We Are THAT Family: WFMW: Helpful Tips for Shopping Online
Some great and creative tips for shopping online for bargains!
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Thursday, July 30, 2009
My Daily Domestic Diigolet 07/30/2009
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Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Taking a small blogging break -
...it's been a rough year and it ain't over yet. However Mr. Pete, the kids and I are going to be taking a little vacation (translated as LONG WEEKEND). Calvin's holding down the fort with our fierce (not so much) pooch Sophie! See ya next week hopefully with pictures!
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Works for Me Wednesday - planning for your own death dos and dont's!
My sister and I have learned SO much from my mom's death last month and I'd like to share some of the things mom did that were extremely helpful, somethings we all could have improved on AND some things that haven't been going so well!
DO pre-plan your funeral! Mom sat down with the funeral home she wanted to use and planned EVERYTHING from flowers to the hairdresser, casket and grave site. Mom had everything planned for a viewing, funeral mass, cremation and inurnment. This was such a blessing for us. We saved a lot of money too!
DON'T count on your kids to write your obituary. I screwed up her date of birth (and used my girlfriend's date of birth which is only a few days before moms! My girlfriend caught it at the calling hours!) My sister and I couldn't remember if she got her Master's degree at Michigan State or University of Michigan. And although we heard those stories for years and years and years, when we needed the details we didn't have remember them. Write down the key parts of your life you want remembered in an obituary including who predeceased you, education, work record, hobbies, stuff like that.
DO talk about the funeral. Mom wanted to plan her readings and funeral music, but I just couldn't bring myself to talk to her about that sort of thing. I wanted to plan for her recovery, not her death. If she had left notes on the readings and music that she wanted it would have helped us out a great deal.
DO keep a record of all of your life insurance policies, annuities, properties, etc. and let your heirs know where your will is! In fact - have a will!! My sister and I found mom's life insurances by going through stacks and stacks of papers. I just by chance found a copy of her will. And while we're on the topic, where you keep your will is something to really think about. Mom has hers locked up in a Probate court in Michigan. They will not release it to anyone but another probate court which has been problematic for me. But if she had locked it up in a safety deposit box that could have been bad as well because that apparently takes an act of God (or at least some legal maneuvers) to get the contents. I think Mr. Pete and I will invest in a fire proof safe at home for such things.
DO throw out stuff you don't need or want or use. We've been throwing out statements and banking stuff from the 60s! (Although some stuff I'm keeping just for family history purposes.) If you haven't worn it in 10 years- pitch it! Throw away paperwork after it has outlived its usefulness.
Works for Me!
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Monday, July 27, 2009
SYTYCD Cancer awarness piece
If you didn't see this last week on So You Think You Can Dance, you might want to watch it here. This was a piece dedicated to breast cancer, but I could relate to it from watching my mother with ovarian cancer and I think really anyone who has had cancer or watched someone fighting it could relate to this beautiful dance.
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Simple Woman
I feel kind of silly still doing these since the Simple Woman site is shut down for the summer. I'm not sure why I continue to link to it except we were asked to. At this point I guess I am really keeping it up because I enjoy doing these, and it makes a nice snap shot of my life every week, and because I miss it when I don't. Maybe my kids will enjoy reading these in the future.
Outside my window...
Sun and blue skies and I finally have come to appreciate it after this long winter and bitter spring.
I am thinking...
one of my friends called me an "Obama hater." It kind of surprised me because I really truly, can say from the bottom of my heart do not hate anybody. I have hated before. Hate takes an incredible amount of time, effort and energy. Hate can be completely consuming. I do not even hate my EFC! At this particular point in my life I simply don't have it in me to hate anyone, even when provoked. President Obama seems like a pleasant guy. He has a great sense of humor and I think we have some things in common like marriage, parenthood, pride in our heritages. He comes across as approachable. But our world views are 180 degrees apart and I strongly disagree with most everything he supports. I still think it is possible to do that without hate. Maybe that's something else we have in common.
I am thankful for... good health and a thrifty husband. The van he bought on eBay is wonderful!
