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By The Social Frog, on January 29th, 2009
The Diary Of A Young Girl by Anne Frank
283 Pages
Non-Fiction
Published 1947
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“Discovered in the attic in which she spent the last years of her life, Ann Frank’s remarkable diary has since become a world classic-a powerful reminder of the horrors of war an eloquent testament to the human spirit. In 1942, with Nazi occupying Holland, a thirteen-year-old Jewish girl and her family fled their home in Amsterdam and went into hiding.
For the next two years, until thier whereabouts were betrayed to the Gestapo, they and another family lived cloistered in the “Seceret Annexe” of an old office building. Cut off from the outside world, they faced hunger, boredom, the constant cruelties of living in confined quarters, and the ever-present threat of discovery and death.
In her diary Anne Frank recorded vivid impressions of her experiences during this period. By turns thoughtful, moving, and amusing, her account offers a fascinating commentary on human courage and frailty and a compelling self-portrait of a sensitive and spirited young woman whose promise was tragically cut short.”
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I absolutely loved reading this book again. It is a timeless classic filled with so many emotions through out the book. Anne received a diary for her birthday, right before her & her family had to go into hiding. One thing that struck me through out reading the book is how articulate Anne was and so dramatic when she described something that went on in the “Secret Annexe”. I honestly can not imagine an adult having to go into hiding, let alone a child filled with endless energy. Anne always felt she was being picked on because she was so young and a chatterbox. I went through a whirl wind of emotions while reading this book from laughing to some tears as I agonized along with Anne as she described the many times they thought they were about to be caught. I found her tales of her love and desire for Peter very amusing, brought me back to when I was younger and my thoughts on boys. It is sad that Anne never felt a close bond with her mother. I am still trying to figure out if she really didn’t or was this just how Anne saw her relationship with her mother. This book is inspirational in many ways and gave me a renewed gratitude for the life I now lead.
I highly recommend this book to everyone.
By The Social Frog, on January 29th, 2009
HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!
Today is my mother, Barbara’s Birthday!
Mom, I love you very much and I wish you much joy, peace & happiness today and always. I really wish I could be there to celebrate this big birthday will you and the rest of the family, just know I am always with you and you are always in my heart.
Daniel & I hope you enjoy the gift we gave you and I really hope you like the Birthday card I have made for you. You are a very lucky woman mom to be surrounded by all of your children, well at least 8 of them as well as your grandchildren, you are blessed and I have been blessed to have you as my mother.
I love you so very much and all I wish for you today is that you are happy!
I Love You & I Miss You Terribly Mom,
RoseAnn
By The Social Frog, on January 27th, 2009
A little while ago I took my almost daily walk to the mail box, which is about a 30 minute walk round trip. It is beautiful outside today! Nice temperature also. I have been making mad dashes to the mail box for a book I am waiting on and it seems like it will never get here.
As I got to the mail, anticipation of what might be inside caused me to fumble around with the key. I opened the small door only to have revealed what I like to call junk mail. Disappointment rushed over me yet again. I took said junk mail and decided to sift through it just in case the mail man left a slip telling me to pick up the book at the office.
I found no such slip and was about to toss the junk mail when I noticed what looked to be a letter. I must say I will now ALWAYS look diligently through all the mail because this letter was stuffed in the middle of a huge mess of fliers and crap.
The letter on the outside read as follows:
From Irene
To RoseAnn
Of course my address was posted on it as well as Irene’s.
Who is Irene? You might ask. Well she is my youngest sibling. I blogged about her a bit this summer while her and my brother Joel stayed with Daniel & I for a nice visit. I love her. I miss her. I need to spend more time with her!
One thing about being in the military is you usually move away and that IS the hard part for me. I know they were all going to grow up while I am away, no matter how much I wish I could stop it.
Irene is turning into a beautiful young girl and changing daily. I need to stop with the “I Wish” stuff because that is just it, a wish and even though it is hard for me to except, I have missed out on some things.
