Maryville, Missouri

I wanted to blog about our trip to Missouri in a series of posts in order of when we did what, but I'm still not interested in writing about our first interesting stop on the trip, which was Antique Archaeology, home of the American Pickers show, seen on the History channel. So for now, I'm going to skip straight to our destination, Maryville, Missouri.

Unfortunately, Maryville, Missouri was... boring. I was hoping to find some yarn stores or some fabric/quilting stores, but there weren't any. There was the Mozingo Lake Park and Golf Course, but I don't fish or play golf, and it was too hot to do any walking. We had the additional misfortune of hitting Maryville right when the big heat wave swept the Midwest.

Actually, Maryville is in rather sad shape. It has three large employers: an enormous Kawasaki engine plant, Northwest Missouri State University, and a jail. However, there were many empty storefronts in the city square, and there were two burnt-down restaurants and a vacant lot where it looked like something had been torn down. The one restaurant seemed to be in the process of rebuilding, but the other one was just there. No indication that it was going to be rebuilt and reopened anytime soon. It's sad that even with employment in the area, it has still felt the effects of the recession.

One interesting thing about the prison compound, there was an enormous church inside the fence, and one of the other buildings looked like it could have been a school building at some point. Mr. BTEG and I wondered if it could have been a regular church and school before becoming part of a prison.

At least the main part of our trip was successful. The Dancer and the Musician got lots of Law and Gospel, learned a lot about the faith, made new friends and got to hang out with old friends they hadn't seen since last year. Is it silly to say that seeing so many kids greeting each other after a long time apart, seemed almost like a foretaste of heaven?

And Now, We Recuperate

Just got back from four days spent in Missouri at the latest Higher Things conference. Higher Things is an organization that teaches the Lutheran faith to young people. It is a great organization. This was the Musician's fourth year, and now that the Dancer has been confirmed, she was eligible to attend as well. We attended the conference in Missouri because the Musician already has a large number of friends from previous conferences that were going to attend this one. Because we didn't know anyone else from our area who was attending, Mr. BTEG and I drove the family to Missouri and stayed in a hotel while the girls were at the conference. As a result of the heat wave and the fact that there turned out to be not much of anything to do in Maryville, Missouri, our side of the trip was rather uneventful, but the girls learned a lot, had a lot of fun, and made even more new friends. It does feel good to be home, especially after pulling an all-nighter to get home from Missouri without booking yet another hotel room. More posts will follow about the trip!

Belated Fourth of July post

I hope all of you that live here in the States enjoyed the Fourth of July celebrations yesterday. I know a lot of us are concerned about losing freedom, but at least we still have a chance to work toward restoring this country as our Founders envisioned it. Or do you think an amicable divorce of the United States might be in the works? Do you think that might be feasible?

How do you celebrate the Fourth? When I was a kid, like Karen's family a carnival came to my hometown, and still does, every year. We would buy the all day wrist string and ride the rides all day long. At night would be the fireworks over Lake Erie. We would sit in the large grassy area across the street from the carnival area with our blankets and chairs and watch the show. Somewhat unenjoyable was the way the loudest fireworks would echo off of the middle school building behind us.

When my own girls were young, my cousin and her kids, about the same age as mine, would come and visit her parents in the Wooster area, and my mom, sisters and families, and my family, would be invited for the Fourth. What was especially nice was that my aunt and uncle lived in a neighborhood with a private lake, and they had a boat, plus we had swimming and playing in the sand with the little ones. I never tried waterskiing or tubing behind the boat, but I did like riding in it. My cousin's husband, formerly in the Navy, was especially fun to ride with. After driving an aircraft carrier, he could make being in my uncle's little boat rather exciting. Now my aunt and uncle have moved to Virginia to be closer to my cousin and her family and those days are just memories. It's a shame my kids can't see their second cousins more, as they are a lot closer in age to them than they are to their first cousins. My Musician and my cousin's oldest son are just a few months apart.

