Sorry I haven't blogged in a while...

but I've been super busy. (oh, no! I'm turning into one of those people).

I did want to take a couple minutes and give an update on a post I made back in February, you can read it here, containing a prediction based on my rudimentary understanding of Ayn Rand's book Atlas Shrugged, (based entirely on what Wikipedia says about the book), that the "men of the mind", o sea, the entrepreneurs would go on strike and refuse to use their talents for the benefit of those that are just looking for handouts.

It appears that this prediction is coming to fruition, as can be read in this article found on American Thinker. But it goes beyond the porculus bill. The article explains that the government running major industries in the economy is creating a hostile environment for business start-ups, which is causing entrepreneurs to take a
wait-and-see" approach, further delaying the recovery from the recession:

...there are few opportunities worth the risk anymore, thanks to Washington. Whether the Congress or the administration will infuse themselves directly into a given industry is not the only point. When government arrogantly claims it can perform impossible slam dunks in the banking industry, the auto industry, the insurance industry, and the medical industry, all the while imposing confiscatory taxes, there is almost nowhere to escape them in any legitimate business.
Businesses need professionals in banking, lending, insurance, and accounting to depend on, and we know now that whomever we hire in these areas will be under the government's thumb. Of course, paying customers are needed as well, and with government causing huge cracks in foundational sectors like housing, lending, and manufacturing, a reliable employed customer base is becoming harder and harder to maintain, much less find.
For many decades, the American dream has been undergirded by the faith that regardless of its current state, the economy would come back around thanks to the greatness of ordinary people being free to do extraordinary things. Thus the bold gunslinger mentality many business owners have had in previous recessions, refusing to participate, and even expanding cheaply to grab market share in the next recovery.
But it's different now, and there is no denying it. The dream itself is being killed by legal and regulatory micromanagement. Washington is determined to employ policies to cure something that can be cured only by government getting the hell out of the way.
A small business summit in the White House will accomplish nothing unless the invitees include unions and lawyers and bureaucrats, in which case it will be devastating. When did a union or a lawyer or a bureaucrat ever start a business? How many times a day do they kill one?
And that's the climate entrepreneurs see. Unions, lawyers, and bureaucrats gain more power and leverage every day. The big opportunity now is to spend government money: an eighteen-million-dollar government contract to create an awful Recovery.org website, SEIU union jobs in ObamaCare, bankruptcy lawyers, and perhaps carbon credit trades coming. There are ACORN-style crony contracts to be had, not to mention all the jobs created by the David Axelrod astroturfing media escapades. If you are connected or if your dream is to enrich yourself by killing the dreams of others, then the field is ripe for you.

Atlas is beginning to shrug.

On a side note, when I recently heard about the student protests @ UCLA and UC Berkeley, it caused some strange feelings I couldn't quite process. The college-student part of me sympathized, being concerned about my own rising tuition costs, but a larger part felt odd about it. I couldn't quite process it until I saw this article. It then made perfect sense. That was exactly how I felt about it.

Let your voice be heard and tell me what you think.

Pictures With Santa

The Saturday before Thanksgiving, the Costco here in Chico offers free pictures with Santa. They do it to promote their greeting cards, but you don't have to buy. We like it because there is generally a short line and it's free! We've heard about the prices to have pictures taken with Santa in the mall, not cheap. This is the 3rd year we had pictures taken with Santa at Costco. Here's what Costco gave us:

This was the 1st picture taken.

The person before us cut in front of us, both her children freaked when they saw Santa, Jaron and Lara saw the whole thing, so they freaked once we stepped towards Santa. So we put Jaron and Lara on our laps.

Lara wanted Mommy and Jaron would not look at the camera

They tried to get Jaron to look, but he wouldn't. Now Lara's upset because she is not with Mommy. so...Mommy and Daddy trade children
...then,

Jaron wanted back on Mommy's lap,

both children were not crying,

so the photographer took this shot

The pictures look better than they scanned. We might go back and get the CD (still cheap at $3 tops). I will miss our little tradition once we move. We love Chico's Costco for doing this!

