RIP and my heartfelt thanks, Spc. Joshua A. Molina

Paula Fredrickson was sleeping on the living room couch when her younger brother woke her up to say goodbye. The 20-year-old soldier was on his way back to Iraq at the end of a three-week visit to Houston in January.

"I was going to get up and give him a hug and he said, 'No, just stay there. I'll see you again,'" remembered Fredrickson, 27. "I told him, 'Don't be a hero. Just do what you have to do and come back safe.'"

That was the last time she saw him alive.

Her brother, Spc. Joshua A. Molina, died in Baghdad on Thursday from injuries he suffered when his vehicle encountered an improvised explosive device. Molina was assigned to the 1st Squadron, 2nd Stryker Cavalry Regiment in Vilseck, Germany. His tour of duty in Iraq was scheduled to end in November.

Born and raised in the Houston area, Molina joined the Army Jr. ROTC at Bellaire High School. When the family moved to Alief, Molina transferred to Elsik High School. He enlisted after graduating in 2005.

He wanted to be a soldier since he was a little kid, said his younger brother Manuel Molina. "He just liked to play war."

Molina never planned to spend his career in the Army. He wanted to enroll in college in 2009. Some day, he told his family, he would like to work as a Border Patrol or FBI agent.

"He was a good kid and doing what he wanted to do," Fredrickson said. "At least he accomplished one of his dreams. And he paid the ultimate price."

Molina deployed to Iraq for the first time last summer. Before he shipped out, he visited his family in Houston in June.

"He disappeared for two hours the day he had to leave. When he finally came home he was crying and he said, 'I don't want to go,'" Fredrickson recalled. "He was just scared because he didn't know what he was getting into."

Molina's brother-in-law Rope Fredrickson, a Marine, told the young soldier not to worry. Everyone's afraid the first time they ship out to a combat zone, he said.

The family kept in touch through e-mails and phone calls.

"He only told me the good things. He never wanted to tell me the bad things," Manuel Molina said. "He told me, 'I'm just doing my job and patrolling the street.'"

The brothers last spoke on the telephone Monday. "He wished me a happy birthday and I just told him that I love him and I'll be praying for him," said Manuel Molina, who turned 20 on Tuesday.

"We were all so proud of him and even though we didn't like him being over there, we were still proud because he was giving us the freedom that we have in this country," he said.

It was midnight on Thursday when the doorbell rang at the Molina family's southwest Houston house.

"I saw the two soldiers standing there and all I could say was 'no,'" Fredrickson said. "I wanted to tell them they had the wrong house, but I couldn't get the words to come out of my mouth."

In addition to his younger brother and older sister, the soldier also leaves behind parents Maria and Josue Molina and an older brother, Henryk Baldizon, 34.

Still in shock, Fredrickson says she won't really believe her brother is gone until she sees his body.

Both sports nuts, the siblings played pickup basketball at their neighborhood park and watched football games together, sometimes betting on them for fun.

"He lost a lot of money on the Super Bowl," Fredrickson said, laughing. "Me and him were really close. I didn't just lose a brother, I lost a really good friend."

If you're reading this....Tim McGraw

Yep more Charlie!

Grandma Land is just wonderful!

My sweetie is growing big strong and more beautiful every day.

Starting one's own business

Is more than a notion.  There are so many things that need to be done before you can even think of ordering your business cards.

Yep, in this year of change, I'm finally launching my business.  Many factors have contributed to this decision.

1. Job I don't like
2. price of gas
3. construction tie ups
4. 25 years of working to make a corporation rich

My goal is not to be the next Bill Gates, just to live comfortably and more on my own terms.  I'm looking forward to being my own boss. Let's see how this turns out.

Entrepreneur-ly yours,

~~Cee...Level

My all time favorite joke is:

A few minutes before the services started, the townspeople were sitting in
their pews and talking.  Suddenly, Satan appeared at the front of the
church.  Everyone started screaming and running for the front entrance,
trampling each other in a frantic effort to get away from evil incarnate.

