All That We Let In

Facebook, Blogs, & No Time

All That We Let In — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 05:19:29 +0000

I joined Facebook. Yep. And I’ve neglected these blogs. Yep. Are the two related? I think most likely.

Anyway, that’s not what I’m here to say. Just a few thoughts to leave you with as I am not sure when I’ll be back. I never do!

1. My dad’s 55th birthday is tomorrow. Only, he’s been dead for 3½. Still … I plan to celebrate. And cry. Honor his legacy by making sure you are a registered organ donor.

2. I rearranged furniture in my living room! Remember what it looked like back in September-ish?

It now looks like this:

3. In order to acheive such a look, I first had to do this:

Man, oh man … this is SO not the same thing as untangling necklace chains. I plan to simplify our lives my life by cancelling our DishNetwork … after this season of Lost is completed, that is. (Chad made me promise. Big baby.) I can not STAND that mass of wires that is most likely an enormous fire hazzard! Enough already!

4. We leave for Guatemala in 13 weeks. Umm … what?!

Must Read

All That We Let In — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 19:59:45 +0000

Friends, you MUST read this latest book I plowed through yesterday.

It’s called Still Alice by Lisa Genova and it is BRILLIANT. (The Short & Sweet of it is: The main character is diagnosed at age 50 with Early-Onset Alzheimer’s Disease and you journey with her.)

I cannot say enough about this book. Please, please check it out from you library and spend some time with it. I whole-heartedly agree with author Julia Fox Garrison as she writes, “It will inform you. It will scare you. It will change you. You owe it to you and your loved ones to read this book.”

Now GO! Check it out from the library.

PS –> If you do actually go and read this book, drop me a comment and we can discuss or something. I’d love to hear others’ thoughts.

Interactive Opportunity

All That We Let In — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 22:22:30 +0000

I’m lonely.

Chad’s been on a q4 call month and tonight he’s working late out in Palisade. So,

I need you.

Would you please leave me a comment with a movie title (or 6 …) that you’ve enjoyed. Don’t worry about it being a “current” new release. Almost everything is considered a “new release” to a family who doesn’t get out to the movies and spends family movie nights watching The Incredibles or Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.

HOWEVER, please spice up the list with some titles that are PG-13 rated or above. Not that I don’t appreciate all the wonderful kid flicks out there … I’m just sayin’ … R-rated films don’t hurt me. In fact, I’m craving ‘em.

So Boring

All That We Let In — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 02:06:49 +0000

I used a bad word in my title. My kids would flip if they read it … Nevertheless, it’s true. Because I post very few photos of my children on this blog, I find it utterly boring. But that could be the appeal for you friends and family who are sick to death of my children. ‘Nuf said.

So, here’s a photo of the cakes the kids and I made on Election Night.

Obama Cakes

My husband was, of course, on call … so we schlepped over to another resident family’s house to eat tasty treats and watch the states roll in. Incredibly, we were popping open the champagne by 9:15pm!

And not that you really need a photo of me looking puffy and soft and aged and weathered, but there you have it. Thank the heavens my husband loves me despite my appearance!

Notice the necklaces?—————————————————>

One is an Obama ’08 necklace I’ve been wearing since July. It was a gift for my almost 83-year-old grandmother, (who supported Obama!) but she doesn’t wear much outside of her cross. Gotta pick your important jewelry, I suppose!

And the kid to the left is my youngest daughter. That’s all you get to see.

Lessons Learned as a Family

All That We Let In — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 23:35:09 +0000

So, we adopted. Without doing ANY research. No hours logged on-line, digging for answers and information. Nope. Just fly-by-the-seat-of-our-pants adoption.

We adopted a yellow bellied slider TURTLE.

We were told turtles are the easiest pet to care for. We were told that her tank was the right size, the lighting was what she required, and the Walmart brand of turtle pellets provided all the nutrition she required. And we believed what we were told without finding out for ourselves . Hmmm, that’s a little scary…

Banana has been a member of our family for almost 5 weeks and it wasn’t until after we moved her tank from her home next door and set her up on top of my son’s dresser that I started to examine her living conditions. Her shell size falls somewhere between a saucer and a dinner plate. And her tank is 30″ x 12″ x 12″. Her lighting is a basic aquarium light. She didn’t look healthy. So I started my research …

Banana

I discovered that Banana belongs in a pond. She should have access to water and an area that is out of the water with a temperature somewhere around 79°. Her diet should include meal worms, dark lettuce, strawberries. And of all the turtle pellets out there, the Walmart brand offers NO NUTRITIONAL VALUE to a turtle. In all actuality, turtles should NEVER be sold as pets. We don’t know enough about them and it is a crime that pet stores are allowed to sell these critters who don’t belong in a tank. Basically, we adopted an abused creature and my heart broke into a million pieces that night.

Sweet Face

I can really be an instant gratification kind of gal. I wanted to fix the situation the moment I discovered all of this information. It was almost midnight, my husband was at the hospital for the night, and I was participating in the slow demise of our stunning adoptee. I cried. I paged my husband. And I handed the next step to him.

Chad got to work and found a tutle rescue outfit. Turtle Homes matches turtles with an approved adopter — usually a herpetologist or scientist, or someone living in Florida who has undergone investigation and has a pond appropriate for these creatures.

Our dinner conversation with our two older children was hard and heartbreaking. Banana was our first pet and she had only been with us for a little over a week. We all cried. But they recognized that Banana needed to come to us in order to find a home appropriate for her. It was a wonderful opportunity to foster lesson-learning as a family, filled with tears and reflection and discussion. An important journey of growth that we, as a family, got to walk together.

