Macy and Goldilocks and The Three Bears

This is one of Macy's fav books for now. She had me read it over and over, and she liked to talk about the beds, slippers, and chairs of Papa, Mama, and Baby Bear.

Stella's Door

 Boys and not nice people have cooties! Well, maybe boys are not filled with cooties if they are nice. Just don't enter her private lair unless you have permission.

Christmas

We left for Christmas to Utah on Dec 22 and returned home on Dec 30 . It's harder to post on the iPad and I'm too busy (!) while I'm away so over the next several days I will be posting pics and commentary.
We got delayed in Las Vegas and finally got home and fell into bed at 3:30am. Not fun. Rick is sick, coughing constantly, and his hip and shoulder both hurt. He just couldn't get comfortable and was miserable. I keep trying to get sick, and keep battling it. Throat and chest hurt a little, my voice is funny, but I'm determined to not get full-blown sick. Apparently the flu is raging here in the US.

Rick, Paige, the ggrrls and I went sledding one day. It was cold and I thought I would go back to the house early with Hattie. Nothing doing!! She loved it and got upset if she didn't get to go down on the sled every time it went. After we finished sledding, Paige let the ggrrls play on the playground for a short while. As we were walking back to the car Hattie figured out the outside time was over; she got upset and kept pointing to let us know she wasn't finished.

Paige, Hattie, Stella, Macy

 

 Hard to keep this little ggrrl off the sled; of course she couldn't go down by herself, but I think she would have.

Sisters having a great time!

Three beautiful ggrrls in Christmas dresses

Hattie and Macy are both a little sick. Paige said in her text with the pic, "Everytime I unplugged it, it kept making too much noise." I didn't understand the unplugged part, but oh well. I told Rick the pics are super cute but I wish Paige had taken the pacifier out of Hattie's mouth. He explained that was the unplugged part. I must not be too quick.

Stella Bella and Macy Moo and Hattie...why doesn't she have a second name?

I'm going to start writing down the things the little girls say because it is forgotten so quickly. I can only remember a few things my own kids said; always so adorable at these young ages.

The girls were doing something uncooperative and Paige had asked them several times to cease and desist, finally she told them she would cancel Christmas if they didn't start behaving. Stella looked at Paige and told her, "You can't cancel Christmas because that is when Jesus was born."

Macy is sick with the croup, has that real seals cough and is on medicine. It must be quite yucky because she told Paige it's not good and to sell it at a yard sale.

Decorating for Christmas

I haven't been home on Christmas day since we moved to North Carolina in Aug 2007. Most of the years have been in Utah, but one was in Indianapolis with Jason and the boys.

The tree has seemed like too much work to put up so only two times have I done so. Actually, at no time did I put it up. That first year in 2007 Scott put it up and decorated the entire house with every little bit of decos I had (while the rest of us drove to Wilmington to the beach). It was really cheery, hap hap happily Christmas! Then last year Rick put up one of the trees I got at Hobby Lobby, and he did lights and a few decos on it.

I have always put out those decorations that I like, especially my nativity scenes, which I collect, and I set them out this year. I also set out other decos that I like. We looked quite festive.

This year I was all aboard with putting out both my Hobby Lobby trees (they are tall, pole-like with a few branches stuck here and there and I love them). They came with white lights and we added colored lights and some decorations and an angel and star topper. Then we put out some big balls on our front trees and bushes.

For some reason when my iPad focused, it always made the lights look like the tree on the left. I had to quickly take the pic to get the lights like the one on the right. I think both ways look pretty.

This is a metal crèche that I bought last year during the after Christmas sales. It's 2 feet high and I love it.

Comments on an article in BloombergView about Obamacare

"They promised we could keep our healthcare plans, our doctors, and our costs would go down $2,500 a year. They said it would not increase our costs. They said more people would be insured. They said the government would not come between us and our doctors. They claimed the insurance companies would pay for everyone's birth control and also the taxes on the Cadillac healthcare plans---but didn't relay the fact that not only would the insurance companies pass their costs on to us, they didn't tell us that soon everyone's plan will be considered a Cadillac plan.

They lied about the IPAB. They told us essentially that the inefficient government (who was going to take over the entire healthcare system--he who writes the rules rules) was going to be able to insure 30 million people at no cost to us.

