oh what awful feet


but, actually, this is my awful foot. the others are kevin's after his ingrown toenails were fixed.

to whomever cares

so, i had my surgery done on wednesday. i am still alive, i love my pain pills. i lay around with my foot up and don't have to feel guilty. no crutches...hooray!! that probably would have done more damage than the surgery. i have a special surgery shoe that i wear for protection.

"It's the end of the world as we know it"

I was listening to NPR this morning. They mention that Newt Gingrich is an advisor to the Pentagon. First of all, he is crazy. i mean certifiable. note his antics as speaker of the house. he resigns under a cloud of illegal activities or suspicions. Somehow, he still has a job.

anyway, he was quoted about his advice about Iran, and the probs with nuclear capability which they won't give up, possible supplying weapons to hezbollah, blah,blah,blah. His advice? REGIME CHANGE!!!!! if he wasn't certifiable before, surely this makes the case. we shouldn't have gone into iraq, IMHO (i know your views, braden, leave me to mine), we fight a mounting insurgency, we haven't enough troops there, recruiting is down, so let's do the same thing in iran. luckily, the white house vetoed his advice, saying diplomacy would be better (a hard lesson learned). of course this was after they sat down and looked at the consequences of such an action, nuclear bombing of israel, destruction of our bases in the area, possible bombing of american cities, inciting WWIII, armageddon, etc.

sheesh

why i haven't blogged

Hello, everyone. for most, my name is mom. for others, christy. that's in case people have forgotten me.

No one ever wants to really know how you feel, so i have not blogged because i am in a tremendous flare since beginning of january. i also have had reactions to several different herbs and/or medicines which have given me severe diarrhea, cramping, or impossible headaches. Not to mention, i have been under a vow of silence to one person who would have killed me if i had spilled the beans about one of the things i have been thinking about lately.

today, i feel ok. so, HI!!

the weather today is better than that heat wave we have been experiencing along with most of the country. yesterday was 76, today it is 70 at 10:30 am. grateful for the break from the dog days.

i am soooooo excited about being a grandmother for the 4th and 5th times!!!! yea!! this is one of the reasons i so want to be healthy....i want to have an impact on my grandchildren's lives. i want to be able to sit on the floor and play with them. i want to be able to hold them for periods of time. i want, someday when they are all a little older, to have cousin camp, where we take all the grandchildren for a few days to a week and do cool things with them while their parents have a break. or hang out together themselves.

i love my family. hope you all know that. that's why i want to live close by in order to interact. i am willing to move once i have money. or why, when i have money, to assist in building my children's homes in order to have a mother-in-law suite so i can visit for periods of time without getting in people's faces.

i guess that's my post of today.

family pictures

To the left, patrick, greg, jared, pam wil (hasn't he grown), mitch, mark,
and jessica aubrie, karene, and jake


Alan, laNice, and aunt helen Dave, jackie, candace, rebecca, rick,
(aunt helen is grandpa G's sister.) and sarah.








these are the individual pictures. couldn't find the big family . note the family resemblance. alan, rick, david, pam, and mark. especially the high foreheads. pam just has some hair covering hers :)

so, i got some pictures up here, but it was never so easy as dan said. no button just appearing when i go to blog.

some about the massanutten reunion

this is david and kevin holding the scottish (old) and american flags at the start of the Va games.

This is one of my favorite just our family portraits because of carolyn futiley (sp?) trying to get away from the gnats. they were awful. somehow i don't see the big family picture in my pictures. oh, and i have a better one of us from the reunion. this was just funny.

David went with some to monticello. says he didn't get enough time there, which is probably true. there was the drive to get there, and then back for dinner. i told him he just should have been late to dinner.

Well, this isn't the reunion, but it has to do with scottish games in a way. we took ( i am using we in the queen's way) down the rusting basketball hoop. while kev and dad were in the process of getting the bolts out, we very scottishly (read, use what you have) used ryan's caber to hold up the backboard until it was ready to come down.

