Back around the middle of April - March, I wondered if this year would ever end.  Now, we are only a week away before the clocks count down to a brand new year!  A lot of changes have taken place, and most of them within the last few weeks.

My sister and her family have moved to Alaska.  Alaska?!  Her youngin's left late Christmas eve and have arrived early Christmas morning.  It'll be a great Christmas for her and the family.

As for me and my family, we'll be spending it gathered around our nearly dried out Christmas tree, eating turkey, ham and some other good eats (hopefully none of which will be dried out).  But it hasn't been all tinsel and glitter this Christmas and I can't really put my finger on why that is; my cousin has a theory about that thought.  He thinks it has something to do with the fact that we haven't hung the lights up outside around the house.  He's said it so frequently that I'm almost ready to believe him.

So I guess I shouldn't have been surprised when I came home from work and found twinkling, bright lights climbing the coconut tree in our front yard, along with Rudolph, Santa in an airplane (why? I don't know), and Frosty lined up along the walkway like it was a Macy's Christmas parade.  Obviously someone had been to Costco and came back with most if not all of their Christmas yard trimmings. 

I guess I just haven't been in a Christmas frame of mind, even with all the colored lights and scented trees, but I am thankful for the blessings in my life: faith, family, friends, work.  So, here's to Christmas: lights, tinsel and great smelling trees, Costco for bringing Christmas to our front yard!  For whatever it means to you and your family...best wishes always; and Merry Christmas everyone!

I'm Still That School House Rock Chick . . .

sometimes people just wanna steal your thunder, you know?!  Now it seems the whole, post-your-favorite-childhood-cartoon-character mania on FB was submitted under false pretenses.  I don't care, cause I'm hanging on to my good intentions and the good intentions of others.  So stick that in your pipe and smoke it!

I'm a School House Rock Chick!

As posted on my FaceBook page . . .

There are nay-sayers who believe that the simple act of pasting the image of a cartoon character is useless and has no meaning; they've posted blogs about our ridiculous "follow-the-leader" mentality. While I've never considered myself a mindless lemming, I thought the idea of profiling a cartoon image from my childhood to bring awareness to child abuse was a great idea, it was simple, easy and something that I (just one person) could do to show my good intentions; not too mention a little walk down memory lane of all the great things I had as a child and the things that helped to shape me as a person. 

So, to all the nay-sayers, I think I can speak for most of us by saying that OUR intent is to bring AWARENESS, if only to ourselves; to bring to the fore front of our minds the hurt and pain of the most unspeakable kind that may have happened to one of us, or someone we know or countless others who have endured or continue to endure abuse of any kind.

Our actions will not change laws or policies, it may not change behavior or erase the memory of the harm caused by others, but yesterday I did nothing.  Today, I posted an image of a cartoon character and searched the internet for other images that reminded me of my childhood -- and that made me smile; I also read a few blogs and comments that said, "Yeah, like this is gonna help end violence against children."

So, people of the FB world make your intentions known . . . have a conversation, post it on your blog, think good thoughts or say a prayer.  Every little bit helps, you know it does.