Hello Blog World!

Yes, I haven’t been around MSJ for a bit.  Here are the recent headlines of the summer life of the Crosby clan.

46 Year Old Housewife Drops 80 Pounds:  Wise choices for health over the last year have produced remarkable results for this average housewife, who is now above average in weight loss success. (Yes, that’s me, but didn’t that sound headliney?)

Water Shortage in Desert Leaves Dying Remains:  This simply means that Rick isn’t watering the backyard grass this summer and it’s all dead.  Why is that headline news, you ask?  Because the wiener dog likes to roll in the dead grass and then come in and roll on the used-to-be-clean carpet.  This is a new cleaning issue this summer that we have never faced before.  It is a constant source of time and energy expended on STUPID stuff. 2012 will go down in the Crosby History Book as the summer of the dead grass. (Hopefully not of the dead dog!)

Summer Movie Fun is Proving Successful:  Yes, I bought the summer fun pack of $7 movie tickets again.  So far, I haven’t seen any of the theatrical selections!  So it’s ALL fun for me!  This week is Mr. Popper’s Penguins.  If you have been an MSJ reader for several years, you will recall how we tortured our children with a sound recording of Mr Popper…. so I’m looking forward to finding out all the information we missed from the skipping CD… IF they followed the book.

Full Time Work is Stressful:   Hahahahaha!  This one makes me laugh.  Our 18-year-old, soon to be college-bound daughter, is working “full time”….. HARDLY!  I think in her first two weeks of “full time” she put in one, maybe two 8 hour days.  This is exhausting!  Never has she been asked to do unpleasant tasks for EIGHT straight hours!  Well, except for school and chores!  She has never taken so many naps.  She came home after a grueling six hours of scanning and filing files to exclaim, “I cannot imagine working eight hours a day, doing something you don’t like FOR FORTY YEARS!?!”  hahahah… real life, baby.  This is it!  See why we have tried to steer you to a career that suits your interests and talents????

Unpaid Worker Scores Big:  This is the story of my life.  I finally found a part-time opportunity that allows me to help others and make cash at the same time.  It is the exact antithesis of my daughter’s job.  In ten hours per week, I’m helping people lose weight and get healthy, get off their meds and live longer!  And they pay me!  It reminds me of when my husband started his initial job as a pilot and he couldn’t believe he got paid to fly a plane!  I handed my first check to my husband, who has been the primary bread earner in this household for 16 years, and he spat out in astonishment, “This is the most money you’ve made in …..   Y E A R S !”   haha!  God provides!

Lagging Teacher Delivers for Hopeful Students:  This simply means that I finally got my American History grades done and sent to my high school students whom I haven’t seen in 6 weeks!  Better late than never.  My child was the only who needed the grade for a transcript, so it’s all good.

Enjoy the Fourth of July, America’s birthday!  God bless America!  Land of the brave and FREE!  yah, baby.

Bulletproof George

Yes, I’ve assigned good read to my American History students titled The Bulletproof George Washington by David Barton.  It is an account of George’s early years as a surveyor, English ambassador to the French and a Colonel in the French and Indian War. 

If you don’t know the details of the Battle of Monongahela, let me help you with a brief synopsis.  Both the French and English believed they had claimed the land on the west side of the Allegheny Mountains, known as the vast Ohio Valley.  The French set up forts…. the English started settling the land.  The disagreement finally came to a head in 1755 when the English marched in like good redcoats to take over a French fort, but were surprisingly ambushed by French and Indians (hence the name of the war) hiding in the thicket, behind trees and boulders.  It was a horrible blow to the British with 714 of the 1300 being killed or wounded.  The French only lost 33 men.

The miraculous part of the story, and hence the name of the book, is that George Washington was shot at numerous times and was not even scratched.  There was a hole through his hat that should have been a bullet in his head.  There were four bullet holes in his coat that should have penetrated skin and bones.  Two horses were shot out from under him and he was the only officer to survive the battle. 

These are not undocumented tales.  George wrote several letters after the battle that still exist stating “by the miraculous care of Providence I have been protected beyond all human probability or expectation.” There is a journal of a colonial woman, Mary Draper Ingels, who was captured by Indians and later returned to her home.  She heard the Shawnee Indians tell of a great leader of the white men who was protected from bullets.   One of the Indian chiefs in the attack gave testimony several times saying, “Washington was never born to be killed by a bullet!  …An Invisible Hand had indeed turned aside the bullets.”  These details were included in history textbooks right up until 1934.  Then the details of the providential care of our first president got foggy.

This is why we prefer to choose our own curriculum.  So we learn the truth about our great country that was founded by Christians… men and women who followed after God and the truth in the Bible.  There, you can count this as your history for today.

Go Diamondbacks!

Last night was homeschool night at the Diamondback’s baseball game.  Naturally we asked the kids who was interested in going.  With one glance at the calendar, I realized it was transforming into date night… not family night at the ballpark.  Our eldest was babysitting. Our two youngest were invited to a birthday party. And my personal favorite opt-out excuse was from our eldest son…. who was heading downtown to feed the homeless.  What can you say to that?  “See you after the seventh inning stretch!” 

Lo and behold, it was also Bark at the Park night…. where people take their dogs to the game.  A BASEBALL game.  Good grief.  I’m not really a dog lover, but we do have a dog.  I wouldn’t dream of taking her to a game.  One question ran amuck in my mind all during the game…. where do they do their business?  Seriously… who thought of this??? Instead of the Kiss-Cam during the breaks between innings, there was the Pooch Smooch.  It was really sort of sad.  Will they have cat night next?  Or guinea pig night?

