Going Back to Veggie, Mormon Democrats and Labor Day

From the time that Stewart and I were married in '94 till our second baby was born, I was a vegetarian.

No greater cause involved, I just thought I try it for a few days and after that, meat just didn't look good to me anymore.

I think the one real advantage, health wise is, it forces you to premeditate meals.

When I get tired and it's dinner time, everyone knows it's going to be chicken and rice again. Now that I've gone veggie, that would mean just rice for me ( which would be cool if I were watching a Kurosawa samurai flick, with a bottle of Saki and some empty wrapping paper tubes for the slow scenes ). So vegetable steamer it is. I've found it's quick and easy to chop onions, peppers and a portabella mushroom with tomatoes and maybe some cheese on top. I almost always put out a spinach salad too but I just feel better having a nice platter of veggies. I love to see the kids with a nice colorful plate.


But what really spurred me on to go back to vegetarian was pure selfishness.

When I was a vegetarian, I weighed about 90lbs. I was also running about ten miles a day, in the heat, pushing a double jog stroller, something that's a bit easier to do ,time-wise, with one or two kids than it is now with five. But I think I'm going to refocus on that. I'm not so sure my knees can handle 10 miles a day but they can handle five or six.

On a different subject; Labor Day

Reading to our kids about the origin of labor day, reminded me of when I was ten and my mother went on strike.

I had a very Mormon family but they did have a secret .. . they were democrats. (Can you see here how I checked the libertarian box soon after my 18th birthday?)

I know there are some Mormon Democrats around but unless you are Harry Reid you're not getting invited to any fab LDS parties if anyone lets on.

Anyway, because of our strange household politics, there was a bit of a war going on.

Up until then, my dad could be literally leaning on the fresh pot of coffee (coffee!-another secret) and my mom could be literally across the room and my dad would ask her to pour a cup for him. And here's the weird part, she would do it.

Then came the whole equal rights amendments thing and I'm not sure how it all started but . . .



it ended with my mom marching around the house, hoisting a bottle of Era laundry detergent chanting;

"E" "R" "A" "E" "R" "A"

My dad even learned to make his own coffee after that small revolution.





-Tasha

Oath Keepers, cancer, T-shirts, homeschooling and the FBI

My mom-in-law's cancer has really progressed and it has not been easy for hubby.

Her mother passed away recently and I think that may have been the catalyst for her downward spiral. It was extremely important to her to make a video of her mom's life for the memorial but she was in no shape to do it. Stewart and I are pretty low tech so, Jim Ayala, the guy who does the Oath Keeper videos stepped up and it meant the world to Dusty (my mom-in-law).


She was actually hospitalized by the time of the memorial so we held it in a chapel at the hospital.

One my fav pics. from the memorial video; Stew surprising his grandparents in the grape fields

Dusty was wheeled in- in her bed so she could be there. Dusty talked about overhearing her dying mother repeatedly praying for her as she walked away (Dusty was still able to walk on crutches before her mom died).

Happily it is not in any of her vital organs but it is throughout all her bones and wrapped around her spine and some of the tumors are quite large and are pressing on her nerves. The result is agonizing pain. She can no longer sit up on her own and the reason for her hospitalization was a broken femur as cancer had eaten through it.

The whole thing has been hard on Stewart. Dusty does not have insurance and as soon as her team of docs found out, all their talk about the attack plan went out the window and they sent her home. But she could not sit up or get up on her own at all, so every time she needed to get up Stewart would drive over to lift her.

( Do NOT take that rant as a hint at socialized medicine-just because I despise corporate style health care doesn't mean I want the government running it. You see here, why us libertarians have such angst? )

She has her daughter living there to help but sis isn't able to lift her straight up, the way she has to be lifted in order to not cause too much pain (though she' only 90 pounds now). So with legal work and Oath Keepers T-shirts and hat orders all piled to the ceiling and email that is just stunning Stew was spending hours a day caring for his mom. Of course, now he keeps getting sick from emotional and physical exhaustion.

All of this would be tolerable but you would not believe the things people say in email (The Oath Keeper email boxes now total 9,000 - 10,000 unanswered emails. Stew's personal email receives hundreds a day. ) And if you can believe it- he actually receives email multiple times a day from people who say things like- if you don't answer this email within two days it will mean __________ (fill in the blank with some ridiculous belief like you hate all Americans or you think forced vaccinations are totally fucking awesome).

Now you know people don't generally say things like that in everyday correspondence so it must be something that control freak types save for people they know don't have time to answer as way of using force to get an answer. Some have even posted our address on the net; essentially threatening me and the kids, claiming Stew didn't write up what they told him to, so he must be a plant.

Oh well, nutty people on all sides , I guess.

And ya- we're all getting death threats from all over the web now, but mostly from the non-violent left.

