Wow, it's been a long time! CAUTION: Political temper alert!!

This email was in response to an article on cnn.com/rafferty file. The article asked if or how much faith you had in the government to do something about the soaring debt. As you can imagine, there were MANY responses, looked like 75% plus were to the negative (go figure), but this one was particularly interesting to me, it's really close to my personal views:

"We all know that anything out of the government is met with skepticism. I think they should pay for everthing including the national debt as outlined below. I recently sent this email to the VP for incorporation into the legislation on Heath Care.

In all honesty, paying the Health Care reform legislation presently in Congress, "We the People of the United States of America" recommend the following actions to pay for these programs and to repay the national debt:

1. All elected officials of the Federal, State and Local Governments making more than minimum wage (as many of the US citizens are forced to survive on) should relinquish their pay to the same amount as the poverty stricken they so choose to take more money from in fines and more insurance.

2. Restrict all foreign travel for all senators, congressmen and cabinet members with the exception of the Secretary of State (but limit hers) until such time deemed necessary by the majority of citizens in a referendum as stated in the Constitution.

3. Restrict all congressional members including cabinet members to utilizing commercial air flights and paid for out of their own pockets, not the tax payers. This includes federal reserve and treasury department employees.

4. Ensure that all elected officials are held to a 40 hour work week schedule as all federal and private sector employees are. No more Monday and Friday travel days. I have never heard of getting almost $200,000/year for a 3 day work week. Travel hours should not be compensated for work hours.

This will start paying the debt they made, not the citizens of this great nation."

posted by someone named JR.


Now, my personal additions would be:

First and foremost-they need to remember they are OUR employees, not the other way around. QUIT STEALING FROM YOUR EMPLOYER.

No less important to me, I'm sick of worrying about being politically correct and not offending anyone with the mention of Christ, God or the sign of a cross. They don't seem to be worrying about offending ME with the removal of a cross or not wanting the word 'GOD' in things. Don't like it, DON'T LOOK AT IT! This nation was FOUNDED on those beliefs. There are lots of other countries you can reside if you don't like it.

No campaigning for a new job while you are taking paid time from the job for which we already elected you. If you aren't doing a good job at that one, why do we want to hear about what you're "going to do" (HA!) in your new job?

No retirement benefits, what-so-EVER. They'll work harder to better social security benefits if that's all their going to get.

Next would be mandatory participation in their "Universal Health Care Plan".....if it's good enough for us, it's good enough for them. If they don't want to participate in it, we probably wouldn't either.

Morals clause, immediate dismissal for not keeping it in your pants until you're done being our representative.

These are just a few, I have many thoughts on illegal immigration, public education, campaign reform, NAFTA.....as I'm sure everyone does. Why is there not more outrage and why are we all not holding these people accountable as our staff?

Diabetes updates and book club

My Cat is doing great, blood sugars are in the normal range, once again the active volleyball girl:) I'm still not sleeping well at night, listening for the same things I did when all my babies were babies and so, I let myself get sicker by not taking the stuff that made me sleepy at night. So I missed the final educational visit at the Peoria hospital because I went to my doc.......sinus infection, ear infection, asthmatic bronchitis, same old WINTER stuff I get every year, but, hello, it's JUNE! My winter bout was ugly, couldn't get my steroid shots because I was going in for tests for my carpal tunnel. Guess my traitorous body was missing it or something....ugh!

A little more info than you'd probably like: I don't watch movies that I know will make me cry anymore. To quote my friend Deanna, "I just want to laugh." Well, not just laugh....I love Bruce Willis in the Die Hards and the NCIS kinda thing. Action, but usually the people who die you don't care about. That means no James Patterson, won't even read his books anymore. NEVER AGAIN. Suzanne's Diary for Nicholas damn near killed me. As for what I love to read: give me Suz Brockmann, J. R. Ward, Sherilyn Kenyon, Christine Feehan (paranormal, hot romance, vamps, Troubleshooters, Dark Hunters and, last but never least, SEALS!!!) But, sadly, I haven't really read in quite a while. I'm usually knitting, or lately, scrapping:) Just finishing up a new baby dress and socks:) I'm forever knitting socks.

So, with the new diabetes issues, I have reaquainted myself with my local library, where the goddessess of literature reside: Dawnette, Penny and Denise. Penny directs me to the new book club, on Thursdays in the morning, that works for me, so I sign up. Book: Comfort Food by Kate Jacobs, the bestselling author of The Friday Night Knitting Club. (My knitting club meets Mondays, Thursdays, and some Saturdays:) So, I grab up that book. Sorta like reading Debbie Macomber's The Shop on Blossom Street. But, I get wrapped up in the characters and Ms. Jacobs makes me cry. Please folks, I just want happy endings. Can't they put tear drops in the corner of the cover so I won't get that book!! Now I don't want to read the book club book, afraid of what lies between the pages.

