Kissing Cousins

Genetic mutation makes those brown eyes blue
Scientists find that blue-eyed individuals have a single, common ancestor

I've never been so glad that my husband and I don't have the same eye color!

I Shudder to Think About Them

Sometimes you come across things that just make you shudder and sort of gag. Strawberry Cheetos and Cucumber Pepsi did the trick for me this morning. I've seen some things that I thought were odd during my visits to China. I still don't understand green bean ice cream or sunflower seed ice cream, but a lot of the time the items made sense, even though they didn't appeal to me. Strawberry Cheetos and Cucumber Pepsi do not even come close to making sense or being appealing. EWWWWWW!

Sick Up Front - Party in The Back

Today my middle daughter turned sixteen. Two of her friends have been cooking up a surprise party for weeks. Everything was right on schedule. When Beth and KK came to pick her up around 4:30 for a Starbucks run, we were going to grab all the decorations, cake, etc...out of Beth's car and decorate real fast. I started feeling really bad at about 2:45. So bad I thought I was going to pass out or throw up or both. So, instead of being able to help, I'm in bed. Phil and the kids did everything. Aaron's girlfriend dove in and helped. The party is going full force. They sound like they are having a great time. I don't know that for a fact. That's just what I hear through the walls.

I screamed like a little girl

I read the Dallas Morning News story of the stowaway cat last night and laughed. It wasn't funny this poor cat went through all she did and it is a miracle she survived the torture. Have you every watched the luggage be thrown onto the conveyor belt to be loaded onto the plane. Some bags crash to the ground. The ones that do make it get thrown on top of each other. I've packed many a bag and I can tell you they ain't light.

What made me laugh was the line from the guy that found her in what he thought was his bag. "I screamed like a little girl." I love it. I can see and hear it.

Accidental Suicide

What makes the difference between an accidental overdose and a deliberate one? Is it the lack of a note? A bottle that isn't empty? In the end, there is still death. I think the difference is how it affects the ones left behind. Was it a selfish act done in a moment of despair or a moment of cloudy thinking due to extenuating circumstances?

My cousin took his life on August 20, 1988. I was 600 miles away. Why is that date burned into my brain? It is the day we brought our first child home from the hospital. The call came almost immediately upon arrival to the house. I don't think of one without the other. The two will always be woven together in my mind. The nightmares are still vivid. Eric Zane was going through the process of having his jaws broken and reset along with major dental work. He took a serious blow to the head during a car wreck. His doctor says that the pain from the combination of the two things would have been unbearable. Am I angry with Eric Zane? No, just deeply, deeply saddened.

Years ago we had a babysitter named Brandi. She had a friend kill herself. Brandi's anger was palatable. She saw the horror in the faces of the family; she saw the suicide as the selfish act it was. Brandi's view of life was a little different than most teenagers. She had battled Leukemia and won. She valued life. She knew how precious it is. She despised the fact that someone threw it away.

I recently attended the memorial service of a girl that took her life on her 15th birthday. Took it in a way that added even more pain for the one that found her. No one saw it coming. The blow sent everyone reeling. There are no answers to the why. She was greatly loved by many. Would she have done it if she could have had a glance into the pain she was going to cause? Would she have done it if she had heard the wails of those that loved her? I don't know. I would hope that the answer is no.

I have to disagree with the song, Suicide is Painless. It causes deep pain that washes over many in the changes that it brings. Yes, sometimes the game of life is hard to play, but nothing good comes easy.

Martin Luther King, Jr. -- from a Birmingham Jail

Brought down because of hate. Brought down because of prejudice. Brought down because of stupidity. As a white person I will never know the depths of his pain as he watched what was going on in his nation. I can only try to imagine how deep it was. The issues have gotten better in many ways, but in some pockets of our society they have not. I pray that they will change. I pray that God will soften peoples' hearts. And now, in his own words...a glimpse into the pain.

