Sunday, September 27, 2009

I Love Fall!


I love fall... the changing leaves... the cooler weather... the falling leaves... high school football games... fires in our fire pit wrapped up in a blanket... apple cider... picking apples... collecting leaves and pressing them between waxed paper... corn mazes... hay... pumpkins... Indian Corn... making chili... making Halloween costumes... baking apple pies... the smell in the air: leaves, bonfires, crisp and cool... decorating and the pretty colors... Definitely my favorite season!

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Cranky Day

I am having a totally cranky day today. I don't have them very often so when I do it's like everything anyone says or does pisses me off. At work I end up yelling at Ellen because she is right there next to me and at home I end up yelling at John and Samantha because they are right there as well.

One of the things pissing me off is that on Saturday we signed Samantha up for band and purchased her flute. The sales rep at the school told us we couldn't bring Samantha's flute home until band stars in two weeks. I was really mad because I wanted to play her flute. Plus other sales reps let their people take their instruments home so because we got this specific rep we were told no. I know, I know... this is the dumbest thing in the whole world to be mad at but I am still mad none the less...

Then there are the people in the pine trees... Several residents have contacted John and myself to see if the HOA can help them with an issue they are having with people hiding in the pine trees across the road from them, shining laser lights and running through their yard at night. This is pissing me off because it has been going on for over a year and we have just found out about it. The pissing me off part is these people have been dealing with it for so long and it has them scared about their safety and by the time they have come to us they are at their most frustrated. Stupid tree people. John and I found a little camp they have in the pine trees. Why would someone want to hang out in s grove of pine trees and shine laser lights in peoples windows at 4am for over a year. What is wrong with people.

But, tomorrow is another day and this too shall pass...

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

My 14th Wedding Anniversary...

...and the beautiful roses that greeted me when I got to work this morning!

Friday, September 4, 2009

Obama's Speech to Students...

I swore when I started this Blog that I wouldn't get all into political issues or the like but I can't resist this one...

When I first heard about the speech I had a few thoughts... including: wow, this has a socialist feel to it and this is something you'd see overseas and not in the USA... all along I have thought that we will soon be the USSR and that there is something scary about our President... I get the feeling that he sees things as "his way or the highway" and that freaks me out...

I don't have a problem with Samantha hearing many different views on things because eveyone is entitled to their opinion... she should learn all sorts of points of view so she can form her own... and as parents John and I discuss what she learns with her...

I don't have a problem with a president giving a speech to school children on education, Republican or Democrat, but I do have a big problem with this President giving a speech to school children on education...

Here is an article I liked below...

