Politics

The War for Our Children

I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again (and again, and again), parents, you have to PAY ATTENTION TO WHAT’S BEING TAUGHT IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS.

Before we get started, I’d like to say, I’m not a big fan of Glenn Beck. I don’t dislike the man, but I don’t think he’s the end-all for conservative thought, either. I think he’s a little too doom and gloom and he likes to play on people’s fears – this is NOT to say that people shouldn’t be worried about where our country is heading and not take precautions, OR to totally discount what Beck has to say because he’s being written off as a kook, but take what he says with a grain of salt.

Actually, take everything you read/hear with a grain of salt, including this post, because we all have hidden agendas somewhere, even me. It’s human nature. (My hidden agenda is to try and train [not sure that’s the right word] people into thinking for themselves and not take everything they read/hear as gospel truth).

I can only listen to Beck in spurts. His radio show is just a bit too much for me to handle. It’s so convoluted and confusing what with him and two other guys cracking jokes and throwing sarcasm around like confetti that it’s sometimes hard just to figure out what his point IS. However, this is not to imply that the man doesn’t make great points or have something of value to share with the rest of us.

I’m telling you my thoughts on Beck because even though I’m a conservative, conservative personalities are flawed and just because they’re popular, doesn’t necessarily mean I agree with them.

With that said, I noticed this on The Blaze today:

Vodpod videos no longer available.

In case you still don’t see what the problem is, let me highlight the part in this little girl’s song that has caused some people’s eyebrows to raise:

Boycott, petition, let the big business know / that if we mess it up here, there’s no where else we can go.

As per usual, I will try and be fair in my assessment of the situation.

I do not have a problem with teaching our children to take care of the environment. We should ALL pitch in and do our parts. We should ALL clean up after ourselves and leave the environment in better shape than how we found it. Though I do not, for an instant, believe in MAN-MADE Global Climate change (notice I put MAN-MADE in caps), I do think we could all do a much better job of cutting down our wasteful habits, recycle materials, and plant more trees.

Absolutely. You’ll get no argument from me there.

The problem, of course, is that whoever wrote this “cute” little rap song for the children to learn and recite in their Earth Day program thought he/she would be clever and sneak in his/her personal thoughts on the whole issue. Obviously, whoever wrote this piece was a person who not only believed in climate change, but wished to point an accusing finger at the big, bad corporations for making it worse than it really is.

Having that opinion to begin with is not a bad thing. We’re all entitled to our opinions, and you know what they say about opinions, the problem is that by teaching this song to our children, we are indoctrinating our children into believing that this is how it really is. We are teaching them, at a very young age, to grow up thinking that the song writer’s opinion is gospel truth.

Forcing our opinions, or our personal agendas, on impressionable children is NEVER a good idea. Our responsibilities as adults, as parents, is to teach our children all sides of an issue, not brainwash them into thinking one way and one way only.

I know, firsthand, how hard it is to keep our mouths shut when it comes to our personal beliefs and opinions. I maintain several local school websites and though I LOVE my job (truly, it’s SO FUN), I don’t always agree on issues. I could easily insert my opinion, or slant some of the information, to favor my way of thinking. But I don’t. Because it would be wrong. Instead, I challenge myself into making sure that the information that is being posted on those websites is as impartial as possible because it’s not my job to sway people into thinking one way or another, it’s my job to put the information out there and allow people to make up their own minds.

These children, bless their hearts, have no idea what they’re reciting. However, the problem lies in the fact that they will remember what they’ve been taught and at some point, they will put two-and-two together and they will think, without having the maturity to look at all sides of the issue, that what they were taught in school was the “right” way to see things – after all, their teachers wouldn’t steer them wrong, right?

People who abuse that trust to insert their own thoughts/opinions/agendas are morally despicable.

So yes. As the title of this post states, this IS a war for our children. Our public school administrators (and I’m talking generally, not anyone specifically or even locally, but rather on a national level) are taking advantage of the fact that they’re responsible for the education of our children and are slowly, and stealthily, pushing their liberal agendas on our children hoping that when those children grow up, they will vote the way they want them to vote thereby not only pushing their agendas into law, but expanding their voting base.

Call me crazy. Accuse me of being a conspiracy theorist nut. I don’t care. I just hope you finish this post a little wiser as to what is happening in our country at this very moment. If nothing else, entertain the thought that I might be right for a moment.

It’s sort of a scary moment, isn’t it?

(By the way, I was finally able to add my copy of “Waiting for Superman” to my Amazon book store. If you would be interested in buying my copy from me, click here. The original DonorsChoose gift card is included so when you buy the DVD, you have the option of donating $25 to a teacher’s wish list. I would have given it to a local teacher, but there are so many more areas in the country that need the help more). Never mind – just sold it! Thank you!!

