My story for now...

I've been kind of quiet here but that's only because I decided not to burden this blog with anymore of my political rants, and created a separate one just for that. I'm not sure if it's going to be a short-lived passion of mine or not. I just know that it's what I feel like writing about at this time.

I've gotten away from personal blogging because my heart isn't in it anymore. I don't know how many different ways I can write about getting up and living my life without it becoming stale--at least for me. I have a mostly fantastic life filled with fantastic times, interspersed with moments that aren't so fantastic. In other words, I live a life just like everyone else. My experiences are unique to me, but they are not unique in this world.

I've gotten away from reading books lately because of blogging, and as a result, I stopped feeding my brain with new things that challenged me. I've found an idle mind breeds discontent. And so I've gotten back to reading everything I can get my hands on, but more than that, challenging myself to read things and learn more about things I normally told myself I wasn't interested in--like politics. It's opened my eyes and broadened my world in ways I cannot explain.

So that's my story for now. My other blog is here. I'm conservative in a world of conservative haters and "hopenchangers" so if you lean right, I'm your cup of tea, and if not, don't worry, I won't hold it against you.

I hate that my pictures come with the extra space at the top and at the bottom but oh well. In the scheme of life, it's just a little annoyance. lol This is a picture I took while waiting to pull into traffic. The sunset was gorgeous! Glad to feel temps have warmed up into the fifties today. There are some things needing tending to in the yard and I can fiddle around out there without freezing my knuckles off.

Thought I would play a little game here in that I would answer questions about myself, as long as they aren't too personal. lol Maybe whoever is in Kentucky and searched me out will come forward to play along too since I must be intriquing or something. Really, I'm just a person with a family, kids, a couple dogs and cats who lives like mainstream America. Maybe it's a coincidence on the search because I don't know a single soul in Kentucky. Granted if you search JCINNC you will come upon lots of links that don't pertain to me at all. Maybe whoever it was just saw Party of Three and decided to give it a look. Oh, never ask to post a pic of any member of my immediate family or extended family. That would be pushing it unless you are a friend and it's done through email.

So, ask away~

Just Thoughts

Just going through old pics on the computer and figured I'd share a pic of the past. If you were to walk in my house, you will find quilts almost everywhere. They are not for decoration only, they are to be used regardless of where they are sitting throughout the house.

I was able to bring mom back home after me being up there for four days. Her next round of chemo starts next week and with her feeling well enough to travel, hubby and I (along with mom) decided it best she come here and get acclimated to her new "apartment". Since her surgery and a short break in chemo to recover, she's grown a little stubble on her head. I've become so used to her being bald, that even seeing pics pre-cancer with hair, she looks so different. A sign of hair falling out is a tender head and sure enough, that stubble is already coming out. She's comfortable being bald and I think that's great. She's fared this last round of chemo better than expected, we just hope for the same with the forthcoming treatments. Experience has shown me that with each round of chemo, side affects become worse and the person becomes that much weaker. We'll keep our fingers crossed and our prayers ongoing. We are heading back out next week and depending on how she feels, after her nupergen shots (one everyday for 4 days post chemo) we will be back until the next round.

Today has warmed up a tad and tomorrow is to hit the fifties. Yahoo! I'm so over this bitter cold crap. No snow, no reason for it to be so damn cold. Right, B? lol

I watched very little of the Inauguration. I'm just not getting all the hype about him. I want to believe he will make a change, but we'll see.

The tot mom in Florida needs a public hanging even more with the new shocking evidence presented. Who kills their baby, wraps their mouth in duct tape and puts a heart sticker on the tape over the mouth area? Sick, sick girl.

And some more disturbing news that the degenerate that stabbed the girl at Virginia Tech yesterday beheaded her. How can a human being hurt and kill another?

