Things I am annoyed with lately

I have been annoyed a lot lately and thought to myself I need a place to vent. Here goes...

1. The presidential election! The irony of BOTH VP selections....

McCain criticizes Obama for his lack of experience... um please let me introduce you to Sarah Palin. She was mayor of a small town, then is serving her firs term as governor for the state of Alaska. Not quite the resume of experience herself. Obama criticizes McCain for serving so long the the senate and being a career politician... Obama have you met your running mate Joe Biden? He has been in the senate almost 10 years longer than McCain. I do smile at this quote Biden Said Obama Is Not Ready To Serve As President. ABC's George Stephanopoulos: "You were asked is he ready. You said 'I think he can be ready, but right now I don't believe he is. The presidency is not something that lends itself to on-the-job training.'" Sen. Biden: "I think that I stand by the statement." (ABC's, "This Week," 8/19/07).

2. The Democratic National Convention. Seriously lets tell the people that we are the "party of the poor" and then have practically all of Hollywood there dumping all their hard earned cash to get the most liberal man elected. I especially was annoyed with Obama's acceptance speech. I honestly tried to listen with an open mind to his words. I even agreed with some of his ideas but to be frank the things we can agree upon are first not his ideas, and secondly are nothing new. Speaking about education in America and finally stating that parental responsibility plays a big part drew large cheers from the crowd. People this isn't a new idea. Parents you are the ones who decided to produce these children and guess what? It isn't the government's responsibility to provide everything for them. Every time I hear Obama speak it is as though Karl Marx is doing a graveyard jig of joy.

My love affair with politics is facing some rocky times, I am so dissatisfied with the two choices for president. Really America, this is the best we have to offer? Something is terribly wrong here.


3. People who are rude. It seems that I have run into a lot of rude people lately. I understand that we have free speech in our country but seriously does that mean we always have to be talking. Sometimes I think people just talk to hear themselves talk. The want like to puff themselves up. Look at how big and bad I am. I met rude people at my kids school, rude people at church (yep church), and I even the lady who was filling my kids prescription was pretty rude. Hey lady, the only reason I asked how long it was going to be was to decide if I wanted to wait there in the store with my 3 kids or come back later. Sorry next time I will just let my kids run around crazy, knocking things off the shelf and leave them for you to pick up!


4. Change (I hate using this buzz word, Thanks Obama). I don't do change well... and there is a lot of change coming my way, kids starting school, new responsibilities, and best friends moving. I know people say that change is good, and I can too recognize that change has been good for me. Even with all the changes coming to my life I know it will work itself out but it is still hard to adjust to change.

O.K. I think that is enough venting for now. I could be up on a soap box forever venting my frustrations but I need to off this annoyed kick and embrace a more positive emotion.

Following the Crowd

Since everyone is doing it we too will follow the crowd and post about starting school this week. Vai is off to the big Kindergarten and Girly is in preschool. Both kids didn’t even look back once they entered their classroom and the baby acted like he should be staying as well. But seriously my kids are the cutest in their class!

Out of Control

I have been struggling with something for the past week and I thought it might be interesting to get some feedback from the 8 of you out there who read this blog. Last month we called the satellite company and asked them to suspend our service. Yep that is right NO MORE TV! Why you ask? Simple, our 6 year old son and television don't mix. Well actually they do mix and quite well for that matter but when it comes to TV our son has a love/hate relationship. He LOVES the television and HATES anyone or anything that comes between him and the TV. I considered myself to be a pretty good mother when it came to monitoring the television. It was not on all day. Only certain times; when I was cooking a meal, or had a project for work that needed to get done was he allowed to watch. We also used it as a reward when he would do his chores. However after constantly fighting with him over the TV, I was done. My son is a TV addict. He wanted to watch it every moment of the day, he would hide the remotes from me and secretly go and watch if I was somewhere else in the house. He would even try and stick his head of of the bathroom while he was taking care of business so he could still see the TV. I can't tell you how many times I found him lying in the doorway of the bathroom looking at the TV with his bare bottom in the air! The worst was the tantrums he would throw when we made him turn it off. So we decided no more.

