Affordable healthcare should be of particular importance to women this election season, as new insurance-company data dissected in today’s New York Times reveals that women pay much more than men of the same age for individual insurance policies providing the same coverage.
So, not only do I have Crohn’s disease AND a permanent ilesotomy working against me in the health insurance circus, but now having a uterus is equivalent to having a pre-existing condition? LOVELY…
“It is extraordinary to me that you can find $700 billion to save Wall Street and the entire G8 can’t find $25 billion to save 25,000 children who die every day of preventable disease and hunger.” – Bono
Enough said.
for TACKY CHRISTMAS SWEATERS.
I found these beauties on-line.
Friends, I beseech you. If you own an article of clothing that twinkles, jingles, blinks or has HO HO HO embroidered on it- destroy it! Immediately! Toss it, burn it, bury it, but for goodness sake- DON’T WEAR IT!
**This has been a Public Service Announcement for the greater good of all mankind.**
I’m home sick today. ( Mushroom pizza for dinner last night. Mushrooms don’t *usually* bother me, but I haven’t had an obstruction in almost a year, so I guess I was due. Curse the ostomy gods!)
Being home sick = too much time reading online. I ran across this article on clevescene.com and it made me ill ( and I thought my stomach was in knots from the mushrooms *roll eyes*). Now, I know my ultra conservative church friends may complain that Scene is a “liberal -left wing media outlet” intent on bringing a bad name to Christianity. That’s fine, but I really think guys like the televangelists in the article have done way more to bring shame to the name of Jesus than any left wing liberal could hope of accomplishing. I’m ashamed that two of these guys resided in my state.
Reading crap like this makes me nauseated. The article is here
Grab a barf bucket prior to reading…
This morning I received an email from a respected leader in my church, asking me to sign a petition created by a group of Christian actors in response to Kathy Griffin’s off color comment during her acceptance of a creative arts Emmy earlier in the month.
Here’s a link to the article that accompanied the request: http://movies.msn.com/movies/article.aspx?news=276713
I’m flabbergasted. While I think Griffin’s comment was controversial, I’m not at all surprised by it. Griffin is known to make off color comments about many subjects, religion included. She’s a comic…that’s her job. Her comment doesn’t offend me. In fact, I thought it a bit witty. How many times, as a Christian, have I watched an awards show where someone gets up and “thanks Jesus” for their accomplishments, all of us knowing full well that it’s probably just lip service? (I’m not judging here…just being honest. No one knows a heart except God, but He does allow us to examine believers by their fruits). Griffin has never (to my knowledge) claimed to be a follower of Christ. Why would we expect her to be respectful of our God?
But most of all I found Griffin’s statements sad. To get up in front of a national audience and claim that “this award is now your God” is a very bold statement, joking or not, and one that she will have to answer for one day.
So instead of organizing protests and petitions, why doesn’t this group of supposedly well intentioned Christians put their time and effort into praying for Griffin? And I don’t mean organizing a public, self serving “prayer service” to draw attention to themselves. I’m talking about asking God, in their secret closet of prayer, to soften Kathy’s heart and reveal Himself to her.
And then there’s the issue of the $90,000 + spent on an ad in the USA Today claiming “enough is enough”? The group claims they just want to “give a voice to those who want to stand up for Christ”. That’s all well and good…except I can’t help but believe that that $90,000 could have been put to much better use feeding the poor, clothing the naked, and a thousand other tangible tasks that exhibit the love of Christ.
I don’t know…call me crazy…
I don’t get it..
I truly couldn’t care less about the Kanye/50 Cent competition. I admit they’re both on my iPod. Honestly, though? Is this worth all the hype?
The video sucks. The song is ok…kinda catchy even, I’ll admit.
Still…I can’t help but think that Nietzsche must be rolling over in his grave…
This is scary…As I was driving out of our condo complex yesterday morning, there were police and sheriff’s cars lining the street to my right. I, of course, rubbernecked the entire way down the street, but didn’t get a good look at anything. I figured some kids were causing trouble before school or whatever. So I didn’t think anything else about it.
That is until I got to work and got an email froma friend asking me “What’s going on in your hood? ” with a link to a news story. I clicked it, and lo and behold, find out that a woman was killed, in broad daylight, two streets over from where I live.
Uh….scary!
So I’ve been following the story since yesterday and police have the suspect in custody. Turns out it was her neighbor. Nice…
Police have no motive or anything yet. This poor woman was only 44. She lived with her boyfriend and two small kids.
