He Said-He Said......

Altho I rarely post about politics and Religion because it causes so much turmoil and upset, I'm going to post about it today.
Politics, that is.
Not Religion.

I watched the Presidential Debate last night......

I lasted an hour before I had a headache so bad I had to get Paulius to turn it to another channel. I don't know WHY they couldn't just answer the questions straightforwardly without pointing the finger and feeling the need to take little digs at the other candidate. Nothing BIG, mind you....just little digs.
No fisticuffs or chair throwing, just annoying little digs.
It sounded so third grade it was annoying. And also, like children trying to distract a parent from the issue at hand, they never straightforwardly answered ANY question without going off to another subject that THEY wanted to make a point about after a brief roundabout answer to the original question.
It was terribly disappointing to me and I got little out of it- except the headache.

I have to say I got more OVERALL satisfaction from Obama's answers than I did from McCain's and in my opinion he made slightly less digs than McCain did and he didn't pepper his answers with that annoying "My Friends" phrase that Ray-Ray was talking about in a reply to someone else's blog-post.
On the other hand I liked McCain's answer to the bailout that was approved last week. The Republican candidate said he, as U.S. president, would "instruct his Treasury Secretary to buy up bad loans on homes which have plummeted in value during the U.S. housing crisis. Then the U.S. government would renegotiate the terms of those mortgages so they were affordable."
That is a subject near and dear to my heart as my daughter is one of those people who is in that particular housing crisis.
I also agree that Obama doesn't necessarily have the military experience a Presidential Candidate needs to make sure our country is secure- and McCain is correct in saying that we "don't have time for on the job training".
McCain does have that experience but sometimes I think his answers to our present day military situations are a bit impulsive and wonder if he's a bit TOO military-experienced and influenced. I personally don't want a President who will jump the gun and start WWIII when a peaceful negotiation is possible.

But again.....I only watched for an hour before I turned it off and altho I really was wanting to watch it to settle some of the questions I had about the two candidates, I just couldn't be bothered with anymore of the annoyance of watching them carry on like that. Maybe I should have dealt with the headache and watched the rest of it anyway.
Eh, I'm sure I can find it on somewhere as a re-run and watch the LAST hour of it before the election. I'll just take my headache meds BEFORE watching the rest of it.

A month away and I STILL haven't made up my mind who I'll be voting for.

Sad. So Sad.

Empty Nesters Once Again

The Parents have gone home to England and our house is just WAY too quiet, once again.

All I hear now is the sounds of light sabers and guns and vid-game music............

Sigh.................

Having a Blast!!!

Well, our visit with The Parents is a bit over half gone. I'm not looking forward to them leaving on Friday- we're having an absolute BLAST!

We haven't got to go on any day-trips like we had originally planned, my car has decided to be a bit finicky all of the sudden- but we HAVE done some local "Southern" type things.

You know- the things like going to Wal-Mart, and hanging at the mall, and trying out some of the local cuisine .
Last night had a cookout with all the kids and Grands attending and was THAT a lot of fun too!!Altho, it looked like it was going to rain, therefore giving us pause to cook the hot-dogs INSIDE instead of on the grill outside, afterward the guys(Paul, Glenn, Frank, Devon and Nicholas) all built a fire in the fire-pit and toasted Marshmallows.
Julie and Eddie and their brood of boys had to leave early- Julie has been a bit under the weather and wanted to go home and put the kids to bed at their regular bedtime so she could relax, and Kathy left a bit early as well because CJ was getting a bit cranky needing his nap and he doesn't like any bed but his own.
But we STILL had a GRAND time having dinner together and visiting.

I think Joan and Glenn enjoyed it as well and we all were ready for bed by the time the kids were all back home and we had the house to ourselves again.
It almost seemed too quiet.

I got quite the kick from our Nicholas(age 2) who insisted on calling Joan "Nanny" halfway thru the visit. I'm not sure she's ready for that honorary title just yet!
Regardless tho, it's hers now that Nicholas' has given it to her. He doesn't give people titles lightly, believe me. He WAS in a good mood yesterday tho...after his nap. He was hugging everyone and giving everyone kisses and just a happy smiling little boy! JUST the way I like 'em.
:-)

Of course you know I HAD to send them home with a bit of chocolate too.

You know Grandma's Motto:
Squeeze 'em Up,
Sugar 'em Up,
and Send 'em on Home.

Well, anyway,
Tonight Paul, Glenn, Joan and myself are going out to dinner at Kanpai Of Tokyo a wonderful Japanese restaurant where the chefs come out and cook hibachi style at the table. You're usually seated with a few strangers, (unless you book a big party) and it's a really good show if you get one of the chefs who likes to showboat a bit!

