Great email!

SHERIFF JOE IS AT IT AGAIN!    You all remember Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Arizona , who painted the jail cells pink and made the inmates wear pink prison garb. Well.........     SHERIFF JOE IS AT IT AGAIN!

Oh, there's MUCH more to know about Sheriff Joe!  


Maricopa County was spending approx. $18 million dollars a year on stray animals, like cats and dogs. Sheriff Joe offered to take the department over, and the County Supervisors said okay.  

The animal shelters are now all staffed and operated by prisoners. They feed and care for the strays. Every animal in his care is taken out and walked twice daily. He now has prisoners who are experts in animal nutrition and behavior. They give great classes for anyone who'd like to adopt an animal. He has literally taken stray dogs off the street, given them to the care of prisoners, and had them place in dog shows.   

The best part? His budget for the entire department is now under $3 million. Teresa and I adopted a Weimaraner from a Maricopa County shelter two years ago. He was neutered and current on all shots, in great health, and even had a microchip inserted the day we got him. Cost us $78.  

The prisoners get the benefit of about $0.28 an hour for working, but most would work for free, just to be out of their cells for the day. Most of his budget is for utilities, building maintenance, etc. He pays the prisoners out of the fees collected for adopted animals.  

I have long wondered when the rest of the country would take a look at the way he runs the jail system and copy some of his ideas. He has a huge farm, donated to the county years ago, where inmates can work, and they grow most of their own fresh vegetables and food, doing all the work and harvesting by hand.   He has a pretty good sized hog farm, which provides meat and fertilizer. It fertilizes the Christmas tree nursery, where prisoners work, and you can buy a living Christmas tree for $6 - $8 for the holidays and plant it later. We have six trees in our yard from the prison.   Yup, he was re-elected last year with 83% of the vote.   Now he's in trouble with the ACLU again. He painted all his buses and vehicles with a mural that has a special hotline phone number painted on it, where you can call and report suspected illegal aliens. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement wasn't doing enough in his eyes, so he had 40 deputies trained specifically for enforcing immigration laws, started up his hotline, and bought 4 new buses just for hauling folks back to the border. He's kind of a 'Git-R Dun' kind of Sheriff.   TO THOSE OF YOU NOT FAMILIAR WITH JOE ARPAIO..   HE IS THE MARICOPA ARIZONA COUNTY SHERIFF    AND HE KEEPS GETTING ELECTED OVER AND OVER.    THIS IS ONE OF THE REASONS WHY:   Sheriff Joe Arpaio (in Arizona ) who created the 'Tent City Jail':   **He has jail meals down to 40 cents a serving and charges the inmates for them.   **He stopped smoking and porno magazines in the jail.

**Took away their weights..   

**Cut off all but 'G' movies.  

**He started chain gangs so the inmates could do free work on county and city projects.  

**Then he started chain gangs for women so he wouldn't get sued for discrimination.  **He took away cable TV until he found out there was a federal court order that required cable TV for jails, so he hooked up the cable TV again.....BUT   only let in the Disney channel and the Weather channel.   **When asked why the weather channel, he replied, "So they will know how hot it's gonna be while they are working on my chain gangs."   **He cut off coffee since it has zero nutritional value.   **When the inmates complained, he told them, "This isn't The Ritz/Carlton...... If you don't like it, don't come back."   More On The Arizona Sheriff:   With temperatures being even hotter than usual in Phoenix (116 degrees just set a new record), the Associated Press reports:   About 2,000 inmates living in a barbed-wire-surrounded tent encampment at the Maricopa County jail have been given permission to strip down to their government-issued pink boxer shorts.   On Wednesday, hundreds of men wearing boxers were either curled up on their bunk beds or chatted in the tents, which reached 138 degrees inside the week before.   Many were also swathed in wet, pink towels as sweat collected on their chests and dripped down to their PINK SOCKS.   "It feels like we are in a furnace," said James Zanzot, an inmate who has lived in the TENTS for 1 year.. "It's inhumane."   Joe Arpaio, the tough-guy sheriff who created the tent city and long ago started making his prisoners wear pink and eat bologna sandwiches, is not one bit sympathetic. He said Wednesday that he told all of the inmates, "It's 120 degrees in Iraq and our soldiers are living in tents too, and they have to wear full battle gear, but they didn't commit any crimes, so shut your mouths!"   Way to go, Sheriff!   Maybe if all prisons were like this one there would be a lot less crime and/or repeat offenders. Criminals should be punished for their crimes - not live in luxury until it's time for their parole, only to go out and commit another crime so they can get back in to live on taxpayers' money and enjoy things taxpayers can't afford to have for themselves.

