Fashion Commentary

or "What Your Friends Won't Tell You (But Should!)"

I wish I had pictures of these horrible fashion infractions.
1) Lovely young adult woman wearing a black top & white linen pants. Everything seems together until she walks past me and I see it: a black thong. A big BLACK "Y" on the upper part of her buttocks, seen RIGHT THROUGH THE PANTS. Shudder everyone. Big fashion no-no. Thong is a good idea if you have wide hips, see through pants or tight pants where any underwear at all will leave a very definite Visible Panty Line (VPL). However, if you are wearing WHITE or KHAKI or any light color, be sure that your thong is flesh tone. Wearing white underwear under white pants will only draw attention to the area, as do VPL, as do black or any dark colored underwear of any cut & style. Jeans or black pants that are tight often deserve either granny panties or a thong, simply for their VPL tendencies. Color usually doesn't matter. If you feel the need to wear a black thong, choose to wear black pants. Please. Even my husband noticed this one.

I'm usually okay with the occasional bra strap peeking out on someone's shoulder. I'm even okay with coordinating your bra & top, if you mean for it to be seen (since it couldn't be avoided). But read this one...

2)Teenage girl at the park wearing the wonderful invention of a spaghetti strap tank with built in bra. Except she's wearing a white bra underneath. How do I know? Not from the slinky satiny straps daring to escape from under the built in tank straps. Because she was wearing a RACER BACK style bra. Oh yes. And not simple cris-crossed strapps, with a full on lace panel in the middle of her back. Terrible. The purpose of having a shirt with a built-in-bra is to use it. If you need to wear extra support, choose a strapless bra, or a different tank. Mom, grandma, big sister, SOMEONE should have said, "honey I think you're not sending the right message here." Because the message to my friend & I was loud & clear: I'm too immature to think about what I'm wearing under my clothes. I only checked out the front side in my bathroom mirror.

So there's my little fashion rant for today. I'm sure I have more...

Does Church trump all other interests?

The Do-gooders are great people. Assistant pastors, homeschooling family, lots of community outreach, volunteer at various organizations and are pillars in the church. They are well respected everywhere they go. One child is involved in a sport and does very well. One of the championship games will take place on a Sunday in the middle of service. The parents wrestle with this. Do they say the child can't play because it's a Sunday? Does one parent go to church and one parent go to the game? Do neither go to church, or neither go to the game? Common wrestling questions for parents - how to support their child in their particular interests. They decided to not attend the child's game. I'm not writing to pass judgement on their choice - it's their choice to make. But it began a conversation on the order of life.
I believe the order of priority in my relationships is
God
Family
Church
My relationship with God is first and foremost. All the others suffer when this is not attended to. My family must come next. My husband and children are precious relationships that will last into eternity. The church is an extended family of people. Some I have no relationship at all other than saying "hello," others are close friends and there are many in the middle. My church and my community are places God has placed me to both to learn and to teach. But when is it okay to let my interests, or the interests of my children override a church service? I'm not talking about a visit from the Pope, the President, Dr. Dobson or even a special event. Just a church service. I can get the tape of the sermon. I can ask the worship director which songs were sung. I can get the announcements from friends. So (in wayyy general terms) is it acceptable to skip church & go to the beach once a year? Or to go on a girl's weekend? When my kids are older and have games on a Sunday, what will our standard be as a family?
Just questions running through my head. Each family, each parent will have to make their own choices and wrestle for themselves. But in generalities, when does church trump my family? When does church trump a vacation?

Privacy

Wow, if you're visiting this, you've probably been waiting for me to write here about something - anything! I started this page a long time ago because I knew sometimes I have to write & get stuff out of my system, but it isn't really news or family related and it didn't seem to have a place on the family blog. It seem that there is a contagious rash going around. I'm not sure what the name is. Somedays I call it paranoia and other days it gets called precaution. So I'm putting a little test out there to anyone who drops by. Please leave a comment. Tell me if I know you in real life or not or if we have a mutual friend somewhere or if you were just browsing and found this. There's a possibility I will be shutting down this page and the kids' pages. So I'll give it a week and watch the statistics. Some changes might be coming, but maybe not, it will all depend on me & my mood swing! Have a pleasant day!

Meredith Grey, poor girl

Oh my..... I feel the urge to write but the topic has not yet formed itself in my head. I usually ramble about various events on my xanga page since most events involve my family and that's what that page is for. I know it's a little backwards that this page's address is "robbsfam" and that one is "nickieroo" yet here is where I am more personal and there it is all about the family. Hmmm.... One reason I feel I must write is because David is watching "The Village" downstairs (with Jerry) & there's no way I'm watching that. Can't even be in the same room. Ugh... Sorry for the extreme dullness today. There's a lot on my mind, a lot going on but somehow I don't feel the freedom to put all that together & in public. Oh well.
On to my favorite subject - Grey's Anatomy! I love the writer's blog - http://www.greyswriters.com/

Meredith has issues and they just become more and more apparent each passing week. So far I've discovered her father (a writer) cared for her as an infant while her mother was completing her internship at a Seattle hospital. Her parents divorced when she was maybe 5 and she was raised by her mother, a world famous surgeon. Her mother discouraged her from going to med school, saying she would never make it. Her father was out of the picture but remarried and had two more daughters.
What kind of life is that for a 5 year old? Mother was most likely not there when she came home from school every afternoon - so was Meredith a latchkey kid, daycare, after school nanny? No wonder she has trouble with men, she barely had parents! And the half-sister we met last week said she was 22 but had an older sister in med school. Meredith must be about 28 or older to have two sisters more than 5 years younger but one already in grad school. How long is med school? Did Meredith take longer doing her undergrad work before her mom got sick? Or is she really more like 30, 32? And as for the McDreamy-Meredith-George parallel to Chief-Ellis-Thatcher it's almost creepy. I just hope Meredith sees the hope in the situation, that she doesn't have to turn out like her mother (even if she does have the genetic predisposition for early Alzheimer's.) The vow of celibacy is probably her best bet if she can stick to it.

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Originally uploaded by douea.

Engaged! Yay, finally Ted & Jalene are engaged! Congratulations on moving to the next level. ;)