Check it out:
Saturday, June 30, 2012
You know those songs that get stuck in your head?
This is one of those videos that gets stuck in your head.
Check it out:
Check it out:
Monday, June 25, 2012
Obit Reading Part 395847395
There were just a little over 2 pages worth of obituaries this week. That's good. Typically we have 3 full pages and sometimes more. There were several who were over 100 years of age who had led nice long, and full lives. For example, Ms. Carmen Quintanilla Flores (who let me just interject here that I find it unusual for a woman of her age to use the title Ms. She must be a progressive thinker!) Ms. Carmen wrote part of her obituary herownself and called it "Los Caminos de la Vida" the roads of life.
Here's some of what she said:
"Who would have thought that one hundred years is a long time but instead feels like a brief moment. Los Caminos de la Vida started in Parras, Coahuila (a state of Mexico just south of TX) with my parents who worked with the Madero family while at the same time working in my grandparent's vinery. All was well until the Mexico Revolution came and my parents were forced to leave and go to Monterrey, Mexico. My father had family in Monterry and stayed with them for a short period, but then decided to come to the United States with nothing but our clothes in a stage coach - my son Fernando would say in a covered wagon - NO, NO NO, Coach. It was very hard leaving your country and having to start over but the Good Lord helped us to have a new beginning in spite of the hard roads of life. I am thankful for meeting my husband at my mother's boarding house. He came to San Antonio to study from Zapata, TX. His family had received land grants way before Texas belonged to the U.S. A very proud traditional ranching family with deep roots in Texas that is maintained today."
Then she goes on to say "I would not have imagined flying in an airplane to go visit my family or flying to a foreign country to go on vacation in a matter of hours. Riding in a car (Model T) for the first time was an adventure beyond belief and in later years riding in cars with lots of comfort and air conditioning - amazing. Thank You Lord for allowing me to have seen and experienced with all my children, granchildren and great grandchildren Los Caminos de la Vida."
Her family did the "before and after" pictures, as I call them. One when she was a young fashionplate and on as a grandmother. She was quite the looker!
Then we come to George Guzman who was a handsome Navy man from back in the day. Because of his love of the sea he is getting a military burial-at-sea and the family was nice enough to give a brief description of that procedure. I had no idea about this, so of course, I thought I would share it with you.
"It's because of George's love of the Navy and sea that final disposition will occur with a burial-at-sea in the Pacific Ocean. During the ceremony, performed by a U.S. Navy chaplain, the active-duty ship will come to full stop with its colors at half-mast. The officer passes the word "All hands bury the dead." After the sailors are assembled and called to attention, all stand at "parade rest", read scriptures and prayers, and commit George's remains to seas. The officiate reads a benediction, the firing detail fires three volleys and the bugler plays "Taps".
Can you just picture that? It doesn't say if the family will get to participate in this or not. But let me tell you, I have attended several military funerals and it is heart-wrenching when they salute them, fold the flag, hand it to the mama, play taps and fire the guns. Nothing is as moving as that.
I leave you now with a short but very sweet and heart-warming tribute to a man not much older than myself.
"Kevin Jon Johnson
Beloved brother, loving husband, dedicated father and most loyal friend was called home by his Lord. With valiant effors, Kevin continued to epitomize the man of character he was. Quick to smile, fun to be with and a firerce defender of that which is right. Althogh those left behind will deeply miss him, we were blessed by the time we shared with him. Heaven will enjoy his presence. He now joins his dear friends Mel & Joe to fish off God's pier where the fish always bite, the stories always fun and beer cold." (spelling and grammar are theirs)
Have I ever mentioned that beside being a birth doula one of my fondest wishes is to take the training to be a hospice volunteer? Essentially it is really being a "death doula". You provide pretty much the same care, respect and help for this life transition as you would for the other. I have thought about this for a really long time, and I am now ready to embark on this new adventure.
If any of you have done this and have words of wisdom, please feel free to share.
As always, thanks so much for stopping by and please leave me some comments. I love to hear from you.
Here's some of what she said:
"Who would have thought that one hundred years is a long time but instead feels like a brief moment. Los Caminos de la Vida started in Parras, Coahuila (a state of Mexico just south of TX) with my parents who worked with the Madero family while at the same time working in my grandparent's vinery. All was well until the Mexico Revolution came and my parents were forced to leave and go to Monterrey, Mexico. My father had family in Monterry and stayed with them for a short period, but then decided to come to the United States with nothing but our clothes in a stage coach - my son Fernando would say in a covered wagon - NO, NO NO, Coach. It was very hard leaving your country and having to start over but the Good Lord helped us to have a new beginning in spite of the hard roads of life. I am thankful for meeting my husband at my mother's boarding house. He came to San Antonio to study from Zapata, TX. His family had received land grants way before Texas belonged to the U.S. A very proud traditional ranching family with deep roots in Texas that is maintained today."
