I Owe My Mother….

This is from a friend on Facebook!  Many of these things my mom never said, either my dad did or a friend’s mom did.

My mother taught me about TIME TRAVEL.

“If you don’t straighten up, I’m going to knock you into the middle of next week!”

My mother taught me LOGIC.

“Because I said so, that’s why.”

My mother taught me MORE LOGIC .

“If you fall out of that swing and break your neck, you’re not going to the store with me.”

My mother taught me FORESIGHT.

“Make sure you wear clean underwear, in case you’re in an accident.”

My mother taught me IRONY.

“Keep crying, and I’ll give you something to cry about.”

My mother taught me TO APPRECIATE A JOB WELL DONE .

“If you’re going to kill each other, do it outside.. I just finished cleaning.”

My mother taught me RELIGION.

“You better pray that will come out of the carpet”

My dad did too….

“We better pray that your mother doesn’t find out.”

My mother taught me about the science of OSMOSIS .

“Shut your mouth and eat your supper.”

My mother taught me about CONTORTION-ISM.

“Will you look at that dirt on the back of your neck!”

My mother taught me HUMOR.

“When that lawn mower cuts off your toes, don’t come running to me.”

My mother taught me about ANTICIPATION.

“Just wait until we get home.”

or

“Just wait until your father gets home.”

My mother taught me MEDICAL SCIENCE. (This is one my Grandmother used to say)

“If you don’t stop crossing your eyes, they are going to get stuck that way.”

My mother taught me about RECEIVING .

“You are going to get it when you get home!”

My mother taught me HOW TO BECOME AN ADULT .

“If you don’t eat your vegetables, you’ll never grow up.”

My mother taught me GENETICS. (My mom still uses this now!)

“You’re just like your father.”

My mother taught me about my ROOTS.

“Shut that door behind you. Do you think you were born in a barn?”

My mother taught me WISDOM.

“When you get to be my age, you’ll understand.”

My mother taught me about JUSTICE.

“One day you’ll have kids, and I hope they turn out just like you!”

My mother taught me about CHOICE.

“Do you want me to stop this car?”

Memorial Day Message From My Dad

As I’ve gotten older, and since my brother enlisted in the Army, my dad has started sharing more and more about his time in the Air Force during the mid 70′s to the early 80′s.  This weekend, I learned that he was in the Honor Guard as part of his duty. I wanted to share with you all the email that he sent me this weekend. It is a good reminder about why we celebrate Memorial Day.

******

In 1975 I was a new E5. I was on my second enlistment in the Air Force. That September I was tapped to be part of the Lowry AFB Honor Detail. It was our duty to render military honors to the fallen personnel and their families at the funeral service. The detail lasted for 30 days. The Honor Detail is made up of three teams. The pallbearers, the color guard, the firing party, and the officer that was entrusted to present the folded flag of our nation to the family.

When I was first chosen, I didn’t understand why I HAD to perform this duty. A month of perfect Class A uniforms. Sharp creases with spit-shined combat boots and bloused trousers. Uniform inspections before we left the base and before every service. We had a large, mostly white Calico cat at the time. Guess how that looked against a dark blue uniform. I used up a lot of masking tape that month. We had to learn to properly march again. And then learn the proper drill and ceremonies for the task we were undertaking.

We rendered honors to 33 service members and veterans that month. Some were from WW2, some were from Korea, and some were from Vietnam. Sometimes the fallen were known to our team members. No matter what the age, background or personal circumstance; all of the fallen were our brothers. Some of the services were in large national cemeteries, others in small country church cemeteries. Some were held on bright sunny days, other were cold and rainy. Each service was, at the same time, the same as the ones we had previously rendered honors at and yet each was different. Each service touched me in a different way. I still have very clear memories of a few of the services.

From my position on the color guard I got to see how the family and friends reacted to the honors being rendered to their loved one and friend. “Taps” was still being played by a hidden bugler back then. The sound seemed to come from nowhere and from everywhere. I could see the physical impact of that sound on the gathered people. There was always the shock from the rifle reports as the three volleys of seven shots rang out. Then the folding and presentation of the flag, solemnly and quietly presented in behalf of a grateful nation.

At the end of the month, if it would have been permitted, I would have volunteered for another month. And at the same time I was relieved that the Honor Detail was no longer my duty. I have since come to realize that serving on the Honor Detail was not a duty, it was a privilege.

Please remember, Memorial Day was started by a group of women placing flags on the graves of Civil War veterans. It is the people, not the government, honoring the fallen. It is the people, not the government, remembering the tremendous cost to our nation.

I found the following article today and it brought back some solemn memories for me.

