Blog Hop

Until the link gets fixed, if you arrived here from Lori's blog, please proceed to my other blog, My Creative Station for the blog hop.  If you're still lost, you can go back to the Scrapper's Delight blog and link to my blog from there.  Thank you!!

Productive Day

I am really excited...I have had a super productive day today.  My house is finally getting closer to the "organized" point.  For several days now I've kept up with laundry, done my "swish and swipe", shined my sink, and kept things picked up in the family room.  I've been slowly doing detail cleaning in my master bathroom and in my bedroom (which are always neglected since no one sees them), but today you can actually tell I worked in the bedroom so I think my DH will be pleasantly surprised.

On the downside, the dishwasher ran with no water...hmmm.  It was fine yesterday so I wonder what happened.  I'll have to wait until DH gets home to look at it.

Joey's choir concert last night went really well.  I don't have any good pictures of him since he was so far away but he did a good job.  I did however get Oliver to do his "cheesy grin".

Oliver was his usual silly self today.  I was out of the room for only a minute to go to the bathroom and he sure was busy while I was gone.  When I came back, his trash can had been filled.  All of his shoes, his medicine, vapo rub, all of his pacifiers, and his blanket were in the trash.  Was he trying to tell something??

Well now I understand a little bit better.  Most people's whining about the health plan has to do with being forced to purchase it.  They say its unconstitutional because the federal government has never forced us to purchase goods or services before.  Well, while this is true, most states have a law dictating the need for at least minimum coverage of auto insurance.  I don't really see the difference.  I do agree with arguments that some people will continue to mooch off of the government rather than getting on their feet.  And if they don't purchase the insurance....they get fined.  A lot of good that will do to fine people who have no money....they still won't be able to pay it.  I guess I see the government between a rock a hard place....if they cut benefits they get crap and if they expand benefits they still get crap....and if things stay the same they get crap.  So its a no win situation for people in politics.

This is only a test

I am just testing out a feature of blogger and want to see if this works.  If all goes well, this will appear on my blog at noon today :)

Disclaimer: Post contains my personal opinions only....don't read if easily offended

I am a little upset about the continuous flow of comments regarding our government and their decision to pass a health care reform bill.  What really irks me is that 99% of the people doing the commenting have not even read what is in the bill or how it affects them.  They don't post what about the bill they don't like.  They don't propose any other solutions except to leave a broken system broken.  This is all very disturbing.  I did some reading (I don't think any normal person could read the entire bill) but there were a few main points that I did approve of.  While I don't approve of a completely socialistic government, has no one stopped to realize that our government is not 100% democratic as it is??  I hear so many people upset about government health care....so what do they call Medicare??  What do they call social security?  They are both government social programs designed to help those that need it (granted, some abuse does occur mostly with disability payments).  The only reason I can figure that people aren't uproaring over that is that those programs were in place when most people on facebook were born.  They are used to them....a part of our lives.  This program is not a 100% government run health care program.  Rather it provides subsidies to families to purchase private insurance and subsidies to small businesses to cover part of the employee premiums.  I'm hoping in the long run it will keep health care CEO's from earning millions per year while denying a dying child treatment.  One of the best things about the plan is that insurance can no longer be denied to children by companies based on pre-existing conditions.  The same will be true for adults in 4 years.  While many people I know are still lucky enough to have their jobs, I have also seen people lose their employment through a lay off and subsequently lose their health insurance because they could not afford the $800 per month premium (which is atrocious but that is what it would cost for most "family" plans if paid 100% out of pocket).  If one of the adults of child was sick with cancer or something equivalent, even if they did find new employment, they would not be able to get insurance coverage for their sick family member with the way the system was because the insurance company had a right to deny anyone they wanted.  Now at least if the sick member was a child, the insurance company would have to accept them.  Do people not deserve health care simply because their disease may be incurable? 

I like the fact that the health insurance companies will have to publish what they spent on overhead.  I think it will be a wake up call for parts of America to see exactly how much is wasted.

I like the fact that my insurance (which is good) will not change.  I will have my same plan with the same rules and the same premiums.  But it is nice to know if my husband were to lose his job that we would be able to keep our insurance with the governments help until my husband were to become re-employed.

And if private insurance companies are still doing all the insuring, how is that government run??

