So I have already been kinda MIA…since I have been on vacation from work. Seems like when I don’t work the whole world starts turning a little slower and I enjoy things a little more. My daughter and I have been just sitting outside some nights listening to the night sounds. It is lovely!

Some things I have learned so far on my Thanksgiving Break:

* husbands always find it pertinent to fight around a holiday..why?…I don’t know…but seems like whenever there is a holiday coming he starts getting crabby. OR maybe I am getting crabby and blaming it on him….surely not me!!!

* my in laws will forever fight with each other over the stupidest things. This year…it was about the table!

* having a baby will throw you into an insane asylum…true story…my friend just got comitted because the hospital mixed her bipolar meds with something else and she flipped.

*teething baby around Thanksgiving food = not fun!

So I need a vacation from Thanksgiving vacation!

Thursday was the in laws Thanksgiving dinner, Today (Friday) was my Dad’s Thanksgiving dinner and Birthday, and tomorrow is my Mom’s Thanksgiving. Three whole days of turkey!

Just for the record I did have a great time seeing my dad. I have always been a Daddy’s Girl and I love visiting him! I love to see him play with Lyla. My little brother came home with me from my dad’s since we all have to go to Mom’s tomorrow. I am thankful that he is spending the night. He is getting to cool to hang with big sis anymore…but tonight was like old times! I hate leaving my Dad because I know that the house seems empty but I am thankful that he has friends and his brother Tim there to talk to! I wish he would remarry so I know that he wouldn’t be alone but he says he likes it alone and that I am the best wife he has ever had because I don’t care where he goes or what he does! LOL!

I love that man!

Well right now in my hopping house….Lyla is sleeping, Colton is asleep on the couch, Gregg is asleep in the recliner, and I am fixing to take a shower by myself!!!!!

See ya in the A.M.

Today I am thankful for a hobby!

My hobby is scrapbooking or reading…but whatever I am doing I am so thankful for it. It gives me just a little time to escape from cleaning, stressing, and worrying.  Gregg (hubby) is in the living room doing is hobby…watching the Cowboys play football and talking to the TV …LOL! And Lyla just goes back and forth….When she is in his end of the house…she plays with dad…then sooner or later she will waddle back down to my end in my craft room or her room and we will play for a while until she decides to go back to dad…I love her!

I hear Gregg in there singing to her so I guess she has decided to give up and take a nap.

While she’s napping I will probably do what I can in picking the house up. I did get a chance to really scrapbook today while Lyla was playing with Gregg. I am making “Count Your Blessings” cards for Thanksgiving. I started it over at www.scrapfreak.com during our TGIF Crop when Katie made it a challenge. I finally finished all of them…I had to make 11.

Here it is:

It might just be a family tradition that I do every year…and you can keep your cards so you can look back to see what all you have been thankful for.

Have a great day!

I just realized that the majority of my posts have been about Lamar. Boo. Yuck. Hiss. I promise that for the rest of the post, I won’t mention it.

D. just turned thirty, and is having a Halloween party on Saturday for his b-day. He as working off shore on his *real* birthday, and besides, his original due date was 10/31 before his mother decided to induce labor early, so it’s cool. Honestly, I think I’d rather stay at home, watch scary movies, and hand out candy this year, but I can’t do that to D. He came to Scotland for my wedding! He’s my buddy! He’s got my back, so I’ll be there, come Hell or crappy costume.

G., L., and baby A. are planning to visit the States in the new year. I haven’t seen baby A. yet, but I can’t wait to pinch her little cheeks! I also get a kick out of watching Gregg hold babies – he acts so scared when he’s around them, but I think he warms up quickly.

Mom is coming for Thanksgiving! I’m so excited! She hasn’t seen the house yet, and I get a WHOLE WEEK OFF OF WORK! We haven’t worked out the details yet, but I can’t wait to see her. I keep trying to send hints about buying a house in Houston her way, but she hasn’t taken the bait yet.

Gregg took his A+ Certification tests last Friday and passed with flying colors! He’s now a dreaded IT nerd. After spending so long bad mouthing them, I don’t know I’ll be able to rectify this situation. No we just have to get his scrawny butt a job.

The pond is… oh, screw it. I’m not going to lie. The pond is a great big mud hole in the back yard. I’m hoping that we’ll get it done by Thanksgiving, but it’s a daunting task. Thank God Gregg and Steve seem to be fairly keen on the project and work on it every weekend.

And I think that’s pretty much it. See, I have been things other than just complaining.

As seen in The University Star.

Signaled by the Star Wars theme song, music fans from around the world rushed to the open gates of the Austin City Limits Music Festival.

