Neaksis (age 10)--1988

Christmas time, O Christmas time--
Isn't it a time sublime?
Hanging your presents right under the tree,
And hoping that Santa will fill up all three!

Now all too often, what Christmas time means
Is lots of cartoons, and some Christmas card scenes;
Presents to buy, and presents to wrap,
And after you're finished, a long winter's nap!

At this Christmas season, I don't want to forget
We must always remember when God and man met;
On that wonderful night, a long time ago
When Jesus came down to this earth far below.

He suffered and died just to save us from sin,
So that we could be with Him when He comes again.
He invites all to hear Him, "Please come unto Me.
I am Jesus, your Savior. Come, let Me set you free."



17 Christmases past. How long ago that all seems, and how near. I wish I could go back and do things over, so that the me of 17 years later wouldn't be sitting here with tears in my eyes thinking about it. So many things I'd do differently, if I could to them over again.

t&l

P.S. Probably'd still make 'em do Christmas poems, though! <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

OK, a question for my Catholic friends, before I have to log off. Tell me what on earth this meant, because seemed extraordinarily odd to me.

My patient tonight (boy, was she a lousy pusher, by the way--lots of huffing, puffing, cheek bulging, and hoarse growling, but nothing translated into any activity where it counted! <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif" alt="" />), after delivery asked me through her interpreter for something for cramps. I brought her a couple of Tylenol #3s, and when I handed the little cup to her, she looked at the pills, then at me, then closed her eyes and crossed herself before she took them. In 37 years, I've never had anybody do that before their pain medicine, and wondered if she was afraid of something about the medication, and was hoping for protection. <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" /> What was that all about?

t&l

tl

catholics are being encouaged to pray when being treated in hospitals as the Church promotes faith and medicine, however I have known people to sign themselves when taking things they dont have any understanding of like drugs etc, usually older people though.
Maybe she was just a bit nervous who saying thank God it was over. <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

My roommates are Catholic, and they make the sign of the cross everytime they get in the car with me to go someplace.

Our Russian teacher, Mr. Volkov, told us the funniest story in class, and I think it was about someone he knew, unless you've heard it before.

The poor man, a quiet Christian in Communist Russia, was baffled when he was arrested and charged with being a Catholic. But then they said they saw him crossing himself each morning before he left for work.

He would go to the door. "Now, let me think." (Hand put to forehead.) "My zipper is up," (checks top of zipper), "my pens are in my pocket," (checks left pocket), "and I have my passport." (Checks right pocket.) Assured that he was ready, he would then walk out the door and go to work.

I guess your question would be, then--do they also make the sign of the cross every time they get in a car with somebody else driving, or is it just you? <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/crazy.gif" alt="" />

t&l

I am not Catholic and don't cross myself but I frequently pray when I get in the car. You just never know when some idiot isn't going to stop. I have been the idiot and I have been the target. You just never know.

I would guess that the patient was asking God to take care of her - to help the medication have the desired affect.

But, I don't know.

This is the poem Neakbro produced within 45 minutes, after days of dragging his feet, while we were gathering for Christmas present opening and he was told he didn't get any of his presents unless he had a poem done ahead of time! <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif" alt="" /> Amazingly enough, at that point, inspiration finally struck... <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> And interesting to me, too, how very appropriately this poem, written 16 years ago, fits right into this year's news.


Neakbro (age 14)--1989

Earthquakes and famines, volcanic eruptions,
Men's hearts all filled with unholy corruptions;
Hurricanes, cyclones, tornados, typhoons,
Despots and dictators, political goons...

Violence and crimes that cripple and maim;
Hurting each other's the name of the game!
Machine guns, bazookas, missiles and tanks--
Does it seem like there's little for which to give thanks?

This world, dark with sin, has for thousands of years
Been burdened with sorrows, and all mankind's fears.
But God sent His Son forth to share Heaven's light,
Dispel this earth's gloom, and its black, dreary night.

In Heaven a King, Jesus gave up His crown,
And was born a mere Babe in old Bethlehem town.
He still offers peace to a weary old world;
In Him the full sum of God's love is unfurled.

