Life Of Jason

2008 & 2009 Springfield Local Bloggers Association Blog of the Year

It’s Just Like Saying Nigger, Kike, Faggot, Jap, Kraut, Mick or Wop

“You no longer use the words nigger, or kike, or faggot, or jap, or kraut, or mick, or wop.” It’s time to add the word “retard” to that list of words you don’t say because of the hate that comes behind those words. That first line & title of this post comes from a letter today from the national spokesman for the “Spread the word to end the word” campaign, John C. McGinley (whose letter is further down this post.) Today is the day we spread the word to end the word. Groups all over the country will be banding together to raise awareness about the “r-word” being as hurtful to those with disabilities as the “n-word” is to African Americans. Take some time today to help raise awareness by posting on your blog or telling co-workers or friends about our efforts.

Actor John C. McGinley, Dr. Cox on “Scrubs” and the father of a son with Down Syndrome, is the national spokesman for this event and he sent this statement this morning to media and supporters:

Hi, I’m John C. McGinley. I’m an ambassador for the National Down Syndrome Society, and today I’m teaming up with Special Olympics to bring you a message that’s important to me.

So many times in life you are asked to change…

Change your clothes. Change lanes. Change jobs. Change the sheets. Change flights. Change your tune. Change horses midstream. Change your latitudes and your attitudes!

Change, and the ability to adapt, is to the human condition as air is to the lungs. We change, and in the doing, we thrive!

In fact, we just elected a president who promised, above all else, to “change.”

What if, on March 31, you elected to change the way you use the words “retard” and “retarded”?

Hardly seems like the largest of sacrifices. Not when you consider the changes in language that you have, so willingly, already elected to integrate into your vernacular. You no longer use the words nigger, or kike, or faggot, or jap, or kraut, or mick, or wop.

Why would you? Why on earth would you? Those are all words that hurt. Those are all racial and ethnic slurs and epithets that perpetuate negative stigmas. They are painful! And that is not okay. It is wrong to pain people with your language. Especially, when you have already been made aware of your oral transgression’s impact.

Make no mistake about it: WORDS DO HURT! And when you pepper your speak with “retard” and “retarded,” you are spreading hurt. So stop it. Stop saying “retard” and “retarded.” Those words suck! You are better than that and you definitely do not need to be “that guy.”

There is no longer any acceptable occasion to lace your dialogue with the words “retard” and “retarded.” Without fail, those words are the stuff of hurt. They, straight up, are. So, stop it! Stop using the “R-word.”

The 7 million people with intellectual disabilities (around the planet) who are on the receiving end of this hate speak are genetically designed to love unconditionally. These “retards” are NEVER going to return your vitriol. Ever! So what could possibly be the up-side of continuing to use the “R-word” in your daily discourse?

We love you. We do!

And, just in case you missed it and you need an extra hug? We love you!

You do not need to love us in any kind of reciprocal fashion. You don’t. (It’s not that kind of bargain.)

But, how about on March 31, you elect to change? A word? Two stinkin’ syllables?

On March 31, join us and “Spread the Word to End the Word.” And the word is “retard!” It HURTS! So help us to cut it out.

Thank you! We do love you!

John C. McGinley
info@specialolympics.org
www.specialolympics.org

So please…if you have a blog take a few minutes today and make a posting about stopping the r-word and letting people know that it’s not acceptable. You may not think it’s a big deal…however with many people rushing to say it was “no big deal” that President Obama used Special Olympics as a punchline it shows that many do not consider mocking of those with special needs as being on the same level as racist language. They’re wrong…and until we stand up and make our voices heard this same kind of behavior is going to continue. Visit The R-Word to find out more about what you can do to raise awareness and get graphics for your blog or website. Thank you to any of you who help Spread the Word to End the Word!

Meet JulieAnn.

JulieAnn loves to get dressed up and play in front of the camera.  With her creativity and playfulness, she is continuously taking everyday situations and making them magical for herself,  as well as her mom and dad.  JulieAnn embodies all the love, playfulness and joy for the everyday  life of the Perfect Picture Princess.

Click here to view  little girls and girls dresses from shabby baby.

