Blondecisions

Thanks for the welcome back notes!

I have a total of two fans. YAY!
Tonight I'm watching Grey's Anatomy. Who loves this show like they love flicking their bean?

Christmas vs. Holiday

I personally think everyone should knock it off altogether.

All the pushing back and forth makes this insanity .. and someone pinned the tail on the donkey when she said this year seems the worst.

I just wish it would stop. This isn't the Christmas spirit I knew as a child. We feed off of the negativity and the fight and for what? What good can come of fighting over religions and religious words? That kind of fighting has gone on since before Christ and hasn't stopped, so we're certainly not going to get anywhere with it.

If you celebrate Christmas then GREAT. If you don't, then GREAT. Say what you want (Holiday, Christmas, Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, etc...) when you want and how you want and start focusing on the important things that need to be SEEN.

This whole holiday vs. Christmas in the US is absolutely driving me batty. There's no tolerance, no peace, and no understanding from either side.

Money, time and emotions being spent on such a piddly argument. Christ is in the heart and doesn't have to be on my catalog or my McDonald's sign. We're not supposed to worship a false idol anyway, so we don't need all the commercial recognition. Neither does HOLIDAY for that matter.

Next we'll start fighting over "Season's Greetings" instead of finding peace and warmth and love and joy and family time and all the other reasons for the season.

I swear, we're so good at tearing each other apart over religions and semantics. If the US population spent HALF the time, money, energy and emotion on spreading the faith in ways OTHER than fighting for the word Christmas, we would have a lot more healthy, safe, warm and happy people and children this year. A Christmas song as school really doesn't matter in the end, does it? It neither helped nor hurt anyone. A sign on the McDonalds or a word in Land's End catalogue isn't going to do a BIT of good for a homeless or sick child... whether they're Jewish or Christian or nothing at all.

And none of it is spreading the faith we were raised with. The one that said we should be kind and loving and forgiving and SHOW our faith through our actions towards others. I would venture a guess that Christ wouldn't be interested in CHRISTmas for the word. He was too humble. He would be interested in what we DO as a people together to help others and get along and celebrate the faith. AND he wouldn't care WHAT faith, so long as we were good to each other. He would forgive. So WHY are people fighting it for him?

Sorry, I'll step off my podium now, but this REALLY drives me. All this fighting and energy spent on what?! Next year will be the same thing only worse because we'll have a year to gear up to hurt the next guy.

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Natural family holiday articles:
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Crooked Legs

I was busy wasting time online while waiting for people to show up for a yard sale when I started doing one of my favorite-wasting-time-activities. I get to do this maybe once every 6 months! I started going through the MSN photo galleries. I love reading the comments and seeing the ghastly outfits on the stars...the ones we SWEAR that WE would never be caught in (until we suddenly had millions of dollars and started attending movie premiers, that is).

But I noticed something odd. In over half the photos, the women all had a crooked leg. One leg, usually the left, was out in front and cocked inward. Now maybe one or two pull it off, but the rest look like Paris Hilton leg knock offs. Maybe as expensive or a little cheaper, but still not the same.

Sure as hell, I searched through hundreds of photos and tons showed crooked legs. You'll notice around Hollywood that the women who stand with feet close together have nothing to lose and could give a crap. The ladies with a crooked leg pointing OUT are seemingly genuinely happy or have ok self esteems (at least for the night). But the crooked legs with toes pointed in were only on young actresses (up and coming) or on actresses repeatedly blasted for attention getting outfits (ie: bad self esteem). See a couple here.

So listen up crooked leggy women, it's time to straighten that ankle, point that toe, and get yourself the the chiropractor before you go completely pidgeon toed and ruin your posture for good. Then where will you be, huh? No movies, no red carpets, crooked leg propped up on a stool, eating store brand icecream in front of OTHER stars on reality TV shows.

Mark my word!

Thoughts on Volunteerism after Disaster

I hear everyone wanting to jump into cars and go to disaster sites to volunteer whenever something happens. But I wanted to say a few things.

I used to work with the Emergency Management for a county in New York state that's the size of Rhode Island. We used to meet with the Red Cross and other agencies and come up with scenerios and plans when things like this happen.

One of the common themes was that people would just SHOW UP and they had to figure out how to process these people and put them to work or send them home.

They would show up with not enough money, no food, no place to stay and end up adding to the burden. Thousands of people are now stranded at or near the site with no help.

