My Afflation

Tim installing the ceiling fan. We're finally making this house a home.

Finished product -- but not working as planned

Joy rocking her stuffed puppy. She requested that I take such a picture.

How can a physical response be so strong when ... when the circumstances are so skewed? (understatement of the century) carpe canis lupus ;) movies - chick flicks and action flicks mexican chocolate housework actually being fun stimulating conversations time to cry a lot and up chocolate intake while going to gym to work off excess stress and can I look like Jane Seymour when I'm her age? Watching an odd show on the WB , she plays a life coach and was wearing a gorgeous green wrap dress. more coherent posts later when I'm done composing them

Care program shields kids, prevents court disruptions The Business Journal of Portland - March 24, 2006 by Lloyd Woods Business Journal Web Editor Cowering in the corner, the 4-year-old watches his mother once again being abused by his father. The youngster's trauma does not end there, as the next day he must accompany his mother to the Multnomah County Courthouse, where she will seek a restraining order against his father. If this had happened five years ago, the boy would have had to relive the experience as his mother described -- blow by blow -- why she needed a restraining order. Today, though, thanks primarily to the efforts of two women, the youngster can be spared an overwhelming courthouse experience. Instead, he can stay in a free child-care center established in the courthouse in 2001. Multnomah CourtCare was created through the work of Robin Selig, an attorney with the Oregon Law Center, and Mary Louise McClintock, an early-childhood specialist, fulfilling a longtime go

Done the Impossible - The Fans' Tale of the Rise and Fall and Rise of Firefly Darn it, missed out on a Browncoat!

-- Forwarded Message -- HOW THE BIRTH ORDER OF YOUR CHILDREN CHANGES THE WAY >THINGS ARE DONE: > >Your Clothes: >1st baby: You begin wearing maternity clothes as soon >as your OB/GYN confirms your pregnancy. >2nd baby: You wear your regular clothes for as long as >possible. >3rd baby: Your maternity clothes ARE your regular >clothes. > >Preparing for the Birth: >1st baby: You practice your breathing religiously. >2nd baby: You don't bother because you remember that >last time, breathing didn't do a thing. >3rd baby: You ask for an epidural in your eighth >month. > >The Layette: >1st baby: You pre-wash newborn's clothes, >color-coordinate them, and fold them neatly in the >baby's little bureau. >2nd baby: You check to make sure that the clothes are >clean and discard only the ones with the darkest >stains. >3rd baby: Boys can wear pink, can't they? > >Worries: >1st baby: At the firs

-- Forwarded Message -- A DIFFERENT CHRISTMAS POEM A DIFFERENT CHRISTMAS POEM The embers glowed softly, and in their dim light, I gazed round the room and I cherished the sight. My wife was asleep, her head on my chest, My daughter beside me, angelic in rest. Outside the snow fell, a blanket of white, Transforming the yard to a winter delight. The sparkling lights in the tree I believe, Completed the magic that was Christmas Eve. My eyelids were heavy, my breathing was deep, Secure and surrounded by love I would sleep. In perfect contentment, or so it would seem, So I slumbered, perhaps I started to dream. The sound wasn't loud, and it wasn't too near, But I opened my eyes when it tickled my ear. Perhaps just a cough, I didn't quite know, Then the sure sound of footsteps outside in the snow. My soul gave a tremble, I struggled to hear, And I

6:40 PM Monday, March 20, 2006 First day of spring and besides my Bible study and the people behind me who sound like they are on a blind date "so, do I look like my picture?" says the middle aged woman speaking to the distinguished middle-aged man the only thought going through my heaad is that I need some serious downtime for some super-serious self-reflection and wonder if there are any nunneries in OR. Anything less than that and left to my own devices and I would probably get myself into some serious trouble. Annette

4:15 PM, Friday March 17, 2006 I'm excited! I have a boss who is encouraging me and advising on completing my degree, and even suggesting ways to speed up the process. It helps that she is also a student at the moment working on her BA, but I reapplied to PCC and will be going into Advising on Monday morning to see how much can transfer so I can get my AS and then transfer to a 4-year university and get my degree in probably ECE (Early Childhood Education). And if not, any classes I take will count towards my CDA. (link to CDA website). I'm excited, I get to go back to school!!!. And now the fun part, applying for financial aid. Whee! Annette

You Are Austin A little bit country, a little bit rock and roll. You're totally weird and very proud of it. Artistic and freaky, you still seem to fit in... in your own strange way. Famous Austin residents: Lance Armstrong, Sandra Bullock, Andy Roddick What American City Are You? and now back to my regularly scheduled dusting ....

