What I'd Like to Talk About

Today I'm going to do the opposite of what Rush Limbaugh does on Open Line Fridays. On Open Line Friday, the rule is as follows: "Monday through Thursday, we talk about what I [Rush] want to talk about, but on Friday I take the biggest risk in broadcast media by letting you, who are rank amateurs, talk about what you are interested in." It's a very funny bit. And there are many times in which I talk about and write about what you want to hear.

So, today, I was thinking, we're going to talk about what I'd like to talk about. :-)

It's a great day, and for so many little reasons. I wasn't going to earlier today, but then I decided I would, tell you all the little reasons why things are going so well.

First of all, I'm still not Primary President. Don't get me wrong, I loved it at the time, but I agree with them and feel like it's just not time now anymore. So, I'm happy to move on to other things. For example, I'm doing all of my Visiting Teaching now, and I'm voluntarily attending social events with my friends. What a comeback!

Alex and Sam officially graduated from their respective homeschool grades. Alex today, and Sam last week. This will make our days a little more carefree, because it allows me to allow the kids to play and rest more often. We will still be doing history, reading, and some computer learning over the summer, but the quantity of daily learning, and the time devoted to it, is much decreased over the summer break, so we're all looking forward to that.

The next thing I'm grateful for, and that makes me so happy right now, is that somehow, meaning purely by the grace of God, I've essentially figured out how to treat every physical ailment I have, and have had all my life, in the past year. My hips and legs were sore this weekend, which is rare lately because I now have custom shoe insert orthotics which turn my twisted foot and usually fixes the soreness. This weekend, I was able to solve the extra soreness with a massage and by putting on my ankle brace for a few days. I'm so grateful I have these things. I no longer care about wearing that brace when needed because it works, just like the doctor said it would. :-) Two, on my physical health list, I actually ovulated last month. This is a miracle. I don't ovulate without medicine, so this means that the new medicine I started, Cortisol, is in fact what I was low on all of my life, due to a genetic defect I was apparently born with. I'm so happy to have figured this out. I'm feeling so much healthier on this medicine! And third, for the Asperger's, I've found, just in the past week, some great probiotics which are really helping. I figure it's like the Cortisol thing, I just don't naturally make enough, so I need to supplement with more to reach normal levels. It's the same with probiotics, I just don't make enough of those either. But when I take extras, my digestive system is incredibly normal, and my Autism is largely decreased. By that I mean that my brain still thinks the way my brain thinks, but any social fears I had due to it are decreased and almost normalized. Perfect! I have to take the Cortisol and the Probiotics 3x a day, so I've got them in a little case I keep with me. Between that and my feet-fixers... wow! Such a small price to pay for such health! I'm so happy! My mom used to tell me that we get sick so that we know to be grateful when we are healthy, and I'm there Mom!!! I will never ever forget how much I appreciate these problems being minimized in my life!

Oh, also, for the past week and a half, my head and neck and jaw have really hurt. The whole family had it, whatever it was. I got it the worst. Maybe it's a sinus infection from the high mold count right now. I jokingly called it hydroencephalitis. (Even though I know that disease is not a joke. Anything that hurts babies is awful.) But, just from a lexicographic point of view, the word means water - brain. And what I had was fluid in the wrong parts of my head and neck, so, it seemed to fit. I was doing Cranial Sacral Therapy on myself nightly, the CSF was just stuck and wouldn't move around like it should. Thankfully, after a wonderful massage from my wonderful massage therapist and good friend, Leanne, and more work from Brian a few days later, and waiting another almost a week, I'm finally back to normal. So, now, I also appreciate not having a headache and a jaw ache every day! :-)

By the way, Leanne is great, and very low priced, especially for what she does. I highly recommend her work! I've already referred three people to her. I probably shouldn't broadcast her contact info here, but I'd be happy to give any of you her contact info and pricing and other details, just email me.

Also, I'm happy because, and I'll just summarize here, but I have the best kids, and the best husband!!! I love them so much.

Also good: I saw an episode of Stargate:Atlantis yesterday, called the Tao of Rodney, that just really made me happy. I think the Rodney character is a really fun and engaging character, and the actor David Hewlett is very humorous, so to watch a whole episode focused on him and his abilities and shortcomings really made my day. :-)

Speaking of which, I'm glad NCIS went back to its normal format last week. The week before was a whole Director-based episode, all about her anger and obsession, and I don't like her anyway (the Director), and there was almost no Abby and McGee screen time. It was awful. I was about to boycott the thing, but then last week's episode, which included John Billingsley, who I really like, salvaged the show. That's something that would really make the world a better place: more shows with John Billingsley and Pauley Perrette both in them.

Oh, and here's a video I found this week. It's a bunch of Abby clips from NCIS (who I like, and who I dressed up as for Halloween a year or two back), but the cool part is that the song to the video is from Pauley's band, and she's the lead singer. So, it's nice to mix a part of Pauley with Abby. Plus, it's just really a good song. I should look into her group and see if it's all good stuff.



