PLEASE GO VOTE!
No, not for president (though DO that too) but for Grammy's perfect angel. She might be featured in Parents weekly newsletter! Click HERE.

Are you a cold-weather person or hot weather? Me? I love the fall and winter.  

I need to get back into shape. Last week I went to my doctor because my back hurt. I think I might have arthritis in my hands. I'm way too young to be old. How can someone as childish as me, who can still embarrass their kids by dancing publicly to "Shock the Monkey" have arthritis? What the heck?

So my doctor told me she can't believe I'm my age. She said I looked 27. Okay, well, that's nice and all, you know, I do have an ego, but I feel 87. Basically, she told me to take Ibuprofin and call her in the morning. It didn't work.
The fog has rolled in this morning and I feel it in my bones.

I don't want to be Madonna or anything, and I'm not a big eater, so it's not weight I need to worry about, but dang if I don't need some help getting my muscle back. Now that I don't lift kids...the muscles say, forget you, we're so done!

So I have to get motivated to get my Yoga lifestyle back. But it hurts! (Said with long whine, k?) I feel all jointy and breakable. When I was young, it was easy to just keep up with the other moms. But now that I'm in my 40's, I don't really care what the other moms do. Help!! How do I stay motivated? When I really just want to go get a donut?

Oh, the Book Expo went great. I loved listening to the other authors and had a fabulous day. : )

DISTRACTIONS
Do you have any idea what it's like to try to write with these pictures around? No, really, do you? I write for a while, then I look at Alexa's picture. Write for a while, then look at her pictures. Then I TALK to her picture and say, "Grammy loves you SOOOO MUCH!"

Call the people in the white coats now. I've truly lost my mind. I'm convinced of it. Dave and Donna really fooled us on these pictures by the way. I'd heard they were getting some pics done. I called Dave to ask when we could see the baby (and him and Donna, of course. LOL) He said the baby wailed the whole time and he was waiting on pics but they wouldn't be very good. Now I should have been suspicious. Grammy's perfect angel NEVER wails. Well, hardly ever. Certainly not for picture taking. She's used to being a star!

They got these done as a surprise for me because I always call her my little angel so they got the angel pics. We were just blown away to see these pics!

So any advice for me? How do I work with that baby calling for her Grammy to come hold her? I just don't know how to resist. LOL

I (Kristin) am heading out of my comfort zone tomorrow. I am doing the Book Group Expo, with REAL authors at the San Jose Convention Center. My "salon" is at ten a.m. in salon C with two other authors, Garth Stein, author of The Art of Racing in the Rain, a bestselling novel narrated by a dog! And with Van Jones, author of The Green Collar Economy.

As you may know, I'm no speaker and with any luck, I will find answers to the questions in the salon -- but if you happen to be in San Jose, check it out at bookgroupexpo.com and come see me! Kristin

Our grandson is a year and a half now. We have five granddaughters and one grandson, and I'm telling you, it amazes me how different the boy is from the girls. 

There's always some type of housework we hate to do. For me, it's cooking. I'm a good cook (thank you Grandma) but I truly hate it. So doing it for six people every day feels like torture and some kind of cruel cosmic joke. The kitchen often sounds like it does when a man hangs wallpaper. Part of my problem is that when I get hot, my hands don't grasp when I tell them to (MS) and I tend to drop things or they slip from where I think I'm putting them. Today I cut my thumb with a Cutco knife. You know, the ones they show cutting pennies? Um, OUCH. I also dropped a vase onto my husband's favorite cereal bowl and broke it. Not a great day in the kitchen.

My friend Maria and my mom told me to make out a list and shop once for the whole week. So this weekend, I took the Trader Joe's flyer and I planned the week's meals. You know, a little planning makes all the difference. I spent $100 less for the week and I was shocked how great it feels to know what's for dinner. When I'm done writing, I go put it on the stove. Now, if I can keep my hands doing what they're supposed to, that would be icing on the cake.

So out with it. What chore do you hate? And how have you made it tolerable?

FEAR
I'm afraid of spiders, okay? It's not something I'm proud of. I blame my mother for this fear because she thought it was funny that my DAD feared spiders and she chased us with them. So ALL of us are afraid of spiders. LOL Except her. But I could always get back at her by chasing her with a mouse!

Anyway, it's a fear I've been working on for years. The Bible says we're not to have the spirit of fear but of power and a sound mind so I've forced myself to read about them and, shudder, LOOK at pictures of them. The fear isn't nearly as bad as it used to be and I had sudden proof a couple of days ago. I got in the car and suddenly realized there was a spider on my jean leg. Dave got in the car.

