Taking My Own Advice

I have been partially out of service since October 21, 2017 when I became a grandmother. After nine months, I told my daughter that she needed to think about getting her life back on track.  I think the grandmother should do that too so, 9 months and four days later I'm taking steps to get my life back on track.

My becoming a grandmother should not have been a dramatic time but, my daughter experienced HELLP Syndrome after having experienced severe Preeclampsia and my granddaughter was born through emergency C-section at 28 weeks, weighing two pounds.  Some physical problems only affect the mother, while others may affect both the mother and baby. In my daughter's case, both came way too close to death.

Twenty years ago we referred to Preeclampsia as severe Toxemia. I believe differences in terminology used between generations caused my daughter's medical problem to be overlooked and ignored. That's neither here nor there because both mom and baby are healthy and were able to celebrate achieving 9 months together on earth.

From the grandmother's perspective, this scared the hoopies out of me! From the mom's perspective, experiencing HELLP syndrome commonly causes PTSD and having multiple doctor's appointments for both mom and baby sure doesn't make teething any easier.

The causes of preeclampsia and eclampia are not clearly understood. Symptoms include severe headaches, vision problems, heartburn, pain just below the ribs, nausea or vomiting, excessive weight gain, swelling of the the feet, ankles, face and hands and feeling very unwell. Whether you are male or female, a little knowledge may save a life.

There's a reason that I have been out of sorts but, I'm trying to get back on track. 

Elizabeth Eden "A Guide to Pregnancy Complications" 16 November 2006.
HowStuffWorks.com. <https://health.howstuffworks.com/pregnancy-and-parenting/pregnancy/complications/a-guide-to-pregnancy-complications-ga.htm> 25 July 2018

My Thoughts about NoKo

Yesterday morning I watched as President Trump met with Kim Jong Un.  I guess I stayed awake to see the meeting live on television out of respect for my dad who had served in the military during the Korean Conflict.

I watched footage of the summit meeting time and again throughout the day. I listened to the criticism and listened to the praise not really knowing how to feel about the historic event that had occurred.

Finally, I recalled talking with my dad about why that crazy conflict happened. To him it was simple, the people of North Korea had never known a different way of life. Praying for North Korea and may God bless America.

Ladies, Please Stop

Nice job, ladies. You needed to have Nancy Pelosi Tweet an explanation as to why women wore suffragette white to the Presidential speech last night and as a middle class female American that is fairly active politically, I needed to do some research to figure out what you were talking about.

1. ReproRights? I think this term is incredibly disrespectful to human life. It immediately makes me think of PETA's complaints of puppy mills. Please, don't be this disrespectful of my children. I consider them to be the greatest of gifts from God. You are making light of my choice and degrading them by trying to be current.
2. You missed it again, Dems. Young females didn't see the suffragette white as a political statement, they saw it as a gathering of fashion mistakes. If you were leading this “suffragette” movement, you would have taken the chance to issue fashion points from Glamour about Winter White to the female representatives.
3. Suffragette? Why are you taking us back to the 19^th century, Nancy? I think we females are pretty strong physically and emotionally and I think the generations of females before us have proven that. Stop sending mixed signals to those that haven't done their homework.
4. EqualPay, PaidLeave and more. You said it, Nancy. I didn't. Not once did you ask my opinion on equal pay nor paid leave. As a female, I think “EqualPay” and “PaidLeave” are debatable subjects and in my personal conversations with men, they generally add to my rebuttal. As for the “and more” part of your Tweet, it reminds me of my fourth grade teacher telling me not to use the word etcetera because it means you can't think of anything else. You probably couldn't but, in this case the list is long and you ignored all of the constituents that are out there recognizing concerns such as: undocumented immigrants, disability rights, veterans that experience PTSD, the educational system, the availability of clean drinking water, gun violence, sexual assault, child abuse, equal rights regardless of gender, race, origin or sexuality, and so much more than anybody could ever express through a 140 character social media platform.

Please stop trying to be with the cool kids. I dare say that I speak for others that belong to my middle class demographic when I say, we don't like hypocrites.

A Thought About the Trump Administration

It's the hometown spirit. The fighting spirit that we are taught at a young age. The team spirit that is encouraged when we participate in sports. I am a Steelers fan and my friend cheers for the Giants. We have spirited conversations about our teams.

During the presidential election I had many spirited conversations with friends and family. While some of my friends were cheering for their Democratic candidate during the election, other friends were cheering for their Libertarian candidate while others felt their Republican candidate was the better choice. They rallied and gathered together and cheered. The election process was exciting!

Today, we're all watching the new President of the United States quite closely. Possibly more closely than we have ever done before. As I was listening to a radio broadcast tonight, it occurred to me that maybe the Trump administration just wants us to have that fighting spirit to help him make America great again.

Let's face it. It took all of us to create the problems we're dealing with and it is going to take all of us to work our way out of them. We have a lot of work ahead of us and joining together with our patriotic spirit could help us achieve our goals faster.

My thanks to the Weightman family 

for sharing this photo of 

 Hometown Hero,

Alfred T. Jeffries

God bless America

Tough Ruckers Are Training For The Boston Marathon

I guess you're like I was and don't know what a Tough Rucker is. I thought you may like to read how I learned about these amazing people.