I've also been listening to more radio the past few days. Whenever radio gets low on good stuff, or when I buy new MP3s, I tend to listen to just my MP3 player a lot, and little or no radio. I've been doing this for months. But after visiting my friend's wife's site, and hearing some other great music that is out there, I remembered how much I like new music. She has Linkin Park, 30 Seconds to Mars, and 3 Days Grace on there, and I'm so grateful, because I didn't know the artists or names to those songs, and now I can hear them more often and maybe buy the MP3s to them. I'm also loving 101X, the radio station, so, basically, I'm just happy I have great music to listen to.

I also have great talk radio to listen to. After a two year hiatus, I finally splurged and bought myself a subscription to Rush Limbaugh's 24/7 again. This means I can access his website to download and listen to his show whenever. This is really great for me, because I love his show, but I'm usually not free during the hours it's on, due to mothering and homeschooling. Now, I can listen in the afternoon, when school is over. I've really enjoyed this past week getting caught up in things again.

I'm working hard right now to get my kids more kids to play with. But I have lots of friends, and they have lots of kids, so I'm very optimistic we'll create some good kid friendships and they can get all their boy-play-fun accomplished. So, if I know you, and your kids are bored too, and especially if their ages and gender match my kids, let's get together!

Now, allow me to pause for a movie review. Last Friday, I went to see a movie, and no, it wasn't Spiderman 3. And yes, I was the only person at the theatre who went to see a movie other than Spiderman. hehe :-) But seriously, the place was very busy and full of awaiting Spiderman fans, it was rather exciting. I went to see the movie Next. It's a Nicolas Cage movie, and I'm a long time and devoted Nicolas Cage fan. Since 1996. However, he's a funny nut to crack, and a person such as myself who tries to avoid rated R movies, and, well, crazy movies, doesn't get a lot of Nicolas Cage movies to choose from. I see about every third or fourth movie he makes. Which is too bad, really, considering he's the only Motion Picture actor who I like and whose career I follow. [Warning: Movie Spoilers coming now...] Anyway, parts of the movie were good; I always enjoy good time-warping shows. His wife had a cameo which was cool, and they showed the waterfall on the Havasupai reservation that he tried to take her to on their first date. All very nice, but rather irrelevant to the movie. This brings me to the first problem: the huge plot holes. I've seen Coronal Holes in the sun this past week that approximated the size of these plot holes. At first, I was calling the movie highly tenuous (in my mind as I watched it), but by the end it was apparent that there weren't even strings of dental floss holding that script together. The other problem, and I hate to be so blunt to a movie that gave us a few fun moments of time manipulation, but, you know that "surprise ending" the promos were touting? I'll tell you what the surprise ending was --- surprise, there is no ending!!! I kid you not. I had to go home and read reviews from Rotten Tomatoes to console myself from being gipped of a movie-going experience. Turns out everyone felt gipped. And the screening audiences did the same thing that happened in my theatre at the end of the movie: they yelled at the screen in disbelief!

The movie was only 90 minutes long, and they never solved anything. Unless the point of the movie was to keep the girl safe, then, I grant you, that was solved. But, with her out of the picture, it's clear that Cris will never avert the disaster because he's back to his 2 minutes of forewarning. The problem will never be prevented. Not to mention, who are the bad guys? I mean really, The Rock had some real bad guys. Well, good guys that turned bad, you know, but it was a whole lot more believable. So, the end of the movie was nothing, completely open ended, I have never seen a movie suck so badly that they actually denied us any ending at all. A plot, no matter how tenuous, should at least have an ending, some semblance of resolution. Adaptation, which I really liked, had an ending. It was a made up ending, but that was the point, that it was made up, that it was okay to be pretend because at least it was an ending. And that made it a great ending. Let's get more of that.

Back to my life. The bookshelves for my library should be ready this weekend! I'm very excited. More on that in previous posts, and there will be more in the coming days.

Also, we've had lots of rain lately. This is wonderful, because I like shady and cool. I also like wet. However, we've had lots of wet, so the bugs and the weeds are feeling that they have free reign to terrorize Austin. But, the flowers are absolutely beautiful. There are some pictures of them in the blog below this one. The beauty of this problem is that today I had to run lots of errands, which is great because I love my new car that we bought this winter. It is freedom for me. The kids get to watch a movie, so I essentially get time alone for a while, and I can listen to fun music, and most especially today, the first of the hot and humid days, turns out my air conditioner in the car works great!

So, I'm basically entering a place in my life where I'm a little more caught up on things, and can slow down a little, and there's great music, and radio, and tv, and my car is great, and my health has much promise for improvement, and my family is great. And I'm happy. I appreciate how hard these things are to come by, and I know they can be fleeting, and I don't care. I'm just so happy for the upcoming break!

Have a great night.