A Good Laugh Is Worth A Thousand Words...

...when you are feeling blog blocked.

Trying to think up something new to blog about every week can be a challenge when nothing comes to mind, so thought I would share with you a few photos sent by a friend who likes to cheer folks up with fun. I may leave these up for a few weeks until I can think of something more interesting to blog about. I do appreciate your visits! Cheers!

 

HAVE A GREAT WEEK!

 

"Confessions That Enlighten"

I'm not sure if my confessions "enlighten" as much as they puzzle some folks.

I have never much marketed my book and am not sure if that's because after I wrote it and the memoir was published, I was embarrassed to suggest anyone read it. No one was any more surprised than I was that the first publisher who read the manuscript thought it was worthy enough to publish. I do love the name of my publisher, All Things That Matter Press. They do publish a wide variety of books on a variety of subjects that matter to authors and readers alike. 

It might have been easier if I had acted "proper" all my life, but that was not the way it was. My Daddy called me "the crazy fox" when I was very young because I would go to extremes to not have to accept what my older brother expected me to...to obey him because he was the oldest, and male,  and therefore had to always know better than I did. That I never accepted if I didn't agree with him, not for over 70 years. I am who I have always been and I blatantly confessed that in my book...that I was a sinner...but only sometimes. Brother acted like  I was all the time and he was a reliable "saint." Well I knew better. The good and the bad make up ones life and not to have written it that way would have been dishonest. 

Honesty is something that has always been important to me, no matter how much trouble it got me into...and it did quite a few times. My Dad instilled the importance of truth in me and I know he wouldn't have been shocked at how honest I wrote it.

For lack of anything else I could think of this week to blog about, I thought I would share the latest review author Grace Peterson wrote on Amazon. I do appreciate her honesty.

http://www.amazon.com/Confessions-Crazy-Maria-Kolojaco-Mullins/dp/0984639284/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1376322046&sr=1-1

5.0 out of 5 stars Confessions that Enlighten, August 5, 2013 By  Grace Peterson Amazon This review is from: Confessions of a Crazy Fox (Paperback) "Anna Maria Kolojaco was Texas born and raised. A loving, traditional family and sense of community surrounded little Anna and her older brother Jimmy. Even as a child, Anna was a deep thinker with a personality that rarely took things at face value, undoubtedly a result of the inherited DNA of a clairvoyant great-grandmother and helped along by a favorite cousin who possessed the same gift. Perhaps it was her "seeing," converging with her defiance that caused a mighty clash with those who instructed her to believe "on faith" the Church's cumbersome, esoteric doctrines. Eventually Anna would eschew those teachings altogether, seeking her own spiritual truths. Young Anna's aspirations were simple enough. She wanted a traditional life of marriage and family, similar to what her loving parents had provided for her. She married her high school sweetheart, Gus Mullins, at 17 but sadly life would be a far cry from what she had imagined. Anna's fascinating book is part memoir, part essay. She genuinely narrates her life's twists and turns while seamlessly expounding on how those events influenced her inner world. Ultimately her book strives to set the record straight by shedding light on a plethora of darkened family secrets. CONFESSIONS OF A CRAZY FOX was a delight to read and I found myself agreeing with many of Anna's conclusions about life." ***** There were a number of reasons that inspired me to write my life story, but mostly it was because I wanted to document for all time what wonderful parents and  grandparents I was blessed with.

A Dog's Life....

...Is Pretty Darn Good At Our House.

Baby Snoop 

They will need a bigger bed after we quit crating

 Snoop at night.

You mean you didn't plant all those plants for me to dig up?

 The "house" rule is, no dogs on the furniture or beds.  It's a totally useless law since the rule maker disregards it.

 No one around here obeys dog rules...especially the dogs.

 I am the biggest so I'm supposed to be the boss.

I look like the boss.

Snoop pays Oaklie no 'Boss' attention except to aggravate her. 

 I insist on being the boss cause I'm so cute!

Sox implied, "You know if you leave Oaklie alone she is going
to make a mess." That time it was a bag of 
plastic bags to be recycled. 

 The first boss we lost last year we loved for over 14 years, Sox.

Sox obviously didn't think we needed to get a "replacement" dog to aggravate her in her old age. 

Oaklie is getting payback now from Snoop.

Pets become family members and no matter how

much they aggravate you...you gotta love them. These boxers are spoiled rotten by all of us but repay in 
many ways with their loyal devotion.

The Historic Missions Of San Antonio

The Five Missions Of San Antonio

A chain of five missions established along the San Antonio River in the 18th century became the largest concentration of Catholic missions in North America. Built primarily to expand Spanish New World influence northward from Mexico, the missions also served to introduce native inhabitants into Spanish society.

