Six and counting

Well, Cole if finally six. He says "finally", I say "already"! He wanted a friend party with some of the kids from his class and then Luke (a boy from our ward, they have been friends since they were born). I told him to prepare himself because some of the kids might be out of town and/or busy since it was during the holiday. I am glad that I had prepped him because no one showed up! It was about 10 minutes after the party was suppose to start and I called Katie (Luke's Mom) (who is never late to anything). She answers and tells me she will be here in 5 minutes. I am never ready on time so she was trying to be fashionably late. I laugh and tell her I was ready because I knew she would be on time. Anyway, she gets here and the two boys party together. I was feeling kind of bad for Cole but I didn't know any of the kids or their parents so I didn't really know if they would come anyway. I didn't need to feel bad for him long because as soon as Luke showed up, they were playing and having a great time. Cole is such a great kid. He is perfect purple in class everyday and tries to be so helpful. When he begs me to play Donkey Kong on the wii with him and I actually do, he is so considerate of me. I am terrible at that game and he is my biggest fan telling me that I am doing so well and such. He is so good with Scott and they love to play with each other. He is always making nasty recipes with food that he swears are so delicious. Who knows, maybe they are, I just won't try most of them. I couldn't have asked for a better kid. I would post some pictures but every time I do, they look weird (look at my other post), I wonder if my space is running low too because they look normal on my computer and facebook. Weird. Anyway, Happy Birthday, Cole.

In September, I went to visit my sister and nephew in S.C. Justice had graduated from boot camp and I wanted to see them. It was really fun. I didn't bring anyone with me and let me tell you, it was nice to pop in a book on tape and just drive. As much as I love hearing my kids and love their kid music, it was nice to not have to respond to anything (other than traffic). We spent the one full day I was there in Charleston. First, we went to Folly Beach and walked on the pier. Then we went down to the ocean. I had totally forgotten my swimming suit. Bec said that they didn't have their's either so it didn't matter. We were just going to walk along the very crowded beach but when Justice said something about this being his first time at the ocean, I put all those plans aside and told him we needed to go in and body surf. So we shed off our shoes, socks and electronics and ran into the ocean. It was really fun and I was glad that I hadn't chosen a white shirt for the excursion. Justice and I are the two little dots in that last picture. Justice was really surprised just how salty the ocean was. I totally remember that thought on my first visit. We all know it is salt water but it still comes as a surprise. After the beach we just walked around the beach town. I love beach towns, they are so relaxed but busy at the same time. Then, we decided to go the 15 minutes to Charleston. We walked around the downtown for about 3 hours. It was so awesome. I have never been in a historic city like that. I didn't realize that the whole downtown would be kept historic. I kind of thought they would just save a few buildings and modernize the rest. It was really neat. There was a block or two of stores. It was like going to a strip mall but they were in the old buildings. You had Gap, Victoria Secret, Forever 21, Loui Vatan (sp?) (obviously I don't shop there), and everything! Then there was a street that were all Law School buildings. My friend who went to Savannah for college said all her classes were in the old buildings down town. There was no college campus. Pretty cool (although I love the feel of a college campus). Bec and Justice had been here the day or two before so they took me down a couple of block called, "Rainbow Row". It was the houses where all the rich people lived. The color of their houses were coordinated with their occupation. All the blacksmith's had the same color house etc. These houses were HUGE! They looked like Apt. buildings from where we were walking but then Bec informed me that we were walking on the side of the house and it was the helps entrance. When we turned the corner and actually saw the fronts, well, lets just say I couldn't capture a whole house with one shot. I had to get two sometimes 3 shots with my camera for one house. Oh, and the thing that was really cool to me, the ally's. It was just like in the movies when you would see the little homeless children living in the ally. (I didn't see homeless children but the alleys looked the same.) I don't know why that was so cool to me but when I went back through my pictures, I had about 50 of different alleys. In the middle of town, they have a big market place. It goes down one street about 4 blocks or so. They sell everything there! It would be so fun to be able to go someplace like that whenever you wanted to. Oh and everywhere you look, there are people making baskets. Basket weaving is huge there and they are expensive. They do look really good though. Another thing was that they had horse drawn carriages everywhere. That is not so strange to me because SLC has them too but some other carriages they had were people pulling them with their bikes. Who needs to work at a gym when your whole job is biking people around the city?! Last but not least, Charleston is "Army Wives" friendly,that happens to be my favorite show. I had a great time and it was fun to have some one on one with Justice and Rebecca.

