See, the thing about having Ben gone, aside from missing him of course, is that I totally hear things. Urgh. Like my ears get super powers and I can hear the house settling and the cars on I-5 and well, I’d like to assume it is cats or squirrels that I hear out there right now. Like Mr. Rabbit lost in the woods. I freaked out and realized all the shades in the house were up and lights were on and anyone lurking outside could see me, so I remedied that situation and now I am typing this in the dark. Yeah. No- not much better. I spook too easily when I am by myself. It’s not healthy and I’m likely to wake my neighbors or call the cops or hurt myself. Poor Johnathan. Who would protect him if there really was danger and his mom just acted like a spaz. Oh- but there is no danger and I just need to relax.

On a much lighter note I am getting my hair cut tomorrow! At a salon! It will be the first time I have stepped foot in one since my last perm in the sixth grade. Oh wait! There was that time in the ninth grade my Aunt Kathy took me to the beauty school to fix whatever awful color of hair I accidentally ended up with. Well. The first time since I can remember that I am getting it cut anyway, complements of Grandma:) I am more excited about having my head touched than the actual hair cut though. Mmmmm. Massage. If I had money to throw around I’d pay them just to run their fingers through my hair!

The creepy creaking has slowed, I should tidy the house a little for tomorrow’s walk-through and go to bed! If I can manage to fall asleep. With the telephone in my hand.
G’night.

Today Durin (and Atticus) moved to another loving home because of Johnathan’s most recent allergy findings. It was one of the hardest things that I’ve done, parting with a friend like that, but it had to be. He will be cared for, and I can rest with peace in that fact. He will always hold a special place in our hearts.

The 2005 September gallery is up and ready for viewing. Shae has taken the liberty of selecting several of her favorites. You can see them by clicking here.

For anyone with links to our site, I changed theWordPress installation to be in the root directory of our site, rather than in the journal folder. Never fear though, I created a symbolic link so that no links will be rendered 404. Let me know if anything doesn’t work right…

FYI - This Speech has been altered in several major ways since I’ve memorized it… someday I might re-type the manuscript but not today.

As a parent, I now have an appreciation for life that surpasses any other emotion conceivable. Children are the future of our Earth, and they are each treasures. Yet, in Africa a child dies every 30 seconds, according to the Public Affairs Institute, March 2004. This is the equivalent of an entire school bus, full of children, being destroyed every 17 minutes, 24 hours per day. What could cause this horrible atrocity? Malaria. A disease that according to many scientists today can be beaten with a tool that we’ve known about for nearly a century. This tool is DDT. Wrongfully banned, and the only true solution. Between two hundred and six hundred million people are affected with malaria alone each year and the roughly two million children under the age of five will not live through it. Deadly mosquito-borne virus’s, such as malaria and West Nile, have threatened our own country, past and present, and will continue to do so if we do not act soon. We in the United States in particular need to rethink our policies and strategies regarding the worldwide use of DDT to contain malaria and other mosquito-carried diseases.
– First, we will need to look at these viruses and their ever-increasing threat to the human population. Then, we’ll explore the specific matter of our position with regards to DDT and how this is further fueling these problems. With that covered, we can examine some steps to take to hopefully get to the bottom of this global disaster.
Read more »

Shae will have to extrapolate on this, but yesterday was definitely a low-blow for us. Djai went in for a visit with an allergy specialist to see if we could continue to narrow down the cause for his rashes. They did a very small-scale scratch test to that compared with an adult, and they found many of the things that we already knew about. Plus… Djai happens to be highly allergic to cats. Truly a low-blow.

Taken from today’s paper, The Columbian:

* The Clark College Speech and Debate Team competed at the Pioneer Invitational Forensics Tournament at Lewis and Clark College and placed second among all community colleges attending. Several individuals also received awards:

Ben Cecka, West Hazel Dell: first place, novice duo interpretation; finalist, junior persuasive speaking; and quarterfinalist in novice parliamentary debate.

Nik Vaughn, Edgewood Park: first place, novice duo interpretation and quarterfinalist in novice parliamentary debate.

Gloria Scheel, Battle Ground: first place, novice impromptu speaking.

Joseph Ficken, Burnt Bridge Creek: third place, novice impromptu speaking.

Blake Stewart, Cascade Park: finalist, novice informative speaking.

Jacob Greer, Cascade Park: finalist, junior informative speaking.

Ana Fonokalafi, Northeast Hazel Dell: finalist, junior prose interpretation.

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