Things here are quiet and that is good~

Kid Quilt

Several years ago, my princess decided to take a gander at quilting. I didn't pursuade her to try but she rather decided on her own that she wanted to make something. She picked out bright, kid friendly colors and we chose an easy pattern called The Yellow Brick Road. Enthusiam came to a halt rather quickly but hey, she's a kid and sewing really isn't something a lot of kids want to do. We put it away with thinking one day she'd want to finish it. A few years passed and I came across it in a bag tucked neatly away in my fabric closet. About 6 months ago, I decided to go ahead and finish it for her and this is the end result. She had her blocks pieced, it just needed the blocks sewn in rows, layered, stippled and the binding put on. I machine quilted it over the last few days and while watching football last night, I hand sewed the binding on. I'm not one for just rolling over the edges on a quilt. I cut, piece and sew binding on. Personally I think quilts look better that way.

Not too shabby for a kid, huh? Maybe as she gets older, she'll decided to carry on the hobby. If not, I'm totally ok with it. ;)

RMFE

When I write letters to my children, I like them to remain between me and them. Not so for our PEBO. When he pens a letter to his children, he gets it published in Parade Magazine so that we can all take a look-see at what a swell guy he is. Of course Parade asked him "to get personal" because he is such a devoted father, blah, blah, blah...Obama considers his election "a great adventure that he's taking them all on." OMG. Understatement of the year, for sure! His letter to his children reads more like a love letter to himself with very little focus ON THE CHILDREN. I can smell a phoney a mile away and this guy is a BIG TIME NARCISSITIC PHONEY.

One really good thing about Obama and those who mindlessly follow him is that they don't seem to mind if you don't pay your taxes. Scratch that. They care if you are Joe the plumber, down on your luck and you can't pay your taxes, or if you're just a regular working class person trying to get by, however if you're wealthy and Obama wants you for his SECRETARY OF FINANCE, then if you "forget" to pay your taxes for four years in a row, it's just a minor "Hiccup!"

Oh, and Geithner didn't realize that overnight camps for the kids AREN'T allowable expenses when calculating dependent child care! Give me a break. CROOK!

Hope and change we can believe in!

DC's homeless getting the boot for inargural

Rut Roh. Looks like the DC homeless are getting the boot so as to not put a damper on Barack Hussein Obama's big day (aka Hopeandchange Day). Priorities people!

A sign of the times

Whatever happened to GETTING A JOB?

Student auctions off virginity for offers of more than £2.5 million

Muslim Violence in New York

It's happening all over the US, but it's not being reported in the MSM. The MSM are calling them "protest rallies" rather than violent hate-fests. If you're not concerned, you should be. Here's a portion of the article over at Atlas Shrugs:

"After walking home from the 42 Street & 7th Avenue Pro-Israel rally, I watched the Muslim rally participants march up 8th Avenue closely controlled by many NYC police to keep them moving along. Even so, it appeared that many of the young men and women were eyeing the bystanders on the sidewalk in threatening ways almost challenging someone to disagree with their Death to Israel and God Bless Hitler chants.

I went back to my apartment where I met my boyfriend who had also just returned from the second Pro Israel rally on 39th Street & 7th Avenue. We walked outside the building and across a major midtown avenue on the West Side to buy some groceries. He was still carrying the Israeli flag and we were both wearing baseball caps with the American flag and USA on the brims. A large number of Muslims were milling around since it seems that their rally had reached its end point and was dispersing. Six Muslim men were being photographed with posters with the words, "Praise Hamas and Hezbollah, Reopen the Ovens" and were taking photos of themselves and their posters. Seeing us with the Israel flag, they began screaming, "You're assholes, Kill the Jews, We are going to kill you, This is OUR country," etc.

