Social Security - Tarav

It seems to me as if everything is going downhill in our country right now. Instead of problems getting better little by little, they are becoming catastrophically worse! Maybe we need to start looking to other countries for ideas? Something obviously is not working and we may need to try a different method.

As for the housing market, I think there are pros and cons to it. Obviously for those of us who have already purchased homes, it is scary. We spent x amount of dollars and now our house is worth much less! Ouch! Fortunately, though it might not be enough, there are small things we can do to increase the value so we are not at a complete lost. Being that my husband plans on buying and selling homes, I have done lots of research on how to significantly increase the value of your home without spending major bucks. I would advise everyone to do the research and really learn about the area in which you are living. What is important in a house in the area, etc. I am blessed by the fact that I live in a little "Marine Corps town" we call it. Because of that there is not a huge fear of my house not selling for a nice price or renting out. Where I am at, families always need homes. It is not a matter of moving to a cheaper city if you cannot afford it. The Marine Corps places you where they want and housing is obviously a necessity.

As for the pros of the declining housing market, I look at it like this. I was watching a day time talk show and Suzy Oreman (a financial "expert") was asked, 'Is it better to buy or rent in this economy?" Her response? "Right now, renting. And I will tell you why." She went on to explain that the housing market will not be getting better anytime soon and values will continue to decline. Therefore, if you wait you can ultimately get a house for much cheaper. It is not a positive thing for our economy to fall, but maybe more families will be able to purchase homes at much lower prices.

Anyways, those are just a few of my thoughts on the matter. I wanted to post something since we have all being extremely inactive on this blog. Not for lack of desire, summer time is a busy one for our families! Not to mention, preparing for a newborn and spending some much needed time with my husband who was deployed to Afghanistan for 7 months.

Summer

Middle child is vacationing with her family in Nebraskaa. Tarav is at the end of her pregnancy and busy with her husband just back from Afghanistan. And here toddler. And the oldest child is busy trying to catch up on everything. That leaves me and I have been very happily watching tennis tournaments and being very happy being a couch potato. And trying to learn how to use the keyboard on the iPad.

Update for our Family

Wow! We have been busy. Cassidy tried out and made an All-Star Cheer Leading Team and so far she is super excited for it. Today is the last day of school for the children before SUMMER begins! We have a big trip planned for this summer already. Our 2 yr old will begin school in a week, and I still have to come up with summer lesson plans!!!!!!!!

Like I said. BUSY, BUSY, BUSY!!!!!!!!!!!!!

With the Medicare discussion. I don't believe any voucher system will work. One: there doesn't seem to be enough honest people out there who would spend the money on health care. It will be spent on other things, leading us to have the same amount of people not covered or possibly more people not covered, because once the private insurance companies know that people with have help paying for insurance, well they are going to raise the price of coverage for all the rest of us who are already paying top dollar for coverage.

The main problem with all this and the discussions is that our political backbone of this country is not looking out for the people of this country. The are only looking out for themselves!!!!!!!!!!!!

Social Security

Wow, not content to vote to abolish Medicare, the House Republicans filed legislation to abolish Social Security.  How's that stock market thing working out for you guys?  And we won't even talk about the housing value collapse.  Better start buying tents and sleeping bags.  Oh, and first aid kits too.  Granny has to have some kind of health care and a place to stay.

And you know the Medicaid funds that the States are all trying to cut?  70 percent of the Medicaid funds go for seniors, mostly nursing home care.  Guess all the kids are going to have to start coughing up money for nursing homes or quit their jobs and stay home to take care of their parents.  What a country.

Busy busy busy!

I have not contributed much to the blog lately. Not for a lack of desire, there just has not been much time. That being said, I figured I would post an update.

I left the family and returned to my own home in California. Being home has been nice! My own house, rules, food, etc. I am so grateful for the time spent "back home" but there is nothing like returning to your own home and ways of doing things! I came home early to prepare the house for my husband and take care of other responsibilities, such as medical insurance and what not. In that time without my husband I was in the hospital once being monitored for contractions that were 2-3 minutes apart over a span of three hours! I was only 32 weeks at the time so needless to say, that was not ideal. I was given a shot to slow down the contractions and was told to go home, take it easy, and give all responsibilities to anyone around me. I am now 34 weeks, still have contractions, and still taking it easy (not so much, but hey I am trying.) I had preterm labor with my daughter as well so it is not exactly something I take lightly, but not something I am fearing.

