Category Archives: Every Day Life

This is about my every day life and the craziness around it. Be it good, bad, or indifferent, I wouldn’t want it any other way!

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My Organized Religion Rant of the Day

I am a Christian. I do not hide the fact that I do believe in God or a higher spiritual being. What my rant
today is about is Organized Religion and the problems resulting from bad ones. As I was going through different social media sites today, I came across an article about a mega church that was closing due to financial difficulties because of “negative press”. This “negative press” that the church is referring to was all because the leader of this church said women’s vaginas we’re good for nothing other than being a home for a man’s penis. Yes, you read that correctly.

Pastor (their term for him, not mine) Mark Driscoll is reported as saying “ultimately, God created you and it is His penis. You are simply borrowing it for a while.” He went on to say “knowing that his penis would need a home. God created a woman to be your wife and when you marry her and look down you will notice that your wife is shaped differently than you and makes a very nice home”.

The article went on to say some other things including why a man should not be gay because of how the penis fits and why one man should not sleep with another man’s wife because that would be like stealing or breaking and entering. I have included the article at the end of this post for everyone to read.

Here’s The first question that came to my mind; how in the world did this man become a pastor? No I know it is easy for anyone to slap the pastor title on their name, but it made me wonder how he got people to support him. He founded the church, which again, anyone can start a church. It’s pretty simple really. The church is in Seattle, which is known for it’s open minded style. Again, a plus for Seattle, but still not sure how he had so much support.
He described his style as “theological conservative and culturally liberal”. As I read that, my thought were….WTH does that mean exactly????

This man was not just a pastor of a regular church… This church is
considered a mega church. That means he had followers upon followers believing in what he was preaching. He has been invited all over the United States to preach as well as to London England to speak to over 4000 people at any event.

It is said that he used a lot of preaching about sex and crude comments. He grew his church by preaching to “horny ” single people.

At some point, I have to wonder why so many people just followed his teaching and preaching. Was it because he said he was a pastor and they just excepted it? Was it because he talked in a language that fit what they wanted their own “church” to be like? It really makes you wonder.

No, the thing that really frustrates me is that because of his comments it makes it hard for people to understand that sex still is not a bad thing to discuss in the church. In my studies for my business, I have read and met with many Christian couples that do not communicate comfortably or at all when it comes to things of a sexual nature. Should that be fixed? ABSOLUTELY! Should it be fixed the Pastor Mark Driscoll way? I do not believe so. He does, however, have some very good points in his book “Real Marriage”. Do I think he’s a pastor and extolling the virtues of a sound Christian leader? No. Do I think he could be a strong sex educator? No, not until he understands women are more than a home for the penis. He is setting healthy sex education back too many years with that way of thinking.

Another thing I found interesting is that former and current church leaders are going against him and accusing him of “creating a climate of fear through his verbally abusive language, lack of self-control, and arrogant domineering attitude”. So…did this all happen overnight??? Was he at one time a super nice guy? Oh wait, or is it easy to attack the guy for his attitude when things aren’t going great? That is another issue I have with organized religion. It’s easy to hold hands and sing Kum be Ya (I am not sure if that is spelled right) when the numbers are growing and the money is rolling in but the minute things go south it is everyone attack the leader. He didn’t change! They just don’t want to be seen as supporting him but they were all about supporting him when it was good for them.

Don’t get me wrong, I do not believe every Church is bad. Just like anything, you have the good, you have the okay, and you have the bad. What I get frustrated with is the fact that so many people blindly follow teachings of one just because they say they are a pastor and those around them are cheering him or her on.

To my Christian friends and readers…. I urge you to challenge those that you are listening to that have a leader role. Do you not just blindly agree and cheer them on because it sounds good or because others are doing it. Look into it for yourself. Do your homework.

To my non-Christian friends and readers…. Please do not use this as a reason to bash those that believe. I understand and respect your position as well.

As I said at the beginning, yes this is a rant about organized religion but it is also a plea to the good pastors and church leaders out there do not take this man’s issues and use it as an excuse to not talk about healthy sexual communication amongst your married church members. We have to encourage that! It will help the marriage stay strong!

