Go Vote!

This could happen to anyone! :)

http://www.cnnbcvideo.com/index.html?nid=rcklOpguytuUthVBRrlibDQxNzQwNjg

Can We Say Emotional?

Last night I was watching Bee Movie. It's a kid's movie about a bee who sues humans for all the honey that they sell while the bees produce it for free. In the movie, the bees win and they quit work. Nobody pollinates the flowers and they die. At the end, they all get together and pollinate the last flowers on earth. With the stupid song, and the flowers coming back to life....I almost started crying! I actually had to fight against getting teary eyed. Sometimes, I feel like such a dork!

Frustrated

I deleted my last blog out of frustration. Daisy Mae is a good dog, but the day after I posted my blog we came home to find a huge puddle of drool on our couch. She started acting skittish around Jeff again and ended up running away. A neighbor found her and put her back in our yard.

I just get so frustrated sometimes. Jeff and I have argued about her, and I sometimes I wonder if it's all worth it. At the end of the day, I know that we're doing a good thing and it will just take time. It just gets tiresome when it feels like we taking one step forward and then two steps back the next day.

Enough With The Heavy Stuff!

I've noticed that last few entries have been a little too serious. So, what's going on in my little world? Not a whole lot, just getting ready for our annual pumpkin carving party!

Jeff and I started this tradition four years ago and it's going strong. The only time we've skipped a year was last year because we were living with Rick and Gloria and didn't feel right to throw a party at a house that wasn't ours.

The first pumpkin party we hosted did not have a very large turn out. Jeff's cousin and his wife came, as well as our friend Sonja. I think everyone carved a pumpkin, and it was fun to light them and put them on the porch for an evening.

This year is promising to be a very big carving party. We have roughly 15 or so guests coming and I'm still not sure where I'm going to put them while they're carving their pumpkins. That's my number one rule...if you wanna come to the party, you'd better bring a pumpkin and some carving tools. I hate it when grown ups forget how to have fun. Why do we have to wait to have kids to do this kind of stuff?

Anyways, I'm still trying to decide what to serve. I'm thinking potato soup and snacks, but we'll see. I'm just looking forward to having friends and family in our home, having a good time. I can't wait to see what our porch will look like this year with 17 pumpkins all lit up!

First, let me get this said…I believe in God. I have faith that He is leading me down the path that He wants me to take. I don’t read my Bible from cover to cover and I don’t go to church, but that doesn’t mean I don’t pray, or that I don’t believe. I think that people who have a deep faith or spiritual connection with God are healthy. We all need a higher power to believe in, if we didn’t who would we turn to for guidance or love when there isn’t any to be found on Earth?

When I was a teenager, good friend took me to her church’s Youth Group. Before I knew it I was swaying in the pew with them and going to prayer before school every morning. I started reading the Bible. I had something to believe in, and it kept me out of trouble. Most of my friends at that time were smoking pot or other drugs and having babies.

I’m not saying that they’re bad people, but I do think that my faith in God kept me from going out and ‘sinning’. I didn’t want to have premarital sex. I didn’t want to do drugs, or smoke cigarettes. I was choosing to live a clean and healthy life because I felt that was what God wanted of me.

Then, things started to change. It wasn’t my faith in God; I think that has never wavered. I’ve had a few questions, but I don’t think I’ve ever thought that God didn’t exist. I had a very good friend who told me he was gay. I loved him just the same, and to this day, I still support him and any other person who is choosing to live an alternate lifestyle. I just don’t feel like it’s fair to treat him differently or cut him out of my life because the Bible says the way he lives his life is wrong. Who qualified me to be the judge?

I like to go out and have a beer or two on occasion. Does that make me a bad person? Does God love me less? I can probably count on one hand the number of times I’ve been drunk in the last year. If I decided today that I was never going to drink again, should I look down on those who do?

I’ve taken steps to ensure that I wouldn’t become pregnant. I’ve even had premarital sex with the man that is now my husband. So, does that mean that my friends who go to church every weekend shouldn’t associate with me anymore?