Life-condensed

A Cracked Spider Web

This would be the view out of our back window right now:

cracked

Pretty, right?

WRONG!

That’s not rain on that window. That’s not even some kind of clear stained glass design, oh no, THAT, my friends, is our first cracked window EVER.

*sigh*

Someone (who shall remain nameless because I don’t want to get this person into trouble *ahem*), was using a weed-whacker on our lawn yesterday around our new patio when all of a sudden, I heard a loud *POP*. I was in the bathroom at the time, so I couldn’t run to see what the sound was, but Kevin (because we had come home for lunch when it happened), peeked around the bathroom door and said,

“Our window just shattered.”

A little tiny rock, (we’re assuming it was teeny tiny because when we went out to investigate we didn’t see any big boulder, which is the size of the rock I picture whenever someone tells me that a window shattered) must have hit our window just right because the next thing I see is a complicated spider web of fine cracks covering our entire window.

The creepy thing is, we continued to hear the window splintering and cracking for about ten minutes after initial impact.

It’s ironic because one of the reasons Kevin wanted to build a patio to begin with was to avoid having to mow / weed around the french doors and to prevent this very thing happening.

It happened anyway. Isn’t that the way it goes??

I text the boys and told them what had happened and to not slam the door when they got home from school. Because even though the window is still in one piece, I’m quite sure it won’t take much more than one firm *smack* for the whole pane to crumble at our feet.

Kevin and I made an unscheduled trip up to Lowe’s after lunch and ordered a new window – it’s supposed to get here in about two weeks. I was bracing myself for a coronary as far as the price was concerned because it’s one of those windows that has the shades built into it. But it wasn’t as bad as I thought it might be so we can continue to feed our two teenage boys.

Thank goodness.

It was a complete accident (the guy didn’t even know what had happened) and well … life goes on. We have homeowner’s insurance, but this mishap wasn’t enough to cover our deductible, so we’re out the cost. Oh well. Considering we’ve been in this house for 18 1/2 years and this is the first window we have cracked/broken, I’d say those were pretty good odds.

Just one of the perks of being a homeowner.

Life-condensed

My Book Stash

Just got back from the spring library book sale …

Book Sale - 4-26-11

Kevin and I went on our lunch hour. I’m always a bit surprised that Kevin even likes to go with me – he hardly ever buys any books. He likes to joke that he prefers to look at books, not read them.

HA!

However, I came away with 18 sweet gems.

My Book Stash

In fact, most of these books were on my Amazon wish list so … SCORE! AND, I made sure to pick out the better quality books so I should be able to resell them after I read them.

DOUBLE SCORE!

All in all, we left with 21 books. (Kevin bought three – but not to read. He liked them because they’re old and will look cool on a book shelf! The man seriously cracks me up). We spent $60 bucks.

Twenty-one books for $60 bucks? NOT BAD!

This was only round one. I stayed in the “better” book section, I haven’t even browsed the older book section yet.

That’s round two.

Day-By-Day

Rain, Rain, PLEASE Go Away

Dude crying. I say this with love, but Dude was one of the ugliest criers I've ever seen.
This is pretty much how I feel right now.

We are currently on our FOURTH straight day of rain.

Luckily, it hasn’t been pouring the whole time – it pours, then drizzles, then stops just long enough for the excess to drain off before the next round hits. It could be so much worse, it could have been pouring this entire time. Our sump pump has kicked on a few times, and I’m betting it’s been on quite a few times today (I’m at the office right now) – I dread opening up our crawl space door to see how much water has collected under the house.

Watching radar, you can see it redeveloping and it follows the same path, which is right on top of us. The whole state of Missouri is one big sponge right now.

I hate when we’re in this weather pattern. We’re stuck on a Gulf Stream or something and bad weather just keeps developing and dumping it’s fury on us. It sucks. This is what happened that one year when we had the ice storm. We were stuck on some kind of weather cycle and it iced for days leaving 5 inches of ice behind before the winds shifted and it finally moved off.

I don’t hate rain, but this much rain depresses me. I’m ready to see some sunshine – which, according to our forecast, won’t happen for a few more days. *sigh*

I never realized just HOW much weather affects my mood.


Easter was quiet at our house. We went to my in-laws. My MIL cooked chicken, ham, and roast beef along with potato salad and mashed potatoes and green salad. I brought rolls. Because they don’t trust me with anything else.

HA!

One of my sisters-in-law wasn’t there because they found out that her husband’s mother was going to be alone on Easter and they didn’t want her to be alone on the holiday. I thought that was sweet.

