Kudos to My Daughter - KC's Newest High School Biology Teacher

On May 10th, my oldest daughter Jennifer graduated from UMKC with her Bachelor's Degree in Biology and Education. She will be a high school biology teacher.

She prefers working with high-risk, emotionally disturbed youth so she is looking for a job in the inner city. As luck would have it, a job is open at the local Juv. Detention Center for a biology teacher.

She has had numerous offers and now has to pick which school she wants to work in.

Shortly she will start working on her Masters Degree in Special Education probably with an art therapy specialty.

She is going to be one of those teachers who really makes a difference in the lives of our youth. She proved that when doing her student teaching. She has the ability to get through the tough heads of teens and relate to them in a way they find appealing. She does not believe in the "I am teacher, ruler of all things and you are a lowly dumb kid" approach used by so many teachers... and even taught in the school of ed. She engages and involves the kids in what is going on in the classroom, she allows them to have a say. She is truly interested in them and their lives in and out of school.

I am so proud of my girls. They have each found their way in this world. We have hit some bumps along the way but they have learned from them and not repeated those mistakes... or at least not got caught repeating them if they did. They amaze me everyday and I feel honored to be their mom.

Is It Just Me?

Today has just been one of those days where everything has pissed me off.

Here is the list:

• For 3 months I have had my parent's permission to have an event at their house on the 21st of next month. All planning, purchasing, invitations, etc. have evolved around this event at their home where they have a swimming pool, pool table, dart board and several hundred more square footage than I have in our home. WELL, today mother informs me that I cannot have the even there because my father will be out of town. WTF!! I have cleaned and opened the pool, cleaned the backyard and patio and made as many preparations over there as I can do this far in advance. Okay, this is my mother on alcohol a nightly activity so before I get my panties too much in a bunch I am going to call my father and talk to him. Hell, I am 48 yrs. old, I am not asking her to do anything, she can stay in her room all night. It is a group of adults having a reunion most of us haven't seen each other in over 30 yrs.
• Since the reunion is now probably going to be at my house, I have a dining room filled to the gills in boxes of stuff I have purchased for the antique shop that I have not inventoried but now they have to go someplace. Ordinarily they would move to the garage BUT my garage is filled with my deadbeat brother-in-laws "life" since he (at the age of 42) has no home, no job and no car. I kicked him out of my house 3 or 4 months ago and he promised he would get his crap within a week. Well that week has come and gone and then my husband kept saying "I will take it to the attic." Yet, there it sits. I just told my husband that tomorrow I am going to find out where his brother is and give him 48 hrs to get his stuff or to the curb it goes, husband has a hissy fit and tosses out "I'll take it to the attic." He doesn't realize how much crap is out there and how many times he has said he would take it to the attic.
• 7:00 a.m. I awake to the most horrid noise I have ever heard. The people across the street are having a rock retaining wall put in and the worker's were scraping rock across a concrete driveway. It was worse than fingernails on a chalkboard. So that started my day.
• My allergies are driving me up the walls, my head hurts so bad I can't think and my medicine is not working. It is probably compounded by all of the dirt and granite dust coming from across the street. And YES I have my windows open, the weather is wonderful and it is too early to turn on the air conditioner.

So... what will I do. 1) Tomorrow I will call my father 2) Find out where my brother-in-law is and give him a chance to get his stuff or it goes to the curb 3) Ignore my husband and his constant procrastination 4)Pray that my mother one day quits drinking 5) Attack the rock wall builders if they start their work before 9:00a.m. 6) Double up on my allergy medicine 7) Try to quit stressing over all of this because I am sure that one way or another it will all work out okay.

Gay Marriage Passed in California, Good For You!!

I am so glad that California is following the constitutional rights given to us all, the right to privacy and equality... this includes sexual orientation and who we choose to spend the rest of our lives with.



Of course Kansas is one of those states which has declared it unconstitutional to essentially have these rights because several years ago they wrote a constitutional amendment banning same sex marriage. As a heterosexual woman I felt very offended by this action and saw it as a step backwards in the treatment of human beings.



Women and blacks fought hard to get the right to vote, slavery was abolished, blacks were allowed to share space with whites, (we won't get into the holocaust) and here we are banning a group of people from sharing in the same rights enjoyed by the rest of us in this "free country."

The church folks always fall back onto "well the Bible says...."

The Bible also says that you will be put to death for cursing your parents or committing adultery. Yikes... granted these are not honorable acts to commit but I do believe that death is a little harsh. Also working on the Sabbath is an act that demands death... where does that put all of the preacher's and others that spout the word of God on a Sunday?

I would love to see every state in the U.S. allow anyone who wants to get married to be allowed to do so, as long as they are of legal age. The Bible needs to be left out of this. Churches of all faiths need to find a way to acknowledge and celebrate these unions, not hate the people involved and label them as sinners, heathens, etc.

I also think that it is time for everyone to acknowledge that the Bible is not a book to be taken literally (Billy Graham has even stated this fact). In an interview with Newsweek he spoke of the way that with age and perspective has led him to reject the absolutism of the left and the right and to make his peace with the notion of God as a loving mystery. That he is not a "literalist" in in sense that every word in the Bible is from the Lord.

This has been my belief for many years and what has driven a wedge between me and structured religion. I have yet to find a church, in my area, that teaches the theory of the Bible and not hell fire and damnation.

I would like to see us all just get along and accept each one for who they are and quit hiding behind the Bible as an excuse for homophobia or intolerance.