 

So very true! Love, Christina

The good, the bad, and the ugly? No that's just my hair!

So what has been going on since last I blogged? Several things, some good, some bad, and some well, ugly...Lets start with a little bit of the good, and it has been slim recently...The good was that last Friday night while it peacefully stormed, I made some amazing chocolate chip cookies! I also recently started a new cross stitch, a birth record for a friend of mine who was blessed with a new baby girl. Last Saturday I also saw The Hangover 2 for the second time. The final good thing is that Wednesday my boyfriend Chris came back, yay. 


Now to the bad...Well little did I know while I baked my cookies and listened to the soft sound of thunder and pitter patter of rain on the window and roof, that disaster was near to striking...I went to bed that night excited for the next days festivities, which was Grierson Days! While I slept though, the rain continued, and early on Saturday morning my mom came up and woke me...The horrible news dropped then and there while I tried to wipe the sleep from my eyes, Grierson Days had been cancelled due to flooding...I thought it was a joke at first...When I realized it was not a joke, I started to cry...Not only for the missed festivities, and the inability to buy my new hat, I was crying most for missing the friends I had so dearly wanted to see...Dad was little support, he seemed to be grumbling about me being so upset about the cancellation, and though mom had invited me to go to breakfast that morning, I didn't have the heart to deal with my dad...I went out to see my poor drowned out friends at the park, and saw the flooding! The overpass that is the main thoroughfare into our city, which has a height of 14 feet had at least 10 feet of water! I'd never seen that flood that badly! Many of the ways out of town were blocked, as well as several other streets...One of the trailer parks was flooded out, and so was our water treatment plant...More poo heaped on us...We were under a boil order and asked to conserve water...We started not flushing unless it was necessary, taking incredibly short showers, and drinking bottled water I went to get from the store...We are STILL under that boil order/water conservation...Its going on a week and my hair and body are miserable! I can't wait for a nice hot bubble bath! My sister was visiting that day though, and to make things better she took me to see The Hangover 2 again, and we then went to look at the water, which had gone down insanely!


As my friends may know, my boyfriend hasn't been able to be around for about 4 weeks, well hadn't been able to. He made his reappearance Wednesday but things have been touch and go...He would be bothered by something, which would then bother me to the point of anger, and its just continued into today...Sometimes I just feel a bit off...


Tonight we had something weird happen at the house. We believe we have two ghosts, two females, one who lived on the land our house was built on named Chastity, and one who lived in our house named Deborah. I speak with them through dowsing rods and they both said, if I remember right, that they liked cats, good thing since we have so many! Anyway, tonight Cleo our little gray cat who doesn't much like her brother Boots was walking to the landing of the stairs that lead to the second floor of our house. I could not see ANYTHING on that landing or the stairs, but Cleo must have...She walked up two steps, jumped back suddenly, and REFUSED to approach the landing...I picked her up to carry her upstairs, she stiffened her little body and squirmed, and when I stepped up on the landing she nearly jumped from her skin! I have the claw marks to prove it...She continued to be tense and afraid until I got her upstairs to my parents room where she was happy to jump onto the bed. This has never happened before, and I had the undeniable feeling that who she saw was Deborah, don't ask me why, but it just seemed to be Deborah...Also tonight I've felt very off...As though something were behind me watching, but of course when I turn nothing is there...I suppose I opened myself up to this, I gave them permission to slowly appear, talk, and move some things. They said through the dowsing rods that they chose not to do these things because it scared me.
Last but not least! I was able to weed in the garden a bit today! The last few days have felt more like the first days of spring than the first days of summer! We were even able to keep the windows open nearly 48 hours! It was GLORIOUS! I couldn't get all the little weeds out, but the worst weeds or biggest ones are gone, and the sunflower population has been cut back a bit. Hopefully soon when the garden isn't embarrassing, I'll post some pictures.


I think that's all...I'll update you all later when something fun comes my way!


Love,
Christina

Goodies!

