Father's Day and an unexpected trip

I think John quite enjoyed his Father's Day. Chloe bought him a mini LEGO-like elephant from the zoo. (He really liked the tiger she bought herself awhile back, so she thought he needed his own.) She also made him a rainbow loom Hulk (see it resting on his shirt?). Jesse bought him a new lighter shaped like a fishing rod. And I bought him a new Avengers t-shirt and a new spatula for the grill. His other spatula broke at a work function, while he was cooking. Someone threw away the spatula part, but saved the wooden handle. People are just dumb.

Monday, John was leaving for a work trip to Charleston. He left something at home, so on our way to meet friends at the zoo, we dropped it off at his office. We didn't get a mile from his work, when my friend sent us a text they were not going to make it to the zoo. Since we were just there with John a week ago, we decided not to go. I told Jesse to call her Dad and let him know we were not going (he was worried about us going anyway, because of the heat). He told me to go home and call him when we got there. So I did.

I called him and he informed me the hotel he was going to be staying at accepts pets. And wanted to know if we wanted to go with him. Well, of course we did! So, we had 2 1/2 hours to get ready. Not only did we need to pack, but I needed to do a load of laundry, move some plants to the raised bed so I could leave the drip hose on the plants and take the trash. We managed to be ready just in time for his arrival home. We had lunch then headed down the road to Charleston. We had a great time. We strolled through the Market, swam in the hotel pool, went to a dog park that was just a mile from the hotel, and generally had a good time.

At the dog park

At the kids play park
 

Since we missed starting school on Tuesday, I've decided we'll start Monday. I don't see starting on a Thursday as a good idea at all. lol

Not sure how I should react to this

We went to Books-A-Million tonight. John and the girls had gone out a few weeks ago shopping and wound up there. They had vanilla creme frappes and John said I had to try one. So, while running some errands, we went over for a frappe fix. They were wonderful, but not the point of this post.

After we finished Jesse and I, headed over to the gardening section. Three teenagers were sitting in the chairs right behind us.  So, as I was browsing the titles I heard one of the boys say, "That is Princess Diana. On that book."

The girl replied, "Who is that?" (that one bothered me enough, just wait).

Then the boy proceeded with, "She was princess of England. And the night she became Queen, or crowned, or something, she was in car wreck and every one died."

Oh my word!!! This was only twenty years ago! Her son was just married earlier this year and all this was splattered all over the news! Seriously, boy follow a news channel or use Google!!!!!!

I admit I did not correct him. Where would you start?

WARNING! RANT!

I love Nature classes at Pooh Park. I love my children get a chance to learn science from someone as educated as Ms. Chanda. I love they have the ability to learn while being outside in the fresh (though sometimes cold) air. I love my girls have a chance to play with their friends before and after class. However, I hate that place is loaded with broken glass by jack***** who are so self absorbed they have no thought they are drinking and breaking bottles in a place that is designed for children to play in, not for their drinking enjoyment. Go ELSEWHERE!

I spend much of my time during class picking up glass. Once I see it I cannot ignore it. And I see it a lot. I usually pick-up about five handfuls of glass during each visit. Today, I had nine. And five of the pieces were anywhere from half the size of my palm to larger than my palm. It just drives me insane that people feel the need to do that (and worse things) to playgrounds!

I don't feel better.

Swastikas, Hitler and hate crimes

Images of hate run through my mind as these words circle endlessly in my thoughts. I know hate crimes exist. I know hate exists. Personally, there are very few things/people I hate. I understand the feeling, but I cannot understand how people react to their own hates, and fears.

I know a wonderful family in Columbia through TKD. They are gracious, joyful, friendly and giving. I consider them part of my extended family. All of them are the type of people you want your children to know and emulate. These wonderful people were violated over the weekend. You see this family happens to be Jewish. This weekend their windshield had a duct tape swastika placed on in their driveway. Their home and trust violated. By whom we do not know.

I really don't believe that respecting other peoples thoughts and beliefs should be so difficult. We each want to be treated with respect, yet there are some out there who cannot give respect to others. It is unfortunate that in the wonderful country we cannot give the simplest of things to those around us. The worst part is I see it getting worse. I don't see people correcting their children as they should as parents. I don't see neighbors looking out for each other as they once did. So many things are wrong with our society and few seem to care. Even fewer want to change it.

I hope my friends can find some peace in their home soon. I hope through this they grow even stronger than they already are. I hope morality returns to humanity one day.

Atttack on me as a mother

Unbelievable! I have a friend on Facebook I knew in high school. We caught up again in fall of 2008 at our reunion. Chloe adored her child, who is Chloe's age. The only person Chloe has ever met who is her age.

