My dear hubby shared this video with me today! We discussed the Iraq war quite a bit lately and though we do have some differences in opinions on the war (he's been in Iraq 6 months) I still support what this man has to say. I couldn't believe the number of views this video got! Check it out for yourself! I just did and I was surprised that in a matter of 1 hour since I've hung up the phone talking to my husband there were over 200 views of this short clip. It's up to : Views: 12,010,167 as I am posting it right now. WOW! That speaks volumes!
Friday, October 31, 2008
Thursday, October 30, 2008
The advantages of sharing with your children
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I didn't want to totally make this wordless but with the amount of time I have these days I just about have to make it short.
Since my husband is working out of the country and all the children's bedrooms are on a different level than my bedroom I've asked my oldest daughter to join me. Our bedroom is long and narrow but there is plenty of room for a twin size bed. So, she's been keeping me company for many months now. When dad came home for a short visit she went upstairs to share a bed with her younger sisters. I have been really enjoying the ease of cleaning the girls' room. There is a huge difference. Two girls vs three in one room is a huge difference! I am not going to scare you with pics of their room, please, don't fret.
A few days ago I was feeling very feverish and couldn't get warm. My oldest came over and snuggled in our King size bed, mentioning that there is plenty of room for 3 more kids in there, the way we huddled together. SHe warmed me up so fast I couldn't believe it. It was so sweet of her to put her arms around me and hold me. I was ready to cry just remembering how harsh I was just the same day fussing at her to pick up her clothes off my bedroom floor. But it was all so sweet the way she was holding! This morning I walked into the bahtroom we are sharing and found the cutest little thing! That's my oldest daughter! Just like her! Creative, sweet little touch. I love her, even when she messes up MY bedroom.
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Come what may-a must see! Help extend free screening
From the creators of Fireproof here is another jewel! I am so glad I learned about this from a friend, thank you , Barbara! BUt I am not sure if they will have the free screening on YouTube for much longer. I received the em today saying it's only a 3 day screening and today is the last day, but I do hope that enough copies were purchased to make the screening a few days longer! I just bought mine! SO, please, click on the link asap!
You can preview the movie on GodTube here. I only linked to one small part. You can watch the whole movie free! Please, feel free to visit the Advent Film Group to find out more. I learned so much about movie making by just browsing their site.! Share with your friends asap!
Blessings, Natalie
You can preview the movie on GodTube here. I only linked to one small part. You can watch the whole movie free! Please, feel free to visit the Advent Film Group to find out more. I learned so much about movie making by just browsing their site.! Share with your friends asap!
Blessings, Natalie
Today’s opinion cartoon in the Augusta Chronicle from Rich McKee
I am not on a comic strip roll lately, believe me. I am just swamped with life and not much time to post, thought I've posted more than even before in the last month. With the last softball games behind us yesterday (after I froze for 3 full hours at the ball park) and for 1 1/2 hours today at son's football game (last one for they lost) I can breathe now! I don't know what's wrong with AL weather! I was wearing shorts and Tshirts last year! I thought the problem was global warming!!! Not so here! We had 34 this am! Hubby is all snug in Panama. We all wished we were there with him right now. When we were there in August it was their winter time there. Summer is going to start in December. I am seriously praying about his job to be extended there! We sure don't want to freeze here if the winter is starting here so early and so cold! Brrrrr!
Keep praying for God's will in this election! Bless you in the wonderful name of Jesus!
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
A Halloween/election day funny
I thought about just linking this neat post on my blog from one of my most favorite bloggers Crazybusy, but decided to just copy and paste it. Too good to just mention it. Feel free to spread it around!
This letter was written by a man in East Texas as an open letter toSenator Obama. He really does exist and says anyone can email hisletter around, just don't change it. If you know someone who holds tothe theory that the rich have life easy and need to be taxed moresend it to them. This man tells it like it is!*************
Mr. Obama,
Given the uproar about the simple question asked you by Joe theplumber, and the persecution that has been heaped on him because hedared to question you, I find myself motivated to say a few things toyou myself. While Joe aspires to start a business someday, I alreadyhave started not one, but 4 businesses. But first, let me introducemyself. You can call me "Cory the well driller". I am a 54 year oldhigh school graduate. I didn't go to college like you, I was too ready to go "conquer the world" when I finished high school. 25 yearsago at age 29, I started my own water well drilling business at atime when the economy here in East Texas was in a tailspin from thecrash of the early 80's oil boom. I didn't get any help from thegovernment, nor did I look for any. I borrowed what I could from mysister, my uncle, and even the pawn shop and managed to scrapetogether a homemade drill rig and a few tools to do my first job. Mybusinesses did not start as a result of privilege. They are theresult of my personal drive, personal ambition, self discipline, selfreliance, and a determination to treat my customers fairly. From thevery start my business provided one other (than myself) East Texan afull time job. I couldn't afford a backhoe the first few years(something every well drilling business had), so I and my helper hadto dig the mud pits that are necessary for each and every job withhand shovels. I had to use my 10 year old, 1/2 ton pickup truck formy water tank truck (normally a job for at least a 2 ton truck).A year and a half after I started the business, I scraped together a20% down payment to get a modest bank loan and bought a (28 year)old, worn out, slightly bigger drilling rig to allow me to drill thedeeper water wells in my area. I spent the next few years drillingwells with the rig while simultaneously rebuilding it between jobs.Through these years I never knew from one month to the next if Iwould have any work or be able to pay the bills. I got behind on myincome taxes one year, and spent the next two years paying that back(with penalty and interest) while keeping up with ongoing taxes. Igot behind on my water well supply bill 2 different years (way behindthe second time... $80,000.00), and spent over a year paying it back(each time) while continuing to pay for ongoing supplies C.O.D.. Ofcourse, the personal stress endured through these experiences andyears is hard to measure. I do have a stent in my heart now tomemorialize it all.I spent the next 10 years developing the reputation for being themost competent and most honest water well driller in East Texas. 