The Price

I know the economy has taken over this election, but don’t forget that we are a nation at war, fighting not only to protect our freedom but to liberate and equip the Iraqi people. Listen to the perspective of a veteran who’s been there, and make sure to watch til the end.

New company policy

Notice to all employees..

As of November 5, 2008, when President Obama is officially elected into office, our company will instill a few new policies which are in keeping with his new, inspiring issues of change and fairness:

1.     All salespeople will be pooling their sales and bonuses into a common pool that will be divided equally between all of you.  This will serve to give those of you who are under-achieving a “fair shake”.

2.     All low level workers will be pooling their wages, including overtime, into a common pool, dividing it equally amongst you..  This will help those who are “too busy for overtime” to reap the rewards from those who have more spare time and can work extra hours.

3.     All top management will now be referred to as “the government.” We will not participate in this “pooling” experience because the law doesn’t apply to us.

4.     The “government” will give eloquent speeches to all employees every week, encouraging its workers to continue to work hard “for the good of all”.

5.     The employees will be thrilled with these new policies because it’s “good to spread the wealth around”.  Those of you who have underachieved will finally get an opportunity; those of you who have worked hard and had success will feel more “patriotic”.

6.  The last few people who were hired should clean out their desks.  Don’t feel bad, though, because President Obama will give you free healthcare, free handouts, free oil for heating your home, free food stamps, and he’ll let you stay in your home for as long as you want even if you can’t pay your mortgage.  If you appeal directly to our democratic congress, you might even get a free flat screen TV and a coupon for free haircuts (shouldn’t all Americans be entitled to nice looking hair?)!!!

If for any reason you are not happy with the new policies, you may want to rethink your vote on November 4th.

Redistribute the wealth!

I got this email recently and since everyone is so sensitive about me trying to “brainwash” them about the evils of Barack Obama, my blog will see a lot more forwards in the days to come:

In a local restaurant my server had on a ‘Obama 08′ neck tie. I laughed
as he had given away his political preference–just imagine the
coincidence.

When the bill came I decided not to tip the server and explained to him
that I was exploring the Obama Redistribution of Wealth Concept. He
stood there in disbelief while I told him that I was going to
redistribute his tip to someone whom I deemed more in need–the
homeless guy outside. The server angrily stormed from my sight.

I went outside, gave the homeless guy $10 and told him to thank the
server inside, as I’d decided he could use the money more. The homeless
guy was grateful.

At the end of my rather unscientific Socialistic Redistribution
experiment, I realized the homeless guy was grateful for the money he
did not earn, but the waiter was pretty angry that I gave away the
money that he did earn, even though the actual recipient needed the
money more.

I guess this Redistribution of Wealth is an easier thing to swallow in
concept than in practical application.

Cartoon… but not funny.

Photographic evidence

If this doesn’t convince you to vaccinate your child, I don’t know what will!

Case in point.

So this has been a long and tiring week. I have been stressed to the max because I am going to NYC for work tomorrow thru Sunday. I thought I would have Monday and Tuesday to get everything ready at the office, home and to get myself ready as well. No such luck. Aubrey has been sick, vomiting and with an ear infection since Sunday night. I have zero sick leave left but Ryan is working double shifts these two days so he can take her to and from daycare when I am gone. So I have missed two days of work, unpaid because she has been sick.

Normally this would not piss me off. I mean kids get sick, right? Except that this could have been totally avoided if certain parents cared as much about other kids’ health as they do their own. I took Aubrey to a birthday party on Saturday, and that is where she caught the stomach virus. Come to find out that one of the mom’s there adheres to the “no vaccinations, no medicine” policy of parenting. Like I have said before, to each his own. Only, I must have left out the part that says HEY IDIOT IF YOUR KID IS SICK AND YOU REFUSE TO MEDICATE THEM FOR “HEALTHY LIVING” REASONS DON’T BRING THEM TO A BIRTHDAY PARTY WITH 10 OTHER INNOCENT CHILDREN YOU FREAKING HIPPIE MORON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

GRR. I am so mad. Do what you want in your own house when it comes to your kids’ health but leave mine out of it. I have been puked on over ten times in the last 48 hours. I have missed 2 days of pay. Aubrey has felt like crap and has lost over half a pound because she can’t keep anything down (and the kid is underweight as it is). I finally had to go get her a shot today bc she kept throwing up the medicine. I have spent $60 on medicine and doctor visits. I haven’t slept in two days and neither has she. And now, tomorrow I have to leave town for 4 days and she won’t know what’s going on.