From the learning rooms...we are in the big push to get work done before our assessment.Gabe and I have completed two assignments in the Bravewriter Kid's Write Basic Class. I also signed Sam up for this online class studying Chaucer.
From the kitchen...Chicken Alfredo.
I am wearing...new black capris and a white T-shirtbut I have an appointment with an attorney today to go over stuff on my mom's estate so I'll probably exchange the capris for a skirt.
I am creating... so peace and order to the balance of my mother's estate, I hope.
I am going... to be doing more cleaning and organizing and exercising!
I am reading...
Grieving the Death of a Mother
I. Love. This. Book. I have written before about grief and grieving and some things to say or not say to someone who is bereaved, but my experience with mom's death have added some things to my perspective. This part really touched me.
As a grief educator, I encourage thorough grief. No "light" grief, no short cuts, and no time off for good behavior; the day-in day-out work of grief is necessary and important. Unfortunately, I grieve in a society that aggressively limits grief that reprimands, "You should be over your mother's death by now" (sometimes punctuated with an exclamation point)> It's as if a game clock somewhere determines how much grief time one gets.
After my mother's funeral, I frequently felt as though I had run a gauntlet of questions: "How old was your mother?" When I answered eighty three the frequent response was, "Oh then she lived a good long life." "Oh" felt like a slap to my face. What would be wrong with her living eighty four or eighty-eight years? "Was she a Christian?" Yes. "Well then, she's in a btter place." "Had she been sick?" Yes. "Then her suffering is over." Yes, but what about mysuffering? Grief, particularly for an aged mother, is disenfranchised. Jeanine Cannon Bozeman writes: "I perceived that many people felt tht because mother was "old" and I was an adult child, the loss should be less significant."
It does not matter who you are or how high or low your status in society: how old or young you are
how experienced you are in the black and blue realities of life
how clever you are with words
losing a mother wounds.
For the rest of life, some will have a great difficulty finding words to wrap around a mother's death. A song, a scent, a taste, a fabric or a memory will leave us wordless.
It does not matter how self-confident you are-losing a mother deprives you of a chief-cheerleader.
Mary Poppins
which is much, much better than the movie!!150 Bible Verses Every Catholic Should Know
I am hoping... that we have a safe trip this week. I am leaving for our family reunion (Calvin is staying behind though because he has to work and he also wanted to stay with the dog). I could really use the break. This is my paternal grandfather's side of the family and they will also need some time to grieve for my mother.
I am hearing... The air conditioner which actually masks the usual buzzing in my ears.
Around the house...got the kitchen and the dining room cleaned up! Now I have a bunch of laundry to fold to get ready for our trip.
A few plans for the rest of the week:Do whatever my attorney tells me before I leave for the reunion.
A picture I am sharing:
Izzy was a volunteer at one of the library shows. This is the Weird Science show! I'm not sure what scientific principal he was illustrating, but it was a lot of fun to watch that toilet paper fly forcefully into the center of the crowd via the leaf blower!
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Sunday, July 26, 2009
Sunday Snippets- feast of St. Joachim and St. Anne
Sunday Snippets--A Catholic Carnival is a weekly opportunity to share our best posts with the wider Catholic blogging community. To participate, create a post highlighting posts that would be of interest to Catholics and link to the host blog at This That and the Other Blog. Go to the host blog and leave a comment giving a link to your post.
Feast of St. Joachim and St. Ann! Grandparents to Baby Jesus!
Remember your grandparents on the Feast of St. Joachim and St. Anne!
From Mary Reed Newland's "The Year and Our Children"
St. Anne is the patroness of old clothes dealers, seamstresses, laceworkes, housekeepers, carpenters, turners, cabinetmakers, stablemen, and broommakers, and she is invoked against poverty and to find lost objects. Although the martyrology doesn't say so, she must be the patronness of Grandmothers, and we love her for that because she we could never get along without our grandmothers. The children love to recall that if she was still there when the Christ Child learned to talk, He called her Grandmother. The nicest of her symbols we think is a cradle with the infant Virgin Mary in it.