I feel like today, I didn't get NEARLY as much done around the house as I did yesterday...Yesterday I gave the living room floor a good sweeping/vacuuming, the foyer was swept, kitchen swept, dining room swept, litter box cleaned, dishes put away and dishwasher re loaded, clothes finished and put away, and stove cleaned. Today however, I seem to have lost my steam! I've finished washing and drying towels, some clothes are in the dryer, and reenacting stuff is in the washer. I've cleaned the litter boxes, but not much else...I did however make a sojourn to our local Goodwill for some goody diving! The question was, could I find some things I needed for my weekend reenactment? I sure did! Well I found one thing for my reenactment, but I scored more deals than just that! Keep in mind, my total for EVERYTHING I'm about to list was under 17 dollars!
Whenever I first enter Goodwill, I give it the ole once over, then head straight back to homewear to see if I can find some neat antiques or some awesome reenacting stuff. Some of my previous finds are, a wash basin and pitcher, a bag of old silverware, a box of flat wear, two full sized sheets that looked to be a gingham checked pattern that can be used for a table cloth, two, that's right TWO BIG beautiful sturdy oil lamps! A basket, AND a LARGE beautiful punch bowl with probably 8 matching glasses! Its awesome! Today my goodies consisted of some things for a hope chest of sorts, things that don't have a place right now, but will when I have a house, some jewelry making things, something for reenacting, and something for my bedroom! Pictures and descriptions below!

This is the throw I bought which I believe was $4.52, it has a bit of a rip but I can hide that at the top of my bed. This is for Grierson Days this weekend. :D

A close up of the texture of the throw.

This is a hope chest type item, it cost I believe was $2.04. It is also a bath mat which I thought was just too cute!

This belongs to my Santa Collection. I started collecting Santa's several years ago when a neighbor of ours started me on one. She had a MASSIVE collection of Santa's from all over the world, and she started me on mine. She passed away a year or two ago, so my collection means more to me now than ever. This cost I believe, $1.02.

Here is another hope chest type item. I loved the cross stitch on it, but what clinched this little pillow was the fabric! I loved the circus theme! The circus is part of my life and I just fell head over heels! This cost I believe, $1.02.

Another hope chest like item. I just LOVE old figurines, especially ones that portray the 18th century! Had to have this at just $0.96!

This is a necklace! It cost me about $1.97.

This is the necklace unwrapped, I figured I could easily unstring the beads and reuse the beads. It was so pretty I thought I could make something new from it!

This is another piece of jewelry. These are earrings that I will likely reuse in a different way. Sorry for the bad picture, but the beads are this beautiful clear watery blue color, and they are glass I think. They cost about $1.97.

These are for my room! I can hear the protests now though! "Why is such an eclectic girl getting THESE old things?!" Well this is the EXACT same set that I have in my bedroom currently! One or more of my covers have broken and since we don't have any spares, when I saw this I called dad and he said go for it! They cost only $1.96!

So that is what I bought today! I'm incredibly proud of my finds and can't wait to put them to good use! Another thing that happened occurred on my way home! As I was driving, I started thinking about what I want my persona to be for my reenacting, and it hit me like a ton of bricks! This is something I've played with for a while, but I think I've begun to polish and put the finishing touches on this person. She is a woman of upper middle class background, she teaches and is from the East Coast. Not long before the start of the war, she loaded up her life and moved out west to the new towns that were sprouting up to find a job teaching. The small town she lives in gave her a small cabin near the school for her use, and she works to bring a little bit of the style of the east coast to the wilds of the west. She is by far all the children's favorite teacher! Not only does she get the lessons across, she does it in a way that the children respond to. She is gentle with them, she works with them, and is very open and compassionate to them. She's still very young, and will teach until she finds the right man to settle down with, and her name, well I had a thought hit me hard on what her name will be...She is Kathleen Kallenbach. Why is that important? That is the name of my grandma Staff. Why would I choose her name? Because SHE was a teacher in a one room schoolhouse for six years before marrying my grandpa, and settling down to have her two children. My grandma encompasses all that I want my persona to be, loving, gentle, smart, steady, and incredibly compassionate. I don't think I could have picked a better name for my persona!

Well I think I'm officially addicted...When I came home I rushed to the computer to alert my Facebook friends of my Goodwill trip, but my true itch was to update my blog! I do think I'm addicted now...Oh dear...

