DynoReads

I might be remembering high school civics wrong, but I thought retroactive laws were made illegal in the US constitution. So the fear of billions of discrimination law suits probably is not why the laws have not passed.

In college I actually had a classmate, daughter of African refugees, whose given name was Female. She pronounced it Feh-mahl-ye. My sister and I had good southern names, unfortunately we grew up in the north. Also my sister has an unusual spelling.

Walking, swimming, bicycling are all great exercise. As you find walking or biking easier to do, get some ankle weights or heavier shoes (my favorite ankle weights are my hiking/work boots). Grab a basketball and head to the park. Even if you're bad at shooting hoops, someone will come along to play with and maybe help you improve. Find a local dog rescue and volunteer to walk the dogs. You'll get exercise and happy companionship. Keeping a journal helps too.

It's not that Americans trust guns so much as we DO NOT TRUST our own government. By having guns we insure that the government can not over throw the people.

Happy Birthday NS

Happy Birthday - I hope you had time to celebrate!

I'm sorry for your loss. The uncertainty, not knowing why a loved one died, is always hard. Take it day by day. I've found comfort in this song lately while arranging my brother's memorial service, I hope it helps you: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWV0jpndYbY

https://www.facebook.com/TallywackersOfficial http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/04/23/tallywackers-dallas-hooters_n_7126080.html http://www.usmagazine.com/celebrity-news/news/male-hooters-style-restaurant-tallywackers-opening-in-dallas-2015244

When I was little, maybe 4 or 5, a new bathroom cleaning product was advertised with animated scrubbing bubbles. I finally convinced my dad to buy a can, and wasted the whole thing looking for the scrubbing bubbles. Around the same time my younger sister, who might have been 2 and I got in a fight over my dolls. She got mad and bit me so hard it drew blood. I was convinced she was a vampire, and couldn't sleep in the same room with her without a red nightlight until I was about 12 or 13. Dad told me the red light would trick her vampire into thinking the sun hadn't set yet, so it wouldn't come out. When my son was 5, he didn't want to sleep in his own room because of monsters under his bed. I told him he didn't need to worry about any monsters under the bed because the cat had eaten all of them. To this day, he's fine if we have a cat, when we don't he's afraid of the monsters in the dark or under the bed.

My favorite story would be Little Man by Mann Ramblings. I've two favorite authors, Bill W and ComicFan. Both write such varied stories that it's easy to find something to fit my mood, and both have unexpected humor hidden in many stories.

I've had good and bad with cops. I was 17 and walking home from a babysitting job at 3am. I didn't have ID yet. A LEO pulled over and started questioning me. I could hear his radio and police were looking for a 13 yo runaway, who was 5 inches shorter, and really didn't match my description at all. The LEO and I were arguing over the fact that I wasn't the girl he was looking for, and that the curfew didn't apply as I was coming home from a job and had been immancipated. Thankfully Dad had been waiting up for me and had his Fire/Police scanner on. He had heard the LEO call in that he had the girl and give my general description. Dad came to rescue me. My second arguement with a cop is kind of my favorite story. I was coming home late from work with a migraine on a 3 lane interstate. The SUV behind me had his brights on, shining directly in my mirrors. I'd move the car and mirrors so the brights weren't reflecting back into my eyes, and the SUV would pull directly behind me. After 5 minutes of this I pulled off the road to let the guy pass, only to have a police officer pull up behind me. He came up to my window with an attitude, expecting a drunk driver. Never gave his name, just told me I'd been weaving for the past 5 miles. I answered, rather rudely, of course I was, the [several choice cuss words] idiot driver behind me had his brights on, wouldn't pass, and every time I moved so his brights weren't reflecting in my mirrors he'd pull directly behind me again. The officer cleared his throat and said he'd been following me the past 5 miles, turned and left.

