A Year in the Life

So, I was watching the news this morning.  Of course they started talking about national politics and what members in both parties were doing, and I'm just done.  The fighting and negativity is uncalled for.  These people are supposed to be some of the smartest in our country, but in some ways the are just doltish.  Here are some things I've learned during my five years subbing & now working in my school. 1.  I don't agree with everyone's views on things, and that is ok.  What our country has lost is the ability to agree to disagree.  I may stand on the completely opposite end of the spectrum on an issue, but I'm not going to hate you for it.  That's stupid.  We can agree that we stand on different sides of the isle, and maybe we can find somewhere we agree. 2.  "You're never fully dressed without a smile." ~Annie  I love the university I graduated from.  I love it for so many different reasons, but one of the main o...

Dear Facebook, I wanted to let you know how much I really hate you right now.  You have turned my country, state, and city upside down.  You have made enemies out of friends and ripped us in half, and left us bleeding out.  You have lawmakers removing historical monuments because someone screamed 'those are racist'.  The 'R' word scares the holy h.e.double hockey sticks out of people, and sometimes makes them think that by just removing a symbol we can take away the pain of the past.  Wrong.  A symbol is just a symbol & an individual is the only one that can give it any power.  Hate lives within a person not a thing. To the leaders of our country, state & city:  FYI, this is a southern state.  FYI, we were part of the confederacy.  Does that mean we still believe in slavery?  No.  Does it mean that we believe in the segregation and exclusion that some people assign to this state?  No.  Does it mean we can l...

This video about Obamacare and the lies that have been told since it's conception is one of the best explanations I have ever seen.  Click HERE to see it.  The only thing they left out was Nancy Pelosi saying that Congress needed to pass the bill to find out what was in it.  What?!  What kind of crack smoking logic is that garbage?  That should have made her constituents do a double-take, but I guess the really could care less in Cali. There's a great speech by Ronald Reagan at the end.  DON'T. MISS.IT!  It's prophetically scary.  I'm about to email my members of Congress to encourage them to stand firm & keep trying to REPEAL REPEAL REPEAL!  I don't want to be telling my grandchildren about the America that was! Standing firm! ~ashley

free·dom ˈfrēdəm noun 1 . the power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants without hindrance or restraint. AMENDMENT I to the US Constitution Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances. I love being an American.  I appreciate the opportunities we have in this country.  I appreciate the work our founding fathers put into starting our country and forming our laws.  They were intentional when considering what laws would be included, and what order they would be in our governing documents.  I respect that.  I love that they relied on their Judeo-Christian beliefs to guide them.  Even those who were not Christians, but deists, agnostics, and atheists, recognized the importance of Christian values in our politi...

As social critic George Carlin once said, "we have bigger houses and smaller families; more conveniences, but less time; we have more degrees, but less sense; more knowledge, but less judgment; more experts, yet more problems," in other words, we're missing something; we're moving ahead, but all while falling backwards. Since the 1999 mass shootings at Columbine there have been 50 fatal school shootings in the US.  As each subsequent shooting happens, schools tighten their control more and more in an effort to “keep our children safe”.  Our schools have become a place of fences and totalitarian rule.  Those in control want more control and those who are under the control are miserable.  The children & parents never know how the rules change from one minute to the next.  How can children be expected to learn in this kind of environment?    I would tell you that from my standpoint, we are failing our children.   I think part of the probl...

No, not the kind you eat.  Yuck!  Although, my MeMaw used to gig, cook & eat frog legs.  That's like eating Kermit, and I just can't do that.  Well, maybe now I could.  Kermie I think has become a socialist.  How about you just love the pig and do your little show?  But, I digress. I love Intellectual Froglegs .  I know I've talked about him before, but hey guess what?  I'm going to talk about him again.  Joe Dan Gorman is hilarious & hits the nail right on the head. His allegiance is to God, truth and freedom.  Yes JDG, I'm right there with you!  And, I'll have a double of what ever you're having!  It's good stuff. Go check him out, he loves Jesus, he loves America, he's southern & he's awesome.  FTL, in his latest video he uses a song Eddie Murphy sings in Coming to America!  It's great & makes me want to watch the movie!  Click HERE for his latest video. ...

Alright, at the house the fam has started noticing me really getting into politics.  Sometimes I become that really frustrated angry mom on the right.  At what point will we declare that we just can't take it anymore?  I hate mainstream media.  They make me want to plug my ears with cotton balls and hide in my closet.  Unfortunately, change will not happen that way, so I'm going to arm myself with a smile and my computer.  I'm using a lot of different multimedia sources to find things out.  I love:  Breitbart, Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Chicks on the Right, CWA, and my newest find:  Intellectual FrogLegs .  OMG, Joe Dan Gorman is hilarious!  He is a good 'ole boy who uses humor and truth to point out the flaws in liberalism.  He had me ROLLING!  If  you need a dose of truth, you have to check him out.    It drives Hop crazy because I'll really only read conservati...

