Brotherly love

fun, pictures, the kids | No Comments »

In preparing for the upcoming changes to my blog (more on that later) I found this article on Pajamas Media about how Obama/Biden is bad for dads. I found it an interesting read. I will say that his premise is an interesting one, for sure. Obama’s castigation of African-American fathers, blaming them alone for the problems among African-American families does seem a bit, well, harsh. I don’t know that I’d go as far as the author and say that is goes hand-in-hand with the feminist movement. It might, I’d just need to see more proof/information to make that kind of call. The author also goes on to say that Biden’s VAWA bill, although a worthy cause at the start, furthers the “war on fathers and families.” I see the authors point and, if everything he says about the bill is true, I agree with him. Again, I haven’t looked up the bill, but he does link to a website designed to point out the flaws in VAWA and similar domestic violence legislature. I encourage you to read the article.

National, Politics | 8 Comments »

My second day on campus and I was barely out of my van when I was approached to help find a couple of buildings by two separate people. One was easy to help. She was carrying a map (but was having a hard time deciphering it, I guess) and I pointed her across the street to the building she was looking for. The other had an address for the road we were on. That, I could not help with. Give me a building number (or it’s name, for that matter) and a map and I can point you in the right direction. Addresses, not so much. I hope she finds her building, though.

Now I sit here and wait…my first class of the day starts in 30 minutes. Until then, I guess I’ll surf. It should be a fun class though. It’s Campaigns and Elections, which should rock this semester. I guess I picked a pretty good semester to take this course, huh? I’ll update y’all about it when I get home tonight. It’s my late day today. This class is a power hour (an hour and a half) and then I head to International Relations (blech!). Catch ya on the flip side.

going back to college, school | No Comments »

I’ve only had 2 of my 4 classes so far (the other 2 come tomorrow) but I can tell it’s going to be an interesting year. . My first class today could be interesting if the prof is able to entertain us, lol. It’s European Integration…basically it’s all about the E.U. He admitted the book is technical and dry, but promises to make the class fun. Although, he did tell us that he has a cure for our insomnia, should we develop it…his dissertation. I found that extremely funny. It’s a small class, so that should help.

My second class was Political Parties and Interest Groups. This will be a fun class, I think. There is a good mix of political views in the class which I think will help. It doesn’t seem to be one-sided at all. But the fun thing is that, in lieu of a term paper, we have to keep a blog. Well, that’s pretty easy for me since I already have one. So, expect to see more political entries for the duration of the year. The first half of the semester we’ll be talking about political parties in general. The second half we’ll be talking about interest groups and how they work with/against political parties. I really am looking forward to this class. It’s also a smaller class, only about 20 or so students, which I think will make it nice for discussions. My prof is very nice and also happens to be my advisor!

Hopefully tomorrow’s classes will be just as good. I have a “power hour” as my first class tomorrow, from 1:15 to 2:45. Yuck. I have a feeling it will be a huge lecture class. Not my favorite kind of class, but whaddaya gonna do?

And now it’s time to get the boys dinner. I’ll be back tomorrow to let y’all know how those classes go.

going back to college, school | No Comments »

The first day of my re-entry to college is upon me and I have to admit that I’m scared to death! Oh, don’t get me wrong, I’m uber excited. But being out-of-the-loop for 7 years and jumping back in is scary…at least for me. Maybe I won’t feel as out of place once I get on campus and in class. After all, there are 800 transfer students this year. 800! And, from the looks of the small group that gathered Friday afternoon for the “mandatory” transfer student meeting (that, in retrospect, probably wasn’t mandatory after all), I’m not the only non-traditional student. Lots of them are transfers from community colleges, but lots are like me, with families and jobs, etc.

While I had fun the first time around, I anticipate this time around to be a bit better for me. At least grade wise. I didn’t have a horrible GPA last time around, but it wasn’t stellar. I’m confident it’ll be better this time around. Even with taking on a part-time job. I have a better appreciation for it this time. It helps that I’m paying for it all this time around rather than splitting it three ways with my parents.

