Christmas

First of all, I want to say that today is Cody's birthday. He turns 2 years old today. :)

Christmas was good. Our drive to Indiana went well. We ran into some heavy rain for about an hour, but other than that, no problems. We got there about 3:30 AM. It took about 10.5 hours. Not bad. There was snow on the ground when we got to my parent's house. It was covered with ice though, so we couldn't actually play in it. The next day there was an ice storm. Lots of accidents. My parents took us shopping and out to dinner at my favorite restaurant (the day after Christmas).

We went to see 2 movies. Yes Man and Seven Pounds. Both were pretty good. Other than that, we pretty much just lounged around. It was relaxing.

We opened one present when we arrived very early Christmas morning. Then we went to sleep for a few hours and then got up and opened presents. I got the Twilight Saga collector's edition box set, Edgar Sawtelle, and a beautiful, huge purple vase from Joe. I got a bunch of movies, books, candy (as if we need any... I still have the candy from Halloween!), games, and a Roku Netflix player from my parents and my sister. Joe got a toothbrush sanitizer, bongos, a rain stick (musical instrument), movies, candy, and a beard trimmer from my parents and sister. I got him the Absolute Batman Hush book, a tea infuser with loose tea (he's been on a tea kick lately and he thinks that the loose tea with the infuser is better than the bags), and a handheld sudoku game for his traveling (he likes to do Sudoku while on planes and while he's waiting).

While we were at my parents we also played Trivial Pursuit and Mad Gab. Trivial Pursuit or at least the edition we played, is much harder than I remember. They were a lot of really obscure questions! I had never played Mad Gab but it was a lot of fun. My mom is insanely good at it!

We had a good time, but it's good to be home. We sleep in the spare bedroom there and it's just a full size bed so it's smaller than we're used to and also, my parents keep their house a lot hotter than we keep ours so it was hard for us to sleep. My parents heat their house with a wood burning stove, so the air is really dry. I got laryngitis. I still can't really talk. I'm just glad that it's all I got. I haven't been sick in over two years. However, I forgot my vitamins and my parents don't drink much juice (no vitamin C) and I wasn't eating very well because my parents don't have a whole lot of vegetarian food on hand (they normally stock up when they know I'm coming, but it was a surprise, so no food for me!). And all of that combined with the dry air, my defenses were down. My nose and mouth were dried out so there was nothing to stop the cooties from coming in and then I wasn't taking very good care of myself, so my body didn't fight it well. I'm already getting better though, so I don't think it's going to go anywhere other than my throat. It didn't make it to my nose or my chest. Isn't that weird? I'm still going to insist that because I didn't get any worse than what I did, it's because I'm not poisoning my body with meat. :)

Well, it's back to work today. It's quiet though. We have the day off on Thursday for the New Year. Joe said we might only work a half day on Wednesday or have the day off on Friday if it stays slow. Unfortunately, we won't get paid for that, but a day off is a day off! And the way it's looking so far today (only one phone call all morning), we are likely going to have a day off. :)

Pet Peeve + Christmas

One of my biggest pet peeves is when people are hipocrites. It drives me nuts. With MySpace and Facebook, it's especially easy to spot some of these hipocrites.

Allow me to explain. One person who shall remain nameless has photos up on their MySpace page of them getting wasted, kissing people of the same sex, and doing vulgar/sexually suggestive things. In her interests are listed, "getting wasted," "partying," and "sex, drugs, and rock and roll." Not very many things after this is listed, "and I love my lord and savior Jesus Christ." I come across this sort of thing all the time. Christian references and then references to sinful things. Don't get me wrong, I know that people aren't perfect. It just seems to me that the people with pages like that one aren't even trying. Why would God choose to save people like that and send some of the best people I know straight to hell simply because they didn't believe that Jesus was divine and died for their sins? Does this make any damn sense to anyone? Why would God be so ridiculous? I could never believe in that God. But, I am a Unitarian, so I don't believe that Jesus was divine. And, if I did believe in heaven or hell (which I don't), I would certainly be a Universalist... God would send all of God's creations to eternal bliss, not eternal damnation. But, who am I? Nobody. I just would like to think that God would save good people before God would save people for simply believing that Jesus was divine and died for their sins. Anyone can say that they believe, but how many of those people live as if they care about those beliefs?