Tonight while trying to get a date set for my brother's memorial one of his friends messaged me on FB. I thought it was his first girlfriend, but it turned out to have been someone he dated later. In the last couple times my brother and I talked, we finally talked about the foster home, what happened, why people didn't listen. I learned a lot. It wasn't that people didn't listen, they did, and some even reported it, but the people investigating dropped the ball. Tonight I learned that even after he left the foster home where my sister and I were abused he kept running away to come back and get us. He was so angry and frustrated that we were separated. Makes me wonder if he thought leaving/getting kicked out would get all of us moved? I enjoyed talking to her, and learned a lot about my brother that I didn't know.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Go7gn6dugu0

Yeah! Pics - make the firefighters take off their shirts though!

Unfortunately parental rights usually supersede the children's rights. My best advice would be to talk to the biological father, let him know that you want to work with him. Try to get him to let you have custody in exchange for generous visitation with the youngest. This is a traumatic time for the girls and they need to be together. Going with someone who is essentially a stranger, even though he is her father, would be bad for the youngest.

I'm sorry Valkyrie. Death is not easy on those left behind, and harder still when there are other issues too.

Hope you had a happy birthday

Hope you had a happy birthday

Happy Birthday wings

Glen Campbell wrote "I'm Not Going to Miss You" for his family after learning he has Alzheimer's. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8TsAh-zYFI

"Hard work and perseverance succeed when talent fails to work hard". That was the motto of one of the rec sports leagues my son played in. It's not all talent, but also the discipline and willingness to work at anything that leads to success.

Currently we just have two dogs, Dixiebelle, a blue eyed Catahoula/Healer/Lab mix and her daughter Gracie Bear also called the Menace. Which is one dog to many, any one want the menace? Over the years I've had numerous cats, but only a few stick out in memory: Tobias (or Toby) was a beige tabby, a real character who ate veggies. George was a grey tabby who would go on walks with me, and if I went too far would be waiting on the steps when I got home. And Harley (Har-Har), a small orange tabby, was a traveler, he drove up the east coast with us and disappeared at each place we stayed the night only to reappear when we were packing the car. We've also had a blue tailed skink named Apollo, two parakeets named Snowball and Dragon, two mice named Satchmo and Nemo, and various unnamed fish.

Brian Adams - Everything I Do Seal - Kiss From A Rose and If Tomorrow Never Comes, but I don't remember the artist

I've tried to write this so many times, and keep deleting it. I really don't know how to say what's on my mind. My brother, R, wasn't feeling well at the end of October, but our sister, M, thought he could wait until he saw the specialist in December. I spoke with M before thanksgiving when she wanted one of our dad's recipes. I suggested getting R to a doctor then, but she felt it could wait until the specialist visit in December. The appointment with the specialist was January not early December like M and R implied. He had the flu which caused pneumonia. The autopsy found a cyst on his pancreas, indicating he had an infection there for some time. One of the internist attending R mentioned he was taking immunosuppressants. My niece, J, was his care taker and was supposed to go shopping with him. She refused to be seen in public with him. So he was able to purchase large quantities of alcohol. I keep looping through those. I guess I'm at the anger stage, but I think he shouldn't have gotten so sick. All of us failed him. Then the obit, I'm so angry over this. I wanted to pay for it, but my sister wanted the free one. Then she got a "donation" from work and had me write a longer one. Then she rewrote the obit. Some of the things in it angered me. But it's small things really, my sister's control issue is really, really irritating me. I'm having trouble dealing with some of the responses to his obit. A lot of his classmates talked about him, things I didn't see when he was a teenager. Good things, and I'm glad. But one person keeps reminding everyone of the time we spent in a foster home. Maybe she's not thinking, or maybe she didn't know that the foster home was closed because the foster mother and her daughter were abusing M and I. I wish she'd stop. With all the final details, and the grief over our brother we really don't need to be reminded of one of the worst times of our lives.

For Valentine's we get each other a box of chocolates. On the other hand, our anniversary is Feb 14 (17 years now). Since my son's birthday, my birthday & Christmas are only weeks apart, we agreed that I get token gifts for my birthday & Christmas (last year a backup battery charger for.my cell phone). For mother's day & our anniversary I get big gifts. Usually for our anniversary I get something I want for the house: first anniversary was a DVD player, second a playstation, fifth the PS2.