Jimmy Is 3 Months Old!

Where has the time gone? Little Jimmy is 3 months old today. He continues to be a delight and the light of our lives.

He is now able to roll over and holds his head up and look around. He is using his hands more and more but he still hasn't quite "discovered" them. He's also using his legs a lot more and he will try to stand up in the tub when he gets his bath. He coos at us and is starting to "talk" to us a lot more. Daddy had him laughing in church on Sunday which cracked Mommy up. People let us know they heard him and they loved it. We don't know exactly how much he weighs but he is growing like a little weed. It's amazing how much he has changed since he was born. He's a real little person now and his personality emerges more every day. He would rather be up and playing or being held than anything. The dogs are very good with him and they don't seem to scare him at all so we're fortunate there.

It looks like we are only going to be in Wisconsin for another couple of weeks. Next week John and his boss are going to Battle Creek to get some work done and to find us housing. We have really enjoyed our sojourn here in Fond du Lac and we wouldn't have been sorry to stay. But we're glad that things are falling into place now and that John will be doing what he loves. Please keep your prayers going for all of us.

Jimmy Goes to Lambeau

On Wednesday we went to Green Bay, watched the Packers practice, and took a tour of Lambeau Field. Jimmy was a little trooper and enjoyed his day with us. Here are his impressions of the day:

Hewwo evwebuddy! My name is Jimmy. I had a gweat day wif my Mommy an' Daddy. We awe wiving in a new hows cawed Wiskonsun now. I weawy wike it. I has my own woom at wast! Dere is a pwace hewe in Wiskonsun cawed Gween Bay whewe dey pway a game cawed footbaw. Mommy sez footbaw is da bestest game evew inventud. Daddy sez hokee is. I hasn't seed any hokee yet. I has seed Daddy do basbaw games. Today Daddy tooked Mommy an' me to dis Gween Bay pwace to see dese guys cawed da Packews pwactus dere footbaw and to see dis big pwace cawed Wambo Feewd. It's where dese Packew guys pway dere games. We gotted dere an' we gotted to watch da Packew guys pwactus acwoss da stweet fwum dis Wambo Feewd pwace. It was fun! Den we wented to da Wambo Feewd an' tooked a toor uv it. It was weawy cool! We seed da stachus of a coupwa guys cawed Curwy Wambo (I fink dey nameded da pwace aftew him) and Vins Wombardee (he wuz a koch). We gotted to see pwivut box too! An' den we gotted to go down and go on da feewd where dey pway da games. At weast dat's what Mommy an' Daddy towded me. I fawed asweep aftew I eatud. But Mommy an' Daddy gotted a piktuw of aw fwee uv us dere. Den Mommy an' Daddy goed to da Pwo Shop and Mommy botted a widdle Packews hewmut fow my woom!

Aftew dat Daddy tooked us to dis pwace cawed Tony Woma's to eat. Daddy an' Mommy had big peepuw food an' I eatud my fowmuwa. I be gwad wen I can eat da big peepuw food too. Aftew Mommy an' Daddy wuz dun wif dinnew we cameded home. Mommy feeded me agin. It's bedtime now. I vewy tiwurd. I has had a big day! But it shur wuz fun wif Mommy an' Daddy. I weawy wuv dem wots and wots. Dey wuvs me too.

Pwetty soon we awe moving to anuver new hows cawed Mishagun. I hopes I wike it dere. I weawy wike it hewe in Wiskonsun. I hopes I has my own woom dere too. But I guess as wong as I have my Mommy an' Daddy an' da puppies I will be vewy happee. Nite nite, evewywun. I gonna go beddy bye now.

Wuv,
Jimmy

I'm Sick of Politics As Usual

And it's only August, nowhere near Election Day.

It's not bad enough I'm assaulted with slam ads every time I turn on my TV or radio, now I get all this crap by email. I'm sick of it. Even when I send out emails and ask people not to send me that stuff I still get it. I guess I'm on some kind of group list.

I'm not going to go into my personal political affiliation or ideology. That's not anybody's business but mine and the voting booth's. My view of politicians as a breed is pretty cynical. I think that anyone who has been in either house of Congress for more than 10 seconds is probably a criminal and deserves to be lined up along the wall and shot. I don't believe there is any such thing as an honest politician. Every last one of them has sold out their ideals or beliefs, every one has prostituted him- or herself in the interest of getting what they want. There's more pork in a Congressional bill than on a pig farm. And our "public servants" are only serving themselves, the public be damned. Well I'd like to say to them, "You're a public servant, I'm the public. You're fired!" See? I told you I was cynical. I also believe that even though our political system isn't perfect, it's better than the majority of governments in the world.

After listening to the ads so far (and they haven't even gotten really nasty yet) and being bombarded with email, my question is: If Obama is as evil as McCain paints him and McCain is as evil as Obama paints him, why would you vote for either one? Hmm. Could it possibly be that the ad agencies who produce these ads are engaging in a little hyperbole? Is it possible that the emails that are sent out as "fact" are just a bit slanted toward the sender's own political view? Nah! Nobody would ever do that! Not here in the land of free speech. It has been my experience that when extremes are presented on either side that the truth lies somewhere in the middle.

I don't know whether President McCain will be better than President Obama or if President Obama will be better than President McCain. I don't think that with either one things will get better for my personal economy; I'm the only one who can change that. I don't think that either one of them will make our country more secure; if anyone wants to launch a terrorist attack against the U.S. then a way will be found to do it. I don't think either one of them will be able to successfully end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and bring our troops home; we're too deeply involved for a quick solution within the next four years.