So sad..
Here’s the article from the local newspaper:
Painesville woman killed
06/01/2007
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56-year-old man charged with aggravated murder
A 44-year-old woman was killed early Thursday in the College Hills development in Painesville.
Lisa Ward was found in the
grass behind her home at 209
University Ave., where she lived with her boyfriend and two children, ages 4 and 6, Capt. Rick Kline of
the Painesville Police Department said.
Her boyfriend was upstairs asleep when he heard a loud noise below about 5 a.m. Thursday. He ran downstairs, where he saw Ward on the grass and a man fleeing the scene, Kline said.
Ward was still alive when emergency workers responded, but she died on the scene, Kline said. Neighbors watched as rescue workers, police and prosecutors combed the crime scene.
Officers arrested Paul R. Hudson, 56, of 295 University Ave., and charged him with aggravated murder.
Hudson is in Lake County Jail and is set to be arraigned 11 a.m. today, Kline said.
Ward suffered several blunt
force traumas, but the cause of her death is still undetermined, pending additional investigation, Lake County Coroner Dr. Salvatore Rizzo said.
Painesville police Lt. Denise Mercsak said authorities do not know what weapon, if any, was used in the homicide. Officers are also working to identify a motive.
Aggravated murder is a first-degree felony. If convicted, Hudson could be sentenced to up to 20 years in prison and $25,000 in fines.
It was 7:51 am this morning, and I was putting the finishing touches on my makeup. My Blackberry started chirping, so I looked and saw an email from Jaidin’s babysitter Amber.
This is what it said:
This is really funny…if you have a family picture, can you let us have one? I have a wall down here where all the kids have their family pictures and I was bugging you for awhile…I know it’s hard with Jaidin going to 2 different schools and all the things you have to remember…anyways…Jaidin wanted her picture up there, so one day I took a picture of just her and she asked me if she could stand by the turtles so they could be her family. LOL. I was laughing so hard. Next time you’re downstairs, you’ll have to see on our Family Wall, I have a picture of Jaidin (really cute) standing on the stool proudly next to the turtles. LOL. If you think of it, send us a “real” family picture! (although the other kids are very jealous that Jaidin gets a picture with the turtles) Very funny girl.
Amber
She HAD been asking me to bring in a picture of our family ( um…for like the last 3 months 
),but I just kept forgetting. How bad did I feel? My poor daughter having to pose with the turtles because her mommy can’t remember to take in a family picture. A few months ago, I would have really beat myself up for being a “bad mom”. In fact, I cried all the way to work one day about 6 months ago because I forgot it was Show and Tell day ( for like the 3rd week in a row
) and Jaidin didn’t pack anything to show to her class. Talk about working mom condemnation!
But I’ve gotten over that. I’ve gotten over myself. I’m not Super Mom, and I’m not Super Woman. And if the worst disappointment my daughter experiences at age 4 is that I forget to take a family picture to the babysitter’s, then in actuality, I guess I’m doing pretty good. But I doubt she was even disappointed…I bet she thought her “turtle family” was pretty cool…and I think she’s pretty ingenious for thinking that one up!
So today, I was able to laugh this one off…with thoughts of a little girl with a crazy imagination, and a mom who is finally learning to give herself a break.
Not to mention…red spandex is a real fashion faux pas….
This morning on the way to the babysitter’s house, there was a commercial on the radio for Malley’s chocolates ( YUM! Somebody get me some of their chocolate covered strawberries and grapes for Easter…hint …hint…). The last line of the advertisement said to bring the kids down to the store to meet the Easter bunny.
Innocent enough… until my daughter asks ” Mom, where does the Easter bunny live?”
Hmmmm…good question. Never thought about it before. I mean, he doesn’t really have a domain, right? Santa has the North Pole, Batman has Gotham City, the Tooth Fairy…well..I don’t know where she lives either, but you get the point.
So, instead of making up some dumb answer, I just said “Ya know Jaidin, Mommy doesn’t know”. And do you know what my genius of a 4 year old said?
“That’s ok, Mom…we can look it up online when we get home”.
The title of this blog pretty much sums up our weekend!
Friday night Jaidin’s best friend Juliea spent the night with us. I picked the girls up from school and we went to Starbucks (I got coffee, they got strawberry frappucinos), and we headed to the library. I had my iPod playing in the car, and the O.C theme song came on. Jaidin LOVES the OC, even though she’s only seen a few scenes here and there, and will make me play this song OVER and OVER again in the car. She sings it at the top of her lungs. Well…Juliea’s a quick learner, because the second time around, both girls were belting it out. Too cute!
