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Pittsburgh Marathon 2013

charityThe girls and I are going to be participating in Pittsburgh Marathon 2013 events.  The kids are going to be in the Kids Marathon and I’ll be participating in my first 5K.  Because I decided to run for a charity, both girls wanted to select their own as well.  If any of you would like to help us out here is the information:

 

Noelle

Noelle’s cause is “Girls on the Run“, a program through Magee Hospital.
“Girls on the Run inspires girls to be joyful, healthy and confident using a fun, experience-based curriculum which creatively integrates running. We envision a world where every girl knows and activates her limitless potential and is free to boldly pursue her dreams.”

Noelle chose her cause because she wanted to help girls.  She participated in cross country this past year and knows how good it made her feel.  She also believes in girl power and wants all girls to feel good.

If you’d like to donate to Noelle’s cause, click this link.  She’d like to raise $100 to help more girls gain access to this program.

Livia

Noelle’s cause is “Steel City Greyhounds”, an all volunteer organization dedicated to finding homes for retired racing dogs.
“Steel City Greyhounds (SCG) is a nonprofit corporation that promotes the adoption of retired racing greyhounds in the metropolitan Pittsburgh and surrounding western Pennsylvania regions. We are an all-volunteer organization which means that 100% of the proceeds raised by the SCG Marathon Team goes to the organization’s adoption program. The proceeds cover the costs associated with greyhound medical expenses, including spay and neuter surgery, vaccinations, and wellness exams, along with other adoption program operating costs.”

Livia chose her cause because she wants to help animals find homes.  Since we’re not able to adopt any pets at the moment, she thought this would be a great way to help out.  All dogs deserve a good home.

If you’d like to donate to Livia’s cause, click this link.  She’d like to raise $250 to help greyhounds find home.

Amanda

My cause is the “Mario Lemeuix Foundation”
In particular, I love that the foundation creates playrooms in medical facilities for children and families.

If you’d like to donate to Amanda’s cause, click this link.  Her fundraising goal is $100. 

 

I’m looking forward to this experience with the girls.  We try to live a positive, healthy and happy life… and doing an event like this for charity helps further that.

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Classy Geek Wedding – DIY Superhero Placemats

I was asked what the “theme” for my wedding was going to be.  The only term I could think of was “classy geek”.  I’m a nerd of many varieties and so is Dan.  There was no way I wasn’t going to have a wedding without our nerdisms referenced here and there.  Nerd for comic books.  Nerd for Muppets.  Nerd for hockey.  So many things.

Once we narrowed down our colors (champaign and black to pay homage to the Pittsburgh Penguins) and agreed that we just can’t suppress our interests in life, we agreed that each of our tables should be a different superhero.  From there, I came up with a centerpeice concept.

We’ve all been on pinterest where we have seen the upside down wineglass decoration ideas.  (Here is the original link that my matron-of-honor pinned to our board.)  I love glassware so this stuck with me.  My mantle is filled with bottles and vases (mostly hand crafted from vendors at the Pittsburgh Renaissance Faire).  I also wanted to pull in our concept in.  I came across this idea of comic book coasters and that inspired me.  My wineglasses should be placed on top of comic book placemats.  And you know what, I can do it myself.

Dan and I agreed on a list of 30 superheroes or villains before I started this project.  (Yes, we expect to have 30 tables.)  And so the creativity began.

What you need:

  • Card stock –  I purchased a pack of white card stock from JoAnne Fabric.  (I am sure you could use already printed comics, but I printed my own pictures)
  • Poster board – I used the slightly thicker quality you get a JoAnne’s or Michaels.  The stuff from the dollar store didn’t hold up as well.
  • Metallic pens – I have both a fine tip and broad tip one.  Watch those craft store sales!
  • Modge Podge (the crafters best friend)
  • Paint brush – The size is up to you.  I use a broader brush to cover more area
  • Scissors
  • A bowl (or template) the size of your placemat
  • Time

Remember:  My colors are champaign and black so I created my images black and white, used black poster board, and used gold pens.  Your colors are up to you.