Looking back at grandma's memorial video, I find it funny that people have been accusing hubby of being a white racist. He has the most racially and culturally mixed family I've ever known. Raised in a mix of Filipino and Mexican cultures. It was totally a requirement before we got married that I learn to make chicken adobo from grandpa and tortillas form grandma.

Oh well, but back my regular life. I have gone on Oath Keeper strike. And happily found some awesome people to do all the shipping. The emails are still looking for help but may wind up going on a ticket system.

So today I am actually getting back to the whole "homeschooling mom of five thing."

The laundry does not wait on politics (if it did, I'd run for president).

We're trying out Susan Wise Bauer's The History of the Ancient World. Looks good so far. The little ones are doing the Story of the World. This is my second round on that one and we're using the audio CD to save my voice. Also we're trying out Singapore Math and dumping Saxon, I'm tried of spending six hours a day doing "busy math".

Now for some good news, when Dusty was going to the hospital, the paramedic said his mom was in the same state and was saved by some experimental treatments. Well, it turns out that same team of docs was willing to take on Dusty. Her first treatment is today and I promise promise that I will update everyone on that.

Now before anyone sends me stuff on alternative cancer treatments, let me add this. Until she ran out of money she was going to an alternative hospital in Mexico and is still doing the raw food thing. They did amazing things for her there but it's all cash on hand. No surprise though, that kick-ass experimental medicine here is some of the same stuff they do in Mexico standard. I have high hopes for Today.

In other news, as long as Dusty responds well to treatment, we are going back to Montana.

Our backyard before we left Montana -no need to show our current backyard as a comparison, as it's posted all over the net ; )

Honestly, my kids deserve a better childhood than they can have in Vegas. My oldest turns 13 in a few months and I have an obsession about giving him a tree to build a tree-house in before he's too old.


Oh and a message to "non-violent" folks at the Daily Kos who are calling for the death and or imprisonment of me, my husband and my children, who think the FBI ( who they hated for eight years but now love ) should round us up. . .


You'll be happy to know that we did, in fact, receive a visit from the FBI the other day . . .

Dakota checking his target at an Appleseed shoot (One of those violent American heritage gatherings, where they tell stories and shoot real guns)

Oh wait, that's right . . . they were just here to pick up Oath Keeper bumper stickers.

-Tasha

Do I look like a bitch? Maybe I am. But I'm a libertarian bitch.

I'm considering removing those last post because some freaks from around the web are copying my blog and "discussing " it.

Apparently liberals have suddenly caught a disease. Wherein they now believe the executive is all powerful and saying anything against him amounts to treason.

Liberals, Listen Up

For eight years I've been yelling from the roof tops til I was blue in the face warning against Bush and essentially everything he was doing and or about to do.

For eight years liberals have been saying "right on". We're with you. The President should not be a dictator.

I have not changed!!!

I'm saying the same thing but now receive a totally different response. "Where have you been for the last eight years. What do you mean Obama can't do this? "

I've been here! Where are they now?

If I say I'm being targeted for my political beliefs they say,"What? Well, how does it feel? This is what we've been dealing with for eight years."

If warn against Obama's gun grabbing pals, they say "What? That's fear mongering! "


Listen you "tolerant" liberals; say what again. Say what one more goddamn time.

Do I look like a bitch?

Maybe I am.

But I'm a libertarian bitch.

-Tasha

I thought this was cartoon was cute but I'm much more of an AR-15 kind of girl myself.

Oath Keepers has taken over my life!

When we needed a break from OK, I kidnapped my entire family to the mountains of Utah-no computers aloud.

You guys, this things has just gone nuts.

As a homeschooling mom of five, it's not like I hang around eating bon bons all day. I often fall asleep with shoes on and rarely get through half the the things I'm supposed to do without the OK thing.

So sometime in March, Stewart says he's starting up a little project he's been tinkering with for a while.

There were a few get togethers of old friends and new and then he launched it-just put up a Blogspot called Oath Keepers and two weeks later a hundred thousand people showed up.

Now two months later the MySpace is around 5oo friends (which is amazing because I run that and I have now idea what I'm doing) blog followers are around 400, Twitter is only at 130 but again the problem is I run it, 900 posts on the message board, Facebook is well on the way t0 3,000 friends, Youtube is at 1200 subscribers - it is nuts.

And every one of us, from the renegade video guy (who was responsible for a lot of those Ron Paul trailer style vids) to the famous masked marine of Youtube, are trying to maintain a normal job of some type. None of us are getting any sleep, the emails are coming in by the thousands, and if we don't shut them off, the phones ring all day (and we've never made our phones public) .

It's all a good thing but, holy cow!

I have a few other thoughts to share about how crazy this has become in another way but I think I'll cut off here and put that in a different post. It definitely deserves it's own space.

-Tasha

Aaahhh isn't hubby cute?

