I love this stinkin' sweater

Jared likes to cooperate during photo time.

All I Want for Christmas is …

Jacob has lost more teeth!

Turns out I lied …

To my mother, even. Horror of horrors. I guess iphones do manage to record video. How did I miss this? And, yes, I should be grading. I have 10 more Feature Writing Grades to final, 25 senior seminar grades to tally and 10 from Advanced Media Lab.

Footage from tonight's basketball courts.

A Social Network Christmas

Shout out to my crafty friend

Colleen
Check out her fun plastic canvas creations.

Homecoming

The boys spent the last two days in Marshall with grandparents because of the in-service meetings that canceled school.

As usual, the return home from, well, any other location, can be a little crazy. As the boys were tearing back and fourth through the house, things quickly got out of control. Both boys wound up spending some time in their rooms.

Despite being offered an opportunity to calm down and stop digging in deeper, Jacob decided to keep his mouth running, which earned him a chore. As he sat folding a basket of clean towels, the whining and "nobody loves me" proclamations entertained me while I was making a quick dinner before Jacob and I left for Cub Scouts.

At one point, my precious son, clearly the house slave, says, "You know, this isn't a very good way to welcome me home!"

Thankfully, Gene saved the day by singing the special song we had prepared for his homecoming -LOL. Jacob tried to stay mad, but dad's singing was just too much fun.

i hate grading

I have not taught an intro class for a very long time. I had to final my grades today. Ugh.

I have such a deep appreciation for education, so I really hate to see people waste $253 dollars per credit hour for a 3-hour course. At least take the time and effort to drop the course.

I hate having to submit Fs for grades. I don't personally earn these grades, so why do I feel so crappy about punching in those grades?

Ugh.

A few of my favorite things

Gene and I have been parents for seven and a half years. This summer has been a bit rough in the parenting department. It has been a huge blessing for us to have a few kid-free days. We know the boys are having a blast at Gene's parents.

In the meantime, Gene and I are having fun, too. Dinner, a movie and a night out with a fun group of people.

And, then, today, I had a big surprise. Earlier this week Rikki and I were shopping at Kohl's. She helped me pick out an outfit. I had tried on a couple I liked, but I only had budget for one outfit. Tonight, Rikki surprised me with the dress I did not buy. What a very nice surprise!

Dear Blog:

Ironic that my first week as an acting stay-at-home mom would be a holiday week. I say acting because I have a job that I will return to in August. The true heroes stay home with their children all year long. Wow, that takes courage, strength and tubs of ibprofen.

Monday was easy because I had Gene, and we actually were in Kansas City helping my sister.

Tuesday was LONG.

Wednesday was another day in Kansas City at Jenny's but we conquered Sam's Club, Walgreens and the Post Office before our trip. We spent two solid hours in Jenny's pool, so I think I redeemed the Sam's Club trip (even though most of the stuff I was buying was to feed them!)

Thursday was OK until I insisted on naps. Geez. Then we had friends over for dinner. Jared was wound up a bit and "charmed" our guests and his parents with lots of attractive language. Now, all the boys are in bed (Gene, t00) And, it's just me an the laptop and my ipod. Good times.

I hate going to bed. I'd rather stay up until 2 a.m. and then sleep until 9:30 a.m. My boys get up at 6:45 a.m. sometimes. I did make some progress on my house, so I will not want them to help themselves in the a.m.

On grading

Move over Josh K., Mikki B. included an appendix in her beat report : )

And, BTW, I see the sun out my window. It's real. Only four more advanced packets to grade. Yippee!

From a funny, funny video I got in an e-mail

From a funny e-mail

If you are 30, or older, you might think this is hilarious!

When I was a kid, adults used to bore me to tears with their tedious diatribes about how hard things were. When they were growing up; what with walking twenty-five miles to school every morning....
Uphill...
Barefoot...
BOTH ways… yada, yada, yada

And I remember promising myself that when I grew up, there was no way in heck I was going to lay a bunch of nonsense like that on my kids about how hard I had it and how easy they've got it!

But now that I'm over the ripe old age of thirty (plus a few), I can't help but look around and notice the youth of today. You've got it so easy! I
mean, compared to my childhood, you live in a dang Utopia!

And I hate to say it, but you kids today, you don't know how good you've got it!

I mean, when I was a kid we didn't have the Internet. If we wanted to know something, we had to go to the dang library and look it up ourselves, in the card catalog!!

There was no email!! We had to actually write somebody a letter - with a pen! Then you had to walk all the way across the street and put it in the mailbox, and it would take like a week to get there! Stamps were 10 cents!

Child Protective Services didn't care if our parents beat us. As a matter of fact, the parents of all my friends also had permission to kick our butt! Nowhere was safe!

There were no MP3's or Napsters or iTunes! If you wanted to steal music, you had to hitchhike to the record store and shoplift it yourself!

Or you had to wait around all day to tape it off the radio, and the DJ would usually talk over the beginning and mess it all up! There were no CD players! We had tape decks in our car.. We'd play our favorite tape and "eject" it when finished, and then the tape would come undone rendering it useless. Cause, hey, that's how we rolled, Baby! Dig?

