Prizes

Sunday night after a long afternoon of lounging by the lake, Hubby and I went to visit some friends of ours. Mr. & Mrs. G have a little girl that turns 3 today. She is a very smart and lucky girl. She was born 3 months prematurely and has suffered from some physical ailments since birth due to lack of oxygen during childbirth.

It has been a blessing to watch her grow up. Baby G starts preschool in a couple of weeks and is very excited about the prospect of going to school like the big kids. She doesn't seem the least bit shy or scared about the situation before her.

Somewhere in the middle of our visit with the G's, baby G asked if we had brought her a prize. I kind of laughed at her and said "Your birthday isn't until Wednesday. You'll get your prize then." Mrs. G said something like "Baby G, they didn't bring prizes with them." Baby G started to get upset that we hadn't brought her a prize. My thoughts of course are, is it a prerequisit to bring a prize to visit with the G's?

But what happened next has really gotten me a thinkin'...Mrs. G went and got a nicely wrapped prize, handed it to me from behind her back and whispered, you can give this to her. ???? Huh???? So I did as I was instructed.

I have been reflecting on that moment for a couple of days now. Apparently so has my husband. As we sat down to feast on our evening meal last night he looked at me and sad "If we have kids, they will not be asking the company for prizes. They will get a strong repremand from me if they ever do anything like that. It is unacceptable."

I agree. I may not have kids, but I do know that this little girl can manipulate her parents already at the tender age of 3. Feeding into behaviors like this only encourage it. I wouldn't have been embarrassed if they had addressed the situation in front of us. I actually would have liked to observe it. I do know that kids need to be disapplined in the moment when they are very young. They won't put the two situations together immediately unless you connect that behavior for them.

Anyways, I would be embarrassed if my kids started asking everyone for prizes. Greedy bastards.

American?

I believe that I am an American. Last I checked I was born in Michigan. My parents are both residents of the US. Thus, I am an American. I'm so American I even vote!!

Tonight on the evening news someone said "if you don't support the war you aren't American." What does that mean??? If I don't agree with the war, someones gonna come and rip up my citizenship? This is just stupid.

I don't agree with the war. I live in a gray area. I don't believe that our men and women should be fighting for the freedom of people abroad when we have our own problems here on US soil. I'm not saying I don't support the troops. (here is the gray area) I believe that all men and women who give there lives in the service of our great nation should be respected and honored. I wouldn't want that job and I'm glad that there are people that do. Therefore, I support our troops, but I don't support the cause.

I'm still baffled by the whole "not being an American" comment. Does this mean if I disagree with the Prez in any way, I'm not an American?

Last I checked our country was founded by people that questioned the status quo. That weren't statisfied with the way things were being run. I think that our founding fathers were about as American as they come. We are suppose to question our leaders. It more or less says so in the first amendment of the constitution:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

So, yes I'm still an American eventhough I don't agree with George W. I'll be an American today, tomorrow, and forever. And I can question anything I want. And I don't always have to agree.

A beach is a beach

There are beach cities all over the US. East coast, west coast, and what I like to call "the other west coast"--that's right, the other west coast baby. I'm talking about West Michigan...and all it's glorious beaches along Lake Michigan.

This summer we were invaded with our fair share of tourists. Tourists from other midwestern cities that come to escape the hussle and bussle of city life for a quiet beach community. I don't mind the tourists too much. They keep the economy going around here. They keep the bars happenin'.

Recently I had a conversation with someone and we were discussing that how if you didn't know that Grand Haven was in Michigan the beach could have been on any of the coasts in the US, heck it could have even been in Rhode Island. It is complete with it's light house on the end of a pier. I love it. I think the view is gorgeous.

I have lived in on other coastlines. I love the crash of waves from the Pacific Ocean. I love the salty smell in the air.

Sure Lake Michigan has its down falls, but I still love it. I can still hear the crash of waves along the shoreline. The air is clean and the water seems clean. There are dunes to climb, waves to jump, and sun to catch. Yes sometimes the lake is cold...but it did get into the 70's this summer which is very nice on a hot day.

With that I must say, I don't regret leaving sunny So Cal for Michigan. I still have my beach. I still have my sand.

New Car Smell

So I bit the bullet and bought a new car last night. I'm not all that sad to see my Saturn go. But I am, however, excited to drive my new car. The Saturn was a great car but had seen better days. I'm just glad I didn't have to get that cracked windshield fixed.

Here are some pics. So far, I love it.

Thoughtfulness

This past weekend hubby and I visited with father-outlaw and his brother before he returned to California. I suggested that we take dinner with us knowing that they had probably cleaned out most of the fridge. So before leaving our house for the beach house we packed up all the fixins for spaghetti (garlic bread and salad included).

