Facebook or Google+?

Neither.  Why, you may not ask for I will tell you.  Facebook keeps changing and each update I get more disgruntled.  Now, they are both wonderful places to keep in touch with people, share anecdotal stories or just post funny stuff our children do.  Here I'm going to try go deeper with stuff that really needs to get fleshed out and expanded.  Will people notice again, maybe, but I really don't care at this point.  I control how my blog looks.  Facebook and Google can take their millions from ad revenues and, well, grumble, grumble, not give it to me.  Of course, I wouldn't mind if they gave some to me but pigs will sooner fly than that will happen.

Big thanks to Alisha (or her husband), one of Shannons friends on Facebook who helped me get a virus scanner that killed a Trojan.  http://www.simplysup.com/.  I also put on a new firewall from http://www.online-armor.com/. 

I hope everyone has a good start to 2012 and I hope it's a better one for the Smith-Bass clans as well.  Ben was a welcome addition that helped to balance things out.  Losing a mother/mother-in-law/grandmother is never good but Ben is wonderful.

Daniel

A Philosophy question

Is being normal OK?

Yes.

Is being different OK?

Yes.

OK, that's two questions, make the topic....Philosophy post #1

Funny thing...

So, today while my children took a nap, Daniel and I had a chocolate fix. Daniel got an Oreo truffle out of the Freezer, and I pulled out some Chocolate Ice cream to get a little bit. I realized that I can't look at one of the Pet rectangular boxes of ice cream without thinking of Daniel's grandad, Pop. Before Daniel left on his mission, we would go over and visit a good bit. Many times we would park at Grandmother and Pop's house and walk to the USC football games. It was fun to spend time with them and get to know them better. One day, we got there after the game, and Pop says "Would you like some cake and ice cream?" I said "That would be great. Not too much, though." So pop gets us plates, and slices a HUGE piece of cake for each one. Then, he gets out a fresh carton of ice cream, a carving knife, and "Thunk", cuts off these huge inch to an inch and a half slices, one for each one. Ever since, whenever I am scooping out ice cream, I can picture that in my head. :-) Thank you, Pop, for such a fun memory!

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving. One of those national holidays we celebrate where the original pilgrims survived by the grace of God and Native Americans. Our ancestors repaid that kindness with 250 years of taking land. Manifest Destiny only furthered our insatiable appetite for land and...dang, already on a tangent after the first word!

Thanksgiving. Turkey. Food. Friends (more on topic). Sunday, August 22nd, we had some wonderful friends over for Turkey. We bought some turkeys after Thanksgiving for dirt cheap and stuck them in the bottom of the freezer for our eventual "Thanksgiving in July" we started. I dunno why we didn't do it last year...never mind I do, doesn't matter. July turned out to be pretty hectic with Shannon's miscarriage, our anniversary and our vacation/anniversary/Shannon's business trip to Chicago to plan for. We pushed it back to August and had 4 other families come, all with children, ranging from 10 years to 5-6 mos. I took out the extras from the halfway frozen turkey and placed it in our roaster before going to church.

When we walked in the door, faint smells of turkey wafted through the air. Shannon made mashed taters and stuffing while I cleaned the rest of the living room and moved chairs to allow for better seating. Sweet potato soufflé, green bean casserole, rolls, pumpkin and chocolate pie and banana pie all made their appearance. I started carving the Turkey as people got here and finished up everything for a Wonderful meal.

Why share this experience? I think Thanksgiving never be put off until November of each year every year. We have things to be grateful of throughout the year and should be celebrated. Does that mean we should eat Turkey 6 times a year instead of 1? Sure!!! Who doesn't want sweet potato soufflé and turkey more often? More importantly, we need to be able to show our thanks and more importantly, be grateful no matter what. Friends to be around is a wonderful blessing.

Finishing up my college studies is something I still am thankful for. Some teachers may get a bad rap because of how hard they grade but I understand that they try to push you to do better. My teacher in my class for the 20 page history paper in my last semester was one of those. She pushed us for perfection and unfortunately, I only learned that in the last 3-4 weeks. But she also recognized the hard work I put into it. I know there was no way I was able to get a "B" in the class but a "B" I received. My diploma came last week and EVERYONE around me for the last couple of years was grateful FOR me for getting it.

I look forward to November for more wonderful food and the chance to express more thanks for the marvelous wonders in my life. Oh, please pass the dark meat and the gravy. :-)

Confessions...