Perhaps it is easy for those who have never felt the stinging dart of segregation to say, "Wait." But when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim; when you have seen hate-filled policemen curse, kick and even kill your black brothers and sisters; when you see the vast majority of your twenty million Negro brothers smothering in an airtight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society; when you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six- year-old daughter why she can't go to the public amusement park that has just been advertised on television, and see tears welling up in her eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children, and see ominous clouds of inferiority beginning to form in her little mental sky, and see her beginning to distort her personality by developing an unconscious bitterness toward white people; when you have to concoct an answer for a five-year-old son who is asking: "Daddy, why do white people treat colored people so mean?"; when you take a cross-country drive and find it necessary to sleep night after night in the uncomfortable corners of your automobile because no motel will accept you; when you are humiliated day in and day out by nagging signs reading "white" and "colored"; when your first name becomes "nigger," your middle name becomes "boy" (however old you are) and your last name becomes "John," and your wife and mother are never given the respected title "Mrs."; when you are harried by day and haunted by night by the fact that you are a Negro, living constantly at tiptoe stance, never quite knowing what to expect next, and are plagued with inner fears and outer resentments; when you are forever fighting a degenerating sense of "nobodiness" then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait. There comes a time when the cup of endurance runs over, and men are no longer willing to be plunged into the abyss of despair. I hope, sirs, you can understand our legitimate and unavoidable impatience.

Dreams Come True...even in Africa

I just can't help it. The stuff on Bush's blog from his trip to Africa has been wonderful. I feel compelled to move people to his site so they can read for themselves what God is doing and how He is working in the lives of people in a country that many think is not worth caring about. Has God given you a dream as He did this man? Have you seen the dream become real? What has it done to or for your faith?

250 people crammed into a 15x15 space...

Steven Bush has been in Ethiopia. His photos from the trip are amazing. His talent is very refreshing. I find myself agreeing with his thoughts on American churches and their need (or want) for more. Having worshipped in other countries,in tiny buildings with no air conditioning or in people's homes where the rats join you, it opens your eyes to what is real and Who is real and what really matters. So go over to his blog and see for yourself the beautiful pictures and the haunting words.

Confused Minds

The kids weren't the only ones confused the other night. This also went down in Chili's.

Clay: Mom, how old are you?
Me: 44, I mean 45, I think. I'm 45.
Callie: You don't know how old you are?
Me: I'm 45 right? Did you just turn 46?
Phil: I turned 46.
Me: Then I'm 45.
Phil: No, wait, I just turned 45.
Me: That means I'm 44. I'm 44.
Callie: You don't know how old you are?

John Kennedy is Muslim...

and other bizarre things my kids have said today:

Phil: Where do you want to go for your birthday dinner?
Callie: Chile
Phil: We aren't going to South America for your birthday dinner.

Me: What did the Box family give you for your birthday?
Callie: This High School Musical card that plays music and this funny pen and some gums.
Me: GUM!


Icee: What did you get for your birthday?
Callie: I got some gums.
Me: GUM!

Callie to Scooter: You smell stink!

And during dinner at CHILI'S -
Clay: I learned today that J.F. Kennedy is Muslim.
Phil & Aaron: WHAT?
Turning to me, Clay: What is J.F. Kennedy?
Me: Dead.
Aaron: That's what I was about to say.
Clay: No! What church did he go to?
Me: He was Catholic.
Clay: Oh, right.

On the way home from CHILI'S -
Callie: Do we eat cows?
Clay: Yeah, that's what hamburgers are made with. That's why their called HAMburgers.
Callie: Are turkeys made out of turkeys?
Everyone: YES!
Callie: I think pigs are made out of steak or something.
Corinn: Uhhh, nooo.
Callie: I think pigs are made out of bacon.
Phil: Yep, if you take a bag made out of skin and stuff it with bacon it will make a pig.

Article VI Faith.Politics.America

There is a lot of talk going on about a new documentary, Article VI - Faith.Politics.America. Some people say that is endorsing Romney for president. It isn't. I've seen the film. Many leaders from many walks of faith are interviewed fairly. Constitution experts are interviewed. How do your religious views and political views mesh? Would you vote for a candidate that matched your political ideals, but not so much your religious ones? It explores the political and religious atmosphere at the time John F. Kennedy announced he was running for president. I suggest you view it in your neighborhood before making a judgment.

This Is Beyond Dumb...

What were they thinking? Obviously they weren't thinking. I'm not even sure if a person who did this could think. Stupidity at its finest.

I have found a new friend

I'm A Music Video Star

I commented on someone's blog that I welcomed in the New Year with a Root Beer Float and friends. Well, that is true, but the big news is that I was asked to star in a music video and we completed filming a little after midnight. Please do not ask for autographs. I'm too busy.