Month: July 2011

Politics

We Don’t Need New Taxes, We Need New Taxpayers

Karen

That title packs a punch, doesn’t it?

It also sums up our situation, perfectly.

Here is Senator Rubio’s speech to Congress (beginning at the 3:00 minute mark). Watch it. LISTEN to it. He perfectly sums up what is wrong with our country and debunks the “talking points” the Democrats are trying to make us believe – again.

What really made an impression? When he quotes from a study that compiled all of the “millionaires”, (which, incidentally, Obama classifies anyone who makes over $250,000 a year a millionaire – by WHOSE math, Mr. President??), the oil companies, the jet owners, etc. and if we were to take every penny they made in the next year, demanded they turn it over to the government, it would sustain us for almost 10 days.

Ten days. It would pay for almost 10 days of our insane government spending. And then what? These “wealthy” individuals have nothing left, there is nothing more to give. And they’re the ones who create jobs. So, the jobs they would have created if we just left them alone? Are gone. Which only makes our 9.2% unemployment even worse.

It’s a vicious cycle and we MUST stop it. If we don’t stop this insane spending, it will only get worse – it will NEVER get better. Our country is like a huge money pit. We keep throwing more money into the pit, but the problems continue to grow. We can’t continue this madness.

We Don’t Have A Revenue Problem, We Have A Spending Problem

I mean, let’s bring this analogy down to the average Jane/Joe level:

You have a mountain of debt. You’ve taken out a second mortgage and have maxed out your home equity loan. You have two car payments on vehicles that aren’t even worth the balance you have left to pay. You have three credit cards that have all been maxed out. Everything you make goes to pay the interest on these outstanding loans ONLY. And you can’t even pay all of THAT because you need some money left over to pay for food, phone, utilities.

You are at your wit’s end. It’s time to take serious steps to getting out of debt. Would you:

A. Apply for more credit cards?
B. Take more loans in order to pay down on the existing loans?
C. Immediately cut out all non-essential items in your life and apply that extra money to the least amount owed?
D. DO NOT SPEND ANY MORE MONEY.

Obviously, a rational person would pick C and D.

Our government insists on choosing options A and B.

Do you see how asinine those options are when things are in dire straits?

And yet … here we are.

We need some conservatives, with balls, to get in there and clean up this mess. We need to stop spending, get rid of non-essential government programs, and restructure existing programs (yes, even entitlements. You think I EXPECT to receive Social Security when I reach that age? Oh hell to the no. There’s NO MONEY LEFT FOR MY GENERATION).

That’s it, folks. THOSE are our options. Any politician that tries to tell you that we can get past this debt issue WITHOUT cutting spending? Is blatantly lying to you. They’re telling you what you want to hear.

It’s time to open our eyes, roll up our sleeves and get this problem under control before we sink to Greece levels.

It’s time we started acting like GROWN UPS and stop expecting the government to take care of us.

One last thought: I WANT MARCO RUBIO AS OUR NEXT PRESIDENT. I know he’s not running (this round), but THIS is the type of person we need in the White House to clean up Obama’s “Hope and Change” crap.

Funny

Matrix on Windows

Karen

HAHA!

Vodpod videos no longer available.

Matrix on PC, posted with vodpod

Hey man,

I know this spoof is making fun of Windows – I get it. And they’re right, Windows can be terribly frustrating and wonky and Windows users definitely have these issues, but here’s the thing – I’d rather be a free-thinking Windows user than belong to an electronic cult.

Because speaking as a non-Mac user from outside the hoopla that surrounds every Apple product? (I own an iTouch. That’s the extent of my Apple enthusiasm). It’s a little bizarre to see people into their electronics THAT much.

You know?

P.S. No disrespect to Mac users – I’m sure ya’ll are the bees knees, but seriously? The crazy devotion to one control-hungry brand is a little creepy. Just saying.

Life

Jazz is “Permitted” to Drive

Karen

Guess what Jazz and I did today …

permit

Yep. We jumped through government hoops and he got his driver’s permit.

I told Jazz that Thursday (today) I was going to take him to the DMV so he could take his test and that he better start studying for it.

But when this morning rolled around, the headache that I’ve had for the past FOUR days (!!!!) was so bad that I wasn’t sure if I felt up to dealing with the DMV so I hem-hawed around until about 11:30 when I thought, “You know, I told the boy we were going to do this and I need to stick to my word.” So, I ignored my pounding head, hustled Jazz along and we left the house at 11:30 this morning.

I had to run by the bank and get his Social Security card out of the safe deposit box, then we grabbed a couple of sandwiches from Subway, went up to the office to eat them and he took the sample test in the book. (Jazz read the rest of the book while we ran our errands – that’s how close he cut it).