2years along the way, I hired another full time employee for thedrilling business so that we could provide full time water well pumpservice as well as the well drilling. Also, 3 years along the path, Ibought a water well screen service machine from a friend, startingbusiness # 2. 5 years later I made a business loan for $100,000.00 tobuild a new, higher production, computer controlled screen servicemachine. I had designed the machine myself, and it didn't work outfor 3 years so I had to make the loan payments without the benefit ofany added income from the new machine. No government program wasthere to help me with the payments, or to help me sleep at night as Ilay awake wondering how I would solve my machine problems or pay mybills. Finally, after 3 years, I got the screen machine workingproperly, and that provided another full time job for an East Texanin the screen service business.2 years after that, I made another business loan, this time for$250,000.00, to buy another used drilling rig and all the supportequipment needed to run another, larger, drill rig. This providedanother 2 full time jobs for East Texans. Again, I spent a couple ofyears not knowing if I had made a smart move, or a move that wouldbankrupt me. For the third time in 13 years, I had placed everythingI owned on the line, risking everything, in order to build abusiness.A couple of years into this, I came up with a bright idea for a newkind of mud pump, a fundamentally necessary pump used on water welldrill rigs. I spent my entire life savings to date (just $30,000.00),building a prototype of the pump and took it to the national waterwell convention to show it off. Customers immediately started comingout of the woodworks to buy the pumps, but there was a problem. I haddepleted my assets making the prototype, and nobody would make me abusiness loan to start production of the new pumps. With severaldeposits for pump orders in hand, and nowhere to go, I finallystarted applying for as many credit card as I could find and tookcash withdrawals on these cards to the tune of over $150,000.00(including modest loans from my dear sister and brother), to get this3rd business going.Yes, once again, I had everything hanging over the line in an effortto start another business. I had never manufactured anything, and Ihad to design and bring into production a complex hydraulic machinefrom an untested prototype to a reliable production model (in sixmonths). How many nights I lay awake wondering if I had just made theparamount mistake of my life I cannot tell you, but there wereplenty. I managed to get the pumps into production, which immediatelycreated another 2 full time jobs in East Texas. Some of the models inthe first year suffered from quality issues due to the poorworkmanship of one of my key suppliers, so I and an employee (anotherEast Texan employed) had to drive across the country to repaircustomers' pumps, practically from coast to coast. I stood behind theproduct, and made payments to all the credit cards that had financedme (and my brother and sister). I spent the next 5 years improvingand refining the product, building a reputation for the pump and thecompany, working to get the pump into drill rig manufacturers'product lines, and paying back credit cards. During all this time Icontinued to manage a growing water well business that was nowoperating 3 drill rig crews, and 2 well service crews. Also, thescreen service business continued to grow. No government programswere there to help me, Mr. Obama, but that's ok, I didn't expect any,nor did I want any. I was too busy fighting to make success happen tosit around waiting for the government to help me.Now, we have been manufacturing the mud pumps for 7 years, mycombined businesses employ 32 full time employees, and distribute$5,000,000.00 annually through the local economy. Now, just 4 monthsago I borrowed $1,254,000.00, purchasing computer controlledmachining equipment to start my 4th business, a production machineshop. The machine shop will serve the mud pump company so that we canbetter manufacture our pumps that are being shipped worldwide. Ofcourse, the machine shop will also do work for outside companies aswell. This has already produced 2 more full time jobs, and 2 moreshould develop out of it in the next few months. This should workout, but if it doesn't it will be because you, and the otherprofessional politicians like yourself, will have destroyed ourcountrys' (and the world) economy with your meddling with mortgageloan programs through your liberal manipulation and intimidation ofloaning institutions to make sure that unqualified borrowers couldget mortgages. You see, at the very time when I couldn't get abusiness loan to get my mud pumps into production, you were workingwith Acorn and the Community Reinvestment Act programs to make surethat unqualified borrowers could buy homes with no down payment, andeven no credit or worse yet, bad credit. Even the infamous, liberal,Ninja loans (No Income, No Job or Assets). While these unqualifiedborrowers were enjoying unrealistically low interest rates, I waspaying 22% to 24% interest on the credit cards that I had used toprovide me the funds for the mud pump business that has created jobsfor more East Texans. It's funny, because after 25 years of turningalmost every dime of extra money back into my businesses to growthem, it has been only in the last two years that I have finally madeenough money to be able to put a little away for retirement, and nowthe value of that has dropped 40% because of the policies you andyour ilk have perpetrated on our country.You see, Mr. Obama, I'm the guy you intend to raise taxes on. I'm theguy who has spent 25 years toiling and sweating, fretting andfighting, stressing and risking, to build a business and get ahead.I'm the guy who has been on the very edge of bankruptcy more than adozen times over the last 25 years, and all the while creating moreand more jobs for East Texans who didn't want to take a risk, andwould not demand from themselves what I have demanded from myself.I'm the guy you characterize as "the Americans who can afford it themost" that you believe should be taxed more to provide incomeredistribution "to spread the wealth" to those who have never toiled,sweated, fretted, fought, stressed, or risked anything. You want tocharacterize me as someone who has enjoyed a life of privilege andwho needs to pay a higher percentage of my income than those who havebought into your entitlement culture. I resent you, Mr. Obama, as Iresent all who want to use class warfare as a tool to advance theirpolitical career. What's worse, each year more Americans buy intoyour liberal entitlement culture, and turn to the government fortheir hope of a better life instead of themselves. Liberals aresucceeding through more than 40 years of collaborative effort betweenthe predominant liberal media, and liberal indoctrination programs inthe public school systems across our land.What is so terribly sad about this is this. America was made great bypeople who embraced the one-time American