This is an amazing message..God is in Me and YOU!!!

Ciao for Now,
Deana

Ciao for Now, Deana

August 31, 2009

The First Day of School!

I remember so well . . . laying out my first week’s collection of new school outfits:  so clean and brand new, a sign and a description of exactly who I wanted to be that year. Some years, “trendy”; others, “the trend setter” — but always with my own unique twist.

I believe that if you look closely, you, too, can see “who your children are wanting to be” and who they are wanting to “impress.”  I still see this in my 20-year old daughter, when we go shopping for her first few days of college. Boy, has she grown up into a lovely, beautiful girl!

These are the simple, telling signs of what our children are going through as well!  Check out the school supplies they pick out.  Who’s on the cover of their folders?  Chandler and Preston have been selecting solid covered folders and binders for years.  Then I go and buy a bunch of stickers from stores and companies that they love, then letting them design and create their own style of binders.  And, believe me, this is truly something they have learned to love and look forward to. Each is unique, different from any other.

So, today, if you want to get to know your children, start looking at the things that are right in front of you!

It really is more than following a trend when they are making their selections for school: this is their identity!

So don’t you be fooled otherwise!

Ciao for now,

Deana

This is what life is all about!

That’s all I can say about this.

Merry Christmas!

Ciao, Deana

A Father’s Amazing Love

WHO DOESN’T LOVE PUPPET SHOWS?

There is something about puppet shows that makes everyone smile.  Why is that?

Something about the magic of hands. Something about little creatures of all kinds that seem to come to life. Or is it the anticipation of what’s next?

It never seems to matter where the stage is, or what it’s made of: it could be behind the baby’s crib, or a cardboard box, and even from inside a garbage can, as millions of viewers know from Sesame Street’s muppet, the Grouch.

What is the magic?

Chandler and Preston have shared this Puppet Show with all their friends. And they insisted I should share it with YOU!

Our gift to you,

Merry Christmas!

So it’s a Sunday afternoon and the boys have been home all week, sick.

Every night, I turn to to the right and . . . cough, cough, cough. I turn to the left and . . . cough, cough, cough.  I’m thinking, “Where is my face mask?”  I’m doomed!

Now finally, we are on the other side of illness. We decide to watch a Christmas movie, but can’t seem to find one that we haven’t already seen many times. So all three of us settle on the sofa to watch one of the documentary channels.

Within the space of 2 hours, the HANES commercial must have aired 10 times:

What first appears is a conveyor-belt walkway like those seen in airports, with a line of twenty-something humans standing stiffly in orderly rows, like robotic mannequins, waiting to pass through what appears to be a dream-machine for acquiring the “perfect body.”  Boy, girl, boy, girl . . . all in underwear.

Now, you see this going on, trying to figure out what the ad is trying to say and where it’s going, as its artsy sci-fi quality intrigues you and pulls you in. (Very well done by the advertising agency, I will give them that.)

You then see this man transformed into a lean-mean-sex-machine and now . . . here comes a beautiful woman. She proceeds through the futuristic body-overhauling device, and of course, the camera zooms close in on her chest;  lo and behold, her boobs grow 2 full sizes right before your eyes (I have a large-screen tv and the next thing we know, the living room filled with boobs — and they aren’t mine.) As she exits we see her stunning eyes, ecstatic as though she is saying, “I’m alive now!” (eyes strangely human in stark contrast to her creepy mannequin face). The conveyor belt takes a sharp turn as she remains motionless, passive, allowing it to transport her and her state-of-the-art boobs wherever it will. 

After moving through this machine, each zombie-like passenger is transformed in something more robotic, less human than ever. Preston says, “What . . .? Why do I have to see this? What is this about?”

The commercial continues:  a man, still human, about to take his turn on the conveyor, barely takes a step on it and then, in a flash of insight, panics. He looks behind . . . to what appears to be his girlfriend. He jumps off the belt, grabs his girlfriend. Everything goes from black-and-white to color with the two of them running off into the countryside . . . in white underwear.

Now, any grown-up can get the message, especially after watching it 10 times, but all the boys could recall was a woman with perfectly formed breasts going through a body-transfomation machine, and watching her breasts grow.

It’s not hard for adults to understand what Hanes is trying to say: “Be yourself,” and you can be your natural self . . . in their underwear. But what also comes across is the exact opposite message.

So this Christmas, I will be stuffing my children’s polyester stockings with Hanes natural underwear. Or will I?

Ciao for now,

Deana

(C) deana’s view 2008