He missed four and we went over the answers. (Not bad for a kid who basically just skimmed through the book and didn’t take Driver’s Ed – which, incidentally, it doesn’t look like he will get around to taking. I’m sort of glad and sort of disappointed. I’m disappointed because he would have likely learned a lot from the class, but glad because I’m convinced that Driver’s Ed scared the beejeebus out of Dude with all of their grotesque footage of teenagers getting their heads chopped off and that was one of the reasons Dude was so scared to drive).

I figured he was probably as ready as he was ever going to be.

We arrived at the DMV’s at about 1:30 this afternoon. I knew where to go (since I was there two years ago with Dude), and we got him checked in. I think when we walked through the door and Jazz saw the officers and other people taking the test (along with one kid who didn’t pass and was told in front of the whole room – ouch), it finally hit Jazz that this was serious. It was one thing to talk about getting his license, but here we were taking steps to make it happen.

I went to the waiting room and settled in to wait for him to finish taking his test. I knew that if he came out with a piece of paper, then he passed.

It wasn’t ten minutes later and he came out of the room … with a piece of paper. He passed!

Barely.

He missed five and was pretty disappointed in himself. He said that the five he missed weren’t covered in the book we had for him – but no matter, he passed and that was all that mattered. We then proceeded to go upstairs to finish the paperwork and to get his photo ID.

The room was small and there weren’t that many people waiting. I was optimistic.

I should have known that nothing moves fast when it comes to government.

They were on number 69 – we were number 80. They had two women working the booths, but shortly after we arrived, one of them left on break. The woman remaining was obviously not in any hurry and I thought I would go mad as I watched her walk back and forth between her cubicle and an office. She was not in any hurry. The other woman was gone for an hour and in that hour, the woman on duty didn’t even help ten people.

To make matters worse, I happened to be sitting next to Chatty Cathy and though she was friendly enough, she talked, NON-STOP, the entire time we were there until her number finally, FINALLY, got called.

(I turned to Jazz after listening to the woman for nearly 30 minutes and mouthed, “Shoot me.” He thought that was funny. I was serious).

It’s so interesting going to the DMV – there are so many, erhm, interesting characters. Since the room was small, we overheard a lot of conversations and I think it really made an impression on Jazz – we have it pretty good compared to a lot of people. Some of the stories were pretty hardcore down-on-your-luck stories and there were some people who were obviously trying to play the system and were quite bitter that they were “caught.” It’s hard to feel sorry for people who are given so many chances and end up blowing them to just see if they can get away with it.

Over an hour later, it was finally our turn. I walked up to the cubicle with Jazz and presented his documents, then signed as his legal guardian. He got his picture taken and two minutes later, we picked up his permit.

He’s “officially” in the system.

He asked when we could go out and practice driving as soon as we got into the car. I had to laugh – I had to drag Dude out to practice driving and it looks like that’s not going to be an issue with Jazz – our boys are SO different!

We’re in the process of looking at used cars for Jazz. As with Dude, I would feel better about him driving in a car that is already dinged up as opposed to driving my car, which is not. (Much). We spotted a prospect on Craigslist and will likely check it out tomorrow.

In the meantime, he can use Dude’s car, but Dude will need the car whenever he gets a job so Jazz will need something to drive. Our goal is to get him to the point that he can drive himself to band camp next month (not by himself, obviously).

Even though I’ve been through this driving thing with Dude, I think I might be a bit more nervous this go-around. Dude is overly cautious (which is a different kind of hazard), but Jazz … isn’t exactly detail oriented. In fact, he often misses things right in front of his face, so this should be an interesting experience.

If I live through it.

(Kidding – kidding. …… Maybe).

Home Movies

Dude Gets a Sponge Bath

Karen

And here we go with the baby videos.

I’ve been putting a ton of them on my YouTube channel so I’ll warn you now … I was fascinated with my children. I just couldn’t wrap my brain around the fact that Kevin and I produced these little PEOPLE out of nothing. Well, not nothing, but you know what I mean. And I spent HOURS taping them doing NOTHING.

But don’t worry, I won’t subject you to HOURS of mindless viewing … it’ll only feel that way. HA!

If you don’t know, Dude was eight weeks premature. He was in the NICU for six weeks while we waited for his lungs to fully develop, but his nervous system was still a little premature and as a result of that, he had to wear a heart monitor for the first four months of his life (I have a video of that belt to show you later), so handling him was a little nerve wracking. I mean, it was bad enough handling a newborn to begin with, especially when I hadn’t even held a baby prior to giving birth to my children, so I really didn’t know what I was doing. But I learned to adapt and after a while, I developed routines that worked for me – for US.

