Month: October 2012

My Thoughts on Halloween…

Published on by Sandie DLeave a comment
Halloween
Would Christ Approve? I say NO!

For those of you who know me, you know I do not celebrate Halloween… I have my own reasons for not celebrating this day… For me, I don’t because of the origins of the day… I will go into that more in a few…

I can’t wrap my head around the idea of how throughout the year, we tell our children to be safe and not talk to strangers… We tell them to not cross the road or accept candy from anyone that we don’t know without permission from the parents… For some reason all of that goes out the window on Halloween… We send our kids door to door to ask for candy treats…

This is something that gets me even more… Those who know the origins of Halloween will say that they know what it is about, but my kids love it so much… We don’t dress them up in scary costumes… We only dress them up as cute princesses or pirates or kitty cats… I have no problem with kids dressing up in costumes… The thing that bugs the heck out of me is that  even though they know the history and meaning of Halloween, they still participate…

I’m not going to come down on anyone who chooses to celebrate… But, me being a Christian and wanting to please Christ, I can’t see doing this… Even Christians try to justify sending their kids out collecting candy… They will rename it “Harvest Festival”… No matter what you call it, it is what it is… It is Halloween… It is celebrated on October 31st just like Halloween… Kids and adults dress up and go through the motions… You just don’t see witches for the most part or devils… Even though I have seen that at some Harvest Festivals…

My daughter Jessica and her Family…
My daugher Beckiah and her family…

I have been pretty darn proud of my daughters Jessica and Beckiah… Well their hubbies too… They don’t celebrate Halloween either… Now JJ, doesn’t understand why he can’t, but he will in time… Kids can dress up in costumes and have a party and still have fun and not have it be based around Halloween… I think many times when people say that kids are missing out it is more that they don’t get it… It drives me nuts when the schools do all the Halloween stuff and of course the kids who don’t has to participate… I think there needs to be other options for these kids instead of staying home… Others make them feel like they are missing out… The kids don’t think about it until someone will look down at the kids and tell them, “I’m sorry you can’t dress up and have fun like the other kids”… OK, now that person is the one making them  feel bad because they made it seem like they are being left out… This one gets me too and a family member is great at driving this home… When they look at the child and tell them that they have mean parents because the parents decided to tell the child the truth instead of lying to them about the holidays… For example, my daughters both told my grand-kids the truth about Santa and the Easter Bunny… But the kids know that those symbols are not the true reason for Christmas and Easter… They still enjoy it, but they don’t get lied too… Now when my girls were younger, I didn’t know all the history of the holidays… Once I gained the knowledge, we no longer took part in those things… I know I may be hitting a nerve… But I can’t just sugar coat what I think and what history says…

If people want to celebrate, then by all means do it… But I think there needs to be some respect to those families that choose not to… My grandchildren are very much NOT deprived of anything by not celebrating Halloween… To those who have a problem, then that is your problem… If my grandkids and their parent’s don’t, then it shouldn’t be a concern… What’s important to them and me is that we are pleasing God, not what the world thinks is an atrocity for not letting kids go door to door trying to get candy and treats…

As I said earlier, I will post what the history of Halloween is.. I will also include some followup links if you would like to read more about it… And if I have offended someone, well, “it is what it is”…

History of Halloween…. 

Halloween is one of the oldest holidays with origins going back thousands of years. The holiday we know as Halloween has had many influences from many cultures over the centuries. From the Roman’s Pomona Day, to the Celtic festival of Samhain, to the Christian holidays of All Saints and All Souls Days.

Hundreds of years ago in what is now Great Britain and Northern France, lived the Celts. The Celts worshipped nature and had

The Celts celebrated their New Year on November 1st. It was celebrated every year with a festival and marked the end of the “season of the sun” and the beginning of “the season of darkness and cold.”many gods, with the sun god as their favorite. It was “he” who commanded their work and their rest times, and who made the earth beautiful and the crops grow.

On October 31st after the crops were all harvested and stored for the long winter the cooking fires in the homes would be extinguished. The Druids, the Celtic priests, would meet in the hilltop in the dark oak forest (oak trees were considered sacred). The Druids would light new fires and offer sacrifices of crops and animals. As they danced around the the fires, the season of the sun passed and the season of darkness would begin.

When the morning arrived the Druids would give an ember from their fires to each family who would then take them home to start new cooking fires. These fires would keep the homes warm and free from evil spirits.

The November 1st festival was called Samhain (pronounced “sow-en”). The festival would last for 3 days. Many people would parade in costumes made from the skins and heads of their animals. This festival would become the first Halloween.

During the first century the Romans invaded Britain. They brought with them many of their festivals and customs. One of these was the festival know as Pomona Day, named for their goddess of fruits and gardens. It was also celebrated around the 1st of November. After hundreds of years of Roman rule the customs of the Celtic’s Samhain festival and the Roman Pomona Day mixed becoming 1 major fall holiday.