Here are two of the better articles about this man:

Driscoll Controversy

The Frisky – Mark Driscoll

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The Question is Why…..Government Funding

I recently read an article about a couple that went zip lining outside of the US and the husband suffered a horrible accident after the wind shifted. He is now in Mexico with a brain injury. I don’t know why, but I started reading the comments. Sometimes the comments are more informative that the actual news article. They provoke thought. In some stories, they are humorous. Not in this one though. This is a sad story so the comments were filled with prayers, concerns, the atheist saying prayers aren’t going to help unless you back it with cash, and of course….the comments I refer to as the “blame game” comments. None of those were a surprise of course, but the one that stood out to me was “why isn’t the government helping to pay?” For accuracy sake, I will say I am paraphrasing, but the bottom line is….it’s the governments responsibility.

That leads me to my: “The Question is Why” segment.

Why are so many Americans so quick to jump to, “Let the government pay for it”. The last I checked, the government doesn’t have a bottomless bank account. For those that struggle with this concept, let me put it in a simpler fashion…..

Someone has to fill the gas tank before you can run the car!

Now, if you are the one receiving the money from the government, you are not the one filling the gas tank. If you are the hard working, tax paying citizen, you ARE filling the gas tank.

The money isn’t falling from the sky people. It has to come from somewhere. We are going to be in trouble one day because, at the rate we are going, we are going to have more people taking money from government sources than we have paying in. What do we do then???

Now, the people I feel bad for are those that legitimately need the help. They are unable to fiscally contribute to society, either due to physical or mental limitations. It is our responsibly to help those that need that help. I won’t go into all of the ones that I feel we should NOT be helping because that would be another post. I want to talk about this one situation.

Here are some facts that I have learned, based on the story and the comments:

They “the couple” have been together for 20 years. This means they are capable of communicating with each other, making plans with each other, etc. It wasn’t a emotionally charged, spur of the moment, trip planned by 20 something year olds.

She (the wife) is a doctor. I don’t know what kind, but many posted that she was their doctor, so I’m going to guess at least family practice or specialty. She’s not a medical examiner for a county, she interacts with real people on a regular basis and seems to be well liked. This tells me she is educated, had decent social skills, etc.

They went with another couple. This means FOUR adults made the decisions for this trip, or at least 2 and the other two just went along with their decisions. Either way, one person, in all likelihood, did not plan and pay for this entire trip.

Four adults went on a trip outside the country, which means they knew to get a passport and they had the fiscal means to do so as well as the fiscal means to actually go on a trip.

I am not trying to pick on this couple during their tragedy, this really could be for anyone that fits these demographics…..but not once did they make a decision to purchase international trip insurance. That was THEIR choice. They didn’t look to see if their insurance would cover them outside of the country, but now that something tragic has happened, some “do gooder” instantly says….why isn’t the government helping to pay?

Are you kidding me???? That is the PROBLEM with so many. Now, in fairness….The wife is NOT the one asking the government to help. Someone set up a “GoFundMe” account for them. I truly do hope those they work with and those that respect this doctor step in and help them. I won’t be. Not because I don’t care, but because my money goes to organizations and causes I believe in. That’s how most people decide who and when to support.

For those that are reading this and want to see the original story, here it is: Accident leaves husband with brain injury

If you want to help them, here is the GoFundMe link. GoFundMe

It looks like almost half of the $100,000 has already been raised, which is great.

As I have said, this is NOT about them, I wish them well. This is about someone automatically saying anything that costs money should be the governments responsibility. Even I have gambled on the outside the US travel insurance. Sometimes I buy it, sometimes I don’t. Educational side note, ALWAYS know what your insurance does and does not cover, especially when going out of the country.

We have to stop automatically assuming the government’s money will bail us out when we make choices that end up fiscally impacting us.

That is my soapbox for the day.

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Morning Snooze War

I thought this posted Saturday morning. It didn’t, so I’m posting now. Still makes me laugh when I remember it!