Obama speech to students draws conservative ire
By LIBBY QUAID and LINDA STEWART BALL (AP) – 19 hours ago
DALLAS — President Barack Obama's back-to-school address next week was supposed to be a feel-good story for an administration battered over its health care agenda. Now Republican critics are calling it an effort to foist a political agenda on children, creating yet another confrontation with the White House.
Obama plans to speak directly to students Tuesday about the need to work hard and stay in school. His address will be shown live on the White House Web site and on C-SPAN at noon EDT, a time when classrooms across the country will be able to tune in.
Schools don't have to show it. But districts across the country have been inundated with phone calls from parents and are struggling to address the controversy that broke out after Education Secretary Arne Duncan sent a letter to principals urging schools to watch.
Districts in states including Texas, Illinois, Minnesota, Missouri, Virginia, Wisconsin have decided not to show the speech to students. Others are still thinking it over or are letting parents have their kids opt out.
Some conservatives, driven by radio pundits and bloggers, are urging schools and parents to boycott the address. They say Obama is using the opportunity to promote a political agenda and is overstepping the boundaries of federal involvement in schools.
"As far as I am concerned, this is not civics education — it gives the appearance of creating a cult of personality," said Oklahoma state Sen. Steve Russell. "This is something you'd expect to see in North Korea or in Saddam Hussein's Iraq."
Arizona state schools superintendent Tom Horne, a Republican, said lesson plans for teachers created by Obama's Education Department "call for a worshipful rather than critical approach."
The White House plans to release the speech online Monday so parents can read it. He will deliver the speech at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Va.
"I think it's really unfortunate that politics has been brought into this," White House deputy policy director Heather Higginbottom said in an interview with The Associated Press.
"It's simply a plea to students to really take their learning seriously. Find out what they're good at. Set goals. And take the school year seriously."
She noted that President George H.W. Bush made a similar address to schools in 1991. Like Obama, Bush drew criticism, with Democrats accusing the Republican president of making the event into a campaign commercial.
Critics are particularly upset about lesson plans the administration created to accompany the speech. The lesson plans, available online, originally recommended having students "write letters to themselves about what they can do to help the president."
The White House revised the plans Wednesday to say students could "write letters to themselves about how they can achieve their short-term and long-term education goals."
"That was inartfully worded, and we corrected it," Higginbottom said.
In the Dallas suburb of Plano, Texas, the 54,000-student school district is not showing the 15- to 20-minute address but will make the video available later.
PTA council president Cara Mendelsohn said Obama is "cutting out the parent" by speaking to kids during school hours.
"Why can't a parent be watching this with their kid in the evening?" Mendelsohn said. "Because that's what makes a powerful statement, when a parent is sitting there saying, 'This is what I dream for you. This is what I want you to achieve.'"
Texas Gov. Rick Perry, a Republican, said in an interview with the AP that he's "certainly not going to advise anybody not to send their kids to school that day."
"Hearing the president speak is always a memorable moment," he said.
But he also said he understood where the criticism was coming from.
"Nobody seems to know what he's going to be talking about," Perry said. "Why didn't he spend more time talking to the local districts and superintendents, at least give them a heads-up about it?"
Several other Texas districts have decided not to show the speech, although the district in Houston is leaving the decision up to individual school principals. In suburban Houston, the Cypress-Fairbanks district planned to show the address and has had its social studies teachers assemble a curriculum and activities for students.
"If someone objected, we would not force them to listen to the speech," spokeswoman Kelli Durham said.
In Wisconsin, the Green Bay school district decided not to show the speech live and to let teachers decide individually whether to show it later.
In Florida, GOP chairman Jim Greer released a statement that he was "absolutely appalled that taxpayer dollars are being used to spread President Obama's socialist ideology."
Despite his rhetoric, two of the larger Florida districts, Miami-Dade and Hillsborough, plan to have classes watch the speech. Students whose parents object will not have to watch.
"We're extending the same courtesy to the president as we do with any elected official that wants to enter our schools," said Linda Cobbe, a Hillsborough schools spokeswoman. Cobbe said the district, which includes Tampa, has gotten calls from upset parents but said officials don't think the White House is trying to force politics on kids.
The Minnesota Association of School Administrators is recommending against disrupting the first day of school to show the speech, but Minnesota's biggest teachers' union is urging schools to show it.
Quincy, Ill., schools decided Thursday not to show the speech. Superintendent Lonny Lemon said phone calls "hit like a load of bricks" on Wednesday.
One Idaho school superintendent, Murray Dalgleish of Council, urged people not to rush to judgment.
"Is the president dictating to these kids? I don't think so," Dalgleish said. "He's trying to get out the same message we're trying to get out, which is, `You are in charge of your education.'"
Libby Quaid reported from Washington. Associated Press Writers April Castro, Monica Rhor, Zinie Chen Sampson, Christine Armario, Jessie Bonner, Scott Bauer, Tim Talley, Martiga Lohn, Tammy Webber and Alan Zagier contributed to this report.
Wow, can you believe it is September already. I have been so involved tending my farm in Farmville on Face Book that I have neglected my blog and all my Blog Friends... So very sorry...

This summer was so fast but really great. John and I planned our Homeowners' Association Block Party and it exceeded our expectations! There were about 400 people there which was awesome... We had food: hot dogs and hamburgers, games for the kids, a bounce house for the kids, face painting, fire trucks, police cars, McGruff the Crime Dog and a Corn Hole Tournament with trophies... It was a huge amount of work planning and executing everything but I love doing that sort of thing. I would love to be a party planner or something like that but the whole working weekends and evenings when people have events is really not appealing at all... I am thrilled to have met so many awesome people in our neighborhood since we've been on the HOA Board and we are already planning for next summer.

Samantha is loving 5th grade. I can't believe how big she is... grown up, not size wise... We couldn't ask for a better kid! This year Samantha has 3 teachers as opposed to last year where she only had 2... All three seem to be a good fit for her. And, I have to say, I love love love our schools... every year we have been so blessed to have really amazing teachers and really good kids in each of Samantha's classes... She has never had any "bad" kids in her classes... the worst a kid gets in trouble for is talking in class... that's great...

I will try very hard to write more... I do so enjoy it...