No wonder people have been making so many comments about my hair being so thick lately! I kind of look like a lion, roar!

Okay with the political height going on, I am going to put in my two sense...actually more like 100 cents (oh wait I guess that would be a dollar). Liz asked a question on facebook about the 47% of people using gov. handouts or something like that. I didn't hear Romney's quote so I wasn't exactly sure of what was said but here is what I think of all the handouts. When the bailouts started I heard all over the news on all the stations, "America is too big to fail!" They would say that all the time and it made my skin crawl. Nothing is too big to fail. When you make poor choices, the consequences are sometimes failure. Not always but sometimes. Yes, I do think we should have let some businesses tank. It is not the governments job to bailout everyone. Sure it would have been devastating for many people but that is how you learn. I do give the car companies props for paying back the gov. in a timely manner and I think that is great. However, I would not be surprised if the money they paid the gov. back did not go to the debt they pulled from in the first place. It is amazing, when you are financially in the hole, any "extra" money (not really extra because you are in the negative) always has somewhere else more pressing to go. I wish they would would have called Suzie Orman and asked her. I have a sneaky suspicion she would have said, "Denied!" Sure it was great to get a check from our gov. to Will and I when they were trying to help the American people but I was not in favor for that either. Why did they not put that back in where we are under? Now we are in a mess of a financial situation. Yes, if Dave Ramsey were running for president, I would vote him in without any problem. I know there are a ton of other issues but right now, the most pressing is our economy. I don't understand why anyone who feels that way would vote for anyone but the best candidate for fixing our finances. Besides, maybe if all these companies that needed a bail out would have called Bain Capital when their troubles started, they wouldn't have been in that mess in the first place. If you feel other issues are more important, then I can understand why you would chose another candidate. There was another article posted about Kalamazoo MI. Honestly, I was even more interested in that because my cousins live there and my Uncle is a Professor at their college. I thought it was so amazing that someone donated that money to give everyone a college education. I also think that the government does the exact same thing in certain economic classes. Why is it that the poor class doesn't know that? Or do they and just don't care? I have always had a hard time seeing why the poverty ridden stay that way. They have so much opportunity. Is it because they don't know? Would it be more helpful if the guidance counselors in every school knew all the student's family financial situation and starting from Kindergarten up take them in individually and let them know that they have a great opportunity for college? I really don't understand this and I am not knocking. Financial aid and pail grants paid for my college education. So yes, I definitely fall in the 47%. I actually don't mind this handout at all. I just don't understand how it is so underused by the class it is most trying to help. Also, the lottery in some states pay for college. Georgia's lottery allows everyone with a 3.0 or higher free education through the lottery! I love that some good comes from wasting money. I understand that some people waste these opportunities because they "are not focused" or "just goofed around my freshman year" but I say that is their own fault. If I hadn't had my college paid for, I would have worked my tail end off to get through it. Show some initiative people. Now comes to K-12 programs. I think that the public education should receive more money and would not mind at all if my taxes went up just for that area. I am however, amazed at how much of the parents responsibility the school takes on. Cole's first day of school, I drop him off and he didn't have a breakfast tray with him. The teacher stops us and asks him if he had eaten or if she needed to run him down to the breakfast booth. (I am glad they are concerned) Seriously, is that what parenting has come to? Not only am I not responsible enough to feed my kid at home but I am not responsible enough to stop in the hall on the way to class to grab him something to eat. How does this happen?! Government has taken on way too much parenting roles. Don't get me wrong, I hate that kids suffer because of parents inadequacies but they are not going to magically become more responsible when there are no consequences and government just steps in and assumes the position. Another example, I sent Cole to school with lunch and a water bottle (he hates warm milk and I didn't know how cold it would stay in a lunch box)his teacher's aid is worried that he won't have anything to drink (maybe water is not sufficient?) and so she gets him milk. This goes on for three days. I would have not had any idea but Cole mentions to me that he likes the milk cartons at school. I ask him why he got some if it was for snack or something and he says, "no, they just give it to me." I tell him that we have to pay for that. He tells me it is just free because they just give it to him. Of course I know better so I talk to the teacher the next day at school. We get paid up and figured out but still I don't understand why she didn't leave a note in his bag or something if she had concerns. I am not upset at all I just think it is sad that there is such a low expectation on parents that is all. They send home a lunch sheet to see if you get reduced or