Frannie's eSpace

The Braves lost, but who cares?

What a sweet little child of God

This little girl is destined for great things!

A visual of just how far God will go (has gone!) for us

You gotta check this video out. A fellow at work showed it to me today. The story is that the son has cerebral palsy and the father wants him to experience all the things in life that a healthy person experiences. The father pushed the son's wheelchair the entire length of a marathon; it exhilarated the son so much that the father had to do something even bigger! 

It's about the boundless love that a father has for his son. And it's a good indication of the love that God has for us! He knows no limits!

Political Science 101

I got this in an email and thought I'd pass it along, just in case you've forgotten some key points from your poly sci class in college...

DEMOCRATIC - You have two cows. Your neighbor has none. You feel guilty for being successful. Barbra Streisand sings for you.

REPUBLICAN - You have two cows. Your neighbor has none. So?

SOCIALIST - You have two cows. The government takes one and gives it to your neighbor. You form a cooperative to tell him how to manage his cow.

COMMUNIST - You have two cows. The government seizes both and provides you with milk. You wait in line for hours to get it. It is expensive and sour.

CAPITALISM, AMERICAN STYLE - You have two cows. You sell one, buy a bull, and build a herd of cows.

BUREAUCRACY, AMERICAN STYLE - You have two cows. Under the new farm program the government pays you to shoot one, milk the other, and then pours the milk down the drain.

AMERICAN CORPORATION - You have two cows. You sell one, lease it back to yourself and do an IPO on the 2nd one. You force the two cows to produce the milk of four cows. You are surprised when one cow drops dead. You spin an announcement to the analysts stating you have downsized and are reducing expenses. Your stock goes up.

FRENCH CORPORATION - You have two cows. You go on strike because you want three cows. You go to lunch and drink wine. Life is good.

JAPANESE CORPORATION - You have two cows. You redesign them so they are one-tenth the size of an ordinary cow and produce twenty times the milk. They learn to travel on unbelievably crowded trains. Most are at the top of their class at cow school.

GERMAN CORPORATION - You have two cows. You engineer them so they are all blond, drink lots of beer, give excellent quality milk, and run a hundred miles an hour. Unfortunately they also demand 13 weeks of vacation per year.

ITALIAN CORPORATION - You have two cows but you don't know where they are. While ambling around, you see a beautiful woman. You break for lunch. Life is good.

RUSSIAN CORPORATION - You have two cows. You have some vodka. You count them and learn you have five cows. You have some more vodka. You count them again and learn you have 42 cows. The Mafia shows up and takes over however many cows you really have.

TALIBAN CORPORATION - You have all the cows in Afghanistan , which are two. You don't milk them because you cannot touch any creature's private parts. You get a $40 million grant from the US government to find alternatives to milk production but use the money to buy weapons.

IRAQI CORPORATION - You have two cows. They go into hiding. They send radio tapes of their mooing.

POLISH CORPORATION - You have two bulls. Employees are regularly maimed and killed attempting to milk them.

BELGIAN CORPORATION - You have one cow. The cow has split-personality disorder. Sometimes the cow thinks he's French, other times he's Flemish. The Flemish cow won't share with the French cow. The French cow wants control of the Flemish cow's milk. The cow asks permission to be cut in half. The cow dies happy.

FLORIDA CORPORATION - You have a black cow and a brown cow. Everyone votes for the best looking one. Some of the people who actually like the brown one best accidentally vote for the black one. Some people vote for both. Some people vote for neither. Some people can't figure out how to vote at all. Finally, a bunch of guys from out-of-state tell you which one you think is the best-looking cow.

CALIFORNIA CORPORATION - You have millions of cows. They make real California cheese. Only five speak English. Most are illegals. Arnold likes the ones with the big udders.

NOTE: I did not compose this and would love to give credit to whoever did! If you know the author, let me know so that I can give credit where credit is due!

Who says cats don't care?