You Are Apple Green You are almost super-humanly upbeat. You have a very positive energy that surrounds you. And while you are happy go lucky, you're also charmingly assertive. You get what you want, even if you have to persuade those against you to see things your way. Reflective and thoughtful, you know yourself well - and you know that you want out of life. What Color Green Are You?

Last night I went to my first ever Vande Gras at Edgefield . Now, I have known this guy for like 11 years and we have lived in close proximity for like the last 5 and this was the first ever I have ever been invited to his birthday party. (What's up with that???!!!) But it was fun, if wet and cold and muddy at times (but that's a whole 'nother story). Well, darnit, lost my train of thought ... Oh yeah, so his party was at an Irish pub/resort on St. Patrick's Day!!! At first I kinda had trouble figuring out who was with him since I only knew 2 other people and some of the ones I expected were not there. Anyways, Vande Gras was fun, but I got the feeling that other years had been more memorable. Darnit, this was funny when I was composing it in my head. I guess that's my cue to get back to dusting ....

My first weekend at home in three months. And I spend it "deep cleaning" as Tim calls it. Thea, you would be so proud of me, it's better than when I cleaned it for Thanksgiving ... well, the counter isn't that clean, but the living room and dining room sparkle (well, just have a few bookshelves to dust, but that's the last thing). Anyways!!! The whole downstairs is clean enough that I wouldn't mind company coming by unexpectedly and having to say "please excuse the mess". I SOOOO hate saying that. My grandmother never had to say that and there were 10 of us living in a 4-bedroom duplex. Though I must admit, she was a lot stricter than I am when it came to getting us kids to work. Some days I am still at the "get out of my way, it will be faster and better if I do it". Cuz it will. All Josh does is try to boss Joy around to clean, and she cleans what she wants (BTW, she totally helped by vacuuming the dining room, doing a great job and the

So Josh has a friend over, and actually, I think it's a kid that I put in time-out at lunch recess one time, but I digress. Josh introduces himself and welcomes his friend and dad, excuses the mess that is our house (I'm in the process of cleaning ok!! The dining room looks great!) The dad looks around and asks "And your mom is? ..." I raise my hand slightly and move from behind the vacuum "I'm the mom" and proceed to introduce myself. Dad says, "Well, if you're going to make a mistake, that's the one to make." Why is it that all the adults at Josh's school think I am the big sister or something? Though, I guess I look a little young today. I took it as a compliment. One of these days I just know that I am going to start complaining about finally looking my age :) Thanks for listening to me blather.

My palm ate my data and wiped it out of outlook!!!!! WAH!!!!! PIA! I hate data entry, especially when i don't have a back-up!

Abby's pregnant????? by Luca?????????!!!!!!! I miss 3 months of ER and everything changes. Though it is nice to be able to watch it again. I was just flipping through channels and mentally complaining that nothing is on when I saw it starting. back to it. commercials are over.

So, technophile that I am, I have a palm m105 . Had it for quite a while now, like 5 or 6 years. But now that I commute on the MAX and have a ton of time on my hands at work most days, I have started utilizing a really cool thing on AvantGo . I can read blogs on it! It has an RSS aggregator of sorts and blogspot is cool cuz I can put in the addy of people's blogs on blogspot, AvantGo finds the RSS feed, and voila I have my friend's blogs on my palm! as well as news and neil gaiman's blog. but yeah, more interesting reading and now I won't feel so bad about not being able to keep up on them. AvantGo for RSS enables you to sync RSS feeds as AvantGo channels. Each time you synchronize AvantGo you can get the latest from RSS feeds offered by bloggers, major media any other publisher distributing their content in an RSS format. The feeds are delivered to your device in a format that is optimized for your small screen smartphone or PDA. It’s easy to use and free!