Don’t get me wrong. I think that people who go to church every week and live their lives according to the Book are most times wonderful, loving people. I just have a problem with the ones who say they are living in God’s love and then turn ugly the moment someone steps outside the perimeters of what the Bible says is okay or not okay. We all sin. Are there different degrees of sin? Does the person gossiping over coffee sin less than the man sitting on death row for murder? Or is all sin just as wrong as the next?

I guess what I’m trying to say is….I just wish that people could agree to have their beliefs and pray to God for guidance and still love everyone. Isn’t that what God does in the first place? I’m sure he loves a prostitute or drug dealer just as much as he loves a Pastor or even….me.

Politics...yet again

We work with a person who obviously leans toward the right when it comes to politics. I have nothing wrong with people who are proud of their political party and feel the need to display bumper stickers on their cars or posters in their front yard. It's their house or their car and they should be allowed to 'decorate' it however they want.

What I do have a problem with is when that devotion or passion trickles into the workplace. I don't think that our desks should be covered in McCain stickers or Barack buttons. There's a person who we work with who is sporting a 'yes on 8' sign. It's sitting there for all to see. For those of you who don't know this phrase....well, in California, if you vote yes on 8, that means you are voting to ban same sex marriages. A few months ago our state passed a bill allowing same sex marriage to be recognized by the law.

So, this guy has his poster up, and it's offending me. What if there's a gay man who has been planning his union with his partner working in the next office? Don't you think he would be a little upset? How would their work relationship suffer? We all deserve to work in an environment that is free of prejudices. I'm sure that if I were to bedazzle my desk with 'vote no on 8' I would be asked to take it down.

I have many people in my life whom I dearly love that will be impacted by this vote come November. I will be voting no on 8 simply because I feel these people should be able to live their lives just like anyone else. Nobody should tell them who they can or cannot marry. I try to put myself in their shoes. How would I feel if I were told I wasn't able to marry Jeff? It would break my heart. As most married folks know, once those vows are said and those papers are signed, it gives your relationship a whole new meaning. Shouldn't gay people have that same opportunity?

Now, I'm sure many bible thumpers will argue that it's against God's law. There again, I don't think our government should be run according to the bible. The beauty of our country is that we are a melting pot of different cultures and religions. If we start ruling our government according to the bible, who's bible do we follow? I say, try to give people as much freedom to live their lives as we possibly can. Let everyone have the same opportunities so that they can experience life to the fullest, just like the every day hetero couple walking down the street.

Stupid Kids Part II

Jeff and I went with Doug and Sarah to the Monster Truck show in Red Bluff this weekend. It wasn't as good as last year, but we still had fun. Anyways, it's intermission and I look over to my left and there is a very pregnant young girl. She's hanging out with her friends and then pulls a pack of cigarettes out of her purse. At first I think...well, she's the only one with a purse, so maybe she's holding them for someone...NOPE! She goes ahead and lights up right there, all the while rubbing her baby belly. I couldn't believe it. I was instantly angry. At first I tried to tell myself maybe she just has a very round beer belly. Then she started rubbing it, and her friends were rubbing it. I dont' think she's the next Buddah or anything, and I know I wouldn't let my friends rub my beer belly....

This isn't the 80's. It's no longer acceptable to smoke when you're pregnant. I guess I was so shocked because you really don't see that anymore. I think back when our mom's were having us, times were different. But now, with everything we know now about a baby's development and how every single thing the mother puts into her body goes into the baby....some pregnant women even give up caffeine for crying out loud!

Now, I am by no means perfect. I'm the occasional smoker, but I also know that I'm not pregnant. It's just irritating to see someone do that while they're pregnant. Some people try for years to get pregnant and take such care to not do anything harmful to the fetus. This girl probably had a one night stand with some greasy guy in the back of his truck and now it's too much of an inconvenience to quit sucking on her cancer stick.