Four of the missions were originally founded in East Texas. As the East Texas missions succumbed to drought, malaria, and French incursions, however, they were relocated to San Antonio.

Missions San Jose, San Juan, Concepcion, and Espada continue to operate as active parishes of the Catholic church and all are open to the public. 

The Alamo And The Texas Revolution

The first and today the most widely known of these missions was San Antonio de Valero, commonly called the Alamo. It was established in 1718 as a way station between missions already existing in East Texas and other base missions in Mexico. It was well over 100 years old when it became the focal point for the Battle of the Alamo, fought March 6, 1836. The Alamo will always be remembered and associated with that tragic battle that cost all the defenders their lives. About six weeks later General Sam Houston defeated General Santa Anna at San Jacinto. Houston's Texan army killed or captured all of Santa Anna's men who heavily outnumbered them; only nine Texans died. This decisive battle resulted in Texas's independence from Mexico.

San Jose (1720)

Soon after the building of the Alamo, a second mission was founded in 1720 about five miles downstream. Named San Jose, this new mission was established by Fray Antonio Margil de Jesus, who had previously left a failed mission in East Texas. A model among the Texas missions, San Jose gained a reputation as a major social and cultural center. Among the San Antonio missions, it also provided the strongest garrison against raids from Indians.
 

San Juan (1731)

First established in East Texas, mission San Juan Capistrano made its permanent home on the banks of the San Antonio River in 1731. Within a short time, the mission became a regional supplier of agricultural and other products including iron, wood, cloth, and leather goods produced by the Indians in its workshops. A few miles southeast of the mission was Rancho Pataguilla, which in 1762 reported 3,500 sheep and nearly as many cattle. 

Concepcion (1731)

One of the most attractive of the San Antonio missions, the church at Concepcion looks essentially as it did more than 200 years ago, when it stood at the center of local religious activity. The mission was well known for its religious celebrations. Not visible today are the colorful geometric designs that originally covered the exterior surface of the mission. Inside, however, are original paintings of religious symbols and architectural designs. 

Espada (1731)

Mission San Francisco de la Espada, like its sister missions San Jose, San Juan, and Concepcion, had its beginnings in East Texas. Originally named San Francisco de los Tejas, Espada was renamed and relocated to San Antonio in 1731. It is the southernmost of the chain of missions located on the San Antonio River. Mission Espada features a very attractive chapel, along with an unusual door and stone entrance archway.

The Espada Aguaduct

The missions' need for irrigation for the crops necessitated an elaborate system of acequias, or irrigation ditches, to channel water. The Spanish constructed seven acequias, five dams, and an aqueduct, using American Indian workers. It's water source was the San Antonio river which today winds through downtown San Antonio and is a major tourist attraction. This system once extended 15 miles and irrigated 3,500 acres of land. The Espada Aqueduct was constructed in 1745 by Franciscans to serve the mission lands of Espada. It is the only remaining Spanish aqueduct in the United States.

San Antonio Missions National Historical Park preserves four of the five Spanish frontier missions in San Antonio, Texas, USA. The Daughters of the Republic of Texas, maintain the Alamo and receive no monetary help from local, state or federal government. They depend solely upon money from sales in the Alamo Gift Museum, donations from individuals and private foundation grants to fund its educational programming and general operation. It remains the number one tourist attraction in Texas.

The San Antonio Riverwalk

The Lingering Mystery Of Crop "Art"

Twenty-six countries reported approximately 10,000 crop circles in the last third of the 20th century; 90% of those were located in southern England. Many of the formations appearing in that area are positioned near ancient monuments, such as Stonehenge. 

According to one study, nearly half of all circles found in the UK in 2003 were located within a 15 km (9.3 miles) radius of Avebury. Archaeological remains can cause crop marks in the fields, in the shapes of circles and squares, but they do not appear overnight and they are always in the same places every year.

Crop circles were first noticed in the 1970's when simple circles began appearing in the English countryside. The number and complexity of the circles increased dramatically, reaching a peak in the 1980's and 1990's when increasingly elaborate huge circles were produced, including those illustrating complex mathematical equations and known illustrations. The precision and detail is amazing.

While there are countless theories, the only known, proven cause of crop circles is humans. Their origin remained a mystery until September 1991, when two men confessed that they had created the patterns for decades as a prank to make people think UFOs had landed. They never claimed to have made all the circles — many were copycat pranks done by others — but their hoax launched the crop circle phenomena

Most crop circle researchers admit that the vast majority of crop circles are created by hoaxers. But, they claim, there's a remaining tiny percentage that they can't explain. The real problem is that (despite unproven claims by a few researchers that stalks found inside "real" crop circles show unusual characteristics), there is no reliable scientific way to distinguish "real" crop circles from man-made ones. There are many theories, besides human intervention,  about what creates crop circles, from aliens to mysterious wind patterns, but they all lack one important element: good evidence. Perhaps one day a mysterious, unknown source will be discovered for crop circles, but until then perhaps they are best thought of as collective public art. They do capture ones imagination and are fascinating to contemplate.

