Stop Taking Our Money!!

ugh... where to even begin with the state of our state... california is in bad shape and the governor seems to be taking it out on the wrong people. i do not agree with the areas that he is cutting his spending. i feel as though he is trimming the meat, not the fat. i do not think that the education of our states children should be sliced apart because the government of the state cannot manage to maintain a working budget. i understand that cuts need to be made, but i believe they can be made in other places. also, my family as well as friends of mine are department of corrections families. we are suffering a 15% reduction in pay already and are facing the possibility of an additional 5% cut. where are the cuts to the chp and their salaries? where are the cuts to the inmates? unfortunately, i am not big on inmate rights and benefits, so i believe a lot of money can be saved there. i do not think the inmates deserve better health care than the working, productive people of this state, and yet they do. they are first in line to see specialists of any kind. they are not required to pay any out of pocket expenses or co-pays. they receive better health care than the people of the state that are on medical. the message there is that if you are ill and cant afford your healthcare, do something to get yourself thrown in prison for a short stint and get your medical bills on the tab of the state of california. then when you get out, you are healthy with no medical bills looming over you as so many people incur.

anyway, i am ranting and raving about this much more than i should, but it just baffles me to believe that the deficit is so very large... i know when i balance my budget, if there is a deficit i certainly don't allow it to grow exponentially. i fix it and balance it again, so that it will be right for the following month. how is it that every year the deficit grows and grows? who knows....(obviously not the governor and his peeps...)

a month?? how can it have already been a month?

um, i had no idea that it has been a month since i have updated my blog... um, i need like an alarm or reminder or something that will ding at me and say "hey, dodo, inquiring minds want to know..." :) anyway, wow, it's been a long time and we have been up to a lot since my last post.

we took a road trip to colorado springs, colorado, by way of the petrified national forest in arizona and albuquerque, new mexico. i will post a seperate blog about the vacation. i started a journal while we were on vacation, i just need to finish it and post it from my blackberry. (hopefully sometime this year, as we all know how prompt i am).

so to briefly overveiw that last month, we went on vacation, came home from vacation, went on a mini vacation, had a fourth of july party, played the vehicle shuffle all of the week following the fourth and now here we are.... lol, my month in a nutshell... i guess people would like to know more huh??? i'll see what i can come up with.

The Day the Earth Stood Still

in 1951 a movie was made. "the day the earth stood still." it was about the human race destroying the planet earth and a council of beings from other worlds decided that in order to save the planet, the race needed to be destroyed and allow the planet to heal...  1951... this movie was remade in 2008 and i just watched it for the first time a few days ago.  why is it that we had a sense of this in 1951 and are in the situation that we are in as of 2009. over fifty years have elapsed since the original version of the movie and yet we have continued on this path of destruction... something to think about....

Going Back to Go Forward

for lack of motivation to get anything else around the house done, i am sitting in front of the computer contemplating what to blog about and have decided that the topic of the moment will be "going back about 50 years."  in this day in society, it is unlikely that people think of going back as a way of going forward. i, however, tend to believe that we must go back before we can go forward. what has happened to respect, politeness, common courtesy and the importance of family and friends. 50 years ago, there would be kids playing together in the neighborhood, parents sitting on the front porch watching all the kids (not just their own) and you knew all your neighbors names and could borrow a cup of sugar without question.  today, in order for any neighborhood kids to play together, you have to schedule a play date.  you often don't know the names of your neighbors. i have lived in the same house for over 7 years now and don't know my neighbors by name and would certainly not feel comfortable enough to go knocking on the door for a cup of sugar. it never occurred to me until after i had kids of my own, that community, camaraderie and good old fashioned neighborly goodness was lost and more importantly that we need to find it. 

society seems to be so focused on the importance of independence and success that we seem to have lost sight of what is important. kindness, generosity and raising our kids with respect and values. we are such a busy nation that we don't even have time in our children's day at school to include music and art. we as a people have placed academia over all else. can this system be part of our children's issues with low self esteem and a sense of failure. some children do not excel in academics, however are amazing artists and musicians. unfortunately, they may never know their talents because they were never provided the opportunity to explore those areas of learning and expression. they were merely handed textbooks and schedules. these are the areas that the artists and expressionists may feel failure.

i think it is time for us to take a step back and look at where we have come from, where we are, and where it is that we want to go.

Board meeting 5.30.09

We had our first board meeting today! Little hands learning and family resource center will be applying for nonprofit status and incorporation status within the month. I am very excited that my board and I are on the same page about most things. It will be wonderful to see the progress throughout the summer as we begin submitting our paperwork and grant proposals.
Sent from my BlackBerry Storm

hum diddly doo...

for lack of anything better to title this post....  i just wanted to update my blog since it has been a while since i have done so.  memorial day weekend was spent in newport beach at the southern california/nevada la leche league conference.  it was amazing!!  i was so happy to see so many other breastfeeding and babywearing families!  where we live there are not a lot of long term breastfeeding families and certainly not a lot of babywearers as most people believe that the best lace for their baby is in their carseat/carrier for as much of the day as possible....  i guess i shouldn't be that harsh, but it's really not that much of an exaggeration. the weather was wonderful as well.  it was about 70 the entire weekend.  we even got chilly friday evening at the park in irvine and had to put sweaters on the kids!!  it was also great driving around my old neighborhood.  auntie sarah (and aunt heidi) got to be exhausted by the twins and they had a great time with them while i was in sessions learning lots of great info.

random thoughts

well, today has been a busy day, but i feel like it has been rather productive as well. i have done some things around the house (although it wasn't the kitchen as it was supposed to be) (nor the laundry for that matter....) but it was stuff that needed to be done all the same. i called the irs and spent another 45 minutes on the phone with them (probably about 42 of those were on hold) to make sure that our payment plan is properly set up. i worked on my business and got some homework done too. i do have a hard time balancing the homework and the business work. i am quite excited to have decided to go the non-profit route and am also excited that (provided i can get enough funding) there are multiple property sites off of hwy 86 and legion rd by the hospital and the super walmart. i would absolutely love to be able to put a child care and family resource center right there. it is perfect for people from imperial and el centro to access and it is not too far for brawley residents. anyway, there is a lot of work to be done and i am interested in finding out how long it takes to become a non-profit once the paperwork is filed. then i can get moving on some grant writing and stuff. a lot of things are left up in the air until i manage to get ahold of some funds... i am optomistic that federal moneys will start becoming available with obamas financial plans being put into place.
well we are just over a month away from leaving for colorado springs and haven't managed to make any solid plans yet. i guess we should get to work on that huh... i know we have a few places in mind to stop, but havent actually hammered out any details.
i am also toying with the idea of going back to school to finish my degree. i need to figure out if i should finish up an aa at ivc then go for the ba later, or if i should just go straight to finishing up the ba...
well, i guess that's enough rambling for one evening.