Anyway, wish me luck! I’ll probably need it

going back to college, life, school | 6 Comments »

It has now been two weeks since I left to go back home for my grandmother’s funeral. I did very well with it, considering she’s the last of my grandparents to pass on. Admittedly, I don’t think I’ve really come to terms with it yet. I think I did a pretty good job of holding myself together for my dad and my sister, both of whom had a really rough time of it (dad especially). I wrote something that Thursday night at my moms with the intent to blog it the next day, but that didn’t happen. I’m just now getting around to it, don’t ask me why. I’ll post it now, but keep in mind this was written two weeks ago. I’ll add more to it at the end, now that I’ve had time to contemplate her eulogy and passing from this earth.

————–

I sit here in my mother’s house for the second time in a month. The first time , we celebrated new life; the birthing of a new generation. My baby sister will welcome her first child into the family at the end of September. How ironic is it, then, that this time we are celebrating life in the complete opposite way? We have gathered together to memorialize the life of my last living grandparent, my paternal grandmother.

For me, funerals have always been hard. They leave me vulnerable and weak, unable to grasp the harsh realities of their passing. I often wonder what it is about death that so many people are afraid of, myself included. I have gotten better over the years since my first grandfathers passing, but I’m still afraid of dying. I should not be, I know. After all, I’m going to a much better place and I’ll see all the loved ones that have gone before me, some I’ve never even met. But as good as that is, I’m not totally comforted by that thought. It should be easy for Christians to say “Ok, God. I’m ready when you are!” However, reality is that we are never fully prepared to leave our earthly bodies, our earthly life, behind.

My moms dad was the first to pass away. It rocked me to my core. I was 9 and a grandpa’s girl. I have such fond vivid memories of my grandfather. Things like being in his darkroom with him and learning all about how to develop film. Grandpa was a phenomenal photog. And when we got the news that he had cancer, I honestly thought he would be ok. He was for awhile. But there is nothing more ingrained into my 9 year old memories than seeing him suffer. He tried not to let it show, but by then the harsh realization had hit me; I was going to lose my favorite person in the whole world; my hero. And I couldn’t understand why people weren’t crying at his memorial service. Even grandma told me I was being silly for crying. But what else can a 9 year old girl who has just lost her favorite thing do? It seemed to me that I was the only one missing him, but I know now that everyone else had just found a way to let go. I was still holding on.

And so we are here this weekend to say goodbye to my grandmother. I am reminded yet again just how fragile life really is. So, while we commemorate my grandmother’s life in pictures, in song, in eulogy, in fellowship, I am left contemplating the life of my ancestors and celebrating the life of the next generation.

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I admit, not the most put-together thoughts in the world, but it’s what came to me at the time. Sitting through her eulogy, I heard things about my grandmother that I never knew. A lot of what was said I did know., She lived on her own, supporting herself and going to school, at the tender age of 12 (her mother had been an alcoholic and very abusive). She went to church every Sunday and genuinely tried to live her life as Christ did. She made everything, and I do mean everything, from scratch. She was up at 4 am Thanksgiving and Christmas mornings preparing the family meal. She always made her clothes and her kids clothes. She has made a few things for me when I was younger and she’s an amazing seamstress (my mom is, too, fwiw…I didn’t get those genes, lol. I can hold my own, but nothing like they can do.). I heard for the first time how she and grandpa met. She was waiting at a bus stop and grandpa drove past in his car, stopped, turned around, came back to flirt with her and the rest is history. It was love at first site. Just listening to stories throughout the weekend and even during her funeral has inspired me to try to be more like grandma. I don’t know if I can ever be exactly as she was, but it is certainly my goal now to emulate the way she lived her life.

