Thursday, March 26, 2009

Where Is The Compassion?


This morning in the park next to the building where I work two homeless people died. They were found frozen to death next to the Jordan River.

We work in an area where so many bad things have happened. We see things everyday that most people should not see. Homeless people live here in a camp close to the river. The police are here throughout the day, every day. And not just for trouble with homeless people.

Today we knew there was something, once again, going on. There were fire trucks, a paramedic truck, dozens police officers and three TV station trucks plus the Medical Examiner. When the Medical Examiner pulled up, we knew it was not going to end well.

The story first appeared on KSL TV’s website. You can leave comments about any story the station broadcasts, which I know is normal for all news agencies. The heartbreaking thing about this is what the first people to make comments on this story said. Many of these comments were cruel and totally uncalled for. I don’t understand people. How can they be so callus and uncaring. The people, who died today, never intended to become homeless. Some tragedy happened in their lives to force them to assume this life.

Where is the compassion that people should have? Where is the understanding and caring? Even though these people are homeless does not mean they don’t have families somewhere. Families who may read what has been written on KSL. And the homeless are also children of God, just like the rest of us, and should be treated with respect at the time of their deaths

My own brother was a drug addict and a homeless person for part of his life. He roamed the US looking for something that was missing in his life. This was a choice he had made. The only one he could have made to try and deal with the cruelties of his world. He died, just as these two have died. After a long hard and painful life. Fortunately, Mark died inside a building. Not in his home but not next to the river, during a snowstorm either.

It was heartening to see that now, a few hours later, more people are showing that they are human. Leaving comments to the family, expressing sympathy. God bless you and all those who have compassion and empathy for those less fortunate than you.

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

I Have A New Tan

Yesterday, when I arrived home from work, a package was waiting for me. When I saw the return address, I knew it was the prize I had won from Melissa over at The Scholastic Scribe. Melissa had a giveaway on SITS Spring Fling day and was offering a copy Amy Tan’s The Opposite of Fate, A Book of Musing. As a big fan of Amy Tan, I was very excited to win such a great prize. Plus, a book of Musings is a perfect gift for a blogging giveaway. My thanks to Melissa who thinks I should write a book review when I’m done. (If only I had Melissa’s gift for writing.) She is such a wonderful writer. Someday when Melissa is a famous author we can all say…”I knew her when she was my blogging buddy!”


This is the darling card Melissa sent along with the book. I think Melissa has an insight to my soul to include a kitty card. I am having this framed so I can admire the kitty (and think of Melissa) always!

Plus as a side note, one of Amy Tan’s books is called The Chinese Siamese Cat. This one I haven’t read but sounds right up my alley!

Thanks again to Melissa! I think everyone should pay her a visit, she really is an amazing writer!

Friday, March 20, 2009

Edward, Bite Me!

My thanks, once again, to Heather for saying, “Edward, bite me!” and to Adiel for bringing Twilight to work and letting me borrow it. This is your entire fault.

Tomorrow is the day. Twilight is coming out on video. And I am going to buy it! I missed seeing it in the theatres. I know, how lame can someone be? A true Twilight fan would have stood in line for hours to make the midnight opening day show to see her beloved Edward. Not wait until March 21st and than make a mad dash to Wal-Mart to buy the cheapest (meaning least expensive) one around.

But Edward is waiting for me. He wants me, he needs me, oh Baby, oh Baby! (OK, maybe not.)


I will probably be watching this by myself. I do not think my hubby will want to watch a movie about vampires. He had a hard enough time while I was reading the books.

So, tomorrow is Edward and Marrdy day. I know he is looking forward to it and I have been patiently waiting for this day to arrive.

Welcome Edward. Pull up a couch, borrow my cozy blankly and settle in for some viewing pleasure.

Monday, March 16, 2009

A Little Help Please!!!

Last night just before I fell asleep I sat straight up in bed and hollered, "SHERRI!" Now my hubby was quite surprised because his name is not Sherri. But, Sherri is the name of the blogger who I won this wonderful spa basket from. So, my apologizes to Sherri for not remembering I had won this on her blog and a huge thank you for such a great gift. Mystery solved!

On my way from work tonight I stopped by the Post Office to pick up our mail. My hubby was working late so I was dawdling a bit. I opened up the box, after fighting with my key. (For some reason, this box hates me. I can never open it on the first try.) Sooooo...

I open the box and pull out the mail. Hooray! My flex spending check is here. I am solvent again until payday. But wait, what is this? A key to a bigger box? We have a delivery that won't fit in our box. This is odd. I know I don't have anything bigger than what would fit in a regular box coming and my hubby hasn't said that he ordered anything or was expecting anything either.