I am always thrilled to get a letter from her or anyone I know, as it is few and far between. I am someone who loves e-mail and all that other stuff but I really love writing letters and receiving them.
So even though I was disappointed about not getting my book today, Irene made everything better and brightened my day!
This is what she gave me in the envelope.
Irene, I Love You very much and I look forward to seeing & knowing who you will become as you grow older.
Love Your Big Sis,
RoseAnn
By The Social Frog, on January 26th, 2009
Before you judge and make your decision, hear it all out and read the facts.
Daniel & I were eating breakfast this morning when we heard a odd and very “out there” story about how you can give and receive what they are calling in layman terms the Obesity Virus. Yes, I know it sounded weird and almost like an excuse at first.
It is described as like catching a cold virus from someone. So by touching things or getting sneezed on by someone infected, may also infect you. What it does is it gets into your lungs and can cause a sore throat and while it is doing that it forces your fat cells to multiply.
The fat tissue then expands and makes you get fatter while infected with the virus. You can continue to gain weight for 3 months, yes peoples…3 months until your body builds up a resistance to the bug.
However this is no excuse to over eat or not to watch your diet & exercise, which is common sense of course. And don’t avoid over weight people or be rude as not everyone who is obese is infected.
There are many more to be done and we thought it was interesting that all the studies thus far have been done here in America, not over seas like in a European country. They say they of course can not run tests on humans for this because who would want to purposely gain pounds for three months. But they have tested animals.
Now they are trying to find a vaccination for this virus.
I am really interested in this story as it seems like a big joke when in fact it is not. So I will be on the look out for more news stories on this as well as studies and see where it goes.
What are YOUR thoughts on this story?
By The Social Frog, on January 25th, 2009
The ” Flat Stanley Project ” is a great educational fun thing to get involved in! Click on the link to find out more. This is not the first time Daniel & I have participated in this program, we did two years ago while we were living in Corpus Christi, TX. At that time it was for my brother Joel.
This time around it was for my 8 year old sister Irene. The teacher sends you a packet with information and what you are to do. Pretty much you “do” stuff with Stanley. You take him to fun or cool places so that he in return can “teach” the kids about places he has visited.
You take pictures of Stanley out & about with you and you keep a journal of things he’s done. What I like to do for the journal part is pick Stanley’s favorite outing and write a whole letter about that one special event. We take tons of pictures and maybe little clips of video.
So this year Stanley’s favorite outting was down at the Jacksonville Landing for the Boat Parade, which if you would like you can read about that HERE . It was a lot of fun and we took tons of pictures and I put a CD with all of them on it to send to the class.
We have accidentally had Stanley for a long while and so he will be leaving us on Monday. Instead of things I did last time, I did it differently. I decided to make a 12×12 Scrapbook page to “remember” Stanley’s time with us. I think the kids will like it a lot.
Here is a picture I took of the finished project.
This is a very fun & educational tool for kids all over to be able to learn about other states & countries. Please get involved with a local school or if you would like your child’s school to participate, bring it to their attention by directing them to THIS website!
You don’t have to have children of your own to participate, young and old are encouraged to take part in teaching our youth about our all of our different cultures. It was very rewarding for me and fun to put the ending result, the project together.
***My Project Info***
I used an envelope to “hold” the journal (letter) to the students as well as a few other pictures of Stanley that I printed out and the CD filled with pictures and video clips of that event.
By The Social Frog, on January 24th, 2009
I have been feeling better today! I did however wake up feeling like crap and instead of helping hubby clean the house up I ended up falling back asleep in my rocking chair, I still think I am a little sick, actually I know I still am. I just want to be over this head cold!
We went to Books A Million this afternoon so I could check to see if a book I wanted was there, it was not but I ended up buying another one, so in the end it worked out for me.
We also got a Starbucks, I got my usual iced coffee and it tasted simply amazing as we don’t do Starbucks as often as we used to, trying to eat/drink healthier, but you can always indulge every once in a while!