The next influence came with the spread of the new Christian religion throughout Europe and Britain. In the year 835 AD the Roman Catholic Church would make November 1st a church holiday to honor all the saints. This day was called All Saint’s Day, or Hallowmas, or All Hallows. Years later the Church would make November 2nd a holy day. It was called All Souls Day and was to honor the dead. It was celebrated with big bonfires, parades, and people dressing up as saints, angels and devils.

But the spread of Christianity did not make people forget their early customs. On the eve of All Hallows, Oct. 31, people continued to celebrate the festivals of Samhain and Pomona Day. Over the years the customs from all these holidays mixed. October 31st became known as All Hallow Even, eventually All Hallow’s Eve, Hallowe’en, and then – Halloween.

The Halloween we celebrate today includes all of these influences, Pomona Day’s apples, nuts, and harvest, the Festival of Samhain’s black cats, magic, evil spirits and death, and the ghosts, skeletons and skulls from All Saint’s Day and All Soul’s Day.

Additional Links to Other Sites: 

This link expresses all of my thoughts about Halloween… They put it into words perfectly… Click here to read more... 

One last thought… The only good thing about celebrating Halloween as a Christian would be that you can take this as an opportunity to witness to those who come to your door… It’s the one time of the year they come to you, lol…

Slave Days and Bullying

Published on by Sandie D2 Comments

Since I did a piece on Bullying, I decided to share an experience with you… This isn’t as much about me, but about those I went to school with…

I loved my school and had many friends from all walks of life… That was great for the most part, but there were times it became a problem…

Our school had this ritual for freshman’s each year… What would happen was a two part thing…. First off there was Slave days… If you are wondering what that means, it is what it is… The upper class man would put the freshman’s on the block to be sold as slaves… Whoever bought you, you had to do that they said to do… Even if that meant humiliating yourself by wearing diapers or whatever unimaginable things… I was very lucky because my sister’s boyfriend or friend decided to spare me from having to do part two of this horrible ritual… So Brian bought me and that was that… He had a heart of gold and never made me do stupid things…

Before I continue I want to share with you the definition of what and who a slave is…

  1. (v. i.) To drudge; to toil; to labor as a slave.
  2. (v. t.) To enslave.
  3. (n.) A person who is held in bondage to another; one who is wholly subject to the will of another; one who is held as a chattel; one who has no freedom of action, but whose person and services are wholly under the control of another.
  4. (n.) See Slav.
  5. (n.) One who has lost the power of resistance; one who surrenders himself to any power whatever; as, a slave to passion, to lust, to strong drink, to ambition.
  6. (n.) An abject person; a wretch.
  7. (n.) A drudge; one who labors like a slave.

So, I will continue now!

Now if you didn’t get bought for Slave Days and made to do stupid things to embarrass yourself, then you were initiated for initiation days… That was even worse… They would have an assembly and those who weren’t bought would be ordered to do what they were told in front of the entire school…  I had a couple friends who had to go through the humiliation in front of everyone… When their names were called I told my friends they shouldn’t go… They did anyhow because they were afraid they would get in trouble… My one friend, no names mentioned was told to dress up as a dog and eat from a dog bowl in the middle of the gymnasium… Another guy was to wear his gym shorts with a rope attached to the back and then he had to climb to the top of the rope… I was ticked… I didn’t stick around after that… I left and told my friends there is no way they should have gone along with that… This was back in 1980 and I still remember how humiliated and demeaning that was for my friends… I remember the tears on the faces of the other classmates as they were being told what to do and be put on the auction block… I don’t know if Willcox High still does this ritual… But if they do, shame on them… A lot of the classmates thought I was being sensitive… OK! Yeah, I will give them that one… What is wrong with treating each other with some dignity…

I should add one thing too… On Initiation Day, somehow the list of kids who didn’t get bought got lost… They were guessing to some degree on who was on the list… One of the girls did come up to me and told me I was on the list… Let me say that my language was quite colorful and I was less than impressed… I’m sure there were a whole lot of students who heard my thoughts on that…

After 30 years when I think of my high school years, I always think of that first… There were good things like the Hot Pickles at Rays Market, El Taco, and McDonalds… I was there when that first was built… Us students were happy over that… I loved Carters and cruising… But in my mind the Slave Days and Initiation Days were the worst… Then the way they would pick on this boy named Stevie… He was large and a lot of students were horrible to him… He eventually lost weight, but I know he had some horrible times in school…

I went to Google to see if there were any pictures by chance of slave days or someone posting… And it was sad that there were links to questions on yahoo just recently asking for good ideas to embarrass the two slaves they bought on slave day… This was a post a couple years old… I can’t believe that schools still do this and they get away with it…  I know… I’m a party pooper… This is the post from someone named Deborah:

