I’ve got a job and I want to give it back…. I’m the official manager of the brand new shoe store that’s opening on the north side of town. It’s HUGE- twice the size of the old one in the mall. I make decent money to boss people around and fill out paperwork. Okay, there’s more to it than that.

  It’s only my first day on the job and I’m exhausted. Next week will be solid 12 hour days to get the store fully stocked before the grand opening, so my posts will be slim. I had an interview this morning with the police department and although I know I fudged a few areas, I’m still praying so hard my ears are red.  I want that position so much more than this job. 7 grand more a year than the manager bit and I’d be playing with computers and police statistics all day long.  I realize it would be rude to start a job and leave after a week, but I’ve been a good citizen and notified them that I wouldn’t be skipping out on this interview today.

  The hardest part about work is leaving the kids. For all their lives, I’ve been a stay-at-home mom, and now I’m gone for almost twelve hours a day.  Derek’s been a fantastic stay-at-home dad and maybe this wouldn’t be so hard if I didn’t feel so guilty. The kids are sick this week. What’s the first thing you want when you’re sick? Your mom. The poor babies cling to me like a fat kid to cake when I finally come home. Perhaps if I wasn’t five months pregnant, the all-day standing  wouldn’t be so challenging. Ever been burned out by a job you’ve only had two days?

   I’m sorry to complain.  It’s not like me.(unless it’s about politics, of course.) I’m thankful God has given us this monetary opportunity. And I know things will settle down  as soon as the store is opened and we’re on  a regular schedule.  Meanwhile, we’re a concept store, so  we have gorgeous fixtures that are very  high class. I feel so elegant in my store. 

And even better- I get a 20% discount  off all the shoes I can convince my husband I need.  This is what a single gal would call “living the dream”. =)

In reuniting with my family, I’ve realized many changers in us all. Changes are a fact of life. Mom has lost half her weight. My grandma has lost her mind. But most importantly is the bond my brother and I once shared. We’ve lost it. We’re from completely different worlds now and have little to discuss… It saddens me.

I’m now MMO RPG.

He’s MMO 1st person shooter.

We’re just too different. We can’t go back to where we were…. *sings memories*

Debate = HILARIOUS.

(I’m back in town safely, btw. Just in time to be your political commentator!) As you all know by now, I’m voting for McCain. (what, you’re shocked by this?)  So watching the debate tonight made me bust a gut. Finally, McCain stood up for almost all the topics that Obama’s been falsifying lately. Thank GOD John finally grew a pair and told America he was sick of this nonsense.

Regarding that “four more years of the same” chant: 

 ”LOOK.  I’m not President Bush. If you want to run against him, you should’ve done it four years ago.” YES!

Also was the question about reducing the reliance upon foreign oil.

Obama: “Blah blah blah, and we’ll of course, look into offshore drilling as a way blah blah blah”

McCain: “Senator Obama, I must commend your eloquence there. You made it sound like you were interested in offshore drilling, but all you really said was to “look into it.” I want to do it NOW. We’re ready NOW and we can do it NOW.”

 I’ve stopped watching it now as they’re going on about climate change and all that nonsense. I recycle, I support fair trade. I buy earth friendly and organic products. Can I get a tax credit for being a good earth citizen? No? Okay. But I still need  another reason to vote for you so my xanga readers won’t think I’m just some crazy morality voter.

Thanks, Senator McCain. I think Xanga will be pleased with my decision now.  I’m off to bed, but before I go: My Texas readers, give me a few days to get settled in before we begin the second coming of Xanga parties. I love you all and we’ll have ice cream soon. Your treat, of course.  

Tomorrow, first thing in the morning: We’re getting on the road to TEXAS. It’s a bittersweet trip.  I love my inlaws and I love the relationship they have with the kids, yet, I’m so excited to be going home. The prodigal so turned  Yankee comes home to roost. We had a long talk last night with my mother-in-law that made me cry. (I made sure she didn’t see my tears, but she probably knew.)
 I wanted so badly to hug her tight and stick her in my suitcase.
I’m so thankful to have a house waiting for us. It’ll be ready the first week of November, just in time for our first Christmas.  Have no fear, inlaws. We have a  guest house waiting for you.
We’re on the road for a few days. Pray for our safety and I’ll be back later this week.

Love to all!
Amanda aka, Life_by_us

Did you know that 1 in 5 zombie voters favor Barack Hussein Obama? Isn’t this worth your vote?