culture of self reliance,self motivation, self determination, self discipline, personalbetterment, hard work, risk taking. A culture built around theconcept that success was in reach of every able bodied American whowould strive for it. Each year that less Americans embrace thatculture, we all descend together. We descend down the socialist paththat has brought country after country ultimately to bitter andunremarkable states. If you and your liberal comrades in the mediaand school systems would spend half as much effort cultivating aculture of can-do across America as you do cultivating yourentitlement culture, we could see Americans at large embracing theconviction that they can elevate themselves through personalbetterment, personal achievement, and self reliance. You see, whenpeople embrace such ideals, they act on them. When people act on suchideals, they succeed. All of America could find herself elevatinginstead of deteriorating. But that would eliminate the need forliberal politicians, wouldn't it, Mr. Obama? The country would notneed you if the country was convinced that problem solving was bestleft with individuals instead of the government. You and all yourliberal comrades have got a vested interested in creating a dependentclass in our country. It is the very business of liberals to createan ever expanding dependence on government. What's remarkable is thatyou, who have never produced a job in your life, are going to tax meto take more of my money and give it to people who wouldn't need mymoney if they would get off their entitlement mentality asses andapply themselves at work, demand more from themselves, and quitlooking to liberal politicians to raise their station in life.You see, I know because I've had them work for me before. Hundreds ofthem over these 25 years. People who simply will not show up to workon time. People who just will not work 5 days in a week, much less, 6days. People always looking for a way to put less effort out. Peoplewho actually tell me that they would do more if I just would firstpay them more. People who take off work to sit in government officesto apply to get free government handouts (gee, I wonder how thingswould have turned out for them if they had spent that time earningmoney and pleasing their employer?). You see, all of this comes fromyour entitlement mentality culture.Oh, I know you will say I am uncompassionate. Sorry, Mr. Obama, wrongagain. You see, I've seen what the average percentage of your incomehas been given to charities over the years of 2000 to 2004 (ignoringthe years you started running for office - can youpronounce "politically motivated"), you averaged less than 1%annually. And your running mate, Joe Biden, averaged less than ¼% ofhis annual income in charitable contributions over the last 10 years.Like so many liberals, the two of you want to give to the needy, justas long as it is someone else's money you are giving to them. I won'tsay what I have given to charities over the last 25 years, but thepercentage is several times more than you and Joe Biden. combined(don't you just hate google?). Tell me again how you feel my pain.In short, Mr. Obama, your political philosophies represent everythingthat is wrong with our country. You represent the culture ofgovernment dependence instead of self reliance; Entitlement mentalityinstead of personal achievement; Penalization of the successful toreward the unmotivated; Political correctness instead of openmindedness and open debate. If you are successful, you may presideover the final transformation of America from being the greatest andmost self-reliant culture on earth, to just another country ofwhiners and wimps, who sit around looking to the government to solvetheir problems. Like all of western Europe. All countries on thedecline. All countries that, because of liberal socialisticmentalities, have a little less to offer mankind every year.God help us...Cory Millerjust a ordinary, extraordinary American, the way a lot of Americansused to be.
P.S. Yes, Mr. Obama, I am a real American...
http://www.cmillerdrilling.com
This letter was written by a man in East Texas as an open letter toSenator Obama. He really does exist and says anyone can email hisletter around, just don't change it. If you know someone who holds tothe theory that the rich have life easy and need to be taxed moresend it to them. This man tells it like it is!*************Mr. Obama,
Given the uproar about the simple question asked you by Joe theplumber, and the persecution that has been heaped on him because hedared to question you, I find myself motivated to say a few things toyou myself. While Joe aspires to start a business someday, I alreadyhave started not one, but 4 businesses. But first, let me introducemyself. You can call me "Cory the well driller". I am a 54 year oldhigh school graduate. I didn't go to college like you, I was too ready to go "conquer the world" when I finished high school. 25 yearsago at age 29, I started my own water well drilling business at atime when the economy here in East Texas was in a tailspin from thecrash of the early 80's oil boom. I didn't get any help from thegovernment, nor did I look for any. I borrowed what I could from mysister, my uncle, and even the pawn shop and managed to scrapetogether a homemade drill rig and a few tools to do my first job. Mybusinesses did not start as a result of privilege. They are theresult of my personal drive, personal ambition, self discipline, selfreliance, and a determination to treat my customers fairly. From thevery start my business provided one other (than myself) East Texan afull time job. I couldn't afford a backhoe the first few years(something every well drilling business had), so I and my helper hadto dig the mud pits that are necessary for each and every job withhand shovels. I had to use my 10 year old, 1/2 ton pickup truck formy water tank truck (normally a job for at least a 2 ton truck).A year and a half after I started the business, I scraped together a20% down payment to get a modest bank loan and bought a (28 year)old, worn out, slightly bigger drilling rig to allow me to drill thedeeper water wells in my area. I spent the next few years drillingwells with the rig while simultaneously rebuilding it between jobs.Through these years I never knew from one month to the next if Iwould have any work or be able to pay the bills. I got behind on myincome taxes one year, and spent the next two years paying that back(with penalty and interest) while keeping up with ongoing taxes. Igot behind on my water well supply bill 2 different years (way behindthe second time... $80,000.00), and spent over a year paying it back(each time) while continuing to pay for ongoing supplies C.O.D.. Ofcourse, the personal stress endured through these experiences andyears is hard to measure. I do have a stent in my heart now tomemorialize it all.I spent the next 10 years developing the reputation for being themost competent and most honest water well driller in East Texas. 2years along the way, I hired another full time employee for thedrilling business so that we could provide full time water well pumpservice as well as the well drilling. Also, 3 years along the path, Ibought a water well screen service machine from a friend, startingbusiness # 2. 