Since most of the “kids” are now grown and off living their lives in other states (in some instances, different COUNTRIES), there weren’t that many people there. My in-laws invited someone from their church, who is from Russia, and who is extremely nice. It’s so interesting to talk to him because he tells us how different Russia is from America. They are very strict in his country. They aren’t allowed to play Rock-N-Roll music and they are very suspicious of tourists. He was telling us how he couldn’t get over how everyone was so nice in our country and helped each other out – FOR FREE. He said if tourists were to ask someone from his country directions, they would either get a haphazard answer just to get rid of them, or they would only give them the information they needed for money.

He also said that it was crucial for tourists to have their passports, and other paperwork on them at all times, because their police were notorious for arresting people for not having the proper documentation. However, the tourists could get out of being arrested if they bribed the officer and gave him cash.

Everything is super expensive and they have a huge problem with public drunkenness. In fact, he said it was pretty unusual to see people sober where he came from.

He also said that they view America as their number one enemy and they are thisclose to being taken over by China, if China ever decides to go that route.

It was very humbling to listen to him talk about his country. Again, Americans just have NO IDEA how good we have it over here. We honest to God don’t. I didn’t know how good we had it until talking with our Russian guest. I really wish, and I’m being completely honest here, that the people who preach socialism and want more government in our country could go live in a socialist society for a few months so they would know, first hand, what it’s actually like. Everything sounds great IN THEORY, but when people are actually forced to live like that, it’s suddenly not a very attractive alternative anymore.

Our Russian friend just shook his head when we talked about how there are some people in this country who push socialism. He was just flabbergasted that they would want to live the life he was so desperately trying to get away from.

I would be interested in knowing how many foreigners from socialist countries in America would actually PRAISE their government structures. I’m betting not very many.

Hence the very reason they are here, in America, and not at home. They are here because they want to escape their governments strangle holds.

At any rate, America is so spoiled. We have no idea how fortunate we are. And we shouldn’t be ashamed of that fact. But we should also not take it for granted.


Dude is supposed to get his cap and gown on Wednesday. YIPPEE! I can’t wait to take pictures of him wearing it. I’ve already warned him that he’ll need to just get used to everyone giving him a lot of attention and taking a lot of pictures of him when he graduates. This is a big deal and I’m going to spoil him (even more so than I do now) because HE DESERVES IT. Thirteen long years of school is finally over for him and we’re gonna PAR-TAY, my friends!

I’m addressing graduation announcements as we speak and I went out and bought some party invitations for his reception today that I’ll stick in with the announcements. I also bought him a really cool, personalized, wooden frame that I plan on displaying on the food table at his reception with a picture of him in his cap and gown in it. Kevin and I are still throwing ideas around as to what sort of gift we want to give him, but right now we’re sort of leaning toward putting some money into a checking account for him. He needs a checking account and he needs to start saving some money for the day when he moves out on his own.

Who knows when that day will come.

I LOVE planning parties. They’re so fun! I just pray the weather is nice that day so we can get together on our new patio.


I have the scanner set up in my office and I’ve been busy scanning old pictures. I’ll be posting some of my favorites in the coming days.

For example, this one is fun:

04-22-1

(I posted this one because I knew my parents would get a kick out of it. 🙂 )


This is kind of random, but this is one of my favorite tweets this week:

http://twitter.com/#!/writefromkaren/status/61848913459679232


Okay seriously – enough already.

weather

Parenting, Politics

Scaring Our Children into Thinking a Certain Way

Just saw this juicy little tidbit on Twitter and had to share it with you all …

Get this, they are actually showing this video to GRADE SCHOOL kids in Canada:

GRADE SCHOOL kids, people. That is just SICK! I wonder how many of those poor children will have nightmares over this nonsense. NOT to mention, how many children will grow up thinking that it’s TRUE.

THIS is the reason conservatives get so bent out of shape whenever something like this is shown to our children. Forget that it’s disturbing, scary and sad to an eight-year old mind, but it indoctrinates our children into thinking a certain way, which is PRECISELY the goal, I assure you.

Look. I have NO problem discussing Global Warming or any other such nonsense topics as long as people/teachers/parents discuss the OTHER side of the argument as well.

Same goes for Evolution, to use another example. Sure, teach our children the theory of evolution, THEN teach the other side of the coin, creationism. After both sides of the issue have been presented, talk about it, debate it, examine the facts, dissect the rationalization that both sides give for an issue. Give the children (and people in general) ALL of the facts and then allow those children (people) to make up their own minds.

When you only present one side of an issue, then you are brainwashing people into believing the information being fed to them. And when people are brainwashed, then they are easily manipulated into doing, living, VOTING a certain way.

