Friday, November 28, 2008
Happy Thanksgiving
Yesterday was good day. We enjoyed Janice and Michael. He seems very nice and she was very comfortable with him. Lots of food, good company and of course the Garden Ridge shopping at night. We told the kids about moving, it went o.k. Kat was ready to go, Creston a little quiet. He has lots of questions so Jord and I spent time reassuring him that Pateros schools had things to offer him that Lexington has. We've prayed about this decision. We feel its time for the kids to be with family. If we stayed in Lexington, it would only be for the money and that isn't important to either of us and we know its not important to God. So, we will venture out once again and start over but with a light heart believing its the right decision and that God will take care of us as he has done so many times. It will be a long 6 months ahead waiting and praying that Mom can find us a house and that Jord can find work. My family is very excited, Jim said that he and Terri get off work at 1:00 on Fridays and they could be in Pateros in time for Taco's. They had all of Terri's family over for the holiday and Jim waited until they were all at the table and annouced "Next year we won't be having Thanksgiving with you!" They all looked at him like he was some rude person. He then told them he would be having dinner with his sister in Pateros. Cory and Kristen were happy and Terri's family also happy. I grew up with all of her family, her sister was my best friend in grade school. I'm sure some of you remember Terri's mom, she was at our wedding and also at Gaylon's funeral. Hope the shopping was good for the girls today....Mom is a brave woman to go out with all of you crazys! We need some pic's posted so we can enjoy Thanksgiving with you.
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Christmas List
Little Brother,
So if you were reading the blog between 5:30 and 6:30 Central time, you would have come across what Kerri said was too political of a Christmas list. She said that I had to delete it because I sounded too negative about life. On the contrary, I've not been negative about life, I am just a little exasperated about living in the heart of such a red state.
So my Christmas list (with no commentary):
1. I have an extensive list of books I want at Amazon.com, Jord's Wishlist.
2. A nice winter scarf
3. I can always use coffee.
4. A nice coffee cup. I prefer the shape of a coffee beaker or English mug.
5. I could really use a nice thermos to put my coffee in. I have a bullet, I would like one a little bigger than that.
6. I would like a copy of the 1940s Grapes of Wrath on DVD, with Henry Fonda and John Carradine.
7. I could use a new wallet.I do like the metro money clip.
This is about as good a list as it gets. Just do what feels right. I'm sure I will love it. I hope everyone has merry shopping, I plan to do my fair share too. I do like to wait until all the stores are full of people though. I turn into such a pleasant shopper in the face of such adversary.
jlw
So if you were reading the blog between 5:30 and 6:30 Central time, you would have come across what Kerri said was too political of a Christmas list. She said that I had to delete it because I sounded too negative about life. On the contrary, I've not been negative about life, I am just a little exasperated about living in the heart of such a red state.
So my Christmas list (with no commentary):
1. I have an extensive list of books I want at Amazon.com, Jord's Wishlist.
2. A nice winter scarf
3. I can always use coffee.
4. A nice coffee cup. I prefer the shape of a coffee beaker or English mug.
5. I could really use a nice thermos to put my coffee in. I have a bullet, I would like one a little bigger than that.
6. I would like a copy of the 1940s Grapes of Wrath on DVD, with Henry Fonda and John Carradine.
7. I could use a new wallet.I do like the metro money clip.
This is about as good a list as it gets. Just do what feels right. I'm sure I will love it. I hope everyone has merry shopping, I plan to do my fair share too. I do like to wait until all the stores are full of people though. I turn into such a pleasant shopper in the face of such adversary.
jlw
Tis the Season
Because I'm posting does not mean that I've ready anything in the last month. Kerri has pushed me into this! I'm swamped in homework! The end of the semester is fast approaching, and the workload is not decreasing.
To all those blackfriday goers, shop wise! Visit Tightwad Tod at Consumer report for a little advice. It is the season of pell-mell consumerism, so go gett'm girls. I'm sure you can help stimulate the economy. Our current President sure hasn't figured anything out.
Warning
You are about to read a political tirade that I blame solely on my parents. Read at your own peril. You might see a smidgen of liberalism in yourself.
p.s. Kerri strictly forbid me to write about politics on this blog, I am anyway. I am prepared to face the heat.
You would think that Oklahoma would have corrupted me by now. Mr. Bush (a Freudian slip) got 65% of the vote, the highest percentage of all the states. The daily Supulpa reported the day of the election "McCain takes Supulpa County!", no mention of who actually won the election, anywhere on the front page. Don't think it was an isolated case either. Tulsa didn't even desegregate until 1974, and a non-criminal blackman didn't make the cover of The Oklahoman until the mid 80s.
