Prayers and Rants (a volatile combo, probably...)

I am having a hard time because I want to post the silly stuff, the family stuff. But I am more than a little preoccupied. So first off let me ask you to please keep my friend Amy and her husband Dave in your prayers. Some of you have heard me talk about Ames before. She is basically my sugar glider MENTOR. She and Meg (one of my OTHER best online friends) run my suggie home online, the Sugar Glider Alley and I love her dearly. She is truly a FRIEND, not just "some girl I know online." Amy is wonderful and an inspiration and caring and a tremendous Christian and a great human being.

Also, by the way, we have discussed a little about the church. Some of her best friends are LDS and she wrote me on my mission. And I could totally see that, well, turning into something maybe someday. But even if it never DID it wouldn't matter... she really is one of those amazing true followers of Christ, no matter the faith. Anyway, not the point...

This weekend her hubby Dave was in a really horrific accident while talking to Amy on the cell. She heard the crash, heard him scream. When she wrote she was on her way to the hospital and didn't even know for sure what happened yet. Just that they had to cut open the car and helicopter him out and that he was in a hospital in Indiana that was still over an hour away from where she was when she was writing. And that she didn't know when she's be back online to update (understandably so!), she had just left the gliders with as much dry food as she could and left.

All she has asked for is prayers. I am going to put their names in the Temple, too. But, yeah, I am sure extra prayers, even if they are from a friend of a friend, well, they would help? So, please... Pray for Dave and Amy. Because I can't think of anything else to do. <:"O(

SIGH.

So, ummm... the family thing was actually FUN. Even amid the dysfunctionality.


Let me just rant for a moment about this. I have mentioned before that both sides of my family has SERIOUS issues. Mom's side ostracizes my awesome, but lesbian, aunt Shy and her girlfriend from all events but invites evil Uncle Slime the horrible husband of Mom's spineless, battered-wife sister, Aunt Doormat. Padre's side ALL sided with the jerky brother Uncle Rude when he and Nurse Popcorn FINALLY divorced after YEARS of verbal abuse. Nurse Popcorn stayed and stayed and stayed with Uncle Rude and kept encouraging him to take his meds as he (like the MAJORITY of both sides of my fam) is mentally ill, but when he was refusing and was getting MEANER, even her BISHOP encouraged her to divorce him. They FINALLY did and the situation was SO bad you would have thought that the family would have said "it's about time, we completley understand" but NO everyone in the family, even though they all talked about how horrible Uncle Rude was suddenly blamed Nurse Popcorn for EVERYTHING and then started disowning OUR immediate fam (and one other family, the Idaho Js)... not because we hated Rude (because we were pretty NICE, really) but because we DIDN'T suddenly hate Nurse Popcorn! AND that we didn't HATE RUDE AND POPCORN'S KIDS (who are some of our best friends in the family having grown up together and spent every summer together) because THEY didn't HATE THEIR MOTHER!!!!!! FREAKING RETARDED.

HOWEVER, Mom's side is, surprisingly getting better, though. But this family thing activity proved to me that Padre's ISN'T. Because we get to the church and everyone is sitting squished together... leaving Squall, one of Rude and Popcorn's kids, and her 2 adorable kiddlets ALL alone on a bench. Sarsa (her sister) hadn't even come, but Squall HAD tried. It was like she had the PLAGUE. WHISKEY TANGO FOXTROT?!

So, my cousin, just a few years older than me was sitting there all by herself (she was married to this guy, G, from Mexico. He seemed awesome. Then a couple years ago he turned totally abusive. She had to run away and was even in a shelter awhile with the kiddlets. YIKES!It has been CRAZY. (p.s. not that anyone supported her since, you know, she still didn't hate her mother)), nobody was even TALKING to her! (later the kids of the Idaho J's did, but that's it) It PISSED ME OFF. I got up during a hymn and sat with her. Which was super fun! We haven't played much since she got married to G. And her daughters were HILARIOUS. They had that Color Wonder paper and markers that just color on paper (not pews or laps) and JanBrady, age 5, was drawing me things like

"this is a mommy dog and this is her puppy. They are riding a scooter. Here are their knee-pads. They each have to have 4 because dogs have 4 knees. The baby puppy has to wear a helmet. The mommy doesn't because she is a grown up and they aren't the law and she only has one. But BOTH of them have a handle. But (she giggles) the handle for the baby doesn't even TURN the scooter, she just THINKS it does."

