OUTRAGED

This post is going to be controversial and unpleasant.  So, if you can't stomach it... click out now.  That means you... Jill.

I just read this article in the Texan.  Loophole Lets Virginia Woman Kill Baby, Go Free.

Apparently, a woman gave birth to her full term baby at home and wrapped it in bedding and suffocated it.  The woman's mother called 911.  When paramedics arrived the baby was still wrapped in bedding with the umbilical cord and placenta still attached.  According to Virginia Law this baby did not have a 'separate existence' from it's mother.  Thereby giving her the right to kill it by any means she chose.  "In the state of Virginia as long as the umbilical cord is attached and the placenta is still in the mother, if the baby comes out alive the mother can do whatever she wants to with that baby to kill it," Emerson told WSLS. "She could shoot the baby, stab the baby. As long as it's still attached to her in some form by umbilical cord or something, it's no crime in the state of Virginia."  ~ Campbell County Investigator, Tracy Emerson

Apparently, this is the second such case in the good state of Virginia.  The first mother actually shot her  stomach while she was heavy with child on her due date, there by killing her unborn baby.

Do we still not see that our abortion laws are out of control?  And what is wrong with the people in Virginia?  I have no idea if other states have similar laws, but God help the United States, because we are in trouble.  I can't help but wonder.... what happened to this state?  I mean was not Virginia the birthplace of our nation?  George Washington and Thomas Jefferson were both from Virginia.  I am pretty sure this is not what they had in mind for the future of their beloved state.

I know that normally this blog is about fluff and stuff, and I am not really a political person, but some things cannot be ignored. 

Created in His Image,





Learn more about what you can do to help change Abortion Laws - National Right to Life

"God is so big   He can cover the whole world with His love, and so small He can curl up inside your heart." 
~ June Masters Bacher

Rescue Orphans

I have a co-worker who along with his wife have been in the process of adopting two siblings from Haiti for almost 3 years now. He affectionately refers to them as the Haitian Sensation. Their children are in the last stages of adoption with hopes of being here by February. Of course that was before the earthquake. Their adoption home was near Port Au Prince. We can all imagine the great anxiety they are feeling right now. They have been told in the last day or so that their children will receive their VISAs on Sunday, and that they should be prepared to be in Florida to pick them up! Praise God! David told me that there are about 300 children that should qualify for the 'early release' even though their paper work is not ready.

Recently, I read this on David's blog. It is an excerpt from an essay called The Mega Issue written by the President of World Orphans, Paul Myhill. Paul writes:

Do you desire to assist the poor and crush poverty? – Rescue orphans.
Do you wish to combat HIV/AIDS and other heinous diseases? – Rescue orphans.
Do you hope to prevent pedophiles from abusing young children? – Rescue orphans.
Do you want to stamp out prostitution? – Rescue orphans.
Do you yearn for the end of drug dealing and addiction? – Rescue orphans.
Do you crave to uphold the worth and significance of women? – Rescue orphans.
Do you long to stop violent extremism and the placement of children into radical schools? – Rescue orphans.
Do you dream to crush illiteracy? – Rescue orphans.
Do you aspire to eliminate child labor? – Rescue orphans.
Do you seek to eradicate the recruitment of child soldiers and atrocities they are forced to commit? – Rescue orphans.

Wow! That cuts to the chase, doesn't it? Who doesn't want to rescue an orphan after reading that?  And this month in the Southern Baptist Texan newspaper there are several articles regarding adoption and the New Testament Church."Adoption is not just about couples who want children—or who want more children," according to author Russell Moore. "Adoption is about an entire culture within our churches, a culture that sees adoption as part of our Great Commission mandate and as a sign of the gospel itself."

I also have a friend whose organization helps children in India.  This excerpt is from their website regarding the plight of children in India: "Out of the 1.2 billion people in India, approximately 200 million are children. Nearly 100 million of these children have little or no access to school. Most of these children are born into large families with illiterate, alcoholic and abusive parents. The children are left to fend for themselves. They end up working in small tea shops, hotels, sweat shops or beg on the streets." AIM

Perhaps we are not all called to adopt an orphan. But, there are other ways to be a part of their rescue. Pray, Give, Go.

Heartsick... but not without Hope,

To learn more about sponsoring a child in India click here.

Admiring God, even though it stinketh much

Once again here at work, we have been paid a visit by a skunk.  For some reason he likes to get under our building and spray.  It is not pleasant, and the smell lingers for days.  It makes it a little hard to concentrate on my work, especially when it seems to cling to my clothing. It is potent stuff.  I wonder why skunk spray lasts seemingly forever, but my perfume wears off in 4 hours. 

So it makes me wonder.... why did God make skunks?  I think perhaps for the same reason He created lightening bugs and platypus.  He has a sense of humor.  God is good .... and sometimes He is pretty darn funny too.