The truth is Obamacare is a massive wealth redistribution plan in which we in the American middle class are the ones who will pay the Obamacare bill for the entire country. There will be 30 Senators running for reelection in 2016 who voted to pass Obamacare. This means we will have another chance of ridding our country of the politicians who insisted on cramming this Socialist program down our throats and ruining our healthcare system!"

Atlas Shrugged

"When you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing - When you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors - When you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don’t protect you against them, but protect them against you - When you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice - You may know that your society is doomed.”
    John Galt

More Thanksgiving

Austin's motto is "Keep Austin Weird." I think they took that idea from Seattle. It is a liberal city, but liberal in a crunchy granola way, which is a little more bearable for a conservative like me. Anyways, one of the things they do, and we really like, is Christmas decorate the cedar trees along the highways. 2222 is the highway in particular Rick, Jason and I saw that first January; we loved it but were amazed the city allowed all the decos (but goes well with the theme of "Keep Austin Weird"). Just something fun, festive, different and weird.

After Christmas last year when all the Christmas decos were marked down I bought a bunch of tinselly garland. Friday we all went out to decorate the cedars along Abbottsbury going up into our subdivision. Everybody was helping, but Braden was the only one with a camera and took these pics.

 

James enjoyed riding on the scooter, which he called a motorcycle, and also riding in the truck. His Grandpa Mike has a truck he loves to ride in. Get out of the way, Evil Knievel!

Rick and James

Jason and James

 

 

 

Thanksgiving

This year the ticket prices were so high that only Jason came out.
Braden, Anika and their 2 sons came also.
Rick invited Akanksha and her family of hubby, son, and daughter.
I made the same dinner I have served for 10 years, so I have it down. Still a lot of work, but I quite enjoy it.

I picked Jason up from the airport on Wed at 10am, and his plan was to go straight to the Tangers Outlet Mall in San Marcos. I still had a few things to do for Thanksgiving dinner, but decided going on Wed was a better deal than going on Black Friday. So off we went. Jason said because we didn't spend much time there in Aug, Thanksgiving he wanted to shop a bit more. He did buy 2 quite expensive shirts.

Today Rick, Braden and I went out at 7:30am to get some milk and juice. We saw a flock of turkeys, 15-20, at the bottom of the hill on the golf course. Made me happy to see them; I was afraid all the construction and activity would scare them off and they would relocate. I did tell them they should be thankful to be there and wandering around (since yesterday was Turkey Day).

Scott and Jessica

Scott and I were talking on the phone last week and he happened to mention the jeep, and asked me if Dad (Rick) drove it much. I said no, it's not all that comfortable a ride. He said I could sure use it this winter on the snowy, steep drives in Old Park City up to Montage. So he called Rick to see if he could use it this winter; of course the reply was yes. He and Jessica bought tickets and came here on Thursday and left this morning to drive back to Utah.

It was really fun having them for the weekend. We didn't do anything too unusual - shopping at Kohl's (I had $10 rewards to use and they bought sox), 2 Christmas movies at our house, Farmer's Market to get Kombucha and gluten/dairy free baked goods for Jessica, played Yahtzee (in the first game Jessica got 4 yahtzees and the unbelievable score of 551), Torchy's and Rudy's.

Cheryl was here on Mon thro Wed, then Scott and Jess; Jason, Braden and Anika on Wed/Thurs. It's so nice to have people come and see us since we are so far from family.


Rick saying goodbye to the jeep and please don't hit the truck! They left this morning at 6:45am.



Rick and Scott

Scott and Jessica

Rick jumps in pool

Rick hadn't gotten to all the leaves in the pool for a few days and went out this morning to scoop them out with the long pole. Somehow he lost his footing, started to fall into the pool, and just did a slow shallow dive. I was standing and watched it all happen in slow motion. The water is so cold I was afraid he would have a heart attack, but instead he swam to the edge and got out, laughing the whole time.

I ran in to get towels; he thought I was running to get the camera to video it. I'm not that mean!! Just stood to make sure he got out ok, then ran for towels.

Quite funny.

Yikes, it's Thursday already!

Thursday, and my last blog post was week ago Wed.

