Isaiah 3:12

As for my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them. O my people, they which lead thee cause thee to err, and destroy the way of thy paths. ~Isaiah 3:12

And that of course is talking about Judah and what would befall them...any guesses on what I'm going to talk about?

The upcoming election of course. Personally, I don't know who I'm going to vote for. In North Carolina a candidate has to have a certain number of signatures to even be counted as a write-in, so I think the only one we have is the Green Party. Woo-hoo. We can vote for the Libertarian candidate Bob Barr, so I'll have to do some research about that...I don't know about that either though. I don't believe in voting for the lesser of two evils...what does that accomplish? Okay, you kept a "scary" Democrat from winning, but if the Republicans are guaranteed votes because of that, all they have to do is be slightly less liberal than the Democrat candidate!

I am interested to see what McCain picking Sarah Palin as a running mate will do. I have a feeling it will have several results:

1. Some of the people who were going to vote for Hillary simply because they wanted a woman in office may decide to vote Republican.

2. She is conservative, so some Christians will be (and are!) excited about that and vote because of that.

3. However, the Christian vote will be split...there are people (myself included) who don't think a woman should be in power like that, and therefore wouldn't vote for the Republicans.

I wasn't intending to vote for McCain anyway, but if he had chosen an equally conservative, pro-life man, I probably would have considered it. I think it's great that Palin is conservative and pro-life and has five kids(and nice hair!), but I don't think she should be running for public office.

But, perhaps that's God's plan...it not a good thing to have women "ruling" the people, but it may be a punishment. And we certainly can't say that America does not deserve punishment. I know we (my family) were talking about it last month and talking about how if Obama picked Hilary as a running mate, how much like Barak and Deborah (Judges 4) it would be...and it's rather the same with McCain and Palin. "Hey, I can't win this by myself, the people won't want to vote for me, you help me by being my vice-president and maybe I'll be able to win."

Then if Obama wins it won't be great, but I figure that at least he'll do much less damage in four years than Hillary would have. I have a feeling he will win, I don't think Palin is enough to help McCain win...I could be wrong. If Obama does win he's going to be a busy man though! :) We watched his acceptance speech and really, all the tangible, material things he promised to do would keep him busy, as if he could even accomplish all that. But then the other things he mentioned, like improving the moral standard of the country aren't really even possible. Two of the things he said:

"I will restore our moral standing so that America is once again that last, best hope for all who are called to the cause of freedom, who long for lives of peace, and who yearn for a better future."

"Yes, we must provide more ladders to success for young men who fall into lives of crime and despair. But we must also admit that programs alone can't replace parents, that government can't turn off the television and make a child do her homework, that fathers must take more responsibility to provide love and guidance to their children.

Individual responsibility and mutual responsibility, that's the essence of America's promise. And just as we keep our promise to the next generation here at home, so must we keep America's promise abroad."

Well, I do agree with him that parents have to guide their children and all, but what on earth can he do about it or the moral standards of people?!

So...anyway...I'm not voting for McCain, I don't know who I'll vote for, and I think Obama's going to win. It's the first general election I've gotten to vote in...I wish there were better options. :(

Friday rambling

Okay, so I finished my CPR/First Aid class. So I'm now certified in first aid for three years and CPR for one....do you feel safer now? :p

The class was certainly interesting. I've been trying to figure out the reasoning behind the way certain people teach. The first day we had a lady who was a bit hyper and slightly disorganized but thorough, and she was one of those teachers that threatens un-named consequences should the class not pay attention and follow instructions. I've decided that they must do that to insure cooperation, and then when no one gets in trouble and she lets you pass the class just fine, you feel relieved and lucky to have not been one of her troublesome classes! In reality she probably hardly ever has a difficult class. :p So anyway, we had her and a guy who had moved here from Utah and was helping her teach so he could renew his instructor's certification. Then yesterday we had a different lady teaching and she was more calm and serious and just went through everything slowly.

