My opinion on the cold and flu season

You know with the cold and flu season about to hit us, you better send your kids outside now while you can cause you know they are just going to get sick from being outside.

Just kidding!!!!

That is one of my favorite cold and flu myths. You can't get sick from going outside in the cold and you can't get sick if your hair is wet and you can't get sick if your clothes are wet.
This has got to be one of the silliest myths that I have ever heard. If it were true, I'd have a cold or flu all year long. Do you have any idea how many times I go outside to run and it's raining and it's freezing and my insides have just about frozen over and I rarely get sick. Well some may say, yes but your a very healthy person. True. But, it's still a myth, read the facts.

http://health.msn.com/health-topics/cold-and-flu/articlepage.aspx?cp-documentid=100172929

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/ColdandFluNews/story?id=5718776&page=1

http://health.msn.com/health-topics/cold-and-flu/articlepage.aspx?cp-documentid=100227053

Kids get sick from poor nutrition and being around others who are sick. When my kids get sick, I let them go outside if they choose, I let them run around and play. It's good for them. I won't let them play with others however.

There was this girl who was supposed to be on our soccer team, but she never showed up for church reasons, which is fine. But when she called my husband to announce that they were calling it quits. She mentioned that the rainy season is approaching us and said they heard it was going to be a wet one. I told him, well it is a good thing you didn't send her to me to talk to her about that one. Since when was sending your kid outside in the rain a bad thing? It only sucks for the first 5 minutes, but after that it actually feels refreshing. I like the rain and your kids are not going to get sick if they get wet.

Oh and please don't send poor little Susie outside with 14 layers of clothes on when it's 32 degrees outside. You'll give her heat stroke! You will not believe how many times I have witnessed parents over dressing their children. The poor kid can't walk with so many layers on, they walk like Penguins, their cheeks are bright read and they complain of being so hot. I even said "why don't you take something off?" and they said "my mom won't let me!"

Really? Poor thing, bless your heart.

Self-Esteem by Zig Ziglar

Ridicule, abuse, fault finding, and so on are destructive forces. From one perspective they all stem from a critical, harmful, negative spirit. As such, they are all tied together, but personally I have come to the conclusion that the number one cause of a poor self-image in adults and children is the absence of unconditional parental love. This unconditional love from the parent almost always precedes self-acceptance...

What is unconditional love? It's just what the phrase implies-loving a person without any prior conditions, because of who the person is and not because of what the person does.
Unfortunately too many parents love a child if he cleans up his room, makes good grades, is home by eleven, is a "good" boy or girl. In short, the love is conditional. This means that often a child doesn't feel he deserves love, even from his parents. The love is tied to performance, and if the performance isn't good, the indication is that there is no love. If the child feels the parents love only the good actions or good performance and not him, a Pandora's box of potential trouble is opened up.

If the child doesn't feel he deserves love from his own parents, he assumes that he is unworthy of love; therefore, he should not love himself. Logically, then, if he can't love himself and feel good about himself, who will love him? Indeed, it is a very short step to feeling of no value-a nobody. Such a blow to the self-image-namely, feeling "I'm a nobody"-is devastating.