What I did:

  • Print out your pictures on cardstock.  I’ve been searching through Google Images for pictures of my superheroes that I can nicely turn to black and white.  I use all shapes and sizes.
  • Trace the bowl or template onto your poster board.  I can fit two large mixing bowls on one so each board gets me two center pieces.
  • Cut out your circles.
  • Cut out your cardstock images and figure out your placement on the poster board.
  • Put modge podge on the back of your images and smooth them down onto your poster board.  Don’t worry if you go over the edges with your images.  You will round things off later.
  • Let this first layer dry for 15-20 minutes.  (I stress this because I made the mistake a few times of working too soon and it just doesn’t turn out nicely.)
  • While you wait for the first one to dry, build your second one.  By the time you’re done laying the first layer down here, you’re ready for the next step on the first.  In these pictures I’m building Havok and Hulk.)
  • Once your glued down images are dry, flip your poster board over and cut off the excess images.  This will bring your round placemat back to you.  (You can see Havok over to the right is definitely not rounded off before this step.)
  • Flip again so your images are looking you square in the eye.  (If you hit yourself in the face, you have gone too far.)  Just kidding.  This is where you want to put one layer of modge podge over your art to seal it in.  I make sure to brush in one direction since I use two coats.
  • Let this dry completely.
  • Once dried, put on your second coat.  You will see your brush strokes from the first pass over so it’s easy to adjust and brush the other way.
  • Drying time again.
  • Once dried, use your metallic pens to go over selected areas of your artwork.  The metallic highlights look pretty neat.  For example, for a Wolverine one, I went over any X symbols with the pen.
Your placemat will warp and bend up once the modge podge is placed and dried.  I’m sure there are a million ways to flatten them out.  (Ironing, I’m sure.)  All I’m doing right now is keeping them under a few phone books.  I place a sheet of freezer paper in between them so they don’t stick to each other.  On top of my filing cabinet is about fifteen centerpieces waiting for June.
I’m excited to use them.  They’re subtle when you’re not looking at them so it’s not over-the-top-in-your-face nerd.  When you get close you realize that Iron Man is staring you down.  If you want some of mine next summer, let me know!  I probably will be selling the majority of them since we’ll only be keeping a few to make kitchen mats out of for ourselves and my daughters.  Noelle already has dibs on Phoenix.
I’ll blog later about the final centerpiece.  These with the wineglasses and other geek references are going to make one wedding to remember.

 

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Thank You, Gary Johnson.

 

 

Thank you, Gov. Gary Johnson.  You gave 1% of us a voice.

After commenting on facebook or aloud to a friend that I believe the US government won’t get any better until there are more parties and voices involved, your platform was introduced to me.  Finally, there was a candidate that agreed with 90% of the things I believe in.  There is something outside of the box that the media and major parties push at us.  There is another voice.

Voting for you, though, wasn’t entirely about the platform either.  It’s about getting a third party on the ballot, to crack into the system.  To help make things better.  I heard many times over on election day that people weren’t voting because neither candidate earned their vote.  Many aren’t aware or not educated on the other voices on the ballots.

I hope hole heartedly that you run again in 2016.  I also hope that the 1% of us can grow into 5% in 2016 and get a third party into the mix.

For those people who want to see the system change, consider a third-party vote in all upcoming elections.  Maybe you don’t agree with the platform 100%, but if you want to see change, let’s change it!  Don’t put a vote down for “the lesser of two evils” (which I’ve done for so many years).  Vote to help our political system move forward.  And it’s not going to until the people change it.

Maybe it’s a pipe dream.  But I find it more fulfilling to have a cause or a vote I believe in.

If you want to learn more about what I’m talking about, here are some links:

PS:  I beg people to educate themselves and stop blaming third party candidates on their particular candidates failure to win an election.  This isn’t a new thing.  If your candidate was the strongest, they would have won.

PPS:  I also beg people educate themselves and vote for somebody they believe in.

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Giveaways to check out: Week of Oct 28

Here are some fun ones for you all to check out this week:

Makeup.

From Caked Vintage, they are hosting a Madison Street Beauty giveaway.  You have to hurry and enter.  The contest ends Oct 30.

To top that off the esty shop has their items 60% off.  You can’t beat that price to try some samples of some beautiful looking shades!  I definitely am going to snag some of the starry ones.  I’m looking for my perfect colors for the wedding.  :)  I really do like that you can get samples of the products without having to try the whole thing.  That’s one thing that annoys me about makeup shopping.  I don’t want the whole product!  I don’t even know if I’ll like it.  These will really help me to try and recreate some fun things I’ve seen on Pinterest.

Stationary.

Here’s another one for you to check out this week from Spunky Real Deals.  They are hosting a giveaway from Hedoe Precious Paper on Etsy.  I think this is one that many of you may enjoy.  I’ve seen a lot of stationary give aways over time, but this may be one of my favorites.  ”Why is that?”, you may ask.  Well I will tell you why, fine followers!  It looks professional!  There are many stationary folk out on Etsy that just look cheap and cheesy.  These look fabulous.  I especially like the monograms while I’m in wedding mode.

The one pictured here is my favorite of the lot.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Random Acts #1

Random Act of Kindness #1.  As Noelle says “man, gas prices are getting expensive, Mom.”  I’m pretty sure she heard this in school or on tv since we don’t talk much about how much gas prices have gone up on the past half decade.  So it was a unanimous decision that this is our first act of kindness.

