Thursday 13

My husband's grandfather recently passed away. His family is not Jewish nor Messianic so it was a little strange to me to not mourn along with Jewish culture and beliefs. I thought it would be interesting to state 13 things about mourning in the Jewish culture and religion.

It should be noted that my comment section on this particular TT is not a place for you to share your disagreement with my religious beliefs. Say something nice, or don't say anything at all.

1. It is customary to cover the mirrors in the home. This shows that you are too preoccupied with the death of your loved one to care about your appearance.

2. It is customary to sit low to the ground, showing that you are in a valley or low spot of your existence.

3. A period of seven days from the burial called "Shivah" is observed in which many of the customs in this list are carried out.

4. Flowers are not normally a part of a Jewish funeral.

5. Family members often have their shirt torn as a sign of their immense grief. The side of the shirt that is torn depends on who has passed away.

6. All Jews are buried in the same type of clothing. This is because we are all the same before God.

7. The anniversary of the death is traditionally remembered and observed, this is known as yahrzeit.

8. Some families throw or shovel dirt onto the casket at the graveside.

9. The back side of the shovel is often used if the dirt is shoveled into the grave.

10. Charity is often given at the time of the yahrzeit.

11. The non-judaic customary "3 days" is usually not observed after the death of a Jewish person.

12. The reasoning behind this fast burial is that the body is all that is left and the person is now with God.

13. These traditions help some mourners feel that a process is occurring, thus helping them heal faster.

...And This Little Piggie Went Home

The other night I was shopping in Wal-Mart. I was just walking along, pushing my cart, and minding my own business. Then, the left back wheel on the cart decided it wanted to fight. It started talking dirty and throwing its weight around to my left pinkie toe.

Before I knew it, Pinkie had had enough and she started talking back to Left Back Wheel. They bickered for a few minutes and the next thing I knew "BAM!" Left Back Wheel had a run in with Pinkie. Pinkie lost. In fact, she was a big loser.

So, there I am bleeding profusely on the cleaning supply aisle. I decide, since the jeans I had on were brand spanking new, that I should roll them up like I'm wading in water so they won't get Pinkie's blood on them. That worked pretty well, but now everytime I put on shoes Pinkie wants to whine and complain.

With every step I take she's gritching and griping about Left Back Wheel and how she's gonna show him the next time she's in her pretty pink Old Navy flip flops at Wal-Mart. I think she's actually more mad than she should be, which could be due to the fact that I cram her in high heels to go to work all day long. Pinkie keeps wanting me to sue Wal-Mart since I'm technically already her attorney, but I'm refusing.

I guess this is my punishment for shopping at Wal-Mart corp.

hugs, love and chihuahua kisses

Brigade Moms

Do you guys know anybody that would qualify to be a "brigade mom?" The criteria are quite specific, and are as follows:

1. You must truly believe in your heart of hearts that your child we be seriously hurt if they get too dirty outside.

2. You are constantly rubbing things off your elementary age child's face.

3. You can only talk about your child and how wonderful he/she is to other moms.

At the wedding last weekend I experienced my share of brigade moms. It seemed that their children never looked good enough for pictures, and I even had one mom ask me right in front of her daughter to confirm how bad her daughter looked. Maybe I'm just too anti-brigade, but she looked fine to me. When I told the mom that I thought the daughter looked fine mom asked me again to confirm her daughter's ugly-ducklingness to her face. Alas. I again said the daughter looked fine and the mom stormed off.

Beware of brigade moms peeps!

hugs, love and chihuahua kisses

Better Days

Thanks to everyone for your well wishes. They must have really worked because I've lost two more lbs., making it 4 total. Thus, I am feeling much better about myself.

Today is grandparent's day at Little-Girl's school, so her daddy and I are going to go eat with her because only one grandparent will be there. She has also decided to play viola after an orchestra meeting we had last night at the high school she'll be going to. Her first class is Monday, and I'm very excited. We have adopted an outside cat that is such a sweetie. His name is Ernie Ernesto. He's a Tom, black and has the sweetest personality. Shhh...don't tell the chi's I said that!

I'm sitting here trying to think of something interesting or funny that has happened to me lately, and I just can't think of a thing. I'll keep a sharp eye out today. It should be easy enough. I have a day full of crazy clients, obnoxiously overprotective parents at the g-parent lunch, my cousin's wedding rehearsal tonight and tomorrow night her wedding. Gosh, it does sound easy now.

I wanted to take a moment to tell all of my internet friends how much I appreciate you guys and our net friendship. I really look forward to blogging with ya'll!

hugs, love and chihuahua kisses

Sleepy Time

All is well in the Princess home. Human child is asleep in her room, furry chihuahua is asleep on the floor, non-furry chihuahua asleep under the covers, and Casey asleep there as well.

I've been really down lately. Pretty much about being overweight. Its not that bad, and it could be worse. But, this is the most I've ever weighed, and perception is everything. I do so well during the day eating fruit and protein and veggies...drinking my water and working out. Then comes the dreaded evening. I'm too tired and hubby is too tired and it is just way too easy to scarf down junk. Ooops. There goes my healthy eating choices for the day. Then after a few days of this I feel even more horrible about myself, and the cycle continues from there. This cycle must be extremely painful when you apply it to overindulgence in things that can kill you--like drugs or alcohol. I think I should turn my attitude around and be thankful that I don't have those problems. I don't have a problem at all really.

There are millions of people around the world that would trade their problems in for some weight to lose, or not looking picture perfect for Cancun.

Discipline. Its such a naugty word. How did I make it through college and law school and all that discipline needed to study, and I can't stop myself from a bag of chips when I get home from work!

hugs, love and chihuahua kisses

Hey everyone!

I hope that everyone had a nice, relaxing long weekend. We went to my cousin's football game on Friday night, Tulsa on Saturday and to my hubby's home town yesterday. Whew! I was exhausted. I made up for it by taking a 3 or 4 hour nap today. And, I'm already ready for bed tonight. Crazy, huh!

I've been on the "Cancun diet" which is something I've made up to try to lose weight before our big trip. I'm so frustrated with what I look like, and I hope the Cancun diet helps that. I've lost 2 lbs. so far...so that's good.

I've really been trying to make my comment rounds. I am looking forward to hearing what all of ya'll did for your weekends.

hugs, love and chihuahua kisses