Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Generosity

Wow... I'm so amazed by the generosity of others!

My sister, Cherie, has had a really bad last couple of weeks. Her trailer caught on fire - electrical fire that started in the walls, last week (I think either Tue or Wed.) and then, this past weekend, her purse was stolen from her car while it was parked at our brother's home (a month prior, my sil, Jessica's (our brother's wife), purse was stolen in the same way; parked at her home and scattered in the bathroom at the park across the bayou)!!!

Anyways... just a few things that I know she's received from others in her community... even from people she doesn't even know!!!

Wait, first off... let's see who was affected by this fire... Cherie and 2 of her daughters (her oldest is with her dad for now in Florida) and our mom. It was actually the room our mom stays in that caught fire. Thankfully, they were all awake (it happened approx. around 9:00pm) and got out without any harm coming to them personally. Everything my mom owns was in that room. It was really the only room that was so badly damaged but the rest of the trailer got smoke damage. And Cherie said that everyone she's talked to has said its pretty much impossible to get rid of that smoke smell... no matter how many times you wash the clothes. I was like, that sucks, because her girls had such cute dresses in there! Precious dresses, really!

Also, while the trailer caught fire, they were also experiencing flooding from tons of rain that had fell over the past 24 hrs! Jessica has pictures of the aftermath... kind of hard to see since it was nighttime but... you get the idea... and you can see the water... there's pictures of my brother with the bottoms of his shorts wet.

Cherie has 2 jobs... she is a beautician in Mathews and also works at the Wal-Mart Supercenter in the same area, at the jewelry counter. Her girls are 3 & 5 yrs old (her oldest is almost 11 yrs old - but, like I mentioned earlier, she's been with her father since the school year began). Olivia's in kindergarten and our mom watches Sophia while Cherie works. Cherie & her husband have been estranged for the past 5 yrs. They aren't divorced but haven't lived together in those 5 yrs. He doesn't send any child support... never has. Also, they married each other twice.

Anyways...

They've been staying with our sister's, Angele, house in Thibodaux.

She received a 'credit card' from The Red Cross to get whatever they need; not gonna say how much, but, its generous :)
A manager at Wal-Mart is allowing her and the girls to stay at a house he owns rent-free for a year!!! Isn't that awesome??? Its like an 80-yr. old house... but, how nice is that??? Plus, he's done stuff to fix it up.
She received a call to open the beauty shop; she gets there and there's a trailer load of furniture!!! Amazing, huh?
Her friend, Angie, has bought Olivia new school clothes... she's giving Cherie a set of bunkbeds and some other furniture as well as clothes!
A near-by thrift store told her that she & mom can go get whatever they need out of there.
Wal-Mart has raised money for her! They're also applying for some sort of hardship deal to see what else they can give her!
Bonnie, another friend, has a list of numbers to call for stuff like that and has been helping as well!
People have been coming out of the woodworks, giving her money! One lady gave her a check for $50 and this guy, in Afghanstan (sp?) sent her $200 via wire!!!
I know there's probably things I'm failing to mention... I'll return and edit if I remember more or mom or Cherie tell me more.


I really just can't get over all awesome everyone is in a family's time of need! I'm floored. It really helps restore your faith in humanity!

It makes me happy for her though because Cherie is a very giving person. And now its coming back to her. She deserves it :D

Monday, October 15, 2007

All Paid Up! (Almost, anyways!)

Woohoo!
I'm excited! hehehe
Almost all of our total monthly household bills are paid up! Only thing left to pay is water (which is due on the 22nd) & Jeremy's car insurance.
I'm so happy because I HATE being behind on bills! And we were behind on almost everything!
Our rent is paid.
Electricity is paid (2 mths).
Cingular is paid (2 mths).
My car insurance is paid.
Our house phone is paid (2 mths).
AND, the credit card bill (my card, my first card that is super maxxed out thanks to Jeremy's wreck... he used it to buy the car he's driving now... the wreck which is finally settled after 2½ yrs of waiting and Jeremy's still not getting fully compensated for what was lost :( grrrrr But, at least its over).

Woohoo!

Jeremy finally gave me money to open up a checking account so, I paid 4 of those bills online! One over the phone. Wow, that's so much easier! hehehe And Jeremy paid rent yesterday.
Check this out... we still have money in the bank! hehehe woohoo!