So, I wander around trying to find box HH. I walk by the cabinet that has the boxes but there are only single letters. A, B, C, D, etc. No double letters anyway. (I hope the video of me walking back and forth like I am lost in a small space doesn't make it to YouTube. This was so embarrassing.)

Finally, I start looking a little closer and in the opposite corner of where I am looking I find box HH! I unlock it and pull out a box. I read the return address and it says, My Blog Spark.

This confused me. Who was sending me something? I couldn't imagine.

When I opened the box this is what I found! A wonderful spa gift set with a free Fiber One coupon. What a great surprise. I love this!



But, this is where the HELP!! comes in. I do not know who sent this. There was nothing in the box but the spa set and the free Fiber One coupon. So, I went back to SITS Spring Fling thinking that I had won something and missed it. But my name was not listed on winners of any spa giveaways. I went back and re-read all my comments since last Tuesday and found NOTHING.

If you sent me this wonderful gift so that I can spoil myself, please let me know who you are so I can brag you up and properly thank you.

In the meantime...whoever you are....Thank you so very much!

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

And The Winner Is.....

It's time to announce the winner of the Target gift card. I so wanted everyone to win. I read each and every comment and even visited some of your blogs. So many wonderful exceptional SITAS. (225 in all!!) I wish I could give you all your own $50 gift card. That would cost me $11,250. Um , I'm a little short of THAT much cash so I'm sticking with the orignal plan.

EXCEPT!

Alex is still under the weather so I decided to let Ramdon.org make the decision for me!

I am pleased to annouce that Rachel at One Day At A Time is the winner. I stopped by Rachel's blog for just a minute this afternoon and what a sweetheart she is! Congratulations to Rachel. Enjoy your Target (or Tar Jay as so many of you said!) shopping spree.

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

SITS Spring Fling

Today is SITS Spring Fling! If you don’t know what SITS is, take a peek here and you can learn all about it. It’s the #1 place in blogland to meet some amazing, fun and new friends.

As part of their Spring Fling today (which I almost forgot about) I am giving away a $50.00 gift card to Target. You love Target don’t you? All you need to do is leave a comment and I will then have my faithful assistant, Alex, help me select one of you lovely ladies to win the prize!

And stop by the rest of the give aways by clicking over here and choosing what you would like to win! AND join in with the SITS fun. Sign up today and get and give some comment love!

Good luck and have a great SITS Spring Fling!

As I post this I have had 186 SITAS visit my blog today! I just cannot believe it. I am trying to get to visit as many blogs as I can but there just isn't enough time. I was going to have my lovely assistant, Alex, help me draw a winner, but alas, he is ill tonight. So I will close the giveaway at Midnight Mountain time tonight (March 11th). Then hopefully Alex will be better tomorrow and I can let you all know who has won the gift card. What a fun and exhausting day this has been.

Saturday, March 7, 2009

A Weekend Wedding

The Bride, Marrla and her new Goom, Roger.

My oldest sister, Marrla, got married Saturday morning. We were told to be at the Church at 10AM sharp. They weren't going to wait for anyone. (Including our mother who is notoriously late!) Marrla kept saying she wanted it Simple, Simple, Simple. And low key. Everyone arrived on time and things went along very smoothly. The Bishop who married them was more nervous than the Bride and Groom, but he was pretty funny. Gave them some good advise. He told Roger (the groom), he only had to remember three words. Of course, we all thought it would be I Love You but, what he said was, Sorry, I'm wrong! Too funny! After the short ceremony we were treated to refreshments provided by Roger's mother and sister. It was all over and we were out of the church by 11:30. Fastest wedding in the west.

From l to r: My brother Steve, Me and Marrla. My Mom's cousin Donna Jean, Step Dad (Bob) and Mom (Marrdella) and Me, Steve, Marrla, Roger, Jack and Jill




Marrl's oldest son Jeff with his son Gage. Kyle, James, Corbin, Gage, Jeff and Ashley. Marrla's youngest son James with his sons Kyle and Corbin.

Marrla with her kids and Grand kids, James, Kyle, Gage, Corbin, Marrla, Ashley and Jeff.


Kristin and Jack & Scott, Jill and Chelsea.

Roger and Marrla with Roger's parents.


Madie and Alex...what is with the gangster sign??


And someone under 25 explain this one to me? What is the thing with taking many random shots of yourself? (Adiel? Maybe you can tell me why this was on my camera.) This is Madie in the bathroom at church.


And finally, here is Chelsea. I included two pictures of her because she just looked so dang cute!!