There isn’t much on the card.  It’s only for a whopping 10.42 (the amount I had left from my gas budget this pay), but that’s 10.42 somebody we’ve never met before will get to save at the pump.  For us, that might be two days of getting to work and school.

Noelle wrote out an envelop for the gift card and Livia drew a smiley heart on it.  We decided our venture to the library would be where this was deposited.  I had to teach Noelle about being a little more sly.  When she was picking out a car to slide this under a wiper blade, she looked like she was trying to break into cars.  That was partially my fault.  I told her to look for a car that maybe had car seats in it.  We know how expensive life with kids can be.  Anywhere you can save something, that’s amazing.

We know that every time we do a random act, we won’t be able to do a gift card.  (We have one to Eat n Park and Panera lined up.)  So we’re going to work on other ideas like giving out candy canes around the holidays.  Something to put a smile on somebody’s face.  I don’t know about you, but I enjoy little surprises.  It’s the “good” unexpected in life that we often don’t have.

We’ll never know who we gave the above card to, but I can only hope it put a pleasant smile on their face and maybe made their weekend a bit better.

 

—-

Another thing we are working on is the “share jar”.  It sits in our kitchen and the girls have the opportunity to opt some of their allowance money into it.  At Christmas, when our church does the sharing tree, they want to pick an angel and use their money to buy something for somebody not as fortunate as us.  Something to let somebody know they’re loved by people that haven’t met them before.

After all, I think that’s what being a good human is about:  loving and being good your fellow humans.

 

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Mason Jars Make Me Happy

As some of my wedding party knows, I follow Etsy Giveaways constantly…. and there are some royal gems to check out.

No, it’s not all for selfish gain. Sometimes I come across neat blogs and neat ideas that I want to share with people… and I’m happy to share.

Caked Vintage is hosting a give away for the Country Barrel. Oh man am I excited to find this store. Before I even entered the contest, I favorited it on etsy to return visit. If I could decorate everything and do the entire wedding in mason jars, I would… instead I compromised and just have mason jars on the head table. ;) There is something about these things that grab me. Maybe we can call it a “modern country” vibe?

Check out this contest if you like mason jars as much as I.

I also can’t wait to show you what I’ve been working on for my centerpieces!  I’m getting there!  Things have been crazy with kids activities this month so I haven’t quite gotten to organizing the blog like I want to.

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Random Acts of Kindness

I get frustrated.

There, I said it. I’m a mom. I try to be Wonder Woman, but I’m not always. I’m also human. And this month I’m frustrated. “At what?” you may ask… or you may not, my digital lurkers. But I got frustrated at the ugliness that can be this country.

I’m sad for humans right now. There is so much bickering, fighting, lack of personal responsibility, hatred, ignorance, and intolerance going on… it makes me sad. And all I can do is hope I can teach my children to be better than what we see. I also want them to help me do what we can here and there to bring some good to people… for no selfish reason but to know that we may have put a smile on somebody’s face who may have been having a grumpy day. Why? Because I believe that there is more good than bad out there and we just don’t hear about it. The media doesn’t praise it. I’d love for just one day to have all positive stories grace the pages of our digital world. It won’t happen. So I need to put my frustrations in a positive place.

So….

While we were at a few restaurants this month, Livia told our various servers how pretty they were or how handsome they were. And I know that she didn’t see it (at the age of 6), but I could see that she made the day of these hard working folks that just looked jaded. We were in the car this week and I complimented Liv on this. She didn’t realize what she was doing, but I told her that sometimes people like hearing that they’re pretty, noticed, or appreciated. Kind words can go a long way in somebody’s world. None of us know everybody’s story.

We got to talking about what random acts of kindness are and decided that we want to do them more often. And we want to write about them online to share with others. Maybe we can make this our job to inspire people to be kind, to help, to care, to appreciate, or just all around be a good human. I’m not saying we should give everybody freebies or handouts (if you read my other blogs, you know I’m all about personal responsibility)… I’m talking about the unexpected. Be nice to somebody you don’t know. Why? Because you want to be a good human.

We talked about non-monetary things to do: compliment, smile at somebody, etc. We talked about small things: filling a parking meter, leaving change on a vending machine. And we talked about saving some of our chore money in a “share” box to help a family at the holidays.

The idea we came up with last was to put aside some of our “fun” money and get a few small gift cards for things like a restaurant, gas station, or a book store. When we are out, pick a car and slide the gift card under the wipers. We may never see the person that receives the act of kindness, but we would feel good knowing that maybe we changed somebody’s day with an unexpected hello.

My goal is to get the ball rolling on this and to make it a project outside of my ramblings on this site. I want this to be our “thing.” And what better thing is there than bringing sunshine to other people?

