Ups and Downs

Ever get news...news that is hard to explain, to understand, to hear? Well, our family received that kind of news. My husband's mother is sick; her heart is unbelievably bad and the doctors are amazed that she is, well, alive. Telling the kids this was so difficult. Watching my husband is torture. He lost his father already and now he has been told he will lose his mother. What is inscrutable is that we are told that an end is near. That is not what is supposed to happen. I mean, everyday that I leave the house, I just assume that I will come back and be with the kids. Sure, I could get hit by a bus and die, but really, the likelihood is near nil. My husband talks to either one of his sisters or his mother just about every night now.

In the mist of this, our daughter has been watching her fish die. I know fish are fish, but my daughter bought these fish herself; the tank is in her room. She's named them! Oh, and her ghost shrimp has disappeared as well. There is a joke in there about "ghost shrimp" and "disappearing" but I can't make it right now.

So, I titled this "Ups and Downs". I should write about those ups. My husband has tested the waters of the fish tank. Fine. Talked to the fish experts - the "Rosey Reds" that my daughter bought need more space. My husband has increased that space about 10 fold. Our daughter now has a huge fish tank in her room and the remaining fish seem to be doing better. Maybe we can get a few more.

This past Thursday was "Bring you son/daughter to work day". It is always the 4th Thursday of the month of April. This year I was not the only teacher that brought a daughter! My daughter had a blast! She helped my Chemistry classes review for their test by operating the computer for our Jeopardy review game. She also helped the Physical Science class with their lab on Kinetic and Potential Energy. My students loved her visit. They thought she was adorable and smart. It was an exhausting day. When I had my normal "breaks", instead of doing my own quiet activities, I needed to "entertain" her or assist in motivating her to do her homework. When we got home, I took a nap and the kids continued playing.

Good Morning

Woke up early (too early) but fell back to sleep ;-)

Talked with my husband ;-)

Snuggled with the kids in bed ;-)

The boy child wanted to read a chapter book; the girl child wanted to help. Best Friends ;-)

Making breakfast - soon going to leave for the first soccer games of the spring season ;-)

Good Morning!

The end is near - a new beginning

In the last two weeks, both kids were a part of two more chess tournaments...one in Wisconsin Dells (at the Kalahari) and one hosted by KOHLER! Both kids had a blast even though neither one excelled (actually, at the Kohler tournament, our daughter ranked higher than her brother for the first time). We have one more week of chess practice and then we have the end of the year party. No more chess. Good thing we have a couple of chess sets at home - we can play anytime. The kids are playing each other right now. Cool.

This week both of the kids begin soccer. The first games are this Saturday. Our son has played for 2 years now. Our daughter was never interested until recently. She begins on a team this week.

Things are pretty exciting around here!

Mark Belling is right - again!

So I was driving my husband's car. He had the radio on an AM station. He's got Sirius stuff and navigation stuff and other stuff that confuses me so when something is on the radio is stays on by default since I do not know how to turn it off. It was The Mark Belling's show.

He was talking about the idiotic idea of using ethanol for fuel and that FINALLY the liberals in Washington and at the major newspapers in New York have now realized it as well. My husband has been complaining about ethanol for over a year now and has been touting the ramifications that will occur once the government mandates its use. He even gases his car at a gas station that advertises "No ethanol sold here". Well, the ethanol insanity is finally being seen as a huge mistake. FINALLY! On a personal note - I see it when I go grocery shopping. Last week I was astonished at how much money I spent - and each month it gets worse! World wide there are disastrous effects from prices of staples increasing to destruction of virgin lands for farming to starvation. If you want to read the article from the New York Times that Belling read on the air, I have created a link here.

This is a link to the podcast where he talks about it.

The second thing that I heard about almost made me (sorry) crap my pants. I couldn't believe that I was agreeing so much with Belling with his views in illegal immigration. It began with a story of some local girls who were illegally here since they were 1 and 3 years old (parents brought them here) and now as adults are being deported, not because they did anything illegal (they didn't) but because ICE has paperwork on them because of their parents. He thought that was wrong to deport them (as do I). He viewed his opinion that the immigration laws we have here in the USA are bad (I agree as well) and need to changed greatly. Finally, he said that to deal with our current problem with illegal immigration we (the USA) should 1 - build a wall; 2 - protect our borders; and 3 - deport those illegals who have committed a crime here in the US. Why should we get rid of those that are here working hard? Why not change the laws so that those that want to be here and live a life free of crime can live here? What a brilliant idea! I have another link here for the podcast that discusses this topic as well.