Soon everyone had exited the church except for one elderly gentleman who
sat calmly in his pew without moving, seeming oblivious to the fact that
God’s ultimate enemy was in his presence.

So Satan walked up to the old man and said, “Don’t you know who I am?”
The man replied, “Yep, sure do.”

“Aren’t you afraid of me?” Satan asked.
“Nope, sure ain’t,” said the man.

“Don’t you realize I can kill you with a word?” asked Satan.
“Don’t doubt it for a minute,” returned the old man, in an even tone.

“Did you know that I could cause you profound, horrifying, physical AGONY…
for all eternity?” persisted Satan.
“Yep,” was the calm reply.

“And you’re still not afraid?” asked Satan.
“Nope.” More than a little perturbed, Satan asked, “Well, why aren’t you
afraid of me?”

The man calmly replied, “Been married to your sister for over 48 years.”


I freely admit to laughing like I've never heard it before. Yes I may need to get a prescription for that, but it's still funny. I bet you KD and my cousins would say "Sounds like Granpa," because nothing could throw him, and he always had an answer for everything.  I miss you Granpa.  

Church Bulletins....I love 'em

----------------------------------------------------------------------
The Fasting & Prayer Conference includes meals.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
The sermon this morning:
"Jesus Walks on the Water."
The sermon tonight:
"Searching for Jesus."
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Our youth basketball team is back
in action Wednesday at 8 PM in the
recreation hall. Come out and
watch us kill Christ the King.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Ladies, don't forget the rummage sale.
It's a chance to get rid of those things
not worth keeping around the house.
Bring your husbands.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
The peacemaking meeting scheduled
for today has been canceled due to a conflict.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Remember in prayer the many who are sick
of our community. Smile at someone who is hard to
love. Say "Hell" to someone who doesn't care
much about you.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Don't let worry kill you off -
Let the Church help
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Miss Charlene Mason sang
"I will not pass this way again,"
giving obvious pleasure to the congregation.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
For those of you who have children
and don't know it,
we have a nursery down stairs.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Next Thursday there will be tryouts for the choir.
They need all the help they can get.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
The Rector will preach his farewell message after
which the choir will
sing: "Break Forth Into Joy."
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Irving Benson and Jessie Carter
were married on October 24 in the church.
So ends a friendship that began in their school
days.
------------------------------------------------
At the evening service tonight, the sermon topic
will be "What Is Hell?"
Come early and listen to our choir practice.
------------------------------------------------
Eight new choir robes are currently needed
due to the addition of several new members
and to the deterioration of some older ones.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Scouts are saving aluminum cans,
bottles and other items to be recycled.
Proceeds will be used to cripple children.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Please place your donation in
the envelope along with the deceased
person you want remembered.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
The church will host an evening of fine dining,
super entertainment, and gracious hostility.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Potluck supper Sunday at 5:00 PM -
prayer and medication to follow.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Ladies Bible Study will be held
Thursday morning at 10 AM. All ladies
are invited to lunch in the
Fellowship Hall after the B. S. is done.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
The pastor would appreciate it if the ladies
of the congregation would lend him their
electric girdles for the pancake breakfast next
Sunday.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
The Low Self Esteem Support Group
will meet Thursday at 7 PM. Please use the back
door.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
The eighth-graders will be presenting
Shakespeare's Hamlet in the Church
basement Friday at 7 PM .
The congregation is invited to attend this
tragedy.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Weight Watchers will meet at 7 PM
at the First Presbyterian Church.
Please use large double door at the side entrance.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
The Associate Minister unveiled the church's
new tithing campaign slogan last Sunday:
"I Upped My Pledge - Up Yours

We are family!!

Trevor and some of my family from our last gathering two years ago.

I am soooo looking forward to seeing my family in June. It's not often we get together, since we are scattered hither and yon, and prices for any type of travel are beyond reason when more than one person has to make the jaunt.

