Decision Day

Well Decision Day came and went yesterday in the city I work in. Several cast their votes. In a city of roughly 160,851 registered voters, 49,730 spoke.  So a 30.9% turnout (not even half) of the registered voters determined the fate of the city and millions of dollars. Many will say- that's how the system works. Those who care get involved, those who don't- don't. The biggest problem- I saw, was as a primary for city council, the mayor, and a referendum. So many talked about confusion on what they were voting on. How many of those voted for something they had no idea they were voting on? How many didn't vote because they were sick of the whole thing? Either way a $50 million project hung in the balance, something teams of people have spent years (YEARS) working on.

A little misinformation goes a long way! Cries of fix what we have because it can be became the ultimate cry. But take for a moment the idea of a sinkhole home in your neighborhood. Would you sit by for years while the homeowner decided what they wanted to do? You wouldn't really have a choice, after all it is THEIR property. It's THEIR money. I mean after all unless you are willing to pay for a company to come over and do the work what else can you do? Sure you can report it, but then what? A crew comes out from the state and declares the whole neighborhood unstable. Did you know that?  After all you were trying to look out for your neighbor in the hopes it wouldn't spread, but now its too late. Years went by and the situation kept getting worse.
Often people think they know what's best, they read the newspaper, listen the news, and of course the government is always out to waste money. The idea of "refurbishing" has cracked me up to no end. The city has spent HUNDREDS of THOUSANDS of dollars every year doing just that- repairing- refurbishing a deteriorating pier. You don't think part of that money was hiring someone to prevent spending money if they could. To research what options there were? At some point you have to know when a home can't be fixed... you move on. Before it swallows an entire neighborhood!

Everyone points to a COUPLE of caissons and touts their strength. For the next 20 years or so.... my son is 17, I have been here for 12 years... I am amazed what has changed in that time. 20 years from now is ALOT to gamble on... and then, there won't be funds to "fix" what's failing then...

Going back to the home... part of the home-buyers crisis that most don't talk about was the buy the most you could afford (talked about) BUT then came repairs... if you were already tapped out month to month how do you put on a new roof? How do you fix the garage door? Replace appliances? Fix leaky pipes? GOD forbid you had a pool and that started acting up! You see where I am going...

So yes, things cost money. And while people are always quick to remind government that its "their" money being spent so they should have a say on every last penny, its true, and you do. You elect people that represent you. They make those decisions. Not liking the decisions they make, sometimes stinks. But halting those decisions has enormous long-term effects.
While I don't agree with every decision ever made in government, I understand the process.
I also understand that by thwarting the process you can do more harm than good... the "decision" may have been made yesterday, but what it did was leave the city with the last 8 years of planning and hard work by many, needing to start over. THAT was a process! But then again... it is just another day in Life in blogging

They do grow up

There was a time in my life when I really thought I would be changing diapers (not that Rich didn't) and chasing little ones forever. Erik was 5 when Elizabeth was born, he turned 6, Amanda turned 8 (yes, for those that follow, on the same day) shortly after. Having a newborn was interesting to say the least, Amanda had a "girl" she would one day play dress-up with, Erik had a "sister" he would forever have to protect while at the same time have to convince playing on the "dark side" in boy land is way more fun.  While any one who knows us, knows neither of my girls really grew up being girls... That "dark side" just had cooler toys I guess. Besides nerf gun wars are way more fun then pairing up Barbie shoes any day of the week... Yes, I did say shoes... And while both girls went through phases of loving certain dresses (I still have Elizabeth's blue dress & her "Nana" dress) in the end the dirt always won. Can I say I'm surprised? Heck no! Call it upbringing, call it genetics, or call it the opportunities they were presented. Softball started for Amanda when she was 9 (you see where this is going) and keeping our soon to be dubbed "Lizard" off the field became the biggest task. Explaining to a 4 year that she couldn't play fall ball after she broke he arm was probably one of the toughest (or so I thought). Arm in cast she would smack her arm and announce how she could still run, and it was "fine" she could play. Oh how she was miserable. With her latest injury the mere thought that she might miss a single pitch has her trying to make a come back a week too early. Stubborn, hmm yeah... I would say I have no clue where she gets that, but my mother would quickly chime in with plenty of examples including one of a track meet where I slipped and fell at the beginning of the meet in the High Jump (mind you I hadn't quite yet made my 5'5" tall stance yet) tore open my shin only to have it bandaged and finished competing the rest of the day. I have a few medals I still actually have from that event. I was no super track star, but that day... I was, and I have the medals from each event to say so! 