7:21am Saturday morning and my alarm is going off. As I hit snooze and think to myself….do I really want to go to water fitness? I do, but I’m tired and I am just not ready to get up yet. Maybe in 9 minutes my thoughts will be different. The snooze button, a wonderful and horrible invention.

7:30am, alarm goes off again and as I hit snooze, I rationalize. Yes, I need to lose weight. Yes, I want to sleep. Oh wait, I have to cut the grass! I’ll sleep another 30 minutes or so and then get up and do that. That will be the workout for the day.

Content with my decision, I start to drift off for another blissful 8 1/2 minutes because I still haven’t shut off my the alarm. I never do. I have hit snooze for over an hour. As I slowly start to drift, I change positions of my leg. I accidentally bump Zipper, my Jack Russell Terrier, and he growls and leaps off the bed to curl up in his dog bed.

Zipper, aka “Mr. Grumpy” does not like to be touched when he is sleeping. He doesn’t bite, he just growls loud and takes off like you beat him. He has a way of doing it with such a flair that he can make you feel guilty! It wouldn’t be so bad except that he is also a leg seeker in bed. He insists on touching your leg somewhere. Crazy isn’t it? You can’t accidentally bump him but he insists on touching you. If I move my leg slightly away from him, he will scoot over so he is touching me again. I don’t mind. He’s so cute that it’s difficult to stay mad at him for very long.

Now that he is pouting in his dog bed, I look at my iPhone. A little over 2 minutes left before the alarm is going off. Maybe I should go to water fitness class. Oh yeah, the grass! I’m good. I start to drift again.

7:39am. Stupid alarm. I should just shut it off, or at least change the time. Habit wins, I hit snooze even as I think about it. Start to drift off and I hear crunch crunch crunch. Now, when you have two VERY different dogs that seem to have one thing in common; doing stuff they shouldn’t be doing, you get very in tune with the noises they make. I listen again. Bella, my Neapolitan Mastiff is chewing her toenails. Ugh! The sound. It’s so annoying. I listen again to make sure it’s her toenails and not the bedding as she often does, decide to try to ignore her and go back to sleep.

With Bella, when you interact with her in the morning, she sometimes takes that as an invitation to start playing.

Crunch, crunch….I can’t take it. Eyes still closed, not wanting to face the morning light, I reach my hand around and find her head. I put my hand under her mouth and slowly pull it away from her paw. She stops.

I’m hot. I decide to turn on my little fan next to my bed. Blasts of cold air hit my face. I forgot, the last time I had it on I was laying diagonally across my bed. It’s annoying me hitting my face. I shut it back off. I’m not THAT hot. The blast helped a little anyway.

7:48am alarm goes off and snooze is, yet again, tapped and I start to drift off back to sleep. Then I hear it. The unmistakable sound of Zipper licking his butt. It it one of the most annoying sounds in the world at ANY time but especially when you are trying to sleep. Zipper’s butt licking is an obsession of his. He licks loud. He licks for a long time. It isn’t just licking…it’s like a disgusting slurping sound. I can’t take it. I know it won’t stop. All I want to do is sleep!!! Why won’t they cooperate? I clap my hands loudly. That gets his attention. He stops. Briefly. In the 10 seconds it takes me to rejoice that he stopped without me getting up, he starts up again. AARGH!!!! Not only is he starting up again just as loud, but Bella has started her toenail crunching again as well. I’m guessing my hand clap woke her. I clap my hand again in a last-ditch effort before I have to get up and go over to stop him. They both stop! What???? Blissful sleep for a few more minutes? Yes!!!

I sink deeper into my pillow, getting ready to enjoy the last few minutes of sleep before the snooze alarm disturbs me. Of course, my brain is starting to wonder into thought. I should get up and write this. No! Sleep first, write later. I won’t remember all the small details. Yes you will, go back to sleep. This war of thoughts in my head entertain me and scare me at the same time. Sleep wins….well….the under a minute sleep before the snooze.

7:57am alarm goes off. Snooze tapped automatically. Desire to sleep still winning. Zipper jumps back on the bed and curls up at my calf. It’s ok. I can still sleep. Bella stands up, oh no, what is she doing….she flops back down in a different position. Phew! Sleep crisis diverted. All is perfect. Sleep comes to me.