It's Been A While...Update

It's been a while since my last blog. So much going on here lately, just trying to keep up. It's hard to believe that my little girl will be one in a few days. It's hard to believe my little boy is 2 1/2. Where did the time go? I thought just yesterday they were still babies.
This time last year, Jaron had long curly hair, was only babbling, and had not figured out how to undo child locks. No he has short hair, talks all of the time, and is unstoppable when he wants something. I can't turn my back on him, or even go to the bathroom, anymore when he is awake. Just the other day he pushed the TV off of the TV stand, got into the fridge and broke open 2 dozen eggs all over the kitchen floor, and put quarters into the garbage disposal. Even while both Dave and I were home, he was into all kinds of mischief. Dave took Jaron outside to play, and Jaron took off around a building. We put him on time out whenever he acts up, and it does not seem to work. This is what must be meant by the "Terrible Twos." I can't wait till this is over! It's days like these that make me want to pull my hair out and wonder why I decided to have kids. Then something happens, like asking him something and seeing his excitement, and my heart feels full again. The pros and cons of an animated child: he is very loud and obnoxious when he's mad, and then he's loud and adorable when he's happy. Opposition in all things, right?
Lara is quite the character. She is very demanding and content. She is happy playing by herself or stealing her brother's toys. Then Jaron steals her toys, and she protests in a very dramatic way. She is a DRAMA QUEEN! Tantrums involve throwing herself backwards if you're holding her, or throwing herself on the ground if you're not. She screams in a very nails on the chalkboard kind of way (no cute screaming from this girl...not cool). But she is also a very happy child. She finds joy in so many things, especially when she knows she is not suppose to do it. We'll catch her and she'll take off giggling. She's still at that age where almost everything she does is so fills your heart cute.
Jaron and Lara are so cute together. They love each other very much, and annoy each other at the same time. "Typical" brother and sister relationship =) When Jaron is in his room for naps or bedtime, she'll go over to his door and knock on it. Jaron must blow her kisses, if she is sleeping, before he goes to sleep. They both try to wake each other up during car rides. Lara especially gets upset if Jaron is sleeping in the car while she is awake. Jaron is always wanting to help Lara, to the point that he dislocated her elbow because he tried to pull her up on our bed (we were in the room and tried to stop him, but it was too late). But then he gets annoyed with her when he wants his alone time and she wants him to play. It can be frustrating at times, but mostly endearing watching them interact. They are definitely a joy in my life.
Dave is in the process of applying to pharmacy schools. His application is turned in for UOP, and working on finishing supplemental applications for Creighton and South University. We still need to do the application for University of Southern Nevada. I can't believe we are finally to this point. It's still so surreal. Please keep your fingers crossed and keep us in your prayers that Dave will be accepted somewhere. I think we are ready to move on.

Gratitude: Dave Has A Job

In these uncertain times, I am so grateful that Dave has a job. It pays decently, Dave's able to work in the early morning so he can go to school and spend time with our family, we have full benefits despite Dave only being part time (one of the very few reasons I like the union), and Dave's high enough on the seniority list that he is not on layoff status (where he would have to call in to work every morning and see if UPS has work for him to do...if Dave did not work enough hours in the month, then we would loose our benefits). It's nice to know that we have a weekly paycheck coming in, and that because it's a union job it is hard for UPS to fire Dave.

Gratitude

We are getting close to November where many people like to start listing things they are grateful for. Some like to pick one thing they are grateful for everyday for the entire month. I decided I'll participate in this this year, but I'm going to start today.
Today I am grateful for Chico. Not so much the Hippie Liberal part, but other great things. We would not have been able to take the path we have if we had not moved to Chico. Dave is able to work part time and go to school full time, and I'm able to stay home with our children. Chico is a beautiful town. Bidwell park is beautiful with all it trees and wildlife. There are plenty of trails you can walk or just go for a bike ride. There are many great play structures for our children. The creeks are clean and clear, seriously...you can see the bottom of the creek! Traffic is not like in Sacramento...you can still go somewhere are 5pm! Living in Chico also makes you grateful for what you had in Sacramento...but at the same time you get to experience more local shops and restaurants. Yep, Chico is great!
Note: I've noticed that I'm beginning to have the small town mentality. I don't go somewhere if I know I'll be over in that area the next day, even though it is only 5 minutes away.
Everyday we should remember what we are grateful for, but life sometimes happens and we forget. I'm working on being more grateful everyday.