Love,

Christina

Cross stitching mess...

I figured for this post, I would show some pictures of the cross stitch I am currently working on. Its moving VERY slowly, I got it for my birthday last year, and started on it slowly almost a year ago, but not too voraciously. I have, within the last month or two, picked it up and very hungrily worked on it. The following is what I have done, what it should look like someday...And some other goodies including a few pictures of Scruffy.

Finally got the poor thing to sit still and rest.

Poor Scruffy and her cone...

Sleeping, finally!

First picture of what my cross stitch SHOULD look like.

Pattern part one! I have mentally divided each page into four sections...

Pattern part two!

Progress on June 12th.

Small fraction of the complete design...Am I crazy? Yup...

The back of the cross stitch.

Organized MADNESS! Each of these colors will be used AT LEAST once...

Progress between yesterday and today...This is the section that is killing me...At least FOUR color changes PER row! AHHH!

I think that's about all, a little sneak peak into my insanity...I hope you kept your hands and feet inside the car at all times, my insanity, and mind can be very confusing if you get off the tour...

Love,

Christina

The Medical Encampment

Though I still FIRMLY believe this blog is a fools errand, and that the disappointment outweighs the pleasure...Yet I have the urge to foolishly push forward like an odd sheep moving closer to the edge before flinging themselves off.
Though my life has been dull recently, as it usually is, I traveled to the Springfield Illinois Medical Encampment this Saturday with my mom, sister, and dear friend Heather. The night before the fury of the heavens tore down upon the small camp in the form of a rather strong storm which was easily felt here at home, including a flash of lightning that appeared to be right across the street and a large clap of thunder on the coat tails of the lightning. Saturday dawned with a dull watery gray sky, but a dry ground. Once mom, Heather, and myself were on the road, we hit a small hiccup of rain, but it was quickly out of our way and we entered Springfield under the same dull inky looking skies we had left at home. With my sister retrieved from her own apartment, we were onto the Old State Capital. Upon stepping out of the van, Heather and I finished dressing for the occasion, we had both worn our blouses, I had worn my skirt as well, Heather opted for more comfortable pants, we both slipped into our hoops, my "slipping" was a bit harder due to the skirt I was already wearing. With our dresses together, our little odds and ends to "dress up" our outfits, and my hair up, courtesy of my sister, we were off!
The air we entered after leaving the parking garage was a bit thick with humidity, but the temperature was in the 70's making for a cool comfortable walk to the Capital. we entered through the lovely wrought iron gates, and onto the spacious emerald green lawns that surrounded the tall tan fortress that was once the official state capital before its move later. We were given schedules, and entered the sea of tents. Heather and I were drawn immediately to my FAVORITE sutler, "The Ladies and Gentleman's Emporium" while mom and Michele listened to some of the reenactors by the front gate. Our initial observation of the sutler over, we walked out and I walked into my dear friend Anna! A wonderful hug from a lovely friend always makes ones day so much better! I introduced my two dear friends, and after a quick chat, we were off again. Heather and I met up with my mom and sister and we made our way around the sea of tents. We heard many wonderful stories from a civilian woman portraying a middle class woman sitting on her porch and chatting, she asked us to "pick the boy" out of the pictures of children, and seemed delighted when she heard me say the way to tell a boy and girl apart was the part in their hair, boys were to the side, girls down the middle. We then sojourned to a large medical tent, where the wind kicked up again, and the dull gray inky sky became a darker shade of black foreshadowing a storm. We learned quite a bit about the nurse who discovered many of the soldiers had scurvy, we learned about civil war pills, some on dentistry, and different chemicals used to treat symptoms. Our small group then traveled to watch a poor wounded soldier being trephined, I'm an atrocious speller so hopefully the definition will help identify the proper word. The purpose of this procedure was to drill a small hole into the skull to allow the brain to "breathe" and move to settle tremors. In ancient times, native people's would perform these tasks to "let demons out" and to treat depression, it is still used in Mexico for depression to this day. What is really miraculous is not only that 45% of soldiers who had this operation survived, but in the case of the natives, many skulls were found with HEALING, meaning they survived the surgery and lived on. When I told my mom about this, and the man giving the presentation said the same thing about the demons a second later, mom said "You have to be a history teacher!" 
With the presentation over, we had time to kill before our next event, and our stomachs were crying out for nourishment, so our little group journeyed back through the wrought iron gates and down the street to Bennigan's! We had several odd stares as Heather and I walked down the street in our full hoops, and Bennigan's was not only surprised to see us, but rather delighted to see us. The hostess had SEVERAL questions for us, and my sister was amazed when I sat easily in my hoops while waiting to be seated. Another waiter had a few questions and comments, but the favorite question was, "Are those hot?" The looks were also priceless when we say, "No they're actually cool." When one swishes, air kicks up, and cools the legs, a built in air conditioner. The woman who seated us went out of her way to assist us, pulling both Heather and my chairs out, helping us get situated and helping us put our baskets on the ledge. The service and attention was truly great! Our waitress was also interested in our dresses, and the woman seating everyone I believe, made reference to us when she seated a recent graduate. After the meal and a very yummy desert might I add, Heather and I went to the restroom and the looks did not end! When we were both preparing to leave, two women came in and asked us why we were dressed that way, they also had the same questions as others. What was very interesting was when we left! This restaurant was attached to the Hilton and a young man in a tux said as we walked by, "Hello ladies". I was honestly shocked, no one ever really says anything more than they have to! 
Once we all returned to the encampment we went to see the embalming, Heather and I took a respite on the ground at the front. Oh I'm such a liar! The event I spoke of, with the trephining was AFTER lunch sorry for that mix up! Anyway, after the surgery we went to get front row seats to the embalming. When Heather and I sat down, another lady in modern dress sat next to us and asked us questions as well, these dresses sure invite questions, but oddly enough while I wear them, I'm not shy! We were happy to answer as many questions as we could about our dresses and the hobby before the embalming began. Our doctor stepped up, and our "dead" patient stuck his head out of the tent, grinned shyly and said, "hello" before hopping up on the table and proceeding to "die". Our embalmer proceeded to explain the reasons for different things, such as binding the mouth shut, putting half dollars on the eyes, and a brief history of embalming. He then explained the purpose and name of each of the chemicals used, and demonstrated the "modern" way of embalming using a pump of sorts, he had a volunteer pump the air, and water shot out quite a bit from the tip, something that was MUCH faster than the previous method of inserting the liquid with a syringe. With our other demonstration over, we went through the camp again, and visited the Ladies and Gentleman's Emporium one last time, Heather sat back a lovely bonnet for Grierson Days, and I made a deal that I would work around the house to earn the money I needed for my own bonnet, which was set aside. With that done, we loaded up, or I should say we shed some extra attire, Heather her hoops and skirt, me my hoops and accessories, climbed in the van, and made our way home! All in all, it was a FANTASTIC day! I also would LOVE it if we could add this sort of element to the Grierson Day's event to keep the families before and after the battle. Pictures below! 