From the Saint of the Day!
This is the “feast of grandparents.” It reminds grandparents of their responsibility to establish a tone for generations to come: They must make the traditions live and offer them as a promise to little children. But the feast has a message for the younger generation as well. It reminds the young that older people’s greater perspective, depth of experience and appreciation of life’s profound rhythms are all part of a wisdom not to be taken lightly or ignored.
We think the best way to honor the feast of St. Joachim and St. Anne is to do something lovely for grandparents. Little girls might dress their best dolls as the tiny Mary this day and lay them in flower bedecked cradles.
Under Her Starry Mantle has done a wonderful job of preparing for the feast day.
My St. Anne links on del.icio.us.
We included grandma in our St. Anne feast days in the past, but this year we will have to start making some new traditions. I think it is important to start something new but also to honor our past and tradition. I think we will probably take some flowers out to grandma at the cemetery and perhaps decorate with green ribbon. I also plan to make some red and green cupcakes today.
Scenes from last year's Feast of St. Anne with my mother.
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Feast of St. Joachim and St. Ann! Grandparents to Baby Jesus!
Remember your grandparents on the Feast of St. Joachim and St. Anne!
From Mary Reed Newland's "The Year and Our Children"
St. Anne is the patroness of old clothes dealers, seamstresses, laceworkes, housekeepers, carpenters, turners, cabinetmakers, stablemen, and broommakers, and she is invoked against poverty and to find lost objects. Although the martyrology doesn't say so, she must be the patronness of Grandmothers, and we love her for that because she we could never get along without our grandmothers. The children love to recall that if she was still there when the Christ Child learned to talk, He called her Grandmother. The nicest of her symbols we think is a cradle with the infant Virgin Mary in it.
From the Saint of the Day!
This is the “feast of grandparents.” It reminds grandparents of their responsibility to establish a tone for generations to come: They must make the traditions live and offer them as a promise to little children. But the feast has a message for the younger generation as well. It reminds the young that older people’s greater perspective, depth of experience and appreciation of life’s profound rhythms are all part of a wisdom not to be taken lightly or ignored.
We think the best way to honor the feast of St. Joachim and St. Anne is to do something lovely for grandparents. Little girls might dress their best dolls as the tiny Mary this day and lay them in flower bedecked cradles.
Under Her Starry Mantle has done a wonderful job of preparing for the feast day.
My St. Anne links on del.icio.us.
We included grandma in our St. Anne feast days in the past, but this year we will have to start making some new traditions. I think it is important to start something new but also to honor our past and tradition. I think we will probably take some flowers out to grandma at the cemetery and perhaps decorate with green ribbon. I also plan to make some red and green cupcakes today.
Scenes from last year's Feast of St. Anne with my mother.
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Saturday, July 25, 2009
My Daily Domestic Diigolet 07/25/2009
Peggy Noonan: Common Sense May Sink ObamaCare - WSJ.com
- Will whatever health care bill is produced by Congress increase the deficit? “Of course.” Will it mean tax increases? “Of course.” Will it mean new fees or fines? “Probably.” Can I afford it right now? “No, I’m already getting clobbered.” Will it make the marketplace freer and better? “Probably not.” Is our health care system in crisis? “Yeah, it has been for years.” Is it the most pressing crisis right now? “No, the economy is.” Will a health-care bill improve the economy? “I doubt it.”
- The problem is that the national mood has changed since the president was elected. Back then the mood was “change is for the good.” But that altered as the full implications of the financial crash seeped in. The crash gave everyone a diminished sense of their own margin for error. It gave them a diminished sense of their country’s margin for error. Americans are not in a chance-taking mood. They’re not in a spending mood, not after the unprecedented spending of the past year, from the end of the Bush era through the first six months of Obama. Here the Congressional Budget Office report that a health care bill would not save money but would instead cost more than a trillion dollars in the next decade was decisive. People say bureaucrats never do anything. The bureaucrats of CBO might have killed health care.