Family, Home, The Family, blogging, life | 3 Comments »

I have had a busy 2 weeks and it shows no signs of slowing down any time soon. A week and a half ago, my grandmother passed away and I had to make my second trip to Indiana in a month for her viewing and funeral. It was a tough time for the family, especially my dad, uncle and aunt. Thankfully, she left this world peacefully and is now blissfully roaming around the gardens of heaven with my grandfather. I returned home on Tuesday and have been trying to recoup ever since.

School starts (for me) in a week and I have mandatory transfer student activities to take part in next weekend on campus. We have finally received the boys’ school supply lists and bought Alex’s new backpack. He is so excited about that backpack. He picked out an Optimus Prime bag that he proudly wore through WalMart and then out to the van. He’s so excited to go to school. I, on the other hand, cried upon reading all about his kindy placement, etc (which we also got in the mail yesterday along with supply lists). I am going to be a basket case on his first day of school! I will be trying hard not to let him see me cry that day, though. I don’t want him to think that going to school is a bad thing. It’s not, of course. It’s just hard for me to let go of my baby, that’s all.

Needless to say, I have a lot going on this next week with preparing for my classes in a week and preparing for the boys to start school in 2 weeks. Part of me is glad to be starting back to school but part of me is sad that the summer is practically gone. It really seems as though we had very little summer at all this year, with the boys getting out at the end of June. It seems it’s been run, run, run ever since.

I know some others are getting ready to start school this week. Have you finished your school shopping? Are you ready for school to start? If you’re sending your child of to school for the first time, how are you feeling about that?

Family, blogging, going back to college, life, school, the kids | No Comments »

I went on a quest to apply for more jobs today. Apparently it’s hard to find a job with the hours I want. Oh, well. Anyway, The recurrent theme was “We do it online now.” Borders, Michaels, A.C. Moore, Panera Bread…all do their applications online. The only ones who don’t that I applied to are WalMart and Target. But theirs are still computerized, no more paper.

Really, I think this is a great way to go. what better way to be-friend the environment and stay up-to-date with today’s technology than using the web for job applications?

So, it seems I’ll be spending my evening applying on-line. Probably would have been nice to know all of that before I spent the gas to drive to those places, but oh, well.

Internet, Media, blogging, life | No Comments »

If not for twitter (and dh, of course), I wouldn’t have seen dh post the link to qik, where the live GOP press conference is going on. The house GOP totally rocks! After all, all they want is an up or down vote on gas prices. What’s so hard about that? The dems always say they want to help the people, but walk out when an opportunity to do so comes around.

UPDATE: I think you can still see the qik video, but you can also listen to “Media Lizzy” over on blog talk radio and hear her talk about it and interview congressman

National, Politics | No Comments »

As of today, it is T-24 days until my first day of classes. I am both incredibly excited and incredibly nervous. I don’t think I’ve been this nervous before. Or at least not in a long time. And I can’t really say it’s a bad kind of nervous. More of an excited nervous. Does that make sense? Either way, there are butterflies in my stomach something awful! I don’t think I was this nervous on my first day of college 10 years ago!!

All-in-all, though, my classes aren’t incredibly hard. Well, ok, they may be, but I’m only taking 12 hrs since I have to work around Alex’s afternoon kindergarten schedule. They are all political science classes, so they could get a bit heavy. I’m hoping I can mix it up a bit next semester. Once I see my advisor, I can schedule my classes online and I don’t have to wait forever to get an apt. like I used to have to do. Thank you, internet!

The hardest part, so far, is trying to find a job. I’m hoping to find one on campus so that I can save on gas. There are a few listed on the job board. I just need to find out if they are still available. It’s going to be a crazy semester for me, I know. However, the craziness that our family will have to deal with for the next three years will be worth it in the end. Once I have my degree and we’ve got a dual income, we can finally buy the house we’ve been longing for and start saving for college for the boys and retirement for us.

I hope everyone has a great weekend. Oh, and happy birthday, mom!

blogging, going back to college, life | No Comments »