Hey, Mad Sweeney, are you and I somehow related? I can totally see the resemblance in our pictures.
Ilovebirthdays
JoinedPosts by Ilovebirthdays
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51
I'm glad my children don't have to grow up being afraid of cupcakes
by Ilovebirthdays inyesterday, i brought a batch of cupcakes to my son's school.
in passing them out, i started to give one to one of the children, who was a jw.
he immediately started freaking out and screaming "no thank you" over and over.
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I'm glad my children don't have to grow up being afraid of cupcakes
by Ilovebirthdays inyesterday, i brought a batch of cupcakes to my son's school.
in passing them out, i started to give one to one of the children, who was a jw.
he immediately started freaking out and screaming "no thank you" over and over.
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Ilovebirthdays
It's funny this thread came back today. I've been reflecting on all the things that just in this past week my children did that they wouldn't be able to do were I still a Dub. My son came home with this cute book from school with special projects and pictures of them throughout the year from his Kindergarten teacher. The book of the boy I was talking about that freaked out about the cupcakes must have been only about 30% of the size of everyone else's, because so much of the book was holiday projects and party pictures, and field trips to the pumpkin patch, Christmas tree farm, etc. My son came home blissed out and clutching a huge bag of candy from his friend's birthday. My daughter had a preschool graduation, and we didn't have to worry that it was held in a church and not be able to go. My son had a t-ball game that he was worried would be rained out, because he loves playing, and his team is pretty much all his classmates and friends, so he loves going. My daughter made a comment about how much she loves Saturdays because we all get to be home as a family and watch cartoons and not hurry up getting ready. I love that Saturdays can just be a lazy morning where nobody has to feel guilty about going slow and not worry about going in service. I remember constantly getting panicked Wednesday nights after meeting, all through Thursday and Friday, because I knew Saturday was coming soon and I would have to be out knocking on doors, which I hated. I just have so much joy watching them get to be small children and not have to worry about some God that will wipe them out for one little misstep, and know that they can just enjoy all that comes along and not always have to be worrying about things that they can't even comprehend at this age.
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Ilovebirthdays
I never think stuff like this is very funny, but this cracked me up. I even did the Belief o matic one, and was very pleased that JW's came in dead last on my results.
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Help: What percentage of your income do you pay on rent/mortgage?
by daniel-p inso i'm trying to find a place to rent on the other side of the country, sight unseen.
i have a friend and real estate agent helping me, but it's pretty much a nightmare.
they've done several walkthroughs and sent pictures of some places, but things are looking grim.
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Ilovebirthdays
About 16%. We bought 4 years ago, took about 1/2 of what we were approved for for the loan, and put 20% down. Now we are close to being underwater because prices in the area have fallen so much, and we can't refinance, because we would have to take out mortgage insurance, which would wipe out the savings from lower rates. We also have no debt except for the house.
Sometimes I think it would be nice to have taken more and have a bigger house, but we've watched several people we know struggle and lose or almost lose their house, and the peace of mind from not having taken too much and being stretched thin is nice.
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51
I'm glad my children don't have to grow up being afraid of cupcakes
by Ilovebirthdays inyesterday, i brought a batch of cupcakes to my son's school.
in passing them out, i started to give one to one of the children, who was a jw.
he immediately started freaking out and screaming "no thank you" over and over.
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Ilovebirthdays
I have tons of them, LD, but for some reason it won't let me make links or do copy and paste in Mozilla.
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51
I'm glad my children don't have to grow up being afraid of cupcakes
by Ilovebirthdays inyesterday, i brought a batch of cupcakes to my son's school.
in passing them out, i started to give one to one of the children, who was a jw.
he immediately started freaking out and screaming "no thank you" over and over.
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Ilovebirthdays
No, Heaven, they didn't look like that. But they DID have blue sprinkles on top of them. Upon further thought, it had to be the blue sprinkles, right?