My cousin Sean is getting married! I'm so happy for him that I can barely contain myself. He and his bride to be are settling down not to far from us, so we'll have the pleasure of adding one more to our Saturday night movie watching and/or board game playing sessions.

Only downside is my 12 year old cousin Trevor won't be attending. My Uncle Alex suffered a stroke last year and we figured he and my Aunt Darcel would have challenges in coming. However, we were looking forward to Trevor being allowed to come and "hang" with his family. Unfortunately his parents have nixed that idea. Too bad, we don't get to see him often, and he really doesn't know us at all. He'll miss out on family togetherness, as well as meeting Fuss, and Senitra's family, and we'll be deprived of his company.

My cousins Jason and Leida won't be there either.  Jason for some unknown reason, and Leida because she has an exam.  Since they're grown, they know us, so although they'll be missed, it's not the same as not having Trev there.

He's a hoot! He's adorable, funny, smart, and well I just love him to pieces. I'm going to keep praying that his parents will change their mind, and let us buy his ticket Chicago. Heck even Fuss is getting on a plane and she'll only be 5 months old!

Let It Flow

I've discovered that my dream job is a nightmare. My spirit was so unhappy there, that everything was becoming tainted. Within the next 60 days, I'll have a new position within the same company, and with God's grace, it'll be something that both challenges and is satisfying to my soul.

I'm also working on launching my business. Wow, me, a successful business owner, who while not Bill Gates rich, won't be doing to shabby. Yep, think positive, claim positive, live positive. Let it flow.

Moving, something I didn't think I would do until I purchased my residence. However, since I don't use 1/2 the apartment, and I never intended to bring my clients here, I can live with smaller. Besides y'all know I despise housecleaning. Having less space not to clean suits me just fine. Nope I've not yet found a replacement housekeeper, nor have I called the other one. Anyone who comes to visit can attest to that : D Another positive is my washer/dryer is about to bring happiness to another family member. My cousin is about to move into his new place, which doesn't offer machines. My son and I live in units that have full sized machines. Woooo Hoooo, definitely a win, win. Now if I can just convince them (his bride to be and he) that they really do need a 4 poster king sized cherry wood bed frame...

I love my life! I've divested myself of those who mean me no good, and am lucky enough to say that I've still a large extended family. Yes there are times I get down, and times I get frustrated with situations and people, but that's what keeps me appreciative of the good. Hoping you can say the same.

Peace be with you,

~~Cee...Level~~~

Laughing, and growing...that's my Fuss

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!

Catherine Barbara Agnes Whitten-Michael.

Aunt Bob-Doo to my cousins and I.

Richard Pryor & Johnny Carson

Changes

Don't know what came over me, but I'm changing jobs AND downsizing my living quarters. Yuck, the prospect of moving again is horrifying, but the thought of paying all this money for the same apartment is even more horrifying.

Besides the newer apartments were updated, and I like how they look. I've never lived in a townhouse with a loft bedroom. Should be exciting eh?

Hmmm have to find a space for C-Jae and her "things"

Job change is something that I've been considering for a while. Trying to decide whether to launch my new business or just go on working for someone else.

I'm hoping that I am on the road to the change I want to become.

Be safe,

Cee...Level

Psalm 37

1 Do not fret because of evildoers,
Be not envious toward wrongdoers.

2 For they will wither quickly like the grass
And fade like the green herb.

3 Trust in the LORD and do good;
Dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness.

4 Delight yourself in the LORD;
And He will give you the desires of your heart.

5 Commit your way to the LORD,
Trust also in Him, and He will do it.

6 He will bring forth your righteousness as the light
And your judgment as the noonday.

Hindsight is always 20/20

shoulda, woulda, coulda....three words that cause people more grief in their lives and those of their loved ones.

Here's hoping that from this day forward you don't ever have to think them, much less speak them.

~~Cee Level~~

So Fuss and I were half asleep

and the TV was on low in the background. It was the movie "in her shoes", not a stellar movie. When you're holding a sleepy but fussy baby, you don't want to take a deep breath much less root around for the remote control.