The reason? Obama wants to take away your gun rights (Ref: Desertvet’s latest post) and that’s the only real way to kill the zombies. (Nori, you pay attention here. I know you could survive a zombie apocalypse but how well would you fare without a massive gun? The rest of us might not be so lucky….)

Now I know you’re wondering what the hell I’m talking about, but I have proof!

“Journalism professor Marcel Dufresne of the University of Connecticut led a class investigation into dead voters and said his group of 11 students discovered 8,558 deceased people who were still registered on Connecticut’s voter rolls. They said more than 300 of them appeared somehow to have cast ballots after they died.

“We have one person who appeared to have voted 17 times since he died,” Dufresne told FOX News.” Reference.

Now why isn’t Obama the candidate for you? And that’s just the zombie count in Connecticut. (Watch out my fellow Parlow family members. They’re coming for you!) You oughta see them in action Zombies are running the ACORN group. I think it stands for Acting Crazily for Obama Right Now. They’ve been grabbing transients from the streets and paying them in cash and cigarettes. One Ohio voter was registered 72 times. Reference. Hmm… who the hell do these people think they are? ACORN = A CROCK Who would work with such an organization of mindless, ruthless zombies? Oh… wait… *smirks* Was that the group that Obama’s “Community Organizer” experience came from? YES! BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA! That’s hilarious.  I mean… not funny. Zombies hate laughter.

Have you been told  that he voted  for veteran’s rights while John McCain voted against them? Yeah, John McCain has voted three times against bills proposing extra money for veterans’ health. But you probably weren’t told that those bills were literally dripping  with pocket lining preservatives that would have spent millions of extra dollars  giving politicians some very much needed butt waxes and  pole dances.  It also gave the same dollar amount to those who served three years as to those who served  20+ years. McCain disagreed, saying that the longer serving vets deserved a higher amount and told them to amend the bill before he’d vote for it.

No way though. The zombies have spoken.

I’ve seen the tax breaks and credits that the two candidates  are offering and I see why the zombies would be thrilled with Obama. McCain and Obama are  both offering cuts. Obama’s cuts appear to be a higher dollar amount, but have you seen the 8 TRILLION dollar plans he has that will triple the amount of taxes he’d *just* cut from our wallets? That’s why the zombies love him. Obama will tax us to death with his new “pay for everyone’s college” plan and the”redistribution of wealth” plan and the  ”nationalized healthcare plan.” (which will kill us all by itself. Military healthcare? Just a small glimpse into the eyes of nationalized care. It’s so unbelievably bureaucratic.)

Don’t be fooled by the feminists who scream about McCain/Palin taking away a woman’s right to an abortion. They can’t possibly overturn Roe V. Wade. Yeah, they might try to limit  the amount of live born baby killings that Obama supports. (which pisses off zombies. They live in hospital morgues and feast on the biohazard bags the live baby is placed into to suffocate. Sounds disgusting right? I wish it weren’t true.)

So yeah, Obama + Zombie = love. Plus, I think Obama’s secretly a zombie, what with his ACORN affiliation and all. Plus, we don’t know much about his dad. Maybe he’s a zombie half breed? Oh no, wait, I can’t say that. It makes me a zombie racist.

We’re in our 18th week of pregnancy and had an appointment today with our doctor. We managed to twist his arm enough to convince him that we should have a sonogram before we hit the road to Texas. As the title suggests, we’ve got a female leech in my womb. (Or a fruit/veggie reference if you’ve kept up with the baby center updates at the bottom of the page.)

We’ve narrowed the names down to a simple few:

Eryn Patricia

Reagan Ann

(The middle names are in honor of family members.)

I’d like to have at least one more name on the list so when we meet our new girl, we don’t stick her with a name that doesn’t suit her.  (Like Odell, Ophelia,  Nori, or something strange…)

So now I’m in an all out cute-a-thon while shopping for new baby accessories. With my Caity, we were careful not to get too froo-froo so we wouldn’t have to deal with a girlie girl. By nature, however, my girl has become a princess. (much to my dismay and discouragement.) So at this point, we’ve stopped caring if they like pink. (except Aidan. It still bothers us that he likes pink.)

Today we moved out of our apartment and turned in the keys. Our crap has been out of it for a week, but we’ve finally finished with all of our appointments and house cleaning. NO MORE OHIO. EVAARRRR!!!!!  Now we have a few days of vacation in Indy and visiting family before we head to Texas on Monday. (within hours of my arrival, Mom and I will be patrolling the baby department of every store withing 25 miles.)