Okay... I'm tired of rambling on about that. I have good news. Joe and I are leaving for Indiana tomorrow. :) We are going to Joe's doctor's appointment tomorrow morning (he's having a wart on the bottom of his foot removed), and then we're going to his Uncle Joe's house for Christmas dinner (they always have it on Christmas Eve). And then, as soon as we're finished there, we're going home, packing up all the boys in the car, and headed to Indiana. :) Unfortunately, tomorrow is probably not going to be the best day for driving. There is supposed to be rain during the day, and then snow that night. Which means ice covered by snow. I'm hoping like crazy that they have plenty of salt and plow trucks out so that we don't have to worry about accidents along the way. :S

My mom and dad have no idea! I'm so excited. My mom tried to send all of mine and Joe's presents to us yesterday. My sister and I planned for it and she intercepted the package. It's now in hiding in my sister's closet! :) Tonya (my sister) had to give her a phony tracking number. She's wondering why it isn't working, but the lady who did the shipment told her that it's probably because there are so many shipments going out right now for the holidays (it's one of my mom's coworkers who is in charge of shipping -- she's in on it as well). I was worried that my mom would end up finding out and then ruin the surprise, but so far, so good. :) I think we're actually going to pull this off! And I owe my sister big for jumping through all sorts of hoops and such to make sure that we can do this surprise!

My mom is upset because this will be the first Christmas that we haven't spent together. Well, I can't wait to see her face when she realizes that it won't be the case! She's going to cry... she has cried for much less. It's going to be awesome! :)

Wish us luck!

War on Christmas gets personal

I blogged a week or so ago about the supposed "War on Christmas." Well, I get especially irritated about it because a cousin of mine bombards me with forwarded emails about it (along with other conservative agenda emails... during the election it was anti-obama emails). I've asked her nicely repeatedly to stop sending me these "War on Christmas" emails and I've tried to explain to her nicely about why I don't want them. Well, she continues to send them. Yesterday I had finally got sick of it (maybe because I got 4 emails on the subject from her yesterday). The email she sent that I chose to respond to wasn't particularly aggressive or mean. It's by far not the worst one I've gotten from her on the subject, but I finally decided that I had had enough. So, I sent her my final email.

She sent me the following:

I will be making a conscious effort to wish everyone a Merry Christmas .. My way of saying that I am celebrating the birth Of Jesus Christ. So I am asking my email buddies, if you agree with me, to please do the same. And if you'll pass this on to your email buddies, and so on... maybe we can prevent one more American tradition from being lost in the sea of "Political Correctness".

I sent her back the following:

I am a Christian. I say Happy Holidays. When I say it, I'm not saying it out of disrespect for Jesus Christ. I am saying it out of respect for people of other faiths. I have friends who are Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim, Taoist, and atheist. Many of them celebrate holidays this month other than the one that I celebrate. Below is a list of holidays which are celebrated in this month.

Advent: four weeks prior to Christmas.

Saint Nicholas' Day: December 6

Bodhi Day: December 8

Eid ul-Adha: Starting on the 10th of Dhul Hijja (December 8, 2008)

Winter Solstice: December 21-December 22

Hanukkah: Starting on 25 Kislev (December 22, 2008)

HumanLight: December 23

Christmas Eve: December 24

Christmas: December 25

Signature of the Constitution of the Republic of China (Taiwan): December 25

Boxing Day: December 26

Saint Stephen's Day: December 26

Kwanzaa: December 26 - January 1

Saint John the Evangelist's Day: December 27

Holy Innocents' Day: December 28

Saint Sylvester's Day: December 31

Watch Night: December 31

New Year's Eve: December 31

Hogmanay: Night of December 31 - Before dawn of January 1

New Year's Day: January 1

As you can see, some of them are Christian, and some of them are not. So, I choose to say Happy Holidays because I don't presume to think that everyone that I come across is Christian. If there were no other holidays in December, then it would make sense to be offended by the saying "Happy Holidays." However, Christmas is not the only holiday. Therefore, even though you claim to be being persecuted by the saying "Happy Holidays," I think it would be more fair to say that you are persecuting those who do not celebrate Christmas by refusing to accept that Christmas is not the only holiday of the month.

