Peace, Fall, and Corporate America

I cannot believe it almost October.  How did that even happen?  I'm sure it has something to do with the ancient Greeks, Romans, or something but you know what I mean!

October 12, 2011

 Fall has come to the Pacific Northwest.   I don't know that I'm ready for it.   Usually, by now, I'm begging for orange and yellow leaves, 55 degree days, and two blankets on my bed.  Here's hoping that next week boosts my love of fall back to normal.  We've got B's birthday, Alternomomma's birthday, Pops' birthday, and decorating for fall.  Tonight I've got the kids so B can get her new tattoo.  I am making up a nice curried split pea soup and (vegan) cheesy garlic bread.  Mmmmm....yummy!

Yup.  I did it.  After 2 1/2 years as a vegetarian, I went vegan about 3 weeks ago.  I'd been hemmin' and hawin' about it because hey, I like my cheese you know.  The catalyst for most of my changes (we call her Becca) and I sat down with the kids and watched Vegucated.  I'm a visual person and if you want me to take the time to seriously change my life, you have to impact me visually.  This documentary did that for me.  It's one thing to read about what is done to dairy cows and hens but seeing it is heart wrenching.  I'm not going to preach (much) and tell you why you should watch this movie but I will say this:  Seriously think about what eating meat, cheese, milk products, and eggs does to you, the environment, and the animals that they come from.  Vegucate yourself and live your life with compassion towards those who cannot speak.

Peace March 2012

The peace march was fantastic!  The kids, Becca, and Seth walked from Maritime Heritage park, through a bit of downtown, and up Cornwall to the First Congregational.  All the kids were asked to carry flags.  They were all awesome, but I have to love the "corporate america" flag that Kim was carrying.  Instead of the stars representing states, there are corporate logos.  It's a fascinating statement about how corporations are the ones who run this country.  We all had a fab dinner of Italian hoagies at the park, then I drove up to meet them at the church.  Of course, I went to the church where it stopped last year.  The marchers got there, and I was taking pictures, and then they kept walking right on past me and up the street.  Whoops.  I hopped in my car and gathered up my crew up at the other church and home we went.

Okay, bread's almost done and the kids look like the might start eating each other. 

Have a great weekend kittens!

That is all.

Thunder....

Susy, myself, and Stacey with "Thunder From Down Under" 2005

This weekend was all about the men from Australia and New Zealand.  Aren't they just uber fine?

Well, it was all about the half naked men until my kiddo got sick.  Sadly, the trip to Snoqualmie Casino was cancelled.  Kim felt badly about it, but what are you going to do?

Is it a consolation to anyone that my school work was not only done, but I made up a missing paper?

Probably to my GPA but that's about it.

So anyway, to those who got to see the hot dudes, hope you had fun!

To Susy, I'm sorry babe.  I love ya and miss you!  Wish we could have gone!

Peace March 2011

This week brings us the Peace March with Dana Lyons as the MC.  

If you don't know Dana, he is a local activist and musician who travels around the world.

He's about to start "The Great Coal Train Tour" and get people riled up about the (more than) mile long coal trains that will be running from "Montana and Wyoming through Sandpoint, Idaho to Spokane, down through the Columbia River Gorge, then up along the Puget Sound coast, passing through Longview, Tacoma, Seattle, Edmonds, Everett, Mt. Vernon, Bellingham, Ferndale and all points in between".   The quoted bit there is from Coal Train Facts. 

It's a big deal here because we live in one of the most beautiful places on earth and this will be parking in our backyard while it offloads tons of coal onto boats bound for China.  I'm not going to give you all the reasons why the coal trains are horrible, you can check it out for yourself.  If you're in any one of the regions affected by this, you should get involved and get involved now!

Back to the Peace March.  This will be the second year that we're going and the kids are already excited!  Here's the information if you can take the time to come on down:

(I totally copied and pasted this from Dana's calendar.  I'm a plagiarist.  It's true.)

9/21/12 5:00pm

Bellingham, WA Peace Day Event

First Congregational Church in Bellingham

2401 Cornwall Avenue

Bellingham, WA 98225

360-734-0217

http://www.whatcompjc.org

Price: free/donations accepted

September 21st Friday

5pm march

5:30 peace day celebration

Dana will MC the event and sing "Circle The World"

The March

We meet at Maritime Heritage Park starting a 5:00 pm on Friday September 21st.

Joe Marx has confirmed that his drumming group will accompany the marchers from Maritime Heritage Park.

Cascade Montessori 7th and 8th graders will be marching with us and handing out their peace cranes to bystanders....

Kulshan Chorus will be performing their peace music from around the world.

Keynote Speaker Michael McPhearson

Okay kittens.  This long week is over and looking forward to the next!

That is all.

I'm Back

From 2009 (bottom right) to 2012 (top left)

Kim has become a part of Becca's tradition of Labor Day photos at Hovander.  

It's amazing to watch the children change from year to year.  

The boy even got his head chopped off a bit on top because he's too tall now! 

I've been away from the blog for just over two months.  I couldn't articulate what I had to say and what I was feeling.  So, I made myself sit down today and blog.  

There's a lot going on in my world and the world in general.  

Tomorrow is Becca and Seth's 13th anniversary.  

Happy Happy to some of the best friends a girl has ever had! 

Larrabee State Park 2008

Tomorrow is also three months since Nana passed.  

It's hard to believe.  

I miss you Nana.  Whole bunches.  Wish you were here.

Foxglove, Nana's favorite flower.