In case you’re wondering, the corruption in the Ohio voting system is HUGE. They’ve been taking homeless people out for dinners if they promise to register and vote for Obama. If they say they want to vote for McCain, they’re not being picked up.  Not only that, they’re being taken to multiple districts to  register in multiple counties and subject multiple votes under the address of “transient.” Nevada’s facing indictment for pulling the same crap. How’s that for sinking low to win?

Head to rump, your baby is approximately 5 1/2 inches long (about the length of a bell pepper) and weighs almost 7 ounces. She’s busy flexing his arms and legs — movements that you’ll start noticing more and more in the weeks ahead. If you’re having a girl, her uterus and fallopian tubes are formed and in place.

We’ll likely be out of town/away from the internet for the next few days so here’s my brilliant write up to leave you with in my absence.

1. Lookie, I made a Lolz:

2. I’ve discovered the Blah Girls on youtube.com. They’ve got hilarious videos if you’re intelligent enough to understand that they’re making fun of everything you egotistically skinny tweens are into these days.

3. SwordandSacrifice, You’re a man of brilliance and you deserve way more traffic than you get. So here’s my shameless plug for your last post that I so dearly loved:

“Read the following from a New York Times piece on the latest Senate effort to ramrod a bailout through Congress! Oh, and before you read it, you might want to look at the list of moneytakers from two main players in this debacle, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

House Democratic leaders conferred by telephone on Wednesday and said they were increasingly confident of passage. House Republican leaders, who said they had been advised about the Senate plan, said the new elements would appeal to their rank-and-file, which voted strongly against the legislation Monday. A spokesman for Representative John A Boehner of Ohio, the Republican leader, said that “Mr. Boehner was consulted and gave the green light.”

Representative Roy Blunt of Missouri, the Republican whip, said Wednesday on the “Today” show that prospects for passage had improved with the changes made by the Senate. According to The A.P., Mr. Blunt said one reason he was more optimistic was that lawmakers are hearing less vocal opposition from their districts.

Senator Christopher J. Dodd, Democrat of Connecticut and chairman of the Senate banking committee, said the Senate decided to move quickly, citing signs of regret from some House members after the markets plunged in response to their initial vote.

“I think their will is coming back, having heard from their constituents,” Mr. Dodd said.

At the White House, President Bush’s spokesman, Tony Fratto, said, “We strongly urge Senate passage of the bill.”

That’s all for now babies. Enjoy my absence.

I was sincerely impressed with both candidates. Is it wrong of me to wish the presidential candidates were Biden and Palin? Can we skip those other two guys?

I was pleased with the ability to see a personal side to Joe Biden and although I still don’t see eye to eye with him, I was impressed with his viewpoints. He’s certainly a lot less left-wing than his  running mate.

However, he really did  make a few mistakes. He said Obama never said he would sit down without preconditions  with threatening foreign leaders nd Obama *did* say that.

He said he was taken out of context on the clean coal issue, but his view points were clearly spoken that he said NO COAL. NONE. Period. 

If you change your mind, be man enough to say you’ve changed your mind. I know McCain downright said he had changed his view points on several issues over the years. (Immigration, Global warming, etc)

Either way, I loved the air in this debate. I was really enjoying watching it for BOTH parties, not just my own.

How do you feel your candidate did?

http://abcnews.go.com/politics/MatchoMatic/fullpage?id=5542139

Do it.

(You know you wanna….)

  Our house is officially moved out and on it’s way to Texas. The movers came at 8 am and left at 8 pm. Out of a twelve hour work day, they really only put in about 8 hours of *actual* work. The rest was spent eating bologna sandwiches on my front lawn in the personal lawn chairs they brought. Never before have I seen  three men in more desperate need of belts.

About Babies:
Apparently, my 17 week old inner child can now begin developing  sweat glands. I’ve gotten to the point  where I’m actually *aching* to know the sex of the baby. I won’t get the opportunity to find out for at least a month. The kicks are more and more frequent. I feel about 4-5 butterfly flutters in my tummy a day.

17 Weeks:

Your
baby’s skeleton is
changing from soft cartilage to bone, and the umbilical cord — her
lifeline to the placenta — is growing stronger and thicker. Your baby weighs 5
ounces now (about
as much as a turnip), and she’s around 5 inches long from head to bottom.
She can move her joints, and her sweat glands are starting to develop.