Oops!!!

Oops!!! I think Craig got just a wee too close to the barn with his new tractor! What do you think? Poor Craig!Evidence of white paint on the bucket! Oh, well! Maybe it will be torn down sooner than we expected!

Naked Ladies

I brought home 5 Naked Ladies (they're plants, boys!) from my mom's house back in 2002 and planted them in my flowerbed. They always had really pretty greens on them in the winter but never bloomed. About 3 years ago one of them had one little bloom on it but I never saw or heard from it again till today! All five plants have buds on them! I guess it was the rain that we've had this past week. I can't wait to see what they look like when they bloom. My luck, we'll have another drought and they will just die completely.

One of the buds looks like I may have planted it too deep. The bud is barely above the ground. But several of them have more than one blossom. Yea!!!!

I'll post pics when they bloom.

My Personal Beliefs

I don't like to drink alcohol. I don't like people who do drink. Drunks act like fools and I prefer not to associate with them, at least not while they are drinking. I voted the sale of alcohol in my town down and prefer not to have liquor stores in my neighborhood. I will vote against sales again this fall. If you look at areas that sell liquor, they are nearly always surrounded by pawn shops, check cashing stores, bums begging for change, and graffiti. Stereotype? Maybe. But look around.
I live in an area where there is not much for the teen aged kids to do. Alcohol seems to be the past time of choice. Anytime there is a wreck, it nearly always involves alcohol. People who choose to drive while intoxicated should be executed (Well, not executed, but SEVERELY punished). If you are going to drink, at least be smart about it and get a designated driver or drink at home. And stop allowing our children access to it.

I don't like smoking. I don't like to hang around people who do smoke. They stink, and they make ME stink. I picked up a soda in a convenience store where someone was smoking and my darned coke smelled like cigarettes! Quit! If you must smoke, go somewhere where I don't have to smell it or get it on my clothes or food. If you were to save your money from smoking, just how much richer would you be? Figure it out. And let me be able to breathe.

I believe that prostitution should continue to be illegal. I don't like topless joints and won't be involved in a relationship with someone who frequents them. I don't want topless joints in my neighborhood nor prostitutes on the doorstep to the businesses that I shop at. I don't believe pornography has a place in this world. The teenagers of today are involved in way too much sex and they don't have a clue what they are in for. Their attitudes disgust me.

I don't believe in abortion. That is a child, no matter what your argument is. It is a living human being. It is murder. Give the baby to someone who desperately wants one. And use birth control. There's really no excuse. (Unless, of course, the mother's health is at risk. TOTALLY different story)

If you do choose to have children, TAKE CARE OF THEM! Their needs are more important than yours right now. If you just can't stand their mother/father then pay your child support. If you are not the custodial parent, stop questioning where the lousy $100 went. It costs a WHOLE lot more than people realize to raise a child. Bills tend to pile up when school clothes need to be bought, or new shoes, or Christmas comes around, or school pictures, or new shoes, or baseball fees, Halloween costumes/parties/candy, new shoes, Valentines cards, Easter egg hunts, new shoes, replacing lost school books, etc. etc. etc! The list is ENDLESS! People who don't pay their child support rank right up there with child molesters in my book. I believe that people who don't pay their child support payments should be brought up on charges of neglect to a child. If you are a friend of mine and don't pay child support, you better not let me know about it because I will turn your butt in (And you probably won't be my friend much longer).

I believe marriage should be between a man and a woman. I have a very sacred ordinance in my religion that involves the sealing of a man to a woman and their children. There are males, and there are females, and they were each created differently and with a different purpose. If gay marriages are legalized then my ordinance would become unconstitutional and I would be forced to change this ordinance to accommodate them. This is the very core of my religion and it would disintegrate my entire belief. If gay people want something to show that they are committed to each other, why can't we have a "Union". Lets make "unions" legally binding and allow them every right under the law for benefits, including insurance and alimony. But please don't call it a marriage so that it does not infringe on my right to freedom of religion.

I try not to watch smut on TV. There are plenty of "good" movies out there that don't have garbage in them. I don't like excessive violence nor ill-humored jokes about men's wing-wangs. Grow up.

I believe in honesty. Every problem in our world today can be traced back to someone being dishonest. Greed for money and power all stem from dishonesty. If everyone were 100% honest, we wouldn't have to pay as much income tax, our government would think of our best interest, not theirs, we would all receive an honest pay for our work that we do, employers would receive a lot more work than what they get now, our welfare system could take care of us when we need it to, and our children would be smarter because we would have teachers who actually care about teaching.

This post is entitled "My Personal Beliefs". I did not post this so you could call me names or try to impose your view onto me. This is just very simply what I believe. But you are MORE than welcome to disagree with me!

Another shot

One more shot of the RED kitchen!Here is a "before" shot. I painted a big red splotch on the wall way back in January 2008 and chickened out. The red looked hot pink. But after about a week, it looked red. I bought some tinted primer which helped A LOT! It went on red from the beginning.
I didn't take many pictures in the kitchen because it was so ugly.

My RED Kitchen!