Tomorrow is Senior Slave Day at School…?

tomorrow is senior slave day at school and i need ideas as to what to make my slaves do… i have 2 slaves that i bought at a auction about two weeks ago and i don’t know what embarrassing things to make them do…… please help 🙂

I wish I was still able to comment or I would have said that it is a horrible ritual that belittles a person… I have also noticed when goggling this topic to find images that some schools will call it “Rent a Student”… OK! So the name has changed, but the purpose is still the same… Some people don’t see what the problem is, but knowing people who had to be put on display because you didn’t get bought on “Slave Day” is not fun, it is humiliating… I can’t even imagine what it would be like for the slaves’ way back when… They lived every day that way…

I hear some people trying to justify it as a way to raise funds and nothing is wrong with it… I find alot wrong with it and just because it is for a fundraiser or activity, doesn’t make it right…

Here is a link to a video of a young man that was sold as a slave in a classroom activity…

But I will get off this topic now… I could go on and on about this topic and how inappropriate it is…

Cyber Bullying- Three Lost Lives

Published on by Sandie DLeave a comment
RIP Amanda Todd
RIP Amanda Todd
Stop Cyber-Bullying 

Amanda Michelle Todd (died October 10, 2012) was a 15-year-old Canadian teenager who committed suicide  attributed to cyber-bullying through the social networking website Facebook. On 7 September 2012, Todd posted a video on YouTube in which she used a series of flash cards to tell of her experience of being bullied.

This is very sad when I think about this… This video has been all over the internet and was posted on youtube… Amanda Todd took her own life because she was bullied to the point where she couldn’t handle it anymore… There was no place she could go without being bullied… She was tricked into showing her breasts to someone online and in turn he put that image all over the place… She though he liked her and that wasn’t the case… After that, she was picked on without end… She couldn’t go to school, Facebook or around town without someone bullying her…

I don’t understand what people get out of picking on others and bringing them down they have with this girl… This is something that is happening everyday all over the world… Something needs to be done about it.. It isn’t cute or funny…

RIP Jamey
RIP Jamey Rodemeyer

Here is another case of bullying where a young man took his life… His name is Jamey Rodemeyer (March 21, 1997 – September 18, 2011) was an openly bisexual teenager, known for his activism against homophobia and his videos on YouTube to help victims of homophobic bullying. He committed suicide as a result of constant bullying.

Just because someone doesn’t agree with someones choices or lifestyles, it doesn’t mean they deserve to be bullied… Rodemeyer encountered bullying throughout middle school because of his bisexuality. Anonymously posted comments on his Formspring account included hate messages such as, “I wouldn’t care if you died. No one would. So just do it 🙂 It would make everyone WAY more happier!”. Despite this, he used his experiences to make videos on YouTube under the username xgothemo99xx to help others who were experiencing similar situations. He also made a video for the “It Gets Better” project, a website dedicated to preventing teen suicide.

Here is a link to a video from his local news station…

More information on Cyber Bullying: 

Harassment by computer is a crime in several U.S. states (see computer crime). It is distinct from stalking in that stalking typically requires two or more contacts, whereas harassment by computer may be a single incident. It is also different from regular harassment, because the offense typically encompasses a range of crimes that would not be considered harassment if conducted in person.

Connecticut was the first state to pass a statute making it a criminal offense to harass someone by computer. Michigan, Arizona, and Virginia have also passed laws banning harassment by electronic means.

Harassment by computer statutes are typically distinct from cyber bullying laws, in that the former usually relates to a person’s “use a computer or computer network to communicate obscene, vulgar, profane, lewd, lascivious, or indecent language, or make any suggestion or proposal of an obscene nature, or threaten any illegal or immoral act,” while the latter need not involve anything of a sexual nature.

RIP Tyler Clementi

And lastly, here is Tyler Clementi… He committed suicide by jumping off the George Washington Bridge…

Tyler Clementi (December 19, 1991 – September 22, 2010) was an eighteen-year-old student at Rutgers University in Piscataway, New Jersey, who jumped to his death from the George Washington Bridge on September 22, 2010. On September 19, his roommate, Dharun Ravi, and a fellow hallmate, Molly Wei, used a webcam on Ravi’s computer and a computer in Wei’s dorm room to view, without Clementi’s knowledge, Clementi kissing another man.On September 21, the day prior to the suicide, Ravi urged friends and Twitter followers to watch via his webcam a second tryst between Clementi and his friend, though the viewing never occurred.

Ravi and Wei were indicted for their roles in the webcam incidents, though they were not charged with a role in the suicide itself.

Clementi’s death brought national and international attention to the issue of cyberbullying and the struggles facing LGBT youth.

You can read more about Tyler by following this link…

In my view, nobody should be bullied or put down for what they believe .. I’m not going to agree with everyone and they won’t with me… But that doesn’t mean that they shouldn’t be respected…

The information I posted below I found on Wikipedia..