However this decision was made in haste. Not only did we prevent him from watching the TV we also cut ourselves off! I turned off the TV right before the Olympics (for me) and fall football (for Tata). I tried to watch the Olympics online for a couple of days. Isn't it frustrating to watch a sporting event when you already know what happened? Do you know how many races I missed of Phelps? I saw Gymnastics online but the video kept pausing. So frustrating. What do we do cave in and get the TV back on? Do we just have it on for the Olympics? Then what happens when fall football comes on? I am sure then we will need it on in the winter for something else. I know as adults we can live without the TV. In fact it has been very nice not to have it on. I've talked to my hubby a lot more and we have been creative in finding other things to do.

For anyone who knows me they know what a big fan I am of the Olympics. I have to watch every event I can. I love to hear the stories of triumph and the celebration of the Olympic spirit. I can recite the creed which is; "The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win but to take part, just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle. The essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well." Do I follow this creed and deal with my struggle of missing the Olympics all for the sacrifice of the well being of my son?

*We couldn't take it anymore and got rabbit ears for our bedroom TV, we just get the local stations (which are showing the Olympics) but thankfully the kids don't know yet. To them the TV is still broken!

Dance, dance, dance, dance, dancing machine

Thursday was our 9th wedding anniversary. The theme for the gift this year was leather, so we strapped on our leather soled shoes and headed down to an all day dance workshop. Now my hubby has rhythm. Many of you have seen him perform countless times. That boy can move and he looks amazing! I may not have the performance skills he does but I have musical talent, can easily find the beat, and pick up most dance moves pretty quickly. However, we have a hard time coordinating ourselves on the dance floor whenever we dance together. So yesterday we took a "Summer Dance Party" dance workshop. We had 6 hours of Salsa, Fox Trot, and Swing. What a blast! What could be better a day spent with my hubby without my children and awesome dancing? (Now don't get me wrong, I love being with our children but seriously how often do we get to spend an extended period of time with our spouse without the children?) We decided we are going to become wedding crashers so we can practice our moves. People watch out, we have had professional training and are looking to dance anywhere! Seriously, I would recommend a couples dance class for anyone. It was amazing, a great anniversary gift!

Happy Birthday Vai! (on August 1st)

This post is late because we are still recovering from Vai's big birthday blow out bash. 65 people were on hand to help Vai celebrate his 6th birthday ! (We threw celebration for Tata's citizenship as a side note!) I couldn't believe how many people were there but when we started doing guest list we couldn't leave anyone out. This is when I acknowledged one of my son's gifts; he is a great friend. He will make friends with anyone and everyone. I hardly ever see him exclude anyone when playing with friends. Vai loves people, he is extremely social and likes to be with his friends. This also includes his siblings. He is a great older brother. Especially to his younger brother. I often see Vai trying to console him when he is upset. I remember one day when the baby had gotten hurt and Vai beat me to him was sitting there giving him a hug and telling him that it was going to be o.k. We have given Vai several nicknames, the "BIG TALKER" is one because he loves to tell stories. He would fill your head with stories all day and night if he could. We laugh at the fact that he is usually the first one up and as he walks into our room early in the morning, ribbing the sleep out of his eyes, the mouth is already going. He likes to reason and debate with people. For this reason Tata calls him the "Bush Lawyer"! I am sure it has something to do with the fact that I tease Tata about being from the bush, so he said that his son is now a bush lawyer. It is rare that Vai won't try to reason with you when you ask him to do something that he doesn't want to do. Often he will try to make deals so that he can do as little as possible then either we will do the rest or he will come up with something that he thinks is easier. He is mastering the art of negotiation. He has a great laugh and a great smile. Sometime a sneaky devilish smile but we love it. Vai is getting to be a very tall boy. He is only 6 and comes up to my armpit two more years and he will be taller than me! Then I am in trouble. I am excited to see him start school this year and all the new thing he will experience. He is a great leader and was so helpful in his preschool class last year. I know he will be the same way when he starts school in a couple of weeks. I am excited to see all the new changes and things he will experience. Thank you for being in our family Vai!

Still partying it up the morning after!