Murraytalk

I seldom talk about racism, but today I need to vent because an incident occurred that is ridiculous to me considering it's 2015. Let me begin by saying that I am bi-racial. Native American, Black, Mexican, and European. Apparently I have an exotic enough look that most people aren't sure what nationality I am, but it's obvious that I'm not Caucasian. I did marry a man that is Caucasian so of course my children are bi-racial as well. One other thing that should be noted before I begin to vent is that I started school in the 60's and have no memory of racism being directed at me.  Now time to vent..I live in a neighborhood that is predominately Caucasian, which of course makes the schools in the area not racially balanced. I remember going to the elementary school that I'm speaking of to register my children several years ago and the secretary asking me several times if I was sure that I lived in the neighborhood. (I am intelligent enough to know where I live...

I'm going through over 35 years of pictures. Yesterday after I talked about my camping adventure I remembered that I had pictures of our lovely camping trip. So I started going through my mound of shoe boxes which led me to the decision to sort and create scrapbooks. I've done sorting in the past and put pictures in envelopes and passed them on, but no one would ever guess it by looking at my collection. We're talking 5 children, 8 grandchildren and people I don't even remember worth of pictures. I do believe this is going to be a slow process. Happy Wednesday World!

Our Church Wedding  Today my husband and I have been married for 35 years. I was thinking last night about all the joy and sorrow that has crossed my path over the past 35 years. I typically don't reflect on the past too much unless something triggers a memory, which obviously my anniversary triggered me thinking of the birth of my 3 children in Tucson, moving to Phoenix, adopting my son and getting pregnant during the adoption process. I can't help but think of how we were two 18 year old kids that fell in love and never thought about all of the obstacles that would cross our paths along the way. We just continued to do what we had always done - work hard and love hard. While most people work on becoming rich, having a title, the best car, biggest home, etc., I work for my family. There isn't a bank account large enough or a material item meaningful enough to me to sacrifice my family. Over the past 35 years I have also experienced some losses - lost both of...

Yesterday I talked about how I'm working with a group of women on speaking to children about bullying and accepting differences. So yesterday when I took Makenna to the park five little kids, (3 girls and 2 boys) were running around going up and down the slides. As Makenna made her way up the steps and to their level, she couldn't get pass their little huddle. I stood below curious what type of interaction was about to take place. One of the little girls said, "I love Hello Kitty too!" Makenna was wearing a Hello Kitty t-shirt. The other little girl also expressed her love for the t-shirt and the boys did what boys do, showed how they were King of the slide and could go down head first. They all played with no other exchange of words - just laughter as they chased one another. At what age do we tarnish our children's acceptance - they aren't born with judgements and hatred. Not one of the kids mentioned Makenna's skin color or curly hair, but we all kn...

I get emails asking me questions that I typically answer on a personal level, but this one I thought I'd blog. Question: Who are you? I am a wife that has been married to the same man since I was 18, a mother of five and grandmother of 8. I feel those are my bragging rights, but me as an individual - I'm a spiritual individual that loves writing, dancing, fitness, fashion, and life in general. I always thought that I could save the world - I'm still working on it. Question: What are your dislikes? I really hate washing silverware - hate putting it in the dishwasher, and hate putting it away. I dislike bullies no matter what age they are. Don't like rude and pretentious people. Not a fan of drama, don't like disloyal people and I don't like beef. Question: What do you do for fun? Drink! No, the things I do for fun no one else would classify as fun, but fun for me is crafts, re-decorating, taking pictures, gardening, going to Goodwill and hanging out at hom...

I think we get so busy trying to perfect ourselves that we forget how much value we already have. I was thinking of all the things that I do for people. I'm not saying they're always monumental things, but I'm always extending myself to people, and I'm confident that I've touched some lives over the years. In fact, I was thinking about the day that I was sitting in church years ago. The pastor stopped in the middle of his sermon - he said that God had spoke to him and he had a message for someone. It was me! I'm probably slightly skeptical on things like that, but everything that he said was happening in my life, was, except for the ministry of children that he said I would have. Today I have 5 children and 8 grandchildren so that's part of my ministry of children, but it goes way beyond that.                       I know that my purpose in life involves children. The irony with that is, in college I had my sights set on b...

Going through photos...here's some of my favorite. Will share more soon. The Grandchildren My Son and Granddaughter Son & Granddaughter Daughter & Granddaughter My husband and Granddaughter My Grandson Grandson & Daughter My Son and Grandson My husband and Father in law My Granddaughter Granddaughters Grandsons Granddaughter