Pray for Vikki

A co-worker of mine, Vikki, is sick. Please pray for her. Here is a link to her blog so you can read all about her situation: http://greggandvikki.blogspot.com/ Thanks, friends.

The most wonderful time of the year

Say what you will about Starbucks, but I love when they come out with the red cups. It is one of my favorite signs of the season. While being bombarded with Christmas stuff at Target starting in October is annoying to me, one can never get enough peppermint mochas (decaf now, of course), so bring on winter, Christmas, and the red cups!

Retraction

I take back what I said yesterday about St. V being my home away from home. Have only had to go three times this year, which is way less than I am sure some folks have to endure so I should not complain. What made it feel so "Groundhog Day" was when they gave me a menu to order dinner - it felt like the 1,000,000th time I had looked at that thing - and STILL nothing sounded good.

Oh, and one last election rambling: Thank you for your support, the election is over, take down your yard sign.

Random Election day thoughts

Seeing as I spent the majority of election day at my not so favorite home away from home, St. Vincent Hospital, I had plenty of time to come up with plenty of random election thoughts (and some just plain old random thoughts)


...the day started out well enough, casting my ballot for John McCain. Left the house at 6:40am. Polling place is 2 minutes away. Finished voting around 7:35am. First time in the 11 years we have been in this precinct that I have stood behind more than 5 people in line - and usually there is no one in line.

...so where did all these people come from? And will they keep voting?

...my photo is a little blurry because I could not really set up the shot for fear I would get kicked out or my vote tossed out.

...however, I shouldn't have been worried, seeing as there was a lady campaigning INSIDE THE POLLING PLACE, who then proceeded to come over and briefly cover for one of the official polling place workers when she stepped away from guarding the ballot box. WHAT??!!! Extremely wrong. I was very upset at this. Especially because she was misleading people with what she was saying. Whatever, but keep it outside the polling place.

...how can the Marion County Clerk say there were no problems when the same ballot scanner that didn't work in the primary didn't work on Election Day? So then we have to just slide the paper ballot in the slot, which at 7:30 am was already so full, you could reach in and pull someone's ballot out. Wow, our elections are so full of integrity. At least in my little corner of the world. When I tried to point it out to the ballot box guarder (Judge? I can't keep their titles straight),she said she didn't see it (she didn't have her glasses) and would have to get the inspector over. Thanks for the concern lady. I don't believe she did anything.

...Why do they stick migraine patients in the noisiest places in the hospital? (ok, I am sure it is not THE noisiest, but seems like it some times)

...Who decided red would be republican and blue would be democrat, and how did they get all the networks to jump on board? You would think one of them would go maverick and use purple or something.

...election time, watching the results, and listening to the analysis makes me really miss Professor Loy. I wish I could go sit in on one of his classes every four years during election season. I learned so much from that man and respect and admire him immensely. I wish I had him around to bounce things off of and ask questions to.

...Could they have called Mitch Daniels as the winner any faster?

...Every time I have seen Jill Thompson (which is not much) she has seemed unpleasant and cranky. Tuesday night was no exception.

...How cool is it that Indiana was getting some love from the national media and the candidates this year? It amazes me that Barack Obama was in Indianapolis Tuesday morning. Back in the day, if we were really lucky, the Republican VP candidate might stop by once for some big fundraising dinner that was a zillion dollars a plate. Even when Quayle was in office and running, it wasn't like he dropped in all the time during election season. While I don't like us being a "blue state", I hope we continue to get the attention and respect we deserve. I hope both parties will realize they need to come here and share their vision with the groovy people of Indiana.

...After waiting over 1/2 hour in an ER room for a doctor or nurse to come in, I am wondering if they have forgotten I am here...

...John McCain is kind of like this year's Colts, you know he can win (has the potential to win), you want him to win, you know he probably won't win, but feel like if you accept that, then you are admitting defeat before it has even happened and are being disloyal. I just did not see how any Republican candidate was going to win, given the low ratings Bush has been getting and the current issues with economy.

