Pretty in Pink...Boxers?

I just got this email & wanted to share it with you but FIRST as all good email passer-on-ers should do, I checked its validity at www.truthorfiction.com & TADA! It is true.

Here is the sheriff dept. website http://www.mcso.org/

I'd read the e before (the short version about tent city) and thought he was a cool small town sheriff. Nope. His county includes Pheonix.
Wouldn't crime rates drop if more Sheriffs implemented some of his more radical ideas?

You all remember Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Arizona , who painted the jail cells pink and made the inmates wear pink prison garb. Well........

SHERIFF JOE IS AT IT AGAIN!

Oh, there's MUCH more to know about Sheriff Joe!
Maricopa County was spending approx. $18 million dollars a year on stray animals, like cats and dogs. Sheriff Joe offered to take the department over, and the County Supervisors said okay.
The animal shelters are now all staffed and operated by prisoners. They feed and care for the strays. Every animal in his care is taken out and walked twice daily. He now has prisoners who are experts in animal nutrition and behavior. They give great classes for anyone who'd like to adopt an animal. He has literally taken stray dogs off the street, given them to the care of prisoners, and had them place in dog shows.
The best part? His budget for the entire department is now under $3 million. Teresa and I adopted a Weimaraner from a Maricopa County shelter two years ago. He was neutered, and current on all shots, in great health, and even had a microchip inserted the day we got him. Cost us $78. The prisoners get the benefit of about $0.28 an hour for working, but most would work for free, just to be out of their cells for the day. Most of his budget is for utilities, building maintenance, etc. He pays the prisoners out of the fees collected for adopted animals.

I have long wondered when the rest of the country would take a look at the way he runs the jail system, and copy some of his ideas. He has a huge farm, donated to the county years ago, where inmates can work, and they grow most of their own fresh vegetables and food, doing all the work and harvesting by hand. He has a pretty good sized hog farm, which provides meat, and fertilizer. It fertilizes the Christmas tree nursery, where prisoners work, and you can buy a living Christmas tree for $6 - $8 for the Holidays, and plant it later. We have six trees in our yard from the Prison.

Yup, he was reelected last year with 83% of the vote. Now he's in trouble with the ACLU again. He painted all his buses and vehicles with a mural, that has a special hotline phone number painted on it, where you can call and report suspected illegal aliens. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement wasn't doing enough in his eyes, so he had 40 deputies trained specifically for enforcing immigration laws, started up his hotline, and bought 4 new buses just for hauling folks back to the border. He's kind of a 'Git-R Dun' kind of Sheriff.

TO THOSE OF YOU NOT FAMILIAR WITH JOE ARPAIO

HE IS THE MARICOPA ARIZONA COUNTY SHERIFF AND HE KEEPS GETTING ELECTED OVER AND OVER THIS IS ONE OF THE REASONS WHY:

Sheriff Joe Arpaio (In Arizona ) who created the ' Tent City Jail': He has jail meals down to 40 cents a serving and charges the inmates for them.

He stopped smoking and porno magazines in the jails. Took away their weights Cut off all but 'G' movies.

He started chain gangs (volunteer) so the inmates could do free work on county and city projects. Then He Started Chain Gangs For Women So He Wouldn't Get Sued For Discrimination.

He took away cable TV Until he found out there was A Federal Court Order that Required Cable TV For Jails So He Hooked Up The Cable TV Again Only Let In The Disney Channel And The Weather Channel. When asked why the weather channel He Replied, So They Will Know How Hot It's Gonna Be While They Are Working ON My Chain Gangs.

He Cut Off Coffee Since It Has Zero Nutritional Value. When the inmates complained, he told them, 'This Isn't The Ritz/Carlton.....If You Don't Like It, Don't Come Back.'