Jeremy said that he decided that he'll keep the check that the rent will be taken from every month but will deposit all the other weekly checks.

Sunday, October 14, 2007

eBay

Okay, I admit it... I'm hooked on eBay right now... lol

Jeremy finally gave me money to open up a checking account... doing so enabled me to use my Paypal account... woohoo! I had set up a paypal account because I do these surveys and sometimes, they pay you money upon completion. Well, at first, they'd send me checks and since I didn't have a bank account, the checks would usually get outdated before I'd have the opportunity to have them cashed by my mom. So, when the survey people sent me a thing saying they could deposit the funds in a paypal account, I readily opened one up. Until now, money has been accumulating in it.

ANYWAYS, so now that I'm actually able to use the money in my paypal account, I bought a few things off of eBay :D hehehe

I bought the girls their costumes for this year. I'm currently bidding on a prince costume for Wyatt since the girls wanted to be princesses again this year. I hope I get it. If not, and I can't find another one in time, I'll probably get him a frog costume (ya know, the Frog Prince).

I also bought some RAM for my computer. I haven't been able to play my Sims 2 game for a while now since I've now got so many expansions, my PC can't handle it. So, I found a set of two 512MB for $17 altogether! This guy had recently upgraded his 'puter. Mine can only upgrade to 1 gb of RAM, so, this was perfect. He sent me a tracking number Friday so I should have it in 3 to 5 business days! woohoo!

I also bought a 128 MB memory card for our Game Cube. I can't play my Sims on that without one. I had one once upon a time but it disappeared. And, in the store, for retail, they cost $30 still! I bought this one for half that amount, including s&h.

I'm also keeping an eye out for another digital camera. Of course, I'm sure I don't have enough in there for a good one, or one even as good as mine (that is, unbroken)... so, I may have to ask Jeremy if its okay to use some money from the account... IF I find an unbelievably good deal, that is. Shucks, I'll even settle for something in the 5 or 6 MP range if the price & camera are good enough with the money in my own paypal account... until I get a real good one of course.

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Kittens

Here's 4 of them in one pic... the only one missing is the black male, Spooky.
This is M.J. Isn't she cute? She's one of the sweetest ones. M.J. stands for Momma Cat Jr. Since she looks so much like her. OR, alternatively, M.J. can stand for Mean Julie... in remembrance of what she did to us and our other batch of kittens... and maybe even Momma Cat herself...

Here's M.J. sleeping so cutely :D
These pictures are untouched as I just uploaded from my Kodak folder... the pics there remain untouched. Any touched up photos go to my "My Pictures" folder... just so you know... because I know you wanted to know... ha ha ha

Monday, October 08, 2007

Momma Cat's Gone

Can you believe this shit??? She was here last Thursday night. I put some table scraps out for her to eat Friday morning... but, didn't see her. Which wasn't that weird... sometimes she goes off and gets some bugs or frogs or something and comes right back. ANYWAYS... I put the food out in the morning when the girls get on the bus... so, it was like 7am. I didn't go back outside until after lunch and the food was never touched. That evening, same thing... no evidence of her eating any food. No Momma Cat Saturday. No Momma Cat Sunday. No Momma Cat today. She's gone. I have no idea what happened to her.

I saw our neighbor, the husband, outside this morning and asked him if he had seen her around and he said he hadn't. I told him I saw he, or at least his car, was home pretty much all day Friday and he said he was home and only left for like 45mins that day.

I did ride my bike (with Wyatt) both Friday and Saturday down the road and never saw any signs of Momma Cat. I talked with my neighbor behind me Friday evening and she said she hadn't seen her. Our neighbor closest to the railroad tracks wouldn't have done anything to her because they like cats... plus, our cat isn't bothersome.

Okay, I just rode up and down our street again as well as the road behind our house and no Momma Cat... no evidence of her demise either. However, before getting to the railroad tracks, I heard a cat crying... sounded like a kitten though. I couldn't tell exactly where the sound came from. I did get down off the bike with Wyatt and walked next to the tracks, where the overgrowth isn't as bad... then it sounded like the cat cries came from across the bayou. No way for me to get to it if its over there... besides running down the railroad track, across the water... I feel badly for that kitten/cat... but, I don't know how to get to it.