Task 1:

  • Purchase gift cards (going for Sunoco and Eat n’ Park…. because right now who couldn’t use at least one free gallon of gas or a warm meal?)
  • Create a small “random act of kindness” card to put on these.  I almost want to brand them for this project.  (I really do want to make this grow.  I think it would be amazing for the kids to know they are doing something special.  But hey, start small.)
  • Put the surprises out there for people
I’ll document things once we get the ball rolling.  We won’t be able to do monetary ones every week so I will work on ideas with the girls on what else we can do.  It’s important to learn that not all kindness has to be financial, but when you can share, share.
So many possibilities.
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Autumn Fantasy Fairy Birthday

My oldest daughter and I joke that we don’t like to have parties, we like to have events.  Of course, Noelle’s 9th birthday was one of such events.  One of our favorite things to do is to go to renaissance festivals.  Since her costume for the one in Pittsburgh this summer was an autumn fairy, she wanted to wear it for her birthday also.  (Having an October birthday, Noelle often enjoys costume party fun.)  [Shout out to The Mystic Moor on Etsy for the costume.]

This year’s theme:  Fall Fantasy Faire (Basically ren fest in our backyard)

Here’s what we did to help create the theme and fun for the kids.  (Remember to keep yours in budget.  You don’t want to go broke having a party.  We made many things ourselves and trolled the dollar store.)

Decorations:  The sky is the limit when it comes to fall.  We found garland, leaves, pumpkins, and everything from the dollar store and dollar bins at Target.  I did make sure to burn a candle (in a safe place free from kids hands and movement) to add a pumpkin scent to the room.  [White Pumpkin from Gold Canyon]

Invitations:  We sent Noelle’s friends a scroll tied with orange ribbon and their name tied to it on a tag.  The scroll contents can be whatever you would like.

I made ours in photoshop with one of the leaf shapes and a fancy font.  The languages is what sells it.  Write in your best Old English tongue.  And make it humorous.  Our wording was the following:

Hear Ye! Hear Ye!
All Lords, Ladies, Fairies, Dragons, Gypsies, and Sallywags of the kingdom
are cordially invited to our castle to celebrate the Ninth Birthday of Lady Noelle.

The festivities will be held on
Saturday, the 6th day of October
from 1:00 to 3:30 after the noon sun

Our castle is located at
[Your Address Here]

Kindly RSVP by the 30th of September
to Amanda (Your Phone/Email Here)

*Costumes are encouraged *Siblings are welcome


Snacks & Cake:  I didn’t go too crazy with things.  I try to mix chips and pretzels with healthier choices like apples and veggies.  I found cheap leaf serving dishes from the dollar store to put some of our snacks in.

Two things that went with the fall theme: pumpkin pie dip for the fruit and the cake.  My cousin makes the most amazing cakes for us.  She decorated it in fall colors and fondant leaves were strewn about.  Noelle loved it and it just added to the festivities.

(The leaves were made with Wilton Autumn Mini Cutters)

The pumpkin pie dip is easy to make and definitely one of my favorite seasonal finds on pinterest.  Find the recipe here.

Games:

I did games in five stages.

Royal Teams and Banners - I made three banners out of poster board and hung them on our wall.  My daughters picked 3 mythological creatures: a pegacorn (unipeg? we call it a pegacorn as a joke), a chimera, and a griffin.  Get as creative as you want.  I just printed out pictures from the internet and colored borders on them.

When the kids were all at the party, I had them line up and welcomed them (first to the 75th annual Hunger Games… which made parents laugh) to the Fairy Fantasy Festival Official Games… or some ridiculous title.  I told them about the games and that they had to pick their teams to be tested on their strength, speed and bravery.  To find their team, they had to pick it out from the Sorting Hat and then sign the banner for their team.  (The banners I’ll be saving in Noelle’s birthday box that we keep all cards and other special things.)

Once the kids were sorted, the games began.

The King’s Stew - The first game was to please the king.  He was displeased with the cooks and fed them to the kingdom’s candy filled dragons.  So now the teams had to make his stew.

To prepare:  I used 3 pumpkin buckets (any will do), 15 disposable straws, and cut out construction paper vegetables (about 3 per child).

To play:  Each child puts their hand on their head and can only use a straw to pick up the vegetables.  You suck on the end of the straw to pick up the construction paper and then drop it in the bucket.

First team to have all the items in the bucket wins.

Princess and the Pea Race - This game is basically the egg race that many of us have done in the past.  Instead of eggs on a spoon, the kids have to carry a frozen pea on a spoon.

To prepare:  Frozen Peas and 15 disposable spoons.