I had a busy week. Started the ortho treatment on Monday by getting rubberband spacers between some of my teeth. I go in today and get bands put on. My jaws definitely hurt more, ears ringing more, and starting to get headaches. I'm very nervous about this whole process and if I should even be doing it. But I guess I am. Rick says he wouldn't go thro the misery. I know it will be miserable.

My sister Miz Chero (Cheryl) came on Mon evening. Acutally, Rick and I drove halfway and met Anika. It took us 1 hour, and them a little more. We did go on I-45, which probably cost us $10 but we missed all of rush hour, woot woot! (as Alyona would say).

Cheryl and I went shopping (she has lost a bunch of weight and is looking really good). She had a hard time accepting the reality of her new size, which is smaller. We made marshmellows to see if she wanted to do them for RS Christmas Dinner chocolate fountain. They were fun to make and taste so much better. I don't like marshmellows buts these were good. We walked on the paths in our subdivision. (The paths are short, but it will be nice to walk on them, I have looked forward to the HOA finally getting them finished.)

Yesterday I drove to San Antonio to take her back. I felt bad because Anika had to bring the two little boys before, and I don't mind driving. We left a little after 12 noon and got there in good time, but then I left at 2:30, and with stopping to get a hamburger and gas, went thro Austin at 4:10 - just in time for rush hour.  Oh well, the joys of rush hour. I was just surprised it started before 4pm. I decided I'm also not going to live my life around rush hour.

It was so much fun to have her here. It seems like one person in the family takes it upon herself to keep the family together and doing activities, and that person is Cheryl. But really, I have the 2 best sisters.

Scott and Jessica are coming today, I need to pick them up from the airport at 4:25 on US Airways. They are coming here to get the jeep. Scott talked his dad into letting him use it this winter. It will be fun to see them, they are the only ones who didn't come this summer.

Thanksgiving coming up and I'm planning the dinner. I do the same one every year and have for 10 years. We have Jason, Braden and family, Aksansha and family coming. Nice.

3 Sisters Rock It!

Miz Chero, Squirt (Miss Kris) and Miss U (me) are going to start a website/blog and the name is going to be something like the above.

Acutally I think Cheryl is going to go by Grandma and I'm not sure what Squirt will choose, and I will either be Nano or Miss U. But the other names are our childhood names.

Here are some topics we will blog about: Elder care, grandparenting, parenting, cooking/recipes, crafts/invitations/home deco, health, exercising, weight loss (which we are all 3 trying to do), etc. I said probably not politics, but there might be a little of that.

The name idea came because when Miz Chero was at Squirt's helping with mom after I left in Sept, they played racquetball at Squirt's RecCenter. A 30something at the desk had curly hair like Cheryl's but it looked really cute and Cheryl told her it was cute and that she had curly hair also and had been her trial in trying to style it. The woman said something along the lines of we just need to like our hair and rock it!!

So we 3 sisters are going to rock it!!

Polar cold blast sweeping the nation

The Polar Plunge, as I saw one weather website describing it, is going to hit Tues and it will be a doozy. Extreme cold in the northern Plain states and upper Midwest and cold in the Northeast, flowing south. Austin will be partakers of some of this, with highs in the mid 50s and lows down to 36. At least it won't be -4 or whatever in the upper Plains states. I'll check on my outdoor succulents and see which ones can be covered and which need to be brought closer to the house.

The days are getting shorter, the nights longer. It makes me want to snuggle into my house, curl up with a fun movie (WISH we got Hallmark - Scott says they are advertising 50 days of Christmas!) or a good book, some soup (a la Alyona) and hibernate.

I suppose I had better get out tho, Kohl's sent me another 30% off.
It must be used.

Handouts

Yes, I think we should raise taxes

More pics

Paige and ggrrls grocery shopping - Sat evening at Walmart - crazy!!

Jason

Chris and Alyona

 Walking on the main path in the woods, after the bridge and towards the first of the meadows. Keep going and end up at Danville park; Rick and I walked it many times to Larry's Marathon (gas station and car service center).

Creek at Blanton Woods, the edge is slowly being eroded as big rainstorms pull the trees and foliage right off the hillside. Before we moved the path going down actually fell into the creek, and people formed a new path. Incredible to see the huge trees with their roots over the edge.

Indiana

Alyona, Chris, and Jason inspecting one of the benches that Chris built for his Eagle project; Scott painted them for his, along with other improvements to Blanton Woods.

