It's been a long time since I blogged...

I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living.
Psalm 27:13

It’s 8:30 a.m. I’m home alone. Thank God. It’s been a horrific time these past couple of months. I didn’t know if I’d ever get through them and yet today I’m still standing. I’m being a sister of satin today. I’m not going to get dressed today, just sit around in my satin bathrobe and listen to comfort music. (Make sure you're not reading this Satan, it's SATIN, a fabric!)

First the Rotary Auction. Successful yes, but worth it to me personally? I’m not so sure. It ate my lunch…took up every free moment. Dealing with 360 items, 200 businesses, several hundred bidders, many political politicians who want to use the venue to get their name out there, plus 55 Rotarians, almost sent me to the home for the bewildered. I literally worked 12-14 hours a day for weeks. I fell into bed around 2-3 am, since I had to work at my office during the day hours. I ended up taking a week off from my “real job” just to get things done. That counted as a financial loss for me. No one can imagine what it takes to collect that many donations, categorize them, advertise them, (radio and news papers) photograph every item, put them up on a website, made up gift baskets and then in the middle of the auction night, live on the radio, all the phones go down. The sense of “OH NO” and the feeling of spiraling downward hits the pit of your stomach. I’m still cleaning up auction junk. Unhappy bidders, and not paid for or picked up items. Plus, a few wrong items, etc….yada yada. Thanks to my daughter Joelle, sister in law Barb Beebe and faithful husband…I went through it and raised 21K bucks. Thank you Lord.

In the middle of that process other Rotarian were on my butt about, “When are you going to have a new directory”: and “Do you have a list of everyone’s birthdays”, do you have last month board meetings minutes? Plus, we have new members, the attendance report is due, order badges, make certificates…. on and on. If I didn’t believe in Rotary, I’d think it’d be time to quit the club. My volunteer secretarial position takes up 40+ hours a week.

In the midst of all that, my new sofa that was supposed to take 3 months to arrive (since I ordered special fabric, etc.) came in 4 weeks. Okay then, time to remove every bit of furniture in all the rooms and have the white carpets cleaned before the new stuff is delivered. Uh-huh and then after the cleaning, let the floors dry for a couple of days. Oh goody, we can sit in the kitchen. So, my housework load increased by 10.

Not only that, but son Billy and wife Hilary bought a fixer-upper house and needed help with the girls. So, a two year old and nine month old camped out here for long weekends. I enjoyed them immensely, but the workload was overwhelming. Without Joelle, I couldn’t have done it. Husband Bill helped more on the house project while Jo and I tended the babies.

My mother also continues to decline (Alzheimer’s) so I am there up trying to take care of her weekly. I don’t enjoy the drive, even though the fall leaves are beautiful. And…my dad wanted me to help him do a garage sale. I’d been promising him all summer that I’d do it, and I wanted to keep my word, since they are both so dependant on me. He’s been planning on it. He’s old now. And mom is nearly 87. He’s trying to winterize and thinking he may need to sell his house in the spring and move closer to me. Now, everyone knows a garage sale is a ton of work. It’s especially hard when I’m watching mom so she doesn’t do something to hurt herself, keeping my eye on Leah, trying to unload a ton of junk from my own basement, price everything, and set it all up on a COLD- 38-degree weekend, just wasn’t my idea of a treat. I sold around $200 worth of stuff, but had tons left over since the weekend was rainy and cold. My dad did manage to sell stuff he wanted to get rid of. We had to go back up there the next weekend to deal with all of the leftovers.

Mid- Auction crunch, my emotions went to "H" when baby Susanna’s thumb was severed off. Thank God for the hand surgeon who repaired it and we just heard that last Friday the final stitches were removed. The weeks of wondering if the grafting would take, kept me in a constant state of prayer. Of course everyone was upset. I felt so bad for my son who was questioned by the police and felt like a bad parent. I felt sorry for Susie who hurt and Leah who was scared. I felt bad for Hilary trying to hold the family together while painting, cleaning, and picking out things for the new house. It seems, (no one really saw it happen) that Susie was holding onto a wooden toy-box type step stool with her thumb over the edge when Leah jumped off her bed and slammed the lid down on Susie’s thumb. Now Leah is just 2 years old, (hey, recently turned three) and of course didn’t do it on purpose, but all the blood, screaming, paramedics and panic did a number on her as well. Of course we wanted to bring Leah here so mom and dad could deal with Susie and the surgery, etc. She then had a bout with the flu and threw up all over my bed one night. YUCK, Yuck, Yuck. I stopped and rocked my baby.

My “real job” coordinating ¾ of a million bucks and dealing with city leaders for the new Access to Recreation Trail and park, hit a snag with the DEQ when the hydrology studies came back in a negative way. Plus, I have several major events in the works, including a luncheon for 350 women, (Nov 12). I’ve invited a guest speaker Amy Barzack from “Boundless Playgrounds” to speak and educate the general public regarding children with disabilities and a need for recreation opportunities for them. Again, invitations, lists upon lists, travel arrangements, books ordered for the signing, on and on…. it’s a huge work. I have Amy booked to speak at CMU to several classes, at Rotary and at the community partners dinner. My quarterly reports are due to Kellogg…still not done, but due on Oct 7th.

We have our annual meeting for the foundation next week, which includes a huge dinner, and the annual newsletter is going out next week… Again…. how can I describe the workload?

I have a community partners dinner planned for local group homes and people who care for people with disabilities set for Nov 10th. Last week my venue called and said they really couldn’t pull if all together for Nov. Okay…. find a new venue and caterer…no problem…next week I’ll look.