This was at monticello, and we all agree that it is the coolest tree ever.

so, i got pictures up...still wondering how i did it.

love, mom

great grandchildren

someone else is giving grandpa great grandchildren....

dan, the only buttons i have are for bold, italics, color of text, links, a pair of opening quote marks, spellchecker and "edit html"

THE MACKENZIE!!!!

Yesterday was the day for the Ohio Scottish Games. Although I have Irish ancestors, I do not believe that there were any Scots. But, being married to a Scot works. We had an enjoyable day, temp about 75 after having thunderstorms for the previous 3 days with flooding. but not our PERSONAL flooding, thank goodness.

This is the guy we call Gimli (for some reason) showing Kevin how to put on a REAL kilt. you lay it on the ground. leave a piece, whatever your width is, then start making folds of it on the ground until you only have a width size left. then you lay down so that the bottom is just above your knees. oh, sometime, you slipped a belt under the folds on the grass at whatever the length to your knees are. you pull the far side over your front, the near side over it, and buckle the belt. then, you stand up. the piece that now falls in front is longer than the one underneath. you can pull this up over your head if it is cold and rainy. you can connect the corners to put plaid on your front and back. or you can tuck in the corners and leave the back long. that's what gimli does. he said that those people who had their kilts with sewn-in pleats were not wearing kilts, they were wearing " catholic school girls' skirts"!!

This is Kevin at home wearing his catholic school girls' skirt MacKenzie Tartan and waving his footlong dagger. It is a dress dagger, he found out.

David in the Black Watch Tartan which was military, and you could be any clan when you wore it. Kevo in the MacKenzie.

A closer view....
This is a great traditional shot, missing only Ryan

We saw caber tossing, the march of the clans, the bands. pretty cool. david checked out a kids' game area to see how to adapt the scottish games for the reunion. oh, the vendors. kevin bought a mackenzie kilt, a dagger, and a (phonetically) skahn dee. you'll see.....

am missing my fam. wish you were closer.

love, mom

The wanderings....

So I went wandering down to cincinnati last thursday to last monday. i had fun. the kids were pretty open to me, and i got to play with all of them. of course, if carolyn is in the room, all bets are off with joel. i went swimming on the way home, so i could get some exercise.

we get a new garage door today. i am waiting for them. this is because the city likes our neighborhood and cited many of us for peeling paint on garage doors. we were also cited for the trim on the house needing painting. this is all true. so david is doing outside stuff until it's done. then, back to the basement.

kerry and braden get internet acces on friday. that's cool. maybe we can IM or have them finish their blog.... i love to know what is going on.

see ya soon. esp those going to virginia.

love, mama

oh, where, oh, where has my ryan gone....

i suppose when he gets in his apt in june, he will be more able to communicate, but i haven't heard from him in a while, and i miss him. hope all is well.

flattery will get you everywhere

we (the missionaries and I) were teaching this lady about the gospel. she looked at me and said, we're about the same age. since she had an 8 year old and a 12 year old, she's probably 15 years younger than I am. but, what the hay, think that aaaaaalllllllllllll you want.

Well, they're gone

Well, they left about 11:30. kerry and i put up brave fronts. on to a new adventure.

momorama

so, i heard it is time to blog about my boring life. it has been raining so much we are considering an ark. but today, so far, is sunny.

spent wednesday and friday helping kerry and braden pack. ya just gotta dig in and start somewhere, even if it's not a "plan".

went to kerry's graduation. very proud. i was the only one who saw her march in, because the program and kerry said that the graduation was at 2:30, but le universite started at 2. so, while we thought we'd be there early and get a decent seat, we were up on the bleachers (yuck) and without a decent view. but we were there, we saw it, and she is gradjiated.