I called the local animal shelters but they're closed today thanks to Columbus Day (garbage was picked up today!!!). I'll call back tomorrow... hopefully someone brought her in... but, I'm betting not :((

The kittens are doing okay. Of course, they weren't weaned :( Poor babies :(( They're only a month old. But, they aren't crying either. I have some formula that was sent to me free in the mail that I never used (because, of course, I breastfeed) that I'm mixing and giving to them. We bought some kitten food Saturday and they're eating it... in fact, they were growling at each other while eating! LOL

The kittens are so cute and sweet. If you pet them while they're standing there, they'll purr. They usually stop purring once you pick them up though.

Momma Cat didn't even have a chance to teach her kittens her ways :( They are cleaning themselves and each other and pooping in the dirt (not on the cement! woohoo) but, she didn't have the time to teach them how to hunt. Maybe its in their blood and instinctual.

Anyways, they seem to be coping well... I'm sure it has a lot to do with having their siblings around for comfort.

I've named them. LOL The black one is Spooky (he's the most shy one), the black/gray tabby is MJ (Momma Cat Junior), the gray one is Slater or Pewter... haven't stuck with one yet... thinking Slater. The Tortoiseshell one with white around her eyes is Bandit. And the other Tortoiseshell one... well, I told the girls they could name her... so, she's without a name as of now... oh wait, I just remembered, Calista said "Marina"... We'll see if that sticks.

Wednesday, October 03, 2007

A real-life test for Roe v. Wade

http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=57059



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Posted: August 9, 2007
1:00 a.m. Eastern



Many Americans have come to accept the idea of unborn babies being torn limb from limb, starved to death, burned with acid and generally exterminated like pests – as long as the killing is done in the antiseptic conditions of a so-called "clinic."

It's a little harder to accept what happened in Ocean City, Maryland, where police have found the remains of four dead preborn children – all believed to have been aborted by the mother, Christy Freeman, 37. I guess I shouldn't call her a mother. Maybe "host" would be a more accurate term.

However, she is, technically speaking, a mother – at least biologically speaking – to four unfortunate offspring who live with her and her longtime "boyfriend," Raymond W. Godman Jr.

No one knows exactly what happened to these babies. One 26-week-old unborn baby was found wrapped in bloody towels under Freeman's bathroom sink. Two other sets of fetal remains were found wrapped in plastic in a bedroom trunk. A fourth was found in a Winnebago outside the home.

(Column continues below)


While Freeman is being held, no one is quite certain what crime, if any, she will be charged with.

After all, most laws against killing unborn babies were effectively struck down by the Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision in 1973.

To prosecutors, the key is timing.

They say if the infants were too young to be considered viable outside the womb, Freeman can't be charged with murder. And if they were old enough to live outside the womb but died before Maryland passed its 2005 fetal homicide law, it may not be a crime even if Freeman intentionally caused the deaths of these children.

Aren't you proud to be an American?

These four little babies are a sign of our times.

These are the little faces the pro-abortion crowd would never want you to see.

For one reason, the advocates of abortion on demand insisted this kind of thing would never happen again if only abortion were safe and legal. There would be no more "back-alley" or self-induced abortions. They would all take place in clean clinics under the direction of monsters who looked like doctors.

That was the promise.

It hasn't exactly worked out that way.

God knows what possessed Freeman to do what she did. Men and women have always done evil things and always will. It's their nature. And it is why government has a responsibility to rein in the worst of man's excesses – to keep us, at a minimum, from killing one another, to protect the innocent.

Today everything is upside-down, backwards, topsy-turvy, inverted. Black is now white. Up is down. Left is now right. Right is now wrong.

In many cases, government ensures the guilty never pay the ultimate price for their most heinous crimes, while the most innocent are permitted to suffer unspeakable fates.

The people in Ocean City, Md., are pretty upset about dead babies in their neighborhood. In fact, this case is a big story through the Washington Metro area – somewhat ironic given the fact that the U.S. Supreme Court, right in the heart of the nation's capital, made all this possible, if not probable, 34 years ago.

It will be interesting if it turns out that no crime was committed.

It's quite possible that four dead babies in your house is nothing more than, say, a health code violation, thanks to Roe v. Wade.

Is this the kind of story that can confront people about the horror that is abortion?

Is this the kind of story that can force people to confront the reality of what happens every day in abortuaries around this country?

Is this the kind of story that can make Americans think?