Schools

The safety of schools is increasingly becoming a focus of state legislative action. There was an increase in cyberbullying enacted legislation between 2006-2010.

In 2012, a group of teens in New Haven, Connecticut developed an app to help fight bullying. Called “Back Off Bully” (BOB), the web app is an anonymous resource for computer, smart phone or iPad. When someone witnesses or is the victim of bullying, they can immediately report the incident. The app asks questions about time, location and how the bullying is happening. As well as providing positive action and empowerment over an incident, the reported information helps by going to a data base where administrators study it. Common threads are spotted so others can intervene and break the bully’s pattern. BOB, the brainchild of fourteen teens in a design class, is being considered as standard operating procedure at schools across the state.

Protection for victims of any age

There are laws that only address online harassment of children or focus on child predators as well as laws that protect adult cyberstalking victims, or victims of any age. Currently, there are 45 cyberstalking (and related) laws on the books.

While some sites specialize in laws that protect victims age 18 and under, Working to Halt Online Abuse is a help resource containing a list of current and pending cyberstalking-related United States federal and state laws. It also lists those states that do not have laws yet and related laws from other countries. The Global Cyber Law Database (GCLD) aims to become the most comprehensive and authoritative source of cyber laws for all countries.

Children and adolescents

Kids report being mean to each other online beginning as young as 2nd grade. According to research, boys initiate mean online activity earlier than girls do. However, by middle school, girls are more likely to engage in cyberbullying than boys do. Whether the bully is male or female, his or her purpose is to intentionally embarrass others, harass, intimidate, or make threats online to one another. This bullying occurs via email, text messaging, posts to blogs, and web sites.

The National Crime Prevention Association lists tactics often used by teen cyberbullies.

  • Pretend they are other people online to trick others
  • Spread lies and rumors about victims
  • Trick people into revealing personal information
  • Send or forward mean text messages
  • Post pictures of victims without their consent

Studies in the psychosocial effects of cyberspace have begun to monitor the impacts cyberbullying may have on the victims, and the consequences it may lead to. Consequences of cyberbullying are multi-faceted, and affect online and offline behavior. Research on adolescents reported that changes in the victims’ behavior as a result of cyberbullying could be positive. Victims “created a cognitive pattern of bullies, which consequently helped them to recognize aggressive people.” However, the Journal of Psychosocial Research on Cyberspace abstract reports critical impacts in almost all of the respondents’, taking the form of lower self-esteem, loneliness, disillusionment, and distrust of people. The more extreme impacts were self-harm. Children have killed each other and committed suicide after having been involved in a cyberbullying incident.

The most current research in the field defines cyberbullying as “an aggressive, intentional act or behaviour that is carried out by a group or an individual repeatedly and over time against a victim who cannot easily defend him or herself” (Smith & Slonje, 2007, p. 249).  Though the use of sexual remarks and threats are sometimes present in cyberbullying, it is not the same as sexual harassment, typically occurs among peers, and does not necessarily involve sexual predators.

I will be adding a personal experience from when I went to school for tomorrows blog… Even though it wasn’t me being bullied, some of my friends were… There was no facebook then..

Dr Stuff and Children with Cancer

Published on by Sandie D2 Comments

I had a very old and dear friend that is also like family to me ask me how my appointment went and she was asking about what is going on medically and the whole home health thing… My friend is a nurse and I took a few pics for her and for anyone who wants to know what I do each day at home with my home health stuff…

Well, I went to my cardiologist today… I really do like my new one… He is at the hospital and I have to say that I haven’t ever had a problem with any of them over there… They are testing me for this thing called Pheochromocytoma… I think they can stop adding names to my diagnosis… But now they are adding a new Dr because today my blood pressure was 180/126… That is becoming a norm anymore for me… But not a good norm… So now I get to see Dr Mercado here in St. George… My friend Shirley M says he is awesome… I don’t know really what can or can’t be done about this… I do have to say it will be nice… Because I very much do NOT like retaining fluids… But they want me to continue with the IV’s so they can do medicines and stuff… I have had a piccline since April…

I think I’m starting to get an infection though where they put my line in at… Not the main part, but where they have it sewn in at… So I get another visit from the home health nurse… They are pretty good though… I haven’t had any issues with them either…

I don’t really go into my medical stuff too much, because I don’t think the world needs to know everything about me and I don’t really like or want to have alot of questions about things that I’m going through… This is a bit out of my normal… Since so many have asked, this is why I’m posting this… I just say “it is what it is”…

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There are so many others that have it so much worse than I do… I have been following a number of little warriors that are fighting cancer… When I liked a page for the Jessie Rees Foundation, it opened my eyes up to these small children and their families that have cancer… What I go through is nothing compared to these troopers… It is very sad and humbling when you get to know these children and their families…