Banana

We packed Banana up today and shipped her to Florida. She will be missed. But we know that we made the right decision and that we learned valuable lessons together.

Godspeed, Banana.

Adios, Good Friend

Activities on the 31st

All That We Let In — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 02:20:27 +0000

I really do have children, I just choose not to post their pictures on this site. I don’t have pictures to share with you of my 20 month-old zebra, my 5 year-old vampire, or my almost-8 year-old mummy. What I do have is a photo of how my mom and I spent our Halloween night after my kids begged for candy … (my husband was, of course, on call …)

This is absolutely one of my top 5 movies I would require on an island all on my lonesome:

Halloween Entertainment

I got started early this year … and if all goes well on Tuesday, I’ll put up our Christmas tree on the 5th in celebration of PRESIDENT OBAMA!!

Anyone else have celebratory plans for this week?! Do share …

Amendment 48

All That We Let In — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 19:19:19 +0000

It’s official. I dropped off our ballots this morning. We voted and it felt good.

The Colorado State ballot has an amendment that CAN NOT PASS. Amendment 48 is a scary attempt to define “personhood” from the moment of conception. All rights, therefore, would be afforded to this person from that moment. It begs several questions:

First: Do women who find out they are pregnant and then have a natural miscarriage undergo investigations for murder?? How do we expect to pay for this dramatic increase in homocide investigations nationwide?? Are our courts, district attorneys, police detectives, etc. staffed for this?

Second: Do women need to apply for TWO passports if traveling out of the country while pregnant??

Third: If ”inalienable rights, equality of justice, and due process of law” apply to the human “person” from the moment of conception, is the legality of birth obsolete?? If so, shall we create “Conception Certificates” rather than “Birth Certificates”?? Who will pay to update the computer systems? Must a woman apply for a “Conception Certificate” when she purchases a pregnancy test? Or will her physician be required to notify the government when her urine sample comes back positive for increased hormone levels??

OH, wait … my third point wouldn’t necessarily apply to a gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgendered conceived “person”. Our GLBT neighbors aren’t afforded equal inalienable rights as living, breathing, working, tax-paying adults! My mistake, my mistake.

VOTE NO ON AMENDMENT 48,

my fellow Coloradoans!!!

Process This

All That We Let In — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 02:32:11 +0000

With Senator Obama under attack for being un-Patriotic, it is necessary to direct your attention to Palin’s affiliations. She is a RINO — Republican In Name Only. Don’t be fooled, my friends on the right. She is FAR FROM PATRIOTIC. Please go to this blog and read while you listen to the video.

She is one heartbeat from “leading” this country and that scares the hell out of me. Not only is she unqualified, she truly does not have the best interests of ALL our people in mind.

I am unable to articulate more than that tonight. Spend some time processing the information this blog reveals.

Two Things I Believe In

All That We Let In — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 04:14:33 +0000

Okay, so the grammar-freak in me KNOWS that my title is wrong. It should read “Two Things In Which I Believe” … but whatever.

Gotta share this with you tonight.

I believe in the power of the theatre. Especially musicals. Actually, just one musical in particular. If you know me well, you know that my all-time favorite musical is — HANDS DOWN — Les Misérables. No question. And I’ve seen me some theatre. Don’t get me wrong … Phantom, Miss Saigon, Rent, Chess, West Side Story … I recognize the overwhelming beauty in their musical compositions. But I’m off-point.

I believe in Barack Obama.

Put the two together and you have this uplifting piece of work to get you through the next 28 days:

Rearranging Furniture

All That We Let In — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 03:55:15 +0000

Like the new look? Yes, I needed a change. And I think the blog is easier to read. Surprised?! No. You know better.

When I initially joined this whole blogging bandwagon, I selected a “theme” that was in my general color scheme of life. However, as many of you know, I am a woman who requires some superficial changes to be made rather frequently in order to feel … productive. Fresh. Absolved.

Hence, the new theme. I will never invest in having one designed for me — although I SO LOVE to see what people can create with their computer magic — so I perused the market of themes this afternoon and came up with what you see. Long story longer … I need a diagnosis, people. This rearranging-of-physical-traits is a condition. A disease. I swear. And this illness is in addition to that one.

I am obsessed with rearranging furniture. I mean, OBSESSED. Ask me what I did one hour before my brother and his wife descended upon my unwashed kitchen floor and half-dusted living room. Go on … ASK!

I rearranged the girls’ bedroom.

And the house looked like this.

Living Conditions

I will drop everything — ask Chad! — I mean EVERYTHING to push furniture around a tiny space. Furniture rearranging is yet another form of meditation for me … Too bad the rest of the house, the kids, and whatever project I’m supposed to be tackling magically get reorganized into the it’s-not-as-important-as-moving-the-bed-to-the-inside-wall-even-though-it’s-still-90plus-degrees-in-the-afternoon compartment of my brain. I neglect all other responsibilities. Just to get my furniture re-focus fix.

Here’s the real kicker … I can’t rearrange my living room. The crème de la crème … and it just can’t be. Too many pieces of furniture, too many humans, too many uses for the room, Feng Shui or whatever … the way you see it is the only way it will work. (Minus the ironing board I managed to muck up during my craft attempt two weeks ago … a tale for another time.) Boo hoo.

So, enjoy the latest look for All That We Let In. It won’t be the last one I let in …