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Prayers for Israel.

Please pray for Israel, and the Jewish people worldwide.

Great video to watch

Another of Bill O'Reilly's Talking Points Memos:

(from Foxnews.com)

"Should there be a cease-fire in the Middle East? The pope wants one. French President Chirac wants one. The Lebanese prime minister, the Russians, they all want Israel and Hezbollah to stop fighting.

So let's examine this in a fair and balanced way.

We now know that Hezbollah had about 13,000 missiles in southern Lebanon in violation of a United Nations order. We know that because Hezbollah attacked Israel, killing eight of its soldiers and kidnapping two others. This attack was unprovoked. After Israel responded, Hezbollah opened up with its missiles.

In order to make the situation clear, we have to make it personal. You and your family are living in Haifa. The kids go to school. You go to work. You have you a house. You have a normal life.

But just to the north, there's a terror group that has thousands of missiles aimed at your town. Those missiles can be launched at any time for any reason. Do you want your government to stop fighting and allow those missiles to stay in place?

Let's bring it to America. Some Mexican soldiers cross the border tomorrow, kill eight American border patrol agents and kidnap two others. Then the Mexican military announces they have set up thousands of missiles that could blast American cities. Is the American government going to allow that? Of course not. Remember the Cuban missile crisis?

But the pope, Chirac and the others don't seem to care about the Hezbollah missiles or the fact that the U.N. can't get the terror situation under control.

Hezbollah keeps getting stronger because Syria and Iran give the terror group millions of dollars and all the weapons they want.

"Talking Points" is big on simplicity. Who does the cease-fire help? It helps the terrorists, the people who started the latest conflict.

Now if some kind of deal could be made where Hezbollah pulls out of southern Lebanon and gives up its illegal missiles, I say make that deal in a heartbeat. But it's amazing how many people simply will not realize that Hezbollah, Hamas and other terror groups want to kill Jews. They don't want peace.

So over the next few days, you'll be hearing a lot of debate, a lot of hand ringing, a lot of pleas. Just keep in mind one vital truth, just one. Only people who want peace can secure peace.

And that's "The Memo."

No more going to bed at 5am!

Adam will be finished with night crew after this week!

We found out the other day. For the first time in our entire history together, he will be working mornings! He'll work either 4am-2pm or 6am-4pm, and come home after that! And he'll have Tuesdays and Wednesdays off! I'm so excited, I don't know what to do with myself. Adam's schedule up until now (with the exception of the weeks/months he is on night crew) has had him working from later to earlier shifts. An example:

Thursday: 1pm-11pm
Friday: 12pm-10pm
Saturday: 8am-6pm
Sunday: 4am-2pm
Monday:4am-2pm
Tuesday: Off
Wednesday: Off

But now, his schedule will be almost normal!

Today I went for my free consultation at L.A. weight loss. I did not sign up because it is incredibly expensive. I went home and researched it, and realized it is pretty much the most expensive weight loss system out there, and the people who run it are not doctors, just paid-by-commission former clients. I saved my $650 and signed up for ediets.com for the bargain price of $15.68 per month. It gives me an eating plan and some other junk that I was too tired to look at. I don't know why I'm so tired tonight. We woke up at 2pm and its only 11pm now!

I've found a fantastic podcast for working out. Its at www.djsteveboy.com
His podcasts are techno-style music with nice fast beats for working out, and it lasts for an hour!

More vacation pics from earlier this month

Adam, driving us home from the beach


This one is for Katy. We were driving, and I saw this big tall tower and I said "Thats the biggest lookout tower I've ever seen!" and immediately I grabbed the phone to take a picture.


Terrible picture yes. We really need a real camera.


This is what happens when there are only two of you. There is no one to take a picture of us. Taken at arms length at dinner.


Adam found his dream car (or one of them at least)


Adam at dinner. He's so cute!

Hitting the Nail on the Head

Although we disagree with some of Bill O'Reilley's opinions lately, his recent "Talking Points Memo" is right on target. The following is taken from

Fox News

"Why should you care about the violence in Israel and Lebanon? That is the subject of this evening's "Talking Points Memo."

The answer to that question is because it affects your life. Every time stuff like this happens, the price of oil goes up and the worldwide economy totters.

That's exactly what Iran wants.

Iran is behind the terror attacks on Israeli forces. The whole thing is part of World War III, ladies and gentlemen. Islamic fascism against the West. That global conflict, unfortunately, is here for the foreseeable future.

But it doesn't have to be that way. Iran is the world's most dangerous country. Any serious analyst will tell you that. And Iran is protected by China and Russia. It knows it can finance and train terrorists. It knows it can order Hezbollah to attack Israel any time it wants.

That's because, according to a variety of intelligence sources, Iran gives Hezbollah about $100 million a year, but Russia and China don't care. China wants Iranian oil. Russia want the USA on the defensive in the War on Terror.
So we have a terror nation -- Iran -- developing nuclear weapons and provoking war in the Middle East. And no one is doing much about it. How dangerous is this? How foolish?

Iran understands that violence is a good thing for the jihad. Having Israel attack Lebanon and Hamas means more Muslims will become terrorists. More Arabs will hate Jews, but what's Israel supposed to do?

Imagine terrorists sneaking across the Mexican border killing eight American soldiers and kidnapping two more. The USA would attack any country harboring those terrorists.