5 years later I made a business loan for $100,000.00 tobuild a new, higher production, computer controlled screen servicemachine. I had designed the machine myself, and it didn't work outfor 3 years so I had to make the loan payments without the benefit ofany added income from the new machine. No government program wasthere to help me with the payments, or to help me sleep at night as Ilay awake wondering how I would solve my machine problems or pay mybills. Finally, after 3 years, I got the screen machine workingproperly, and that provided another full time job for an East Texanin the screen service business.2 years after that, I made another business loan, this time for$250,000.00, to buy another used drilling rig and all the supportequipment needed to run another, larger, drill rig. This providedanother 2 full time jobs for East Texans. Again, I spent a couple ofyears not knowing if I had made a smart move, or a move that wouldbankrupt me. For the third time in 13 years, I had placed everythingI owned on the line, risking everything, in order to build abusiness.A couple of years into this, I came up with a bright idea for a newkind of mud pump, a fundamentally necessary pump used on water welldrill rigs. I spent my entire life savings to date (just $30,000.00),building a prototype of the pump and took it to the national waterwell convention to show it off. Customers immediately started comingout of the woodworks to buy the pumps, but there was a problem. I haddepleted my assets making the prototype, and nobody would make me abusiness loan to start production of the new pumps. With severaldeposits for pump orders in hand, and nowhere to go, I finallystarted applying for as many credit card as I could find and tookcash withdrawals on these cards to the tune of over $150,000.00(including modest loans from my dear sister and brother), to get this3rd business going.Yes, once again, I had everything hanging over the line in an effortto start another business. I had never manufactured anything, and Ihad to design and bring into production a complex hydraulic machinefrom an untested prototype to a reliable production model (in sixmonths). How many nights I lay awake wondering if I had just made theparamount mistake of my life I cannot tell you, but there wereplenty. I managed to get the pumps into production, which immediatelycreated another 2 full time jobs in East Texas. Some of the models inthe first year suffered from quality issues due to the poorworkmanship of one of my key suppliers, so I and an employee (anotherEast Texan employed) had to drive across the country to repaircustomers' pumps, practically from coast to coast. I stood behind theproduct, and made payments to all the credit cards that had financedme (and my brother and sister). I spent the next 5 years improvingand refining the product, building a reputation for the pump and thecompany, working to get the pump into drill rig manufacturers'product lines, and paying back credit cards. During all this time Icontinued to manage a growing water well business that was nowoperating 3 drill rig crews, and 2 well service crews. Also, thescreen service business continued to grow. No government programswere there to help me, Mr. Obama, but that's ok, I didn't expect any,nor did I want any. I was too busy fighting to make success happen tosit around waiting for the government to help me.Now, we have been manufacturing the mud pumps for 7 years, mycombined businesses employ 32 full time employees, and distribute$5,000,000.00 annually through the local economy. Now, just 4 monthsago I borrowed $1,254,000.00, purchasing computer controlledmachining equipment to start my 4th business, a production machineshop. The machine shop will serve the mud pump company so that we canbetter manufacture our pumps that are being shipped worldwide. Ofcourse, the machine shop will also do work for outside companies aswell. This has already produced 2 more full time jobs, and 2 moreshould develop out of it in the next few months. This should workout, but if it doesn't it will be because you, and the otherprofessional politicians like yourself, will have destroyed ourcountrys' (and the world) economy with your meddling with mortgageloan programs through your liberal manipulation and intimidation ofloaning institutions to make sure that unqualified borrowers couldget mortgages. You see, at the very time when I couldn't get abusiness loan to get my mud pumps into production, you were workingwith Acorn and the Community Reinvestment Act programs to make surethat unqualified borrowers could buy homes with no down payment, andeven no credit or worse yet, bad credit. Even the infamous, liberal,Ninja loans (No Income, No Job or Assets). While these unqualifiedborrowers were enjoying unrealistically low interest rates, I waspaying 22% to 24% interest on the credit cards that I had used toprovide me the funds for the mud pump business that has created jobsfor more East Texans. It's funny, because after 25 years of turningalmost every dime of extra money back into my businesses to growthem, it has been only in the last two years that I have finally madeenough money to be able to put a little away for retirement, and nowthe value of that has dropped 40% because of the policies you andyour ilk have perpetrated on our country.You see, Mr. Obama, I'm the guy you intend to raise taxes on. I'm theguy who has spent 25 years toiling and sweating, fretting andfighting, stressing and risking, to build a business and get ahead.I'm the guy who has been on the very edge of bankruptcy more than adozen times over the last 25 years, and all the while creating moreand more jobs for East Texans who didn't want to take a risk, andwould not demand from themselves what I have demanded from myself.I'm the guy you characterize as "the Americans who can afford it themost" that you believe should be taxed more to provide incomeredistribution "to spread the wealth" to those who have never toiled,sweated, fretted, fought, stressed, or risked anything. You want tocharacterize me as someone who has enjoyed a life of privilege andwho needs to pay a higher percentage of my income than those who havebought into your entitlement culture. I resent you, Mr. Obama, as Iresent all who want to use class warfare as a tool to advance theirpolitical career. What's worse, each year more Americans buy intoyour liberal entitlement culture, and turn to the government fortheir hope of a better life instead of themselves. Liberals aresucceeding through more than 40 years of collaborative effort betweenthe predominant liberal media, and liberal indoctrination programs inthe public school systems across our land.What is so terribly sad about this is this. America was made great bypeople who embraced the one-time American culture of self reliance,self motivation, self determination, self discipline, personalbetterment, hard work, risk taking. A culture built around theconcept that success was in reach of every able bodied American whowould strive for it. Each year that less Americans embrace thatculture, we all descend together. We descend down the socialist paththat has brought country after country ultimately to bitter andunremarkable states. If you and your liberal comrades in the mediaand school