Every year in the beginning of fall, music lovers flock to Zilker Park in Austin for three days of sun, fun and what Austin has made its reputation on — live music. This year’s festival, held Friday through Sunday, included headliners such as Pearl Jam, Girl Talk, Dave Matthews Band, Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Ghostland Observatory.

ACL has done more than bring in musicians from around the world — it unites fans and friends alike.

“I (liked) the whole experience of being here for three days, seeing all of your old friends come back into town and of course, the music,” said Casey Wilson, undecided sophomore.

ACL brings in a variety of musicians of all genres, from country to rock, electro to rap and everything in between. It was not uncommon for hip-hop acts such The Knux to share the stage with hard rock act like Them Crooked Vultures.

A few noticeable changes were made to the festival this year, one of which was the new grass laid throughout the park. People walked barefoot and sat without laying down blankets. Previously ACL was held in mid September, but this year the early October dates held hopes for cool, comfortable weather.

However, this year festival attendees received a little more than they bargained for. Friday’s sunshine and heat did not last long. Saturday brought dark skies, clouds and pouring rain, leaving Zilker covered in mud for Sunday pass-holders. However, festival-goers were not discouraged.

“I think people are really going to enjoy dancing in the rain. It’s going to get muddy — Girl Talk, The Toadies, and Ghostland Observatory are going to be really fun,” Wilson said Saturday.

Despite the mud, rain and humidity, the spirits of first time ACL attendees were not dampened.

“It is so much more than I thought it would be … it exceeded my expectations,” said Michelle Rohmer, advertising sophomore. “Even though it is really muddy, I think it adds to the vibe.”

Cheese and Pineapple on Lightsabre? That’s a party!

By S.A. Miller

Delivering on President Obama’s promise to boost the labor movement, the administration has announced a $35 million federal construction project in New Hampshire that requires union representation for the workers and forces nonunion employees to pay dues and contribute to a union pension fund.

Mr. Obama issued an executive order in the first weeks of his presidency that would make the requirement, known as a “project labor agreement” or PLA, the norm for all government contracts on large-scale construction jobs. The order is under review and a final rule is not expected for months, but that did not stop the Labor Department from rushing to use a PLA to build its new Job Corps Center in Manchester, N.H.

The PLA executive order replaced a Bush administration order that discouraged the use of such agreements.

It was one in a series of early policy moves by Mr. Obama that has dramatically improved the unions’ fortunes, though the president has not delivered on labor’s top legislative priority, the so-called “card-check” bill that would make it easier to organize workplaces.

Critics say imposing the union-friendly rules on the New Hampshire job – the first federal construction contract with such stipulations since President Clinton was in office – will drive up costs, delay the project and force most of the workers to pay union dues and pension contributions for which they likely will never receive benefits.

North Branch Construction, a Concord, N.H.-based general contractor and member of the business group Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC), filed a bid protest this week with the Government Accountability Office, claiming the PLA “unduly restricts competition.”

“PLAs are special-interest handouts that deny taxpayers the accountability they deserve from government contracts,” said Ken Holmes, president of North Branch Construction.

Sen. Judd Gregg, New Hampshire Republican, said the scarcity of local unionized workers and a separate requirement that contractors must have completed three previous successful PLA projects to qualify to bid will essentially prevent local firms from competing for the Manchester project.

Read the Rest @ The Washington Times

My studies are progressing well. I find myself using shorthand in notes to myself, especially as conjunctions and in ownership. Often it is not quite as Gregg may have envisaged but none the less!

To all of you who are learning something new: Keep up the momentum, do not give in just because it is hard.
I believe in you.

x

Glenn Beck the Brat

Gregg Mitchell/HuffPost—I have no quarrel with TIME magazine devoting a cover to Glenn Beck — so long as the accompanying story sticks to hard facts and harsh truths. The issue coming tomorrow, online today, sadly fails to do so in an apparent effort to woo the rightwing with a ludicrously “balanced” treatment of equally dangerous and wacko “ranting” coming from left and right.

It starts right away with a first paragraph that claims that only “liberal sources” estimated the protest crowd in D.C. last weekend as about 70,000, while conservatives say up to a million or more. Actually, virtually all mainstream media sources, along with nonpartisan factchecking organizations such as PolitiFact, cite the lower number.

