Alma Mater

Most of my earlier education came from the School of Hardknocks. I wasn't the ideal student in the beginning, but once on-track became a hard-working, eager learner. Motherhood made for some tricky scheduling as my life became more involved. My educational path did allow credit for on the job experience! While working on my Ph.D., in Philosophy at CSU. (Common Sense University) people questioned my choice. CSU was (and still is) under a lot of financial pressure, as you can imagine. Statistically speaking, it has few graduates and high drop-out rates. Most people do not choose to attend this Institute of Higher Learning. On the plus side, the fact it is Co-Ed and has low student/teacher ratios and the education from CSU will provide students and graduates with better choices than most. They've had issues keeping instructors, but most who stay are tenured and remain year after year, despite low pay, low incentives and even lower morale.

In spite of the minuses presented, CSU graduates come away with credentials that make them an asset in all walks of life. As a current CSU educator, I hope to see you enroll soon. You won't regret it, I promise!

Some of the classes and lectures I'm currently involved in:

Life Lessons 101
Choices
Financial Planning
Marriage
Family & Pets
*Remedial Financial Planning

Life Lessons 201
Options & Bailouts
Marriage Pitfalls
Jobs/Employment
Family & Pets
Relatives & In-Laws
**Remedial Financial Planning

Sweet dreams?

As a young child, the version of the nighttime prayer taught to me was:

Now I lay me down to sleep,
I pray the Lord my soul to keep,
If I should die before I wake,
I pray the Lord my soul to take.

I remember this scared the poop out of me! Upon completion of this verse, I would follow it with God bless Mommy, Daddy, Sister, Grandma, Grandpa... the list went on... The whole time I'm asking God to bless everybody, my young mind was thinking, "God, don't let me die!" "I don't want to die in my sleep!" "I want to wake up in the morning!" This prayer was downright scary to me, but I prayed it anyway, fearing that if I didn't ask God to bless everybody he might forget and it would be my fault. Tough concept for a child.

Now that I'm old, it doesn't scare me anymore. The thought of dying in my sleep is rather comforting, except for the fact someone from the Medical Examiner's Office would have to wade through my house, let alone my bedroom, to haul my dead carcass out. That thought does bother me!

Several years ago, I found some stuffed animals that had a button you could push and it recites another version of this prayer.

Now I lay me down to sleep,
I pray the Lord my soul to keep,
Your love be with me through the night,
And wake me with the morning light.
Amen.

I liked these so much, I bought two! No point torturing the Grandkids with the other version... life's hard enough. No point adding more pressure.

Saturday was a "Good Day!"

Father and Son
Happy 30th Birthday, Matt!

My youngest Son turned 30 today! Bless his heart, he is one fine person. He reminds me so much of his Dad. He is calm, easygoing, smarter than all get out AND... still loves me! I'm not an easy person to love, but he does it unconditionally. Has never hesitated or been embarrassed to tell me so and does it on a regular basis. Why some girl hasn't snatched him up is beyond me. I wouldn't want just any girl to snatch him up, mind you. He deserves the very best. Someday he will make the best husband and a great dad. He is fantastic with children and isn't afraid to share himself and be silly with them. Even if he weren't my Son, I would admire him and there aren't many people I feel are deserving of admiration. Very few, in fact.

As this day is coming to an end, I'd like to say it one more time...

Happy Birthday, Special Angel! You make me so proud. God Bless You!

The Beast

Well, as several of you know, yesterday was a fiasco! I thought I was brave trying to do something new on the computer. I wound up being a sniveling fool! Seemed simple enough, at first. Put a few things on the blog planning to add more later as I got the hang of it. Then it happened... Daughter came by and needed to use my computer. Told her I was in the middle of something, but would log off so she could do her thing. Later, after she and the family left, I logged back in to try to see what further damage I could do. Logged into email just fine. Could not... for love or money... access my blog... my new, "on my own" brave little creation. I never really intended to make much of a blog to begin with. Just a way to follow some others and be able to comment, without being anonymous and for them to know I wasn't a maniac stalker. Maniac... yes, that's a mental issue, sorry. Stalker... no, just interested. Couldn't do it! Computer refused to cooperate. Tried forever! Tried Summer, a friend with a nice blog, no answer. Crap! Tried Jilly, another friend whose brothers have a wonderful blog I follow. She was on her way to Conroe, to see one of the brothers. Offered to let me speak to one of them, to see if they could guide me. No way I was going to let one of them listen to me bawling like a baby! Jilly knows I'm an idiot, the brothers have never been privy to my lunatic idiocy. I'd like to keep it that way, at least as long as I can. Quick... try Summer again... she answered! Thank goodness! First suggestion she made, when I told her what was going on, was to shut down the BEAST and re-boot! Said sometimes the thing just gets overwhelmed. I KNOW THIS, IT HAPPENS ALL THE TIME! Having never done the blog thing, I just naturally figured I had screwed something up. It had to be my fault, right? Everything else is. So, I shut this puppy down, re-booted, and "Voila" the blog was there. It really wasn't my fault. (this time) I was able to tell Jilly thanks for offering to sacrifice a brother. Whew, what a relief. Summer calmly guided me through a few more things without any criticism. Bless you, Summer! What happens next is... gulp... up to me... gulp.

*To my little sister, whose advice was... take a deep breath, relax, step away from it for a while. You'll figure it out, you always do. Thank you! I love you and you deserve more than you get. You are my shoulder to lean on and understand me better than I understand myself sometimes. You've earned the right to call me "Jane" (Fonda). Thanks for being my sounding board as well as a best friend.

Heaven Help Me!

I know very little about creating a blog. I have several that I follow and my only hope at this point is to not embarrass myself too much. My outspoken honesty gets me into more trouble than I'm able to get myself out of. My sarcasm is caustic and known to burn. I'm very opinionated. Enough for now until I get the hang of this.

Just trying to figure it out!