For the love of God, people, protect your kids against disease and if they are sick give them medicine and oh yeah, keep them away from my kid!

So pissed.

I think I’ll take the stairs…

The building I work in used to be an orphanage owned by nuns. Now it is the headquarters for a church organization and I work here as a secretary. For the past few months I have noticed a strange phenomenon. I know this will make me sound crazy, but I am convinced the elevator is haunted. Not by anything bad, but I swear everytime I step into that thing, I see out of the corner of my right eye a very tall shadowy man standing there. When I turn my head to look, its gone. I was pondering this earlier today because I finally mentioned it to a co-worker. She told me that other co-workers have seen strange things as well. It isn’t something I want to delve into but it doesn’t really freak me out.

Since I work for a religious organization with a lot of Godly people, I am sure that if it was something evil, they would have gotten rid of it by now. It doesn’t bother me but it’s a little unnerving. And given my past with the dark side of the paranormal (something I never talk about and never will, I have not even shared that with Ryan), it isn’t something I relish. Maybe I should give him a name, make it more funny.

So, I don’t have time or patience to go to the gym. Maybe this is God’s way of telling me to at least take the stairs.

Time for a new routine

There are a few new things going on at the Parker home. The first is that we bought our tickets to go to Chile for Christmas this year. I am really excited for Ryan to meet all of my family down there and for us to go visit a part of my old life. I am also excited that my family will get to meet Aubrey. We wanted to go before she turned 2 so she could fly for free, so this was the ideal time to do so. That being said, those airline tickets wiped us out with the savings account. We weren’t too worried about it, but with the current state of things in America, I have to say that it makes me nervous not to have any backup. So we are going back over the budget, hunkering down and building that puppy back up! Good thing I bought my iphone before all of these banks started failing! So its back to simplifying my life, which will be good for me. I started working to help our family get to a place where I could stay home with the kid without jeaopardizing our livelihood, and have instead gotten caught up in all of my material tendencies. This buckling down will be for the greater good of our family. I might be annoyed that I can’t buy a certain thing right away, but in the long run it will enable me to live my dream (SAHM) and create a more stable environment for our children (because when we do reach our goals, I am having another kid).

So that’s that. The other thing that I need your help with, Internet, is that Aubrey needs a new bedtime routine. I took her for her 15 month check-up yesterday and she checked out fine. Tiny, but fine. I can’t believe she only weighs 17 pounds. I promise, I feed her, and when I try and overfeed her, she reminds me that this is a bad idea by throwing up all over me. Her doctor said I could try giving her PediaSure and it might help her start gaining. She was getting so fat before she started crawling and now that she can walk, she won’t sit still. I am sure she burns a ton of calories all day long. But she is doing everything she should be, developmentally. Then I was told that it was time to take her off her bottle.

GREAT. The bottle, filled with whole milk, is the only way Aubrey will fall asleep at night. We have a routine. Bath, Teeth brushing, Bottle, Bed. Not that she ever stays asleep for the entire night but the sucking motion makes her sleepy and her eyes start drooping and at the end of that 8 ounces, I can lay her down with relatively low levels of whimpering before she decides to give me about 4 hours of uninterrupted chore/sleeptime. So when the doctor said that this bottle business, it needs to stop, I wanted to invite her over to try putting my kid to bed everynight by merely laying her in her crib. I would have even offered to throw in some ear plugs.

New routines. For someone who hates change as much as I do, I am really not looking forward to the next couple weeks/months. I know in the end our savings account will be a nice cushiony nest again, I might be able to entertain the idea of more children, and Aubrey will go to bed at night without a bottle and perhaps even sleep all night.

So I need help! What is your bedtime routine with your toddler and how do you get them to go to sleep on their own? Please please please, comment away!