And furthermore, Christmas is not an "American tradition." Christmas is a Christian tradition. America is not a Christian nation. It is a nation unassociated with any religion. There is no American religion. In the United States, we have freedom of religion [You might try to argue that that is what our founding fathers intended, but you would be wrong... a lot of our founding fathers were not Christian (and those that were still insisted on a separation between church and state), therefore it wouldn't make sense that they would want a Christian nation http://freethought.mbdojo.com/foundingfathers.html]. While Christians may make up a majority of the population, there are still over 20% of Americans who are not Christian. And Christians have no right to persecute those who are not a part of the majority.

So, instead of pretending that there is some sort of war on Christianity or Christmas, how about doing the Christian thing and being loving and respectful of our neighbors? It's not "Political Correctness." It's being kind and showing respect, instead of being uppity and pretending that Christmas is the only holiday in this season.

While this email may not change your mind about the Merry Christmas versus Happy Holidays issue, I would appreciate if you would take me off of your list if you're going to be sending out more emails such as these.

Thank you.

I'm not sure that Dr. Fuller would be proud of me since this email does not exhibit perfect psychic space, but I am proud of myself for being assertive. :)

Life Update + My Love for my Dogs

My inhaler is apparently working. I had to use it several times in the first few days. However, I haven't used it since Saturday, and I seem to be doing fine. :) So, that is great news. I think I'm going to cancel the follow-up doctor's appointment that I had scheduled for January 2. I'm not interested in going to see the NP who doesn't read when I'm feeling better. She doesn't know what's wrong anyway. I have 2 refills for the inhaler and the inhaler will last me 100 times. At this rate, the inhaler will last 6 months! :)

Joe and I tried to get all of the dogs together to do a Christmas picture to send out with our Christmas cards. I set the timer on my camera and we posed in front of the Christmas tree. It never failed that at least one of the dogs would lay down or look somewhere other than the camera at the last second. So, that didn't work out. Finally our patience wore thin and we gave up on that. We may try again, but our days are numbered before the Christmas cards have to be sent out.

I've been making cookies and fudge and other delicious but bad for you treats. I'm stuffing tins full of goodies to give to people. It's a very slow process. :( And, I keep eating what I've made and then I have to make more. haha... that's not so bad, though. :)

Cody attacked Jippy on Monday. I was a mess. First of all, Cody has never attacked any of the dogs. He is as sweet as can be. Jippy irritates the other dogs, and it's likely that he started the fight (he bites the other dogs and jumps on them when they don't want to play -- he's not vicious... just annoying). Daly has attacked him before, but I thought we had it under control. The dogs know that they aren't allowed to fight (unless they're playing -- It's easy to tell the difference). Cody is especially not allowed to be aggressive because he's so big. He could easily hurt any dog he decided to turn against. It's never been a problem before.

I was walking down the stairs getting ready for work when I heard them fighting outside. I assumed that it was Jippy and Daly. It hasn't happened for a while, but they're the only ones we had ever had a problem with. I ran down the stairs and out the door. Well, as I got to the door, I realized that Cody was on top of Jippy biting him. I started screaming at Cody and I shoved him off as I got out the door. Cody stopped as soon as he heard me, but I still wanted them separated. Jippy was shaking. I haven't really spanked Cody since he was a puppy. There hasn't really been a need. I occasionally slap him on his butt when he's doing something he knows he shouldn't be, but never hard. It's just a little tap. It's just the fact that I have slapped him that upsets him and he knows that he has to stop. It breaks my heart to do that because he gives me the sad puppy look.