Then she goes on to say "I would not have imagined flying in an airplane to go visit my family or flying to a foreign country to go on vacation in a matter of hours. Riding in a car (Model T) for the first time was an adventure beyond belief and in later years riding in cars with lots of comfort and air conditioning - amazing. Thank You Lord for allowing me to have seen and experienced with all my children, granchildren and great grandchildren Los Caminos de la Vida."
Her family did the "before and after" pictures, as I call them. One when she was a young fashionplate and on as a grandmother. She was quite the looker!
Then we come to George Guzman who was a handsome Navy man from back in the day. Because of his love of the sea he is getting a military burial-at-sea and the family was nice enough to give a brief description of that procedure. I had no idea about this, so of course, I thought I would share it with you.
"It's because of George's love of the Navy and sea that final disposition will occur with a burial-at-sea in the Pacific Ocean. During the ceremony, performed by a U.S. Navy chaplain, the active-duty ship will come to full stop with its colors at half-mast. The officer passes the word "All hands bury the dead." After the sailors are assembled and called to attention, all stand at "parade rest", read scriptures and prayers, and commit George's remains to seas. The officiate reads a benediction, the firing detail fires three volleys and the bugler plays "Taps".
Can you just picture that? It doesn't say if the family will get to participate in this or not. But let me tell you, I have attended several military funerals and it is heart-wrenching when they salute them, fold the flag, hand it to the mama, play taps and fire the guns. Nothing is as moving as that.
I leave you now with a short but very sweet and heart-warming tribute to a man not much older than myself.
"Kevin Jon Johnson
Beloved brother, loving husband, dedicated father and most loyal friend was called home by his Lord. With valiant effors, Kevin continued to epitomize the man of character he was. Quick to smile, fun to be with and a firerce defender of that which is right. Althogh those left behind will deeply miss him, we were blessed by the time we shared with him. Heaven will enjoy his presence. He now joins his dear friends Mel & Joe to fish off God's pier where the fish always bite, the stories always fun and beer cold." (spelling and grammar are theirs)
Have I ever mentioned that beside being a birth doula one of my fondest wishes is to take the training to be a hospice volunteer? Essentially it is really being a "death doula". You provide pretty much the same care, respect and help for this life transition as you would for the other. I have thought about this for a really long time, and I am now ready to embark on this new adventure.
If any of you have done this and have words of wisdom, please feel free to share.
As always, thanks so much for stopping by and please leave me some comments. I love to hear from you.
Sunday, June 24, 2012
Sunday Night Chit Chat
Okay, my blog friend Sluggy says we who want to play along on the Sunday Night Chit Chat should go here and follow directions.
Here's my answers!
Anyone want to play? Either post your response in the comments or come comment with a link back to your own page.
Have a great Sunday night!
Here's my answers!
Reading... "Lamb" by Christopher Moore. This was recommended by a friend recently. I have just started and can NOT put it down!!! I have never laughed so loud when reading in bed. You will just adore this book.
Watching... AMC is running the whole previous 4 seasons of Breaking Bad late at night leading up to the Season 5 which starts on July 15. I have been recording them and watching them and oh boy, it is even better watching a bunch back-to-back. Season 5 is supposed to be the big finale so you want to be up on your stuff because this will be it.
Listening to... I have the radio on tuned to an 1970s rock station and they are playing Van Halen "Dance the night away", and just segued in to some AC/DC "Dirty Deeds".
Cooking/Baking... nothing today. But I just got a new recipe on Pinterest for Okra, Grilled Corn and Goat Cheese Fritters. I will be going to get those ingredients for this week! Yum.
Happy you accomplished... Holy Moly! I finished a quilt I was making for my son that had been in the 70-80% done category for about 2 years. Then I got down an afghan I was 90% done with and finished it. Right now I am working on a cross stitch project I have wanted to start for YEARS! It feels really good to clear out some old projects.
Looking forward to next week... It is Mr. Big Ed's birthday on Wednesday, so that should be fun.
Thankful for today... got up early and have been accomplishing things.
*bonus question*
What is the WORST movie you've ever seen & couldn't be paid to watch again? Hmmm, worst movie ever? Let me think. There are so many to choose from. Right off the top of my head I am gonna have to go with a horrible piece of crap that my kids love and just think is *hilarious*. The horrific "Freddy Got Fingered" with that moron Tom Green. Have you seen this? If not, be thankful. It is so bad. There are no redeeming qualities, not the filming, the writing, the acting, nothing. It is pure crap.Anyone want to play? Either post your response in the comments or come comment with a link back to your own page.
