Happy Birthday to “The Little Girl”

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Well, she is not so little anymore, even though I still ask her to “shrink back down to around age 2″ some days, only because I miss when she was little.

When I brought Brit home from the hospital, I couldn’t help thinking, “Really?   You’re going to let me take a baby home?”, only because I was 36 and had begun thinking I would never probably have a child of my own.

I remember those early days, watching her rock in her swing, eat every couple of hours, turn yellow briefly from a slight case of jaundice (don’t mention the “Mellow Yellow” song to her, ok?) and sleep, sleep, sleep.

I remember the first day she actually had enough hair to put into pigtails.  She was around 2 years old.     Her short stint in ballet at age 4, learning to ride a bike, chasing puppies, talking up a storm and being the sweetest girl ever.

She still is.  She’s grown so much, and now we have band concerts and plays to watch and remember.

So happy birthday to “the one we would always choose for a daughter if we had our pick.”  :)

Love you, much!

 

From September 9, 2011

 

September 11th, 10 years on.

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My daughter was only almost 1-year-old when September 11, 2001 happened.    It is a day that will live in infamy, because of the loss of life and the horrendous affects of having acts of terror of this scale carried out in this place I have called home and sworn allegiance to all of my life.   Like so many have said, it left us waiting under dead-quiet skies, wondering when the other shoe might drop.  It was a fearful, uncertain time.

I’m proud of this country.   No matter what is going on, be it upcoming elections, rivalry or disagreement over one thing or another, I believe that patriotism lives on.

It is why many found a sense of closure, at least, when the military took out the ring leader of a major terrorist organization behind the 9-11 attacks.  It didn’t end terror, but there is one less organizer of terrorism.

It is why I look at the cctv of the hijackers about to get on the plane, and mixed in with the horror that there is no way to reach into the past and undo anything, is the small feeling of satisfaction that these terrorists lost their lives, too.   Maybe they thought there were rewards on the “other side” of death waiting for them.  It is that point when I hope the atheists are completely right and there is absolutely nothing, or the Christians are right and they will burn in hell.    Or according to Islam, they will spend ages in Jahannam repenting their sins of taking innocent lives, many of them not American, that day.

It is touching, always, to watch the memorials on September 11th:  The reading of the names of those lost, the moments of silence, and this year, the opening of the WTC Memorial.

May God continue to bless America and those around the world who oppose terror.

 

 

Chinook Crash Victims

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A memorial to the military who lost their lives in Afghanistan has been posted here.  People put their lives on the line for their country every day in the roughest of circumstances.   It is sad when they go in the line of duty.  RIP

Saying “So Long” to Summer

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It’s been an interesting summer for Brit, I think, shuffling around from summer program to summer program, instead of sticking with one thing all summer.    This week marks the end of The Rose Theater program, which has lasted for 3 weeks.   The program involved benraku puppetry, and she seemed to be really excited about it.   Unfortunately, an illness is not allowing her to be in today’s performances, but I think she’ll be ready to go on Saturday.

In July, was a week of band camp, where kids from all over the school district came together to learn and perform together.   It was very cool to see the final performance and how well they learned 3 new pieces within a course of a week.

Before that was 3 weeks of summer school.   The reading portion didn’t go over so well, but the computer graphics half of the day was something Brit was pretty excited about.  We learned new things from it, too.   Let’s face it, there are a lot of fun sites computer graphics people know about that regular geeks do not.   Or I may just be speaking for myself.  :)

So, next week, it’s back to school.  It’s a whole new year in middle school, learning things like foreign languages and industrial arts, cooking, and participating in band AND choir.   Sounds like a busy year.

October will be here before we know it, then it’s off to Seattle, and hopefully a daytrip to Canada.  Yay!

Commentary on commentary

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I’m not really understanding too much about the purpose of online commentary anymore.   Every single news story I see has a place for comments at the end.   Can I just say that people can be exeptionally ruthless?

People even have crappy things to say about people starving in Somalia.   This is ridiculous and disgusting.   It’s not all people are commenting vehemently about, but it’s the story I find least deserving of crappy comments at the moment.

I keep thinking… Would you say these things to a person’s face?   Would you actually stare a starving Somalian person in the face and say, “Tough luck.  Move somewhere else.” Or something 1000 times worse?

I guess everyone has an opinion and a right to express their opinion, but really?   Are we really living amongst so many exceptionally asinine people who just want to document their most hateful opinion on news stories about whatever story they find deserving of their abuse?

Maybe comment sections should be altered to say, “Please write the most inhumane, hateful thing you can think of here.   Just be a total ass.  Go ahead.”   Then the world of online commentary might begin to make sense.