This is my 400th post also! Woot, I guess,lol. Many of my former posts got lost in the action of upgrading Wordpress, such is life.
Today I crafted like mad and I am still at it, I will be sharing those in posts tomorrow as I am waiting for my camera batteries to charge, man the life of a battery gets snuffed out very quickly by a 14 mega pixel camera, I guess that is the price I pay for great, crisp looking pictures.
Now I am off to finish one last project for the night, then time to relax by playing some Pogo
By The Social Frog, on January 22nd, 2009
I am going to be pretty candid and open about abortion & the right to life. This subject still seems pretty taboo and I next to never see anyone discuss it on their blog unless the blog is for the most part religious and that person talks about it quite often.
I don’t speak about it to often in my blog but to family & friends I do often outside of the blogging world. I feel very strongly about it. I don’t see anything wrong with me writing about how I feel on this subject. I am not afraid of stepping on toes cause guess what…I will I am sure of that!
One of the things I enjoy about blogging is sharing my feelings of thoughts on issues and others chiming in with their own, I know everyone has different thoughts and I want to hear them, so if you read this, don’t shy away from commenting unless you are afraid what others might think of you.
I guess my first thoughts and feelings on this issue were fostered by what my parents thought and believed on the issue. We used to go to rallies and hold signs stating our case against abortion. I was told at a young age about it and I’m sure it took a while for me to fully understand what it was.
What I was certain about was that every baby deserved to live!
As I got older and was able to decide for myself, I still chose to think and express that abortion was wrong to me. I continued to go to rallies and hold signs.
I believe every baby has the right to life. I have not nor will I ever buy into the whole woman’s choice crap, her body…her choice. OK, does anyone realize that it took more than just a “her” to create that baby? I can not believe that the father’s to be do not have a say at all in the matter, and I believe that they should.
I am not focusing on the religious aspetcts of this because I was not planing on going there but yes, that also helped shape my thoughts growing up.
I don’t get why a baby is called a “fetus”, I have news for you, it is a BABY! But I guess calling the baby a fetus helps some people sleep at night. I guess killing a baby but calling it a fetus or a mass of tissue makes it easier for people to justify the dirty deed.
It is WRONG!
If you are off having sex than you need to think it through thoroughly. If I do this..Then this could happen. If you think you are adult enough to have sex than you need to be adult enough and live with what might happen which would be a baby, a child!
I don’t believe any person, man or woman has the right to kill a baby because it wont fit into their life, or they are not ready for that kind of responsibility, or now is not the time maybe in a year or two. That is so disgusting and irresponsible and a load of BS!
Killing babies has become a quick fix people!
There are so many more options out their instead of giving your baby a death sentence! You can easily choose life for your baby by giving the baby up for adoption, there are so many people out there who want/need children and could give a baby a wonderful, loving home.
If you want help you can call this number to find a Crisis Pregnancy Center near you: 1 (800) 848-love
To read articles or find out more information about abortion click HERE .
By The Social Frog, on January 20th, 2009
Or is the dog sick? I hope you all had a wonderful day today and woot for those of you lucky enough to watch Obama be sworn in live!
I ask if the dog is sick because I am pretty convinced that little Bailey is SICK and I don’t feel so well myself. Poor Bailey woke up happy and excited to eat, 10 minutes later I was on my hands & knee’s cleaning many spots on my carpet.
I don’t really know what it could be, I just suppose every now & then dogs are like us and feel like crap! So he has spent most of the day curled up in his comforter sleeping. I did however decide to feed him a very small portion of food for lunch, which he only ate a few morsels then went back to bed.
In other news I feel like crap,lol. It is my own fault really. Today I had a couple errands to run and it was rather chilly here in Florida again and my sweatshirt thingy was dirty so I ran out with a t-shirt on. Something told me this was not to smart, but I figured no big deal as I would be in and out and back home quick.