No, I didn't forget to pay the cable bill. After 5 years I finally hit the 25MB limit that Comcast has on it's personal web pages, and they didn't tell me. To solve the problem I have deleted from the Comcast server all my archives from 2001-2003. This is also impetus for me to get my portion of www.sargentcentral.net looking properly and move everything over there. But I don't have time to do that tonight. So, if any of you were pining for me, here I am again =) And it wasn't my fault, except the usual one of not paying close enough attention to the details.

Maybe I will have time to get a better shot later

Christian RSS/XML Feeds

  This one has made the rounds a few times, well the last part starting with Madeline Murray.   Annette =========== I find it interesting that the meanest life, the poorest existence, is attributed to God's will, but as human beings become more affluent, as their living standard and style begin to ascend the material scale, God descends the scale of responsibility at commensurate speed. -- Maya Angelou , 1970 -----Original Message----- From Joannie: The following was written by Ben Stein and recited by him on CBS Sunday Morning Commentary, Sunday, December 18, 2005. Here at this happy  time of year, a few confessions from my beating heart: I have no freaking clue who Nick and Jessica are. I see them on the cover of People and Us constantly  when I am buying my dog biscuits and kitty litter. I often ask the checkers at  the grocery stores. They never know who Nick and Jessica are either. Who are they? Will it change my life if I know who they

CHILDREN AND THE CHURCH A little boy was attending his first wedding. After the service, his cousin asked him, "How many women can a man marry?" "Sixteen," the boy responded. His cousin was amazed that he had an answer so quickly. "How do you know that?" "Easy," the little boy said. "All you have to do is add it up, like the Bishop said, 4 better, 4 worse, 4 richer, 4 poorer." º°'°º?o,,,,o?º°'°º?o?º°'°º?o,,,,o?º°'°º?o?º°'° After a church service on Sunday morning, a young boy suddenly announced to his mother, "Mom, I've decided to become a minister when I grow up." "That's okay with us, but what made you decide that?" "Well," said the little boy, "I have to go to church on Sunday anyway, and I figure it will be more fun to stand up and yell, than to sit and listen." ?º°'°º?o,,,,o?º°'°º?o?º°'°º?o,,,,o?º°'°º?o? A 6-year-old was overheard re

-- Forwarded Message -- Pastor's Business Card A new pastor was visiting in the homes of his parishioners. At one house it seemed obvious that someone was at home, but no answer came to his repeated knocks at the door. Therefore, he took out a business card and wrote "Revelation 3:20" on the back of it and stuck it in the door. When the offering was processed the following Sunday, he found that his card had been returned. Added to it was this cryptic message, "Genesis 3:10." Reaching for his Bible to check out the citation, he broke up in gales of laughter. Revelation 3:20 begins "Behold, I stand at the door and knock." Genesis 3:10 reads, "I heard your voice in the garden and I was afraid for I was naked." Remember when the funniest jokes were the clean ones? They still are! "A cheerful heart is good medicine" (Prov. 17:22) Now, pass it on! Annette

one more thing .... (man, I feel like Uncle from Jackie Chan Adventures ) I got braids!!! Got them yesterday, and yes, my head is still sore, and I will upload a pic ASAP. Josh says they are the shortest he's ever seen them, and i suppose they are, but they are still pretty long. Not this long though

Naps are good =) but on to today's topic. I installed 512 MB of mem on my puter. I thought I would finally have 1GB, but no, the manufacturer gave me 512 MB of RAM in 256x2 modules. And I only have two slots for mem. So I need to get another 512. But hey, 768 MB of RAM ain't bad. My biggest gripe is that the HD is so damn hard to replace. Actually, it isn't, but of all the screwdrivers we have in this house, not a single one of them is the right size for the type of screws they use. The user guide doesn't describe how to do it, so I call customer support (by the way, love the Candian accents AND they are open 24/7. I have yet to get a tech guy who doesn't say "about" in that very special Candian way, you know "aboat") oh yeah, back to my HD. So the tech guy tells me where to find the HD and kinda how to do it, but then tells me that I shouldn't do it and that's why it's not in the user guide. *sigh* So, I have to take it into Fry'

it's 2 am, i can't sleep, can't call anyone, too tired to read and all i want is the sound of another human voice. i hate it when i'm lonely.

ugh, some of these are so close to the mark ... anyone want to go get a coffee? You Are a Frappacino At your best, you are: fun loving, sweet, and modern At your worst, you are: childish and over indulgent You drink coffee when: you're craving something sweet Your caffeine addiction level: low What Kind of Coffee Are You?