Have a great Sunday night!
Friday, June 1, 2012
Favorite New Commercial
Okay, this is short but hilarious. One of my favorite new commercials.
Check it out.
Check it out.
What's going on over here
Okay, so you may have noticed a serious lack of blogging going on over here. I have noticed it as well. There is a reason for this. Actually, there are several reasons for this. And I initially didn't want to come here and say "Oh poor me, here's this thing happening in my life. Let's all feel bad for me". But then the second thing happended. And then the third. And it has been like walking around waiting for the other shoe to drop around here. I have seriously had the thought "wtf?? Why is all this happening at the same fucking time??"
But I have bucked up and chosen to see the good in each issue rather than focusing on the oh poor pitiful me, why does this have to happen to meeeeeeee?
Because truthfully, why NOT me? Why not? I am just as random and deserving of a few pieces of bad luck and timing as anyone else.
You know the saying about if you were given the opportunity to put all your troubles in a pile with everyone else's and then choose which ones you were taking, you would most likely take the ones you came with? Well, that particular bit of wisdom has been running through my head a lot lately.
I don't want to give you the wrong idea about all this. Nobody in my family has been diagnosed with leprosy, none of us have moved to the Poor Farm, nothing like that.
And yet I just kept thinking that if I came here and talked (typed) about these things they would be more real, more of a pain in the ass to deal with. So I am just going to share with you a few things that have happened lately.
First up, we had soooo much stuff plannned for the summer, it was unbelievable! Seriously, one of us (and by that I mostly mean me) had a trip planned at least every other week from April through July. It was kind of scary to look at the calendar and realize how many trips were on the books. Then while I was traveling on the 3rd of many trips I noticed one of my teeth felt odd. Kind of sensitive to pressure. So I got home and made an appointment with my dentist. The Readers Digest condensed version of this many part saga is that I have to cancel a bunch of the summer trips and spend lots of quality time and quality money with my dentist this summer. Nice.
I hate to be a big fat wussie about things, but you know the whole laying back in the chair with your head really lower than your ass thing? I hate it. It's a very vulnerable position. And you know the horrible metal pokey pointy things that make the horrible sounds on your teeth? O.M.G. That is one of the things I hate worse than anything. Worse than nails on a chalkboard. Worse than clowns. And even worse than balloons.
But let me tell you what I did. I went to my aromatherapy textbooks and looked up essential oils for mouth infections, anxiety and calming. Then I made a blend of them and applied this mixture of oils to my pulse points, my third eye and temples and went to my first appointment. And it was not too bad. I have been using the oils each day since to help with the dull achey feeling in my mouth and jaws. I will be going back for many visits so I may need to just mix up a quantity of this and bottle it to take with me.
My husband, Mr. Big Ed, has a boss whose son is terribly ill. He has a cancer that has been extremely aggressive and it has been a year from hell for this poor family. This precious boy was 9 when diagnosed last July and he has now turned 10 but the prognosis is not good. So his mama is taking a leave of absence to be with him and Mr. Big Ed is taking some of her work responsibilities. This is a tragic situation and my heart breaks for their family. It also means that Mr. Big Ed will be doing some of his own business travel and also making a few trips on her behalf. So he will not be attending many of the scheduled family things this summer either. If you are the praying sort, please add little Nicolas to your list. His family has had more than they should have to bear this past year.
Last week I was on my 4th trip (by myself since Mr. Big Ed has new work commitments) heading to a nephew's wedding. It was a great trip and I made good time. (I have this thing where I like to see if I can beat my best time to each destination. And it's much easier to do when I don't have anyone with me who wants to stop and pee in every fucking Dairy Queen we come to.) So as I was pulling into town and off the highway, I turned off my cruise control and all the sudden my car wasn't shifting from first gear up to second. It was scary as hell as I was trying to take off from a stop at a traffic light and nothing was happening. I kept thinking I was going to be rear-ended.
I limped on over to my aunt's house and called AAA. (Another long story that need to be Readers Digest condensed here.) I ended up having my car towed to the Honda dealership and waiting for hours to find out that my transmission was shot. At 6 p.m. on a Friday. On a Friday of Memorial Day weekend. A 3-day holiday weekend. Which meant nothing was going to happen to fix my car till after TUESDAY!
I was devastated for a few minutes and then decided that if this had to happen at least it was the best way possible it could have happened. No one was hurt or killed. Praise the Lord for that! I am headed back down that way next week for another graduation trip, so I would have been going back there anyway. Only now I am driving a rental car and taking it back home again and picking up my car (which I love) with a brand new transmission which should last it another 100,000 miles.