Read more…

Another article:

Reading The Pictures: Glenn Beck’s Organ. TIME’s Dime by Michael Shaw

The official end to an RP’s Summer is signalled by the CY Summer Conference for young people from across the denomination and despite very little sleep, 1 1/2 hours drive and detours via the Morrison and Fallows residences I arrived with Andy, Joel and Pete F in time for the 3pm kick-off in Portrush. Prof Robert McCollum was speaking at Glenmanus whilst Robert McCollum Jnr spoke to the U16 at the traditional venue of Ballyclabber where 2 of my younger siblings benefited greatly from his teaching. The theme for the day was Church Membership, an issue about which many believers today fail to realise its true importance. In the afternoon Professor McCollum explained the biblical basis for visible membership in the local church and told us of the significance of the vows of membership. Then at tea-time RP’s scattered across the North Coast in search of food before regrouping at Ballyclabber RPC for the evening meeting where the Prof told us of the potential of a church with a committed membership and gave us a checklist showing us what a committed member looks like.

What does a committed member look like?

1. Commitment to the head of the Church, King Jesus

2. Commitment to the doctrine of the Church

3. Commitment to the worship of the Church

4. Commitment to the prayer life of the Church

5. Commitment to the finances of the Church

6. Commitment to the members of the Church

7. Commitment to the outreach of the Church

Afterwards Morellies of Portstewart was invaded by Covenanters and the rain failed to prevent the usual visit to the playpark. This conference reminded me that God has blessed the RPCI with many gifted and godly preachers who provide real spiritual sustenance. How often do we take the gift of preachers for granted? We ought to continually thank God for this  and pray that God will continue to provide us with men for the ministry of the calibre of the speakers at this conference.

Photos

 Trying (and failing) to get back before the rain

 Thanks to Brenna for most of the photos.

Other News

Fan of Gregg?

Great news! You can now join the We Love Gregg group on Facebook created by Tom and Jen. At the Summer Conference Gregg brought my Bible and Psalter which I had left behind at Ballyclabber to the gathering at Portstewart so I signed up without a moment’s hesitation.

Termonscotland Update

All of Another King’s writers have now successfully applied for the Covenanter International Holiday Conference to be held in Scotland next summer. The closing date for applications isn’t until January but as spaces are filling up I’d advise sending the form off sooner rather than later especially if you want a place in the House in order to ensure that you are as far away from our tent as possible!

Olá olá olá!

Com seus 84 centímetros de altura e 9 kg de massa corporal Aditya “Romeo” Dev diz ser o “menor halterofilista do mundo.”

O pequeno (porem forte(?)) "romeo" e seu treinador

O indiano Aditya “Romeo” Dev  é o mais forte anão do mundo. Are baba!

Com apenas 9kg ele consegue levantar alteres de até 1.5kg! O que o tornou uma espécie de celebridade lá pelas indias.

Segundo o próprio Romeo ele pratica o halterofilismo desde 2006  e que agora ele pode se considerar o anão mais forte do mundo. Ele diz também que o tamanho nunca foi um empecilho para seu treinamento, e que pelo contrário, o tornou famoso, tendo sido convidado até para programas televisivos. E que isso tem rendido algum dinheiro.

Tá ai um vídeo do  pequeno homem…

e eu só digo uma coisa: Gregg valentino que se cuide!

He’s handsome, continental and far fresher than Gregory.  But can he overcome his Kafkaesque cockroach vibe?

Thanks to Photoquilty for suggesting Gregor as Name of the Day.

Circa 2009, Greg is more likely to be the father – or even the grandfather – than the newborn baby boy.  Ranked in the Top 100 from 1945 through 1996, Gregory peaked at #21 in the early 60s.  He was still going strong when The Brady Bunch debuted in 1969.  Short forms Greg and Gregg fared well as independent names, too; even Greggory charted in the 60s.

Today, Gregory is no longer fashionable, but he remains an evergreen classic.   More than 1,500 boys born in the US were given the name last year.

Gregor seems like a promising variant.  His -or ending puts him in a league with popular boys’ names like Connor and Tyler, as well as stylish up-and-comers like Archer and Miller.  Gregor has never charted in the US Top 1000, but he’s perfectly common in parts of Europe, from Scotland to Slovenia.

Just like Gregory, Gregor derives from the Greek Gregorios, which traces back to the verb egeirein – to awaken.  Add in the unrelated but similar-sounding grex – flock or herd – and the name conjures up a watchful shepherd.  Plenty of Saints Gregory, as well as more than a dozen popes, have kept the name in steady use over the centuries, though he wasn’t heard in English until after the Norman Conquest in 1066.

Scientist and priest Gregor Mendel is among the best known bearers of the name.  His nineteenth century experiments with pea plants became the basis of modern genetics in the twentieth century.

But then there’s Franz Kafka’s unforgettable literary character.  The first line, as it appeared in German in the 1915 edition, is as follows:

Als Gregor Samsa eines Morgens aus unruhigen Träumen erwachte, fand er sich in seinem Bett zu einem ungeheueren Ungeziefer verwandelt.