Under Her Starry Mantle: Day 8 of the Petitioning Novena of St Anne, food for the feast!
So background history on the images and symbols for the feast of St. Anne.
Waltzing Matilda: St. Anne's Feast
Wonderful fun ideas for celebrating the feast of St. Anne!
Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
Friday, July 24, 2009
8 And decaying he died in a good old age, and having lived a long time, and being full of days: and was gathered to his people. 9 And Isaac and Ismael his sons buried him in the double cave, which was situated in the field of Ephron the son of Seor the Hethite, over against Mambre; 10 Which he had bought of the children of Heth: there was he buried, and Sara his wife
We did the female version of that today. My sister and I with our kids met at the cemetery today. The new young priest from our church did the prayers at the graveside which was very nice. Then together my sister and I took mom's urn and placed it in the double niche next to her husband and our father.
This small part of mama's saga is over.
Mama's urn, which I liked very much because it reminded me of cotton candy or something sweet. Mom liked to dress in pinks and purples as well. She would have loved this urn.
In the niche now next to my father.
Their face plates before closing up the niche.
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Join Jen and the other Quicktakers over at the Conversion Diary.
1. Back in 2005 I blogged about the day we inurned my father's ashes. You can read that here, here, here and here. Today we take my mother's ashes out there as well.
2. Originally my mom was going to have a regular burial, but she changed her plans when my father was cremated. My mom was sort of like that - always changing her plans based on what my father did or didn't do. When mom first died I had the bright idea that maybe we could go ahead with a regular burial and then put Daddy's ashes in her grave. Then we could get a regular grave stone and have a regular grave site. But my sister protested that this is what my mother wanted and so this is what we should do. It's not about me.
3. I'll bet I end up spending most of the time out there though. Just sayin... Visiting a "niche" just doesn't have the same feel as visiting a "grave."
4. On the positive side, I did go out there with my mom when she bought the niches and they are right on the ground, so that will make it easier to bring flowers and other decorations to put right in front of the niches. Assuming of course the cemetery people don't throw them away.
5. Speaking of the cemetery people - I really do love our cemetery but sometimes they drive my nuts. I had to go out and sign a paper to have mom inurned today and so I went out to visit Raphael's grave. We bought a very nice vase for Raphael's grave. It sits on top of its base when you have flowers in it, but then when they want to mow the grass it pops right down into the base, underground to lie flat with the ground. It takes two seconds to put it in the base properly, but if they just pound it down and then run over it with the lawnmower it gets jammed inside and you can't get it out to put flowers in it. Such was the case yesterday. Luckily Mr. Pete know how to unjam it.
6. After we get mom in her new place, I have two wedding rehearsals tonight. The brides couldn't be more different. They are both older ladies, but the one is so laid back I have only heard from her once. I even called her to make sure everything was all set! The other is 180 degrees on the spectrum. So I work tonight from 5 to about 8.
7. Then tomorrow there is another mass in mom's honor at 8 a.m. and then I have the two weddings. To top off the day, Sam and Gabe are going away with the youth group on Sunday, so we are going to Saturday night mass - I am so looking forward to Sunday!!!
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1. Back in 2005 I blogged about the day we inurned my father's ashes. You can read that here, here, here and here. Today we take my mother's ashes out there as well.
2. Originally my mom was going to have a regular burial, but she changed her plans when my father was cremated. My mom was sort of like that - always changing her plans based on what my father did or didn't do. When mom first died I had the bright idea that maybe we could go ahead with a regular burial and then put Daddy's ashes in her grave. Then we could get a regular grave stone and have a regular grave site. But my sister protested that this is what my mother wanted and so this is what we should do. It's not about me.
3. I'll bet I end up spending most of the time out there though. Just sayin... Visiting a "niche" just doesn't have the same feel as visiting a "grave."
4. On the positive side, I did go out there with my mom when she bought the niches and they are right on the ground, so that will make it easier to bring flowers and other decorations to put right in front of the niches. Assuming of course the cemetery people don't throw them away.