I met Eddie through a friend of mine. Since I had lived in New Hampshire, I couldn't help but to notice that he lives in Massachusetts. We chatted things up a bit and I laughed about my being forbidden to visit some areas of Massachusetts when I was a young adult. Fortunately, Eddie doesn't live in one of those areas so, we continued our friendship.

While we were chatting online, Eddie told me that he was preparing to participate in the Boston Marathon with Tough Ruck. This brought back a ton of memories for me. Being in Georgia meant that I had watched for the marathon results but, I have been removed from the area and I had forgotten about the excitement associated with this iconic race. I shared some of my behind the scene marathon experiences with Eddie and he didn't waver once when I threw questions at him about his training for the marathon. It's probably difficult for you to imagine how excited I am to have met a Boston Marathon participant that is in training!

In Eddie's case, he isn't going to run the race but instead he will march the 26.2 mile course with the Tough Ruckers while carrying a 35 pound Ruck Sack. The Tough Ruckers are a group of military and civilians who will Ruck in honor and memory of a fallen service member, while raising funds to support the surviving families.

I find the dedication of the group to be breathtaking and I have immense pride to know one of the people that is willing to devote their time and effort to support the families of one of our fallen which not only includes Military but also Police, Firefighters and EMTs.

Here's where Eddie runs into a problem. He made a modest post on facebook about being on the Redneck Ruckers' fundraising team but, he has too much pride to ask people for donations even though he is raising the money to support others! I am not too proud to ask you to donate. Please give what you can to the Tough Ruck Redneck Ruckers' campaign to help support the families of our fallen heroes.

Tough Ruck is operated through the Military Friends Foundation.

MFF is a 501c3 dedicated to serving Massachusetts. Donations made are tax deductible.

Tough Ruck Redneck Ruckers

Miriah of Iron Gait Percherons Rescue

Congratulations are in order to Iron Gait Percherons Draft Horse Rescue

 for their fifth year anniversary.

Miriah is a fine example of the exemplary work that IGP does with the horses they rescue.

Miriah lived in the Carolinas. When a neighbor became aware of the abuse Miriah was experiencing the neighbor spoke up and told the owner they intended to file a report with local authorities. Miriah was immediately put of for sale at auction.

When the neighbor heard of Miriah being for sale at auction, they purchased the young horse. I can't blame them but, they didn't have plans much beyond saving Miriah's life. After a few years, there was realization that Miriah had needs that were more than they could provide. They contacted Iron Gait Percherons Draft Horse Rescue and requested placement for Miriah at their facility.

We will never know Miriah's full story. For myself, I first saw her a few years ago when I attended an open house at the rescue. To say I saw her is really a stretch because she hid in the corner of her stall and would barely look over her shoulder to acknowledge my existence. She behaved this way with everyone and the other horses at the rescue too.

The workers at Iron Gait wouldn't give up on Miriah. She was a loner and that was fine. She didn't like to be around people and that was fine too. Eventually, she allowed someone to sit with her in her stall. A few months later she started to enjoy having people talk to her and she would accept a treat from a human's hand. She even came out of her stall to see what the other horses were doing!

The staff at Iron Gait recognized that Miriah had progressed in her rehabilitation. Rather than leave her in pasture, they made arrangements for specialized, individual training for her. Miriah spent a couple of months at what I referred to as, sleep-away camp with her trainer and then she returned home with special handling instructions from her trainer. Look at her. You know Miriah's trainer had fallen in love.

Miriah's story is somewhat unusual in the fact that she had been hurt physically and emotionally beyond what human imagination can fathom. This is when I change the channel of the television because it hurts too bad to think about.

The staff at Iron Gait doesn't tune out, they give Miriah that daily stability of food, patience and love. They made the commitment to rescue Miriah and they are happy to be patient during her recovery. 

You are welcome to visit the rescue but, I suggest you schedule an appointment. Believe it or not, the rescued horses have a fairly tight schedule! Volunteer opportunities are available and again, I suggest you schedule an appointment. Donations made to Iron Giat Percherons Draft Horse Rescue are tax deductible and will help Miriah and her friends with their well being.

www.karamiller.net/

One Marketing Tip

When I was in elementary school, my teacher called my mother and told mom that she needed to speak to me about my behavior. Apparently, though the teacher appreciated the fact that I had walloped the child sitting behind me that refused to pay attention, this was not an acceptable practice.  

Rules. If that child had followed them I never would have gotten in trouble and that one incident probably got me in a lot of trouble throughout the rest of my life. We should use words, not actions to express how we are feeling. I started to use words and nobody knows how many hours I spent in detention for talking in class!

The problem is that people don't listen, nor do they comprehend. 

Today, I read a twelve page mini book about online marketing. Eight paragraphs covered the fact that I need to be honest. It's simple to me. Be honest. 

Two addition pages in the mini book covered how I could be honest. For example, I should be truthful. Two pages? 

The remaining pages in the book explained what words and colors I should use to give people the impression that I am honest. My thought was, "Bad word, bad word, bad word. What a waste of time and money."

Here's a marketing tip: Be honest.

http://www.karamiller.net/