Well, this time, I was so upset that I really spanked him. Hard. I don't know if it hurt him or not, but I know I hit him hard. Several times. He gave me the sad puppy face and that just made me cry (I was on the verge before because I was so upset, but that sent me over). Joe took Cody and put him in a crate in the garage while I comforted Jippy. He shook all over. So did I. When I calmed Jippy and Daly down (she got upset over all of the commotion), I went into the garage and talked to Cody. I know, some people think I'm crazy for talking to my dogs, but I swear that they understand most of the time. Cody was upset. He doesn't have a crate. Only Jippy, Daly, and Jack have crates. So, he wasn't used to having to be in a crate. I yelled at him and cried and he was sad. I calmed down and told him that he wasn't allowed to attack his brothers. Then Joe and I went to work. I was crying for part of the ride into work. Cody stayed in the crate all day while we were at work.

It's really upsetting to me. For so many reasons. The dogs are not allowed to attack each other, for one. And then, it was Cody. Cody is the one I least expect it from. I've not had any problems out of him. He's not an aggressive dog. He occasionally growls at strange dogs, but he's never attacked any of them (without provocation -- there was a greyhound who attacked Jack and so Cody bit that dog, but I don't count that... that's in his job description). He's always incredibly patient with the other dogs, even when they are incredibly annoying. I expect better of Cody. I love all of the dogs equally, but I love them all for different reasons. Jack is sweet and cute. Jippy is dumb but adorable. Daly is my eager little girl. Cody is my amazingly loyal and smart and just plain good dog. It's not that I love Cody more, it's just that there is no argument that he is the best dog we have. I don't know if that makes sense. He does what he is told. He always behaves himself. We never have any problems out of him. He's the one you can really trust to not let you down. So, I was in shock and so disappointed that he would do such a thing. And on top of it all, Cody is incredibly strong and so much bigger than the other dogs. He weighs about 80 pounds. He has huge teeth. He could seriously hurt or kill one of the other dogs very easily. I hadn't ever thought twice about it before because it's never been an issue. Now it's in the back of my mind eating away at me. If I think that Cody can't be trusted with the other dogs, other arrangements will have to be made. Arrangements that won't make any of us very happy.

Cody is the only un-neutered dog we have. If this happens again, Cody will be getting neutered, no matter what Joe wants or doesn't want. And I don't want to think about what will have to happen if that didn't help.

I'm sure Cody doing that is just like how my mom felt when I skipped school in high school. She was so disappointed in me. She wouldn't speak to me for weeks. I had always been the good daughter. I never did anything wrong and I got straight As. I'm sure she was shocked. It makes me laugh to think of it that way.

I want to go back to how I don't actually love Cody more than the other dogs, because I'm not sure that it made sense... I mean, why wouldn't I love the "good" dog more than the other dogs? I want to try to explain how it's possible. I love Cody for all the reasons that he is a good dog. He protects me when Joe is not home. He is loyal. He knows lots of tricks. He's eager to please. He's just a good dog.

Jack isn't always perfect. He doesn't always listen (even though he is also a very good dog). However, he's got a different personality. He comes across as human a lot of times. He's stubborn, but sweet as can be. And, he always wants to be with me. So, even though some people wouldn't think of him as as good of a dog as Cody, I love Jack just the same for all of his cute imperfections and all of his human characteristics.

Jippy is the least trained dog we have. He is not smart. He doesn't understand what you're trying to get him to do a lot of the time and when he gets confused, he rolls over on his back and pees on himself (it's called submissive wetting). It irritates Joe. While most people wouldn't see how I could love Jippy as much as Cody or Jack, I do. He needs me to understand him. He tries so very hard to please me. It's easy to see that he doesn't want to upset me. He loves me very much and anyone can see that. It's hard for him to understand, but he still tries. And I love him so very much for it. He has to try much harder than the other dogs. And that means a lot.

Daly was the hardest for me to get attached to. But now, I love her all the same as the other dogs. She is lazy. She is not as smart as Cody or Jack, but she is still smarter than Jippy. As she's becoming an adult (she turned 1 on Friday), she's getting even better. She tries to please. And she's very affectionate. She loves to give kisses. And she's learning lots of new tricks. She loves to be near me. It's easy to see how much she loves me. She's very loyal. She wants to be near me when the other dogs are playing (even though she wants to play as well). She fights it. She runs back and forth between playing and coming back to love on me. It's cute. I know that she loves me as she loves her brothers. And she brings out goodness in her brothers. She can get them to play so easily (when she's not being lazy). She has a lot of goodness in her and anyone can see it.