If you’ve read The Metamorphosis in lit class, you’ve probably discussed the translation of “Ungeziefer” as “insect” or “cockroach.”  Kafka never made that link, and the German term “Ungeziefer” is far less specific.  Instead, the story is one of isolation.  Still, the name Gregor might give you the creepy-crawlies.

Kafka may have borrowed the character’s name from a 1900 novel by Jakob Wasserman – The Story of Young Renate Fuchs.  I’m not quite clear on the story’s plot or the reason Kafka would’ve borrowed the name.  (Anyone read German?  I’m in over my head.)  Then there’s the Gregor from 1870’s Venus in Furs, the best known of Leopold von Sacher-Masoch’s novels.  But if you thought a cockroach was an uninspiring image for a child’s name, Sacher-Masoch offers no improvements.  His surname is the basis for the word masochism.

So while Gregor’s literary pedigree is undeniable, you might want to completely forget all references should you choose the name for a son.

That leaves parents with a current sound and an appealing meaning.  That might be enough for Gregor to catch on.  But odds are he’ll remain an underused gem – more accessible that the Russian Grigori, comfortable on the playground with Hunter and Cooper and yet far from common.

SPIN RADIO FM presents
“Dance After Dark: At A Classic Pitch”
Mix by DJ Freedom
June 12-18, 2009

Dance After Dark

Okay folks. Back again. New show, this one a dedication to my loving and beautiful wife, Martina-I sometimes, affectionately call her “the real boss.”
Below are the songs featured on this show. Don’t take the lineup too seriously…for once, I didn’t take the mix too seriously. In fact, there are mixes that are NOT perfectly mixed, and songs don’t make the perfect story combination I have always prided myself on.

But you are going to enjoy this in your mind! If you want to hear it again send a note to Freedom@spinradiofm.net.

Mixing with the latest technology

DANCE AFTER DARK – “Martina’s Tribute Mix” – DJ Freedom for Spin Radio FM (Friday, June 12, 2009)

AT A CLASSIC HOUSE PITCH
01 Apologize – Luther Vandross (Quentin Harris Remix)
02 Nu Nu – Lidell Townsell (Original Club Mix)
03 Can You Feel It – Mr Fingers
04 Party People – Royal House
05 Underground Is My Home – Tyronne Ellis
06 The Way You Love Me – Ron Hall and the Motherfunkas (Sergio Flores Dub)

GARAGE CLASSICS
07 Disco Circus – Martin Circus
08 This Time Baby – Jackie Moore
09 Cocomotion – El Coco
10 Push Push In The Bush – Musique
11 Hot Shot – Karen Young
12 Good Times – Chic
13 We Are Family – Sister Sledge
14 Blame It On The Boogie – The Jacksons
15 Here’s To You – Skyy
16 Turn The Beat Around – Vicky Sue Robinson
17 Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood – Esmeralda
18 Jingo – Candido
19 Jingo – Carlos Santana
20 There But For The Grace Of God Go I – Machine
21 Risky Changes – Bionic Boogie Featuring Gregg Diamond
22 Let’s All Chant – Michael Zager Band
23 Give Me Love – Gino Soccio

AT A CLASSIC HOUSE PITCH
24 French Kiss – Lil Louis
25 Try It Out – Gino Soccio
26 Pull Up To My Bumper – Grace Jones (Glamorous Grooves Remix)
27 Let The Music Play – Barry White (Glamorous Grooves Remix)
28 All I Do – Cleptomaniacs (Club Mix)
29 Show Me Love – Robin S (Mobin Master 2008 Remix)
30 My Peace Of Heaven – Ten City (David Morales’ International Mix)
31 Move Your Body – Marshall Jefferson
32 The Pressure Part 1 – Sounds Of Blackness (CJ Mackintosh Remix)
33 The Boy Is Mine – Brandy/Monica (Kiss UK Remix)
34 Sing It Back – Moloko (Boris Musical Mix)
35 Disco Babies – Kiss UK Orchestra

BACK TO THE CLASSICS
36 Love Is The Message – MFSB (Larry Levan Remix)
37 Rappers Delight – Sugarhill Gang
38 Don’t Leave Me This Way – Thelma Houston
39 Don’t Leave Me This Way – Teddy Pendergrass
40 Nights Over Egypt – The Jones Girls
41 Where Is The Love – Roberta Flack and Donnie Hathaway
42 A Journey Into James Brown

Hope you enjoyed the list. Once again, if you’d like to hear the mix send me a note. You can also send me your list of favorite songs and I’ll consider putting them in the mix!