Iowa Bed Shaker Pictures

Why Lie?

So you have to wonder, why do so many people tell lies when the truth works just as well? When we lived in London, we had a teenage girl under our supervision that lied like a dog. Even when the truth would work better for her, she would lie. Fortunately for us, I soon figured out an ironclad means of knowing if she was telling the truth or uttering a lie. It was so simple. She would twirl her hair with her fingers each time she lied. It drove her nuts that I could tell when she was lying but wouldn't tell her how I knew! LOL

I expect a teenager to tell lies. What really troubles me is when people in authority tell lies. I just don't get it. Why not let your "Yes" mean yes and your "No" mean no? I find lying especially horrendous when done within the church. It obviously is not a Godly thing to do. One day we will all stand before God. God will say one of two things: "Well done, good and faithful servant. Well done." Or, "Why did you persecute me?"

Snow, Snow, Go AWAY!!!!

We had more snow last night and this morning. I am officially sick of winter. Ok, the white stuff is very pretty when it first falls. Beautiful, even. But really, enough is enough! We have had twice the normal amount of snowfall. We have had more snow than Denver. Spring starts on Friday. When will it end????

All I have to say is thank goodness for global warming. Can you imagine how much more snow and frigid temperatures we would have had if it weren't for global warming? Why, we might have been worse than Alaska instead of Denver!

Where to???

This week Mike got a call from the D.S. He was told to call another D.S. if he wanted a new appointment. The D.S. is from the other side of the mountains. I told Mike weeks ago if he stayed, they'd send him to a three point charge in Northern Idaho. He thought it would be a one point charge in Eastern Washington. Guess who won? It is a three point charge in Idaho. The largest church has 30 people. The second church is 20 minutes to the south, and the third is an hour and a half north.

The area is beautiful. BUT the nearest, Starbucks, Costco, Target, Walmart, K-Mart, Michael's etc. is like a couple hours away. If it comes to it, I can do it! I can do it! LOL

Life

I looked at the local paper today. A mother driving here two young daughters slid on an icy bridge and spun into the path of a pickup pulling a load. The truck hit the passenger door of the mother's van. One of her little girls was killed. The other girl and mother were not hurt at all. It makes you wonder why. Why was the girl taken while everyone else walked away?

The Inauguration

I'm being a good citizen and watching the inauguration. There are a lot of people are there.

It strikes me how supportive conservatives are of Obama. They are full of well wishes and truly seem to want him to succeed overall as president. As Glenn Beck aptly put it, we all need to support him when we can, but oppose him when we must. The Bushes wish him well, as do countless others. I have yet to hear one person voice a negative thought. How different than during the last two inaugurations. I think a lot of it has to do with the grace Bush and McCain have shown after Obama won. Neither Gore or Kerry lost their elections with grace or dignity, nor would their followers and fellow democrats support the Bush administration. Let’s hope the “O” keys are left on the keyboards. :^)

And just to be really catty, I hate Michele Obama’s dress and I think her embellished diamante necklace is gaudy.

AAARRRGGG!!!

So, here we are approaching the end of January. Do you know what that means? No, not Joshua's 15th birthday. It means tax time is fast approaching. It means that we should all have those lovely W-2s in our hands by January 31.

If you know me at all, you know how much I HATE doing taxes. So as I was surfing the Internet today in search of that ever elusive tax program that is made specifically for the oddities of ministerial taxes, I ran across a little jewel. On the church's national website there is a document stating how churches should fill out the W-2s. If they would actually share this document with the churches, it would be extremely easy for me to do our taxes. I would not have to shell out big bucks to pay someone else to do our taxes.

The lady who prepares the taxes here gave me a copy of the document sent to her (and presumably all her counterparts in the conference). Not only does it omit the way to make it easy for me to do the taxes, it also discourages them from doing it the way the IRS recommends which is an alternative easy way. AAARRRGGG

Here is a picture of Skeeter in the snow. Jeremy and Josh won't let me take their pictures. Scruffy won't go out in snow that is deeper than she is!

Snow!

So far we have about 4.5" of snow and are supposed to get more later. Jeremy decided to feed some snow to Skeeter.

Sound the Trumpeter!

I had to drive down to Bellingham last week. As I went over the lake I noticed dozens and dozens of the most beautiful white birds. I thought they were domestic geese until I saw an article in the paper. They were trumpeter swans.