I actually was not cold but your body does not care about that.
I even had a lady in the post office standing behind me in line, tap my shoulder and she said to me “You are one brave sole to be out in just a t-shirt today”. I told her I honestly was not cold and that I am from the New England area and so this weather was a walk in the park.
Then I proceeded to tell her that I might end up getting sick because of it. I don’t know if I am sick really. I always have sinus issues ever since I had my wisdom teeth removed. I must have sneezed at least 50+ times already today and I rarely sneeze like that and of course I nice soar throat is what I feel at the moment.
I better take my own advice that I gave to my mother when she was recently sick and what I always say is to drink lots of hot tea! Add honey if you want or sugar but drink the tea! My throat and nose are so dry, it really hurts. I know, woe is me…
Today I did not participate in “Ten On Tuesday” today because it was about sports, people…I don’t really care about sports. I like football and I will even watch it but nothing about it is really memorable for me, so alas I had nothing to contribute to the meme today.
I finished making another card today but I have to wait to show it because I don’t want the person to see it here first, I want them to see it first hand. I will be making more cards starting tonight. I really enjoy making handmade cards and they really are personal and the perfect thing to send to someone for any occasion.
Hubby was supposed to be home a bit ago, but I don’t count on anything anymore being a Navy wife. The only thing I can count on is that they WILL send him off on deployment, the rest of it is all wishy washy!
By The Social Frog, on January 17th, 2009
Today actually ended up being a pretty busy day and it was wonderful. I live for the weekends with Daniel. It seems to be the only time we now have to go and do things, during the week we have a tight schedule we keep to.
It was nice & chilly today, I think I was briefly able to pretend I was not in Florida.
We started the day heading to downtown Jacksonville, there was an Electronics Liquidation type sale going on and we love our gadgets! It cost $16 for the both of us to get in without even knowing if it was worth the money, but sometimes you just have to be a little risky.
It was OK, I will give it that much. And Mr.ShamWow guy, you can buy a better set of those things for the same price now at Walmart. I didn’t tell him that to his face as I did not want him to loose business on account of me (rolling my eye’s).
Nothing else was to spectacular there, so there is not much more to say about that event, we did however buy a really interesting carpet cleaner, there will be more about that item in another post after we use it ourselves.
Then we headed off to a flea market which sucked because we are in Florida and any chilly weather sends people packing and into hibernation. Needless to say there were not many vendors out and those that were, were selling produce…I’ll get mine at the grocery store.
Off we then went to one of our favorite book stores called ” Chamblin’s Book Mine ” where we go looking for books before we go to any of the big-wig chain stores. We could spend hours there, and we often do but we did not have much time today because we had gone out to eat for a late lunch at the Olive Garden.
I made a couple selections there but alas I will be saving that for yet another post.
I am a pretty crafty gal so I wanted to go to a few of my favorite stores like Joann’s & Michael’s. I did find a few things like some papers for a special project. I was going to get a refill cartridge for my Xyron but remembered that they are $10 at Walmart instead of $16 at these two places. Can you guess where we went shopping next?
If you said Walmart, you are sadly wrong,lol. We went to GameStop of course! We are always looking for new or more games to play. Daniel walked out with two games and me with one. Then of course we went to Walmart to finish off a day & night of browsing & shopping.
Come to find out, one of the games Daniel got at GameStop, it is crappy and keeps freezing. It was a used game, so tomorrow we will be out getting that fixed. The rest of the night calls for more blogging (maybe) and maybe playing Lord Of The Rings Online.
What was your day like?
By The Social Frog, on January 14th, 2009
Is it just me or is it really that cold here in Florida? Maybe it is because I come from the New England area, but it takes a lot more than 50 degree weather for me to freeze!
Yeah, it certainly is sweatshirt or hoodie weather but more than that and you really are over reacting. I have been watching people over the last few days, you would think they were getting ready to go skiing or to play in the snow, but what they are really doing is going to Walmart or some other store.
