The Letter

I try very hard to not get on my soap box and spew my political ideologies or religious beliefs on this blog. I respect and adore that we live in a country where we all have the right to our own beliefs. I may not agree with everyone out there and you may not agree with me but that is what makes our country so wonderful. Our freedom to live our lives the way we want to without being persecuted is why there are so many different people from all over the globe who risk their lives and the lives of their families to come to our country to live and enjoy the same freedoms.

But lately I've noticed that the men and women who we have elected to represent us are not really paying attention to us and what we want. They seem to be in some impenetrable bubble with their hands over their ears singing the "la la la la, I don't hear you song" and not focusing on what is best for the country and our futures. It is quite frightening really. What is even more frightening to me is that I feel like the majority of the people, especially those 20-something and younger crowds, really do not care and have lost some of their rationale for what is right and wrong. There has to be accountability or their will be chaos and that is why our Forefathers painstakingly designed our country to be a Republic, because they had the insight to and clarity to know what would happen to us as a country if we failed to understand where things can go very very wrong.

I fear that we have made that turn in the road which is leading us down to the track of things going very very wrong. I'm not putting blame on one man, please understand that. This has been a collective process of sweeping things under the rug and let's just get re-elected at whatever cost by all politicians for several years. But I do need to say that I believe the current batch of folks in Washington have lost all credibility and do not see what destruction they are creating for our children's futures. The folks in Washington do not live the same lives as us. Because we have done away with term limits, they do not take a hiatus from their everyday jobs to work in Washington for a while and then return back to their everyday jobs and live by the same laws and rules that they just passed - as was intended. They live in their bubble, they have their own health care, their own retirement plans, their own schools, they vote on their own pay raises, and are pampered and catered to daily. They do not live the same lives that we do any longer. They preach to us to hate the rich and wealthy, but yet they are all rich and wealthy. History has proven that with power comes greed and with greed comes destruction.

I recently ran across this article on the Glenn Beck website. Now don't get all up in arms and think that it is going to be some right-wing wacko stuff. Just read it. It makes sense. Here is an excerpt from the article:

. . . Take a breath. Listen to the people. Let's just slow down and get some input from some nonpoliticians on the subject. Stop making everything an emergency. Stop speed reading our bills into law. I am not an activist. I am not a community organizer. Nor am I a terrorist, a militant or a violent person. I am a parent and a grandparent. I work. I'm busy. I'm busy. I am busy, and I am tired. I thought we elected competent people to take care of the business of government so that we could work, raise our families, pay our bills, have a little recreation, complain about taxes, endure our hardships, pursue our personal goals, cut our lawn, wash our cars on the weekends and be responsible contributing members of society and teach our children to be the same all while living in the home of the free and land of the brave. . . . .

I have provided you with the link here. Please take a moment and read it. Please let's all become educated on the happenings of our country. Let's not rely on the TV news channels. Let's use our own judgement and find out more information on things from various sources. We the People are who matter most right now. We have the ability to make sure our freedoms are not stripped from us in the middle of the night while we sleep. Please just think and use common sense not political bias. I have never in my life voted for someone just because they were of the same party as mine. I listen to their beliefs and I choose who best fits with what I believe is best for this country. So many people have so much to lose right now, it doesn't matter if you are gay, straight, black, white, latino, asian, etc. We are a great country "together" and we need to make sure that the folks deciding our futures are deciding it with our best interests, not theirs, at heart.

Anyone around me can tell you that my life is extremely stressful right now. Some days I feel like I'm losing the battle, but then I gather the strength and keep going. I have people that depend on me to do the best I can. I'm sure my husband feels the same. We have lost so much in the last 2 years but we haven't lost our family. We have our daily struggles with Boy Child and the ramifications of that takes its toll on all of us, especially Diva, on a daily basis. We have our daily money crisis. We have lost all of our savings and my retirement 401K is at a whopping $14K. My husband has to rebuild his business from the ground up. We are back to renting a house after 12 years of owning. We cannot go on vacations or just head to the mall. Yet, with all of our life's downs we know that we live here, in the United States of America, where everyone's dreams can and do come true. We pray to God for strength and the wisdom we need. We will work hard as we always do and we will have our dreams come true. None of that is done with greed, malice, or one-sidedness. We analyze our situation, research our best approach and act on the best scenario that will help our family to succeed. That is what I'm sure you all do as well. So why don't we expect the folks in Washington to do the same exact thing for our country and for us? Have you ever signed a document that you haven't read? I haven't. I have read and re-read everything I have ever signed. Why don't they take the time to read the documents they are imposing upon us as law? That just doesn't seem rational to me. What is their rush, isn't this their job? I just ask that we all start paying better attention and speaking out to what is going on. Let's not be blindsided, but be prepared.

Whew, okay I'm done. Thanks for hearing me out. Enjoy your day.

Nothing Like Some Splashy Fun

Wow, what fun we had as a family this Father's Day. Instead of traditional backyard barbecues and stuff we decided to head up North a bit and have some "splashy fun" as my Boy Child likes to call it.