Related Bible Texts: John 15:12; Romans 5:8; Ephesians 5:25-28; 1 John 4:7

Kyron Hormon

Since the news of Kyron Hormon's disappearance, I have been glued to the television set as most people were. I have said many prayers for him and his family. Everytime I watched the news, it was extremely emotional. I never wanted it to be the stepmother as I am a stepmother and the whole "evil stepmother" thing is annoying to me. But after awhile, I began thinking she probably did do it. I've noticed over the last few months, the news isn't so much talking about search efforts, but more on what is happening in court and I wonder if they are at a lost, they don't know where his and maybe shifting their focus on that he is gone and who do we blame and how do we prove it.
In the car the other night, my 7 year old daughter said "I think when they say someone died on the news that that is very rude!" And we talked about this for a few minutes. I said that I thought Kyron is up in heaven with his angel wings and she said she thinks he is flying around on Earth and I said that if that is true, I hope that he is trying to comfort his parents. I questioned at what point do his parents accept the fact that he is gone and they say goodbye to him? As a parent, if Kyron was my son, that would be very difficult to finally come to terms with the fact that he isn't coming home and it's time to say goodbye. Now all his parents have is hope and admitting it's now time to say goodbye is just very final. That would be a hard decision to make.
His parents are going through such a hard time. I will continue to pray for his safe return and for his parents. I can't imagine what they are going through and I don't want to.

Naomi's airplane ride with Dave Salesky

My daughter Naomi got to fly with Dave Salesky. This is his plane. It was a special day for her.



Her view from the plane. This is Hagg Lake, Forest Grove, OR

Honey it's time for a new lawn mower!

A few years ago, we made the stupid decision to get rid of a perfectly good family member, our dog Chico. We had taken him in because his previous owner was moving into an apartment and it was either us or the pound. That's at least what he told us. He was a border collie, a nice dog. He was smart, he could chase after a ball for hours, stayed in the front yard by himself, would follow behind you without a leash. The problem with him was that he wasn't being taken care of properly by us. He couldn't go for runs with me because of his severe hip dysplasia, nobody would take him for walks and rarely played ball with him. I felt sorry for him and thought he would do better with a different family and I wanted a dog that could run with me and could entertain himself. Well we found someone to take him, I tried to actually stop him from going that night, but it probably was better off. He went to a farm in Maupin, Oregon, has several acres to run on, chickens to chase and his new owner takes him everywhere. Oh plus, 2 other dogs to play with.

But I learned something from that experience. One, I learned immediately how to be a better dog owner, most importantly. Chico was a good dog, we were bad dog owners to him. Two, I learned why repair things when there is nothing wrong with it?

If you take a look at how America lives, you would think that majority of us were all living to live like the Joneses. It appears we are all in debt in some way and it seems that America has an obsession with replacing things that really have nothing wrong with it.

Oh, look the neighbor has a new barbecue or lawn mower! "You know something honey, I think maybe ours should be replaced after all!"

I don't like the idea of keeping up with the Joneses. Seems to me, you would always want more and more and never be fully satisfied. A family that I highly respect not only re-did their whole kitchen, but the outside as well, the front and backyard and the side of their house. I think it looks nice, but someone else that lives by them, I think is jealous. At one point, I thought the two families were competing. And, how much did it cost this retired couple to fix up their beautiful kitchen, yard and siding? You don't want to know, a lot. I think they were trying to keep up with the Joneses themselves.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- America's total debt load is on pace to top $13 trillion this year, and $22 trillion by 2020 -- and that's just the debt we're counting.

Now days, it's easy to replace an item because you don't want it anymore. That's what credit cards are for right? (Absolute sarcasm.) How many stores do you shop at want you to open up their credit card? What's the first thing you see when you walk into Costco? Well at mine, it's the big and beautiful flat screen television sets. Why keep your big box that is dated when you can have one of those? Why not you deserve it after all, right? All you need is a credit card and you can have one. Right? Uh huh. You can sit around and ignore your whole family just as easy with your current one, you don't have to buy a new one.

Aren't we also teaching our children to be in debt? When they see you pull out your credit card to pay for an item, what is that teaching them? When you pull out the debit card, do they know the difference between that method of payment versus a credit card, don't they look the same? Either one of my children will often have more money than the other and I will often hear, "I'll pay you back" I never let them do this, I refuse to allow it as I believe it teaches them it's okay to purchase something without actually having $. Teaches them to be in debt.