5. Speaking of the cemetery people - I really do love our cemetery but sometimes they drive my nuts. I had to go out and sign a paper to have mom inurned today and so I went out to visit Raphael's grave. We bought a very nice vase for Raphael's grave. It sits on top of its base when you have flowers in it, but then when they want to mow the grass it pops right down into the base, underground to lie flat with the ground. It takes two seconds to put it in the base properly, but if they just pound it down and then run over it with the lawnmower it gets jammed inside and you can't get it out to put flowers in it. Such was the case yesterday. Luckily Mr. Pete know how to unjam it.
6. After we get mom in her new place, I have two wedding rehearsals tonight. The brides couldn't be more different. They are both older ladies, but the one is so laid back I have only heard from her once. I even called her to make sure everything was all set! The other is 180 degrees on the spectrum. So I work tonight from 5 to about 8.
7. Then tomorrow there is another mass in mom's honor at 8 a.m. and then I have the two weddings. To top off the day, Sam and Gabe are going away with the youth group on Sunday, so we are going to Saturday night mass - I am so looking forward to Sunday!!!
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The other side of the Obama Nation
Yesterday one of the liberal twitterers I follow wrote this:
She was referring to some folks who are still trying to see Obama's birth certificate, but I wonder if maybe this sentence could be turned around on so many of the people who voted for Obama in November and are still sticking by him over six months later.
Around the time of the election I was following quite a few bloggers who were supporting Obama's candidacy, mostly for abortion rights although one was following because she was against the war and she thought Obama would be better for the poor. She urged me to "listen to what he says."
So I've been listening. I remember hearing that we had to pass the Stimulus bill immediately because the economy would falter without it. I remember hearing that this president was going to have transparency. I remember hearing that the stimulus package was going to save jobs and create jobs! I also remember hearing that these big bills were going to be on the internet so that everyone could read them.
The reality is that the Stimulus Bill was so big that NOT A SINGLE PERSON IN CONGRESS had the chance to read it before voting on it. And the regular people never had a chance to read it on the internet before the vote. And six months later the unemployment has continued to climb. Where are these saved jobs? Where are the new jobs? What exactly happened to all of that money?
And for my friend who felt Obama would end the war - we're still fighting it. And the poor are not only getting poorer, but others are joining them as their jobs are lost and savings dwindle.
So in the face of logic and evidence shouldn't these Obama supporters be looking at their decision to support this man and be adjusting their views accordingly?
As a side note, I have a theory on why Obama is so set in passing this universal health code before August, which is like next week. he wants it passed quickly like the stimulus bill. He's making it sound like a dire emergency and he wants to scare everyone into passing it before there is a chance to read it and understand the consequences. I don't think he's going to make it this time.
Greta Vansustern had Rush Limbaugh on her show last night and he talked about Obama's health care plan and the problems with it. Part 1 is here.
Check out Steve Crowder's undercover look into Canada's national health care here.
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An inflexible unwillingness to update one's beliefs in the face of logic or evidence is the very definition of fanaticism.
She was referring to some folks who are still trying to see Obama's birth certificate, but I wonder if maybe this sentence could be turned around on so many of the people who voted for Obama in November and are still sticking by him over six months later.
Around the time of the election I was following quite a few bloggers who were supporting Obama's candidacy, mostly for abortion rights although one was following because she was against the war and she thought Obama would be better for the poor. She urged me to "listen to what he says."
So I've been listening. I remember hearing that we had to pass the Stimulus bill immediately because the economy would falter without it. I remember hearing that this president was going to have transparency. I remember hearing that the stimulus package was going to save jobs and create jobs! I also remember hearing that these big bills were going to be on the internet so that everyone could read them.
The reality is that the Stimulus Bill was so big that NOT A SINGLE PERSON IN CONGRESS had the chance to read it before voting on it. And the regular people never had a chance to read it on the internet before the vote. And six months later the unemployment has continued to climb. Where are these saved jobs? Where are the new jobs? What exactly happened to all of that money?
