Fri 17 Jun 2005
Even More disturbing than the fact that this objective was overturned, are the comments made on the blog. People just don’t get it !!!
“Christian Education Resolution” to Condemn Public Schools
In The News
Archived Posts from this Category
Mon 20 Jun 2005
Friday the phone rang. Dh answered. It was our local newspaper. Did we have 10 children? No, only 9. Could they interview us for a Meet the Neighbors feature? I guess. So tonight at 6:30 we will be interviewed. This is what comes from talking to too many people at baseball games. I have been depressed about it all weekend. My dh has had a better attitude. Let’s use this as an opportunity to bring glory to God.
The real issue for me is people’s expectations. I feel like Mrs Gilbreth in Cheaper by the Dozen when she was going to be interviewed as an effiency expert and their home wasn’t efficient at all; they spent all day moving furniture and appliances. Truth be told we are much more like the Benjamin Bunny family, “cheerful and improvident.” I have always loved the Benjamin Bunny family. After all there were always lettuces to be found. But I am not sure cheerful and improvident is what the newspaper is looking for.
I am afraid they are hoping to find matching outfits and violins. The last time I did matching outfits was Easter morning right after my 7th child was born. They all wore yellow shirts to church. The lady behind us said, “Look at all the yellow duckies,” in a tone of voice so sickening that one look from my older boys and I knew we had reached the end of an era. There comes a time when a man has to take a stand. Even a 3 year old resents being called a yellow ducky.
Once a woman came up to me and said,” And you make all of their clothes, too. You are amazing.” I never so much as made a hanky. Or how about the garden thing. “You have a large family? You must have a huge garden!!” Do flowers count?
So I guess this is a prayer request. Please pray for us this evening and perhaps all day as we move furniture and look for matching shirts.
Sun 26 Jun 2005
My dear friends,
To show the exceeding greatness of my own humility I will give you the link to the article about us in the newspaper. By doing this my cover as a slim super model mom will be blown. Believe me when I say I do not give up this image lightly. I am extremely vain. I hate having my picture taken.
The article is in today’s Athens News-Courier. They even had a front page headline: MEET THE ROLLINSES in red. The Rollinses? One of my children asked questionly, “Don’t newspapers have editors?” Another of my younger children, when asked what they thought about the article said, ” I don’t know it sorta made us sound like we are the perfect family.” It is no secret in our home that we are not the perfect family but it is nice to be appreciated. I was also happy that my dh was quoted frequently. And my dad, btw, while having been known to watch baseball games reclining on the couch is not a couch but a coach.
The Article ends with a half page spread of pictures of the kids playing baseball. I wish that was online. Alex is so cute. I am going to try scanning.
Anyway for Valerie who would kill for the article, this link’s for you:
:: The News-Courier :: Athens, AL
Wed 29 Jun 2005
My version of the Matt Lauer-Tom Cruise incident. Incidentally, I don’t like Tom Cruise…never have. The first movie I saw him in was Mission:Impossible and I thought,”What’s the big deal?” Still as someone has said, “Even a blind squirrel finds a nut sometimes.” I don’t think the nut Tom found has anything at all to do with mental health. So here goes my version of what happened.
Overvoice:
Good Morning,Today,America and the whole wide, big, happy world where everyone has the opinion we give them here at XYZPDQ.
Today we have lots of great interviews.
We will talk to the woman whose daughter is missing in Aruba. We will shed great big alligator tears and let her know how very much we care. We will sigh and nod and look at one another, thankful that we can help her get her message out. And thankful for another day of news.
We will talk to an expert about not letting your children play in the trunks of cars.
Do you know 700 children die each day because their parents fail to watch our featured safety tip? Don’t let your child die today.
And best of all, the reason you all tune in….our celebrity interview. Today we will ask Tom Cruise the same question we ask everyone each day. Will you accept the mark of the beast?
