Seeking God Knows What

I don’t normally feel the need to blog about celebrities, but at the moment I am truly feeling sorry for Britney.  I know she has made some seriously bad decisions over the last few years.  I certainly acknowledge that but there is a small part of me that says she is young, she is desperate need of some real help emotionally, and she is probably terrified of permanently losing her children.  I have felt for a long time that she is either suffering from undiagnosed or undisclosed depression/bipolar disorder.  I can’t imagine going through mudslinging this custody battle has become, dealing with the impact of being a celebrity on your life, coupled with the recent revelation about her sister’s pregnancy at 16 and not having moments when you completely fall apart.  It certainly looked to me more like she was having a emotional breakdown in the photos of her recent incident than anything else.  Perhaps this hospitalization and evaluation will help her get started on a road to recovery.

I don’t think her ex is any sort of “better person” than she is.  He certainly dropped his other girlfriend and child extremely quickly when he became involved with Britney.  I would not be surprised to find out he used her for her contacts and her money, playing off her fame for his benefit.  He has always made me think this, ever since he came onto the scene.

Anyway, as odd as it seems, I am praying for Britney.

I’ve thought this since the very beginning.  I absolutely support our troops since they have no choice but to do their job there, I’m just hoping that maybe, just maybe, somebody can knock some sense into Bush’s skull about Iraq.

U.S. officials rethink hopes for Iraqi democracy

Click link to go to CNN or click more to read the story here

Continue reading ‘Gee ya think?’

I am completely horrified and saddened by the shootings at Virginia Tech. Reports now say 32 people died, the majority in the second round of shooting.

I have been reading the news periodically but it seems no one knows yet why there was an opportunity for the shooter to cross campus and attack one of the engineering buildings.

Many, many prayers going out for the families and friends of victims plus all those connected with the school.

May God give you strength in this incomprehensible tragedy.

My sister M and her family are going to be moving back out west because her husband K is being assigned recruiter duty somewhere in the Denver battalion.   That means anywhere in Colorado, western Nebraska, eastern Montana, most of Wyoming.  This is not what they were hoping for either (nor what they were told would happen- they were told they’d get one of their top three choices all of which were either the southeast/southcentral or midwest- typically military).I liked having them closer in TN.  I liked visiting them in TN.  I hate the idea of having a two day drive to get there or having to fly.  The only time it was worse was when they were in Germany from 2000-2003.  Then there was a whole ocean between us.

M and I have our ups and downs but she’s my big sister.  We’ve been through a lot together.  This makes me sad and, what’s worse, is that she really does not want to move out west again (they were stationed at Fort Carson in Colorado Springs twice before in the last 10 years) but she has to somehow be supportive of K, which they are having some issues right now with his “reintegration” to family life making that harder, and be positive for the kids to make the transition easier.

The only good thing about recruiter is that K won’t be deployed again during the next three years.  Maybe by then the US will be out of this damned war.

M & her husband got T & I a gift subscription for two months of Netflix for Christmas.  So we went online and set it up on Thursday night.  First on our list was Al Gore’s documentary about global warming, An Inconvenient Truth, which showed up on Saturday.  T & I watched it Sunday night and found it very interesting.  I will admit there is some obvious “partisanship” in it- he never refers to President Bush by his name and he does make a few digs at the administration.  But there are some very honest truths about the climate and ecology changes around the world and how the increase in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere relates to that.  I recommend everyone watch it!

Of course, I’m hoping he throws his hat in the ring again for 2008, though if he doesn’t, I’m all for John Edwards  (my dream team is Gore/Edwards)

It has been interesting living in Grand Rapids, MI since President Ford died.  I am currently sitting on my couch watching the processional from the local Episcopal church that held the private funeral for him to the Ford Museum.  I’ve been to church there several times as it was the church we considered joining just after we moved here.

T watched the processional from the airport to the museum yesterday as he was prevented from going anywhere by a street closure.  He said it was amazing the number of people waiting and watching and weird to see that particular street have absolutely no traffic.

Rest in Peace, Mr. President.

This is completely my opinion on this situation.

First of all, I do not condone what Allison Quets did by violating the custody agreement and taking the children to Canada. I’m sure she felt incredibly desperate and probably felt like she had no other recourse after fighting for so long. But I think in the end this will only hurt her case.

The thing that bothers me the most about this situation is that the Needhams have been fighting to keep the twins for 17 months rather than returning them to Quets when she changed her mind so soon after signing. Granted, until she proves fraud or duress in the courts, the termination is irrevocable (because of a terrible FL law), but still how can their conscience allow the Needhams to think they are entitled to parent these twins? I know that if I had heard that L was changing her mind about Widget within days, weeks or even the the first 6 months after placement (even if TPR had occurred), as hard and emotionally awful as it would be for me to “return” her, I would have because I cannot fathom down the road telling my child that her first mom did want to parent but I got in the way of it.

Sigh.

I hope for Allison’s sake, the Needhams petition to adopt is dismissed and, if she does end up with jail time for this, someone in her family will take guardianship of the twins until she can be with them.

PS I give up on not blogging

Nicole tagged me. I am supposed to write weird stuff about myself. I’m not sure they are very weird but well, here goes:

1. As a kid, I used to read the phone book when I was bored. Even now, if I have the phone book out (which I rarely do cause I use the internet to search for everything), I will look up my listing and then read all the other people with the same last name- the list was much shorter before I was married.

2. I got engaged in our band director’s front yard during a camp out after my senior year (T had graduated the year before but we met because we had mutual friends and we were all in band together). He and his wife were the master/mistress of ceremonies at our wedding. We had an itinerary for the wedding- he timed the rehearsal and then allocated specific times for the wedding itself. I have a copy of the itinerary in our wedding journal.

3. Homemade chocolate chip cookies are one of my favorite things to eat for breakfast. I figure they are no worse than some of the sugar cereal crap out there.

4. I read 5,000 pages in 5th grade for a reading contest (no that didn’t include the phone book). Over 10 times more than any other kid read. The internet has reduced the number of pages I read now. Bad Internet. Bad Blog. Bad Forums. Bad Erin

5. When I was in 7th grade, I was part of a drug awareness play called “Pinocchio, Don’t Smoke that Cigarette”- we went to the elementary schools to “perform”. I played the Spine. My big line was “You’ll never grow big or grow tall. In fact, you may never grow up at all”. Very funny, ha ha, considering that I was about 4′7″ at the time. And quite sad that I remember the line.

6. I can remember phone numbers very easily. I only have to dial them maybe once or twice and I generally don’t need to write them down.

7. When I read books written by the same author, I prefer to read them in publishing order and I have to read them all. I will not skip ahead if they are a series. And generally, a year or more has to go by before I can reread them because I remember the plot too well.

8. I do not like paper to have any wrinkles. If a page wrinkles, I either get a new sheet or I tear the page out of the notebook, even if it means starting over on what I’m writing.

9. At 29, I still cannot cut in a straight line, even with a guide line.

10. Monty Python and the Holy Grail is my absolute favorite movie. Most people do not expect me to say that when I’m asked.

I’m not sure who to tag, so if you want to do it, post a comment to let me know you did.

A very interesting study revealing some truths about adoption and birth/first parents. It is being picked up by the mainstream media which is awesome.  It was also in our local paper.

Way to go Jenna!

Rumsfeld is resigning.

It’s about time.