And for my friend who felt Obama would end the war - we're still fighting it. And the poor are not only getting poorer, but others are joining them as their jobs are lost and savings dwindle.
So in the face of logic and evidence shouldn't these Obama supporters be looking at their decision to support this man and be adjusting their views accordingly?
As a side note, I have a theory on why Obama is so set in passing this universal health code before August, which is like next week. he wants it passed quickly like the stimulus bill. He's making it sound like a dire emergency and he wants to scare everyone into passing it before there is a chance to read it and understand the consequences. I don't think he's going to make it this time.
Greta Vansustern had Rush Limbaugh on her show last night and he talked about Obama's health care plan and the problems with it. Part 1 is here.
Check out Steve Crowder's undercover look into Canada's national health care here.
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My Daily Domestic Diigolet 07/24/2009
- Employers
in the United States have cut 6.5 million jobs since the recession
began in December of 2007 and the country's unemployment rate recently
hit a 26-year-high of 9.5 percent.
White House Budget Director
Peter Orszag said Wednesday officials expect the unemployment rate "to
remain stubbornly high" even when the economy improves. And Federal
Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told lawmakers Wednesday the country's
rising unemployment rate remains the biggest threat to the economy.
Is unemployment actually much higher? Like close to 20 percent? | Washington Examiner
More of that hopey/changey thing - although I can't believe this is the change people were hoping for.
- Every month, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) publishes six “measures of labor underutilization” (i.e. unemployment). The official unemployment rate used by politicians and the media, referred to as U3, measures the percent of the civilian labor force that is out of work. (http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/print.pl/lau/stalt.htm)
But U3 does not include so-called “discouraged workers” who have completely stopped looking for jobs, “marginally attached” workers who had not searched for a job within the past month, or those involuntarily employed part-time instead of full time. U6 includes every willing worker who wants, but is not able to secure a full time position, so a state’s U6 rate is obviously higher than its U3. - puts the nation’s true unemployment rate even higher - close to 20 percent – which is well above the U6 and into Great Depression territory, when nearly one out of five workers found themselves unemployed.
Atlas Shrugs: Mary Jo Kopechne, it was forty years ago today
- Farrar
repeatedly expressed the opinion that Mary Jo Kopechne had lived for
some time underwater by breathing a bubble of trapped air, and that she
could have been saved if rescue personnel had been promptly called to
the scene. He had equipment to administer air to a trapped person
directly or to augment an air pocket inside a submerged automobile.
"There
was a great possibility that we could have saved Mary Jo's life,"
Farrar said. "There would have been an airlock in the car - there
always is in such submersions - that would have kept her alive. If we
had been called, I would have reached the scene in 45 minutes. I say 45
minutes because it was dark. ( The daylight recovery had taken 30
minutes ). The lack of light might have caused a delay of 15 minutes."
Intellectual Conservative Politics and Philosophy
As a date in history, July 18 is not particularly noteworthy. Not much happened on that date since the Brits and tempestuous storms decimated the Spanish Armada in 1588.
On July 18, 1969, Mary Jo Kopechne drowned in an overturned, submerged Oldsmobile in a back channel off Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts. The anniversary of her death is not much noticed these days by the perennially left-leaning mainstream media. It is as if it never happened.
Nor did the fortieth anniversary of Mary Jo's funeral July 22 draw attention from news media, still into covering Michael Jackson. Senator Edward "Ted" Kennedy attended the 1969 funeral with his then-wife Joan, under the glaring eyes of Mary Jo's parents, Joe and Gwen Kopechne, their family and friends, in Plymouth, Pennsylvania.
- The Chappaquiddick incident gets short shrift today, but changed the life of, and the life's ambition of, the last of Joseph and Rose Kennedy's sons. It deep-sixed a realistic run at the presidency by a third Kennedy son. In that, it might have changed history.
- What precisely happened will never be fully known. Kennedy's reticence then and since amounts to a cover-up, almost mockery of public interest. ("Shock," he claimed, caused him to blackout, clouding all recall. It is an excuse for all the ages.) Kennedy did not inform the police of the incident until nine hours after the tragic event, also never explained by the boy who hired others to take college tests for himself.
