If you are happy I should not judge and if you are not happy I should not judge either

Lately or I guess I should say ever since I decided to stay home with my children I have heard many debates on staying home vs. working and having children. I know I made comments about Sarah Palin and wondered about the Obama kids but I think that came more from the kids being in the public eye and the kind of jobs their parents have more then if they should work or not. There was the big thing recently about Napolitano and how someone said she will be perfect for Homeland Security because she has no family but yet no one had questioned a man being in there with family. More and more dads I know are staying home with the kids and the mothers are working. I have seen studies that say it is better to have a parent stay home with their kids but is it really true. Even though I stay home there are still days when my kids have said why are you always busy. We are all so quick to judge people on what they do. I don't know if any one way is better, I think it is a personal thing for each family and their decisions should be respected. I think no matter what people do we need to start asking more questions like are you happy with what you are doing and less why are you doing that.

16 years old dating a 20 year old

I have not heard that Miley Cyrus has confirmed a relationship with Justin Gaston but it seems like they are together. She just turned 16 and he is 20. I am pretty open to a lot of things but this one seems weird. There is a huge difference between 16 and 20. She could be wise beyond her years but still there is a difference. If they are not dating I still think it is weird that a 20 year old man is hanging around all the time with a 16 year old girl. Just my two cents.

Is this offensive or all in good spirit of Thanksgiving?

I am interested in people views on this story.

Unbelievably Troubling and Sad

By now I am sure most have heard of the eight year old boy that killed his father and father's friend. This case is very troubling and sad to me. Many think he did not do it and was coerced into confessing. A lot of the facts don't add up. Either way it just is not good. If he did not do it how horrible that the police have put an eight year old boy through this. Really he is just a little older then Ainsley and I just cannot imagine. If he did do it that brings to light so many more questions. It is just terrible.

Signs

Driving from my parents house the other day I noticed many things.

First political signs. Do these really do any good and I feel like there are so many all over. It might be ok if they were only around every four years but where I live it seems like there are always signs up for some kind of election. I don't like them.
It seems like there were foreclosure signs on every corner. Our Realtor told us that 2/3 of the house here are either foreclosures of short sells. Wow!
I also saw a going out of business sign on every corner. I cannot believe how many stores are closing. It is very nerve racking to drive home.
Besides the Campaign signs the other things I don't like to see is Christmas lights put up right after Halloween. Why do we skip Thanksgiving. I know there are no great outside decorations for Thanksgiving but come on putting them up the day after Halloween. I love Christmas just as much as everyone else and the day after Thanksgiving mine will go up but not before.




I thought this was kind of interesting. Look at the next two pictures and see what you notice.

Both pictures are the same jacket from the same company out of their catalogs. The interesting part it the top pictures with the younger model was the catalog sent to my house and the second picture with the older model was sent to my mom's house. There is not a single women with gray hair in my catalog and in her catalog at least half the models had gray hair. Do they really have our ages and sent these catalogs out specifically? Interesting.


The reason I even noticed this was I wanted to get a winter coat for me. I have not bought a heavy winter coat since I was 14 or 15. So it has been awhile. I just wanted to get a simple casual coat. I opened up my Lands End catalog and picked something.I thought it was cute, casual, and would be warm. So I called my cousin to ask her what she thought. She did not have a catalog and so this is what she saw.
She forbid me from wearing this coat and said it would make me old before my time. I admit it did not look as good online. If you are wondering here is the same coat in my Mom's catalog.
I have to admit I liked it even less in this last picture. It is amazing to me how different the same coat can look depending on how it is shot and I guess the model. Don't get me wrong I am not saying I don't like the last one because she is older but they do have it on her different. Marketing, very interesting or maybe cleaver, I don't know.

Make sure to vote on the poll on my other blog regarding this last part.

