OK, We've been in our house for 5 years exactly.
I remember when we came up here from Louisiana to house hunt and we came to see this house the very first day.
I couldn't believe my eyes.
We lived in a little over 1000 sq ft, three beds 1 bath so this new house was like a mansion to us. Right over 2000 sq ft, 4 bed 2 bath and on 1.5 acre, it was HUGE!
Of course the bathrooms was not in top shape and the kitchen was kind of old. All doors and trims in the house was dark green but we didn't see any of that, we were just absorbed by the space.
And we could afford it. I had spent hours and hours with a calculator, making budget after budget to see how much we possible could afford and this house was within the limits.
We were able to get a mortgage with a very good interest on it and we locked it up for 30 years.
During our 5 years here we have never lived over our limits, we have never been to Disney World or other fancy vacations, but we've been on small trips and been able to save money to go visit family in both Michigan and over seas in Sweden.
Because we've been living within our means we refinanced last spring to a 15 year mortgage with even better interest and looked forward to paying the house off within a 10 year period. Our kitchen, bathrooms and upstairs carpet scream for our attention and I'm trying to save up money so we can fix all those things this year.
Why am I telling all this?
Because I don't need to be bailed out, and now all of a sudden because we've always lived within the boundary's, we are supposed to bail out the people that I've looked at so man times with envy, the people in big fancy houses, with their big fancy cars and big fancy vacations.
Why? Why should I be punished now and forced to pay for other peoples miss behavior?
Don't you think I would have wanted to but a house much bigger and in much better shape than the one we bought?
Don't you think I would have wanted all the toys and gadgets they have?
But guess what, we couldn't afford it, so we didn't buy it, and damn it, we don't want to pay for any one else either.
One thing that I have always thought is great with the American mind set is that you are responsible for your actions good or bad.
What happened to that mind set?
Why are all of a sudden people not responsible for their own actions?
Why are we bailing out banks that have so greatly miss calculated with theirs and others money?
Why are we supposed to help people that went over their heads with houses they could'nt afford?
If you got a sub prime loan with crappy interest that means you were not supposed to get a mortgage to start with, your credit was bad or you you just did'nt have money enough.
Let's be honest and true to who we are, let everyone be responsible for their actions and let's help each other out in any voluntary loving way possible.
But don't take our money that we've been so good managaing and distribute them to people that are no good with money.
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Idiots vs Chimps
I heard a story about a pet Chimp that went crazy yesterday and almost killed his owners best friend. I wanted to read some more about it because Chimps have always fascinated me. So I sit down at the computer and google "killed Chimp".
I read along for a while and then I stumble on a New York Post cartoon published in today's issue.
http://www.nypost.com/delonas/delonas.htm
Two police officers just killed a chimp that's laying in it's own blood on the ground and the police says "They'll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill".
I can't even describe how my thoughts flew back and forth in my mind while I looked at the picture.
Is this an American Newspaper, 2009? Nazi Germany 1939 would not have been that surprising, but today, here in the US? Two white police officers, just killed the president portrayed as a Chimpanzee?
I know that the motherland is filled with people that think white is prettier than black. I know also that some call blacks monkeys, but I always thought I knew who they were. Racists are single minded, inbred, uneducated folks that know what happens in the world even though they've never been outside the county limit.
But now they have a friend at New York Post. God knows what idiot reads (oh, forgot, they aren't that good readers, but they can look at the pictures, right?) the cartoon and the picture sparks a something inside of him or her? What if we'll have a assassination attempt or two in the next couple of days?
A year or so a Danish newspaper got in trouble for posting cartoons of Muhammad. A large portion of the Muslim world got upset.
If the normal freedom loving people in this country have any back bone at all I hope to see a uproar against racist propaganda like this, actually not just us here in the US. I'd like to see the whole western world voice their disgust.
And by the way, the poor Chimp that totally went crazy yesterday, was stopped by a bullet. I hope this will push for legislation banning keeping apes and monkeys as pets.
I read along for a while and then I stumble on a New York Post cartoon published in today's issue.
http://www.nypost.com/delonas/delonas.htm
Two police officers just killed a chimp that's laying in it's own blood on the ground and the police says "They'll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill".
I can't even describe how my thoughts flew back and forth in my mind while I looked at the picture.
Is this an American Newspaper, 2009? Nazi Germany 1939 would not have been that surprising, but today, here in the US? Two white police officers, just killed the president portrayed as a Chimpanzee?
I know that the motherland is filled with people that think white is prettier than black. I know also that some call blacks monkeys, but I always thought I knew who they were. Racists are single minded, inbred, uneducated folks that know what happens in the world even though they've never been outside the county limit.
But now they have a friend at New York Post. God knows what idiot reads (oh, forgot, they aren't that good readers, but they can look at the pictures, right?) the cartoon and the picture sparks a something inside of him or her? What if we'll have a assassination attempt or two in the next couple of days?
A year or so a Danish newspaper got in trouble for posting cartoons of Muhammad. A large portion of the Muslim world got upset.