I can tell you what I did and worked for me, and if some of the tips help you, then awesome sauce. If not, well, thanks for watching anyway.

We had a hard time keeping Dude awake. We would spend HOURS trying to stimulate him enough to eat – it was a real chore to get him to eat 4 ounces at the beginning and even then, it would take so long to get him to eat that much that by the time he finished, it was nearly time to feed him again.

I also worked hard to make sure both boys stayed awake as long as possible during daylight hours so we could try and get on some sort of sleep schedule at night. And when I went in to feed him in the wee hours, I wouldn’t talk to him or stimulate him in any way (well, I cuddled with him and gave him soft kisses, but I didn’t have a conversation with him). I had read (and I read A LOT of baby books before my kids were born) that that was a good way to help the baby distinguish day from night. It wasn’t terribly hard, I was too brain dead to do much more than feed him anyway, but after I fed him, I would put him back in the crib and step out of the room. If he refused to go back to sleep, I’d go back in, tuck him back in, give him his binky and walk back out again. I usually had to do this several times before he would go back to sleep. It took some patience, but it paid off in the long run. Both my kids learned to sleep through the night fairly quickly.

After the sponge bath, I started giving the boys a bath in their baby bathtub. I put the baby bathtub on their changing table, put a heater in their rooms and made sure the temperature was nice and toasty before we got started. I also tried to keep my hand on their stomach at all times because I had read that it helped “ground” them and they were less likely to get fussy if they had that human contact. I talked to them constantly. I kept my voice soft and I just said nonsense things, just so they could hear my voice. That also helped.

I’m using cotton balls to wash his eyes, nose and ears. I can’t remember if I read that, or if my pediatrician told me that, but I was also to use fresh cotton balls for each eye, nose and ear so I wouldn’t inadvertently spread bacteria from orifice to orifice. I didn’t put any soap in the water at this stage, it was just warm water.

Also, I washed their bodies, dressed them and then washed their hair last. Just having clothes on seemed to calm and relax them enough that washing their hair was never really a big deal.

I didn’t push my boys into the whole bath tub thing for quite a while. I didn’t want to freak them out too soon. I think this gradual introduction helped because neither one of my boys really fussed too much when it came to baths.

It’s still really hard for me to believe that Dude (now 18!) was EVER that little.

Abundant Life

Audio Teaching: A Community of Grace: Five Steps on the Path of Grace

Karen

by Dan Gallagher
God tells us that we are to use the gifts of grace we have received from Him to serve one another (1 Pet. 4:10). In this teaching, Dan Gallagher explores the concept of a community of grace, that is, a community where there is great favor, excessive kindness, and goodwill toward others. He identifies five steps we must take to become people of grace who can thus make up a community of grace. We trust you will find it inspiring, and possibly even self-convicting, as Dan explores the five steps of tying the tongue, controlling our thoughts (specifically toward others), practicing forgiveness, pursuing humility, and living love. God tells us that we are not to receive His grace in vain (2 Cor. 6:1), and this teaching will give you practical steps toward becoming a person of grace.

Click the arrow to listen.

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Life

Our 4th of July Tradition

Karen

We live in the city. And the city has an ordinance on the books that says we can’t shoot off fireworks within the city limits.

So where’s city folk like us supposed to go to shoot off the fireworks we HAVE to buy each year? (I have two teenage boys – it’s sort of REQUIRED that we spend money on things we can legally blow up).

Why, to my in-laws, of course.

Way back when, we used to take the boys to fireworks shows – shows that were sponsored by churches or by the city. But over the years, those places have stopped putting on firework shows because they’re terribly expensive and with budget cuts and what not, well, they just couldn’t afford to do it anymore.

I have no idea where other people go to shoot off, or see, fireworks, but we’re lucky enough to have family who live on the outskirts of town and who very graciously allow us to come and leave char marks on their nice lawns. 🙂

We have gone over to Kevin’s parents’ house for, oh, several years now. His mom usually has food for us and this year, Kevin took over the BBQ and cooked us hamburgers and hotdogs. While he manned the grill, I helped his mom set the table and the boys took advantage of the time to shoot off bottlerockets.

IMAG0675

They set up a PVC tube and used it to systematically shoot off bottle rockets … for HOURS. Dude loves bottlerockets, Jazz loves smoke bombs, and that’s how our boys spend the evening hours, blowing stuff up while we wait for night fall.

IMAG0662

Sometimes, Kevin’s sisters’ families join us, which is always a lot of fun, but most of the time, it’s just us, Kevin’s parents and his uncle doing our own thing. The entire neighborhood gets into the spirit of the holiday and before long, the skies light up, fill up with smoke and it looks and sounds like a war zone. We have some pretty good fireworks, (in my opinion), but my in-laws’ neighbors must spend a FORTUNE because theirs is ALWAYS very impressive.