~A

Gran passed away on the 27th of December, rather unexpectedly.  Yeah, she was in her 80′s but she was fine on Christmas Eve, then three days later, she was gone.  It seems so weird, I still have her phone number programed in my phone and I almost called her the other day, then I remembered.  I will never again hear that distinctly northern and decidedly sing-songy  “Yehlloo?”  when she answers the phone.    I think I’ll miss that most of all, well that or arguing with her about the token $5 she insisted I take every time I would take her somewhere or pick her up.

She was a really neat lady, and I will miss her always.  It also seems weird to wear her cross, but unless I have to, I’ll never take it off.

Then the new year…  Julie and I were out by 9:30 LOL!

Jason and I are contemplating a HUGE leap of Faith!  I’m not quite ready to broadcast it to the world and if you read this and you already know, consider yourself lucky!  Well, kind of anyway.   We will know more in the coming months, but June could be a HUGE  month for us!  Keep us in your prayers for discernment and wisdom!

That’s about all I have got right now without bursting into tears, so… Happy New Year!

Oh and tomorrow (Jan 13th) is my hubby’s b-day, if you get a chance, hop over to his blog and wish him a happy day!

Loves,

Nini

For many years it was the Nuetzhorn family tradition to scope out the Black Friday adds while watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade.

Well it is almost 8 here and I have no paper, but I will be heading to Gran’s in a little while to help my Mom cook.

It’s a change, but then a lot of things have changed this year:

I got married, we lost the twins, my nephews found a permanent home with their Dad and our boys moved another 2 hours away so that they would have better opportunities educationally.   It has been blessings mixed with sadness, but then, we are adults and with maturity comes the truths of “real life.”

I hope that you all have a wonderful holiday!  Stay safe if you are planning to head out for Black Friday, but most of all, I hope that you can be surrounded by friends and family today.

Today we are tackling the living room, boys’ bedrooms and decorating the front porch. I’ll be taking pics along the way and posting when I can get them downloaded.

This is doubly exciting this year because I am hosting Christmas Day for my family, I’ve never done that before so I’m trying to spread out my decorations to make my house festive but not overdone.  I’ll post pictures as things go up and as we get closer to Christmas Day!

As some of you may or may not know, Julie is not Jason’s biological child.  There are days that I look at my husband and I am honestly thankful that there is no biological connection between the two of them.  For instance, any random time of the day when my husband is being totally weird about one thing or another

Then there are days like yesterday when I wish that there was a biological connection, simply so that we wouldn’t have to deal with her biological father.  Things between us and her BLF (Tim, that’s what we will go this because I don’t feel it is necessary for you all to know his real name) have been strained, civil, but strained.  The current situation did NOT help these relations.

Tim and his wife have had trouble conceiving a child for the last several years, we knew that they were undergoing treatment for this although we didn’t know what those treatments were.   We were not made aware of the apparent pregnancy that had occurred.  We know that they had several miscarriages and we can honestly understand their reluctance to share the news with the general public.  They have an older child (it’s complicated) and I’m sure they didn’t hide this from her, that would not have been smart since she’s only 5 and it would likely do more damage than good.   I’m sure they told their respective parents their friends, to an extent, and their siblings.  While things are strained between Tim and I, the fact remains that we share a child together.  I feel that we should have been informed of this pregnancy so that we could take steps to prepare Juju, to help her to get excited and ready for a little sister!  Apparently they felt differently.

Don’t get me wrong, I can see both sides here.  On one hand they owe us nothing, on the other hand this does not help to affirm their desire to have Julie as an active part in their lives.   This is something that Tim and I (mostly me) have struggled with since Julie was born.   I have tried and tried for years to foster a relationship between the two of them.  I have gone to great lengths to inform Tim and “Mary” of happenings in Julie’s life, the good and the bad.  I have tried  and tried to stress to them the importance of contact with her, that they will one day realize what they have missed and want time back that they will never have again.

I thought that Tim and Mary were going to be better when I announced that Jason and I were getting married, after all, they came down for what seemed like an extra visit this past spring.  Outside of a few required contacts for insurance reasons, there hasn’t really been anything.  In fact, they didn’t even call to tell us that the baby we didn’t know about had been born, we found out via MySpace.