There are a few kids that have really touched my heart and I pray for them all the time… I always go to their pages to see how they are doing… I’m never been so humbled as I am when I go to these… I will post the links to some of these kid’s… They could all use your prayers…

  • Jesse Rees– This little girl is in the arms of Jesus… She went to be with him this January… She inspired her family and her friends to give Joy Jars to children who have cancer… What an inspiration… She did more in her 12 years than most do their entire life… Her life long theme is NEGU (Never Ever Give Up)… Her dreams are making a difference in thousands of lives… Please check out their page… I must warn you that you will see sweet faces of children who NEGU…
  • Landon Bland– This little boy went to be with the Lord last month… I followed his journey for only a month… In that time, I felt like I got to know him and his family… Landon loved to play with Legos… His family loves the Lord and when I have my down days, I go to his page and feel uplifted… His family started up Landon’s LEGOcy in honor of Landon… Landan for some reason just touches my heart… Maybe it’s because he reminds me of my grandsons and his story hits home… This horrible disease can enter into anyone’s life…
  • Kaleb Gunter– Kaleb is 18 and he was diagnosed with Leukemia just a month ago… He is in LDS Hospital in Salt Lake City… He has a long road ahead of him and they could use all of your prayers and thoughts… Kaleb is from my city and he is heading into this fight with God, his family, friends and community around him…Kaleb has  Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is a fast-growing cancer of the white blood cells.
  • Bella Rodriguez -Torres – Oh, sweet Bella… She has been fighting cancer a number of times and she is only 9… She has been fighting cancer since she was four years old… This little girl has gone through so much… Click here to read a story about her on CBS… I’m impressed with this girl drive… She collected hundreds of band-aids to bring to her hospital and pass out to kids… These aren’t just plain ones… They have cute little characters on them… Way to go Bella…
  • Cole- This little boy is in need of a miracle… They have given him only weeks to live… I can’t imagine what their families are going through… It breaks my heart when I see what he has gone through…  His family is asking for prayers for no pain and for peace for Cole… Just makes me want to cry…
  • Alivia– Oh my goodness… Last night  I was praying for her and just looking at her very sweet and loving little face… Cancer is so cruel… They have given her only a few weeks too… Why does cancer have to be so cruel… I would give my life if any one of these children can live… This little girl I think is only three years old…
  • Lane Goodman– This boy seems to be the sweetest young man who loves baseball, family and friends… I just started following his story and OMG… It makes me want to cry and reach out to him and give him the biggest hug… He is having a very hard time keeping his platelets up and has been bleeding from his mouth… He is only 10 yrs old… One of the pictures is of him in bed and holding his grandmothers hand… I can’t even describe how that made me feel… That could be any of my grandsons or grand daughter…

These are only a very small percentage of children who have cancer or who have gone to be with the Lord… When I see and read about these children, I can’t help but feel very blessed… I have the stuff I go through, but it is nothing compared to these young children that are fighting for their lives…

Day Trip to Zion Part 3 (Virgin, Utah)

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It has been a very long time since driving through Virgin, Utah… Some of the towns have the oddest names… Not sure what they were thinking, but a town named Virgin, I would think they are advertising that there are virgins in the town… And since this area has many volcano’s… I guess some would say they were going to sacrifice a virgin in Virgin, lol… The volcano gods would approve I guess…

This is a very small spot in the road on the way to Zion… Even though we stopped there on the way back home… They tried to make it a little tourist area… So we played tourist for about 30 minutes… They have a small petting zoo and these little buildings that they made into looking like an old western town… The town has less than 400 people… We were just on the road that we take to get to Zion… We didn’t get into the actual town… I guess there is alot of trails and places to do biking and such… You can also go tubing and swimming in the Virgin River…

In order to pet the animals you have to pay 1.00… Not too bad because they are cute and it goes towards feeding them… I’m all for that… They have a cute little donkey, Shetland ponies, deers, and alpacas… There are some chickens and roosters hanging around too… Chuck also got to go to jail at the Virgin Jail… Not sure he was too smart… Because if he paid attention, there were no doors, lol…

They have some off the wall novelty things in the little trading post there… We bought a sucker for my grandson… It is one of those with a bug in it… I didn’t think he would eat it, but I was shocked and a bit sickened over the site of him biting into it… So far he hasn’t gotten to the cricket, but he is curious over it… JJ is 4 and I don’t think he has an inkling of what is what… He is a real boy… He has asked me if it is real, I told him “yes”… Then he asked me if it would bleed if he ate it… I told him “no”…. He is thinking this over pretty heavily… I guess I was thinking he would think it was gross and he didn’t…

One thing that we didn’t get a chance to stop for and we wanted to is the Shoe Tree… We drove past it on the way to Zion and was thinking of stopping to see it on the way back, but it was too late… So here is a little FYI on the Shoe Tree…