... You hold his nose!





Cartoon:  Little Critters

My friends, the Missionaries

I am very proud to say that I have some friends that are missionaries.  It's not anything that I did, it's what they did.  And since they are nice Christian folks, they let me be their friend.

One family, the Holmans, have 11 children and are now living in Bolivia. They are an incredible family.  They are serving the Lord with great joy and excitement. They are so adorable, and they make living in a 3rd world country look like Disney World.You can read more about the Holmans in Bolivia on Denise's blog.

And then there are a couple of other families one in Switzerland and another in an unknown country.  Unknown because it is not safe for them.  I have known both of these girls most of their lives.  Jeff and I taught their Sunday School class when they were in high school.  Now they are all grown up and serving as Missionaries in far away places. 

What prompted me to write this post?  The sweet family that is serving in a foreign land that I do not even know the name of and I cannot even list their names here because it is unsafe, well, they are missing home and Mexican food.  Yep, fajita seasoning, goldfish crackers, and hot cocoa.  I am packing and sending a care package. 

And as I get this little box of goodies together to send to a 3rd party who will send it on it's way.  I am so incredibly touched by my friends sacrifices.  How they have given up their homes, their friends and families, and their country to serve our God.  Words cannot express my gratitude and heartfelt admiration for them.  I am also thinking about Haiti and her people and the missionaries serving there. 

I pray that my dear friends will be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that his/her labor is not in vain.
1 Corinthians 15:58     (emphasis & personalization, mine)

Sometimes I do stupid, implusive things.

Ok, ok, my family would probably say that a lot of times I do stupid, impulsive things.

Recent idiotic behavior:  Impulsive shopping.  I don't do this one often, but when I do... it's a doosie.  We have this pub style table and four chairs in our kitchen.

And often, 4 chairs are plenty, but sometimes we need another chair.  And just any old chair won't work because this table is tall.  Of course we could go to the dining room and seat 8, but here lately... the dining room is temporarily serving as a 'holding tank' for Justine's apartment furniture.  Any how, so I had been thinking about purchasing a couple of bar stools to use at the pub table.  So I picked a couple out that I thought would be really cute and they stack, even better.  They are not wood, but they are metal and I like the style, they look like this.

Kind of industrial and retro at the same time.  Since the pub table has a metal ring around the bottom and my antique baker's cabinet that looks very much like this but with a metal tabletop (actually mine is prettier than the one in the pic.) And the backspash in our kitchen is a vintage style metal tile like this one.  I though metal might be a fun addition for the spare chairs.

Ok, so I made the purchase on Overstock.com and the stools arrived.  But, because of my excitement to order the stools I made a error.  I purchased the barstool height instead of counter height.  Darn!  So much for $2.95 shipping, now I have to pay $15 to send them back.  Justine scolded me pretty good.  I hate it when I do stuff like that when there are witnesses around.  Dagnabit!




Pub Table & Chairs:  Ashley's Furniture
Metal Stools:  Overstock.com
Baker's Cabinet:   Antique Shop in Glen Rose,TX
Tin Look Metal Tiles:  Lowe's

I'm so excited.......

I found these lovelies on Ebay and they are on their way to live with me!  Have you ever bought anything on Ebay?  I know some people are a little afraid of it, but don't be.  It is so much fun!  And for all you collectors out there you could hunt forever in shops and not find the things you see on Ebay.  I'm not giving up my antique mall/ yard sale affliction anytime soon, but Ebay is loads of fun.  Happy shopping!

Making a few changes

I have decided that my blog needs to look a little more like me and a little less like I got it off a free site, so I am going to make a few changes. I work on a website for my job almost every day and I have fallen into a rut when it comes to my own blog. I have just been.... lazy. So, I am going to try out a few new things. Some will work, and others I have already found out do not. So here goes. A new siggy for starters, and hopefully a new layout/template by the end of the week. If you want to try your hand at something new for your space check this out.

Jeff's Addiction

I think I have mentioned it before, Jeff's errrr 'problem'. He's got an addiction... it's collecting stuff. It began a long time ago, I really don't even remember the first time. But, it started slow, almost unnoticeable. But, now... he has made me into an enabler. He lured me in with this.

These were definitely not the first signs he purchased, these were the signs he began to purchase for 'me'. Once he made them a gift for me, he knew he could continue on with his behavior.

A fairly large(19 X 27) vintage metal, blue-green Red Rose Tea Sign. Then he bought another one, this orange Red Rose Coffee sign.














Then came the little samples, these are small collectible versions of the coffee/tea ads, they are marked with the year on one side and the ad style on the other.