free lunch. They ask you to fill it out because the school gets more money if everyone turns it in. I do. We get reduced lunch (Cole brings his to school). I get a flier from Comcast sent home. I am so irritated that Comcast is soliciting through the school I don't read it and I throw it away. Then I am mentioning it to someone and they tell me that if you get free or reduced lunch that Comcast will give you your internet for $9.99 a month. I don't know if that is government or just Comcast but you can't tell me that if it is government that, that is not overboard. It is so enticing to take handouts! I could very easily take the $9.99 Comcast bill a month and just say, "someone is going to get the handout, it might as well be me" or just stick with my $50.00 a month bill and stay financially independent. It is hard to say no to lower bills. Just for the record though, I did say no to the lower bill and I hope that that $40.00 a month will be put on the national debt (of course it won't). Yes, I do think that government has WAY TOO MANY HANDOUTS! I have known a few people who get pregnant and/or trying to get pregnant (for someone to love them) and don't even worry that the problem that the father is not involved "the government with take care of us". (Hey I love working with the troubled youth of America). I think that is a problem. Who needs a daddy because government is daddy. This mentality should not be tolerated. Then onto abortion (which government will pay for) hey kids, if you are not going to be abstinent, then use protection, government will pay for that too! This careless behavior is the new trend. Babies are to be celebrated and families are the strength of children not government. Another problem with the lack of consequences is the level of respect has diminished. I wouldn't want to be a teacher for anything because of it. I am grateful for all those who serve in that capacity and even more grateful for the one's who really care (I think that it is the majority). I think that lack of consequences (good and bad) creates a selfish, entitled, disrespectful people. The idea that we pay taxes because the government knows better than each of us where to put the funds is kind of skewed. It may be true in some senses but if you think of your taxes as your charity work then you are missing out on the pure joy of giving. It takes away the looking for opportunities to serve. It can create, in many, a mentality of "I don't need to help them, the government will take care of it" or "if they weren't so lazy they wouldn't have to rely on the government". I mean I pay my taxes so I am helping out enough, right?! I have heard that more times than I wish (maybe they are just saying it and don't really believe it?! I hope so. It seems to me that the entitled attitude comes in large from the super wealthy and the super poor. It seems like the two extremes are the problem areas. Both are equally as bad in my eyes. Being a victim of circumstance is not an excuse to not be a better person. How can you lift someone else up higher than you are yourself? You can't, but, there are more ways to help than financially. If those who feel like the world owed them something gave a little of their time, they would see the world in a whole new light. The only way to get out of yourself is to give of yourself. If you are stuck in yourself, then you are more disrespectful in general. It puts a wedge on your shoulder that you are either better than others or in lots of cases, worse. People who are self loathers are just as bad as those who think they are "God's gift". Once again, the two extremes are dangerous ground to tread on. Take for example the youtube video that was made degrading Muhammad or Ala or whoever it was that they were degrading. (I didn't see the video, nor do I want to, and I just heard about it through someone else). Being LDS, we are taught to have complete reverence toward deity. It doesn't matter if it is someone you think is deity or not, you should respect others believes. (What do I say about devil worshipers? Hmm, maybe I am just to scared of the consequences if I trashed them.) I for sure to do not condone what happened in the aftermath with the killings of US citizens at all. Don't get me wrong on that. Yet, I can't help but think if we all had a little more respect for each other, the world would be a much more pleasant place. A while ago on the radio, one of the DJ's was saying how you can take the power of words away if you use them enough. You will get use to it (desensitized) and you won't care anymore. They were saying that we should use all the words that are offensive and get rid of the power they have. Terrible advice! I do feel like we do that though. I have always heard that emotional abuse is more detrimental than physical abuse. If that is true, then the D.J.'s theory is completely wrong. We should think about how we are affecting people when we say things. I am not into being completely P.C. but I do believe in using tact. A people that can't even take care of themselves is a nation in disaster waiting to happen. Someday these careless kids are going to be running for office and running the whole nation. That is kind of scary. At the same time, there are still a lot of amazing parents, families, and people. There are those who are great decision makers and who know how to deal with life's consequences. Hopefully the strong will rise and help influence the weak but there is a difference between helping and enabling. The key is finding the balance. My opinion only, we are way more on the enabling side than the helping side. You will find men who want to be carried on the shoulders of others, who think that the world owes them a living. They don't seem to see that we must all lift together and pull together. Henry Ford