Wise men still seek Him, the old saying goes;
He's still our best Friend in a world full of foes.
In spite of disasters, pain, death, war, and strife,
His presence is with us, His offer is life.


A few years back, Neakbro had to write poetry for his English class. I nearly had a terminal fit of laughter when I heard about it, after all the trouble I'd had with him over poems. However, he had to have it in order to graduate, and although (typically) he waited until the last minute, he produced a pack of poems that got him an A, and which his teacher kept for quite some time to show to other teachers. I guess she'd never gotten poems about abstract math concepts and science before. I am proud to have primed his pump, so to speak, with these early, uncooperative efforts. <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

t&l

Flard (age 13)--1989


My Christmas present is under the tree;
I'm sure that I know what I want it to be.
I've bugged Mom so much that she went to the store,
And bought me a muzzle I really abhor!
The cause of it all really makes me quite mad;
I wasn't too good--I was actually bad!
Now I fear all the tricks that Mom might have in stock;
If I ask for more presents I just might get a rock...
Or maybe a skunk, or a moldy old peach,
Or possibly even a 10-foot long leech!

Now why won't this happen, you wonder and sigh.
I think Jesus has told us the true answer why,
For God, just like a father, gives gifts from the heart
To the good and the bad, to the stupid and smart.
Not what we deserve, or what we have earned;
That's lucky for us, or we'd have to be burned!
Now I know I can trust my Mom and my Dad
For a very nice present even IF I were bad;
And you can trust God, for the gift that He gave
Was His very own Son, this old lost world to save.



Well, back to work for me, before I drown in a sea of my own nostalgia. Don't worry, we're almost done with poems. I'm only going to do one more from Flard--I mean, how many Christmas poems have you read before now that talk about dead animals? <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/eek.gif" alt="" />--and a couple from Neaksis. And then, if people can tolerate one more, the one Neak, as the Dervish, wrote for me two years ago, in "his" own version of 'Twas the Night Before Christmas. He didn't just become the Dervish in 2005, you know! <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif" alt="" />

t&l

NO MORE POEMS (from neaksis)!!!! NO MORE POEMS (from neaksis)!!!!

<img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Thats not drowning, thats having great loving memories tl.. Flard was and is your little boy & yes when you look back and think of the times you may have wasted or wish to do over, well been there, still am actually, but if we cant do that we can try to do better can't we?

Well if the year just going has been tough for us lets remember whats it was for others and be thankful for what we have. little perhaps for some, more for others, sometimes it is hard to understand how God is working in the world but we just have to have faith - hard as that is at the worst of times. .....

Night Action Afghanistan

Taking 'The Bridge' pass in Afghanistan

Davo comes home for one last time

His Dad's funeral

Mates losing mates

Dream on! Would you really like to deprive everybody of the "wee, bitsy Christmas sprite," to say nothing of your father, the dump forager? <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

t&l

I think Neaksis poems are a requirement tl..especially as she did not find them to accidently lose them !! <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/pfft.gif" alt="" />

in BIG CAPITALS to just to make sure we all know who wrote it!! heh hheh <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Saw a great sign today in a shop...

"Unattended children will be given Chocolate, Red cordial, an expresso and a free puppy"



lol thats so funny if you have kids...... didn't notice too many unattended kids either lol <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Loved the sign. I always tell people who offer the grandkids candy that if they give them any, I'll give them the children, and they have to take them home!! Still got all 6 of 'em, too. <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/crazy.gif" alt="" />

t&l

AW, when I looked at the pictures you posted, I found them all either scary or touching, but the one of the little boy leaving his daddy's funeral and clutching a teddy bear brought tears to my eyes.

I am not a pacifist, as others on this forum have said they are. Like many other members of my church, I subscribe to the practice of decades, observed when Seventh-day Adventists (such as MS and HP) go into the military--they generally enter the medical corps as unarmed non-combatants, and refuse to carry weapons even on the battlefield. That way they participate in serving their country, but without taking violent action against someone else. When MS was injured (multiple times) in Viet Nam, he was, unarmed, giving medical aid to other soldiers during a fire fight. I only say this, not to enter into controversy with anyone else of an opposing view, but simply to give some context for my reaction to that photo.

