Father's Day means sadness for some

Father's Day is getting closer and I have so many friends and co-workers who have lost fathers just since the first of the year. It will be hard for them. I can't imagine not having my dad here on Earth. I wish I could do something for all these friends, Jim, Joanne, Judy, Dana and others. I wish they knew how often I think of them. In honor of lost fathers and living fathers....

• Old as she was, she still missed her daddy sometimes. ~Gloria Naylor

• The greatest gift I ever had came from God; I call him Dad!~Author Unknown

• When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much he had learned in seven years. ~Mark Twain, "Old Times on the Mississippi" Atlantic Monthly, 1874

• Fatherhood is pretending the present you love most is soap-on-a-rope. ~Bill Cosby

• A father carries pictures where his money used to be. ~Author Unknown

Speaking of reason

Seems like a lot of protestants (and I grew up one) take issue with the Catholic Church because according to some, we just sit at church and take whatever we are told without reasoning and questioning. Obviously quite untrue for those who care enough to seek out what's real and what isn't. There's plenty of questioning going on!

Unfortunately it seems like the same group think I shouldn't question this friggin' war, or use my capability to reason and my human instinct, my women's intuition. I should just take everything that's dished my way because otherwise I'm anti-American or something. What a joke.

Just Faith

www.justfaith.org

I'm teaching it again next school year. A 30 week long process with two retreats. A huge time committment but one I feel so strongly about. I've been thinking ever since I went through two years ago as a first time student and co-facilitator about what I can do with myself, where I should focus. I guess now I finally recognize and am willing to admit and embrace that I do have a gift for organizing things, and "bossing" people around (haha). But it's true that not everyone has this skill. So, I think that by facilitating another year of Just Faith I will be able to put that skill to really good use. St. James is hosting the city-wide seminar on July 7th which is pretty exciting. I know we'll have a lot of folks from all around the diocese. As I go through it this year I will probably do a lot of blogging about the classes, reflections, etc. There were some really sad moments in the program. It happens when your eyes are opened to a different perspective. It's UNCOMFORTABLE to say the least. The first time you see that little kids in Peru live at a mountain of a DUMP and go digging through trash to find things to sell, well, you realize that if you don't have that new thing you want today, it just doesnt matter.

Lie to yourself

Look deep inside yourself and if you're an American like me you'll probably see the heart of greed and materialism that we all carry around secretly inside. We want to have it all, our cake, eating our cake, freezing the extra, then disposing of the excess because we didn't need all that cake after all. Cake being a metaphor for THINGS. That's the root cause of the war. We want our things, protected, guarded and hoarded up for ourselves.

Americans proved in the last election that they CAN make a difference, upsetting the balance. I hope and pray that the balance will be upset even more. This war is NOT RIGHT. I'm so sick, sick, sick of human beings dying for this horrible cause that's really just about money.





The fear campaign aimed at selling the Iraq war was timed precisely for the kickoff of the 2002 midterm election. The president's chief of staff explained the timing as a marketing decision. It was timed, Andrew Card said, for the post–Labor Day advertising period because that's when advertising campaigns for "new products," as he referred to it, are normally launched. The implication of his metaphor was that the old product—the war against Osama bin Laden—had lost some of its pizzazz. And in the immediate run-up to the election campaign of 2002, a new product—the war against Iraq—was being launched. For everything there is a season, particularly for the politics of fear.

Excerpted from The Assault on Reason Copyright 2007 by Al Gore.

What is Your Power Bird? Blog Thing.....Have Fun.

Your Power Bird is a Swan

You are a truly graceful and gorgeous creature. You easily see beauty in yourself and others. Intuitive and in touch, you can often guess what the future will bring. And you're flexible enough to accept the changes that life has in store for you.

What's Your Power Bird?

The Killers in concert at City Market May 11 2007

WHAT A NIGHT! We had such fun! Okay, the pictures of us aren't too good, since I had sunscreen slathered all over my face and not much makeup left. Oh well. Not too worry, most people were in no condition to notice. Jordan, Steven and I all got a concert T (see the picture from the Nelson below to view mine!). The opening band was "Red Romance...FROM NEW YORK". (they kept saying this after every two songs. "We're Red Romance...FROM NEW YORK". Ugh. Okay, okay, you're from New York, great... Thanks for sharing. Second act was Hot, Hot Heat. Very great! Then the main event! A dancing mass of people scrunched up together. We hit the road about 10:15 pm and headed home, before the end. But the kids and John had to go to St. Louis the next day for a TKD tourney. Here's some video and some pictures.

Sam's Town:


Here are some pictures from our cell phone cameras.

May 16 - Girl Scouts at the Nelson/Plaza

Our idea was to spend an hour at the Nelson, but little did we know they close at 4:00. We arrived about 3:55! Oh well. They let the girls use the restroom, thank goodness. We spent about half an hour in the sculpture garden, then headed over to Cold Stone Creamery. Mmmmm.

May 16 - A Northern Mockingbird

I took this picture on my way to a church meeting. These birds were very defensive, feeding their little babies, and did not like getting their picture taken!

May 13th Jakob the Grad

L-R, Jordan, Jakob, Steve

May 4th - Landon's picture

Landon was born today! He was 8 pounds 13 ounces, 21 inches long, born at 1:35 p.m. All the assorted Lunts are doing fine.

May 4th...17th anniversary

Friday May 4th was a fun day! I took the day off work. John and I exchanged presents in the morning (see below). Spent the better part of the day on the Cross Stitch hop with La Verne and Mary Jo. That was a lot of fun. I got some really good buys on the clearance racks. I guess none of us won the big prize since we didn't hear anything. Oh well. We had lunch in Lawrence again at the same place as before. I keep forgetting the name of the place. Oh..Milton's... That's it. Made it home by 4:30 which was a small miracle with all the driving we did!

John and I had dinner at the Texas Roadhouse and that was really great! They danced shortly after we arrived, very cool in a country sort of way. We did a little shopping at Vintage Stock, picked up Seven Samurai the old black and white movie.

April 30th, ROYALS game. We had a nice family evening attending the Royals versus the Angels. The picture below is the Royals only run of the game. After 3 innings the score was 3 to 1 Angels, and that's how it stayed for the remainder of the evening.

Wednesday I took the girls scouts to the new part of the Liberty Memorial. I hadn't been yet but can't wait to go back and spend more time. They closed at 5pm so we didn't have too much time. While there we got to sit in a listening booth and listen to early 19th century poetry about the war, songs of the period and more. It was very interesting. I think our tax dollars are well spent here.!