But back to this Global Warming issue, I’ve blogged before how I personally think Global Warming is a bunch of hooey, but that’s the conclusion I came to after examining the issue from both sides of the aisle. However, just because I don’t believe in the scare tactics that our government tries to feed us about how the world is coming to an end because of man-made Global Warming (and the Earth is indeed heating up – but not at the rate they want you to believe and definitely not like the video above has portrayed – I still can’t believe they are actually showing that to children – but I don’t believe it’s because of man that it’s happening), I DO believe we could ALL do better in taking care of our Earth. We can definitely make changes and we definitely waste way too many resources. But that’s the funny thing about humans, they learn. And act. And we’ve already made HUGE strides in the right direction. Can we do better? Absolutely!! But do I think we’re going to end up with a barren world where animals commit suicide because it’s the better alternative to living on a destroyed world?

No.

This is just another example of how we, as parents, as people, need to constantly be aware of what’s going on around us and to take issue with things like this being shoved onto our children. Again, show BOTH sides of the issue (and make it age appropriate for God’s sake), and then discuss it. Don’t just show one side of an issue and deem it “right” or “correct.”

That’s irresponsible and just plain wrong.

At any rate, I found the following video about Global Warming very interesting. Note how the guest speaker mentions that the other networks wouldn’t even interview him or how Al Gore and his followers repeatedly refused to discuss, or debate, these scientists who dared to disagree with them. To me, that says two things:

1. They can’t debate it because their facts are skewed and they know it.
2. The media hand picks and chooses what it shows to the public. That right there should be enough to raise a few warning flags in my book.

Pay attention folks. There is some crazy stuff going on out there.

Day-By-Day

Patio, Pollen, Portal, and Planning

Kevin is making some major progress on our patio.

Space for Back Patio - 4/17/2011

He finished digging the space out this past weekend and in fact, got the gravel poured in yesterday. He is going to rent some sort of compact contraption so he can smash the rocks down, then he’ll buy some sand and we’ll spread that around. We already know what pavers we want and in fact went to Lowe’s yesterday to order them, but figured we’d save ourselves $65 bucks delivery fee and all four us can work as a human conveyor belt and pass them off to each other.

This is really coming along nicely! I wasn’t too thrilled at first (mainly because of the cost – gotta watch that money, don’t ‘cha know), but now that it’s materializing before my eyes, I’m getting excited! I saw a patio set at Lowe’s that would look really nice in that area …


Oak pollen has skyrocketed. It was over 700 particles per blah-blah-blah (I have no idea how they measure pollen) and over 300 today.

That’s enough to cover everything in sight. We’ve reached that point in the season where you go out to your car only to find it covered with a lovely green dust.

Jazz is holding up well. He’s been coughing, but it’s pretty minor and I plan on keeping it that way. I’ve been drugging him up these past few weeks – Singular during the day, Zyrtec at night. He’s also been using nose spray (though only sparingly, you have to be careful with nose spray) and I’ve been possibly OD’ing him on vitamin C.

My eyes have been watering, which is sort of unusual for me. I don’t usually have a problem with spring allergies (now Ragweed is a whole different monster).

Hopefully, we’re peaking on this spring allergy thing and levels will start dropping very soon.

Did I mention I HATE this time of year??


I’m a bit upset with the makers of the video game Portal 2. I personally haven’t played it, but I’ve watched the boys play it and it looks pretty cool.

And I HEAR about the game every, single. cotton-picking. day. from the boys.

Well. The second installment of the game released at midnight – last night.

ON. A SCHOOL. NIGHT.

*MAJOR GRR*

But that didn’t deter the boys. OH no. Not at all. Jazz got up at 4:30 this morning and Dude got up at 5:00 this morning to play it for a few hours before they had to go to school.

I can’t even begin to tell you how WEIRD it was for me to get up at 6:00 only to see their lights on. Normally, I have to virtually drag them from their beds every morning. (In fact, I have to physically stand at Dude’s door and wait for him to sit up before I can walk away – otherwise, he goes back to sleep. *MAJOR GRR*).

It was hard to tear them away from their computers and push them out the door for school today. And I’m quite sure that neither of them concentrated on school today, but what are you going to do.

But the fact that the makers of the game picked a SCHOOL NIGHT to release their game, well … I can well imagine I’m not the only irked parent out there.

I’m sure the boys will have more adrenaline to play their game when they get home today. And I’m quite sure they will be cranky and pretty much jerks at dinner tonight because they will be:

1. Tired.
2. Grumpy because they want to get back to their game.
3. Grouchy because as per usual, I will turn the internet off at 10:00 p.m. tonight to yank them from their internet trance.