What I don't like about it is the cost.  But who does.  How could it be avoided?  Many of our other programs also cost money and put us in the hole....does that mean we quit paying for them as well?  I would at some point love to see an administration balance a budget and at least not make more federal debt.  And I'm sure other taxes will be put into place over the next ten years to help defray the costs. 

Is the reform necessary?  Well...quite frankly I don't agree with doing nothing!  We have had the same system for so long....it's broken....ANYTHING different is better than keeping a broken system.  Yes, like all new things, tweeks and changes will be necessary to refine it but at least its a step forward.

I don't agree with people bashing the president and other lawmakers.  Quite frankly if you want something different done, run for office!  President Obama's whole platform was in regards to change.  The fact that changes are being made should not be any kind of major shock to anyone!  This congress has had to do more than I've ever heard of a congress doing.  In fact, there have been times where in a four year period, all the bills passed were so minor they didn't even make the news making it appear they did nothing.  If my tax dollars are paying their salaries then they should be working!  And it seems as though they are.  Like I said...don't like what they're doing...then run for office and quit whining.

Ok I think I'm done with my rant for now.  I don't want this to miscontrued that I completely agree with the health care bill because I don't agree with it entirely....I just am really irritated with the whiners who are whining without having read the bill AND aren't making any points in their whining other than just being plain upset.  I'll have to think of something more positive for later...

My newest little subject

I am so excited that I finally got to take some pictures of Kaylee!  She's my very first niece and is just adorable!  Her eyes are amazing....so big with long eyelashes.  She looks a lot like my sister and is finally starting to show her personality.  She's 3 months old.  I'm really happy with how these pictures came out and I really hope my sister likes them.  Here's a few:

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I should not still be up but I am for the moment.  I'm just about to go to bed. 

Today was a pretty productive day.  I finished my craft projects for my DT and now have to work on thinking up another project...hmmmmm.

My biggest accomplishment....figuring out how to fix up my blog!  I am so super excited about it!  I just love it!  And I have a picture of the kids on it and everything.

I'm sure I'll be changing the picture soon since we're planning on having our picture taken in a few weeks.

Don't forget to wear your green!  Hope everyone has a lucky day!!

An Hour Less...

While it doesn't seem like an hour missing from you day is a lot....it is to me!  Personally, I think they should just pick a time and stick with it!

Anyway.....it caused me to first, lose sleep, which made me get up late for church (thinking I had more time), which gave me a headache from rushing around, didn't have time to eat breakfast, had to sit in the cold for two hours (since thanks to everyone already having girl scout cookies, my daughter's troop still has cookies to sell) which only worsened the headache so that by the time I returned home became a migraine, then I laid down and hours later headache is finally subsiding and it's almost 7 when it should only be almost 6 and I haven't even started dinner yet.  So it literally threw my whole day out of whack by missing an hour that I REALLY want back!

Ok....enough complaining....I am in kind of a crafty mood so maybe I'll go get busy making some cards.  I have made progress on cleaning up my craft room.  I also need to start shopping for my daughter's birthday which is in about 3 weeks and plan her party (which won't be until end of April) since April is such a busy month for us.  I also need to figure out what to even get her!

I broke down last week and bought all the blue provo craft tools.  I already had the Blue YourStory....and I REALLY wanted the matching Cricut Expression....and then I got really excited when I learned they even had a blue Cuttlebug!!  So I bought the Expression and the Cuttlebug and am going to sell my others since I can't justify having two of them.  But I am so excited for them to come!!! Pictures will be posted soon!

Missing Crafting

I tried to get into my craft room today but that turned out to be more difficult than it sounds.  Poor little Oliver is coming down with something....diarrhea, very runny nose, losing his voice....I just feel so bad for him.  He's probably not going to sleep tonight either.  But, he required my attention almost all day.  He is very needy when he's sick....not that I mind being needed :)

Joey has been doing VERY well on his medication.  His grades did an almost instant turn around.  He is paying closer attention to details and even his handwriting is clearer.  I'm very excited to see how much he will improve in the last quarter of the school year.

