performed in this state. If you listen to the people for this proposition, they are essentially arguing for the state constitution to back-up their religious beliefs. I do respect their religious beliefs, but I have a HUGE problem with them wanting the government to support their beliefs and make them law. It is just another step closer to a religious state. The part that really makes me even more upset, is that legislation like this has been passed already in 29 of our other states! Don't people realize what this is doing? We are legislating religion into our government and limiting the rights of our citizens. I just want to scream it from the rooftops at the injustice of it.

Of course, don't get me started on the "In God We Trust" on the money (For some history on that go here). Or prayer in schools. Or putting "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance.

I had hoped if I ranted a little about it, I would feel better, but I am still steamed. I have run into people this past week that think Prop 8 is about teaching homosexuality and same sex marriages in school. As far as I know, marriages of any kind are not part of the standard curriculum. I don't even want to know what my blood pressure is like right now.