Star Wars in Concert...

was FREAKING AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We went down to Sacramento this weekend to visit family and deliver things to people (baby swing to sister, infant car seat to sister-in-law, christmas tree to friend, quilts to aunt, etc.) Friday evening as we were driving to our destination for the night, Corrina heard an advertisment for something called Star Wars in Concert thaat was playing @ Arco Arena that night (Friday) @ 8pm and Saturday afternoon @ 3pm. When we got to Corrina's aunt's house where we were staying for the night, her aunt said something about it being a laser light show set to star wars music...sounded cool enough, really tempting. Then Corrina read in the newspaper that it was actually an 84 piece orchestra w/ choir playing John William's music from the Star Wars saga with a 3 story screen that they were playing scenes from all 6 episodes from in chronological order...with Sir Anthony Daniels as the narrator (for those who don't know, he played C-3PO in all six episodes). That sounded super-cool so I called Arco Arena up on Saturday morning to see if there were tickets still available and they say yes there is and the doors open 2 hours early because there was going to be a bunch of displays of things from the movies on display for people to look at. How could you pass something like that up?! This is a once in a lifetime type thing and they are only playing in 55 cities on the tour. So I make the exectuive decision to take the family to it.

(The one time we don't bring our cameras to Sacramento is the one time I wish we had...It was supposed to be a short trip we didn't think we would need them)

It, like I mentioned above, was FREAKING AWESOME! We got our pictures taken with someone dressed like Darth Vader (For those that know what it is, all the characters in costume there were members of the 501st Legion) (awesome!). They had tons of props, including Han Solo in carbonite, various blasters and light sabers, imperial helmets, ewok costumes, Boba Fett costume, etc. (awesome!) They had the voice of Darth Vader (James Earl Jones) be the announcer (awesome!). At the very beginning, they did the THX sound effect and the "20th Century Fox" fanfare (like at the beginning of all the movies) (double awesome!) There was a laser show incorporated into it (awesome!), pyrotechnics (awesome!), humor (awesome!). The music was awesome (awesome!), at times I forgot that it was being played live (awesome!). George Lucas was intimately involved in cutting and editing the video clips for the concert (awesome!). And for the encore, they played again the Darth Vader theme, but louder because they didn't have the video w/ sound effects/dialogue behind them (super double triple awesome!!!) I was half expecting for Vader himself to come out on stage and force-strangle someone :-) And the whole family loved it. Lara was dancing to the music, until she got tuckered out and fell asleep. I am most definately glad we went!

Clarification

Since my last post, I feel I need to do a little clarification. The type of purging I have been doing is beyond the standard purging...you know, getting rid of things you don't use anymore, have outgrown, or are not looking so appealing anymore. Just a week before this purge, I had gone through and done a standard purge...in which we made several donation trips to the thrift store. This purge was a "I'm tired of waiting for the day when I can finally use these things" purge. I went through the baby clothes and kept only favorite pieces (which I may need to go through again now I think about it), removed all the dishes I've been saving for the time when we are settled and start entertaining guests, reduced my Christmas decorations (which we only had 1 1/2 12 gallon bins full anyways), down to 1 3/4 under bed small bins, cut down on travel sized items we've been storing (because we do travel...but we've started using our own things more), removed toys that we don't particularly like, got rid of candles and decorations I use to have out but put away because of the kids, cut down on camping gear, etc.
Whenever we/I have moved before, I usually get rid of a bunch of things while packing, and then more as I unpack. We really are fairly organized to begin with. Everything is neatly stored in closets, bins, etc. It's the stuff that we use all the time that seems to make us feel cluttered (that's why there are fewer toys, dishes and food storage items to be found now).
I don't really see myself as a pack rat, more as a recovering one. I use to keep all the notes people had written me, all the gifts people gave me, etc. I've gotten over that over 10 years ago (thanks Maya!). To me a pack rat is someone who keeps empty pill bottles, closets full of incomplete games and puzzles (or ones that no one has played in years), cupboards full of dishes and empty food containers for storage that are more then can possibly be used at one time or fit in the refrigerator, broken items, outdated items that cannot be used, clothes that are so outdated and tattered that they will never be worn, etc. This is not me...not by a long shot. So maybe to some I may be a pack rat, but I think not, especially now =)
Some people have also made comments to me that after I'm done here, can I come over to their place. I actually love doing that kind of stuff, but I may need a little cash incentive (wink, wink) =)
Anyways, as I told one friend, I have turned over a new leaf. I may not know what that leaf is, but I turned it =)