We didn't have fancy stuff like Call Waiting! If you were on the phone and somebody else called, they got a busy signal, that's it!

There weren't any freakin' cell phones either. If you left the house, you just didn't make a darn call or receive one. You actually had to be out of touch with your "friends". OH MY GOSH !!! Think of the horror... not being in touch with someone 24/7!!! And then there's
TEXTING. Yeah, right. Please! You kids have no idea how annoying you are.

And we didn't have fancy Caller ID either! When the phone rang, you had no idea who it was! It could be your school, your parents, your boss, your bookie, your drug dealer, the collection agent... you just didn't know!!! You had to pick it up and take your chances, mister!

We didn't have any fancy PlayStation or Xbox video games with high-resolution 3-D graphics! We had the Atari 2600! With games like 'Space Invaders' and 'Asteroids'. Your screen guy was a little square! You actually had to use your imagination!!! And there were no multiple levels or screens, it was just one screen... Forever! And you could never win. The game just kept getting harder and harder and faster and faster until you died! Just like LIFE!

You had to use a little book called a TV Guide to find out what was on! You were screwed when it came to channel surfing! You had to get off your butt and walk over to the TV to change the channel!!! NO REMOTES!!! Oh, no, what's the world coming to?!?!

There was no Cartoon Network either! You could only get cartoons on Saturday Morning. Do you hear what I'm saying? We had to wait
ALL WEEK for cartoons, you spoiled little rat-finks!

And we didn't have microwaves. If we wanted to heat something up, we had to use the stove! Imagine that! (OK, we had a microwave, since I was about 10 - RC)

And our parents told us to stay outside and play... all day long. Oh, no, no electronics to soothe and comfort. And if you came back inside... you were doing chores!

And car seats - oh, please! Mom threw you in the back seat and you hung on. If you were lucky, you got the "safety arm" across the chest at the last moment if she had to stop suddenly, and if your head hit the dashboard, well that was your fault for calling "shot gun" in the first place!

See! That's exactly what I'm talking about! You kids today have got it too easy. You're spoiled rotten! You guys wouldn't have lasted five minutes back in 1980 or any time before!

Regards,
The Over 30 Crowd

Peep Show

I post this only because it makes me laugh.

On not flunking

I did not flunk my oral Spanish exam. For this I am most pleased.

Jacob

Jacob was grounded from the Wii and the computer until Friday. He turns 7 today actually. We always let the birthday boy choose a restaurant for his birthday. Tuesdays are crazy normally because of Cub Scouts and this week Gene has softball and I have a 7 p.m. meeting at church.

Jacob suggests that we go out to eat Wednesday instead. Suspecting nothing, mom walks into the trap.

"Oh honey. I would hate for you to miss your birthday dinner."

"That's OK. I don't mind. I think it would be less crazy."

"OK. Well, is there something special that I could cook at home tomorrow instead?" mom asks, still not sure if he's really OK with this idea.

"No, I don't need anything special."

Mom's heart swells with pride at her selfless son.

He continues. "You know, what I'd really like is to be ungrounded from the Wii and the computer. I mean, it's my birthday."

Geesh! This kid is clever.

Maternal Moment

Everyone knows I love my kids, but I'm also a big whiner. Raising kids is hard work and it's often relentless. Sometimes I worry that I lack some maternal genes because I don't wear the badge of selflessness proudly and certain mom things do not get me all a-flutter. My mom, the original mama bear, swears each baby has a scent of the gods. I remember her spending hours smelling her grandsons. Yeah, I do their laundry, and I know what they really smell like.

Tomorrow, my baby turns 7. I made his sugar cookies on sticks (stupid box and its stupid ideas) and I color coordinated the frosting with the craft sticks (oh, my little darling loves the organization I sought in my former childless life). Thankfully, there were only four colors of sticks. Everyone knows I am far from being a gifted baker and/or decorator, but Jacob peeked out of bed and he thinks my cookies rock.

As much as I adore baking, tonight I felt a strong tenderness toward my son as I sewed his badges on his Cub Scout uniform. (By the way, I also lack advanced sewing skills). As I thought about those beautiful brown eyes and his unbelievable ability to make me laugh and marvel one moment and on the verge of losing my mind the next, I found myself smiling. My little storyteller has devoured stories I've read and books I've treasured. He shares deep insights about my God and reminds me that someone is watching. I can only hope that he feels cloaked in love tomorrow as he puts his Cub Scout shirt.

Yeah Jacob!
Today our reluctant 6-year-son learned to ride his bike! He absolutely was not going to do it at noon. He did it in 30 minutes on the Shunga Trail. Now he's an expert.

I am in line to board the Ferry to Ellis island.

Jared's victory

Jared can now buckle his seat belt. He has been counting how many times he has done each time he gets into the car. I cannot tell you how much happiness this brings me.

Six-year-old boy prayers

I am worried about Jared.

On Sunday, these were Jacob's prayer requests.

poor people, the needy, Jared and Haiti!