       

The designs are thought to be created by  someone stomping down the stalks with a flat board. Wheat, barley, or rape(canola oil) are the most common crops they are found in but can also appear in rye, maize, 

and a number of others. 

That sounds like it could get pretty tiring after awhile, stomping out one of those really huge intricate patterns. Size can vary from circles of just a foot or so across to designs covering many hundreds of feet

Crop circles have intrigued me ever since I saw the

first pictures of them because they always seem so

precise and symmetric and totally out of place. I consider whoever or 

whatever creates them to be unique, and a little strange, that

so much effort would be spent perfecting an intricate design

in various fields that nature or 

harvesting would eventually erase. It boggles my

mind to think that just two men could create any of these

immense designs,  in only the moons light, overnight.

Politics & Religion Versus Abortion

George Washington also signed this treaty with Muslim interests of the times. The founding Father's had various religious affiliations and belief's but did not try to enforce them on our fledgling democracy like our 
current GOP politician's are doing. 

Kennedy was a brilliant and sensible Catholic leader.

"I don't believe abortion should be a political issue based on the reason it has become... other's religious beliefs. We don't vote politicians into office to decide what our religion or theirs dictates. Freedom of religion regarding abortion is a personal right we were given by our Constitution and verified by the United States Supreme Court. Neither the President, the Governor's, nor my neighbor has a right to decide what I can do to my female body based on my own principles...
what I feel is right for me and for all women..
FREEDOM OF CHOICE!"
Anna Maria

"You cannot have maternal health without reproductive health. And reproductive health includes contraception and family planning and access to legal, safe abortion."
Hillary Clinton 

Abolition of a woman's right to abortion, when and if she wants it, amounts to compulsory maternity: 
a form of rape by the State.
Edward Abbey 

                                    Perry proved on a national stage his memory is lacking.

Abortion's a private decision. 
Pat Robertson 

The issue is not abortion. The issue is whether women can make up their own mind instead of some right-wing pastor, some right-wing politician telling them what to do.
Howard Dean 


There are various reasons people oppose abortion, including ethical, moral, and scientific, but the primary basis seems to come from a religious conviction, preemptively based on biblical principles, that life starts at conception and therefore terminating a pregnancy is murder.

Do those opposing abortion on religious grounds even know that the Bible does not consider a fetus a full human life 
or the killing of a fetus murder? It was an acceptable form
of birth control in Biblical times.

It is quite ironic and hypocritical how the anti-abortion/pro-life politicians talk about a fetus being considered a full human life, when the Bible itself, based on a literal reading, does not recognize a fetus as a full human life subject to the same rights 
as a birthed person. 

******

Abortion In Biblical Times

We know abortion was practiced in biblical times from the passage in Numbers where "alleged" infidelity is tested by giving an antiabortion potion to an accused pregnant woman. The "bitter water" used to "bring on the curse" may have been quinine or several of other herbal and natural concoctions that are considered emmagogues, or drugs that bring on menstruation.(after conception)

(Goes to show you what radicals those old Biblical men really were...let's give the "accused" pregnant woman a potent nasty drug and if she loses the baby...she is guilty...and if she loses her life...well OOPS!)

And then there are the current radicals.

Abortion was recorded in 1550 B.C.E. in Egypt, in what is called the Ebers Papyrus  and in ancient China about 500 B.C.E. as well. In China, folklore dates the use of mercury to induce abortions to about 5,000 years ago . Of course, mercury is extremely toxic. So were coat hangers used in back alleys to induce abortions deadly in America just a few decades ago. 

(It is what will happen again to women if these holier than thou male politicians keep pushing legislation expressing personal religious views regarding female vagina's and a woman's right to choose.) 

Hippocrates also offered abortion to his patients despite being opposed to pessaries and potions which he considered too dangerous. He is recorded as having instructed a prostitute to induce abortion by jumping up and down. This is certainly safer than some other methods, but rather ineffective. It is also believed that he used dilation and curettage to induce abortions as well ...so doctors sworn to uphold the Hippocratic oath are not breaking ANY vow by performing an abortion.

I personally never considered abortion as an option for
me...but I firmly believe it should be a woman's choice
as to whether it's right for her at any given time.
I also believe she should have a 
safe, legal, medical facility
to go to if it becomes her choice for 
whatever her reason.