I know I fell back to sleep. Then it happens. Bella must have stretched her leg a little and tapped Zipper. Zipper growled and jumped up. (That’s what woke me back up). Bella reacted to the growl with a pounce like jump. For such a big dog, she acts like a 20lb dog sometimes. It’s GAME ON! Play time commence. 8:03am. I’ve lost. I pick up my iPhone to write. Not my favorite tool but I still don’t feel like getting up to go downstairs and get my tablet or laptop.

8:06am alarm goes off as I’m writing. I shut it off. I should have just gone to water fitness!

The story should end there, but it doesn’t. In the time it took me to write this, play time stopped and started again. Both times very short-lived. I had a mastiff paw digging into my back. I had Zipper get mad at me again because he tried to lay too close to my arm and it was moving too much for him. I had to stop Bella from licking her butt. Luckily she is not obsessed like Zipper so it’s easy to stop her. Now, as I’m about to conclude this story, I look over. They are both sound asleep, blissfully unaware, dreaming their doggie dreams, while I am wide awake! 8:55am. Water fitness would be just ending. I laugh at the irony. Time to get up.

Sound Asleep

Sound Asleep

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Driver License Proposal

With all this media attention about animals and children being left in hot cars, I have a proposal.

Every potential driver in the United States has to sit in a car. The windows have to be cracked about a half-inch each. The car in a room that has UV and “sun rays” equivalent to an 85 degree day. I say 85 because I think that a lot of people don’t realize how hot 85 degrees is. When we go from an air-conditioned building or home to a car that cools down pretty quickly on an 85 degree day, we don’t always get that “man it’s hot out” feeling like we do at 95 degree weather.

As they are sitting in this vehicle, they can not turn it on. The timer starts as soon as the door shuts. They have to just sit in that car until they cannot stand it anymore and have to get out. Once the door is opened again, the timer stops. I think everyone would think twice about leaving their child or animal in the car with the windows “cracked” after they did this test. Once the test is complete and they have passed everything else, THEN they can get their license.

I wonder how many lives we would save if this was a requirement?

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The Question is WHY? Baby left in car

I first want to say I am happy the baby is safe and sound. I never wish harm on any child, or adult for that matter. Unless of course, the adult has done harm to others!

My question is why….

Why was the child left alone in the car in the first place? Almost every gas station has “pay at the pump” so PAY AT THE PUMP! If you do not want to be bothered by getting your child out of the car and then back in, DO NOT LEAVE THE AREA! It’s as simple as that. Yes, it is sad that the day of walking away for a few minutes and everything being ok is gone. People have to start taking responsibility for their own actions! Don’t leave your child in a car and then wonder why something happened to your child. It’s not rocket science people!

My question is WHY…..

The other part of my question….IF you MUST leave your child in the car while you ran in to pay, WHY did you leave the vehicle in a position to be taken? Did you lock your doors? Did you take your keys? Did you leave the windows down all the way?

It would seem to me that; IF you rolled the windows down (ventilation), but locked the doors, and took the key, there would not have been time for a car jacking. They would have tried the door, locked…dang it, move on to the next vehicle. If they had enough time to pop the lock AND Hotwire the car, HOW LONG was the parent inside “paying” for gas??? This is summer!!! You shouldn’t have been away from your child that long! I don’t think anyone of legal driving age has the excuse “I didn’t know what could happen” when they leave a child or an animal in a hot car. Ignorance is NOT bliss!

My dogs love to travel in the car with me. The minute it starts hitting 70+ degrees out, I think before they go with me. Will I have to stop and get out and leave them? What is the high temp for the day? I know dogs are not children but I’m going somewhere with this. I THINK about the steps BEFORE I leave the house.