If the normal freedom loving people in this country have any back bone at all I hope to see a uproar against racist propaganda like this, actually not just us here in the US. I'd like to see the whole western world voice their disgust.
And by the way, the poor Chimp that totally went crazy yesterday, was stopped by a bullet. I hope this will push for legislation banning keeping apes and monkeys as pets.
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Living in The Natural State
Today it was about 48 degrees when I dropped the kids off at school and went to my school where I teach.
It's February, it's considered winter, even though the vast majority of kids never have seen enough snow to build a snowman or have a snowball fight, we have the unit winter on the program. The kids make snowmen craft and other very unfamiliar things to bring home to their parents for them to smile and be excited about but as soon as the child turns around get tossed in the trash can, and who can blame the overloaded parent, really?
Well that's one of the reasons I'd like to go live in a state where the four different seasons are present.
Here's an other reason:
As I said it was about 48 degrees this morning. Kind of cold, right, maybe you should wear a jacket or coat? Nah, not in the Natural State. Are parents just such outdoorsy villains that they think 48 is equal to 98? If you look at the way they send their kids to school you may start to wonder.
The elementary school were my son attends have the policy that they go out for recess if it's 32 or over. I can consider that a fair rule even though I think back and realize that I would never have had a recess in winter time where I grew up if the same rule had been applied there, but that's a different topic. But when it's slightly over 32 and I drop my son off in the morning dressed in a warm coat, I see other kids come out of their cars dressed in short sleeve shirts and one day I even saw a boy in shorts!!!!
Are some Arkansan moms that much friskier and hard skinned than I or are they just brain damaged?
I don't know.
Today at the school were I teach we didn't go out for recess because some thought it was too cold and some kids just had light jackets... wimps!
I who had had coffee and some candy for breakfast (just telling to show the high IQ I possess) and was on a sugar rush like never before got in to a rant about when in the world we should go out.
The window for outside play is somewhere around 55- 85 degrees, anything over or under that prevents any outdoor activity if we should go by my colleague's, who I love very much, standard...
Let's dress according to the temperature. To check, look at the thermometer and then ask yourself if it make sense to have the same outfit on when it's 95 as when it's 45.
And then, let's get outside and play!!!!
It's February, it's considered winter, even though the vast majority of kids never have seen enough snow to build a snowman or have a snowball fight, we have the unit winter on the program. The kids make snowmen craft and other very unfamiliar things to bring home to their parents for them to smile and be excited about but as soon as the child turns around get tossed in the trash can, and who can blame the overloaded parent, really?
Well that's one of the reasons I'd like to go live in a state where the four different seasons are present.
Here's an other reason:
As I said it was about 48 degrees this morning. Kind of cold, right, maybe you should wear a jacket or coat? Nah, not in the Natural State. Are parents just such outdoorsy villains that they think 48 is equal to 98? If you look at the way they send their kids to school you may start to wonder.
The elementary school were my son attends have the policy that they go out for recess if it's 32 or over. I can consider that a fair rule even though I think back and realize that I would never have had a recess in winter time where I grew up if the same rule had been applied there, but that's a different topic. But when it's slightly over 32 and I drop my son off in the morning dressed in a warm coat, I see other kids come out of their cars dressed in short sleeve shirts and one day I even saw a boy in shorts!!!!
Are some Arkansan moms that much friskier and hard skinned than I or are they just brain damaged?
I don't know.
Today at the school were I teach we didn't go out for recess because some thought it was too cold and some kids just had light jackets... wimps!
I who had had coffee and some candy for breakfast (just telling to show the high IQ I possess) and was on a sugar rush like never before got in to a rant about when in the world we should go out.
The window for outside play is somewhere around 55- 85 degrees, anything over or under that prevents any outdoor activity if we should go by my colleague's, who I love very much, standard...
Let's dress according to the temperature. To check, look at the thermometer and then ask yourself if it make sense to have the same outfit on when it's 95 as when it's 45.
And then, let's get outside and play!!!!
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
A Silly Smile On My Face
Today I met an old friend of mine on Face Book. We used the chat function for close to an hour and when I had to rush off to pick up my son from school, my five year old asked me in the car: why do you have that silly smile on your face mama?
I started to laugh.
I had just been going back in time, remembering the "good old days".
My friend was back in the days a master of sarcasm and he had kept it up pretty good I have to admit. I on the other hand, felt like I had slacked off but since I don't speak much of Swedish anymore, I guess I can blame it on lack of practice.
Anyways, I had a great time on FB with my old friend and I felt so uplifted and happy afterwards, and I don't mind having a Funny Smile on my face at all.
Thanks Andreas!
I started to laugh.
I had just been going back in time, remembering the "good old days".
My friend was back in the days a master of sarcasm and he had kept it up pretty good I have to admit. I on the other hand, felt like I had slacked off but since I don't speak much of Swedish anymore, I guess I can blame it on lack of practice.
Anyways, I had a great time on FB with my old friend and I felt so uplifted and happy afterwards, and I don't mind having a Funny Smile on my face at all.