My husband returned home from Afghanistan on May 31st so we are spending all of our time with him! It has been fabulous having him home. My daughter adjusted immediately and is having no problems giving her daddy lots of love, hugs, and kisses! Life is just better this way. While he was deployed I expressed my daughters love and obsession of the iPad. He thought it was silly and that I was spoiling her by letting her play with peoples' iPads. But lo and behold, we have made the purchase ourselves! I guess walking through the mall and having people tell him how incredible it is that his daughter knows how to operate an iPod convinced him. Spoiled? Maybe. But hey, my daughter will be advanced technologically!

Today we spent the day shopping for the house and setting up our above ground pool. My husband has been extra busy! The little one loves water so I am thrilled for it to be full so we can start having family fun outside!

Until next time!

education

It caught my attention this weekend when I was surfing the net and checking my usual news sites which include several newspapers in the U.S. and two or three in Europe and sometimes Israel that the articles in the overseas papers aren't written for seventh graders like the U.S. papers.  They actually use what my dad called ten-dollar words and even, gasp, throw in a foreign word now and then.  It vividly illustrates the effect of the dumbing down of our education system and how far we've fallen below the rest of the developed world.

 I have thought for years now that we need to get back to the basics in education for the first three years.  Diversity is great and I'm all for it but kids really need a solid basis in reading, writing and arithmetic.  It's kind of like building a house:  If the foundation isn't solid it doesn't matter what kind of bells and whistles you add because it won't be a stable house.  Reading especially is a basic necessity.  When you can read, you have the world at your fingertips.  And writing develops critical thinking and the ability to organize your thoughts to effectively communicate.

And the other thing I think would help is expecting the most from our kids.  Kids tend to live up or down to expectations.  If you expect them to bring home A's, they will.  If you just expect them to go to school, that's what they'll do most of the time.  Each child is different but expect the best that each child is capable of and teach them to expect the best of themselves.

Monday morning

My older daughter, with whom I live, is back to work this morning after a couple of weeks off so until my two granddaughters get here from school today I'm on my own.  Just a couple more days and they're off for the summer.  So glad we got the above-ground pool.  They are really enjoying it.

I spent a lot of the last couple of weeks watching tennis at the French Open.  There were some fantastic matches and that's always one of my favorite tournaments.  To win that tournament a player has to be in top shape.  It was great to see Federer give Nadal a terrific at the old age of 29.  That has always been a terrific rivalry.  And then to see a Chinese woman win  the ladies' side at the age of 29, a first for a Chinese, really special for the people in Asia.  Tennis has never been a top sport in that part of the world but Li  Na's play at the French Open got lots of attention all over Asia but especially in China so maybe more children with start playing.

And now we move on to England and the grass court tennis season.  Wimbledon in a couple of weeks.  I am a very happy couch potato.

Medicare

I have been really interested in the Medicare conversation.  All the Republicans, except four, in the House voted to replace Medicare with a voucher system and now they are squealing because there is an uproar about it.  Listen, the definition of Medicare is a single-payer, government health care program for seniors.  That is the definition of it.  When you replace it with a voucher and tell people to go buy their own private insurance if they can get it you have voted to abolish Medicare.  I don't care how much lipstick you put on that pig, it's still a pig. But it's been entertaining to say the least to listen to them trying to convince people that throwing granny under the bus is a good idea.

update

I just got my computer back from HP.  It had some problems and they sent a box via Fed Ex to ship it to them, we did, they fixed it and sent it right back.  Took about a week total and no charge at all.  Now that is customer service I can believe in.  And my family knows how much I love my computer.  It's an HP TouchSmart and it has the screen that swivels around and folds down so it can be used like a tablet or a regular notebook and with the touch screen.  So I am back to scooting around the internet and having fun.