systems would spend half as much effort cultivating aculture of can-do across America as you do cultivating yourentitlement culture, we could see Americans at large embracing theconviction that they can elevate themselves through personalbetterment, personal achievement, and self reliance. You see, whenpeople embrace such ideals, they act on them. When people act on suchideals, they succeed. All of America could find herself elevatinginstead of deteriorating. But that would eliminate the need forliberal politicians, wouldn't it, Mr. Obama? The country would notneed you if the country was convinced that problem solving was bestleft with individuals instead of the government. You and all yourliberal comrades have got a vested interested in creating a dependentclass in our country. It is the very business of liberals to createan ever expanding dependence on government. What's remarkable is thatyou, who have never produced a job in your life, are going to tax meto take more of my money and give it to people who wouldn't need mymoney if they would get off their entitlement mentality asses andapply themselves at work, demand more from themselves, and quitlooking to liberal politicians to raise their station in life.You see, I know because I've had them work for me before. Hundreds ofthem over these 25 years. People who simply will not show up to workon time. People who just will not work 5 days in a week, much less, 6days. People always looking for a way to put less effort out. Peoplewho actually tell me that they would do more if I just would firstpay them more. People who take off work to sit in government officesto apply to get free government handouts (gee, I wonder how thingswould have turned out for them if they had spent that time earningmoney and pleasing their employer?). You see, all of this comes fromyour entitlement mentality culture.Oh, I know you will say I am uncompassionate. Sorry, Mr. Obama, wrongagain. You see, I've seen what the average percentage of your incomehas been given to charities over the years of 2000 to 2004 (ignoringthe years you started running for office - can youpronounce "politically motivated"), you averaged less than 1%annually. And your running mate, Joe Biden, averaged less than ¼% ofhis annual income in charitable contributions over the last 10 years.Like so many liberals, the two of you want to give to the needy, justas long as it is someone else's money you are giving to them. I won'tsay what I have given to charities over the last 25 years, but thepercentage is several times more than you and Joe Biden. combined(don't you just hate google?). Tell me again how you feel my pain.In short, Mr. Obama, your political philosophies represent everythingthat is wrong with our country. You represent the culture ofgovernment dependence instead of self reliance; Entitlement mentalityinstead of personal achievement; Penalization of the successful toreward the unmotivated; Political correctness instead of openmindedness and open debate. If you are successful, you may presideover the final transformation of America from being the greatest andmost self-reliant culture on earth, to just another country ofwhiners and wimps, who sit around looking to the government to solvetheir problems. Like all of western Europe. All countries on thedecline. All countries that, because of liberal socialisticmentalities, have a little less to offer mankind every year.God help us...Cory Millerjust a ordinary, extraordinary American, the way a lot of Americansused to be.
P.S. Yes, Mr. Obama, I am a real American...
http://www.cmillerdrilling.com
Monday, October 27, 2008
Cash Giveaway from Buzzillions act now!
I didn't know about Buzzillions till today. I stumbled from blog to blog to get to this blogger who posted about a $25 cash giveaway just for cheking out this awesome product review site. I've always used Epinions or something similar ( I am sure there are better options by now but I hardly buy anything so I haven't researched anything in a long time). So, now that I want an iPod for my Bday (ok, hubby asked what I wanted so I blurted that one out but I am not sure what I really want and what color too!) I want to know what's the scoop on the best for the buck out there! I loved the site. It showed pros and cons and how many reviews for each. It's way cool! You've got to check it out. Even if you don't buy much it's so good to be able to research an item when the time comes to buy. So, anyway, Freebies 4 mom.com has an awesome $25 giveaway to a lucky winner. I benefited by learned about a great just- about- any- product on- the- planet review site in exchange for just 4 answers to 4 easy questions in her comments. All to help them improve their site! Wanted to share with you! Praying for victory!
Oh, yeah and if you settle on buying something, why not check out MYpoints. com. Make your purchase thru that site (they are continually adding vendors) and get points for your purchase? They match 4 points to the dollar on Overstock, 2 on Ebay and many more options. It's free and by the time you get about 2000 points you can redeem it for a gift card to the store of restaurant of your choice. It is totally free. Check them out. If you do like it and there is a place where they ask you how you heard about them, please, do mention my name, will ya? It is totally free, I promise. I have also been getting points slowly by clicking on their ems ( I created a junk email address just for my points) and get 5points for each em. There are some good offers sometimes that I do accept that add nice amount of points.
Be blessed!!
Natalie
Oh, yeah and if you settle on buying something, why not check out MYpoints. com. Make your purchase thru that site (they are continually adding vendors) and get points for your purchase? They match 4 points to the dollar on Overstock, 2 on Ebay and many more options. It's free and by the time you get about 2000 points you can redeem it for a gift card to the store of restaurant of your choice. It is totally free. Check them out. If you do like it and there is a place where they ask you how you heard about them, please, do mention my name, will ya? It is totally free, I promise. I have also been getting points slowly by clicking on their ems ( I created a junk email address just for my points) and get 5points for each em. There are some good offers sometimes that I do accept that add nice amount of points.
Be blessed!!
Natalie
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Short but loud!
I just had a min to blog today. I saw the small strip on American Thinker's site and just had to post it. I sure hope we aren't headed that way! Pray, pray, pray! I grew up in a socialistic society for 21 years and I have nothing good to tell y'all.
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Ball goes on
Life has been really busy around here as usual. I think I am ready for a break but there are a few more weeks to the ball season. So, I am trying to enjoy the last shots of the season. I lost some great pics due to a computer crash last week so I tried to make it up. These ones aren't near as good but they'll do. I only included our kids in the slideshow. I took pics of almost all the other girls on the team, but am not going to post them on my blog. Enjoy!