So let me put this in perspective. I blame my parents on my overt liberalism (I'm actually a centrist, but for the sake of flaming rhetoric I continue to write). My formative years were full of eating nuts, raisins and berries (Jerry can probably relate to this). As a child I remember walking across a small wooden plank crossing an abyss to visit a geodome, which I was going to be raised in one day (were my parents hippies? I suspect they were yippie hippies. Too conservative to wear velvet ponchos, but liberal enough to think that marigolds might be a solution to nematodes instead of DDT. ). My parents camped in earth-muffin Oregon (a source habitat of liberalism and other nutty species) and considered buying a home in the area. My early years with mother were based on respect of the earth. I was taught to have a respect for the environment, care about the land, and not shooting songbirds. As I recall, Silent Spring was on my list of must reads, as punishment for failing in school. My mothers solution to grass was to pluck it out by each and every root nodule, and tomato worms were to be harvested as chicken food--no herbicides or pesticides allowed. Now obviously you can be a republican and eat nuts and berries, I'm not suggesting otherwise.
So then the political years came, the 90s. My CWP class of 1986-1987 was completely about the Iran contra scandal. A scandal about a republican president circumventing and breaking the law of the people to wage a private war. I remember defending R. Reagen to Mr. Hunter, my math teacher, after Reagen was first elected. "How can you talk bad about a president that a majority of the people elected. That is unpatriotic." Oh, would I change my tune over the next few years. Then the election of 1990. A philosophy of clean air, clean water, and protection of our natural resources. A governing philosophy for the middle class. Prosperity went up, the average home income increased over $7,000 annually by the end of the Clinton administration. How could I not buy into something that I felt I had benefited from?
So I move to Oklahoma. The only state in this election cycle to throw out the democrats in the state house. For the first time in Oklahoma history, the state house will be run by a republican majority (I actually find that unreal, but it is true.) So why hasn't the Rush Limbaugh or Bill O' Reilly philosophy of life rubbed off on me? Besides that he is a complete knucklehead?
This last administration is the first to not protect and add federal land to national ownership since Teddy Roosevelt, (a republican with a little bit of vision). The current administration actually have had the opportunity to add sensitive ocean habitat to national ownership, but have failed. Who needs coral reefs anyway? The clean air act of the 90s was thrown out. The car industry was encouraged to build Hummers!? "Drill baby Drill!" The financial markets were deregulated in the spirit of R. Reagen, in hopes of a trickle down. The average family income over the past 8 years has decreased over $2,000.
Now I grew up in a place with clean air and clean water, and a place that respects the land. I was fortunate to have national forest lands, wilderness and national recreation lands close by. I now live in a place that still dumps directly into its lakes and streams. I would wager that I cannot show you a creek or lake that doesn't have a private, still active landfill on it. The teeth of the EPA have been pulled out by this administration. The EPA's emails are refused by the White House, so that they are not responsible for their contents (I am not making that up!).
So.....Kerri did not want me to talk about politics...... I'm not. I'm blaming all of my hair brained ideas on my parents. Over the past election cycle I have nobly resisted tirades....
"Let's go for a Grand Erosion Tour." If that isn't environmental philosophy at its finest. Just think what a good picture the Landscape Arch at Arches National Park would be with a jackpump in the foreground.
War! Then we go to war. The American President makes the decision to spend 10 billion a month on war, instead of over 10 billion a month on ways to get out of the middle east?! I can hear it now. Run for your houses everyone. If we decide to pull out of Iraq they will come and get us. They are coming, they are coming!!!! Imagine, if we would have spent all that money on a failing auto industry, on new fuel for new cars???? Doesn't anyone remember the 70s? The last time we bailed out the auto industry it was the Chrysler corporation. Why? Get this....It was over a failed business model that bet on gas prices staying low. It bet that American's wanted gas guzzlers, but when the chips were down? Guess what. I'll tell you what. At the beginning of this administration gas prices were at $1.60 a gallon. At the height of prices, I paid over $4 a gallon. I don't need to tell you'all that though do I? So my tank of gas went from $18 to fill to over $40. That was most of my weeks lunch money. I think I would have preferred paying 10 billion a month for alternative fuel, instead of nothing to show for it but dead and maimed soldiers and civilians.
So....My Christmas list?
Much of my Christmas list is coming when this War mongering administration leaves office! I will end it there. I will not talk more about the war. I will not talk about the results of the war. I know this is a family blog.
I will not talk about the republicans who insist on having a president that prays?!? Really now? Do you hire a mechanic because he prays? Do you put your money in a bank because the banker is in touch with God? I hope not! I hope you hire a mechanic because he knows what a collaborator is, how it works, and how to fix it.
.....so I did talk about religion in politics a little.....get over it.......