Not only do we have a big box tv that I don't want to get rid of, my parents gave it to us so they could purchase a better tv. We have a gas dryer that works wonderfully, bought it for $25 off of craigslist after the old one broke. We have two older cars that are both completely paid for. Brett has a 2002 Trailblazer and mine is a 98 Mazda minivan. I love my car and never want to get rid of it! Since I took out the 3rd row, I can put my dog or bike in the back. It says Marathoner on the front and Ultra Marathoner on the back. It's cool, old but cool. Works fine. I have an alarm clock that I have to fix the time every night. It ends up being 6 minutes too fast every night. I could replace it sure, but why? Is it seriously hard to change the time back? I think the thing has a lot of character. I like it. You know my kids are getting on my nerves, perhaps I can replace them? Just kidding.


According to Proverbs 22:7, "The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is slave of the lender" (NRSV)

We have 3 credit cards. One I don't use, the other I've had forever and only use it when I take the pets to the Vet and the other we use, but pay off every month. I still honestly feel like I am a slave to the stupid thing and I hate that. I think it would be best to just get rid of the thing and live on a cash only method as Dave Ramsey teaches. Don't know who he is? It's about time you did. www.daveramsey.com

On the first day of school public school yesterday, a woman I know was walking out of the 2nd grade class and overheard a little boy mention that he didn't have any school supplies and wouldn't have them until Thursday when his mom got paid. When I heard that story, I about cried my eyes out. How unbelievably sad. My heart went out to that boy. As the day went on, I got to thinking. They sent the list out about a month ago and certainly the mother had to have expected to buy school supplies for her 2nd grader, why didn't she save up for them over the summer?

I do all the finances in our family as I find myself very knowledgeable and I love to do them. I can tell you, we save for everything, even the Pge, water, and doctor bills, even when we are not going. Every week, I put $ aside for them. And we have an emergency fund for those just in case moments when something breaks and we have to replace the item or perhaps and heaven forbid, we'd oh my like to replace the tv.

But we aren't in debt. Not rich, but not in debt and that's okay with me.

The Rainbow

Up on the hill, there is a beautiful oak tree. The tree sits alone. It's branches are plentiful and provides shade.

Everyday a little girl goes to the tree with her daddy, hand and hand. The two walk to the top of the hill and sit, laugh, lay back and look up at the sky. She can feel the wonderful warmth of the sun on her face and a warm breeze. She giggles as she watches the clouds above form into funny creatures. She is so happy. She truly loves her daddy. He is everything to her. She snuggles up to him and feels absolutely comfortable with him. She says "Daddy, I love you so very much." Her sweet innocent face changes a little as she sees the rainbow again. She remembers what her daddy has told her before. She starts to whimper a little and sits up and looks at her daddy whom she loves dearly and says "Daddy, a rainbow! How much longer till you have to go?" and he says "I'm afraid it won't be much longer, but just remember I will always be looking down at you from above and I will love you now and forever. Come back to the oak tree, think of me and know that every time you see the rainbow, I am communicating my love to you."..........

The little girl is now a grown woman and while she has not been back to the beautiful Oak tree since she was a child, she now returns in remembrance of her beloved father that she lost so many years ago. She lies down and looks up at the sky and sees a rainbow and she feels warm all over and very much loved.

She smiles and giggles.

For the love of airplanes

My daughter Naomi absolutely loves the Oregon Airshow. Every year her eyes are absolutely glued to the sky. We live about 5 miles away from where the show takes place. We can see the Blue Angels or Thunderbirds fly above every year and they normally shake the house. Naomi loves it. "Mom, Dad, Kayla come quick, they're here!!" She often says and she will stay outside for hours watching them fly above.
We started taking her to the show last year, 1 day and she went this year. I think however, we'll take her to two out of the three shows next year.
With Naomi's love of airplanes, in a few weeks, she is again going to see some more planes, meet a few pilots and possibly ride in a plane. Very exciting.
I really hope she keeps up her with this passion. Who knows maybe her dream of flying one of those planes some day will come true. I'll encourage her and I know her father will.
May dreams come true.