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Busy last week that makes today feel even more lonely now
We drove dad to the airport yesterday. I didn't realize we can drive to Atlanta and back in under 3 hours! I was really impressed! No, I wasn't speeding (honey, you know I wouldn't do such a thing, ever! And no, I know, I never got caught but I have a precious cargo, yes and your truck too :)) but there was no construction as last time I drove all the kids and myself after traveling from Panama! It took us almost 3 hours just one way! We were so tired! The girls finally crashed in the back seat. It was so slow and the kids couldn't find the power cord to the DVD player (it was in the case the whole time, I told them to look! Do they ever hear anything?)
So, anyway, not much was said on the way to the airport yesterday. Most everybody was sort of quiet thinking their own thoughts. Dad played a few Beemer games (that's when kids keep their eyes peeled for BMW cars of all sorts and yell for what it's worth). Oldest dd was beating dad mercilessly over and over again, so he quit. She hasn't learned the art of.... well, never mind that one. I ended up getting through (on my cell) to an old friend in Ukraine (after trying to reach my dad 3 times without an answer) and the whole family was tortured for a good 2o min of Russian speech. Nothing really special to remember till the last kiss and the quick goodbyes. After our last parking ticket at dad's pick up we weren't gonna take no chances. Don't ever make an excuse of having to go to the bathroom when parked on the curve at passanger pick up at an airport! No matter if you just arrived there and have someone in the vehicle. If you are the designated driver and you have to go pee, hold it, lady! I don't care how many kids you've had and how many Keagels you've done to tone those loose muscles! It don't matter if you just stopped at a truck stop just 20 min before and that stupid cup of tea was just doing its work! I don't care! It just don't work! When in doubt that you aren't gonna make it and you'd rather let your husband wait with his luggage for a few min while you drive to short term parking, do it! The parking ticket wasn't too bad! The worst was that we couldn't pay it over the phone or on line within those 7 days, after which the fine doubled! We had to overnite it! Totally preposterous! 7 days! We got it Fri and were on the road the whole weekend! We were supposed to have had it in by next Fri-rain or shine! It wasn't registered in the system on line or the phone! So, nice welcome home, baby! All hubby said was: you really couldn't hold it? Well, NO! Or I wouldn't have done it!!! Only guys can hold it, like camels and water, you know. To top it all, all the girls had to go with me, so that took even a few min longer. But, none of that nonsense was gonna happen again, so we kissed dad bye and headed back home. No Buildabear, no nothing-straight good ole home. I don't care if I have a GPS and can go wherever in Atlanta and know exactly where I am at all times (well, sort of, honey if there is satellite reception, I am not poking at you either). I just wanted to leave Atlanta and just go home and cry into my lonely pillow. But, no, I didn't have time to cry. Upon arrival to the empty house, I was begged to leave the house and go to Kids Connection for that last hour it was open. I think we were all sort of a denial about coming home without dad. It was weird! No one wanted to go home after being gone for a long trip. I was wiped out but gave in, again. I was already there earlier in the day for a whole hour getting stuff at %50 off. When my friends spotted me there again they had a good laugh! So did I!
It's so good to have friends! I stopped and talked to at least 4 ladies there. My kids thought I was sort of dumb, talking to people instead of shopping. But I really realized how much of a social bug I am. I love people. I love visiting with people, talking! Who cares about stuff? Maybe my husband's absence really magnifies my need for socializing, I don't know. But it really struck me like a ton of kids running into me! I love living here! Even if those friends aren't close friends it is still so good to know them! I keep meeting new people every day. My post about the baby shower is living proof of that! I think I know half of my town now and I've only lived here for 1 y and 18 months. I have Chinese, Indian, Russian and Malaysian friends! God is soo good!
Wow! How I got off my topic-our trip. When we picked dad up at the airport we drove straight to Salem, NC where hubby's cousin was in the hospital. It was so good to see him and hug him and pray for him. It's been a really rough month for their family but he is slowly building his strength. Kids got to visit with their cousins (no pics since I left my CF card in the comp case in the card reader and was shocked to find an empty camera when I got to the park where I watched the kids for 2 hours, there is no emoticons to show my emotion here). But if I did, it might be lost right now in the comp crash for me to bemoan!!! I do have just a few pics of the next day's couple of hours we spent together! That's all the memories for now.
The week upon our return was nothing but a flurry of events. Docs appts for hubby, football and softball practices, games, etc. Son's only football game that he was so eager for dad to watch was rained out (we haven't had rain in months) and it was supposed to be rescheduled for the morning before we took dad to the airport-tight, huh? Well, it got rescheduled for this week. The kid is still getting over it I think.
So, now he is there, and we are here. Life goes on. Travel team for oldest dd looms on our horizon. Piano lessons, art lessons, drama and horse club. They help us stay busy and focused on something other than ourselves. If the local nursing home was a bit more cooperative we'd be there every week but they are just not interested, I don't know why. But we keep on keeping on and by the grace of Jesus we will make it just fine till dad comes home for another visit. Hope it's 2 weeks long, so we can really get to hug him and squeeze him.
Well, look here, I am on a roll blogging. I knew it was fun! But for me it was always funner to read other friends' blogs. They are so very profound and challenging. What am I doing typing away at a bit after midnite when I have so many classes to divide and school to plan for next week? I dunno, but i am signing off. My can't sleep kid ( have no clue what she drank before going to bed) looks like is done coloring so that means I can head on to my lonely bed. You haven't shed a tear yet? Oh, well, but can you say a prayer for us? We want a job where dad is with us, not accross the ocean. No webcams or Skypes would help. Nite!