It was very nice to not have the distractions of moving preparations, school placement for Boy Child, softball and all that stuff. The first day was the best - very nice. For a little while we were like a 'normal' family of four. We weren't 'that family' with the boy who is mean or out of control, Diva and I actually had some time to spend together, actually talking and playing in the pool without my eyes constantly searching behind her for the location of her brother. I could look into her eyes, those beautiful baby blues. I could see the sadness and loneliness that shouldn't be for a 9 year old but because her brother is the way he is, she feels a bit cast aside. It's hard when you have had mommy and daddy and all your relatives to yourself for 4 years and then here comes a baby brother. Then after 2 years of adjusting to the fact that you have a baby brother you come to find that he is different. She is still adjusting to it all, we forget sometimes that she is 9 and it is extremely hard for her to accept how our lives have been turned upside down due to Boy Child. Heck, it's still hard for us too to accept some days. So it rare that she gets my undivided attention, even if it is brief.

Diva loves going to Splash Lagoon. Boy Child loves it too, but he has some quirks with it as well. One of the things he doesn't like is the noise level. Yeah, it is a bit loud but once you are in it, you get used to it. Even him, but every now and then you would catch him doing this.

The first day we couldn't get Boy Child to partake in any water slide fun. Dad did, however, get him to run to the Tiki Tree House when the horn blows. This is a play area that is topped by a 48 ft. high bucket that every now and then dumps 1,000 gallons of water onto the thrill seekers below. Last year he tried to become one with the wall when the horn blasted and stared trace-like at the bucket while it dumped the water. So this was a huge improvement!

On the second day, we finally got him to ride the Maui Wowie slide. It is the mildest of all the slides and is situated at the Tiki Tree House and beside the small kids pool/play area. He tried several times to go down but chickened out each time. Then I finally got fed up and stood in line with him. He sat down and then fear took over him and clung to the wall of the slide. I looked up at the life guard and asked her if she minded if once I pried him loose could I just shove him down the slide. She thought that was a great idea too. I did exactly that. Guess what - half of the way down you could hear him screaming "This is awesome!" Yep, we couldn't get him to stop riding that slide after that.

Diva, she is another story. Diva loves her some water slides. There are slides there that take you 40 mph and then drop you straight down into 6 feet of water. Yep, I've done it. It is a rush. I like the ones where you can sit two to an inner tube and ride. She wants the extreme rides and the activity pool. Next time we will have to bring her a friend, because Dad's new partial knee and my excess pounds do not do so well with keeping up with a 9 year old running up the stairs from water slide to water slide for hours non-stop.

The kids loved it so much that they want this to be a new family tradition. We'll see, maybe we will.

On the first day, Dad even got into the fun as you can see by this quick video.

A Divalicious Forecast

Since we just had atrotious weather here in the 'burgh I thought that this video is worth A Thousand Words on this Thursday.

During one of our park adventures this week, Diva in her true fashion, put on a small show for me.

She really is a shy girl.

Chores and Memories Don't Mix

There are days where laundry and packing and cleaning and all that other stuff that are constants in our lives need to wait. I don't do that enough. There is always something that I think I need to be doing and I tell my kids to wait or when I'm done or shoo them away.

I need to stop doing that and realize that they need me to form memories and traditions for them. What I do now directly reflects on what they will someday do or not do with their children.

It is a constant battle because we are constantly battle our money situation. There never seems to be enough of it and Husband is always working to meet that next deadline and I'm just brain dead and scattered from all the Boy Child issues that I forget we need and they are craving just some time from us. Diva asked last night if we could have a family movie night this week. I don't remember what the answer was or if we even gave her an answer. She went to bed last night and didn't even come and kiss us goodnight. Okay, yeah we were a bit pre-occupied with a small little thing called THE PENGUINS WINNING THE STANLEY CUP!! but heck she still could have come downstairs and told us she was going to bed.

When we move (in the next 40 days), we will NOT be having a TV in Diva's room. The kids will have a computer in their rooms but no TV. I think that is partly the problem with Diva. She tries to stay away from her brother and she shuts herself up in her room with her TV and music and barbies that she forgets the rest of us. The new house does NOT have a playroom for them, so that will also force them to not retreat to that section of the house. Yeah, it's a downsize but yet we are gaining so much more in the way of a yard. This yard has a pool, swingset, play houses and a sandbox almost the size of my dining room. So I know that we will be outside much more.

These photos are of the 2 hours we spent at the park earlier in the week. We had a lot of fun playing on the playground, riding bikes and playing in the creek. They made friends with some butterflies. One even let them pick it up on a stick.

So much fun, that I think I'm going to sign off now and head on out to the park again this morning. So my advice is to make memories as often as you can, no matter how small. The chores will always be there, children will not, life changes in the time it takes to blink.

There are alot more wonderful pictures over at Melody's site if you'd like to visit.