Shoe Tree For HikersThis shoe tree has the distinction of being just outside the entrance of one of the most beautiful national parks anywhere in America. The tree is on State Road 9 between mile markers 20 and 21 and is on the south side of the road with several convenient places to pull out and park. In the background you will also see some of the towering red sandstone cliffs of Zion. On the tree you will note that most of the shoes are hiking boots. Legend has it that they are hung here in tribute to the Angels Landing hike in Zion National Park – because once you have completed this hair-raising hike you may as well hang up your boots as nothing else exists to compare with it. Over the years several hikers have lost their lives on that trail and there is truly a spectacular view from the top!I have included pictures of Angels Landing and the Shoe Tree… But they aren’t mine… I found them searching Google…

Day Trip to Zion Part 2 (Zion)

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After we finished looking around Grafton, we went to Zion National Park…  Usually the entrance fee is $25.00 per car… But I found out from a friend and looking online that if you receive disability or have a disability  you can get a free lifetime pass card… Whoo Hoo on that one… This is one of the reasons we decided to take a drive… I guess I have a problem paying $25.00 for a one time charge to drive through a park… Even though Zions is beautiful and the experience is worth it…

We got to the gate and I obtained my pass… We decided to just drive through instead of taking the shuttle… If you take the shuttle they will take you to other areas of the park… I was too tired to do that… But the scenery was breathtaking and beautiful… I think my daughters were still in high school when we went to Zions last…

This is going to be more of a pictorial blog post… Flip through the images and enjoy the ride…

On a side note… You will see one of a Jet in the air… I had a heck of a time trying to hone in on that jet… I got many pictures of the jet streams, but it took the full power of  my camera to see the actual jet… And in case nobody knew this tib bit about jets… They fly very high in the sky… So i was impressed that I got the jet… There is one with the naked eye and then the one full zoomed…

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Day Trip to Zion Part 1 (Grafton)

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Chuck and I decided to take a drive out to Zions this afternoon… It has been years since we last went there… So around 2 pm we took for the afternoon in his convertible… We had it gassed up, dusted off and top down… So off we went…  Since we went to a number of places, I’m going to break this trip into a three post blog… Each place has something special about it…

Our first stop was Grafton… It is a Ghost town that can only be reached by following this little road… You have to be careful to watch for the signs, because it isn’t very big… Once we turned right, we came to the bridge… This is a one lane bridge… So if someone is crossing from the other direction, you have to wait your turn… But it wasn’t a biggie… We didn’t have that problem… Once you turn onto the road that goes to Grafton, you will drive about 10 minutes… You will eventually come to a part in the road where it is dirt… If it is raining, you won’t be able to make it through… It floods pretty easily since it is off the Virgin River… Soon enough you will come to a fork in the dirt road… If you go right, you will go to where the town once was… If you make a left, you will go to the cemetery .. Most of the town was wiped away from people dying from diphtheria  Typhoid fever or being killed by the Indians…

We went to the town area first… It sure has changed since we were last here… My daughters were still in high school in St. George… And now both are married and have kids… Yikes, where has the time gone? Once we got out of the car, there was a nice breeze… Not like we didn’t have a breeze anyhow since we had the top down on the car… This was a different kind… You could hear the leaves rustle and there was a sense of peace that you don’t get in the city… Not sure if there were ghosts there or not… If there was, they didn’t make it known…

A number of years ago, the buildings were being vandalized and since then, they have been restored and preserved… You can’t go into them like you use to be able to… But that was OK… Back then, if you stepped on the wrong place you might fall through the floor or have something fall on you… The first picture on the slideshow of of the buildings before the restoration… It is nice that they restored it… You can look into the windows and see what the school house and the main house looked like… There is a small house that you can walk into… The fireplace and walls are still in tack… I do wonder why the house has nails in the bricks on the outside… It looks like it was there from the time the house was built…

One of the pictures that I took I was standing by the front porch… It makes me wonder what they were thinking and seeing… They had had beauty all around them… Another picture was standing in the little one room house looking out the window… They had a great view of Zion National Park and the cows that probably were there at the time…

After we went through the main area of Grafton, we just stopped by one of the houses as you entered into the town… What was sad is that there is signs all over to not trespass .. It is pretty clear that you can look, but don’t go beyond the fence… This house looks like they are in the process of restoring… There were these people there that obviously didn’t know what it meant to look, but do not go into the house or onto the property… People like that ruin it for everyone…

I would like to add one thing that was pretty funny… As you may have read, Chuck cleaned his car… Needless to say, it could have just been left dusty, lol… His car was a mess after taking it on the dirt road to Grafton… His car is black and it showed everything… Too funny… I don’t think he was thinking it was funny…

Here is some info for you all about Grafton… I got this on Wikipedia…

Grafton is a ghost town, just south of Zion National Park in Washington County, Utah, United States. Said to be the most photographed ghost town in the West, it has been featured as a location in several films, including 1929’s In Old Arizona—the first talkie filmed outdoors—and the classic Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. The nearest inhabited town is Rockville.