Your Personality Profile You are funky, outdoorsy, and down to earth. While you may not be a total hippie... You're definitely one of the most free spirited people around. You are very impulsive - every day is a new adventure. However, you do put some thought behind all your actions. Still, you do tend to shock and offend people from time to time! The World's Shortest Personality Test Your Birth Month is August Ambitious and strong, you find it easy to be successful. You are brave and stubborn. No one's going to set your limits! Your soul reflects: Strength, character, and devotion Your gemstone: Peridot Your flower: Poppy Your colors: Orange, red, and light green What Does Your Birth Month Mean? You Are a Newborn Soul You are tolerant, accepting, and willing to give anyone a chance. On the flip side, you're easy to read and easily influenced by others. You have a fresh perspective on life, and you can be very creative. Noconformist and nontraditional, you've never

SNOW!!!!! Man, I wish it was enough to ditch school, but hey, I love any covering of white. I just know Joy is gonna want to go sledding even though it will all probably melt away as soon as the sun is fully up. SNOW!!!!!

I love this line: women are Crock-Pots who love to simmer emotionally, but once we've had time to warm up, we get HOT! from Every Woman's Battle

NARA on Google Video : "This selection of nineteen 'Headquarters Films (HQ)' preserved in the National Archives, represents a series of over 250 titles collected by the NASA Office of Public Affairs between 1962 and 1981. They were produced using footage from the various NASA research facilities and space flight "

they call it an addiction. i need a hit. update at 8:08PM 15 days, no wonder I am losing it. Time to clean, or eat more chocolate, or cry, or all of the above.

Your Nutritional Information: Servings Per Container: 1 x % Daily Value Sweetness: 23 g 46% Bitterness: 689 mg 63% Power: 13 g 37% Healthful: 113 mg 45% Excitement: 341 mg 31% x Deliciousness: 69% 'What is your nutritional value?' at QuizGalaxy.com

AHA!!!! Much is explained. Earlier I edited the Personality Quizzes post so my page would look normal again and asked "what the heck is an enneagram anyway?" So then I went looking for the answer. Needless to say, I love Wiki (oddly enough, started by a Portlander). " The nine types The nine Enneagram types are often given names that indicate some distinctive behavioral aspect, though these labels are insufficient to capture the nuances of the type concerned. Some examples are as follows. (For convenience, the corresponding deadly sin is indicated in square brackets: see below). One : Reformer, Critic, Perfectionist [Anger]. This type focuses on integrity. Ones can be wise, discerning and inspiring in their quest for the truth. They also tend to dissociate themselves from their flaws and can become hypocritical and hyper-critical, seeking the illusion of virtue to hide their own vices. The One's greatest fear is to be flawed and their ultimate goal is perfection. (A

I'll listen to SuperChick . Rhapsody has a sampler of their stuff across albums, AND I LIKE IT! I don't like Stellar Kart as much as my son and quite a few of the youth in our church do, but then, I never liked Green Day or other punk bands from my era. Speaking of which, my son LOVES Green Day and was shocked to find out that I knew some of the songs he was listening to. I finally broke down and ordered music online. I now own (thanks to SongTouch ) Kirk Franklin's Hero (whole album $9.99 allowed 7 CD burns) sight unseen, er heard, Third Day's Wherever You Are (also $9.99 -- which I probably could have gotten from a friend who own every single one of their albums) and of course, Superchick's Beauty From Pain ($9.90 and not found in the Christian Supply nearest to me, or at Fry's, even though Fry's carries their last album, go figure) which I have been talking about off and on since "We Live" hit the airwaves. So I spent just under $30, but i

Today's adventure had us sitting on a park bench watching construction workers building a new development. Joy's choice of entertainment.