The scenery was so vivid no pics will ever do it justice. I filled my phone with photos.

Just can't say how much I miss being able to walk in these woods most everyday; it's my meditation and spiritual renewal time. Jason, Chris, and Alyona walked quite a bit with me - I was so happy to be there.

Lots more pics - more to post later!!

Pics, and pics, and pics....

Claire, doing her goofy thing. She always was a weird sitter, and Squirt hasn't retrained her*&?!!

Squirt and mom with Jasper. He loves mom and enjoys sitting and sleeping with her.

Squirt has a lot of cute arrangements in her yard and house. I loved this bench with the succulents in pots and then growing below. Her neighbor builds things like this to sell; she went over and looked at it so many times he just gave it to her (she has bought a lot of his stuff).

Pics from my trips in Oct

Hattie trying to decide which ice cream to buy

3 ggrrls on Nano's bed

Climbing onto the couch where Papaw was sleeping

                                                  

3 ggrrls with Papaw

Back home again...not in Indiana

I am truly exhausted and am happy to be back home...at least until Christmas.
But it was fun to meet in Indiana, see all the old sights and sites. We walked in Blanton Woods, which made me very happy. That must be one of the places I miss the most, walking out my door and into the woods, as it were.

We did our best to "eat our way thro Indianapolis," which seemed to be Chris' and Jason's goal. Alyona did much better, just a little of whatever but concentrating mostly on her salads and apples. I can try to follow her example.

I have an orthodontic appointment this morning, house to clean (although not messy by any means) laundry to do, mail to catch up on, got to dig into our health insurance and get it sorted out, including what to sign up for in 2015, grocery shopping and other things I don't even know I need to do yet.

Building in our subdivision continues like crazy, and I hope they just get it finished quickly. It has changed the look and feel and I don't like it. If I were to look at this house now I would not be as excited.

Pics from November to follow.

Visiting and visiting and eating and eating

We went to Fred and Barbara's on sat at 1pm, Ginger and Mallory left at 3 to go to a baton twirling event. Jason picked up Chris and Alyona around 3 and came back to "pizza grandpa." Chris said it's hard to not call him that.

It was so nice to spend time with everyone. Robin and Harry were there, as were Brian, Kaitland, and Kristen (might have spelled their names wrong). Kristen looks so much like Ginger it's crazy, even down to the curly, curly hair, so cute, the other two have "Annie Red's" strawberry blonde hair.

Fred sure needs the hip surgery, walking with the Owens waddle (as seen by the bad hips that allow only for the side to side duck steps).

Ginger was very sad she wasn't going to get to see Chris and Alyona, so we made arrangements to go back Monday and bring dinner.

Ginger is in pain all the time, no energy, but is determined to participate in anything that concerns her daughters. The lymphoma really took a toll on her body, she needs a new liver, but the transplant rules are she must be cancer free for a year. Her church brings in meals 2 days a week. She is such an example of determination and Christian traits. But then she always has been.

Onto Pat's yesterday. Michele came to live with her over 2 years ago and what a blessing that was. Pat is on oxygen full time. She wants to get healthy enough to make one last round of traveling to all her great gkids. Wonderful to see them also. We are planning another visit later in the week

We are in the process of planning a trip to South Bend to visit Eric's grave. He died nov 2 two years ago. It was right after Charles. Eric's life motto of living for experiences and people and not things served him well as he was 39 when he passed. And like Charles, he had so many people from across the states that attended his funeral, people with a story of how he touched them and made their life better, is truly a testament to a life well lived. And that was exactly the same with Charles.

Tir-red

Rick and I got back at midnight on Mon, for some reason both of us had a difficult sleeping. I was literally up all night. Yesterday I was absolutely wasted.

Last night, good sleep, yay.

I have a few really cute things Macy said that I want to get blogged before I forget.

When Stella and Macy and I picked up Papaw from the airport, a big very pink suitcase kept going around on the conveyer belt, and we were all commenting how pink it was. Then as we were driving home Macy said,"Member that big ole pink suitcase, Papaw?"

Paige wouldn't let the girls have gum, mostly because she didn't want the mess it can make, then a week or so ago she let them have gum to chew and they both enjoyed it. On Sunday she gave them gum again and they were both chewing it. A little later Macy was evidently looking for her gum and said, "I put it right on the table and somebody stole it." Hmmmm, not sure who would steal her piece of used chewing gum....