I loved this poem read by Cameron Diaz, and written by ee cummings.

i carry your heart with me(i carry it in
my heart)i am never without it(anywhere
i go you go,my dear; and whatever is done
by only me is your doing,my darling)
i fear no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want
no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)
and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows
higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)

Since I'm not by any stretch of the imagination, a fan of poetry, I was surprised I liked it.

Got me to thinking of other types of poetry....songs that mean something to me when it comes to children....mine, yours, any one's.

If I could sang by Nancy Wilson or Regina Bell
I hope you dance sang by Lee Ann Womack

Children are a precious gift...do what you can to keep them safe.

So blessed,

~~Cee...level~~

Lest We Forget: An open letter to my sisters who are brave.

Lest We Forget: An open letter to my sisters who are brave.
The author argues that we must build alliances not on ethnicity or gender, but on truth.
TheRoot.com
Updated: 6:17 PM ET Mar 27, 2008
March 27, 2008

I HAVE COME home from a long stay in Mexico to find – because of the presidential campaign, and especially because of the Obama/Clinton race for the Democratic nomination - a new country existing alongside the old. On any given day we, collectively, become the Goddess of the Three Directions and can look back into the past, look at ourselves just where we are, and take a glance, as well, into the future. It is a space with which I am familiar.

When I was born in 1944 my parents lived on a middle Georgia plantation that was owned by a white distant relative, Miss May Montgomery. (During my childhood it was necessary to address all white girls as "Miss" when they reached the age of twelve.) She would never admit to this relationship, of course, except to mock it. Told by my parents that several of their children would not eat chicken skin she responded that of course they would not. No Montgomerys would.

My parents and older siblings did everything imaginable for Miss May. They planted and raised her cotton and corn, fed and killed and processed her cattle and hogs, painted her house, patched her roof, ran her dairy, and, among countless other duties and responsibilities my father was her chauffeur, taking her anywhere she wanted to go at any hour of the day or night. She lived in a large white house with green shutters and a green, luxuriant lawn: not quite as large as Tara of Gone With the Wind fame, but in the same style.

We lived in a shack without electricity or running water, under a rusty tin roof that let in wind and rain. Miss May went to school as a girl. The school my parents and their neighbors built for us was burned to the ground by local racists who wanted to keep ignorant their competitors in tenant farming. During the Depression, desperate to feed his hardworking family, my father asked for a raise from ten dollars a month to twelve. Miss May responded that she would not pay that amount to a white man and she certainly wouldn't pay it to a nigger. That before she'd pay a nigger that much money she'd milk the dairy cows herself.

When I look back, this is part of what I see. I see the school bus carrying white children, boys and girls, right past me, and my brothers, as we trudge on foot five miles to school. Later, I see my parents struggling to build a school out of discarded army barracks while white students, girls and boys, enjoy a building made of brick. We had no books; we inherited the cast off books that "Jane" and "Dick" had previously used in the all-white school that we were not, as black children, permitted to enter.

The year I turned fifty, one of my relatives told me she had started reading my books for children in the library in my home town. I had had no idea – so kept from black people it had been – that such a place existed. To this day knowing my presence was not wanted in the public library when I was a child I am highly uncomfortable in libraries and will rarely, unless I am there to help build, repair, refurbish or raise money to keep them open, enter their doors.

When I joined the freedom movement in Mississippi in my early twenties it was to come to the aid of sharecroppers, like my parents, who had been thrown off the land they'd always known, the plantations, because they attempted to exercise their "democratic" right to vote. I wish I could say white women treated me and other black people a lot better than the men did, but I cannot. It seemed to me then and it seems to me now that white women have copied, all too often, the behavior of their fathers and their brothers, and in the South, especially in Mississippi, and before that, when I worked to register voters in Georgia, the broken bottles thrown at my head were gender free.