A few months ago my friend put up a pic of her daughter and her Dad shooting a pellet gun. She said it wasn't her idea and I told her I had the same thing with a couple of pink guns given to my girls for Christmas the year before. Then another lady asked where the pink guns came from. I told her where they were bought and since they were an anniversary thing they may not be available anymore. That was the end until last night.

Unbelievable!!!! This lady, who is a friend of my friend but I do not know, launched into "if there is a gun in the house then kids are going to kill themselves or someone else speech. Okay, I'll give her a bit on that one. I'm not a NRA supporter or anything remotely close to it. My friend's other friend (who asked about the gun) saw this comment first and pointed out that gun safety should always be taught when a gun is present and guns should always be locked up properly. I agree with this too, to a point. Children do learn where keys are hidden, most are not stupid. I commented to the "angry" lady that she really should not judge people who she does not know and my children know better than to go anywhere and touch any gun. I mean they won't shoot fireworks without asking, so I know they won't fire a gun without asking.

Then the absolute most unbelievable, unthinkable thing happened. "Angry" lady said neither of us should have children!!!! Are you kidding me!!! You are judging me because my children own a pink BB gun!! Really?! And she thinks I should be in a physic ward! There are many things I SHOULD NOT BE but how dare that ***** **** ****** say I should not be a mother. I am so angry and with someone I don't even know. She has no idea who I am or what I think or anything about me. All she knows is my name, my face and the fact my girls own "pink guns".

Do you remember my long post about religion? How I don't judge people because of their religious views and everything else I said. That is me. And while I am VERY angry with this person right now (angry only touches the surface) I feel bad for her. I feel bad for her because obviously she is one of those people who judges everyone without knowing anything about them. How many wonderful people in this world has she missed knowing because she is so judgemental? You cannot take one sentence from a person and know who they are? You can't take one conversation with a person and know who they are. You can get a feeling about them, but you'll never know you're right, or wrong, if you stop there. So, even though I'm angry, tomorrow I will mostly just feel sorry for this person I don't know because she has decided I am not worth knowing.

Here we go 2010

First, I would like to talk about this stupid debate of what to call this year. Are these people stupid or what? Did we say, "One thousand and seventy"? Um, no. We said "Nineteen seventy". Why are they trying to invent the wheel when it has already been done??

Moving on.

Today will be our first day back to school. And I know you are wondering, even if you don't want to ask. No, I achieved nothing during the past two weeks. I am still behind on what should have been completed this past summer, but I'll manage. Today will be busy. We have errands that we have to run this morning and TKD classes start this afternoon. As far as TKD goes, I have not done even a leg lift since we left a month ago. Pain is most certainly in my future and I'm not looking forward to it. Really, this is just our norm. I just wish I could grasp that.

If I could adjust to "crazy scheduling" being our norm, then I don't think I would stress about things so much. My heart is racing, just a bit, now because I should be doing something else right now instead of being here. However, if I never come here I don't get to vent and I'm more stressed. A vicious circle, I know.

I have to get the girls up, eat, shower and tackle those errands! I hope all of you have a good day.

Life...

in constant motion.

Have you ever noticed when you have a really good day something happens at the end to make you forget the good and focus on something, well, not so great?

I am going to go back to religion again. Just for a moment. I hear a lot about we should learn/or not (depending on your point of view) to "tolerate" this or that. I have a problem with the word "tolerate" used in this fashion. Tolerate means "to allow the existence, presence, practice or act without prohibition or hindrance; permit." I guess I have a problem with the world "allow" in that one. I just don't like to be told what to do/think so I assume others feel the same way about it. Personally, I would rather accept (to receive as to meaning; understand) people. I have quite a few friends who have come to me over the years (not always close friends) because they thought I was the only person they knew who would not judge or ridicule them.

I wonder, if we (as a world) did not believe in acceptance (or tolerance, if you insist), where we would be? We would be a world of racists. I am not racists; my husband is not either. I hope my children grow-up to be intelligent, accepting people. I can not imagine looking at anyone and wishing any harm upon them simply because of their religion. As I recall, Hitler had no tolerance for the Jews.

Really?!

John arrived home this afternoon. He stopped off first for a haircut (sounds innocent, right?). As soon as he walked in, I saw something different. Something wrong. I looked closely at the hand to his side carrying his work bag and a brown paper bag and his glasses. His glasses! In two pieces!! Are you kidding me??

Back story: John went Tuesday to pick up his new glasses. They were wrong. This makes like the third year in a row. So, they had to reorder them...another week at least.

I look at John in horror as I take the two pieces just to make sure I was seeing what I thought I was seeing. I was. After his haircut, this ***** salesman trying to pawn off some stupid eyeglass cleaner took his glasses to "clean" them and the first stroke broke them! What a ****** ****! Really?! Luckily, he had his Rx sunglasses with him. The guy gave him samples of "That Stuff" and a rag to make up for breaking the $400 glasses! Really?!