Progress

I just wanted to give myself a quick pat on the back. I bought two pair of 3/4 jeans at Aeropostale last night--because they fit! Wahoo! I only have 6 more pounds to go! Weight Watchers is working--slow and steady wins the race.

Bridget

Middletown Hummelstown Railroad

Yesterday, on Halloween, Whit called in some favors to get off work early and go with me and the kids to the take a ride on the Middletown Hummelstown Railroad pumpkin patch express. We had a fun time (until we left, at which point Eli kind of lost it. This is pretty common for him--we get punished for doing something nice. We are hoping he outgrows this phase soon.)

Here's Eli on the train. He was so excited and kept saying "choo choo". On a side note, it was 70 degrees yesterday! WOW!



Whit, as always, was a Super Dad. Here is our Pumpkin patch admittance ticket.

Several people stopped to tell Dora she really WAS so cute it was scary.

Here we are trying to get a shot of both kiddies.

Eli staked out several pumpkins as his own!

We attempted a few times to get both kids and a parent. Shortly after this it started to rain, though, so that halted our attempts.

I liked this front display the best.

I was trying to get just Dora but Eli saw and wanted in on the action.

We had a great time on the train. Hope you all had a great Halloween, too.

(On the way home, we were trying to get Eli to wash his hands with a wipe. This is what he did with it instead.)

Trick or Treating!

Here in Hershey, they assign different days to different townships to Halloween itself isn't so crazy. Also, kids can trick or treat several times if you want, since they can go to various neighboring townships.

It was Eli's first time trick or treating. We didn't take him last year because we figured he didn't need the candy.

He is a monkey and Dora's a butterfly. Aren't they cute!?


Dora was just the cutest butterfly ever!

Here are the kiddies--we walked to our favorite block in the neighborhood and just did one block. We love the tree lined block of Areba before it hits 322.

Dora kept grabbing Eli so I gave her some mardi-gras beads to play with. Then Eli wanted some. You do what you can, right?

Here's Eli's first house!! He wasn't really sure what he was doing. He tried to go inside about 3 times. He hasn't ever been over somewhere and had them answer the door and not go in! Anyhow, he couldn't say Trick or Treat, but he would say Happy Halloween. Once he got the drill down, he would say happy Halloween, and then say PLEASE. HA. He knew he was begging.

Cute little bugger, right?

Here he is with Dad.

Dora was happy just to be along for the ride. A lot of people tried to give her candy! I told them she wasn't ready yet.

About halfway through Nana showed up, so she took a family shot.

Here's my monkey! Everyone thought he was supposed to be Curious George. We should have done Whit as the Man in the Yellow Hat!!

This shot proves Nana was there-in her 4 inch spike heels from work! Once she arrived, Eli assigned her pumpkin carrying duty. It has gotten pretty heavy! That kid got a lot of loot from one block!

We had a great time. I think Eli will want to go again tonight. Ha. Only in Hershey can you go over and over.

Dora's Kisses

Now that Isadora stands and takes steps, crawls around and babbles all the time, I think Eli is finally seeing her as a real person. He was desperate to hold her on his lap the other day. Pretty cute, right? Dora was happy as a clam to be held, and as you can tell Eli was proud as punch.







She is such a happy baby. I like this shot of her blue blue eyes.

She has just started to laugh at everything in the last week. She will laugh and laugh and laugh. It's so cute!!

AND she hasn't given me one, but she kisses Whitney over and over and over. She sure loves her dad. I'll admit it--I am a little jealous!

Here's a video I got of Eli and Dora playing. They haven't ever played together before, so I tried to document it. Of course, when mom shows up, it changes the dynamic and Eli started to try and get my attention, but it was so funny how much fun he was having making her laugh.

Emma's Birthday

Emma turned 24!! She opened the present from Eli the night before.

He gave her Lindt truffles, but he was more interested in playing with the tissue paper.

Here's Emma opening her presents the morning of her birthday.

My parents sent her lots of fun stuff, but the biggest gift was this...

Whit and I got her this necklace, which we considered buying for all the ladies in the family for Christmas, but it would have cost too much... The beads are rubies. Aren't they pretty?

All in all, I think she had a fun time. We love you Emma! Happy Birthday!!

Apology

I had a grocery store rant, tarteting Weis, the other day. Since then I have been twice because it's right by the gym! I have had two extremely good experiences since that bad one. In fact, I saved $50 yesterday with coupons. They double coupons up to a dollar, like most places, and the people have been wonderful and helpful.

SO, it is with joy that I formally apologize to Weis markets. It's been a pleasure doing business with you. :-)

The Economy

Here is the third and final in the Glenn Beck series (until I read more and have additional fodder and if people seem to be reading them, still--other than my mom who feels obligated to read anything I prognosticate about!)