School is ticking along.  I switched majors because the whole computer programming thing just wasn't working for me.  I'm working on my Bachelor's in Criminal Justice now.  It's my passion and I should have gone with my first instinct.  I'm doing fairly well this quarter.  I kind of blew off a few weeks because of camping and vacation, but I'm back on track now and doing fine.

We did our big camping trip at the beginning of August.  It's the first year Kevin didn't go with us, which was weird.  Kim had sprained her knee on July 4th so she wasn't able to do a lot of the hiking and spent a lot of time with me at camp. Papa went with us for the first year!  Super fun!!!  It's the highlight of my year and I'm already excited for next year.

Kim and Sarah Larrabee 2012

Beth, Kim, and I rented a car and drove down to California to see Susy and Kaitlyn near the end of August.  Did I mention that was a looooooong drive to do on your own?  We took two days on the way down and three on the way back.  Kim took a lot of pictures of the journey but somehow we misplaced the camera during our time with Susy.  The last night we were there Marky took the girls, Bethie went off on her own, and Susy and I went to a club.  We got in a bit of trouble but hey, isn't that the fun part?  Really, it wasn't our fault......  No pictures of that because I'm at B's for the weekend and they are all on my computer.

Last weekend was Water Balloon Wars 2012.  It's our 5th annual balloon war and we had just about 500 balloons this year which is our most yet.  It takes hours to fill up all the balloons and just about 10 minutes to beat the living snot out of each other with water.  B and I filled up almost all the balloons this year and boy, did our hands hurt!

Becca's aerial view of the beginning of the war

 

It's an election year but we'll be talking about that later this week.  

Be safe and enjoy this last weekend of summer if you're here in the Pacific Northwest.  I think this is all we're getting.  Kind of a weather-cruddy summer, but the beauty here comes at a price, and that price is rain.

Becca's gardens

Well kittens, it's time for me to go.

That is all.

Michael Clarke Duncan

Forgive me for being gone for so long.

I just didn't have it in me to blog.

I will be back to our regularly scheduled program soon.

Goodbye Michael Clarke Duncan.

You were a big man, with big talent, with a bigger heart.

Your gorgeous smile, kind eyes, and your wit will be missed.

Thank you for gracing the screens, both big and small, with your talent.

From outer space, to the green mile, to the Ends of the Earth;

you will be missed.

May the earth embrace you and keep you close to her heart.

May your spirit soar free.

Rest In Peace.

Happy 4th!

Have a wonderful 4th!  

Please be safe and sane!  

Don't light yourself on fire, take care of your pets, and have fun!

First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out--
Because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out--
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out--
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me--and there was no one left to speak for me.

Remember that you have a responsibility to speak out.  You have the responsibility to stand up.  Silence is the least patriotic thing that you can do!

There is a quote from Hermann Goering that defines blind patriotism and I think it applies to our country right now.

“Naturally, the common people don’t want war, but after all, it is the leaders of a country who determine the policy and it always a simple matter to drag people along whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. This is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in every country.”

Please don't drink the kool-aid! 

Pieces

It's been two weeks since we lost B's mom.  It feels like so much longer.  Like we've lived a lifetime in the last fourteen days.  

Everything's in little pieces, scattered everywhere, and it's like trying to pick up glass with oil covered fingers.

We just keep moving.  Keep loving.  Keep living.  It's all we can do.

That is all.

Grief

I've written, rewritten, and written again so many times in the last two weeks.  I haven't disappeared.  Becca's mom passed Saturday morning and the words just aren't coming out right.  My best friend has this giant hole in her heart and life.  Things are so hard right now for everyone and all we can do is just keep going.  I don't have words of wisdom.  All I have is love for my family, because they are my family, and this horrible grief.  If I could spare them all this pain for something that I know is a part of life, I would.  I don't care that it's a part of life.  I hate it.  Death sucks for those of us who live on.  We are left trying to make sense of something so sudden and so painful.  There is no sense in this.  There's no way to make this okay.  I feel selfish because I have this huge grief and it feels like I'm not able to help her with hers because I am so sad.  Sad and really fucking mad.  Sorry Nana.  I really am.  This isn't fair damnit!  I know life isn't fair and once again, I just don't care.  I don't want people to tell me that she's not in pain now.  I don't want people to tell me that she's in a better place.  I don't want these trite platitudes that people say because they don't know what else to say.  I know that they are trying to help and that they really believe it.  Fuck it.  She has a lot of life to live and I want her back.  I want her back for Becca, Tim, the kids, and for me.  She wasn't done with everything she needed to do.  Becca's not all growed up and to be honest,  I'm not either.  She's become like my mother and I have already done this.  I don't want to do it again.  I know.  I know the pain that my friend feels and will feel.  I know how it feels to wake up one day and it's all just real.  To pick up the phone to call her and she's not there.  To cook a holiday dinner and know that she won't be there to eat it.  To start shopping for her only to realize that she'll never open the present you bought her.  To just want to hold her hand one more time.  

Thank you Colleen.  For making my life better.  For making me want to be better.  For raising such an amazing woman who has become such an important and vital part of my life.  I will miss you more than I could ever explain.  I hope you know how much I love you!  Thursdays will never be the same.  I will carry you in my heart for the rest of my life.  Every time I see something with a moose on it, I will smile and think of you.  I will still make you chocolate orange cupcakes on your unbirthday.  I think foxglove will always make me a little sad.  Did you know that Becca and I identified a bird in the snowball tree?  It was a Cedar Waxwing.  We never got to tell you.  I wish we could have.

That is all.