Pics to follow in another post when I have time.

Weather

The weather has been so beautiful here and I was so afraid I would miss all the great Texas fall weather. Instead I can look forward to going home to continuing fall days.

I have enjoyed my time here with my sis Kris and my mom. Cheryl comes on Wed to replace me, Rick comes on thurs, we go to Scott's on fri. Scott and Jess have some fun activities planned - lunch at a good place he knows, haunted Ickabod Crane hayride, looking at beautiful scenery with all the gorgeous  trees turned colors, it will be a lot of fun. Rick is looking forward to taking the ggrrls on their traditional early morning convenience mart run to buy "junk food."

Home then off to Indy and Jason's. More on that as we do it. Also when I get home I will post some pics.

At Squirt's with mom

I got to SLC last Sat afternoon, was in line to pick up the rental when Chris called and said why don't you save $500 and get my jeep. What a great idea, the boy must be a genius! He called Alyona, she came and picked me up, and I saved $544. Yay.

It has been quite nice to be here instead of St George, altho I loved St George. This way I get to go see Paige and the ggrrls sometimes during the day. Also nice to see Squirt, and have someone to talk to in the evenings.

Too many kids in the tub

There's too many kids in the tub,
There's too many elbows to scrub.
I just washed a behind
I'm sure is not mine,
There's too many kids in the tub.

                 Mary Shelley

22.

Can't swallow

I had my second visit today with the new orthodontist. Dr. Larry Schrader. He, Peppard and Gallagher all work closely together. Because I have such a small mouth, all dentists have a hard time working in there. I needed have all new molds of my teeth made so Dr. Schrader could hook them up to his own "fake jaw/mouth." I can't remember what they call it, but it shows them exactly how my teeth and jaw interact.

Anyways, I told him that Dr. Peppard had molds but Schrader said he needed his own set. He had me opening and closing my mouth, taking measurements this way and that, moving my mouth from side to side, jutting my lower jaw forward then backward, and recording it all. Finally, he said it was time to take the molds. He got the smallest set he had and put the top and then the bottom into my mouth, separately, then took them out, just wanting to see how they would fit. I told him I had a strong gag reflex. He said he had some spray that would numb my throat and mouth just for 5 min or so to get the molds in and set. Ok. He sprayed and as the numbing effect began occurring I began not being able to swallow and breathing was difficult. Dr. Schrader and his 2 helpers stood and watched as I struggled. I hopped out of the chair because lying back made it so much worse. They gave me some water to drink, which I sipped.

Finally the numbing agent did start to wear off and it was easier to swallow and breathe. I told them if any of my kids were there I would be accused of being a drama queen. But they were all kind and concerned (as visions of the last several years' profits evaporated before their eyes if I happened to go kerplunk).

Returned to the chair, leaned back and they prepared the molds with goo and inserted first the bottom, waited 5 min for it to set, then the top. Done with few probs, no gagging, etc. Oh, first they took some wax bites of my front, side, and I think bottom teeth.

All this is preparing me for my new job as Torturer for the Army.

House painted

This week the painters were here painting the outside. I actually enjoy painting, but not something like this. I wouldn't care to be climbing on the roof trying to get the eves and stucco. Looks quite nice.

I had a hard time falling asleep last night, so I got up and turned on the front porch light. A white lizard, about 7-8 inches, was on the underside of the porch overhang, just sitting there upside down. His white coloring really stood out against the newly painted green. I wonder where he hides out during the day.

It's still dark at 6:30am now. It's supposed to rain today, so Rick brought in some towels and other swim stuff, telling me he checked for wildlife, but I shook it all and peered down pant legs and inside t-shirts just to make sure. Don't need any more centipedes, or white lizards, hiding out.

Kohl's

All the retailers are having a hard time with trying to grab market share. Kohl's and Penney's in particular have my number, with the top department store hustling me being Kohl's. I just got another mailer for percentage off - you peel the sticker and see if it says 10%, 20%, or 30%. It used to be rare and hard to get the 30% off coupon; now that is what I get regularly. Another one yesterday.

I feel almost compelled to use it. If Kohl's is going to go to all that trouble to send me a coupon for 30% off, the least I can do to show my appreciation is to use it.