So, it might not make sense to everyone, but I do love all of my boys dearly and equally. I do not have favorites, although it may seem like it sometimes. I just have different expectations for all of the dogs. But I love them all the same for different reasons. :)

Breathing Update

I went to the doctor yesterday. They have no clue what's wrong with me. She said that my lungs sound fine. My oxygen level was normal. However, my lung strength or whatever you call it is lower than normal. She said that since I wheeze some when I run, I could have a slight form of asthma. She prescribed an inhaler.

I have an appointment to go back in 3 weeks. If the inhaler doesn't work, she's going to try something else. So, basically, she has no idea what is wrong with me and she's just going to prescribe stuff until something works. I hope the inhaler works. I don't have the money to be going on a hunt for what's wrong with me with the doctor! :S

Also, I didn't like this doctor. Well, she was actually a nurse practitioner. I am not against NPs normally. She didn't seem very professional though. And she looked like she might be younger than me! When she came into the room, I was reading something on my Kindle. She asked what it was and when I told her she said, "Well, I don't read." I'm sure my jaw dropped. Don't you have to do a lot of reading to get through medical school/nursing school??? So, that scared me some.

Also, she wants to treat me for acid reflux if the inhaler doesn't work. I told her that I don't have acid reflux anymore. But, she insisted that acid reflux was one cause of shortness of breath. I think that she's crazy. If I don't have it, how can it be causing problems??!?

Also, if the inhaler doesn't work, she wants to do chest x-rays to make sure everything looks okay in my lungs. $$$ And if she can't figure out what's wrong with me, she's going to send me to a specialist in the same practice as her. Why didn't she just send me there to begin with?! Oh, well. Just hope/pray that this inhaler works!

The "War" on Christmas

This is absolutely ridiculous. People who believe in this crap just piss me off.

I celebrate Christmas. I don't get upset when people tell me "Merry Christmas," "Happy Holidays," or "Season's Greetings." To me, it makes no difference. I celebrate Christmas, so I don't get upset when people tell me "Merry Christmas." It's a seasonal holiday so I don't get upset when people tell me the other two either.

What really pisses me off is when people who celebrate Christmas get upset by other people telling them "Happy Holidays" or "Season's Greetings."

Christians are not the only people in the world. There are lots of other holidays in December, so why should Christians get to be the only ones recognized??? That makes no sense. So, I get pissed off at the Christian conservatives who tell me that I am attacking Christianity and Christmas by saying "Happy Holidays." They say that I am persecuting them. That is F*@#ing ridiculous. Just because I am accepting that other people may not believe as I do (and I don't even believe as most Christians do... I just celebrate the holiday as a day of thanks to what Jesus represents...), does not mean that I am being hateful of Christians. It means that I am accepting of those of us who do not celebrate Christmas.

I mean, come on. Christianity may have a hold on the U.S., but Hanukah is at least widely recognized as a December holiday. So, who is actually being persecuted here?? The Christians?? I think not. I think that the fact that the conservative Christians are making such a big deal out of this proves that they are persecuting everyone who is not Christian. If everyone were completely ignorant of other holidays taking place during December (or if there were no other holidays), it would make sense that people would be offended by "Happy Holidays," because there would only be ONE holiday in the month. However, there are lots of holidays and people have to at least know about one or two of them. So, it's inexcusable. And it pisses me off.

It makes me want to say "Happy Holidays" every time. I usually wait for someone to greet me. And if they use "Merry Christmas" then I usually say "Merry Christmas." After all, if they just assumed that I celebrate Christmas, then I don't feel bad assuming the same about them. If people raise a stink over it though, I want to stomp on their faces while screaming "Happy Holidays." Or maybe singing the Hanukah song. That would be nice. :)

Anyway, for those of you who still aren't convinced that Christmas isn't the only holiday this month, I've put together a list. Here it is:

Advent: four weeks prior to Christmas.