Fortunately, I get to put it off for tonight, because Procrastinators Anonymous (also known as that part of my brain that constantly beats me up to remember what it is I'm forgetting as I suffer from CRS) called to remind me that my entry into my SU Demonstrator's contest is due tomorrow and I still haven't done it, and I have to distress the edges of my papers for my stamp class on Sunday. Maybe tomorrow will be nice and I'll get a good photo of my spread to post! Because, once again, all it's doing here is raining. YUK!

Bead Contest

go check out this website for the contest entry, prize is a huge box of beads, just what's needed for some fresh inspiration:) One lovely lady said if she won, she'd be paying it forward (if I read it correctly):

http://silverparrotdesigns.blogspot.com/2009/06/contest.html

Yes, I know it could be worse........

The pretty girl in the pink prom dress....my oldest, Cat. She's a very active, smart, witty 17 year old girl. Spent last weekend in the hospital, we found out she has type 1 diabetes. She hasn't been really sick, she isn't dying. Adjust eating habits, inject what your body can no longer make, completely manageable. I know it could be so much worse, that there are people out there in waaaaaayyyy worse shape than she is. There are few things in life harder for a parent than when something, even a minor something, is wrong with your child. This is not the life I hoped for her. What a way to start the beginning of your senior year.

Now I watch my formerly social butterfly as she becomes a hermit crab. Pulling into a shell, away from her friends, frustrated because, even though she measures everything that she's putting into her body, her body is declaring mutiny, from highs of 526 to a "low" (for her) of 80. I watched my daughter shake, sweat, turn beet red, and cry because she felt so horrible as her body just went postal on her. I was cool, calm and collected all the way through it, got her numbers back up. After she felt better and went to bed, I went to the grocery store to replace the orange juice, get her a Kit Kat bar for the next one, and cried for the next 4 hours. Then, I stayed up til 4 in the morning, poking that poor kid every hour just to make sure she hadn't gone low again.

Fast forward to tonight, she finally decided to join her friends for a night of movies. The doctor and the dietician told her she could eat what she wanted, she just had to be willing to take the insulin for it. Tonight she had Pizza Hut pizza. Just a couple of pieces, she took her insulin. Blood sugar 526. She gave herself her first Lantus shot tonight. She and Mary (my second daughter) came home from Brooke's house so she could get it at 8. She left her kit here. Granted, she's only 4 blocks away, but she forgot it.

Now, I know I'm being a spaz, but a friend of mine died when she had a low and couldn't get herself corrected. The only other person in her house was her 3 year old daughter, who couldn't wake her mommy up. Last week I was worrying about how to get past my first child being a senior, turning 18 and going off to college. Getting her braces off, senior pictures, blah, blah, blah. This week, when I close my eyes, or allow myself to think about it, that's what I remember first. College now seems a long time away, and I'm wondering how to get past the fact that she'll be going to camp, 2 hours away, without her dad and I there, for a week. Yes, they have medical staff. Yes, she'll be with family friends (adults) and her sister and their friends. Yes, she'll most likely be fine and enjoy the week. But I'm scared. And worried. And I hate this. I save my little pity parties for when my family is sleeping, and I stew over the worst case scenario. Last week seems a lifetime ago. How do people do this when it's worse than diabetes?

On a lighter note, I drove with my older son for the first time last week. When we were done, I told my husband that I need a box of Depends before I get in the car with him in the driver's seat again. AND, did you know that when you drop your keys down the elevator shaft, the maintenance person CAN retrieve them? Yep, tested that first hand for myself this past weekend, gave the nurses quite a good laugh.

The sewer backed up, the washing machine drained into my basement (my husband called me at 11:30 Saturday night at the hospital) to tell me that while it had flooded the basement, it had also gushed up like a fountain from the hole where the toilet should be in the downstairs bathroom (we're remodeling). The kids thought that was very cool. Me, not so much. Sewer dude came out Tuesday, turned the clean out top just a little, icky stuff came spewing into the front yard. Our dog, who licks his own private and hind parts, had the nerve to turn his nose up when he next went outside. Excuse me, but if you can eat cat poop, you can pee there, pal. By the way, part of our line collapsed in the front yard, heading out to the main line.

On the last day of school, my youngest son was awarded student of the month, he worked so hard to bring his reading grade up 2 letter grades! And our little Miss Rachel (number 4 in the lineup) won her award for being on the high honor roll list for the 8th quarter in a row. Nuttin' but 5.0 records for her (and Mary, but high school is not so forthcoming with the awards for underclassmen, LOL). The end of another school year that seems to have just started. Now onto summer, except it's not warming up here or drying out very much. I usually like the first two weeks of summer, lazy, don't have to be anywhere days. Then, the fighting and the I'm bored things start. Until we reach my very favorite day of the year........the first day of school.

