show me the child

The Obama family has something that they have been careful to protect & is a huge asset: their daughters.

I'd never heard the little girls speak before until this accidental wandering into an access hollywood interview about Mrs. Obama's frugal fashion that aired before the Palin clothing fiasco became huge news. The girls are SO freaking cute. Articulate, funny, smart, and I loved watching their mother sit there and listen to every word they said as if it was the most important words to come out of a person's mouth and to listen to the little one defend mommy saying "Mommy is important."

The senator later said he thought the interview was a mistake and it gave the appearance of him using his family for a political advantage. It did not seem like a mistake to listen to those little girls because they seem like great little girls and that should reflect on the parenting. The senator said he wouldn't be allowing that to happen again and that's too bad. I hope to see more of these girls who I bet you anything will be future senators themselves in the future.

I have been very resistant of falling for the senator's bandwagon which made me that more impressed that in an accidental place you couldn't ignore the bright. And since McPalin has been nothing but a disappointment after her fierce acceptance speech, I am pretty sure I'm voting Ron Paul.

dining area after

Here's what our dining area looks like now. I made a little detailed before and after image to the right. It takes a few phases to get an area looking the way you like it and I'm sure the place will evolve over time.

I submitted it to a blog that shows a lot of before and afters and they said they'd post it in a few weeks, if they do, I'll post the link here.

Pier 1

Not usually my favorite shopping place in the world BUT since I'm throwing a baby shower for my sister in-law I thought I'd check out what they have in terms of party supply stuff.

I like how other decorating blogs (not that this is one) have these JPGs with a bunch of ideas on them of furniture or outfit ideas. Well, here's my list of stuff I want but don't need to buy with money I don't have:

The utensils, bowls, tray, and serving bowl would be for the party & the carafe, glasses, owls, and birdfeeder would be for the apt where Matt thinks we have plenty of stuff already. Psh, what do boys know?

legally!

I have a mother and father who were born in Mexico. My father came to the US in 1980, under the bed of a truck. My mother came to the US at the age of 16 with a student visa and decided to stay. In 1986 when Ronald Reagan granted amnesty to those residing in America before 1982, both of my parents became legal US residents and have remained that way.

'Til now.

My father has just taken his citizenship test. If he passes and takes the oath to be a US citizen, there will be a party, right after we all sob with pride and joy. He may have gotten here illegally, but he's given so much to this country he loves so much and is now giving him the ultimate gift, citizenship.

UPDATE: HE PASSED!!!!! Words cannot express how excited and proud we are of him. Daddy is a US Citizen now. USA! USA!

the one

Fashion magazines always want you to spend money on stuff that you don't need. Actually, more than just the magazines, most of America is telling you to buy buy buy. Sometimes they offer some good advice when buying and this one bit of advice is very true.

If you're gonna spend money on something, make sure its on a good coat and good boots because they last for years.

I've been searching for a good coat for the colder climate and this is the one. I hope Matt can find a good coat there too, nothing hotter than a guy in a pea coat.

multiples

I have a lot of dreams that involve multiples. Twins. Triplets. My mother is a twin so it might have something to do with that. I had this incredible dream about some triplets last year that I think about almost monthly because it was a dream like dreams I have before where I'm watching a TV movie, like the one that this crappy short story below seems like

Spring Daughter

This is the story about a father. The father looks a little like Garey Busey but with more heart and soul because he's a hero father. A single father of a daughter.

His wife either died or left him and he lived in a small town where the springs are like heaven. Each awakening flower growing from the formerly icy ground reaches for the sky with such vigor that you can almost hear the grunt of the soil as it allows the roots to separate themselves from it. It has no choice but to step aside and let the flower break through and that's just what this father does.