I wouldn't mind a print of this ... cool ain't it. Explanation: Big, beautiful spiral galaxy M101 is one of the last entries in Charles Messier's famous catalog, but definitely not one of the least. About 170,000 light-years across, this galaxy is enormous, almost twice the size of our own Milky Way galaxy. M101 was also one of the original spiral nebulae observed by Lord Rosse's large 19th century telescope, the Leviathan of Parsontown. Assembled from 51 exposures recorded by the Hubble Space Telescope in the 20th and 21st centuries, with additional data from ground based telescopes, this mosaic of M101 is touted as the largest, most detailed spiral galaxy view ever released from Hubble. The sharp image shows stunning features along the galaxy's face-on disk of stars and dust along with background galaxies, some visible right through M101 itself. Also known as the Pinwheel Galaxy, M101 lies within the boundaries of the northern constellation Ursa Major, about 25 mi

IHOP Celebrates Pancake Day with Free Pancakes - Slashfood : "Today - February 28th, 2006 - all participating IHOP restaurants will be giving away free pancakes to their customers. The free pancakes are in celebration of Fat Tuesday and each diner who requests them will be given a short stack at no charge! In IHOP speak, a short stack of pancakes is three pancakes, but diners with large appetites shouldn't worry about the small-sounding portion, since each pancake is nearly the size of a plate. " Who knew!!! Learned a bit of history off of gomergirl's post too since pancake tuesday coincides with Fat Tuesday . I guess I should have posted this on Tuesday ...

Can you beleive it???? Hammer has a blog!

Shall I Knit you a Uterus? I have written about knitting healing shawls, tea and sympathy shawls, and a hundred pairs of mittens for cold, needy hands (twenty five more pairs to go!). I have knit dozens of chemo hats and a hundred or so preemie caps. All these projects are very dear to my heart. Now I'd like to propose a new knitting project for knitters so inclined. For lack of a better name, I'll call it The Uterus Project. A few weeks ago, after learning of a friend's unexpected and difficult hysterectomy, another friend suggested I check out HYSTERSISTERS, a hysterectomy recovery support website, where an online sisterhood of woman share their experiences and help each other. There are articles and stories and links and well, since it is a site for women, a store where you can purchase items to help you survive post op and to help others remember to pamper you during the recovery. There are some useful items like belly band and soothing pillow as well as gourmet teas,

i am so sleepy. i think it has something to do with being at home. i am just ready for a nap, plain and simple. I did get one or two loads of laundry mostly done (still have to put them away, but they are washed and dried) and got my sink shining , and one counter too. Joy helped mop the bathroom and a part of the kitchen, but didn't sweep first, so i'm not sure you can really tell there was effort put into it. And we have a new cat bed. Her High and Mightiness saw all the easter baskets at Michael's and immediately thought of her baby dolls and the cats. She found one that would actually make a great bassinet, but it was $14 or so and I was there to buy paint for the church preschool class, not baskets. We compromised, I bought one for the cats for $9.99. A wicker laundry basket into which we put two VeggieTales throw pillows (no longer in use) and then Joy added two of her baby blankets "to make them more comfortable". Hopefully they will appreciate the effort

and this is why i hate wellbutirn. i didn't go to bed till close to 1 and i have been awake for at least 45 minutes.

I miss Moose's .

My new job Volunteers of America Oregon - Changing lives : "CourtCare Phone: [snip] Free, drop-in supervised child care at the Multnomah County Courthouse. This is a service for the children of families involved in court proceedings. It eliminates distruptions during courtroom proceedings and protects children from witnessing unpleasant situations. See the CourtCare story,'Court Room Drama: It's Not For Kids' . "

ok, can i get through today with minimal waterworks? that's one reason why i slept approx 18 hours yesterday (4pm to 7am). and on the way to drop off josh i started crying. i can't friggin stop. ok, so i can, but then they start up again as soon as i start thinking about the disgraceful shambles my life is in. and this is why i HATE being female.