Last time Paul and I went there was our Wedding Rehearsal night when my BFF, Lois, and her hubby Brother Bob, came up from Florida for our wedding(for the SECOND time) and treated us to dinner there.
It was one of the best times I ever had.
As a matter of fact- two of the three most memorable dinners I have had have been there!!
One was a few years ago when I treated my Dad(Mom couldn't make it that night as she was feeling a bit under the weather) and all my kids to dinner there, one was our aforementioned wedding rehearsal dinner, and the other was at a lovely place called the City Range Grill where Paul and I went the night before he flew back to England on his first visit to America.

Anyway- we're going there tonight and I know we'll have a memorable dinner with them as well! We hope to be able to go to a park or maybe downtown before they leave and maybe get my BFF "Seacat" to take some pics for us. She's the one who did the "Sisters" photo-shoot for us and everyone LOVES those photos.

Anyway, we just had a big Sunday Southern Breakfast and while it was settling I thought I'd write a quick post and let everyone know we're just having a wonderful time visiting with Joan and Glenn.

Hope all YOU guys are having a wonderful week, too!!

Need to Know Basis.....

I need to know.....or maybe not.

I've been thinking on this for a LONG time- over a year now and still can't decided what to do.

Here is my dilemma.

I am Clay's mom. I was here when he came into this world. I counted his precious little fingers and toes and loved him every single solitary fraction of a second of his life- before he was born and after he......left us.

Now, until a few weeks ago- I hadn't seen any of the pictures of his car after the accident- but one of his friends had posted them on the memorial website set up for him on MySpace and I finally saw them.

Altho they were bad, they were not as bad as my mind had imagined them to be- the car was torn up, but in my mind it had been mangled beyond imagination or recognition- (which it wasn't)- making it much worse than it was.

Now- Kathy has Clays death certificate- listing all his injuries and such and has told me if I ever want to read it she would let me see it- but she wouldn't recommend it- that it was hard for HER to read it and she imagines it would be even worse for me as his mom to read and know. I , on the one hand, want to see it- to KNOW what injuries he had and what the actual cause of his passing was, I think it may put my mind at ease and maybe it would lessen the nightmares I'm still having about the accident and how he might have suffered.

On the other hand, the logical side of me says it might NOT put my mind at ease- it might actually be WORSE than I think it was, PLUS what possible good can come of it? Me knowing won't change the fact that he's not with us in this world so why would I want to know and what would it matter?

I don't know what to do. Do I read it and take the chance of it making things worse? Or do I let it lie and hope these nightmares go away eventually? It's being caught between a rock and a hard place.

Any advice or thoughts on how I can deal with this?

I know I'm obsessing- but I can't get past this...i just can't.

Having Fun.

Well, The parents have arrived and recovering from the 17 hour flight.

I'm working this weekend but on Monday we plan on them being over jetlag and us all being free and able to do something.....we're niot exactly sure what- but we'll find something.

I haven't had as bad a time of this illness as Paulius had, and am recovering much sooner. I had two really bad days(of course, while I was at work) and now am well on the mend. I really tried to do my best to stay away from everyone at work so no one would catch this and if anyone DID contra it- I truly apologize. I am a firm believer in if one is ill they need to stay home if there is ANY way POSSIBLE. Unfortunately, unless you are at deaths door and seriously IN the hospital, my job requires that you come in.Especially since we are several officers short at the job now and I am one of the ones who's on call to cover for THEM.

I cannot wait to have my days off to spend with the in-laws.
Later Y'all!!

Sigh...........

Dang- I was sick as a dawg last night and today. Don't know if it's what Paulius had or if it's just my allergies giving me extra extreme hell, but I got meds for it ALL and feel marginally better after taking them and getting some sleep and rest this morning.

House definitely not in the shape I wanted it to be when Mum & Dad arrive, but it'll have to do.
Paulius is cleaning the carpets as I write this and Frank, my eldest son, is doing the yard-work now. Mom is loaning us her car to pick the parents up tomorrow evening.

Thank God for my loved ones.

Lesson in Procrastination

Well, as my weekend draws to a close, I can see there ain't no WAY I'm going to get ALL my projects finished before Paul's Parents come over for their visit.

I'm almost finished with the bathroom- all I have to do in there is paint around the new mirror and do the usual tub and sink cleanup.

I'm not gonna get my hallway de-cluttered, nor painted and my photo gallery done. All I'm going to get finished is my kitchen scrubbed clean (It's especially time consuming this time since I was sick and in the hospital when it was time to do it in the spring and took months to re-cuperate and put off doing it til now) and the carpets steam-cleaned.
ARG!!!!!!


Oh well, I suppose that teaches me a lesson about procrastinating, eh?
Maybe it will be all done before the holidays arrive.........maybe.