Here’s Matt with our interview:
Matt:
Hi, Tom,Great to see you. You look wonderful. Life is treating you grand. Tell us about your new movie and your new girlfriend. Do not pass Go, do not stray from the questions.
Tom:
Hey, Matt, Yeah I am looking pretty good these days. I just had my teeth bleached again so I’m feeling prime. I can kiss Katie for the camera knowing the karma is good. My new movie made by Steven Spielberg is great. Just great. Everyone is gonna love it. After all I’m in it. And I had my teeth bleached right before we began shooting.
Matt:
Tom, each day we ask our guests to recite a little sentence. That is really our whole reason for being here. We want everyone in America to be able to say, “I’m Ok, you’re Ok!!!” Will you repeat that sentence exactly.
Tom: Well, no, Matt. I don’t believe that. I guess I believe that maybe there is a right and wrong. I have hit upon something. I am right and you are wrong.
Matt:
I’m sorry Tom but in America we both are right so if you don’t want to be thrown in PC prison you must say, “I’m Ok, you’re Ok!!!”
Tom:
Matt, I can’t say that because since I got rid of my publicist it has occurred to me that I am sick of this dumb game. I would like to start saying what I really think.
Matt:
Tom, That is a great way for YOU to feel and we want you to say what YOU think but you must also say that what WE think is good, too.
Tom:
NO!!
Matt:
As you can see I am the sweetest man in America. Everyone loves my tolerance but I cannot allow you to continue without asserting, “I’m Ok, you’re Ok!!!”
Tom: (jumping on the couch and looking for Oprah)
NO, NO, NO I will never say that again.
Matt: (shaking head sadly)
Well , Folks, that is the end of our interview with Tom. We will now begin the media blitzgrieg of him because of his arrogance. We are waiting for the judge to decide if he is criminal or crazy. And I hope by now you all realize the danger of not asserting, “I’m Ok, you’re Ok!!!”
Next up:
Our mental health expert will explain how you can have white teeth, too.
Tue 9 Aug 2005
I wasn’t a fan of Peter Jennings, but I was amazed to read that he had never finished highschool. He was a self-educated man. With 80% of young people now going to college I am afraid the idea that education is something you give to yourself instead of something done to you is fading quickly.
Fri 2 Sep 2005
I have a few posts running around my brain but I have been so taken up with the coverage of New Orleans & elsewhere around the South that I feel that anything else is irrelevant. We are still looking into where the best place to send contributions would be; the closer to the individual the better. And aren’t there a lot of social issues swimming around out there? I won’t be getting into those here but it looks like Americans can’t get enough of big government.
Even without a TV we have been able to see myriads of images on our broadband connection. I end up watching a lot of MSNBC coverage which is less than satisfactory. Katie Couric is a true traditional feminist with her self-righteous, change-the-world attitude. She seems to be the great school marm wrapping everyone on the knuckles. If only she were in charge !! The blame game has begun, as if blaming someone for an act of God will help. I guess blaming is better than acknowledging your Creator.
Still it is heartbreaking to watch people suffer and to feel so helpless. I have always been amazed that so many disasters strike 3rd world countries but now it seems like it is just that the poor take the brunt of any disaster.
One thing we are doing as a family is committing not to drive around too much. It is better for our family to stay home more anyway and now we have an impetus. Today we are cleaning up our own yard which is littered with small sticks and debris. We have weathered several big storms since moving to Alabama and this one wasn’t too bad for us. We didn’t lose any bradford pears this time around so I am feeling blessed.
Sun 4 Sep 2005
I would like to take a brief moment to discuss the T in TULIP: Total Depravity. That is a doctrine that while not to hard to assert is very hard to believe. We innately believe in the goodness of those around us. We know our own hearts are dark but we don’t really think they are THAT dark. When something really terrible happens in the world like the aftermath of Katrina we immediately are faced with total depravity. For comfort’s sake we would like to put a skin color on depravity but total depravity is not about the color of our skin but the state of our heart. You don’t have to look too far to find the heart of depravity with a white layer of skin. The BTK killer comes quickly to mind.