Tirade over
jlw
I really intended to talk about my Christmas list....Later
To all those blackfriday goers, shop wise! Visit Tightwad Tod at Consumer report for a little advice. It is the season of pell-mell consumerism, so go gett'm girls. I'm sure you can help stimulate the economy. Our current President sure hasn't figured anything out.
Warning
You are about to read a political tirade that I blame solely on my parents. Read at your own peril. You might see a smidgen of liberalism in yourself.
p.s. Kerri strictly forbid me to write about politics on this blog, I am anyway. I am prepared to face the heat.
You would think that Oklahoma would have corrupted me by now. Mr. Bush (a Freudian slip) got 65% of the vote, the highest percentage of all the states. The daily Supulpa reported the day of the election "McCain takes Supulpa County!", no mention of who actually won the election, anywhere on the front page. Don't think it was an isolated case either. Tulsa didn't even desegregate until 1974, and a non-criminal blackman didn't make the cover of The Oklahoman until the mid 80s.
So let me put this in perspective. I blame my parents on my overt liberalism (I'm actually a centrist, but for the sake of flaming rhetoric I continue to write). My formative years were full of eating nuts, raisins and berries (Jerry can probably relate to this). As a child I remember walking across a small wooden plank crossing an abyss to visit a geodome, which I was going to be raised in one day (were my parents hippies? I suspect they were yippie hippies. Too conservative to wear velvet ponchos, but liberal enough to think that marigolds might be a solution to nematodes instead of DDT. ). My parents camped in earth-muffin Oregon (a source habitat of liberalism and other nutty species) and considered buying a home in the area. My early years with mother were based on respect of the earth. I was taught to have a respect for the environment, care about the land, and not shooting songbirds. As I recall, Silent Spring was on my list of must reads, as punishment for failing in school. My mothers solution to grass was to pluck it out by each and every root nodule, and tomato worms were to be harvested as chicken food--no herbicides or pesticides allowed. Now obviously you can be a republican and eat nuts and berries, I'm not suggesting otherwise.
So then the political years came, the 90s. My CWP class of 1986-1987 was completely about the Iran contra scandal. A scandal about a republican president circumventing and breaking the law of the people to wage a private war. I remember defending R. Reagen to Mr. Hunter, my math teacher, after Reagen was first elected. "How can you talk bad about a president that a majority of the people elected. That is unpatriotic." Oh, would I change my tune over the next few years. Then the election of 1990. A philosophy of clean air, clean water, and protection of our natural resources. A governing philosophy for the middle class. Prosperity went up, the average home income increased over $7,000 annually by the end of the Clinton administration. How could I not buy into something that I felt I had benefited from?
So I move to Oklahoma. The only state in this election cycle to throw out the democrats in the state house. For the first time in Oklahoma history, the state house will be run by a republican majority (I actually find that unreal, but it is true.) So why hasn't the Rush Limbaugh or Bill O' Reilly philosophy of life rubbed off on me? Besides that he is a complete knucklehead?
This last administration is the first to not protect and add federal land to national ownership since Teddy Roosevelt, (a republican with a little bit of vision). The current administration actually have had the opportunity to add sensitive ocean habitat to national ownership, but have failed. Who needs coral reefs anyway? The clean air act of the 90s was thrown out. The car industry was encouraged to build Hummers!? "Drill baby Drill!" The financial markets were deregulated in the spirit of R. Reagen, in hopes of a trickle down. The average family income over the past 8 years has decreased over $2,000.
Now I grew up in a place with clean air and clean water, and a place that respects the land. I was fortunate to have national forest lands, wilderness and national recreation lands close by. I now live in a place that still dumps directly into its lakes and streams. I would wager that I cannot show you a creek or lake that doesn't have a private, still active landfill on it. The teeth of the EPA have been pulled out by this administration. The EPA's emails are refused by the White House, so that they are not responsible for their contents (I am not making that up!).
So.....Kerri did not want me to talk about politics...... I'm not. I'm blaming all of my hair brained ideas on my parents. Over the past election cycle I have nobly resisted tirades....
"Let's go for a Grand Erosion Tour." If that isn't environmental philosophy at its finest. Just think what a good picture the Landscape Arch at Arches National Park would be with a jackpump in the foreground.
War! Then we go to war. The American President makes the decision to spend 10 billion a month on war, instead of over 10 billion a month on ways to get out of the middle east?! I can hear it now. Run for your houses everyone. If we decide to pull out of Iraq they will come and get us. They are coming, they are coming!!!! Imagine, if we would have spent all that money on a failing auto industry, on new fuel for new cars???? Doesn't anyone remember the 70s? The last time we bailed out the auto industry it was the Chrysler corporation. Why? Get this....It was over a failed business model that bet on gas prices staying low. It bet that American's wanted gas guzzlers, but when the chips were down? Guess what. I'll tell you what. At the beginning of this administration gas prices were at $1.60 a gallon. At the height of prices, I paid over $4 a gallon. I don't need to tell you'all that though do I? So my tank of gas went from $18 to fill to over $40. That was most of my weeks lunch money. I think I would have preferred paying 10 billion a month for alternative fuel, instead of nothing to show for it but dead and maimed soldiers and civilians.