I made my first white women friends in college; they were women who loved me and were loyal to our friendship, but I understood, as they did, that they were white women and that whiteness mattered. That, for instance, at Sarah Lawrence, where I was speedily inducted into the Board of Trustees practically as soon as I graduated, I made my way to the campus for meetings by train, subway and foot, while the other trustees, women and men, all white, made their way by limo. Because, in our country, with its painful history of unspeakable inequality, this is part of what whiteness means. I loved my school for trying to make me feel I mattered to it, but because of my relative poverty I knew I could not.

I am a supporter of Obama because I believe he is the right person to lead the country at this time. He offers a rare opportunity for the country and the world to start over, and to do better. It is a deep sadness to me that many of my feminist white women friends cannot see him. Cannot see what he carries in his being. Cannot hear the fresh choices toward Movement he offers. That they can believe that millions of Americans –black, white, yellow, red and brown - choose Obama over Clinton only because he is a man, and black, feels tragic to me.

When I have supported white people, men and women, it was because I thought them the best possible people to do whatever the job required. Nothing else would have occurred to me. If Obama were in any sense mediocre, he would be forgotten by now. He is, in fact, a remarkable human being, not perfect but humanly stunning, like King was and like Mandela is. We look at him, as we looked at them, and are glad to be of our species. He is the change America has been trying desperately and for centuries to hide, ignore, kill. The change America must have if we are to convince the rest of the world that we care about people other than our (white) selves.

True to my inner Goddess of the Three Directions however, this does not mean I agree with everything Obama stands for. We differ on important points probably because I am older than he is, I am a woman and person of three colors, (African, Native American, European), I was born and raised in the American South, and when I look at the earth's people, after sixty-four years of life, there is not one person I wish to see suffer, no matter what they have done to me or to anyone else; though I understand quite well the place of suffering, often, in human growth.

I want a grown-up attitude toward Cuba, for instance, a country and a people I love; I want an end to the embargo that has harmed my friends and their children, children who, when I visit Cuba, trustingly turn their faces up for me to kiss. I agree with a teacher of mine, Howard Zinn, that war is as objectionable as cannibalism and slavery; it is beyond obsolete as a means of improving life. I want an end to the on-going war immediately and I want the soldiers to be encouraged to destroy their weapons and to drive themselves out of Iraq.

I want the Israeli government to be made accountable for its behavior towards the Palestinians, and I want the people of the United States to cease acting like they don't understand what is going on. All colonization, all occupation, all repression basically looks the same, whoever is doing it. Here our heads cannot remain stuck in the sand; our future depends of our ability to study, to learn, to understand what is in the records and what is before our eyes. But most of all I want someone with the self-confidence to talk to anyone, "enemy" or "friend," and this Obama has shown he can do. It is difficult to understand how one could vote for a person who is afraid to sit and talk to another human being. When you vote you are making someone a proxy for yourself; they are to speak when, and in places, you cannot. But if they find talking to someone else, who looks just like them, human, impossible, then what good is your vote?

It is hard to relate what it feels like to see Mrs. Clinton (I wish she felt self-assured enough to use her own name) referred to as "a woman" while Barack Obama is always referred to as "a black man." One would think she is just any woman, colorless, race-less, past-less, but she is not. She carries all the history of white womanhood in America in her person; it would be a miracle if we, and the world, did not react to this fact. How dishonest it is, to attempt to make her innocent of her racial inheritance.

I can easily imagine Obama sitting down and talking, person to person, with any leader, woman, man, child or common person, in the world, with no baggage of past servitude or race supremacy to mar their talks. I cannot see the same scenario with Mrs. Clinton who would drag into Twenty-First Century American leadership the same image of white privilege and distance from the reality of others' lives that has so marred our country's contacts with the rest of the world.