Saint Nicholas' Day: December 6
Bodhi Day: December 8

Eid ul-Adha: Starting on the 10th of Dhul Hijja (December 8, 2008)

Winter Solstice: December 21-December 22

Hanukkah: Starting on 25 Kislev (December 22, 2008)

HumanLight: (December 23)

Christmas Eve: December 24
Christmas: December 25

Signature of the Constitution of the Republic of China (Taiwan) : December 25

Boxing Day: (December 26)

Saint Stephen's Day: December 26

Kwanzaa: (December 26 - January 1)
Saint John the Evangelist's Day: December 27
Holy Innocents' Day: December 28
Saint Sylvester's Day: December 31
Watch Night: December 31

New Year's Eve: (December 31)

Hogmanay: (Night of December 31 - Before dawn of January 1)

New Year's Day: (January 1)

So, there, all of you damn conservative Christians! You don't have a monopoly on the holidays. So hold your tongues. Or I'll give you a slap in the face with words. lol :)

A day I dread...

I have a doctor appointment later today. I dread days like these. I don't know what is wrong with me, therefore, I do not know what they'll have to do to me. And doctors tend to rely on tests to figure out what is wrong with me. And lots of tests use needles. And I hate needles. I have an irrational fear of needles and other sharp objects. Mostly needles. It's called belonephobia. I hyperventilate when someone tries to give me a shot or take blood or anything else involving a needle. This is especially bad considering the reason I am going to the doctor.

I can't breathe. lol... so I'm sure hyperventilating would not help the situation. I have always had difficulty breathing. Those of you who have been around me a lot have probably noticed that I "sigh" regularly. This is me trying to get air because I don't feel that I'm getting enough. It used to be that I only had this probably when I was stressed out. I could just relax and take a few deep breaths and I would be fine. Now, I am not under stress, but I can't breathe. I try to take deep breaths, but I don't feel that it's working. I feel like I'm not getting enough air.

This has been going on for about 2 months now. I've been trying to forget about it, but I finally had a breakdown on Monday night because I was getting stressed out about it (that doesn't help my breathing!). I haven't been sleeping because I haven't been able to breathe. Joe is making me go to the doctor. I don't have insurance, so I have to pay out of pocket, so I was trying to see if it would just go away! It didn't. And now I have an appointment to find out what's wrong with me.

I did some research online. There are several things it could be. The dust in our house while we were remodeling could have triggered asthma. I could be anemic. I may just be insane. :) lol... hopefully I'll find out soon, though. And without needles. :S

News for Today

So, I was glancing at Google News this morning, and the first headline definitely caught my attention.

Jet crashes into home; mother, grandmother, child killed

Is that not insane?? According to CNN, the pilot exited the plane and parachuted safely to the ground, but his plane hit a house and killed 3 people. There is also another child missing. They couldn't find her last night and they're still searching for her today. WTF, man. That is just crazy news to me. Apparently the plane was supposed to be landing on a marine base or something. This news kind of reminds me of Donnie Darko. I'm just waiting for the next headline to be about some crazy effing scary bunny terrorizing people. lol

Also in the news is this:

Deal to Rescue American Automakers Is Moving Ahead

I think it's bull crap. We're just rescuing everybody. Who needs to be be responsible anymore? Just do what you want and then when everything falls down around you for the bad decisions you made, the government will just bail you out. Where is the responsibility and accountability in that? If you're at risk of failing, you should fail or find a way to pull yourself up. It should not be the responsibility of the government or the American people to pull your ass out of the stupid mistakes that you made. It especially pisses me off with the automakers. What happened to supply and demand? Obviously we don't need the cars. Therefore, one of the giants should go under. Then the demand will go back up for the other suppliers. We shouldn't be saving companies that we don't need! If they don't want to go under, they should find another niche! It's ridiculous. If I own my own store and I'm in competition with other stores, when the going gets tough, one of us is probably going under. Whoever that may be, they'll need to find something else to provide to the public, or they'll just be gone. That's the way it should work. Grrr... Yeah, it might suck for the rest of us for a while, but we need to reset for all the stupidity that has taken place. Otherwise we'll never learn a lesson!