The class was mostly all people who had to take it for work, guys who worked for a construction company, ladies who worked in schools or other various things like that. One lady had to be certified before taking her girl scout troop camping...she was very impatient about how long the class was taking! I don't blame her, but I've figured out that it doesn't help to complain about it in class. :p

I also decided not to say anything yesterday when the teachers were finding a test written in Spanish for one lady, and then frantically trying to find a Spanish answer key to go with it. The test was multiple choice and you filled in one of four circles on your answer sheet. After they finally found the Spanish answer key I heard them saying that oh wait, they could have used the same answer key because it's exactly the same! Well...that's what I'd been thinking through all this, that I doubted the Spanish test was arranged any differently, so all they had to do was match the circles up same as with the other ones...

I'm also assuming that in a real emergency adrenaline would kick in and that it, along with my desire to be able to help somehow, would overcome any queasiness about first aid. I was reading through my book Wednesday night and couldn't stand to look at the pictures in there, and then during the class the lady said we needed to listen to the video but we didn't have to look at it if we couldn't stand it. *shudder* So yeah, I'm certified, but just to be safe, if you're around me don't injure yourself in any way that causes anything from the inside of you (other than blood, I don't mind blood) to be visible! Oh actually, to be completely safe in general, don't hurt yourself at all...but I think you knew that. ;)

Oh yeah, some of the things they talked about and mention in the book about how to recognize an emergency..."screaming, yelling, or calling for help", "breaking glass, crashing metal, or screeching tires"...now seriously! If you couldn't figure out that those things might be an emergency, I think you might need more than a first aid class!

Let's see what else did we do this week? Oh yeah, we had men's meeting here on Wednesday and our cat Gracie found the one guy in the room with asthma and started winding around his neck! And then shrieked when he removed her. Mom and I were back in the bedrooms, and I heard Gracie shriek (she lets you know if she's not happy!) and wondered what had happened...I thought maybe someone stepped on her. That bad cat! She couldn't go sit on any of the cat owners, or even the people who don't like cats but aren't allergic....oh no, she had to pester the person who wanted her around the least.

I'm trying to make a paper mache pear...trying being the operative word there. I've only had time to put one layer of paper on it, so right now it just looks like a paper-covered balloon. Hmm...something's obviously going to have to be done about that. Pears don't look like balloons. I think maybe as an experiment I'll try blowing up another balloon and if I can shape it with tape or something I might start over. If the tape doesn't work I'll stick with what I've got and see what can be done with it.

I saw in the paper yesterday that there's contra dancing in Winston...Cool, I didn't know that! And there's also an English country dance at Bethabara park (and that one's free...always a plus)...I wonder if you have to wear authentic English garb? If you do I think I'd rather pay the seven dollars for the other dance, although an English country dance would be so neat and Jane-Austen-y. So now I just need to convince some of my friends that they want to go dancing...Amanda? You said you'd had a friend who wanted you to try contra dancing...would you like another person bugging you? ;)

Oh, labels; out of all five people who gave their opinion on labels, it's 4 for and 1 against. I think I'll start labeling...so now I have to figure out what to label various posts as! Hmm... :p

I also have a strong suspicion that this post may not make a whole lot of sense. I'm tired today so I kind of rambled. If it makes sense to you, great! If it doesn't...I'm sorry. :( I got to bed late last night and got up early too many days this week... *yawn*

Labels?

I probably won't blog much this week, because I have been, and still will be, rather busy. But in the meantime, I'll give you something to think about.

I was trying to decide whether to put tags (or labels) on my posts...you know, the things that categorize the post as being "opinion", or "crafts", or "cooking", or whatever the case may be. I guess I was wondering how often people even use those. Personally, I find that you can just search the blog using the blogger toolbar at the top if you're looking for something specific, but I also find it interesting to browse through a category of labels.

So, shall I label or not? I'd start labeling from now on, and eventually get all my old posts labeled as well, although that would have to wait till October.