My family has yet to create any new tradition for our Fourth of July celebrations since, but these are the years of flux, as my teens start getting involved in their own activities more and more. I wonder what will develop next!

Is This Real?

First thing, let me admit that I am a fan of some of the dolls produced by Robert Tonner. As Mr. BTEG can tell you, I do have quite a few dolls, and a good proportion of those are Tonner dolls. He has recently branched out into Tonner Toys, dolls which are more for children than for adult collectors, although collectors are also displaying an interest. And while I wish the company success, I hope you can also see the humor (and some dismay) in two of the company's first offerings.

The first is Maudlynne McCobb. Say that name out loud. Yes, Tonner is continuing his interest in the dark, the gloomy, even the supernatural side of life. As long as that supernatural is ghosties and ghoulies and things that go bump in the night. Maudlynne was inspired by characters such as Wednesday Addams, and she does have a mournful attractiveness, but what struck me was the end of her online bio. "Maudlynne was home-schooled for most of her life until her parents noticed her peculiar nature and decided it was time for her to socialize a bit more with regular kids." Do you see a bit of stereotyping there? I do. Believe me, there are "irregular" kids everywhere. And will Maudlynne become more "normal" by socializing with "regular" kids? Homeschoolers, what do you think?

One of their other lines is well-meaning, but in this present culture, I find it more humorous than anything else. This line of dolls is the City Girls. "Freshly matriculated from college, these fresh, young and energetic ladies are all ready to take on the world and follow their dreams. Whether at work, a networking function or just out for a night on the town, they’re ready to dazzle and shine!" They may have decided to follow Nancy Pelosi's advice about choosing a career to follow their dreams, but the way things are nowadays, I think the next dolls in the series should be the OWS dolls, freshly matriculated from college with a mountain of debt. Accessories could include a dish of paté (pesky homeless person not included) and a bag of feces. Deposit it on a police car or just leave it lying around the tent city you can create for your OWS dolls! At least Mummy and Daddy can cover your health insurance until you're 26, in case you pick up an STD during a furtive fumble in that cute guy's tent.

Seriously, shouldn't we be getting over the idolization of the "Career Woman"? I do think it's fine for women to work, but I'm tired of the "Glamor Job" being held up as some sort of ideal. How many men do you know that have a job, or even a career, that holds any sort of glamor? Sitting in a cube farm, riding around in a truck all day delivering mail, cutting lumber at the home improvement store, stocking groceries -- none of these are glamorous, and I doubt anyone dreamed about someday performing these tasks, but as Thomas Sowell points out, what academia considers "menial" work is also necessary work, and "Some people take justifiable pride in working to take care of their families, whether or not the work itself is great." I think being making enough money to support oneself, and being able to support your children, may not being as exciting as taking on the world and following your dreams, but in the long run it's probably much more realistic.

Still Here

Wow, I have really been neglecting this blog lately. I need to step it up again, because I really don't want to quit blogging. It seems to have become very passé to blog, in a world of people who hop onto the latest new thing and then move on to the next trend within a few months, but blogging as a whole is still very necessary. Bloggers are still the New Media, and they are a way for issues, concerns and debates to occur which would never otherwise see the light of day. Yes, Twitter is making quite a stir, but sometimes there are things that can't be said in 140 words or less. And while I am definitely not an outstanding blogger in the field, everyone is allowed to enter the debate. Don't expect to go unchallenged, but don't be quiet if you can support your words.

Right now, I'm a mom whose life is still rather wrapped up in her family. My marriage is always important, and yes, my kids are older, but they still need someone to support their interests, to drive them to activities and friends' houses, and most importantly, to listen to them. I was brought up in a rather sheltered environment, so I have no idea what the "old days" were like, but today it seems rather unusual for a kid to not be dealing with parental divorce, or parental drug or alcohol use, or some kind of parental abuse, or parental suicide, or to be using drugs or engaged in free and easy sexual activity, or even considering suicide themselves. And we live in one of the "good" suburbs. Not only do my children need parental support for themselves, they need someone to talk to when someone they know cuts himself, or loses a parent.

