Olmstead 10 Year Anniversary

Sharon Jenkins Tucker wins Clifford Beers Award!

Sharon Jenkins Tucker received the 2009 Mental Health America Clifford W. Beers Award. When getting up every day was hampered by depression, she slept in the back seat of her car rather than be hospitalized. Since 2004 she has been the executive director of the Georgia Mental Health Consumer Network, using her experience about the process of recovery, and her training as a peer specialist, to create the Peer Support and Wellness Center run by employed certified peer specialists.
"Does recovery work?" some are asking as they discuss how much to invest in health reform. "I'm the evidence," she told a cheering, weeping, and star-studded crowd.

Are Psychiatric Drugs Being Pushed on Kids?

Extreme Sheep LED Art

I've never seen anyting like this. Is it really possible? Wow!

Beth plus 11 white shirts, yes 11

Okay, this is just some random silliness when Beth stayed with me last May. We had so much fun, especially the last night of her visit. We were both exhausted from working all day (Beth was doing a training) and then shopping, plus Beth had to catch an early flight the next morning. It was one of those nights when nothing made sense and everything was funny. I have no idea if we will make sense to anyone else, but I am posting this video because I had fun with it. There was a lot I couldn't post from the footage because, well, I kinda want to keep this a PG blog.

Mother and daughter reunion - and sisters, too!

I rarely see my mom and my sister Michele. They live down the street from each other in Blue Springs, MO. I hadn't seen them in years when my sister Jody called me and asked if I wanted to meet them in Dallas. I said yes, bought a plane ticket, and the rest is in this video.

Michele is our little sister, and we were not very nice to her growing up. We both thought of her as a brat, and we really couldn't see beyond the brattiness. So now, Michele has a daughter of her own, Katie, who is the reason we decided to meet in Dallas. Katie is a cheerleader, and Dallas was holding its cheerleading championship competition.

Granted, I could care less about cheerleading, but I do care about my little sister and my niece, so this was an opportunity to see them again. My mom was there, too, along with Katie's friend and her mom. The trip turned out to be quite a "mother-daughter" theme. Lots of bickering, especially between Michele and Katie. Apparently Katie is going through a typical "I hate my mother" phase, and Michele, who totally cracks me up, is taking it all in. You can see some of the dynamics in the video, but mostly it is about mothers and daughters in general.