Anyway, I'm going to be fairly busy till October because of the fair and stuff so actually the posting may be a bit sparse all through September, not just this week...we'll see how much spare time I have! :)

Sunday musings

Ah, I'm liking this new schedule we're doing for church...it's nice to have Sunday evening free, it's a little more relaxing before the next week starts. :) Of course then you have to get food ready every Saturday...so maybe it's even after that. I think maybe we're going to go back to our regular schedule after Summer is over...we'll see. Our church seems to be shrinking for various reasons...*sigh* :(

A couple of families have left, some have moved...it's sad, although I know we've left a couple churches too. I'm not sure whether it's just because in those cases we were the ones leaving (usually with several other families) so we knew perfectly well that we had a good reason to leave, or if it's just because I'm older now that I don't take people leaving so well. :( Our church has been meeting for almost 6 years now, and although some people left at the beginning we expected that (it was a church split because the other church didn't like our pastor, and I think some of the people who came with us weren't sure they wanted a small church, but they didn't agree with the other group either.) And then we've had people who just had to move, the one guy for med school, and then another couple moved to California just this week. He graduated from Duke divinity school, and she graduated from Wake Forest med school, and I guess she got a residency out there and he got an...internship?...something like that, so they're out there now (or on their way out there). As far as I know, I don't think anyone else is going to be moving any time soon..I certainly hope not! Anyway... as my friend reminded me yesterday, God is sovereign...which is a good reminder in so many areas of life.

Uh, where was I...something not so gloomy perhaps?...oh yeah, shrinking...I guess I was going to say that we may keep meeting at peoples' houses in the afternoon since we'll all fit most Sundays, I don't know. The weekend after next some people are going to be out of town, so Mom was saying we might be able to fit everyone over here (actually we probably could anyway, but it would be a smidge squished!). I pointed out that that way I could have a sort of birthday party too. Not exactly a birthday party, but having a bunch of people over is fun enough. :)

Next week one of the pastors from Grace Reformed Baptist Church in Mebane, NC (where on earth is Mebane anyway?) is going to come preach. I think we're just going to have a fellowship afterwards instead of having a study also...Pastor Beasley was saying that people could play volleyball, but that he was claiming the visiting pastor for his team because he's really tall! :p

So, that's what's up... now I think I'll go clean some stuff. I have an urge to reorganize a bunch of things including my bathroom cabinet. No matter how often I clean out and organize that cabinet, it gets messed up again really fast because I bring hair accessories or hand lotions or whatever from my bedroom and leave them in there, and then I always just fling things in there anyway, so usually if you open the cabinet door at least the toothpaste is likely to come sliding out! :p In other words...it really needs cleaning, so I should probably go do that since I feel like it.

Oh, my friends and I were talking about the Olympics during lunch, and my friend Zoe was asking if I'd seen when they were talking about how strangely proportioned (but good for swimming) Michael Phelps was...I told her I had, and said that wasn't that flapping thing he does really strange-looking? She didn't know what I was talking about, so I was trying to demonstrate somewhat...I think I pulled something in my back...lol! :p I think I'm fine really, but something is a bit sore...I'm obviously not as flexible as Phelps...which is fine since I don't swim. It amused everyone else anyway... :p And Zoe knew what I was talking about after I demonstrated!

Oh, I forgot...

...I was also going to blog about two other things, but I forgot when I was writing the last post. One was this ring I made the other day...it's made out of the little rings you get for jewelry making, jump rings they're called:









I was trying to make a Celtic knot to put on it, but making a Celtic knot out of jump rings and attaching it was more than I could do! I had to wear my reading glasses to see what I was doing as it was, and was feeling bug-eyed by the time I was done...those rings are rather small!