Oath Keepers, Lexington

Oathkeepers.blogspot.com Coming soon . . . Oathkeepers.org

The third photo on the wall is a picture of my dad. He passed away in 2006 , some of you may remember the post about it.

To everyone who emailed and commented here and around the web on my sister-in-law, thank you. I apologize for not giving a faster update but you know how emotionally draining these things can be.

She is doing much better and maybe her child to teen emotional state actually has helped to bounce back.

We're taking her skating with the kids this week. And then we'll think on how to handle the legal end.

In other news: hubby and friends have come up with something. It started out as a weekend long discussion a year or two ago and after launching it about a week ago has taken off like wildfire. Take a look.

Oath Keepers discussed with Jack McLamb on Alex Jones 3-13-09

My brain Injured Sis-in-Law, Jailed for a Computer Glitch

I have a very special sister-in-law she has survived a war of sorts; although she has emerged quite scarred from battle.

Some nine years ago my sister-in-law was a single mom on-the-go. She had her own car, her own apartment, a job working for the MGM Grand Hotel and a very full, tumultuous social life; including the drama of a last minute called off wedding.

She worked cleaning rooms for the hotel and her fiery temperament caused her many a reprimand for telling off her workmates.

Then on the day after Mother's Day in 1999 she had a bad headache that just got worse.

She had spinal meningitis.

Her fever topped 106, she had multiple seizures and when the infection was gone she was much like a 2 year old.

She did not recognize family members, she did not know who the president was or the month or year. If you handed her a bowl of soup she would stir it and if not interrupted she would continue to stir for hours.

Through tremendous therapy she relearned basic skills and after a couple of years she resumed a somewhat "normal" life.

Her eyes remained puffy for several years, her menstrual cycle did not resume for another five years. She cannot maintain a job or a household on her own.

Gone are the tight jeans and sexy blouses. Replaced with girl like flowery dresses and always a bow in her hair. She has not had a romantic relationship since her illness.

She was however able to regain her drivers license and although she cannot maintain a paying job she is indispensable to the family.

She keeps her grandmother company and drives her to the store whenever she needs something.

She babysits her 6 month old nephew so her newly single younger sister can work.

And she routinely runs errands for her mom's business.

Three years ago she received a ticket for an "unsafe turn" and outdated proof of insurance. She paid the ticket and has renewed her yearly car registration twice since then (which is flagged if you have unpaid tickets).

Friday at 5:30 in the morning she was on her way to her sister's to babysit her nephew for the day.

A cop who had nothing better to do ran her plates.

He pulled her over and arrested her, saying the computer showed she never paid the ticket.

He allowed her to make a couple of calls. One to my husband who spoke to the cop and told him of her brain injury and asked if he could pass that on to the folks at the jail.That she often mistakes sarcasm for literalism (concerned that this might get her into trouble).The cop allowed her to park her car instead of impounding it and placed the softer plastic handcuffs on her.

Down at the jail they weren't so nice.

They immediately removed the plastic handcuffs.

They slapped on tight metal handcuffs, chained her hands to her feet and her feet to a chair.

She was left with her arms and legs shackled painfully behind her for several hours, until they got to her.

Once they did, it just got worse.

She was stripped in a cold concrete room, shivering with cold and fear and humiliation. She was asked about allergies to which she responded "I'm allergic to something but can't remember what." and given a tenus shot anyway. She was then given paper underwear and jail clothing and stuck in a cold concrete cell.

A single toilet was in the center of the cell in full view of the MALE (wtf) guards.

Meanwhile, on the outside, my mom-in-law had the city judge sign an own recognizances order around three in the afternoon. He said he figured it would process around 10 that night.

Around 10pm we start calling the jail. They don't answer.

Around midnight they called back. They say they don't have anyone by that name in their jail. But they won't check to see if she was there earlier and released.

We are all somewhat panicked and start to second guess if she was in city or county. We remember that the judge who signed the O.R. was a city judge. This means that barring some other computer problem she was released.

This is the area where there release women in the middle of the night.





View Larger Map

I cannot begin to tell you what this area is like at night. But I'm sure you can imagine. Just picture any major metropolis city hall back ally at 1 in the morning.This is not where you want an innocent, trusting soul to be wandering while traumatized and confused.


She was not exactly sure where she had been taken and being dropped off in the back alley of City Hall Complex left her disoriented when combined with the 18 hour ordeal she had just endured.

Her mother showed up to the locked front doors of City Hall feeling like she had a lost little child she needed to get to desperately. She rattled the fastened doors again and suddenly felt the need to call out to her child. She shouted for her at the top of her lungs and a moment later she heard a faint voice call back. She followed the sound and found her in the parking lot behind the building.

For the last few days my sister-in-law has not wanted to leave the house.

She has stayed in bed watching Disney movies and being uncharacteristically quiet.

Today she found the receipt for her paid ticket.

Sigh.

-Tasha