I got a great chuckle early this afternoon as I went to Walmart to get a few groceries. I was standing near the exit door getting ready to head out to my car, as I watched a woman and I presume her daughter, run from their car. They were both wearing furry boots and heavy jackets as well as hats & gloves!
Then as they ran through the doors into Walmart, wear the heat was on they quickly peeled off most of those items and started complaining.
Peoples, this is Florida, I do understand that we get some cold weather. The coldest weather is when we are all sleeping. I guess if you are out at 1 or 2am it might make sense as these next few days lows are in the 20’s for the early am.
I can’t help but laugh though when people are acting like it is negative something degrees when it is actually in the 50’s and 60’s out. I myself have not even bought a coat since we moved here last February, no need for one.
By The Social Frog, on January 9th, 2009
I don’t know about you, but every once in a while I get in the mood for a yummy, meaty steak! I have yet to find another place I like more than the Texas Roadhouse!
Daniel & I decided to treat ourselves to a steak dinner tonight, we go every once in a while. Since it is Friday, I figured it would be one heck of a wait to get seated and I was correct. I do believe we ended up with at least an hour wait.
At least we found a spot to sit and wait. The downside of this Texas Roadhouse was the lack of speakers to hear what table and party they were announcing. Table #414 flashed on a barely able to see screen for a good 20 minutes, the people only found out because Daniel noticed one of the people holding a table card with that number on it.
Who knows how many other people this happened to all night.
We did eventually get seated, the waitstaff were on top of things it seemed and for the most part everything was running smoothly.
Daniel & I had some great conversation in between bites of yummy rolls & steak. We had a nice time aside from the long wait, but that is to be expected on any given weekend. So if your looking for a great place to eat steak and you have a Texas Roadhouse, check it out.
I was actually shocked to find this restaurant here in Florida! The one we ate at tonight was at:
550 Blanding Boulevard
Orange Park,Fl. 32073
By The Social Frog, on January 7th, 2009
Yesterday I wanted to do some photo editing, I always start by cropping the picture and I always use Windows Photo Gallery to crop. Why, I don’t know but I like the way it crops the picture.
I went to crop the picture as always but this time when I went to save the cropped picture I got this error from Windows Photo Gallery: “A error is preventing Photo Gallery from saving this picture.”
I had a feeling it was going to take a bit of looking into. Any issue with Windows especially Vista is a big pain in the arse most of the time.
So I had to run through my head to think of things, any changes made to any kind of photo stuff recently. The only thing I kept coming up with was that for Christmas I got a 14 mega pixel camera and I was only getting the error with the pictures taken with this new camera!
I ended up figuring it out long before I had imagined I would! So I will give you the solution in case you find yourself with this very problem.
The camera I got for Christmas is in the Kodak Easy Share family, and I installed the Easy Share software not to long ago because I need it for a promotion that came with the camera to use said promotion.
Solution: Uninstall the Kodak Easy Share software.
There seems to be some sort of protection error that the Kodak software is putting out when you try to change any picture associated with it. At this time the only fix for this is to uninstall the Kodak Easy Share software and use another photo program. Or don’t use the Windows Photo Gallery for any photo editing.
Since I could care less aside from the promotion that came with my camera, I uninstalled the Easy Share software and Windows Photo Gallery works fine again.
If you have any questions, I might be able to help you out. Feel free to contact me and ask and if I can’t help you, I might be able to at least put you in the direction of someone who can.
By The Social Frog, on January 7th, 2009
Seven months ago today, I quit smoking. It was not my first time quitting but it was my last! I believe I smoked for about 11 years. I had wanted to quit many times and every time I quit, I thought it was my last.
The quits never stuck. Why? You might ask, well the only thing I can come up with, is that I just was not ready then, no matter how many times I said I was. If I had been ready then, I would have stuck with it.
I don’t know what exactly made me ready this time. I think I was worried about my health and not feeling good and wanting better for myself and all those around me.