We visited for a while and then hubby and I started making dinner. Hubby commented that "This was all Jenn's doing. She's so thoughtful." Father-outlaw responded with "We could all learn a bit from her."

Damn right. That's because I think of other people besides myself. Ya'll could learn a thing or two.

Random Acts of Violence

I have a difficult time understanding acts of violence. How can people hate so much that they must inflict violence against others?

This past weekend my sister had her car vandalized. Her back window was smashed in and her back bumper dinged up. Nothing from her car was actually stolen. So what's the point of that? That's break in the window and not take anything. Hello? There were CD's and shit in there. Basically whoever did this just felt like destroying someone elses property for shits and grins. Pointless. I guess I could just understand it better if something was stolen. Then the criminals at least had a point to breaking in; they wanted someone elses shit. But no, these criminals just felt like busting up some stuff.

I'm sorry. I just don't get this random act of violence. Just like I don't get murder, rape, and hate crimes. What's the point. You really hate someone enough that you feel you have the right to mess them up? (yes, I know I already said this, but I really don't get it) Seriously, I have never hated anyone enough to even think of these types of things.

Well, at least my sis is okay and she wasn't in the car with her baby when this happened.

Wanted: Lack of Motivation

The months of July and beginning of August have been busy. Insanely busy. Although I did manage to finish the Harry Potter book, not much else has been done purely for myself.

I must say the tiling project is done, thankfully. And most of the family is gone; only papa-outlaw remains.

Eventhough this weekend I went to the beach twice (I even wore sunscreen this time), neither time was all that relaxing. Saturday was spent with the outlaws before mom-outlaw left to go back to Cali. Beach and the outlaws just isn't relaxing, despite the atmosphere being about as laid back as can be. After a few hours down by the water, we headed up to the homestead to cook dinner for the outlaws at their house. More work if you ask me.

Sunday we were at the beach again, this time with friends and their adorable daughter. Eventhough she is adorable, she is still work. A 3-year old at the beach is work no matter how you slice-or-dice it.

So at the end of my weekend, I was exhausted. I needed a weekend from my weekend.

Come Monday night, I had nothing to do. No plans. Housework could wait a day. I lack any and all motivation right now to do anything except recooperate from company and stress.

If anyone finds my motivation, please hold on to it for a while. I'm not ready to be motivated. I don't want to be motivated. I want to go drink a cold Newcastle on my newly tiled patio and then go to bed early...actually, I think I might just go do that now.

Pure Sweetness

Last night I had the privledge of interacting with our 4 year old niece Maddy. She is sweet as pie. Her heart is sooo big and so genuine that the words that come out of her mouth often amaze me. This picture is from the wedding a little over a year ago (yes that's me in the poofy dress).

So last night her dad, brother-outlaw brought her over to see the kitties before they left town the next day. She has a deep fascination and love for animals. When Shadow, my escape artist cat ran away, she was sincerely concerned for my other cat, Lindsey and her not having a playmate. That's how much she loves and cares for these animals.

Anyways, last night she came over and tortured my cats. Shadow is pretty tolerant. He'll let you poke him and hold him and won't scratch, bite or hiss. Lindsey usually goes into hiding when the noisey ones are around. But Maddy still had a blast chasing Shadow up and down the hallways.

At one point she started shoving one of our couch pillows into the cat condo. I of course was puzzled as to why she would do this as were all the adults. So brother-outlaw being the good dad that he is asked Maddy, "why are you putting that pillow in there?" Her response "so they have some place nice to sleep." Perfectly logical when put that way. It was just so kind of her to think that they might need some place as comfy as her own bed to lay their furry little heads.

She also was very concerned because there was no food in their bowls. It wasn't feeding time, but explain that to a 4 year old. She actually whispered it to her daddy that they had no food. He in turn told her to ask me if it was okay if she fed them. Which she did eventually in her own kid language, and of course I let her feed them.

Her love was just so big for these two cats. She genuinely didn't want them to be hungry or uncomfortable. She absolutely amazes me in her pure sweetness for other living beings. I wish we all had that much love to give.

Village Idiot

That's me. The village idiot. The town cryer has dubbed me so.

This past weekend I spent some time out at the beautiful Lake Michigan. The weather really couldn't have been better. Blue sky. Slight breeze. 80+ degrees. BEAUTIFUL.

Naturally I soaked up the sunshine in typical white girl fashion with no sunscreen. How could I have been so stupid. The nieces and nephews had it on...but where was I when the slathering process occurred?

Needless to say my fair skin is now a nice bright pealing shade of pink.

I am an idiot.