Oh yeah, fun times.


Jazz text me today and asked about his English grade. Since I didn’t have an ID number to access his grades online, I wasn’t able to help him.

The kids are given travel privileges during “C” time (if I give you the name, you can tell which school they go to, which, whatever. But I would prefer not to willingly divulge that info at this time). Only today, Jazz wasn’t allowed to travel (Dude can travel all the time because he’s a senior – senior privileges rock) and because he wasn’t allowed to travel, he was worried it was because of something to do with his grades. So he contacted me to ask me about them.

Only, I couldn’t access them without the ID number. (Lost yet?)

To put his mind at rest, I went up to the school at lunch time to get assigned an ID number. (I was planning on going anyway, this just pushed the issue).

When I gave them my name, the gals behind the desk both smiled and said, “You do our website! OH, we just LOVE our website and brag about it all the time.”

It makes me feel SO GOOD to hear things like that!!! Though it also embarrasses me.

I’d like to pack those ladies up and use them as my portable testimonies. ha!


So the short hair thing is … going.

http://twitter.com/#!/writefromkaren/status/59700980035489792

me6

I had a pretty fierce moment of regret the other night after I worked out. I sweat something awful whenever I work out, and I wear my ball cap mainly to keep the sweat out of my eyes.

Anyway, after I was done working out, I took that ball cap off … and nearly cried. I mean, granted, NO ONE looks good after working out (unless you’re just eye candy and don’t work out enough to break a sweat – but I don’t do that, when I work out, I mean BUSINESS), so I wasn’t expecting to look like something out of a SHAPE magazine or anything, but with my flushed face, my raccoon eyes, and my sweaty, matted, BOY hair … well, like I said, I nearly cried.

“What have I done??” I thought.

http://twitter.com/#!/writefromkaren/status/60072534019817472

But, BUT, I’m getting used to it, I think. I’ve been playing around with it for the past few days, using more products than I think I have EVER used on it (root lifter, thermal protection for when I use my new one-inch flat iron [I use it like a curling iron], shaping spray and finally a stiff hairspray). It’s pretty easy to fluff since the gal used a razor to cut it, it’s all sorts of textured and I love it on windy days (like today) when it virtually doesn’t move (which could be a bad thing, too, I suppose) but still … I feel so … exposed.

Which is funny because the salon gal said something about me hiding behind all of that hair which … COULD be possible, I suppose. I hadn’t really thought about it before, but she might have some psychological insight right there.

I KNOW I’m going to love it when it grows out a bit more, but right now? I feel like a boy and if it’s not “fixed”, I think it just looks hideous.

Oh well, I’ll live.


http://twitter.com/#!/writefromkaren/status/59997107565768704

The school opened up summer school registration yesterday. I registered Jazz for TWO summer courses – poor kid. But I sort of have to because of his insistence on taking Jazz band class. Which takes up slots that would otherwise be used for required courses.

Hopefully, if I played the cards right (and assuming he’ll actually get the classes I registered him for), he won’t have to take ANY classes next summer.

Right now, he’s registered to take Personal Finance in the morning from 8:00 to 11:00. (It’s a required course, but pretty easy – it’s a class that teaches you how to balance a check book, etc), and his last stupid P.E. class from 11:30 to 2:30.

He’ll have 30 minutes for lunch.

The kicker? The classes are not at his school – they’re at another high school. They switch off schools every year.

So … I talked to Kevin and Dude last night and depending on what is going on and work schedules, Dude may very well be his taxi this summer.

I also told Dude that even though he’ll be out of school, he still needs to get up with the rest of us in the morning because I’ll be damned if the boy sleeps all day and stays up all night while living with us.

Ain’t gonna happen, Jack.

At any rate, Jazz will also have band camp the first and last weeks in June. So this means the first and last weeks of June for Jazz will look like this:

8:00 – 11:00 – Personal Finance
11:00 – 11:30 – eat lunch
11:30 – 2:30 – P.E. class
2:30 – 5:00 – take shower, have an early dinner
5:00 – 9:00 – band camp

He’s going to be one busy boy. And we’ll be busy carting him around.

He’ll have the month of July off and then it’ll be a gruesome and intense seven days of band camp from 8:00 5:00 the second week in August.

Since the Portal 2 game came out and that’s all Jazz can think about right now, I thought it might be cruel to make him study for his driver’s permit test this week, but next week, he’s going to hit it pretty hard and we’ll get that permit so I can teach him to drive this summer.

Now I need to make sure Dude stays busy and out of trouble. I have a feeling THAT is going to be my biggest challenge.