Besides which, I enjoy being with them! I like hearing about what they are doing now and what they want in their future. I am transitioning to more time spent on me, and on wife-husband time, but I also want to not fritter away the years before my children set out on their own lives. Despite feeling the weight of hitting midlife, I do still have a lot ahead of me. Right now, my family still takes up a lot of it.

School Rules

I was glad to see Mitt Romney come out with a strong position on school choice. He's not my dream candidate, but he's not a socialist, and I think he could definitely improve the economy, which honestly is my biggest concern right now. If we have to worry about food and clothes and medicine, I don't have much energy for much else. As far as school choice, I am in favor of parents being able to spend whatever school monies they are entitled to, on the school of their choice. Or be able to keep it themselves if they homeschool. Of course, I think this shouldn't come with any sort of government strings. You takes your money and you chooses your school. I can also understand a desire for school accountability, when we have kids graduating from schools, who can't read or do basic math. I think our current system of trying to make sure all the kids in school actually learn, is probably fatally flawed. But then I think it should be more locally accountable, and not federally. But the subject is too complex and I don't have enough experience to go into it more deeply than that.

Trouble in Blogger Land

So, I'm not sure if I need to migrate my blogs over to a Google account, or what. When I go directly to Blogger on my Google account, I am told that I need to migrate, although supposedly that is only if you haven't used your blog since 2007, so I'm not sure. ? When I try to login to do a switch using my current (old) login info, I am told that account does not exist. However, the email account is the one that is currently linked to this blog, according to Google, and I changed the password to make double sure that I had the correct one. Not sure what is going on, but I am frustrated. I have thought about migrating my blog to another format, but I am hearing Wordpress and Typepad users currently complaining about their blog hosts also. If my blog disappears after May 30th, you'll know what happened.

Enjoy the Silence

For me, one of the best things about being a stay-at-home mom is the deep silence that can be found when the kids are at school. The only noises I can hear right now are birds singing outside, the snoring of one of our cats soundly asleep on the couch, and the hum of some sort of motor outside. It sounds like someone is getting carpets cleaned or something similar. I suspect only an introvert can enjoy so much quiet on a daily basis, but I think we all need a little peace and quiet at times, to think our own thoughts, make plans and dream dreams.

Marking Time

On Sunday the Dancer was confirmed. Yet another milestone for the Evil Genius family. Lots of extended family was there for the event, and three families of confirmands got together to serve a lunch to our families. I'm very proud of the Dancer and glad that she has been received into our church!

It's All Relative

I'm getting so tired of the idea that I must somehow be able to "relate" to people who are running for office. Especially since, who could I probably be able to relate to best? Bipolar people! Let's run somebody who's mentally ill for president -- that's a GREAT idea!

I also like pets. We've always had cats as they fit our lifestyle better. Hmmmm. The last president to have a cat as a pet was Clinton. And the cat got dumped on someone else as soon as they left the White House. So, scratch that.

I'm a mom, but I don't want to see a president wearing mom jeans ever again!

I'm terrible at sports, but I would like to have a president who doesn't totally embarrass himself throwing out a first pitch. On the other hand, I really don't care what the president's ESPN basketball picks are.

Which reminds me, I also do not want to see any more presidents or first ladies on any reality shows, awards shows or sports shows. You know what's reality? Unemployment, high gas prices, massive inflation.