I know for a lot of people it is very hard to quit, this time it was not so rough for me. I can not explain it and I wish everyone could have as easy as a time as I have had. That is not to say I have not got a craving a time or two, because I have. I squish the thoughts by asking myself why I would want to feel sick and tired again!
I wanted to make sure I had the support of others aside from my hubby and family, so I decided to join an online support group called “Quit Net” . Quit Net was a great resource for me at the begining, it helped me feel like I was not alone in my journey.
I am happy to say that at 7 months smoke free I feel SO much better, my lungs are happier and I recently was able to hold my breath for 40 seconds. I know that is not a huge number but compaired to what it used to be it is amazing for me, and that feels good.
If you want or need support while you start your quit please think about joining Quit Net, there are a great group of people and usually someone always on to talk 24/7. If you are about to quit or are thinking about quitting, I wish you well and do it for you!
By The Social Frog, on January 6th, 2009
Recently hubby Daniel & I have decided to change what we eat and more exercise. Several months ago we started exercising together but we kind of slacked off on it around the holidays. So there was/is no better way to start off the new year than to get healthier!
I had started a diet/exercise program and hubby started another. Several days of my routine are target exercises and on the other days I am supposed to do cardio. This week I decided to join hubby in his exercises in the morning after a nice breakfast.
A few days ago we did some Yoga as well as stretching and breathing exercises. We had never done much Yoga before, so it was a little intimitating for both of us. We will be giving it another try some time soon.
This morning we did Kenpo X, which is Daniel’s exercises. It is kind of like kickboxing. I don’t think either of us thought it was going to be as much of a workout as it ended up being! We did a full hour and by the time we were done we had done some great cardio, we were sweating and the heart had been pumping.
One thing I liked about it was the fact that I did not have to be Gumby to do the exercises. I do know that over time and as I loose more weight it will all be easier. It was fun though and it was more enjoyable because Daniel & I were there for each other and had a little fun with it here & there.
Surprisingly it did not wipe me out after wards but it was a challenge and something I hope to do again soon.
Even though that was a great amount of exercise I wanted to go for a walk later in the afternoon to go get the mail. I was going to take both dogs, but decided today that I would just take Zoey with me. Little Zoey never gets any time alone with me unless it is giving her a bath and I want to take the time this year to do some walking just with her.
She is like a totaly different dog when we are alone together! She is a smart cookie and she proved it to me today. I was not expecting it but as we were walking she got ahead of me and I said “Zoey, wait for me”, she stopped walking and would look back at me and wait for me to catch up.
We got the mail then I decided to walk around the grounds a bit and see if there were any pictures I wanted to take, I try to take my camera every where I go. Nothing to special today but I find it so interesting, all the trees with the moss growing on them. So here is one tree with a bunch on it that I found today.
Today it was very nice out, way to warm for January, but what do you expect in Florida,lol. The weather is supposed to change though in the next few days to cold. We will see and I wont be holding my breath.
By The Social Frog, on January 5th, 2009
I happened to run out of rice cakes this evening, not the foo foo flavored crap but the good old plain rice cakes with not even a lick of salt! I have enjoyed these since I was a child. I credit this to my mother who tried to feed us healthier things and snacks growing up.
To bad all the other good food groups didn’t stick with me into adult hood. I like to snack on them with some water or another beverage, it is filling and does not take much to do it, and somehow it can even curb a craving for a sweet treat, at least for me it can.
This evening hubby Daniel got home from work early and I needed more rice cakes so we headed out. Wal*Mart for some reason stopped carrying the plain salt free ones a long time ago. This I do not understand and has pissed me off because now I have to go somewhere “special” to get it.
I know they carry them at Publix, but they close early at night and I am not sure about Winn.Dixie if they carry them and well they close just as early as the Publix. So they were closed and left me with NO other options.
So screw you Wal*Mart for carrying the foo foo crap and not the plain ones.
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