Now, what do I need?
Nothing.
I guess Stella needs a new dress.

Jaw update

I saw my occlusion specialist last week; he said he had gotten my jaw in the correct position and stabilized it as much as possible, now I had to decide on the course going forward. The time before he had taken 5 impressions of jaw at different positions to help him decide on the best plan of action. And the winner was:
1. orthodontics to get my teeth moved around into the best possible position. It will not be perfect - it can't be - the last ortho treatment 20 years ago screwed up an already bad bite.
2. surgery. It turns out my jaw has a "congenital deformity," meaning the bottom jaw did not develop properly and is too far back.
3. dental work, including 6-8 caps, 2 teeth pulled, implants or a bridge with a fake tooth

This will all take 2 1/2-3 years and will cost $30,000-35,000. Yes that is 3 zeroes. At the time I said let's do it right. Then I went home and thought that's a lot of money, that's a lot of time and pain. I went ahead and set up appointments with the orthodontist and oral surgeon for consultations on Sept 29 and 30. I had to go back to Doc Peppard on Tues for x-rays, but I have been going back and forth if I really wanted to do this. So I set up an appointment for today for another consultation with him.

He must think I'm a dummy because he has been explaining it very well all along. I remember when I was trying to decide about the splint and had already gotten it and was wearing it. I went back in to talk with him again, telling him I was undecided. He said, You have to do this, your jaw is never going to get any better without it. So okay then.

This time it was the same way. My options are:
1. wear the splint for the rest of my life
2. do his plan

He is quite kind, I trust his expertise and knowledge (unlike knuckle-head Slysh/office in Philly) takes all the time I need, explains things well each visit, but said this time, You just really need to do this. You're too young to try and deal with this messed up jaw for the rest of your life. Well, okay then.

He told me to bring Rick in and he could go over it all with him too. (He also said you seem to have a supportive husband, and that's very nice. I agree.)

But that is a bunch of money!!! I have always been a tight-fisted hand at the grind-stone, a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner, hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire, a tight-fisted, wrenching....

Anyways, looks I'm doing orthodontics for the 3rd time in my life, then surgery, then tons of caps, digging out old fillings...I should join the Army and be able to help them with their water-boarding and other torture techniques, I will be such an expert by the end of this.

Hair brush woes (she might need her mom's magical one that Nano has)

When Paige was a few years older than this, and round brushes were a new-fangled invention, she tried to fix her hair with it and got it all tangled, just like poor little Macy. Unfortunately, Nano wasn't as patient as Paige (I'm very sorry to say). Macy has such an expressive little face and body, so adorable, I just had to blog this.

Barbies

I didn't have any Barbies for the ggrrls to play with when they were here so I looked on Craigslist to buy some but they were all boxed and quite expensive for used Barbies. Paige buys them all the time at yard sales for $1; I asked Paige to get me some but she always seemed to need all she bought. She claimed she needed them all for her ggkids! She wanted to have the largest Barbie collection ever.

A few days ago I looked on Craigslist and found some for a good deal and made arrangements to buy them. I ended up with 22 Barbies and 8 little girls and a car and a large flat pink tub to store them. Now needed: some ggrrls to play with them.

Texas redheaded centipede

Loverly thing, and not little. I found him on my dining room floor this morning and quickly threw a plastic bowl over him so he couldn't get away before Rick came home to deal with him. He is poisonous, the sting probably wouldn't kill a human but would hurt for days (and the pics of wounds on the internet were gross looking), but I don't know if that includes little kids and babies. He was about 9 inches long and mean looking. Rick picked him up with a fly swapper, and the critter kept moving on the swapper. I was saying, "Kill him, kill him!" which Rick was reluctant to do. Finally he agreed and took him over to the rocks to squish him.

I certainly don't want him back in the house. It makes me fearful now to get up in the middle of the night for the bathroom. I don't put on my glasses or turn on the light until I'm there. I might have to change my methods.

Now I suppose no one will ever visit me again. The cold weather of Utah is sounding better and better; at least it kills off all that type of wildlife.