Plus, an agency can't legally put you to work unless you've been properly background checked and trained. Many criminals show up looking for free room and board.

So we would devise ways to triage our volunteers and then you're not covered under any agency in particular. That's not a good thing.

Also, they would receive truckloads of STUFF. Clothes, shoes.. things that no one could actually put to use or that became a bigger burden. Think about a Mac truck with 500-1,000 pairs of donated shoes. They came across the country and got tossed around in the truck. Now there are 1,000 to 2,000 SINGLE shoes to match and make a pair out of.

This takes volunteers to sort, and in that particular case, hundreds to thousands of shoes were hauled to the landfill. THAT in itself takes money and time away from recovery as you're hauling to other landfills around the state or nation since your own can't handle the load or may not be accessable. 

So like someone said - MONEY.
I would stick with the Red Cross personally as I know they do good. I have my gripes about how much really goes to help when you donate to the Salation Army.

Remember that this Holiday season too. Donate to the Red Cross this winter -- they keep a line of volunteers on call to go out in the middle of a below zero night when a family of 5 has lost everything in a house fire. House fires pick up in the Winter, so they've made sure no one will be alone.

Gina

Hpspitals purposely overcharging

I remember some funky charges on my bill when I had a c-section 10 years ago. Like the baby diapers were $30 a bag instead of $12, etc.. It now makes me wonder if I overpaid.

It was so many bills for so many doctors and the hospital. I finally gave up and paid (we didn't have insurance). It's a good thing they can't reposess circumcisions :) I think he was three by the time I finally paid the $135 for the procedure.

But this article blew my mind. I'll definitely be looking more closely at my husband's surgery bills!

Celebrity Interviews

I was contacted by a big time PR person for an Animal Planet celebrity and the daughter of another celeb. Essentially they want us to do an interview pertaining to the celeb’s organic cooking and wine cellar and the other’s special organization for kids.

I just about fell over! We work so hard on Natural Family Online (for free!) and these things are just too cool!! I hope our visitors will enjoy reading about celebrities they know and watch who enjoy the same organic or more natural lifestyle we do.

I might own and publish the site, but I still have to beg the Editor in Chief to let me do the interviews. I want them! LOL!

Britney (sleezy) Spears

Britney Spears is loving life as a pregnant woman — the cravings, watching sonograms and especially the sex. “I think it’s better than it was before,” Spears tells People magazine in the issue on newsstands Friday. “I think it’s best. Sex is crazy good.”
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It's like she's trying to make jabs at someone... her ex? HIS ex? Who?

What gets me is how she began her relationship with this doofy looking guy who was in a relationship with another starlet - one who already had his child AND was pregnant with another! Then she proposed and he said no (in a roundabout way) because he didn't believe in getting married - until she pouted (and who knows what else) for a few minutes until he asked her. Match made in heaven.

Muh lord. THIS is the idol of America today. I would have to guess she's going to come down HARD in the eyes of most everyone.

Screaming for Pleasure or Abuse

http://www.wnbc.com/news/4193902/detail.html

If she's been married and abused for 20 years, no doubt she's excusing the screams as being love-making to get her husband out of trouble. I doubt a 16 year old couldn't decipher the difference between the two - even at 3am.

And what does it say for their family if these two kids really did think she was being hurt? They have had calls on domestic violence before - so where is the help? Let's hope these boys don't grow to do the same to their wives.

How to Get Fired off the Clock

Speed in the company vehicle, steal office supplies, fall asleep on the job, yell at your boss, or make monkey love in the closet; but don't you DARE get caught off the clock drinking a Bud Light!  -- Gina

http://www.wnbc.com/news/4191531/detail.html

RACINE, Wis. -- The battle of the beers took a new twist in Racine this week when a Miller beer distributor fired an employee whose picture was in the paper. He was drinking a Bud Light.

Racine Journal Times

"When I came in, they said, 'You're in trouble for drinking Bud Light,'" Aguero said.

Then, his boss gave him the ax.

"I asked him to tell me the reason why I'm fired, and he was like, 'There's no reason. We just don't need you no more,'" Aguero said.

"I was actually thinking I was going to go apply at Anheuser-Busch," Aguero said.

Two years ago, a truck driver for Coca-Cola lost his job after he was spotted chugging a Pepsi.