As you can see these are not tiny signs, and after many years of hanging them in the garage and being reminded by our children how much money was lying about in the garage I gave in and let them come into the house. Gone were my beautiful bird and topiary wall art and floral drapes and furniture. Now vintage signs are everywhere. I will post some more pics later along with more of Jeff's collection (50+). I have finally convinced him that until we get a larger place he is going to have to be satisfied with collecting license plates, and for now... he has agreed.

I often try to find blogs about vintage metal & porcelain signs, but haven't had much luck. If you know of one, leave a comment with the blog so I can check it out. We have really enjoyed the signs, although sometimes I feel like I live at Chili's or TGIF. It sort of suits us though, bold, bright colors and very graphic and nostalgic. So for now... we're keeping them up.

Granddaddy killed the King of England

Actually Great Grandaddy X 13. I suspect that not very many folks can say that. But, tis true. I was working on a ancestry gift for my little brother for Christmas and I decided to frame this picture of my dad and then list his heritage on the Thomas side as far as I could go. And since Jim is the only Thomas male in our branch of the family I figured he would really get a kick out of it, and he did!

The finished product looked a little like this, but in a beautiful frame with mat, sorry I didn't take a picture of it.

Frank Lawrence Thomas, Jr
B 5 Oct 1925 Coleman County, TX - D 19 May 1992 Dallas, TX

Frank Lawrence Thomas, Sr.
B 31 July 1886 Texas -D 29 Nov 1967 Bangs, Brown, TX

Joseph Smith Thomas

B 21 Jan 1862 TX -D 24 Dec 1953 Coleman, TX

Asbury S “Seth” Thomas

B 26 Aug 1833 TN -D 5 Feb 1904 Denton, TX

William Thomas
B 1810 Polk, TN - D 1850 LA

William Thomas

B 17 Jan 1790 Galax, Grayson, VA -D 17 May 1866 Edgewater, Grayson, VA

Jonathan Thomas

B 29 Nov 1762 Orange, NC -D 13 Dec 1838 Bridle Creek, Grayson, VA

Owen Thomas
B 1731 Grayson, VA -D 1769 Orange, NC

John KL Thomas

B 22 Sept 1710 Pender, Edgecombe, NC -D 1751 Edgecombe, NC

William Thomas

B 1660 Isle of Wight, VA -D 1710 Isle of Wight, VA

Philip Thomas

John Thomas

B 1628 Queens Creek York, VA- D 1655 James City, Nansemond, VA

John Thomas

B 1585 Carmarthenshire, Wales -D 1653 Queens Creek, York, VA

Jeven Thomas

1555

Rhys Ap Thomas
B 1449 Cantref Mawr, Carmarthenshire, Wales -D 1526 Carmarthenshire, Wales

Thomas Ap Gruffudd

B 1425 Cantref Mawr, Carmarthenshire, Wales -D 1474 Bardsey Island, Carmarthenshire, Wales

Gruffudd Ap Nicolas

B 1393, Maenordeilo, Carmarthenshire, Wales -D 2 Jan 1461, Hereford, Herefordshire, England

Nicolas Ap Philip

1367, Maenordeilo, Carmarthenshire, Wales

Philip Ap Elidir FitzUryan

1320, Dyenevor, Glam, Wales

Elidir Ddu Ap Elidir

1246-1283, Llandeilo Fawr, Carmarthenshire, Wales

Rhys Ap Gronwy

1190, Carmarthenshire, Wales

Gronwy Ap Einion

1160, Carmarthenshire, Wales

Einion Ap Llywarch

1130, Carmarthenshire, Wales

Llywarch Ap Cynhaethwy

1190, Wales

Cynhaethwy Ap Gwrwared

1070, Wales

Gwrwared Ap Seisyll

1050, Wales

Seisyll Ap Rhun

Wales

As you can see, I wasn't always a Thomas. Ap means 'son of' or something like that, and way back then fellas took their dad's first name as their last and so forth until about 1500 or so and then we became Thomas. See the fellow marked in red. Yep, that's him. He killed King Richard and even served Henry VII and VIII. You can read more about it here . It's very interesting reading and I guess... well somebody's gotta be related to him, right? I didn't know any of this stuff until I had given Jim his gift, he was so excited that he started researching the older names on the list. And bam, that's when he found it. We had our own castle and everything. We also learned that some of those other guys were part of 'The Crusade'. Apparently one Great-Granddad is also the Great-Granddad of HRH Charles. Hmm. Somehow I think I might have gotten the rotten side of the tree. Next thing you know, I will find out that I am descendant from . . . the 'Doubting Thomas'.

Oh Daddy, how I wish you were here to discover all this history with us. Missing you still....
julie lynn

ps - Thanks Cuzn' Jimmy for all your hard work on this ancestry junk, you are so much better at it than I am. ;)