That night,we took the girls to Denny’s for dinner (definitely NOT my choice of restaurant, although I’ll admit that it wasn’t SO bad since Ohio is now smoke free), and I don’t think either one of us realized how loud two 4 year old girls can be.We must have said “use your inside voice” 20 times in our one hour in the restaurant. The good news was I only had to take them to the ‘potty’ twice. 
After Denny’s we headed to the grocery store. All I have to say is that as we walked out of the store, Jon and I were both in agreement that we are happy only having one child! 
We got them home, put them in bed, put a movie on (Mary Poppins), then went downstairs to put the groceries away. 3 hours later ( 11pm), Mary Poppins was still singing and the girls were STILL awake. They passed out around midnight, and Jon and I headed to bed. At 3:30 am, I awoke to the sounds of uncontrollable sobs coming from Jaidin’s room. Juliea was on the top bunka bed (that’s what Jaidin calls them 
), and was very much in need of her mommy and daddy 
I held her for a while, and finally convinced her to go back to sleep, after promising her she could sleep on the floor in Jaidin’s sleeping bag. Whew! Crisis diverted! The girls got up around 9am, and decided they did not want to go to their ballet class. Instead they wanted to make a ‘craft’ for Dylan, the sweet, unsuspecting 2nd grade boy they both have a crush on. Hilarious!
Saturday night, Jon and I went on a date for our anniversary (7 years!). We saw “Something Funny Happened on the Way to the Forum” at a local highschool, and it was really good ( for a high school musical )! Our friend Chris teaches art at the school, and he was the production’s technical director, so we went to support him…and ended up really enjoying ourselves. When we got back from dinner, Jon gave me my final anniversary gift…a really cool DVD that my brother helped him with. They took our wedding video and edited it to DVD, and then Jon recorded himself playing and singing our wedding song as the audio. They did a great job, and it was the most heartfelt and thought out gift I think Jon’s ever gotten me.
Sunday morning was a special church service. Our church is finally paid for! We had a special ceremony where we burnt the mortgage papers. There was a a DVD of pictures playing during the service…pictures from years ago, when they first bought our church property, began building, etc. It was nostalgic. I wasnt around back then ( at least on the church scene), and Jon’s dad was not yet the pastor. Many of the people from the video have passed away, but a few of the men from the pastor’s council back then, and the old pastor were present this Sunday for the service. All of this reminded me of God’s faithfulness to us. These people some 20 years ago had a dream and a vision of building this church ministry, and it was heartwarming to witness them reminiscing about God’s goodness through the years.
After church, Lindsey and I went on our bi-weekly date for manicures and coffee. Jon inquired if this was going to become a regular occurence. I said yes, as it is cheaper than psychotherapy! 
Lindsey is a great date! She brings me smaller jeans so I don’t have to get dressed and come out of the fitting room…AND she listens to me blab about my crazy life. And then…. she invited us over for dinner so I didn’t have to cook on my anniversary! Who could ask for a better sis-in-law?
Oh…and she makes terrific balls….meatballs, that is!
Today it was back to work, but at least the sun was shining! Spring has sprung in NE Ohio…at least for the week. I even busted out the flip flops! Those of you who know me well know that it is a sad day in the Knipp house when the flip flops are retired for the winter. So, today was a joyous day! When Jon got home from work, we took Jaidin to the park and she had a blast! My mouthy kid told me to quit ‘aggravating’ her by following her around with the camera. I have NO idea where she gets her sassiness from… 
Pics are below. Enjoy!
I know I promised more pics from the shoot tonight, but we wrapped early. So…I am out of here…I was able to get a 8:30 flight out of Newark. Word has it that the weather is supposed to turn nasty tonight, and I was concerned about getting out of Philly tomorrow morning. The lovely people at ConvaTec took good care of me, and I am out of here in about an hour!