So, anyway, not much was said on the way to the airport yesterday. Most everybody was sort of quiet thinking their own thoughts. Dad played a few Beemer games (that's when kids keep their eyes peeled for BMW cars of all sorts and yell for what it's worth). Oldest dd was beating dad mercilessly over and over again, so he quit. She hasn't learned the art of.... well, never mind that one. I ended up getting through (on my cell) to an old friend in Ukraine (after trying to reach my dad 3 times without an answer) and the whole family was tortured for a good 2o min of Russian speech. Nothing really special to remember till the last kiss and the quick goodbyes. After our last parking ticket at dad's pick up we weren't gonna take no chances. Don't ever make an excuse of having to go to the bathroom when parked on the curve at passanger pick up at an airport! No matter if you just arrived there and have someone in the vehicle. If you are the designated driver and you have to go pee, hold it, lady! I don't care how many kids you've had and how many Keagels you've done to tone those loose muscles! It don't matter if you just stopped at a truck stop just 20 min before and that stupid cup of tea was just doing its work! I don't care! It just don't work! When in doubt that you aren't gonna make it and you'd rather let your husband wait with his luggage for a few min while you drive to short term parking, do it! The parking ticket wasn't too bad! The worst was that we couldn't pay it over the phone or on line within those 7 days, after which the fine doubled! We had to overnite it! Totally preposterous! 7 days! We got it Fri and were on the road the whole weekend! We were supposed to have had it in by next Fri-rain or shine! It wasn't registered in the system on line or the phone! So, nice welcome home, baby! All hubby said was: you really couldn't hold it? Well, NO! Or I wouldn't have done it!!! Only guys can hold it, like camels and water, you know. To top it all, all the girls had to go with me, so that took even a few min longer. But, none of that nonsense was gonna happen again, so we kissed dad bye and headed back home. No Buildabear, no nothing-straight good ole home. I don't care if I have a GPS and can go wherever in Atlanta and know exactly where I am at all times (well, sort of, honey if there is satellite reception, I am not poking at you either). I just wanted to leave Atlanta and just go home and cry into my lonely pillow. But, no, I didn't have time to cry. Upon arrival to the empty house, I was begged to leave the house and go to Kids Connection for that last hour it was open. I think we were all sort of a denial about coming home without dad. It was weird! No one wanted to go home after being gone for a long trip. I was wiped out but gave in, again. I was already there earlier in the day for a whole hour getting stuff at %50 off. When my friends spotted me there again they had a good laugh! So did I!
It's so good to have friends! I stopped and talked to at least 4 ladies there. My kids thought I was sort of dumb, talking to people instead of shopping. But I really realized how much of a social bug I am. I love people. I love visiting with people, talking! Who cares about stuff? Maybe my husband's absence really magnifies my need for socializing, I don't know. But it really struck me like a ton of kids running into me! I love living here! Even if those friends aren't close friends it is still so good to know them! I keep meeting new people every day. My post about the baby shower is living proof of that! I think I know half of my town now and I've only lived here for 1 y and 18 months. I have Chinese, Indian, Russian and Malaysian friends! God is soo good!
Wow! How I got off my topic-our trip. When we picked dad up at the airport we drove straight to Salem, NC where hubby's cousin was in the hospital. It was so good to see him and hug him and pray for him. It's been a really rough month for their family but he is slowly building his strength. Kids got to visit with their cousins (no pics since I left my CF card in the comp case in the card reader and was shocked to find an empty camera when I got to the park where I watched the kids for 2 hours, there is no emoticons to show my emotion here). But if I did, it might be lost right now in the comp crash for me to bemoan!!! I do have just a few pics of the next day's couple of hours we spent together! That's all the memories for now.
The week upon our return was nothing but a flurry of events. Docs appts for hubby, football and softball practices, games, etc. Son's only football game that he was so eager for dad to watch was rained out (we haven't had rain in months) and it was supposed to be rescheduled for the morning before we took dad to the airport-tight, huh? Well, it got rescheduled for this week. The kid is still getting over it I think.
So, now he is there, and we are here. Life goes on. Travel team for oldest dd looms on our horizon. Piano lessons, art lessons, drama and horse club. They help us stay busy and focused on something other than ourselves. If the local nursing home was a bit more cooperative we'd be there every week but they are just not interested, I don't know why. But we keep on keeping on and by the grace of Jesus we will make it just fine till dad comes home for another visit. Hope it's 2 weeks long, so we can really get to hug him and squeeze him.
Well, look here, I am on a roll blogging. I knew it was fun! But for me it was always funner to read other friends' blogs. They are so very profound and challenging. What am I doing typing away at a bit after midnite when I have so many classes to divide and school to plan for next week? I dunno, but i am signing off. My can't sleep kid ( have no clue what she drank before going to bed) looks like is done coloring so that means I can head on to my lonely bed. You haven't shed a tear yet? Oh, well, but can you say a prayer for us? We want a job where dad is with us, not accross the ocean. No webcams or Skypes would help. Nite!
On my first baby shower attendance, computer crashes, pictures's rescue and just plain old life
Unlike most of my very inspiring bloggers mine is a very sporadic and homely one. I totally love reading about p0litics and economics on my busy homeschool moms' blogs but I tend to stick with easy stuff. I am no fun, am I? Well, I feel not very fun right now! So, if you don't care for any serious topics, but want just some good old easy reading, read on!
I should be in bed resting before a new school week but instead I am attempting to recover pictures off my CF card and it's taking forever. I attempted to recover all the pics using my husband's laptop earlier in the evening but to no avail! So, I am using mine now, which after this past week's unloyalty to me (it crashed a few days after hubby came home for a week) and it's taking even longer and it's burning my lap. Don't even buy a Toshiba, please,even if it's so dirt cheap!!! IT's the only laptop that gets hot a few min after turning it on. Yes, I know about cooling pads. Toshiba must have created those too! For my husband's Dell is never ever close to being hot! I got a cooling pad and brought it back, it wasn't working.