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51
I'm glad my children don't have to grow up being afraid of cupcakes
by Ilovebirthdays inyesterday, i brought a batch of cupcakes to my son's school.
in passing them out, i started to give one to one of the children, who was a jw.
he immediately started freaking out and screaming "no thank you" over and over.
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Ilovebirthdays
Yesterday, I brought a batch of cupcakes to my son's school. In passing them out, I started to give one to one of the children, who was a JW. He immediately started freaking out and screaming "No thank you" over and over. So I got down to his level, and told him that it wasn't a cupcake for birthdays, it wasn't a cupcake for holidays, it was a cupcake (I almost used the word celebrating here, but decided that wouldn't be a good idea) because it was the last day of school. I told him I wouldn't make him take one, but since it wasn't a holdiay or birthday cupcake, I asked him if he wanted it. His eyes lit up, and he got the biggest smile on his face, and said "Oh, yes". I've helped 3 days a week in that school, and I'd never seen that child smile a smile that actually made it into his eyes. Two weeks into the school year, I thought it was really odd that he didn't ever seem to play, he just seemed to go through the motions of playing, and secretly voted him "most likely to go postal" in my head. And I didn't even know he was a JW at the time. I didn't know until the teacher said something right before Christmas about him being one. It made me really sad to think how many days I had been there, and never saw him smile a real smile.
Going home, I remembered an incident from when I was fairly young. Once my mom decided she wanted to go to a certain restaurant that was far fancier than any place we'd ever been to. The waitress asked what the special occasion was for our being there. My mom said we were just going to lunch, or something along those lines. So after the meal, the waitress and other people from the restaurant brought me a cupcake after the meal. She said something about my mom and I celebrating our time together, and I remember getting all upset, and telling her I couldn't have it. My mom told me I could, and I remember feeling this absolute luxurious feeling that I was doing something bad and getting away with it, but the more I thought about it, the more I wondered if eating the cupcake was actually wrong, and I was really upset afterward that I had eaten it.
I'm just glad my children won't grow up looking at cupcakes as something to be afraid of. To them, they're nothing more than a treat.
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What happens when a elderly dub is put into a care home?
by highdose inspeaking from my experiance i have seen no less than 10 elderly jw's put into old age care homes and promptly forgotten about!.
no visits from their "loving shepards" no vists from their spritual family.
they were left to rot out of sight out of mind.
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Ilovebirthdays
I saw that happen several times. The vast majority of the congregation never visit them. With the exception being a handful of pioneers looking to find a way to count time. One or two would visit them regularly and "study" with them as an easy way to get in an hour a week. That always bothered me, becuase I never could figure out how that was a legitimate way to count time, and I also knew if the few people that actually visited them couldn't count their time, they would never have been there in the first place.
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The Story of Randall Watters part II - Trouble at Bethel
by Dogpatch inmy story part 2: trouble at bethel.
[if gte mso 9]><!
[endif]by my third year at bethel i was really enjoying it and determined to make bethel a life career.
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Ilovebirthdays
I've read both parts of your story so far, and they are such a great read.
Thank you so much for all you do with Freeminds and on here. Even though I left being a JW and made my peace with that decision far before I ever found any ex-JW material of any sort, what you do makes a difference for other JW's on the fence. The work you and others do I'm sure has helped many escape the cult. What an amazing gift you have given others with your efforts.
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Have you ever made prank phone calls?
by asilentone ini have never done it and i would not do it ever.
the reason why i am asking all of you is because i am shocked that one of my classy facebook friends admitted making prank phone calls in the past.
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Ilovebirthdays
I think that was about the "worst" thing I ever did as a JW child. (Also before technology advances) My friend and I called the house of the boy behind us, and when his mom answered the phone we flushed the toilet and then hung up. We laughed about that for weeks. I think I was just as proud that my mom was in the house, and didn't know what we were doing. I thought we were so sneaky.
I agree, it is really childish, but, you know what? We were children at the time. I can't remember exactly how old, but it was either 5th or 6th grade.