I know it's an unimaginable tragedy for a child to lose his dad that way, and now is certainly not the time to try and teach him philosophizing...but I hope that someday when he is older, he can realize that he had a daddy of which he can be proud. In an era where too many people are unable to stand up for what they say they believe, as evidenced (just for an example) on this forum, where many people are suffering because of spouses who didn't believe in their marriage and their vows enough to faithfully live them--there is something honorable and noble to me about men who believe in something as abstract as freedom for somebody else, and not only that, to believe in it enough enough to die for it. From what you've said about him, Aussie is that sort of man as well--ready to risk everything for his country, his family, his mates, his cause...and it reminds me of the words Jesus said, "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." (John 15:13)

t&l

tl

I hope someone can tell that little boy one day and that he will understand. When I saw that pic I cried so much for what it meant for that little boy. I think I saw Mikey in him too.
Its so easy to scoff at whats going on and miss the pain thats coming from so many sacrifices.

Those pics were of the hard things we have faced this year in many countries, doesn't matter if US or OZ or Brit or whoever. Yes, even our enemies.
I'm going to post some happy ones too. Aussies dad once said to me not long before he died that you shouldn't laugh if you have never cried. I understand that intimately now.
It sounds so simple but yet its not.

You know this may sound silly to you tl but even married to a soldier I never thought, it never entered my mind that baring extraordinary circumstances like a old East/West war in EUROPE that AUSSIE would actually have to go to war.
Some sort of Police action I thought yes maybe one day [ 4 of them later <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif" alt="" /> ]

It sounds bizarre but remember we swore we would never get into another Vietnam here so that left being invaded - almost impossible due to remoteness etc - or a UN force like in Korea thing. But a war of year after year after year ,,never thought it would really happen. And certainly not being away for years as well. But I suppose my gran & great gran thought the same thing in 1939.

Strange isn't it?

And those wonderful things you say about Aussie are exactly those things which make me afraid at the same time. <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" />

3 kids for sale, real cheap.

The Princess is screaming and jumping up and down in her room because Mr. Computer was supposed to clean it for a consequence but then I sent him to his room for 1 1/2 hours so she has to do it.

Mr. Computer was fighting with the Princess, so I spanked them both. As soon as they left my side, he went over and belted her a good one. I called him over to try and present some choices to him, but he wouldn't stop his rant long enough to listen. I briefly put my hand over his mouth in an attempt to interrupt the flow of words, so he spit and stuck his tongue out and licked between my fingers. So that is why he is in his room for so long. He screamed all the way there.

The Dervish has gotten the dog dirty - again - filled up with water the hole he dug in the sand above the septic tank, gotten his clothes all muddy, had numerous screaming and kicking episodes, and swiped a package of hot chocolate and ate it all. (He ate a whole package of MM's by himself last night.) That, and he and Mr. Computer spent their early morning time while I was still sick in bed, playing illicit games on the computer. How it was even still on, I'll never know.

I can't remember the last time all three of them were this bad all at once. There is not enough time in the day for clever, creative consequences for everything they've been doing. I am still just shaking my head in disbelief. Maybe I should cancel Christmas? There doesn't seem to be anything else bad enough. <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/smirk.gif" alt="" />

The Dayquil is working, or I would be in a heap of trouble!!! I just wish I felt well enough to make all the goodies the trolls don't deserve. Neaksis is not having any better luck with her children; she & I could eat everything by ourselves...

We sent Neaksis' bio in to the publisher today, very exciting. She is having the same trouble I did about finding things to lend her credibility as a writer. We have no credibility, except that we wrote. I made sure to mention in her sample blurb (they just use it as an idea when they write the real one) that she is a single mother. <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> When she is not looking, maybe I will also give them the link to her Christian singles profile. ("If you are a single male under the age of 35, and would like to get to know Neaksis better, feel free to write to her at.....")

She's gonna kill me now!

Wow, for all our charm, we don't sound much like the Cleavers, do we?

More like the Bratty Bunch...