Yikes, not happy with myself.

I can't believe how long I have gone without writing. I feel like I am never at home anymore (maybe because I'm not), but that's no excuse. I keep thinking of things I want to write about, but then I end up forgetting. I can't promise anything, but I will try to do better. :)

Our Christmas Tree Star

When I was 8 1/2 years old we moved from San Diego, California to Kansas City, Missouri. We were there a few months, and around the time I turned nine we moved to nearby Independence, Missouri. The moving company had added extra charges and fees to our bill and we were not able to get our furniture for a few months. We sat on wood orange crates and slept on mattresses on the floor.

When Christmas came, we could not afford much, but we had a tree and some inexpensive lights and ornaments. We had nothing to put on the top of the tree, so my dad made a star. It was nothing fancy. He cut a star out of heavy black construction paper. He cut a hole in the middle for a yellow light to go through. Finally he covered the black star with a pretty matte gold wrapping paper (not the bright shining foil wrap, but it had sparkle to it).

Over the years my mom's and dad's finances improved and we added lots of pretty ornaments, but since 1966 nothing else has ever topped my family's Christmas tree.

It's an Aardvark!

I am going to talk about some of my favorite Christmas memories in my next few blog posts.

One of my favorite Christmases involved an aardvark!

One year when my sister and I were in our early teens, I asked her (jokingly--I never really want to know) what she had gotten me for Christmas. She said, "It's an aardvark." For a few years after that, every birthday and Christmas one of us would ask the other what the other had gotten for her, and we would answer, "It's an aardvark." Then, when I was 17 or 18 and she was 15 or 16, I found a stuffed aardvark toy at Sears! Diana asked me again that year what I had gotten her, and I responded, "It's an aardvark." The look on Diana's face when she opened the gift and saw "Artie" the aardvark inside was priceless!

The Cat is Always Greener... er, Oh Something Like That!

Our dog Cubbie likes to go with me to check the mail. I keep him on a leash, as he gets very excited if not on it and jumps on me. Our cat Tony comes with us. Ever since Tony's brother Carlos died, Tony wants more attention from Cubbie. For some reason though, Cubbie usually ignores Tony on our walk to and from the mailbox. He is too busy looking at things elsewhere.

Today Cubbie could not be bothered with the cat who was right in his face (literally) because he noticed the two cats across the road. He gave all his attention to them, and if I had let him loose I am sure he would have run over there to chase them. Never mind that there was a cat right there, ready to play with him, he wanted to go play with the neighbor's cats.

Isn't that just like us sometimes? The old saying, "The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence" (about horses) really does apply to a lot of people. We often cannot be satisfied with what we have. What other people have often looks so much better than what we have. Is it though? Sometimes maybe it is. Over all though, grass is grass, and what we have is perfectly fine. Better to enjoy what you have than to lose it while yearning for something you don't.

My Personal Prayer Goals for the Remainder of 2009

I pray every day, and I pray for a lot of people. I decided the other day to pick three of the things I pray for every day and list them as my personal prayer goals for the end of this year. I called them my personal prayer goals even though they include James, as we are married and are "one," so we are both affected by the outcome.

By December 31, 2009, I pray that these three things will come to fruition:

1. James will get a great job, doing something he loves. A job that will pay good money, but more importantly will be good for him and will utilize his many talents. Also that I will move forward with my jewelry-making and sewing and that they will sell well on eBay.

2. We will be financially secure.

3. We will get to meet our newest grandson Thomas, and that we will get to spend some good time with the rest of the family.

I don't really know why I felt led to write them down like that, as I pray for those things every day anyway, but I just felt I needed to separate them from the other things I pray for. I keep a Bible study journal, and I have a list of those I am praying for in the front. So I just wrote these down on another page, to focus on when I am done praying for everyone else.

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Ooooh, it is raining now! Thank you Jesus!

All Creatures Great and Small... They Are All Creatures of Habit

I hear it said all the time that people are creatures of habit, and that is true. We're not the only ones though. I saw a perfect example of this yesterday. First the "players." Cubbie is our almost three year old (in December) German Shepherd/Rottweiler mix. He seems almost small to me most of the time (for a shepherd that is), but most people think he is huge. Tony is an average-sized orange semi-long-haired tabby cat who will be two years old in February.

Cubbie, Tony, and I have developed a fairly regular routine on most days. I put Cubbie on his leash and we go out to check the mail. Tony trots alongside Cubbie out to the mailbox, then as we slowly walk back to the house (stopping for a doggie potty break or just to sniff and dawdle) Tony runs in front of Cubbie, through his legs, and over to me for a scratch on the head.

Yesterday, without even thinking about it, I threw the routine off, and it was Tony who reminded me of it. It was too early for the mail, so Cubbie and I walked around to the back of the house to turn the water on. Tony didn't see where we went. As I was turning the water on I heard Tony. He was out by the mailbox, meowing and looking for Cubbie and me! I called to him, and at first he couldn't see me. I called to him again, and as soon as he saw us he ran back to join us.

Being a creature of habit, as we all are, when he couldn't find us Tony went to the place he knew we always go.

Two of the Saddest Things I Have Ever Seen

Two of the saddest things I have ever seen happened quite some time ago. One was probably around 30 years ago and the second was 13 years ago. The first was something I read in the newspaper and the second was something I witnessed first-hand.

I read in the paper that one of my favorite authors, Ray Bradbury, was going to speak at the Carlsbad Library. I would have loved to go, but even if I could have gone the article I read probably would have kept me from going. It was a very short article, and I don't remember most of it. Only one thing from that article stands out in my mind. When he was asked about taking questions, Mr. Bradbury said that he never answered questions. He said that the "questions are always stupid." Hopefully he rethought that as time went by, but I have always thought that was an incredibly sad thing to have thought and said.

The second thing was something that happened when I was substitute teaching. I subbed at all the schools in the Vista Unified School District, especially the elementary schools. One of the schools I subbed at was a science and technology (or math and science?) magnet school. I loved teaching there! There were so many creative ideas flowing through there, and subbing there was always interesting. Then I was given a first or second grade class to teach (I am pretty sure it was first grade). Kids kept raising their hands in different ways. I would call on one of them, and they would tell me that was the signal for sharpening their pencil, using the restroom, etc. Finally I asked, "What do you do when you just want to ask a question?" Twenty or so faces looked blankly at me. Then I heard one bewildered little voice, "We're not allowed to ask questions."

I almost fainted right then and there! I know that child was not making that up because the whole class was as bewildered as he was when I asked about questions. How could ANY teacher, let alone one in a school that should, above all others, encourage questions not allow questions in her classroom?! I let them know that they were free to ask me anything they wanted all day, and boy did they ever! They asked me questions about me, about math, about bugs, about everything, and they got all the answers I could give them.

I can only hope that none of that teacher's students lost their love of learning and their natural curiosity because of her. I look back and wish I had reported her. I don't know if it would have done any good, but someone needed to know what that teacher was doing to all the children that were entrusted into her daily care. All I know is that that was one of the saddest things I have ever witnessed.