It appears that the Ft Lauderdale Police Department and Academy are not suffering any delusions about the heart of man. On this point at least, they are teaching good theology. Nicholas has been told that if he believes that men are basically good, he will not live very long as a police officer. Then he was shown a few films to drive the point home. What do Tim and I think about our 19 yos seeing very horrible things? We are glad. We do not want Nicholas to become a police officer or a man who mistakenly thinks all is sweetness and light. We want him to be prepared for his vocation. Really prepared.
When Nicholas was a little boy and young man we did shelter him from this. That was our job. But gradually as our boys got /get older we have let them see that there is sin out there. We have let them know that there is sin in their, too. (spelling intentional for my grammarian friends)
Successfully sheltering your children does not mean lying to them about the doctrine of total depravity, lying to them about the state of their own hearts. There is a reason we need a savior. Give your children the bad news as well as the Good News.
Fri 9 Sep 2005
I have a confession to make. I have been relying almost exlusively on the Deputy Headmistress at The Common Room for Katrina News. She is better than Drudge.
I finally had to pull myself away from all the coverage and read a frivolous book. I ended up finishing up the Amelia Peabody mystery Lion in the Valley by Elizabeth Peters. Yes, I started it months ago, last winter, and never made any headway unitl all this heavy news jolted me into lite reading. I really wasn’t sure I liked Amelia Peabody and I am still not, but judging from the Amazon comments my choice may not have done the series justice.
And perhaps scooping the DHM, though I doubt it, here is an encouraging word on Katrina from the folks at
PCA Online Magazine
once again gleaned from the Classed girls.
Tue 20 Sep 2005
The boys had a safe trip to Mississippi, although James got hit on the head with a log, our pastor was in the emergency room with poison ivy and Nathaniel is covered in small cuts. It is going to take a long time and many trips to Mississippi for even the norhternmost areas hit by the hurricane to be cleaned up. There are trees down everywhere.
The boys came home with several interesting stories. They talked to one man whose wife and he spent the hurricane in a closet. The man got stir crazy and decided to leave the closet to check on things. As he was looking around, he realized his wife for some reason had followed him. Suddenly they heard the loud sound made by a big tree fallling. The tree hit their house and there was now a big branch in their closet right where they had been just moments before. There are so many stories of God’s providential hand protecting people.
It is good to hear stories like that and to remember that we are always in God’s hand and not a hair can fall from our head in even the most dangerous situations without the permission of our heavenly Father.
Fri 23 Sep 2005
Over at The Beehive Queen Shenaynay has written a funny post about her encounter with a reporter.
Reporters really do seem to come from a planet where they only ask questions they think they know the answers t0.
( baseball cap tip : The Common Room)
My boys once jumped a dead battery for a lady in a parking lot. While they were working the local talking head walked over with his cameraman and asked if he could help. Since we didn’t have a TV, we didn’t know he was a famous talking head but the lady got all a twitter and a crowd began to gather. The anchorman proceeded to bark orders at his cameraman, telling him how to use the jumper cables ( btw, he got it wrong and it would have turned out to be an even funnier story if the man had actually singed his hair) etc. The boys finished the job, the cameraman rolled his eyes and the lady thanked the anchorman profusely.
As we were walking away the lady was still gushing over her knight in shining armour and never once looked up and thanked the boys. Funny thing is the anchorguy who didn’t so much as touch a car part, accepted her praise and thanks.
Ted Knight and Will Ferrell are out of jobs. We are witnessing the end of satire in our time. There is absolutely no way to exaggerate this kind of pomposity. Come to think of it I honestly don’t think there is a whole lot of difference between the much aligned TV preacher with a hairdo and the anchorman.
Which reminds me why I am relying more and more on blogs for real news.