Okay, so I have a small confession. I'm not always the most obedient patient. I try, but I'm not exactly a "sit by and do nothing" type of person. It's just not me. (For example: What? I need to take it easy? Okay - I'll just take the kids to the zoo. No problem. Don't worry, it's only 95 degrees outside... we'll be fine! Lots of fluids? I'll just bring water bottles!) A friend mentioned that when the doctor gives me an inch, I'm a person who takes a mile when it comes to over doing. That being said, it's been a rough year for our family personally. With 3 miscarriages since the beginning of December (4 overall. I had one between Jed and Alyson), the most recent one being just a few weeks ago, it's been kind of hard on me in several ways. This is the first time I've had to have a D & C with one, though. The doctor was very... precise with his directions (And, knowing me, made sure to make Daniel aware of the directions). Take it easy, no heavy lifting, rest, and all that such for 2 weeks. No swimming, no baths, nothing very tiring. (And I'm sure that you realize this means other activities in that area.) I found it funny that the nurse said "Don't be brave, take the medicine." So, Daniel was adamant that I take the advice seriously. He pretty much wanted me home, feet up. I didn't lift heavy things, I didn't swim (despite the fact that it is summer in SC), I tried very hard to do what I was told, without sitting around twiddling my thumbs. I will admit, I had to keep busy somehow. I tried couponing one day, and the next day was very achy and tired. After that, I kept a much slower pace, though still couldn't sit still. So, what could I do? I decided to take inventory of all of our years supply items, which took a day. It's so nice to be able to actually see what all we have! I can just keep track with my spreadsheet when I add and subtract. The other thing I did was that I decorated Jed and Alyson's bathroom. I found the perfect paint for what I wanted at Lowe's a while ago, and I had everything I needed to paint a room. So, I taped everything off and got started. It looks fantastic. I painted it chocolate brown, and used a blue for the curtains. I eventually want to get a better shower curtain, but it looks better already. I was stir crazy! My mind does better sometimes if I don't have as many idle moments to think. I really am doing a lot better. We know that something is going on, but aren't sure what yet. We're hoping that we can figure things out soon.
Daniel and I went to the Craft and Hobby Association Convention with my work this past week. With all that happened at the beginning of the month, it was great timing for us to go away together for a few days. Jed and Alyson spent a wonderful week with Grandma and Grandpa Bass, and came home very tan and happy. With Daniel in the car with me, the 13 hour drive seemed to go fairly easily. We got to go sight seeing in downtown Chicago, and we went to the top of the Sears tower with the Hovermans. It was awesome. We even ventured onto the glass sky walk.
It has been forever since we posted anything, and we wanted to let everyone know what was going on. We hope your summers are going well!

Swimming

Hey, everyone! Just a random post! Things are starting to get back to normal a little. We've had a ton going on the last few months, and we're getting back into the grove of things. We painted Jed and Alyson's rooms (Alyson's is purple, Jed's is blue) and we're really enjoying our garden. We have watermelons that are getting bigger and bigger, tons of zucchini and squash, plenty of snow peas, and cucumbers. We should be able to start getting Tomatoes soon, and are enjoying watching them get bigger and bigger! The blueberry bushes have actual blueberries this year, so we're thrilled!
Jed is counting down the days till he starts school in August. (literally - he asks me all the time "how many sleeps till I go to school?") He has a calendar that he uses to mark off the days. :-)
I took a ton of pictures yesterday when we went swimming with some of my sisters' families, so enjoy! This week was the first time Alyson was willing to let go of me in the pool. Normally she grabs me with a death grip that doesn't allow much oxygen to get in, and if I try to ease the tension on my throat, screams bloody murder (which is, I'm sure, a fun scene when we're attempting to swim at the Y.) I typically just go with the lack of oxygen as long as I can. Easier than the looks of "what is she DOING to that poor child" that I get. However, Wednesday of this week was the end. I was done. Perhaps it was the pool at my friend Rebecca's employer's home has magical "Children, be brave" water, maybe it was that I was tired of feeling lightheaded after swimming with her, or maybe it was the ear infection I had and that I couldn't handle the noise... who knows. But I put her in a ring, and floaties, explained that she would be fine, and pried her little fingers from around me. Then I swam backwards, with her crying and kicking right behind me. She kept up just fine, and once I showed her how far we had gone, she calmed down. Hasn't had a death grip in a few days (and we went swimming yesterday for 4 hours!) Yay!!
Jed wanted to push baby Logan around the pool. They had a grand time. It was a ton of fun.

Graduation

I apologize to all my loyal and devoted followers, waiting for words of wisdom and uplifting to uplift and edify your lives but a much greater and pressing matter dominated by thoughts and energies for the past year. I have been working hard attempting to gain the piece of paper that tells the world I am finally knowledgeable. I descended into the depths of hell to retrieve rare and mighty artifacts. Dragons have been slain. Dozens and a half of damsels in distress were rescued. Evil overlords were thrown down and vanquished. The power of evil wizards were turned against them. I have finally returned and have sent the armor to repair the dents and scratches. Rust stains will be removed and everyone will rejoice!

While the journey was not quite as wonderful and harrowing as it sounds, it often felt like it, especially the evil overlord part. My final semester was probably the most difficult of them all, despite having just 4 classes instead of my standard slate of 5. My senior seminar, a requirement for all history majors, required one large "circa 20" pages final paper. It had to be related to the class subject: Movies of the Midieval Ages. Being fascinated with the Arthurian legend, I decided to do my final paper on Merlin. Not to bore you with the details but Merlin is a combination of 2 people with a host of different writers adding to the legend of Merlin. Everything didn't go as planned with my paper and didn't finish my revision. I turned it in 7 days before graduation, not even close to satisfied with the finish project or confident that I passed the class.

The traditional waiting period for grades is 3 days after taking the final exam/turning in the final paper. Tuesday comes around, no grade in this particular class. Now I have NEVER had acid reflux but anytime I thought about grades, my stomach would churn. Unfortunately, I thought about it too often. I finally had to take an anti acid OTC medicine. It sort of helped, made it slightly more tolerable and took the edge off but it was still there. Wednesday, no grade. Thursday, no grade. Friday morning, no grade. Friday afternoon, 2 grades in, not the important one. Friday I get home from work, no grade. Finally 14 hours before actual graduation time, I finally get straight 4 "B's" higher than I thought. 3.0 for the semester. I shed a couple of tears of relief when i went upstairs. The rest is history as the pictures show. Thank you Rebeca for the wonderful cake.