5 days away

I have every Friday of senior seminar planned with fabulous guest speakers and events except for five and class has not even started. I am a rock star : )

Looking for some feedback

So, I got this e-mail. Probably several of you did also. The original one was dated August 2009, but now it's labeled "best e-mail of 2009" I read it. I thought about it, and I'm still thinking about it. But, right now, I want to hear what you all think.

If you want to post to my actual blog site, Regina's Rants, I encourage you to do so.


TEXT FROM THE E-MAIL:

How's this for apocalyptic literature. This was written by a pastor's wife in biblical prose as a commentary of current events. It is
 brilliant.


------------------------



And it came to pass in the Age of Insanity that the people of the land


called America , having lost their morals, their initiative, and their


will to defend their liberties, chose as their Supreme Leader that


person known as "The One.."




He emerged from the vapors with a message that had no meaning; but He


hypnotized the people telling them, "I am sent to save you." My lack


of experience, my questionable ethics, my monstrous ego, and my


association with evil doers are of no consequence. I shall save you


with hope and Change. Go, therefore, and proclaim throughout the


land that he who proceeded me is evil, that he has defiled the nation,


and that all he has built must be destroyed.. And the people rejoiced,


for even though they knew not what "The One" would do, he had promised


that it was good; and they believed. And "The One" said " We live in


the greatest country in the world. Help me change everything about it!"


And the people said, "Hallelujah! Change is good!"



Then He said, "We are going to tax the rich fat-cats." And the


people said "Sock it to them!" "And redistribute their wealth." And


the people said, "Show us the money!" And the he said, "


redistribution of wealth is good for everybody."



"4"

And Joe the plumber asked, " Are you kidding me? You're going to


steal my money and give it to the deadbeats??" And "The One"


ridiculed and taunted him, and Joe's personal records were hacked and publicized.


One lone reporter asked, "Isn't that Marxist policy?" And she was


banished from the kingdom!



Then a citizen asked, "With no foreign relations experience and


having zero military experience or knowledge, how will you deal with


radical terrorists?" And "The One" said, "Simple. I shall sit with


them and talk with them and show them how nice we really are; and they


will forget that they ever wanted to kill us all!" And the people


said, "Hallelujah!! We are safe at last, and we can beat our weapons


into free cars for the people!"




Then "The One" said "I shall give 95% of you lower taxes." And one,


lone voice said, "But 40% of us don't pay ANY taxes." So "The One"


said, "Then I shall give you some of the taxes the fat-cats pay!"


And the people said, "Hallelujah! Show us the money!"


Then "The One" said, "I shall tax your Capital Gains when you sell


your homes!" And the people yawned and the slumping housing market


collapsed. And He said. "I shall mandate employer-funded health care


for every worker and raise the minimum wage. And I shall give every


person unlimited healthcare and medicine and transportation to the


clinics." And the people said, "Give me some of that!"


Then he said, "I shall penalize employers who ship jobs overseas."


And the people said, "Where's my rebate check?"



Then "The One" said, "I shall bankrupt the coal industry and


electricity rates will skyrocket!" And the people said, "Coal is


dirty, coal is evil, no more coal! But we don't care for that part


about higher electric rates." So "The One" said, Not to worry. If


your rebate isn't enough to cover your expenses, we shall bail you out.


Just sign up with the ACORN and you troubles are over!"



Then He said, "Illegal immigrants feel scorned and slighted. Let's


grant them amnesty, Social Security, free education, free lunches,


free medical care, bi-lingual signs and guaranteed housing..." And


the people said, "Hallelujah!" and they made him king!



And so it came to pass that employers, facing spiraling costs and


ever-higher taxes, raised their prices and laid off workers. Others


simply gave up and went out of business and the economy sank like unto


a rock dropped from a cliff.


The bank banking industry was destroyed. Manufacturing slowed to a


crawl. And more of the people were without a means of support.




Then "The One" said, "I am the "the One"- The Messiah - and I'm here


to save you! We shall just print more money so everyone will have


enough!" But our foreign trading partners said unto Him. "Wait a


minute. Your dollar is not worth a pile of camel dung! You will have


to pay more... And "The One" said, "Wait a minute. That is


unfair!!" And the world said, "Neither are these other idiotic


programs you have embraced. Lo, you have become a Socialist state and


a second-rate power. Now you shall play by our rules!"




And the people cried out, "Alas, alas!! What have we done?" But yea


verily, it was too late. The people set upon The One and spat upon


him and stoned him, and his name was dung. And the once mighty nation


was no more; and the once proud people were without sustenance or


shelter or hope. And the Change "The One" had given them was as like


unto a poison that had destroyed them and like a whirlwind that


consumed all that they had built..



And the people beat their chests in despair and cried out in anguish,


"give us back our nation and our pride and our hope!!" But it was too


late, and their homeland was no more.

“A GOVERNMENT BIG ENOUGH TO GIVE YOU EVERYTHING YOU WANT, IS STRONG ENOUGH TO TAKE EVERYTHING YOU HAVE."


Thomas Jefferson

Proverbs 11:14, NLT

Without wise leadership, a nation falls; there is safety in having many advisers.