Can you believe it?

Can you believe that Thanksgiving is only one week from tomorrow? Where has this year gone? And Christmas is only about a month away? Wow! Where does the time go? It's hard to believe and I'm not really ready for these holidays. I'm ready for the change in schedule (read: no schedule or obligations) but Christmas seems like it's coming up so quickly. I'm thinking we should decide what we're buying everyone for Christmas and we should start buying those gifts. I hate having to rush around last minute trying to buy things that aren't on the shelves anymore as everyone else has already bought them.


Unfortunately Grace has decided that what she wants is this half full-size pony from Toy's R Us that's $250 on sale; it's name is Butterscotch. She talks about it every day asking when she's going to get it, whether or not Santa is going to make it for her. It's really sweet, but it's just too expensive and quite honestly I don't know how long she'd really play with it; plus it's size is another factor we have to take into account as in where would we keep it in our house?

Grace is still doing really well behavior-wise. We've implemented this new reward chart where she gets check-marks for doing everyday things like listening or behaving on trips out of the house. And she's getting more and more check-marks and fewer X's since we implemented this new program. Hopefully this will help prevent any further craziness like we had at the end of last week. A little motivation to behave well; we'll see.

Grace and I had a fun time together at the library yesterday. I took her there after preschool. She was so excited not just because we were there (she really likes to go) but because she is now old enough to get her own library card. She thinks that's the coolest thing and is very proud of it. She can't wait to show her friend. Of course I had already checked out her books on my card, but she doesn't realize that.


The book I checked out was "Lone Survivor" by Marcus Luttrell. It's the story of (and by the) fire team leader whom was the sole survivor of Operation Redwing in Afghanistan and the desperate battle in the mountains that led to the largest loss in Navy SEAL history. I'm only on page 26 but I'm already hooked. He's a good conversational-type author and I like military books anyway. So I'm finding it very interesting.


The last book I checked out was "Hard Call" by Senator John McCain. It seemed like a good book but I just couldn't get into it and never got very far with it. Obviously I never finished it.


I'm also "reading" a book on CD right now called "3 Nights in August" by Buzz Bissinger. It's about St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony La Russa and is centered around a particular 3 game series against the Cubs. It's very good. The only thing that would make the CD better would be if Buzz Bissinger was reading it himself. I'm learning a lot about the Cubs by reading this book and a lot about baseball and baseball strategy too. Sometimes you take for granted what players are on your team especially since you watch them day in and day out. But listening to Tony La Russa's take on your team's players really sheds some light on them. I'm really glad I'm reading it. Unfortunately it's making me want to watch baseball again which just ended until March/April of next year.

Speaking of things on TV, have you heard about this church in Kansas (Westboro Baptist Church) that sends it's members (there are allegedly only 75 of them) to picket military funerals? They were picketing the funeral of the son of Albert Synder of York, Pennsylvania whose son was a Marine that died in Iraq. They were picketing at the cemetery holding up these signs and more that I didn't write down:
"Thank God for IED's"
"Thank God for Dead Soldiers"
"God is America's Terror"
"America is Doomed"
"You're Going to Hell"
"God Hates You"
"God Hates Fags"

I mean how cruel can people be? First of all aren't they supposed to be Christians? They call themselves "Baptist's" but aren't affiliated with any baptist organization. They are classified as a hate group and possibly a cult and are monitored by the Anti-Defamation League. They feel that every bad thing that has happened in this world is to blame on gay people and since there are some gay people in the military that the military shouldn't exist. The same goes for the government and everything else there is in America. Shouldn't they just move to another country? Clearly they don't like America as they state: "It's too late to pray for America. It's a sin to pray for America", and: "The hell with your flag. The hell with your fag army, your fag courts, your fag-run government".

Personally I think they should be forced out of the country but our laws state they can say anything they want so that will never happen. But I do think that no matter how they feel about the military or the government that they need to be kept at least a respectable distance from funerals out of respect for the people that are there who actually care about the person that has died. Obviously these people don't care about the person who died nor the people that are there mourning nor the country they live in for that matter. I think it's despicable and disgusting and I wish they would have to pay for what they are doing to these people as they are trying to mourn the loss of their loved ones whom just happen to be heroes in my opinion.

The court did award the family in this case $11 million but the church is appealing and I'm thinking it will probably be overturned mostly because of our guarantee of free speech. Plus the church is allegedly only worth about $1 million so the actual payment would probably never occur. However I truly hope and pray that this is not overturned and that this will stop. Let them picket and complain all they want in front of their own "church" but leave the good citizens of our country and our respectable members of the military alone.