Stylish....Who Me?

I have been meaning to show you this...isn't this adorable? This is a normal college-type notebook that has been snazzed-up by my good friend, Eileen. She actually embroidered the "K" onto the material, used pink, velvet ribbon for the 3 stripes and brown, polka-dot ribbon for the bows, which are tied through holes she punched in the notebook cover. I told her she should make these and sell them...I LOVE mine and take notes for my projects in it. Really I just want to walk around holding it because I think it's so damn cute! My girls know I had better not see their hands on this item or it's to church for punishment....I mean to their rooms!

Emotional Daze....

I couldn't even think of what kind of photo to attach to this posting - that's how fried my head is right now. Is there such a thing as chapped brain? ya know, like chapped lips?

Anyway, some of you may know, and some may not, but Mike is a cancer patient. He finished treatment in May of 2005 and you have to continue follow up testing for 5 years before they will cut the apron strings. So we had been coasting along since he finished treatment, loving life, every test came back fine...until last summer. Then they found something on his liver and it was as if our whole world came crashing to a halt. Now they told us it was probably nothing and they really weren't concerned so we shouldn't be concerned....yeah...riiigghhht. Any of you who have had cancer or have someone close to you with it, when they first say the "c" word, it's a terrible feeling. You know you hear all the time about people having it in one place, successfully treating it only to have it come back somewhere else in their body. Mike had a particularly rare type so they really couldn't tell us any stats on it coming back or not, or infiltrating other areas of the body. So understandably we have been walking in egg shells since his last test in the Fall. This week he had another set of tests and this morning we got the good news that it is not cancer and he is fine. Relief washes over me every time I think about it.

As if this wasn't emotional enough, my place of employment, as so many other companies during this economic crisis, had to do layoffs today. I was one of the very fortunate ones who is able to keep their job. I am very thankful for that, but it is sad to know these people we have worked with and joked around with are out of a job. When I saw one of the HR women who had the awful task of delivering the layoff news to employees, she looked like she wanted to cry. That has to be the worst part of being in the HR department.

I have some great websites for job hunting that I will put together for another posting...but not tonight, I need to chill.

Faithful Reading....

Welcome to the book portion of the program. Please be seated - this will be quite a ride.
Now most of you who read my blog regularly can tell I am not a good, practicing Catholic. I take jibes at the church at times and the people I find at mass. But I have my reasons - ones I don't need to share, and ones that I can share. I will readily admit that I don't believe in many of the things the Catholic church believes in (is it getting hot in here?). I don't see a problem with birth control - and I don't see a problem with divorce (I don't feel divorce should be an easy out, but there are circumstances where divorce is the best option and people shouldn't be persecuted for their mistakes). I do feel you can pray and connect with God without being in the physical church - the church says "wherever 2 or more gather in my name I will be there". Hello? What about people who pray silently to themselves wherever they happen to be? God doesn't listen to them? That doesn't make sense - "Go find a buddy and then we can talk" - I can't picture God saying that. I really don't understand why women can't be priests and why priests can't be married - just doesn't make sense to me. I definitely feel there is a God and I feel comfort when I pray to him/her - kind of like free consolation in a time of need. Anyway, I could go on and on. Recently I was sent this book to read and my first thought was, "Great. A religious story about discovering God." Then I started to read it. Hold on to your seats people because this book is unbelievable. Just the content alone - I know many people don't like to hear about bad things that happen in other countries - it happens over there and doesn't affect us so what are we supposed to do? I guess this book gives a bit of a wake up call to all the regular "Joe's" like me out there not to take everything for granted. What this woman went through during the Rwandan holocaust is just so unreal. The other part of the whole story is how her faith changed and grew during some of the most intense moments in the story - times when I think I, myself, would have packed it in and admitted defeat. Clearly - and if this story is true I have no doubt - that her faith had a direct bearing on miracles that saved her life. More than once. I know, it sounds crazy and I can't even believe the words as they are coming out of my mouth. Since reading this book I have looked at faith, in general, in a different way. I mean, you always hear people say, "I'm praying for your recovery", or "We're praying for them during this difficult time", etc. But what if you could change the outcome of situations by having faith so strong that God would intervene for you? I never really thought that having strong faith could change one's life. I always thought of it more as a fast-pass to heaven, but not really affecting anything while I was still among the living. Read the book. Let me know your thoughts. It has definitely had an affect on me - I haven't quite figured out to what extent.

It's My Blog...And I'm Bragging

Yes, I know I brag about my kids, but what parent doesn't, right? I'm sure there are plenty of people out there who listen to me go on and on about how smart my kids are and always get A's and A+'s and blah, blah, blah. They probably think I embellish their accomplishments and roll their eyes behind my back (ok, maybe that was a bit on the paranoid side...story for another time!)...well I'm here to tell ya, people, I have proof! Jamie came home two weeks ago with this official-looking envelope and a few official-looking letters inside. She has been recognized by the United States Achievement (she definitely doesn't take after me, I just had to look up how to spell that!) Academy as a National Honor Student! Ok, now, settle down...enough of the "Ooooh's" and "Aahhhh's"....once you've had a chance to think about it, what that hell does that mean? Obviously it's quite an honor to be recognized for academics...but I had never heard of this "United States Achievement Academy"...so I googled it. It seems to be an organization whose sole purpose is to recognize smart kids and offer them a chance for grants and scholarships. And it says it will look good on their college application...I'll take it! We get a nice hardcover yearbook with Jamie's photo and stats in it. I promise I'll take a pretty picture when we get it so you can all drool over it...

Click For A Cause.....

Please click on the link below and you will see a purple button on the screen that says "Click Here to Give - It's Free" and it helps pay for the care of rescue animals.

http://www.theanimalrescuesite.com/clickToGive/home.faces?siteId=3