With Temperatures Being Even Hotter Than Usual In Phoenix (116 Degrees Just Set A New Record), the Associated Press Reports: About 2,000 Inmates Living In A Barbed-Wire-Surrounded Tent Encampment At The Maricopa County Jail Have Been Given Permission To Strip Down To Their Government-Issued Pink Boxer Shorts. On Wednesday, hundreds of men wearing boxers were either curled up on their bunk beds or chatted in the tents, which reached 138 Degrees Inside The Week Before. Many Were Also Swathed In Wet, Pink Towels As Sweat Collected On Their Chests And Dripped Down To Their PINK SOCKS.

'It Feels Like We Are In A Furnace,' Said James Zanzot, An Inmate Who Has Lived In The TENTS for 1 year. 'It's Inhumane.'

Joe Arpaio, the tough-guy sheriff who created the tent city and long ago started making his prisoners wear pink, and eat bologna sandwiches, is not one bit sympathetic. He said Wednesday that he told all of the inmates: 'It's 120 Degrees In Iraq And Our Soldiers Are Living In Tents Too, And They Have To Wear Full Battle Gear, But They Didn't Commit Any Crimes, So Shut Your Mouths!'

Way To Go, Sheriff!

Maryn is Headlining Again

This was in yesterday's Lake Region Monitor. The paper version had a photo of Maryn awa the drawing of her parents that I showed you in "Color her Sparkly Blue". The article states that she went to KHHS but she was homeschooled; Grace Christian School is a 617 school which is basically a home education "umbrella".

I copy/pasted because I'm not sure how long this link will be good.
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=19730885&BRD=2150&PAG=461&dept_id=377017&rfi=8

Lake Region student

is Visual Artist of Year at FLOArts

By: Virginia Daugherty, Monitor Staff Writer
May 29, 2008

Local artist Maryn Chilson, 19, is currently attending the Florida School of the Arts. She graduates in June, with a Visual Artist of the Year award and will exhibit her work at the FLOArts Main Gallery. The show, entitled "Artists of a Different Color," ran during May.

Chilson attended Community Christian School, Grace Christian School, Keystone Heights High School and St. Johns Community College. She took private lessons with KHES instructor Gayle Bone and Connie Shannon, a well-known artist from Ocala. On her way to becoming an artist, Chilson has held jobs cashiering at Bryans Ace Hardware, and at Lake Swan Camp working housekeeping, helping in the kitchen and being a cashier.

She said she enjoys working in different media including oils, pastels, ink, charcoal, acrylics, and colored pencil. She has done abstracts, still life, portraits and figure studies.Locally, Chilson painted murals in youth rooms at Trinity Baptist Church, including sillouettes in the youth cafe. She also painted a street sign for Friendship Baptist Church.

Chilson said, "I enjoy painting, it helps get the emotions out."

The young artist said she has always been interested in art. She started drawing her favorite cartoons as a young child and then moved on to portraits. She credits her parent's participation as one of the things that kept her going. Her mother and father set up a studio in their home where she paints, has a desk, easel and her own cabinet space for art supplies.

Chilson received several scholarships and grants including bright futures scholarships, a Pell grant and a FLOArts talent scholarship. She said her immediate plans were to contact galleries this summer to get her artwork displayed. Chilson said she would like to do commissioned portraits using photographs.

Susan and Roger Chilson said they love the fact that she wants to be an artist, and are proud of her.

Chilson's dream is to one day have a gallery with a cousin who is also an artist, and teach art to children and adults.

We took Stan's folks to the gallery yesterday & I took a few more pictures. These two were right by the entrance; anyone entering could not miss them. Maryn said they are a couple of her favorites so they are NOT FOR SALE.

I thought these three were strange. She said they were an assignment. The girl with feathers is the one "SOLD".
What a talented young lady. Did I mention that she also plays piano?

We were glad to see her work on display and impressed with the range of her talent. Visiting the gallery was still a bit of a challenge though, as Maryn's classmates did not all chose such well clad figures for their subject matter. Caleb was with us and got to examine the carpet a good bit. Don't catch my drift? Then let me quote Chonda Pierce. "They were nekked, nekked, NEKKED!"

Ah, yes. Now I remember why we don't frequent art museums!