To play:  Split each of the teams into two for a relay race.  The kids put the spoon in their mouth with a pea on it.  If they drop the pea on the way to their teammate, they have to come back to get another one.  (I let the kids use their hands to transfer the pea because it was challenging.) The last person who carries the pea had to drop it in the bucket we used for the stew game above.  Make sure to have quite a few frozen peas on end.  (I also made sure to joke with the kids that the losers had to eat them when we were done.  Lots of laughing ewwwws around.)

The story I used for the above game was that since the King was so pleased with the stew, he requested us help the Princess who is still very upset about the peas under her mattress.  Their job is to rid the kingdom of peas.

Scaredragons - We made up a store about how our kingdom has a problem with dragons.  So it was up to the teams to make one of their teammates into a “Scaredragon” to keep the dragon away.

Game preparation:  Make a list for each team with clothing items they have to dress their scaredragon in.  (My list included hat, gloves, scarf, shirt, pants, right shoe, and left shoe.)  We rolled the lists into scrolls.  I also did not write the items in the same order so that teams wouldn’t be hunting for the same items at the same time.  Make four plastic bags that have three of each item on the scrolls in them.  Bags should be a mix so the kids don’t know which bag has their item.

To play:  Have four parents (villagers) volunteer to hold one of the bags and placed them around your house or yard.  Have their kids elect a scaredragon.  We had our scaredragons stand stationary in the middle of the yard.  Give the teams their scrolls and them they have to go to each villager as a team.  But the villager cannot give them the clothing item unless the kids complete a task.  For example, to get a shoe, one parent had them do a cartwheel.  Another had them receive the Pledge of Allegiance.  Once they get one item, they go back to dress their dragon.  When the children complete the scaredragon, they win.

Pinata - I purchased a dragon pinata which we filled with candy and prize coins (see the favors section of this post).  I told the kids that our kingdom was plagued by a strange beast.  ”A candy filled dragon of mystery” and to “not hit dragons with sticks at your kingdom because they are the fire breathing kind and it will not end well for lords or ladies.”  This dragon was pretty sturdy so eventually the grown ups hit it a few times.

Favors:

Winners of the games received pirate coins I purchased from Amazon.  (There were also some in the pinata to pick up… hoping to settle any ties.)

Those with the most pirate coins could pick from a prize basket first.  There were enough items in the basket for everybody to get 2.  Don’t go crazy with these.  Items from the dollar store, Claire’s clearance, Target dollar bins and so forth were used.

I also made chocolate covered oreos with Wilton halloween pumpkin and cat molds and chocolate melts in fall colors.  You can get these discounted a Joanne’s or Michael’s more times than not.  Watch for sales and coupons!  Each child went home with 3.

And don’t let the grown ups shy away from costumes!  I was in full gear with my villager get up.  My fiance wore his pirate costume.  Some cousins and aunts also wore their themed costumes as well.  Kids have a great time when the grown ups get involved too.

Most importantly, be happy and have fun.

I hope these ideas help somebody out there in the digital world make their child’s birthday extra special.

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If I Ruled the World

One of those no-no topics is always politics.  And here I find myself writing a political rant.

Fine Print:  I am registered as a Democrat; however, I probably should be registered as an Independent.  I listen to everybody’s opinions if they are educated and not just “well because my party said so” stuff.  I like trying to look at 1-3 news sources on things I feel strongly about because we all know media is biased depending on what view they are trying to push across.

Where has the middle ground gone?  Am I the only one that feels like both of the major parties in this country are so far off the spectrum that they are no longer visible with the human eye?  Everything feels so extreme these days that voting for either party seems like a “lesser of two evils” kind of vote… and that is a waste, if you ask me.

My goal this election year is to research candidates for other parties because even if it can be a wasted vote to some, I’d rather vote for something I believe in.

My point here:  Do your research.  Don’t look blindly at what your party is saying.  Look at a few sources.  Open your mind to the possibility your guy might not be right about something.

And stop hating.

Yeah, I get it.  Some of you don’t like Obama.  Guess what, not everything is his fault.  There is this group of people in Washington DC called Congress.  You know, that place where the laws are made and people like to throw in ideas and block things based on who is paying them the most money?  Yeah, you can blame a lot on them also. And just because you dislike him, can you drop the birth certificate stuff?  He was born in Hawaii.  They have provided his birth certificate.  I didn’t particularly care for either Bush but I didn’t call for proof of his place of birth.  So what if Obama’s dad was from Kenya?  Doesn’t mean Obama wasn’t born here.  Remember when people’s ancestors were immigrants?  Yeah, my grandmother’s parents weren’t born here.  Doesn’t make her less American.

(And you’re reading this so you apparently are a glutton for listening to the rambling opinion of some random person on the vast internet.)

So that’s my two cents there.