And yes, I would adore having a woman president of the United States. My choice would be Representative Barbara Lee, who alone voted in Congress five years ago not to make war on Iraq. That to me is leadership, morality, and courage; if she had been white I would have cheered just as hard. But she is not running for the highest office in the land, Mrs. Clinton is. And because Mrs. Clinton is a woman and because she may be very good at what she does, many people, including some younger women in my own family, originally favored her over Obama. I understand this, almost. It is because, in my own nieces' case, there is little memory, apparently, of the foundational inequities that still plague people of color and poor whites in this country. Why, even though our family has been here longer than most North American families – and only partly due to the fact that we have Native American genes – we very recently, in my lifetime, secured the right to vote, and only after numbers of people suffered and died for it.

When I offered the word "Womanism" many years ago, it was to give us a tool to use, as feminist women of color, in times like these. These are the moments we can see clearly, and must honor devotedly, our singular path as women of color in the United States. We are not white women and this truth has been ground into us for centuries, often in brutal ways. But neither are we inclined to follow a black person, man or woman, unless they demonstrate considerable courage, intelligence, compassion and substance. I am delighted that so many women of color support Barack Obama -and genuinely proud of the many young and old white women and men who do.

Imagine, if he wins the presidency we will have not one but three black women in the White House; one tall, two somewhat shorter; none of them carrying the washing in and out of the back door. The bottom line for most of us is: With whom do we have a better chance of surviving the madness and fear we are presently enduring, and with whom do we wish to set off on a journey of new possibility? In other words, as the Hopi elders would say: Who do we want in the boat with us as we head for the rapids? Who is likely to know how best to share the meager garden produce and water? We are advised by the Hopi elders to celebrate this time, whatever its adversities.

We have come a long way, Sisters, and we are up to the challenges of our time. One of which is to build alliances based not on race, ethnicity, color, nationality, sexual preference or gender, but on Truth. Celebrate our journey. Enjoy the miracle we are witnessing. Do not stress over its outcome. Even if Obama becomes president, our country is in such ruin it may well be beyond his power to lead us toward rehabilitation. If he is elected however, we must, individually and collectively, as citizens of the planet, insist on helping him do the best job that can be done; more, we must insist that he demand this of us. It is a blessing that our mothers taught us not to fear hard work. Know, as the Hopi elders declare: The river has its destination. And remember, as poet June Jordan and Sweet Honey in the Rock never tired of telling us: We are the ones we have been waiting for.

Namaste;

And with all my love,

Alice Walker

Cazul

Northern California

First Day of Spring

10 weeks

Guess who is ten weeks old and counting.  Yep my very own second generation of sunshine.  Wow!!  It seemed like Alyssa's pregnancy lasted forever, but Fuss' life is going by at the speed of light.

My plan for the next few evenings is to snuggle with this little angel, listen to her laughter, and  just be lifted buy this amazing gift that God has given this family.

So blessed  ~~~Cee...Level

Personal Mission Statements

I've been thinking about this writing one for myself for a while. Prior to PDA's I was an avid user of the the Franklin Planner. It would talk about the purpose of mission statements and how to incorporate them into your life. Of course, I didn't pay attention then.

A few of the things that I learned is that a mission statement forces you to think about life, not just the superficial but the substantial. It should also clarify the purpose of your life.

It forces you to express in a concise method, your deepest values and goals

Your values and goals are supposed to be an integral part of you rather than something you only think about occasionally.


Also, it's supposed to be part of you daily/weekly/monthly plan, so its always in front of you.

Whew, sounds like I've bitten off a lot. Now I just have to figure out how to start. Gonna have to do some research on this.

Cee...level

Who's ^%$+@ Idea Was Daylight Savings?

It takes me a good month to get myself together after we fiddle with the clock.   Until that day, I'm a wreck.  I either over sleep or don't sleep,  Arrive early or extremely late.  

My meals times are off and even my dog seems to have issues with the time she gets walked.

Ugh!

OH BABY!!!

Here's my little beauty.  She's 9 weeks old and it's early on a Saturday morning...and I do mean EARLY.  However, since she woke up laughing and smiling, I didn't really notice the time