Building Bonds

I spent the weekend enjoying and supporting multiple family members. I'm tired, but I enjoy being with the kids and hoping the support I'm giving to the adults are helping!

Here's Nadine, Jordan and Mollie with me enjoying a good time at "Rainforest Cafe" in Detroit. The food was actually really good!



My BIL has built a magical playground for his kids! He was busy setting up a fort in the woods for the kids and just watching them run around made me realize how lucky they are to have this area to play in! Here's some shots of the stuff they have!





And my other niece spent the night and brought along her cat Ceaser. He's the most calm easygoing cat in the world!

Bud Light Commercial - Too Light Too Heavy - The Arrival (Monster Truck)

I know I haven't posted in a while. I will catch up one of these days! This commercial cracks me up everytime I see it!

California

Nadine and I spent 4 days cruising around Los Angeles. We had a good time! We stalked some celebrities, went to Disneyland, tooled around Laguna, Malibu and Santa Monica and bothered my BIL and SIL to death! Here are some pics from our fun time...

Did you know Jesus loves Baja Fresh?
The Twilight Truck driving past me at the DoSomething event.

Neptune's Net. Awesome fish/shrimp out in Malibu.

Nadine by the sign.

Mahlo. That corn on the cob was awesome! We had a hamburger/pickle taco that Penny said we had to try...and they ARE good! And that shrimp...mmmmmm.

Nadine & Nora before Mahlo!

Shooting Guns...

Matt & I went to a concealed weapons class on Saturday. We were working on getting our CCW license permits. I have to admit, there is a lot to learn about guns. We passed the class, but then found that since we are Michigan residents, the laws for obtaining the license are different from what we learned in the class, which was based on Ohio laws. So now we're trying to find out what we'll need to do to get a license from Michigan. I hadn't really thought much about this, but then one of my friends said this is a great way to scare any potential boyfriends! My parents have concealed weapon permits has a nice ring to it!!

Oh yeah...

Kind of excited because prior to a few weeks ago, no traveling plans were in place for us this summer. Then, I got the bug and thought, Matt's going up to Mackinac again, what are Nadine and I going to do? So daily, for the past several weeks, I've been watching flights to LA. Boy did those prices start to get extremely scary! But randomly I found a flight that was about 85% in my range, so I thought what the heck, let's go. I only hope we don't annoy my BIL and SIL to death!

Girl Trip?

Nadine and I want to head out to LA to cruise around and sightsee before she dives into school. Geez, airline tickets have been so high lately! Anyway, I'm hoping to catch a deal here soon. Haven't been anywhere in a while, so it would be nice to get away!

Bloggers & Politics

So I read a lot of blogs. I find that I enjoy reading the fun stuff.

I get kind of angry when people make comments like...
"also, you're out of touch with the rest of the country. People want a public insurance option. It's time. The world won't end."

I begin to wonder why I liked this blogger. Is he insulting me because I don't necessarily agree with his opinion? I sent him a message and he didn't respond to me, so I figured I put it out here and MAYBE he'd respond. These were a couple comments he made and how I'd like to respond...

"the days of employer ins are numbered anyway. No way biz can keep paying. Ask GM."

Really? SOMEONE has to pay for this insurance because for sure it isn't free! Also, my FIL is a GM salaried retiree and I'd say, the problem with GM was their employees hardly paid a dime towards their insurance plans. We currently pay $3,985.80 per year for Medical, Dental and Vision insurance for a family of 3, last year my FIL COMPLAINED because his insurance was going to cost him $750 for a year. THAT'S where GM/Unions failed.

"if you have insurance now, you are already subsidizing care of others."

No, because I pay TAXES is how I am subsidizing the care of others.

"As a small biz owner, I will gladly pay into a system that helps everybody get insurance. Why wouldn't one want to do this?"

This is the comment I responded to. First, I think his business has 2 employees, so he's exempt from having to pay into the system. How righteous of him. Secondly, if he's so eager to help, when he files his taxes each year, rather than reducing his taxable income with write-offs from his business, do you think he just says "I made $100,00 this year, so I'll just pay the tax on that because I'm generous and giving!" Yeah right!