I am sick and tired of reading article after article about Muslims killing Christians. I get the Barnabas Fund newsletters and e-mails and I have read such horrific accounts of violence it ruins your day. Toddlers kidnapped then returned to their parents roasted and served on a plater of rice, children being disemboweled and tortured, the elderly set alight to burn to death, entire villages burned to the ground simply because they believe in Jesus. This anti-Christian violence is perpetrated by the Muslim community in such countries as Indonesia, Burma, Iran, etc, countries where Muslims have the majority rule and minorities like Christians are simply not tolerated. I certainly wouldn’t expect to find such despicable acts here in Australia. I think the world has moved on enough to tolerate each others faith but some countries are lingering well behind. It’s 2008 for goodness sake! Now lets get something straight - I have a Muslim side of my heritage, my grandparents and Aunt are Muslims. I certainly don’t expect to find them knocking down my door ready to kill me so I’m not saying ALL Muslims are Christian killing mongrels. There have been MANY incidents in history of so called Christians killing in the name of God. Many wrongs have been committed by both sides and the simple truth is that the two sides will NEVER see eye to eye and I’m not saying they should. It’s just really sad that these atrocities still happen today, regardless of which side is doing the killing.
My girls were talking last night about careers and life as adults when Claire (age 7) said to Natalie (age 5) “if you want to be a teacher you should get married first then be a teacher.” Natalie asked why to which Claire explained that once you get married your last name changes, so to save confusing the school kids she should wait. Natalie was horrified, her wide eyes and slack jaw said it all. She looked at me and said “I don’t want to change my name EVER!” (I think my grandmother’s heart would have skipped a few beats hearing that statement). I told her that it’s O.K some people don’t change their names when they get married they just keep their name as it is. (My grandmother most certainly would have dropped dead hearing me say that it was O.K) Of course I think it IS proper to take the mans name but Natalie didn’t want to hear that, she just wanted to know that she can be herself for ever. I’m sure she’ll stick with tradition when she grows up but for now she’s my little feminist!
This mouse infestation has me beat. It has now been two and a half weeks of trapping and the tally stands at 141. We are getting very little sleep because the traps go off all through the night. In fact the other night I went and reset a trap and by the time I made it down the hallway and started climbing in bed ANOTHER trap went off. So back out I went and on and on and on the dance goes. I really don’t want to hurt the mice but we can’t live like this any longer. Today I contacted the real estate to explain the situation, now we wait. If it took them six months to fix my dining room light it is a real possibility that our lease will be over before they address this problem. I really wanted to win this mouse war but I have accepted the reality of the situation… just like Napoleon… I am defeated.
This Saturday just past, we were meant to catch up with my father and his defacto, however it had to be postponed because my father had an infected eye with a gash on his cornea. So instead of a nice picnic lunch on the bay I took my seven year old to the shops to buy track pants and socks for school, nowhere near as much fun but a necessary activity. In the car on the way to the shops Claire asked “is grandpa alright?”, I told her that he had been to a specialist and he was going to be fine. The word ’specialist’ must have rung alarm bells in her head because she gasped and said “How much did it cost?”. Poor thing, only seven and already concerned with the cost of medical care!
I love spending a little time looking at youtube having a good laugh. The above clip I find hilarious, when I grow up (still yet to happen) I want to be like this lady. O.K, maybe not hunched over but I certainly want to be an old lady with attitude. Have a look and enjoy!
My husband said something about plugs, plug-ins something like that anyway. I’m sure it had something to do with his computer but whenever I hear the word “plug” I think of tampons! That’s what they basically are… a plug. During my period my husband will hear me say “got to change my plug” and of course I’m referring to my tampon. I just find the word “tampon” a little off putting, like the word “vagina” is too clinical. Is it just me? Oh and apparently plugs, tampons, bullets or what ever you want to call them are great for crafts as well. I think I’ll go make myself a hand full of “ghosts” to hang on my front door, that should keep the Jehovah Wittinesses away!
We just had a visit from my mother recently and out came the goodies, vegetables and fruit from her garden, home made pickled produce and soft cheeses. Yum yum! We were also given an open tin of caramel, that didn’t last long I can assure you, as well as a bottle of open thickened cream. No worries if they won’t use the whole bottle I can put it to good use, at least that’s what I thought. I was getting ready to use that cream this morning when I noticed the edges of a “reduced to clear” sticker. DING DING DING alarm bells started ringing. That gentle voice inside my head said “look at the expiry date” so I did.. AAAAHHHHH… it expired three weeks and three days ago. It was now official… my mother’s trying to kill me… or at least give me food poisoning. (Oh I know you’re reading this, don’t tell me it was still good….three weeks past….three weeks! ) From now on all well intended food offerings will be thoroughly inspected before making it into my fridge!
I had another appointment with the endodontic specialist today. As lay in the dental chair I made a big mistake… I didn’t close my eyes. Instantly my pupils dilated (at least I’m pretty sure they did) and my head shook as I saw that HUGE needle headed for my mouth. I snapped my eyes shut but it was too late, fear entered my body. My heart rate accelerated and my mouth went dry. Calm blue ocean, clam blue ocean, calm bloody BLUE OCEAN! I repeated it over and over in my head and finally I calmed down. Then the next hurdle presented itself and I started to panic once again, I couldn’t breath! I was at the tail end of a cold and my nose was still blocked quite a bit. I didn’t want to cancel my appointment because I didn’t want to wait another eight weeks for another appointment. but perhaps I should have. I had a rubber dam in my mouth so breathing through my mouth was not an option… air…air… I needed air. I took a deep breath through my nose and it cleared all the mucus… thank God… I could breath again. This happened about three times during the hour long root canal but the real scary part was yet to come… paying the bill! $1560 later I was freed from the clutched of the endodontic group, that brought my total to $5000 exactly for just two teeth! It was now time for lunch but considering we don’t actually have the money for all this dental work (God bless credit cards) I was reluctant to spend any money. What was I to do? Then it hit me… give blood. So over to the blood bank I went to see if they could fit me in. They had one space available so in I went and got poked with yet another needle then out I came with a sandwich, sausage roll, cappuccino and sultanas all for FREE. Now that’s how you get lunch without spending a cent!
I was grocery shopping the other day with my three year old nephew when all of a sudden his “evil streak” came out to play. We had just passed a trolley with a girl of about two in it, she was pointing to my nephew giggling. He then covered his eyes with his hands, thus hiding from her. The little girls smile turned to a frown and she called out “no”. Well my nephew could tell she didn’t like this so he called back “yes” then raised his face to watch her reaction only to bury his face again in his hands. The girl called out again “no” to which my nephew replied “yes”. The little girl then started jumping up and down in the trolley and yelled out “NO” to which my nephew calmly and quietly replied “yes”. This antagonistic behavior certainly comes from his mother, funny how children inherit both positive and negative characteristics. Perhaps I’m wrong, perhaps antagonism is a learned behaviour? Either way it was time to pick my dried fruit, move on to the next isle and hope our trolley’s didn’t cross again.
My husband recently finished his PhD and as a graduation gift, my mother and stepfather got him a bottle of Johnnie Walker green label. I think all scotch whisky is disgusting even if it is aged 15 years but that’s not where’s I’m going with this. To get back on track my husband was enjoying a glass of green label when he said “my glass has a use by date”. I explained that the glass he was using was an old jam jar but obviously I hadn’t scrubbed the ink date off yet. My mothers glass looked very similar and sure enough that glass had a use by date as well. This just goes to show that you can bring fine alcohol into this house but you can’t guarantee fine glasses to go with that!