I’ll post more about the shoot tomorrow, along with some more pics. Now, it’s packing time…cuz I’m leaving on a jet plane………
7:55pm-
Looks like I’m not leaving on a jet plane anytime soon! I made it to the airport, only to find that my flight has been delayed for an hour. Seems I’ll be sitting here for 2 hours. So I just payed $7.95 for internet access so I can try and be productive. I’ve returned a few phone calls and have grand plans of getting work email answered, and UOAA emails returned, so I can actually rest tomorrow, since I have the day off. In reality, I will probably not get anything done before my battery dies. ( I had grandiose plans of getting work done while out of town…free evenings always seem prime for working…how come I always end up with “better” things to do? LOL)
If all goes well ( that’s IF!), I will get into Cleveland around 11:30pm. I’m dead tired, and of course, the van has NO gas in it, because I was in a hurry to get to the airport Tuesday afternoon on my way out, so I didn’t stop, thinking that I’d get it on the way home on Friday morning. Well, now I’m coming home tonight, and will have to stop and find an all night gas station in the middle of the ghetto around the airport. That’ll teach me to plan ahead! Pray I don’t get mugged! 
Today’s shoot went fantastic. It took a while for things to get rolling this morning. Set up is tedious. You wouldn’t believe the lights, cameras, and other “equipment” that has to be set up even before one shot is taken. Then it has to be changed before you can shoot another scene. If you’re the “talent”, as they kept refering to me ( HA!), the name of the game is sit and wait. Hair = DONE…MAKEUP=DONE…now sit and wait until they’re ready for you.
Oh well…the pay is good, and the company was fun, so it was all good. Once we got rolling though, things went fast. It helped that I had worked with the director before. I’m anxious to see the finished product. I didn’t get to see much of the playback from today, but everyone said the film looked great, so I feel pretty good about it.
Ok…I’m going to work. I’ll update tomorrow with pics from today and a few funny stories.
Wish me luck…I’d REALLY like to be home before midnight!
Prior to this week, I was having a hard time getting into the Christmas spirit. Usually right after Thanksgiving I get that “warm and fuzzy” peace on earth and goodwill toward all men feeling. It just didn’t come this year! I’m sure recovering from surgery and everything going on with Jon’s mom have kind of put a damper on my spirits, plus the weather had been in the 40’s and 50’s with sunshine, so it just didn’t feel like Christmas to this NE Ohio gal!
But no worries…Christmas arrived at the Knipp house this week!!
We awoke Monday morning to…LAKE EFFECT SNOW! Augh! For those of you not familiar with this lovely weather phenomenon, let me give you a Meteorology 101 course. We live about 5 miles inland of Lake Erie. When a cold front rolls in from Canada or sweeps across the midwest and arrives in the Ohio valley, the winds are situated so that they are blowing out of the northeast, right across Lake Erie. Lake Erie is not yet frozen over, so the winds pick up moisture from the lake and drop it, in the form of SNOW, right in my back yard ( well, and the rest of Lake, Geauga and Ashtabula Counties…and sometimes the lucky surrounding areas) . And I’m not talking about pretty little flurries. We’re talking 1-2 inches of snow an hour with white-out and blizzard like conditions!
Of course, we had to go out in the lovely weather. I had a follow-up appointment with the surgeon to get my staples and drains removed. I wasn’t allowed to drive until I got my drains out, so my grandparents were driving us ( Jaidin’s school was cancelled because of the weather, so she came with us). For two people who grew up in NE Ohio, they sure acted like they’d never seen snow before, let alone driven in it. It was quite comical. Jaidin kept saying “Calm down everyone!” Anyway, the usual 25 minute drive took almost 1 1/2 hours.
Here are two pics of Jaidin trying out her new snow boots after the snow stopped falling.
We finally got our tree up too. I got off scott free! Generally, I am the one who does all the Christmas decorating. Not this year! Jon got the tree out, assembled it, and then he and Jaidin decorated. I just ’supervised’! They did a pretty good job!
Jaidin and I went shopping on Thursday, and she conned me out of this adorable Little People Nativity set. OK, maybe she didn’t con me. I’d wanted to buy this for her for the past two Christmases, but it was always sold out. While we were in Walmart, I saw a lady with two of them in her cart, so I made a bee-line for the toy aisle and sure enough, they had two left! Since Jaidin was with me, I obviously couldn’t buy it without her knowledge, and I knew if I bought it but didn’t let her have it when we got home she’d have a coronary. But they only had 2 left! Surely if I came back later, they’d be gone. So I did what any seasoned parent would do – I caved and bought it. And gave it to her when we got home. She’s played with it non-stop…which is good, because all I’ve heard about for the past two weeks is Santa…and now she’s talking about baby Jesus. She decided that we should keep the Nativity under the tree…”so Jesus can see His tree”. LOL
I’m not sure this is such a great idea though…I’ve had to rescue baby Jesus out of the jowls of our cat twice! Bad kitty!
Christmastime is here!
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