rockin' the green

Green Belt Evan!

Evan earned his green belt in Taekwondo Friday night.  It is his fifth belt since beginning Taekwondo in March. I like that Evan is learning life skills as well as physical skills.  And that he is having a blast while learning!

cross country card swap

My California Linda made me these ubber fabulous artist trading cards. Linda never ceases to amaze me with her creative eye.

 I {heart} these cards! Thanks, Linda!

the long night

 I have a book list.  A list of books to read which fill me with a certain measure of dread at the mere thought of reading them.  Books that I know will take me to a dark place.  Night has been on this list for a couple of years. While researching Poland, I realized the opportunity to include it as a powerful example of Polish history.  Afterall millions of people lived the horror described so vividly in Night, the least I could do was honor the memory by reading it's pages.

Wiesel writes in his intro to the book that words were "limiting" and "became an obstacle" in his attempt to describe his experiences. He also pondered, "How was one to rehabilitate and transform words betrayed and perverted by the enemy?" An entire dictionary of words can not describe with any justice the truth of Auschwitz and the other such places, so I'll simply say: Night is a haunting account of humanity at its unequivocal worst and its supreme best.

"And then I explain to him how naive we were, that the world did know and remained silent.  And this is why I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation.  We must take sides.  Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim.  Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. Sometimes we must interfere.  When human lives are endangered, when human dignity is in jeopardy, national borders and sensitivities become irrelevant.  Wherever men and women are persecuted because of their race, religion, or political views, that place must - at that moment - become the center of the universe."  - excerpt from The Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech delivered by Elie Wiesel in Oslo December, 1986.

They drive on the right side!

What relief! Just in case any of you were wondering, Poland is a right side of the road nation. It is an important piece of info when faced with the possibility of moving to Poland in the next couple of years.  The energy services business is expected to boom in Poland very soon.  Halliburton is already established there. The 'higher-ups' would like Markas to gain international experience - 2 or 3 years abroad.  My daydreams instantly turn to Scotland or Australia.  Poland was never on my radar.  I mean really... who moves to Poland? But Poland is currently the big contender. So being the typical me, I immediately begin researching all things Polish.  Books have been read, Internet has been surfed, a video has been watched. All the while knowing that by doing my homework on life in Poland, it lessens our chance of ever moving there.  It's something to do with the Halliburton Laws of Fate.  Just to prove my point, as I am researching Poland, my hubby gets offered a position in Midland, Texas.  How opposite of Poland can you get?  The armpit of America aka West Texas? [insert eye rolling here]. Talk about out of the blue.  But the plan is to stay in Western Pennsylvania. Markas completing his goal of getting 12 frac crews up and running over the next 18 months to 2 years and me learning about expatriate life in order to make an informed decision when the time comes as well as continuing my Pennsylvania adventure.

Good to know: An expatriate (in abbreviated form, expat) is a person temporarily or permanently residing in a country and culture other than that of the person's upbringing. The word comes from the Latin terms ex ("out of") and patria ("country, fatherland"). Thanks, Wikipedia. I was concerned because expatriate was so close to ex patriot.  When I looked up the definition I thought well of course... it's a Latin thing.  Latin makes everything tricky! ; )

 I'll be honest... I had to google Poland to find out what countries bordered it.  I knew it was sandwiched between Germany and 'old Russia', but the geographical specifics disappeared from my mind in my teens.

 a view of a city square

a Halliburton frac job in Poland

Autobots, Transform!

Father/Son Project

Markas & Evan designed and built Evan's new headboard.  Keeping with Evan's Transformers theme, it is grey with metal.  Good work, guys!

Art Therapy

My two latest artist trading cards.  They were made for an ATC swap with my California Linda♥.I only got 2 of the 6 completed : / Both of these cards were made fairly shortly after my stroke.  And both are inspired by that experience.

 (I will post pics of Linda's fabulous creations soon.)

 'always waiting for the other shoe to drop'

'sometimes you just have to sit with it for awhile'