In fact, this year, all of us “old folks” were sitting around waiting for the guys to get set up, when we looked up and there was this miniature hot air balloon floating past us. Apparently, it’s some firework you can shoot up into the air and it expands into a hot air balloon and drifts off; it falls to the ground when the fuse burns out. It was the coolest and most peaceful thing I’ve ever witnessed on the 4th of July.

We’re totally looking for those next year. (I wish we had taken a picture of it).

IMAG0660

The boys absolutely love the 4th of July. And they’re at an age now that they completely take over shooting them off. We can just sit back and enjoy ourselves. (Though Kevin, who also LOVES this time of year, usually gets up to “help” after a while. Actually, I got up to help, too, only I wasn’t helping because I enjoy shooting them off, [I’d rather just watch], but because a storm was blowing in and we needed to shoot all of our fireworks off before the rain hit).

I must say, we picked out some pretty awesome fireworks this year. (Actually, Kevin talked to the guy in charge and asked him what was the best – he didn’t steer us wrong), but I think we bought too many. Not only did we buy a lot, but Kevin’s uncle bought a lot, too, so it took us a while to shoot them all off.

We had just shot off the last of our stuff and was walking through the yard, picking up debris, when it started to rain.

We stuck around and had some dessert and talked about the more exciting points of the evening.

My MIL made an ice cream cookie sandwich and Dude ate the whole thing.

IMAG0695

(Oh, to be young and skinny enough to handle all of those calories at 10:00 o’clock in the evening. *sigh*)

We finally got home at midnight.

And that was our 4th. We never really do anything exciting, we just hang out with family and stuff our faces.

But I wouldn’t have it any other way.

P.S. Jazz felt bad because he placed his lighted punk on one of the tables to go in and get something to drink, and it sort of marked up the table. I hope my MIL was able to get the black mark out. Oops!)

P.S.S. Since I’ve been digitizing old movies, I’ve been noticing my hillbilly accent (which I never really knew I had before I started watching those videos). Kevin has been giving me a hard time about the way I talk, so I started paying attention to how he talks and though his accent isn’t as bad as mine, still, he HAS one. Ha!

P.S.S. See my in-laws’ pergola? That’s where Kevin got the idea for our pergola. They have have a fountain and everything!

Politics

America is not a country ‘chosen’ by God but rather ‘blessed’ by God

Karen

Rush Limbaugh was in Joplin Missouri yesterday and gave this motivational speech:

Whether you like Rush or not is irrelevant. (Do I like Rush? Meh. I think he takes his satire too far at times, but his messages are pretty powerful. Don’t disagree with me if you’ve only heard snippets of his show a few times in your entire life. It’s not an “informed” opinion if you’re not informed). LISTEN to his message. It’s about how great America is and how this country provides opportunities for everyone – it’s up to the individuals whether they take those opportunities or not. (Notice I said “take them,” not stand there with their hands out and expect someone else to give it to them).

Rush delivered a message about American Exceptionalism that focused on the uniqueness of our country’s founding 235 years ago. He spoke of the importance of freedom as well as America’s tradition of helping those in need.

Source

Though I appreciate Rush making an appearance and giving the good people in Joplin a much-needed boost, I think pulling a semi full of his tea was a little tacky. Granted, he gave it out for free, but still, it seems a little unsavory to advertise one’s wares in a disaster zone.

At any rate, I thought it was a good speech and thought I would pass it along. It seems the “trend” nowadays is to make America out to be the bad guy and I think it’s high time we start fighting back and REMINDING people just how great this country is.

I skimmed through the comments on The Blaze’s article and I find it terribly interesting that liberals can do nothing but insult the man. They never give a REASON why they dislike someone, it’s always the same “he’s ugly,” “he’s an idiot,” comments.

I always want to say, “Dude, what’s your issue? Who cares what the man looks like or how you rate his intelligence, what exactly is your beef with what he is saying??

I mean, let’s be rational a moment, shall we? WHAT exactly about Rush’s speech offends people so much? He talks about how GREAT America is. He talks about the power of the INDIVIDUAL. He talks about America’s sacrifices and strength. He talks about how Joplin will rebuild and be better than ever and how they will set an example to the rest of the country about how INDIVIDUALS, how PEOPLE will come together and make it happen because that’s what people do when there’s work to be done – they roll up their sleeves and they get it done.

They’re not EXPECTING the government to do it for them.

What exactly is there to take offense to?

I think people who take offense at motivational speeches like these are so entrenched in their own hateful biases that they can’t see beyond their self-imposed bitterness.

How terribly sad and shallow.