Book Swap

Why do we call it a book "swap" when we usually "sell" or "give" to each other rather than "trade"? I thought our 3rd annual Keystone Heights Home School Book Swap & Informational Meeting on May 16 (Yes, it was happy, thank you. It was the 5th anniversary of my 39th.) went very well.
We had approximately 25 people selling stuff (& perhaps buying also - I know I did both) and I'm uncertain how many came just to shop. Some came just to drop materials off at the FREE TABLE. I don't know how popular that was for the shoppers but the sellers seemed to like it a lot!
Gary Weaver came to help those wanting home school information. He said only one person came for that reason but that it was worth having for just the one (sounds like something my pastor might say). I had the HSLDA DVD containing basic home education info (will be available soon in the library) set-up for viewing. Gary's job was to add that Florida flavor aka "explain what you have to do to abide by the law if homeschooling in this state."

Mardy Freeman had a table in the corner. I really expected her to be swamped nearly all the time but she seemed to manage the ebb & flow with no problem.
My friend, Alice, was the most fun. She brought a bunch of things and took a picture of it all. She took pictures all during the "shopping hours" (you must say that in a store announcers voice or it just won't sound right). Just before noon she came over to a couple of us saying that she only had two items left & was going to put them on her table to get a picture of the last remaining items. She just had to get rid of those too! She was almost giddy. One she donated to the library. I believe it was the Ultimate Guide to Homeschooling (available for check-out soon). I'm not sure about the other but her thrill at the prospect of going home with NOTHING that she brought with her without donating the last of the items to the FREE TABLE was PRICELESS.
Rachel & Kali helped out by keeping the movies running for the kids to watch. I thought it worked out quite well having that as an activity for the youngin's who were tired of sittin' & not interested in anymore shopping. I tried to put the moms who I expected to have several children with them in close proximity. I know homeschoolers NEVER use the TV as a babysitter...

I accomplished several objectives:

1. Left with fewer materials than I arrived with.
2. Actually made some money.
3. Saw some friends (but didn't get to visit nearly enough.)
4. Provided an opportunity for those interested in homeschooling to get information.
5. Left the fellowship hall looking as good (or better) than it was when we arrived. Thank you soooooo much Peggy, Angie, Draven, Eades & some other people who I just met that day.

Things to do differently next time:

1. Find a better way to advertise to those interested in home education.
2. Advertise in the paper & church bulletin several weeks in a row before the mtg instead of just once 3 weeks before - I thought they'd carry it through!
3. Do it with a committee!
4. Have a better set-up for people to sign-up for things; better count.
5. Not have Rachel's slumber party on the same day!

Things that worked out well:

1. Great set-up thanks to the baccalaureate occurring that next Sunday.
2. It seemed to work well having it on a Friday.
3. It worked well sending info through our area FPEA district directors.
4. Donation jar for the church held over $40 to help pay for the blessing of A/C.
5. Parking & folks finding us seemed to work well.

What do you think? If you attended & want to comment on the book swap, I'd love to hear what you have to say.

Blessings!

Running the Race

I've gotten to a rest area in this portion of my race.

I'm glad because this month has felt like

a sprint with hurtles.

Definition:

sprint - focused, energetic moving toward a short-term goal

hurtle - preparing to leap, jumping out of that comfort zone and landing successfully

It started off with a break (not a leg- PTL!): One class final for Andrew on May 1 then no more college taxi driving for mom (sing: Woohoo! More hours in my day! Woohoo! Enjoy 'cause it won't stay that way!) until it's Caleb's turn because Andrew is shopping for a car.

BTW, Jacob & Andrew

made the Dean's List.

WooHoo! Yea, Kiddos!

Hurtle # 1 was Library Workday: mission accomplished!

Hurtle #2 was the death of a neighbor: ongoing mission. Consider this a marathon with occasional hurtles that began as a sprint with multiple hurtles close together. God is good and faithful and has already BLESSED as only He can through the hard parts.

Hurtle #3 was the Book Swap: mission accomplished with ideas for next time!

