Queen for a day

That's right!! DD is the 2014 Homecoming Queen!! So proud!!

Everything's Bigger in Texas....

In Texas, everything's bigger... Football, Cheerleaders, the stars at night....
And in our small town, being nominated for the Homecoming Court is a huge deal. The senior class votes and the top five girls are the nominees (no other class is allowed.) And this year, they've added five senior boys, so tomorrow the entire school votes from these five girls and five boys for Homecoming Queen and King, and it will be announced at the football game Friday night. They even made the front page of the local paper today!
And yes, I am proud to say that my daughter, DD, is one of the five nominees.  She is honored, of course, to be one of the five senior girls, and I am so happy for her.  She really gives 110% in everything she does, and makes it her goal to be a role model.
As a matter of fact, along the way, I have gotten involved in all of the social media to sort of watch what their generation does and to stay current in my field of communications. I do Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, You Tube, Pinterest, Vine,  and Snapchat and I can tell you that most of my "followers" are DD's friends, since I mostly post about her. She's my only child still living at home, and my older two aren't that into social media. You have to know who your audience is, and the point of me telling you this is that there are tons of junior high and younger girls in our town that follow ME to see what DD does. She is high profile here since she is a varsity cheerleader and lieutenant on the danceteam, along with band color guard and most other clubs at school.
So I thought it was funny that one of the other nominee's mom told me tonight that her husband was discussing this subject with his buddies at the local bar last night, and they all decided that it's between DD and his daughter. How funny that even the men are laying bets -- small town living!!
Of course I'd love for my daughter to win, but just to be nominated is truly such a treat.
It's sort of our version of the Academy Awards.....

"All's fair in love and war?"

Just got off the phone with my business partner. Her father was murdered when she was young and she has been raised as an only child by a mother who never really recovered after that event. Money is tight and has always been a struggle for her. She married a man who was raised in the foster home system since his mother was/still is a crack mom living in Austin. He's a good man but has never had many opportunities.
Anyway.
Her daughter is a freshman at the public school in her neighboring town, and is super athletic so plays volleyball. We were just discussing what a RACQUET it is in my town and hers. These volleyball coaches (and yes, it is also true in baseball, tennis and golf) run these "clubs" called "Select" in off-season, and they charge between $1,000 and $2,000 per kid for those kids to be in these "clubs." And the only way to make the team each year is if you play on these club teams. It's how they pad their incomes, and no school will stop it or stand up to them.
So my business partner's husband just had scary, life-threatening surgery, and currently his mouth is wired shut (it's a long, depressing story, but I'll spare you.) He has not been able to work for the last 4 weeks, and money is beyond tight. My partner tried to scrape up the $1,000 for her daughter to play on the select team, but they only chose the kids that could pay the $2,000. I think she should go to the superintendent and put a stop to this clear breach of sanity that borders on illegality.
I expect this from private schools, as the ones around here, the parents pay for their kids to do whatever they want, but I DON'T expect it from public schools where it's supposed to be equitable and fair. I think the schools look the other way to keep the coaches, and everybody knows what's going on but they don't choose to fight those battles.
It's like when my daughter DD (who is a senior) started this school. The first week several of her teachers just put in movies for them to watch instead of teaching and I called the principal. He was a good-old boy who kind of laughed, and said (about her Spanish class) "Well, at least it was in Spanish!" Ugh... She took two years of Spanish and learned NOTHING yet made A's. Having grown up in San Antonio, I will say simple words in Spanish, yet she has no idea what I'm saying. But I digress.
The public school system is so completely corrupt there is no hope. And the private schools are worse, as they only depend on whoever is subsidizing them...
Is NOTHING fair any more???