Here's a cat who adopted an abandoned red panda:

http://www.catchannel.com/News/2008/07/12/cat-cares-for-baby-panda.aspx

I'm calling her a Kung Fu Cat!

Butt Scratching and Bass Fishing

You gotta read this from Dave Ramsey, one of my favorite talk show hosts. A great story explaining why taxing the "rich" is just not right.

http://www.daveramsey.com/etc/cms/butt_scratching_and_bass_fishing_10192.htmlc?ictid=sptlt

To Kill an American

One of my good friends sent this in an email today:

You probably missed this in the rush of news, but there was actually a report that someone in Pakistan had published in a newspaper, an offer of a reward to anyone who killed an American, any American.

So an Australian dentist wrote an editorial the following day to let everyone know what an American is, so they would know when they found one. (Good one, mate!!!!)

"An American is English, or French, or Italian, Irish, German, Spanish, Polish, Russian or Greek. An American may also be Canadian, Mexican, African, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Australian, Iranian, Asian, or Arab, or Pakistani or Afghan.

An American may also be a Comanche, Cherokee, Osage, Blackfoot, Navaho, Apache, Seminole or one of the many other tribes known as native Americans.

An American is Christian, or he could be Jewish, or Buddhist, or Muslim. In fact, there are more Muslims in America than in Afghanistan . The only difference is that in America they are free to worship as each of them chooses.

An American is also free to believe in no religion. For that he will answer only to God, not to the government, or to armed thugs claiming to speak for the government and for God. 
An American lives in the most prosperous land in the history of the world. The root of that prosperity can be found in the Declaration of Independence , which recognizes the God given right of each person to the pursuit of happiness.

An American is generous. Americans have helped out just about every other nation in the world in their time of need, never asking a thing in return.
When Afghanistan was over-run by the Soviet army 20 years ago, Americans came with arms and supplies to enable the people to win back their country! 

As of the morning of September 11, Americans had given more than any other nation to the poor in Afghanistan . Americans welcome the best of everything...the best products, the best books, the best music, the best food, the best services. But they also welcome the least.

The national symbol of America , The Statue of Liberty , welcomes your tired and your poor, the wretched refuse of your teeming shores, the homeless, tempest tossed. These in fact are the people who built America .

Some of them were working in the Twin Towers the morning of September 11, 2001 earning a better life for their families. It's been told that the World Trade Center victims were from at least 30 different countries, cultures, and first languages, including those that aided and abetted the terrorists.

So you can try to kill an American if you must. Hitler did. So did General Tojo, and Stalin, and Mao Tse-Tung, and other blood-thirsty tyrants in the world. But, in doing so you would just be killing yourself. Because Americans are not a particular people from a particular place. They are the embodiment of the human spirit of freedom. Everyone who holds to that spirit, everywhere, is an American.”

Waterlogged carrots

My pet peeve is not being able to find a decent bag of baby peeled and cut carrots... they all seem to be soaking in water, which perfectly ruins the taste! Why do they put water in the bags? Or, is it the water sprayer that grocery stores use to keep the veggies fresh? It's a real downer, because the baby carrots are so much more convenient than the whole ones.

Being thankful for troubles at work!

My manager emailed an interesting quote to us the other day. The quote reminded us to be thankful for the troubles at work because those troubles provide about half our income. If it weren't for troubles, challenges and stress on the job, companies could find any ol' person to do the work.

I googled the quote and learned that it's cited in a Max Lucado book, Every Day Deserves a Chance.

Here's an interesting blog about the quote from Michael Hyatt, CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishers: http://www.michaelhyatt.com/fromwhereisit/2007/03/why_you_should_.html. (You can read the entire quote there too.)

I was mostly inspired, although truth be told, some days I'd consider earning half as much if I could lose some of the stress!

Guideposts

After a 10-year hiatus, I re-subscribed to Guideposts magazine, and the first two issues came today! Yippee!