- Worse, Mary Jo Kopechne, whose drowned body was found in a position trying to eke out the last molecules of air within the submerged car, was left to drown by the self-involved Senator who chose not to seek immediate help.
YouTube serially aborts pro-life videos
Shocking information about Youtube and their removal of abortion videos. I use Youtube daily for news clips, commentary and to keep up with programs I don't have time to watch on t.v. It's disturbing to find out they might be part of the right wing media agenda.
By now you're likely one of 1.5 million people who have seen the graphic video of Neda Soltan dying after being shot in the chest on June 20, 2009, during protests in Iran following the presidential election.
The video shows Neda collapsing into the arms of two men, who try to stop her bleeding with their bare hands. Suddenly, Neda's eyes roll up and to the right, almost as if they are looking at the cell phone video camera chronicling her death. Blood begins pouring from her mouth and nose, into one eye and down her face. Cries erupt from the crowd, and you know Neda is dead.
I don't know how the tragic video of Neda's death is any less graphic than a video by the Center for Bio-Ethical Reform showing the tragic, graphic deaths of children by abortion, but it is according to YouTube, which removed this video.
There's something about showing abortion that sets it apart from all other videos in the Big Brother eyes of YouTube.
YouTube allows almost any surgery video imaginable, like gastric bypass, gallbladder removal, toe amputation, appendectomy and brain tumor removal, and gross-out body parts videos like a buttock fecal fistula or peritoneal cancer – but not abortion.
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Thursday, July 23, 2009
Small Successes
1. Well this wasn't actually my personal success but I'm still very proud of Mr. Pete. He looked and looked for the right family vehicle for us. Finally found one on eBay - four states away!! He drove down there alone, found the place, bought the van, rented a hitch from U Haul and then drove the new van back towing the car behind! And did I mention it was 8 to 9 hours of driving both ways?!
He also over came our little insurance problem. He tried to get plates in the state where he bought the car, but they didn't accept our insurance so they would not let him buy plates. He tried to buy insurance, but they wouldn't let him because he wasn't a resident. So he took the plates off of the car he drove down, slapped them on the new van and drove back!! Today we went to get the temporary plates for the van and the lady said what he did was illegal -yea, we know. But I'm a little unclear on what the other choices were? Anyway we're all legal now!
2. I got my mom's ashes and arranged for her to be inurned tomorrow and even have a priest who can come out and do a little service. So this part of the saga is almost over and I feel that I have done the best that I can for my mom.
3. I have TWO weddings to work this weekend. One of the brides is very nervous but through our e-mails I think I was able to help her out a little bit. I pointed out that her wedding day is on the eve of the feast of St. Anne and then I gave her the link to the novena. I think it helped and I'm glad I had that information.
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My Daily Domestic Diigolet 07/23/2009
Palin to feds: Alaska is sovereign state
- Gov. Sarah Palin has signed a joint resolution declaring Alaska's sovereignty under the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution – and now 36 other states have introduced similar resolutions as part of a growing resistance to the federal government.
- Just weeks before she plans to step down from her position as Alaska governor, Palin signed House Joint Resolution 27, sponsored by state Rep. Mike Kelly on July 10, according to a Tenth Amendment Center report. The resolution "claims sovereignty for the state under the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States over all powers not otherwise enumerated and granted to the federal government by the Constitution of the United States."
F word in parts of speech - not a family friendly link.
I have always said that people with very limited vocabularies will persistently use the F word as all parts of speech, but this link almost makes that sound like a good thing!
More bodies go unclaimed as families can't afford funeral costs - Los Angeles Times
- Smith said he has seen many families go to great lengths to claim their loved ones' remains, despite financial setbacks.
"We've had families try to have car washes and other little fundraising events. . . . They try to do right," he said.
More bodies go unclaimed as families can't afford funeral costs - Los Angeles Times - Annotated
Interesting article to me as we just went through my mother's funeral. Fortunately for us, she had pre-planned her funeral and pre-paid.