Then, I didn't go to prayer meeting Wednesday night because I wasn't feeling very well, but Mom brought home a gift from the Beasleys. I wondered why they were giving me a present...my birthdays isn't for two weeks and I couldn't think of anything else. It was a graduation gift! Aww...presents are always fun, but totally unexpected ones are even better! :) It's a lovely fountain pen! They all have fountain pens and always go to the pen show in...hmm...it's either in Raleigh or Greensboro. So they got me a fountain pen, though not at the pen show, so I'll be able to get ink at the office supply store...that's good! A fountain pen seems so...graduationy. lol! It's a neat pen, shiny blue:





It's going to take little getting used too...especially since I write fast. You have to write a little bit slower with a fountain pen. And it's got little ink cartridges, but I still managed to get ink on my arm and my sleeve trying to fill it... Hannah wrote me a note explaining how it worked, but I was still a little lost...thank goodness for Google.

Oh, and about the fair...I said there wasn't much thrilling, but of course there are all the usual rides...but I'm the only one in my family who likes rides, so we don't usually go on any. If you'd ever seen anyone pick Colin more than 3 inches up off the floor, you would understand why... ;p

Crafting...and rambling about the fair

I've been working on knitting and crocheting and trying to figure out what all I'm going to enter in the fair...and forcing myself to not sign up for a bunch of things that I might (with very little possibility) get done before October.

Anyway, my sweater is progressing, very slowly, but it is progressing. And I'm also working on a crocheted baby afghan. One of the ladies in our church is going to have a baby, and I usually make an afghan for the new babies. Only problem is that this is a boy afghan (well, I guess the colors could work for a girl too, but it's not terribly pink and girly) so if she has a girl, I'll need to make another afghan, but then I won't be able to enter it in the fair. Oh well.

Look! I took pictures! :p

Back of the sweater:












Front...I'm just starting on the patterned part. Just to remind you, this is the pattern I'm knitting:












And this is what I've got done on the afghan so far...it goes pretty fast though:









I've already got a dress and a skirt done to enter in the fair, but I was going to make an apron too. I should have time to sew one more thing though, I think....I hope so anyway! :p

I have...let's see...40 days to get things finished. Hmm... One thing in my favor is that the days I'm working I'll have some time to get some knitting or crocheting done without feeling like I should be doing housework or something. I think I need to write down everything that I want to get done for the fair and estimate how much time each thing is going to take to finish and see what I really have time for. Like I said, I've got some things sewn already, most of the baked goods that I was thinking about entering I'll get done and put in the freezer, and I picked out some photos and I need to have my pre-judge take a look at them. ;)

It's nice to have a Dad that can tell you ahead of time whether you should bother to enter a particular picture...although sometimes the judges at the fair have completely different taste in photos. I enter in the Amateur Photography section because I don't want to waste money on framing things for the Arts and Crafts photography category, and in this category you just have to have the photo mounted on a piece of foamcore. However, that also means that there are hundreds of entries! I really don't know how they can judge all those photos. I think I've got some options for sunrise, flowers, landscape, other-color, and other-b&w. There's also a people category, both in color and b&w...but I don't take pictures of people very much, so I don't think I've got anything to enter in there...I think when I was looking through my photos the only people photos I had were just some I took of my 2nd-cousins in IL, my cousins when they came to visit, and Colin...and I really don't know what's a good "people" photo. I'm not sure if they're looking for artsy candid shots, or studio-like, or what.

I was looking at the fair webpage to see what sort of entertainment they have this year...well, we have the usual two country singers and two Christian singers. For country we get Mel McDaniels, and I didn't think I knew what he sang, but I looked him up on Wikipedia and I do know a few of his songs I just didn't know who sang them. And then we also get Bucky Covington. Oh boy. I don't know if he's gotten better since he was on American Idol, or if he got some help speaking more clearly...because when he was on AI, all his songs sounded like: *first word of song, mumble, mumble, mumble, last word of song*. Maybe he's learned to enunciate....or maybe there's a reason he's performing at our fair where the concerts are free... although I think he's going to be at the state fair too? Oh, ha-ha! They're only charging five dollars there...nevermind. :p