Well, much like spring, we seemed to have skipped that lovely first two weeks part and moved straight into 3rd week of summer, because the fighting has commenced. And my boys learned some very interesting words that I KNOW did not appear on any vocab test. Oh, happy day!

Too Funny!

Last night, after waiting an hour and a half in the rain at the softball diamond, the refs finally decided to call it a rain out, so my friend Deanna, her daughter Kati (in the photo below), my daughter Mary, and I went to dinner......somehow the conversation turned to boobs. Deanna said something about heredity and big boobs, to which Mary responded glumly, "Unfortunately, I got my dad's boobs, not mom's." It was the FUNNIEST THING EVER! She's such a wit....dry, dry humor.

Pre-Prom Fun

The first pic is my Cat (in pink) and one of my best friends' daughter, Kati. The next is Cat tooling around on Zander's birthday present, she now wants one of her own, despite the fact that she's about 13 years too old! Anyway, she had a good time at prom and post prom. And she won an iPod docking station!

In case you're wondering about the MUCH better photos, those were taken by another one of my best friends, Beth, who is a photographer.

I'm sick to death of rain!!!!!

Rain, rain, go away, don't come again another day! More rain, this really sucks! Where has the sun gone? No new pictures, no good light. But hey, maybe some tomorrow.....Got the prom jewelry for others done, just Cat's left to do. Her dress is altered, hair appointment at 8:30 tomorrow, photographer arranged for her group of friends at 4:15. It was supposed to be sunny and nice tomorrow, but they added, guess what (drumroll, please), RAIN! to the forecast. On the upside, I didn't have to spend another cold, damp evening at the ball diamond last night:)

Where does the time go?

Well, I don't know about anyone else, but I think that while some people have one of those days, I have one of those lives. My morning started out badly (I had to get up, and I am SO not a morning kinda gal). I went to the utility room to get my favorite bra (it went into the last load of the night), only to find an overturned gallon of Angel Eyes paint (sorta periwinkle) on my brick-like linoleum.....probably an improvement imo, but NOT when I have to clean it up....and it's all over my youngest daughters new white cami. So glad it happened before we put in the new ceramic tile just waiting on me to find time to do it. What is that, anyway? Time to do something that isn't sports or school related?

Yet another busy few weeks have passed and what do I have to show for it? Nothing.....a wasted weekend painting a bathroom we have since decided will be gutted and redone. Selling post prom tickets at school, babysitting my nephew, who's not been feeling well (allergies, they think), I've not been feeling well (boo hoo!). Driving to sit at softball games, volleyball games, sitting on my butt for 3 hours for the volleyball carpool, which I have to do again tonight..(at least I can knit!) OOOOH! That's what I have to show for it. Last week while the girls practiced, I went to Michaels. I've been debating on the Stampin' Up! Big Shot, but I bought the Sizzix Bigkick....for $49.99! Can we say SAWEEEEET! It's supposed to be the "same machine", so we'll see......

Absolutely no jewelry making or scrapping going on, but I will tonight. I need to do thank yous for the lunch ladies at our school who served breakfast during the ACT thing last week and for my friend Leann's mom, who is altering Cat's prom dress. Last night I went to bed before 2 a.m. which is always nice!

So, here's a question......I ordered beads from a supplier March 20th. Emailed her to check the status of the order on April 1, was told the beads were going in the mail the next day (April Fools?) Emailed again on April 15 and 17. Was told my emails were going into her junk folder and she didn't know they were there, but the beads should be here tomorrow (18th) because they mailed out on Wednesday (huh?). Now it's the 27th, I still have no beads and no response from her. I can only assume my emails are still going to her junk folder, but what do I do? Never had this problem before with her. If anyone reads this, let me know your thoughts.

And some jewelry pretties

I know, crappy pics, I'll get better at that, too!

A small brag book for the volleyball coach

These pictures are some of my favorite pages out of a small book I did for my 7th graders volleyball coach and the bag topper I made.....kinda simple I know, but I liked it. I hope she did, too!

Technologically Backward!

I'm going to try to do this, my friends insist this is the way to start. Unfortuneately, I'm going to need a lot of time, practice and patience to learn all of this! Anyway, these are my peeps and I'm going to try to get things posted on here (hence the name of the blog, right!?) I do the jewelry thing and scrap for my friends. Hopefully, I'll get the hang of it and put pretties up for you to see:) Maybe later today would be a great goal to set!