You can hear the doctor telling him that it will be five incisions. Two of those incisions will be removing limbs. You can see the equipment as it approaches near her head where it will remove something on her skin, another on the other side of her face, one below her right elbow removing her arm, and another removing her leg. In the waiting room there are people in military uniforms and one messed up looking father that doesn't know what to do. A doctor approaches him and lets him know that the operations went well. He can take her home in a few days.

It was her idea to sign up for the service. Only hers. The town was small and she couldn't see anyway out of it except to have Uncle Sam pay for her way out. She got to see some of the world as she was stationed. She sent home lots of pictures that her father shared with the neighbors and townspeople. He was proud of her, even though he wouldn't say it. Especially because he was scared of losing her the way he'd lost his wife. And all of his fears were realized when she was sent to Iraq.

It was a bomb, a shooting, chaos. In the chaos bullets killed two of her friends. She was hit like rain, everywhere they fell, pain shooting from places she'd forgotten she was the owner of. And now she wasn't.

She spent her time in bed. Through the fall, through the winter. Her father cooked and cleaned and tried to get her to talk but she wouldn't. When Spring came, it went unnoticed in their home. They shut the door to the town and the world.

But the world wouldn't hear it. The townspeople came and planted flowers and made a festival of flowers, right in their backyard. The father came out and finally, so did his daughter. Wrapped in a sheet that hid her missing limbs, she looked like a fairy and they dressed her so. They put flowers in her hair and flowers at her feet. She smiled for the first time and they remembered how beautiful she was, how much she looked like her mother. There was a pair of twins in the audience and though they were warned not to look at her, not to fall in love with her. They did just that.

winner!

Ha! I won a sweepstakes. Hilarious. After my little post I won tickets to a screening and admission to Knott's Scary Farm. Happy Birthday to my husband, scary movie & scary farm.

sweepstakes

Today I did something that takes me to a special era of America: I entered a sweepstakes.

Nowadays when there's giveaways you punch in a code online or submit your email on a website if you want the chance to win a prize and most of the time the offers are "no purchase necessary". What this particular sweepstakes required was putting my information on a 3x5 index card and mailing it into the contest headquarters. I think they're banking on people not making the effort and I thought it was a funny concept so I mailed it in. There is 1,0000 prizes to be given which motivated me to enter even though the entrant pool will probably be astronomical.

The only times I've won a sweepstakes, which is impressive that its been multiple times, have been raffle entries. In high school I won something from a radio station that came to play at our school, in college at the NAB I won a Sony Clié and a book during a senior event. It could happen

my emotional NPR

I really like National Public Radio. I turn it on to get my news fix and then insist on switching onto the iPod but their coverage of anything and everything is so good that I can't turn it off. Every other day, they'll have a story that will make me cry. There was one about a man who was deported to El Salvador and how a service had pupusas waiting for him at the airport. And whenever they do those specials about the families interviewing each other. MAN! You'd have to be some frosty hearted bastard to not shed a little tear.

And then...

The bias. I know I know I know that they cover as fairly as they possibly can but they obviously skew toward one political mindset. How could they not, they are PUBLIC radio after all. And I know that when I listen to them, just like I know that Fox skews the other way if I ever listen to them. I hate that. Isn't news supposed to be unbiased, even handed, no sides to take? Its what I learned in journalism class at least.

But, with all the other stuff going on in the world it becomes an issue that doesn't really matter because the only person that will feel the need to view the world in an unbiased opinion will make an effort to begin that way in how they take in information and how they transmit their interpretation of it. Eventually we will all fall victims to our own preferences and its our priviledge as Americans in a free speech no big brother country. Maybe I feel that way because I don't feel that my view of the world is being fairly balanced. I wouldn't notice it if I was a Democrat. And were I a Republican who watched Fox, I wouldn't notice the bias there either. I'd be blinded because I was being well fed, a prisoner doesn't care what the meal is as long as it keeps him alive.

Ah what the hell, I'm gonna keep listening to NPR because I really like their stories and their desire to inform and involve their audience. But maybe one day I'll watch Fox too.