The US government has struck again. The news said this morning that the government is no longer recommending women get annual mammograms beginning at age 40. Now it's bumped up to 50, and they are recommending every two years. On top of that, the most HORRIBLE news to me, is that they are now trying to say that self breast exams are worthless. The government beaureacrats claim that all SBEs do is encourage unneccessary biopsies.

EXCUSE ME????

I was diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 35. I found a lump in my breast during one of those worthless self breast exams. I have encouraged other women to do their monthly routine SBE ever since. Had it not been for that silly little self breast exam, I might not have a breast. I might not even be alive. Because of that self breast exam, my cancer was caught extremely early, and I was able to have a lumpectomy instead of a mastectomy.

On top of that, I know of at least 3 other people within a 25-mile radius right here in rural Iowa that are also alive and well, breast in tact (well, mostly in tact considering we had to have a chunk of it cut out) because of a routine monthly self breast exam. Two of these women, like me, were also UNDER the age of 40 when the lump was discovered. The other lady was under 50.

I see this as a precursory move by the government to cut health care expenses before universal health care takes effect. The government needs to mind their own stinkin' business!!!

I love this little video. It needs to become an anthem for diabetics.

John and I are in the process of buying a home. We actually started looking for a house the beginning of August, and we found one we liked at the end of September. Yes, it took nearly 7 weeks for us to find a home that we actually liked that was in our price range. We signed the purchase agreement Sept. 22. It seems to just drag on from there.

I'm getting frustrated with the home-buying process, but I do trust the God is in control of this. He has been since the beginning and I do believe this will be a testimony to my husband as well. A couple of examples: 1) I've told John all along that if God wanted us to have this, he'd bring us to the right house in the right price range at the right time and it would be right for the seller as well. When we found this house, we had actually been scheduled to look at another house but we didn't like it at all. The realtor said, "I've got another to show you if you have time. It just came on the market today. We looked and we loved it. It was missing a garage door. We asked the sellers to pay for the garage door as a condition of the purchase, as well as to give us a $2000 credit toward closing. The realtor told us we were asking for too many concessions for a home that had been on the market only one day, but my attitude was "if it's meant to be, it's meant to be" and if they didn't agree it wasn't meant to be. They agreed.

One of the reasons we sought out buying a house this year was the first-time homebuyers credit. The entire time we've been married, we've rented, so we qualify. But, we had a deadline to close by Nov. 30. We need the homebuyers credit to replace the money that we were going to use to pay down our toxic debt. John's been getting really worried and has been saying, "If we don't close on time then this was pointless." I told him that God knows our needs and will see to it that it happens. We may be closing at 10 p.m. on Nov. 30, but it will happen. Lo and behold, the government extends the homebuyer credit. Now we do not have to worry about the deadline at all.

God is so good!

Does anyone know what happened to all of my photos? I haven't been on in a while, but I did pay for a lifetime subscription so I could store my pics here back when Xanga only allowed photo storage for subscribed members. I realize I haven't been spending much time here lately, but come on? Now I'm going to have to do a complete redesign of my site because they've even taken my custom-designed header.

This is the 3rd weekend in less than a month that our Internet has been down. I called the cable company last night and the guy was like, "well, our engineers are doing their best to get it back up." I find it kind of odd that it's always on the weekend that they go down. So I tell the guy that I know they can't get it back on any faster, but I don't think I should have to pay my full cable bill when they haven't been providing me with the full service. He gave me a week of credit on my bill. Thank you very much. I might have been unable to post like I wanted, or to look up some information at the Internet Movie Database when John and I sat here trying to figure out where we know an actor in a movie from, but I got a quarter off my cable bill.

I finally joined Facebook. For years, John has given me crap about socieal networking sites and how they invite viruses into your computer. Tonight, #1 daughter told me that I needed to join Facebook so I can see pics of the grandkids as she is always taking pics of them and it's so easy to upload stuff from your phone. OK, I'll bite. I grumble because Facebook doesn't think the legitimate e-mail address I provide it is valid, so John tells me to try logging in using his Facebook account? WHAT??? What happened to how bad social networking sites are? Why is he, the anti-social person in this family, already on Facebook? So he can talk to some of his old Army buddies. No fair! But I'm on Facebook now. I only had to enter in 3 different e-mal addresses to get it to let me in. It wasn't an address I normally provide for things because I don't want the junk mail that seems to follow. We'll see how easy it is to keep this updated. Maybe since Xanga and Facebook are now linked together, I'll be better about posting on Xanga, too.

Watched MJ's memorial. Went through a few tissues crying. Once when Jermaine broke up singing; once when Brooke Shields told her story about how they used to laugh together; lastly when Paris Jackson said how good a daddy he was and she would miss him. I think Paris touched me the most, possibly because I know the pain of losing a parent at a young age. May God bless them and watch over them.

I am feeling strangely melancholy today. I didn't like Michael Jackson at the time of his death. I thought of him as a pedafile and he appeared ghastly after all of his plastic surgery. However, everything that was on TV this morning, all of the music they were playing, for the most part, was from the days when I did indeed love Michael Jackson. It has me, for some strange reason, feeling a sense of loss, almost to the point of crying at a few points. I don't understand this odd feeling. Michael Jackson did contribute a multitude to the world of entertainment. His song, "Man in the Mirror" keeps echoing through my head this morning.

So long, Michael.

On a separate note, I did go through a Life in Pictures thing on Michael Jackson last night. I noticed that his nose got pointy around 1989, and his cleft chin appeared in the late 1990s, and in 1999, his lips were thinner. By 2001, I think it was, his nose and lips were so thin that they appeared ghoulish. It must be so sad to dislike the body God gave you that much that you must constantly try to change your appearance. Too bad, because the Michael Jackson of the early 1980s was a sexy man.

Still around. Not real interested in the Internet much anymore. So busy with work, between it and church I just don't have much time. I have a lifetime membership and I figure I'll eventually get back in the mood at some point, but now it's just not in me.