Tweet Tweet

I have just entered the new world of Twitter and have no idea what I am doing!!! What iPhone apps do I use to link my Twitter and Facebook? How do I add the join me on Twitter button here to my blog? How do I change the sidebar color on my Twitter page? Oh I have so many questions and no one to answer them. I have the feeling figuring out how to Twitter and link is going to be my big project of the day. Wish me luck and pray I will be able to pull myself away long enough to take a shower!! Has anyone seen my kids?!?!

My twitter link http://twitter.com/simplykjones

Graduation

~* In photo(Ric, my nephew Jay and sister Elba)*~

Yesterday my family witnessed with pride my nephew Jay graduate from high school. Jay is not the first in my family to graduate, I have 6 nieces and nephews, 1 great niece and 1 great nephew with another one on the way. Jay's is the 4th graduation we have had the pleasure to attend and I must confess the best one yet.

Now I say that not because I favor Jay but because the speeches given by the chosen graduating students were so much more powerful and poignant than any Valedictorian's speech I had ever heard.

Let me give you a little background, Jay's school is a Continuation School although I think it should be considered an Alternative School. I know Continuation Schools have a reputation for being a school for uncontrollable, disrespectful "bad" kids but that really just isn't the case. I attended this same school and I wasn't a bad kid. I was a kid who suffered a family tragedy, lost my motivation in life and because of that loss of motivation fell behind in school. I couldn't keep up with my graduating class and so I was sent to Continuation School to graduate at my own pace.

This was the story for most the kids who attended school with me. For one reason or another they fell behind and just didn't care anymore. Sure there was 1 or 2 kids who were there because the just thought they were too cool to follow "regular" schools rules but everyone knew it was just a show. Once we realized that we set our own pace, that the teachers are here for us and that nobody has the same amount of credits so your title of "Senior" and "Junior" doesn't matter anymore, the stress of school disappeared and we all just ran our own race.

That's what the student speakers of my nephew's graduating class tried to convey. They all had slipped but they never gave up. That Continuation School is not a place where kids who have no hope or future go. That shame and embarrassment do not walk their halls but that courage and pride does because the only one they are competing with in this school was themselves. They all had a past, they all had a story but that past didn't define who they were or who they were going to become.

It was the best graduation I have ever attended.

A Little Help From My Friends

CALLING ALL FRIENDS...CALLING ALL FRIENDS...I need some tips/advice/education from my blog world friends. I want to improve my blog and improve traffic to my blog. My question is this, what and or who do you link? What is the link for? How do you link? Also labels how do I use them and what do I label? I would appreciate any and all advice and or suggestions so I hope to hear from you soon.

Welcome Home

I have been so busy and yet I feel that I have accomplished nothing!! Anyone else ever feel that way?? Can summer vacation really be just 2 and a 1/2 weeks away?!?! Well I hope you are all doing well and this post finds you better prepared and organized than I am. I am not used to being so unorganized and so unmotivated but to tell you the truth I kinda sorta like it. My wonderful hubby helps me so much I find myself twiddling my thumbs, and let me tell you twiddling your thumbs is not as bad as our mothers made it out to be. With all this time on my hands I have been able to embark on an old obsession Paddington Bear.

I LOVE Paddington Bear!!! I just won 2~ 1975 plush Paddington Bears on eBay *swoon* I have also been doing some redecorating. I finally got the toile curtains I have wanted for years and we are redecorating the office in Parisian, style of course. Once I have it all put together I will post pic after pic after pic of the new looks. Life is good, I feel like the luckiest girl in the world.

Stripping For Kids

Every morning I like to have a cup of coffee and watch HLN (CNN Headline News)This morning was no different. I sat down to enjoy my yummy cup of vanilla coffee and watch Christi Paul inform me of the days events, and then it happened. It was so random... it was so unexpected... it caught me totally by surprise. It was delicious, it was ridiculous, for a moment I questioned if it was really happening and then a tear started to form in the corner of my eye. It was real and it was happening. Christi Paul read her news teleprompter with her usual professionalism, elegance, and grace like she has done so many times in the past. As those sweet words passed through her lips and gently landed on my ear like a best friends secret a warm sensation came over me and I knew Jesus really does love me and he just gave me a hug!!!

She asked and I quote "Would you favor taxing strip club patrons to fund your state's education budget and is there a moral conflict?" Oh the phone lines, face book,and twitter were all in an uproar and every southern baptist over 65 with a little time on their hands was on the line. All I could do was sit at my kitchen table in amazement rapidly blinking my eyes. The story was so delicious first of all she said that strippers were picketing, what I believe was THEIR OWN strip club for the children. Now perhaps the news crew on the street caught the picketing strippers in between a shift change or perhaps it was just a bad day to film but their was 4 people picketing, 2 strippers and 2 bouncers that's it!!!

This was HLN's big story and would be their big question of the day. 4 people outside a strip club walking in a circle trying to save education by taxing the pole. I LOVE AMERICA & I LOVE HLN!!!! It was awesome, people were calling up saying how unethical and immoral it was for the state to even consider the idea of taking revenues from strip clubs to help fund educational programs for children. Now by this line of thinking I was confused. I mean did people think that our children would be exposed to the click clack of clear high heal shoes? Would the recipient schools hold a special assembly and a group of strippers would appear in their stripper uniforms with a giant check to present?

Would our children be screaming out "THANK YOU" in unison to Sexy Lexi and all her friends for going that extra mile on the pole? Or would the schools money be covered in glitter and smell like cotton candy, strawberries or whatever body spray sent that is popular with today's strippers?

To tax the pole or to not tax the pole; that was HLN's question. What a way to start the day.

I'm Still Here!!

So lots has been happening in my life and I find myself desperately trying to keep up. All is good with my family now, things have worked out and my husband and I are back together. Our family is whole again but extended family relationships are strained and or completely severed.Thank you to all who have kept not only me but my family in your prayers and thoughts. I hope to catch my breath and really sit down and dish with you all that has occurred in my crazy life. Oh and how weird is this my life goes through one of the greatest challenges I have ever experienced and I have no anxiety or symptoms of O.C.D...HELLO!!!

Hope all is well with you my friends, lets chat soon over a cup of coffee.

XoXo
K.Jones