Step It Up

It's not just politics being inserted everywhere that is annoying me. Unfortunately, many of the places I've come across people inappropriately inserting politics are places run by, or mostly populated by, kids or young adults. I'm not going to be a total curmudgeon and say that these children should be seen and not heard. But if they want to be taken seriously, they need to up their game. One Tumblr blog owner has started another blog dedicated to what a "rich jerk" Romney is. I'm sure Romney is trembling with fear that the blogger is going to call him a "big fat poopie-head" next. Seriously, how is Romney any less rich, in the big picture, than the grandson of a bank executive, who had a nanny as a child and went to a private school in Hawaii. Who had pretty fancy digs in Chicago, from what I've been told. Whose wife thinks $200 will only get you "a pair of earrings." Who is currently sending his own daughters to an upscale private school. And who behaves very much like a jerk to people who disagree with him. Just look at this great fisking of the little gem that the president gave us yesterday. We can't have an honest discussion of the facts. No, Republicans want to pollute the water, crash planes, kill firefighters and push Grandma off the cliff.

When the incumbent president has once again disabled credit card verification on credit card donations, maybe it's a good thing the guy the Republicans are running is rich. He can use some of his own money to back himself when he doesn't get a contribution from "Adolf Hitler."

Dialing It Down

I am absolutely sick to death of politics. Or, I am sick of everything, everywhere, throwing in politics. I would like to be able to visit a doll board, or a vintage fashion blog, and not have to read about politics. Mostly, the political speech is frightened lefties, which makes me laugh, in the long run. We had the eeeeeevil President Bush for eight years, and did he do ANYTHING that the hardcore lefties projected onto him? Not really. In the long run, he disappointed the right about as much as anything else. Although listening to public figures blaring in the media about how they had lost their freedom of speech was pretty precious.

Certainly, there are social conservatives out there, or socons, who would like to pass very totalitarian rules about sex and alcohol and divorce and etc. There are also people like Alinsky who would like to put people like me in a camp. The socons who are that restrictive are a very small portion of the population, just as, honestly, the Alinskyites are. It's very unfortunate that an Alinsky disciple happens to be in power, but I don't think even all socialists would go so far as to put people in camps.

You see, even though I am a strong socon, I also happen to be a strong ficon, and I'm also big on being left alone. In the long run, politics IS really all about power, but it's as much whether the people have it or the government has it, as who in the government has it at the moment. The more power the government has, the less power I as an individual have, and I will always fight against that state of things. I will admit to being against abortion, because I view it as murder, and because it is, as socons predicted, leading towards euthanasia policies for the elderly, those who are not perfect physically or mentally, inconvenient children who will force you to shop at Costco, or even perfectly viable infants. Other issues, I don't really care about, AS LONG AS you pay for it or deal with the consequences of it yourself. It is not a hardship for you to pay for your birth control if your insurance carrier does not provide it. As a conservative, I would say, go find some other insurance carrier that does. My family has gone through some difficult times. We are going through some difficult times right now, actually, thanks to Obamacare. But we look to ourselves and not the government to help us through. Getting rid of some of the rules and regulations we are forced to live under would help us even more.

So there you are, an Evil Genius' view of the political world. I put it here, because this is my space, and politics is one of the things I choose to discuss here. I won't bring it up on my doll blog (such as it is) or in forums that are not political. Unless you bring it up first. Then, I am working to sharpen my political Breitbart. It seems to be a skill that is more and more required.

Zzzzzz

It is truly a day of rest at Casa del Evil Genius. We're all quite worn out, and just trying to recover for the start of the work week tomorrow. Being a Christian, I have answers for the questions such as the purpose of life, but sometimes even those answers seem meaningless. It's a strange way to feel. Perhaps only people who suffer from depression can understand the feeling that life itself can feel like a burden.

Browser beware

While cruising the Web discovering new blogs and webpages to feed my vintage fashion addiction, I am coming across some very frustrating mistakes as well. In the main, these involve the mis-identification of people, royalty, specifically. The worst part, is that some of these kids, especially those with Tumblr blogs, don't really seem interested in correcting mistakes, so the false information is going to keep sitting out there for many other people to pick it up. And since members of royalty are historical figures, I hate to think about what incorrect history we may end up with. I suppose that's just a by-product of letting anybody add his two cents to the pool of available information, especially on places like Wikipedia, where I saw some misleading information just today. I guess for the wise Internet viewer, the best motto to take is Browser Beware.