This is the scariest post yet. I am terrified about our economy, and all of you who know about the national debt and ongoing defecits should be afraid. There has been a drastic shift in the way we think about money, spending and the economy since the Great Depression. Glenn describes it this way, "Our parents and our grandparents relied on debt only to buy a home or a car or put someone through college, but we rely on it to live the lives we think we have earned. We've bought the false promise made by enterprising politicians that we all deserve the best right now--no matter the cost. Suddenly our summer vacations, flat screen televisions, boats, clothes, and dinners out at fancy restaurants are all purchased with debt." (page 14)

Truly, as a nation, we have changed our entire perspective. Growing up, my mom made me write down all my expenditures (once I got a check book) in my check register, whether they were on a credit card of by check. She said even if I hadn't paid it yet, that money was gone. SHE WAS RIGHT. It is GONE once you spend it. But we as Americans do not seem to grasp or care about that concept. This goes back to the entitlement theory you see so much of these days--people think they are owed something. By whom? Usually the government. Where do they think the government, (to them a nebulous entity) gets this stuff they are owed?? IT GETS IT FROM YOU AND ME! I am really tired of hearing people talk about all the things they are owed because I know my taxes are paying for it. Or at least my tax money is funding the interest on the loan for it.

Glenn blames our leaders for this, "Our leaders have brought us to where we are by never saying no to a good spending project. Through their actions, they taught the American people that spending money you did not have was not only reasonable, but patriotic. Our solution to September 11 was zero percent financing and a presidential call to 'go shopping'. Common sense tells us that you can't solve a debt crisis with more debt or solve a spending crisis with more spending. It's too bad that common sense itself wasn't for sale--that would have been the one federal purchase I would have supported." (Page 23)

I was pretty appalled when Bush called for spending to solve our problems--and the cash giveaway that was called a rebate was a barely disguised presidential effort to impact the polls and the vote. It was really sad, actually. From a tax perspective it was really sad because it was given in advance of the calculation of the 2008 taxes, which no one even understood. I got really tired of explaining that.

Right now China holds most of our debt. It could crack our economy like a twig by selling our debt, calling it in, increasing the interest or any number of other things. I won't terrify you by listing the vast sums of money we owe, but he came up with a good analogy between our situation and a real life situation. If you lost your job and didn't want your family to know, so you kept spending, maxing out credit cards, borrowing from anyone you could, hoping to get a new job... then you kept on for months and months. You bought lots of things you didn't need, to make you feel better. Now even if you got a new job you could never dig yourself out. So, what do you do? You bank on winning the lottery. Shockingly, you don't. Now you're in big trouble, so you go to the mob. You then lose their money through bad decisions and owe them interest, and pretty soon you're in all sorts of trouble.

About this analogy he says, "Our solution has been to ward off [the mob] by essentially breaking more laws. We're cranking up our printing presses at breakneck speed, something akin to counterfeiting given the fact that we have absolutely no collateral to support any of that money." (Page 34)

So what's the next step? HYPER INFLATION. It may very well be our government's only way out of the debt crisis. What happens then? Check out the last days of the Weimar Republic or current day Zimbabwe. Argentina had its fair share of issues with this, too.

Right now, the tax code is rife with loopholes for certain groups. Even more than that, since the IRS is run by the executive branch, lots of the "friends" of the government are getting off, when their competitors are getting hit with the maximum penalty. How do we rid ourselves of the graft and simultaneously increase revenue?? (And I may add, put me out of work. I am fine with this.)

FLAT TAX. Republicans have been promoting it for years, but check out Russia. Glenn says, "The Russians were having difficulty collecting taxes under a progressive income tax system (what we have) complete with different tax brackets, deductions and exemptions. So Russia converted to a flat tax and the results were amazing and immediate. In less than a year the income raised under the flat tax was about 25 percent higher (adjusted for inflation) and voluntary compliance with the law went up, too." (Page 38)

I especially liked Beck's note here, "Professor Thomas Sowell once suggested [we] move Election Day to April 16. Have you ever noticed that Election Day and Tax Day are almost as far apart on the calendar as you can get? What better way to hold these people accountable for how they spend out money than to decide the fate of their careers the day after we cut our checks?" (Page 40)

Here's what scares me. We are already in a LOT of trouble. It will take several hundred thousand dollars PER PERSON in AMERICA to pay off our current debt load. That's without increasing spending a dime. If Obama and the Dems get their way, that spending is going to increase. (Glenn says, "This is modern day slavery, but instead of being sold to work in fields, our children will be working hundred hour work weeks at their jobs to pay off the debts we've amassed." Page 26)

I am waiting to see what Glenn proposes, but for myself? I have come to this conclusion. When we have money to save (soon), I will put it in real estate. Not the way my Uncle Dan suggests. (Sorry, Uncle D.) I am going to pay it off--every last CENT. The prophets are right--GET OUT OF DEBT. Put your money into property. Assuming you can save enough for the astronomical taxes on your property, it's the only safety net in the light of impending hyperinflation, in my humble opinion. Now feel free to lambast me, but we are PAYING off our house, and we are buying farmland. Even Millionaire Next Door says to invest in what you know, and since Whit's a farmer, FARMLAND is where our money is going.