We went into the corner deli and they began banging on the window and stood outside in a very threatening mob waiting for us to leave. I heard one man say, "She is a female" - very observant. I don't know what this was suppose to signal to his fellow terrorists. When we left the deli a mob of the original Muslims and others who joined them came up to us screaming death to the Jews, and one man around 19/20 years old ran up and with force and hatred threw an egg into my friend's eye. This may not seem like much but I am sure the intent was for the egg shells to be lodged in his eye. The egg was not thrown from afar against his coat but was thrown like a rock would be - to inflict as much harm as possible. The assailant then grabbed our Israeli flag, threw it to the ground, and was spitting on it and wiping his feet on it. When we asked a traffic cop to make an arrest, the assailant ran away down the block but the traffic agent did not answer us nor did he call 911. He passively stood by doing NOTHING.

Two people standing on the street took photos of our attack and said they would email us with the photos to identity the criminals. We then walked back across the street to our building and were followed by a pack of Muslims - about 8 or 10 - who continued to threaten, mock and scream at us. They seemed surprised at our ferocious counter verbal attack. However, they came right within 6 inches of us saying they would kill us. One of the men was about to attack me when my boyfriend saw the assault about to begin and said, "If you touch her, I swear I'll kill you." At that point the original traffic control cop came over and a second traffic agent joined him and forced the crowd to disperse. They asked us to go into the apartment building lobby which we did.

We immediately called the police and asked to make a police report. Two NYC policemen came to the apartment about an hour later hour and took the information. They were very courteous and said they will file the report and a detective is to contact us tomorrow. They apologized for taking so long to come by but explained that there were many incidents of a similar nature that were taking place as the Muslim rally broke up. They also shared that 2 NYC police officers had been attacked at the rally and that the Muslims are 'out of control.'

Without the photos, it will be near impossible to find the Muslims involved. Even with the photos, I am not sure if the police can find the assailant or make an arrest. I am told by an attorney friend, that just the act of following and threatening is a crime in and of itself. Whatever it takes, we'll take it as far as possible to prosecute.
Any ideas as how to pursue this would be welcome. This attack could happen to anyone. This attack happened in midtown Manhattan, a major American city on a Sunday afternoon. Our country is under attack from within. We need to do much more than attend rallies."

Read the full story HERE

My Hobby

The art of quilting came to me by chance or maybe just by getting my mother off my back to "just try it."

Try it I did after a couple years of her pursuading me to at least attempt it. Frankly, I didn't have time. I agreed to make what she sent me just to get her off my back. The kids were keeping me busy enough as it was, how would I find the time to sit down and sew a million little pieces together? Hell, I didn't even own a sewing machine. Didn't want one! She upgraded her Bernina and thus, I inherited her not so old other Bernina. I took a day that was less chaotic and set out to create a lap quilt. Not far into it, as I was seeing something beautiful come together right before my eyes that I was making, I got hooked. Thanks Ma!

Over the years I have accumulated a walk- in closet lined with shelves that hold enough fabric to have a mini store. More fabric than I could use in my lifetime but it gives me so much to choose from when I come upon a pattern I want to make.

I do get commissioned to make quilts for others but it is not a steady business for me. Mostly because I haven't pushed my desire to make it full time work quite yet. That time is coming and that's what I'm most excited about.

Someone once asked me how many quilts I make in a year. You know, that really varies and I can't say I set out with a set number in my head that I want to accomplish. Each quilt takes more time than the other and I'm personally more about quality, not quantity. Depending upon the size of the quilt and the design, some go out to be professionally quilted. Some I do myself here on my machine. It depends on my time. Not to say there aren't smaller projects thrown into the mix of wall hangings, table runners, etc. that I do in between quilts. There is always the need for me to be working on something and that hasn't really been happening for me for the last 6 months.

Unfortunately, I have four quilt tops hanging in my studio that have been put on hold for now. I never like to have projects unfinished, it kills me. lol My plan is to take a couple with me to finish while I am away from my home.

My time here is coming to a close and I will be heading out soon. Mom's chemo started again and it's already hit her like a ton of bricks. You never know how a round will affect a person and I had her cycles pretty much figured out. Two days after chemo and getting sick has not been the norm for her. Chemo is a vicious bastard.