So, that said I don't know if Macs are more loyal. My Toshiba was in close proximity to a pink Mac the very same nite before it's rude awakening, or should I say my rude awakening to it's unawakening. I don't know. It must have really had a crash on that pink gal! But, praise the Lord, who blessed my husband with lots of knowledge and wisdom and who spared me the embarassment, the expense and the time in attempting to fix it. He was able to recover my em program's eaddress book! I am super excited! That's over 150 em addresses, lists of friends, addresses, etc. So, now I am attemtping at finding sites by memory in hopes to build back my favorites list. Not that I used all those educational sites I've bookmarked, you know. But it gave me a piece of mind, sort of. You know, that one day I'll do this witht he kids or that. So, my faithful friends-got any cool sites you want me to put on my favs list, please, em them to me! I have a very hard time staring at my toolbar that is so bare. Educational sites, cool photobloggers's sites, digi scrapbooking, etc. I love it all!
But considering it all, I had a really productive day. After church I ran the kids home to drop them so I can go to a baby shower! My first baby shower ever! I attended a wedding shower earlier this year, my first one too! But the baby shower was ever so special to me. ( I joked about another baby just to have a shower since I never had one with any of the 4 kids. Are you all teary eyed yet? ) It was also so very special because Russian was the language spoken at the shower! WOW! It was so neat! I met a Russian friend here last year and today I met another 5 ladies! We had a ball! I even edited around 50 pics in 30 min and sent them the link to the album. I felt like a million bucks. Then I ran to work out at the gym! I really feel like I've accomplished a lot in just one day. I also had a kid to take to a BD party but he was picked up and dropped off (with a sprained ankle though) so that was a huge help! I was able to enjoy the shower without cutting it way short!
Well, i wish I could brag about a successful attempt at recovering some pics but it's still not going anywhere. I was hoping that by the time I was through with the blog something would be known. I hate being in limbo though. I don't have many pics I didn't back up, and I was showing my friend with the hot pink Mac those cute softball pics and I had wi-fi there and I could have just uploaded them to an album and there weren't edited and I am such a perfectionist! When will I ever learn? I could have edited them later!!! For anyone that is about to stop following my train of thought-I am trying to recover pics from a Compact Card from my camera (pics that have been deleted because they were on the comp which had a crush last week). yes, you can try to retrieve pics for free. I am using a FREE program called ZAR. A very dear photo friend told me about it when I had my previous attack of deleting some pics off my card accidentally. But, I've been using this card since January, sot, it's got more than a thousand pics, you know. It's taking a while, but I don't mind if there are results. I've successfully retrieved about 3 months ago every single photo I've taken on that card! Sweet, huh?
Ok, that's all for now. I really do want to blog about our week here with hubby but feel like a different post would be a whole lot more appropriate! Blessings!
I should be in bed resting before a new school week but instead I am attempting to recover pictures off my CF card and it's taking forever. I attempted to recover all the pics using my husband's laptop earlier in the evening but to no avail! So, I am using mine now, which after this past week's unloyalty to me (it crashed a few days after hubby came home for a week) and it's taking even longer and it's burning my lap. Don't even buy a Toshiba, please,even if it's so dirt cheap!!! IT's the only laptop that gets hot a few min after turning it on. Yes, I know about cooling pads. Toshiba must have created those too! For my husband's Dell is never ever close to being hot! I got a cooling pad and brought it back, it wasn't working.
So, that said I don't know if Macs are more loyal. My Toshiba was in close proximity to a pink Mac the very same nite before it's rude awakening, or should I say my rude awakening to it's unawakening. I don't know. It must have really had a crash on that pink gal! But, praise the Lord, who blessed my husband with lots of knowledge and wisdom and who spared me the embarassment, the expense and the time in attempting to fix it. He was able to recover my em program's eaddress book! I am super excited! That's over 150 em addresses, lists of friends, addresses, etc. So, now I am attemtping at finding sites by memory in hopes to build back my favorites list. Not that I used all those educational sites I've bookmarked, you know. But it gave me a piece of mind, sort of. You know, that one day I'll do this witht he kids or that. So, my faithful friends-got any cool sites you want me to put on my favs list, please, em them to me! I have a very hard time staring at my toolbar that is so bare. Educational sites, cool photobloggers's sites, digi scrapbooking, etc. I love it all!
But considering it all, I had a really productive day. After church I ran the kids home to drop them so I can go to a baby shower! My first baby shower ever! I attended a wedding shower earlier this year, my first one too! But the baby shower was ever so special to me. ( I joked about another baby just to have a shower since I never had one with any of the 4 kids. Are you all teary eyed yet? ) It was also so very special because Russian was the language spoken at the shower! WOW! It was so neat! I met a Russian friend here last year and today I met another 5 ladies! We had a ball! I even edited around 50 pics in 30 min and sent them the link to the album. I felt like a million bucks. Then I ran to work out at the gym! I really feel like I've accomplished a lot in just one day. I also had a kid to take to a BD party but he was picked up and dropped off (with a sprained ankle though) so that was a huge help! I was able to enjoy the shower without cutting it way short!
Well, i wish I could brag about a successful attempt at recovering some pics but it's still not going anywhere. I was hoping that by the time I was through with the blog something would be known. I hate being in limbo though. I don't have many pics I didn't back up, and I was showing my friend with the hot pink Mac those cute softball pics and I had wi-fi there and I could have just uploaded them to an album and there weren't edited and I am such a perfectionist! When will I ever learn? I could have edited them later!!! For anyone that is about to stop following my train of thought-I am trying to recover pics from a Compact Card from my camera (pics that have been deleted because they were on the comp which had a crush last week). yes, you can try to retrieve pics for free. I am using a FREE program called ZAR. A very dear photo friend told me about it when I had my previous attack of deleting some pics off my card accidentally. But, I've been using this card since January, sot, it's got more than a thousand pics, you know. It's taking a while, but I don't mind if there are results. I've successfully retrieved about 3 months ago every single photo I've taken on that card! Sweet, huh?
Ok, that's all for now. I really do want to blog about our week here with hubby but feel like a different post would be a whole lot more appropriate! Blessings!
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