Onto my next point.

How I’d rule the world (and why far left and right would probably dislike me)

Fine print:  Yes, I am fully aware things aren’t this simple… I’m also aware that I haven’t thought about all possible scenarios.  These are just my thoughts that really won’t go any further than this blog.  :)

1.  Welfare (and other government assistance) – I am for helping needy people, not lazy people.  Stuff happens.  Your lose your job and the market is slow.  You just don’t have the skills to go to that next level in income.  Whatever the case is, stuff happens.  People try and they just can’t get ahead.  (And face it, it’s not cheap to live.)  I’m against helping lazy people who don’t want to better themselves, who aren’t trying.  Some guidelines I’d establish:

  • You have to be drug tested to get welfare (or any other form of government aid).  If many of us have to be tested to earn our pay, you should have to be tested to earn your  money you’re getting from our pay.  And if you have money to get your drugs and such, you don’t need my hard earned money.  Bla bla, dignity and addiction and bla.  I feel no sympathy for you.  Make better life decisions.
  • You have to be working, proving you are looking for work (time limit here) or you start working one of our government welfare mandated jobs.
    Example 1: Joe cannot get a job that pays more than X dollars an hour.  His skills is in a particular area that is low paying or the market sucks.  Whatever the case is, Joe is working.  Cost of living can be high, Joe may need welfare so he can pay his rent.  Okay, we can help you.  Not all of us are going to be CEOs, Managers, computer programmers, etc.
    Example 2:  Jane just got laid off from her job.  She has kids, she has a mortgage.  She may need help until she gets back on her feet.  Unemployment doesn’t really cut it.  Face it, most of us are living paycheck to paycheck.  You can say “well she shouldn’t be living above her means.”  Maybe she isn’t.  Gas prices went up, groceries went up, but her salary didn’t… now she’s out of a job and unemployment only pays X%.  Okay, we’re going to help you, but you have to show us you are actively looking for a job for X months… then you fall into example 4 if you want to keep earning.
    Example 3:  John doesn’t work.  John keeps procrastinating on looking for a job or John keeps quitting jobs because the government will help him out.  John falls into Example 4.
    Example 4:  Hey folks who want to keep earning welfare and aren’t contributing to society, we have stuff that needs done.  Streets are littered, plants need planted, and other things need done.  We’re putting you to work.  Don’t like it?  You don’t need our tax money.
  • If you go on government assistance, we’re only covering the kids you have at the time of your application.  In other words, wrap it up and stop having kids you can’t afford.  So if you go on aid and have 2 kids, don’t have 2 more.  I don’t want to keep paying for your bad life planning.   I work really hard to afford my kids.  Bla bla bla that’s limiting children.  No, no I’m not.  You can have as many kids as you want.  Tax payers just shouldn’t have to foot the bill if their parents can’t afford them in the first place.  (Okay, fine because this does lead to the worry of more kids living in poverty which is so terribly sad to begin with… if we do give you money, it has to be used on essentials for your child at stores we approve and things we approve.  Nothing else.  No Xboxes, DVDs, $100 sneakers)
  • If you want government assistance, we’re only covering the necessities.  PS:  You also have to prove how you can be on welfare and have an iPhone if purchased after your application for government aid.  How many of you have been counting the pennies in your wallet to pay for your groceries and get pissed when you go to Walmart and somebody is getting a cart full of stuff your tax money paid for and seem really inappropriate?  Or you see somebody you know is on assistance and they went out and purchased a TV bigger than your living room?  Yeah, this pisses me off.  Sure, we’re all allowed to have nice things.  I’m not telling you that you shouldn’t.  But if you need free aid, then how in the hell do you have enough money to buy a $1000 television?True story.  I was getting a tattoo and the artist wondered why so many people were coming in and out that day.  Then it dawned on him it was the day that most folks got their federal aid.   People would roll in because they have money now.

2.  Jobs, Big Business, and Tax Loopholes – Much of point 1 can be pointed back to jobs.  So let’s make some jobs.  (Yes, I know it’s not this easy… but in all our minds, all our ideas are always easy as hell to enact.)