I had to set up and man a booth at the Business Expo last week at the Soaring Eagle Casino and Resort. No help…tons of work…pouring rain unloading the car…. Help me Rhonda…or anyone else who’s available. Bill and Joelle showed up to help me take it all down after it was over. It was another 14-hour day. (And you wonder why I don’t have the “thank you” letters out to the auction donors. Yeah…right.)

And to top if all off? Greg, the head of Mt Pleasant Parks and Rec department had a heart attack last week and died. 54 years old, nice wife and two daughters. I grieve for them. I grieve for me. He was heading up the construction of the trail I'm working on. His funeral is Saturday…just how I wanted to spend my first weekend off.

I finished my television show and editing. It looks good. I added the music and flourishes two weeks ago. It will start playing on TV next week. It’s all about the Foundation and the high school scholarships that we give out.

I’m in charge of marketing and publicity for the county’s Sesquicentennial. I met with a CMU professor two weeks ago and will use a few interns to prepare a huge…. many pages…history type of newspaper for the Morning Sun. It’ll go out next August. I can’t even begin to think further on this one. (How did I ever get here?)

Leah turned 3 and we had her party last Saturday. She’s potty trained and hasn’t had one accident in months. Thank the Lord. I love having her with me, even when I’m working. She is a lot like Ainsley. Very studious. Susie is learning to walk now and is a cutie pie. I don’t have her here as much, but when I do she’s a joy. She gives me a reason to stop working, to sit down and to rock.

My leg continues to swell and hurt. I’m not working out at all and that is bothering me too. I condemn myself daily regarding diet and exercise. Yes, I do grab fast food at times. I had a vascular surgeon do the vein injections a month or so ago, but so far it hasn’t helped.

Nothing worries me more than the upcoming election. I recently read “Dreams of my Father” by Obama. What a RACIST! And his buddies, terrorist William Ayerst, Jeremiah Wright, Freddie Mack and Fannie May leaders, Acorn…on and on.

He supports partial birth abortion. Come on people…look it up, how it’s done…Scissors in the back of the head of a newborn whose head is out of the mother and the little body is still inside? How sick is the person who’d support a candidate with that view? I am appalled. Yes folks, that does matter to me. I question the judgment of anyone who’d let that issue slide so they can have their own little benefits. Vote for the continuation of killing newborns so you can have health care, because you want a CHANGE? Give me a break.

I get the “I’m not a one issue voter” all the time excuse. Well, this issue is life and death. I’m sorry. I cannot be a friend to you. Yes, I may lose a friend or two, but I have standards, morals, beliefs and value systems that must be upheld within myself. Yes, based on God’s Word. I don’t need anything else to rationalize my thoughts toward voting. LOOK AT THE VOTING THE RECORDS…PLEASE…. At least McCain is pro-life and has actually shed blood for this country.

I’m amazed that anyone who really researches and thinks about what they’re doing would vote for this sweet talking guy-talking sweet kind of lies. I really have no time for stupid people who can’t think for themselves and just have the “my name is Jimmie, I’ll take all that you gimme” attitude. It’s as old as Al Capone. People with the victim mentality.

People, who think taxing businesses will help them personally, are simply ignorant. Why have a company in America at a 40% tax rate when you can operate the same company in Mexico for 11%? People need to wake up and remember that businesses are there to make money, FOR THEMSELVES!!!! Not so Americans can have nice jobs with benefits. Again, why work and go through the governmental headaches of owning a business if not to create money for your own family. Jeez Louise…how ignorant can some people be?

We are deathly afraid of the socialistic turn this nation is taking. The thought of O'bama, Pelosi Reid, Dodd, and Frank, who are basically responsible for the financial crash, (regardless of what you think) create a sense of hopelessness in Bill and I. Why even bother to work so we can dutifully pay for everyone’s health care? I think we should all quit our jobs and get on the government dole like the rest of the idiots who are voting for the “O’Bama benefits”.

And taxes… my God. Billions of dollars for bailouts? Who’s going to bail out my poor grandchildren who’ll end up paying for this? It looks like China will own them by the time they're grown.

I’m so disillusioned, because McCain didn’t really give us a reason to vote for him. He doesn’t get it that the words “raise capital gains tax” doesn’t resonate with people who don’t have capital to be taxed. He doesn’t get that “he’ll raise your taxes” doesn’t matter to those who barely pay taxes. He doesn’t understand that “reaching across the aisle” is betrayal. He needed Guilliani to clean up the crooks and Romney to clean up the financial mess. But no…He doesn’t even ask them for help.

Sarah Palin? Well, truly she is the Debroah, Ester, or Lydia of our day. She has MORE experience than O'Bama on every front. His 180 Senate days, where he obtained a million dollars per day for his pet projects, doesn't compare to her term as an Alaskin Govenor. I pray the anointing on her will break the yoke.

Pray…. that’s all I can do. I’ll vote, but God will let people destroy themselves if they want to.

Bill is so discouraged. He doubts he’ll ever be able to retire, since our 401 is lower than ever. Not enough to retire on by any form. Our house, being in the 400-500K market will not have a buyer anytime soon. (Not that it’s on the market)… But, Bill and I cannot work like we are now forever. We will have to throw ourselves on the mercy of our God. Being wholly dependant on God is a good place to be.

Now I’m going to go clean this house and write thank you letters. I doubt anyone will enjoy this long journal. But I don’t really care. I wrote it for me. I wrote it to God. He’ll understand and say, well done.