Thanks Andreas!
How To Effect Fully Kill Any Interests In Reading Books!
My son is a first grader who is a very good reader but absolutely hates it.
This I again blame on the school.
I have over and over told the teacher that books that have no meaning or are just pointless destroy his willingness to read.
You have to understand where I come from. I’m a vivid reader, my mom read big chapter books for me at the age of two, and as soon as I learned to read myself I had a book going all the time. This is just who I am, I love to read. And more than anything I want to pass that on to my kids. But I have to tell you, the school is trying hard to kill that interest and is doing it very successfully.
Every week the class gets to read a book out loud in the classroom twice, then they bring the same book home and are supposed to read it out loud again twice to a parent and the parent sign a sheet saying the child has read it and then send it back to school the next day. Most kids have probably learned the book by heart by now and don’t have to read it at all but just recite the book to the parent, so the reading practice is kind of spoiled by now and it’s more about memorization, but anyway.
If this is a book that is funny, have a twist in the end, teach them something about some interesting fact or anything mind tickling, I’d be fine with it, but I’ll show you how they went the extra mile to find authors that try their hardest to make children despise reading.
Here’s this week’s book. I’ve compiled the 14 pages and I leave out the author’s name, because I don’t want to embarrass him/her.
Blueberry muffins
What are you making, clever Sal
What are you making, my smart gal
Blueberry muffins, momma, momma,
Blueberry muffins, momma dear
What about the sugar, clever Sal
What about the sugar, my smart gal
It came from the sugar cane, momma, momma
It came from the sugar cane, momma dear
What about the flour, clever Sal
What about the flour, my smart gal
It came from the wheat grain, momma, momma
It came from the wheat grain, momma dear
What about the eggs, clever Sal
What about the eggs, my smart gal
They came from the chicken, momma, momma
They came from the chicken, momma dear
What about the milk, clever Sal
What about the milk, my smart gal
It came from the cow, momma, momma
It came from the cow, momma dear
What about the blueberries, clever Sal
What about the blueberries, my smart gal
I picked them from the bushes, momma, momma
What about the blueberries, momma dear
Let’s eat the muffins, clever Sal
Let’s eat the muffins, my smart gal
We will eat them now, momma, momma
We will eat them now, momma dear
I can go to the Dollar Store and find a book that’s better. Actually, I myself can write a book that has more action to tickle the young reader to quickly change page to see what happens next.
So,
If you have a child that is a good reader, and you want to make sure he never ever picks up a book to read voluntary, send him or her to my son’s school and I’m sure they take care of that little problem for you.
This I again blame on the school.
I have over and over told the teacher that books that have no meaning or are just pointless destroy his willingness to read.
You have to understand where I come from. I’m a vivid reader, my mom read big chapter books for me at the age of two, and as soon as I learned to read myself I had a book going all the time. This is just who I am, I love to read. And more than anything I want to pass that on to my kids. But I have to tell you, the school is trying hard to kill that interest and is doing it very successfully.
Every week the class gets to read a book out loud in the classroom twice, then they bring the same book home and are supposed to read it out loud again twice to a parent and the parent sign a sheet saying the child has read it and then send it back to school the next day. Most kids have probably learned the book by heart by now and don’t have to read it at all but just recite the book to the parent, so the reading practice is kind of spoiled by now and it’s more about memorization, but anyway.
If this is a book that is funny, have a twist in the end, teach them something about some interesting fact or anything mind tickling, I’d be fine with it, but I’ll show you how they went the extra mile to find authors that try their hardest to make children despise reading.
Here’s this week’s book. I’ve compiled the 14 pages and I leave out the author’s name, because I don’t want to embarrass him/her.
Blueberry muffins
What are you making, clever Sal
What are you making, my smart gal
Blueberry muffins, momma, momma,
Blueberry muffins, momma dear
What about the sugar, clever Sal
What about the sugar, my smart gal
It came from the sugar cane, momma, momma
It came from the sugar cane, momma dear
What about the flour, clever Sal
What about the flour, my smart gal
It came from the wheat grain, momma, momma
It came from the wheat grain, momma dear
What about the eggs, clever Sal
What about the eggs, my smart gal
They came from the chicken, momma, momma
They came from the chicken, momma dear
What about the milk, clever Sal
What about the milk, my smart gal
It came from the cow, momma, momma
It came from the cow, momma dear
What about the blueberries, clever Sal
What about the blueberries, my smart gal
I picked them from the bushes, momma, momma
What about the blueberries, momma dear
Let’s eat the muffins, clever Sal
Let’s eat the muffins, my smart gal
We will eat them now, momma, momma
We will eat them now, momma dear
I can go to the Dollar Store and find a book that’s better. Actually, I myself can write a book that has more action to tickle the young reader to quickly change page to see what happens next.
So,
If you have a child that is a good reader, and you want to make sure he never ever picks up a book to read voluntary, send him or her to my son’s school and I’m sure they take care of that little problem for you.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)