Quilting~ Try it, you might just love it~

Wow, another post. Maybe this is just making up for the months that dear K took the brunt of carrying this on for us all. You're the best!

Decisions were made recently for my mother to move in with my family but unfortunately we are stuck in limbo for at least another few months. The transition will happen and treatments will continue but for right now, a stipulation was put on her by a physician and what it boils down to is money. Won't go into details about that but will just say it's they don't want to lose the money they stand to make. I'll give this physician a few more months but then I have to put on all halts and make the transition without any roadblocks stopping me because quite frankly, things will be better when she is permanently here with us. I can't go months, years doing what I'm doing. Not physically and not mentally. My best interest lies with my mother and I know in my heart what's best. It's just a matter of getting it done.

With that being said, what my husband and I did this weekend was move her belongings to our house. It couldn't have been done any other time without killing me in the process. We've moved our children's rooms around leaving the roomiest space for my mother. Creating an in-law suite basically. She has her living room set up and her bedroom set up. She's good to go when she comes. Boxes still need to be gone through and stored. That is what I'm tending to today.

It's become an emotional task. Holding all the pictures that were displayed throughout my parents home. Pictures of dad that when I was at mom's house and walked by them, I would run my finger over him. Telling him how much I love and miss him. I'd ask him to watch over mom and help us keep her safe. I know he's here with us in spirit. Guiding us and helping her get through this mean beast that she's been dealt with. The worst was going through a bin of their jewelry chests. Coming upon dad's wedding ring that was cut off his finger. I'm assuming on his second to last trip to the hospital. Placed in a tiny zip lock bag by most presumably, a hospital employee. Tears flowed as I took the ring out of the bag. Wishing... possibly that if I rubbed it, life would go back to normal. Back before any of this ever happened. Life is never normal though. Is there really such a thing? Not for me, not for anyone. We deal with issues dealt us and muster through them with the best ability and move on. Not to say it's always the best outcome but no one ever said life was fair.

Back to the task at hand I go~

Privacy

I wish the media hounds would leave the Travolta family alone to let them mourn the loss of their son. Why do they always have to try and find wrongdoing when something like this happens? They obviously wanted privacy even way back when their son was born and tried to keep things normal for the family and out of the limelight of Hollywood.

Go focus on the dysfunction that runs rampant in Hollywood. Not that us normal folk really even care.

We're five days into the new year already. Damn, where is the time going?

I've been able to stay at home for a few weeks now, but heading back to enjoying life here at home is about to come to a halt. Haven't picked what day I am heading back out, but I'm taking one day at a time hoping the possibility of staying here the rest of the week will happen.

Being here has been wonderful. Of course it hasn't come without a little turmoil and resistence and people thinking I'm the village idiot. I think perhaps it's the other way around because my plan was best despite meaning we had to give up our weekend, not to mention still haven't finished trying to figure out where everything is going to go. Their part in what took place was so minor I couldn't understand what all the complaining was about. A major change but for the best and hopefully within a few months time our origininal plan from over a year ago will truly happen.

New Year's resolutions are something I never make. It's comical how so many people hit the gym or start out with an at home exercise plan yet it fails for them every year because they aren't motivated enough to stick with it. My new year will continue on as it has in the past in regards to my health. I will continue to run daily as it's become even more of a mental release for me.

So anyway, just a rambling post and to wish everyone the best in 2009~

Hollywood brilliance

More Hollywood brilliance.

It seems that Hollywood has its hands in everything. Every time I turn on the news I am met with some Hollywood know-nothing-who-thinks-he-knows-everything telling me how I should vote, what I should support, how I should feel. These directionless fools think we CARE what they think. Anything to get their faces plastered on a tv screen or in newsprint somewhere. It would be funny if it wasn't so shameless and dangerous.

Here's a newsflash for Hollywood types who think their audiences are comprised of followers waiting in the wings for direction from them: Stick to your talents of singing or acting and leave the THINKING/DOING to those of us who have working brain cells and can do more than "perform." Thank you!