Happy Mother's Day

To my wife and daughters, Happy Mother's Day. To my mother, I miss you greatly!

Even though today is not mother's day, i love and miss everyone just as much.

So much to catch up on

Getting ready to put some more gas in the tank and let the rubber hit the road.

And oh by the way, Yes I did!

And so it happens

My baby has turned 4 today. What a beautiful day it is. While we were not there for the first 8.5 months, we are so lucky to have her in our life today.

We did our usual routine this morning but we did stop to measure everyone for height growth. We are one of those families that have a special door jam that marks the growth of our girls.

You go girl! Happy Birthday baby!

Birthday Coming

Tomorrow our Canoodle will mark yet another revolution around the sun / calendar and turn 4. How about that. It seems so long ago, like it was light years away, that we brought her home from China, brought her to become a permanant part of our family; forever. But the reality is that it has only been 3.5 years since she has turned our world into a much better place.

Granted at times, it seems like a trial, that perhaps we did not fully anticipate what it would mean. By how could we? How could any parent know what life is going to be like when their newest addition welcomes into the family? And while it might seem like a daily uphill push, she has such a wonderful and playful personality. And to boot, she has is quite the trickster when it comes to laughing.

But here is what bothers me; her biological mom. What about her? What has become of her? Does she have this very dark day that she just tries to get through and move on with her life or does she stop and mourn the loss of her daughter? I suppose it is possible to find her. Find her only if she didn't continue to hide what happened and what the outcome was. Maybe she didn't hide? Maybe the people she knows know what happened to her baby?

Whatever the feelings she is having, I wish I could tell her, if she cared and wanted to know, that her baby is doing just fine. She is happy, healthy and thriving... and turning 4!

Birthday

It is Wednesday

And just the crowning drive to the weekend. Downhill from here

In need of an update

Yikes in serious need of an update. Quick point thoughN. We bought a new house and moved. More to follow.

Post Election - What it is like being red trapped in a sea of blue

First let me say this, I grew up in Texas and my family has been in the oil business for 3 generations. I bleed light sweet Texas crude. The USN brought me to California. Of considerable note, when you marry a girl who is 4th generation Californian, you are not moving back to Texas. Now with the darlings we have established roots. Not really going anywhere for a while but that doesn't mean I have to give up everything!

Of note as well, I am an economist by training. The very fascinating world of economics boils down to two things; pain and pleasure. To put it another way; insentive or disinsentive. But for crying out loud, California is facing yet another $10B shortfall and we haven't even moved 2 full months of an 85 day late budget to close up the previous $17B shortfall. And the irony here; Californians have successfully passed Prop 2. Given the general consensious of putting 2 people in a room and you get 2 different ideas Prop 2 people on both sides lined up supporters and opponents. And I say yeah, so what. My egg producing chicken doesn't really need all of this fanfare to do its job; does it? These chicken are not produced to become egg layers and then fryers, they are produced for their ability to lay eggs. And when they reach the end of their useful life, their services are no longer needed.

So now Title 20 of the California Health and Safety Code is regulating the fact that egg laying chickens must be able to stand up and flap their wings. My question is this, "At what cost to the tax payers?" My Republican friends in the California Assembly and Senate understand that to raise taxes means all other services have been cut to the bone and nothing else is left BUT to raise taxes. I don't think so.

To get a proposition onto a statewide ballot, 500,000 people have to sign a petition that says they will at least understand what it means to vote for the proposition. So somebody had to have heard a complaint by a chicken to take up their cause. Chickens have no opposable thumbs and speech recognition to humans to canvas for supportive petition signers. Or did some body transpose their feelings onto what they think the chicken must be feeling? In that breath am I wrong just to assume those people are stupid? That the 500,000 petition signers are also stupid. Should we provide working hours and additional comforts to the chickens and let them organize into collective bargaining? Get real, this is nothing more than another example of wasteful beauracracy.

So now we have a junior senator from Illinois going to be the 44th President of the United States. Should I did out the clips where the democratic party itself says BO is not qualified and does not understand issues from a global perspective. Granted he only has one house; purchased from a man who is going to jail for being a crook, but there is no way he is going to do what he said he was going to do on the campaign trail. His voting record in Congress does not support the fact the he has a global comprehension of the issues at hand. Did W have the same comprehention, that is questionable. Were there other people more qualified? Yes and No. Did BO sell the American public on hope? Yep, he sure did. He said it was time for change. I believe it is time for a change as well but do I believe he is the person to lead that change. No.

Live and let live. American home of the free because of the brave!

It was a true sugar high

Halloween is finally over (the link takes you to the Flickr picture set) and we cannot be any more happier. Granted, I was the promoter for most of the hype and YES, I / we have had to pay for that. Last night after our sojourn around the neighborhood in search of friends, ghost and goblins, we made it home. It was here, while waiting to hand out candy to trick or treaters we reached the creshendo of sugar.

Might I also point out that I am being sorely punished again on Saturday. Today the weather is RAIN, all day RAIN. We cannot go outside, we cannot use activity of running, doing chores, being outdoors to help flush the sugar from their little bodies. No, we are stuck inside. And might I offer this one simple prayer, "Thank God for DVDs or we would be sunk!" It is not so bad, we did get out for some post-halloween shopping at our favorite store, Target. Found some great deals on clothing for the girls. Listen, fashion for these girls takes a backseat to $4 per item clothes. Fashion is saved for Land's End. (Note, Land's End is never $4 per item).

And just to show that I still have what it takes from my first adventure to college. (My first adventure to college I was the social director of a Men's Fraternity. Not necessarily a skill set you carry into gainful employment; at least not for me. But give me a bathtub and pure grain alcohol, I can have one humdinger of a punch going. Fast forward 30 years and mix in some children and the whole bathtub and alcohol gets lost on chicken dinosaurs and hot chocolate.)

This is the picture from last year's party. If you can make out, there are 38 children in the picture. What you do not see is 38 sets of parents standing behind me getting their holiday picture. But we did it, 38 smiling children all posing at one time. This year, I am in charge of the location and God knows what else. But I am looking forward to it. The date is Dec 6th from 4:30P to 7:30P, potluck style. More to come on that.

For Thanksgiving, looks like we are going over the river and through the woods to Aunt Janet and Aunt MB's house. Since it is quite a distance to drive we will be staying over a couple of nights. This time I will check the battery in my camera before we leave. And the beauty of this trip; after Thanksgiving dinner, I am going to slip into a triptophanic coma while watching the Dallas Cowboys play football and not have to worry about the girls. The reason why, Cousin Amy and Cousin Kelly will be there the first night, then Cousin Aaron will come the second night. The only downfall is we will be housing up in the mountains of Santa Cruz and will miss out on the 4A shoping extravaganza that Mom likes to do on the Friday after!

It is that time of the year

Granted we live in California and the high today was 83 and the low tonight is going to be 50, but they do say fall is in the air. We are quickly approaching Halloween and boy howdy are we ready for it. Last weekend we had a halloween party at the school, a princess birthday party and another halloween party put on by our local FCC chapter. All in all, everyone was pretty well worn out by the end of the weekend.


Here is a link to our pictures... for last weekend. Hoping this weekend can be more relaxing.



This is what happens when you don't brush your teeth... scary little girls, yes be very afraid!