Hop left yesterday morning to go interview for an internship on capitol hill.  We may never get him back home for several reasons.  :/    He loves DC and I think wants to work up there & also he's still not physically home from the trip yet.  There is a problem with the brakes on his plane.  He's been stuck in Atlanta for four hours.  I'm waiting patiently for him to get here.  It's going to be hard letting him go. I know that he may never come home if he goes up to DC.  When I talked to him earlier, he said he was having a wonderful time.  Hopson's brother Will & wife Penny took Hop under their wings while he was up there.  Penny's staffers treated Hop like that loveable kid brother.  He felt taken care of.  They showed him around the capitol in-between his interviews.  He can't wait to go back for the We The People finals in April & then for the summer for...

I read a very disturbing article the other day.  It's one of those things that I thought I would only read in a dystopian novel.  (which I love to read by the way.  The Giver by Lois Lowry was my first dn ever.  I cried throughout the entire book.)  The concept in the article is so far out of the realm of possibility, so I thought, that I knew there would be NO WAY it would ever come to be. Well you know what?  It has.  When did we become so Godless and morally void?  When did we decide that life is just something to be thrown away?  When did we start to focus on the can't do instead of the can?  When did industrialized countries become like the communist?  I am morally angry.  And the word angry is the word I meant to use.  This is Hop when he was a baby. There are doctors in the UK that are putting sick and disabled newborns on a 'death path'....

 RUDE.     Warning, I'm climbing on my soapbox this morning, so if you don't want to read it, just step away from the computer...now.  You've been warned.   I watched the vice presidential debate last night.  The one thing that kept running through my head last night was the Mad TV skit with Bon Qui Qui .  If you've never seen it, OMG you are missing out on a great laugh, but I digress.   A friend posted this on Face Book last night, and I think it fits perfectly with what happened last night:   " If a wise man has an argument with a fool, the fool only rages and laughs, and there is no quiet."  Prov. 29:9    God always has great truths!   I was very impressed with Paul Ryan.  He was very collected during the debate.  I would have respectfully looked at the VP & asked him to, very nicely, in the most life giving way possible, shut his pie hole.  I don't need yo...

I have turned into a total geek.  I am actually very excited about tonight's presidential debate.  I need something soft to throw at the TV when they say things I don't like.  I have never cared about a presidential debate like this one.  Usually I'm just ready to cast my vote & be done with it, but not this time. I know Hop wants to watch.  He kinda needs too since he will vote in 5 weeks and he's taking AP Government & AP Econ.  Elizabeth will watch too because 1. she has a good bit of homework to do and 2.  she's taking civics.  This is Civics 101 at it's best.  Way cool.  Harry won't watch because he can't vote so he'll go to FCA.  Henry will probably be in bed.  After 8 is too late.  :) OK, gotta go.  Have to feed the peeps. Celebrating Life! ~ashley

This week my in-laws watched Hopson's & my niece and nephew, Claire & Briscoe, while Hopson's brother and his wife went to the Republican National Convention.  Claire & Briscoe are from Virginia.  Now, I know a lot of people think Virginia is a southern state, because they sided with the south in the war of northern aggression, (hehe ;) aka The Civil War)  but when you listen to their accents, they don't sound southern.  Maybe they sound so northern because we live in the deep south, but I don't think anyone would mistake one of my kiddos as being from Virginia, and I know no one would mistake C or B as being from Alabama.  I think they had a little bit of a culture shock.  Something very important happens tonight:  high school football begins.  And you know what's almost better?  My favorite college team plays tomorrow:  War Eagle to all in the Auburn Family! Football is not big in the school Claire atten...

2 Hopsons vote today. Thanks Mrs. Cindy! I had a great experience with Hoppy today.  Considering that I haven't seen him in two days it was nice to spend 30 quality minutes with my very busy oldest child.  You know, as a mom, I love precious moments I have with any of my children.  It seems so many of those moments center around being in the car.  That's ok because I'll take the good ones any way I can get them!  I usually have the best conversations in the car anyway because they can't get away from me.  :)  Signing his name to the line Turning 18 is a pretty big deal.  It's that age that is such a real step towards adulthood:  a young man has to register with selective services; they are, in the eyes of the law adults; and they can register to vote.  Hop took care of everything by himself.  I tried to be minimally involved, because at some point he will not have ...

Happy 4th of July!!! I've been reading the Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and Bill of Rights a lot lately.   The documents are beautifully written.  If you've never read them as an adult, I highly recommend it.  There are phrases in the there that just hit you in the heart.  They give you a hint as why the founding fathers wanted something not only different, but something better. Something better.  Something free.  Something that put it's people before anything else because it's the people that make this country great.  I love it that our country wants to invest in people.  It makes us special and unique.  One of the things that I read in the Declaration of Independence says:  "But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to pro...

You know why I need it?  Because we're headed somewhere in it, and it's a place that feels hotter than they are predicting it's going to be in Alabama on Saturday.  (106, just in case you're wondering.)  I know my blog is normally happy happy touchy feely, but I'm not happy happy today.  I'm stinkin' mad.  About two different issues no less.  You may think that this blog is not a place for me to express my views on politics, but hey guess what; you are free to leave at any point, so...here I go. Issue number 1: The ObamaCare tax.  Yes, it's a tax.  I know it was promised not to be a health care tax, but that's what it is.  A lot of people, a lot smarter than I am, knew it was a tax.  They've been telling us it was a tax.  You know what the left said?  No, it's not a tax.  It's a way for everyone to have healthcare.  It's a way for everyone to be fair.  Well guess what?  Life's not f...