Our poor head injured soldier.

Drilling a small hole in the soldiers skull.

They had to have done a good job, they asked a young boy what the white thing was, he said the skull, they asked what the red thing was, he wasn't sure but they said that is his brain.

Medicines.

Embalming.

The unlucky dead one. ;)

More embalming.

Medical instruments.

More medical equipment.

Medicine chest.

Myself and my FAVORITE Mr. Lincoln, Max Daniels! Bad picture of me...Didn't know mom was snapping it...

Love,

Christina

Maybe I give up...

I feel like this entire thing has been a massive mistake. I feel more isolated and miserable than I have in a long, long time, and my "happy" facade has cracked and broken into a billion small pieces that I can't figure out how to put back together. I think this blog, and me, are a huge mistake and I don't know that I will be updating anymore. It seems to be such a foolish endeavor, and not really worth keeping up with...Sorry to anyone who actually reads this, but I just don't care right now... 


Christina

Poll time!

I'm always curious to know what my readers want to know more about, and I'd love to keep you all interested in my blog posts. I understand not all my readers have a Gmail account, and so they don't actually follow, or comment here, but those friends who come here from Facebook can give me their ideas on Facebook. ^.^ So I want to know, what do my readers want to hear more about? Me, pets, my daily life, cross stitching or other art, my plants, the sky is the limit and I want to keep my posts interesting. Your feedback means a lot to me! Thanks everyone!
Love,
Christina