None of the issues that have happened around here are tragic, they are inconvenient and expensive. But that is a small hiccup in the grand scheme of things, now isn't it?
I need to get my camera over here and show you some pictures of some of the fun things I have been able to attend. And I need to quit whining about the trips I won't be able to make.
I hope all is well with you and yours. Any great summer plans at your end?
But I have bucked up and chosen to see the good in each issue rather than focusing on the oh poor pitiful me, why does this have to happen to meeeeeeee?
Because truthfully, why NOT me? Why not? I am just as random and deserving of a few pieces of bad luck and timing as anyone else.
You know the saying about if you were given the opportunity to put all your troubles in a pile with everyone else's and then choose which ones you were taking, you would most likely take the ones you came with? Well, that particular bit of wisdom has been running through my head a lot lately.
I don't want to give you the wrong idea about all this. Nobody in my family has been diagnosed with leprosy, none of us have moved to the Poor Farm, nothing like that.
And yet I just kept thinking that if I came here and talked (typed) about these things they would be more real, more of a pain in the ass to deal with. So I am just going to share with you a few things that have happened lately.
First up, we had soooo much stuff plannned for the summer, it was unbelievable! Seriously, one of us (and by that I mostly mean me) had a trip planned at least every other week from April through July. It was kind of scary to look at the calendar and realize how many trips were on the books. Then while I was traveling on the 3rd of many trips I noticed one of my teeth felt odd. Kind of sensitive to pressure. So I got home and made an appointment with my dentist. The Readers Digest condensed version of this many part saga is that I have to cancel a bunch of the summer trips and spend lots of quality time and quality money with my dentist this summer. Nice.
I hate to be a big fat wussie about things, but you know the whole laying back in the chair with your head really lower than your ass thing? I hate it. It's a very vulnerable position. And you know the horrible metal pokey pointy things that make the horrible sounds on your teeth? O.M.G. That is one of the things I hate worse than anything. Worse than nails on a chalkboard. Worse than clowns. And even worse than balloons.
But let me tell you what I did. I went to my aromatherapy textbooks and looked up essential oils for mouth infections, anxiety and calming. Then I made a blend of them and applied this mixture of oils to my pulse points, my third eye and temples and went to my first appointment. And it was not too bad. I have been using the oils each day since to help with the dull achey feeling in my mouth and jaws. I will be going back for many visits so I may need to just mix up a quantity of this and bottle it to take with me.
My husband, Mr. Big Ed, has a boss whose son is terribly ill. He has a cancer that has been extremely aggressive and it has been a year from hell for this poor family. This precious boy was 9 when diagnosed last July and he has now turned 10 but the prognosis is not good. So his mama is taking a leave of absence to be with him and Mr. Big Ed is taking some of her work responsibilities. This is a tragic situation and my heart breaks for their family. It also means that Mr. Big Ed will be doing some of his own business travel and also making a few trips on her behalf. So he will not be attending many of the scheduled family things this summer either. If you are the praying sort, please add little Nicolas to your list. His family has had more than they should have to bear this past year.
Last week I was on my 4th trip (by myself since Mr. Big Ed has new work commitments) heading to a nephew's wedding. It was a great trip and I made good time. (I have this thing where I like to see if I can beat my best time to each destination. And it's much easier to do when I don't have anyone with me who wants to stop and pee in every fucking Dairy Queen we come to.) So as I was pulling into town and off the highway, I turned off my cruise control and all the sudden my car wasn't shifting from first gear up to second. It was scary as hell as I was trying to take off from a stop at a traffic light and nothing was happening. I kept thinking I was going to be rear-ended.
I limped on over to my aunt's house and called AAA. (Another long story that need to be Readers Digest condensed here.) I ended up having my car towed to the Honda dealership and waiting for hours to find out that my transmission was shot. At 6 p.m. on a Friday. On a Friday of Memorial Day weekend. A 3-day holiday weekend. Which meant nothing was going to happen to fix my car till after TUESDAY!
I was devastated for a few minutes and then decided that if this had to happen at least it was the best way possible it could have happened. No one was hurt or killed. Praise the Lord for that! I am headed back down that way next week for another graduation trip, so I would have been going back there anyway. Only now I am driving a rental car and taking it back home again and picking up my car (which I love) with a brand new transmission which should last it another 100,000 miles.
None of the issues that have happened around here are tragic, they are inconvenient and expensive. But that is a small hiccup in the grand scheme of things, now isn't it?
I need to get my camera over here and show you some pictures of some of the fun things I have been able to attend. And I need to quit whining about the trips I won't be able to make.
I hope all is well with you and yours. Any great summer plans at your end?
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