Trending

Last night at one of my daughter's dance classes, I discovered that two out of the five girls that attend the class are "homeschooled," that is, they attend an online school. However, neither choice had anything to do with quality of education. One attends because she had some sort of problems with other students at her school. Her older sister is still at the same high school that she was attending.

The other girl does online school, I am fairly certain, because her parents are very strict Jehovah's Witnesses. This girl was not allowed to dance to "Monster Mash" at the dance school during the Halloween season, so I imagine that going to public school might have been awkward for her.

I wonder if the biggest growth in learning at home is going to be these online schools. I know many people who are intensely committed to teaching their children at home, themselves, but many of the parents I see would never have the interest in doing this. And to be honest, of the many people I know who homeschool, many have children who have some sort of learning difficulty or disability. Sometimes I wonder if too many people change "homeschool is great for my kid" into "homeschool is great for every kid" far too easily.

Of course, one of the things that makes me wonder about learning at home is the level of brokenness I have seen now that my daughters are attending public school and they know so many kids. Going way beyond things like divorce, too many parents are dealing with problems in their own lives, sometimes in unhelpful ways. I was blessed enough to be able to work around my own issues, for the most part, when my kids were little, but it's not always possible. At least charter schools and online schools are getting parents to think outside of the public school box. Options are always good.

Abundance of Riches

Here's something positive! I am concentrating more and more on my love of vintage fashion, and indulging this interest is so much easier to do now than it would have been probably even ten years before. There is an abundance of antique fashion plates, old photographs and even pictures of vintage clothing online, so that I can do research from my own home. No need to be near a big-city library and scroll through endless microfiche, or sit in a basement going through dusty old reference books. I probably would never have been able to see vintage clothing that was up for sale, before the internet. Someday, I would still like to take some classes in vintage fashion, but until then, I can learn and study a lot on my own.

How has the increase in the frequency and availability of media helped you enjoy something in your life? Here's another example: today one can watch even preseason baseball games on television. Interviews with players and managers, details about trades, it's all so much easier to find out things and watch things happening than ever before.

Laughing at the World

I was severely shocked and saddened by the death of Andrew Breitbart. I am not a big name in the conservative blogging world (or any world, actually) but I admired his ability to take hate and deflect back humor. I can be pretty funny in real life, but putting it down in pixels is not always easy! I do want to bring out more on my fun-loving, happier side. Of course, this may also bring out more of my snarkier side as well. You have been warned!

Winter Blues

I've been struggling to stay awake, stay energized, stay focused. Overall, this winter has been better than others of late, but at last the shorter days and not so much sunlight have taken their toll. I've been playing around with the Vitamin D and just get through the days as best I can. At least March will be here soon.

We Must Obey God Rather Than Men, And We Will

So said the president of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, Rev. Dr. Matthew C. Harrison, today at a House Committee hearing.
I am glad that my church body was represented this morning, but I am cynically afraid that it will not do much good. We already know that the beliefs and the alliances of the left do not understand, much less align with any religious conviction. Indeed, I firmly believe that most of the members of our government only align their thoughts and beliefs with the acquisition and use of power. Still, those of us who have a conscience, and have Christian faith, must not be ashamed to let those temporarily in power on this earth know where we stand.

Worn Out

I've been worrying way too much lately. I'm feeling a lot of responsibility for my daughters, given the state of the world that they are about to enter. On the one hand, they need to start being responsible for themselves. On the other hand, I remember myself at that age. I didn't have a wide knowledge of the world; I didn't really know what I wanted to do with my life, and I didn't have enough experience to help me. And looking at an economy that will probably be depressed for a very long time, I'm afraid that there will be little room for my daughters to explore a lot of options or change their minds.

Unfortunately, I can't control everything. (Yes, sometimes I wish that I could.) Whatever comes, we can deal with it together. I'd like to write more, but I really am very physically worn out, and my brain is just not working today! I'm glad the weekend is here.