There are a lot of pretty birds here. When I was walking the dogs one day a huge crane flew up out of the creek as we passed. It can just a few feel from us and must have had a 6' wingspan. Skeeter still looks for the crane every time I walk her there.

Dizzy Dog

We are easily entertained...

What a Beautiful Sunset

I took Jeremy to the fruit stand this afternoon for some apples and to see what else they had. On the way home, there was the most beautiful sunset. The sun was huge and bright orange. The surrounding sky was a gorgeous orange as well.

Jeremy commented on the sunset, and I commented on how pretty it was. Giggling, he replied, "It looks like the sun vomited all over!"

Dork. I blame it on the Beggs side.

Boys!

Today I decided I'd better vacuum. Skeeter sheds way worse than Caleb ever did, and I think I'm allergic to her. I notice when I don't' vacuum as often as I should, my allergies act up a lot. So today I vacuumed the house, except for the boy areas -- their bedrooms and the hidden room. After all, if I can't take a step in a room, I can't vacuum it! When the boys got home from school, I told them they had to clean up.

Jeremy was so sweet. He suggested I should just take it easy for the rest of the day. He had a bit smile on his face and patted me on the back as he said it. He said he was concerned for me since I have a laryngitis. NOT!!! LOL

Pets

So this is how the last 24 hours on the pet front have gone:

--Skeeter pooped in Josh's room. Nothing new about her going in the house on occasion. She just picked Josh's room last night. He had a come-apart and wanted me to shampoo the rug despite it being very solid waste and easily taken care of. hee hee

--One of the gerbils died. It was very hard on Jeremy since he had been attacked by the other gerbil when I was in Iowa. Apparently there was a lot of blood and drama. It also brought back feelings of Caleb for Jeremy. He and Mike buried the little guy this afternoon. He has been laid to rest in the front yard so Skeeter doesn't dig him up in the back and create more drama.

--When I walked the dogs this morning, we were greeted by two huge rotties on the loose. They were really well behaved and stayed when I told them to. My dogs, on the other hand, were going ballistic. Skeeter really, really wanted to play and Scruffy really, really wanted them to go away from his territory. A neighbor called the police and the escapees were hauled off. Apparently they killed her rabbit last night and was worried about my dogs. Oh -- and Skeeter escaped from the back yard and ran over to "help" when the police were trying to catch the dogs.

--I got a call from the vet about an accidental double payment I'd done on Caleb's bill. It was the first time I could talk to them because I always cry when I think of the vet's office. (I always made Mike deal with them.) I held it together until I was off the phone. It's really dumb to miss a dog this much for this long.

I guess the pros out wiegh the cons, though. What would life be with out pets?

How Shocking!

Man finds the limit to defending his political signs
Jay Price, Staff Writer

CHAPEL HILL - After Shawn Turschak saw two sets of McCain-Palin signs disappear from his yard within hours of being planted, he took steps to protect the latest pair.
On Monday, he ran wires from his house and hooked the signs into a power source for an electric pet fence. Then he mounted a surveillance camera in a nearby tree and wired it to a digital recorder.

Tuesday afternoon, the camera saw this: A neighbor trotting up with an Obama-Biden sign, grabbing a handful of volts as he touched a McCain-Palin sign, then fleeing at top 9-year-old boy speed.

A few minutes later, the boy's father, Andrew Noble, was at Turschak's door, demanding an explanation from Turschak's 13-year-old daughter, who called her parents on the phone to say a man was yelling at her. Both families agree on one aspect of the exchange, that Noble chastised her for "electrocuting" his son, then left.

The Turschaks hurried home and received another visitor: an Orange County sheriff's deputy.

Campaign signs are vandalized or stolen so often that many people don't report it, and, when they do, law officers often don't investigate.

This time was different.

The corner of the Turschak's yard where the signs are posted is a prominent point in the Oak Crest subdivision just south of Chapel Hill, so the homeowners association maintains it.

It's far enough from the Turschaks' home that it's not obviously part of their yard, and the boy's mother, Johanna Gisladottir, said she and many neighbors thought it was community property. They were troubled, she said, that someone had apparently claimed the corner on behalf of the Republican Party.