Sisters Tsarnaev and the Boston bomber brothers

I really don't want to turn this into a political blog, it frustrates me too much to learn of the things we as a country put up with, especially from certain immigrants, either legal or illegal. I don't listen, watch, or read nearly as much as I used to, dating from the last election that Obama and his minions stole. But I had to copy and paste this, I felt such anger after reading about the sisters of the Boston bomber brothers:

The Sisters Tsarnaev have been nothing but trouble. Double, bubbling trouble. While their Boston Marathon bomber brother Dzhokhar awaits trial this month for the bloody 2012 attacks that killed three and injured hundreds, his elder Chechen immigrant siblings Ailina and Bella remain on the loose in the U.S. after their own frequent run-ins with the law.
Last week, Ailina was arrested in Harlem after allegedly threatening “to blow up her live-in lover’s baby mama,” as the New York Post reported. Police charged Ailina, 23, with aggravated harassment and released her.

In 2013, she was released without bail in South Boston in connection with a three-year-old counterfeiting case. Prosecutors said she obstructed their investigation. They charged her with willfully lying to police in 2010. She skipped bail in 2011. Upon turning herself in last year after the Boston bombing, she told the court she was indigent, pregnant, and a single mother with one other child. The case was dismissed. She has bounced between shelters and shabby apartments shared with sister Bella.

The article goes on to describe all the welfare, food stamps, and other money they have and are still receiving from the tax payers of America. And lists other illegal activities, drug use they continually partake in. And for some reason those public officials who should be monitoring/prosecuting this do nothing. Totally frustrating. And the entire Western world puts up with this on an ongoing basis, usually Muslims from Mid-Eastern countries. Europe has almost given up their own identity, willingly. At least the politicians have, and the socialized citizens are too indifferent to care.

I won't even get into what happened in Rotherham in England, by the men of the Pakistani community. Too sickening and vile and heartbreaking to even read much about, and the "authorities" allowed to continue for decades. Where were the feminists and lefties? Covering their eyes, pretending it wasn't happening, not wanting to "offend" the rapists. Horrible.

Global warming: fail. It became religion for many warmists - and they followed and believed - despite what the actual science said. That they could message and manipulate, and they did.

The world faces record-breaking temperatures as the sun’s activity increases, leading the planet to heat up significantly faster than scientists had predicted for the next five years, according to a study.
The hottest year on record was 1998, and the relatively cool years since have led to some global warming sceptics claiming that temperatures have levelled off or started to decline. But new research firmly rejects that argument. The research, to be published in Geophysical Research Letters, was carried out by Judith Lean, of the US Naval Research Laboratory, and David Rind, of Nasa’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies.

Fail. Five more years of no warming followed.

Professsor Ross McKitrick says in a new paper that the warming pause has now lasted an astonishing 19 years at the surface and 16-26 years in the lower troposphere:

The IPCC has drawn attention to an apparent leveling-off of globally-averaged temperatures over the past 15 years or so.... Here, I propose a method for estimating the duration of the hiatus that is robust to unknown forms of heteroskedasticity and autocorrelation (HAC) in the temperature series and to cherry-picking of endpoints… Application of the method shows that there is now a trendless interval of 19 years duration at the end of the HadCRUT4 surface temperature series, and of 16 – 26 years in the lower troposphere. Use of a simple AR1 trend model suggests a shorter hiatus of 14 – 20 years but is likely unreliable…
While the HadCRUT4 record clearly shows numerous pauses and dips amid the overall upward trend, the ending hiatus is of particular note because climate models project continuing warming over the period. Since 1990, atmospheric carbon dioxide levels rose from 354 ppm to just under 400 ppm, a 13% increase… In the surface data we compute a hiatus length of 19 years, and in the lower tropospheric data we compute a hiatus length of 16 years in the UAH series and 26 years in the RSS series. 

This is “the science”. Why do warmists keep ignoring it?

Leaving on a jet plane...don't know when they'll be back again

  I try to put these pics a certain way; they do what they will and I lose interest in fussing longer. Also, I always complain that I don't take enough, finally remembered at the airport. And last thought, if you want to be immortalized in my blog, send me your pics.

 

Chris and Alyona

This is on their trip to Dallas. They would like to find a house that is older and not taken care of, or newer and still not taken care of, get it for a good price and fix it up.
This pic is of Alyona in front of Magnolia Homes in Waco. The owners are the couple on the TV show "FIXER UPPER."

 

 
I seem to never take enough pics; we get busy and I just forget, so this morning I remembered and went upstairs to take pics. Don't they look cute?!