Hurtle #4 was Rachel's birthday slumber party. This was a FUN JUMP. :-)

Hurtle #5 was representing the library at the MOPS spa day. Also fun. Consider this one a very short hurtle with soft hands. And feet.

Hurtle #6 was the FPEA Convention. AKA a smorgasbord of everything you ever wanted to know about homeschooling/parenting/marriage/curriculum and added goodies shared by over 200 experts in less than 48 hours. That'll bless ya!

Hurtle #7 was getting my house ready for COMPANY. I really need to take a picture...

Hurray! My in-laws are here!

Now I can rest awhile and enjoy them.

Don't worry. I've got some great pictures to share. I'll give you the whole scoop about the good stuff later. Make that a double-decker scoop. All this running has made me hungry.

Color Her Sparkly Blue

Maryn came by the house on her way home from class to pick up Jacob. He was SLEEPING (at a time like this?) but cleaned up nicely in a short amount of time. Then they were off to her house so her cousin could help her decide which dress to wear & how to fix her hair. I expect excitement filled the air.

Maryn
and the
Florida School of the Arts
presents
Artists of a Different Color

May 14 through May 29, 2008

Opening Reception May 14 in the Main Gallery

Maryn's work includes the picture over her right shoulder (which Jacob said was made with clay) as well as the rest of the wall.

These are a couple of her current favorites.

This is a nice rendition of her parents.
Here's her creations at the other end of the wall. Interesting topics!

She was happy to sell a painting to this guy (Jacob said he didn't get a photo of that one) soon after arriving at the reception.
Great job, Maryn!

Library Work Day

Last week it was announced by Pastor James that there would be a church work day today - pruning some trees, working in some flower beds, window washing - you get the idea - and that breakfast would be available ("please sign-up so we'll have enough food") if we wanted to arrive at 8 a.m. instead of 9 a.m.

I thought, "WooHoo! The library is a part of the church. What a great opportunity to get some things done and have the added blessing of BREAKFAST!"

Now, you have to understand that breakfast is my favorite meal of the day and I knew that Rocky was cooking. He usually cooks for the men's prayer breakfasts and being FEMALE I do not get to attend those BUT sometimes Stan has brought home leftovers: fluffy, flaky biscuits, sausage milk gravy, scrambled eggs, bacon, link sausage and grits. I could almost smell it. As my father-in-law says, "It'll make you pat your feet."

(If that expression makes no sense to you, picture in your mind scratching your favorite dog behind the ear and his foot patting the floor in enjoyment. Get it? Good!)

So, understanding that there was building & grounds work needing to be done and that there was already a list of that, I asked Pastor James, "Is it better to get permission or ask forgiveness later?"
He grinned and asked, "What do you want to do?"
When I told him, he was surprised at my request. "Of course!" he said, "you are always free to have work days or training when you want. Yes, you can work Saturday & participate in the breakfast"
He is such a blessing. :-)
I'm glad he sees the library as a part of the church ministry. Many people don't understand it.

I was thrilled when five other library volunteers showed up to work this morning. I had a list of things we could do but first I explained to them the ministry of library work.

The library is the only ministry in the church that supports all the other ministries. For example: Worship Service (books for additional study, music CDs), Sunday School (topical and Bible study books), Compassionate Friends (materials on grief), MOPS (parenting books), Discipleship classes (topical materials such as finance, creation science, worldview), homeschoolers (too much to mention!), AWANA (missionary biographies), even the Easter Pageant (research on costumes, Passion of the Christ DVD) and those going on missions trips (topical books). There are materials in the library for every person in the church from babies in the nursery to senior adults, reader or not.

The library is like arms that wrap around

all the other ministries of the church.

(Sounds like a hug to me!)

They said they'd never thought about it that way before. Then they blessed me by sharing ideas about how they could picture the library materials being utilized including craft books helping VBS workers. Yea! VISION!

They spent some time just looking around (while I went in search of a fan - gotta remember to ask for the A/C to be turned on next time!) seeing how to read the spine lables and they were surprised at what they found. One new volunteer said something like, "I always just looked around in the fiction section. I never even thought there might be any non-fiction books that I might like to read." YES!