So am I surprised that my kids have grown up to resemble me in some manner, no not really. Am I surprised that against the odds my kids push through and figure it out, no, I'm just proud. They will continue to grow, and well I guess I'll continue to blog and brag, cause after all.... That's Life in Blogging! ;)

Amazed by people

Often people tell me they are shocked by how people treat them, then they proceed to tell me the situation. In the end, I'm not. Sad but true, most behavior is self serving and impersonal. The what have you done for me lately? Sort of thing... If you don't serve a great purpose often people toss you aside or lower you on their list of priorities. Fair? Maybe, right? Usually not. Often the people that are in the most need of human interaction, support, love, encouragement, understanding, and a moment of someone's time are often the ones tossed aside for the "stars". So what happens? That person who was already low falls lower, already feeling alone sinks a little lower, withdraws a little deeper. Someone coming to mind already? Maybe instead of focusing on just the people that make you look the greatest, do the most for you, or seem the brightest, search out the people in your life that you talk to on occasion. Find out what drives them, encourage them, get behind them, help them fly! See what happens... Then see what happens next time you see them, you may be surprised!

She wore what?

Recently as part of our move my husband and I encouraged our kids to go through their clothes and rid themselves of anything that doesn't fit, they don't wear, or the just don't like. We also encouraged them to get rid of clothes that no matter how much they loved, if it had tears, rips, and holes- it needed to go to...

That said we decided that we would be an example. We were moving! Did we really want to carry all our clothes to the new house? We work 5 days a week, we are home 2. Even if we rush home and change out of work clothes every day... how many tee-shirts do you possibly need? 205... WRONG ANSWER! Yeah, it was clear that there was some thinning that needed to be done and it wasn't our hair we were thinking...
We found a shirt from when Lizzy was a baby and I "finger painted" their three hands on the shirt for Father's Day. Keep. We found shirts from YEARS of baseball, softball, and football where they guilt you into buying so you can sit and cheer your child on, learn to hate the coach and other parents, and in some cases some of the kids... TOSS! (HATE is a nasty word, maybe I should say learn to not tolerate). Then their were the volunteer shirts... WOW what haven't we done... Whales, we haven't saved the whales... I think there's a fat joke lurking that we really didn't want to step in so we backed away from that cause and figured they could find some skinny person willing to risk being eaten. While its great to volunteer for ah... everything, some shirt designs... ah wow! TOSS some, Keep Some! Benefit walks... now I don't know about you, but when you EARN and I mean EARN a shirt by walking/running whatever the distant and end up with blisters or that great rash - you know where... I don't know about you but that shirt becomes more than just something to collect your sweat, its almost like a badge of honor... KEEP! Long live the BOOBIES, DIABETES, HEART, AND MS PEEPS!

So after tee-shirts came all our other cloths- that was easy!
But we did do one other thing... LIKE MORONS we did allow our kids (WHAT WE WERE SETTING AN EXAMPLE) to comb through and if they had a "favorite" something they could grab it up. - So much for a clear purge!

What to do with all this... Well, we wanted to show our kids a few lessons... Sure donations are great (and trust me- stay tuned) but we wanted our kids to learn that they have options and could make money (sometimes) by getting rid of what they don't need.

We knew of a woman that buys and sells GENTLY used cloths (thrift shop). So off we went with PILES of NICE clothes. (Tee-shirts GONE).

Now mind you I was BORN in 76', I know you are all looking at the photos in pure disbelief (and that is fine). I GRADUATED high school in 94' (yes, on time!) So MOST of my clothes that I own are from 2007 and beyond... Believe it or not I do have a few items from 1996... only because of the quality!

Okay so here were are... she is going through my husbands dress shirts (mind you he is only a couple years older than me) and pants- as she sorts them she turns and looks and says- "hmm... looks like its from the 80's... " ah, okay... then she starts going through my stuff... she pulls out a few things, talking all the while about how "nice" things are, but then also saying things like "this is a 80's color, this looks early 80's, this is from late 70's, hmm, this is from what early 80's maybe, then she looks at one thing and looks at me like- hmm, you wore this..." (but that item she keeps).

Now seriously, this was ALL adult clothing... 70's I was 4 at the end, the 80's I was 14 at the end... so NO... NONE of the items are from any of those time periods, and no- none of the items where the "retro throw-back" idea....

I had two thoughts standing there (before she paid us)...
1) A simple yes/no is easy enough... I wasn't there for fashion lessons (and to be honest I wouldn't be asking her in the first place.
2) I am not sure how old she thought my husband and I were so I wasn't sure if I should be insulted or flattered, but either way it was kind of rude (see #1).

So in the end she took a bunch of stuff, paid us cash... who doesn't like cash? And we carried (okay my kids carried) the rest to the car. The rest of the clothing will be up for sale at our yard sale (God help me!) Then OFF to Goodwill or some where else...

I find it very funny she didn't even want to look at some very expensive tailored suits... but to each their own! I guess its not her market.

As for my kids... the PILE of STUFF that didn't make it to the new house grew beyond my wildest dreams! Apparently seeing mom and dad get cash for clothes we didn't want anymore was enough for them!

Growing up fast

Today the "twins" turned 19 & 17. It's hard to believe how quickly time flies. They grow up so fast. While Amanda has made it clear she isn't going any where we all know its just a matter of time. Time... Something that seems to be gone before you can blink. I'm hoping to keep enjoying watching them grow, cause they have been awesome to watch so far!