Yes, I know… and NO, I’m not kidding.

When we found out, we sent them a lovely message:

“Congratulations. We weren’t aware that you all were expecting. I’m really not sure what to say because on one hand you guys don’t owe us any explanation, (although that’s not really the right word) it’s your life and you will do what you think is the best for your family.

On the other hand, you all claim to want to have contact with Julie, that you want to be a part of her life, yet this is a HUGE thing and you said nothing. I’ve even come to the point that unless it is something insurance related, I just don’t call anymore and you make no efforts to have a relationship of any kind with Julie, outside of child support, which is ordered by the state.

I don’t want to intrude on your happiness in any way, so please do not think that is why I’ve contacted you. You may not think that we have any business knowing that you were expecting another child, but like it or not, Tim is Julie’s biological father.

Should you choose to have further contact with Julie, that’s up to you, but just as you prepared Faith for a baby sister, we should have been given the same opportunity  to prepare Julie.
I’m really not sure where to go from here, but I do want you to know that we are very happy for you all. I know you guys have been waiting for this baby for a very long time, you should enjoy this time to the fullest!

The lack of disclosure here brings to light the need for a very serious conversation, when you all are ready. I’m sending this to both of you.

Thanks, and congrats again!

Amy & Jason”

Tim sent his patented reply, filled with we want to have more contact and we miss her, blah this and blah that… How is Julie… the token crap we have heard time and time again.  It starts the cycle all over, we try to give them another chance and they do better for all of three or four days, then it’s back to nothing.  Jason and I are breaking that cycle for Julie’s sake.   There will be no more free passes for Tim and Mary.   If they truly want to have  a relationship with Julie, they will “walk the walk” because quite frankly, I’m tired to death of the talk.

We are involved in the lives of Jason’s boys because we love them.  We also are involved in the lives of my nephews.

So why is it so difficult for Tim and Mary to try with Julie?

That, my friends, is the million dollar question.

Although, out of character, I am hosting Christmas day for my family this year and I am going crazy with the decorating, and prep for the party.  Now, I have promised my husband that I would make sure that it wouldn’t look like Christmas “threw-up” in our house this year.  So I’m trying hard to make the house festive without making it croweded or cluttered.

I put together some really cute candle holders tonight using some really inexpensive items from Wal-Mart.

I got the idea out of a Partylite catalog.  They have this holder that they call the “express it” holder.  I can’t afford the 25 or 38 dollars for just ONE holder though, so I set out to try to make them myself.

I got three clear cylinder vases for $1.97 each, and three small bud vases for .97 each,  I bought three sheets of cardstock or scrapbooking paper in designs that I liked for .59 each.  I also used three tealights from wally world which were about .10 each, which brings my total for all three pieces to: $10.89!

I’m going to attempt to get pictures of them up here tomorrow, but until then, I’m going to enjoy them here!

1. I can play the oboe, fiddle, marimba/xylophone, trumpet, (sort of) flute and clarinet. Or at least I could ten years ago…

2. I like bluegrass music.

3. Penguins are my favorite animal.

4. I like Disney movies, the cartoon kind… My Mom took me to see Mulan in the theaters and was embarrassed to be there with me because I laughed so loud.

5. I eat Jalapeños from the jar… by the jar.

6. I love pink but look better in greens and blues.

7. My fave sandwich from Subway is seafood with banana peppers, lettuce, tomato, pickle, and sweet onion sauce!

8. I’ve had enough Psychology classes to earn a degree or two… if only I had the core classes under control…

9. I have one green/hazel eye and one brown/hazel eye.

10. I collect teapots and teacups.

And here are the rules:

Each blogger must post these rules.

Each blogger starts with ten random facts/habits about themselves.

Bloggers that are tagged need to write on their own blog about their ten things and post these rules. At the end of your blog, you need to choose ten people to get tagged and list their names.

Dont forget to leave them a comment telling them they have been tagged and to read your blog.

Here are my ten people… ok so it’s really four because I’m not sure I know ten bloggers!

1. Eat a Cheeseburger

2.  Julie at Multiple blessings

3.  Julie at Real in the Day

4.  Sarah Jo Austin

I’ll try to find some more….