It has been nearly three weeks since I've been able to create anything....ugh.  I have so much stuff that I am just dying to use and yet can't get the time to use it!  At the moment I'm working on a project for my mom that is consuming a lot of my time because it involves glueing so many letters.  But I plan to start working on some cards very soon....and putting some finishing touches on a whole slew of scrapbook pages I made last month.  I don't take my cricut with me to church when I scrap so I have to add my die cuts last.  Not a big deal....I just don't get time very often.

Well, I need to get to bed....big day tomorrow. :)  Will try that crafting thing again tomorrow.

Outdoor Adventure

This is my baby boy!  He says "that Chucky ain't got nothin' on me!"

Oliver is the cutest little boy ever!  Yesterday, for the first time, he was able to play outside.  Last year he couldn't even crawl and it's been too cold up until now.  So I took him out and put him in the grass.  He didn't move for nearly 10 minutes.  He was just completely frozen and not sure what to think or do.  It was cute.  This is one of the cute faces I caught on camera. 

He enjoyed himself immensely but I think the highlight for him was defnitely the slide.  After his first two trips down, he got really excited to do it again.  We also took Oliver to the neighbor's to see Daisy, their border collie.  She is the smartest dog I've ever seen.  Oliver was quite intimidated though and had a death grip on Charles the whole time.  So I played with Daisy.  I couldn't get any pictures because neither Daisy nor Oliver would sit still. 

Altogether, I think I took about 100 pictures just of Oliver outside.  We also put him in the back of the truck.  He thought that was great fun since it made so much noise when he walked.  And the tires made quite an impression on him, probably because they're as big as he is!

Some of Oliver's other new things are books....he LOVES books all the sudden.  He's started picking them up, carrying them around, then sitting down, opening them up and babbling to himself while pointing at the pictures.  Last night he made Brianna read the same book to him 5 times in a row.  Everytime she read it, she'd start to get up and he'd pick the book up and hand it to her to read again.  It was so cute.  He sure does love his sissy.  He gets so excited everyday when Breezy gets home from school.  Ok I need to get to bed...big day tomorrow.  Here's another picture of Oliver...this one on the slide.  The rest of them will be on facebook :)

I'm still here!

It's been a long couple of weeks.  I had original intentions of updating this frequently but the last couple of weeks have tested me.  A little background....when I married my husband, he had two children already who lived with him....two beautful children that I just fell in love with.  His younger one, Joey, was about 3 at the time.  Now, Joey is 9.  Over the years school has been a stuggle for him...actually behaving in general was a struggle for awhile.  At one point several years ago he was pretty hyper all the time.  We talked to A LOT of people and tried different things.  Changing his diet definitely helped with the hyperactivity.  His schoolwork though has suffered since he began Kindergarten.  He went through first grade twice and is now in third, but he's really struggling.  His reading, math, writing, social skills, and pretty much everything else are behind that of almost all of his classmates.  A few weeks ago, I had a conference with his teacher regarding plans for next year.  She told me that she doesn't think there would be any benefit to holding him back again and that it would do more harm to him socially.  She said she is however working on getting him into special sessions during the day where he'd get to work one-on-one with a teacher for a half hour twice a day.  She said he does really well when she works with him individually and is hopeful that he will be up to speed in no time if he gets into this program.  When Joey found out that he would not be held back, he completely gave up and began doing NOTHING in school.  Not turning in ANY assignments and blowing off all the tests he was given.  He went from doing decent (C's mostly) to failing four of his classes.  He has talked to various counselors before regarding how he acts in school...the list would be long, but involves things like randomly getting up from his seat to talk to people, sometimes hitting people, standing in his chair, CONSTANTLY talking, when he takes a test he'll write random things all over it.....but when we tried to get him help from counselors, he never tells them the truth.  He tells them its all just fine, he's doing great, and they tell my husband and I that he's a normal, well-adjusted kid.  It's been hard going against that thinking that something really is not right.  So after the latest incidents in school finally made us realize we can't help Joey ourselves.  We took him to the doctor, he was evaluated, and as we expected, he was diagnosed with ADD.  Since we have tried other things, we decided to try something new and start him on medication.  Tuesday was his first day on the medication and a bad day at that.  He made a huge ordeal out of being on the medicine and ended up in the nurse's office.  He felt fine, he was just anxious over the situation.  Wednesday was a much better day.  The biggest obstacle I have right now is getting him to swallow the pill every day.  So that's been my headaches for the last week or so.  Not everything, but a little piece.