We agreed that more people would use the library if they knew what a great collection we have. I saw lightbulbs lighting up in their eyes with ideas of how to promote the library. Ideas? Excitement? Anticipation? Yea again!

Then we got to work. A couple worked on sorting through some of the boxed, bagged and dusty materials in our storage closet (Bless you, Debbie & Alex!) while the rest trained for helping library patrons, checking materials in and out and learning library procedure.

I believe it was a successful work day. Not necessarily for the amount of work that was accomplished (although the training will definately prove valuable for the library in the future) as much as for library ministry team members catching the vision, the heart of the library ministry. We are here to serve the Lord by serving the church body. We have the same mission statement as the church. We desire to help our membership connect, grow, lead and serve.

Visit your church library. It might make you pat your feet.

Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed

Have you seen the movie yet?

Our youth pastor, the Worldview Class, my whole family (& Maryn) plus some other youth & the bus driver went on a fieldtrip to see it last Sunday. We had pizza at church in the youth cafe - did I tell you that Maryn painted the silhouettes in there?
Recognize Jacob?
Then we took the church bus to a theatre in Gainesville. We had a group of 30 (three cheers for group rates!). Since it was a Worldview Class fieldtrip and I am the church librarian, I brought WORLD Magazine issues http://www.worldmag.com/ from the last few months for the group to READ & consider life issues from a more biblical perspective than is found in TIME Magazine or the daily newspaper, TV news. You know what I mean.

I thought the movie was interesting. It was well made and kept my interest. Stan kept singing along with the music.

It had humor: Two evolution proponents attempting to explain how life began:
EP#1 "I just told you it was on the backs of crystals!"
He reminded Stan of this Monty Python skit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=teMlv3ripSM
EP#2 "Beings from another planet "seeded" this one." Space Aliens?
Anything to keep from admitting there is some intelligence in the design of the world. It would have been more laughable if they were not in earnest. They truly believe that they and everything that is is an accident rather than the creation of our loving God. How SAD.
And SCARY since they are in charge of EDUCATION.

My kids liked that comic & commentary segments from black & white movies were interspersed with the interviews. I liked the story line: Ben Stein investigates the claims of intolerance toward Intelligent Design Proponents. He asks questions and takes the accusations of each "side" to experts on each "side" as he searches for the answers. I found it interesting that Intelligent Design proponents merely want to point out and apply in science the theory that the world appears to have a design (which to me would logically infer a designer) rather than seeking to Name that Designer (sounds like a game show) which would make the group religious rather than scientific. This is not Creation Science. I still like the fact that they want to open dialogue apart from Darwin.

Only a short clip pointed to the link between Darwin's Theory of Evolution and the founding of Planned Parenthood. Ben spent much more time exploring Hitler's embracing the idea of forming a perfect race. He even visited some death camp sites as well as Darwin's home (now a museum). I found it gripping when Ben stared into the cold, white statue eyes of Darwin as if searching to see if Darwin had any idea how his ideas would be used as a justification to torture and kill so many Jews. As if Ben wanted an explanation or at least an apology.

I liked how Ben compared the ideological wall erected by evolution theory proponents (anything not agreeing with evolution is religion, not science, and cannot be explored, included in scientific data or publications, or used to explain anything) to the Berlin Wall, interspersing clips of Reagan's speech. I'm guessing producers thought that by leaving out the final charge, he was in fact drawing more attention to that challenge. But I wanted to hear it.
"Mr. Gorbachev, tear down that wall."

Evolutionary scientists, what are you afraid of? Why do you want to excommunicate anyone challenging the theory of evolution? Look at all the facts and see what makes the most sense. Exciting things can be accomplished if you will just
tear down that wall.

Ever feel BLONDE?

Rachel really had me laughing.

She is in charge of meal clean-up this month. After lunch today while doing the dishes, she plotted to play a trick on one of her unsuspecting housemates. (I'm sure she was thinking of one of her brothers, not me, her most favorite mommy. Well, maybe not!) She wrapped a rubberband around the kitchen sink spray nozzle, holding the handle down.