"Honey, spider!" I said, pointing. "Will you kill it?" He smacked it with his hand and I JUST SAT THERE! Really. I didn't freak out when I saw it there. I waited for him to kill it in spite of the fear that it might crawl up and actually TOUCH MY SKIN. So I'm preening a little bit today. I can even watch the Halloween commercials that have the cartoon spiders dripping all around. Aren't you proud of me? LOL Though the fear is better, I still wouldn't put a pic of a spider on this blog.LOL

But I wonder what I'll do when we eventually move to AZ? Even with all our visits out there, I've never seen a black widow. My brother Dave just moved to Phoenix and is working at a sewage plant. He saw his first one the other day. I hear he screamed like a girl. LOL You would have been able to hear me all the way back to Indiana!!

How about you? Any fears you have? Are you working on them?

The rain is pattering lightly against our windowpane as I sit in the quiet and work on my current crochet project. As I listened to the soft rain with the occasional grumble of thunder, I thought how much I love a thunderstorm. It always takes me to a place when I was in elementary school. It was the end of a school day, and pouring down rain. I thought I had to walk home (12 blocks--kids did that back then), and wasn't looking forward to it. But when I pushed through the school doors, my mom rushed up and ushered me under an enormous umbrella to the car. When we got home, the house was warm (and dry), and chili bubbled in a big kettle on the stove.

I should have titled my blog, "I'm not like the other moms." Because I'm certainly not, and I'm just happy there's enough of us weirdos around here for me to survive. On a happy note, I heard Thomas Dolby (Blinded me with Science) on the 80's station on the way to school. On a downer, the mom opening the car doors gave me a dirty look because my daughter didn't have her backpack and she asked me about it! My daughter doesn't take one on Weds. Still...

A Leopard doesn't change her spots – but they look fabulous!

When my husband and I hadn't been married very long, he invited a kid from the hood to come live with us. As in me. Because he was at work all day. We'd known Curtis when we lived in the hood. He was one of eleven children who lived with a grandmother, who wasn't their grandmother, but every time a druggie mother dropped off a kid, she didn't have the heart to put them into the system.

Now don't get me wrong, Curtis was a great kid, but he was sixteen. I was 26 and I didn't know a thing about kids, much less a teenager from the hood. So Curtis started getting into a little trouble. Not really, but the white, upper-class kids blamed him for stuff and the parents were turning on me. Did I mention my husband was at work all day? SOOO sucked!!!

So I told my DH, "I'm not good at this. I don't want to do this anymore. The moms scare me and Curtis is going to get blamed for something he didn't do." So DH did what any clueless, doesn't-get-it-yet, new husband would do, and took me into the pastor to straighten me out.

The pastor, who had spent 25 years in Africa, listened, nodded his head. My husband said, "Curtis is not Kristin's problem." To which the pastor replied, "Then get Curtis out of the house and find out what your wife's problem is."

So what was my problem? Well, I'm sort of a diva. Always have been. The only girl on both sides. I never babysat, never played schoolteacher, and could have done without the minivan stage of life -- though I love having the kids to fill it, just not driving a bus.

The older pastor has a caustic personality. Like me. His wife was sweet and gentle-natured. The kind of woman you think of when you think of a quiet spirit, Proverbs 31 and all that. My husband said to the pastor, "Mary (pastor's wife) wouldn't do this."

And I'll never forget, Mel's laugh. He stopped for a while to laugh and said, "Well Bryed, I don't know if you've noticed, but Kristin isn't Mary." And I'm still not Mary, though I'm a little closer.

If you're still with me. God uses me to plant seeds and spring up a harvest. It just isn't the quiet, baking, craft-creating, sower that my husband imagined for himself. But seriously. I drove a 5.0 GT Convertible Mustang, lived in a really cool studio by myself, and worked as a marketing director for a mall. What part of haus frau did he see in that, exactly? Face it, he went for the package and thought he'd mold me. Good luck with that. In his defense, my mom is a quiet spirit. Unfortunately, for DH, I'm my dad. So...I learned a few things, and I don't buy on credit, but you know, I still know a good deal when I see one! LOL

So what part of your spots didn't you change? Not sinful behavior, but not something you're proud of either?

FYI: Curtis comes in two weeks. He's a college graduate of UOP, married to a gorgeous gal and he's up here to audit a financial institution. How's THAT for accomplishment?