I think one of the biggest problems with this country is that the majority of its citzens expect the government to do it all and are too lazy to hold that same government accountable when it fails to do what its citzens want. Too many people complain about our government and too few do what is necessary to change it, namely, VOTE!

So once again I'm left with a choice for president between two people I'm not crazy about. It would just be so easy to not vote at all but I won't do that. I will vote. I will vote to preserve my right to bitch about the presidential administration and Congress we get, whether I am part of the majority that put it in office or not. I will vote because it is my right and duty as a citizen of the United States and if I don't then I might as well move to a country run by a military dictatorship that doesn't believe in allowing its citizens to have a say. I will vote because I am still idealistic enough to believe that my vote can make a difference. I will vote because it's the best way I can express my approval or disapproval of our elected officials. Yes, I will vote. But this year I think I'll vote for Darth Vader. I'm tired of voting for the lesser of two evils.

Finally Updating!

My darling husband has been after me to update my blog for a long time. He doesn't buy my excuse that I have more important things to do than update my blog. Or the excuse that I don't have anything on my mind. Okay, so he has me over a barrel and has called my bluff.

Something really cool has happened recently (other than the birth of my son Jimmy). I was researching Jimmy's family tree on Ancestry.com so when he gets older he'll have some idea of who his ancestors were. I found a distant cousin of mine right here on Blogspot! Her name is Gina McRobie. She is related through my maternal grandfather's mother. Granddaddy had lots of brothers and sisters so I'm sure I have a ton of cousins out there I'll never meet. Gina and I have exchanged emails several times and she has given me some tips on researching my husband's side of the family. I hope when Jimmy gets a little older I'll have more time to pursue the research on the Meissner family. Until then, if you think you may be my cousin, contact me! I'd love to meet you!

Well Whoda Thunk?

Exciting news! At the tender age of 43 I'm pregnant! Woo Hoo!

John and I thought we weren't able to have children. I thought I was going through an early menopause because I was having hot flashes and all the other nice symptoms of menopause. But after this last weekend spent with my head down the toilet, I decided enough was enough and got a home pregnancy test, just to rule out the possibility. Never rule out! It came back positive very quickly. At first I was completely nonplussed and in shock. I wasn't happy right away because it was such an unexpected thing, even though John has been telling me for two months I'm pregnant. I figured what does he know? He's a man.

After thinking about it and letting it sink in for a couple of hours I realized that I was overjoyed. We went to the doctor today and got confirmation of the results. I am having an ultrasound done on the 29th to find out if everything is okay and how far along I am. I figure 2 1/2 to 3 months at this point. I will admit to still being scared. At my age and with my past medical history this will definitely be a high-risk pregnancy. But I'm going to do everything I can to make sure our baby is healthy and happy. God gave us this blessing, I'm going to take care of it!

Things Are Getting Better!

After 6 lousy weeks of unemployment and numerous financial difficulties that go with that "lovely" state of affairs things are beginning to take an upswing.

I started a new job today and find myself firmly behind the learning curve again. It's work I've done before, medical transcription, but I had only done it for one doctor before. Now I'm doing it for a whole hospital full of doctors and I imagine I'll be getting everything from simple ingrown toenails to major traumas. It should be interesting. I find that after more than a year off my skills are rusty but with the practice module I did today I think they will come back and improve. The hardest part is going to be learning everybody's name! And just about the time I do I'll start doing the job from home.

So I won't be seeing a full paycheck until December but it's a whole heckuva lot better than no paycheck at all! Now maybe I can buy hubby those Lone Ranger DVD's he wants for Christmas.

Are We Really Paying Attention?

This is probably one of the many reflections I'll do about the corporate worship of the Episcopal Church in the USA.

I've been a confirmed Episcopalian since December of 1984, more that half my life. During that time in many different parishes, both as a communicant and a visitor, I have experienced a diversity of worship. I have participated in services from the very High Church with "bells and smells", following to the letter the Book of Common Prayer to very Low Church with just following the general outline of the Mass but pretty free and open. I have been in parishes and groups where people speak in tongues and in groups where charismatics would probably be burned at the stake.

This is one of the main things I love about the Episcopal Church. There is no dogma of the "right" or the "wrong" way to worship Almighty God. No one is turned away from the Eucharistic table because they are not Episcopalian. The only requirement for receiving the Sacrament is that you are a baptized Christian. The "blue signs" many of us look for when locating a parish say, "The Episcopal Church Welcomes You" and, on the whole, we mean it. Most of the people I have met in parishes other than my home church have made an effort to welcome me and speak to me. Unfortunately some have not and have embodied God's Frozen Chosen. Thank God this has been the rare exception than the rule!

I wonder, though, how many of us are paying attention, really paying attention during the celebration of the Eucharist? Okay, I've been guilty of it at times and I'm sure everyone is. I look around at the faces sometimes and I wonder who forgot to tell them this is a celebration. Yes, we do the same thing Sunday after Sunday from the same book, the same Bible, the same words. Yes, many probably know the whole thing by heart. Yes, sometimes we're tired when we're in the pew and don't really get into the service. I love it, though, when I see someone really getting into it. I love watching my husband, who was only introduced to Episcopal worship two and a half years ago, learn the different parts of the service. Even though some of his jokes during the service may irritate me, at least I know that he's paying attention.

So are we really paying attention to this wonderful gift of corporate worship? Do we really appreciate that the same rite is used in thousands of other parishes throughout the country, thereby uniting us into a larger corporate body of worship and uniting us to worshippers throughout history? Do we realize how blessed we are to have the opportunity to come together weekly and CELEBRATE the life, death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ when so many in the world are persecuted for doing just that? Do we celebrate? We should. As a friend of mine once said, "Do you love Jesus? Then tell your face!" And next Sunday CELEBRATE!