Viewpoint: A Soldier’s Reflection for Memorial Day

Enjoy the holiday but please remember why we have it.

******

The Week That Loki Had Help Messing With My Life! (VERY LONG)

Loki From Thor Comic Book

The week of August 22nd, Loki and some of his fellow Gods/Goddesses of Mischief had a hay day with our lives. The week started out like any other week. Andy had Sunday and Monday off. We just spent the time together. Tuesday Andy went to work. That afternoon, Mark, the former Property Manager for our landlord, arrived at my door with a 3 day vacate notice. It is a legal form that landlords have to utilize prior to going to the courts for an eviction order. 4 months previously, our landlord decided that we owed him $1500 in late fees. When asked for an itemized invoice, he did not provide one. Then that Tuesday we got a request to either vacate the property or pay $3500 in late fees. Since we didn’t have the $3500 nor an itemized invoice, we decided to move. Okay, we could have disputed it in court, except that in order to get a court date we would have to give the court $3500 plus 1.5%. We were planning on moving when our lease was up in October. We just ended up moving 2 months earlier than planned. (And given our habit of procrastination, we would have waited until the last-minute to pack.)

The next day, Wednesday August 25th (for those you are lost), I was searching the lovely Craig’s List for housing options. I actually had started doing this on Tuesday afternoon, and Andy and I drove by a couple of properties that evening. I found the perfect rental! I was so excited. It was a 4 bedroom 2.5 bath house only 15 minutes from Disney, and $150 less per month than what I had been paying for 4 years. After sharing the news and the link with my friend Laura, I sent an email to the contact person and asked if my babies would be allowed and what would move in requirements would be. The next morning (Thursday), I received a response. It was very long and up beat. It was from a man named Netha. He stated in his email that he and his family were missionaries in Africa, and planned on being there for 5 years. He also stated that originally he didn’t plan on renting the house but decided to “spread goodness that God preaches”. Netha also mentioned in the email that the monthly price included all utilities and cable! I was excited! That would save us more money!

The Dream House (click for slide show of pictures)

I woke up Andy, told him about the email. We decided to go drive by the neighborhood and see the outside of the house. So we drove to the neighborhood. It was a gated neighborhood, next to 2 other gated neighborhoods and an elementary school. Because we didn’t have a code for the gate. We parked the truck at the elementary school and walked over to the neighborhood. We walked to the house. It was an awesome neighborhood. Looking in the windows, the house was just like the pictures in the listing. Andy tried the water spigot to verify that the water was on. After walking around the house, we decided to fill out Netha’s rental application. After filling out the application, I also included on the email that we had walked around the house and thought it was beautiful. Two hours later I received an email from Netha stating that we had been selected to rent the house. The email said that his wife prayed over the 29 applications and “The Spirit chose” us. To say I was excited, was an understatement.

A Disney Friend Playing In The Uhaul Truck

At his request, I called Netha. We talked for about ten minutes. Andy and I needed to send Netha $1000 for first month and deposit, via Western Union. In return, Netha would overnight FedEx keys and rental documents. Both Andy and I were worried about this arrangement, Andy more than me. But Netha assured me that we were safe. So after Andy’s mom, graciously, deposited money in to our account. I went to the bank, withdrew the money, and went to AmScot. For the first time ever, I did a money wire with Western Union and sent the money to Nigeria. I had been assured by the clerk that the money would not be available for 24 hours. I was confident that if there was a problem, I could cancel the money transfer. After sending the money, I called Netha and passed on the information that he needed. Once again, he assured me that the documents and keys would arrive by 10am the next morning. By the time I got home, 6 members of our Disney Ohana (family) were at the house helping us pack and load a Uhaul truck. They even came with food and beverages! I was in shock. After 4.5 hours and filling the truck about half full, everyone left.

I checked my email to see if there was one from Netha with the tracking number for the keys and document. There wasn’t one. I emailed him to remind him that I needed it. At that same time I had received an email about a property I had emailed about (and drove by) on Tuesday. The contact person, Deborah, stated that she was in Africa on a mission trip. She also stated that I should ignore other listings that might have the property at a higher price. This peaked my interest. I wondered at the odds of having contacted two properties whose owners were in Africa on mission trips. But then I reasoned with my self saying “well, I live in the Bible Belt”. I put in out of my mind and went to bed.

The next morning, Andy got up at around 9am. He was looking at Google News and happened to search “Africa Missionary Rental”. He had pages on pages of results come up stating that it was a scam! I had done a Google search prior to sending the money and came up with nothing. I immediately called Western Union to cancel the money transfer. The agent told me that we could not stop the transfer because the money had been picked up at 530am EDT. To say the least, I was upset. The agent stated that the only thing they could do at that point is have me file a Fraud Report, which I did. But I was out the $1000. They gave me the number for the Internet Fraud Complaint Center. I filed a report with them. Then Andy and I called our mothers to inform them of what happened. With their negative comments repeating themselves in our heads, we both took a moment for a melt down.