Here's a couple of pictures of my new kitchen. It looks better in person.

Alaska, Day 4, Juneau

Juneau was a really cool town. It is the Capital of Alaska, well at least right now. They voted to move the Capital to Anchorage but they don't have enough money to actually move it! So, for now, it stays in Juneau.

There are no roads that go in or out of Juneau. There are "dead end" signs and then the road just quits. There are only three ways to get to Juneau: boat, plane and birth canal!

The famous Red Dog Saloon is there and of course, we ate there. Pretty tiny place for it being so famous. But now I can say that I've been there.

More t-shirt shops and jewelry stores to go through. I think we hit them all, too. Got a great deal on an "Aurora Lights" necklace. I bought several necklaces here in Juneau. All gorgeous!

We took a bus to the Mendenhall Glacier about 10 minutes away. This was the first glacier that I've ever seen. Wow! I can't believe how majestic it was. It looked so grand and steady. I know that they move several feet per month and looking at it just sitting there in all its grandeur made me realize just how insignificant and tiny we all are. There are many buildings that will be crushed in the wake of the glaciers. But the Alaskans all know that and they are not deterred. They deal with Mother Nature and celebrate the changes that the world will go through.

After the Glacier trip, we headed up to the top of the mountain on the sky tram. I don't like heights, and when we started up the mountain, I was just fine. Yes, we were very, very high, but I was firmly attached to a little cable and was reasonably comfortable. Until... the tram stopped 5 feet from the platform. And just SAT there! My heart began racing, and I tried desperately to control my panic attack. We got to the platform, finally, and I was able to escape quickly. Deep breath. I'm fine. Phew!!!

Played with my camera a little while up on the mountain. I was able to take this panaramic view while up on the mountain. Wow! Beautiful!

Also saw another Bald Eagle in captivity. It had been shot in the eye and beak and couldn't take care of itself. HUGE! and BEAUTIFUL!!!!

We drove by Sarah Palin's house and saw the capitol building. I think Sarah's house was much more impressive than the capitol. I didn't see her though.

We learned that a bear had figured out how to stand in front of the automatic doors in front of a local grocery store in order to gain entrance and to be able to pilfer through the food.

I loved Juneau and will GLADLY return there someday.

Alaska, Day 3, Sitka

Oh! My favorite place in the whole world right now. Sitka houses about 9000 people. Most of their houses are on little bitty islands just big enough for a house and maybe a satellite dish. Everyone owns boats. Very few cars.

I LOVED this house. SO cool! We arrived in Sitka around 9am.We were not able to get the cruise ship near the docks in this town so we all had to shuttle back and forth in these little boats. They probably had about 50 people in them. On our way back to the ship the guy that was driving our little boat didn't know what he was doing. I also think the tides were working against him but it took us 25 minutes to get a rope attached to where ever it was supposed to go so we could get off. It was a joke. Everyone was getting upset and telling the driver how to do it but I don't think it was completely his fault. We would get very close and then we would bump off the side and that would send us back out away from the ship. Over and over and over again. Finally some supervisor got on and got us in. He was so mad at our pilot that he was shaking. I fear the pilot may have gotten fired that day. This is the view from town looking out into the "bay". Not really a bay, don't know what to call it. Fjord, maybe? Anyway, the ocean that has no waves because we're really inland a ways. You can see the huge cruise ship looming in the background.

We walked quite a ways to a National Forest that had lots of totem poles from the indigenous Indians. BEAUTIFUL!!!!

This is where we saw our first Bald Eagle up in a tree. He was flying around at one point. Bald Eagles have a wing span of 8 feet across. Hold your arms out and add 2 or 3 feet to them. They really are quite impressive.

We shopped at all the little stores there. Lots and lots of jewelry stores. The cruise ship gave us a book that had coupons in them for charms and collector's coins from various shops. It was like a huge scavenger hunt. We went from shop to shop asking for our free items. It was a blast. You had to collect them from all four ports of call to get the entire sets. The charms ended up spelling out "Alaska 09". We got 8 "gold" coins, 4 coasters, Christmas ornaments, hats, necklaces and I don't remember what else. All free. Whoo hoo!

We went all the way to Alaska and found a Mexican joint to eat at. We shopped till we literally dropped! We got back to the ship around 4ish. Of course you have to add a half hour for the guy to get us docked right. But we were exhausted. We went back to our rooms to rest, then to dinner at 6pm.

At 8:15 we watched the cruise director and assistant put on a Blues Brothers show. That was GREAT! They acted just like John Belushi & Dan Aykroyd. We also watched a magic show this night. He was stupid but funny. Silly, I guess is a better word. And stupid.

After the shows were over, we had to go upstairs so we could see just how dark it was. This picture was taken at 11pm! Crazy!!!

The following pictures were both taken at 10pm. Both the sun and the moon were up at the same time. I just couldn't get over that sun! Good thing we had a room with no windows. We took our handy dandy clock that shines up on the ceiling which helped tremendously. Only problem was, the only plug was down by our feet so the clock showed upside down. Not good when you think its 6 am but its really 9!