Another distraction was a group of three girls who were probably eight or nine, who weren’t actually supposed to be sitting in front of us, but they ended up there.  I discovered that they just met each other, but I would never have guessed by the way they were brushing each other’s hair, sharing chapstick and hugging one another.  I love that kids make friends so easily.  I didn’t have the heart to ask them to sit down 27 times so I could see the game that I wasn’t really interested in a whole lot.

Distraction #27 was the heat.  I realize we live in Phoenix, Arizona, but there was some humidity last night that made the 102 degrees feel like 112.  Metal seats didn’t aid the situation.

Distraction #87 was my sweet husband, who is not a baseball fan, repeatedly asking questions about rules, plays and all those numbers and letters on the scoreboard.  I’m not sure his appreciation of the American pastime grew at all last night, but he seemed to have a good time. And he did participate in the wave.

To top off the night, the D-backs won 6 to 4…. which means we eat three free tacos each at Taco Bell tonight.  Every time they score at least six runs, the next day is free tacos.  Thanks to the D-backs high scoring season, we have cut our grocery bill quite a bit with free taco night!  Yes!

Hep A + Hep B = Sore Arm

I hate shots.  Really hate them.  Needles just aren’t my deal.  At all.  The IV before giving birth was worse than giving birth in my books!

So today, I’m not feeling well, so I go to the doctor.  Low grade fever, pounding headache…. “seems there’s an infection so here’s your prescription… and let’s do the 2nd Hep A/B shot while you’re in the office.”  I wanted to cry and yell, “NO! I already don’t feel good!  Why poke my arm with the big, scary needle?”  But I just sat there and tried not to cry.  Low grade fevers, pounding headaches and the thought of getting a needle make me want to cry.  Really bad.  But I was brave and sucked it up.

Getting a needle is called “getting a needle” in Canada, but in America it’s called “getting a shot.”  Just some cultural trivia for you… for free.

Ten hours later, I can barely lift my left arm.  Is it supposed to hurt this much?  Am I just wimpy?  Say it isn’t so.  The first Hep A/B hurt, but I thought it was because I got tetanus the same day…. in the same arm.  I did cry that day.  But, I can barely lift my left arm.  I think I need some ice cream.  Pistachio Almond.  Yep, that will make me not think about my left arm that I can’t lift without experiencing pain.  Maybe the nurse hit a nerve or a bone or a muscle or something else that she wasn’t supposed to poke the needle into.

I did spend my evening with the girlfriends around the fire pit.  Good times.  I didn’t lift my left arm and I had a really nice time.  Now I’m home and whiney.  Time for beddy-bye.  Hopefully I’ll feel better in the morning.  Good night.

Voting Privileges Utilized

Despite the grueling 102+ temperatures in Phoenix, new American citizen, Rick__ Crosby, braved the severe heat this afternoon to do what many Americans don’t bother doing:  Vote!  Crosby, a native Canadian, apparent by his voting apparel choice, jumped through the rigmarole of the USCIS hoops so that he would have a say in how America is being governed. 

Crosby probably did more research for this Republican Primary than most Americans have done in their entire life of voting.  He phoned the candidates… several times.  He asked tough questions about issues and government policies.  He told his wife who to vote for.  He actually read the voter guide online after his wife threw away the printed guide that came in the mail.  He personally completed the surveys on the voter guide to see which candidates lined up with his beliefs. (SOOSOSSOOOOSSS)  Look familiar?  He even figured out what the S’s and O’s stand for!

When Crosby arrived his neighboring polling station, his personal photographer was prohibited from taking pictures inside the voting area.  That didn’t stop Crosby.  He marched in, flashed his driver’s license, walked over the the flimsy, portable voting “booths” and pulled his pre-prepared sample ballot from his pocket.  It was a proud American moment.  His photographer did inform the seven members of the polling station volunteer staff that it was Crosby’s first time voting as an American.  The staff was impressed, to say the least.  When Crosby completed his official ballot and turned toward the vote counting machine, all seven volunteers, along with his personal photographer, stood and applauded his valiant display of patriotism and responsibility.

If you are an American and you didn’t exercise your personal responsibility to vote, shame on you.  Yes, that’s right…. shame.  Newly sworn-in American citizens like Crosby paid the price for this right that came free by birth to so many.  It is upstanding patriots like Rick__ Crosby who will determine who runs our country and how it is run.  If you did vote, THANK YOU!  Be proud!  Wear the red, white and blue sticker with pride.  The United States of America is the best country in the world!

(Is anyone else sensing a subliminal message here???)

Welcome, Honey!

A BIG congratulations goes out today to my Canadian husband who had his interview and test to become an American citizen!  Whooooo Hoooooo!  He passed and my country wants him.  The test is quite hard, especially if you went to public school here in the good ol’ USA.  The first day we got the test, Rick already knew more answers than I did.  Shameful, I know.  But keep in mind that he has been the most politically active non-American during the past 11 years of elections…. National and State levels.  He’s so excited to VOTE!  I wish more Americans were just as excited to have the voting privilege and responsibility.

Anyway, I got another convert for our country.  I brought one in.  I got me one.  I did good.

www.LindaCrosby.com