Started a new set of sim2 characters, trying to encorporate grandparents, and extended family. yes, i know i didn't need the comma there, but i would rather write this whole sentence than go back and change it. kerry has been born, though not dan. i am currently married to w. dave, at least till dan is born, then we'll divorce. i still have to get all the aunts and uncles together, although rick does like jackie, and larry and anne have met. i have this expansion pack that lets you pick 2 things that your sim is attracted to, plus one that turns you off. so, i like men with brown hair and glasses. also, if a sim is angry with another sim, then in the relationships bar, they have a red covering their faces. when they cool off, it goes away.

oh, well, it's a post, anyway.
love the fam.
momorama

I hate the day after naet

ya see, i can only eat certain very limited things, and have to stay 7-8 feet away from others. last week it was metals. no swimming(chlorine), had to wear gloves so i didn't touch anything metal, nothing cooked in a metal pan or pot. luckily, i passed, even though dad said, about 7:30pm, "what about your glasses?" then he masking taped the metal, which was cool and sticky, not to mention gorgeous.

yesterday it is salts and sodium. so today is, in a way, cause i must avoid until 5:30 tonight. i just saw that one of my meds has sodium laurel stearate, or some such. we will have to see.

i admire ryan's reading of holocaust victims. we really should "never forget", although i think we do, as in darfour, nigeria, etc.

kerry's big day is coming up...don't forget her tomorrow afternoon.

love, mom

I went swimming in my birthday suit!!

that is to say, the 100% polyester bathing suit that i got for my birthday, but only received a few days ago. talking to the water therapy people, they said that the polyester is the way to go. it is resistant to chlorine, suntan lotion or block, doesn't lose its color or shape. it is royal blue, and i look stunning in it. well as stunning as possible for me at this time.

the wall in the storage room has been painted, and we can now put the shelves back in. that is great news for 2 reasons. one is that i might be able to find where i put things. the other is that i may get my car back in the garage. yea to both.

whoever started the contest on "see how long you can hold off posting", knock it off. you win. i lose, along with carolyn and ryan. you know who you are.

it is a gorgeous spring day today. we have tulips and daffodils, grape hyacinths, regliar hyacinths, bleeding heart all going at once. and it's a lovely temp also..about 70.

Kerry has her case study defense on thursday at noon. since she isn't posting it, i will, so that everyone prays for her.

i love my fam!!
mom

modern conveniences

so, if you could only have one modern convenience, what would it be?? my last post was hoping for replies.

i like water

water is good, water is cool,
gather it up into a pool.
or drink it betimes with a terrible thirst
'til again satisfied. go eat a wurst.

sorry, it's hard to rhyme thirst. if i had to give up all but one modern convenience, clean water through the tap has to be it. yes, it would be uncomfortable to use an outhouse. walking wouldn't get me far. lights are better than candles. stoves and refrigerators are up their on the list. but can you imagine having to go to the nearest creek everyday to gather enough water to drink, bathe, cook, etc.? And if it's the River Sidon, get your water upstream. ya never know what someone upstream has done to pollute the water you gather, i.e. bathing, washing, peeing, dead bodies, etc.

so, here's to water!! yea!!!!!

IMHO

IMHO, middle schoolers are oversexed. now, i know that it is not entirely their fault. TV, movies and other media are constantly bombarding them with sexual messages, making it seem like everyone who is cool is "doing it". and sometimes, parental laxness contributes. But to constantly be on the hunt for someone to make out with, or being anxious to lose their virginity....COME ON!

Now, it only gets worse in high school and college. but those people who are actually trying to be chaste have a very difficult time and are often misled by predatory males/females.

rant over....ryan, do you approve of my expressing my opinion??

Ryan says........

Ryan says that I should blog about schtuff if my life is so boring. meaning, of course, that he totally agrees with my sentiments.

my only thoughts today are that it is incredibly dreary. dark clouds, periodic rain. it makes me want to sleep all day. somehow i must make it to the exercising pool.

have you guys noticed the increased fervor about missionary work at church lately. great, it's my worst area. well, maybe not my worst. i have a few sins to work on as well.

schmoops

like i have something to say. every day i look at the blogs, which i love to do, and think, "i should blog". unfortunately, i lead the most boring life in the world. i have meetings, pain, play comp. games, snore, etc. so what's a body to do??

today i restart the no sugar, no refined flour, potato, etc. i despair that i will ever find a reason for the fibro, let alone a cure.

upcoming birthdays!!!! yeah.