I travel with my dogs, sometimes even in the summer. That takes even more preparation. Here are my steps when I stop to get gas and / or use the restroom when I’m traveling with them.
1. Leave the windows down while I’m pumping gas. Talk to them. Make sure their heads can get out the window but not their bodies. Not always an easy task when one is 100+ pounds and the other is 18 pounds but I’m checking it and gauging the windows at that time. All windows EXCEPT the driver’s side window is down pretty far.
2. They have a water source. It used to be a big bowl, but the mastiff would tip it over. Now they have a double-sided cooler I had in my basement that I never used. It’s high enough to hold water and heavy enough to keep from tipping.
3. I lock the doors and take the key.
4. I set my timer on my phone for 5 minutes. If my timer goes off and I am not walking out the door yet, I put stuff down (if buying snacks, etc), go out, check on them, go back in and finish the transaction. I make sure to set my timer again as I go back in.

Does all that seem extreme, probably to some but I don’t care. I am the one responsible for their health and well-being, just as a parent is responsible for their child’s health and well-being. All these steps may sound like a lot, but in reality, they take 20-30 extra seconds (other than having to run back out after five minutes). If these same steps were being followed by parents that don’t want to take their child in to the gas station or corner store then we would have less incidents where a child dies or is taken in situations like this article. Proper planning and forethought is all it takes. Of course, I don’t recommend letting your child stick his head out the window! 🙂

Parenting, be it to two-legged babies or four-legged babies, isn’t easy. We make decisions for them all the time that we then look back on and say…. WHY did we do that? We can’t plan for everything ahead of time, but just stopping and thinking about all possible scenarios for a few seconds and then acting on it would probably stop a lot of the stupidity!

Have a great day all!

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/baby-girl-found-safe-after-she-went-missing-stolen-car-n138196

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The painful step

Have you ever had one of those weeks that you felt like you were falling apart? I was having one of those weeks. It all started with the poison ivy. Now, I KNEW there was poison ivy around my tree in my back yard. I have been fighting with it for a few years now. It has never really been a problem for me, so I didn’t think a lot about it. I knew I was going to be closer to it because I was trying to kill it more, including killing the vines. I did what I was supposed to do, wore gloves, tried to be aware of what I was touching, but let’s face it, sometimes you just want to get the job done. I had my clippers out there, my weed eater, gloves, etc. Needless to say, a couple of days later, the skin around my eye is swollen (I vaguely remember wiping the sweat away with the back of my gloved hand), my knee is covered in bumps, and I am spotted all around with lovely little bumps. The first couple of days, they were irritated, but not too bad, I picked up some cortisone, and thought, Hey, I can get through this. Then the itching started! Oh the horror!!!! NOTHING could make it stop once it started itching. I scratched. Then I bled. Then I was mad at myself. Over a week later and I still have not healed completely. It has been horrible. What did I learn? Longer gloves, wear a hat to minimize the sweat running down my face, and wear pants, not shorts! Hopefully I will never have to endure it again.

So, all by itself, that sounds like a bad week. Oh no, I can’t stop there. My back starts hurting. First it was just a little irritated, took some Excedrin Back and Body (side note, if ANYONE reading this knows where I can still buy some of this, please tell me. Wal-Mart and Target do not carry it) So I take the Excedrin and it feels a little better, but still hurts. I don’t let it stop me. The next morning, I’m taking two more because it’s just not getting better. Went for a 2 mile walk later that day and I could feel every step going up my back. Decided it was time for something stronger so I picked up some Doan’s Back pain pills. Those always seem to work. Took 2, felt a little better, went on with my day. By the weekend, I was taking Tylenol 3 with Codeine and finally relaxing it a little. I still had to get the housework done, the horses fed, still had to lift my mom’s scooter in and out of the van, so I didn’t take the time to truly relax it, just lived with it the best I could until I could get in to my chiropractor.

All in all, a pretty painful week….but Still wasn’t the worst. I was downstairs in my basement and had to unplug my dehumidifier for a short time. Not a big deal, unplug it, get the other stuff done, and plug it back in again. Of course, I didn’t plug it back in right away, I got sidetracked with other things. I was downstairs moving something and took a step back. Pain went SHOOTING through my foot. WHAT THE H*LL????? That hurt!!! I have never been one to swear when I hurt myself, but that one cause more than one word to come out of my mouth. I have never had that much pain from stepping on something. I look down and see the plug to my dehumidifier. It hurt like you could not imagine. I’m walking funny, trying to will the pain away. Of course, walking funny causes more pressure on my back. It was a nightmare circle of pain.