The site was first settled in December 1859 as part of a southern Utah cotton-growing project ordered by Brigham Young (see Utah’s Dixie). A group from Virgin led by Nathan Tenney established a new settlement they called Wheeler. Wheeler didn’t last long; it was largely destroyed on the night of January 8, 1862 by a weeks-long flood of the Virgin River, part of the Great Flood of 1862. The rebuilt town, about a mile upriver, was named New Grafton, after Grafton, Massachusetts.

The town grew quickly in its first few years. There were some 28 families by 1864, each farming about an acre (0.4 hectare) of land. The community also dug irrigation canals and planted orchards, some of which still exist. Grafton was briefly the county seat of Kane County, from January 1866 to January 12, 1867,but changes to county boundaries in 1882 placed it in Washington County.

Flooding was not the only major problem. One particular challenge to farming was the large amounts of silt in Grafton’s section of the Virgin River. Residents had to dredge out clogged irrigation ditches at least weekly, much more often than in most other settlements. Grafton was also relatively isolated from neighboring towns, being the only community in the area located on the south bank of the river. In 1866, when the outbreak of the Black Hawk Warcaused widespread fear of Indian attacks, the town was completely evacuated to Rockville.

Continued severe flooding discouraged resettlement, and most of the population moved permanently to more accessible locations on the other side of the river. By 1890 only four families remained. The end of the town is usually traced to 1921, when the local branch of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was discontinued.The last residents left Grafton in 1944.

St. George Marathon- 2012

Published on by Sandie D3 Comments

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Today was the St. George Marathon and boy was it a long day… But it gave me a good chance to try out different settings on my camera… I’m making up a special Photobucket album for my shirtless guy ones… One thing I would like to add is that some guys look awesome without a shirt, and well, in a nice way other’s DO NOT! The Marathon took place in my back yard literally… I live right off of the route… My back door leads to the street that they run on… It was a nice day for eye candy… But it was also a great day to think about what a person can do and how they can push themselves to succeed if they really want it bad enough… I will mention a few of the special moments… But there were thousands I’m sure if you got to talk to those who participated…

  1. There was this guy in a wheel chair that was made for racing… He couldn’t complete the race along because he didn’t have the strength… As he hit our part of the route and only 1.4 miles away, someone was pushing him and helping him succeed and complete the St. George Marathon… What I learned from this is that no matter how handicapped we are or how bad things are, we can succeed… Even if we need some help to get there and cross the finish line… I guess I see symbolism in a lot of things… And this is what I was able to learn from this guy who you would normally think he lost everything because he can’t walk… But then, he has everything when I think longer about it… He has good friends, and a will that drives him forward… He is a winner in my book…
  2. There was this little girl who was 10 years old that ran the Marathon with her mother… Another guy that was running and probably didn’t know her was so impressed and humbled by this girl that he asked us all to cheer her on… See most of the people left our area and went to the finish line since whoever they came out for was about to finish… We were the only ones left… We cheered her on and the joy on her face gave her an extra boost of energy… She was walking until she got to us… Once she knew we were cheering for her, she picked up her pace and she and her mom hand in hand headed towards the finish line together… They are winners in my book too…
  3. There was an older gentleman that was from LA… He was so proud of himself that he finished… He wanted to make sure I took his picture… His name is Walter and he is 72 years old… So many people who joined in today’s race demonstrated that age is nothing but a number… From young to old, they all ran the race and did the best they could do and all are winners… Even if they never crossed the finish line, they still got out there and tried… They didn’t let anything or anyone stop them from doing what they wanted and needed to do…
  4. The very last group of people was heading down the stretch… First there was a woman walking… She couldn’t run because it looked like she blew out her knee or something similar .. She was bandaged up and had a brace on her leg… She was going slowly… She said she was the last one that they let complete the race before shutting the barricades… All runners had to be past a certain point by 1:00… From what her number said, her name is Madison… But she limped her way to our street and we told her she is doing awesome and that she only had 1.4 miles to go… She was going to make it… I could tell she was choked up and wanted to cry… For her this was a major accomplishment…
  5. About 10 minutes later the last guy was coming… He was a pretty large guy… I would say well over 400 pounds… He was slow and go and eventually his friends or family joined him… They walked with him on the last stretch .. You could tell how proud they were of their friend or family member… They were beaming .. We told him how far it was and he said he was going to make it…
  6. There was this one gross moment and it was just nasty… I wonder if people even think that others are watching… But this guy decided that he needed to blow his nose… OK, yes, we all have to do that… But it was just nasty because he pushed on one side of his nose and out came snot all over the ground… That was just not cool… I did take a picture of him since he was in the race and finished… But yuck.. He was caught in the act of doing this dastardly deed…