- She wouldn't have to fly out- ashes can be mailed. My father's ashes were sent via the USPS from New Mexico to Ohio! - post by mydomesticchurch
- The poor economy is taking a toll even on the dead, with an increasing number of bodies in Los Angeles County going unclaimed by families who cannot afford to bury or cremate their loved ones.
At the county coroner's office -- which handles homicides and other suspicious deaths -- 36% more cremations were done at taxpayers' expense in the last fiscal year over the previous year, from 525 to 712. - Once the county cremates an unclaimed body -- typically about a month after death -- next of kin can pay the coroner $352 to receive the ashes. The fee for claiming ashes from the morgue is $466.
Christopher Agosta's ashes are among those waiting. - "I know that I can't afford to handle all this," Baker said. "I can't afford to fly out there and ask questions."
Coroners and funeral directors around the country say they are seeing the same trend as cash-strapped families cope with funeral costs. Just claiming a body from the L.A. County coroner costs $200. Once a body is claimed, private cremations usually run close to $1,000, Smith said. Funeral homes charge an average of $7,300 to transport and bury a body in a simple grave, according to the National Funeral Home Directors Assn.
"No one is immune from this," said Bob Achermann, executive director of the California Funeral Directors Assn. in Sacramento. "The economic malaise we're in is affecting everybody.
"Families are making different choices based on the economy, choosing different caskets or urns or holding shorter services," said Jessica Koth, a spokeswoman for the National Funeral Home Directors Assn. "They're cutting back on floral memorials. If they have a funeral procession, they're not having the family limousine."
CongressDaily - Dems Start To Push Back Hard To Prevent A 'Waterloo'
"You're going to destroy my presidency."
No sir, you're doing a good job of that by yourself."Let's just lay everything on the table," Grassley said. "A Democrat congressman last week told me after a conversation with the president that the president had trouble in the House of Representatives, and it wasn't going to pass if there weren't some changes made ... and the president says, 'You're going to destroy my presidency.' "
The White House did not respond to requests for comment.
Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
What's going on at My Domestic Church
Mr. Pete bought a new van ( for us anyway) from a nice man in North Carolina on e-Bay. The transaction went smoothly but of course the devil is in the details. It seems he cannot get plates for the van in N.Carolina because our insurance company is not licensed or registered or whatever in N. Carolina. So Mr. Pete tried to buy some insurance in N. Carolina but they wouldn't sell to him because - wait for it -
he's not a resident of North Carolina!
So he asked someone at the Department of Motor Vehicles what he should do since he only plans to drive the van for 45 minutes to get out of North Carolina back home. Their reply was akin to that deer in the headlights look. I guess the moral to the story is make sure your insurance company will cover you in whatever state you want to buy an e-Bay vehicle from.
Hopefully he will get that worked out and be back home tonight.
In other news, I have to get my mom's ashes today. That makes me happy and sad at the same time. I actually MISS having her around and having her ashes in my home is comforting to me in a way. I think. I don't actually know yet because I haven't picked them up. But I like the idea of it. At the same time I have to take them out to the cemetery on Friday and that makes me sad in a way. On the other end it's closure and with closure comes some relief.
Please browse my eBay items!
Visit my new Amazon Store!
he's not a resident of North Carolina!
So he asked someone at the Department of Motor Vehicles what he should do since he only plans to drive the van for 45 minutes to get out of North Carolina back home. Their reply was akin to that deer in the headlights look. I guess the moral to the story is make sure your insurance company will cover you in whatever state you want to buy an e-Bay vehicle from.
Hopefully he will get that worked out and be back home tonight.
In other news, I have to get my mom's ashes today. That makes me happy and sad at the same time. I actually MISS having her around and having her ashes in my home is comforting to me in a way. I think. I don't actually know yet because I haven't picked them up. But I like the idea of it. At the same time I have to take them out to the cemetery on Friday and that makes me sad in a way. On the other end it's closure and with closure comes some relief.
Please browse my eBay items!
Visit my new Amazon Store!
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