Except I Never Got The T-Shirt

Then Andy sent a text message to some friends. Within minutes, we were sent virtual hugs, and support. At the suggest of a couple of friends we contacted United Way. The very friendly person I talked to, gave me numbers to about 10 different organizations that might be able to help us. I called all of them, a couple were not open on Fridays, and the rest of them were out of funds. While I was doing this, Andy was receiving texts from our extended Disney Ohana offering us places to store our stuff. At around 2pm EDT, on the way to a friend’s house to unload the Uhaul, I received a call from Netha. One thing I did not mention earlier, is that after my meltdown, I emailed him calling him names and informing him that we knew it was a scam and that I had reported him to the appropriate authorities. Anyway, Netha’s called to apologize for not getting us the keys like promised. I informed him that I didn’t want the keys, I just wanted my money back. I also told him that I knew it was a scam. He then hung up on me. I proceeded to call him back and say “Didn’t your mom ever tell that it was rude to hang up on someone?” Netha started repeating that I needed to check my email. After getting to our friend’s house, I checked my email. The following is my favorite part of that email.

“Something bad occur with my wife yesterday on her way to the Fedex office to send the package, so she got an accident and she lost her spinal cord so she was rushed down to the hospital for a treatment,”

By the way, if you “lose your spinal cord”, you die! (Yes I did email him back and informed him of this.)

By 8pm that night, we had unloaded the Uhaul in one person’s garage, secured a short-term boarding location for Andy, I, and our babies, had permission to stay at the duplex until Sunday at Midnight, and offers from friends to come over on Sunday for the final packing and moving of stuff to a second garage.

This whole experience has been a learning experience. One, you never think it can happen to you but when you are desperate it is easy to be scammed, and two, you learn what kind of support system you have. I am very grateful for my Disney Ohana. We would not have been able to get through what happened, and be able to look back on it without too much bitterness or negativity. I have also learned how strong we are and that we will survive this.

To all the people who have been our support.

Traditions

“Traditions, traditions. Without our traditions our lives would be as shaky as… as…as a fiddler on the roof!”

- Tevye “Fiddler On The Roof”

This time of year is full of traditions. Family traditions, societal traditions, and religious traditions. Some traditions that start as religious or societal, eventually become family traditions. Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade is a societal tradition. Now for most families, mine included, it’s not Thanksgiving with out the parade on in the background while the turkey dinner is getting prepared for the oven. Even to this day, I will wait to tear up my bread for the stuffing until Thanksgiving day, so I can sit in front of the t.v. and watch the parade at the same time. This is something I’ve been doing for as long as I can remember, thanks to my mom.

Today at sun down a very beautiful religious tradition began, the Jewish tradition of Chaunkah or Hanukkah. It is also called the Festival of Lights or the Festival of Dedication. Not many people know the meaning of Hanukkah or how it came about. I was enlightened by my good friend Marissa back in high school and was reminded this past weekend what a wonderful tradition it is.

Around 200 BCE Jews lived as an autonomous people in the Land of Israel, also referred to as Judea, which at that time was controlled by the Seleucid king of Syria. The Jewish people paid taxes to Syria and accepted its legal authority, and they were free to follow their own faith, maintain their own jobs, and engage in trade. By 175 BCE Antiochus IV Epiphanes ascended to the Seleucid throne. At first little changed, but under his reign, the Temple in Jerusalem was looted, Jews were massacred, and Judaism was effectively outlawed. In 167 BCE Antiochus ordered an altar to Zeus erected in the Temple. Antiochus’ actions proved to be a major miscalculation as they provoked a large-scale revolt. Mattathias, a Jewish priest, and his five sons Jochanan, Simeon, Eleazar, Jonathan, and Judah led a rebellion against Antiochus. Judah became known as Yehuda HaMakabi (“Judah the Hammer”). By 166 BCE Mattathias had died, and Judah took his place as leader. By 165 BCE the Jewish revolt against the Seleucid monarchy was successful. The Temple was liberated and rededicated. The festival of Hanukkah was instituted by Judah Maccabee and his brothers to celebrate this event. After recovering Jerusalem and the Temple, Judah ordered the Temple to be cleansed, a new altar to be built in place of the polluted one and new holy vessels to be made. According to the Talmud, olive oil was needed for the menorah in the Temple, which was required to burn throughout the night every night. But there was only enough oil to burn for one day, yet miraculously, it burned for eight days, the time needed to prepare a fresh supply of oil for the menorah. An eight day festival was declared by the Jewish sages to commemorate this miracle.