So....My Christmas list?
Much of my Christmas list is coming when this War mongering administration leaves office! I will end it there. I will not talk more about the war. I will not talk about the results of the war. I know this is a family blog.
I will not talk about the republicans who insist on having a president that prays?!? Really now? Do you hire a mechanic because he prays? Do you put your money in a bank because the banker is in touch with God? I hope not! I hope you hire a mechanic because he knows what a collaborator is, how it works, and how to fix it.
.....so I did talk about religion in politics a little.....get over it.......
Tirade over
jlw
I really intended to talk about my Christmas list....Later
Friday, November 21, 2008
Blogging Problem
O.K. So, I couldn't figure out why I wasn't getting any comments on the family blog. I thought maybe it was the plague or that I needed a shower. I still don't know why your comments weren't showing up. Jord will have to look at it tonight. So, I will try and answer the questions. Yes, Janice is still dating Michael. We invited them to Thanksgiving and haven't got a confirm yet. I'm hoping, because we still haven't had them in our home since they started dating. They are talking about flying out to Washington in March to meet the family. Sounds a little serious. Next...Jord's Christmas list for Gideon. I will try and get it out of him this weekend. He is so busy trying to finish his grad project and working, its hard to get him to even read the blogs from family. May is not coming fast enough for him! Kat played her first basketball game and they got creamed. They play a school twice the size as Lex and the girls looked like Amazons. It was fun to watch. She is very aggressive and gets in their faces....reminds me a little of her Aunts. Of course, I was yelling in the stands "elbow them in the gut Kat....thats about all you can reach." Ha. Jord was not impressed when I told him the story. He informed me that if I behaved that way again, he was not going to go the games with me. Party Pooper is what I call him. He should know by now that I get excited when I watch the kids play. Creston has been asked to join Jazz Band. Its a select group of highschool kids and he will have to be at the school every morning by 7:00. I'm excited for him, he was the only 8th grader asked to join. Go Creston! He is also doing off season baseball. He has a new coach and wants to start teaching Creston to pitch because he is left handed. We will see how that goes. Well, its good chatting with all of you. I wish I was there for Black Friday.....I remember very well our adventure shopping Liz.....Jord will not go with me shopping on that day, no matter how much coffee I agree to buy for him.
Friday, November 14, 2008
Friday night at the Wilson's
The kids went to the football game. Creston had to play in the band and Kat goes mostly to irritate her brother and socialize. He resents the fact that he has to chaperone his little sister.....I informed him, its just getting started---just wait until she turns 13! So, Jord and I have a free Friday night and guess what were are doing? NOTHING! Jord is in the tub and I am blogging. Feels really good. Am I getting old when I want to stay home on a Friday night instead of going to town for dinner? Instead I fixed Taco's for Jord and I and they were soooooo good, much better than any Mexican restaurant and cheaper too. Hope everyone is doing good, I am going to go online and see if I can find any deals for Christmas presents.
Saturday, November 8, 2008
Saturday at the Wilsons
Well, Jord had a conference today in Norman so he left early this morning only to call and tell me he forgot his drafting paper. Sigh. It wouldn't have been bad except I had to have Creston at a paintball party at 9:30 in Purcell and Jord was the other direction in Norman. So, off to town I ran, then back to Purcell to drop Creston off and then back to Norman to try and find Kat a new coat. It doesn't help to plan your day because something always happens to change your plans. I've been trying to find coats for the kids and not liking anything that is out there. I should change that...they aren't liking anything that's out there. I may have to go online and order one for Kat. Gas is below $2.00/gallon and its wonderful. It's the first time Jord filled his car and it cost under 20.00. With prices this low, it saves us about 30.00/week. I'm loving it. Feeling a little disconnected lately. I wish we were closer to home. It's awful hard to miss Brandi's shower.....I should be thankful we are going to make it for the wedding. And these pictures of Aubre--Oh My....you want to pick her up and squeeze her. All this will have to wait until January. I'm making homemade Clam Chowder for dinner. Both the kids have been asking for it. I haven't made it in about 4 years, so I not sure it will turn out. We will see. Not sure what we are doing for Thanksgiving, I haven't talked to Janice for a while. We may go to the Foote's. Keep the pictures coming, Jan....its what keeps this family going. We anxiously wait pictures of the family.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)