Iran timed this whole thing perfectly. It was under pressure to negotiate the nuke issue, so it used Hezbollah to avert attention, at the same time sending a message to the world that Iran can disrupt things any time it wants.

Look what happened to the stock market on Thursday -- down big.

The USA and other nations that recognize the danger from Iran and Islamic fascism are really in a jam. With China and Russia actually helping the evil jihad, options are limited. The campaign in Iraq is brutal. The USA can't launch another ground action and Iran knows it.

The U.N. is a cowardly farce. NATO? MIA. So Iran sits there and gloats about all the death and destruction it is causing.

Finally, it was nice to see the far-left Boston Globe editorialize today against Iran. But I still believe some far-left Americans are clueless about the vicious war we're in.

How would Ted Kennedy, or Barbara Boxer, or Howard Dean wage the terror war? What exactly would they do? If you figure it out, please let me know. I'm sure Iran would be interested as well.

And that's "The Memo."

Adam has been working a lot lately. He had to go in an hour early yesterday, at 4:30pm, then he didn't leave work until 4:30am. It takes him about an hour to get to and from work, so in all that is a 14 hour day. I tried to wait up for him, but I just couldn't keep my eyes open. Today we woke up at around 1pm, and 10 minutes later his captain called and asked him to come in ASAP. So he just left for work again, and it is not likely he'll be home early tonight either, because tonight they are doing inventory. I'm guessing he'll get to work around 3:30 and be there until 4:30 or 5am.

I got the oven mostly clean. I had no idea ammonia smelled so much like cat pee. I was overwhelmed cleaning with it, and I had to leave the room. I've never used ammonia before. I ended up using a combination of vinegar and baking soda and some elbow grease. Then I used the new steam cleaner I got from Target. I returned the other one to Linens N Things and got a better one for the same price. It seemed to blast the grease off of the oven. I turned the oven on (as hot as it would go) and there was no smoke. So perhaps it worked.

Today I need to get out of the house. I've spent the past few days teaching and cleaning and running out to get more cleaning stuff, so today I need to take a break and do something fun. I just wish Adam was home with me!

:-\

Dance Dance Revolution

Lately we have been playing Dance Dance Revolution: Mario Mix. Its a really fun game and I love the classic Mario tunes remixed into dance songs. Apparently lots of people have lost weight from playing DDR. There is a cool calorie tracker feature in the game which lets you track how many calories you've burned based on your weight. I think I have actually burned more than it says I have though because I move my arms around as well as my feet.

Today was a very trying day of teaching. It makes me want to stop teaching altogether. At least tomorrow and Saturday are better days. Last night I accomplished so much! I reorganized the laundry area and did about 7 loads of laundry. I tried cleaning the oven with a steam cleaner thing from Linens N Things, but the gunk didn't really budge at all. I'm going to have to try ammonia tomorrow. I can't use the stupid oven at all now- when I set it to 500F it only gets to 325F, not to mention the fact that it sets off the smoke detectors with the burned on food smoke. I don't know what to do. I suppose I'll have to call out a technician to look at it, but who knows how much that will cost! We should probably get a new stove at some point- its pretty obvious that all the new things in this house were the cheapest model available from Sears, and replaced right before the house went on the market so it wouldn't have old appliances in it. So far we've replaced the washer (would randomly stop in the middle of cycles) the dryer (didn't dry clothes at all) and the dishwasher (started to make grinding noises and was smelling like smoke).

Adam is having a good day at work. He is cleaning out the dairy box with a steam cleaner and having a lot of fun doing it (this is what gave me the idea to get a steam cleaner from Linens N Things).

Time to get a big glass of water and play DDR down with the bunnies!

More notes on life.

Adam is on night crew at the moment. He works from 5pm-3am Wednesday through Sunday. It is a tough schedule, but at least it is only (supposed to be) for 2 more weeks. It messes up my schedule, because I want to wait up for Adam and not be sleeping when he gets home, but at the same time I hate sleeping until 1pm. Hopefully this will be the last time we have to do this. This is the 6th or 7th time we've gone through this, and it is the shortest one yet.

The buzz at TJ's these days is that there will be some moving around and promotions in the upper levels of management. We don't know if that will mean anything for us, but hopefully it will lead to a promotion for Adam. He deserves it. Adam got a new boss this month at his store, and she's a much needed breath of fresh air. That is the most promising thing about the work situation at the moment.

I have booked more new students this month, but they're actually coming to me at the same rate as I'm losing them to vacations, etc. Oh well- it all works out in the end.

Tonight is a cleaning night for me. So far I've cleaned one bathroom, gone to Target to get some cleaning supplies, vacuumed downstairs, washed the couch slipcovers, and emptied the dishwasher. I have one more bathroom to clean, the breakfast area to declutter, and I have to finish tidying the office. I also have to vacuum upstairs. Hopefully I'll get around to running a couple miles, but thats doubtful since it is already 10:30pm. I know I shouldn't feel tired because we woke up at 1pm, but I can't stop feeling like dark= sleep and light= wake up.

I'll be very happy when this night crew thing is over. Two more weeks! (But it will probably get extended again and again like it always does)

:-\

Vacation Pics

We went to the beach for a day to get out of the house.


Adam, sitting outside of our room by the pool


Adam at Colonial WIlliamsburg, wearing a patriotic/pirate hat

Hayley, after dinner outside the hotel restaurant

Adam reading by the pool