AWESOME!

And this is clearly a Mommy sheep and a little girl sheep and a Mommy pony and a baby girl pony (though the first she drew was the baby pony and I was thinking she was REALLY good and was drawing a warthog.) and a cow. The cow is a little creepy. Also...

"The baby pony has orange eyes because the mommy has yellow eyes and the daddy has red eyes but I am not drawing a daddy, okay?"

Me and Squall are planning to go out to Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix together, we decided. And to hang out more. Because she is bored and I forgot how funny she is. Plus also, her kids crack me up.

Anyway, Uncle Bob and Aunt Maralyn have been serving missions all this time and have MOSTLY missed the drama (though they still side with Rude, mostly) and so me and Squall mostly enjoyed the talks... or at least I enjoyed playing with the kiddlets DURING the talks... and then we went back to their house and talked to their neurotic conure, Tee (he is bald since the first mission) and played with kids (who DO talk to you regardless) and ate VERY good cookies. Me, Rinny, Mom, Cynthia & Leslie (our youngest cousins), Squall and her girls, and couple other little cousin's children all sat together away and had a great time by ourselves. We talked about boys (as Squall is FROM Fresno, umm, yeah) and movies and work. It was fun! SO SUCK ON THAT, IDIOT FAMILY! And we are TOTALLY hanging out more. Yeah!

I have to say though, that I am glad I am in one of the 2 families in the extended families does NOT hate Popcorn. Because she is cool. And so are her kids. SO THERE!

Also, guess what... I LIKE my Aunt Popcorn, who is super intelligent and a nurse and cool...

AND if *I* were her I would have divorced Uncle Rude, like, 30 years earlier than she did. GEEZ.

But I have a MILLION times more respect for her and her decision than Aunt Doormat who Uncle Slime cheated on... and she forgave him. And he did it again... and she forgave him... etc. Plus I kind of believe he may be a pedophile, though that is more from a creepy feeling I get when I see him around kids AND because of other things "in his past" that our family just does not talk about because that is how they deal with things... pretend everything is, and always has been, PERFECT.

ANYWAY, sorry for the family rant. Seriously, for all the complaining I do about arguing with my Padre or my sister being such a germaphobe, sometimes I have to step back and think I am pretty dang blessed to be in as NORMAL of a family as I am, considering what we COULD be.

Of course, on both sides, the pendulum swings pretty far BOTH ways... besides the abusive husbands, closed-minded busybodies, and various other "issues" we also have quite a few Mission Presidents, heroes, and kind hearts who serve everyone they can...

So I guess our family tree has a generous mix... I just hope not to be one of the bad nuts!

OH! But JanBrady was cracking me up while we ate too. She saw one of those little white butterflies and told us all to look at it. Rinny said "Oh! Why don't you go catch it?"
JanBrady said "No. I think somebody should PHOTOGRAPH it." which I LOVED so I handed her my camera and told her to go ahead. She took pictures for about 15 minutes and said "you can delete them all. She was too fast!" There were about 10 pictures of empty grass. However a little while later she was very excited to show me a small centipede on her finger. "Don't you think we should photograph it? It's the smallest one I have ever seen!" What a sweet little naturalist! Hee hee hee!

On the way home, Fresno called and my family got to wonder what the heck I was talking about when the one side of the conversation involved the name of He-Man's cat when he was still cowardly (Cringer)... which he confirmed in PRIESTHOOD today. Because, you know, they learn important stuff there. hee hee hee hee!

p.s. back to the kid thing.... wanna hear something pretty BIG? When I got home the Roomie asked what I thought about her deciding to have a foster kid. As in a HUMAN one. She has been getting a really strong impression about it. I told her that, honestly, I think that could be pretty GREAT. And I do. I don't know why. You'd think that would sound like a HORRIBLE thing to possibly add to my life. But, I dunno, if it ends up happening I think it would be a really GOOD thing. Is that weird? I mean, it wouldn't really be ME... but... yeah, it just sounded really right when she said it. So, hey, I will let you know if I will be getting a mini-roomie anytime soon. Wacky, eh?