#wewillnotforget

Hmmm, where to begin.... I guess with my finger that I BROKE today....
Ughhhhhhhh
I was trying to get our bloodhound puppy (who is MY size) out the back door, but he was being stubborn and digging in like a mule (or ASS.)
Anyway.
At 6:00 am this morning, I was trying to push him with all of my might, when he did a little sidestep, and I went careening headlong down four concrete stairs face first. I landed on my NOSE, which started bleeding and I thought I had broke (it's swollen.) But I could barely get up, and got back inside really hurting, and noticed that my pinky finger was completely perpendicular at the joint.
Aaaaaaaaaahhhhhh.
Anyway.
I had really planned on taking a prayer day - I need that - and just going to God with my heart-felt thoughts and requests. Instead, I went to the doctor, and they took forever, and gave me a tetanus shot, and said to go by hospital for an x-ray in our small town. So I opted not to, since the treatment would be the same.
Sigh.
Our cool town, and surrounding area, had flags flying at half mass at all businesses, and tons more were all up and down Main Street. I got the feeling that this ISIS news with it's beheadings, rapings, and mayhem,  has made everyone keenly aware that the radical jihadists have reloaded and grown, and might make a move at any time. And that our current administration is not prepared, and admitted two weeks ago that they have no strategy. THAT got LOTS of bad press, so the prez got his best speech writers to deliver an empty speech last night (I refuse to watch ANY of his  speeches or press conferences) so they could pretend like they are going to do something about this huge rise in a population hell-bent on killing all infidels (that's us.)
But they're not.
Their idealogy is that Tea Party-ers are the #1 enemy, not Islamists. The prez even had the GALL to say that ISIS is not Islam. What? This from the guy who chose a man from the Muslim Brotherhood to be in Homeland Security. Well that's letting the wolves guard the chicken coop.... But it's not just that. I could list tons of people that the prez has chosen to surround himself with, and then all of this becomes crystal clear. Conservatives were screaming at Republicans to vet this guy in his first election, but no one did. He was black and that's all that mattered. He didn't have to abide by the same rules and he still doesn't. Everyone else had to show their birth certificate, and school information but he never did. And if he was asked, he just acted cool like that was the stupidest question ever, and he would not dignify it with an answer. No, this country got mesmerized by a polished speech giver, and won't hold him accountable for ANYTHING.
Well, this country will suffer for it's stupidity and naivete.
We already are....

For God has not given us......

Today our one high school in our small town that my youngest daughter attends, had a bomb threat. I was in a neighboring town, as my friend and I have decided to start a magazine here in the Texas hill country, so it took me by surprise. DD texted me this morning and said they were all outside like a fire drill, so I made plans to drive back. But shortly thereafter, they said the local police had done a "sweep" and they were given the all clear to go back to class (after missing two class periods.) Evidently they then got a second bomb threat, so they were then told to go to the football field to be picked up if they didn't have a vehicle. DD had left so fast, she forgot her purse (and thus car keys.) 

It was the talk of the town, and with social media, the news traveled fast. DD was happy because she and her friend group went swimming in one of her friend's tanks (that's what we call them here in central Texas.) So all afternoon, we got texts from the school that a bomb-sniffing dog from Austin was checking it all out. By this evening, we got word on Facebook that someone had been arrested, although we don't know who yet. 

That person will be in HUGE trouble, because these days pranks are usually considered felonies, and first strike, and you're out. Usually to juvenile detention on something like this. I thought all along that it was probably a troubled kid not wanting to take a test, but quien sabe? (That means, "Who knows" in Spanish, since in most Texas towns, we are half Hispanic, and half white.)

Meanwhile I'm trying to help my older daughter, Alex, who just had a baby, and has her hands full with a toddler and an infant. While I'm trying to start a business. Because, at my age, Baby Boomers don't usually get hired for sales jobs....

Sigh.

I don't know. The week of September 11th is always an apprehensive time. My pastor says that some are saying that we are now in the End Times Tribulation period of 7 years, and are about 4 months into it. Billy Graham's son, Franklin, is convinced we are in the final hours of living before God's church is raptured. The Bible says to toil until He comes, so that's all we can really do. We're not supposed to head up the mountain, and wait for Him up there. No, we do His work until He arrives. 

All I'm saying is that even the non-Christians can feel it. I'm seeing prophecies come out that are saying to be strong when upcoming "storms" arrive. It all gets a bit scary, and it's easy to be fearful, although we're not supposed to. I keep saying, "For God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and love and a sound mind," and trying to let it sink in. 

I don't know if anything will happen this year on 9-11. I saw a Facebook post today by a man who said if his children were young, he wouldn't send them to school, or fly in a jet, or go to crowded places. But as someone else replied, if we do that, the terrorists win. 

