Thursday, March 30, 2006

For Everything There Is A Season - High School Graduation


My baby is graduating from high school, what a bitter sweet time this is.

I hope that her father and I have prepared her for the world that awaits. Children don't come with instructions so we can only do the best that we know how. We teach them right from wrong (some of us do), manners (again some do), how to be good citizens in the community and the world.

I have been parenting since I was 17 years old and I am very pleased with the young woman and amazing mother that my oldest daughter has grown in to. I know that I was not the best parent, especially the first 7 years of her life but she was always my first priority.

What I hope my daughter has learned:

  • You have to volunteer in your community.
  • Don't be quick to trust
  • Be kind
  • Recycle and care for the earth
  • Take time for yourself, no matter how hectic you think that life is
  • Go to the dentist every 6 months. ( We spent a fortune on braces)
  • Don't drink and drive..... don't drink period
  • Never become dependant on a man, learn a skill, the man may leave but knowledge stays with you forever
  • Don't have babies until you have been to atleast 6 different states or overseas
  • Smile a lot, laugh even more
  • Enjoy your children when they are small, the dust bunnies and dirty dishes will always wait but the babies grow up
  • Play in the rain, you will not catch a cold
  • Adopt dogs from shelters not pet stores
  • Learn to cook new dishes
  • Don't take antibiotics unless you have a bacterial infection
  • Listen to and follow your intuition
  • You can always come home
  • Mom will always listen
  • Keep an open mind and be tolerant
  • Vote
  • Take a stand if you believe in something... even if you are just standing in line at McDonald's
  • Have an opinion
  • Never stop learning, be curious
  • Work at what you love not just to earn a paycheck

Some of these may take sometime, especially the last, sometimes we have to work just for the paycheck in order to work at what we love doing and that's okay. As long as you have a passion.

I think that these are all tenets that we should all strive to live by.

Monday, March 27, 2006

We Adopted a New Puppy from the Shelter


Austrailan Shepard Mix Puppies

I think that I have truly lost my mind or bowed to teenage pressure. No, actually this is something that we had been thinking about for quite sometime, bringing a new dog into out home. The only criteria was that I had was that it must be a shelter dog. I would never consider buying a dog from a pet store as you really don't know where those precious ones come from and the prices are outrageous.

Our current dog, the one we have in addition to the new puppy, we bought from a family that breeds dogs. She is a black Cocker Spaniel named Dixie, the love of my life. Dixie will be 7 years old this summer. When we went to look at her we got to meet both of her parent's as well as her grandparent's. They were living out in the country and all of the puppies were in a large baby gated area in the living room of the house. The day we got there everyone was outside playing because the weather was nice. I felt very comfortable with the transaction and Dixie has turned out to be an amazing dog. I did my research in advance and have been very happy.

My previous dog was a Shih Tzu, Patches. She was a little lady and I thought that no one would ever be able to replace her in my heart. We had to put her to sleep because at the age of 14 she developed a brain tumor and began having severe seizures. We tried medication but it didn't work. The vet said that with her age there was probably nothing that would help her. We kept it up for about 3 months but when the seizures started occuring 4+ times a day I finally had to make the difficult decision to put her down, it broke my heart. I sat with her while they gave her the shot and morned for weeks. I vowed never to own another pet. This lasted about 6 months and then we got Dixie.

I had wanted a Cocker Spaniel but had heard about Cocker rage but in doing my research I found that this only occurs in a small percentage of Cocker Spaniels. I also read that you can sometimes tell if a Cocker is prone to it by looking at their eyes, if there is red in or around their eyes Cocker rage might be a problem. I don't know how much truth their is to this but I looked at all the puppies when we went to get Dixie and none of them had red eyes.

Back to the point of this story, our new puppy. I had planned on getting an older dog since they are harder for the shelters to adopt out and ther actually had a Shar Pei mix that I was interested in. But when we got there he was actually mixed with a Great Dane and was huge. They had several Great Pyrennes, too big, a Llasa Apso which I love but he was "food aggressive" and that scared me with my grandaughter. So we decided on the puppy. His name is Mickey, he is an Australian Shepard Wirehaired Terrier Mix so he should not get much more than 50 pounds. Their dispositions are great, they do herd but we can live with that.

The picture above is of his litter mates. I will keep you posted in Mickey's life and that of Dixie as she adjusts to having a new "baby" in the house.

Monday, March 20, 2006

What can one say about Kansas? I have lived here for 20 years and it is like living in the Twilight Zone.

I have lived all over the world in my 45 year, including the South (I am a native Texan and very proud of it). I have lived with different cultures and loved every minute of it. I was in middle school in small town Texas when the schools were integrated and did not have any problems... other than Vicki Sneed when she decided she didn't like me and pushed my skinny butt into the outside portion of the window air conditioner everyday for a whole school year. I have seen Thai Buddhas, Temples in Bali and grottos in Mexico City. I have seen poverty and wealth, I have dined with Princes and been aboard nuclear air craft carriers. But no life experience prepared me for living in Kansas.


  • Kansas will deny you your Constitutional Rights without blinking an eye.
  • The Jo. Co. Kansas Republican Party will not let you join if you are not a card carrying Pro Life Member.
  • Kansas has a law that it is illegal for teens under age 16 to engage in any type of intimate contact yet now (2006 legislative session) will allow and fund a permission based Sex Ed class in the public schools... let's teach our kids about the sex they can't legally have and then report them if we see them getting too close.
  • The school system is "underfunded" yet the Superintendent in our district makes over $1 million a year in salary and benefits.... my daughter a senior can barely read but hey this woman has made her money.
  • They think that money will fix the school problem but they will not legalize gambling.
  • The Attorney General has subpeonaed records from abortion clinics "to make sure that minors aren't getting abortions." To hell with privacy and legal rights.
  • Our brilliant legislator's are now voting for concealed carry... back to the wild west days meets June and Ward Cleaver.
  • We can't forget that in Kansas "we" don't believe in evolution. Evolution has been outlawed in Kansas. I have figured out why..... the folks that are in the majority stopped evolving 40 years ago.
  • Kansas has made it unconstitutional for same sex marriage and common law marriages are no longer legal.... this is in the Kansas Constitution!!!!!

It is downright pathetic. I don't know what these folks are afraid of.

I can't say that it is because they are religious, they are what I call selective religious. The pick their verses and ignore the rest that the Bible has to say. Many of the "Christains" I have met here are Christian on Sunday only and mean as hell, rude and nasty the rest of the week. Kansas and this selective religion has turned me off of organized religion all together.... but I will save that for another day. It is a rather sad story too.

Do I have anything nice to say about Kansas? The change of seasons is nice. I met my husband of 20 years here and the Flint Hills are amazing.

You might ask if I do anything other than complain about this stuff. Well as a matter of fact I do. I vote, I write letters, I have testified before legislative committees for and/or against causes, I volunteer in my community and I try to make a difference each day. So there, I am not just sitting around complaining and not making an effort to change things.