WEEKEND WHIRLWIND
I have the best husband in the world. No really. Saturday was his 60th birthday but instead of celebrating, he was hauling me around to three different booksignings from Friday to Sunday. On Friday, we went to Grand Rapids for a fun night at Baker Book House. Chris and Sally took us to the BEST fish restaurant. Wish I could remember the name of it. I had salmon with a mango salsa in honor of our upcoming trip to Hawaii. Fabulous! We stayed at the Hilton at the airport (I had free points) and I'd never stayed at a full fledged Hilton before. I was ready to move in! LOL

On Saturday Dave hauled me over to Holland to the new bookstore Jude 3 which was terrific. They had Anathema at such a great price, I bought ten copies myself! Then we made a flying trip down to meet Dave and Donna (with Alexa) for dinner. The kids got Dave a dual digital frame that he is CRAZY about. He'd been whining for one for about two weeks but I put him off because I knew the kids were planning to get him one. Dave had it all loaded with pictures of Alexa for Dave Sr. Hubby couldn't wait to get it fired up!

We got up on Sunday at 5 for a three hour drive to Parke County, Indiana for the Covered Bridge Festival. Oh my. It was the most wonderful festival I've ever gone to! They had me front and center and Cathy Harkrider kept announcing that I was there. I sold a TON of books. My arm was sore yesterday. LOL There was just so much to see all over the county--buggy rides, bus trips to see all 32 covered bridges, crafts, fabulous food. I want to go again when I'm not sitting at a table. LOL I had the best barbeque and then some soup beans cooked over an open fire. Very fun! There was so much I didn't get to see, but next time I will stay longer!

So that was Dave's birthday weekend. Not much fun for him but he's such a treasure. I'm going to keep him for sure!

I'm supposed to tell you five random things about myself that you probably DON'T know (obviously, chocolate will not be mentioned here). Here's the deal. I'll tell you if you PROMISE to tell me five things about YOU that we don't already know.  Ready? Here goes:

On Monday, Oprah had a Christian father on, who had forgiven his eldest son for killing his wife and other son -- and shooting him. What struck me the most about the conversation was that the dad never suspected his son of any kind of evil.

This man has been through unspeakable pain, and I'm proud to call him a brother in Christ, but something he said, I can't get out of my head. He said that he and his wife were very hands-on parents and that their family was their life. Their son who set up the killings was a sociopathic narcissist. He didn't even really hope to accomplish anything in killing his family, other than to fulfill this dark lie in his soul -- that they were to blame for his problems.

Here's where I run into problems. The most the father would say about his son's narcissistic tendencies, was something like, "Yeah, he could be a little selfish. He was self-centered. Sure." I understand he doesn't want to believe these things about his son, but the guy says all the right things, but seems like he has no soul within, like he is an empty shell trying to reach at something that will make him feel. This man cannot believe his son is a monster, and while I understand it, the proof is in the fruit. Or lack thereof.

We cannot ignore ugly truths, believing they'll go away if we don't see them. Sin that is hidden and kept pretty, gets bigger. We cannot believe the world is all good and all wondrous without knowing that Satan prowls like a lion searching for things to destroy. And how easy is it to get at that person who refuses to see that there is a dark side?

Image is killing the church, in my opinion. IS the truth in us? Lord forbid a man admit at church that he's addicted to porn, or a woman confess to gossiping or having an affair on her husband. The church can't handle that kind of honesty. It makes people uncomfortable. AS IT SHOULD!! But like a necessary surgery, that kind of honesty, based on God's truth is just what we need -- before it gets worse. Before we find out the hard way that the truth is not in us.

When I look at journalism now, I cringe at the lack of truth in the papers. The serious propaganda trying to place all the blame of the country's trouble on one man. Where is the look into Obama's terrorism connections? Into his lack of a work history? I have more work experience than Obama, and this scares the heck out of me! To me, it's not a democrat/Republican thing. It's about the truth. It's always better to have things out in the light where they cannot multiply in darkness. But rather than delve into some of his background, they'll call you a racist for asking and move on. Next question.

THEOLOGY IN A BABY
I knew I'd love being a grandma but I had no idea just HOW MUCH. I'm totally obsessed with Alexa. I loved my own kids from the moment they were born, but there's something different about a grandbaby. I've heard that it's because we have time to spend with them but actually I had MORE time when my kids were little because I didn't work. Now I'm rushing toward an approaching deadline. I write a while, look at Alexa's picture, write a while, look at her picture. So it's not time. Maybe it's because I'm older now--GASP--and see the world differently? Any ideas out there.

Anyway, Alexa's arrival has showed me sometime about God's admonition to love others. And how love covers a multitude of sins. I know I'm going to make mistakes. I've made plenty with my own kids, but they turned out to be great adults who care about other people. I think of my own grandma. I'm sure she made mistakes too but I don't remember a single one. I only remember how much she loved me. I was her first grandchild, but every one of of us grandkids feel the same way about her. She loved us. That's her highest compliment. That knowledge was total bedrock under my feet. Even in the last year before she died, she would pull me down on her lap. She was about 4'10" and I'm 5'9" so that was a sight (I was in my late thirties). But she somehow managed it. I still hear her voice in my head and still think about her every day. If I can be the kind of grandma she was, I'll leave Alexa with a legacy of love. I hold her and stare into those eyes and marvel at the perfection of her cheeks, her bow lips, her dark eyes.