As you may have noticed, the Menorah has nine slots for candles. The ninth and center candle is the shamash (or slave) candle. It is the candle that you light all the other with. The candles are placed in the Menorah from right to left, with the newest one going in the farthest left. Then the candles are lit left to right, starting with the most recently added candle. This is to symbolize the acceptance and concentration on the things the family already has and not what they do not have yet. Prior to and during the lighting of the candles, typically three blessings are recited, depending on the traditions of the family.

Also during this time, there are special games and food enjoyed by all. My favorite is the latkes, or potato pancakes. However there is a custom of eating food fried or baked in oil, preferably olive oil, as a reminder to all the importance of the oil from the original miracle. The most well known Hanakkah game is dreidel. The dreidel is a four sided spinning top that children play with. Each side has a Hebrew letter. Each letter is an acronym for Nes Gadol Haya Sham – “A great miracle happened there”, referring to the miracle of the oil. The letters on the dreidel are the Hebrew letter for the first letter of each word:
* נ (Nun)
* ג (Gimel)
* ה (Hey)
* ש (Shin)

However, in the state of Israel the fourth letter Shin is replaced with פ (Pe). Then the acronym is Nes Gadol Haya Po or A great miracle happened here. After lighting the Hanukkah menorah, it is customary in many homes to play the dreidel game: Each player starts out with 10 or 15 coins (real or of chocolate), nuts, raisins, candies or other markers, and places one marker in the “pot.” The first player spins the dreidel, and depending on which side the dreidel falls on, either wins a marker from the pot or gives up part of his stash. The code (based on a Yiddish version of the game) is as follows:

* Nun – nisht – “not” – nothing happens and the next player spins
* Gimel – gants – “all” – the player takes the entire pot
* Hey – halb – “half” – the player takes half of the pot, rounding up if there is an odd number
* Shin – shtel ayn – “put in” – the player puts one marker in the pot

Some say the dreidel game is played to commemorate the Jews ingenuity for studying Torah, which was outlawed by Greeks. The Jews would gather to study and if soldier were spotted, they would hide their scrolls and spin tops. The Greeks thought they were gambling and not learning.

As you can see, there are many components being celebrated in this wonderful tradition. The giving thanks for the oil and what each family currently has, and the ingenuity and survival of a People and their traditions.

Unfortunately, in this country, a huge emphasis is placed on the Christian Tradition of the season. Over the next few weeks, I hope to be able to enlighten each of you of the other traditions celebrated during this time of year, like Kwanza, and Yule. Different traditions have always fascinated me, hopefully you will learn something new and maybe incorporate some of these fabulous traditions in to your own family traditions.

What’s Been Going On

The past two weeks, I’ve been in training at work for a new position. I am moving out of Reservations Sales to Guest Services. My job will be helping reservation agents to fix reservations, book dining for executives, help the front desk of our resorts with reservations, and many other things. I started working on the floor last Weds. I’ve been taking calls and have been very comfortable with it, but I’m still with a trainer/shadow. I’m sitting at someone else’s desk taking the calls, so they can monitor me and be there if I have questions. I’m ready to move on, but not all of the programs have been updated with the new privileges I need to do my job. Hopefully that will be fixed by the time I get to work tomorrow. But I’m not holding my breath.

Here at home, Andy and I have been trying to get the house presentable for when mom and dad arrive in 10 days. I’m waiting on my darling husband to finish cleaning up his mess in my craft room. He built a projector in there because I have a large desk to do my scrapbooking, sewing, etc on. After he is done cleaning it, I can get it organized so we can pull out the sofa couch for my parents!

Andy’s projector turned out really nice. I’ve attached photos at the end for all to see. It’s fun having a big screen to watch movies on. The only downside is that it currently need the computer (Mushu) to provide the video. Which means, Mushu is in the living room away from the cable modem. Andy told me to just take the modem to the living room, but that seemed silly to me.

The critters are doing good and handling my crazy schedule well. Tommy and Diego love the tree being up. I’ll find them curled up on the tree skirt sleeping. They have been very good about leaving the ornaments alone. Tommy does like to chew on the branches though, probably not a good thing with the lights……. Zoe and Cindi are being their usual selves. They are finally figuring out that they can actually relax while out of the cage. Cindi will stretch out on the floor in front of the cage and hang out after doing some exploring.

I really need to get some laundry done and try to get some cleaning done.

Hope everyone is having a fantastic Sunday!

Hi All!

I thought I would give blogging a try. Now, it won’t be a daily thing, but when something interesting happens in my life or in the world I’ll put it here.