True.......

The Buck Stops Here...

I'm speechless... Today I read that Islamists have stolen 11 airliners from Libya and intel is afraid that they will use them for a 9-11 type attack.
Duh.
What they are not saying is that they must know a heck of a lot more. Because, like the MH370 missing airliner, there are satellites all over the planet that can pinpoint what ROOM people are in. You don't think they can see huge airliners being "stolen??"
It's all so infuriating. And then the president... of what USED to be the biggest superpower in the world until HE became president, never claims to know a thing. No, he learned it on the freaking news, or so he usually says. Or he blames it on the fact that he was too busy fundraising or playing golf, and that he delegates it all.
Right.
Well, guess what? Whoever is in charge gets the blame. Period. Because that's what leadership is. The Buck stops here. I don't care if he DOES say he didn't know. Well, even if that were true, then he SHOULD know!! Why don't most people hold him accountable??? Why is it only conservatives??? Are the others embarressed they voted for him?? Are they accountable too if they voted for him?? Even my own son who voted for him, is too proud to admit that this prez has been a debacle but says he's never voting again in any future elections.
I don't know.
Is this whole country hypnotized?? All of the other countries are now laughing at us.  It's like my daughter's high school - when you see the popular people suffer - they all laugh at the bringing down of someone (something) that they are jealous of. We've become a laughing stock to China and Russia. And evil has infiltrated Europe to the extent that it looks too far gone to go back. The cat is out of the bag. The jeanie is out of the bottle. The cows are out of the barn. (Ok, I'll stop, but you get the point.)
They're screwed and we might be too.
I guess it all depends on how many enemies have crossed the southern border. It's not all poor Guatemalans that we are supposed to feel sorry for, and give free everything to, and enroll their children in our schools just because they made the terrible trip here. (Just read today that the cost of the USA schooling these new illegals is $761 Billion. Yes, with a B.)
Sigh.
I guess we are screwed....

Happy? Labor Day

This Labor Day is bittersweet, in that I've always had to work Labor Days in my previous newspaper jobs, but since I am looking for a job, the time off isn't quite a vacation. I don't have the money to go out and do anything, so....
Anyway.
I am ready for Fall to begin, and loved, loved, loved the beginning of high school football on Friday night and college football yesterday!! "Fun football games cover a multitude of sins" (from the book of Pearl)  and something about this time of year gives me hope. Of course the media squashes that with threats of terrorism in the next two weeks, as we are knocking on the door of September 11th and Jewish holidays so...

Just thought I'd make some comments on some of my twitter feed:

-- Judge declares polygamy a legal right - The article goes on to say that the redefintion of marriage other than one man and one woman was the basis of the judges' decision. Um Hmmmm....

-- Surge in babies born without brains in Washington State - Disturbing. They say no one knows why this has been happening but it's an agricultural area...

-- Federal judge overturns Kauai County's GMO and pesticide regulations - I've been seeing this sort of thing a lot lately, even more than usual. A state will vote and rule one way, and the feds overrule it. Just more loss of freedoms to "Big Brother"...

-- China ends the development of GMO corn and rice - Other countries, and even China, are protecting their citizens while the U.S. caves to the mighty dollar, while research has proven that GMO's cause cancer and permanent damage...

-- Harry Reid's Alma Mater dumps his name from building - It's nice to read good news every now and then...

-- Two veterans in critical condition after mob attacked in revenge for Michael Brown - May the record show that these two veterans were white and the mob was black, and that they did not know them. But you'll never hear anything on mainstream media because it doesn't fit their template. Infuriating...

-- Top Marine General now risking his career to take down Obama - This military man is proposing a coup....

-- Outrageous: Obama Admin dangles missile shipment in front of Israel - How scary that our government does not back our strong ally Israel. In the Bible God is very clear what happens to those who side against it....

-- Saudi Arabia's King: ISIS will reach America in two months - Yes, and the day before that the UK prime minister had a press conference saying that he was increasing the terrorist  alert in the UK to severe. And THAT was the day after the Obama said he had no strategy for ISIS...

-- Muslims raping nuns - Need I say more???