More Whining

We were suppose to have our house carpeted Friday, they called and changed it to today. That was fine it just meant that I had to bust my but yesterday to get everything but the furniture moved out of the rooms. There was a lot packed into the spare bedroom and the playroom. The spare bedroom is used partially as storage too. As I was stripping the last bed this morning they called to say the installer had an abscessed tooth and could not come today and hopefully he would be able to come tomorrow or maybe Saturday. Usually I would have felt sorry for the guy and said that. I would have said I hope you feel better. When his boss called I would have said I understand whenever he can come then have him come. I could not muster up any of this and I was probably rude on the phone. I really did not say much to the installer but hello and buy. When his boss called he said do you want to have us do it tomorrow or wait until Friday I said given the fact that everything is out all over the place, I have young children, and I had just stripped all the beds this morning before he called I would like it done as soon as possible in my not so nice tone. I am annoyed. Especially because it is a pain in the but for carpet I really don't get to enjoy. It is not the worst thing that can happen to me I know and I know things come up that you cannot do anything about. I never yelled, I never said mean things, I just did not have a nice tone and for once I don't care. I am in a mood this week and I am staying that way and right now his abscessed tooth is not my problem. So hopefully they will come tomorrow but who knows.

Next week I will also feel bad about the clerk in payless yesterday but today I don't care. We went in to get Abby a second new pair of ballet shoes in two months time. She grew out of the others. They seemed fine in the store but within a few weeks they were already extremely small on her. It was late and I just wanted to gets shoes and leave in five minutes. We get in there and Ainsley starts running all over the store trying to find something to measure her feet with even though I had asked her to stay next to me. When I was trying on Abby shoes she was dancing all around and then ran off as soon as they were on. This is when the clerk enters. I know she does not know I am having a bad week. I know it is not her fault, I never yelled at her, I just had my annoyed tone. She asked if she could measure the kids feet. No Thank you especially because I am pretty sure that Abby's feet would measure and 8 1/2 and I bought 9 1/2 ballet shoes, I don't believe in measuring my kids feet because all shoes are different these days. It is clear by now I am not happy with my kids and I am in a hurry but she continues to engage my kids in a conversation. She might be trying to help but really I just wanted her to leave me alone so I could get out of there. So I will be sorry next week that I was rude to her and sometimes I wish we could wear signs. It would help my husband and also many store clerks. It would say I am having a bad day, don't talk to me, it will not end well. It would be nice to have that sign that says please talk to my kids I need a distraction. How about that one that says I am trying to teach my kids a lesson just go along with what I say.

I know that my life is amazing compared to many. Times are very tough right now and I feel incredibly lucky to be in the position I am in. I know it when I hear about the military family that has been trying to do a short sell on their house for a year and cannot get out of it. He was deployed and she with her young kids was sent to the city he was stationed out of and they will not help them get out of their house here. He is putting his life at risk and they bail out lots of other people but not them. I know I am lucky when everywhere I go people are talking about how they were laid off and trying to look for work and how terrible unemployment pay is. I know I am lucky when I hear about all the people who are really sick and their prognosis is not good. I know this but I am taking a week to feel sorry for myself and then I will get back to trying to have a positive attitude.

The Election

We hosted a small little election night party with some of David's friends from work last night. It was interesting switching back and forth between CNN, MSNBC, and FOX News. It is interesting how they call the states as soon as they close the polls and like my friend Susan said some peoples votes really don't matter the way it is set up.

I liked that Ainsley's school did a mock election with story book characters. She was really excited about it. I asked her why she was voting for the on she did and she said because he was smart. At least she said that instead of because he is funny or I like the way he dresses. I think it was good for her that she saw me at home with my ballot spread out try to read through everything. It was good that she got to go to the polls and see that process too. I think it was good that it got the kids at school talking about it and starting to understand what voting is about. I do not think it was good that kids at school were going around calling Obama a baby killer. What a young age to start such hateful and and misguided words.

I liked McCain's concession speech. He seemed like his old self again for a moment, the man I would have voted for eight years ago. I had always respected him even if I was not going to vote for him but in the last few months I lost some of that respect.

I unfortunately fell asleep before Obama's speech I think I will try to watch it on the Internet today.