Did she watch everyone who went into the kitchen wondering "are they going to turn on the faucet and get soaked?" TeeHeeHee!

Then, the squirrel baby made a wet mess and Rachel hurried to wash her hands...

She had a true "sheepish" face and smile. We had a good laugh. I could certainly relate! It made me wonder if forgetfulness might be inherited. What do you think?

Ever have trouble finding car keys? I never do since they are kept in my purse. The only time I have trouble is when they've sunk to the murky depths, however...

I let Jacob use my car the other Wednesday morning so gave him my keychain Tuesday night. Then Caleb asked for them that afternoon so he could get into the garage. Later, I noticed my purse was open and the keys were gone so I began questioning and searching. Did I get them back from Jacob? Well, I remember he waved them in my face and I told him to put them into my purse. Did Caleb still have them? When he asked to use them I had reminded him where they were and he is usually good about returning things. Did he ever actually get into the garage?

I scanned Jacob's room & Caleb's (since neither were home at the time) plus the kitchen bar which seems to accumulate articles like a giant junk magnet. I then searched my bathroom tray (a close relative to the kitchen bar) but did not find my keys. No one home had seen them. What to do?

I grabbed Stan's extra car keys so I could get to church & planned out how I'd get into the library (since that key is on my keychain) as well as how to get back into the house after church since you know where my housekey is. I knew it would all work out somehow and surely my keys would turn up when the boys got home. Right?

At this point, after I had searched and racked my brain and given up and came up with plan B, I sat down at my computer and saw before my eyes my keychain, the attached thumb drive plugged in to the USB port so that I could save & take to church & print out the flyer I'd just designed...

Who left my purse open? ME

Who plugged in the thumb drive? Guilty!

How could I have possibly forgotten what I had just done and spent all that time looking? AAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!

Well, at least I wasn't WET!

Not Quite Murphy

We've had an interesting morning.
Stan went to a doctor's appointment. GOOD
He took the 450. SORTA GOOD
He forgot we had new insurance so had to go back & fix things. SORTA BAD
Caleb turned on the sprinkler in the front yard. GOOD
Andrew drove to ACE to work today (with me in the passenger seat). GOOD
Just as we were about to park, steam started pouring from the hood. BAD
We opened the hood & saw everything was wet with water/antifreeze (not OIL). GOOD
We didn't see what was broken. BAD
I wanted my wonderful mechanic STAN. GOOD
& BAD (Where was he?)
Then he walked around the corner. VERY GOOD
He found the problem. GOOD
He got the part & more antifreeze & fixed it in less than an hour! VERY GOOD
I drove home without any trouble. GOOD
I noticed the sprinkler spray was hitting the front door. BAD
Upon further inspection I realized water had come into the house under the door and flooded the new wood laminate flooring that Stan & Caleb had installed. VERY BAD


Stan got home. GOOD
We realized water was under the flooring so we'd have to pull it up. VERY BAD
Stan got started pulling the quarter round. GOOD
Caleb & I worked on the quarter round so Stan could eat lunch. GOOD
Caleb & I pulled the flooring - only 6 panels deep were wet. VERY GOOD
Stan went to work. GOOD
Fans are now blowing to dry off the water barrier & padding. GOOD
The Paneling is drying outside. GOOD
How easy will it be to re-install? UNKNOWN

Bakers Dozen of Blessings:
1.We have insurance & a doctor in town.
2.We have more than one mode of transportation.
3.Andrew has a job.
4.The radiator hose didn't blow until we were almost parked.
5.We have an autoparts store in town.
6.Stan was still in town & came to Ace!
7.Stan could fix the problem quickly & with the tools on hand.
8.We noticed the foyer flood quickly.
9.No one got angry.
10.We worked well together.
11.We now know that we may have problems with water coming under that door.
12.We were able to get the floor apart before it swelled.
13.Stan was still able to go to work on time.