Her son, whom she declined to name, took the Obama sign to the corner on his own, she said, after being inspired by a discussion she had with a neighbor about adding one to the mix.

"I don't know what his intention was when he ran out, or I would not have allowed him to leave," Gisladottir said. "I honestly don't think he had a concrete plan."

Noble told an investigator that the boy had been trying to pull up the McCain sign so that he could see how it was constructed, a spokesman for the Sheriff's Department said Wednesday.

The video, Turschak said, makes clear that the boy was planning to switch the signs, which are essentially sheathes that slip over metal framework. The boy had only brought the Democratic sheath, not the legs.

Not all the thefts, Turschak said, could have been caused by a misunderstanding about the land. One sign had been beside his driveway, and a next-door neighbor lost a McCain sign, too.

Turschak, who has a degree in electrical engineering, said he tested the shock on himself while wiring the signs, and did so again while a reporter watched Wednesday, touching both signs repeatedly without flinching. Under each was a yellow sign warning that they were electrified.

Turschak , it turns out, isn't a member of Orange County's perennially embattled Republicans, who are outnumbered nearly 3 to 1 by Democrats. He's registered as an unaffiliated voter and said he doesn't agree fully with either party.

"This isn't about politics," he said. "This is about my right to protect my property and my ability to display my beliefs."

Capt. James Nida of the Sheriff's Department talked to both families Wednesday. Nida, who as a child experienced the charms of electric fences, didn't feel the need to test Turschak's signs.

"Been there, done that," he said.

Sheriff Lindy Pendergrass said he doesn't plan to file charges. The deputy who investigated Tuesday said the pet-fence setup probably was legal, Turschak said, but perhaps more trouble than it was worth. Turschak said Wednesday morning that he would pull the plug on the signs. The camera, though, stayed.

And Wednesday afternoon while the Turschaks were at a daughter's soccer game, it captured an angry-looking woman striding up.

"We got home and both signs were gone," he said. "Broad daylight."

____________
The most shocking thing about this story? The parents of the little theif. They'll have lots of fun with him when he's a teen.

Sniff, sniff!

The Spider

Well, no one has posted a cool spider picture lately, so I thought I would. This was a gigantic garden spider outside Mom and Larry's door. For some reason when the kids came and started banging the door constantly, it moved. Go figure! If you really want to be grossed out, click on the picture.

Goings on...

Well, today I got the kids off to school, walked the dogs and went with Mike to eat breakfast with some parishioners. Breakfast was nice. After eating the husband showed off the antique cars and trucks he refurbishes. They were cool. He had a Model-T and an old pickup where the bed was made of wooden slats. He also had a truck from the 40's that he drives all over town. It was fun.

I found out at church that the schools only hire people they know (poops!), so I went into Starbucks today to see about a job there. No openings, but she wanted me to fill out an application in case one comes up. I asked if they have a lot of turnover, and she said not. That is good in that it must be a good place to work, but bad for me wanting a job yesterday. It really irks me when I have to fill out an application where they ask for a bunch of information, but don't provide enough space to write it. They do have an application online, but you can't fill it in before printing it out. Bummer. Maybe something will come up in the local paper's classifieds this week.

Skeeter seems to be house trained now. Whew! Long walks, dog treats and lots of praise do wonders. Now when Skeeter takes care of business, Scruffy looks at me expecting a treat. I had to explain this morning that we don't use bribery forever. Scruffy just stared blankly at me. This week's goal (besides teaching Skeeter not to jump or chew socks) is to get Skeeter crate trained. She has discovered her beagle's bay while in the crate. I figured if I'm going to Iowa for a week, she better get accustomed to the crate now. She will have to be in it when no one is home. Silly dog has chewed through too many cords to have freedom.

Skeeter

Skeeter is doing really well. She slept through the night and did her business outside. Now we just have to conquer walking on the leash and coming when called.

Scruffy and the Horses

When I took Scruffy for his walk this morning, we passed a pasture with two horses. Normally the horses are at the far end of the pasture, but today they were very close to the fence. Scruffy was so funny. He stopped. He looked. He analyzed. He decided that caution was in order. He took a step on the sidewalk. He paused. All was safe. He took another step. Still safe, but he'd better not bark at this big animal. He took another step. So did a horse. This went on for a few steps until Scruffy decided it would be in his best interest to move on down the street.