First Day of School 2009

yeah so he went to the same school half of the summer and thanks to my unemployment, his last day was this same week...but we had to start the first day of school picture tradition somewhere... I have to admit, I do love having him at home - most days. I just wish the school had room in the 3 hour per day program for him, that would have been ideal. But we're keeping busy with fun stuff and he's hopefully learning a bit from it too.

A Summer Visitor

I have been neglecting my blog and have tons of pictures to upload again...going back to August when this little critter decided our porch rail was the perfect place for a little summertime R&R...

Later...new location on railing...maybe he's hoping I'll bring him out a cool cocktail with a tiny beach umbrella in it?

Got an itch...

...and, back to relaxing...he'd better watch out for our other frequent visitor that would like to have him for lunch.

Gordonism Time

At a restaurant Gordon saw a USA flag and commented on it, we asked him about the colors and such, then Shannon asked what kind of flag it was - Gordon replied without hesitation "an Emergency Obama Flag!!" We had a great laugh and it was too cute to correct.

My Little Laundry Room Redo

I've spent the past two days peeling the ugly old wallpaper border off (put up by previous owners), cleaning & painting this one little room. This has been the hardest room in this house that I've painted. It was well worth it though, I wish I had a "before" picture to show, but take my word for it, it was NOT pretty or organized. The only thing I purchased for this redo was a can of white paint, some green spray paint, a green rug, and 4 green mesh bins. The bins were on sale for $2 each at Home Depot, the rug was $9 at TJ Maxx. There are also 3 wood bins that I spray painted green, they are on the shelf to the left, you can only see 2 of them because of the angle of the picture. The mop, duster, & broom are hanging on an organizer on the wall behind the door, along with the fire extinguisher, flash light, and fuse box. So that is the whole tour of my little bitty laundry room. It may be tiny, but I'm in love with it now that it is clean and bright and organized!

Governments Should Not Manage Healthcare Decisions

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/health/Swine_flu/article6739176.ece#cid=OTC-RSS&attr=797084

This story is just a little example of why I don't like the idea of the current health care reform proposal. Yes there is responsibility on the behalf of the caller/the mother, and the telephone daignosis maker - the fact that there is such a diagnosis offered on the phone bothers me - it smacks of budget containment. Then there is a commenter's note that the general practicioners are having problems seeing patients because they haven't received the proper protective gear - you know those rare and expensive pieces of equipment called masks...and gloves...

I have many reasons for not wanting to see this legislation pass, this is only one.

Governments are inefficient, power wielding and power seeking, often misguided and manipulated by other interests that have nothing to do with caring for its citizens, its voters, its creators. And most often, governments are attempting to cut costs - which considering the spending spree our government has been on the past 6 months, doesn't necessarily sound like a bad thing, but oh how it is truly a very bad thing.

Government agencies reduce budgets for reasons that often are not attempts to be fiscally responsible, but that usually have more to do with current power holders being able to report that they contained costs, or managed growth, or whatever other way they come up with mincing the words which boils down to THEY choose who and what and when to provide care for, and I pray that those decisions are always made by my doctor and myself, as long as my health care choices are not harming others, I believe the government, the budget makers and spenders, have no business in my health business.

Yes, insurance can deny payment, make you jump through hoops (called preauthorizations) and cause massive frustrations and even make totally ethically wrong policies, but I will always choose this current mess over the proposed fiasco, always.

Our health care system needs changes...perhaps just like so many issues like gun control and drug trafficking, maybe they need to look at a the laws and oversights already in place that could be better enforced and more efficient. I'm not an expert, I don't want to be, and I'm well aware there are many problems and mistakes made in our current system - those will never go away though - we're talking about humans, and medicine, neither of which is 100% consistent and predictable and manageable.

When something does go wrong, and there truly is someone who was negligent or unethical that is responsible, do you think a lawsuit or criminal charges filed against someone in our current system will obtain greater results and changes for improvements, or perhaps a lawsuit or charges against our government run health care system will be more effective....I think not. We've got such a long history of government run fiascoes - why would we hand health care over too? I've been told our military have some of the finest health care providers...they've also had some of the worst failures due to budget arguments and oversights.

If this does pass, I wonder where the foreigners who come here for great health care will go.