Good News, Bad News...

I always like to start with the bad news.

I have always been a fan of Frosted Mini Wheats (the cereal). I recently found out that it has gelatin in it (for those of you who do not know, gelatin is made from crushed up animal bones and ligaments, etc. See here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gelatin). Some vegetarians choose to still eat gelatin, or at least not go out of their way to avoid it. I am very firm in my vegetarianism. I don't eat anything which required an animal to be killed in order for that item to be made. So, gelatin is out.

I religiously check the ingredients in food to make sure that there is nothing in it that I can't eat. I have no idea how I missed it on the Frosted Mini Wheats ingredients this whole time. I'm guessing that I just thought I had checked it before and then never checked it again. So, I was a bit ill about that when I found out. And, now I will no longer be buying or eating Kellogg's Frosted Mini Wheats. :(

Also, Joe and I went to this Italian restaurant near where we live. I ordered a vegetarian dish. Several bites in, I thought I got a tiny bit of meat, probably sausage. I spit it out just in case, but I wasn't completely convinced that it was meat, especially since I had already eaten quite a bit and there had been nothing in it. I also didn't want to ruin the meal for Joe. Well, I took a few more bites and sure enough, I bit down on a piece of sausage. I almost threw up. Joe wanted to send it back and get me something else. I didn't want to cause any problems, so I didn't. Maybe I should have. I'm sure that someone just used the wrong spoon or something. I probably would have said something, but I forgot to tell the waitress beforehand that I was vegetarian (As I do quite a bit of the time to make sure there aren't any mistakes). If I would have told her when I ordered, then I would have sent it back and had them take it off of my check. So, that ruined that meal.

More bad news (but this leads to good news!), my parents are officially not coming down for Christmas. They told me that a few weeks ago. I was disappointed, but I am determined to spend Christmas with Joe. And, Joe has a tradition in his family of spending Christmas Eve at his Uncle Joe's house. For those of you that know Joe, you know that he doesn't have a whole lot of family left (that he likes/speaks to) and he certainly doesn't have any other real family traditions. So, I am not about to make him miss his only real tradition. Therefore, I would be spending Christmas with Joe and his family and without my family.

I wasn't moping about it so that Joe wouldn't feel guilty, but he apparently knew that I would be disappointed about it. So, he offered to pack up the boys and go to Indiana with me right after we finish at his Uncle Joe's house on Christmas Eve. That is usually done about 5:00ish, so when we finish there, we will pack the boys into the car and drive to Indiana (roughly 11 hours away). It will be a long night, but I will get to surprise my parents. :) I know that my mom will be especially heartbroken that I couldn't be there for Christmas, so she will be ecstatic when I show up on her porch at 4:00 in the morning on Christmas Day. :) I'm so excited!

Also good news, I re-read Twilight to get the ugly movie images out of my head. It's much better now. I started re-reading New Moon just for the fun of it and then I realized that I don't like the book as much because Edward leaves and Bella is heartbroken. That got me to thinking though... They're making a New Moon movie. The movie should have very little of Robert Pattinson in it. Therefore, the New Moon movie still has a chance of being decent. :) lol... anything to keep my hopes up!

Good News...

Here's some good news for the great state of North Carolina:



Jessica's Law Takes Effect In North Carolina
Sunday, November 30, 2008 – updated: 11:08 pm EST November 30, 2008

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Starting Monday, many sex offenders convicted in North Carolina will get longer prison sentences.

Under "Jessica's Law” a person who commits certain sex crimes against a child under the age of 13, must serve at least 25 years in prison.

It's named after Jessica Lundsford. She used to live in Gaston County.

In 2005, the 9-year-old was kidnapped, raped and buried alive by a convicted sex offender in Florida.



Finally. Some justice. Hopefully this will help keep some children safe. So that people who were caught once will hopefully not have a chance to get out and hurt more children. :) Hopefully they'll rot in jail until they're too old to be able to hurt any more children.