  • If you want to send jobs over seas, you can pay tax penalties.  In other words, companies need to bring back the jobs to the US.  The argument from businesses is prices.  Well, in my mind, if people are working, then they can afford products.  And hey if you want the tax penalty, that’s fine.  More money into the system.
  • If X% of your work force and/or resources are US generated, we’ll give you a bit of a tax break.  The percent has to be high because that will funnel into two directions.  If businesses are using US resources, then those companies who supply the resources need to hire more.  More jobs there.  A tax break can be seen less money into the government pot, but that’s okay.  More people working generates some tax money there and sales tax on products that they get to pay for more so now that they’re working.
  • Tax loopholes need to go away.  Our tax system is ridiculous.  I know a lot of people knock Great Britain, but in some ways I think they have it right.  You pay X% across the board.  You get paid X amount, your taxes are X amount.  No loopholes, no exemptions.  You know what you have coming in and what you have going out.  Either way, a lot of the loopholes need to get lost.  Yes, I’m pointing to the ones that let those with way more money than me hide their funds elsewhere.  This leads me to…
  • If you want to send your money offshore to hide it from taxes, have fun getting it back cause we’re taking a cut of it.  Don’t want to pay your taxes?  We’re taking some when it comes back.  So stop trying to dodge the system.  Yeah, I know some transactions are legit.  I’m sure people smarter than me can figure out some rules.  Okay fine, get rid of the loopholes then.  I’m all about knocking on dodgy people.  30% of my paycheck seems to go to taxes and benefits.  Somehow I don’t think the same holds true for people who are running schemes like this.
  • Everybody pays their fare share.  No, I’m not punishing the rich for being rich.  But taxes are relative.  If I have to pay 10%, CEO Christopher should also have to pay 10%.  Maybe he is, maybe I’m not.  I don’t care what your annual income is.  Everybody should be paying the same % of it.  We all like our tax exemptions and we all try and squeeze out as many as we can.  But I’d be okay with a flat rate.  I really would.  It’s kinda like when you go grocery shopping.  You know you’re paying X% of sales tax regardless of what brand of peanut butter you buy.  (And for those with peanut free schools, sun butter you buy)

3.  Education – Education is broken in this country.  It needs fixed.  If I were in charge, I’d pow-wow with some teachers… make some surprise visits to classrooms and really sees what’s going on.  I want to talk to the folks in the trenches, not management.

  • Get rid of standardize tests that really only teach you to memorize.  I want students to be taught how to think, not how to memorize.  Why are we basing school success rates partially on whether or not students can guess right and fill out a bubble?  From the teachers I’ve talked with, these really don’t do as much good as one would like to think.
  • Stop expecting everybody to get to grade 12.  Not everybody is going to get to grade 12.  Not everybody is going to go to college.  It’s not mean, it’s life.  Some people want or just need to learn a trade.  I would like to see some adoption of a system that let’s you decide by 10th grade if you are going on or not.  Isn’t this what is employed in other countries?  And if you’re not going on for college reasons, get into trade schools.  Learn something.  Not everybody is equipped to learn the same things.  Sure, we all should be able to read and write and know our basics.  I am not a dumb person but I could barely get past 10th grade geometry.  I also had a hard time with biology for some unfathomable reason (but could do well at chemistry).  That’s life.  Not all of us are going to be the same.
  • Stop allowing parents to sue schools.  Unless a teacher is physically abusing or demeaning your kid, parents need to stop making schools afraid of everything.  If your kid fails, maybe your kid earned that grade?  When I was in school, I knew some teachers were biased but I sucked it up and dealt with it.  Did my best.  The onus was on me to try and pass.  Personal Responsibility.
  • Find a way to get parents involved.  I don’t know what the answer is to this.  Many problems with school and education could be resolved by parents staying involved in their kids life.  I know most schools are making an effort and this is more of a social thing… but there has to be an answer somewhere.  I’d like to think.  I feel sad for kids who’s parents are absent.
  • Labeling can be dangerous.  I’ve heard stories about kids being forced to stay on a track if they’re unable because of a label placed on them at a certain grade.  For example, a student could hang at the honors level in grade 7 but by grade 8 they cannot.  Now they are doing poorly because they can’t test out of the track.  Put students where they will function best.  And stop expecting students with certain disabilities to be the same as students with different strengths and weaknesses.  Again pointing to the above, we are all not the same.  There should be requirements for a diploma, yes, but I think the way those requirements are met should be different.  Maybe like a college credits schedule?  If students are going to college anyway, colleges will look at their transcripts and see what classes they took… and some jobs don’t care, they just want you to have graduated.  And if you’re going into a skill based track after grade 10, does it matter?  I don’t know.  My masters is in Education Technology, not Elementary Education.  So I am only throw out random thoughts to a wall.  There just has to be a better way.
  • No special treatment for athletes and activities on any level.  That means you colleges.  Everybody should be on the same level.  If you’re going to a school on a sports scholarship, you better not be failing.  So maybe non-professional athletes shouldn’t be worked like dogs for the profit of their establishment?  And students, you are expected to pass to play.  I’m not saying everybody needs to get As.  I’m saying you need an education.
  • Take the race, gender, etc. off applications.  People need accepted into school based on merits.  Take names off and assign everybody a number if you have to.
  • Educators need paid.  How many parents go insane after about three hours with their kids?  Their teachers often are underpaid and overworked.  Don’t give me that nonsense about them getting the summer off.  I know quite a few educators who don’t get paid those summer months.  Their underpaid salary the rest of the year is expected to stretch through those months.  And many of those teachers work more hours than we do in a week trying to prepare your kids for life.  I give mad respect to my daughter’s teachers.  The put in extra hours and care more than some parents do about their own kids.  If you think teachers have it so good, step into their shoes.  Some teachers get abused at work by their kids and are afraid to show any authority because heaven forbid they lay a finger on a child that’s raging in their classroom.  Their job isn’t easy.  Stop acting like it is.
My distractions got the best of me and I never finished my list.  I also have this idea about the ridiculous amounts of money that are spent on campaigns.  Imagine what good this money could do elsewhere?  Imagine what would happen if the playing field was leveled?  In this crazy even field, I would love to see what would happen if every candidate could only spend X amount of dollars.  No more.  The number would have to be reasonable enough for somebody who wasn’t a Democrat or Republican front runner to jump in.  Imagine what would happen if other voices got heard?  What if we got rid of corporate political donations?  No businesses to buy or sway votes?
What if we took names and parties off ballots (not for a real vote but for education)?  I wonder truly how many people would end up under the party they think they are?