(Wow, they actually get some very popular singers at the state fair...they've got six country singers/groups that I've heard of, and a trendy-looking Christian band called Leeland..who are performing with another rather emo-ish Christian group called Skillet...Skillet??! Anyway...) Sorry...should have put a link in so you can see the bands: NC State Fair

For Christian singers at our fair we have Mandisa and Matthew West. I was hoping maybe they'd have Jars of Clay come again. They were at our fair one year, but that was before I had heard any of their music and realized I liked it. :(

Oh and then there's the Demolition Derby, and rodeo, and tractor pull, and all that sort of stuff. :p Hmm...yeah, the best things about our fair are winning prizes and eating a funnel cake...other than that it's kind of lacking in much of anything terribly thrilling. :p

I need to figure out for sure what I'm going to enter this year, and figure it out soon, because you have to get your entries in by September 1st...and that's a lot closer than I realized!

It's Monday already?

Oh boy, my schedule is all off...bother the Olympics! :p I haven't even been watching them that much, but we've all been going to bed later than usual, and it finally caught up with me yesterday and this morning. Yesterday afternoon after lunch I almost...or rather, I'm afraid I did fall asleep during the Bible study. Oh dear. One of the pastor's daughters fell asleep too...but she's only seven.
I'm not sure how well this new schedule is going to work out...if I sit still right after lunch, I'm going to fall asleep! And I wasn't the only one trying to stay awake. So, I slept in this morning, although I had planned to get up and go divide the hosta plants this morning. I guess that'll wait till later...it's too hot and humid out there now.

Dad and I got my storage unit put up yesterday evening...or rather...yeah, it's up, but it's tilted. It's pretty heavy, so we got two brackets put in the studs....but then, right where we need to put another bracket (or just put the second pair) there is no stud....just empty wall. Hmph. *grumble, grumble, fume* Just so you know, this isn't the first strange thing we've found about this house! So Dad's going to get another pair of brackets and use some drywall anchor/screws to fasten them...and that'll help some.

Anyway, the unit is up...although Dad was worrying me because he kept coming in and looking at it like he was surprised it was still on the wall! He assured me that it wasn't going anywhere, he was just looking at it. It's nice...I was picturing something more rectangular than square, but it works, and I like the color and everything.









Something already stored itself up there...









I'm looking forward to getting some stuff stored up there....and I think, since Gracie can get up to the bottom cubes, that I'll not put anything breakable up there! :p

Casting Crowns song

The Altar and the Door ~Casting Crowns

Three things...

...that I'm thinking about, due to the Olympics and the commercials run during the Olympics.

1. How do the women swimmers find clothes to fit? I have somewhat wide shoulders, so I have trouble sometimes getting shirts that fit without the shoulders and sleeves pulling...but these girls have very muscular shoulders (as they'd have to, to swim that fast!). Maybe they just wear sleeveless shirts, or big t-shirts most of the time?

2. I saw the commercial for the prescription pain medicine Lyrica. It's meant to treat fibromyalgia pain, which sounds wonderful! A pain medicine, specially designed for fibromyalgia would be great...since they don't have a cure for it, maybe they can at least treat it. Well, a few of the side-affects for the medicine are tiredness and muscle pain. Ummm....but that's part of what fibromyalgia is...tiredness and muscle pain...how is that helping? According to the commercial the lady taking it is able to travel to foreign countries and go shopping while she's there...how about they come up with something that doesn't have those side-affects and that helps you just get through the week while not on vacation?

3. One of the players on the Chinese volleyball team is 6' 11"!! Wow! That's really tall...I mean, I've got guy cousins and 2nd-cousins who are around 6'3" t0 6'7"-ish, and that seems pretty tall right there! But almost 7 feet tall? and Chinese...I thought the Chinese were rather short...maybe not anymore.