I did notice I did not get one picture of my hubby at this event. Sorry, cute guy. I still love you far more than I can tell you!!
And look what my youngest sister Jill found....a picture of me & my hubby. I look pained but he looks really good! Thanks Jill!

Friday, March 6, 2009

Sisterhood Award

Once again, Veggie Mom has give me a wonderful bloggy award! And just last night I had some popcorn sprinkled with Butter Flavored Poprs'. You have got to try these. Especially if you have little kids. They are like Pop Rocks for your veggies or anything else you can think to put them on!

Per the rules and regulations of The Sisterhood Award, which was originated, BTW, by Diana Rambles, I need to pass this Bit o' Bloggy Bling along to a well-deserving bunch. Here are the R&R, first off: (By the way, I actually store this exact paragraph right from Veggie Mom. She says it so much better than me.)

Put the logo on your blog or post. Nominate at least 10 blogs, which show great Attitude and/or Gratitude! Be sure to link to your nominees within your post. Let them know that they have received this award by commenting on their blog. Share the love and link to this post and to the person from whom you received your award.

Since this is a Sisterhood Award I thought I'd keep it all in the family. I have the best, most wonderful Step Granddaughters in the world. I have grown to love these girls with every fiber of my being. (Sorry, sounded like I was in church there for a second). So I would like to give this award to them:

1. Misty. Unfortunatley, this blog is private so you really can't go check her out. She did such a sweet post on her "Wicked Evil Step Grandmother." Just because I said she should buy Mrs. Fields Fudge Cookies, or some such thing.

2. Amber. Amber is mommy to two of the sweetest boys in the world. They are a little under the weather right now so here's hoping a little award will make everything feel a little better.

3. Emily. You have seen pictures of Emily and her cute little family on my blog before. She just lives too far away with that precious little Kambri!

4. Adelia. Adelia, her hubby and her youngest recently spent a few days with us and we had such fun with baby Paxton. Alas she too lives too far away. (Or maybe we do!)

5. Elise. Elise too, lives far away and has a handsome boy named Brig. Her last entry on her blog shows that he really is all boy. So cute!

6. Afton. If you know any super cute hot guys who live in DC our cute Afton is single and enjoying her many adventures in our Nations Capital.

There you are, one more than half as many as the rules say but that's OK. Rules were meant to be broken!

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Pay It Forward

I saw this on Nikki's blog and got all excited because we all know Nikki is very talented and anything she would make would be totally cool. Alas I was #56 on her blog. But I also encountered it on Tulsi and Julie's blog. I think it's a great idea and could be so much fun.

The rules are simple:

1. Be one of the first 3 people to post a comment on this entry. If you are (and you follow the second rule), you will receive a gift from me sometime during this year. When and what are a surprise to the winners but they will be handmade by me. (and I must add, you will need patience, I may be slow but I will be done within a year!)

2. Then, copy and paste these rules into a post on your own blog & come back and leave the link in comments here. It's that easy!

Only the first 3 folks that leave a comment AND Pay it Forward on their blog will get a prize. PLEASE leave me a comment...

Please include your favorite color with your comment too. I want to make you happy!

(Update on Alex. No surgery, no cast. The no cast really made him unhappy. He was looking forward to getting a neon cast!)

Sunday, March 1, 2009

March Madness

Wep at WepRuminations is having a March Madness challenge. Here is all you have to do:

It's a six step program, customizable for you.


Step 1: Set a running/walking goal that you will achieve in the month of March
Step 2: Pick a food you REALLY like. You know the one you eat/drink EVERY DAY? The one you start getting the shakes without? Yep. Cut back to one a week.
Step 3: Pick 1 food you really DON'T like. But one that's REALLY good for you. Eat it at least once a week. Your reward is Step 3.
Step 4: Do one thing each week that is just for YOU. Not the kids. Not the spouse. Just for you.
Step 5: Read one good book this month. One of those classics that you were supposed to read in high school.
Step 6: Do one nice thing for someone else each week. Something that serves you no purpose, but delights someone else.

Here are my choices for this week:

Step 1: Ride the new Recumbent Bike at least 3 times a week for 20 minutes.
Step 2: Give up Diet Coke. It has been almost two weeks so I have a bit of a headstart!
Step 3: Fish. I most all fish but I know it is good for me. This will be a true test.
Step 4: I got in a nap today.
Step 5: I am reading a book called The Historian.
Step 6: I taught 6 9 year olds at church today. Can that count since I didn't plan anything?



I could be crazy, but if you'd like to join in head on over to Wep's blog and leave your info on her Mister Linky post. Good luck!