Oh this is just a drop in the bucket of crazy ideas I have that will never come to fruition.  For this election, though, the goal is to get educated on more parties than the big two in this country.  Some may call my vote a wasted one, but I do not.  It will be a vote saying that I don’t believe in the two-party system that this country has created for itself.  Get more voices out there.

A lady can dream.  Here’s to hoping that some day we actually get people running this country who don’t all make me feel like the world has gone insane.

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What I’ve learned so far about wedding planning

Now that I’m engaged to the most amazing man ever….  (All brides say that, I know.  But each of us has our own definition of amazing and what is amazing for us.) … its time to start blogging about it.

Our wedding is going to be an interesting balance.  Dan is from Chicago and I’m from Pittsburgh.  He can lean towards traditional and I can lean towards offbeat.  (Offbeat Bride is one of my favorite wedding blogs btw)  So not only do we get to plan a wedding at a distance from each other, we get to find a nice marriage (pun sorta not intended) between tradition and uncharted paths.

Things started off mostly traditional but my tastes are very ecclectic and we’re both downright nerds.  So the concept formed as thoughts kept forming:  nerdy elegance.  Over time you will see how I pull this off.  I want to document it because from looking around pinterest and other sites, us geeks are always looking for different things to do at weddings.

I also want to note some tips here and there that I’ve picked up in case anybody stumbles along needing advice from another source.

The first things I’ve learned so far about wedding planning:

It sucks if you don’t have fun.  

Remember who you and the groom are.  I know other family members want their say especially when their money is involved.  Dan & I mostly are footing the bill in Pittsburgh with some help from my mom.  But my mom is pretty cool and knows after 33 years what my personality is and what I get excited about.  I’m pretty sure I heard this from Randy on “Say Yes to the Dress”: This is about your story.  (Or something to that effect)

Don’t let yourself get overwhelmed by the information blitz.  

I find myself doing this.  Between pinterest, facebook, wedding binders, wedding websites, spam phone calls from every bridal/tux store ever… my mind wants to meltdown.  Get a check list and focus on the list.  Find a method that works for you.  My sister, future-mother-in-law, and a few others told me to get a binder.  The binder says to take pictures and print them out.  The binder says the binder says the binder says.  My binder is a paperweight.  

It became an over-glorified folder very quickly.  I am a digital person. My job keeps me on a computer.  I have my iphone with me.  I research everything online first.  My printer isn’t wireless and usually doesn’t have ink.  So for me, the best methods are digital.  Wedding Wire has become my check list.  I can log in and see what I need to do next.  There is an app for my phone, iPad, etc.  There is a digital binder, inspiration boards, and so forth.  I can take pictures on my phone of things I see and pin them online.  This works well for my lifestyle and keeps me on task.  My binder serves as a collection of business cards and a holder for other papers I can’t lose.

(Don’t read the above as me being unappreciative about people’s advice.  I’m not.  Everybody works best in their own way.  I appreciate and gladly accept all advice given!  I may not use all the advice, but I’ll certainly weight it.)

Keep it simple.

Dan made me promise not to turn into bridezilla.  When I throw out an idea, he tells me not to overwhelm myself and not to overthink.  And he’s right.  When you look at all you need to do to bring things together, remember that things don’t have to be perfect.  Every idea you have doesn’t have to happen.  Pick what fits in your budget and do things that aren’t going to give you a royal headache.

Those are three lessons I’ve learned so far.  Now, only 10 months to go until June 8, 2013!