Over and over again for the last half hour, we had runner after runner thank us for sticking around and cheering them on since everyone else was gone… Even though I was very tired, I was proud and happy to know that I got to witness this and help someone by giving them the motivation they needed to go on… Overall it was a very entertaining day that was filled with laughter, success, oddities and inspiration…  It was also a very exhausting day, but that was OK… I got to spend it with friends and family… Jessica, JJ, Craig, Lisa and Evelyn came over to spend the day with me while I did my thing and they helped keep me awake… The one negative point to today was that some joker let a guy come into the race with a Lakers jersey on… Now what in the heck were they thinking… I did think the guy with the crazy hair that looked like Doc from Back to the Future was hilariousness, lol…

OK TO Vote… Just Vote for Who I Say! NOT

Published on by Sandie D3 Comments

ImageThis is one of those things that really makes me sick of politics.. This young girl wears a Romney/Ryan shirt to school… She said the teacher compared her to the worst racists in history — the Ku Klux Klan…. This is childish and demeaning… Why is it that politics and religion has to bring the worst out in people… I’m not necessarily a Romney supporter, but it shouldn’t matter who I vote for because each person deserves to have their opinion and vote for who they think would do the best job…

The offending teacher saw the Romney / Ryan shirt “and told her to get out of the classroom, She said no,” Samantha explained on “The Kudlow Report.”…The girls father said the teacher was joking… My guess it must not have sounded like a joke to Samantha… This is one reason I never post who I’m going to vote for… People can get downright mean and hateful when it comes to politics and not voting for who they think we should be smart enough to vote for…

Lately on Facebook, I have seen many hateful and horrible things said about both candidates… And then when you get into a conversation with someone, it seem’s to always come around to why I shouldn’t vote for Obama or Romney… And, OMG, if I were to say Obama, the daggers come out and the tone of voice changes… One of the worst images is where Obama is dressed up as Osama Bin Laden standing in front of the White House… When I see things like this, I think immature…  Or when I see the messages about how stupid or ignorant a person must be if I vote for so and so…

This is one that gets me too… You should vote so your voice can be heard… I do agree with this in most cases… But when it comes to the presidential campaign  it is already decided for Utah, so ,my voice doesn’t count… 4 or 5 people that was elected to decide what I want has already decided that… So case is closed on that… Now when it comes to the Governors race, Senators, Commissioners and such, i do think each persons voice counts…

I felt bad for this 16 year old girl who as ridiculed and humiliated at her school because she wore a shirt for Romney… That shouldn’t happen and those over zealous individuals should just put it to rest and stand up for what you feel is right in an adult and responsible way… OH Wait! That isn’t going to happen when it comes to politics and religion… Sorry I even suggested such a thing… But I’m going to get off this soapbox now…

Is Hell Cute?

Published on by Sandie D6 Comments

ImageI was on Facebook the other day and someone made a comment “Cute as Hell”…  I know they didn’t mean it the way I took it… But when I think of the phrase ‘cute as hell”, I don’t think about hell being cute… Actually  when I think of hell, I think of a horrible looking place that I would never want to see or even contemplate being at… When reading the Bible, this is how it is described…

Hell According to the Bible: 

(1) Hell was designed originally for Satan and his demons (Matthew 25:41; Revelation 20:10).

(2) Hell will also punish the sin of those who reject Christ (Matthew 13:41,50; Revelation 20:11-15; 21:8).

(3) Hell is conscious torment.

  • Matthew 13:50 “furnace of fire…weeping and gnashing of teeth”
  • Mark 9:48 “where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched”

Is this HellHell is eternal and irreversible.

  • Revelation 14:11 “the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever and they have no rest day and night”
  • Revelation 20:14 “This is the second death, the lake of fire”
  • Revelation 20:15 “If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire”
  • Revelation 14:10 “he will be tormented with fire and brimstone”

Some people would say that God is loving and would never send anyone to Hell… I also think that God is just and has laid out what will happen… There are many verses in the Bible that are difficult to interpret .. My own views is that no matter what someone thinks Hell would be like, I wouldn’t want to be there… I would never want to be somewhere where  God isn’t present…

I have friends of all faiths and some that have no faith at all… Some think that hell is a out darkness without the pretense of God… Some say that it is a place of tremendous torment and gnashing teeth… Nowhere in my thoughts is it a place that is “cute”... If someone thinks that, they need to have a heavy dose of reality…

I would like to say that peoples views vary greatly… But my thoughts is that your destination and hope lays only in the hands of God… I feel that in order to be saved we must accept and acknowledge that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and that He alone died for our sins… Without Christ dying on Calvary  we would have no chance at all… There is no way we can live up to the standards that God has set for us… But because Jesus died for our sins and took on our sins, we fall under Grace… Thank God for grace…