...I hate these hospital TVs where you have to go through all the channels to get back to the beginning or go down to another channel. I miss my regular remote so I can switch back and forth between channels. Of course, I have to keep the TV quiet, so I am missing 1/2 of what is going on anyway...

...Eight years ago, I was sitting up in bed, feeding a week old Kaylie and watching the beginnings of the Florida debacle. We need some hanging chads or something to spice up this year's post-election coverage.

...How AWESOME was John McCain's concession speech???!!? I thought it was great. So glad I got to hear the bulk of it. Going to have to look it up and listen to the whole thing again. I wish he had always come off that inspiring. Or maybe he did and I just missed it - which means he can't have been too horribly inspiring then, eh?

...So will we keep hearing from Sarah Palin, or will she quietly return to Alaska to live out her term and her days?

...Oh, and thank goodness Tina Fey doesn't have to leave earth. What ever would we do.

...This mass pandemonium and partying in the streets over an election result is slightly disconcerting to me. How do these people view Obama? Do they have realistic expections? Why such jubulation? Given the passion shown, would there have been riots if McCain had won? Where does it come from? I just don't recall ever seeing this before. Again, this is where I miss Professor Loy, he could put it in context and draw the correlations for me.

...While I hate the way politicians can get away with misleading the public with soundbites and catch phrases, election day reminds me of why I loved being a political science major.

...and finally, Hallelujah to know that through everything, the Lord is on His throne, He is sovereign and in control, and He will guard, protect, and comfort His children.

Easily Amused

I am so glad my girls are as easily amused as I am. God has blessed them both with a wonderful sense of humor and they are so fun to be with. Our newest fun thing to do when we are just killing time is to take silly photos with the "burst" mode on my cell phone that takes four quick photos. It cracks the 3 of us up to take the pictures and then flip through them really fast like a really old, really short movie.

This one (taken at church, waiting for Hannah to finish basketball practice) was killing us because of the girl walking through the background - disappearing and reappearing.

Okay, so maybe you had to be there. You have to see it one right after the other really fast to get the full effect, and...okay maybe not...well, it was funny to us anyway.

Who I ought to be

When Kaylie and I were going home from the car wash today, we took a short cut through the shopping center parking lot to get out to the street and head home. Our path took us behind the movie theater, where we passed a lady with 2 children and a cart of groceries. I drove past and fleetingly thought about helping her, then as I normally do, decided she probably did not need help - it was a nice day out, they probably were not walking far etc. But I did not get far before I felt convicted for being so dismissive. I made a quick reverse-rationalization (sure it was a gorgeous day, but what if she had milk or something that might spoil?), turned around, pulled up and asked if I could give her a ride somewhere.

Turns out they were waiting for their car to be repaired at the shop across the (very busy) street, so I was so glad we stopped - I wouldn't want to try to cross it with Kaylie and Hannah in tow and her two girls looked close to their ages. After we let them out, Kaylie says, "Wow, Mom, that was a really nice thing that you did helping that lady." Then she says, "When I grow up, I want to be just like you, and look out for people to help." Talk about wow. And feeling convicted. Here I wasn't even going to help, and Kaylie has me up on this pedestal of which I am totally unworthy. And how proud am I that my kid wants to grow up to be someone who helps others. And, yikes, our kids watch everything we do and, good or bad, pattern their behavior after it.

The House that Tricia (and Hannah and Kaylie) built

Hey - I built a house last weekend!! Okay, it was cardboard and only slept 4 (and nothing else), but it was a house and it didn't collapse!!

We participated in Slum Survivor night at church to highlight world poverty and experience just a small taste of what people around the world experience everyday. It was fun and moving all at the same time.

This is the view from the front - notice the coveted corner lot.

We had neighbors one layer of cardboard away to the side and rear.

Hannah and Kaylie posing by the side of our "house". It was just deep enough to lay down in and just wide enough for the 4 of us.

Our back "door" - thanks to the corner lot, we had dual access - how cool are we??

(big expanse of clear tarp is our neighbors' outside "wall"...brrrr...)

The row of "homes" behind us.

We ate beans and rice and did challenges to earn treats like pillows and fruit and candy. Great event and hope to do it again sometime.