I think that's how God looks at us. We're his creation in an even bigger way than a child or grandchild. He actually created us just like we are. Alexa has enhanced my grasp of God's love in an amazing way.

Has having a child or a grandchild taught you anything? Or you have a story to share about kids or grandparents?

Remember when Senior Pictures were nice, slightly fuzzy head shots of high school seniors? Well, I was walking through the mall the other day and passed at least two kiosks full of senior photos. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but apparently senior photos have gone a new direction.

At least with the girls' photos. Maybe they were under the impression they were stocking a portfolio for an--um--other career, but some of those photos seemed a tad racy. I mean, honey, if you're lying prone on your back with a come-hither look, maybe that says a certain something you don't want Aunt Bernice to know about. And I'm pretty sure Grandma won't want to see that cleavage.

And I have to say, the photos are only a tiny piece of the problem. Since when is skanky something to aspire to? Why did we start letting our teenage girls display their bodies like they're up for the highest bid? Are they that desperate for attention? As the mother of boys let me just say, I don't appreciate it.

And if you're trying to raise a modest girl, God love ya. I've been in the junior department at the stores and it's a real feat to find a shirt that isn't as tight as scuba wear.

PALIN/BIDEN DEBATE
I stayed up to watch the VP debate last night. I can't remember a time in my entire life when I've been this interested in politics, but it's been an interesting season. Sarah Palin totally blew it out of the water last night. She connects on a gut level with real people like me. I had to laugh this morning on Fox and Friends when Gretchen Carlson said it was like being in the 50's when she heard Sarah say, "Doggone it." I think Gretchen has spent too much time in NY. I live in the heartland and we've never STOPPED saying doggone it.

Another thing that struck me was how good of a liar Biden is. He lied with such passion and conviction. Takes a pathological liar to do it like that. He kept asserting that McCain had voted the same way as Obama on funding the troops and on a budget bill. He asserted it again with such conviction that I wondered if she was wrong about it. I checked it this morning and Biden had simply lied. He had to know the truth of it too but lied anyway. At least any gaffes Sarah had were because of misinformation, not malice. Another thing Biden said was that it was Bush's fault that we were in the financial crisis. Um no. Read here to find out where it really started. It was pressure by Clinton on Fannie Mae to give credit to people who had poor credit scores. The link I posted was originally published in 1999, before Bush took office.

I actually LIKE Obama when I hear him talk, but his politics are downright scary. He'd take us down the road to socialism. I've never before felt that our country was on such a cusp of either continuing to be the bastion for freedom or following where other countries have gone. I also liked what Palin had to say about taking personal responsibility for ourselves. I'm not ready to give over charge of my life to the government! The government can't run its own affairs, and I sure don't trust it with mine!

Any of you watch the debate? What did you think?

Today my daughter gave me a present. It was a book. No ordinary book, mind you. It was a book of memories.  The pages are filled with memories snapped into pictures of our children and grandchildren. Beneath the pictures she wrote a narrative that captured the moments. The final page was a picture of my daughter and me with the quote, "Her children will rise up and call her blessed. We love you."

Labels: scrapbook

Bill Maher has a new movie coming out. I won't name it, because it's about religion and how ridiculous it is. Here he is on the View today and what he said to one of the hosts:

Sherri: I talk to God.
Bill: Does he talk back?
Sherri: Yes.
Bill: You crazy!
Whoopi: Aaaaand that's a wrap. See ya, Bill!

Now, imagine that Sherri said, "There is no such thing as gay." Or, "There is no such thing as mental illness." How can you possibly comment like him, so full of his own ego and extreme narcissism to think he has the right to put HIS views upon us. To think because you haven't experienced something it's just all crap?

And really, Bill honey, if mocking people who feel differently than you makes you feel good about yourself, that makes me really sad!! I hope God does talk to you. May you have a Road to Damascus experience, because dude, you need one.

Along other lines, I have been a George Michael fan since Wham! When poor Andrew Ridgely had to play second fiddle to this amazing talent. May I quote, "Wise guys realize, there's danger in emotional ties." George baby, this is the second time you have been arrested in a public bathroom. I know you must have at least four in that beautiful home of yours. Stay home, honey. Come to Jesus. I could have you made into a statue for my backyard! God made you that beautiful, quit messing with stuff, k? K. We've cleared that up.

Labels: Bill Maher, George Michael