I finally manage to limp upstairs and decide to lay down on the couch. I was not moving for a while! A few hours later, I went to stand up and pain shot through my foot again. WTH???? I’ve never had my foot hurt a few hours after stepping on something. I push down on my foot and I feel like I’m standing on a marble or something. Yes, I stepped so hard that it bruised but also became so inflamed that it was a little round bump right on my foot.

Of course, it was on left side of my left foot so the only way to see it was to twist my leg / back…..sending MORE pain through my back. I decided….I’ll just take a picture of it!

The painful step onto a plug

The painful step onto a plug

Nasty isn’t it? The blue circle may look small, but trust me, the pain was mighty! It lasted for over 4 days, where it hurt to even walk on it. For those that know me, they know that I love to walk around barefoot pretty much all summer. It is not common for me to have shoes on at all and when I do have shoes on, it is usually sandals or flip flops, so having something that painful made it difficult to walk, difficult to stand. I never want to go through that much pain on my foot again!

Here it is; almost the end of the week and my back is just now getting back to normal, thanks to a couple visits to the chiropractor. My foot pain is virtually gone, unless I step just right on it (which I try not to do) and my poison ivy is still hanging on.

All in all, I will be happy to have some pain free time anytime! I welcome it!

Have a great day everyone!

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Crazy Life / Crazy Schedule….Balancing it all

When I started this blog, it was my intention to log on everyday to post something.  It wasn’t because I thought others would really care what I had to say, but rather, to get into the habit of blogging on a regular basis.

It didn’t happen.  I could leave it at that, but I’m going to continue my thoughts.

I am a single person, no children, but keep a very hectic schedule.  I get tired of people saying to me, you don’t have children, how can you be that busy?  Since when did having children be the only reason that you are busy?  Don’t get me wrong, I know that juggling work, life, career, children’s activities, etc, can keep you very busy, but that doesn’t mean that someone who doesn’t have children cannot also be busy!

I have two dogs, a horse, I work full time, I’m trying to start a side business, I try to volunteer to causes I believe in,  I maintain a home, and still try to maintain a little bit of a social life, although I’m not doing too well at that last part!

It makes me often wonder, How do others manage to do it all?  Am I the only single, non parent, person that struggles to find free time?  How do some people manage to have so much free time?  Is free time overrated?

I’m going to go with that.  Free time is over-rated.  For me, I thrive when I’m busy.  On those rare occasions that I spend half a day catching up on my DVRd shows, I feel like I wasted half the month.  I know I didn’t, but I then think about everything I have to get accomplished and wonder why I didn’t work on any of it.

My biggest piece of advice is to stop judging someone else’s use of time.  What may be important to you might not be to them and vice – versa.  If they say they are busy, respect them.  Don’t let the number of people in the household indicate the level that you feel they should be busy!

Enjoy every moment of your life, accept challenges as they come, drive yourself to do what YOU want to do, and accomplish your goal, even if it takes a little longer than you wanted….at least you accomplished it.

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Entering the world of blogging

I have finally decided to enter the world of blogging.  It can be a very scary thing to do because it’s putting your innermost thoughts, opinions, and ideas out  there for others to read, react, maybe even ridicule.  I know that I have to keep a tough skin and an open mind when I post something new.  If someone disagrees with my thoughts or opinions, it’s ok because they are MY opinions, not yours, but I would still like to know why someone disagrees with me.  One should never stop growing and learning.  It is through growth that we thrive, through growth that we empower ourselves to be just that, ourselves.  We should never strive to be someone fake.  Remember that you have to be true to yourself first.  That doesn’t mean you have to be a jerk.  I’d like to think that people, for the most part, are good in their core but they allow outside influence, stress, day to day drama to chip away at that “good” part of them, until there is anger, depression, or just plain meanness because they don’t know how to ignore it or deal with it.  With that I say…..enjoy your day, enjoy your life, and continue to be true to yourself.

Please remember that all thoughts and opinions expressed in my blog are mine.

Thank you for starting this journey with me.